Thought for the day
While in school, as a part of the daily assembly that happened at the auditorium, there was a certain ritual that was religiously followed. A student would have to come up on stage, state the 'thought of the day', and then elaborate on it. Not surprisingly, the student would remember that his turn had arrived about 10 minutes before the assembly would begin, which resulted in most 'thoughts of of the day' being either 'Look before you leap', or 'An apple a day keeps a doctor away'! These two would invariably elicit a glare from the principal, but nothing more . Occasionally, a student would come up and recite from memory something new and complicated, which would win him/her a smile of approval, and brownie points from the principal, and after the assembly, taunts from his friends with 'Why were you showing off ?' !:-)
I can't recall what my 'thought of the day' was (very likely one of the two I mentioned earlier :), but since, of late, I've taken to Khalil Gibran's writings, so wholesome in their wisdom, today's thought for the day is -
'Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.'
and another one, sadly getting more and more true with each passing day,
'There's so much pollution in the air now that if it weren't for our lungs there'd be no place to put it at all'.
-Robert orben
7 comments:
I'm soooo glad you've taken to Gibran's writing!! :). Such beautiful thoughts.
And yeah, I remember our "thought for the day" ritual too! Seems such a long time back :)
Gibran does write beautifully... a few words but with profound wisdom in them... :)
While the first thought is deep, the second one is hilarious. Both are definitely true !
I had forgotten about Thought for the day... but i guess, we all had it and this has now brought back a whole flood of memories, i thought i had forgotten even to remember ! Thank you !
;)
Kahlil Gibran is a great philosopher and an amazing romantic poet. Enjoy your journey through his writings.
We had to read news headlines. The thing that got recycled was the weather report. :) I distinctly remember we would just look at the sky and make our own predictions and in Bangalore you'd almost always be right if you said the temperature is going to be 28 C. Sadly we could not make up headlines so we did religiously copy the headlines from Times of India on a paper and read it whether it made sense or not. :) One from the first page, one from the national news page, one from state and city and one from the sports page.
Ouch!
I would probably come off as uber-geek here, because I would be the one reciting Kahlil Gibran in school assembly :P. The 'recitation' teacher would drag me out because she knew I knew the lines, and I'd get mercilessly teased later.. I'm sure there are a fair number of classmates that still remember me as the person who recited: "You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts.."
(wincing at virtual brickbats being flung my way)
Neeraja, I actually decided to try Gibran after reading your thoughts on his writings in your blog :-)
Suvasini - Exactly ! He packs in a lot into very few words and seems to do it effortlessly ! Ya, I guess most schools have this 'thought of the day' ritual :-)
Rafiki - Oh yes, we had news too ! but everyone enjoyed thought of the day' since it was shorter !:-) Ya, in Blore , its usually safe to say ' partly cloudy weather with possibly brief spells of rain' !
Secondsight - ha ha !:-) Can't believe you actually recited that !:P Had you been in my school, the taunts would've sent you back to the wisdom of 'look before you leap' whenever your turn would've come next :-)
Such an endearing post, Karthik :-) Brings back old memories :-)
"Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children." - Beautiful!
Thanks Meenakshi ! Yes, Gibran's writings are beautiful :-)
Post a Comment