Summoning: The Taste of Grief

'Love those who hate you...'

- Leo Tolstoy

It is sometimes more disturbing to understand that one is in such a state of pity, that he/she has no right to offer judgment, rather is a mere object in this schematic, disturbed by an action, and has no right to react. If God alone was responsible was the creation, he himself is responsible for the action as well, which would invite a logical remark : he himself is responsible for the reaction. It is not a noble deed to react on our own, act on our will, but need to show restraint, and allow god to direct us to react...

Life is an ever learning experience, I always acknowledge this fact. But, did I really live the experience? learn from it? Cheated, am I by my own self ? Is it a reflection of my value education or my principles? Dignity of thought is always a yardstick to judge ourselves, and I have come to believe it is truly so. Dignity of our conscious actions will help us in being true to our values and self. This post is a record for this overwhelming emotion. This world will have to learn to seek value and dignity, there will be a moment in our lives when each one of us wishes to seek forgiveness but it would be uncalled for, more so might not be well received...

Apt are the following words...

"...Love those that hate you, but to love those one hates is impossible. Forgive me for having troubled you. Every one has enough to bear in his own grief! ..."

Is there an appropriate ending to this pressing emotion or this post ? My answer is No...

P.S.: After reading the above post, if you felt it meant something, then I shall be happy that you have seen reason... if you feel it was irrelevant, then probably you are right.

Destiny Test : My Kind

Place: Sagar Kiran

Date: 22-Jul-2009

Firstly, I wish to issue a friendly reminder that this letter has nothing to do with the test that Society of Peregrines uses to help determine who might be destined to vanquish evil. It is more about my experiences aboard Sagar Kiran (For the uninitiated, Sagar Kiran is a Jack-Up Drilling Rig off the Western Coast of India) that I wish to write about in this post. Life seems to be unpleasant to say the least in regard to the turn of events in the recent past, it seems to have lost the charm it had. Destiny seems to have played a spoilt sport in regard to helping my life seek the correct direction. What I wish to speak about in this post, is more about my inability to influence a change. It is rather long, that this phase has been casting its shadow on my life. I wanted to record these thoughts, so that they do the noble work of reminding me that its about time to change.

For my efforts to change... and my determination, let the fate and destiny surrender...

Life..truly yours!

Abhijith

We Vs Me Debate

"...help me to be ME"

Its fascinating to understand that most of us don't seem to understand the meaning of society. It is always necessary to be able to strike the right balance between being one amongst us and being you. This post is related to my tryst with one's efforts to understand self.

It is always easy to point fingers, but it is tough to understand that pointing fingers is more about pointing at self. We drive ourselves to that position when we wish to seek more than what we presumably can take. What one needs, is patience and a firm understanding of one's self. We need to achieve our objectives, met our goals, this is a fast moving world, but when do we realize that everyone has their own pace? One should not fear going forward slowly; one needs to fear only to stand still.

There are many reasons, why this post has seen the light of the day, but there are only few to explain the choices that we make. When we tend to look at life as an abstract art form, we don't believe it truly is abstract for we can make sense of it, everyone has his/her own meaning depending on their sensibilities. Likewise, it is about time that we understand the meaning of our life and existence.

All the Best!

Ornament of the Night

She hesitated, perched at the edge,

that malady called doubt pervading her thoughts.

Would her wings be strong enough?

Her heart said yes, but her mind rebelled

Battling one another in her core.

With herself as the single casualty

She sensed the footsteps approaching

… The palms pushed her from behind

…The ground slid out from beneath

And then the wind became her harness

Too weak to sustain her, she sank…

But her descent met its end

Her wings suddenly broke out of paralysis

Propelling her towards the Heavens

And she rose, higher and higher

So when she turned to thank him

He was no more than a blur in the distance…

Galaxies away,

He smiles at the newly-formed star of the night sky.

Satisfied, he continues along the edge

Seeking out another of doubt’s victims.

