LIFE GOES ON!

Life runs, creeps at times, becomes lazy and sluggish, roars like lightning and lies doggo unabashedly at other times. But one thing is certain: life goes on! Is that a good sign? Of course, wouldn't we be dead otherwise? And life is indeed unfair to a majority of us. It throws challenges and creates hurdles in our way. But in spite of all this, consider what William Goldman had to say:

"Life isn’t fair. It’s just fairer than death, that’s all."

Any average day in our life is a challenge, compelling us to move from day to day, sail from shore to shore, with chances of drowning aplenty. At every step an unknown danger lurks, be it may related to health, financial security, relationship or so many other issues that make up life. One has to be bold enough to look life face to face and accept the challenges and wade through thick and thorny slush of life. Many of us stumble and many further fall down. Some of us get up and bounce back full throttle, but many of us give up. Life is not about giving up, it is all about struggle, about power, about strength, about hope and about victory.

"Sooner or later the man who wins is the man who thinks he can."

So, its all about your attitude. If your head is in place and you have a perfect balance of attitude and abilities, you will surely return as a boomerang: strong, fast and accurate!

RACE AND RELIGION

Ever wondered about races and religion which bind us humans? I did, today. Though generally people tend to look at these two aspects through the same lens, in reality two are widely apart and totally incomparable.

Race is natural; religion man made. Race came first; religion came much later. Race cannot be altered; religion can be changed. Race has a proof; religion does not have one. Race is; religion isn't. Religion divides; race doesn't.

You cannot look at the face of an individual and decide which religion does he practice. But you can always look at the face of an individual and generally guess what race does he belong to. Race has a profile; religion lacks one. We have races wherein people are tall or short, dark or fair skinned, have straight hair or curly, athletic and stiff body or supple, sharp features or mongoloid or even very flat. Accordingly, they specialise in different fields.

Scan different continents and regions and you would realize how racial profiles change gradually and continuously.

You would have seen in sports arena, different races specialise in different disciplines. Races generally are won by Africa, athletics field events by Europe, table tennis by South East Asia, basketball by America, wrestling by Middle East and CIS countries and lawn tennis by America, Russia and Europe and in Europe especially states carved out of former Yogoslavia and Czechoslovakia.

Races dictate strengths, skills and weaknesses of people and I fully respect them.

TESOL

A majority of us do not know there is an organization based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, by the name of "Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages" (TESOL). TESOL offers an exciting way of teaching English worldwide. Established in 1994, it has several branches in places like Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Newark, Las Vegas, San Diego, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, China and Taiwan. The basic aim of TESOL has been to train English teachers who can teach English to people whose mother tongues are other than English. If there are 15 or more people willing to join English classes in a place, the TESOL assigns teachers on contract basis for a particular period. Demand for English teachers has been constantly rising and presently North East Asia tops the demand chart with 29% job vacancies for English Teachers, followed by Eastern Europe with 16% and South East Asia with 14%. Even native English speaking countries have a demand of 12%!

Contracts range from one to two years and salaries depend on the country/region. But air fare and accommodation are always free, you have to teach for about four hours every day and you have a choice to opt for extra time tutoring to earn extra bucks! On an average, you could, with your hard work and controlled living expenses, end up saving about a lac a month in Indian currency. Not a bad deal.

For details visit www.tesol.org and www.tesolindia.com .