What is not, is not ...

   1. A person has lost his diamond ring in his travel, which was a marriage gift from his wife. When he told this to his wife, she was upset. She started blaming him for his negligence.
  2. A student has failed in the final examinations. His father started beating him and mother starting crying and banging her head to the wall.

  In either cases there is no option but to live with the fact. Two ways -You cry, bang your head to the wall, fight for what happened or think what has to be done and surpass it whatever you do the past cannot be changed, so why to create unnecessary scenario.

  What has happened is happened, it cannot be reversed. Care need to be taken not to repeat it. So is this emotional drama required? But most of the times we see this happening. I am not saying emotions are not required but to avoid emotional drama.

The Teacher and The Lady

   An old story, during the times when students stayed with Teacher (Guru) served him and learned from him (gurukula) during their brahmacharya. Brahmacharya is the practice of self-imposed celibacy that is generally considered an essential prerequisite for spiritual practice in India.


  One day the teacher took his students to the river for the morning prayers (prātaḥsaṃdhyā). Near the river they saw a beautiful lady. She is worried as she needs to cross the river but doesn't know swimming and is afraid of water. The guru carried her on his shoulder crossed the river and returned back.
After their evening prayers (sāyaṃsaṃdhyā ) the students used to clarify their doubts about the daily session with the teacher.
  One of the students asked the teacher," You have carried the beautiful lady across the river is it not  immoral?". The teacher replied "No, I have left her after crossing the river, but you are still carrying her in your thoughts that is immoral. Purity is just not only actions, it starts in your thoughts."

King and the Monkey Medicine

      Long ago there lived a king who had an untreatable disease. He called the best doctors in his kingdom and asked them to find medication for his disease. He also warned them that if the medicine does not work, death sentence will be the punishment. He tried medicines of all the doctors but they are not successful in curing his disease. He ordered to kill them all.

     There was a wise doctor in the kingdom; it was his turn now to prepare medication for king’s disease. He collected ash from his kitchen stove, added some honey, made small doses of that mix and filled it in a golden box. He wanted to escape from the death sentence and teach the king a lesson. He told the king that he prepared the medicine from the brain of a very rare species of monkeys and after taking the medicine as per dosage, the disease will be gone for sure. But there is one condition for this monkey medicine that, the king should not think about monkeys while taking the medicine.

    The king tried not to remember monkeys, but the mere thought of medicine itself made him remember monkeys. It became impossible to him to not to think about monkeys, not only while medication but all day he thought of them. He was not able to take the medicine.  He understood that this is the plan of the doctor. He realized his mistake and released all the doctors. 

This story tells us two things, 
first- every problem has a solution
Second - mind is like a monkey, it jumps,hops and roams around
It always does whatever you did not want to do

Have control of your thoughts !

       If you do not have control on your mind or thought then you are living life at the probability of randomness of your thoughts.  Train your mind to think about what you need rather than wandering off. Thinking and Non-thinking must be governed by your will.

Thoughts and desires transform into words.... and words result in actions.  When a person has a lot of negative thoughts, it may lead him to stress, anxiety, depression, negative actions and violent behavior. Controlling you mind keeps you away from such negative impacts.

An organized, controlled thought will give you success. Meditation is the best way to gain control of your main.

Honesty

Why do we lie?

   We lie because we are afraid of someone, something or to escape from an embarrassing situation. Leave the exceptional cases. When you lie, you learn escapism. It becomes a habit. You start lying for small things unintentionally by your sub conscious mind.  

    When you starting being honest, you will grow. You will learn more than what you learn when you escape.

    Whenever I hear the word honesty, I remember Gandhiji. It requires immense mental strength and daring to always stick to the truth.

    As a teenager, Gandhi stole a bit of gold from his brother's because he needed money. Haunted by what he had done, Gandhi later confessed his crime to his father, fully expecting his father's unbridled fury. Instead, his father broke down and wept. The experience was a major turning point in Gandhi's life. He later wrote: "Those pearl drops of love cleansed my heart and washed my sin away."

-Biography of M.K. Gandhi

http://www.gandhi-anibhavan.org/gandhiphilosophy/philosophy_truth_gandhintruth_stealing.htm

The Buddhist Sage and the Snake – Good or Weak?

What is the difference between being ‘Weak’ and being ‘Good’?

There is a story that shows the difference.

 There lived a large snake poisonous snake in a village.  It used to bite anyone who passes by. It is strong, fast and ferocious. So, no one was able to stop it.

Once a great sage was going through the village and saw the snake. The snake stood its ground, raised its head, and spread its hood about its head and lunged at the sage. The sage did not show any signs of fear and had the same blissful smile on his face. The snake tried to bite the sage but it was not able to as it was not able to touch him. The snake realised that the greatness of the sage and devoted to him.

