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.

The Birmingham Surprise

It has been a while since I have written my new experiences about Shiridi Sai how he always has a surprise waiting for you, if you believe Him.

After moving to Swindon, my son had an appendicitis operation(removal of appendix) at The Great Western Hospital. It started off as a stomach pain and the GP (doctor) ruled out appendix infection in the morning. We had to call the ambulance at 1 AM in the night and at 2:30 the following morning, he had an operation performed after around 20 doctors visiting him, assessing him again and again and again before deciding to operate. In this context I need to explain the speed of ambulances in the UK, the two times we called for one, we had someone knocking on the door when we hung up on the phone : Lightning fast. I was in the hospital next to his bed for 1 week without bath, while my wife managed food for us and shuttling between home and hospital. A friend of mine who happened to be a colleague at work also helped us immensely during this very difficult period as I still didnt have a car. After my son was back at home, he kept on persuading me to make a trip to the Birmingham temple to seek blessings of Venkateswara Swamy.(before this I had a chicken pox attack -- first time in 32 years at the age of 32-- it was absolute horror) So my son getting operated made his argument stronger to make a visit to the temple and pay respects to the God. In this context again ,the doctor who operated my son said that he has not seen kids of that age being operated for appendicitis in the last 10 years, which surprised him. He was having a feeling if kids habbits have become healthy all of a sudden in the recent years. My son was never allowed to eat junk and had chocolates very rarely and was fed on a rich diet of fruits, veg (always fresh : not frozen) , always having enough water (no fizzy drinks at all) and what not. I have now waved goodbye to this theory of mine and allow him to have what ever he wants(of course with consideration). I never agreed that my principles not giving junk were wrong, but I now started allowing him out of pure frustration : Why on earth did a boy who had healthy habbits encounter this difficulty where as many out there are having a very happy life. My son could not walk properly for almost a month and needed a scan again as he complained of pain in his stomach. After seeing his suffering , I felt that there was no need to starve him of all the tastes on earth (Sai Baba always says that you should eat food to just feed the body, should never crave for taste or special foods, just enough food for the body, not much and again not less (He never agreed to do "Upavasa" (fasting))

    When my friend said that we should go to the Birmingham temple to seek Venkateswara Swamy's blessings, I initially said that I will see, because I didnt like the idea of praying to God out of fear. I pray to thank Him for all the good things that happen , for all the bad things that happen, I am to blame. So this concept of fear based parying or visiting temple didnt make me agree to the trip, but eventually I decided to go there for seeing the temple, not out of any fear. Again , Venkateswara Swamy is my parents Family Deity (కుల దైవం). My grandfather being a communist, he never allowed pooja at home it seems, and my mom and her mom could only do when he was not around , so pooja was quite less in our home (very less in fact, but the belief in God is always there)

    So, we set out on a suitable day to the temple : We reached Birmingham, although I was a bit surprised by the way people were driving there(changing lanes without signalling, and many other bad habbits), we reached the temple premises. My friend parked the car and both the families started going towards the temple. As it was first time for all of us , no one knew how to actually go inside, we could see the temple but it was quite open, so didnt know which way to actually enter. My wife was leading the way with my friends wife and they found a smaller temple which is much at the entrance of the big temple premises (the Birmingham temple has many smaller temples inside it, the largest one being that of Venkateswara Swamy). So here we are going to a smaller temple, which had no idea of. As we went closer, by sheer luck it was 12:00 in the afternoon and we heard something very familiar : Madhyaana Aarti of Sai Baba... It was quite faint from that distance ,but definitely it was that only. So we went inside and to our surprise, it was Sai Baba's temple . (We later found out that it was newly constructed and the key person inside the main temple was asking everyone to visit that temple also) My wife and I just could not belive ourselves. I know bits and pieces in the aarthi, but not completely. My wife was searching for the aarathi script and she was asking me, but I was in no mood, or no much in this world. I was literally crying there, with closed eyes and singing the aarathi, whatever I knew, didnt bother to look around for the scripts. That happiness of singing the aarathi there was so much that nothing else it the world seemed important and nothing else I thought  would be more blissful). I only came back into the world after the aarathi was finished and then searched where my wife and son were in the crowd(luckily close by only). We never never imagined to see Sai's temple there and if just the temple was a surprise, reaching there exactly by the aarathi time is another sheer luck. 

With this very very pleasant surprise, we moved on to the other temples and had a trip of a life time going to Birmingham.

For many reading this, it may be a sheer coincidence or whatever logic can explain . But, for me that was the greatest bliss of my life so far, never had I been more happy than that moment of singing aarathi in the temple.

More experiences to follow (I have an instance at this point of time to write , but I will write the same statement in that post also(that there will be more experiences to follow), as I am very sure that there will be an experience which I will share again)

Till then

Om Sai Ram and Jai Hind.