Blog Post #87 - Chess and 7 Life Lessons - what can we learn from Siva teaching/learning chess?

In the process of creating  grand masters out of my kids and as a pushy daddy who likes his sons to be good in Chess I have been learning a lot of techniques and useful and useless chess tips and techniques . 

Remember I want my kids to be what I couldn't be or didn't want to be! (How about you?)

I am reading this book - Letters to a Young Mathematician (Art of Mentoring) 
by Ian Stewart .

While reading that book I realized there are lots of lessons from Math that we can apply for life. As an example - most of might think all math problems have been solved and the solution is the back of the book.

If you are like me and you thought that all problems have been solved I encourage you to change your view by reading this book.

Here are simple lessons I learnt that we can apply for life

1. Your King

2. Their King

3. Position change

4. Don't Give anything Free

5. Think before you Take

6. Pause at the pre-defined time

7. Don't Lose and it's ok to be beaten down

Let me elaborate each one 

1. Your King - Be careful with your king- Body/Mind

If your are not clear on your life's mission,purpose and values you won't know what to do. Before you can do a soul search on your life mission and answer 

"Why am I here on earth?" 

"What can I do for the world" etc

you must first and foremost make sure your body and mind are treated like a king.

To paraphrase Buddha - you need to a sound body and mind to achieve great things in life.

We all know we need to do the following at least the following 4

1. Exercising 15-30 minutes everyday

2. Drinking 6-8 glasses of water

3. Being mindful of what your eat/drink,

4.Meditating for 10 minutes

I can guarantee (I always can!) that you the reader is not doing the 4 . Remember that is your king. Protect your king.

If you run behind kids,work,spouse,community and miss the above 4 your king will have to resign soon or will be captured (by diseases!)

2. Their King - Look always at their king - Life Mission

Always keeping an eye of your objective is the next and the best thing. 

How do you want people to experience you? 

How do you want world to remember you?

Never wavering out of the following 3 life values.

1. Your family - Do you want to spend time with your kids?

2. Your work - When you are 70 will you sit back and think all those career ladder and work was worth its effort?

3. Your community - What are you giving back to this world?

As documented in 7 habits of highly effective people - "Begin with end in mind". 

3. Position change - See how the position change affected the game

Your body/mind and your mission represent the mission and the means. The path is zig zag anyways!. With every road not taken,every new change in the conditions your life game will be challenged!

You don't know what you will face next . No one can.

Having a game plan to get back on track whenever you hit a roadblock is critical and what is more critical is anticipating the change.

Change is good - for the purpose who creates a change

is how one of my Director's put it.

Being reactive is fun. Being proactive is more fun.

Getting back on track while protecting your body/mind and marching towards your goals while realizing that change is constant is not easy.

Most people die with a song in their heart!

Lot of people maintain good body/health.

Some folks like me keep talking about changing the world with education or other big initiatives.

Very few people can March and reach their goal.

f you don't want to do something, one excuse is as good as another - is what I read somewhere else

4. Give Free - Never give a piece for free

If you read this section as be selfish I say yes! Everyone is selfish.

You may question what about Mother Theresa. In my opinion even she was selfish.

Being selfless is a choice and here it means Mother Theresa found her peace and purpose by ensuring her selfish motive to serve the world was done to benefit humanity.

Stay will me. I promise I wont degrade Mother Theresa cos I like her a lot!

The message is don't do anything that is useless. If you gossip , talk politics,watch sports,write blogs,read books,drive your wife crazy - ensure every act has a purpose. In this sense the piece you have and most precious thing you have is TIME.

My grandfather used to say

"Ask me anything but not time" - By Napoleon Bonaparte

Don't give your time away for free. Get something out of it.

If you give material away ensure you get some happiness out of peace or satisfaction out of it.

5. Think before you Take

What are you taking from this world now - Food,water,clothing,other people's time - everything. You exist because you consume.

That is why you are always referred to as a customer.

