Beautiful prose

I am currently reading this book called Three cups of tea. It is about a mountaineer turned philanthropist, Greg Mortenson. This book talks about his failed attempt to conquer K2 and his efforts at improving life in the remotest parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

I came across this prose by Omar Khayyam from the Rubaiyat in this book which goes something like this...

"Why ponder thus the future to foresee,
and jade thy brain to vain perplexity?
Cast off thy care, leave Allah's plans to him--
He formed them all without consulting thee."

This is so true when we are especially fretting about the small things in life.
Putting this here as a reminder for tough times! We do our best and leave the rest to the person up there....

Wishful thinking

What is it about human mind that tends to worry about the something or the other all the time? No sooner you get something that you wished for, you start thinking about the next thing you have always wanted. You go ticking the to-do-list mentally. Can the mind ever be contented at what the present has to offer? Is it ok to keep aspiring for one thing or the other? Would you want nothing more once you are a hundred years old. I doubt that. If not something for you, there is always that little something your son/daughter/grand kid wants. You start building castles in air on their behalf as well. The mind is always thinking of an "i wish" thing. I wish we could afford a bigger house. I wish i could buy the new furniture that i saw at the store. I wish i could travel the world for a bit more. I wish my kids would study harder. I wish my grandkid lands his dream job....Even after you are dead, people are trying to fulfill your last wish!

golmaal hai bhai ..sab golmaal hai

Just this morning K and i were watching the news. The news channels were full of the latest in match fixing( something to do with Pak cricket players being accused for match fixing). Every morning without fail, what seems to hit the headlines these days is corruption, cheating, money laundering etc. And not to forget the various other tragedies like bombings, murder or natural calamity Its just to depressing to start your day off on such a note.

Corruption is the single biggest thing affecting the progress of our country. Can we as common people do something about it? Can just a handful of people who have no bureaucratic powers eradicate corruption by not giving bribes, paying up taxes and generally adhering to the rules laid down by the government? Admittedly, this is a beaten-to-death topic. But one thing that i always wonder, is there anything you or me as law-abiding citizens do to bring down corruption and accelerate development?

The few weeks that i was in Canada, i repeatedly heard the same from the immigrants there, that corruption is prevalent even there but it never affects the common man.
Given India's situation i am ok if we come to a level where common man is not affected by corruption.

Brand value...

I saw an ad in the newspaper for a herbal slimming product. A girl dressed in bridal finery with a big smile plastered on her face, while her parents look on lovingly. The groom looks like he will pounce on the bride any minute. The ad goes on with the father's narration : I was worried about my daughter being rejected by so many grooms because she was overweight. Someone then told me about "Blah" Herbal Slimming Product and I asked my daughter to try it. We could see the results in a few months! Within 4 months my daughter became beautiful and within 6 months of using the product she found a groom! We are very thankful for this product blah blah blah....

Now there are several things about this advert which had me worried.
First things was the whole shallow approach to marriage. Cliched as it may sound, physical appearance is not the only thing that matters!
Secondly how can anyone turn beautiful in a matter of months! You are how you are born and no one can change the way you look.
Next was the promise of weight loss using just some herbal concoction. What about eating right and getting adequate exercise? That matters more for a healthy lifestyle than consuming any amount of slimming products! So many things wrong about this ad!
When will Indian ad makers stop using age old cliches. Tonnes of ads out there depict women doing all the cooking, cleaning etc. The fairest and the most beauitful girl getting a groom after using a beauty product. Scoring highest marks making one the smartest in the class etc etc. I could go on!

I hope average Indian consumer is smarter that that to fall for such tacky shortcuts to fame, wealth or whatever it is that the ads want to convey.

shopaholic?

At the new campus at work, there are splashes of motivational phrases and quotes every where!
One such was written on a curved wall when we were on a tour of the new office to check out the interiors. I could see only a part of the word which said "ALE!" written in bold uppercase letters .My brain immediately made a connection and i excitedly shouted out "SALE!".
On approaching the other side of the wall, I realized that word was "EXHALE!", much to the amusement of my colleagues.

