Some things Learnt. Some Discovered.

I wanted to compile a list of things that formed a lasting impression on me.

Some are serious, some are funny and some are down right foolish.I'll try to acknowledge the source of knowledge where ever I can.So, randomly I start since chronologically it'll be a bit too much for my elephantine memory. *smiles*

1) Ego makes you lose reason. It makes you blind.- Something I'd discovered seeing the egoistic people around me.

2) A small leakage can sink a large ship - says my Rambabai ever since I was old enough to understand adages.

3) "All great men are understood only when they pass away" "Look at Jesus, Look at The Prophet Mohammed" - Quoted on the railway platform by a random gentleman of my dad's age when I asked him a question or two about his spiritual guru "Sathya Sai Baba" and the many controversies that surround him. I think he is true.

4) One should never stoop to a level where one looks for happiness in someone else's sorrow.Heard this twice, on two different occasions from my hubby Sarat and dear friend Kittu.

5) "Maturity is all about how you handle the child in you" says your truly. "More importantly Maturity is all about how you handle the child in the other person" added my super brainy brother in law who was the 16th ranker in JEE entrance.

6) All friends are family and all family are Friends. Almost always to me and most people. That leaves me wondering what makes more impact. Being a Friend or being family?

7) "Forgiving saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred and the waste of energy" A quote I read in the monthly magazine "wisdom" when I was sixteen.

8) When you try to whisper in a sleeping dog's ear, it charges on you. Learnt when I saw my lil sis Geeta try this on brownie, our little sheep dog with a mighty attitude.

9) "You live the way you want or the way people want you to live - I choose the former" quoted by my lil brother last month when I tried to convince him to chop off his shoulder length hair by telling him what people think of his hair.

10) Never use your brains when you have the manufacturer's instructions. Discovered when I put together Aarti's toddler bed.

11) "Sense of humor is being able to laugh at yourself. being able to see things in a spirit of humor instead of getting offended" Leant by watching my friend Satya.

12) "When you give a child a little, you get back a lot" My first cousin Gayathri (who is 19 years younger to me) taught me this some five years ago.

13) "Children are like mirrors" "All parents leave fingerprints on them by mis handling/handling them" - Not verbatim, but a quote from "The Five Men you Meet in Heaven" by Mitch Albom.

14) "When you are not doing something, you do not want to do it" says Joseph babcock, the friend I met in a community college.

15) "I am here as my parents programmed into me the commitment of pursuing things" Not verbatim again, but quoted by Janet Burgraff, my writing buddy when she arrived to a class two days after delivering her not so healthy fourth baby.

16) "You can either keep your house clean or hurt your visitors" Mom said after managing the most hospitable household for a good 35 years.

To be continued when ever I can remember more :-)