Teacher vs Guru

Even though we use these two words 'Teacher' and 'Guru' almost synonymously, there seems to be a lot of differences. Krishna forwarded this interesting information thorugh an email.

A teacher takes responsibility for your growth;

A Guru makes you responsible for your growth.

A teacher gives you things you do not have and require;

A Guru takes away things you have and do not require.

A teacher answers your questions;

A Guru questions your answers.

A teacher helps you get out of the maze;

A Guru destroys the maze.

A teacher requires obedience and discipline from the pupil;

A Guru requires trust and humility from the pupil.

A teacher clothes you and prepares you for the outer journey;

A Guru strips you naked and prepares you for the inner journey.

A teacher is a guide on the path;

A Guru is a pointer to the way.

A teacher sends you on the road to success;

A Guru sends on the road to freedom.

A teacher explains the world and its nature to you;

A Guru explains yourself and your nature to you.

A teacher makes you understand how to move about in the world;

A Guru shows you where you stand in relation to the world.

A teacher gives you knowledge and boosts your ego;

A Guru takes away your knowledge and punctures your ego.

A teacher sharpens your mind;

A Guru opens your mind.

A teacher instructs you;

A Guru constructs you.

A teacher shows you the way to prosperity;

A Guru shows the way to serenity.

A teacher reaches your mind;

A Guru touches your soul.

A teacher gives you knowledge;

A Guru makes you wise.

A teacher gives you maturity.

A Guru returns you to innocence.

A teacher is a systematic thinker;

A Guru is a lateral thinker.

A teacher will punish you with a stick;

A Guru will punish you with compassion.

A teacher is to the pupil what a father is to a son;

A Guru is what a mother is to her child.

A teacher leads you by the hand;

A Guru leads you by example.

One can always find a teacher;

But a Guru has to find and accept you.

The Weaver, the Princess and Goldman Sachs

Everyone knows that we Indians invented the zero. Without zero and the decimal number system, writing and calculating really large numbers would be very difficult. This would be awful for people in the financial industry, whose work depends on having really big salaries. Fortunately Indians came to their rescue by inventing zero.

Another thing which is crucial to the financial services industry is the concept of being too big to fail, which has been put to good use by Citigroup, Bear Stearns, and Goldman Sachs over the past few years in sucking money from American taxpayers. This beautiful concept was also invented by an Indian - Vishnu Sharma, the author of the Panchatantra, in the story of the Weaver and the Chariot Maker.

The story of the weaver and chariot maker is one of the Panchatantra stories that usually doesn't make it to primary school textbooks or Amar Chitra Katha, mostly because it's full of sex, war, and moral hazard. Since you probably haven't read it, here's a quick summary.

A weaver sees a princess during a festival and falls in love with her. As a weaver, he has no chance of marrying her, so he sinks into depression. His friend, a chariot maker decides to help him out. He designs a flying chariot in the shape of Garuda, dresses the weaver up as Vishnu, and tells him to fly the chariot into the princess's room, tell her that he is Vishnu and wants to marry her Gandharva style. That is, the wedding is kept a secret from everyone except the princess and the faux-Vishnu. The princess agrees, and the weaver comes back every night to consummate the marriage.

Eventually, the maids notice that the princess is spending her days in total bliss, suspect that she's in love, and tell the King. The King asks her what's going on, and she tells him that she's married to Vishnu himself. The King is absolutely delighted, and decides that there's no point in paying tribute to the Chakravarti (Emperor), now that Vishnu himself is on the kingdom's side. The next night, he catches the weaver as he enters the princess's room and asks him to fight the Chakravarti's army, thinking that he is lord vishnu.
The weaver is horrified. Pretending to be Vishnu was fine, but taking on the role of Vishnu to face an imperial army single-handed is another thing altogether. On the other hand, if he confesses to the King that he is not actually Vishnu and had married the princess under false pretences for the past month, he will have his head chopped off. So he decides to get on to the battlefield and do the best job he can, while the King is whipping up enthusiasm in the population by telling them that Vishnu himself is going to do all the fighting.
By this time, Garuda (the real one, not the mechanical one) has tipped off Vishnu about what's going on, and warned him that if the fake Vishnu doesn't win the battle, the people of the kingdom will lose all faith in him. Vishnu doesn't want to see this happen, so on the battlefield he enters the weaver's body and annihilates the Emperor's army. The entire army. Every single soldier. After this, the weaver marries the princess, everyone goes on worshipping Vishnu, and the king becomes the new Emperor.

