Lance Armstrong… It’s not about the bike: My Journey Back to Life…

Hi Friends,

Lance Armstrong Autobiography

I can say it without any second thought, “It’s not about the bike: My Journey Back to Life – By Lance Armstrong”, is the most inspirational book I have ever read. It’s human psychology to relate ourselves to someone who is weak and experiencing rock bottom in their lives to comeback strong and be successful. We connect easily to these stories more than a people who have been successful all through their lives. This is an autobiography of the first kind.

Lance Armstrong

Lance Armstrong was diagnosed with Testicular Cancer at a peak in his career. He was actively participating in many national level and international level sprint races, winning more than losing them and then came the shocking news. He was devastated and he hardly believed the diagnosis, but his body believed it, and started showing him the facts. He finally had to obey the fact and accept it. A person who was dreaming of being a record breaking cyclist was now thinking only about one thing. “Am I going to survive?“. He never thought if he would be able to cycle after the cancer treatment but was only thinking about his survival. Who would blame him for that, after all he is only 25 years old when he was diagnosed with Cancer.

If I was in his position, I would have told myself, let me give it a try and see how the treatment goes. I would have succumbed to the disease and I admit that I would not have the courage to say “I will fight this bloody shit”. But thats what he did. He read almost every possible book about testicular cancer. He read medical papers, he researched about the best institutions to treat the disease. After consulting one doctor in Austin and getting his opinion about the treatment, he had the patience, guts and courage to find out what would the other doctor’s advise be in spite of being in such a bad situation(the cancer has already spread to his lungs).

The book is an excellent read for anyone who is adventurous and loves to get the insight of how a person suffering with such disastrous  disease thinks. He speaks about his inner thoughts, his doubts about survival, the strength given by his friends and family, his love life, his mom, his inner strength, human emotions etc. You have everything that you need to keep yourself going to finish the book.

At least 4 to 5 times, I had tears in my eyes when I was reading this book. I couldn’t handle the severity of the treatment that Lance was going through or went through would be a better word. Even now, I am actually short of words to express how much I admire this personality. They say, you can never compare miseries. Well!!! Agreed to that, but you can always say, “This misery is a damn difficult to come out off isn’t it?” This is one such instance. I this book he quoted “Living with Cancer is easier than fighting it”. That gives you an idea I guess. I have not heard of any other misery which was so demanding to come out and be a man that Lance is today.

Even for a person who is extremely healthy, completing the “Tour De France” is an extraordinary accomplishment, let alone winning it. But for someone who has gone through such a rigorous medical treatment and to then comeback and win the tour not once but twice is remarkable, miraculous, aw-struck, aw-inspiring and the list just goes on.

Salute to the great man!!!

I do not want to give any more details about this autobiography in this blog. Please buy this book and read it to understand what this means to a common man. Believe me, you will love it, but you have to be a bit strong even to read the book as there might be instances where you might think “God!!! I can’t read this. How can someone go through this?”.

Lance Armstrong: I bow down in front of you with complete respect and I am proud to say that I have read your autobiography. Thank you for sharing this epic with everyone in this world. I wish you a great life and a prosperous future and I am sure there is lot more this world will learn and get from you in the days to come (including the activities of your cancer foundation).

With Great Love and Respect,

Krishna Chaitanya Emani.

Sankurathri Foundation: Building a better world.

Dear Friends,

It’s a tough situation to be in, when you lose someone really close to your heart. I have seen some of my friends shattered by the loss of their father, mother, brother or even friends. The grief of the loss is even more difficult to handle when the loss is not a natural one, but is a result of a malicious act of some individual who deems himself to be a warrior of god.

This is a heart touching and an inspiring documentary of a foundation in rural India. Dr. Sankurathri Chandra Sekhar garu was working as a government scientist in Ottawa, Canada when he lost his wife Manjari Sankurathri and his two kids Srikiran (7 Years) and Sarada (4 Years) in a plane crash due to a terrorist attack on June 23^rd 1985. I am sure no one can even imagine what Mr. Chandra Sekhar garu might have gone through at that moment. It took him 3 years to come out of the grief only to light up the lives of many rural kids and families in India. In an interview to CBC news, Mr. Sankurathri said:

“I never seen their bodies also, so I didn’t know. I still think they’re still out there. I used to think that for many, many years. After three years, I said, what am I doing here?”

