English Recordings

“Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement." - Golda Meir

There simply is no way one can get joy by merely asking for it! Joy is the ripest of fruits to be enjoyed within every garden, but first it must be grown.

Life has many challenges but you cannot let these challenges discourage you from giving up on living your dreams. Life itself is a gift, your heart is your strength and your soul is your beauty. You are a product of your own environment, if you know in your heart that your environment is not right, you never let your environment change you, you change your environment and you move forward and grow. You take advantage of life; you are not disabled and weak because you are able and strong. Your have many gifts, it is time to use them ~♥~ Lee Held

It's very healthy to spend time alone. You need to know how to be alone and not be defined by another person. Sometimes we fail at relationships because we don't have a good relationship with ourselves. You have to accept not everyone is going to love you back, that's why it's most important to love yourself first. Once you're truly happy with yourself alone, that's when you are safe to find the right person to spend the rest of your life with.

<Cute Water Gems>
Today is another hot day.
As expected, today is an extremely hot day as well.
When I came back home, I took these pictures of a fountain at the entrance of my apartment.
Under the burning heat of the sun, this small fountain was spouting/spraying cute water gems.

“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”

― John Lennon

THE EXACT PORTRAIT

One day Birbal saw the court’s artist quite worried. Birbal knew the artist. He was a humble gentleman. Birbal asked him: “You are looking gloomy. What’s the cause?”
The artist said, “Sir, I’m really worried. One big businessman is ruining my reputation, which I have earned till now.” “What has happened?” inquired Birbal.

“One day the businessman was challenging that no artist could portray him perfectly. Hearing this, I accepted his challenge. When I finished the portrait, I visited the rich man’s house and showed the portrait to him.
But seeing the portrait, he screamed: ‘You have portrayed me in beard!’
I tried to convince him that at that time he was possessing beard. But he did not listen to me at all.”

The artist was crying. Birbal consoled him and enquired further.
The artist said, “Sir, then I asked him to give me one more chance.
He agreed. After a few days I visited his house with a new portrait, I was quiet confident this time.

But when I saw him his face had changed. As I feared, he shouted – ‘this can’t be my picture. This picture is showing moustache, whereas I don’t possess it.’ I tried to convince him that it was not my fault.
However, he declared that I failed to fulfil my challenge. I asked for one more chance. But he tricked me the next time, too. I have portrayed him five times. Now I understооd that he was an evil man.”

The artist then showed Birbal all the five portraits. All the portraits were indeed nice ones. Birbal was kind hearted man. So he decided to help the artist. He briefed the artist and went with him to the rich man’s house. Birbal remained outside the house, whereas the artist entered inside.

As soon as the rich man saw the artist, he said mockingly, “O great artist! You are here again! It seems you have come again with some of your rubbish item.”
The artist humbly replied, “Sir, I’m sure, what I’ve brought today will match with your face.” Saying so, he passed on a framed piece to him.

The rich man held it in his hand and looked at it. But it was just a mirror. He screamed angrily, “What a silly joke it is? You’ve brought just a mirror!” Then Birbal, who was standing outside and was listening to their conversation, entered. Birbal said, “Are you not happy with the mirror which is showing your exact picture? I think only mirror can depict your present face. You don’t need a portrait but a mirror, my friend.”
The rich man was very much ashamed to hear Birbal. He begged his pardon and paid the artist well.

Dear you,
Who's reading this letter
Where are you and what are you doing now?

For me who's 15 years old
There are seeds of worries I can't tell anyone

If it's a letter addressed to my future self,
Surely I can confide truly to myself

Now, it seems that I'm about to be defeated and cry
For someone who's seemingly about to disappear
Whose words should I believe in?
This one-and-only heart has been broken so many times
In the midst of this pain, I live the present

Dear you,
Thank you
I have something to tell the 15-year-old you

If you continue asking what and where you should be going
You'll be able to see the answer

The rough seas of youth may be tough
But row your boat of dreams on
Towards the shores of tomorrow

Now, please don't be defeated and please don't shed a tear
During these times when you're seemingly about to disappear
Just believe in your own voice
For me as an adult, there are sleepless nights when I'm hurt
But I'm living the bittersweet present

There's meaning to everything in life
So build your dreams without fear
Keep on believing

Seems like I'm about to be defeated and cry
For someone who's seemingly about to disappear
Whose words should I believe in?

