Man's search for meaning

Victor Frankl who wrote about the Holocaust survivors in his book 'Man's Search for Meaning," said this:

"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of human freedoms- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances- to choose one's way."

Dr. Kalam's inspiring message

Former Indian President A P J Abdul Kalam has given the following message to Rediff, as India celebrates the nation's Republic Day on 26th January 2008.


1. Wherever I am, a thought will always come to my mind -- *What can I give?*

2. Whatever the mission I will do, my motto will be *to work with integrity and succeed with integrity.*

3. I will always remember that *my winged days, be not spent in vain*.

4. I realise I have to set a great goal that will *lead me to think high*, work and realise the goal.

5. My greatest friends will be *great human beings, great teachers and great books*.

6. I will firmly believe that no problem can defeat me; *I will become the captain of the problem, defeat the problem and succeed.*

7. My National Flag flies in my heart and I will bring glory to my nation.

Source: Rediff.

Great inspiration from "I Live Inspired"

Chris Deutsch and Robert Foster, two American entrepreneurs are the founders of I Live Inspired, a website that sends out daily text messages carrying inspirational quotes authored by motivational experts in self-help, parenting, and business.

In October, Deutsch and Foster walked 100 miles through evocatively named cities in Indiana. The journey took them from Hope to Buddha and on to Bloomington, where the Dalai Lama was scheduled to attend a series of events at Indiana University and the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center (TCC).

Deutsch and Foster did a symbolic, mindful walk to draw some attention and see if we could get a meeting that way with the Dalai Lama. It worked. The day the two arrived in Bloomington, they were granted a session with the Dalai Lama.

"We call them pilgrims," said Lisa Morrison, TCC's public relations director.

Deutsch and Foster were given permission to send out pre-approved quotes from the Dalai Lama. In return, they're donating to TCC 75 percent of the proceeds generated from the Dalai Lama-themed text messages.

Now their holiday dream is to meet Al Gore in order to include quotes from former vice president and recent Nobel Peace Prize laureate in their fledgling website.

Chris Gardener: From Homeless to a Millionaire

Chris Gardener with his young son was homeless. But he was determined to give a better life to his son. He never gave up on his will to do better. As Gardener and his son struggled with homelessness, he worked to become a top trainee at Bear Stearns. He would work long hours, persistently making calls to prospective clients.

In 1987, Chris Gardner established the brokerage firm, Gardner Rich & Co, in Chicago, Illinois, an "institutional brokerage firm specializing in the execution of debt, equity and derivative products transactions for some of the nation’s largest institutions, public pension plans and unions."

Chris Gardener published his biography which has now been turned into the movie 'The happyness purpose', starring Will Smith, and Smith's own son Jaden Christopher Syre Smith. The unusual spelling of the film's title comes from a sign Gardner saw when he was homeless. In the film, "happyness" is misspelled outside the daycare facility Gardner's son attends. The film focuses on Gardner's nearly one-year struggle with homelessness.

Today Chris Gardner is a philanthropist who sponsors charitable organizations, primarily the Cara Program and the Glide United Methodist Church in San Francisco, where he and his son received desperately-needed shelter. He has helped fund a US$50 million project in San Francisco that creates low-income housing and opportunities for employment in the area of the city where he was once homeless.

As well as offering monetary support, Gardner donates clothing and shoes. He makes himself available for permanent job placement assistance, career counseling and comprehensive job training for the homeless population and at-risk communities in Chicago.

The wayward son of non-violence preaching Gandhi

A scene from Gandhi My Father, a new film that explores the turbulent relationship between Mahatma Gandhi and his first-born son. Photo- Telegraph UK.

To Martin Luther King, he was "the little brown saint of India - the first person to lift the love ethic of Jesus above mere interaction". Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last viceroy of India, compared him to Buddha.

The world has heard a lot about Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violent movement that eventually gained independence for India from the British. But we know little about his family life.

A new film 'Gandhi My Father' depicts the Mahatma as a difficult patriarch whose ideals shaped a nation but hurt his family.

As one commentator points out: "He loved his son and family, but he loved the nation more." It's a distinction that makes for a compelling film.

The film traces the disintegrating relationship between the Mahatma or ‘Bapu’ (father) as he was fondly known, with the eldest of his four sons, Hiralal.

What emerges is the uneasy tensions in the family’s South African residence where Gandhi practised as a barrister up to 1915. The patriarch’s firm insistence that Hiralal abandon his education and wife Gulab in order to assist him in his fight against the inequitable apartheid system, leads to resentment by the young Hiralal.

Post 1915, the entire family relocates to India where resistance to British imperialism is gaining momentum. Hiralal tries to assert his own independence but he is thwarted by opportunists who use the Gandhi name to establish fraudulent companies and discredit the freedom movement. The Mahatma publicly disowns his wayward son and Hiralal sinks into alcoholic depression.

