Power of love

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Heartwarming stories on making the ultimate connect

POWER OF

T

o all those whose hearts are still moved by the

timelessness of lines, images, people and sentiments,

Huzaifa Khorakiwala, CEO Wockhardt Foundation and Mudar Patherya

Love in times of strife D

Mr Lincoln answered, ‘Yes, and now that you

time to visit a hospital. As he passed from

know who I am, is there anything more I can

ward to ward, he stopped long enough to

do for you?’ The dying boy answered,

comfort the injured and dying. A word here.

‘Nothing more, unless you hold my hand and

A smile there. A touch here. An eye contact

see me through.’

uring the American Civil War, Lincoln took

there.

Finally, Lincoln came upon a boy who was

Tears rolled down Lincoln’s granite face as he held the trembling hand of that dying boy.

evidently dying. Lincoln sat by his side and asked if he could do anything for him. ‘I wish

Source: Adapted from The New York Times,

you would write to my mother,’ was the

published 1st June, 1902

boy’s feeble reply. Lincoln took dictation.

Then he read the letter to the boy and came to the closing sentence: ‘This letter is written by Abraham Lincoln.’ The boy weakly turned his head and said, ‘Why, is this our President?’

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Love endures When B.P. Chaliha (former Chief Minister of Assam) died in 1970 of cardiac asthma, the six km funeral route was densely populated with people from all over Assam because when Mizos suffered during the insurrection, it was Chaliha who granted each Rs. 80 a month for studies and arranged for their education.

The Bishnoi caste. Committed to non-violence in nature. Preserved their khejri trees from loggers sent by the Maharaja of Jodhpur in the 17th century. Through a simple tactic. They hugged the trees. Three hundred died before the order was cancelled. Even today people gather annually to commemorate their sacrifice.

Star batsman Victor Trumper bought all the song sheets from an impoverished urchin on a rainy night outside the theatre in London’s West End while touring with the Australian team in 1902.

Moses chanced upon a villager praying to God. “Oh God,” entreated the villager, “if you should come to my hut, I will look after you, wash your feet, give you something to eat and drink.” Moses was shocked. He scolded the villager. ‘Is this any way to connect with the Almighty?’ The villager turned sheepish; Moses instructed him on the proper way to commune with the Maker. Then Moses left. He had not travelled far when the Voice spoke to Moses. And corrected him on the way he had corrected the villager. The Voice’s logic: Moses, did you see the love with which he reached me? Moses got the message. He rushed to the village and apologised!

“Zindagi mein to sabhi pyar kiya karte hain Main to mar kar bhi meri jaan tujhe chaahoonga!”

Scientist comes home late from office, regrets to his wife for failing to take his children to a local exhibition, finds to his surprise the children were taken by his manager, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

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Lyricist: Qateel Shifai

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Abbas [a contemporary

Love is… being just

historian] reports, ‘If he saw any man injuring a field, he would cut off his ears with his own hand, and hanging the

Sher Shah was especially

corn (which the man had

careful to ensure that the

plucked off) round his neck,

movements of the army did marched, he personally examined into the state of the cultivation, and stationed horsemen round it to prevent people from trespassing on any one’s field,’

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would have him to be Source: Emperors of the Peacock Throne: The Saga of the Great Mughals by Abraham Eraly

not damage crops. ‘When he

paraded through the camp. If from the narrowness of the road any cultivation was unavoidably destroyed, he would send amirs, with a surveyor, to measure the cultivation so destroyed, and give compensation in money to the cultivators. If unavoidably the tents of his soldiery were pitched near cultivation, the soldiers themselves watched it, lest any one else should injure it, and they should be blamed and be punished by Sher Shah, who showed no favour or partiality in the dispensation of justice.

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Around the corner from Trafalgar Square in London stands a beautiful statue of an English girl. On that statue is engraved: ‘Brussels Dawn, 1918,’ and, ‘Patriotism is not enough, I must have love for all men.’

The statue celebrates Edith Cavell, shot by German conquerors in Brussels as an English spy (although she was there working as a nurse)

for all men

‘I (author) first saw that statue over sixty years ago, and the impact of its message has stayed with me: ‘Patriotism is not enough, I must have love for all men.

I think frequently of these lines by Edwin Markham, which in simple terms endorse the virtue of reaching out with love and kindness to those who would revile against us.’

He drew a circle that shut me outHeretic, rebel, a thing to flout.

But Love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle that took him in!

Source: Standing for Something by Gordon B. Hinckley

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Law of Love

‘The principle, which gives the thought the dynamic power to correlate with its object, and therefore to

Jigar

master every adverse human experience, is the law of attraction, which is another name for love. This is an eternal and fundamental principle inherent in all things, in every system of philosophy, in every Religion and in every Science. There is no getting away from the law of love. It is the feeling that imparts vitality to thought. Feeling is desire and desire is love. Thought impregnated with love becomes invincible.’ – Charles Haanel 10

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The Beatles

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Abou Ben Adhem

By Leigh Hunt Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)

Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace, And saw, within the moonlight in his room, Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom, An angel writing in a book of gold:— Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold, And to the Presence in the room he said ‘What writest thou?’—The vision raised its head, And with a look made of all sweet accord, Answered ‘The names of those who love the Lord.’

‘And is mine one?’ said Abou. ‘Nay, not so,’ Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low, But cheerly still, and said ‘I pray thee, then, Write me as one that loves his fellow men.’

The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night It came again with a great wakening light, And showed the names whom love of God had blessed, And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.

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‘To love is the great amulet which makes the world a garden.’ – R.L. Stevenson

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Love in

adversity DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN WARSAW, THE ILLUSTRIOUS POLISH PIANIST (AND JEW) WŁADYSŁAW SPZILMAN LAY IN HIDING. ALONE. IN A DESERTED BUILDING. FOR MONTHS. UNTIL HE WAS FINALLY ‘DISCOVERED’. HE WAS FINISHED. HE KNEW. THIS IS HOW HE DESCRIBES IT: “THE OFFICER LOOKED AT ME IN SILENCE. AFTER A WHILE HE SIGHED, AND MUTTERED, ‘ALL THE SAME, YOU SHOULDN’T STAY HERE. I’LL TAKE YOU OUT OF THE CITY, TO A VILLAGE. YOU’LL BE SAFER THERE.’ I SHOOK MY HEAD. ‘I CAN’T LEAVE THIS PLACE,’ I SAID FIRMLY. ONLY NOW DID HE SEEM TO UNDERSTAND MY REAL REASON FOR HIDING AMONG THE RUINS. HE STARTED NERVOUSLY. ‘YOU’RE JEWISH?’ HE ASKED. ‘YES.’ HE HAD BEEN STANDING WITH HIS ARMS CROSSED OVER HIS CHEST; HE NOW UNFOLDED THEM AND SAT DOWN IN THE ARMCHAIR BY THE PIANO, AS IF THIS DISCOVERY CALLED FOR A LENGTHY REFLECTION. ‘YES, WELL,’ HE MURMURED, ‘IN THAT CASE I SEE YOU REALLY CAN’T LEAVE.’ 18

FROM THEN ON, THE GERMAN OFFICER DID SOMETHING UNTHINKABLE. HE SUPPLIED SZPILMAN, A JEW, WITH FOOD, WATER AND NEWS OF THE SOVIET ADVANCE. IN DECEMBER 1944, THE OFFICER SUDDENLY STOPPED COMING. THIS MIGHT HAVE BEEN THE END OF THE STORY BUT FOR THE FACT THAT AFTER THE WAR WAS OVER, SZPILMAN WAS VISITED BY A VIOLINIST FRIEND WHO TOLD SZPILMAN OF A GERMAN OFFICER HE HAD MET AT A SOVIET PRISONER OF WAR CAMP. THE OFFICER, LEARNING THAT HE WAS A MUSICIAN, HAD ASKED HIM IF HE KNEW WŁADYSŁAW SZPILMAN. THE FRIEND SAID HE DID, BUT BEFORE THE GERMAN COULD TELL HIS NAME, THE GUARDS ASKED THE VIOLINIST FRIEND TO MOVE ON. IT TOOK SZPILMAN FIVE YEARS TO DISCOVER THE NAME OF HIS UNLIKELY PROTECTOR. WILM HOSENFELD. SZPILMAN FAILED TO SECURE HIS RELEASE. HOSENFELD DIED IN CAPTIVITY IN 1952 AT A SECRET LOCATION IN SOVIET RUSSIA. His story lives on.

