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[prasadjosyula]

The Man who never preached, but influenced me!!

Grit and perseverance, Passion and confidence, Kindness and honesty. Screw the conventional thinking, screw what people think. Do what the heart says, Love what you do and give your best in whatever you do. This pretty much summarizes his life.

Worked for more than 35 years of his young life, yup THIRTY FIVE years, in one store as just another salesguy for a salary not even a couple can survive on. Yet, he built a wonderful family. Many laughed at him that he is a loser, he will remain Sales guy, stay away from him as he will seek money, and he told'em all that he is a very happy guy.

I was born in Rohini nakshatram, a very very special one they say. And, they say, with that the maternal uncle could get hurt badly. Am no Krishna, he is no Kamsa, but it is what it is. He saw me, held me in his hands...and in a few days, he did get hurt, got hurt very badly during a small business trip to Bombay where he had a terrible accident and got stuck there for months. Came back to Vijayawada, and found he was laid off from the 35+ years job he did sincerely. Many then said "we told ya..", but none could help, but called him loser.

So, he said to himself, I have nothing to lose now if I start something new. This guy, the so-called loser, to everyone's shock and disbelief, rented a small (ex-barber) shop and started his own business. Named it "Vikas Stationery Mart". Some liked the idea, many laughed at it, and to those who laughed he said "screw ya.."

In no time, he proved to everyone that his 35+ years of boring salesguy job was not that boring at all. What many people used to do in his previous workplace, he put all those years of learning into his own business. Customers, Vendors, Accounting, Negotiations, Quality, Branding, Marketing, Taxes, Language profiency in English, Telugu, Hindi, nuances of supply chain, life lessons from the insults he took, mockery made of him, charity, and much more. Made a name for himself, established the business.

Brought up 3 wonderful children with the support of my Aunt.

Fast forward....

None sought his help when we lost our Dad when I was 10. But, he came to the rescue and gave our Dad a respectful funeral.

None told him to teach us to be brave, he just told us about his life.

None sought his help for my graduation, yet he told my Mom he will feed me, give me shelter and all books for 4 precious years of my graduation. It's a 3 room rented house, and he gave me, just a student, the biggest of all those rooms for me to study. Someone asked him why he is doing that. And, he said "I did not get to go to college, I do not know how it feels like studying. If that was a deficiency in my life, I try to fill it up by helping others study." I was one of the many who he supported with education.

Those 4 years of my life were very special. You know, the lessons one get to learn, when they are not being taught, are the lessons that stick for lifetime. A movie, a story, a book, a person like him, my Uncle.

At times I used to sit with him in the store. With full of pride, he used to tell his Customers and friends a lot good things about me. We both used to walk back from his shop to Home. We both used to go to Kaleswara Rao market every week-end. We used to walk every morning to buy milk. I used to work him in year-end accounting, ledgers, etc. etc. During all those trips and works, he used to lay his hand over my shoulder, walk slowly and just tells me small incidents of his life, his business, news articles, people, politics, movies, life, what else..what not. Never preaching, just talk.

He used to wake me up every morning, arrange hot water for bathing, even water to brush. Trust me! I was not at all a lazy kiddo, but he was a loving uncle.

Me and his son, we did crazy stuff together. Played cricket against my Uncle's word, broke window glasses in our home and of neighbors. At times, he got mad, very mad, and yet he used to treat me well. He even performed my thread-marriage function along with his Son, despite many warning him that he should not do so as it can hurt the family. He told them "screw ya.."

Somehow, not being his biological kiddo to whom he was strict father, or maybe his sympathy for me, the kid who lost his father, or may be my discipline, my personality, or a mix of these, I developed a strange kind of loving relationship with him. When the entire world used to be scared of him in certain situations, I used to talk to him. When he was apprehensive of doing certain things, I used to tell him, "Don't worry..I will go there. If it's a failure, I will fail".

4 years of awesomeness in my life!!

Then life took me to Allahabad, Chennai, Hyderbad, USA, Italy, UK, France, etc. and he was in the same Vijayawada.

No matter, what I am in my life, the lessons learnt from him became an inseparable part of my personality, my life. Those things helped me see the world in a different way.

Some say I do not get tired of working, do not see anything as boring work, do not believe in belittling anyone, appreciates others too much, try to help others, do not think I know too much. Well you know now, why??

A gem of a life he lead, a gem of a person Mr. Upadhyayula Bala Bhaskara Rao is!!

Salute!!

Orey Prasadu

Prasad Josyula

[prasadjosyula]

[prasadjosyula]

the Dots... !!

