Our Villains :-))

Perhaps, we humans are the species that happens to face too many villains in our life :-))

Other life forms, we assume to be having their quota of villains too!

A lion sights a herd of deer grazing at a lush green patch of grass (the scenes of “Discovery Channel”, or “Animal Planet” etc)...
The deer is blissfully unaware of its(the lion's) scent, till the direction of the wind changes... then, all of a sudden there is a scramble... The wind God did not oblige the Lion-Ji till the 'last-mile' :-))
There ensues a chase ... somebody gets caught.... that is it.

(What we don't notice is that this-lion doesn't keep running after the rest of the deers for at least till its next hunger session)!

A shopkeeper sights a 'thirsty' customer... Very soon, the shopwala 'realises' that this customer came into a disproportionate amount of currency, and is too-keen to convert it into 'luxury-goods'... the chase now has nothing to do with 'needs' of either the shopkeeper or the customer... The price quoted, the wares traded are disproportionate till either of them finishes their stock :-))

Right from kid age, when I saw that all the bed-time stories have one common element in it... there has to be a 'villain' in it... I also 'noted' that my life is never going to be without-one :-))
Each living person is a story. Whether noticed or not, published or not, recorded or not, sung or not.
And so , there is a villain in it too!
It also occurred to me, and much to my surprise.... that we too 'become' a villain to somebody, whether we like it or not :-((

And then, I saw, there are 'natural-villains' ... that role is just thrust upon them... It comes like some factory-fitted-accessory .. (and therefore that query by a prospective bride “Any luggage?” it took a while for me to decipher this word 'luggage'... but it was too late by-then... I had become a luggage too!).

We can't blame the 'society'... We collectively made it into one, over the generations...
When my tiny cousins were refusing to pull themselves out of bed, I tried a trick “Hey, teacher is calling” ( the anxiety filled tone, coupled with that sharp-urgency, shook them up, and they felt greatly 'cheated' when they discovered that it was a false-alarm... 'how can a school teacher show-up beside the bed of a student's home?')...

The boss at the office is a natural villain...
There was a branch of a bank at Mumbai (Museum Savings Branch), dedicated for catering only one-class of customers.... savings bank account holders... there, the bosses used to say “We needn't shout at slow-working-clerks... customers to that job better! They have a local fast-train waiting to leave within minutes, at the nearby station! So, only fast-clerks survive at the 'public-counters' of that branch.

The neta finds his voters to be a 'formidable-villain' only once in 5 years... After that, he is the 'natural-villain'..

Hey! What is happening with our 'relationships'?... I wondered..
I was curious to find out if I can just manage to stay right inside this game, and yet remain untouched by this 'villainous-relationship' with fellow-human beings?
It then occurred to me, “why not look at them as a structure, tailored to behave only the way that they are?..”... it seemed to work well, to barely manage to extricate myself from that mesh. Not content with that, I even attempted to disengage them from their roles of 'playing a villain' :-))

Yes, it did work... But it meant a Herculean task. Quite risky one too, most of the times! For instance, when something like a 'reservation-policy' is hammered into somebody as his 'birth-right', where is the incentive for him to become non-parasitical? But, it did work with a few, and it gave me a great sense of 'meaningful-living', while just working at 'earning a living'...

A porcupine cannot possibly be motivated to give me a harmless bear-hug!.. But it can be motivated to play-by-rules.. Ooops! It was not about 'real-porcupines'... the human counterparts, I mean!

Villainously yours,
psn(21st December, 2016)

I don't know!

Very few don't know its use :)

It works too well! Most often, it is used to absolve oneself from any act of omission or commission, and the 'benevolence' thrust upon others by our-own-created social ethics ensures that we 'escape' with this “I don't know” :-))

Out of compulsions, we had to accept a few 'codes' being incorporated, to avoid abuse of this “I don't know” ... and the Judge says, “ignorance of law is no-excuse” ... (somebody walks on the middle of the road, he doesn't know that there are traffic rules to obey, since he came into a civilized location for the first time out of a Jungle, and he can't use this “I don't/didn't know” business! :-)) }

I was amused to see a wonderful movie , where the director has beautifully 'planned' a character, a jungle dweller who doesn't 'use' this “I don't know” {The Gods must be crazy—movie}.. he is almost indifferent to being arrested and put in jail :-)) he is that-innocent !

At times, our own 'democracy' turns against us... We are deliberately kept inside the “I don't know”, and then suddenly on the evening of 8th December, 2016, at 8 pm, “we know” about a demonetization... and then it is “from each, according to his accumulation.. & ... to each according to his need,” etc :-))... Interpretation abounds! The least hit, obviously are going to be those who happened to have very less of 'needs' !

When spirituality, ... the path... refuses to budge, despite hectic efforts to 'know'... there is no recourse, no forum to plead ! The irony is that, the 'spirit' wouldn't spare us till we know! Whatever else we do, it just keeps haunting us, chasing us, for eternity :-)) ...

For that matter, 'nature' doesn't allow this excuse of 'I don't know/ I didn't know' ... {spoil the ecology, and learn the consequences the-hard-way :-)) ...}

Animals and other creatures don't 'use' an “I don't know/I didn't know”... despite, things that they can never know! (They just submit , blissfully unaware of their getting 'punished' for ignorance! Rat cakes work everytime! They just eat it and die!)...

Not so with humans!
We can know, and that.... creates our problems!

Intellect, is a faculty that can expand its potential , when coupled with consciously-maintained-awareness, and alertness, at its peak levels... and then ... a possibility opens up, where we can know, what we like to know (though we still don't 'know everything')... and hopefully, it even leads to knowing that, after which nothing else remains to be known!

The first thing I had to learn was... my journey was mine alone!
The rules , therefore it follows, concern me-alone!

One such rule was to use this “I don't know” with great discretion, using the 'sense' of discrimination, very judiciously too! (no matter, what price I have to pay, towards this!)...

For instance... I shouldn't use “I don't know” or “I didn't know” to make way for a “I don't want to know”.. I needn't to know a lot many things, but none of those ought to hinder my knowing what I do-need to know! (that was a problem!)...

Oh yes, ... I was rather fortunate to have had a look at this “concept” pretty early, and therefore was amply rewarded too! The 'process' of knowing things that I came-across, took a gallop-pace, quite often! (it is the deep urge to share, that meets a heavy rebound, and quite often too... The cure, to contain this urge, is so elusive, and evasive!.. it looks like, this urge has decided to stay put, till the very end :-)) Anyway, that's my personal and private problem, so no point sharing that—its details).

Knowingly yours,

psn (10th December, 2016)

Morning hours

A very curious thought occurred to me.
About these early morning hours.

The more I thought about it, the curiosity to 'look' at it kept increasing!

But, when the thought occurred about 'sharing' these thoughts, I had to make sure that there was some take-away at least, for a reader, beyond the sheer entertainment value.

So now, it is entirely up to the reader to firstly verify whether my-experience of it is also-true with them. Otherwise it is pointless to even read any further.

We need to compare. But only with our own selves(so a 'healthy' comparison, perhaps!).
Suppose we are at a place where there is nothing to do for the whole day. Like for instance, we went to some hill station for a holiday, and it turned out to be a 'downpour' of rains, and there was nothing else to do except sit inside a hotel room, and keep looking the heavy rains through the glass window!

We woke up at around 6 am... the whole day passed off, almost doing nothing fruitful, except feeding ourselves.

The first 2 or 3 hours of the day, compared to the rest of the hours of the day, seems to have passed a little faster.

Now, this seems to be true, where ever we are, what ever we did that day, and however the day was for us (the situation)...

And then, I was reminded of a few 'punch lines' , sayings etc.. Like, “lose 5 minutes of the morning and keep searching/looking for it, for the rest of the day”, and 'early to rise, early to bed” etc...
The people must have realised right during the ancient days, that there is something 'precious' about the early mornings!

Somehow, the 'mind' seems to cooperate better during an-early-morning!

