History in the commenting

I have created (personal) history here. Someone has actually commented in my blog. And it was an anonymous comment, from a very public person, Rajesh. The downside to my upside in blogging is that his comment was a response to a very innocuous post of mine, Holy song, wholly performance.

Coincidental Krishna

We marked the first anniversary of our Mandir yesterday, with lots of religious fanfare and mild spiritual overtures. As an insignificant cooincidence, yesterday was also Krishna Janmashtami. We celebrated the same with an Ekadasi Rudram session of Lord Shiva.

God is in the details

The more you engage in business, the more this message hits you: He who accepts mediocrity must himself be pretty mediocre. Infinite patience with mediocrity is poor management and aimless leadership.

On cutin and creation

Humanity always takes insanity to greater heights of incredulity.

Now, they have grown actual living and breathing mice from reengineered skin cells. And of all places, it had to be in the world's largest producer of human beings,- China.

Unzooed animals

Took my family to Jumeirah zoo yesterday. Akshitha was tired of seeing animals on the screen. Figured out one thing yesterday,- real animals live outside the zoo. Many of those animals looked more humane than some humans that I know of.

Akshi and me - 2

Akshitha is grooming herself to be a well-rounded Papa-centric person. She cries everytime I lift another child. In fact, she has begun to aver to her mother that 'Papa belongs to Baby'.

Little does she realize that this attitude is not helping her grow. Not helping her Papa grow either.

Holy song, wholly performance

Had a practice session last night for the next youth bhajan. If bhajan is seva as well, I doubt if seva was served. At least, I served nothing. If we are dancers, we should dance. Else, let's clap for the glory of the group. They also serve who only stand and wait.

But then, lips that pray are cooler than hands that help.

Saddam Bush, mate!

Have been following the Gulf News chronicle on Iraq-Kuwait, and on some of the reflections of Saddam.

Interestingly, the more I read his viewpoints, the more I began they sounded like George's. So very similar. Indeed, he sounded like Australian cricketers, who would only accept criticism as long as they were praise.

Teach, her, not, train, her

Akshitha has commenced her journey into the world of formal and phony communication in the mother of miscommunication, English.

Her first word was, undoubtedly, the Omkar, the primordial sound of English,- 'No'. And she utters it as easily as she spills juice out of the palm of her hand.

Quite appropriately, the second set of syllables she has picked up is 'Thank you'.

Philosophew

What's the synonym of synonym?

Democratically sustained imperialism

Was reading the other day about how Laloo Prasad Yadav got away with just about everything during his heyday under the Bihar sun.

Looks like the only difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that we elect the former.

The fourth mythical estate

Read an article in the Gulf News the other day about Dubai Police being voted best in the world. Should have been 'Dubai Police voted best in the world by Dubai Police'. Where transparency refers only to office presentations, the sole option for people is to just flip the page.

Let go

Was watching our Youth Coordinator Navneet immerse himself in his kanjeera yesterday. Interesting.

Playing an instrument exceedingly well is like driving a F1 sports car astoundingly well. You have to become one with the car. So also with the instrument. Just like the fingers clasp themselves around the steering wheel to make the driver one contiguous form with the raching machine, so also do the fingers dance over the drumhead, not as another, but as itself, the dancer becoming the dance, and the stage, separated, rather by time, than by space.

Maybe a microcosm of life itself. You might need to be passionate about what you do, to do it exceedingly well. Dance like no one is gasping. Live like it's your life. Be.

Renouncing renunciation

There seems to be so much of over the veneer and under the table jostling to be involved in prime-time seva. Few realize that the greatest beneficiary of any seva activity is the individual himself. As a corollary, the lowest form of seva would be the most beneficial.

Lower the seva, higher the growth, greater the learning.

Sadly, in this age of earning recognition, no one wants to be learning renunciation.

Akshi and me - 1

30th June, 2009

Baby told me today, "Acha, don't kiss me", after I had somthered her for only 10 minutes. Looks likes the future is already in the present. Sigh of the times.

Akshi and me

Watched a movie yesterday (recommended by Praji, as usual) entitled 'Abhiyum Njanum' (Abhi and me). It had a heart-wrenching story with a mind-wrenching message.

