How to Achieve Success Against Odds

By Grace Krishnamurty

This book is not only a story of my past life but also a source of inspirational messages for people of all ages. By all ages, I mean a child of four years old and above. Boys and girls of any age can get encouragement and positive messages to keep life on the right track and do the right things to become good citizens on the face of the globe. Men and women will get a great message of staying strong while facing difficulties of Life. They will find a hidden treasure in this book. The treasure that is more valuable than wealth. The treasure that glitters, but not like gold. This treasure shines like a beacon light. It guides your path. It keeps you in touch with the greatest source. It will show you how to make your life meaningful and successful.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: May 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524602444

Grace Krishnamurty

The author was a very brilliant student and became a very successful and intelligent teacher after graduating from college. She taught students of all ages up to eleventh grade. She gave guidance to the students about moral values in life. She had a great reputation as a student as well as a teacher. She was, and is, addicted to achievements and success. She is a member of many spiritual, religious, and literary associations, including AARP (formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons), Woman’s Club of Raleigh, Journeys, Conscious Living, etc. She is a volunteer teacher to teach moral values to kids at Conscious Living (Center) and Journeys (A Spiritual Community) organization. She has strong plans to set up a moral school for kids. She is a prayer partner at the Journeys organization. Her goal in life is to meet more and more needy people whose souls need strength to face life. She grasps every opportunity to give moral support to needy souls. She gives Inspirational messages (in poetic language) to such needy people and connects them with God. She believes very strongly in Community Service. She is exploring more and more organizations to join and help human beings to ease their pains. The author of this Book and many poetry Books is a well-known preacher. Soon, she will be preaching at the True Living Center of NC and Woman’s Temple of God. She has written many Inspirational prose Books in Indian National language.

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Copyright © 2016 Grace Krishnamurty. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2008 by Grace Krishnamurty. Registered with the Writers Guild of America, East

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 05/18/2016

ISBN: 978-1-5246-0245-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5246-0244-4 (e)

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and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Foreword

