Prayers, meditation, chanting, singing hymns, etc are means of calming the mind.
When mind is calm, we sleep well at night.
When we sleep well, we get refreshed both in body and mind.
When the mind is disturbed, we may not be able to fall asleep as easily.
We may have laboured away hard physically, yet if the mind is also stressed, we find difficulty in falling asleep.
Sleeping is another form of deep meditation where the entire self is resting with minimum activity in continuing to breathe and maybe dreaming a little.
Since all these are inter-related, it is so important for us to rest our mind and body every 14 to 16 hours in a day, depending on how long we usually sleep.
I have watched men labor at real hard work for 8 to 10 hours in various places. I have noticed them (without exception) visiting the roadside bars selling cheap liqour towards dusk, whether or not they have sufficient money to buy the groceries for their families back home.
Have often wondered about this phenomenon. Have come to the conclusion that their muscles and limbs may be aching due to constant labor at work.
Contrary to belief that we will sleep well after a hard day's labor, they might need an external element to refresh their body for the next day's work, meaning they can labour away the next day after their body is well-rested.
Most of the labor force work for daily wages and the need to report to work the next day becomes their necessity if they have to put food on the table. Whether they put food on the table or not they need to drink to forget their bodily aches. It is like an instant gratification.
With time the equation gets reversed!
In the beginning, they need work to survive and need their daily drinks or stuff to forget bodily pain from such hard labor.
Later they need their daily drinks so they need to work for it!!
It's a vicious cycle from which there is no escape when drinking becomes an addiction, whether or not they have work for the day! This is the way a whole family gets affected due to one person's addiction to something.
One is bound to ask what about mental stress. To escape mental stress many take to such addictive habits.
Moderation is the key to balance oneself for everything be it prayers, meditation, chanting, getting used to intoxication. Yes even prayers and meditation which does our minds and bodies so much good, should be done in moderation only, otherwise they too become obsessions.
Look at the wonderful organ called stomach. It can contain only a certain amount of food when we are hungry or ready to eat. Such should be our need for props to calm our mind, body and soul.
Mahalakshmi.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Monday, December 13, 2010
The Power Of Prayers
It cannot be denied that a chant, a prayer, a hymn does have a power over our physical well-being and not just our mental well-being.
Prayers or chanting in any form heals our minds.
When the mind is calm, collected and diverted away from mundane matters, prayers act as a balm for the wounds of the mind. When the mind heals, so does our body. Our aches and pains tend to take a back seat. We recover ourselves faster this way. The obsession for the bodily and mental pains translates into obsession for chanting something positive or spiritual according to the religious beliefs of each person.
If the person does not believe in matters spiritual, he or she could still benefit with some simple phrases like, "There is a way out of all this", "Yes I Can, Yes I Will, "I Will Overcome This Situation", ..." etc. whatever one fancies depending on the problem at hand. We should also realise that when we are doing something new, it does absorb our time and attention, so we must allow ourselves to soak in for some time with that. With time the mind would have overgrown that euphoria too.
I have doubted the power of prayers in my younger days yet that's what helped me most when I was much stressed. Stress manifests into physical discomfort within no time has been my personal observation.
However, the mind has to be strong enough not to get into more problems due to someone who may take this as an opportunity to fleece our time and money leading us to more misery.
Certainly we need a shoulder to cry on. Follow good advice or cousel. Remember we alone can take decisions to solve our personal problems with as little help as possible from others.
No one else can solve our problems for us, we have to do that ourselves. When we look to others to do that for us, it could be short lived, it could be unnecessary dependance on another person who may or may not show the same interest in solving our problems for us, consistently. Moreover, in modern times, who has this kind of time for others!
Ask yourself if you cannot do that for yourself. We are our best well-wishers, so better start utilizing our own services for our own good!
I am putting this in black and white because people who come for such counselling tend to look for all kinds of quick fixes from the counsellor without trying anything on their own for mitigating their problems. One has to go through to learn how to come out of some painful situations. No one will do the hand-holding for us for long. Not forever, at least.
