Thought for the day seven

Some people’s advice will only add vice to your life

Advice and add vice... a clever way of splitting the word and bringing out a new world of meaning to the broken word.

We find that some people could add fuel to the fire of hatred to the already burning anger. This leads to the worst possible disaster. What is the use of such hatred?

It does not lead us to anywhere. We end up nowhere.

We have seen mothers putting some unsavory thoughts in their daughters’ heads when they come to visit them. They start influencing the daughter to become a rebel in the in-law’s place. The girl who would have come to the new family fold finds her fighting with herself so that she won’t be spoiling a home which is smiling.

The mother forgets for a moment that her daughter is the daughter (of the house to which she is married) by law. The family (especially the girl’s family spends a fortune for the marriage) where she is married to is her own family now. She is like a tree which has been uprooted from one place (the parents) and planted in a new place (In-laws). Generally a plant requires a little time to get adjusted to a new place when it is shifted. But a tree takes a lot of time.

It needs special nurturing. So, when the daughter in law is taking her own time to adjust to the man who suddenly is her husband, his family about whom she would not have known much.

During this time, when she visits her mother, the mother should be helpful to make her feel more secure in her in-law’s place. Instead, if the mother topples the apple cart and poisons daughter’s mind to bring fight between her husband and his parents, it is a sad state of affairs.

Funnily the same mother has another rule for her daughter in law! The poor girl has to listen to her mother in law’s words. The mother won’t even think that her own daughter in law is a daughter of her mother and that mother also could ‘teach’ her daughter some unsavory things. If, the other mother is also like that, it would end up in big battles!!

There is a saying in Hindi, saas bhi kabhi bahu thi, which means even the mother in law was a daughter in law of someone else.

When being daughter in law, if a mother undergoes torture by her mother in law, there would be two types of reactions when the daughter in law becomes a mother in law. Either she will treat her daughter in law as her own daughter or she will harass her as much as possible. Reminds us of the ragging in colleges. The ragged either becomes a ragger or s/he will protect the newcomers.

The best ever example advice becoming a vice is in the epic Ramayana.

King Dasharatha decides to crown the prince Rama. The happiest person is Kaikeyi, even more than Rama’s own mother Kausalya.

She is very happy and shares it with her maidservant Manthara. But she is surprised by Manthara’s stony silence. She is surprised. Why this lady is not happy that Rama is getting the throne?

Manthara teases her. Oh Kaikeyi, you look radiant because Rama is becoming a King? Oh foolish lady! Can’t you see the future? If Rama becomes the King today, his son will naturally get the throne next and then his son’s child. Have you ever thought what will happen to your own son Bharat? He will be a servant to Rama. His son will be servant to Rama’s son.. so on and so forth.

That idea would have never occurred to Kaikeyi if Manthara had not sowed the seed of discontent. This is an advice which added vice to the life of Kaikeyi. She thought her son Bharat would approve of  her action – sending Rama to the forest and demanding Bharat to be made as the King.

Bharat spurns her. He throws her out of his house.

So, where does it leave Kaikeyi? She was a princess, was her husband’s favorite Queen. She ends up very badly.

Any day, cunning advices won’t work for long. Better to shun them away and even the advisors of such advices should follow the suit.

Nostalgic trip

How many times you can enjoy while listening to the songs? I would say umpteen times!!

Tell you what. I went to Mysore with my sisters and my aunt. Wow! The songs which are known as sadaa bahar.. were heard by us.

When it is a Kannada song I and my sisters hummed along with the song. When it was Hindi song my aunt joined the chorus!

It was really fun!

We went nostalgic about our childhood, the songs we heard, the movies we saw.

We did one more thing! While going towards Vontikoppal we saw the area where our house is situated.

We reached the destination. We met some of our close relatives. They were very happy to see us and the happiness was mutual!

When returning from Mysore, we decided to see our house, the house where I lived for 17 long years!

Oh, the road was blocked, there was this gate through we drove. The roads have been made narrow and winding.

We finally reached our house. 99/B.  The three siblings who had their childhood spent in that house stood in front of the house dumbstruck.

The front had a trellis during our living. Now, there is a wall built. We started clicking photos using mobiles and the opposite house lady, a Mallu came out.

