AT CROSS-ROADS WITH GOD'S DESIGN

Look young ,feel young.   I believe the design of the world by the God or who-so-ever is the creator is optimum . Human-beings have tried to improve upon the God's design , to satisfy some of the social needs , primarily cosmetic needs.The greying of hair , as the age advances is one such design parameter , which has not found favour with homo-sapiens. We all want : firstly--to look young and secondly -- to feel young , if possible.
 Forever young and immortal.   In an old Indian story ,  Alexander the Great , felt sad one day .He thought-- ' even though I am the conqueror of the world , I will grow old and then die like a common man.What is the use of all heroism and victories , if I can exploit the gains of my victories for a limited period only'.This dissatisfaction and search for a solution ended when he met an Indian hermit who revealed him the secret of  immortality  and permanent youth ,   There was a pond of nectar nearby , if only Alexander could go there and take it , he will live for ever.
    He rushed to the pond and when he was about to drink the water there , he heard a voice, it  cautioned him to wait . He saw a very old crocodile coming out of water  slowly . Later he learnt  , it was 5000 years old , with his limbs nearly lifeless but yet alive. He could not die , although he wanted to .
   He did not want to be immortal with physically ineffective limbs . He rushed back and once again met the hermit and  said, " to be immortal is of no use ,if you are not young. Could you direct me to a pond which offers both ? " The hermit obliged and Alexander rushed to another pond further away . He reached there and was about to drink the coveted nectar , when he heard lot of shouting going on , as if people were fighting . He saw 7--8 handsome young persons fighting for favours of a young pretty girl. They told him , they were all from  the same family ; great-grandfather down to great--grandson . Here in this scenario a great-grandfather was competing with his great-grandson , both infatuated with the youth of same pretty girl. The story ends here , Such situations do not arise normally in our world ;  optimally designed by the God.

      Now human-beings live longer and with good health . They naturally want to look young also . Artificial aids to look young are available in plenty; but there are higher needs in the hierarchy of needs . This realisation  accelerated  ladies onslaught for equality in all facets of life . They question God's design as they feel they are at a great disadvantage.A beginning was made when women athletes wanted to postpone the menses cycle ,when it clashed with the sports events .

     Women have realised that one of the feminine features due to which they are at distinct disadvantage as compared to men is that they have to complete motherhood's biological functions before the onset of menopause.Thus the major portion of youth of liberated women , the prime period of one's life is unproductively ( as for as career enhancement is concerned) utilised , except for reproduction of human race. The solution can be : why not delay menopause and be able to reproduce till 60 ? This will enable a lady to build her career to the highest pinnacle till late fifties and reap the gains of her enhanced career for the rest of her life , just like men.There-after she is free to indulge into motherhood business ie. motherhood to be achieved as late as possible and may be after retirement .The good news is : its feasibility has been explored by the medical science ; it is possible,but there is a need to analyse its social implications.
   Marriage fulfills an important social need of human-beings ie.it provides each partner a compulsive friend , to overcome the loneliness of the incorrigible individuals who by nature can not be friendly in social circles. Even among birds and anmals there are species where they live as a couple.The attachment and love for eachother has been a subject of love stories , where the death of one spouse affects the other.To share life together as husband and wife or as a couple, has evolved slowly as human civilisation developed . In the present era with the concept of liberation , the need for separate identity among women , who used to be a mere shadow of the husband is on the increase even  in Oriental societies.Gone are the days when a women used to identify her success with that of her husband .The present day lady is rightly fighting for her identity and her own success in life and wants to contribute on her own in the society. If one accepts marriage as an essential institution, it must be noted that children are the essential cement which keep the bond alive.Many a time, minor differences and fights among the parents crop up and get resolved as both parents realise the necessity to stay together for the sake of proper development of children . God forbid . the liberated women in search of more success in life delay motherhood till 50-60s , the absence of child in the home would deprive the marriage institution of an essential nutrient which cements the marriage.

