Trials & Tributes
An Incredible Journey Of A Geologist's Daughter
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
<>< body="">
I saw, in the same year, two very dear and important persons in my life, my father and my father-in-law, leaving this world, suddenly. Until then I was unaware of sorrow and loss as my life has been a fairy tale. I recall my grandfather narrating the story of Gautam Buddha and his various stages of life. I sat along with my cousin Murali, in my grand father’s library listening to his distinctive and deep narrative voice, which would haunt me, until my last day. “The word ‘Buddha’ is a title and not name. It means ‘one who is awake’ in the sense of having ‘woken up to reality’. It was first given to a man who was born as Siddhartha Gautama in During one of his few excursions from the protection of his father’s palace, Sidhartha saw three things which opened the harsh realities of life to him. He saw an old man, suffering from the frailties of age. He saw a sick man, suffering from disease. He also saw a dead man, which shocked him greatly. He finally realized that the infirmities of old age and the pain of sickness and death caused suffering that he had never experienced. This revelation caused him to begin a search for truth that drastically changed his life and eventually, the lives of millions. He spent many years in the company of saints and finally one day when he was sitting under the Bodhi tree in Bodhgaya ( Once when Siddhartha (Buddha) was walking at a riverside, a young woman came up to him and after saluting him with great respect, said to him: “Do you not remember, Lord? Yesterday I brought you my little son who was sick and asked your reverence if there was no medicine that would keep him alive, for he is my only son. And your reverence said yes, there was something that might save him from dying, if I could get it - a tola’s weight of black mustard seed got from a house in which no one ever had died.” “And did you get that seed, sister?” said Siddhartha with a tender, wistful smile. “Nay, Lord, I did not,” said the woman sadly. “I went round our village to every house asking for black mustard seed and everybody was very willing to give me some, but when I told them that I only wanted it from them if no one had ever died in their house, they said that was a queer thing for me to say. In some houses it was the father who had died; in some the son; in some the mother; in some the daughter. But in every home, some one had died. I could not get my seed. O Reverend Sir, tell me where I may get that seed before my little son dies. Are there no homes at all where death has not been?” “You have said it,” Siddhartha answered the now weeping woman. “In the entire wide world there are no homes where death has not been. Now you have found this out for yourself. Now you know that yours is not the only grief in the world." The life of Buddha, left a lasting impression on my young mind and soul. Right in front of my eyes all my dreams and illusions of a joint family system, the beautiful visions I once saw in
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
A poignant narration of a small town girl’s memoirs, as she climbs up her career ladder and blossoms into a sought after and well known Landscape Architect receiving National and International tributes.
The gripping story describes the turns and twists the Geologist’s daughter faces and the stormy interludes and trysts with fate, climaxing with the loss of her budding “Teenage Engineer” to be son, to drop the curtain on a series of family disasters.
Manjula brings out in her memoirs the fact every fall in her life is an unfortunate episode and is thankful to God for making it least painful to get up and move on with life.
She is a shining example of a resolute, strong willed person, who did not perceive certain incidents and blows in life as crippling life sentences. She looked for another open door to carry on and reaped rich dividends.
The whole story revolves around Indian culture and tradition, with customs, rituals and festivals explained in detail. The book is a goldmine for all those interested in information on alternative medicine, yoga and nature cure.
This book is a wonderful treatise on the rich Moghul culture and subsequent Colonial influences of British Raj in pre-independence era of
About the Author
The author Manjula Juluri, BA., D.M.A, ASLA., has been writing short stories for a long time and contributed several articles to academic, professional and women’s magazines.
She is also a public speaker and gave a series of interviews and talks, on Radio & Television on wide ranging subjects. As an executive wife and owner of a Landscape design/build company in
TRIALS & TRIBUTES, her memoir, is her first non fiction work, an immensely moving account, written in a highly captivating manner, with allegoric expressions. A self-effacing and devoted daughter of an orthodox Indian family, her outspokenness, her intensity of mind and sharpness of tongue, combined with an unashamed openness about her emotions, delivering herself of an extraordinary text that is at once an artistic testament. The real Manjula leaps from her pages. Extremely religious, she blended her traditional upbringing with the foreign culture with ease. Her life is an art which moves naturally towards the melancholy and tragic, while keeping its eye fixed firmly on high ideas of beauty. The episodes carried in the book, make it very smooth, yet impactful.
A multifaceted and talented lady, whose main profession is Landscape Architecture and she has won several awards for her design concepts and creations in National level competitions. She was paid tributes and written about in both National and Overseas newspapers and media extensively.
Born in