Upturned pot?

"Duryodhan is an upturned pot. There is enough room for water. But there is no opening for water" - Bheeshma lamenting the fact that Duryodhan is not open for good advice. This goes for anyone I guess.

That child's face

It's 3 AM. Woke up from a dream with a little girl's face haunting me. Usually my dreams are all over the place with no sense, no connection from one scene to the other (editor of dreams will not get a job anywhere). I don't even bother trying to remember. But this one made me get out of my bed and write this post as it wouldn't let me sleep. 

I was in a room with couple of random people from my life and 2 more intruders.  While these intruders are checking something, I slowly go into the next room, wake up my brother and ask him to call 911. I then slowly slip back into the room and close the door pretending as if nothing happened.  Then this small girl character appears who is about 8-9 yrs old. She is very shabbily dressed looking like she hasn't showered in weeks. She opens the door and walks into the other room. Afraid that the intruders will notice my brother calling 911, I quickly pull her in and close the door. She does this again and walks little bit further into the room. I once again hurriedly get her and close the door.  But the 3rd time she goes further to a shelf and gets a piece of paper with her.  I quickly pull her back into the room and ask her not to go into that room again.  She then shows me that paper. It has some numbers with flowers etc.  Then someone tells me that is the paper she learnt multiplications using flowers etc and she didn't want to lose it. 

That little girl's face is haunting me - her zeal to learn, the way she tried to save that piece of paper. 

I wonder how many kids are out there in this world waiting to learn more. If only we all can adopt a child, a school and provide them this basic necessity in life. 

That child's face is chipped in my brain now. 

దత్తత మీద మళ్ళీ.....

ఆ మధ్య దత్తత తీసుకోటం మీద ఒక పోస్ట్ రాశాను.

కొన్ని రోజుల క్రితం Sushmita Sen ఇంకో పాపని దత్తత తీసుకున్నది అని చదివాను. ఎంత గొప్ప హృదయం. మళ్ళి ఇవాళ 'ఆకాశమంత' సినిమా చూశాను. అందులో కూడ ఒక ఫామిలీ ఒక పాపని దత్తత తీసుకుంటారు. ఇవి చదివినాక Follow up లాగ ఇది రాయాలి అనిపించింది.

అందరం ఒక బాబునో పాపనో దత్తత తీసుకుంటే ఈ ప్రపంచంలో ఎంత మార్పు వస్తదో కద?

Eco-friendly India

India has been eco-friendly for a long time.

I remember the days when we would go to grocery shops in my small town to get rice, lentils etc. He would pack them in newspapers and give it to us. Now these trendy super markets came in and we get everything in pre-packed plastic bags that harm our existence in long run.

We use buckets in our bathrooms and not showers and save lot of water. 

Why did Draupadi end up with 5 husbands?

I was watching BR Chopra's Mahabharata and this was an interesting episode for multiple reasons. Here I would like to give a breakup of the incidents and Krishna's explanation for each of those.

Note that we can learn something from each of his comments.

1. When Arjuna and Bheema bring Draupadi home after the Swayamvaram, they tell Kunti playfully that they brought alms.

Krishna: Comparing a woman to alms is an insult to the woman hood. And it's completely unacceptable.

2. Then Kunti, without even looking behind what her sons brought, says, share it equally amongst you brothers.

Krishna tells Kunti that it is irresponsible on her part to give an advise without even understanding completely what she is talking about. Nice ha?

3. And here comes the good part. Krishna explains why Draupadi ended up with 5 husbands. In her previous birth, she prays to Lord Shiva asking for a husband who is 'truthful', 'mighty', 'courageous', 'handsome' and 'patient'. Since it's difficult to get all these qualities in 1 person, she ended up with 5 different persons.

Lesson: Be reasonable in what you expect from your other half. You cannot find everything in 1 person. :). A lesson for each and every one.

There is more, but you should watch the series. It's amazing. I just love it. You get to take away something nice from each episode.

Why does Krishna save Draupadi..

When Draupadi is being insulted by Dushasan in Hastinapur court, Krishna saves her by providing sarees. Apart from being his sister, there is another reason he does it.

During Rajasuya Yagam, Sishupal commits 100 mistakes by insulting elders and brings his own death upon him. Keeping his promise to Sishupal's mother, Krishan forgives him for these 100 mistakes and then kills him with his Sudarshan Chakra. After killing Sishupal, the Chakra returns to Krishna but hurts his finger. Draupadi immediately comes to Krishna, rips a part of her saree and ties it to Krishna's finger. He appreciates this and tells her he is debted to her. He clears his debt by providing saress to Draupadi later when she is being insulted by Dushasan.

On a side note, that whole episode of Draupadi vasthra apaharan is so shameful. May be I will write about it in another post.

Listen...

"Gambling blunts the intelligence of the loser. He keeps on playing to regain what he has lost. He does not know when to stop playing. The same thing happens to the winning player too. In his greed for winning, he forgets where the game should end. Both violate the very code of gambling. " This is what Vidur says to Drithrashtra when he asks Vidur about his opinion on inviting Yudhishtar to Hastinapur to play dice with Duryodhan. He clearly says that playing dice amongst brothers is not right. But then Drithrashtra orders him to go to Indraprasth and invite Yudhishtar personally to play dice. Vidur in a disappointed tone says "if you have already decided to write the last chapter of Kuru history, then I will obey you and go to Indraprasth".

Few things to learn from here.

• Don't let your love for your children blind your decisions on what is right or wrong
• When you do know that someone's judgement can be trusted based on his knowledge and experience and you yourself are not sure about your own judgement, listen to that person.