What is Money?

Hello Readers

Hope you all are doing well.

“I had one idea that never changed in my mind—that you should use your wealth to help people.”

- Chuck Feeney (Charles Francis "Chuck" Feeney is an Irish-American businessman and philanthropist and the founder of The Atlantic Philanthropies, one of the largest private foundations in the world. Courtesy WIKIPEDIA)

There are millions of signals around your head. Still, you need to pay money to catch those signals, for those signals to be useful to you, example your cell phone, TV and so on.

So all of you are ready to welcome 2019 I guess! Well you are ready or not here it comes, today wanted to discuss with all of you of this one invention of man which is the most unique and complex amoung what the entire human race has invented!

Well while you are making guesses, I will make it easy, it is known by many names some people call it greenback, pesos, rupees, dollars the list is endless.

Why do think I wanted to discuss the vitamin-M today?

From the time I started writing blogs four years ago, I have time and again tried to stress the point of money and materialism, how the generations and the value systems have changed when compared to the time where values carried more prominence than cash.

I wanted to think and share as well discuss with all of you today actually what is money meant for, what can it give us and why this world sometimes turns into a broken crystal glass of countless pieces which differentiates people base on their net worth?

Human beings who started like nomads quickly grew smarter and smarter over centuries and in this course of time invented countless things which are useful in the fields of arts, literature science and commerce.

Today the whole world works on various business cycles except few philanthropic organisations to which money doesn’t matter, they are again a few.

So it is always money exchanged for goods or services, I hope the majority of you would agree with this.

Have we thought what is the use of money and any suitable method how we can actually use money may be more than just for exchange of goods and services?

What I mean by using the money for more than just an exchange of goods and services is just not randomly donating it.

Chuck Feeney- one of the greatest philanthropists of our time
Image courtesy: google images

We have to use it for a cause, for example, to promote the culture of our country may be helping a poor kid in his education, starting a trust or a foundation where the needy can be taken care of.

Money is according to me just an enabler for you to get what you wish to, that is primary and trivial or the basic requirement, but if you want to think big and move towards a higher level valued thought process. Here I mean your thought of giving back to society you need to use your money something other than for our own pleasures and enjoyment is what I feel.

There would be a time in everyone's life when we wanted to grow old fast and have money to spend because that day your parent or guardian refused to buy you that thing which you were fond of, there are instances where my own friends bought that toy or some stationary even after they grew up.

But we all know how deeply we miss those days of carefree, responsibility-free life where we hardly knew what money was.

The crux is that all through your life be in that mode only, where you hardly give importance to money, I am not telling you to become a stingy lad or a lavish person, just be productive about money and always give more importance to relations, family, your values and character more than money.

Thanks a lot for your time, have a successful year ahead.

Helios

Intermediate Oldness - A discussion on middle age.

Hey guys

Hope you are happy and enjoying life.

In many stages of our lives, the bell plays an important role. You wake up to the sound of an alarm bell, we pray when we hear a temple or a church bell.

Your performance in your work or college is judged by a curve which is famously called the bell curve.

The way I see it the bell curve can also be applied in our lives and the If you fix age at the Y-axis, and time at in the X-axis, let's study the progression.

The minimum or the starting age I have considered is 6 years, as it is the ideal age for most of us when we started schooling.

The next stop I would make is at the age of 14 years where most of us will be thinking about which college to join and our streams and career.

Before I proceed, I would like to set some ground rules that this blog is based mostly on the Indian scenario and we will keep that limited to the middle-class financial premise.

So now The MR middle-class young man or a young girl has chosen his or stream, the college life just sails away like a dream and finally vola! He or she is a graduate!

Now for the job, though truly motivated by their college professors and other benefactors to become managers, CEOs’ and finally this word “entrepreneur” most of us end up in a white Collar job as I have read by a famous IIM professor it is called a “sweaty job”.

Meet Peter Griffin a middle-aged man! 

Courtesy: https://tanyongquan.wordpress.com/2010/05/23/family-guy/

 We toil in the AC chambers from morning afternoon or night till the next morning and go home with a sense of achievement on the great monotonous work we completed by glaring at the screens.

Now the timeline skewed up, and you are already 4 to 5 year old in a job! You would have switched companies likes gears may be or can also be working in the same firm with determination depends on your patience and tolerance.

Now let's go ahead and say you are in the 10 to 14 years range in your career this is like the end of the job for some extremely successful people who quit corporate and think of becoming entrepreneurs.

