Action Signals - Brilliant Stuff by Tony Robbins

I am always blown by how clear Tony Robbins is when he talks about action signals. He addresses these major emotions/ feelings that normally trip us over with utmost simplicity. I am sure I shared this before, but I will share again.

- Feelings of discomfort - Means you are unclear (get clear)

- Fear - Means you feel you are not prepared (see what you are fearful about and prepare. if prepared, have faith in your preparation. Tell yourself you are ready because this challenge would not have showed up otherwise)   

- Hurt - Means unmet expectation

- Anger - Means a rule of yours has been violated by someone or by yourself (could be misinterpreted, so relax the rule - you made them anyway)

- Frustrated (its a good sign) - Means you could do better than what you are doing now

- Disappointed (it's a bad sign) - Means you feel let down (set and achieve a new goal instead of wallowing in self pity)

- Guilt - Means you violated your highest standards (make sure it won't happen again)

- Inadequacy - Means feeling unworthy (don't have the necessary skill. get more info and coaching to feel inadequate)

- Overload/Overwhelm - Means you need to reevaluate what is important to you (focus on what's most important  to you)

- Loneliness - Means you need a connection to people (reach out)

Hurt, anger and disappointment are stuff I need to handle better.

The Greatest Urdu Stories Ever Told - Selected and Translated by Muhammad Umar Memon

I like the Aleph series of the Greatest stories in regional language and so far have only gifted others these books but never bought one for myself. So recently when we were at the Ahmedabad airport I picked this book up. Muhammad Umar Memon is Professor Emeritus of Urdu Literature and Islamic Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has edited many such collections.

The list of 25 Urdu authors starts from Premchand, Manto, Rajinder Singh Bedi, Ismat Chughtai, Qurratulain Hyder among others. Some of the stories that stayed with me are 'Obscure Domains of Fear and Desire'  where the protagonist finds fear and desire in different houses in his job of being a house- assessor. His relationship with his aunt, his own demons, this is almost Murakami like. 'The Shepherd' by Ashfaq Ahmad is about the erudite Dauji and his young ward who narrates the story and how Dauji learned algebra, Urdu, astrology, sciences etc despite being a shepherd and how after partition, he is relegated to being a shepherd again by the new lasters. Munshi Premchand's 'The Shroud' is well known - how the father-son duo drink up even the money they get for the shroud of the pregnant daughter-in-law who dies in labour. 'Toba Tek Singh' is Manto's classic about the man (crazy, he is part of the lunatics who are being transferred between nations) who is searching for the mythical village in between the two partitioned countries.  This one should be part of any international collection. Rajinder Singh Bedi's 'Laajwanti's brings an idea I never knew - that people had campaigns to rehabilitate abducted wives who were returned from both sides and the protagonist somehow gets back his wife, only to treat her with such reverence and distance that she prefers the earlier abusive avatar of his.

'The Saga of Jaanki Raman Pandey' by Zakia Mushwadi is about a devout Hindu man who falls in love with a Muslim woman whom he decides to take as his second wife and dies when he is in her house bringing about issues of which religion's rites must be followed. Very sensitively written. Ishmat Chughtai's 'Of Fists and Rubs' is a story of two women who are in Bombay, away from their families to earn some money and hoping to get back, engaging in some prostitution on the side to supplement their income and how they abort unwanted pregnancies through a system of Fists and Rubs. Jamila Hashim's 'Banished' draws parallels between Sita and the narrator who had been abducted during partition - only she has no hope of being rescued. Qurratulain Hyder's 'Beyond the Fog' is very different as it is not set during partition and is the story of a young girl born to an Englishman and a local, who somehow gets married into royalty, and decides in favour of staying royal than loyal. Lovely story. 

