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The Alchemist is an allegorical novel by Paulo Coelho first published in 1988. The Alchemist was originally written in Portuguese. It has sold more than 65 million copies in more than 150 countries, becoming one of the best-selling books in history. The Alchemist details the journey of an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago. Santiago, believing a recurring dream to be prophetic, decides to travel to the pyramids of Egypt to find treasure. On the way, he encounters love, danger, opportunity, disaster and learns a lot about himself and the ways of the world. One of the significant characters that he meets is an old king who tells him about discovering his personal legend: what he always wanted to accomplish in his life. And that "When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." This is the core philosophy and motto of the book. Excerpts from the foreword by Paulo Coelho : What is a personal calling? It is God's blessing...

The ego is the worst confidence trickster we could ever figure or imagine because you don't see it. The problem is that the ego hides in the last place that you'd ever look within itself. It disguises its thoughts as your thoughts, its feelings as your feelings. People's need to protect their own egos knows no bounds. They will lie, cheat, steal, kill, do whatever it takes to maintain what we call ego boundaries. People have no clue that they're imprisoned. They don't know that there is an ego, they don't know the distinction. At first, it's difficult for the mind to accept that there's something beyond itself, that there's something of greater value and greater capacity for discerning truth than itself. In religion, the ego manifests as the devil. And of course no one realizes how smart the ego is, because it created the devil so you could blame someone else. In creating this imaginary external enemy, it usually made a real enemy for ourselves, a...

MedlinePlus brings together authoritative information from NLM, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other government agencies and health-related organizations. Preformulated MEDLINE searches are included in MedlinePlus and give easy access to medical journal articles. MedlinePlus also has extensive information about drugs, an illustrated medical encyclopedia, interactive patient tutorials, and latest health news.

A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousand of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.  Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule.  A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk.  A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.  The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all...

Life is tough, that’s a given. When you stand up, you’re gonna be shoved back down. When you’re down, you’re gonna be stepped on. My advice to you doesn’t come with a lot of bells and whistles. It’s no secret: you’ll fall down, you stumble, you get pushed, you land square on your face.And every time that happens, you get back on your feet. You get up just as fast as you can, no matter how many times you need to do it. Remember this: success has been and continues to be defined as getting up one more time than you’ve been knocked down. If experience has taught me anything, it’s that nothing is free and living ain’t easy. Life is hard, real hard, incredibly hard. You fail more often than you win, nobody is handing you anything. It’s up to you to puff up your chest, stretch your neck and overcome all that is difficult – the nasty, the mean, the unfair. If you want more than what you have now, prove it! If you want to beat the very best out there that is, get out there an...

Most of these observations are either completely or partially true. Corruption has many names, and one of civil society isn't innocent either. Professionals and businessmen of various sorts indulge in unscrupulous practices. I recently had a chat with some doctors, surgeons and owners of nursing homes about the tricks of their trade. Here is what they said   1)      40-60% kickbacks for lab tests. When a doctor (whether family doctor / general physician, consultant or surgeon) prescribes tests - pathology, radiology, X-rays, MRIs etc. - the laboratory conducting those tests gives commissions.  In South and Central Mumbai -- 40%.  In the suburbs north of Bandra -- a whopping 60 per cent!  He probably earns a lot more in this way than the consulting fees that you pay. 2)      30-40% for referring to consultants, specialists & surgeons. When your friendly GP refers you to a specialist or surgeon, he gets 30-40%.  3)      30-40% of total hospital charges. If the GP or consultan...

THIS IS YOUR LIFE. Do what you LOVE and do it OFTEN. If you don’t like something, CHANGE IT. If you don’t like your job, QUIT. If you don’t have enough time, QUIT WATCHING TV. If you are looking for the love of your life, STOP. They will be waiting for you when you START DOING THINGS YOU LOVE. STOP OVER ANALYZING, LIFE IS SIMPLE. All emotions are beautiful. When you eat, appreciate EVERY LAST BITE. Open your MIND, ARMS, and HEART to New Things and People, We are united in our DIFFERENCES. Ask the NEXT PERSON you see what their PASSION is, and SHARE your INSPIRING DREAM with them. TRAVEL OFTEN; getting lost will help you FIND YOURSELF. Some OPPORTUNITIES only come once, SEIZE THEM. Life is about the PEOPLE you meet and the things you CREATE WITH THEM. So go out and START CREATING. LIFE IS SHORT. Live your DREAM and wear your PASSION. Source:  http://shop.holstee.com/pages/about http://reflectionof.me/life-35362

