my cloth of silk

The foodie comes to Pune...

2009-11-29T20:46:00.020+05:30

When I came down to Pune from Delhi... one thing that hit me the most was the change in food! Not so much the everyday food, but the Junk Food!! All of a sudden my world was devoid of shahi paneer, paneer ke pakode, bhalle papdi, aaloo chaat, falooda kulfi... even the samsoa's, jalebi's, dal makhani, gol gappe, bread pakode and patties tasted pathetically different! The sambhar was sweet, there was dahi on samosa and no dahi in raita, nothing was served hot... and a frown was all I got when I would ask for it! But then, I have explored and experimented and thankfully discovered some really good places to treat my taste buds with, and in the process I have stumbled upon and enjoyed some cool maharashtrian delicacies as well!

I thought I would share my list of favourites and 'why'...

If you have been to some of these places, do share your experience with me; if there are any good places that I have missed out, do let me know (please excuse Vaishali and Marjorine, I find nothing special there other than a needless hype)! If you are a north indian, new to Pune... this just might save the day for you! The list is in no particular order... so chill!

(*) Hot Dosas at Kadhai... In the basement of Ozone Super market in Aundh, amongst a motley of food joints... selling chaat to chocolates... one chubby guy prepares the most awesome crisp dosa's, right before your eyes... and serves them piping hot with two flavours of coconut chutney! The dosa here beats every other dosa I've had... by miles!

(*) Puran da dhaba at Hotel Pride... a wonderful dhaba ambience, live music usually playing ghazals or old hindi songs... and a buffet that serves everything from gol gappe , to a variety of tikka's, to kullad waali chai, to sarson ka saag, to meetha paan! This place is expensive, so come here when you have plenty of time, plenty of space in your stomach and it's not your birthday!

(*) Home Restaurant's... usually found at the base of most trek's to Shivaji fort's around Pune! The food is good, hygienic and super duper hot (lots of chilly) ... and I love it! :-) Here I first learned the words bhakri, pithala and matki usal...

(*) Chaitanya... most people come here for it's over-sized and half-cooked paranthas... I bet these people have absolutely no idea of a what a parantha is! Chaitanya is good for it's baigan ka bharta and bhindi served with normal sized plain paranthas! If you got the appetite you can also order a big peg of amritsari lassi! That said, this place is unhygienic, over crowded and is painfully short on serving staff, so I am not going there anymore!

(*) Manmeet... is more popular for it's chaat, but I go there for nothing but it's spicy, greasy north indian food! Another thing worth a try is the tri color falooda kulfi!!

(*) Goodluck... this shabby little eating joint renders it's name to one of the most busy chowk's in Pune! Bun maska ani chai and life is good at Goodluck! There's nothing else worth a try though! In my days of ignorance, I also enjoyed the scrambled egg's served here!

(*) Kalyan Bhel... for everything from pani puri to SPDP, please don't waste your time at any other place in Pune! Even if is means... you have to travel down half the city... it is worth it! :-)

(*) Kwality on MG Road... one of the very few places where the food tastes like it tastes in Delhi! You can order pretty much anything and you will not be disappointed! One interesting speciality is stuffed shimla mirch curry!

(*) Little Italy or La Pizzeria... is Italian and it's vegetarian! The food is awesome and does absolutely no malice to the stomach! The mock tails are the best I've had, and that combined with a very descent ambience make for a near perfect dining experience! Some people die for the desserts here, umm... I am not a big fan of them! They serve good food, and they charge good money for it!

(*) CCD at Baner Road or Hinjewadi... now CCD's are everywhere, and the one's at Aundh and Camp suck big time! The boys at Baner Road and Hinjewadi know their coffee... it's been a few months I've been to either of these places and I am not sure if the same guys are still there... but I am all willing to take a chance! :-)

(*) And more... places like Ice cream Magic popular for CAD-B, the coffee stall on the road opposite E Square, Horn Ok Please, Naturals ice cream and Mayur are alright too, but not worth a discrete mention!

Disclaimer: The above mentioned food is mostly unhealthy and is to be consumed at your own risk ;)

Whats your Rashee ?

2009-10-31T23:31:00.008+05:30

Overall "What's your Rashee ?" is PAIN! And much of this pain is caused by it's more than a dozen, yeah... more than a dozen, mostly insipid songs! There is also the usual melodramatic drag. I personally don't mind it much, because... over the years, on a feast of Hindi movies, I have pretty much grown immune to it!