Actually, there was an empty space where the Mallu’s house has been built.

It is a Railway Colony. The building stood ugly and imposing in the place where there was a field, where we had played cricket, Jhoot, sharaap, gultoria etc.,

Suddenly the door of ‘our’ house was opened and a ‘nighty’ lady came out. We explained her that it was our house for 17 years.  We wanted to go in.  But being afternoon, somehow did not had the mind to disturb them.

But the visit to that house gave lot of satisfaction.

That too with my sisters, who grew up with me in that house, gave even better boost!

'Rainy Day' in Nizwa

I was talking to my teammates in the afternoon about my driving in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. I took lot of time and attempts to pass out the driving test. I had no mind set to learn at all!

Finally I got the license and started driving.

It was fun in the Capital City. I was traveling for about 100 km every day of the week. Oh, yes, even on Fridays used to go somewhere or the other. The flat where we were staying had a lock for the door on the ground floor,

We all had one key each. On Thursday our returning time to home was almost 2 am! No asker, no teller!

But during 2004 November, when my colleague Mr.  M G Pai went to India, I was asked to take over the Lighting showroom.

I had an assistant Jeevan Prakash. He used to cook for me. We stayed together.

I used to get up early and leave at 8 am in the car towards a place called Ibri. The trunk of the car (Mine was a Mazda 323) would be filled with electric materials ordered by the customers in Ibri.

It was a tedious but fun travel. The tape recorder used to play my favourite Carnatic classical and old Hindi songs. I used to like a few new songs in Hindi as well.

The road would be very lonely but for a few goats and camels. I was strictly warned by my colleagues not to cross path of a camel. If the car hits a camel, it stays hit. There is very little chance of survival of the driver.

The road side had mountains on both sides. Sometimes the road would have many vehicles. It was a single track. The last vehicle would get impatient and try to come to my lane, overtake all the cars on the other side and try to lead the fleet of cars without hitting me! It is actually precision driving I should say!

The places visited were Ibri about 200 km up and down, Izki about 60 km and Sumail about 100 up and down.

Since the city was full of sunshine and there were no signs of rains, I was happy.

One day I was going to Sumail. The sky was quite clear. After talking to two of the customers I retraced my path. Then I found sheets of rains in front of me. I was totally scared. I did not know how to operate the wiper!

I knew that if I press the button in the wiper, there would be some water getting sprayed on the front glass.

I did that and put on the hazard lights, head lights and travelled with my heart in my mouth.

I could not see anything in the front and my speaker was singing Nazar aa rahaa hai saaf yeh… (every thing is been seen clearly)

Anyway, the nightmare was over after a short time.

Well, this is just one incident which I remember always! 

Thought for the day six

Cheerfulness keeps up the spirit of the one who possesses it, and brings a smile to the lips others

The best example for the above is the movie Anand. The hero Anand is with some terminal disease. (Blood cancer!). But that doesn’t deter him from being pleasant to others. The movie keeps us in splits but our eyes will be moist. This is the best medicine for both laughter and pathos.

Dr. D V Gundappa fondly known as DVG has written in the great book of philosophy Manku Timmana Kagga. This book contains suggestions of how to live and how to live happily. One of the gems in this book is the following one. The loose translation says this :

Smiling is natural, make others smile is other dharma, Laughing while listening to laughter is rare dharma, get a boon from God to laugh, to make others laugh and to live smilingly.

So simple to say and very difficult to practice. How many people can make others laugh? Many. But how many people can take a joke on them. Very few. So, making harmless jokes and keeping people in good spirit is an art.

After all, what else we can achieve in this life? Not much. 6 hours would go in sleep. 12 hours in our travel to office/business. Balance 6 hours we need to make up for our family.

Out of 12  hours in office, at least 4 hours would be lost on the road, fighting to reach the office/home among the heavy traffic.

So, what do we do in office? Work. Correct? When we work, why need to be away from every one and feel remorse. The best attitude to wear is the smile. Yes, we keep smiling. It improves the face value.

Somewhere I have read. It takes 39 muscles to scowl, but only 13 muscles to smile.

