My visit to An Ancient World

Egypt, being one of the most ancient civilizations of the world has captured the imaginations of many. The ancient wonder of the world – the Great Pyramids of Giza, the world’s longest river Nile and the recent archaeological findings of innumerable treasures of the Tut Ankh Amun’s Tomb has triggered the interest of tourist across the globe. I and my family were no exception. We had been dreaming for quiet some years of going to this mysterious land and this summer, our dream became a reality. We went on a 10 day full scale trip of Egypt. We cruised the Nile, railed the tracks and wheeled the roads, along the Nile to cover the stretch of over 1800kms, right from the Southern tip, called Abu Simbel (A UNESCO Heritage site) which is just 50kms away from the Sudan border, upto the Northern tip, of  Alexandria, which is the coastline of the  Mediterranean sea.

The journey helped us discover many new things about Egypt, which made our trip even more interesting. In Egyptian language, ‘Nile’ means ‘River’ and ‘Sahara’ means desert, which stands as the meaning by itself, though we have learnt to call it as Nile River and Sahara Desert. We got so engrossed in understanding the Egyptian history which dates back to 4000BC. Great pyramids, hieroglyphs, elaborately decorated underground burial chambers, mummies, sprawling temple complexes, and statues combining human and animal forms are only a few of the many remains that survive from ancient Egypt. These relics of an extinct world raised numerous questions during the centuries after the civilization died out. The discovery of the Rosetta Stone in the early 19th century, by a young French scholar, Jean Champollion was a major milestone. It helped him to decipher the hieroglyphs and reconstruct the ancient Egyptian language, which breathed a new leash of life to the Egyptian History.

The Great Pyramid which has been built as early as 2500BC is undoubtedly the world’s biggest marvel of human labour. The great pyramid of Giza, has been built with 2.3 million, large blocks of granite stones, lime stone, sand stone, weighing an average of 2.5MT each.

The work of quarrying, sculpting, transporting the rocks through Nile and moving them on the land surface by forming long stretches of sandy slopes to build the Great Pyramid which touches a height of about 480ft, was accomplished by thousands of skilled and unskilled workers. It is estimated that 1 lakh workers took 20 years to complete this herculean task. And there are 3 of such, close to each other. Even to imagine of such a human feat is mind boggling. Though it is the pyramids that are commonly known, there are other noteworthy spectaculars like the Abu Simbel, Philae Temple, Karnak Temple, Kom Omdo Temple and Luxor Temple, which are mighty works of the Egyptians.

 

Egypt shares a lot of similarities with India. The ancient Egyptian religion is very much similar to Hindu religion, where we have many Gods and many mythological stories. They too believed in the concept of life after death. The mummification process which is popular in Egypt is a result of this belief. Egypt too has been invaded by many foreign rulers, like India.  If we were to ask ourselves, what an invasion can do, we as Indians, have some answers from our own experience.  A visit to Egypt could open up more shocking realities. What was striking to me, more than the political invasion, was the cultural invasion.  An invasion can kill a culture. It can kill a religion. The religion of the Ancient Egyptians is dead and gone. There are no more spiritual practices in the Egyptian temples.  The culture of ancient Egypt has been lost. With invaders from different nations, Egypt has lost its true identity.  

If not for these huge stone monuments, which serves as a testimony of the age old Egyptian civilization that existed and if not for the discovery of the Rosetta stone, which helped archeologist decipher the ancient Egyptian language, Egypt would have lost all its glorious history.

This trip helped me realize, that taking a few steps backward in time, can give us a better clarity and understanding of the human evolution.

 

   D. Senthil Kannan,

   Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

   Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

   Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com

 

Appreciation - The Greatest Motivator

Of all the things, I see there is one incentive which I feel really works with everyone. Maybe because, that is the rarest to find today or may be very few people are willing to share it with others. It does not cost them anything, but people are still so reluctant to give it away. This incentive works great magic with your spouse, your children, your family members, your colleagues, your subordinates and even your superiors. It has always been assumed that the most important factor that drives a person is the money or the fame. I am surprised how this thing that I am talking about has never been thought about. In fact, I feel that this is the greatest motivator, of all. It is called APPRECIATION. 

How many of us, really use this on a daily basis. How many of us know that this can be an effective tool to motivate, your team when all other resources are running dry. Appreciating people is a art, which we need to cultivate in our lives. It is also our moral duty to teach our children the “art of appreciating”. 

A country like ours, which has such abundance of resources, lacks in this great resource called appreciation. If you ask a parent, why they do not appreciate their children for the marks they get, they may say, that they expect their children to perform better and reserve the appreciation for the day, the child gets 100/100, which is never going to happen without the small, small appreciations the child earns for its small, small achievements.

