Angels and demons

Are angels and demons real ? 

– Yes.

Read on to know how I saw them myself.

One casual evening, I freshened up after returning from office, hit the couch and switched on the TV. After skipping some channels, I stopped at a movie channel showing a south Indian movie. I enjoyed the typical ‘over the top’ action scenes for a while.

Then came a sequence, which showed a very poor pregnant lady going into labor pain. Being homeless and due to absence of medical facility in her slum, she had nowhere to go but to deliver the baby on the road. Looking at the situation, all the people around her and those from the neighboring houses immediately came to her rescue. Everyone attended to her and helped in every possible way. In other words, the situation was shown to give a message that humanity and compassion still lives in human hearts.

I thought to myself; in a situation like this, of course everyone would lend every possible help to any such lady. Even complete strangers would immediately come to help without a thought.

I personally feel that birth of a baby is the nearest thing to divinity that a common man can experience.

Besides humans, there are people who work to relieve even a birth giving animal. I have seen group of ladies making laddoos and similar dishes of pure ghee mixed with other healthy ingredients, specially to feed dogs who have just delivered a litter of puppies. I have seen people giving such healthy food, water, shelter and protection to cows who happen to deliver a calf just outside their house.

These are the people who are true angels. They have a golden heart where God resides in the form of compassion and love.

I really look upto them and see them as God’s ways of taking care of those needy mothers to whom He has given one of the greatest responsibility; bringing a baby into this world.

Once, at my in laws place, I was just moving around on the terrace, looking at the hustle and bustle on the road. Up that road, there are some houses which have cows and buffaloes. After a couple of minutes, I noticed that the passersby were suddenly stopping or slowing down in front of a particular house and looking at something. Intrigued, I climbed up to the smaller terrace holding the water tank, so I could get a clear view of what was going on.

I saw a very fat cow standing at the gate and a person standing beside it with a stick in his hand. It took me a couple of seconds to understand the scene. The cow wasn’t fat, she was actually pregnant. Moreover, she seemed on the verge of delivering a calf. Instead of allowing her to lie down and nursing her, the person was trying to push her out of the gate!! I couldn’t believe this at first and mentally analyzed the entire situation again. But to my dismay, it was truly happening. The cow could barely move and could fall down anytime. The guy was making sure that she doesn’t sit down or fall and was pushing her like a sack of grain and also kept poking the stick on her belly so she would move away from the pain.

I was dumbfounded and felt I couldn’t move. Neither did I know what to do. I just kept watching.

That guy finally succeeded in pushing the cow out of his house and immediately shut the gate. What now?? I thought of calling an animal helpline. As I was about to browse the internet on my phone, my brother in law came up beside me. He must have sensed my disturbance so asked me if anything was wrong. I gulped down the lump in my throat and made an effort to get my normal tone of speech. I pointed at the scene and asked him if he had the emergency helpline number of any animal care foundation. With a surprisingly casual tone, he said there was no need to call anyone; this was a regular incident of their area. I could only give him a bewildered look.

He said, just keep watching and you will understand. I looked at the cow again who was out on the road by now, leaning against a wall. And suddenly she fell down with a giant thud. Oh God!! I exclaimed to myself, such a fall could kill the calf inside. She was at the support of the wall of the same house from which she was driven out. Visibly, she was in great pain. She was going to deliver the calf on the road. Just then, the same guy who had pushed her out, came to her with a stick and started trying to make the cow stand up. The poor thing who was already in great pain was literally crying without making a single noise. With pleading and streaming eyes she looked at the guy as if saying that she really couldn’t move. As his normal attempts did not work, he again resorted to his evil technique. He started poking the stick on the cow’s tummy. Just the sight of the torture made my body go numb. One cannot even imagine the height of the cow’s pain. As the guy kept poking her mercilessly, the poor cow had no other way to stop it but to move away anyhow. With extreme physical effort and pain, she somehow managed to stand. Immediately, the guy started pushing her. He wanted her to walk down the road.

Somehow, the cow limped on the road. The guy  kept walking beside her, pushing and poking and making sure that he doesn’t sit down. A line of wet dust caused due to her tears and secretions, marked the path of the cow.

After making the cow move out of his own house’s surrounding, the guy seemed satisfied and then he let the cow be on her own. He sat down and a tea stall and quietly lit a bidi. But his eyes were keeping a check on the cow.

The cow was way beyond her limits. Due to the fear of the pain of the poking on her belly, she did not dare to sit as she was under the impression that the guy was still behind her. In her desperation, she followed her natural instincts and entered an open ground and just crashed there. 

