Defense Presentation

I was doing it for the 'n'th time...
Only that... I had a nasty habit of being non-habitual about it :)

The lady got 'shoved' upon me... (the fellow who did it knew me closely-well... and was a trusting friend too... I wouldn't ever let him down)... He told the lady, 'maybe he would explain it to you'!

The lady asked “Who are you?” (well she started this at point-blank range, coming to, where I sat)...

The whole thing was...
This lady's younger brother's wife like to get enrolled for a spiritual program, for which a 'donation' was mandated (the only way, tax exemptions are applicable, for the enrolment fee)...

She was quite protective about her brother, and that included 'his money too'... and so the “proper & thorough investigation” before blowing money into a non-productive thing (no product comes home)!

So, that 'who are you' ... was going to be re-directed back as a guided missile...
I said, “Oh , I am yet another victim who got trapped into this program!”
I could see, that she recognised my line of attack , and said, “well money doesn't grow on trees!... I insisted that it would be I who will deliver the 'fee' during registration”...

(She carried all the ingredients to make my attempt to be 'as worse as a defense-presentation of a doctoral student'... :-)).......)

and then I proceeded with 'my-own-experience' of what it was all-about...
Since it was not a 'copy-paste' material, I was only too-glad to be 'questioned' (severely if possible)...

A one-sided lecture (with dumb listeners, however keenly they listen-or-read... the emotion is only about 'receptivity' of (only that which I say) ... which happens to get conveyed via words...
A question on the other hand is an 'investment' of the asker's ego+emotion,... (may be a negative ego, if the asker intents to 'tickle'.. or a receptive-positivity, if the question itself is genuine)... either ways, there is some two-way-movement of emotion... a bond is possible.

So her questions only led to her own 'victimisation' :)

I spoke and walked off...
It was only later on, that I came to know.. from that friend, (he was in-charge of 'booking' participants), that she 'ended-up' enrolling for TWO (herself too!)... The icing-on-the cake was... on the day of feed-back(usually the concluding session), she spoke with a teared pair of eyes, which kept searching if 'that-guy' (me), was anywhere around! (people who 'invest' usually volunteer till the last day... I was a 'drop-out' from that volunteering for over a decade!

I was reminded of this incident when a youngster told me that one of his committee members who was the 'audience' of his 'defense-presentation' requested for a 'action-replay' of it, to suit his-own pre-engagement on the day-of-act... (And I thought... “it does pay, to re-enact afresh, as if for the first time!)

re-presentingly yours,

psn(31st May, 2016)

Savings

I saw this cartoon in a local newspaper...(last week)...

“Very practical” ... I thought... easy to sermonize.... difficult to hold on :)

(Just two dialogues:

Sarge : “Remember, Beetle, the journey of life begins with a single step”

Beetle: “I'm O.K. with a single step, it's all the other steps that worry me”)

....

At the branch of the bank where I had worked somewhere in 1992 or so... there was a 'handyman' employed by an engineering company. The company couldn't do well, and this fellow couldn't find a well-paying job, so the compromise left him impoverished.

He handled the bank work of that company, and his 4 to 5 trips per day happened to be more for 'begging' to delay the debits , rather than merely 'maintaining' track of the account.

It so happened that I was slightly different from other clerks, when they got irritated with this 'unproductive' waste of time conversing with this fellow's impractical requests. I instead managed to remain cheerful, and this brought us a little closer (the need was his, to 'maintain' me in good humor, and little did he know, that he was wasting his efforts in being extra polite/respectful/etc with me :)... I decided to encash this, for his own good!)..

I asked him, “How about a cup of tea for me from YOU?”...

He could smell it at once, and retorted, “well, I wouldn't sink too deep into a financial crisis, if I feed you a cup of tea :-( (anger)”..

I went along with him up to the main door, and said, “on 'second-thoughts'... let me say.... give me that Rs.2/- instead, in cash... I can drink when I like!”

He took out a folded/crumpled 2-rupee note, and flashed it to me...
I took it, pocketed it, and said, “well, let's go back to work”...
The next day, I teased him with an abrupt-surprise , “Tea?... like yesterday?”...
He was not going to cow-down... “Why not?' he said, and proceeded to dish out yet another 2 rupee note (suspecting, or rather 'judging' that I would repeat yesterday's feat, out of greed for hard-cash!)...
Then I took out his yesterday's 2-rupee note, and handing it back to him, I said, “keep this along, in safe-custody... I trust you...”
Now he asked, “what does it mean?”....
Time to let out my plan... :)
I said, “See... you seem to be able to afford a tea for almost each day, Rs.2/- that is... despite your meagre salary.. question of self-respect ... and I respect you for that..”
I continued, “why not make it Rs.60/- for 30 days?... and then, let me handle it into a recurring deposit account for you?... let us see, how far we travel... no deadlines, no goals, just keep walking each single step at a time?”...
He nodded..
Thus, the very first R.D. A/c( a recurring deposit account) of his life :)
An year later, I helped him collect the maturity value, and then led him to that lady who handled loans, and told her, “You had refused to finance him for a second-hand sewing machine, when he asked for it, so that his wife, a householder, can do some tailoring work privately and supplement his family-income, ... ... because he couldn't produce his own-margin money... Well, here it is... now please take up his case...”
Still, a collateral by way of 'guarantee' was an issue..
So, at my suggestion, the women folk of that branch agreed to give him their 'not-so-important' stitching work (for ladies, fashion, finish, perfection etc of garments is too precious, otherwise)... and the 'labor-charges' can be directly credited to that loan account... obviating the 'practical' aspect of a guarantor's presence... Yes, a nuisance value... indeed, but she decided to 'oblige'...
The arrangement worked well :)
Three years later, he placed a loan-proposal for two more such half-rate sewing-machines, when his wife's neighbor-hood ladies (in similar poverty), became 'assistants' to meet the growing 'bij-ness' :)