The sage adviced the snake not to bite anyone. From that day the snake became very saintly. It stopped biting people.

Slowly people came to know that the snake became good and stopped biting. They used to move around its place without any fear. The children started playing with it. They used to throw stones at it. sometimes they beat it with a stick.

One day the same sage who adviced the snake came to see it on his way back home. The snake was wounded bad. It became thin and weak. The sage enquired about what happened and why it became weak. Snake narrated everything that happened.

Sage replied “I asked you not to hurt anyone, but i did not ask you to ‘not to hiss at anyone’.”

Any dharma will not ask you to be weak, it says you to be good. So, be good, not weak.

Understand the difference for a happy and respectable life.

The mechanic

Once a ship engine broke down. The ship crew were not able to fix it how much ever they tried.

The owner of the ship called for the best mechanic in the town.
The mechanic tried starting the engine, noticed the sounds it made and made a few taps on the engine with his hammer.
Engine started working and the owner was very happy.
He asked the mechanic how much he need to pay. Mechanic answered that the total bill is $100.
The owner with surprise, asked him why he needs to pay $100 for just tapping the engine.
The mechanic gave him a bill saying " $1 for tapping the engine. $99 for knowing where to tap !"

Experience matters. We need to have a steady mind, learn, improvise and gain experience from our work.

The Prayer and The CAT

A very pious old man is there in a village. He used to pray to GOD daily. There is a cat in his house which is very active and used to roam around the house and play. So not to get disturbed by it the old man used to keep the cat under a basket. This was a daily routine for him before his prayer.


After few years the old man died. At his funeral ‘his act of keeping the cat under the basket’ spread among the people. Since he was very pious and noble, people derived a conclusion that it is some kind of religious duty. Rumors spread saying that keeping the act under the basket would keep the devils away, and few others said that it would welcome the gods.


People in the village divided into three cults : the people who believed that it would invite gods, the people that believed it would keep the devils away and the people who believe that it may not necessarily be a cat, it can be any pet at home.


They started following the ‘act’. Daily before prayer they would keep the cat under the basket. Rich men bought horses and used to keep them under big decorated baskets before prayer.They believed it will give them power.


We should always remember, everything you hear or see may not be actually what you think it is. Eyes and ears can be deceiving, even your perception of the act or statement is wrong. Only through correct assessing of statements or ‘Critical thinking’ and analysis we will know the truth.


Truth is transient, it changes from place to place, person to person and time to time. It can be misleading if you follow the truth by symbolism or mere sentence.

JDay Version 1.1

Yesterday night I had a dream.


In the dream - I woke, up got ready and went to office on 21 May,2011.I am a software tester by profession. In office there was a BRD on my desk for a project,


Change request: 0000 Judgement Day - Revamp of the current environment to improve user experience and look and feel.
Change owner: GOD.
Project manager: Associate GOD.
Remarks: JDay Version 1.1 - Changes made for improvements in EOD runtime.
Note: Technical change does not require testing; just need testing and business user’s approval sign.


I have read all the documents FSD, TSD and saw that there are no rollback and contingency plans. I started thinking about the change, it’s a really beautiful world... the forests, the flowers, the children, rivers, seas, hills, deserts, cute little puppies, beautiful butterflies, dew drops on flowers, the aroma from soil after rain, golden sparrows, sweet relations, caring people, inspiring people,... a very long list. A few exceptions are always there, but if bugs are not there, what is the use of testing department? Is revamp of such a beauty is really required? Moreover, I did not really see the world, still exploring, enjoying... disturbing my thoughts I heard a voice from the sky, "the world is not only you, so don’t take decision taking your personal things into consideration, think from end user perspective." The voice echoed in my ears.


Just as the voice dimmed down, business users came for UAT. I have discussed everything specified in the document with them and has also mentioned that I am not at all supporting the change as the functionalities will be disastrous in production. The UAT team also supported me.
They have rejected the RFC with Remarks: Requirement changed. The previous business team has raised this change request and now it’s obsolete.
I rejected the change request Remarks: The requirements have changed. Can cause disasters in production, even there are no roll backs or contingency plans. Poor release quality. I am rejecting this change request, keeping end user in mind.


Now there is one guy hudi, he came from behind and started hitting me on my back. I asked him what happened. It seems his name was in the Pre EOD job list and was about to be processed as critical data for post EOD job runs. As I rejected the change, he was sent back.


I again heard the voice from sky, “I know you represented then end user, I appreciate it, but how long it will continue like this? The world is built on circular architecture and not linear; everything should start over again after sometime. Now GOD gave me idea, I told “That’s what we desire a linear architecture for our world, never ending, that is the new requirement. GOD chuckled, and then the voice muted.


