tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75167407705795047732024-03-06T06:00:44.772+05:30India I Care...Dilip Patelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04218376385233276846noreply@blogger.comBlogger108125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7516740770579504773.post-40905936958006216112016-03-29T08:58:00.000+05:302016-03-29T08:58:45.138+05:30Bhoomi Mandir...in every house<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b><span style="color: red;">My early morning thought...</span></b><br />
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Take it as a metaphor. A kitchen garden fits the description of a 'BHOOMI MANDIR'(literal meaning will be 'EARTH TEMPLE'), and it is not associated with any specific religion. But today there is an express need of establishing this kind of a 'temple/church/mosque/gurdwara..or what ever name you have based on your faith',in every house hold, across the boundaries, all over the World to appease the mother Earth, and unite all the living beings on Earth.<br />
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<b><span style="color: red;">So, how do you establish this temple ?</span></b><br />
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A piece of land in front of your home, or in your back yard should be allocated this status. If you do not have this luxury, use your terrace and create green patches of Earth. Millions have been doing it. Join them. If you do not even have terrace under your control, use pots, fill them with soil and coco peat etc and put them up in your balcony where some sun light is available. This is your Bhoomi Temple!<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b>And how does it work?</b></span><br />
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Every little plant that you grow in your 'temple' will establish some <b>divine presence, a real one in your home</b>. The piece of earth, including your terrace garden or balcony pots that you care for everyday by watering, giving compost, spending time with it etc is <b>the 'real' pooja/ibaadat/service of the divine.</b><br />
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One step further, the offering you make to the Bhoomi Temple, must be prepared by you through converting all the organic wet waste that you produce in your home in to an organic compost. There are many solutions available now within your neighborhood. Go for it! This will be a real caring for the mother Earth when you cease to be a cause for dumping the untreated waste in to some one else's neighborhood. Also, inch by inch you are healing the Earth when you do not use chemicals in your Bhoomi Temple!<br />
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The reward would be the produce you get from the kitchen garden, a real 'prasadam'! It could be some green chilies, coriander leaves, tomatoes, brinjals, some greens or mint! When you blend them into your cooking, it works as divine grace. It gives you a sense of belonging to the Earth as you are developing a caring nature, a hall mark of mother Earth! It humbles you as you actually put in some physical work. And it gives the joy of creation, day after day! If your children get involved, that much less time in front of the TV!<br />
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You can discover many other ways in which this temple can shower the divine grace on you and your family!<br />
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Here are some glimpses of our 'Bhoomi Temple'...<br />
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<b><span style="color: red;">Do drop a line of comment, if the write up above has touched you..</span></b></div>
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Dilip Patelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04218376385233276846noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7516740770579504773.post-40695953552387680382015-09-22T18:28:00.000+05:302015-09-22T18:28:17.443+05:30An interesting Ted talk by Dr Devadatt Pattanaik<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: red;"><b>The video is self explaining.</b></span><br />
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Enjoy<br />
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D I L I P</div>
Dilip Patelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04218376385233276846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7516740770579504773.post-62960834347163012442015-06-16T10:32:00.000+05:302015-06-16T10:32:03.072+05:30QT 25<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The best city to live in is SIMPLICITY!</div>
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Dilip Patelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04218376385233276846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7516740770579504773.post-50012402405441849462015-05-29T20:49:00.000+05:302015-05-29T20:57:26.113+05:30Bureaucrat par excellence..<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="color: red;">The video is self explanatory</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="color: red;">However, here is a brief..</span></b><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">Shri K N Kumar, Chief Executive of the National Fisheries Development Board of India from June 2015, has a track record of delivering the seemingly impossible in the north east Indian state of Meghalaya. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">As Principal Secretary,he brought alive a moribund Fisheries Department as well as energized the Rural Development Department. His work with the Fisheries Department there is being cited as a global model of how to get a government department to begin delivering the most to the public in a very short time.</span><br />
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When bad becomes worst, better has to become best!</div>
Dilip Patelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04218376385233276846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7516740770579504773.post-30484485432580627602015-04-06T22:23:00.003+05:302015-04-11T07:45:57.550+05:30Exploring Life Purpose..<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: red;"><b>Debut in Bangalore... On <i>Pay It Forward </i>principle</b></span><br />
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It was a long standing desire to initiate a program at <b>The School of Ancient Wisdom, Bangalore,</b> a training/learning program on the principles of <b style="font-style: italic;">Pay It Forward </b>, i.e. we offer the program to the invitees <b>free of cost (the cost of the first program should be borne by the venue management and the program promoters),</b> and at the end of the day, the participants will have an option to contribute towards the next batch of invitees who will attend the program, again, free of cost.<br />
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It was a long standing desire to initiate a program at <b>The School of Ancient Wisdom, Bangalore,</b> a training/learning program on the principles of <b style="font-style: italic;">Pay It Forward </b>, i.e. we offer the program to the invitees <b>free of cost (the cost of the first program should be borne by the venue management and the program promoters),</b> and at the end of the day, the participants will have an option to contribute towards the next batch of invitees who will attend the program, again, free of cost.<br />
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In turn the second batch will also have an opportunity to pay it forward for the third batch. The series should continue as long as the participants will keep <b>showing generosity</b> and keep gifting the program forward to their known or unknown beneficiaries.<br />
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The fateful day came on 5th April, 2015. A day long program on the subject<b style="font-style: italic;"> 'Life Purpose; a self exploration' </b> was offered by the group comprising of Prof R Rajagopalan, Dr Prabhu, Ajay Patel, Ameeta Patel, K N Malathi and Dilip patel to a diverse group of 30 participants.<br />
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On various counts we term the program as successful.<br />
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Firstly, we had announced in the brochure a cap on the number of participants to 20. But we had an overwhelming response with almost 40 registrations! Mr Ram Menon and Ravi of the School of Ancient Wisdom instantly agreed for the higher number of 30 in place of 20!<br />
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2. Since there was absolutely no commitment on the part of the registrants, we had an apprehension of drop outs without any intimation. However, some participants wrote to us giving their genuine reasons of opting out, and to be counted in for the next edition, and we could replace them with the waiting list!<br />
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3. On the morning of the program <i><b>all the 30 registrants showed up, in time</b></i>. We also accommodated a couple of additional instant registrations!<br />
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4.We were also mentally prepared for some of the participants to leave the program mid way through if it did not resonate with their expectations. Only one participant left halfway through. Her needs were in the field of deeper levels of spirituality. She was absolutely graceful and respectful in conveying her mind and asking for the permission to leave early.<br />
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5. The rest of the participants stayed on till the end of the program and participated fully.<br />
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6. And the proof of the pudding was on the response of the participants on the pay it forward concept. Nipun Mehta's Ted talk video on 'Designing for Generosity' was received very well, and almost every one of the participants made monetary contribution through blind envelopes for the next batch of participants on 19th April 2015.<br />
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7. Very thoughtfully they also decided to leave behind the unused blank sheets, pens and the files which can be used for the next batch.<br />
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The sum total is that our trust in the 'GIFT ECONOMY ( Pay It Forward concept) is not belied. We will move into the second batch, and with improved version of our processes and presentations.<br />
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Here are some pictures and a short video to give you some glimpses of the debut program, followed by some of the meaningful feedback from the participants.<br />
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<b>And here is a small video on the One Minute International game:</b></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/eACK2vlVQ3o/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/eACK2vlVQ3o?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe><br />
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Feed back from some of the participants:</div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US">Program Feedback, Selected
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<li><b><span style="color: blue;">I realize the need to go beyond what I am doing, I want to enjoy the
power of instinctive acts of kindness, the joy of sharing more…. There is now a
desire to go beyond my normal self.</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="color: blue;">Your program was successful in bringing down the guards, trusting,
loving people, courage to be vulnerable – only then one can travel the road
less traveled! </span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="color: blue;">The experience that has been shared from everyone’s personal life
was so impressive… I took time to analyze myself. Thank you. </span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="color: blue;">It reconfirmed my faith in humanity. </span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="color: blue;">I feel I should reciprocate generosity all the way for the rest of
my life. </span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="color: blue;">I met a lot of like-minded people – ‘my tribe’ – and that gives me
the sense of belonging. </span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="color: blue;">I have found a direction to my thoughts that were scattered all
over… I am going back with courage to move forward in my life to make my
passion, dreams come true! </span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="color: blue;">… gave an insight into how little acts performed thus far would have
impacted the people I served – some conscious acts and some unconscious… I feel
humbled. </span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="color: blue;">… in your workshop you should focus more on perspectives and shift
in perspectives at a deeper level rather than at the level of concepts and
thoughts which is where the current content seems to lie. </span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="color: blue;">I feel fulfilled to have been part of this exercise with so many
others. </span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="color: blue;">…would like to get a more structured view on how to analyze ‘now’ to
the ‘end’. </span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="color: blue;">... provided a good platform to me to explore what was hidden within
all these years. </span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="color: blue;">Some of the most inspiring learnings being the difference between
joy and pleasure and most importantly the distinction between ambition and a
larger life purpose – ‘for one’s own salvation and for the welfare of the
world.’ </span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="color: blue;">Suggestion: Somewhere adapt Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory </span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="color: blue;">‘Never stop trying at any age…’ – that sentence struck my mind. </span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="color: blue;">…there is still time to lead a different life and one should
discover the larger purpose of life. </span></b></li>
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Dilip Patelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04218376385233276846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7516740770579504773.post-47042277499945810682015-03-23T00:22:00.000+05:302015-03-23T00:24:39.368+05:30My morning walk on the World Water Day...22nd March, 2015<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: red;"><b>I must confess, I had seen RED on my computer screen, early in the morning, researching on the water scarcity subject matter in India.</b></span><br />
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So, my mind was already seized with the thoughts on water as I began my walk. </div>
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I wish I had carried my camera. I would not have needed to paint the pictures with my words..</div>
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Any way, I left my home at 7.15 a m. The first scene that attracted my attention was the washing of the front portion of the house on the corner. One, or may be two buckets of water was being used to wash part of the footpath which has become, perhaps, their 'front portion' of their house. The dirty water streamed down on the side of the road, and a street dog quenched his thirst...</div>
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The red colors in the map came back to my mind. Bangalore (where I live) is in the red zone. We get water once in 3 days. Many bore wells up to several hundreds of feet deep have dried up in the vicinity. water business in tankers is booming.</div>
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And now I had reached an automobile service center. A thick, oily and murky liquid was flowing into the storm waterway. This stuff would reach, along with rain, when ever it comes ( which happens any time now a days!), into the 'restored' lake nearby.</div>
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The vegetable vendor across the road was sprinkling water from a bottle on the greens he was selling. The bottle looked old and the water dirty! I was asked to buy some vegetables, and I knew we will have to wash again, and spend some more water.</div>
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A new 4 storied building that is coming up on my return path was being sprinkled lavishly for curing.</div>
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And as I stepped into my compound, the beads of perspiration that were emerging on my forehead and neck seemed very precious. But the last straw was the tup..tup..sound in my bathroom. The tap was leaking!</div>
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I had to take some concrete steps to save water, and I decided- 'No bath today!'</div>
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Each one of us must take some steps.</div>
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If you think my above narration is very frivolous, then read some serious stuff at KNM's blog<b><a href="http://xploreandxpress.blogspot.in/2015/03/world-water-day-2015.html"> here. </a></b></div>
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Do write to us what steps are you taking?</div>
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Dilip Patelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04218376385233276846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7516740770579504773.post-40780693325415892982014-09-26T22:01:00.000+05:302014-09-26T22:01:10.494+05:30QT 24<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b><span style="color: red;">An on line Quiet Time exercise..</span></b><br />
