Kaushika and the Crane...

This is a story from Mahabharata that brings to light that our spiritual achievements are useless if we neglect our duties or Dharma.

Kaushika, a Brahmin boy was his parents' only son. One day he told his mother that he wanted to go off to the jungle and devote himself to spiritual studies.

His mother was concerned as her husband was very sick and they needed someone to take care of them. But Kaushika was adamant and he was determined to study the Vedas. His mother cried in vain as she watched her son turn his back on her and leave for the jungle. Eventually Kaushika acquired great mystical powers after doing a lot of penance and acquired completed knowledge of the Vedas.

One afternoon, as he was meditating under a tree, a crane flew up, and perched herself on a branch above Kaushika. Some bird droppings fell on Kaushika's head. Kaushika furiously threw a fiery gaze at the crane. The crane immediately went up in flames and fell dead. The sage felt sorry for what he had done. He felt bad for letting his anger control him that way.

Later in the day, he went to a village to beg for alms. The lady of the house asked him to wait and went to get some food. Right then her husband arrived. She immediately set aside the pot of food she was taking to the sage and went to attend her husband. After washing his feet, giving him food, and attending to his needs, she came back out to give the alms to the sage. The sage felt very insulted as she put her husband before a pious Brahmin like him. She calmly said that a true Brahmin is one who has patience and who has mastered his anger. She said that she is not a crane who will die by his fiery gaze. At this the sage was amazed. He was wondering how she knew what happened with the crane.

The lady said to him that he was a learned Brahmin but one who has not understood the truth about virtue. She asked him to go meet Dharmavyadha in Mathura to know more about it.

The sage thanked the lady and hurried to Mathura thinking that Dharmavyadha must be a great and learned sage. But when he finally reached Dharmavyadaha's place, he found it to be a butcher shop! A very ordinary looking man came out and and said that he was Dharmavyadha. Kaushika couldn't believe how a butcher could be spiritually enlightened??!!!

The sage could not contain himself and blurted that he is in the sinful profession of butchering animals. So he asked him if he doesn't feel ashamed of himself. Dharmavyadha replied that he wasn't ashamed as he was just engaged in a family trade and that he worked hard and honestly. He also said that as we walk we trample numerous creates under the soil, so there is really nobody who doesn't harm another living creature knowingly or unknowingly.

The butcher then took him to his house where his wife was doing her house hold chores and his two boys were playing. The butcher introduced the sage to his wife and boys. Then the butcher entered the house and touched his parents' feet. The butcher remarked that his parents were God to him and that his wife and himself attend to them with devotion and love. In doing one's duty cheerfully lies true virtue said that butcher.

The butcher said that the brahmin has run away from his worldly responsibilities by deserting his aged father and mother. He said any level of spiritual achievement is useless if one has neglected one's Dharma or duties.

Hearing this Kaushika felt very ashamed of having left his parents and immediately returned to them and served them lovingly until their end.

There are two things to be learnt from this story:

1. To achieve spiritual enlightenment there is no need to relinquish everything and make the Himalayas as your abode...but you can be a completely connected person living in your current state of life and executing your routine duties.

2. If a person is well-read or if he / she is born in a particular caste / creed it doesn't mean that they are automatically superior in spiritual terms to another fellow person. At a human level nobody can measure the level of spiritual prowess, so it better left to the Divine to gauge us.

Having ego blinds us to so many truths and makes us deaf to other people's pleas. So in order to deflate this balloon of ego which is a major hurdle to our spiritual ascent and be completely at ease executing our duties effectively just try Sahaja meditation. The meditation also teaches anger management techniques which will ensure that you do not burn down any endangered species with your fiery gaze ;-)

Pencil Sketches

A couple of sketches I made of my meditation guru Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi...

Who is the greatest saint of them all?

Today's story talks about egotism with a historical instance at the foreground...let's proceed...

There were 2 great saints in Maharashtra during the 1600s namely Sant Namdev and Ghora Kumbhara. Sant Namdev was a very deep spiritual saint who used to get daily visitations from Lord Vishnu himself. One day saint Ghora Kumbhara who was also a deep saint and a potter by profession, was asked by a few seers to keep his stick on every saint’s head to measure their depth in devotion to the Lord. Ghora Kumbhara placed his stick on Sant Namdev’s head and announced that his devotion was not very deep. Sant Namdev was immediately irked by the comment. He asked him how he dared to place his ordinary stick on his head and make an atrocious judgment like that. He said that he was one of the great saints of all times as Lord Vishnu himself visited him every day, so how could his devotion be half baked? He was then directed by another seer to go to the deep woods and meet a great Yogi to find the answer to his question.

