Monthly Archives: August 2008

The Richest Man on This Planet!

I came to know about this incredible fellow here. He ended Bill Gates’ 13-year reign as the richest man. He must be owning world’s biggest, largest, bestest … Whatever the money can buy must be under his belt. But I was sadly disappointed.

He does not have a cellphone, has no computer on his desk, drives his own car and does not have security guard with him. He is the world’s richest man, the living legend, Warren Buffett!
But he is not the one to flaunt his riches, simple and down-to earth, Buffett continues to live in the same house in Omaha that he bought in 1958 for $31,500. He says that he has everything he needs in that house. His house does not have a wall or a fence.
He never travels by private jet, although he owns the world’s largest private jet company.

But I was more interested in knowing how much he will leave for his children.

His children will not inherit a significant proportion of his wealth. Buffettt says, “I want to give my kids just enough so that they would feel that they could do anything, but not so much that they would feel like doing nothing”.

I wish all parents can read what the richest man on this planet thinks. This world will see few less spoiled brats!

Attention Male-kind!!!

I got this from Ritu. Normally I don’t post forwarded materials from my mail box. But this one is different. :-)

Six married men will be dropped on an island with one car and 3 kids each for six weeks.

Each kid will play
Two sports
And either take music
Or dance classes.

There is no fast food.

Each man must
Take care of his 3 kids;
Keep his assigned house clean,
Correct all homework,
And complete science projects,
Cook, do laundry,
And pay a list of ‘pretend’ bills
With not enough money.

In addition, each man
Will have to budget in money
For groceries each week.

Each man
Must remember the birthdays
Of all their friends and relatives,
And send cards out
On time–no Emailing.

Each man must also
Take each child to a doctor’s appointment,
A dentist appointment
And a haircut appointment.

He must make
One unscheduled and inconvenient
Visit per child
To the A & E.

He must also
Make biscuits or cakes
For a social function.

Each man will be responsible for
Decorating his own assigned house,
Planting flowers outside
And keeping it presentable
At all times.

The men will only
Have access to television
When the kids are asleep
And all chores are done.

The men must
Shave their legs,
Wear makeup daily,
Adorn himself with jewellery,
Wear uncomfortable yet stylish shoes,
Keep fingernails polished
And eyebrows groomed.

During one of the six weeks,
The men will have to endure severe abdominal cramps, back aches,
And have extreme, unexplained mood swings but never once complain or
Slow down from other duties.

They will need to
Read a book to the kids
Each night and in the morning,
Feed them, dress them,
Brush their teeth and
Comb their hair by 8:00 am.

A test will be given at the end of the six weeks, and each father will be required to know all of the following information:
Each child’s birthday,
Height, weight,
Shoe size, clothes size
And doctor’s name.
Also the child’s weight at birth,
Length, time of birth,
And length of labour,
Each child’s favourite colour,
Middle name,
Favourite snack,
Favourite song,
Favourite drink,
Favourite toy,
Biggest fear and
What they want to be when they grow up.

The kids vote them off the island
Based on performance.
The last man wins only if….
He still has enough energy
To be intimate with his spouse
At a moment’s notice.

If the last man does win,
He can play the game over and over
And over again for the next 18-25 years
Eventually earning the right
To be called Mum!

.

World’s First Wind-powered Vehicle Race

Vento Mobile

I simply stumbled upon this article. This one is world’s first wind powered vehicles race. How nice the time will be when we will not only watch wind-powered vehicles’ race but will be able to drive sleek designed wind-powered vehicles. Just imagine children waiting for their school bus will not be inhaling polluted air into their lungs. The alarming asthma rate in children would be down. We will show our wind-powered vehicles proudly to friends and family and not feeling the pangs of guilt that is the hallmark of a sentient citizen.
Wish our broadcast media can create a sensation out of this event and show its “REAL” creativity in the field of journalism. At least they can show this wind-powered vehicle on their 24×7 news channels. At least some of the young lads, dying at the DND highway while racing dangerously and trying to outsmart one another, might be inspired enough to create something like this air-powered vehicle.

