There's no one but Donald J. Trump himself to blame for the unfolding monumental Iran fiasco.

There's no one but Donald J. Trump himself to blame for the unfolding monumental Iran fiasco. And, of course, his mostly feckless clique. A New York Times report on what transpired in the White House Situation Room. 𝟲 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝗺𝗽’𝘀 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗚𝗼 𝘁𝗼 𝗪𝗮𝗿 𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗜𝗿𝗮𝗻 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘶𝘱 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘨𝘯 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘱’𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘉𝘦𝘯𝘫𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘯 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘢𝘩𝘶 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘪𝘳𝘤𝘭𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘜𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘢𝘳. By 𝙈𝙖𝙜𝙜𝙞𝙚 𝙃𝙖𝙗𝙚𝙧𝙢𝙖𝙣 and 𝙅𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣 𝙎𝙬𝙖𝙣 April 7, 2026 In the two and a half weeks before the United States began a major military campaign against Iran, a small circle of advisers gathered in the White House Situation Room for a series of pivotal meetings. Previously undisclosed details of that period drawn from reporting for a forthcoming book, 𝘙𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦: 𝘐𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘋𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘥 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘱, show how President Trump’s alignment with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and a lack of sustained opposition from all but one member of the president’s inner circle put the United States on a course to war. 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘆𝗮𝗵𝘂 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝗮 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘄𝗮𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝗺𝗽 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗶𝘁𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗥𝗼𝗼𝗺. Sitting across from Mr. Trump in the Situation Room—a venue rarely used for in-person sessions with foreign leaders—Mr. Netanyahu made an hourlong presentation to the president and his top aides on Feb. 11. He argued that Iran was ripe for regime change and that a joint U.S.-Israeli campaign could bring down the Islamic Republic. At one point, he played a video that included a montage of figures who could lead Iran if the theocratic government fell. Among them was Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s last shah. The Israeli leader and his advisers laid out what they portrayed as near-certain victory: Iran’s missile program destroyed in weeks, the Strait of Hormuz kept open and minimal retaliation against American interests. Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, could help foment an uprising inside Iran to finish the job. Mr. Trump’s response was swift and appeared approving to most in the room. Sounds good to me, he told the prime minister. 𝗨.𝗦. 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘆𝗮𝗵𝘂’𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗺𝗲-𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝘀𝗰𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘀 “𝗳𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹.” U.S. analysts scrambled overnight to assess what Mr. Netanyahu had presented. Their conclusions, delivered the next day in another Situation Room meeting, were blunt. The first two objectives laid out in the Israeli pitch—killing the ayatollah and crippling Iran’s ability to threaten its neighbors—were achievable, U.S. intelligence officials concluded. The second two goals presented by Mr. Netanyahu and his team—a popular uprising inside Iran and the replacement of the Islamic government by a new secular leader—were not. The CIA director, John Ratcliffe, used a single word to describe the regime-change scenarios: “farcical.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio translated, “In other words, it’s bullshit.” Mr. Trump absorbed the assessment—and moved past it. Regime change, he said, would be “their problem.” His interest in killing Iran’s top leaders and dismantling its military remained undimmed. 𝗩𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗝𝗗 𝗩𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗻𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝗿—𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗮 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗲𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗰𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝘁. Of everyone in Mr. Trump’s inner circle, Mr. JD Vance did the most to try to stop the march toward war. He had built his political career opposing precisely this kind of military adventurism, and he told colleagues that a regime-change war with Iran would be a disaster. In front of the president and his other advisers, Mr. Vance warned that the conflict could cause regional chaos and untold casualties, break apart the president’s political coalition, and be seen as a betrayal by voters who had supported the promise of no new wars. He stressed the depletion of U.S. munitions and the risk of outsized and unpredictable retaliation given that the regime’s survival was at stake. He also warned about the Strait of Hormuz and the likelihood of soaring gasoline prices. His preference was for no strikes at all. But knowing Mr. Trump was likely to act, Mr. Vance tried to steer him toward more limited options. When that failed, he argued for overwhelming force to end things quickly. At the final meeting on Feb. 26, his message to the president was blunt: You know I think this is a bad idea, but if you want to do it, I’ll support you. 𝗦𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝗺𝗽 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝗱 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗿𝗻𝘀 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁. The positions in the inner circle fell along a spectrum, but with one thing in common: Nobody other than Mr. Vance mounted a forceful argument to change Mr. Trump’s mind. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was the most enthusiastic. We’re going to have to take care of the Iranians eventually, so we might as well do it now, he told the group on Feb. 26, the day before Mr. Trump gave his final order. Mr. Rubio was more ambivalent—his preference was for continued maximum pressure rather than full-scale war—but he did not try to talk the president out of it. Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, worried about the United States being dragged into a conflict in the Middle East on the eve of midterm elections but did not see it as her role to share her concerns about a military decision in a large group setting with the president. Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had serious concerns about the war and persistently flagged risks: weapons depletion, closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the difficulty of predicting Iran’s response. But he was so careful not to take a stand, repeating that it was not his role to tell the president what to do, that he could appear to some to argue all sides simultaneously. Mr. Trump, in turn, would often seem to hear only what he wanted to hear. 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝗺𝗽 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗯𝗲 𝗮 𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝘄𝗮𝗿, 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗩𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘇𝘂𝗲𝗹𝗮. The president’s confidence that a conflict with Iran would be brief and decisive was deep-rooted and largely impervious to contrary evidence. He had been emboldened by Iran’s muted response to his bombing of its nuclear facilities in June and by the spectacular commando raid that had captured the Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro from his compound on Jan. 3, in which no American lives were lost. The Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro being escorted from a helicopter to be taken to the federal courthouse in Manhattan in January. Mr. Trump had been emboldened by the spectacular commando raid that had captured Mr. Maduro. When advisers raised the possibility that Iran could shut down the Strait of Hormuz—a choke point for vast quantities of global oil and gas—Mr. Trump dismissed the possibility, assuming the regime would capitulate before it came to that. When told the campaign would significantly deplete American weapons stockpiles, including missile interceptors already strained by years of support for Ukraine and Israel, Mr. Trump appeared to weigh the warning against a more appealing data point: The United States had an essentially unlimited supply of cheap, precision-guided bombs. When the anti-interventionist commentator Tucker Carlson privately asked Mr. Trump how he could be so sure everything would be OK, the president replied, “Because it always is.” 𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝗺𝗽, 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗴𝘂𝘁-𝗱𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗼 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗶𝗱 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗺. Mr. Trump’s decision to take the country to war was not driven by intelligence assessments or a strategic consensus among his advisers, which did not exist. It was driven by instinct—the same instinct his team had watched produce improbable results again and again. Unlike his first-term team, many of whom regarded him as a danger to be managed or obstructed, Mr. Trump in his second term is surrounded by advisers who view him as a great man of history. After his improbable comeback in 2024, after indictments and assassination attempts, and after ordering the flawless operation that captured Mr. Maduro in Venezuela, the people around Mr. Trump had developed an almost superstitious faith in his destiny and instincts, and in his power to will new realities into existence. In making this high-stakes and high-risk decision, almost everyone deferred to the president’s gut. Surrounded by people trying to execute on Mr. Trump’s desires, and with so much having gone his way to that point, almost nothing stood between the instinct and the act.

The wheels within wheels: (from Shanaka substack)

The wheels within wheels: (from Shanaka substack) BREAKING: The NYT just reported that Iran accepted the ceasefire following a last-minute intervention by China asking Tehran to show some flexibility. Every headline framed this as Beijing playing peacemaker. Read it again through the lens of what China actually gets from the pause, and a different architecture emerges. Before this ceasefire, 1.22 million barrels per day of Iranian crude were flowing to Chinese teapot refineries in Shandong province via 26 ghost fleet tankers operating with transponders dark, settling in yuan through CIPS, which hit 928 billion renminbi in daily volume by March 9th. Those teapot refineries, roughly 250 independent plants processing 25 percent of China’s total refining capacity, were buying Iranian crude at a discount that had flipped to a premium during the war but still arrived cheaper than spot Brent because the ghost fleet avoids Western insurance, Western brokers, and Western currency. The ceasefire does not disrupt any of that. It preserves it. Hormuz reopens for two weeks under Iranian military coordination. The ghost fleet continues to operate. The yuan toll infrastructure remains in place. The CIPS settlement architecture is not dismantled. The 206 million barrels of Iranian crude already stockpiled in Shandong onshore tanks are not returned. The teapot refineries that processed 80 to 90 percent of Iran’s wartime exports continue running at 54 percent utilization with no change in their supply chain. What the ceasefire removes is the risk that President Trump’s Power Plant Day would escalate the war to a level where Iranian crude exports ceased entirely, Chinese ghost fleet tankers were interdicted, or the conflict spilled into a regional conflagration that disrupted Chinese trade routes across the Indian Ocean. China intervened not to save Iran. China intervened to save the infrastructure it spent two decades building inside the crisis. Trump understood this dynamic. His ceasefire announcement credited Pakistani mediation explicitly, naming Prime Minister Sharif and Field Marshal Munir, while saying nothing about Beijing’s role. The omission is strategic. Acknowledging Chinese pressure would position Beijing as a co-equal broker in a war that America prosecuted and America is now settling. By crediting Pakistan, Trump preserves the frame that the United States drove the outcome while using a trusted intermediary, and keeps China’s role invisible to the domestic audience that would interpret it as weakness. The molecule thesis clarifies what the ceasefire changes and what it does not. The ceasefire reopens the strait. It does not rebuild the crackers. The ceasefire eases oil prices. It does not restore petrochemical production. The ceasefire pauses the bombing. It does not reverse the 85 percent destruction of Iran’s weapons-chemistry capacity that the IDF confirmed. And the ceasefire does not touch the parallel infrastructure that China built during the war: the ghost fleet logistics, the yuan toll framework, the CIPS settlement volumes, or the teapot refinery supply chains that now operate as a permanent non-dollar energy corridor between the Persian Gulf and Shandong. The war destroyed Iran’s petrochemical capacity. The ceasefire preserved China’s shadow energy architecture. The first outcome was the American objective. The second outcome was the Chinese objective. Both were achieved simultaneously, and the two-week pause is the mechanism that locks both.

