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Points to ponder

Cheenu died!

 

He died.

Or did he?

He was talking it looks.

In his cool way as always.

And, he died.

He was joking it looks.

As, always.

And, he died.

What a man he must have been?

To die like that, when you never even had an idea that there is something called death.

He did what all he was to do, in the best of the manner possible.

He was a loving husband.

A caring father he was.

I don’t know about the other things.

He was a refined man.

Always smiling.

Never raising his voice, perhaps even when irritated.

I vividly remember the days when he would make fun of even his father.

Fathers get angry.

But, this son takes it as a joke.

Laughs it off.

That was the secret of their happiness.

Both the father and the son died without struggling.

They have not even caused any inconvenience to any soul as long as they existed.

He died.

I don’t get to accept that he is no more.

Such people never die!

They only disappear.

He was a brother.

He was more a friend.

He will remain.

He still remains.

చూపు

 

కలలు కరిగి పోతాయి.

కాలమూ కరిగి పోతుంది.

మనసు మాత్రం కరడుగట్టి

రాయిగా మారుతుంది.

 

మనసు ముడుచుకుని పడుకుంటుంది.

మనసు గాలిలా పరుగెడుతుంది.

మనసు మాటాడుతుంది.

మనసు మాట వింటుంది.

 

భూమి కదులుతుంది.

తనచుట్టు తాను తిరుగుతుంది.

దానికొక వేగం ఉంది.

మనకది కదలనట్టే కనబడుతుంది.

 

భూమి కోపగించుకుంటుంది.

ఉరుముతుంది.

విరుచుకు పడుతుంది.

ఒళ్లు విరుచుకుంటుంది.

 

కళ్లు ఒకదాన్ని మరొకటి చూడలేవు.

మరెన్నో సంగతులను, అందుకే,

చూడలేవు.

Focus in Life

I am drifting.

Along the currents of life.

Life is taking me to many shores.

Some known and some unknown.

There are people everyehere.

Some known and some unknown.

Unknown people are kinder to me.

For, they know not what I am.

It is always better to be at a distance from people.

Particularly, if you like them!

Once you are closer your true colors will be known.

There is always another side to the coin.

It is perahps better not to show that side.

Moon has another side.We never get to see the side.

We always see the same side.

Some say there is a rabbit there. Others say it is a deer.

Westerners say it is an old lady with a spinning wheel.

What could be seen has created so much of confusion. What if the others ide also is visible?

I am drifting.

I am seeing many things.

Am I wiser?

I do not know!

 

Simplicity

The following words are picked up from a wonderful book That I was reading.

I quote.

When shakespeare wrote Hamlet, he had 20,000 words with which to work.When Lincoln scribbled Gettysburg address on the back of an envelope there were about 114,000 words. today there are 600,000 words in the Websters dictionary. tom Clancy appears to have used all of them in his last novel running into 100 pages.

Language is getting more complicated. As a result people have to fight off the tendency to try out some of these new and rarely used words.

What if some famous adages were written with a heavier hand and some fancier words?

Here is one such!

Pulchritude possesses profoundity of a merely cutaneous nature. ( Beauty is only skin deep.)

You unders tand.

Good writing and speech can not be confusing. They have to be clear and better understandable. The shorter the better.

I unquote.

These days I see that newspapers are full of language that smacks of verbocity. The other day a report of a seminar had sentence about scholars Waxing eloquent about somethimg. I thought this was a negative word. Waxing eloquent is about talking too much. They always ink pacts. Never sign agreements.

Why is this love for big words?

Can any one tell me?

 
Intensions and implementation
 
Some one has very rightly said that it is not enough to be patriotic. You should also appear to be patriotic. You should hang pictures of national leaders in your drawing room to show your patiotism. I really do not know if children of the current times know what exactly patriotism means. A young man in one of my training sessions asked me, if there is any thing called Indianity!
Gandhi, Nehru and all the other freedom fighters have become pages in books that are hardly read. Gandhigiri is the invention of the current times.
 
