In the memory of those killed ...

I wonder how the families of policemen, commandos and the innocent victims killed in the terrible attacks must be coping up with the terrible tragedy that has fallen upon them.  What did they do to have lost their loved-ones to the bullets of unknown men?  Not only have they lost their loved-ones but also have lost their dreams, hopes and plans for the future.  Putting myself in their shoes scares the life out of me.  On our part we can stand united and take better decisions to strengthen our country so that such attacks never occur in the future.  That would be the best tribute to these precious lives. 

Human beings as accessories ?

I read an article in New York Times about looking at India's prosperity through the eyes of invisible men or have-nots. This article is an eye-opener and after spending almost a year in India and observing lives of people from different spheres of society here, I found myself agreeing to every single word written in this article. I strongly advocate this article. I wonder why in our society doing our own chores is looked down upon. Hiring a retinue of 'servants' or 'help' seems more like a social-symbol thing than convenience. I agree we all need help to manage our lives but treating other human beings just as some life-less creatures who agree to our whims, adjust to our schedules, never complain, being insensitive to their pain just does not seem right. These people have no labor laws so their pain is never heard and never addressed in a just way. If we are to truly progress as a society we need to make sure we treat the lowest rung of our society with the dignity they deserve.

Technology with a heart

I read this very interest article on CNN.com titled 'Technology with a heart'. The beauty of internet and social-networking as a media is their amazing capability to touch and influence people's life to mostly create a positive change. This article talks about extending social networking to philanthrophy and to micro-lending. I think the concept is unbelievable and just brilliant. This article motivated me to the extent that I created accounts with Kiva.org, Change.org, Ammado.com and Nabuur.com. I'll keep posting whatever interesting stuff I come across or I do on these websites.

All it takes is imagination

"The biggest thing is nothing is impossible ... With so many people saying it couldn't be done, all it takes is an imagination." Michael Phelps

Land of the Chinars - Is it a cursed beauty?

Finally another wish fulfilled - I got to visit Srinagar, Gulmarg, Kinjarmarg, Qazikund, Banihal, Anantnag and Gulmarg in May. To repeat the cliche - Kashmir is beautiful and one could spend a lifetime in this paradise - is the sum total of my trip to Kashmir.

The most exiciting discovery I made during this trip was that I found out that Dal lake is not just a lake but a township in itself and I saw the majesty and beauty of Chinar trees. I was impressed by the buzz of activity and culture in Dal Lake. I had known Kashmir to be beautifu but I had not known about the existence of activity and culture in the Dal Lake - floating vegetable gardens, a bazaar with water streets, 2200 houseboats, four chinar trees planted by Emperor Jehangir in one of the floating islands of Dal Lake (also known as Char Chinar), shikaras for commuting, people selling everything from daily used items to expensive jewelery, carpets and food on Shikaras...wow! I was also impressed by women rowing Shikaras and women anchoring their Shikaras to catch-up on the gossip. Yes, it was very interesting to know this aspect of the Dal Lake.

With the happiness also came sadness and anger on seeing the slowly rotting heritage. There is a lot of algae in Dal Lake and this algae is slowly killing this beautful lake. Some cleaning efforts are in place but they are highly inadequate and I also learnt about the reckless felling of the Chinar trees. Chinar wood is highly prized and anti-social elements cut these trees illegally to make quick money. Chinar trees take a long time to grow and if cutting is not stopped, we may soon see the end of the Chinar trees soon too! What a loss it would be!

Finally - why Kashmir, is the beauty suffering from some sort of a curse, an evil eye...what a beautiful landscape and what a brutal treatment given to it ... merciless killings of men and women, innocent cries of children, brutal destruction of the Chinars, suffocation of the Dal Lake ... the soul of the land known to heal the soul of humanity is being ripped ... is there some logical explanation or is it fate? I am sure there is some bigger reason behind this suffering in the grand scheme of things but who knows what...till then God Bless Kashmir!

Dealing with the reverse cultural shock

A lot has been written about the cultural shock that people face when they immigrate or live for an extended period of time especially in the western countries from India. A lot has also been written about the emotions or circumstances that lead people to come back to India. However, I haven't seen much written on the process of readjustment in India.

Yes, readjustment to India is a process and it does take a while to feel at home in India again.

Recently, during a conversation with an interesting person named Prashanth (who now happens to me my boss in the company I work :)), I came across some interesting facts. Prashanth asked m e if I realised how my expectations had changed after I had spent considerable time in the US. He then asked me that how to I plan to manage this changed expectations?