   A society becomes richer with integrated development of all the three ingredients : a liberated woman who is successful and who has her own identity ,  a happy home with well cared, satisfied children and a happy marriage of mind and body between the two. The impact of delayed marriage or delayed motherhood on society  and its effects need to be analysed with a view to check on uncontrolled   research , to alter the God's designed life style. .
                                                                                                                           (CS Arora 1998)  

THEME OF CORP OF ELECTRICAL AND MECHANICAL ENGINEERING (EME)

OPERATION SALT-POT---1

SEARCH FOR CO-TRAVELLER IN LIFE

We all dream for our life partner . In Oriental societies ,where marriages are still a once in a life time event ; slowly the scenario is changing ,and following in the footsteps of Occidental culture.I was still unmarried in 1971 at 25 years , and trying to locate the face of my better-half , all the time , all the places  and among all possible eligible young ladies.
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In this crowded world,
I search for you.
In every feminine face, I search for you.

As the income-tax people ,search for black money,
in every film-stars house.
I search for you, among all potential candidates.

As customs people suspect smugglers,
in every tourist,
I search for you ,in every feminine face.

As a pick-pocket dreams of big catch,
in every victim,
I dream of you ,in every face.

As the 'adjutant ' looks out for the improperly dressed,
in every youngster,
I look out for you.

But alas ! in vain !
My thirst remains.
I still don't know you.
Who would be my co-traveller in my life.
                                           Capt  CS Arora

the petrol prophecy 1972 TIME ----which failed , NOW PRICE IS 40 TIMES

THIS IS LIFE ( for most of us)

A POSITIVE THOUGHT
'It is never too late, to improve upon oneself''
At 15 , Khrushchev could count only thirty.
For he had as many sheep to look after.
Ho Chi Minh was a cook till forty,
And you know he was President thereafter.
So you would agree,
There is hope for me too:
for I am only thirty,
and slightly better of than the two.

BOOK KEEPING

7 hours sleep,
8 hours office,
plus 5 hours of
Bath ,meals,'calling on' and chit-chat.
And still,
I have 4 hours up my sleeves,
for my QIP (Quality Improvement Programme).

CONFESSION
Now,
I do feel guilty ,
For those unaccounted 4 hours every day,
I mismanaged in the past!
4 into 365 into 30 hours !!
Oh Lord, please forgive me once for all.

RESOLUTION
This day,O Lord ,
I resolve :
to plan my work,
and work on my plan .
Today will be the historic day,
when I changed the course of my life
From 'good for nothing ' to a successful , worldly-wise.

A VISION
Years hence,
When I go to address public metings,
I will tell this to the gathering :
'This is how,
One fine day,
I strode the path to success'.

PROCRASTINATION
Let me relax,
Before I take off,
With my QIP.
One last afternoon nap,
And a glance at 'Filmfare',
Or a 'farewell' matinee show in town,
should do no harm.
For tomorrow ,
I will be earnest,in the race of life.
May be tomorrow that TOMORROW arrives,
May be IT does not.
And gets postponed again.
Law of Inertia !

JUSTIFICATION

Any regrets ?
What bloody regrets !
This world needs average people too,
Who mis-manage their time,
Contented and unambitious!
Sad at times,
For,they represent those,
'who have nothing to look back with pride
and nothing to look forward with hope!',
when they retire from the race of life.
But , for them who stand out,
from the rat race of life,
Who would notice the 'outstandings'
O Lord,
I regret,
I have'no promises to keep'
I have 'no miles to go before I sleep.
                 ( Major CS Arora 1980)  

WHEN SHE IS AWAY !.............WHEN HE IS HERE !

