Shanghai Visit - My experience going to Shanghai

“You need to go to Shanghai with S” is what my manager said one day for one of the collaboration meeting with one of the premium companies in China. After a couple of weeks running behind our travel desk and submitting almost all the documents required due to strict regulation for granting VISA from Chinese authorities.   Hmmm … You Know What? …  Now, you need to have utmost patience and time to go through the rest of the mail. Hmm … Twwwsiiiisshhhhhhh .. Let’s go flashback to first week of August, 2008 where I started moving away from Bangalore towards our Bangalore International Airport. I was excited on two account. One “I was travelling to Shanghai” and the next one “I was really excited to look at our newly built Bangalore International Airport and it was really good too”. Aanu with his usual hurry burry speed of 80 km/hr and was stirring up the dust on the road and was eager to push me into the airport. Boy, one thing is for sure, at least 20 kms before we reach Bangalore airport the road is of really high quality.

 

Appa, Amma and aanu parked the car and came over to the Departure gate to stay with me for some time. We were greeted with a huge suitcase model in the entrance of the Bangalore airport which separated the departure gate and arrival gate.  I started explaining some nuances about the airport terms to Amma (Departure, Arrival, Baggage Claim, Parking bay, etc.. ) and obviously amma was thinking over something else when we were trying to explain  her all those stupid terms. We anyway stopped explaining after sometime.

 Then, by 11.30 p.m. Mr. S, our sourcing manager arrived at the departure gate whom I introduced to appa, amma and aanu. After a couple of minutes, I asked aanu to head back home as it was getting late. I stood there in front of the departure gate and waited till appa, amma and aanu moved out of sight into the parking lot. Later, S and myself started moving into the new airport with great aplomb holding the passport and ticket in one hand and the other hand was obviously used to drag the suitcase and delicately placed laptop on top of it.

 OK.. Always, introduce the special character before you start moving ahead. Right, S is from Delhi and he speaks really very funny English. Next, he is the person who loves to ask as many questions to anybody as possible and the way he asks is really hilarious. Next, he has a unique way of entering into trouble when nothing is warranted. He has one really ugly habit. He is a big flirt who always has an opinion to say about one girl or another which i am not discussing in this blog. 

 

Hmm .. Now back into the filmy mode. Enter the S and S into the Check-in and Boarding pass area.

 

Scene 1: While issuing boarding pass, there are two sections, one for individuals and one for family. The airliner staff started calling if there are any individuals or single person available for counter 2 of economy. Then, out of nowhere S moved ahead of the line and started speaking in some butler English saying "I will go to that counter." and pulled me along with him. Then, the staff started asking him " Sir, only one can go to the counter 2 not 2". S didn't even bother to respond back to her and started barging into the counter pulling my hands on one side. Hmm .. Lady was dumbstruck by S’s arrogance. Anyway, lady didn't stop him either. I was totally lost in the event and was laughing all the way to the counter.

 

Scene 2: I presented my passport and ticket, collected pass and moved out of the picture. S was the next to enter and started off asking in a typical Delhi English accent "Heeey, I want a seat which has maximum leg space and want a window seat too." Confused airliner replied back saying "Sir, all the seats in economy are having same amount of leg space, there isn't any which has more leg space". S started pestering him with 2 words Leg space and window for next 5 minutes. Later, the airliner responded by saying that "Sir, I have provided you with one of the best seat in the airline". Later, with a grin on his face, he came across to me and said " Dekh Sundar, puchne ke baad humme ek dum mast seat mila yaar airline mein. Ab hum araam se soo sakte hain. Aaja" (Look Sundar, after persuading the staff we got the best seat in the airline”) . Hmm .. I was wondering which was the best seat in airline. Hmm .. not thinking much. I started moving ahead to immigration counter.

