SMART ADvice

VALUE ADDED.........?     A funeral was taking place in a certain village, the homestead was filled. Time came for the eulogy to be read, suddenly five other mourners came and started wailing loudly, "Okai, our son, ooh! Okai." Everybody was staring at them in amusement. As the mourners approached the casket, they saw a picture of a lady known as Masha and not that of a man named Okai.     The mourners were hired to mourn the said man who was said to be a thief in the next village, nobody wanted to attend his funeral so the family had to hire the mourners.     When my friend and I heard of the death of our former first lady, we started analyzing who and how many people will mourn us when we die. Will dignitaries send condolences to our families? Will it be breaking news to the world, to the country or to narrow the scope the village? Well to me it doesn't really matter, so long as I will have genuine mourners, even if they are a h...

THE GOODNESS OF BEING LEFT ALONE     I am an introvert and proud to be.  I always enjoy being alone but at least nowadays I also try to be around people. Some people rarely have the "me" time, they are always busy around other people enquiring what goes on in other people's lives.Of course, it is good to know how they are faring but do we take time to know how we ourselves are faring?       some people suggest that when they are alone, they are bored. I have never had such an experience. When am alone I get the chance to reflect on many things, to imagine, to meditate, to listen to my inner voices, to think things out,  to visualise my future at the present. It is a magical moment for me.    People say introverts are shy, they are snobs, are anti-social, it is even said that we hate people but I call all these myths. I love people, I gain so much from them, am not a snob neither am I anti-social, am just selectively social...

FINDING YOUR OWN WAY     It is easy to get lost especially in places not familiar to us. I recently got lost. I was going to this little known organisation and the google map gave me the directions and my journey started. I alighted where I was to and followed the directions I was given ,I kept walking looking at the signs and surveying the buildings but I never saw where I was heading to.  I rarely ask unknown people for directions. So I decided to walk on even if it took the whole day, I was determined to find my own way. But I got tired and just when I was about to resign, the building I was searching for popped up from nowhere, what a relief it was.   As I was walking searching for the place, I learnt of  so many other places and so many things. Sometimes we don't really have to seek for assistance from others, we only need to acknowledge that "we can" and in the process of doing it ourselves. we learn so much than when we could have asked other peo...

BEING IGNORED     When some people ignore us we feel bad, but when others do so, we have no problem. Recently  as I was walking around and I happen to come across someone I knew, I always know when someone wants to ignore me and so I also pretend that I've not seen them, this particular person struggled really hard to look at the other side as I drew closer. It was as if I owed him something and he was not in a position to pay my "debt" at that particular moment. It is true sometimes we just don't feel like saying hi to people but why pretend not to have seen them when we know very well that we have seen them and we know that they have noticed that we have seen them? It gets weird when we try hard by pretending we are on our phones or when we look aside. It is not law that we must greet them, we can just pass and give them a nod, it's smart that way.       At times we ignore people genuinely, but they don't understand. I sometimes have so mu...

THE BIGGEST LOSS     People incur losses everyday. There was this widow who had all her lifetime savings invested on the real estate business, she went and brought a piece of land and quickly started building. The flat had over fifty houses. The woman was sure to earn good money, her children were to go to nice schools and have a good life. But even before she could get tenants, the land on which her land was was said to be the property of the Kenya Building Society, and they were in the process of continuing building phase five of the estate adjacent to the land. The women did everything she could to fight the order to have her building demolished but one day she woke up to find all her life savings gone.     The woman fainted, never to revive again.  People incur great loss over fire, accidents and such and recently some people threatened to commit suicide when Chase Bank was put under receivership.       A while ago my mother lost a ver...

CALLS FOR COURTESY      I get into this office, the secretary is busy typing something while speaking on the phone. I wait, after says done she asks me why am standing. well etiquette suggests that I should not sit until when  told to. Another guy comes along, gets in the office, spinning the lollipop in his mouth, this made him look like a clown. Without even greeting the secretary, he asks if he can see the boss, the secretary tells him he cant see him with his lollipop. As I walked out of the office, I noticed that I had forgotten to shut the door behind.      Back at home many of us forget to tell our mothers thank you for a hearty meal, we tend to think it's monotonous, but it's a very important gesture.  Some people do things and we give them the "seriously" kind of look but they seem not to be aware of it. One of such is when our friends come in our houses and they start touching everything, they want to get into your phone,...

 THE THIEF OF TIME     I always find it hard to begin a task, be it reading a book, adapting to new environments, doing the assignment  and such. But once I begin, everything falls into place. Procrastination can really cost you later. It makes you think you will have more hours for tomorrow but as you will learn, it makes your tomorrow shorter.     procrastination makes your work look like a garbage heap which you will have to work on it before it starts producing the stench. It makes simple work harder. The main reason why most of us procrastinate is usually because we are busy doing nothing.  Procrastination makes us average, we pile our work then we get into the last minute rush. We do so many things in a little time and end up not doing it the best way we could.   The best way to avoid it is by working under pressure, find somebody who can be pressuring you to be doing something  but if you are responsible en...

VALUABLE VALUES     If you want to know the value of oral communication, come to me. If you want to know the value of sight go to the blind. If you want to know the value of cars, go to those who walk. People rarely appreciate what they have and the people in their lives.      This is a valuable value I learnt from my mother. Back in school, when we were sent home to collect subsidiary fees, many parents would complain saying teachers were extorting money from them and feeding on it.      "No problem if they eat and do a good job," she would say and give me the money without murmuring and I would be  back in school. At the end of every school term, I would go to school with a present for my teacher. As a result my grades kept going up. Appreciation motivates people to do and become better. People who are rarely appreciated for doing good end up doing wrong things, just like in the case of house girls mistreating children. Just like...

