What we Forget in our Pursuit of Happiness

A boat is docked in a tiny Mexican fishing village.

A tourist complimented the local fishermen on the quality of their fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

"Not very long." they answered in unison.

"Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?"

The fishermen explained that their small catches were sufficient to meet their needs and those of their families.

"But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

"We sleep late, fish a little, play with our children, and take siestas with our wives. In the evenings, we go into the village to see our friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs.

We have a full life."
The tourist interrupted,

"I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you!
You should start by fishing longer every day.
You can then sell the extra fish you catch.
With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat."

An Optical Illusion

Focus on the red dot for 10 seconds and see the blue ring disappear.

Connecting the Dots - Steve Jobs

This is the video and transcript of a story from Steve Jobs' life that he shares with the students of Stanford.

"I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

Inspiring Quotes from Einstein

"The only source of knowledge is experience.”

“Information is not knowledge.”

“Learning is experience. Everything else is just information.”

“Genius is 1% talent and 99% percent hard work…”

The only sure way to avoid making mistakes is to have no new ideas.”

“Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.”

“Only those who attempt the absurd can achieve the impossible”

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

“Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.”

Do You Have Psychopathic Tendencies?

No offence intended with the title.

This is a cool psychological experiment that I came to know about.

Answer the following question honestly. Honesty is the only thing that matters, no one other than you is going to know your answer.

The Hypothetical Scenario:

Its your mother's funeral. You see a very attractive person there. Before you actually get a chance to talk to that person, he/she leaves. Later that night you murder your sibling.

The Question:

Why did you murder your sibling?

The Answer:

The Cockroach Theory: Reaction vs Response

At a restaurant, a cockroach suddenly flew from somewhere and sat on a lady. She started screaming out of fear. With a panic stricken face and trembling voice, she started jumping, with both her hands desperately trying to get rid of the cockroach.

Her reaction was contagious, as everyone in her group also got panicky.

The lady finally managed to push the cockroach away but …it landed on another lady in the group.

Now, it was the turn of the other lady in the group to continue the drama.

The waiter rushed forward to their rescue.
In the relay of throwing, the cockroach next fell upon the waiter.

The waiter stood firm, composed himself and observed the behavior of the cockroach on his shirt.
When he was confident enough, he grabbed it with his fingers and threw it out of the restaurant.

Sipping my coffee and watching the amusement, the antenna of my mind picked up a few thoughts and started wondering, was the cockroach responsible for their histrionic behavior?
If so, then why was the waiter not disturbed?
He handled it near to perfection, without any chaos.

A Poor Millionaire

A Father took his son to a village to show what poverty is all about :

After the trip, he asked his son about poverty...

The son replied :

We live as a nucleated family, they live in big extended families...

We have only 1 dog, they have a farm full of animals...

We have a small pool, they have a long river...

We've lamps, they have stars...

We've a small piece of land, they have large fields...

We buy food, they grow theirs & eat fresh...

They have many friends to play, we have less friends & no time to meet them, so we have to play with Computers & PS2...

Their fathers have time for their children & our fathers don't...

They have happiness, we have money...

Understanding Value

Once upon a time in a small town in India a well known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a 500 Rupee note.

To the 200 people listening to him he asked "Who would like to have this 500 Rupee note?" 

Hands started to rise. Everyone wanted it. 

He said, "I am going to give this note to one of you but first let me do this." 

He then crumbled the note up. He then asked, "Who still wants it?"

Still all the hands were up in the air.

"Well", he replied. "What if I do this?" and he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it to the floor with his shoe. He picked up the note now all crumbled and filthy, and asked again "Who still wants this?

The Ghost Tracks of San Antonio

In the 1930's, in an intersection of railway track and road a train crashed into a school bus killing everyone on board. It is believed till day that the ghosts of the victims of the tragedy lurk around the place.

The Creepy Stuff people have experienced.

There have been several reports of hearing children's cries, feeling their car get rocked etc, but the most unbelievable thing about the place is that if you park your car near the railway crossing put it in neutral some kind of force pushes the car uphill and off from the railroad. The legend is that it is the ghosts of the children from the crash who are trying to save you from their fate.

Have a look at the video to see it for yourself.

What to Write in a Brochure

Brochures, Flyers, Pamphlets and Leaflets are all made with the sole purpose of advertising. The brochure should catch the eye, just one look and the person should feel curious about what it is about and that's when it can be called a good brochure.

Once someone starts reading it they shouldn't be let down. Here are some tips on working on the content of a brochure.

Let the Pictures do the Talking

As the saying goes a picture is worth a thousand words, in a brochure you should let pictures do most of the talking and the text should support the images. The amount of text should be minimum. Rely on headings to convey your message, Texts should be short and sweet. List out points rather than put it in a paragraph. In case you need to write paragraphs split it up into smaller paragraphs.

Title

Give importance to the title, make it big as now a days its all about the brand and building the brand's name is crucial. Use a catchy tagline to support the title. Give a generous amount of space for it, for a multiple paged brochure leave the front page exclusively for the title, tagline and some visual treats.

The Message To Be Conveyed

The Gulf of Khambhatt's Lost Civilization

The gulf of Khambhatt formerly known as the gulf of Cambay is a trumpet shaped inlet of the Arabian sea in the state of Gujarat on the west coast of India. It has a high tidal range and velocity thanks to it's shape and orientation with the south-west monsoon winds. Navigation through the gulf is no picnic because of it's shoals and sandbanks.

