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)

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)

indispensability

:-))

I don't know,
which one to start with...
a joke,
or the serious part of it :-))

The joke is a bit old one (but not famous, since it did happen 'along' with me in it :-))...}

A girl of about 11 or 12 asked me (it was some 45 years ago)... “What is the meaning of indispensable”?

She was in a school at a very remote village, and teachers were not too-vulnerable to being exposed for their ignorance.. They parry (deflect, like arrows are thwarted) such queries with a standard reply “look into the dictionary... when will you learn to use it?”

I looked into her eager eyes...
She had 'great expectations' out of me... (she and her younger sister used to enjoy the 'mind set' via accents, styles and dialogues of a city youth like me... for a rustic kid, it was ample entertainment).

So, I picked that 'route'...

I said, suppose you go to this toilet ...
(I have to briefly explain the 'this-toilet'... They had very recently 'housed' a modern toilet –flush type-- though Indian style of seating, and ... the search for a small place left them with no choice other than a tiny room adjoining a main hall, meant to be stuffed with junk toys, old items of disuse, etc... Their usual toilet was too simple... a large pit, with good stone pillars laid across, and a wall around it, with a tiled roof, about 100 metres away from the dwelling... water was carried from a well.. it was excellently hygienic, though of an old style... the 'collections' were regularly made into good manure, and no harmful germs/insects were allowed to thrive)...
“this toilet”.. I continued.. “ has a tap with a small water tank overhead, connected... somebody forgot to switch on the motor, and the tank is dry... Some guests are in the hall... you need water to wash, and then come out of the toilet... you can't shout, as-usual... 'mom, no-water...!!'... Now, tell me, don't you 'find' water to be 'indispensable'?”...
As expected, this tiny girl burst into an uncontrollable laughter, and I had to wait, till she finished with her laughing bouts.. (Something so-good about these simple village girls was, they are quite intense with their emotions... they thoroughly live-through every thought-process, and therefore the learning-curve was too-good!)...
Then she collected herself (the laughter session brought her mom, my aunt into the hall, leaving something burning on the wood-stove, at the old-style-kitchen!... She first stared bewildered, and then joined in the joke, to laugh together with her child....).
As if to amply reward me ... this girl declared, “Never again will I require to look at its meaning for the rest of my life!... I guess, I can even use this word all-by-myself, to its best potentials!!!”...

....

What I found was... most people around , due to sheer desperation of ensuring a 'decently-respected-survival' try to make even 'themselves'.... quite indispensable , at least at crucial or vital areas of activity...
It touches a ridiculous low... when a spouse says... “Without me, he can't even reach a towel by himself/ without me, she can't even ...... (I prefer to leave it blank.... readers may guess anything)..

At school... a clerk holds the management to ransom, by abruptly disappearing on 'fee-collection' day...
At work place... say banks... the annual closing phase, the year end... is a strict-no-absenteeism week...
The list is endless...

People are reluctant to share with their expertise, for fear of becoming redundant... once 'anybody' can do a job!

Unfortunately, spiritual concepts... when they are by-themselves so-mystic already, ... the aam aadmi finds it so-convenient to blame the fellow who is a bit familiar with its intricacies!...
Unlike empirical laws (its knowledge)... these concepts are 'purely-experiential'... we jump into the cauldron, like the chemicals we put inside a test-tube, and see-for-ourselves!... Yes, nature has been amply generous to give us the basic tools already... But we made/rendered ourselves into such a state, that even to 're-introduce' us to our own basic tools, a guide is needed (and therefore, the debate, ... whether a Guru is really needed!).

Recently somebody asked me, “This Shani temple entry... is it biologically not good for a woman?”..
Now, the word 'biologically' itself, assumes the 'asker's' own absolute-certainty, that no-other aspect is going to be vulnerable... the non-biological areas like the mind, its psychology, and the 'being' (by whatever name we call it, the prime energy that keeps ticking inside us as 'life')...