My curiosity is about 'why-so' of the mind... (for,/because, ... it is the mind that is the key to life-itself! Body, by itself, though it seems to be a problem when it 'carries' some ailment, seems to 'behave' better when the mind is totally-out-of-order ! Inmates of a mental nursing home are usually-healthy, body-wise :-)) , though not wise other-wise!)

The 'logic' of it takes us to the 'activity' (or the inactivity-rather), that precedes the 'freshness' of the mornings. It is the mind that feels the freshness (of a morning), more. And anything that is/feels 'fresh' hastens the passage of time in our 'experience' (though we know, the spring-mechanism of that wall-clock, works at the same speed 24 X 7)!

The clarity of it became bright, when I started climbing on to the intensity-part of the spiritual practices :-))

And then came the 'trick' to invoke the morning-wala-effect at any time of the rest of the day! The meditations (as a practice). Oh yes, ... as if to 'vouch' for my experience of it, a few of my colleagues at work place too, did say “Hey, you look as fresh as you were at 9 am?” (that was their version of a little bit of 'freshness', which lasts for just few minutes of each day, at workplace :-)), and they don't even bother to 'look' for it after the first half-an-hour!).

I managed to make my day, when it could feel fresh at any time of the day, thus! And, we do-live only a day at-a-time isn't it!

(I leave it to the readers to delve into the why-so of the magic of the mornings, because each individual deals with one's own way of life... I was only interested to 'nudge' others, about the wonderful aspect of this quick-passage of time, which includes a wholesome package-gift with it)!

Good morning of yours,

psn(1st of December, 2016)

Focus

Even in my wildest of dreams, I didn't quite expect that I would be told to learn 'de-focusing' :-))

And even that, I had to learn in a very focused way!

A toddler keeps staring at something... that's focus! It doesn't matter if that kid may not grasp the object stared at ... the grasp being.. objectively or subjectively... physically or intellectually :-))

What matters is... the toddler is practicing at : focusing, and quite intensely too (maybe quite unawares)...

Later, such focus might even lead to discovery of .......gravity, when an apple falls, ... locomotives, when the lid of a tea kettle blows up... or... who knows, it may lead to deepening of perception, enough to .... take a peek-look at the way “matter” appears and disappears at the speed of 1/10000(total , 21 zeros) of a second!

Does a 'thought-process' help us to focus?.. Oh! Even that 'abstraction' , concept-formation looking at a 'set' of thoughts... needs an 'alert-focus', taking care that no-extraneous thought tempts us to make it into a 'jumping into' of conclusions!

If I weren't focused on the 'purpose' of that recent demonetizing of 500's/1000's... like the 'mob', I would have been carried away by the 'emotional-appeal' in a tweet... supposed to have emanated from the 'handle' of a famous spiritual Guru... Even if the 'handle' ( id) is genuine, the handler is half baked dud... He/she suggests, “why not donate that 'unaccounted-currency-notes to a poor fellow, instead of burning?” ... (the poor is not within the tax net... he can exchange it for new ones !)... Unfortunately, the 'emotion' (habituated sympathy for any helpless creature, ) takes away our focus from the basic-concept of 'money' (here, the currency)... Money can represent the result of somebody's genuine toil, hardwork... the form maybe currency, but it can't replace an honest produce . Here, the 'black-money' that became a 'paper' due to demonetisation, was a bogus-money which only inflated the value of goods and services intended to be 'purchased' with it... Outsourcing a 'hawala' to a poor man is ... in effect... insulting-poverty-itself !... One need not 'grasp' these concepts... Just try the simple alternative: “donate fresh, new and genuine currency , instead!”

When our eyes gets used too much, to focus at anything that we see, and when data focus via eyes is denied entry by some thought that take us on a 'international-foreign-flight' ... the alertness and awareness seems to stagnate a little... that's when a conscious de-focusing of eyes seems to matter a lot... (And I guess, when the person who said 'defocus' said it sternly.... it did mean that we are looking at a higher rung on the ladder of that eight-limbed climb of union aspect , the yoga, in the arena called spirituality :-))

for focus , yours,

psn (12th November, 2016  

Laziness

I guess , this time I need to be 'real-brief'... if at all, I hope to find appeal among lazy readers too..

:-))

In my case,
when I embarked upon a lazy-thought(or, was it “an idle-thought”?.. dunno!), to delve into the very-source of this 'laziness'... it took me into a maze :-||

The journey started quite long ago.
One article from a magazine, way back (a fortnightly, “caravan” of second half of Jan, 1968 ) wrote about 'Eliminate lazy Elimination' (it was more about health)..

In those days, I had to just copy by hand, whatever I liked to possess (laziness wouldn't serve me)...

As I journeyed through that spiritual path, I was rather dumbfounded to discover that I had to deal with laziness at two different places !
The laziness of the mind, and
The laziness of the body...

(and all possible combinations of these two, controlling the other, in exclusivity of the other, etc) :))

that didn't contain the problem...
I had to distinguish between the 'lethargies' of these two, body and mind.. ...

Somewhere I learn't that “Procrastination is the thief of time”...
(Now this 'procrastination'... due to what?... laziness?... lethargy?... lack of confidence/courage/etc or sheer wisdom, that I am not-yet-ready for something?... dunno!)...


Oh yes!
I did decide to deal with each of these, and on the way, discovered amazing potentials, which I didn't even know to exist within me...

(As I promised... kept it brief, ain't I )

Briskly yours,

psn(26th October, 2016)

Divide and rule!

One of the favourite strategies adopted by 'Anti-terror-squad' officials, is ample proof that the maxim 'divide and rule' is not an 'ethically bad thing' in itself :)
Like a knife, or that nuclear energy... it is the use that decides the ethics...
Those who try to curb terror-activities, they 'identify' the handler first, and neutralize that person first, and then the 'sleeper-cells' become passive by themselves, because they know nothing else , except to “wait for instructions”...

The body, when it hands over the handling of outside situation, to seek its gratification of its love for the comfort-zones, indulgence etc... to the mind , it sort of becomes like a sleeper cell, and the mind becomes the handler ( the body, the sleeper cell pays for the 'deed', while the handler, the mind enjoys the fun!)...

When I looked at the varieties of tools deployed by the ancient masters, to help the disciples to evolve, step by step... I started wondering. Are they adopting this 'divide to rule' waala technique, tackling the physical and mental 'structure' of each seeker (treating them uniquely and distinctly, and therefore, the specific tailor-made practices to each )?..

Let me try a real life example, which need not be believed at all 'for my words' about it, but can possibly appeal, when samples of similar instances are reminded of...

My sister was an acute and chronic asthmatic...
She was the one who used to take care of my kid at home, when we left for work, each day...
One day, she was 'busy' wheezing as usual... her mind was fully focused on 'how to draw the next breath successfully', while the gaze (the eyes) were 'rested upon' a moving 'object', namely , my kid who was playing around ...
All of a sudden, the kid had an injury out of an accident... He started bleeding... the gush of blood startled her, my sister, and all of a sudden her body “forgot to wheeze” :-))
(this was her own words, when she described the incident, in the evening, after having taken the kid to the nearest doctor and the wound was sutured, bandaged etc...).

I noted this mention of 'forgot to wheeze' being dropped inadvertently (or rather too-unconsciously), amid the intense excitement of the 'first reporting' of the grave-incident to the most-concerned person, ... the parents of that kid :-))

Later on, I revived this mention, and made her 'eat her own words'.. giving no scope to refute it, and thereby, amply-convinced her about a 'possibility' in that direction with concerted efforts, ...thereby making it into an 'at-will' phenomenon ! (psychiatrists usually resort to mild sedatives to severe the stubborn bonds between body and the mind, since not-all of them are spiritually-evolved too !)...

Here, I would try to also remind ourselves about what we saw at an earlier blog of mine... How do we emote? There, we saw, how a 'deeper' emotion takes over the milder one immediately preceding it.