She then gave birth to a very cute little calf. As it wriggled on the ground, it was fully covered with dirt. It  became so dirty that one would not want to even touch it. While the calf was catching up it’s first breaths and learning to stand, the cow kept licking it all the while. She was actually licking off all the untouchable dirt and swallowing it.

That’s the unmatched love and care of a mother. No one else can do it.

In a couple of minutes, the calf learned to stand on his legs. That guy with the stick, who was sitting at the tea stall and watching, came to the calf, held it by its ear and started drawing him to his house. The cow started following quietly. The guy took both of them in the same house from where he initially had pushed out the cow and closed the door.

Between the lines – That guy with the stick has many domesticated cattle. He sells their milk for earning. Obviously, he has to feed and maintain all the cows and buffaloes. Whenever a cow/buffalo gives birth to a young one, he has to arrange for extra care of both the mother and the baby. To escape from the burden of this responsibility, yet reap the benefits; that guy had a modus operandi in place.

Just at the time when a calf was about to be delivered, he would push the cow or buffalo out of his house on to the road. He would push it away even from the surroundings of his own house. Particularly, towards the houses of those people who he knew were kind and compassionate. He himself would then sit somewhere and just watch quietly. Seeing the cow/buffalo in pain, those kind people would look after it. They would provide water, some food, some would clean up the mother and the new one etc. Initially, people also used to call an animal helpline. That guy would just watch all this with a devilish smile and take pride at his smartness of skipping all this caring responsibilities. Once the calf was ready, he would simply drag it and the cow/buffalo back to his house.

Once or twice initially, some kind person had also called an animal helpline. The doctors and nurse came and looked after the cattle throughout the delivery. Once they did their job and left, the devil would drag the cow and calf back to his house. But if the doctors tried to take the cow and calf to a shelter house, the devil would fight them off and throw stones at them, by saying that the cow and calf belonged to him.

Such people are the incarnations of the devil himself.

While that guy was dragging the calf, he appeared a normal personal to others. But to me, he appeared as shown in the picture below.

So that’s how I saw both angels and demons. They do not reside in some faraway obscure corner of another dimension. They live and walk right amongst us.

Stages of life

When I joined school, I learnt that 'Time' and 'Space' are infinite.

When I joined college, I learnt that 'Love' is infinite.

When I joined customer service, I learnt that 'Human stupidity' is infinite.

The Power Of Belief

While the power of belief is a well known thing now, this small article is just my input and acknowledgement of the same.

Since time immemorial, the knowledge about the secret power of belief has been handed down to us in one way or the other.

The channels of knowledge include but are not limited to the below:

Be it in the form of a Zen Master

A Yogi

A Magician

Or simply a writer/author

My favourite expression of this phenomenon is the lovely animation mo
vie 'Kung Fu Panda'. How I related to it, believed in it and saw the belief turn to reality in my own life is a story for the next time.

An equally famous depiction is the movie 'The Matrix', in which Neo comes to share the belief of Morpheus, of Neo being 'The One'; and finally turns it into a reality. The fight sequence between Neo and Morpheus is actually a crash course given to Neo to learn to start believing.  This was conveyed in just one power punch like line "Stop trying to hit me and hit me" which was meant to be an eye opener for Neo, telling him that instead of having an incomplete belief in his own capabilities and keep trying, he just needs to start believing in himself fully and hit Morpheus.

The secret behind the working of the phenomenon is simply acknowledging and accepting your thought/belief and just know it/be it/live it with your utmost existence. Resultantly, your belief comes to pass as you want it and personifies as the reality.

The below image gives a very easy understanding of the working of the phenomenon.

Our beliefs simply flow in and make up our lives. Now if the power of our will and thought is divided into numerous beliefs and wishes, they would undoubtedly flow in to our lives. But the result would be a mixed up life. In other words, we would be or would have a little bit of everything. And the quantity of the outcome generated in our life would be directly proportional to the strength of our belief.

So simply put, to make the phenomenon work, we need to engage all our thoughts into just one sincere belief and then fuel and forge it with adamant will and repetitions of the thoughts to make the belief grow strong to the point that it simply becomes the reality.

Having started to learn karate at the age of 34, this is exactly what I do and the result was well applauded when I earned a silver in a national tournament.

MY FIRST TIME..

After much thinking, I had finally decided to do it. The day approached. It being my very first time, I was excited and eager yet nervous. You know just how everyone feels. I also had a faint unsurity about whether it is right to do it at this age or should I give it more time. With all the thoughts swirling in my mind, I actually could not overcome the basic attraction of it and reached the venue.

