Red mist & responsibility - Oh my India

There is something about mother India that makes you feel more connected to her even more than your own mothers (sorry moms itz just true :-)). Whenever we hear patriotic numbers like "Mera Rang De Basanti" it gives us goosebumps and makes us wish we were there during those times of fervent nationalism. However her recent state of affairs and apparent apathy of our citizens especially the youth brings nothing but red mist.

Why the red mist?

Corruption nonpareil - As per latest Transparency International reports, we rank as the 87th amongst 178 countries on corruption (178 is most corrupt). Corruption is deep rooted and you are asked to pay a bribe for everything from getting a license to registering a police case of a lost item. It has also some decent alibis in the name of donation/capitation fees for seats in schools and colleges.

Bought out MLAs/MPs and votes - Well itz quite a chain; they buy our votes and their votes are then bought out. We are a country just ready for sale. Whoever said we are not good at selling just didn't look at our average politician. He seems to be just about ready to sell everything including the country

Common-stealth or Common-filth Games - Then there is the spectre of the games which but for the athletes was so full of filth and stealth. Makes you wonder was it really worth all the spend and the taxpayer money (yours and mine)

You look left, right and center in the spectre of Indian politics and all you can find is confused politicians, rabble-rousers and corrupt leaders.

Freedom of Screech - And we have these intellectuals flirting with extremists and using the garb of freedom of speech for cheap publicity. They bullshit everything that they don't understand and everything thatz Indian and win international acclaim. At best they deserve to be ignored.

Media misdeeds - Sensational sound-bytes and no real substance creating icons out of cons. What more can one expect from bought out news-sellers who pose as neutral commentators?

All this leaves you in a tizzy - What can I do when the system is so bad ?

Maybe you can do nothing as an individual. Or well maybe there's something you can do for a start. Be a good citizen. Follow the rules. Inspire 1, 2, 5, 50 ... people atleast to be good citizens.

I want to start from there and maybe I can motivate atleast one other person in life (definitely more).

We all want good leaders but are we all good citizens? Thatz something to ponder.

Let us take responsibility for our community, maybe our city and if you are a believer, our country as well.

As my guru His Holiness Sri Sri Ravishankar says "We all take responsibility for what we feel belongs to us (our family, friends etc)." Why not extend that belonging to a bigger scope?

There is a famous Marathi saying - "Ab bhi jiska khoon na khoula, wo khoon nahin hai paani hai. Jo bhi desh ke kaam na aaye, wo bekar jawaani hai"!

(Translated - Even now if someone’s blood does not boil, that is not blood but water. Anybody who does nothing for his/her country, that is a wasted youth).

Oh my Indian, wake up before some intellectual tells us you, I and our country are not for real !

Goodness, gracious me :-)

It has been quite a while (in fact a year and a half to be precise) since I wrote a post on this blog. Changed the blog name and in the process lost it's comments too briefly :-)

The last year and a half has been sheer magic with things working beyond imagination. Well there are no surprises I guess, when you are showered with the grace of the master. I have been granted opportunities beyond my capabilities to touch people's lives be at work through my job or outside my work through teaching the Art of Living workshops.

This post is just a reminder to myself to share more of what I have got in my life through whatever I do and by my writing too. I cannot express my gratitude to my guru His Holiness Sri Sri Ravishankarji in words or by action for they can never measure up to what he has given me. A life of such joy and the power to add smiles to people's lives.

Jai guru dev.

Amazing Grace

This morning, I was travelling in a share-auto on the IT highway where my office is located as I have been doing almost daily for nearly the last two years. I was just sitting with my eyes closed and reflecting on something. Suddenly, my eyes popped open on a thud and I realized that the auto I was travelling in had overturned and was upside down and I was caught under it with a few other co-passengers. I could hear a couple of girls crying out desperately for help. I had totally gone blank and realized I should pull myself out but just couldn't muster enough strength to move from that awkward position.

Suddenly a hand came over me and pulled me from under the vehicle. Just when I got out, I realized that the two girls who were sitting next to me were still stuck under. When they were pulled out with blood all over their face and legs, I just realized how lucky I was to escape with just a minor bruise in my right arm. Luckily no other vehicle crossed-by on the highway at the same-time.

So it was a very near miss (my teacher said I should say very near mister, lol) :-)

Am extremely thankful to the grace who was with me then and ensured my safety. I wish those two girls a fairly quick recovery too. At that precise moment, I remembered Vikram Bhaiyya singing Amazing Grace penned by John Newton

.

"Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a soul like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.

’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’d first begun"

Jai guru dev.

Lost and found

“Kabhi Kabhi Kuch Paane Ke Liye Kuch Kona Padtha Hai” – Well don’t worry this is not gonna be a reprise of the Hindi flick Baazigar. But these lines are really quite profound. I don’t think Shah Rukh meant that in the movie though, lol

Coming to my story, I had (have – don’t know) the panache of getting myself lost in different ways. The first story (as narrated by my parents to me) is when I was a toddler, I apparently sneaked behind my Dad when he was going out somewhere and some stranger on the road just picked me up and was just taking the kid away (thatz me) and a shopkeeper nearby (friend of my parents) noticed me and got me back to my parents.

Well then a few years later, I was going on the bus with family on an outing to the beach. Err, I have a habit of sleeping on the bus and my parents unsuspectingly left me behind on the bus. Suddenly I wake up feeling a hand on my shoulder and I see the conductor asking me if I wanted to go back as well from beach on the same bus. It took my folks quite a while to figure out that somebody was missing and that somebody was me (me sounds better in this sentence than I somehow though itz apparently grammatically wrong, who the hell wrote grammar, lol). Eventually they found me.

Well as it goes, it happened again albeit this time on a different plane sometime ago. I was just lost in myself until I found a whole new world of excitement, fun and joy. If you want to know how, just come back and read my next posts, lol

What is Violence?

For what shall I wield this dagger O Lord?
What can I pluck it out of
Or plunge it into
When You are all the world? – Mystic Indian Poet Devara Dasimayya

Well as I thought about these profound lines, I just realized that violence is not just a bloody act but can be bloodless too at an emotional level. A simple negative thought/action of hatred or animosity against another fellow being is violence too. Well a sane person may not plunge a dagger into someone but how often do we actually commit acts of emotional violence?

Sri Sri Ravishankar (Guruji) talks about this beautifully and says –
“Even a feeling of hatred against one person is a guaranteed one way ticket to hell”. Hell sure it is, at an emotional level as you lose your peace (and piece) of mind needlessly hating another person.

Falling in Place, Not Quite

There are times when things just happen out of nowhere and you cannot connect the dots. They say the mind is powerful enough that your thoughts define the events that happen around you. There are also connections, which seem extremely coincidental when they happen. Well when the one writing the script is the be-all and end-all, how else could it be?

Well here is something that happened to me. I am on a professional break and to extend my break, I was supposed to apply for medical leave (as that is only leave that I’ve got). Just on the day before I was supposed to apply for medical leave, I trip and fall and break my metatarsal bone on my leg. So eventually it became medical leave in truth and quite a break (leg) to begin my break (professional). Well thatz not the end of the connections, I go to the orthopedic in a car tinted with shades manufactured by 3M (the company) and I am wearing a POP cast manufactured by 3M. Guess what, I have been working on IT applications for 3M for the last 5+ years and the connection doesn’t want to end quite yet, lol.

So things sometime just fall in place, not quite like I’d have wished to here though. But here I am enjoying every bit of walking like an astronaut with the cast. The other thing that hit me the most is all the warmth with which my friends here have taken care of me that I didn’t feel the pain just one bit and am giggling away as if am wearing this cast for a dress-up.