How I got my ring back

Here's an interesting incident that occurred a couple of weeks back. One Thursday over coffee, I showed my friends my gold wedding ring and told them how careless I am about it, and how I misplace it at home all the time. I narrated a couple incidents about it, and we had some good laugh. The next day in office, I noticed that I wasn't wearing my ring. "I have forgotten my ring at home as usual."

The next morning I searched for my ring at the usual places. However, I couldn't find it. I asked Poornima to look for it and she couldn't find it either. Under normal circumstances, I would have let it go. However, we had scheduled an appointment for carpet cleaning that day. That worried me. If the ring were lying somewhere on the carpet, it might get sucked in by the vacuum. Or if the cleaner spotted it somewhere, he would quietly pocket it. I didn't want that to happen. So I searched all over the house for the ring. However, I could find it nowhere. Disappointed, I gave up, hoping that the carpet cleaner doesn't notice it lying somewhere on the carpet.

A few hours later, the carpet cleaner knocked at the door and asked permission to enter. As he entered the house he said, "There is a gold ring over there". "Where?", I asked. I was stunned when he showed me the ring. The gold ring was sitting delicately on the railing of the staircase! I had left it outside the house for more than 24 hours! I don't recall when and why I kept my wedding ring on the staircase! What was I thinking when I removed the ring from my finger and kept it there? To this date, I have no clue! I was lucky to get it back. It was a real eye-opener on how careless I can be.

It was also an eye-opener for one more reason. I had assumed that if the carpet cleaner spotted the gold ring, he would steal it. What actually happened was to the contrary! The ring was outside the house. He could have picked it up even before he knocked the door and no one would have never ever known. I realized how wrong we can be about people! How easily we assume that other people are dishonest! How ready are we to doubt everybody else's character! We take for granted that everyone wants to pull a fast one on us. Events like these remind us that there is still honesty and humanity still left in the world.

Art of Living course complete

Today I completed the Art of Living course that Poornima and I were attending. It was a "really nice" course (as Abhishekh Shah, who was our instructor/teacher might say it). This is the second time I have attended the course. For some reason (not fully clear to me), I think this one had more impact on me. Probably because I was more in need of it this time than earlier.

I think I have drifted away from my principles of life further than ever before in my life. Many things taught in the course were a timely reminder of what I should be knowing and practicing, that I am not doing at present (but was unknowing or knowingly doing in the past).

Over last few years I have given up forcing myself to follow my ideals. Consequently, I have gone far away from my ideals. I am going where my heart is taking me. If it is taking me away from my ideals, I am willing to go there.

The heart and the intellect have to work together for a person to live normally. If the heart is not following the intellect, let the mind follow the heart, until the heart realizes its follies, learns from its experiences and realizes the right path. There will be lost time and lost opportunities in the meantime. But so be it. Until the heart experiences and learns what is right, I will have to bear it.

The heart will realize its follies and come back to the right path. Because although on the surface it seems that everything is cold and hard, the fire beneath is burning. It will keep burning and some day it will incinerate every that that is fallacious. The fire of ideals can never be extinguished.