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Special Thanks

Introduction

Part I Childhood And Student Life

Chapter 1 When I Was Very Little

Chapter 2 Going to School

Chapter 3 Summer Vacation

Chapter 4 My Education Was in Jeopardy

Chapter 5 Great Confusions

Chapter 6 Surprises

Chapter 7 The Secret

Chapter 8 The Guardian

Chapter 9 Curiosity

Chapter 10 Character

Chapter 11 Destiny

Chapter 12 Conflicts

Chapter 13 Comparisons and Differences

Chapter 14 Wisdom

Chapter 15 Determination

Chapter 16 Going to College

Part II Teaching Life

Chapter 1 Confidence

Chapter 2 Cooperation

Part III Married Life

Chapter 1 Authority

Chapter 2 Health

Chapter 3 Friends and Enemies

Chapter 4 Confession

Chapter 5 Wishful Thinking

Chapter 6 Mother, Teacher and Guide

Chapter 7 Expectations

Chapter 8 Happy Event and Dark Shadow

Chapter 9 Money

Chapter 10 Misfortune

Chapter 11 Caution

Chapter 12 Suspicion

Chapter 13 Consequences

Chapter 14 Divorce

Part IV Single Parent

Chapter 1 Peace at Last

Chapter 2 Desire and Dedication

Chapter 3 Romantic Moments

Chapter 4 Disturbance

Chapter 5 Preparations

Chapter 6 Running Around

Chapter 7 Desperation

Chapter 8 Domain of Responsibility

Chapter 9 Change

Chapter 10 First Curse

Chapter 11 Repentance

Chapter 12 Lonely But Not Alone

Chapter 13 Kidnapping

Chapter 14 Back to the Pavilion

Chapter 15 Second Curse

Chapter 16 Viewing Ceremony

Chapter 17 Me and My Lord

Chapter 18 Disturbance Again

Part V Retirement Life

Chapter 1 Free Bird

Chapter 2 Saddest Event of Life

Chapter 3 My Thoughts on Life and Death

Chapter 4 An Exile

Chapter 5 Urge to Re-Live Life

Part VI Journey of Life

Chapter 1 Journey

Afterword

FOREWORD

People write their life stories for family, friends, children and grand children. But I am writing it for humankind. I am writing it to serve every community on the face of this Earth. Almost every chapter in this Book is a new story. And all these stories are full of suspense, pain, joy and success. The stories are true and I lived that life. Experience is the best teacher and Experience is the father of wisdom. This book is full of wisdom, courage, fun, events, humor, truths of life, obedience, encouragement, enthusiasm, motivation, inspiration, power, peace and faith, to mention a few. You shall come across all the negative emotions that are very natural with human beings. Some of them are fear, hurts, grief, anger, anxiety and stress. But these negative emotions don't have to stay with you forever. Efforts are always made to replace them by positive and uplifting emotions and traits. You shall learn all about it in the Book.

The author of this Book is a Trained Graduate Teacher by profession and a published writer of poetry in three languages. English is one of those languages. Poetry and songs touch the heart and soul very fast. You shall find poetry at the end of every chapter and at the end of every story. There are many other secret and unseen rewards in the Book.

I sincerely congratulate the readers of this Book for finding such a useful Book to learn about making life meaningful and successful. As you are enjoying the advantages from reading the Book, ask your friends and their friends to get this Book to gain the same. I am doing Community-Service by writing this Book; you can do the Community Service by spreading the word. That way, more and more people can benefit from it. The joy you get by helping other people surpasses all joys of life. And every person is capable of getting this joy.

So get it!

DEDICATION

This is a true story. The author of this Book lived it. Every part of the life was full of challenges to meet and overcome. The little brain at the age of four started living this life of struggles and challenges. And the grown-up brain in the late sixties was compelled to put it down on paper to dedicate it to the people of the World.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I thank my past for always giving me a puzzle to solve and sharpen my brain. My sincere thanks to my enemies whose actions spurred me to run faster on the Road of Life's Journey and come out victorious. My special thanks to all the human beings on the face of the Earth, whose presence made me realize that some Supreme Power, the Almighty God, created this Universe.

Thanks to my Social Life which gave me a break from my extremely busy Life.

SPECIAL THANKS

I thank K. Denning (d/o L. Williams) from the bottom of my heart. She did an excellent job with word processing (typing) and editing.

My special thanks to J. R. Forrest, Attorney-at-Law, and T. P. Schmidt. Their timely help proved very useful.

INTRODUCTION

MEETING challenges makes Life busy and interesting.

OVERCOMING challenges makes Life fruitful, meaningful and successful.

I realized the above truth in the last part of the journey of my life. When I finished bringing up my children (two) and took retirement from my job (I worked whole of my life), I started enjoying a lot of my free time pondering and visiting my past. Life began with my childhood like everybody else's does. Events, obstacles, challenges all of them began happening right from that innocent childhood. At this age (when I have lived most of my life, gone through many difficulties) I am able to look through mature adult eyes and recognize that all of my life was (and still is) full of challenges. I could not proceed further without meeting a challenge and overcoming it.

It really is interesting. At least, that seems now. When I was going through those difficult times, I must have cried and felt sad but then got courage from my God and kept on going and going and going and still I am going through difficult situations. The process never stopped, that is why I wanted to write my unique story. My story involves the past and the present. By the time I finish writing it, more and more events of the future would have shifted into present and become past. Smart, busy and active are the people who always have some puzzle to solve. I am one of them.

I am writing this Book in a very simple language, so that everybody can easily understand it. I am not using big words or difficult words and don't want people to open a Dictionary to know the meaning of my words. In my opinion, opening the Dictionary breaks the flow of reading the events and grasping the story's meaning. And sometimes, people can get lost in the meaning of phrases and words only. My objective is to make people understand the true meaning of Life. Einstein said that everything should be as simple as possible if you want more readers to get benefits.

This Life is abundant with a lot of things to be taken care of. Relationships, obstacles, worldly events and mishaps are some of them but not all of them. The more problems you are given to solve, the sharper you become. About the brain it's said, You use it or lose it.

