Work for thyself

One upon a time, in small city, lived an architect named Raju; he was working for ‘Fast Construction Company’. He earned his living by designing houses in the city. He is well known, As his construction becomes the landmark in the city. His dream is to construct a house for him, which has all the luxury and everything put together from all the houses he had designed. So he was saving a certain amount from his salary every month to able to construct a house when retires.

The employers of Raju, Fast  construction company were very happy with his work and always appreciated him with perks and promotions. They even made Raju as the brand ambassor for the company.

Raju was very happy with work he is doing and worked even harder to make his employers happy. As his earning grew multi folds, his saving also grew likewise. He was happy that he would able to save sufficient money within few years so that he can start working on this dream house.

Raju Married a beautiful girl and they were content with what they have and never purchased anything that is unnecessary. They both were satisfied with what they had and have sacrificed all little desires of trying something new. Raju’s wife wanted to travel the around the world and see new things but never said this to Raju, because she cared about the his dream.

Raju somehow learnt about his wife’s dream, he wanted to fulfill her dream so he started to work extratime to save more money and thinking , "Once sufficient amount is saved, he will retire , go around the world with his wife and then start working on his dream house”. So he put all his mind, body and soul into the work and forgot to even care about his wife.

The company grew multi folds along with Raju, They began to construct house in different cities and earned Name, Fame and Huge profits. They always appreciated Raju with perks and promotion’s.

Year passed on and finally Raju looked at his savings and thought that he had sufficient money and decided to work on his dream house and plan for the world trip. So he went to his employer and told about his retirement plans.

The Employer “Fast construction company” was sorry to see his best workers go and they did not have a back plan for this, Therefore they asked Raju if he could build just one more house as personal favor and this would be his last work in the company.

Raju could not say NO to his employer who took care of him very well. So he said to himself, one last house and then I can work on my dream house. He started his work, but as the time passed, his heart was not in his work, and he began to think how he can complete the house quickly. He bought inferior materials to build the house. His plan was shoddy, did not have all the details, so he had to rebuild few parts of the house again to incorporate few changes and fixed the issues that came up in the nick of time.

Finally the house was completed, he himself felt very bad about the house and thought " As i am not going to live in it who cares".

Meanwhile, Raju‘s employers were busy in preparation for the his farewell as they thought the company’s success was due to Raju's hard work.

As usual, it was time  to inspect the house which was done by 2 or 3 people from the Fast construction company, but this time, hundreds of the people along with CEO of the company came, which surprised Raju, but he was confident that they will not be able to find any defects as his patch work was good.

Raju handed over the Keys to CEO to inspect the house, The CEO, Handed back to Raju and said, “This is your house now ….  Our gift to you, as token for all the work you have done to make our company successful”. We wish you happiness in you future. The employees also thanked and wished him luck and happiness in his life.

Raju was Shell shocked!!

(If he had only known, he was building his own house, would he done it all so differently? Would he want an unfortunate end to his dedicated career? If given a chance, would he do it much differently?)

It is up to us, we would not get another change to relive our lives, once the time is gone, it’s gone, whatever you do you cannot have it back, you can only make the present enjoyable. As someone said, “Life is a ‘do it yourself Project’ “, your attitude , choices you make today, will have effect on your tomorrow.

“Always work as if you are working for yourself,

You never know what is in store for you“- Khry

Note : The photos are for illustrious purpose only

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Know Thyself

The Prince

Once upon a time, there lived a Prince, who was tall, handsome and gentle, every girl in his kingdom and nearby kingdoms wanted to marry the prince, everyone adored the prince for his kindness too. The Prince was lazy, happy go lucky type, always partied with friends and ignored his responsibilities. The king wanted the young prince to get married, so that he will be responsible towards his duties but the prince had few conditions of his own and said to the king, I will marry the one who meets all my conditions.

The King died to illness and prince was forced to look after the kingdom. The prince wanted to enjoy his life without worrying about his kingdom or his duties, so he  searched for a girl who can be loyal to him, contribute in maintaining his wealth and look after his kingdom.

Finally, the prince found such a girl and married her, the girl was very loyal and loved him very much, and she was even ready to die for the sake of the him. They started to live happily together.

Three Wives

After a few days, his kingdom was in trouble and the prince noticed that his wife could not help him in resolving the crisis. So he married another woman who has helped him to resolve problems, she was clever, considerate, humble and listened to whatever the prince said. The prince started to ignore his 1^st wife now and always turned to his second wife whenever there were problems and she would help him out and tide with him in difficult times.

The Peace Celebration

The Prince who is the king now, had to visit neighboring kingdoms for celebrating peace in the region. He reached there with his two wives, everyone greeted the prince and introduced their wife’s, they were beautiful and all the kings were proud of their wife’s. The Prince was ashamed to introduce his wives, so he decided to marry another girl.

The prince married again and now he is very proud of her and shows off her to other kings, but was worried that she might leave him and marry another person or king.

Few days later, he met a beautiful girl and fell in love with her, so he married again and adorned her with richness, treated her to delicacies, took great care of her and always gave nothing but the best.