There are twelve girls and they all look the same, it wouldn't have been much of a problem if they had come and gone in a tidy sequence. But then, it would have been even more boring... so one or two of them pop in here and there in between and you are left wondering which one was she? A pen and paper to take notes as you watch, might help! Oh, did I mention the movie runs for a full three and a half hours? The climax, according to me is super stupid and takes away any regards you have managed to preserve so far for the movie and it's makers!

On the positive side, I found the plot quite interesting! The unfortunate protagonist HAS to get married on a given date, but there's hardly any time! Fortunately he's in India, and as we know here... it's not our problem to get ourselves married! So the stage is all set for an arranged marriage! But then, our hero always wanted to fall in love, and so he works out a little plan! Through a book he knows, that there are twelve rashee's and hence twelve kind's of girls... and so he decides to meet one of each type; thereby giving himself every possible chance on the planet(given his assumption that there are only twelve kinds of girls) ... to fall in love! There are some funny moments especially in the beginning, and the movie seems to be slowly tightening it's grip on the viewers attention... but sadly it doesn't last for too long!

Watch it on a DVD(when it's available), forward the songs.

Thank you...

2009-05-22T21:52:00.005+05:30

I walked into the Office Yoga Hall 20 minutes late. There were people waiting, just for me, some of them were senior managers! Usually I get worried and anxious when something like this happens. Today, it was different. I was happy and smiling effortlessly! The morning sadhana had firmly fixed me into the present moment. And the guilt of making busy big shots wait on me, wasn't enough to shake anything in me! I had a lesson to learn here, I took my lesson and made the required resolution. And that's about it.

The Kriya started and finished. I saw it happen one more time... the super magic of Sudarshan Kriya!

Now, there were some blissful souls sitting in front of me. I narrated to them them a little story; of a barber and a Pandit ji, and they smiled and giggled like little children! We got up to leave, and one of them came up and hugged me, another few came up and said thank you! Now in office, the smile's are mostly plastic and the thank you's are superficial. This was different... this was amazing!!!

In the restroom, I looked in the mirror... there was a glow on my face! I smiled to myself before a hearty splash of water! And then walked down to my workplace, where some super delicious sandwhiches waited for me. Neha had got up early and got the breakfast and the lunch ready in time!

I realized that I get the hug's and the thank you's, and it is appreciated that... when most people are just busy fixing their own lives, I go out and fix some other lives too. No one realizes, that I can do that... because someone takes care of me, because someone keeps my life beautiful and fragrant, because someone instilled the right values in me, because someone let me do what I wanted to do, because someone taught me how to walk and talk and read and write, because someone taught me how to teach. I feel contented and so full of gratitude for Guruji, for you and for so many people who have shaped me as I am, and who in their own way... are helping me learn and be myself... more and more, more and more!

There is no greater joy in the world, than the joy of being in gratitude and in service.

Jai Gurudev

love & gratitude,

manish

My first course...

2009-04-30T10:42:00.020+05:30

It is said that true love is where you come back... and come back one more time... and then never go. I was 18 and my father did not like me sleeping late in the morning, and so I was enrolled into an 'Art of Living' Youth course. 'Art of Living' because he had himself done the course recently, and found it exceptional!

I was not looking forward to it at all, and neither did I look back much at it after it was finished.

A few things stayed with me though. I still fondly remember the monkey process, that kirayedaar story, oh yes... the Dog and the Bone game! :-) I feel so full of gratitude everytime I share the same stories or play the same game with my students. Satnam Singh and Lata Singh were the fabulous teachers!

I went around flaunting the knowledge from the course, and did it impress my friends! It somehow never occured to me to acknowledge the source of my sudden found wisdom though.

It may not have lasted long, but for atleast a couple of weeks I was very aware and very much in the present. It was very interesting to realize that I am opening the door and Hey! I am so aware that I am opening the door! :-)

I failed to realise the value in the practices, and eventually didn't bother doing them. In the next two years, I sat down to meditate exactly once.

home

2009-02-08T21:35:00.005+05:30

coming back to Delhi...

I think there is a switch somewhere inside me... and when first words in haryaanvi accent from the 'airport taxi desk' greet me... the switch swiftly points itself to home!

And then, as the taxi speeds past the familiar wide roads in Delhi Cantt... leading to Hari Nagar, the furniture market on Jail Road, ... Mira Model School... and finally to Vikaspuri... it seems like I have never been anywhere else! Aundh, Baner, Hinjewadi... sound like funny words, just like they sounded when I first heard them about three and a half years ago!

small is beautiful

2009-01-12T19:35:00.003+05:30

I have written a little memoir of the Hinjewadi Yes!+ in November

Check it out...

http://yespluspunediary.blogspot.com/2009/01/hinjewadi-november.html

Vacation Plan ?