There is more to come. The future holds some events which would become present and turn into past. As long as I have enemies (who are after me for their selfish reasons) and my life, there is going to be some sort of friction and struggle. God is on my side and He has first place in my life. More history will be created before this body (Temple of Soul) becomes too tired and old to go on.

Till today, I have made many additions to my mental and spiritual personality and strengths. And today is not necessarily where it ends.

This Book is full of life-changing Inspirational spiritual messages. It serves as a guide for Self-improvement, self help and personal growth. I wish and pray that the readers would get all the benefits from the interesting stories and poetry part of the Book. The poetry part has tremendous power to heal people and make them wiser and stronger.

G. K.

U.S.A.

2008

PART I

Childhood And Student Life

WHEN I WAS VERY LITTLE

I was born in an Indian family. I was born a girl and the family had to accept me because they had this baby after 6 years. My elder brother was six years old when I came from above to give variety to my parents. But Indian orthodox parents don't like girls at all. They think that girls can't bring name and fame to the parents' family and they cannot carry on the name of the father to coming generations. Anyway, even if I had choice not to come to this very orthodox family, I could not do anything to stop my advent because God was in control of everything.

In the early months of my life, there was no way to tell whether I was loved or not. After 16 months my younger brother was born and my mother threw me towards my father to take care of me. My father used to work overtime at his job and came home tired. All his anger and tiredness was taken out on me. He used to spank me and my mother never stopped him because I was a girl. My father loved my elder brother because he was a son and my mother loved my younger brother because he was a son. I belonged to nobody. But I survived to tell you my story. And I survived because God was in control.

My younger brother started learning how to walk. I was given the responsibility of watching him walk. If he fell down while walking, I got the spanking from my mother. It was all my fault. I did not watch him carefully. It was that age that my brother learnt to blame me for his failures and get me scolded and save his own skin. At a later age, he started spanking me instead of wasting time going to mother for complaining against me. That was the age (nine) when kids forget and forgive very fast. And this very fact saved my mental health from being disturbed. I kept on growing like a very normal child though in an abnormal atmosphere.

When I was 4 years old, I wanted to explore the outside world. Playing with my younger brother was not a great fun. You know why! I wanted to have playmates of my own age group. I heard some giggling noises outside my house, out on the street. My height was enough to open the latch of the door and go out. I joined the group of 7 children who were playing games. They welcomed me and asked me my name. I told them, MUNNY. They accepted me but rejected my name

For the first time, I came to know that 'MUNNY' means a 'baby girl' and that it was not a name. I decided to ask my mother to give me a name. She told me that girls don't need any name. She told me further that girls don't go to school, don't get education to earn money, don't do jobs and don't need any name.

My innocent and soft brain started thinking seriously, How come the other girls in that group have names? They are girls! I did not get any answer to this question but I was sure about one thing - that I was fully qualified to become a playmate of that group if I had a name. I realized that both my brothers had names, they were not called 'Kaka' i.e. baby boy. I said to myself, If my parents don't give me a name, I shall do it myself. That was the beginning of the long chain of I shall do it myself. If you keep on reading this book, you will come across many interesting events that made this chain longer and longer and longer till today.

Once the decision was made that I had to find a name for myself, the research work started. I did not know how to read and write so I started making a list of names on the slate of my brain. I had seven names on this slate. Three of them were boys, so they were crossed out. I was left with four names. Those were the only names I knew. I did not know where to go for more names. Still choice was tough. I shut myself in a room and said each one of those names very loud. One of the names was a kind of soft and pleasant to the ear. And that was Beena. Whao! I got a name (of course it was stolen from one of the girls of the group). But this stealing was not sinful as the other girl could keep it too.

So I was victorious in fulfilling the first responsibility that was put on the young shoulders of 4 years of age. Now I got a taste of victory which was very pleasant, encouraging, delightful and joyful. This one victory was followed by many victories in life.

Thank God, now I had an identity. There was only one drawback which was disqualifying me to join a group of playmates. I found a solution and this became a habit in my later life. What? To find a solution to every problem that came across.