 

Scene 3: Here, in the immigration counter, I was asked to present my passport and company visiting card which I duly did and got my immigration stamp. In the next counter, there was S who was asked for invitation letter too by the immigration employee along with passport and business card. (Chinese Invitation letter will be totally in Chinese and nobody understands the head and tail of it.). The immigration staff was holding the invitation letter in the reverse direction.  Instead of keeping quiet, S started irritating the person by laughing loudly and saying " Are yaar !! If you don't know how to hold the Chinese invitation letter, then why do you ask for it in the counter and waste my time? And I know that you are unable to read anything out of invitation letter and just for the sake of asking you have asked for the letter.” His response irritated the person in the counter who asked S some more documents and he stood there waiting for the immigration stamp. S was standing in front of the counter for at least 5 minutes. Later, the staff came back saying everything was alright and handed over the letter and passport back to him with a seal. S was totally angry and didn't speak a word as they made him wait for 10 minutes in the counter.

 

Scene 4: We need to declare electronic goods when we are using it for personal purpose. Hence, with due diligence we moved into the declaration counter and asked for a form where a airport official asked " Yes, what do you want?". I responded back saying  " I want to declare my laptop and camera". Later, more people started moving into the counter and obviously, he didn't even bother to respond back. After asking him for at least a couple of times, he shouted at us saying “No, no, you didn't need to declare. You can go". Then, I asked S "What are we going to do if somebody asks us for the declaration when we return back to Bangalore". Then, S thought for a minute and removed his camera from his bag and moved in front of the declaration counter asked him where he can take a photograph of him". He nodded and S took his photo too. I asked him what the hell was he trying to do there?. Then he responded back saying if anybody asks us for the declaration while we are returning back, we will show them his photo and say that he was the person who asked us not to declare laptop nor camera. I started laughing at his pranks and started moving ahead for the cabin inspection counter.

 

Everything went off smoothly later, we got through the security check and moved inside the terminal and stopped at Gate 15 where we were wait till departure. Then, S along with his big mouth has a big stomach too. He had brought some Badami and chocolates which we were munching in the airport late in the night by 12.30 p.m. S usually overacts to most of the stuff and he munches really loudly. I could see a couple of gazes from some of the passengers seated in front of us at him in an ugly manner. I grinned at him and started reading a novel "The 3 mistakes of my life" from Chetan Bhagat. Later, we cut down the conversation as we were feeling really sleepy.  

 

The so called "Best seat" of S was in front of the rest room and it was really irritating for us. S started cursing the airline staff who gave us this seat. There would always be a big queue of the people standing in front of us waiting to get inside the rest-room. This really irritated us a lot. Ha ha. J  Anyway, as we were really feeling sleepy we fell off to sleep and later woke up as the air hostess gave me morning breakfast at night 3.30 a.m. Breakfast ..  Ha Ha. J Yes, anyway, I was hungry and munched the vegetable puffs which she had provided to me. Later, again after 3 hours of sleep, we woke up to the airliner staff asking us to have lunch. J These airlines are really funny who serve us breakfast at 3.30 a.m. in the morning and lunch by 7.00 a.m. Anyway, I had lunch too. One of my weaknesses is, I feel really hungry when I am flying in airplane. I do not know why :?

 

Hmm. Then, the plane landed in Hong-Kong where we shopped a bit for you in particular. By 1:00 p.m we started flying from Hong Kong to Shanghai where I started reading the Chetan Bhagat book again. S and myself were separated in this instance. Again, i had my one more doze of lunch in this airline too.

 

Hmm .. One of the interesting things which happened was I was able to see all the phases in female’s life around my seat. There was a lovely little Chinese college girl seated towards the right side of my seat, towards my left, there was a cute little girl baby along with her fondling and cuddling Chinese mother. There was a beautiful looking chinese air-hostess who used to sit in front of me only occasionally when the seat belt sign was on in the airplane. To the left of the Chinese mother, there was Chinese grandmother too. Thus, this was the first time in my life, I was surrounded by all the females of all ages. (Baby girl, College girl, Lovely women, Mother, grandmother). Interesting.

 

After a couple of hours, we landed in Shanghai where the Hotel authorities chaffered us into the Hotel Marriott. After our respective check-ins, we freshened up. Later, we searched for an Indian restaurant in China on the net and found a very good one near our hotel. It was a Punjabi restaurant. We immediately got dressed and went to the hotel and had our stomach full of dinner. Brilliant. Then, I came back home by 9.00 (Chinese Standard time) in the evening and went off to bed early.

