Folkways

 Hello Readers

 Hope you are doing fine.

 I have the highest respect for the concept of 'Advait' - the oneness of all humans - that is central to Indian culture, thought, and religion.

-Rajkumar Hirani

 From planning weekend outings to settling at home is what we have settled in for.

 Well, time and situations change us.

 Wanted to write about culture today, well a simple thing to discuss yet is so vast and ancient.

 According to the oxford dictionary, the customs and beliefs, art, way of life, and social organization of a country or group is culture.

 Why should we even consider culture as an essential aspect of our life?

 We all would have realized by this time; we are the SumTotal of the environment we are born and brought up.

 There is no way to prove it; actually, it is habitual that we learn to live by imbibing how our surroundings treat us. We understand the mechanism of how it works!

 Indian Culture

 The Indian culture I feel is one of the unique cultures in the world.

 There is a misconception where we think culture is related to religions and rituals.

 Absolutely not it is a way of life.

 Culture is the etiquette which have flown to us from generations to generations, from a simple "Namaste" to not wearing footwear to certain places, to bowing to the sun each morning, treating trees and animals as divine all comes in our culture.

 There was a time before the Macaulay era when Indians were attending free schools called "Gurukuls"  the highest preference was given to values, Then to the education in various fields, well that changed into learning education which would help the invaders to get their job done.

 Yet our culture was not totally touched by them.

 Culture of a country is its heritage we can see that etched in stones in the famous temples, with the beautiful stone carvings, in our dance, art, our dressing sense, handicrafts, handlooms and so on.

 When we visit temples, maybe because we are in the schedule, we finish seeing the significant places in the temple and continue with our trip.

 But if we try to spend time in the temple, and observe the carvings,  what you actually see there is our culture, how they lead the life in that era, starting from agriculture, trade commerce, wars, literature and art, epics in simple words an encyclopedia of those times.

 Therefore, for the people who think culture is just rituals and is about religion, it is not appropriate to say that it is about mannerisms, etiquette, the societal behavior and our present-ability of families.

 The Depletion

No doubt we have all moved on from an elementary life to a modern living lifestyle.

 The Orthodontic influence on us is also pretty evident, which is inevitable I would say, history says it all, we were invaded we were transformed. Some part of that transformation was for good, so I am fine till there.

 But I have one question, If there is a rose plant, which grows naturally, then a gardener trims and shapes the plant and maybe adds  some good fertilizers, but the essential nature that it is a rose plant and it has thorns and it bears the flowers which we call roses don't change right?

 Whichever country you are living today wherever you go and do what you like, why don't we remember that our origin is from your homeland and you started the first lessons of your life here and keep our culture intact?

 Every country and its culture are precious to the people of that particular country.

 But the zillion dollar question is that are we proud about our culture.

 Are you ready to stand for it and , preserve and teach to your future generations, or you just want to mix yourself like chemicals changing colours when some external indicators  are added to it and become something entirely different which you are not?

 Please sit for a while and think over, we ought to preserve the precious Indian culture, and our future generations should carry this lamp.

 

Courtesy google images

 

The Vedas, the Natyashastra (the art of dancing), Arthashastra (economic theories), Ayurveda (natural medicine), Vastushastra (the science of architecture), I mean the list endless.

 I leave you with these thoughts, please retrospect.

 Thanks for your time. Have a great week ahead.

 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

Modern Leaning

Hello Reader

Hope you are okay today.

Altruism, duty, family, country, humanity are the prisons of the soul when they are not its instruments.

-Sri Aurobindo

I was thinking about some new topics to discuss today.

let me tell you what was in my mind: the first one I wanted to write was about: cyber-dyne with an artificial intelligence theme the name is taken from James Cameron’s fictitious company which produces computer chips which are deployed into terminator androids which would replace humans, that's for later; I changed my mind and thought I should write about trends this time around.

What is a trend? It is nothing, but what people follow or the waves of appreciation is going towards a particular theme of music, art or sport, the latest trend of fashion and so on.

Is this world driven by trends, yes of course! We all live in a trending world.

So what are the latest trends that you follow?  First on the list would be your clothing? Supported by technology especially your cell phone, which you always want it to be at its edge and updated.

Who sets these trends? Celebrities? Of course yes they are the most successful and appealing in the marketing industry, we buy what they promote and automatically develop that brand preference and loyalty.

