Beauty-P or Bea-UTP :P

Creative with the title right? Hehe...I know its lame. But that's what today's post is about. Beauty as UTP sees it. I used the same content for a Toastmaster's speech this last Tuesday so thought I might as well make use of the effort and make a blog post out of it.

There is a famous folk story about Laila Majnoo. I am sure many people have heard of it. It goes that Laila was very dark in complexion and yet Majnoo was crazy about her. Let me narrate a beautiful verse...

Loagan aakhiya Majnay toon, oh tedi Laila rang dee kaali...
Majnoo aay jawab ditta, tu sakoon akh nahi dekharn wali...

Which roughly translates, people asked Majnoo, that your Laila is dark in complexion and Majnoo replied you don't have the eyes that see her beauty.

Its a point to quote the stereotype, "Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder." That's exactly what I believe in as well.

The glossy magazine & advertisements showing zero-figure appearances of super-models females or otherwise have just distorted the image of beauty that we originally had. The true sense of beauty has got lost somewhere.

Ask the mother. Is your child beautiful? What a ridiculous question right?

Let me ask you. Is your mother beautiful? Are her wrinkly hands beautiful to you? I would probably get beat up if I ask that in public.

I can  tell you from personal experience that a new born baby in the hands of the father is the most beautiful and purest sight existent today. Unfortunately, the baby soon grows up and gets introduced to the pre-conceived notion of beauty as we have accepted as a given now. Soon she will realize that its a completely different version that is assumed by everyone so it must be true.

I fear a day when my daughter comes up to me and asks me, "Baby, am I ugly?" Now, what do I reply to that? Just because somebody called her ugly, she would come up and ask me that right?

I think the word ugly was just invented for the sake of it. They would have had the word beautiful since God made everybody beautiful. Then the devil's advocate came in and asked, "Who do we call somebody who is not beautiful?" And the so-called smart man who had been given intellect came up with the Smart Alec reply..."I know, I know...lets call it ugly..."

Ugly in itself has no stance whatsoever.

My question is, who are we to define the element of beauty? How did we assume that we have the right to call anybody ugly? Its just so unfair and displays extreme arrogance.

Is it looks? Most people believe so. Whether we accept or not, we do get attracted to beautiful and handsome, don't we? Well OK so God made them good-looking, beautiful-looking but that doesn't exactly mean that they are beautiful right. In the truest sense, beauty is something much more deeper.

It is something beyond the obvious. Its like you see a really juicy red apple and when you take a bite, it could be rotten inside. Its much much more deeper. Its not about the skin and more about the heart and soul. Its about the good deeds. Its about the behavior and nature.

When we judge beauty with our eyes, we can only see what is visible which is the skin, the appearance. I think in order to be able to see real beauty we need to open the eye of the soul so that we are able to see the other souls around as well.

Beauty can be different for different people. But the roots are very close.

In continuation from the verse above, let me take the next verse...

Chittay warq quran day, oh jehn kay siyahi rang dee kaali...

oh jehn naal dil arh paway, oh gori huay ya kaali...

Roughly translated as,

The paper of The Holy Quran is white as well. It only starts making sense when the Black ink falls on it. Majnoo trys to explain in a form of philosophy. When the heart likes somebody then it doesn't matter whether that person is white or black. WAH!!!

Beauty is what your eyes see. The purity of your heart will be able to see the beauty everywhere just like God created it. Just like He wanted you to see it. Take the material curtains off your eyes and open the eye of your heart.

There is nothing artificial about it. Look around you. Look at your home, your work, your school. Look at how beautiful God made this world. Go out and look at this world in a different way. See how the world looks back at you in a different way. Lets get back to the basics. Lets get back to the real beauty that exists even today.

How long will the assumed artificial beauty last anyway? 10 years? 20 years? Life is much longer than that, isnt it?

Economy Down the Flush

Bulley, Rock On!!!

I dedicate this post to one of the most frequent visitors here. Mr. Sidhu Saaheb. I found this guy in the blogosphere only and have never met him. I don't know how old he is. I don't know who he really is. I only know him from the way he writes and what he writes. I found his posts always insightful and of the highest quality.

We do share a love for Sufism, I feel. I have had some thoughtful comments on whatever few Bulley Shah posts I have had. There is much more to learn from him.

I am tracking back a nice post from him where he has compiled 4 songs which have taken Bulley's words and made a modernized version of it so it appeals to the masses and yet conveys the simple messages that Bulley left with.

Love the song Bandeya.

Winning Re-Defined

In this cut-throat world of competition where we are always striving for success and trying to win every battle that we get part of, it is very natural to be stressed out. It is inhuman to win every time with the way we define winning today.

We think we have to be the best to win. Winning doesn't always mean that.

Lets take an example of a contest which has some judges who decide who wins. It could be a beauty contest, a speech contest etc. Winning in a judged contest may not mean you were the best. Similar losing or coming second doesn't mean that you are bad. The fact of the matter is that improving and growing is the real way of winning.

