We went to this place in Georgia today and the old guy was riding this awesome vehicle!
We immediately wanted to ride it!
It was an ATV!
So all-terrain vehicle (ATV), also known as a light utility vehicle (LUV), a quad bike or quad (if it has four wheels), as defined by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), is a vehicle that travels on low-pressure tires, has a seat that is straddled by the operator, and has handlebars. As the name implies, it is designed to handle a wider variety of terrain than most other vehicles!
It is like the smaller version of the army Jeep which are 4 wheel drive vehicles.
These little vehicles look so cool and small and you would immediately want to drive them!
I remember sitting on an ATV in Manali and the driver took us across small rivers and tough terrain! Some places there was no path but we went boldly!
After trip we were getting down and the drivers were discussing how a new ‘Pilot’ which is what they call themselves was having trouble navigating the path!
I heard that and thought to myself how hard it could be!
Well, not easy is what I would say!
The instructions were simple! You have break and accelerator and strictly you must not press them both!
So my son sat behind me and I bravely pushed the full throttle and charged!
Only thing was that it was not listening to me! The vehicle was going in a different direction! It was going to the ditch and there were times when we almost toppled!
Then the guide from behind asked whether I need a guide! Now driving is my passion! I love driving! And also my male ego was hurt at that suggestion!
So I listened to him more carefully! He told me to hold the handle bar straight and steady! And throttle must be pressed slowly!
Again we did the same! Almost fell into pits and ditches and canals! Never got the road and was way off the course!
Then we had a break! In the break my back and leg was hurting but the pride was hurt more!
So return journey I decided to be more firm! After a session of snaps which were beautiful by the way, we started slowly!
And this time we took whatever the terrain can throw at us! I drove in line but slow! The guide was driving in parallel! Later on he even increased his speed ( he was going slow to be with me!) and I also had a race with him!
Practice makes most things better! Like this sketch of birthday celebrity Azim Hashim Premji which was made in a hurry during travel but because of practice it came out ok!
Bagrationi dynasty is a royal dynasty which reigned in Georgia from the Middle Ages until the early 19th century, being among the oldest extant Christian ruling dynasties in the world!
This is the dynasty which ruled Georgia first!
The nation of Georgia was first unified as a kingdom under the Bagrationi dynasty by the King Bagrat III of Georgia in the early 11th century, arising from several successor states of the ancient kingdoms of Colchis and Iberia.
The Kingdom of Georgia flourished during the 11th and 12th centuries under rulers such as King David IV the Builder and Queen Tamar the Great.
The kingdom fell to the Mongol invasion by 1243, and after a restoration under George V the Brilliant it fell again to the Timurid Empire in 1403.
Georgia was finally annexed by the Russian Empire in the 19th century. After a brief period of independence as Democratic Republic of Georgia, the country soon ended up being a Soviet Republic until the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The current republic of Georgia has been independent since 1991!
The whole history of Georgia can be seen in its churches and caves! The Mongolian invasion, the Russian influence and the Christian churches!
A beautiful city with a great history! A great historical figure also was birthday celebrity Bal Gangadhar Tilak.
A quick sketch on a busy day of travel!
The time difference is not much so it does not cause much affect on the sleep time!
Years back when we used to go to this horse riding school in Secunderabad, the constant smell of horse manure stuck to us!
Before we started the whole show, there was this kid who had a broken hand and a plaster! Now the next day we had the first class and then our mutual friend introduced us to this other boy who was our neighbor but we still did not meet him officially.
He was apparently injured and our friend had got a couple of colour pens to show his artistic skills on his other friend’s plaster!
So we (my brother and me!) tagged along for extra art! While making a rough version of the Fido Dido which was the craze at the time, I simply asked him how he got hurt.
He told that he was an expert horse rider but one fine day, a horse which was named B (it was some other name but let sleeping horse’s lie!) who kicked him with his legs and he broke his hand!
That was a shock for us both since we had the first class the next day! Then the kid told us that there would be three horses but only one of them is the actual horse which would be tall and majestic and proud and a kicker! But there would be two other horses which were actually shorter and more tame and in fact they were mules!
So mentally we decided to take the mule!
During the class we always used to pick the mule who was an obedient horse! He would make nice couple of rounds and come back! He would obey our pulling of the reins and he would not canter (its the horse riders lingo for galloping!).
