What if you truly had just six more months to live.
Stop and give it a thought. What if you truly had just six more months to live. What if yesterday you went down to your family doctor. You go to him with the results of certain tests he had asked you to do for some silly little pain like a headache or something like that. There you are sitting across the table from him and he says, “Buddy, there’s no easy way to say this. So, I’m just going to spell it out. Arif, you have only six more months to live. We’re in the middle of August, six months later this year, say end Feb you will breathe your last. It’s not a might, it’s not maybe, but you WILL breathe your last breath in the end of February. I thought it best that I tell you that now then you finding it out later. I’m really sorry, Arif. I strongly recommend getting all your affairs in order now.”

Yet another marvelous creation of the Almighty:

Click here to view another video of the Basilisk captured by some students.

There were a whole lot of email forwards and blog posts on a speech that Steve Jobs gave at Stanford. But the speech that Bill Gates delivered at Harvard have done fewer rounds on the internet. Where Steve Jobs spoke about Passion and following your hearts desire, Bill Gates spoke about what his passion is, ie identifying the hunger and poverty in the world and then doing something about it. What makes his speech more impactful is that he actually does walk his talk.

I loved this speech. I had read the script of the speech a couple of times and then when I got access to the video watched the whole thing again. Below is a really brief Summary of what Bill spoke about, but do watch the speech on YouTube here (it’s in five small parts), or atleast read the script here. It may spur you to do something about the world’s biggest problems. It’s certainly moved me.

From all the email forwards I receive, I most look forward (pun not-intended) to the ones from Nahida Jumde co-founder of Jumde Arts Copy. Her email forwards are quite selective and it’s the really funny or thought-provoking that passes through her filter which then sends across. If interested, you can write to her by clicking here, she’d be pleased to add you to her mailing list.

Here’s a list of one-liners I received yesterday. You may have heard some of them, nonetheless you’ll still find gems in there. My personal favourites are highlighted in bold. Do let me know which you liked the most. Cheerio!

Do you feel a novelist in you scraping to come out? Want to start a blog but don’t think you’re writing is good enough? Are you going through the draft of your email again and again before hitting Send? Always dreamt of starting a Journal, but still haven’t?

Here are 6 little ammunition packs, in which I have found inspiration, motivation, guidance, tips & tricks that has got me banging away on my keyboard like never before:

1. Copyblogger.com
This is one terrific blog. Why?
- It’s vast. Covers a wide range of writing topics be it making headlines, opening statements or creative writing or how to find writing time.
- The blog is updated regularly. There’s a new resource to look forward to everyday.
- The posts are so simplified, it’s a matter just following the steps presented in a, b c, format which make your writing better instantaneously.

Here are a few posts that got me hooked:
- 5 simple ways to open your blog post with a bang.
- How to write Magnetic Headlines
- The David Ogilvy Playbook for Business Blogging
- How to write remarkably creative content

2. Writing Well by William Zinsser
Writing Well, a guide for non-fiction writing, boldly states on it’s cover, “More than one million copies sold”. One doesn’t need to turn too many pages to see why.

As an 80’s child, I had spent hours of my time, (not to mention loads of my pocket money) on arcade games. You know the ones where there would be this huge tall black box you would put in a coin, (in my case it was a Dirham), and a character from a then popular cartoon that would come on screen. From there you would go proceed to save the world from aliens, the Kingpin or a dark evil overlord suffering from a severe bout of constipation. I would do that for the next 20 minutes or so and eventually when the bad-guy would get better of me (more likely I would be out of cash) I would sulkly waddle out of the arcade.

Well, why not? If you really think about our, Hosur has got all that Bangalore has got minus the pollution, traffic jams and the concrete. Further it is about 40% cheaper, though it is within the commuting distance to South Bangalore.

To help you to tweak your thinking we have designed a small survey and wonderful raffle draw prizes for the participants. All entries received by Monday 4th Sep ‘06 will be eligible to win a raffle draw prize of a Rs. 1000 Gift Voucher at The Forum Mall in Bangalore!

Do take a little effort to complete the survey. We at Vakil’s have lots of plans for Hosur, but firstly we would like to know what you think of Hosur as a residential desitnation. It will take only a few minitues of your time, but who knows, you may find yourself living in a green, plush paradise at Hosur, at about 60% of your budget, but still commuting daily to Bangalore, a few years from now!

Please click on the below link to take the small survey!

http://www.formassembly.com/forms/23649