THE MAGICAL REPETITION KILLED MY BAD HABIT

Once I wrote a beautiful article, "EXPLOIT THE MAGICAL EFFECTS OF REPETITION."

I put the theory into practice to forsake Pan chewing.

 I made a slogan, "Avoid Pan & Brush every night to live 100 years healthy, hearty & wealthy." I didn't force myself too much to give up this dirty habit. I just used to repeat the slogan with full force.

  Soon, I became indifferent to Pan chewing. I restricted it to once a day.  Gradually I began to dislike Pan Chewing.

Earlier I used to take Pan when I was very tense or jubilant. Now whenever I feel nervous, I take five long deep breaths to relax. When I feel euphoric, I celebrate with something else.

 There was a significant obstacle; a good number of my friends take Pan, therefore, it is etiquette to offer them, Pan.

 They often insisted upon me to take Pan. I replied them politely, "I take only one Pan daily, and my quota stands exhausted for today."

"Just for now." syndrome was also the biggest obstacle in my mission.

 Earlier I used to assure myself that I shall take one Pan just now and after that, I shall never touch it in my entire life. But, Alas! Again and again, I fell prey to "Just for now" syndrome.

 Now I remind myself, “The chain of vice will become more strong if I succumb to the temptation of taking a Pan just for now, and the desire to take Pan will weaken  if I kill the temptation in no time.” Benjamin Franklin rightly said," It is easier to suppress the first desire than to fulfill all those follow it."

I also shared the whole story with my canteen boy and other staff who used to take Pan for me. Now I can’t afford to belittle myself before them by ordering Pan.

However, I assiduously avoided telling my Pan Chewing friends about my plan to give up Pan. They would have certainly discouraged me. So, Pan free days are going smoothly. I have not taken any Pan since two years and eleven months. However, I offered Pan to those friends who liked it. Now I offer them cardamom or clove bud.

My one friend was immensely impressed with my story of forsaking Pan. He also tried half-heartedly to give up this nasty habit but could not succeed due to lack of a well-charted plan and 100% commitment.

GOD HELP THOSE WHO HELP OTHERS

He that does good to another, does good also to himself, not only in the consequences but in the act; for the consciousness of well-doing is, in itself, ample reward - SENECA 

 The great poem, Abou Ben Adhem, written by James Henry Leigh Hunt decades ago, is relevant even now. It exhorts, "God loves those who love and help his children."
After reading the poem in my high school, I decided to help anybody who approaches me for any work. This system helped me a lot; I was often supported by unknown & unexpected sources whenever I was in trouble.

 My good friend Shri Anil Kumar was in Muzaffarpur on the 7th August 2013. He had some work at the University Police Station. I telephoned him in the morning and offered to help since I knew the SHO of the police station.
 I always crossed the University P.S. twice daily.  That day I reflexively looked at its entrance gate. I became overjoyed to see my stolen bike parked there. I entered into the P.S. and knew that my bike was recovered by the police more than one month ago and was unclaimed since then. But, I knew about it only after I offered to help my friend.

  I was returning from Patna by car in 2005. Satpura railway crossing was closed. As soon as the gateman opened it, a massive traffic rushed forward. A teenager, at once, came driving his scooter fast and dashed against my car. He fell in the nearby muddy ditch with his bike.

 I immediately jumped from my car and dragged him.  His vehicle was invisible in the ditch. I was apprehending that he would blame me for the mishap. I put my right hand on his shoulder and asked coolly," Son, are you O.K?" The teenager started shouting," Uncle, it was not your fault."
 In the meanwhile, a crowd began gathering. One tough looking young man came near me and whispered into my ear, "Sir, what are you doing here? Please start your car and go away."  I complied with his advice immediately & ran away silently.

 Dale Carnegie, in his best-selling book 'How To Stop Worrying & Start Living' advocated,"One can get rid of depression by exploring the ways and means to help others." 
All the great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Jawahar Lal Nehru, Atal Bihar Vajpayee became great because they always strived to help and support others. They did their best to help masses to get rid of their hardships.

Will it not be an excellent idea to resolve every day to bring a beaming smile on at least one face?

