130. History is the study of the past. In other words, history is ‘his story’. History means the written record of events of the distant past. By studying history, we get to know about our country and the world. To know and understand our society, culture and our world, we have to know the history.

History teaches us how the terrible wars of the past have lead to havoc and destruction. It inspires us with the life-stories of great people. It motivates with lessons of human values from the teachings of great personalities like, Gautam Buddha, Swami Vivekananda, Guru Nanak, Mahatma Gandhi etc.

History teaches us about the culture of the people of various countries and civilizations. This helps us to understand and respect all societies and cultures. Thus, history teaches us to be true citizens of the world.

-- daughter, Josheca Mukerji

129.  Cleanliness ensures good health. For best results, it should be amongst our topmost priorities. A clean mind leads to a clean life. Clean thoughts guarantee healthy interactions and good performances. Likewise, a clean body makes its own contributions. A clean environment can improve everything so effectively and obviously lead to a definite freshness which is so likeable. Since we know God is present everywhere, we should ensure that cleanliness is also present everywhere. The best way to stay clean is firstly, to never let anything become dirty and secondly, to constantly keep working at keeping everything clean. Thus, we can say, cleanliness is godliness …

-- daughter, Josheca Mukerji

128. All mornings are like paintings. We need a little inspiration to get us going and a little smile to brighten it up …

127. A morning is a wonderful blessing, either cloudy or sunny. It stands for hope, giving us another start of what we call – life …

126. The shortest and sweetest definition of success – when the signature becomes an autograph …

125. THE TWO FACES OF ADVERTISEMENTS

-- daughter, Josheca Mukerji

In today’s age of economic progress, consumerism and commercialism, dissemination of information amongst the target segments of society has become an essential implement. Advertisement is a very potent means to serve the purpose of creating awareness. It is done through various media. Proponents of advertisements are of the firm view that it is not just the means to promote commerce and consumerism but its larger purpose is the welfare of mankind, generally speaking.

Advertisements are nothing but dream sellers, as the cliché goes. Advertisements are classified into four categories i.e. commercial, social, political and educational. Educational advertisements should have been under social advertisements. But, unfortunately, education has now become a commercial commodity. Therefore, its advertisement is self-motivated and can be misleading.

Now comes the commercial advertisement. The commercial advertisements are based on the selfish motives of the advertisers or the product managers. They are focused on their profits no matter what effect the advertisements or the products have on the common people.

Political advertisements too are, most of the times, misleading as every party makes high promises but fail to fulfill them when the time comes.

Social advertisement is the only one which can be helpful and are not misleading, e.g., the advertisements that condemn the practice of female foeticide and infanticide.

Thus, by this, it can be concluded that except social advertisements, all other types of advertisements are misleading.

At last, it should be kept in mind that nothing is totally bad or good.

124. BLAME GAME – AN ACT OF SHAME

(MODIFYING #28)

-- daughter, Josheca Mukerji

I have often wondered why many of us blame our luck or any other factor for not being able to achieve what we want. I believe, God has endowed us with certain potentials which we tend to leave latent in us. If we can be enterprising enough to exploit our hidden potentials to the full, we might not perhaps need to blame our luck so often, as the likelihood of our meeting with success gets increased manifold.

When we realize that we have done nothing worthy, we start blaming others, our own luck or even God for our failures. We should not waste our time and energy like that. In fact, we must take inspiration from those who have really used their talents. Like, Graham Bell, who has furthered the horizon of our wisdom by inventing the telephone. He not only made his but also others’ life easy. Pathetically, despite the availability of such important facilities as telephone, even electricity, which have become our basic needs today, when we fail to give our best, we again blame it on the lack of certain other facilities. As Sachin Tendulkar said, “Only losers give excuses”. So, by giving excuses, we establish ourselves as losers.

So, there is no doubt that we can get right results only if and when we use what God has given us properly. That would be our best tribute to Him.

123. When we become weary of our ‘meaningless’ toil and signs of suffering come into our faces, then we proclaim that suffering is a beauty for in suffering alone lies our meaning …

122. Faith makes all things possible.

Hope makes all things work.

Love makes all things beautiful.

121. Should we become sad if anyone doesn’t recognize our worth? Shouldn’t we rather concentrate in increasing our capabilities and doing justice to whatever we undertake to do?

- Sujit Mukerji