This was fine because only the B was the real horse and he was always in demand with the serious riders! But one fine day the trainer saw through our act and made me sit on B! I reluctantly sat on her and held on to her saddle and my life!
Now the first two rounds were smooth! But the moment it came to the third one, the B ran like no tomorrow! Galloping at full speed and all I could do was hold! I was not riding her, she was taking me! It reached the trainer and stopped almost suddenly and I was glad to get off carefully avoiding her hind legs! I could almost swear that she was smiling!
Now coming to the Jenny!
My favourite riding companion was not a horse but a mule! So the mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (also called a jack!) and a female horse (a mare!).
The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two possible first-generation hybrids between them!
Mules vary widely in size, and may be of any color. They are more patient, hardier and longer-lived than horses, and are perceived as less obstinate and more intelligent than donkeys!
The mule is easier to obtain and more common than the hinny, which is the offspring of a male horse (a stallion) and a female donkey (also called a jenny!). The hinny is distinct from the mule both in physiology and temperament as a consequence of genomic imprinting and is also less common.
The mule inherits from the donkey the traits of intelligence, sure-footedness, toughness, endurance, disposition, and natural cautiousness. From the horse it inherits speed, conformation, and agility.
Many times mules are preferred since they are more sturdy than a horse and more fast than a donkey! The best of both!
Unfortunately though, mules are infertile!
Another more sturdy animal which is like the horse and the donkey and has been tried to be ridden is the zebra!
Everyone knows about the Zebra because of the famous zebra crossing which actually has nothing to do with the zebra!
It is generally attributed to British MP James Callaghan who, in 1948, visited the country’s Transport and Road Research Laboratory which was working on a new idea for safe pedestrian crossings. On being shown a black and white design, Callaghan is said to have remarked that it resembled a zebra!
Despite their superficial resemblance to horses, zebras possess several characteristics that make domestication extremely challenging because of several reasons like Zebras are naturally aggressive, making them difficult to handle and train, also they have a strong ducking reflex, complicating efforts to lasso or restrain them. Finally Unlike horses, zebras do not have a clear family structure or social hierarchy, which is crucial for domestication.
Practically also Zebras have not evolved to support the weight of a human rider comfortably. Their backs are not strong enough to carry heavy loads or to be saddled. For all the majestic nature of the horse, you may not find a Zebra who listens to you! That shows its nature! I am glad that my trainer never thought of training a zebra! Of course birthday celebrity like Mukesh is a majestic horse when it comes to skill!
Even a Guru can learn by looking at the kid’s smiling face!”
Guru devo bhava, which means Guru is like God but remember that the emphasis is on “LIKE”.
The very problem with the statement is that you have to put or place them on a pedestal!
But that is the difference! If you treat anyone who teaches you anything as Guru that is ok! But do not treat them as God!
why?
Read on!
The very fact that you are comparing anyone to God comes with some serious issues! The issue is that when you think he or she is akin to God then he or she must not be like a human being!
The central point of any human is that he or she is a flawed individual! You have subconsciously accepted that! It can be anyone, even your friend, parent or partner or even children! Once you accept that he or she is a human then you do not have that disappointment when he or she does something human!
Of course when he or she does something Humane then you will feel happy and that is natural! When someone constantly does something great or amazing, then you have a tendency of elevating him or her to God status! Like Sachin being God of cricket! He is a great player and maybe one of the best ever but God by definition does not have any flaws! In the same way we have always been advised to never meet your heroes!
This is because you have elevated them on a pedestal and that is not good.
Now coming to Guru!
The conventional Guru of the past were ascetics and people with so much knowledge that they were like Gods! But even then Gurus like Drona showed that he may be a great guru to Arjun but he was a mortal when it came to Eklavya. A better example of an almost Godly Guru would be Kautilya or Chanakya! Now he was the one who imparted him teaching and retired peacefully without any pomp or money.
A true Guru would be impartial and clean but they are hard to find unless they are your parents or children!
The basic rule then is that you do not have to elevate anyone to the level of God but the most important thing is that all your life you must remain a Student!
The moment you stop learning is the instant you stop living!
So learn! Like Ranchordas chanchad says, “You have knowledge everywhere! just collect!”
