The Country I am proud of

The other day, I was on a nostalgia trip.
We had been to HAL museum which was quite nostalgic for me since it has been 4 years we had been to that place.
While coming back, we decided to dine at Domlur Santi Sagar hotel.(which unfortunately retained its cost but not the quality)
While parking at the hotel, I saw a blind man who was trying to cross the busy road to get to the other side of the junction.
In a country where even the healthy beg, I was mistaken for a second.
But he was not begging, but was asking for directions to cross the road.
I thought the matter ended there.
But at the same time, a gentleman spotted that he was selling agarbattis.
Having lived in a foreign country where the government pays you a lot of money just by being at home and raising kids, where people lie to be on benefits and never work and get state money just for being a citizen, I was honestly surprised.
Here I am in a underdeveloped country, a country where 66% (in Dharwad villages) people dont have a toilet, a country where girls skip high schools due to lack of toilet facilites but has  hifi malls everywhere, what more can you expect.

But here I am looking at a person who cant see but has not put out his arm begging, but trying his level best to live his living.

I pitied him, and was literally having tears in my eyes. I offered to buy two packs and asked the price to which he replied "10 Rs sir".

I said, I wanted 2 packets.

Then to my astonishment, he took out two agarbatti's from the bag (loose ones) and asked me to smell them and buy only if I am satisfied.

I was astonished that he is not begging, he is not willing to be pitied upon.

I told him, they will be very good and they indeed are.

When someone asks me what my country is, I will say this.

The never give up is the most important characteristic of Indians.

You put an Indian in the saltiest sea and he will find drinking water there.

I salute the blind man and I salute my country.

 

Go back to where you came from

Well, well.

What can I say?

This is the most common statement you hear from un-educated people who would have stereotyped foreigners as someone who pray on their country and put their country in a juicer and drink it off. During my 3+ years of stay in the UK, I never faced any intimidating situation except for this one situation. The only other time was when a drunk maniac was shouting "This is my country .. You black, fuck off". I dont consider the drunk guy's comment because I knew that guy and what kind of a person he was , as he stayed right above our flat !!!!!!!

Now for the most famous statement " You should go back to where you came from".

This happened in Reading almost 2 years ago, dont ask me why I am writing this now. May be with the same reason why I wrote about my visit to the jail when I was in France a week after the incident happened. (I will post that after digging from my emails). 

I lived in the UK with the same feeling as I lived in Bangalore. Both places are little alien for me, one for the language and one for lots and lots of factors. I never felt ashamed of speaking in telugu at any place , Bangalore or UK. I have always loved to converse in telugu with my son and wife. Now, I only converse with my son in English at school only if it is a general topic and when I take names of any of his classmates, (for example, why dont you play with A, why dont you say hello to B, etc) otherwise still happy to talk in telugu.

When I moved to reading in 2010, it was quite difficult for my son. He was 4 years old and he did not have any foundation in English, he could not even answer what is your name? He had to start at the nursery soon, my wife was very anxious when she took him there on the first day that she literally cried there. Now the beauty of UK is the amount of money the government spends to make people who move in to UK settle happily and with all the necessary aids to make their life and the life of the people in the UK happy. The most significant of this being the ability to converse in English. So, why do I converse in Telugu, when I know English very much? Just one answer, I cant think in English. Just like JRD Tata could only think in French and not English, I can only think in Telugu and only have to translate to English. It only happens quickly many times but sometimes, I cant get the translation in time and people think I am sluggish or rude in not responding.  Now coming to teaching English, my wife had a free course from the local council to help her learn the techniques to teach my son English.

Now, for the surprise to all of the people reading this.

What is the best way for a child who has never spoken in English to learn English well?

1. Watch lots of cartoons on iplayer (BBC iplayer is only avaiable for those in UK, cant view it from India)
2. Read lots of English books?
3. Speak to him a lot in English?
4. Leave him in a crowd of 100% English speaking Britishers?

None of the above.

The best way is to speak to him in his mother tongue, that is what my wife was told at the week long course. To speak with him very much in Telugu . If he knows Telugu correctly, it is very easy for him to learn English.

