(387) My quoted Quotes in my Posts (10)

(148) “A man, not interested in Literature, Music (Classical – as it is the ancient verse) or any Art, is just like an animal without a tail and horns.” (A Sanskrit Verse)

(149) “Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled (lame), thought and speculation at a standstill.” (Barbara W. Tuchman) 

# Life and Literature

(150) “Error is committed unknowingly and innocently, but blunder is backed by strong intension and sometimes hasty thoughtlessness for doing so.”  (Valibhai Musa)

(151) “Shared joy is a double joy; shared sorrow is half sorrow.” (A Swedish proverb)

(152) “A balanced life is the only key to preserve the prosperity for a long time.” (An unknown source) 

(153) “You will never have any more time than you have today.” (William George Plunkett) 

(154) “One should also recognize the opportunities as they, sometimes, come open-faced and, sometimes, disguised.” (Valibhai Musa)

(155) “Our temptations and efforts to gather the whole world within our arms or under our feet are futile just as a hen tries to gather her chicks, wandering here and there, under her wings.” (Valibhai Musa)

#  Lose and long on life long

(156) “To be human means to feel inferior. (Alfred Adler)

(157) “Nature is the best physician and that it should be allowed to function without the intrusion of meddlesome interference.” (Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine and a Greek Physician) 

(158) “The beloved of the Almighty are: the rich who have the humility of the poor, and the poor who have the magnanimity of the rich.” (Sheikh Saadi, a Persian man of literature)

# Lady with the lantern !

(159) “I would suggest that when a person has a thought of doing anything serious against the law, it should go to a quiet place and think about it seriously before it does.” (William George Bonin, a murderer, who was executed about a decade ago in America had uttered his last words)

(160) “If you hear that someone is speaking ill of you, instead of trying to defend yourself, you should say, ‘He obviously does not know me very well, since there are so many other faults he could have mentioned.’” (Epictetus, a Greek Philosopher)

(161) “Behave with others as you would expect others to behave with you.” (A Slogan)

# Hear-says or rumors

(162) “Silence of good people encourages evil indirectly.” (Valibhai Musa)

# Paying Respect to the Late Mr. ‘Sufi’

(163) “Just to prevent the wars, walls should be built in the minds of the people.” (An unknown source) 

(164) “We see that this song of hate has not benefited humanity.” (Mahatma Gandhi)

#  Life on earth, possible but not safe !

(165) ’‘To do  and not to do is a question.” (Shakespeare)

# No scarcity of Jacks of All !

(166) “A little learning may be perfect if style of presentation goes with it”. (A Saying)

# Art of Balanced Exaggeration in Conversation – 1

(167) “Poetry is an art of soul.” (An unknown source)

(168) “Exaggeration is to paint a snake and add legs.” (A Proverb) 

(169) “Some so speak in exaggerations and superlatives that we need to make a large discount from their statements before we can come at their real meaning.” (Tryon Edwards) 

# Art of Balanced Exaggeration in Conversation – 2

(170) “Opening of a mall in a city puts an end to the business of thousands of hawkers and traders. This mall culture will plunge the middle class into a greater financial crisis and turn hawkers into beggars.” (Medha Patkar, an Activist)  

# Rivalry of two retail trade sectors in India

(171) “Over diversification is only good for those who don’t know what they are doing, If you are sure that you know five good stocks then have faith in yourself and distribute your money among them instead of buying thirty random companies that you know nothing about. Diversification can scientifically reduce your returns especially when you believe that few stocks will go up in price by a good percentage.” (Warren Buffet, the richest man in the world)

# Strategies in Bearish Stock Market

(172) “One of my colleagues asked if I was lying in the emergency room critically ill, would I prefer a doctor with technical excellence, or one who was compassionate and caring? I replied neither. Why should a patient need to choose? A competent Physician must be both.” (Dr. Gabriel Smilkstein)

#  Dr. P. J. Shah, a tender-hearted Physician will be missed

(173) “One should save money against hard times, save wife at the sacrifice of own riches, but invariably one should save own soul even at the sacrifice of wife and riches.” (Chanakya)

(174) “If a country is to be corruption free and become a nation of beautiful minds, I strongly feel there are three key societal members who can make a difference. They are the father, the mother and the teacher.” (Kelly Preston)

#  Rising above Corruption – A General Review

(175) “The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four persons is suffering from mental illness. Think of your three best friends and if they are okay, then the fourth that remains is you.” (Rita Mae Brown) 

#  Who is really insane? – ‘Seldom’ such Posts (3)

-Valibhai Musa 

 

A thoughtful thought! – ‘Seldom’ such Posts (1)

Click here to read in Gujarati

Some years ago, I had read in some Gujarati News Paper the news that an International Conference on ‘Attitudes of Parents towards Childhood Disciplinary Behaviors’ was held at Istanbul (Turkey). One of the participants in debate had suggested that the children should not be physically punished but instead of that the pillows should be thrashed with fists or sticks in fit of anger. My Readers will smile gently as I also do, but there is a portion of little bit truth in the suggestion. It is a middle way between expressing anger and protecting child-respect. Remedy is interesting, but foolish also. The naughty child will show its teeth with smile when we hit to the pillow as punishment.

