Sunday, March 15, 2009

Food For Thought!

Some thought provoking quotations

'It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked,through understanding;and to the open handed the search for one who shall receive is joy greater than giving. And is there aught you would withhold ? All you have shall someday be given....See first that you yourself deserve to be a giver and an instrument of giving. ' Khalil Gibran

' This is the true joy in life,the being used for a purpose recognised by yourself as a mighy one. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die,for the harder I work the more line.' George Benard Shaw

' Even though a speech be a thousand (of words) but made up of senseless words,one word of sense is better , which if a man hears,he becomes quiet.' Dharmapada

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Act of Kindness !

Tim Sanders Blog took me to an interesting article titled The Answer for Ugly Times? Do Something Beautiful by William C Taylor.

With so much of uncertainity & stress around us a small act of kindness can make a big difference in our personal & professional lives.

It turns out that Boston's legendary Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where sick kids get some of the best care in the world, is building a big new facility. Every morning, in bitter temperatures and biting wind, ironworkers show up for work and move the building a little closer to completion. No news there. What is news is what happens before the shift begins:
"It has become a beloved ritual at Dana-Farber," the Globe reports. "Every day, children who come to the clinic write their names on sheets of paper and tape them to the windows of the walkway for ironworkers to see. And, every day, the ironworkers paint the names onto I-beams and hoist them into place as they add floors to the new 14-story Yawkey Center for Cancer Care.
"The building's steel skeleton is now a brightly colored, seven-story monument to scores of children receiving treatment at the clinic — Lia, Alex, and Sam; Taylor, Izzy, and Danny. For the young cancer patients, who press their noses to the glass to watch new names added every day, the steel and spray-paint tribute has given them a few moments of joy and a towering symbol of hope.
"It's fabulous," said [18-month-old] Kristen [Hoenshell]'s mother, Elizabeth, as she held her daughter and marveled at the rainbow of names. "It's just a simple little act that means so much."


I am sure we all have enough and more opportunities to do a small act of kindness. The article also talks about act of kindness demonstrated by Zappos, the fast-growing, billion-dollar-a-year Internet retailer. The CEO Tony Heish narrates and I quote

A customer who had been trying to locate a pair of hard-to-find shoes for her husband, until she finally found them on Zappos. But before she could give the shoes to her husband, he died in a car accident. This customer called the Zappos 1-800 number to ask for help in returning the shoes. The call-center rep provided all the technical support the customer needed — and then took it upon herself to send flowers to the widow, offering condolences on behalf of her colleagues . It was a simple gesture that conveyed a powerful signal — both on a human level, and about the type of company Zappos aspires to be. The widow was so moved that she spoke about the flowers at her husband's funeral.

Few acts of kindness which do not need much effort , sending a Thank You Note to someone special , Telling your Customers how special they are ..the list goes on

Everyday is Special so go ahead and make the best of it !

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Bloggers Meet!

One of my friends had forwarded me an invite for an Bloggers Meet organised by http://www.indiblogger.in/bloggermeet.php?id=26.
I kept wondering what would it be like , on registration I got a personalised invite with a specified agenda. I was looking forward to attend the same. I was thinking what it would be like to meet bloggers , I had butteflies in my stomach. When I entered the room( it was conducted in Microsoft Premises), it was an informal seating arrangement and there some seats which were empty. I managed to garb a seat waiting for the event to start. We were expecting some more bloggers to arrive.
We started the meet with a 1 minute fame , wherein each blogger would introduce a blog. Each one of them had a different perspective on blogging and what made them to have a blog. Some did it for professional reasons , one of them found his better half through blogging ...the list is endless ..everyone had a different reason
We spoke about Blogging rights , key things to be kept in mind while blogging and we also got an exclusive perview of Windows 7 . We also got treated on Pizza and Coke sponspored by Microsoft.
Overall I really had a good time and a learning too....
Tnanks Naveen!