Food for thought:

A group of  children were playing near two railway tracks, one still in use while the other  disused. Only one child played on the disused track, the  rest on the  operational track.

The train is coming, and you are just beside the  track interchange. You can make the train change its course to the disused track  and save most of the kids.

However, that would also mean the lone child playing  by the disused track would be sacrificed. Or would you rather let the train go  its way?    

Let's take a pause to think what kind of  decision we could make................

Most  people might choose to divert the course of the train, and sacrifice only one  child. You might think the same way, I guess. Exactly, I thought the same way  initially because to save most of the children at the expense of only one child  was rational decision most people would make, morally and emotionally.

But, have  you ever thought that the child choosing to play on the disused track had in  fact made the right decision to play at a safe place?

Nevertheless, he  had to be sacrificed because of his ignorant friends who chose to play where the  danger was.

This kind of dilemma happens around us everyday. In the office,  community, in politics and especially in a democratic society, the RIGHT is  often sacrificed for the interest of the majority, no matter how foolish or  ignorant the majority are, and how far-sighted and knowledgeable the wise  are.

The child who chose not to play with the rest on the operational track  was sidelined. And in the case he was sacrificed, no one would shed a tear for  him.

The great critic Leo Velski Julian who told the story said he would  not try to change the course of the train because he believed that the kids  playing on the operational track should have known very well that track was  still in use, and that they should have run away if they heard the train's  sirens.

If the train was diverted, that lone child would definitely die because  he never thought the train could come over to that track! Moreover, that track  was not in use probably because it was not safe. If the train was diverted to  the track, we could put the lives of all passengers on board at stake! And in  your attempt to save a few kids by sacrificing one child, you might end up  sacrificing hundreds of people to save these few kids.

While we are all  aware that life is full of tough decisions that need to be  made, we may  not realize that hasty decision may not always be the right one.

Law of the Garbage Truck

This has to be one of the best messages I have received because  when you sit and think about it.... It is so true!  

One day I hopped in a taxi and we took  off for the airport. We were driving in the  right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in  front of us.

My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded  and missed the other car by just  inches!

The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started  yelling at us.  My taxi driver just smiled and waved at  the guy. I mean, he was really friendly. 

So I asked, 'Why did you just do  that? This guy could almost ruin your car  and sent us to the hospital!'

This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, 'Law of the Garbage  Truck'   

He explained that many people are like  garbage trucks. They run around full of  garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointments. As and when  their  garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on you.

Don't take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move  on. Don't take their garbage and spread it to  other people at work, at home, or on the streets. The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their  day.

Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, So ... Love the people who treat you  right. Pray for the ones who don't.

Life is 10  %  what you make it.

AND

90 %  how you take it!

Have a garbage-free Life !!👍😊

STORY OF A MOTHER'S CURSE !

Recently, I have visited a friend's father in a old age home. There I met a lady, around 74 years old, who reminded me of my mother. I introduced myself. We talked for few minutes.

Then, without any provocation, she started cursing her son and daughter.
"Uday, you have come to see your friend's father. But my children, those %@#%$, never cared for me. They ditched me here like an ugly decayed old dog..."she was cursing and shouting so loud. And the beauty of the words she used would create envy in even among parliamentarians in India. I have never ever heard such gutter adjectives that she used to address her son and daughter - horrible! I could imagine her pain, anger, hatred and alienation. I understood that her son is an engineer and daughter is a medical doctor. They have never come to see her. And she is living on her pension.

"Please don’t curse your children, mother..." I said.

"Both of them are living in huge bungalows with children and servants. They spent lot of money on poojas and rituals too....But they can't spend a minute or a paisa for me “she continued cursing them...

Apparently, she is disillusioned, depressed, frustrated and carrying lot of negative emotions. A tragic situation, indeed. Barring the emotional outburst, we fail to see some basic factors that point to bitter truth in life.

"May I ask you a few questions, mother?"

"Yes..."

"You have given birth to your children with part of your own body. You have nurtured them well. You have provided them with nutritious food and nourished them..."

"Yes...yes...most of the times, I was starving to feed them...Since my husband was not earning well, we were living on my petty salary then..."

"You took care of their body so now they have a good and healthy body..."

"Yes - but my curse will finish off their health, their body will decay..." she scolded.

"Now, my question is, you took care of the body, but what about their mind? What did you do for their mind? Did you teach them any value based knowledge? Did you teach them your traditions, customs, rituals, culture and its significance? Did you read them our puranas and itihas?"

"Who had time for that? I was busy to make both ends meet...I was starving, but I wanted to see them as an engineer or doctor...I wanted to see the society respects my children."

"So, your wishes are fulfilled, then what are you complaining about?"
She looked at me with a blank face.

