I read these in pawprints archives and was so impressed and wanted to share with everybody. So here they are:

45 Rules for Life

1. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
2. Memorize your favorite poem.
3. Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want.
4. When you say, "I love you", mean it.
5. When you say, "I'm sorry", look the person in the eye.
6. Be engaged at least six months before you get married.
7. Believe in love at first sight.
8. Never laugh at anyone's dreams.
9. Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it's the only way to live life completely.
10. In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.

11. Don't judge people by their relatives.
12. Talk slow but think quick.
13. When someone asks you a question you don't want to answer, smile and ask,"Why do you want to know?"
14. Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
15. Call your mom.
16. Say "bless you" when you hear someone sneeze.
17. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
18. Remember the three R's: Respect for self; Respect for others; Responsibility for all your actions.
19. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
20. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
21. Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.
22. Marry a man you love to talk to. As you get older, his conversational skills will be as important as any other.
23. Spend some time alone.
24. Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.
25. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
26. Read more books and watch less TV.
27. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll get to enjoy it a second time.
28. Trust in God but lock your car.
29. A loving atmosphere in your home is so important. Do all you can to create a tranquil harmonious home.
30. In disagreements with loved ones, deal with the current situation. Don't bring up the past.

31. Read between the lines.
32. Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.
33. Be gentle with the earth.
34. Pray. There's immeasurable power in it.
35. Never interrupt when you are being flattered.
36. Mind your own business.
37. Don't trust a man who doesn't close his eyes when you kiss him.
38. Once a year, go someplace you've never been before.
39. If you make a lot of money, put it to use helping others while you are living. That is wealth's greatest satisfaction.
40. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a stroke of luck.

41. Learn the rules, then break some.
42. Remember that the best relationship is one where your love for each other is greater than your need for each other.
43. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
44. Remember that your character is your destiny.
45. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon

Cool rules for life, huh?

Interesting!

Shortly before he left the White House, Theodore Roosevelt, planning a big-game hunting trip to Africa, heard that a famous white hunter was visiting Washington. He invited the man to come along and give him some advice. After a two-hour tête-à-tête the hunter came out of the president's office looking dazed. "What did you tell the president?" someone asked idly. "My name," said the bemused visitor. "After that he did all the talking."

Ha ha ha

Factoids!!

Here is something interesting that I read and thought would share with everybody..

Factoids about Salt:

• The word "salary" comes from solarium, the pay Roman soldiers received for the purchase of salt.
• Salt is the only edible rock.
• In Iran, to break an oath is to be "untrue to salt."
• Many American roadways began as paths blazed by buffalo traveling to natural salt licks.
• During the Middle Ages the size of the salt cellar indicated the wealth of a household.
• A salt tax called the gabelle led to the French Revolution.
• In small amounts, salt makes sweet foods taste sweeter.

Info Source: the above factoids were found on the packaging for Alton Brown's salt cellar.

More on salt...

• In ancient Greece, slaves were traded for salt — hence the expression 'not worth his salt'.
• It is customary in some cultures to bring gifts of salt, bread, and wine when invited to a wedding or house warming. Salt to remind them their lives may be difficult at times; bread so that they will never be hungry or in need; wine so that they will never thirst but have a life of good health, good cheer and good friends.

Have a good laugh!

Here's something which I read the other day.Quite funny.

Mark Twain loved to brag about his hunting and fishing exploits. He once spent three weeks fishing in the Maine woods, regardless of the fact that it was the state's closed season for fishing. Relaxing in the lounge car of the train on his return journey to New York, his catch iced down in the baggage car, he looked for someone to whom he could relate the story of his successful holiday.

The stranger to whom he began to boast of his sizable catch appeared at first unresponsive, then positively grim. "By the way, who are you, sir?" inquired Twain airily. "I'm the state game warden," was the unwelcome response. "Who are you?" Twain nearly swallowed his cigar. "Well, to be perfectly truthful, warden," he said hastily, "I'm the biggest damn liar in the whole United States."

Ha ha ha

An anecdote

I read this some time back. A good example of "What goes around comes around".

One good turn deserves another...

His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to eke out a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog.

There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.

The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved.

"I want to repay you," said the nobleman. "You saved my son's life."

"No, I can't accept payment for what I did," the Scottish farmer replied, waving off the offer. At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door of the family hovel. "Is that your son?" the nobleman asked.

"Yes," the farmer replied proudly.

"I'll make you a deal. Let me take him and give him a good education. If the lad is anything like his father, he'll grow to a man you can be proud of."

And that he did. In time, Farmer Fleming's son graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin.

Years afterward, the nobleman's son was stricken with pneumonia. What saved him? Penicillin.