He started the Sankurathri Foundation in 1989 with the aim of providing good health and educational facilities to the impoverished rural in the outskirts of Kakinada Town in Andhra Pradesh. Sarada Vidyalayam and Srikiran Institute of Ophthalmology are the two child organizations of the Manjari Sankurathri Memorial Foundation. The volunteers of the foundation conduct regular camps in the villages nearby to identify kids who are really economically backward (when I say really I mean it, because education is not provided free of cost on caste basis to those who are well off economically but use the reservations to gain advantage). Once the kid is admitted into the school, every facility is provided free of cost to the kids (Lunch, Transport, Books, Uniform, School Bags). They also conduct medical camps regularly to check the health related issues for villagers who do not have access to a good hospital close by. Many people do not know that they are suffering from a disease called Cataract until these volunteers educate them about the disease and henceforth admit them to the hospital and conduct surgery to cure the disease.

Sarada Vidyalayam is primarily focused on providing quality education to the rural kids and building them into good human beings more than trying to compete with this highly competitive world, where teachers hardly care about what the student is as a person. Moral ethics and discipline are built into the student’s everyday routine explaining them the importance of loving others. It was successful in providing education to 1300 students till date and a truly inspiring fact of the institute is the care taken on students who move on to get higher education. The institute continuously keeps track of the students and provides them any assistance in building their career. Srikiran Institute of Ophthalmology is dedicated to help the poor with any medical attention needed to have a better vision by conducting training and educating people about the importance of quality eye care. It was successful in conducting close to 135,000 surgeries till date which is truly a generous act.

My visit to Sarada Vidyalayam and SriKiran Institute of Ophthalmology:

I consider myself very lucky to visit a legendary institute like the Sarada Vidyalayam and Srikiran Institute of Ophthalmology. The moment I entered the campus, I was overwhelmed with the positive vibrations of the place. It reminded me of the Gurukul that’s shown in any of the mythological movies. I went to the administration office to meet Mr. B. Satyanarayana Garu. He welcomed me with a pleasant smile and asked me to be seated. He started explaining me about the activities conducted at the school and also methods of teaching used at the school. Few things that he mentioned caught my attention:

1. The assignments given to the students not just help them but also help their parents. Example: The Students of class 2 or 3 have to teach their parents how to sign and get their report cards signed in a week.
2. Class 3 student wrote Ramayana in a 20 pages including all the main events.
3. High quality lunch is provided to the students.
4. Handwriting is given the utmost importance.
5. Students are taught variety of arts and crafts (Embroidery, Painting etc) nurturing the creative side of the kids.

Please find below some of the photographs of the visit. Kindly ignore the date on the pics.

Photographs Courtesy: Ms. Lakshmi who happened to visit the institute same time as I did.

Cute Girl with her art at Sarada Vidyalayam

Nurturing the creative side of the kids at Sarada Vidyalayam.

School Assembly

The school is now expanding itself to provide education to the class 10 students also and a new building is being constructed to provide excellent facilities to the students. Computer lab, physics and chemistry labs, every facility needed to get affiliation from the government of Andhra Pradesh is included in the new plan.

SriKiran Institute of Ophthalmology has all the facilities necessary for it to be considered a world class institute. Four fully equipped and air conditioned operation theatres, resting wards for the patients before and after the surgery, specialty clinics for Glaucoma, Cornea, Retina, Pediatric Ophthalmology Microbiology Laboratory etc, are some of the facilities to mention. This eye care institute is expanding its circle of influence of reaching to people in the next levels i.e. by conducting camps in villages and towns which are farther from its base.

SriKiran Institute of Ophthalmology

Overall, it has been a fantastic experience to visit this prestigious institute and learn how one person supported with few of his friends can make wonders in improving the standards of thousands of people. The happiness was so evident on every person’s face working at these institutes and they take immense pride to say that they are working here. Why not? I feel they deserve to be proud than many of us as they see a life nurturing in front of them which would have been working in a tea stall or a cycle store otherwise.

As a responsible human being I promise that I would do my best to help this institute in whatever way I can and take the word forward about it. In many discussions with my friends I have noticed that many of them want to help the needy but just don’t know the right way or the best way to do it. I hope this blog might help them get a start if they are impressed by the work done by this organization. Some of them might come up with even modern ways to make this world a better place to live in.

Note: Your donation to MSMF in Canada, Kruti-dhata Inc. (P.O.Box 58186, Houston, Tx. 77258-8186. Federal Tax ID # 20-2411347) in the U.S. Please make checks payable to Kruti Dhata (Tax exempt organization under Section 501 (C)(3) of the Internal revenue Code) and SF in India qualifies for Tax exemption.