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Love across colour T

he long jump event of 1936 Berlin Olympics. German star Lutz Long's against American

Jesse Owens. One a motif of Hitler’s pet Aryan supremacy theory. The other a gifted AfroAmerican.

Long qualifies, setting an Olympic record during the preliminary round. Owens fouls on his first two jumps. Hitler is pleased.

Owens knows he needs to clear the third jump to advance to the finals. Sits on the field.

Dejected.

Long walks to him. Suggests that Owens, his biggest competitor, jump several inches behind the line. His logic: Owens was failing because he was trying too hard. Since Owens had routinely jumped further than the required 7.15m, he would safely advance to the next round without risking another foul.

The final jump. Owens jumps a good half foot of clearance. Goes on to win the gold medal with 8.06m. Beats Long's record 7.87m.

Long is the first to congratulate Owens. They pose together. One a white-skinned German.

The other a dark Afro-Amercian. Walk arm-in-arm to the dressing room. Long’s advice works against him.

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is …selflessness

n January 13, 1982, a Boeing 737 jet left National Airport in Washington,

D.C. Moments later it hit the 14th Street Bridge and crashed into the icy waters of the Potomac River. Six survivors clung to a broken piece of the plane. Coast Guard and Park Police worked to rescue these people. As they dropped a lifesaving ring from a helicopter, one of the men afloat caught the ring and gave it again and again to his companions. Five were rescued. By the time the ring was lowered for the sixth time, the waters had claimed its intrepid victim. But five people had been saved.

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Justbethere A nurse took the tired, anxious serviceman to the bedside. ‘Your son is here,’ she said to the old man.

She had to repeat the words several times before the patient's eyes opened,

The nurse was startled, ‘He was your father,’ she answered.’ No, he wasn't,’ the Marine, replied.

‘I never saw him before in my life.’

heavily sedated because of the pain of his heart attack, he dimly saw the

‘Then why didn't you say something when I took you to him?’

young uniformed Marine standing outside the oxygen tent.

‘I knew right away, there had been a mistake, but I also knew he needed his son,

He reached out his hand. The Marine wrapped his toughened fingers

and his son just wasn't here.’

around the old man's limp ones, squeezing a message of love and encouragement. All through the night the Young Marine sat there in the poorly lighted ward, holding the old man's hand and offering him words of love and strength.

At dawn, the old man died. The nurse started to offer words of sympathy, but the Marine interrupted her, ‘Who was that man?’ he asked.

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Love is ‌thinking good Your subconscious mind is a recording machine that reproduces your habitual

about the other. Remember, the other person is not responsible for the way you think

thinking. Think good of the other, and you are actually thinking good about yourself.

about him or her. Your thoughts are reproduced. What are you thinking now about the

A hateful or resentful thought is a mental poison. Do not think ill of another for to do

other person? Become emotionally mature and permit other people to differ with

so is to think ill of yourself. You are the only thinker in your universe and your thoughts

you. They have a perfect right to disagree with you, and you have the same freedom to

are creative. Your mind is a creative medium; therefore, what you think and feel

disagree with them. You can disagree without being disagreeable. Just as animals are

about the other, you are bringing to pass in your own experience. This is the

able to pick up fear vibrations, many people are just as sensitive. The thoughts you

psychological meaning of the Golden Rule. As you would that others should think about

believe are hidden are actually broadcast by your voice, your facial expressions, and your

you, think about them in the same manner. To cheat, rob, or defraud another brings

body language. This is true both for positive and negative thoughts. Your inner

lack, loss and limitation to yourself. Your subconscious mind records your inner

speech, representing your silent thoughts and feelings, is experienced in the reactions of

motivations, thoughts and feelings. When these are negative, loss, limitation and trouble

others toward you. All you owe any person in the world is love, and love is wishing

come to you in countless ways. What you do to the other, you are doing to yourself.

for everyone what you wish for yourself — health, happiness, and all the blessings of life.

The good you do, the kindness proffered, the love and good you send forth will all

Source: The power of your subconscious mind by Joseph Murphy

come back to you multiplied in many ways. You are responsible for the way you think

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I read in the newspaper about a little girl in Brasilia who was brutally beaten by her parents.

As a result she lost all physical movement, as well as the ability to speak.

Once admitted to hospital, she was cared for by a nurse who said to her every day: ‘I love you.’ Although the doctors assured her that the child could not hear and that all her efforts were in vain, the nurse continued to say: ‘Don’t forget, I love you.’

Three weeks later, the child recovered the power of movement. Four weeks later, she could again talk and smile. The nurse never gave any interviews, and the newspaper did not publish her name, but let me set this down here, so that we never forget: love cures.

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Source: Like the Flowing River by Paulo Coelho

Love cures

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Love is… togetherness W

hen I [Jim Powers] got back from World War II I went to Indiana State Teachers

College, because that’s where Coach Wooden had been hired. A lot of his former South

It happened again the next year. We got the same invitation. Again, Coach turned it down. This time the tournament backed off. They changed the rules. Only after that would

Bend High School players followed him there because we wanted to get back to that

Coach accept the invitation. The Sycamores got to the finals, before losing to Louisville.

family he created in basketball.

Our whole team went; everybody played, including Clarence. You don't leave somebody in

However, during the war I had been shot down in a B-24 raid on some oil fields in Italy,

the family behind. At least, Coach Wooden didn't. His concern for us went way beyond

and came very close to getting killed. I didn’t want to fly for a long time after that,

basketball. We were part of a family.

including when I was at Indiana State. When the Indiana State Sycamores were supposed to fly to New York for a game at Madison Square Garden, I told Coach, ‘There's no way I'm getting on a plane. You can go without me, but I'm not flying.’

Coach refused to leave me behind—got station wagons and we drove out to New York. It was family; nobody got left behind.

In 1947 we got invited to a big national tournament. One problem: They prohibited blacks from playing. One of our teammates, Clarence Walker, was black. Coach Wooden turned down the invitation. He wouldn't leave Clarence behind.

Source: Wooden on leadership, John Wooden and Steve Jamison

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‘Because we all share an identical need for love, it is possible to feel that anybody we meet, in whatever circumstance, is a brother or sister.’ The Dalai Lama

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L ve is… bettering ourselves ‘W

ell, why did you say that I don't know about love?’ the sun asked the boy.

‘Because it's not love to be static like the desert, nor is it love to roam the world like the wind. And it's not love to see everything from a distance, like you do.

Love is the force that transforms and improves the Soul of the World. When I first reached through to it, I thought the Soul of the World was perfect. But later, I could see that it was like other aspects of creation, and had its own passions and wars. It is we who nourish the Soul of the World, and the world we live in will be either better or worse, depending on whether we become better or worse. And that's where the power of love comes in. Because when we love, we always strive to become better than we are.’

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Source: The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

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O

n the day after Mrs. Fosdick died, I saw Harry Emerson Fosdick’s religious faith, and I shall

LOVE IS EMPATHY

never forget it. My husband and I went to call on him. He was 86, and we expected to find him shattered by the loss of the wife he had cherished for more than 60 years. Instead, he met us with a smile. ‘Florence enjoyed good health, you know, right to the end,’ he said. ‘I’m the one who had ailments, and I was afraid I’d die first and leave her alone. Now she’s gone, and I will be the one to face loneliness. I’m so thankful for that. This is something I can do for Florence.’

Source: Nardi Reeder Campion, Everyday Greatness

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Being deeply l ved by someone gives you

strength;

loving someone deeply gives you

courage. – Lao Tzu

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L ve is…connecting W

hen I was quite young, my family had one of the first telephones in

our neighbourhood. I remember well polished oak case fastened to the wall on the lower stair landing.

My first personal experience with the genie-in-the-receiver came one day while my mother was visiting a neighbour. Amusing myself at the tool bench in the basement, I whacked my finger with a hammer. The pain was terrible, but there didn’t seem to be much use crying because there was no one home to offer sympathy. I walked around the house sucking my throbbing finger, finally arriving at the stairway. The telephone! Quickly I ran for the footstool in the parlour and dragged it to the landing. Climbing up, I unhooked the receiver and held it to my ear. ‘Information Please,’ I said into the mouthpiece just above my head.

