Pricesless

The life becomes more and more complicated as you start expecting more, as you start dreaming more and as your requirements start to rise. But then all that is required, to grow as a person to challenge yourself and to enjoy life. There is a separate path to it, which leads to being an ascetic, more of a monk, going towards spirituality, serving a bigger purpose like Mother Teresa or Baba Amte. But being a simple, materialistic human being I generally get caught up between these two extremes.

Does the life need to be so complicated at all. And the answer is off course, no. We as humans have that capability to seek exactly, what we are looking for and we can always get, where we want to, with a little effort, control and consistency. It's you and only you, who can decide, if you want to keep your life simple and still quite fulfilling.

Agree that a vacation in Caribbean is pricy. Agree that a sea side villa in a posh locality is something that would need a fortune of money. Be able to spend five days at exclusively designed golf course with family and friends is part of a lavish lifestyle. Sending your kids to the best schools in the town can consume a large chunk of your bank balance. Dining in five star hotels and going for cruises every once in a while requires you to be in that elite club. You see, there is no end to this and I can go on and on. There is nothing bad in all this and one should do all of the above, if their bank balance allows.

But the point here is, life is priceless. Being alive and making most of what you have itself is heck of an achievement. Believe me not many people are able to do it. Be able to listen to your mind, be able to give time to your loved ones, be able to follow your passion, be able to communicate with yourself are some of the things that does not necessarily require money. So there has to be a balance and one should know what he is looking for.

Although it’s equally true that I do keep finding ways to make myself financially free and have all my time to myself to do things that I want to do. But I make sure that while I pursue these goals, I don't miss on things which are priceless and does not need lot of money, just a little bit of time. Having complete control on your time can be such a great bliss.

There are those few moments that you live only once and can never be replaced by anything else. It can be the stupidest things on earth, but they drive you and keep you going. Identify those and start living while you are running to make your so called living.

Here, I am trying to list out all those things that I have found to be priceless and feel that money can't buy it.

• The time I spend with my daughter playing badminton on weekends
• The day I get into kitchen and cook some dish for my family (It can even be a simple sandwich)
• A long walk in the thickness of some natural setting
• A trek to the most difficult peak in the Sahyadris along with few of those crazy trekkers
• A long late night chitchat with my old buddies at a beach along with cool breeze and a beer :)
• The joy on the face of my wife when I offer her the Gajara(fragrant flowers beautifully tied with string) bought right at the corner on my way home
• A nice fifteen minutes swim in the morning is refreshing
• Writing instantaneously on a thought that captured my mind and sharing it with friends
• Meeting an age old friend all of a sudden, leading to an hour of catch up just around the corner
• Singing a song, in my awe full voice, for my five month old Son as he sleeps in my arms
• A Vadapav or Bhajjia (spicy Indian snack) at theTapri, as it rains heavily in monsoon
• A sudden plan to take a leave on valentine’s day by me and my wife and then leaving normally for office, but spending the whole day together watching movie, visiting Nariman point and dining in some nice restaurant...
• Somebody sending an offline comment to my blog saying, it felt like it was written for me :)
• A quick chat with our swimming pool attendant to understand his big dreams and ideas to make a great living

This can go on and on and makes me realize how priceless life is. Somebody as rightly said happiness is a journey, but then I can go a step further and say it’s your birth right. Go grab it, because, if you really see, it does not really cost that much.

By

Darshan Vartak

http://www.livethypassion.com

Please feel free to reach me at darshanvartak@gmail.com

Leverage

There are only three legal ways to become wealthy.

Number one is if you are born rich.
Number two is if you have some unique talent and
Number three is to increase your time by means of leverage, which is what, all the big business owners do.

Imagine that you are in the business of writing articles for magazines and that you could make $100 for every article you write. If you were to write 2 articles per day, you would earn a gross income of $200 a day before expenses. This is an example of a linear income where you use 100% of your own efforts to create an income. This is what the majority of people do their entire lives.

