Google & Amazon

Google and Amazon, arguably giants but for most people, not at all alike. I read two books, Googled by Ken Auletta and The Everything Store by Brad Stone. Since it is virtually impossible to exactly replicate what I read, nor is it possible to write a summary of the books, because it was not a story. However I felt the need to disseminate information I read in these books. So, following are some points comparing the two companies and some other random events and information.

1. Sergey Brin and Larry Page are the founders of Google while Jeff Bezos (pronounced like Bay-Zos) is the founder and CEO of Amazon. Eric Schmidt is the CEO of Google.

2. The founders of both companies were literally nerds and since childhood were destined to be trend-setters.

3. Amazon had a very humble start. Google on the other hand, of course, started slow but rapidly progressed. Amazon stayed low for many years.

4. Googles motto for many years has been “Don’t be Evil”. Google initially followed this motto in a die-hard way and stuck to it. However, regarding matters of copyrights in Google Books and even video copyrights on YouTube, it had to eventually defy its motto. Google actually wanted major TV Shows to be broadcasted on YouTube. However the TV Channels proposed against it, as then they would lose traffic. Another significant problem for Google has been how to be financially stable. One wonders how a free search engine, no matter what quality can generate income. Well the answer is straight forward. Advertisements. TV Channels and many industries simply survive on the advertisements. Google’s finance is also highly dependent on ads. However Google uses a unique advertisement system. Normally, the companies pay the media center and the media center runs advertisements. In Googles case, Google runs advertisements without payment. However, the number of clicks on the advertisement simply determine the payment the company would have to give. Privacy is the newest and I think the biggest threat to Google. People are now raising concerns on the mere fact that their online life is depicted by a cookie and their every single clicks improves the Google Database. Advertisers then use the Google Database to know which product the customer is interested in. For example, if you are searching for a washing machine on olx but then just decide to leave it there and open google, it is then highly possible that Google would direct washing machine ads to you. Page Rank, an algorithm by Larry Page, ranks the sites and in which order they are supposed to be displayed on Google. This way people only get results which are usually preferred or utilized. Another example here is that…um..ok lets say you search for ‘Mr. Holmes movie’ the results you will get would be the links that most people have visited, which in this case might be IMDB or Wikipedia. However, the backdrop is that, it is not necessary that these links which though are most visited might be the most authentic. So yeah, you search on google is based on visits not relevance. I think that’s more or less Google…Also Eric Schmidt the CEO and the founders had a lot of arguments initially when Eric was hired but now its all cool. Moreover, Google acquired YouTube, just because Eric had the hunch that YouTube would be the next big thing, which it is, as now every single show and event is broadcasted live on YouTube. The video ads generate more income that text ads. About Android, it is (well you all know) the counter part of iOS. I personally have used both…and well to be honest, iOS is damn better than Android. Actually Android is supposed to be a simplistic open source operating system, which can be modified by anyone with mediocre programming skills. This is also why more phones have Android, and also Android is kind of more flexible or rather diverse. Okay too much Google…now Amazon.

5. You know…when Google started Bezos was one of the investors in Google….and it is still unsure if he is still an investor or not.

6. Well there is not a you know serious hostility between the two giants but the biggest possible conflict was way back in 2003-4 when Amazon was doing terrible and its employees were being sucked by the newly-successful Google.

7. Bezos, has some radical measures implemented in Amazon. You work tirelessly there. There is no travel expenses, insurance, café blah blah. Google is quite the contrary. Amazon some years back made its employees work 24/7…yep with no day off. Bezos forbids the use of PowerPoint in meetings and the presenter is supposed to make a thick documentation on a word-pad, and all people who attend the meeting are supposed to read it all. Actually this documentation way was the way, Bezos learned in his High School. Amazon in its earlier years used doors as desks….yes you heard me right. Also Amazon did terrible financially till the mid-2000s. This was because of the innumerable expenses and lawsuits which Amazon has been fighting legally ever since its inception.

