Best ever story on Friendship

I got this as a mail from one of my close friends Subbu. Its very rare that one gets a forward thats so touching . Thanks Subbu , it was indeed the best ever story on friendship i have ever read.

Horror gripped the heart of a World War-I soldier, as he saw his lifelong friend fall in battle. The soldier asked his Lieutenant if he could go out to bring his fallen comrade back.
"You can go," said the Lieutenant, "but don't think it will be worth it .Your friend is probably dead and you may throw your life away."
The Lieutenant's words didn't matter, and the soldier went anyway.Miraculously, he managed to reach his friend, hoisted him onto his shoulder and brought him back to their company's trench.The officer checked the wounded soldier, then looked kindly at his friend." I told you it wouldn't be worth it," he said. "Your friend is dead and you are mortally wounded.""It was worth it, Sir," said the soldier."What do you mean by worth it?" responded the Lieutenant."Your friend isdead.""Yes Sir," the soldier answered, “but it was worth it because when I got to him, he was still alive and Ihad the satisfaction of hearing him say.......
" Man...I knew you would come ! "

English and my grandmother

My grandmother is a diabetic and hence is very health conscious. She takes good care of herself and makes sure that all are health check up are done regularly. She came back from USA 2 months back and was keen on getting all her checkups done as soon as possible. one of the check up includes eye check up since diabetics are prone to cataract more than the rest.
So we got an appointment for getting her eye check up done. The usual practice is to show the jumbled up alphabets in various size to check their sight. So the doctor put up the English alphabets and asked her to read it. My mother told the doctor "Doctor, Its better u put up the kannada alphabets". Exactly at the same time my grandmother goes "A D E..."everyone is just stunned and my mother was totally embarassed. The doctor said" see she is already reading it ". Everyone is grinning but my grandmother was busy reading the alphabets unaware of people grinning around her. My grandmother has hearing problem and didnt register even a single thing that happened there.
That was the best joke of the day. She learnt the english alphabets when she was in USA. Not everyone has the zeal to learn in the age of 75. :).
My grandmother is the cutest when she does such things unaware of what she just did. Later when we told her about what she did and how others laughed, she took it so well. She started laughing too. Grandmothers are so lovable! :)

Ring a Bell?

Generally when i have a long weekend i end up doing nothing. This time we had a very short weekend and i thought it would pass without doing anything again.
well i was wrong. Yesterday evening i went to an exhibition with my cousins. I dont remember the last time i went to exhibition. Probably, last it was when i went to visit mysore dasara and the exhibition there.

This one was bustling with people. I am not the kind of person who is comfortable with huge crowd. but then what are exhibitions without crowd?! one thing which is very attractive about exhibitions is those soap water bubbles. I love it. It always attracts me and i buy it inspite of people making fun of me for that.

First stall we saw was brass stall. It sold only bells. Big, small, tiny all kinds of bells. I am not exactly sure why but bells have always attracted me. Something is very auspiscious about them. it always reminds me of the bells in a temple or the huge bell in a church or the bells in monastry. Come to think of it most of the holy shrines have bells. We also use it when we do pooja. Christians also use it when they have major mass ceremonies.something is very nice about bells. If not why would all religions use it.

I was lost in these thoughts. Thats when my cousins who had come with me tried to pull me away from the store. Afterall how long could one dwell over bells ?! :D.. i could. i asked them to move on and ensured that i would call them once i am done. i had to buy one. I started with the tiny ones. I dont know how many would have noticed it but all bells dont sound good. the ones used in the holy shrines usually make a sound which sounds similar to "OM". i know not everyone would agree with me. But this is what i have usually observed. This has always fascinated me. how is that some bells sound that way? In most temples i have been to all bells have the same fascinating "OM". It makes the environment around peaceful. Of course not if u keep ringing it :) that would be noise of course. :)) . In my childhood i was very curious on why we had to ring a bell the moment we enter the temple. I was told its to wake up god and make him aware that we are there to pray to him. That absolutely didnt make sense to me. I didnt know why we had to wake god up. I now think bells are there to bring that auspiscious effect to the temples or the holy shrines.It gives us the time to look into ourself and try to connect to god. we have this phrase "ring a bell" in english which is usually used when we try to recollect something or realise something. IT actually
makes sense.

Somehow the new temples dont seem to have bells. i dont know why we are missing it. In my chidhood, the most fun part of temples was ringing all the bells in the temple. now i dont find it in many new temples which is sad.

I was trying to find a bell which could sound like "OM". I found 2. One tiny . the other one was of the medium size. now i was confused on which one to buy. i Just couldnt decide and i got them both :).
I have taken nearly 25 mins to find the 2. i was so proud of it.

My whole purpose of visiting the exhibition seems to have served when i bought the bells. I was happy. I then called my cousins and went ahead looking at the other colours of exhibition. It was very colourful. Enjoyed every moment of it. My weekend was, even though short, beautiful.

Now the bell hangs in the god's room of my house. even though i dont go there everyday, i can hear it whenever every member of my family goes to pray. Everytime it rings there is a smile on my face. :)