Now imagine that you owned a article writing referral business where instead of writing articles yourself, you spend your time finding magazines that need articles and employ writers to do the physical work. Let's say you have got to the point where your business now employs 20 writers that each writes 2 articles per day. You pay each writer $80 per article, but you charge $100, such that you make a profit of $20 per article. 20 writers writing 2 articles each means that you are now writing a total of 40 articles a day, which is a lot more than what you could have done by yourself. Even though now you are only earning $20 a articles in profit yourself, when you add it up, it makes huge difference. Using the power of leverage you are now earning $800 a day (ie $20 per article x 40 articles per day = $800 per day).

So basically you could spend your days finding magazines and writing articles for them yourself (not that there is anything wrong with this) and get paid $200 a day OR you could earn $8000 per day, just finding magazines that need articles. As a smart businessperson which is the smarter option?

Now be very careful here, to get to the stage where you can start to leverage off others you may have to do the physical work first. That is, it might take you a years of writing articles yourself before you have an adequate customer base before you can start to employ writers to do the work for you. But a smart business person is willing to make short-term sacrifices to make long term gains.

Unfortunately in most traditional businesses, like the example above, the only ones who benefit from the work of others are the business owners, even though it is loyal hard-working employees that do most of the work.

People in Robert Kiyosaki's right quadrant use this amazing concept called as leverage. Have you heard about leverage?

Let me give you another simple example.

How many hours do you have in your day? Isn't it 24 Hours?
How many hours the owner of your company has in his day? Same, 24 Hours?

If you have 1 Lakh employee in your organization, and each of them gives 10 hours per day, the owner has 10 Lakh hours in his day. Now if you work for even 40 year, you would not have those kind of hours in your entire life. True? So one should not be surprised, if he is getting wealthy day by day.

Let's define wealth. Ask yourself a question. How much time can you survive if you stop doing what you are doing today? For most of us the answer would be probably a year, few months or may be few weeks.

We follow a routine of go to work and come back home for 30-40 years, while for these people their money goes to work, creates an asset and starts pumping in steady income for them. So what do they do, they leverage on people's time, skills and sometimes even money.

Now most of these people who are self-made millionaires started with nothing, but then they had a vision and a will to work hard to create a system or a process. These people believe in pipelines or assets. They understand the important of team work or leverage.

Network Marketing is a great way to build an income by leveraging the power of a team. Have you ever heard the saying ‘many hands make light work?’ The most important thing in network marketing is teamwork and teamwork is a direct result of duplication. When you can combine a business model such as network marketing with the power to train your team mates so they can learn to get results fast, you are creating an explosive environment for massive success.

Once you learn how to look for leverage you will see that it’s not a case of working MORE, but a case of using your time wisely, in a way that gives you bigger returns on your efforts. Commit to leveraging your time, energy and effort today and move towards your time and money freedom !!!!

By
Darshan Vartak

http://www.livethypassion.com

Please feel free to reach me at darshanvartak@gmail.com

Kaaldurg

The feeling of missing treks for last few years was paramount and the trekker in me was not letting me sit quietly. Entire 2013 being in London was dedicated to sightseeing and exploring London and Europe, but there was not a single trek. I did try to look for local youth hostels and whether there is any camping available through them. In fact I had planned for an overnight stay in Hainault forest arranged by Redbridge Council, but it did not materialize. So one of the major activities planned for 2014 was going for treks in Sahyadris. Finally it was June and I saw a Trekking schedule for VAC on Facebook.

I was in Virar a day before and decided to stay there instead of going to Borivali. Starting from Virar gave me an extra sleep of one hour and I was comfortably on platform number three for Dahanu train. Thanks to railways for starting local trains to Dahanu. I purposefully took the skywalk over lake to capture the morning peace and tranquility of the lake. The ducks and swans were at peace and enjoying their slow but elegant movements across the lake.

I met Suhas, our leader for this trek near indicator and soon we were boarded in 6:48 train to Dahanu. It was good to see few old faces like Kuldeep Chaudhari and Siddesh Vartak in the train. Talking about few previous treks like Korigadh and reminiscing the fun we had there, took me back in past and could relive few of those moments.

