Business to the Buddha

Author: KRD Pravin

  • At a crossroad







    Kala Ghoda festival just concluded, in Mumbai. My sister and her four year old daughter – my niece, Chinu – religiously followed the festival. Yesterday was the last day of the festival. I was there for few hours.

    Instead of events, I spent time wandering around. At about 10:30 or so we were about to get back to our car, parked near Westside at Kala Ghoda. My sister looked at a temporary shop of Rajasthani necklace. A flute seller hawker came to us. My niece has already bought a flute, I started seeing flutes. This flute seller was very good with playing flute. He taught us a few thing, in fact he played a raaga and told us its composition Aroh Avroh. Than he told us how to play with different notes and how a Sa, can be played differently.

    My sister came after a while and she made a very strange yet meaningful observation. She said – “Look at the irony of life. Look at the display of Westside – Gourmet. They have displayed exotic foreign brands, especially of hard drinks. Just on the footpath of this display this woman is selling traditional necklace, this fellow playing so wonderful flute and the overall cultural festival of Kala Ghoda. We are literally at the crossroad.”

    We observe rarely, every moment we are at a crossroad. The decisions we make or the market places we obliviously cross in our routine. I have crossed Kala Ghoda numerous times, yet never observed what my sister told me. Few of my friends started their business, they make tough decisions all the time, they cannot be unmindful about their decisions. I know what tough time an entrepreneur goes through in the initial years.

    We are at crossroad; how often we realize it?

  • Arranged marriages







    Yesterday I received a call from unknown number – Hello, is that Pravin? Yes I said. “I’m Ms Gautam [name changed], we connected that time etc”. We talked for about 10 min, that lady (though belonging to the Art of Living community) almost abused many unknown AoL devotees.

    The lady never told name of her daughter. Yes that is true. I was contacted earlier, that time too she circumvented the question. This “arranged marriage” is a strange business – watch video below. Before you select whom you like, you first select he/she should be from which caste, what education and yes even at some place “salary”!? I was watching “Timepass” a Marathi movie recently. Two kids in their teens fall in love watch movie for what happens next. The movie ended with same questions on my face. We decide caste, social status and status first rather than the choice of guy and the girl. Things are very subjective and here goes my story.

    I registered on renowned matrimonial sites of India. I know they are in business, yet their constant push bugged me. It was bit disappointing, when they called me during weekdays. Anyways, what frustrated me using those sites was – stereotypical approach of considering me of one community rather than a prospective educated groom. I have written about it earlier too, especially against hypocrisies of my community – Lingayats.

    I came across two sites and thus deleted my profile at traditional sites. The sites are – ibluebottle.com and ZoobyDooby.com (ZD). Both are different, interesting and refreshing.

    BlueBottle is good but wants salary to be disclosed (seems awkward if one makes selection of bride/groom on salary as first criteria!). Second, you cannot search and connect on BlueBottle. BlueBottle has full personality test; what is the guarantee that someone will be able (intentionally or unintentionally) to answer all subjective questions correctly. On the other hand, ZD has a poor interface and is slow. The positives – BlueBottle puts profession as primary whereas ZD gives you chance to go through profiles. Especially ZD does a wonderful task of matching interests and profile interaction (Facebook profiling) based on an analytical engine. Watch the video how ZD works here.

    Just to give you an example – I follow the Art of Living and first person I see on ZD matches is a devotee of AoL. Is not is surprising and interesting? Let me add – when we search prospective bride/groom, we do it based on what we think we like. However, ZD learns from our social network and helps us interact and discover. Interestingly it’s free!

    I believe we are all born equal (unlike Hinduism’s caste system based divide). I feel good when I see ZD and BlueBottle believing and doing things accordingly. In long run it would help our society to get away from our “preconceived” notions of what we should like and towards what we naturally prefer.

    Disclaimer – company in which I work has invested in ZoobyDooby

  • Morality, who is the judge?