Namdev thought within himself that all the saints present there were jealous of him and hence were asking him to perform this task. So he decided to go and meet the other Yogi thinking that he would prove to the other Yogi also that he was the greatest one. Thinking this he set out on his way and after walking for many many days reached a spot where an old man was sleeping with his feet placed on top of a Shiv Lingam. Seeing this Sant Namdev was furious and he told the old man to take his feet off of the Lingam. For this the old man said that he wouldn’t be able to do it as he didn’t have the strength for it. So he asked Namdev to help him move his feet away from the Lingam. So Namdev lifted his feet and placed it to the side and to his surprise another Lingam arose from the ground under the old man’s feet again. He moved his feet to a different location and the same thing happened. Seeing this Namdev realized his folly and understood how egotistical he had been all this time. He fell at the feet of the old man and begged for forgiveness.

This story teaches us an important lesson that in life no matter how great or how learned we are we should always remain humble and down to earth because that is the right way of living. No arguments on that one!

In search of the King!

This is a very interesting story which I heard first from my spouse. This story provides us a metaphor for how we may feel when we reach the deep state of meditation. Let's get on with the story...

Once upon a time there was a poor man living in a great kingdom. He one day decided to travel across far away lands and visit the king's court to meet the king. He thought that if he met the king all his problems would be resolved.

So he set out one fine morning and after walking for several days encountered a man who was dressed in rich robes. He thought, "Oh, this may be the king! But I am not too sure, let me ask somebody!". So he asked a passerby, "Is this the king?". For this the passerby laughed and said, "No, he is just an ordinary sentry who works for the king". Next he saw a man on a horse with 4 soldier's following him. He thought this might be the king and he again inquired with a passerby who said he was one of the king's Senadhipati (aka Defense Minister). Disappointed he walked further and came across a man going in a palaquin (aka caravan) followed by several foot and mounted soldiers. "Wow, this surely is the king", thought the man to himself. But alas another person on the street told him, "Nope, he's not the king, he is just the king's minister."

By this time the poor fellow was crestfallen and was thinking of returning back to his village. But then he thought of giving one last try. After walking for several more days, he entered a grand palace and after entering through several sentry guarded gates came upon a grand court where several bedecked Senadhipatis and Ministers were seated. At the head of the court was a throne made of gold and adorned with several gem stones. On that throne there was a man seated in all glory wearing the most expensive clothing and the most glittering ornaments. The man just had one look at the man on the throne and exclaimed aloud, "O Great King...I get to meet you finally!"

So the underlying moral of this story is that when we can feel that we have achieved the absolute greatest right for us then we will not need a third party endorsement to believe it. This kind of an achievement may be at a worldly level like securing a high paying job or scoring a top rank in an exam. But the true doubtless truth which we can all achieve and know and trust that it is the absolute, is the state achieved via meditation. In the meditative state, we know that we are there in the present, we know that we have tasted the greatest nectar of them all...we just know! So try meditating and enjoy meeting 'the king'.

My world is different from your world

Today I will be telling the story about Lord Ganesha and Karthikeya which many of you must have heard at one point or the other during your childhood years. This story is based on the basic philosophy that a person's ego ultimately leads to their downfall. This story also gives an interesting angle about different perspectives, i.e, even if two people are given the same object they may take it differently because their line of thought is entirely different. So without further ado let us get on with the story...

Long, long ago when Lord Shiva and his wife Parvathi were bored as the administration on Earth was being handled well, they called their two children Lord Ganesha and Karthikeya. When they arrived their parents told them that they would give them a competition and whoever comes first would be given a special prize. Both the children got excited and asked their parents what they were supposed to do. For this Lord Parvathi said, "Whichever one of you goes around the world three times and comes back first will the declared the winner". Lord Karthikeya possessed a very quick moving peacock and so hearing this he was very thrilled since he knew that all that his brother Ganesha had was a small little mouse. So off he went on his peacock to revolve around the Earth. Ganesha on the other hand was confused. He kept thinking for a while and he had a flash of brilliant idea. He smiled to himself and he started walking around his parents. Lord Shiva and Parvathi were also confused. Lord Ganesha quickly finished his three rounds around his parents and then held out his hand for the prize. Lord Shiva and Parvathi looked at each other and understood what their little son Ganesha just did, smiled at each other and handed him the prize.

