Examinations

With my examinations approaching very near, I was reminded of the statement I once read in a magazine, ‘Oh! God, do not put me into examination.’ But we have to face the facts – let alone the academic examinations; we have to take a test every day, each moment of life. The examinations are a part and parcel of our lives, and we cannot run away from. So let’s face it.

Talking of the academic examinations, a student always fears the exams. That’s probably because of the system of education being examination oriented. Although a system of evaluation is claimed to be followed in educational institutions, still an undue stress is laid on the year-end examinations. But anyway we have to bear that. The key to success is being well-prepared and ready to face the ‘onslaught’.
To end it on a humorous note, there is a quotation of Charles Caleb Colton:

Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared,
for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer.

Oh! the difference

                                                   © Amritbir Kaur

God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference.

This is a prayer given by Reinhold Niebuhr. The world would be a much better place to live in if we all would start following it wishing it for ourselves.

The very special Mother!

(courtesy SOCPA)

Hundreds of dewdrops to greet the dawn,
Hundreds of bees in the purple clover,
Hundreds of butterflies on the lawn,
But only one mother the wide world over.
~George Cooper

On the occasion of Mother’s Day I would like to share with you a very innocent poem written by Christina Rossetti when she was just 11 years old. This was her first poem.

MY MOTHER

To-day’s your natal day,

Sweet flowers I bring;

Mother, accept, I pray,

My offering.

And may you happy live,

And long us bless;

Receiving as you give

Great happiness.

I would like to dedicate this post to my mother to whom I owe everything I have - the be all and end all of my little world.

This heart, my own dear mother, bends,

With love's true instinct, back to thee!

~Thomas Moore

Literary Jewels of George Eliot

Mary Ann (Marian) Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880), better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist. She was one of the leading writers of the Victorian era.
Here I would like to quote some of George Eliot’s best quotations:
“Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms. “

“Ignorance gives one a large range of probabilities.”

“It’s never too late to be who you might have been.”

“Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand. “

“There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music.”

“The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men.”

Her epitaph reads:
"Of those immortal dead who live again,
In minds made better by their presence."
Here rests the body of GEORGE ELIOT. (MARY ANN CROSS).

Follow your dreams!

We all dream – dream to be something else than what we are. Are we not satisfied? When will we be satisfied with what we have? Probably that moment would coincide with the time when we stop growing. We dream not only with sleeping eyes but with open eyes, with all our heart. Paulo Coelho in his international bestseller ‘The Alchemist’ has given the subtitle: ‘A magical fable about following your dream’. The ‘Author’s Note’ in the beginning of the book is simply marvelous. He stresses on the need to be aware of the personal calling. He quotes Oscar Wilde’s statement: “Each man kills the thing he loves”.
Today we are so engrossed with the materialistic bindings that we fail to lend an ear to the personal calling. We are made deaf by the ear shattering noise of the modern day mechanical tidings of our life. Let’s give it a thought! Assess your life today, lest our dreams may fly away leaving us high and dry. A life without dreams is life a desert. Dream your way to happiness, for they are the haven for our tired souls!

The winning streak!

It takes a lot to be a winner. And it’s not easy! Sometimes you win and still you are a loser, while at other times you might have lost that important match of your life but still you land up with so many accolades and appreciation in your pocket that you are the real winner in the long run. That’s because the fame associated with winning is short lived. We have the feeling of “Is that all there is?”(Bill Watterson once wrote these words in his comic strip ‘Calvin and Hobbes’) after the glory of winning has faded away.
We often complain and grumble, when we have put in all the efforts and they don’t bear fruits in the end. There might have been other reasons for not winning the competition but what feedback you get is the greatest reward for you at that time. Even a few words of true appreciation can boost your morale to new heights.
It is often said that losers comfort themselves by thinking “Winning is not all that important”. But this is only one side of the aspect. We even have to lose gracefully. Very few losers know how to go about it. Richard Bach has very beautifully put it:

“That’s what learning is, after all; not whether we lose the game, but how we lose and how we’ve changed because of it and what we take away from it that we never had before, to apply to other games. Losing, in a curious way, is winning.”