Don't Give Up

Going through cancer and surviving can be tough. Chemotherapy can make you feel much worse than the disease itself.. There will be people who will say it is tough to survive .. but we have to chose to ignore them and move ahead as though we are deaf.

I am sharing a story I received in email ...

The story about the tiny frogs….

Life’s lesson

No. 1

There once was a bunch of tiny frogs,...

… who arranged a running competition.

The goal was to reach the top of a very high tower.

A big crowd had gathered around the tower to see the race and cheer on the contestants...

The race began...

Honestly:

No one in the crowd really believed that the tiny frogs would reach the top of the tower.

You heard statements such as:

"Oh, WAY too difficult!!

They will NEVER make it to the top."

or:

"Not a chance that they will succeed. The tower is too high!"

The tiny frogs began collapsing. One by one...

... Except for those who in a fresh tempo were climbing higher and higher...

The crowd continued to yell

"It is too difficult!!! No one will make it!"

More tiny frogs got tired and gave up...

...But ONE continued higher and higher and higher...

This one wouldn’t give up!

At the end everyone else had given up climbing the tower. Except for the one tiny frog who after a big effort was the only one who reached the top!

THEN all of the other tiny frogs naturally wanted to know how this one frog managed to do it?

A contestant asked the tiny frog how the one who succeeded had found the strength to reach the goal?

It turned out...

That the winner was DEAF!!!!

The wisdom of this story is:

Never listen to other people’s tendencies to be

negative or pessimistic...

…cause they take your most wonderful dreams and wishes away from you. The ones you have in your heart!

Always think of the power words have.

Because everything you hear and read will affect your actions!

Therefore:

ALWAYS …

Believe in Yourself

And above all:

Be DEAF when people tell YOU that YOU can not fulfil YOUR dreams!

Always think:

I can do this!

Author : Unknown

Wishing long life to all survivors who go through the cancer treatment losing much, only to emerge ever stronger than before and take on life with more gusto.

I would like to put smile on the faces of my blog visitors by sharing my few AC/BC ( after computers/before computers) jokes which are my real life events with a bit of exaggeration. LOL

BC

Kid: Ma, I see a mouse near the door.

Me: Eeeekksss! It may get inside our home. Shut the door. Make noise to scare it.

AC

Kid: Ma, there is something wrong with a mouse here.

Me: Why do you think there is something wrong with the mouse?

Kid: It is not moving.

Me: May be you pulled the wires.

Kid: What wires?

Me: Connecting wires

Kid: Connecting to what?

Me: Don’t act silly Rayyan. You very well know I am talking about the mouse wire

Kid: Ha ha ha … I am talking about the dead mouse the cat left behind here

Me: Dead mouse?

Kid: Yeah! The original furry animal mouse.

Me: Eeeekkkssss .. shut the door!

Kid: I cannot open the windows.

Me: Switch off the computer and turn it on again.

Kid: Ma, the windows with doors is shut tight.

Me: This is not the right time for windows, doors, curtain jokes Rayyan. If the windows aren’t opening maybe we will have to re-install it. We will lose all desk top applications. Oh God!

Kid interfering : NO NO!! not the Microsoft windows, I am talking about the window in the wall … Ma you too…

Me: Kinda forgot they are called windows too. You had me freaked out there.

Kid: Hey! There is something weird in the web

Me: Shut it down! You are not supposed to see weird thing on web (assuming he has accidently landed on porno site).

I rush in to find him watching a web with bloated spider and weirdest insect struggling.

I woke up in the morning feeling lazy and tired.

Me: Farheena, can you skip school today? It is raining so heavily.

Kid: No.

Me: You said you had tummy ache yesterday night.

Kid: I am ahah (OK) now.

I get up mumbling, get her career filled, dress her up and wait for the school bus. Time keeps moving and the bus doesn’t arrive.

Me: May be they have declared holiday because of rains

Kid: No.

Me: How do you know?

Kid: I can see other children going to school.

After half an hour I decide to call the H.M

Me: Ma’am, the school bus has not turned up yet. What could be the reason?

H.M.: It is Friday, the usual school holiday. Ha ha ha.

Me: Uh hoh! I thought it was Thursday. Sorry and thanks.