I had a choice...
I could have suggested: “Did you verify the credentials of that 'brigade' ?” (Some vested interests could have backed the protests, assuring some kind of highlighting, social fame etc.. Politicians are so-seriously upset, when one top politicians abruptly closed the pipelines of illegitimate income.. Aadhaar linking made the siphoning of 'subsidy' in the LPG cylinders difficult... Neem-coating of Urea made its cheap subsidized availability for industrial use impossible.. the cascading effect renders thousands of parasitical bureaucrats of even lower level to starve for their luxury expenses, out of unearned income!)...

I could have asked: “Did those protesters clearly spell out, what they lost-exactly, by being deprived of a prayer inside the sanctum?...” (it implies that the deity... is not 'really' as powerful as thought-of-to-be.. and the attributes of omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence etc are mere ornamental embellishments, and have nothing to do with existential applications :-)) it also implies that, a clear understanding about the process of consecration, etc is assumed)...

I granted the 'benefit' of doubt... and explained it 'my usual way'... (and I knew, even this is going to just render the asker out-of-stock, unless, the intent is to pursue me with irrelevant and side-tracking queries)...

It was my spiritual journey which reassured me that I was quite right about my choice (while practically, I found myself an odd-idiot, when I easily shared what ever I knew with almost anybody around, )... and my choice was based on a simple logic (maybe my own stupidity), that... when I make the next person do what I can, and especially if that person is 'branded' as a dumb-fellow, is it not an extension of 'myself', and therefore my functionality through my-extension, with the same dexterity, as that of mine, ... in doing that job?... Am I not being in Unison with the cosmic law, that everyone is closely knit, in their deep inter-dependence with everything and everyone around?

Whatever... I did not feel having lost anything much out of keeping aside that fear of becoming redundant, when I abstain from attempting my-own-indispensability... instead, maybe ... I learnt something more... about that very expertise... plus... the other person, whether it is his ability to learn, or otherwise :-))

dispensably yours,

psn(18th April, 2016)

Tehzeeb

Oh!
I lack even the stature to talk about this word...(though I am still at it... trying to evolve into it.. till-my-last :-) I like it so much!....)

Even the climb was arduous for me... from Teh-Jeeb to that fuzzy sounding 'Z' (now we have the Z in 'Zee Movies' , to assist us )....

It is not that I try to escape from making a mention about what it means to the uninitiated ones into grace of Urdu language...
The popular sense of it oscillates between manners, etiquettes, and the like ones...

Though not picked as a 'best' answer,
somebody gave an answer, which I found a liking for....

(quote)

https://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090709095408AAusam9

“It's an Arabic word which literally means trimming or cutting out the bad, harmful, useless, obscene parts of the looks, speech, behavior etc. So it's used to denote editing (written literature), training, promoting good manners, and discipline and so on..”

unquote...

This 'Tehzeeb'... seems to be losing out its popularity , of late...
Speed, or the fast-pace of life is making it unaffordable, to a large extent...

By itself... it doesn't even seem to make any logical sense, ... it gives a certain kind of 'feel-good-factor' to the recipient... Logic doesn't support patronising it , any further! (maybe that's one of the reasons of its losing-out to 'traditionalism', a limb of perpetuating values!

'Perpetuating values'...?
Oops! I tripped on a live-wire ... (I guess :-)...}

Other life forms do not seem to look at 'values' ... the way we humans do... maybe they weren't designed to 'accommodate' it... and the 'science' might argue that they don't even need such values, being superior in some-way-or-other, in terms of capabilities at sensory levels, (for reasons of self-preservation/perpetuation etc.. of the species).. ...

We humans, seek to 'evolve'... this is evident, from the quixotic adventures we undertake often, when such exercise has nothing to do with 'basic-survival' :-)

Now, to 'evolve'... we obviously need to 'contain' a few 'natural tendencies'... a bit sensibly, a bit intelligently... (like, we forego a good sleep on the eve of a public exam, we miss the TV serials, etc.. A neuro-surgeon of the 'west' is 'alledged' to be abstaining even tea/coffee, a week ahead of the brain surgery... so that his hands remain steady, and the tiny nerves come under his firm grip while suturing)....
we seem to undertake 'self-imposed' restrictions, while we attempt to evolve (some of us call it 'discipline' too!)...