We come across people whose company we crave for. They stay with us for a few minutes, but make our mood proper, bring smile to our lips and make us forget our tension.

Rajnish, better known as Osho, says it is better to invite troubles with a smile because just because we become tense when there is a problem, the problem won’t get solved or even get mitigated.

I have seen a person. Let me not name him/her. That person lives with such a spirit that it makes that person light headed. I have never seen that person being down and out in any situation. Always keeping the head high and looking at every heavy situation lightly. When that person is around us, we also feel the lightness of the situation. That person’s talk would be so cool and friendly and funny that it brings smile on our lips.

I call that person as an artist, who paints all the situations with light colors. No dark clouds, no dark nights.

We should try to be in good spirits so that our light heartedness should bring smile on others’ lips.

Because a smile is like a drop of water in a desert.

Thought for the day five

Always wear the costume of humility and you will receive the love and cooperation of other

When I was studying engineering in Mysore, I was traveling by train to college. My father worked in Railways. His office was in Ashokpuram. It was the second station from Mysore City Railway Station. I used to get down at Ashokpuram and walk to my college which was about a km from there.

I remember seeing a blueprint on the side of one of the wooden cupboards. It said ‘COURTESY BEGETS COURTESY; POLITENESS PAYS’

Somehow, these words have got etched in my mind. Yes, if we are courteous, the other person is also courteous to us. If we are polite, we may end up in getting done what we want to achieve.

If politeness is the trailer, humility is the pictureJ

Being humble is a very great achievement. We have seen people who ‘act’ humble when they want something from us. There is a saying in Sanskrit Language ‘Ati vinayam dhoortha lakshanam’. This means if someone shows too much of humility, then we can be sure that there is a bad person lurking behind that extra humility.

But the humility of the right amount begets love of others. If not love, at least the cooperation!

When I find an auto driver parking his auto in front of the bus stand, I go to him and say, “If you do not mistake me, I want to say something”

Believe it or not! The driver smiled at me. Ah, the first step is over.

Then I shall put forth my request. “Sir, can you shift a little further after the bus stop please. I can’t catch the bus because the driver puts it little further since he does not have space to park it in front of the bus stop”

The driver actually laughed and moved his auto!!!

Instead of this, if I had raised my voice and shouted at him, it would have triggered some thought inside his brain and he would have folded his shirt sleeves and come to fight with me.

So, a friendly smile, humble posture and a down-to-earth voice would take us to places. Have we not seen our politicians coming door-to-door when they want to win elections? Oh, their behavior before the elections and after they win are worth remembering!

But the false humility won’t take anyone for a long distance. Someone will tear their mask of false humility.

This again reminds us of the proverb, you can fool all people for some time and some people for all time!

Even when talking to the telecallers I shall put on my best friendly voice. Sometimes (why sometimes, most of the times!) their call will irritate us. Because they do not know what we would be doing on the other side when they call.

But still I will try to be polite, because we are all salespersons. We sell something or the other to someone else. When we try to sell and the other person is rude to us, we can’t bear it! When that is so, what right we have to make the others feel bad?

We can be humble and do lot of things. It works almost every time. Especially when the other person believes us, our humility will touch the other person’s heart.

Of course, if the other person does not have faith in our behavior or character, whatever we do will not draw water. We would be always at wrong.

But in general, humility will definitely receive cooperation. Love is a separate step. It also should happen. But I am sure we need to have little more than humility to get love from others. It needs our love which should get reciprocated. Many times sacrifice would also draw the other person’s love towards us.

There are many examples of humility in our epics. The best ever example is meeting of Arjuna and Duryodhana with Sri Krishna in his home.

The war has been declared. As a part of the war strategy both Yudhishthira and Shakuni send Arjuna and Duryodhana respectively to Krishna to take him to their side.

Krishna knew that both have come. He closes his eyes and pretends to be asleep. Duryodhana (thinks he) is the Monarch. So he sits on a chair which is near the head of Krishna’s bed. Arjuna being the humble person chooses to sit on the stool which is at the feet of Krishna.

When Krishna opens his eyes, naturally he sees Arjuna who is sitting at the feet side. He gets the first chance to speak and select between an unarmed Krishna or the complete army belonging to Yadavas.