 Ha Ha Ha .. I haven’t even started explaining about my places of visit to Shanghai. J. Hmmm .. for that I need to catch some more time to finish the same. J . As Shahrukh Khan says in one of his latest film Rab Ne Banadi Jodi “ Hum hain raahi pyar ke. Phir Milenge Chalte Chalte”.  J J. Lots more in further episodes.

My experience in Melukote

Whenever, I start speaking(or writing) about Melkote I get really excited and fascinated as it is one of the small towns which is really rich in heritage and culture. Moreover, as it is Amma’s birth place, she do get really excited every time we are planning a trip to Melkote. However, this time around our trip got postponed umpteen number of times for last 3 months. Thank god, this Sunday (May 04, 2008) we were destined to be in Melkote come-what-may.

Amma, Appa, Anand and myself were really geared up for the trip. However, woke up really early in the morning and got ready petty fast. Amma and Appa was really geared up as they woke up by 4.00 in the morning and started cooking our breakfast and lunch for paati and nacchu mama. Finally, we packed breakfast and some pooja items to car's trunk. We started off the trip quite early in the morning by 7.00 a.m. I started driving on the Bangalore Mysore state highway and on reaching the Mandya town, we took a right turn which goes to Melkote. After moving for some distance, Amma asked me to stop over near one of the village to have our breakfast. I stopped at one of the village by 9.15 a.m. where we had our breakfast. Now, Anand was very much eager to drive for the rest of the journey and took over the driver’s seat. I started reading today’s newspaper in detail when he drove muttering and grumbling across the village people. The cows whom the villagers had left in open was sleeping on the road, dogs used to come in front of our car quite often, huge bullock carts used to block the road where he was unable to overtake for a short period of time until the road widens. Frankly, moving across a village road is like looking over Domestic life sanctuary where we saw most of the domestic animals along the way. On the other hand, early morning dew had covered the place with all the bright colours .. Bright Green pastures, clear blue sky, bright yellow bougenvilla flowers, etc was a beautiful invitation for us to Melukote. Amma too commented saying " Look at the city life and look at the village life. We are just running from one end of the city to another with lots of tension whereas here the people are enjoying the nature and leading a simple, pleasant and satisfied life" Hmm ..i thought about the statement for a while and later started running through the paper. At last after all the village episodes, we reached Melukote by 10.00 a.m. exactly. We went to our aunt’s place, washed our feat and immediately started heading towards Thirunarayana swamy temple.

Have you heard about Melukote? If not no problem, please allow me to explain in brief. I am very eager to explain you all more about it.

Melukote (also known as Thirunarayanapuram) is in Pandavapura taluk of Mandya district, Karnataka, is one of the most sacred places in Karnataka. It is built on rocky hills known as Yadavagiri or Yadugiri just besides Kaveri valley. It is nearly 140 kms from Bangalore. Melkote has two distinct temples both of which has unique history and identity. One of them is an ancient shrine of Vishnu who is worshipped as ThiruNarayana Swamy, beautiful temple in the heart of the town. One of the spiritual leader, Ramanujacharya was associated with this Shrine for a very long period of time. Yoga Narasimha Swamy temple which is also an equally impressive temple resides on top of the hill. As per the history of this temple, Krishnaraja Wodeyar III presented a gold crown to this temple.

Hmm .. Do you want to know more about what History says? Here it is …

Sri Ramanujacharya (Srivaishnava saint) lived in Melukote for about 14 years (thats what the people here say). The preaching of Ramanujacharya enthralled many and it includes the Hoysala king Vishnuvardhana, who had become a staunch follower of the Acharya. Thus, Melukote became a prominent centre of the Srivaishnava sect of Brahmins. However, as most of the places in India, this place too suffered at the hands of Muslim invaders in the 14th Century who totally wrecked the temples. It was later restored by Thimmanna Dannayaka, a chief of Nagamangala, who was an army commander of Vijayanagar king Mallikarjuna or Immadi Prabhudeva (cited from website). However, subsequent wars of Hyder Ali, Tipu Sultan and Maratha had affected the temples again on a large scale. Sad part is that you can see that most of the idols surrounding the Thirunarayana Swamy temples is nearly half broken.

