first bloom...

I do not know how it feels to have a baby...but i guess this comes close...the first bloom in a pot in my terrace garden...a moment of very great joy...

Ganpati Bappa Morya...

Today is the visarjan day in Mumbai ...

estimated:

1,20,228 lac Ganesh idols;

43,000 security personnel;

50,000 volunteers...
- source: midday

and this is Mumbai's pride : Lalbaugcharaja , over 40 feet in height :



Ganpati Bappa Morya...

from my inbox.....a repost

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's probably shouldn't have survived.
Our baby cots were covered with brightly coloured lead-based paint, which was promptly chewed and licked.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or cabinets and it was fine to play with pans.
When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just flip flops and fluorescent clackers' on our wheels.
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the passenger seat was a treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle - tasted the same.
We ate dripping sandwiches, bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy pop with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.
We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle or can and no-one actually died from this.
We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then went top speed down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into stinging nettles a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We could leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back before it got dark. No one was able to reach us all day and no one minded.
We did not have Playstations or X-Boxes, no video games at all. No 99 channels on TV, no videotape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet chat rooms.
We had friends - we went outside and found them.
We played elastics and street rounders, and sometimes that ball really hurt.
We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits. They were accidents. We learnt not to do the same thing again.
We had fights, punched each other hard and got black and blue - we learned to get over it.
We walked to friend's homes.
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate live stuff, and although we were told it would happen, we did not have very many eyes out, nor did the live stuff live inside us forever.
We rode bikes in packs of 7 and wore our coats by only the hood.
Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law. Imagine that!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever. The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned to deal with it all. And you're one of them. Congratulations!

Vishu...a festival of abundance...

Indian tradition has the local new years, generally a celebration of abundance and plenty in our harvests...Today is Vishu, the traditional new year day of Kerala, from where I hail...We keep a spread of all pulses, rice, fruit , vegetables, gold and silver, family heirlooms etc in front of a mirror and our deities overnite and view it with sleepy eyes first thing in the morning in all its abundance, praying for abundance to flood all our lives and those of everyone.The elders in the family offer us Vishu Kani, a small cash offering as a "shagun" blessing us with the flow of abundance all through the year and thanking the Almighty for Grace.

I share this blessings and prayers with each one of you. May love, joy and abundance flood each of your lives, this moment and forever.

God Bless!!!

conflicts, competition and aggression....

was recently watching the build up to a popular singing or should i say , performance competition programme...it left me speechless with all its outflow of negativity...superficial pats on the back, crocodile tears and so much more....are the judgtes competent as people handlers, i wonder...so much injury to psyches, so much hurting and abrasion in the air in the cause of personal egos....

dont know whether these things are fixed to enhance trps, but they appear very inhuman and insensitive on cursory glance.....commerce is a great driver and demands a lot of sacrifices....but sometimes, the costs can be too high...

the personal touch....

when we think air india or indian hostesses, what comes to mind more often than not is cribs and complaints, almost habitually....read an interesting first person share on a fellow blogger's site...check it out...http://sigmund007.blogspot.com/ ......humans make all the difference, beyond roles and definitions....

images...aaina..

was watching the movie Daddy after a longtime...never tire of seeing it....and the song by talat aziz, aaina mujhse meri pahle ki surat maange...one of my all-time favs....

completed the naseoh seminar today....very good participation....and we had a moderator from ndtv.....am hopeful of a few dynamic feedlines evolving...

met an indian stephen hawking....

he just said, if one is able to be mobile and access a "loo"....fundamental infrastructures, what not can be achieved....

though invariably a "panelist" sought for my expertise, i invariably end up only learning more......

just to give u a perspective, mumbai is estimated to have over 10 lakh people with abilities different from ours....while the indian estimate is closer to 100 million.

we have 30 out of 1000 buses which can cater to them....this is a recent development.....there are no public loo facilities....across india about 1 lakh differently abled people are supposed to have some employment....

international holiday...

today, the 13th of november, happens to be an international holiday..celebration all around...

it is my birthday!!!!!!!!

mere coincidence that it is a sunday...

lights all around...

love the festival of lights and its ambience...so colorful....so energetic...the lights, electric and the more traditional come out in all their splendour....celebrate...

everyday heroes...

recently attended the launch of a music group....featuring a differently abled person aided by his sister, also a very good singer...yet another of innumerable occasions to feel inspired by the human spirit...so many odds, the struggle, the hope....

