On fun, feasts, and fireworks

Finally, Divali's arrived this morning after much wonderin', waitin' and wishin'.

After a frenzied shopping spree for gold, sweets and fireworks, folks in town would be quickly working on the goodies.

The early morning hours ushered in some 'bang-bang' on the streets, and that's precisely when the neighboring dogs woke up from their slumber and ran for cover.

The evening's going to be, er, interesting. If it rains, the fireworks will fade away sooner than later. Then I can call it a silent night and grab some shut-eye.


I mean, if people have become even a bit more conscious of global warming and pollution, they'd take a green hint and simply light a few lamps to celebrate Divali.

But will they? Only time will tell.

I'm all for planting trees which is exactly what the project Mission Green Earth is trying to promote. But hey, we need to give trees some clean air to breathe. Else, we will only have pits where trees once stood proud.


Pic from the web

Speaking of pits, here's a real 'eco-tastrophe' from Pittsburgh. Straight out of the green zone. More due to steel plants actually, but fireworks also add to the smoke, apparently.

Had me thinking hard about fun, fireworks and a fiery future...

Different beats, this Divali!

Pic taken from the web

In just a few days' time in India, rockets will soar, bursting into tantalizing colors against the velvety backdrop of the night sky .

Heralding another dynamic Divali.

Earthen lamps decorating the porch of every household will lend the night a soft, ethereal look.

Clad in shimmering silks and shining in gold, it's a day when the average, well-to-do Indian woman strives to catch the attention of the Celestial Gods.

Divali's a day when blessings come in boxes lined with sweets and nuts and dry fruit.

A time when hitherto unseen neighbors emerge out of the woodwork to chat you up.

Dogs don't do Divali. It's actually a time of fear and frenzy for every cautious canine. For God's creatures are bright and beautiful, but with sensitive ears.

Like every year, I do hope that we have a light and bright Divali. And that the only sounds that I get to hear are the peals of temple bells and the sound of children's laughter.

Have a safe and wonderful Divali.

Sobha Developers takes a green foot forward

With all the 'tree hugging' I have been upto in my recent blogs, the Universe brought me into the (green) limelight last week.

Mission Green Earth- Stand Up and Take Action- is a global, joint endeavor of United Nations Environment Programme, and the Art of Living Foundation. The campaign comes under the broader 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). One of these goals is to END POVERTY by Yr 2015. Another goal is to save the planet by having global citizens plant one hundred million trees all around the world by Yr 2009. Other Millennium goals include bringing primary education, health and hygiene to the world's population.

I was asked to represent the Art of Living in a tree planting session undertaken by Sobha Developers, a leading, quality-conscious real estate developer group. I was so honored to represent Gurudev's Global, vast Vision, and braving the hot sun, I happily made my way to Devenahalli. The site was not too far off from the airport. That afternoon, under much fanfare, members of Sobha group planted 150 trees around their Villa project. The group also stood up and solemnly took the Millennium Pledge.

It was great fun. I really appreciate the energy of the entire group, under their charismatic leader, Mr Ravi Menon, the Vice Chairman of Sobha developers.

Here are a few pictures of the event:



The engineers and others gathered at the site before tree plantingMr Ravi Menon, Vice Chairman of Sobha Developers

The first Green Giant goes into the soil! More to come!

I for one plan to go the whole hog into the Tree planting drive, and us volunteers in Sanjaynagar, with our teacher Komalaji's untiring zeal, plan to meet up many schools, colleges and corporates to 'green up' the Earth, for our children and generations to come...

The Omnivore's dilemma

Being a strict vegetarian, I find myself at a bit o' a disadvantage when I go out to eat with other omnivorous colleagues. They get to eat food that I order but alas, it can never be the other way round. But I've no regrets, coz' although Al Gore never mentioned this, in his movie 'An Inconvenient Truth', being vegetarian actually helps control global warming.


Now Treehugger has an entry over a book called 'The Omnivore's dilemma', written by Michael Pollan, a New York Times journalist and fellow omnivore turned vegetarian.

To quote heavily from Treehugger:

'The Omnivore's dilemma is this: When you can eat just about anything nature has to offer, deciding what you should eat will inevitably stir anxiety. The Koala doesn't worry about food- he just chews eucalyptus leaves. Rats and humans have bigger issues. Pollan says that the way we eat represents our most profound engagement with the natural world. He is no vegan, but is a cook and appalled by modern industrial food production, and how it separates us from the sources of our food. Pollan looks at the three principal food chains : Industrial, Organic and Hunter/Gatherer and has a meal from each...'


