VERY VERY SPECIAL LAXMAN

Very very special laxman............

I think a person can be called successful if he or she shows consistent character in professional and personal life with equal elan as it reflects the essence of what they are. In every field and virtually everywhere the success is determined by what they achieve in the field they are known for and have expertise in. There is no doubt that, to reach a zenith in any field and make a mark, people should have many superb qualities which are known like commitment, sacrifice, integrity, discipline, and several characteristics which help people reach what they set to. But to remain immortal, successful people have to show exceptional quality and highest character in crucial times.

There are several examples in war, sports, politics and public life. The recent ones which stole our heart was the hanging of boots by Rahul dravid and he showed remarkable character as a human being and one had no choice but salute the man in deep admiration. The absolutely latest is our Hyderabadi VVS Laxman.. What can we say of this person? He has arrested the moist eyes of thousands of people like me by his unparalleled exceptional humane quality of sacrifice and terrific character.

What he has done by announcing retirement just before the match in the home ground is beyond the understanding of the rational, logical human beings. Life is not just based on logic and rationality. He will go down in the history as someone who has added great inexplicable values to the game. In my mind his retirement which came as a shock is much bigger than the historical match that he won for us with Australia in 2001 with his splendid innings of 281... 

Just imagine the other way round. He was already selected for the team to play 3 matches in India with New Zealand. For all we know, he would surely have made a mark in Hyderabad and by virtue of that he would have continued for another 2 matches and he would be the automatic choice for the tour of England and Australia later this year. This is most likely thing that would have happened. This is turn means that, he would have easily extended his innings by another 2 years easily. Isn’t this too much of a sacrifice? 

Why would he have done this? According to me, its ridiculous to think that he was hurt by the comments of senior cricketers who thought he was occupying the place and not giving chance to youngsters? Sports is never about young or old and it is all about performance, grit, success and fitness. You don’t  expect non controversial and soft laxman to have negative qualities like bitterness, revenge, hurt etc..

He did because he conquered himself; he won over the basic dominant qualities of the human. He has Shown the world what letting go means. He has reflected of what is the meaning of complacency and what it is to be not greedy. He has set an example of exemplary characters that is required in a competitive world. To me , he is most spiritual than the most who are ostensible. He is very inspiring as a human and more than his performance on the field.

 He never showed aggression on his face or body language like the most. He allowed his bat do all the talking. His strike rate in tests is much better than sachins of the world. His aggression is the mild but very strong character that he displayed by hanging his boots. 

I will forever like millions of people wonder as to why he did not play in his home ground in the very next match and then retire. We wonder and he is only wonderful. I salute him as a leader and then as a cricketer. For me that 2001 match holds great value in life , but today his decision has surpassed that.

Hats off VVS and love you.. Let you be the inspiration to thousands like me on how to let go and achieve most in life.

MERA BHARAT MAHAAN

AUGUST 15^TH...   Was very important for me in school days as there would be a competition in essay and debate and most often the topic would be how independent we are? What is the need for India today etc.. Most of the participants including myself would often talk the same lines every year with references of sacrifices made by Mahatma Gandhi and several other leaders. We also looked forward to the flag hoisting as few of us got a chance to speak in front of the entire school and then there was some common feeling running in all of us and that was patriotism, the blind love for the country. Most of us did not know what it meant but we knew that all of us need to be united and contribute to the development of the country. Many subtle values got imbibed into us. One of the most exciting aspects was going on my terrace of the house and count the number of flags that were hoisted and also pin up the flag on the shirt pocket. There was a huge pride being an Indian and we all looked forward to going to the school this day, of course not to forget the jilebi that was given to us whose enjoyment cannot match even if i eat the best of sweets from best of places from the world. 

Today it was different.  True but sad, there was no interest even to know or follow or even try to watch the proceedings in the New Delhi, Red fort. I did not bother to check on the message by president or is it Prime minister on 15^th August? Sorry for this attitude arising out of some hurt. There is this sad cynicism and helplessness at the way our country, individuals and I are placed. The priorities, the value systems, the commitments are hardly common and for the general good. We are all only looking just inside for the benefit and aggrandisement of wealth for our own self. IT saddens me deeply like several thousands of Indians and the helplessness kills each of us.