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Do share your thoughts..<br />
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D I L I P</div>
Dilip Patelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04218376385233276846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7516740770579504773.post-70187175451798507382014-09-23T00:18:00.000+05:302014-09-23T00:25:49.542+05:30Help...Help...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="color: red;">It is a mirror for us to see ourselves. </span></b><br />
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Actor Varun Pruthi is from Delhi. He is trained to be actor from Hollywood. He creates interesting experiments about humanity on video. The experiment in this video is the most shocking one. Very sadly it screams loudly - '<b><span style="color: red;">India I don't Care!!'</span></b><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/jTiKGkKmaDQ" width="560"></iframe><br />
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Can we bring back the humanity?<br />
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D I L I P</div>
Dilip Patelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04218376385233276846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7516740770579504773.post-162701759246159692014-09-13T14:59:00.001+05:302014-09-13T14:59:23.242+05:30Kashmiri Heart opens up...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b><span style="color: red;"> to the stranded tourists from Bangalore..</span></b><br />
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<img alt="Niveditha (extreme right) and her team members from Bangalore with family members of Mohammad Yunus Bhat, who hosted them in flood-hit Srinagar." src="http://cdn.mobstac.com/m/img/?src=http%3A//www.deccanherald.com/page_images/big/2014/09/13/430579_thump.jpg&w=220" /><br />
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Niveditha, extreme right in the above picture, an important functionary, and member of 'Raja Rajeshwari Nagar I Care', in Bangalore, was one of the thousands of tourists stranded in Kashmir during the last week's unprecedented rain fury. We, the other members of RRN-I-Care, were all concerned about her safety and did various things to trace her down to check if she was safe. But finally she returned to Bangalore safely. Here is what she shared with Deccan Herald -<br />
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Karnataka tourists bowled over by Kashmiri hospitality</div>
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<span class="articleSource" style="display: inline-block; text-transform: uppercase; width: 1457.890625px;">AJITH ATHRADY, NEW DELHI, SEP 12, 2014, DHNS :</span><div class="wx-article-widgets-top" style="display: inline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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<img alt="Niveditha (extreme right) and her team members from Bangalore with family members of Mohammad Yunus Bhat, who hosted them in flood-hit Srinagar." class="wx-articleDisplay-image" height="134" src="http://cdn.mobstac.com/m/img/?src=http%3A//www.deccanherald.com/page_images/big/2014/09/13/430579_thump.jpg&w=220" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgb(170, 170, 170) 0px 0px 1px; border: 0px none; padding: 4px;" width="220" /><div class="wx-articleDisplay-imageCaption" style="color: #999999; font-size: 0.75em; font-style: italic; margin: 2px 0px; padding: 0px;">
Niveditha (extreme right) and her team members from Bangalore with family members of Mohammad Yunus Bhat, who hosted them in flood-hit Srinagar.</div>
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<strong style="font-style: inherit;">Not all tourists caught in flood-hit Srinagar are carrying horror stories home.</strong><strong style="font-style: inherit;">A group of vacationers from Karnataka were left impressed with the hospitality of Kashmiri families in the hours of crisis. </strong><br /><br />Undeterred by the devastation that has brought untold misery, the locals offered them food, water and shelter. Towards the end, they also doubled up as porters, shouldering the tourists’ luggage and wading through water and slush-filled ravines to drop the visitors at the airport.<br /><br />Narrating her experience, Niveditha Sunkad, a Bangalore-based tourist, was overcome with emotion at the hospitality she received from a Muslim family. Niveditha, of Rajarajeshwarinagar, was safely brought to Delhi by the armed forces on Friday. "In the hour of tragedy, there was total communal harmony as Muslim families hosted several Hindu travellers,” she said.<br /><br />This story is different from the loot and scoot incidents coming from the Valley. Recent reports highlighted that some locals heckled tourists and looted them. Sunkad along with five others landed in Srinagar on September 5 to go trekking in the snow-capped Sonmarg hill range. However, soon after landing in Srinagar, they were informed by the organisers that the programme was cancelled.<br /><br />"With no option left, we stayed in a hotel on the bank of Dal Lake hoping for the rain to stop. However, on September 6 morning, the hotel’s ground floor got submerged and by noon, the second floor was also engulfed with gushing water”, Sunkad, techie on a break from her job, said.<br /><br />Sensing danger, the hotel owners left the place leaving behind some employees to look after property. "As no help was forthcoming we began following other tourists as they were moving towards the upper reaches by walking in knee-deep water. Seeing our plight, a young Muslim boy, Mohammad Yunus Bhat, took all of us to his house in Brein Nishat area...the family members vacated one room for us and said 'don’t worry, we are here to help you’”, Niveditha recalled.<br /><br />The Bhat family also accommodated several other tourists.<br /><br />From elderly to younger ones all the 10 members of the family joined to help distraught tourists, Niveditha said.<br /><br />Even after going towards Raj Bhavan, several Muslim youth helped us by carrying our bags as we had to climb steep hills to reach Raj Bhavan where the Army has set up camp to airlift people to the airport, she said.<br /><br />In Brein Nishat area, several people opened their houses to tragedy-struck people, be it locals or tourists, and provided food and shelter. Some mosques have opened mass kitchen to feed people day and night.<br /><br />"They treated us like their family members...Now we have doubt whether they have anything left in their home for eat themselves.We will never forget the hospitality provided by residents of Brein Nishat. They are angels sent by God or we would have been stuck there to die,” Niveditha said.</div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">- See more at: http://m.deccanherald.com/content/430579/karnataka-tourists-bowled-over-kashmiri.html/#sthash.RMSpUO7v.dpuf</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Now this is what is an act of India I Care...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">D I L I P</span></div>
Dilip Patelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04218376385233276846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7516740770579504773.post-72500883724066492892014-09-10T22:58:00.000+05:302014-09-10T22:58:25.424+05:30Dharavi through the eyes of its own product! <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=567239393405784">Post</a> by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/logical.indian">The Logical Indian</a>.</div>
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Dilip Patelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04218376385233276846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7516740770579504773.post-52830167582964267902014-09-06T18:50:00.003+05:302014-09-06T18:50:47.313+05:30The Mile Stone 25K<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b><span style="color: red;">Mile stones are not destinations...</span></b><br />
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But, the milestones do reassure the direction, and mobility.<br />
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It is with this sentiment that this post records here that the viewership of this blog crossed the milestone of 25,000 page views with 97 published posts and 155 comments on 6th Sept, 2014. The figure of followers is stuck for some time at 82. Help us increasing this.<br />
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Thank you viewers.<br />
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D I L I P </div>
Dilip Patelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04218376385233276846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7516740770579504773.post-53147388782251795962014-08-25T23:17:00.001+05:302014-08-25T23:17:13.357+05:30Eco friendly Ganesha<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: red;"><b>Gods can't be crazy..</b></span><br />
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In the next few days many parts of the country will get into festive mood, beginning with Ganesha festival. Especially in Maharashtra and Karnataka thousands and thousands of Ganesha idols will be brought home/established in public places. And after the festivities are over, on the day of closure of the festival all these idols will be immersed in water bodies. Tons of chemicals from the paints on the idols will contaminate the water.<br />
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RR Nagar I Care, an NGO in Bangalore inspired about 50 students of National Hill View School in the neighbourhood of Raja Rajeshwari Nagar to create eco friendly Ganesha idols by teaching them to make using safe potter's clay. And the next day they all went into the community and engaged scores of citizens into conversation about water pollution and need for not using painted idols. As the students demonstrated actual making of the idols, many citizens got inspired and carried home the clay packs to make Ganesha by themselves.<br />
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Now, that is India I Care!<br />
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D I L I P P A T E L</div>
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Dilip Patelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04218376385233276846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7516740770579504773.post-52694949994679142362014-08-15T17:19:00.000+05:302014-08-15T17:19:36.821+05:30Easy is Right..<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: red;">An extract from the book 'The Razor's Edge' by Osho.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #0c343d;"><b>A very interesting read. Enjoy.</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0c343d;"><b>D I L I P.</b></span><br />
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Easy is right<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Question 1: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">BELOVED OSHO,<br />
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I LOVE THIS POEM BY CHUANG TZU:<br />
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"EASY IS RIGHT. BEGIN RIGHT AND YOU ARE EASY.<br />
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CONTINUE EASY, AND YOU ARE RIGHT.<br />
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THE RIGHT WAY TO GO EASY IS TO FORGET THE RIGHT WAY<br />
AND FORGET THAT THE GOING IS EASY."<br />
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WOULD YOU LIKE TO COMMENT ON IT?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Anand Shanti, Chuang Tzu is very
rare - in a way the most unique mystic in the whole history of man. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">His uniqueness is that he talks in
absurdities. All his poems and stories are just absurd. And his reason to
choose absurdity as his expression is very significant: the mind has to be
silenced. With anything rational, it cannot stop; it goes on and on. Anything
logical and the mind finds nourishment through it. It is only the absurd that
suddenly shocks the mind - it is beyond mind's grasp. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">His stories, his poems and his other
statements are so absurd that either people simply left him, thinking that he
is mad.... Those who were courageous enough to remain with him found that no
other meditation is needed. Just listening to his absurd statements, the mind
stops functioning. And that is the meaning of meditation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Meditation is not of the mind. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Most of the Western translations of
treatises from the East on meditation have fallen in the same track. They have
used the word meditation as if it is concentration. And in fact the English
word meditation seems to be synonymous with concentration. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">English has three words -
concentration, contemplation, meditation. None of them comes even close to the
Eastern word dhyana, that became in China ch'an and in Japan zen. The root is
the Sanskrit word dhyana, and it will be very good for you to understand the
distinction. In concentration your mind is focused, narrowed only on one
object. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A famous story about one of the
great master archers.... Arjuna says that his teacher, Dronacharya, was giving
the final examination of his disciples. He had put a dead bird far away on a
tree as a target. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He asked one of his disciples,
Duryodhana, "What are you seeing?" Duryodhana said, "Everything!
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The trees, the sun rising behind
them, the bird that you have put as a target. I am seeing everything." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dronacharya asked another disciple;
he said, "I see only the bird." He is more concentrated. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Duryodhana has his mind spread all
over the place. The second disciple says he is seeing only the bird. But the
master is not satisfied. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He asks Arjuna, "What are you
seeing?" Arjuna says, "Only the eye of the bird that you have told us
is going to be the target. I don't see anything else." His concentration
has come even more narrow. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And for an archer, this kind of
concentration is needed. But meditation is not archery. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Contemplation is not being
concentrated on a single object, but thinking about the same object from every
possible aspect. For example, somebody is contemplating about love - what does
it mean? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He remains confined to a certain
line of thinking, not to a certain object, but to a certain subject. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And "meditation", in all
the languages of the world except the Indian, Chinese and Japanese, also gives
the feeling.... The archer is concentrated, but he is not concerned with the
eye, the bull's - eye. His concern is how to shoot the arrow so that it reaches
the eye; his concern is not to miss the target. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Meditation, as far as Western
languages are concerned, is going deeply into one object - thinking, in its
deeper implications. Contemplation was linear; you were thinking about a
subject from all possible aspects, but the mind was moving. In meditation the
mind is not moving. It is similar to concentration without any arrows. Your
thoughts are the arrows, but they are hitting the same subject deeper and
deeper and deeper - not in a line, not horizontal but vertical. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There is no word in Western
languages which can translate the word dhyana absolutely and adequately.
"Meditation" has been chosen because there is no other word, but it
is a wrong choice. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Out of the three words, it is the
best, but dhyana, ch'an or zen have a totally different meaning: mind has
stopped. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In concentration mind has narrowed,
in contemplation it is flowing in a line on a particular subject, in meditation
it is concentrated, and instead of arrows it is throwing thoughts deeper and
deeper into the same object. But all three processes belong to the mind. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dhyana means the mind has been put aside.
There is no concentration, there is no contemplation, there is no meditation.
It is a state of no-mind; it is absolute silence, not even a small stirring of
any thought. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the East, so many devices have
been tried... how to stop the mind chattering continuously, how to bypass it,
how to stop it, how to go beyond it. Chuang Tzu has his own, unique
contribution. He talks to his disciples in absurdities, and the mind cannot tackle
them. The mind needs something reasonable, rational, logical; that is its
territory. The absurd is beyond it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I have told you the famous story
about Chuang Tzu: One morning he woke up with tears in his eyes, so sad and so
depressed. His disciples had never seen him sad or depressed or with tears; he
is an enlightened master... what has happened? They all rushed and enquired,
"Can we be of some help?" Chuang Tzu said, "I don't think
so." They said, "Still, we want to know what is the problem that is torturing
you so much. You are beyond problems!" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Chuang Tzu said, "I used to be,
but last night I saw a dream and it has disturbed my whole attainment,
achievement, self-realization, enlightenment - everything has gone down the
drain." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They said, "Just a dream?"
