Feb 14....

There is a lady in every home, who wakes up earlier than the rest of us and sleeps later than all of us. She does not have casual leave, privilege leave or sick leave. No holidays. Can you surprise her with a special card or gift? Can she be the focus of Valentine's day!

 What about the man in the house, who has been working to ensure each one of your life is better than his own life?

 Can you go beyond the curtains of ego and demonstrate your love to him in the most unexpected ways this Valentine's day? He needs you.

There is a teenager at your home, who is confused, "Am I an adult or a child?". Can your little one have a date with you this Valentine's day; absolute, uninterrupted quality time!

How about a family reunion of all relatives and bring back the family bondage, togetherness, fond memories, laughter and tears, rekindling the magic of family ties and love?

 Let the annual festivity of Valentine's day continue, but let us also bring an expanded meaning to love. 

Let loving and being loved to cleanse every being that it meets on the way. Let love be multi-directional and never uni-directional!

Isn't a God afterall....

There is a modern saying.

“Religion is meant by common people as true, by the wise as false and by the rulers as useful”

You may all astound why she talks about religion now!

We are all Hindu in our class except one who is a Muslim & this Muslim girl incited me to write on Religion now! She is a tall girl with somewhat dark complexion wearing the Hijab. She possesses good qualities of sharing, caring, and helping. But when it comes to the attitude she shows on others regarding the religion it makes me disquieted. Her belief towards other religion was considered to be inferior as compared to her religion which she thought was superior. This superior feeling made her disrespect other religious practices.

She used to create a dramatic work and show off during those fasting periods for Ramzan while criticising others gravely. She often expresses the low estimation she has on those who abstains on some special occasions in accordant with Hindu’s culture. Absolutely this attitude of her made you listen to my heart now!

We may pray to Christ or Ganesha or Allah or any other name we call him by. If I am in trouble & ask for his help, I’m sure one of them will come. But then, how do I know whether the force that helped me was a half-human half-elephant or someone draped in white wearing long hair or someone with no form?????

We don’t even know who helped us!!

Would Christ say, “yes, I’m available but you’ve always prayed to Allah so you have to wait till he gets free” and just leave you in distress?????

Rather if I were dying on the road & let’s say I’m Hindu by birth, would I refuse to be rushed to the hospital by a person from the Islamic faith?

 Would I just rather die, or lie there in the hope that another Hindu would come to my succour?

What if he just walks fast, not wanting to get involved in a police case? Or perhaps, I would rather be run over by a Hindu bus driver! Really!????

Lord Jesus Christ ever attends to those who worships Ganesha & Ganesha bails out people of the Islamic faith & Allah his benevolence touches every life, irrespective of which religion they follow. For it’s only us “humans” that discriminate; A god that discriminates isn’t a god after all. We must understand that we may be divided but god is one.

One thing that never fails to make me proud of our nation is the secularism. We are born in the land where Dr.Abdul kalam, a secularist in true sense was born. Maybe her immature thoughts or superiority complex, I don’t really understand. 

I didn't post this to comment on any issues that happened. This is my heart’s unspoken words and nothing else!

With smiles...

Swathi !

(Investing myself completely in the art of living) 

CGPA vs Water purifier

Results for AU-affiliated colleges were announced yesterday! My GPA was 8.8  for last semester and as of now, my CGPA is 8.5!

Kicked the gate for it to open, walked fast! My father entered the hall loudly talking to someone on the phone call showing his outrage. After disconnecting the call, he threw the phone on the sofa and screamed, ”Maha! Fetch me some water”

My mom came with the glass of water from the kitchen. “The water purifier was under repair for the past two weeks & still it is”, she screamed and kept the glass hardly on the teapoy that the fully filled glass became one-fourth empty.

I was doing my own business somewhere by the corner of the hall swinging in the jhoola & I promise...I really don’t know how my CGPA is related to that water purifier under repair. He yelled at me,” Ravi uncle’s daughter has got 9.2 CGPA and is now placed in TCS, while you had 8.8 once, then 8.6 & now 8.5 & all you do is swinging in the jhoola  & turning the channels. Neither you watch something nor let us watch” and stared at me as if the water purifier is gonna work efficiently if I get 9.2.

I slowly got up, switched off the TV & locked myself in the room.

Do you all know something? My father was the one who taught me to be competent, able-minded & noble-hearted. He used to tell me, “Being a good human being, but not competent isn’t enough. Being competent but not a good human being is not acceptable. The need is for a good human being who is also competent. You must be able-minded & noble-hearted.”

He was the one who raised a question in me, “When ‘this AND that’ is possible, why should I settle for ‘this OR that’?

He was the one who made me realise that there is no point in being a mere bookworm while all that I need in my life is the Holistic development. I still remember the words he spoke to me that night before my first day in college. He said like...

"A singer who also knows to communicate well is always a better singer than who knows only to sing. That’s Shankar Mahadevan’s edge- a great singer who is also a good communicator. A cricketer who is also good at relating with other people is certainly a better player. That’s Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s edge- a good cricketer who is also great in relationships.A student who knows four languages has an advantage over those who know only three languages.  That’s why Indian students always do well in America. Indian students have the edge of knowing more than one language. If you want to be able-minded, if you want to be competent, if you want to have an edge over the rest, you have no choicesleft than to develop yourself in multiple intelligence. Those who develop multiple intelligence are always spotted in a crowd. So, this year as you enter your college life, not only focus on your academic brilliance but also focus on developing yourself in multiple intelligence."

He told me like this & now changing his principles for that damn repaired water purifier. May be his anger on frustrated expectations he had on me or that caller whom he was showing his outrage or that one –fourth water spilt on the teapoy or me swinging in the jhoola or the inability to grab the remote from me, made him shout at me.