*HTDO*

*HTDO* Manoj, a hotshot Sales Manager, on a Sunday evening, was in the parking lot of a shopping mall. The parking lot was packed. Cars were crawling with anxious drivers looking for that one vacant slot. Manoj, sharp & aggressive as he was known to be, spotted a vacant space ahead & quickly zoomed in. He could see another car trying to reverse into the same slot, but Manoj was determined to beat the other man to it. And he did! Manoj felt jubilant, as we all sometimes do with life's little victories. The old man driving the car was disappointed. He looked Manoj in the eye & continued his search for another parking slot. Two days later, Manoj was preparing for one of the biggest moments of his career. He was close to winning a big contract for his company. All that was left now was the formal handshake meeting with the client's CEO. As Manoj walked into the client's office & saw the CEO, he felt a sudden sense of discomfort. Yes! It was the same man from whom he had snatched the parking slot on Sunday. _And you can guess what happened thereafter._ *Alas! If only Manoj had grown up with the HTDO habit!* *SO WHAT IS HTDO?* It has probably happened to you before.As you walk towards the door of an office or a hotel, the person walking in front holds the door open for you. Remember how good it made you feel, if only for that moment. Isn't it surprising that although we all feel good when someone holds the door open for us, we seldom do the same for others! How come? It's probably because we are all preoccupied with ourselves & obsessed with getting ahead.Here then is a life-changing lesson that they don't teach you in any B school. *'Hold The Door Open'*. The world can be divided into two types of people. Those who push open a door, walk through & let it slam behind them.That's 98% of the population. And there's the 2% who hold it open to allow the next person to walk through. Learn to do that & you too could join the select 2% club. *HTDO doesn't merely make other people feel good. It makes you feel good too. HTDO translates into a behaviour of helping & caring._* *Winning in life is less about naked ambition & more about helping other people win.* *Someone once said, _"It's nice to be important. But it's more important to be nice"_* Make a beginning... *Hold The Door Open!* Have an awesome & Happy day

12. Overcoming Grief and Bereavement

12. Overcoming Grief and Bereavement Once humans begin to accept the unalloyed truth that there is no permanence, they can examine the present and overcome every situation. He was a nonagenarian and had led a life full of vicissitudes. There had been high noons and some cathartic moments too. But he was a contented person as his children and grandchildren were ‘settled’ in their respective fields. However, impermanence is a fact of life and he succumbed to multiple organ failure. Today only his memories linger in his son’s house, residing in a framed photograph. Ill-health prevented him from meeting his older brother, (a centurion himself), who had departed for his heavenly abode sometime earlier. This had rankled considerably and he never quite recovered. By the time life was snuffed out of his body he was absolutely emaciated, with glazed and haunted eyes which perhaps saw impending death, and a parched mouth, wide open. The entire body was bruised and punctured with innumerable needles. The vital prana or the subtle life force which provides human existence and energy was quenched away by the mandarins of death. That night the mortal remains were kept in the hospital mortuary. One reckons his soul would have been meandering, hoping for redemption when the body would be consigned to flames. It is said that parents are our first teachers. Parents act as cicerones for their children, urging them to take baby steps into the world and to eventually take decisions and face various challenges in life. Once in adulthood, children still look to their parents for percipient advice as they navigate their lives. ‘Children’ feel mentally at ease that their parents, though in the winter of their lives, are around to provide succour. But the demise of elders, relatives and in particular parents, shears the concealment of protection. What does one do when a dear one ceases to exist? “Time will take care of it. Definitely, if someone you love crosses over, grief overtakes you. But see it from a broader angle — we all have to go one day; someone has taken an earlier flight and we have to take a later flight. When you see the impermanence of everything, you will gain the strength to overcome the grief. Again, and again, you have to put your attention on the impermanence of everything,” says Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. Mindfulness and grief At the core of Buddhism is the concept of mindfulness, and it is inexplicably connected with impermanence. Impermanence is a Buddhist concept that has brought comfort to several people once they lose close ones. When humans value permanence they focus towards the future obsessively or dwell on the past. However, if the mind is convinced about impermanence humans begin living in the present moment. Sages from the ancient times – with enormous perspicacity- have developed palliative techniques to overcome cataclysmic situations. These include chanting of mantras, listening to religious texts, meditation, pranayama, Vipassana and the rhythmic breathing technique of Sudarshan Kriya. Mindfulness can act as a centrifugal force in life; a state in which one becomes aware of the present; of thoughts and feelings, various physical experiences, and