Life lessons

Fajr Reminders - Mahmood Habib Masjid and Islamic Center

Auto-generated transcript:This is a new kind of Fajr reminder that I want to share with you which is really sharing stuff from my own life which I hope will be enjoyable as well as a means of learning inshallah. On October 20, 2010, we are now in 2024, on October 20, 2010 I was 55. So I published a book on that day called 2010-2010-55 because that's how we write dates in India and everywhere in the world except the US. So in the US we write the day first and then the month. In the US we do it the other way which is the month first and the day afterwards. So this is written in the English or the Indian way if you like. 2010-2010-55 which was 55, the book contained 55 life lessons that I learned in my life. So let me share some of these with you. Those who read the book, please forgive me or read the book, please forgive me and those who are motivated to read the book and get it on Amazon. Those who would like to learn more about my life, there's another book of mine called It's My Life which is for the princely sum of $7. I'm most grateful to Allah that He gave me the life that He gave me for only $7. Alhamdulillah, wajib. So as I told you I turned 55 on the 20th of October 2010 and that's the title of this book 2010-2010-55. I reflected on the lessons that I learned in my life which I think has been, alhamdulillah, an unusually rich and active and exciting life lived in India, in Guyana, in America, in Saudi Arabia and in travels in other parts of the world. I wrote this book as a tribute of thanks to all those who added value to me and taught me formally and informally and invested in my learning. During my childhood and teens in India through the 60s and 70s, I spent all my vacations walking in the jungles of the Sahyadri mountains in Adilabad district in Telangana living with my dear friend and mentor, Uncle Rama, Venkat Rama Reddy Sahib. Imagine the excitement of a 15-year-old with a .22 rifle or a 12-bore shotgun walking with one goan companion, Shivaya, all over the jungle bordering the Karnab river, just Shivaya and myself. At times, Shivaya and I would walk in the night to witness a sambar mud bath and sit behind a tree quietly watching majestic sambar stags roll in mud and then stand up to shake off the excess, coated in an arm of mud which when dry protects them from biting insects. Sometimes we would hear the call of the tiger as it set out for work. I learned to read tracks which tell the story of all those who passed that way. I learned the meaning of smells which tell their own stories and sometimes can mean the difference between life and death. But the biggest lesson I learned was to take life seriously while having fun and to extract every drop of learning. In the late 70s and early 80s, I spent five years in the Amazonian rainforest of Guyana bordering the river Burbys. I went there when I was 19 or 20 and lived alone in Kokwani on the river Burbys. During weekends, my friend Peter Ramsey and I would take our boat on a trip 50 to 60 miles, sometimes 100 miles upriver and camp on the bank or on a sandbank in the river. And sleep in hammocks. It was our code of honor to not take any food on these trips and live off the land from our hunting and fishing. As an emergency fallback, we would take some raw chicken guts in a plastic bag. If we didn't manage to catch any lukanani or to shoot any agouti or kanji pheasants, we would trawl the chicken guts in Burbys and sure enough we would get a bite. Piranha. Great eating as long as you know how to keep clear of the teeth and retrieve your hook. I would say alligator eyes shining like diamonds sprinkled on the dark waters during our night patrols to check our fishing nets. During one trip, Peter and I accidentally caught a 22-foot anaconda in our fishing net. It was so heavy that both of us couldn't lift him clear off the ground. I met people who lived 30 to 40 miles up the Burbys River in houses on stilts in small forest clearings where they grow a few vegetables,