During the time my son was learning to speak in English at the Nursery, I used to borrow almost 10 books from the library every week and read him all the books. This also helped him tremendously as he learnt new sentences and ways to construct a sentence, etc. He had so much of exposure to the correct ways to speak and write, that when he was 5 years old, he pointed out to a grammar mistake in a phonics book written by professors of Oxford!!!! May be not reviewed properly.

Since I didnt have a car at that time, we always used to take out a Group pass on saturdays for £5 and roam around Reading town center shopping in the mornings and go to ASDA in the afternoon for the groceries. During one of those days ,we three were at the bus stop waiting for the bus.

There was a lady also sitting at the bus stop and my son was playful on that day and we were little bit playing near the bus stop all the time conversing in telugu. There was a nice lady who was sitting next to us.

Lady : Does your son go to school?

Me : Yes, he goes to a nursery.

Lady : Does he speak in English? The reason I am asking this is if he cant speak English properly,  he will have difficulty to converse with other students in the nursery and the other kids will have trouble with him around.

Me : No, he is fine, he speaks English at the nursery and does not have any difficulty, yes it is a bit difficult, but he is learning and he is improving.

Lady : May be if you have so much difficulty, you should go back to where you came from.

Me : Actually it does not matter much because even if I go back to Bangalore, kids speak English very much there and he wont be still be able to converse in his mother tongue.

At this point I realized that the lady turned her head to the other side and was not interested in the conversation at all, all that she was interested was in saying "Go back to where you came from" 

May be she does not know that I am highly skilled migrant filling up a space which no one in the UK can fill.

I did feel a bit agitated after I came home, but did not say anything to the lady while I was at the bus stop. May be my brought up and culture prohibited me from saying anything. I am normally not aggressive except when I hear about corruption/traitors/cheating spiritual leaders.  

I am glad I kept my cool on that day and not stooped down lower than the lady.

I have not since faced the problem again, it is a lone incident but something I can never forget.

I wonder why we asked this question only in 1947??????????????????????????

Any ideas mate????

The Passport : A true story

This was written originally on 19th January 2007, Re-published after obtaining permissions from the great writer : Satya Prasad Nemana  (he he , thats me)

  ====================================================       
           
   
            THE PASSPORT


    ====================================================       

This is a real life story..
Fakes will look more dramatic..
My company and my name are not mentioned for obvious reasons..



I was badly looking for a job change.....
Then suddenly got this call from this MNC.
The interview went fine and got through the job. I was told that I will be sent
to France in the month of Jan for about 3 weeks for training.
Felt quite thrilled.
Had the interview at the same time my son was born also.
Finally joined the company.
And after one month....landed in Grenoble, France.
This place has quite some good places near by.
The first weekend came and we went to see some snow mountains nearby.
I never saw snow in my life till now.
It was a 1 hr journey and the ride itself was very good.
When we got down..we were on the mountains.
The first site was tremendous...I always miss my wife at these times
but still felt it to be very good.
The trip was very good and the weekend finished..
The following weekend we decided to visit a place called Lyon which is very close to
Grenoble.

Being a foreigner, always carry the passport in the laptop to office..
Weekdays I would have the passport with me from dawn to dusk..but the weekends were different.
Never felt the need to carry the passport in Grenoble since we never did when we were there in Plano, Texas also
last year..
Being Indians and being vegetarian, I wanted a hotel where I could do some cooking.
We found a very good one in Grenoble luckily and everything was very good.... till this day...

As we got up late on saturday, we could not get enough time to go to Lyon..
So my colleague did some R&D to know where to take the bus to Lyon.
Also we were planning to go to Paris also the next weekend..
So started searching web-sites for tickets.
The SCNF which runs high speed trains from Grenoble to Paris had a very good site.. but everything
in French...

So after 3 Hrs of hard fight and a bit of help from Google in translating the French pages to English..
we were still not able to find the correct place to book tickets...

So decided to go to the station and get the tickets....
There are trams which take you to the station and the tram station is about 5 min walk
from the hotel.

We went in the evng to the Station and booked the tickets to Paris..
And while coming back.. felt that we could take tickets to Lyon also for the next day..
The lady did a lot of help since she could speak only little english.