Supporters of Gandhi in India have tried to ban the film unsuccessfully as it portrays their revered hero in poor light. The contrast of human strength and weakness lies in the fact Gandhi almost single handedly with no military force at his disposal mobilised the masses through his non-violent means and won against the imperialistic British, but failed to help his own son with understanding, love and care when he needed most.

This is a gut-wrenching story that would have affected the man who carried a larger-than-life persona.

Courage and fortitude overcome loss of sight

On May 25, 2001, Erik Weihenmayer became the only blind man in history to reach the summit of the world's highest peak - Mount Everest.

Though there were questions about the wisdom of mountain climbing for a blind person, Erik never gave up on his dreams despite turning blind at the age of 13.

He believed that he deserved to live his best life. He is a passionate athlete, a former middle school teacher and wrestling coach.

Erik has become an accomplished mountain climber, paraglider, and skier, who has never let his blindness interfere with his passion for an exhilarating and fulfilling life.

Erik is the author of two books and appeared on several TV shows, gaining recognition for his achievements.

Erik's award winning film, Farther Than the Eye Can See, shot in the same stunning quality HDTV format as the 'Star Wars' prequels, was ranked in the top twenty adventure films of all time by Men's Journal.

Erik doesn't see himself as a reckless risk taker, he tries to do what he can possibly do, always trying to push himself to a higher level.

Erik's has become a motivational speaker who inspires people around the world, from Hong Kong to Switzerland, from Thailand to the 2005 APEC Summit in Chile.

He speaks to audiences on harnessing the power of adversity, the importance of teamwork and the daily struggle to pursue your dreams. Clearly, Erik's accomplishments show that one does not have to have perfect eyesight to have extraordinary vision.

Steve Prefontaine - America's greatest running legend

Over his short running career, Steve Profontaine ran 153 races, of which he won 120, or 78 percent of his races.

One of Prefontaine's most famous quotes given below is still vibrant in runners today.

Ian Botham, the charity walker knighted

England's legendary cricket all rounder has been knighted by the Queen in her Birthday Honours.

Congratulations Sir Botham.

Botham has joined another cricketing great, Sir Viv Richards of West Indies; both close friends and they dominated the golden era of cricket.

After he retired from playing cricket, Botham has also been a prominent fundraiser for charity undertaking a total of 11 long-distance charity walks. His first, in 1985, was a 900-mile trek from John O'Groats to Land's End.

His efforts ere inspired after a visit to a Taunton hospital for treatment on a broken toe. He stumbled into a children's ward and was shocked to learn that some of the children had only weeks to live. He has since raised more than ten million pounds.

Brian Lara's greatness on display

Brian Lara who has retired from international cricket is not missed during the tour of his country to England this summer.

A fascinating new exhibition shows off the memorabilia that contributed to his unforgettable career. Click here to see more pictures showcased at a Museum at Lord's hosting a special exhibition celebrating the life and career of the great West Indies batsman Brian Lara.

Talking to a distinguished English cricketer Angus Fraser about his favourite collections, Lara said one of his prized possessions is a jacket signed by Nelson Mandela.

He said, " I was lucky enough to go and see him and I could not leave without getting something signed. I did not have anything so I took off the suit jacket I was wearing and asked him if he would sign it. I did not mind not being able to wear my Hugo Boss suit again."

A great achievement by Kelly Lim

LA Times is reporting that a Michigan native Kelly Lim, 26 a triple amputee is graduating from medical school.

Struck with a ravaging bacterial infection that destroys limbs, she became a triple amputee at age 8 and soon faced a life of prosthetics, wheelchairs and often-painful rehabilitation.

Lim does not use a prosthetic arm and manages to perform most medical procedures - including giving injections and taking blood -with one arm. She walks on a pair of prosthetic legs.

Lim has defied all odds to achieve her dream. She always had the support of a strong family. Adding to her disability woes, her mother turned blind when she was twenty.

Never too late to graduate

This is an incredible achievement in learning. At the age of 95, Kansas resident Nola Ochs is now the world's oldest college graduate.

Nola Ochs also has broken a Guinness World Record, although she never intended to do so. The previous Guinness Record belongs to Mozelle Richardson, who at age 90 in 2004 received a journalism degree from the University of Oklahoma.

Ochs received her bachelor's degree in general studies and history during Saturday's graduation ceremony at Fort Hays State University.

Ochs is the proud matriarch of a family that includes three sons — a fourth died in 1995 — along with 13 grandchildren and 15 great grandchildren.

Nola Ochs who majored in history brought an interesting perspective to her Soviet Union course. She recalls when the Berlin Wall was torn down. She also remembers the days before the Soviet Union was formed in 1917.