Associate GOD was speaking to GOD and is noting down some minutes of meeting, “why have you giggled at his request?” GOD said, even if I give them a never ending world what’s the use? They fight for lands, religion, power... they invent weapons that could cause world destruction and kill everyone. So if not me, one day they will do destroy the world themselves. Nothing will be left. If I do it at least some critical data will be saved.”


Here comes the twist, I was laying flat in a cloud near to GOD without his notice and recorded everything that GOD spoke, using my blackberry mobile. After he finished speaking I opened my parachute and started back to earth. While in travel I posted the video clip of GOD speaking about people on earth in face book to everyone in this world.


GOD grinned again. Think his actual idea is to pass his message to the whole world. We are his children, he never makes us suffer and he cannot be happy if we are suffering. It is we, who make our lives miserable, hate and fight and destroy each other.


While I neared earth, I saw that it was filled with colourful flowers, fruits and happy people. They are in bliss; few are preparing garlands with beautiful flowers for the unknown while others are kneeling down on a satin carpet for the same, Few dancing in trance chanting the name while others were reciting some prayers. I thanked GOD for all everything he gave us and is yet to come.
Then the earth started vibrating along with some known background music, vibrations were slow initially but then became intense, I got tensed and woke up from sleep, my heart was thumping... l looked around on my bed and found that it’s my mobile alarm singing suprabhatam and vibrating.


Thank GOD for the message and also for this one more day... thank you for everything! Good morning !

Postponing does not resolve issues..

       We keep postponing things and finish them in the last minute. We think that it doesn't matter unless until we do it in time but what matters more the quality we put in our work.

 A project needs to be completed in a week, we finish it on the last day prioritizing the critical tasks and finally leave the least critical ones. This reduces the quality isn't it? It effects your learning, growth, confidence..

When was the last time you got your master health check up done? Most people feel that check ups come up with reports saying 'High cholesterol' or Low BP or something like that and that makes absolutely fine people sick.
In reality you cannot escape anything, eventually what must be faced must be faced. The forest fire you will face tomorrow is the little spark you tried to escape yesterday.

What you avoid does not get away from you. Its gets more intense, more uglier and revisits you, then you will be only left with "I should have... I must have, I could have..."

Never postpone the medicals, ease out the differences with your friends, to say 'Sorry', to say 'Love you'.

Have the courage to face the facts. What must be faced, must be faced, sooner rather than later !

When you give advice..

    There is a friend of mine who has published his status in a social networking website like this :
"‎2600+ contacts in Phone book. 5k+ friends on all messengers. 100K email addresses in contacts. YET, Nobody to understand my Emotions & share my feelings. GOSH ..! What world I am Living in?? Strange ...!"


Now what does that mean?
He wants all his 5k+ friends to understand how he is feeling and respond?
When you are posting on a social network with 5000+ contacts  you should be prepared for all kinds of replies, isnt it?


Here comes the reply as a comment,
"Four things, to be frank:
1. Quantity is different from Quality
2. (WYG) What you give is what you get
3. Technology needs to develop, to calculate and display your emotions along with the single liner chats we keep in facebook,twitter or what ever..
4. When everthing looks like a defect, check if you have picked up the wrong BRD :-)
What do you say?"


Now there are "defencive" replies as expected, and it later became "you replied to mine, waiting for your next post.." kinda scenario.


Forget about the correctness of the reply... just think about the whole scenario. (to be continued)

The 'Y' Junction

                     A young journalist was asked to go onto field and bring back an article worth publishing. After a straining 6 hours of toiling on streets in hot sun he started back to office with a sense of failure.

On his way back he arrived at a 'Y' junction where 3 roads met. He noticed that 2 buses are speeding towards the junction from the two opposite roads unaware of the other bus. He understood that at that speed the buses would surely hit each other at the junction. He quickly run to the junction and waved his hands and screamed at the top of his voice and was successful in stopping the buses.
All the people in the bus got down and thanked him for saving their lives. He went back to his office with pride and narrated the his heroic act to his newspaper editor. On hearing the story the editor sacked him saying "You missed a golden opportunity of a dramatic story worth headlines."

We do not live in a bad world, its just that the bad makes 'News'. Tax evaders make headlines.. instead why not a story on front page about tax payers? Photos of murderer are flashed.. instead why not that of life savers? Whenever you speak of some one bad, also speak about few good people. For every tree you cut, sow 100 seeds. People need to know information but they need not be impacted by it. Close osama bin ladens headlines soon and start articles about real world heroes,social activists,soldiers. Its a very simple psychology, you think of Lord Rama and you will be him, think of ravana you will be one.

Speak all the good you know, virtues, achievements, admire people make as much noise as you can about good things in life.

For sure the world will change, lets see that it always tends to the good side.