Got the tickets and went back to the hotel at 9..
We got out of the lift and we found that the entire way in our floor the lights are gone..
either fused off or switched off accidentally.....
Once the lift closes... there is nothing that can lead you to the room although the room is
straight.. it was still difficult..
With little help from the ligts sneaking out of some of the rooms, we could reach our rooms..
Since we were exhausted, we had some food and slept..


Next day morning.. we got ready and stepped outside to found the same state...
No light in the corridor.
But now after closing the rooms, the job was much tougher to reach the other end..
It took 5 minutes to get to the lift which would otherwise take 10 seconds.
Bad luck..
Already getting late.
Went to the station..
Next tram is after 6 min.

Suddenly I remembered..
Forgot to bring my passport along.
I told my friend that I forgot my passport and I am going back.
If we miss this tram, the next train to Lyon is at 9 and it will be 10:30 before we go to Lyon..
so it will be late...
Moreover he told me that since the entire corridor was dark it takes 5 min alone to go to the room..

He told me that he is carrying his passport and there will not be any problem...
Thought for a second and thought it is ok....after we dont look like rouges...

We took the train to the station.
The train is at 8:01 and we had exactly 10 seconds to run and catch the train..
Just made in the nick of time..
Oooooooooooooooooh we felt ..

9:30 : We were in Lyon...
As usual for the regular Indian.. even a US county will look like a totally puzzling puzzle.
And Lyon is the second biggest city in France.
At the airport, we took one exit and went to one end of the station.
After some R&D there, we felt that it is very tough and went again into the station towards the other
exit..
After 10 min.. decided to again go to the other exit....
After 10 min again landed up at the other exit....
During the second time we were going..   I observed that there is a Police Chowki inside the staiton.
And some policemen are staring at us....
why ?
One obvious reason : We have black hair
2nd reason : We are not fair.
3rd reason : We are going this side and that side twice in the last 10 min.

Finally found one girl who could speak enough english and got the route for our bus..

Visited all the palces where our feet could take us.


Finally at 5:30 landed back at the station to take the return train to Grenoble.

I was feeling very hungry especially after climbing a small cliff at Lyon.

The next train is at 6 so.. were searching for some vending machine which could get me
some coke....

Found one...
And also found a host of other drinks..
Saw that there is one more next to it.
but it was also having the same drinks.

I finally decide to turn back and loooooooooooo
There are around 10 police men right in front of us..

Goooooooooooooood...
I knew the question..
****************************************
**  Can we see your passport Sir?    ***
**                                   ***
****************************************

God.. This is one question for which I did not have an answer.

I tried showing him all the id cards I have, all the Six bank credit cards..
But I knew deep in my mind..  These wont work..
Then they asked me to come inside the room.
There I tried to explain them that I was having the VISA ..but they wanted that right then..

What am I to do?

God..

My colleague was explaining but they will not listen.. it took time for us to convince
that he has the VISA after showing them the page also.. they looked sooo dumb..


And they cant talk english also.


There were some 4 men and a woman.
I tried convincing them that the passport is in my hotel room and I can show it to them but who
will go to Grenoble believing me?

He took my name and called up some one.. but most probably got a reply that was -ve..

They said that my friend was free to go but I have to go with them for a verification.\
They told me that if required, he can come along with me..

I knew that this is not good ... whatever is happening

We came out of the station.
They did not handcuff me.
Two were in front of me and the rest were at my back.

They took us both to a big van.
We were made to sit at the back.
After driving for 5 min, we reached a place.. very isolated...
While travelling there were lot of things in mind.

1. What if these guyz want to implicate me in some false case.. I have no doc right now....
2. What if they kill us both? Even if my colleague did not come with me.. there would have been some thing
he could have told...


but now there are no chances.....


We got out and there was one guy who looked just like Vandamme and about 7 feet tall..

These guyz told him something and he told something which sounded like
"what is the passport doing in Grenoble? Laying eggs?"

The lady and some of the guyz took out a cigarette each.. and no one looked like they are
going to verify anything.. they mostly looked like they are going to shoot.

Then they led me inside the building.

They took me inside and made me to wait in a room which looked like shit.

There was one senior who could speak very little English but seemed very respectable one.