Thank God we have ourselves to help! Arise, awake and get cracking on your problems but do choose the positive path, though it may not offer us instant relief.
Remember it takes time to get into problems, so it takes time to recover from them too.
Time is great healer.
Soon all will be well and we will wonder we ever went through those horrowing times.
Cheers!
Mahalakshmi.
Prayers or chanting in any form heals our minds.
When the mind is calm, collected and diverted away from mundane matters, prayers act as a balm for the wounds of the mind. When the mind heals, so does our body. Our aches and pains tend to take a back seat. We recover ourselves faster this way. The obsession for the bodily and mental pains translates into obsession for chanting something positive or spiritual according to the religious beliefs of each person.
If the person does not believe in matters spiritual, he or she could still benefit with some simple phrases like, "There is a way out of all this", "Yes I Can, Yes I Will, "I Will Overcome This Situation", ..." etc. whatever one fancies depending on the problem at hand. We should also realise that when we are doing something new, it does absorb our time and attention, so we must allow ourselves to soak in for some time with that. With time the mind would have overgrown that euphoria too.
I have doubted the power of prayers in my younger days yet that's what helped me most when I was much stressed. Stress manifests into physical discomfort within no time has been my personal observation.
However, the mind has to be strong enough not to get into more problems due to someone who may take this as an opportunity to fleece our time and money leading us to more misery.
Certainly we need a shoulder to cry on. Follow good advice or cousel. Remember we alone can take decisions to solve our personal problems with as little help as possible from others.
No one else can solve our problems for us, we have to do that ourselves. When we look to others to do that for us, it could be short lived, it could be unnecessary dependance on another person who may or may not show the same interest in solving our problems for us, consistently. Moreover, in modern times, who has this kind of time for others!
Ask yourself if you cannot do that for yourself. We are our best well-wishers, so better start utilizing our own services for our own good!
I am putting this in black and white because people who come for such counselling tend to look for all kinds of quick fixes from the counsellor without trying anything on their own for mitigating their problems. One has to go through to learn how to come out of some painful situations. No one will do the hand-holding for us for long. Not forever, at least.
Thank God we have ourselves to help! Arise, awake and get cracking on your problems but do choose the positive path, though it may not offer us instant relief.
Remember it takes time to get into problems, so it takes time to recover from them too.
Time is great healer.
Soon all will be well and we will wonder we ever went through those horrowing times.
Cheers!
Mahalakshmi.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Floating On A Cloud
We get a feeling of floating on a cloud when we are onto something which we are doing with our whole heart and passion. The things happening and people around us become secondary, meaning we continue doing our routine work but our thoughts are in the new passion.
Many years back, when I was into learning the Lalitha Sahasranamam by heart, I had this heady feeling. There are about 1001 names of the divine Mother plus the opening and closing lines invoking her blessings.
My mother would always put on the tape of the Lalitha Sahasranamam sung so wonderfully by the Bombay Sisters, Saroja and Lalitha. If I sing it, I owe it to my mother for playing it loud at home and the Bomaby Sisters for singing it so beautifully. They are all my gurus.
This composition has a lot of ragas which I may not be able to identify by names, yet the tune got embedded in my mind long before I had the opportunity to learn the divine names. Meaning the tune floated without my being too keen on the lyrics all the years in the past.
All that changed when my elder sister from Chicago told me of how powerful singing this hymn really is. That was a period of a lot of confusion for me from all around. My mind was full of thoughts of solving some very pressing problems which involved major decisions all on my own. Those were hard times and the mind was clogged with doubts, fear, confusion, fate, futility of all actions, etc.
This divine song was recommended by my sister as a remedy for showing me the right path.
She also joked that Goddess Kamatchi is the CEO and we have to ask help and SHE will oblige.
I grabbed at it like the last straw for a drowning me. My sister had bought a tape and a book for me to follow. When I put on the tape it sounded all too familiar due to my mother listening to it for years together, without fail each Friday and each day of the navaratri and here I was blissfully unaware that this was Lalitha Sahasranamam indeed!
