The Last Question by Isaac Asimov © 1956

The last question was asked for the first time, half in jest, on May 21, 2061, at a time when humanity first stepped into the light. The question came about as a result of a five dollar bet over highballs, and it happened this way:

KAROLY TAKACS-The man with the Unshakable spirit.

Karoly Takacs. You’ve probably never heard of him. However, in Hungary, he’s a national hero – everybody there knows his name and his incredible story.After reading his story, you’ll never forget him…

In 1938, Karoly Takacs of the Hungarian Army, was the top pistol shooter in the world. He was expected to win the gold in the 1940 Olympic Games scheduled for Tokyo.
Those expectations vanished one terrible day just months before the Olympics. While training with his army squad, a hand grenade exploded in Takacs’ right hand, and Takacs’ shooting hand was blown off.
Takacs spent a month in the hospital depressed at both the loss of his hand, and the end to his Olympic dream. At that point most people would have quit. And they would have probably spent the rest of their life feeling sorry for themselves. Most people would have quit but not Takacs. Takacs was a winner. Winners know that they can’t let circumstances keep them down. They understand that life is hard and that they can’t let life beat them down. Winners know in their heart that quitting is not an option.
Takacs did the unthinkable; he picked himself up, dusted himself off, and decided to learn how to shoot with his left hand! His reasoning was simple. He simply asked himself, “Why not?”
Instead of focusing on what he didn’t have – a world class right shooting hand, he decided to focus on what he did have – incredible mental toughness, and a healthy left hand that with time, could be developed to shoot like a champion.
For months Takacs practiced by himself. No one knew what he was doing. Maybe he didn’t want to subject himself to people who most certainly would have discouraged him from his rekindled dream.
In the spring of 1939 he showed up at the Hungarian National Pistol Shooting Championship. Other shooters approached Takacs to give him their condolences and to congratulate him on having the strength to come watch them shoot. They were surprised when he said, “I didn’t come to watch, I came to compete.” They were even more surprised when Takacs won!

The 1940 and 1944 Olympics were cancelled because of World War II. It looked like Takacs’ Olympic Dream would never have a chance to realize itself. But Takacs kept training and in 1948 he qualified for the London Olympics. At the age of 38, Takacs won the Gold Medal and set a new world record in pistol shooting. Four years later, Takacs won the Gold Medal again at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Takacs – a man with the mental toughness to bounce back from anything.
Winners in every field have a special trait that helps them become unstoppable. A special characteristic that allows them to survive major setbacks on the road to success. Winners recover QUICKLY. Bouncing back is not enough. Winners bounce back QUICKLY. They take their hit, they experience their setback, they have the wind taken out of their sails, but they immediately recover. Right away they FORCE themselves to look at the bright side of things – ANY bright side, and they say to themselves, “That’s OK. There is always a way. I will find a way.” They dust themselves off, and pick up where they left off.
The reason quick recovery is important is that if you recover quickly, you don’t lose your momentum and your drive. Takacs recovered in only one month. If he had wallowed in his misery, if he had stayed “under the circumstances,” if he had played the martyr, and felt sorry for himself much longer, he would have lost his mental edge – his “eye of the tiger” and he never would have been able to come back.
When a boxer gets knocked down, he has ten seconds to get back up. If he gets up in eleven seconds, he loses the fight. Remember that next time you get knocked down.

Takacs definitely had a right to feel sorry for himself. He had a right to stay depressed and to ask himself “Why me?” for the rest of his life. He had the right to act like a mediocre man.
Takacs could have let his terrible accident cause him to become permanently discouraged, to take up heavy drinking, to quit on life alltogether, and maybeeven to end his own life. He could have acted like a loser.
But Takacs made the DECISION to dig deep inside and to find a solution. To pick himself up and to learn to shoot all over again. Winners always search for a solution. Losers always search for an escape.

This is THE most inspirational story of persistence that I have ever come across.

Source: Olympic Motivation

  

Sun

The Beginning after the end : What happened To Harry Potter and Co.

My friend Mayuri Kingre is an ardent harry potter fan.This post is hence dedicated to her on her Birthday

1. Harry married Ginny Weasley. They had three children: James Sirius, Albus Severus, and Lily Luna.

2. Kingsley Shacklebolt became Minister for Magic.

JK Rowling:

“Kingsley became permanent Minister for Magic, and naturally he wanted Harry to head up his new Auror department… The Ministry of Magic was de-corrupted, and with Kingsley at the helm the discrimination that was always latent there was eradicated. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny et al would of course play a significant part in the re-building of wizarding society through their future careers.”

3. Hermione and Ron married and had two children, Hugo and Rose.

4. Draco Malfoy married Astoria Greengrass, the younger sister of Daphne. They had one son, Scorpius Hyperion.

5. After the death of his parents, Teddy Lupin was raised by his grandmother Andromeda.

JK Rowling:

“Unlike Neville Longbottom, who was also raised by his grandmother, Teddy had his godfather, Harry, and all his father’s friends in the Order, to visit and stay with.”

6. George Weasley married his Quidditch teammate Angelina Johnson. They had two children, Fred and Roxanne.

7. Harry, and eventually Ron, joined the Auror Department at the Ministry of Magic. Hermione became a high-ranking official in the Department Magical Law Enforcement.

JK Rowling:

” Harry and Ron utterly revolutionized the Auror Department at the Ministry of Magic… Hermione began her post-Hogwarts career at the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures where she was instrumental in greatly improving life for house-elves and their ilk. She then moved (despite her jibe to Scrimgeour) to the Deptartment of Magical Law Enforcement where she was a progressive voice who ensured the eradication of oppressive, pro-pureblood laws.”