 But others too, due to their commitments would like to walk on the matted floorings for some years to come, this period is actually the middle age period for men and women.

I know some people who have suffered and even now suffering at this stage of their life and the reason for their woe are many.

Some become the caretakers of their mom, wife and children due to an untimely demise of his or her dad or something more unfortunate some women become the man of the house and take care of almost everything of that house.

Middle age for a man or a woman is a critical stage in their life as they would climb the bell curve and are now in a receding trend with loads of commitment on their shoulders.

The challenges is how many will come out of this stage and become successful dads’ moms’ and caretakers of their parents and try to balance their whole ecosystem.

I agree these difficulties are not much when compare to a soldier or any person who is in a force to protect law and order or a country.

“Middle age is when you're sitting at home on a Saturday night and the telephone rings and you hope it isn't for you.”
― Ogden Nash (Courtesy https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/middle-age)

But I would definitely commend the middle-aged people who fight their living and keep the wheel of their family running like silent soldiers who are also responsible for providing responsible citizens to the country which will help the country to move forward in many dimensions

Thanks for your epoch.

Helios.

Acumen

Hello Readers

How are you today?

There is something unique about this soil, despite many obstacles has always remained the abode of great souls.

-Sri Sardar Vallabhai Patel

Have you thought about this anytime?  That life would be so much easier if the people who matter to you understood all the things you do and be appreciative about it, at least the good part of it.

How many times in your life have you felt the listener does not understand your tone, your opinion or your vision, so what is the problem, where do you think that you could not join the dots.

Understanding in life is actually the key to almost all vaults, how can you obtain this master key? There are no key makers around you to just gift you that key, you need to be your own key maker.

What I mean by that you will not be treated the way you want to be addressed in all situations in life, sometimes you have to make the best out of the worst conditions, and strive hard to join the dots and make people understand your perspective and take your stand.

If you shy away from this situation and just be that regular naive guy, who just says yes to anyone and everyone around just to win their confidence or so-called maintain some illusion called as goodwill with them, I am sorry you are lost in an unreal world.

If you have an idea try to bring into action, talk to people around you work to make them understand the importance of your plan and make a difference.

Have we realised this world has grown intellectually until now only because of icebreakers, where someone opened up in a forum and told people what he felt about his idea and how it could changes the lives of people forever?

Imagine if that person blew his own trumpet about his idea and never made an attempt to actually making people understand his purpose in whatever manner he wants, he could again be a failure.

The key to success in whatever field you want to excel in understanding and communication, these two words can build castles and also break them if there are misunderstandings and misconceptions.

Courtesy: Google Images

In this modern age of technology and communication systems, it is finally getting reduced to a bot world, in which I see mobile apps are suggesting replies to its users, who just approve that reply? So you finally are in a state where we are beginning to accept machines understand us better than we understanding conversations and responding to people!

Beware we are in a bot world where there are services tailored for you which are done by robotic programs in the course of time, our thinking too has lost all the humanity in it and is just working like a binary logic engine, please come out of it!

Start thinking, understand who you are, never follow a group try to lead it with your idea.

There is infighting going on within your try to find the answers for those questions and see how relieved you feel, last but not the least keep yourself healthy mentally and physically, love your family.

Thanks for your time.

Helios.

Are you a leader?

Hello readers

Hope you all are doing well.

A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim is fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves!

-Lao Tzu

The world has always moved in the direction of leaders, the leaders of micro and macro worlds within this earth, so whom do you think are one of the best leaders of the world who lived and is living now, what according to you is the qualities a leader should have according to you? That’s later for you to pen your thoughts in the comment box.

They say leaders are born, not made. Well, I partially agree with this statement.

When I look back in the pages of Indian history, one incident that strikes me is, when Chankaya the great economist and scholar was humiliated in the court of the emperor Dananand, Chanakya swore he would train a person who will emerge as the best of leaders and dethrone him.

He cursed the king and decided to find the suitable replacement to the king, when he is passing out of the town he noticed a group of children were enacting a skit: 

A boy named Chandra Guptha was the King, and his friends were acting as robbers, in the next scene, they portrayed a gang of robbers being caught when the robbers were bought to the king he ordered them the harshest punishment, that was death.