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‘I hurt my fingerrr-’I wailed into the phone. The tears came readily enough, now that I had

there are other worlds to sing in.’

an audience.

Somehow, I felt better…

‘Isn’t your mother home?’ came the question.

Yet, as I grew into my teens, the memories of those childhood conversations never really

‘Nobody’s home but me,’ I blubbered.

‘Are you bleeding?’

‘No,’ I replied. ‘I hit it with the hammer and it hurts.’

‘Can you open your icebox?’ she asked. I said I could.

‘Then chip off a little piece of ice and hold it on your finger. That will stop the hurt. Be careful when you use the ice pack,’ she admonished. ‘And don’t cry. You’ll be all right.’

After that, I called Information Please for everything. I asked for help with my geography and she told me where Philadelphia was, and the Orinoco – the romantic river I was going to explore when I grew up. She helped me with my arithmetic, and she told me that a pet

left me…

A few years later, on my way west to college, my plane put down in Seattle….and I dialled my hometown operator and said, ‘Information Please.’

A different voice answered, ‘Information,’ and I asked for Sally [her name was Sally].

‘Are you a friend?’

‘Yes, ‘I said. ‘An old friend.’

‘Then I’m sorry to have to tell you. Sally had only been working part-time in the last few years because she was ill. She died five weeks ago.’ But before I could hang up, she said, ‘Wait a minute. Did you say your name was Villiard?’

chipmunk – I had caught him in the park just the day before – would eat fruit and nuts.

‘Yes.’

And there was the time that Petey, our pet canary, died.

‘Well, Sally left a message for you. She wrote it down.’

I called Information Please and told her the sad story. She listened, then said the usual

‘What was it?’ I asked, almost knowing in advance what it would be.

things grown-ups say to soothe a child. But I was unconsoled: Why was it that birds should sing so beautifully and bring joy to whole families, only to end as a heap of feathers feet up, on the bottom of a cage?

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She must have sensed my deep concern, for she said quietly, ‘Paul, always remember that

‘Here it is, I’ll read it – Tell him I still say there are other worlds to sing in. He’ll know what I mean.’

Source: Paul Villiard in Chicken Soup for the Soul, the story is abridged

A click or two, and a small, clear voice spoke into my ear. ‘Information.’

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Mother Teresa on

1. ‘I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love.’

2. ‘We have not come into the world to be numbered; we have been created for a purpose; for great things: to love and be loved.’

3. ‘I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.’

6. ‘Some people came to Calcutta, and before leaving, they begged me: 'Tell us something that will help us to live our lives better.' And I said: 'Smile at each other; smile at your wife, smile at your husband, smile at your children, smile at each other -- it doesn't matter who it is -- and that will help you to grow up in greater love for each other.'

4. ‘People sometimes ask me how I can clean the stinking wound of a leprosy patient. They say to me, ‘We cannot do it for love of all the money in the world.’ I tell them, ‘Nor can we. But we do it for the love of Him.’’ 5. ‘Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own house. Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next door neighbour… Let no one ever come to you without leaving better or happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting.’

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L VE for the world

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An unknown woman planted 50,000 daffodil bulbs. The board to the valley read: ‘Planted by one woman. One hands, two feet and one brain. Started in 1958.’ Out of love for the living and their Maker.

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‘One kind word can warm three winter months.’ Japanese proverb

‘There is no greater loan than a sympathetic ear.’ Frank Tyger

Mark Twain

KIND NESS is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can read

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‘It's not one man. I believe I have made the taxi driver's day. Suppose he has 20 fares. He's going to be nice to those twenty fares because someone was nice to him. Those fares in turn will be kinder to their employees or shop-keepers or waiters or even their own families. Eventually the goodwill could spread to at least 1,000 people. Now that isn't bad, is it?’

‘But you're depending on that taxi driver to pass your goodwill to others.’

‘I'm not depending on it,’ my friend said. ‘I'm aware that the system isn't foolproof, so I might deal with 10 different people today. If, out of 10, I can make three happy, then eventually I can indirectly influence the attitudes of 3,000 more.’

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shouldn't someone say a kind word to them?’

‘How can one man save New York?’

‘They're not doing a good job because they feel no one cares if they do or not. Why

‘I am trying to bring love back to New York,’ he said. ‘I believe it's the only thing that can save the city’

‘But they're not doing a good job.’

‘What was that all about?’ I asked.

people who work for the post office what a good job they're doing.’

‘Yeah,’ the driver said and drove off.

seems to be lacking, besides money, of course, for our postal employees, is that no one tells

‘No, my dear man, and I'm not putting you on. I admire the way you keep cool in heavy traffic.’

‘That shows you how cynical you have become. I have made a study of this. The thing that

‘Are you a wise guy or something?’

‘You're some kind of a nut,’ I said.

The taxi driver was stunned for a second. Then he said:

Tomorrow there will be another taxi driver whom I can try to make happy.’

driver, ‘Thank you for the ride. You did a superb job of driving.’

good job. He neither received a larger tip nor a smaller tip. If it fell on deaf ears, so what?

was in New York the other day and rode with a friend in a taxi. When we got out my friend said to the

‘Nothing is lost if it doesn't. It didn't take any of my time to tell that man he was doing a

I

‘It sounds good on paper,’ I admitted, ‘but I'm not sure it works in practice.’

L ve is… a goodwill multiplier

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‘June,’ a man grunted.

‘Ah. That really is impressive. You must all be very proud.’

We walked away. I said to him, ‘I haven't seen anyone like you since The Man of LaMancha.’

‘When those men digest my words, they will feel better for it. Somehow the city will benefit from their happiness.’

‘But you can't do this all alone!’ I protested. ‘You're just one man.’

‘The most important thing is not to get discouraged.

Making people in the city become kind again is not an easy job, but if I can enlist other people in my We were walking past a structure in the process of being built and passed five workmen

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campaign ...’

eating their lunch. My friend stopped. ‘That's a magnificent job you men have done. It

‘You just winked at a very plain looking woman,’ I said.

must be difficult and dangerous work.’

‘Yes, I know,’ he replied. ‘And if she's a schoolteacher,

The five men eyed my friend suspiciously.

her class will be in for a fantastic day.’

‘When will it be finished?’

Art Buchwald, syndicated columnist

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[Randy Pausch, professor at Carnegie Mellon was diagnosed with terminal cancer. This is how he chose to spend the final moments of his life with his wife Jai.] As any family dealing with cancer knows, caregivers are often pushed to the sidelines. Patients get to focus on themselves.

They’re the objects of adulation and sympathy. Caregivers do the heavy lifting, with little time to deal with their own pain and relief.

My wife, Jai, is a cancer caregiver with even more on her plate: three little kids. So as I prepared to give my last lecture, I made a decision. If this talk was to be my moment, I wanted some way to show everyone how much I love and appreciate her.

It happened like this: Near the end of the lecture, as I reviewed the lessons I’d learned in my life, I mentioned how vital it is to focus on other people, not just yourself. Looking offstage, I asked: ‘Do we have a concrete example of focusing on somebody else over there? Could we bring it out?’

Because the day before had been Jai’s birthday, I arranged to have a large birthday cake with a single candle waiting on a rolling table offstage. As the cake was wheeled out by Jai’s

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friend Cleah Schlueter, I explained to the audience that I hadn’t given a proper birthday, and thought it might be nice if I could get four hundred people to sing to her. They applauded the idea and began singing.

‘Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you…’

richness in our marriage for the next thirty years. We won’t

name is Jai…’

get to amortize the hard efforts we’ve put in so far. Still, we

‘Happy birthday, dear Jai…’

wouldn’t trade our eight years of marriage for anything.