The rest is, as they say, history!!

A novel which is absurd!

It was in 1996. I was part of a coffee curing plant erection in my erstwhile company. My boss used to visit once a week and I was looking after the day-to-day operations.  It was fun in a way because the work was in full progress. There was a 6 feet pit in which elevators were to be erected. The elevator bottoms were kept there.

I was my exuberant self. I was going up the erected elevators, the scaffoldings giving instructions, handing over tools to my colleagues. I was also getting down the 6 feet pit using elevator bottom as my ‘stool’ to get down.

It was a day in March 1996. I was, like any other day, jumping on the elevator bottom to reach the pit’s bottom. This time there was a problem. My ‘baggy’ pant got caught to the edge of an elevator bottom and to my horror, that elevator bottom fell on my left foot. I lost balance and fell forward and to save myself I held on to the scaffolding in front of me.  I think within about 6 seconds, my colleague Muniraju removed the elevator bottom. And the work started as it is.

By evening I found that my left foot has been swollen. I asked my colleague Ramnivas Lahoti to take me to the nearest medical store.

Now, I have to explain about the place I was in. it is called Haandi. It is about 6 km from the main road inside a coffee estate. Chikmagalore was 18 km on the right and Mudigere was about the same distance on the left side or may be a little less. So, Lahoti took me on his scooter to Mudigere. I purchased an Iodex balm and a Brufen pill sheet.

I came back and medicated myself! The place of our stay was the front portion of the estate owner’s big bungalow.  Food was in a hut about half a km away. I started limping to the hut for food.

My boss came that Saturday and saw my walk and gave me piece of his mind and forced me to come to Bangalore for checking my foot.

My friend Dr. Rajendra banged me for ignoring it for so long. The X-Ray was taken and found that there was no fracture, but a ligament tear.

I had to wear a crepe bandage and stay at home. It was the time of Hero Cup. So, I enjoyed the matches!

But the fate had decided something else. I went back to the office and sat on my metal chair. As luck would have it, I banged my foot against the metal bottom of the chair and the Ortho clamped a plaster from left knee to foot.

I again was on leave.  It was so painful to sleep. So, I had to sit most of the times. Instead of idly sitting I started my third novel.

The mind was a devil’s workshop and a lovely idea came up.

I became the hero of the novel. I was an author in the novel.  When I was alone at home 3 characters from my previous novel come home and kidnap me. They take me to Tippu Drop in Nandi Hills to throw me down. But the plan is foiled. So they take me to Kushalnagar and from there to Visveswaraya canal and throw me in the turbulent waters. I lose my consciousness.  End of first chapter.

When I wake up I am in some place. Now I am 60 year old. Somehow I have a feeling that I am younger than that and I have been dressed up like that. With lot of difficulty I found that I am in Mount Abu and in the middle of a big conspiracy. Here again the villains throw me down the Sunset Point.  I lose my consciousness. End of second chapter.

When I wake up I am in some place. I am not old now. I am in a cave in Himalayas. A monk will try to cure me. I try to remember my name. I would have forgotten my name.  My left foot is in plaster.  There is an assistant to the monk. He would help my leg becoming ok. But monk goes somewhere. The assistant kidnaps me after hitting me. I lose my consciousness. End of chapter three.

I am in a lab. I have become dumb. There is a hypnotist. He and a doctor operate me on my left arm and insert a transmitter. It is the enemy country. I am sent to India to spy on atomic scientists in a conference. I would be supplying beeda, coffee etc., to the scientists. I have been hypnotised to a voice which is in a mini tape recorder. Finally there will be murders committed by me. I break the tape recorder and escape the voice. I fall unconscious. End of chapter four.

I roam across the North India. I become a wanderer. Finally I am pulled to the Himalayas. I meet the monk. He just touches my head and I start speaking. I lose consciousness. End of chapter five.

The monk gives me money and sends me home. My wife Usha is angry with me because I would have written in a note book of my daughter during first chapter that I am going to Simla and shall take Usha the next time.

I would have forgotten about all the incidents in the five chapters. But a small gash on my left arm smiles at me.