2008-12-12T14:20:00.004+05:30

Boss: It's very important for us to ensure that we don't miss our deliverables.
Employee: here we go again. True. nods.

Boss: I will be very straight about vacations. It's okay to take vacations but they should not affect the timely delivery of... ... ... our deliverables! Vacations are important. But so is a timely delivery.

Employee: ting tong. vacations ? Right.

Boss: And especially the Release times... we are hit by truckloads of work during Release time. You should never take vacation at the time of the Release. Your one month leave last time caused a big turmoil. We had to change the rules of the organization!

Employee: smiles. will you ever get over that one?

Boss: Now, you are planning for a big vacation. I know marriage is special. But we should try to keep our deliveries on time. I cannot say that we missed the deliverables because someone was on vacation.

Employee: ah... yeh kahani hai

Boss: We should try to finish the work early, to reduce the load at Release time. You can work on Saturdays, stay up late to compensate for the slag in work that will be caused by the vacation.

Employee: This is how I see it... the leave quota is fixed, one big vacation would mean no small vacations. Its fine to work on Satudays to compensate for the slag caused by the big vacation! But then, since there will be no small vacations later... there will be a ramp up in work. Will that mean I can take random off's ? leave early on some days ?

Boss: looks haphazardly at his computer monitor to find some other work... ... ... gaining back his senses. Ha ha ha

Employee: Ha ha ha

Employee: Are we done ?

Boss: Yes... ... thanks!

a smaller YES!+

2008-10-31T18:42:00.005+05:30

We have a YES!+ scheduled in Hinjewadi from 5th November; this time has been particularly interesting... partly because we have failed BIG time! B n D were supposed to be teaching here, but we have hardly managed to get the numbers that are required to make their time worth!

We are going ahead with a smaller course.

Integration Testing

2008-09-17T23:16:00.003+05:30

Tens and Hundereds of Software Developers, in their 8 X 8 X 6 feet cubicals, write tiny and seemingly insignificant pieces of code. Then one fine day, it's all compiled together and a BUILD is published. The software flutters its first wings, and comes to life!

A couple of months, spent in a few thousand lines of uninspiring code and some mundane algorithms, suddenly begins to make a whole lot of sense! You see a Developer's eyes... they gleam with amazement of their own production! A click here, a little click there, a little drag and drop from there to here... and thats it, you are all set to fly!

Oh! This is so exciting, let me do it one more time... Ugh! CRASH!!!

Integration Testing is ON.

Chanakya

2008-09-02T11:43:00.013+05:30

Many years back, when the cable TV did not exist, and I was very young... I really enjoyed watching 'Chanakya' on Doordarshan. I dont think it made much sense to me, but the look and feel of historic India fascinated me! It continues to fascinate me!

So, yesterday, I hired a VCD of the first two episodes of 'Chanakya'. I did not know that I would sit and watch both the episodes at one stretch. I did.

I am bowled over by the intensity of the film. It is really exciting to witness life as it would have existed hundereds of years ago. Life in Patliputra, the capital of a relatively prosperous Magadh. During the day, the streets are busy with people, horses and maybe an odd 'high profile' chariot. One man sits between perhaps a dozen pots of water, near the gates of the walled city, and serves water to the passers by - noble men and the ordinary people - all alike!

Maybe somethings never change, so just like we have a corrupted political scenario today, we have a corrupted political scenario in Patliputra. Maha Mantri, who lives in a very simple and very believable big house (with regards to the standards set by Mahabharata etc), stands for the good. The King lives in a 'not so fancy' palace, and thankfully without some "dumb looking and completeley oblivious of whats happening around" sepoys. He's corrupt, and he has the support of most of the other mantri's. Then there is Acharya Chanak, who heads one of the gurukuls. He supports Maha Mantri. One of his students is Vishnugupt (and perhaps his son too). Vishnugupt will go on to be known as 'Chanakya'.

Unlike most of the programs that we have on television these days, the language is not flowery and the clothes are not flashy! 'Chanakya' is real and indulging!

Hats off to Dr Chandraprakash and all others who have made this masterpiece!

The sun shall rise again

2008-08-28T21:42:00.002+05:30

The only thing fancy here is the title! :-) :-)

The past whole week I was stuck with a complicated job to be done, in quick time, and in the guidance of a rather linear personality!

It's not done yet... but the problems are all resolved and its in a working state! And I am feeling bright again!! Opposite values are complimentry :-)

Jai Gurudev!

Soul Curry

2008-08-25T19:58:00.005+05:30

I never knew of a South Indian food outside of idli, wada, dosa, uttapa, sambar and rice... and then I visited Soul Curry. The menu was exciting! It had some super tempting pictures and one had to really twist his tongue to pronounce the name of any dish...

