Bill Gates bids a teary farewell to Microsoft : From Technews on ZDNet

Redmond, Washington--Bill Gates said a teary goodbye on Friday to Microsoft, the software maker he built into the world's most valuable technology company based on the ambitious goal of placing a computer on every desk and in every home.

He leaves Microsoft, which he co-founded with childhood friend Paul Allen in 1975, to focus on his philanthropic organization, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest charity, funded in part by his vast fortune.

At an employee event at Microsoft's scenic headquarters campus here, Gates joined Chief Executive Steve Ballmer on stage to deliver a short speech and field questions from employees.

"There won't be a day in my life when I won't be thinking about Microsoft, the great things that we're doing and wanting to help," said Gates, who wiped away tears as the group of employees rose to give him a standing ovation.

Ballmer, a Harvard University classmate who joined Microsoft at Gates' behest, got choked up as he tried to describe Gates' impact on the company and society at large.

"There's no way to say thanks to Bill. Bill's the founder. Bill's the leader," said Ballmer. "This is Bill's baby."

Gates will leave behind a life's work developing software to devote energy to finding new vaccines or to microfinance projects in the developing world. He will remain chairman of Microsoft and work on special technology projects.

Ballmer spoke about how he contemplated quitting Microsoft a month after joining the company and return to Stanford University business school. Bill passionately implored him to stay and laid out the vision of the company.

"This is what Bill said to me. 'You don't get it. You don't get it. We are going to put a computer on every desk and in every home,'" said Ballmer.

There are currently more than one billion PCs worldwide, according to research firm IDC.

Once the world's richest man, Gates' personal fortune has been estimated at about $58 billion, according to Forbes Magazine. He has slipped to third place, behind investor and good friend Warren Buffett and Mexican telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim.

All the darkness of the world cannot put out the light of a single candle...

"Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. Your state of mind is up to you. Choose now to look for the good" ~Abraham Lincoln

Watch your thoughts; they lead to attitudes.
Watch your attitudes; they lead to words.

Watch your words; they lead to actions.
Watch your actions; they lead to habits.

Watch your habits; they form your character.
Watch your character; it determines your destiny.

If You Believe, You Can - An Inspiring Video...

Progress is the activity of today and the assurance of tomorrow...

Dear Children,

Here are some " Progress Quotes" for you to think them over.

Progress is the activity of today and the assurance of tomorrow. Progress occurs because people dare to be unique and different. Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step towards the goal requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.

Progress, of the best kind, is comparatively slow. Great results cannot be achieved at once; and we must be satisfied to advance in life as we walk, step by step.

The pursuit of peace and progress cannot end in a few years in either victory or defeat. The pursuit of peace and progress, with its trials and its errors, its successes and its setbacks, can never be relaxed and never abandoned. It is better to take many small steps in the right direction than to make a great leap forward only to stumble backward.

Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator. And change has its enemies. The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving. He who moves not forward, goes backward.

With Love, AmmaNaana

A True Friend - Re-visiting A Poem By Khahlil Gibran

~The language of friendship is not words but meanings.

~Thick and thin, tall and small, fast and slow. Tell me who is always there for you. I am sure you know. Your best friend, of course, don't let him or her go

~From you I receive; to you I give; together we share; by this we live.

If I could catch a rainbow
I would do it just for you.
And share with you it's beauty
On the days you're feeling blue.

If I could build a mountain
You could call your very own.
A place to find serenity
A place to be alone.

If I could take your troubles
I would toss them into the sea,
But all these things I'm finding
Are impossible for me.

I cannot build a mountain
Or catch a rainbow fair,
But let me be what I know best,
A friend that is always there.

...Khahlil Gibran

Have a Nice Day!
AmmaNaana

Thought For The Day

~The only disability in life is a bad attitude.

~Are you part of the problem or part of the solution?. The ability to accept responsibility is the measure of the man. The more you are willing to accept responsibility for your actions, the more credibility you will have. The willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life is the source from which self-respect springs.

~Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be. Some pursue happiness, others create it.

~Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.

Twelfth Nights - Comedy by William Shakespeare - Played by Children of Edmonton

Vikram acting as Antonio, A sea captain and friend of Sebastian.

Taste of Multicultural Cuisine

Today we attended "Twelfth Nights" comedy show written by Shakespeare at Vikram's school. Entire class of Vikram has participated in this play and each of the students performed really well. Co-ordination among such small kids attracted and impressed everyone who attended the show. It seems, their teacher is not only talented but also the most dedicated person in their school. After the show, everyone could taste Multicultural Cuisine prepared and brought by people hailing from diverse cultures.

The story of Twelfth Nights is ....
Viola and her brother, Sebastian, are twins–born about an hour apart–who survive a shipwreck. When they cannot find each other, each thinks the other may be dead. Then they go their separate ways, establishing two story lines that undergird plot surprises later involving mistaken identities.

Viola complicates the plot after she disguises herself as a young man, calling herself Cesario, and obtains employment as a page with Duke Orsino. When she acts as a go-between to help the duke woo Olivia, Viola begins to fall in love with the duke while Olivia begins to fall in love with Viola, thinking “him” a handsome young fellow. Thus, the play takes on the characteristics of a modern situation comedy.

To add to the farce Viola's (Cesario) identical twin, Sebastian arrives on the scene. Living in Olivia’s household is her uncle, Sir Toby Belch, a merry character. The steward of the household is the conceited Malvolio.

The plot illustrates jealousy, mistaken Identity, cross-dressing and features fights and duels. In the end Sebastian and Olivia fall in love and marry. Orsino realises that it is Viola that he loves and she agrees to marry him. Sir Toby Belch and Maria also decide to marry! Twelfth Night ends and everyone, except Malvolio, is happy and Shakespeare speaks of the madness of love.

Characters in Twelfth Night
Duke Orsino
Olivia
Maria
Sebastian

Antonio
Viola
Valentine
Sir Toby Belch
Cesario
Sir Andrew Aguecheek
Curio
Malvolio
Feste
Fabian

Thought For The Day

~Your only limitations are those you set up in your mind, or permit others to set up for you.

~The responsibility for both present and future is in our own hands. If we live right today, then tomorrow has to be right.

~The best day - today. The greatest comfort - work well done.

~It's loyalty when duty calls. It's courage when disaster falls

~Think big and your deed will grow; Think that you can and you will; Itʼs all in the state of mind

Luke Russert Honoring His Dad - Tim Russert

Affectionate Father's Day wishes...

Our attendance at 42nd NDP Annual Convention is useful and wonderful

It is not what we get. But who we become, what we contribute ... that gives meaning to our lives.

Dear all,

Thank you all for your communication.

Our attendance at 42nd NDP Annual Convention is useful and wonderful. About 250 delegates, both men and women, attended the convention from different parts of the province. There was a significant number of youth also present. The Discussion process, Labour presentations, Networking with other New Democrats are the events that attracted me the most.

I was able to connect with many individuals, made many unique acquaintances, I could share my thoughts, and could pick up some new ideas from others too.

I was also happy to see some new faces on the new executive of the Alberta NDP provincial council and was impressed by their energy to move the party forward in our chosen direction. However, I know that the new executive will certainly need to receive the members’ constructive ideas, and input of their time to meet the demand for openness, transparency, and accountability.

Indeed it is a most significant trip. More in my next e-mail from home.

With Love, Naana

Quotes

- Our work is the presentation of our capabilities. Just do what you do best. When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.

- We all have ability. The difference is how we use it. Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.

- The secret of my vigor and activity is that I have managed to have a lot of fun. Some pursue happiness - others create it.

My Trip to Calgary:June 13th, 14th, and 15th, 2008

I'm planning to go on a trip to Calgary in the second week of June, 2008. I'll attend a convention on the 13th, 14th, and 15th. It's the Alberta NDP convention.

