The complete uselessness of a badge

One should never underestimate the power of discussion. Conversations and open discussions are usually killed at the altars of religion, politics, and patriotism. The people who wear these badges are usually the most intolerant and a discussion does not get to prosper in this vile atmosphere. As I am an ardent advocate of a healthy discussion, I am waging my war on these badges. Why do we need them at all?

What follows are my views (reinforced with what I had read, continue to read and with innumerable discussions that I keep having with friends (and a very vocal daughter and son) scattered across the globe)

Why am I putting it here? For each of us to have a look at what someone else is thinking and participate in a discussion/debate so that the concept of individual thinking gets polished, hammered, modified, subjected to scrutiny, given alternate views.

Never to conclude.

Concluding is final and closes the most beautiful thing that has ever evolved between active minds.

DISCUSSION.

I have said this before, and I shall say it again.

Discussion tries to arrive at what is right.

Argument targets who is right

None of us have anything to prove to anyone at this point in our life, least of all among ourselves.

So, just indulge me.

What is nationalism or patriotism?

Is it something tangible? J.Krishnamurti once said that his main goal is to set a man free. Hence, he disbanded the Order of the Star in the East (Founded by the Theosophical Society in 1911, that declared JK as the Head of the Order) in 1929. The speech he gave while dissolving the order has been a great influence on me personally. If you want to read that speech, for the first time or for the nth time, the link is given below.

https://jkrishnamurti.org/about-dissolution-speech

What is special about being an Indian? Or an American? Or a Bangladeshi? Or “xxxxx”?

Do not we all realize that this is just a birth lottery? We were born in India and many of us grew up in India. Some opted to stay, and some opted to leave. I never understood this passionate obsession with a country. (or a religion for that matter). Why someone who left India must demonstrate his love and blind faith to the nation and why someone staying in India can’t criticize the functioning of the nation? After all what is a nation? An organization that is run by a set of appointed people (or dictators where applicable). How many of us have stayed in the same job that we joined when we graduated from college? And what happened when we left our first organization? Have we become traitors? Do we silence anyone (or encourage anyone on the other hand) if they speak or mention the first organization that we worked at/for? What happened when we changed the job a second time, a third time, or started something of our own, employed people, had people leaving OUR organization, and proceed to the next? We do not hold (there is no need to is my point) any special attachment that can drive us to kill or question the relationships, consider the sanity level, or the loyalty quotient of the individual who expresses an opinion about the first organization.

I hope I am making some sense and you guys have not given up already and closing the phone/tab/laptop with a resigned facepalm.

I shall continue at the risk of being called names. Let us look at a sport that I associate well with (parallels can be drawn to IPL if Cricket is to your liking).

Soccer. In Europe.

The Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A are all followed closely in India too. As a matter of fact, India is one of their prime markets. Look at the players. They move from one club to another club seasons after seasons and the fans who loved them in one club start hating them when they move to a rival club and the fans of the first and second club start hating them when they move to the third club. Same for the manager. So, what should they do? Stay in one club till they retire. It is a rarity like a Paul Scholes or a Ryan Giggs. The astute ones keep moving.

Look at the most famous face of football.

David Beckham.

From a non-descript Rovers, to Spurs, to Man U, to Real, to Galaxy, to Milan, to PSG, to making his own team!

I am not deliberately bringing in the national team part because that, in my opinion, was the millstone he carried around his neck. England! He kept playing for England in every WC that he could play and never won a WC medal. Somehow this weighs him a down and even portrays him as a failure. Same for Messi today – I have heard people say Messi needs a Xavi to play football. Look at him perceived as miserably failing as an Argentina player.

The same was said of SRT. The poor chap was visibly relieved when India won the WC in 2011.

Because he knows that history will always remember him as a player who never won a winner’s medal for his nation in the world cup, which pits nations against nations. IPL brought in a level field where players of the world could come and play for a substitute-for-a-nation. You call them mercenaries or you call the teams ManU or Delhi Daredevils or Patriots or Bulls, but they play for a tangible thing called money and when they switch teams, they switch loyalties and life is far simpler.