Like the wise ones would do, we ordered what we could see in pictures... :-)

For soup, there was drumstick shorba and corn shorba. Both extremely high on spices, none of us could consume what was served! :-(

Soon, the soup bowls were gone and the table was laid out with a motley of mostly unheard and never tasted food...
Parottas... thats the tamil nadu parantha! A parantha of sorts and then crushed and served in a bowl. Thumbs down to it, for it was all maida... the taste wasn't bad though!
Drumstick Banana Curry... this was really tasty... authentic south indian taste!!
Some kind of rice... umm, this was passable! The other kind of rice, on the neighbouring table looked inviting though!
Then there was paneer tikka masala, for the boring soul who couldn't think beyond. The place is not for you, if eating out means "dal makhani and shahi paneer" and would continue to mean the same for the rest of your life!

For dessert, there was tender coconut pysam. Now this was disappointing! You have to eat the pysam at Ashram Kitchen to know why!

All that said, I would go there again... for there are too many things on the menu worth a try! And like the drumstick banana curry, some of them promise to be really tasty! :-)

PS: Soul Curry is "pure vegetarian" resteraunt on the Pune-Mumbai highway... opposite to Indira School of Management.

Sohum

2008-08-14T16:59:00.003+05:30

Another brilliant one liner...

"Afterall, shit is shit, stirring it doesn’t remove the stink, flushing does. Sohum"

This comes from Abhishek Ratna. I met Abhishek for the first time on an Advance course in Ashram and then we were together for the YES!+ TTC. The above line is from his brilliant post - http://ratnaabhishek.blogspot.com/2008/06/dude-youre-messing-with-my-country-but.html.

DONT INSULT MY INTELLIGENCE

2008-08-12T14:04:00.004+05:30

DONT INSULT MY INTELLIGENCE!!! Did I insult yours ?

Thats perhaps the most honest and the most accurate expression for the ever so common phenomenon of human beings getting into aruguments!

Its from the movie "Being Cyrus" and it had me in splits... :-) :-)

The inspector (the motu from Office Office) is confronting Naseeruddin Shah and Dimple Kapadia on charges of a murder! And Dimple goes blurting "But did you go there ? check this ? check that ?" and so on... The inspector's sentiments get hurt and he rattles out this strikingly honest and brilliant one liner!

Ratatouille

2008-08-11T13:23:00.013+05:30

Amongst the numerous ways that are available to kill people, one that law doesn't disapprove of... is to bore people to death. And some people, by the virtue of their designation in an organization, assume the license to kill people with their boring blabber!

Now, no one is born boring; it's a skill aquired somewhere on the way. It usually happens sometime after the successful transformation of a person from a human being to a rat. Rats, they race. They scurry on that one line and all they see is one rat before them and two rats behind them. It's like you got the whole room to dance, and you try to 'balance walk' on a stupid line that Mr MNC makes you think - exists.

Hit your head hard against a wall and you will have a big swollen lump on your forehead, thats growth for rats! Rats remain boring rats in the name of growth. They stay rats and they spread the plague. Humans have to be really careful, not to catch the disease.

Rats are easy to smell spot. They make rotten cliche statements, they are predictable and they fart awful jokes. The two rats, behind the rat who cracks this joke, laugh on the joke. The smell would smother human beings... but some are blessed! They smile, serve and survive! :-)

All that said, humans learn from rats. We learn what to do and also what not to do! I learn commitment. And I learn... to not walk, the dance of my life!!

Hot Chocolate (with Jaggery)

2008-08-08T11:21:00.018+05:30

I am gonna share a recipe (Even though I dont even know where to find salt in my kitchen)

Caution: Its highly sedative. One big glass and thats it! :-) :-) You will fall asleep within 15 minutes and you will get up late next day!

Ingredients: 1/2 litre Milk, Jaggery, Cocoa and Water, a pinch of salt
Serves: 2 (big glasses)

1. Prepare jaggery syrup - Take some jaggery in water, and boil the water until the jaggery melts and you get a syrup.
2. Take about 4 spoons of cocoa, 10 spoons of jaggery syrup, 1/4 glass of water, a pinch of salt. Boil and stir.
3. Add the solution prepared above to milk, heat and stir.

And you are ready with a very healthy and very tasty Hot Chocolate!!!

Laxmi Taru

2008-07-24T13:31:00.005+05:30

[A supplement to the post on Tree Plantation. Copied from a post by Harshad Patravali on Art of Living Pune Yahoo Group]

The importance of planting Laxmi Taru Plant!