The Aeolus Race will be run in Den Helder, a sea port in the Netherlands, on August 23, 2008. Six European teams will participate to this competition with wind-powered vehicles (WPVs). The track is a 5.3 kilometers seawall on the boundary between land and the sea. The students’ team at the University of Stuttgart is ready to race the wind and will show its Ventomobile during a presentation at the University campus in Vaihingen on August 12, 2008. Of course, as the Aeolus Race is a competition, awards will be given by the organizers. And while it’s logical that awards are given to the fastest team or for the best design, an unusual one will be granted for ‘bad luck.’

Sushil Kumar Wins Crores in cash!!!

Sushil Kumar has won bronze medal in free style wrestling for India at Beijing Olympics! And at the same time he is showered with cash awards from various state governments and rightly so. Sushil Kumar deserves every lakh he is getting as cash prize now and more. Afterall someone is able to win a bronze at Olympics for India after 56 years!

So who won it before 56 years? And how much cash award he received? I was unaware about him before Leander Paes won another individual bronze in Athens Olympic in 1996. His name was Khashaba Jadhav. He won a bronze for India in wrestling at Helsinki Olympics in 1952. Khashaba Jadhav ensured that his son didn’t go for wrestling as a career or as a sportsperson.

Today after hearing about Sushil Kumar what Khashaba Jadhav’s son said? But why son came forward to say something on his father’s behalf? Because Khashaba Jadhav died unsung and in penury in an road accident in 1984. And we didn’t know about that incident till 1996.

Read what the son is saying

Remembering his father’s plight, Ranjit said, “People would not know my father till 1996. When Leander Paes bagged the individual bronze medal in Athens, press wrote about my father and people came to know that it was Khashaba Jadhav who had bagged India the first individual medal. He lived in a world of obscurity and penury.”

Khashaba Jadhav had to participate in matches to pay off his debt because he went to Olympics by borrowing money.

“His (Khashaba Jadhav) feat is unparallaled… just for the fact that he had to face so many hurdles. The environment that time was very different. India was trying to stand in its feet, having just gained independence five years back… there was no encouragement for a sportsperson,” Ranjit told PTI from Goleswar, hometown of Khashaba, in Karad district of Maharashtra.

Denied any financial help from the erstwhile chief minister of the then Bombay, Moraji Desai, who told Khashaba, “We don’t have money to go to Olympics”, the wrestler ran from pillar to post to arrange Rs 4,000, says Ranjit.

Our Desi BBC

I was searching for the boxer Akhil Kumar who lost the quarterfinal round at Beijing Olympics. And what I come across is a dedicated coach, Jagdish Singh.

“In 2001, I had the thoughts but not the funds. Eventually, I had to withdraw from my GPF, utilised the money from the output of the agricultural land I had 24 kms from Bhiwani, mortgaged my home here and some other land in Bhiwani, to get a loan of Rs four lakh from the Grahmin Bank to buy the land on which stands the BBC now,” reminisced Jagdish.

And then you can get a feel about the facilities and what the government and sports officials are doing;

A tin of covers the boxing arena. A majority of the kids here don’t have their own gloves. And to drink water after practice, the lone hand-pump has to be operated very slowly, otherwise sand particles will start coming out along with the water.

What the coach yearns for:

Jagdish has “ambitious plans” for the BBC. “I want to build an AC indoor hall with two wooden rings. I also want mirrors for the boxers so that they can correct their techniques.”

I am wondering if this is coach’s “ambitious plans” then what can be termed as basic facilities?

And read about the results;

And because of this, despite the very basic facilities, Bhiwani has become the boxing hub of India. In the recent Asian Boxing Championships in Mongolia, five of the 11-member squad were from this town. They bagged four of the seven medals India won.

We the ungrateful, ever sleeping, self centered onlookers, salute the BBC boxers’ spirit. Lets see, if some of us can learn something from you, besides reading about your glorious journey as boxers.

Feeding the Wolf

This is simply brilliant. I have read this on Paradox’s blog.

One evening a Cherokee elder told his grandson about the battle that goes on inside people. He said, “My son, the battle is between the two ‘wolves’ that live inside us all. One is Unhappiness. It is fear, worry, anger, jealousy, sorrow, self-pity, resentment, and inferiority. The other is Happiness. It is joy, love, hope, serenity, kindness, generosity, truth, and compassion.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf wins?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

A Love Story and $ 29 Million!