Suhas said there were 40 registrations on phone and that really surprised me, not because this was little less-known trek, but the heat was still on and the delayed monsoon was a talk of the town. By 7:40 we were at Palghar station and made me really happy to see the typical trekker’s crowd there. People did not really cared about the heat and their passion really made them get up and come here in this scorching heat. That’s the magic of Trekking. Really amazing.

Half of the bus was filled by VAC trekkers and it was emptied as well in next 20-25 minutes as we got down at Vaghoba Phata.The gang of monkeys was ready to pounce on you and we had to be really careful while having our Pattis, a typical VAC snack. I really love those Pattises.

The well-disciplined rituals of standing in a circle, counting, introduction and instructions were executed seamlessly. The thunderous chanting of “Praudh Pratap Purandar” , suddenly turned each one of us into a die-hard Maratha soldier on mission, ready to attack the fort and capture it.

The initial patch was the most challenging and I had a feeling that I am getting older. The steep slopes, narrow trails,rising heat and knowing that it is just the starting, there is still long way to go, made me feel abit panicky and knew it’s not going to be easy.But then there was some strange mental strength that kept driving and giving that energy to carry on.

Monsoon might have made climbing tough, as it does not have steps and climbing was steep with sudden turns and lots of bushes, branches blocking your path. But right now there was this heat making us sweat to exhaustion.

As you move on,you start getting highlights of the view that you are going to enjoy at the top. These sneaky peaks giveyou more energy and scope for your photography. So however exhausted you are, the will to go to the top, keeps on rising.

My motivation was Kirti, my VJTI mate, being his first trek and not having a lot of trekking background he was doing absolutely great. The will, to beat youngsters and stay ahead at the age of forty one, was one more inspiration for me. The forest although not very dense has a wide variety of plants. The pink colored flowers (Pink Kombada) were prominent. Kaarvi trees had lined up few patched of trail while rest of the trees looked more like Kaaju, Bor and Karavand.

Soon we had covered almost half the distance and a flat rocky patch was quite inviting to break for some time.The view from our midway-break-spot was quite wonderful. Abhijit and gang gave few fantastic and funny poses. Kirti had his own shot at photography, capturing the activity and the surrounding nature at its best. The sun did his best at making us sweat, but we had really beaten him by gathering in such a big number and enjoying the trek at our best. The energy was overpowering and everyone seems to be in that buzz.

As we moved on through our second half, panting, sweating, but still capturing the surrounding valley and view of the mountains with Surya river flowing magnificently through them. We saw the fortification of Kaaldurg fort at distance with a flag right on top.

The last patch was too tough and had very less rocky patches to hold on to. Loose rocks, steep slope, no trees to hold on to made this patch little too difficult and we were sure this would be a natural slide for many on their way back :). We thanked for not having a rainy weather, or it would have doubled our trouble.

There was this huge sense of achievement on everyone’s face as we landed onto the flat surface. The ecstatic cries of few of us really revealed that emotion. Reaching to the top took around one and half hour and it is advisable to take very few mini-micro breaks and a longer midway break at a patch where you can relax do some photography as well and get ready for the second half of the trek. Top of the fort is a huge rectangular rock.

Both the half have its own challenges. I was wearing a Bermuda but quickly realize that a track-pant would have been better, as there are lot of cactuses and thorny bushes that might prick you at times. Being a less frequented trail, the Kaarvi trees, grass and other bushes are generally overgrown and can cause trouble.

The group was mainly composed of lot of youngsters, but the presence of veterans like Kuldeep, Suhas and Siddesh made sure that the discipline is maintained at all cost. It was made very clear that one can't forget that we are at trek and not on a picnic. So while having lot of fun, leg pulling,commenting, jokes, there were no nasty pranks or disrespect of the environment. Everyone enjoyed sharing the snacks, posing in groups, getting information on spots around, identifying places, that people know of.People staying close by, were proactive to point the spots and adding to our knowledge

The whistle for lunch blew and the 52 hungry souls, quite pleased after experiencing the cool oxygen-rich breeze at the top reached out to their sacks. The grand feast did not take a lot of time. Tasting the variety of food was an amazing fun and Kirti made sure to give me experience of his authentic Gujarati flavors of homemade food.