TAKE SUITABLE REMEDIAL STEPS ON THE FIRST DANGER SIGNAL.

A small leak will sink a great ship.

--- Benjamin Franklin.

 Sage Dhaumya had a disciple named Aruni who stayed in the Gurukul. Once Aruni was crossing a nearby field of Gurukul and observed that a substantial amount of water was sipping from the field's embankment, he desperately tried to stop the flowing water with mud and wooden logs but couldn't succeed. Finally, he lay down on the broken embankment, the sipping of water stopped immediately. Later on, the sage Dhaumya and his disciples came to the crisis point and repaired the broken dam.

One must be continuously looking for small danger signals to stop mind boggling damages.

 A small tumour ignored initially converts itself into life-threatening cancer and gives great agonizing pain. A wisp of smoke, when ignored, turns into a ravaging fire. A little increase in cholesterol, if not controlled, blocks the arteries and causes a heart attack.

 Train your eyes to identify first danger signals which are usually very small. Take immediate remedial steps to neutralize the ominous signal. You will save yourself and others from many devastating damages.

MAKING PLANS & EXECUTING THEM IS NATURAL & EASY

Mr. M. R. Kopmeyer was the president of eight corporations. Now he is retired and success counsellor of more than one hundred companies. He advocated in one of his books,” If you want to master something, please imagine that doing it is natural & easy.”

 So I always assume that making plans & executing them is natural & easy. 
Actually, we continue to make and execute plans all our life.

 What do we while getting out from our house? We plan to go to the office to earn our lively hood. We plan to put our children in school. They plan to get best marks in their exams for getting good jobs. We plan to build houses, get promoted and do a lot of other things. We invariably get what we plan. 

 Let's spare a little time for doing

Conscious planning and work diligently for its timely execution.   

EUPHORIA TAKES ITS TOLL

Euphoria is an intense feeling of happiness.
The wise exhort,"Excess of everything is bad." Therefore, an excess of happiness, too, is not an exception.

 My cousin, Shri Uday Narayan Sinha, Advocate, is a lean and thin old man. Once he got a breakthrough in a tricky consumer forum case, therefore his happiness knew no bounds.
 While walking on the foot that day, he lost his balance in one of the dreaded potholes and fell down. His lips & front teeth were badly damaged. His family members immediately rushed him to Shri A.K.Das, a reputed surgeon. Shri Das put more than ten stitches to fix the wounds and advised him bed rest for one week.

I become extra cautious, whenever I am too happy, and try to become normal at earliest. In the meanwhile, I continuously remind me that   I am vulnerable to mistakes in the euphoric state.

One can't avoid euphoria completely. But an identified enemy becomes less dangerous.

BURN ALL THE ROTTEN THOUGHTS

 We cremate the dead bodies of our nears and dears promptly after their demise to avoid rotting and stinking. 
But unfortunately, we keep old rotting thoughts close to our hearts and permit their nauseating stench making our lives hell.

Our mind learns to react reflexively in a particular way to a given situation.

 I was a naughty child. So my mother often complained my father about my mischiefs. Sometimes my dad thrashed me black & blue. Therefore, whenever I made a mischief, my mother warned wryly, let your dad come. Now I started guessing what my dad would do. The imagination ran wild regarding dangerous things. 

Now, father figure has notionally changed. But even now when I rationally decide to do a daring act, my imagination starts running wild, how the present controlling characters will react. So to overpower the bad thoughts of childhood, I repeat continuously," Burn all the rotten thoughts." I found after analyzing my mind that I have been a slave to many wicked thoughts.
 I was frail in my childhood, so I used to tell school bullies," Ham apnee azadee ko hargeej mita sakte naheen, sar kata sakte hain, par sar jhuka sakte nahin( I shall rather get my head chopped off to maintain my freedom.
Once a veteran war general said, " He loves his enemies, so he always sends them quickly to heaven." This was a new thought.
 However, these things only have symbolic meaning in our lives. The first thought implies that I shall incur any loss to ensure my freedom. The second idea means that I shall make my opponents sustain the maximum damage if enmity becomes inevitable. However, we are firm believers in Win-Win theory.