We first moved to Cheluvanarayana Swamy temple also known as Thirunarayana swamy temple. This temple is very well known for its prestigious Vairamudi Sevai in the month of March-April, when the image of Selvappillai is adorned with a diamond crown and taken out in procession across the entire town. Lakhs of devotees throng to this place at this point of time. Please check over the image of the temple below. The idol is very pleasant looking and probably that's why it's called Cheluva Narayana (Cheluva means Beautiful in kannada).

Next, we moved towards the Badrinarayana swamy temple. Appa said that Melukote is also called as “Dakshina Badri” As Appa and amma had visited to Badrinath, they were advised to visit Melukote too within a short span which would then complete their “Thirtayatra”. Here, we saw a cute small idol of Vishnu.

Then, we went to Yoga Narasimha swamy temple on top of the hill. We walked around 300 to 400 steps which helped us to reach the temple which is shown in the image below. This is believed to be one of the seven holy center’s of Narasimha worship. One of the most fascinating experiences is the panoramic view of the surrounding vast area which we saw from top of the temple.

Kalyani: Our Next stop was in front of Kalyani. Kalyani is a large pond as shown in the picture below. The view of the hill top temple from here was mindboggling. The beauty of the steps leading to water and the mantapas built all around is entralling and is captured in many Indian films.

After the entire temple visits, we were damn tired. We decided to go to the Mutt near Thirunarayana swamy temple who invited us for the lunch. How can we say no to such an invitation at this point of time? We immediately barged into the mutt and had a really good lunch as we were literally starving after walking around the town in bare foot.

After finishing our lunch, we went to Akka-Thangi kola. This beautiful twin tanks are described as sister’s ponds and according to traditional accounts, where one of the sisters was very eager to create the pond where as the other agreed to join her hesitatingly. That’s why one of the water is crystal clear and very sweet to drink whereas the other pond is somewhat slushy and very salty ..obviously, not good to drink. Please check over the photos below of the Akka and thangi kola. They are situated one next to another.
Thangi Kola:

Akka Kola:

After viewing Kola(s), we went to Kote Vasil (or also called as Raja Gopura). It is an incomplete structure leading to the hill. It has four tall incomplete pillars. The sculptures on the pillars are very impressive. Popular myth is that the King wanted a grand entrance built within a night. And obviously a master piece can’t be built in a jiffy and it was left incomplete.

Now, after running across the entire breadth and width of the town, now was the time when my mom started catching with her old school buddies. We went to a couple of houses (one was called Batra mane and the other one was Shallu mama’s house). We had a good cup of coffee in the first house and juice (paanaka) in the latter’s house. Here, amma was excited to speak about her childhood pranks with her buddies. Amma was saying how she jumped across the wall to other's house, she was plucking flowers, fruits from neighbor's house without their notice, she was running across the town calling everybody with their nicknames etc etc .. We (Appa, Aaanu and myself) were just like sculptors on the temple who were just listening to all their talk, gossips and so on … no comments whatsoever.
Do you know that the idols (Utsav Murthy as we call) would be decorated very beautifully at the time of procession. We are not allowed to take photographs of the idol in the temple. However, i caught the decorated idols in one of the portraits in Amma's buddy house. Please look over the screenshot below.

Sighh …. It was time for us to leave back to materialistic Bangalore. I always would love to lead a life like them simple and satisfied. Alas .. .. life is not like that .. anyway .. :-(

Again, I convinced my brother that I would drive for a short while and would hand over the car back to him. I started driving back home by 4.00 p.m. and again moved across the same stretch of village but with much lesser cows and other domestic animals than what my brother encountered in the morning. However, I drove really slowly as appa, amma and aaanu were sleeping well and it was a bad stretch of road. After a hour’s of driving, we reached Mysore highway. I always wonder, how can my brother wake up at the right point and at the right time? Ugly .. he forced me to stop by the shoulder of the road and switched drivers. Now, it was my turn to go back to sleep. When I woke up we were not too far as we were stuck in a stupid slow moving traffic for a quite a long period of time. After winding, twisting, turning, grumbling and lots of other emotions, we reached home by 7.00 p.m exactly. Boy, we started speaking to each other saying that none of the earlier instances, we had such a good visit to Melukote within 12 hours.

