A pat on the back

You do things because you like them that way.
How many people understand the matter?
In this world appreciation is one thing that is hard to come by.
I have been sincere in whatever I did.
I was also pushing myself into things that never were my business.
This has landed me in trouble some times.
Fewer were the times when some one eappreciated my role.
But, they work like a big booster to your morale.

All said and done, I have never looked forward to appreciation from any quarter.
I always am generous with my compliments to all, when they do even simple things.

There is this joke I always keep telling people when this matter comes to discussion.

There was this gentleman trying to teach his child the multiplication tables.
The boy was a little slow in picking them up.
He was asked to get the tables by heart.
It was painfuly slow progress.
One evening there was this session when the father was testing the boy.
He asked "How much is nine nines?"
The boy said " Seventy nine!"
Father started appreciating the boy saying " Very good, Good progress!" and all such things.
A gentleman who was witness to the evnt went mad.
He asked the father " Look! Your son is wrong. And, you are appreciating him instead of telling him the truth! What madness is this?"
The father coolly said " Look! Yesterday he said it was seventy seven. Today he is that much nearer to the right answer. Tomorrow he may tell the right answer. If I shout at him today, he may get disheartened and never learn anything!"

So, the moral of the story is, appreciate people even when they are wrong.
Give them a chance to improve!!

Can you do that?

I really do not remember what I said, but, Joseph said, I have great sense of humor.
I do not think that I am all that humorous.

I had a friend named Surya Rao when in the university.
I clearly remember him walking along a tall friend ( Perahps Jagannath) near the mess.
I was walking towards them.
Surya Rao called me and said " Gopalam! When I am standing next to this man, does it not look like a Zero next to One?"
Do I have to tell that Surya rao was a Plump and fat man?

That is Surya Rao and his sense of humor was perhaps unparalelled.

We were all as usual sitting on the stairs in front of the hostel.
Surya Rao walked towards us. There was nothing peculiar about it.
But, unusually this man has tucked his shirt in, that day.
He never did that ever because he was a fat man.
No one said anything, lest they embarass him.
He walked past and looked back saying nonchallantly "Fault is not mine! It is the new belt!"
He said it in Telugu.
There was a movie those days with a similar sounding title.
We could not contain ourselves and laughed heartily along Surya Rao.

I wish wherever he is, my friend is equally happy as he was!