SIDHUISM

ENJOY.............................

1.Bad habits are like comfy beds - easy to get into, very difficult to get out of.

2. You aren't rewarded for having brains, you're rewarded for using them.

3. A lemon squeezed too hard yields a bitter juice.

4. Hope is putting faith to work when doubting would be easier.

5. Curry is a worry.

6. Liquor talks mighty loud when it's let loose from the jug.

7. To achieve, you have to believe.

8. Success is the fruit of concentration.

9. Strike when the iron is hot, and make the iron hot by striking.

10. Strength grows in the garden of patience.

11. Gamblers are like toilets - broke one day, flush the next.

12. If you dine with the devil, use a long spoon.

13. Your originality is your strength.

14. If you enjoy a particular thing, you will always succeed at it.

15. The bill was buzzing past the head like a bumblebee breaking wind.

16. Winning is not important, but wanting to win is.

17. When you are submerged up to your ears in trouble, try using the part that isn't submerged.

18. Faith in your abilities will help you face the music, even if you don't like the tune.

19. Even a turtle won't move until he sticks his neck out.

20. The doghouse is no place to keep a sausage.

21. Penny and penny will make many.

22. Every dog is a lion at his own door.

23. Even a cock crows over his own dung heap.

24. A good lather is half the shave.

25. Disappointments need to be cremated, not embalmed.

26. Those openers are like nappies, and changed for the same reason.

27. A tree is always known by its fruit.

28. The blood of the soldier gives glory to the general.

29. Troubles are like babies - the more you nurse them, the bigger they grow.

30. The first blow is half the battle.

31. A recession is where you have to tighten your belt.

32. A depression is where you have no belt to tighten.

33. When you have no pants to hold up, it is time to panic.

34. Next to good judgment, diamonds and pearls are the next rarest thing.

35. When everything is coming your way, you might just be in the wrong lane of traffic.

36. It is choice, not chance that determines destiny.

37. Fine feathers make a fine bird.

38. Flattery is like chewing gum, you chew it for a while, don't swallow it - and after a while, spit it out!

39. Every time a lamb bleats, it loses a mouthful of hay.

40. You may have a heart of gold, but so does a hard-boiled egg.

41. Judge people by their performance, not by their intentions.

42. A true professional is like a chameleon - he will change colour to suit his surroundings.

43. Easy to criticize an egg, difficult to lay one.

44. Keep feeding your faith until your doubts starves to death.

45. Experience is the thing you get right after you need it.

46. When you're running with the big dogs, you can't piddle like a puppy.

47. They are like brooding hens on top of a china egg.

48. It is better to pluck the fruit from the tree than wait for it to fall.

49. You've got to put the saddle on the right horse.

50. Big boast, small roast.

Kazakhstan's famous '130-year-old'

By Rayhan Demytrie
BBC News, Karaganda, Kazakhstan


Local media is satisfied Sohan Dosova is the oldest woman in Kazakhstan
"Do you remember Tsar Nikolai's era? When the Red Army came and when Vladimir Lenin died? Well I do. So take a guess how old I am."

Meet Sohan Dosova - the newly found treasure of Kazakhstan. She is 130 years old, at least she is according to her documents.

The Soviet passport issued in the early 1980s states that Sohan Dosova was born in the Karaganda region on 27 March 1879.

Now after a new national census in Kazakhstan, she has been "rediscovered" .

"This is a truly unique case," says Ludmila Kolesova, the head of Karaganda region statistics agency.

"According to international standards we do not usually seek proof of ID when collecting census data, but when it came to Sohan Dosova we had to check her documents and verify this information with the social services department. They confirmed her date of birth."

Tea with butter

Sohan Dosova can still walk, albeit with great care, assisted by a walking stick.

She eats slowly, and her favourite snack is bread soaked in tea. Sohan chews her food with a single remaining tooth.


Sohan says she can no longer dance, but she enjoys singing
"My secret is to add butter to my cup of tea; this is how Kazakhs like their tea," says Sohan, speaking a mixture of Kazakh and Russian.

She can still see, but has hearing problems, so most of the communication is done via her granddaughters - and there is no shortage of them.

Sohan had 10 children, and three of them are still alive. Her son had seven children. One of two daughters had six children, and the other, 22.

"There is a small tribe of great-grandchildren ," says 53-year-old Gulgoim, her eldest granddaughter. But when pressed, Gulgoim was unable to say just how many.

Sohan Dosova has lived her entire life in Aul, a village in the central Karaganda region, the industrial heart of the country.

Most of the population work in the coal mining industry. Semipalatinsk, the first Soviet nuclear test site, is nearby.

Some of Sohan's grandchildren are mentally ill. They are among thousands believed to have been victims of Soviet nuclear experiments.

But Sohan has stayed healthy.

"She is in good shape, alert and active," says Valentina Shamardina, a family doctor with 40 years experience.

"In my whole career I never came across cases like this. When I first arrived to do a check-up I demanded to see her passport and it all looked correct.

"I've never heard of anyone living that long."

Frequent visitors

If Mrs Dosova really is 130 years old, that would make her the oldest person in the world. But if she ever had a birth certificate, it no longer exists.


A Soviet passport issued in the early 1980s makes Sohan Dosova 130
In fact few rural Kazakhs born in those days are likely to have been registered. It was common for people to make up their date of birth.

Her true age is simply impossible to establish. But the local media is satisfied she's the oldest woman in Kazakhstan.

Since the results of the census were made public, journalists have become frequent visitors to Sohan's fifth floor apartment.

"This place is small, I need a bigger flat," says Sohan. "There are too many people living in this crowded apartment, there is not enough room."

Certainly her family appear to be hopeful that all the media attention might result in an improvement to Sohan's living conditions.

But up to now, no benefactor has been forthcoming. So Sohan continues to live a simple existence in her old age, watching television, laughing and smiling.

Her granddaughter Nuken claims she loves dancing, but Sohan says she is too old for that now.

"I can't dance, my knees hurt... But I can sing." And so she gives a gruff rendition of her favourite Kazakh song.