Saturday 12 March 2016

Success bestows humility!
To be a star, you must shine your own light, follow your own path, and don’t worry about the darkness, for that is when stars shine brightest MISC QUOTATIONS FROM FAMOUS PEOPLE
He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much; who has enjoyed the trust of pure women, the respect of intelligent men and the love of little children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task; who has left the world better than he found it, whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul; who has never lacked appreciation of earth's beauty or failed to express it; who has always looked for the best in others and given them the best he had; whose life was an inspiration; whose memory is a benediction. MISC QUOTATIONS FROM FAMOUS PEOPLE
Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.- Albert Schweitzer:
Birth of success-“ Death is neither a threat nor a transient force but it is the driving force, or the inertia to lead a meaningful life and it is like the finishing line in one’s race of life” So before death overtakes ,we need to live a memorable life. How to live and lead a memorable life? It is the demarcation of whether we merely live or live to lead human life to eternity! Great people are those that have resolved to unravel the mystery of life and make it a historic event. Life need not necessarily be a warranty of success, but it is a guaranteed success if one leads a humane and dedicated life. Accomplishment in life is not achieved through iron will or stubborn aim but it is the sweet willingness and sublime aim that achieves accomplishments.
Man is a quizzical animal.
“When he is caught in a gale, he wishes to be in the cozy warmth of his home, but when he is in the warmth of his house, thirsts for an adventure in a gale” It is this paradoxical nature of man that makes the novelty of life and living. Man has to be both adventurous and peace loving. A man of adventure will have a soaring spirit and undaunted courage. A man of peace will be snug, serene, enjoying a calm dream. “Dreams give birth to fancy, fancy begets thinking, thinking begets useful ideology, and useful ideology frames life’s blessed mood which fulfills the ambition of living a realistic life.” “Realistic life is often contradicting and conflicting until the adventurous spirit overcomes it through dedication, brevity and bravery”
Contrast and contradiction:
“If failure kills one’s spirit and depresses it, on the other hand success bloats and puffs it up with pride. Both failure and success has its own way of affectation. It is very difficult to balance life, in either situation. Failure is the stepping stone to success. Failure teaches through the bitter experience and gives the person the awareness and the consciousness to overcome failure whereas success depreciates the human consciousness and sometimes makes the brain null and void. It is all the more dangerous even then that of failure if one succumbs to the intoxication of success. Life is full of ups and downs, many a civilization and many a religion and many a culture culminated in dissipation and dissension when they were in the myopia of disillusion caused when they were in the helm or the zenith of growth. So success is also equally dangerous for a person, society or a nation as that of defeat or failure. It needs supreme alertness and consciousness to be on the right track. “Failure corrodes the ego whereas success corrupts the ego” “Self awareness and self consciousness alone can give the right spirit and direction in life. That’s why it has been insisted in Philosophy, theology, psychology and so on. Socrates, the philosopher advocated his students to be always in search for the inner truth and self. If one needs to be temperate and balanced in will, one must cultivate the noble qualities of, humility, broad mindedness, generosity, munificence, philanthropic, and above all merciful character. In Shakespeare’s ‘The Merchant of Venice’ the dramatist declares the poetic truth that mercy is the noble quality which is an attribute to God himself. If only god is not merciful people will not adore and venerate him but merely obey him with grudge and out of fear. If mercy is the supreme quality in God, humility is the supreme quality in Human kind.
Humility the mercury line: - Passions like fear, anger, lust greed, envy, pride etc are highly dangerous because they can very easily cloud the mind and make the mind weak and dull. So the person will not be able to think with clarity and creativity. Likewise feelings like, pity, generosity, philanthropy, mercy etc elates the spirit and makes the mind mild and sloppy. So the best way to balance the mind is to be free from any kind of passion or feeling and to be self conscious and self aware. This can be best achieved through humility. Many tend to demean the humble person as a disillusionist or a coward. A coward is hideous in nature, a disillusionist pretends to be philosophical but it the humble persona who is pragmatic and humane and self –aware. A humble person is a true master of one’s own self. He can control himself at any difficult or severe kind of odds and have a serene and balanced mind and will. Only humility gives the utmost awakening of the self and adds salt to self-realization. It can exactly reflect the self and its position in the circumstance and surrounding. Humility is closely associated with humor. A humorous person can be jovial and friendly and happy and be balanced in self. His happiness is the secret behind the success in life.
The introvert and the extrovert- 

