The Buddhist Monk Story

Two Buddhist Monks were on a journey, one was a senior monk, the other a junior monk. During their journey they approached a raging river and on the river bank stood a young lady. She was clearly concerned about how she would get to the other side of the river without drowning.

The junior monk walked straight past her without giving it a thought and he crossed the river. The senior monk picked up the woman and carried her across the river. He placed her down, they parted ways with woman and on they went with the journey.

As the journey went on, the senior monk could see some concern on the junior monk's mind, he asked what was wrong. The junior monk replied, "how could you carry her like that? You know we can't touch women, it's against our way of life". The senior monk answered, "I left the woman at the rivers edge a long way back, why are you still carrying her?"

The moral of that buddhist monk story: The senior monk had broken rules but for good reason. Once the purpose was fulfilled he put her down and continued on. He never gave it a further thought. The junior monk however did not touch the woman but he had brought up the actions of the senior monk when it was an action of the past. Therefore the junior monk was carrying the burden of what the senior monk had done as emotional baggage.

We have little use for the past except for the purpose of learning from our experiences, good and bad. Just like in the Buddhist monk story, we need to let go of any burden the past may place on us. It's happened, it's over, it cannot be changed, we can only move forward and create a compelling future.

20 Ideas to make money online

A cash cow for the enterprising, the Internet is littered with opportunities to make a fast buck. While it rarely qualifies as a solitary source of income, the Net can easily help you supplement it. However, the amount you earn depends on the time and effort invested. Go through these 20 options and find out which ones work for you.

Blogging
If you're a passionate closet writer who wants to be published but can't find a way to do so, make each keystroke your way to wealth by penning your own blog. Starting a blog doesn't require extensive technical skills but it's important that you have expertise in the field you are writing on. This will attract visitors to your site. Building a large following will enable you to earn profit by luring advertisers, writing paid reviews or getting commissions for promoting other people's products.

Paid Writing
If maintaining a blog is difficult for you but you still want to indulge your passion for writing, you can jot down articles for other blogs or sites such as Weblogs, Helium or PayPerPost. Writing an e-book can also be a good option. E-books are investment free, with no cost for printing and shipping. If you have a strong command over languages, you can become a copy editor, where Webmasters will pay you to read articles and correct grammatical errors, sentence fragments, etc.

e-tuitions/Webinars
The demand for tutors is high and growing. So, if you like helping others learn, e-teaching could be the earning ticket for you. All you need to become an online tutor is expertise in your subject and a few spare hours per week. TutorVista, e-tutor, SmartThinking and Tutor.com are some of the sites you can enroll with. If you gain a good reputation as a coach, you could even conduct Webinars-lectures or seminars transmitted over the Net. College and university students are willing to pay to gain entry to a well-respected Webinar.

Affilliate/Reseller
For those who have the knack of selling, one of the best ways to make money online is to become an affiliate/reseller. An affiliate is a person who gets a commission for selling every product that he promotes, whether on his Website or through any other avenue such as eBay. You don't have to own the product. You only need to sign up for an affiliate program with a company and start selling its products under your referral link. Firms such as Commission Junction or Click Bank have a large pool of products.

Buying/Selling domains
Buying and selling domain names is another way to make money from home and requires very little investment or time. You can buy domains at their registration prices or even cheaper and trade them at a profit. However, always research on sites such as sedo.co.uk, afternic.com, ebay.com or other domain auction sites to get an estimate of the hottest selling names. The best way to find good ones is to use terminated domain lists, which contain several expired names that are back in the pool.

Freelancing for Professionals
Freelancing is a great option for professionals who are experts in their respective trades and know how to ensure customer satisfaction. Various freelancing and project-oriented sites allow companies that need help to describe their projects. Freelancers and small businesses offer bids, ideas or proposals, from which the buyers can choose what they find most suitable. Websites such as Elance cover everything from programming and writing to data entry and design, while RentACoder focuses on software programming.

