RK and his colleague Ashoojit were on the radio on the 1st of December to talk about their work and about BPF!
Tuesday, December 5, 2017
Saturday, December 2, 2017
The God of Small Things= Kalpavriksha
This concept of Kalpavriksha, or the tree that gives you what you desire, is an ancient one in Hindu mythology. Except there is no tree- it is a metaphor for the universe.
'Ask and you shall receive' has been described in the Bible, Quran and recurs in multiple texts in Hindu philosophy. I'm sure the same is present in the texts of other religions too.
It took me a long time to realize what this means. Some years ago, I had written a blog post (which I feel too lazy to ferret out) on my God of Small Things . I'd described how, if I would ever express a little wish out aloud or with some degree of ferventness, such as 'God, I wish I had a whole crate of alphonso mangoes all for myself' or 'Wouldn't it be great to be able to read this out of print book?', I would usually be granted this wish. It wouldn't be immediately, or even in the same form that I might have thought of, but ultimately, I would get whatever I had wished for.
I never thought then that it would work for bigger wishes too- mainly because I was never in the habit of making such wishes. I would never, for example, say 'I wish to become a doctor' or 'I wish to make a lot of money'. This wasn't out of a lack of desire for either of these things, but I felt uncomfortable saying these- did I really want to become a doctor? Did I really wish to make a huge amount of money? What was considered huge, anyway?
Over the years, and after multiple long conversations with a lot of people, including my friends, I realize that my original God of Small Things is the same Kalpavriksha which is the same universe that gives you what you most desire. Paulo Coehlo says this in his so-famous-that-it-is-a-cliche book 'The Alchemist'- And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it
So recently, I had a chance to test this out. A few months after I started MSCH, I decided I would no longer continue working as a lactation counselor at St.Philomena's. I felt it was too distracting, the benefit-to-cost ratio wasn't really leaning in the benefit angle any more, for multiple reasons. But about two weeks ago, I realized my personal connection with patients had drastically reduced. I wasn't there entering their data, I wasn't speaking to them about the need for some tests, I wasn't there when their blood was being drawn and I wasn't even there to give them their reports and explain what that meant. All the things that I'd enjoyed in the initial stages of my company, when it was just a 1-woman show, I was no longer doing because now I had people for that.
So I reflected on this and made a statement out aloud, 'I wish to meet real people again and do more counseling and hopefully help them'
Almost immediately afterwards, a young doctor I knew back in Philomena's phoned me to get an appointment for postpartum counseling. I loved the experience of holding a baby again, helping her figure out feeding issues.
And a few days after that, out of the blue, a guy from Pune called me up to ask me about testing. But because I was in this new primed plane now, I asked him, 'tell me more. What got you interested in this test?'And that led to a 45 minute conversation during which he shared his story of assault, his reluctance to be intimate with his wife and finally agreed to come to Bangalore for an extended workup, testing and counseling.
Yesterday RK referred another patient from Delhi for counseling.
So, my wish came true!
----------*------------------------------*------------------------------*-----------------------------*------------*----
Interestingly enough, yesterday night I heard Jim Carrey in an interview with Oprah mention that he had written a cheque to himself, when he was poor and still an aspiring actor, for $100,000 'for acting services rendered' and he gave himself five years to accomplish this. And he did.
So, looks like Kalpavriksha works for monetary success too.
'Ask and you shall receive' has been described in the Bible, Quran and recurs in multiple texts in Hindu philosophy. I'm sure the same is present in the texts of other religions too.
It took me a long time to realize what this means. Some years ago, I had written a blog post (which I feel too lazy to ferret out) on my God of Small Things . I'd described how, if I would ever express a little wish out aloud or with some degree of ferventness, such as 'God, I wish I had a whole crate of alphonso mangoes all for myself' or 'Wouldn't it be great to be able to read this out of print book?', I would usually be granted this wish. It wouldn't be immediately, or even in the same form that I might have thought of, but ultimately, I would get whatever I had wished for.
I never thought then that it would work for bigger wishes too- mainly because I was never in the habit of making such wishes. I would never, for example, say 'I wish to become a doctor' or 'I wish to make a lot of money'. This wasn't out of a lack of desire for either of these things, but I felt uncomfortable saying these- did I really want to become a doctor? Did I really wish to make a huge amount of money? What was considered huge, anyway?
Over the years, and after multiple long conversations with a lot of people, including my friends, I realize that my original God of Small Things is the same Kalpavriksha which is the same universe that gives you what you most desire. Paulo Coehlo says this in his so-famous-that-it-is-a-cliche book 'The Alchemist'- And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it
So recently, I had a chance to test this out. A few months after I started MSCH, I decided I would no longer continue working as a lactation counselor at St.Philomena's. I felt it was too distracting, the benefit-to-cost ratio wasn't really leaning in the benefit angle any more, for multiple reasons. But about two weeks ago, I realized my personal connection with patients had drastically reduced. I wasn't there entering their data, I wasn't speaking to them about the need for some tests, I wasn't there when their blood was being drawn and I wasn't even there to give them their reports and explain what that meant. All the things that I'd enjoyed in the initial stages of my company, when it was just a 1-woman show, I was no longer doing because now I had people for that.
So I reflected on this and made a statement out aloud, 'I wish to meet real people again and do more counseling and hopefully help them'
Almost immediately afterwards, a young doctor I knew back in Philomena's phoned me to get an appointment for postpartum counseling. I loved the experience of holding a baby again, helping her figure out feeding issues.
And a few days after that, out of the blue, a guy from Pune called me up to ask me about testing. But because I was in this new primed plane now, I asked him, 'tell me more. What got you interested in this test?'And that led to a 45 minute conversation during which he shared his story of assault, his reluctance to be intimate with his wife and finally agreed to come to Bangalore for an extended workup, testing and counseling.
Yesterday RK referred another patient from Delhi for counseling.
So, my wish came true!
----------*------------------------------*------------------------------*-----------------------------*------------*----
Interestingly enough, yesterday night I heard Jim Carrey in an interview with Oprah mention that he had written a cheque to himself, when he was poor and still an aspiring actor, for $100,000 'for acting services rendered' and he gave himself five years to accomplish this. And he did.
So, looks like Kalpavriksha works for monetary success too.
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