I agree that following trends is like the stock market sometimes there would be a buying trend which supersedes the selling trend and the rest of the time vice-versa.

Ok, that  was about the commercial trends let us talk about some other type of patterns, for example, your ideas of a healthy society, if you try to record it on a sheet of paper in a survey mode certain criteria’s you would come across points like what are the views of an individual to make it a better society? How can we think proactively to improve the systems working around us? how can you make our country corruption free?

Even though many of us may be apprehensive about the ideas which I discussed in the previous paragraph and say these are not trends but as an opinion and ideas which need great implementation, so be it, because my motive here is for you to get the idea of what I am trying to convey.

It is essential to discuss this because I see a very vague kind of living among us the gen y or the youth or known by several names, we are wasting too much time fan following celebrities fashion trends the immediate example that is striking me now is the IPL!

I agree that I don’t like the concept of sportspersons being sold to big business tycoons like horses! in the name of cricket, and now if you see cricket well it is no more the cricket the beautiful game I knew which involved skill and perseverance. It is just smashing the ball all around the ground like some artificial batting machine and also it is commercialised to the core I truly feel the spirit of the game is gone, some people say it is entertainment but I fail to agree because it more or less looks like a social media relief for social media addicts who want their selfies to be posted on the internet!

I may be a critic or one amongst hundred who does not like the idea of this level of commercialisation in any sport for that matter.

At least I appreciated when they came up with the idea of Indian football league, hockey league and Kabaddi league, as these sports do not have so much recognition in India, even though Kabaddi and hockey is an original game of India.

Why can't we think of methods to uplift our Olympic participant count?

The IPL example is just one example there many examples like these, where we waste too much of our productive time.

So my dear readers please try to follow better trends which would add value to yourself and also our country, try to analyse the political situation of the nation, think what can be your contribution to make the situation a better one, come out of the smartphone cubicle and walk to a library and start reading books and understand India as broad as possible.

let us not be the cult of ignorance!

Please remember all types of freedoms we are enjoying today, we have got it at the cost of sacrifices of millions of people, and they sacrificed thinking and hoping that India will have a better future, let us make their aspiration come true, let us make our modern leanings in the right direction.

Thanks for your time, hope you liked this blog.

Hey, this is 200th blog. I thank all my dear readers for all your support, comments and feedback.

Helios.

Mistreatment of impeccability

Hello reader

There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.

-Denis Waitley

Good day! This blog is actually one among my life experiences, and what I have learned and understood by looking around.The time which we are living today has depleted when compared to the value systems which we had some 20 years ago, even though I am not denying the fact that even at that time there were some black spots, now those spots have changed into a cluster.

There is this famous saying “when money is lost something is lost, but when character lost everything is lost” now I hear sometimes on corporate meetings or you know in satire comedy shows, “If the character is lost nothing is lost, but if money is lost everything is lost!”.

Where are we heading? is there still anything called innocence left? Has everyone become smart in an evil way and aimed at only materialism?

You know this psychology which is going on in India, well not only India even the rest of the world there is a significant increase in materialism and character paralysis which is an epidemic.

What is character paralysis? it is according to me compromising too much of his own self for the sake of society or people or jobs or so on.

But there is a new culture which has come up I would like to call it the art of making people work for you the way it would work out and finally when all that was wanted is done just trashing them like a used tissue.

How many of you have experienced this? I would say yes! If you take a crowd of 100 people I am sure at least 50% of the people would have gone through this.

You would have met this colleague or your classmate who suddenly becomes very close to you and you would also like spending time with him or her and then the list of help and requests begins and finally one day you would realize that unfortunately you were taken advantage of and feel bad about it, when already that person would be already preying on his or her  next victim.

If any of you reading this blog have come across such situations, people and were victims to this cheap act,  do not feel bad  because the person who was responsible would one day again end up with someone more smarter than he or she might  also become victims some other day so do not feel bad, life is a wheel so its only matter of spinning.

Before I end what do we get in becoming parasites on somebody or manipulating someone for our own gains?  this will eventually lead to remorse when all the strength in your body has decreased and you need someone to help you. Live true to your heart take account of how you live, I am not here to ask you to set examples but expect you to maintain a minimum decorum.

Thanks for your time let me know your views in the comment box.

Helios

Care

Hello reader

This is apparently the last blog for 2017. A new year brings new hope to us and lets us make the best out of it.

