The lives of young boys and girls were strictly separate. However, one of the customs of the young people was name drawing. On the eve of the festival of Lupercalia the names of Roman girls were written on slips of paper and placed into jars. Each young man would draw a girl’s name from the jar and would then be partners for the duration of the festival with the girl whom he chose. Sometimes the pairing of the children lasted an entire year, and often, they would fall in love and would later marry.

Under the rule of Emperor Claudius II Rome was involved in many bloody and unpopular campaigns. Claudius the Cruel was having a difficult time getting soldiers to join his military leagues. He believed that the reason was that roman men did not want to leave their loves or families. As a result, Claudius cancelled all marriages and engagements in Rome.

The good Saint Valentine was a priest at Rome in the days of Claudius II. He and Saint Marius aided the Christian martyrs and secretly married couples, and for this kind deed Saint Valentine was apprehended and dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who condemned him to be beaten to death with clubs and to have his head cut off. He suffered martyrdom on the 14th day of February, about the year 270. At that time it was the custom in Rome, a very ancient custom, indeed, to celebrate in the month of February the Lupercalia, feasts in honour of a heathen god. On these occasions, amidst a variety of pagan ceremonies, the names of young women were placed in a box, from which they were drawn by the men as chance directed.

The pastors of the early Christian Church in Rome endeavoured to do away with the pagan element in these feasts by substituting the names of saints for those of maidens. And as the Lupercalia began about the middle of February, the pastors appear to have chosen Saint Valentine’s Day for the celebration of this new feaSt. So it seems that the custom of young men choosing maidens for valentines, or saints as patrons for the coming year, arose in this way.

Friendship is not about “I m there for u “ its about “kahan marr gaya saale “

Friendship is not about “I understand “ its about “sab teri wajah se hua manhus“

Friendship is not about “I care for u “ its about “kamino tumhe chhod ke kahan jaunga “

Friendship is not about “I m happy for ur success “its about “chal party de saale“

Friendship is not about “I love that girl“ its about “saalo izzat se dekho tumhari bhabhi hain “

Friendship is not about “R u coming for outing tomorrow “ its about “ nautanki nahi, hum kal bahar ja rahe hai “

Friendship is not about “Get well soon “ its about “ Itna piyega toh yehi hoga“

Friendship is not about “All the best for ur career“its about “bahut hua, abhi toh switch mar saale“

One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.
On their return from their trip, the father asked his son,
‘How was the trip?’
‘It was great, Dad.’
‘Did you see how poor people live?’ the father asked.
‘Oh yeah,’ said the son.
‘So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?’ asked the father

The son answered:
‘I saw that we have one dog and they had four.
We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end.
We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night.
Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.
We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight.
We have servants who serve us, but they serve others.
We buy our food, but they grow theirs.
We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them.’
The boy’s father was speechless.

Then his son added, ‘Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are.’

Isn’t perspective a wonderful thing?
Makes you wonder what would happen if we all gave thanks for everything we have, instead of worrying about what we don’t have.

Appreciate every single thing you have, especially your friends!

‘Life is too short and friends are too few.’

Below is a small story trying to reveal the face trust your friends in every situation, which we forget in this fast moving world

Once i had to walk on a rope bridge. It was very high, i was scared. i saw my frnd on the other side and called him out for help but there was no reply . i somehow managed and crossed the bridge. der i was shocked to see my frnd holding the end of the broken bridge…,sometimes we think why our frnd is quite when we call for help . he may not help you in crossing the bridge but he might be holding the broken bridge for you … just trust your friends in every situations, bcoz they are your real asset

Remembering my class mates, after few years,
My eyes were filled with tears,
Everyone now is busy a lot,
No one escaped destiny’s plot

Saw the girl, whom once i thought as my best frnd,
Oops! today she is somebody else’s girlfrnd,
After months remembered about her for a little while,
Heard she is happy,that made me smile.

