How much does a miracle cost??

I read this somewhere and was really touched by this Story. Here is goes-

Story told by Azim Premji Wipro Chairman during IIT Madras Convocation Speech

An eight-year-old child heard her parents talking about her little brother. All she knew was that he was very sick and they had no money left. They were moving to a smaller house because they could not afford to stay in the present house after paying the doctor's bills. Only a very costly surgery could save him now and there was no one to loan them the money.

When she heard daddy say to her tearful mother with whispered desperation, 'Only a miracle can save him now', the child went to her bedroom and pulled a glass jar from its hiding place in the closet.

She poured all the change out on the floor and counted it carefully.

Clutching the precious jar tightly, she slipped out the back door and made her way six blocks to the local drug Store. She took a quarter from her jar and placed it on the glass counter.

"And what do you want?" asked the pharmacist.

"It's for my little brother," the girl answered back.

"He's really, really sick and I want to buy a miracle."

"I beg your pardon?" said the pharmacist. "His name is Andrew and he has something bad growing inside his head and my daddy says only a miracle can save him. So how much does a miracle cost?"

"We don't sell miracles here, child. I'm sorry," the pharmacist said, smiling sadly at the little girl.

"Listen, I have the money to pay for it. If it isn't enough, I can try and get some more. Just tell me how much it costs."

In the shop was a well-dressed customer. He stooped down and asked the little girl, "What kind of a miracle does you brother need?"

"I don't know," she replied with her eyes welling up. "He's really sick and mommy says he needs an operation. But my daddy can't pay for it, so I have brought my savings".

"How much do you have?" asked the man.

"One dollar and eleven cents, but I can try and get some more", she answered barely audibly.

"Well, what a coincidence," smiled the man. "A dollar and eleven cents the exact price of a miracle for little brothers."

He took her money in one hand and held her hand with the other. He said, "Take me to where you live. I want to see your brother and meet your parents. Let's see if I have the kind of miracle you need." That well-dressed man was Dr Carlton Armstrong, a surgeon, specializing in neuro-surgery.

The operation was completed without charge and it wasn't long before Andrew was home again and doing well.

"That surgery," her mom whispered, "was a real miracle. I wonder how much it would have cost?" The little girl smiled. She knew exactly how much the miracle cost one dollar and eleven cents .. plus the faith of a little child.

"Perseverance can make miracles happen "

This is what I call creativity.

Tata Nano & the people's car - but who are these people?

The expression 'Public' or 'People' is used indiscriminately both by polititians and corporates alike. Their respective ideas or products are thrust forcibly on the people under the guise of 'public interest' or the 'wish of the people'

Tata's 1-lakh car demonstrates just this. This is nothing but a criminal attempt by Tata (with great respect to Tatas & their noble/ priceless contribution to India's industrialization over the years since Indian independence) to push its miniature size unsafe car into the Indian markets with a sole intention to make gains. The worst part is they call it the "People's car". But who are these people? What will they gain out of this car? The very thought of having to look at the problem of jammed roads and lack of parking spaces in cities is really scaring. The increase in the level of pollution in cities is also a major cause of concern. This 1-lakh car is just going to make things worse for the nation.

From the business point of view this is killing competiton. We (Indians) accused Aussies of poor or no sportsmanship. Now what would you call this?? Just like the Aussies arrogant and unacceptable attitude of "win at any cost", this seems to be Tata's style of saying "Now I will sell my cars, at any cost".

Sydney fiasco - Indian media going overboard

There is no doubt that it was really sad seeing India lose a match which they could have atleast drawn (realistically speaking, had all umpiring decisions been correct, India could have actually won the match). Then the racism row, something that should have never happened. Harbhajan was handed a 3 match ban instantanly (amazing, super quick judgement - Saudi style)

Be that as it may, as it is on one hand things were quite heated up. On the other hand, the Indian media seems to be adding more fuel to the fire. The effect to this "adding fuel to fire" was quite visible when we witnessed one of Indian's most famous and familiar way of protest - "burning of effigies". The media was also prompt in reporting as to how Harbhajan's mom felt her son could never be wrong (it reminds me of the then famous 'Sehwag ki Maa' days) and how a conspiracy seems to have been hatched against her son. Moreover, never mind the official confirmation from ICC or the BCCI, the media had also started speculating the fate of the tour indicating that the tour might be called off.

As if the contributions of the print media is not enough, the visual media lead by CNN-IBN (one disgusting news channel) and TIMES NOW (yuk, english counterparts of Stars News in terms of content) were quite irrepressible and tried their best to make the discussions with so called "experts" on the topic more glamorous. Would you believe it, the expert opinions of Irrrrfan Khan (I donno how many R's his numerologist had recommended) and Mandira Bedi (after whom watching cricket was never the same again) on behalf of bollywood was also taken and quoted. I really donno what bollywood has got to do with this. Tomorrow a Rakhi Sawant would come, sit in the commentary box and tell us how Sachin should be playing his sweep shots or how Saurav Ganguly should be playing his cover drives. Really disgusting. NDTV, not to be left behind, are running an "India, Come Back" campaign on their website. Come'on NDTV, never expected this from you.

I wonder where the Indian media would want to take us at the end of the day. Biased views and irrational speculations guided by a commercial motive is todays media is about. Cricket is a sport that I have followed all through my life so passionately and it is really disgusting and disappointing to hear actors like Irrfan Khan or Mandira Bedi talk about cricket.

Not surprisingly Mike Coward in his article quite aptly termed the Indian media as a partisan and ropeable.

Chennai City traffic police - really funny

This was something that happened I happened to witness today and I found it quite funny.

There was this traffic sergeant near Raj Bhavan who suddenly jumped onto the road and stopped 7-8 speeding bikes. There was this biker who thought that it was beyond his dignity to stop. Now this sergeant was quick enough to get right in front of this "rogue biker". What is so funny about this you might ask. Ok, the funniest part is the question that our sergeant asked these guys seriously after uttering a few expletives.

ENNADA KUDICHITU RUNNING RACE-A OTAREENGA

Old is gold - oh really??

Jyoti Basu (born June 3, 1914) 93 years

Harkishen Singh Surjeet (born March 23, 1916) 91 years

Karunanidhi (born June 3, 1924) 83 years

Atal Behari Vajpayee (born Dec 25, 1924) 83 years

Fevicol ki jod. Yamraj be thod na paye.

The story of Sanjay Dutt and the harmless criminal

The media simply cannot stop talking about this man. They followed him right from his home to the TADA Court in Mumbai to the Yerwada jail in Pune to the Supreme Court till back home to Mumbai. However I was a bit perturbed when I read this one on the web where he said spending Diwali in Jail was a sad part (of his life). Damn it, here is a man who was jailed for an offence as serious as possessing AK-56s (alright we know he was absolved of criminal conspiracy charges in the Bombay Bomb Blast Case) is casually making this statement, as if to mean he was in prison for absolutely no fault of his. Anyways, this is India’s most celebrated criminal for you.

Nevertheless, the story of Sanjay Dutt and the harmless criminal still continues to amaze all of us.

PS: No offence intended. I still love Vaastav and the Munnabhai series.