It was so wonderful. Even people in the nearby room,

I really had no idea what I would do or say after the audience

watching the lecture on a video screen, were singing.

sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to Jai. But as I urged her onto the stage,

As we all sang, I finally allowed myself to look at Jai. She sat in her front-row seat, wiping away tears with this surprised smile on her face, looking so lovely---bashful and beautiful, pleased and overwhelmed…

Jai and I work hard at our marriage. We’ve gotten so much better communicating, at sensing each other’s needs and strengths, and at finding more things to love about each

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other. So it saddens us that we won’t get to experience this

Realizing some might not know her name, I quickly said, ‘Her

and she came towards me, a natural impulse overtook me….We embraced and we kissed…..

Jai whispered something in my ear.

‘Please don’t die.’…I just hugged her more tightly.

Source: The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

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THE FORCE OF LO E

V

In

fact, some of the great thinkers of the past

referred to the law of attraction as the law of love.

And if you think about it, you will understand why.

If you think unkind thoughts about someone else, you will experience those unkind thoughts manifested. You cannot harm another with your thoughts, you can only harm You. If you think thoughts of love, guess who receives the benefits – you! So if your predominant state is love, the law of attraction or the law of love responds with the mightiest force because you are on the highest frequency possible. The greater the love you feel and emit, the greater the power you are harnessing.

Source: The Secret by Rhonda Byrne

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L ve is no con ditions 60

I ONCE HAD A FRIEND WHO WAS DEAN OF A VERY PRESTIGIOUS SCHOOL. HE PLANNED AND SAVED FOR YEARS TO PROVIDE HIS SON THE OPPORTUNITY TO ATTEND THAT INSTITUTION, BUT WHEN THE TIME CAME, THE BOY REFUSED TO GO. THIS DEEPLY CONCERNED HIS FATHER. GRADUATING FROM THAT PARTICULAR SCHOOL WOULD HAVE BEEN A GREAT ASSET TO THE BOY. BESIDES, IT WAS A FAMILY TRADITION – THREE GENERATIONS OF ATTENDANCE PRECEDED THE BOY. THE FATHER PLEADED AND URGED AND TALKED. THE SUBTLE MESSAGE BEING COMMUNICATED WAS ONE OF CONDITIONAL LOVE… CONSEQUENTLY, HE FOUGHT FOR AND WITH HIS OWN IDENTITY AND INTEGRITY, AND [RATIONALIZED] HIS DECISION NOT TO GO. AFTER SOME INTENSE SOUL-SEARCHING…THE FATHER AND MOTHER DECIDED TO MAKE A SACRIFICE — TO RENOUNCE CONDITIONAL LOVE. THEY COMMUNICATED TO THE BOY WHAT THEY WERE DOING AND WHY, AND TOLD HIM THAT THEY HAD COME TO THE POINT AT WHICH THEY COULD SAY IN ALL HONESTY THAT HIS DECISION WOULD NOT AFFECT THEIR COMPLETE FEELING OF UNCONDITIONAL LOVE TOWARD HIM. THEY DIDN’T DO THIS TO MANIPULATE HIM, TO TRY TO GET HIM TO ‘SHAPE UP.’ THEY DID IT AS THE LOGICAL EXTENSION OF THEIR GROWTH AND CHARACTER. A SHORT TIME LATER, AN INTERESTING THING HAPPENED. NOW THAT THE BOY NO LONGER FELT HE HAD TO DEFEND HIS POSITION, HE SEARCHED WITHIN HIMSELF MORE DEEPLY AND FOUND THAT HE REALLY DID WANT TO HAVE THIS EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE. HE APPLIED FOR ADMISSION, AND THEN HE TOLD HIS FATHER, WHO AGAIN SHOWED UNCONDITIONAL LOVE BY FULLY ACCEPTING HIS SON’S DECISION. MY FRIEND WAS HAPPY, BUT NOT EXCESSIVELY SO, BECAUSE HE HAD TRULY LEARNED TO LOVE WITHOUT CONDITIONS. Source: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

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LOVE AS A SOLUTION ‘There is no difficulty that enough love will not conquer; no disease that enough love will not heal; no door that enough love will not open; no gulf that enough love will not bridge; no wall that enough love will not throw down, no sin that enough love will not redeem....

It makes no difference how deeply seated may be the trouble; how hopeless the outlook, how muddled the tangle; how great the mistake.

A sufficient realisation of love will dissolve it all.

If only you could love enough you would be the happiest and most powerful being in the world....

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Source: The Sermon on the Mount: the key to success in life by Emmet Fox

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‘with flourish’ he puts a thought for the day in each person's groceries, adding his own personal signature in a heartwarming, fun and creative way.

Love is… touching people About three weeks after I had spoken to the supermarket employees, my phone rang late one afternoon. The person on the line told me that his name was Johnny and that he was a bagger in one of the stores. He also told me that he was a person with Down's Syndrome. He said, ‘Barbara, I liked what you said!’ Then he went on to tell me that when he'd gone home the night of my presentation, he had asked his dad to teach him to use the computer.

He said they set it up in three columns, and each night now when he goes home, he finds a ‘thought for the day.’ He said when he can't find one he likes, he ‘thinks one up!’ Then he types it into the computer, prints out multiple copies, cuts them out, and signs his name on the back of each one. The next day as he bags customer's groceries, ‘with flourish’ he puts a thought for the day in each person's groceries, adding his own personal signature in a heartwarming, fun and creative way.

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One month later the manager of the store called me. He said, ‘Barbara, you won't believe what happened today ... When I went out on the floor this morning, the line at Johnny's checkout was three times longer than any other line! I went ballistic yelling, 'Get more lanes open! Get more people out here!' but the customers said, 'No no! We want to be in Johnny's lane—we want the thought for the day!'‘ He said one woman even came up and told him, ‘I only used to shop once a week, and now I come here every time I go by because I want the thought for the day!’

(Imagine what that does to the bottom line!) He ended by saying, ‘Who do you think is the most important person in our whole store?’ Johnny, of course!

Three months later he called me again, ‘You and Johnny have transformed our store! Now in the floral department when they have a broken flower or an unused corsage, they go out on the floor and find an elderly woman or a little girl and pin it on them. One of our meat packers loves Snoopy, so he bought 50,000 Snoopy stickers, and each time he packages a piece of meat, he puts a Snoopy sticker on it.

We are having so much fun, and our customers are having so much fun!’ THAT is the spirit in the workplace!

Source: Developing your personal signature by Barbara Glanz

“We ourselves shall be loved for a while and forgotten. But the love will have been enough; all those impulses of love return to the love that made them. Even memory is not necessary for love. There is a land of the living and a land of the dead, and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.”

Thornton Wilder

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LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDOURED THING

LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDOURED THING IT'S THE APRIL ROSE THAT ONLY GROWS IN THE EARLY SPRING

IT'S THE APRIL ROSE THAT ONLY GROWS IN THE EARLY SPRING LOVE IS NATURE'S WAY OF GIVING, A REASON TO BE LIVING

LOVE IS NATURE'S WAY OF GIVING, A REASON TO BE LIVING THE GOLDEN CROWN THAT MAKES A MAN A KING.

THE GOLDEN CROWN THAT MAKES A MAN A KING. Nat King Cole

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LOVING

ONE SELF

Sara, a woman, came to me with breast cancer a few years ago; she was smoking when I walked into her hospital room. Her action clearly stated: ‘I want you to get rid of my cancer, but I’m ambivalent about living, so I think I’ll risk a second cancer.’ She looked up sheepishly and said, ‘I suppose you’re going to tell me to stop smoking.’

‘No,’ I said, ‘I’m going to tell you to love yourself.

Then you’ll stop.

She thought for a moment and replied, ‘Well I do love myself. I just don’t adore myself.’

(Sara ultimately did come to adore herself – and stopped smoking.) Self-love has come to mean only vanity and narcissism. The pride of being and the determination to care for our own needs have gone out of the meaning. Nevertheless, an unreserved, positive self-adoration remains the essence of health; the most important asset a patient must gain to become exceptional.

Self-esteem and self-love are not sinful. They make living a joy instead of a chore.

Bernie. S. Siegel

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Love as in reaching out

One day I received news that Mother Teresa was to arrive from Rome so I decided to go to the airport to meet her. The Air India flight from Rome landed 15 minutes late, and by the time Mother Teresa reached the terminal building it was almost 7.30 p.m. ‘I am glad you have come,’ she said, as she greeted me with a smile. ‘You must make sure I catch the plane to Calcutta tonight.’