(This is not a personal work of mine, and is a true reproduction of the original piece. I wanted to record it today, for I felt the time has come...Her wings finally broke out of paralysis, and the ascent has begun.)

Paradigm: Vicious Monosyllables of Life

Nothing is inevitable in life. I have come to believe, there is an intermediate state between being ignorant and being arrogant in life. It is when we seem to consciously ignore various elements, to have a happy existence that one tends to be sucked into the vicious circle of thought going down the spiral to a state of solitude.

Everyone has got their moments in life, when one feels left out, but what makes such experiences even more unique is the fact that, it is during such moments that we finally get an appointment with logic. I sincerely believe, and strongly advocate that miracles are possible, and are beyond logic. But, when you get to understand the larger picture, miracle is not a singular moment, but it is a collection of events which result in the same, and logic is clearly seen in how these events shape up.

What I wish to conclude from the above discussion, is the fact that one is always sucked into the vicious circle, when one is searching for logic to explain and understand various events. In such cases, it is important that we understand when a singular event fails the logic, it is better that we include various related events in the larger picture and then search for a possible logic. I have experienced an understood ease in analysis when I applied this postulate. I hope it helps the reader as well.

Foolish Destiny...

It will be an interesting meeting between destiny and dignity, if that will ever happen. I have noticed many instances in my life, when in struggle to achieve my destiny, I in a subtle, unknown way compromise on my own dignity. If it may happen, that with dignity, destiny can be attained, then it would be a pleasant anomaly to this reluctantly agreed upon nature's order.

They say, one is furnished with his/her needs, only when he/she asks for it. It is indeed a similar trend in regard to understanding how the universal soul, furnishes us with means to meet our desires, only after we acknowledge the need for the same.

It will be an interesting exercise to solve this paradox, let me take the help of a simple mathematical understanding to arrive at what I want to conclude, lets examine the sides of an Isosceles right angled triangle. (For the uninitiated, Isosceles right angled triangle is a triangle, with one of its angles equal to 90 Degree, and the other two angles both being equal to 45 Degrees, with the total sum of angles adding up to 180 Degrees). In such a triangle, not getting into the details of proving the following statement, it is seen that both the sides opposite to the 45 Degree angles, are of equal length and the side opposite to 90 Degree angle is square root of 2 times the length of the other two sides, this fundamental is a conclusion from Pythagoras Theorem.

Now, drawing an analogy, if we regard destiny and dignity as the two equal sides, signifying the equal importance each hold to any argument, we understand that they come to meet at a right angle, thus ruling out the possibility of influencing one another i.e. if we stand on one of these sides of the triangle and judge if there is any shadow on it due to the other, we would find none. Thus, when these two independent quantities are analyzed for a possible meeting, it is possible only when we stand on the third side, and see these sides both casting a shadow on it.

From the above explained logic, we can sense that the union of these two elements will result in a strength equal to square root of 2 times the value of each of them independently. This speaks of how the only possible option of both of these factors influencing equally any argument (remember, since both the angles are each equal to 45 Degrees, the strength of their influence i.e. length of the shadow on the third side is also equal, hence the influence from both elements is of similar strength in this case) has reduced strength.

It is important that we note this development of dependency, and understand the condition under which it might happen so that we can benefit from it.

तुम...

एक ख्वाब...
एक ख़याल...
एक हकीकत हो तुम...
दोस्ती में पढ़नेवाली हर ज़रूरत हो तुम|

जिससे रोज़ एक बार ही सही...
बात करने को दिल करे...
अरे यार अजीब मुसीबत हो तुम...
प्यार हो तुम|

Life: Something amiss

Location: Pride Hawaii

Date: 23rd March 2009

When land slips from beneath our feet, is it the fear to hold ground? or is it just the casual anxiety of a new beginning that creates the difference in our feet? On my first trip offshore, I had the experience of staying on a jack up platform. With water all around, I wish to call this phase of my life, ' Aquatic Surrender'.