The two girls from Kiravali,Priyanka and don't really remember the second girl's name, made sure they don't treat the Sunday as Tuesday and few spicy delicious chicken pieces added great taste. The Shiraa (a Maharashtrian sweet) made by my mother in law and Puranpolis (again a maharashtrian sweet) from a local shop in Virar served as a perfect desert.

After a mouth watering feast, sleeping on one of the huge rock at the corner, looking at the open skies, breathing the cool air and admiring the valleys,mountains, winding Surya river, cute villages and expanses of Arabian sea at distance, Mahim and Kelva beaches, the mind was contented. I was in my Nirvaana state at that moment and nothing else could have replaced that joy for the moment.

That’s how life is, you never know what you are looking for and then there are these tiny bundles of joy that embrace you all of a sudden and you feel humbled, the feeling of gratitude is overwhelming and you can't just stops saying thanks to the almighty, for giving this beautiful life and a soul to experience it.

Well the whistle blew again and it was time to bid good bye to this beauty and the scenery. The 52 contented souls were back on their journey,now much homogeneous. Few were new acquaintances, while few probably soul mates, few sticking to their groups, but each enjoying their time here.

As predicted, the descent, was putting lot of pressure on feet and one wrong step and you are sure for a free slide. After all the care, few of the minor injuries were unavoidable. The sun was much harder on us now and we thanked our self for making it to the top much early in the day. Although it would have been tough during monsoon, everyone missed rains. We gave very sad looks to each other, after spotting few of the tiny dry waterfalls at the corners.

The midway spot gave us the required rest and a nice break. The slides and few traffic jams continued in the second half as we made it to the Vaghoba Mandir.

The refreshment store lady did some good business as people were craving for Mango Slice and other cold drinks. State Transport proved to be in our favour as we got two STs in a very short while. We were soon boarded in MEMU(Mainline Electric Multiple Unit) Train to Dadar. I had good chat with Siddhesh, Kuldeep, Kirti and Priyanka.Did some leg pulling of Dilip as well.

This was the quickest trek that I had. I was at home sipping my Tropicana guava juice,talking about the awesome fun that we had and playing with my four month old son at 5 pm.

This gave a good sense of achievement with lot of fun. It really makes you push yourself and tests not only your physical strength, but mental power as well. This kind of activity is always a team work and a great way to bright about that love and caring for nature. After breathing lot of oxygen, the whole week retains that buzz. It’s nice to pass on the excitement to others as well and feel contented. Also it’s fun to make few others feel jealous, especially those who did not join,to motivate them to join next

Happy Trekking!!!!

Important Info:

Fort: Kaldurg
Base :WaghobaKhind on road to Jalgaon from Palghar
Grade : Medium
Height: 1547 feet

• The cost of a ticket to WagobaMandir by ST is Rs. 9 per head and by Tum-Tum; the fare is Rs.20 per head.
• Near the temple there is a small refreshment store serving cold drinks and dry snack items.

Tips:

• Carry min two liters of water if you are trekking on a sunny day. If there is no rain, it’s really exhausting
• Don’t wear sleeveless T shirts as there are lots of thorns and narrow trails.One can see lots of Cactus plants too.

Few Web Links

http://trekshitiz.com/Ei/Kaldurg-Trek-Palghar-Range.html

http://trythethrill.com/trek-to-kaldurg-palghar

http://merwynsrucksack.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/kaldurg-fort-in-palghar.html

http://acewings.tumblr.com/post/58623011574/kaldurg-a-short-and-sweet-trek-near-palghar

http://www.bhramanti.com/palghar.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaldurg_Fort

http://jayaram-trekking.blogspot.co.uk/2009/09/kaldurg-trek.html

By
Darshan Vartak

http://livethypassion.wordpress.com

Please feel free to reach me at darshanvartak@gmail.com

Created with flickr slideshow.

Word of Mouth

Do you help businesses to grow? Yes you do and honestly in a big way.