References:

1. CBC News Article

2. MSMF Website

3. Sankurathri Foundation Website

4. News Letters of Manjari Sankurathri Foundation.

5. Special thanks to Ms. Lakshmi for sharing the photographs to put this blog together.

Please feel free to share your thought and leave comments. Thank you very much for reading the blog.

Love you all,

Krishna Chaitanya Emani

Change… how does it start???

Hello Guys,

I have been thinking about a good topic to begin writing again and I felt I should discuss this very sensitive but the most important topic in everyone’s life. When I said how does change start, I meant about the change which we put an effort to make it happen. In many cases we are the result of the change and we go on with the change and adjust ourselves according to the change. But how often do we work on changing something?

Changing something!!! I am not talking about the things around us, I am talking specifically about us. To realize what we have to change in us is a great asset. If you know what you have to change in you, it means you know what you are and what your weaknesses are. If you ask 10 people to tell what they are, or what are their strengths and weaknesses, I am sure 9 out of 10 would say, I did not pay attention to that. I am not talking about the interview answers here, saying I am positive, I am confident. What I am talking is about the right things that you answer yourself. Its tough to know yourself, it is really really tough. But once you know what you want to change in you, or what you want to improve yourself in, “what do you do next to implement the change?” is what I am trying to talk in this post.

Changing something in you in a constant struggle between your habits and mental strength. This world is full of obstacles. I am sure you are shocked here when I say that, but I am not kidding. Everything around you doesnt allow you to change. Simple example of this would be of a guy who wants to get up early in the morning. I am sure many of you can relate to this situation because I am sure that I am one among the millions who have thought of doing this and given up atleast thousands of times. I shamelessly admit saying “I never put any effort to get up early regularly”. This might be true with many of us, but let us discuss on how do we work on this.

For this to happen, it is not sufficient if we think that we should get up early in the night just before sleeping. We should think of it the entire day, every hour, that you should get up early tomorrow. This has to happen for a while for it to sink in as a habit in us. But what happens most of times? This world around us stands as an obstacle to implement this change in us. We end up spending long nights with friends someday and gone is the change with the wind. Some of you might be thinking “Should we give up everything around us (Weekends, Night Life, Poker) to get up early in the morning?”. There is very fine line here and thats why I called it a very sensitive topic. You don’t have to give up everything around you forever, but to make the change to happen, yes you have to. That is, you have to give everything up for a while atleast until you are habituated to getting up at a certain time everyday. This may sound ridiculous to many of us, including me, but this is what I feel is the major problem with everyone of us. We do not give it enough time before we see the results.

In this fast world, everyone of us need instant results. We do not have the time and patience to invest our energy in something which will take time to show results. Thats the reason why we are again back to square one. So the best Mantra for bringing in a change with in you is to think about what you have to do every moment and push yourself to do it until you develop that as a habit. Things do change everyday and you might not be able to keep up with everything you think, but if you think of the change constantly, you will atleast know where you are missing it. Guys, this topic is tough to express for a rare blogger like me. But I tried my best to put my thoughts into words. I will sure appreciate any comments or suggestions on this topic.

Thanks a lot.

Krishna Chaitanya Emani

Virender Sehwag… is he the next role model after Sachin???

On any evening, if you meet couple of friends who watch cricket regularly, the evening is not complete if you dont talk about cricket. And the discussion is not complete if you dont talk about “Sachin Tendulkar – Legend of World Cricket”.

Today I met Praveen and Pravin in the evening and we happened to watch the interview of Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir on IBN Live. We always talked about who is going to be the next role model for youngsters in India after Sachin Tendulkar. The great aspect of Sachin’s career that many of us do not consider when there is a discussion about “Who is the greatest cricketer?” is the way he conducted himself on the international arena for 19 years. Never was there a controversy on field or off field. Only controversy that I can remember in which he was spotted with a black mark was the Ferrari controversy when the government cancelled the tax for his gift from Michael Shcumaker. Other than that, he was never involved in a clash with anyone on the field. Hahaha… well who would dare to have a clash of words with this maestro. Or never was he involved in any off field controversies, which almost every other contemporary player compared to him has been… Sachin has set a very high standards in terms of his modesty, humbleness, commitment and hunger to perform at his best and contribute to the teams victory. Every parent without any second thoughts, can say “Take Sachin as your inspiration in whatever field you are”.