I have tried to learn from everyone and I have also had some great actual teachers in my school and colleges and hospitals. I have had teachers and Gurus who played favourites, taught wrong stuff, were really small and bad humans and who simply were bad! From them I learnt what NOT to do!
Every medical personnel usually needs a mentor and someone who is great. If you are lucky to find such Gurus, then your life is done!
The only point to remember is that he or she is a human being! And that is perfectly all right! Also remember that getting inspired is the key! DO NOT COPY! Make your own path and it may not be perfect but it is your own! A great human also was birthday celebrity Anand Bakshi!
On this day of Guru Purnima I pay my respects to my Gurus, my parents, my family and my friends and also my patients! All I want to be is a student for life!
Now the best teaching is to sleep on time so do that!
It was the swaying of muleta which gave him the ire!”
I love sketching in Black and White since I only have time for a quick sketch everyday! Also I like to still believe that things and people are still black and white in nature with shades of grey! Then again if that statement sounds prejudiced then that was unintentional.
Practically though even if you do not have any such thoughts inside you and you are liberal, colors do play an important part in our life! And people do favor color! Not the colour of skin but color of things!
Intrigued?
read on!
As a child I used to like some parties especially since we also knew that the dessert to be served was to be rajbhog! This was like the yellow version of Rasagulla but more sweet and creamy! Or maybe it tasted the same but the colour really made a difference!
If you do not believe me then one day when I was young (er!) my mother announced that she made lemon rice! To our surprise though it was white in colour! It tasted the same! Sour and salty and of course tasty but still something was missing! The colour! There was not turmeric in the house and the rice was no yellow! So in spite of it tasting like lemon rice, it did not look like one so we did not eat it!
Even now if there is no turmeric in the house, even if we have lemon; I do not make any lemon rice!
It is also the same with Dosa! and Idli!
The other day my wife who likes to make only healthy things to eat announced that she was making a special dosa for us that Sunday!
Holiday is the time for indulgence and eating leisurely and that day was no different! The aroma from the kitchen was really nice of hot ghee though I prefer sesame oil in my dosa! Now that is the topic of another blog!
Now my wife then laid the table with steel plates (no plastic or other plates when she is uncharge!) and placed the hot dosa! The dosa was a black color thing! I was too shocked to say anything! Of course, with the groundnut chutney (another misdirection!), the “dosa” did taste good! But it was no dosa! It was a healthy variant made with Ragi! I have now strictly told her that the next time she makes this black “dosa”, please call it Ragi Dosa or Ragi Roti! Anything but dosa which it is not because dosa is white or a little golden brown! But certainly not black! I do not think I need to tell about the black Ragi Idly right!?
Of course the next time we buy curtains and I causally mention that you can buy any color and it does not matter, the look my wife gives me is the same look I gave her when I got the Ragi dosa!
It is the same with coffee and tea! Many people see the colour! If you add too much milk or too little decoction or powder then the coffee is light which is ok for kids and those who do not drink it regularly!
But someone who drinks coffee especially filter coffee regularly then even if the taste is good, the colour must be perfect! A whitish coffee can never be a degree filter coffee! or even a Kadak chai!
In Kerala and in many other places, you get something called the milk tea! That is essentially tea with more milk but the way it is recognized is that the color is more white than the brown tea!
It is the same with coffee! Forget the taste, the color is the one which determines the first impression!
Even a well cooked dish is mainly determined by the color! How do you know the fritter or bajji or bonda is fried properly or not? Well, it is the color! Now the difference between the Bajji and Bond and pakoda is…the topic for another blog!
If you go to a shop and get a vada which is fair and not brown, I am sure you will think it is not cooked well or you may not even eat it!
It is the same with Rava Kesari! Mentally for me it is always yellow or orange! But when I see a white one, even if it tastes good, I would think the colored one tastes better!
Now you talk about Rosogulla and not talk about Gulab Jamun?! How can that be possible! In Gulab Jamun also there are two varieties! One is brown or golden brown or other variants of brown while the other is black! I like the brown variant! The black jamun is actually having a similar taste but they are generally more sweet since some sugar is added to the dough. This added sugar makes the caramelization and the balls are fried longer. The syrup is also mostly dry! But the chief reason I do not like them is that mentally I know they have to be brown and I have always eaten the brown jamun! So if someone tells me that they are serving Gulab Jamun and give me black dry balls then please excuse me if I do not like them! Of course there are people who like the black one more!
