Vamsy's Blog

Arjuna : Krishna, you highlighted the greatness of having wisdom. If having wisdom is better than performing karma, why do you encourage me to do war? I am now more confused with your confusing words, tell me one way which I can choose without ambiguity. Krishna : I have created two types of Yogas along with this world, that can lead people towards salvation. Wisdom for those who are interested to learn and duties for Karma Yogis.  Just by not starting his duties, one can’t achieve perfection and just by abandoning his duties, one can’t achieve Wisdom. Everyone has to perform some or other task every second, atleast by adhering to the laws of nature. This is unavoidable. He who abandons his duty by forcing his senses and can't stop thinking about them in his mind is a sinner. A wise man practices and completes his deeds with his senses under control and not thinking about the result. Perform necessary duties in that way. Journey of life won’t be proper if you abandon those dutie...

When an attempt is made to burn the true hires of the empire alive; when an attempt is made to undress the queen of a mighty empire; when the Kings of a strongest kingdom of Bharat are forced to live in exile for 14 years; when the mind of wicked people refuses to listen to the sweet words of Lord; when the enmity between various kingdoms comes together; when all attempts to stop the war went in vain; when two huge armies stand on either side. War becomes inevitable. But, for a worrier with dear once standing on the opposite side, starting a war is not so easy.  It becomes even more complex for the warier, if he is not able to digest the fact that he will have to shoot arrows on those people. It’s the same case with Arjuna, the hero of Mahabharata epic. Luckily, Arjuna has the Almighty Krishna with him as his charioteer to guide him. The huge army on both the sides are waiting to start the war. The archers are ready to release their arrows, while the war horses and elephants roared...

Sanjaya : Seeing the plight of teary eyed Arjua, Krishna said- Krishna : Oh Arjuna! It does not give you Glory by becoming indecisive in the middle of battlefield. This will not give clamor to a person of your stature. Get rid of your weak hearted nature and start for the war. Arjuna : Krishna, how can I hit people like Bhishma and Drona whom I respect immensely? What’s worse for me then killing these great seers? How can I enjoy the worldly pleasures obtained by killing them? I am not able to judge if it is better to do war or not. Even if I do war, we can’t say who will win. Even if we win, we would have lost the desire to live after killing so many people. Krishna, I have succumbed to my mental weakness here. I can’t judge on what to do and what not to do now. Please guide me and tell me what is good for me now. Please teach this refugee of yours what is good to do. Krishna : Arjuna, you are spending your energies by crying for those who don’t deserve. On top of that, you are talkin...

 Drutharastra is very eager to know what is going on in the battle field, he wants to know every precise detail happening with his sons and his brother’s sons. He started the conversation by asking Sanjaya- Drutharastra : “Gathered at Kurukshetra, to start the holy war. What are the sons of mine and sons of Pandu doing?” Sanjaya : Oh King! Seeing the wisely positioned army of Pandavas, Dhuryodhan went to Dronacharya and named the important Warriors on both sides to Dronacharya.  All these warriors are ready to give up their lives in the war. Dhuryodhan went on saying- “the strength of pandava army guarded by Bhima seems limited, while the strength of kaurava army guarded by Bhishma seems unlimited. So, protecting Bhishma is our utmost important for us. While he stands, there is no chance for the enemy to win.” On the other side, Arjuna, who has Krishna as his charioteer, Hanuman on his chariot’s flag and holding the Bow Gandiva told Krishna. Arjuna : Krishna, I would like to g...

Why COVID hit back India hard? This question can be answered with so many reasons. The simple answers are "India thought, COVID won't come back". "India thought, COVID can't do anything to them". They are precisely the reasons. When I refer to India, I am referring to most of the people, central and all state governments and opposition parties. Everyone got complacent. I want to refrain from blaming people, as the amount of information they have is limited. But, the government(both central and state) needs to be blamed more. Not just for doing huge election rallies or organizing religious events(Kumbh). But, more on how they failed to Vaccinate people when they had chance. If they say, they didn't expect this. Then, they are either stupid or they have useless advisors.  Coming to next point, what went wrong regarding Vaccinating Government forgot to order vaccines. They failed to give confidence to people on Vaccines. They failed to control fake news reg...

