Day 20- Every Day Inspirations - The Seed you plant is the Shoot you get!

As we instill in us, good thoughts; they lead to good days

The more of positive vibes; makes us more optimistic!

As we involve ourselves in good deeds, good things rays

Making our lives, meaningful and enjoyable in mystic!

What we think, often, is what we are made in the end!

The life we live, is mostly reflects on the type of our friends!

Those who go beyond the boundaries of differences

And could see the sunlight just under the wide sky

Those who cross the borders of pain and suffering with smiles

And could see the stars even in the darkest canopy

Are the one's who are sowing the seeds of bamboo

that takes time to grow within, but raises to shoot at once

It takes years of waiting, watering, sunlight and air,

And when it raises, it raises high into the wider skies

It is the power of the perseverance and persistent try

When you seed good thoughts, you do reap a good life

It is the power of the wisdom and gentle soul to rejoice

Living in the spirit of self enriching goals and inner joys

 

Day 19 - Every Day Inspirations - Implant an invisible Filter in Mind!

One thing that is offered in this world free of cost,  free of asking,  free of everything is 'ADVICE'.    In short, it means, advertising their own thoughts thinking as wise.   How sweet of me to realize this... ofcourse late.  But wise me!

This advertising wise....starts from the time we start doing anything in life.   Admission of a child to school,  each one you know gives their own view of what a good school is, how good ratings it have, how proud you should be to get admission there and what not.   Poor me over-powered by these 'advices' is now more confused.  

If you planning to get wedding,  the rain of advices start with a storm.  How you should behave, how traditional the family should be, how to choose a spouse, what to expect...blah blah blah...Hey common,  Am I getting married or you?   Let me think!

The same continues as you getting in college, getting into career,  moving to a new neighbourhood,  writing a book,  starting a business and what not.   People stop poking their noses into your business.   

It is upto you, whether you take them or ignore.   Doing what you think is right for you only helps.   

The biggest of rainfall of advices start pouring in when someone ends up in separation, divorce,  loss of a job or property, or meet with an accident, or loses someone close in life.    

The sad part is even the healing and grieving process is not immune to the advices.    Other people fail to understand how much they infact cause pain and grief than healing.    Only when you know to install an invisible filter in your mind to ignore what is not needed and unnecessary comments, suggestions and free advices, you will be able to take proper unbiased decisions what is right for life

It is not that we should not listen.  We should.  We should also know to filter what will do good for us and accept them modestly and ignore what is unwanted with poise and move on.

After all, it is your life, and you are strong and confident to deal with all situations in life.  When you want, you can always ask.  

You have the right to lead the life as you want.  Stay Firm!  Stay Confident.   Implant an invisible filter in your mind.  It makes your life free from undue influences and unwanted heart aches!

 

Day 18- Every Day Inspirations - The Story of the Cup and the Needle - Don't Waste Food

Tiruvalluvar, the renowned Tamil Saint, who has written the immortal work called 'Tirukural' used to keep by his side a needle and small cup filled with water when he sat for meals.  

When a host asked him on why he insisted having these two place by the side of the plate.  He said, 'Food should not be wasted.  Every grain is precious.  Sometimes, stray grains of cooked rice or stray pieces of cooked vegetables fall off the place or away from it, while I eat.  I lift them off the floor, with help of this needle and stir them in water to clean them, and eat them. 

What an amazing lesson this is, for those who waste more than they consume. 

You can buy food, have resources to go for a large meal or buffet but have no right to waste the food on the plate...for the resources are not just yours! 

Day 17 - Every Day Inspirations - Four Essential Things in Life

Life makes itself beautiful when you concentrate on  FOUR ESSENTIALS :

1.  Food
2.  Sleep
3.  Happiness
4.  Attitude

These four are inter-related.   

Who knows to listen to their body, and go light on the stomach, focus on the food we consume, not worrying about calories but on what we really need, nutrients that keep our energies in charge... is the one who know to control the body- which is the store house of our life.   The day the body stops to function, we cease to exist in this world.  So listening to our body and its warnings and signs and our food habits make what we are outwardly ..towards healthy body with a healthy mind.