Once the mind is freed-up from its 'slavish' tendency to succumbing to any non-sensical situation, with its surge of emotional response to it... the body is bound to get tamed, and become available for any possible refinement... (the aroma of those junk foods , the sensory glands inside the nostril, would still continue to communicate the info, the data... but the 'processor' the mind , (unlike those dumb computers,) would have learnt to keep it aside for a while, and let this 'divide' be ruled by that witnessing aspect within :-))

Indivisibly yours,
psn (23rd October, 2016)

Seeking Patronage

It had a converse 'theorem' too!

:-))

As a kid, I was drawn towards that converse of it... 'assuring patronage'...
We had a system of internal marks at school, which was mostly based on the teachers own choice (within the overall scheme, that it doesn't affect the scores of the school, in the educational market, whereby it doesn't adversely affect the inflow of donations from kids seeking admission )...

My classmates 'advised' me to keep chanting 'namaste' to a teacher who , in the 'eyes' of kids, appeared to love popularity...

I complied with the 'friendly-advise'.... since it was a 'maxim' in those days, that something told in a 'casual-manner' (take it or leave it basis), has the vulnerability of losing its benefits, if neglected :)

The popular version is to 'seek patronage'... When everybody resorts to it, there is no other way but to accept it as a 'social' thing... (Even 'accepting' a bribe ... failed to raise eyebrows, when it became acceptable that unless 'some' bribe is accepted, even a 'decent living' is impossible!)...

At times, it bounces back...
the example abounds in the political arena...
Despite the 'right kind of noises'... the CM of dilli got landed into a popularity-world at a very wrong place :-)) It was the PAK social media which made him too-popular , while his idea was to make his 'presence-felt' every now and then! May be the approach was lacking... 'fighting-corruption' has to become a little modified once a responsible chair is occupied... A sword is okay in the battlefield(election-fight).. but once back into the agricultural field (administration of society), it is the plough that helps to grow a good crop, it is de-weeding that helps increased crop-yield... a sword would only slash,... even-the.... 'little bit of crops' that somehow managed to grow :-))

As I grew, I started noticing that there were several precious things around, which never sought-any-patronage :-(

The apple did not 'seek any patronage' for the appreciations of the gravity laws that it-also happened to obey with any stone that may be thrown upwards :-))

The forest flower can't even 'hope' to get noticed...
For that matter, even the flowers which depended 'heavily' on those bees for its propagation and preservation of species didn't quite 'advertise' itself... It was “in-the-very-nature” of things, that they get attracted at the right time, and life-perpetuates, or continues (whichever way it is)...

The precious diamond, waits for thousands of years, under tons of uncertainty to be discovered by a keen observer!

“Hey!” I felt... Something that I missed, within me?...
Am I not 'noticing' these so-abstract things ?

Why am I the one (yes, me, the-human-being)... to be able to notice it?

Somewhere, it dawned (I am not quite sure if I am 'right' about it)... that , maybe, ... we humans can even transcend this 'transactional-pattern' of getting noticed... seeking/offering patronage...
Oh yes... we can make the life of others a bit easy, by communicating certain crucial information, like “Sir, it looks like , you are new to this place... the last bus for the day has gone an hour ago... please look for some other means of reaching your destination” (No scope for patronage-transactions, where both of us are strangers to each other, and oblivious to individual 'knowledge' of related situation)...

When it comes to a 'spiritual' seeking,
things got murkier :-))
I never sought for a 'teacher' or so... (and at that kid age, even the word, and its spelling 'spirituality' had nothing to do with me )..

but I did bump into several of them (Oh yes, I didn't realise that they were spiritually evolved, until much later-years of my life... just the visuals of very 'odd' occurrences about them stayed deep in my memory-layers)...

When I felt that 'perhaps' what ever I experienced thus far, might be of 'some-use' to others around... the 'format' of a blog, seemed sensible... even that took a long time to be 'decided-upon' (I had to make sure that my own mind is not really-playing-games, seeking that 'patronage' clandestinely... and such other aspects, which ought-not-to matter to me, and more importantly, 'ought-not-to' retard my own-seeking/own-evolvement)..

Then came the brief stint at a better-popular forum “speaking tree”... it had all the inherent defects of 'undue-popularity' and those factors enabled my exit too :-))

In the 'scheme-of-things'... I had to fit-in somewhere, which suits my pursuits :-))

So, while focusing on my own evolvement... which is the only way to ensure a guidance from evolved beings around... I ought to try and notice a potential in others around, nudge them very gently, very carefully, never encroaching into their own-choices, their own right to exist the way they like, etc, and also trying to make available to a genuine seeker, my own experience (but not assume any guide-like-role.. that is the domain of only-evolved-ones!), allowing them to choose for themselves, what to make , of my sharing...
Obviously, ... age or rather aging, ensures the descent of the too-much of 'fluttering' of wings, over a period of time, and then, that.. RIP :-))

Indifferently yours,

psn (14th October, 2016)

Complicated simplicity

At times, I felt that.... I ought to admire a few, who undertake to do a lot of circus to look-simple... (not 'being' simple... to appear-simple to others around).
But, the moment I succumb to such 'perhaps I ought-to' waala feeling, the threat looms large over my small rule, which may not resist anything complicated, for too long :)

This 'small rule' which is my own tiny and pocket-edition wala yardstick, is easy to carry around, like that pocket comb, which slides easily, conveniently into the pocket of a small-time-hero who pulls it out often to ensure that his hairstyle impresses a bored-damsel, who has nothing particular around to focus on, while waiting for a bus, whose frequency is too less, and often untimely :)

I even blurted out this tiny-rule, and somebody nearby exclaimed, “Hey! It sounds too good! It suits almost any situation!”... and I suggested, “Well, if so try and use it a little often... and in a while ... you don't have to use it... you get used-to-it” :-))... (or, was it this way, 'you get used by it' ... dunno!)...

What I do is also simple... when there is a choice , I look at it as, whether it is... 'life-positive, or life-negative'...

And then the “response”, which is my chosen thing, option, out of that choice... may have its-own-complexities... and obviously, ... I handle one twist at a time, one knot at a time... and untie the whole bundle!

I had my own simple lessons too... at times hard hitting ones...
As a kid, I had watched my grandma chop wood for the cooking fire... that was the only fuel at the ancestral home, in a remote village... The axe was almost as tall as me, at its handle...
I felt that what she did was 'too-simple'... hold the handle at one end, the blade is at the other end, and its edge aimed at a piece of log, ... lift it high above the head, allow it to fall on that wood...
I did it... (it was too late for my grandma to notice me 'go-at-it'... I took just 2 or 3 seconds, to decide for that try)..
As ill luck would have it... the head was loose, on the handle... and the upward motion dislodged it from the handle... and when my arm decided to bring down the handle, it 'felt' a little light... 'de-lighted' , I felt... the handle too was 'de-lightened'... the 'head' landed on my-head :-))

Oh! I felt... a knock on the head of a 'slow-learner'?... the pain was sharp and traveled right through my body... Grandma had a burst of laughter... “Fool, she said,... I had rested that axe, because it's get became loose-fit.. not because I lost-stamina... and you picked up the 'fate' by your-own-choice!”... Yes, fate knocked on my head...
Simple is not about truncation of minor details... I reminded myself... on the other hand, we become minute-enough/simple&small enough, ... to be able to notice even minor/minute details !

When that simple-simplicity keeps me so-much-engaged, with its lessons...
where do I find a hope to learn that 'complicated-simplicity'?...
Everything that looks complicated, about spirituality... I decided to keep a safe distance... and look-out for most-simple of its things, taught, advocated, and made available ...
I did find a teacher who did it always... simplified and thus, exemplified ... even complex concepts!

Simply yours,

psn (5th October, 2016)  

Power

Power failure.

:-))
We understand the power of power via its 'failure' waala phases :)
That's how our mind power works , often, .. right now !

It gladdened me to keenly watch a “power” minister doing the right kind of things, after several decades of 'decayed, delayed kind'... of handling such a key portfolio...
When cost of living surges, human-power too becomes costly... Only electrical power can help material progress, when it can be harnessed, conserved, saved, by handling leakages, wastages, etc too, ... and making it cheaper and cheaper... Something we are able to 'see' so-clearly now!


