I am Sorry, my dear Animals

                                         I am Sorry, my dear Animals

In a country as large and diverse as ours,

a festival that celebrates the triumph of good over evil,

a festival as it nears our joy knows no bounds,

a festival full of celebrations,

a festival devoid of darkness

                         

Ladies and Gentlemen that is Diwali for every one of us.

While we are busy tearing down the dates of the calendar with great eagerness, we usually remain completely oblivious to the plight of several species of animals in the city that positively dread the arrival of the festival.

 

Considering that Diwali is a festival that celebrates the triumph of good over evil, it doesn't make sense to do evil on D-Day; it is a festival of lights. Nowhere in the origin of the festival do we find any mention of firecrackers.

It's the same old story every Diwali. While thousands of people across the city celebrate the festival by bursting crackers, animals - both pet and stray - tremble with fear, as they cannot bear the loud noises.

 

What an Irony, that the festival of lights usually brings darkness into the lives of animals.

Diwali can seem more like a terrorist attack than a festive celebration to dogs, donkeys and other animals. It is for them the anniversary of nightmare!

What entertainment is for human beings is the bombardment for animals!

Do you know How well do dogs hear?

                Very well actually. Much better than what humans can!

Many animals — such as dogs, cats, dolphins, bats, and mice — have a higher frequency limit which is greater than that of the human ear that is why such animals can hear ultrasounds. The dog can listen to a sound four times farther than what human ears can hear.

It is this incredible hearing ability of dogs, in particular, puts them at a great disadvantage, A normal cracker sounds like a bomb to dogs due to their acute hearing capability.

With their heightened sense of hearing, animals often panic, get scared and run helter-skelter on hearing the noise.

With their heightened sense of hearing, animals which get physically hurt often panic, get scared and run helter-skelter on hearing the noise.

There have been cases of pets running several kilometers in confusion, the terrified animals that flee the explosions often get lost and can’t find their way back home. Many dogs even die of cardiac arrests or go off food because they can't handle the stress during the season. Some shiver, and are prone to fits and seizures.

The situation is even worse for strays. As they do not have a home, they tend to run away from places where loud crackers are being used. In doing so, they may enter another dog's territory. So the number of casualties during this season automatically increases.

I can understand people's fascination for flower pots, but fail to understand the relish with which they burst loud bombs; Deepavali is not merely about bursting firecrackers.

In many areas people play the most inhuman game of tying firecrackers on dogs and donkeys' tails and letting them loose, watching the fun while the animals run around panic-stricken and ultimately burn themselves, Some animals when grab objects thrown towards them with their mouth imagining they were toys, and suddenly when  they explode in their mouth

Spare a thought for them - imagine the pain, hurt and trauma they have to go through!

The rockets fall into trees and burn the nests. In fear, thousands of birds abandon their nests and fly away, again to die of starvation. The anxiety can result in birds flying too far out to come back. Wild birds are frightened off their nests so their eggs get cold and the chicks die.

Hens show extremely low egg production the day after fireworks, and the eggs are often malformed as well.

But it's not just noise that affects the animals. The smoke in the air, just like it adversely affects human beings, also affects animals. It can aggravate respiratory tract diseases, cause eye allergies and bring on a skin rash.

The silver lining in this situation, and one that augurs well for animals, is that even though there are several people who continue to be lured by the sound of crackers, there is a growing number of people who have taken to celebrating the more gentle aspect of the festival - meeting elders in the family, lighting sparklers and flower pots, taking delight in lighting the house up with exquisitely designed lamps, making sweets, buying new clothes .

I always support the right of people to celebrate cultural events - but I also recognize that other people and animals have rights too.

God loved the birds and invented trees. Man loved the birds and invented cages, perhaps the Animal Spirit is so great that one day it may inspire compassion in the human heart.

It just not only happens on Diwali, it happens on the every new year’s eve , for every personal milestone celebrations like marriage or birthday , cultural events, even also when an election results are declared!

Whom are we trying to please here and what good are we doing just by creating noise, is this the only to express our happiness?

I do not know how a society that likes to think of itself as evolved, enlightened, humane and civilized can tolerate any level of animal abuse

These are intelligent animals who feel love, sorrow, pain, fear, happiness… the only thing they are incapable of feeling - or understanding - is hate. But I guess they have us for that.

I am Sorry MY dear animals.

I look up and I see God, I look down and see my dog.
Simple spelling G-O-D, same word backwards, D-O-G.

I look up and I see God, I look down and see my dog.

EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth, if you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.

Let me share few experiences of shy and ordinary kid

This kid In spite of being warned by his family he continued to be in bad company of friends, he said that he wanted to reform them but instead got transformed himself.

Though hailing from a strict vegetarian family a friend of him convinced him to eat meat stating that people who are stronger were because they ate meat and there is no other alternative to be strong.
He told his mother cock - and - bull stories for skipping the dinner at home. For a year, his friend arranged to eat meat in secret for which he had to lie frequently.