Getting disqualified never seemed pleasant to me. I always worked hard to equip myself so that disqualification should not enter my life. The events of my early childhood gave me training to face everything in a positive way and concentrate on finding a solution rather than concentration of the pain.

TEARS AND TRIUMPHS

You can change tears to triumphs, if you wish.

It depends, whether you want grass or fish.

Circumstances create challenges to meet.

It depends how the problems, you treat.

GOING TO SCHOOL

I started playing with my new playmates. My name was BEENA. I did not know about my last name. My parents never told me about that. But who cared? I needed only first name to belong to this group and I got it.

After playing for an hour or so, these kids used to announce that they got to go home and do their 'home work'. This 'Home Work' was a strange word to me. I started questioning myself that, why I don't have a home work while all the kids of my age have it? Another mystery to be solved erupted. I discovered my name as it was already there. But where was I supposed to search for Home Work and I did not have any clues.

Gradually and eventually, I came to know that these kids go to school and their teachers gave them Home Work to do at home. That was a process of learning reading and writing and that all kids of my age went to school. So this was a discovery, too. Further discovery was required here, as to when, how and where I would be going to get education of that kind.

Another responsibility landed on the young shoulders of a 4 year old kid. Planning work started right away. Was it a big problem? Yes, it was for a kid who belonged to extremely orthodox parents who would not allow this baby girl to go to school. Now, the young (very, very young) brain kept on working, day and night to find a solution. The first step for going to school is always that parents take the kid to school. As I did not have any hope of that happening I wanted to skip that step. Again the sentence, I shall do it myself started dancing in front of my young eyes. 'But how?' was a big question. My mother was dead against girl education and she was the only person who could take me to school for admission. My father was extremely busy making money and working overtime.

A great idea showed up finally and I decided to borrow somebody else's mother for one day only. After my admission in a school, she was not to be bothered anymore. I chose a woman (who I used to call Aunti) who lived across the street and was an intimate friend of my mother.

Without wasting time on further thinking, I went to my Aunti's home. She picked me up, hugged me and kissed me and said, I prayed to God to give me a girl like you as daughter but He gave me another son. Now I have three sons and no daughter. That was the first day in my life when I experienced the love of a mother. My innocent brain did acknowledge her love. Now I knew that I did have a loving mother with the only exception that she did not live with me.

I told Aunti all about my desire to go to school and asked her to help me as my mother would not allow. She could not ignore my eagerness to get education. She bought a few basic things, like a wooden slate (Takhti), black ink, a pen made of Bamboo (Kalam). In those days, children used to start learning alphabets and numbers on this Takhti, which was washed away after every writing. It was a real fun.

My Aunti took me to school for admission and she filled in the Forms. The only thing I had to do was to tell her my name, BEENA. That was my first day in school and a happiest one, too. The teacher welcomed me in the beginners class, for which requirement was 4 years of age. You see! I did qualify for that.

I got very serious from the very first day. I saw that all the girls were writing alphabets on the Takhties. I felt embarrassed as I did not know anything. I saw a few girls going to the teacher to show their work. One of the girls was announced the best and teacher wrote 'Very Good' on her Takhti. I decided to be like her, the best. But I did not wait for that time to come. I wanted right then, that day. When all the girls finished their writing, they surrounded the teacher to show their work. That time, I sneaked to this best girl and requested her to write on my Takhti. She did. Like a copycat, I went to show my work to the teacher and got a 'Very Good'. My happiness was beyond limits. I not only succeeded in going to school but also became the best, the same day. People can do such things at innocent age only.

That was the first and last time when I cheated and lied in my life. And I got away with it. I was not punished. In later life, I always told the truth and was always punished, directly or indirectly, for being frank and fair. That's why, sometimes, people don't understand life. But that is life -- with a mixture of pepper and salt.

The first day in school was wonderful. I achieved name and fame in one day. I played with my new friends at recess. There was no sad feeling until the time to go home approached. I started thinking about the punishments I was going to get from my mother. First of all, I did not tell here where I was going. Then I started