It’s the day of Pooja in my home, my parents & two brothers were standing inside our small pooja room performing the rituals like breaking the coconut, lighting camphor, agarbathis & creating the holy sound from the bell. I don’t know what each one wished in front of different Gods whom we have captured in photo frames. I always had a different opinion on these; I didn’t have any interest in rituals. My belief is that I have to work in order to achieve things & God can’t give me things just because I ask him. This doesn’t mean that I’m an atheist. One of my morning activities is to stand in front of the God’s place & apply lord Muruga’s sacred ash Prasad in my forehead. This is a habit imbibed in me by my father. I do it as a part of my morning make up activity but still have faith in it. My morning prayer will be either a “Good morning God, Give me a good day” or not even that. This may imply that I’m a believer in the existence of God but not a devotee. I accept it the same way!
This is how I’m for the last many years. Recently I took a Self development course run by a popular trust. It emphasized that “ You have a priceless body made up of precious organs which is not purchased by you or your parents. It is given free of cost by somebody; don’t you feel like giving your gratitude to that person?”. I found some sense in this argument. That was a spark which rose for a minute & then occupied the back space of my mind.
At the end of the program they have arranged for a group activity. Till the time it started I didn’t realized that this is a Bhajan where people will sing in praise of God. When I started understanding the intensity of the situation, my existing values started cursing me. Is this you who sit in a ritual like Bhajan? What is this for you? I know the people who are sitting along with me in that activity. Most of them including the organizer are well educated & satisfied elderly people like Ex.IAS officers, Principals and Ex.Military officers. During normal interactions I could understand their high satisfaction level with life, earlier they have blessed me with their hearts. When such people are sitting around, my recently acquired values contradicted & finally I attended the Bhajan.
I have been given with an instrument which produced a “Khitz..Khitz” sound, I don’t know whether it has a name or not. It was funny & I started playing it. Wow I’m a musician now. Which pop band will dare to give me such an opportunity? There were 6 songs sung by six different people praising different (form of) God. One line will be sung by the main singer & the group has to repeat it in chorus. Of course I’ve to repeat it with the additional responsibility of producing that music. The song, the chorus & the music created a new energy in me which I really enjoyed. In the first song itself I got engulfed in that spirit & vibrations. When we were half way through, everybody stood & danced; I followed. Everybody enjoyed getting soul satisfaction & nobody seek anything to God. The place is filled with people who don’t have any expectations & people who live in their present i.e., it is filled with positive vibrations. I felt like my first encounter with God! Not with the regular God who is captured in a photo frame but living God’s. My mind told me that we all are God at least in the present moment.
As an young man my natural inclination should be in attending parties or pubs. Yes! There are song, music & dance in parties also. There again I can dance. But! Is the environment same? Forget about the modern trend & fashion stuff. What is running in the young party peoples mind? Is it positive thoughts? Isn’t it more of body & luxury show? Is there any importance to mind in that arena? What is important there? Thoughts or clothes? What kind of mental happiness do I get there?
When I compare this with the Bhajan, which one should I continue attending?
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Monday, July 24, 2006
Direction or Nationality! Which comes first?
Hi, my name is Krishnan. I like if people call me Krishnan, my joy is unbounded if somebody calls me Mr. Krishnan. Needless to say it’s my title & I, my parents, my siblings everybody loves to be called so.
“My dear Indian….”. Didn’t you felt prestigious now? Outsiders call us as Indians & yes that’s how we want to be called as, but inside our country we call us by directions first and then by nationality. Yesterday I asked my friend, “Who are you? a person from North or a person from India?” Without any hesitation he replied “Obviously, I’m from India”. “Then why do people call you by your direction first & then by your nationality?”. Should we continue segregating people as “North Indian” & “South Indian”? Is it creating separation among the son of the same soil?
Yes there is a need for subsets and so we have several state & union territories. Its purpose is to name & not to separate. It should intimate the place or direction but should not create a separation. Will it be better if we change the direction phenomena by calling people as “Indian from North” & “Indian from South”?
“My dear Indian….”. Didn’t you felt prestigious now? Outsiders call us as Indians & yes that’s how we want to be called as, but inside our country we call us by directions first and then by nationality. Yesterday I asked my friend, “Who are you? a person from North or a person from India?” Without any hesitation he replied “Obviously, I’m from India”. “Then why do people call you by your direction first & then by your nationality?”. Should we continue segregating people as “North Indian” & “South Indian”? Is it creating separation among the son of the same soil?