I knew the tune by heart and all I had to do was to follow the text to fit the tune.
Due to power cuts which Chennai was famous for during those years, I thought memorising the whole hymn would make me less dependent on the vagaries of power supply so I went about memorising it. What bliss I found during the week that I tried this divine exercise. I could sing much of it without the book by about a week of starting.
Later I honed it by singing it every single day, anytime, anywhere as I am reasonably fair singer.
Without my being aware, my mind was kept away from my struggles for some time, though I was very much with the problem. The mind had got a powerful diversion from the pending problem. With time the problem got solved smoothly.
Is it the power of Lalitha Sahasranamam, I wonder. It is something much more than that.
The mind needs a mantra, a chant or anything to divert us from our everyday work which has to go on and cannot be stopped for any reason.
It is this diversion which makes the mind calmer.
If the diversion is of a harmless nature like chanting a mantra then the mind reaps tons of benefit.
Should the diversion be like going to a bar to have a swig or two, going out to see any movie, smoking, doing stuff, then it gives the mind a high of a different kind, yet it leads to more problems to not only us but others around us too. Both are addictive yet there's a subtle difference in them. Choosing mind diversions wisely is the key word.
The passion with which I would wait to get back to singing the hymn would make others around me think I am out of my mind, yet I forgot all about my earthly problems for some time.
This is what mantras or chanting divine names actually does to a mind, whether troubled or not. The other day I had the time and opportunity to watch on youtube, MS Subbalakshmi amma singing the popular Tamil song "Kurai Onrum Illai.." What a blissful state she was in while singing it. It was like she was unaware of the entire audience in front of her. The bhakti comes through and we forget the voice, the tone, the raga, the accompaniments. Its the bhakti(divine) and the bhava (passionate expression) which takes us away into some higher state of divine bliss.
Our minds need some diversion in the form of mantras always.
It may be anything: Ram-Ram; Allah-Allah; Jesus; Narayana, Shiva-Shiva or Jai Mata Di. It will take our troubled minds away from the problem. When we cut our thoughts off our pressing earthly problems and return back later to think about it, we see it in a different perspective, we get leads to solve it in ways other than what we thought was the best way.
Stepping back from time to time with everyday work is good for a troubled mind to heal itself. A peaceful and refreshed mind is better able to solve issues in a peaceful and balanced way.
Jai Mata Di!
Mahalakshmi.
Many years back, when I was into learning the Lalitha Sahasranamam by heart, I had this heady feeling. There are about 1001 names of the divine Mother plus the opening and closing lines invoking her blessings.
My mother would always put on the tape of the Lalitha Sahasranamam sung so wonderfully by the Bombay Sisters, Saroja and Lalitha. If I sing it, I owe it to my mother for playing it loud at home and the Bomaby Sisters for singing it so beautifully. They are all my gurus.
This composition has a lot of ragas which I may not be able to identify by names, yet the tune got embedded in my mind long before I had the opportunity to learn the divine names. Meaning the tune floated without my being too keen on the lyrics all the years in the past.
All that changed when my elder sister from Chicago told me of how powerful singing this hymn really is. That was a period of a lot of confusion for me from all around. My mind was full of thoughts of solving some very pressing problems which involved major decisions all on my own. Those were hard times and the mind was clogged with doubts, fear, confusion, fate, futility of all actions, etc.
This divine song was recommended by my sister as a remedy for showing me the right path.
She also joked that Goddess Kamatchi is the CEO and we have to ask help and SHE will oblige.
I grabbed at it like the last straw for a drowning me. My sister had bought a tape and a book for me to follow. When I put on the tape it sounded all too familiar due to my mother listening to it for years together, without fail each Friday and each day of the navaratri and here I was blissfully unaware that this was Lalitha Sahasranamam indeed!
I knew the tune by heart and all I had to do was to follow the text to fit the tune.
Due to power cuts which Chennai was famous for during those years, I thought memorising the whole hymn would make me less dependent on the vagaries of power supply so I went about memorising it. What bliss I found during the week that I tried this divine exercise. I could sing much of it without the book by about a week of starting.