He said, "It was not just a dream, it has shattered me into pieces."
They said, "Still, please tell us the dream!" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The dream was that Chuang Tzu saw
that he had become a butterfly. All the disciples laughed. They said,
"Unnecessarily being depressed and crying and tears and thinking that your
enlightenment and self-realization have all gone down the drain.... It is an
ordinary dream, nothing to be worried about it. In dreams people see themselves
becoming many things, but a dream is a dream." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Chuang Tzu said, "I understand
that a dream is a dream. The problem is that I am worried, who am I? If Chuang
Tzu in his sleep can dream that he has become a butterfly, a butterfly in her
dream can see she has become Chuang Tzu. And now I am puzzled. Who am I? - a
Chuang Tzu or a butterfly? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"If Chuang Tzu is capable of
dreaming himself to be a butterfly, you cannot cancel the possibility of a
butterfly taking a nap on the rose bushes and dreaming that she has become
Chuang Tzu. Who can prevent her? And the question is, have I awakened, or is
the butterfly dreaming that she is Chuang Tzu? You tell me who I am! - the
butterfly or Chuang Tzu." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They were all at a loss... what to
say? This man goes on finding such absurd things. Millions of people for
millions of years have been dreaming, but nobody has raised this question. You
have been dreaming, but have you ever raised this question? - that when you
wake up perhaps it is the beginning of a new dream. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What makes you so certain that you
are not dreaming? - in the dream you were so certain that you are a butterfly,
and now you are so certain that you are Chuang Tzu. There is no difference in
certainty. In fact when you are awake the possibility of suspicion is there,
you can doubt; but when you are dreaming, there is even no doubt at all, no
suspicion, no question mark - you are simply a butterfly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He said, "Sit down and meditate
and find out the answer - who am I?" They looked at each other - how to
meditate upon it, how to think about it? It is unthinkable, it is beyond the
mind. His closest disciple, Lieh Tzu, had gone out to the nearest village. He
returned; he saw the whole scene: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Chuang Tzu in tears sitting on his
bed, all the disciples with closed eyes, their minds completely stuck. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What can the mind say about it? The
question is absurd. He asked one of the disciples who was near the door,
"What is the matter? It seems to be really serious! I have never seen such
seriousness here. And why is our master crying? Has somebody died or
something?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The disciple said, "He has
created a new absurdity. Nobody has died and nothing has happened; he is
torturing us and nothing else! Now we have to meditate upon it." And he
told him the problem. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Lieh Tzu said, "Don't be
worried. You meditate; I am coming." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He went out, brought a bucket full
of ice-cold water and poured it on Chuang Tzu. And Chuang Tzu said laughingly,
"If you had been here before you would have saved all these idiots! They
are looking so serious, as if they are really thinking. And you would have
saved my tears and my misery. Just wait; don't pour the water, it is too
cold." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Lieh Tzu said, "Has your
problem been solved or not?" Chuang Tzu said, "It is solved - you are
my successor!" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It is not a question to be solved by
the mind. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The mind is absolutely impotent. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Chuang Tzu has hundreds of stories
and he must have had a very strange kind of genius - even to invent those
stories is not easy - but his teaching was very simple. And those who remained
with him; all became enlightened. That is a rare phenomenon. He defeated even
his own master Lao Tzu - a few people became enlightened, but most of Lao Tzu's
disciples remained in their old ignorance. He defeated Gautam Buddha - a few of
his disciples became enlightened, but that was a very small proportion, because
he had thousands of disciples and not more than a dozen became enlightened. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Chuang Tzu has a rare position in
the history of mystics. All his disciples became enlightened.... <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">he would not leave you unless you
had become enlightened. He was so much after you that finally people decided
that it was better to become enlightened. Every day new torture... the only way
to save yourself is to become enlightened. But his method was very simple, and
this poem, Anand Shanti, tells in a very aphoristic way his whole approach. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Easy is right." Nobody
has dared to say it ever. On the contrary, people make the right as difficult
as possible. To you, who have all been conditioned by different traditions, the
wrong is easy, and the right is arduous. It needs training, it needs
discipline, it needs repression, it needs renouncing the world, it needs
renouncing the pleasures.... <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Lies are easy, truth is difficult -
that is the common conditioning of humanity. But Chuang Tzu is certainly a man
of tremendous insight. He says, easy is right. Then why have people been making
right difficult? All your saints have been making right very difficult. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There is a psychology behind it:
only the difficult is attractive to your ego. The more difficult is the task,
the more the ego feels challenged. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Climbing Everest was difficult;
hundreds of people had died before Edmund Hillary reached the top alive. For
the whole century groups upon groups of mountaineers had been coming, and when
Edmund Hillary reached, there was nothing to be found! Just at the very peak
there is not even space enough... only one person can stand there, on the
highest point. He was asked, "What prompted you? Knowing perfectly well
that hundreds of mountaineers have lost their life during one hundred years,
and not even their bodies have been found... why did you try this dangerous
project?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He said, "I had to try. It was
hurting my ego. I am a mountaineer, I love climbing mountains, and it was
humiliating that there is Everest and nobody has been able to reach there. It
is not a question of finding anything, but I feel so immensely happy." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What is this happiness? You have not
found anything! The happiness is that your ego has become more crystallized.
You are the first man in the whole history who has reached Everest; now nobody
can take your place. Anybody who will reach there will be second, third... but
you have made a mark on the history; you are the first. You have not found
anything, but you have found a deep nourishment for your ego. Perhaps Edmund
Hillary himself is not aware of it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">All the religions are making the
right difficult, because the difficult is attractive - attractive to the ego. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But the ego is not the truth; The
ego is not right. Do you see the dilemma? The ego is attracted only towards the
difficult. If you want people to become saints you have to make your right,
your truth, your discipline very difficult. The more difficult it is, the more
egoists will be attracted, almost magnetically pulled. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But the ego is not right. It is the
worst thing that can happen to a man. And it cannot deliver to you the right,
the truth; it can only make your ego stronger. Chuang Tzu is saying in a simple
statement the most pregnant statement: Easy is right. Because for the easy, ego
has no attraction. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If you are going towards the easy,
the ego starts dying. And when there is no ego left, you have arrived to your
reality - the right, the truth. And truth and right have to be natural. Easy
means natural; you can find them without any effort. Easy is right means
natural is right, effortlessness is right, egolessness is right. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">BEGIN RIGHT AND YOU ARE EASY,
CONTINUE EASY AND YOU ARE RIGHT. They are just two sides of the same coin. If,
beginning to live a right life, you find it difficult, then remember, it is not
right. If, living the right, your life becomes more and more easy, more and
more a let-go, flowing with the stream.... <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Going against the stream is
difficult, but going with the stream is not difficult. So either choose the
easiest things in life, the most natural things in life, and you will be right;
or if you want to begin the other way, remember the criterion that the right
has to produce easiness in you, relaxedness in you. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">CONTINUE EASY AND YOU ARE RIGHT.
Never forget for a moment that the difficult is the food for the ego, and the
ego is the barrier that makes you blind to see, makes you deaf to hear, makes
your heart hard to open, makes it impossible for you to love, to dance, to
sing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">CONTINUE EASY. Your whole life
should be an easy phenomenon. Then you will not be creating the ego. You will
be a natural being, just ordinary. And to Chuang Tzu, and to me also, the
ordinary is the most extraordinary. The people who are trying to be
extraordinary have missed the goal. Just be ordinary, just be nobody. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But all your conditionings are so
corrupting; they corrupt you. They say; to be easy is to be lazy, to be
ordinary is humiliating. If you don't try for power, for prestige, for
respectability, then your life is meaningless - that has been forced into your
mind. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Chuang Tzu in these simple
statements is taking away all your conditionings. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">CONTINUE EASY AND YOU ARE RIGHT.
Never for a moment get attracted towards the difficult. It will make you
somebody - a prime minister, a president - but it will not make you divine.
Easy is divine. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I have heard about an American
super-rich man. He had all the things the world can offer and he had been
striving all his life to be on the top; now he had reached and was feeling
stupid inside because there was nothing on the top. If Edmund Hillary was
intelligent enough, he must have felt stupid standing on Everest... for what
have you been trying? The man who walked on the moon must have looked very
embarrassed, although there was nobody to see him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This man had come to the top as far
as money is concerned, and as far as money can purchase, he had purchased
everything. And now he was looking stupid. What is the point of it all? Inside
he is hollow. He has no time to give to his inner growth, no time even to be
acquainted with himself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He dropped all his riches and rushed
towards the East to find the truth, because three-fourths of his life was
almost gone - just the tail has remained, the elephant has passed. But if
something could be possible there were a few days left. He rushed fast. He went
from one master to another master, but nobody could satisfy him, because
whatever they were saying was again another trip of the ego. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And he was well acquainted with that
trip. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It does not matter whether you are
accumulating money or whether you are accumulating virtue, whether you are
becoming respectable here or you are becoming respectable hereafter - it does
not matter, it is the same game. Whether you are becoming a world-famous
celebrity or a world- worshiped saint, there is no difference; both are ego
numbers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And they were all telling him
difficult disciplines and difficult, arduous ways of finding the truth; they were
all saying, "It may not be possible in this life, but start anyhow. In the
next life maybe.... The journey is long, the goal is a faraway star." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But now nobody could deceive him. He
had found that just becoming somebody special is an exercise in stupidity.
Finally he heard about a saint who lived in the Himalayas. And people said,
"If you are not satisfied with him, you will never be satisfied with
anybody. Then forget the whole thing." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So tired and tattered, walking for
miles, finally he found the old man. He was very happy seeing the old man, but
was shocked. Before he could say anything, the old man said, "Are you an
American?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He said, "Yes, I am." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The old man said, "Very good.
Have you got any American cigarettes with you?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He said, "My God, where have I
come! I have come to seek truth, to find the right...." He pulled out
cigarettes and the old man started smoking. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The American said, "You have
not even asked me for what I have come here, tired, hungry...." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He said, "That does not
matter." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The American said, "I have come
to find the truth!" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The old man said, "Truth? You
do one thing, you go back. And next time when you come, bring a lot of American
cigarettes, because here in this place it is very difficult to find cigarettes.
And I am an easy-going man, I don't make any effort; people come on their own.
But I like the best cigarettes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Here Indians come with
beedies...." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"But," the man asked,
"what about my search?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The old man said, "Your search?