There is a subtle demarcation of the self in both these personalities. An introvert is a person who creates a world within himself and an extrovert is a person who builds a world around him. An introvert can be self assured and an extrovert can be self exigent. The extrovert ais revolutionary whereas the introvert is evolutionary. An introvert is patient and humble whereas an extrovert is brisk and blatant. At many times the extrovert is aggrandizing but the introvert is withdrawn and shy. The introvert visualizes and the extrovert concretizes it. So creative thinking is born only of introversion and the creative thinking is very often carried out into practicability by extroversion. So without a humble beginning there cannot be the maxim of achievement or success. A typical example was our nation’s father Mahatma Gandhi. His Vedanta of non-violence or Ahimsa was not a myth or an exciting exhilaration. Mahatma did not become an embodiment of simplicity and humility right out or overnight. It was attained through tribulation and earnest self –realization. In Baghavad Gita , when Krishna describes the true Gyana Marga( Yana margam) and Bakthi Margam, he explains how ardent one should be, and how difficult it is to achieve the final goal of Mukthi. In between people get diverted due to greed or pride and are satisfied with temporary salvation or magical powers and prowess. The true attainment is very difficult. It needs one to be sincere, humble and staunch in one’s goal of achieving mukthi. Real success in life is attainment of bliss and moksha to one and all. It may appear impossible or improbable, especially in this modern world which is money minded and selfish. But it is possible, that is what and how the wisdom of ancients and the humane spirit of the modern world declare. Complete success is not in one’s own success and bliss but in the success of one and all. That’s how leaders who have been humble, up righteous and dedicated have proved again and again. To quote few examples, the life of Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Buddah, Christ, Prophet Mohammed and so on. They never put forth their own self in front but instead came forward to sacrifice (to be humiliated and be humble) for the sake of the social welfare and the betterment of human kind. It is the simplicity and humility that enlightened their enigmatic will and wisdom which won the immaculate success and victory. It was not a temporary or temporal one. It was and it is a universal harmony and happiness that enervates and feeds the hope of everlasting peace and happiness in life. Simplicity, humility can be called the true path in the search for truth and salvation.
Conclusion –

“Truth is beauty and beauty is truth” John Keats is the epitome of how beauty and truth of life are akin and the noblest of all truth is living a life of peace, hope, and happiness. It can be achieved through simplicity, humility and straight forward thinking and living.

Ms. Audrey Simon
Assistant Professor
Department of Journalism and Mass Communication

Fatima College

Wednesday 10 February 2016


What IF I Die?
Though I was neither truly nor really happy, my life has bought me a great deal of happiness. From bonding with my sister, to my mumma’s unconditional love for me, sometime even my Daddy’s crazy jokes and even my hasty actions with friends.
I have wondered many a times, what would happen if I die?


If I DIE...

Will a memorial or commemorate plaque be made for me? Will graffiti be sprayed on wall? How long will my bequest remain? A year or may be two, or may be each year on the day of my death...
If I die, will people put a pause to their routine and remember me every day? Will my friend live without me?  Will people miss me? Will they pen a memoir or will they compose a tribute song?
I feel I’m too worth enough for it. My death will be no great loss to the world. I will stop being so irritable to those people to whom I’ve been so irksome and those people who found me very difficult to deal with would become less burdened. “Certainly I would be merely reduced to whatsapp status and display pictures...”

ABARNA SREEPREETHI
II M.A. ENGLISH
2014-16

Tuesday 29 December 2015

Angel on Earth
I wonder if motivation can only be from another person to console oneself in times of hardship. Whether it can be only a sharing stuff... I don’t know!!!
When I bloomed from a teenage girl to a woman, I thought that everything could be done by me... never thought that I need a spur. Fortunately, nothing happened unfortunately.
 No one can click the SKIP option to escape the adolescent epoch. It’s been a part of everyone’s life. I would say “a crucial segment in life.”
Parents pressure... Studies... Competitions ... Higher studies... Oh My God!!!
To be precise, a phase of taking the most important “DECISION” in life... selecting the stream for higher studies... which everyone think that ‘it is the life and destiny’.
Frankly speaking and to be honest... NEVER
I know people who, by parents’ compulsion did Engineering and now working in bank, more pitifully simply whiling away time without job... Is it necessary?  
Opinions are reaped from parents, relatives and most laughably, whoever crosses in our life during that phase and finally from the so-called ‘friends’ who will be travelling in the same ridiculous phase.
However, my question is, why all these people give only SUGGESTION or OPINION or to the extreme forcing on others which they could not do in their life. Why are they not bothering what the teen needs or wants to do?  Happily, I would say, I was also a pathetic victim of the same.   
Infinite opinions . . . Comparison with others’ children . . .  I was cramped in the core of a volcano ready to erupt at anytime.
A momentary thought, “If I do the same as others’ children do, then what’s the difference between me and them. We will be like dolls made in the same mould.”
             I just turned round the world and searched for the most needed word of the hour- “MOTIVATION”.  But nowhere could I find it. . . The very sequential moment I realised that ANGELS do exist when the term ‘motivation’ flipped to SELF – MOTIVATION.  Till then, I was in Trans. When parents and relatives suggested to me what they wished me to do, the angel in me, the “self – motive” suggested, “If you want to be happy and contented, then you do what your heart says.”
That’s it. . . 

I did what my heart said...for, a first decision can be taken only once... “First time” comes only once in a person’s life.
 This very negative vibration I can feel till today. I don’t know its whereabouts and don’t like to know about it. Nevertheless, my angel is within me to motivate the road to be taken; whether it will be a road of rose buds or a road of thorns...
Whatever it is. . .
I determined that I need to respond to the situation rather than reacting. Handling any situation with perfection means responding to it and if it is vice versa, it is reacting.
I remember a Whatsapp message, which motivated the angel in me. A beautiful line by Sundar Pichai, an IIT –MIT alumnae,
A beautiful way to understand LIFE-
Person who is HAPPY is not because
Everything is RIGHT in his Life...
He is happy because his ATTITUDE towards EVERYTHING in his LIFE is RIGHT...!!!

Reenu John
Assistant Professor
   The Research Centre of English
Fatima College (Autonomous).