Advertising
You can sell space on your Website or blog for advertisements and you earn when these ads are clicked by visitors to your site. The sorting and placing of ads is free. The profitability of pay-per-click advertising depends on the traffic level of the Website and, most importantly, on the clickthrough rate and cost per click. Google AdSense is the most popular option, while others are BidVertiser, Text Link Ads and Blogads. Direct banner and RSS feed are some other forms of online advertising.

GPT Programme
GPT or Get-paid-to sites are becoming increasingly popular among teens. You get paid for signing up for free Websites, newsletters, playing games and filling out online surveys. These are suitable for people who don't have a skill set but want to earn extra money. Taking online surveys is simple- register with a few legitimate, paid survey sites and answer questions. The topics range from shopping to politics. This might not help you make a living, but you can earn good pocket money. Contests2win is one of the trusted GPT Websites.

Online Marketing
Once a Website is created and optimised for search engine (SEO), the SEM or Search Engine Marketing begins. A treasure trove lies hidden here. An SEO/SEM expert, who is responsible for marketing a Website, can promote it in various ways. These include article marketing, writing press releases, forum posting, blog posting, submitting your site to directories and search engines, social bookmarking, etc. Most companies don't do this in-house and pay you to conduct the SEM for them.

Making themes
As more and more people seek an online presence, the demand for Website templates and WordPress (Blog) themes will keep increasing. If you are good at Web designing and coding, you can earn a lot from designing Web themes. In this segment, there are mainstream Websites, such as TemplateMonster and ThemeForest, which act as a marketplace where you can sell your themes. Templates are sold and priced depending on the rights and features that are bundled with them.

Selling photos
If you enjoy photography and are good with a camera, you could be sitting on a huge reserve of revenue. There are people who will be interested in your collection of images. Nowadays, it's easy to take your photos to the public, providing a convenient way to build a secondary income stream. Many stock photo agencies, such as Fotolia, Dreamstime and Shutterstock, offer incentives for people to earn from their photos.

Support & service
Providing coding or fixing other Webmasters' issues is another great way to earn extra bucks. There are simple jobs ranging from adding a script to setting up sites, but knowledge of Web coding is essential. One can offer support for Web CMS (content management systems) like Drupal or Joomla. After you are comfortable with your own installation, you can help other people to set these up and configure them.

Stock/forex trading
Joining the stock/forex market may seem a bit risky. However, you can start small and continue researching till you gain experience in this area. Once you do, it will be easy to earn from exchanging foreign currencies and/or stocks. Their rates fluctuate depending on supply and demand, and economic and political influences in the world. The aim of any trader is to spot which currency/stock is likely to rise or fall in value against another. The more time you put in, the more you will earn.

Selling your own brand
If you have a flair for designing cool images, don't bother about creating your own inventory. As long as your design can be printed on a product, you can pocket some money. You can upload designs on various Websites such as CafePress, and if somebody orders these designs, the company will print them and distribute the products. It could be designs for T-shirts, hats, bags, books, posters, calendars, greeting cards, etc. You will receive a commission for each sale. Other such sites include Lulu and Zazzle.

Virtual Assistant
Small businesses always need help in running their processes, but may not be willing to hire a full-time employee. As a virtual assistant, you are expected to perform practically any administrative task that a traditional secretary or assistant would, such as make travel reservations, handle expense reimbursements or pay bills. You can do it from the comfort of your home, interacting with clients either online or by phone. Your expertise will decide how much moolah you rake in.

Inbound call centre
Many companies, who are facing space constraints, especially those in metro cities, prefer to hire workers outside their offices or outsource certain processes. You can set up an inbound call centre at home to handle such jobs. Research different companies that are outsourcing their work as they may have opportunities for inbound call centre agents. You can work for more than one company. This can be either a part-time or fulltime engagement, depending on your need.

