Friday, January 30, 2009

Egyptian Tradition.

I live as I please, I wander where I like;
I go and out each day according to my pleasure;
I move where my inclination leads me;
I assume all the forms, which it pleases me to assume;
I hold in my right hand the Lapis stone;
I wear in my right ear the Flower of Ankham for ornament;
I am flourishing; I am prosperous; I am a perennial youth in the garden of immortality;
I am a proof of the power of the Gods.


-Reading of the week.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Run Doggie Run:


Run Dog Run, Slumdog run,
Minutes to the Millions, Miles to the Millions,
Millionaire dog run.
Run Run Run.
Run for the Oscar, Run for the globe,
Run to lead , whole of the orb.
Run ’Slumdog Millionaire’ Run.
:-)

Close up:
“A.R. Rehman should be declared a National treasure. Before he linked North & South Now he connected the East and West”
-Prakash Zha

Monday, January 19, 2009

Parenting: you and me half the life away.

Two days ago my parents left to my hometown, after spending a week with me. Now I have started seeing my Grandpa’s face in my father’s. I feel he is not my father but someone else, there are few decades to live together, the set of parents change with each generations.
Before it used to be Daji and Baa, then big brother and Ben, for me its Momy and Papa, Few others call Mom and dad, may be again that original address might come back but Maa, mama or momy will never change. An ‘elder’ is the word for parents. Their roles and importance changes based on country and time. Parents used to be on the top of the family pyramid, now in nuclear families, FAMILY is a different reality.
Mother’s role is exaggerated and expanded to almost God, but there are two females leaving in same body, mother and mother-in-law!!! The enthusiastic ladies see daughter in daughter-in-law without knowing they are different creatures with separate genes and nerves. Being parents, being parents of grown up children is a complex matter. Lewis Carroll had written in one poem: ‘A clean kid with straight brows, with tomorrow’s dreams in his eyes, time is running, you and me are at the distance of half of the life’. After the child comes out from mother’s tummy, there are two separate destinies. There was a short story in which dead father talks to his son, in front of 3 yrs old sleeping grandson. Son is telling his dead father, ‘we could have understood each other better if we had lived this age together’. Dead father asks son, ‘Did you cry’? Son said, ‘yes… in dreams’. May be my father will also ask me ‘Did you cry?’
By 1993 Grandpa had no teeth, upper joint fracture, 2 heart attacks, all white hair…I had gone to see him burnings after his death, my father set the fire and I thought so much of love & such a little time…he had the color of the night. We will keep on dying by pulling the chain of the same blood. Our ‘us & we’ will go on forever…but grandpa doesn’t have the shadow even.
Unable to be measured, Parenting. Every kinsfolk have their own style of carrying their ancestries. There are tough fathers and mothers, who want their offspring to leave the nest and fly away … ‘Putrat Shishyat Parajayet’ is a Sanskrit proverb which says ‘our victory is in being defeated by our children’. Parenting brings it’s own responsibility, Fathers need to make lot of money to create the sparkling future for the children. Life is international in 2009, competition is cruel, roughshod hard work and number one hasn’t any alternatives…then there is a little home, Loving mother and a father whom you can protest silently, and you feel like growing small again…

Close up:

"The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves."

-Victor Hugo

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Nasrudin arranged to give a lecture

Nasrudin arranged to give a lecture at two o’clock in the afternoon, and it looked set to be a great success: the thousand seats were completely sold out and more then seven hundred people were left outside, watching the lecture on closed circuit television.
At two 0’clock precisely, an assistant of Nasrudin’s came in saying that, for unavoidable reasons, the lecture would begin late. Some got up indignantly, asked for their money back and left. Even so, a lot of people reminded both inside and outside the lecture hall.
By four in the afternoon, the Sufi master had still not appeared and people gradually began to leave the place, picking up their money at the box office. The working day was coming to an end, it was time to home. When it was six o’clock, the original one thousand seven hundred spectators had dwindled to less than a hundred.
At that moment, Nasrudin came in. He appeared to be extremely drunk and began to flirt with a beautiful young woman sitting in the front row.
Astonished the people remained behind began to feel indignant, How come a man can behave like that after making them wait four solid hours? There were some disapproving murmurs, but the Sufi masters ignored them. He went on, in a loud voice, to say how sexy the young woman was, and invited her to go with him to France.
After crushing the people who were complaining, Nasrudin tried to get up, but fell heavily to the floor. Disgusted some more people decided to leave, saying that it was pure charlatanism, that they would denounce the degrading spectacle to the press.
Only nine people remained. (Actually, only that many people had come to listen to him I think ) As soon as the final group of outraged spectators had left, Nasrudin got up; he was complete sober, his eye glowed, and he had about him an air of great authority and wisdom, “Those of you who stayed are the ones who will hear me”, he said. “You have passed the two hardest tests on the spiritual road: the patient to wait for the right moment and the courage not to be disappointed with what you encounter. It is you I will teach.”
And Nasrudin share with them some of the Sufi techniques.


Close up:
"I wanted an adventure in life and not an adventurous life." :-)

Monday, January 5, 2009

When did they die?



11th August 1908. Khudiram was taken out of the prison cell.
“Last wish?”
Khudiram said, “Vand-e-matram”. With the Bhagavad-Gita in his hands and a cramping rope on the neck…Later, he was listed among martyrs forever. His date of birth 3 Dec 1889…he was 19 years when hung.
23rd march 1931, Bhagat Singh was 24 yrs old when executed.
In June 1858 a lady had sacrificed her life against English commander Sir Hueogh, Queen of Zansi ‘Rani Lakshmibai’…age at death, 22 years and 7 months.
And fire brand Mangal Pandy burnt the British realm in his twenties.
I lost my dear close friend when he was 31. He was a medal holder from REC (NIT).
How many years are enough to this life?
There are renowned names drowned in the ocean of the unknown after few coruscate years. Now people live longer 70, 75, 80 years…but achievement has no retardations, they had infinite life on work board than on the earth board. The great Shankaracharya died at 33, Jesus Christ was crucified at 33 too. The respectable Tamil poet Bhathiyar died at the age of 35 while offering a coconut to an elephant. Swami Vivekananda attained the highest superlatives achieved by any man at just 39 and wrapped his aliveness. The honorable Subhash Chandra Bose who died in the plane crash at Taipei, had experienced 48 years on this land. Pundit Jawaharlal, Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel expired at 75, 79 and 75 respectively …
Now in awe… what is the age to live it up and when to die it out?


Close up:
“When I get old, I’d rather regret the things I did, than regret the things I didn’t do.”