Birthday- The Christian way

Yesterday I attended a birthday party with my wife in our society/Apartment. We hardly know the family and rarely interacted with them in last 1 year but as a custom, invitations are sent to every flat no. 

It was the 1^st birthday of the child nick named as Cherry. The reason I decided to write a post is that I have never come across such a party. 

Party started with the head of the family announcing that we will going to start the meeting in next few minutes. It confuses me when he mentioned the word meeting. The meeting started with a short prayer in Telegu which we hardly understand. Then he invited priest for sharing something religious on this such as wonderful occasion. The priest delivered the very enlightening session for the next 15 minutes. 

He discussed why the God wants everyone to become childlike. He shares some of the amazing qualities of the children that we all should try to inculcate in our life. He explained each of the quality further in detail. Various qualities he mentioned:

1. Simple faith which is not supported by the complex logic of the mind
2. Honesty
3. Forgiving
4. Do not wear the mask/  they are not hypocrite
5. Hunger to learn and curiosity 

After that there was a cake cutting ceremony and post which, priest/father asked each of us to close our eyes, raise our right hand towards the child and give him our blessings for 2 minutes. I have never seen anything like this in a birthday party. I was really enjoying the party.

In last, head of the family asked the parents of the child to give a vote of thanks to all of us who have taken precious time out of their schedule to attend the party and everyone was asked for the dinner. 

It was very simple party and there were lot of things to learn from it. In North India, birthday parties are incomplete without DJ, without everybody dancing, all halla gulla. Also, here the people were dressed in a very simple manner. Also, we never offer prayer like this in birthday party which we should do, however there is lot of show off in north Indian parties.

I truly enjoy this down to earth party with my wife.

Book Review: KEYS by Santosh Joshi

First of all, I would like to thanks Thinkwhynot group for sending me another book to review. I am delighted to share my honest opinion about the book.

KEYS is a Self-help book, however, it differentiates itself from the other similar books in numerous ways and the way it is written and organized will definitely make it successful in carving a niche in the market for itself. 

The author introduces a HLP principle to discover the purpose of life and living the more meaningful and fruitful life. This book is divided into 3 parts:

• Heal the past
• Living in the present
• Plan the future

Part 1 will deal with concepts like why it is important to come out from your past, why should you forgive the people who have done any harm to you only from your sake only.

Part 2 will teach about the importance and health benefits of living in the present. Author stresses that stress cannot exist if we always live in present and what make you sick etc.. Also, author share some ways/tools which can help to live in present moment. 

Part 3 will help you to properly plan your future without feeling anxious. It will also motivate you to find true calling and work towards it.

One of the statements that came to me as a surprise in the book is that everybody knows their purpose of life before taking the birth and hence they select a parents, life and everything, however, by the age of 2 or 3, they start forgetting their purpose as they starts labeling them with their name and become more conditional. Gradually, as the person start labeling him more and more under his name, community, occupation, education, he also starts distancing away from his soul and subconscious mind. In other words, he began to lose the powers associated with soul like intuition, purity, peace, honesty, cheerfulness etc.

In short, my take is summarized in the below points.

• Even if you are able to implement 30% of what is stated in the book and the author has tried to explain, you will be successful in elevating the quality of your life. 

•  It will introduce you to the concepts of forgiveness, gratitude, tools to heal your past, happiness, faith etc and thus it is for all those who have lost their true self in today’ rat race.

• Author has shared his personnel experiences while explaining most of the concepts and this helps the reader to better connect with the Author and his thoughts.

• It is an easy read and will not take much time. It is 270 pages long and cost 280 bucks.

•   If you have read Robin sharma, Anupam kher Or have listened to Sister shivani/ Brahma Kumaris, then I think there is no need to read this book. However, if you have not read many self-help books, then starting with this is a good idea as you will not find yourself lost.

First of all, I would like to thanks Thinkwhynot group for sending me the 1^st book to review. I am delighted to share my honest opinion about the book. - See more at: http://atlasshrugged-eccentric.blogspot.in/2013/08/book-review-land-of-seven-rivers-by.html#sthash.9wcmrtoo.dpuf

First of all, I would like to thanks Thinkwhynot group for sending me the 1^st book to review. I am delighted to share my honest opinion about the book. - See more at: http://atlasshrugged-eccentric.blogspot.in/2013/08/book-review-land-of-seven-rivers-by.html#sthash.9wcmrtoo.dpuf

First of all, I would like to thanks Thinkwhynot group for sending me the 1^st book to review. I am delighted to share my honest opinion about the book. - See more at: http://atlasshrugged-eccentric.blogspot.in/2013/08/book-review-land-of-seven-rivers-by.html#sthash.9wcmrtoo.dpuf