After two engagement ceremonies and 800+ km of travel rocked and rolled my last weekend, it was time for blues. The Monday morning blues. A cacophony of alarm, wakeup calls, motivating speeches and dreadful thoughts of impending deadline finally made me see the light of the day. The ever ticking clock showed 10 when I finally relented to the call of duty. When I hit the road all roads seemed to lead me back home. By the time fear showed me the path to my office, my colleagues had almost finished half of their day. Whatever was left of pre-lunch session was effectively killed by reading e-mails and e-newspapers. After a heavy brunch, I started taking stock of things. The work to be finished seemed like a mountain and being true to my homo sapien instincts, I started looking for an escape route. I tried few things to forget work for a while like smoking, gossiping, frequenting toilet, reading news papers etc. but my conscious mind faithfully kept on beaming the picture of impending doom. I finally realized as long as I stay conscious, there is no escape from such nightmarish thoughts. Well…. How about a short nap? I said to myself. Aha sometimes I can be so smart and wise. I quickly opened a command prompt window on my PC and typed “ping –t http://www.google.com/” and maximized the window. My command prompt window started printing messages every second fooling any curious onlooker into believing that I am running some script or executing some program or doing something worthwhile. The stage was set for a perfect siesta in office. I slowly leaned back on my chair keeping my face against monitor and slipped fast into the world of dreams. My 800+ km of travel had affected me so bad that even in my dreams I was traveling along countryside on a bumpy road. Suddenly everything started fading into darkness and within few seconds I found myself ejected out of my dream by harsh taps on my shoulder. I quickly wiped saliva trickling down from the edge of my mouth and looked back acting as if I was in a deep thought. Much to my relief I found the person who tapped was neither my manager nor a beautiful female colleague but a bum pal of mine. Without any hesitation or guilt or regret he asked if I could lend him a cigarette. I quickly reached for my pack and handed him a cigarette. He gave me a 1000 watts smile and went of without even saying a thank you. After seeing time on my watch I got extremely furious because of the fact that this cigarette beggar had ended my countryside cruise on the dreamland express with in 10 minutes of its flag off. As my blood started boiling and sleep started vanishing, my unthankful Mr. Smiley returned again only to borrow my lighter this time. By the time I handed him my lighter, my blood was evaporating. While despising his insensitive and apathetic nature, I made up my mind to get back on dreamland express again. I was very desperate and unabashed this time. I laid my head on my desk and tried real hard to get back to sleep. I was about to make it and there was a tap on my back again. Half asleep and half awake I turned back only to see another pal of mine. I was so confused at that point of time that I didn’t even ask what he wanted. I fished the cigarette pack from my pocket and handed him my entire pack. He was taken aback my reflex action and looked very confused. He kept the pack on my desk and hesitantly said he just wanted to know if I am doing well and if I need any medical help. This Good Samaritan’s genuine concern made my blood boil again. I felt like screaming “why can’t you mind your freaking business and allow me to do what I am supposed to do”. He quickly realized that he had pissed me real bad and immediately made a disappearing act. With sleep nowhere near my sight I was wondering what to do. After killing some more time staring at my monitor, I turned philosophical and decided a good siesta was not in my destiny and all the forces in the world are joining hands to ensure that. I started delving further deep into my philosophical thoughts and was in the process of formulating ideas for enlightenment of future generations; I was disturbed again by taps on my shoulder. This time I was neither furious nor excited as I had come to terms with my destiny. I turned back with a smile to see Mr. Smiley with my lighter. He gave a synthetic smile and left. I took it back and kept it in my pocket and started in his direction without any feelings and expectations. After moving few steps he turned back and said “Thanks man”. I returned a philosophical smile and said “No probs”.
Guru is a Sanskrit word. Gu means darkness and ru means dispeller. Guru is the one who is enlightened and the one who brings enlightenment to his disciples. Our culture equates guru with god by saying “Acharya Devo bhava”. Most of us know the famous guru mantra, which again elevates guru to god status.
Guru Brahma Guru Vishnu Guru devo Maheshwaraharaha
Guru saakshath Para Brahma Tas mai sri Gurave namaha
Every year we celebrate Guru Purnima as a mark of respect to our teachers. Other than this we celebrate teacher’s day on Mr. S. Radhakrishnan’s birthday.
If I peek into my past, I see that I've learned under many teachers during my sixteen plus years of formal education. There have been some teachers who have made tremendous positive impact on me and are frequently remembered, there are some who have slipped down my memory lane and there are some whom I remember for not so good reasons.
Out of all my teachers I remember the teacher who thought me the music the most. ...
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Chai