8. Amazon only started as a book-selling online company, but later expanded further. However Bezos is well-known for his rashness. The company surged forward at incredible speed in other categories but lost money in the end in the dot com bursts. Bezos is famous for his laugh. This is such a screeching, lively and unique laugh, that it is said that he uses this laugh, to make the situation awkward and turn the tide during meetings. That is to say he uses this as a diplomatic weapon. Bezos is radical. And the people who follow him 100% percent, not to get bonus (there is little concept of bonus in Amazon) but just because of his radical ideology attracts them are known as JeffBots. Emails from employee that require something more or are contain incomplete or unsatisfactory work get a one digit reply from the CEO: ?. Just a question mark. Also Jeff has no secretary and sees his email himself. He believes that no time should be wasted in work.

9. Type www.relentless.com and see the magic.

10. Jeff wants Amazon to become ‘the everything store’. The company has almost become it. Amazon now also sells cloud computing storage and space i.e. cloud space. It means that many free websites that operate now online, exist due to the benevolence of Amazon, which has given them space to operate, not in the physical world but the virtual one. Amazon even sells terabytes of memory space to its customer. Amazon’s main income is from Cloud Computing Centers, its Premium Customers and somewhat the Kindle. Actually there were some negotiations between Amazon and Apple regarding the music industry, however after Apple dominated the music industry through the iTunes services, Jeff knew that they had to dominate the book selling industry. For this it was necessary to make a platform which could provide books to its customers. So LAB126 was formed. Here what became later known as Kindle was made. Initially the Kindle looked horrible but promising. Inside Amazon, it was referred to as the over-grown calculator. Fortunately, Kindle was a success later on and Amazon did indeed dominate the book market. Nevertheless Amazon still had to fight many lawsuits regarding putting books online as the publishers were against it. Still Amazon did some sort of business treachery and successfully put books online. An interesting fact here that LAB126, had this name not for no reason.

Jeff wanted every single book to be on the Kindle. For this, he said he wanted ‘all books, A-Z’. Interestingly, A is the 1st letter of alphabet and Z is the 26th. That is why the place was named LAB126.

11. Amazon was called Amazon.com till a long time. Employees who would say that ‘I work in Amazon’ were literally fired. Instead they were supposed to say ‘I work in Amazon.com’.

12. Amazon never played the angelic company part like Google. From its inception, Amazon faced threats from local giants like Barnes and Noble who were a big name in the book category. Their fights spanned many years but was concluded when Barnes and Noble realized they couldn’t make an online book store as good as Amazon. Then when Amazon expanded it poked the sleeping bear of Walmart. Amazon scooped many Walmart employees and this was a further source of tension. Later on Amazon also developed hostilities with Apple and Google. Amazon as I have already mentioned was very..evil. I will quote just one example and it will suffice you. While Amazon was expanding full speed in various categories, a new website Diapers.com emerged on the horizon. This website home-delivered diapers to mom, who were too lazy to go buy diapers. Amazon also sold diapers. But the thing was that Amazon’s Diaper customers were now inclining towards Diapers.com. Bezos took an initiative. After the Diapers.com dudes refused to give over their company no matter what, the war begun. The very next day, they had to face the consequences. Amazon reduced diapers price by 50%. Customers rushed to Amazon. Bezos again asked if Diapers.com wanted to sell themselves. When they refused, Amazon was selling diapers at 70% off. After an outcry from Diapers.com, to stop, Bezos enthusiastically replied: “I would run the prices of the diapers to the floor unless you sell yourselves.” Diapers.com…still refused. Amazon was then selling free diapers xD yep free, totally free. Though all this was giving loss to Amazon, but it did eliminate their enemy as Diapers.com went bankrupt and Amazon did buy it…and then finished it…yep…after moving all the diapers to its warehouses, the site was closed and except some employees all else were fired. So this was the end of Diapers Chronicle.

13. Amazon has a theory for customer-care and product quality. Amazon’s system have an algorithm by which the prices on Amazon are the lowest than any other retailer or shop who is selling either online or offline. It means that the product on Amazon will always be cheaper. Jeff believes that low price will attract more customers and hence more net profit. However due to this many high-brand companies hesitate before placing their products online on Amazon.