8. Bill and Fleur Weasley’s first child, a daughter, was They named her “Victoire,” which means “victory” in French.

9. Dementors were no longer used by the Ministry of Magic.

JK Rowling:

“The use of Dementors was always a mark of the underlying corruption of the Ministry, as Dumbledore constantly maintained.”

10. Ginny Weasley became a professional Quidditch player for a few years, then retired to become a Quidditch correspondent for the Daily Prophet.

JK Rowling:

“After a few years as a celebrated player for the Holyhead Harpies, Ginny retired to have her family and to become the Senior Quidditch correspondent at the Daily Prophet.”

11. Harry and Dudley made a point to see each other and get their families together as adults.

JK Rowling:

“Harry and Dudley would still see each other enough to be on Christmas-card terms, but they would visit more out of a sense of duty and sit in silence so that their children could see their cousins.”

12. Percy Weasley became an official in the new Ministry of Magic under Kingsley Shacklebolt and married a woman named Audrey. They had two daughters, Molly and Lucy.

13. Bill and Fleur Weasley had three children: Victoire, Louis, and Dominique.

14. Hermione went back to Hogwarts to complete her seventh year of study and her N.E.W.T.S. Harry and Ron did not.

JK Rowling:

“She would definitely, definitely go back. And she would want to graduate, and I think that she was- I mean,I love Hermione. She went with Ron and Harry because she has a really good heart. That’s not about brain. Ultimately, she had a bigger heart than she had a brain and that’s saying something for Hermione. But did she- Was she naturally drawn to battle? No, she wasn’t. She’s not a Bellatrix. She’s not a woman who actually wants to be hurting, fighting, killing. Not at all. She would be glad to go back to school, be glad to get back to study, and then would join [Harry and Ron] at the Ministry.”

15. Mr. Weasley eventually fixed Sirius Black’s motorcycle and gave it to Harry.

16. Luna Lovegood married Rolf Scamander, the grandson of naturalist Newt Scamander. They hadtwo children, twin boys named Lorcan and Lysander.

17. Minerva McGonagall became headmistress of Hogwarts.

JK Rowling:

“Nineteen years after the Battle of Hogwarts, the school for witchcraft and wizardry is led by an entirely new headmaster. McGonagall was really getting on a bit.”

18. Harry ensured that Severus Snape’s portrait was restored to its proper place in the Hogwarts headmaster’s office.

JK Rowling:

“[The absence of Snape’s portrait in the final scene of Deathly Hallows] was deliberate. Snape had effectively abandoned his post before dying, so he had not merited inclusion in these august circles. However, I like to think that Harry would be instrumental in ensuring that Snape’s portrait would appear there in due course… Harry would ensure that Snape’s heroism was known.”

19. Alice and Frank Longbottom never recovered — they lived out their lives in St. Mungo’s.

JK Rowling:

“I know people really wanted some hope for that, and I can quite see why because, in a way, what happens to Neville’s parents is even worse than what happened to Harry’s parents. The damage that is done, in some cases with very dark magic, is done permanently.”

20. Harry lost the ability to speak to snakes when the Horcrux inside him was destroyed.

J.K. Rowling:

“He loses the ability, and is very glad to do so.”

21. Firenze was eventually welcomed back into the centaur herd.

JK Rowling:

“The rest of the herd was forced to acknowledge that Firenze’s pro-human leanings were not shameful, but honourable.”

22. Cho Chang married a Muggle.

23. Teddy Lupin and Victoire Weasley became boyfriend and girlfriend.

24. Gilderoy Lockhart never recovered from the injuries he sustained in the Chamber of Secrets.

JK Rowling:

“Nor would I want him to. He’s happy where he is, and I’m happier without him!”

25. Neville Longbottom became the Hogwarts Herbology professor. He married Hannah Abbott, who became the new landlady at The Leaky Cauldron.

JK Rowling:

“To make him extra cool he marries the woman who becomes, eventually, the new landlady at The Leaky Cauldron, which I think would make him very cool among the students, that he lives above the pub. He marries Hannah Abbott.”

26. Dolores Umbridge was arrested, interrogated, and imprisoned for crimes against Muggle-borns.

27. Harry and Ginny’s children stole the Marauder’s Map and snuck it into Hogwarts.

JK Rowling:

“I’ve got a feeling [Harry] didn’t give [the Marauder’s Map] to any of [his children], but that James sneaked it out of his father’s desk one day.”

28. Harry, Ron, and Hermione became memorialized in Chocolate Frog cards.

JK Rowling:

“Ron will describe this as his finest hour.”

BONUS: JK Rowling’s hand-drawn family tree.

Harry Potter: The Second Generation

Top Row: James Sirius Potter, Victoire Weasley, Teddy Lupin, Dominique Weasley, Molly Weasley, Fred Weasley, Roxanne Weasley.
Bottom Row: Scorpius Malfoy, Albus Potter, Rose Weasley, Lorcan Scamander, Lysander Scamander, Louis Weasley, Lucy Weasley, Lily Luna Potter, Hugo Weasley.

How Recruiting is done :D ! Epic !

Orginally Written by : Avinash Kumar

Sharing with you people a nice story with a twist :

One day while walking downtown, a Human Resources woman was hit by a bus and was tragically killed. Her soul arrived up in heaven where she was met at the Pearly Gates St. Peter himself.
"Welcome to Heaven," said St.Peter. "Before you get settled in though, it seems we have a problem. You see, strangely enough, we've never once had an HR manager make it this far and we're not really sure what to with you."