This 'tehzeeb' , ... when it doesn't mean a thing, in existential terms... (it doesn't actually 'promote' any kind of material productivity, and such allied benefits)...
at subtle levels, it does seem to assist us to 'hold-on' to values... in a very 'round-about' manner!

(By itself, 'values' do seem to seek external 'support' till its breaking-point, when we hold on to values on-our-own)

In a simple example (if we attempt to say it).. it acts as a kind of 'speed-breaker' to our impulsive tendencies, those of which are negative in nature... (Tehzeeb curtails a spurt of anger, abusive-outburst, pre-judgmental-inclinations/orientations... etc)...... 

If it 'really' does that... (the speed-breaker-wala business...), ain't it good enough?

Well, I did not really miss any 'romance-phase' of life...
Just that I romanced with those 'evasive-values' which were too subtle to even allow a glimpse, leave alone a grasp-of-it.. at tender childhood age!..
Maybe it was therefore that , I found it worth while to indulge in a romance with this amazing urdu word 'Tehzeeb'... and so much that... I even use it with people who are utter strangers to that language, and then proceed to elaborate its equal terms, in a known language, while the reason was mere 're-living' yet again with an old romance-partner of mine :-)

My 'tehzeeb' prompts me... close this burdensome narrative, before it tells upon the patience of the reader!

Yours tehzeeb-ly,

psn(13th April, 2016)

Post script: Oh yes! I was not entirely-without any kind of material benefit, this quixotic adventure or romance with tehzeeb... I just move-out-of the other's way so graciously, once they give a hint, that I am being a nuisance! (To me, the only criteria being... can I survive, without causing a 'nuisance' to them, thus?. Don't I owe at least this much to my co-humans?.... Leaving it as 'their' problem, to figure it out... as to what they-miss, when I play-dead, in their experience!).. To me, it just means more-freedom, from my Tehzeeb/ed-concept, that I am interdependent with 'everyone&everything' around me :-)
It leaves me free to pursue spiritual path, with a little greater-intensity!

Dumb Voters!

I liked this 'forward' :-))

Corruption, and its by-products abound...

Yet India survived, and now, even seems to progress!

The secret of our having survived thus far, as an ancient culture, an ancient society, having managed to even retain a demonstrable sample of spiritual essence, was perhaps the foresight of our ancients that we would turn into 'dumb voters' :)

And they quietly injected a few vital ingredients into the 'way of life' that they bequeathed (in)to us, that would survive and outlive even our worst stupidities :-))

We keep voting blindly....
For inept politicians,

unscruplous people at the helm of affairs that affect almost all facets of society, including even education,

and along with all these, we also 'vote' to some extent for a few rituals and traditions, without even understanding as to why we subscribe for them :-))

It works!

And it sustains, and survives... paving way for a revival, in a big way!

I even managed to 'coin' a question , when the Yahoo people persuaded me to participate in that forum...

But, a few of us do try to look at 'do we need to vote thus, so blindly?'... And when this question of a conscious vote crops up with respect to spirituality.... there is no going back! (maye that's how I got trapped into it!)

Dumb voter, yours,

psn (6th April, 2016)

Automation

A magical word indeed !

And its magic works so well, that it never runs short of a 'majority' , as its devotees!

In the name of security, cleanliness and orderliness, some temple has automated the cracking of cocoanuts (or was it 'breaking', of nuts ? )... and the 'make up' of that machine is of some deity...

Somebody sent me a 'forward' of a video clip via whatsApp... it showed a 240 year old robot which can write flawlessly, that 'manu-script' style... a sophisticated piece of machinery, and a 'miracle' when it is so-old!!!

Generally, repetitive jobs are sought to be automated... (that is what.... I thought)..