14. Another thing, Google has another theory as well. Google doesn’t want its users to spend time on Google. This is their main objective, to re-direct their users as quickly as possible to their desired location. Any other site who pulls its users to stay at their site only, is automatically Googles foe, let it be Facebook or anything else.

15. Jeff, as a child wanted to go to space and even now has a space exploration company Blue, which was a secret only some knew, a decade back. His company had some launch or something but there was some accident. I don’t exactly remember what, but yes it didn’t go off as planned.

This is it….These were the kinda most important stuff and interesting things. I personally think Amazon is way cooler than Google, also Jeff Bezos has made his way into my inspirational peoples list but…it might be that Ken Auletta doesn’t write as good as Brad Stone. You never know…hope you liked it.

Behind the masks

Taking selfies, like many other bizarre acts has somehow suddenly become a common practice of every Tom and Harry. Not resisting the urge to capture a good memory, I took out my phone. While I was setting the right angle, right light background and blah blah, all of which is pertinent to have a 100K liked selfie, someone prodded me. At first, I thought it was nothing. When an ambush of prods followed, I realized this was tickling. My dad was sitting near the source of tickling, but I knew him well enough to say he wouldn’t do it. Hence in that fraction of a second, my mind had simultaneously thought about so many things and even somehow somewhat produced a reaction. Ah, what a marvelous thing, this brain is. Indeed. Back to the topic.
So I turned 45^o roughly just to see Mickey Mouse tickling me. Now I am not a toddler….or so I think so. Anyway, I knew that Mickey, had not come in person to meet me. It was an impersonation. In other words, there was a man behind the mask. My dad soon shooed him away, since my brother is apparently suffering from claustrophobia, which extends to cartoon characters costumes worn by people. While I was still trying to figure what actually had happened, my mother remarked something which fueled the train of my thoughts. My mother said, that how people…wait let me put it the right way….how people did various stuff for a living. She was sympathetic and she felt bad. I on the other hand was the driver of a totally different train of thought.
In my early childhood i.e. before 10 years, I was lucky to have this Donald Duck fellow, in the restaurant, quite near our home. I vividly remember how I was reluctant to meet him but I would still shake hands with him. I was neither hostile nor afraid. I was just confused or nervous. Simply, I had interacted with such sorts of people from my childhood.
Now the event we were talking about, occurred inside, at a temperature around 45^o C, no wind and no AC (at least it wasn’t working). Though I am no weatherman but the conditions were pretty much the same. Now…the mickey guy was wearing a pretty thick costume and a heavy head in such conditions……So much for living!? Albeit, I want to talk about another thing.
I like Batman among all superheroes. Yet I like Joker more than any other superhero or villain. Joker is usually the practical guy if you observe. I like his approach towards life and his dialogue “You know how I got these scars?” Joker is a damn optimist.  No matter, how grave is the situation, let it be a dynamite inches away, he always dons a smile. How sweet! But….but..do you know why he is an antagonist? Of course you do. It’s because deep down under the pocket of that fancy purple suit, (which God Alone knows contains what and whatnot) there is a heart beating. An evil heart. Evil from the core. Tell me something honestly. If Joker was to take a good shower, brush his hair in a nice style and remove whitening cream from his face, won’t he look better than many others. Still he would be evil from within.
I neither wish to emotionally hurt someone nor humiliate somebody. Just thinking about it. Maybe that guy under the Mickey costume was a wanted criminal! No, that’s exaggeration. But…maybe he is a really sad man. Already over with life. Drowning in debts. Starving since birth. Hearing innumerable complaints. Father of meek beings. The bearer of responsibilities. Unable to satisfy the Lord or the people. A man whose existence would be known by little. A man whose death might not even stir one soul. A man who might not even get space for his grave. A man would be only remembered after his depth, that to, for only a day. A man whose identity, is virtually and practically significant to nothing. Yet…yet, he strolls around you, tickling you, trying to spread happiness (usually) and putting a good smile to cheer others.
Like many other things, I would give none other than my own example. I think that I have a lot of worries. Homework, upcoming tests, high expectations, and blah blah. What I don’t see, are the luxuries. I get good food to eat, good clothes to wear and pure water to bath and drink. Yet, I can’t afford to put a curve other than a frown on my face. How miser am I! How cruel! How ungrateful! My worries are nothing compared to that guy in Mickey costume. He is far better than me. He can at least shrug off his countless problems and live to make his own and others life better. I….I am a pessimist. I rather spread worries.
Lesson….see the silver lining of everything. If that guy with 1000s of problems can put up a somewhat smiling face somehow, why can’t you? After all, it’s free and it might also cheer someone else. Share happiness :)