TECH SHAME     It's good to be conscious of where you are going and by what means you are getting to your destination. I recently experienced an embarrassing situation due to ignorance.      I was tired, I crossed the road of this busy street, almost got ran over. I didn't want to go further so the first matatu that came along, I was in. I sat on the nearest available seat. Next to me was a man probably in his late seventies, he was the talkative type. He asked me if I was going the same destination with him, I nodded in agreement, he kept giving me this curious look, as he was about to make further inquiries, the screen was on and loud sounds emanated from the speakers, at first, this came as a relief but it wasn't. The song being played was full of obscene language and equally obscene visual images, the first time I looked at the screen I literally went blind for some minutes. I vowed to be blind throughout the journey but my old friend would not let me....

FRIENDS     Friends are valuable people, but only if you know who your real friends are. Some friends come and go others are for a lifetime. Right now everybody seems to be happy for the deputy president even those who were secretly wishing that his case doesn't collapse. They crowd around him putting on mechanical smiles and laughs. Many people will tend to pretend to be our friends because they gain something from us, of course, friends are to add value to us but, if they can't stand our weaknesses and be there when we need them most, they become something else, not friends.      Am not going to expound on who friends are. I am also a friend to someone when we complain about our friends, do we stop and think first about that. Do we believe we are the best friends of our friends or do we complain just because of complaining. I have been observing and actually in most cases the things people complain about their friends are the same things that the...

 DEALING WITH INADEQUACY      A father surprised  his son with a new  bicycle. The son  never new  how to ride one  but he was more than determined to learn. The father taught his son and soon the son was able to ride but not so well. The father then took his son on a rather steep hill. The father took two of  his friends along. He wanted to show off his son's mastery riding skills to his friends.     He then instructed his son to ride up the hill. The boy was used to smooth terrains only  and he seemed a little bit confused. As the son was about to start his journey up, he stopped and started thinking,   "This hill is so steep, what if I fail my father, what if I fall and hurt myself, what if I fall and my friends come and laugh at me?"   His father came and whispered, "Look at the hill clearly, its not that steep, your mind is just teasing you." The son jerked and took one look at the hill, breathed in and...

THIS IS MY STORY We all have those moments we would rather forget. The moments that come to mind and fill you with emotions which in turn cause the tear glands to respond. We try hard to block the tears but the harder we try the more the tears come.  Losing a loved one or seeing a loved one in deep pain are one of those moments. So much goes on in your mind at that hour makes you feel you want to escape to your unknown world and forget about the pain and suffering. There is only one place that guarantees such, at HIS side.

THINK LIKE A CHILD, REASON LIKE AN ADULT     A friend recently come complaining that her boyfriend was addicted to the PlayStation. I tried to console her by telling her that boys will always be boys but she seemed more irritated and walked away. Too bad, I guess am not good at consoling.      We have numerous such men, I recently bumped into two others who were busy playing Fifa and they were not small boys. They were so loud, one stood and jumped up, took his phone, a smart phone for that matter and almost banged it down. Us ladies will quickly describe such actions as childish. But men are said to be adventurous. Have you ever asked yourself why men are the majority when it comes to inventions?      Men see through the impossible just like little children , who know everything is possible. They will climb up the most dangerous of places with no worry of any danger. They will make food out of sand knowing nothing bad will happen t...

THE TWO SIDES OF INTELLIGENCE (2)     “Which of the two foolish dogs did this?”    “Mum, I am the one who did it,” her own daughter answered. The woman was lost for words. Looking into the mirror may be praying, spending time with people who accept you for who you are, reading the bible or doing anything constructive that gives you fulfillment in life. Knowing who you are by God’s guidance, you are less likely to offend others by being yourself since He will be constantly changing you to be a better person. When I look in the mirror I see my own reflection.  I believe that there are two types of stupidity, the intelligent kind of stupidity and the foolish kind of stupidity. With the former one believes in something that others would just laugh it off as sheer stupidity but nevertheless, they pursue it to the end no matter what is said of them, in the end they achieve what has never been achieved since they knew who they were and were not persuade...

THE TWO SIDES OF INTELLIGENCE (1)     Once there was a woman with three daughters, two of the girls were not her own.  . As is expected the woman loved her own daughter the more and kept on belittling the other two daughters. The mother would assign various chores to the three girls and when they were done, the woman would give her daughter’s work a thumbs up regardless of how it was done and she would go ahead and heap on unnecessary praises on her. To the other two girls, she would disapprove of their efforts even if they did better than her own daughter. She would then hail all sorts of insults at them. Pig, foolish,  and other words not printable fell on the two girls’ ears. The first girl would go and curl herself at a corner and start crying, pitying herself knowing that she was what was said of her. The second girl would go to her room and look at herself in the mirror. She then started analyzing herself. She knew that if God saw a pig in her, He would ha...

BEST OF FOOLS DAY     Some pranks are real, others are just dumb. One of the real pranks that has never escaped my mind was the one which a man bought a newspaper early in the morning while going to work, then as he was going through it later in the office on the obituaries, he found his photograph in that section with further explanations how he died. He was more than shocked until he was told it was fools day. He had a hard day picking calls and explaining.      Safaricom also fooled its customers when it announced that it will launch a luxuries shuttle for Nairobi where one could okoa a ride. A food store like Kenchick could also have come up with an "okoa tumbo" prank too. I think also Jay Jay Okocha being Harambee stars coach is a hoax, though I am yet to prove it.       Some pranks are extremely bad, a son decides to pull a prank on his mother. He asks a friend to use his phone to call his mother and tell her that he just got ran...