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Bookmark Book Reviews Ancient wisdom, modern input By Manju Gupta Potharaju Ravindra: Give Me Back My Guitar, Macmillan India, Ltd, 123 pp, Rs 160.00 This book, by a former Head of Learning Services, IBM and an entrepreneur, conveys the ancient Indian wisdom through modern-day adaptations of highly popular stories ranging from Aesop?s Fables to Panchatantra to Arabian Nights. On reading these stories one get an unusual perspective on the meaning of life which is at once simple, yet profound. There is the story about a grasshopper, who, after starving in the winter by playing on his guitar and not bothering about storing food, decides to go the ant?s way. He stops strumming his guitar and starts carrying heavy loads on his back till he collects plenty of food for the next winter just as an ant does. The story proves that the wise grasshopper rectifies the situation by choosing to do work that he loves and thus activates his creative inspiration. The author says that adults, like the ant, often tell their children, ?Hard work is the key to success?; life is not about enjoying but about toiling and struggling; every second counts because even a second wasted is a second killed; worrying about the future is more important than enjoying the present moment. Even our ancient wisdom says the same except that it goes a step further to add that it is the natural and correct way to live to succeed. The author begins by narrating bedtime stories to his daughter and gradually finds that the method proves highly effective in inculcating the right values in the child, while narrating stories to put them off to sleep at night. He conveys through the stories that it is the best way to impart our ancient wisdom to our young generation. He tells the story of Alladin and his magic lamp by giving new twists and turns to the original Arabian tale. This is his way of teaching the child that if he/she wants gold as did Aladdin?s nephew, you have to dig deep so as to reach the gold. In other words, you can never discover the genie if you do not believe in it. The genie fulfils your wish if only you were to realise that your genie resides in you itself and who makes you work hard to help you achieve your goal. There is also the story of Arjuna, the great archer in the epic Mahabharata, who could shoot the bird by concentrating only on the eye of the bird. Through the story the author shows that every action depends upon the energy that our desire stores as it is the energy that helps to reduce the number of thoughts that divert our attention and instructs us to concentrate on the objective alone. In the story of King Midas with the golden touch, the King turns everything into gold and this deprives him of the simple joy of touching his daughter as she too turns to gold on his touch. He learns things the hard way and asks for the wish that all that he would touch would blossom and bring happiness. This simple book is meant equally for adults as for children as it teaches some valuable lessons, some of which are: * Work hard but not for a result. * Save your energy while working. * Reduce the number of thoughts that trouble the mind; rather fill the mind with positive thoughts. * Apply the principle of archery - focus only on the target for execution of any task. * Believe strongly in an organised will. (Macmillan India Ltd, 2/10, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi-110002.)

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