But a startling aspect dawned when I saw a very famous global company automating a 'letter' to those who declined its 'job-offers' :)

Such automation is 'safe' only as long as humans do automate their adoration too, for automation :) But, if somebody 'looks' at it, and 'observes' consciously, will it not 'show' that the number of 'job-offer-declines' are so high, that even that had to be automated?

My head started spinning...

Cocoanut 'offer' when automated, loses its intrinsic values, which is right now not-within-our range of perception... the 'deity' to which this is outsourced, can it be 'consecrated'?

Writing a book, was assigned to a deity, who was 'supposed' to be not just brilliant... but an expert at removing hurdles (if we look at those epic stories of (Lord) Ganesha taking a 'dictation' as a scribe, from a composer of that Mahabharata, the sage Vyasa... (Now what 'else' can a robot write?, just the garbage-in/garbage-out... in a computer language... )

How many of us are 'really' relishing that automated voice response, when we dial the phone number of some utility services? (In India, when that call gets transferred to a human operator, he does a better job at such 'automated' responses, which only aggravates the frustration of a complainant!)...

Now, that brings up yet another question in my mind... Have we ended up 'automating' the 'meanings' that we assigned to the words that we used?... Or do we take a 'flash-glance' at the concepts embedded in those words?

A flood of examples pours into me... those 'remixes' of songs... a devotional song is remixed into some joke, advertisement, etc... (when a kid, I overheard a casual remark, “Hey, the overdose of repetitive listening to that advertisement for 'Afghan-Snow' has rendered me so-useless, that I can no more appreciate the beauty of the snow-capped mountains, when I spend hundreds of rupees to visit them on a picnic, because.... I am 'only-reminded' of that stupid snow-bottle, and the product-name :-( Now, a kid at school says, opposite of the word 'original' is 'china' :-)) ... we are 'evolving'!....)

What would happen to those chants then?...
The precious word forms.... some of which were called Mantra? ( I got answers too soon, when most people couldn't 'see', why the famous Gayatri-chant ... when it was also designated as 'mother-of-chandass'... should not be degraded, by calling it a 'mere-mantra'... though basically, it is indeed a mantra!!!)...

The multiplication tables were 'chanted' by kids ... (that was decades ago)... today, it is outsourced to computing technology... (the 'unfortunate' few, who are destined to reach a research-level at computing... only they would 'discover' what they missed, when the deeper-concepts of mathematics sprouted from-within, only when the non-automated-chants were 'imposed' on a kid at the very “primary” stage, ... rightly named as 'primary-school'.... :-))

Automatically yours,

psn 29th March, 2016

Complacency in complaisance :)

As commoners... we seldom find it worthwhile to go too deep into the implied meanings of words...

But, as life experience deepens... those simple adages we heard during childhood suddenly seem to make 'More-sense' now, than it ever made... They seem to become 'live', and even mock at us!

During my kid days, the only instance/occasion, where I noticed my elders getting too-focused for the right choice of words was, when they tried to send a telegram :)
The reasons were too obvious...
Cost of 'number of words'... length of a single word did not increase its cost, ... hunt for a single word that 'carries' the meaning of more words...

Uniqueness of words... even if misspelt, the receiver should manage to decipher its original word :)

Shelf-life of message: Telegrams at times reach a little late (usually, it is about those which says, “I am coming there”... I reach well in time, to receive the telegram :)

Etc...  

But today, merely because it-costs-just-peanuts... we became 'complacent' about the contents of what we say, copy-paste and forward to yet-others :)

When I came to spiritual business... I was dumbfounded at once... the very choice of words, adhere to the concept of 'unambiguity' even at basic levels.... Be it about describing a physical practice, or whether it is about 'identifying' the phenomenon within, which indicates a spiritual-experience !
The worst part was... these spiritual masters ... were in 'unison' .. they refused to compromise on unambiguity, even at the cost of mystifying a fresher!

