Times Then and Now
Reminiscences and Reflections
Part-1
Dr. Yerneni Venkateswara Rao
M.Sc.,
Ph.D
Retired
Principal
GUDIVADA-
A.P
BOOK 1-1
A sure way of losing one’s friends is to
insist on their listening to what one reads from one’s own writings. That way,
it can be an effective weapon to scare away one’s unwanted friends who are
given to the habit of reading from their writings in season and out of season.
Jump the gun and you win, as all is fair in love and war and presumably in
friendship.`
BOOK 1-2
A teacher true to his calling teaches the technique of learning and readies his
students to go where the truth leads them to, whereby making himself progressively
unnecessary to them.
B1-3
Ideas, however reasonable they might be,
fall by the wayside if they are not also seasonable; strangely, the same ideas
biding their time till the advent of their season acquire power so mighty as to
be able to shake the world out of its slumber and make it sit up and grasp new
possibilities. Such is the power of an
idea whose time has come!
B1-4
Flowers and fruits and all things good
command premium prices in proportion to their unseasonableness in the rough and
tumble marketplace of things and commodities. In the market place of ideas
though, unseasonable ideas irrespective of their reasonableness are rejected
with a vehemence verging on vengeance; it is not only futile but also dangerous
to be right at the wrong time.
B1-5
Conduct is the fragrance that emanates form
the flower of character. As is the flower so is the fragrance.If the character
is blemishless can the conduct be otherwise?
B1-6
Every so often we throw the towel thinking
that its all over but what we forget is that its not all over until its all
over as conventional wisdom constantly reminds us by poking in the ribs .
B1-7
Old age begins/is when we are content to
deal with people on the basis of their gender without being conscious of their
sex/feeling the need/necessity to refer to their sex.
B1-8
People’s memories are proverbially short .
They don’t bother about how you have come to possess what you have-power or
pelf. Their concern is always about how you use it-wisely or otherwise.
B1-9
A tree is a structure built according to a
seed’s blueprint. Seed is thus the determinant of the tree. Doesn’t it neatly
put paid to all such riddles as the egg and chicken problem?
B1-10
Love of poetry or its show does not
necessarily mean that the person is deeply sensitive or receptive; it can be a
substitute for sensitivity and perception or worse , a cover up for their total
absence.
B1-11
However invincible the wicked might appear
to be, it is societal acquiescence and acceptance rather than their inherent
power that nourishes and sustains their wickedness.
B1-12
Fighting one’s way through difficulties
with extraordinary fortitude but no understanding of the implications almost
always turns one into a fanatic and leads one to unmitigated disasters.
B1-13
Many a time, people pursue different
activities thinking that they give meaning and significance to their lives only
to realise in the end that what they have been pursuing are empty shells bereft
of anything by way of recompense let alone meaning and significance to life.
B1-14
Time was when every Indian was proud of the
public sector undertakings (PSUs). Now however, most have degenerated into
large inefficient dens of laziness and lethargy fit for work shirkers and self
seekers who hold the nation hostage to their ever increasing greed and avarice
what with politicians and their cohorts treating the PSUs as their happy
hunting ground for short term gains.
B1-15
Childhood learning, unlike learning
acquired during subsequent stages of life, is not a superficial phenomenon. It
goes deep into us and touches our core, nay it suffuses every fibre of our very
being. Child is thus the father of man as manhood is but a mere unfoldment of
the childhood with a touch here, a cadence there and a nuance elsewhere of
purely cosmetic nature added during the subsequent stages of the growth
process. Doesn’t it feel scary to think of the enormity of our responsibility
in bringing up our children? Of course it does. But actually, it need not. Look
in, you have all the resources, you only have to want to put them to use.
( To be continued) 
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