Philanthropy

I am amazed by the good people do and try to do. We read everyday about all the ' bad' that is happening around us, we watch it on television. In all this hype and hoopla the small things that people do are not noticed easily.

The big 'philanthropists' always are noticed, and rightly so. They are reported by media all over.
Now a days the word 'Philanthropy' is associated exclusively with its most conspicuous manifestations, foundations and grant-making.

Philanthropy means "love of man" in the sense of caring for, nourishing, improving, and enhancing the quality of life for human beings. But we no longer use the term for the small acts of goodness.

In the recent times, a new(?) form of Philanthropy has emerged. Marking money for donations in future.. bequeathing. 
See Some large individual bequests listed below
(Source: Wikipedia)
Note: These are nominal values and have not been adjusted for inflation

• $31 billion from Warren Buffett to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (initial value of the gift)
• $9 billion from Chuck Feeney to Atlantic Philanthropies
• $2 billion from Azim Premji to the Azim Premji Foundation in 2010.
• $1 billion from Ted Turner to the United Nations
• $500 million from T. Boone Pickens to Oklahoma State University.
• $500 million from Walter Annenberg to public school reform in the United States
• $350 million ($7 billion in modern terms) from Andrew Carnegie in 1901 who distributed most of his wealth to good causes, including the building Carnegie Hall New York City.
• $424 million from managers of the Reader's Digest fortune to the Metropolitan Museum of Art
• $350 million from Michael Jackson who distributed most of his wealth to good causes, and who supported over 39 charity organizations. He was listed in the Guinness Book Of World Records for the "Most Charities Supported By a Pop Star".
• $350 million from Yank Barry and his Global Village Champions in food, education and medical supplies to the needy around the World from 1990 to the present.
• $225 million from Raymond and Ruth Perelman, parents of Ronald O. Perelman, to the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 2011.
• $200 million from Joan B. Kroc to National Public Radio in 2003
• $100 million from John D. Rockefeller to the Rockefeller Foundation, 1913-1914

 You may feel that Philanthropy is not for you.
But have a look at this short talk and decide for yourself !

Happy Philanthropy !!

Magician is very honest. He promises to deceive you and he does.

I happened to see a few magic clips.

And I just started to think about two words: Magic & Miracle.

Magic is man-made. Miracle is devine.
Magic may be for entertainment or ther may be "black magic". I don't know whether you believe in "Black- Magic". But I think that we appreciate both forms of energy: Positive & Negative.

Miracles are devine. So we don't know the resons  or the "How" of those miracles. But I believe there are reasons for those 'Miracles'.

But read the following from a Magicians of Today:

 Marco Tempest

“The Chinese general Sun Tzu said that all war was based on deception. Oscar Wilde said the same thing of romance.”

“We willingly enter fictional worlds where we cheer our heroes and cry for friends we never had.” 

 

“Magic [makes] possible today what science will make a reality tomorrow.” 

 

“Art is a deception that creates real emotions — a lie that creates a truth. And when you give yourself over to that deception, it becomes magic.”  

 

Keith Barry

 

“Magic is all about directing attention. If I didn’t want you to look at my right hand then I don’t look at it.”

 

How true!
I liked a statement that Magician is very honest. He promises to deceive you and he does.

And you will appreciate these statements when you watch it for yourself:

 

Brain magic

Magic of Truth & Lies : Full with Philosophy

A card Magic that you will Enjoy

A Lyrical tale : Futuristic Magic

 

Ejnoy the magic show!

 

And what about Miracles?... We will wait for some time! 

 

 

Weird Ideas !!.. for the Better World

I came across these ideas quite accidently. In my curiosity for information, i jumped from one site to another on the net. I think most of us do the same. But one such "web-site" hooked me. It is store-house of different " ideas worth sharing", not necessarily weird.

Have a look of the ideas from the world of "Technology, Entertainment and Design", famously known as "TED"... talks, conferences.