Mike makes merry in his green garden- pic from Treehugger

In his book, Pollan confronts the question: What should we have for dinner?' with an enticing, thought-provoking and rib-tickling (pardon me for the pun) argument which covers the vast vistas of social, ethical, environmental fabric all rolled up to make it er, more palatable.

Well, after all these words of praise, I'll let you in on a secret. I haven't yet read the book! It's just the lingo-ism (a word I have concocted in order to have the same ring as ' jingoism') coursing through in my journalistic veins that made me describe the book even before I read it.

But hey, I'm all for the veggie cause. I let the cows graze gently in the green pastures, while I chew my carrots at t' table...

Trees make news, or do they?

From Treehugger

These days, trees seem to make news. And ironically speaking, they make the newspapers too.

Trees soothe, trees bind soil, trees clean the air. Bear fruit, bear shade, bear no grudge.

Bear with the lot of us.

But today I discovered one more thing about our sylvan friends.

I was sitting in my car, taking in the meandering traffic line, desperately trying to make song and dance of the old Art of Living punchline: Accept the situation, dum di dum...

Time passed and the traffic crawled along, while the tooting horns got louder as collective patience was dying down. It normally flowed faster than this on this road, and yet today, something was clearly blocking the line.

I looked around, and saw a motley line of cars, scooters, and a large bus which stood alongside, quite as helpless as the rest of the smaller vehicles. I still couldn't see the reason for the traffic block.

I inched a few meters ahead and that was when I saw this old, battered truck that stood bang in the middle of the lane. Ah, so that was the culprit, I thought to myself. One stupid truck that got stuck, slowing half the world's wheeled population, I thought, with a frown.

The choicest curse words were doing the cha-cha-cha in the ol' mind, threatening to create sound-bytes, when I happened to inadvertently get a closer look at the truck.

That was when I saw a tiny tree branch, stuck on one side of the truck. The truck stood still, but the branch was swaying merrily in the wind.

A corny looking truck, the butt of everyone's ridicule, taking in all the collective curses of drivers, strangely took on a bovine stance on a busy road. With a piece of green stuck clumsily on one side.

I could almost picture tomorrow's headlines: 'A bunch of leaves lend luster to a lopsided lorry.'

I couldn't stop giggling.

DSN course rocks!

Just when the folks in and around the sleepy town of Sanjaynagar thought that they could steal a nap after a hectic Dasara schedule, they were in for a ROCKING surprise!



Anandji does some straight talkin'

It’s the second time I sat in Anandji’s DSN course and once again, I wondered, what makes this fantastic, world-renowned teacher TICK?

DSN stands for ‘Divya Samaaj ka Nirmaan’ or building a Divine Society in Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankar’s vision.

Intense group discussions to plan out community projects

Yet, DSN is also an acronym for ‘Don’t say No’. You forget the No’s you have given and taken in life. You can’t say No because you actually want to say YES. You suddenly realize that you have such untapped potential; you shake off dogmas and labels.



If you can play Ol' Mother Hubbard...

I can play Freddy the Fisherman!

The DSN processes, beautifully crafted by the Master, touch the very core of your being, enlightening, enthralling, shocking, and shaking you out of your comfort zone.

Do Something Now!

How does Anandji put forth powerful concepts so lucidly? I always took pride in being a ‘communications’ person, thanks to a journalistic career. But Anandji’s teaching goes far beyond the realms of communication.

With Anandji’s persuasive techniques, you quickly want to ‘Do Something Now’. It's time to sit up and think Service, with a capital ‘S’. It’s time to see BIG, VAST Horizons, far beyond any man-made boundaries.

Participants from India and Australia join hands

The DSN course enjoys worldwide success. One can of course use the logical mind and explain off this success in several ways. It definitely helps when a teacher like Anandji comes with such inimitable style, élan and grace.

In actuality, one cannot classify the DSN at all. The DSN comes with a subtle, subliminal difference, which sets it apart from other ‘personality development’, or quasi spiritual courses.

It comes with a certain gentle Grace which can be felt and not seen, like the odor of a sweet-scented flower that wafts through the window.

It awakens the consciousness and yet gently rocks the mind to a peaceful slumber....it's one of those precious pauses that you get in life that makes you sit up and wonder...

...and celebrate Life!

My TeachIndia dream is coming true at last!

