Forget CA revival, Prez tells parties

THE HIMALAYAN TIMES, MONDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2012 www.thehimalayantimes.com
POSITIVE LIVING
Variety
PAGE 15
• LIFE SKILLS
Metamorphosis
of self
I feared being alone
Until I learned to like myself.
I feared failure
Until I realised that I only fail
when I don’t try.
I feared success
Until I realised that I had to try in
order to be happy with myself.
I feared people’s opinions
Until I learned that people would
have opinions about me anyway.
I feared rejection
Until I learned to have faith
in myself.
I feared pain
Until I learned that it’s necessary
for growth.
I feared the truth
Until I saw the ugliness in lies.
I feared life
Until I experienced its beauty.
I feared death
Until I realised that it’s not an end,
but a beginning.
I feared my destiny,
Until I realised that I had the power
to change my life.
I feared hate
Until I saw that it was nothing
more than ignorance.
I feared love
Until it touched my heart,
making the darkness fade
into endless sunny days.
I feared ridicule
Until I learned how to laugh
at myself.
I feared growing old
Until I realised that I gained
wisdom every day.
I feared the future
Until I realised that life just kept
getting better.
I feared the past
Until I realised that it could no
longer hurt me.
I feared the dark
Until I saw the beauty
of the starlight.
I feared the light
Until I learned that the truth
would give me strength.
I feared change,
Until I saw that even the most
beautiful butterfly had to undergo a
Metamorphosis before it could fly.
— Author Unknown
Living
DREAM
Surmounting
ALL ODDS
“Education helps in changing
the life of women,as they can
be aware of their own life”
The passion of a
dream can never
be underestimated.
I have not come
across a stronger example
of this than through
the eyes of a long lost
friend I knew in India.
During my medical education
days, there was a
friend named Anil who
was two years my senior.
And for him the word
‘dream’ was spelled as
‘America’.
His life, his goal, his
aim, was to reach there. I
Anil I saw an intensity
that burned his soul. For
him the focus of living
was a land he had never
seen. He had to be there.
One stormy night, I sat
snug in my chair in my
hostel room trying to
comprehend why hypertension
and smoking
are linked.
I caught the whine of
Anil’s bike and I heard
him skid and halt right
in front of my ground
floor room. Anil was
drenched, his hair plastered
to his scalp, he
wore nothing but tennis
shorts.
Raindrops glistened
on his naked body, that
seemed to be heaving
with gasps of effort.
Then I saw his face ...
It had the look of a man
who seemed to have
done something incredible.
His eyes blazed red,
and his nostrils flared
with each breath he
took. “ Nirvi,” he said,
“Come with me , this
very moment, I have
something to show you.”
I looked at the rain, I
looked at the darkness of
the night, I looked at the
dry nightgown I wore.
“Anil,” I said, “It’s raining
and ...”
I could not say any
more. I knew it was that
moment in life when
you had to die for a
friend if that was the
need. I also knew that
procrastination would
be stupidity.
Sabitri Dhakal
Kathmandu
Living life is not
easy. Vicissitudes
always make it
more challenging.
Sabita Maharjan,
a survivor of domestic violence,
has battled several
odds in her life. However, in
all her difficulties she has not
run away from circumstances.
Rather, she has confronted
them head on.
Her life changed after her
marriage. The dream of living
a happy conjugal life was
shattered. The family didn’t
let her continue her job, so
she gave up her teaching career.
As time went on, conditions
in life started to worsen,
so she left home. It was
difficult for her to live handto-mouth
and plus there was
her child to be taken care of.
That’s when she started using
her skill of knitting by
working on a daily wage basis
in a nearby cottage industry.
After working for some
years and saving some
amount from the daily expenses,
she planned on
opening a small industry of
her own. The fund that she
had was not enough to meet
her goals. She knocked on
the doors of financial institutions
and fortunately they
provided her loans. With the
required amount in her
hands, she felt her dreams
come true.
Her understanding
of Nepali
women’s vulnerable
position and
her personal experience
with domestic
violence
prompted her to
open a shelter for
single women. So,
with an aim to empower
women,
Sabi Craft was established
some 15
years ago in Kirtipur,
which produces
hand knitted
sweaters, children
clothes, toys, mufflers
and other
things. Maharjan
was then able to
develop Sabi
Craft into Kirtipur
Hosiery Industry
(KHI)
with her hard
work, dedication,
passion
and perseverance.
Till date
KHI has
trained more
than 1,000
women and
currently
employs 125
women. Through
her institution,
Some passions were
worth being stupid. I
didn’t know what Anil
was up to or what was to
happen, but I took a step
forward into the rain. I
sat behind him on his
bike, then off we went.
Twelve minutes later
we were at Anil’s house.
Then through the back
door we tiptoed through
the hall to his room. We
stood there in the dark,
inside his room. He
whispered in my ear,
“Behold my passion”
and switched on the
lights.
I blinked twice before
I could comprehend his
work. One wall of his
room had a wall-to-wall
plastered map of the
USA, but that had been
there before. Today, it
was his bed.
From the four corners
of his bed stood four
poles and all the poles
had a large flag of the
USA carefully pinned.