We are a unique species,   aren’t   we? Not humans. Indians, I mean. No other race speaks or spells like we do. Take greetings for example. A friendly clerk asking me for my name is apt to start a conversation with, “What is your good name?” As if I hold that sort of information close to my heart and only divulge my evil pseudonym. Bizarre. Which got me thinking about a compilation, a greatest hits of the 10 most hilarious   Indianisms   out there. And here they are.  1. 'Passing out' When you complete your studies at an educational institution, you graduate from that institution. You do not "pass out" from that institution. To "pass out" refers to losing consciousness, like after you get too drunk, though I’m not sure how we managed to connect graduating and intoxication. Oh wait … of course, poor grades throughout the year could lead to a sudden elation on hearing   you’ve   passed all of your exams, which could lead to you actually "passing o...

The BMW film series, The Hire was a series of eight short films (averaging about ten minutes each) produced for the Internet in 2001 and 2002. A form of branded content, all eight films featured popular filmmakers from across the globe, starred Clive Owen as the "Driver", and highlighted the performance aspects of various BMW automobiles. The plots of each of the films differ, but one constant remains: Clive Owen plays "The Driver", a man who goes from place to place (in presumably rented BMW automobiles), getting hired by various people to be a sort of transport for their vital needs. Ambush Directed by John Frankenheimer Featured the BMW 740i While escorting an elderly man to an undisclosed location, The Driver is confronted by a van full of armed men Chosen Directed by Ang Lee Featured the BMW 540i The Driver protects a holy Asian child that was brought to America by boat. The Follow Directed by Wong Kar-wai Featured the BMW 330i Coupé and ...

Put about 100 bricks in some particular order in a closed Room with an Open window.  Then send your candidates in the room and close the door.  Leave them alone and come back after 6 hours and then analyze the situation.  If they are counting the bricks, put them in the Accounts Department .  If they are recounting them, put them in Auditing . If they have messed up the whole place with the bricks, put them in Engineering .  If they are arranging the bricks in some strange order, put them in Planning .  If they are throwing the bricks at each other, put them in Operations. If they are sleeping, put them in Security .  If they have broken the bricks into pieces, put them in Information Technology .  If they are sitting idle, put them in Human Resources .  If they say they have tried different combinations, yet not a brick has been moved, put them in Sales . If they have already left for the day, put them in Marketing . If they are staring out of the window, put them on Strategic P...

Sometimes the biggest lessons in life come from the smallest folks around us. All of us tend to look up to big people for lessons on how to get better.  We are keen to learn the secrets of their success. But we forget that sometimes the biggest lessons in life come from the smallest folks around us. Now that’s a good lesson to remember! Take ants for instance. Would you believe those small creatures can teach us how to live a better life? Jim Rohn - the great motivational guru – developed what he called the ‘Ants Philosophy’. He identified four key lessons from the behaviour of ants that can help us lead better lives. Jim Rohn is no more – but his messages continue to inspire. Here then, are the four lessons from Rohn’s ‘Ants Philosophy’. 1. Ants never quit. Have you noticed how ants always look for a way around an obstacle? Put your finger in an ant’s path and it will try and go around it, or over it. It will keep looking for a way out. It won’t just stand there and stare. It won...

An old-timer gets into a tizzy when he realises that a computer has stolen his pet's name. BC: Can you imagine people naming their pets after computer jargon? I read about this guy who named his guinea pigs Qwerty and Wysiwyg (What you see is what you get). AD: Not surprising, I have a friend who named his dog Floppy because he had long ears. BC: Can you imagine a cat being named Laptop and a Chihuahua being called a Widget? AD: Going by your logic, a mule can be named ASCII and… BC: But my neighbour's dog can surely be named GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out). That's exactly what he does all day. AD: But why can't animals be named after computer terminology when computer parts are named after animals? BC: What do you mean? AD: One of the reasons why the mouse was named so was because the cord that connected it to the computer resembled a tail. BC: But now you've also got Mouse NT. AD: NT as in New Technology, like Windows NT? BC: No, NT as in No Tail — the cordless...