This is the discipline for you: go back, get as many cigarettes as you can get
and come back and remain here with me." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He asked, "Any
discipline?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The old man said, "I am an
ordinary old man - no discipline, no religion, no philosophy - I only like to
smoke cigarettes. You come here, and slowly, slowly you will also become just
as ordinary as I am. And I tell you, to be ordinary, with no pretensions, is
the right." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And as the man was going back,
puzzled, the old man said, "Listen, at least leave your wristwatch here,
because I don't have any wristwatch so I don't know the time, what time.... And
anyway you are coming back, so you can bring another wristwatch." Chuang
Tzu would have liked this old man. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">EASY IS RIGHT. BEGIN RIGHT AND YOU
ARE EASY. That has to be the criterion. If you feel uneasiness, tension, then
what you have started cannot be right. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">CONTINUE EASY AND YOU ARE RIGHT. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And the last part is something never
to be forgotten. THE RIGHT WAY TO GO EASY IS TO FORGET THE RIGHT WAY - because
even to remember it is an uneasiness. THE RIGHT WAY TO GO EASY IS TO FORGET THE
RIGHT WAY AND FORGET THAT THE GOING IS EASY. What is the need of remembering
these things? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Relax to such a point... be as
natural as the trees and the birds. You will not find in the birds that
somebody is a saint and somebody is a sinner; you will not find in the trees
that somebody is virtuous and somebody is full of vices. Everything is easy -
so easy that you need not remember it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I agree with Chuang Tzu with
absolute, unconditional, categorical attunement. I would have loved to meet
Chuang Tzu. If I were given the opportunity to meet one of the mystics of the
whole human history, Chuang Tzu would be my choice. I have named this place
Chuang Tzu Auditorium. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He was very much misunderstood. It
is obvious... because he was destroying all the priests, all the popes, all the
imams, all the shankaracharyas; he was destroying the so-called great
commandments for being right, and destroying them so easily. He was one of the
most natural men the world has seen. He has not given any discipline, he has
not given any doctrine, he has not given any catechism. He has simply explained
one thing: that if you can be natural and ordinary, just like the birds and the
trees, you will blossom, you will have your wings open in the vast sky. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You don't have to be saints. Saints
are very tense - more tense than sinners. I have known both. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and if there is a choice I will
choose the sinners as a company rather than the saints. Saints are the worst
company, because their eyes are full of judgment about everything: You should
do this and you should not do that. And they start dominating you, condemning you,
humiliating you, insulting you, because what they are doing is the right and
what you are doing is not the right thing. They have poisoned your nature so
badly that if real criminals have to be found they will be found in your
saints, not in your sinners. Your sinners have not done much harm to anybody. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I have been visiting jails, meeting
the criminals, and I was surprised that they are the most innocent people. And
perhaps because they are the most innocent they have been caught. The cunning
ones are doing far greater crimes, but they are not caught. Every law has
loopholes. The cunning ones find the loopholes first; the innocent ones get
caught, because they don't have that cunningness. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It is really strange that when
America forced me into jail without any cause.... And since they had no cause,
and no reason to keep me in jail, they tried, as long as they could manage, to
keep me in jail before the trial began, because once the trial began they
didn't have any evidence for anything. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But pre-trial they kept me for
twelve days. It was a good experience to know... I had known criminals,
prisoners, but only as a visitor - and this was a totally different experience,
to be one amongst them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And it is surprising that I was
taken to five jails just to harass me - for twelve days they went on changing
jails - but to me it was a good experience. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">All the inmates of the jails
received me, welcomed me. Behind their bars they were waving their hands and
shouting, "Osho, don't be worried, truth is always victorious." And
they were showing me the sign of victory from every cell, whenever I would
enter a jail or I would get out of a jail. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They would send me small notes:
"We love you. We don't know you, but we have seen you on the television.
We have heard you and we know you are innocent." Looking into their eyes
and looking into the eyes of the law enforcement authorities, one could see the
difference... who are the real criminals? The jailers, the marshals, the
judges, they were the real criminals. You could see it in their eyes, in their
faces. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To torture me they refused to supply
vegetarian food because no vegetarian has ever been in their jails - "So
we don't have any arrangement." And when the inmates heard it, they
started bringing fruits, nuts, milk, which was given to them, and they would
say, "Osho, you take it. We can eat non-vegetarian food and it hurts us
that you are hungry, that you are starving and we cannot do anything." My
cell was full of fruits. And I used to tell them, "I cannot eat so many
fruits, I cannot drink so much milk." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But they would say, "Don't take
this opportunity from us. You are not going to be here for long. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Tomorrow they will move you
again." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And they would bring cuttings of my
photographs from newspapers to be signed in their name, because this will be
their memory - "We have lived with you, even if it was only for one day or
two days." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It is a very strange world in which
we are living. Here criminals are rulers, here criminals are politicians, here
criminals become presidents, vice presidents, prime ministers, because except
the criminal, who wants power? An authentic human being wants peace, wants
love, wants to be left alone, wants freedom to be himself. The very idea of
dominating others is criminal. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Chuang Tzu is right that if you feel
any tension, then remember, whatever you are doing is not right. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And he is the only man who has given
such a beautiful criterion, EASY IS RIGHT. BEGIN RIGHT AND YOU ARE EASY.
CONTINUE EASY AND YOU ARE RIGHT. THE RIGHT WAY TO GO EASY IS TO FORGET THE
RIGHT WAY AND FORGET THAT THE GOING IS EASY. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Relax into nobodiness. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>And this is also my message to my
sannyasins: be natural. You don't have to be Christians, you don't have to be
Hindus, you don't have to be Mohammedans - these are all ways of creating
difficulties - you have to be just natural like trees and birds and animals.
Become part of this relaxed universe - so relaxed that you forget all about
easiness and you forget all about rightness. To me, this is enlightenment. </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Dilip Patelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04218376385233276846noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7516740770579504773.post-43550089968540133662014-08-11T09:54:00.000+05:302014-08-11T09:54:24.436+05:30How to identify fake currency notes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=1493680344206304">Post</a> by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/jambu.kumar.142">Jambu Kumar</a>.</div>
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Dilip Patelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04218376385233276846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7516740770579504773.post-42995649671958191142014-08-04T14:41:00.001+05:302014-08-04T14:41:08.030+05:30Building Bridges..<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b><span style="color: #0c343d;">I am simply reproducing what Zooni wrote on her facebook. It is a great experiment with honesty, truth and sincerity. I hope it inspires one and all.</span></b><br />
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D I L I P<br />
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<span class="fwb fcg" data-ft="{"tn":";"}" style="font-weight: bold;">"<a data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/user.php?id=100000875525453&extragetparams=%7B%22fref%22%3A%22nf%22%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/zooni.dash?fref=nf" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Zooni Dash</a></span></div>
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<span class="fsm fwn fcg"><a class="_5pcq" href="https://www.facebook.com/zooni.dash/posts/756258701079974" style="color: #9197a3; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">July 15 at 12:00am</a></span> · <a aria-label="Shared with: Zooni's friends" class="uiStreamPrivacy inlineBlock fbStreamPrivacy fbPrivacyAudienceIndicator _5pcq" data-hover="tooltip" href="https://www.facebook.com/zooni.dash/posts/756258701079974#" id="u_0_1o" role="button" style="color: #9197a3; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;"><i class="lock img sp_V2ejZVpkF7F sx_8d834b" style="background-image: url(https://fbstatic-a.akamaihd.net/rsrc.php/v2/yl/r/Lx-a7CF6q89.png); background-position: -172px -384px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: auto; bottom: -1px; display: inline-block; height: 12px; margin-bottom: -5px; position: relative; vertical-align: top; width: 12px;"></i></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: red;">Building Bridges..</span></b><br />
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Something I wrote to the newspapers in Nagaland a while ago, extremely important every moment never the less. Sharing it here with the hope that we can all, make a difference, really build bridges.</div>
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“Will you be my friend?”<br />
I come from Mainland India, the only time I use this identity is when I am in the north east and I question why.I get some answers and I think it would have been much better if we could have left it to be just a geographical identity, if at all we needed to use it.<br />
This is my 4th visit to the North East of India and 2nd time to Nagaland and each time, I am overwhelmed by the love and care I receive. I am here for a wedding and never before have I seen friends and family helping so much; I had never seen people in cars calling out to people standing on the streets asking if they wanted a lift. And also, I had never met anyone who felt as strongly about their identity as people here do.<br />
Feeling that “I do not belong” is one of the worst feelings ever, be it in the family, at school, or the place we live in. During my last visit to Nagaland, I saw the pain, the hurt you still carry in your hearts. I felt responsible. Since that day more than a year ago, my heart is full of acknowledgement and apology for all the hurt you carry against India, a country you feel you do not belong to. My deepest wish is to help you come out of the hurt and bitterness.<br />
I am sincerely and deeply sorry.<br />
But here, I want to share one more thing. I am a 25 year old woman and I love traveling. Many times, I am looked at as an alien or an object in my own country. People from different states laugh at my way of speaking. I often get into an argument with the rickshaw wallas in Delhi because they never charge the same price and I feel so angry. But, what I don’t want “is to feel like a victim”. Yes, there are people who are indifferent, who taunt me because I am fat. Who make me want to run away but I know that I am not the only one who feels that way just as I am sure you too feel in the rest of India.<br />
There is indifference in the world but we need to remember that everyone is fighting a battle.<br />
I agree that the way some of us from mainland India behave with people from the North East is just not right. But at the same time, there is injustice against some of us the moment we step out of our houses.<br />
I am beginning to understand what you must feel coming from your traditional backgrounds trying to develop your relation with a very ancient civilization like India. I also understand that you have a very deep rooted history. I still do not know much about it but I understand that it is underlined with blood, pain and loss. But should we let the past ruin the present and the future of our children? My uncle here says “Hurts not transformed are always transferred”. Are we unknowingly doing the same?<br />
I just want to say that you are not alone especially when facing difficulties, the intensity and context I am sure are different but we face it too, I face it too. We are fighting against humans when we should be fighting for humanity, for ALL of us and with love!<br />
No one can make you feel like a victim, like you do not belong, till you let them. We need to hold hands and work towards creating love and peace in the world. It is in the shelter of each other that we survive.<br />
Please help me, I love you and belong to you as much as I belong to my own brother.<br />
“What do we live for, if not to make life less difficult for others?”<br />
Will you be my friend?<br />
Yours, most sincerely,<br />
Zooni</div>
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Dilip Patelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04218376385233276846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7516740770579504773.post-87964849762045972032014-06-11T16:29:00.000+05:302014-06-11T16:29:43.980+05:30The whole world is in the same boat!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: red; font-size: small;">It is after a long time that I am putting up a new post. Hope you all like it.</span></h2>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I am actually reproducing a post by Leo Babauta which is self explanatory. The issues that bug us are the same issues bugging the whole world. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">The minimalist living is what seems to be the solution to let our coming generations to survive.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Do write back your thoughts and about actions taken.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">D I L I P</span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: large;">"A Call for Revolt: Advertising is the Anti-Minimalism</span></h2>
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<span style="font-size: small;">By <a href="http://leobabauta.com/" style="border-color: rgb(192, 192, 192); border-style: none none solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #303030; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Leo Babauta</a></span></h6>
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The biggest obstacle to a wonderfully minimalist life is advertising.</div>
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Let’s think about that statement for a minute: what is a minimalist life, and what stands in our way from reaching it? How is advertising involved?</div>
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A minimalist life can be many things, but at its heart is becoming conscious about what we have in our lives. Space is limited: we have limited hours in a day, limited years in our lives, limited physical space in our homes.</div>
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And we fill all that limited space up unconsciously, packing it to overfull without much thought to whether that’s the best use of our space.</div>
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Minimalism is about pausing, and asking what’s necessary. What belongs in this space, and what can we toss out? Is the fantasy we have in our heads, that’s causing us to fill things up unconsciously, really what we thought it would be?</div>
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Advertising has the exact opposite aim: it wants us to spend without thinking about it. It wants us to buy on impulse. It wants to implant fantasies in our heads that cause us to go out and buy.</div>
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Think about an ad for clothing, or an Apple product, for example: they show us beautiful people living gorgeous lives, centered around the simple solution of having their product in our hands (or around our bodies).</div>
