The legend of Buckhard

Buckhard belonged to a family of jugglers. He learnt the art from his father. There was never enough in the house to eat and be merry. On growing up Buckhard showed a desire to be a priest. His parents agreed. He joined an Abbey. As it was a pious one, so on Christmas our lady with baby Jesus in her lap descended on Earth to pay a visit to this Abbey. All the priests lined up to pay homage to the lady. In the last was Buckhard and being from a poor family he had nothing to offer. The priests too wanted

Oranges and Fire

Ernest Hemingway, the famous author of 'The old man and the sea' , had a peculiar habit of doing furious physical activity and then doing nothing. He would peel many oranges and gaze into the fire for long periods of time before writing.
A journalist observed his behaviour and asked him about the reason behind this oddity.
Ernest replied that he is just preparing his  soul to write. If he does not do this thing he won't be able to write anything.

Wealthy Man

A wealthy man died. After examining his records for a few minutes the angel declared that he can't be admitted into Heaven. The wealthy man got furious and said, ' I had amassed tons of wealth and had employed many servants to serve me, yet you are not allowing me to stay in Heaven.'
The angel gave a fatherly smile to the wealthy man and replied, ' Wealthy man! we only give entry to those who serve many people not to those who get served by many people.'
The wealthy man understood his mistake.

Humble Stomach

Every body part was jealous of Stomach. They considered Stomach as a lazy brat who did nothing except gobbling up delicious eatables. While all the significant functions like walking, talking, seeing and hearing were done by them. So they decided in unison to boycott Stomach. And the decision was conveyed. The Stomach remained calm and quite as was its nature. The other parts of the body saw it as a sign of cowardice. Hands were the first to participate in this misadventure and declared that from now on no food would be delivered to Stomach. And no food was delivered by Hands for two days at a stretch. All body parts started to feel its impact. They became weak. And on fourth day they realised their folly and blamed Hands as if they were never part of this misadventure. Then they sought forgiveness from Stomach. The Stomach just gave them a tranquil smile saying no harsh words. The Hands wept bitterly on  seeing greatness of Stomach and betrayal of other body parts. The remorseful  Hands offered food to powerful yet humble Stomach. And the Stomach  accepted the food as if nothing had  happened.

A sealed well.

Once a Saint asked for a loaf of bread from a rich landlord of an Indian village at the entrance of his home. The rich landlord was a renowned miser. He refused bluntly. The Saint did not took it to his heart and went away without saying a word. Next morning he reappeared asking for two loafs of bread. The landlord became furious and said a few harsh words to the Saint. 
The Saint smiled softly and said, ' Go to the backside of your house. You will find two wells in it. Seal one of them and from the other give water to the whole village. I will come back after one year, only then you shall open the sealed one.'

Nikola Tesla and his female pigeon

Nikola Tesla the famous inventor and contemporary of Thomas Edisson who never married, loved to feed pigeons during his old days. His lines are quite interesting:

" I have been feeding pigeons thousands of them for years. But there was a one, a beautiful bird, pure white with light grey tips on its wings; that one was different.  It was a female. I had only to wish and call her and she would come flying to me. I loved this pigeon as a man loves a woman, and she loved me. As long as I had her, there was a purpose to my life."
( source wikipedia )

Right Path

A monastery had fallen into disrepute because of nasty monks. They did not offer kindness or respect to anyone who came to their refuge. Slowly nobody turned up at the monastery for help. The monks felt bad. One of them suggested to visit the Budha for help. All of them agreed to this Noble idea. And on reaching to Budha they asked for a way to seek penance. The Budha already knew everything about the monastery. So instead of giving any advice he asked them what should be done? All the monks said in one breath that they should offer love, respect, solace, help and pray for anyone who visits them. The Budha smiled and said, ' See you always knew the right path. You did not have to seek me for the right path. Just ask the budha within you for guidance. Always remember Budha stays in you.' The monks understood the message and from then on always sought advice from Budha within themselves.

Prayer

One day the great Muslim emperor, Akbar was praying in a forest. A young peasant woman crossed him in a great hurry. The emperor was disturbed. Angered he ordered his guards to capture her. The guards caught and brought the woman in front of the emperor.
' How dare you disturb my prayer,' asked Akbar.
The woman got frightened.
Still gathering some courage and with downcast eyes she replied, ' I was lost in the thoughts of my beloved husband. So I did not see you.'
Then a strange thing happened. The woman looked at the emperor with fiery  eyes as if possessed  and said, ' Emperor! I was so engrossed in my beloved that I could not see you. You were also supposed to be engrossed in the same manner while praying but you were able to see me. How?'
The Emperor understood her words and taking them to be God's to improve his prayers he asked his guards to release the woman.

Secret Chamber

In the tenth century there was a slave named Ayaz who rose to a high position in the court of Sultan Mahmud of Ghaznavi. He had a secret chamber where before retiring to bed he took off his wealthy robes and put on his slavery rags. Then he stood before a huge mirror seeing himself from head to toe, thanking God for his present fortune.

