Circus___

The term 'Circus' comes from the Latin word for a ring or circle. In ancient Rome it was the circular arena built for holding chariot and horse racing, gladiatorial combats and fight between wild beasts. From these beginnings has come our circus of today, still with a ring, but with pleasant and happy things going on inside it.

Smile Please____

A smile costs nothing, but gives much. It enriches those who receive, without making poorer those who give. It takes but a moment, but the memoryof it sometimes lasts forever. None is so rich or mighty that he can get along without it, and none is so poor that he can be made rich by it. A smile creates happiness in the family, fosters goodwill in business, and is the countersign of friendship. It brings rest to the weary, cheer to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad, and it is nature's antidote for trouble. Yet it cannot be bought, begged borrowed or stolen, for it is something that is of no value to anyone until it is given away. Some people are too tired to give you a smile. Give them one of yours, as none needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give...........

Good Sayings-27

521. Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.

522. Every where you go, take a smile with you.

523. Abstacles are those frighful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.

524. Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason why so few engage in it.

525. Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success.

526. Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.

527. Any one who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Any one who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.

528. Paying attention t0 simple little things that most men neglect makes a few men rich.

529. Don't find fault. Find Remedy.

530. Success is a matter of adjusting one's efforts to obstacles and one's abilities to a service needed by others.

531. The successful person makes a habit of doing what the failing person doesn't like to do.

532. There is always another chance... this thing called 'failure' is not falling down, but staying down.

533. A life spent in making mistakes is not only more honourable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

534. There is no failure except in no longer trying.

535. Who has never tested what is bitter does not know what is sweet.__German Proverb

536. Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have.

537. The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one does.

538. Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand.

539. The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.

540. If you do not except it, you will not find the unexpected, for it is hard to find and difficult.

General Knowledge-2

1. In the first War of Indian Independence, which ruler of Afghanistan remained friendly with the British and kept the North West away from the ambit of revolt?___Dost Mohammad

2. What term is used to describe the study of communication and control between men, machines and organisations?___Cybernetics

3. At the Double and Rhythm and Swing are the autobiographies of which all-round cricketer from NewZeland?___Richard Hadlee

4. When Ravan ordered Hanuman's death, who pleaded for his life, telling Ravana that an envoy should never be killed?___Vibhishana

5. Wolfarm is the alternative name of which metallic element?___Tungsten

6. What form of fine textured cotton cloth owes the origin of its name to the former name of the port of Kozhikode in Kerala?___Calico

7. The flights of which pioneering aviator and Parisian neighbour inspired JRD to become a pilot in 1909?___Louis Bleriot

8. Which present day word for a place of uproar owes its origin to a mental asylum in Bethlehem, dedicated to St. Mary?___Bedlam

9. To ward off Humayun's invasion of Gujarat in 1535, which island was ceded by Bahadur Shah to the Portuguese?___Bassein

10. Which ruler of the Khmer empire in eighth century organised his state around the three capitals Hariharalaya, Amarendrapura and Mahendraparvata?___Jayavarman-II

11. In Greek Mythology, which son of the inventor Daedalus perished by flying too close to the sun?___Icarus.

12. The name of which Asian country is derived from the Arabic for 'Fort'?___Kuwait

13. To which gharana does noted sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan belong?___Senia Bangash

14. What generic name is given to the class of whales who do not have teeth?___Baleen

15. In 1909, which Indian revolutionary assassinated Scotland Yard officer Curzon Wylie at the Imperial Institute, London?___Madan Lal Dhingra

16. What unit of measurement is named after the French scientist who invented the galvanometer?___Ampere

17. In 1948, who became the only Indian to dismiss Don Bradman in a Test match?___Lala Amarnath

18. By what common name do we know the Patella bone?___Kneecap

19. Who authored the classic Tao-Te-Ching and was the first major patriarch of Taoism?___Lao Tzu

20. By what name is the group of inert gases that make Group Zero of the periodic table known?___Noble Gases.

How to Make Successful Decisions

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.....................Be your Own Worst Enemy: Taking Decisions Alone

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I consider that a lot can be gained from involving other people in your decision making, if they are involved on the right terms. There are some decisions, however, which you may make entirely alone. Perhaps they are so personal you do not wish to discuss them with anyone. Perhaps they need to be kept an absolute secret. Perhaps you feel it is time to make a decision completely alone, to reinforce your own feelings of responsibility and control.