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Ads for a cleanser make us think we’ll not only have clean skin, but a perfect complexion and high cheekbones and a hunky boyfriend who adores us.</div>
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Ads for a new app make us think that all of a sudden we’ll be more organized and productive and all of our needs will be magically taken care of with this beautifully designed program in our smartphone.</div>
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Ads for a new kitchen appliance give us the fantasy of perfect health and a beautiful body, if only we had this magical tool in our homes.</div>
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Of course, none of this is true — we will be no more organized or productive, no more healthy and beautiful, no more likely to have a hunky boyfriend (or lithe girlfriend) if we buy any of these products. We’ll just be poorer, with more stuff in our already full lives.</div>
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What’s worse is advertising not only implants a fantasy in our minds that we instantly want … it gives us the self-conscious feeling of lack. We all of a sudden are not complete, not happy, because we don’t have the fantasy lives. We aren’t good enough yet. We aren’t happy yet.</div>
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And the buying does nothing to placate that lack. We buy, and still don’t have the fantasy, and so we still feel bad about ourselves. We still have the void inside our hearts that can never be filled.</div>
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Advertising is the insidious whisper of the bad angel of commerce.</div>
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I don’t blame advertisers: they are caught up in a game where they have to advertise, or they die. I don’t blame consumers: this is the society we live in and we have never lived in any other way.</div>
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I don’t even blame advertising companies: the Googles and Don Drapers of the world are just trying to make a buck like everyone else, and have figured out what works. Why not do what’s effective, right?</div>
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Don’t blame the player. Blame the game.</div>
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We are caught up in a game where we must make more money, and therefore must advertise, and to be effective at that we must instill fantasies that cannot be reached, a feeling of lack that cannot be eased.</div>
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We are caught up in a game where this entire process is OK with everyone, in fact cheered on because the most successful at it — Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Barack Obama, Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg, Steven Speilberg, Walt Disney, et al — they are the winners of our society. We worship them.</div>
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The people who opt out of this game are ridiculed as hippies and bums and weirdos.</div>
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I say we toss out this game. Grab it by the belt and send it skidding to the sidewalk.</div>
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I say we revolt.</div>
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We can revolt by simply opting out. They don’t have an “opt in” checkbox on the form of this game, but we can still opt out even if we aren’t given this choice.</div>
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We can opt out by not watching ads. Not having them on our websites. Not buying into movies that are simply clever ads. Not believing the fantasies. Not buying on impulse. Not using shopping as therapy. Not using buying as a solution to everything. Not supporting media that’s just there to get us to read the ads between the stories. Not going to websites that have intrusive popup ads. Not listening to ad-supported radio. Not watching videos online that have ads. Not using ad-supported email. Not wearing logos on our clothing. Not getting logos tattooed on our bodies. Not going to theme parks that are just big ads for their products. Not shopping when we’re on vacation. Not buying presents to celebrate the holidays. Not buying smartphones because of an ad we saw. Not buying clothes or makeup or skin products to make ourselves look like a fantasy. Not reading magazines that try to make us have a fantasy of what we should look like. Not watching TV shows supported by ads.</div>
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Sound like too much? Yes, I agree: we are too entrenched in ads. We can’t get out of them. We are dependent. The revolt is too revolting. Back to your regularly scheduled program."<br />
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Dilip Patelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04218376385233276846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7516740770579504773.post-34836284204297754002014-06-11T16:24:00.000+05:302014-06-11T16:24:18.419+05:30A Public Servant..<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: red;">...From Meghalaya.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222;">This is what I call a true </span><span style="color: blue;">India I Care</span><span style="color: #222222;"> spirit. Malthus, salutes to you. I reproduce his mail to some of us, some time ago.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"> </span><span style="color: purple;">Hi Friends!!</span></div>
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<span style="color: purple;">It's been a long pause to our communication and sharing with each other! Hope things are ok with everyone of you.... With the temperature rising here in Guwahati, perhaps my days here are numbered and I'll be back soon to Shillong to head the new Shillong Passport Seva Kendra!! During my tenure here, as all of you are aware of Passport Offices anywhere in India, I have come across many challenging situations especially in terms of "Bribes" by applicants or agents!! But thanks to the Inner Voice that still works in me and telling me all the time that it is wrong to accept bribe!! I am happy to help people where ever possible seeking nothing in return. I consider myself a Public Servant than a Govt. Servant... As a team, we have been able to detect so many applicants with fake documents....be it Birth Certificate, EPIC, Mark Sheet, Driving License and even Bank Passbook!!!</span></div>
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<span style="color: purple;">Pl share your experiences so that together we can make a difference!! God bless u all!</span></div>
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<span style="color: purple;">Regards,</span></div>
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<span style="color: purple;">Malthus S. Sangma</span></div>
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<span style="color: purple;">Deputy Passport Officer,</span><br />
<span style="color: purple;">Guwahati </span><br />
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<b>D I L I P</b></div>
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Dilip Patelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04218376385233276846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7516740770579504773.post-74465859628272728762014-03-19T15:23:00.001+05:302014-03-19T15:23:17.029+05:30Touching Tale of Delta Flight 15 post 9/11<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: red;">Rekha Shahani, Principal of Kamala Highschool, Mumbai, also a Trustee at Initiatives of Change,India, contributes the following heart touching account:</span><br />
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Since the story brings out the <i style="font-weight: bold;">'care'</i> part so vividly, and it has an universal appeal, I thought this<i style="font-weight: bold;"> India I Care </i>platform should present this story to inspire viewers for doing their bit in their parts of India.<br />
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<span style="color: red;">Rekha writes --</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Although this was a long time ago, i had never read this story. And, it is so heartwarming, that I hope you are touched by it as much as I did.</span></div>
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<b style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /> " Here is an amazing story from a flight attendant on Delta Flight 15, written following 9-11:<br /></span></b><br /><b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="color: #222222;">On the morning of </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1918350703" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #222222; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Tuesday, September 11</span></span><span style="color: #222222;">, we were about 5 hours out of Frankfurt, flying over the North Atlantic.All of a sudden the curtains parted and I was told to go to the cockpit, immediately, to see the captain. As soon as I got there I noticed that the crew had that "All Business" look on their faces. The captain handed me a printed message. It was from Delta's main office in Atlanta and simply read, "All airways over the Continental United States are closed to commercial air traffic. Land ASAP at the nearest airport. Advise your destination."</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #222222;"> No one said a word about what this could mean. We knew it was a serious situation and we needed to find terra firma quickly. The captain determined that the nearest airport was 400 miles behind us in Gander, New Foundland.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #222222;"> He requested approval for a route change from the Canadian traffic controller and approval was granted immediately -- no questions asked. We found out later, of course, why there was no hesitation in approving our request.</span><br /><span style="color: #222222;"> While the flight crew prepared the airplane for landing, another message arrived from Atlanta telling us about some terrorist activity in the New York area. A few minutes later word came in about the hijackings.</span><br /><span style="color: #222222;">We decided to LIE to the passengers while we were still in the air. We told them the plane had a simple instrument problem and that we needed to land at the nearest airport in Gander, New Foundland, to have it checked out.</span><br /><span style="color: #222222;"> We promised to give more information after landing in Gander. There was much grumbling among the passengers, but that's nothing new! Forty minutes later, we landed in Gander. Local time at Gander was </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1918350704" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #222222; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">12:30 PM</span></span><span style="color: #222222;">! .... that's </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1918350705" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #222222; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">11:00 AM EST</span></span><span style="color: #222222;">.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #222222;"> There were already about 20 other airplanes on the ground from all over the world that had taken this detour on their way to the U.S.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #222222;"> After we parked on the ramp, the captain made the following announcement: "Ladies and gentlemen, you must be wondering if all these airplanes around us have the same instrument problem as we have. The reality is that we are here for another reason." Then he went on to explain the little bit we knew about the situation in the U.S. There were loud gasps and stares of disbelief. The captain informed passengers that Ground control in Gander told us to stay put.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #222222;"> The Canadian Government was in charge of our situation and no one was allowed to get off the aircraft. No one on the ground was allowed to come near any of the air crafts. Only airport police would come around periodically, look us over and go on to the next airplane. In the next hour or so more planes landed and Gander ended up with 53 airplanes from all over the world, 27 of which were U.S. commercial jets.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #222222;"> Meanwhile, bits of news started to come in over the aircraft radio and for the first time we learned that airplanes were flown into the World Trade Center in New York and into the Pentagon in DC. People were trying to use their cell phones, but were unable to connect due to a different cell system in Canada. Some did get through, but were only able to get to the Canadian operator who would tell them that the lines to the U.S. were either blocked or jammed.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #222222;"> Sometime in the evening the news filtered to us that the World Trade Center buildings had collapsed and that a fourth hijacking had resulted in a crash. By now the passengers were emotionally and physically exhausted, not to mention frightened, but everyone stayed amazingly calm. We had only to look out the window at the 52 other stranded aircraft to realize that we were not the only ones in this predicament.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #222222;"> We had been told earlier that they would be allowing people off the planes one plane at a time. At </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1918350706" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #222222; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">6 PM</span></span><span style="color: #222222;">, Gander airport told us that our turn to deplane would be </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1918350707" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #222222; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">11 am</span></span><span style="color: #222222;"> the next morning. Passengers were not happy, but they simply resigned themselves to this news without much noise and started to prepare themselves to spend the night on the airplane.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #222222;"> Gander had promised us medical attention, if needed, water, and lavatory servicing. And they were true to their word. Fortunately we had no medical situations to worry about. We did have a young lady who was 33 weeks into her pregnancy. We took REALLY good care of her. The night passed without incident despite the uncomfortable sleeping arrangements.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #222222;"> About </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1918350708" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #222222; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">10:30</span></span><span style="color: #222222;"> on the morning of the 12th a convoy of school buses showed up. We got off the plane and were taken to the terminal where we went through Immigration and Customs and then had to register with the Red Cross.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #222222;"> After that we (the crew) were separated from the passengers and were taken in vans to a small hotel. We had no idea where our passengers were going. We learned from the Red Cross that the town of Gander has a population of 10,400 people and they had about 10,500 passengers to take care of from all the airplanes that were forced into Gander! We were told to just relax at the hotel and we would be contacted when the U.S. airports opened again, but not to expect that call for a while.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #222222;"> We found out the total scope of the terror back home only after getting to our hotel and turning on the TV, 24 hours after it all started.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #222222;"> Meanwhile, we had lots of time on our hands and found that the people of Gander were extremely friendly. They started calling us the "plane people." We enjoyed their hospitality, explored the town of Gander and ended up having a pretty good time.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #222222;"> Two days later, we got that call and were taken back to the Gander airport. Back on the plane, we were reunited with the passengers and found out what they had been doing for the past two days. What we found out was incredible.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #222222;"> Gander and all the surrounding communities (within MATCH about a 75 Kilometer radius) had closed all high schools, meeting halls, lodges, and any other large gathering places. They converted all these facilities to mass lodging areas for all the stranded travelers.Some had cots set up, some had mats with sleeping bags and pillows set up.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #222222;"> ALL the high school students were required to volunteer their time to take care of the "guests." Our 218 passengers ended up in a town called Lewisporte, about 45 kilometers from Gander where they were put up in a high school. If any women wanted to be in a women-only facility, that was arranged. Families were kept together. All the elderly passengers were taken to private homes.