I did not think that was possible, and pointed out that the flight to Calcutta departed from the domestic terminal some distance away. The scheduled departure was 8 pm; aggravatingly, the flight was on time, while Mother Teresa’s luggage was not yet off the Air India plane. I was still new to this phenomenon called Mother Teresa, and had not reckoned with her determination. In any case, what she went on to say was sobering enough.

‘There is a child dying in Shishu Bhawan in Calcutta. I am carrying in my luggage an experimental drug that might save the child’s life. You must help me to catch the flight,’ she said softly. She had pulled out her rosary from the old cloth bag she carried, and began to pray. It was now past 7.45 p.m., and the flight to Calcutta had boarded.

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Love by another name Meanwhile, several people in the terminal building, aware of Mother Teresa’s presence,

WHEN NELSON WAS WOUNDED AT THE NILE AND TAKEN

were coming up to her, to be blessed, for autographs, or just to be near her. Yet

DOWN TO THE SURGEON’S COCKPIT, THE FIRST THING HE

unknown to me, the word had spread that a child lay dying in Calcutta and needed Mother Teresa desperately. I learned later that the airport staff, from the senior

COULD HAVE DONE WAS TO ASK TO BE TREATED FIRST.

managers to humble porters, had sped in every direction to help. Suddenly, Mother

WOULD HAVE BEEN THE NORMAL RESPONSE. USUAL. HE

Teresa’s luggage, which consisted of six cardboard cartons (one of which contained her personal effects while the rest had medicines), rumbled in on the conveyor belt, the very first pieces of luggage to be brought in. As if from nowhere, someone placed a boarding card in her hand. Unknown to us, the control tower had a word with the

REFUSED: ‘I WILL TAKE MY TURN WITH MY BRAVE FELLOWS.’ IN A HIERARCHY-DRIVEN ENVIRONMENT,

captain of the flight, who was just then taxiing towards the runaway. The captain, a

NELSON DEMOLISHED RANK. HE MENTORED YOUNG

Calcutta man himself, brought the aircraft to a halt. Flight control warned air traffic of a

OFFICERS; HE OFTEN INVITED THEM TO BREAKFASTS

slight change. The aircraft was now ready for Mother Teresa. Would I be so kind as to

AND LUNCHES. IN TURN, THESE COLLEAGUES WOULD

drive her to the aircraft in my car? A few minutes later, a ladder emerged through the winter mist, the aircraft door opened and Mother Teresa, with her boxes, boarded the

HELP CUT HIS MEAT AFTER THE LOSS OF HIS ARM. WHEN

flight to Calcutta.

HE ARRIVED ON SEA, A CURRENT - ‘NELSON’S HERE!’-

Ten days later, Mother Teresa was in Delhi again. My first question, of course, was about the child in Shishu Bhawan. Her face wreathed in smiles, Mother Teresa told me that she had reached Calcutta just in time. The child was well on its way to recovery. ‘It was a first-class miracle, wasn’t?’ she asked.

WOULD GO THROUGH THE BRITISH SHIPS. BECAUSE HE

Source: Mother Teresa by Navin Chawla

WOULD HAVE A LETTER FOR ONE FROM HOME, A WORD FROM PARENTS FOR ANOTHER. JUST BROTHERHOOD. CALL IT LOVE BY ANOTHER NAME. THESE BOYS GRADUATED TO BECOME A ‘BAND OF BROTHERS’ AFTER NELSON DIED AT TRAFALGAR.

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Love is …making a difference Why do students who we think have no chance of making a difference to life when they grow up disprove theorists?

Read on. A college professor’s sociology class went into the Baltimore slums to study 200 boys followed by an evaluation. In every case the students wrote, ‘No chance.’

Some quarter of a century later, another sociology professor chanced upon these findings. He now had his students follow up on the project to see what had happened to the previous batch. And this is what he found: but for 20 who had moved away or died, 176 of the remaining 180 students had achieved more than ordinary success - as successful lawyers, doctors and businessman.

The professor pursued the subject. Since all the ex-students were from the vicinity, he was able to track each one down with the question: ‘How do you account for your success?’ In each case the reply came down to one word. Teacher.

Since the teacher was still alive, she was sought out. What was the alchemy that turned no-hopers into achievers? The teacher replied: ‘Simple, I loved those boys.’

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LOVE AS A POWER Ian Thorpe and Michael Williams became friends in 1996, more than a year before Michael came down with a cancer and Ian came down with fame. Michael was 10, Ian 13, his talent just beginning to wash him into a grown-up world of international trips with teammates a half-dozen years older, of agents, corporate sponsors and reporters a few dozen years older still…

One day Michael was the feisty cycling

Ian entered the room slowly but remained

champion for his age group at a local sports

near the wall. He'd brought Michael a poster

club; the next day a doctor was telling him

on which he'd written ‘Live Your Dreams.’ As

he had an insanely aggressive form of cancer

Sylvia placed it on the wall by her almost

called non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. That

lifeless boy, Ian's lips remained clamped on a

evening, he was being rushed to Sydney

wave of shock.

Children's Hospital with a 3.6-kilo tumour ballooning in his stomach, kidneys failing, cancer already eating at his spine and brain, death seemingly hours away. When Ian saw Michael from a doorway, he was sucking life with a valve in his neck for dialysis and a tube in his chest for chemotherapy. His mother, Sylvia, sat by her boy, sobbing.

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Before, it had all seemed so automatic: hard work, faster times, bigger medals and louder acclaim –– until now. As he stared down the barrel of the biggest event of his life, the World Swimming Championship in Perth, he felt his confidence leaking away.

Magic happens, but not that fast. The ten

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lumbar punctures to deliver chemotherapy to

fidgeting with anticipation. When finally it came,

Michael's spine, the searing mouth ulcers, the

the evening that Ian stepped onto the starting

hair falling out in clumps, the inability to keep

blocks for the 400 metres in the World

food down, the ravaging pain and the loneliness

Championships, Michael was glued to the TV in

of losing most of his friends made Michael tell

his hospital room. ‘Hope he's gonna win,’ he

his mother he wished only to die…

kept repeating.

Then an exchange occurred between the boy

The race started, and the boy who had wished

who had lost his hunger to live and the one who

only to die was pumping his fist and screaming,

had lost his confidence to win. Ian found himself

‘Go, Ian! You can do it!’ With 100 metres left,

leaving Michael’s hospital room and entering

Ian was almost four body lengths behind

other rooms in the ward, talking to children who

Australian star Grant Hackett, so it shouldn't have

were staring at death. He found himself in the

been remotely possible for a boy of 15 to close

And where there are shadows I may bring Thy light;

pool, pushing his body to the limit, flushed with

with a gasping rush and win. The racers pushed

That where there is sadness I may bring joy;

energy and will.

to the finish, and Michael screamed, ‘Ian won

‘I came to realize what was wrong,’ he says. ‘My talent was a gift, and I'd started questioning it,

This is what Ian has to say about Michael:

expecting too much of it. I'd gotten greedy

‘People often ask me what my inspiration is... it's

instead of being grateful. What I saw because of

not something I can write down. But I can show

Michael was how precious life is. When I was

you.’

feeling pain in workouts, I'd start thinking, this is nothing. Michael's feeling much more.’

And Michael? He found himself looking forward,

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the world championship!’

Source: Adapted from Readers’ Digest, September 2000

To love than be loved Lord, make me a channel of Thy peace, That where there is hatred I may bring love; That where there is wrong I may bring the spirit of forgiveness; That where there is discord I may bring truth; That where there is doubt I may bring faith; That where there is despair I may bring hope;

Lord grant that I may seek rather to comfort than be comforted, To understand than be understood, To love than be loved; For it is by giving that one receives, It is by self-forgetting that one finds, It is by forgiving that one is forgiven, It is by dying that one awakens to eternal life.