The moral is that you should conduct your affairs in such a way that if you fail, it will lead to someone or something even bigger or more powerful failing too. This lets you get away with anything. The weaver got away with having sex with the princess on false pretences (this is rape under Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code), pretending to be a god (awesomely enough, this too is a criminal offence under Section 508), and annihilating an entire army that was fighting a just war - after all, it was the king who broke the treaty (you could make a case for this being genocide under Article 2 of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide).

American banks and financial institutions were very good at absorbing this lesson, and leveraged themselves up to such an extent that if they failed they would take the global economy down with them. And just as the weaver lived happily ever after with the princess, banks have lived happily ever after with taxpayer-funded bailouts.

Importance of Walking

Of late, reading a lot of stuff on walking. But, nothing inspired me more than the following text sent by Premila through email.

Walking can add minutes to your life.
This enables you at 85 years old to spend
an additional 5 months in a nursing home
at $7000 per month.

My grandpa started walking
five miles a day when he was 60.
Now he's 97 years old and we
don't know where the hell he is.
I like long walks,
especially when they are taken
by people who annoy me.

The only reason I would take up walking
is so that I could hear heavy breathing again.

I have to walk early in the morning,
before my brain figures out what I'm doing.

I joined a health club last year ...
spent about 400 bucks.
Haven't lost a pound.
Apparently you have to go there...

Every time I hear the dirty word 'exercise',
I wash my mouth out with chocolate.

I do have flabby thighs,
but fortunately my stomach covers them.

The advantage of exercising every day
is so when you die, they'll say,
....'Well, she looks good doesn't she.'
If you are going to try cross-country skiing,
start with a small country.

I know I got a lot of exercise the last few years,........
..... just getting over the hill.

We all get heavier as we get older,
because there's a lot more information in our heads.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

We moved to a new (own) house!

This is to inform everyone that we have moved to our new house on 14th May, 2010.

As you can see from the images below, still little work is left, but we thought it better to shift as we got the electricity connection. Got the phone / internet connection too.
All the things have been arranged. Anu Krishna are the architects of the house. Their signature is there many details. The most important part of the house is the kitchen and so, the hall is attached to it. And, it is in the centre of the house. So, as soon as you enter the door, you will reach the kitchen!

The not so important part of the house, but where I may spend most of the time is below. It is called 'Study', I think. But, we will be watching movies here.


The entire construction was done by adivasi masons - Balu being the chief engineer, with Maran taking lot of responsibility in the second half. It was a pleasure to have them. Of course, our regulars like Carpenter Rajan, Electrician Thomas and Plumber Ismail provided the other crucial services (Just realised, we can claim religious harmony award?!) The entire logistics of managing construction was done by Durga; my brother-in-law (Kalai) and mother providing the all needed moral support with hundreds of phone calls.

This blog post is also to let you know that we will not be having any formal function or ceremony. I would not have written this in musings also, but it is important to acknowledge and thank the support of many people - apart from the ones mentioned above. So, here goes.

Financially, the biggest donor was my parents. Our big savings got finished when we completed the foundation itself! But for the generous grant of Rs.9 lakhs from my parents, we could not even dream of building this house. We did not beg, but burrowed quite a lot. Premila, Shikha-Dilip, Durga's Mother, Regi-Lalitha gave loans whenever we were stuck for money. Many others offered support and were kept as stand-by : Henri and Shyla for example. Ram-Rama gave their old stair case, Stan-Mari gave nice plants for our garden. The number of people who offered to help for shifting things is too high to list.

Thanks a lot to all of you - and a special one to Anu-Krishna. Drop in when you are passing this side. Special invitation to Anita.

Politics in UK

I followed this year's election in UK quite closely. For the last three or four years, have been reading about the politics in UK quite a lot and interests me!

The campaign and the verbal duels were quite reminiscent of Indian politics. The voters there too were equally sceptical about the integrity of the politicians. Add to that, the hung parliament and the coalition government, we have an arrangement very familiar to Indians. (For a couple of days, words like negotiations, bargains, horse-trading etc. were also circulating in the press!)

And, a few minutes ago, came to know that conservatives have formed a government with Lib Dems. And, Labour is out. Gordon Brown was a curious person and could not place him properly. Which continued till the last minute. And, the way he left. Here are some excerpts of what he said during the last few minutes as PM.


"Only those that have held the office of prime minister can understand the full weight of its responsibilities and its great capacity for good."

"I have been privileged to learn much about the very best in human nature and a fair amount too about its frailties, including my own".

"Above all, it was a privilege to serve. And yes, I loved the job not for its prestige, its titles and its ceremony – which I do not love at all."

"No, I loved the job for its potential to make this country I love fairer, more tolerant, more green, more democratic, more prosperous and more just – truly a greater Britain."