"You taught your daughter MBBS - she became doctor. You send your son to study BTech and he became engineer. Those are very good positions in your society...You should be happy. You taught them to be competitive and selfish...Fair enough. But how will they learn what you didn't teach them? Did you teach them any values in life? Where will they learn from that they should take care of parents?"

"But...they should...right? I have sacrificed my life...I starved..."

"Mother, you made two mistakes - one, you were irresponsible to your own body and mind. When you starve, trillions of living beings inside your body will starve, have you ever thought about it? It is a self-violence. What about the curse of your own body cells? Second: you were sub-consciously deriving pleasure from this concept: "even if I starve, I fed my kids". So you already got your contentment and happiness. Your wish was to make them professionals and earn respect in the society - it was also fulfilled..."

She didn't have answer.

"Have you sought your kids’ permission before bringing them into this world? Did they request you to take them to this world? If you give them good body, it was your dharma to give them good mind too?"

How Rajmata Jijabai did brought her son Shivaji up? Jijabai told him the tales of Ram, Krishna, Hanuman, Yudhistira, Bheem, Sibi etc - fighting the injustice, being truthful, humane and freeing of people from tyranny. These stories made Shivaji the great. He respected women and his mother.

On the contrary, how did his arch-enemy Aurangzeb was brought up by his mother? She made a demon out of a man. He imprisoned his own father Shah Jahan and assaulted women and auctioned them. He was trading Indian women as slaves.

"But...I was ignorant about such things..." she said. Ignorance of karmic laws is NOT an excuse; each and every karma will have its cause and effects.

Abdul Kalam was brought up by his mother in poverty - he became India's most-respected president. On the contrary, Adolf Hitler was also brought up in poverty by his mother. See the difference!

"Mother, I am sorry to say, but you got what you deserve. You are responsible for your karma and hence the result"

"But the struggle I underwent for them? The miseries and hardship I suffered for bringing them up?"

"Mother, everybody feeds their children. But you should have provided them something else too. Have you shown them or let them experience poverty, miseries and hardship? You wanted to experience it for yourself in the name of love to children... Then how do you expect them to know your troubles? You spent lot of money to make them professionals. Did you spend a single penny to make them a good human being? You have taught them that life is all about tuition or scoring highest marks in the exams and competition items like dance and songs. Did you ever take them to a cancer ward in the hospital? Did you ever take them to an orphanage? Did you make them understand sufferings of old-age people? Where do you expect them to learn such things, mother? From reality shows? Commercials? Television series? If they think that life is about self-centered enjoyment, who is responsible for that life style?"

"But don't they know the meaning of "Mathrudevo bhava" and..." she murmured something

"Mother, mathrudevo bhava means, get yourself elevated to the position of the god, not that your demand your children to respect you as god...” I said.

She didn't utter a single word. Tears rolled out of her eyes. I felt I was exceeding the limit. But somebody should tell it to her. It is for her own good. She should stop producing more negativity and hatredShe should take up the responsibility of what had happened to her. That will make her think. And I am sure that she will find solace. There was nothing else I could do in such situation.

"I am really sorry mother...Please forgive me if I have said something that hurt you..."

"No my son, you have opened my eyes...I think I am realising your points..."

"And please stop calling your son, 'son of a bitch' - in fact you are scolding yourself here. Let me assure you, your son and daughter are not going to escape from the results of their bad karma. They will get it back from their children. Then, they may repent. That point of time, they may understand the sacrifice of their parents....So, just pray for them, instead of cursing them..." I said. (http://udaypai.in/)

Glass of Milk

A lovely story about how what we throw into the cosmos comes back to us.  Also shows how different religions have similar teachings ....  The saying about bread is from the Book of Ecclesiastes (Hebrew Bible)



GLASS OF MILK

One day, a poor boy who was selling goods from door to door to pay his way through school, found he had only one thin dime left, and he was hungry.

He decided he would ask for a meal at the next house. However, he lost his nerve when a lovely young woman opened the door.

Instead of a meal he asked for a drink of water! 
She thought he looked hungry so brought him a large glass of milk. He drank it so slowly, and then asked, How much do I owe you?"

You don't owe me anything," she replied. "Mother has taught us never to accept pay for a kindness."

He said ... "Then I thank you from my heart."

As Howard Kelly left that house, he not only felt stronger physically, but his faith in God and man was strong also. He had been ready to give up and quit.

Many years later that same young woman became critically ill. The local doctors were baffled. They finally sent her to the big city, where they called in specialists to study her rare disease.

Dr. Howard Kelly was called in for the consultation. When he heard the name of the town she came from, a strange light filled his eyes.

Immediately he rose and went down the hall of the hospital to her room.

Dressed in his doctor's gown he went in to see her. He recognized her at once.

He went back to the consultation room determined to do his best to save her life. From that day he gave special attention to her case.

After a long struggle, the battle was won.