Winning doesn't always mean being first, winning means you're doing better than you did before - Bonnie Blair

I like this quote specifically because it emphasizes on continuous improvement. Improving is winning. I think based on this point, it may be a better deal at times to come second. You still get the limelight for coming in second and yet you didn't get the award after which arrogance and feeling of perfection come in. It is very natural to feel there is nothing to improve upon if you came in first.

So lets re-define winning today. Winning is not being the best. Winning is more about improving and growing with every next attempt.

Bank Loans These Days

Lots of people amaze me. The concept of loans has just changed how we function. And in the words of Celine Dion, "Its all coming back to me now..." :P

There was a time when I used to get at least 2 phone calls a day from people for loans 20 times my salary!!! Crazy. Thank God I wasn't attracted towards it. Anyway, talk about the situation now. The graph is on the other extreme these days. I think the following illustrates it perfectly.







Read more posts from Friday Funnies

You Only Have What you Give

I feel much honored to be tracking back another post from Darvish

Every post that I read from this guy, it makes me go closer to God. The way he thinks and writes and quotes, it just shows what a beautiful mind he has.

Today's trackback is another of those great ones. You only have what you give. He quotes Isabel Allende, who is a Chilean novelist. She shares with us her loss of her daughter and how it taught her the lesson of how giving is the best way of living.

That led me to a thought of how selfish we are in our lives. We always want things for ourselves and never give enough. This doesn't only apply to material things or money. It also applies to things like knowledge, love, etc. Why are we so selfish? What are those things worth anyway? They only increase in value, the more we share.

Think about it.

Think Differently & Positively

I will a post a beautiful story...today...



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 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?

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

Invite others towards good with wisdom. Live life with no excuse and love with no regrets. When life gives you a 100 reasons to cry, show life that you have 1000 reasons to smile. Face your past without regret. Handle your present with confidence. Prepare for the future without fear. Keep the faith and drop the fear.

Great men say, "Life has to be an incessant process of repair and reconstruction, of discarding evil and developing goodness.. In the journey of life, if you want to travel without fear, you must have the ticket of a good conscience."

The most beautiful thing is to see a person smiling.

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

Punjabi Jingle

Traits of a Great Leader

I think I have said this before also. I just love simple to-the-point posts. Found a post with a great message under similar lines. Want to know the "Traits of a Great leader" in one simple post. Well here you go.

I have been following the Rozee blog as I find most of their posts very useful to keep learning new things which apply to the human element of us. Without taking away the spotlight from the blogpost, I will just list out the traits. You can read details on the post itself.

1. Integrity


2. Risk Takers


3. Natural Problem Solvers


4. Good Listeners


5. Consensus Builders


6. People Development


7. Enthusiastic


8. Eyes on the Prize


9. Good Teachers

Adjust The Sails

"We cannot direct the wind but we can adjust the sails..."

I think its very natural to force something against nature. When things don't go our way, the more natural tendency is to try and fight the tide. Try and stand as a wall in front of it. We tend to forget that there is Nature that will take its way. One can't do anything about it.

There is a system that is running around us. The tides come in and go out. The wind changes direction. The earth shatters and volcanoes erupt. There are thunderstorms and hurricanes and tornadoes. There are enough things happening around us to at least realize that there is some Unseen Force that is making this world function with such precision.

In this world, there are things that will either go your way or will not go your way. Out of those things there are some things that you would have an influence on and some of them you wouldn't.

My question. Why sweat over things which you have no control on? Things which are going to happen no matter what you do or don't do. We tend to feel bad about things that happened because of something we did. We try to find logic out of things for which there is none and that is where we enter the zone of bringing ourselves down.

Here is the new strategy. Use nature to your advantage. If there is a forceful wind blowing against the direction that you want to go, use it well by just adjusting your sails and speeding your boat up. The best part about this anology is that for a sailboat, you can actually use the wind to go in an opposite direction than the wind itself.

So when things dont happen your way. The wind is blowing in some other direction. If you look beyond the obvious. If you stay positive. You can actually find a way to sail through while utilizing the strong wind to your advantage.

Just adjust the sails and keep moving. The tides will change again and the wind shall start blowing in the direction you want. That is when you can motor your way ahead.

FART & You Stand Alone

Recently, I was gifted a shirt which read...

"Smile and the world smiles with you..."

What nice gift right? Lots of smiling faces around it and I said, what a nice shirt. My joy was short lived as it quickly turned to laughter as I turned the shirt around. It read...

"FART and you Stand Alone..."

I have had an affiliation with farts for a long time. I even have a ustad or guru or teacher in the art of fart as well. My guru has the ability to do a Fart-on-Demand. Yes, you can ask for it and get it on demand. WOW, right?

He tried to teach me how to do that as well but I was always the bad student. Never practiced enough. In any case, he showed me the pleasure of releasing air from the backyard and feeling relaxed. He showed me how to live with no boundaries. By trying to make a better sound with every next one. By striving for a stronger smell with every next one.

Isn't that what a teacher supposed to do? Make you believe that you can do better that what you did? Salute to my teacher for making me believe in myself. Stretching me more than I thought I could go.

Did you have a teacher like that?