Musings...

Can we really see reality and not concepts??? How much we miss the world when we stick to labels!! Lets take an example in every day terms...suppose we look at a tree, our eyes perceive the tree, an image appears in our mind, compares the image that we have about tree with the current image and our mind immediately labels the object as tree. We do similarly the same with other human being (object) and compare the image with current image and label the object as Ram or Seeta or Sheila or John. Actually the object that we are perceiving are “called” tree or human being or stone; but we perceive them through the color of the image in our mind and that too an image which existed in the past. And to add insult to injury as it may seem, we even perceive our body, mind or whatever through the historical image recorded and continuously overlayed with more images most of which are completely wrong or nonsensical. Think how much we miss the beauty of the world and the human being by labelling!

It is so wonderful when a group of young people (and sorry to use the word "young") get together and start such a moving movement.. these are some people i know who have got together to make a difference to Bombay- they are going to help terrorist victims, make people aware about what road digging, any problem that you feel helpless about; now you need not sit and mope as to who will help you; if everyone contributes, we can make a difference and push the government into making India vibrant !! click on the following link and join the movement http://sosmumbai.com/#

Saw sunset today like many other days - it was absolutely beautiful - sun's rays streamed and painted a myriad of colours and hues -and the few dark and white clouds enhanced the beauty of sunset against the backdrop of blue sky with the half moon smiling as if at the painting. The white clouds looked ethreal with the sun rays behind them; the red sun that was sinking into the horizon was even more splendid if that was possible this scene set me thinking .. was this created "by" someone or are these are just events that are done and there is no doer as some great masters have said? And doesn't it apply to all of us i.e. it seems that we do deeds when actually deeds get done through us just like electricity is expressed as light or fan or refrigerator !

Noticed something interesting post attack.. citizen movements like the one at Gateway of India, candle burning at Taj and Leopold, people holding hands at Peddar road, and some holding candles too! people writing petition to prime minister, the physical anger against politicians and i was thinking, and the media (DNA, times of India) quickly setting up process for citizen to report (hope it continues) - will mumbai be the same again? may be .. may be not.. other interesting things noticed just two days after attack... a bored security guard next to ATM of a large bank...certain members of authorities - being rude with roadside hawkers! and other authority members taking free rides from taxi (i could be mistaken but the meter was certainly not down) and the politicians won't change (or will they)- 6th December (Saturday) saw the usual annual traffic jam that afflicts mumbai regularly - yes the Dalits (sorry for the choice of word!) come (or brought?) to mumbai on the death anni

It seems so long ago- yes, 16th November 2008 was a memorable day since I completed my first ultra marathon (which for the uninitiated means at least 50 Kms of running) and the interesting part was that i have never run a full marathon before :), it was tougher trail than the previous year and i was just thinking, i almost cancelled the trip. We reached the previous night at ONV (www. our native village .com) a nice ecofriendly place on the outskirts of Bangalore at a place called Hessarghatta. We all went by a bus from Cubbon park to ONV- we were regaled on the way by A1 (Arvind) on what was in store for us on the trail and boy was he right to warn us (and more of that later). We met some of the runners who also stayed overnight; had lots of food (carb loading) and this is one of the best part of running ultra. Another major part of this year's ultra was the fabulous running by Santosh (who became record holder of running 156 km in India (Bangalore Ultra -2008), yes not kidding)-

After all the news and blogs and twitter, there is very limited stuff i can muse about; whatever happened was sad; so many people killed, injured, scared! Many people were too scared to even venture out on the 27th. And the city part as the oldtimers would say i.e fountain, fort, etc. - I have never seen it so deserted for a long time; the ubiquotous hawkers on the roads were missing- cars were actually parked in those places ...and people so scared on the 28th or even the next day. I was having lunch in one of the restaurant and the sound of car horn was enough to send people to the deep end and the restaurant was ready to shut down. People were running helter skelter at just a whisper of any incident. My favourite juice shop at fort was shut too. on the flip side, it was amazing that mumbai's famous dubbawallas had come to office to collect dubbas- so many people had gone to office and were working...Mumbai is amazing in its resilience. Now things have quietened down and mumbai i