I entered the room and and undressed with growing excitement. I sat down and took 'that' thing out of the wrapper. It felt a bit sticky, but I liked its fragrance. One of my experienced friend had told me to use it. I tried to apply it on me, but instead of sliding smoothly, it kept getting stuck to the skin. I attempted several times and the same thing happened. Something was wrong. This was not how I saw it on TV. I looked around thinking what to do. For a moment,  I thought of backing out. But I had already informed my freinds about this. And as soon as they see me today,they all will be eager to know how did it go. So I backed out from backing out. At that moment, I saw a used one on the shelf with some foam on it. I judged from its appearance that it must have worked. So I picked it up and tried to apply it. Yeah it did slide better than my new one but its smoothness and lubrication soon ran dry after I rubbed it 2-3 times.

Puzzled, I thought for a few moments.  Then an idea flashed. I filled a mug of water and dipped the used one it a few times. Then I applied it on myself and lo! it started sliding perfectly. Now I knew how it worked. It was just the lubrication that did the trick. With great joy, I kept deeping it in water and kept rubbing it on me. And I was filled with pleasure :)

Soon, I fully covered myself in foam. And was still rubbing the soap vigorously all over. I also then took up my new soap with rose aroma and added to the foam. As in all traits, the new ones try harder than required to prove themselves. And that was what I was doing. After about half an hour of joyful scrubbing, I cleaned myself with 3 buckets of water, wrapped my mickey mouse towel and stepped out of the bathroom with an air of confidence and achievement and a smile of victory.

And I ran to my mom and dad to tell them that 'My first time self bathing' was super successfull ;)

A thoughtful query

To enjoy the flavor and essence of this query, just read the question first. Do not read the answer straight away with it. Ponder over the question as long as you like and come up with the most suitable answer you can think about it. Only after that, scroll down and read my answer. And do feel free to post your comments.


Q 1. Define knowledge:















Ans: knowing your ignorance.


Q 2: Define ignorance.



























Ans: trying to define knowledge

Biscuits

10:00 PM, the four of us entered the flat. Quietly and well equipped we headed towards the bedroom, to start reading.

Me, J.B, Dharmesh and Mamu meet daily at J.B’s uncle’s vacant flat to read through the night with peace and dedication, without any disturbance. But such a reading session as serious as it sounds here, hardly took place. I do not think I need to say why. Still to brief it up, we spent most of the time joking, laughing and talking. And when were quiet, our minds were at play. Apart from myself, I can confidently say this for my friends owing to that wonderful sense we all know, by which you can tell what are your friends at, by looking at them.

As I could not read their thoughts, I am unable to describe any interesting one here. But I am sharing one of my own.

I had the chemistry text book. And one sentence read ‘This acts as a catalyst’. This is an interesting word, I thought. ‘Catalyst’,  ‘Cat – a – list‘ , ‘cat’ ‘a list’.

‘Cat’ – My mind ran back to Kolkata when it was Calcutta and I used to live there. We had about 10 cats. I started recalling their names. ‘Bageera’, ‘Kudaku’, ‘Minibai’, ‘Dhodki’, ‘Phantom’….. . I wondered where were they and what were they doing. Ah! Those were the days.

Then I jumped to ‘a list’. ‘A list’. Which list? My list! Where was my list? I reached for my pocket, but it was not there. Because I was wearing my nigh dress track. And I had put my list in my Jeans. The list was of all the activities I had planned to do during the vacation. Joining a gym, swimming, watch movies, outing etc. First thing’s first. I will join a gym on the very evening the last paper ends. It will be the 14^th. But will I be able to pay the membership fees on pro rata basis? Or will I have to pay for the whole month? If so, why not pay today? It’s the 1^st of the month. That’s a good idea!

And suddenly, I snapped out of the thought process as I realized that the exam is yet to start tomorrow and I am to prepare for the first paper right now. So completing the circle of thoughts, I came back to the chemistry text book.

I looked at J.B. He was starring at a pigeon sitting outside the window. It seemed like he was trying to hypnotize it to sleep. Because the pigeon lowered itself on the ledge and kept closing and opening its eyes as if dozing.

Dharmesh was sitting with his back against a wall and knees bent to his chest, with a book on his tummy. But he was looking at his right fist and seemed lost in thoughts.

Mamu was sitting with one leg bent to his chest and other one folded perpendicular to it on the mattress, with his head resting on one hand. And he was looking down at some diagrams. But when I bent dow and checked, I saw that he was looking at the nail of his toe which he was pricking with his finger.