Sleep  -  I envy those who can sleep immediately once they get to bed.   I also envy those who sleep just the time that the body wants... Average of 6-8 hours of continuous, undisturbed and nightmare free sleep.   Sleep gives you the energy you need, absorbs the food intake and balances your metabolism.  Sleep also gives you revived thinking and calmness of mind and soul.  Your thoughts, dreams, strength and energy depends on how well you sleep...So sleep on time.  Sleep in right posture,  sleep for needed hours and sleep well!

Happiness.   This is the difficult essential to maintain always in our chaotic world.  But those who could smile and say all is well, doing all times, no matter how much life threatens you, are the one's who know to live happily.  Happiness is the stage of several things, peace, prayer, contentment, social life, concentration and also focus on the things that you need.  Only the happy mind can make happy things.  Even if you have everything in life, and still not happy, it is as bad as not having anything.   Happiness is key to success.

Attitude.  This is the base of how a person is valued in the society.  Those who do not possess the right attitude may still survive, may still succeed, may still be happy, healthy and sleep well.  But they definitely are the people who will pay the price one day.  People would like to keep away from people with wrong attitude.  It is like bacteria.  It hurts.  It reoccurs to haunt.  It is in built and not realized many a time by the person who possess a bad attitude.  The one with the good attitude wins over everybody and will be the STAR in their own right!  


AHFS....is just a mantra for life...Attitude, Happiness, Food and Sleep.   Have them in right quantity with utmost quality for the best of life to live.  After all..we have just one life to live fully.

Day 16- Every Day Inspirations - The Story of a Traditional Sport - Yes, I support Jallikattu

The sport of taming an Ox is called Jalli Kattu.   This is a traditional sport of Tamil Nadu, India and also a very popular sport during the festival of Pongal (Harvest)  and enjoyed on the Mattu Pongal day.   

This is of a specific Indian Breed of Oxes, used for transportation, farming and agriculture and breeding of Indian cattle.  The cattle is not found in any of the forests in India today.  Most of them are reared as domestic animals and as part of the families in India.  

Kurinji, Mullai, Marudham raised cattle and used them in fields.  The need to use the cattle in fields was identified in our olden days.  And there was need to tame the otherwise wild and bullish oxen for this purpose.   So the process of overcoming on the powers of ox, and getting them trained to support farming was a practice.   This art in the long run, became a brave sport. 

Prizes were given to the brave youngsters who tamed these animals and it was also a tradition to get girls married in the villages to the winners of this sport.   When a girl child was born, they also used to adopt of calf and then raise it along with the girl.  During the finalization of wedding, who ever could tame the grown up ox, would be selected as the girl's suitor.  

The name of this is called 'Eluvadar'.   The coins used to be tied to the horns of the ox.  With the sounds of the coins during the sport,  this brave sport was named as 'JalliKattu'...the sounds.

Eludarvar is Tamil's traditional sport, and protecting the bravery of Tamils, Traditions and sporting event.  

Only Indian Indigenious cattle alone can produce A2 milk that is used as the best milk in the world. And Jessy milk for A1 milk.  There is a great demand for our cattle.

The food security raised its arms towards more scaring export market for beef and leather than the sport enjoyed one day in a year in the state of Tamil Nadu.   Tamilians are the one who introduced the use of fertilized manure from the Ox excretes that saved our organic farming from chemical fertilizers.

In the land where we worship, cows as goddess and maintain our cattle as family members, giving them names and place to stay in harmony with mankind, where is the question of merciless killing of these animals.    The Indus Valley Civilization - stone age image depict this as the Oldest Sport in the world - Owned by Tamilians

Natural farming-  a modern, cost effective and nature healing way of agriculture is supported with the participation of Indian Cattle in farms.    Medicinal values of indigenous breed excretes is also wide known. 

The news of Smuggling Indian Bull sperm out of India is also not a strange news.   Brazil is the world's largest producer of Milk and beef  in the world.  It would be fascinating to know that 1 bull from India was auctioned at Rs 1 crore.  60 bulls were exported to Brazil for the strength of the breed that we are failing to protect in India.   

In Tamil, it means cattle is a sign of prosperity.  The false representation of such cattle as wild animals and in the fake propaganda against Jallikattu affecting the assets and customers of Tamil Nadu.  

Where is the justice in stopping this traditional sport alone?   

Elephants are used in temples and all over Kerala for lifting logs and other activities.   Army has a battalion of horses, camels and dogs.   There is thriving market for leather goods.   Rats, rabbits and other animals are used for clinical trails.   If all this can sustain, then the continuation of Jallikattu should not be banned.