Oh well! the point i am trying to make here is that its been ages and ages since i went on a shopping spree. And i am not even a person who waits for a sale to be put up. I hate shopping whenever there is a sale. It was quite sad to realize that I have been completely off the addiction because of lack of time :( :D

Music for the soul!! :)

Pandit Ravishankar's Vedic Chants of India never fails to relax me when I am mentally exhausted.

Simple every day chants set to soothing music be it the Gayathri Mantra or Asathoma. Brings tranquility to mind in troubled times. :)

Here is Sarve Bhavanthu Sukhinaha :




Here is the entire set : http://www.rhapsody.com/ravi-shankar/chants-of-india

Maggi Maggi Maggi!!!

The other day i heard on radio that Maggi noodles is celebrating 25 years of its existence.25 years of comfort food for me :). It is almost as old as I am.
I am almost tempted to say that any child born in the Maggi era wouldn't have had a complete childhood without growing up on Maggi. Its almost like a cult.

I dont remember when i got hooked on to it. Even to this day, on the rare days that i come home early, Maggi has to be my evening snack.

There were so many variations that sis and me tried with Maggi. Adding vegetables would make it a "wholesome" meal. Mixing it with spoonfuls of tomato ketchup, am sure is a common practice. Or adding dollops of butter would make it yummmmmmy!!

Then there was the Indo-Chinese style Maggi, with veggies, soy sauce and chilli sauce. Perfect for a rainy day in Bangalore.

Maggi over the years tried to innovate with their product. They tried various flavours like chicken, tomato etc. They tried to sell it as health product with the atta noodles concept. Then came the rice mania concept ( Lemon, Pulao...yikes! ).
I guess its their original flavour that appeals to the masses!

Long live Maggi :D

Richard Bach

While i was blog hopping, i chanced upon this book review. Boy, i was glad i did that.

Richard back has been one of my favorite writers after having read Jonathan Livingstone Seagull and The bridge across forever. I discovered these wonderful books after digging through K's collections of books. Although he doesn't remember how he ended up with those books :).

Richard Bach's stories leave you astounded for the simplicity of the thoughts yet powerful living philosophies. Although I am never into reading philosophy, his books have had me wanting for more. Ordinary things which one wouldn't have thought about in daily life, get a new meaning. And reading them through Richard Bach's words is an experience in itself.

Illusions is about a Messiah, David Shimoda who is overwhelmed by people's demands for performing miracles, decides to quit being one. The very idea of Messiah quitting is something new and exciting. The book then talks about how he meets Richard, a barnstorming pilot and how he slowly makes him realise that everything is in the mind. One only has to think about it, for it come true. It is about how everyone of us is under an illusion regarding our abilities. We are only limited by our thoughts. He goes on to give Richard Bach,the "Hand book of Messiah" from which i leave behind some of my favourite quotes.

You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it true.
You may have to work for it however.

Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself. Being true to anyone else is not only impossible but the mark of a fake messiah.

There is no such things as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts.

The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life.Rarely do members of one family grow under the same roof.

Your conscience is the measure of the honesty of your selfishness. Listen to it carefully.

Every person, all the events of your life are there because you have drawn them there. What you choose to do with them is upto you.


190 pages of sheer brilliance!

Up close and personal?

Conversation over the lunch table at office steered to job interviews. One of my colleagues wife attended an interview recently.In the HR round, after asking the usual set of questions, the HR asked her if she was married. When she answered in the affirmative, the HR wanted to know how long she had been married for. Later the interviewer wants to know if they plan to have kids any time soon. Thats none of his/her damn business if you ask me. My colleague's reasoning was they wouldnt want to hire someone who is likely to go away on maternity leave as soon as she joins the job.
But how far can one go when asking such personal questions? Are they even allowed to ask such questions?

Just some things off the top of my head ...

Looks like i have run into a dry patch for blogging already..... so now i am planning to follow what all popular bloggers do when they have nothing interesting to write about! write about what they have been upto in their lives. Although i fail to see why some one would be interested in reading about what i have been upto, I am sure i will read it some years later ( if my blog still exists ) and thinking about how boring or interesting my life was a few years earlier!! The 2 or 3 readers i have will know i am still an active blogger :)

phew...now that the rather lengthy disclaimer is over... i will get down to the actuals..