the recent deluge in mumbai was an opportunity to watch such spirit at work....csws(commercial sex workers ) helping people tide over; i myself was helped by a group of slum children who guided me through a difficult lane , indicating where the storm gutters were, so that I did not slip into it....was often left wondering, they probably had their homes washed off in the deluge...

that may challenge deep set stereotype positionalities for some...

the mumbai riots and its aftermath, the bomb blasts also brought so many touching human expressions to the fore...like a lady i remember in Dharavi, Khaleda.....who would dare to go to the streets and pick up the injured all by herself...and bring them to the local mosque compound which was a point of collection for our rescue teams....neither , the wo/menfolk of her locality nor the clerics supported her.... she was a one man army who might have enabled the saving of more than a 100 people....irrespective of their religious or other denominations...

have often observed street children get together to save one of their fraternity who might be ill...normally, everyone is a threat, a competition...a spare shirt is given to the laundry and never collected..because it may get stolen while they sleep....but i remember this boy, murugan, who took seriously ill and needed hospitalization...grant road station....a helpline outreach had got in touch from nana chowk...when i reached the place and organized some adhoc donations to enable the boy's admission.....a few of those kids who already knew me...came up to me saying they would like to contribute....it was a dilemna...knowing their states...but then not giving them an opportunity to help one of their fraternity to me did not make sense....they spread a handkerchief; everyone ran here and there; and they brought out various resources from their various hiding places....i knew the extent of saving of some of the boys....i saw them give off everything....holding nothing back....

to my suggestion that they give only a part of it, they just nonchalantly said, "fikar mat karo...kal phir haath paiir chala lenge...." they earned money through various loading jobs....

I dont know about you guys, I still do not have the capacity to give off all I have materially to anyone...there is always a hold back....

the human spirit..always throbbing, if we only pause to hear it....

for me, given a long period of association with the ngo sector, both organized and ad hoc....my contributions would never match my personal enrichment..it has been invaluable...and when i experience my own roadblocks, it serves me well, when i see the odds stacked against some of these guys....

tag notes...

have been tagged by nyneisha( a very creative expressor in words, visuals etc)....so here goes...

seven or more things I want to do:

• get a new computer asap..lost mine during the 26/7 deluge in Mumbai.
• finish a celebrity house build event successfully in Nov....am an event consultant and helping reconstruct about 1000 houses for the flood affected at Mahad through innovative event concepts for an NGO.
• create a win win feedline for the BPO sector in India through the setting up of a creative customer service training centre for the differently abled......the networking and allied works are underway.
• manifest more wealth energy for myself....resource crunches can be very limiting.
• sustain and build on existing friends...enrich myself with more friendships.
• spend more quality time with my mom.
• change the paradigm of events and celebrity management....am one of the pioneers in that space in India and do not feel very fulfilled creatively and professionally...
• identify and work with a venture fundee/s who tunes in to my perspectives...ideas are many but to give them legs is a dream.....
• improve fitness levels

Some things i wanna weed out...

• procrastination
• unconscious mechanizations of my activity sphere.
• indifference to wealth energy creation.
• dead wood legacies in consciousness.
• dwelling too long in non-starters and failures.
• tendencies to defend my life perspectives....
• improper or adhoc personal prioritizations.

Words I use frequently:

• integrity
• authenticity
• unconditional
• wow
• perspective
• amma
• personal space
• personal choice
• seeing

fellow bloggers i wish to tag( dont know most of u personally; just as fellow bloggers); seems a fun exercise; a request to join in, not a command....

• gaizabonts - atul
• leave it unsaid - arundhati
• evolving everyday - sophie
• let the cut begin - poonam
• visual essays - sushma
• polioman - poonam arundhati combo
• step down - anuva

...in shared space as fellow humans, take care..have a gr8 festive season....

why do i blog.....

mainly it stems from a compulsive urge to write, sometimes. the recent Mumbai deluge saw me lose my computer amongst other things. i was a ground floor resident, then. and with it, a lot of my writings for myself....as usual, i had not transferred it to cds.....

there is a thrill in flowing out......as one watches invisible thought energy create its designs through words on the screen. an awesome process emerging from deep recesses of being.how many processes are involved in this transfer...mind boggling....and we take it for granted!!!

unmatched in processing speeds......yet...

the human as a process .... just watching it creates awe for life...

that was a high level interrupt , it seems..never saw the process with so much awe and astonishment before...

