Thank you.... the most paying word...

I went to a wedding two days ago. It was raining and parking my car was a big issue. I somehow managed to get my car into the basement of the wedding hall and was desperately trying to park it when I find this nice man in a security guards attire run upto my vehicle to direct me.

I combed my hair and got of my car and as I was walking up I saw the security guard standing at the entrance. I said “Chetta, Thank You!” which means brother, thank you.  Caught unawares by my impromptu gesture of thanks and sporting a rather weird look on his face, this gentleman, came forward, patted my shoulder and said “It’s a pleasure, mone!” And mone means son in Malayalam. I was so touched. He was so happy.

Why is it that all of us being from the country known for love and benevolence forget that by being a little considerate to the next man who helps us, we make a big difference in their lives. We are happy and they are happy too. Friends why don’t we start saying a thank you with a smile to all those who make a difference in our lives …. no matter however small that maybe

A Mind to Give.....

Onam is a state festival of Kerala. Every Keralite across the globe celebrates Onam in great spirit and zealous enthusiasm. Onam is an occasion celebrated in honour of  Mahabali the erstwhile king of Kerala. He was an asura king but very just and honest. Power and politics are not limited to human being and also find place among Gods…. It so happened that the Gods became jealous of King Mahabali and approachede lord Vishnu asking him for help…  which  is how Lord Vishnu assumed his fifit avatar from among his ten called the Vamana.. Vamana avatar  was that of a tiny man. Having assumed the guise, Vamaa then goes to King Mahabali in his priestly form and asks for three measures of his land, each to be measured by a step he would take. The benevolent king being as good as he is gives the right to the little Vamana to take the three steps. He takes his first step and covers the earth and with the second he covers the sky and for the third he asked the king where and the king bows down and shows his head. Vamana puts his feet on the king and pushes him into the earth. Just before pushing him in he gives his a boon to come and meet his people once every year. We Keralites celebrate Onam in memory of this great king.

Onam is a festival of harvest as well and new clothes don the occasion during which the elders give gifts and money to the younger ones and vice versa.

I was home for Onam this year. My sister delivered a baby boy and I am acting the big uncle very well. There was this old lady, named Shanthamma, who was good at the postnatal care.. A very chirpy and vibrant lady, laughing always  - one would be much energized on seeing her. But tke a look at her household and it wouldn’t take long to realize that her life was in misery. This poor 65 year old lady needs to earn to feed her daughter, son-in-law and 2 children. As if that wasn’t aleady enough, she is ill treated.

So this Onam we decided to give her some extra money so that she could have some nice food with it. My mom and sister gave her some money. I felt that it was a great gesture to give her that extra bit for all the  help she was for my little nephew and sister. Deciding impromptu, I went down with some money to give her… when she walked upto me and told me “Aviii (she calls me Avi instead of Naveen) ninakku enikku ithraye tharaaan pattooo….” Which means “I can only afford to give you this token for Onam...” She squeezed a 100 rupees note into my hand.. God it was such a touching moment… I could have cried. A poor lady like her wanted me to be happy and she was forgoing her happiness only for me which I couldn’t imagine. 

Yet my dear friend you should have seen how happy she was… we have all the luxuries of life and do we ever think about another person..? I felt ashamed of myself.. I was trying to add and subtract in my mind of what to give her but she was far beyond in her thoughts. 

A Year Remembered

One more page in the book of my life, the page of 2011, is being turned over. It has been a year of mixed feelings. If I say it was a page all written in golden letters I would be fooling myself. The page had a lot of black patches too. The page, as it turns by, takes me through a summary of what I learnt.

The learnings I have had have been tremendous and I believe the creator made this year or at least waited all these years to give me a learning of a life time. As per mythology Arjuna learnt so many things from The Lord in a very crucial part of his life. So I am sure HE has destined me to learn all what I learnt in the 2011 chapter this year only. Many have come in this life of mine and many have left.  The ones who came to stay are with me supporting me through thick and thin and the ones who decided to leave me and go have surely left a deep imprint on my life and gone. As it is said, life moves on and I still feel all this will bring the better out of me.

This post is a thanksgiving to my parents, my sister, my brother in law, aunts, uncles, cousins, colleagues and above all my good dear friends who stood by me through thick and thin telling me and mentoring me in the best and the right direction.  I know the learning of 2011 will be taken with me to the later parts of my life.

The best learning I got this year was that not everything which glitters is gold. Though we learnt it long long ago, we never get it to seep down in us and we tend to believe that calm waters are safe but, calm waters can also be very rough below.  People who have been known for years seem to fade away by character and you really feel that it’s your fault but later on in your solitude you realize that they were always that way and we only saw the better of them, thanks to the good in us.

