Small things to change life... Received from a Friend

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Dear Friends in TBP,

 

Love and Love alone...

 

One more Year, yes New Year. Let me take this opportunity to wish

you, first of all, A Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year. May it

herald Peace and Prosperity, Happiness and Health, and Love and

Longevity in all of us. Sarve Jana Sukhino Bhavanthu, Samastha

Sanmangalani Bhavanthu.

 

Please read and refelct on the below reproduced mail.

 

Love and Love alone....

 

P. Gopi Krishna

 

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Dear Friends,

 

Let us start the NEW YEAR with this story followed by my suggestion.

 

Small things to change life...

 

One day Maths teacher asked her students to list the names of the

other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space

between each name.

 

Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about

each of their classmates and write it down.

 

It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment,

and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.

 

That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a

separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about

that individual.

 

On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the

entire class was smiling. " Really? " she heard whispered. " I never

knew that I meant anything to anyone! " and, " I didn't know others

liked me so much, " were most of the comments.

 

No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if

they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't

matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were

happy with themselves and one another. That group of students moved

on.

 

Several years later, one of the students was killed in " Kargil " war

and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student. She had

never attended Funeral of a serviceman before. He looked so handsome,

so mature.

 

The place was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him

took a last walk. The teacher was the last one to bless . As she

stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to

her. " Were you Sanjay's math teacher? " he asked. She nodded: " yes. "

Then he said: " Sanjay talked about you a lot. "

 

After the funeral, most of Sanjay's former classmates were there.

Sanjay' s mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak

with his teacher.

 

" We want to show you something, " his father said, taking a wallet out

of his pocket " They found this on Sanjay when he was killed. We

thought you might recognize it. "

 

Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of

notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded

many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the

ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Sanjay's

classmates had said about him.

 

" Thank you so much for doing that, " Sanjay's mother said. " As you can

see, Sanjay treasured it. "

 

All of Sanjay's former classmates started to gather around. Arjun

smiled rather sheepishly and said, " I still have my list. It's in the

top drawer of my desk at home. "

 

Prithwiraj's wife said, " Prithwiraj asked me to put his in our

wedding album. "

 

" I have mine too, " Rashmi said. " It's in my diary "

 

Then Deepali, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took

out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. " I

carry this with me at all times, " Deepali said and without batting an

eyelash, she continued: " I think we all saved our lists "

 

That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for

Sanjay and for all his friends who would never see him again.

 

The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life

will

end one day. And we don't know when that one day will be.

 

So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are

special and important. Tell them, before it is too late.

 

And One Way To Accomplish This Is to write the names of people around

you and list the qualities that you observe in them. Preferably send

it to them. Here I would like to mention an incidence of my personal

life.

I remember when I was a child; we used to play " Fish Pond " in our

school. We would find some irritating or peculiar habit of every body

and would copy it in front of everybody. It made everybody laugh but

caused great embarrassment to the person. When I grew up, we had a

group of friends. We used to meet regularly at a specified time for

one hour once every week. The idea was of self-improvement.

In one meeting we decided to play " Pearl Pond " as suggested by a

spiritual leader. We had to find at least 5 people within a week,

next meeting was a week away, notice their genuine quality, keep that

in our mind and narrate that in the next meeting. Simple !! Isn't it?

Believe me, when I tried sincerely for the whole week, screened more

than 100 people. I was not able to locate a single person with a

quality of which I can talk in our next meeting. I could hardly

notice a good thing in him but could make a list of bad things about

him. I could have made the list of their shortcomings. We found in

our next meeting that the situation was the same with everybody. The

problem was with us. Our observation was so negatively affected that

we noticed only the limitations of others. It took a great deal of

active efforts and a long time to do a bit of improvement in that.

I believe that we automatically and generally unknowingly acquire the

qualities or the limitations that we think about. But we consciously

improve upon any thing that we have which others appreciate. So let

us find out qualities in others, write down and send it to them. Thus

we will gradually acquire those qualities in us, that person will

strengthen that good point and we will generate goodwill. Be honest.

There is very little difference between appreciation and flattery.

Remember, you reap what you sow. What you put into the lives of

others comes back into your own.

 

May Your Day Be Blessed As Special As You

 

With Best Regards,