Here is a small list that sound "wierd" from thousands of titles available
1) A Test for Parkinsons's with a Phone Call
2) Dare to Disagree
3) Is Life really that Complex?
4) The Mad Scientist of Music
5 ) Behind the Great Firewall of China
6 ) Why the X is Unknown?
7) Advice to Young Scientist
8) The Happy Secret to Better Work
9) Science versus Wonder
10) Battleing Bad Science
... and there are thousands of talks to choose from.
More about TED: (From Wikipedia)

TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth sharing."
TED was founded in 1984 as a one-off event.The annual conference began in 1990, in Monterey, California.TED's early emphasis was technology and design, consistent with its origins in the Silicon Valley. The events are now held in Long Beach and Palm Springs in the U.S. and in Europe and Asia, offering live streaming of the talks. They address a wide range of topics within the research and practice of science and culture, often through storytelling. The speakers are given a maximum of 18 minutes to present their ideas in the most innovative and engaging ways they can.

"The New Yorker" has praised the worthy efforts. The article also lists "Five Key TED talks".

"The Entreprenuer" lists " the Top Ten TED talks for Startups".

We all get different ideas. We all get some weird ideas. How many have the ability to pursue those ideas? Some are good at Ideas and some are good at Implementation. Here on TED, you will find people who have the courage to think differently and also to see the results of their ideas.

I thought this is "worth Sharing". What do you say?

 

Spread the Good.....

          A woman baked chapatti (roti) for members of her family and an extra one for a hungry passer-by. She kept the extra chapatti on the window sill, for whosoever would take it away. Every day, a hunchback came and took away the chapatti.

         

          Instead of expressing gratitude, he muttered the following words as he went his way: “The evil you do remains with you: The good you do, comes back to you!” This went on, day after day. Every day, the hunchback came, picked up the chapatti and uttered the words: “The evil you do, remains with you: The good you do, comes back to you!” The woman felt irritated.

          

         “Not a word of gratitude,” she said to herself… “Every day this hunchback utters this jingle! What does he mean?” One day, exasperated, she decided to do away with him. “I shall get rid of this hunchback,” she said. And what did she do? She added poison to the chapatti she prepared for him! As she was about to keep it on the window sill, her hands trembled. “What is this I am doing?” she said.

Immediately, she threw the chapatti into the fire, prepared another one and kept it on the window sill. As usual, the hunchback came, picked up the chapatti and muttered the words: “The evil you do, remains with you: The good you do, comes back to you!” The hunchback proceeded on his way, blissfully unaware of the war raging in the mind of the woman. 

          Every day, as the woman placed the chapatti on the window sill, she offered a prayer for her son who had gone to a distant place to seek his fortune.

          For many months, she had no news of him.. She prayed for his safe return. That evening, there was a knock on the door. As she opened it, she was surprised to find her son standing in the doorway. He had grown thin and lean. His garments were tattered and torn. He was hungry, starved and weak. As he saw his mother, he said, “Mom, it’s a miracle I’m here. While I was but a mile away, I was so famished that I collapsed. I would have died, but just then an old hunchback passed by. I begged of him for a morsel of food, and he was kind enough to give me a whole chapatti. As he gave it to me, he said, “This is what I eat everyday: today, I shall give it to you, for your need is greater than mine!” ” As the mother heard those words, her face turned pale. She leaned against the door for support. She remembered the poisoned chapatti that she had made that morning. Had she not burnt it in the fire, it would have been eaten by her own son, and he would have lost his life! It was then that she realized the significance of the words: “The evil you do remains with you: The good you do, comes back to you!” 

Do Good and Don’t ever stop doing good, even if it is not appreciated at that time...

Contributed by Kumar Technicals 

Also see :10 points about the Science of Spreading Good

 

We are all much more powerful than we might ever imagine.

The little country schoolhouse was heated by an old-fashioned, pot-bellied coal stove. An eight-year-old boy named Glenn Cunningham had the job of coming to school early each day so that he could use kerosene to start the fire and warm the room before his teacher and his classmates arrived.

One cold morning someone mistakenly filled the kerosene container he used with gasoline, and disaster struck. 

The class and teacher arrived to find the schoolhouse engulfed in flames. Terrified on realizing that Glenn was inside, they rushed in and managed to drag the unconscious little boy out of the flaming building more dead than alive.

He had major burns over the lower half of his body and was taken to a nearby county hospital. From his bed, the dreadfully burned, semi-conscious little boy faintly heard the doctor talking to his mother. The doctor told his mother that her son would surely die – which was for the best, really – for the terrible fire had devastated the lower half of his body.

