Missionary Zeal

The phrase ' Missionary Zeal ' represents, to my thinking  , the single mindedness of purpose to propagate  and establish anything.
It also implies carrying things through, despite all challenges of opposition and resistance ,  to bring about a desired  outcome.
In history we see examples of this in The Crusades and The Holy War which I suppose helped attach the word Missionary to it.  It definetely seems to have helped build Empires in the previous order of the world though of course the methods and their consequences are recorded in graphic detail and sometimes are quite gruesome , sometimes not very ' Missionary '
Any way , my purpose is to examine what this method entails in  our pursuit of purposes in normal life.
It could be applied to anything from a project for Self Improvement / Development to a project involving men and matter .
First of all its the definition  of purpose
Second is the convincing of others to align with the intention
Third is to get all the required skilled people to work with us towards the expected end
Fourth is to manage the inputs in a balanced manner
The most important is to learn from history that the steadfastness of effort and the Zeal should  not take a Radical form as that has a gory aftermath .
We see  this in many movements of Evangelism of different denominations which is tearing this world apart ! 
This might seem an extreme analogy but to me it translates to autocracy in the projects in the working space and even self development. We would be advised not to become rabid about any path we chose as that alienates those who can help.

Ambush as strategy to know a persons real thinking

To know what or how a person is REALLY thinking  - take them by surprise !
Ambush them in the gulch where they are least expecting it !

Once upon a time , a man came to the court of a great King  and displayed an  ability to speak many languages , fluently .
The court was amazed and the King  got many people ,whose native tongue was different, to speak to the man . He replied each one in their own tongue down to idiom and syntax.
On being asked , several times , the man refused to reveal his origins.
Intrigued , the King said he would offer a large fortune to any one who could discover the secret .
Many clever people approached the man himself and offered him a ' cut ' if he made them the messengers of the answer. He refused !
Then a clever one sneaked into the linguist's chamber in the early hours when he was fast asleep and sprinkled some water on his face .
The man was startled out of slumber uttering  who's that's and what's that's ( including some unprintables ) BUT THEY WERE IN HIS MOTHER TONGUE ! His secret stood revealed !
So while it's not advocated that we go around sneaking into bed chambers sprinkling water on people sometimes it's necessary to catch people with their mask off and defenses down  to know their truth.

Growing up to be someone

The Gem is not polished without friction ‘   – Confucius

“It is difficult to see the picture when you are inside the frame “  - Anonymous

The glorious world of our childhood is so wonderful for most of us when we are foot loose and fancy free. It’s a carefree world of make believe when we can be anything we can imagine.

There, are sown some seeds of our ambitions

As we grow into the world of youth we begin to understand the world better and also , very importantly , ourselves . Some innate intelligence in us and part of our nature draws us into certain ways of thinking. We are successful in some activities and not in some. We try to be like our elders and peers sometimes successfully and sometimes not. However, we try a variety of things to discover where our talents lie .
Here, guided by likes and dislikes we are moulded for adulthood. It may be noticed that we study more of the subject, play more of the games, which come easily to us and we succeed at since that gives us pleasure.

Actually, unconsciously, we are exercising some intelligences and natures which are rooted in us .

These are our strengths which we need to adapt for our adult careers.

As we grow more aware and live in the world around us we tend to select opportunities which present themselves and become rounded personalities.

The secret to success lies in understanding ourselves and then working intelligently to get good grades and excelling at sports or dramatics or something else as well.

But then comes the biggest question in life – what should I aim to do as a career ? What will give me the income I want ? What will help me be satisfied in life ?

Nobody can answer that question better than yourself . But , yes , you may need a helping hand of a parent or teacher or peer or a knowledgeable counsellor 

Its like the setting of yoghurt – in the milk there must be added a sample of yoghurt and after that the yoghurt sets but gets the characterics of the sample and so may be sweet, sour or some other taste . This means in our life as milk, advice from others- the sample - makes us set into a useful condition.