St. Francis of Assisi

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Love as a weapon M

andela is a man of invincible charm — and he has often used that charm to even greater effect

on his rivals than on his allies. One person he became close to was Chris Hani, the fiery chief of staff of the ANC's military wing. There were some who thought Hani was conspiring against Mandela, but Mandela cozied up to him. ‘It wasn't just Hani,’ says Ramaphosa. ‘It was also the big industrialists, the mining families, the Opposition. He would pick up the phone and call them on their birthdays. He would go to family funerals. He saw it as an opportunity.’ When Mandela emerged from prison, he famously included his jailers among his friends and put leaders who had kept him in prison in his first Cabinet. Mandela believed that embracing his rivals was a way of controlling them: they were more dangerous on their own than within his circle of influence. He cherished loyalty, but he was never obsessed by it. After all, he used to say, ‘people act in their own interest.’ It was simply a fact of human nature, not a flaw or a defect. The flip side of being an optimist — and he is one — is trusting people too much. But Mandela recognized that the way to deal with those he didn't trust was to neutralize them with charm.

Source: Time magazine

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Birds On A Wire

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The minute I heard my First love story, I started looking for you, Not knowing How blind that was.

Lovers don't finally Meet somewhere, They're in each other all along. Jalaluddin Rumi

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How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.

I love thee to the level of every day’s Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.

I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.

I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints – I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life! – and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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Father Flanagan’s Toughest Customer O

ne winter night a long-distance call came to

that Nebraska village known all over the world as Boys Town.

‘Father Flanagoan? This is Sheriff Hosey─ from Virginia. Got room for another boy- immediately?’

‘Where is he now?’

‘In jail. He’s a desperate character- robbed a bank, held up three shops with a revolver.’

Will you take him off our hands?’

For years the Rev. Edward Joseph Flanagan has

little devil─ with love!’

‘There’s a complete report,’ she snapped. ‘And

Only once towards the end of that unhappy

that’s not the half of it. This good-for-nothing

experiment did man and boy come closer together.

criminal is not worth helping. It’s my personal opinion he ain’t even human! Good-bye and good luck─ you’re going to need it!’

At a street crossing in Omaha, Eddie was looking in the wrong direction when a van bore down on him; Father Flanagan yanked him out of harm’s way. For

Now the heart of Father Flanagan is warmed by his

one instant a light of gratitude flickered in the

love of God and man, and especially young ones.

startled brown eyes, then the dark lashes fell again;

Looking upon this patched wraith of childhood, the

he said nothing.

priest thought that never had he seen such a mixture of the comical and the utterly squalid and tragic.

Even to the man of faith it began to seem that here was an inherent vileness beyond his reach. Hope had fallen to the lowest possible point when one

Waving the newcomer to a chair, Father Flanagan

soft spring morning Eddie appeared in the office,

began to read the report. People had forgotten the

boldly announcing that he wanted to have it out

boy’s last name; he was just Eddie. Born in a slum

with Father Flanagan. This time the brown eyes

‘If I can’t manage an eight-year-old by this time, I

near the Newport News docks, he had lost mother

were glowing with indignation.

ought to quit,’ he said. ‘Bring him on!’

and father in a flu epidemic before he was four. In

been taking unwanted boys off the hands of baffled society: youth of all ages, races, creeds.

Three days later, Sheriff Hosey and his wife set down their prisoner in Father Flanagan’s office─ an

flats on the water-front he was shunted from one family to another, living like a desperate animal.

‘You been trying to get round me,’ he began, ‘but now I’m wise to you. If you were on the level I might have been a sucker, at that. I almost fell for

unnaturally pale boy with a bundle under his arm.

Hardship sharpened his cunning and his will. At the

your line. But last night I got to thinking it over and

He was no higher than the desk; frowzy hair of

age of eight he became the boss of a gang of boys,

I see the joker in the whole thing─’

chocolate brown dangled over the pinched face;

some nearly twice his age. Coached by older toughs

The gaunt, blue-eyed priest stiffened at the

sullen brown eyes were half shut beneath long, dark

of the neighborhood, Eddie browbeat them into

telephone.

lashes. From one side of his mouth a cigarette

pretty crimes which he planned in detail.

‘He’s what?’

drooped at a theatrical angle. ‘Don’t mind the

‘How old is he?’

‘Eight-and-a-half.’

‘Don’t let his age fool you. He’s all I said he was, 88

and more.

The sheriff’s wife laid a long envelope on the desk.

smoking,’ pleaded the sheriff. ‘We had to bribe him with cigarettes.’

‘I’ll have to throw away the book of rules,’

There was something terribly earnest and manful in Eddie now; this was not insolence but despair. With a stab of hope the priest noticed for the first time a quiver on the twisted lips.

grumbled Flanagan. ‘I’m going to try spoiling the 89

‘Father Flanagan, you’re a phoney!’

‘Always do what teachers tell him to do?’

‘You’d better prove that, Eddie─ or shut up!’

‘Yeah!’

‘Okay! I just kicked a Sister in the shins. Now what do you say?’

‘Well, that’s all you’ve ever done, Eddie. The only trouble is that you had the wrong

‘I still say you are a good boy.’

‘What did I tell you? You keep on saying that lie and you know it’s a lie. It can’t be true.

Doesn’t that prove you’re a phoney?’

teachers─ wharf toughs and corner loafers. But you certainly obeyed them. You’ve done every wrong and rotten thing they taught you to do. If you would only obey the good teachers here in the same way, you’d be just fine!’

Those simple words of unarguable truth were like an exorcism, driving out devils from the

Dear Heavenly Father, this is his honest logic! How can I answer it? How defend my faith in

room and cleansing the air. At first the tiny human enigma looked dumbfounded. Then

him─ and in you? Because it’s now or never with Eddie─ God give me the grace

came a glisten of sheer, downright relief in the brown eyes, and he edged round the side of

to say the right thing.

the sunlit desk. And with the very same relief Father Flanagan’s soul was crying; he held out

Father Flanagan cleared his throat.

his arms and climbed into them and laid a tearful face against his heart.

‘Eddie, you’re clever enough to know when a thing is really proved. What is a good boy?

THAT was a long time ago. For ten years Eddie remained in Boys Town. Then, well near the

A good boy is an obedient boy.

top of his class, he left to join the United States Marines. On blood-smeared beaches he won

Right?’

‘Yeah!’

three promotions.

‘His chest,’ boasts Father Flanagan ‘is covered with decorations. Nothing strange about that, for he has plenty of courage. But God be praised for something else: he had the love of the men in his outfit─ brother to the whole bunch. And still the toughest kid I ever knew!’

Source: Published in The Reader’s Digest in 1947

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I had many opportunities to witness Papaji’s (Prithviraj Kapoor) compassion and generosity. Once when we were in Calcutta, a stagehand called Dhondu was diagnosed with cholera. Papaji was out and nobody was willing to enter the sick man’s room, which was reeking of his vomit.

When Papaji returned, he ran to the sick room, ignoring the nauseous squalor and unmindful of the risk of infection, he drew Dhondu to his chest in a tight embrace.

When the doctor arrived he said, ‘Prithviji, you have saved this young man’s life by transferring the heat of your own body to his.’ My respect for Papaji increased a hundredfold.

Source: Kaifi and I: A Memoir by Shaukat Kaifi

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Annie’s S ng You fill up my senses like a night in the forest like the mountains in springtime, like a walk in the rain like a storm in the desert, like a sleepy blue ocean you fill up my senses, come fill me again.

Come let me love you, let me give my life to you let me drown in your laughter, let me die in your arms let me lay down beside you, let me always be with you come let me love you, come love me again.

John Denver

Lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri 94

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down trodden Love for the

O

ne rainy night a young man saw leper Tulshiram naked by the road. Fingerless.

With a maggot-ridden body. First reaction: the young man ran home. But returned.

Fed the naked man. And sheltered him.

The young man gave up his father’s estate. Dedicated himself to the service of lepers.

Read about leprosy. Worked at the Warora Leprosy Clinic. Took a leprosy course at the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine. Permitted his body to be used for an experiment in growing leprosy germs. Worked for a year as a scavenger to empathise deeply with a leper’s lot.

Baba Amte.

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Love is… seeing it happen Films on love

The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough (1977): Set in 1915 Australia, this remarkable

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë/Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (both 1847):

saga chronicles the forbidden love

Really, how can you pick one Brontë over

between a beautiful, headstrong young

the other? Who is more romantic,

girl and a priest. You'll laugh, you'll cry,

Heathcliff or Mr. Rochester? Whose

and you'll stay up way too late reading

moors are mistier, whose foggy English

this fabulous story.

countryside is more moody, whose manor house is more creepy? It's a tie – both timeless romances are not to be missed.