 Start to appreciate others and see the benefits, for yourself.  The results would be far more than you would have imagined.

 

   D. Senthil Kannan,

   Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

   Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

   Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com

50:50

Marriage is a perfect example of a 50:50 relationship, because each of the spouses is dependent on their better half to make it a complete home. So, coming to the way, how responsibilities are shared, there are 2 approaches:

Traditional approach: Husband is the bread earner of the family and the wife is the care taker of the family. In this case the husband and wife share 50% of the work, of two different functions.

Modern approach: Husband and Wife both work and earn for the family and both the husband and wife take care of the family. In this case too, the husband and wife share 50% work, but 50% of each function.

So, literally speaking there is no actual difference, in the share of responsibility.

However, I find that there is an increasing trend amidst women to feel it a shame to be called a housewife or homemaker and a pride to be called a career women. In fact, the Government is encouraging more women to take up careers and improve the GDP of the country. Women taking up careers are a great way to build a nation, but does it make it possible for them to create perfect homes?

A career woman might argue that she is able to balance both the roles effectively.  It is quite true with the level of domestic mechanisation available today, a lot more can be handled in less time, giving women the freedom to pursue careers. But I personally feel it is like chasing two rabbits at the same time; you try too hard, but end up missing both.

So the question is what are they trading off for what? Can money buy happiness? Can parenting be outsourced? It is unfortunate that children of today spend more time in the crèche, day care centres, under the care of elderly grandparents or servant maids. And at the end of the day, a beautiful phase of life called ‘Parenting’ gets diluted, which can have unfavourable consequences, in the long run. So, it is time to rethink on one’s priorities before setting out on a career.

Couples, who are highly independent of each other, lose out on a beautiful component of a marriage called interdependence. Wouldn’t it be better if marriage operates in the true spirit of interdependence?  Interdependence is a beautiful thing and when a couple learn to understand, appreciate and respect the concept, family life would be happier. For a marriage to be successful there should be some good extent of interdependence, without which the marriage doesn’t serve the purpose. If both men and women can be fully independent in their own ways, what is the purpose of marriage? Is it not the give and take in a relationship that makes it more satisfying? Where there is good understanding between couples, there is no question of who earns the money. The money earned is there to serve the common purpose of keeping the family happy.

I saw a Hindi movie called, “Ki & Ka”, in which there is a role reversal between husband and wife, where the women is the bread earner and the husband is the homemaker. It is a bit controversial movie to the current times, but could be the inevitable future, for those wanting to balance work and family, perfectly. If only couples can learn to look at work and family as 50:50 responsibility and don’t really bother who does which 50%, families would be happier.

When it is a dilemma between family Vs career, wouldn’t it be wise to choose family. It is because, while someone can replace you in your career, no one can replace you in your family.

 

    D. Senthil Kannan,

   Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

   Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

   Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com

What is your Happiness Quotient

Sometime back, I took an online test called the “Happiness Test” and this test revealed to me a new perception of Happiness. We all have different definition of happiness, and it is different from person to person. To some earning a lot of money is happiness; to some the love of their family members is happiness, to some their success in a chosen activity is happiness.  To me, the very purpose of life is itself to experience the many happy moments, this world has to offer. If there is no reason to be happy, then there is no purpose to be alive.

This test points out that the baseline of happiness is dependent on one of the seven factors, I have listed below:

•  Contentment
  

• 
   Personal Growth Confidence

•  Relationship

•  Gratitude

•  Optimism

•  Cheerfulness

True happiness with yourself and your life comes from having a strong, balanced, consistently positive approach to yourself and your world.

This test revealed that my happiness factor was my Confidence. This was news to me.  But thinking about it, I feel it is true. It is not my success rate, but the confidence level I have in myself and my abilities, makes me a happy person. Therefore, irrespective of how many ever times I fail, as long as I have confidence that I will win, I will be happy. This also means, I would feel unhappy whenever I lose my confidence.

Likewise, it will be different for different people based on one of these seven happiness factors.

Psychologists claim, that Happiness is a state of mind, a life perception, and a series of good habits. This is good news. If happiness is a skill set, then you can learn to be happier. Some people seem to be born happy. This may be true. Or perhaps these "happier" people have simply already learned these happiness skills through their interactions, through reading, or by having a keen perception into human nature.

Finally, even happy people have down days. It's unrealistic to expect permanent, non-stop happiness. Such a thing doesn't exist in reality. However, you can learn to be more content with your life, confident in yourself, grateful for what you have, committed to your personal growth, full of laughter and good cheer, and optimistic. You can also learn to develop positive, supportive relationships with the people around you. In fact, by focusing yourself steadfastly on these seven areas, you can quite readily achieve them.

    D. Senthil Kannan,

   Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

   Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

   Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com