What do we call an obsessed fan who stabbed Monica Seles? What do we call the rabid fans who camped outside Wayne Rooney’s house when Rooney indicated that he might move to Manchester City from Manchester United? (that Rooney did not go was due to SAF and his guile and was also good for his health in short term from those fans). What do we call the Mafiosi of Medellin who shot Eduardo for his own goal in the 94 WC?

If we are not going to be kind to them, why do we justify slandering and killing when it comes to nations? A nation is just a fictional identity.

If I take Czech citizenship tomorrow (just for an argument) do I become Czech and no longer Indian?

Or should I continue to be a Czech but Dil Hai Hindustani?

Will any of the options that are chosen, come to define me differently to the people who have known me all my/their life?

What, as a human being, if I continue to be the same? 

Does not that matter? Or rather, should not that alone matter?

Instead of trust in being an accidental inhabitant of a particular part of this world.

What are the odds of any of us being born (a horny dad and mom, correct time of the month, the winning sperm, the receiving egg, X, or Y chromosome)?

Now consider the odds for surviving childhood and reaching the teens? (Pox, measles, jaundice, typhoid, dog-bite, accidents, near-hits, cholera, hepatitis A B C or D (or there more?) heartbreaks 😉)

And now add the chances of getting a go, to be educated, and if yes, the chances of completing high school and reaching college?

And if we do reach college, the chances of graduating

After graduating, landing a few jobs and surviving to this age with a handful of friends to share these views?

Let me summarize my views here (for the impatient ones who straightaway jump to the bullet points)

•    Nation or nationality is an intangible concept and to me, it only means a document of proof to stay and travel
•     We are all global citizens within the difficult prevailing practices
• .  If we choose our loyalty to something, it should be born out of our own free will (Chelsea, Porn Videos, Sunny Leone, India, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1986 KREC batch), not because of some factor that was imposed on me and in which I do not believe  (Country, organization, marriage, customs, culture, Trump, BJP, Nehru….)

Let me close with a favorite quote from a man I most admire “To observe without judgment is the highest form of intelligence” It is not easy, and we are all guilty of sitting on our judgmental chairs and give out our fatwas like

“let us not discuss”

“do this”

“do that”

“that is forbidden”

“This is wrong”

“This is unacceptable”

and so on and so forth

My only request is, please never stop the discussion. Do not put preconditions to discussions other than these two. (even these two must be discussed 😉)

Decorum is non-negotiable.

Respect for each other is a must.

And for everything else “let us discuss till we see what is right”; one may individually see what is right and may not come to an agreement. That is ok.

You stifle a voice; you stifle the future.

For the good or for the worse!

Choose wisely.

 

 

 

 

 

Which Wolf Wins

Cause and effect can be quite confusing. Deduction is, hence, a perilous game.

A conclusion without deduction is even more catastrophic.

Take this simple example.

Principle: When it rains, the road gets wet.

But concluding that it had rained by deducing from a wet road can certainly be erroneous.

In this simple example, there is no catastrophe. It was just a wrong conclusion based on a wrong analysis.

The data was available. (the road was wet)

The analysis was wrong. (the source of the wet road as rain)

The conclusion was incorrect, as a result. (That it had rained)

You have not destroyed anything by this wrong conclusion based on imprecise deduction. You just made a fool of yourself.

A lesson can be learned.

When you have data (or in the above case an interpretation of data) that questions a principle, do not challenge the principle; challenge the data.

I am forever grateful, to my friend Shriram Venkat Panse, for the above statement in italic. This happened during one of our recent chats. The greatest truths are often simple. I loved the simplicity of his delivery.

We had practiced it relentlessly in years gone by when we had worked together. The application of the tenet was to technical issues. Metallurgy can often be more confusing than moral dilemmas in life that we face these days. We solved many problems by putting this into practice and made Mr. Viren Shah richer.

But the statement is almost axiomatic in its truth. This blog is a result of that conversation and my compulsive need to convert any simple one-line truth to 1000+ words of a post.

