a ship in the sky !!

I don’t know if you ever get the feeling of having a thought in your mind which only sculps out into prominence through the articulation of others. Knowing all this while, that it was right there ... somewhere.... perhaps waiting for a password to be uttered to bring it out in the open .

Like a young boy lying on green grass, looking up into the sky, nonchalantly giving form to white foamy clouds ...

Observations made while going about our lives , everyday, give birth to ideas and thoughts which float in your head much like the clouds above , but may not have shape and therefore lie undiscovered ,latent ,shapeless... falling short of becoming a revelation or breakthrough ....occasionally you add more matter and float some more bubbles in the mind tub.... until a friend prompts from arms length .. "over there.....is it not a ship!! " and like a magic sequence , the picture emerges on the indigo canvas.... ideas comes out of the clutter of random thoughts and breakthroughs occur.

That prompt is, perhaps , what we call as inspiration.. Hope u all hear your prompts soon .. and remember a friend at arm's length always helps :)

Rahul

Satyam to ASatyam

                                                               Its been a while since I wrote my last article and no excuses for the same, it just goes on to show that these I have not been managing my time well.

New Year has just started and already the news coming from home and abroad is not very encouraging. We had Mumbai attacks to end the year, the world has watched in horror the recent tussle in Gaza and the news in financial circles kept getting worse.

In India the revelation of Satyam CEO that he has been cooking the books for over seven years and all the reserves, fixed deposits and receivables that the company showed in books was just a mere entry in the books of accounts without any relevance i.e. all the money never existed and the assets were fictitious in nature. All the claims, quarterly, annual results, the auditors report, the corporate governance award, the eminent personality that made up the board of directors ...all resembles a house made of cards cemented by lies and when the cement went out of stock it all came crumbling down. 

I have often wondered that these kinds of acts are worse then the terrorism that we see around the world....i would term it financial terrorism. Both forms of terrorism bring in destruction and chaos but the important difference is that the perpetrators of financial terrorism hidden among us, the culprits are the most revered members of society and the one we all look up to.

Terrorist are generally the individuals who turn against state or a society because they have been indoctrinated against a particular faith and brainwashed into committing all kinds of crimes. As for the financial once they indulge into such scandalous act knowing fully well the consequences and being full aware of the implications of the same.

These people are like termites who gradually but surely eat up the organization from inside, rob a society of its values and ethics and before you know it, it’s too late.

The bigger question is how should such wrongdoers be dealt with? If I were to judge them I would see no difference between them and the present day terrorist and the most stringent actions must be taken so that one would shudder to think of committing such acts.

From glory to disgrace, Admiration to loath, Satyam to Asatyam (Sanskrit meaning of Satyam is Truth and Asatyam is False), the story of India’s most revered computer giant makes us realize that the real enemy lies within and not outside…..

But among these gloom and doom there is also some good news, Barak Obama taking office, the miraculous landing of the air plane in Hudson River, the truce between Hamas and Israelis finally at sight, the oil is at a all time low and its seems that the financial bad blood is finally getting out of the system…

May be all this is a omen of better times ahead….cheers

Sac..

 

Path with a heart........

Any Path is only a path, and there is no affront, to oneself or to others in dropping it if that is not what your heart tells you…. Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself, and yourself alone, one question … Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn’t it is of no use.
Carlos Castaneda, The Teachings of Don Juna

Pinnacle, Summit, Zenith, peak call it what you will but only a few scale the top…. So said chintu and I so very agree. They say that success comes to the one who works hard, diligently and dedicatedly, I say all that is a more of a survival tool in the competitive world of today but success comes to one who follows his heart….or rather chooses a path that has a heart.
Obviously it doesn’t get any easier doing that. A convention path is something that has direction laid down and that makes path seemingly easy with clear defined hurdles and destinations. We know the people who have in the past scaled right till the end, people who are in the race and who are out of it, we also know what went into the successes and failure and all we need is to emulate them to reach our goal. All this I guess, gives a feeling of security and these examples acts a check posts at different intervals.
Gullible that we all are, its is easy to given in to the lure or rather being fooled by the senses because the seemingly easy path is very treacherous with lots of twists and turns and lethal animals waiting to prowl on the susceptible. Its like a mirage in the desert where the reassurance of water is just a illusion.
For a path with heart requires lot of heart to choose. It’s like groping in the dark and trying to figure out a way and that might make it look very scary. Even if you have figured out a way…it might not be the way you want to tread and so begins a second, third, forth or fifth round or may be many more rounds of search. And finding a right path is just the beginning of the hardships because you really don’t have check posts, any clear defined hurdles and destination, it’s like you are making your own path.
But then the treasure lies for those who tread the untreaded or those who follow the heart because that gives him the heart to tread the most difficult of terrain and finally be on top.
As we are just warming up to a brand New Year what lay before us is unknown and in many ways undefined. Every year gives us an opportunity to explore newer paths or continue the old one. If we are already lucky we must have found our paths if not, we all have the choice. I just read a book named “How starbucks saved my life” which made me a firm believer that one can choose a path with heart no matter how much are the odds.
It actually reminds me of a line from one of my favorite movie or rather our favorite “Fight Club” - “If you are ready to loose everything, you can do anything”
Take your pick….
Sac…

Donkey Wisdom…

As we close this year and barge into another, there will be a sigh of relief among many, some people will bid farewell with a moist eye and there will be others who would have never wanted this to end. Different people, different perspective and different opinions and I guess this is what makes this world very interesting. Imagine a world where we all would be same, of same shade, thought likewise and there were no difference ..the world would be such a bland place to stay. But irrespective of what we think and want, change is inevitable and if for certain we have to usher in a new year i would rather welcome the year with a new found optimism and courage then to accept the change grudgingly with disdain and anxiety.