What makes this experience unique is the fact that, even when I was surrounded by people, I felt as if I was deserted on a platform with no way to escape, no route to take. It is a weird feeling to stand on the edge of the platform, and look down into the water...

Seeking beyond the landscape my eyes can capture, I still stand here... all alone, with my own self for company. And all that I understand is...life is all about bridging the thin gap between what you desire and what you get...that is where it begins, and where it ends...

Quixotic Serendipity

Seasons come...
... and go.

Seldom do we realize the...
...taste of our first kiss.

Seek it together, shall we...
...that state of eternal bliss?

Ecstasy: Celebration by a Free Soul

Such is her warmth,
and the hold...
I savored every moment of the long wait,
for her to fold...

Such is her company,
when I go cold...
I stand here with my heart and soul,
sold...

Such is her smile,
beautiful and bold...
Life with her seems,

a honey filled cup of gold...

Sweet Surrender: Within you, I wish to lose myself...

Date: 18th February 2009
Location: Hyderabad

To,
You...

At Dawn today, I stood by the same sea shore, where we first met...waiting for you... to tell me what "we" meant to you. Its been a longtime since we first met, savoring moments from our journey that took us through many beautiful lanes and by-lanes of living. Standing by the sea, I understood how you were similar to the warmth of the sand, holding me firmly to the floor, giving me strength to stretch my arms and feel the warmth of the sun. I wanted to enjoy that feeling forever, but I realized I lost the sand to the water exposing the voids in my feet... I understood how without you, my life will have voids I can't fill.

Is it this feeling that I have no strength to fill the voids, or is it the warmth that you provide to explore the sunshine? Is it the faith that there is nothing beyond you that I need to seek, nothing except you, within whose sphere, I can safely lose myself and yet be a winner ? Is it this feeling which is giving me strength to seek you, and bind you completely...even when all that I know about you is just you...


Within you, I wish to lose myself...forever!

regards,
Me...

Schlum-dog Millionaire

(This post is a result of a recent conversation/realization about what I am trying to do in my life. At this juncture, it is necessary on my part to impress upon the reader that this post speaks of a personal account and might not excite you, if you are looking for a voice on global issues.)

Job life as I have pointed out many times earlier in my previous posts, is rather a different game compared to student/academic life. Recently, I was trying to figure out what are few important driving points for what I am trying to do in my life. As always, movies play a huge role (at least in Indian context, they do!) and I was attracted to comparing myself to the lead character of slumdog millionaire, not that the movie does not have enough parallel analogies already, but it is interesting to notice a striking similarity in titles!

For someone who is interested in earning a decent start, and in the mean time decide what exactly he wants to do in his life : in the process getting into a different mode of working, a more tabular life, and more with the company he is working with, suits the title Schlum-dog millionaire. The title is self explanatory...

Period...

(P.S. :

• Why I wish to leave 3 lines before the end?...Space is an important need when we work in tabular mode.
• Special Mention: Shival Kathe for his contribution in arriving at this title.)

Is Equality Subjective?

This question comes up every now and then. Why is it that we wish to establish equality by means of having double standards when it comes to implementation. It is baffling to notice, use of different methods of judgment and yet speak of achieving equal treatment. This striking contrast is reflected in various aspects of our society : Be it AIIMS incident of preferential care in regard to treatment for Prime Minister Vs Commoner (Why do we focus on highlighting that the victim is from the tribal fraternity, yet another case of artificial attempt to seek equality, we cannot bridge the gap by highlighting the differences), or the anticipation that NCW should never say that there can be mistake on the part of women (Common, women are special beings, they can never be wrong, how can they!) (It is depressing to say the least, that our leaders [read: few ministers] think the best way to support women is to drive them to seek "independence", needless to say, my hopeless prayers to see people realize that, we can never really have "independent women" or "men who are truly independent" and yet maintain a civilized society are not bearing fruit.) are just few examples.