India is one of the largest producers of the edible oil in the world. We used to export this oil but in the last few years due to over population and the changing life style. the demand for this oil has grown considerably. There is a wide gap between the demand ( almost 6%) and the supply ( less than 2% ). This gap has forced us to import oil from the other countries and thus spend a great amount of foreign exchange. This year we have imported around 52 laks tons of oil and spent around 11000 corers. So far improving the production of the existing oil seeds has failed considerably and also this kind of measure may affect the production of the other essential crops. So there is a need to plant the tree which can be a good substitute for this issue. In 1939 scientist have found the tree called Seemaruba and the production of this plant can give us lot of advantages which are as follows:
1. This tree consumes highest amount of Carbon Di oxide and purifies the environment and can help in reducing the heat. For the global warming issue this is very useful
2. It can grow in barren land and reduces or stops the soil erosion.It requires very little water to grow. India has 60 million hectares wasteland and this land can be used for growing this tree.
3. Seeds can give edible oil, non edible oil and diesel. The seeds have 60 to 75% oil as against 30 t0 35% in peanuts, soybean. One tree can give around 15 to 30 kg seeds and from that can get around 2.5 to 5 Lt oil and equal amount of oil cake which can be used for bakery items,vegetable oils,soaps,cosmetic s,bio-diesel.
4. It has medicinal value, can be used for malaria and diarrhoea.
5. The pulp of the seeds can be used for compost or drinking juice.
6. The cover of the seeds can be used for making of the card board or as a raw material
7. The wood of the tree can be used for the light furniture.Guruji has named this tree Laxmi taru and so far distributed more than 6 lakhs of this plant. The seeds of this plant is available. I request all of you to either plant the seeds or buy these plants and grow it and encourage others to grow it. This is a great attempt from all of us for global warming issue.

Happy Birthday to ME!

2008-07-23T23:12:00.004+05:30

I don't know where to start from ... :-)

Ok, First and foremost - I got a very special gift from ... yes ... GOD himself! :-) Too bad, I cant reveal what he gave me today ... it's a secret!

My day started, with some special birthday wishes!! And then the most special gift... from Guruji, the Sudarshan Kriya, and there I was - right in the present moment! I reached office, 5 minutes late ... straight into the daily stand up meeting. Now, if you are late for a meeting and its your birthday - relax ... all anyone can say to you today is "Happy Birthday!!!"

And then it was kaju roll, mango burfi, ice cream, more kaju roll, more mango burfi and once more mango burfi and once more kaju roll and I continued filling up sucrose in every cell of my body ... after the office, it continued with the cake that Himanshu got for the party, more ice cream and a gulab jamun and one more gulab jamun ... phew ... at Mezza9! And it has ended (hopefully) with a brilliant kheer, Shantam prepared for me at home!

Birthday wishes came in from family, friends ... some really unexpected! I did not have phone numbers of so many people who called me and wished me today! Parag called me from the US just like that... and I tell him to wish me, its my birthday!!! Ravi, a dude who was with me in Advance and TTC, and we never spoke for the 25 odd days we were together... gives me a phone call and he doesn't know why he has called me... of course I informed him of the noble purpose of his call! :-)

Birthday resolution - CUT THE SWEETS from next month! (Not this month because I got to finish the pinni's mummy prepared for me and also the sona halwa I got from Delhi)

Oh that reminds me of a very cute birthday wish I got from Sona, Neha's niece! Sona also holds the honor of being the first person to call me "Manish Uncle", yea... I know there is more to come!

I can be nothing but grateful for having such lovely friends and family... Thank You:-) (When Menka called me today I said Hi and Thank You even before she could say Happy Birthday... Thank You has been so much on my tongue... HeeHee!!)

Thank you Guruji

2008-07-17T16:26:00.005+05:30

Its Guru Poornima!

I have been reading from various emails - Guruji's talks and Q&A's and just reading them has put me in a state of such unshakeable delight! I feel complete!

I am short on words, and full on feelings...thank you dear Guruji! :-) :-)

Management Sutra

2008-07-17T16:17:00.003+05:30

Everyday we have a team stand-up meeting. The agenda is to discuss what each one of us is upto. The idea perhaps is to ensure that each indivisual works to his full potential, and the meetings are quite effective in achieving this purpose.

What suffers in the process, is the "team". The indivisual shadows grow tall and the "team" in these indivisuals takes a backseat.

These meetings have to be task oriented and not indivisual oriented and then the "team" comes to life! And when the T.E.A.M comes to life - Together Everyone Achieves More!

Faith

2008-06-15T23:48:00.002+05:30

Its the one thing that keeps the world sane. It's called faith! If you see insanity, look closely and you will see lack of faith. All the feverishness in the world is nothing but lack of faith.

