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.