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The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje (1992):

The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles (1969):

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (1989):

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (1991):

Haunting and beautiful, Ondaatje's award-winning

A Victorian gentleman is engaged to a wealthy and

An ageing butler named Stevens, who has

A powerhouse time-travel romance, this is the first

novel tells the story of four war-damaged souls

suitable woman, but when he encounters a

performed his job to perfection for more than three

in Gabaldon's hugely successful series. Strong,

living in an Italian monastery at the end of World

beautiful, mysterious woman rumoured to be the

decades, reflects on his life. But underneath his

beautiful Claire Randall leads a double life, married

War II, and the love story between two of them, the

forsaken lover of a French lieutenant, he becomes

controlled exterior lurks a passionate and romantic

to a man in one century, with a lover in another

exhausted nurse Hana, and the severely burned

utterly smitten. Truly, magnificent entertainment.

soul that has been quashed during his years of

century. Filled with humour, passion, wit and

unblemished service. In the twilight of his life,

wonderful Scottish scenery, this is one fast read for

Stevens learns what love is all about. A fine literary

a 600-plus page book. Enjoy the wallow!

unnamed English patient. Unforgettably unique.

True Believers by Nicholas Sparks (2005):

Chesapeake Blue by Nora Roberts (2002):

novel.

Passion abounds in this romance set on Maryland's

This one features a hotshot New York journalist and

Eastern Shore, where the rough-hewn Seth Quinn

a plain-speaking Southern librarian, both of whom

wins over Drusilla, the town's icy beauty. Great

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (1877):

have been hurt by love before. Their differences are

characters, great dialogue, fun and steamy scenes.

Trapped in a loveless marriage, Anna Karenina

from ruin? Years ago, thirty-something Dianne

forgotten when love blossoms in this wonderfully

True, Roberts has written a gazillion love stories, but

succumbs to temptation and embarks on a

married the wrong man -- the sexy lobster

escapist romantic read.

this one is a real standout.

dangerous affair with the handsome Vronsky.

fisherman --- and not his kindly paediatrician

Tragedy unfolds amid the canvas of 19th-century

brother. Years later, after tragedy strikes, can she

Russia, in the most famous of doomed love stories. A memorable and enduring classic.

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Follow the Stars Home by Luanne Rice (2000): If you choose the wrong love, can you save your life

reverse her bad fortune? Grab your tissues and find out in this touching weeper.

Source: Readers Digest

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Love is

cover ing up C

riminal Jean Val Jean is released from jail,

spends a night at a minister’s house, steals two silver candle sticks, is re-arrested, the minister states that it was gifted, Val Jean is released, Val Jean promises to reform and goes on to become mayor. Because someone lied out of goodness.

The essence of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables.

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Love is healing ‘Science in recent years has discovered love. Psychiatrists have concluded that the great taproot of mental ills is lovelessness. Child psychologists, wrangling over scheduled versus demand feeding, spanking versus non-spanking, have found that none of it makes much difference so long as the child is loved. The sociologists have found love the answer to delinquency, the criminologists have found it the answer to crime.’ Howard Whitman

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Love as in sharing My wife and I met her on the corner of Rua Constante Ramos in Copacabana. She was about sixty years old, sitting in a wheelchair, lost in the crowd. My wife offered to help her and the woman accepted the offer, asking us to take her to Rua Santa Clara.

There were a few plastic bags hanging from the back of the wheelchair. On the way, she told us that they contained all her belongings. She kept in shop door-ways and lived off handouts.

We reached the place where she wanted to go. Other beggars were gathered there. The woman took out two packets of long-life milk from one of the plastic bags and gave it to the other members of the group. ‘People are charitable to me, and so I must be charitable to others,’ she said.

Source: Like the Flowing River by Paulo Coelho

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W

hen Leonardo da Vinci was working on his painting ‘The Last Supper,’ he became angry with a

ntoine de Saint-Exupery’s story called the ‘The Smile’ is a testimony to what can be achieved with

outskirts of the town. Saint-Exupery was alive and free. Because of a smile.

guard snuck him through the back roads until he was brought on the

Then the guard did something unexpected. He unlocked Saint-Exupery's jail cell and led him out. The

had children. The later nodded and showed pictures. The guard showed pictures of his own family.

Now that the ice had been broken, the guard started a conversation. The guard asked if Saint-Exupery

Saint-Exupery's cigarette, their eyes met. Saint-Exupery smiled. The guard smiled in return.

War. Awaiting execution. Put a cigarette in his mouth. Asked his guard for a light. As the latter lit

something so essentially simple. Saint-Exupery was captured and imprisoned during the Spanish Civil

A

LOVE IS A SMILE

return to his workshop and finish painting the face of Jesus.

out the man and asked his forgiveness. The man accepted his apology and Leonardo was able to

he could not compose himself for the painstaking work. Finally he put down his tools and sought

to his canvas he attempted to work on the face of Jesus, but was unable to do so. He was so upset

certain man. Losing his temper he lashed the other fellow with bitter words and threats. Returning

APOLO GIZING

enough Love when it isn’t

[Oskar Schindler facing the Jew workers of his factory, following the surrender of Nazi Germany in the film Schindler’s List]

Levartov (Rabbi): ‘We’ve written a letter trying to explain things. In case you’re captured. Every worker has signed it.’

Oskar Schindler: ‘Thank you.’

Stern: ‘It’s Hebrew. It says, ‘Whoever saves one life, saves the world.’’

Schindler: ‘I could’ve got more out … I could’ve got more … if I’d just … I don’t know, if I’d just …

I could’ve got more…’

Stern (Accountant): ‘Oskar, there are twelve hundred people who are alive because of you. Look at them.’

Schindler: ‘If I’d made more money …I threw away so much money, you have no idea. If I’d just …’

Stern: ‘There will be generations because of what you did.’

Schindler: ‘I didn’t do enough.’

Stern: ‘You did so much.’

Schindler: ‘This car. Goeth would’ve bought this car. Why did I keep the car? Ten people, right there, ten more I could’ve got. This pin – two people. This is gold. Two more people. He would’ve given me two for it.

At least one. He would’ve given me one. One more. One more person. A person, Stern. For this. One more.

I could’ve gotten one more person I didn’t. They killed so many people … They killed so many people …’

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Praise Song

for the Day

by Elizabeth Alexander

Some live by love thy neighbour as thyself, others by first do no harm or take no more than you need. What if the mightiest word is love?

Love beyond marital, filial, national, love that casts a widening pool of light, love with no need to pre-empt grievance.

Lyricist: Shailendra

In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, any thing can be made, any sentence begun.

On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp, Praise song for walking forward in that light.

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WHAT TRULY IS LOGIC? WHO DECIDES REASON? MY QUEST HAS TAKEN ME TO THE PHYSICAL, THE METAPHYSICAL, THE DELUSIONAL, AND BACK AND I HAVE MADE THE MOST IMPORTANT DISCOVERY OF MY LIFE. IT IS ONLY IN THE MYSTERIOUS EQUATIONS OF LOVE THAT ANY LOGIC OR REASON CAN BE FOUND.

Sahir Ludhianvi, Lyricist

Russell Crowe (as John Nash on being awarded the Nobel Prize) in A Beautiful Mind 116

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LOVE AS IN

T

omorrow would be Christmas, and Della only had $1.87 with which

to buy Jim a present. Saved for months. Her Jim. Many a happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him. The two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs that inspired pride were Jim's gold watch (that had been his father's and his grandfather's). The other was Della's hair. Had the queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty's jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from envy.

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LOVE AS IN present. It'll grow out again--you won't mind, will

tresses that should have adorned the coveted

you? Say `Merry Christmas!' Jim, and let's be happy.

adornments were gone.

You don't know what a nice-- what a beautiful, nice Della stopped near a sign that read: ‘Mne. Sofronie.

wonderfully like a truant schoolboy. She looked at

Hair Goods of All Kinds.’

her reflection in the mirror long, carefully, and

‘Will you buy my hair?’ asked Della.

Down rippled the brown cascade.

critically.

