The Old Carpenter

I came across this short story by Swami Vivekananda.... It was amazing & I just had to share it here. Thanks to Chaitali Joshi for sending me the link to IIT Madras' Vivekananda Study Circle which you should all check out btw... http://www.vsc.iitm.ac.in/
The story goes:

An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his
employer-contractor of his plans to leave the house building
business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his
extended family. He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire.
They could get by. The contractor was sorry to see his good
worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor.
The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart
was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used
inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end his career.
When the carpenter finished his work and the builder came to inspect the house,
the contractor handed the front-door key to the carpenter.
"This is your house," he said, "my gift to you."
What a shock! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house,
he would have done it all so differently. Now he had to live in the home he had
built none too well. So it is with us. We build our lives in a distracted way,
reacting rather than acting, willing to put up less than the best.
At important points we do not give the job our best effort.
Then with a shock we look at the situation we have created
and find that we are now living in the house we have built.
If we had realized that we would have done it differently.
Think of yourself as the carpenter. Think about your house.
Each day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall.
Build wisely. It is the only life you will ever build.
Even if you live it for only one day more, that day deserves to be
lived graciously and with dignity.
The plaque on the wall says, "Life is a do-it- yourself project."
Your life tomorrow will be the result of your attitudes
and the choices you make today.

I guess we can all relate to this story at various levels. We have this amazing habit of doing something halfheartedly & then regretting/cursing ourselves after... This is probably one of the biggest impediments to us achieving happiness in life. We must give our 100% in everything we do. Then the results wont matter at all then. I guess moving under the assumption that all our duties are going to contribute to the building of our own house would take us a long way forward...
I'd like to conclude in Swami Vivekananda's own words, "Come up O lions, and shake off the delusion that you are sheep; you are soul immortal, spirits free and eternal "

GRA trip, Summer 2011

So we have this forum/community in IIT called the GRA. It stands for Group for Rural Activities. GRA has a simple yet very powerful purpose. It aims at giving rural exposure to the enthu IITian... We at GRA believe that our country will develop & move forward when our villages develop & move forward. To be a part of this, we first need to understand rural life firsthand, not through media or hearsay. So during the semester, we have many talks & presentations by people who are actively working in some rural area in some part of the country & we also make small visits to rural or related projects in and around the beautiful city of Mumbai. Apart from this, our main attraction if you will, is a 4-5 day camp at the end of every academic semester, where we actually pack few sets of clothes and a brush (some get soap too :P) and go live in a rural setting. We normally visit villages where significant development has been or is being done in a sustainable manner. Last year we visited Ralegan Siddhi, the village of Anna Hazareji, stayed there for 3 days & also visited a few projects related to watershed development in & around Pune.
This year, We visited 3 places over a period of 5 days. The first place we visited was an NGO named Shashwat in Bhimashankar, Maharashtra. It is run by an IIT alumnus & his wife, Mr. Anand Kapoor & Kusum taai... It was really inspiring to see an IITian (IIT Kgp, BTech Civil with Honours) living in a tribal area for so many years & serving the nation & its people. It was started for the victims of the Dimbhe dam construction. The tribals of that area were relocated very nicely on paper, but practically they were landless & had no water for irrigation. Kusum taai used to randomly go into the tribal lands & just live with a family & do all their general housework. She soon had an excellent rapport with them & soon she and Anandji started working there fulltime. Anandji made an excellent point... Never work "for" the people. Work "with " the people. You are not doing anyone a favor here. Its every citizen's duty to give back to his nation & people. We all are happily sitting in the comfort of our homes/ hostels enjoying uninterrupted power & water... We have no idea who is paying for it & how much.
We visited their tribal school & stayed the night with the children there. The school was really inspiring. They take in dropouts from other schools & turn them into educated responsible people. The kind of challenges they faced were immense & it was a real humbling experience for all of us.
We next visited a village called Hivre Bazar in Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra. Its a model village & one of the best. As we entered the village, we thought we were entering some university campus!!! :P It was that good... The person responsible for this village's present is its ex-sarpanch Shri Poppatrao Pawar. We were fortunate enough to meet him inspite of his extremely busy schedule. One thing I got from his speech was that he was extremely forceful & ambitious. He never feared any challenge. He was unanimously elected sarpanch for many terms & united the village & brought about many excellent reforms socially, economically and morally. We then roamed the village interacting with the villagers. We could see the difference in the attitudes of urban people & rural people. I was really impressed with rural India :) We asked a group of young guys if they never had any problem with so many rules... They gave a weird look & said ki "yeh apne liye hi toh hai. Isse humme hi faidha ho rha hai. Problem kyun hoga???" When we asked what happens if someone breaks a rule, they said its immediately reported & the person is fined or some action is taken. When asked if this doesn't cause strained relations, they again gave us those weird looks & said "kyun? kuch galat kiya toh fine dena hi hai na... Aur kuch sochne ke liye hai hi nhi..." :) I remembered Kusum taai's words, "I first had to unlearn all the horrible things I learnt in the city after coming here. Then I was happy once more & we could start working".
Next we visited an NGO called Snehalaya in Ahmednagar city. This visit probably touched the deepest regions of our hearts... It was an experience at a level beyond the mind or intellect. The NGOs focus is on women & children in red light areas & slums. They also help in treatment & rehabilitation of HIV affected people & children. The level of commitment & dedication of the volunteers was truly amazing. Some of us had tears in our eyes while we were visiting the projects & listening to the volunteers speak. They have many centres in slums, red light areas and in 2-3 different parts of the city where the children are kept in excellent living conditions & holistic development. The children were extremely happy & we couldn't see ny lack in them at all. We were told that they were put in the top schools of the city & were topping there too :) It was a really touching experience. One of the most active volunteers there who was overlooking the construction of a major HIV research facility & rehabilitation center was himself a HIV patient. It was great to see his gratitude t oSnehalaya in saving him & his positive approach to life. He knows he is going to die in few years. Yet he's doing great work for others like him & the organization. We also visited their childline office & got to hear some really interesting incidents they went through to rescue children.
All in all, it was a great visit, very very inspiring & humbling. We learnt to appreciate our lives much much more & got a sense of our responsibilities & duties... I'm looking forward to the next GRA camp eagerly... :)
Wait for more....

My First Post... :)

Hi to all!!! I've been thinking of writing a blog & giving a means for my creative energies to flow for a very very long time... But I was just too lazy... Finally I decided to just do it. So here's my first ever post :D
I'm doing my B Tech in the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. If you haven't heard of it before, please don't read my blog :P
The main motivation for writing this blog is for me to be able to share all the little & big incidents/anecdotes/tests/experiences that life throws in my way as I navigate through it & extract whatever learning/memories/humor they have to offer...
You will find mostly experiences shared here and probably some inspiring articles/poems and the occasional joke/riddle or as we fondly call in apna insti lingo, "fatte" also known as PJs or Poor Jokes- really horrible jokes that are so senseless that people cant help laughing- of which I am a master ;) as those who know me will testify...
A word about my blog's name... In case you didn't get it, its the full form of LIFE. I realized this probably when I was in my first year. About when I become very active with the Art Of Living & got a guru in HH Sri Sri Ravishankar (to be referred to fondly as Guruji hereafter). This is when I learnt a lot about life & met some amazing people who helped me in this amazing journey called LIFE :)
So have fun, enjoy this blog & all the best for all your endeavours in life :)