Four flags of USA all
Maharjan has been able to
mobilise women in Kirtipur
and neighbouring places
and provide training to them
in the art of knitting, offering
these women as a source of
income with an aim to boost
their lifestyle. Her institution
provides a common place for
women to spend their free
time learning new skills and
generate income, thus making
them more independent
and building their self-esteem.
Maharjan did not only use
her skills of knitting but also
used her teaching skills to
educate women. She opened
an adult literacy class for
women to raise awareness
about education, health and
environment.
“Education helps in
changing the life of women,
as they can be aware of their
own life,” says Maharjan.
She is more careful about
environment. Maharjan and
her group of women conduct
a cleaning campaign,
collecting plastics in her locality.
These plastics are reused
to make decorative
baskets and dolls.
In recognition of her contribution
towards empowering
women, Maharjan received
the the Surya Nepal
Asha Social Entrepreneurship
Award 2011 and was
awarded from Gazab Social
Venture as well. Maharjan
says, “This award has made
us visible in the competitive
market and has encouraged
us to meet higher goals.”
“Women should not be
confined within the walls of
their house. Rather they
should use their skills and
ideas for economic development.
Besides the household
chores, women are able to
leave traces of other significant
works,” Maharjan says.
painted fresh oil colours
by hand, four handcrafted
maps. Every star and
every stripe, every edge
and every margin sewn
carefully.
The room dazzled in a
riot of colours. The smell
of fresh paint filled the
room. I looked at Anil
and saw his hands,
hands smudged with
rain and paint hues of
red, white and blue. He
was grinning ear to ear.
His eyes were on fire. I
had no words to say. He
said, “I am going to sleep
surrounded by my
dream.” I just hugged
him and said, “Yes , you
will.”
Anil made it to a medical
school residency in
USA six months later. He
left India never to return.
I could not see him off at
the airport but that picture
of him sleeping on
the bed surrounded by
American flags was
etched in my mind forever.
— Dr Nirvikar Dahiya
Life
positive
Accumulating
happiness
Rajyogi
Brahmakumar
Nikunj ji
How do we accumulatehappiness?
A
tough task for
all, but not an
impossible one.
It is said that a
person with a
happy, healthy
mind is the one
who is the Happiest,
because
in this state of
mind he remains
calm and
truly happy.
The main reason for our unhappiness is,
when we fall below the line of self-respect.The
lower we sink beneath our self-respect, the
more miserable we become, slipping into a
state of denial, thinking that it is normal not
to have happiness. However, our focus should
not be on constant happiness. It should be on
how we can begin to achieve a happy and
healthy mind.
A wiser person is the one who, instead of trying
to make big leaps in life, just tries moving
from one lamp post to the next.
By doing so he experiences significant
changes that take place and enlightens him
from within. One must always learn to live in the
present and try to connect with what is around
us. This simple method will give us a heightened
state of awareness. The more aware we are, the
more we are able to stay above. The habit of
seeing benefit in everything helps us to stay
above when the world is down below. What is
needed for this is good feelings, energy, light
and more understanding.
We can learn from everything that happens
around us. If someone else makes a mistake,
we can learn from it as well. Positive vision is an
incredible way to bring happiness into the
world. So try to cultivate positive vision in life
and keep accumulating happiness.
nikunjji@brahmakumaris.in www.brahmakumaris.com
Standing up
Bringing a giraffe into the
world is a tall order. A baby
giraffe falls 10 feet from its
mother’s womb and usually lands
on its back. Within seconds it rolls
over and tucks its legs under its
body. From this position it considers
the world for the first time and
shakes off the last vestiges of the
birthing fluid from its eyes and
ears. Then the
mother giraffe
rudely introduces
its offspring
to the reality
of life.
In his book, A
View from the
Zoo, Gary Richmond
describes
how a newborn
giraffe learns its
first lesson.
The mother
giraffe lowers
her head long
enough to take
a quick look.
Then she positions
herself directly
over her
calf. She waits
for about a
minute, and
then she does
the most unreasonable
thing.
She swings her
long, pendulous
leg outward
and kicks her baby, so that it
is sent sprawling head over heels.
When it doesn’t get up, the violent
process is repeated over and
over again. The struggle to rise is
momentous. As the baby calf
grows tired, the mother kicks it
again to stimulate its efforts. Finally,
the calf stands for the first time
on its wobbly legs.
Then the mother giraffe does the
most remarkable thing. She kicks it
off its feet again. Why? She wants it
to remember how it got up. In the
wild, baby giraffes must be able to
get up as quickly as possible to stay
with the herd, where there is safety.
Lions, hyenas, leopards, and wild
hunting dogs all enjoy young giraffes,
and they’d get it too, if the
mother didn’t teach her calf to get
up quickly and get with it.
The late Irving Stone understood
this. He spent a lifetime studying
greatness, writing novelised biographies
of such men as
Michelangelo, Vincent van Gogh,
Sigmund Freud, and Charles Dar-
win.
Stone was once asked if he had
found a thread that runs through
the lives of all these exceptional
people. He said, “I write about people
who sometime in their life have
a vision or dream of something
that should be accomplished and
they go to work.
“They are beaten over the head,
knocked down, vilified, and for
years they get nowhere. But every
time they’re knocked down they
stand up. You cannot destroy these
people. And at the end of their lives
they’ve accomplished some modest
part of what they set out to do.”
— Craig B Larson