the world around us. Once humans begin to accept the unalloyed truth that there is no permanence, they can examine the present and overcome every situation. How do mindfulness and acceptance of impermanence act as a sword to combat grief and the sense of bereavement? There are two common ways many of us cope with grief – either one is completely subsumed by the thought and feels entrapped like a bird in a cage. Or the mind is channelled by the techniques mentioned to become robust and mettlesome to grapple with ill-disposed thoughts and is aware of an alternative paradigm to move on with life despite adversity. A question does plague the mind as to whether humans can conquer the devastation of grief in its entirety? The truth is perhaps that that does not occur. But it does help in altering the trajectory, intensity, the shape and form of the aftermath. Mindfulness, awareness and acceptance of impermanence assist in arresting the trend of obfuscation of mind by demons of gloom. This sets in the motion the acceptance of the reality of bereavement. It is said that time is a great healer to overcome grief and bereavement. Perhaps a few notches above that, is performing seva (service to the society) and surrender to the vast universe and the Almighty to combat grief.

11. My Mother, A Woman of Substance - Bala Sriram

11. My Mother, A Woman of Substance - Bala Sriram “The rain drops from the sky: if it is caught in hands, it is pure enough for drinking. If it falls in a gutter, its value drops so much that it can’t be used even for washing the feet. If it falls on hot surface, it perishes. If it falls on lotus leaf, it shines like a pearl and finally, if it falls on oyster, it becomes a pearl. The drop is same, but its existence & worth depend on with whom it associates.” Always be associated with people who are good at heart. This is what Swami Vivekananda said. My mother shares her birthday with Swami Vivekananda (12th January). Association and satsang have been her strong points. She nurtured strong bonding with all religious faiths and spiritually inclined people. I recall her association with Satya Sai Baba, Ganapathi Sachchidanda Swamiji, Raghavendra Swami Mutt, Swami Chinmayananda, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Mahesh Yogi and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. Not to forget her association with Mother’s International, Mother Teresa, CBCI and CARITAS. She wanted to pursue medicine but life did not take that trajectory. “Faith plus action becomes unstoppable” writes Jonathan Lockwood Hue. So, she upended the pyramid and became a qualified medical social worker and worked diligently at the Rajan Babu TB (RBTB) Hospital, Delhi. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says, “Open your hands and sky is in your hands.” Inorder to combat and challenge the disease of tuberculosis she initiated several rehabilitation projects. This included creche for the children of those afflicted with this malady, Stitching Centre, candle and match making units. She used to tell patients and their children that “Fear is only as deep as the mind allows”. Thus, patients afflicted with TB, but not bed ridden participated in the projects. This was what she called “Diversionary Therapy”. The patient’s mind was diverted from the disease and recovery rate was rapid. In these endeavors she was extended tremendous support from eminent people like Shri A. Rama Rao of Khadi and Village Industries, Professor Shankar Pathak of Delhi School of Social Work, Shri A.V.K. Chaitanya a Trade Union leader and confidante of Shri George Fernandes, Bibi Amtus Salam, veteran Congress leader, Shri Dhanraj Ojha a RSS leader and Bishop Remegius and Bishop Rego of the Catholic Church (CBCI and CARITAS). The mission was to serve. And religious barriers did not pose any problems. As the objective and goal were so lofty the universal energy ensured that the left, right and centre all collaborated with certitude. “Mind is not a dustbin to keep anger, hatred and jealousy. But it is the treasure box to keep love, happiness and sweet memories.” said Swami Vivekananda. Thus, RBTB Hospital became the melting pot of all religions to forge hands and assist in the mammoth task of rehabilitation of the afflicted. The hospital became a unique template for the methods adopted by doctors, para-medic staff, social workers, government bodies and NGOs all to contribute in the rehabilitation of the patients. Climate changes, civilizations collapse, government change, political affiliations alter and even the best possible model collapses. This is inevitable. As Buddha said, “The only permanent thing in life is impermanence.” The lofty objectives were not approved by a new set of hospital administrators and the beacon of hope collapsed. This was extremely traumatic for my mother and she became a patient of Paroxysmal Atrial Tachycardia (PAT). This is a type of arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat). Paroxysmal means that the episode of arrhythmia originates and terminates abruptly. Atrial implies the arrhythmia starts with atria or in the upper chambers of the heart. The tachycardia results in significant increase in the heart beat per minute. It abnormally increases the pace, like an athlete on a treadmill. PAT significantly increases the heartbeat of an adult from the normal 60 to 100 to 130 to 230 and among infants and children it shoots up from 100 to 130 to 220 beats per minute. It is accompanied with severe sweating, dizziness, palpitations, angina and acute breathlessness. Normally a patient suffers from