5 years later that fellow sneered at me mockingly, saying... “you know.. now I can just stay idle at home! My wife's earnings are good enough to live a little more-decently!” (their yardstick of that 'decency' translated as luxury of one or two movies in a theatre, a few trips to restaurants etc ).

I felt so-happy... he managed the rest of the few-early ones of the 'other-steps' after the proverbial “First step” of the journey of life!...

The 'fusion' .... seems to be the tricky thing, to happen, when support from others gets snapped too often due to lack of trust :)

(This time it worked, but.. I thank lady-luck! One fellow learned the work of 'savings' :-))..... )...

Oh! How do I tempt people to persuade themselves, into conserving/saving the energy expended by their mind ? (spiritual path.. makes every step, so-difficult, after the first one!)

extravagantly yours,

psn(30th May, 2016)

Defense

:-))

Unless we have anything of value,
what the hell are we going to 'think' of defending?

When corruption is so rampant in a nation... the 'other-wise' aam aadmi (but for his army uniform), is rather 'constrained' to wonder, “Hey! What the hell am I going to defend?.... stupidities of netaa's or the stupid fellow countrymen who keep voting for them?”

Stupidities: The 'neta' acts as an inadvertent 'second' line of defense, when a few patriotic fellows do identify a terrorist, and gun him down at an obscure place... The 'handlers' are very keen to 'defend' the morale of the 'sleeper cell'.... they know the concept of 'defense' a little better... so they pay the neta to bark 'human rights'... and challenge the 'encounter' as a fake one (irrefutable charge is: “How can the bullet holes be on the top of the head, if the encounter was a genuine one?” Oh!.. so even when dealing with a 'post-proven-terrorist', the other one, by mere reason of his wearing an official uniform, is under a heavy-obligation to obey all the 'traffic-rules' and knowing fully well that the monstor truck racing against him is on the wrong-side, and is dis-regarding all the known rules :-)).... )... Well what better defense can these 'handlers' provide to keep up the spirits of sleeper cells !

Stupid ones (maybe I top the list when I know about it...): For a spate of freebies, I keep voting for scamsters :-))... My stupidity defies all known definitions of 'a normal/ordinary-stupid', when I disregard the fact that... there is a better defense which evades my common sense than the silly-fact that :these freebies are funded by the taxes I pay... the better defense: the articles that come as a 'freebie' are of most-possible-substandard ones .. How else can the supplier beat the 'tender' rates, and yet pay kickbacks in dollars!

And (thus) we march on (or is it here the 'thus' fits better?)... .... for how long ... dunno!

In the ancient days,
the subtle concept was.... a knowledgeable person requests the court-audience of a king, and he presents a 'theory' which he defends, when other experts question its validity (this 'process' is still continued with Ph.D's of present day)...


Little did I know, that I would be presenting a 'defense' without even being aware of it... :-))

Well, it doesn't fit into any known official structure of a defense-presentation, but I guess, it turned out to be one...
There was a preceptor, whose profession was of a priest... and he happened to be well read in scriptures...
He never really expected the kids whom he 'threaded' (during the course of his profession as a priest)... to grasp the concepts of chants, experientially, when they are initiated and then as a token of this initiation, adorned with a simple strand of thread across the shoulders ( a sect of Indians still continue to go-through this ritual, and call it 'religious' ... though conceptually, there was nothing religious about it... the belief was too strong, and so concepts remained elusive)...
I too had been threaded thus (even the steel pipes are threaded, so that the grooves hold the movement steady along the thread )...
A time came , when this ritual of chant which accompanies the 'threading' was to precede the act of initiation to be done by me-myself, (under the guidance of the same preceptor)...
It so happened that the vibes of the chant impressed this preceptor a lot... and he squeezed his eyes, to allow the tears collected in it to flow down freely, before he said : “I guess, I can now... as well retire from the 'upa-adhyayanam'...” (his very profession, he meant... when he said 'I can retire')
I wasn't quite prepared to listen to such a pronouncement !
It took a while for me to grasp the import of what he said!
I was fortunate to realise that his words constitute (for me and me alone)... nothing less than an acknowledgement of a 'successful' defense !

It is good that I am never going to be in any 'committee' that handles the 'defense' of a potential candidate :-))
I would end up into stupidities like asking a kid : “Hey why not a full-dress-rehearsal?... at times, a rehearsal turns better than the 'staged' drama :-))... and then, it does not matter if the 'real' is viewed only-virtually, by me :-)) ...}

Indefensibly yours,

psn( 25th May, 2016)