CHAPTER 20

 

 01. Whether from the birth of the SUN,to the birth of your son,(and in fact all matters including even this simple EBOOK)-all are accidents or preordained, none for certain can tell.#truth

02. Prevention is better than cure. God could have applied this principle,instead of the Law Of Karma.#Life

 03. Illness and cure are at opposite ends of the spectrum of health. The former may not be your making,and the latter not fully under your control.#illness

04. You cannot define or delineate God.Nor can you doubt or deny Him.#God

 

05. A person gets to be known as a soft personality,if he always speaks only what is pleasant,avoids contrversy,advises little,applauds liberally,condemns never,and meticulously keeps away from those with the opposite qualities.Public interest is not his forte.#pleasant

 06. Some say that God is slow to act,but sure to act. Poor consolation.#God.

07. When solutions are not in sight,illusion prevails,and belief systems are born.#belief

08. WE must learn to live with corona,it is said,That is like living with hunger,poverty,pain and the like.#corona

09. Lucky seniors have left the planet before corona arrived.Their companions who have missed the bus,stay put in their homes, and live a guarded life ,in constant fear of putting everybody around to avoidable trouble.#CORONA

10. People have died in millions many times before,as for instance in the two world wars, and the korean war,etc and in poverty,and epidemics like Spanish flu. So COVID 19 is just another catastrophe,from which the world will emerge as ever,claim some. This is totally untenable.The world will continue as ever no doubt.Not come to an end we know.Actually,that will not be a problem at all.The continued existence of the world,with the likelihood of more and more misery of this kind visiting it,is the real problem.#corona

11. If you are placid,whether you float in bliss,or are soaked in grief,you have reached the much sought after state of equanimity in life.#life

12. There are more ifs and buts in life,than things sure and certain.#life

13.The world matters to a man,only as long as he exists. After that,he may be somewhere or nowhere(that is not quite clear!).So your wanting your near and dear ones to live well after your time, is itself a mere wish.And to extend this to the whole world,is farfetched ..#life

14. Thanks to corona lucky are those who stay put indoors,due to old age,illhealth or immense wealth.#corona

15.During serious illness in old age,one must decide whether it is time to live beyond, or whether ,considering all circumstances,it is not time to leave the world behind,in which case ,incidentally,all the pending problems in life will get written off.#oldage

16.Everybody wants to be something.Some people want to become somebody very big. But the truly evolved may aspire to become nothing at the earliest hour,and never be anything therefter.#life

17. CORONA makes a mockery of all belief systems,in that it belies concepts of right and wrong, just and unjust,good and bad, true and false, &cause and effect. It unleashes an avalanche of grief and terror on the masses,with little justification and w/o any provocation.#CORONA

18. Expectations are natural and necessary, as there can be no other motivation for effort.But,of course,if results belie expectations,that have to be endured .Should not be construed as a lesson that all expectations should be eschewed to plug in possibilities of grief.#expect

19. If atrocities occur ever now and then,as in politics,and we dont react to it becaue of frequency or fear,this numbness is infectious,and we become insensitive to everything in life.#injustice

20. Fear of corona,hangs over the head of all,like a sword hung by an unspun silk thread.#corona

21. If we build a temple for a convict, that is disrespct for Law and the Almighty as well.#law

22. Humour ,when out of context,can be disastrous.What is serious must be viewed seriously.Dilution with humour can be calamitous.#humour

23. One good thing about COVID19 (if we can count blessings)is that it does not appear to affect the brain. If indeed a virus can affect the brain, say of those in power (who take decisions that affect vast sections of population),the effect will be totally disastrous .#corona

24. A terrorist is like a terrible virus. Not easy to apprehend or annihilate.#terrorist

25. Who created the corona virus,and who gave it the urge,the motivation, inclination,power and technical knowhow, to stealthily enter the human body,and silently but surely eat up the vital organs therein? Is it the same God who created the human body? Mystery abounds!#God

26. As institutions grow in size,from company,cartel,govts etc,the finances at the disposal of controlling authorities,swell to mindboggling proportions,& increase their power to propel their personal interests at public cost,through surreptitious diversion of funds.#corruption

27. Intelligence,unless accompanied by open mind,is of no avail. Some prefer to swim all the time,in the stale and placid waters of lakes of bygone days,and dare not enter fresh waters even for a change.#intelligence