I was waiting for more than 3o min .......and then the senior guy came to me...
He asked me for my passport number, my date of birth and my place of birth....
I gave him all the details..

Then after 20 min some one came...

he told me that I have a VISA that is not valid....

Gooooooooood...!!!!!!!!!!1
What is this...
I told him very clearly that I have VISA till the 2nd of Feb.
He said -ve.. He said I was only in France for verification and that my VISA Is not valid..


The senior guy came again..

I tried to explain him that I am working for this MNC...and gave him my Visiting Card.
He asked me if I was the director of the company.. this is very clear that he does know
the company...
I also gave him my hotel card and phone number where we were staying in Grenoble..

I was waiting there... and the senior guy kept coming every 1o min.. only telling me to wait more...

I was feeling very thirsty..
I asked one of the guy for water...
He took me inside the toilet where two urinals were and one horribly looking sink...
He told me to drink from there...
I cant say NO ( I was not in such a good postion...)
I acted as if I was drinking.. but actually didnot...


After 20 min the senior guy came again.. and he did not seem to bring good news...

He asked me to follow him....and took me somewhere....


I could see some people waiting there..

And one among them was my colleague....

Goooood..

He told me that I am free to go...

I was soo happy that I shook hands with him and gave him a hug..................


This was like a second life for me.............


Just cant explain what all I felf during those two hours at the station....


Today.. I am going to Paris..but this time.. very careful to take all the documents...

including the PASSPORT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why should we worship or pray god

I am writing this on my new ASUS x401A Intel B960 Windows 7 laptop. The reason I switched from typing from my desktop was that the desktop keyboard was too noisy, noisy enough to wake up persons sleeping in the other room. Having said that I dont recommend this laptop, mostly for hardware issues. 1) Very crappy touch pad, ASUS nose dived on quality from my tiny EEE PC 1005HA which was excellent in quality to this one on the touch pad aspect 2) Non -responsive space bar,works fine but not with the same pressure  as on the other keys.

Now, coming to the post as usual, I don't recommend any of my methods, but having spent enough time in this world, I write my posts not with an eligibility but with experience.

We often turn to God when we are in distress, when we are in trouble, when we have ill-health and when our loved ones are not well and for many other reasons which are lengthier than all the network cables that make up our internet. When I watch Bhakti TV everyday, I see lots of programs which tell you to do this, do that, etc to get rid of this problem, get rid of this problem. While I don't debate on the effectiveness of such activities, actually I am no person to compare to those speakers like Garikapati Narasimha Rao garu and others, but this is based on personal experience and something which I believe.

We always turn to God when we have issues

• When we have issues with money, worship Lakshmi.
• When we have issues with courage, worship Surya (read Aditya Hrudayam, which I do every sunday as I am busy on weekdays and I dont want to read anything in a hurry and finish off my pooja. I am still surprised that I got it by heart which I consider a significant achievement considering me still being in LKG of spirituality)
• For health issues relating to females, read Lalitha Sahasra Naamam
• For issues relating to strength and body power, reading Hanuman Chalisa (which I know by heart thanks to my son who forces me to read it everyday) and Anjaneya dandakam. I can recommend this personally for a cause like bad dreams, etc . My son used to have bad dreams an year before and frequently used to wake up in the middle of the night and come running to our room. But ever since we started reading Anjaneya Dandakamu and Hanuman Chalisa (from the book which I bought at Rama Krishna Matham in Indiranagar  :: Why I mention this I could get the book which costed me Rs 8/- which has telugu script and meanings in Bangalore, is it not great???) Never , never read any Indian spiritual hyms / prayers in English. If you cant read in your mother tongue, treat it as your fate and cry over it. For this reason , however important it is to learn English, it is very important to learn our mother tongue as some one wise said  :  Learn English and improve in life, but learn Telugu (replace this with your mother tongue) and remain a Telugu person. Never forget our basics. Let us not have a generation which cant read and write in their mother tongue. Please, let us not have a generation like that.
• If you are feeling generally down, read Vishnu Sahasra Naamam. Download the content from the below link before it vanishes from the Internet. I can 100% tell that you cant find a person (forget being a Hindu or from any other religion) who will not be thrilled after reading this commentary.)

http://www.shivkumar.org/music/vishnu-sahasranamam-meanings.htm

There are lots of other  reasons and ways to worship God, which I havent tried yet, but now for the important part of the post.