Yes, I went to the US as a student and after finishing my Masters degree, I set foot into the corporate world. Tech companies specially the ones in the Silicon Valley are known to pay well, and unknowingly I got used to a life of comfort and ' material luxury' (by Indian standards).
When I came back to India I never realised that my expectations had changed and a life or material comfort became the norm for me. Yes, I did face trouble, but I never realised that it was due to the conflict in expectations.

Add to that, I had changed a lot as a person. I refuse to accept fate or destiny unlike most people in India. My 'go-getter' attitude was in conflict with the society here.

Last but not the least, I had almost all of my close friends back in the US and though I have the family around me, the level of bonding and topics of conversation that I share with my friends, was hard to recreate in India. I think, forming a social circle with like minded people is the hardest. Prashanth found that by attending Indian School of Business, he found like-minded people (and his would-be wife) and from that point onwards the process of adjusting in India was easy. All of us may not go to the ISB, but yes there are several avenues to build a social life in India, some of them are : Joining clubs (Bombay has lots of them), social-organizations (there are a lot of them to choose from - Akanksha, CRY etc).

Once you have a good set of friends in India, a good home, a good job or your own company - it is every bit worth living in India.

Honda FCX Clarity

Finally, the impossible has manifested - Honda has rolled out the first edition of hydrogen fuel cell powered cars! Wow! What an achievement. These cells use oxygen and hydrogen from the atmosphere and release water and heat as the by-product. Heat is definitely not good in the context of global warming, but I am sure heat will be dealt with in due course. What a remarkable day for the environment and what a feat by Honda!

Read the complete article on New York Times :

Honda releases FCX Clarity

Mission Accomplished

I came to India almost five months back, fuzzy-headed, confused, looking for direction and a welcome break from the six-and-half years of mechanical existence in the US. I did not know what to expect from India. India had changed in many ways from the time I left for US in 2001.

The India I left was struggling in many areas even though software and IT sectors were doing good. Life was starting to get better for the people employed in the IT industry but others went about their lives the usual way with the familiar attitude.

The India I returned to is full of energy and enthusiasm and is bubbling with hope. I witnessed the launch of the Tata Nano, world's cheapest car. The self-confidence and the can-do-never-give-up attitude of the people is contagious and amazing. People it seems are itching to change the system and the way of doing things, and they are now courageous enough to be the starting point for the change they want to bring about. New ideas are welcome in India and a lot of young people are taking the entrepreneurship route to success and change.

What has touched me most is the blend of old-world charm and the new-found desire for change. The ancient Indian tradition laid emphasis on honoring the guest 'Athithi Devo Bhava' - your guest is like God. Most people are very warm, helpful and friendly and maintain the ancient tradition of honoring the guest . Ofcourse, we all come across and read about nasty incidents, but overall the majority of people are nice and are willing to extend a helping hand sometimes without you asking. I have had wonderful experience while travelling in trains and buses.

I don't know how many people feel this way but I feel there lies a sense of peace beneath the chaos of external material life in India. People are in general happy and content with life here. In the US, I always felt a sense of chaos and fear beneath the perfection of the external material life. There everyone seems to be in a rush to head somewhere.

Now once again, I find myself at the crossroads :). I have found what I was looking for in India. I feel a sense of completion to my trip to India. I now want to move forward from here, but don't know where. As always, I believe with time I will have all the answers and life will lead me to my next destination.

IPL Rocks - Now lets extend it to other sports!

IPL is a great idea. Eight cricket leagues (teams), comprising established and well-known Indian and international cricketers and new comers, are scheduled to play 59 T20 format games among themselves. Thanks to IPL, there is something exciting to look forward to on TV that is full of repetitive reality shows and boring soaps. IPL is a great way to boost cricket in India. It provides an avenue to lesser known cricketers to show their talent, to earn good money and to mingle with the senior players. IPL seems like a win-win situation for all, though some people argue that IPL is destroying the essence of cricket. Like everything, cricket needs to evolve with time, and T20 format is a welcome change. After all, who has the patience to keep track of a 5-day test-match or spend a day tracking a 50 over match. We definitely need to preserve tradition, so test-matches and one -day international matches must stay. But blaming T20 for destroying the spirit of cricket does not seem fair.