I still remember this variant of a popular cola company which was launched during this World Cup of cricket and since Indian team used to wear blue dress, it was blue in color! It was famous till Indian team was having the chance of winning the cup! But the moment India was out of the World Cup the demand for this cola disappeared! With that the cola also disappeared from the market soon! The only difference between the taste of the drinks was in the color!
Some time back one of our old hospitals where I used to work some years back suddenly came up with a brainwave possibly cooked up by some management dude who would have joined recently and to justify his pay would have come up with this mind shattering idea! The conventional dress of all surgeons which is the OT dress is almost everywhere green or blue in color; this self proclaimed Einstein got a new design made in Brown color which made us look like a cross between a sanitation worker and a post man (or woman!). Needless to say, it was not accepted by doctors but then they did not have any choice since whatever comes from the upper floors are usually taken up without a word by the ‘workers’! Luckily the national level accredit-ion inspection which happened soon after blasted the management for the color and the design and we were back to the green!
So color is really important though lets limit it to food and things! A colour ful poet also was birthday celebrity Gopaldas Saxena aka Neeraj!
Now allow the sweet colour of darkness to overcome your eyes and sleep!
“T’was a sweet sound so nice and clear Heard all over, far and near He couldn’t speak or sing that nice Which is why he whistles by choice!”
I have always been able to whistle! Not the high decibel one in which you have to put fingers on your mouth but the more gentle kind with rhyme and rhythm! But whistling was frowned upon while growing up so I used to do it only rarely or when alone! My mother used to tell that if you whistle, snakes will come! Strangely there was a time when getting whistled on was a compliment!
Intrigued? Read on!
Some amazing songs start with a whistle and one of my favorite ones is a song called patience by the Guns and Roses (Now that was a band which broke too soon after some amazing songs to boot!).
Then of course if you are a rock song listener you would probably have Winds of change by the scorpions in your list of whistle song!
There are some bits and pieces in many other songs in many languages but these two really elevated the whistle to another level! This is a big issue if you are in a band and you have to play these songs! Most of the times the whistle part in many open concerts are usually synthesized by the keyboard since in that noise it is difficult to whistle or the whistle to be audible to everyone!
Another familiar tune which is like a group whistle is the song from the amazing movie called The Bridge on the River Kwai. This whistle tune may be one of the best and most popular group whistle tunes ever. When the whole platoon comes marching and whistling this amazing tune, you are simply amazed at the level of direction! No words are spoken and a whistle makes them seem so professional!
There are professional whistlers of course who do whistle in a good tune and they even have competitions for that! There are certifications awarded and it is a respectable training and trait to have!
Now whistling is just like singing though! You just cannot start somewhere inappropriate
Whistling as a song or in a tune is usually safe and decent and the time whistling becomes a point of contention is when it’s used for Eve teasing.
One of the most commonly heard whistle and maybe something which almost everyone has heard at some point of his or her life and maybe even tried it is this whistle! In that a particular type of whistling gets the most blame and it is linked to an animal! Yes! That is called the wolf whistle!
Wolf whistle is seldom considered decent! Apparently there was a time in the past when whistling was like a compliment and it was intended like that only but a wolf whistle is frowned upon most of the times!
The name comes from the Wolf character in the popular 1943 Tex Avery cartoon Red Hot Riding Hood who whistles in this way at the sexy female character Red! He whistles at her in several other subsequent cartoons. The term appears in North American newspapers as early as 1943. It appears in British newspapers from 1949 onwards.
But did you know that one of the other origins of the wolf whistle was actually as a part of the calls of alarm in a ship?!
So one theory is that the wolf whistle originates from the navy General Call made with a boatswain’s pipe. The General Call is made on a ship to get the attention of all hands for an announcement. Sailors in harbour would whistle the General Call upon seeing an attractive woman to draw fellow sailors’ attention to her!
It was eventually picked up by passers-by, not knowing the real meaning of the whistle, and passed on! Of course whatever be the explanation when Jim Carrey as the Mask does his whistle in an obvious intention of expressing desire, he is shown as a wolf! Now this story may not be true but then it is not important since there is no statistics involved! Thinking about stats and research brings into mind birthday celebrity Harsha Bhogle!