When we visit a temple or read say Lalitha or Vishnu Sahasra naamam or any other sacred text with a problem in mind and asking God for a solution for this problem, we knowingly or unknowingly push the fact that we are facing a problem more and more. I understand that the "problem" we have here is mostly a long-term problem. As we all know, for short term problems, we have quick remedies, like putting money in hundi, offering (practically breaking) coconuts, reading Shiridi Sai Sacharitra and so on. As I said before, I dont find fault with this as Sai Baba himself wanted everyone to come to him with a desire and realize it.  When we worship with a problem asking God to cure us we get it into our mind more and more that we have a problem. This will not help the problem but it can make it worse.

But if we pray God for the sake of praising Him, for example if you read the commentary on Vishnu Sahasra Naamam by Adi Sankaracharya, in the above link, I am 100% sure, you will experience all the happiness in this world, just by praising the Lord Vishnu. Just reading one complete verse a day and enjoying the meaning of the word and to which level the verses praise the Lord, will give us happiness which we cant describe.  This happiness is not something we got in return of a compulsive prayer or a mandatory prayer, but happiness in realizing how insignificant we are in this world and how eternal God is.  I am sure on reading this commentary, you will realize that someone not flattering with those verses is impossible, hence it is important to understand the verses and relish the real meaning of every single word rather than simply reading all the 1000 names of Lord Vishnu.

That will make us better , better and much better.

Dont read sacred verses for a problem in mind, keeping the problem alive always, but read them for the sake of enjoying the text and try to understand the meaning as much as possible.

If after reading this blog, I can get at least one person to go to the link and read at least one verse in the commentary, I am blessed.

Will you worship the God who will grant only moksha and nothing else??

I dont write this post as a non-believer of God.
I am an insignificant being and I have no such intention.
But it is the "intention" and our very own prayers that make me write this post.
I tried to raise this issue in a bhakti forum, but the moderator spurned me away telling me that their group is a a very conservative one. That was 2 years ago.
Now, during this time, I have seen people who dont believe in God at all (yes, Indians but they dont believe in God and the never worship God). My wife and I were quite reluctant to believe that because for every headache, body ache, we utter the name of God, forget major problems.
So, how can this ever be true, that God does not exist?
Is it , is it not?
Anyways, my straight question is that if you come across a God, a hpothetical God who will only give you moksha and nothing else, yes, no money, no promotion, no foreign trip,no etc etc.,but moksha.As Shiridi Sai Baba says, everyone pray to God for a return, people have so many ambitions and so many aspirations : money, children, promotion, etc etc. Now for the table

Till 21 : To pass the degree
Till 22 : To get Job
Till 24 : To get promotion
Till 28 : To get more salary and jump job
Till 30 : To get married and have children
Till 32 : To buy car
Till 35 : To buy plot
Till 40 : To buy/build house
Till 45 : To get good grades for children
Till 50 : To get good grades for children in degree (yes, till 21 above) and you can guess the further list.

Does this ever end?
Do we have an end to our list of wishes?

Well, the short answer is No.
That is the reason, why many of us almost all of us don't see God in our lives.
One wish fulfilled, and another one crops up, and the next one and the next one.
We always surprise God with a never ending list of wishes.
Show me one man on this world who is completely content with what he has, very very rare.

But now that this give - take relationship we have with God is not properly explained, if someone recommends us of a temple or God who only gives moksha and nothing else (no earthly demands like salary/promotion/marriage/children, etc) will you worship Him?

To be very frank, I wont.

How can I worship someone when I don't have proof?
When I have got my first proof, I need more proofs.
My demands for proofs never ends and so does the Giver's stamina to give.

Yet, I wake up everyday in the morning with the silly question, does God exist????

Shiridi Sai Baba always said that he grants peoples wishes (very weird like a child to a 50 year old, etc etc) because he wants people to believe that God exists and then follow the right way to reach Him.