If people can have the power to demonstrate restraint, show a scientific mind to analyze the issue that faces them, resist the temptation to jump to a conclusion, not give in to the euphoria of jumping on the trending hashtag – in short, not fall prey to fake news, so much of misery that we see today is avoided.

Propaganda in the times of Hitler perfected almost to a scientific practice by the evil Goebbels is today’s Fake News.

Serving the same purpose. Faster, more efficient and a terrifying global reach, thanks to technology.

It is impossible to plumb the depths of the toxic minds of those who create and peddle fake news. It is beyond reason and logic. But we can certainly not fall for them. They are cleverly designed and circulated to cater to our “confirmation bias” and “echo chambers”. By falling for them, we demonstrate that we are just simple idiots who are so easily manipulated and manipulatable in the future.

The reason why we fall for them is that we allowed our minds to be clouded by the veil of bias. We have just seen what we had wanted to believe to be true. The rational mind meant to evaluate and assess each piece of information on its merit has taken leave.

Has been granted leave, to be precise.

Even after the fake news is exposed as fake news we cling to our original conclusion.

The ego does not give up easily nor does it concede failure. We get into convoluted whataboutery challenging the exposure of the fake news as fake news.

Serious and honest introspection will certainly reveal the root cause. We had taken the shortcut of bypassing the analyzing part and jumped to the conclusion part, fortified by our preconceptions, biases, and beliefs.

Do we believe if a video is circulated in which a solid object when thrown up, does not land back, but instead stay suspended?

No. because we know the law of gravity.

Instead of listing more such rhetoric questions, I shall simply conclude that we have shown, and been showing, an admirable intellect in evaluation, properly, of instances that have a scientific base. In all those cases we apply the logic of science, the application of cause and effect, causation & correlation, the strength of correlation, confidence levels, and million other analytical tools available for an objective evaluation. There are no grey areas. The correct methodology results in the same conclusion.

The instances when the data had not been analyzed properly result in monetary losses to the establishment, a time before an effective remedy is introduced and the possibility of the malady to remain in the system and reduce the effectiveness.

All losses mentioned above are reversible.

Unlike the cases where the fake news that targets the emotions, beliefs, alliances, biases, leanings, and practices. These are subjective evaluations. Fake news thrives on this. Once again, let us not waste time in exploring the purpose of those who peddle this. We are the evaluators. Only we can control us.

The instigators are left jobless when those who are instigated, applying rationale, refuse to be instigated.

There can be a new product that never existed before in the market; but how can there be a product that no one wants in the market?

A friend of mine played a nice trick on us in our group.

He shared two news items (both, probably fake) over a period of a few days.

The first item praised the government of India for handling the migrant crisis well by citing “first-hand” experiences of a traveler in rural Uttar Pradesh, a state ruled by a staunch right-wing BJP minister.

The second item, shared after a few days, recounted another “first-hand” experience of a family who happened to travel from a shambolic BJP ruled state of Karnataka to the “believe-it-or-not,” utopian Kerala ruled by a communist leader.

Without taking anything away from the sterling performance of the state of Kerala (my bias acting here), what followed was two equally strong factions. The funniest part is most members of the group are either not a resident of India currently, or among those who are currently in India, none from the three states mentioned.

We all heard a piece of news. Two in fact. None of us had a way to confirm the veracity of the news. Each faction chose to side with that news which resonated with their convictions and beliefs. Science had taken leave. Commonsense said goodbye long ago.

On being pointed out, many of us went into denial (and defense mode). “No, not possible” “I know the other news is fake” “stereotypes exist for a reason” etc.… etc.…

Be it Hindu-Muslim in India, racism in the US, Immigrants-natives in most European countries, Xenophobia in most nations, freedom-dissent in dictatorships, the narrative is the same.

Spin a story, populate with the right characters, sow discord, flare up a conflict, portray a victim, paint a beneficiary and the Molotov cocktail never fails.

We do not have to have an opinion on everything. It is ok to receive information, take time to consume it. We are not in some race to reach a verdict on every news item that comes our way.

