Two Muses.

Image

“There are, it seems, two muses: the Muse of Inspiration, who gives us inarticulate visions and desires, and the Muse of Realization, who returns again and again to say “It is yet more difficult than you thought.” This is the muse of form. It may be then that form serves us best when it works as an obstruction, to baffle us and deflect our intended course. It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.”

~ Wendell Berry

Posted in Blogging, Family, Philosophy, Writing | Tagged | 6 Comments

Shouting In Anger.

Image

I thank Arvind for this little story.

A Hindu saint who was visiting river Ganges to take bath found a group of family members on the banks, shouting in anger at each other. He turned to his disciples smiled ‘n asked.

‘Why do people shout in anger shout at each other?’

Disciples thought for a while, one of them said, ‘Because we lose our calm, we shout.’

‘But, why should you shout when the other person is just next to you? You can as well tell him what you have to say in a soft manner.’ asked the saint

Disciples gave some other answers but none satisfied the other disciples.
Finally the saint explained, .

‘When two people are angry at each other, their hearts distance a lot. To cover that distance they must shout to be able to hear each other. The angrier they are, the stronger they will have to shout to hear each other to cover that great distance.

What happens when two people fall in love? They don’t shout at each other but talk softly, Because their hearts are very close. The distance between them is either nonexistent or very small…’

The saint continued, ‘When they love each other even more, what happens? They do not speak, only whisper ‘n they get even closer to each other in their love. Finally they even need not whisper, they only look at each other ‘n that’s all. That is how close two people are when they love each other.’

He looked at his disciples ‘n said.

‘So when you argue do not let your hearts get distant, Do not say words that distance each other more, Or else there will come a day when the distance is so great that you will not find the path to return.’

There is a little twist to that tale in my life. My father is hard of hearing and refuses to wear hearing aids as they are uncomfortable. I therefore have to shout so that he can hear me and he inevitably concludes that I am excited and/or angry.

What should I do?

Posted in People, Raves and Rants, Relationships | Tagged , | 8 Comments

The Hair Dryer.

Image

In all our 40 years of married life, not once did I want to do that.

Image

In the last 3 1/2 years, I have often felt like the Sonny in that. Let me explain with the latest instance when I did.

Last Sunday was very relaxed and peaceful till late afternoon when my father complained about unease and wanting to see the doctor. I succeeded in postponing that to Monday, as the doctor was away from Pune attending a conference.

When I took my father to the doctor on Monday, it transpired that on his own initiative, after reading the literature that accompanied the medicine, he had not been taking one prescribed medicine. Both the doctor and I blew our gaskets and it took me the whole day to recover from that. He was most contrite and kept apologising, but would not understand my angst. I finally had to tell him that if he wanted me to give the care that he needs, he has to obey the doctor and keep me informed of any deviations that he wished from those instructions. He has reluctantly agreed.

Posted in Humor, Medicine, Raves and Rants, Relationships | Tagged , , | 13 Comments

My Nightmare.

I have written about this before and my readers are sure to be aware of the problems that face India’s so far hostile neighbour Pakistan, without my having to elaborate.

The latest in a series of written material about Pakistan, is this book which has been reviewed in The Telegraph. I do not have to read the book to understand what the author has to say, but do have something to say about a scenario that no one has so far covered.

Pakistan has a substantial population spread all over but predominantly concentrated around Karachi, which speaks Urdu. These are called the Mohajirs, or the people who relocated from India at the time of India’s partition and/or their descendants. These are people with relatives still living in India and have many interconnections with India through marriage. These are people who are already facing problems with Sindhi and Punjabi domination and Karachi epitomises that problem with very high incidences of murders and sectarian strife.

If Pakistan collapses, as predicted by many “experts”, I do not have the slightest doubt that India will be faced with a refugee problem comparable to what it faced prior to the formation of Bangladesh.

The scene in India now however is vastly different now, with a very militant Hindu right wing which is unlikely to be accommodating of a new influx of Pakistani Muslims into India and both the refugees and Indian Muslims will face the brunt of such antagonism, the magnitude of which will be difficult to handle.

It is in India’s interest that Pakistan survives successfully as a state and I hope that our leadership, so obsessed with minority appeasement will take this possible scenario in their reckoning before it becomes too late.