We humans, celebrate differences and take pride in them, and yet seek (read: fight) equal treatment. Another example is the recent storming of Andhra Pradesh Assembly by few "community leaders"/ "well wishers" to demand for special status for their community for they feel they are backward, and are not given fair chance. Why is it that people who wish to seek help, because they feel they have the equal right as any other Indian, still stick to addressing themselves as "being from a certain community"and yet complain when they are addressed in such a way by a "community outsider".

It is rather interesting to see how our politicians fail to notice that the differences are a natural result of our environment and factors which are beyond our control (we can never really attribute the same qualities to both men and women, can we?) . It is not surprising to see why this is a common place event in India, we are lead by a pack of fools, most of them uneducated, not qualified to even seek a clerical position ( justified in their own way, learning the tricks to fool the nation and the best practices of corruption, kept them away from education, in any case who needs education to be hooligans? politics is about making money, why worry about people, right? All we need as a qualification is a possibility that you either have one criminal case against you, or were close to having one recorded with your name on it, or have some super-shot mother picking you to be the next prime ministerial candidate, because all she cares is about having access to public money to live happily forever, why do we have to care about the people?), few those who are educated are dragged into the race of protecting their interests, that the position of few essentials in their bodies have slipped positions. What India needs is a reason to believe, believe that our system can be set right, our system is their to help us live happily.

I wish to see educated men leading us, who will give a sense of direction to our nation, put to rest, fools who seek equality by highlighting differences, who will give all the different "community leaders" and people who instigate the feeling of belonging for a community based on religion, caste or social status other than being Indian, to breathe their last, who can offer a tight slap to all the "activists" who fight unjust causes to engage themselves. I seek those, who have the strength to clean the filth of dynasty politics and hunt for people who support it, and lay them to rest. I hope to see such a day...

MDG # 8: Develop Global Partnership for Development

The MDGs represent a global partnership that has grown from the commitments and targets established at the world summits of the 1990s. Responding to the world's main development challenges and to the calls of civil society, the MDGs promote poverty reduction, education, maternal health, gender equality, and aim at combating child mortality, AIDS and other diseases. Set for the year 2015, the MDGs are an agreed set of goals that can be achieved if all actors work together and do their part. Poor countries have pledged to govern better, and invest in their people through health care and education. Rich countries have pledged to support them, through aid, debt relief, and fairer trade

It is my firm belief that globalization in today’s world has its influence beyond the traditional sectors of business. With free movement of goods/merchandise, it is not merely an exchange/acceptance of goods, but understanding and imbibing a different culture/tradition. It is increasingly necessary to recognize that sharing of knowledge across boundaries will lead to effective methods of development and progress. Young People, who represent our tomorrow, face many challenges and problems particular to them especially problems related to sexual issues and are most vulnerable because of the same. The understanding of social, religious, cultural factors on youth is important in drafting any policy, for youth frame the next generation who will be affected by it.

The problems facing us, challenge not only today’s societies, but future generations as well. It is essential to consider the option of working in partnerships in seeking to address these challenges, for no one can exist in isolation. Indirectly, billions of dollars of current investments are going into crystallizing policies, programs, institutions, and social realities that dramatically affect us today (some highly positive, some not so positive). In most nations, people have little knowledge, and even less say, on how these investments affect their lives daily. It is important to understand that people are the experts on the issues that affect them and as such, are integral to achieving effective and enduring solutions. By empowering ourselves, the needed skills and understanding for global partnerships and other leadership ability, we shall be more prepared to participate fully in society and decision making processes, thus become engaged as one of the partners in shaping the world we will inherit and pass onto future generations.

It will also ensure a better establishment of guideposts in our lives and the social and economic institutions that sustain them, and to facilitate access to leading thinkers and practitioners who are engaged in areas related to community and economic development which the program promises. This will lead to more informed choices by us and hence will create a positive impact on the world through ourselves, our peers and social circles.

(This article is a part of my essay on MDG # 8 : Develop Global Partnership for Development for Voice on MDGs)

Seeking CHANGE!