I'm participating in it as a delegate from Edmonton-whitemud constituency of the NDP Alberta. We, the delegates from Edmonton-whitemud are planning to go as a group.

Cities are not simply roads, affordable two-story dwellings and shopping malls. They are ideas.

I visited Calgary in the year 2000. My wife Vijayalakshmi and I accompanied our daughter Dr. Aparna to Canada's Chemistry Convention in Calgary. I would like to renew and enrich my acquaintance with the city and the people of Calgary.

If we can find a path with no obstacles, it probably does not lead anywhere: Frank

Congratulations Ajay Naana!

Congratulations to Bhanu & Pavani - Here is our wishing that adorable Junior Prakash fills their world with Joy, Warmth, and Love !

Cute Junior Prakash

In GrandMa's Lap

With Parents, Vishal Babai & Deepa Aunty

A Poem for You

No fear...
Said the polar bear to her young
Before they scampered out onto the ice flow.

No fear...
Said the bird to her young
Before they took flight.

No fear...
Said the mountain goat to her young
Before they began to climb.

No fear...
Said the whale to her young
Before they headed out to open sea.

No fear...
Said the wolf to her young
Before they entered the dark forest.

No fear... echoed... mother nature.
No fear... said I.
Sometimes on occasion - more than once.

Take a walk in the quote garden...

-Maturity is achieved when a person postpones immediate pleasures for long-term values.

-Silent lips may avoid problems, but smiling lips may solve problems. So always, smile in your journey of life.

-Focus on what you appreciate about the other person and not what you want to complain about.

--Love yourself. Life is a long journey to take with someone you don't like.

-The best thing we can do for ourselves and the people in our lives is to love them unconditionally, forgive them without reservation and to accept them exactly as they are.

-If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears.

-Reward without hard work, experience without danger, profit without risk, are as impossible as it is to live without being born.

-The root of achievement is discipline.

-Life is a teacher; the more you learn, the more you live.

Dr. Ashok's Research Profile

Dear All,

Please read Dr. Ashok Kumbamu's research profile at http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-125792-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

Have a Nice Day,
AmmaNaana

A Poem - Love everyone and embrace happy facts...

Come on, carry on!
Happy people and happy feelings.
Come on, carry on!
Happy days and happy nights.
Come on, carry on, carry on!
Happy times frozen in sunlight

Go, go forward!
Live as if you had no time left.
Go, go, go forward!
Take that risk and jump.
Come, carry on, go forward!
You're a free bird now, fly!
Go forward~!

Come on, carry on!
Smiling people and smiling words.
Come on, carry on!
Smile once, and smile from now on!
Come on, come on, carry on!
Smile like shining Venus

Go, go forward!
There's no time left, be a child now!
Go, go, go forward!
Love everyone and embrace happy facts.
Come on, carry on, go forward!
Like a eagle, spread your wings and fly!
Go forward~!
Smile and be happy,
there's no time to waste -:]

Where the mind is without fear - By Rabindranath Tagore

"Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action---
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake..."

Congratulations to Vikram & Team on Winning the Chess Competition

Indian Nobel Prize Winners‏

From you I receive; to you I give; together we share; by this we live...


The Nobel Prize is the most respected award and has honored men and women for outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and for work in peace. Here is a list of those Indians who have won this award and made the country proud.

Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941)
Nobel Prize for Literature (1913)
Tagore was born and lived in Calcutta for most of his life. He was one of modern India's greatest poets and the composer of independent India's national anthem. In 1901 he founded his school, the Santiniketan, at Bolpur as a protest against the existing bad system of education. The school was a great success and gave birth to Viswabharati. He was awarded the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature for his work "Gitanjali"; for the English version, published in 1912. The noble citation stated that it was "because of his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West." In 1915, he was knighted by the British King George V. Tagore renounced his knighthood in 1919 following the Amritsar massacre of nearly 400 Indian demonstrators.