With Sachin reaching his higher mid thirties, questions might raise as to who is going to be the next role model for the nation which is so cricket frenzy like India once Sachin retires. Well you might say he can still be the role model, but who will the kids watch on the screen when they are growing up? I wish the kids do not watch the Sreesanth’s, Harbhajan’s and Yuvraj’s to take them as an inspiration. I am not commenting about these guys talent or even their ability to win matches single handed. All I am worried about is the way they conduct themselves on the cricket field and even off the field.

My choice and vote for role model in the current India Cricketing team after Sachin would be Virender Sehwag. Watching the interview he gave to IBN Live along with Gautam Gambhir, when Gambhir explains the way Sehwag Mentored him, it gives an very satisfying feeling about the example that Sehwag is setting to the youngsters in the team. Some of the qualities that I like about Sehwag is the cool head he has, and his risk taking attitude. He gives his best on the ground and is never afraid of taking risks. And when he told Gambhir about the elbowing incident with Shane Watson, he mentioned it very clearly to Gambhir that there are youngsters watching you on the TV and this is not you want them to learn. Thats the kind of example you want to set to the youngsters watching you.

Well you might be the number one in your field, you might be the best in the world, but if you do not have the right attitude and the humble and down to earth nature you dont get the kind of respect you really deserve. And being at the top and knowing the fact that there are so many people watching you for inspiration, its your responsibility to maintain the dignity and right attitude.

Virender Sehwag with Sachin

Thanks,

Chaitanya.

Are we Unlucky???

This will probably be a very philosophical blog that I have written ever. Do you consider yourself Unlucky?????

I was just relaxing back and thinking of some of things that happened in my life in the recent past. The last two years to be clear. It has been a Roller Coaster Ride…

 Many ups and many downs… some times it made me feel, why the hell should I take all this. Some times it made me feel proud for some decisions. Life is a Roller Coaster Ride and you go down into a trough only to rise up again. And sometimes the happiness that you have reached the top or the excitement that you have reached the top might overshadow the fact that you are going to go down immediately. Going down here I don’t mean that you are going to end up in a trouble… sorry if you understood it that way. I only meant you are going to face a hurdle very soon. That’s life for any one.  

Now let me jump onto the topic of this blog. Unlucky??? Ask this question to yourself… Do you consider yourself unlucky???

 In your life you might have so many situations where you expect something and that does not happen in reality. You dream of so many things and most of you work towards achieving that dream. Sometimes you fail achieving that dream. Destiny plays a vital role in the Roller Coaster Ride. Do you feel you are unlucky??? Yes I do… I feel I am unlucky and I definitely feel I did not get what I wanted and worked for. I feel bad, I curse my luck… but who can change your destiny… The day was something similar for me. I was feeling I am unlucky for some reason… I was feeling low in my heart… I was feeling as if I am alone… I was missing my mom, my dad, my brother… at that time I read a story in some article. The story was about a kid who wanted to play football. He was a brilliant kid with excellent health and good physical personality. He was going to football coaching camp right from his 9^th year. And he was selected for the under-14 football tournaments conducted in the country. Imagine how excited a 14 year old kid can be when he knows that he is going to play in a national event. He along with his parents started from his place to go to the football ground. They drove from their place to the football ground. On their way to the ground, the kid remembered that he forgot his lucky wrist band in his house. He asked his dad to drive back to their house to get the wrist band. After collecting the Lucky Wrist Band on their way back to the football ground their car met with an accident. A HORRIBLE ACCIDENT!!! The kid lost parents in that accident and he only got up after 2 days after the accident to know that he lost both his mom and dad and to add to it… he lost his legs too… Can it get worse than this? Can you be unlucky than this? A 9 year old kid struggled day in and day out to play football. He almost reached his goal at just before he played the first tournament of his life he lost everything. Did that stop him… no that did not stop him… he went on to win the first place in the 2004 olympics for wheelchair racing. Is that not brilliant?

Moral of the story: Everyone will be unlucky in their lives. Everyone has that patch of evils happenings in their life… the person who talks to the evils with a smile and kill them silently will win the game at the end. Always remember one point that I felt was a gift to me from my dad. He always said this to me.

Do your best in whatever you do. And leave the rest to destiny. It’s important that you should not feel guilty for not doing your job properly.

We are not unlucky… we are lucky to be fit and fine… we are lucky to have wonderful parents, friends, relatives who care for us. Think of the positives that are gifted upon you. Be brave and go for the kill. Love you all,Krishna Chaitanya Emani.