Posted in Blogging, Economics, India/Pakistan, People, Politics, Religion | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Weekly Gratitude List – April 28, 2012

It is a measure of the state of my mind that instead of pressing the ‘Save’ key, I pressed the ‘Publish’ key and my weekly gratitude list got posted on Wednesday night.

It was of course very gracious of my readers to have thought that I had deliberately posted it early to keep them updated on what was happening vis a vis my father’s medical problem and I am grateful for that nice communication and the good wishes that accompanied them.

I hope to resume normal weekly postings henceforth and towards that end, let me first finish this week’s post.

On Thursday, my cousin Damodar and his doctor wife Asha, drove down from Navi Mumbai and it was the nicest thing that could have happened to me and my father. After studying all the reports, my cousin in law was able to calm dowm my father quite a bit and that was a sight to see. Damodar, being form the genetic pool, showed the same impatience that I feel and I felt gratified that it was genetic rather than something wrong with me! Both of them informed me that they had had the same problems that I have, with my father’s late elder brother, Damodar’s father. So, the behaviour too could be attributed to genetic factors!

Asha had prepared some delicious dishes early in the morning to be brought for us, and Mangal had done her bit at our end and we ended up with a grand lunch. I was sad to see them leave in the afternoon.

Friday was the first truly peaceful day that I had in many days. There were minor hiccups but within manageable limits. I went to the park and had a long sit with my friends and laughed a lot and shared many a story. It was noticed by my friends that I was back to normal too.

I hope that the future will be as peaceful as the last two days of the week.

Posted in Gratitude | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Dominion And Stewardship.

Welcome to the Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where twelve of us write on the same topic. Today’s topic has been chosen by our esrstwhile LBC blogger Magpie who has retired. The ten other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order, Delirious, gaelikaa, Grannymar, Maria SF, ocdwriter, Padmum, Paul, Rohit, The Old Fossil and Will. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. Since some of them may post late, do give some allowance for that too!

Dominion: n.
1. Control or the exercise of control; sovereignty:
2. A territory or sphere of influence or control; a realm.
3. often Dominion Abbr. Dom. One of the self-governing nations within the British Commonwealth.

Stewardship: n.
Managing another’s property, finances, or other affairs. (In the context of this topic, managing a colonial possession.)

I wonder if Magpie quite had this in his mind, knowing that an Indian wag will take pot shots at that topic.

India was offered Dominion status by the British, but chose to go the Independent Republic route, while retaining a connection with Britain through the Commeonwealth.

Being an Anglophile, I used to believe that, that choice was a mistake and that India should not have become independent, particularly when, what the old Colonist Churchill’s prediction; “Power will go to rascals, rogues, freebooters; All leaders will be of low caliber & men of straw; They’ll have sweet tongues & silly hearts; They will fight amongst themselves for power & the two countries will be lost in political squabbles; A day would come when even air & water will be taxed.” came true.

I am not so sure now as I see Britain experiencing exactly the same predicament, that Churchill predicted for India and Pakistan. I wonder what that old warhorse will be feeling wherever he is.

What goes around, comes around?

Posted in Blogging, Economics, Humor, Politics, Sarcasm | Tagged , , | 22 Comments

A Great Doctor And An Enforced Vacation.

A friend of mine had bought a package tour deal to go to Vietnam on a two week holiday. He had done this early this year and was looking forward to the trip.

Three weeks ago, he had severe pain in his back and he was laid up in a hospital with daily physio therapy etc and was discharged just six days ago. He was asked to continue the therapy by going to the hospital as an out patient every day and start walking around.

Considering his condition, he tried to cancel the tour but was told by the tour operator that he would lose up to 95% of the paid up sum as it was very late.

My friend went to the orthopedist looking after him and asked him his opinion. That wise old man said, take your pain killer medication at need and continue the exercises that you can do without the machines, and enjoy yourself. This is not a life threatening problem that you have and you should take the risk instead of losing all that money.

My friend rang me up from the airport to inform me that he and his wife were just about to board the aircraft to leave on their vacation!