 But the brave boy didn't want to die. Glenn made up his mind that he would survive. And somehow, to the amazement of the physician, he did survive. Yet when the mortal danger was past, he again heard the doctor and his mother speaking quietly. The mother was told that since the fire had destroyed so much flesh in the lower part of his body, it would almost be better if he had died, since he was doomed to be a lifetime cripple with no use at all of his lower limbs.His mother refused to let the doctors amputate.


Once more this brave little boy made up his mind. He would not be a cripple. He would walk. But unfortunately from the waist down, Glenn had no motor ability. His thin, scarred legs just dangled there, all but lifeless. Ultimately Glenn was released from the hospital.

Every day afterward his mother and father would massage his little legs, but there was no feeling, no control, nothing. Yet his determination that he would walk was as strong as ever. When he wasn't in bed, he was confined to a wheelchair.  One sunny day his mother wheeled him out into the yard to get some fresh air. This day, instead of sitting there, he threw himself from the chair. Glenn pulled himself across the grass, dragging his legs behind him.

He worked his way to the white picket fence bordering their lot. With great effort, he raised himself up on the fence. Then, stake by stake, he began dragging himself along the fence, resolved that he would walk. He started to do this every day until he wore a smooth path all around the yard beside the fence. There was nothing he wanted more than to develop life in those legs.

Ultimately through his daily massages, Glenn's iron persistence and hisresolute determination, he did develop the ability first to stand up, then to walk haltingly with help, then to walk by himself – and then miraculously – to run.

Glenn began to run to school. He ran for the sheer joy of running and being able to run. He ran everywhere that he could. The people in his town would often see him run by on his way to who knows where and smile. Later in college Glenn made the track team where his tremendous determination paid off. He eventually received the nickname the "Kansas Flyer".

"The Kansas Flyer" set world records in the mile run (4:06.8) in 1934 and 800 meters (1:49.7) in 1936. He received the coveted Sullivan Award in 1933 as the country's top amateur athlete, finished fourth in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics at 1,500 meters and won the silver medal in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. 

In February 1934, in New York City's famed Madison Square Garden, this young man
who was not expected to survive,
who would surely never walk,
who could never hope to run,
ran the mile in 4 mins and 8 seconds, the world's fastest indoor mile!


In 1978, Cunningham was named the outstanding track performer in the 100-year history of Madison Square Garden. Inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame, 1979. 
After earning a master's degree from the University of Iowa and a doctorate from New York University, Cunningham retired from competition in 1940 and for four years was director of physical education at Cornell College in Iowa. He and his wife later opened the Glenn Cunningham Youth Ranch in Kansas, where they helped to raise about 10,000 underprivileged children. Glenn Cunningham died of a heart attack at age 78. 
This amazing story of the boy who was supposed to die shows the incredible power of determination. I deeply believe that we are all much more powerful than we might ever imagine. May we find ways to tap into and use this power for the good of all. 
-by Burt Dubin.



Cunningham has a park named after him in his hometown of Elkhart, Kansas.

Dialogue in the Dark

Dialogue in the Dark !!


With WHOM?
            WHERE?
                 HOW?

That was an awesome, unforgettable and a must have experience.
The "Dialogue" forces you to have one with oneself !

Do you know how the food ' Tastes' ?

You know how a cool breeze feels but have you ' Felt' your clothes?

Have you played cricket with your 'Ears' ?

How acute and reliable is your sense of ' Smell' ?

The " Dialogue in the Dark" gives that experience to you and much more. It enriches you by challenging you. It confronts your 'commonly held' views. 

You appreciate a " differently enabled " person. To " SAY" differently enabled and to "EXPERIENCE" are two poles apart states. You feel 'sympathy' and watch in grow into ' empathy'.

You start experiencing with your " whole brain". You experience the meaning of " being in the moment". The joy of being in the moment.......

You start appreciating the meaning of "interdependence". 

In the end YOU are changed... for the better.

Place to visit : "Dialogue in the Dark"
                       In orbit Mall, Hyderabad, India.

'IMPOSSIBLE '

We know nothing is impossible.
We like to believe anything is possible.


But we carry doubts. We ask for reasons.


Doubts are not always reasoned.
Questions are not always answered.
Sometimes  seeing leads to believing.


