My Dear Son - Book 2 (English)



  Contents

  1. Theme: Never say a lie

  Story: Lies can lead to a loss too.

  2. Theme: Friendship & love are illusions

  Story: Three friends

  3.Theme: Do not befriend those who are stronger than you! Story: Crcodile and monkey

  4.Theme: Feeling Inferior is foolish.

  Story: Crow and Fox

  5. Theme: Stratagize your moves.

  Story: An Intelligent Crow

  6. Theme: Trust in God, but.....

  Story: The merchant lost his camel

  7.Theme: Theme: Delegation of responsibility.

  Story: The merchat’s nightmare.

  8. Theme: Donot chase unachioevable targets

  Story: The wise Fox

  9. Theme: Leading an impeccable life.

  Story: Snake in the town:

  10. Theme: Lies with good intentions.

  Story: A LIE told with good intentions.

  11. Theme: Live your life, rather than preparing for a living.Story: How much you need for your life?

  12. Theme: Don’tcheat and don’t get cheated.

  Story:Inauspicious tree. (Superstitions)

  13. Theme: Don’tcheat others and don’t get cheated.

  14.Theme: Clinging. Story: African Monkeys.

  15. Theme: Freebie, enslavesStory: Receive millions for free

  16. Theme: Punishments are indispensable in life.

  Story: Good father.

  17.Theme: Delayed punishments are dangerous

  Story: Bad father

  18. Theme: Taking credit for someone’s eff

  Story: Saint

  19. Theme: Be a Roman in Rome

  Story:

  20. Theme: Poverty is not, as bad as it was thought to be

  Story: God interviewed by a correspondent

  21. Theme: Sample of fraudulant emails

  Introduction

  Dear son,

  This is the second book I am writing, for you and the generation next, to benefit from. While some of the stories I write in this series were handed down to us by our ancestors I will be adding a few of my own experience so that the stories and messages reflect the current life scenario.

  While we travel we made it a point to have some discussion or the other on life and events.

  During these discussions, we realized that every one of us held divergent views in most topics. That is, we realized the existence of several realities and all of them were valid in ones own situation. There we learnt to accept other’s view without seeing through our own narrow views.

  I am sharing with you, in this book, theessence of those discussions along with some stories. Why stories?

  We might forget the theme with the passage of time. But stories stick around the mind for longer time.

  You will do well to share, these themes and stories, with friends and colleagues whenever you find an occasion.

  When you are on a family trip or a holiday evening with my grand children, make it a point to tell as many themes and stories they can listen and internalize.

  N Natarajan Bangalore

  Introduction

  My, unforgettable, Hyderabad days!

  You may remember the days, while I was working in Hyderabad and you grewup from primary school student to science graduate.

  Out of those twenty plus years, for close to six years, myself and my colleagues commuted between home and office in a chartered van. It took 45 minutes to an hour one way. During that 45 Minutes, we discussed a variety of issues starting with domestic violence to world wars, Office politics and national politics, stock markets to World Bank transactions. other common topics of discussion are Literary discussions, Religion, Spirituality, Poetry, quiz, pun and stories. The list is quite long.

  The narration and short stories you find aare a few important ones among what we discussed.

  Every day would be a special day. Some times people who do not travel in our route regularly opt to travel with us, for the fun that could be found nowhere else.

  Some one traveling in the van asked one day, “who is Van Hussain?” Several people in the van answered in one voice. “It is simple. It is a brand name of trousers! It could be the promoter of the brand”.

  The man who asked the question, said, “You are all wrong”. He continued, “It is our new driver of this van, called Hussein”.

  Some times we had some problems too.

  While we returned to our homes in the evening, I would be among the last couple of commuters.

  As the people alight on the way we remove our footwear / shoes. Fold our legs to the seat and chit chat.

  One evening, as the van arrived at my stop it was already dark and I slipped my feet into a pair of footwear and reached home.

  Hardly ten minutes went by. The phone at home, rang. There was an angry voice at the other end. For some time I did not understand what his problem was.

  He directed me to see if I have a complete pair of my chapels. I said, yes I wore and walked home. Then I discovered, I have one of my chapels exchanged with his.

  I told him coolly, don’t worry we will rectify the mistake on the following day.

  I had no problem walking with different footwear in each foot. May be, it could invite the attention of some on the way. It does not matter to me at all. Some might laugh. A few others might remember that incidence for a few more days.

  But my friend, I understand, cannot take any of these.

  On the following day, he wore a fresh pair of footwear and packed one of my footwear in a news paper. That packet was brought in a plastic cover.