A set of poems written in 1978-79 , when posted in Military College of Mechanical and Electronics Engg.First poem depicts the plight of a newly married youngster , when the wife goes to her parents for a couple of weeks.Second poem depicts what happenens in an army unit when its annual inspection is on.
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1.   WHEN SHE IS AWAY

When she is away,
I am free.
Freedom,
the unrestricted late-hours,
the drinks , the movies and,
the kingdom without the nagging queen,
are all , restored to me.
I enjoy my lawlessness,
and the irresponsible irregularities,
of my life.
But soon,
the life is a bore;
without her warm smile,
the drinks are tasteless
and the movies are charming no more.
And me much older,
than those good old days,
of bacheor-dom,
my loafing around,
goes unrecognised.
Tired and dejected,
I come back to my cold house.
The door I open,
stares back at me,
the bed is un-inviting ;
the night is darker ;
her pillow smells of her.
But she is still away !
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2.   WHEN HE IS HERE

Stage setting
The chuna is there,
and geru too ;
OC has come
and CO too .
The deceptive calmness,
the hidden blood pressures.
And here is the flash!
He has started ,
for the adm inspection due.

Prayers
God bless GOC,
God bless G-1,help me always ,
to make them happy.

Report
Shree-man!
(God bless me),
10 officers
( 2 with faded uniform,
O mere Bhagwan !)


Unit Morale,

One deserted,
sheer bad luck;
not my fault,
I assure you ,Sir !

Unit Welfare
This unit delegation,
for AA examination,
and part A,B,C and D
is largest, you see.
But we give ,
chance to others,
and wait for our turn,
when favourable opportunities return.

Mess Secretary
Hullo ! A..D..C !
Bolo kya hai ji!
GOC ki favourite dish ?
This is my CO's wish!

After the Dinner
Thank you ,Sir !
Our pleasure Sir,
(as long , report is excellent!)

In the bed-room:
O my wife,
I think I saved my life.
If I am correctly understanding,
then I am OUT-STANDING !
                                                         Capt CS Arora 1978
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Notes-- 'CHUNA, GERU are limestone powder, bricks powder for white-washing and red coloring etc.
OC -officer commanding, CO-commanding officer, ADC-'aide-de-camp' of General Officer Commanding(GOC) of a division ,G-1 staff offr to GOC, promotional exams --armanent art--AA, officers exams part--A,B,C,D.;'bolo kya hai ji'--vernacular language 'what can I do for you'; 'shreeman'--sir , 'bhagwan'--God.