As lay persons, we often miss 'interpreting' messages of 'poor handling' of power utilisation, distribution, channelising etc, when the whole 'process' is too subtle... The spirit in us, the piece of 'life' ticking inside us... is indeed too subtle... { An example: “Two hours after her birth, doctors at the hospital pronounced her dead after which she was taken to a graveyard for burial, bdnews24 reported.” http://www.deccanchronicle.com/world/neighbours/250916/bangladesh-declared-dead-by-doctors-newborn-cries-out-while-being-buried.html }

Spiritual processes, evolved as technology, in the ancient days, were devised as a means to tap the very-core power of our life, and thereby its manifest forms too :)

Even the understanding of this power presents a complexity, when the approach is from the end use.. ...
When a top-gear doesn't carry the load of a car uphill, we shift the gears, and feel-contended... it moves... The fuel consumption is obviously a little more! But it does not imply that the fuel, when in the top gear was being consumed optimally :) There could be leakages, if the exhaust smoke contains unburnt fuel, when the pistons of the engines fail to deliver the entire thrust from that combustion-explosion, etc... Only a huge leak in the fuel tank gets noticed, but not the gentle evaporation due to a faulty insulation ring at its cap in the fuel tank!

The classification of 4 major paths, of suggesting it to humans who are keen to 'reach' the core of their 'life' ... too was based on a preliminary observation of where and how this 'life-energy' gets manifested a little predominantly....
The 'observation' itself was based on the efficacy of a life-style, a way of 'living' (later called 'Hinduism'), which also included in its design, the facility to 'read' those subtle manifest forms of predominance of this energy/power, in its manifest forms, with utter-ease and simplicity...
Now, when this life-style itself got mangled and mutilated too-badly, this observation gets blurred, ... thus leaving it to a 'chance' that a person gets to recognise one's own potential-source of energy---more specifically its source of predominance...

Sounds a little fuzzy... :)
Do we not find people to be more-energetic while engaged in certain areas of activity? Somebody can work 'physically' a lot, but feels sleepy when we asks him to engage his 'brain' into grasp of an abstract-concept... Somebody is highly emotional, and can work wonders, when emotionally-charged, but becomes dull when left 'lonely' (even in a crowd)... and so on...

What I find it to be more challenging is... when a person's basic energies get almost-blocked (like the blocked arteries, or veins, which causes a heart-attack... here , such blockages renders a person's whole life to become like 'just another living creature'... nothing more!)... and this person 'struggles' with mere-living itself :)... Now, he seeks that 'peace' as his 'ultimate-goal'... where as, even animals in wilderness are utterly peaceful !... Peace is something very basic and fundamental to life, and only when we are peaceful, 'something-else' is possible...

So, that huge godown of 'stored-power'... the life energy... remains dormant, only to seek an action-replay some other time, somewhere else, some other form, and in some other way!...

Are we keen to find out the location of our own power-house?... The 'why-at-all' of it , needs a 'sanction' from our mind... but what 'if' the mind is not the predominant place where this power has chosen to manifest its form right now? Dunno!

Powered-ly yours,

psn(26th September, 2016)

Trust

"Do you trust me?"....

An adult: "For what?"

a kid: "Oh yes!" (he/she , being a kid... would 'reconsider that commitment of 'Oh yes' only if needed)...

Financial-trust is quite understandable... (and kids don't deal in 'finance-portfolio' as yet... )..

Other trust-forms (mostly, those seeking a specific name , in response to 'for-what?' )... are the ones, that keeps us away from trust as the very quality of our being ...
Emotional-trust,
psychological trust,

moral-trust,

ethical trust,

domestic trust, (I don't have to give examples-even :-)) }

office trust , (cashiers are trusted for 'free'... clerks are trusted helplessly, by the boss)

civilian trust,

political trust..
common-sense trust (may be even Intellectual trust)

etc...

We like to test, the other, before we trust... And then, if we don't trust our-tests enough, the trust on the other keeps oscillating..

Trust in its bare form, doesn't try to make any appeal into us .. ...

That is exactly where this intangible abstract thing poses itself as a great hurdle when we smash our head against hectic practices, and yet nothing-serious seems to happen :-))

Oops! I forgot to mention ... I betrayed the reader's trust , probably, when I said 'hectic-practices', without its prefix, spiritual-related :-))

But, for most of us, even getting started with basics presents a great problem...
Yep! It only 'presents' a problem... and like most presents we receive, it either gathers dust in the attic, or it finds its way to a better victim's location... the receiver hardly bothers... we are so-used to our positioning-of-self with, “Your problem, not mine, to evoke my-trust in you!” Somebody 'posing' to be a spiritual guru, would readily accept this unspoken positioning... and the other, would simply wait...

The 'operational' part of relationship, usually the practices, evidence the presence or absence of such 'unconditional-trust', quite often... Only that, its subtlety is itself becomes a reason, to escape it's-being-noticed... The non-subtle or a little manifest forms are 'doubts' that arise, without a 'proper-foundation'...

Examples are a bit risky :-))
I would prefer to deviate from my usual weakness to add that humor, satire, or whatever..

testily yours,
psn(18th September, 2016)

Habituation

“I guess, I need to now... recheck the total of the days!”
said my spouse, when it simply crossed her limits of 'reasonable' results...

The word 'century' too , had a place in the same 'embedded' software, 'habituation'... somewhere..

Long ago, I had embarked on trying to persuade the women folk of our household, to lower the flame of the LPG gas... (sparks would fly off, if I were to 'insist' on it)...

They took just about 3 decades to try... nothing more...
but even the 'try' was very gradual.... (can't take chances with what this 'crackpot' fellow says!... that's me, the crackpot)...
the 55 to 60 days wala cycle climbed steadily up to 75 days, when the 'need' arose for booking a refill...
The number of people got reduced to just two of us (situational compulsions, others got relocated)..
the days climbed up to 85, then 90... and last year, some 93 or so...

Yesterday, the batsman at the crease (cylinder that is burning its belly-gas), hit a century 101 days :-))

and therefore that 'urge' to recheck the totals...
“simple, I said...” and showed the date of 'booking'... no need to flip the soiled pages of wall calendar.. total mistakes can be in the area of tens, not units...

Now, I thought... it is time to 'deliver' two simple messages...
one--- we needed to heat only the food, and not the entire kitchen... so the fuel got its life extended, when the “lowering of flame” did only the job that it was meant-to-do...

(I reserve the 'opporchutney' to extend this concept to mind, which burns its fuel, indulging in too many of needless thoughts ! :-)) }

Pressurising a modern mind into accepting something at once is counter-productive...
The fast pace of life, its ever-increasing vulnerabilities...
Has one of its nearly-irreversible side-effects...

As a part of 'self-defense' program... a mind resolves to habituate itself, into a habit, of resisting something that changes their very-routine , of their mind-itself...
So, the very 'listening' now becomes a habituated-delayed-program...
and then the 'trial' sessions of some suggestion, which got 'listened-to' deep enough after a reasonable-length of time... (in this case, just 3-decades :-)) lowering of flame!)..
trial sessions too... were progressively delayed (the progress was in detaching one-self, from the earlier habit of keeping the flame-high)....

What would happen, to a subtle concept, attempted to be infused via some crash-course, like a 13-day Yoga program... the program would crash.... support for backup can't sustain for 3 decades like a length-of-time :-))

Well, if this 'wild-imaginative-idea' of mine appeals... please revamp the very basic 'idea' of that “habit of not taking in things too-soon” , as a part of defensiveness of mind wala embedded software-program... Maybe other sub-routines will get impacted in a cascading manner !