Later I honed it by singing it every single day, anytime, anywhere as I am reasonably fair singer.
Without my being aware, my mind was kept away from my struggles for some time, though I was very much with the problem. The mind had got a powerful diversion from the pending problem. With time the problem got solved smoothly.
Is it the power of Lalitha Sahasranamam, I wonder. It is something much more than that.
The mind needs a mantra, a chant or anything to divert us from our everyday work which has to go on and cannot be stopped for any reason.
It is this diversion which makes the mind calmer.
If the diversion is of a harmless nature like chanting a mantra then the mind reaps tons of benefit.
Should the diversion be like going to a bar to have a swig or two, going out to see any movie, smoking, doing stuff, then it gives the mind a high of a different kind, yet it leads to more problems to not only us but others around us too. Both are addictive yet there's a subtle difference in them. Choosing mind diversions wisely is the key word.
The passion with which I would wait to get back to singing the hymn would make others around me think I am out of my mind, yet I forgot all about my earthly problems for some time.
This is what mantras or chanting divine names actually does to a mind, whether troubled or not. The other day I had the time and opportunity to watch on youtube, MS Subbalakshmi amma singing the popular Tamil song "Kurai Onrum Illai.." What a blissful state she was in while singing it. It was like she was unaware of the entire audience in front of her. The bhakti comes through and we forget the voice, the tone, the raga, the accompaniments. Its the bhakti(divine) and the bhava (passionate expression) which takes us away into some higher state of divine bliss.
Our minds need some diversion in the form of mantras always.
It may be anything: Ram-Ram; Allah-Allah; Jesus; Narayana, Shiva-Shiva or Jai Mata Di. It will take our troubled minds away from the problem. When we cut our thoughts off our pressing earthly problems and return back later to think about it, we see it in a different perspective, we get leads to solve it in ways other than what we thought was the best way.
Stepping back from time to time with everyday work is good for a troubled mind to heal itself. A peaceful and refreshed mind is better able to solve issues in a peaceful and balanced way.
Jai Mata Di!
Mahalakshmi.
Asking For Help
At one time or the other we all need help with something.
Blessed are those who get help without asking.
The lesser mortals have to ask for help.
Asking for help is not so easy for some. The fear of asking and being rejected or getting no for an answer most often puts people away from even asking.
Besides it depends on the type of help asked for.
Unmindful of whether the answer is going to be positve or negative, one must be prepared for either. Feel blessed if help is offered. Move on if the reply is negative. Either way it would help to communicate whenever one needs help.
Remember no one will percieve that we require help and come forward. We have to ask as that alone is the key to many locked doors behind which opportunities may lie. Knock anyway and find out!
Cheers!
Mahalakshmi
Blessed are those who get help without asking.
The lesser mortals have to ask for help.
Asking for help is not so easy for some. The fear of asking and being rejected or getting no for an answer most often puts people away from even asking.
Besides it depends on the type of help asked for.
Unmindful of whether the answer is going to be positve or negative, one must be prepared for either. Feel blessed if help is offered. Move on if the reply is negative. Either way it would help to communicate whenever one needs help.
Remember no one will percieve that we require help and come forward. We have to ask as that alone is the key to many locked doors behind which opportunities may lie. Knock anyway and find out!
Cheers!
Mahalakshmi
Friday, December 10, 2010
Impatience And Superiority Complex
We have progressed so much with modern, fast responding gadgets that we no longer have the patience to wait and watch when it stops working. The same goes with people who are slow at work even if they are highly skilled. Doing things fast has (sadly) come to mean as being an expert, which is far from truth.
For eg. if we put on the computer and it does not respond within seconds, (not even minutes!), we get angry and impatient. We want the desktop to come alive the moment we switch it on. If we struggle with a gadget for even a few minutes our thoughts race to junk it off besides feeling very angry and helpless.
We call the service person expecting him to arrive and attend to the problem immediately. We also comment how slow he is or how he lacks proper knowledge in remedying the situation! If the service has to be paid for, the anger gallops.