 

My pondering over above suggestion inspires me to modify it in a way that instead of punishing the pillow in lieu of the child, we should hit the pillow to the child provided it should be soft to avoid any injury. Parents will be satisfied and the child will think that it has been punished. Thus, the pillow will work as a non-violent weapon like Mahatma Gandhi’s practice of ‘Satyagraha’, a non-violent weapon. Shouldn’t Educational Institutions also provide pillows to the teachers for punishment to the pupils along with educational equipments? There is no need of any special provision for parents as the pillows are always available at their hand-reach in their households.

Though pillow-hurling is a light, safe, non-violent and effective punishment, we cannot deny the fact that there is a tender hardness and disguise bitter feeling of hatred in it. Psychologists of education and parenthood will not approve this method and thus there remains only one option of ‘Forgive and forget’. In Sanskrit, there is a slogan as “Forgiveness is the ornament of the brave.” But, such tendency is not possible for a common man and therefore they may implement direct or indirect pillow-hitting or pillow-hurling punishment to the children.

Now, my mobile thinking enters the world of corrupt politicians and dishonest bureaucrats spread over world-wide in little or more proportion. I see no any difference among innocent playful children, those politics-playing politicians and termite (white ants)-like Government servants boring holes within country’s economic progress. They also do some blunders (Passive violence) like misappropriation of money, mismanagement in administrative system and hundreds of non-ethical practices repeatedly like those children. But, we should not put any blame upon them as they themselves are not responsible as persons for their unfair acts. All blames should go to their chairs; and if we wish to punish them, we should break the legs of their chairs instead of their own legs. Their chairs are the root causes of their intoxicated state of power.

While proceeding further, I recall my memory of having read some Articles on ‘Co-ordination of Science and Philosophy’. In light of scientific definition, the pillows and chairs are inanimate objects; but children and politicians as well as bureaucrats are sentient humans. Parents and public should be careful to honor the feelings of both children and band of those poor rogues. They should be given indirect punishments as thrashing pillows or breaking chairs. Here, like self-proved geometrical theorem, if we have to give any priority for punishment, we should prefer first inanimate rather than sentient.

At this juncture, one more sub-question arises. While giving preference between inanimate and sentient, if we find both inanimate, what should we do then? In case of a politician or bureaucrat and the chair, it is obvious that chair is inanimate; but suppose that if the politician or bureaucrat is also inanimate, then what to do! In my opinion, the answer of the question is quite straight. We should judge who is more inanimate whether the chair or its user and we should punish accordingly. In botanical science, the plant of cotton and a tree are considered as sentient as long as they are live. But, as soon as they get dry, they become inanimate. Logical argument will be as a sentient will turn into an inanimate when it loses its life or sensation. Those cheats, by adopting the skin and tears of a crocodile, have lost their sensation and therefore they are liable to be punished directly.

For honest governance of a nation, the top-level cleanliness is necessary. Gandhiji’s one of the movements was cleanliness in streets as the part of hygienic care of people. A nation can be economically healthy only when its politics is clean. Just to remove political pollution in our country of India, the provision of Clause 49-0 of Election Rules must be made effective with some amendments. The voter must have the right of ‘No vote to any candidate’ in case of not a single candidate is found deserving. For this very purpose, the Election Commission should provide an extra box for ‘No Vote’ in Ballot Paper. It is very interesting to know that if number of ‘No Vote’ is higher than number of winning candidate, the Election of the respective constituency will be null and void. Further, in Re-polling situation, none of the former candidates can be participant for the second time. Thus, all Political Parties also can be taught a good lesson for issuing tickets to only deserving persons for candidateship to contest elections. Thus, the honest State and Central Governments would be able to clean up the Bureaucratic, Corporate and all types of civic dirt by making the Anti Corruption Bureau more active and Judiciary system quick.

Summing up, I have pleasure to announce that I have started a new series of Articles titled as – ‘Seldom’ such Posts. Above is the very first post of its kind; and, I’ll publish such in future, not regularly but seldom as and when my mood hits me.

A line in response to my endeavor of putting my thoughts in this post will highly be appreciated.