This movie is for all those fathers of daugthers who are like me,- a father who will not let his daughter walk, lest she fall, who wont let her swim, lest she gasp, who wont let her breathe, lest she experience life. This movie is for every father who thinks his daughter is an inextricable extension of himself. It drives home (rather sharply) the point that nothing in this world is yours, not even your intellect. Even that is borrowed, along with the body.

Ended up recollecting to my own discomfort, the profound truth (and all profound truths usually bring discomfort) from the Gita, where Krishna says,

"What is yours today, belonged to someone else yesterday, and

will belong to someone else the day after tomorrow.

You are mistakenly enjoying the thought that this is yours.

It is this false happiness that is the cause of your sorrows".

Looks like God is your only possession in this illusion called life. In an unrelated way, becoming a father is easy, being a father is quite the opposite, especially for the weak of parental heart.

Non-sequitur: The movie, although in Tamil, does not play out like a Tamil movie. It feels more like a Malayalam or Bengali movie. No overactors, no Namitha, no nonsense.

i meets I

At the abode, in the presence of the Phenomenon

Crusade against Self-discipline

Interesting. We had a Youth meeting last Friday, where I proposed the idea of a Mentor for the youth,- at the expense of my own reputation as the Youth Convenor.

However, vociferous opposition made me think harder. It is interesting that the cosy comfort of our own continually enforced nescience, makes us defy the warm wisdom of larger experience. And by the time we are old enough to show the humility to regret, our children become old enough to dive into the same delusory quagmire.

Such is the nature of Nature. Few are aware enough to break free from the shackling inertia of ineffectual existence. Even fewer want to do it. Even fewer do it.

Economies of transnational scale

Just to buttress my point, I got this statistic from McKinsey today. 'Of all the world's 100 largest economic entities, 63 are corporations, not countries'. Just serves to sustain my view on Made in China in particular, and corporate objectives in general, steering the course of the future of mankind (and womankind).

Made in the United States of China

I was dusting our show-case today, including the souvenirs we have collected (for others' sake) from the countries we have visited. I happened to flip over a mug that I got from Las Vegas the last time I visited that fatherland of hedonism. Interestingly, even the souvenir was made in, you guessed it, China.

Seemingly, barring the citizens themselves, everything in America is made in China. How does transnational commerce progress from here? Is it possible that China, the world's largest producer of Chinese labour, will find itself in the amusing position of being a monopolistic manufacturer to the world? ... and China becomes the Microsoft of Manufacture.

Popped off

The king of pop has popped off. And in doing so, he has, albeit unwittingly, become a text-book example of the exquisitely loony priorities of our age.

The paper and paperless media world-wide dished out article after article on how... people responded to Michael Jackson's death, not really about his death at all. About how Madonna could not stop crying, about how x wailed his heart out, about how y drank his wallet out,... but little about Michael Jackson himself, the iconic weirdo of our times.

Sometimes, the media is the mirror of a society's soul.

Many happy returns of the Date!

Akshitha celebrated her 2nd Birthday on 21st June, 2009. It seems to be such a totally acceptable misnomer, this Birthday thing. For starters, we don't celebrate the Birthday, rather, the Birthdate. Next, it's not even the Birthdate, it's the anniversary of the Birthdate. Most poignantly, we blow out a candle to bring on darkness, rather than light a lamp to welcome the light of life to the celebration.

Either way, she rules the house.

NDE

Such is life. And death. A couple known to Jeet collapsed due to food-poisoning yesterday after having dined at Lotus Garden, a joint frequented by our whole gang. As of yesterday, the young son of 5 passed away. And today, his elder sister of 8. I can't imagine the situation of this family who has lost both children in the space of two days due to food,- something we associate with life rather than death. This has also to be a new dimension in food poisoning, and ironical considering that the Food Inspection Department is pretty strict as per the PR machinery. And to think, we ourselves were always overflowing with heady praise for this eatery.