In my case, I was in a great hurry....
I took things too seriously... Two sets of crude postures , called aasanas were prescribed for a brief duration, of just 40+ days, as a preparatory thing, to afford to sit in a place for hours, without feeling numb-limbs or developing muscular cramps... (as a basic-need, to justify such postures)...
these two sets were to be repeated on alternate days, once... I did it twice each, every day... that needed a rescheduling my non-office-hours... just that.. and I did it... coupled with that, I tried climbing on the bellow-actions (a middle part of a set of structured pranayam), which was left unshackled (as regards to its number-of-times), to a 'frenzy' height... average ones do it some 150 times in three sessions together... I did it just 3 K ... Anybody , even merely watching me do this circus, decides to keep a safe-distance from me , and that includes my 'ideas' too!

Habitually yours,
psn(12th of September, 2016)

Need a want, or , want a need?

And somewhere 'desires' too, add to the confusion :)

Recently I got persuaded into giving a 'nod' for a compound wall to be constructed (just on one side of the residential site... ).. now please wait... you will laugh even more, when I add that, it should have been done some 3 decades ago, when the house was built :)
Just that I turned out to be the last-fellow to have it in the entire colony (cluster of houses)...

Well, I barely had enough money to have a wall then...
it would mean 'compound(ing)' my problems, enough to create a wall (narrow domestic walls)...when I couldn't elevate the 'item' which qualifies as a 'need' ... needs a promotion from 'fencing-stones+barbed wires' to a pucca wall :)

I started thinking...

where did it all start?
And while this 'thinking' was on... a youngster was just 'starting' after 'blinking and thinking' for quite some time , about his 'winking' at a sinking career!... He managed to float , and pretty well too..
I was reminded of my 'start' (when-today, any 'start' worth its name is linked to money, I too am constrained to say similarly, when I say my-start)....

The earliest few salaries, was barely enough to just-keep-going... (Yes, half the difficulties were due to the social standards 'set-by-the-society'... like we need 'clothes' while bulk of life-forms, walk about so-cheerfully, in their birthday suits !)..

Though I didn't actually “plan” it that way....
now when I look back, I guess, what I did gets formulated into an 'idea' that may-work for a few others too!

After that 'starting-trouble'... the only other phase, when I felt that money-worry was, when I raised a small house on a site, I purchased....

I have been aware of a lot many of people, around me ... worrying almost all their life, about insufficiency of financial resources :(
Almost like somebody working at a place like “Cherrapunji” ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherrapunji ) , and cannot just put-up with a lack of an umbrella alone! The place-itself, is the 'wettest' one!

Ah... I thought...
one needs to knead the need well-enough!

I was decidedly-set to set-my-sail, on a spiritual sea...
that decided about my 'wants'... What I want, ought to match what I need (desires are now decided upon by the situation, not my likes and dislikes)...
Often, people mess up the wafer-thin border line between 'reasonable-wants' and reasonable-needs...

and then, their wants eats into their available-income Plus, the essential needs..
Some try to just lament... others procastinate that lament into a misery, by borrowing heavily to fund their 'wants'.. I escaped this trap, just because I was sailing on different waters (spiritual-sea).. :-))

The major advantage I found was... over a period of time,

I happened-to drop that conscious effort to keep the “wants” from hovering over my head, when the look-out for identifying only-the-needs became utterly-effortless.... Now that, allowed me to afford myself, to focus better at work (in the office,) and to focus better at the family (while at home), and also keep that focus clandestinely-alive, into my hidden-agenda, the spiritual-Bijness :-))

Wantedly yours,

psn(7th September, 2016)

post script: I won't attempt to sermonize... what worked for me, if it happens to give some clue, ... it is up to the readers to solve-their-puzzles now!

Listening

We do listen....
And so do animals (whatever the technicality involved... snakes without ears... bats , use the radar..etc)...

What irritated me was....
these animals 'listen' even while asleep!... (Dog for instance... it almost makes us believe that there is no 'such-thing' as a sound-sleep for these guys!)... But, can't be true... they don't have that 'hangover' of a disturbed sleep... Bah! Forget it, that they sleep even standing..(some of them... ) there are ones who sleep-hanging! Its 'listening' that I was trying to look at...

Oh yes...
we ended up complicated that listening a little, when we decided to make-sounds-that others need to listen-compulsorily ( a court's “hearing” ... of a case... the “Your Honour” there won't listen to non-advocates primarily.... :-) he listen's better to case laws! Copy-paste Bij-ness in full swing... where as, quoting law, its concepts, preamble.. is an 'herculian-task' )

All of a sudden the voice at the other end of the phone 'seems to get mixed up with heavy wind' (guzzz guzzzzzz).. But, it could be just that the other person got all his teeth removed just-now (recently), and is waiting for the artificial ones (dentures... or whatever!)... We listen more to 'gush' of air, 'swooosh' than the words spoken.
Even shift of accents make that listening quite a task! (“Western” accent makes a pass mark in TOEFL... so tough! Listen to the noise they make and struggle for a 'cohesive' reply that fetches good-marks!)

I tried to look at it a little deeper (that bizness of listening)...

For the sake of my-own understanding, I tried to classify it thus:

1. Listening: Mind engaged in own-chat (the other keeps blabbering... his very-first sentence took my mind away, into an incessant-chat, with myself... and I lost the rest of it... I didn't actually disturb him... I , perhaps, left him quite-disturbed, by not listening at-all, any further!)

2. Listening: Mind listens while chatting : (the chatter of my mind is almost lost into own-stuff, and certain 'key' words, draws my attention... not any better, really)

3. Listening: Mind chats while listening: ( the attempt is to focus on listening, {for some sacred-reason}... but mind races along, to fish-out something related to what is heard... too-keen to 'make-sure' it is understood in-good-time!)

4. Listening: Well... just that listening... plain-listening... as innocently as a recording device! (Now it can be played back, and 'heard' well at one's leisure... but depends, on other factors!)

Some of the 'dialogues' I heard when a tiny-kid... made sense, only when I recalled it as a 'grown' up... for instance, in the colloquial language, the very expression “grown-up”... when it is about a girl attaining puberty, has a 'contextual-sense'... where as a kid 'at times' is said-to-blabber like 'grown-ups' :-))

It is perhaps, that 'listening'... and its classifications (concocted by me)... that led to deepening of certain perceptional-dimensions within me... leading to even 'listening' to the texture-of-thoughts of the other (guess-works turn correct, too-often... what else can be a 'credible-evidence'?)...

It is entirely another matter, altogether... that people claim to 'listen' to even unspoken things... listen to 'silence'... and poets claim even bizzare things like “Kuch Kehta Hai Yeh Sawan” - Asha Parekh - Dharmendra - Mera Gaon Mera Desh Songs - Lata – Rafi”.... link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK3E-YXEIXE

And now, I wonder... when it is merely-about reading a stuff... why at all does that listening get interrupted?... Oops... mind-games! (animals don't mind it ...!)

Patiently yours,
psn(7th August, 2016)

Controversy, contradiction, contravention, and that poor “confusion”

:-))
If nothing seems to afford a way to classify some 'conflicting' aspect of something... whether it is a 'controversial' thing... mere-contradiction... or a contravention (of norms like thing)...
'confusion' comes to the 'rescue'... we can simply say, “I am confused”...


A kid cries...
The parent tries to 'find' out the 'why' (that,.... after failing to do a 'summary-disposal' of “hey keep-quiet now!” Etc... it doesn't work always.. especially, when that 'crying' was not for 'testing' the moods of the parent :-)) }

When examples are simple... the understanding of a concept too 'seems' quite easy ....
( ask any kid... he finds those 'sample' sums(maths), damn easy... while the 'exercises' are stubborn! Doesn't yield to a grasp by its tail-even!)...

In a crowded bus,

a mischievous youth, ticking a girl on the seat in front of him...
'contravenes' the 'provisions'... of freedom to travel, unhurt, undisturbed, etc....

I do not even realise that I got into a 'wrong-bus'...
I did something 'contradictory' (to the purpose of my journey... nothing wrong with that bus, to call it a 'wrong bus', it is my 'choice' that went wrong :-))

I give a 'tenner' (a ten-rupee-note), and 'expect' that conductor to 'instantly' return the change of Re.1/- back to me , preferably a crisp currency , not that burdensome-coin of same denomination...
I have given rise to a 'controversy' (who is to decide, who was right?... the conductor, who claims “how can I walk out of the bus, each time, that I run out of a 'change', ?”... or the passenger, who might keep 'arguing', without realising that most people give only 'tenners'.. few part with a 'change' ... because, it involves 'fishing' :-))... picking a fiver, plus two-two's, one's etc...