Firstly i had been crazy busy at work with some kind of an initiative that everyone had to work towards. It took ages to finish and took away most of my weekends too :(
And then I am in a top priority project for the schedules are quite hectic. so expecting a few more months of hectic schedules. But I suppose in these times i should be glad about having good work.

The house has been coming along quite nicely with most of the stuff put away where they are supposed to be. I am yet to tackle the curio cabinet which will house the crockery. I dont know what to do with the sheer amount of serving bowl sets we got as gifts. Combining the ones we got for our wedding it must be around 8-9 sets of serving bowls :P . Oh and the number of Ganeshas we got is enough to start one of those Ganesha collections. We got them in all sizes,shapes and colors. My MIL managed to give away a few of them and now she is feeling bad and thinks that it would offend Lord Ganesha and is planning to use some of the nicer ones around the house :)

After K and I realised that we have not been spending enough time together what with the house, office work and social commitments, we seem to be doing some fun things. Caught up on a lot of movies of all languages... I suffered through the movie "300" and gave it up half way as it was too gory! and poor K suffered through "sex and the city". Not sure what the hooplah was all about. I suppose one had to watch the entire series to know what the hype was all about.

K has an upcoming eye procedure this weekend. A little worried about that and hoping everything goes smoothly. Although it wont solve the condition, it will atleast prevent further progression of the condition. Keeping my fingers crossed!!

We joined a 12 session astronomy course at the planetarium. I was so hoping we would actually have live demonstrations inside the planetarium. Turns out that it is a series of lectures and the concluding session has a free show!
The lectures are very technical but it is fun. All the physics we studied in college are being talked about in the sessions. What was boring in college is now so interesting. It is so refreshing to go back to basic sciences than working on computer related stuff all the time.

A lot of introspection has been happening off late and as i understand people better, i am learning to tolerate people's quirkiness and look beyond it. Now that i know how certain people react, i dont waste my time thinking what i did or didn't do for them to react the way they did.

There has been this thing nagging me. Is it ok to be relieved/happy that some one from the group at work is quitting? We are supposed to be this close-knit group so not sure about how i should be feeling. I know i will be spared a lot of negativity in the group now! I dont have to worry about being judged harshly, or picking up arguements or generally putting up with the person's high and mighty attitude! :)

ok...i think i will get back to work now!

I hadnt realised that....

something as inane as shopping for groceries can be fun!
Going to the busy market place, just looking at all the fresh produce makes me happy!
yup...i can be that weird!
Things look so colorful and it is so much fun to take in all the sights and the smells.
I even haggled with the lady selling flowers just to see if it works considering that I am a novice at it.
Maybe it wont be fun anymore if i'll have to do it on daily basis ;)

Yeh Tera Ghar Yeh Mera Ghar....

Seeing a house turning into a home is an exciting journey. Its like a piece of clay being moulded into something meaningful right before your eyes. And thats what we have been going through these past few months building a new home for ourselves.

At the end of each day, we would rush back home from work to see what amount of progress had happened. The walls have come up, the windows have been installed, the tiles have been laid on the floor. And then dreaming up of all the nice things what color you want the walls, what furniture would look good, the color of the curtains . We painstakingly researched, measured, matched, compared every thing that went into the making of our new home!

And then it happened, what we were waiting for almost a year. We moved into our new home yesterday. After all the arduous task of packing up and moving all the belongings, entering the new house filled us with excitement and a strange feeling as everything felt new and unfamiliar. It doesn't matter that the curtains haven't been installed yet or our entire belongings are still boxed, or that the smell of fresh paint lingers, or that the furniture we ordered is yet to be delivered but its still feels good to be home. :)

Bangalore's answer to Rama Sena

Here is what Bangalore's doing in response to the Mangalore pub attacks and other atrocious claims by Rama Sena

http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/articles/view/800-bangaloreans-oppose-moral-policing