The close psychological shave is that we were in Praji's brother-in-law's place the same day they dined there, and his house is just a phone's throw from the Lotus Garden. I actually suggested ordering from there, and was eventually voted out by the rest. Had we ordered from there, I don't know if I would be typing this now. A different kind of NDE. Aum Sri Sai Ram!

Living wisdom

Watched an incredible video yesterday at the Mandir. A question posed in the video was: Do you know how to get wisdom? Somehow, that question rattled for long in my mind. It seems perfectly ironic that the moment one stops thinking he knows, wisdom dawns. The same difference between living and live-ing.

Race Attack

For me, America is an expansive country,- in size, shape, thought and intellect.

They have now elected a well-toned black man to the Presidency, while just 100 years back, they were trading these types. It truly goes to show that, while the cancer still exists, the people are fighting it, both in the courts, and in their minds.

I don't know if the same can be said of India. I mean, how many high-caste individuals still feel that others can be equally human, and will eat in their houses? How many SC/STs have actually been elected CMs/PMs? India will have a longer fight against, caste, in addition to that against creed and currency. Obama used no privilege of any quota system. He went to Harvard. However, just as change has taken place in the US, seeds are being sown in the Motherland as well. Our generation, for example, is a lot less tunnel-visioned, and caste seems less of an issue than personal-ities. Albeit, for racism in its most refined form of casteism, our Motherland has to be the Fatherland.

Conviction in(spite of) Wall Street

It has to be America.

I was in Times Square last week, and Times Square is one incredibly big Triangle. You have like only-God-knows-how-many people moving, running, singing, sighing, kissing, staring at the free-falling indices, playing, praying and cursing.

What was most touching was that, in this very Fatherland of capitalism and consumerism, just a short distance form Times Square, and near Wall Street, there was this lady distributing pamphelts on vegetarianism and PETA. Of all things, vegetarianism. It could mean only one thing. America, for all its attributes, is the land of the free spirit. Of conviction. I doubt if that lady could change the concrete mindsets of anybody passing by her. But that didn't stop her. Conviction beyond convenience.

It has to be America.

R/Evolution

While in Boston, I was discussing with a doctor on a very interesting topic. He drew a comparison betwee computers and Medicine, and stressed that Medicine lags by lifetimes in terms of finding cures for diseases, while the computer industry has been incredible in the way they have broken through in technological developments.

Interesting. That, of all engineering disciplines, he chose the only one that is seemingly going through revolution after revolution. In Mechanical Engineering, technological revolutions take decades, while evolutions happen everyday. Like, the automotive industry has been feeding off oil for the last hundred years, while car speeds have increased. Only now do they think of solar and other forms. It could be the same for other traditional disciplines as well.

However, what's most interesting is that, we are comparing man to machine here. Mankind has taken millions of years to evolve to the current level of sickness. So, we can't expect instant breakthroughs. More importantly, in some ways, we are evolving backwards, The phase lag can only lag further.

Garbage-rating

One way of determining the level of ethical progress of your society is by installing my patented garbometer in your brain.

You just look around and count the number of segregations of your garbage bin. If it has got four or more, you can be sure that society is serious about ir/relevant concepts including global warming, Mother Earth, and deforestation.

If you have no segregation, you must be in the Middle East, or in the Sub-continent.

100% Lawsuit guaranteed

It seems the most commonly heard phrase on TV in the US is 100% satisfaction guaranteed. Are they a seriously dissatisfied population? I mean, you have automatic toothpaste vending machines, automatic curtains, automatic coolers, automatic heaters, automatic lighting, instant weight-loss, instant silicon-gain, instant whitening, instant tanning, instant money, instant pain-relief, an instant in an instant,... why do they require ads to always talk of 100% satisfaction guaranteed?

Which means someone has actually started quantifying satisfaction? Which means the lawyer profession in America has just landed on a potential jackpot here.

The Liberty Statute

It's been quite some time since I last visited my epad. Things have been happening inspite of my absence, like my body visited the US for a short period.

It's an interesting world out there. In many ways, the US encapsulates for your understanding, the best and the beyond worst of what civilization has to offer. Interestingly, civilization contains civil, which is probably a scary irony.