I know anger is a short-lived madness. But, I think it’s better for me not to come out of my room until the water purifier gets repaired!

With smiles...

Swathi !

(Investing myself completely in the art of living)

If nothing goes right, I sleep 

Childhood paintings of mine!

My childhood paintings( ha ha ha...)

Exemplars of eminence!

The weekend cannot be healing your mind unless you have hectic weekdays. Finally, I gave my feet a rest in the terrace having myself fitted comfortably in the bean bag. The rustling leaves in the terrace and those emerald whorls of fronds susurrating in the breeze added a peaceful soundtrack to the scene and it felt like nature is talking to me. Oh! Not nature actually. Mom! 

She screamed, “You wanna coffee or boost” from the Kitchen. I screamed back to her, “coffee ma”. And in minutes, closing my eyes, I enjoyed the cool breeze and the cooing of birds along with my coffee!

I rubbed my eyes hard. There sitting around me in cane chairs, sipping coffee holding the handle for portability of that glazed ceramic cup, were all the people I revered most. History makers who changed the way we lived & thought. Artists whose wisdom, compassion & love had transformed thousands. Ringed me around, they waited patiently for me to ask so that they could reveal. I was to know the secret to their enormity, "the guide to greatness".

There was the great director, Mani Ratnam wiping his glasses with his kerchief, intently talking to Chetan Bhagat, who was influenced by his writings. Mahendra Singh Dhoni was in deep conversation with Sachin Tendulkar; so animated were their expressions that it was hard for me to tell who was inspired by the other.

Dr.Abdul Kalam, the great legend, sat in silence, a soft smile on his face, but around him was a palpable presence of stillness that seemed to pervade the air. A.R.Rahman with his regular charm, drummed his fingers on the chair, lost in the world of music.

Six people, six phenomenal lives! Without wasting a second, I took a deep breath & began...

Were you born with the mark of greatness? Do I normal mortal, who has shown no indication of greatness yet, stand a chance of becoming a history maker?

There was complete silence & I could only feel the rustling of leaves & the cooing of birds nested in the tree. A reminiscing chuckle from Sachin Tendulkar broke as he revealed that he had a great problem with studies, & had been a mediocre, withdrawn student.

Mahi then spoke,” Even Albert Einstein was remarked to his mother as a dull child, then imagine us..” and laughed. A loud chortle then came from Chetan Bhagat as he shared his experiences on those classes he bunked just to date with his girlfriend!

I laughed & reassured. These people were born like you and me human faltering, even unimpressive. However, obviously, something had happened to transform them into super-achievers from human beings.

And I then continued...So, what was the defining moment...how did an ordinary human end up becoming so extraordinary?

Abdul Kalam quiet for so long, suddenly spoke! 

"That was when I had delivered a lecture “vision to the mission” at Anna University, Chennai. The session got extended from morning to afternoon. As I was returning to my room in the evening the vice chancellor prof. Kalanidhi fell in step with me. After I reached my room, the phone was ringing. When I answered, a voice at the end said, “ The prime minister wants to talk to you....” Some months earlier, I had left my post as principal scientific advisor to the government of India, a cabinet-level post. But as I spoke to the PM, Atul Bihari Vajpayee, my life was set for an unexpected change. It is only his words that took up my story from where the wings of fire left off.”

I then realized that although some had become great through some sort of divine intervention, for many it was simply an instance, a small moment that created a deep impact. I also realized that any moment, when viewed with heightened awareness can become the defining moment. Whether it is viewing poverty outside her school for mother Teresa or Newton’s mind thinking about the apple that has fallen from the tree, awareness! I understood, had been an important cursor in all these great people’s journey. Besides awareness, was there anything else that they believed which helped them on their journey to greatness?

The composed man seemed to arise out of his few precious words. ” It’s hard to quantify it. I make films that reach people. I don’t believe that to be mainstream. I think you can be logical aesthetic & still work with the mainstream format. That is what I try to do. I might fall sometimes but I’m not afraid to try. If it doesn’t work. It doesn’t work. I understand that and I try to get up and run again”

Giving a nod to me, Chetan Bhagat said, “Life is not to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here like a prepaid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years & 50 years is just 2500 weekends. Do we really need to get to worked up? It’s okay! Bunk few classes, goof up a few interviews and fall in love. We are people & not programmed devices.”

Rahman’s booming voice broke....”Yeah! Somewhere my inner voice told me that my voice will have the power to wake up many & heal them. So I worked on it. All my life, I have had a choice of hate and love. I chose love and I’m here...”

I finally got it! Greatness is indeed heightened awareness, self-belief, courage, faith & love.Then Mahi told me with a smile,” Have your coffee...it's getting cold"....I said.

"Yeah sure Mahi, but why do you talk in my mom’s voice?”...

Again a loud voice came, “ who is Mahi?”. I opened my eyes and rubbed it again & replied,”nothing mom”. She gave me the cup and said, here is your coffee” and continued,”you told that you have so many assignments to be completed but sitting here alone & gabbling?”

I  replied, “nothing... nothing...I will do it after my coffee...” & started to sip my coffee! I then relaxed and felt good because it was really breathtaking even to be conceived of all these Exemplars of eminence connect over the most beautiful & simple issues.

Greatness begins with heightened awareness, spring to being by a defining moment, be sustained by courage, strength & integrity, faith in oneself and determination! When all these conditions fused and merged, the individual becomes a force to reckon with, & capable of creating a whole revolution. 

With smiles...

Swathi Mohan

(Investing myself completely in the art of living)