some of you chose to read it.....and then sometimes we tune in.....

amazing......the links....in consciousness.....

sometimes a response, a connect......

releasing a thought in the universe....a miracle of existence....a domain of unlimited potentials....probably a seedling for morphogenetic manifests....

a tiny pebble idly tossed
into the placid stream
with gentle splash it sinks from sight
and never again is seen
but outward from that central splash
the spreading ripples tend
who knows on what distant shores
the spreading impulse ends...........
(not mine......from the bank of consciousness....have posted it earlier)

on this dussehra, wonder what ravan ( the 10-headed one) used to do with his headaches, if he had any ! ! i miss attn to such detail in mythology..daily truths....like whether krishna used to shave and if he did, with what? were the kauravas a test-tube or rather earthen-pot baby experiment gone awry!!!!

repeat an old fav for those of u who might have not read it....

all science is poetry.....can u imagine a world without the technologies of today.... where do they emerge....Mathematics and calculus and its various implementations are critical in the development of various technologies....and mathematics has its roots in "zero" an empirical definition arrived at by the indian spiritual mystic , Aryabhata.The first two postulates of mathematics are never under question; they are sacrosant....They just have been there eternally....mysticism is poetic ; to me The Beatles were mystics , as was Kabir.But so too was Einstein......science is an art , too....mystical, poetic......

All of us know of Kekule and his mystical dream ( the inter-twined snakes) which led to the discovery of organic chemistry . A very fascinating alter-insight into processes of "intelligence" and its expresses is provided by the book, "The Man Who knew Infinity" , a biography of the mathematical genius, Srinivas Ramanujam.

Happy Dussehra!!!!!!!!!and wishes for the awakening of intelligence as different from knowledge all around...

The Oneness University...

I have been often asked in what way the teachings of the various masters are different or varied...they sound similar most of the time.

My understanding is thus....

Concepts abound in the universe. As many people, so many concepts.Some may appeal to us, some don't....

We naturally find a comfort zone in different concepts, dependant on so many parameters.

For me, the difference is in the ability to really experience and to be alive to our truths.

For me , The Oneness University has facilitated this.

It has opened my eyes to the fact that real "experiencing" is our natural state of being. And enabled my journey towards the ability to "experience" in realms beyond my conditioned mind.

i dont think i am still "there" all the time. But I have had moments of rare insights and "experience", very mystical. No judgements, no labels, just pure , unadulterated "experience".

And my observations around the university have shown the vast diversity of ideas and concepts..different emergences...but a common thread, of integrity and oneness...an acceptance of the fact that someone can have a total divergence of view and yet be right from his "perspective". When we see everything as a concept,dependent on assumptions and frame of reference, paradoxes rest at peace.

For me, as I see it today, both an atheist and a believer can be deeply spiritual.....absence of conflict within is the key....

rituals...

Sometimes, time-tested and elementary life parameters we have inherited do not make sense to us. But then, so do a lot of contemporary parameters. Ritual has always been a part of life and would continue to be so. It is only the "content" of rituals that change.

Closer observation shows that we have always been superstitious and even now are; only the modes of expression change.

But then, some of us are impulsively very judgemental and critical of rituals of yore without analysing or exploring it.

I had a personal experience which was very enlightening. My master insists on us offering gratitude to our parents through the "sastanga pranam" , falling absolutely flat on our stomach and touching their feet. I have always been resistive to "gestures". Time and again, He would emphasize on its importance for the flow of Grace in our lives. I never used to do it.

A few months back, when I was enjoying "impediments" or blocks in key functional areas of my life, I just decided to give it a try. Inspite of my best efforts, an unseen wall used to block progress in key areas of my life.

I started offering "gratitude" to my departed father as a manas pooja and started doing the full namaskaram to my mother every morning as i started my day. For the last few years, I have also been more and more aware of the constant "judgement" I pass on her. While I have not eliminated this totally from my system, it has shown a marked improvement. I am able to accept her as she is much more.

And as my acceptance levels increase, I see the flood of grace flow more and more. My efforts bear more fruit.

I would request each one of you to try this. It may seem very awkward at first. But, take my word for it, it is a universal healer for manifold problems in our life.Irrespective of how different our parents perceptions maybe from ours, we have no right to judge them.

We can still retain our spaces...and take personal decisions where they matter....but our parents are a key medium for the flow of Grace in our lives....