Sir C.V. Raman (Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman)(1888 - 1970)
Nobel Prize for Physics (1930)
C V Raman was born on 7th Nov.1888 in Thiruvanaikkaval, in the Trichy district of Tamil Nadu. He finished school by the age of eleven and by then he had already read the popular lectures of Tyndall, Faraday and Helmoltz.

He acquired his BA degree from the Presidency College, Madras, where he carried out original research in the college laboratory, publishing the results in the philosophical magazine. Then went to Calcutta and while he was there, he made enormous contributions to vibration, sound, musical instruments, ultrasonics, diffraction, photo electricity, colloidal particles, X-ray diffraction, magnetron, dielectrics, and the celebrated "RAMAN" effect which fetched him the Noble Prize in 1930. He was the first Asian scientist to win the Nobel Prize. The Raman effect occurs when a ray of incident light excites a molecule in the sample, which subsequently scatters the light. While most of this scattered light is of the same wavelength as the incident light, state (i.e. getting the molecule to vibrate). The Raman effect is useful in the study of molecular energy levels, structure development, and multi component qualitative analysis.

Dr. Hargobind Khorana
Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology (1968)
Dr. Hargobind Khorana was born on 9th January 1922 at Raipur, Punjab (now in Pakistan). Dr. Khorana was responsible for producing the first man-made gene in his laboratory in the early seventies. This historic invention won him the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1968 sharing it with Marshall Nuremberg and Robert Holley for interpreting the genetic code and analyzing its function in protein synthesis. They all independently made contributions to the understanding of the genetic code and how it works in the cell. They established that this mother of all codes, the biological language common to all living organisms, is spelled out in three-letter words: each set of three nucleotides codes for a specific amino acid.

Dr. Subramaniam Chandrasekar
Nobel Prize for physics (1983)
Subramaniam Chandrashekhar was born on October 19, 1910 in Lahore, India (later part of Pakistan). He attended Presidency College from 1925 to 1930, following in the footsteps of his famous uncle, Sir C. V. Raman.

His work spanned over the understanding of the rotation of planets, stars, white dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes, galaxies, and clusters of galaxies. He won the Nobel Prize in 1983 for his theoretical work on stars and their evolution.

Mother Teresa (1910 - 1997)
Nobel Prize for peace (1979)
Born in 1910, Skoplje, Yugoslavia (then Turkey) and originally named Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, Mother Teresa dedicated her life to helping the poor, the sick, and the dying around the world, particularly those in India, working through the Missionaries Of Charity in Calcutta. The Society of Missionaries has spread all over the world, including the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries. They provide effective help to the poorest of the poor in a number of countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and they undertake relief work in the wake of natural catastrophes such as floods, epidemics, and famine, and for refugees. The order also has houses in North America, Europe and Australia, where they take care of the shut-ins, alcoholics, homeless, and AIDS sufferers. Mother Teresa died on September 5, 1997.

Dr. Amartya Sen
Nobel Prize for Economics (1998)
Born in 1933, Bolpur, in West Bengal, Amartya Sen is the latest in our list of Nobel Laureates. He was honored with the Nobel Prize for his work in Welfare economics. When Thailand's Baht plummeted, markets from Bombay to New York were in turmoil and there was talk of worldwide depression, Sen's argument that growth should be accompanied by democratic decision-making seemed only too correct. Amidst the human suffering caused by mass unemployment and exacerbated -- as many felt -- by the stringent economic policies of the International Monetary Fund and ideas of free-market capitalism, Sen's call for social support in development appeared humane and wise. A new brand of softer, gentler economics seemed in order. Although Sen is probably best known for his research on famines, his work on women -- the attention he has drawn to their unequal status in the developing world, and his calls for gender-specific aid programs -- is just as important.

Other Nobel Prize Laureates related to India
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
British writer, Rudyard Kipling wrote novels, poems and short stories -- mostly set in India and Burma (now known as Myanmar). He was the 1907 Nobel Prize Laureate in Literature "in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration, which characterize the creations of this world-famous author."

V.S. Naipaul (1932- )
British writer of Indian origin, Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature 2001 "for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories."