A Bend in the Lane

<Skip this post if you do not wish to get a heavy dose of spirituality or the whole works.> <I told you to skip it. You still want to read? Fine, suffer.> Yesterday, I attended the first in a series of spiritual talks that are being given by a visiting professor, Prof Anil Kumar. I shan't go into all the song and dance of the purpose of these talks, except that they are highly enjoyable not only because of the insane humor the Professor injects into spirituality, but because he tends to address the usual doubts that ail ordinary believers of God. He talks about how God is the truest form of unconditional love and that all human relationships are bound by one or another form of give and take. Human relationships, be it mother-child, wife-husband, guru-sishya, friend-friend rarely are unconditional. (Interestingly, I recently posted about this very point.) That the only love that is unconditional, boundless and limitless is that of God's. Here is a rambling summar...

There are inspiring stories behind all those orgs like Asha for Education, CRY, Habitat for Humanity...But the story behind NICE is very simple. It is the man who is inspiring.  Sri Poornachandra Rao so inspired another man that, a decade after meeting him, the inspired man featured a character based on Sri Poornachandra Rao in his touching road movie Gamyam . I looked up NICE's annual report to find that the org isnt too big for our non-monetary donations (pens, books, chairs) to seem feeble or our monetary donations to disappear in administrative charges. SIN$130 covers a child's 1Y education. $130 for a year of knowledge. That's what I spend on 13 movie tickets. Take a look . Dont be lazy. You may or you may not wish to donate. But read his story.

A towering verse penned by Sri Harivanshrai Bachchan - Tu na thakega kabhi, tu na thamega kabhi, tu na mudega kabhi, Kar shapath, kar shapath, kar shapath, Agneepath, Agneepath, Agneepath. Edited to add meaning as requested - My literal translation: You shall not tire ever, you shall not give up ever, you shall not turn back ever, take the oath, take the oath, take the oath, Path of Fire, Path of Fire, Path of Fire My shallow broad translation: Swear that you will persevere resolutely, with the test of fire, without ever tiring, without ever giving up, without ever turning back.

I was talking to Jayesh about how faith in God should be independent of the joys and misery God puts us through, that Faith should not be conditional. I scorned people who did otherwise. But after the conversation, I got off my judgmental horse and realised that I was talking pure idealism that even I (gasp!) have not matched up to. Most human relationships are conditional. We love because we are loved. We help because we are comfortable.  We feed because we are well fed.  I am not making sense am I?  Oh dear, let me try and explain. Did you ever feed someone - a beggar, your child, mother, whoever - when you were going hungry? Do you love your family/partner/dog without expecting something in return? Did you ever donate your (not your dad's, mom's, ancestral) money to a cause you believed in when money was hard to come by? Perhaps not all of us have been in such situations, so lets just simply ask, have you been unconditional? That one glorious shining moment w...

Like the other 10 million blogs, I have decided to do a post on Senator Obama's speech on Race. Anybody who lives on Earth and has access to mass media could not have missed the Race speech he gave a couple of months ago. Like many of us, I was too busy to read the whole transcript. I just read the excerpts on MSNBC and NYT and saw some clips on Youtube. I thought it was a fantastic speech. That was before I read the whole thing. Yesterday, I decided to read the whole speech. Mid way through, I got so worked up, and eyes began welling up that I knew i had to actually see him utter these magnificent words. So, I went on Youtube and heard him. The whole 37 min. Gentlemen, anybody who heard this speech and still doubts that he can be the president the world needs to have, should quickly move to Mars.The response was overwhelming. My Oxford roommate, who is a poet, actually wrote a poem about Barack Obama after the speech. Here is one response i found online - peaceful easy feeling Sa...

I was looking at all the projects that National Geographic Society is providing grants for when The Genographic Project caught my eye. The Genographic Project, touted as a landmark study of the human journey, is the making of an atlas of the human journey, the tracing of our ancestors steps, where you and I really come from, and how did we get there from that group of African ancestors over 60000 years ago? It sounds phenomenal! A 5 year project involving scientists and IBM researches (for cutting edge genetic & computational technologies) entwining genetics, anthropology and technology. There are some phenomenal visuals about human migratory history in the site. The exciting thing is, you can actually participate in this study. With a painless cheek swab you can sample your own DNA and submit it to the lab. Then the project people run a test to your DNA, it reveals your ancestry and the journeys that they made over 60000-10000 years ago! The project director, Dr Spencer Wells,...

My sister is a gardener. She likes plants. Plants seem to like her too. They bloom under her eye. Take for example the record sized eggplant she grew last year. It actually resembled a bulbous freakish purple monstrosity. I wish I could just show you what a terror it was, but unfortunately, I deleted the pictures she sent me of this monstrosity as they gave me seizures. This spring she managed to germinate many seeds and transfered them into 80 pots. She will soon get her husband to transfer the potted plants to the vegetable patch in the backyard and the flowerbed in the front lawn. She grows her own veggies - carrots, tomatoes, eggplant, okra, or whatever catches her fancy. She also grows flowering shrubs - tulips, poppies (no, not for pot), geraniums, violets, azaleas, blah blah blah. You get the drift? Quaint, innit? Below is a picture of a few of her tulips she planted around a lamppost in their front lawn. I dare say, I contributed to this passion of hers in the beginning. In th...

One needs to learn many things in life. To become wise and stay young at heart. To know the time to pry and the time to be quiet. To know when to shake hands and when to hug. To know when to talk and when to listen. To know when to  carry the joke farther and when to draw the line. To know when to try and when to let things take their course. To know when to have secrets and when to let people in.  To know when to fly the nest and when to plant your roots. To know when to sow and when to work the harvest. To know when to hold on and when to move on. A quarter of a century wasn't quite enough. Would the rest of the 40 be enough?

