Deaths in Disgrace

          Do you know that over 800,000 people die due to suicide every year? And there are many more who attempt suicide.  Sickening!  Right?  What’s so wrong with them?  Why were they so despair?  And these lakhs leave millions affected and bereaved.

          If you go back to trace the causes of their deaths there will always be a lacunae.  Such are the innumerous problems, difficulties, challenges, the worst scenarios to deal with that life poses before us.  Considering the 7 billion people on this single life sustaining planet known, the problematic situations they encounter with, the permutations and combinations of these situations they are going to encounter with will definitely be a number that would be gigantic in display.

          Well, that was one pessimistic approach of life.  But is life all worth of only problems?  One should live appreciating the diverse beauty of life.  No difficulty is superlative enough, no hurdle is high enough, and no situation is scary enough to justify this culpable crime.  They are all relative.  Even the architects of the most inhuman practices and men who advocate crime to a level no one else could fathom dare enough to share the same land and air then why do we get such thoughts.  One should get inspired from them as far as holding on to life is concerned.  We deserve to live even if we had to face worst of the worst situations or become worst of the worst mortals in the perception of the world.

          Every other day we woke up to hear the suicidal deaths one time or the other. Be it be farmers, students, employees, actors, people in love, despair, destitution  and the list goes on, the poignancy of suicide has left no community pristine. Through suicides we are allowing ourselves to be the subject of the epitomes of weak-mindedness, incompetence, perversity in the eyes of the world. No tragedy and no trauma in this world can justify this ludicrous and obtuse act of suicide. Life is ineffable. The gamut of opportunities in life are over the horizons.

          Media both print and electronic runs programs and programs, pages and pages of articles sympathizing with the person who committed suicide. And it is a travesty. The government of our country decriminalized the act of ‘attempt to suicide’ under section 309 of Indian Penal Code in regard that it should be seen as a manifestation of a deceased condition of mind, deserving treatment and care, rather than punishment. May be it is not a crime to attempt the suicide but when committed it is definitely a crime. And a crime is something that affects the society as a whole. There is an ample danger of the budding and immature minds reading these traumatic articles and misinterpreting them as sympathy would be conferred on those who commit suicides. Then suicide would be something they would resort to when they lack the ability and skill to cope up the similar problems and situations they face. This is in light of the fact that the second leading cause of death among 15-29 years old globally is suicide.

          People should be intrepid and by intrepid it doesn’t mean false courage and complacence. When we ourselves are not aware of what type of lives we are leading then we should least bother about the society who wouldn’t even have the slightest clue of what we are going through. Criticism is part of the game called life.  To err is human. Some are corrigible and some are not. In case of incorrigible ones we go through penance and reformation and set back on the track of the most beautiful journey ever known. It is as simple as that when we don’t obfuscate the things in life. So let us make ourselves strong and secure laughing through happiness, worrying over problems face the challenges of life. After all there is only one life one can be entitled with and challenges are the ones that help individuals and communities to develop.

          Lastly this stanza from the movie ‘Dead Poets Society’ favorite to most of us, from which we can draw gallons of inspiration from.

                    “I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately…

                     I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life!

                     To put to rout all that was not life…

                     And not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived…”

Cockroach Theory-A beautiful speech by Sundar Pichai - an IIT-MIT Alumnus

The cockroach theory for self development

At a restaurant, a cockroach suddenly flew from somewhere and sat on a lady.

She started screaming out of fear.
With a panic stricken face and trembling voice, she started jumping, with both her hands desperately trying to get rid of the cockroach.

Her reaction was contagious, as everyone in her group also got panicky.

The lady finally managed to push the cockroach away but ...it landed on another lady in the group.

Now, it was the turn of the other lady in the group to continue the drama.
The waiter rushed forward to their rescue.
In the relay of throwing, the cockroach next fell upon the waiter.

The waiter stood firm, composed himself and observed the behavior of the cockroach on his shirt.
When he was confident enough, he grabbed it with his fingers and threw it out of the restaurant.
Sipping my coffee and watching the amusement, the antenna of my mind picked up a few thoughts and started wondering, was the cockroach responsible for their histrionic behavior?
If so, then why was the waiter not disturbed?

He handled it near to perfection, without any chaos.
It is not the cockroach, but the inability of those people to handle the disturbance caused by the cockroach, that disturbed the ladies.

I realized that, it is not the shouting of my father or my boss or my wife that disturbs me, but it's my inability to handle the disturbances caused by their shouting that disturbs me.

It's not the traffic jams on the road that disturbs me, but my inability to handle the disturbance caused by the traffic jam that disturbs me.
More than the problem, it's my reaction to the problem that creates chaos in my life.

Lessons learnt from the story:

I understood, I should not react in life.
I should always respond.
The women reacted, whereas the waiter responded.
Reactions are always instinctive whereas responses are always well thought of.
A beautiful way to understand............LIFE.
Person who is HAPPY is not because Everything is RIGHT in his Life..
He is HAPPY because his Attitude towards Everything in his Life is Right..!!

Chanakya – Must Read Story

Once, a Chinese traveler came to meet Kautilya (Chanakya). It was dusk and darkness had just started to set in. When the traveler entered Chanakya’s room, he saw that Chanakya was busy writing some important papers under the lighting of an oil lamp. You know that there were no bulbs or tube lights in those days, since there was no electricity. So, in those days people used to light oil lamps. Chanakya smilingly welcomed his guest and asked him to sit. He then quickly completed the work that he was doing.

But do you know what did he do on completing his writing work? He extinguished the oil lamp under which he was writing and lit another lamp. The Chinese traveler was surprised to see this. He thought that maybe this was a custom followed by Indians when a guest arrives at their home. He asked Chanakya, “Is this a custom in India, when a guest arrives at your house? I mean, extinguishing one lamp and lighting the other?” Chanakya replied, “No my dear friend. There is no such custom.

Actually, when you entered, I was working. It was an official work, pertaining to my empire, my nation. The oil filled in that lamp has been bought from the money from the National treasury. Now, I am talking to you. This is a personal and friendly conversation, not related to my nation; so I cannot use that lamp now, as it will lead to wastage of the money of the national treasury. Hence, I extinguished that lamp and lit this other lamp, since the oil in this lamp has been bought from my personal money.”

It is amazing to see how principled our Acharyas’ (spiritual leaders) were. On seeing such high moral standards of our ancient spiritual leaders, sometimes it feels that we should try to emulate them, at least a little. They had such pure behaviour, pure conduct, pure mind and a pure conscience! Just ask yourself, what honorary title should we give to such men? They had reached such a high intellectual level! When will we learn to be like them? Actually, our current political leaders should learn from them; but unfortunately, no one is ready to learn.