Somebody, who gets all the 3-treats... (gets tickled, doesn't have a 'change' and God-forbid, the bus-was-wrong)... he finds 'shelter'.. under a conclusion-of-confusion ( “ I am a thoroughly/completely, confused man!)...

Religious sentiments, targeted by politicians, using emotional-sentiments... on people who are good at neither (religious-concepts, nor the 'emotional-stability')... struggle within, oscillating between these three (are they contradicting my-beliefs?... are they contravening my rights of following a 'faith'?.. are they raising a controversy about my-very-religion-itself, its basics?... Poor confusion has no-time-space, to raise its head... meanwhile things-flare-up !...

No confusions, about whom to vote for(same corrupt neta, for decades!)... or whether to get-things-done via-bribe... (it works faster...)... or, when the whole traffic is stopped, even an ambulance, to make way for a VVIP, (it is never a contravention of 'traffic-concepts' )...
nor is there a confusion about seeking 'entertainment' out of almost-anything (Bah! that 'working' for a living is so-burdensome.. it hardly 'entertains'... only to discover that 'retirement' is a bigger-punishment :-))

Declare something like : “Ah! What-a-weather.. today!!!” (very safe... doesn't matter if it feels too-hot or too-cold for the other... it evades a qualified-remark!)...

Un-compromisingly yours,

psn (6th August, 2016)

Network(ing) of concepts :)

:-))

That smiley was to express my amusement at the way the word “networking” has .... now taken... deep roots in our 'present-day-minds'... (yes a 'society' is the fuzzy-average ... of ...aggregate minds collectively :)...}

We have a network of our-own people on a social media...

machines (gadgets)... are allowed a 'networking'.. but only to 'serve' the comfort-zone-seeking minds of ours (Example: One remote can control distinct gadgets sprewn around a 'working' place called 'living-room' (and we call it a “hall”, irrespective of its size :) ....)

Networking of concepts ?

I was at once reminded of this, as a great possibility... especially, when I found a certain subtle cohesiveness between a very closed-group :)

Well, ... that it was a wedding... seemed to be merely an excuse!
The group does manage such cohesiveness even during a death of their close ones!

The beauty is... even they may not be aware of a certain subtle factor... a binding factor ... that works too-silently, within them!

Certain safe assumptions, which are going to be only to their discredit, though owing to the widespread deterioration of our own social values,.....

are in fact....

a great 'bench-mark' that they seemed to create for the immediate future generations!

A challenge to the youngsters of immediate-tomorrow...!

What amazed me was that their own cohesiveness, even managed to 'dissolve' me into-them ... as if I belong to one-of-them !!!

Let me try to make my own quixotic 'ideas' a little more elaborate!

It is the grasp of basic concepts (its intrinsic strength, specifically...) which affords a climb on the ladder of 'evolvement' with a strong-and-sustaining steadiness...

At times, this 'networking' of other concepts, (apparently not related even, with a singular concept), just throws all the evolvement to winds!

Photography, ... is no more the exclusive monopoly of those who excelled in a 'studio' like structure (now-a-days, we seldom find peope visiting a 'photo-studio' to get-captured on a 'celluloid' :) both, the celluloid, and a studio that processes it have almost become extinct, ... not just obsolete :)...} Smartphones manage it too well... only wildlife photographers are able to manage to stay on-the-top... with their mega-sized lenses, their mega-patience, and their mega-investment of precious time...

This tiny eye of a smartphone has harrassed even the chronic and acute 'weaknesses' of mega-politicians, who hitherto managed to camouflage it, from the public glare... :)

So, I guess, it is time-enough... that we do take a look at the possibility of a networking of all those concepts that we managed to grasp, with whatever little awareness that we had all along :)

A typical example was that of a youngster who shot up high on a career ladder, and seemingly all-of-a-sudden !

I would only wish... and pray that this youngster does manage to maintain awareness of the concepts of basic life-values, to even stay at that-top :)

His immediate constraints , ... might be.. (for example)... that he cannot now-afford a keen observation at a very-close-proximity... of people around him... (His very nature of job keeps him hopping from one problem to the other :) ... problems are what these top level executives manage on a day to day basis, with almost no-tailor-made solutions on hand :)

That 'seemingly all-of-a-sudden'... is only for those who are as-yet unable to guess, the tons of struggle that this youngster had, during his early days, in desolate-solitude (the “mind” finds itself lonely, when people around do not seem to understand a person from our-perspective :-)) , and such solitude is often the culprit, to deter a grasp of these basic concepts, ... only-then to even think of networking these-concepts !

The youngster, who baffled his earliest of bosses (of a different marketing-firm)... did not manage to hold him ,... probably because they failed to assess his intrisic strengths! Somebody else did ! And he rose phenomenally, despite shift of work-situation, in the next few organisations!

Coming to the 'mystic' aspect of what that 'family' managed at a very subtle levels...
I know for sure, that there ought to have been frictions between individuals, at almost all levels, and periodically-enough to deter them from managing that 'cohesiveness'... (I know of a few of such negatives, since one key-factor of that family remained bonded-with-me, for almost 4 decades :-)) ...}... And it is that first-hand-knowledge, that afforded me a grasp of this subtle aspect(the cohesiveness) which not only prevailed, but seems to have even-percolated down to the next-generation too!.. That youngster who is now a “G.M” of a very reputed mega organisation, is a down-to-earth example :)

I even tried 'marketing' my idea of 'unison-factor'... which I guessed-to-be, the distinguishing factor of the so-called-religion, Hinduism...
One of the key components of this 'ism'.... seems (to me), is the 'networking of concepts'... which in itself, may have been looked at as a 'concept-in-itself'... by the ancients!

But the 'elder' with whom I tried to explain this 'unison-factor' seemed to miss the whole point! Doesn't matter... as long as... he too stays, knitted on to the cambric of that family, seamlessly-interwoven... into that 'cohesiveness'...
It might interest the readers, that this group consisted of a cross-section of individuals, who held their social name-tags of utterly-disproportionate-status/es.... (a major challenge for the youth!)..

I guess, I did manage to take a peek-look at their hidden-secrets ! (hidden even from-them)... For me it was amazingly-rewarding... this brief 4-day-visit... We were 'housed' (accommodated), too closely, and that came in too handy for me to 'catch' them even-off-guard, ... but only to keep admiring what they 'possessed' so admirably...

I would only surmise saying... “yet another demonstrative evidence this was... to reassure that ... our ancient heritage is not even lost... and so, 'irretrievably' is a word which does not apply at all :)

I bow, to the spirit of this family...
(I hold back the names and details, only-to preserve their sanctity... though, none of such details, are of any kind of 'private' , confidential, or secretive in nature)...

I stood to gain immensely... to add to my spiritual quest, and its wisdom....

a famous quote:

Buzurgi ba aql ast, na ba saal ,
Tawangiri ba dil ast , na ba maal .

Wisdom comes from knowledge, not from years
Riches come from the heart and not from things

Inter-net-ly yours,

psn(13th July, 2016)

Work place

I saw a cartoon today.

“listless”.....
is what comes to our mind, when we try to look at it a bit emotionally...
Problems are aplenty, when we deploy our logic (materialistic—of course :) }

Hey! I told myself...
I ain't a robot... (well, when I joined 'service', robot was not a popular term, so I called it 'a-machine')...
I am a human being (by make, at least... and hopefully, by-awareness, through efforts)...

I tried to relate emotionally with every aspect of work...
Every instruction , I tried to look, with a question, “How does it make life better?”...

Seldom, did I find things that didn't fit into the 'scheme'.. (all good organisations are structured so, with of course, scope in plenty , for innovations)...

