Musings...

I was  recently watching a movie viz Bahubali and there were couple of incidents which would help in exploring values. First one involved a situation where one of the leaders had to choose between wining and saving some one's life. Winning meant being selected as Yuvraj, the next heir apparent to a large kingdom (among the largest in the country). While saving some people's life (In today's context taking care of one's team )was the duty of any King, so was wining a fight against the kingdom's enemies key as otherwise there would no kingdom to rule. Second incident involved an equally difficult situation. One of the leader (A) and who was selected as Yuvraj had given commitment to his lover (D) that he would take care of her under any circumstance.  With this commitment, A took "D" to his kingdom. A's aunt who happened to be Rajmata till the children came of age had given commitment to her son (B) that "D" will be married to B as she was u

what is corruption? it is after all a method of getting ahead i.e ahead of others by paying for it - the problem is we define corruption too narrowly and in money specific terms - now let me give examples of action that we do not consider corruption and then may be we could realise that we can take it as natural and go on from there and not get stuck to the concept of corruption Are all these corruption? 1. we jump queues regularly be it at shopping mall, offices, railway station - 2. we (across the world) regularly pay tips to waiters and support staff - 3.  we jump traffic by creating a third or fourth lane and getting in front of other vehicles -specially happens in counties with huge population that drive on road 4. we (across the world) create laws that favour us and stop/delay other countries or organisation from generating profits or getting in? by this act, the "in" countries/organisations continue to get money while the others are effectively

on making a difference in a vast country like India - many people ask. can you make a difference in India - be it about corruption, educational system,  infrastructure, etc.   the answe is of course yes.... corruption: People can be corrupt only when they dont know you - if you get friendly with policemen, bureaucrats, municipal corporation, railway authorities before  you go to them with compliant, there is no chance of them being corrupt - can you ever think of asking money or paying money from/to your friends - in fact this is the most important reason why development does not happen at grass root level   on size: India is huge and it is difficult to make change at mega level - for which one needs governing authorities support - for which one would need compassionate and visionary leaders for a lenght of time - which India was lucky in the initial stage to have - but unfortunately they didnt live long -however the advantage with India is that it has many many sm

Love After Love The time will come when, with elation you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror and each will smile at the other's welcome, and say, sit here. Eat. You will love again the stranger who was your self. Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you all your life, whom you ignored for another, who knows you by heart. Take down the love letters from the bookshelf, the photographs, the desperate notes, peel your own image from the mirror. Sit. Feast on your life.

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