Mechanic

I was using, my brother's bike.(I am using it even now). One day petrol started leaking from it.
I had to switch on  the petrol tap for a five hundred meter ride and switch off it when it overflows. Even then I was using it. It was afternoon then. It stopped after one and a half kilometers from my home. No idea of mine could start my bike.I started pushing it to the nearby garage.
I saw no other bike or any vehicle in that garage other than mine. The mechanic came out from the garage. He was around 50 years of age. He started looking into the problem. He told me there is some problem with the carburetor. There was leakage in the float valve.

 Reading Sherlock Holmes stories always has its effect. After reading detective stories more, I started to observe others in detail for their occupation and their character.  I found my Mechanic to have some sort of serious illness, for his legs were swollen.
 He fixed the leak in float. He removed the carburetor and started working on it. Its was around three o clock in the afternoon. A group of  five people came there to discuss something which I could not understand. They went inside along with my Mechanic ( my work half done) . I saw them take a bottle and have drinks in plastic-use and throw glasses. I understood his illness then. He was a drunkard.

His movements became sluggish. He misplaced a tiny part of carburetor. It took one hour to find it from the scrap. But he managed to repair it with great difficulty.
I felt really sad when he asked me the charges for repairing my bike. It was very less compared to the quantum of work he did. He was more interested in going back to the shelter again to have his next drink.

I now understand that throughout my native place, such groups are increasing at an alarming rate ,making exceptional talents like our Mechanic drown in the ocean of alcohol. The money meant for making their children happy, making their lives better is either drenched in alcohol or spent in a hospital.

Alcohol is spoiling the lives of many. It is an evil so slow that  we will never know when it overpowers us. Alcoholics are having a disease like a typhoid or diabetes. It is not their egoism which shouts against those who questions them,  it is because of their slavery to the substance.
Lets hate Alcohol. Let it not be a status symbol. Let it be like the old days where people using alcohol were looked down upon.

Inevitability of Death and Hindu Mythology

Death, the word brings fear to many, ease to some with terminal illness, and lack of time to the under acheived. Though humans evolved 200,000 years ago we still don't have any solid idea about what happens after death and why it happens. People in all  parts of the world has tried to crack the mystery of what lies beyond that. People from time immemorial has tried to stop the phenomenon of death.

Ayurveda traditional medicine native to India, claims to have a  treatment called Kayakalpa ( meaning: body rejuvenation). It is said that by purification of the body, the old is rejuvenated to young. The practice is continued even today. ( the news of kayakalpa treatment carried out is heard even to this day).

It is very interesting to read stories from Hindu mythology about people who tried to overcome death.
 One such story is of Hiranyakashipu, an Asura ( meaning for easy understanding : A Demon). He prayed to God ( Penance). The Lord Brahma (one of the three main Gods) became happy with his penance and granted him a boon. Hiranyakashipu asked him something close immortality as immortality cannot be asked as a boon directly.
 He asked for a boon that he should not be killed by a  human, not an animal, not during the day, not at night , not inside the house ,not outside, not on earth,not on the sky, not by a living or non living thing. The boon was granted.
Hiranyakashipu became overconfident and started doing bad deeds on a large scale.
Lord Vishnu (one of the three main Gods) had to act. He took the form of Narasimha ( Nara- Human, Simha- Lion). Not a human, not an animal, he took him to the threshold of a courtyard( not inside , not outside the house), placed him on his thigh ( not on earth, not on the sky), and killed him with his nails ( as nails cant be said for sure as a living or non living weapon) at twilight ( not during the day, not at night). So death is certain how hard the conditions laid against it.

Another story is the death of Lord Krishna ( One of the incarnates of Lord Vishnu). In puranas it is seen that sages are given  much importance , even by the kings or incarnations of God .
One such sage was Durvasa. He demands lord Krishna to smear  Krishna's body with his leftover food (Kheer/Payasam a sweet dish). Krishna obeys , that he becomes pleased and grants him boon that Krishna will not be harmed at any of the places which was smeared with the dish. Unfortunately his leg was not smeared. ( Krishna gave respect to that food without touching with his feet).
His leg became his weak spot (Like Achilles heel in Greek Mythology). Death happens to Krishna by an arrow which strikes his foot. The arrow was from the metal recovered from the mouth of a fish. It was the last part of the cursed  Iron pounding pestal, which was powdered to save the people from the curse. The lst part was flung to the ocean. A fish ate thinking it as food and the fish was caught and was bought by the blacksmith. The last piece of the pestal became the fatal arrow that killed Krishna.

Its interesting to see how it strikes, no matter how hard people to try to escape from it.
There is no escape, end is always sorrow at least to near ones,but lets hope that the path tread be a good one.