However, we have completely abused the system (yes, this is quite common now a days) and it is common with the spiritual system also.

We do what ever we want to till 60 and suddenly we become very pious and God fearing and regularly visit temples.

As someone pointed out, spirituality has become a retirement plan!!!!!!!!!

There are highly intellectuals out there building, inventing , creating all the rubbish junk (50 mega pixel camera for mobile phone!!!   :: by the time i would have finished this blog there would have been an announcement for a 100 mega pixel one) and more and more junk. If you keep wanting all of those, you will never have rest, never, but what is a necessity now a days?

Why cant we re-invent very important things?

For example, 
1) Why cant we get all the blood reports for essentials from a simple heel prick of a new born baby : Why should the guys at the blood test center in Khammam where my son was admitted for jaundice have to squeeze the hand of this 3 day old baby to get the required blood out for the test????????????????????????

WHY???????????????????????

2) Why cant we have one 1 square feet solar panel that can generate enough power for 1 house????


Someone has listed out the following as basic necessities now a  days.

1) TV 2) Washing machine 3) Fridge 4) Car 5) Own house

Cant we live without any of them?

Most of the life, I lived in Bangalore, I hand-washed my own clothes, which was the cause of the envy of my friends for having my jeans so clean......... didn't have a car, no own house, but had a fridge and TV (I am still searching for reasons why I had them) the market was just walkable to my home (10 minutes walk), and I always had internet, why do I need TV??

Now, I heard somewhere that Internet will become one of the fundamental rights in a few years, right to Internet.!!!!!!!!!!

Re-defining necessity!!!!!!!!

We do lots of good to ourselves if we get rid of these necessities, but we dont want to because we want to save the time for important things, now someone please tell me what those "important" things in life are... pleeeeeeeeeeez....

We can do better by
1) Exercise
2) Fun family activity (I always cherished the days I spend on roof top of our rented 1 bedroom home in Hosakaerahalli (I still cant believe that the area as called Dattatreya Nagar and the house number 21, my roll number, may be Sai Baba was chasing me from then) washing clothes, during our initial days of marriage and how my son enjoyed the washing when I did it on the roof top when he was 2 years old. I used  technology here : Used to watch the weather report and then soak the clothes in the bucket!!! He heee cheeky!!!!!!

In our early days of marriage, we didn't enjoy the walking trip to the Greens and Grains at the corner of the bank colony road and always longed for the day when we will buy our own scooter and have the trips but I still curse myself for not enjoying that walk , a bit tiresome though, tiresome because my parents brought me up without me experiencing any pain, my friends always used to wonder when I was in college how my hands are so smooth :: the reason, I never did any work at home. 


I am still trying to be simple (of course with my 14 Mega pixel 30x Zoom Fujifilm camera any my touch screen Samsung smart phone), I know it is a long way, but I am definitely on the road to the destination. The day I have simplified all, I would have attained bliss. If you think mine is a long journey, compare the journey of those with a D-SLR and an iPhone, I still consider my journey very short!!!!! Life is quite relative, we always live our lives relatively always keep comparing ourselves and keep ourselves relatively rich!!!!

P.S:
Please dont blame me if your financial planning is messed up after reading this post, I haven't lost mine, and it is a completely different journey in another world, that should keep going!!!!!!!!!!!! Now, keep thinking which world that is!!!!

Jai Sai Ram.

The Donkey that went to America

This is perfect for me being out of India, I feel writing my own story, but it is not.

Nevertheless, I don't luckily qualify into the shoes of the person this title is about (lucky me, follow my other blogs to find out why, if you still cant find out, send me an email)

This story is set some 30 years ago, probably less, not very sure, but more or less of that age. This is a real life incident and teaches us how we still remain the same guys who left India with India in our heart and blood even though we have been anywhere in the world.