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #222222;"> Remember that young pregnant lady? She was put up in a private home right across the street from a 24-hour Urgent Care facility. There was a dentist on call and both male and female nurses remained with the crowd for the duration. </span><br /><br /><span style="color: #222222;">Phone calls and e-mails to the U.S. and around the world were available to everyone once a day. During the day, passengers were offered "Excursion" trips. Some people went on boat cruises of the lakes and harbors. Some went for hikes in the local forests. Local bakeries stayed open to make fresh bread for the guests.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #222222;"> Food was prepared by all the residents and brought to the schools. People were driven to restaurants of their choice and offered wonderful meals. Everyone was given tokens for local laundry mats to wash their clothes, since luggage was still on the aircraft. In other words, every single need was met for those stranded travelers.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #222222;"> Passengers were crying while telling us these stories. Finally, when they were told that U.S. airports had reopened, they were delivered to the airport right on time and without a single passenger missing or late. The local Red Cross had all the information about the whereabouts of each and every passenger and knew which plane they needed to be on and when all the planes were leaving. They coordinated everything beautifully.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #222222;"> It was absolutely incredible.</span><br /><span style="color: #222222;"> When passengers came on board, it was like they had been on a cruise. Everyone knew each other by name. They were swapping stories of their stay, impressing each other with who had the better time. Our flight back to Atlanta looked like a chartered party flight. The crew just stayed out of their way. It was mind-boggling.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #222222;">Passengers had totally bonded and were calling each other by their first names, exchanging phone numbers, addresses, and email addresses.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: red;"> And then a very unusual thing happened.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: blue;"> One of our passengers approached me and asked if he could make an announcement over the PA system. We never, ever allow that. But this time was different. I said "of course" and handed him the mike. He picked up the PA and reminded everyone about what they had just gone through in the last few days. He reminded them of the hospitality they had received at the hands of total strangers. He continued by saying that he would like to do something in return for the good folks of Lewisporte.<br /><br /> "He said he was going to set up a Trust Fund under the name of DELTA 15 (our flight number). The purpose of the trust fund is to provide college scholarships for the high school students of Lewisporte. He asked for donations of any amount from his fellow travelers. When the paper with donations got back to us with the amounts, names, phone numbers and addresses, the total was for more than $14,000!<br /><br /> "The gentleman, a MD from Virginia, promised to match the donations and to start the administrative work on the scholarship. He also said that he would forward this proposal to Delta Corporate and ask them to donate as well.<br /><br /> As I write this account, the trust fund is at more than $1.5 million and has assisted 134 students in college education.<br /><br /> "I just wanted to share this story because we need good stories right now. It gives me a little bit of hope to know that some people in a faraway place were kind to some strangers who literally dropped in on them.<br />It reminds me how much good there is in the world."</span><br /><span style="color: #222222;"> </span><span style="color: red;">"In spite of all the rotten things we see going on in today's world this story confirms that there are still a lot of good people in the world and when things get bad, they will come forward.</span><br /><span style="color: #222222;"> *This is one of those stories that need to be shared. Please do so...*</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">Much love </span></blockquote>
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Hope you all liked the story of human compassion, and gratitude.<br />
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D I L I P<br />
for IIC </div>
Dilip Patelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04218376385233276846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7516740770579504773.post-72428259853222808432014-03-01T19:57:00.001+05:302014-03-01T19:57:30.755+05:30Page Two...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: red;"><b>...Expand It.</b></span><br />
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It is almost two years since I created, and have been using this process called<span style="color: red;"> 'Life's Balance Sheet' ( LBS for short) </span>in most of my training programs with excellent results. Very briefly, the LBS process encourages you to look at your life as a company handed over to you by the Creator, and made you its CEO. And now you are constructing, for the first time, its balance sheet.<br />
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Here, the currency is happiness, and transactions are the interactions we have with ourselves, others, society, systems and environment. The purpose is to maximize happiness (profits).<br />
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The LBS has to be constructed in 4 pages. Page One, and Page Two, show the assets , and the Page Three, and Page Four, reflect liabilities.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: red; font-size: small;">Life's Balance Sheet</span></b></td></tr>
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I encourage you to build your LBS's Page One, and Page Two, right now, as you are reading this. So, get yourself a note pad and designate a blank page as 'Page One' ( You may also like to build your LBS on your computer).<br />
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Now, go down your memory lane, and recall all those people in your life who have<b> done some good to you,</b> without any preconditions, your asking, or expectations. If you experience a sense of happiness, right now, merely by recalling them and the associated event/situation, then register them on this 'Page One' with brief descriptions. Affirm that the benefits you derived from their those deeds have remained your source of happiness till this day, and in some cases, your defining moments. <b>Your life, as a company, is built on the capital of this happiness.</b><br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b>We come to the 'Page Two' now:</b></span><br />
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As you grew up,<b> you too must have done some good to others without preconditions, their asking, or your any overt or covert expectations... </b>while these acts of yours must have given happiness to the beneficiaries,<b> you must have felt some sense of happiness yourself too! These are the entries on your 'Page Two' </b>Now spare some moments to recall such incidents and record them on Page Two.<br />
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<span style="color: blue;">Two aspects have come out very strongly, so far, from umpteen number of experiments that I have conducted with several groups of trainees ( multinational, multicultural, and from belonging to the highest cadres in bureaucracy and corporate world to the grass root level functionaries) in India using the LBS process.</span><br />
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<b><span style="color: blue;">One</span></b>, that the lengths ( entries) of the 'Page Two' are found to be<b> far too shorter (lesser)</b> than that of the Page One! This observation is echoed every time by almost 70 to 80 percent experimenters.I would be very keen to know from you your personal observation of comparison between your Page One and Page Two entries.<br />
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<b><span style="color: blue;">And two</span></b>, that most of the experimenters, having found their page two too short, have now a desire to consciously start doing 'good' to others without any overt or covert selfish expectations. This would now start adding regularly to their currency called happiness in their company called Life.<br />
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<span style="color: blue;"><b>If I have succeeded in invoking your desire to start expanding your Page Two, congratulate yourself for being a conscientious World Citizen! I would be eager to hear from you your past and future stories of Page Two people and the related events. </b></span><br />
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<b> *******</b><br />
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<b>And now, in the second part of this post I have to make an appeal to you. Please take this opportunity to expand your Page Two. I did it by making a loan ( yes, it is a LOAN, and not a donation!) of Rs 2500/- for helping Yellavva Shinge and Group who are struggling to eke out an honorable living. Please read all about this<a href="http://milaap.org/fund/yallavva-shinge-and-group/2023?&referrer_id=8913"> here.</a> </b><br />
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<b>And as I said it is a LOAN, it makes a very interesting proposition. Your timely intervention helps some one, and the person returns the money which becomes a credit in your account with<a href="http://milaap.org/how-it-works"> Milaap</a>, the innovative NGO spearheading this highly laudable project of rehabilitating 'Devadasis'( literally meaning the servants of Goddesses, but in reality, women at those temples being treated as sex workers) You can either redeem your loan amount, or rotate it as another loan for another worthy cause.</b><br />
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<b>Here is a very illustrative video about the plight of these Devadassies-</b><br />
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<b>I find that in less than 24 hours since I made my first loan, many loans came through and Yellavva and Group's target got met. There are people in this world who operate from the mind set of 'abundance'. I am hoping that you are one of them.</b><br />
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<b>Click :<a href="http://milaap.org/campaigns/hope"> http://milaap.org/campaigns/hope</a></b><br />
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<b>You can make a difference. </b><br />
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<b>Thank You.</b><br />
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<b>D I L I P P A T E L</b><br />
<b>Member, India I Care</b><br />
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<i style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20.285999298095703px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 16.426666259765625px; text-align: justify;">This post has been written for the</span><a href="http://milaap.org/campaigns/hope"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 16.426666259765625px; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="color: #993322; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 16.426666259765625px; text-align: justify;">Hope Project</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 16.426666259765625px; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 16.426666259765625px; text-align: justify;">undertaken by</span><a href="http://milaap.org/"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 16.426666259765625px; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="color: #993322; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 16.426666259765625px; text-align: justify;">Milaap</span></span></a><a href="http://milaap.org/" style="color: #993322; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 16.426666259765625px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"> </a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 16.426666259765625px; text-align: justify;">on Indiblogger.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></i><br />
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Dilip Patelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04218376385233276846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7516740770579504773.post-5113846537669510122014-02-28T00:16:00.000+05:302014-02-28T00:26:20.384+05:30QT 23<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: red;"><b>Two thoughts to ponder on..</b></span><br />
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1.<span style="color: red;"> On lessons that can be derived from games..</span><br />
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Last week I visited Mumbai, and one of the participants of the previous week's Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai's(MCGM) training program on Ethical Governance (held at IofC, Asia Plateau, Panchgani) invited me so lovingly to his home. It was such a warm welcome by his whole family to his one bed room apartment.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8_n5hz-DRc7DD4mmRYmyLYCKlnU7ySfGij4-ceQ8QNThywzXWUGLTqgkozkTVviN998FRehlHSUUcQy5K2kmmllvEJo78eo5SUuuTsnn0Sly4Z_2GBmmtWNrD8GZxZhCIAzmfVnc5FiU/s1600/QT+232.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8_n5hz-DRc7DD4mmRYmyLYCKlnU7ySfGij4-ceQ8QNThywzXWUGLTqgkozkTVviN998FRehlHSUUcQy5K2kmmllvEJo78eo5SUuuTsnn0Sly4Z_2GBmmtWNrD8GZxZhCIAzmfVnc5FiU/s1600/QT+232.png" height="190" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: small;">Shekhar Desai of MCGM giving a lesson or two in TT</span></td></tr>
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<br />
However, before visiting his home we drove to his office (it was Sunday), and as he is so passionate about the game of Table Tennis, we had a go at it for a few minutes. While I learnt from him a few tips and tricks, I had an interesting answer from him to my question as to 'how could I counter his amazingly fast offensive stroke'<br />
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His reply was-'<span style="color: red;"><b> ..Instead of looking for a method of countering it, one should consider changing his serving such that the opponent gets no opportunity to attack!'</b></span> How true it could be in life too!! Just think about it.<br />
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2.<span style="color: red;"> On Mr Rajmohan Gandhi donning politician's attire..</span><br />
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Last week we also got this news that Mr Rajmohan Gandhi joined the newest political party in India, the Aam Adami Party, and we hear from the latest news report that he will contest the Lok Sabha election from Delhi East constituency. Heartening news that 79 year old grand son of Mahatma Gandhi is still willing to give this country his services.<br />
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I recall at this juncture his message to the MCGM group a month ago, again at IofC training program at Panchgani, to work in such a way that others, outsiders tell us -<span style="color: red;"><b> '<a href="http://indiaicaremovement.blogspot.in/2014/01/tera-bharat-mahan.html">Tera Bharat Mahaan </a>( Your India is Great)'</b></span><br />
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Worth considering his advice, what say you?</div>
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Please do register your comments/ your thoughts on the above cues.</div>
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Happy QT,</div>
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Dilip Patel,</div>
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Team IIC</div>
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Dilip Patelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04218376385233276846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7516740770579504773.post-69270745823000097522014-01-24T00:54:00.000+05:302014-01-24T00:54:51.831+05:30Those Eyes...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: red;"><b>..Would haunt me for a long long time.</b></span><br />
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A few weeks ago I had presented here a story of compassion, '<a href="http://indiaicaremovement.blogspot.in/2013/11/a-pair-of-eyes.html">A Pair of Eyes..'</a>, and the visitors to this blog loved it. The story had illustrated the kind heart of the authorities that be, and presented the hopeful side of the Indian Bureaucracy. Here is yet another story from even higher echelons of the Indian Governance, and of higher impact..<br />
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We are blessed here at Asia Plateau, Panchgani, the training and reconciliation center of Initiatives of Change in India, that we get opportunities to serve the representatives of a variety of Industry and Government power centers As this post gets uploaded, we would be bidding farewell to the 14th batch of the Indian Administrative Service officers after engaging them for five days on a program on 'Ethical governance'.<br />
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The story below got narrated to the participating officers as a personal experience by an Ex Cabinet Secretary, and first Governor of the then newly formed state of Jharkhand. His name is Mr Prabhat Kumar, currently President of an advocacy outfit called ICCFG - Initiatives of Change Center For Governance, New Delhi.<br />
