I am a great admirer of nature. I believe we have so much to learn from nature. A friend sent me a small video on nature with a lot of life lessons and that video inspired this blog.

We can look all around us in nature and learn life lessons every day. Everything in nature is in a way living for others. The rivers run from the hills to the ocean providing water to everyone who needs it without asking anything in return for itself.

The trees provide shade for others while bearing the brunt of the heat of the sun themselves. We cannot imagine the trees asking for anything in return. Even in the monsoon, the trees are like nature’s umbrellas for us when it pours. The trees do not eat their own fruits nor do they consume their leaves. They share their fruits and leaves with humans and animals without any bias .

The flowers bloom in colourful ways to brighten the lives of all living beings around them. They spread their fragrance and allow bees to carry their pollen from one flower to the other without asking for any compensation.

The sun shines all days of the year for everyone. The moon is also around to help us wade through the night. Neither the sun nor the moon send us any monthly bills for their generously spreading light in our lives.

On the other hand, we as humans are living life selfishly day in and night out. We consume nature in all its forms and give trash and junk in return. We not only destroy nature in all its forms but regrettably are not concerned about our own future generations.

We may think we are happy if we live life full of material comforts. We may be happy temporarily. But true happiness is only when we make others happy. We realise that money cannot buy everything in life. It can definitely not buy health or happiness. Thus one of the best ways to lead a happier life is by making others happy.

Nature gives us opportunities to learn every single day in every possible way to make others happy. But we are so much engrossed in our own happiness that we are oblivious of making others happy. The day we wake up from this slumber, we may kindle our own conscience.

The most important lesson nature teaches us is that “change begins with me”. If we need to change the world, we need to first learn to change ourselves. Last month I learnt thirty one different ways of making life more sustainable every day.

It is like our gardener who designed this colourful art piece did not put her name on the photo nor wanted publicity for herself. Serving others is her nature too.

If each of us are willing to learn from nature, we possibly will give back to nature much more than what we take from nature. We will not only make ourselves happy but possibly make others happy too. Nature teaches us that making others happy because of us is the true meaning of happiness.

Let us learn from nature every day and in every possible way.

S Ramesh Shankar

5th August 2022

 

As a human being, we all are emotional and it is natural to us. We go through highs and lows in life and each moment tests our emotional stability. While most of us are able to deal with highs with relative ease, we find it challenging at times to deal with our lows.

When the chips are down, we look for solace. We look for support, guidance and a listening ear. In most cases our family members or friends come to our rescue and we are able to get over this crisis in our life.

However, there are some times when we are ridden by sadness over a prolonged period of time. We try to put up a brave face and surmount this challenge in our life. However, in many such moments we lose our mental balance. We find our grief never ends and we have no options to deal with this crisis.

We then find that our close circle of family and friends are not able to to support us. We sometimes even lose faith in God. It is in such moments of despair that we are willing to seek help of anyone around us who is willing to lend a patient listening ear. It is in such moments of despair the so called God men and God women exploit our emotional weakness.

They are prevalent almost in all religions and act like predators waiting for the prowl in a forest. They pounce on such emotionally weak human beings and offer them seemingly convincing advice and also at times emotionally exploit them. They abuse the human weakness and in the name of God seek favours of all types including sexual favours. They promise the impossible and unthinkable at times.

But as emotionally distraught beings, we easily fall prey to such predators. In my view, these God men and women are devils in the name of God. It does not matter which religion they profess, they are devils in human form exploiting an already depressed human being.

While many wise men and women may laugh at such unfortunate human beings visiting such God men and women, it is sad because they do so as the last escape from their personal crisis. They almost feel they are hitting their heads against the wall and these God men and women provide them a ray of hope and then exploit their emotional vacuum.

I would condemn such God men and women from all religions. We as normal human being need to condemn such people rather than the poor victims who fall prey to them for no fault of theirs. We need to challenge such God men and women and ensure they are caught by the police and do not exploit poor emotionally discharged human beings.

I am not aware of any religion in the world which supports such God men and women. But the irony is that they exist in all religions and thrive on the human weaknesses of men and women.

It is time to wake up. It is time to condemn them and make them hang their head in shame. Each one of us can make a difference by influencing people around us in our family and friends circles so that they do not fall prey to such devils ever in their lives.

S Ramesh Shankar

16th Nov 2019

I have lived across different parts of India. My father was a government servant and this gave me the opportunity to do so. Further, after my studies, I lived and worked in different states in the north, south, east, west, central and south of India.

I found every place fascinating and the people interesting. I have learnt life lessons from each of the places I have lived and from the people living there. Although, I was born in Trichy, Tamil Nadu, I did pursue my education in Kolkata, Jabalpur and Chennai. I started working in Chennai and then moved to Bhilai, Indore, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and my last stint was in Mumbai.

Each city is close to my heart and made me a better human being in many different ways. Let me start with Kolkata. A city rich in heritage and culture taught me patience and tolerance. It also made me realise the richness of Indian culture and how traditions can be sustained through active community participation.

Jabalpur is almost the city of the defence forces. We can see heavy defence equipment being manufactured here. This city taught me how our defence personnel sacrifice their lives for the nation and protect our national borders for all of us. I also learnt pure unadulterated spoken and written Hindi from this city and its inhabitants.

Chennai is in my home state. I learnt to lead a simple life from this city. I also learnt how education can make a man and external material success is not the ultimate in life. The people in this city also taught me to be rooted in family traditions and understand the multifaceted dimensions of my religion – Hinduism.

Bhilai taught me cosmopolitan living. This steel city is a mini India. I have met people from almost all states of India living and working together happily in this city. Nobody in this city is recognised by his religion, caste or state which they belong. They are only treated as human beings. This city inculcated the values of secularism and co-existence in a beautiful way.

Indore was my next destination. It taught me the tastes of India. The variety of food available in this place is unbelievable. Apart from food, the people in this place are vey helpful and enable you to settle well without you realising it. Today it is the cleanest city in India and has been awarded for being so for the third consecutive year.

I then moved to Delhi, the capital of India. Apart from beautiful wide roads and heritage like the Red Fort, Qutub Minar and the Humanyun’s tomb, it has brought people from all over the country and the world to live and work here. I learnt the meaning of risk taking in this city. Apart from being a planned city to a large extent, it has green well laid out parks almost in every community and has a lot to offer for visitors in terms art, craft and culture.

My next destination was Bangalore, which is the ultimate destination today, where I have settled post my retirement from active corporate life. I have always envied the weather in this city, which is pleasant almost throughout the year. It is greener than most other metropolises in India and can boast to be the Silicon Valley and hub for start ups too. I decided to settle here for the weather and wonderful flora and fauna in the city. Apart from the greenery, it has great world heritage cities within a 350 kms radium and possibly the largest forest cover in India.

My last destination before I hung up my boots from the corporate world was Mumbai. I loved this city for its spirt of living. I have not seen any other city welcoming immigrants from all walks of life with open arms. Further, every dream could be fulfilled for everyone if they were willing to put in their best and luck also favoured them. There are innumerable rags to riches story not because of family lineage here but because of the individual’s talent and the abundance of opportunities. This city taught me to bounce back from every low and believe that there is sun rise after every sun set.

So, having lived in every part of India and also travelled to almost all the continents of the world, I can say there cannot be a more beautiful and diverse country than India. Every city I lived gave me something to learn. It is time for me to give back to my country in my little ways.

S Ramesh Shankar

3rd February 2020