So, there is no meaning in talking about something that is not understood.
 
There is something called being good. Being good to yourself, your people, and the people on the whole. I can be good at heart. It is not enough to be good. It is once again rightly said that you shold be seen as being good and you should also be known as being good. That is the style of the times.
 
You call some one on the phone. It is not always necessary that the same man or woman comes on the line. Whoever picks up the phone on the other side could be an elder from the family. What do we do then? Do we greet him or her inspite of not knowing them? It looks like small things do not matter any longer.
 
I once went to a home when I was a youngster. I shouted out the surname of the friend whom I wanted to meet. I was shocked when an elderly man appeared and said "There are six people in this house with that surname. Which one of them do you want?"
 
Funny? Not at all.
At least to me.

Intensions!
 
You judge yourself by your intentions.
And judge the others by waht they do and say!!
 
Intentions are always good.
It is only the implimentaion which goes for a toss.
 
The point in writing this is that one should know prioritisation. One should know what should come at what time. Time is not given according to our requirements. This is the only resource available equally to everyone. One who is idling also unnecessarily gets all the hours to do his thing.
One should know this secret and use the time in the best possible way.
There is no meaning in telling " I am busy"
Busy with what, is the question. One can be busy answering a useless phone call. Many people these days say they are in a meeting, when called. I found that they are in a meeting with a girl next door. For them, that also is a meeting.
The day has to be partitioned. Time table fixed and the slots allotted for variuos activities.
The best part comes now.
One has to stick to that schedule. This is the biggest problem. Intentions are always good. Implimentation takes a beating.
 

 
A point to ponder!
 

This is a poem I found on the net!

I have translated it for you.

వియెత్నాం కవిత

 

I will find myself in a mirror

నాకు నేను అద్దంలో దొరుకుతాను
My name in a line of poetry

కవితలో ఒక గీతగా నా పేరు దొరుకుతుంది
My destiny in a person I’ve never met

నా భవితవ్యం నేనెన్నడూ ఎరుగని మనిషిలో

Once I lay in the sun by the Caspian Sea

ఒకప్పుడు నేను కాస్పియన్ సముద్రం పక్కన ఎండలో పడుకున్నాను
Listening to songs of seaweed and foam

మొక్కలూ నురుగూ పాడే పాటలు వింటున్నాను
A sleepwalker with nothing to lose or gain

నిద్రలో నడిచే నాకు ఒరిగేదేమీ లేదు
In that Khuong Co land, the sun set under my feet

 ఊహా ప్రపంచంలో సూర్యుడు నా కాళ్ల కింద కుంకుతాడు

Now I raise my eyes

ఇప్పుడు నేను కళ్లెత్తుతాను
Dim with the red dust of time

ముందంతా కాలమనే ఎర్రని దుమ్ము
Or is it the dust of remembered mountains?

లేక అది తెలిసిన కొండల దుమ్మా

Invisible candles shine in the night

కనిపించని కొవ్వొత్తులు రాత్రి పూట వెలుగుతాయి
There is hope in every moment

ప్రతి కదలికలోనూ ఆశ నిలిచి ఉంది
In the crossroads of my window

 నా కిటికీ కూడలిలో....

 

నా భావాలను పోలిన భావాలు కనబడితే నేనీ కవితను తెలుగులోకి మార్చాను.

గతంలో నేను ఇలాంటి ప్రయత్నం చేస్తే మిత్రులు కొందరు బాగుందన్నారు.

వివిధ భాషల్లో కవితలనూ, కథలనూ తెలుగులోకి తేవడం నాకు చేతనైన పనుల్లో ఒకటి.

కనుక ఈ ప్రయత్నం కొనసాగిస్తాను.

 


You keep working. You make decisions. Some of them turn about to be bad. You will see their effect at a later point of time. You will remeber the matter and take care not to commit the same mistake another time.
It is said once is an accident, twice a co-incidence and thrice and above is a habit. If you commit the same mistake again and again, it is clear that you have not learnt any lesson there.
 