The place is the motherland of commercialism, capitalism, im/morality, spirituality, atheism, and, on the same note, of the free spirit. Nowhere else will you find gay couples and pastors preaching in the same park, and with both parties given equal liberty to do so. That probably sums it up. This truly is the land of liberty, with its concomitant (not very pretty) tagalongs.

Interestingly, the motherland of liberty does not seem to offer too much of freedom. Freedom of life is starkly different from freedom of expression. Having said that, freedom of expression is in itself a luxury. Like, for example, how many civil-izations will allow you to question religious practices and still leave you alive?

Just a millimetre

Tuesday night, 19^th May, 2009, Akshitha lacerated her eyelid. Though her laceration cleaved me then, I now realize that, the Avatar must have worked out a major tragedy through a minor nick.

Just A millimetre

 

My baby injured herself last night,

She lacerated her right eye-lid;

Just a millimetre above her eye-lash,

A millimetre from destiny’s bid.

 

As the blood trickled down her cheek

And shrieks ran around the place;

I stood and stared, then rushed unfazed,

She had been saved by Divine Grace.

 

While the hospital doctors checked and tested,

And wondered at this incredible miss;

I realized her fate had no doubt been averted,

And the unseen hand was undoubtedly His.

 

As she sleeps soundly by me now,

Pristine, unattached and unaffected;

I look to Him in awe and wonder,

At the play that had just been enacted.

 

For, her design is in His very hands,

And though we are thankless to mention;

He steers her over life’s catastrophes,

With every timely nick and laceration.

 

For, I was there yesterday

And yet it mattered next to nothing;

She has her future to sojourn,

Where my prayer will remain but a farthing.

 

For, in spite of what we accomplish,

And how we gloriously enact our every whim;

We have to sustain the realization,

That we owe it all to Him.

 

Millimeters from appalling tragedy,

Seconds from eternal pain;

He guides and guards us throughout,

How do we repay our gain?

 

We live our lives in astonishing delusion,

Controlling little beyond ignorant actions;

While the unseen Hand sways throughout,

And makes all the decisions.

 

A different school of thought

Visited my alma mater, Indian High School yesterday, where I first set foot in 30 years back. Remembered the good old times, and mused on how difficult they make it current students to bunk classes. Earlier, we could just hop across wall to the Sindhi Club (formerly Indian Sports Club). Now, there is a whole building in between. Students need to be more creative now.

On a more serious note, it feel strange to see all these innocent and curious children being steadily worked on to have their pure open minds replaced with indoctrinated narrow ones, filled with a lot of information and very little learning. In retrospect, Moral Science classes used to be a formality (maybe they still do). Such is modern day education. Thank God there is Bal Vikas.

On another note, there was a declamation contest going on with students speaking in the national language wearing western costumes. Wearing western clothing will make us as westernised as speaking in Hindi will make us Indians. 

Inspired (In)action

Ramu seems to be forcing me to think too much, something that I am not much used to. He mentioned the other day about people setting examples for inspiration. 

Well, inspiration for inspiration's sake is like reading a book on swimming. Michael Phelps will only inspire you, the diving has to be come from you.  Inspiration leads you nowhere if it does not prompt action. On the other hand, action that is not inspired is like archery blindfolded. You will keep shooting till the cows come home, but you will never hit your target. 

To recount my statement during a meeting recently, if you haven't stretched yourself, you haven't been effective. Whatever we do that is only comfortable, will rarely be anything purposeful. Armchair effort is for government employees, and is not the hallmark of enterprise and enterprising individuals. 

Ramakant's words of nicedom

Had a philosophical discussion with Ram 'The Scorpio' Victo at 5 mins. past midnight last night,- obviously we don't have a life.

I mentioned to him in passing about one of my personal heroes in our network being Radha, who in many ways, is all that I am not. And the scoop of the night was his very interesting statement that good leaders can never become effective leaders. And he mentioned someone very respected as an example. 

On deeper thought, it could extend to the herculean difficulty in balancing principles with popularity, and rare has been the one to have achieved this balance. Principles may be popular, as long as they are explained, not so when they are enacted (and especially by others).  