Think what you are consuming. Don't take anything that you don't need. What do I mean here - If you take other people's time give something in return to them. If you consume resources like road ensure you pay your taxes. If you get water from city elect your Mayor and vote to ensure you continue to get good water.

Being participatory is the key here. For office goers and lovers that means if you take money to work -work without complaining.

Famous Investor and sun micro system co-founder Vinod Khosla said (to me - no! - to someone in some forum) and I paraphrase

You get paid because work is boring and if work was interesting they don't need to pay you!

Blessed are those who love what they do and get paid for it and for the rest of us ensure you give back in proposition what you take.

6. Pause - Circle score sheet 3,4 or 5 and ask kid to see the board ‘new’

I read in a pdf file (google for chess coach ) that the coach asks people to circle in the scoring sheet number 5,10,15 etc . He advises kids to look at the game at that time and stop and look at every square (64 in number) and walk away /step away for few seconds from the board . Come back after few minutes and you have a new board!!

Circle your calendar for every 15th or every year or every 5 years and check to see what is happening with personal,professional and community goals.

More like the proverbial interview qs- Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?

If you circle next 15th or next 5 years and sit and understand where you are with respect to your goals it will enable you to understand every square - personal,professional and community. Also walk away - step away from life and looks outside in.

I am not talking vacation . I am saying relook at life as though you were born yesterday and this was someone else's life. We are always good at advising other people so advise yourself as though you are your friend (Not my idea - some research I read)

7. Don't Lose and it's ok to be beaten down

In Chess you can win or draw - that shows you are good. You can get beaten down.

By this I mean the other person was good/better than you. (Surprise!)

I think that is ok.

The worst is to lose - this is where you were careless and didn't play your best and lost. 

This is the trap to avoid.

Being responsible has been mentioned in lots of books as 'response- able' which means you choose your response to everything that happens.

This part comes after you have given your best.

This is where the Bhagavat Gita advises

"Invest in process and not in outcome!"

How is this different from what we know?

Hindus were not advocating 6 sigma or Kaizen or some process stuff (thanks to Toyota!) but to do everything you do well and leave the rest to .. fill up God/Krishna/Alla/Jesus/Moses.. Atheist and Agnostics I don't know what you will fill up here but you are sure to understand my point!

It means doing everything to maintain your body/mind,keeping clear goals and reminding your selves of your goals,smiling and laughing while executing and responding to changes.

In the entire process of chess and Life don't forget to

Smile and Laugh

Losers are forgotten. Second places are forgotten.

Winners are forgotten and First places don't matter!

It's just a game

Keep playing

Sivakumar Manikanteswaran

Blog Post #86 - SpaceTime conundrum and Mont Pelerin society for layman,laywoman and laychild #STEM #Economics

Planning and Execution are two different concepts Just like Thinking and Doing.

Sometimes we get confused.

Well Begun is still only half done.

Sometimes it feels like Knowledge is power. Knowledge is useless unless acted upon .
It could be acting upon improving the knowledge itself!

Sounds weird. Think about it!

We believed that Atoms had protons,neutrons and electrons. Now we believe Quarks make them up (3 in number - 3 quarks for protons, 3 for neutrons).

Scientist who think in a different plane.

Let's say we decide to meet at 3 pm my house on a Saturday ( you will not meet me for sure as I will be napping - remember this is just an example!).

Now we have decided the co-ordinates - x,y and z plane. (Ground floor and not upstairs!) and time - Saturday Apr 19 2014 3pm.

This is what Einstein called SpaceTime conundrum.

x,y,z and t - 4 planes.

Every object has weight = mass * gravity.

Mass is given to the atom by Higgs Boson.

Yes, no one has seen Higgs Boson and now let us talk about string theory-
String theory says each particle (quarks) may be representing to us in our plane and it might all be made of the same thing.

Very confusing? It should be - if it was easy these folks won't get Nobel Prize.