such a condition owing to emotional upheavals, physical exhaustion, deep anxiety, consumption of caffeine or alcohol. I saw my mother suffering from this condition on several occasions and being admitted to the ICU. It was a distressing and disturbing sight. While it is not life-threatening affliction, it certainly disorients the psychology and attitudes of the patient. During her suffering we saw her clutching on to her rosary as a life saver, while we prayed fervently for her recovery. She was administered medication but it worked only to an extent. The real help came in form of a pentagon shaped talisman. That is through Siddha Healing, Pranic Healing, the 10-day Vipassana Course and the Part1 and Part2 Art of Living courses. This is the infinitesimal power and scientific power of breath. Breathing techniques, meditation, medication and proper diet changed the trajectory of the life of the patient and brought back the mojo in her life. “When you take the breath in, let become your meditation that all the suffering of all the beings in the world is riding on that incoming breath and reaching your heart. Absorb all that suffering, pain and misery in your heart, and see a miracle happen,” said Osho. She has retired now but continues with her sadhana unfailingly. Senior citizens, those in pain and agony and even the able bodied should undertake the courses mentioned. Swami Vivekananda took yoga to America and spread the Ramakrishna Mission. He was the Arjuna of Shri Rama Krishna Paramahamsa. This article is a tribute to Swamiji and also to my mother. My mother imbibed the trait of service to mankind by reading extensively about Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Swami Vivekananda. The year 2020 A virulent virus which is assumed to have originated in the dragon land of China assumed monstrous proportions and spread like a pandemic across the swathes of the globe. India and Prayagraj too were not spared by the lethal pestilence. The robust lady, a woman of substance contracted the disease on the 23rd of December, a day after I was detected positive with the pestilence. Six days prior to when she would have celebrated her eighty-fourth birthday, and in spite of testing negative for Covid, life was snuffed out and she entered the empyrean. She was on the ventilator, something my mother would have abhorred as the lethal virus had entered her lungs. Strangely at 7:30 a.m. that morning, though enfeebled by the pernicious disease, I was performing Sudarshan Kriya and had a premonition that my mother had entered vaikuntha. The previous night belts hung in my cupboard kept falling repeatedly for no particular reason. Was it an indication that the soul was precariously swinging between the Zion and earth where mortals dwell? A few minutes later my wife knocked on the door and with misty eyes and a choked voice conveyed the news. My sister was soon connected through WhatsApp call and the news was broken. Uma. my sister was devastated hearing about cataclysmic tragedy… We are yet to recover from the body blow. There is profound silence in her room where some belongings are kept… along with the photograph of H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Hanumanji. I visit the room every day and feel her presence. I would attribute the tranquility in the room to her sadhana. Mother used to get up at twelve in the night and follow a strict regime which included Vipassana meditation, Pranic Healing, Siddha Healing, Mudra Pranayama and then Sudarshan Kriya. This lasted for almost six hours. She was also religious in taking her short walks …. Not the proverbial 10,000 steps but reasonable for her age. So how did she contract the disease and leave for heavenly abode. Destiny, Karmic Cycle? These are perhaps rationalization by the human mind. Death by Khalil Gibran This a poignant tome on life and death as I gather my thoughts in melancholia. Then Almitra spoke, saying, we would ask now of Death. And he said: You would know the secret of death. But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life? The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light. If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life. For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one. In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond; And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring. Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity. Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honour. Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear the mark of the king? Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling? For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun? And what is it to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered? Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

9. The Pandemic Continues