Now I know snakes may not come when you whistle but still why take a chance! So don’t whistle and sleep! Shubh Ratri!
This is a blood sucker! Literally! Now don’t worry! I normally write blogs which can be read by all age groups and this one’s no exception in spite of the suspicious click bait title!
read on!
Once we were in the famous wildlife sanctuary called the Kaziranga which is in Assam. Those days it was not that famous and most of the inner guest houses were controlled by Army and defence personals.
The danger was not that it was a remote sanctuary but the fact that it was the home to elephants! Now they are the not elephants you see who are tame and maybe bless you or allow you to climb on them and play around with them!
These however were wild elephants and they used to move in packs deep within the jungle! Our guest house though within the jungle was still in the periphery of the sanctuary and usually the wild animals used to stay clear of it. The place was known for all types of wild animals but was popular for the Rhino!
Now we kids were not listening to anyone and playing around with no shoes and in shorts without a care for the world! Our mom’s were continuously telling us to wear shoes and socks and not to walk around in the mud! But we were happily playing when suddenly we were informed that there is a deer chase happening!
We were rushed into the 4 by 4 jeeps which were the only vehicles which could navigate those terrains and started for the observation point!
With the military binoculars you could see the tiger (or was it lion or cheetah! I frankly do not remember that part since I was in 6th grade!) chasing the deer! My toy binoculars could only show me a yellow speck following another darker yellow speck! Still it was as close to the kill as possible!
If it was now then it would have been a treat for my canon!
Suddenly then we were told to rush back to the jeep and to the guest house!
Apparently a group of wild elephants were seen in the area and they do not follow rules! It had rained so badly that the whole road was muddy and slushy!
We rushed through the slushy mud to our jeeps! Then sped of to the guest house covered in mud! We had just been missed by the herd! If we had been there for some more time, the elephants would have played with the vehicles and us like toys and cleared their way!
While thanking our lucky stars we were going on back when my mother gave a big shriek! We all turned to see what the problem was and what I saw was one of the scariest things for me at that time!
In the middle of her leg which was almost white, there was a deep blue mark and on that mark there was a small snake like creature attached to my mother’s leg! Our instinct was to just pull it out but our driver Laata (not Lata, it was assamese-bengali name and he was an interesting character! but then that is a blog for another day!); told that if you do that then the bleeding from the wound will not stop! It was a leech! They were actually small creatures but this one had become so big by drinking my mother’s blood!
Laata then took some salt which he had kept with him as he knew the place and put it on the leech! It slowly started literally melting and showing odd shapes and it let go of my mother’s leg! The whole area had become blue and later it turned black and the scar was there for some time.
After that there was no need for us to be told to wear socks and full pants! Even now I cannot wear shoes without socks even for an instant and when I think about it, I am sure this was the reason!
Years later my friends planned to go on a hike between the forest in an isolated place! We were told that a dog would show us the way! And that was not the scary part! The whole path would be full of leeches! But we young people with young brain who like to play with danger did not care!
I told my friends that I know how to take care of those leeches! All we need is salt! So we got into the bus with a big packet of salt and kept it on the top for safe keeping! When the stop came we confidently got down and started with the confidence which comes as we say in our medical college to only house surgeons! The one who does not know any complication does not fear them!
Two minutes into the walk to the leech laden forest, we suddenly remembered that the salt packet was safe! In the bus! All the plan and my confidence washed away with that and the rain!
It was a leechy walk indeed in the rain with no idea of the route since there was no dog! We saw one later on but he was not the official dog! That trek in the dense forest without any cell phones in the rain with the leeches for company and not much money, well; that is for another blog! Needless to say, we became expert leech pickers after that trek! I still remember drinking half a bottle of iron syrup after coming back from that trip! Blood is precious you see! Precious also are the songs sung with such gusto and energy by birthday celebrity Sukhwinder Singh!
Now be happy that there are no leeches anywhere near your bed and sleep!
There was a snap of a great white shark with the person who caught it and the caption read something in the lines of, “Here lies the most dangerous animal in the world! seen here with a shark!”
