The Stories I love the most 5: Holy bath in the Ganga River

A true Brahman used live a sacred life in a small hut along with his family. One day a cow entered his house and was about spoil his Puja. In an attempt to stop the Brahman threw a few  water drops and gestured the cow to go away. To his surprise the cow died on the spot. The Brahman was stunned and realized that he made a sin. He went to his Guru and asked him on how he will relieved from the impact of sin he committed. the Guru said, the Brahman needed to have Holy-bath in the river Ganga for an year. The Brahman informed his family and walked to reach the river Ganga. He went for a few months and crossed forests and mountains but could not find the river. When inquired, one Sadhu directed him towards the river but didn't tell how far was the river. After a few miles the Brahman reached a lake and believed that it might be Ganga. He started doing holy-bath and continued his sacred life the same way. One day another Sadhu saw him asked what was he doing. After hearing the reply from the Brahman he laughed and told that the Brahman has been having bath in a dirty lake and asked him to go to the REAL Ganga. Brahman was disappointed and went in the directions given by Sadhu. He came across another small water fall and again believed that it might be the Ganga river. He continued the same life for 100 years till another local met him and clarified that the waterfall is not Ganga. The Brahman continued his journey and met with many small rivers, lakes and others but every time he was told by someone that he was having holy-bath in wrong place. Brahman became old but he continued to walk to reach the REAL Ganga. He saw the river where many devotees were doing rituals and immersions in the river. Excited with the devotion and Brahman tried to reach the river but before he touched the waters he died.

The messengers of Lord Yama came down to take the Brahman to hell for the sin he committed through killing a holy cow. However they found the messengers from the Heaven taking his soul already. Surprised  the lord Yama asked them on how the Brahman can go to the hell without completing the sentence for the sin he committed. the messengers of the Heaven clarified that on the virtue of holy bath for 100 years in the river Ganga, the Brahman earned the permanent place in Heaven.

The moral of this story is that it is the feeling that matters more than the real action.

My Childhood: My Continuous and Confident Learning

I joined Engineering at my age of 17 years.  In the entire class I realized that I am the youngest and that many of my colleagues joined Engineering after second and third attempts. There are many who did very well int eh +2 course as well as in the Entrance Examinations conducted for qualifying in Engineering. My brought up made me a bit simple and obedient and it was always demonstrated like Dull and Numb. I very soon earned a name MABBU (మబ్బు ) which is difficult to translate but means a dull and stupid fellow. I innocently tried to mingle with other top performers and they regularly tried to escape from me. For example, someone used to ask me to bring some water and by the time I come they all used to run away for movie. I used to walk about 10 KM to the College. Many of my colleagues had two wheeler but didn't let me go with them even if their rear seats were free.I didn't have complaint but used to wonder what will make me better to join them because I admired all of them for their merit and intelligence. They were all ranked better than me. I however had many other friends within the class who might not be great performers in the +2 courses and even the other branch students were also good with me. 

I was doing well in all the first year subjects but Engineering Drawing became my nightmare. It was quite early stage when we were learning how to draw Circles and Curves, dividing them into parts etc. Everyone else used to complete the practicals while I still struggled and left with incomplete drawings. I tried to improve through home work. Irrespective of my repeated requests none of the elite group helped me. They gave me ideal answers like I would not improve unless I tried on my own. They even ridiculed me on my pathetic performance. My professors and Lab In-charges were also wondering on why I was not able to seemingly easy work. One day left my work and went to one of my friends (He is of-course not among the elite group which regularly avoided me) place to see how is he doing. He was dividing a circle in to 36 parts. he measured the divider at 10% and marked the circle at equal parts and then drew the lines from opposite points to divide the circle in to 36 parts. I knew all this but I asked him one point. When he was marking each part of 10 degrees, there was small amount of error while he moved from point to point. By the time he reached the 36th point, the last part became small to an extent that it might be actually around 5 degrees. When I asked this, he laughed and said that it is not easy to make all parts equal because every time you mark a point some part of the circle is covered by that mark itself. Thats when I realized that perfection is not the option everytime. All others were not bothered about that last part and were completing the exercise quickly. I kept on erasing whenever  I was seeing unequal parts and was trying for overkill. 

I quickly went back and completed my drawing in 10 minutes and submitted to my professor and left the class. All my friends laughed assuming that I might have given up and left the lab.

In the first test I got the top mark and no one could digest and all thought I pampered the professors to get the marks. 

As we progressed, more complicated topics like Straight lines, Projections and Perspective view were all introduced. I was able pick up and do those parts more efficiently and nicely than anyone else. Learning them needed lot of logic and I realized that I was quite good in that.

Very soon a situation came when the guy from the (So called) elite group approached me and requested me to guide him on these topics as he was struggling. What did I do? I taught him patiently and made sure he was on own. My other friends asked me why did I do that when I was insulted many times. My answer was that "He behaved like what he is, and I behaved like what I am".

I very soon realized I am doing much better than many other top rankers in the class. When I was surprised and asked my father he said that every journey is different and we wont get a free ticket in a new journey for the journey that we already completed. All of them including me made a journey to join Mechanical Engineering there was 31st ranked, 284th ranked but all attained a rank that qualified to join the degree. Once joined these ranks dont matter. There will be another journey and more learning. Hence we need to keep our feet on the ground what ever we do because very soon the success becomes past.

There is no end to learning even if there is end to studies.