 If you have learnt a lesson, you are experienced. Experience is a matter of good decisions. Good decisions are a matter in contrast to bad decisions.
 
Sometimes keeping quiet is a very good decision. Afew friends wanted something. They called me. I, as usual poured out my overenthusiasm before them. Then they tell me, that was not what they wanted. I kept quiet. None was at fault at this point. They could have told me in advance what they wanted. I could have asked them about the same.
 
This is a lesson I learnt from this episode. Thanks to my friends!
 
Vijayagopal
 
It is said that if there is any thing happening permanently, it is change. I would like you to consider one point. What is a river? Is it the water or the banks that make the river? River is a concept. You have to have a lot of things to call a stream of water, a river. Now I have the question for you. Like with time, where we always talk of the elusive concept called the present moment, river also is not having the same water always. What you call as present time, became past the moment it ticked off! The feel that there is water in the river is just like that. The same water is never there at the same point of the river.
 
We are sure we are looking at ourselves in the mirror, everyday without fail right from the day we knew ourselves. Every day we think that it is the same self that is appearing in the mirror. Conider the point whether you are still looking the same you, whom you have seen an year back? There is the hitch. Think about it!
 
There is nothing called a present time.
 
There is nothing called a river with the same water always in it at a given point.
 
Similarly you can never live the same moment of life, once it is gone.
 
Try to live this day meaningfully!
 
It is said that what is not there, influences what is!
Yesterday is not there.
You are not sure what happens tomorrow.
Today is the only reality.
Live meaningfully!
Be of some use to the world.
Do something meaningful.
 
                                                           Vijayagopal
 
 
If what you are saying is good, somebody must have already said it!
 
This is my experience and thus this is a quotation from my side.
Many people are saying many things. Are we really applying mind to what we listen? First of all, we dont listen. If at all we do, we take on the face value.
 
Words mean a hundred things. The understanding depends on the mental status that we are in. Viswanatha Satyanarayana, the poet par excellence and polyglot said, one has to read his works as many times as possible. He assures evereytime we will have some new message in it. It is the same with every writing and every word that we listen.
 
The books luckily are availabe for reading again. Spoken word goes into the air.
Listen carfully when someone says some thing. Read anything with all the attention. It is not what is said and written. It is about what you think of it after it enters your brain!
 
Think, Meditate!
You will find meanings that never occured to you at the first glance. This is where all the good messages are lost. Am I able to convey what exactly I want to tell you? Do you get what I exactly want you to get? Are there not so many slips between the cups and the lips?
 
Think, think and think!!
 
Vijayagopal K
 
I have written so much on science.
Hundreds of television scripts, thousands of News paper items including articles. All in Telugu.
 
And nothing much on science appears on this my site!!
 
I love my language. There are many people to write in English. Not many in local languages.
I felt it very strongly in those beginning days of my career as a writer. My efforts were appreciated too. I am introduced as a science writer. I say " I also write Science." I am interested in many things. I did many things. Many may not know that songs that I have written were used by very famous people. Stories written by me were read in literary circles and appreciated. My poetry was not bad. I dabbled in music reviews. There is no better listener of Karanataka Sangeetham than me. I have some wonderful collection of recordings with me. Many famous people used ask my opinion on their performances. Beating my own drum, isn't it?
 
Now the real two points that I want to make!
 
Could it have been different if I aave also written in English? May be a little more wider reach for the thinking ? I am at a loss when people from other regions ask me about my contributions. Science writings are never translated unless they are of a particularly special nature. Somebody offered to translate my works into Kannada. I dont know if it had happened.
 
Secondly am I right when I say that one has to focus and choose only one or two tings to be done? Not dabbling in everything even if you are good at them.
I picked up training. Many people ask me why? I feel more people are happy with this and it happens then and there. I really dont know if I am right when I reject many offers for other works.
 
Vijayagopal

I want people to think!