Mr Jam and His Diary entries

Nury Vittachi is a columnist and he writes for the readers digest as well. That is from where I got to know him. Anyway his entries are awfully entertaining and I must say you guys to read one of these and others at The Curious Diary of Mr. Jam

 
How Men Think?
Disaster! I’ve been doing my new calorie-counting app wrong. I got a new high score every day.  Then the wife tells me that the whole point is to get low scores. 
“So how do you win?” I asked. 
She said: “You don’t. People just do it for a few months and then give up.”
!!!!! What’s the point? Grrrrrr. 
Whoever designed this app knows NOTHING about how male brains work. 
We need bigger to mean better, which, if you think about it, makes evolutionary sense, right? 
***
It runs deep. If you ask a guy whether he would rather die of old age or be vaporized by a volley of a 100 anti-aircraft missiles covered by a thousand media channels, REAL MEN go for the big guns, no hesitation. We all have to go some time, right?
***
Size matters. On TV the other day, a guy said that Apple may become the first company to be worth a TRILLION dollars. 
My male investment banker friends (even the Samsung "fanbois") were so excited they could hardly breathe.
***
Smart educators should use the male urge to worship big-ness in schools when teaching arithmetic.
TEACHER: “Okay, students, today, we’ll start with a math test: 25 times 43.” 
(Girls start writing. Boys look bored, start hacking bits off each other.)
TEACHER: “People with Y chromosomes can calculate 25 BILLION times 43 BILLION.” 
(Boys suddenly get excited, start writing.)
***
An etymology expert told me that although there have been famous female mathematicians, the people who invent big numbers were all GUYS. The word “million” was dreamed up by a Frenchman in 1270. 
Thus you should ALWAYS say “million” with a French accent, like this: “Un meee-leee-ohnh,” assuming, of course, that you want to be revoltingly pretentious, which I know is really important to many of us.
***
Asia had big old numbers too. In ancient Buddhist texts, scholars found a number called “Number of grains of sand in the Ganges” or heng he sha, which was ten to the power of 52. (Someone must have actually counted them, probably as some sort of Bronze Age job creation scheme.)
***
Now, at the time of writing this, financial guys are a bit hyper, as the Chinese stock market’s turnover has been around ONE TRILLION YUAN A DAY.
How things have changed. Twenty five years ago, when I was a young business page reporter, there was one particular day when the Chinese stock market turnover was ZERO (also not a joke). On that date in 1990, not one share was bought, sold or swapped.
Luckily, business reporters can spout smart-sounding rubbish for hours, so I did. 
“Turnover was on the light side, holding steady at zero yuan for the first hour and the second hour and the third hour as the sidelines were hogged by the main players and indeed the minor players and even Mrs. Liu who pops in from the noodle shop next to the stock exchange…(blah, blah, blah).”
***
The next time my wife asks about my score on the calorie counting app, I'm going to revive the classic terminology: “Pretty good: today I scored heng he sha, the number of grains of sand in the river Ganges.”

Like the Flowing River

Lately I've been reading 'Like the Flowing River' by Paulo Coelho, which is actually a compilation of short stories and articles. After reading it, I decided to put some of its stuff that I found interesting or inspiring on here. So, here you go.