Yes there is a need for subsets and so we have several state & union territories. Its purpose is to name & not to separate. It should intimate the place or direction but should not create a separation. Will it be better if we change the direction phenomena by calling people as “Indian from North” & “Indian from South”?
Time Value Of Friendship
My childhood dream is to buy a time machine. Thanks to technology, I’ve brought one from Delhi’s Chor Bazaar. My purchase didn’t happen today, it happened* in the coming centuries. It was a one seater machine & I brought it in exchange of my dozen goats. Oh! It includes my favorite 6 months old whitey also. Before departing Whitey said in its plain voice “Don’t worry Krishnan, I’ill meet you somewhere in the time cycle. Those were the last words that it whispered to me through its Animal to English voice converter. With hard mind but with great expectations on the adventure ahead I came out of the market.
Time to move ahead….I love clockwise motions hence I decided to come to today by traveling through the past, where I lived a few centuries ago. My Monkey Mind told me that I should visit all the centuries in-between, but you know the life of a Manager. With targets & deadlines in hand, I can’t afford to halt in all centuries. With lot of efforts I pacified the Monkey.. no.. no.. my mind, I’ll stop in two places only. I pressed the digit 7 preceded by the digit 1.
Oooz.. came the 17th century. I landed in a small and beautiful village with lots of trees & flowers, animals & birds and of course humans & emotions. As a proof of being visited, I wanted to take a photograph with a fellow human being. With a Kodak in hand I said “hello friend” to the lonely young farmer there. He look very sad & depressed, his eyes were wet, it seems like he is waiting for somebody. Without expecting a reply I continued “Why are you so sad friend?”. Like an unexpected Tsunami came the reply “You called me Friend?“. An irrelevant answer but I continued “Yes my dear friend, but why are you so sad?”. With a long breath he continued “ I’m thinking about my childhood friend, he left to the northern state, all my efforts to contact him failed. I’m thinking about those merry days with him”. “What efforts?” this was me with inquisitiveness. “I’ve sent message through five pigeons in the last five months, I’ve sent two messages through the merchants, but nothing worked out. I didn’t got any reply. I’m not sure whether my messages reached him or not”. My mind started pronouncing “Poor century, no proper communication medium. The most valuable to any human’s life is one’s friend & here they are living a life where friends out of the province are just like friends out of life. They have time to think about friends but no chance of communicating! I don’t want him to worry again by thinking about me so I quit with a bye and this time it is just a bye and not a “bye friend”.
With that abrupt termination I landed in my second destination. The 18th century. Here again with a Kodak in hand & a search in mind, I approached a young man with a newspaper in hand. With little hesitation I whispered “Hello Friend”. This time the reception was very good. There was a formal chit chat on the details of each other. Oops! to my surprise he is the descendent of the villager whom I met in the 17th century. As my watch started ticking I remembered the deadline for sales report submission & hence made a couple of departure statements to the young man. Before I depart he gave me a piece of paper & said “friend give me your address, I’ll write to you, we shall be postal friends”. My inquisitiveness started functioning “So you communicate with your friends only through post?”. ‘Yes” came the reply. After a short pause he followed “I write to my friends & I’ll get reply from them within a month or so. We are all well connected. After all friendship is nurtured by communication”. I was puzzled “ a reply after a month! is this communication?” my mind started grinding my head. Well it’s time to move out of her. I Quit.
Now I’m back to my time on time. I’m in front of my PC compiling my sales report. I looked around to relax, observed the guy next to me, it required two full minutes for me to realize that his face is similar to the people whom I met at the 17th & 18th century. Yes. He is also a descendant of the same family. As I approached him, I could see his hands engaged with the mouse & eyes stick to the monitor. I started in my usual way ‘hello Friend”, this time there was no reaction from him. After a minute his lips moved up & down to pronounce “I’m busy now, please don’t disturb”. With an unknown sense of failure, I went outside for a cupacaffe. Mind said relax and it traveled back to the days memories (WoW! It travels without a time machine), my mind again started.. “His 17th century ancestors had lot of time for making friends & thinking about friends but there was no medium for communication. For his 18th century ancestor, the situation is different, he has ways to communicate but I thought it is inefficient. Now when I look at the current descendant I doubt does he ever have the time to make friends? Even if he has friends will he be having the time to communicate with him? Throughout the day he is sitting in front of the machine which can communicate with the whole world, but does he have the time to mail them up? Am I mailing my old school mates? Are we lagging behind those 17th & 18th century people? If that is so should I naturally travel to the future or forcefully travel back? Should I call this the age of possibilities or the age of inabilities towards possibilities?”