You Tube
If there's a dramatic performer hidden inside you who craves applause and adulation, upload yourself on YouTube. You can be a filmmaker, musician or comedian who wants a wider audience. Your earnings will come from ads displayed on your video page. This process is similar to the pay-per-click advertising program common to other Websites and blogs. Sites such as Flixya and Mediaflix can be helpful in this regard.

Researching for others
Don't be morose if you can't write, design or code. Lack of talent cannot stop you from making money online. If you're willing to work hard for a few hours a week, you can take up simple research jobs for other people who don't have the time to do it themselves. You could search for opportunities in organisations that provide funding for research and offer to assist them through online investigation.

Building Applications
With smartphones gaining popularity, the demand for their applications, or apps as they are popularly known, has also shot up. There are over 3 million apps for the iPhone and over a million apps in Google's Android market. Most of these are selling like hot cakes. Developing and selling your own smartphone app is becoming a lucrative way to make money on the Internet. Apps cost virtually nothing to develop and entail no storage or shipping costs. So they enjoy the best profit margins.

Transcription
Medical transcription involves making written copies of oral material dictated by doctors or other medical experts. These may include history and physical reports, clinical notes, consultation notes, reports, letters, psychiatric evaluation and so on. The dictated material needs to be transcribed swiftly and accurately, which is the most challenging aspect of the job. To become a medical transcriptionist, you need to have a good knowledge of medical terminology and a high typing speed along with accuracy.

Reproduced From Money Today. © February 2011. LMIL. All rights reserved.

April Two - A Night without End - 2

“Nothing to feel bad about, but not in office; what if Vipin sir had seen it.”

The chatting on SMS had already begun. The message details showed that the message was received at 1:39 A.M., sender Kamakshi. This was a message in reply to mine in which I asked “Hope you didn’t mind me holding your hand”.

Oh, you must be wondering about who’s Vipin Sir. So let me introduce him, though you all had already met him, yes right, Vipin Sir is the same PM who introduced me to Kamakshi, assigned us the same project. I would have just killed him if he had not done so & if he had tried to flirt with her. He was a man in middle forties with ugly moustache & thick glasses. He must be having 3-4 kids at home. How the hell can he even try to flirt with a beauty like Kamakshi. She was just half his age & that bastard is still trying to flirt with her. I know all these men are bastards. They all are dogs & all run for one & the same thing from girls. But I won’t let Vipin to do any such thing. I would just kill him. I planned a conspiracy how he will meet with an accident involving a truck on his way to home & if he survived by any chance then I will throw him in the river. All these thoughts filled my mind on listening Vipin Sir’s name. But, actually Vipin was a nice guy who introduced Kamakshi to me & let us work together, giving me a chance to interact with her & to come close to her. I wanted to thank him but I wouldn’t otherwise his suspicion will turn into indemnity.

“No one will see & I don’t care even if anyone does” I replied to her message.

Her next message came with a blast “Why would you care. It’s me who’s the girl not you & it’s my integrity. You may never understand” She sounded emotional.

“Hey nothing like that honey. I understand that & respect girl’s integrity. I will take care. Don’t worry” I replied. I just hated typing SMS’s on cell phone. One need to press 5 thrice to type the letter “L” or even worse press 7 four time to type letter “S”. Such a tedious task, but I had to do that as I was chatting with a beautiful girl & it’s hard to avoid them, Girls, the most beautiful creature ever created.

“What’s your plan for tomorrow?” I asked about her plan for the weekend.

“Nothing much, you tell”, in reply to her, I invited her for a “Cup of Coffee”

We meet at Barista for the first time outside office & since then it had become a regular schedule to meet not just at weekends but even after office hours, to roam together almost everyday, till mid night sometimes & spending time together for the next 8 months.

It was already 1:40 & I had told Aarti, all about Kamakshi. Celebration for Indian Victory was still on; I heard guys hooting, crackers still bursting & what not.

“So you still love her & you never even told me about her”, Aarti said, “You never told me about another girl in your life.”