  The following morning and evening, this incident was discussed and the van was filled with laughter. There was different perspective to that incidence. It was found that only two out of 14 persons had no problem in walking with such a pair of chapels.

  Rest of them were feeling too awkward to walk such a pair of footwear appear as a joker.

  We discussed various ways and means of diverting others attention from our feet (with different designs of foot wear).

  It was one of the most hilarious discussions we have had in the van.

  1. Theme: Never say a lie: Know this:

  During my professional life I had occasion to understand what people felt about living a virtuous life. There are very few believed in it. Many believe that there should not be a rigid frame work for leading the life. Typical opinion expressed by many people I sampled, can be summarized as follows.

  (1) Speaking lies are inevitable in life.

  (2) It is perfectly all right to say a lie to avoid a punishment or to tide over a difficult situation.

  (3) It is profitable to tell lies.

  (4) One can entertain others with lies.

  (5) For some, lies are breath. They need no motives.

  Unfortunately, many are unaware the truth that:

  (1) Lies bring about losses and some times disasters.

  (2) There are an insignificantly small number of people who live only by Truth. Such people may have no great skills. Yet they are in

  demand.

  (3) Consciously, practice talking only truth in every situation. You will discover the benefits and you will never say a lie again.

  Advice:

  (1) Decide today that you will not say a lie, in any situation. Well, there are some situations when you speak a truth it could affect some one seriously. Do not speak the truth but do not lie.

  You need to be conscious of this for some days and perhaps a few months. Then you will find that not saying a lie would have become your nature. There is no need to announce it to
any one. The moment you do, many would be tempted to test you. You will have time only to go through the tests and nothing else.

  There after, you will never look back.

  There are not many stories that highlight the ill-effects of living by lies. The following story will do that. The story originates from Persia. To my surprise, the similar stories of Romanian origin are no different in its contents. This convinces, good judges and rich people who lie are common in every age and place.

  Theme: Never Say a lie. STORY 1

  Poor man and the rich merchant.

  It was a busy noon in the largest market place in the capital. People come from far away places for both buying and selling. The merchandise is brought on camel backs as well as donkey’s.

  A poor man, called Ahmed, was living by working as a porter for merchants in the market. Ahmed is a simple person who works hard and a believer in God.

  As we were wading through the crowd, he stumbles on an object on one of the narrow passages in the market. He bent down to pick the obstacle on the road to leave on the side of the walk. He found it was a leather money bag. Only very rich merchants own such big purse. He opened and found a large number of Gold coins in it.

  While he was wondering who would have lost it, an announcer, was making the following announcement:

  A merchant, Sheik.......... has lost his purse in market. Any one who found and return would be rewarded ten Gold coins. For poor people like Ahmed, ten Gold coins were huge money.

  Ahmed approached the announcer and told him that he had found the purse. He requested the announcer, to lead him to the merchant who lost the purse.

  On seeing Ahmed carrying his lost purse, the sheik’s face lit-up. He took the purse and counted the coins. Ahmed was waiting for the reward that was announced. Sheik turned his face and pretended to be busy with his work. Ahmed after waiting for some time reminded the sheik that he is waiting for the reward.

  Now the sheik kept a cold face. He bluntly told Ahmed that he will not give any reward. He said, “Before the Chief of the soldiers come to market, vanish from here. Otherwise I will complain to him that you have stolen 100 gold coins from my purse”.

  “You will be jailed for ever”, threatened the Sheik. Poor Ahmed took the case to the Sultan.

  The subjects of the country revered their ruler, known as Sultan for being both just and extremely intelligent.

  Sheik and Admed were summoned to present their case. Ahmed told whatever happened in the market place. He pleased that the Sheik not only did not keep up his promise but threatened him to get him arrested and jailed.

  It was the turn of the Sheik. Sheik agreed that the purse was lost in the market and Ahmed located and brought to him. But, Sheik said, “When I counted the coins in it, instead of 200 Gold Coins, there were only

  100 in it”. “He should have taken that 100 gold coins”. I did him a favor of not handing over to Chief of Soldiers, because he was poor.

  It did not take even a minute for the Sultan to understand the problem. He delivered his judgment, as follows. The judgment, you will find, is logical and indisputable.

  My subjects do not lie. I accept the versions given by Ahmed as well as Sheik.

  If Ahmed was a dishonest person, he could have kept all the coins to himself. He did not do it.