A few days ago, I drove away evil thoughts by using simple methods. When I awoke, I felt,"Nothing was going right." I was deeply frustrated. I recalled,"Last night I was very satisfied with all the affairs of my life. I was euphoric while going to bed."
 I wondered what happened during my sleep.  I left the bed and found that I forgot to open some windows. So obviously there was a shortage of Oxygen in the room. I opened all the windows and started to repeat motivational slogans, took a few glasses of water and went in the veranda to start cycling on the exercycle. After half an hour I was again to the best of my moods.

 Analyze and identify your bad thoughts, bid them goodbye and cremate them at earliest with all regard. You will find a new you marching rapidly towards your cherished dreams.

ALWAYS HIRE AN EXPERT

Hire an expert in his profession.

 His high fee proves cheap in the long run.

 My car's battery often discharged, and its engine stopped abruptly in the midway. I used to desperately request others to push the stopped car on the side of the road. Some of them suggested jokingly," Why are you driving this old model. Sell it and buy a brand new car." The car mechanics groped in the dark.

Once I went to Darbhanga to attend a marriage ceremony. To my utter dismay, my car's engine at once stopped in Kaidrabagh at around 8 p.m. All the specialized workshops were closed. Many quack mechanics came and tried to start the vehicle but in vain. At last, with a heavy heart, I left the car in Darbhanga and returned by bus. One good mechanic attended the car but repeatedly wondered," What drained the battery so low?"

The problem persisted even then. A friend advised me to consult a good electrician; he concluded that car's alternator was faulty. He advised me to change the alternator. I complied immediately. Now the problem is over and the 2001 model Maruti 800 is running fine.

There are specialists in every profession. There are gynecologists, cardiologists, urologists, dentists, gastrologists, etc. in the medical profession. There are civil defenders, criminal advocates, company affair advocates, income tax advocates in the legal profession. There are denters, painters, electricians, etc. in car repairing business. So when you need to consult someone, ensure to consult an expert. This will save your time, money & mental peace in the long run.

Make sure to hire an experienced expert in complicated matters. A novice sails smoothly when things are nice but collapses in complex cases. This is why junior advocates work under their seniors & interns practice under top doctors.  

MAKE JUDICIAL SYSTEM PEOPLE FRIENDLY & TRANSPARENT

It is high time that the delivery of justice is made people friendly.
 My bike was stolen and was recovered by the Police. I had to spend nine days with advocate, court and police officials altogether to get the bike released. Everybody agreed that the bike was mine. Even then it took nine painful days. In such cases, when ownership is not disputed, should not the Police be authorized and instructed to hand over the bike to its owner immediately after taking bond?

One of my friends, Shri N.K.Mehta, told," He was a government witness in a criminal case. He did not receive any summons or bail able warrants to testify in the court. One beautiful morning an ASI of Bihar Police called on him with a non-bailable warrant. You may just guess, " How a common man might have felt?" How will anyone dare to volunteer himself to help the law enforcing machinery? This is why people express," Only unfortunate persons get involved with the Police, the court or the hospital."

A robbery was committed in Motihari branch of our bank. All the present staff members were made government witnesses. All had the same oral complaints that they did not receive any summons or bail able warrants. The Police approached them when nonbailable warrants against them were issued by the court.  However since this issue involved many staff members, so the Police was lenient, they just advised them to testify in the court and get their nonbailable warrants withdrawn.

Once a Magistrate in Gujrat issued warrants, in a false and fabricated case, against the then honorable Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice V.N.Khare and the then honorable President Mr. A.P.J.Abdul Kalam.

 Should there not be a grievance redressal system in the courts also to fix responsibility on delinquent employees and punish them?

Once The then Honourable Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, P.Sathasivam, the Chief Justice of India expressed concern over the steady decline of the reputation of Judiciary and legal profession while addressing Judges, Advocates and other eminent persons in Chennai.

It is high time for taking concrete actions to address the issue.