These Knowledge when used to produce objects (chemicals,weapons) or anything destructive causes us harm otherwise these are Eureka scientist running their merry way.

Which abstract thinkers should we then worry about? - Economist!

Neo Liberalism is a concept we don't understand easily but affects our life profoundly.

Post World War 2 original thinkers sat down in switzerland - the place Mont Pelerin and worried about Western nations and its welfare.

They came up with proposals which in effect had the following (I am oversimplifying  and providing my own explanation - anything wrong with that?)

1. Make European countries money traders - Hedge fund managers and all complex instruments in banking
London (and its extension Hongkong which was given back to china after 99 year lease), New York, Switzerland and European banks. Think about these entities. Corrupt politicians and industrialist all across the globe rush their money from Africa ,Asia ,Latin America  to yes you guessed it right - Europe and US.

2. Encourage Free trade - no trade boundaries. Every country must allow import and export . No more protecting its local industry - cotton producers in Botswana complain about US subsidies to US cotton producers.

3.Ensure Developing/Emerging countries open their country and market - In short, countries like India are given loans - huge sums which never reach India. They are given to Multi National Corporations which inturn completes the project and leaves the country in Debt .To repay the country like Brazil or Nigeria has to sell their real assets for a cheaper prize. Amazon trees in Brazil or Oil in Nigeria.

World bank and IMF are two entities which are nothing but European and US banks.
The US banks have another name - do you know what that is? - Federal Reserve.

If you believed Federal Express (the parcel company!) is a Federal Agency (US government owned) then we might as well believe Federal Reserve is owned by US government.

The US treasury creates money for Federal Reserve. (From wikipedia)

Four main components of the Federal Reserve System are 
(1) the Board of Governors
(2) the Federal Open Market Committee
(3) the twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks
4) the member banks throughout the country.

Most countries you know are in debt - in trillions of them.

Most banks continue to make millions in bonus.

Hedge fund managers own islands and banks own government

It is famously said that

In every country , every downtown and every vehicle is mostly owned by 5-10 banks

Look at your neighbourhood in any country - yes - all of those are owned by banks.

Your friend lives in a house. He/She thinks they own the car or house.
Nope - the bank does!

Your company's office building is owned by the banks!

Downtown building,cars,houses,cows,sheep,planes,ships - mostly owned by banks!

The list goes on and goes.

This is how we landed in a state where we don't know the power of banking which uses knowledge of Mathematics (using derivatives!)!

Encourage kids to do finance and not science.

Keep Learning
Sivakumar Manikanteswaran

Blog Post #85 - Veda - Yoga, Ayurveda and 6 Questions!!!

Before I introduce you 6 questions let me give you a sneak preview into the world of Vedas and Vedanta

( I don't know much - but this is interesting stuff so learn more in the internet if you have interest in this field and treat this as a teaser!)

The 6 Questions in Questions are in Upanishads which belong to Vedanta.

Vedas and Vedanta form the core of sacred(and secret) text for Hinduism

Vedas - 4 in number .
Vedanta contains
      Brahma Sutras
      Upanishads
      Bhagavat Gita

Upanishads which are 11-108 in number depending on your search engine!!


The next time asks about Bhagavat Gita as Holy Text for Hindus you can let them know it is part of vedanta and there are  more than 110 such books!

Rig Veda - remember this as 'Praise' Veda - praises demigods including Fire(Agni), Water/Cloud(Indira), Air(Vayu) and a lot more scripts about life and prosperity (Why else would Humans pray?). These prayers have Iranian connection (google it)

Yajurveda - Mostly ceremonial and sacrificial. Used during marriage and lots of festivals.

Sama Veda - Treat this as musical praise - melody (Songs!!!- easiest way to reach people) ,
Not surprisingly Some Songs are called as SamaGanam (Gaman = Song)

Atharvaveda - This is the only veda named after a man - Atharvan. Conspiracy theory holds that these were prayers of Indigenous People (Whatever it means!!- people who lived before these people who wrote these vedas). From Black Magic to Boing Flight construction (kidding - Vimanas which were vehicles going up down and around are mentioned many a times in the texts) to medical cures there are slew of topics covered here.