Subhash Mukhopadhyay

-- On October 3rd 1978 he became the first physician in India to perform IVF.
-- Durga was the test tube baby created by him.
-- Instead of applauses he was insulted for creating Durga.
-- He was barred from attending conferences and sharing his achievements.
-- He committed suicide at his Kolkata residence.

To meet one's Waterloo

-- Acc. to Dictionary.com it means, " To encounter one's ultimate obstacle and to be defeated by it."
-- Waterloo battle was fought on Sunday, 18-June-1815 between Napoleon Bonaparte's French army and Anglo led allied army at Waterloo then Netherlands now Belgium.
-- In reality it was never fought at Waterloo.
-- It got its name because of Anglo led army's leader Duke of Wellington making Waterloo his headquarters.
-- After defeat Napoleon was exiled to St. Helena where he died in 1821 after living for six years.
-- Waterloo Teeth: Some locals pulled out the teeth of dead soldiers and sold them to dentists. These are known as Waterloo Teeth.

Anne Frank's Diary

-- Anne Frank's diary was written originally in Dutch.
-- It was published in 1947, the year India got Independence.
-- It has become pretty famous and has been translated into sixty languages.
-- Anne was given this diary as a gift on her 13th birthday on 13th June 1942.
-- Anne's hiding place in Netherlands has become a major tourist attraction.
-- After being betrayed she and her family were captured by Gestappo in 1944.
-- She died at a concentration camp just before it was freed.

Karl Landsteiner

-- Discovered human blood groups.
-- Won Noble Prize for this discovery.
-- June 14 is celebrated as World Blood     Donor Day every year.
                       ( because )
-- Karl Landsteiner's birthday falls on June 14.
              

Blood Transfusion

-- First recorded Blood Transfusion was done by ' Dr. Jean Baptiste Denys ' in 1667 AD.
-- A teenage boy and a labourer were transfused with small amount of sheep's blood.
-- Dr. Jean was charged with murder after he transfused calf's blood to Antaine Mauroy leading to his death.
-- Later it was found that Antaine Mauroy had died of arsenic poisoning leading to Dr. Jean's acquittal. Now wife of Antaine Mauroy was charged with his murder.
-- After the trial Dr. Jean quit practice of medicine.
-- In 1902 Dr. Karl Landsteiner discovered four blood groups making blood transfusion safe.

Wisdom from Swami Vivekananda

" Take up an idea. Make that idea your life, think of it, and live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone."

---- Swami Vivekananda.

Divine Touch

King Akbar always pestered Tansen to tell him about a musician who was greater than him.
Tansen always evaded the question. But one day as King Akbar asked him in an angry manner, Tansen got scared and said, ' My lord Swami Haridas of Barindaven is a greater musician than me.'
At this King Akbar asked him to call Swami Haridas to his court.
' My lord Swami Haridas won't come. He only sings for God. And calling him by force won't be a good thing to do. If you really want to listen to him you should go to Barindaven in disguise,' suggested Tansen.
King Akbar did the same. He was so mesmerised by Swami Haridas' singing that Tansen had to request him to leave the temple.
While returning King Akbar asked Tansen why doesn't he sing like Swami Haridas.
Tansen smiled softly and replied, ' My lord  Swami Haridas sings for God that's why his voice has a divine touch whereas I sing for you. '
At this King Akbar ordered him to close his eyes while singing and think as if he is signing for God and from that day on Tansen's voice acquired a divine touch.

Malapropism (inappropriate use)

R.B Sheridan's play The Rivals (1775) has a character Mrs. Malaprop who to provide a humorous effect often misspeaks words like use of allegory for alligator and illiterate for obliterate. The character became so famous that it gave the word:
                   ' malapropism '
to us which means use of an incorrect word in place of a word with similar sound often creating comic effect.

Alan Turing and his Indian Connection

-- Alan Turing is known as the father of Computer Science.
-- His father worked for the Indian Civil Service and his maternal grandfather was Chief Engineer of Madras railways.
-- He was a cryptanalyst, mathematician and computer scientist.
-- He gave the idea of a " Universal Machine ".

Suriname and Hindus

-- When you see the map you will find Suriname sitting quietly just above Brazil.
-- Suriname is a small country with 3,86,000 citizens and one third of these are Indian Hindus.
-- Suriname was settled by British.
-- In 1667 Dutch exchanged their colony New Amsterdam for Suriname with British.
-- In 1863 as the Dutch freed their African Slaves ( around 70000) they were forced to import mainly Hindus as contract labourers from India.
-- These Indians were mainly from U.P,  West Bihar and Ganges plains of North India. As they embarked from Calcutta they are still referred to as Kollakittas even today.

Peeping Tom

Everyone in the town had kept their doors and windows shut as they were strictly ordered to do so. A tailor by profession Tom could not keep his curiosity under wraps. He peeped at Lady Godiva who was riding a white horse naked. Lady Godiva had a soft heart and always pestered her cruel husband to remit the taxes of the people of Coventry. Her husband irritated one day asked her to ride through the streets of town naked and he will remit the taxes. Lady Godiva took her husband at his word and did the same. And as Tom was struck blind for doing the shameful act of peeping, we got the word Peeping Tom. And the shocked husband of Lady Godiva remitted the taxes.