Once Upon A Time....

Once upon a time there was a prosperous and peaceful kingdom ruled by a just king. The king was an able administrator and was prompt in attending to grievances of his subjects. He took care of them like his own children and he too was loved and admired by his subjects. He never went for a war and instead directed all the resources in making his kingdom prosperous.

One fine summer morning, dark clouds appeared on the horizon and the king felt a bit uneasy by their untimely presence. He took it as a bad omen. Soon his fears came true as a messenger entered his court panting and informed him that barbarian hordes had attacked the countryside and soon will launch their assault on the capital itself. Its been centuries this kingdom had seen a war. The king summoned his ministers and asked them to get the army ready for the battle. Though the soldiers haven't had any first hand battle experience, they were very much eager to fight for their king. They fought bravely but were routed by much experienced and fiercer army. The barbarian army broke through the capital gates and ravaged the whole kingdom, slaughtering men, women and children whoever came in its way.

Finding themselves defeated, the ministers advised the king to leave the  kingdom and seek refuge in nearby forest. The king was reluctant and wanted to fight till the last drop of his blood. But, the ministers talked some sense into him and persuaded him to escape to the forest. As he left the kingdom, he was pained to see his kingdom ravaged and his people butchered. Tired and wounded, the king and his remaining ministers made it to the forest out of harm's way.

The king was inconsolable. He never anticipated such a thing would happen to him and his people. He cursed his fate and looked upwards towards the sky and ranted, "What sins have I committed that I and my people are being punished so mercilessly?". He cried even harder when visions of his ravaged kingdom flashed before his eyes. He could not adjust himself to the sudden change of fortunes. His ministers were no better and could not comfort him. The king felt so painful at heart for failing his people that he was on the verge of losing his sanity. He even contemplated running a sword through himself to put an end to this life and pain once and for all. But his alert ministers held him back. As the king ranted about his loss, a hermit who was passing by spoke to the king and said, "O King, cry and shout as hard as you can tonight, release all your sorrows but tomorrow morning when you wake up, you will have two choices, one you continue to be as miserable and slip into oblivion and spend rest of your life like a beggar and other take your loss in your own stride, brace yourself up and fight back to regain your glory". If you choose the latter, come to me, my hermitage is nearby and pointed in the direction of some trees.

Life isn't smooth always, some unexpected turn of events could put one in disarray. But you always have the choice of either being miserable or happy as both take similar efforts, only the end results differ.

The king stopped being miserable and chose to fight back. The hermit had poured some sanity into his senses. Next morning, he went to meet the hermit. The hermit led him to his pupils who were training martial arts and told the king pointing towards them, "This is the army you have to lead in the battle but first you must prove your efficiency as a warrior and leader. The hermit handed the king a bow and arrow and asked him to shoot at a target. The king shot the arrow but missed the target widely. The hermit asked the king to observe him and practice till he hits the bull's eye. The king started practising vigourously day and night as he wanted to lead a fightback and regain his kingdom as soon as possible. Soon the king's arrow started finding the bull's eye every time he shot. He confidently went up to the master and claimed he could shoot the bull's eye. He shot 3 consecutive arrows into the bull's eye but the master wasn't impressed. He asked the king to practise more and observe him while he shot. The king could not understand what the hermit meant as even after shooting 3 arrows into the bull's eye the hermit asked him to practise more. He got frustrated and lost all hope of getting any help from the hermit and started to leave to find his own band of soldiers.

As he packed, a voice in his head said, "hey, your master is not insane, maybe he is trying to convey a message". He stayed back to learn more. Next morning, as he saw his master pick up the bow and arrow, a sudden enlightenment dawned on him. He rushed to his master and once again claimed he could shoot perfectly now. This time as he picked up the bow and took aim, the master said, "Yes, you have perfected the art". The king released the arrow and hit the bull's eye.

What the king realised here was that hitting the target was not all that is important, but the way you hit the target, how relaxed you are, how calm you are and how focussed you are without worrying about the result was important. A good leader needs to be relaxed and should keep aside his worries as he plans his next moves as worries and anger cloud ones thinking and play with their emotions. The king learnt to relax both his body and mind and with a sound mind and a handful of soldiers he led a fightback and soon reclaimed his kingdom driving out all of the barbarians.

Like the king, many of us might have enjoyed the comforts of life but some unexpected events might have turned the world upside down for us. Such drastic changes can unsettle anyone. Like the king everyone has a choice and to pursue our goals inspite of difficulties, we need to learn to endure the pain, stop being miserable and relax and plan our next course of action. The result is always fruitful when you plan your actions with a relaxed mind.