For all you Yoga freaks and Ayurveda fans all these are coming from Atharvaveda

Clearly a lot had come to India from Arabian Horses to Chariots to Naan to Holy Texts through the Aryans. We don't know who these people were and how they organized Indian Society into classes but they did acquire a lot of knowledge on their way and expanded it.


Vedanata -  This was an attempt to end all confusion about Vedas. Meant to be a great text that in my opinion stopped Indians from becoming Buddhist or Jains and held them as Hindus.

Upanishads has many questions - one of my favorite being

"Mix water and Salt. Drink the mixture - salty? yes. Now where is the salt? - Inside the water. Or is Water inside Salt molecules." - If you answer the question using Chemistry - use the same Knowledge to answer God .

Is God inside you or are you part of God?

Once you succeed in understanding the answer to questions like these look at the following 6 questions from
Prasna Upanishad (Prasna means Questions! so this Upanishads is named aptly)

Prana below refers to Life/Breath

Purusha below refers to human

OM refers to sound of the pranava ..

• From where (which root) these people are born ?"

• How many divine elements hold the body?, which among them makes body living?, who is great among them?

• From whom Prana originates? How does he come into body? How does he stay by dividing himself? How he leaves the body? How he supports outer and inner worlds? 

• "Which elements in Human being actually sleep? Which are awake at that time (while sleeping) ? Among these who sees the dream, who feels bliss in it? In whom all these elements merge finally as their final destination?

• What fruit does one get who regularly meditates on holy syllable OM till his/her death ?

• Who is "Shodashakala Purusha" or "Person with sixteen divine attributes". 

While you may not figure out what are 16 divine attributes you can think about the other 5 questions.

Keep thinking

Sivakumar Manikanteswaran

Blog Post #84 - Salt and Sweet - the chemicals of life!

Go find a jumpy kid (it is not that difficult ..if you don't find one come to my house - I have a couple =2!). 

Get to their Parent and ask 'why is your kid running around like crazy'. 

Most parents in the modern(what ever that means!) nations would answer 'Sugar'

Now - talk to some one about loyalty and ask for a proverb from their native language or Holy scripture (Bible,Torah,Koran - you name it) most likely it might involve - 'Salt'

It is said that a WHO leader used to carry a packet of Salt and Sugar mixed together and met world leaders and philanthropist and let them know that if you add pure water and this magic mixture will stop Diarrhea and save lives. He pleaded for funds for pure water and ensuring access to sugar and salt for dehydrated people. 

Bill and Melissa Foundation (Bless their heart - Bill and Melinda Gates!) funded this effort and lot of organizations supported it.

Simple idea - when you find kids and adults dehydrated and about to die (which they did in various parts of world) this SSS - Salt Sugar Solution was the savior!    Most of us take this for granted and some of us eat more of these on daily basis.

Salt is made up of Sodium and Chlorine = Sodium Chloride
Sugar is made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.


Now mix them and they become SSS = Salt Sugar Solution

Countries have waged wars over Salt.

Citizens were traditionally taxed over salt in Colonized nations. 

Think Gandhi and Colonial India. 

Gandhi's Dandhi March where he walked to the coast with thousands of followers picked up salt/made salt and acted against the British government as  the salt was owned by British and had to be  taxed before used by Indians.

'Salt March' is a major mile stone and one of the most successful non violent protest launched by Gandhi.

Salary - the word comes from Salt and no one knows how salarium the Latin word linked the soldiers to salt. May be the Roman soldiers were paid in salt. 



Sugar  - The magic ingredient of life. Our body loves them and they are the most preferred form of food the body can easily absorb. Fructose ,Glucose and Sucrose (table sugar! like table salt) are examples of Monosaccharides (or simple sugar) and the list goes on and on in terms of complex sugars.