1.Be like the flowing river, 
   Silent in the night. 
  Be not afraid of the dark. 
  If there are stars in the sky, reflect them back.
  If there are clouds in the sky,
 Remember, clouds, like the river, are water, 
 So, gladly reflect them too,
 In your own tranquil depths. 
 Manuel Bandeira

2.THE MISSING BRICK:
Once, when I and my wife were travelling, I received a fax from my secretary. ‘There’s one glass brick missing for the work on the kitchen renovation,’ she said. ‘I’m sending you the original plan as well as the plan the builder has come up with to compensate for it.’ On the one hand, there was the design my wife had made: harmonious lines of bricks with an opening for ventilation. On the other, there was the plan drawn up to resolve the problem of the missing brick: a real jigsaw puzzle in which the glass squares were arranged in a higgledy-piggledy fashion that defied aesthetics. ‘Just buy another brick,’ wrote my wife. And so they did, and thus stuck to the original design. That afternoon, I thought for a long time about what had happened; how often, for the lack of one brick, we completely distort the original plan of our lives.

3.IMPORTANCE OF CAT IN MEDITATION:
When I wrote Veronika Decides to Die, a book about madness, I was forced to ask myself how many of the things we do are really necessary, and how many are simply absurd. Why do we wear ties? Why do clocks move clockwise? If we live with a decimal system, why does the day have 24 hours of 60 minutes each? The fact is that many of the rules we obey nowadays have no real foundation. Nevertheless, if we choose to behave differently, we are considered ‘mad’ or ‘immature’. As long as this goes on, society will continue to create systems that, with the passing of time, will cease to make any sense, but will continue imposing their rules on us. An interesting Japanese story illustrates my point.
A great Zen master, in charge of the monastery of Mayu Kagi, owned a cat, who was the real love of his life. During meditation classes, he always kept the cat by his side, in order to enjoy its company as much as possible. One morning, the master, who was already quite old, was found dead. The oldest disciple took his place. ‘What shall we do with the cat?’ asked the other monks. In homage to the memory of his former teacher, the new master decided to allow the cat to continue attending the classes on Zen Buddhism. Some disciples from neighbouring monasteries, who travelled widely in the region, discovered that, in one of the most famous temples in the area, a cat took part in the meditations. The story began to spread. Many years passed. The cat died, but the students at the monastery were so used to its presence that they acquired another cat. Meanwhile, other temples began introducing cats into their meditation classes; they believed that the cat was the one actually responsible for Mayu Kagi’s fame, and for the quality of its teaching, forgetting what an excellent teacher the former master had been. A generation passed, and technical treatises on the importance of the cat in Zen meditation began to be published. A university professor developed a thesis, accepted by the academic community, that the cat had the ability to increase human concentration and to eliminate negative energy. And thus, for a century, the cat was considered to be an essential part of the study of Zen Buddhism in that region. Then a master arrived who was allergic to cat hair, and he decided to remove the cat from his daily practices with the students. Everyone protested, but the master insisted. Since he was a gifted teacher, the students continued to make progress, despite the cat’s absence. Gradually, monasteries – always in search of new ideas and weary of having to feed so many cats – began to remove cats from the classroom. Over the next twenty years, revolutionary new theses were written, bearing persuasive titles like ‘The Importance of Meditating Without a Cat’ or ‘Balancing the Zen Universe by the Power of One’s Mind Alone and Without the Aid of Animals’. Another century passed, and the cat vanished completely from the Zen meditation ritual in that region. But it took two hundred years for everything to return to normal, and all because, during that
time, no one thought to ask why the cat was there. How many of us, in our own lives, ever dare to ask: why do I behave in such and such a way? In what we do, how far are we, too, using futile ‘cats’ that we do not have the courage to get rid of because we were told that the ‘cats’ were important in order to keep everything running smoothly? Why do we not find a different way of behaving?