In May 2001, it was announced that ruins of an ancient civilization has been found near the banks of the Gulf of Khambhatt. The site was found by the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) while conducting a routine pollution check using sonar. The site was found to have regularly spaced geometric structures believed to be dwelling places, a granary, a citadel, a bath and a drainage system. These structures were believed to predate the Indus Valley Civilization, the oldest known civilization near the area.

The British Columbia Feet Mystery

August 20, 2007,  a girl was relaxing and enjoying on the beach of Jedediah Island, British Columbia, Canada. She saw a size 12 Adidas shoe brought ashore by the Salish sea. She picked up the shoe and opened the sock. The girl was shocked to find a decaying foot inside the shoe.

Six days later another foot was discovered on the coast of Gabriola island, BC, followed by another on February 8, 2008. These events gained media attention and townsfolk and the police started guesses about the origin of this mystery.

The most popular theories were:that the feet belonged to victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami, or illegal stowaways, and my personal favorite theory - a new serial killer has arrived.

11 feet were reported to be found by February 2012 and strangely all of them were wrapped in sports shoes, once the story hit headlines someone actually put a paw in a running shoe and put it on a beach as a hoax.

The feet were confirmed to belong to 5 men, 1 woman and 3 people whose sex could not be determined. Though the foot was well preserved, it is a part of the body that offers very few clues

Explanation

15 Amazing Photo Manipulations of Food

15 Amazing Photo Manipulations of Food

Bread Hut

Cheese Bite

How many of these dreams have you had?

FALLING 

Since the beginning of time people have reported dreaming of falling. According to biblical interpretations, dreams about falling have a negative overtone.It is believed that such dreams relate to how you are acting and walking, according to his own way of thinking and not those of the Lord.

A fairly popular myth about dreams of falling is that you will die if you hit the ground in the dream which is not true.

Falling dreams are common in people who suffer from depression. According to psychology a dream of falling is a way in which your subconscious tells you that something in your life is going wrong or not the way you wanted or expected. The item going wrong might be finance, a relationship, career etc.


NUDITY 

Naming a Villain

When I hear the word villain the first image that comes to my mind is Bane. In my opinion the qualities of an ideal villain is portrayed by Tom Hardy in his role as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. But in no way could I relate to Bane as a farmer.

You might be wondering what I am talking about. The word villain used to mean farmer/ farm worker in the 14th century. Villa is a term which is still used for a house and some land owned by a person. Villain was the person who maintained and made a living out of a villa.

According to the rich folk at that time the villains had to lie, cheat and steal to make both ends meet. The villains were a lower kind of human beings, ones who could not be trusted, ones who weren't capable of doing chivalrous acts. 

It was these racist attitudes of the high end society which gave the word a new definition, bad guy. The popularization of the new definition through comics, stories and movies over generations left the old meaning forgotten.

Playing Fire with Fire

I have heard these phrases "fighting fire with fire", "an eye for an eye", "a tooth for a tooth" etc. so many times that it sickens me.

The origin of the idiom fighting fire with fire is from the firefighters technique of actually fighting fire with fire. This method is usually used to control violent forest fires. The strategy is to make a roadblock to the oncoming fire by setting a fire intentionally on it's path. By burning the nearby timber the original fire runs out of fuel to feed itself when it reaches the burned out area. This tactic is efficient in this particular case but it has to be noted that in normal situations a firefighters main weapon is water.

Evolution of Human Nature

 

This is a mime I along with my friends wrote and played during our college days. It shows a perception of how we (mankind) used to be, how we are and a hypothetical scenario of how we might become.  

Sorry about the poor quality.

I hope you enjoyed it.

What's with the name: Cheruthon?

Here I'd like to tell you about the name of this blog Cheruthon. Well to put it simple that's my name.

I have seen a lot of people finding it difficult to get an email address/ website etc with their name but that never happens to me because of my family's unique name.

Many have asked me what it means and many think it's the name of a place, well I'm about to explain it now in case you were wondering.

My ancestors moved to a place called Maramon, a small town on the banks of the river Pamba, when a dam was built near their previous settlement and turned it into a catchment area. So when the dam was built the settlement of my ancestors became a land of relatively lower altitude and thus water began to accumulate there. "Chera" is the Malayalam term for dam and "Thaane" means lower. Hence the new settlers of the land who arrived because the Chera Thaane their land were called Cherathaane which over the years evolved to Cheruthon.

A smoker's perspective of smoking.

I am not going to list out the harmful effects of smoking, because the odds are you already know them. The picture below says all you need to know about it.

Cooperative Container Gardening

Here is my World Environment Day Message to all of my readers. "Cooperative gardening." That is you form a group among your peers, friends, neighbors etc and each member grows a different plant(vegetable) and share the vegetables with each other.

Being June 5, I have seen several people saying "Go Green" "Plant a Tree" so on and so forth. What I have for you in this post is quite easy to do and you can literally reap the benefits.

I'm sure all of us have heard the numerous benefits of organic fruits and vegetables like

• pesticide free
• better for your health
• tastier
• fresher

but none of us want to buy them because they are costlier or because of the lack of availability.