 Seeing this entire scenario Chanakya decided that Chandra Guptha is the rightful person to lead the great kingdom of Magada and the right one to dethrone the arrogant king,  he succeeded in this attempt, and Chandra Guptha was one the greatest kings and successful leader.

So, I agree that there are some born leaders.

Coming back to modern times and this question which is very important from a small organisation to a Country, what kind of a leader is needed? And what are the qualities a leader should have?

Selflessness is a crucial quality, amongst others which I feel which matters the most for one to become a leader.

He should lead people in the direction which should assent the purpose or the cause for which he is a leader or was chosen to be.

In the renaissance and reformation which happened in this world across fields like, literature, art and scientific studies, leadership played a pivotal role, because the leader was one among many people who started to think in a new direction, and he also believed in that idea. 

Courtesy google images.

Even though some people were sceptical about it, eventually he made his people believe in his idea and finally, he implemented this change for good and now was accepted as a leader.

Going outright and putting a plan into action takes lot flesh and mind, even at the cost of being condemned by his own, the leader stands high and will follow what is best, which tells us about the next quality which is needed that is foreseeing the future and implementing changes.

A true leader is the one who helps his follower to choose the right path when he forgets his ethics and chooses crossroads.

Irrespective of what species in this world, each group needs a leader, and the success of the group depends on that trailblazer.

Do you know what that one quality is in a leader who makes them unique?

It is selflessness and the pleasure of seeing his group, army, or his team rising high above the horizon.

Now evaluate yourself and see where you stand as a leader and try to become a one and lead your people in a good path towards the horizon and help them achieve new heights.

Equality is to remain, unmoved within all circumstances.

Thanks for your time, have a great day.

Helios

Book review – Mental poisons and antidotes

Hello readers

How are you this evening, hope you are happy and well?

Your mind is full of confidence or fear according to what you put into it.

-DR Joseph Murphy.

Mind, When you hear this word, how do you feel? Do you feel its presence in you, have you ever thought about controlling your mind, I mean to ask you have you considered controlling your thoughts?

I came across this brilliant book, written by one of the greatest psychologists this world has seen, Dr. Joseph Murphy, the title of the book is called “Mental poisons and their antidotes.

I am writing a few great lines I liked in this book.

To begin with, the author in the initial pages describes physical and mental poisons, physical poisonous are those substances if we ingest, will have adverse effects on our organ systems and can lead to bereavement.

Coming to mental poisons, he quotes examples like hate, fear, jealousy, and the reasons these mental poisons create in our minds is due to the continued illness, loss or unhappiness in one’s personal life or his family.

I was impressed by this incident mentioned in this book which happened in Russia, six hypnotised cats and conditioned cats were given cyanide of potassium with no fatal effects! While six other unconditioned animals died, so he concludes if we have the personal power of God within ourselves, we will nullify all deadly poisons, mental and otherwise.

So what is the prophylaxis, stop thinking in the wrong directions, if something negative happens with you so be it, why do we start beating the drum of tears, dissatisfaction and contempt to the whole environment you are living and contaminate it.

The second step would stop being afraid about, arthritis, cancer, heart diseases, diabetes for that matter any disease from this moment.

Your state of mind is your master. It is foolish to let that ignorant, blind, stupid monster fear to push you around and direct your activities.

Don’t let your thoughts bully you when you feel some disease has gripped you, and this thought boasts about itself in your mind with its pseudo-strength and intimidates You, don't let these thoughts bow beat you, fight against it so that your thinking becomes weak feeble and finally forces that bad beliefs leave your body.

This is just a synopsis of the book or you can call it a highlight of it, please go ahead buy this book and read it, you will get some positive energy in this world of negative minded people.

Meditate and pray upon positive and spiritual values, claim your ideal, solution, health or peace of mind upon the basis that the spirit within you is omnipotent and supreme and by thinking your solution or ideal with confidence and faith, you are containing your mind to the answer which you seek.

Thanks for your time, please let me know your thoughts in the comment box.

Helios

Modern mishaps

Hello readers

Hope you all doing well.

True Knowledge is not attained by thinking; it is what you are and what you become.

-Sri Aurobindo Gosh

The rains have recessed in India, but I feel still there will be an aftermath effect of the recent floods in parts of Kerala and Karnataka. I pray for their wellbeing.

Today I wanted to discuss something which is lingering in the corner of my mind from quite some time now.

Have you seen people around you, who have a garden approach towards nature and not a natural one?

