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Repentance

The first house that my parents occupied post the voluntary retirement of my mother was one that was offered to my father by BSNL. This came up with a servant quarter which was occupied by a middle aged couple namely Lalita and Keshav. The couple had 3 kids, a daughter who was married, and a son & daughter who stayed with them. As expected, they used to do run errands for our family besides doing some daily chores in the house of many houses nearby. Lest I forget, Keshav’s mother was also staying along with them. My parents and my family stayed there for 4 years. There was a close bonding with the family. They were extra helpful towards our family and the same was reciprocated in terms of behavior, treatment as family members on festive days and the like. Everything was going on well, the stay came to a close courtesy the retirement of my father and my parents moved to their own apartment which was hitherto on rent. In the town of Rourkela, distances cannot be too far. So muc...
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Thoughts of Vivekananda

The great saint had mentioned: Two things can seriously change India - Football and Gita. Its amazing that now after decades of education and experience one sees the relevance behind this thought!
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Last village trip

My father still has deep rooted connections with our native village. My grandmother is there and my father yearns to be with her. As a doting mother she also loves his company. My father is now not as regular as he was in visiting the native place because of his own health constraints through the eyes. He was there last week and he had a long chat with his mother who is in her nineties. He had called his sister too who is settled some villages away from our village. Together with my uncle who stays with my grandmother, the two brothers and one sister chatted long about the old times. My father did not describe the details of their discussions but he mentioned one facet which touched me. The underlying fact was that nowadays its very rare that she gets to speak with any of her 4 kids excepting for my younger uncle who stays with her. I am aware of the difficult times which my father, his 3 siblings and his mother went through post the death of his father. They were so rich tha...
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Bishnois and blackbucks

Salman Khan was released on bail in a case which prolonged for 20 years. It was regarding the case of hunting down blackbucks. The case was made by the Bishnoi community of Jodhpur (Rajasthan). They form a congregation of people following the principles of Guru Jambeshwar. Bishnoi is a mix of two words meaning "twenty" and "nine". Thus there are 29 principles which they need to follow. The sect was formed by the spiritual leader at   Samrathal Dhora (1485 AD). There are 29 tenents which form the essence or the guiding principles of the community. The core among them refer to nature, the preservation of it.  Ten are directed towards personal hygiene and maintaining good basic health (the famous one is drinking filtered water), seven for healthy social behaviour, and four tenets to the worship of God. Eight tenets have been prescribed to preserve bio-diversity - although most adherents are unaware of that, or such things as  global warming , as a conce...
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