Now, the interesting thing here is that, the object of faith is not important. If you have faith in a piece of stone, it will work for you. :-)

The object of faith is not important because its all one conciousness! :-) :-)

Tree Plantation

2008-06-15T23:45:00.007+05:30

Avla, Imli, Badaam, Sitaphal and Laxmitaru saplings were lined up in a corner in Keshav Mangal Karyalya near Hinjewadi Chowk, as rain pelted down on our rain caps. I love Sitaphal shake so it sounded like a good idea to plant a Sitaphal tree...my grand children would also be able to enjoy a Sitaphal shake then! The second sapling I picked up was Laxmitaru, because Guruji recommends this one and it has a whole lot of benefits! Soon everyone picked up their two trees and a sickle! yea, a sickle :-) and we were off to the small hill in Phase I Hinjewadi.

I had to go get a couple of late comers and when we reached the hill again, Pallavi had already planted her Badaam Tree and she had done it rather artistically. And, did I get inspired! The rain had stopped and there I was hitting the ground hard with my sickle! The ground was intriguing, wet soil, multi coloured pebbles, grass strands...and as it loosed up it was quite a sight! I removed the loose soil and planted my Laxmitaru, creating a nice little platform around it and then posed for some pictures :-) :-)

It had started to rain again, most of us were now digging up to plant the second tree. Two little boys living in the slum around also joined us! I spotted a really nice spot to plant my Sitaphal tree, just on the edge of a small cliff structure. I jumped my way there and my enthusiastic sickle started to bolt the ground; I had hardly dug up when my sickle met with rock...ton ton ton and phew! I had to go back to a comparatively boring spot where my Sitaphal Tree would stand. It wasn't long before we were all done and clapping for ourselves (on my insistence :) )

Acceptance

2008-06-06T17:15:00.005+05:30

Now, Philosophy again. :-)
I have been wanting to write this ever since an article appeared in Times of India on Acceptance. I dont remember, who wrote it. Now, if you have not done any Art of Livng course before please dont read further, you will only make a mockery of yourself!

Accept people and situations as they are. What a sutra! It's amazing what acceptane can do to your abilities! Basically, it removes the clouds. What clouds ? The clouds covering your intellect! And you think better and make the right decisions and right things happen to you!
And thats not it, acceptance sets you free! You might think that you know what it means to be free. I thought the same, and I was ridiculously mistaken! I had no idea, what freedom is. It's like a different world that exists on the same planet! And, sooner or later, this lifetime, or another...you have to realize, that the purpose of life is to move to that freedom. to moksha. to nirvana.

Now, if you have not done any Advance course and have not heard Ashtavakra, stop here. Please do.

If you are saying that you accept you mother in law, then that means you at some point of time did not accept her and maybe you still dont. Maybe, at the level of the intellect, you accept her. But, something in you, still doesnt!

Comming back to what triggered this post. The article in The Speaking Tree in TOI.
A fire burns a house. You dont blame the fire, you look to douse it. You question reasons that may have caused the fire, but you dont question the fire. You dont ask "why did the fire burn?". You accept fire, you accept that the nature of fire is to burn. Now imagine, you do not accept fire, and a fire happens, and what do you do "how could she? how dare the fire burn my house? i am gonna take revenge! the fire does not know me! i am gonna teach her a lesson! " And the house burns!

Wake up and realize, dont let the house burn! Accept, and once there is acceptance you will have the ability to take the right action.

It may not be easy, here is a tip for acceptance...
...stop rejecting. :-)

Jai Gurudev!

Whats going on?

2008-06-06T17:10:00.003+05:30

LOTS to say the least.

I want to go for the YES!+ TTC. And I need a cool 4 weeks off for that. So I just walked in to my manager's cabin and asked me give me a 5 week off, so that I can attend the TTC and also spend a week at home. Well, he was all smiles. And he didnt know what to do. He said he would schedule a meeting with the senior manager.

Now, to add to the fun, TTC calls would not come before 10th. So till then, its just...call ayega, nahi aayega, aayega, nahi aayega...chutti milegi, nahi milegi, milegi, nahi milegi...and I am trying to be calm in all this. I tell you its useless. I try to be calm, I never succeed. Its not an intellectual decision that you make to be calm or to be stressed. Stress happens to you, and peace also happens to you. Sadhna, Seva, Satsang and Knowledge and peace happens to you! Thanks to Guruji! :-) :-)

How Stupid ?

2008-06-06T17:03:00.003+05:30

I dont write very frequently...even though I want to. When I do sit down to write sometimes, I dont know what to write. And thats simply because I am somewhat stupid! (Adding a somewhat, because a plain stupid sounds somewhat rude!)