9. The Pandemic Continues First up, we brace with some cold numbers. Towards the end of December, 2020 as many as 75 million humans were afflicted by the dreaded novel Corona virus or COVID-19, accounting for 1.6 million deaths. One of the most highly developed nations in the world, the USA lead the pack in terms of those afflicted as the inauguration of Joe Biden took place amidst extraordinary political, public health, economic, and national security crises, including the ongoing Covid 19 pandemic and former President Donald Trump’s ugly and brazen attempt to overturn the Presidential results amidst storming of the Capitol Hill by a rampaging mob. Erudite scientist, Stephen Hawking had advanced the argument that man would need a new planet to inhabit as they would have to counter nuclear warfare, climate change and biological warfare in the near future. Did the English cricketer Jofra Archer in his prescient tweets predict the pandemic or was it mere coincidence? But certainly, there are early references to pandemics in the Bible and treatises like the Yoga Vasishta. As per the Old Testament, as man was overcome with avarice and practised idolatry, he earned the wrath of God. As a result, ancient Egypt was afflicted with plague during the times of Moses. Yoga Vasishta is a dialogue between sage Vasishta and Lord Rama, while Rama was a tutee of the sagacious sage. Apparently, there was a female demon (rakshasi) who survived high in the Himalayas. Through rigorous penance she obtained a boon from the creator, Lord Brahma, to be able to metamorphose into the form of a needle. This needle or suchika afflicted humans in the heart, pulmonary tract and the spleen and normally survived in filth. Today, as India has opened up after a series of lockdowns and initially the frontline workers and senior citizens are being inoculated with the two vaccines available. India has managed to unleash two vaccines in form of COVISHIELD and COVAXIN, which should keep naysayers and predictors of doomsday at bay. AN ODE TO MY PARENTS 10. My Father, An Erudite Pluralist- V. Sriram The date was 27 February, 2018. His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar travelled from Varanasi to Lucknow and thence to Gorakhpur on a Rail Yatra, similar to the one he had undertaken in Andhra Pradesh in 2014. That evening he came to our house. While ecstatic devotees were waiting to have his glimpse and seek his blessings, “Gurudev” as he is called by legions of his followers walked up to my ailing father, Valluri Sriram, garlanded him and uttered, “I have come to see you.” Exactly a year later, 27 February, 2019 the mortal remains of my father, whom my younger sister Uma and I addressed as Appa would be consigned to flames. Appa passed away last evening, after his fourth hospitalisation at Prayagraj, succumbing to multiple organ failure. He was stricken with complications of the heart, COPD (he was not a smoker), Parkinson’s and finally brain atrophy. Witnessing the organs of a nonagenarian capitulating is a dreadful sight. It is quite like a forlorn parrot in a cage seeking freedom. There is an intense battle between the body, the spirit, the mind and the soul. Ultimately it only proves that despite modern technology at human disposal we are mere mortals. Appa seemed to have lost the will to continue once his elder brother Valluri Kameshwar Rao (ICS retd.) passed away in November 2018 at the grand age of 104. Confined as he was to the wheelchair, Appa could not attend the last rites of his dear brother, something that devastated him enormously. The youngest of six siblings, my father was born on June 10 in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh in 1927. Despite being born into an orthodox Brahmin family he had chartered a separate path altogether. He joined the non-vegetarian mess in Andhra University where he was a tutee of economics. After completing his M Phil, he migrated to Delhi University to pursue his doctorate under the towering Dr V.K.R.V. Rao. Here he was to rub academic shoulders with such intellectual giants as Dr K.N. Raj, Dr Amartya Sen, Dr Sukhomoy Chakroborty and none other than Dr Man Mohan Singh. He was always in pursuit of perfection and excellence and thus often missed the wood for the trees. He was unable to complete his thesis, though he wrote several papers on Macro and Micro Economics. Pandit Nehru was singularly impressed with my father’s intellectual prowess and Appa went on to be a member of a team that visited China in 1955 and interacted with eminent Chinese leaders like Chou En-Lai and Mao Tse-Tung. Appa used to narrate in an animated manner about the growth in China and the Great Wall of China, the only man-made structure thought to be visible from Earth’s satellite moon. Appa had several friends and associates. Late Shri P.H. Vaishnav, a sterling bureaucrat of the Punjab cadre was one among them. My father and Vaishnav Uncle, both avid Wodehouse fans would often recall snippets from Wodehouse and the house resonated with laughter. The turning point in my father’s life was the birth of my sister Uma. She was his talisman and soon he was to work in FICCI, followed by ASSOCHAM and finally as secretary to Shri Hari Shankar Singhania. Shri Valluri Sriram was a socialist by heart and ideological training. He shared a close association with several socialist stalwarts including Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, Shri Jai Prakash Narayan, Shri George Fernandes, Shri Chandrashekar, Shri Madhu Dandavate and the popular Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Appa was part of the committee which drafted the manifesto of the Janata Party in 1977. I fondly recall when Telugu Desam was the principal opposition party, Shri Madhav Reddy, leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Shri P. Upendra would visit our house seeking advice on a broad spectrum of economic issues. Professor S.H. Pathak of the Delhi School of Social Work was his close friend. It was at Pathak Uncle’s house that we would meet eminent theatre and film personalities like Girish Kasarvalli, B.V. Karanth and Girish Karnad among others, which fuelled my deep interest in dramatics. However, Appa was deeply distressed during the 1984 riots and the dismantling of the disputed structure at Ayodhya which reflected his pluralistic nature, a trait he continued