Wonderful way of spending time in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu for 7 days - wish i could do it too ! A environment friendly and healthy way of touring these places - can view the place better - slow is better - fast is terrrible - just try it when you want to reach somewhere - when you are in a hurry and when you have ample time to reach the place and you know what I mean for info on the tour click on http://www.tourofnilgiris.com/

I will start with this nice quote - source unknown - and thanks to Internet.. and the quote is ..... “You look like a thinker. Am I right? (I confirmed his hunch) I have some advice for you. What do you do when you take a shit? (I told him, I never really thought about it) Exactly. You just shit. That’s what you need to do with your music.” Isn't this interesting quote for life- what finally matters is what one does.. and this is dependent in a sense ultimately on what deep down thinks right ? and even more interesting instructions to life and quite deceptively simple are: 1. Be impeccable with your word - effectively means be true to what you said (doesnt it sort of match with the last one (yeah just be patient ! i will come to it) 2. Don't take anything personally - and this is required in office or any other place - it just means that whatever happens is quite impersonal - each one of us lives in our own world where no one exists - yes just think about anything that some on

an interesting blog on the present moment, the now, http://kentonwhitman.com/blog/2008/10/28/try-not-to-be-in-the-now/ the conclusion seems to be be --- practice mindful meditation... just observe with curiosity anything that happens which means what you think, what you feel, how you breath and so on.. fascinating ....

You may wonder what is the point in comparing Nalanda with USA; you may in any case like to read on http://www.nalanda.nitc.ac.in/about/NalandaHeritage.html about Naland Univ.. well it is like this .. Nalanda was known all over the world as a great university- people across the world used to visit Nalanda, join the univ and learn. Guess where does this happen now? in US India used to be and to a large extent accept all paths (not "religion") as the way for liberation; it was the home of many religions and Parsi came to India when they were persecuted.. Guess where else does this happen? you guessed it US - California is the bed of Zen Buddhism, Oprah presents different spiritual masters - there are others that propogate Vedanta India used to be a rich country and people all over the world used to come to India for trade and coveting gold - where does this happen now - even in the midst of all the negative publicity about the subprime - well i do admit people are rushing to I

As mentioned, yesterday was an incredible day - reached office - office well decorated - there were flowers and the traditional diyas plus of course the incredible rangolis - we really had great artists in our office - we wished each other Happy Diwali and ate lots of sweets and salty stuff and chakli etc.. even the restaurant owner invited us while greeting us; one thing which moved me today was that two young ladies (not a relative) prostrated before me and asked for my blessings - i was a bit embarrassed since i wasn't used to it - but almost immediately felt really moved with their gesture. We continued with our work and then at night (8 pm) i went to marine drive (Mumbai) for my running practise - close to mumbai marathon and i had lost practice for about 3 plus months..and had to catch up!! I felt wonderful running (it was quite dark) on the marine drive footpath - Arabian Sea was dark - the horizon however well lit - it was cool and breezy - it was particularly nice since

Yesterday was Deepavali for tamilians and it was an incredible wonderful day - i think i will break up the blog into two or more.. My sister rang up not so early morning 7 am to wish me Happy Deepavali and reminded me of the days when we used to celebrate but i am... anyhow here goes.. we used to live in a small place - about 500 sqft carpet in vileparle (Mumbai) - small because we used to live in a large place in my father's quarters and moreover, we used to be a large family living together including our cousins- so it used to be wonderful and the tradition continued till my father and then my mother passed away. We used to wake up early morning at about 4 pm - and that day all of us used to get up feeling very excited - by then all the new clothes would be kept ready, oil heated and my mother will ask all of us to sit down on a "pai" (made of sticks from plants i think- very useful in hot climate to sit on the floor) and then she will sing arathi; then apply small port

Absolutely incredible - for freedom, liberation just four steps or activities or framework - just like Buddha's four fold path - this is from Guru Vachaka Kovai The Garland of the Guru's sayings by Muruganar. These are collections from Ramana Maharshi's verbal teachings "That which is worth taking up is the self-enquiry that reveals jnana; that which is worth enjoying is the grandeur of the Self; that which is worth renouncing is the ego-mind; that in which it is worth taking refuge, to eliminate sorrow completely, is one’s own source, the Heart." All that had to be said is said in just these four sentences viz. purpose in life - revealing jnana through self inquiry enjoyment - revel in self renounce - the mind refuge - hear wow!!