    There is an after life, actions in past life have decided your current birth (Prarabdha) and future life will be a function of what you do in this life time. Does this philosophy remind you of something?

    The above is concept of re-birth, of almost all religion founded in India – be it Buddhism, Jainism or Sikhism no doubt Hinduism too. So, there are many questions around this. Personally, I believe in concept of rebirth but I have not understood the concept fully. What defines morality and who defines it, who and how my actions will be judged for next life? All these questions puzzled me, for few months.

    Just to give you a perspective here are few examples. 1. Say I eat non-veg (I don’t). But I don’t kill, I buy “Godrej” packed chicken. I never killed the chicken, who would take the blame of this killing? The poor fellow who killed that chicken; did it for his survival. Who would judge this situation. 2. A company does experiments on animals comes up with a cancer drug, animals are killed but many human lives are saved (prolonged to be more precise). Who to blame – the patient who fell sick of the disease of cancer (due to his misdeeds), the company (researchers, investors) or whole humanity? 3. Now replace cancer with AIDS. 4. Extra-merital affair, who to blame, if it is consensual who would decide the “punishment” for next life? etc

    I have been wondering about this, who decides what wrong I/someone did for decision on next life etc. At times, I say to myself “forget it! we get fruits of our deeds in this life time only, don’t worry about next life.” Than what happens to the belief of rebirth? Well, these questions are currently beyond me, while puzzled, I came across this video of Sadhguru so hope this question of morality dies here! Which actually has not died yet. May be I’d write on this in future too.


  • Eating for the sake of eating?







    I was reading blog of Thich Nhat Hanh – a Vietnamese Buddhist Monk. It is an irony that I’m an Indian, however this Vietnamese monk introduced me to the Buddha in true sense. I read his book Old Path White Clouds and I came to know the Buddha I know now.

    In his blog – The Value of Being Together when I read the point of Happiness, I remembered an incident of my life, sharing here.

    Once, I went to a restaurant – Annapoorna Bhojanalya – in Indore with one of my friends Vijay Sharma. It is a rajasthani/Gujrati thali style joint at Jail road in Indore. Its quality of food is very good.

    We sat and ordered our thali. I was eating very slowly, not noticing anything. I was enjoying the food. I was completely into the process of eating. Well, may be that is called meditation. After some time (usually time in which a sane person should complete eating his meal) almost every second person was looking at me. I was still eating, slowly and in all likelihood mindfully. On a lighter note, I did not over eat! 🙂

    I remember, while going out after the dinner Vijay told me “…what was happening?” I didn’t understand the question. He said everyone was looking at you the way you were eating. I had no idea what that meant. Well, he completed the sentence by saying – “…that was not in any derogatory terms. Something was different than usual while you were there.” This was what was happening there “…we eat as slow as we can so we can enjoy our freedom. . We can listen to the taste in our mouth.” (from Thay’s blog)

    Do we eating for the sake of it or we’d do this also completely, in meditation?

    Disclaimer– Author is neither Buddhist, nor a seasoned practitioner, just an explorer of the path; not authority on meditation either.

  • Entanglement of a langot (undergarment)







    I heard/read a story when I was a kid, I think in some Osho discourse or book. Well, I have been thinking about writing this for a long time, but I didn’t remember the whole story so I called my gateway of last resort (Ramana Rajgopaul uncleji – he blogs here). “Gateway of last resort” is a Computer Networks term, when every other link fails send data packets to gateway of last resort, is how any router is configured.

    Actually, he is very different person – you (I mean, I) can speak with him on any subject matter (from Sex to Super-consciousness). He guides with different points of views and references (he speaks great sanskrit, speaks Shlokas of different scriptures and mind you – he is an MBA from IIMA OK!). By the way he is 70 year young; young because when I talk to him I feel as if I am an old man, he is full of life as young as a 15 year old can be. Coming back to the story…

    Entanglement

    There was a saint, ascetic. He used to live outside of a village as used to happen in old day India. He owned only 2 langots (Nappies, or undergarments), nothing else. One he used to wear while other is washed. As any Indian saint could be – he was fed by villagers. Once, one of his langot was nibbled by a mouse. So villagers gave him cat to shoo away mouse/mice. In some days our saint realized that he needed to take care of the cat and to feed her he needs something. Villagers gave him a cow for feeding milk to the cat.