4. CHARITY UNDER THREAT:
Some time ago, my wife went to the aid of a Swiss tourist in Ipanema, who claimed he had been robbed by some street children. Speaking appalling Portuguese in a thick foreign accent, he said that he had been left without his passport, without any money, and with nowhere to sleep. My wife bought him lunch, gave him enough cash to pay for a hotel room for the night while he got in touch with his embassy, and then left. Days later, a Rio newspaper reported that this ‘Swiss tourist’ was, in fact, an inventive con-artist who put on an accent and abused the good faith of those of us who love Rio and want to undo the negative image – justified or not – that has become our postcard. When she read the article, my wife simply said: ‘Well, that’s not going to stop me helping anyone.’ Her remark reminded me of the story of a wise man who moved to the city of Akbar. No one took much notice of him, and his teachings were not taken up by the populace. After a time, he became the object of their mockery and their ironic comments. One day, while he was walking down the main street in Akbar, a group of men and women began insulting him. Instead of pretending that he had not noticed, the wise man turned to them and blessed them. One of the men said: ‘Are you deaf too? We call you the foulest of names and yet you respond with sweet words!’ ‘We can each of us only offer what we have,’ came the wise man’s reply.

5. PEACE: 
Peace is not the opposite of war. We can have peace in our heart even in the midst of the fiercest battles, because we are fighting for our dreams. When our friends have lost hope, the peace of the Good Fight helps us to carry on. A mother who can feed her child has peace in her eyes, even when her hands are trembling because diplomacy has failed, bombs are falling, and soldiers dying. An archer drawing his bow has peace in his mind, even though all his muscles are tense with the physical effort. Therefore, for warriors of light, peace is not the opposite of war, because they are capable of:
a distinguishing between the transient and the enduring. They can fight for their dreams and for their survival, but respect bonds forged over time, through culture and religion. b knowing that their adversaries are not necessarily their enemies. c being aware that their actions will affect five future generations, and that their children and grandchildren will benefit from (or suffer) the consequences. d remembering what the I Ching says: ‘Perseverance is favourable.’ But they know too that perseverance is not the same thing as stubbornness. Battles that go on longer than necessary
end up destroying the enthusiasm necessary for later reconstruction.
For the warrior of light, there are no abstractions. Every opportunity to transform himself is an opportunity to transform the world. For the warrior of light, pessimism does not exist. He rows against the tide if necessary; for when he is old and tired, he will be able to say to his grandchildren that he came into this world to understand his neighbour better, not to condemn his brother.

6. FAIRY TALE:
Maria Emilia Voss, a pilgrim to Santiago, tells the following story. In ancient China, around the year 250 BC, a certain prince of the region of Thing-Zda was about to be crowned emperor; however, according to the law, he first had to get married. Since this meant choosing the future empress, the prince needed to find a young woman whom he could trust absolutely. On the advice of a wise man, he decided to summon all the young women of the region in order to find the most worthy candidate. An old lady, who had served in the palace for many years, heard about the preparations for this gathering and felt very sad, for her daughter nurtured a secret love for the prince. When the old lady got home, she told her daughter and was horrified to learn that she intended going to the palace. The old lady was desperate. ‘But, daughter, what on earth will you do there? All the richest and most beautiful girls from the court will be present. It’s a ridiculous idea! I know you must be suffering, but don’t turn that suffering into madness.’ And the daughter replied: ‘My dear mother, I am not suffering and I certainly haven’t gone mad. I know that I won’t be chosen, but it’s my one chance to spend at least a few moments close to the prince, and that makes me happy, even though I know that a quite different fate awaits me.’ That night, when the young woman reached the palace, all the most beautiful girls were indeed there, wearing the most beautiful clothes and the most beautiful jewellery, and prepared to do anything to seize the opportunity on offer. Surrounded by the members of his court, the prince announced a challenge. ‘I will give each of you a seed. In six months’ time, the young woman who brings me the loveliest flower will be the future empress of China.’ The girl took her seed and planted it in a pot, and since she was not very skilled in the art of gardening, she prepared the soil with great patience and tenderness, for she believed that if the flowers grew as large as her love, then she need not worry about the results. Three months passed and no shoots had appeared. The young woman tried everything; she consulted farmers and peasants, who showed her the most varied methods of cultivation, but all to no avail. Each day she felt that her dream had moved farther off, although her love was as alive as ever. At last, the six months were up, and still nothing had grown in her pot. Even though she had nothing to show, she knew how much effort and dedication she had put in during that time, and so she told her mother that she would go back to the palace on the agreed date and at the agreed hour. Inside, she knew that this would be her last meeting with her true love, and she would not have missed it for the world. The day of the audience arrived. The girl appeared with her plantless pot, and saw that all the other candidates had achieved wonderful results: each girl bore a flower lovelier than the last, in the most varied forms and colours. Finally, the longed-for moment came. The prince entered and he studied each of the candidates with great care and attention. Having inspected them all, he announced the result and chose the
servant’s daughter as his new wife. All the other girls present began to protest, saying that he had chosen the only one of them who had failed to grow anything at all. Then the prince calmly explained the reasoning behind the challenge. ‘This young woman was the only one who cultivated the flower that made her worthy of becoming the empress: the flower of honesty. All the seeds I handed out were sterile, and nothing could ever have grown from them.’