Anger and helplessness come only when we do not know how to deal with such issues ourselves. Knowledge and skills are powerful tools which makes us less dependent on outside help or intervention in rectifying it ourselves.
This goes for replacing fused bulbs, blenders coming to a grinding halt in the middle of the process, our not knowing how to use the TV remote or our cell phones properly with any number of buttons on them. We tend to think if we knew how, we would be quicker than the help we called in.
We are too lethargic to learn how to rectify things on our own. We look and expecct help always. On top we get impatient with the person who comes to help us. We want the help also to arrive quickly and rectify the fault quickly. This is the trend I have noticed everywhere.
I recall an incident which took place in the year 1991 when a PC at home was unheard of in India and very expensive to buy,even for an upper middle class family unless for business purposes.
My husband got into the Computer Aided Drawings business which was home-based, all thanks to my eldest sister's help in setting him up, though he did not have any knowledge about operating computers. It was the 286 cpu model and the price was
Rs.52000/-. Earlier to this was the 86 model which was really slow. Then we went on to upgrade the PC to 386, 486 and Pentiums, etc. over time.
He learnt CADD on his own. He was not afraid of opening up the hardware and repairing minor circuit faults and then he knew how to bring the software back working when it came to a standstill. When such after sales services was far and few, it paid him rich dividends in learning such things all by himself.
He got orders for engineering drawings from reputed companies and hotels in Chennai.
I would like to share an event which shows all can talk on how slow or unskilled others are at work while how they could have finished the same work in no time without being experts at it! Mere talking and insulting others seems to be the trend to put others down to show themselves up.
A relative, who is an engineer, used to draw his plan outlays manually for hours, came to execute an order which was urgent. He also had a working knowledge of CADD or so he claimed. Being a relative, we knew the service was for free even if both knew it cost my husband his time on the computer.
Be that as it may, what was more irritating was the back-seat driving with constant comments of how slow my husband was and how fast he would have drawn that simple drawing on the computer, in quarter of the time my husband was taking. Such comments could have put my husband off yet, he being a very calm and peaceful person by nature, kept working at the drawing quietly. The drawing was almost finished but for some finishing touches requiring 15 minutes of work, when he realised that he had some urgent bank work, so he just stopped, got up, dressed to go out! This shocked the relative so much that at first he began to protest, then slowly tried to cajole my husband to finish off the drawing which was just minutes away from completion.
Very calmly my husband informed the relative to occupy the (driver's) seat and finish the drawing himself since he also had knowledge of CADD, as he had to go to the bank before it closed for the day.
After about half hour, when my husband came back from the bank, this relative was still struggling with the next step from where it was left off by my husband.
That day this relative learnt that commenting was different from getting his hands dirty on any job.
Though my husband maintained a dignified silence, the lesson was well taught!
From that time onwards the boastful relative behaved in a more respectful way towards my husband.
Some lessons are learnt the hard way.
Mahalakshmi.
For eg. if we put on the computer and it does not respond within seconds, (not even minutes!), we get angry and impatient. We want the desktop to come alive the moment we switch it on. If we struggle with a gadget for even a few minutes our thoughts race to junk it off besides feeling very angry and helpless.
We call the service person expecting him to arrive and attend to the problem immediately. We also comment how slow he is or how he lacks proper knowledge in remedying the situation! If the service has to be paid for, the anger gallops.
Anger and helplessness come only when we do not know how to deal with such issues ourselves. Knowledge and skills are powerful tools which makes us less dependent on outside help or intervention in rectifying it ourselves.
This goes for replacing fused bulbs, blenders coming to a grinding halt in the middle of the process, our not knowing how to use the TV remote or our cell phones properly with any number of buttons on them. We tend to think if we knew how, we would be quicker than the help we called in.
We are too lethargic to learn how to rectify things on our own. We look and expecct help always. On top we get impatient with the person who comes to help us. We want the help also to arrive quickly and rectify the fault quickly. This is the trend I have noticed everywhere.
