My Country My People

This is a real story of an Indian soldier when he faced one of the most feared Military Leaders of the modern world. 15 Aug 1936 was not the Independence day for India. Nonetheless the date is significant as it figures in the pages of world history and is worth sharing with our countrymen. 


It was the Berlin Olympics and India was to play the mighty Germany in the Finals of the Hockey tournament. Just before the commencement of the encounter the Indian Coach, Pankaj Gupta, got the Congress Flag (Tri colour with charka) into the teams dressing room. All the players saluted the Flag and sang Vande Mataram, the then acknowledged National Anthem of India. When India had reached the hockey finals, it was presumed that Germany would emerge the winner.  It was assumed that another gold medal was just a matter of time for the Germans. To boost the morale of his team, the Fuehrer Adolf Hitler decided to attend and witness the match.

By half time India was leading 1-0. The playing conditions were not conducive for India in the second half. Fearing defeat the German ground staff deliberately drenched and rendered the outfield wet to slow the fast dribbling Indians in their sub-standard canvas shoes. Dhyan Chand the captain of the Indian team was facing acute difficulty in running on the wet ground in his canvas shoes. Dhyan Chand calmly took off his shoes and started playing barefoot. India won the Final match and the Gold medal by 8-1, of which 6 Goals were scored by Dhyan Chand himself. Hitler, left the stadium halfway through the match, as he could not bear to see his team lose.

Later, when Hitler came to know about the magic of Dhyan Chand, he expressed his desire to meet Dhyan Chand. On being informed by the German Chancery, Dhyan Chand could not sleep the entire night. Dhyan chand was numb with fear as were every member of the team, wondering what would happen in the lion's den.

The next morning Dhyan Chand found himself, before Hitler.  Hitler took a look at the sub-standard canvas shoes of Dhyan Chand and enquired  "what else you do, when not playing hockey ?"


Dhyan Chand: I am in Army.


Hitler: What is your rank?


Dhyan Chand: I am Lance Nayak


Hitler: Come pver to Germany and I will make you a Field Marshal.


Dhyan Chand was in flutter, not understanding whether it was an instruction to him by the Supreme Commander of the mighty German Army or an offer. Breaking his silence after a few seconds, Dhyan Chand replied in chaste hindi, "India is my Country, and I am fine there".


None of the Generals accompanying Hitler could respond to the patriotic rebuff rendered by the plucky Indian Soldier. Hitler is said to have taken his eyes off Dhyan Chand's canvas shoes briefly and retorted," As you like it " and stomped away in a huff.

We should be proud of the humble Lance Nayak of the Indian Army who did the Indians (then under the yoke of Britain) proud. Indian Hockey is in very bad shape today. But Dhyan Chand who was later granted a Commission in the Indian Army and ultimately retired as a Major, is immortal in the annals of Indian Hockey.

Do Something

A man distraught by all the pain and suffering he saw all around him broke down and banged his fists into the dirt.

His head turns upward and he yells at his God.

"Look at this mess. Look at all this pain and suffering. Look at all this killing and hate. God. Oh God! WHY DON'T YOU DO SOMETHING!!"


nd his God spoke to him and said"I did. I sent you."

---

Do something, take responsibility, both your indecision and decisiveness does make a difference

The King's Leather Sandal

A Maharaja decided to walk around his kingdom to see how are his people doing. Just few steps out of his castle, his foot was injured by a stone lying unseen on the road. He thought, "So the road in my kingdom is this bad. I have got to get it fixed."

Maharaja then summoned all his ministers. He ordered to have all the road in his kingdom be layered with the best of leathers. As soon as it was ordered, the ministers started getting the things ready, they gathered the cows from the whole country of the kingdom only to be made into leather.

Amongst such extraordinary busyness, came a wise renunciate came to see him. He said to the Maharaja, "O the Powerful One, why would you make have so much leather just to cover the whole roads spreading throughout the country when actually what you really need is just two pieces of leather to cover your soles?

Since that momentous time that the world invented what we call 'Sandal'

****

The world we live in is full of rocky roads. Which one do we choose, to cover all those roads with furry soft carpet so that we never have to encounter any pain or to cover our heart with a leather cover made of love, so that we can get through those roads safely?

To make this world a comfortable place for us to live in, sometimes we just need to change our perspectives, our heart, and ourselves, rather than changing the whole world.

The Greater the Haste the Slower It Is

A youth went up to a mountain to look for a famous swordsman to learn swordsmanship

"Master, if i practice diligently, how long would it take me to become adept at it?"

"Perhaps ten years"

"My father is getting old and i must take care of him. If i work far more intensively, how long would it take me?"

"In that case, it might have to take thirty years."

"You first mentioned ten years, and then you said it takes thirty years. I do not mind undergoing whatever hardship. I must learn it within the shortest possible time."

"Then you would need seventy years to master it"

----

More haste, less speed

Those who are too eager for results are apt to end up not having achieved anything. "Ordinary-mindedness is the way" means exactly this.

The Miracle Lioness: Kalmuniak

SAMBURU , KENYA - In Biology, we know that there exist the thing called food chain. It could be like this: soil nutrients consumed by grass, grass consumed by deer, deer consumed by lion, lion die consumed by micro organism into soil nutrients, and so on. The food pyramid draws on who eat who and who get eaten by who. This means, an oryx, a kind of horned deer living in Africa, is a food to wolves, leopard, lion or other predators.