When Karthikeya arrived he was flabbergasted to see the prize already in Ganesha's hands and he couldn't understand what had happened. Ganesha quickly explained to him saying that for him his 'world' were his parents and hence he decided to just go around them.

This story talks about perspectives. Say for instance, for Person A, a rock may mean just a rock but for another person B it may signify a deity. In today's world as we have exposure to so many different ideas, thoughts thanks to the advancement in communication media. This also creates room for plenty of confusion and friction in a variety of relationships be it personal, formal or informal. To avoid such delicate situations, it is always good to not jump to conclusions but be patient. Also try to put yourself in the other person's shoes to understand how you would view the same situation...that's enough dose for today...

The emperor's new clothes...

This is a story that many of us may have heard several times in our younger days.

A vain and egotistical Emperor who cared for nothing but his appearance hires two tailors who are con men that promise him the finest suit of clothes from a fabric invisible to anyone who is unfit for his position or "just hopelessly stupid". The Emperor cannot see the cloth himself, but pretends that he can for fear of appearing unfit for his position; his ministers do the same. When the swindlers report that the suit is finished, they mime dressing him and the Emperor then marches in procession before his subjects, who play along with the pretense. The Emperor rewards the duo handsomely for their remarkable 'craftsmanship'. Suddenly, a child in the crowd, too young to understand the desirability of keeping up the pretense, blurts out that the Emperor is wearing nothing at all and the cry is taken up by others. The Emperor cringes, suspecting the assertion is true, but holds himself up proudly and continues the procession, deciding never to be so vain again and to take his position more seriously.

Hmmm....find anything similar between the emperor's pitiful situation and yours...??? So many of us today are trying to keep up with so many pretenses just like the foolish emperor. Some of them we do knowingly and some even unknowingly. The key word here is 'ego'. Today we are all muddled under layers and layers of expressions of our ego that we have forgotten our own self, we have completely lost track of who we are...deep down. Deep down we are the 'Pure Spirit' and as a spirit the first and foremost thing on our minds should be to venerate the Divine. But instead the first and foremost thing on most of the people's mind today is money, lust, revenge, hunger for more. People today identify themselves with something they do or some idea they have in mind. If you are a Doctor then you are just that, you develop an ego based on your profession. If you are an investment banker then you are just that. There is no other identity for you! You start thinking that based on your position you need to get a certain amount of money, certain amount of respect, interact with only such and such type of people, do only such and such chores...today everything going wrong with the world is because of man's ego, is because man is not able to see beyond himself. If you for a moment come out and see all the modern world setups you will realize how people have built establishments based not on just their ego but also on the past ego of so many others.

Today the state is such that only 'Money' gives a man security, only 'Sex' satisfies a man, only 'Scientific Know-How' quenches a man's thirst for knowledge...in the name of progress man has driven himself deeper and deeper into the realms of self-destruction because all his activities today are anti-Divine. if you refer to my previous post about old Doordarshan serials then we see that most of the programs airing on TV those days were 'family oriented' but today there are individual channels even for a toddler...then where is the question of sitting and watching a program together as a family??? When we are unable to get over our egos even at the level of a family setting then how will we get over our regional and national problems without letting go of our ego and thinking of the greater good? Today a wife is too ego-oriented to depend on the husband for money or vice-versa, today everybody wants to be independent in everything and all modern day amenities are directed towards that. What we do not realize is that the burgeoning world population and the gradual failure of all man-made edifices go to prove that only a collective community living in harmony without imposing individual egos on one another is going to succeed. It is only a matter of time when this truth will prevail. Until then, try not to be like the foolish emperor but like the innocent child who sees the world as-is...without the weight of his ego! Oh and I know it is very difficult to get rid of Mr. Ego because that is the bane of human civilization but still there is a very hard-to-believe-it-is-so-simple-and-actually-works technique called Sahaja meditation...try it and see if you can bring your Mr. Ego under control and enjoy the change in your perspective....

Raja Janaka and Narada

My New Year's first blog...I am still continuing with the series of stories with a moral...Today I am going to write about Raja Janaka's story. He was the father of Sita.

Raja Janaka was a great king who ruled over a great kingdom. One day Narada, the messenger of Gods came down to him and said, "O Great King...I have heard so much about your greatness. I have heard that you are a powerful and generous king. At the same time I have heard that you are a 'Vidhehi' (one who is above everything)...How can it be possible as you are such a powerful king having so many responsibilities, have so many luxuries, have so many things to worry about and still how can you be above all this? "

For this Raja Janaka responded, "Narad, I will answer your question in the evening. But please do me a favor. Can you please hold this pot filled with milk to the brim and not allow even a drop to spill. Please have this pot with you and return it back to me in the evening."