ONE MINUTE MANAGER REPEATS ITSELF

"One Minute Manager" is a bestselling fable book by Management Guru Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson. The great authors described three simple techniques of effective management. "One-minute Praising" is one of them. Learned authors mentioned in the book that when you start giving "One Minute Praising" and forget to deliver it on a particular occasion, your colleagues will remind you about it.

I knew till now that one may become addicted to smoking, drinking, opium, brown sugar, etc.,  But the following incident made me realize that people may become addicted to sincere praising also and if not given they may confront me to ask for it.

            In my other article," Change The Environment, Make Dinosaurs Extinct Species." I informed that on the interval of 2-3 months, I call staff meetings and give token gifts to the best performing staff members with many words of sincere praise. But due to some pre-occupations, I forgot to call staff meetings. One of my best colleagues Rajesh Jee confronted me and complained in a sweet voice," Sir, You have forgotten to call the staff meeting to deliver your sincere praising to the best performing staff member. So on the same evening, I called the meeting.

Many learned colleagues express frustration about management books by calling them mere theoretical. But I bet, "They are useful beyond doubt if we put the theories into practice."

OVERCONFIDENCE KILLS

There are lots of articles in motivational literature to cure under-confidence. However, the danger of overconfidence is utterly ignored.

 I purchased a green Hero Honda Splendour Pro bike in October 2011. I loved it immensely. I took as much care of my beautiful bike as Baba Bharti took care of Sultan.

I got an alarm system installed on the motorcycle, and  I always put the alarm system on after parking it. However, I did not bother to put on the alarm in my branch premises.  I used to tell my staff that everybody in this locality recognizes my bike. Therefore, no thief will dare to take it from the office premises. However, to my utter disappointment, a thief stole my bike on one fine Saturday. The ATM guard was dumbfounded, but he could not even describe the bike's color.

Drunken drivers commit accidents because alcohol boosts their confidence unnecessary. Consequently, they take precious lives of others. Sometimes they make their children fatherless and put their family in great hardship. 

One Shayar wrote, " ना मुझे जीत की खुशी थी, ना मुझे हार का गम था, अफ़सोस मगर मेरी किश्ती वहां डुबी जहाँ पानी कम था। "(I was neither pleased to win, nor depressed to lose. But, alas my boat capsized in shallow waters.) So one must be suitably vigilant even in shallow waters, else overconfidence will make him careless enough capsize his ship.

N.B. Philip Guedalla said," History repeats itself." So "Haar Kee Jit" of Sudarshan also repeated itself. The wisdom prevailed on the unknown thief as it prevailed on the robber Khadag Singh. He left my lovely bike near my office. I got it back after completing legal formalities.
 May God bless everybody with wisdom, peace of mind, happiness and success in noble causes. Amen.

DEVELOP YOUR FORESIGHTEDNESS

Rudyard Kipling's best friends were What, Who, Why, Where, When & How? Exploring a problem by asking six fundamental questions was also called Kipling Method.

However, we may develop our foresightedness tremendously by asking one simple question, “What if?" Many Scientists must be expert in asking, “What if?"  They must always be asking during their experiments what if I tried this or what if I tried that. Our Father of Nation, Mahatma Gandhi must have asked himself," What if I used Satyagraha with non-violence for fighting against the mighty British Empire where the Sun never sets.

Many years ago on one beautiful Saturday evening, I forgot the duplicate keys of my office in the drawer. Later on, I found that the duplicate keys were missing. My mind started to race fast.

 What if a thief finds the keys, he will empty the whole office in the night?  The book value of all the computers, fans, coolers and furniture must be many lacks. The bank will recover the entire amount from me. The Police will also come into the picture. They will blame me that I knowingly gave the keys to someone to steal everything from the branch office. Thus, I may get involved in a Police case also. All these thoughts were trying to make me depressed.

 When the keys were with me, I used to keep them casually without understanding the implications of it being lost. Earlier I could have asked," what if" I missed the duplicate keys. This simple question would have saved peace & enjoyment of my weekend.

 So when you have blessings, ask yourself,"What will happen if I lose them, and hear the answers. Ask “What if? on every occasion." This simple method will help develop your foresightedness to a great extent.