Body can get sugar from fruits and Nature is very smart - by nature you are smart too!

The sugar in fruits are packaged with fibers,vitamins and minerals, The sugar is released slowly into bloodstream thus avoiding sugar rush!

Try this  - go to kitchen grab a table spoon and eat 2 table spoons of sugar...poof it is gone.. you will also feel hungry in few minutes  - Why? Sugar is absorbed quickly and body had experienced sugar rush and it will ask for more!!

You must eat 100 calories or 6 table spoons (today 4 if  you had done the experiment above and didn't drink coffee/tea with sugar!). A can of soda has little less than 1 day's worth of sugar.

The fun begins now - check every food you touch today from milk to rice - every single one of them have sugar.If you take sugar away from products 90% of products in your grocery store are to be shelved!!!

Next time look at the potato chip or a carrot and wonder how much sugar is in this ? You will be surprised most processed food you eat has both sugar and salt mixed! Gatorade and all sports drink use this magic formula to hydrate and energize you. 
A large McDonald's coke has about 20 tea spoons of sugar.

Do you know the difference between table spoon and tea spoon-?

Blog Post #83 - Newton believed in God, Einstein was the god!!! How Wonder land of Physics is intertwined with Chemistry!! #STEM

"Je n'avais pas besoin de cette hypothèse-là"

"Sir, I had no need for that Hypothesis"

Pierre Simon Laplace allegedly (love this word- makes no commitment if he said or not) to Napoleon.

What was he talking to Napoleon about? - you will know if you read this post!

CHON - Carbon Hydrogen Oxygen and Nitrogen pretty much makes up a large part of humans and other species - Organic Chemistry and add to that the other elements you get inorganic chemistry 

When Chemistry combines and starts living ,multiplying and starts consuming earth's resource then we enter the world of Biology.

These creatures(including Humans) think about creation, walking, talking and you enter 'Physics'.

We assume that we are the only creatures who think about world and future. We don't include 8.5 million species including cows, tigers, mosquitoes, bacteria and all species we share this earth with. 

“Einstein may teach you how to bend space and time, but only Newton will get you to Mars!” - A classic student fighting between Newton and Einstein.

Do you care if Einstein is better or Newton is better?  

Einstein got an element named after him in periodic table

Element 99 Einsteinium, Es, discovered in 1952,the only element ever named after a living scientist. 

No element has been named even today for Newton!!! Sir Issac Newton also never won Nobel Prize.

Do you know why?

Cos Nobel who made a lot of money by inventing dynamite made lots of money and he came to earth 100 years after Newton to the earth!

Read my  post on Mystery behind Chemistry at Link to learn about periodic table and elements named people.

#112 Copernicum, Cn, is named for Polish astronomer Nicholas Copernicus. and Uranium which is element 

Uranus - the planet is represented in the periodic table uranium which is element 92.

These two elements are part of the story below on physics

Before we discuss physics let's stay with chemistry and its interaction with Physics.

When My son was very young - we went to a circus .  We saw people jump high and low. Many animals were missing and there was a small group of animal rights fellows outside who protested the Barnum and bailey circus in Austin . Lion , Elephant ,Monkeys,cats and dogs. The only species that was taken for a ride and was not protected were the humans. They were swinging bar to bar and rope to rope. I explained to my son about gravity and how what goes up must come down and sometimes what goes up comes down even without its will!.

The next due to his carelessness he fell in the staircase and he shouted 'Daddy,Gravity is pulling me down!'

I always like talking about Physics and learning from kids,  Just because Kids can teach and we can learn. 

It doesn't work the other way around – adults can’t teach so kids can learn.

Go to facebook and find any photo tagged with your name and view the picture . Where does your eye go first? Your picture of all pictures in that group?

The world is not what it is but what we look for.

If you stop an adult off the street and ask what is the lowest particle each element is made up of, you might get answers like protons, electrons and neutrons.