Lets say during one of the conversation you mention about a restaurant “Sun and Sand” in your area. Now one of the weekends I happen to be there in your area with my family and I remember you talking about “Sun and Sand” restaurant. I go to the restaurant and liked the food very much. Well, I went to the restaurant because you told me about the great food and wonderful ambiance of the restaurant. But then who gets paid here,off course the restaurant owner.

Now natural tendency is, I start talking about the nice food I had,to my friends. I might even put up a photo as well on Facebook. Over a period of time, it might happen that 100 people visit restaurant due to this word of mouth publicity, initiated by you. That’s the power of word of mouth. We trust our friends, relatives more than anybody else isn’t it. Now when these 100 people dine at the restaurant who gets paid. Again off course, the restaurant owner.

This also works negatively. If a friend of yours talks about his bad experience with one of the doctors, would you ever visit that doctor? No way.

So you can imagine how powerful this concept is. If we take this powerful concept of word of mouth and combine it with ecommerce, how does that sound.This also removes all the intermediate agents like advertisers, stockists, wholesalers, retailers. This is also called as MAD (Marketing, Advertisement and Distribution) cost.

A Bisleri bottle costs around 10-20 Rupees. But do you know what is it’s manufacturing cost. It’s not more than 80 Paise. Now why there is such a huge price difference. Simply, because there is a huge chunk of cost consumed by stockists, wholesalers and retailers. There is a major chunk that goes to the advertisement featuring Sharukh Khan, who does not add any value to the water, but we all pay for his cost as well. True?

Now if you really see, companies spend a huge amount of money on MAD. Sometimes 70% of the product cost is attributed to this whole supply chain management. A Network Marketing company removes this whole supply chain management. This is the reason, company can provide products at quite reasonable rates and also share a good amount of revenue with you and me, who decide to act as face to the company.

Doesn’t it make sense to do, what we naturally do and also make money out of it?

By
Darshan Vartak

http://livethypassion.blospot.com

Please feel free to reach me at darshanvartak@gmail.com

Habits

Out of following five things which makes the most difference in your life
Talent, Hard work, Education, Connections, Attitude

Wouldn't Attitude and Hard work be the topmost. People having no education, no inbuilt talent and no connections whatsoever, have made it really big in their life. They have acquired success that we always dreamt of, with die-hard attitude and focused efforts.  

Question is, What is success?
Isn't it just becoming somebody who you always wanted to be, being somebody that you always dreamed about. Who better than you can define this?

God has done justice with everyone by giving equal number of hours to everyone. So the people who achieve and the people who do not achieve have the same number of hours. So what really makes difference?

Now its easy to give excuses like, these successful people are born with talent ,few of them are born with lot of wealth or few of them might have godfather to guide. But the fact still remains that there are large number of successful people who did not have any of these things.

Let me ask you this. Which is your biggest enemy?

Don't you think it's laziness? What is that one thing that separates passionate people and people who have given up on life?

How would you feel, if you become somebody that you dream of?
For example somebody with attractive personality, with great communication, wonderful attitude, lot of energy and passion, doing exactly what you love doing, making good money and helping people to do the same.

So start visualizing that person that you want to be from today. Start living that life today, be that person and think like that person.

There would be distractions, there would be negative thought, there would be failures, but, hey come ‘on, did all the successful people became successful overnight. They all had to go through the transformation, put that effort to reach their destination.

And if you look at all these people, the simple thing they all did was get into action and these actions have to consistent and focused. Because practice makes man perfect and what other thing can help you achieve this than a strong habit. A habit that is built over a period of time, but becomes like second nature.

So build your habits and you would have built your life. The difficult part is building a habit, but once you have built it, nothing can stop you from getting to your destination.

Start with the most difficult thing. Say talking in front of a group of people. Start with a routine of talking in front of a mirror for half an hour for one month and then present yourself in front of your family. Continue for three more months and present yourself  in front of your friends. Do you feel better, are you more confident now. Continue for three more months and speak in front of your colleagues. If you continue doing this for a year, it won't be difficult to speak in front of an audience of say 200 people. The more you do it the better you would get at it. So the simple solution is build a habit  and let the habit built you.