For instance, that verse in Hindi, “Bura Jo Dekhan Main Chala, Bura Naa Milya Koye Jo Munn Khoja Apnaa, To Mujhse Bura Naa Koye” ... it roughly translates as, “I searched for the crooked, met not a single one When searched myself, "I" found the crooked one”.. A logical mind would meet a dead-end too soon, when it attempts to grasp the deeper-sense of it... where as, when the perception deepens enough to transcend the mind, the 'judgemental-nature of mind' gets revealed :))

The strangest thing is... once the meaning becomes clear, our own mind does a 'same-side-goal'... preserve the mysticism in it... says the mind, and let the freshers work their way towards it, even as I did!

But, when I tried to look at that word, 'complacency'.. ... something that the extremists in violence seek in others, to get away unnoticed, and inflict a damage by surprise...
I was in for yet another surprise!...
“You are okay, then I am okay” started its game as a malignant growth within, deterring spiritual growth in us, with that innocent looking thing called, “complaisance”... turning into a 'complacency' in us :)

For reference, I looked at “the free dictionary dot com”

About complacency: A feeling of contentment or self-satisfaction, especially when coupled with an unawareness of danger, trouble, or controversy.

About complaisance: deference to the wishes of others; willing compliance

Ah, ... when it comes to our-own-selves... beware of that 'like for yourself, what you like for others!'(I told myself)... A tricky game !

So, whether I happen to note and remember that subtle difference between 'complacency and complaisance' or not... it is vital that the subtlety doesn't translate into 'actuality' in me :)

complacently yours,

psn (20th March, 2016)

Driver's seat

Oh...

The seat itself sounds so vulnerable, when the prefix 'driver' alerts us about the dynamism expected out of the person seated on it...!

Large vehicles require the assistance of either another person or the 'dependable' gadgets which takes care of the view of otherwise-obscure sides of that monster-sized vehicles..

A good driver, is one, who looks out for the earliest signs of a vehicle going off-track.. ...

Not bothering about the wheels or its air-pressure isn't really a comforting thought when it is a 'Pilot' on the driver's seat ... He takes a look at many more dials each minute! His working hours per week, per month are perhaps the lowest among drivers of all kinds...

How many of us drive a vehicle well, I wondered.... One vehicle that we cannot ever engage an other person as its driver seems to be our own body (more so... not just even-when.... when this whole vehicle, the body of ours, is placed in another vehicle which has a full-fledged-driver... That's when we 'fly' !... The longer the 'flying' , more the care this body-vehicle needs from its own exclusive-driver... ).

Body wakes up each day, and only then the driver is woken up by this vehicle...

The body 'reports'... sense of touch 'okay'.. hearing is 'okay'... a few organs in the lower abdomen needs an urgent cleaning, etc..

But does this vehicle body, 'sleep' at all?... The engine keeps running on an 'idling' and yet, the repair job takes place at an hectic pace (doctors tell nurses in the ICU, “Don't bother to wake up the patient, to give his hourly doses of medicines... we are yet to find a medicine that replaces sleep!)..

The 'mind' is usually the one that distracts us (our attention), from driving this body-vehicle, the way it ought to be driven... Even re-fueling is dictated by the mind, according to its whims, when we know well, that it is the eccentricities of the mind that leads to the vehicles unladen-weight becoming unruly :))

As long as the body is in our custody... no matter whether it is in 'running' condition or not... working condition or not... differently-abled or not... it is the driver's expertise in us that decides about the journey we undertake with this body... And if this body leaves us in mid-ocean, and quits, the drift of the waves becomes the driver+vehicle... (Ocean, a symbolism of karmic residues :))...).

A reasonably silent mind allows the driver's seat to function more effectively...

Spiritual Masters, ensured that the 'driver' never at all goes to sleep... Maybe, they happened to really appreciate the 'worth' of this sophisticated vehicle, the human-body! It sounds quite reasonable... the horn need not blare , the lights can be dimmed, and the gears disengaged, when the engine is just-idling... (Oh! At once, I am reminded of that huge vehicle, which does a bore-well digging, while the vehicle itself is “firmly” footed at a place... it doesn't even engage its hand-brakes!.. It is during deep sleep states, that the driver's alertness is at its peak levels, and the digging reaches the core of our being!) ...

a driver, at your service,

psn (6th March, 2016)