Ok ..This is all i have from my side. It was a wonderful and eventful journey. Totally exhausted after such a nice experience. Appa, Amma and Aanu went to sleep a bit early whereas I didn’t get any sleep which prompted me to write this blog and it was a worthwhile stuff to do when you don't get sleep. Isn't it ???

Short stories to remember for life

More than often whenever, I start reading personal experiences of people through blog or newspaper or through e-mail. I find it really refreshing.

How often do you let other people's nonsense change your mood?

Do you let a bad driver, rude waiter, curt boss, or an insensitive employee ruin your day? However, the mark of a successful person is how quickly one can get back their focus on what's important. David J. Pollay explains his story in this way….

Sixteen years ago I learned this lesson. I learned it in the back of a New York City taxi cab. Here's what happened. I hopped in a taxi, and we took off for Grand Central Station. We were driving in the right lane when, all of a sudden, a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his breaks, skidded, and missed the other car's back end by just inches!

The driver of the other car, the guy who almost caused a big accident, whipped his head around and he started yelling bad words at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean…he was friendly. So, I said, "Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!"

And this is when my taxi driver told me what I now call, "The Law of the Garbage Truck."
"Many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it. And if you let them, they'll dump it on you. When someone wants to dump on you, don't take it personally. You just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. You'll be happy you did."

I started thinking, how often do I let Garbage Trucks run right over me? And how often do I take their garbage and spread it to other people: at work, at home, on the streets? It was that day I said, "I'm not going to do it anymore."

Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets. Love the people who treat you right. Forget about the ones who don't. Believe that everything happens for a reason. Never let the garbage truck run over you….

The next story which I read was also interesting. It made me think about the actions which I have done till date.

Years ago, a farmer owned land along the Atlantic seacoast. He constantly advertised for hired hands. Most people were reluctant to work on farms along the Atlantic. They dreaded the awful storms that raged across the Atlantic, wreaking havoc on the buildings and crops. As the farmer interviewed applicants for the job, he received a steady stream of refusals.
Finally, a short, thin man, well past middle age, approached the farmer.
"Are you a good farm hand?" the farmer asked him.
"Well, I can sleep when the wind blows," answered the little man.
Although puzzled by this answer, the farmer, desperate for help,Hired him. The little man worked well around the farm, busy from dawn to dusk, and the farmer felt satisfied with the man's work. Then one night the wind howled loudly in from offshore. Jumping out of bed, the farmer grabbed a lantern and rushed next door to the hired hand's sleeping quarters.
He shook the little man and yelled, "Get up! A storm is coming! Tie things down before they blow away!"
The little man rolled over in bed and said firmly, "No sir. I told you, I can sleep when the wind blows."
Enraged by the response, the farmer was tempted to fire him on the spot. Instead, he hurried outside to prepare for the storm. To his amazement, he discovered that all of the haystacks had been covered with tarpaulins. The cows were in the barn, the chickens were in the coops, and the doors were barred. The shutters were tightly secured. Everything was tied down. Nothing could blow away.
The farmer then understood what his hired hand meant, so he returned to his bed to also sleep while the wind blew.When you're prepared, spiritually, mentally, and physically, you have nothing to fear. Can you sleep when the wind blows through your life?
The hired hand in the story was able to sleep because he had secured the farm against the storm.

Humour

Humour or humor is the ability or quality of people, or situations which will evoke feelings of amusement in other people. It’s a form of entertainment or human communication which evokes such feelings, or which makes people laugh or feel happy. The origin of the term derives from the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which stated that a mix of fluids known as humors controlled human health and emotion.
A sense of humour is the ability to experience humour, a quality which all people share although the extent to which an individual will personally find something humorous depends on a host of variables, including geographical location, culture and maturity, level of education, intelligence, and context. For example, young children may possibly favour slapstick, such as puppet shows or cartoons e.g. Tom and Jerry. Satire may rely more on understanding the target of the humour, and thus tends to appeal to more mature audiences. Non-satirical humour can be specifically termed "recreational drollery".
Humour is a part and parcel of everybody’s life. We find a person humuourous when he gives an alternative or surprising answer, that which shows relevance and can explain a situation. In this context, humour is often a subjective experience as it depends on a special mood or perspective from its audience to be effective.