His friend once took him to a brothel. It was all prearranged. The bill had already been paid. He almost went into the jaws of sin, but somehow could not proceed any further.

They simply imagined a sort of pleasure in emitting clouds of smoke from their mouths.  They desperately wanted to smoke but for that they had no money to buy cigarettes. So eventually they decided to steal from the servant's pocket money in order to purchase cigarettes.

As an act of awakening, At last, in sheer disgust, they decided to commit suicide but feared death too so their attempt to commit suicide was unsuccessful.

He looked like a lizard on a rock — alive, but looking dead.

When grew up he was married at a young age. For him wedding meant no more than wearing new clothes, eating sweets and playing with relatives

Initially he was jealous and possessive husband, sometimes also used to beat her up. During this time he faced his first great conflict between duty and desire.  

His father was very ill and had to be at his service and regularly gave him massage.

One night while nursing his sick father he slipped upstairs to share his wife’s bed, At this moment his father died, the servant comes to him and says your father is no more.

His first impulse was "My god what have i done, the animal passion has blinded me”, I should have been massaging him, and he would have died in my arms.

He was as shocked as a bird landing on a live wire.

Later when he returned after the higher studies abroad after 4 years he learned that his mother is no more and his family had not informed about this to him. The pain was as if someone has cut a deep hole in his heart.

Though coming from a fairly well off family .As he grew older he realized the importance of life and he had decided to dedicate his life to social work.

At that time plague had broken out , so he offered his service for improving the sanitation. He took the broom cleaned the public toilets which were filled with filth and dirt.

All this was not being liked by his elder son and he rebelled and when his son broke away from the family, he was dejected disgusted and devastated.

In order to set an example to himself he took the vow of celibacy to save money he had to cut his own hair and wash his clothes.

Who would have imagined that this disappointed, shy, soft-spoken, average student, who at one point experimented with eating meat, smoking, stealing, lying went on to become the a man who made humility and simple truth more powerful than empires.

a living legend. a living legacy.-- --- The great soul   - the Mahatma

Albert Einstein added, "Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth."

Each of his experience was inevitably an experiment with truth and each experiment had its results –

Learning to experiment is the learning to fail and also the learning to lead

The true method of knowledge is experiment.

Every great inspiration is but an experiment.
All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.
Because when we live life as an experiment, we are far more willing to take risks, to acknowledge
failure, to learn and develop. That's what experiments are all about: discovery and growth

A fool is a man who never tried an experiment in his life.
Life is too short not to experiment.

Everybody's a mad scientist, and life is their lab. We're all trying to experiment to find a way to live,
to solve problems, to fend off madness and chaos.

You've got to experiment to figure out what works.

Explore the experiment to experience and exceed the expectation

Past is Experience...!

Future is Expectations...!

Present is Experiments...!

Learning about Gandhi has stressed to me the truth that one person can make a difference.

Yes one person can make a difference.

That the person you see in the mirror everyday while brushing your teeth and combing your hair is the person responsible for your life. Yes.

That, is none other than yourself.

EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH

Ragging Moments

A group of seniors got hold of me and asked to tell them “The Hare and Tortoise story”, I thought that should be easy and then would escape from them. Ask me, after a good five hours, why I couldn't even start the race of the hare and tortoise. The questions that I had to answer!

1) Who was the rabbit     2) what was his name   3) What was the gender    4) where did it live   5) did rabbit use cosmetics 6) Is tortoise female if so was it carrying 7) where was the jungle is it Wi-Fi enabled 8) who conducted the race which committee? 9) Names and colors of the trees in the jungle 10) who were the audience?

Boy, I was huffing and puffing for air as if I myself had taken part in some marathon



After that when I said them I am hungry, to quench my thirst they asked me to make love to a tree , that is how I expressed myself for the first time to a living organism called Peepal tree. Emerging relatively unscathed from hugging, cuddling and smooching the tree, my next task was to play cricket in the cafeteria's approach road

Sounds simple?

Try playing it by yourself, where you are the bowler who goes to the top of the run up, run down and bowl, run to the other end of the wicket and bat, run to the boundary region as the fielder to collect the ball and throw it in, run back to behind the imaginary wickets to play the wicketkeeper, run to the other end to become the umpire giving the batsman out, go back to the other end and start walking back to the pavilion

Then I was told to recite a poem on not ‘The undertaker’ but ‘The underwear’,

Wrinkle wrinkle, little cloth
Now I wonder where you are
Deep below inside you hide
Like a butter you will slide
Wrinkle wrinkle, little cloth
Now I wonder where you are

Then a series of such things followed that were both hilarious and ridiculous. Night after night, as soon as we returned from college, some of us would become prey to a senior vampire

I when once relented was kept standing under bathroom-shower throughout the night, wearing clothes and shoes, as time progressed we specialized in Swimming on the floor, skipping without rope, snake dance, pole dance, cabaret any more…..

There was certain naming convention to students in my college :

When u are a male fresher in your first year--- faccha ,
in second year u will be promoted as baccha ,
and then later designation changes to bada bachha ,
finally in the 4th year become the man who matters the baap.