I told Aarti everything about her, even about her Birthday night when I was at Kamakshi’s place for the whole night sharing same bed with but I told her proudly that nothing happened between the two of us & that we broke up a week later.

“Yash don’t misunderstand. We should stop it here itself that’s better for both of us. I’m Sorry” That was the last message from Kamakshi, I told her.

Time 02:45

I looked at her. Her face went dull, even redder then ever & suddenly the tears rolled down her cheeks. I was astonished to see her crying; after all it was me who should have cried for losing a beautiful girl & receiving her message today, after four odd months. But No, it’s the Female Community who have got all the rights reserved.

“You’ll leave me too” she whimpered, “I know, All you Guys are dogs, you left her because you got nothing from her. I know all you guys are dogs.”

“Excuse me” I protested “Would you please mind your language” & then I told her how we broke up or I should rather say she broke up because she was a Brahmin girl, a community that I didn’t belong to. She was daughter of a Brahmin Colonel who was a strict disciplined & religious man who saw two of us dating & then he emotionally blackmailed his daughter. He wanted her to marry Nirvan, a Lieutenant in Army, his friend’s son. So she couldn’t go against her dad’s wish & her dad would never agree to our relationship, she informed and so we had to end our relationship; that’s how we broke up. I told her everything. I looked at her, she was still crying. I wiped out tears from her face & then few stupid words sounded from nowhere; I never knew how those stupid words can erupt from mine inner self.

“I can’t promise you perfection,

Because that’s not who I’m,

“I can’t promise you forever,

Because I don’t hold Fate in my hands,

“I can’t promise you Sunshine,

Because there will be Rain at times,

“I can’t promise you Happiness,

Because true Love comes with a lot of Pain,

“I can’t promise to make you Smile everyday,

Because Life knows to make us Cry,

“I can’t promise you that I will stay Strong,

Because sometimes it’s hard to give life a second chance.

I know I am not perfect,

But I Promise,

To give up whom I am,

Promise to hold your hand when Fate challenges us,

Promise to cover your Head when Rain is pouring,

Promise to heal you when in Pain,

Promise to wipe your tears when Life makes you Cry,

Promise to give you unlimited chances till the Time I die."

She cupped my lips instantaneously, breaking her silence “Don’t you ever dare to speak of Dying; I’ll kill you for that.”

“What?”

“I love you, I just Love you, I can’t live with you” She said, her face so near to mine that I could sense her breathe, she went silent & within few moments her Lips collided with mine. I took her in my arms, “I Love You Too” I said kissing her petal-soft pink lips & continued to live those moments. It was a night that India didn’t sleep, neither did we, me & Aarti. India celebrated that whole night & so did we, making love the entire night. It was a “Night without End” that India will never forget, neither will I, indeed!!!

THE END.

The Critic Me

“Yash, I am going for a bath. It will take some time for me to get ready. Till then you may read some magazines lying there” Aarti said pointing towards a shelf holding few dozens of novels, many biographies of some famous personalities & entrepreneurs and too many magazines & myriad of newspaper articles stacked in files, seemed almost like a mini library. She went to the bathroom. As Miss Sensuous had already announced that she is going to take some time to get ready, no wonder when it comes to girls, I was left with no other way so I thought of looking at her collection before having a day out with her. I was amazed reading appealing novel’s name, the name of the writers were so tough for me to even pronounce. I wondered how people read. I picked one book, checked the name, author’s name, saw its thickness & then put it back in place. I kept repeating the same until my gaze fall on a book with a Maroon cover page. I opened the book & with that I reached a page; the header of which declared “April 29, 2011” as there was a pen inside the book so by default that page appeared. I realized that it’s a Daily Diary. I had heard that many people write diary but I never knew that Aarti was one of them. Though I never like reading other peoples personal notes and diaries, still I went ahead and started reading her diary thinking I may came to discover something more of her, some hidden secrets, which I may have been kept in dark about. So I began reading……..