16th September’2015

Irving, Texas

......Some often think that a phase in ones life is going tough. It might very well be. The way I see it is...such opinion is just relative in nature. Why do I see that way?  

What I am trying to get to here in this blog is how this feeling called “satisfaction” gels with the human irrespective of how hard the phase they are going through is. The best example perhaps is...a person living the simplest life in utmost remote village must be living equally happy as a person amidst all rich comforts in a world class resort. I think so because Comforts are tangible whereas Satisfaction is an experience from within.

Some of my well-wishers think I had a tough childhood. I know for a fact that there are counts of people whose childhood was much worse. My experience taught me something that is enabling me to write this stuff.

The opinion about one’s hardships is just a mere opinion, one of many opinions. That may or may not change depending on who, when and how they see it. What I am sure of is..the experiences I had been through were at times quite strong in nature and rich in experience. I might have seen some intense stuff not many kids get to see. I might been through some strong situations that hardly any can plan going through. Many might have been through such situations, maybe much worse than I can imagine. As I said, that opinion of “tough phase” or “hardship” is relative in nature to say the least and hence it hardly matters to those that went through or going through such phase.

The point that I am trying to get to in this blog is...Is it quite possible for anyone to go through the hardships all by himself or herself?  Here comes one of the most interesting and one of my most favorite aspects of life. I often believe that the people and characters whom you come across in life play an amazing role and they could change the perspective you had until then about life. It could be your parent, relative, friend, spouse, teacher, celebrity, sportsman, colleague and for that matter it could be just a character in a book or a blog.

Blessed are those who come across the right person in the right place at the right time !! Think about it....so many rights !!  Compare with this...it is considered a lottery is won (many say it might happen once in a lifetime) when the lottery ticket has the right numbers. Maybe a bad analogy, but I can live with it for now. Yes. I believe coming across right person at the right time is no less than winning a once in a lifetime lottery. You got to be lucky to have so many rights fall in place. The major, if not the only difference I see, as a human a whole lot depends on you on how well you relate to the other person. The longer the relation the more the influence !!

Winning a lottery might make your life amazing. Then see how amazing the life could turn out when you come across many right persons at different stages of your life. I am considering the experiences with these “right” people and the incidents that follow with such experiences as very important “dots” of our life !!

The harder you work, the better you learn, the smarter decisions you make, the stronger those dots are in your life. The beauty of life I believe is....One cannot plan such dots. They just happen. Blessed are those who have managed to have more and stronger dots in their life.

Looking back at the dots in your journey and connecting those dots, you might very well understand and see for yourself the path of your journey thus far and see the most critical turning points in your journey.

Maybe it is important to do such retrospection once in a while. Such exercise might help in learning from the past experiences and making better decisions in the present which could lead to a better future !!

I can say that despite whatever little hardships others think I might have been through, it has been an extraordinarily satisfactory and amazing journey filled with happiness and success due to many such dots......thus far !!  Maybe someday I will try to write one blog about each dot of my life.

I am positive every life has it’s own set of dots. It’s just a matter of taking time to look back and make a good note of those. If not any tangible benefit, it at least will give you a sense of satisfaction about how you did so far !!

Signing off -

Prasad Josyula

[prasadjosyula]

Life Journey - A preview !!

15th September’2015

Irving - Texas

Journey: The simple meaning perhaps is “travel from point A to point B”.

If that meaning is applied in the dimension of time and is put in the context of an individual, it at times turns out to be an incredible story “Life Journey”.

It’s amazing how life events turn out to be bringing out the entire new from within of an individual. So new that it is nothing short of an unbelievable miracle. But the beauty of these events is that, they seem pretty normal, nothing special, everything do-able and “almost take it for granted” for that individual and people surrounding the individual while it is “in the making”.

Only when we look back we realize how incredible the journey has been. Closest analogy perhaps is…babies growing up. From baby to infant to toddler to school-goer to teen.

The journey for that individual looks normal as he /she is going through it and focusing on getting through it, fighting, learning, experiencing, enjoying, trying new, achieving, failing, succeeding…dreaming big and bigger. And, that momentum, focus and experience are what makes the journey exciting.

What is amazing is, if the specifics of the journey are narrated, say in a book, in a conversation, in a blog, etc., not only others but also if that person who went through that journey reads it by detaching himself / herself from that narration, the same journey sounds equally and amazingly incredible !!

No journey is simple !!

No journey is less exciting unless the one who went through it discards it !!

Life is beautiful !!

Sharing that with the world shall make it more wonderful !!

Signing off -

Prasad Josyula