Time to move ahead….I love clockwise motions hence I decided to come to today by traveling through the past, where I lived a few centuries ago. My Monkey Mind told me that I should visit all the centuries in-between, but you know the life of a Manager. With targets & deadlines in hand, I can’t afford to halt in all centuries. With lot of efforts I pacified the Monkey.. no.. no.. my mind, I’ll stop in two places only. I pressed the digit 7 preceded by the digit 1.
Oooz.. came the 17th century. I landed in a small and beautiful village with lots of trees & flowers, animals & birds and of course humans & emotions. As a proof of being visited, I wanted to take a photograph with a fellow human being. With a Kodak in hand I said “hello friend” to the lonely young farmer there. He look very sad & depressed, his eyes were wet, it seems like he is waiting for somebody. Without expecting a reply I continued “Why are you so sad friend?”. Like an unexpected Tsunami came the reply “You called me Friend?“. An irrelevant answer but I continued “Yes my dear friend, but why are you so sad?”. With a long breath he continued “ I’m thinking about my childhood friend, he left to the northern state, all my efforts to contact him failed. I’m thinking about those merry days with him”. “What efforts?” this was me with inquisitiveness. “I’ve sent message through five pigeons in the last five months, I’ve sent two messages through the merchants, but nothing worked out. I didn’t got any reply. I’m not sure whether my messages reached him or not”. My mind started pronouncing “Poor century, no proper communication medium. The most valuable to any human’s life is one’s friend & here they are living a life where friends out of the province are just like friends out of life. They have time to think about friends but no chance of communicating! I don’t want him to worry again by thinking about me so I quit with a bye and this time it is just a bye and not a “bye friend”.
With that abrupt termination I landed in my second destination. The 18th century. Here again with a Kodak in hand & a search in mind, I approached a young man with a newspaper in hand. With little hesitation I whispered “Hello Friend”. This time the reception was very good. There was a formal chit chat on the details of each other. Oops! to my surprise he is the descendent of the villager whom I met in the 17th century. As my watch started ticking I remembered the deadline for sales report submission & hence made a couple of departure statements to the young man. Before I depart he gave me a piece of paper & said “friend give me your address, I’ll write to you, we shall be postal friends”. My inquisitiveness started functioning “So you communicate with your friends only through post?”. ‘Yes” came the reply. After a short pause he followed “I write to my friends & I’ll get reply from them within a month or so. We are all well connected. After all friendship is nurtured by communication”. I was puzzled “ a reply after a month! is this communication?” my mind started grinding my head. Well it’s time to move out of her. I Quit.
Now I’m back to my time on time. I’m in front of my PC compiling my sales report. I looked around to relax, observed the guy next to me, it required two full minutes for me to realize that his face is similar to the people whom I met at the 17th & 18th century. Yes. He is also a descendant of the same family. As I approached him, I could see his hands engaged with the mouse & eyes stick to the monitor. I started in my usual way ‘hello Friend”, this time there was no reaction from him. After a minute his lips moved up & down to pronounce “I’m busy now, please don’t disturb”. With an unknown sense of failure, I went outside for a cupacaffe. Mind said relax and it traveled back to the days memories (WoW! It travels without a time machine), my mind again started.. “His 17th century ancestors had lot of time for making friends & thinking about friends but there was no medium for communication. For his 18th century ancestor, the situation is different, he has ways to communicate but I thought it is inefficient. Now when I look at the current descendant I doubt does he ever have the time to make friends? Even if he has friends will he be having the time to communicate with him? Throughout the day he is sitting in front of the machine which can communicate with the whole world, but does he have the time to mail them up? Am I mailing my old school mates? Are we lagging behind those 17th & 18th century people? If that is so should I naturally travel to the future or forcefully travel back? Should I call this the age of possibilities or the age of inabilities towards possibilities?”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
