I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free. ~Michelangelo

A few months back my daughter was supposed to take part in a creative art contest. They could do anything like draw a picture, make a model... only rule was to be creative.

I offered her a suggestion of doing something in origami, art of paper folding. Then as usual i jumped into the net and found some stuff of how to make a doll... All the instructions were there in it from the size of the paper and how it was to be folded. I then demonstrated to her how she had to do it a couple of times. Now it was becoming more of remembering how to do it and she was not really interested as I could see from her actions. She finally told me that this was not creative and she could manage on her own. I felt a bit guilty that i was trying to force on her something.

Next day morning she was very quite when i was dropping her off at school and i was a bit upset that i could not help her. In the evening when i went to pick her she was very happy, with a smile on her face. She then told me that she got first prize in the creative art contest. i asked her what did shedo as she was not prepared for it. she told me that she got a matchbox, colour paper... and built a small horse drawn carriage with the matchbox as the carriage and people sitting on it with the colour paper

I asked her if she had the model she built and she replied that she had to give it to her art master. Anyway when she came home she made a similar model of it to show me.

I felt very bad, because i was actually trying to kill her creativity and imagination. From that day onwards i take suggestions from her which inspires her creativity and she helps me to get a bit of artistic creativity....(pictures, photos...) to my blog :)

If i had to carve an angel out of a block of marble i would have had measurements of height, depth... and final result would have been a statue maybe looking like an angel without any emotions.... but if my daughter had to do it i know maybe the angel would have flown free :)

Free calls/SMS on the net

Everyone loves to have freebies. Making free calls on the net, great. You do make ur regular calls on the yahoo pc to pc, telephone cards, regular phone cards....
But there is a lot of excitement when you can make the call totally free overseas.
When the tsunami struck countries like New Zealand gave people free unlimted calls to India to check out their relatives. I did a lot of research trying to do free calls on the net, but found it difficult to connect across to India.

Here are some freebie callers to other countries. Check them out.

http://www.voipbuster.com/en/splashvoipin.html

http://www.voipstunt.com/en/splashvoipin.html

You can make a few free calls before they block it. Usually u can change ur user name... and continue. Have fun.

Well send free SMS to India even though you can't make calls, especially to BSNL phones
The best one is

http://bol.rediff.com/

Got this from Reva's site

For all other countries to send SMS i use SMS countrof india, which is pretty cheap

http://www.smscountry.com/


You must be knowing yahoo messenger also(which cannot connect to BSNL phones)

http://www.ipvaani.com

The above address provides free sevices if we buy their adapter.

So my friends if you know of any source of free phone calls or sending SMS please share it with us so everyone can make use of the facility.

Get your headphones and mike and make some free call to your friends :)

New class, new books, new friends, new teachers... new pinch.... :)

I always loved moving to the next higher class. (promoted to the next higher class in school)

Used to feel happy when the results came, fresh smell of new books, writing the names, labels, new pencils, pens, geometry boxes, bags, uniform, shoes, socks .... new pinch... for everyone.

The excitement is there meeting all the old friends back in a new class(atmosphere), if the students in the sections were shuffled then we get to meet more new classmates. Getting the best seat by the window, and trying to impress the teacher....

That was good fun and my kids are going through it. I feel happy for them and wish I could turn back into a kid again :)

Well they gave me a part of their fun (boring part) to me, covering up their text books and notebook... with brown paper. Boring but still the child in me is happy atleast i got to smell the fresh books, paper.... and rekindle my old memories :)

A few more weeks before i reach home and start the job and get those flasbacks ...

Love of Parents

An 80 year old man was sitting on the sofa in his house along with his 45 years old highly educated son.

Suddenly a crow perched on their window.The Father asked his Son, "What is this?" The Son replied "It is a crow".After a few minutes, the Father asked his Son the 2nd time, "What is this?"

The Son said "Father, I have just now told you "It's a crow". After a little while, the old Father again asked his Son the 3rd time, What is this?"At this time some ex-pression of irritation was felt in the Son's tone when he said to his Father with a rebuff. "It's a crow, a crow". A little after, the Father again asked his Son t he 4th time, "What is this?"This time the Son shouted at his Father, "Why do you keep asking me the same question again and again, although I have told you so many times 'IT IS A CROW'. Are you not able to understand this?"

A little later the Father went to his room and came back with an old tattered diary, which he had maintained since his Son was born.

On opening a page, he asked his Son to read that page. When the son read it, the following words were written in the diary :-"Today my little son aged three was sitting with me on the sofa, when a crow was sitting on the window. My Son asked me 23 times what it was, and I replied to him all 23 times that it was a Crow. I hugged him lovingly each time h e asked me the same question again and again for 23 times. Idid not at all feel irritated I rather felt affection for my innocent child".

