Indulging with Oprah magazine

I had subscribed for a couple of magazines as a part of a donation program at my nephew'school and the magazines finally arrived a couple of days back. One of them, the Oprah magazine is filled with all goody goody stuff just to give you the right kick. Reading through it has been such a pleasure so far! I just wait to sit down with it. It has a perfume sampler in it so the magazine smells fabulous every time you pick it up. Ah! the small luxuries! :-) Happy happy! 

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." Is it?

Albert Einstein once said that imagination is more important than knowledge. How true can that be? What is knowledge? The web says it is - "facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject". So now, what is imagination? The Merriam Webster dictionary says it is the act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality. 

You see, how easy it is to collect information in this digital age? Few seconds is all it takes and it is open to the world wide web! Now, I am not down right putting down the importance of knowledge. It takes a lot a lot of time and effort to even get to the right state of mind to accept and perceive this kind of information, and one might actually lead a good life out of this knowledge. But a person may lead a much better life with lesser knowledge and more of imagination.

Think of some of the world leaders in various fields. Be it Gandhi, Mandela, or  the NASA team that successfully landed on Moon or Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg .Were they the world's most knowledgeable people? Probably not! But what really separated them from the rest of the world was their imagination. They imagined freedom, a passion to explore beyond earth and a world of personal computers and a digital era. They imagined something much much larger than themselves. Can you think of a world without them today? How very different it would be!

Oh imagination wins hands down! Absolutely.  

Here is another favorite of mine from Einstein:

A road less traveled...

The older you grow, the more prone you are to mundane, routine things. I feel kind of sloppy even saying that, but its true for me. So in that light, its been years since I have actually participated in any kind of sport.

Came in an opportunity at my husband's office where spouses were also allowed to join for a corporate challenge. With many hesitations I joined their badminton team. After the first practice session, my limbs were taking a walk and were in protest. It hit me that its been a loooong time since I had moved around so much. 

I slowly got used to these guys and that was that! We had a blast. We somehow made time on weekdays and some weekends. My game gradually improved and it was so much fun just being out there. The funniest part was playing as my husband's partner. We fought so much both on and off the court that the captain decided that it would be better if we partnered with others. 

The tournament was extremely memorable. My stomach was churning before the first match. I hadn't had those kind of emotions in since my undergrad days. We were super confident and had a bad loss in the second round. We met the same team in the finals and had a nail biting double elimination. We won!!! It was unbelievable getting a medal. I showed them off to my parents like a kid. :-)