An Honest Opinion of Indian-American Teenaged Girl on Swamiji’s Memoir

Sastang Pranam at your lotus feet Swamiji. I have been a little idle now a days. I admit that I am not able to devote time for writing on the forum (as I am very busy in complicated calculations of my income for filing Income Tax Return!). Nay, just joking!

Today, I am writing this blog to express an honest opinion of an Indian-American girl on Swamiji’s Memoir. Let me first introduce the girl to all of you. Her name is Suhani Satapathy. She is the the only daughter of the elder sister of my wife. That means she is my niece and by the way no prize for guessing! She is a Seventh Grader in an Ohio State School. A voracious reader and an independent girl, a bright student, somewhat eccentric by nature, she has both pros and cons. The mother daughter duo along with their only son visited us in Hyderabad last to last week (the week in which Hyderabad got totally inundated with continuous heavy rains lashing entire Telangana).

Suhani’s world is inside a Google Chrome Book and a headphone as I observed her. Her food choice is quite hard to meet as she is very much habituated to American food habits! Starbucks foods, Dominos Pizza (that too customized & without tomato!), samosas without spice and veg momos are some of her typical food requirements. Let me tell you, she is a pure vegetarian as she is against killing of animals for food. Yes, she is one of her kind with all the teenaged hormones wrecking havoc on the girl’s mind she is a bundle of uncontrolled chain reaction at times! She throws tantrums, gets irritated if she is countered and ends the argument by yelling “I don’t care” or “you are so mean”.

Suhani’s pic in ‘I don’t care’ mode

As a materialistic American, she is fond of spending – a gadget is slightly malfunctioning, then just get a new one for some bucks. Something you have taken to eat and are not able to finish, then just dump it in the Garbage bin without much thought or remorse. In one of the Financial Articles, I have read that the rest of the world earns for the Americans to spend and Suhani is a perfect example of the statement. Her favorite task is to to sleep for long hours and she herself calls her a ‘Sloth Bear’ for the same. You see, she is very honest, isn’t she!

On the flip side, she has read so many books that I myself have not read and some of us definitely do fall in the tribe! She reads an array of different types of books and has lots of ideas about various things and events. Though a ‘Sloth Bear’ she wakes up at 4 AM in the morning to study for exams, to complete her assignments etc. When she was becoming mad, I just suggested her to go through ‘Swamiji’s Memoir’ and write down a gist of what she felt after reading the book. To my surprise, she finished reading the book within 3 hours of time! But she told that it is difficult for her to write the gist with pen and paper as they are very much habituated with typing on a keyboard rather than writing with pen and paper. She e-mailed me the gist / her opinion. I am completely copy pasting her e-mail below. It is really worth going through:

“Um, hi! I’m sorry that was a strange way to start an Email, unfortunately, I can’t think of any better way. I hope you’re having a great day and that the weather is nice. Anyway, I’ll get to the point now. I’m writing you this email to thank you for everything. For taking us everywhere in such heavy rain, for tolerating me (which I am well aware isn’t exactly a very easy thing to do), and just for making visiting Hyderabad a fun experience even if it was constantly raining.

I also wanted to let you know a bit about what I thought of the book “If Truth Be Told” by Om Swami. I realized once I was on the flight that I forgot to let you know my opinion on it. When Mama first suggested I read the book I was a bit hesitant as I don’t usually read books that center much on God. But I was bored and thought I’d give the book a try. Once I did start reading it something about it drew me in. I feel like it was written in such a simple way, which made reading it much easier. I really enjoyed how a portion of the book also focused on not only his struggle with his career at first but also his difficulty when he went to India for the first time after living abroad for many years. At first, when I finished the book I thought its main message was about the Swami connecting with God. But after thinking about it for a little bit longer I think the book can be perceived in different ways as well. For example, I think the book also shows that sometimes no matter how much money you make, or how comfortably you’re living, if there’s something you truly want to achieve, you will never feel at peace until you have achieved it. In Swami’s case, it may have been connecting with God, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the goal (for others) has to be about God only.

One of my favorite things about the book, which I briefly mentioned before, was how the book made it very clear that everything that Swami has achieved is the result of many years of incredibly hard work. To start off his troubles when moving to Australia for the first time and finding a job. But I really enjoyed most of all the way that his time in India was shown. The very first scene in the book shows how he thought it’d be quite easy, but it ended up being a whole lot tougher than he thought it would be. Overall I think the book was very well done, and it’s definitely a book you can gain something from, whether or not you believe in God.

Anyway, I think I will end this Email here. To sum it up, I really just want to thank you for everything you did for not just me, but for all of us. Have a wonderful day/night — Suhani  ♡ “

So that’s it. She is our favorite Suhani! A beautiful mind needing some polishing to shine bright and become an awesome human being. Oh, Swmiji and OS.me family, please do shower your blessings on this teenaged girl (along with the family) with wonderful potentials to blossom to a fully bloomed fragrant flower.

And I cannot resist but to post some pics of Samil, your boy, at his sixth month.

Also please do take care of your Physical health Swamiji as you seem to be overworked. Praying for you at the feet of Shree Hari. Jai Shree Hari.

On the auspicious occasion of Saavan Somvaar, Har Har Mahadev!