Sharing the Collections of Dilip Prakash

When God found the men and women trapped thus in that Babel of confusions and counter-confusions, He knew He had done His work, and decided to take a day off.

A rose followed by a chocolate, a soft toy wrapped into the promises of scores of kisses and hugs are not enough for one to approve of a lover’s proposal. Love is not a mere ‘weekly’ affair, but the long-term bond is what one looks forward to, and that comes from mutual understanding and compatibility, but not from such phony days.

February 14th is Valentines Day

- a worldwide celebration of love and romance, marked by giving red roses and chocolate hearts or by sending valentines .
Often derided as a “Hallmark holiday,” Valentines Day - also known as Saint Valentines Day - is certainly a boom for greeting card companies, florists

and chocolatiers. But long before the mass marketing, Valentines Day was still a high point for courtly love.So, how and where did the holiday get its start? And who is Saint Valentine and why has he become the symbol for love?

For starters, Saint Valentine is probably not just one man, but rather any of a number of martyred saints named Valentine or Valentinus, derived from the Latin word for valor. According to Christian tradition, all of these Saint Valentines are believed to have been martyred on February 14.

The first Valentinus, Valentine of Rome, was a priest and doctor, who treated even those patients who could not afford to pay him. The second Saint Valentine was beheaded for protecting Christians from the Romans. And the third is Valentine of Terni, a bishop believed killed during the persecution of Emperor Aurelian.

While these saints likely bestowed upon Valentines Day its name, they still do not explain the holiday’s love connection. To understand that, one has to go back even further in history - to the Romans.
Historians believe that the holiday of love derives its origins from the ancient Roman feast of Lupercalia. On February 15, the Romans celebrated the Feast of Lupercus, to honor and thank the wolf god who watched over the Roman shepherds and their flocks.
While Lupercus doesn’t seem to have much to do with romance, there was a number of fertility customs associated with his feast. In one of these rituals, women would put their names on slips of paper in a box, to be drawn out by men. The two would then be coupled up for the duration of the festival - or for the rest of the year in some cases. This fertility-friendly feast gives some clue as to the romantic - or at least procreative - nature of the holiday. But we don’t celebrate Saint Lupercus Day on February 14th. So, how did the Valentine saints become associated with the Roman god?

Legend has it that in the 3rd century, the Roman emperor Claudius II banned marriages to prevent draft dodgers. Only single men had to go into the army - and too many young men were getting married.
A Christian priest named Valentinus of Rome ignored the ban, continuing to officiate marriages in secret. Valentinus was caught and sentenced to death - an order carried out on February 14. Another story tells of a priest named Valentinus who was jailed and later executed for helping Christians. He fell for his jailer’s daughter and sent her plaintiff love notes signed “from your Valentine”.
In the late 5th century, Emperor Gelasius declared February 14th a holy day in honor of Valentinus (probably the first, but perhaps the second), allowing Christianity to adopt some of the love day customs previously associated with paganism.
The traditions were reworked, however, to honor the Christian martyrs. For example, instead of boys pulling girls’ names from boxes, both boys and girls chose names of martyred saints to emulate for the year.
It took nearly nine centuries, until the advent of the Renaissance, for Valentines Day to return to its earlier love-based roots. With Romantic art, poetry and music flourishing, the time was ripe for a celebration of love.

With deepest regards,
The Schoolmaster.

The woman fainted reading the reply…….. and she never visited India!!!!

corporate_lessons.ppt

Be solemn if your topic is serious. Present the desired image to your audience. Appear relaxed, even if you feel nervous. Establish rapport with your audience. If a microphone is available, adjust and adapt your voice accordingly.

Master the use of presentation software such as PowerPoint well before your presentation. Persuade your audience effectively. Speak loudly and clearly. Sound confident. Maintain sincere eye contact with your audience. If what you have prepared is obviously not getting across to your audience, change your strategy mid-stream if you are well prepared to do so. Allow yourself and your audience a little time to reflect and think. Keep audience interested throughout your entire presentation. Remember that an interesting speech makes time fly, but a boring speech is always too long to endure even if the presentation time is the same.

Check out the location ahead of time to ensure seating arrangements for audience, whiteboard, blackboard, lighting, location of projection screen, sound system, etc. are suitable for your presentation.

Tell audience ahead of time that you will be giving out an outline of your presentation so that they will not waste time taking unnecessary notes during your presentation.

Here are just a few hints, public speaking tips and techniques to help you develop your skills and become far more effective as a public speaker.

• Mistakes
  Mistakes are all right.
  Recovering from mistakes makes you appear more human.
  Good recovery puts your audience at ease - they identify with you more.
• How to use the public speaking environment
  Try not to get stuck in one place.
  Use all the space that’s available to you.
  Move around.
  One way to do this is to leave your notes in one place and move to another.
  If your space is confined (say a meeting room or even presenting at a table) use stronger body language to convey your message.
• Tell stories
  Stories make you a real person not just a deliverer of information.
  Use personal experiences to bring your material to life.
  No matter how dry your material is, you can always find a way to humanise it.
• Technology
  Speak to your audience not your slides.
  Your slides are there to support you not the other way around.
  Ideally, slides should be graphics and not words (people read faster than they hear and will be impatient for you to get to the next point).
  If all the technology on offer fails, it’s still you they’ve come to hear.
• Humour
  Tell jokes if you’re good at telling jokes.
  If you aren’t good, best to leave the jokes behind.
  There’s nothing worse than a punch line that has no punch.
  Gentle humour is good in place of jokes.
  Self-deprecation is good, but try not to lay it on too thick.

You can learn to enjoy public speaking and become far more effective at standing in front of a group of people and delivering a potent message.

And remember to keep practicing!