Another important learning I had this year was not to take anything and everything as it comes. Check it and if it doesn’t match you and if it is unbecoming throw it back at the people who flung it at you. I am a person who does not react much, chip of the old block my Dad. But this year has taught me that where a word has to rule a word rules and where silence speaks volumes silence speaks it all.

My dear friends it’s been a pleasure and a great time we had together this year called 2011. Let’s all join together to welcome 2012. May all our hopes, aspirations and dreams be fulfilled. May the poor and the rich, the unhealthy and the healthy, the down trodden, the animals and all of us have a very beautiful 2012 which brings love, joy and peace to the world and to mankind.

Innocence Lost

A teacher in my mother’s school narrated this. One day she saw a rat in the house and she ran behind it and killed it. The 4 year old son was terribly taken aback that the mother did such a cruel thing. He went up to the mother and said “Mom you are so cruel you killed the rat. Now wait and see God is going to punish you. “The 4 year old was so sad and he went on around the place talking about this cruelty and how God would punish her for the act.

The rat was thrown out of the compound and the little boy was looking at it from the top of his compound wall. He thought it should be given a ceremonial burial. He took some sand and stooped on the boundary wall and with a lot of respect began putting it on the dead rat. The poor little boy fell off the fence and was bruised very badly.  The little boy after all the crying and sobbing late in the night asks his mom. “Mom you killed the rat but why is it that God punished me?”  What answer would you give the little child?

What made me think was all of us in our childhood were innocent and uncorrupted, compassionate and friendly. We knew that being bad was wrong.  But gradually we changed and today we have become so corrupted. Today, for many of us to be bad is no problem at all. Is it education that makes us too aware of the world that makes us what we are today, or something else? Why do we lose that love, compassion, true belief in God and unbiased love to every living being over a period of time?  

It’s a very serious question we really need to answer because if we could find an answer to this may be we could have very polished, compassionate , loving and giving, citizens for tomorrow. 

A Smile Returns a Smile - Instant Return on Investment.

In a friends note to me, she said that her son’s school had a big issue. A boy from a certain community brought some temple offering from his place of worship to school. He offered it to his friends in class and none of the students from other communities touched it. Two boys from another community had the offerings and said nothing to lose. The little boy was terribly upset.

I don’t understand my dear friends why we do this. Children are the future of tomorrow and why are we instilling all this negative thoughts into them? Let them grow free from caste and religious bias.  When God evolved us from the monkeys did he ever make discrimination? He made us to live within the boundaries of the eco system and he gave us all what we wanted. Now we idiotic individuals are fighting over religion, caste and creed.

What we forget most of the time is, whoever it may be, a Muslim, Christian, Buddhist or Hindu or any religion, every one of us runs red blood within and not any other dependent on our religion. Then why do we stress our own selves with this unnecessary barrier called religion?  And to be very frank from the little I have read of the religious scriptures, I am yet to read them say that religion is to divide people.  It says live and let live and how to keep the individual in a level of peace with himself. But what do we specialize in? We are all out to break the mind into pieces and we restrict our kids from being themselves.

This post is dedicated to the parents of those two boys and all the parents who allow their kids to be free from bias and be themselves. Religion can be no bar to kindness. Good people are Godly and all you need to be Godly is to be kind to the next living being, animal or human. A smile returns a smile- instant return on investment. 

Beauty of Life -- We Forget to Enjoy.

I was walking along the Besant Nagar Beach, in Chennai last Saturday evening. The waves were washing the shores and the moon was going into an eclipse, which perhaps was the longest known eclipse ever. I was at the beach enjoying the serene calm and cooling off a week’s pressure. 

Walking through the beautiful walkways I found small kids moving on wheelchairs. They were mentally and physically challenged. There was such a lot of pain in their eyes. These kids were finding it so difficult carrying themselves but still they had the best smiles to their friends at the beach. They greeted people they knew, they spoke to them on the walkway and they also took efforts to make friends with the animals on the beach. I was deeply touched. My heart felt so heavy and it was an eye opener.  I thought how thankless I was to crib about pressure which only came because of work, or something trivial like that. 

Friends, a few days ago I read Pareto’s 80-20 principle. How true it is even in life. We are the blessed who have 80% right in life. We can talk, we can see the beauty of life, we can hear the love in the air, but yet we crib about the 20% we do not have. 20% of things we don’t have eclipse the 80% we already have and then we crib. My dear friends, those people at the beach are also human and they enjoy life thanking God for the fact that they are alive. Why is it that we forget to enjoy when we have got the best in life?