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Here it is in his own words-<br />
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<span style="color: blue;">They were exactly 235 pairs of eyes, which should have been singing and dancing with hope and joy. They should have been sparkling with mirth, and their owners should have been playing innocent games in the fields and on the streets.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;">Instead, the eyes were asking questions. They were not blank; they were dark with ominous foreboding of a future-less present.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;">They were 235 boys and girls between the age of 5 and 12, as I found out later, who saw us on a forlorn patch of dusty road on my way to a holy place.</span><br />
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<span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB8qcjFfbkvGa9epi0ruCw5YZkjUcHIrVKTq62rn2tXsloEQaFq71DuHeaHiqNQh09TRyN2_ko3GOKITKBWBDZX9GqNSOOC9rIxa3Lr4Z1IV8RhB277lkRvp_gByHBfiQ7QD-XmI7mQvw/s1600/P1080901.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB8qcjFfbkvGa9epi0ruCw5YZkjUcHIrVKTq62rn2tXsloEQaFq71DuHeaHiqNQh09TRyN2_ko3GOKITKBWBDZX9GqNSOOC9rIxa3Lr4Z1IV8RhB277lkRvp_gByHBfiQ7QD-XmI7mQvw/s1600/P1080901.JPG" height="257" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;">They were silent, but they seemed to be screaming at me.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;">But let me start from the beginning.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;">I had been the Governor, the very first Governor of the newly formed State, Jharkhand, hardly for a fortnight when it was suggested that I visit some districts of the state to familiarise myself with it. So, with an entourage of some officials and a minimum security, I set forth towards Rajarappa in Hazaribagh district (which only 15 days ago was part of the State of Bihar). Rajarappa, they said, was the mating place of two holy rivers- Damodar and Bhairavi, a male and a female river in that order ( Incidentally, in the Indian mythological folklore, there are only two known male rivers in the country, all others rivers are Goddesses) There for rajarappa was a Sidhpeeth. The other male river is Brahmaputra.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;">On the way, the cavalcade slowed down on a dusty patch and I saw those 235 children lined up on both sides of the road. They were in their faded school uniform - blue shirts and khakhi shorts/skirts. But what shocked me was another part of their uniform - crutches! Every girl and boy were supported by a pair of crutches, each one of them!!</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;">They did not ask us to stop. They did not block our way. They did not even utter a word. The all just stood there with those asking eyes.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;">I asked the driver to stop, and I got out of the car. I wanted to meet their teacher, who too, incidentally, was supported by a pair of crutches.I got us being led by him to his school much against the advise of my accompanying staff and security.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;">It transpired that the teacher, himself suffering from the disability, had decided to run a free school for the polio stricken children from the poorest families of the neighbouring districts. The 235 children came from several districts. The children had to be contend with the extremely unsatisfactory dormitory facilities in the dilapidated building on the village land which doubled as class rooms during the day. The meager expenditure of the school was met by the Panchayat, and some donations in cash and kind, mostly kind, by the villagers.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;">The teacher and his students were very happy that the Governor of the State had graced their school with his visit. The school had perhaps even not been visited by the district magistrate.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;">But, I was not happy. I asked the entourage to return to Ranchi, the capital, and asked the teacher to accompany us.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;">The rest of the story is very short. The medical superintendent of the Guru Nanak Charitable Orthopedic Hospital was invited to Rajbhavan and was requested by the Governor to examine each and every child for corrective surgery free of charge. The Governor presented a couple of computers from his discretionary fund to the hospital as a sort of gratitude. </span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;">In months to come, most of the children underwent corrective surgery and threw away their crutches.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;">The short point of personal reflection is that I did not consider myself to be particularly a compassionate person, and that I do not remember hearing any voices that day. I do not even have any other explation, except that perhaps i was compelled by those eyes to stop there on that dusty stretch of the road.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: blue;">I did visit Rajarappa later, not forgetting to pay a visit to that school again </span><br />
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Isn't it an amazing story of compassion, and what a gubernatorial appointee should be doing for his subjects?<br />
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May the tribe of the likes of Prabhatkumarji grow!<br />
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Please do leave behind your comments here.<br />
<br />
Dilip Patel<br />
for IIC Team</div>
Dilip Patelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04218376385233276846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7516740770579504773.post-45246186496305274932014-01-10T01:59:00.000+05:302014-01-10T01:59:00.396+05:30Tera Bharat Mahan..<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: red;"><b>...was the new slogan Mr Rajmohan Gandhi gave to the 4th batch of MCGM engineers.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><b><br /></b></span>
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It was just a coincidence that Mr Gandhi was at the campus, Asia Plateau, of Initiatives of Change, and the 4th batch of the season 2 of the senior executives of Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai were undergoing a training on Ethical Governance at the same time a couple of weeks ago.<br />
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So, the batch got an opportunity of having an informal session with him. The participants were thrilled to hear from Mr Rajmohan Gandhi some interesting anecdotes about his grand father, Mahatma Gandhi. Rajmohan was around 12-13 years old when he lost his grandfather in 1948. However he shared those little tidbits he could recall about his childhood.<br />
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An interesting question put up by a participant was, how are the family members of Mahatma Gandhi today carrying out the legacy of him. And the answer was, with tongue in cheek, that Gandhiji was called 'Father of the Nation', and hence, the responsibility of carrying out his legacy falls on the entire nation, and not only his immediate family :-)<br />
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Rajmohan's parting advice to the members of MCGM was 'Do your work, and conduct yourselves in such a way that others, outsiders, foreigners tell us - <span style="color: red;"><b>Tera Bharat Mahan</b></span>'.<br />
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I think it is a great thought for all of us.<br />
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D I L I P P A T E L<br />
For Team IIC</div>
Dilip Patelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04218376385233276846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7516740770579504773.post-29709749333585581152013-12-13T22:37:00.003+05:302013-12-13T22:37:35.819+05:30A Rationalist...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: red;"><b>...who is also a Humanist.</b></span><br />
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Asia Plateau, Panchgani, the International training and reconciliation center of Initiatives of Change in India offers opportunities of coming across some amazing people at its various programs. This week we had a 5 day training program on Ethics in Governance and we came cross this rationalist person. Here is his inspiring story in his own word:<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #741b47;">"Well, I would like to
tell something about my family. I Dilip Kalokhe, an Assistant Engineer from
MCGM am a common middleclass person. My parents were teacher by profession as
such my childhood was with strict discipline. My father was having high moral
values and always tried to transform them to new generation. He was rationalist
so naturally I became rationalist too. I always believed that charity always
begins from home. When I decided to marry 25 years back, I had certain thinking
in my mind about my spouse. Prima facie, this was looking unnatural or crazy
but I decided to stick to that. These conditions were,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #741b47;">My bride should also be rationalist as there would not be any
conflict for our day to day matters.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #741b47;">She should not be fond of gold or golden ornaments as I was against
the gold. I felt buying or storing gold is like blocking national wealth.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #741b47;">She should be ready to perform marriage ceremony in very simple way
before the registrar of marriage without any religious activities. There
were two reasons for that as I was rationalist so didn’t believe ‘7 fere’
and was of the thinking that spending thousands of rupees on ceremony is
sheer waste.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #741b47;">To my surprise, I got
my dream girl voluntarily accepting all my conditions and we were happily
married. My wife always supported me for my social activities like helping
needy people, environment related issues, refraining from superstition etc. A
noteworthy example I would like to share. When she was carrying first time in
1990, there was a solar eclipse during her pregnancy. Neighboring ladies asked
her to avoid to come out from home and not to do any work at home as it was a ritual
in Maharashtrian people that if pregnant lady sees eclipse or even does some
house work that day, the baby to be borne will be defective or physically
handicapped. I never believed such superstitions and wanted to prove that
wrong. I took meeting of all ladies and told them that all such superstitions
are baseless and I am going to prove them wrong. I asked my wife to see the
eclipse and even do all possible work at home. Without any hesitation, she
followed me. Our neighbors were very scary and criticized my wife for listening
such crazy things. I can proudly say that my wife delivered a son with normal
delivery without any problem to new borne. My son is now 23 year old and
carrying forward my thinking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #741b47;">My wife does whatever
possible towards the society. Every year she donates a bottle of blood to local
blood bank on her birthday. She is always admired for her helpful nature from
all whom she knows.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #741b47;">To give something to
society even after death, my wife & I have decided to donate our full
bodies after our death. The useful organs should be replanted to needy ones and
the rest of the body shall be made available for dissection for medical college
student. Again as an atheist or rationalist, I don’t believe ‘Mukti’, ‘Heaven’,
‘Rebirth’ etc. so cremation of our dead bodies will just add to loss of another
300kgs of wood."</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Dilip Patelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04218376385233276846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7516740770579504773.post-57569964238285636422013-12-08T23:23:00.000+05:302013-12-08T23:23:08.648+05:30Stranger than Fiction story...Truly inspiring.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Vijayam Kartha has sent this story, very very inspiring.<br />
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Hope you enjoy reading it, and if you find it inspiring, share it with others by inviting them to this blog.<br />
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<table cellpadding="6" style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0em; padding: 0em;"><tbody style="margin: 0em; padding: 0em;">
<tr style="margin: 0em; padding: 0em;"><td style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; margin: 0em; padding: 0em;"><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0em 0em 1em; padding: 0em;">
<span style="color: #134f5c;">"We did not want to exploit -- or be exploited. So we just moved out of the city."</span></div>
</td><td style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; margin: 0em; padding: 0em;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"> </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0em; padding: 0em;">
<h2 style="font-size: 24px; margin: 0em; padding-bottom: 18px; padding-top: 18px;">
<span style="color: #134f5c;">Two Thoreaus of Sakwa County</span></h2>
<div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0em 0em 1em; padding: 0em;">
<span style="color: #134f5c;">"I don't need designer glasses," Dhirendra smiles, his sharp bright eyes shining through the wide-rimmed black glasses. It seems like he bought the glasses twenty years ago before moving into this village. His long pause following the casual statement makes one think about the superfluous nature of our world compared to his exceptionally simple life. Dressed in a long home-spun cotton shirt and shorts, he comfortably sits on the freshly resurfaced cow-dung floor chopping vegetables, as his wife Smita comes in and out of the kitchen to respond to our questions as she prepares lunch. Just looking at her glowing skin you can tell that the village life has been good for her. The cool breeze easily flows in and out of the many open windows in this simple, two-room house.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0em 0em 1em; padding: 0em;">
<img align="right" border="1" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhdsHi-u4jBQb2OGFyDOYz06CYdwOW5jPAqVvvDHLdvF1gUSgdLNG5hiGYVg7xKpeh_TUhZJaRMoLmk69pvLsWotyqNPPmtx_V-ivXJVr8aYlzpM7PsFdBas0S3XWVQZ92Az27KKrPsf5KuU05Hz1O9px-JAZnj=s0-d-e1-ft" style="border: 1px solid rgb(111, 82, 48); margin: 4px; padding: 3px;" /><span style="color: #134f5c;">"Why are the onions hanging on the ceiling?" I ask. Fifty three year old Dhirendra explains, "Oh, they're from the farm. If you arrange them like that, they can last for a year. Of course, only if they're organic"</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0em 0em 1em; padding: 0em;">
<span style="color: #134f5c;">Their home looks almost like any other house in a 400-person village in rural India, except for a few specialized tools: like a hand-made oil press and the silver and yellow windmill on the roof which the villagers tell us to look for while giving us directions to their house.</span></div>
<h4 style="background-image: url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgXMX3lABE2MreyoHVGB5fTUPHCwzsmdErH-N6ClRinxlTbdt2qQNOYoqtU2vzZiCzstedVTeHE52Whi73EghoZ7yYezd1DfBFh1H1COMF1nfgglrvlavfuIFy3v4HyfxgFZ-wrSTFyfXg=s0-d-e1-ft); display: inline; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0em; padding: 0em 28px 0em 0em;">
<span style="color: #134f5c;">The Inspiration</span></h4>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">Looking at both them, it's hard to believe that they were both professors at an Engineering College in Ahmedabad. Or that he has a degree in Engineering and she studied Physics and Space Science in college. The story of why two PhD's dumped a city life for tribal one, traded in their teaching careers for a shovel and a hoe, and opted to live on 12,000 rupees ($300) a year is an inspiring tale that almost leaves you with a "Duh!" feeling.</span></div>