7. A POEM BY MITSUO AIDA, RECOMMENDED BY AUTHOR:
If tomatoes wanted to be melons,
 they would look completely ridiculous. 
I am always amazed
 that so many people are concerned 
with wanting to be what they are not; 
what’s the point of making yourself look ridiculous?

8. ALONE ON THE ROAD:
Life is like a great bicycle race, whose aim is to fulfil our personal legend, which, according to the ancient alchemists, is our true mission on earth. We all set off together, sharing friendship and enthusiasm; but as the race progresses, that initial happiness gives way to the real challenges: tiredness, boredom, doubts about our own abilities. We notice that a few friends have, in their hearts, already given up. They are still cycling, but only because they cannot stop in the middle of the road. There are more and more of them, pedalling along beside the support vehicle – also known as routine – talking amongst themselves, fulfilling their obligations, but oblivious to the beauties and challenges of the road. We eventually leave them behind us, and then we come face to face with loneliness, with unfamiliar bends in the road, and mechanical problems with our bicycle. At a certain stage, after suffering a few falls with no one near at hand to help, we begin to ask ourselves if it’s really worth all the effort. Yes, it is. It’s just a question of not giving up. Father Alan Jones says that in order to overcome these obstacles, we need four invisible forces: love, death, power and time. We must love because we ourselves are loved by God. We must have an awareness of death in order fully to understand life. We must struggle in order to grow, but without allowing ourselves to be deceived by the power that is gained through that struggle, because we know that such power is worthless. Finally, we must accept that our soul – even though it is eternal – is at this moment caught in the web of time, with all its opportunities and limitations. Therefore, on our solitary bicycle race, we must behave as if time existed and do everything we can to value each second, to rest when necessary, but to keep cycling towards the divine light, and not be put off by any moments of anxiety. These four forces cannot be treated as problems to be solved, because they are beyond anyone’s control. We must accept them, and let them teach us what we need to learn. We live in a universe that is at once vast enough to enclose us, and small enough to fit inside our heart. In the soul of man is the soul of the world, the silence of wisdom. As we pedal towards our goal, we must make a point of asking ourselves: ‘What is beautiful about today?’ The sun might be shining, but if it happens to be raining, always remember that this only means that the dark clouds will soon have disappeared. The clouds do disappear; but the sun remains the same, and never goes away. In moments of loneliness, it is important to remember this. When things get hard, let us not forget that – independent of race, colour, social situation, beliefs, or culture – everyone has experienced exactly the same.

9. HUMANS FUNNY THING:
A man asked my friend Jaime Cohen: ‘What is the human being’s funniest characteristic?’ Cohen said: ‘Our contradictoriness. We are in such a hurry to grow up, and then we long for our lost childhood. We make ourselves ill earning money, and then spend all our money on getting well again. We think so much about the future that we neglect the present, and thus experience neither the present nor the future. We live as if we were never going to die, and die as if we had never lived.’