Kerala - Most Literate and Most Ignorant

Just returned from a short trip to my very on God's Own County, Trichur. 

Truly, if it werent for the cancer of Communism that is atrophying the psyche of the masses and the contagion of corruption that is consuming the economic health of the state, this would truly have been God's Own Country. Seemingly, Keralites work very hard to steer clear of growth and prosperity. 

Following our careersteps

Reading the 7 habits and I am That together, meaning the best of management and the best of life at the same time, not easy. Interestingly, both talk of detachment in different ways. 

Have been putting two and four together, and have come to accept that although intensely hard, we have to prevent ourselves from constantly attempting to embellish our own autobiographies through the lives of our children. We can hope, but cannot force our hope. It's sometimes easier in the West when the father is a doctor and the son is on his way to becoming a guitarist,- and there is no problem.

Unparking ourselves

Wow! Talk aobut being ourselves for a change. It was like a catharsis, after an year of asphyxiation. Salient points of yesterday's meeting:

Rajiv: Desecrated that delicate Taboo game toy, and along with Sindhuja, contributed immensely to volleyball, by remaining at the boundary of the court for most of the game.

Sindhuja 'The Server' Sundarajan: Courageously evaded the volleyball anytime it came towards her. Also, offered her valuable motivational comment, "Go for it!"

Janani 'The Matador': Played dodgeball and volleyball with the exact amount of seriousness it didn't deserve. Also, castigated Rajiv for not speaking to his wife for 50 full days. Rajiv, this is the wrong spirit, don't do that. Show respect. Be loving, caring... Janani, you can stop reading now. Rajiv, way to go dude! Keep it up!

Also, offered her valuable motivational comment, "Girls, go for it!"

Prajeen: Remained confused for most of the match as to whether he was a player for Navneet's team or whether he was an umpire. 

Aibrami: Stayed out of the ball's way as much as possible. Repeatedly exclaimed, "Watch out, the ball is coming." Also, offered her valuable motivational comment, "Go for it, girls!"

Sanjay: Well played by offering our fair team an unfair disadvantage with repeatedly Shyaming the already confused referee, Prajeen.

Ramakant: Shyammed through most of the match.

Krishita: Excellent 'bowling' during volleyball. Also, offered her valuable motivational comment, "Girls, go for it, girls!" Also, schemed to use the trees and the sun to our benefit. Well schemed. If Janani is reading this, Krishita, this is not fair. This is not dharmic. We have to uphold the dignity of sports...

Navneet: Played very well and wore sensuous striped clothing. 

Priyanka: Master schemer and grand misplacer of the ball. Well played. 

Comment of the day goes to Shalu:

"What?! Girish is married? Oh my God! I mean, Oh my God! (To Abirami) So, you are Girish's wife?! What?! You are not?! Oh my God! I mean, you are Rajesh's wife?! I mean, Rajesh is married?! Oh my God! What?! That's Girish's son?! Oh my God! God, oh my God! Girish has got a son?! What?! Two children?! Oh my, oh my God, oh my God! As I only come to bhajans and leave immediately after conversations, I don't get to know anything. 

She unfortunately missed out on offering her valuable motivational comment, "Go for it!", as she left early. Well unsaid.

Throw of hope

Kindly observe our resident dude Arjun being himself during the refereeing for this event,- his cell phone kept romancing him during the cricket matches as well. 

 

Cricketer from Australia

A Gentleman and a Convenor during the Gentleman's game.

Ladies 'going for it'.

Wonder what it means,- they kept chanting it like some kind of mantram throughout the Throwball match.

Arjun being himself

Parents being children

One jump for Navneet and a giant leap for the Youth

Leap of Faith

We had our SAI Annual Sports Day on Friday, 3rd April, 2009, - conducted by the SAI Youth Mission, Dubai.

This has been a redemption in many ways, following the wake-up disaster call of last Christmas. This mega event has proved a number of things in a number of quarters. The important thing is that we have now raised the bar for ourselves in what we can accomplish. The tough thing is to maintain that impression. Securing a good reputation seems far easier than retaining it.

Some pictures follow.

Children being themselves