Saying Yes to life

I have been associated with LIYA - Life Yessense Academy for about 2 years and have met many people with extreme positivity towards life. Two days back I came across a friend, Tanweer Alam, from my college REC Warangal and everything else seemed so small. This friend of mine is suffering from cancer and is being treated in CMC Vellore.

Last time I met him in Lifestyle, Begumpet, Hyd when he got admission in IIMB. Though we were not very close friends, we interacted casually while having coffee. I had a pony tail at that time, so he did make some funny comments :-) He mentioned his mail-id and it was very funny. I don't remember exactly, but it had some words like pagla.. baawra etc. Two days back I was just going through blog pages of my friends in orkut friend list and something caught my eye. it was the word "chemo". I had never though I will find reference to this word in relation with any of my acquaintances. I started reading further. Though it was clear, I was not able to accept the fact and kept on reading further just to make sure that my understanding is not incorrect. Yes, he is suffering from cancer. He has been putting every details on blog pages, every day. How it was caught.. how it was ignored initially.. how the treatment started.. what all happened in each stage of treatment... the caustic nature of medicines... side effects of treatment.... effect of the ailment itself... etc etc. And he is accepting everything with so much of positivity, God is bound to bless him and he would walk out of his hospital.

If people start taking life with so much of positivity, life will become a bliss. If you get a chance, do read at http://baawara.blogspot.com and pray God for his fast recovery.

His story reminds me of another person Morris Goodman. If you can manage some more time, please read at http://www.themiracleman.org/index2.htm and watch the movie sometime.

May God bless Tanweer.

I am selfish !!!

Yesterday I was little upset as my last two classes didn't go very well. I was upset by seeing attendance of participants. I started feeling, why the hell I am doing all these things for people who are least bothered about it. In the start of the class itself, I got disturbed and couldn't carry it forward very well.

I went back to Raviji and shared my feelings with him. He thought for a while. Then he asked me why is it disturbing me; Why am I doing these programs; for whom I am doing this etc etc. My first answer was "I want people to know about the great knowledge about child development". Then, Raviji asked me to think again and answer. I thought for a while. My mission for this program was I will make everyone around me know about this knowledge before my child comes in this world. Ravij said, "yes, you are doing it for yourself, and for no one else. You want to improve yourself and that's why you are taking these classes regularly. So, how does it matter as how many people are coming to your classes? Even if one person comes, it is nice to see that at least this person has come to learn. If you can help him and he in turn helps you to learn further, isn't that wonderful?" After haring to all these things, I was quiet. I was thinking. Yes, this is very true. I am very selfish and I see my benefit even in helping others. and, I am proud of it.

Later in the night, I was thinking why people get married. Normal thinking is, they will make each other's life better. But, I think it is little different. people get married to make their life better with the help of other person. And this is true for both the partners. If people get married with this thought, I am sure rest of the life will be a true joyride. This is my thought and it doesn't mean I have followed this all through my life. No, I was fool earlier and spoilt lot of time in discussing with my wife about expectations etc etc. But, now I am awake and see this relationship in new light. I married her just make my life better. And the sooner she realizes this, the earlier we will feel blessed. Well, I will take care of my part that I am not intending to help or change her. Let her find the help for her from my life. Nevertheless, humans are social animals and social life does require helping, encouraging etc each other time to time. This makes life easier and enjoyable.

All said and done, I am selfish and I am proud of it.

Lobster

Date: 27-Oct-2006 (posting it late)

Place: CA

Well I had reduced eating non-veg food on Apr-20, 2006. But, after coming to US, first I had Sushi. It was kind of repeat, but I liked it this time too. We went to Tokie's kitchen in Foster City with the whole team and it was fun. I had Sushi with chopsticks. It was thrilling and quite an interesting one too ! This all happened on Oct-26, lunch time.

Then today, Oct-27, we went to Lobster Shack to have lobster. While going, I had this strange kind of feeling.. “Wack... I am going to eat lobster?!? It looks so dirty! How would I eat that !?! ” With lots of courage, or say hiding the fear of eating that when Sherry asked which one you want to order, I guess I didn’t have an answer and I said that I don't know anything. So, anything would be fine. Then she explained me few things in the menu and then I ordered some roll. That's essentially a sandwich. Lobster pieces are sandwiched between the buttered bread and then that's it. After the order, I went over to the aquarium and took some pics of live lobsters. It was fun. (Pic 1,2,3)

By the time I am back to the table, food is served. And, it doesn't look as dirty as I had imagined. (Pic 4)

I again took some pics of the food and tasted it. It was good. Specially, meat after 6 months was interesting. I don't know what my wife will say when she comes to know that I had meat. Actually, in past I had declined numerous times that I am not gonna eat meat and that's why she used to be mad at me. I don't know what will I say when I am back.