The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill. His son's name? Sir Winston Churchill.

Thats amazing, isnt it?

The Secret

We recently saw the movie "The Secret" Its so good. Its a totally positive movie about how there is a secret in the world that not many people realise. The movie talks about ,"the law of attraction". When a person expresses positive thoughts, it gives a positive vibration which pulls all the good things that are about to happen in the world towards the person. The thoughts sort of act like a magnet and all the things, good and nice fall into place like pieces of a puzzle..This can be applied even to smaller tasks in every day life. Nothing is impossible when we apply this law. They explain beautifully that as a child, we always are positive and as life progresses, we start to go into lot of negativity. That negativity harms a lot than we realize. A small example is we start going out thinking we should not miss the flight. Our thoughts send out vibrations and what we think really happens, that is to start with, the door lock doesnt lock properly, or we have forgotten something that we have to go back for it or the traffic is so bad that we get inevitably delayed for the flight. On the other hand, when our thoughts synchronize with the mind and we think thus," I should reach early for the flight", then all the things around us work towards that goal.And we reach early.

I actually tested this yesterday when I went to the gym. I never get parking which is closer to the gym. So I always resign myself to the fact and park almost near the exit of the parking area. But this time I told myself that I am going to find a parking spot in the first two rows.. Well, when I went, I was totally taken aback to find a parking spot there..One person just took his car out and a car which was before me missed this and so went past and I got the spot instead..Immediately i called my husband and shared with him the news..He was equally taken aback..

But when we sat and thought about it a little later, we realized that all the things that we want so much and positively think about are the stuff that we attain, be it a small pen or a big dream vacation or a house.

So Thoughts surely maketh a man!!

This is something which i read sometime back.

"There is so much in life I can’t control. But this is my life and I’ve decided to be happy. I can choose to be happy regardless of my other circumstances. It’s not "when I get a promotion, I’ll be happy....." or "when I can speak in front of a small group of people, I’ll be happy....." The focus should be on learning to be happy now. Tap into your inner peace and contentment in the way that works best for you."

When you notice self-limiting and self-defeating thoughts playing over and over in your mind, say "STOP! I will not give you any more power over me! I have better things to do!!"

Profound, Isnt it?

Here;s the link for the movie site.

http://www.thesecret.tv/

Last weekend we had a going away party for our friends..We had to organize the party for about 53 families..It was an eye opener for me because I have never done something like this on a large scale..Ofcourse, have helped organize the sales conference when our Madurai branch of THE HINDU hosted it in kodai. But our whole branch helped then. And yeah, have acted as MC for couple of programs while in University, but this was after so many years and that too with so many people involved who I dont know that well. So it was a challenge and yes, I bugged each and everyone, bombarded them with emails and updates..surely all of them were/are a patient lot. I was flabbergasted when they all came up with thanks and congrats after the party..Surely, they didnt realize what an important part they all played!!

The surprise worked out like this..Had told Gayatri-Sastry family that there's going to be a religious ceremony at the temple basement and had asked one of our elderly mamis to request them for a ride, so that we will know where they are at every point in time.. We had switched off the lights and were very quiet and when they came in shouted "Surprise" We had to do it twice as Gayatri came separately first and Sastry came later..But the look in their faces was priceless!! The look was a total disbelief and slowly a dawning of the truth and happiness on seeing the number of people gathered there for them. Have some of the pictures above which demonstrate that.

We welcomed them, had a dance program by our very own Michael Jacksons' , Sooraj and Anand.. Boy, they were fantastic..Then we had a sumptuous feast prepared by every family. How can I ever thank them for taking this so serious and preparing excellent and variety food..It was surely a feast fit for a prince complete with 2 mouthwatering sweets.. The menu was as follows.. Pulao, Puris, Channa, Coconut sevai, Morkulambu as the main course and Bhel puri, Paruppu vadai, bonda, sandwiches, wraps (all made with perfection) and ofcourse date sweet and a burfi , all complete with a curd rice..Isnt this great!!

This was followed by a sumptuous feast to the ears by Shruthilayam..the girls and boys of Shruthilayam were wonderful in their rendering of songs and they even invited Sastry to join them..It was wholesome entertainment..

This was followed by the vote of thanks by me. Although words cannot express how wonderful people were when they rendered their help, I managed to put some into words and by then, somebody came from outside and said that there was a blizzard outside..So we cancelled the rest of the program, games and cleaned up the place getting set to go.. All in all, it was a fabulous program made memorable by the numerous acts of help which everyone gave..Group Effort was fabulous..

A great surprise indeed!!Here are the links for the song and video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfq3zOG1D8I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QwjsZYbTug