Now the prince was happy and his kingdom is also very happy, Years passed and the prince was near to this death and was very worried that he will be all alone in the next world and wanted someone to come with him.

The Prince

So he decided to ask the 4^th wife, whom he loved so much to accompany him in this death. The 4^th wife responded, Even though you have taken good care of me and gave me nothing but the best. I cannot follow you and ran away. The prince was shocked and but did not lose hope.

He asked his 3^rd wife, who also replied ‘you have used me as a 'thing' to show off, now that you will die, I will remarry and live happily” and she walked away. The prince was dumbstruck.

After sometime, he asked his 2^nd wife, “You have helped me in difficult of times, please help me one last time” But she replied, “Even I cannot help you this time, you are on your own now” and left him.

Then suddenly, he heard a clear and sharp voice, “I will come with you “, he looked around to see his first wife standing there. At first he did not recognize her, as she was very weak, looked very old, she did not look after herself and dedicated her life to King and his kingdom. The Prince realizing his mistake said , “I should have taken care of you as you are the one who kept me and my kingdom safe and happy all this time without even uttering a single word”,  “I am sorry” and never woke up again.

If we observer carefully, everyone is married to 4 wives, they are Physical Body, Wealth/Money, Family/Friends and Soul

The 4^th wife can be compared to physical body, where a person spends most of his time in adoring and providing finest clothes etc. but in the end it will leave you behind

The 3rd wife can be compared to Wealth, Money, Status Quo, Pride, Assets etc, These things will be taken or enjoyed by others when we die. It might be passed on to children, family or anyone

The 2^nd wife can be one of our family member or friends. They will not come with us when we die, even though they are the closet to us when we lived.

The 1^st wife is our soul, No matter where you go, it will be follow us and everyone chooses to ignore it for the sake of the other things like money, material and Pleasure.

Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul. -Oscar Wilde

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Money and SALT Part 2

Richie started first, saying 

“I have many Cars, many Bungalows, and Huge Bank Balances “.

I have earned all this in just 5 years. I don’t think so you guys would not have even dream't of these things. I can buy whatever I want , I am never in trouble because I always buy my way through any difficulties, I never have to answer to anyone ,In fact everyone answers to me, I am like King and can do whatever I want and can buy whatever I want. ‘I have married the most beautiful women in the world and have world class security, body guards, you name it and I have it.

Middlie interrupted, so do you have a helicopter?

Richie said, ‘Yes’, ask me not what I have, and ask me what I have not.

Are you happy? A Clear but low voice was heard. It was said by poorie.

Poorie thought to himself about Richie as 'annoying and full of crap', so wanted to put an end.

Richie said, 'yes', 'of course' why you ask such a stupid question, I am happy because I have everything.

Poorie responded, “Really!”, ‘I don’t think so’.

Are you happy because you have enormous wealth? 'Or' Are you happy because we don’t have that much?

Are you happy because you can buy whatever you want to buy? 'Or' Are you worried because someone would buy it before you?

Are you happy because you married the most beautiful women? 'Or' Are you worried because you could not marry the person you love.

You have security guards because you are worried about your money and life and I believe it is not just because you have money, you have them.

Please answer my Questions Richie? Asked poorie, with a confident voice

Richie was dumb stuck, Poorie then said, look, you can buy anything you want but you cannot buy love, peace of mind. Look at me I am at peace, I have nothing but still I am happy.

Richie was mad at poorie for asking such question which showed him in a negative way. He responds “So are you happy?”, ‘You have nothing’, In fact you have ‘no life at all’, what good is that?. How can you say that you have succeeded in life?

Poorie was about respond when Wisie said, “Well, Well”, ‘I see you guys are having fun’. That’s good. Dinner is ready, let’s eat and then we can continue with the fun. All three followed Wisie to the table where dinner was served, Wisie specifically instructed each one to sit at certain place. Richie and poorie ate with some discomfort and Middlie enjoyed eating the food, but none spoke about it to Wisie.

After the Dinner, Wisie gathered all in the hall and asked,

How was the food?

All three unanimously said, “It‘s good”.

Richie and poorie did not want Wisie to feel bad as he had done so much for them.

Wisie then insisted and asked Richie directly, Let me know the truth, Richie initially hesitated and said I think, "It tasted salty", Wisie turned towards Poorie, he also initially hesitated and later said, there was no taste in the food it was like dull. Middle responded, No No, the food was really good.

The food severed to all is the same, isn’t it? , Then why do you think each one had a different taste?

The students were quiet and were looking at each other. Then Wisie explained that.

“Even though all had same food”, one key ingredient was difference on each one‘s food.

‘Yes’, you have guessed it right, the key ingredient was “SALT”.

“SALT to food is like money to life, when you have more, food will not taste good and when it is less, Again food will not taste good, but only having adequate ,it will taste better.”

You cannot eat salt for food or eat food without salt.

So remember do not run after money, do not give away everything. Earn to live and not live to earn. All three understood what Wisie meant and lived happily ever after.

NOTE: Please assume the food as Indian food with rice and its varieties

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