She started taking classes occasionally at Dodge City Community College after the 1972 death of her husband of 39 years. She wanted to complete her studies and be productive.

Apperaring in NBC's the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, she came in as the second guest of the show after Simon Cowell, the blunt-talking American Idol judge. She said she has never heard about Simon and never watched the Idol.

She said she grew up on a farm where raising children was the most imortant duty.

After graduation, she has applied for a job and has received two responses. She is looking forward to serve on a cruise ship and go around the world as a storyteller.

Liverpool chasing the elites

As the Liverpool fans peer through the tears of defeat to AC Milan in Athens, Rafa Benitez- the Liverpool manager has started the post-mortem examination.

Benitez had already asked the club's new owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, to match the kind of transfer fees routinely made available at Old Trafford for Manchester United and Stamford Bridge for Chelsea.

Benitez has never been afraid to challenge a club's hierarchy. Benitez maintains a ruthless attitude to win. Looking back on his career, it is not surprising that he has called on his owners to put up the money even before the dust settled at the Olympic Stadium.

"If we don't change things now and understand how crucial this moment is, we will waste one month, maybe three months and then we will only be in a position to sign third-choice players," Benitez said. "Then, we will only be contenders for the top four."

Benitez drives a hard bargain with his players who are expected to deliver the results on the field. He showed no sentiment when breaking up the team that overcame AC Milan two years ago and he will show none now. The difference is that this time Benitez wants the reform to be fundamental and to affect every area of the club.

After three years of hard work Benitez is deeply disappointed that his team did not catch up with EPL champions Manchester United and failed to defend the European Championship.

Stephen Hawking flies weightless

Zero Gravity Corporation, the private company that operates the zero gravity simulating plane has offered a free ride to the famed Cambridge professor Stephen Hawking

The 65-year-old scientist, who is confined to a wheelchair due to a degenerative disease , said he wanted to make the flight to build awareness for the importance of space exploration.

"I believe that life on Earth is at an ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers," Hawking said before his flight.

With four doctors and two nurses on hand, the astrophysicist took upto an altitude of about 24,000ft above ground. The plane, a specially modified Boeing 727 jet, hikes steeply towards the sky, then arches over to plunge downward. The descent temporarily lifts the bonds of gravity.

The professor's verdict after the flight which was evident from his broad grin before he twitched the controls of his computer, : "I could have gone on and on."

He had no problem with the experience.

Brian Lara departs a flawed genius

Over a career that spanned 17 years, Brian Lara has been a batting supremo of mesmerising charm who has entertained crowds on the world stage of international cricket.

To many of his fans and cricket lovers, the end came too soon when a terrible mix-up with Marlon Samuels limited Brian Lara to just 18 in his final international innings yesterday.

With a Test average of 52.88 from 131 matches and an ODI average of more than 40, Lara has done enough to look back with pride on a glorious career.

Lara who came into the West Indies team in the early 1990s, when there were still great cricketers, has been criticised as setting the wrong example. The West Indians' practices, according to observers, have been the shoddy and undisciplined consequences of late-night partying.

With Lara's team already out of the world cup, Lara has been roundly criticised during this World Cup campaign, with legends of the past dismissive of both the team's performances and preparation.

Lara has captioned his team thrice and few have made the game look better than he did. For better or for worse, no one else has shown such individual brilliance in a team sport.

Cheers to Brian Lara.

Dancing with one leg

Following her high profile divorce from Paul McCartney, the former model and human rights activist Heather Mills was vilified by the press especially in Britain. The tabloids portrayed Mills who has lost one of her legs to an accident as greedy, demanding a disproportionate settlement from the popular ex Beatle Paul McCartney.

Now she is getting kudos for her dance performance as the first ever contestant to appear on the American hit tv programme 'Dancing with the Stars,' with a prosthetic leg. Mills and her dancing partner Apolo Anton Ohno, danced the foxtrot to ‘Cheek to Cheek’ - the Irving Berlin classic.

More than 20 million US viewers tuned in to see Heather Mills foxtrot on the dancefloor yesterday, the biggest audience ever for a season premiere of the ballroom dancing show and clearly the most watched show of the night on US television.

She has overcome an adversity with a never-give-up attitude. She practised vigirously and received a standing ovation when she completed her dance without a fall. She got respectable marks from the judges who were very impressed with her effort. She said that she wanted to prove to the world that a handicapped, publicly despised person could come out on national television, overcome adversity and win.

All the money that she makes from this event is going to the charities she is involved with. Though she still has many skepics who continue to write negative publicity, this is an inspirational effort which is contributing to a good cause.

Tributes flow for Bob Woolmer

Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer died on Sunday, a day that the cricket-crazy Pakistani fans were baying for his blood after the shocking elimination of Pakistan from the cricket world cup. Woolmer was found unconscious in his hotel room just hours after his team suffered a shocking loss to rank outsider Ireland.