I came across this story and it fits the bill:-

 

Once upon a time there was a farmer who had an old mule. The mule fell into a deep dry well and began to cry loudly. Hearing his mule cry, the farmer came over and assessed the situation. The well was deep and the mule was heavy. He knew it would be difficult, if not impossible, to lift the animal out.

Because the mule was old and the well was dry, the farmer decided to bury the animal in the well. In this way he could solve two problems: put the old mule out of his misery and have his well filled. He called upon his neighbors to help him and they agreed to help. To work they went. Shovel full of dirt after shovel full of dirt began to fall on the mule's back. He became hysterical.

Then all of a sudden an idea came to the mule. Each time they would throw a shovel full of dirt on his back he could shake it off and step up. Shovel full after shovel full, the mule would shake it off and step up.

Now exhausted and dirty, but quite alive, the mule stepped over the top of the well and walked through the crowd. A great attitude. A great way to approach life. Shake it off and step up. Too often we hold on to what has happened to us.

As we head towards a brand new year we wish the readers of the blog a great year ahead. We would also like to believe that New Year will bring in new joys, opportunities and challenges for all. There are too many among us who hang on to the past, just shake it off, step up and move on…..

Have a scrumptious and sumptuous year ahead……

Sac

 

Wonder COSMOS.....

The year 2008 has been a traumatic year for all of us, the global meltdown has affected all and sundry, the series of bombing and terrorist acts has left us shaken, the floods and other natural calamity has set us thinking that even the gods have taken a displeasure, the violence and agitation in Jammu and Kashmir that lasted for more then a month and if this was not enough we had the dastardly and cowardly Mumbai attacks that defied all realms of human morality.

So many lives lost, so many homes destroyed and in turn countless other affected. There have also been some major achievements and between these white and black there has been lot of grey areas and life has to move on. All this events though have a huge impact in our lives and sets one thinking about the significance of it if at all.

The other day i was reading a book named COSMOS by Carl Sagan, when i picked up the book i thought this would be just another book on realms of the universe, its beginning and all the scientific stuff, but what I found was extraordinarily different and gave a new insight into life and its origin, but most of it made me feel how insignificant we were.

Its says that our planet must be about 4 billion years old and the simplest of life form that originated in the planet in the form of one celled organism would be about 3 billion years old. Since then various life forms has evolved and then only a few million years ago humans appeared on the scene. To come to think of our presence in the planet we are a relatively new phenomenon but in this small existence of our's we have had profound impact on the planet. 

Also in this period billions of different life forms has come and many have become extinct. To think of the probability that we are born as humans is one in many billion, the probability of we being living in this era, at this time and in this place would be almost 1/infinite. To comprehend the space that we occupy in the planet would be almost as insignificant, lesser then a speck of dust particle. The probability keep getting compelling the more we think of our existence and our life.

So does that make our lives inconsequential, when lives can be lost at the drop of the hat what meaning does it hold, does that mean that we carry no value and all our actions actually come to naught?

In my article "A Life less ordinary" I had mentioned how each one of us can contribute to nation building, to development of each other, to upliftment of society as a whole and this is what gives significance to the whole concept of our lives. When the probability of being what we are is so compellingly against us i.e. less then one in many billion then I would assume that our presence on earth is not by chance but by design. If by design then there has to be some purpose; as a purposeless life is like a rudderless boat.

Though insignificant it might sound but our actions are very significant. Small actions live a big impact on our lives and present a future that is completely unforeseeable from the present. It’s not just ours that get impacted but the impact is multifold. Just like a forest fire that starts with a spark and eventually engulfs the whole forest or even a town. A small action as writing this blog might have some profound impact on people that I don’t even know.

People who lives the lives less ordinary are like eternal torches whose light emates long after they are gone and though they are not present physically their saga lives on brightening the lives of humanity. They are like flames that can light millions of other candles and though they might be gone, their light is there to inspire coming generations.

In one of my articles i had said that it is in death that we treasure life, the recent spate of events should make us treasure life even more and in doing so help others to enrich their live and thus give it a real purpose and make this planet a real wonder of this whole cosmos.

Sac...

Mind Teaser - II

In the given division every letter represent a distinct single digit.

            

        __________

   c d 9) a h a h b i  ( 5 b 1

             a g d e

                g 3 b

                f  i  8

                  c d i

                  c d 9

                   o

Find the value of h, d  and c.

Post your answers in the comments.... winner gets it all... :-) 

Sac