As I read through to the end of the page, my nose tickled and I sneezed. After a few seconds, I sneezed again and again and again. So in a minute, I sneezed about 8 times. It was like the allergic sneezed attack many people get sometimes. I get it too. But after such an attack, I also get a secret thing which others don’t. I get hungry!!!

After clearing and wiping my nose of the natural adhesive, I announced, “Brothers, I am hungry now”. J.B who has a distinct toy gun sound like laughter (The one that goes rat-tat-tat-tat) went “HA HA HA HA HA HA……HA HA HA HA HA…”.  Mamu looked at me and exclaimed “What!”. Dharmesh stared at me for a while and asked “Haven’t you had your dinner?”. I said, “Yes, I have. But guys don’t know, whenever I get such a sneeze attack, it leaves me with a sudden and immediate feel of hunger. I need to eat something now.” J.B’s toy gun was still rattling and Hardik said again “What!”.

I smiled and said, “It’s true, I feel hungry and need to eat something.” Dharmesh said, “But look at the time, its 11:30 pm. What would we get at this time?” Mamu said, “That’s true, we won’t be able to find anything to eat in our area.” I looked at J.B who had now settled down to smiling and asked, “Do we have any eatables here in this flat?” “No, my uncle used this flat as an office. And it has been unused since long now. So there is nothing to eat here.” J.B said.

“What do we do now?”, I said. Mamu replied, “It’s our first paper tomorrow.” Dharmesh said, “There is nothing to do. Lets get back to reading.” But J.B came to my rescue. He said, “But guys, even I am somewhat hungry.” “See”, I said, “Let’s go out and have some snacks. We will come back soon.” Dharmesh said, “Okay, but I will not take out my bike. We will just walk around and see what can we get.” “No problem”, I said. “Come on Mamu,” J.B said. “But its our first paper tomorrow”, Mamu repeated. “So what? We will be back before the paper start”, I said. J.B added, “And why do you need to worry anyways, you are a ranker.”

“Fine, lets go.” Mamu agreed. “Wait” Dharmesh said. “How much money do we have on us? Let’s check first.”. At that moment, we realized that we all were in our night dress and not carrying our wallets. Pulling out his pockets, J.B declared, “I have got nothing at all.” Mamu and I searched our pockets for a while and came up with one rupee each. It was now Dharmesh’s turn. He smiled, reached down the pocket of his short and pulled out his wallet. He flashed it like a player holding the trump card. And we all started grinning at each other. Dharmesh opened the wallet and added his fund to our coins. And the total shot up to 700……..paise. Because after digging through all the obvious and secret compartments of his wallet, he came up 5 1 rupee coins. So now, we had a grand total of 7 rupees. And it was 11:45 pm.

“What will we get for 7 rupees?” I raised my doubt. J.B’s toy gun was triggered again. “Forget it, we can’t get anything for this”, said Dharmesh. “Right” Mamu agreed. But I said, “Let’s atleast go out and get whatever we can. We will atleast get something. I am hungry guys. Look, we can atleast get a packet of biscuits, can’t we?”. Finally after 5 minutes, we were walking down the road, looking for a shop. After 10 minutes, we found only one small pan wallah still open, but preparing to close.

“Dharmesh, quick go and get a biscuit packet before he closes”, I said. Dharmesh replied. “No way man, I am not taking this chiller (change) to buy anything.” “Why not?”, I inquired. “Because its embarrassing”, he replied. “What’s embarrassing about paying money and buying biscuits?”, I asked. “The embarrassing thing is this chiller (change). These 7 one rupee coins. And I am wearing a short and this wrinkled t-shirt with a  hole here. If I go like this with this chiller, at this time of night to buy a packet of biscuits, the person might take me for a beggar thinking I have begged these coins during the day and now want to eat biscuits with them.” Dharmesh replied.

We all broke into roaring laugher on hearing this. And Dharmesh himself also joined in. After a full minute of non-stop laughing, I said “But Dharmesh, beggars don’t wear these kind of expensive t-shirts. And you don’t even look like a beggar, right now. You look good. Just go there, give the money and take a biscuit, that’s it.” “No way man. I am not doing it.” Dharmesh said firmly.

