Life and happiness series: The Art of War, Learn it by heart - future parents!

Woke up in the morning with unfulfilled dreams of last night kissing goodby against my wishes. How unpractical it is to leave me just showing promises, how unpractical am I to accept thy dream as reality and gasping for more. Both unpracticality clashed, and I woke up. I looked askance at my face in the mirror, gawd it is, more so aided by the dream run. I had a laugh. What to do? stupid it was. After the usual morning routine I moved slowly towards the door and picked up the newspaper as a habit. The front page is devoid of any exception and contains the usual stories of naxalites' fighting for some unknown victory, whiff of international affairs and so on. Going to the editororial page resulted in the same story. One Seema Mustafa column followed by a 'Cut copy paste' version of a Paul Krugman column, quite boringly put as 'by arrangement with New York Times'. The next page was no different but for a Paulo Coelho column. I stopped. I respect this guy and he is quite a revelation from the usual tic-tac story. It was not a racy case and to be frank, a tough beginning for the morning. Because it preaches what we people sometimes call 'gyan'. I had a monologue, quiet and effective. Come on! the morning can't be this boring, man! However, the other side of me, thats the analyzer and considerate one, convinced me to give it a try at least. The prose piece talks about 'The Art of War', simple and unassuming it sounded. I immediately brooded into his writing. He talks about a book written in 490 BC named 'The Art of War' by Sun Tzu and the five laws of combat.

• The first of them is 'Faith'. It proclaimed that, one must necessarily know the reason for which they are entering the battle and have a faith in it. The author effectively put forth the example of Rabbi Zuya who wanted the divine spirit to incur upon him, just like Moses.He tried and tested himself to the limits with no avail.Exhausted and disgruntled, he asked The Almighty the reason for his failure. The response was, "If I needed another Moses, I would have created him already." Moral of the story: Try to be who you are. You better 'emulate' a person rather than 'imitate' him. You will be judged as the person you are and not someone else. One should have faith in himself and his decisions.

• The second of the lot is 'The Companions'. Choose your allies carefully and learn to fight together. But the immediate question is how do you differentiate between a good man and a bad ally. Let's take an example. My earning is 1K and I offer 10 bucks to someone in need. My friend has an earnings of 10K and he offers the same person, say 50 bucks. It suggests that my offer of giving a better proportion of my earnings to the person needed is a proof of benevolence and as a consequence I can be termed as a good person. Sound flimsy? But, it is a fact that this is the method applied by none other than Mahatma Gandhi. He said that, one person's goodness is measured by how much he can give back to its people. In Tzu's words," Someone capable of spending ten gold pieces on a banquet since the guest is a well known person but is incapable of giving a piece of bread to feed a hungry beggar is not a good human being." It also says that, choosing a proper companion is half the battle won.

• Having chosen ur companion, one should be aware of the 'time' the war is fought. A camel dealer went to a village to sell some of his camels. They were pretty cheap. Everyone bought them except some Mr. Hoosep. Few days later another camel vendor came. Now the price was almost double of the earlier ones. This time though, Mr hoosep bought some of them. The flabbergasted villagers asked him about his decision to buy the costly ones. He replied, 'Those cheap ones were pretty expensive for me, since at that time I had very little money. Now, as I possess more money, though the camels seem more expensive, I bought them. Because, they are cheap for me now.' Moral of the story: time matters.

• Next one is 'Space'. A fight on a precipice is not the same as it is in a plain. One should consider the favorable conditions around himself to find the proper space that suits his purpose! While walking lazily on a northern town of Spain, Mr. Coelho found one peasant lying on a garden of the flowers. He asked the person,'Why are you crushing the flowers?'...The response came fast,' I am just trying to get a little of their sweetness.' Now, he couldnt have get the sweetness on a barren land!

• The last one is 'Strategy'. It demands a through plan beforehand, as we all know. Coelho beautifully delineated this part by citing the example of the Ninja Warriors. As per the command, they had to jump over the places where the seeds are sown in a field. The seeds would turn into buds and they'd keep jumping. From buds to small plants to fully grown wheats, time passes. Every time they jump higher and higher, but dont get bored. They know their obstacles so well by that time isn't it?
Like all Coelho writing, this small piece is a gem. This was my first read in morning and had a lasting effect, as you could see me writing this blog and expressing myself! I made my tea while casually passing through the supplementary part of the newspaper. But my mind was pregnant with questions, unanswered.

In our grown-up days, we faced so many obstacles. Peer pressure, more so emanated from the parental pressure to perform better. Our parents scold us if we fail to secure the best marks in a subject. The allegations are thick and fast and ranges from watching IPL to movies to comic strips, the list is endless! Sometimes it happens because of ego-clash between few parents, which is reflected in their child's performance.The nascent stage of a kid demands a firm hand that will guide the child against all odds and help them being a champion. Instead it turns out to be a a pitched battle in all fronts between parents and children, parents and parents and sadly children are pitted against themselves in a wrongful manner. Why 'Mr. Chatterjee's son' scored so handsome on maths and not you, my son!? We have heard it before, didn't we? My question to all of those parents is that, don't u tired of playing the same piano year after year and generation after generation? Why is that something new in child education is not tried? You want them to win a battle without a battle gear? Not possible, parents. So, what you need to do? Go and read this book by Sun Tzu yourself. Learn how to fight and teach your son/daughter.If you know how to fight and battle all odds already, fine! Make sure that this book is provided to your child at an early stage! And then, respected parents, you can actually EXPECT to get a good result! Now, it can be argued that the book may not be the 'be all and end all' of all activities. However, it has a potential of being the stepping stone in a child's life!