I subjected myself to torture by watching a mindless movie in the morning. Probably the soldiers ready to sacrifice their lives would feel less torturous than me today.  But what surprised me was that, the theatre played our national anthem and everyone stood up instantaneously. That was a very good feel and the only other good feel was listening to my all time tear jerker high emotional 2 patriotic songs.. 1) Swades song  2) yeh mere watan ke logon of Lata Mangeshkar ji.  Apart from that, there is nothing i did which contributed to the nation or co human beings.

But what i wish to scribble here is some profound and deep felt experiences, thoughts and feelings of my dear friend SVS from dallas and me. He, unlike many Indian Americans is least fussy and does not have any attitude and hence travelled in Auto rickshaws several times despite warnings from me and another good friend Surya Kumar. But i am glad he got very sensitized to the auto driver’s lives and trepidation. He went about checking many auto drivers’ lives and each of them had a sad story and they all lead a very helpless and miserable life and there is no joy, relief and development in their lives. One such man in fact confessed to my friend that, he is just waiting for the death to happen as their lives are so meaningless. This shook us up and i am sure, so it does to thousands of people. What do we do? How can we help them? Do we have time? Let me answer this after few more lines please.

Both I and SVS went to one vegetable vendor in Abids where i used to buy vegetables regularly when Grusha was studying in Rosary convent. I and SVS were just discussing on how the loss of spouse is one of the highest pains in humans as per some American research. Just after that, i was making some polite conversation with the vegetable vendor lady and to my total shock she said she lost her husband suddenly one day few months ago. He was very young and now this lady has to bring her son up and give him good life. What suffering, what loss and what pain she may be undergoing.

After that, i started looking at more faces on the street and the majority seem either lost, or in pain or just suffering from some deprivation or some basic need or helplessness. All of us, surely all of us who has access to the net and are on social networking, encounter at least ten such vulnerable poor people every day in our lives. They all need 2 things and DO NOT need one thing. They will need some support (most often few hundreds of rupees) , smile, care, respect ( all these mean the same ) and what they do not need  is  your indifference.

We may not want to help them, we may not be in a position to help them but we can at least hear them out and be empathetic. This gives them great tremendous strength. It is not a bad idea to set aside 10 percent of our income to be able to help such people in distress, for education, medical and why not even recreation. We are all born equal and we only become more equal as we are fortunate. We encounter several needy people with small needs and they need us. I am sure many are doing much more than what is said here but let us not stop doing this. If we are not doing, we need to please start. Sharing is caring and this is known, but doing the same with the unknown is the great virtue and not just doing this to the known and for the recognition.

Our Desh can become mahaan only if each of us makes people around us; get rid of their misery and helplessness. Let us be generous. The least help that all of us can do is monetary. Money is the smallest thing that can be sacrificed to get happiness to someone and also to get solutions for many issues.  Even if this writing is repetitive and known to all, like flag hoisting on 15^th August, i feel like reminding all of us once again about poor who live with us and around us. Let us be liberal to liberate the poor from their misery. Let us make difference to one person per week at least. Jai Hind .

WE LIVE ONLY SO LONG

like most people, even i often hear the following...  1) We only get what we deserve 2) Everything is predestined and based on karma philosophy 3) whatever happens is for the good. 4) Truth always triumphs 5) good wins over the evil.  And so many such good, proved, tested theories, philosophies and practises and i respect each of them and try to adapt them to my everyday life and succeed far lesser times than i would have wanted to.  Hence, none of them are either questioned or criticized here nor even discounted.

I always remember, trust and believe the lines from Kabhie Kabhie... The greatest lines from Saher the immortal lyricist.. Mujh se pehle kitne shayar aaye aur aakar chalegaye.. kal koi mujh ko yaad Karen, ..... This song, among other things, also communicates that, what is said is important and not who said this..In other words, thoughts, ideas, are immortal and not men and people. Hence what is being written here is already said, known, practised and understood by many and difference is the perspective that occurred to my mind.