Project reviews to campus interviews,
Nicknames to last bench games,
Cultural rehearsals to love proposals,
Short term crushes to class room blushes.

Everything is fresh in our mind,
Wish life could just rewind,
Let’s laugh, play & rejoice,
Once again become school/college guys.

Chatting & laughing. We all were in elation,
Till the painful moments of seperation,
When it was time to part,
We returned with a heavy heart.

Today life is full of commitments,
And too many worries,
But those cherished moments,
Will live forever in our memories!!!

Ack : Vishal Shah

Abhishek
Abhishek
Ajit
Aksha
Alkesh
Alok
Alok
Alpi
Amit
Amit
Amit
Anand
Anand
Anita
Ankit
Ankit
Ankur
Anurag
Aparna
Archana
Archita
Archita
Ashish
Atit
Avleen
Aysuhi
Bhagwan
Bharti
Bhavna
Bhumika
Bijal
Bishwa
Biswa
Brajit
Brihadish
Chaitalu
chandni
Chetan
Chintan
Chirag
Debranjan
Deepak
Deepak
Deepak
Deepali
Deepali
Deepali
Deepika
Devashish
Dhaivat
Dhawal
Dhruv
Dinesh
Dinyar
Falguni
Gaurav
Gauri
Gayatree
Hage
Harsh
Harsh
Heena
Hetu
Honey
iMint
Jasmin
JayPrakash
Jharna
Jigar
Jignesh
Jignesh
Johny
Jyoti
Karthik
Kashif
Kaushal
Kaushal
Kavita
Kenita
Ketan
Ketan
Ketan
Khusbu
Krunal
Kundan
Kundan
Lalit
Lav
Madhu
Mahesh
Maitree
Manan
Matashri
Mayank
Mehul
Melwyn
Mihir
Mitika
Mohit
Montu
Namrata
Nana
Nani
Naresh
Natwar
Nayan
Neetu
Neetu
Neha
Niket
Nikhil
Nikhil
Nikkhil
Nimesh
Nimit
Nipun
Nipun
Nitin
Nomita
Ojasvi
Pallav
Paras
Paritosh
Paritosh
Parth
Peeyush
Phuspha
Pitashri
Piyush
Pooja
Pooja
Pragya
Prateek
Praveen
Praveen
Praveen
Preksha
Prerana
Priyanka
R
Radhika
Rahul
Rahul
Rajesh
Rakesh
Ramesh
Ramvik
Ranchod
Rasila
Ravi
Ravi
Reenal
Rekha
Richa
Risabh
Ritesh
Ritu
Rizwan
Rohit
Roshan
Roshan
Ruchir
Rupal
Rushik
Sachidanand
Sachin
Saikat
Salini
Saloni
Santosh
Santosh
Saroj
Saurabh
Saurabh
Sayam
Seema
Senthil
Shanti
Sharayu
Sharddha
Shibani
Shilpa
Shripal
Shrutika
Shubhra
Soumya
Sridhar
Srini
Sudha
Sumita
Sunil
Sunitha
Sunitha
Sunny
Supriya
Swami
Swami
Swapnil
Swarna
Sweety
Taslim
Tejasvni
Trishla
Tulip
Ujjaval
Umang
Upasana
Vaibhav
Vaibhav
Vaishali
Venkat
Vijay
Vikas
Vikas
Vinod
Vipul
Viral
vishal
vivek
Yatin

The times when people are working hard day & night, the times when market is witnessing a sharp falls & the times when future seems so grim we, the SaaS group decided to go in for some relaxing mantra.

The kind of trip which we will bring in ease & new spirit within the team. There are people coming & going in every team, but it should not affect the spirit of ours & the motto of the organization.

So after thinking over many options, Mandwa beach was finally selected to go in for. The organizing team got into their thinking shoes & the entire action items were prepared.

On 13th December morning the trip started off. Though the journey was of 3.5 hours long but it did not seemed like as they were all cheering & chattering going along the way. There was no TM, no PL, no TL, and no GL; there was the team, the team SaaS.

