That White Elephant

                                          Photo courtesy: AFP

These days one is seldom adequately shielded from news intrusion into the daily life. First it comes through the phone, which is smarter than its user and quite efficiently manages all the apps and news sites. If you ignore those during the day, these are repeated on the Ipad alibi their secret relation over the cloud relation. The next front off course the good old idiot box for those who have access to its remote control. Till recently the confusion for me was to determine who was the idiot in this relationship of beauty and the beholder. With the advent of the smart TV, I have somewhat reached a resolution with a great deal of reluctance. And if you managed to escape all of these, the morning newspaper compensate for the great loss.

Earlier in the week I was made aware that a white elephant has been found in Myanmar. I thought what’s new in that? Most of us have grown up knowing the metaphorical meaning of this word. A white elephant, is not a possession and is usually out of proportion to its usefulness. Most of the times, its owner can neither maintain it nor dispose it off and eventually goes down with it. There are plenty of White elephants all around the world and abundant in the private sector and public sectors of our beloved “land of joy” which used to be filled with milk and honey. At least that is how the famous poets, writers and littérateurs have presented it to us. Once in a while, we find a few of those  in our personal sector too ...  like I have this blog.
This term, I am told, have its origin in the story of the monarchs of Siam. They used to give away one of these animals as a gift to the overzealous courtiers in order to ruin the recipient with the cost of its maintenance.

But this news actually referred to an elephant which is white in colour. Something akin to the mythological creature Airavata, the white elephant that carries the king of Hindu gods called Indra. An animal that befits the king of the king, the lord of the lords. The urge to know a bit more about this animal sent me scrambling for the internet. It was to seek the assistance of Mr Google to be more precise and ended up being a little enlightened, acquiring some fascinating details about white elephants. My special thanks goes to Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_elephant) and AP (The Associated Press).  

Unlike the mythological Airavata, mortal white elephants are rather pinkish in colour with fair eyelashes and toe nails. They are actually albinos. They have been revered for centuries in Siam and Burma, the present day Thailand and Myanmar. They were traditionally the royal pets and usually very well pampered since they symbolised power and prosperity. According to history Siam and Burma had fought a war in the 16^th century over the possession of 4 white elephants.

This one is a 7-year old female and was captured on 27 February 2015 in a forest of the western Ayeyarwaddy region of Myanmar. This is the ninth such elephant in captivity in Myanmar, while the other are housed in various zoos and parks. Those who are interested in meeting a white elephant now know where to go...


Most importantly they are many times luckier that the Albino boys of Tanzania who are regularly snatched from their family and sacrificed  for black magic.

Live & Let Live

A famous tomb stone screams out to all willing to listen, that he was neither born nor died but visited the planet earth from one date to the other. This, if at all anything, spells out one fundamental truth about our existence. We are mere visitors to this planet and there are only few circumstances that we control. Despite our presumed progress in science, we are not sure where we came from and where we are going and if there is a life after death or the reason behind this illusion, we call our mortal existence.

However, while we stay here, we try to believe that we are permanent and should have everything that we set our eyes upon. We have to control the lives and wish of every living creatures around us including the fellow human beings and other beautiful body & souls’. We wish to dictate what they ought to do and what not to do, what to wear and what not to wear, where to go and where not to go, whom to befriend and whom not to  and the list doesn't stop here. We also want to have everything that is nice and good for ourselves, be it food, wealth, land, forests, water or any other resources. We want it all and we want it for ourselves or for our tribes and we want our tribe to "live long and prosper" and it is true for all living creatures too. This excessive craving for power and lust compounded with uncontrolled greed makes our as well as others live miserable.

My wish is to do away with all these in my new world. Leaving that aside, there is nothing wrong in this mortal world full of unpredictability and surprises. Yes there is nothing wrong with our earth along with its celestial system. I therefore wish not to change any of those.

I would only make a minimal reprogramming of the genes that dictates these characteristics of the living visitors to this planet. This is to ensure that our needs never exceed our requirements or vice versa. We are not driven by greed, our ego doesn't threaten the peace of others and we do not kill each other. Most importantly we have a world devoid of any “arms race”, neither literally nor metaphorically and not even genetically.

Imagine there’s no weapons… imagine there’s no greed… imagine there’s no ego…

Imagine all the beings, living life in peace …Uh ho!. This would be the song of life in my "Remade World" when sung in Lennon's tune.

Oxy and Moron

Mark Twain once said that it usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech. I am not sure of the context of that statement but there is no doubt that it is a good example of oxymoron. The dictionary tells me that the rhetorical term “oxymoron” was coined by joining two contrasting Greek words meaning “sharp” (oxy) and “dull” (moron). Everyone uses such phrases in their everyday life without being an oxy or moron or anywhere in between.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, the famous German philosopher and author had famously said that “we learn from history that man never learn anything from history”. While George Bernard Shaw, the Irish dramatist and socialist had endorsed this statement is in his lifetime, I find this more relevant today with all the conflicts around then anytime else. That makes this a timeless truth.

That was an example involving famous personalities and serious subject with deep meaning. But there is one such phrase that attracts us lesser mortals like the pied piper of Hamelin and they most certainly are not children. If you still have not guessed it, it is the famous marketing adage

….“ The more you spend, the more you save.”