Lingo Bingo

Its been sometime now I have been in Chennai and I have picked up few Tamil words but I still struggle to convey myself to local people here. However the English, Hindi languages I know come in handy as most people understand them but when I need to communicate to a person who knows no other language than Tamil, I find myself helpless.

The situation was far more funnier last year.

Last year during summer vacations I joined driving classes and it was agreed that the instructor would instruct me in English as I did not understand Tamil. But who cares about the agreement?? I was assigned an instructor who barely knew any English. Most of my queries were in dumb and deaf language and his answers would be in either Tamil and sometimes seeing my desperate face he would use sign language I would understand. Soon I understood that his panicky voice meant I need to stop and something that sounded like encouragement meant I need to press the accelerator. Somehow struggling to understand his language and nearly mowing down early morning walkers sometimes, I learnt to drive. Well this struggle with languages wasn't new for me and over the years I have learnt some effective sign language and the language of eyes. 

Of all languages I understand(4 in number- English, Hindi,Telugu, Tamil), I think I have spoken Hindi the most. I started speaking Hindi since I was eight though I started understanding it much before thanks to my dad's north Indian colleagues and their kids. I got familiar with hindi when we got transferred to Assam as I got in touch with more and more hindi speaking populace. Here my language was influenced by various dialects of 
Hindi as people from all over India resided in the same colony as I was. These different dialects like mumbaiyya tapori hindi, bihari hindi,pure hindi etc confused me and I developed my language mixing all these dialects and some English for overcoming the lack of hindi vocabulary. 

I remember a conversation with my dad's colleague when I was at a nascent stage of learning hindi. The ULFA(a militant separatist group in Assam) had declared a strike and forbid civilians to drive their vehicles for a day. My dad had some urgent work that day, so he walked to his office(it was a half an hour walk). So his colleagues who stayed back came calling him on what was to be done about going to office. As my dad had already gone to the office, I attended to them. They were surprised and asked how did he go to the office. I told them "chal ke gaye". I think they did not hear me as they asked me again "paidal gaye kya ?". The word "paidal" wasn't in my vocabulary then, so I mistook it for a pedal. I thought they must be referring to a bicycle or a bike. I told them "nahi nahi not pedal, walking karte hue gaye". They smiled among themselves, I did not understand then why. One of them came to my rescue and told them that I was new to the place and did not understand much hindi.

Eleven years for which I stayed at Uttarakhand refined my hindi a lot mostly with the help of my friends who never shied from criticizing me for my use of hindi. Now I can speak hindi relatively better than my mother tongue Telugu.

My knowledge of four languages gives me a little bit of edge and confidence over others. Many times I have played the role of a mediator and a translator which gives me the satisfaction of helping others. Sometimes I feel lucky that I know these languages as I can understand all kinds of diatribes being hurled at me at my back (as people think so even though they speak right before me).

Few days back I witnessed an interesting conversation. I had gone to a shop to buy some provisions. A woman and her daughter-in-law also came to the shop. The shopkeeper was attending to other customers so he could not hear that woman. She told her daughter-in-law to observe her and learn how to draw attention. She started calling him "arrey bhaiyya" and as he could not pay attention, she soon started shooting invectives in Hindi 
at him and some words were really indecent which I abstain myself from using them and at the same time she was pleading him in Tamil to give her provisions. Poor chap, as he did not understand what she was saying attended to her with a broad smile. She said to her daughter-in-law, "Dekha kaisa sun liya gaali dete hi". I was speechless and just stood there watching them.

Express Fracas!!!

Train journeys are quite interesting and always have an exciting story to tell.

After bidding adieu to Pantnagar, I took my train to Chennai from New Delhi on 10th June. It was a hot day and I was drained off my energy as I was carrying a heavy luggage(I must thank my friend, Arun Bhakuni who helped me board UKD Sampark Kranti with my heavy luggage at Lalkuan). It rained slightly in the evening and the cool wind lifted my spirits and I was back to my normal self. 

Due to heavy summer rush, railways introduced the side middle berth which led to shift in berth numbers. I checked out the reservation chart before boarding the GT Express and I found my berth number was shifted from 17 to 19. I felt that I have been shifted to upper berth and I was wondering if Railways could do this even after alloting a lower berth on ticket. But my doubts were cleared as I entered my compartment and found I had retained my lower berth. The shift in numbers was due to the extra side middle berths added to compensate the summer rush. This shift in numbers had caused quite a confusion for many and I politely explained and guided my neighbouring co-passengers to their berths. Except for the change in numbers everyone got their respective berths they were alloted in their tickets.