28.Talent at all times had a value.But this value is now multiplied manifold,with the advance of technology,leading to great unheard of disparities in wealth and lifestyle, in our society.#technology

29. Technology takes us closer to our friends and relatives residing far away,in lands foreign ,at the cost of time available for neighbours living close at hand.#technology

30. Some go by sense.Some by sentiment.The problem is oftentimes,sense and sentiment are at loggerheads with each other.#sense

ITEMS 7 to 30 posted on 30th september 2020

31.Thanks to COVID ,there are now more meetings on gadgets,than in person,both on official and on social fronts.Maybe there is saving on fuel and time, and pollution is less.But the effectiveness of distant contact will diminish over time,with prolonged absence of contacts in physical proximity. More and more,we will be talking to people whom we have never met before.That'll make a lot of difference to social life and sense of togetherness.The sooner a remedy is found from the shackles of COVID,the better it is for humanity.Or else!#COVID

32. Unfortunately,religon which should contribute to peace of mind,instead has been the cause of endless war and turmoil,around the globe,and for generations.#religion

33. Electricity is the largest single contribution by science to society. Its benefits are immense.But strangely enough unsuspect danger lurks inside and fairly close by.#technology

34. Scientific invention and technological advances,have both bright and dark sides.But during the reign of COVID,their contribution to free social contacts over long distances,through effortless audiovisual communication facilities,without personal proximity,is immense.#covid

35. Villages were then thinly populated with large families. Now,cities are thickly populated with small families.#population

36. In some villages in India,there reportedly was a practice designed to put an end to misery from sheer old age,viz. by arranging a cold shower,applying native cooling oils to the head,and administering ice cold coconut water,to induce pneumonia. A malpractice maybe!#oldage

37. As age advances,energy level falls. At some advanced age (may vary from case to case) even getting up will look like a dextrous process, to be minutely planned and carefully executed.#oldage

38. If you praise a man,he will try to live up to it. Tell him that, whenever you meet him,he will not leave you without a cup of coffee or cool drink. You can then be assured of his hospitality always.#praise

39. Confidence backed by reason,and mellowed by caution, is way behind confidence borne of faith.#confidence

40. A supersenior citizen,has not much past in his memory,no great present to be engaged in,and little to visualise with certainity about his future. A kind of suspended animation.#oldage

41. Our social relationships are so fragile these days that we dont tell anybody anything that may not be palatable to him,however essential and crucial the matter may be.#relationship

PARAS 31 to 41 posted on 5th oct 20202439.

 
 42. As per a report circulating in whatsapp, a woman asked her husband to draw cash from ATM on her card.The ATM did not pay. The bank contended that ATM card was a non transferable instrument.This view was upheld by court also. Now suppose I am old,sick or both,and go to ATM with a friend,and,as the stairs are steep,ask him to go and draw cash using my PIN. No transfer of right is involved here. And the bank has to pay .Of course,if the friend runs away with cash,the bank is not answerable. I feel somebody should go for a judicial review.#ATM

43 . It is irksme and may be futile to seek truth through the tough path of ceaseless enquiry. It is easy,comfortable and convenient to believe.The choice is yours.#belief

44 . Babies are conceived in the dark,delivered in light,pass through light and shade,and end up in darkness.#life

45 . Senior citizens living with their chldren now, are probably the last batch of their kind. In future,their destination in old age,will be oldage homes,for good or for evil.#oldage

46. "I beg to disagree"is a polite way of conveying that my sharp intellect tells me,that i am absolutely right,and that without any hesitation,i can reject your view.#politeness

47. A report in THE TIMES OF INDIA of 10th oct 2020:
" We are living in a cultural environment that would rather deny death,and view it as a medical failure,rather than accept it as a corollary of life.". Needs rethinking.There is need for a change.#life

48. Habits die hard, they say.But now thanks to corona, habits have changed rapidly across offices,shops,functions ,festivals and so on.#corona

49. Girls forget their parents some years after marriage.Forget their husbands after the children are grown up.And these chldren forget their parents after they get married.Marriage effect!#marriage

50. There can be no right without a person to dispense it. Who is that person for the so called fundamental right?God or Govt? Govt often fails,and God is not approachable.Then what remains?#rights

(Paras 42 to 50 added today,on 20th october 2020. This completes CHAPTER20.)