April 29, 2011

Dear Diary,

It was another usual day at office, not so unique. I was stuck with all those meetings & calls, this that & what not, just another hectic day! But today, I am here not to discuss about all that professional Jargon, in fact I wanted to share my experience of knowing a species of people whom I came to come across through certain fascinating incidents. Today, I came across the special ability of people who manages to find gaffe in anything & everything around.  I was so amazed at the remarkable flair that certain people are blessed with, to observe & identify each boo-boo in whatever topics that comes across them. Their vast knowledge on each & every theme, be it Movie or TV commercial, fashion or media, Bollywood or Sports, politician or whatever, these people have so much of extended knowledge of each & every arena that they can put forth their expert comments on any of them. These people are also known as “Critics”.

It first happened today during lunch hours. While I was having lunch with my colleagues, some of whom were watching TV with awesome delight, listening to music & also enjoying Pizza at the same time, that was ordered specially from Domino’s with a motive of Team building. Someone complained of not ordering from Pizza Hut, “It could have been better if it was ordered “Deep Dish” with extra cheese at least” someone else added. I was sitting facing my back towards the 31-inch LCD screen, so I couldn’t enjoy like others. Suddenly I heard something from some of my team mates that attracted my attention towards the LCD screen “What sort of crap is this? I don’t understand what these people wanted to convey?” I didn’t understand what he was referring to so I turned back to check out the same. He was passing his connoisseur comments on one of the TV commercial that I missed to watch but the next commercial that was currently playing definitely left a smile on my face in which a guy polishing his shoes asked his wife “Aaj Khane main kya hai?” in reply to which she replied cutely “Karela” & then the guy asked “Meethe main kya hai?” I was just amazed with the simplicity of the commercial & moreover the ad promoted “Dairy Milk” of which I am a huge fan since always. I decided to get a Dairy Milk after lunch & then I concentrated back on my lunch. I was amazed with the creativity of the production team behind the commercial that how smoothly they conveyed their message to the target customers & promote the product sales & why not, they are remunerated in millions for their extra ordinary creative skills.

Few moments later, another expert comment sounded, this time someone commented to the extra pounds on the belly of the girl in an Item number. I wondered of those so called perfectionists, who are blessed with exceptional ability to identify even minute error in anything, these people were strong observers.  I felt bad of being just an ordinary human though I personally felt that the girl was quite fit & well in shape. Moreover she had already proven her worth to be there, where she was today. She stands out of millions of people & moreover she has something that people could talk about of her. Millions of public watch her, listen to what she says, and reads about her; almost following her religiously. But no, I might be wrong, I thought. These “Critics” had a better understanding of the subject so I felt like saying nothing.

We had just finished our lunch when Pavitra, a charming intelligent Bengali team mate asked me something in Bengali “tumi Coke khaabe?” She unintentionally spoke in Bengali, her mother tongue but she wasn’t aware that she could be the next target to the “Critics Panel” She repeated her words in English this time asking everyone if anyone wanted to have her share of coke but it was too late & sets of question started surrounding her from nowhere. “How can be Coke (a drinkable item) be “Khaabe” & why not it be “Peebe?” Someone else asked “Why do you Bengalis use the word “Khaabe” for every eatables & drinkables as well?” The next question was even more typical to be answered “Why is it “Roshogolla” in Bengali which is simply “Rasgulla” in Hindi?” Pavitra was an intellectual with extremely calm attitude, she simply replied “It has nothing to do with non-Bengalis & you are no one to raise question to culture, language or religion of anyone. I may list out myriad of errors in everybody here, in your religion, your state, your language etc. etc... But my ethics don’t let me do so, I rather enjoy finding pleasure in anything good & appreciating the same”, her face still reflecting smile. The “Critic Panel” was speechless then. I was in awe of her that how an ordinary girl has put these experts in silence. These people who were gifted to judge anybody to everybody, their knowledge in every discipline, were speechless today & they had no answers to this ordinary girl.