Please don't be defeated and please don't shed a tear
During these times when you're seemingly about to disappear
Just believe in your own voice

No matter era we're in
There's no running away from sorrow
So show your smile, and go on living the present
Go on living the present

Dear you,
Who's reading this letter
I wish you happiness

'Domestic rats are now not the same as wild rats, in the same way that a dog is different from its ancestor, the wolf, but nevertheless some remnant of wolf-like behaviour is in your dog. That's the general principle,' said Berdoy.
'We're not just looking at a mass of cells; you're looking at a very sophisticated [mammal]_ rats have evolved for specific purposes. All animals will have evolved to do certain things. If you do not keep an animal properly then you are likely to get biased results because that animal is a stressed being.'
Rats and mice are popular lab animals because like humans they are successful social omnivores, which share 95 per cent of the same genes, and unlike other mammals are easier to keep because they are small, adaptable and quick to reproduce.
BErdoy is wary of taking the comparisons too far, but says modern humans who had to fend for themselves in the wild would probably resort to many of the same tactics as the rats - especially when it came to finding safe food, establishing social hierarchies, and even possibly sex.
The important social comparison was echoed by Dr James Thompson, senior lecturer in psychology at UCL in London, who said humans in comparable situations - such as disasters - could organise themselves into a useful society within hours.
'There is a massive change in priorities for action and it isn't necessarily distinctive Lord of the Flies. It's sometimes supportive, but it's generally more functional than our ordinary civilised life tends to be,' he said.
He added that there was also a 'hierarchy of utility' that appeared in disaster situations. 'Practical intelligence seems to dominate, and a certain selfishness seems to have an impact on this so people have to push to do things, and people who are too polite or waiting for others to organise things tend to be left behind.'

In the wild, on a tennis court-sized enclosure, they had a terrain of grass, stones and straw bales, and obstacles like ladders. There was a supply of pellets but they also discovered and tasted berries, an apple, a snail, an egg and even a dead bird. The lights went out when the sun set, and the weather fluctuated from sunshine to rainstorms.
The white and Lister-hooded rats in the experiment had been bred and kept in labs since such testing began in 1908 - which, given that rats can breed every three months, makes them at least the 200th generation.
The conclusions are obvious, according to Berdoy. 'We have taken the animal from the wild, but we have not taken all the wild from the animal.'
His experiment unfolds in an award-winning internet film which has attracted interest from several TV companies. The first thing the released rats did was to venture out to explore the new terrain - led by the male hooded rats which, before they did anything, went to find their female white companions.
After that the animals soon found water, and began experimenting with new foods, a far cry from the pel lets their many ancestors lived on in labs.
It then took little time for the rats to start finding burrows for protection - even though they would never have been threatened in such ways before.
Even after six months, the lab rats were bolder or more naive about risk than their wild cousins, but they still showed a remarkable instinct for self-preservation. When they met their first-ever cat in the farmyard they immediately took refuge - suggesting an 'innate aversion' to cat odours. And the females took the precaution of storing food for pregnancy - even though they had always been fed daily. Within hours the lab rats had also adopted a 'hopping gait' characteristic of wild rats, and began to dig, something they could not do before.
Within days they began to establish a hierarchy along traditional lines. The bigger ones remained dominant once they had won an encounter, even when they were outgrown, showing that age meant something.
They also established a network of runs between key locations of food and shelter which the rats navigated by smell so effectively they did not have to look where they were going - again as they do in the wild.