I recall an incident which took place in the year 1991 when a PC at home was unheard of in India and very expensive to buy,even for an upper middle class family unless for business purposes.
My husband got into the Computer Aided Drawings business which was home-based, all thanks to my eldest sister's help in setting him up, though he did not have any knowledge about operating computers. It was the 286 cpu model and the price was
Rs.52000/-. Earlier to this was the 86 model which was really slow. Then we went on to upgrade the PC to 386, 486 and Pentiums, etc. over time.
He learnt CADD on his own. He was not afraid of opening up the hardware and repairing minor circuit faults and then he knew how to bring the software back working when it came to a standstill. When such after sales services was far and few, it paid him rich dividends in learning such things all by himself.
He got orders for engineering drawings from reputed companies and hotels in Chennai.
I would like to share an event which shows all can talk on how slow or unskilled others are at work while how they could have finished the same work in no time without being experts at it! Mere talking and insulting others seems to be the trend to put others down to show themselves up.
A relative, who is an engineer, used to draw his plan outlays manually for hours, came to execute an order which was urgent. He also had a working knowledge of CADD or so he claimed. Being a relative, we knew the service was for free even if both knew it cost my husband his time on the computer.
Be that as it may, what was more irritating was the back-seat driving with constant comments of how slow my husband was and how fast he would have drawn that simple drawing on the computer, in quarter of the time my husband was taking. Such comments could have put my husband off yet, he being a very calm and peaceful person by nature, kept working at the drawing quietly. The drawing was almost finished but for some finishing touches requiring 15 minutes of work, when he realised that he had some urgent bank work, so he just stopped, got up, dressed to go out! This shocked the relative so much that at first he began to protest, then slowly tried to cajole my husband to finish off the drawing which was just minutes away from completion.
Very calmly my husband informed the relative to occupy the (driver's) seat and finish the drawing himself since he also had knowledge of CADD, as he had to go to the bank before it closed for the day.
After about half hour, when my husband came back from the bank, this relative was still struggling with the next step from where it was left off by my husband.
That day this relative learnt that commenting was different from getting his hands dirty on any job.
Though my husband maintained a dignified silence, the lesson was well taught!
From that time onwards the boastful relative behaved in a more respectful way towards my husband.
Some lessons are learnt the hard way.
Mahalakshmi.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Power Cut And 3 Days Of Total Blackout
Tamil Nadu Electricity Board. TNEB for short. This is our power supplier.
Heavy rains always plays havoc with the power supply to our flats. Only our cable leading to our flats gets burnt or short circuits and power goes phut.
When the power went off, everyone thought the other will complain to the EB. I did complain over the phone several times before leaving for and after returning back from work. The second day, all the guys came out voluntarily not being able to cope without electricity!
Then it was chasing these guys on the phone and in person and requesting them to rectify the fault. But they were busy attending to urgent calls from everywhere. When it rains these men make money. There's no making hay while the sun shines :)
Since it's cable burning fault and not a fuse off call in our case, the men take longer to come.
The EB men dig a trench across the road leading to the junction box, patch up the joint yet again with liquid tar and fill the trench. This was a temporary solution to our eternal problem of getting TV sets, washing machines, ACs and heaters repaired on and off. The lights too flickered often whenever we used to switch on the water pumping motor. There had to be a permanant solution for this.
Today I was home when the men arrived after 2 days of constant follow ups.
I asked them how we could solve it. They said we have to replace our burnt cable with a new better gauge one. Even though it is actually the responsibility of the EB department to provide/replace burnt cables, they often escape by saying that there's no stock of new cable with the office. For 4 years we suffered because we were reluctant to buy them the new cable. We all may have spent double the amount in repairing or replacing our gadgets over a period of time.
This time we could not suffer anymore and we all took a decision to cough up money to put this eternal problem to an end.
Quickly we made calculations for the items and the labor for the 3 men.
It came to about Rs.9000/- total for the entire work.
40 meters of 35 guage cable wire, an insulation tape, 80 feet of 2" 6mm guage pvc pipes to encase the cable for protection against further external damage like rainwater, etc. and the men's labor charges was all that was required to solve our power cut problem.