The sage Narada came back in the evening and was looking all irritated. Raja Janaka asked him what happened. To that Narada retorted, "I have been carrying this pot all day and have not been able to do anything else lest the milk spill from it. All my attention has been on this pot. I didn't see anyone, talk to anyone or do anything else."

Raja Janaka said, "My friend, that is exactly how my attention is. My attention is all the time on my spirit and hence I do not get bothered with any mundane things. My attention is always at a higher level."

Narada said, "O Great one, you have opened my eyes. I now understand the importance of attention. Long live King Janaka!"

This story talks about the importance of attention in our daily lives. If we keep our attention on something pure, then we rise above all other evils. So always keep your attention on good things and remember attention is different from concentration. You may ask how can we keep our attention on pure things when there is so much evil around us. We keep hearing, watching and reading so much negative stuff. That is very true, so to help improve your attention power, try meditating. This will take away all the negative thoughts and ideas and help focus your attention only on the positive.

So until next time, be purely attentive ;-)

Four brahmins and the lion

This is another of a moral story in my series...I actually wanted to write about the 'Two Monks' but it was already expressed in a beautiful way by one of the bloggers I follow. So I dropped the idea immediately. :-)

So let us get on with this story, a story about four Brahmins and a lion. I think some of you may have had this in one of your language classes in school sometime or the other.

Once upon a time there were four Brahmin brothers who were walking in a forest. On reaching the dense part of the forest, they noticed some skeletons lying on the ground. As all the brothers were very well-read and scholarly, they could immediately recognize that the skeleton belonged to a lion. So the first brother told the rest of them, "Let me assemble this lion's skeleton using my deep knowledge." He put together the lion's skeleton in a jiffy. The second brother then wanted to show off his skills and added muscles to the lion's body. The third brother not wanting to hold himself back added blood and all the other essential life fluids to the lion. The fourth brother then said, "All of you have done great things, but let me now do the most difficult thing...allow me to give life to this dead lion."

The dead lion came to life and roared gloriously. This terrified the brahmins and they all climbed up the nearest tree. The lion climbed up the tree and killed all of the brahmins. Poor souls!

So the moral here is that no matter how intelligent or knowledgeable a person might be not having the power of discretion is a great handicap. In this era, we find people who are very scholarly, very intelligent, very well-read but they apply their knowledge and skills in 'waking up dead lions' or in different words in areas which are harmful to the existence of humanity. A good example is the invention of the atomic bombs. Many people with deep knowledge in several subjects are even using their powers and reach in maybe not creating atom bombs but in corrupting humanity in a more subtler sense. This will eventually lead to the total collapse of humanity one way or the other. So it is very essential that great minds do not give into their ego to come up with destructive creations. One good way to overcome the pull of your ego is to meditate. Just try it, you will not regret it!

Punyakoti - A touching story!

Since I posted a story with a moral in my last post, I thought why not continue in the same vein and post a few more stories with morals...actually Moral Science period was my favorite in school...I am not sure if they have those classes in schools now...I believe they should...

Anyways...Punyakoti was not from a Moral Science class but I read the story in the form of a poem in Kannada class. It was such a moving story that I started crying bucketfuls when my teacher was reciting the poem. The rest of the class was laughing at me and me being in 3rd grade, I was very embarrassed and at the same time wondering how come the other girls were not affected by the sadness in the poem.

So coming back to the present, the lyrics of the poem are so beautiful and touching. I feel this is one of the most beautiful poems of all time... For people who do not understand Kannada, the story is about a Cow named Punyakoti who gets trapped by a hungry Tiger. The cow promises the tiger that she would definitely become the tiger's next meal but first she would want to go see her little calf to feed her and also bade her last goodbye. The tiger doesn't trust the cow but the cow makes a solemn promise to return. She then goes over to her calf, feeds him and requests all the other cows to take care of him as their own child. She tells them not to trample him or stab him with their horns as he is soon going to be an orphan. (never fails to tear me up...this part..sniff..sniff)...
So finally the cow goes back to the tiger and surrenders herself at his feet. The tiger is amazed at the cow for keeping her promise and feels so ashamed of his behavior that he ends his life by falling off a cliff...

So that is the end of the story and the moral of this story is obviously...no matter what...even when it comes to the matter of life and death you have keep your word. So enjoy being true to yourself and to whoever you have promised. On the other hand, just to be safe...don't make a promise...! ;-)

I think the most difficult thing is being true to oneself. We generally make so many little promises to ourself like I promise to start eating healthy, I promise I will read that book next week...but do we always keep them? This is a very difficult question and many a times we convince ourselves sub-consciously that it is okay to not keep the promise today but maybe do it tomorrow. A lot many people including myself waste a lot of precious time making promises to ourself but never keeping them. The effect of this in addition to losing out on a lot of benefits which may be tangible are, we slowly start eroding our stock of personal integrity which causes more harm than good...I think I will stop here for now...but mull over this...

Story of a chanticleer!

For those of you not familiar with the term 'chaticleer' it means 'cock or rooster' :-) I just learnt a new word too...

Some of you may already know this little tale but I wanted to put it down to demonstrate the power of 'witness'. Witness is a state where we do not react to anything that happens around us either positive or negative. But it doesn't mean that we do not help those in case of any emergency say an accident. It just means that we are always looking at an issue from a third person angle. The advantage of doing that is it helps us get out of the 'box' or problem per se and view it with complete detachment which in turn will lead to more creative solutions which will be most optimal from all perspectives. Enough of the theory...now let's get on with the story...

There was once a great king in the land of your imagination...he once wanted to organize a chanticleer fight and wanted to see who will rear a chanticleer well enough to make it win. So he donated one chanticleer to every one in his kingdom. So after a few months the competition to see which cock wins was arranged. So all the cocks were put into the fight arena. While all the other cocks were furiously fighting away there was one cock who just stood there unperturbed by all the mayhem surrounding him. All the other cocks saw this cock and thought that this cock must be possessing special powers and hence he is standing there right in the middle without any fear. So as a result none of the other cocks disturbed this one standing in the middle and in the end all the cocks died fighting while this cock was left standing alone. The king asked the great sage who had reared the cock the secret behind it. The sage told him that he only taught the cock to meditate and as a result of that its witness state had improved so much that he couldn't be perturbed by anything. So the king realized the power of the witness state and also realized that meditation is the only way to achieve that state...

I hope you enjoyed this post and if you are eager to meditate now then please click here

My muse...

I have always admired Sudha Murthy for all that she personifies...and I have always desired to be like her...a complete woman from all perspectives. Hence I am dedicating this post to her. She is one of my most favorite person in the world, an ideal Mom, an ideal Technologist, a notable Author, a Charitable person, a Simple person, a Balanced person to the core and above all an Ideal Woman who encompasses all of the best qualities that a human being should possess.

The society in which we live today demands more and more people with character like her. I think if each and every woman today focuses on being atleast 10% of Sudha Murthy then we can all change the society radically, which in itself would be such a great thing to achieve.

Many of you might have already read a lot of inspiring little stories about her like how she wrote a letter to JRD Tata to voice her opinion against the unjust discretion of women, the sacrifices she made to enable her husband Narayan Murthy to start Infosys, her simple style of living, her enormous charitable efforts and so on. But in this post I would like to point out another side of her which is very inherent and may not be very obvious to all at first.

She is basically a doer. There are a lot of people today who do nothing but just give 'empty talk'. But she is a person who is very soft-spoken but at the same time gets a lot of things done. This can only be done by a person who is deeply spiritual and downright humble. Those are the characteristics which distinguish Sudha Murthy from the other 'rich and famous' high fliers of today. These are the qualities which enable her to contribute so much to society without feeling 'proud' about it. I read in one of her book 'How I Taught my Grandmother to Read' that her ideologies are influenced by many people she has met in her journey of life. She is a humble learner as she learns a lesson out of every experience, every person she meets in her life. This is what makes her a truly outstanding personality.

Unfortunately, today we can find a lot of people talking about stuff just to satisfy their ego by dominating a conversations, a lot of people doing charity just to appear in Page 3 of the newspaper, a lot of people learning technology just to get the next promotion and show-off, a lot of people leading a simple life just to get written about...hmmmph....humility like hers is definitely a rare-gem nowadays!!!

In order to be more like her, we need to develop our spiritual side and learn to be humble. These qualities will help us rise beyond normal mortals and will enable us to make valuable contributions to the society. It is high time now since our society today needs great people and each one of us have the innate ability to make a difference. All of us already have it within us...we just need to look a little harder for it!

We can all make a difference and we should!

Little Ganeshas

Just came across this beautiful blog... :-)

Love it, love it, just love it!

