Thursday, November 30, 2006

Where is God's Perfection?

I received this on an email and it touched my heart, and according to Truth or Fiction this is true. So I thought of sharing it with you all.

In Brooklyn, New York, Chush is a school that caters to learning disabled children. At a Chush fund-raising dinner, the father of a Chush child delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended.

After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he cried out, "Where is the perfection in my son Shaya? Everything God does is done with perfection. But my child cannot understand things as other children do. My child cannot remember facts and figures as other children do. Where is God's perfection?" The audience was shocked by the question, pained by the father's anguish, stilled by the piercing query. " I believe," the father answered, "that when God brings a child like this into the world, the perfection that he seeks is in the way people react to this child."
He then told the following story about his son Shaya:

One afternoon Shaya and his father walked past a park where some boys Shaya knew were playing baseball. Shaya asked, "Do you think they will let me play?" Shaya's father knew that his son was not at all athletic and that most boys would not want him on their team. But Shaya's father understood that if his son was chosen to play it would give him a comfortable sense of belonging.Shaya's father approached one of the boys in the field and asked if Shaya could play. The boy looked around for guidance from his teammates. Getting none, he took matters into his own hands and said "We are losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him up to bat in the ninth inning."

Shaya's father was ecstatic as Shaya smiled broadly. Shaya was told to put on a glove and go out to play short center field. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shaya's team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shaya's team scored again and now with two outs and the bases loaded with the potential winning run on base, Shaya was scheduled to be up. Would the team actually let Shaya bat at this juncture and give away their chance to win the game? Surpassingly, Shaya was given the bat.

Everyone knew that it was all but impossible because Shaya didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, let alone hit with it. However as Shaya stepped up to the plate, the pitcher moved a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shaya should at least be able to make contact.
The first pitch came in and Shaya swung clumsily and missed. One of Shaya's teammates came up to Shaya and together the held the bat and faced the pitcher waiting for the next pitch. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly toward Shaya. As the pitch came in, Shaya and his teammate swung at the bat and together they hit a slow ground ball to the pitcher.


The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could easily have thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shaya would have been out and that would have ended the game. Instead, the pitcher took the ball and threw it on a high arc to right field, far beyond reach of the first baseman.
Everyone started yelling,"Shaya, run to first. Run to first." Never in his life had Shaya run to first. He scampered down the baseline wide-eyed and startled. By the time he reached first base, the right fielder had the ball. He could have thrown the ball to the second baseman who would tag out Shaya, who was still running. But the right fielder understood what the pitcher's intentions were, so he threw the ball high and far over the third baseman's head. Everyone yelled, "Run to second, run to second." Shaya ran towards second base as the runners ahead of him deliriously circled the bases towards home. As Shaya reached second base, the opposing short stop ran to him, turned him in the direction of third base and shouted, "Run to third." As Shaya rounded third, the boys from both teams ran behind him screaming, "Shaya run home."
Shaya ran home, stepped on home plate and all 18 boys lifted him on their shoulders and made him the hero, as he had just hit a "grand slam" and won the game for his team.


"That day," said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, "those 18 boys reached their level of God's perfection."

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Attended my second Christmas party today!

Here in the UK, Christmas starts in November, it's great! Already all the streets are lighted and you can hear Christmas carols being played in the stores.

I went to my forst Christmas party on Saturday organized by the Christian Graduate Society of Cambridge.

Today my College had our Christmas Formal Dinner with Turkey, Traditional Christmas Pudding, mistle toe, bon bons and all. This photo was taken there with some of my friends. (we're wearing the crowns that were in the bonbons!)

It was a great break from all the work I'm doing for the MBA. I have to do the presentation for our consultancy project on the 4th Dec and then hols till January. (unformtunately I start with exams in Jan.) There are so many things happening this week from Carols Services to parties to dramas, I'm trying to decide which ones I can attend without affecting the consultancy project.

Though I do enjoy all these parties and decorations, I sometimes wonder whether people still remeber the fundamental meaning of Christmas or if it's just another fun holiday... Christmas seems to be so ommertialized and people seem to have forgotten the 'Christ' in Christmas. I my self sometimes find myself caught in this, and try to get in touch with my spiritual side.

Friday, November 24, 2006

Not-for-profit Event

Things are as hectic as usual. On Wednesday Judge held an event in London to promote the Cambridge MBA to professionals working in the Not-for-Profit sector. Few students interested in the NFP sector were invited to come and help with the arrangemnets as well as talk to prospective candidates and give them an idea what Cambridge is like. This was held at the Oxford and Cambridge Club. It was a beautiful old building and here is a photo of the students who went from Judge. This was taken in the Ladies 'power room' as it was called. (what is it about Not-for-profit sector that makes only the girls interested??? not a single guy from JBS attended.)

One of the major differneces between the JBS MBA and most other MBAs (such as LBS, Harward, Insead etc. ) is that Cambridge does not only focus on hihgly competitive 'killer' Investment banking type jobs. One of it's core values is collaboration and since we do most projects in teams we don't try to compete with each other we don most assignments together too. I don't think I'd have survived in 'dog-eat-dog' type of environment.