Of course the quote is true to some extent but not accurate since the homo sapien is not the most dangerous animal, (for now at least)! That place goes to a member of the animal species which is so small! But it can still cause great damage!
read on!
In a list compiled by BBC! Nowadays whenever I read a forward like this my skeptive meter gets activated! The best and the most and the greatest are adjectives which are not given great prominence in scientific data assembly! When terms like these are used then you can be sure that the data is not true! Like how a water from a village in your place has been deemed as the best water according to UNESCO! Like UNESCO has no other work other than drink your village water and test it!
Still on an average, in the list of the top most dangerous animals (for humans) in the world the second place is taken up by the Human Being!
We are at number two in a list of top ten! Ironically, even here the Homo Sapien couldn’t come first!
The number one spot was taken by the one the one that makes the irritating noise in the night!
The one who can wake up a drunk! The one who can shake you to the core and the one whose rhythmic sound will never sound like music to the greatest connoisseur of music!
The one species where females are much advanced than the males and can things which the males cannot do!
The mosquito!
The tiny mosquito Kills 725,000 per year through spreading diseases such as malaria! Interestingly mosquitoes live indoors and outdoors and can actually bite day and night!
Female mosquitoes often live longer than male mosquitoes and another quirky thing is that the males literally suck (fruit juice that is!)!
Meaning only female mosquitoes bite animals to get a blood meal to produce eggs! It takes just a few infected mosquitoes to start an outbreak in a community so it is not a number game!
Now of course we have a proper treatment protocol for Malaria but in the ancient days Malaria was a death sentence! In the game far Cry 2, the player has malaria and he needs pills frequently! This is shown so realistically that in the peak of escaping the goons in a stolen car with a bad gun with your life ; you get a malaria chill and your vision gets blurry! Even in a game it was difficult to survive!
Now for years people in places it is indigenous have found different cures for the disease.
Agostino Salumbrino (1564–1642) an apothecary by training who lived in Lima (Peru), observed the Quechua (tribe in South America) using the bark of the cinchona tree to treat such shivering and fever.
While its effect in treating malaria (and malaria-induced shivering) was unrelated to its effect in controlling shivering from rigors, it was a successful medicine against malaria!
At the first opportunity, Salumbrino sent a small quantity to Rome for testing as a malaria treatment. In the years that followed, cinchona bark, known as Jesuit’s bark or Peruvian bark, became one of the most valuable commodities shipped from Peru to Europe.
When King Charles II was cured of malaria at the end of the 17th Century with quinine, it became popular in London. Till 1940s, it was the first and most popular treatment of malaria!
Now still, what caused the infection was still a mystery which was finally solved by an passionate researcher.
Sir Ronald Ross was one of the pioneers who was obsessed with Malaria! He theorised that it was transmitted by mosquito! And in India he sought to demonstrate it on a patient! But as fate would have it he was posted out to a place which was not endemic for malaria!
That was Calcutta, then his mentor Sir Patrick Manson encouraged him to study the life cycle of malaria in birds! When you are stuck then you are lucky if you have mentors and teachers who can guide you or rescue you!
That was what happened! Ross demonstrated the life cycle of malarial parasites in avian or bird malaria! The process which in addition to his amazing prevention strategies lead to the Nobel prize in Medicine in 1902!
Now we do not what and how but still the female mosquito remains as strong as ever! A strong female as a character also is the main feature of movies by birthday celebrity K Bharathiraja! Just watched the movie Muthal Mariyathai in you tube! Nostalgic!
Non fiction but with fictional story to place the point across
Narrated by Adam Verner
The blog is a summary of this 8 hour long audiobook for those who may not have time or plan to read or listen to this and a preview for those who would eventually read or listen to it! The parts which are twists and surprising have not been revealed so you are good to go!
Robin Sharma needs no introduction since he is already a leader among self help gurus! There is a member in one of my favourite Whats App group who puts a Robin Sharma quote of the day the moment I place my blog and sketch of the day! The quotes are so profound and thought provoking!
Since it is a self help book, it helps you and since the name is clear; I think you will have no trouble in understanding what the primary message is!
I am not a big Robin fan since there may be few times in my life when I have got up at 5 in the morning which as you might have guessed is the focus point of the whole book! Maybe someday I may start this practice…
The novels starts with three people who visit a self help seminar and see a Guru like person who gives amazing advice and thoughts about life and living in general. In the middle of the show he suddenly collapses and in that break, these three people interact!
One is an entrepreneur who has father issues, one is an artist who is in a slump and one is a guy who looks homeless and lost!
In a surprising twist the homeless tells that he is actually a billionaire and he can show the two other people how to live life and solve problems of their life if they meet him at 5 am the next day in the same place with packed bags!
Now, do they believe the homeless guy and come and what is the truth and what lessons are taught is the theme of the book with the central theme being getting up at 5 am and following a very useful formula called the 20-20-20 rule which is explained in the book!
With couple of other twist in the middle and in the end; this self help book gets the essence of a non fiction with the thrill and adventure of a non fiction just like he did with his very famous book; “The monk who sold his Ferari!”
In between you are shown amazing places by narration like Mauritius, India and Paris! The final chapter on Nelson Mandela was really nice and thought provoking and made me read more about this great person.
So, does he solve the problems of the artist and the entrepreneur? What life lessons are given? What happens to the beggar? and the Guru?
Get up at 5 am to read that or maybe walk and listen to the audiobook!
The audiobook also has the accompanying PDF which is a synopsis of sorts about the Whole book. With some amazing quotes and formulas.
This is given along with the audiobook and you can ping me personally if you want a copy which is free.
The five chief quotes are really epic!
They are reproduced without any modification
Rule 1 An addiction to distraction is the end of your creative production. Empire makers and history-creators take one hour for themselves before dawn, in the serenity that lies beyond the clutches of complexity, to prepare themselves for a world-class day.
RULE #2 Excuses breed no genius. Just because you haven’t installed the early-rising habit before doesn’t mean you can’t do it now. Release your rationalizations and remember that small daily improvements, when done consistently over time, lead to stunning results.
RULE #3 All change is hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end. Everything you now find easy you first found difficult. With consistent practice, getting up with the sun will become your new normal. And automatic.
RULE #4 To have the results The Top 5% of producers have, you must start doing what 95% of people are unwilling to do. As you start to live like this, the majority will call you crazy. Remember that being labeled a freak is the price of greatness.
RULE #5 When you feel like surrendering, continue. Triumph loves the relentless.
He also talks about the three step success formula which is learning then implementation and execution and finally impact!
Other important thing is about the four focus of history makers like Capitalization of IQ, freedom from distraction, Personal mastery and day stacking!
Getting up in the morning also makes changes in the brain and makes you more calm and receptive! The hormones and neurotransmitters act on the prefrontal cortex!
Robin via the gurus and other character tells us about how we have four interior empires. The mindset which is psychology, then you have the emotional heartset, then you have the physical healthset finally the spiritual soulset!
Every new habit according to Robin takes at least 66 days to be routine which involves stages of destruction of old habits, slow installation of new one and finally integration!
Finally the 20/20/20 formula when you get up is two move for the first 20 minutes then reflect and finally grow! The what and why and benefits of each is mentioned and self explanatory and given in the additional booklet.
Now if you have to get up early then of course you have to sleep early! So the time is around 7 to 8 to finish your meal and turn off all devices! 8-9 is family time and conversation which must be real and maybe meditation and finally by 10 you must sleep after preparing everything for the next day!
The booklet also has your whole day planned out for you! Including strict device free zone! All the best!
There is also a note on personal internal GPS which will guide you to your joy!
In the section on Nelson Mandela, he tells us about the seven virtues of world changers which include, Bravery, forgiveness, integrity, understanding, sincerity, politeness and Humility!
The end note is that the end of this book is the beginning of your journey!
The other day we were watching a movie called Shaitaan which is actually a remake of a Gujarati movie called Vash! It’s about a stranger who can control another person’s child!
Time and again it has been seen that children listen to people who are not their parents! Did you know the most popular story of a group of children who did not listen to their parents may actually be true? Or that it may be linked to a illness!?
Read on!
For all the intelligence of evolution, we still have to teach little Humans that they should be wary of strangers! Of course even when they get older, children listen or look up to people who are not their parents! It may be because they have seen their parents in their human state!
Every kid would always like his or her fun uncle or aunt! Which is why you like your father’s younger brother or mother’s youngers sisters since they are versions of your parents who are more fun and open! And you listen to your grandparents since they are versions of your parents who seem more wise!