Really. This theory on quantum physics is true – if this was still 1980.

With protons, electrons, neutrons as the basis quantum physics couldn’t have leaped to where it is today(Who cares?, we do- and we will learn about it in later blogs once I read more about them).

There are quarks, 3 Quarks forming 1 electron. 3 Quarks forming 1 neutron and there is also neutrino.

What is neutrino? - break an neutron and we expect a proton and an electron and natures gives us proton,electron and a neutrino.

It is really intriguing – empty space in space and empty space inside atoms .

Atoms – means indivisible and we have already divided that into electrons protons all the way to neutrino. Now there is string theory, wave theory, particle theory which keeps dividing these little fellows while we keep looking up to the stars and talk about galaxies and  their expansion. We see the move away from us – the galaxies. Where are they going? Why is the universe expanding? If we are in the milky way galaxy where is our sun? If you can imagine a spiral we are in the end of the spiral. More like a suburban area away from a downtown. So what is in downtown milky way ?  - Empty!

These come up Steven Hawkins and Neil Degress Tyson . Amazing scientist – who love to think in complex terms and explain in simple terms.

Physics – deals with questions outside and inside space – empty space and every particle along the way.

Now to Copernicus -  This man who understood their our senses fool us – was able to clarify that our earth is not the center. The Center is sun!.

This view is called Helio-centric view.  This other view is called geocentric view  - where earth is the center.

The scientist who could figure this out had to observe the planets and sun. See them move back and forth and not around us. Conclude that we are not the center. Propose a theory and follow up with data on sun is the center. Now before Copernicus could say this – he can be doubly sure that the Church and other entities who don’t like this non earth centric view will prosecute and kill him. So – he waited until dead bed ,proclaimed earth is not the center and died!

This way – he could be a voice of truth and not be killed(how could you kill a  man in his death bed?). Such was the plight of physicist.

We have astro physics, meta physics and quantum physics all other weird named physics trying to explain matter ,antimatter ,space, atom and every conceivable complex subject – so we can understand ,answer and ask more questions. Once we reach a point of understanding , in physics – another scientist will disprove and provide more. In Math, once proved always proved. In Physics that is not the case – labs ,real world experiment and mind are three tools that could be used for understanding.

So Copernicus gets his space in chemistry books and periodic table as element number 112.

Now to Uranium’s namesake Uranus.

Newtonian physics is an universal phenomenon.  Newton as I understand was not waiting for a falling apple. He had a problem to solve looking at the sky!

Why is the moon attached to earth? Why is the earth attached to Sun and going in circles ? Why are the planets revolving around sun?

So – this attachment and circular motion (perceived as circular motion but actual elliptical – again our senses fool us) .

Think about it – we don’t see earth  move , we don’t feel earth move- we have no clue about what is out there in space. With satellites we are now able to view from the outside in (zoom out and zoom in) and we see a new view . Hubble telescope named after Hubble has provided so many pictures now  - which has given us various views of the universe around us.

So while newton was thinking about moon – an apple could have fallen on his head,hand,body,shoulder or near him which made him think what is the basis of this movement. Gravity was the answer but this is not just Gravity. This is called Universal Gravity . The theory of universal gravity is applicable to all parts of the universe- atleast so they thought. The calculations held good for all planets and clearly explained the different orbits and positions for Venus,Earth,Mars,Jupiter.

A scientist who found Uranus couldn’t fit these calculations for Uranus and so he was sad(we don’t know – but why should the scientist always be curious!). Thus it was reasoned that we need another planet to explain this theory – Neptune. Spot 1 planet and get another planet for free!

We ended up now with Neptune and Uranus.

This – Newtonian gravity is true everywhere. Is it?

When it came to Mercury no one could explain its path. Again for few years it was theorized that there was another planet called Volcan (named after Volcano ). The scientist agreed that there might have been an asteroid which was misclassified as this planet and stepped back from that theory.