From one of my friend who is owner of 5 such oxes, that participate in Jalli Kattu,  the ban is a sentimental blow of the villages who long for the day of this sport.   The cattles are not put into any kind of intoxication, use of drugs or alcohal.   There are strict rules for the players / sportsmen also who get into the jallikattu arena.   

If this sport is injurious to our men, then every other sport like wrestling, weightlifting,  cricket and every other sport which has probability of physical injuries are also risky.     Can we ban them?  For that will put a big hole in the pockets of the politicians and business men who are behind the screens.  

 Here in Jallikattu, it is the common man with sentiments and traditions fighting more than his might against the courts and rules, self-proclaims animal activists  instead of the sporting oxen!  Irony!

Day 15 - Every Day Inspirations - Spirit of Chennai City

Amidst the flow of water all around,
The sea of humanity surged into action.

As the floods raised above our heads,
Young minds and old gems joined together.

Volunteering is no more a business of few,
It became the blood line of Chennai.

Food, clothing, huts, books, everything
Washed away with the piled dirt of the land.

With that, washed away the negative thoughts
Of religion or caste, rich or poor, old or young.

Our only motto was to serve, was to arise
Again amidst the storms that lashed us.

Thousands lost their homes and livelihood,
Shelters opened up to rescue and revive.

Army, Police, City Corporation, Air force,
Hospitals, Temples & Mosques, Homes...
Everything was for everyone just to survive.

Despite the odds, people rushed to work;
We moved places to keep up the client delight.
What come may, Chennai stands tall!!

The spirit of Chennai is here to stay
For long, for all and for happily ever after!

Day 14- Every Day Inspirations - Time for Digital Detox

Fasting used to help us get a physical detox once in a while.  It used to provide a balanced metabolism and build in right immune system.     

But today, we are so much overloaded with technology and gleaming gadgets.   No one walks around without a mobile in hand or pocket and without heads phones hanging over.  People keep talking in air as they walk, run, jog, sit, eat, and sleep.  They are talking into the phone…ignoring who is around you.  

I love technology and I make a living working for one of the largest technology company.   I am not an exception to this addiction.  Sometimes, instead of the gadgets serving or helping me, they have become my energy consuming devices taking away my precious time and thoughts.   Creative forwards are killing my own creativity and thinking.  I am enjoying the repeated memes and endless shares.  

This unending connectivity gives me no time to connect within, with my hobbies, with my friends over a coffee table, with a paper-book in hand.   It is challenge…I feel totally lost without internet, without my phone beeping on messages and if I don’t get calls for half day, I start feeling desperate that the world has forgotten me.  

Thanks to the recent floods in Chennai, that thrashed this syndrome of virtual connectivity restlessness…no messengers worked, Skype was at sky distance, mails flooded the mailbox and not our heads, and Facebook and Twitter didn’t flood me for 5 days.  

I don’t dare to take the pledge of continuing this disconnect from the world, but I realized that it is time to start keeping things in control.  Start with few hours of digital detox every day.   Probably, I would talk to my neighbor aunty over the compound wall, than wishing her happy birthday on the Facebook Wall…

Mails can wait, unless someone’s roof is on fire.   Stop my followers and likes on pictures on the net.   I will give myself a chance to reconnect within. 

Not typing ‘Om’ hundred times on internet page, but to sit devotional in the puja room and fold my hands and say my prayer loudly.   Instead of sharing pictures of sweets and cakes, probably I will carry a cake at 12 in the night on a friend’s birthday.

Instead of repeated promises to get fit, I now need to tie my shoes and take the first few steps in the nearby park.    Yes, I have to start living.  Not just in the virtual world.   I need a digital detox for sure.  And if not now, When?   If not I, who?  

Day 13- Every Day Inspirations - The Story of a Care-Giver

She kept looking at the sky.  I could imagine what my wife would be going through, the sort of the day she was having and her mood.   

Face is in the index of mind.  Here, the mind is feeble and not listening.   Rain, Shine and drain, all happens in the same day.  Like a wild boar in the forest, like a hurt caterpillar curled up to rescue, or just like a peacock dancing in the rain.   She could portray everything in one single day and still work with her daily routine.  To be her caregiver was not only tiring but also confusing. 