The word “care” is very important in our lives.

The origin of this word is actually from nature, you know we all would  not have existed without the care of nature it has helped us to survive and protected us and helped to evolve and here we are today the homosepians “tagged as the most intelligent species in the world”.

Life is a bucket of experiences if your bucket is empty it means you are still inexperienced and you need to fill your bucket so that you can wash the dirt and clean your car of mistakes and transform it into the sparkling automobile of hope and positivity.

When I compare other species with our own, we are too much dependent on our parents for a longer period, than animals who are pushed out of their families to lead an independent life and the newborns build their own families and this cycle continues.

With the idea of civilization, the possibilities for survival are infinite and that is the reason we have sustained our lives so well and marked footprints on the moon.But at the same time we marked some dark footprints on our own earth by becoming too selfish and going on just rampantly extinguishing lives and ecosystems in the name of agriculture, urbanisation, well I agree I am hypocritical here as even I am no cave man who is living in some lonely jungle doing minimum harm to environment, but at least I try not to over-exploit nature.

Why is care so much necessary in this modern society? Actually, it is one of the most important aspects that is needed today.

Have we realized there is a reason behind why criminals are existent why people end up in making a life of darkness and enjoy sadism?

The true responsibility of a parent is not to fulfill the wants of their children it is actually understanding their desires and helping them  to achieve their dreams  rather than following the prototype or the stereotypical way of living  in phases.

What care can do is actually amazing it builds a bond which can never be broken, if you love your child without expecting any results, that child will always grow to be the most mature individual according to me, because he feels so secure and does things at free well, which will help create wonders.

There are numerous stories where there lived great people , but their childhood was bad or sometimes ill-treated by parents.for them I would bow in respect because , they were s9 futuristic and they learn the meaning off their lives at a tender age.

But we forget that they would have had some guardian angels who always were there to help them and keep their hopes flying high.

The soldiers who protect this nation day in and day out without any break, that is care they take care of all our mothers, only because they consider their country as a mother,according to me they are the true sanyasis' of this time they are true karma yogis.

Let us try to take care of people around us and be their beam of hope.

Trust is like paper once it is crumbled, it can never be perfect.

-Anonymous

thanks for your time, have a great day and  a fabulous year ahead.

Helios.

Sanguineness

Hello Readers

Hope you all are doing well.

The tragedy in life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.

 - Benjamin Mays

Recently I observed something new, this is for all my dear readers who like animals, what I observed is that animals are way more smarter than us and they have good gauging power and choose whom to go and ask help, here I mean like a treat or shelter . 

I am amazed by this whole system of nature and admire each and every animal which lives each day with its own skills, remember we are a  by product of many species which have survived in hard times.

Focusing on my topic for today I would like to discuss about hope.

I know I have quoted dialogue of this  great movie called “ Shawshank Redemption” many times which is also my all-time favorite , there is a conversation about hope in the movie, which is actually brilliant.

The instance his simple, Brooks a prisoner who had served 50 years of a life sentence was finally released, even though he tries to make it on the outside he will eventually end up committing suicide , this popular phenomenon in the 50s in the prisons of UK and US was called a prison sickness or “Institutionalization” which is  been protriated.

Another scene in the movie shows how Andy the hero of the movie has an argument with his buddy Red when he contents Andy  about  the word “hope” where he says it is a dangerous thing and it make a man go crazy . But the movie ends in a happy note or an anti climax  where Red accepts that hope is indeed a wonderful thing.

There is so much truth in what was shown in that in that movie, do you know we are here today living this life with a hope in mind? and even though we might not buy the idea of hope, it is hope which we makes us do what all we do .

Healing : do you know this is a natural process but if you again look into it heals a wound bringing you a hope.

A mother raises her kids in the hope of giving them a better life than her own,  a person who paints hopes to become a Picasso one day.

For animals carrying on the generation is the only hope to see its progeny in the ecosystem.

Yes I feel hopefulness is a very important way of looking at life, the moment that hopefulness is lost in you I think that is when we may lose the purpose of our living.

The waves of hope on  a drifted sea should raise along with the currents and travel to the beach which should be your mind which should be an energy of refreshment.

Do you know even sleep is considered as a hope given to you by nature so that you can think afresh the next day, and rise up with new hope.

Always live in hope and believe in positive sub-consiousness .

Thanks for your time. Have a great weekend ahead.