Here is where our Hero steps in – Einstein.

Einstein gravity is all about time and space. eqGravity instead of being 2 objects attracting each other he theorized that it is more like the spiral interwoven platform surface – the surface being gravity and what is under the surface is where these objects are pulling each other in space.

More like your bed and what is on the bed and not what is under the bed.

This theory helped solved the mystery for not just Mercury but even remote galaxies.

More on Einstein on next blog.

Einstein prove E=mc2.

Darwin’s theory and his book “On the Origin of Species” focused on why God may have not created humans directly as written in bible but as chimps and all lower level species which evolved into Humans.

Michael Faraday   a poor book binder proved that energy is conserved – in line with God’s wish. Electromagnetic theory and breakthroughs proved world has a fixed energy going from one form to another. Open a door – your energy is transferred to kinetic and sound energy (if your door is not well oiled!). Gun powder and corn the energy stored will be released as Mass and Energy can also become mass!

Take a spring/rubber band. Weight it.

Now stretch it and weight it.

It will weigh more and this additional weight is due to conversation of energy from your hand.  The amount of weight will be using speed of light *(times) Speed of light.

Can you imagine? If you can imagine and understand this concept – then you understand a part of theory of special relativity for which Einstein got a Nobel prize.

That leave us with Nobel – the man who has an element named after him called Element 102.He invented Dynamite among 355 other patents. With lots of wealth that he had amazed before he died he endowed 94% of his wealth. Do you know that he owned a company called Bofors?

Yes for Indians familiar with Bofors scandal this is a company which was owned by Alfred Nobel himself and you guessed it right – he was Swedish.

After his death his money was used to establish Nobel foundation to give prizes to best in

1.    Medicine

2.    Physics

3.    Chemistry

4.    Literature

5.    Peace

6.    Economics

There is no Nobel Prize for Math!! Did you know that?

Google and find out why!!

Keep Learning

Sivakumar Manikanteswaran

Blog Post #82 - To whomever much is given, of him will much be required; and to whom much was entrusted, of him more will be asked. #gratitude

My friend visited from one of the coldest regions in USA - Minneapolis to the blessed land of Texas he mentioned a quote which his colleague has said

"To whom much is given much is expected"

I wasn't sure what it meant and I am sure you have your own interpretations too.

What I was sure about is that this didn't come from his colleague in Minnepolis but from India , China,Arabia or Constantinople (Present day - Istabul).

oh - the Chinese - I will write a blog soon about them - lot of interesting stuff in human history happened in china independent of the rest of the world - gunpowder to paper to Confucius to record keeping.

What happened in Constantinople is of a great significance to humanity - folks sitting down down in a conference room (kidding) to write/revise and rewrite a book called Bible after 300 years after Jesus Died.
Neither was Matthew,Mark or Luke alive but their books were.

Are you ever curious "Did Jesus write Bible?"

I don't know the answer but the books that Mark,Mathew,Luke are well preserved as sayings of Jesus and contains what I consider eternal truth (religious books from all religions contain eternal truths - surviving centuries and passing truth as humans never changed for 'ages' )


While googling (now an official English word for past few years since oxford dictionary added it) I stumbled upon 2 of the most influential characters in History.
Bill Gates and JFK.

Some times this quote is attributed to JFK. JFK took inspiration from Luke's quote from the Bible.

The inspiration for Kennedy's famous observation, "For of those to whom much is given, much is required" can be found in Luke 12:48: "For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required." 

(Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/02/AR2006060201406.html)


Bill Gates - mom in her letter to Melinda during Bill Melinda weeding said this same quote.
http://www.forbes.com/pictures/eimh45ehjl/bill-gates-from-those-to-whom-much-is-given-much-is-expected/
Bill's mom it seems always pushed him to do more and give more.!!!

I truely believe he is doing that with more than $30billion of his charity work ,his intellectual power and his influential presence in stages/place where it matters  - showing up to do Philanthropy is a new concept according to me.