to deeply cherish till his demise. Certainly, he was neither religious nor spiritual by nature. He was cast more in the mould of an agnostic attempting to unravel the mysteries of the universe through the prism of Nehruvian thinking and his training in economics. Whilst his elder siblings had unflinching faith in Sathya Sai Baba and I am ardent follower of H. H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar my father attempted to discover the virtuosity of nature by his readings of Stephen Hawking, Jim Holt, Steve Jobs, Carl Sagan among others. Obviously, the logical side of his brain was developed immensely, always demanding proof. In this pursuit, he found robust companions in my children Siddhartha and Tejala, both of who are highly sceptical of “gurus”. My parents in particular have been highly catholic by temperament and I was educated at St Xavier’s School, Delhi and my sibling at the Presentation Convent. We were also closely associated with the church through priests like Bishop Rego and Bishop Remegius and also Mother Teresa. This certainly opened several vistas to my thought process. Among the myriad experiences I have had in life was the visit of Shri Sundar Lal Bahuguna, the noted environmentalist to our home because of my father’s association with FICCI and ASSOCHAM. Appa always rued the fact that he could not complete his doctorate nor join the Indian Administrative Service, a cross he bore all his life. It was ironical that last evening as we stepped out of the hospital, it began to pour. Even the Gods in the empyrean had tears to shed and would be getting ready to welcome Appa (a copy of his favorite Economist magazine in hand). Today his mortal remains lie in the mortuary at the Central Railway Hospital before being consigned to flames in the evening. But when he was physically fit, he flitted between dargah, church and temple in search of the quintessential truth owing allegiance only to financial and intellectual truth. May, his soul rest in eternal peace. For sure, he would now have the chance to discover the eternal truth. “How’s the josh?” the doc asked Father, who mumbled something incomprehensible. Sodium and other electrolytes appeared to be low and the nonagenarian could not distinguish between day and night, between tenebrosity and luminosity, between sanity and insanity. This was the fourth occasion that he was admitted into the ICCU in the last few months. The doctor persisted. Father looked askance; a glazed look in his eyes. He had slumped in bed that afternoon, with BP and pulse not registering. And the oxygen monitor read an ominous zero. For the first time, I saw a flushed look on my mother's face. It was red, not radiant. As devout Hindus, she, my wife and my sister who had come over from Boston switched on the Hanuman Chalisa, the Rudram and the Lalita Sahasranamam in quick succession. The Gods were invoked on the pretentious gizmos to resuscitate a person who appeared to be choked. “How’s the josh?” the doctor enquired once again. Prana levels were ebbing. The patient’s josh was revived partially with the help of a saline drip. With repeated pestilence there was atrophy of veins. But perhaps Almighty God, my unflinching faith in H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and the resonance of the mantras conjured a Mandrake like magic and he was wheeled in an ambulance to Heartline. “How’s the josh?” Father had recovered partially and a feeble smile played on his emaciated face. Father was administered the Holter Monitor test and the doctor was of the opinion that he would be discharged the next day. “How’s the josh?” Our josh was spirited and we felt relieved. I placed a photograph of the Gods below his pillow beseeching them to be his guardian angels. But the following day the frail body was inflicted by septicaemia. Blisters had formed on his feet as they were exposed to high temperatures when a hot water bag was placed to alleviate pain. Father in the hazy and muggy state felt that a patient on the adjacent bed was his brother who refused to engage in a conversation. My uncle had cracked a century four years back and cast his mortal remains just a few months back. This perhaps had had a deleterious effect on Father’s mind and body. How did our fabled Rishis live for hundreds of years? Pranayama, diet, meditation and no antipathetic or Sisyphean thoughts. That was their josh and the elixir of their lives. Gandhiji once famously said that he would live up to 125 years. That was his josh - his diet, Kriya Yoga learnt from Paramahamsa Yogananda and daily evening satsangs. His Holy Grail of course was non-violence. “How’s the josh?” the doctor asked Father to bolster his courage and conviction. But soon the entourage of specialist doctors recommended a CT scan. The nonagenarian was wheeled out from the hospital to a CT scan centre. That is the state of medicare in the country. Fortuitously the CT scan report suggested atrophy and nothing worse. The result was slowed down reflexes and an inability to swallow food orally. He is now being fed through a nasal pipe. The stripling youngster serving Father is quite distraught that this is the only way to feed him. Father remains incoherent, with an unchanging distant and forlorn look in his eyes. Life in the ICCU for the patient is pathetic and for the kith and kin who attend to him is depressing. We are keeping a vigil outside the hospital, with prayers on our lips and trying to fortify our josh. “How’s the josh?” Well, we attempt to keep it unflagging for optimism is the only key to overcome any misadventure in life.