  The Sheik found only 100 gold coins instead of 200. This establishes the fact that the purse found by Admed is not what Sheik lost. So, he ordered Sheik to hand over the purse with 100 Gold coins to Admed and instructed his Chief of Security to investigate the missing purse of Sheik.

  Ahmed received a reward more than he was promised. The greedy Sheik lost all that came back to him. That is what punishment he received for his lies.

  2. Theme: Love and Friendship are illusions.

  Know this:

  (1) Illusion can be defined a state of mind when an apparently non-existent object of phenomenon appears to exist or an existent Phenomenon appears non-existent.

  (2) Love and friendship is born and die in ones mind.

  (3) It is part of the trick-pack played by nature/ God / a Superior force which easterners understand as Maya, to keep all forms of life in a cycle of Birth- reproduce - Grow - Death.

  (4) While love disappears at some stage in youth, the friendship accompanies man till his end.

  (5) The friend is defined as some one who helps you in case of a difficult situation you face, without seeking a reward or return.

  (6) It is weak among us look at friendship as a Devine intervention to bail themselves out when in trouble. That is the important reason for people to glorify friendship.

  (7) Take any definition of a good friendship, and ask yourself to whom you would be such a good friend. You will not find an answer. Ask as many as you know. None will have.

  The problem is that every one is looking for such an ideal friend, who would be a man Friday for him.

  (8) Very rarely people get along well for a long time. The team of two. There could more reasons for the relationship to last than

  going strictly by the definition of friendship.

  (9)More often, friend ship between two expand into a team. Typically the members will have divergent socio-economic back grounds. Every one looks for some specific aspect of a life, from others. Examples are:

  Money, a shoulder to cry, muscle power, official position, to run errands, sings their praise and so on. When these are met even national, the ties lasts long.

  (10) Most friendship breakup some day leaving bitter feeling among its members.

  When I explained this to my co-travelers in the van, for the first time, many protested violently. A couple of days latter they congratulated me silently. A very good story to illustrate the typical scenario

  Theme: Friendship & love are illusions. Story 2:

  Three friends.

  when there are more than two identifying themselves as friends; it is refereed as friend’s circle. We may have different friend circle at different stages of life and also indifferent life, spheres.

  We will discover that the members of each circle will differ in their personalities and strengths. Some soft, one go getter,a few with deep pockets a few tough guys. More importantly, a strong friend-circle will never have identical personalities.

  Now, we will proceed to the story.

  There lived a Fox in the forest which befriended a donkey in a village adjoining the forest.

  A lion in the forest was also a good friend of the fox. Let us analyze how there can be friendship between the three different species.

  Lion is agile fast and powerful. It hunts its food. The lion in normal healthneeds help from no other animal, for its own survival.

  But yet, it leaves a little from its hunting, for the lesser animals to feast on. Life of lion is not threatened by a fox, is an important aspect.

  Animals like fox have speeds but no (attack) power to hunt its food. Fox depends on lions for its survival. In return animals like fox, said to sing the praise of lion and lion is happy with it. You may call it ego satisfaction.

  Fox has its ego hurt because it has to praise lion for its survival. So reaches the donkey in the village to get its hurt ego healed.

  Donkey needs no one for its survival. It is slow, dull but hard working.

  But donkeys have their unique situation that it does all work with no compensation. So it found a shoulder to cry when fox offered its friendship. In return donkey praised fox for its goodness. Fox sees no threat from donkey, and need to listen to donkey’s tale of woe, whenever it met. Otherwise fox has no real benefit in associating itself with donkey. It is also true that Lions have no purpose served by its association with Fox.

  Friendship between the three continues for long. A situation arose when the friends needed each other, for its survival.

  The lion was injured during a hunting expedition. A few bones broke and a few other bones were dislocated. Lion could not hunt any more. Now both lion and fox starved
without food.

  The hungry lion asked the fox, if it could some how organize some food. Fox was equally in hunger. Suddenly, fox remembered the donkey in the village. It explained the lion. The donkey’s is a useless animal. Its friendship got us no where. Now it is time when donkey’s friendship will come of use.

  Lion was surprised. How come a lazy donkey helps us? Fox explained, “I will bring it here”. You knock it off in one blow. We both will eat it.

  Lion agreed to that idea but demanded to know how to bring the donkey to the forest.

  Fox replied, “It is quite simple”. “Any animal which live in the cities and villages have inherited the weaknesses from humans”.

  “They attach great importance to friendship, which can be exploited”, reasoned the fox.

  “Most importantly they will fall victims to flattery”. “These two are enough to bring them to forest.