Going a step further, why not have IPL like leagues for other sports in the country such as track&field, hockey, swimming, badminton, lawn-tennis etc somewhat similar to NCAA in the US. Such leagues will definitely benefit the sports culture in India, give an opportunity to sportsmen to earn money, recognition and experience. Though these IPL or NCAA like leagues for other sports may not be as lucrative as cricket, but in order to boost the sports culture in our country, we need to start somewhere, and forming leagues for all sports may just be the right answer to boost the sports culture. Almost every Indian wishes for more Olympic medals coming to India, and the sports enthusiasts here go into mourning after every Olympic games.
Olympics come and go, but India's medal-tally never seems to go beyond three. And it seems unlikely if the situation would ever change.

How can the medals come when there is no active promotion of sports besides cricket in India? Forming commercial leagues for other sports and actively marketing them may be the first-step towards more Olympic medals. But would there be any takers?

Breaking rules -- its not funny!

I have been India for the last few months and enjoying every bit of my stay here, though at times I do get annoyed by the "irritatingly familiar" aspects of life here. Irritating why, simply because these aspects just don't make sense. And yes by these aspects, I mean the familiar everyday things, the kind I feel I have no choice but to silently endure them - as I just can't do anything about these things.

Take the example of traffic - the morning peak hours, everyone is in a rush, the trains, buses and autorickshaws are packed. If you commute by a private car, the traffic is in a big mess. I just wonder, why traffic cannot be systematized in a country with one of the highest educated work-force in the world? Why can't the government impose strict rules and penalties and why can't citizens abide by with the existing ones? Why citizens take pride in breaking or floundering rules? Why a rule or traffic-law abiding citizen looked down upon by some people in this country? Why can't we have a developed world kind of traffic organization in this country? We are rapidly progressing in all aspects of life in this country - economy is booming (unfortunately, so is inflation), incomes are rising, infrastructure is supposedly becoming better - then why not the traffic sense?

A look at the newspapers reveals the startling number of innocent lives lost everyday to road accidents. Reasons : rash driving a.k.a 'look I am breaking rules', trivial reasons e.g. a bus driver failing to notice a lady crossing the road, driver losing control of a bus filled with people to twice its designated capacity - leading to major accidents and causing loss of innocent lives. I sometimes wonder, if there were designated pedestrian crossings or a strict check on the buses to make sure the number of passengers does not exceed the designated capacity, could some lives be saved?

Sure, we cannot eliminate road accidents completely by following rules, but we can definitely reduce the number of accidents. If adhering to traffic rules can save lives, doesn't it make simple sense to just obey these rules!

Yeah, Only if wishing and seeing the wish getting fulfilled were the same. C'est la vie.

15 laws of life by Swami Vivekananda

Here are a few gems from teachings of Swami Vivekananda..

1. Love Is The Law Of Life: All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction. Love is therefore the only law of life. He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying. Therefore, love for love’s sake, because it is law of life, just as you breathe to live.

2. It’s Your Outlook That Matters: It is our own mental attitude, which makes the world what it is for us. Our thoughts make things beautiful, our thoughts make things ugly. The whole world is in our own minds. Learn to see things in the proper light.

3. Life is Beautiful: First, believe in this world - that there is meaning behind everything. Everything in the world is good, is holy and beautiful. If you see something evil, think that you do not understand it in the right light. Throw the burden on yourselves!

4.It’s The Way You Feel: Feel like Christ and you will be a Christ; feel like Buddha and you will be a Buddha. It is feeling that is the life, the strength, the vitality, without which no amount of intellectual activity can reach God.

5. Set Yourself Free: The moment I have realised God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him - that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free.

6. Don’t Play The Blame Game: Condemn none: if you can stretch out a helping hand, do so. If you cannot, fold your hands, bless your brothers, and let them go their own way.

7. Help Others: If money helps a man to do good to others, it is of some value; but if not, it is simply a mass of evil, and the sooner it is got rid of, the better.

8. Uphold Your Ideals: Our duty is to encourage every one in his struggle to live up to his own highest idea, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the Truth.

9. Listen To Your Soul: You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.

10. Be Yourself: The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature. Have faith in yourselves!

11. Nothing Is Impossible: Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It is the greatest heresy to think so. If there is sin, this is the only sin - to say that you are weak, or others are weak.

12. You Have The Power: All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.

13. Learn Everyday: The goal of mankind is knowledge… now this knowledge is inherent in man. No knowledge comes from outside: it is all inside. What we say a man ‘knows’, should, in strict psychological language, be what he ‘discovers’ or ‘unveils’; what man ‘learns’ is really what he discovers by taking the cover off his own soul, which is a mine of infinite knowledge.

14. Be Truthful: Everything can be sacrificed for truth, but truth cannot be sacrificed for anything.

15. Think Different: All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of everything.

Career Advice

Here are some website that have some useful career advice

http://www.quintcareers.com/career_change.html

Here is a wonderful book that advises job seekers, career changers etc :

What color is your parachute.

I have been recently reading the research done at the Mother Service Society pertaining to higher growth and accomplishment in life. These essays are profound and full of useful tips and I strongly recommend them :

http://www.motherservice.org/Essays/higher_career_accomplishment.htm
http://www.motherservice.org/contents.htm

Maa

One of the most touching songs in a long long time ... Taare Zameen Par

Main Kabhi Batlata Nahin
Par Andhere Se Darta Hoon Main Maa
Yun To Main,Dikhlata Nahin
Teri Parwaah Karta Hoon Main Maa
Tujhe Sab Hain Pata, Hain Na Maa
Tujhe Sab Hain Pata,,Meri Maa

Bheed Mein Yun Na Chodo Mujhe
Ghar Laut Ke Bhi Aa Naa Paoon Maa
Bhej Na Itna Door Mujkko Tu
Yaad Bhi Tujhko Aa Naa Paoon Maa
Kya Itna Bura Hoon Main Maa
Kya Itna Bura Meri Maa

Jab Bhi Kabhi Papa Mujhe
Jo Zor Se Jhoola Jhulate Hain Maa
Meri Nazar Dhoondhe Tujhe
Sochu Yahi Tu Aa Ke Thaamegi Maa

Unse Main Yeh Kehta Nahin
Par Main Seham Jaata Hoon Maa
Chehre Pe Aana Deta Nahin
Dil Hi Dil Mein Ghabraata Hoon Maa
Tujhe Sab Hai Pata Hai Naa Maa
Tujhe Sab Hai Pata Meri Maa

Main Kabhi Batlata Nahin
Par Andhere Se Darta Hoon Main Maa
Yun To Main,Dikhlata Nahin
Teri Parwaah Karta Hoon Main Maa
Tujhe Sab Hain Pata, Hain Na Maa
Tujhe Sab Hain Pata,,Meri Maa

Keep the faith

Reproduced from a column by Sri Sri Ravishankar

Keep the faith Shraddhveerya smrutisamadhiprajnapurvaka itaresham (Sûtra 20) meaning “By faith, by vigour or courage, by memory of having experienced the self and through the deep state of equanimity, a state of heightened awareness is gained.” This is a vital sûtra. Shraddha means faith. Faith makes your consciousness stable, steady and solid. Doubt in the consciousness makes you vulnerable, fearful and uncertain. Faith brings out the totality in you. It pulls together all loose ends of consciousness. It integrates your whole personality. Doubt scatters you. Doubt destroys you. Doubt disseminates you and your energy. Doubt is something that pulls you apart. Dissemination of energy is doubt. Consolidation of your energy is faith. Are you getting what I am saying? The very feeling of your having faith is a sort of consolidation. That is why Jesus always said that faith is your strength. They are synonymous — faith and strength. When you are strong and bold, you have faith. When you are weak and feeble you have doubts. Doubt is a sign of weakness. When there is faith, then samâdhi (Equanimity or meditative ness) is also achieved. Veerya is vigour or valour. For example, the force with which a soldier marches on is Veerya. Have you not noticed how valour rises in people when they say, “We fight for our country, my country. My country is in danger, my religion is in danger.” You think they simply do it without getting any joy out of it? In that moment of valour or extreme sense of patriotism, they get such a tremendous joy. That is why this world is facing wars again and again. If people would completely condemn war, if nobody liked war, then war cannot and would not happen. Though the result of war is not palatable, the process of war is very thrilling for people. Every cell of your body becomes united and the whole defense system in you gets awakened. That is again strength. When defense against fear comes to its peak, it is joyful because there is also equanimity there. There is a sense of gratitude. So, a sense of patriotism or valour or vigour also takes you to the state of meditation. Smruti is the memory of it. Once you have had a very peaceful, beautiful state of mind, the very memory of it will come back again and again and make you relive the moment. Memory of samâdhi reproduces memory of one’s being. It brings the memory of self, memory of freedom and memory of devotion. Memory of surrender, memory of love, memory of joy brings you back to yourself. Often, we do not remember nice things. What we keep remembering is bad things. We do not remember compliments but we remember somebody’s insults. But yoga is turning the wheel full circle. Remember those wonderful moments you have had. Sit and be with that very memory. Your entire being gets back to the state. Then through samâdhi, through deep meditation, through deep equanimous mind, awareness is gained. Pragna or heightened awareness is the result of samâdhi. So these many ways, these many avenues are there so that you can blossom in life. And that beings us to the next sutra — Teevrasamvëganamasannaha meaning “The spiritual path is very easy for one who gives first preference to it, who gives it supremacy over all other things.” What do we often do? We give priority to worldly things or survival and anything spiritual features last in our list. Patanjali says, Teevra samvegânâm âsannaha. When you give first preference to your spiritual practice, then it is easier. If the focus of your life is spiritual growth, then all other things will be around that. Your first and foremost commitment in life is to be with the truth, to evolve in truth. So, it is very easy for one who gives first preference to it, for one whose mind really wants to move in this direction.

My favorite stuff

• Amelie (Movie)
• Chak De India (Movie)
• Chariots of Fire (Movie)
• Chris Isaak (Songs)
• Chupke Chupke (movie)
• Dead Poet's Society (movie)
  
• Dil Chahta Hai (Movie)
• Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (Movie)
• Eagles (band)
• Forrest Gump (Movie)
• Golmaal (movie)
• Gone with the wind (movie and book)
• Indian Ocean (Band)
• Jerry Maguire (movie)
• Johnny Cash (some songs)
• Kite Runner (book)
• Life is Beautiful (movie)
• March of the Penguins (Movie)
• Miles Davis (Jazz)
• Pink Floyd
• Pretty Woman (Movie)
• Ray Charles (Jazz)
• REM (Band)
• Scent of a Woman (Movie)
  
• Shawshank Redemption (Movie)
• Sound of Music (Movie)
• Taare Zameen Par (Movie)
• The Alchemist (book)
• The Beatles
• The diary of Anne Frank (Book)
• The English Patient (movie)
• The Last Samurai (Movie)
• The Police (Band)
• U2 (Band)

Back to blogging

Back to blogging. So much to write, just don't know where to start from :). So much change has occurred over the past few months! Well, lets start from the good news-Me back in India and enjoying every moment of it, trying hard to catch up on the things I missed in the 6.5 years I was away. It's fun and the change and transformation (both good and bad) that India has seen in the last few years is really something hard to believe. On one side, I hate the traffic jams, pollution, the depleting green cover but I so much love the new found energy, the bubbling enthusiasm...that is so contagious. The new can-do, nothing-is-impossible attitude really makes-up (I am still debating this point) for the traffic-jams and the pollution. For now, I am enjoying every bit of my experience here and looking forward to this weekend hiking trip to Uran and Nhava-Sheva in Navi Mumbai. There is still so much more to write - well that's for another day :).

There is always something to laugh about

Hot Air
---------------

A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced the altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted. "Excuse me... can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The woman replied, "You are in a hot air balloon approximately 30 feet above the ground. You are between 40 and 41 degrees North latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude."

"You must be a Scientist," said the balloonist.

"I am," said the woman.

"How did you know?"

"Well", answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I am still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help so far."

The woman below responded. "You must be a politician."

"I am," replied the balloonist, "but how did you know?"

"Well," said the woman, "You don't know where you are or where you're going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise which you have no idea how to keep,and you expect me to solve your problem."

She continued after a moment of silence: "The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it's my fault."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Labor of Love
---------------------

My first job was working in an orange juice factory, but I got canned ... couldn't concentrate.

Then I worked in the woods as a lumberjack, but I just couldn't hack it, so they gave me the ax.

After that I tried to be a tailor, but I just wasn't suited for it.

Next I tried working in a muffler factory but that was exhausting.

Next was a job in a shoe factory; I tried but I just didn't fit in.

I became a professional fisherman, but discovered that I couldn't live on my net income.

I managed to get a good job working for a pool maintenance company, but the work was just too draining.

So then I got a job in a gymnasium (work-out-center), but they said I wasn't fit for the job.

I finally got a job as a historian until I realized there was no future in it.

SO I RETIRED, AND I FOUND I AM A PERFECT FIT FOR THE JOB!