So You See Him…

A busy road in the city…the sidewalks too, men and women in a hurry to get wherever.

And, here this young man, well-dressed, spiritedly selling towels…switching easily from Tamizh to Hindi to English.  

I watched him for a while from a distance. Curious, walked up and engaged him.

Was surprised to learn he worked for a well-known IT firm!

Looked at him quizzingly: Then what was he doing here?

Well, passing by, he had observed this man trying to sell his stuff to people who wouldn’t pause to take their breath…obviously tired from the effort.

Moved by his plight, the young man wanted to do something for him – he offered him some money.  The old man was too proud to accept.

So here he is…doing the next best thing he could think of – standing in the place of the old man and selling his wares!

End

‎Source: Elango Velur Thiruturaipoondi Tiruvarur‎ to இயற்கை மற்றும் பசுமை

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Who Is The Sharpest?

Knives, Daggers, Swords, Arrows…

were all squabbling

over who causes the most hurt.

Words at the back

sat smiling.

 

End

 

 

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Arundhati Takes On The Redoubtable Vishwamitra!

Stories in ancient Indian scriptures, legends and myths include a good number of women and instances when they bested the men in the battle of wits. The one readily coming to our mind is Savitri retrieving her husband from the jaws of certain death defeating Yama. And there was Gargi (800 BCE) questioning Yajnavalkya, the first philosopher in the Upanishads, Draupadi in Mahabaratha arguing her case like an attorney when she was dragged to the court of Duryodhana…While ancient text of Rig Veda, it’s said, mentions some twenty 20+ poetesses, the Sangam literature in the south is not far behind with 25+ poetesses living in its time 2000 years ago! One of the best known poetess Avvaiyar was bold enough to challenge the powerful Tamil kings. More recently, some 800 years ago(!), there was Lilavati, the renowned mathematician and astronomer Bhaskaracharya II’s daughter, teaching her father’s students math and astronomy and earning so much recognition to even get her own gurukul.

This morning I heard this delightful story on TV told by Shri Anantapadmanabha Swamy, an eminent scholar associated with Ahobila Mutt. Did not readily find any reference in Google in a cursory search except for one site Tamil and Vedas already known to me as an inexhaustible storehouse of information of this kind.  The story here on Arundhati, the wife of Sage Vasishta, is drawn from these two sources, using some parts of text verbatim from the latter:

On one occasion, Vasishta had to perform a shrardha, a ritual dedicated to one’s forefathers (a practice followed by many even today though not with the originally prescribed austerity and rigor), mothers included.

As part of the ritual, a few guests are invited to participate and are provided, at the completion, with meals based on a prescribed menu allowing for a certain latitude. Acting symbolically as forefathers themselves, these guests are special, required to observe diligently certain austerities before and after the shrardha to preserve its sanctity.

And poor Vasishta searched high and low and yet wasn’t successful in finding the right person. As a last resort he approached Sage Vishwamitra who had a long-running feud with the former.

Vishwamitra heard him out and gladly agreed to be a guest on one condition. And, what was the condition? He must be served 1008, yes, 1008 side-dishes! Impossible to satisfy! Vasishta returned to his ashram crest fallen not knowing what next.

Arundhati gently inquired what had happened. Vasishta sadly admitted to his inability to find a right person, finally his request to Vishwamitra and how the latter did not make it easy, stipulating an impossible condition for his presence during the ritual.

Thence she assured her husband there was no cause to worry and asked him to invite the rishi stating his condition was acceptable. After all what could be better than having the great Sage Vishwamitra at the shrardha! But how? Vasishta felt quite apprehensive for the rishi was not one to be trifled with – on finding his condition not met, he was sure to fly into uncontrollable rage and cast some abominable curse on both of them. Nevertheless, faced with no alternative, he went ahead and invited the rishi agreeing to his strange condition.

On the day of shrardha, Vishwamitra came and sat at the dining place. To his chagrin he saw only 10+ curries on the plate (plantain leaf). When he angrily questioned, Vasishta, directed him to Arundhati as she was in charge of the ceremony.