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<img align="left" border="1" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgsWmiCmFDLgT4AHwKFpQR1mpX7wcpaYQhw0Sx5LqmFG0s-OVOmkWBZkMl_6eJyuagYsGsRhGRQJKk_I47OscuXhkjfNyWlO_5H_u0r1-uqQ-BNdsdK3cNkEpOwqLXXjtIZiMVD-jr2N_Cdy52AvmeX76w1qYAv=s0-d-e1-ft" style="border: 1px solid rgb(111, 82, 48); margin: 4px; padding: 3px;" /><span style="color: #134f5c;">"In the cities, you have no choice in your lifestyle. Your water is chlorinated, the chemicals you use pollute the environment, and there is rampant greed," Dhirendra warmly explains their motivation to search for a simpler, more natural lifestyle. Both Dhirendra and Smita wanted to live a natural life that was deliberately based on their value system.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">With another couple, they started brainstorming. They didn't know anyone who had attempted bold experiments to address these concerns, at the time in 1983. Four pressing issues, they realized, were of great importance to them: 1) Can we live a sustainable and conscious life? 2) Can knowledge, work and devotion to life be combined together as a lifestyle? 3) Can humans coexist peacefully with animals? 4) Can we be the change with our own lives?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">After a lot of discussion, they felt that the city life was very artificial. "We did not want to exploit -- or be exploited. In the city you inadvertently take advantage of the environment and end up exploiting one section of the society or another. We wanted to get away from it all," Smita says. They wanted a way out of the cramped flats, polluted air, impure water, stale produce. And most importantly, they wanted a way out of the "more" mindset that creates so much mental instability. "If we want to have a stable mind, we have to be with nature. For example, if we use a fan or an air conditioner, our bodies don't self-correct," Dhirendra says.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">One year into their marriage, Sonejis arrived at a simple conclusion: the best lifestyle is one which is in tune with nature.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">The Simple Life</span></h4>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">Instead of just talking about their values, the Sonejis decided to make the boldest move of their lives. In 1986, a year into their marriage, they bought two and a half acres of land and moved into a small tribal village named Sakwa. Most family and friends thought they were crazy, but for Dhirendra and Smita it was a no-brainer.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">From scratch, they built their own house (including a bathroom) and embarked on an entirely different lifestyle. No electricity, no vehicles, no running water. Instead they would work on farms, eat fresh, pesticide-free produce and their own cow's milk, and live with the rhythms of nature. "It's just natural to wake up at <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1685384889" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">4AM</span></span>," Dhirendra says in a matter-of-fact way that makes you wonder about late-night TV programming.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">For the tribal life, their PhD's weren't all that useful. They struggled initially. For three years, Dhirendra got tutorials from local farmers about managing his crop. Because they didn't have running water, they could only farm in the monsoons and they were only able to fulfill sixty percent of their needs; Dhirendra had to earn some supplemental income by doing several small projects, like installing bio-gas plants in villages and training locals to work in oil mills.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">After five years, though, it was a different story altogether. Dhirendra and Smita started thinking up creative, organic solutions for common tribal problems, they dug up a well, they installed a bio-gas plant to utilize cow-dung for basic electricity that would use power tools like a flour mill for the entire village, they experimented with a wind mill and solar cooking. And they came up with tons of farming innovations, from water development to land management to crop rotation, which increased their efficiency with locally available resources.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">Today, they produce over 200 kilograms of crop annually: oilseeds, pulses, spice and over 50 varieties of fruits and vegetables, all grown with organic manure. "Each month we have different fruits and vegetables," Dhirendra proudly smiles, as he gives us a tour of their farm. Walking through the two and a half acres, you can spot everything from mangoes, papayas, lemongrass, cucumbers, potatoes, sweet tamarind, eggplant, to vanilla right here in their own backyard.</span></div>
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<img align="right" border="1" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgefAXPgr0X-kDfgcVaiJi2onAPSGTkJFpaT1I9_J46SdgYYLZtatnPZ-IObfx3ltMrZ5Su6Vu9GBWWrzkhI9ZQxIY9FYEfpLseR_1mdcIq22lJCItvnWe6ggmDQ6c9fGF04D63NP8PYjjNcVKZDIoTniEYxr7g=s0-d-e1-ft" style="border: 1px solid rgb(111, 82, 48); margin: 4px; padding: 3px;" /><span style="color: #134f5c;">What about money and other expenses? "Our yearly budget averages to about 12,000 rupees (less than $300)," says Smita, "that comes from selling a sweet-sour cold drink powder made from a plant in our farm, some Ayurvedic medicine, and hand-made organic soap from a Neem plant." That budget is not just for the two of them; it also includes their 19 and 17 year old sons! More than half of their expenses go toward travel and books and the rest are used for clothes, shoes, some food items that they don't grow, like salt or jaggery. To keep all the wheels moving, everyone averages about 4 hours of work daily.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">One might expect a lot of excitement around the Soneji's natural, four-hour-a-day work, seven-bucks-a-month lifestyle with fresh food, clean well water, organic shelter, hand-spun clothes and some entertainment like books and travel. But unfortunately, there has been little response from the community. Sonejis do what they can to share the good word -- they issue a regular newsletter with best practices and new lessons learned, they constantly innovate useful solutions like a hand-powered oil press and share it with the villagers, and they speak about their experiences at various conferences in big cities.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">At present, though, it seems that the world will take some time to believe that this really is possible. Dhirendra says, "Demographically speaking, one acre of land is every Indian's due. And that's really all that one person needs to survive."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">Raising Children</span></h4>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">The two Soneji sons were both born after they moved to Sakwa. Vishwain is 17 and Bhargav is 14 today. Arguably, the biggest challenge for the Sonejis came when Vishwain became of elementary school age: do we home school or send him to an institutionalized school?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">For six months, they deliberated back and forth. Dhirendra wasn't too keen, "There is a huge difference between information and knowledge. The current school system fills people with information but doesn't necessarily give them knowledge. And they provide no values." Although they didn't want to send their kids to school just for a diploma, they also didn't want to jeopardize the future of their children. Their discussion probed into many other deeper questions like: what exactly is knowledge? What is science? Sonejis do believe in science but in the natural kind, not the technological kind; instead of spending time learning computers, they would rather spend time learning about wind motion and earthquakes. But they acknowledge that everything is a double-edged sword.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">In the end, they concluded that knowledge is that which is useful to society and you don't need government's stamp of approval for that knowledge. Vishwain and Bhargav would be home schooled.</span></div>
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<img align="right" border="1" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEjiD464INQh0NuNYeQJErdhRcriKIm5czvXG6ikpBtto2iJIbZ5vMib6cRN__OsuJmd-V73PCZ0vIZVP1mTV27xddPyh7bC0CJeWvWVYj3x94XWYbJW3f_jNxOEmMOtCMeZNbp4Vmyigb3pmKhBoTHVEzo5lexH=s0-d-e1-ft" style="border: 1px solid rgb(111, 82, 48); margin: 4px; padding: 3px;" /><span style="color: #134f5c;">On top of home schooling in the basic subjects, they focused the education on practical matters. "Wouldn't you have been able to write an essay without taking your board exams? Couldn't your friend learn to take good pictures without passing high school?" Dhirendra asks rather seriously. School teaches you how to learn, but because of the overly institutionalized approach much of what you learn in school is never applied anywhere in life. For the Soneji sons, their upbringing would include repairing a clock, riding a bicycle, painting the sunrise they wake up to, discussing solar energy, and playing Chess in the afternoon shade. There is no such thing as vacation and everyday is an ongoing education in life's school.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">Despite not having a formal education, both of their sons seem to function at a much higher level than their counterparts in the city. Vishwain speaks four languages, can help build a house, and tell you the physics of how a fan works. His parents let him decide what he's interested in learning and then encourage him in that direction. Bhargav, the younger son, gets regular lessons using books and real-life tests from both of his parents. Recently, he took apart a broken bicycle to see how it works and then, of course, fixed the problem.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">What about college? "No one asks Birla (a millionaire) for his college degree," Dhirendra laughs, "but we're open to it, if the boys decide to go." It seems like they'll probably end up being entrepreneurs while living on the farm. "It's really their decision," he adds. The kids are free to decide to if they want to go to the neighbors to watch TV, if they want to start using a scooter, if they want to have food products that their parents might not eat, or if they want to enroll in a college. The four of them have a very close relationship and everything is talked about openly on a regular basis.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">Service And Spirituality</span></h4>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">Interestingly enough, the Sonejis don't believe in doing service. "We help the villagers as much as we can. But we are not into social service. We believe that our own life is of importance and has to be lived without causing harm to anyone else's. If, while living our life, we end up helping others, that's fine. But that's not the main purpose," Smita says.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">In fact, they strongly argue that these religious and development organizations who "help" actually create more problems than they solve. By giving hand-outs, they encourage a sort of sedate laziness that hinders any promotion of actual grassroot solutions. Furthermore, they super-impose their "solutions" and their ideas of progress that not only don't jive with the tribals but don't even work in the cities!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">Sonejis believe in natural action. No service. No big buildings. Just help those you can touch. From all the leftover bamboos, they created a guesthouse - "Aum Kutir" for the many guests they host routinely. Instead of using pesticides to kill unnecessary bugs, they copied nature and dug up an aqua-pond; every monsoon when the big bugs come out, the frogs also come out and everything self-corrects itself. Their farm doesn't have any scarecrows either. "There's enough for us and the birds to eat." For many, such decisions are a result of their spirituality, but Dhirendra says that it is a natural progression of their lifestyle: "We want to develop truth, non-violence and love within ourselves and stop the violence, anger, and greed. That's our spirituality. That's it."</span></div>
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<img align="left" border="1" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEh1op6UqeO8uarW-K-RgAy6CohsBOtbsM-mILzNHg9T2LniYiEm7DP62Kkv0ActDRHmUru7urRJ-eOuMiB1a4Z49M5qLWhIfQWcb0mgqZe65KfiPlvwS0A9-o2yPsZAUOtefPtKzC_PE8vM1xOoZptZgzRU3MuG=s0-d-e1-ft" style="border: 1px solid rgb(111, 82, 48); margin: 4px; padding: 3px;" /><span style="color: #134f5c;">Last year, when they were out-of-town visiting relatives, heavy rains hit their neighborhood. In the process of getting out of harms way, one of their cows slipped and died from the strain of the rope around her neck. When Dhirendra and Smita saw the horrific site, they wondered about tying up animals. They asked, "Why do we tie up animals? It's not natural." A few months later, when milking another cow, Smita noticed a curious habit she hadn't been conscious of - putting the mother's calf in front of her so she gives milk. Again they asked, "To use up a mother's milk for our benefit is almost like theft. Man is the only animal that does that. Is that really natural?" For them, it wasn't and since that day, more than a year ago, both Dhirendra and Smita have turned vegan.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">Henry David Thoreau once said, "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, to discover that I had not lived."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c;">If there is ever a doubt if Thoreaus exist in this day and age, if there is ever a doubt if it is practical to lead a life in alignment with ideals of simplicity, if there is ever a doubt that two PhD's live a natural life on seven dollars a month, go visit the Sonejis in the village of Sakwa. You will believe</span></div>
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Dilip Patelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04218376385233276846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7516740770579504773.post-10565794148192968262013-11-28T08:14:00.003+05:302013-11-28T08:14:40.746+05:30A Pair of Eyes...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: red; font-size: large;"><b>..Story of Grace and Gratitude.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">In continuation of periodically bringing to you the stories of real people who make a difference, and inspire, here is one about a young IAS officer from the Odisha cadre.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">All of us are often subjected to innumerable 'eyes watching us'. The eyes of suspicion, the eyes of expectations, the eyes of fear, the eyes of despair, even the eyes of disbelief! But when </span><b style="line-height: 18px;">a pair of eyes</b><span style="line-height: 18px;"> look up to you with gratitude, some magic occurs.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Read on the story, in her own words, from Usha Padhee..</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: small;">Usha Padhee</span></td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">This story of my life seems like dream but
true.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">In
1998, I was working as Sub-Collector in Baliguda, Sub-Division of Kandhamal
district, Odisha. As a young administrator I used to travel a lot and interact
with locals. One day in a village I encountered with a poor old man who was
almost blind due to cataract. I explained him about the free facilities
extended by the Government for eye operation. He expressed his inability to
reach district Head Quarter which was around 80 KM away. Also may be he had no
money or relative to accompany. As a routine gesture I informed him that when I
go for the meeting at district Head Quarter next week, I can take him along to
drop at district hospital for which he agreed. Subsequent week I dropped him at
district hospital with an instruction that after operation he should be sent
back to the village.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"> May be, after three months or so, during one
of my grievance-redressal days, my personal secretary informed me about a man standing
near my door, refusing to come in for any grievance, <b>but wanting only to see me when I leave my office!<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"> He stayed on till I was ready to leave my
office. I cannot forget, outside my office<b>,
</b>the man standing was that old man whom I had taken for cataract operation<b>. A pair of eyes just watched me</b>, as I came
out of the office. He raised his both hands, blessing me, and said that when I
took him to the hospital he was not able to see me. He had come just to see the
person who had helped him, <b>as he could see
me now!</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">At
that point of time it was just an insignificant incident, though, I was amazed by
the thankfulness of the old man. But I felt the impact of this incident later.
Whenever I remember this, invariably I feel so humbled by the gratitude
expressed by the old man. It was part of my duty and I received so much of warmth
for something I felt was so routine a task. A small act, bringing some
happiness to other person, brings so much of satisfaction and sense of fulfilling.
I always felt I have received the love in leaps and bounds compared to the
action of mine. It reaffirms my belief that all good you do comes back to you exponentially<a href="" name="_GoBack"></a>. When I feel any unfairness or selfishness around me, I
remember <b>the pair of eyes</b> which give
me assurance that these trivial things do not matter when you do something good,
as it will bring happiness to someone, somewhere…….</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Please leave behind your comments, as you may also like to recommend 'India I Care' movement in your circle of influence by connecting them with such stories.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">D I L I P P A T E L</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">for IIC Team</span></div>
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Dilip Patelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04218376385233276846noreply@blogger.com6