It had been a tiring day and I dozed off by 10pm. The train stopped around midnight at some station (I think it was Bhopal). I woke up everytime the train stopped and checked on my luggage (I was carrying a heavy luggage, a computer included!!!).

At this station, an extremely large man entered the coach shouting and ranting at someone. He was well above 6 feet and so wide(more than double the size I was and I am not at all exaggerating) that he couldn't walk straight in the coach. He turned his frame a bit and dragged himself to his berth number. His family members were normally sized though. As this man was unaware of the shift in berth numbers, he looked for the number printed on his ticket. But this number was occupied by someone else, an old couple, must be in their late 50s. This large man demanded them to get off his berth and he was extremely rude to them. The old couple tried to explain and reason with him but to no avail. He pointed at the number on his ticket and started to rough them up. The old couple insisted that the berth was theirs and the TTE had allotted that berth to them. The large man started shouting that he would kick the TTE and both of them if they did not get off his berth. The old man said that he did not want a fight but only wanted to travel peacefully. The large man did not relent and he asked them to vacate the berth. The old man and his wife after failing to convince that unreasonable man, vacated the berth and sat on the nearby berth waiting for the TTE. 

As soon as TTE came the old man took up his case with him. The large man again started shouting that the berth was his. The TTE looked at the tickets and asked the large man to move to his allotted berths as he explained about the shift in berth numbers. Even now this man failed to see reason and shouted at the TTE asking him why was he being allotted a different berth number. The TTE was patient in the beginning and explained him that he was allotted the same berths as in the ticket but he soon got frustrated with the man and threatened to call the police. Finally this large man relented and shifted to his allotted berths. As this large man was shifting his luggage, the women with him were still seated on the old couple's berth. Now as the TTE had proved his point, the old man puffed up his chest and started shouting at those women to vacate his berth. It was his turn to take revenge. The large man growled but the old man did not back off and asked them to clear his berth with a stern voice. The TTE oversaw the shift and left smiling. All the passengers around were smiling at the old man's antics and the large man's growls.

Normally trains bring people from different parts of the country together but certainly not this way.  

Match of a Lifetime.....!!!

I don't think I will witness such a great match again ever in my lifetime- the wimbeldon final 2009 between my favourite players Roger Federer and Andy Roddick. What a match!!! Simply incredible.
I don't follow Tennis as earnestly as Cricket but sometimes I love to watch matches between good players. When I switched on the TV, the match had already started and Federer and Roddick had won 5 games each in the first set. Roddick won the next two games to win the first set. Federer played some wide shots and lost few points.
Roddick started the second set with his fierce services which Federer failed to return many times and seldom broke them. Federer never won a point on Roddick's serves. But he too did not give a chance to Roddick as he served many awesome aces. It was a closely contested battle as neither of them allowed the other to win. Even though the second set was tied 6-6 it seemed Roddick had an upper hand. He looked dominating in the tie-breaker leading 5-1 before Federer made an inspiring return to win the second set. A sigh of relief escaped my breath as Federer and Roddick had won one set each and the match became more interesting. The third set too headed for a tie-breaker as neither of them were able to break other's services. Federer won this tie-breaker easily as compared to the last one. Federer was one up but that did not deter Roddick as he came back in style in the fourth set by winning it 6-3. The match became more interesting as both had won two sets each and Federer started looking vulnerable again. But he was back in the game again serving his best(He served some50+ aces).Roddick too was serving with such ferocity that Federer had little chance of breaking his serve. Even when Federer had his chance he played some loose shots and could not capitalise on the opportunities he got. Though Roddick was winning on his serves but could not find a way to stop Federer's aces. The final set went on and on and it seemed it would never end as neither of them were able to win a game on others' serve. The match became more of a battle of patience and nerves. The final set stretched to 14 each. Federer won the 29th game of final set to set the score 15-14. It seemed Roddick would again equalise it to 15-15 but Roddick committed a costly error when he tried to chip the ball but it could not cross the net. The move was a desperate attempt but unneccessary.He was down 0-30 but he made a comeback to 40-30. The willy Federer equalised it too 40-40 leading to a deuce. Nerves got better of Roddick now in the final moments of the match as he lost the advantage first and then the game with a wide shot. The four hourlong game was worth seeing and the excitement can hardly be described in words. Federer won his 15th grand slam and he earned his 6th Wimbledon title after a hard and long battle with equally magnificient Roddick. I felt extremely sorry for Roddick as he played really awesome game but someone had to lose. I hope he wins upcoming tournaments as he is in great form and his serves are really magnificient.