    Well, now he needed someone to take care of his cow, he hired someone to take care. The story goes something like this – this hired person needed monthly salary so saint started teaching as well. Slowly, this saint – an ascetic – becomes a family man. This langot converts an ascetic to a family man…

    This is how (may be not because of your undergarment) all worldly entanglements are woven around our life.

    Life is like this, we try to do something and end up doing something else. May be to take care of a langot (business, family, self) your whole focus changes. So, take care of your purpose otherwise you would be entangled such that you would run around in paraphernalia than the focus.

    Oh yes, this story reminded me of Novel by Herman Hesse – Siddharth. Ramana uncleji has also written a story on similar lines here.

    Related blogs –

    What more you need?

    Why are you doing what are you doing?

    Race – never ending

  • Cast(e)ing doubts – Crematoriums in India







    This blog is in the series of blogs on – against – the caste system of India. In the new year once again* I wish some day we would value people on their

    Capabilities and not Caste
    Action and not Ancestry
    Character and not on Color of skin

    Disclaimer – I belong to Lingayat (Veershaiva) community. Here is the blog I wrote on the community I am born in  Cast(e)ing doubts – Lingayats!

    I strongly feel that we need to grow as human race. I am critical about my community but the problem is with all communities in India. As always I wish we would all be more just and value person as a human and not as his/her caste.

    Unfortunately in Sept 2013, I saw a front page news in The Times of India Mumbai edition – “Jaisalmer will have crematorium based on caste“, yes that was front page news. A long way to go for us.

    I feel utterly shocked that even a dead body is considered Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya etc… that is height of stupidity. Thankfully, in Rajasthan, people this time around have voted out such government which could plan to make crematoriums based on caste!

    Hope and wish one day sooner rather than later we would value people on their being what they are rather than what caste they belong to. And specially at least we will consider a dead body, well “a dead body”

    Note *-

    My Barasti Dubai experience – racism

    Other blogs on cast(e)ing doubts

  • Happy New Year 2014






    I received this story on whatsapp last week… thought this is good story to share with you as a possibility of new year resolution. It is a 350 word story, so not more than 5 min to read…

    I still remember – Barasti in Dubai, racist behavior of them. Hope we would learn, sooner than later. I further hope that after reading such simple story people responsible for economic crisis, political crisis across world would change.

    The Suitcase
    A man died, when he realized it, he saw God coming closer with a suitcase in his hand.

    God said: Alright son its time to go.

    Surprised the man responded: Now? So soon? I had a lot of plans…

    God said: I’m sorry but its time to go.

    What do you have in that suitcase? the man asked.

    God answered: Your belongings.

    My belongings? you mean my things, my clothes, my money?

    God answered: Those things were not yours they belonged to the earth.

    Is it my memories? the man asked.

    God answered: those never belonged to you they belonged to Time
    Is it my talents?

    God answered: those were never yours they belonged to the circumstances.

    Is it my friends and family?

    God answered: I’m sorry they were never yours they belonged to the path.

    Is it my wife and son?

    God answered: They were never yours the belonged to your heart.

    Is it my body?

    God answered: that was never yours it belonged to the dust.

    Is it my soul?

    God answered: No that is mine.

    Full of fear, the man took the suitcase from God and opened it just to find out the suitcase was empty.

    With a tear coming down his cheek the man said: I never had anything?

    God answered: that is correct, every moment you lived were only yours. Life is just a moment, a moment that belongs to you. For this reason enjoy this time while you have it. Don’t let anything that you think you own stop you from doing so.