A good sense of humour should always be there in person. Humour would always create an atmosphere of joy and excitement among the people. However, here in this blog I would like to speak about the downside of humour which is rather happening quite regularly. I usually meet up with my school friends, college friends, old colleagues or our company friends. Humour frequently contains an unexpected, often sudden, shift in perspective. Nearly anything can be the object of this perspective twist. You’re standing in a group, talking, and one of the members starts shooting verbal “zingers” at you. Everybody gets a hearty laugh at your expense. Everybody but you. Light (and not-so-light) humor has become almost a national pastime. When you’re the butt of the jokes, you may try to shrug it off as harmless, but it stings is what I have realized over a period of time. Even I was one of the person who was more keen and interested towards throwing slapslick jokes at others. Now speaking to some of my close friends, I am realizing the downside of it as well. And if you’re the one getting laughs at others’ expense, i may not realize what you’re revealing about yourself.
I am strongly realizing the fact that “Verbal Humour on others is Not Funny” When I attended one of the training sessions, across teams and groups, I was always struck by one behavior that stood out above all others, namely, the propensity for many of the members to consistently engage in making sarcastic remarks to and about others in their group or on their team. Even within our friend’s circuit where even I am part of the group feel somewhat depressed by the end of it. Why are we doing it anyways? What You Say Matters The comments which I have listened is directed were directed at folks’ physical characteristics (hair, clothes), perspectives or ideas, life choices (food, others’ choices of restaurants, movies, sports teams), folks’ current performance, and even where others had worked or attended school. These were not simply run-of-the-mill light comments which can be shrugged off quite easily.
On more than one occasion, I had to do a “double-take”, and ask myself, “Did I really hear that?” “Did he really say that?” “Did she really throw that zinger at him?” Boy !!! What continually came to me was “Why? What is this all about?” In Western culture today, the biting, sarcastic, demeaning put-down has become an art form, everywhere ­ TV, movies, talk radio, sports events, journals and magazines. It’s part of the fabric of everyday conversation. And more, many folks today see such behavior as “business as usual”, as “no big deal.” There’s Always A Reason to the statement. In most cases including myself in the loop, we engage in put-downs, sarcasm and barbs as a way to look smart, witty and cool. That’s the upside for them. The downside is that the person for whom the comment is directed is often harmed, hurt, demeaned, or otherwise made the point of ridicule.We need to definitely realize that no matter how sharp one is, how educated, how senior in the hierarchy one is, how wealthy one is… no one has the right to strive to look witty, smart, sharp or cool at the expense of another human being, at the expense of being disrespectful to another human being.
I was made to think seriously about this topic after looking over a article from Peter G. Vajda.
After reading his article, lots of questions is pondering over my mind repeatedly.

1. Is the main reason for the personal humours today is the feeling of "insecurity" which happens in an individual?
2. Is the main reason being to dominate the group?

Now, as even I am the culprit here, I am trying to discuss what I am trying to do here. This is the major part.

Probably the most important conclusion would be to:
1. We need to start getting more concerned about our family and work.
2. Ignoring it to the best possible.
3. Speak out being affirmatively when it hurts others.
4. Maintain the difference and the distance.

Always I need to remember that whatever I speak or do will get noticed somehow or the other and will boomerang back. Probably as I am a culprit too, need to first start altering my life in a better way.

Inspirational Story

Today Morning bright and early, I came across the article which had touched me and wanted to cherish and share the same in my blog. It’s a really short article on humility of a Master or “Guru” as it is called in the passage below.

“
When one Guru was dying, one of his disciple asked him “ Guruji, who was your master?” He said, "I had thousands of masters. If I just relate their names it will take months, years and it is too late. But three masters I will certainly tell you about.

One was a thief. Once I got lost in the desert, and when I reached a village it was very late, everything was closed. But at last I found one man who was trying to make a hole in the wall of a house. I asked him where I could stay and he said 'At this time of night it will be difficult, but you can say with me - if you can stay with a thief’. And the man was so beautiful. I stayed with him for one month! And each night he would say to me, 'Now I am going to my work. You rest, you pray.' When he came back I would ask 'Could you get anything?' He would say, 'Not tonight. But tomorrow I will try again, God willing.' He was never in a state of hopelessness, he was always happy. When I was meditating and meditating for years on end and nothing was happening, many times the moment came when I was so desperate, so hopeless, that I thought to stop all this nonsense. And suddenly I would remember the thief who would say every night, 'God willing, tomorrow it is going to happen.'

