Am I with a right partner?

During a seminar, a woman asked," How do I know if I am with the right person?" the author then noticed that there was a large man sitting next toher so he said, "It depends. Is that your partner?" In all seriousness, sheanswered "How do you know?" Let me answer this question because the chancesare good that it's weighing on your mind replied the author. Here's theanswer.
Every relationship has a cycle...In the beginning; you fall in love withyour partner. You anticipate their calls, want their touch, and like theiridiosyncrasies. Falling in love wasn't hard. In fact, it was a completelynatural and spontaneous experience. You didn't have to DO anything. That'swhy it's called "falling" in love.
People in love sometimes say, "I was swept of my feet." Picture theexpression. It implies that you were just standing there; doing nothing,and then something happened TO YOU. Falling in love is a passive andspontaneous experience. But after a few months or years of being together,the euphoria of love fades. It's a natural cycle of EVERY relationship.Slowly but surely, phone calls become a bother (if they come at all), touchis not always welcome (when it happens), and your spouse's idiosyncrasies,instead of being cute, drive you nuts. The symptoms of this stage vary withevery relationship; you will notice a dramatic difference between theinitial stage when you were in love and a much duller or even angrysubsequent stage. At this point, you and/or your partner might startasking, "Am I with the right person?" And as you reflect on the euphoria ofthe love you once had, you may begin to desire that experience with someoneelse. This is when relationships breakdown.
The key to succeeding in a relationship is not finding the right person;it's learning to love the person you found.
People blame their partners for their unhappiness and look outside forfulfillment. Extramarital fulfillment comes in all shapes and sizes.Infidelity is the most common. But sometimes people turn to work, a hobby,a friendship, excessive TV, or abusive substances. But the answer to thisdilemma does NOT lie outside your relationship. It lies within it. I'm notsaying that you couldn't fall in love with someone else. You could. AndTEMPORARILY you'd feel better. But you'd be in the same situation a fewyears later. Because (listen carefully to this): The key to succeeding in arelationship is not finding the right person; it's learning to love theperson you found.
SUSTAINING love is not a passive or spontaneous experience. You have towork on it day in and day out. It takes time, effort, and energy. And mostimportantly, it demands WISDOM. You have to know WHAT TO DO to make itwork. Make no mistake about it. Love is NOT a mystery. There are specificthings you can do (with or without your partner). Just as there arephysical laws of the universe (such as gravity), there are also laws forrelationships. If you know and apply these laws, the results arepredictable. Love is therefore a "decision". Not just a feeling.
Remember this always: God determines who walks into your life. It is up toyou to decide who you let walk away, who you let stay, and who you refuseto let GO!!

What is recession?

What is recession? This Story is about a man who once upon a time was selling Hotdogs by the roadside. He was illiterate, so he never read newspapers. He was hard of hearing, so he never listened to the radio. His eyes were weak, so he never watched television. But enthusiastically, he sold lots of hotdogs. He was smart enough to offer some attractive schemes to increase his sales. His sales and profit went up. He ordered more a more raw material and buns and use to sale more. He recruited few more supporting staff to serve more customers. He started offering home deliveries. Eventually he got himself a bigger and better stove. As his business was growing, the son, who had recently graduated from College, joined his father. Then something strange happened. The son asked, "Dad, aren't you aware of the great recession that is coming our way?" The father replied, "No, but tell me about it." The son said, "The international situation is terrible. The domestic situation is even worse. We should be prepared for the coming bad times." The man thought that since his son had been to college, read the papers, listened to the radio and watched TV. He ought to know and his advice should not be taken lightly. So the next day onwards, the father cut down the his raw material order and buns, took down the colourful signboard, removed all the special schemes he was offering to the customers and was no longer as enthusiastic. He reduced his staff strength by giving layoffs. Very soon, fewer and fewer people bothered to stop at his hotdog stand. And his sales started coming down rapidly, same is the profit.. The father said to his son, "Son, you were right". "We are in the middle of a recession and crisis. I am glad you warned me ahead of time." Moral of The Story: It’s all in our MIND! And we actually FUEL this recession much more than we think.

good one...

There comes a point in your life when you realizewho matters,who never did,who won't anymore...and who always will.So, don't worry about people from your past,there's a reason why they didn't make it to your future.Give this heart to everyone you don't want to lose in 2009, includingme, if you care.Try to collect 12; it's not easy!
Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kindof battle.

Sachin Tendulkar: Man, myth or product of the times?