While eating, Allen asked me to taste the extra hot sauce. It's been quite some time since I have stopped eating hot stuff, especially chilies. I was scared, but tasted it. I didn’t feel the pinch. Then I took more this time and thought at least now it will hit me. But, I was disappointed. It was not as hot as I expected it to be.

Later, and idea was floated that we should have a full lobster also. Finally, Sid went and ordered a full lobster, steamed one. We were all waiting for it to come. It took sometime and we were all eagerly waiting. Now it comes. Now it comes... but it doesn't. Then, suddenly we see someone serving a full lobster on another table and Sid remembers that he ordered right after them. Hummmm…... so, next is our order and it will come anytime. Hold your breath and here comes the full lobster. Wow…. it was red and pretty big. I was so excited that I started taking pics. We took pics with the steamed lobster.

Pic 5,6,7,8

Meanwhile, we were served aprons that we needed to tie. I didn’t understand why that was needed. Then, a paper chart showed how to eat lobster. It had all the steps , such as.. how to cut, where to snap first, which tool to use etc etc. A real helpful one. You can see that in the picture. We first took out the claws. One myself and one Sid. Then we took the tool and crushed the shell. It spilled juices all around. Now I understood why the aprons! Then we took out the meat and had it. Next is the turn of tail. When Sid was breaking the tail portion we took the video and it was a great experience. Lobster juice was all around the table. But, it didn't stop. We continued the operation and then Sid was pushing out the meat from lobster tail with the help of a fork like tool. It didn't help much. What the hellll... Le me take the fork and then..... here it comes. Whole meat came out. We put that on the plate and Allen cut that in pieces. We took the pieces, dipped in melted butter and had it. It was tasty ! Now only two things are left - Eight legs and the body. Allen, snapped the legs and we had to suck the juice and meat out of it. It was fun. Then, Body shell was ripped apart and meat was taken out. The look was…….. yuck. I would never eat that ! It was awful. Allen said, " it is very tasty." I gathered some courage and tasted it. Yummy, it was tasty ! Then, we finished the meat of part of it. I was completely thrilled !

Someone said, "let's take this for Sunil". Wow.. that's an awesome idea ! Allen took the corn piece and tried to stuff inside the body shell.

O..Oooo.. it doesn't go.

Let me rip it apart and then push the corn in. Finally, corn inside a lobster shell. Sounds like an interestingly wicked idea ! We wrapped this with the apron and made a nice parcel.

We drove back to office and came back to Sunil's place. We handed over the parcel to Sunil and by that time I was already taking the video. Sunil took it as opened it. We had so much of fun there. We took pictures with the lobster shell. And... and then lunch time is over. We got back to work.

I was so thrilled that I decided to pen it down. And that's how this blog came out.

Ciao until I experience something new again.

Cheers



Here are the pictures.

Pic 1,2: Lobster in the aquarium

Pic 3: Sid with Lobsters Pic 4: Lobster sandwich served

Pic 5: Whole Lobster served Pic 6: Sherry and Sid

Pic 7: Allen and Myself Pic 8: All four

Motivation

Date: 10-Feb-2007
Time: 10:00PM

As usual, I had ISP class from 5:00PM to 8:30PM. I finished the class and was coming back with Vaibhav Mathur (one of my friends and an ISP participant too) and his wife, Pooja. Pooja was asking me about how to keep the motivation up to practice whatever parents learn in ISP. My answer was, one can observe small small changes in life, especially with their children. These changes will keep their life alive! Then she shared one experience of hers. It happened today only. Her son (little more than one year) got up in the morning started talking something. Then they took him to bathroom for su-su. After that, the child said," papa... potty.. bathroom". They got worried that this guy has already done potty as was his habit earlier. They checked and found it otherwise. Then, they took him to bathroom and made him sit there and the child did potty. Both Vaibhav and Pooja were so happy that they could change this habit to a good one using techniques they learned in ISP.

They had earlier shared with me that there son use to cry when they used to go to office. Now, after practicing for just one week, when they say that they are going to office, he says bye and closes the door behind. Not only that, he doesn't cry after that as he used to do earlier.

I was sharing with them what keeps me motivated. Parents like Vaibhav and Pooja call me and share their experiences and joy with me. After listening to such experiences, I feel I am really doing a good job, and not wasting my and others time, in the society by spending time and spreading the knowledge that I got from Raviji and Gayathri Ma. Many parents attend the program and go back and forget everything. I feel, even if they get just 1% also and do something good for their child, I have done a good job. This motivates me to go further and call them and motivate them further by reminding them about higher possibilities.

I know, I haven't been able to spread the knowledge to the extent I had thought of. But, this is not the end of it. I take it as just started. I am sure, I will be able to reach to bigger group of parents and share this knowledge with them and motivate them to develop the future generation in better and better ways possible.

cheers

Reference:
1. More details about ISP can be found at http://infant-ssy-program.blogspot.com
2. Next batch of ISP is starting in Hyderabad on Mar-4-2007. Interested parents can get in touch with me at 98490 76190.