“Fine, Mamu will do this. He is not embarrassed. Won’t you, Mamu? I said. “No no no no. Even I am not doing this bro. I feel embarrassed too.” Mamu said. I looked at J.B. He put his hands up and said, “It’s your idea to have biscuits at this time night. You do it.” “Come on guys, what’s wrong with you all? What’s so embarrassing about paying in coins and buying biscuits??!! I asked. “So why don’t you do it then?” Mamu said. “Fine, I will do it and show you all that there is nothing embarrassing about this.”, I said. I took the coins and moved towards the shop. As I took the 4^th step, the shopkeeper looked at me. And suddenly, I felt the embarrassment like self-realization. I stopped for a moment and turned back. Dharmesh, Mamu and J.B broke out in outrageous laugher with tears rolling down their cheeks.

“Okay, okay fine. I get it.” I said slyly. “But what do we do now? We have to buy the biscuits. Please anyone of you go and get it for me. Please.” Finally, still laughing J.B agreed. “Alright, give me the coins, I will get it.” “Great, thanks dude.” I said and patted him. “Here you go.” I said and handed him the coins. “And get bourborne if possible.” I added. J.B reached the shop. We were observing from behind. J.B managed to keep a straight face, handed the coins to the shopkeeper and asked for a packet of parle g.

The shopkeeper looked at the coins and then looked at J.B. The three of us knew what the shopkeeper was thinking and started laughing. J.B tried to appear as serious and as non beggar as possible. The shopkeeper took a packet and gently gave it to J.B with a look as if he was doing the kind deed of the day.

J.B quietly took the packet and looked at the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper gave him a sympathetic smile. J.B came back to us and we all started laughing madly.

Laughing our way back all the way, we ate the biscuits. 2 to 3 pieces each. But I think those were the sweetest and most memorable biscuits I have had till now.

Living life on my own terms

“Beep beep….beep beep…..beep beep” the alarm clock goes off destroying the peace and silence mercilessly. Its 6 AM. For the –th time (I have lost the count actually. But I know the figure is a BIG one) I snap out of an awesome dream on the most interesting turn.

DAMN IT@#$*

I instantly reach out, kill the alarm and fall back on my bed. My speed of the act can easily out beat a puff adder – the snake known to have the fastest striking speed. I try to bring the dream back. But its just gone, as always. I throw a ‘Cyclops look’ at the clock again. But instead of burning down to ash it just stands still and tells me its 6:15!!!.

Reluctantly, I sit up; and fight my way to the edge of the bed which at that time displays twice or thrice the gravitational pull (3G). Sitting there, I get in a meditative stage. That point where you are neither awake or asleep. When there are so many things in your head, but you don’t think. I don’t know how long I stay that way. I look at the clock again – 6:45!!!

MAN, this is surely time traveling!!

Time to rush now. Though each and every cell in my body wants to go back to bed, I can’t. Have to reach office at 7:30.

I push through the daily routines mechanically and zoom on my bike @ 7:20. I like to ride my bike at leisure. But I cant. Coz its getting late. I like to enjoy the cool breeze in my face. But I cant. Coz I have to put on a helmet.

I reach office. Mails, prints, letters, fax, challans, bills, scans………. I feel like a first version of a cyborg. I want to pull off the power plug of the pc and sit back and relax having a one liter cup of coffee. But I cant.

Waiting eagerly for lunch hour, I look at the clock. But I discover that it has been only 5 mins. Since I last checked the time which to me seems like a year ago. Wondering why do I loose my time traveling ability in the office, I dig in work.

1:00 at last!!! The lunch hour. The time to break free. I take out my Tiffin not with hunger but sheer joy. But I cant have lunch yet. Coz my boss calls me saying he wants me to prepare a very urgent letter and mail it to him. I fall back in my chair.

30 mins. Later, I’ve eaten my lunch and back on my chair. I feel terribly sleepy, but I cant sleep. Have to work.

Finally 5:30. The moment when I gain independence. I rush straight to my bike praying that my boss doesn’t call me with something urgent to finish. And I get lucky.

I want to go to see an old friend. On the way, my wife calls. She gives me a list of the groceries and provisions I need to buy with immediate effect, today itself. I cant go to see my friend.

I reach home with all the things, freshen up and ask for a cup of ginger tea.

Wife says its too late, better wait for sometime and have dinner. So I don’t get the tea.

Post dinner, I put the national geographic channel to watch one of my favorite automobile show. The host comes up, “Today we are gonna check out the most awaited new version of……”

The channel suddenly changes. I look around for the cause and find it to be my wife. Its time for her serial. So I don’t get to watch the show.

I move to my room. I turn on the computer and connect to the internet.

I login to facebook and read my status.

“LIVING LIFE ON MY OWN TERMS…..”