Vamsy's Blog

Krishna: Arjuna, you are not the first person to receive this immense wisdom from me. I have explained this to Sun God earlier. He has transferred to mankind through Manu and from Manu to Ikshawaku. This wisdom transferred over generations of mankind and enlightened great seers. But, this wisdom is lost over time. I am now retelling this to you not just because you are my devotee, but because you are also my friend. Arjuna : Krishna, you are born recently but Sun exists always. How is it possible for you to recite this to Sun God? Krishna : The current form of me is born recently. But, there is no question of my existence before I were born. You, I and everyone around here existed always. Only difference is, only I remember what has happened before I took my current form. I am actually creating an illusion of my birth within the nature, which I rule. I create such illusions to destroy the evil whenever it gets upper hand over good. Understand this nature of mine and you won’t take bir...

It is the first Saturday of the month. In simple words, first weekend after getting salary. Every young software engineer in Hyderabad knows that feeling. It is not much different for Mahesh, who is working in the world's largest software company. But, on this day he is still sleeping at 11AM.  The story of Mahesh is inspiring to his close circle. His relatives show him as a role model to next gen kids. The reason for such an admiration is not due to any great innovation or social service activity he did. It is even more important for the society, he has the crazy tag of Software Engineer. Who works in an air conditioned office with a computer. Ofcourse, no one really knows what Mahesh does with the computer.  Let's take a step back. Like most of the middle class millennials from South India, Mahesh has few milestones in his life right from his childhood. These were carefully set by his parents- Get good rank in engineering entrance exam, so that he can get seat in a local eng...

Recently, my wife has traveled to Hyderabad from San Francisco with my 1 year old. It was really scary for me as she has to travel all the way with small child without additional help. I got concerned with so many things- My car can't hold 2 big trollies along with stroller. So, how to travel to SFO airport? How to get a cab with car seat? Will they allow stroller in flight? How to carry baby food, milk and toys into plane? How can my wife hold my son through out the flight? How can my wife manage carry on bags and my son during transition in Delhi? I am super worried about each of these questions. But, one confidence I had is. We are not the first people to travel in an international flight with a baby. So, all these might be trivial. Luckily all these are really trivial. I did book an SUV through Uber to SFO airport. As they don't have a car seat, I took my own car seat and installed it in the cab.  Air India allowed to check in stroller along with other check in bags. They e...

Yet, another Olympics is completed and as expected India did poorly compared to its size. India won only 7 medals(1 Gold, 2 Silver and 4 Bronze). Even with this poor performance, there is something that is good to see. The medal tally of India has been increasing from the first Olympics I remember(Sydney 2000). I remember whole country celebrated when Telugu girl Karanam Melleswari won bronze medal in weightlifting. She is bombarded with so many gifts from across the country, which she fully deserved. In 20 years the number went up by 7 times. Which is note worthy. Simultaneously, the number of athletes selected to participate in Olympics also increased from 65 to 124.  Below is the medal tally of India from 2000 Olympics. (I got this information by quick google search) Olympics Number of Athletes Gold Silver Bronze Total Sydney 2000 65 0 0 1 1 Athens 2004 73 0...

The voice of Ghantasala gave life to wonderful slokas from Bhagavadgita.  

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...