In simple terms...
while most people fret-&-fume, when they look at a red-signal at a busy cross-road, it simply translates into “it's for my own safety, that I reach home in one-piece, peacefully, and not fully-in-pieces :)

On the other hand, I can even 'break' the rule, when I am trying to rush a patient for their-life-saving...

Now, can we really 'expect'... a red signal for those innocent wild-animals, where our roads are laid by us... across a huge forest?... We invoke our 'response-ability' and act prudently, judiciously, and with sense of discretion.. or , we end up contributing to extinction of that 'wild-life' :)

At a work place, we need to look at the 'situation' and then deploy the rules... not for the sake of rules, not for satisfying the auditor, or even the boss :)

I felt amply rewarded..
no 2 days were 'ever' the same to me...

instead the same vouchers, the same customers,... why even the same numerals 1 to 9... seemed to offer a wide spectrum of variety entertainment, a challenge-afresh, each hour (not just each day)...

I thoroughly enjoyed the work place itself..
I did evolve , when I had-to-invoke my own latent potentials, to improvise myself, at work each day :)

Good that the kid slept off earlier than when he used to be told bed-time-stories...

Work-o-holically yours,

psn (1st of July, 2016)

Conceptual outlook

I am not quite sure, if the caption is 'appropriate' (in the sense in which I had meant it to be!) :(

Our very outlook, our very attitude, ... if it is accompanied by the 'look out' for the concepts involved in what we look-at... as a situation... on our outside,
then,
may be our very outlook turns a little conceptual (as compared to other life forms which merely respond to 'perceptional-instincts' , which is also quite valid, when survival, self-preservation etc are synchronised-designs of the 'nature'/prakruti... that had designed them thus! We humans have the potential to make a conscious-choice about everything... whether such choice turns sacrificial, or one-that-of a greed is our individualistic choice!)

I guess, a very recent discussion that took place on a closed-forum, would perhaps... help to understand what I had exactly intended to convey :)

Yes, since it contains my own experience at the work place from where I had re-tyred/retired, I guess, it adds to 'practicability' too, ... to some extent :)


quote:
"New development observed in PNB ATM machine.
6 digit OTP also required for withdrawals, as soon PNB card inserted, OTP generated and received on registered mobile number."

There was a comment on this news:
Does it mean that to use PNB ATM Cards, you MUST have a mobile on hand ? What happens if one does not have a mobile, or if there is no network, no charge or simply if the SMS is not received? They are complicating a convenience in the name of security.

My response:
If many feel thus...
some via-media may emerge... (like asking that OTP only if withdrawal is above 1000)
reply
Sir, amount is not the criteria. If a person cannot withdraw his money at the time of need due to any reason, it is useless. It is time that more than one alternative is put in place.

My response(to the reply):
Yes!
I agree in totality... (amount is not the criteria)...

Need has always been the criteria ...It is only the lack of recognition of the "need" on the part of the person 'holding' the amount, that poses 'social-problems' :)

A rich person (with abundant surplus savings, ) has to see the 'need' of the situation like an earthquake/tsunami, and has to loosen his purse-strings, and allow at least a small trickle to reach the impoverished-in-deep-distress :)

We bankers are mere-custodians! Our response-ability ...
ideally... ought to be far-more than those paise-waalas :)

The same concept (of that of.... ATM)...
I was a little fortunate to grasp when I had tiny-powers (just a special assistant ... they call 'special Ass'! :)
It so happened, that the signatory of a 'rich' CD a/c left for outstation without leaving a signed leaf of a cheque to meet the weekly wages of workers at his factory. Manager tried to plead with 'officers' to allow a 'withdrawal' (like ATM, which lacks the authenticity of a cheque presented by drawer of an a/c :) )...
I happened to be a little more-familiar with conduct of account, and decided to take a 'risk'... I asked that manager to sign , plus a letter explaining the 'situation', .. I paid, as an 'official' though-not-an-officer!..
later the owner ratified my action, substantiated and "categorically" authenticated my 'illegal' action with a generous dose of gratitude ...

On another occasion, we used a 'double-blink' of eye-lid as a symbol (which the true meaning of a signature), of approving a withdrawal, when the signatory was bed-ridden+incapacitated! (yes, bank's lawyer, a notary, a medico, etc attested that 'drama' to document it as an evidence, just-in-case of any eventuality of a subsequent litigation!)...

Like you said, 'need' is of utmost priority!
(there is a saying "for want of a horse-shoe, a Kingdom was lost" :)

I am sorry, if this response turned a little too-long!
(my colleagues... so, the temptation to agree+share was too-strong :) )
regards,
psn

unquote:

conceptually yours,
psn (27th June, 2016)

Response-Ability

Very recently, I was inducted into a group in the social media platform, which comprised of a homogeneous mixture of people, though they hailed from a thoroughly heterogeneous background...

The grooming was 'unto-becoming' a homogeneous kind, and for good...

Modern terminology calls it 'work-culture'.. it depends on how that work place views, the 'nurturing of employee's attitude' to be shaped, whereby, ... that organisation ensures its own growth only-through-the-growth of its customers :)

And so ,
the upper most of my thoughts started re-living those incidents at work place, which I felt were quite precious-to-me...

That sense of Response-ability.. got hammered into me within about 2 or 3 days of my joining duty... (the story is 40 + years old)...

“A-p-o-l-o-g-i-z-e”.... ordered the branch secretary of worker's union to me (I was supposed to become a member of this very union, when my services will get 'confirmed' after the probation).

I was to say, “I apologise” to an elderly person, of the subordinate category ....
As a fresher, I would have said those 'holy-words' even without so much of that 'thundering-voice'..

I was so used to being 'pushed-around' by any elder, right from the kid age (the family being large, now-called as 'joint')... I had long abandoned that urge to find out a 'why-so' when somebody orders me about, or inflicts a minor punishment... Mostly it was the only way they reassure themselves of their own presence-being-felt :)

I just reeled out that apology (and yes, that leader/neta ensured that quite a few of other staff too had got to-notice my act of 'tendering-unconditional-apology!'...

My personal-tragedy was, I didn't know why I was being asked to say it out ... (this song too was a little cruel, when it came too late for me... “aisa kya gunah kiya”... Hindi movie, 'Hum dil de chuke sanam')

I would have almost forgotten the whole incident ,
but for ...
what happened subsequently. :)

That leader was dragged towards me, and was forced to repeat an apology to me, by the 'recipient' of my apology :-))
This was something that I never expected !

That 'repeat' of apology... was supposed to be a 'full-refund' like , for something not fulfilled (cinema ticket refunded , when those 'reels' of that movie didn't arrive, etc)...

Now, two tragedies for me... First apology and Second apology... reasons unknown!

I decided, that this 'elderly-subStaff' was 'bound-to-be' a good-man, (that forced refund wala gesture)... and asked him 'What is this all about?'

He explained: “See, ... I am the inferior-most among the class of workers... sub-staff... and yet these people, have unanimously decided , not-to-tell any work to me!... You, in all innocence being a fresher, asked me to fetch that subsidiary book, to record the summary of voucher-transactions of the day... I am meant to be told that work, and what you did was perfectly-in-order... Just that it didn't suit the 'unanimous' decision of these guys to boycott-me from being told any work!.. You were not-even-told of such arrangement!!! That was their-fault, and I nailed them on that, to extract an apology from that fellow!”

He did not elaborate any further...

Over a few days, I made it a point to carefully observe this 'elder'...
Nobody told him any work... Even the official-record where 'allocation-of-work' is written up, failed to mention his name...
But he worked quite incessantly, and tirelessly....
The suspense doubled when I saw, even-regular-customers of that branch gave the same-treatment (no work shall be told to you—wala) !!

He was almost about to retire in a few months...