And my second master was a dog. I was going to the river, thirsty and a dog came. He was also thirsty. He looked into the river, he saw another dog there -- his own image -- and became afraid. He would bard and run away, but his thirst was so much that he would come back. Finally, despite his fear, he just jumped into the water, and the image disappeared. And I knew that a message had come to me from God: one has to jump in spite of all fears.

And the third master was a small child. I entered a town and a child was carrying a lit candle. he was going to the mosque to put the candle there.’ Just joking,' I asked the boy, 'have you lit the candle yourself?' He said, 'Yes sir.' And I asked, 'There was a moment when the candle was unlit, then there was a moment when the candle was lit. Can you show me the source from which the light came?' And the boy laughed, blew out the candle, and said, 'Now you have seen the light going. Where has it gone? You will tell me!' My ego was shattered, my whole knowledge was shattered. And that moment, I felt my own stupidity. Since then I dropped all my knowledgeability.

It is true that I had no master. That does not mean that I was not a disciple -- I accepted the whole existence as my master. My Disciplehood was a greater involvement than yours is. I trusted the clouds, the trees. I trusted existence as such. I had no master because I had millions of masters I learned from every possible source. To be a disciple is a must on the path. What does it mean to be a disciple? It means to be able to learn, to be available to learn, to be vulnerable to existence. With a master you start learning to learn.

The master is a swimming pool where you can learn how to swim. Once you have learned, all the oceans are yours."

This is a one of the story which I would love to cherish throughout my life.

Here, i would like to reiterate the three essentials of life which i need to carry through henceforth:

1. Never be in the state of hopelessness.

2. To realize my dreams, don’t avoid jumping into the pool of fears.

3. Always yearn to learn more in our life.

4. Be a disciple in life. Disciple is the person who should be able to learn, to
be available to learn to be vulnerable to existence. With a master you start
learning to learn.

Life is so simple, but yet so complex. I need to start realizing that these simple things in life is so alien to us.

Excellent is the least i can say about this article, I was touched, moved and totally inspired through this story.

Beginning of a new jouney

WOW!!! At last I started off blogging. I was always contemplating on how I should start off blogging. Lots of experiences ran around my mind such as travel, seminar, funny incidence etc. However, I reminded myself to start off blogging by sharing few statements which I carry along with me always.

Below is a beautiful statement from Mahatma Gandhi which will always make me remember the utmost reality of one’s life “Being true to oneself”.

“ Happiness is when

What I think

What I say

And what I do

Are in harmony

First, start off Being true to yourself.“

I would like to speak about a moment I savor the most. This happened during one of sessions conducted in our company on “Personal Management”. The seminar was conducted by an American and the very first day he said a statement “You are You and I am I”. Initially, I was not aware of the severity of the statement, but later over past two years I slowly realized a new profound reality through those words. I started thanking everything I have and cherished right throughout my life. I hope to keep going by memorizing these values. Below is a beautiful paragraph about “Thanking”:

I am thankful that I don't already have everything I crave;
Else, I wouldn’t look forward to anything ahead and would be stagnant.

I am thankful that I don't know most of the things around me;
else, I wouldn’t look for an opportunity to learn.

I am thankful for all the difficult times which we face in life;
else, what would make me come to reality and grow up in life.

I am thankful for all of my limitations;
else, what would give me an opportunity for improvement.

I am thankful for each new challenge;

Else, what would build my strength and character?

I am thankful for all my mistakes.
Else, where would I learn valuable lessons?

I am thankful that I am tired and weary;
Else, what would rejuvenate me to work the next day

I am very thankful for all the good things in life.
Father, Mother, Brother and Friends top the list
who were with me during the trouble, and have always cherished their blessings.

The phrases mentioned above always make me remember that "You are you and I am I" However; we cherish our life only when “We are We”.

Going ahead in blogs, I would like to write down most of the interesting activities which I was up to for the month. The lessons I learnt, the things which went right, things which went wrong and surely will share some nice quotes which I always remember.

I am really looking forward to an exhilarating experience in blogging.