My grandfather, GS garu was a very great man, an all-rounder, who was first in sports, education , drama and what not. What all English I have learnt today is just a seed from his godown of grains, may be much less. He was highly proficient in English and people used to flock to his tutions for Civils (IAS...) , Bank exams, etc even though he was very short tempered. Short tempered as the world saw him, but for him, I was always his darling. A gold medalist from Benaras Hindu University, he taught History although English was his passion and his greatest asset. He was a genius of many things, many I dont know but I know him as only someone very great. Although a very busy man, he had a wish to complete the translations of many history books to telugu for the sake of the telugu medium students (where are they in 2013???? they are gone, no more telugu medium now a days and many colleges are closing shop on telugu medium) He used to have the history book in English on the left and write the translated telugu text on the right without even looking at the telugu words he is writing. Such a God blessed soul was he. Even though short tempered to the outside world, he was always very kind to me. He always used to run after me to learn English :: Complete reverse to what happens normally, he was chased by graduates to teach them English. But being small then, (in my 3rd class or less, I had little interest to learn ). But when I used to get bored with Dad's engineering drawings at 11:30 in the night (Dad used to draw late but I slept long before that), I used to ask "Tatagaru(Granddad), will you teach me English", he used to drop all the work he was doing and  bring out the grammar book and teach me. The question tags he taught me then were used in my PU some 10 years after, nothing needs to be refreshed, such was his teachings.

Once happened that a student of his went to America (this happened some 30 years ago) . It is quite common now a days, but it was great in those days. So that made that man (or gentleman as the British say politely) take some pride and he got little carried away. He was a friend of my mom and dad and so visited at home and was chatting with them in the home when granddad didnt return from college yet. When granddad returned from college, this guy was sitting on a chair with his legs spread. When granddad was going inside the home also, this guy didnt get up, which is very disrespectful for his teacher and a person much elder to him. Beware, this tradition is still followed in India and my seniors at KLCE made this very clear in their ragging, we should always standup and wish them when they come inside the room. My grandad had a look and went inside the house, go freshened up and came out. This guy still didnt get up and my granddad knew he went to the US and came back so started his conversation :

Grand dad : "Every donkey that goes to America thinks and dreams of returning as a horse...............but will return back to India as a donkey only"

Student : "Sir, ..................."

Grand dad : " Shut up you pig headed rascal.........................................(my dad said that he did not understand what my grandad spoke next with the English he knew)

So, it is very important to remember our roots and remember that we are the same and our values and culture remain the same irrespective of where we go to, whatever our position is or what we earn... Sounds simple but we get carried away very easily and we easily do mistakes.

Dont take Him for granted, remember Him always

There are numerous stories in the Sai Baba Sacharitra where people(Like Syama) who were very close to Baba realized that they did not give him enough respect or treated him below of what He should have been as a God.

Now, a week ago, I too had a little take it for granted scenario when I was getting lazy enough to watch Hot UK Deals and not read Sai Baba Sachiritra daily. This guilt was building up slowly in me, but as my driving instructor always, used to say, I didnt listen to it well and kept on going.

The other day, the head light on my car went off and I had to replace it. After searching the whole internet, I realized that for the Toyota Avensis, I had to remove off the whole body and it is around an hour in labour and roughly £40 for the whole job, which depressed me. Luckily, at the end I realized that it is quite easy to actually do on my car which is not as per the other bloggers /forums. So, on this cold day at 8 PM in the night, I set out replacing the bulb. To my fate the bulb on the left was working fine and it was easily accessible from the bonnet. However, the bulb on the right was a bit tricky to reach by hand and I could not get it to fit once I put the bulb in the socket. Believe it or not, I struggled for close to 40 minutes trying various combinations to fit the bulb but could not. I just did not understand why it was not working. Now, being a Hindu and a Sai Baba devotee, for this very simple thing, I started worrying why I was not able to fit it and if it was the result of any of my bad deeds!!!

After a minute of thinking (yes, i could think of so many bad deeds that I did which I could think of in 1 minute!!!) I found out that it is the result of my neglect and not reading the book regularly. Then I remembered that I did not read the book on that day also and so thought of reading the book and coming back. I was sure that I can fit it definitely once I ready my chapter for the day. The next second the socket fitted and I was amazed!!!

With 2 frost bitten fingers, I went back and read my chapter for the day and have been doing ever since with due respect and belief.

Now, you can still argue that it was coincidental that it fitted when I just thought of the book!!!!

Yes??????

How come that coincidence didnt happen for 40+ minutes???? that is my question.... brood over... till my next blog.