As I pushed her in the wheel chair to the hospital, this time, I know she was suffering from mixed episode, severe mental condition with moods swinging ferociously with mania, anger, depression and acute agitation, kind of loss and total disconnect.  Her doctor was very kind and he had the patience to help me understand her medicines and also keep them away and give her as per the prescriptions time to time.  Any lapse on my part to do this, will put me at the havoc of running with her to recuperation center trying to revive her back to life.  How can I forget that one afternoon she pushed me into that state of helplessness?   Medicines and treatment that made her get annoyed and more restless.  But we had no choice but to listen to our doctor.  Patience.  Perseverance.  I know my inner spiritual strength is helping me as her care taker.

Her mental pain created a mess causing disturbing episodes of anger and argument with my parents and family.  Not everyone can understand her illness which is driving her and cannot endure what I do.  I just stay calm for I know that arguments or justification will only lead her to get agitated  and in a mood.  There are times, when I just give up being a peacemaker.  I feel like giving her a slap to make her shut up.  I want to kick her out of our house.  I am also a human and there are times that I just lose my patience.  But I still endure. 

She strives to orchestrate activities that keep her busy.  She seems to be doing best in everything.  Suddenly she gets lost.  She gets tired.  She shouts for a break.  I silently wish I could say no to her, when she initiates hundred things at a time, triggering another episode of pain, to herself!

I was getting drained, with stress and worry, striving to look after my child, attend my job without losing it and maintain my sanity in the process.   A plethora of moments in the treatment, that cause a deep sense of anxiety.  Will she ever recover?   She was unwell and often required hospitalization for physical illness just because her mind did not give in the immunity that the body requires.  The longer the hospitalization episodes, the wheels of our apple cart seems to be coming off.

Being mentally ill, she often opened the can of worms without even realizing it.  Every past hurt, difficulties with parents and parents-in-laws, past relationships, insecurities, regrets, would often surface during counseling.  Instances of abuse in which she got locked away, disappointments and fear had to be slowly decoded and put back in order for her to move on.  

 

Listening to her favorite classical music, reading her favorite fiction, and creating awesome network of friends and taking steps of recovery at work and focusing on her childhood dream were happy indicators as she slowly limped back to life.

More than 2 years of being on the roller coaster times of illness and to keep her better, I had to stay positive.   Focus on her recovery and our life together.

She gave me love unconditionally and accepted me as a perfect husband with all my imperfections.   She blessed me with a beautiful child as our symbol of love.  She took me around the world and enjoyed every moment as a traveler.  We explored several things together, passionately and in peace.  I gave into love and did not give into negative emotions of anger, fear and hurt in spite of my own moments of uncertainty.

Life is just inevitable, with its own package of challenges thrust upon us by no fault of own.   Keeping up my own physical wellness and mental stability was key to keep the challenges under control.  There are so many aspects of our lives that we have no say in.  In whatever we can, it is fine to keep with the ways to control, with the inevitable random nature of things that life throws at us.

It was much easier to explain to the world, when she met with the car accident in one of her business trips.   Her bruises and cuts on the face showed her pain and was much easier for others to understand what was going on.  They contemplated her path to recovery.   Prayers and wishes kept pouring in till she got her physical broken parts were put back in place and got back to action.

But I had no particular way to make people understand her pain.  The stigma of mental illness did not allow me to even share the episodes of her hospitalization with family and friends.   However, I am just thankful to the awesome recovery which overtime, was a firm build of gratitude that became a massive relief for me.  I don’t need to explain to this world.  As long as I stay in her world and manage her.

Deadly silent nights when she would scroll through her entire friends list on the phone and find no one whom she could call and speak her heart out, she used to call me and cry for help.  The hours of uncertainty, doubt, worry, and pain doubled when she was ill.   Yet, she made every effort and listened to every suggestion of her doctor and kept her strong will sustain.   Miracles started to happen.  

Her episodes are not completely gone.  Though they are not that frequent, she does get into a state of despair making me wonder what recovery she had.  But both of us kept our hopes high and faith strong.  We will together fight it. 

I don’t want to question myself if she would change for good or bad permanently.  Neither do I have the miniscule doubt of her love for me, my child, our family and her profession.   I keep my respect for her and feelings uncompromisable and truthful.   Wishing our worst nightmares never repeat.   Our relationship and love between us all is stronger than ever.   As her best caregiver.  As her husband.  As her friend!  Life goes on!