a common man ಸಂಜಯ

Category: info

  • book: The Story of My Experiments With Truth

    Yesterday I went to this bookstall waiting for my sister to pick up some book, and as I strolled through casually glancing at the books, one of the books I passed was My Experiments With Truth… the autobiography by Gandhi. I continued to stroll through and then remembered that a friend had strongly recommended it. Though I thought probably I might not be interested… in the first place, I have never read anybody’s autobiography till now. And in this case, it would probably be related to politics (not my cup of tea) or something like that. But anyway I went back and picked it up and randomly opened some page.

    What I read really gripped me… I had never expected Gandhi’s autobiography to be that interesting!! I flipped through few more chapters, and the simplicity of the man really floored me! His way of thinking is truly excellent!! I bought that book and read a lot of it yesterday night, the chapters were almost like a collection of short stories. I did not feel that I had to read them in strict sequence, though I eventually started doing that.

    He has written so candidly about his everyday life! I expected the book to be about some saintly idealistic man, but he has written about his mistakes as openly as his achievements. He is such an ordinary man that I am sure each of us who reads his book will find many things in common with him. It showed that “greatness” is not a switch that God switched on in case of
    Gandhi… it is very much internal to each of us, just that we need to identify these qualities and focus on strengthening them. No doubt that the difficult part is having the courage and determination to stand for them inspite of circumstances. But that again IMO is not just a switch that can be turned On one fine day, its a matter of time.

    As if to highlight the simplicity, the book cost only Rs. 30. 🙂

    Btw, there are many people who strongly believe that India wouldve been much better off without Gandhi, and others who believe the opposite. I havent done enough historical analysis to argue for either side, but you can surely benefit from this book independent of that debate.

    I dont plan to finish it in a hurry, so thats why I didn’t wait to completely read it before posting this. Anyway, I felt whatever I’ve read already itself is worth mentioning in a post. (I also came across the chapter which was there in my school textbook 🙂 ).

    See also: Mahatma Gandhi Archive & Library

  • close encounter of the worst kind

    > The Rudrabhisheka went well. Sanju I wonder why the priest
    > kept calling you putta. Poor guy needed all the help he
    > could get. Amma, Vimi and Lali behind him shouting
    > instructions.

    Hey that was only in the final part when I was standing… I suddenly got confused because everybody started giving me instructions at the same time. But until then I was sitting on the floor… man my legs went all numb and painful, the only thing I could do was to just view it as pain and not as “my” pain, and then atleast it did not increase after that. But there was one part where I had to eat a piece of banana… I tried to ignore the fact that “I” have hated bananas all my life, and put it in my mouth, and swallowed it. But unfortunately it didn’t go further than my oesophagus… my whole system started a reverse persitalisis. I tried to fight it, I tried to ask someone for water but nobody could guess what I was saying, so the only thing I could do was take a ten second break to the bathroom. Later on there was another situation… and I decided it was not the time to experiment and asked if somebody could eat it on my behalf… they said no… but I was excused. [my previous close encounter with a banana is at
    the end of this mail, if u like]

    ——

    close encounter of the worst kind

    Thatha always used to tell me… “Why do u hate bananas so much? Eat it I say, let me see what will happen”. I used to promptly reply “I will throw up” and he used to say “its ok, throw up… so what… after that what will happen… find out”. That was an interesting point, but my hatred had exceeded my curiosity.

    Around a couple of months ago, I could finally muster the courage to heed his words. I sat and slowly confronted my worst enemy – a banana. I sat in a quiet place in the office at lunchtime. I peeled it.

    (more…)

  • book: Jonathan Livingstone Seagull

    You are sure to love this book. Even if you don’t have the habit of reading, nor the time or inclination… I still strongly recommend that as an exception… you read this one book:

    Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach

    Its a very small book, but has a lightning bolt packed in it. It dosent have any “moral of the story” or something like that… but can be interpreted in many many ways.

    Incidentally, the first time I came across the book, I flipped through a few pages and felt bored thinking “oh I know what hes probably going to talk about” and put it down and forgot about it.

    I later came across a short story…

    A university professor visited a Japanese Zen master to enquire about Zen.

    It was obvious to the master from the start that the professor was not so much interested in learning Zen as he was in impressing the master with his own opinions and knowledge. The master listened patiently, and finally suggested they have tea.

    The master poured the visitor’s cup to the brim, and then kept on pouring.

    The professor watched the overflowing cup until he could no longer restrain himself.

    “It’s overfull! No more will go in!” the professor blurted.

    “Like this cup,” the master said, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup.”

    Though the short story above talks about learning “Zen”, I guess the same could apply to learning anything.

    I eventually happened to come across the book again. This time, I “emptied myself” and read the book, and the sheer brilliance gripped me for the next one hour, and I think many of the points will remain in my mind for a very long time.

    Later update:

    One of the many applications of this book is in software development – it started a long chain of thoughts in my mind in this regard, which I wrote as a story.