Rumi and mystery man

Over a cup of hot tea, we were discussing Man Booker winner Adiga and his mention about great poet Rumi in The White Tiger. I have not finished reading the book (who can be lazier than me?), so we will discuss the book later.
Editor and good friend Shaadaab Bakht narrated this story he had heard about Rumi. Quite interesting.
An ascetic was crossing the road when he saw Rumi busy at work. He dropped in and asked: “What are you doing?” Rumi reacted a bit rude: “Can’t you see I am busy writing? Anyway, you will never understand.”
The man said: “What great things you are going to write in any case?”
Shocked by the audacity, Rumi had some harsh words for the man. In a moment, the latter grabbed all the pages and dumped them in water. Rage colouring his eyes red, Rumi screamed: “You have spoiled my life’s work.”
The ascetic listened quietly for two minutes, picked up the pages from water and returned them intact, in original form.
“How did you do it?” questioned Rumi in amazement.
“You will never understand,” came the reply.
Ya, there are several things we don’t understand. No wonder, Socrates died saying “All I know is I know nothing.”

Bruce Lee, philosophica-Lee

Don’t remember whether I had mentioned about this earlier. But Bruce Lee is one of my greatest heroes and I should talk about this. I told a friend that martial arts hides in itself grand philosophy. He laughed. I explained:
There is a scene in Enter The Dragon where Bruce Lee wields the “nun chak,” hits all the enemies, bam bam dishum dishum, and runs into a tiny enclosure. Suddenly, a gate closes, he turns right, another gate shuts and well, all four sides are closed in a fraction of a second. Clearly trapped, all he does is put the “nun chak” on his shoulder, sit quietly in a meditative pose and sport a kingly look. Oof, what poise! When all the doors have shut, what is the point in clenching your fist and banging against iron walls – even if you were Bruce Lee, king of kung fu? Just relax, and that is what the hero did and the gates opened. Don’t believe? Watch the movie again. If this is not philosophy, what is?

Never give up

The global crunch is indeed giving a punch to Dubai and the job market is badly bruised.
Hit by this negative thought, I put on the Bond movie “For your eyes only.”
Believe me, one particular line boosted my spirit.
Goes like this. The hero and heroine are trapped. Seems like no way out. The heroine says: “I did not think it would end like this.”
And Roger Moore’s reply: “WE ARE NOT DEAD YET.”
Ooof, it literally shook me out of my negative thoughts. Never say die, until actually dead. Miles to go. And the weapon we will wield throughout is hard work and a smile, what say?

Value of time

How you doing? asked my friend casually.
"Nothing great," I replied. "Just killing time."
"Well..kill time before time kills you," he said and vanished.
hmmmm...