‘If Jim doesn't kill me,’ she said to herself, ‘before he takes a second look at me, he'll say I look like a

gift I've got for you.’

Out of his trance Jim seemed quickly to wake. He enfolded his Della. Jim drew a package from his overcoat pocket and threw it upon the table.

she was able to look up with dim eyes and a smile and say: ‘My hair grows so fast, Jim!’ ‘Dell,’ said he, ‘let's put our Christmas presents away and keep 'em a while. They're too nice to use

‘Don't make any mistake, Dell,’ he said, ‘about me. I

just at present. I sold the watch to get the money to

don't think there's anything in the way of a haircut

buy your combs. And now suppose you put the

or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like

chops on.’

‘Twenty dollars,’ said Madame, lifting the mass with

Coney Island chorus girl. But what could I do--oh!

a practised hand.

what could I do with a dollar and 87 cents?’

The next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget

Jim was never late. Della doubled the fob chain in

my girl any less. But if you'll unwrap that package

the hashed metaphor. She was ransacking the

her hand and sat on the corner of the table near the

you may see why you had me going a while at first.’

stores for Jim's present. It was a platinum fob chain

door that he always entered. Then she heard his

simple and chaste in design, properly proclaiming

step on the stair away down on the first flight, and

its value by substance alone and not by meretricious

she turned white for just a moment. She had a

ornamentation - as all good things should do.

habit for saying a little silent prayer about the

Twenty-one dollars they took from her for it, and

simplest everyday things, and now she whispered:

she hurried home with the 87 cents.

‘Please God, make him think I am still pretty.’

When Della reached home her intoxication gave

The door opened and Jim stepped in and closed it.

way a little to prudence and reason. She got out her

He looked thin and very serious. He simply stared at

curling irons and lighted the gas and went to work

her fixedly with that peculiar expression on his face.

repairing the ravages made by generosity added to

Della wriggled off the table and went for him.

love.

But she hugged them to her bosom, and at length

The magi, as you know, were wise men-wonderfully wise men--who brought gifts to the

White fingers and nimble tore at the string and

Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving

paper. And then an ecstatic scream of joy; and

Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no

then, alas! A quick feminine change to hysterical

doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of

tears and wails, necessitating the immediate

exchange in case of duplication. And here I have

employment of all the comforting powers of the

lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of

lord of the flat.

two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely

For there lay The Combs - the set of combs, side and back, that Della had worshipped long in a Broadway window. Beautiful combs, pure tortoise shell, with jewelled rims--just the shade to wear in

‘Jim, darling,’ she cried, ‘don't look at me that way.

the beautiful vanished hair. They were expensive

Within forty minutes her head was covered with

I had my hair cut off and sold because I couldn't

combs, she knew, and her heart had simply craved

tiny, close-lying curls that made her look

have lived through Christmas without giving you a

and yearned over them without the least hope of

sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.

Source: Adapted from the legendary story by O. Henry

possession. And now, they were hers, but the 120

121

Y

ou are with one whom you love, You spiritually belong to the one whom you love.

God has made between man & woman natural affection, It is indeed for the mind many a cure, a healthy infection.

It is a point of deep reflection, That a soul is called living in the hearts of those with affection.

To search for your signs of love, I do not need to look into your heart, I have to gaze and reflect with what brushes you have played on your life’s art.

If your heart yearns for pure love from your beloved, Then God is the best choice to be your beloved.

Love

In the increasing of mutual love between man, You need forgiveness & kindness as a healing fan.

This gentle breeze surely can, Peace & peace spread on the earth’s entire span.

With love, every enmity will dissolve, To spread love all around you must firmly resolve.

Love your enemies, And destroy hatreds’ armies.

Through love you become to others dear, And achieve a status to God near, A worthy principle with which to your life steer.

The laws of love differ from those of arithmetic, The more you give, the more it grows – make it a habit infective.

Toward loves’ grand building your life should work, Let not distractions make your mind this task shirk.

Loving one another is half of wisdom, Certainly this is a golden truth in God’s compassionate kingdom.

– Huzaifa Khorakiwala

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123

Love is ... redefining good business A

“

fter the long journey of my life, I’d like to go back to

that kitchen table in Madras all those years ago when my mother would ask us what we would do to change the world. I’d say that I wanted to lead a company that was a force for good in the world. A company that did 100% of what it can do, a company that helped define good business in the 21st century.”

Indra Nooyi, Chairperson and Chief Executive of Pepsico

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Love is‌

Preserving national heritage SOMETIMES WHEN THE PRIDE OF A NATION IS UP FOR GRABS, IT TAKES A CONSCIENTIOUS CORPORATE TO RETRIEVE IT. The stake: Bapu's belongings comprising his iconic round-rimmed spectacles, a 1910 silver Zenith pocket watch, sandals, a bowl and a thali were being auctioned at the New York auction house. The last tangible remnants of the Mahatma were being sold, despite protests in India and an injunction from Delhi High court seeking to halt the sale.

The saviour: Vijay Mallya, Chairman of United Breweries Group and Kingfisher Airlines, bought the belongings for Rs 9.3 crore ($1.8 million) in New York amid high drama. The compelling rationale behind his bid was to prevent India’s prized heritage from passing on to foreigners.

Joy of homecoming: Tushar Gandhi, the Mahatma's great-grandson, confessed, "I am proud that the items have come to India, and have been bought by an Indian. I am very grateful to Mallya. He saved India's pride."

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E S U A C A R O F G N I N N U R . .

S. I E V O L RANCE

INSU IAL LIFE

NING NY RUN

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COMPA

lf four ha ar.

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FOR ES L atha e plans nd Apn aidyan go with h a ING ON a V , H a s s d y C r t a T s a la e li E e a ah ite ix y thr STR ara Ne arted s . Going n webs ing: St aratho athons e, Sank r n g m a a i in n m a g a b ll e h fu rp um The b d four Asha O . The M ons an — Bal causes s gs to le ie b it r a marath a it ornin r char ree ch .30 o h ers m f t f s e s t r n r P u , at 5 . s ive: R Suppo sure. r arlier . s ie e d y e it r it r e r a in p h a T is ch o ch s beg work 8 for h utors t nday e of g. Su in 200 pectiv contrib s h in k e r in la a Ir r . t Rs 13 ound eight Raised ear r an. of w all y our nath eek, an-h Vaidy halfys a w d by y a e b d ir r d p e u , ins ody.” ollow tes fo nning ay. F veryb Devo up ru for e ule: ach d n d e d e e o k h m o a c ow t It’s g 5-7 k The s line. ave n overs discip Life h gs. C . u in r n m P n u e r I e h ev km ICIC ives t a 21 es of and g with ploye yees m e lo am, p y r em Man s fitte tion: spira make in g e in h n T n , ,” he says : “Ru marathon ictum t can nning the His d ru en id to es et Pr cr If the US ere’s no se And run. ment. “Th orts?” e up early. d commit ak an W e me for sp k. ti n lin e ri p th ’t d ets: Disci ut finding oke. Don o sm ab l ’t n ea Open secr o d pline. D such a big verall disci we make “It’s an o lf, why do o g d an l tbal play baske

int.com

ted from livem

Source: Adap

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1914. Christmas Eve. Frosty moonlit night. British and German soldiers encamped along the 800 kilometres of the Western front. Guns pointed at each other. A familiar

LOVE IS. . .

TRENCH FOOTBALL

slice of life in the trenches during the First World War. But this story is unfamiliar, unprecedented and something that never happened again in the history of human combat.

On that Christmas Day, the Germans emerged from the trenches and sang ‘Stille Nacht, Heilige Nach’ (Silent Night, Holy Night), while the British responded with ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ in that freezing no-man’s-land. The British even helped the Germans bury one of their snipers and played informal soccer, kicking around empty bully-beef cans and using their caps or steel helmets as goalposts.

After the game the troops exchanged autographs, cigarettes and tunic buttons and wished each other a happy new year. Then they returned to their humdrum lives of brutality and bloodshed. But each cherished that ‘special Christmas’ for as long as he lived.

Source: Adapted from The Bumper Book of Bravery

by Charlie Norton

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“L O V I N G

O N E

A N O T H E R

I S

HALF OF WISDOM”

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