I know you are wondering about what I just said, ok let me be a little bit clear when I say garden approach I mean to say some people feel the surroundings of their homes need to have trees and plants well pruned always, not only their households but also their neighbours.!

I am sure you would have come across such people, well am not judgmental here, and I will leave the thinking to you. So here is the instance.

There is a policy of the municipal corporation in Bengaluru which says, for every new house built, the civic body will plant a minimum of one sapling and up to a maximum of 2 seedlings in front of the homes to compromise any chopping down by trees during land development.

Apparently when these plants grow in a span of 10 to 15 years, there will be a periodic shedding of leaves and flowers, and of course, all this is biodegradable and can be used as compost manure for your garden If you do have one.

Here is the problem some people consider this natural process of shedding leaves and flowers as a new sense and make a big a deal about it, and reach the heights of chopping the branches of the trees or sometimes the whole tree itself, do you know who helps them the to accomplish this task? The same municipal Wing which planted these trees.

The question we need ask such great people who want to keep their surroundings "so clean" is that have they realised how much waste they generate on a daily basis from the time they get up until they sleep. Poisoning rivers, which once were flowing with clean and pure water now a city sewer for crores of people?

Stop thinking of nature as a burden, remember you are part of it if tomorrow there are no trees you are history. For all the authorities who believe they can get cheap votes by this type pruning appeasement, it's the biggest shame and the most useless way to get votes.

Please consider options like co-operative compost pits, neighbours should participate in cleaning each other's garden cleaning activities and see how happy you would feel and also will be a physical activity which would help you stay healthy.

Thanks for your time.

Helios.

My Experiments With Fiction - 2.The story of Sarve Laghu and Vishala.

Hello Readers

Hope you all are doing fine today.

I took the time to compose this one because I had put more thinking in framing ad creating my second fictional story. Thanks a lot for all your feedback on the first one, please read it if you have still haven't read it at: http://harishmurthy.blogspot.com/2018/06/my-experiments-with-fiction-1tug-war.html

Now for the story, this one is about a dwarf who wins a challenge with a giant!

Laghu was an elf who lived in a small village called Sarve Laghu Gramaha ( the land of dwarfs)  in ancient India. Even though this was the land of gnomes, there was a land of Giants called Vishala adjacent to Sarve Laghu.

The people of Sarve Laghu were always being mocked by the giants of Vishala for their weak and short stature.

Laghu the Dwarf was unhappy of this mockery and sought revenge on the giants.

But the whole community of the dwarfs were against it because if even one giant would be taunted, he could eat the entire village of the dwarfs in a mouth full.

Mitra was a friend of Laghu who was a giant, so Laghu asked him “what is wrong in being short? Why do people laugh only at us, why not they laugh at you people who are tall and demonic in nature.”

Mitra replied, “my dear Laghu this world always believes in strength, and this strength will protect us from any type of danger that is upcoming, even though Laghu sadly agreed with the giant, but he challenged Mitra that one day there may be a situation where your size and height may prove otherwise for you, and you might regret it”, Mitra laughed it off and accepted the challenge joyfully.

Years passed, Sarve Laghu and Vishala were peaceful and prosperous when the spirits (Gods) decided to play tricks with both of these villages.

Suddenly one morning to the astonishment of both the villages there large pots of Magma lined up on the borders of the towns and mystique voice spoke from the sky.

“Dear Dwarfs and Giants of Sarve Laghu and Vishala you will be tested at the end of this fortnight, and the more brainer amongst you will survive the flood of the fuming lava in these pots, find a way to safeguard yourselves, because at the end of 15th day the pots will be emptied and the lava would flow on your lands like the gushing ocean.”

Hearing this the people of Sarve Laghu were petrified and arranged a meeting to discuss whether to flee from the village or stay back and try to safeguard themselves.

All the younger gnomes sought the advice of the wise men that was very much respected by all.

They gave the following advise “ The spirits are angry with us and hence they have given this challenge, and also they want to see if we have the intellect to protect our motherland, so be it let us work hard to protect our motherland or perish in the effort.”

So they came up with a plan, they decided to start digging deep pits just inside the border of their village before their residing premise so that once the magma has poured in, it would fill the vast quarries and protect the town.

Seeing their plans the Giants of Vishala again laughed at the poor dwarfs and were very proud that no force can destroy them as they were too powerful and even their homes were built of diamonds which is the most active element.

Courtesy Google images.

