Beardo's blog

Introduction  The new moon of Ramadhan is awaited with excitement by every beleiving Muslim throughout the world! And why wouldn't he/she be excited for this blessed month? Ramadhan or Ramzan - the 9th month of Islamic calender (AKA Hijri calender). A month wherein God opens his doors of mercy & closes his doors of anger. A month wherein the first few verses of the Quran were revealed & a month wherein he has commanded his beleivers to fast from dawn to dusk.  How do Muslims fast? Muslims are supposed to have a pre dawn meal (AKA Suhoor around 4:30 AM) and not consume any food or drink and avoid sexual pleasures from dawn till sunset. There is an exception however for those who are sick or are travelling who can makeup those fasts later on. Those who can't fast at all (like the elderly or those with chronic illness), can feed a poor person for every day of missed fast. Why has God commanded to FAST? When a person fasts, he is supposed to control the three b...

It was one of those late nights of Ramadan (1). I was having Suhoor (2) with my dad. While I was having Ganji (3), my dad was waiting for mom to prepare Patthir (Rice roti).  Mom had cooked Ganji from cooker that night, (as it takes less time) and dad didn't like cooker made Ganji. I asked my dad : "Why is it that you don't eat cooker made Ganji?" Dad replied: "Because a cooker made ganji made in haste is less tastier than a ganji made in a normal vessel which takes its time to cook"  Hearing these words, made me have an epiphany. I rhetorically remarked: "So are human beings!" He replied: "Yes! So are human beings. A person who thrived with patience is qualitatively better than a person who flourished in no time" A person who took shortcuts might enjoy certain short-term benifits, but in the long run, the one who struggled his way up with patience and perseverance - it is he who has tasted his success. As a matter of fact, we human being...

In the land of DOREMONIA, there lived three communities. Gian, Sunio and Nobitha. Gian was a powerful community. Not very smart, but powerful. Sunio was a rich, civilized, educated and clever community.  Nobitha was a poor, uneducated, uncivilized & ignorant community. Gianians and Sunions were close allies. Not that they liked each other, but because they benefited from each other. They both owned the lion's share of wealth and power. Whereas Nobithians barely had any power or wealth. Most of them did menial works to make ends meet. Nobithians had an inferiority complex. They viewed Gian and Sunio with admirance and even felt jealous of what they posessed. Gianians and Sunions on the other hand viewed Nobithians with despise.  Good and bad people existed in equal proportion in all the three communities. However, Gian and Sunio were able to dilute their wrongdoings as they had administration in their fingertips & were well aware of the loopholes within t...

My motorcycle was showing the signs and symptoms of a weak battery since a couple of months. And I had even asked the service guy to check it once. Turns out he hadn't! While I was  bothered about riding a flat tyred motorcycle in a most likely rainy day at the beginning of my journey, something out of syllabus just popped out. And that too a toughie! It's impossible to get a rectifier anywhere near Malebennur. Now I am only left with one option - START the motorcycle and don't turn it off till the journey ends. No tea breaks..nothing! Honestly it was kind of a scary ride. Sun started setting and the darkness started to prevail. And my headlights were as dim as my brain was when I had decided to take bike instead of bus. It was Malnad where I was riding. So there will be certain kilometers that I have to ride without any street light or a human. Although I had phone in my pocket to call Dad in case my bike were to stop, I didn't want to prove my dad right when he had re...

INTRO He was a wise old man counting the last few days of his life on earth. I was a teenager who admired him for his wisdom, knowledge and humility. Once in the process of his - 'to and fro of getting admitted and discharged' , I visited him in the hospital. While encouraging me to work harder for my future, he said: "A philosopher once said 'Man is the MASTER of his DESTINY ' ". I was awestruck by what I had just heard. 'How true it is!How mellifluous it is!' said my teenage heart. It was a moment of epiphany. Only to realize in the coming years that it wasn't really true! The MOTORCYCLE conundrum It was getting really difficult for me to balance between work and studies in recent times. Life ain't so rosy for doctors as people imagine it to be.  I was in an ambivalence whether or not to continue work. I was getting frustrated, so I decided to take leave for a month. Where else would an introvert go except his home. And then, the...

     I went to their home as they wanted me to give a lady an injection of IV antibiotic. I started going through all the blood reports and scan reports just to get an idea of what exactly had happened to her. She had endometritis after undergoing a cesarean section. Her Doctor had advised to continue a couple of injections for a few days post discharge. As I was loading the antibiotic in the 10ml syringe, the old man started commenting - " That doctor unnecessarily did cesarean. I told them, we can do normal delivery only. But they wanted to do cesarean "  I replied - " The Doctor will do cesarean, only if there is an indication. If you can show me the discharge paper I can tell you what the reason was. " The old man didn't seem convinced, he went on to say - " No. She has had normal deliveries previously. The Doctor did cesarean for money. " And I chose to be quiet. It's natural for old people to be adamant. But a latin derived word d...

Eid-ul-Adha (The festival of sacrifice) or what is also called as Baqrid in the subcontinent is one of the two eids or festivals in the religion of Islam. It is celebrated on the 10th of Dhul hijja month of the islamic calender. Many know this day as a day when Muslims slaughter animals and have sheerkurma in the morning and biryani in the noon. But many people (including many muslims) are unaware of the significance of the ritual slaughter. In this blog, I shall discuss the significance of this festival and the practice of ritual slaughter. Thousands of years ago, there lived a man by the name of Ibrahim (also called as Abraham in the bible) who was also a Prophet of God. Ibrahim didn't have children for a long time. He was blessed with children only after old age. God tested Ibrahim by asking him to sacrifice his son for the sake of God. Although Ibrahim loved his son dearly, he obliged by the command of God and  with a lot of pain in his heart, he became ready to ...