3 days of no TV, no lights, no water in the pipe taught us to value these things which we take for granted. For me no internet and checking of mails and blogging too.
Today I feel happy to get connected again. The lights shine brighter with no flickering though we are all poorer by about Rs.9000/-. But we lose some to gain some.
Cheers!
Mahalakshmi.
Heavy rains always plays havoc with the power supply to our flats. Only our cable leading to our flats gets burnt or short circuits and power goes phut.
When the power went off, everyone thought the other will complain to the EB. I did complain over the phone several times before leaving for and after returning back from work. The second day, all the guys came out voluntarily not being able to cope without electricity!
Then it was chasing these guys on the phone and in person and requesting them to rectify the fault. But they were busy attending to urgent calls from everywhere. When it rains these men make money. There's no making hay while the sun shines :)
Since it's cable burning fault and not a fuse off call in our case, the men take longer to come.
The EB men dig a trench across the road leading to the junction box, patch up the joint yet again with liquid tar and fill the trench. This was a temporary solution to our eternal problem of getting TV sets, washing machines, ACs and heaters repaired on and off. The lights too flickered often whenever we used to switch on the water pumping motor. There had to be a permanant solution for this.
Today I was home when the men arrived after 2 days of constant follow ups.
I asked them how we could solve it. They said we have to replace our burnt cable with a new better gauge one. Even though it is actually the responsibility of the EB department to provide/replace burnt cables, they often escape by saying that there's no stock of new cable with the office. For 4 years we suffered because we were reluctant to buy them the new cable. We all may have spent double the amount in repairing or replacing our gadgets over a period of time.
This time we could not suffer anymore and we all took a decision to cough up money to put this eternal problem to an end.
Quickly we made calculations for the items and the labor for the 3 men.
It came to about Rs.9000/- total for the entire work.
40 meters of 35 guage cable wire, an insulation tape, 80 feet of 2" 6mm guage pvc pipes to encase the cable for protection against further external damage like rainwater, etc. and the men's labor charges was all that was required to solve our power cut problem.
3 days of no TV, no lights, no water in the pipe taught us to value these things which we take for granted. For me no internet and checking of mails and blogging too.
Today I feel happy to get connected again. The lights shine brighter with no flickering though we are all poorer by about Rs.9000/-. But we lose some to gain some.
Cheers!
Mahalakshmi.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Little Mirza And The P.T. Teacher
This was when I was 16 years old and substituting for my mother in the All Saints' High School, Hyderabad.
She was the class teacher for 1st standard - 1C to be precise.
It is a boys' school.
There were classes for English, Maths, Social Studies, Hindi or any optional language, Drawing, Music and of course, P.T. (short form of 'Physical Training').
I used to take all the boys of my class to the Music Hall where Mrs.Burns would conduct the music classes. She would play the piano so well. She would imitate the sound of thunder and the gentle flow of a brook through her gifted swift fingers. I would look forward to these music classes more than my tiny students!
I would sing the rhymes in perfect tune so she would admire my singing and ask me to sing more and more songs other than rhymes too. We all enjoyed those music sessions so much.
Drawing class was another eye-opener. Never imagined what all resides inside the heads of tiny tots' as they doodle away to glory on any given topic. I just loved watching the young boys draw pictures of parrots, crows, carrots, scenery, etc. I would secretly laugh at some drawings as they were wild imaginations and yet, some were so beautiful, you would think he could be the next Ravi Verma in the making. Wonder what those boys have become now and where they are! They were all 5 years' old then!
Well one boy named Mirza from 1B, from the next class, sneaked into my class one day and hid under one of the benches, while all the sections of the 1st standard boys were busy attending the PT class in the huge playground below. That was our free period and we would mostly be correcting the scrap books.
Some boys must have brought the matter to the attention of the Mr.Dayanand, P.T. master-cum-dance master-cum Hindi teacher.
He may have been more harsh with some students and made them kneel-down or stand in the hot sun for long. Our Mirza must have gone through some incident to make him scared to avoid the PT classes totally.