In the movie Shaitaan or Vash though, the antagonist uses black magic to control the child and it is scary! Nothing is more scary for a parent than to see his or her own child listening to a stranger’s words and doing something wrong or harmful!
The family dynamics have changed in most families but mostly the kids listen to the father even if they do not listen to the mother sometimes! Of course they also know subconsciously that the father actually listens to the mother! Now of course when the roles are not clear it is either they listen to both or more commonly, none!
One of the most popular stories which we all have heard in childhood of a group of children who just followed this guy out of town still gives fear to the poor parents!
The story of course is the Pied Piper of Hamelin and to this day Hamelin is still milking the fame of that story!
The story has in fact has survived for a very long time.
Originating as medieval folklore, the story inspired a Goethe verse, Der Rattenfänger; a Grimm Brothers’ legend, The Children of Hamelin; and one of Robert Browning’s best-known poems, The Pied Piper of Hamelin. The theme and plot line is more or less the same;
A Piper was hired by folks of Hamelin to rid the town of its plague of rats. Trailing after the hypnotic notes of the rat-catcher’s magical flute, the rodents politely filed through the city gates to their presumed doom!
They weren’t the only ones lured by his music, though. When the town refused to pay the Piper for his service, the saviour turned into a more satanic seducer and came for Hamelin’s children!
Entranced by the notes of his flute, the transfixed boys and girls followed the Piper out of town and simply vanished!
Although it is a simple fairy tale and actually less macabre than the origins of many other tales; what is scary is that the story may have been true!
The proof is etched on Hamelin’s face itself. An inscribed plaque on the stone facade of the so-called Pied Piper house, has this inscription which reads:
“A.D. 1284 – on the 26th of June – the day of St John and St Paul – 130 children – born in Hamelin – were led out of the town by a piper wearing multi-colored clothes. After passing the Calvary near the Koppenberg they disappeared forever.”
An entry in Hamelin’s town records, dating to 1384, laments that, “It is 100 years since our children left.”
The stained-glass window in the town’s St Nicolai church, destroyed in the 17th Century but described in earlier accounts, reportedly illustrated the figure of the Pied Piper leading several ghostly white children. And the 15th Century Luneburg manuscript, an early German account of the event, along with five historical memory verses, some in Latin and others in Middle Low German, all refer to a similar story of 130 children or young people vanishing on the 26 June 1284, following a pied piper to a place called Calvary or Koppen!
Of course so many theories abound of why or how this happened! One of the theories piqued my interest due to its medical link!
This theory points to the medieval phenomenon of “dancing mania”, driven by a succession of pandemics and natural disasters!
Known as St Vitus’ Dance, the dancing plague is documented surfacing in continental Europe as early as the 11th Century. A form of mass hysteria, the dance could spread from individuals to large groups, all driven by an unshakeable compulsion to dance feverishly, sometimes for weeks, often leaping and singing and sometimes hallucinating to the point of exhaustion and occasionally death, like a top that can’t stop spinning!
And, in fact, one 13th Century outbreak – a literal form of dance fever – occurred south of Hamelin, in the town of Erfurt, where a group of youths were documented as wildly gyrating as they travelled out of town, ending up 20km away in a neighbouring town. Some of the children, one chronicle suggests, expired shortly thereafter, having flat-out danced themselves to death, and those who survived were left with chronic tremors. Perhaps, some theorise, Hamelin witnessed a similar plague, dancing to the figurative tune of the Pipe!
This condition is now known as Sydenham chorea, also known as St. Vitus dance, which is a neuropsychiatric manifestation of rheumatic fever with an incidence varying from 5 to 35%. It may occur alone or concomitantly with other manifestations of rheumatic fever!
Now whether it was Chorea or Korean (ok that was a bad joke but then nothing else rhymes with chorea!) pop to which they were tranced and dancing; the fact of the matter is that children have not listened to elders since time immemorial so it is high time that parents stop trying! Of course parents will be proud when their children do great and are world famous even if they did not listen to them! Just like birthday celebrity Dhanraj Pillay! You do not become one of the highest goal makers in Hockey by simply dancing to everyone’s tunes!
Now put on some nice instrumental tunes and sleep!
ramadocblog 