The CEO of the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) was one of the guest speakers and her talk was truely inspirational. It seriously made me think about eye sight which I take for granted. I can't imagine going through life blind...

There were some other great speeches by others who are working for the not-for-profit sector as well.

I'm hoping that I'll be able to do one of my projects for the MBA with the RNIB. I'm not exactly sure if I want to work in the NFP sector right after the MBA, but I'd love to work in it long term.

Thought for the day...

"Everyone you meet knows someting you don't know. Be willing to learn from them."

This is what my 365 Motivational Quotes Calander says for today... It just stuck in my mind cos I'm learning so much these days just by chatting with my class mates.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Once upon a time...

Was the theme of my friend's sis' 21st Fancy Dress B'day Party.

Yesterday I went to London and stayed over at her place. This is the friend who came to pic me from the airport.

Below is a pic of the Birthday girl and a friend with the cake before getting into fancy dress.

I got some great photos, but my friends have threatened to stop all contact with me if I publish them on the net, so sadly I'm not putting them up.

Though I had loadz of work I decided to take a break. This was exactly what I needed. It felt like touching base cos they're the closest to family I've got here. It was also nice to speak in Sinhala and since there were a lot of Sri Lankans we played some Sri Lankan music

I also really enjoyed just letting go and dressing up in really silly costumes and having fun. It's been some time since I did that last.

Friday, November 10, 2006

This is why I came to Cambridge...

After a couple of months of running around like headless chickens, I feel most of us doing the MBA have finally started to settle down.

The first month though we were talking to each other it was more on a surface level and sometimes I believe that people aren't really listening to what you're saying. I've even caught myself doing the same thing. I'm talking to someone but thinking about how I'm going to complete all my assignments or whether I've got enough food at home... So half of what is said is lost.

Even though we are as busy as ever with loads of assignments and the Cambridge Venture Project (I'll talk about that on another post) I've finally started to really talk to people. These last couple of weeks I've been able to put aside work and other things and really find out about the some of the others who are doing the MBA and make new friends. It's really interesting talking to people from all over the world and finding out about things that I didn't even know exist. There are around 40 different nationalities here and I plan on learning a few words from each language (at least the basic greetings). I've already started to learn Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and Italian. Some of the best conversations I've had over dinner with my fellow MBAs.
I'm starting to literally stop and smell the roses too. To admire the ancient buildings and students in gowns (since my college is relatively new, we don't have to wear the gowns though) that give Cambridge the unique experience and the 'Harry Potter' effect.

Though I will be studying hard, this year is also about finding myself and experiencing this wonderful, eccentric and inspiring place with all it's history.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Bon Fire Night

This is my second post for the day. I just thought I should write a seperate post on the fireworks display tonight (Guy Fawkes Night or bonfire night) It's really popular in the UK and the history behind it can be found here

Right after the presentation skills session we went to dinner organized by the Judge at a near by restaurant and went to see the fire works display at the park. It was beautiful. So thought of putting a few photos here.














These two photos were taken in the park and at the restaurant.














These two were some of the fire works I caught on camera but it looks so much more magical when watching them.

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Presentation Skills

Today we had a presentation skills work shop. It was very useful cos we did it in small groups of about 10 and each person got the chance to do two presentations. The first one was a prepared presentation about some aspect of the work we did before the MBA and it was videoed and played back. Then the lecturer and the peers would comment on the presentation. I've always hated seeing myself on screen. It feels so weird!

One really good thing I gained from this session was confidence cos according to the lecturer my presentation skills are pretty good and I'm someone with a naturally 'authoritative voice'! I never thought of my self that way...

One thing that the lecturer emphasised a lot was what is the audience getting out of the presentation??? Even though this seems pretty obvious it's unbelievable how many of us get so wrapped up in our own world, and do a presentation really interesting to us but forget the audience. I've sat through many of these when I'm thinking I could be doing so much better things with my time. His main point was if you can't answer 'what is the audience getting from this presentation', you shouldn't be doing it!

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Ring Around the Roses...

I guess most of you would have heard this popular rhyme,

Ring around the Roses,
Pocket Full of Posies
Atishoo Atishoo
We all fall down

Today I was chatting with an English guy and some how we got around to talking about rhymes and apperently this is about the Great Plague in England in 1665. According to his interpretation the Posies had be kept by people so that they didn't get the plague, the sneezing is the early sign of the Plague and we all fall down "dead".

I couldn't beleive it. I still remeber singing this and falling down and this used to be one of my favourite rhymes... How could it have such horrific origins! Couldn't people think of anything better to teach little kids than Plague and death???

I was so sad I had to blog about it.

Talking about horrific, I just remebered today is Halloween! I even saw a couple of 'Devils' and 'Witches' and 'Vampires' on the road on my way back from Uni. Halloween has always amused me, it's funny how for one day of the year everyone dresses up and acts like a kid.

Happy Halloween Everyone!!!