Wondering (audibly) if the venerable sage did not know or pretending not to know what the shastra’s (rule-books) said in this regard, Arundhati responded citing a relevant shloka (couplet):

कारवल्लि शांत चैव वज्र वल्लि शतत्रयं
पनसं षट् शतंचैव श्रार्धकाले विधीयते

Kaaravalli satam chaiva vajra valli satatrayam
Panasam shat satam chaiva sraardhakaalE VidhiiyatE

Meaning: “Karela/bitter gourd served on the occasion of a shrardha is equal to 100 items, pirandai equal to 300 items and jack fruit equal to 600 items – thus is the rule set out for the ceremony.”

Pirandai (Cissus quadrangularis)

Jack Fruit (Panasam)

She had served these three vegetable dishes along with 8 more items on the plate. So it came to 1008 items!

There wasn’t much of a counter left for Vishwamitra to say or do but go along to complete the meal and the ritual.

End

 

 

Sources: tamilandvedas.com/2014/06/09/arundhati-wins-vishwamitra-defeated/ and neevmagazine.co.in/lilavati-the-mathematician/

 

Osho Says…

 

End

Jottings From The US: Anytime Is A Good Time!

 

Though it has to do with our recent the trip to US, strictly speaking, this is more about after our return.

I finished my chores in the market and finally planted myself before her usual busy self in her office.

Despite feeling a little dizzy after a sleepless night on the flight, I had not lost my cool. Making light of it, I said: ‘Out there, I bragged how efficient you guys were and then…you let me down.’

‘Why, why? What happened?’

I knew she knew she had goofed – she had not got me an aisle-side seat for me as expressly requested. Also, she had not acknowledged or apologized for it when I brought it to her notice later by email a couple of days ago.

A few more words exchanged – all polite. She came up with some clumsy explanation about how sometimes airlines on their own alter the seat allocations subsequently – the look on my face would have screamed aloud ‘I’m not buying it’.

Ending the brief conversation – the point was already driven home – I brought out the real reason of my visit to her office: ‘Here’s a small ‘thanks’ for your efforts…our trip went off well.’

Believe me, it was genuinely felt and said without the slightest trace of sarcasm, not letting the goof-up detract from the larger picture.

A look of surprise. She took the bag from me, glanced for a moment at the contents – a packet of 20+ pieces a well-known brand of chocolates, and put it away under her seat, mumbling her ‘thanks’.

Nothing else on the agenda to go with, I took off.

Well, out there you may be wondering what am I doing in the first place with a travel agent in these ‘digital’ days. They are still in business, I suppose, chiefly because of people like us – we never travel on the tickets bought first time. There’s always at least one round, if not more, of cancellation and rebooking. And in this regard I’m not comfortable dealing online with the airlines direct with their maze of ‘this but not that’ in small print I cannot or simply fail to read on the screen – blame it on my faulty vision, impatience or sheer ‘illiteracy’ – causing untold woes, not mentioning those numerous action-packed and cost-loaded little boxes, scattered all around threatening to cause havoc if left (un)ticked. Take what happened this time, for instance: our return travel was – no big surprise here – rescheduled just a few days before the journey, at not an insignificant expense, and that’s when she had goofed on seat allocation while doing right and very right on other counts of budget and dates.

Have I always been doing it?

Well, truth be told, never before. Though, I traveled quite a bit in my long years of employment and less frequently thereafter in retirement. The closest I ever came to: During Diwali, our travel agent, true to the local business custom, always brought me gift-boxes of premium sweets. And my family loved sweets! The boxes were unfailingly turned over to the insiders staffing the travel-desk. Never took one home after some initial learning.

So what if I had never done it before? Anytime is a good time, I think. What do you say?

Would I continue to do so in future? Let’s see.

Why did I write about it here? The purpose would be more than served well if, as a result, at least one more agent somewhere receives grateful acknowledgement of his/her efforts with regard to arranging a good work or pleasure trip for a customer.

End

 

 

 

 

Source: image from travelguideindia.org