After having a brief rest & snacks at the resort, the troops marched on to mean their business, to enjoy as a combat unit. We all went to the beach, played water sports, jumped in & out of the floating waves, along was going the photo shoots with the splash of life in the water.

Then we all had a delicious lunch, followed by some interesting games & truth or dare thus shelving some real self’s out.

Then as the time started to shut off all its light, we packed off all our rejuvenated memories to go back to where it all started. And then even while going back after the entire day’s stretched out at the beach, it couldn’t stop us from the last drops of entertainment & we carried on with drum shards & antakshri.

It marked off the emergence of the team as a whole in every bit of its story, right from the coordination team planning out the nitty – gritties of the trip, to the chit chats, to the games & a team cheering to end with.

They say you can never make a family out of a team, they say you can never be personal but only professionals. They may be true, but exceptions & possibilities of life are boundless. And this just may be one of them.

—————-

ઘણા હાથ એક જ થાળીમાં,
ને બધા બેસે એક જ પાટલીમાં,
જન્મદીને ઘણી શુભકામનાઓ,
એક ઝઘડામા ઘણા આંસુ,
એટલે જ દોસ્તી છે જીવનનું સૌથી સારું પાસું!

—————–

દૂરથી પણ વેદના જાણે એ દોસ્ત,
ગમ હટાવી મુસ્કાન લાવે એ દોસ્ત,
જીંદગી તો મરતાં જ સાથ છોડી દે,
પણ જીંદગીથી વધુ સાથ નિભાવે એ દોસ્ત!

————
કંઈક અલગ તમારી એ રીત મને ગમે છે,
તમે કરો છો એ તરકીબ મને ગમે છે,
મિત્રો તો છે કેટલાય પણ,
તમે નિભાવો છો એ દોસ્તીની રીત મને ગમે છે!

———

દોસ્ત થઈને પણ તમે દૂર ભાગો છો,અરે! અમને કેવું લાગશે એવું ક્યાં વિચારો છો?
ખાસ મિત્રો બધા જ જાય છે દૂર અમારાથી,જુના ભુલવા ને નવા બનાવવા એ સેહલી વાત નથી.
દૂર જઈને પણ નજીક રહેજો,અમને યાદ રાખજો ને ખુદ યાદ રે’જો.
જો દોસ્તી પાક્કી હશે તો રે’શે કાયમ,અને નહી થાય દૂર રહ્યાનો ગમ.

————–

દોસ્તી એ દુનિયાની એવી ખુશી છે કે જેની જરૂરિયાત સૌ કોઇને હોય છે.મિત્ર વિનાનું જીવન કદાચ અધૂરૂં લાગશે!
સારો દોસ્ત હોય તો હૈયું ભર્યું ભર્યું લાગે છે,અને દરેક દિવસ મિત્ર સાથે એક મહોત્સવ લાગે છે!
દોસ્તીમાં પ્રેમ,આનંદ,મસ્તી ને મોજ હોય…કારણકે એમાં બે હૈયાનો મેળાપ ને મીઠો સંબંધ હોય!

For more visit http://wegujarati.blogspot.com

–”Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday” (Tina – age 7)

–”My mommy loves me more than anybody. You don’t see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.” (Clare – Age 5)

–”When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You know that your name is safe in their mouth.” (Billy – age 4)

–”When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time,
even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love” (Rebecca – age 8 )

–”Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.” (Chrissy – age 6 )

–”Love is what makes you smile when you’re tired.” (Terri – age 4 )

–”Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.” (Danny – age 7)

–”Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.” (Tommy – age 6 )

–”During my piano recital, I was on a stage and scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn’t scared anymore. That’s love” (Cindy age

–”Love is when mommy gives daddy the best piece of chicken.” (Elaine – age 5)

–”Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.” (Mary Ann – age 4 )

Love………… is not only made for lovers……. its also for friends who luv each other sometimes better than a lover