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WHY ARE INDIANS EASY TO IDENTIFY

We are like this only so true, so very true……….

1. Everything you eat is savored in garlic, onion and tomatoes.

2.. You try and reuse gift wrappers, gift boxes, and of course aluminum foil.

3. You are always standing next to the two largest size suitcases at the Airport.

4. You arrive one or two hours late to a party – and think it’s normal.

5. You peel the stamps off letters that the Postal Service missed to stamp.

6. You recycle Wedding Gifts, Birthday Gifts and Anniversary Gifts.

7. You name your children in rhythms (example, Sita & Gita, Ram & Shyam, Kamini & Shamini..)

8. All your children have pet names, which sound nowhere,
close to their real names.

9. You take Indian snacks anywhere it says ‘No Food Allowed.’

10. You talk for an hour at the front door when leaving someone’s house.

11. You load up the family car with as many people as possible.

12. HIGH PRIORITY ***** You use plastic to cover anything new in your house
whether it’s the remote control, VCR, carpet or new couch. *****

13. Your parents tell you not to care what your friends think, but they won’t let you do certain things because of what the other ‘Uncles and Aunties’ will think.

14. You buy and display crockery, which is never used, as it is for special occasions, which never happen.

15. You have a vinyl tablecloth on your kitchen table.

16.. You use grocery bags to hold garbage.

17. You keep leftover food in your fridge in as many numbers of bowls as possible.

18. Your kitchen shelf is full of jars, varieties of bowls and plastic utensils (got free with purchase of other stuff)

19. You carry a stash of your own food whenever you travel
(and travel means any car ride longer than 15 minutes).

20. You own a rice cooker or a pressure cooker.

21. You fight over who pays the dinner bill.

22. You live with your parents and you are 40 years old. (And they prefer it that way).

23. You don’t use measuring cups when cooking.

24. You never learnt how to stand in a queue.

25. You can only travel if there are 5 persons at least to see you off or receive you whether you are traveling by bus, train or plane.

26. If she is NOT your daughter, you always take interest in knowing whose daughter has run with whose son and feel proud to spread it at the velocity of more than the speed of light.

27. You only make long distance calls after 11p.m.

28. If you don’t live at home, when your parents call, they ask if you’ve eaten, even if it’s midnight .

29. You call an older person you never met before Uncle or Aunty.

30. When your parents meet strangers and talk for a few minutes, you discover you’re talking to a distant cousin.

31. Your parents don’t realize phone connections to foreign
countries have improved in the last two decades, and still scream at the top of their lungs when making foreign calls.

32. You have bed sheets on your sofas so as to keep them
from getting dirty.

33. Its embarrassing if you’re wedding has less than 600 people.

34.. All your Tupperware is stained with food color.

35. You have drinking glasses made of steel.

36. You have mastered the art of bargaining in shopping.

I STILL LOVE TO BE AN INDIAN

Africa

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The art of saying ’sorry’: an apology…

“I’m sorry.” Why are those two little words so difficult to say? Perhaps because they hold such power. An honest apology can mend relationships, dissolve anger, soothe shattered pride or heal a broken heart. And a study conducted by the University of Michigan showed that apologizing can even have health benefits, such as lowering stress levels. Meanwhile, avoiding an apology makes relationships more strained — and it can reveal something negative about you. Being incapable of apologizing can be a real character flaw, says Beverly Engel, a psychotherapist and author of The Power of Apology (John Wiley & Sons, 2001). She adds, however, that it’s also necessary to stop apologizing in certain situations. So, if you’re not sure whether you’re in the wrong, how to say it the right way, or when to end the amends, read on — it could make for a stronger, and less stressed, you.

When you’re in the wrong

There are three keys to a successful apology: regretting your actions, taking responsibility for them and being willing to remedy the situation. Let’s say you stand up a friend with whom you had movie plans because a more tempting offer comes along; your friend is left furious and hurt. “In these cases you need to do a ‘full apology,’” says Bernard Weiner, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Start by apologizing, then give indications to future behavior (“I won’t ever do this again”), and offer some form of compensation (“I’ll pay for both of our tickets next time”). Other wise words? Keep it short, simple and fairly serious.

When you’re both to blame

If two parties are equally at fault, it’s still up to one person to initiate an apology. “All you can do is take responsibility for your part,” Engel says. But you can do so in a way that opens the door for the other person to apologize as well. For example, you might say, “I believe that we owe each other an apology and I’m going to start by saying I’m sorry for what I did wrong.” In this case, you must also approach the situation without resentment, truly accept your part in it and be ready to forgive the other person.

There is a chance that, despite your apology, the other person is simply too upset over what’s happened and isn’t ready to let it go. So, it’s important that you not expect the other person to forgive you. “That’s not your motive,” Engel says. If your apology isn’t accepted, try to take solace in the fact that you’ve done all you can, and hope that in time the other person will come around. If not, you’ll still feel better for admitting your fault and for having had enough empathy to see how your actions have affected someone else.

The Most Beautiful Heart

One day a young man was standing in the middle of the town proclaiming that he had the most beautiful heart in the whole valley.

A large crowd gathered and they all admired his heart for it was perfect. There was not a mark or a flaw in it. Yes, they all agreed it truly was the most beautiful heart they had ever seen. The young man was very proud and boasted more loudly about his beautiful heart.

Suddenly, an old man appeared at the front of the crowd and said, “Why your heart is not nearly as beautiful as mine.” The crowd and the young man looked at the old man’s heart. It was beating strongly, but full of scars, it had places where pieces had been removed and other pieces put in, but they didn’t fit quite right and there were several jagged edges. In fact, in some places there were deep gouges where whole pieces were missing.

The people stared ­ “How can he say his heart is more beautiful?” they thought.

The young man looked at the old man’s heart and saw its state and laughed. “You must be joking,” he said. “Compare your heart with mine, mine is perfect and yours is a mess of scars and tears.”

“Yes,” said the old man, “Yours is perfect looking but I would never trade with you. You see, every scar represents a person to whom have given my love – I tear out a piece of my heart and give it to them, and often they give me a piece of their heart which fits into the empty place in my heart, but because the pieces aren’t exact, I have some rough edges, which I cherish, because they remind me of the love we shared.”

“Sometimes I have given pieces of my heart away, and the other person hasn’t returned a piece of his heart to me. These are the empty gouges – giving love is taking a chance. Although these gouges are painful, they stay open, reminding me of the love I have for these people too, and I hope someday they may return and fill the space I have waiting. So now do you see what true beauty is?”

The young man stood silently with tears running down his cheeks.

He walked up to the old man, reached into his perfect young and beautiful heart, and ripped a piece out. He offered it to the old man with trembling hands. The old man took his offering, placed it in his heart and then took a piece from his old scarred heart and placed it in the wound in the young man’s heart. It fit, but not perfectly, as there were some jagged edges.

The young man looked at his heart, not perfect anymore but more beautiful than ever, since love from the old man’s heart flowed into his.

They embraced and walked away side by side.