This P.T. master came to my class and beat the boy up, dragging him to the grounds. This sight was shocked me no end. The boy was trying to cling to me in desperation and here I was voiceless not knowing how to react to all that.
There was no way I could speak up for the boy whose class teacher was another teacher called Mrs. Iona.
This matter went to the Rev.Brother. The boy's parents were asked to meet him. Permission was sought for their ward to be excused from attending PT classes in future. There were arguments and counter-arguments to that. The class teacher supported the PT teacher saying, 'PT exercises are a must for all boys', 'If one boy shows the way, the other boys too will excuse themselves from attending further PT classes' etc.
I told my mother about this incident and forgot all about it, until next time I substitued for her. I found little Mirza in my class! Later mamma told me, the boy refused to be in that section as the class teacher and the PT teacher were both very strict about his attending the PT classes. Their parents requested the Rector to transfer him to 1C, as my mom was quite mild with all the boys in all classes.
Mirza escaped PT classes by bunking school on those days which had PT period! My mom too was saved from facing any complaints on this issue.
There are so many memories of my days in All Saints' High School as a substitute teacher.
Maybe when I remember them, I shall share it with you all. Until then, cheers!
Mahalakshmi.
She was the class teacher for 1st standard - 1C to be precise.
It is a boys' school.
There were classes for English, Maths, Social Studies, Hindi or any optional language, Drawing, Music and of course, P.T. (short form of 'Physical Training').
I used to take all the boys of my class to the Music Hall where Mrs.Burns would conduct the music classes. She would play the piano so well. She would imitate the sound of thunder and the gentle flow of a brook through her gifted swift fingers. I would look forward to these music classes more than my tiny students!
I would sing the rhymes in perfect tune so she would admire my singing and ask me to sing more and more songs other than rhymes too. We all enjoyed those music sessions so much.
Drawing class was another eye-opener. Never imagined what all resides inside the heads of tiny tots' as they doodle away to glory on any given topic. I just loved watching the young boys draw pictures of parrots, crows, carrots, scenery, etc. I would secretly laugh at some drawings as they were wild imaginations and yet, some were so beautiful, you would think he could be the next Ravi Verma in the making. Wonder what those boys have become now and where they are! They were all 5 years' old then!
Well one boy named Mirza from 1B, from the next class, sneaked into my class one day and hid under one of the benches, while all the sections of the 1st standard boys were busy attending the PT class in the huge playground below. That was our free period and we would mostly be correcting the scrap books.
Some boys must have brought the matter to the attention of the Mr.Dayanand, P.T. master-cum-dance master-cum Hindi teacher.
He may have been more harsh with some students and made them kneel-down or stand in the hot sun for long. Our Mirza must have gone through some incident to make him scared to avoid the PT classes totally.
This P.T. master came to my class and beat the boy up, dragging him to the grounds. This sight was shocked me no end. The boy was trying to cling to me in desperation and here I was voiceless not knowing how to react to all that.
There was no way I could speak up for the boy whose class teacher was another teacher called Mrs. Iona.
This matter went to the Rev.Brother. The boy's parents were asked to meet him. Permission was sought for their ward to be excused from attending PT classes in future. There were arguments and counter-arguments to that. The class teacher supported the PT teacher saying, 'PT exercises are a must for all boys', 'If one boy shows the way, the other boys too will excuse themselves from attending further PT classes' etc.
I told my mother about this incident and forgot all about it, until next time I substitued for her. I found little Mirza in my class! Later mamma told me, the boy refused to be in that section as the class teacher and the PT teacher were both very strict about his attending the PT classes. Their parents requested the Rector to transfer him to 1C, as my mom was quite mild with all the boys in all classes.
Mirza escaped PT classes by bunking school on those days which had PT period! My mom too was saved from facing any complaints on this issue.
There are so many memories of my days in All Saints' High School as a substitute teacher.
Maybe when I remember them, I shall share it with you all. Until then, cheers!
Mahalakshmi.
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