At the risk of the cliché, Haste makes waste.

We should challenge available data and prove a principle. Never challenge the principle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Losing My Religion

I will embrace religion

Any religion

As soon as the

Killings stop in the name of religion

Elections are not contested in the name of Gods

Leaders do not

divide people on their faith

set one against the other

identify the rioters by their clothes

hold a bible and pose in front of a church while the nation burns

restrict an immigrant based on their faith

The moment you show me

A Catholic cat

A Protestant parrot

A Hindu hamster

A Muslim monkey

A Jewish jaguar

A Dalit dragonfly

A Buddhist buffalo

A Jain jackal

The day

Food is not associated with a specific religion

People are free to eat what they want

People are not killed because of what they choose to eat

Places of worship

                                Do not amass wealth

                                Pitch in to ease the pain of the masses

                                Preach equality and tolerance

                                Do not ban entry to certain people

                                Pay taxes

                                Do not stigmatize menstruating women

                                Support gender equality

When

                Any intermediary in the name of religion is made illegal

                A representative of the faith stops exploiting the vulnerable

                Sexual abuse is stopped

                Stereotyping based on religion stops

 

And here is my favorite all-time quote on religion.

“Religion is an insult to human dignity. Without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things.

But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.”

Steven Weinberg

               

               

               

               Photo Courtesy: Insidehighred

 

 

 

 

 

 

David and Goliath

The bible glorified how a small, nondescript David killed the giant, Goliath.

Michelangelo gave David a permanent place in the history of mankind.

History and mythology throw up innumerable instances where the underdog triumphed.

David, Robin Hood, Cinderella, Kapil’s Devils of 1983 World Cup, Cameroon for one match in 1990 World Cup, Simon Wiesenthal as a one-man-army chasing Nazi criminals, Leicester 2016... this list can go on and on.

There was something common and united and satisfying in all these stories. The “David” needed to win, we were rooting for them, the fall of the Goliath was justice. If not necessarily evil, the Goliaths were big and powerful and there appeared at least some poetic justice in seeing them fall.

Now, follow the reconstructed event that is given below.

A benign, simple giant, an unnamed elephant, pregnant, grazing the meadow encountered a small human. The elephants have evolved over centuries, came to trust humans, domesticated in most instances, often reduced to a stage where it had to depend on the humans for its survival. It had been lulled into a sense of complacency and trust not to view the humans as uniformly evil. They are used to interacting with them, entertain them at times, and accept their offering on its face value. A prize specimen of this deplorable abominable human race, again unnamed as I write this, as in not yet apprehended or identified, approaches the pregnant elephant and offered it a pineapple, loaded with firecrackers/explosives, rigged to explode when the trusting elephant bit on it.

As inorganic things do not have a conscience or rationality, the said rigged pineapple blew up INSIDE the elephant’s mouth, broke its jaw, and burnt its tongue. The stunned elephant wandered off, unable to comprehend what just happened.

A phase of agony is unrecorded neither in its intensity nor in its duration. We have no idea how much the might pachyderm suffered. The final moments of its life are gut-wrenching.  It stood in the water, probably to cool the burnt mouth and passed away. Two lives were lost, the mighty elephant and the calf it would have delivered.

This Goliath did not need to die.

And certainly, not the way it did.

The period of lockdown due to Covid19 was made beautiful to me as we witnessed, through the webcam, the births of two female elephants in Prague Zoo, in the months of March and May. We, as a family, regularly watch the two baby elephants through the web camera that is publicly available on the Prague Zoo’s website.

https://www.zoopraha.cz/en/animals/live-from-elephant-valley

It is such a delight to see them. The babies as well as their caring gentle mothers.

That one perverted mind could put an end to two mighty lives is difficult to digest.

This diabolical, vile, hideous, mean, ghastly, sadistic, ruthless, remorseless, stone-hearted, cold-blooded, barbarous, callous, brutal, savage of a human being must be identified and dealt with in a telling manner to send a clear message to every single person.

