WEEKEND LIGHTER: THANK YOU, GOOGLE!

WEEKEND LIGHTER: THANQ, GOOGLE!

As the world was busy celebrating arrival of another LEAP YEAR, which also means a once in four year opportunity to plan a birthday celebration for about 50 lakh humans born on February 29, WEEKEND LIGHTER tried to find out how M G Warrier, its author had faired in making his presence felt in the media. After listening to Sundar Pichai, like many others, WL also has become a Google Fan. So, the methodology adopted to check media presence was ‘Google search’ for m g warrier plus the name of various publications (newspapers and magazines). It was a pleasant surprise for WL to find that comments/articles published years back came live on the screen. To add to the surprise, some had accessed Warrier’s Blog and published some contents in much more attractive ways(of course, after correcting English- these days, there is no auto spell-check on Warrier’s PC!) than they appeared originally. WL, on behalf of M G Warrier, thanks GOOGLE and every reader who has supported Warrier all these years.

M G Warrier solicits the same encouragement and support in the year ahead!

HAPPY 2016!

M G Warrier

 A mail received recently from Vathsala Jayaraman, a member of our ExRbites group may be of interest to you too. Copied below:

SHANAH TOVAH

Ever noticed that Jews don’t traditionally wish each other “happy new year”?

Instead they say the Hebrew phrase “shanah tovah” which — in spite of the mistaken translation that appears on almost all greeting cards — has no connection at all to the expression “have a happy new year.”

Shanah Tovah conveys the hope for a good year rather than a happy one. And the reason for that distinction contains great significance.

Researchers are beginning to caution against the pursuit of mere happiness. They found that a meaningful life and a happy life overlap in certain ways, but are ultimately very different. Leading a happy life, the psychologists found, is associated with being a "taker" while leading a meaningful life corresponds with being a "giver."

Long before all of these studies, Jews somehow understood this intuitively. Happy is good, but good is better.

To hope for a happy new year is to give primacy to the ideal of a hedonistic culture whose greatest goal is “to have a good time.” To seek a good year however is to recognize the superiority of meaning over the joy of the moment.

The word “good” has special meaning in the Tovah. The first time we find it used is in the series of sentences where God, after each day of creation, views his handiwork and proclaims it “good”. More, when God completed his work he saw all that he had done “and behold it was very good.”

What does that mean? In what way was the world good? Surely it was not in any moral sense that it was being praised. The commentators offer a profound insight. The word good indicates that every part of creation fulfilled God’s purpose: it was good because it was what it was meant to be.

That is the deepest meaning of the word good when it is applied to us and to our lives. We are good when we achieve our purpose; our lives are good when they fulfil what they are meant to be.

We know many people of whom it can be said that they had good lives in spite of their having had to endure great unhappiness. Indeed, the truly great chose lives of sacrifice over pleasure and left a legacy of inspiration and achievement that they never could have accomplished had they been solely concerned with personal gratification.

A shanah tovah may not emphasize happiness, yet it is the most certain way to ultimately achieve happiness.

Because another powerful idea discovered by contemporary psychologists is that happiness most often is the by-product of a meaningful life. It’s precisely when we don’t go looking for it and are willing to set it aside in the interest of a loftier goal that we find it unexpectedly landing on us with a force that we never considered possible.

Happiness is the by-product of a meaningful life.

When we take action on the things that truly matter deep in our hearts, move in directions that we consider valuable and worthy, clarify what we stand for in life and act accordingly, then our lives become rich and full and meaningful, and we experience a powerful sense of vitality. This is not some fleeting feeling - it is a profound sense of a life well lived.

I have seen in many of the Retirement letters issued by RBI, the bank wished the employee 'a purposeful life 'ahead. In those days many criticized this wish of the bank as though all along in service of the bank, the people were leading purposeless life and at least on retirement let them have a purposeful life ahead.

So 'Shanah tovah---' may you have a year filled with meaning and purpose. And happiness that will surely follow.
We are proud to be associated with RBI, the forerunner of evolving a meaningful (Saarthak) wish to its employees.
Wish my friends 'a purposeful New Year'.

Vathsala Jayaraman

THANK YOU, VATHSALA JAYARAMAN.

M G Warrier

A Promise to myself

The year that has become part of history was not a ‘HAPPY’ year for me , personally. But, I have endeavoured not to make others unhappy by my action. I believe, I was successful in this effort. I have, according to my own assessment, done what I thought was right in any given situation. The only promise I can give to myself is, as always in the past, I will continue to live life ‘by the moment’, sharing, caring and being active in supporting the family and society around me in whatever way possible. Thank God…

M G Warrier

January 1, 2016