Life, Dreams and Reality -- Sohel's Blog

1       What does compassion mean? Its dictionary meaning is: a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering. 1 A more concise definition: a sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it. 2 Human beings are social animals. We laugh at humour, frown at one sided criticism, and cry at agonies, of ours and others. In funeral, we gather together, hugging and reminiscing the memory of the departed. In a birthday party of a friend or family, our genuine cheers, claps and singing the chorus with others wishing a happy birthday lighten the mood of the birthday boy or the girl. In a wedding we celebrate the beginning of a marital life of a couple with hearty gestures and smile. When our favorite sports team win a vital game, soccer, cricket, football, or any other thrilling sports, we jump up and down and scream with the loudest and shril...

x221&freeWheel.siteSectionId=nws_offsite&closedCaptionActive=&addThis.playerSize=5000x340&closedCaptionsOverPlayer.fontsize=18" style="border: 0px solid #ffffff;" width="460">Unfortunately your browser does not support IFrames. This is one of the best speeches I have heard in a long time. The urgency in Michelle Obama's tone and the simple connections that she made with her anecdotal stories from her and President Obama's life, did not feel like I was listening to a political speech.  True that economy is still not recovered for millions of many (mostly because of Obama's predecessor's squandering from wars and tax mishap), and  there are other unresolved domestic and international issues, however, comparing to 8 previous years, from 2001 to 2008, of dismally darkened ages of constant fear, suppression, tortures and many "casualties of wars", and fomenting distrusts among the world populace, Obama administrat...

Recently, I have read two books. First one is Ian McEwan's Solar, and the second one is Michael Crichton's State of Fear. No similarities in overall plot structures or the characters between these two books, but both of them have Global Warming as a part of the main stories. When Michael Crichton's State of Fear came out in 2004, I almost bought it, however, reading the negative reviews in prominent newspapers and magazines, I decided not to. This year, while browsing my old reading wish list, I came back to this book again, and this time I decided to give it a try. And I am glad that I did it so. Like Crichton's other fast paced novels I had read many years ago, like Sphere, Jurassic Park, Disclosure, Lost World and Prey, I found State of Fear was an entertaining and quite absorbing read. 798 pages length of this book that includes the main story, and the appendix containing the writer's explanation why he had written this book in a very controversial theme, a...