Love story

We love and care deeply for each other but due to irreconcilable differences we are getting divorced!!! The publicists of celebrity couples often reiterates this sentence to media, making a mockery of couples “love” and “deep care” for each other. Presently when relationships are breaking at slightest pretexts, I come across this story and still wondering what love is all about!

It is a story of plain injustice. FBI kept mum all the time in the court to protect its informant. This led to the conviction of four men for a murder they didn’t commit. Two of them died in jail and two are out of jail after spending 30 precious years of their lives behind the bars! One of them is Joseph Salvati who is 75 years old now. His lawyer fought his case for three decades without charging a penny and grew old with his client.

When I read this story what hit me hard is this fellow has something which the coolest, richest, sexiest hunks surviving in this world can’t have; the love, affection and care of Marie Salvati, his wife of 53 years! Was Jeseph a catch? Read for yourself:

A high school graduate with no trade skills, Joseph Salvati put in ten-hour days, six days a week, working three jobs to support his family. “It was casual labour,” he says. “You got what you could. I’d run down to the pier and help unload the fish. Lumpin’, it was called. It was dog’s work. But you could make US$60 a week. I unloaded trucks in the meat market. I worked as a doorman. The hours were late, but US$40 in tips was US$40.”

For the past 30 years Joseph was in the prison when Marie Salvati unflinchingly took care of their four children. She had faced many hardships. She couldn’t go for a full time job because her children were small. Marie recalled that she barely managed to put food on the table earlier. She had joined a charity organization at a lower rank and later on rose to the position of Director. She along with her children never failed to pay a weekly visit on Saturday to Joseph. And Joseph? He never failed to send a weekly greeting card to his family which he purchased from his 15-cents-a-day prison wages. Each card was placed on the top of the television until the next arrived. Marie stored her precious collection in shoe boxes, tied with red ribbon. What a way to keep your romance alive! And what a way to keep in touch with children!

Did they think of separating or divorcing each other during those times? Yes! Joseph once suggested Marie to divorce him and “move ahead” in life. He promised that he would not contest it. What his wife said was not something flowery and romantic but simple, plain truth. “Are you crazy?” Marie responded. “I took a vow for better or worse. We love each other.”
The court has awarded him $ 29 million in compensation. Salvati, now 75, knows he may not live long enough to see a penny of the award. But today Joseph is a free man. He is spending time with his wife, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. He loves the feeling that he can walk anywhere he wants.

Abhinav Bindra Creates History at Beijing Olympics

I was just having my first/second/third cup of tea and on impulse press the remote button of TV and forgotten everything! Abhinav Bindra has won GOLD medal at 10m Air Rifle Shooting at Beijing Olympics!!!! This has never happened in the past 112 years in Indian Olympic sports scene. No individual gold medal for India in the last 112 years!!! You are real cool dude Abhinav.
Later on TV channels are telecasting Kapil Dev’s statement that winning Olympic gold is a bigger event than winning World Cup Cricket in 1993!!! Right now he is getting cash prizes left, right center from various organizations and government. But what made me ecstatic is that my WHOLE country is celebrating. I witnessed that one state government after another keep on announcing cash prize money for Abhinav Bindra. I am waiting for Mr. Raj Thackrey’s reaction on cash prize announcement of Maharashtra’s government for Abhinav Bindra (Maharashtra CM announces Rs 10 lakh cash prize to Abhinav Bindra). Should it go to true blue blooded Marathi manush according to Mr. Raj Thackrey? :-)

Today Abhinav Bindra’s father must be feeling very proud on his son’s success. I am glad that his well off family has used the wealth to promote his son’s talent instead of spoiling him with fancy cars and latest gizmos and producing another spoiled brat. Abhinav Bindra’s father was saying that Abhinav went through commando training with German Army for his fitness. Wow! What a foresight and determination. I think that’s why he was standing at the victory podium with poker face just like a commando who has achieved his task and feeling that’s what he has been trained for.So what’s the big deal!!!! I am glad that this lad has not chosen to spend his time and money on chasing girls and appearing on page 3 parties.
THANK YOU Abhinav Bindra for giving us a proud moment and make us feel as Indians for a change.