Pic taken from TeachIndia website
I applied to TeachIndia a few months ago. TeachIndia was launched by Times of India newspaper, and facilitates citizens to teach different subjects to underprivileged kids. I wanted to teach English to these children so I had signed up.

Being part of the larger Art of Living NGO, seva or service is constantly projected to be an integral part of one's life, and helps the spirit within us to flourish. So I took this opportunity to do something in a more streamlined and structured manner.

I had to fill up an online form first- and here I filled in details of number of hours I can spend, the area where I was comfortable teaching and even the proposed duration of my involvement in the project. I thought it was pretty well-defined and organized.

We have an induction program at Deena Seva Sangha, an NGO, on Sunday. I am to be part of Youth for Seva NGO.

Well, the Guru knows what we're good at, and where we can nurture the spirit. This is probably why I got this message on the day of Vijaydasami- a victory.

I am realizing my dream- at last.

Jai Guru Dev.

“Look upon every man, woman, and everyone as God. You cannot help anyone, you can only serve: serve the children of the Lord, serve the Lord Himself, if you have the privilege. ”

Swami Vivekananda

As the curtain draws on Dasara 2008

The festive season of Dasara is about to set for the year 2008. It has brought a mixed bag of feelings for me this year, although the Universal Mother did manage to finally put things in proper perspective, for me.

I lost a paternal cousin to a car accident. A Low point. There's no replacing a wonderful sis' like her, in my life.

Death is such a mystery.

Sometimes life is snatched away due to a cruel twist of Fate. News has it that thousands of people are being killed on the grounds of being of a different Faith. Like Faith isn't Universal? Or like Love isn't Universally preached? Did anyone see the Face of God to validate that He is a Krishna, or a Jesus or Anyone Else? If God is an Abstract Quality, like many wise men have us know, then what's all the fuss about?

Sometimes people snatch their own lives as panic strikes. This is again news of an NRI who shot himself and the rest of his family, a couple of days ago. I wonder what really makes us people tick, deep inside? Most parents bring kids up with core values like being loving, compassionate, truthful. Along with these qualities, some also zealously drive the spirit of competition in an increasingly competitive world. But somewhere, deep down inside, the spiritual element is dormant. Perhaps that's what many parents tend to overlook. Success is lauded, but failure is frowned upon. However, in the wheel of Life, don't success and failure both have a place? We appreciate, and even cheer acrobatics in town circuses, but we never realize that Life has a goodish bit of acrobatics as well.

Life's a balancing act and we often fail to realize this. Perhaps that's what makes the sanest, brightest, smartest of people end their lives in a frenzy when the going gets hard. What's even worse is the fact that along with their own life, they take the lives of their children, who could have made it ultimately, given time and patience. A real Low point.

So I had mixed feelings this season. But that's not to say that I did not enjoy the rainbow of colors this season. The green mango leaves that lined the doorway, and the heavy bunches of flowers that came in kaleidoscopic hues. The rustle of silk saris and the clinking of gold bangles. Cardboard boxes lined with sweets that do the tango on the taste buds.

A sensual mela offered to celebrate the glory of Life, and of living.

Happy Dasara.

Laddus for the season

The ashram is currently playing host to thousands of guests who have come visiting from all over the world to celebrate Navaratri.

So some of us TTC Phase I volunteers went to the ashram today to help out in the kitchen. We thought we'd have the usual vegetable cutting routine. But we were in for a surprise when we were given 'Laddu seva'!


I never thought rolling round sweet laddus in the ashram would be so much fun! Large plates brimming with tiny white spinach seeds mixed into jaggery (unrefined sugar) syrup were placed in front of us. We sat around these plates, quite confident that rolling the mix into tiny balls would be a cakewalk (pardon me for the pun!).

But we were wrong. The mix was sticky, gooey and hot. It stuck to the palms of one hand and every time we tried to use the fingers of the other hand to strip the mix off the palm, the fingers would be covered with the stuff! If we let the hot mix cool a bit, the adhesive quality would reduce considerably, and then it would have been mighty hard to roll the mix into balls!

We tried rubbing ghee (clarified butter) on our palms and then handled the mix, but the palms got the mix stuck on alright! Finally someone brought corn flour and then we lightly dusted our hands with the flour before handling the mix. Now we could roll it into round 'laddus'.


There was yet another trick to making good round laddus. We had to take some mix into our right palm and use the forefinger and middlefinger of our left hand to shape the mix into a round ball. We needed to use strength in order to make the laddu really hard and sticky. Else it would come undone and break off into a powder.

Yes, I learnt a lot today!