Now, I am not here to publish a book on philosophy, but, somehow I am always striving to write philosophy! Even when I know, how futile is philosophy! I have decided, I would just come here and write anything that comes to my mind. Even if its gibberish! So many good things happen all the time, they are worthy of a record here on this blog. Dear blog, and dear good and bad events, and dear good and bad people, I promise...I will pen you down more often! :-)

Comfortably Snuffed

2008-05-20T12:54:00.003+05:30

'Its' an amazing experience, it gets you out of your comfort zone.
But why do you need to get out of your comfort zone ?
I feel free...like I have broken the shackles tying my soul...
Shackles tying your soul...oh yea ?

Hmmm, and then...this intelligent lady had a frog story to tell... [Read 'Khaki Education']
and epiphany happened :-)

You put a frog in boiling water and it would jump out...
You put a frog in regular water and increase the temperature slowly...you would kill the dude!

Every Comfort Zone takes away a colour from our life and we dont even realize...

I look back and I find so much of life that I didnt live...because it would have caused discomfort
...to me, my ego, my emotions, or to my body...

Living in the Comfort Zone has caused two things...
One, it has snuffed out half the fun from life...
...when was the last time you felt like dancing and you danced ?
the very thought caused too much discomfort in the head ?

and Two, whenever the world has conspired to pull us out of our Comfort Zones...
...we have found ourselves miserable ?
Ever felt miserable when the power went off ?

to be on the path

2008-04-22T11:33:00.004+05:30

The journey is miserable.

It's like, your train is passing through a desert and you are asleep. You just dont see the dried shrubs, the arid land, the blanched skins, the thirsty souls. And then, suddenly, you wake up...and the hot dry air gushes in through the window, your never knew and all this while your skin has been broiling in the hostile wind.
Your throat is running dry. You look for comfort. Yes, you had seen, the pot there is full of water. Hastily, you get down and dip the ladle in, the pot is dry and empty. It was a dream.
There is a spalsh, someone just threw water on your face, its soothing, your skin cools down just a bit. You see he's sittin there before you. How can that be? It's a mirage.
Yes, the pot there is full of water. You wipe the water from your face and dip the ladle in that pot. The pot is empty. It was a dream.
You rub your eyes, you see him there. It cant be. You ask your friend, she tells you he's not there. Oh yes, how can that be! Water pours down on your head, a chill runs down your spine. You are drenched. Do you see I am drenched, you ask your friend ? The water has evaporated. She tells you there is no water. The wind hasnt stopped, your skin cant bear it now. You have known the chill in water. You look for him, he's sitting there before you. Dont you see him ? She says No. He will save us from the hot wind. The hot wind? She asks.

F R E E D O M

2008-03-28T10:25:00.005+05:30

Freedom.

So few realize the word and the meaning. Extremely few are lucky...to be on the path. A prayer rises in me and it finds these words...

mehra walya, saiyan...rakhin charna de kol
rakhin charna de kol
rakhin charna de kol

sat naam waaheguru, sat naam waaheguru!

the big fat indian wedding - the important story

2008-03-20T12:22:00.005+05:30

In between all the fun and frolic and chaos, two people get tied to each other. And the tying up cascades to atleast their immediate family. Life would never be the same again.

It is the beginning of a new family, the life ahead is full of possibilities. The possibilities could have been simply amazing. But, as is the nature of human mind, nothing is left to simplicity. To add to the complexity, what lies ahead is unknown. More for the bride.

But, we are men and women of courage, and quite prepared to face the future akimbo. The bride's mind has been conditioned to be married from the day she took birth on this planet.

God bless everyone getting married!

the big fat indian wedding - the fun story

2008-03-20T12:08:00.007+05:30

Crazy competitions between the 'ladki waale' and the 'ladke wale', they can be fun!

The groom rides down to the shaadi on his rented white ghodi (well, not really a ride), the incessant dancing around him goes on...and goes on...and goes on, and the groom sits there straddling his horse (he has no option). And then someone from the 'ladki wale' decides that enough is enough and the bride's brothers are motioned to go and get their jeeja down. And here begins the first conflict...the 'ladke wale' wont let that happen so easily. After a dance or two, they agree and the shaadi proceeds to 'Milani'.

Milani is fun. The corresponding relatives from both sides meet and put garland's around each other's neck. By, corresponding relatives I mean...ladki ka bhai...ladke ka bhai, ladki ka chacha, ladke ka chacha and so on... . When the milani happens, both the parties try to get the other one off their feet by lifting them in air...and whoever succeeds, wins!