Thanks so much!

http://littleganeshas.wordpress.com/

Business Analysis and more

Starting a new blog on Business Analysis and related stuff...Check it out!

He recently turned 6 mos... :-)

This blog is dedicated to my son...a very cute little boy...who recently turned 6 mos...I wanted to chronicle some of the significant events which I remember (when I wasn't sleep deprived and delirious.. ;-)) over these past few months...hopefully my son will read this some day...

When he was born, frankly I didn't feel an immediate emotional bonding with him as much as my husband did...he did feel strange from a different world even though I carried him around for close to 10 months...but the love story between me and my son started slowly but steadily....I was really amazed at how well my hubby connected with him...he was the perfect Dad! So I did feel a tinge of insecurity...would I be able to connect the same way with him...?

As the days went by, there was no room for any kind of doubt...I just connected and bonded so well with him...all thanks to him...he is such a good son, even though he was just a newborn he didn't trouble me at all...it was as if he knew all the things happening with me...he would not cry or shriek even if he was hungry...only if we was terribbllllyyy hungry..yes...I must say, I am probably a lucky Mom...or I suppose all babies are like this...since they are all gifts sent from heaven above... :-)

He started sleeping through the night just as he turned 3 months which was another great blessing...when he started looking into my eyes at around the same time, it was just pure poetry...he told me so much with just one glance of his...the joy can't be described with words...

He always shows so much respect to me...he is so well-behaved, so well-mannered...and he is just a baby! As a mother, I do expect him to grow up to be a good son with all the lofty values like honesty, sincerity, patriotism instilled in him...but again, this is the age where parents don't expect from their offspring but I think I will prefer to expect and try to instill all those higher values in him rather than not expect and doing nothing about it...I expect my son to shine in whatever walk of life he chooses for himself...because he is such a cute little angel...

The joy which he expresses with a twinkle in his eyes and with his smile when he sees me....is something which I can't describe but I suppose every mother feels the same way when they see their children...all the tiny, precious things he does like wake up in the morning and wait for me to get up instead of crying, laugh a merry laugh for any silly things I do even though they are not funny ;-), wait for me patiently when I am busy working on something, be uncomfy with his wet diaper (which I forgot to change) but still smile a beautiful smile at me, gaze into my eyes and narrate an entire fairy-tale, enjoy my company like nobody else ever has or can, share the feeling of warmth which only we two can share, tell little secrets with his naughty smile, cling on to me like I am his heavenly angel, make me feel like a queen and the rest like second-class citizens :-D

I was very worried when the wicked flu visited him when he was around 5 mos old but he weathered that storm like a brave warrior...the wavelength that we share is so amazing, it is just like everybody describes...2 bodies 1 soul...when he is with me he is fearless, he is secure, he is joyful, he just knows that I am there for him...I am just a normal Mom but he makes me feel like I am a super being one with all powers...atleast I know that I am blessed with the power to comfort him, make him laugh, make him secure...

He has also worked so many miracles even without us realizing, he made me and his daddy come closer like never before, he taught me to be more patient and enduring, he made me see the joy in the smallest of tiniest of little things, he showed me that joy is hidden even in the most mundane of things, helped me experience the real joy in giving...

He is now growing up to be a sweet little boy...now he does more of his small naughty things like pull my hair, keep tugging at my wedding necklace (which I feel is his way of virtually playing with Daddy), flip and do a caterpillar scoot to move around, imitate me and others, dance in his own style when I dance for him...he has also started babbling...his first word 'Amma' :-) which again is meant to make me feel special...I guess all babies are programmed to make the Mom feel special for all the efforts put forth by her... :-P

But this blog is about my son and he is one special little guy...I hope and pray that the angels continue to bless him with all noteworthy qualities and that he will grow up to be a great man someday! Here's to a mom wishing for her wonderful son!

Thank you son for making me complete...I didn't realize what I was missing until I had you!

Thanks so much Lord!

Came across this in a chain mail...made me smile...hope it makes you too...

WHY ARE INDIANS SO EASY TO IDENTIFY...

1. Everything you eat is savored in garlic, onion and tomatoes.

2. You try and reuse gift wrappers, gift boxes, and of course aluminum foil.

3. You are always standing next to the two largest size suitcases at the Airport.

4. You arrive one or two hours late to a party - and think it's normal.

5. You peel the stamps off letters that the Postal Service missed to stamp.

6. You recycle Wedding Gifts, Birthday Gifts and Anniversary Gifts.

7. You name your children in rhythms (example, Sita & Gita, Ram & Shyam...)

8. All your children have pet names, which sound nowhere, close to their real names.

9. You take Indian snacks anywhere it says 'No Food Allowed.'

10. You talk for an hour at the front door when leaving someone's house.

11. You load up the family car with as many people as possible.

12. HIGH PRIORITY ***** You use plastic to cover anything new in your house, whether it's the remote control, VCR, carpet or new couch. *****

13. Your parents tell you not to care what your friends think, but they won't let you do certain things because of what the other 'Uncles and Aunties' will think.

