MOTIVATIONAL QUOTES

It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, "Always do what you are afraid to do."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Take calculated risks. 

That is quite different from being rash.

George S. Patton

Storms make oaks take roots.

Proverb

If you do not hope, you will not find what is beyond your hopes.

St. Clement of Alexandra

We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every day.

Thornton Wilder

The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.

Arthur C. Clarke

Without inspiration the best powers of the mind remain dormant. There is a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with sparks.

Johann Gottfried Von Herder

And all may do what has by man been done.

Edward Young

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.

Aristotle

Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.

Samuel Smiles

Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice, and need.

Voltaire

If the wind will not serve,

take to the oars.

Destitutus ventis, remos adhibe

Latin Proverb

Men's best successes come after their disappointments. 

Henry Ward Beecher

You cannot plough a field by 

turning it over in your mind.

Author Unknown

The best way out is always through.

Robert Frost

Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.

William B. Sprague

Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.

Samuel Johnson

Fortune favors the brave.

Publius Terence

When the best things are not possible, the best may be made of those that are. - Richard Hooker

He who hesitates is lost.

Proverb

If you want to succeed in the world must make your own opportunities as you go on. The man who waits for some seventh wave to toss him on dry land will find that the seventh wave is a long time a coming. You can commit no greater folly than to sit by the roadside until some one comes along and invites you to ride with him to wealth or influence.

John B. Gough

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

Albert Einstein

Believe with all of your heart that you will do what you were made to do.

Orison Swett Marden

Knowing is not enough; we must apply.

Willing is not enough; we must do.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 

We are still masters of our fate.

We are still captains of our souls.

Winston Churchill

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

For hope is but the dream

of those that wake.

Matthew Prior

Constant dripping hollows out a stone.

Lucretius

Nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose--

a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.

Mary Shelley

MERMERIZING MEMORIES!!

 It is a cold winter night. Whole Kolkata is under the warm blankets…..deep in their sleep. All the hustles of the busy city has crept in somewhere in the silence of this cold night. Only a group of rickshaw pullers could be seen curdling round a bonfire. The stray dogs also found out some place for them near the fire. Sounds of fire crackers could be heard from a distance. Huh !! may be some rich-e-rich is tying the knot tonight.  

     Tollygunge Christens Cemetery. It is as silent as a painted ship. The graves stand mysteriously speechless. Richard was sitting on one such grave. Anyone will be surprised to see a boy (in his late twenties) sitting in the grave yard so late at night. It is hours before the sky would clear up to welcome a new day.

     Richard is sitting with his hands resting on his feet. His clothes are all dusty and his hair is long enough to cover his eyes. From the evening onwards Richard has been ruminating the days that he has left behind. The ruminance seldom brought a smile in his pale face but still he loves to walk down his memory lane passing each and every memory.

      He still remembers the day when he was in the 3rd standard when his father bought him a 2nd hand bicycle. He would spent hours trying to ride the cycle after returning from school. He still remembers how he used to flaunt his cycle in front of his friends who didn’t have one. His father was a small business man who owned a grocery shop in their locality. His mother was a maid and used to work in the complexes opposite to their small basti in Tollygunge. Both his parents really had to work hard to bring up Richard and his small brother Andy. He was in his 9th standard when his mother passed away in an unknown disease. The local doctor could not figure out the disease. His father had to work really hard to bring up both the brothers. Richard had to give up his studies. His father could not afford his education and found out a job for him in the Khiddirpore Dock. Richard had to reach there by 6 in the evening and had to work the whole night. He returned at around 7 in the morning.

       Richards’ flow of thoughts suddenly broke due to a roll of laughter coming from somewhere nearby. He looked up to see two men in their mid 60s laughing their lungs out. Richard ignored them. He went back strolling in his memory lane.

       Her name was Riya. She studied in the 11th standard in a school near Richards’ work place. Richard was 25 and Riya 18. After a long thought too Richard can’t recall how they fell in love. Richard no longer worked in the dock. He now worked under Mr. Tyrewala who was a distributor of cement to construction sites in and around Kolkata. He loved Richard as his own son and gave him the best truck of the lot to transport cement-bags to construction sites in Kolkata. Richard used to pick up Riya after her school and both used to spent some happy and fruitful hours in and around Maidan. Those were the best days of his life. Riya was a lady luck for Richard and he was climbing the ladder of success really fast. He was now the supervisor of Mr. Tyrewalas’ cement business!!!

         Dong  Dong Dong !!!! The church clock rang thrice. Its 3 in the morning. Richard again dived in his memories. The night played its own magic on Richard. He can’t come out of his memories tonight !!!!They are engulfing Richard like anything!!

          The Durga Puja has just passed. But the puja fever was still on a high. Richard gifted Riya a saree of her choice from Bara Bazar and a set of glass bangles that puja. They spent the astami together. Love was in the air and like all other couples Richard and Riya had a great time. It was the 2nd day of October, Richard still remembers. It was Dashera. Riya had not shown up for a month or so. At first Richard did not worry but after a week he started having an awkward feeling. He couldn’t comprehend what ran through his mind. He had promised Riya never to visit her locality. But he couldn’t control himself. That day he set his foot in Riyas’ locality. After a quick search he found Riyas’ house and waited at the tea stall in the opposite footpath just to have a glimpse of her. Hours passed…it was almost evening.By now Richard had had 16 cups of tea and 8-9 biscuits. He can’t wait any more. He planned to go and pray Riyas’ father for her daughter’s hand. He asked the tea shop owner for the amount he had to pay. Don’t know how the “chaye wala” read his mind. He asked Richard, “Betaji….are you here for Riyadidi?”

Richard answered positively.

“But Riyadidi is no more with us beta……..she left us a month back…..burnt herself completely while trying to learn cooking from her mother…”

        Richard fell on the bench. He was as still as a stone. No thought ran in his mind. He was numb. The whole colony was filled with lights and sound of the fire crackers. But darkness engulfed Richard. He felt like been thrown in the middle of rolling waves. He was completely broken. He had nothing left in his life. Riya was his everything. Every source of happiness in his painful life. Immediately he planned to end his life. He wanted to meet Riya madly. If not in this life…may be after his death.  Richard didn’t wait a second. He took a cab to the Howrah Bridge. Got down….took a small walk to the side of the bridge and jumped off……..

          Richard woke up suddenly from his thoughts. He looked around. No one was there. The sound of silence loomed in the air. Richard rubbed his eyes. He smiled. There was not a single drop of water in his eyes. He looked up at the open sky and thanked God for the mesmerizing memories….Yes.. Mesmerizing Memories…….  

           Richard stood up….Looked back at the grave where it was sitting….it read……………….

                                                               RICHARD PESTRO

                                                                     1982-2010

Dong Dong Dong Dong !!!! The church clock struck 4.