Weather it is religion or region or anything. Ambitious leaders sometimes wants to set a more correct standard for what is being followed at that time. At this point, a new belief system starts. That is true everywhere. People divided to religions and there by sub category of beliefs in that religion. Rulers divide the land into smaller regions and declare new rules. Coming to religion, this is clearly seen in every religion. Hindu's are classified to Shaivites, Vishnavites and so on. Muslims are classified to Sunni's, Shia's and so on. Christians as Catholics, Protestants and so on. This is similar in every major religion. But, if we go deeper in each of these. We can easily observe the similarities not just between the sub groups. But, many times between different religions.  A classic example I find very interesting is how Hinduism and Zoroastrianism evolved together(or separated from a parent belief). I should actually use a word like Vedic instead of Hinduism here as t...

 My son is 8 months old now. During his first 2 months I used to think, it would be better once he reaches around 6 months. I had my reasons then,  He is too brittle to lift, carry, bath and so on. Need to spend time to burp him after every feeding. Won't understand why he is crying. Now, while the above problems got reduced. There are 'n' number of new problems. The biggest problem is, "he moves now". While he moving(crawling) is nice to see, he does lot more then that. He tries to stand and falls down, then he CRIES. He moves near by objects and push it, when the object falls he CRIES. He moves close to the door and waits there, when we open unknowingly(even slowly), he CRIES. He now puts everything in his mouth, if we take them away, he CRIES. If he gets hungry, he CRIES. If he didn't get our attention immediately, he CRIES. If he gets sleepy and we delayed in putting him to bed, he CRIES. Oh My God, previous state is so much better.  Sometimes, I will thin...

This book dealing with multiple examples on people with fixed mindset and people with growth mindset. How this mindset is not a binary but every person is a combination of Fixed and Growth mindsets. Some excellent points I like in this book are- If you appreciate a person's success for being smart, they will turn towards fixed mindset. But, if you appreciate a person's success for their hard work, they will turn towards growth mindset. This is very true when handling kids. Failure is not a sign of stupidity but lack of experience and skill. Both positive and negative labels can mess with our mind. With positive label, we are afraid of losing it and with negative label, we are afraid of deserving it. Common mistake done by parents One of the most interesting points I found is the mistake most of the parents do. We label our boy/girl child as smart when they do their homework well or get high grade in a test. Similarly, after a few failures we start saying that they don't do ...

This is such an interesting aspect that we need to understand. Not just by companies making products but even for individuals who wants to put their perspective to their actions. I started following Simon Sinek after watching this Ted talk.

When I am a teenager, I used to love the concept of communism. It looked perfect- Everything is owned by government and therefore public property. Everyone has equal access to everything. Everyone gets equally irrespective of what they does. No question of religion and caste. What else is required for a teenager with limited knowledge to think it is the perfect recipe for all world problems. My thesis is confirmed in many movies which shows all factory owners are evil and all labor unions are led by pious people, who is either lead or lead's father. Used to feel very happy when this pious labor leader defeats or kills the evil owner. But, one question that used to linger in my head is. If communism is perfect, why everyone wants to immigrate to places like USA and Europe. Which are supposed to be capitalist sin states. But, no one wants to visit North Korea. Which is the country following communist ideology. Ofcourse, I didn't have answer for this then. But, once I started work...

How can I forget this masterpiece from Maha Prasthanam. How Sri Sri has summarized the history of every nation in his blunt words ఏ దేశ చరిత్ర చూసినా ఏమున్నది గర్వకారణం? నరజాతి చరిత్ర సమస్తం పరపీడన పరాయణతం  నరజాతి చరిత్ర సమస్తం పరస్పరాహరణోద్యోగం. నరజాతి చరిత్ర సమస్తం రణరక్త ప్రవాహసిక్తం  బీభత్సరస ప్రధానం పిశాచగుణ సమవాకారం. నరజాతి చరిత్ర సమస్తం దరిద్రులని కాల్చుకుతినటం.  బలవంతులు దుర్బల జాతిని బానిసలను కావించారు. నరహంతులు ధరాధిపతులై చరిత్రమున ప్రసిద్ధి కెక్కిరి.  రణరంగం కానిచోట భూస్థలమంతా వెదకిన దొరకదు. గతమంతా తడిసె రక్తమున, కాకుంటే కన్నీళులతో.  చల్లారిన సంసారాలు, మరణించిన జన సందోహం, అసహాయుల హాహాకారం చరిత్రలో మూలుగుతున్నవి.  వైషమ్యం, స్వార్ధపరతం, కౌటిల్యం, ఈర్షలు, స్పర్ధలు. మాయలతో మారు పేర్లతో చరిత్రగతి నిరూపించినవి.  చెంఘీజ్ ఖాన్, తామర్లేనూ, నాదిర్షా, ఘజ్ని, ఘోరీ, సికిందరో ఎవరైతేనం. ఒకొక్కడు మహాహంతకుడు.  వైకింగులు, సేతహూణులు, సింధియన్లు, పారశీకులు, పిండారులు, థగ్గులు కట్టిరి కాలానికి కత్తుల వంతెన.  అజ్ఞానపుటండయుగములో, ఆకలితో, ఆవేశంలో...