    Live Now

    Live your life

    Don’t forget to be happy, that is the only thing that matters. Material things and everything else that you fought for stay here. YOU CAN’T TAKE ANYTHING

    So this new year why not plan to do everything by just remaining completely in the moment. Enjoy the moment and in terms of actions remember Krishna said “do the work and leave results…”

    कर्मणयेवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन।
    मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि।   2.47 – more on this Shloka of Geeta by another blogger here

    Wish you a Very Happy New Year.

    Related blogs –

    1. Illusion of control

    2. Money worth earning

    3. My New Year wish!

    4. Wake up!

    5. Welcoming’12, Seasons of ’11 and accountability

  • World minus some electronic junk







    I am on leave for a couple of days. So, I went to meet my sister. She had been thinking of buying a mobile for a long time now. Not surprisingly she had at least 3 old handsets, besides 1 working handsets. Alas! we bought one for her.  While on our way to purchase new mobile, I told her – “these things are electronic waste you are keeping with yourself, sell old when buying new one”. Question is – is it a/’the’ solution? Selling & the buyer dumping that cheap plastic somewhere?

    I came across this website (Link – https://phonebloks.com/en) and its product – PhoneBloks in Oct. I signed in to their petition and remembered this is a good solution. The concept is very simple, interesting yet seems difficult to realize. Watch video for more.

    This seemingly simple approach can help resolve problem of electronic junk from the world.

    The other thing that came to my mind was this. What if we look at 24 hours of our day as blocks? We make these blocks as personal time, reading news paper, travel to office, office hours, eating out, weekly purchasing, sleeping, socializing, social networks and “rest of the time”. If we fix these “TIME BLOCKS” in our 24 hours wont it make our life easier to manage? Yes it is tough to squeeze in so many thing, however if a company can try it for Phones why not we try to do it for ourselves?

  • Size of the Universe!







    Once I was walking to office. I saw two carts in little distance, both had guava. One had fresh guava and other had relatively not so fresh once. I instantly thought what if these stale ones have insects and small creatures. A guava for those insects & small creatures must be the world in itself.

    I remembered I ate an apple yesterday, what if it too has such insects? Those insects were nothing in front of me, there must be many such insects within me right now! Few of them must be thinking – “I did this great stuff or that great stuff today” et al. Interesting, isn’t it? For me or you – well we do not even know they exist, forget about their ‘great’ actions.

    What if we are such small insects for someone! We are going across the galaxy and lo! this is another something small for someone. Someone who we don’t even know or imagine that he/she even exists!

    We look at the world with our own speck, yes we create our own world, unaware about small or huge ‘other’ around us!

    Related blogs –

    Ego

    Give up Dominion

  • Butterfly Effect, is it?







    One fine day morning, a very strange thought came in my mind. Whatever we are doing, is it creating any problem in the nature or it is development?

    I shifted to suburb some time back, I found that there is relatively less cleanliness in suburb compared to where I used to live in South Mumbai (SoBo). Almost everyday there used to be swapping of the roads and all. By noon you could not find foliage on the roads. Why did this strange thought of swapping came to mind mind?

    In my suburban apartment a pigeon has made a nest with leafs. The same happens & happened in SoBo apartment too. I have seen at least three (actually five) times the pigeon could not properly hatch the eggs. Whereas I believe the suburban pigeon’s hatching could be better. In SoBo, pigeon’s nests were not as warm as Suburban pigeon’s nest is. This is because SoBo pigeon did not get foliage leafs whereas suburban pigeon did! Three times I observed eggs ended with no baby pigeon because proper warmth was missing! Had I done something for the nest, pigeon wont have accepted it. I tried it once threw some cotton to help him/her.

    So both these pigeon’s a suburban and a SoBo made me think – when we do something for “Good” e.g. swapping for cleaning roads, are we really doing something good for the nature? Who knows!

    Is it butterfly effect – no matter how small, an event can change the course of the universe forever.