The entire problem lay with my phone which had messed up days and I lost one day of my life. Now I am worried which day did I lose? I remember Sunday was Sunday on my phone.. so it must be one of other three week days. The other kids had normal Sunday holiday. LOL.

My Computer - A Mirror Image of Myself.

Image

I consider all the gadgets I own to be related to me very closely. I love and care for them. When I speak, I personify them unknowingly. I get bored when they are sick and resting. I at times forget that blood flows through my veins and electricity through their wires.

Until I got married to a computer oopppss I mean I bought a computer, I was not a gadget freak at all. I was nicknamed a book worm, but when I laid my hands on the keyboard life was never the same again.

My world of books was no more pages to be turned but it was pages to be surfed. Like history there is a timeline in my life span- BC and AC (Before computers and after computers). If I am going through back pain, muscle cramps or eye strain BC and AC will apply to before cancer and after cancer symptoms. How can an internet addict admit that sitting for long in front of computer can be dis-comfortable? YOU are not even allowed to whisper such words in my presence. If you do, I will consider it blasphemy and attack you with swords and guns.

Dell, who is holding a contest on Indi Blogger says change is simple, but I have been holding on to my first computer for more than a decade now. Change is not that simple. Indeed there have been changes in due course of time but the computer itself has never been replaced. For some reason I find it very painful to put an ‘ex’ before my computer. How would he feel when we say ‘there goes our ex-computer’? So the computer stays. He leads the life of MJ if you can skip the religious part. Changes happen to my computer in form of colors, replacement of parts and few other upgrading plastic surgeries.

· The HD has changed from 20 GB to 2500 GB.

· SO from Windows 96 to Windows 7 (the rise and fall of windows as they suddenly feel down numerically). Ogling intently at windows 8 at present.

· Internet picking up speed from 9 kb/s to unlimited BB connection.

· 15’ CRT monitor being replaced by 19’ LCD.

Mother board, RAM, CPU, CD-ROM, mouse key board have all been upgraded. You are sure going to ask, “How can you say you are still holding to your old computer”? It is because the main case of chassis that holds all the components together has not been changed. That is what qualifies it to be the first computer that I ever owned.

I would consider my computer to be a mirror image of myself. I have been changed and upgraded or de-graded according the situations. My relationships, age, body, intelligence and weight have been undergoing constant change with time. I have married, gone through illness taken up jobs, built relationships and improved on myself at times. But like the computer chassis, something that holds me together and connects me to the world has not changed. It that ‘something’ which gives me my unique identity.

I may take up different social roles like daughter, friend, citizen, wife, mother, teacher or blogger but behind those roles lives a real me and the original case or chassis, which holds everything together in its bosom and makes connections. Don't you think my computer with the old chassis reflects my own personality?

PS: This blog is written in response to the contest 'CHANGE IS EASY' hosted by Dell Inspiron Laptop with customizable covers on Indibloggers.

CURE FOR MY FEAR

Don't kill people, kill cancer by finding a cure.

Farida Rizwan ( A lucky survivor living with remorse of losing loved ones to cancer)

Colors

Colors

Why must something be always in black and white? No. It should not be in black and white. We need colors. Our world is so vibrant and beautiful because of the shades and colors around us. Color plays a very important role in our lives. It affects our thinking and sways our moods. It influences our appetite, blood pressure, emotions and actions. We cannot even imagine a world in just black and white or say any other two colors.

Things were not as colorful in my childhood as it is today. Many things were in black and white back then. Text books always came in black and white. I would yearn for them to be in color. It never happened in my days but my children could read from colorful text books. I remember the days when we went to studios to take our pictures. After the long wait we would be so happy to see those black and white photographs in which our pink frocks looked grey and our blue ear-rings looked almost black. I wished to see a photograph in color back then. My wish was granted. When I first had a color photograph taken my joy knew no bounds. Then it was time to crave for colors in Television. Black and white television was so boring. Lo behold! Mind power worked out and we had color television. Then came the era of mobile phones and I wished so much there would be some color in my mobile. It was a time when we had high respect for the Nokia 1110, so much that one of my Nokia 1110 was stolen.

Now, the phones capture colors better than my eyes can see. At times to see something clearly I first take a picture from my mobile, print it out and check for minor details. So another wish was fulfilled.