Someone said....
              Believe.... and magic would unfold.
              Disbelieve.... and there would be tragedy.


Watch the follwing videos and decide for yourself...

Amazing you Say !!

Believe !! Believe in Yourself !!

"You're a Doctor? How much do you make?"

Somebody asked: "You're a Doctor? How much do you make?"
I replied: "HOW MUCH DO I MAKE?" ...
I can make holding your hand seem like the most important thing in the world when you're scared...
I can make your child breathe when they stop...
I can help your father survive a heart attack...
I can make myself get up at 4AM to make sure your mother has the medicine she needs to live...and I will work straight
through until 4am to keep her alive and start the day all over again!
I work all day to save the lives of strangers...
I will drop everything and run a code blue for hours trying to keep you alive!!!
I make my family wait for dinner until I know your family member is taken care of...
I make myself skip lunch so that I can make sure that everything I did for your wife today was correct...
I work weekends and holidays and all through the night because people don't just get sick Monday though Saturday and during normal working hours.
Today, I might save your life.
How much do I make?
All I know is, I make a difference.

Posted by: Subrahmanyam Karuturi

PS : Today I had patient having some chronic complaints. The history taking lasted  almost an hour. At the end of it the patient remarked, "Thank you Doctor. Your questions made me introspect. Now a days we don't get time to introspect even."

So I may add
I make my patients introspect, so that , they get know themselves & make course-correction.

Characteristics of a Good Boss

Why I am writing about Good Boss?



A recent survey done to access the characteristics of a Good Boss is relevant to all of us. We are boss to somebody. If you are not boss in actuality, you may feel that you are a boss. You may be a boss in your family. Or you may be a boss of yourself. So the results apply to everybody of us.


Results of the Survey :
The survey gives an option to indicate a choice. And the overwhelming majority( 58%) is of the opinion that the Good Boss 'develops every emplyoee'.
26 % people felt that immediate problem solving is important.
Only 3 % felt that rescuer to the worst performer is  a Good Boss. Remaining 13 % argued different reasons.


So Good Boss has the tasks cut-out for him.
1) Assist in Development of the people 
2) Problem- solving.


" I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers"

-- Ralph Nader

Questions to ponder over :
Am I assisting in the Development of my people? My family members? My Friends ? Those people who are in my "Circle of Influence"?
Am I developing myself? Do I have a method of continually improving myself?
What am I doing for my spiritual development?
Am I challenging myself / others enough intellectually?
How am I taking care of my roles & relationships?
Am I doing my exercises regularly?
Do I have my financial development plan?


" Educationists should build the capacities of the spirit of enquiry, creativity, entrepreneurial and  moral leadership among students and become their role model"

-- Abdul Kalam, Former President of India

Be a Good Boss... Boss!!


PS: I am giving the link to the survey below. The survey is still open. You can participate in the survey and post your opinions. Also do write your opinions here also.

Link to the Survey : http://linkd.in/AwUpl4

The Akshay Tritiya

Well... this is my second attempt at blogging.
I would like this to be an interactive blog.
Starting on this Auspicious Day of Akshay Tritiya.

What is Akshay Tritiya ?
Akshaya Tritiya, also known as Akha Teej is a Hindu and Jain holy day, that falls on the third Tithi (Lunar day) of Bright Half (Shukla Paksha) of the pan-Indian month of Vaishakha. It is an auspicious day of the birthday of Lord Parasurama who is the sixth incarnation of Lord Vishnu. On this day Veda Vyas and Lord Ganesha began to write Mahabharata. The meaning of the word Akshaya is infinite that which never recede.... (Thanks Wikipedia)

This day belongs to one of those three & half mahoorat days ( yes three & half mahoorat days) when one can start any sigificant venture, any thing that marks progress of you AND for this you don't require to see a 'horoscope'.

Many people buy gold on this day ( Isn't it a thing that imbibes a habit in you to invest regularly). May be that is the reason India is one of the largest consumer of gold for ages.

Gold as an Investment

 Gold as investment has given returns like:

Now my question is How do you view this?

Do you invest regularly in Gold?

If yes.. in which form? Physical gold, ETFs?

Does it satisfy your investment objectives?

Will you please share your experience?.........