If we, as a society, do not treat this act as a violation of the fundamental decency that is considered a norm for a civilized world, we would fail in a massive way on a gargantuan scale.

In the closing scenes of the film, A Few Good Men, the following, rather bewildered, the exchange happens between Downey and Dawson.

Downey: [anxiously] What did we do wrong? We did nothing wrong!

Dawson: Yeah, we did. We were supposed to fight for people who couldn't fight for themselves. We were supposed to fight for Willy.

Willy here is the unnamed pregnant elephant. We are the Downey’s and Dawson’s. There is not going to be a gallant Tom Cruise to nail Jack Nicholson.

Let us not sleep, at least I will not be able to, till we put the stone-hearted bastard away.

Satish Acharya has rendered in a poignant way, the helplessness of even the mightiest animal in the face of the cruelty that humans are capable of

 

 

He is fatalistic, looking at it from the helpless elephant’s point of view. I am asking for blood. Let this innocent death(s) be avenged.

And, as far as poetic justice goes, I have just the correct sentence for him.

'Paidal kyun jaoge, dost?'

We all know about Moses as a person who liberated the cursed people from the insensitive, evil Pharaoh.

We also know Oskar Schindler as a good-hearted German who saved a significant number of people, otherwise condemned to die, from certain gallows and gave them a chance at life. The tribe survived and came to be known as Schindler’s Jews.

Sir Nicholas George Winton, whose work went unnoticed by the world initially, saved 669 children from the marching Nazis and gave them a new chance at life. The emotional, surprise, reunion with the children he had saved is sure to make even the most cold-hearted man like Narendra Modi cry.

The moving video

Paul Rusesabagina and his wife Tatiana saved more than a thousand Hutu and Tutsi refugees from certain death during the Rwandan genocide.

On a smaller scale, there is this Muslim Family who protected famous chef Vikas Khanna from certain death by claiming that he was their son when riots broke out in Bombay in 1992.

Feel good anecdotes, humanitarian efforts, display of a kind heart, had never been found wanting whenever atrocities were orchestrated. These blips of positivity and demonstration of residual goodness are all that is left to cling on to as HOPE when the world appears to be totally fucked up beyond repair.

You stand in awe and respect at the mere mention of these people. The goodwill that they have amassed is infinite.

None of them ever did it out of a sense of heroism. Most must have been as scared as the people they were rescuing or protecting. Only one thing could make them go out of their way to do these good Samaritan deeds, in my opinion.

Their inherent goodness. A constant belief that this world deserves to be a better place than what it has been reduced to. The determination that a good act is contagious, and the ripples of positivity can wash away the dead leaves of indifference, hatred and insensitivity.

None of them started or planned their acts to become a hero.

But that is what they had finally achieved. They became the real heroes that the world bowed their heads to. They became part of the folklore. They transcended time, borders, race, and politics.

Please welcome the newest addition to this exalted list.

SONU SOOD

Photo courtesy - Hindustan Times

The pandemic Covid19 unleashed its misery across the globe, in a short span of 6 months. But, nowhere had the miseries been more pronounced than in India. The complete lack of planning, the eternal disdain for the poor and scant disregard by even the judiciary, usually the last hope in any functioning democracy, all combined to create one of the cruelest manmade catastrophes in the recent times.

A nationwide lockdown that was announced with a ridiculously unbelievable 4-hour notice left the most vulnerable members of the nation, virtually, on the streets.

The migrant workers, that make a huge chunk of the unorganized workforce, from maids, cleaners, waiters, construction workers, carpenters, cobblers, were, overnight, left with no means of survival. They had no income, no money to pay the rent, no means to feed themselves, and were all left thousands of kilometers away from their home. There is a similar catastrophe playing out at their homes too, as their only means of income, the money being sent regularly by these workers, dried up.

The main breadwinner of the house and the rest of the family were left stranded away from each other with no means of support.

The least that the stranded migrant worker wanted was to go home. What would they do after reaching home? No idea. But at least they would die surrounded by their kin.

Gut-wrenching.

The government did nothing. The police made their plight more unbearable. Most people commiserated and kept saying “something has to be done”.