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. At 35 he is not a sportsman anymore, he is a bloody phenomenon. Reams of newsprint have been filled with description, analyses and tributes to his genius. Websites have dedicated huge amounts of space and attention to every little thing he does. Everything that needs to be written about the man has already been written. Or has it? Young cricketers have injected much needed optimism and vigour by performing splendidly under pressure. Nothing will do more for this revival than a Sachin Tendulkar hundred at Sharjah, even if he did not get one in the ICC KnockOut tournament. Is he under pressure to perform? Does he feel the pressure lifting because some others are also coming good? Who really knows what happens in the mind of Sachin Tendulkar? One notices a collection of details about the man that is not always visible in other cricketers. He is always the first to practice sessions. Once he puts on his pads to have a session at the nets, he does not take his pads off very easily. Even after he is done with batting, he makes it a point to bowl in the nets till the last man comes off. He does not say a single unnecessary word to pressmen. Unless he is terribly mobbed, he always stops to sign autographs for children. If a photograph is requested, he is polite to a fault. He always takes a bit of time to ask kids what class they are studying in, or some similar question that makes them feel that the little master cares. When disappointed with a decision, he does not make any untoward gestures. He may look crestfallen, but never steps out of line. So is he a paragon of virtue? Certainly not. His manner of captaincy has left room for a lot of criticism. Firstly he found the task of marshalling a disparate group difficult. On top of that, his own batting form took a beating. Another charge that has been leveled against him is that he tends to look after his friends with special care. But of course this allegation is rather unsubstantiated. However, at a time when cricket is going through arguably its most troubling episode, people are desperate for someone who stands for all that is good about the game. And Tendulkar is often the man who has to carry that cross. Does he want to be known as an example of all things good? Probably not. He wants to be Sachin Tendulkar. With all his weaknesses and faults. Do we the people let him be that? Certainly not. A majority of us look to him to make us feel better. When he walks out to bat, the weight of the nation's inadequacies is on his shoulders. What we can't achieve in our day to day lives, we look for Tendulkar to make up for on the cricket field. If he slams a century and takes us to victory, all of a sudden the world looks a better place. Tendulkar is excessively professional in his approach. He is one cricketer whose integrity has never ever been questioned. One look at the intensity with which he approaches the game makes it plain that no bookie would have the guts to approach the man. And yet he got together with Mark Mascarenhas and WorldTel long before cricket became the multi-crore industry it is today. The boy wonder signed a landmark deal that guaranteed crores of income from endorsements. To fulfil his contractual obligations, he turned up at various functions, endorsed a range of products from watches to car tyres to credit cards to toothpaste. Was he selling out? No one remotely suggested that. While a host of television advertisements based on cricketers has been taken off the air after the match fixing scandal broke, Tendulkar remains an eminently saleable commodity. If an avid cricket lover finds an old lamp, shines it and a genie pops out offering him any one wish, there would be very little dilemma. "I wish I could spend 24 hours listening to what goes on in Sachin Tendulkar's mind" would be his knee jerk reaction. If such a thing could be done, it would provide priceless insights into modern sport. At the end of the day one has to admit that Tendulkar is a true product of his times. The marketing, the hype, the drive. It is certainly a recent phenomenon. There was always a drive for excellence. But for someone to be such a public figure and influence the minds of millions is a phenomenon that has come about in the last few decades. He is no statesman, no politician, no religious leader. And yet he holds sway with as much power of as any one of the above. Whether he faces it or not, he is one of the few Indians who binds the whole of this country. Probably, no other person in the country is as uniformly admired as him. He is in a position of immense power. Did he choose to get to this position and work towards it? One reckons not. The price he has had to pay as an individual is incomparable to the rewards. Okay, so a majority of youngsters in this country would kill to be in his shoes. But what about the maestro himself? Fortunately or otherwise he doesn't have a choice. It is tragic however that a man who has given so much to the country and touched us all in some way or the other cannot enjoy a moment of peace when he wants it. If he wants to take his wife Anjali and kids out to dinner there would be such a mob at the restaurant it would be claustrophobic. And what of his kids? Can they ever have a normal upbringing? Will their friends treat them as just any other kids? That is hardly possible given the fact that Tendulkar is not any other man. He is special. Very special. And trapped by that. When his back injury threatened to ruin his career, the speculation was immense. Major newspapers and magazines carried detailed medical diagnosis and plainly asked whether his career was over. There was even a case of a teenager committing suicide on merely hearing that Tendulkar might not be able to play again. God forbid, but if something like that were to happen, where would that leave Sachin Tendulkar? Sure, he's made enough money to live luxuriously for the next few generations. But would he be able to live with the fact that he was ordinary once more? The media, the sponsors, the people of India have in the last few years made it extremely difficult for Tendulkar to live with himself if he was ordinary. A classic product of our times, Tendulkar's life goes parallel to the likes of Pete Sampras and more distinctly Tiger Woods. When modern society sees an outrageous talent that is coupled with the drive to be successful, it seizes upon it like never before. Even if Tendulkar were content with his achievements and decided to call it a day, he would not be allowed to without a hue and cry. Let's face it. He runs the cricket industry in India. Who can see a headline that has the word Tendulkar in it and ignore it? If Sachin Tendulkar has a breakdown of sorts at any time, we all will have blood on our hands. That's a fine way to thank someone who has given us so much, isn't it?

Anger and love

A saint asked his disciples, 'Why do we shout in anger? Why do peopleshout at each other when they are upset?'
Disciples thought for a while, one of them said, 'Because we lose ourcalm, we shout for that.'
'But, why to shout when the other person is just next to you?' asked thesaint. 'Isn't it possible to speak to him or her with a soft voice? Whydo you shout at a person when you're angry?'
Disciples gave some other answers but none satisfied the saint. Finallyhe explained, 'When two people are angry at each other, their heartsdistance a lot. To cover that distance they must shout to be able tohear each other. The angrier they are, the stronger they will have toshout to hear each other through that great distance.'
Then the saint asked, 'What happens when two people fall in love? Theydon't shout at each other but talk softly, why? Because their hearts arevery close. The distance between them is very small...'
The saint continued, 'When they love each other even more, what happens?They do not speak, only whisper and they get even closer to each otherin their love. Finally they even need not whisper, they only look ateach other and that's all. That is how close two people are when theylove each other.'
MORAL: When you argue do not let your hearts get distant, do not saywords that distance each other more, else there will come a day when thedistance is so great that you will not find the path to return.