Poet, his hard time and his wisdom

There was once a poet who fell upon such hard times that he was no longer able to feed his family. Hearing that the king greatly encouraged talent and was famed for his generosity, the poet set off for the royal palace. When brought before the king, he bowed low and asked that he may recite a poem. On hearing his recitation, the king well pleased, asked him to name his reward.
The poet pointing to the finely wrought chessboard before the king said “your highness” if you place just one grain of rice on the first square of this chessboard and double it for every square, I will consider myself well rewarded.” “Are you sure?” asked the king, greatly surprised.
“So it shall be” ordered the king and his courtiers started placing the grain on the chessboard. One grain on the first square, 2 on the second, 4 on the third, 8 on the fourth and so on. By the time they came to the tenth square they had to place 512 grains of rice. The number swelled to 5,24,288 grains on the 20th square. When they came to the halfway mark, the 32th square the grain count was 214,74,83,648- that is over 214 crores ! Soon the count increased to lakhs of crores and eventually the hapless king had to handover his entire kingdom to the clever poet. And it all began with just one grain of rice.
So what do we understand from this story: Never underestimate the power of compounding. If you stay invested long enough it will work for you. Sometimes though initially the journey seems tiring and impossible task to complete but continuous effort towards achieving it ensures our success. So the most important thing in our life is one step towards our objective.
You all find in this blog an advertisement about a company engaged in microfinance and rural financing. I urge you all to go through it and have a feel of it. Wish you happy reading.

Ravana and his problems

We hear people referring to men accused of horrific crimes as "Ravanas". The lankan king has long been the recipient of Hindu invectives. But Ravana didn't do the kind of things these men are alleged to have done. As for his wickedness, could there be extenuating circumstances? He had to go around lugging nine useless heads along with a single functional one- that may be why he became frustrated and mean. Consider that when one of the heads caught a cold or sneezed. It was hell for the others. He could not turn sideways without major contortions. If one head turned all had to turn. If the heads had quarraled, they didnot cooperate, leading to schisms between the ranks. With four on the left and five on the right of the central one ,he overbalanced when he walked to the side with more heads. He couldnot visit friends because he couldnot get his heads through their doorways. With all those heads curling up in the bed was practically impossible. Lying on the back all the time ,he developed a serious spondylosis. All 10 snored, generating a twister that sucked in the countryside.
At meantime, his two hands couldnot reach far enough to all the mouths. Atleast four would go hungry. Only the central head had an oesophagus, the rest were probably connected to it, but he could have had just the one stomach. Each might have enjoyed a different type of food : murg massalam, aloo paratha, baigan-bharta ,biryani, naan, dosa.... The gastronomic assault dried up his gastric juice and created ulcers. As for alcohol, with just one peg each, 600cc went into the stomach at once. Nowonder why he seemed to be drunk most of the time. Romance was out. If one bent forward to kiss a girl, the other nine jealous guys must have frustrated him by puuling back just as he puckered up. So, two might be better than one but 10 heads lead to anrchy.

Never thought of Bechara Ravana this way. I sure feel sorry for him.

Donkey and its master

I liked this story very much. This story was told by shri Azim Premji during Annual Convocation of IIM,Ahmedabad.

One day a farmer's donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried
piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally he
decided the animal was old and the well needed to be covered up anyway it
just wasn't worth it to retrieve the donkey. He invited all his neighbors to
come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and begin to shovel
dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and
cried horribly. Then, to everyone's amazement he quieted down. A few shovel
loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well and was astonished at
what he saw. With every shovel of dirt that fell on his back, the donkey was
doing some thing amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up. As the
farmer's neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he
would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as
the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and totted off!

So this donkey amazed me by changing at the time when it was needed most.

cat and mouse

It seems to be another tom & jerry flick which it isn't. I am often asked by friends that why among a set of say 100 failure cases, someone evolves as a winner for the first time in life after a considerable set of failures.
I may not have an answer but this story may have.

One day a cat was chasing a mouse and was unable to catch it. Another cat was watching this act from a distance. During this chase the mouse entered into a hole where it used to live along with other mouse. There were around 10 cats in the vicinity. So in order to find the mouse the cat started digging and in the meantime the cat which was witnessing the act joined the former cat. They kept on digging with full vigour and determination. Other cats felt their act bewildering and somehow started joining them. The third one had little idea what they were doing but by the time the tenth one joined the foray ,the cats joining later almost lost the plot with someone started digging at places far from the target and someone doing something different. Soon they started playing among themselves. But the two cats kept on pursuing what they were doing. After a few minutes other cats left the place ,but they remained undettered. Soon they found themselves amidst the family of mouse and had so much to eat that they did not need to worry for considerable amount of time.

What does it tell us?
Why only two of the cats successful?
Answer to these question are the same as the answer to question asked by many of my friend mentioned in the start of this post.

Love and Anger

While a man was polishing his new car, his 5-yr old son picked a stone and scratched on the side of car. In anger, the man took the child's hand and hit it so many times. After realizing he was using a wrench, he took the child to hospital. At the hospital, the child lost all his fingers due to multiple fractures. When the child saw his father with painful eyes, he asked, "Dad, when will my fingers grow back ?" The man was so hurt and speechless, he went back to the car and kicked it many times. Sitting in front of the car he looked at the scratches; the child had written-"LOVE YOU DAD". Next day, the man committed suicide.
Anger and love have no limits.
We all know that- "Things are to be used and people are to be loved"
But the problem today- "People are used and things are loved"

Everyday Stories

Hi,
Came up with this blog to share day-to-day pushing and popping.
Every day in our life has a story to tell- a story which makes us feel light , which shares our embarrassments, and more importantly which lays a path to learn something.
Coming up here is something which is a blend of joy & despair, spirit & nervousness, standing up straight & faltering we experience everyday.
So, welcome to a story called Life.