Mass outrage at the loss in Pakistan overnight soon turned to mourning when team officials announced Woolmer, 58, died within an hour of being rushed to University Hospital in Jamaica.

Commenting on Woolmer's death Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Naseem Ashraf said, "He was a thorough gentleman who instilled team spirit in the team. He was a very popular personality in our cricket team."

Former Pakistan cricket captain turned politician Imran Khan has said that Bob Woolmer died just because of the team’s loss against Ireland. Imran Khan blamed the captain Inzamam-ul-Haq squarely for the loss. He said Woolmer had played his part but it was uninspirational leadership that brought the defeat.


Inzamam-ul-Haq, visibly distraught after Woolmer's death, has announced his retirement from one-day cricket and resigned as Test captain. He took responsibility for the team's loss.

The passing of Bob Woolmer in Jamaica has cast a sad shadow over the 2007 Cricket World Cup . Tributes have poured in from all across the cricketing world. Read them here.

A fitting swansong for Larsson

In a highly competitive world that glorifies the virtue of material benefits, loyalty is no longer a prized asset.

It is, therefore, somewhat surprising to hear so much praise of the Swedish footballer Henrik Larsson after he completed ten weeks with Manchester United and declined to extend his contract further.

Larsson provided three valuable goals for United in 12 appearances keeping Alex Fergusion's team in contention for three titles: the English premier league, the FA cup and the European championsip.

Fans and the media are pouring credit to a rare example of a footballer whose sense of loyalty, to both Helsingborg, his Swedish club, and to his family, outweighs even his sense of ambition. It is the 35-year-old’s attitude, as much as his talent, that has so endeared him to Alex Fergusion.

To hear Larsson talk of honouring his contract to his Swedish club and turn his back to the possibilty of treble titles with a great club like Manchester United, is a reflection of the the measure of a great man.

Larsson was given an emotional send-off from the United players in the dressing room after his last game. The Swedish forward ended his brief journey to Manchester United when he played as captain of a European team against United for the charity match played at Old Trafford.

At last Martin Scorsese wins the oscar

A happy Martin Scorsese accepts his Oscar for best director for The Departed at the 79th Annual Academy Awards in Hollywood. photo by Reuters.

It's payback time for Martin Scorsese who finally won Hollywood's greatest prize on his eighth nomination after 26 long years.

Righting an injustice that had swelled with each snub of his illustrious career, on Sunday the Academy honored him with the best-directing Oscar for "The Departed."

Scorsese, 64, took the stage to an outpouring of emotion and when he accepted the golden statue from presenter Steven Spielberg. He joked in disbelief: "Could you double-check the envelope?"

In Hollywood crime pays. The story of rival mob and police moles remade from the Hong Kong thriller "Infernal Affairs" was the most popular film at the box office making more than $131 million. The Departed was announced as the best picture. It also won for best adapted screenplay and best editing.

The filmmaker who had a childhood of ill health had an initial desire to be priest. But he developed a passion for cinema and has persued his dream. Today he has gained the highest recognition from his peers many of whom say it was long coming.

As "The Departed" arrived in theaters last year, he talked about the elusive honour that evaded him for so long, "I guess it's all right. I'm disappointed, of course. But you don't make pictures to win Oscars."

Sophistication in early Islamic designs

Researchers in the United States have found that muslim artists were 500 years ahead of their western counterparts.

The discovery is published in the journal Science.

The researchers believe that muslims used tessellating, a technique that was developed around the start of the thirteenth century. By the fifteenth century, it was sophisticated enough to make complex patterns now described as quasi-periodic.

These patterns were 'discovered' in 1973 by the British mathematical physicist Roger Penrose. In 1984, they were found in metal alloys called quasi-crystals that seemed to break the geometric rules of atomic packing.

This show that the early muslims had the capacity for ideas, on which they worked hard and had produced amazing results such as the pyramids, the islamic art and a culture of learning.

Today, the muslims are in disarray and their capacity to produce astounding world-class inventions have also diminished.

Shahid Afridi hits a super performance

In international cricket, Shahid Afridi is always a crowd favourite. He is an explosive batsman who seems to lack patience in batting but on his day the crowd can never have enough of his monster hitting.

Indeed, his has an approach to batting that can change the outcome of the game as happened in 2nd ODI no. 2513, Pakistan versus South Africa played at Kingsmead, Durban, on 7 February 2007 in which Afridi raced to 77 off 35 balls.

So if anyone has written off Afridi during his lean spell, his performance here proves them wrong. Afridi is a talented player
and his fans and those who admire his ability will certainly hope that he has the kind of discipline which can keep him shining for many more years.

It is a tremendous joy to watch a player like him when he is in form.