I had to be very sure, that I really got to the bottom of his 'ailment' (for being singled out thus!)...
I did manage.
He was a clear case of 'ability to respond'...
Then, where is the need to be told, “do-this, and do-that' ?... (Arey, .... that auto-pilot syshtim/system, in a modern aeroplane is just that! It responds to what the 200 dials says... Pilot/s can go to sleep/coffee-parlour/toilet/etc... )

What was meant to be an 'insult' , and then a learning for me.. turned out to be the most precious of lessons, taught in an unforgettable way :)..
I just joined the band-wagon of those who decided , not to tell-him any work... (I even tried to help him with whatever he-picked to do... anyway, I was a super-numerary-clerk, waiting to be thrown at a 'genuine-vacancy' at a remote village :-)... But that 'dada'/elder, would plead, 'no, at least not you!'...). I almost got 'adopted' as his own kid, while at work !

(That 'guy' might have been smiling from 'upstairs' for some recent-two decades... He inflicted me with his dis-ease, quite significantly... I couldn't help 'responding' to work that I felt, I had the ability to do )

Apologetically yours,
psn(15th June, 2015)

post script:
I had to omit names from this story... to make it ....'admirable' in large-scale, while the same thing, with names might become monstrous in small-scale (the movie “Night of the Generals”, Actor Omar-Sherrif's dialogue about 'murder'... “what is admirable in large scale is monstrous in small”).

Exact-Change!

“Tender exact change” is not a new or a latest legend written at public places like ticket-counters of railway, bus-station etc..

It might amuse the youngsters of present day, in India, if I say that when I was a kid of 6, and till my-15... people were keen to avoid giving out that 'exact-change', especially at places where others have the luxury of staring at 'how this fellow dispenses cash'... Somebody giving the exact-change is by 'default' regarded as a person who just-managed/barely-managed the amount needed to get that commodity {with a cinema ticket, it turns a little 'humiliating' too, when it seems to convey the meaning that he can't afford the next-higher class! And if at all, somebody pays the 'exact-change' for the highest class, the insult is at-its-worst, because the 'popular meaning' is... 'once in a life-time for him! :-)) ...}

It is only when people started saying a 'thank you sir', when I give out exact-change now...
that I realised the 'latent'(or subtle) significance of it...

small coins carry no value, except that of a 'nuisance'.. (what we call as 'nuisance-value' !)...

Most people don't mind if the 'balance' is not handed over back...
That makes the 'insult' or 'humiliation' to turn the 'other-way' now :-)) ... Somebody who insists for a refund of 'small' coin out of say Rs.10/- (anything below Rs.5/- is looked at as a 'nuisance-himself'...!)

When a one-rupee coin can't by anything... {by the way... 50-paise coin is still a legal-tender :-))...}... the attitude is “why is this idiot causing nuisance for that coin to be refunded?”..

I know... the memories of those who are above 50 would by now be flooded with so-many-thing they had bought with coins of 1-paise, two-paise, 3-paise and even 5-paise!

“Speak/reply ... to-the-point”
is the emphasis on the volley of advices 'tendered' to a prospective candidate going for a job-interview, or an 'admission-interview'...

Tendering 'exact' words too... made a lot of sense in the ancient days!
People attributed a lot of value to each spoken word...
When 'many do this'... without any 'dictum' from any union, association, or a religion like thing, the phenomenon is that of a 'Unison'... (a crude form of the 'subtle-sense' of the word called Yoga, Unity)...

Today, even an advocate, a vakil, who is 'supposed' to have practiced, tested-for, qualified to speak only and only-to-the-point (that is what the so called 'civil-procedure-code' is mostly-about )... even there, the Judge is unable to 'apply' his mind judiciously, before delivering the judgement... and it is perhaps therefore that Judges prefer to 'hear' by 'case-laws' rather than by enacted-sections of codified law!

Now ,
what about 'exact-change' that a mind is supposed to deliver to us, when our life demands a fast-pace on the outside?
That stupid-stupid thing that a salesperson is selling to us, seems to pose a huge threat, not because the thing being sold is 'so-complex' or it's use-even... Just that we aren't receptive enough to look-out for the 'exact-change' that we want, and we end up buying 'old-stock' , higher-MRP wala from the pick-up shelf (for the same stuff)... a loosely packed thing with some drain hole somewhere... etc..

Are we not struggling for an 'exact-change', when even simple words like love, trust, honesty, etc brings a wide-spectrum of conflicting and confusing meanings churned out by our own mind?...

Now (in... the present day scenario)... the exactitude is trying to vie around only slang acronyms like LoL, ROFL, KFPH... etc (where some remnants of exact can be seen... make it into a group of words, and we scramble for that grammatical rule of a sentence, being a group of words that makes 'complete sense'... we need a few-sentences, to get the sense of what used to be a small-and-single sentence!)

Spiritual business seems to be the one, of the most 'exacting-standards' when even the perception is needed to be an 'exact-change' while receiving inputs! {otherwise, keep counting the 'change/s' for quite a few life-times! :-)) }

Exactly yours,

psn ( 12th of June, 2016)

Starting trouble :-))

It does look like a simple phrase... it gives an illusion that once that trouble is over, 'everything else' is going to be okay!

Maybe so, about some gadget... or a mechanical equipment like the engine of a vehicle, or a motor pump-set that can't prime by itself, before it delivers water vertically, etc....

Human beings ?
The moment we step into a 'civilised' society... the civility causes a few unintended side-effects.
The very theme or concept of 'civility' when it started focusing more on providing more and more of comfort zones, rather than safeguarding the individuals from a collective threat (like unfettered traffic, holding up a feeble oldie for too long from crossing over to the other side of a street), or an individual's eccentricities causing a nuisance to others collectively (singing a song too loudly, with utter lack of harmony, at mid night on a densely populated street)... etc..

The effect of these comfort zones is gradual and over a period of time...
We feel it perfectly okay to get-started a bit late on a 'non-working' day, called Sunday...
Only that the stomach is unaware of such 'civilised' protocols, and it gives the alarm 'as-usual' :-))

It is the 'starting-trouble' of women folk that gets unduly magnified, when it is their destined-response-ability, to churn out the raw materials in a kitchen into an edible form at the shortest possible time (the phrase, 'two-minute-noodles'... gets its popularity, only-and-only due to this crucial-factor!... Doesn't matter, whatever else gets sacrificed, ... be it even the health of the children!)...

When health gets imbalanced, due to subordinate-functions that we deploy into, our organs and limbs, than its main intended ones... (of course, a 'big-thanks' to the tireless+endless scientific advancement, and the efforts engaged into , to translate the bulk of our innovations and creativity to evolve better and newer gadgets towards that-direction)... the society seems to lose sight of its very purpose of 'grouping-together' (religāre )... and we individuals end up with a physique that churns out strange and bizarre kinds of ailments... The 'steadiest' growth of ailments (to me), seems to be directed into accentuating that starting trouble..

By the time we really get started with a 'new year resolution', and reach its full-running-capacity, it is already the end of that-year, and our civility demands a 'renewal' of it afresh!

What if the starting trouble is handled forcibly?

The lady of the house, for example, ... goes through the morning routine, under a great stress ... and spends the entire-rest-of-the-day... trying hard to get relieved of that stress :-))

(Some other lady... for example... decides to avoid that stress.... goes a bit slow in getting started... ends up with peak engine-power at a very wrong time, often into late night :-))

In nature.... some creatures like birds... start up their cold-engines, a little ahead of time.. Birds, start chirping around say 4 am.. if the day-break is at 6 am... But that cannot be classified as their-antidote for their-starting-trouble... It is just that their body-weight and wing-span do not match (aerodynamics)... and therefore, they do a 'Yoga-business' which lightens their body temporarily, and as-and-when required, they make that noise, with a bellow-action from belly :-))

Spiritual masters do give concession to a 'starter' with slight starting trouble... They prescribe a thorough overhauling of the body and mind! Maybe that is why a few enthusiasts, who disdain such 'mauling' of their body and mind.... assert that they prefer to 'make it' without a physical-guru !

We are 'blessed' enough... that we do not have any 'ending trouble at all'... Unlike other life forms, we humans are quite 'over-civilised' ... enough to end our troubles-itself, by ending ourselves well-ahead of 'schedule' :-))

endlessly yours,

(just to avoid my own starting-trouble)

psn (11th June, 2016)