You can apply the same technique for building habits like getting up on time, keeping fit through regular exercise, allocating time to call your contacts and network with people, allocating time for family, a daily ritual of meditation and connecting with self. It need not make your life mechanical, it simply means you do the things which are most important with utmost ease and no second thought, while leaving lot of other time for few ad-hoc things.

By
Darshan Vartak

https://livethypassion.blogspot.in

Please feel free to reach me at darshanvartak@gmail.com

Lagos

A peaceful, contented walk to the resort, enjoying the Algarve weather and soon we were in bed.  Next day tour was going to start at 2:30 in the afternoon. After a pizza margarita, fried mushrooms in olive oil and a sandwich, we took a stroll around the resort admiring the cute houses and beautiful neighbourhood. Rua De Amanheia had some of the familiar garden plants like Cactuses, Periwinkle, Boganvellia  etc.

The pickup Van arrived on time and we were soon transferred into a bigger bus with Vanda and Tiego taking over the control for rest of the day. The journey through the vine yards and orange farms was interesting. The cute and colourful houses with their distinctive Moorish chimneys kept me busy and the sunny weather added to the energy. This time of the year it was mainly the elderly generation who were part of our bus crowd. The younger generation or the families flock here during July and August, which is the summer break in this part of the world.

As we moved towards Lagos, I could get few glimpses of the urbanized Portugal with taller buildings, wider roads and beautiful roundabouts. The trees in Portugal were much closer to those found in India and I was happy to meet them here. It was more like meeting few old friends. Nilgiri or Eucalyptus tree were prominently visible and so were the banana trees. The Portuguese language has huge Arabic influence apart from the architectural influence.

The major crops in this area as informed by Tiego were Oranges, Olives and Almonds. As we passed few thick lines of trees on the roadside, Tiego gave us information on the corks. Right from how the cork is being produced to how the natural wooden cork is better for wines. Passed a huge bridge on river Arad at Portemao and also could have a look at a flock of Flamingos, quite symbolic of this colourful culture. I am not sure if Portuguese culture has it but, the flamingo dance in equally colourful outfit is part of Spanish culture.

Tiego kept us entertained in his humorous way of sharing the information and it came naturally to him. I was surprised to hear Potato being called Batata in Portugese and realized the name in Marathi (Local language in state of Maharashtra) must have come down from Portuguese language.  The pottery houses exhibited some of the classical pottery, giving insight into Portuguese art.

Our first halt was at one of the classy rock formations near Lagos. Lagos at this place is at its best and it was a treat for me to capture few of the stunning views and pose against few of the spectacular rock formations. My Galaxy S3 did good justice to this place, full of rock formations, caves and stark green sea.

This place is quite high up the hill, with steps to reach out to the bottom, to touch the sea. After few clicks, we followed the steps down to the sea. The steps are carved out of the stone to take you close to the beautiful rock formations. As we descended close to the sea, the beauty of the serene sea and dramatic rock formations got more intense.

Sheetal being in her third month of pregnancy was slow, but then did not want to miss any of this beauty and made down few 100 steps to touch the sea here. The boat rides were ready to take people through the cave formations, similar to the one that we did a day earlier. Although this place is quite touristy we went during the off season, leaving all the beauty for us to enjoy.

The next stop was Lagos Marina and the slave market. We followed the footsteps of some of the early navigators, sailors and slaves as well. When Portugal as a country opened up new avenues in terms of sea faring and reached out to remote corners of the world via sea route. This was the time when the Europe had started looking out for options to silk route, the age old trade route for many-many centuries.

Come to think about it, was such a crucial turning point and Henry the Navigator stands there as a testimony to all this development. People who dared to think differently and break out of the crowd have always contributed immensely to the ways we live our life today. It’s that passion of mankind that has driven him to reach those heights and challenge others.

Today this place is a very cute square with a fort on one end and the marina and a beach on the other side. A greenish looking statue, quite similar to statue of liberty stands there. The narrow alleyways are dotted with cute houses, cobbled pathways and the inviting roadside cafes are having their own unique ambiance. The fish delicacies is the most important dish in their menu and it was nice to see the tourists, enjoying this laidback life for few moments and immersing in the atmosphere of hospitality, fun and love.

