Bettering the battering

In the face of difficulties and testing times when you feel down and out
and when you are helpless, there are ways to surmount them if you just hold on and find other ways than the usual route. Grit, determination are required not
only when you do physically challenging tasks like driving a vehicle
in heavy traffic on narrow roads.

See inwardly and persist in doing the things normally required.
Soon you are out of the morass.

Martin Luther King III, while visiting the Mani Bhavan in Mumbai said
that he will return home more determined after seeing
the difficulties and challenges here. He referred to a white man, who
apologised to him, after four decades, for having beaten him
up in a bus.

A.R. Rahman quoted on February 20.

“I can relate to the film because I take life positively and feel that even after great depression, something good will come out,” said the composer in a telephone interview from Los Angeles. “Almost everything is finished for this guy [film’s hero] but there is still hope and then he... succeeds in the end.”

These are some nuggets that infuse inspiration and confidence in
minds battered by inhuman humans.

God and Universe

It was my usual look with a bit of hope on Nov. 20, 2008. When I stared at the signboard
for a new message I couldn't believe my eyes -- there it was. A new message after many months of disappointment.

I used to feel strongly about it -- so much that I would want to go to the church authorities and say that I wanted new messages every now and then, and even offer any help in this regard.

The new message read: "The God who holds the Universe is the God who is holding us."

It could not have come at a better time, I felt. When doubts were being raised about the very existence of the Earth in the tiny globe that is the Internet -- I am referring to the doomsayers' videos and blogs about the world coming to an end on December 21, 2012 -- this message came as a great relief and strongly reinforcing the faith in the world and the universe.

It is so easy to rattle the earth and humans these days with rumours, falsehood, half-baked ideas, and unconfirmed news -- thanks to the Internet and gadgets like the cell phone.

But almost everyone who you talk to you -- even in this digital era and make-believe world -- would say that he or she believed in something beyond science -- not necessarily god force for them -- something beyond their control is holding the earth and other planetary objects and making them to behave as disciplined soldiers for centuries together. And the faithful say this is the God whose mercy is needed to live our lives in this home.

Time turning cruel?

Is there time?

Is there time for anything in this crazy phoney world?
No one has time for anyone seems to be the creed.
With new gadgets like cellphone and iPhone the talkative and entertainment-mad
world gets new opportunities for happiness. At the cost of what?

No doubt life has become complicated and competitive. And to progress one has to
sacrifice so many things. But self-indulgence knows no boundaries in this mod-mad
globe. For all the connectivity and business options
that these offer, the one thing that could really be sadly
missing is the lack of feelings - personal and social --
that stands out.

Why are people indifferent to the feelings of others, even to those who
are around and who have made the world different for them?
Everyone is seen with a tinted glass.

Hatred, jealousy, anger, classism, groupism, and racism shadow the finer
aspects of humanity. These have to be replaced by affinity, love,
magnanimity, tolerance, and cooperation if the world is to be pleasant
and worthy place for all to live in and contribute their mite to society and
world and halt the collapse of values in all aspects of life.

Ego -- Is it worth?

This cute little space is like a speck in the universe -- insignificant yet part and parcel of it.
Ego, humans think, are massive and fill the earth and universe. Yet they are not even worth
the speck in the universe. On the other hand, the anti-ego (i will find another term for it)
is spiritual in nature and works on a different plane that is totally invisible and inaccessible to egoists.

If only people are devoid of bloated egos, which the float aorund,
the world will be a better place -- it can accommodate more
minds, reveal new insights from people never heard of or
seen, promote a multi spectrum of views, ideas and thoughts.

Bloated egos occupy so much space!
What they don't realise is they will pass off as
dust into the space.

What worries me is that their so-called souls
will pollute even the outer space! Let these not form
part of even the cosmic dust!

Speaking of the cosmic dust, I was wonderstruck when
I saw the Image of the Day at the NASA website
(on Aug. 12) -- that of a nebula. Oh! God! what an image!

When things go dry

When something goes dry

When petropumps go dry
vehicles are stranded
machines grind to a halt
movement is curtailed
life is hit all around

When watertaps go dry
throats cry water
clothes pile up for wash
bathing chances lessen
streetbattles erupt

When feelings go dry
the heart hardens
humaneness goes
relationships snap
world becomes empty

Thoughts on RD

Yet another travelling experience I had was not in a bus but in, what they call in Chennai and some other cities, a share auto -- on way to my office for night shift work.

As soon as I picked up and started glancing through a back issue of Reader's Digest, the elderly man sitting across had a sneak preview of an article on the health benefits arising from nuts which I wasn't exactly reading.

He told me he had a good stock of nuts at home but was afraid to eat them thinking it was not good for old people. Citing this, he wanted to read the article, and I gladly gave him the magazine.

After going through the best part of the article, he thankfully gave the issue back to me. I told him the RD is a treasure you can read anytime. He agreed and departed.

RD is also popular with a very old man, a relative of mine, to whom I had given some issues years ago. Though he is old he reads newspapers and some magazines.

I became an addict of RD after getting early exposure to it from my dear mother who used to bring it from her office. She used to enjoy Laughter the best medicine section and read out and share jokes with us.

I used to read mostly articles on self-development and get inspiration to do things.
Even now I buy back issues at cheaper rates on pavement side shops and read them while travelling or when free.

A Conversation

The first time I heard a mature discussion while travelling in a bus happened this Sunday (June 29, 2008). The conversation between two working men, seated behind me in the bus, engaged me and I sharpened my ears -- something I never do consciously.

The discussion centred around the need for improving one's general knowledge to be seen well educated by colleagues at the workplace. One person said that there is a need to know news in detail and reading a newspaper is the best way to do it. He said he was not allowed by his roommates to watch news on TV as the set is used by his juniors for watching movies and listening to songs for relaxing their minds. This has to be taken as a reality, he said. He jocularly said that the roommates also said that since he would be reading the newspaper there was no need to watch TV news. Good news for newspapers!

The other one said reading The Hindu newspaper's headlines alone would keep oneself abreast of news happenings. The paper also gave news in detail of important topics, he felt.

Then he switched to an article he read somewhere about how to deal with colleagues in the workplace and he listed them -- understanding the situation or issue, communicating with others, getting into grips over the subject,etc. He said he did not bother to wear dirty shirts -- probably he could not afford better clothes -- and he concentrated on the bob in hand. When the company introduced a dress code he gained in confidence.

The 10 or 12 minutes that I listened to them, without them realising it, was a valuable experience in the public transport in which usually one comes across heated arguments over silly matters.