I loved  Altaf Fatima's Do You Suppose its the East Wind' which is a nostalgic recollection of the narrator's childhood friend and rakhi brother. 'Mai Dada' by Asad Mohammad Khan is an unusual story of a fierce Pathan who grows up in a Pathan family and who is finally found out to be a Hindu teli when he is dying. Ikramulla's 'The Old Mansion' has these three delightful characters Bade, Manjhle and Chotu who live in an old mansion which is all they can afford and are driven out of it by the municipality. Their fearful, worrying, fatalistic characters are endearing. Siddiq Aalam's 'Two Old Kippers' is about two retired gentlemen who meet in a park and flip a coin to find out who will live longer - a coin they use to motivate one another much after that occassion, to live on. Lovely ending. Sajid Rashid's 'Fable of a Severed Head' is about a head that is found after a bomb blast which no one claims - but for a poor widow who may benefit from the ex-gratia. 'The Pose' by Anwer Khan is about a young girl who substitutes herself as a mannequin in a shop unknown to anyone and what she goes through in that period. Salam Bin Razzaq's 'The Sheet' is set in the Bombay riots period - a Muslim man goes from Pune to Bombay on work and gets stuck and sees a man being burnt alive. No one helps him when he is burning but many sheets are thrown to cover his body, their guilt. In 'Ali Imam Naqvi's 'The Vultures of the Parsi Cemetery' the workers at the cemetery are worried that the vultures have disappeared just when they have bodies to feed the vultures - and they find out that the vultures are feeding on freshly killed corpses in the city thanks to the riots.

And so on and on. Stories that never leave you. Of course they would have been so much more different in Urdu but I am glad I could at least read the translations.            

Sights on the Morning Walks - Life Waking Up

 Sometimes I get an early start, sometimes a late start.

Early start

Persis at Balkampet - great chota samosas and stuff 

Balkampet road looking nice and empty 

Under the Ameerpet Metro station - Desolate

Pigeon feeding at TB Hospital

Sights on Morning Walks - Sri Yellamma Pochamma Temple

 And another place of great significance in our area is the Yellamma Pochamma temple which is on the Balkampet road. I have seen this temple grow from a small one (just like I remember seeing Peddmma gudi in Jubileee Hills being a  really small one where people would come every Sunday and sacrifice goats or chicken and feast and make merry). There would always be a lot of activity around the temple and it suddenly took off in the recent years with the road being blocked off on major festivals. Many believe she is a powerful deity and many rich and powerful people apparently visit it.

I have never stepped into the temple more because we got used to the group of temples near Hindu school near Allwyn which is where my mother would go. I am not a religious person but I am not averse to stepping into temples and taking in the vibes and the peace. So the other day when I took a slightly different route and found myself right in front of the temple, I decided to step in since it was empty (normally it is not).

Being Bhogi day, and the 13th of Janaury (also my mother's anniversary) I decided to head in. Interestingly I placed my walking shoes next to a bunch of slippers which were placed on the road as I did not find the place where to deposit the shoes. No sooner had I stepped into the empty queue did I tunr back to see one gentleman making off with my shoes. I jumped over the rails and ran and caught him and took my shoes - he looked at me worried that I might indulge in beating up activities (which I do not engage in) or police calling activities or some such. i returned and found the place to deposit the shoes and went in.

I went in the wrong way and figured that I needed to enter the main entrance to see the main deities. The rails lead you into an underground area where the deities are - Sri Yellamma Pochamma. The small browd would not move, people were clicking pics despite boards saying they should not. I somehow made it past them after a while and being mom's anniversary put some money in the hundi on her name. Out and up, and we head to the next complex which have deities of Sri Pochamma, Sri Nagadevatha and Ganapathi. As with most powerful temples, there is a belief that what you seek will be given and there is a ritual around it normally - like tying a thread or something. I did not go into those details. Maybe some other time.

Outside I found that my shoes were intact because even here there is no concept of tokens or any security. I looked at it is an empowering omen - that I recovered something I could have lost and walked back home.

Unfortunately one cannot get a good pic of the temple because there is a huge cover on the road the covers the temple facade.   