"Above all, I want to thank Sarah for her unwavering support as well as her love, and for her own service to our country"

"I thank my sons John and Fraser for the love and joy they bring to our lives. And as I leave the second most important job I could ever hold, I cherish even more the first – as a husband and father. Thank you and goodbye."

Then, The Guardian writes,

As he flew home to Fife Brown's future is cloudier.

He will resign as an MP – the modern fashion – and has sufficient international standing to get a big job, probably in tackling global poverty, the passion he acquired from the David Livingstone stories of his Presbyterian childhood. First, he must rest and come to terms with his own record. It's over.

Helpful Husbands

Some husbands are atrocious. On second thoughts, I would change it to "most husbands are atrocious". Especially when it comes to doing the errands commanded by their respective wives. (They fare better while doing the errands of other people's wives, of course. That is the reason, the word 'respective' is important!)

Normally, the wife's world goes around the family, buying things for the family ... almost all her decisions, actions revolve around the needs of the husband and children. But, husbands? Self-centered and caught up with professional / world affairs - outside the house!

Agreed, we are genetically handicapped of being men. And, we can't take initiatives. But, the least we husbands can do is to do the errands given by our respective wives. There too we fail. "Oh, that is what you meant?" or "I was caught up in a traffic" or "You don't know what tension I go through in the office" or some such thing is our only excuse, when it is pointed out - once again - that we forgot something.

Or, if we do remember to go to the shop to fetch the one thing required, we try our level best to avoid this simple responsibility. And, if we could succeed, what a joy!



I am sure, I am going to get two comments for this post :

a) Talk about yourself.
b) Why are men called 'head of the household'? At least in India.

What is Tact?

Negotiations and Bargains

If you have to point out one most important skill that is required in the modern world, it is bargaining and negotiating successfully. Not only in the work atmosphere, but generally everywhere - be it at the market while buying vegetables or at home requesting your child to get a pillow from the other room, this skill is the most important requirement to survive.

It does not stop with ordinary mortals like us. Even the Pope needs it. And, how he does!!

Here is the story.

The top marketing director of Nescafe manages to arrange a meeting with the Pope at the Vatican.

After receiving the Papal blessing, the Nescafe official whispers, 'Your Eminence, I have some business to discuss. We at Nescafe have an offer for you. Nescafe is prepared to donate $100
million to the church. If you change the Lord's Prayer from 'give us this day our daily bread' to 'give us this day our daily coffee'."

The Pope looks outraged and thunders, "That is impossible. The Prayer is the word of the Lord, It must not be changed. "

Well," says the Nescafe man somewhat chastened, "We anticipated your reluctance. For this reason, and the importance of the Lord's Prayer to all Catholics, we will increase our offer to $300 million. All we require is that you change the Lord's Prayer from 'Give us this day
our daily bread' to Give us this day our daily coffee'."

Again, even more sternly, the Pope replies, "That, my son is impossible. For the prayer is the word of the Lord and it must not be changed."


Finally, the Nescafe director says, "Your Holiness, we at Nescafe respect your adherence to your faith, we realise that tradition is essential to your beliefs, we fully understand the importance of the word of the Lord ............. ....but we do have one final offer. Please discuss it with your cardinals. We will donate $500 million to the great Catholic church if you would only change the
Lord's Prayer from 'Give us this day our daily bread' to 'give us this day our daily coffee'. Please, please consider it."

And he leaves. The next day the Pope convenes the College of Cardinals. "There is some Good news," he announces, "and some bad news ...... The good news is, he continues to a hushed assembly, ' that the Church will get $ 500 million."

"And what is the bad news, your Holiness?" asks a Cardinal.

"Sadly" says the Pope, " We would have to lose the Britannia Account
...... and take on with the Nestle!"

How cleverly the Pope has bargained!

Men and childbearing

Read recently somewhere what the American author, Norman Mailer had to say on this topic.

Writing books is the closest men ever come to childbearing.

As it resembled closely with my own views (Read this blog for more), started reading about all he had to say. But, most of his other quotes were quite strong in view and hence, differed from my taste. But, a couple of more of his views were quite appealing.

Once a newspaper touches a story, the facts are lost forever, even to the protagonists.

Given the current irresponsible mass journalism, which has its eyes firmly on commerce and does not pay any attention to conscience, the most monstrous creature in the world today is a mass media reporter. Trial by Media has become a normal event today and an occupational hazard for many a public figures. So, this statement was well-said!

But, the most curious of them all is the one below.

The natural role of a twentiety-century man is anxiety.

Does he mean only man or does that include woman too? Does he mean human beings are generally more anxious now than before or only men are anxious (due to women, of course)? And, if says this about 20th century people, what would be his views about the 21st century inhabitants of this world?