8. Life in times of Pandemic

8. Life in times of Pandemic There was once Bubonic plague and then it was followed by the Spanish Flu aeons later, which claimed millions of lives across the globe. In fact, Spanish Flu resulted in loss of more human lives than the two World Wars put together. Such was the cataclysmic catastrophe which left humanity numbed. In 2019 an invisible microorganism which apparently originated from Wuhan in China locked down nations. Lives have been lost and by the day numbers are spiraling. Further, economic activity hit rock bottom. Is it apocalypse? A pandemic swept across the swathes of the globe, and afflicted people in every corner. In a globalised, inter-connected world, humans wear masks, have now to resort to social distancing and several worked from home; isn’t this the ultimate irony? This is the price humanity pays as COVID – 19 takes over. Indians like rest of the world went through a series of lockdowns and gradually opened up various sectors of economic activity. Even now several educational institutions are functioning virtually impinged with large scale uncertainties. Economic wheels are slowly churning back in the faint hope of a revival as the process of vaccination has finally begun. Origin of lockdown in India The technique of lockdown involving the masses was also employed by the Mahatma during the Civil Disobedience movement. It was an absolute shut down across swathes of the land when Satyagraha, prayer and non-violence and non-cooperation were deployed as tools against fiendish forces represented by the British. The novel method shook the very foundations of the British suzerainty. These were political stratagems to combat the demonic powers of foreign occupation. Today humans through self-imposed home-exile and social-distancing developed a stratagem to grapple with this vicious and virulent virus which assumed an octopus-like grip over humanity, as finally vaccine visible on the horizon. But yet we need to maintain social distancing and not lower our guard against the disease as several new mutations emerge. Plagues and other epidemics have struck humanity with ferocity in the past as well; the Great Plague in Europe and parts of Central Asia in the 14th century and the small pox epidemic in Mexico in 1520 being two well-known examples and of course the Spanish Flu. In these times of adversity for human beings, nature is finally getting a chance to breathe freely. When the pandemic broke out it was reported that that streams in Venice witnessed large numbers of dolphins, fish and swans, species which had all but vanished. The airport at Tel Aviv was a testimony to Egyptian birds walk across like mannequin airhostesses, baboons in Singapore were found straddling the streets and seem to obeying the regimented laws of the city state. This ought to teach us to live in harmony with other species. But this is possible only if humans are not caught in the vortex of self-aggrandizement and acquisition. The silk-stocking and upmarket individuals necessarily need to eschew their habit of avarice and contribute towards sharing, caring and expressing unalloyed love. The USA had reduced funding to WHO, but the ultra-rich across the globe can contribute towards poverty alleviation, medical services, protecting the environment and reducing pollution levels through tempering their wants and desires. As we slowly begin to operate from the sanctuary of our dwelling places, humans need to differentiate between loneliness and solitude. Loneliness will make us mental wrecks. We will not be joyous and loving but grumble, and develop antagonistic attitudes. This loneliness needs to be transfigured and metamorphosed into solitude. Solitude is a state of becoming antarmukhi; a state of being in harmony with the outer world while looking deep within in order to suffuse the mind with efficacious thoughts and draw on our inner reservoirs of energy. Spending time at home, humans were required to develop their immune system and several had given this an immediate priority. There are solutions aplenty. Eschew white sugar totally. Apparently even one table spoon reduces immunity levels by half. To remain fit one can, tend to the greenery in our balconies or garden, do plenty of yoga (what about 108 sets of Suryanamaskars), spot jogging etc. This is the time to pray, fast and meditate. Pranayama and deep breathing techniques help expel toxins from the body and act as immunity boosters. When the country first shut down to combat the ailment on 22 March, people re-discovered yoga, pranayama and observe deep silence. In that silence Indians cogitated on the sound of the Universe, the Soham Swarup of this majestic creation and a state of “thoughtlessness”. So in the times of this pandemic savour the solitude. Take deep breaths and clear your mind of the shroud of cacophonous fear. Wherever you are, just relax, relax, relax, rejuvenate your minds and bodies, connect with your families, learn new skill sets and crafts … and discover the YOU in the silence.