 I am not a vivid reader of Telugu literature. But, I happened to read this awesome piece of Sri Sri garu from Maha Prasthanam. I felt that this small piece will be a great addition to my blog. One more reason is, I am not able to find this master piece in Telugu lyrics easily with google search. I only found this written in English primarily. నేను సైతం ప్రపంచాగ్నికి సమిధనొక్కటి ఆహుతిచ్చాను  నేను సైతం విశ్వ వృష్టికి అశ్రువొక్కటి ధారపోశాను  నేను సైతం భువన ఘోషకు వెర్రిగొంతుక విచ్ఛిమ్రోశాను  ఎండకాలం మండినప్పుడు గబ్బిలంవలె క్రాగిపోలేదా  వానాకాలం ముసిరిరాగా నిలువు నిలువున నీరు కాలేదా? శీతకాలం కోత పెట్టగ కొరడు కట్టీ, ఆకలేసీ కేకలేశానే  నే నొక్కణ్ణే నిల్చిపోతే-  చండ్ర గాడ్పులు, వానమబ్బులు, మంచుసోనలు భూమి మీద భుగ్న మౌతాయి  నింగి నుండీ తొంగిచూసే రంగు రంగుల చుక్కలన్నీ రాలి, నెత్తురు క్రక్కుకుంటూ పేలిపోతాయి  పగుళ్ళన్నీ పగిలిపోయి, నిశీథాలు విశీర్ణిల్లీ, మహా ప్రళయం జగం నిండా ప్రగల్భిస్తుంది  నే నొకణ్ణి ధాత్రినిండా నిండిపోయీ- నా కుహురుత శీకరాలే, లోకమంత...

Although I am from a temple going traditional Hindu family. I was not introduced to the Hindu holy book "Bhagavad Gita" at early age. I remember searching for ways to kill my boredom during one summer holidays in +2(12th standard, around 14 years of age). During that time, I took a small book of Bhagavad Gita. I initially thought that is the summarized version, as all the religious books I saw till then are simply huge. To my surprise, that small book is all of Bhagavad Gita. I came to know then that, this book is only 700 poems in Sanskrit. Luckily, they gave Telugu translation next to every poem.  As a teenager and someone who is not religious, it is not easy for me to understand easily. One thing I like in this book is, it is not something dedicated to just praise the Lord. Rather, it is a discussion between 2 people. Krishna, who is the Lord and Arjuna, who is a confused person. At no place in the book, I see Arjuna just blindly accepting what Krishna says. Arjuna questio...

 It is close to 3 years since I got relocated to USA from India. I have to say my experience here is better so far. Ofcourse, I have to- Live away from family Won't get home food and  Have to fill Visa documents every now and then.  I know, this is too much to give up. But, still for what I got for return, I am happy with it. Some of the nice things are- Lot less honking. Lot less pollution. Excellent roads. Great hospital care. (Though costly) Registering and availing services is lot easier. (Like getting electric connection, state id and so on) Great parks for refreshment.  Very near to high tech industry. So, quality of work is great. Increased income. Won't be bothered by people curious about our personal life. I am now able to do somethings that I didn't do in India. Some might be doing these back in India already, so it is only me who didn't do these back home but doing them now. I am able to run on footpath adjacent to road whenever I want. Back in Chennai/Hyd...

 Around 5 months back my first kid arrived. It is not possible to tell in few words, how awesome it felt. Then started my struggles, basically it is language problem- I won't understand what he is crying for. He don't know how to make me understand why he is crying. Ofcourse, crying is the only language he knows and unfortunately there is not much variation in his cry for what he needs.  I try to feed him when he is irritated with wet diaper. I try changing his diaper when he only want to play or entertained. I try to play with him when he actually want to sleep. I try to put him to sleep when he is struggling to burp. In one sentence, it is a miracle if I get these things right in first try. Shockingly or luckily, my wife mastered his language in no time. Ofcourse, she found a new way to get angry on me as I am getting so confused. I don't blame her for this, I totally deserve her anger here. So, I voluntarily gave her right to understand what my son wants. I only do what ...