The abundance of fish and the clear waters at the marina was amazing. The Sunny weather had added lot of vibe to the atmosphere and our fellow travellers were busy catching all this beauty in their cameras to cherish for long. Moorish influence was again prominent, exhibited through the fort build in stones with narrow alleyways.

Our next stop was “End of the World”. This was the most dramatic sea shore I had visited in my life and I was stunned by the sheer beauty of this place. The rocky cliffs, roaring sea, green expanses of clean water reaching out to the horizon, was quite exciting place to visit and cherish. This is the place, which people at some point imagined as the end of land, until Columbus reached America.

But then this place still has its significance for the mesmerizing view of the Atlantic Ocean, the beautiful light house and freshness of air and makes you feel like flying. It might have inspired many people to dive into the roaring sea and feel that amazing thrill. The only way to express my ecstasy was to breathe the fresh air, standing on the cliff, facing the sea, feeling like flying and being at the top of the world.

The day was well spent in getting few glimpses of the Portuguese culture, understanding the beauty of Algarve and getting lost into the stunning views of the dramatic sea. Tiego’s energy was still 100% and he briefed us on the inefficient toll road and few of the uncompleted projects as well, wasting hard earned people’s money and some of the well-known inefficiencies of their local government, quite typical to our own democracy. Well all governments are more or less same, isn’t it?

I really wanted to spend the evening again at Marina, at the sound of the waves, buzz of the tourists, relooking at beautiful yachts and attractive cafes, crowded with beautiful people, letting themselves into the atmosphere of peace and livelihood, allowing them to be happy and exchanging smiles, admiring the Portuguese hospitality and pampering their taste buds. The marina has it all, it has that life and I had fallen in love with it. But then Maitri and Sheetal did not really have that energy left and we decided to enjoy the hospitality in our very own, Cafe Rio.

The dinner and treatment at Rio Cafe today was exclusive and I was amazed at the change in demeanour of the lady who appeared quite rude in the morning. Human nature is so inexplicable.  The bread with cheese, tuna spread, piri piri chicken gravy with rice, grilled salmon, banana split and a large beer turned out to be a proper Portuguese dinner in the ambiance of a beautiful cafe.

Natural Therapy

Natural Therapy For Headaches !
In about 5 mins, your headache will go.......

The nose has a left and a right side.
We use both to inhale and exhale.
Actually they are different.
You'll be able to feel the difference.

The right side represents the sun.
The left side represents the moon.

During a headache, try to close your right nose
and use your left nose to breathe.
In about 5 mins, your headache will go.

If you feel tired, just reverse, close your left nose
and breathe through your right nose.
After a while, you will feel your mind is refreshed.

Right side belongs to 'hot', so it gets heated up easily.
Left side belongs to 'cold'.

Most females breathe with their left noses,
so they get "cooled off" faster.
Most of the guys breathe with their right noses,
they get worked up.

Do you notice, the moment you awake, which side breathes better?
Left or right ?
If left is better, you will feel tired.
So, close your left nose and use your right nose for breathing..
You will feel refreshed quickly.

Do you suffer from continual headaches?
Try out this breathing therapy.

Close your right nose and breathe through your left nose.
Your headaches will be gone.
Continued the exercise for one month.

Why not give it a try.....a natural therapy without medication.

DON'T FORGET TO SHARE
CURE FOR ACIDITY:
Acidity, it is said, is worse than Cancer. It is one of the most common dis-ease people encounter in their daily life. The home remedy for Acidity is Raw Grains of Rice.

The Process:

1.     Take 8 - 10 grains of raw uncooked rice

2.     Swallow it with water before having your breakfast or eating anything in the morning

3.     Do this for 21 days to see effective results and continuously for 3 months to eliminate acidity from the body

The Cure:

Reduces acid levels in the body and makes you feel better by the day.