I feel that nature/ god/ science (what’s in a name) has given us or implanted in each of us some quantity of breath and oxygen to live and we live only as long as we finish utilizing that quota and we cease to live once that stock is consumed.  Hence the pursuit for all of us is to ration that quota, plan the consumption and have a proper balance sheet of oxygen consumption and regulate the breathing, so as to enhance living long and living good.

Some of us keep an account of calories and try to maintain the same in terms of food consumed versus energy expended. What is said here is beyond this and slightly difficult than the calorie management. The question that comes to everyone’s mind is, how we know how much oxygen and breathing is allotted to each of us. Believe me, there is a known formula and quota and we tend to ignore the same.. The simple formula is 72 x 60 x60 x24 x 365 x 100 and that comes to 6220800 x 36500... This is the highest that anyone can give to anyone. Only nature is so magnanimous to give so much to all without fear or favour. Not even the richest will ever have more property than this. Now comes the toughest challenge of how to utilize this, optimize this and use this for long and sustain this.


   

We need to apply physics, mathematics and intuition riddled with common sense.

It is very simple..  Normally we are designed to breath 72 times a minute ( most accepted standard) . We either have the  choice to maintain this all the time and hence live 100 years or extend this by consuming in the systematic manner.  But our life style, ambitions, society, etc will not allow us to be stable and balanced all the time.  We go thru stress all the time and hence we breathe faster and consume more breath and oxygen, thus breaking the rhythm of life. Hence we pay the price of living shorter as we exhaust the quota or upset biorhythm and cause disturbances.

Typically in Himalayas, the sage consumes less and hence it lasts longer for them and they live longer. Simple mathematics.. Less ambitious and more contented will consume less and are able to spread the given quota properly and so they too live longer. For some people luckily, it happens by default, let’s say for people who live their lives in a simple environment close to nature or simple people who don’t take stress or less ambitious or have the best attitude to success and failures. 

But the choice is entirely ours as we can still be ambitious, set goals, strive for it, but balance it with honesty, integrity, meditation, health related exercises. In other words, one should know to learn to balance the 72 x 60 x 60 x 24 breathes per day.. Calmness in the mind, silence in the heart, positive attitude and absence of greed, lust, ego, attachment, pride will help achieve this on day to day basis.

But there is one caution... we cannot try to maintain monthly balance, yearly balance, or correction after 40.. Sorry. Rules Oppukovu, means  “divine rules have no postponement.” (this dialogue  should be made part of Mahesh babu movie for better impact like guns don’t need agreements) .. only daily corrections are allowed at best or in some exceptions, weekly also is ok.

To stop the “sodi” ( in telugu  it means , boring story) and come o the matter ( as in telugu movies .. the way they use the word matter) ..  All of us need to decide on how to manage our quota of oxygen and breathe to live longer and happier. The issues that need to be dealt are 1) Life style 2) Attitude 3) health 4) food. And all of these come from 1) Spiritual outlook for correct understanding of life 2) good routine in the day 3) proper plan of ambition 4) constant monitoring of the self.

Again for the above 2 areas, one needs to do the following everyday 1) something for the soul like Meditation of any technique 2) something for the body, any exercise that suits the body 3) something for the mind like reading, playing, working etc and 4) something purely for the pleasure which can be anything but not harmful to anyone or nature, directly or indirectly..

Do i practise? I attempt , to practise this every day but fail on 50 % but the attempt, knowledge and the need constantly is on the back of the mind... think about this principle of oxygen and breathe quota and work your way , provided you want to live longer, healthier or happier. Or at least decide on how you want to live and use the quota given accordingly. Nature just gives and we need to know how to use the same.. All the best and thanks for reading..

DO not go with the communication here but go with the idea and brood for a while and trust me, this will make huge sense and start practising whatever suits you , to extend the happiness quotient of life and also longevity , peace and healthy living .

THE CONFESSION OF A MEAN ADULT

One adult confessed to me like this.. Most adults are mean as they lose innocence and they want to dominate. They preach more than they practise. Their meanness is often shown on the children either directly or clandestinely or it’s implied many times. I know of adults who have never done any better than their child in the school but do not want to understand when child wants to speak the difficulty about something. The adults like me are so biased that, they always think their children are not helpful to adults and feel that children only go with the sway of the current trend. This is the insensitivity of most adults.