With best regards,

– Valibhai Musa

 

 

Life and Literature

Click here to read in Gujarati
In Sanskrit, there is a verse (Shloka) as “साहित्य संगीत कला विहीन, साक्षात् पशु, पूच्छविश्नहीन” (Sahitya sangeet-kala vihin, sakshat pashu poochchh vishna-hin). Its translation is as “A man, not interested in Literature, Music (Classical – as it is the ancient verse) or any Art, is just like an animal without a tail and horns.” Here, I am going to discuss only literature in context to human life. Literature is an indispensable necessity of human life. It is an eye opener, a driving force to mould our life and a preacher to understand human life, human love, human nature and overall to say humanism. The literature helps a man to come out from animalism and adopt humanism. Gift of intellect from God to a man makes him different and superior to all other creatures. The study of literature, inclusive of religious ones and other sciences, not only sharpens the intellect of a human; but also provides him inspiration and aptitude to know everything, visible or disguise, in the universe. With reading the works of poets, philosophers and intellectuals and also religious literature of spirituality, divinity and mysteries of the universe and its Creator, a man can become capable to uplift himself to be a super human from simply a human. The literature feeds the human mind and soul such a food with which it can enrich own thoughts to make own life successful and think for the good of the whole mankind of the universe.

A matured man or woman who remains indifferent towards literature is just like a kid of a famous poem of Rabindranath Tagore titled as ‘Authorship’. I know that to spare more space for this side reference in my brief essay is not appropriate, but I can’t withhold myself as I am sure that the poor level of the kid of the poem to understand literature will compel my Readers to admit that the people, matured but passive towards literature, are like this kid unable to understand literature with the only difference that they people do not play with toys and swing in cradles. Let us enjoy some pieces of thoughts of the kid of above poem here below.

The child complains to its mother with some charges put upon its father, an author. Firstly, it says that the father writes a lot of books but what he writes is beyond its (kid’s) understanding. It tries to make its mother agree with that she is also in same position unable to understand what he writes. The child considers the mother superior to the father as she can tell nice stories which the father can’t write. A very cute question is asked whether he has not heard the stories of giants, fairies and princesses from his own mother or has forgotten them all. Further, the child says that the father is crazy towards writing books as if he plays at making books. The child complains also that she does not allow it to make the slightest noise in the house that may disturb him. In child’s view, the writing of books is nothing more than its own writing of the alphabets just as a..b..c..d..e in its notebook. We can see the humorous argument of the child in a climax that the father wastes heaps and heaps of papers and she does not allow it (kid) to take a single sheet of paper to make a boat with. Here, my summary of the poem is over but I recommend to my Readers to read original text of the said poem to enjoy it nicely.

Now, I once again come to my main track of the theme of my essay. Today, the Reading of literature has decreased to a considerable rate. Two factors have played their rolls in this regard; one, other forms of entertainment such as TV, Movie, Sports etc. have become popular and, two, human life has become strenuous in gaining money for survival of the family. In such situation, the Reading is going to become a lost art and that is not a good sign for the future of the world.

Modern means of entertainment which have taken place of Reading of literature are merely aimed to give pleasure, luxury and time-pass only. They are far away from teachings of any moral lessons or developing any wisdom in the minds and souls of the people. No doubt, all these are the various forms of an Art, but they are deficient and imperfect for cultural advancement of the people.

For centuries, a debate on art, divided into two schools of thought as ‘Art for art’s sake’ and ‘Art for life’, has been going on without any conclusion. Concept of ‘Art for art’s sake’ may be good for artists themselves as they are the monopoly holders of saving art, but the common men need something more that may uplift them in all aspects of their lives, something that may empower them to strengthen their inner thoughts, something that may realize them the realities of life rather than flying high in the sky of imaginations. Any art whether it may be even literature must have the aim of bringing some change in human behaviors and morals. Modern popular arts such as western noisy music, vulgar performance of dance, nude painting and photography, violent and sexy movies and TV serials are just like slow poisons for the new generation capable enough to throw them deep down into the valley of decline. We can distinguish the basic difference between literature and other arts in a very simple way that literature teaches us what to enjoy and other arts teach us how to enjoy.

Literature opens the windows of our mind through which we can gaze towards the unknown inner and outer world which we have not yet seen. The works of great writers have changed the thinking directions of the people with their writings. They have sown the seeds of social awareness and ethical reformation in the minds of the people and many revolutions such as developing ideas of democracy, abolishing slavery and hatred towards so called untouchables, avoiding discriminations of all kinds, uplifting the status of a woman in society etc. have been possible covering the most part of the world and its numerous communities. It is the role of literature that has changed the most of the false traditions throughout the globe. To maintain the size of my Article, I cannot catalogue all those books both literary and religious which have played a vital role in changing the values of human life.

Literature is capable to change our beliefs if they have been falsely hammered into our minds. It makes us a mentally matured person to grow high towards understanding. An American historian and author – Barbara W. Tuchman quotes on books of literature as “Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled (lame), thought and speculation at a standstill.” For expansion of horizons of knowledge, no any alternative other than books can be so effective and result oriented.

My humble request and counseling to parents worldwide is that they should encourage their children to read some good books or cultural magazines. In modern social system, birthdays of children are celebrated by giving them various gifts. Should we not add at least a single good book to the list of gifts?

– Valibhai Musa
Dtd.: May 5, 2008