There were few instances of goodwill that were demonstrated with concrete acts than mere lip service. Food, travel arrangements, temporary shelter, and others, the things that must have been done by the government.

Political parties were milking it to their advantage, as usual. The blame game started.

In the middle of all this bedlam, emerged a single ray of hope. A person known for being the villain in countless Indian films, set in motion a series of acts that made him the hero.

His simple tweet, the caption of this blog, became viral. For all the right reasons.

(It translates to “Why will you walk, my friend?”)

This was in reply to the plight of millions of stranded migrant workers, who decided to walk those thousands of kilometers, to join their families, instead of facing the prospect of dying all alone (or the fear of losing some members of the family back at home, while they were left stranded).

Without ANY fanfare, and with no help sought from any individual or organization, he started to arrange buses for thousands and thousands of these migrant workers to get back to their home. His wife and his children joined him and the four of them have been running this unbelievable enterprise, sometimes working even 22 hours a day, with clinical precision.

One good act begets another. The erstwhile mentioned Vikas Khanna has chipped in to provide food for the returning workers.

Sood’s humility and deadpan wit have been amazing. To each request he replies with characteristic humor that puts the people seeking the help feel at ease; those seeking his help are not made to feel like a slave. The serious effort is laced with so much banter that the person traveling on those buses feel as if he had just discussed the picnic plans for the weekend.

This singular magical act of the feeling of the comradeship instead of the condescending approach has made all the difference. He has repeatedly refused all financial help, not out of arrogance, but with a clear resounding message to those who care to hear, that a good deed can’t be outsourced. If you want to make a difference, you be the one and go do it.

His act is more admirable because it is done in a country where polarization is the norm, where a good deed is distorted, and the person is demonized and hounded. He has kept religion and politics outside the noble gesture, an almost impossible act in India where the two above mentioned monstrosities always manage to creep in and claim credit or disclaim the intention.

I end this note with yet another huge bow of respect to Mr. Sood with these lines from a song written by

Shankar Mahadevan / Ehsaan Noorani / Aloyius Mendonsa / Prasoon Joshi

 

Main Mandir kyun jaava

Mera yaar khuda hai

Main Masjid kyun jaava

Mera yaar khuda hai

(Why should I go to a temple or a mosque; My friend is God)

May your tribe increase my friend, if you allow me the privilege to address you as my friend.

 

 

 

 

 

It is the darkest hour before dawn

1936. My grandfather died. My illiterate grandmother was left with 7 children and no means of income. She did not know where her next meal would come from. She had resigned herself to imminent poverty and eventual death. The temptation to commit suicide was impossible to refuse. Eventually, she turned out to be stronger than this minister.

But it passed. The 4^th generation is currently inhabiting this world.

1961 – My father was suspended from his work on an allegation of having taken a bribe (the inquiry found him innocent and reinstated him with full compensation), had contracted tuberculosis and my mother was in her 8^th month of pregnancy with her second child. I was not even conceived. Things could not have looked gloomier for my parents then.

But it passed. The fact that I am writing this blog, whereas I was not even conceived then, is validation enough.

1988. My brother got married. In the established tradition of the patriarchal mindset of a typical south Indian Brahmin, he promptly asked his wife to quit her job, claiming that the duty of the breadwinner of the family is on the man! Next month he lost his job, as his firm went into bankruptcy. In a strange twist of fate that only fate could think of, he found himself in the same position as our father when my mother was pregnant, carrying him. Jobless, a pregnant wife and a bleak future in front of him.

This too passed. Now he is contemplating early retirement having no need to work.

2003. My nephew was walking his dog, a full-grown German Shepard. A bitch with an unusual name Danny! He had the leash wrapped around his hand. Something triggered the dog and it set forth, ferociously. At 43 kgs of weight and a hanger thin frame, my nephew was dolly for the Alsatian on a full charge. He was dragged along, his leashed hand grated on the asphalt. He experienced indescribable agony for a full two minutes. The first doctor messed up and he ended up with a tourniquet palsy. He could not hold a pen. It was three weeks before the final exams. His future appeared blacker than Anish Kapoor’s black. If Ladbrokes were taking bets, they would have offered him 250:1 on completing his schooling, leave alone the next steps.