The worst part is that adults like me think that we know everything and children need to catch so much about living life. Forget preaching, even the interference is little too much, almost at the cost of not recognizing them as individuals.

One such occasion where, the head hung in shame and left a deep regret was experienced. My daughter has myopia and we took the spectacles and they are one of the best and expensive. The lenses are of high quality and it takes time for making and all that is the fact. We went and collected the specks and things seemed ok until my daughter called me at around 11 pm and said the specks are missing. 

Immediately the adult in me got intolerant and furious. How can you be so irresponsible? I know you are so careless and you don’t live at that moment? Do you know how difficult it is going to be, to you? It is also painful to go again and forget the waste of money which is there but on the last in the list. Blah blah and blah.

My god, what is left to be said? The kid gets upset as she is already feeling guilty and it is sheer lack of grace on part of adult in failing to understand that the error could happen anywhere. The adult checks the car and does not find the specks. He is convinced that, the kid has left it either with the optical store or dropped it somewhere.

Next morning, some feeble consolation is given and the daughter requests the adult to search again in the car and the adult is arrogant and denies the possibility. One more request and with reluctance he starts and is shocked to find the specks in the car, albeit got lost in car ambience and colour. All the indifference , all the intolerance and all the arrogance of the adult is seen in him.

The mean adult here, if you have not already guessed is Sai Prasad and graceful, understanding, patient daughter is Grusha. Yes, the realization happened about the meanness and the need to be more tolerant and graceful. But why? I was like a typical adult who lost the innocence. Its time, the understanding and sensitivity for this generation who are increases as they are going thru tremendous stress for career, money, adjustments, societal systems and so much more. Adults like me.. are u listening ?i apologize to grusha again and to all the kids with whom i was insensitive,in the name of understanding and doing good.

ANGER ... NOT AGAIN PLEASE

When it comes to anger, very rarely people admit that they are angry. Even if we agree, then we restrict the same to 1) Angry with someone 2) Angry about something 3) Angry because of so and so... But understanding anger has to be different. All goodness and all spirituality preach anger as the second most important vice that has to be overcome. The first obviously is the lust/ sex of the immoral kind.

Conquering anger is like conquering the self. It is very difficult but not impossible. Several dimensions are attached to the concept of the anger. The most important is the attachment to the self. Once the “ I  “becomes important,  then the concept of anger starts becoming prominent. But how many can remove the “ I “ from our lives and still live gracefully. The consciousness of the self makes us focus so much on ourselves that; anger comes as by product and as a side effect. Most often we justify the anger or at least quantify the anger, saying that i am less angry than the other. 

There is another argument, that unless the anger is shown, people do not listen and obey. Anger is treated as birth right for people to dominate on others. It is mostly accepted if the husband shows anger on the wife, if the boss spits anger on his subordinates, if the police do the same on the accused. Hence in all situations, anger is taken as the privilege of the dominant. In fact people who want to dominate feel in secure from within and they are less confident. Hence anger is not the acceptable virtue by any standards.

People take time to get rid of anger. They say, i am less angry these days. How does degree justify the anger? It is in fact ridiculous. Anger is always avoidable as nothing good ever came out of anger. The least anyone can do is to acknowledge that they are angry and they are making attempts to come out of it. All scriptures address the issue of anger and several examples are given on how the anger has ruined families, communities and countries. There are also solutions to overcome anger.

For me, after all the learning from all sources and life experiences, anger is something that can be got rid, if one focuses on the self. Again, attitude of let go, detachment will alone help people to conquer anger. If the meaning of existence is understood, if concepts like success and failures are understood, if there is gratitude for everything that benefits us there is no place for anger.

Today i have understood anger in terms of energy barometer. Just think about this. We get angry only if our energies are low. The same situation where you are angry now, was ok some other time, only because your energy levels are far better. How are we able to forgive people or let them off? It is because we are either in a happy state or this one is of lesser priority. In all these cases, it is higher energy is us which is making us tolerate. The son puts up with his old parents better on a day he office life was better. A wife is able to give good attention to her husband when she does not have issues with her mother in law. Again these are the situations when the energy is good.