Interesting dimension to free will vs destiny... this is what Thomas Friedman had to say... "My friend Rob Watson, the head of EcoTech International, has a saying about Mother Nature that goes like this: “Mother Nature is just chemistry, biology and physics. That’s all she is.” And because of that, says Rob, you cannot spin Mother Nature. You cannot bribe Mother Nature. You cannot sweet talk her, and you cannot ignore her. She’s going to do with the climate whatever chemistry, biology and physics dictate. And Mother Nature always bats last, and she always bats a thousand" and in a way, since human beings are also part of nature which we generally forget, nature includes Human. However human being have some elements of free will and the tremendous variation in nature response makes consequence a lot unpredictable. Now let me take this with my favourite example of travelling in mumbai city... When someone who comes late is asked why he/she came late the answer invariably is tha

I had listened to Oprah talk about religion and spirituality specially with regard to Eckhart Tolle's book and how people prefer to be spiritual than religion; and I also went back to the days when it was and probably is fashionable to be secular rather than religious. Today I was going through a buddhist lecture and it struck me hard.. I remember about 2 years or more when i wanted to convey to egroup moderator as to why Hinduism was not a religion and is simply a path and probably the British or Westerners grouped the multiple paths or "marga" in India into one single "religion" for convenience or divide and rule. And the reason for this is that being religious as opposed to being secular or spiritual implies that one is fanatic or backward or whaterver; when all that happens with people is that some of them follow the path prescribed by some authority be it church or a priest or a rabbi or whatever while others prefer the path of "thinking" and fol

I was quite excited this sunday.. off on a trek after a long time; the place was Gorakhgad .. Sahyadri (western ghats Maharashtra) . Woke up at 4.15 and left for Bandra the starting point for all of us. Mumbai never sleeps and Andheri station was fairly crowded at 5.30; reached the starting point by 6. Kapil from the organisors odati met us at Bandra and seven of us left for Gorakhgad; Yogita the trek leader joined us at Kalyan. The early morning drive was wonderful, cool and the post monsoon scenery lush with natures greenery. We had breakfast and left for Dehri which is the base for the trek to Gorakhgad. Apart from the trek leader, there was a couple from Helsinki, (and we had a great conversation with them about Finland, Lapland, and northern lights) and two people from ad agency, a lawyer and one tax consultant. Nice bunch of people. Yogita was very enthusiastic throughout the journery and continued animatedly talking about her treking experience. The trek in the beginning past

Driving does give lots of time for musing.. imagine driving for about 4 hours every day! The other day there was quite a lot of traffic (more than usual) and the cars sort of getting stuck into a loop. There was such a cacophony of noise inspite of the fact that one could really do nothing till one auto (three wheeler vehicle - a larger version of a scooter with space for three people and a driver) moved about one inch (slight exaggeration). and thought to myself about Reinhold Niebuhr's serenity quote " Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change". and then the other interesting thing that happens is when someone cuts a car. The horn by the driver of the car reminds one of how a dog barks when someone accidentally touches hurts its tails. and when you try to overtake the other car, that is the time he/she suddenly wants to go fast and horns away to glory.. this is not to say that i dont do all these - these days i am able to observe and hence it has re

This was a great half marathon for me- but more of that later. I woke up at 4.30 am to the sound of my mobile - waking me up. I got up feeling excited and a bit nervous to me. nervous becoz I wanted to run much faster than the previous year. and this is how marathon closely parallels life; try to be better and better than your previous day or work or whatever. I did a bit of yoga exercises to feel good and run well, had some bananas and went to railway station to go to Azad maidan; sunday morning, the road was dark, weather absolutely fabulous- a perfect climate for runners; I must make the most of it. Reached the maidan and boy was it crowded! lots of bustle and noise - guys stretching, some doing small runs and some eating :) I went to the food court to check for some runner friends, didnt find any and promptly went to the holding area (the place where all runners wait before the run starts); it was very crowded, slightly lesser than the peak Virar train :) I went as close to the st