The novel ends with my  grandson sending the diary to a magazine after 60 years saying that a stupid novel, but interesting.

My mind was in turmoil due to the leg pain. So, the story was born. I have not visited Mount Abu. But I had vividly explained about it. Someone asked me when did you go to Mount Abu. I believe he had seen and it is exactly how I had explained.

I sent the novel to two magazines. Both rejected it saying that it is not possible to break it and read. It is best to read it in one sitting. One of my advisers said it is too early to write an absurd novel in my career.

A publisher wanted to reprint my novel. I did not have even a single copy of the printed version. After a long search and after giving up hopes, I found the diary in which I had written the original script! I took Usha to Shimla this February after promising her long ago!

Well, the writing was done. I was a publisher. So I published it myself with the name ‘Gaathe’ meaning saga. Though the novel is about 160 pages, one feels they have read a very big novel. The script is tight. Lot of science (Implosion), occult, history, geography were thrown in. Real incidents were interspersed.

The story looks real but with a thin line of lies.

Ooh, I have crossed the daily limit of 600+ words. What an absurd way to write a blogJ

Thought for the day four

As thoughts are the seeds of all actions, let me plant only good, pure seeds so that the fruit will be the best

We grow what we sow is a very true saying any day. If we plant mango seed, we get a mango plant. Likewise if we sow neem seed, we get a neem plant.

I am referring to the above two because one is synonym with sweetness and the other with bitterness.

So, if our talk is sweet, most of the times we get sweet words back. (There are always exceptions to this sentence. But, we are not interested in exception in this article!)

Like they say in computer language, ‘Garbage in – garbage out’.

When we feed in garbage, we get garbage comes out.

Let me take two instances in puranas about planting a great thought.

Hiranya Kashipu, the demon during Satya yuga does a terrific penance to get a boon from Brahma and to become invincible. His wife Kayaadu was pregnant. Lord of Devas Indra thought that the child of Hiranya Kashipu would harm him and took the decision to kill Kayadu and her still unborn child. Sage Narada comes and rescues Kayadu and takes her to his Ashram. There, to keep her calm, he tells her the story of Lord Narayana. Kayadu falls to sleep and the Kid (later Prahlada, the most ardent devotee of Narayana) starts responding to sage Narada’s narration of stories of Narayana. So, even before he was born, Prahlada was fed with the good deeds. This he continued till his last day on the earth.

Lord Krishna, the avatar of Narayana in Dwapara yuga, was talking to his sister Subhadra during her pregnancy. She asks about a specific army trick Chakravyuha. Krishna would explain, Subhadra was asleep, and the kid Abhimanyu started responding. Mahabharata says that Abhimanyu learnt about Chakravyuha before his birth.

Don’t we see the truth of the first sentence? If the seed is healthy, then the plant would be healthy.

The other saying idle mind is devil’s workshop could be remembered here. Idle mind would always have some bad seeds of thoughts. When it is sown in the empty space of the brain, many bad deeds happen.

Duryodhana in Mahabharata was always sowing bad seeds. This resulted in victory for him for sometimes. But later it boomeranged on him.

Like Newton’s third law – every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

We can tell more stories. A boy was sitting on her mother’s shoulder while walking on the road. The boy stole a banana from a fruit vendor who was passing them. The banana vendor did not even know that he lost one banana from his basket which he was keeping on his head. When the boy showed the banana to his mother, she smiled. The smile encouraged the boy and he went on thieving things in his life. One day he was caught by the police. When asked how he would justify his action of theft, the man (the boy has grown to a man now) said, “It is because of my mother, I am in this position. She did not stop me when I stole a banana from a vendor. Today I am standing here because my mother did not teach me that stealing is a crime”

So true!

When we need a healthy business tree we have to ensure that the roots are honesty and integrity. If we sow a seed of cheat, mistrust and cunning, the tree would obviously be unhealthy business tree.

The human mind has to be treated in such a way that a person does things right even when no one is watching. This is the right method.

Instead of this, if we start thinking nobody is a criminal until he is proven guilty, then we always think of taking chances, trying to commit mistakes and ensuring that we are not caught.

But any day, crime does not pay. Crime has a punishment. So, it is always better to be a good person and try to do things right always.