SO what is happening? We are either engaging ourselves in more than what our energy permits or we are not able to build enough energies inside us. Why do we do more than what we can? Again because we want to have the power to dominate or we are greedy. Hence we lose the tolerance. The name of the game is contentment. If we lack energies, why don’t we do anything that suits us to keep charging? Be it Meditation, yoga, walking, exercise, or whatever suits, one needs to gather, strengthen energies and keep building the stock. Why do people who have ill health are more prone to anger? They have less energy.

So , Next time you get angry, think that your energies levels are low. Instantly, go silent, do not try to prove or justify you are right and do something to gain energy. Then face the same situation and you will feel better. Not even the police will deny you the little time that will help you gain energy. But if someone has better understanding of the anger and the management of it, that can also be practised but NO ANGER AGAIN PLEASE/

SMS'S ... The necessary evil

Short message service has become one of the dominant factors of our life..... So much happens on the sms’s..  Texting has become the necessary evil for most of us. Most students, on an average send and receive 200 messages every day. How much time and energy they spend on this? And all the focus that they give on this determines what kind of life they lead. People cannot imagine their life without sms’s. It is cost effective, sans embarrassment and people can get away saying anything on the sms. Everything happens on the sms for most people, love, hate, anger, happiness, sacking, accepting, deals, etc etc..

I remember my younger days, when telegram was of great importance. It indicated emergency, mostly of the negative kinds. One would have had to go to the post office, fill the complicated forms, and wait in the queue, bear all the pain of the clerk who would behave as if he is doing us a great favour. Then the arrival of the pager happened and this had the fastest death of all technologies.

When i started texting, way back in 2002, it was not common as sms receiving was also charged and i was ridiculed for this habit. But now sms’s makes and breaks relationships. Most often, people follow the conversations up with the sms’s,   the moment they are angry, unhappy or want to express the negative emotion. Earlier, in life, people had the option of subsidised anger, subsidised intensity of any feel as there was no alternative to physical presence and could only talk after meeting them. Now we all pour out all emotions and do not hide. This is building lot of impatience and emotions are expressed in hurry and often wasted resulting in instant fights.. I have done it myself hundreds of times with dozens of people, and complicated relationships also. I know several cases where the easy way of sms makes them express many emotions without actually being there in that intensity and measure. In that sense, sms has complicated the relationships.

In some cases people wait for the sms, as if it is life threatening or life making expectation. It is true of cases also where people leave a message and expect replies, as the persons they call do not take the call. This is both advantage and a disadvantage as both the parties suffer and have equal justification. Waiting for sms can be very nerve wrecking and can be the most essential part of your life. People who undergo this experience will alone understand.

For me waiting for the Praveen’s sms ( my senior colleague) on Wednesday is high point of my life. I get into illusions and wake up in the middle of the night and check for the sms from Praveen. I am brushing my teeth and keep looking at the phone for his sms. Then i feel every second that my phone is sounding with a message tone. I am scared to take long time in the wash room as i can’t delay to see his sms. Then i am driving to my meditation class and i am constantly looking for the sms. It’s like waiting for the result of the performance and the hard work of the last week, that i am waiting for. Just want to be done with on what the result is about the TAM high points. Before i switch off the mobile to get inside the class, i do a countdown before switch off the mobile. The first thing i am expecting after i switch on the mobile is again Praveen’s message. Never ever imagined that one sms would be so important every week of my life. Here attitude and life learning fail and not the forum to talk also about it. Needless to say that, Programming team and creators of content in television, live on tam results and entire life revolves around that. It makes or breaks the day and succeeding week. Why sms? The highlights are sent by Praveen after he extrapolates from the basic data. That moment is the most crucial for me for the week and so for the entire year. Like these, there could be several situations for people who wait desperately and endlessly for the sms and that moment of waiting seems so long and never ending.

I want to call sms as kambaqt. I hate sms’s as much as i love. I don’t want them as life gets complicated and i want them as life becomes easy...