One more such incident happened while I was checking my personal mails. I received a mail form one of my old college friend who informed me that she has started blogging, that sounded pretty interesting to me & I appreciated her efforts of writing. While reading her mail I got a chance to discover one more “Critic”. One of her article condemned one of the latest movie, another article of her talked about SRK’s performance in “My Name is Khan”. With that it reminded me of certain other write-ups that I had read, each one of which expressed their comments, sometimes complimenting in a rare case.

I am glad that I am not blessed with such special abilities of finding errors & to not behaving like a “Critic”. I enjoy anything good happening around & feel like appreciating it every time. I am happy to be what I am.

Aarti

“Yash!!! How dare you touch my diary? Don’t you have any personal ethics? You must know that you are not supposed to read anybody’s personal diary” Aarti’s words breezed through my ears from nowhere & the next moment she snatched the diary from my hand. I held the expression of a seven year old guy caught red-handed by his mother having orange ice stick at the road side vendor. I tried convincing her but instead she threw a gruesome look to me. I tried to defend myself “I... I was just… I didn’t read anything… please listen to me….” But I forgot the fact that girls are never programmed to listen, she said “just shut up OK”

“Hey listen to me dear, I am sorry… Can I see my sweetheart smiling?” I* said holding both of my ear-lobes.

“Just Go to Hell” she said with a witty face laying emphasis on the last word.

“We’ll go together honey. I’ll follow where ever you go” I took the diary from her hand, put it back on the shelf & added “Now would you let me to take you to The Hell?”

“What?”

“Ya, I have a better idea for today’s outing, lets booze at “The Hell” , it’s a nice pub in Sector 19 market”

She said smiling “You are a Dog, a Bastard, I am not going anywhere with you” Both of us smiled & we walked together to have a splendid day ahead.

Discomfort

Have you ever lost it completely? Where you do not remember what you said, what you wore, who all were there around you? What all you did?..I can bet most of us have been through a situation like that sometime in our lives. However, the key thought process after reading the above sentence, most of us will genuinely agree would be about a negative experience that we have had in our life, yet there will be a percentage of people who will differ otherwise.

Have you ever loved someone so much that, as if you felt you are smothering the person and yet are unable to do an iota of nothing? Or perused a dream so intensely that you can almost feel living it in reality? These are some high intensity feeling generated in ourselves that make us completely powerless of our very existence for a while or sometimes for moments. The intensity is so high that the body actually becomes a live volcano. With the word ‘Volcano’ used here, most of us will associate it with destruction and death and many negatives, yet sublimely we all know, how earth and all its various magnificent mountains above sea and below sea have formed on earth.

My reference to the word ‘Volcano’ above has a significance of an experience I have had recently. And like the high flames and volumes of molten lava coming out through it, I experienced the same episode on a very personal note. The unfathomable destruction caused, will be felt for a long time. Yet it was a beginning of something new too, dropping the FEAR of abandonment and voicing something that had been bothering inside the heart for far too long it could withhold.

Power display is actually an amazing emotion to watch, specially, men versus women and vice-versa. The music that play in the background has an utmost serenity to be observed; but ‘Only from a distance’. I have experienced recently the sharp pain of becoming the most hated person in a person’s life and have received adjectives that I will prefer never been spoken. Taking a few steps down, I realized it was simmering for a while and the warning signals were displayed several times, yet though they were not really overlooked, but both parties chose to ignore them and continue life as usual.

The experience has made a few learning’s clear to me like bright morning sunlight which I always knew but maybe did not put so much emphasis before; integrity in our acts, honestly in our thoughts and being faithful in our heart is imperative to anything that we do in life. Degrading anyone of these aspects will eventually lead to an eruption of another volcano.

The heart and soul aches to see the bloodshed, if only I had the power to heal and take away all the pain and anger..within myself and then maybe someone else too…

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