Enigma Solution

How does a 'Mahatma' a great soul differ from ordinary people?  His witty handling of an obnoxious teacher may help throw some light. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi studied law in England from 1888 to 1891 where he attended The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, in London. Mr. Peters was one of the many people who taught at 'Inner Temple'. He disliked Gandhi ji intensely and made no effort to disguise his animosity and prejudice against Gandhi ji and tried to insult him at every opportunity. Gandhi ji may have been puny in looks but was a giant in intellect. He refused to be cowed down and always put forward original arguments and approaches which led to numerous confrontations with the arrogant Peters. One day, Mr. Peters was having lunch at the dining room of the University, and Gandhi ji came along with his tray and sat next to Peters Peters said, "Mr. Gandhi, you do not understand.  A pig and a bird do not sit...

Authority without responsibility always leads to dictatorship. A survey of the most detested departments in any organisation will normally reveal four villains.  Human Resources, Administration, Accounts and Security, are indirect departments invested with huge discretionary power and authority, which is significantly disproportionate  to their accountability for overall organisational performance. Runaway HR departments at many organisations are severely harming their own organisations and employees. Here is an example. Rao was a sincere, competent, loyal, punctual and hardworking employee. He frequently worked extra hours without any monetary reward, to attend to urgent needs of both customers & colleagues. Rao always felt as if it was his own company and that he belonged there, respected and needed. One day due to some unavoidable circumstances, Rao arrived for work about 30 minutes late, probably the first such lapse in 7 years. The Human Resources depar...

The Reign of Darius the Great marked the zenith of the Persian Empire. Upholding the tradition and values established by Cyrus the Great, Darius valued the rights of all people under his rule and respected the culture, language and religion of subdued nations.  The Persian Empire demonstrated for the first time how diverse peoples can culturally flourish and economically prosper under one central government. The first system of federal governments was started in the Persian Empire. There were many (nations) states that were run by smaller local kings who were under the great king or Shahan-Shah (King of Kings) and ultimately a courthouse.  The following inscription appears on his tomb: “By the favor of the great God I believe in justice and abhor inequity. It is not my desire that the weak man should have wrong done to him by the mighty.” ... Darius' goal was to be a great law-giver and organizer. He structured the empire under the satrapy system (similar to nation...

I recently spent a day with a very interesting Uncle who came visiting from America. Dr. Harcharan Singh is  knowledgeable on so many subjects, but gardening his passion. We mostly discussed his beautiful and highly productive garden. Spending 2 hours each morning my Uncle grows virtually all the fresh vegetables and fruits his family and friends need. He does not use any artificial fertilizers nor use any pesticides. Anxious about increasing presence of pesticides in our environment which invariably leads to all sorts of medical problems, such as infertility, organ failure and cancer, I asked him how he was able to avoid using pesticides? He briefed me on crop /plant rotation which is periodic changing of types of plants so to deny pests  the chance of breeding. He changes the mix of the plants all the time. The reason we do this is that every crop or type of plant attracts particular types of pests. When a plant grows it becomes a home for those pests, but they nee...

My nephew Karan and I recently debated over various economic and political matters one evening. I asked him how he was convinced that what he said was correct. He replied that he read and saw it in the media, and therefore they were 'facts'. Foolishly we believe we are consumers and therefore we are being served with facts. Nothing can be further from the truth. ___________________________________ By whatever affiliation, all the major media players are large companies, owned and interlinked with even larger business groups. Like other companies, they sell a product to a market. The market is advertisers - that is, other businesses. The product is audiences. The elitist media decides the basic agenda who and what must be promoted and which others must adapt. So we have major corporations selling their ideas to other businesses. Not surprisingly the picture of the world presented reflects the narrow and biased interests and values of the sellers, which ...

        On this Republic day of 26th January, let us all step back for a moment and  admire some  awesome facts about a magnificient land. We the people have  to listen to own hearts and  rediscover our greatness to build a better India  and a better world The challenges we face our immense and probably more than anywhere  else in the world.  We are surrounded by an unruly, violent and dangerous  Pakistan, a  beligerent and  aggressive China and a ravaged Myanmar.  Yet it is even more astounding that the most diverse nation on Earth, with  hundreds of  languages, all religions and cultures, is not only surviving, but  thriving. Bharat the nation we know as India. Land of spirituality, tolerance, compassion, diversity, wisdom and wealth, where  Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism were born, which is the sec...

During a visit to the mental asylum, a visitor asked the Director, "what is the criteria that defines a patient to be institutionalized?" "Well," said the Director, "we fill up a bathtub, we offer a teaspoon, a teacup, and a bucket to the patient and ask the patient to empty the bathtub." 1. Would you use the spoon? 2. Would you use the teacup? 3. Would you use the bucket? Oh, I understand," said the visitor. "A normal person would choose the bucket as it is larger than the spoon." No," answered the Director. "A normal person would pull the drain plug." He flunked..... ..... There is a difference between an objective and actions!  Unless we understand our objective, we will be wasting our time in inappropriate actions. Always know and understanding the objective first. My thanks to Mr. Arun Yallatikar for this piece