Posted in Medicine, People | Tagged , | 23 Comments

Weekly Gratitude List - April 28, 2012

I was able to get an appointment with the nephrologist on Saturday itself and he wanted some more tests done and though we had to spend over five and a half hours at the hospital, we were able to get all of them done under one roof. The reports will be ready on Monday and the nephrologist will see us also on Monday evening. My father was reassured by the doctor that there will be no dialysis but the tests will give a proper base to come up with proper course of action and that was a great achievement in itself. Despite some trouble, I was able to get all the medicines needed for the treatment as prescribed by the nephrologist. My father was in shock post the tryst with one of the tests which was a gamma scan which he knows to be one for detecting cancer. No amount of my telling him that it was to eliminate the possibility would calm him down.

On Sunday, life again revolved around my father who started complaining about feeling giddy and suffering from vertigo. My attmepts at contacting the new set of doctors were of no use as the cardio/physician couple were in Mumbai attending a conference and the nephrologist was spending his Sunday afternoon with, I presume his gin and tonic. I was asked by them to tell my father to rest if he could not stand till the results came through and the nephrologist sees him on Monday.

Ranjan’s friend Dolly came for lunch and brought two flavours of natural ice-cream and I over indulged.

On Monday, I went to the hospital to collect all the reports and everything, at least to my amateur eyes, seemed to be normal. The earliest appointment that I could secure with the nephrologist was at 9.30 pm and we reached there on time only to have to wait an other hour before he could see us. He cleared all doubts regarding problems related to the kidney for my father but suggested that he sees an Urologist too. He also pointed out that the gama scan reports were inaccurate as the age had been understated. He had to do some calculations to get the correct picture but suggested that I get the report revised.

On Tuesday, the hospital was most contrite and prepared a fresh report with the correct age and that did show a better picture than the earlier one. I was also able to get the hospital’s dietician to draw up a diet plan for my father. Later in the evening I took all the reports and went to the primary consultant who suggested that we wait a while to see how much progress my father makes with the new course of treatment before considering the urologist.

With all these developments behind him, my father perked up quite a bit and was back to almost his normal self.

On Wednesday, I was able to find time to seek and secure an appointment with my dentist to take care of a problem that I had not been able to attend to the last couple of weeks. Later in the evening, I went for a long walk, did some shopping and spent some good time with friends in the park and returned home to find a pleasant surprise in the form of Murgesh having come over from Tirupur to spend an evening with me.

Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments

Schools And Isms.

I am grateful to my nephew Pravin for bringing this story to my notice.

This story is from a book – ‘The prayer of the Frog’ by Father Anthony de Mello, S.J. The story I am referring here is from ‘The prayer of the Frog – Volume 1, Page 95, Part – Religion.

The resurrected philosopher.

An ancient philosopher, dead for many centuries, was told that his teachings were being misrepresented by his representatives. Being a compassionate and truth-loving individual, he managed, after much effort, to get the grace to come back to earth for a few days.

It took him several days to convince his successors of his identity. Once that was established, they promptly lost all interest in what he had to say and begged him to disclose to them the secret of coming back to life from the grave.

It was only after considerable exertion that he finally convinced them that there was no way he could impart this secret to them and that it was infinitely more important for the good of humanity that they restore his teaching to its original purity.

A futile task! What they said to him was “Don’t you see that what is important is not what you taught but our interpretation of what you taught? After all, you are only a bird of passage whereas we reside here permanently.”

And Pravin concludes; When the Buddha dies, the schools are born.

Posted in Buddhism, Religion | Tagged , , | 10 Comments

Control.

Just like the sun over the mountain top
You know I’ll always come again
You know I love to spend my morning time
Like sunlight dancing on your skin
I’ve never gone so wrong as to telling lies to you
What you’ve seen is what I’ve been
There is nothing I could hide from you
You see me better than I can
Out on the road that lies before me now
There are some turns where I will spin
I only hope that you can hold me now
Till I can gain control again

Like a lighthouse you must stand alone
Landmark the sailor’s journeys end
No matter what sea I’ve have been sailing on
I’ll always roll this way again
Out on the road that lies before me now
There are some turns where I will spin
I only hope that you can hold me now
Till I can gain control again

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 4 Comments