Two beautiful stories.

Story 1.

A man often bought oranges from an old lady.

After they were weighed, paid for and put in his bag, he would always pick one from his bag, peel it, put a segment in his mouth, complain it's sour and pass on the orange to the seller.

The old lady would put one segment  in her mouth and retort, "Why, it's sweet", but by then he was gone with his bag.

His wife, always with him, asked, "the oranges are always sweet, then why this drama every time?"

He smiled, "the old mother sells sweet oranges but never eats them herself.

This way I get her to eat one, without losing her money.

That's all".

The vegetable seller next to the old lady, saw this everyday.

She chided, "every time this man fusses over your oranges and I see that you always weigh a few extra for him. Why?"

The old lady smiled, "I know he does this to feed me an orange, only, he thinks I don't understand.

I never weigh extra.  His love tilts the scale slightly every time".

Life's joys are in these sweet little gestures of love and respect for our fellow beings. O God, grant us always the ability to show such amazing kindness and gestures......

Story 2.

Many hundreds of years ago in a small Italian town, a merchant had the misfortune of owing a large sum of money to the moneylender. The moneylender, who was old and ugly, fancied the merchant's beautiful daughter so he proposed to bargain. He said he would forego the merchant's debt if he could marry the daughter. Both the merchant and the daughter were horrified by the proposal.

The moneylender told them that he would put a black pebble and a white pebble into an empty bag. The girl would then have to pick one pebble from the bag. if she picked the black pebble, she'd become the moneylender's wife and her father's debt would be forgiven. If she picked the white pebble she need not marry him and her father's debt would still be forgiven. But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into the jail.

They were standing on a pebble strewn path in the merchant's garden. As they talked, the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles. As he picked them up, the sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two black pebbles and put them into the bag. He then asked the girl to pick her pebble from the bag.

What would you have done if you were the girl? If you had to advise her, what would you have told her? Careful analysis would produce three possibilities :-

* The girl should refuse to take a pebble * The girl should show that there were two black pebbles in the bag and expose the moneylender as a cheat * The girl should pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order to save her father from his debt and imprisonment.

The above story is used with the hope that it will make us appreciate the difference between lateral and logical thinking.

The girl put her hand into the moneybag and drew out a pebble. Without looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles.

"Oh, how clumsy of me", she said. "But never mind, if you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tellwhich pebble I picked". Since the remaining pebble is black, it must be assumed that she had picked the white one. And since the moneylender dared not admit his dishonesty, the girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into an advantageous one.

Moral of the story. 

Most complex problems do have a solution, sometimes we have to think about them in a different way. 

Your attitude decides your life!  

Tailpiece.

Got up at 6, thanks to the early morning call from Mini and Sanil wishing me many happy returns as today was my birthday as per the Malayalam calendar. Went through the chores and was ready by a half past 9. Ammu had called up by about 11 AM.

It was a quiet Sunday. Lekha had made a traditional lunch and it was yummy. Rema, Padmakumar and Achu had called up around teatime.  

45 years ago, on this date, I'd passed out of the National Defence Academy as an Air Force cadet. The, then, Prime Minister of India Mrs Indira Gandhi was the chief guest for our POP(Passing Out Parade)! It was a Saturday, as all POPs by tradition, take place on that day of the week. And the entire Academy had left for their homes, for the break that evening itself, after which I was to embark on my life in the Indian Air Force at the EFS (Elementary Flying School), Mohammadabad Bidar with the initial flying training on the HT-2s!