Always take advice from a reliable and tested source 

On being a ( proud ) Indian

We need more proud Indians like this one !
For the size of the population and mind boggling diversity that  we have I believe we are doing quite well , Thank You
"India is a nice house on a bad street" - simply brilliant..couldn't agree more!
======
An introductory 5 minutes speech given in London at an
, by a young professional of Indian origin. His name, Dhritiman Biswas. He spoke extempore and the points are reproduced here. The topic was a round table on: 'India - is it a gigantic success or a colossal failure?'
This is what he said:
"Ladies and Gentleman, I am glad I am merely introducing the debate and not participating as in my humble opinion the question itself is wrong. India, unlike, many western paradigms cannot be analysed in black and white.. in linear equations or algorithms such as this.... We hate test cricket yet are the No1 test ranked country; our ranking in gender diversity is 134, yet the majority of our bank CEOs, the most misogynist yet of industries are women; our health services creak and crumble, yet 36 pct of all NHS consultants are Indians; we love Bollywood tamasha, yet New York philharmonic sold out in 5 mnts in Calcutta in 1984; we struggle with illiteracy, yet are the largest English speaking country in the world; we riot, fight and squabble, yet remain a thriving democracy whilst Russia, Arabia, Brazil, Pakistan fall to authoritarianism...India is a concept devised by the British and therefore in many ways a contradiction, a process , a work in progress. Our poverty index suggests we are a hopeless failure, our mobile usage however may allude to resounding success. Our private sector defaults diabolically like Kingfisher but spectacularly turnaround JLR like TATA. This question cannot be answered because it is the wrong question to ask. The right question is - can India be allowed to fail? JP Morgan elegantly points to the ruins of emerging markets and says India is a nice house in a bad street! I would add further... The western world is founded on the principles of liberal, free market, democracy... Outside the OECD and the western Anglo Saxon Protestant world, literally in the entire globe there is one other example of this experiment and that is India...we are the West and England's most natural ally... We speak the language, sing Beatles songs, read Wodehouse and want to grow up to be Sherlock. Despite our many failings we are a giant and a colossus and for the sake of the world let's hope we succeed."

Nothing is ever wrong / Everything is always right

Once upon a time there was a King of great valour and ambition . He was constantly waging wars or going on hunts - which is really the same thing - one has men involved the other has animals .
In the King' s entourage there was a Doctor ( Medicine Man ) who was always alongside with his bag of tricks  to take care of any ill befalling the King  This MM (as we shall call him) was a man of a philosophical bent of mind and very skilled at his calling .
It so happened , that one day while fighting , the King badly injured a finger.  MM attended to it by using his creams and lotions and providing a dressing .
Several days passed without the finger healing and to every query of the King about expected time of healing MM philosophically said it was not known
Anyway , it so happened that the wound got infected and finally the finger had to be amputated .
The enraged King had MM thrown into chains in a dungeon .
Some time later the King was in the forest hunting when he was captured by the indegenous tribe of the forest . It was a day of their festival and they needed a human sacrifice and thought this royal personage to be eminently suited . So they started to prepare him for the ritual when suddenly their Chief shouted " Stop! We can't use him . He is not whole ! He has only 9 fingers !
The King found his freedom and was relieved to return to the Palace .
He went straight to the dungeon and had MM released thanking him profusely for actually doing him a favour by amputating his finger and saving his life in more ways than one.
He said he was very sorry to have treated him very badly and made him experience hardship of the dungeon.
MM said smilingly that he had to thank the King for putting him there
Intrigued , the King asked WHY ?

MM : Had you not done so I would have been there along with you and would have been the only whole person available for sacrifice !

The Ant and the Grasshopper

Got this story from a friend and it's so eminently relevant
Ant and Grasshopper - Indian Version of story - too good and fact

Original Story:

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and
laying up supplies for the winter. The Grasshopper thinks the Ant is a fool
and laughs dances plays the summer away. Come winter, the Ant is warm and well fed. The Grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.
       ..........................

Indian Version:

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and
laying up supplies for the winter. The Grasshopper thinks the Ant's a fool and laughs dances plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering Grasshopper calls a press conference and demands
to know why the Ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

NDTV, Times Now, CNN IBN, BBC, CNN , Asianet show up to provide pictures of the shivering Grasshopper
next to a video of the Ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

The World is stunned by the sharp contrast.

How can this be that this poor Grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the Ant's house.

Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other Grasshoppers demanding that Grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter .

Mayawati states this as 'injustice' done on Minorities.

The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the Grasshopper

CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among Ants and
Grasshoppers.

Railway minister allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'.

Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the 'Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act'[POTAGA] , with effect from the beginning of the winter..

Education minister makes 'Special Reservation' for Grasshoppers in Educational
Institutions in Government Services.

The Ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, it's home is confiscated by Government
and handed over to the Grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV, Times Now, CNN IBN, BBC, CNN.

Arundhati Roy calls it 'A Triumph of Justice'.

Railway minister calls it 'Socialistic Justice'.

CPM calls it 'Revolutionary Resurgence of Downtrodden
.

Many years later...

The Ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi-billion dollar company in Silicon Valley ,

100s of Grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India ,

....AND

As a result of losing lot of hard working Ants and feeding the grasshoppers, India is still a developing country...!!

P.S.: I have no idea whose creative mind this has come out from, but this piece is awesome.  Your sharing with other groups would be appreciated.