Rich people write checks - Rockefeller . World changers write check ,recruit people to whom they hand over checks, go and meet leaders and ask for permission and ideas to work on those geographical areas , work with other Fortune 500 leaders and request them to donate more , be trust worthy mentee of Warren Buffet and utilize his $30+ billion wealth and run it along with Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and take the hatred of so many people who complain about him!

Look at Bill's hiring stratergy and his investment in IV - Intellectual Ventures.

http://intellectualventureslab.com/

Bill has been recruiting hackers to kill mosquito's using laser guns.

Watch Paul Pablos discuss and show videos on 
http://www.tedxtelaviv.com/2010/07/19/paul-pablos-holman-hacking-the-future/

Enough about rich people Bill Gates and Philanthropy . Lets talk about us - the normal people who live and die without much footprint. 

The secret to happiness it seems is happiness is you guessed it right - gratitude .

Most of feel may feel we are not blessed. 
The habit of counting your blessing is the hidden recipe for success .

Try it Today

Take a piece of paper or open your notepad in your computer and right now type 5 things you are grateful for.

Some suggestions

If you have a house - be grateful for that
Are you not sick today - be grateful for that
Do you have loved ones around you - be grateful for that
Do you have food to eat and clean water to drink- be grateful for that
Do you have money in bank account more than 0- be grateful for that

Health,Wealth,Food,Clothing,Shelter and company  sometimes taken for granted.
Teaching kids to be grateful for their toys,friends and school ( remember all kids don't go to school but your kids do!- did it ever occur to you?)

Most people reading this blog are in the top 30% of world's economic elite. 70% still struggle to live their daily life ( Statistics is never true - there is a statistics about how many statistics are true - paradox)

So in the morning and evening after you count your blessing and write in your journal or mind think what can you give?

To you lot has been given - now give back some to people who don't have any. 

We tell our kids to share - do we share our wealth?  

Let's not change the world and like mother Therasa says 

“I never look at the masses as my responsibility; I look at the individual. 
I can only love one person at a time - just one, one, one. 
So you begin. I began - I picked up one person. 
Maybe if I didn't pick up that one person, I wouldn't have picked up forty-two thousand....The same thing goes for you, the same thing in your family, the same thing in your church, your community. Just begin - one, one, one.”


Time to conclude with the parable from where it all starts. unless you are a christian you may not know this parable- if you are a hindu like me or Buddhist like me ( so what am i now?) or a Jew or a Muslim and it doesn't matter you read this parable as long as you got your concept right!

Now read this parable - which in short means a servant should always be ready to serve, Master should keep a watch and what I assume is second coming of Jesus.

Let your waist be dressed and your lamps burning. Be like men watching for their lord, when he returns from the marriage feast; that, when he comes and knocks, they may immediately open to him. Blessed are those servants, whom the lord will find watching when he comes. Most certainly I tell you, that he will dress himself, and make them recline, and will come and serve them. They will be blessed if he comes in the second or third watch, and finds them so. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would have watched, and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore be ready also, for the Son of Man is coming in an hour that you don't expect him."

Peter said to him, "Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everybody?"

The Lord said, "Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom his lord will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the right times? Blessed is that servant whom his lord will find doing so when he comes. Truly I tell you, that he will set him over all that he has. But if that servant says in his heart, 'My lord delays his coming,' and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken, then the lord of that servant will come in a day when he isn't expecting him, and in an hour that he doesn't know, and will cut him in two, and place his portion with the unfaithful. That servant, who knew his lord's will, and didn't prepare, nor do what he wanted, will be beaten with many stripes, but he who didn't know, and did things worthy of stripes, will be beaten with few stripes. To whomever much is given, of him will much be required; and to whom much was entrusted, of him more will be asked.

— Luke 12:35-48, World English Bible

Keep Giving and keep learning
Sivakumar Manikanteswaran