The Professionals

Benji sent me this 'interesting story'. May have an iota of truth in it......

*****

 



Once upon a time there was a shepherd looking after his sheep on the side of a deserted road. Suddenly a brand new Porsche screeches to a halt nearby.

The driver, a man dressed in an Armani suit, Cerutti shoes, Ray-Ban sunglasses, TAG-Heuer wrist-watch, and a Pierre Cardin tie, gets out and asks the Shepherd: If I can tell you how many sheep you have, will you give me one of them?"

The shepherd looks at the young man, and then looks at the large flock of grazing sheep and replies: "Okay."

The young man parks the car, connects his laptop to the mobile-fax, enters a NASA Webster, scans the ground using his GPS, opens a database and 60 Excel tables filled with alogarithms and pivot tables, then prints out a 150 page report on his high-tech mini-printer.

He turns to the shepherd and says, "You have exactly 1,586 sheep here."

The shepherd cheers,"that' s correct, you can have your sheep."

The young man makes his pick and puts it in the back of his Porsche.

The shepherd looks at him and asks:

"If I guess your profession, will you return my animal to me?"

The young man answers, "Yes, why not".

The shepherd says, "You are an IT consultant ".

How did you know?" asks the young man.

"Very simple," answers the shepherd.. "First, you came here without being called. Second, you charged me a fee to tell me something I already knew, and third, you don't understand anything about my business...

Now can I have my DOG back???"

The Cab Ride..........

I received this one from Bhupinder, and it aptly conveys what our actions may mean to others. So, here it goes..........

*****

 

 

So I walked to the door and knocked.
'Just a minute', answered a frail, elderly voice.
I could hear something being dragged across the floor.

After a long pause, the door opened.
A small woman in her 90's stood before me.
She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat with a veil pinned on it,
like somebody out of a 1940s movie.

By her side was a small nylon suitcase.
The apartment looked as if no one had lived in it for years.

All the furniture was covered with sheets.
There were no clocks on the walls, no knickknacks or utensils on the counters.
In the corner was a cardboard box filled with photos and glassware.

'Would you carry my bag out to the car?' she said.
I took the suitcase to the cab, then returned to assist the woman.

She took my arm and we walked slowly toward the curb.
She kept thanking me for my kindness.

'It's nothing', I told her.
'I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother treated'.

'Oh, you're such a good boy', she said.

When we got in the cab, she gave me an address,
and then asked, 'Could you drive through downtown?'

'It's not the shortest way,' I answered quickly.
'Oh, I don't mind,' she said. 'I'm in no hurry.
I'm on my way to a hospice'.

I looked in the rear-view mirror.
Her eyes were glistening. 'I don't have any family left,' she continued.
'The doctor says I don't have very long.'
I quietly reached over and shut off the meter.

'What route would you like me to take?' I asked.
For the next two hours, we drove through the city.

She showed me the building where she had once
worked as an elevator operator.

We drove through the neighborhood where she
and her husband had lived when they were newlyweds.

She had me pull up in front of a furniture warehouse that
had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl.

Sometimes she'd ask me to slow in front of a particular building
or corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.

As the first hint of sun was creasing the horizon, she suddenly said, 'I'm tired. Let's go now.'

We drove in silence to the address she had given me.
It was a low building, like a small convalescent home,
with a driveway that passed under a portico.

Two orderlies came out to the cab as soon as we pulled up.
They were solicitous and intent, watching her every move.

They must have been expecting her.
I opened the trunk and took the small suitcase to the door.

The woman was already seated in a wheelchair.
'How much do I owe you?' she asked, reaching into her purse.

'Nothing,' I said

'You have to make a living,' she answered.

'There are other passengers,' I responded.

Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug.
She held onto me tightly.

'You gave an old woman a little moment of joy,' she said.
 'Thank you.'

I squeezed her hand, and then walked into the dim morning light.

Behind me, a door shut. It was the sound of the closing of a life.

I didn't pick up any more passengers that shift.
I drove aimlessly lost in thought.

For the rest of that day, I could hardly talk.


What if that woman had gotten an angry driver,
or one who was impatient to end his shift?
What if I had refused to take the run,
or had honked once, then driven away?
On a quick review,
I don't think that I have done anything more important in my life.


We're conditioned to think that our lives revolve around great moments.
But great moments often catch us unaware-beautifully wrapped in what others may consider a small one.

 
PEOPLE MAY NOT REMEMBER EXACTLY WHAT YOU DID, OR WHAT YOU SAID, BUT THEY WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER HOW YOU MADE THEM FEEL.

Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might as well dance.

You Too Are Lucky.....

I had received similar mail earlier, but could not keep a record of it. Today, I received it again from Shilendra Benjamin, and he had aptly titled it "A good story to start the day". Here it goes.........

*****

A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet.

He held up a sign which said:
'I am blind, please help'

There were only a few coins in the hat.

A man was walking by.

He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat.

He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words.

He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by 
would see the new words.

Soon the hat began to fill up.

A lot more people were now giving money to the blind boy.

That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were.

The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, 'Were you the one 
who changed my sign this morning?

What did you write?'

The man said, 'I only wrote the truth.

I said what you said but in a different way.

'What he had written was:
'Today is a beautiful day and I cannot see it'

Do you think the first sign and the second sign were saying the same thing?

Of course both signs told people the boy was blind.

But the first sign simply said the boy was blind.

The second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind.

Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective?

Moral of the Story:

Be thankful for what you have.
Be creative.
Be innovative.
Think differently and positively.

The most beautiful thing is to see a person smiling…

And even more beautiful is,….. knowing that you are the reason behind it.

'Less'er by the Day

I keep getting a lot of e-mails in which some are intended to make one smile or laugh and there are others that carry pearls of wisdom. I, then accordingly forward these to people I am in contact with and I care about, but then I still like to retain a copy of the subject for my personal record and consumption any time later. Hence, I had to open a new email account to which I would always forward a copy of the same. Then I realised that I can make the same material available to a wider section of people if I collate all these at one place, and what better than a blog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And that's the real story about the generation of the blog. 

The title "Smiling Pearls" can thus be safely inferred, from the type of mails the two words separately as individual entities indicate. Quite clearly, it can by summed up, that these are the good things that I collected during my walk of life, and I, in no way, claim the authorship of the material posted. Needless to say that I would also be making an endeavour to include also things other than the received ones, which I happen to come across at various other sources. Similar thoughts may be included by the visitors, however crediting the source would be always welcome and would seem a healthy practice.

So, here we start. This piece was sent to me by Pratim:- 

21st Century.... We Are Becoming "Less"er By The Day

 

Our communication - Wireless

Our dress - Topless

Our telephone - Cordless

Our cooking - Fireless

Our youth - Jobless

Our food - Fatless

Our labour - Effortless

Our conduct - Worthless

Our relationships - Loveless

Our attitude - Careless

Our feelings - Heartless

Our politics - Shameless

Our education - Valueless

Our follies - Countless

Our arguments - Baseless

Our Job - Thankless

Our Salary - Very Very less

Our Mails - Useless (especially this one!!!)