14. You buy and display crockery, which is never used, as it is for special occasions, which never happen.

15. You have a vinyl tablecloth on your kitchen table.

16.. You use grocery bags to hold garbage.

17. You keep leftover food in your fridge in as many numbers of bowls as possible.

18. Your kitchen shelf is full of jars, varieties of bowls and plastic utensils (got free with purchase of other stuff)

19. You carry a stash of your own food whenever you travel (and travel means any car ride longer than 15 minutes).

20. You own a rice cooker or a pressure cooker.

21. You fight over who pays the dinner bill.

22. You live with your parents and you are 40 years old. (And they prefer it that way).

23. You don't use measuring cups when cooking.

24. You never learnt how to stand in a queue.

25. You can only travel if there are 5 persons at least to see you off or receive you whether you are traveling by bus, train or plane.

26. If she is NOT your daughter, you always take interest in knowing whose daughter has run with whose son and feel proud to spread it at the velocity of more than the speed of light.

27. You only make long distance calls after 11p.m.

28. If you don't live at home, when your parents call, they ask if you've eaten, even if it's midnight

29. You call an older person you never met before Uncle or Aunty.

30. When your parents meet strangers and talk for a few minutes, you discover you're talking to a distant cousin.

31. Your parents don't realize phone connections to foreign countries have improved in the last two decades, and still scream at the top of their lungs when making foreign calls.

32. You have bed sheets on your sofas so as to keep them from getting dirty.

33. Its embarrassing if you're wedding has less than 600 people.

34. All your Tupperware is stained with food color.

35. You have drinking glasses made of steel.

36. You have mastered the art of bargaining in shopping.

37. You have really enjoyed reading this blog

I think we stand out because of some of our habits...but I guess most of them are good habits like we like to recycle and reuse stuff...which is good..right! Above all most of the above points also indicate that we are caring people... :-)

Chak De India...:-)

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Reality vs Virtuality

Not really sure if the word 'Virtuality' really exists...but I wanted to blab about Reality vs Virtuality...I have been doing a lot of reading on Social Media stuff over the recent past and I realized that today's world is shifting towards Virtuality and we are slowly losing our ground in Reality...

To cite an example, today we have our profiles scattered all over on the web in the form of LinkedIn profiles, Facebook profiles, MySpace profiles, Twitter Tweets, Second Life personalities...gosh...but are we losing our real self while we are busy building our online self...???

People today are more interested in meeting folks in a virtual chat room or restaurant rather than talking to their neighbor who lives next door! Forget talking, I bet they don't even know who their neighbor is...it might be the same person they are corresponding with online but they will never know!

What is it that makes us all cocooned into our rooms fastened to our mouse...creating virtual personalities? What is it that prevents us from going out and meeting our neighbors or friends? What is it that scares us from doing things in reality which we so easily do in the virtual world?

There may be lot of arguments for 'virtuality' where people may say it is a 'safer' option...but really...Safer??? Is it really safe or are we just scared to put our true self out to the world? To what extent do people's online personalities match their real-life persona? Why all this pretense going on?

Today people blog and have online diaries...while in the good old days a diary was a really personal private property! So have people lost the discretion of what is private and what is not? True the virtual world does give the power to the people to choose what they want out there and what not, but is whatever out there really real ...or just an elaborate fragment of somebody's imagination...

There is a lot of different perspectives from which this topic can argued on, but one thing is definitely true...thanks to virtuality...we have lost touch with reality...no arguments about that!

Keyword based reading…what’s that again???

You must have all heard about ‘Keyword based Searching’, ‘Keyword based Testing’ etc. ‘Keyword based Reading’ is a new phrase coined by Moi…This is a technique which will help you to read up on stuff and get specialized in a orderly way and also harnesses the power of the Internet as you all know we are not living in the age where we just had to depend on the neighborhood library for our daily dose of knowledge. You can use this technique if you are currently working on building your skill-set for the job market or even if you just want to build up your knowledge in a particular field. This technique uses the power of the Internet to sharpen your skills. It is something which everybody already does but I am just putting it in a package...and this is something which works for me…atleast… J

So the process goes like this. Say you want to learn more about the field of Testing.