<--Picture of a tiny spider which was almost invisible to naked eye. The picture from Vivaz Pro showed it so clearly.

I am greedy. Now it was time to wish for a colorful computer monitor and printer. Off course I don’t have to tell you that my wishes were fulfilled again.

What has withstood the assault of colors in our world? Let me think. Since time and happenings have registered in my memory, the Statue of Liberty, Eiffel tower, Taj Mahal, The Stonehenge, Great Wall of China and many more such monuments have not changed colors. Good!

They have been spared the weird sense of colors people have developed for buildings now.

Wouldn't it be nice to see them in colors? I wish I could but then they are one of a kind and should not be tampered with. Lot of efforts has gone into building them and each must have a reason of their architect behind its choice of color. Who am I to wish for their change?

Since childhood there have been few animals I have wanted to see in colors. My mind power has failed me tremendously there and they have always been born in the same old white and black colors. Every time I read newspaper I wish to see headline reading Zebra born in peacock colors, a Siberian tiger which looks like a rainbow, a red penguin discovered in Antarctica or colorful Panda found on a tree. Papers have gone from being in black and white to color but the news I have been wishing for has not come out. I give up on the wish. Nature is good as it is. Who am I to question God?

I need to come up with an answer for the question, “What do you wish to see in color?” because I am writing this blog post for the contest 'Take flight with color' on Indiblogger where they asked us to write about what we would like to see in color. The contest is sponsored by HP Laserjet

I know what I want to see in color and it has been in my mind since I saw the movie. ‘Schindler's List’ is the movie I wish I could see in color. May be it was shot in black and white to give it a documentary look. The movie is very emotional and shakes you to the core. Steven Spielberg has used color wisely for the shot where you see the girl in red coat. It is a superb movie, very well made but still I wish I could see it all in color. The performance is outstanding but more than anything I appreciate the talent and love for the theme from Steven Spielberg himself. It is a movie directly coming out of his heart and touching ours.

I also wish to see the classic movie ‘Gone with the Wind’ in 3D color. The movie has been made in color but it is nothing compared to the quality of color we have now. I have been hooked on to Hollywood movies since watching that movie around 25 years ago. There have been other great classics which I have wished to watch in color like ‘Psycho’, ‘Casablanca’ and ‘Citizen Kane’. The most famous bathroom scene in Psycho loses some of its shocking ingredient when we see the blood flowing in grey. My interest in Hollywood classics was triggered by ‘quiz time’, a quiz show hosted by Siddhart Basu. While watching the television, I and my brother would try to compare our GK with the students on show. I could answer most of the questions he asked on the show but would get stumped when it came to classic movie clips they showed. So I started with Citizen Kane and went to watch more classics. I loved when least expecting Rhett Butler says to Scarlet, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn”. Wow! After trying everything to win the love of the woman he finally walks off into the black and white mist with that most memorable dialogue I have ever come across. Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh have given tremendous performance in their intensive roles of quest for love. I can still watch the movie all over again and feel the same excitement when Rhett Butler comes up with his famous dialogue.

There have been many movies in past 25 years which have at times left lasting impressions on me. But there are few movies which contain the shock element of ‘Schindler's List’. Though I am not a part of the events taking place, I go through the shame of being part of the same planet where such cruelty took place. Let us learn from history and let us not let such things happen again.

The Color of My Blog

When choosing the template for my blog the only conditions I had in my mind was that it should have a side-bar and should be in blue color. Blue has been my favorite color forever. It represents calmness and lack of strong emotions. Blue is one of the coolest colors. If not it would not be chosen for the ocean and the skies. The color has been a source of inspiration for me.

Different cultures have different significance associated with the color blue. Some believe it to bring peace, some believe that it drives away evil spirit and for some it conveys importance and confidence. Artists make use of the blue color to show perspective. It gives a feeling of distance. They say blue color gives out a vibration that helps in communication.

I use the color blue on my blog to give out feeling of calmness. It also encourages communication which is most needed for a blog. It says this blog is for peace. Live and enjoy the colorful world.

Check out more information on

http://h20426.www2.hp.com/campaign/demand-more/in/en/index.html

http://www.indiblogger.in/topic.php?topic=37