Phew! There's another hurdle before the groom can walk in to the wedding hall...and this is the biggest one. His own 'sali's'. Or the bride's sisters. They simply demand money to let him in, and what follows is bargainings and negotiations and crazy comments and jokes...

Thats not the end, the ladki waale prowl the shaadi campus all the time, finding ways to trouble the ladke wale. And they steal the groom's shoes, and pin him when the phera's are happening...and what not!

I wonder...Aho!!

Why do I volunteer ?

2008-03-17T15:04:00.016+05:30

I have been with the Art of Living for seven years; for the first six and a half years I was far from being a volunteer. I met Guruji for the first time, 4 months back and I told him Guruji course vourse to sab acchha hai but I dont believe in the miracle stories that people tell of you. And the irony is that...the last 4 months of my life have been nothing but miracles!

Guruji says, when your mind shifts from an attitude of "What about me ? What about my this ? What about my that ?" to "What can I do for you?"...it brings a certain quality to your conciousness. And you go deeper into your meditation. And then you connect to your SELF. And when you connect to your SELF, you connect to the whole universe. The whole universe is a one big organization and it realigns itself when needed, to make sure that you succeed.

Now, if someone had come and told me this 6 months back, I would have told him or her to shut up and stop the jargon. Doesn't it sound ridiculous ? It is ridiculous. But guess what ? Its true. And I live it every day. And it's not just me, so many people have so many stories to tell of that.

People ask me, working for an IT company and doing the Art of Living...how do you manage time ? I tell them, I dont. Things just fall in place, all the time!

All of us work, why do we work ? more often than not, to make money ? why do we need money ? to pay our bills. We work our ass off the whole day, so that we can pay our electricty bill, house rent, petrol bill, food bill, cell phone bill etc. I mean, I was not born to just go to office, drink coffee, eat, drink, talk, drive back, face the mad traffic, reach home, watch tv, go to sleep? Life is short. When I volunteer, end of the day it feels good to know that I have not spent the whole day working, just to pay my bills. It brings a little meaning to life.

When I get a person to the course, he or she benefits. The fee that they pay, benefits several other people. And in the process, I make a hundered friends. You know, my social circle is not just tinku and bunty.

And this whole process brings about tremendous personal growth!

All the time we do things, where we have something to gain. We work to get money, we perform to get recognition, we want to see someone happy...because seeing them happy makes us happy! When we do things without expecting anything in return, it brings a crazy kind of elation within us. We become stronger. Dinesh bhaiya explained this very beautifully once. He said, if you drop a stone in a glass of water, what happens ? some water splashes out and there are ripples. What happens when you drop the same stone in a sea ? it would hardly create ripples. Similarly, when the prana increases in us, little things cannot shake us, we become very strong.

And thats not it. When I organize a course, I develop people management skills, leadership skills, oratory skills, time management skills...well, its almost an MBA :-)

I am sharing this because I spent six and half years in ignorance. Sitting on a box of wealth and not knowing what lays beneath me. Maybe you should not wait that long.

the big fat indian wedding - the sad story

2008-03-13T12:08:00.006+05:30

Yes, its an overused stale title, but there's nothing new happening on the 'dilli ki shaadi' front, that could motivate a new title!

The bride's parents, they have lived their lives for this day. Some are lucky and they have accumulated enough money to host this shameless event, some are not and they would take loans or sell their big houses and move into smaller ones and host this shameless night! The shameless night; when they would stand proud, dressed in exhorbitant clothing and jewellery, their faces gleaming with make up worth thousands of rupees. Their lips curled in a relentless smile, and their heads full of painfully relentless thoughts!

The 'rishtedars' are dogs. Well dressed and well decorated dogs though! They have an opinion about everything and it is cumpolsary for them to express it. They are full of advices, of should's and of should not's, of complaints, of hippocracy. They are more often than not - empty of useful action.

The bride, she looks pretty. Overloaded. But pretty! Guess, you have to be a bride to really know more.

The groom is a poor fellow. Dressed in the most expensive suit in town, he can't show it to anybody. It's all hidden under his money mala's. Forget about the suit, the money he spent at beauty parlour is a waste too. No one can see his face either.

But all that is only a small part of the extravaganza!

my cloth of silk

2008-03-06T21:07:00.003+05:30

a jungle of dry thorny bushes
branches from one bush, entwine with the other
i have my cloth of silk
caught up in the thorns

the jungle is never ending
my cloth of silk has to pass through
i pull it from one thorn
and it gets caught in the other

moments of freedom are fleeting
sometimes, i pull it too hard
and i tear my cloth of silk
with soft hands, things dont work