Sights on the Morning Walk - Maqbara of Nawab Fakhrul Mulk Bahadur

Today being Sankranthi the roads were empty and I took off on a long and leisurely walk to Sagar's house and after a coffee and a chat set on my return walk. Now just after the Vengal Rao Nagar bus stop adjacent to the TB Hospital (or Chest Hospital as it is called now) lies a beautiful structure that we have been seeing from our childhood but never knew what it was. 

Lovely old structure - Tomb of Nawab Fakhrul Mulk Bahadur

View from the main road

Since I was walking I stopped and went close to the gate and found that it was a tomb of Nawab Fakhrul Mulk Bahadur. I googled and discovered that the Nawab was a prominent Hyderabadi nobleman who was Minister of Justice and General Departments. He was known for his lavish lifestyle such as hosting extravagant dinner parties, had a fondness for European food and clothes, his charitable works and his building of iconic buildings such as Erum Manzil (now the Chief Engineer's office) and Asad Bagh (now Nizam College) palaces. He originally lived in Asad Bagh palace which was later converted into Nizam College and then moved into Erum Manzil (1870) which ha a polo ground, a nine hold gold course, stables, a dairy farm etc. Apparently he was in competition with another nobleman to build the tallest building in Hyderabad. He passed away in 1934. His estate was contested by his heirs until recently.  

Tomb of Nawab Fakhrul Mulk Bahadur

From the other side

I found that INTACH had put it down as a heritage site which is wonderful and also did some repair and maintenance work. The inside of the premises is not kept at its best but the structure looks beautiful. I clicked a few pics.

Wonder why I never stopped there in all the 40 years I spent here.  

Sights on the Morning Walks - Bhogi Sights

Woke up early this morning and watched many bhogi fires burning. When I went for the walk I saw many muggus.

To start with the watchman of the apartment block before our house lit a huge bonfire at 6. These days its still dark at 6 so it looked quite a sight. He was also very keen to have his better half take pictures of him holding firecrackers which he deposited into the fore making a racket early in the morning. Playful chap.

I looked down the road and realised that there were at least seven fores burning - all set up by the watchmen of each apartment block. Wonder what their sentiment with bhogi is.

In a short bit I took off on my walk and found more fires burning. I found colorful muggus in front of houses and one which warmly wished us a Happy bhogi. Such a lovely thought and gesture. And such lovely art. Like my friend remarked - how much art there is within all these people. And how it comes out and expresses itself. Beautiful

And two kids warming themselves at the dying fires in our colony.

From one fire to another - one warm place to another

I saw one gangireddu in our colony and one watchman feeding it some food and perhaps giving the man some money.

Sights on the Morning Walks - Statue of Sardar Papanna Goud

 The morning walks have now spread into three directions. Sometimes I get to see things I miss otherwise. Like this statue of Sardar Papanna Goud aka Papadu, a folklore hero, on the Balkampet Road. Historians have called him 'Robin Hood like' or even a 'social bandit'.

Sardar Sarvai Papanna Goud

Now I have been on the Balkampet road a million times but since we are driving or riding our eyes are on the road but not on what's around. I found this statue while walking the other day located on the Balkampet road median and upon closer look found that it was a statue of Sardar Papanna Goud on whose name a Telugu film starring Krishna was made as 'Sardar Papanna'.

Sardar Papanna belonged to the toddy tappers caste Tatikonda near Ghanpur near Warangal district and despite humble beginnings rose to a king-like stature. Initially he would rob traders and businessmen and made a small fort near Tatikonda from where he operated. There was opposition from the zamindars or perhaps he was opposed to zamindars (though he apparently worked with one zamindar in later years). He primarily used to loot and kidnap the rich and build his small army - which obviously did not go down too well with the locals. His biggest achievement was attacking the Warangal fort and making off with a fortune which he used to reinforce his Tatikonda fort. The Mughals sent armies to control him four times but he successfully evaded all four. However in the fifth attempt they manged to secure the fort and though Papanna escaped he was caught by his own brother in law whom he had imprisoned, and executed.

Interesting that his statue is located here.

    

That's where Sardar Papanna sits on the Balkampet road.