Similary for girls it would be facchi, bacchi, baadi bacchi and Maa.

By the time we graduated we all became maaa---- baaaps in the class.

But the irony was that there was mad race for female offspring’s on campus

Every faccha wanted a facchi
Every baccha desired a bacchi
Each bada baccha needed a bada bacchi
And after every maa there were at least 4 different baaaps.

Another category existed for girls they were rated in order of feelings

if you thought OK –the she was referred as DAAL

if you say WOW then – she is a MAAAL ,

When your saliva is drooping from the mouth – then it is KAMAAL

And if 2 eyes are not enough to handle the hotness -- DHAMAAL
If you get a dhamaal then u become MAALA MAAL.

One day when I became baap, I saw a dhamaal l in a body hugging skin tight yellow dress, I called her( using whistle) to salute me , she smiled at me

I thought I was going to get a MAA for my bacchas ,and I already short listed the honeymoon destinations

When I was in the class , suddenly the yellow dressed girl came into the class and announced ,

“good morning students, I am I am samsakara , and I shall be handling this class”
That is when my all honeymoon were converted into acidmoon.

 
Ragging brought into us more creativity, removed our shyness and helped us to know more about ourselves.

It was all done in the spirit of fun, and the underlying principle was familiarization. Like “One peg whisky makes you fit”, limited amount of ragging can make you a strong Man.

Today after so many years I still laugh my lungs out whenever there is any remote reference made to a hare and tortoise,peepal tree, yellow dress, pole dance.

I believe “Everybody laughs in the same language” and If I were not be allowed to laugh in heaven, I don't want to go there either”


I almost got married then, but after 6 years I have one last thing to say

One peg of whisky full ya quarter , PLEASE
Don’t say this speech to my wife or daughter.

 My Ragging Moments video

My Story - In Pursuit of Happiness

In Pursuit of Happiness

We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have. For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.

Happiness is like perfume: You can't give it away without getting a little on yourself.

The first part of my life is called   “Mamma’s boy”

It was the year of 1984 when a feeling of hope arrived in person to a passionate, poor and ill literate family in old city of Hyderabad and they choose to name him as Nitin.

My father was a cyclic mechanic and later went on to become owner of the same cycle taxi where he worked, while my mother was a homemaker who was always busy in nurturing the family which included my younger brother and sister.

I recall my mom used to sharpen the pencils with razor and keep them ready in the Natraj pencil box just because there would be a slender chance of hurting my hand if I did that myself. My mother would also track my progress and feel happy if there were more number of blunted pencils leftover in the box.

I cognize it now, how graceful was that

My father for most part of my educating life would wake me up in early mornings and he would remain awoke to observe that I don’t doze off in the middle.

My father always thought that my upbringing should be different from the way he was brought up.

He innocently had to ask me every time where to sign in the progress report, but fortunately every time I gave him a reason to be proud, because I never stood anything other than being first and second in my entire school life

This part of my life is called   “Below par”

It was in 11^th and 12^th when I discovered another being inside me, I was a born athlete and a gifted cricketer .People were envious at my defense and my reverse sweeps to  fast bowlers raised more eye brows in field than they generally  do in a beauty parlor.

In spite of all the talent I had as a cricketer I ended up becoming a street smart street cricketer, then I realized that I was lagging behind in rat race. As such, I pulled my socks up and did exceptionally well in the fourth year of my engineering to become the first to get selected on campus for a job in Mumbai in 3i InfoTech.

Although never did I aspire to become a software engineer since 6 years I earn my bread out of it, my dream of being an MBA is still a dream!

This Next part of my life is referred as “Sick at Heart”

 One day on an afternoon in Mumbai I got a call from my family stating that my mother is suffering from severe headache and has been admitted to hospital. I, unable to withstand the situation, took an immediate available flight to Hyderabad.

It is when I  directly came to care hospital I learnt that it was brain hemorrhage, and I did not know then that I was seeing my godly mother for one last time, The silence was unbearable and the vacuum it created in my life was intolerable.

With depression my heart shrunk with hurt and suffering only stretched with time, I remember searching in Google for “easiest ways to die in your sleep”!

Then one day I met a white bearded old stranger in Mumbai, he said that “it was me who was supposed to pass away and my mom traded her life for mine”, strangely I could never meet him again!

I read a quote during that time which said

“There is far more peace in acceptance than in resistance” which I think was the life transforming quote for me.

This part of my life is called “love at first sight”

Twice in my life I felt as what we call the love at first sight syndrome: first of them is when for the first time I saw a girl called durga in a family gathering and thought wow! She later went on to become my loving and caring wife.

My second occurrence was when I requested a doctor at Fernandez hospital to watch the labor operation of my wife, when the doctor confirmed that it is a girl I tasted the tears of joy and decided to name her Jhansi after my mom.

To keep this day in memory and to relive those moments I have tattooed the letter J on my right hand.

Today when I hold my mother like daughter’s hand and teach her how to walk more importantly I realize that I am       In pursuit of happiness…….