MY STORY

 

MY STORY

“Hey Bala, hold on for five more days,” my maternal uncle, Vasudeva Rao bantered with my mother. It was December 9, 1962.  

Meanwhile the mood of the nation was sombre that year as the country was inflicted with several wounds in the theatre of war by our northern adversary China during the Indo-China conflict.

Kanpur, like rest of the country was gloomy after the ignominious defeat.

Much like Abhimanyu in his mother’s womb, I seemed to have been privy to the conversation between my mother Bala and uncle Vasu but was determined to step out of the safe sanctuary of my mother’s womb. And thus, I arrived on planet earth on the December 14, 1962.

“So, this was the essence of holding on for five days,” I mused as I recalled those lines verbalised by my maternal uncle.  

This latest arrival to the Valluri menage was called Ravi and soon the Sun appeared in the skies of Kanpur and there was brightness everywhere.

But this celebration was short-lived because as a child I was afflicted with a mysterious ailment, later diagnosed as malabsorption.  

My harried parents were informed by the medical fraternity that malabsorption syndrome was a digestive disorder which prevented my body from effectively absorbing nutrients from food that I consumed.  

My frail heath was to give sleepless nights to my economist-father and medical social worker-mother. I frequently fell ill and was administered allopathic, homeopathic, ayurvedic and home-made remedies but all in vain.

As there seemed to be no panacea for the pestilence in Delhi, it was decided by all well-wishers that I be examined by a group of doctors at the estimable Christian Medical College, Vellore. Soon I was Vellore bound by Grand Trunk Express, accompanying my mother and younger sister. We reached my grandparents’ plenteous bungalow at Madras (now Chennai).  

 The 1^st Tipping Point

Later that evening four of us, my maternal grand-aunt, my mother, my sister and me were packed-up and on a train to Mysore rather than Vellore.

This was to be my first encounter with a godman, Ganapathi Sachhidananda Swamiji. He was once a postman but now as a messenger of God performed extraordinary miracles like producing ash out of thin air, creating objects from nowhere and walking through the sacred fire during Navaratri and Shivratri festivals.

Swamiji produced a talisman and sacred ash at the highly venerated and auspicious Chamundeshwari Temple and blessed me.

Within a few months’ time I rediscovered my mojo and went on to be admitted to the renowned St. Xavier’s School, Delhi. Miraculously I had rediscovered my health and over a period of time began acting in one-act plays and dabbled in writing one-act plays. Somewhere down the line Swamiji took me into confidence and said softly, “I will not remain your Guru, you will find another in due course of time.”   

The words of the clairvoyant Swamiji came to pass and our family drifted away from Him.  

But armed with his blessings and the prayers of my mother (who had immense faith in the Goddess of Heath – Velankanni in Tamil Nadu), I was healthy once again. Apart from performing well academically, I participated in several music and theatre workshops organised by noted artistes. National School of Drama and other theatre centres at Mandi House, New Delhi were almost my second home much to the consternation of my father who opined that I was going astray.

After my schooling, I graduated from Hindu College, Delhi University with a bachelor’s degree in commerce and pursued advanced education in Business Economics from the same university. My passion for writing and acting in plays continued and I forayed into Hindustani classical music as well.  

Like any youngster, I was bewitched by smart girls and dreamed about those in my neighbourhood, my school and college. I had the opportunity to act with the renowned Ashiqui girl, Anu Agarwal in a play called Panchva Sawar at Hindu College.  

Those were pre-globalisation days and career opportunities were limited to medicine, engineering, chartered accountancy and if fortuitous, becoming a bureaucrat.

I was admitted to RAU’s IAS coaching centre (a brand name even back then) and cracked the Civil Services Examination. I could not fuel my interest in theatre and film making any longer. Though I attained a reasonably high rank and had the opportunity to join the Indian Police Service (IPS), I chose instead to become a railwayman as an officer of the Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS).

Invariably, majority of officers serve on just a few zones, but I took up responsibilities over the years and worked on eight zonal railways and served at MILRAIL (Army Headquarters) where I was decorated with the Chief of Army Commendation medal for services performed when Operation Smiling Buddha 2 – Pokhran 2 occurred.

But unfortunately for my parents, my wife and children, I was becoming addicted to Bacchus and soon turned an alcoholic. It was not long before I was the laughing stock friends and colleagues.

The 2^nd Tipping Point

The Indian Parliament was attacked on December 13, 2001 and Indian defence forces and Railways were involved in a massive exercise to guard our frontiers by running troops specials in the herculean Operation Brasstacks during my posting at Bikaner.

One evening, as the sun sank in the Thar desert, my father was taking his customary evening walk when a stranger tapped his shoulder and suggested that I undertake the Part 1 course of the Art of Living in order to overcome the vice of alcoholism.

This was my father’s only meeting with the stranger. My father, an agnostic by training and attitude was flabbergasted at this encounter, but in my arrogance, I refused to be drawn into any course and mindlessly continued drinking.

The following year we were transferred to Jaipur and my wife finally succeeded in enrolling me for the Part 1course, the very same one mentioned by the stranger! In the wintry chill of November, she took me every day for the course. This was my first exposure to yoga, pranayama, meditation and the unique, rhythmic breathing technique of Sudarshan Kriya as cognated by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

My recovery was delayed as I did not pursue other courses of Art of Living, but the seed for rehabilitation was planted as I practiced the breathing technique daily, unflinchingly.  

In between I had some really inexplicable experiences. I took these as singular signs to give up alcohol. Sometime in November 2006 I had apparitions of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Satya Sai Baba for almost a month and suddenly on December 6, 2006, I eschewed drinking and have been sober since.  

Rebirth

This was my rebirth and I began writing for Life positive E-magazine and Free Press Journal about my alcohol dependency and subsequent recovery. 

I showed these articles to Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar who goaded me to keep writing and suggested that I narrate my story and also mentioned that my works would shortly be published as books.

 I have been able to write eleven books (4 fiction and 7 non-fiction and all edited by my wife) and have become a faculty of the Art of Living. The non-fiction works are on the vagaries of the human mind, techniques of yoga, pranayama, mudra pranayama, meditation, and Sudarshan Kriya. They are replete with real life stories of how seekers, devotees, stock individuals and savants have benefitted by taking up various courses of the Art of Living. Some of the books are peppered with Zen stories and deal with the benefit of living in the present moment.

Further I have forayed into writing about my travels in India, visiting known and lesser-known places which will be of immense value and s interest to a traveller. Personalities and their thought process have always fascinated me and I have ventured to pen my thoughts on little known facts on prominent and people behind the veil which a reader would find fascinating.

In the meantime, I switched gears and began to write fiction. These are two collections of short stories, drabbles and plays heavily relying on the epic Mahabharata and juxtaposing the talismanic characters in present day situation and as to how would they react – for instance how the Pandavas, the Kauravas and lead women characters like Draupadi or Kunti would combat situations in the present-day.

Most recently I have authored a spiritual fiction based on a real-life story of a Chinese woman (a prosperous techie) who rose to dizzy heights, lost everything and travelled westwards to like the ancient Chinese traveller Xuan Zang 1400 years back. This young woman encounters riveting situations to plug in the gaps of her life.

I would say that the prayers of my parents, my grandmother and my wife and the grace of the Master paid dividends as today I counsel addicts, conduct courses of Art of Living and also fuel my passion for writing.

Rejigging my life has been nothing short of a miracle.