CURE FOR CHOLESTEROL:

Cholesterol problem accompanies with Hypertension and Heart Problems. This is also one of the common problems in people who have High Blood Pressure and Diabetes. The home remedy for Cholesterol problem is RAW SUPARI.

The Process:

1.     Take Raw Supari (Betel Nut that is not flavoured) and slice them or make pieces of the same

2.     Chew it for about 20 - 40 minutes after every meal

3.     Spit it out

The Cure:

When you chew the supari, the saliva takes in the juice that is generated and this acts like a Blood Thinner. Once your blood becomes free flowing, it brings down the pressure in the blood flow, thereby reducing Blood Pressure too.

CURE FOR BLOOD PRESSURE:

One of the simple home remedy cure for Blood Pressure is Methi Seeds or Fenugreek Seeds.

The Process:

1.     Take a pinch of Raw Fenugreek Seeds, about 8 - 10 seeds

2.     Swallow it with water before taking your breakfast, every morning

The Cure:

The seeds of Fenugreek are considered good to reduce the blood pressure.

CURE FOR DIABETES:

There are 2 home remedies for Diabetes. One is Ladies Finger and the other is Black Tea.

BLACK TEA: Due to high medication, the organ that is worst affeccted is the Kidney. It has been observed that Black Tea (tea without milk, sugar or lemon) is good for the Kidney. Hence a cup of black tea every morning is highly advisable.

The Process:

1. Boil water along with the tea leaves (any tea leaves will do).

2. Drink the concoction without addingmilk, sugar or lemon.

The Cure:

Black Tea will help in enhancing the function of the kidney, thereby not affecting it more.

LADIES FINGER or OKRA:
Ladies finger is considered to be a good home medicine for diabetes.


The Process:

1. Slit the ladies finger into 2 halves vertically and soak it in water overnight.

2. The next morning, remove the ladies fingers and drink the water, before eating your breakfast.

The Cure:

After the ladies fingers are soaked overnight in the water, you can observe that the water becomes sticky in the morning. This sticky water is considered to be good for people who suffer from Diabetes.

Never Quit

Once upon a time in distant land in India, there was a village. The villagers made their living mostly through farming. The crops were in abundance and they never faced any issues. Years went by and everyone lived very happily.

One of the monsoons the villagers had sown their crops and waiting for the rain. But this year there was no sign of rain. Villagers started getting worried and one of the wise men suggested, they go to the musician in the village. He can play flute to make “Rain God” happy and soon there will be rain.

Villagers flocked at the flute player’s home. The flute player agreed to play “Raga Megh Malhar” to make the “Rain God” happy. The power of music was astonishing and villagers were happy, as they hoped, this would play the trick, the “Rain God” would be happy soon. The musician kept playing, but there was no result.

The flute player started getting impatient and soon and lost his hope. He stopped playing and went back to his home. The villagers now had lost their hope as well. The flute player was their last hope and now they were left with no hope at all.

One sunny morning the villagers happened to meet a stranger passing through their village. He had flute and seemed quite a happy looking man. Looking at his flute the villagers decided to give a last try. They requested him to play “Raga Megh Malhar” to make the Rain God happy. The stranger gave smile and agreed to help the villagers.

The stranger started playing his flute, he was not an expert but he still had the sweetness and melody to enchant everyone. Time went by, but still there was no rain. The stranger never stopped he went on and on. Soon there came a day when the “Rain God” was happy and started showering over the village.

Villagers admired the stranger and thanked him for saving the village. But then the villagers were curious to know, while the other flute player in the village also did his best, why couldn’t he make the “Rain God” happy. The stranger smiled and said, the only thing I did was “kept playing the music until there was rain”.

The story leads to a very bare truth about life and that is most of the time in life people quit, when they are very close to success. People tend to forget that, for each one of us there is a unique journey and definite destiny. People tend to believe in all other things outside, but themselves. It’s the faith in self, that you are God’s unique creation and you have a definite purpose. It is this belief that has created those personalities that, we always aspire to become. The only key is not to quit believing in self.

"If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention, than to any other talent."
― Isaac Newton

“Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
― Thomas A. Edison

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is to try just one more time.”
― Thomas A. Edison