Sometimes, change becomes a necessity. It is definitely interesting to get used to a situation, certain lifestyle, but it is equally boring to stay the same. When I speak of change, I speak about the necessity for a change in our thinking, in our representation of situation and our outlook towards life. Possibly, solutions vary from situation to situation but what remains key is our will to seek change.

Life is a constant struggle to see a logical link in transition and that when one moves into a different phase, we still are connected to our previous history in a way that impresses us to move ahead and seek further growth rather than pull us down and seek solitude.

There are many examples to speak about this trend, when we seek change, how that influences us to question our present practices, understand the positives - take them forward, understand negatives - discard them, life is a learning experience with events teaching you the art of seeking a better state of existence.

Lets seek CHANGE!

Me and Me...

It is a natural event, that sometimes, we tend to do things exactly the other way, compared to what we wish to. In this process, the conflict within ourselves, presents an interesting dynamic. What we tend to judge others with, will be largely influenced by what we experience ourselves. I wanted to record this observation and the memory of an interesting experience which resulted in the observation.

Period...

2009: An Optimistic Beginning

I wish to record my understanding about the impact of 2008, and the opportunities in 2009. 2008 was a year marked with decent achievements and great tragedies. It was an unfortunate year, to say the least. I wish to see 2009 to be more balanced, and calm if not anything else.

Personally, I wish to give myself more opportunities to seek and influence a positive change, however small. 2008 was a turbulent year, with memorable gains, and losses which I wish to forget. I wish to begin 2009 on a positive note, with the taste of just the positive moments of 2008, and wish to create a positive impact.

As they say, '....from those to whom much is given, much is expected...', I gained a lot in the past, and wish to seek and influence a change my way this year, year 2009!

Yahoo! Emoticarol

This is a new feature on Yahoo! that you can frame a tune for the carol while the words remain the same. I tried my hand at it, so wanted to record it on the blog. Enjoy!

Stop! Think, Cry & Love

(This article is written by one of the School kids from India, speaking about how influential our vote was, is and will be. I wanted to share it on my blog, to record the attention we need to invest in our power to vote.)

The siege on Mumbai left even the most experienced of us stunned. Even those who have become immune to grief and tragedy stopped for a second. The 48-hour encounter with these extremely sophisticated and trained terrorists left India burning in every sense of the word. The versions and accounts are endless. Trying to quantify people's grief would not only be futile but indeed low down. People who went for their daily evening session of beer and gossip at the Leopold café, that special once a month dinner at the Taj or for the bitter sweet occasion of farewell at CST Station never returned. This isn't the first time we're hearing about something like this. These stories have been talked about through out this year and to be honest through out our lives. We have experienced five separate series of bomb blasts across the country in this year alone. The dreadful cries of the Gujarat riots are yet to recede from recent memories. The 2006 and 1993 Bombay blasts and riots haunt their victims even now.

However, we are not here to talk about the grief that these victims suffer. Nor do I wish to discuss the various and repeated intelligence failures and lackadaisical attempts of the government and its security agencies. We are here to figure out what exactly is wrong with us, because it is evident that there is something horribly amiss in this country and it's people.

People are not born terrorists. Teenagers do not get up one fine day with the conviction that violence is the path of their lives. The terrorist that battled with NSG in the Taj hotel for over 24 hours was not more that 25 years old. Can any of you imagine the kind of courage and determination that this young boy exemplified in accomplishing such a feat. He is a terrorist, a terrorist who is responsible for the death of over 150 people. He is also a mere boy. A boy whom we have forced into becoming the man he died as. The IM consists of young boys from the JMI College in Delhi. Sadhvi Pragya is in her early twenties. These people are our age. They are people who we see in movie halls and at street corners. They are not aliens of another race. Terrorism was not brought in from Mars. It breeds within us. The worst part is, that we created it.

Every kind of terrorism stems from extremism; and extremism is the most obvious ramification of discrimination. Discrimination is sadly practiced in every nook and corner of our country. We think it's insignificant, we think that it's just the way people are. But it is discrimination and if only we were brave enough to face it.