The Era of Head Transplants

    In oriental culture , parents support the children indefinitely , till they are properly settled.The family bond , the father son relationship remains same from childhood to adult stage.The children's reverence for parents rarely alters as age takes over ; but there will be always exceptions..Ramesh and Usha were a couple having a tough time due to erratic demands of their son..
  Mr Ramesh was a worried man.How could he make his son happy , who wanted him to abdicate his business empire in his favour.Ramesh was not that old ; hardly 342 years . He looked much younger ; thanks to the new technology. He could afford to get his head transplanted 10 times ; once every 30 years onto younger bodies of personal  headless clones , preserved cryogenically.
   Yes , it was all due to his father's timely vision.The day he was born  , his father made a wise investment. He ordered 50 headless clones for the son.As the years went by , these headless clones grew strong and healthy . When they were in the prime of their youth at the age of 25 years , all the fifty clones were put under special cryogenic conditions so as to halt the ageing process. There-after , after every 30 years gap , Ramesh  regularly  took out a a dormant preserved clone , revived it and got his head transplanted on its 25 year old young body.
   It was a perpetual bliss.The ever youthful Ramesh enjoyed all the pleasures of life at his command , with all the resources accumulated by his hard labour during the earlier years.At times he used to face emotional problems ,whenever he felt  that his not-so young current wife needed to be replaced by a fresh younger bride .He thought to invest in headless young clones for his current wife as well ;but the idea never took a practical shape for quite sometime.The familiarity of couple of decades with the current wife ,who-so-ever she was , invariably resulted in enough irritants that he rather opted for a new bride ,whenever he felt the need.This arrangement continued till he met Usha , his current wife for the last 200 years .She was an ideal companion to Ramesh on all fronts : physical , psychological and analytical.
    They were considered a made for each-other couple in the society.They thought and spoke in the same wavelength ; yet she was aware of the value of physical attraction a beautiful female body holds for a man.She took pains to look after her figure.She had a charming and healthy personality ; a direct result of numerous young organs procured from the market and got transplanted over the years except of course her head.She had procured the best legs from the Elite Clones Departmental Store . Now , she was one of the lucky house-wives ,whose husband had financed even head transplants on her younger headless female clones , whenever there was a need to do so. He was in true love with her in toto ; unlike other husbands of the era who were reluctant to finance a younger body for their older wives on one pretext or the other. However a lurking fear was always on her mind that God forbid if her husband was to with-hold requisite money for her head transplant  to  a younger body in future , due to some reason, where she will land up.She wanted to venture into a business of her own , where she could make enough money ,so as to be able to handle independently her own head transplants.For the present she was happy and grateful to the Lord for her husband who was considerate.They both shared an ever youthful life , with an ample supply of resources to enjoy all worldly bliss.
  The only pang , she felt sometimes was a hostile  disapproval in the eyes of his son which conveyed --' you both are still sitting on our heads ; why don't you you hand over the business empire  you have created to us and relax.?'. Usha felt , 'why should they write us off ? We are as young and agile as the younger generation.Why not allow us , the parents to enjoy all the fruits of our labour as long as we want ? If my son wants more resources  , why at our cost ? Let him work hard himself and earn to satisfaction ; we can give him adequate resources to start up.Why have eyes on us and convert us into passive living beings? ' .However the son  like all sons thought ,he could plan better utilisation of the assets available with the parents , who had enjoyed enough of these already.
  How could Ramesh abdicate his business empire in favour of his son ? He and Usha had sleepless nights over the issue raised by the son.These issues have remained unresolved  since the beginning of civilisation , inspite of all technical advances in society. In a pensive mood , Ramesh visited the Hall of Success , which he always did when he was in a gloomy mood .  It had over a thousand celebrities heads kept alive by supplying essentials through a conduit pipe to the brain stem , jugular veins , carotid artery and spinal cord.The heads along with the brains of ex presidents/kings , prime ministers , noble prize winners , generals and  mega stars were stacked alphabetically in multi-tier storage facility  ; with the pipes supplying the essential nutrients , blood and oxygen etc to keep the brain functioning. It was a historical experience to be able to interact with these VVIPs , meticulously stored like consumables in a Mall .The world was richer with their synergy , still available ; they were super consultants to the world.But alas , they were all sad ! They  missed the delicacies at state functions , they wished they could taste these again ; but were denied  in their present state.They wanted to be in the company of pretty damsels , once in a while ; but the beauties had no utilities for these body-less heads.They missed all the romance associated with music , colours and fragrance.These heads sometimes cried. They even begged ; if only they could be transplanted on a younger body and be a complete human-being once in a while.They wanted to relive the enjoyment of five senses.Their requests were turned down by the then polity ; as it was felt that full conversion of these body-less super heads into a normal human-being  even on a temporary basis would be catastrophic for the world . These body-less super heads of the world , once they are given a complete body , would naturally strive for all the physical comforts including power and wealth .Thus these ' intellectual ' and successful resources of mankind who were an asset at present , could become a liability thereafter ; as they would be a part of consumers society themselves.They would compete and may be fight for worldly success and comforts.At times these frustrated VVIPs wanted to die , but they were not allowed to die either. In their death ,the world will be poorer of their knowledge , experience ,expertise and synergy built over hundreds of years.
   Ramesh again thought of his son ; insisting on a passive role for him in life.He thought he never did this to his father ; he just waited for his turn and was not in a hurry to utilise his fathers assets , authority and responsibilities ."then why my son was in such a great hurry" he thought ,"may be my father didn't live that long and I didn't have to wait much . He could have lived that long ,  for the era of head transplants had begun during his life time , when I was born . He didn't do so  ; rather he sacrificed his own interests and invested for 50 headless clones for me , his son , so that I could enjoy the perpetual bliss of youth and resources . I am enjoying because my father denied himself.Then why can't I do the same for my son , what my father did for me i.e. his son.
  Ramesh felt lighter ; he has got the answer.He took out his car and drove out. His mission  ! To destroy all his remaining clones. Naturally Usha accompanied him ; for she thought likewise , they were made for each-other.
channi 1998