You Cant Read This Without Crying! An Open Challenge!

Yes, you have.

Originally Posted by vissihiran

I found the story too unrealistic. I could not relate it to any real time happening or sadness of life in general. May be I missed the point...

Dear Sridhar,

I am a new member to IL. I just read this story. I lost the challenge too. I shed tears. What a wonderful lesson, I am defintiely going to try this......thanks for the stroy..
jothi.

hello MR.Sridhar,

With the riches and with your beauty you could have easily remarried.
“But you opted to stay single only for my sake. And you brought me up playing the roles of the father and the mother.

The above lines from the story just made a good impression about the Lady character sharadha....Fantastic women with cunning personality in disguise.

Even i have been already worked out the humanism by appreciating "My MOM",i watched her eagerness to appreciate her more and a kind bright look at her eyes!!! Really i felt like acheived a lot.

I am new to u.
But I'll read all the heart touching stories posted by u.
This occassion, I'll take to praise u for all such great narrations.
Every one has to show gratitude to their family members or co-workers.
Then only one can go on doing work. Otherwise, they'll exhaust finally.
So I'll agree with u, fully, whole-heartedly.

Gayathri.

Very well-written story! Excellent theme too!!

Thanks a lot Vaidehi for your kind words,
Varalotti

To be very honest,

When I started reading this story, my intention was to find some fault with this story, especially since the word "Challenge" in the title motivated me to do so .. but when I finished reading it, I loved it very much and thought it would be unfair on my part to be a nitpicker or aristarch and it would even be worse to keep quiet, since I have been vociferous in my criticism.

So I have to admit I failed in my mission - may be.. today is not mine :))

Jokes apart,

I really loved the content of the story - not to mention - its presentation ...

Originally Posted by varalotti

Thanks a lot Vaidehi for your kind words,
Varalotti

Dear Varalotti sir, It is a wonderful piece. It made me cry and also made me realise that how small words of appreciation can bring boundless joy in the heart of the listener. Some time back I received a letter from my father, appreciating my daughter Akshatha's poems(I live in Kuwait and he lives in Coimbatore). He had written "I will be much blessed and pleased, if Akshatha emerges as literary samrat, as I had failed therein due to circumstances. The lines, "the times I have been with you may be very few, but you are in my heart forever" are lingering in my heart all the twenty four hours in a day. I know that I don't deserve for such an esteemed respite, but I long for it. I am fortunate to have her all along in my mind through her verses"

On reading these lines i couldn't help crying for more than an hour. I understood that day how we fail to reassure our dear ones with our love and affection. Though we love them very much it is essential to express that in words. I wrote a letter back to him pinpointing him that he deserves everything in the world for he has done so much to us and about the values he has inculcated in us and how that had helped us in our lives. I am sure those words would have touched him. But i couldn't tell him and give him the reassurance in person.

We always take our own people for granted and never bother to thank them and expect them to understand us even without expressing our love to them. After reading your wonderful story i decided from this moment that i should appreciate everyone i come across daily for whatever good they do. Thank you sir for bringing this awakening in me.

Regards,
Sujatha

Dear Sujatha,

Thanks for your kind words. More than my story your fathers words brought tears to me. I am really moved, Sujatha.

The story about this story is this. I and another trainer were returning from Kodaikkanal after a very vibrant youth leadership camp. We both were faculties there. I took a session on creativity and he on Time Management. As we were discussing about other trainers, this man told this story about another trainer. That the trainer's session had brought a mother to the session who thanked him for making his daughter say kind words to her.

I noted down the plot added a lot of embellishments and wrote the story in Tamil. It was published in Ananda Vikatan in 2000. And posted the English version here.

While we are quick to point out the faults we hesitate to praise people for their goodness. Once when I went on a long bike ride there were sudden rains. So about a hundred of us two-wheeler riders took refuge under the large canopy of a petrol bunk in the ouirts of Madurai. In another 10 minutes when the rain stopped we resumed our journey. Within seconds the place was deserted. I felt heavy.
Having started my bike I switched off the engine went in to the bunks cabin and saw the person in charge there. He was in a foul mood and asked curtly what do you want.
"Nothing sir. I just came to thank you. Your bunk gave me and a hundred others wonderful shelter when it was raining. I cant thank you enough for that."

The man was almost reduced to tears. He stood up, shook hands with me, still not knowing how to respond to my expression of gratitude. I patted him on his shoulders and left the place.

The beauty is that not only he but also I felt good for the rest of the day. Actually by thanking and praising others we do good unto ourselves.

Thanks for the post, Sujatha. Convey my regards to Akshadha. A wonderful name. Akshada, I think, means indestructible. Let your daughter be so for ever. Also in sanskrit a அ is the first word in the alpabet க்ஷ is the last word. So in a way your daughter's name encompasses the entire litrerary world. May she be blessed to become a litrerary genius.

regards,
sridhar

PS:Happy to know that you are a sudoku freak. So am I. I have solved thousands of sudokus. Only for the last few months I am off sudoku because it became an addiction.

Dear Varalotti sir, Thanks for your reply. Nice to read your messages. With the small word "Thank You" if we can bring so much of joy to people why should we hesitate to use it. We should keep thanking others for every act of theirs. we will continue to do it.

I am addicted to these SUDUKO puzzles i do not know how to stop it. Even in net there is a website named puzzleplayer.com where we get SUDUKO, ADDUKO and many other puzzles. Hope u would have tried them.

Thank you for showering your blessings on my daughter. It is like getting the award of Bramharishi from Vasista. Thank you once again sir. Hope she emerges as a literary person as she grows up.

with warm regards,

Sujatha