But this too passed. He is a poet and a philosopher now who frequently pens his thoughts.

2008. A friend of mine packed his bags, even had his last farewell dinner with few friends of his. He was leaving Romania and going back to India. His mind was made up. Nothing was going to change it.

But, a phone call from his boss. The packed boxes just changed their destination and he spent another 10 years in Europe before returning to India.

2008. Another friend of mine, a current colleague, left an esteemed consulting firm, one of the finest in India, and took up a challenging role in a new organization that had just been formed. It was to be the future of all design organizations anywhere in the world. They hired only the best. They aimed for the moon. Plans were large, reach was global. The potential was immense. Within 3 months, the financial crisis of 2008 hit the business world that was too complacent to heed the warning signs. It was a simple decision for the mammoth organization to consider scrapping the fledgling enterprise, still in its infancy. All employees faced termination and a dark and uncertain future.

This too passed. He not only survived the scare but went on to lead it.

2011. I found the life in Europe without my family meaningless and decided to go back to India. (much like my friend in 2008 who decided to leave Romania).

As serendipity would have it, the SAME boss who had given him the call, gave me a call, opened another door and here I am, still in Europe, with my family. There is not a day that passes by, where I do not thank this gentleman. He would not like to be named and hence I am resisting my temptation to thank him for the whole world to know.

2013. The daughter of a friend of mine was in a similar situation to that of mine. She was tired of living on temporary visas and packed up her bags and took a goodbye tour to Florence. How could she leave Europe without standing in complete awe in front of the 17 ft statue of Adam? Her bags were packed, the furniture put on sale, a one-way ticket to India booked. It was a sad adios to a lot of “what could have been”

She receives a call from one of the headhunters when she was boarding her train from Florence. She is now a German citizen, having surrendered her Indian Passport. Beautifully penned here in her blog (this blog was the trigger to my blog – basically the same thing – but I thought to spread positivity is not a crime)

Yes yes, I know, we are never happy with personal stories, we always need well-known stories, so here let me recollect a few, maybe the years are mixed up – I could have googled to be certain, but let the fallacy of a human brain be on record here!

2003. Aron Ralston. He was certain that he was on his way to meet his Maker!

We all know how it ended, thanks to “Between a rock and a hard place” & “127 hours”

1986 Joe Simpson. When Simon Yates cut the rope on the descent from Siula Grande after Joe broke his leg and went over the ledge, neither Simon nor Joe had any chance of a different outcome than the worst possible one. Simon spent a few cruelling days recuperating while preparing himself on what to tell the world and more importantly HOW to tell the world.

Joe fell down a crevasse, crawled, was almost snow blinded, cried, hallucinated, heard “Brown Girl In The Ring” playing in his mind and reached the base camp in the middle of the night, three days later, shouting “Simon” beating all odds to stay alive, went on to continue climbing, authoring a most beautiful “Touching the Void”.

So, even when everything appears to be a mere formality to pull down the curtains and announce THE END, life somehow finds a way to move on, survive and at times even thrive, coming out stronger.

It shall be the same with the current Covid-19. The odds are stacked against us,  by the sheer magnitude of the task, the speed with which it spreads, left at times to biggest morons like Trump and Narendra Modi, but we shall overcome and emerge stronger. 

In the immortal words of Robert Frost

Pic Courtesy: BrainyQuote.

EGO

The shadow

Was not there in the twilight hours before the dawn

It grew longer in the morning

Trampled beneath my feet at noon

Grew again in the afternoon

And vanished in the night.

Same with one’s ego, I believe.

Not there in the early years

So centric to one’s existence in the youth (morning)

Vanishes with maturity in the middle age (noon)

Grows again in old age (evening)

Where one tends to exaggerate one’s achievements

By belittling the youth!

And dies, only when you do

Just like the shadow in the night!