Miscellany and Trivia

Painting by Edmund Youngbauer, Die Jagd Nach Dem Gluck (Chasing After Happiness), late 19th century, oil on canvas mounted on fiberboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum

An old man lived in the village. The whole village was tired of him; he was always gloomy, he constantly complained and was always in a bad mood. The longer he lived, the viler he became and more poisonous were his words. People did their best to avoid him because his misfortune was contagious. He created the feeling of unhappiness in others.

Vijay and Raju were friends. One day while on holiday, exploring a forest, they saw a bear coming towards them.

Naturally, they were both frightened, so Raju, who knew how to climb trees, climbed one quickly. He didn’t spare a thought for his friend who had no idea how to climb.

Once upon a time a psychology professor walked around on a stage while teaching stress management principles to an auditorium filled with students. As she raised a glass of water, everyone expected they’d be asked the typical ‘glass half empty or glass half full’ question. Instead, with a smile on her face, the professor asked, ‘How heavy is this glass of water I’m holding?’

Students shouted out answers ranging from eight ounces to a couple pounds.

Once, there was a renowned monk who lived in a beautiful monastery with many of his pupils. His teachings were known to be very effective and many of his students grew up to become great masters themselves.

One day, one of them was caught stealing from his fellow-students and they reported him to the monk. But he took no action against the boy.

A man got frustrated with life. Despite all the hard work and effort, failure was all that he learnt.  Feeling defeated with life, he left everything and exiled himself in the woods. There he met a Hermit. The disappointed man shared is failure with the hermit. “Give me one good reason not to quit?”- He pleaded the Hermit

“Look”, the hermit said, pointing towards two plants. “Do you see that fern and bamboo there?

“Yes”, the man nodded.

“When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them. I gave them water, light and fertilizer. Within a short period of time the fern quickly grew from the earth”, the hermit continued.

Many years ago there were a group of brilliant young men at the University of Wisconsin.  The group of men seemed to have an amazing creative literary talent and were extraordinary in their ability to put their literary skills to its best use. These promising young men met regularly to read and critique each other’s literary works.

These men were merciless while they criticized one another. They dissected the most minute of the expressions and offered tough and even mean criticism to each others work. Their  meeting sessions became arenas of literary criticism and the members of this exclusive club called themselves the “Stranglers.”

Once upon a time, there lived a wise man. He was the head of the local administration of a small village. Everyone respected him and his views and opinions were well regarded. Many people came to him seeking for advice.

His son, however, was very lazy and wasted his time sleeping and spending time with his friends. No amount of advice or threat made any difference to him. He wouldn’t change at all.

The years passed, and with time faded the youth of the wise man. As he grew older, he began to worry  about his son’s future. He recognized the need to give something to his son so that he can take care of himself and his family to be.

He met her at a party. She was so outstanding, many guys chasing after her, while he was average looking, shy and awkward.

At the end of the party, he finally summoned some courage to invite the girl to have coffee with him. She was surprised, but out of politeness, she accepted his invitation to go on a date. They both sat in a nice coffee shop, he was too nervous to say anything, she felt uncomfortable, waiting for coffee. With him being so shy and awkward around her, It seemed like the conversation between them would never start.