This is quite a contradicting sentence to put one off, but that’s not what happens in the real world. Once back from such a shopping misadventure, the expression is equally rhetoric….

…”I paid too much for this, but it is worth it.”

Technology has not spared most of us and if you are a windows user, Bill Gates has ensured that we always click Start to Shutdown our computer.  

Donald Trump once said that “the budget was unlimited but, I exceeded it”. I too have managed to exceed the length of this post, though my estimate was limitless. But With all my friends and followers keeping quiet, I can only say that this silence is deafening to my ears. But I will still continue to post new pieces no matter what …. Thank God, I’m an atheist.

Characteristics of Successful People

Once in a while we come across an article analyzing the characteristics or habits of successful people. Not that we always agree with the traits listed the article but I am not one of those whom the world considers being successful and moreover there is no bee line of followers behind me.

I've spent plenty of time reading about successful people, which could or could not be considered to be a research.  Whilst all of them have the skills, talents, and characteristics that enable them to succeed, I haven’t been able to identify any magic trait adopting which will instantly transform me into a celebrity. Perhaps some of their qualities are more dominant and play a greater role in their successes but incidentally we all too possess these skills, talents, and characteristics within us to a certain degree. What we lack however, is the recipe to concoct and deliver a commendable success.

One important fact is that successful people does not always do everything by themselves nor can do everything easily and effortlessly. They have their strengths and weakness and look for others to complement their shortcomings and get associated with person or group of people who possess the skills, talents and training that they require. The associates later become their teammates with a defined relationship which could be either a partner or advisers or employees. It is this combined talent and skills that make an organization grow, prosper to reach the pinnacle of success.

Some of the most commonly discussed traits of successful people are as follows:

• They have the audacity to dream big
• They plan their steps well
• They're willing to work hard.
• They don't take no for an answer.
• They are not deterred by setbacks and failures

The success story always begins with one belief that one day you will succeed and one has to believe in success to become successful. As a toddler we do not feel ashamed to get up and walk even if we stumble and fall hundred times but why should it be any different when we are grown up. Most importantly, failure is only a state of mind and nothing explains it better than the follow statement by Thomas A. Edison.

I have not failed 10,000 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 10,000 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.

That is how Life is ....

If you look at what you do not have in life, you feel miserable due to the long list of have-nots, but when you look at what you have in life, you most probably have everything that you need. You may consider this to be a fallacy but this is the fact of life.

Sometimes we do not make any effort to value what is around us. Imagine sitting by the window with a cup of coffee and you lift the cup, take a careless sip to realize the sugar is not enough. Too lazy to go for the sugar, you manage still somewhat enjoying the coffee. On finishing you discover sugar crystals settled at the bottom. That is how life is.... So look around, may be the sweetness is closer than you think.... 

90/10 in Everyday Life

Stephen R. Covey and the 90-10 Principle are now well known though not as much understood or rather practiced. How we react indeed makes all that difference and it is never more obvious than when you are driving during rush hours. Once I had an experience when the other driver confessed that he was an idiot and asked me what was I?  

http://sumandebray.blogspot.com/2011/01/never-fight-with-idiot.html

That was an eye opener that one has to refresh that 90-10 principle from time to time and that is the exact intent of this post.

One day a taxi was driving in the right lane when suddenly another car reversed out of a parking space right in front of it. The taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and somehow managed to avoid the crash by just inches! The driver of the other car honked and yelled at the taxi. My taxi driver was very friendly and just smiled and waved at the guy. 

How could he just do that when this guy almost ruined the taxi car and sent him to the hospital? This is where the 'The Law of the Garbage Truck' comes to play.

Many people are like garbage trucks and they run around full of garbage which are extreme frustration, anger and disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and anyone could be a victim. 

 We need not get impacted by that but Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Else we end up carrying their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets.

Life is ten percent what you don’t control and ninety percent how you take it!

Life and Death in this world

  

This week's prompt is Friday Writings #227: As You Wish

When I think of a quote from the movie The Princess Bride, I remember: 

“Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while.”

Those words reminded me of something I had written many years back, and I felt like sharing it once again....

Life, death, and life after death have always been the turf of philosophers, thinkers, and religious gurus. Through the ages they have reflected, debated, and put forward their own theories about the beginning of life on this planet and what possibly awaits beyond it. 

Scientists, on the other hand, have been peering into outer space and digging out fossils from the earth, trying to uncover clues about the advent of life on our planet. Life and death are also part of our everyday existence. So naturally, we lesser mortals have never been totally immune to developing our own theories and discussing them passionately with anyone willing to lend an ear. 

The debate continues endlessly — whether there was indeed a creator behind all earthly life forms, as suggested by the watchmaker analogy, or whether life evolved gradually according to the theory of Charles Darwin. And perhaps the even bigger debate, cutting across both scientific and non-scientific minds, is whether life truly continues beyond death. 

It is a question that has fascinated humanity for centuries, yet remains wrapped in mystery despite all our knowledge and progress.

But once in a while, we come across incidents that unsettle our logical ideas and leave us wondering.

Recently, two news reports involving accidental deaths caught my attention, and I thought I should share them here. Were these merely coincidences, happenings dictated purely by chance? Or is there indeed some invisible conductor orchestrating everything that goes on in this world?

Questions like these leave us thoughtful and unsettled, with no practical way of ever finding a definite answer.......