10. TWENTY DOLLAR BILL:
Cassan Said Amer tells the story of a lecturer who began a seminar by holding up a twenty-dollar bill and asking: ‘Who would like this twenty-dollar bill?’ Several hands went up, but the lecturer said: ‘Before I give it to you, I have to do something.’ He screwed it up into a ball and said: ‘Who still wants this bill?’ The hands went up again. ‘And what if I do this to it?’ He threw the crumpled bill at the wall, dropped it on the floor, insulted it, trampled on it, and once more showed them the bill – now all creased and dirty. He repeated the question, and the hands stayed up. ‘Never forget this scene,’ he said. ‘It doesn’t matter what I do to this money. It is still a twentydollar bill. So often in our lives, we are crumpled, trampled, ill-treated, insulted, and yet, despite all that, we are still worth the same.’

11. TWO JEWELS:
From the Cistercian monk, Marcos Garria, in Burgos, in Spain. ‘Sometimes God withdraws a particular blessing from someone so that the person can comprehend Him as something other than a being of whom one asks favours and makes requests. He knows how far He can test a soul, and never goes beyond that point. At such moments, we must never say: “God has abandoned me.” He will never do that, even though we may sometimes abandon Him. If the Lord sets us a great test, he always gives us sufficient – I would say more than sufficient – grace to pass that test.’ In this regard, one of my readers, Camila Galvão Piva, sent me an interesting story, entitled ‘The Two Jewels’. A very devout rabbi lived happily with his family – an admirable wife and their two beloved sons. Once, because of his work, the rabbi had to be away from home for several days. During that period, both children were killed in a terrible car accident. Alone, the mother suffered in silence. However, because she was a strong woman, sustained by faith and trust in God, she endured the shock with dignity and courage. But how was she to break the tragic news to her husband? His faith was equally strong, but he had, in the past, been taken into hospital with heart problems, and his wife feared that finding out about the tragedy might cause his death too. All she could do was to pray to God to advise her on the best way to act. On the eve of her husband’s return, she prayed hard and was granted the grace of an answer. The following day, the rabbi arrived home, embraced his wife, and asked after the children. The woman told him not to worry about them now, but to take a bath and rest. Some time later, they sat down to lunch. She asked him all about his trip, and he told her everything that had happened to him; he spoke about God’s mercy, and then again asked about the children. The wife, somewhat awkwardly, replied: ‘Don’t worry about the children. We’ll deal with them later. First, I need your help to solve what I consider to be a very grave problem.’ Her husband asked anxiously: ‘What’s happened? I thought you looked distressed. Tell me everything that is on your mind, and I’m sure that, with God’s help, we can solve any problem together.’ ‘While you were away, a friend of ours visited us and left two jewels of incalculable value here for me to look after. They’re really lovely jewels! I’ve never seen anything so beautiful before. He has since come to claim them back, and I don’t want to return them. I’ve grown too fond of them. What should I do?’ ‘I can’t understand your behaviour at all! You’ve never been a woman given to vanity!’ ‘It’s just that I’ve never seen such jewels before! I can’t bear the idea of losing them forever.’ And the rabbi said firmly: ‘No one can lose something he or she has not possessed. Keeping those jewels would be tantamount to stealing them. We will give them back, and I will help you make up for their loss. We will do this together today.’ ‘As you wish, my love. The treasures will be returned. In fact, they already have been. The two precious jewels were our sons. God entrusted them to our care, and while you were away, he came to
fetch them back. They have gone.’ The rabbi understood. He embraced his wife, and together they wept many tears; but he had understood the message and, from that day on, they struggled to bear their loss together.

AND THESE ARE ALL THAT I COULD FIND INTERESTING. NO DOUBT THERE WERE OTHERS AS WELL BUT THEY WERE PRETTY LONG AND I WOULD DEFINITELY RECOMMEND YOU TO READ 'LIKE THE FLOWING RIVER' AND 'WARRIOR OF LIGHT: A MANUAL' BY PAULO COELHO, SINCE BOTH OF THESE INSPIRE US TO LIVE A BETTER LIFE.