While the little child asked him 23 times "What is this", the Father had felt no irritation in replying to the same question all 23 times and when today the Father asked his Son the same question just 4 times, the Son felt irritated and annoyed.

I am able to remember each time I shouted mummy and papa for innumerous things. And, yes I know he was not really angry with me. And to his greatness he never made any note of our stupid acts. So..

If your parents attain old age, do not repulse them or look at them as a burden, but speak to them a gracious word, be cool, obedient, humble and kind to them. Be considerate to your parents.

Received it by email and it is true as I also answer back at them

"I like work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours."

Back to work, crew cut....

Holidays do drain the pocket too :(

Camping in Ooty :) SU campsite

It is good to realize that if love and peace can prevail on earth, and if we can teach our children to honor nature's gifts, the joys and beauties of the outdoors will be there forever. - who said that ?

This campsite has been kept with bare minimum facilities so that the campers can merge with nature



Started off :)














On route, quenching our thirst














Quick bite















Loving deer couple at Bandipur












Sent a telegram, but all elephants on leave















Could only see him














Lucky, saw this bison, camera missing, got it on the phone












Dirt track to the camp















Quite a ride through wild country














Reached campsite! heard that tigers roam the way we drive thro. Thank God, they were not hungry that day.













Our tents and the kids tent. Started getting cold.started a small campfire












More tents, but the crowd had already left.














No permanent electricity. Only a home made rigup of hydro electricity which ran off the mountain stream for a couple of hours.











Basic facilities :)
















This is how we got our hot water. Collect firewood and get this boiler crackling.















Kayaking and swimming in the lake :)















Friendly dog at the campsite














Trekking, a quick breakspot by the falls















Cascading waterfalls above and above















At the end of the day, everyone crashed, It was cold in the tent with no electricity, no mosquitoes :), no internet or cable tv
i had my full quota of sleep after a long time :)








All good things have to end, we finally reached home stuffy, humid, hot Madras
















I love the mountains, but I am not trading it for my beach :)

Can I live withou internet ???

Holidays time ! No internet! out of range of the phones ! looks like i am not going to survive ! my wife and my kids love it because i am 100% for them ! anyway my brain check emails, a small blog and a bit of browsing... so a short blog see u all after the holidays with new interesting photos and blogs

Trekking

My fore fathers

The above photos are old ones from a day visit to TADA!
Destination OOTY! Got to relax! unwind! learn how my fore fathers survived without the net :)

Free Gmail /Hard drive! Save your data, don't worry about computer crashes :)

I still get quite a few requests for Gmail !

I have been using gmail as a harddrive for the past few days and have downloaded most of my photos, personal files into my gmail drive as a backup.

I downloaded the small program from the link below and executed it.(134 kb)

Download GMail Drive Shell Extension from here

That opened up a Gmail Drive which showed along with my other drives on "My Computer"

When I double click it, it asks for my login name and password. Use your Gmail login and password. If you don't have one send an email to : asmileforfree@gmail.com and I'll send an invite immediately.

As soon as you login it opens up like a folder where you can drag/drop or copy/paste your files folders... on your Gmail Drive

I lost quite a few photos when my computer crashed a few times, but now I have started backing my photos and oher electronic data on my Gmail drive

It makes life easier as you can access your data from any computer(even through your gmail email). More info on : http://viksoe.dk/gmail/

Got this from a friend (software wizard) and am sharing it for people who are not aware of the same.

Have fun :)

MARINA BEACH AT IT'S BEST

If you want to meet really enterprising and cheerful people, go to the Marina beach in the evenings. I saw kids and youngsters selling stuff for living but were so cheerful and optimistic.

They were not worried about tomorrow, but were living today

Sone pappadi boy! as sweet as his sone pappadi :)

Sand sculpure of a croc by my kids.

We named him SCOOBY the CROC as he looked funny and harmless

My kids want to do a sculpture every week. Sounds like fun. They are planning

to build an elephant next time

Two kids selling sundal. They have to finish the selling go home and study.

Actually they were squabbling, but became buddies for the camera

Chukku Kapi! That should take care of the cold and running noses














The balloon man.

My kids were his customers

We did not entertain him as we had already had lots of sone pappadi.

Have come to the beach to loose weight, not gain!

The flute man. Got to inform IRIS

Makka cholam (Corn) with flying sparklers?

Soups, fried rice...

and the usual bajji's

Good walk! finished a multi course dinner!
from sone pappadi's to bajji's....

GOOD NIGHT :)