What are some characteristics of successful people?

1.)
Mr. Smith, when asked once about the secret to his success, vehemently stated that it had very little to do with talent. 

"You might have more talent than me, you might be smarter than me, you might be sexier than me, you might be all of those things you got it on me in nine categories. But if we get on the treadmill together, there’s two things: You’re getting off first, or I’m going to die. It’s really that simple, right?”

2.)
"The moment you realize that everything in the world around you was built by people who were no smarter than you, you become an element of change yourself...you can change anything"

---Steve Jobs.

3.)
"Some people think that if their opponent plays a beautiful game, it’s OK to lose. I don’t. You have to be merciless."

---Magnus Carlsen.

4.) 
"I start early, and I stay late, day after day, year after year, it took me 17 years and 114 days to become an overnight success."

---Messi.

5.) 
"I never took a day off in my twenties. Not one."

---Bill Gates.

Who is the most intelligent/ learned Indian ever?

Akrit Jaswal: the seven-year-old surgeon!

Jaswal's appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show

• Born in 1993, he has an estimated IQ of 146.

• At a very young age, he began to illustrate his unusually high intelligence level. He could speak by the time he was ten months old, and he could also read and write at the age of two.

• When he was five years old, he used to read Shakespeare and medical books.

• He performed his first surgery at the age of seven. He never attended any medical school, but yet is known as a physician. When he met an 8-year-old girl whose fingers had been burnt as a baby and fused together, he performed an operation to separate her fingers.

• Jaswal was accepted into Chandigarh College when he was twelve years old, making him the youngest person to ever get into a university in India.

What's the best gift parents can give to their children?

An email id:

The best gift a parent can give their child is an email id. Create an email id in your child's name, keep sending mails on a regular basis praising them on their small accomplishments they have made, let it be the 1st time they went to school or the time when they won a prize in drawing. Capture these beautiful moments and mail it to them with images, write through your heart, write what ever you want to tell the adult them. On their 18th birthday, give them the email id and password. :)

Imagine the happiness in their face while going through those mails! Priceless!

I am an Indian and I want to travel the world, should I start my journey from India or abroad?

Start from India.

• Shouldn't you explore Kashmir

before visiting Switzerland?

• Shouldn't you explore Andaman & Nicobar

 before visiting Mauritius?

• Shouldn't you explore Kutch

before visiting Salar de Uyuni?

• Shouldn't you explore Coorg

before visiting Scotland?

• Shouldn't you explore Goa

Before visiting Thailand?

• Shouldn't you explore Kerala

before visiting Venice?

• Shouldn't you explore Sikkim

before exploring Iceland?

• Shouldn't you explore Hampi

before visiting Bagan?

• Shouldn't you explore the tulip gardens of Srinagar before Netherlands?

• You don’t need to go to the hills of Alaska to ski when you can have it in Auli of Uttarakhand.
  
  

• The allure of Valley of Flowers in Uttarakhand is in the same league as that of Antelope Valley in USA.
  
  

• India Gate in Delhi and Arc de Triomphe in France, do look identical, don’t they?
  
  

• Qutub Minar in Delhi and Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy.

• The marvelous Jal Mahal in Jaipur and the Trakai Castle of Lithuania.
  
  

• Thar Desert in Jaisalmer and Sahara Desert in Morocco share the same folklores.
  
  

• Chitrakoot Falls in Chhattisgarh and Niagara Falls.
  
  

• India’s very own Big Ben – Rajabai Tower of Mumbai
  
  

• Gandikota Hills in Andhra Pradesh and Grand Canyon.
  
  

• Tea leaves at Munnar in Kerala and Boh Tea Plantation in Malaysia will be equally fragrant.
  
  

Yes, every place has its own charm which can't be replicated or substituted. But as an Indian, it would make little sense to travel to other countries before exploring your own country.

P.S  It was not intended to compare places or to show that one place is at par with another. Even though the motive was to show similarity, some examples fail miserably. The basic idea was to imply that if you are an Indian citizen setting off for world travel, India is the best place to start.

What are some cool facts about the Universe?

If you distribute the time from the Big Bang to the present in a single year then-

January 1st -The Big Bang occurred. 
January 10th -The first Star was born.
January 13th - First small galaxy.
March 15th - The Milky way formed but not the Sun.
August 31st - The Sun was born (4.5 billion years ago)
The Earth was born from a disk of gas and dust orbiting the new born Sun. Repeated collisions produced a glowing ball.The  Earth was quite unstable in the beginning. But

Sept 21st - Life began (3.5 billion years ago)

November 9th - Life was Breathing, Moving, Eating. We owe a lot to those early microbes. They invented SEX or Sexual reproduction.

December 17th - Life came from water to land.
December 28th - The first flower blossomed.

6:24 am December 30th - An asteroid hit earth and wiped out Dinosaurs that could endanger the survival of Homo sapiens on earth (60 million years ago)
For the first time in the history of the universe the conditions were just good enough for Humans.

11:59:46 pm December 31st - All of the recorded history occupies these last 14 seconds. We learned how to cultivate crops,taming animals, Astronomy, Mathematics,Paintings.About 13 seconds ago we invented writing.
Moses was born 7 seconds ago.
Buddha - 6 seconds ago.
Jesus - 5 seconds ago.
Muhammad - 3 seconds ago.

A second ago we discovered that Earth is not the centre of the universe
And just when that second was about to finish we reached the Moon.
Voyager 1 crossed our solar system.We discovered that our universe started with Big Bang (January 1st).

Every person you have ever heard of, met, loved, hated and  kissed lives in those 14 seconds.

Reference :  
Cosmos- A space time Odyssey
by  Neil deGrasse Tyson