Transcendance - 12 ::: Learnings things better !!

Prelude ::: My earlier posting in this series (A decade long wedlock) is incomplete...that is, I am supposed to continue it with a much longer one on the 10 years of married life..as the prelude became bit too much in the earlier posting.....!! Its not that I have forgotten it - it will be posted shortly.....
Dear Gowri
I haven't written much about the new Public Speaking Course that I have enrolled in which I attended the second class today evening. The class normally runs for 8 - 10 sundays - 9 AM to 1 PM in the noon & since I missed last sunday class (the second session), I was asked to come for a compensatory class today. Though the class is normally conducted at Hotel Palmgrove, today - being a compensation class meant for absentees was conducted at their office cum residence at Adyar.
These are thorough professionals of second generation - the classes were started approx 45 years back by the father of the current MD who runs the show supported by his resourceful wife who compliments him nicely. The MD's mother - an interesting lady - who is a little over 60 years old - also add to the faculty in addition to these two - who has been associated with these self improvement classes since her Husband promoted it...meaning that she has close to 40 years of experience in the field....
This vibrant lady who appeared bit comical for me last sunday when I went for the first class as she had gold every where in her body.... All the 10 fingers had 4 to 5 rings each until the first joint of the finger & she was wearing practically 3 to 4 dozens of chains (I will call them as "chains" only) in her neck - I found her supporting the administrative aspects of the class - collecting money and issuing study materials before the class started...
Just then, the MD started the first session with a flawless english and kept us totally focussed for close to 1 & half hours, introduced the faculty in detail for which both the ladies waved their hands from behind...and the intro session ended with experience sharing of the people who had done the class in earlier batch (they start a new program every 1st week of alternative months....)....I was reminded of Isha's techniques and kept comparing & getting connected to Isha until this point...
The MD announced that after a small break his mother (he through out called her as "amma" though the lecture was in English) will take over the class.... He called her from the mike quite informally, asking her to take the mike for which she matter-of factedly told she needs to go to rest room.... All of us waited for her to join us...and the dutiful son kept giving intro about her mother until she reached him....he told us to just obey his "amma" though she may appear doing stupid things...and how ever awkward we all felt to repeat what was asked to be done....!!
A new excitement started building up inside me when the grand mother reached the stage and told us if any one of us mind to accept her as our mother....and whether she can consider all of us as her children...without any hesitation we all nodded and I particularly took note of her simple and plain English...which was having no professional standards...
Then the lady started and kept us raptured with lot of utterly silly things...she shouted at some of us, called one of us for a open fight with her in tamil (she was literally telling the person "keesiduven" in high pitch making many of us roar in laughter seeing the plight of the other person !!)...and started doing lot of craps with her whole body shaking and with strange gestures with her hands and face.....which all of us started repeating with lot of enthusiasm though initially we felt ackward....!! The whole purpose of this session was to shed our inhibitions and I felt that it worked miraculously....in a totally non-isha way.... !!
After all , I realised any thing that has survived for 4 decades must have an element of workability / practicability in it & thats why she is able to afford to hang so much of gold around her....At the end of the first day class at 1 PM noon, all of us did not fail to say a bye to "amma" who was sitting exhausted in a chair at the back of the class....with her hyper energy displayed and sprayed on all of us....!!
Now, as some one who is embarking on this as a career, I felt a great reverance for this old lady who has added so much colour to her son's professionalism....and being a integral part of the class. Now I realised much better why the alumnis - when they spoke during the intro session did not forget to mention their gratitude for "amma" and kept thanking her... At the end of the first session itself, I got into a mental state that I just forgot all the gold that this old lady was wearing but was able to identify with the soul of this grand lady....who remains as the foundation of the class that I have joined....
Now, I would like to add one more instance on my class learnings which justifies the title of this posting....During the First sunday class, the MD casually narrated an incident on the way to the class which would have lead to an accident - a two wheeler riding straight at the car and had our MD not applied brakes and was not alert, the boy in the two wheeler would have died...He was trying to tell a point that he did not even get angry with the young man and just told him "paarthu poppa...!!" . This came from him calmly without shooting up his BP was because he had the ability to take a full control over himself in extreme situations...!!
As I have heard of similar incidents narrated at Isha circuit quite often & infact have the opportunity (& Lucky!! ) to handle myself too in some rare situations properly, this did not make much ripples inside me though I heard him intently....
In today's compensation class, I had with me a gentleman who narrated an incident that happened at his office today that could have normally put him in high temper but getting reminded of this incident narrated by the MD, he was able to handle the situation much better.... Now, this was a surprise revealation to me as today happens to be the 13th day from the first class and this person too missed last sunday class just like me...and that is why he is there for the compensation class.
Today's class was handled by the wife of the MD who was too pleased with this man's narration and was taken aback with the realisation of the fact when I told her this fact quite impulsively....I was appreciating this person quite irresistably that this has sunk so deeply within him that he was able to get reminded after close to 2 weeks....!!
NOw this is the beauty of the impacts that external situation make on us...I am not talking about total transformations which is quite rare and such phenomena goes beyong the world of words and language;
Some times the same incident does create different impacts on different people based on their past history and what they are exposed to...and the way they internalise things that happen to them / what they observe from others is a truely interesting pheonomenon !! While I took the original incident lightly, today in front of computer, I am priding myself on being able to appreciate this type of subtle learning much better though few incidents cease to be of particular significance to us on the first hand...!!
Am I making myself clearer ?? Perhaps I could be better understood when you stumble upon some learning yourself which was unintended & unexpected....
Eagerly looking forward for more of such learnings and becoming more humble with the weight of such experiences.....in the 7 more sundays...starting from tomorrow !!
Krishnaarpanam...
suchoo