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Reasons For Taking Decisions Alone

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There are good reasons and bad reasons for taking decisions alone. Some examples will help to clarify the difference.

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A decision taken alone for a good reason-establishing independence:

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Jenny had recently made a major change in career direction. She had been teaching and assessing disturbed children, but with the birth of her first child and the break up of her marriage soon afterwards, she felt she needed a complete change. She wanted to work with adults rather than children, since much of her emotional energy was now needed for her own daughter. For a long time she had wanted to study medicine, and she applied for a place at the medical school in her home town. She was accepted, and began the course in September following her application. Her daughter was two by then.

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Within a few weeks, it became clear to Jenny that studying medicine was even more demanding than she had thought it would be. In the past, she had always been a conscientious student, preferring to do more work than was expected rather than less. Now she found she had to miss lectures and rush through assignments without fully mastering their content. This preyed on her mind. She found she could not relax: either her daughter needed her or she felt she should be studying. Not only this, but she saw little prospect of the relentless pressure ending. She began to appreciate the extent to which it was assumed that a doctor's first commitment was to his work, not to his family. She saw years stretching ahead in which her daughter would have to take second place to her career.

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She did not want that for her daughter. She did not want it for herself. Subtly, she became aware that she was studying medicine largely in order to put meaning and purpose into her life. She faced the fact that she should be looking for that meaning in herself and in her relationship with her daughter, not in the relentless pressure of external demands.

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Jenny knew by Christmas that she was reaching a crisis point. She could not continue with medicine unless she was firmly committed to it. She had to decide once and for all whether she could, and should, make that commitment.

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Jenny made that decision on her own. She decided, in fact, to give up medicine, and pursue a less impressive but still interesting career in industry, one which would enable her to put daughter first in the evenings and at weekends, one which did not hold out any false promises of giving meaning to her life.

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There are two main reasons why Jenny took that decision alone. The first was that she had recently relied a great deal on other people's advice. This decision was just the latest in a whole series of difficult choices she had had to make. Because of her temperament and the suddenness with which some of the decisions had been forced upon her, she had depended heavily on a particular group of close friends. These friends had talked things over with her until the early hourse, had let her ring them up late at night, had been a constant source of good sense and support. Jenny felt that she owed it to them and to herself to show that she was now beginning to stand on her own two feet again.

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The second reason why Jenny took this decision alone was that she knew it would be very painful and could be a source of regret. She wanted to be absolutely sure she took full responsibility for it, that looking back she would never be able to blame anyone else or claim they had influenced her at a time of stress. She would have to live with the decision for the rest of her life and she had to be extra careful that she was making up her own mind.

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A decision taken alone for a bad reason__seeing other people's views as irrelevant:

Nick was about to take up a two-year residential place in business studies at a university some eighty miles from where he currently lived. He owned his own house, and needed to decide whether to sell it or let it. He had enough money saved to cover his living costs over the next two years, so he did not have to sell his house. Renting it out would just about cover the mortgage repayments.

Nick didn't be believe in asking for other people's advice. He consider his affiars to be his own business, and his alone, and did not think other people could tell him anything useful. It never crossed his mind to discuss whether he could sell his house with any of his friends, family or colleagues. In this, he was following a well-established pattern. Within the previous few months alone he had decided to apply for the place in business studies, to sell his car, to resign from his job, all decisions made without consulting anyone else.

It was not that Nick found the decision whether to sell or rent his house easy. He recognized the numerous considerations, such as the possible nuisance value of still being responsible for a property investment, the likelihood of being able to sell his house easily against the problem of where to store his possessions if he did so. It was simply that Nick could not conceive of its having anything to do with anyone else.___CSR