S. Venkatachalapathy

Let me start this post with a question, 'What smart means?' Smart could mean clever and very alert. One who is successful financially with adequate time at his/her disposal can be considered very smart. The real challenge is that society takes all steps to prepare us to be less smart and to the advantage of the administrators and capitalists, but we may have to get psychologically reconditioned to become smart. You are first put in school and taught lot of things which you may not require in the whole of your life. Still there is no way to learn how to read and write and know some fundamental science and mathematics. By the time one is in class 8, what ever is required to be smart has been covered in the academic curriculum but because of the torturous learning process the students gain far less insight. Three or four years are subsequently wasted preparing for some qualifying examinations. Then one is supposed to study a degree to get a job. Thus the society delays your sm...

Recently a story was circulated on the email. Somebody wanted to write a motivational piece to build the confidence of the readers. The story has been written with two characters, the God and a person who meets Him with the grievance that God is partial to bless very few with ability to achieve great things. God convinces that all are created with will to try any thing but only society imposes the conviction in every one of us that things cannot be done so easily. The will of every one is to try to perform. But doubtfulness in the minds is brought about by others. Normally people tell someone attempting a new venture based on their own conviction that success is difficult. Society talks of hard work. The successful people are taught to say that hard work brought them success. I personally have many successes and if you ask me, I will sincerely say that the reason for success is not hard work but work with involvement. When I scored cent percent marks in examinations I recall th...

Thinking is an automatic process and is similar to a stream of water. Under the influence of emotions the stream becomes faster or even turbulent. The attitude and its extension as emotion determine the speed of the stream of thinking. The attitude can either be positive or negative. The negative attitude gives rise to anger, fear, jealousy, lust and anxiety. Lust can transform into anger, fear and anxiety. These emotions will result in destruction. Laziness is a negative attitude which will result in self destruction. Love is the positive mental attitude. Every human being has all above said attitudes and the emotions associated with each of them. It is impossible not to have negative attitude. But it is possible to decide our course of action based on love. Love for the environment, the fellow human being and the other living things around. Love is usually unconditional and the action born out of love focuses on giving and adding value to the relationship. The good thing is tha...

When December starts every year, some how people irrespective of religion starts some spiritual exercises. This may be because of the Christians who often start Christmas celebrations from the start of December and continue with their choir through out the month with the Santa Claus moving with them to the home of every member of the particular church. By December Muslims would have completed their Ramzan fast and would have amply expressed their spirituality. Now it is the time for Hindus. The 45 days sanctity is to be adhered for all these purification exercises because it is believed that all the cells in our body will be replaced by new cells within 45 days. So some one instituted the Ayyappa Temple based on some stories in epics that Ayyappa is common to both Vaishnava and Saiva cults of Hinduism. Saivaits have their own vradha in January and go on pilgrimages to Lord Muruga’s Temple. The preparations involves rigorous exercises like getting up early in the morning and t...

In my last article I have concluded that health is in our hands. That leaves a question in us, ' When and how best we can take the help of the doctors. Certainly there are many occasions we are dependent on the services of the so called health care professionals. Some of the occasions one can think of is as follows. 1.At times of certain infection causing fever, rashes and acute body pain. 2.When some one has diarrhea and vomiting 3.When some one is wounded in accident and in the course of games. 4.At times of insect and reptile bite. 5.Wounds due to animal and human attack. 6.Severe pain in any part of the body. 7.Excessive continuous discharge of body liquids. 8.When some one is unconsciousness or semiconscious 9. Excessive intoxication due to drug or alcohol 10. When some one is facing difficulty in breathing 11.During emergency conditions to provide life saving care. When we take somebody, we must be conscious not to get excited...

Most of us have great faith on God. Being pious is a comforting feeling and adds to the psychological strength. If we have some problems, we pray God and we believe that our prayer is heard. Most of the time the problem get solved or we accept the bad results as our fate. Similar faith we seem to build on the doctors. If we are ill we go to doctors and religiously obey their words and gulp what ever they give as medicines. I have asked many of my friends and acquaintances, who are under treatment for some common ailments like fever about the medicines they take. Even well educated people are ignorant of the names of the medicines they take. So people have great faith in doctors and this really makes doctors to behave like super human beings in charge of the life and health of living beings. In this part of the world where I live doctors want every one of their patients to patiently wait for hours in the ill equipped waiting room. Friends are no exception to this general waiting ...

If there is an activity which works against Newton's third law of motion viz., for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction it is human communication. The law of communication can be defined as to every communication there is a reaction in the same direction or in the opposite direction or no reaction at all. This makes the practicing of this trait very interesting and challenging. If you smile you will get a smile in return. If you smile you will be stared at sometimes. If you smile you may get back an angry look or even get scolded! If you advance your hand to shake hands you might receive the other person's hand or some times you might get a Namaskar. If you shout at someone you might be returned with a shout or some times the other person may obey. Communication is basically a stimulus. The response depends on so many factors. Many guidelines can be suggested. But one must be willing to harness the skill rather than continuing with the habitual...