But Mitra the friend of Laghu was not too sure and condemned the arrogance of the giants and joined the people of Sarve Laghu and decided to help them.

Without worrying about the Giants, the people of Sarve Laghu continued their hard work.

Finally when the fortnight (Paksha) ended. Suddenly the village of Sarve Laghu heard loud screams from a distance near the border they all ran as fast as their legs could carry them, and saw almost all the giants running and confused because of the approaching Magma eating away their homes their cultivation, the Giants finally realized their mistakes and begged the spirits to spare their lives.

The Spirits reappeared and a voice from the firmament stated “The Giants who always made fun of the gnomes, were still proud of their high strength thought they were invincible, on the other hand, all the dwarfs of Sarve Laghu Gramaha united and respected the words of their wise men and prepared to protect their land.

Learn to lead a humble life and remember your intellectual strength is more potent than physical strength, our test has been successfully completed by the Laghu Janaha (people of Sarve Laghu), hence we grant them these pots full of gold, let Sarve Laghu Gramaha Prosper, Mitra and Laghu are matured individuals from both these villages, we bless them with happiness", and so the voice slandered away.

Mitra finally had lost the challenge and congratulated Laghu.

There ends the story.

Dear readers, what we can learn from the other story is that even the greatest of powers can be dethroned in a whisker of a second if someone decides to. Which has been right in the real world as well?

So never be proud of your present state and feel arrogant about it, you might regret it.

There is another valuable lesson is, we need to face life practically and work on the issues which try to pull us down and stand tall on them, there is no use of showing emotions when you encounter a problem.

Truth is the foundation of real spirituality and courage is its soul.

Sri Aurobindo Gosh – Light endless light.

Thanks a lot for your valuable time, India gave the world one of most ancient language that is Sanskrit hence, I decided to use some Sanskrit words in the story, please leave your comments and help me improve.

Helios

My Experiments With Fiction - 1.Tug-a-war

Hello readers

How are you today, well I am dandy, good weather here in Bangalore to be frank very pleasant, Nature is still kind to all Bangaloreans, considering the damage we are doing to flora and fauna, with all the rapid urbanisation and infinite real estate projects!

What is a force, we all know what it is, according to Sir Isaac Newton it is mass multiplied with acceleration? Famously known as F=MA.

There are many forces present in this world, well naming them or explaining them isn't the point of discussion.

I wanted just to raise some questions today and would like to wear your thinking caps and analyse my thoughts.

Let us consider this fictional example, there is this famous fun game going on this stadium called earth located in the milky way galaxy, and the name of this game is called Tug-a-war well, for the people who don’t know about it, it is nothing but a thick and long rope which is given to the participants who are divided into teams asked to stand facing each and the tug-a-war the team which will be able to overpower the latter is the winner.

So in this game of Tug-a-war, on one side we have nature with all the five forces and all the additional physical forces available on this universe, on the other hand, we have all the materials created by us the humans and all the world population of humans considering that no one envies anyone.

So what do you think, whom do you think will win this game? Well, let me give you some highlights about what happened, in the first half it seemed to be the team humans who were pulling it their way with their tricks, like using all their modern gadgets to gain more and more strength.

But the second half just turned the tables with the team nature just draining all the opponents' team strength by using a simple strategy.

Do you know what their strategy was?

Mr Wind, who is part of the 5 forces just realised if there is no air, how can these humans breath, so he stopped creating atmosphere! Mr fire decided just to burn all the bulldozers and the cranes used by the humans.

So team nature is a winner!

source:http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/File:Butterfly_having_a_tug_of_war_S2E22.png Courtesy: google images source:http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/File:Butterfly_having_a_tug_of_war_S2E22.png Courtesy: google images

Dear friends this story which I created, is one of my experiments on writing fiction stories which I have started as working on recently, but by knowing you would have got the message which I tried to crimp in the above story.

We are playing an oblivious game to be precise, and thinking we will survive the mishaps and disasters we are creating each day and trying to crumble nature and natural resources and the environment we are living.

Beware the tug-a-war game was won even before it began! Yes, we all are living today because of nature’s mercy on us, imagine if the molecular structure of water changes! We are history.

Our tasks are given, we are but instruments; nothing is all our own that we create.

Sri Aurobindo Gosh – Light endless light.

Please try with maximum effort to save whatever is left, let us be grateful to this whole system for sustaining us.

Thanks for your time.

Helios