However, as what was reported in BBC, A lioness in central Kenya has baffled wildlife experts by adopting a baby oryx. Reports say the full-grown lioness came across the oryx two weeks ago in the Samburu Game Reserve, scaring off its mother. Instead of then attacking the defenceless calf, the lioness adopted the baby, protecting it from other predators, including a leopard.

The local witnesses stated that every evening the lioness and the baby oryx would rest together. The lioness would curl up her body to the side of the oryx. The lioness even allowed the real oryx mother to come playing with the baby oryx, giving the baby milk. When the baby gets full, the lioness would then chase away the mother to go. That also means extra work for the lioness, for she has to protect the baby oryx. In any way, the oryx do rise the appetite of her predator relatives, many other lions would love to meal on the oryx.

However on Sunday of 6 January 2002, the sad end to the story came when the lioness led the oryx to the river to drink. Weakened by two weeks of looking after her adopted baby, she fell asleep, failing to notice a hungry male lion in the area. The oryx was no more.

Patrick Muriungi, a receptionist at Samburu Lodge, told AFP the lioness was grief-stricken when she awoke to realise from the small noises of what had happened. The lioness was right away very enraged and attacked the male lion. "She was very angry. She went around the lion about 10 times roaring, and then the lioness disappeared," he was quoted as saying.

Of course this extraordinary case attracts the attention of many. "This is either an extraordinary case of maternal instinct or simply the eighth wonder of the world," the local Herman Mwasaghu told The Nation newspaper. "What is baffling is why the relationship has lasted so long," said Wildlife expert Vincent Kapeen. He also thought the lioness spared the oryx "because animals have a special instinct to care for the young". Or could it be because the lioness was being lonely? How about you? What do you think?

Local people in Kenya named the lioness Kamunyak, which means “the blessed one” in the local Samburu language. Since then she has cared for five more young Oryxes, but none lives longer than a week and the last escaped back to it's mother. Kamunyak was last sighted in February 2003, and despite a number of searches, she has not been spotted again. Her story was recorded by Saba Douglas-Hamilton and her sister, Dudu, between January 2002 - August 2003. Their film, Heart of a Lioness, was shown on the BBC and Animal Planet. This a powerful message for us all to fight racism. If an animal can overcome her hunger and instinct to protect, imagine what we humans can do, if we really wants to.\

Stamp Box and The Stamp

Once there was an official who had done so many corruptions in his office, that the emperor sent an auditor to audit him. Realizing what was going to happen, the official asked help of a thief to steal for him the auditor’s official stamp that was in the auditor’s office. The next day when the auditor was going to start his work, he found out that his stamp was missing. He was very sure that it had been stolen by the corrupt official. In response, the auditor pretended to be severely ill. Some of the officials came to visit him, a very common practice of that time.

When the corrupt official came to visit him, the auditor only talked light common matters. While they were conversing, somebody from the back corridor shouted, “Fire…! Fire…!” Hearing that, the auditor immediately took his stamp box and while being witnessed by several other important people present there, he presented it to the corrupt official and said, “Please go home and take care of this stamp box, as the stamp inside is very important.” The corrupt official left hurriedly.

Only when the corrupt official got out of the auditor’s residence, he realized that he had been trapped, but it was all too late. The next day, the auditor requested the corrupt official to return back his stamp box that was being stored by the corrupt official. In such dilemmatic position, the corrupt official had no other choice but to return the stamp box together with the original stamp. If not, it would be seen that he made lost a government stamp.

Right after the stamp got back to the rightful owner, the auditor immediately stamped the documents he had made, including the letter of mutation of the corrupt official. Not long after, the corrupt official was removed from his office.

God! Grand Me Strength!

It was a merry afternoon at the hall. Oh, one could see that a toy-car race was being held, and the final round is a few minutes away. There were only four participants left and each of them proudly exhibit their own made toy-car. And so it was in fact that the rule of the game, the toy-car had to be one's own handmade.

Among the players, were one child whose toy-car wasn't in any way looking marvelous nor special in its look, though surprisingly he was one of the four boys who made it so far to the final round. Compared to his other players, his toy-car was the least magnificent and imperfect. Some of the audience doubted the toy-car capability to race against the other three.

Yes, it was true, the toy car looks pretty dull. With simple wood materials and few blinking lamps on its top, the toy car doesn't appear so interesting as compared to the other lavishly decorated toy-cars. Even so, the owner was less proud with his toy car, since it was original of his own creation.

Every kid got his car ready on the start line, and at the slightest signal from the jury, they pushed the toy-car as fast as they can. They pushed and pushed, ran and ran along with the car as fast as they could, and at the end, surprisingly, the kid with the least magnificent looking toy car got his toy car touching the finish line first among other players.

The champion was then asked by the organizer before receiving his award, "Hey champion kid, i saw you praying before the final round started, you must have prayed deeply to God that you may win this tournament, didn't you?" The champion was silent for a moment, then replied, "No sir, that was not what i prayed, i thought it was not fair to ask for God to help me defeating the other players. I only prayed that God help me not to cry if i lose." After a few moments of silence by the audience, the hall was then filled with applauses from the audience.

Contemplation:

How often do we pray that our wish may be granted? But do we realize that sometimes our wishes are just the opposite of what the others may pray for? If God exist in the conventional sense, then does God side on one but not the other? For example, if we pray for a win that benefit us, at that same time, one party or more would be disadvantaged. Then would it be appropriate for us to be joyful of it while on the other hand the other person might be suffering and disappointed? There are many things more important than just winning or losing. Wouldn't it be better for us if we pray for us to be accepting of whatever the results may be? Be it a defeat or a win, we can still choose to be happy.