Month: January 2020

Justice.

A few days ago, a friend posted the following joke in one the WhatsApp groups to which I belong.

“A 75 year old man was punished by an Indian court for teasing a girl.

While delivering the judgement, the Judge said “I can understand a 25 year old man teasing a girl but, a 75 year old man doing this is not acceptable.”

The old man said “I did this when I was 25, the case has taken so long to come to this stage of final hearing and verdict.”

The Guardian on Sunday 26, January had an article with the leader “Crime victims say they feel ‘let down’ by the courts and police as new data reveals rising numbers are failing to press charges.”

A few more jokes to cheer my readers up before I come to my take on the topic.

Indian courts are understaffed and over worked and so the justice system works too slow for most people with disputes. I have personal experience of such delays on more than a few occasions, one, very personal and the others to do with corporate matters during my working life.  The Cooperative Housing Society in which I live is currently involved in a long drawn litigation with one member who has broken all rules of the society but is unwilling to settle otherwise.  There are friends who have been in court for decades over property matters that do not seen to ever see conclusions.

Wikipedia has a long list of miscarriage of justice which, to say the least, is shocking.

“Time is the justice that examines all offenders.”

~ Shakespeare in “As You Like It”

This week’s topic for the Two On One Friday Blog Post has been suggested by me.  Please do go over to Shackman’s blog to see what he has to say on the matter.

Second Childhood!

I ordered for a book on our famous kumbhamela from a leading online merchant.

I received an odd looking parcel and I wondered if one of the children had ordered for something else. On opening however I found this inside.

I complained to the merchant who has promptly arranged for a refund after taking this back but, I got  a good deal of ribbing from my son and daughter in love for ordering for this book.

Since my grand nephew Finlay and grand niece Josephine love Peppa Pig, I dedicate this post to both of them.

I Am In Awe!

There is an open ground about two hundred meters away from our home where either Manjiree or Ranjan or both take Koko and occasionally  Chutki also, for  exercises in the mornings and evenings. While Chutki goes out with a professional walker twice a day, Koko needs to be taken out by one of them every day.

Koko frolics around while there and is usually very reluctant to come away. She has a couple of friends called Max  and Zimba who play with her with abandon and it is always a sight to watch  them frolicking.

Why am I in awe?

Koko, the brown one,  is totally blind and totally depends on her other senses for her existence. Just look at her spirit for all that big handicap and look at Max in the first video and Zimba in the next  who are so careful with her.

Anticipation.

The image is of a Cricketing batsman anticipating a delivery from the bowler at the other end of the wicket.

This topic has been suggested by Shackman for our weekly Two On One Friday Blog Post. Please go over to his blog to see what he has to say on the topic.

“anticipation

a feeling of excitement about something that is going to happen in the near future:
As with most pleasures, it’s not so much the experience itself as the anticipation that is enjoyable.
The postponement of the film’s sequel has held cinemagoers in eager anticipation for several months.”
~ Cambridge Dictionary.

Having no wild or even tame oats to sow any more, I have little to look forward to in my life in anticipation for something that is likely to happen in the near or distant future.  On a daily basis I have three things that I anticipate and I have one long term anticipation.

My day inevitably starts with anticipation for the arrival of the daily newspapers. Once I have organised myself comfortably and settled down to read them, the mood changes to various emotions. Disgust, happiness, anxiety, pity, sorrow, joy etc, depending on what the contents convey. While I am going through all those emotions for about an hour and a half, there is an undercurrent of anticipation for the settling down to solving my daily quota of crossword puzzles.

The next thing I anticipate is my afternoon siesta with the hope that I do not get disturbed by visitors or telephone calls.  By and large I am satisfied with the time I do get for it but, occasionally, courier delivery men will disturb and that disturbs my equilibrium somewhat.

The last thing I anticipate is a good night’s sleep and I inevitably get it.

In the long term, I anticipate a simple death having already lived eight years beyond our national average life expectancy for men,  and I regularly use two Vedic prayers.

ॐ त्र्यम्बकं यजामहे सुगन्धिंम् पुष्टिवर्धनम् ।उर्वारुकमिव बन्धनान् मृत्योर्मुक्षीय मामृतात् ।।

Om Tryambakam(pronounced as Trayambakai) Yajamahe Sugandhim pushtivardhanam; Urvaarukamiva bandhanaan Mrityormuksheeya maamritaat.

“We worship the three-eyed One (Lord Siva) who is fragrant and who nourishes all beings; may He liberate me from death, for the sake of Immortality, even as the cucumber is severed from its bondage (of the creeper).”

अनायासेन मरणं विनादैन्येन जीवनं ।
देहि मे कृपया शम्भो त्वयि भक्तिं अचन्चलं ॥

Anaayesaena maranam ,Vinaa dhainyaena jeevanam
Daehi mae Kripayaa shambho ,Thvaya bhakthim achanchalam

Meaning : Requesting Lord Shiva to kindly grant three wishes:-

  • To give a peaceful death without any bodily troubles to me or others
  • A life without any trouble for the basic needs
  • Total Bhakti to Lord shiva.

Some three decades ago, my Guru instructed me on Action and Outcomes. The gist is that there are four possible outcomes for any action taken – 1. Get what is expected; 2. Get more than what is expected; 3. Get less than what is expected and 4. Get something totally different to what was expected.

The trick in living a life of balance and comfort is in accepting that any of these four outcomes are possible and accepting whatever comes out of our actions as what we deserve at that particular point of time.

This clip explains that well and it gives me great pleasure in sharing it with my readers.

Courtesies.


As my readers know, I am a newspaper addict and I wait for my dose of them every morning with bated breath. As soon as I hear the newspaper boy drop them outside the door to our flat, I stop doing whatever I am doing to go over, open the door and retrieve them.

A little explanation. We have two doors to our flat, one solid wooden inside and a screen mesh one outside. We had installed the outside one as an added protection when we first moved in here almost thirty years ago as, then our neighbourhood was in the boondocks and still being developed. The problem with the outside screen door is that it opens out to the landing from where the stair case to go up to the first and second floor flats start.

After the newspapers are dropped off outside our door, the young man charges upstairs to both the floors to drop off papers for the four flats there. On his return, often it happens that I have to wait for him to pass before I can fully open the outside door so that it does not hamper his exit. When he sees this, he inevitably bends down, picks up the papers from the floor dusts them off and hands them over to me with a cheerful “good morning” and when I thank him, with a “you are welcome” and pushes off.

This morning, he went one step further. He must have seen me sitting in our veranda having my morning mug of tea and so decided to come over to the outside of the veranda and handed over the papers to me through the grill. I was overwhelmed. He is not on my payroll nor do we have a relationship other than the morning greetings whenever we meet each other.

Remarkable, in these times of break neck speed and hurry to spare such thoughts and extend a small but meaningful courtesy to a senior citizen. All that I could do was to mentally give him my blessings for his thoughtfulness. May his tribe increase.

That exchange led me to dig out this clip by Simon Sinek to look at the real world.  This morning was my porcelain cup for just the reason that I am a senior citizen!