A fool fills himself with evil a little at a time.

"Gardeners say that the seed of rosemary never grows in French soil, but if you pull off some little branches of rosemary, strip them down toward the base, hold them by the tips, and plant them, they will grow again. If you want to send rosemary branches a long distance, wrap them in waxed cloth, sew them up, anoint the outside with honey, dust them with wheat flour, and send them where you will."

'Twas fun to do. Might be tiresome to read though. Last Movie You Saw In A Theater: El Orfanato, a Spanish spookie . What Book Are You Reading: Malcolm Caldwell's Blink Favorite Board Game: Taboo Favorite Magazine: Ever heard of The World & I ?(although I have grown out of it) And, someday, I would like to say The Economist here, if only I understood 60% of the analysis in there. Favorite Smells: Distinct scent of grandmama's zari sarees and skin. Bath and Body Works Gardenia Lily body splash.  Crispy air right after the rain. Freshly mowed grass,  Sea Spray. Favorite Sound: Wind chimes tinkling, sounds of a gale, church bells tolling, voices of a couple of people. Worst Feeling In The World: Helplessness in the face of injustice small or big. Disappointment with oneself. What Is The First Thing You Think Of When You Wake? Depends. Mostly God. Favorite Fast Food Place: Subway. Future Child's Name: Sathya (irregardless of sex of baby). ...

Sorry, I haven't been able to think/blog as much as I would like to. But I was re-reading certain parts of Claudius, the God ( a present from a friend :-) ) and thought it was pretty telling of how sharp witted Emperor Claudius was contrary to historian's belief that he was dull witted- " Before I forget it, there is another story that I want to tell about a stolen gold cup...Once I [Claudius, the Roman Emperor], invited a number of provincial knights to supper - and would you believe it , one of the rogues, Marseilles man, went off with the gold cup that had been put before him. I didn't say word to him, but invited him to supper again the next day and this time gave him only a stone cup. This apparently frightened him, for the next morning the gold cup was returned with a fulsomely apologetic note explaining that he had taken the liberty of borrowing the cup for two days in order to get the engravings on it, which he much admired, copied by a goldsmith; he wished t...

This time, its Big Elk's wise words - "Do not grieve. Misfortunes will happen to the wisest and best of men. Death will come, always out of season. It is the command of the Great Spirit, that all nations and people must obey. What is past and what cannot be prevented should not be grieved for ... Misfortunes do not flourish particularly in our lives - they grow everywhere." Such seemingly simple calming words are difficult when faced with circumstances that the Omaha Indians faced - disease, war, disappearing hunt, intruding white men, pressure to become 'civilized', etc.

are : "What is Life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the winter time. It is as the little shadow that runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset." Wise words of a wise man.

I was reading the Guardian Books section (yes, i have to drop names just to try and pass off as belonging to the intellectual gentry) when I saw this tongue-in-cheek ad on the page. I loved the "Go on George, its free" line in the third column best :-) [click on the image, you can see it better]

I came across this excerpt while reading Count Belisarius by Robert Graves - " It is a well known that almost everyone in the world is discontented with his trade or profession. The farmer would like to be an emperor, the Emperor would like to plant cabbages; the lean captain of a trading vessel envies the big paunched wine shop proprietor - who returns the envy dissatisfied with his stay-at-home life." That was during the 6th century Roman Empire. It holds true even today.  I suppose some things never change.

Jayesh replied to my post "Monday Mornings" in the following way - "Suggested happy thoughts just for Monday mornings: (1) Your boss might be on vacation / call in sick / get hit by a falling aeroplane (2) You will be promoted today to President from Vice-President (in charge of Photocopying, Faxing, Taxibooking & Getting Yelled At By Painful Clients) (3) they have replenished the coffee in the vending machine (4) Friday is JUST 5 days away (5) Retirement is JUST 35 years away (6) Your zodiac forecast says that you just might travel to Cambodia in two weeks with some really really cool people" :-)

I wore this very 'Abercrombie & Fitch' sorta purple skirt that has this very gunny-sack, ragged and faded feel to it. My grandmother definitely wouldnt have like it. In fact she would have pointed out that her maid wears better rags than that. Anyhoo, I was feeling very attractive in this skirt, and needed some feedback. If you havent already noticed, i need constant feedback from the men in my life. So, I approached the single most important male figure in my life, my dad. He was (you guessed it), watching news. Me : Dad? Dad : Uh huh. Me : Dad, am I looking pretty? Dad [without giving me a glance]: Uh huh Me [whining]: Daaaaaaad Dad [looking up]: Uh huh? Me [doing a pirouette]: Dad, look! Look! Am I looking pretty in this skirt? Dad [slightly puzzled]: Come a little closer. Me [pirouetting some more]: See, its pretty, innit? Dad [puzzled]:  you are wearing it inside out. All the thread and seams are on the outside showing. Me [blinking]:Dad, its supposed t...

Food for thought : " Politics without principle, wealth without work, commerce without morality, pleasure without conscience, education without character, science without humanity, and worship without sacrifice. " ~ MK Gandhi

Monday mornings are such ghastly, hateful things.How does one survive 'em? Call in sick and stare at the ceiling for ages? Take urgent leave and sleep in? Stay at home and watch reruns of Days of Our Lives? Quit the job and become a gardener? There needs to be one thought, one damn happy, inspiring thought that should make it worth while to endure a Monday. One happy thought. What could it be?