Dr. Kelly requested the business office to pass the final bill to him for approval. He looked at it, and then wrote something on the edge and the bill was sent to her room. She feared to open it, for she was sure it would take the rest of her life to pay for it all. Finally she looked, and something caught her attention on the side of the bill. She read these words ...

"Paid in full with one glass of milk"

(Signed) Dr. Howard Kelly.

Tears of joy flooded her eyes as her happy heart prayed: "Thank You, God, that your love has spread broad through human hearts and hands."

There's a saying which goes something like this: Bread cast on the waters comes back to you. The good deed you do today may benefit you or someone you love at the least expected time.  If you never see the deed again at least you will have made the world a better place - And, after all, isn't that what life is all about?

Life & You

If you look at what you do not have in life, you don't have anything,
But If you look at what you have in life, you have everything"






Don't just have career or academic goals. Set goals to give you a balanced, successful life.

I use the word balanced before successful.

Balanced means ensuring your health, relationships, mental peace are all in good order.

There is no point of getting a promotion on the day of your breakup.

There is no fun in driving a car if your back hurts. Shopping is not enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions.

"Life is one of those races in nursery school where you have to run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no Point coming first.

Same is with life where health and relationships are the marble. Your striving is only worth it if there is harmony in your life.
Else, you may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling of being excited and alive, will start to die. ............ .......

One thing about nurturing the spark - don't take life seriously. Life is not meant to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here. We are like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up? ............ ....

It's ok, bunk a few classes, scoring low in couple of papers, goof up a few interviews, take leave from work, fall in love, little fights with your
spouse.

We are people, not programmed devices..... ...."


"Don't be serious, be sincere."!

Challenges for the Indian Education System

The new Minister is trying to reform the system in some ways but are they looking at the complete spectrum. As I see it
Indians or Indian students do well in education not because our system is the best but because culturally we give a great deal of emphasis to academics.

In teh coming years India will have probably teh largest young population. To convert that into an socio economic advantage we need that population to be skilled & ; educated to be able to contribute to teh GDP and growth of teh nation. For that we need to invest now

Will aboloshing some exams & having similar core curriculum resolve that??? May be not.

May be if we included things like education related infrastructure &; resources we will be able to address that .

For example why cant every Government school run two shifts ? May be they don't have enough teachers. And come to think of it many NGO's run schools on streets..... when a simple solution could be to let NGO's run schools in teh same facilties, could this be evaluated!!!! Kids who go to such schools , mostly children of labourers could have a great opportunity in store

Another example of vocational training. In cities we use a lot of helpers for domestic work - from cleaning homes to cleaning cars and so on....isn't there a huge opportunity to train &; create employment

We don't essentially need to make the Indian system comparable to International systems, we have a good system in general, just how people percieve some of it is an issue. Also students that go abroad to study is not for the education alone, its the whole experience of living abroad and the fact that options are limited in India. Are we creating enough opportunities ??? There was a mention about allowing foreign universities entering India. Take the example of Singapore which is trying to make itself into a educational hub and has many courses offered to teh international students.

Child labour abolishment is good but imagine a school that has a bunch of kids cleaning say its gardens or floors in bartar to pay for education. Is it radical ?? Imagine some employer who is willing to employ such children for few hours and in return pays for their school fees & supplies . Is that wrong???

Another story...

There was this king that had 10 wild dogs… He used them to torture and eat all ministers who made mistakes.

So one of the minister’s once gave an opinion which was wrong, and which the king didn’t like at all… So he ordered that the minister be thrown to the dogs.

So the minister said, “I served you 10 years and you do this???… Please give me 10 days before you throw me in with those dogs!”… So the king agreed… 

In those 10 days the minister went to the guard that was guarding the dogs and told him he wants to serve the dogs for the next 10 days… The guard was baffled… But he agreed… So the minister started feeding the dogs, cleaning them, washing them, providing all sorts of comforts for them.

So when the 10 days were up… The king ordered that the minister be thrown in to the dogs for his punishment. But when he was thrown in, Everyone was amazed at what they saw… They saw the dogs licking the feet of the minister!

So the king baffled at what he saw… Said:” what happened to the dogs?. !!!” The minister then said;” I served the dogs for 10 days and they didn’t forget my service…Yet I served you for 10 years and you forgot all at the first mistake!”… So the king realised his mistake and ordered the minister to go free.

This is a gift to all those who forget the good in others as soon as a problem arises. Don’t wipe out the history that is filled with good because of a small incident you didn’t like

Think… Reflect… Act… Change…

Gratitude is such an underrated virtue. Human attention spans being what they are, mostly we tend to forget to be grateful to those who serve us, love us, care for us, nurture us, provide for us and so on...... Be it our family, friends, acquaintences, Mother Nature, our Lord.... A good deed done is forgotten. One mistake, and all the previous goods get nullified.