“ If you stand for a reason, be prepared to stand alone like a tree, and if you fall on the ground, fall like a seed that grows back ,to fight again.”

I loved this quote ,as it teaches us a lot of ,basic life lessons. We all are idealistic in our childhood and resolve that we will never give up on any of our basic principles in life. But, as we grow up, we tend to to compromise and let go of our principles for convenience or sometimes for protecting our image.

If we look at trees, especially during a storm, you realise that the tree stands alone and weathers the storm, all alone. It does not worry if any other tree or for that matter any other living being ,is going to support her to withstand the storm.

This could be ,a great life lesson for us. We all would love to ,always stand by our guiding values in life. But when the time comes, we tend to have weak knees and are blown away by the majority, although they may be wrong. If we learn from the tree and learn to stand alone, we may realise ,that our foundations get stronger and we are respected more by others.

It may not be easy to stand alone, in a storm. But our foundational values are tested ,only during difficult times. We may be alone and nobody around, to watch our behaviour. Do we live our values or are willing to compromise ,as it is convenient or satisfies the majority. Sometimes, it may look easier, to run away from a storm and deny the wrongs we did. But we need to remember that ,nobody is watching us except our inner voice.

The best of leaders in organisations and in communities will always stand alone in a storm and face the wrath. They will never allow the storm to impact their team. They will never compromise on their basic beliefs and will be willing to fail rather than compromise. Like a true sportsperson will be willing to lose ,rather than cheat and win a match.

We respect people, who live by their core principles in life. It is not an easy path to pursue, but the more sustainable one. The foundations of core values and beliefs, keeps us grounded and we are always respected ,by our own children and team members.

There could be situations in life, where we may get blown away. Then, we need to be like the seeds, which fall on the ground and sprout again to life. The best sportsmen may lose a match but never compromise on the basic rules of the game. They will bounce back like the seeds and win the match, even after losing a few games.

It is a reality of life, that we may not be able to withstand all the storms in life and sometimes, we may get blown away by the winds. This is perfectly human. But, we need to learn to bounce back and rise all over again.

Let us learn from the tree and the seed.

S Ramesh Shankar

22nd June 2025

I am on my annual retreat to a heritage Ayurveda centre in Kerala, India. I attended a session by the lead Doctor of this centre yesterday. She gave us new insights of how “Ayurveda” works on the human body.

According to Ayurveda, human beings have an in built immunity mechanism and it can tackle and manage all diseases and injuries to the body. However, over a period of time due to wrong intake of food, our habits of not having quality, quantity, time and type of food healthy for us, our immune system gets impacted.

According to the experts in Ayurveda, the head in the human body is like the root of a tree. Just like we water the root of a tree, when it grows up, we need to first treat the head with medicated oil and other methods before we move to the other parts. All issues in the human body spreads from the head to the other parts through the nervous system and the physiological systems.

They say that we assimilate toxins all through the day and month and do not have a way to eliminate them from the body. When we fall ill, we take medicines and they help us tackle the disease or illness ,without getting into the root cause of the disease.

According to Ayurveda, the root cause of most diseases ,is the health of our gut. What we eat, when we eat, how we eat and in what quality and quantity ,determines the health of our gut. This supplemented with good sleep at the right time and not going against nature is important. Physical exercise of our choice and cordial sexual relations with your partner ,will help us keep up physical and mental health.

If we maintain our intake and ensure that we excrete ,what is not good for the body ,on a regular basis, the chances of our falling ill is very minimal. The immune system of our body will be able to manage most of the diseases, prevalent in society.

The process they follow in a typical elevenday programme is that they use oil massage therapy with a combination of oral herbal medicines to help us excrete all the toxins accumulated in the body ,during the first eight days. Then they clear the remaining unwanted things in the body through enema ,in the last three days. This way they systematically cleanse our body and help us regain our health.

I would like to share some examples of how this could work. Firstly, it is about preventive health maintenance. It is like ,we maintain our cars and bikes ,through periodic preventive service in an authorised service station. Similarly, we need to maintain our health with proper intake of food and regular exercise supplemented by an annual preventive health maintenance ,at a centre of our choice – ayurvedic or anything else we like.

Secondly like we use the right fuel and oil in our automobiles, in the right quality, quantity and time, similarly, we need to intake food at the right time in the right quantity and quality, which will help us keep healthy.

Thirdly, like an automobile is maintained well, when it is kept running and not kept idle. Similarly, our body and mind has to have regular physical and mental exercise to keep it running.

Let our journey to good health begin today by syncing ourselves with nature – i.e. the Ayurveda way as documented in 3rd century BC in India.

S Ramesh Shankar

3rd Feb 2025

I was on the banks of Cauvery at Gali Bore, near Bangalore. A poster on the wall of the resort triggered my thoughts. It read – “ Observe the patterns, Create sound maps and feel the senses .

I realised that in this materialistic world, we have forgotten all the above. Our eyes are the most powerful pair of lenses, in the world and the best camera we can ever have. But, we do not put it to its best use. There is so much to observe ,all around us.

Today ,sitting on the banks of Cauvery, I can see the wave patterns on the flowing river. It can give us unlimited ideas for designing any pattern in our lives. The swaying leaves on the trees and the playful malabar squirrel can keep us engaged all day.

It may be worthwhile for us to pause for a day and take a break from the madness of our every day life. We can hear the vibrations of nature. You feel as if the birds are speaking to one another. The squeak of one bird is responded by the melody of another. Such is the beauty of nature, we are missing every day.

Can we smell the air ? In our busy urban life, we only can smell the emissions of other vehicles and the polluting industries around us. In a forest, nature bestows us the fragrance of trees, flowers and even the wet mud, which makes us realise how much we have lost our senses.

As humans, we have five senses – see, hear, touch, smell and taste. But with urbanisation and leading a materialistic world, we seem to have lost all of them. We cannot see the obvious, listen to one another, touch and care for one another as humans, smell the fresh air ,as we have polluted it and taste organic natural food ,as we have injected all possible chemicals into our food.

It may be time to sit back and reflect. We may benefit by setting the clock back and rewinding our life. We may surprise ourselves ,if we activate all our senses to see, touch, taste, hear and smell. It may not be a difficult task ,but definitely needs introspection and efforts to get back to nature.

The first step could be to take a break ,once in a while ,from our rugged routine and be with nature. Nature can teach us in simple ways ,to reactivate our senses. The sights of nature ,will invigorate our senses. We will get mesmerised by the nature’s scenes and the smell of the flowers and trees. The care and touch of animals will kindle our senses. The taste of fruits from the forest ,will revitalise our senses and the sounds of nature will make us more sensitive and possibly make us better listeners in life.

Let nature awaken us. If we are willing to learn from nature, we may be able to activate our five senses and evolve as better human beings.

It is time to wake up and re unite with nature.

S Ramesh Shankar

11th May 2024