So as a first step do a research on the set of all the keywords related to the field...in this case System Testing, Unit Testing, Black-box testing, Functional Testing, Regression Testing...etc. So once you have gathered a good set to start from proceed to the next step. Keep this set at a high level and do not have words which are very specific to a sub-field within…

The next step would be to take each keyword and research on the Internet. So document each keyword and the relevant links associated to each of them. It is always good to have a mix of the below for each keyword:

- General info sites like wikis

- Sites with people who have blogged/discussed on the topics

- Sites with podcasts, videos on topics like Youtube, ...

- Sites with white papers

- Sites with online books (good to have a subscription with sites like 24 X 7, Safari)

As a third step, if you are parts of some networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook you might also get additional information related to these topics like webinars, discussion topics etc. Go ahead and attend and be part of these. You can also post questions at different forums to get answers from the expert community. You can also subscribe to RSS feeds of the topic that interests you.

Also to top-off read off-beat things related to the topic like jokes, cartoons etc...if there are any available

So once you have gathered this information go ahead and read and gather as much information as you can. It would be good to first read at a high level and then go deeper in whichever topic appeals to you.

Then finally to ensure that you remember all that you have read, blog about the main points on your personal blog and share with all. If it is something related to a tool or programming language go ahead and download the free trial of the tool if one is available or start cooking…ahem..I meant coding!

Enjoy building your skill-set!

Blowing life back into my blog after 2 years... :-) Life can get very busy sometimes... ;-)

How to write an effective Emcee speech - some tips

18 Must-not-forget Guidelines to make an effective Emcee Speech

As I have the had the opportunity of hosting around 7 shows as an MC (Master of Ceremonies) until now which have also given me the good fortune of having some bloopers...and having learnt from them, I just thought it is time I started preaching (yawn!!!)...so here goes...

1. Always include the ‘Name of the Event’ in the opening statements

2. Signify why the name was chosen for the event by outlining the agenda for the event

3. Welcome the ‘Guest of Honor(s)’ for the evening in the order of importance. Make sure that you have the names of the spouses of the dignitaries too so that you can welcome them too. Always make sure that you get an accurate/updated profile of the dignitary.

4. Invite the performers/guests for the evening on the dias for their performances/speech with a good pre-introduction.

5. If humor/casualness is allowed always try to co-relate some of the names/events which you are announcing to any generic things to which the audience can relate to.

6. Always try to make the announcements more interesting.
For e.g. if you are calling a group of people on to the stage, try to use different analogies to relate to them. Say for instance, you can call one group as the Diamonds, another as Pearls and so on

7. It is not always possible to script any funny anecdotes in advance without knowing how the occasion/audience is going to turn out. Hence ‘Presence of mind’ is very very essential for an effective emceeing, so that you can cook up effective anecdotes/ gags at the time of delivery. Spontaneity always adds more color to your emcee speech.

8. Always have a hand the ‘Pulse of the audience’. If the audience is having a bored look on their faces, then try to bring them back by cracking a few funny jokes. But at the same time try to gauge what the impact would be on the audience. It doesn’t make a good impression if a joke falls flat…

9. If you are announcing prizes always try to pause for a second and have pin-drop silence to build up the tempo so that when you announce there is greater enthusiasm in the crowd.

10. Dress appropriately for the occasion. Wear dresses which would enhance would your complexion. Have generous amounts of make-up especially if you are gonna be up on stage for more than an hour.

11. If you have an Oops, don’t panic. Just say a simple ‘Sorry’ and continue. Admit the mistake and there ends the matter.

12. Learn the names of the people whose names you will be calling out.

13. Always end with a good punch-line. Something which will remain in the audience’s memory when they kind about the occasion.

14. If you know that you will be hosting occasionally, it is always a good habit to collect/keep in mind interesting anecdotes/proverbs/one-liners/jokes over a period of time. It is not always possible to start putting all these ‘audience-punchers’ on the day of preparing the presentation since you may have very less time to prepare.

15. Always make sure that you have the right agenda. Always be prepared to make last minute changes to the schedule and modify your speech appropriately.

16. Always try to use synonyms to not make it sound repetitive. For instance, use 'Please give a big hand', 'They deserve another round of applause'...etc.

17. Ensure that you are not hurting the sentiments of any group of folks gathered while cracking jokes.

18. Always SMILE while you are up there…always makes a big impact.