It is discrimination when the age-old story of Hindu parents refusing to marry their daughter into a Muslim family repeats itself. It is discrimination when parents of Muslim children refuse to sing Hindu bhajans. It is discrimination when Christians refuse to participate in Hindu and Muslim festivals. All of this is discrimination. And every form of terrorism and extremism finds it's roots in this kind of discrimination, which is practiced in each and every one of our homes. That is why we need to look at our homes and our thinking before we cry out in rage and protest against the government and security forces.

Last night you had emotional and angry Mumbai mobs screaming out anti Pakistani slogans. That is the beginning of terrorism. Have we all gone mad? What does the normal Pakistani family who is probably in their own way praying for the Mumbai victims have anything to do with this? This is the quintessential problem that we are facing. When will we realize that by blaming each other the problem will only intensify?

The Hindus destroyed the Babri masjid. The Muslims blew up a Hindu coach. The Hindus killed a city full of Muslims. Wave after wave of madness. Stop! How long can we go on like this? An eye for an eye has never been the answer and it should not take us a thousand years to accept the truth of this statement.

You had Raj Thackarey chasing out the north Indians and Biharis from Maharashtra. Over three hundred North Indians of the NSG saved his beloved Marathi Manoos. Where was Bal Thackarey then? Forget about this one man, where were the rest of our cosmopolitan Mumbaikars who let this man get away with what he did.. Where were the progressive and peaceful Hindu leaders when churches burnt in Orissa and Karnataka? We should all hang our heads in shame.

In another 60 years we'll have Bihari terrorists attacking Maharashtra and Maharashtrian terrorist retaliating. Next we'll have border security squadrons for our state borders. Don't smile sceptically. The India-Pakistan feud had also started off in 1947 with Muslims being chased out of Delhi and Hindus being chased out of Lahore. Look where it stands now.

Today you have every news channel proudly acclaiming the army, NSG and Marine commandos as heroes. People in Mumbai are running out on the streets to congratulate them. These heroes weren't born today. They have been here all this while. Where were these people of India, the Media, when the bureaucracy used their Machiavellian minds to reduce the salaries of all the Defence Forces. Where were these people when the corporate world squabbled over a few hundred rupees rise in the salaries of these men who always risk their lives to keep us safe? I could not see the bureaucracy putting their life on the line to save hostages in the Trident. I did not see the corporate world dying at the border during the Kargil war. And I did not see Indian citizens who today call these soldiers heroes defending them when they needed us the most.

You want to know what the problem with India is? We're cowards. We don't think as a single nation and we can't stand up for what's right.

I'll give you a small and perfect example of what is wrong with us. We all complain about this country's dirty roads. We love holidaying in London's streets. The most educated of us are yet to hesitate while throwing a sweet wrapper or lays packet on the street. Or we'll throw it in an already existing dump on the street. We can't even wait till we come across a dustbin. This is what is wrong with us.

We have enough and more to say about Manmohan Singh, Advani and every other useless politician and rightly so. But the fact is that in all honesty we couldn't care less. The best of us don't vote, don't contest in elections and don't even help out N.G.O.s When we can't do anything for our country how dare we, I repeat, how dare we expect anyone else to do anything.

We can go on talking about stepping up security, straightening out our coast guards and eradicating terrorism. But the problem lies not in our security system but in us. It lies in our Madrasas, in our temples, in our schools, in our homes and in our minds. And until we realize our role, until we open our eyes to this truth, not a thing will change.

Everyone talks about this new India, a shining progressive and young India. Well it's time for Young, New and Shining India to prove herself. Stand up and prove your worth. This so- called liberal and progressive thinking generation needs to root out those weeds that grow in the oldest corners our gardens. We need to start thinking and start talking. Talking to ourselves and to others. We need to start doing. This has to be a national youth movement. We have to make it the beginning of a revolution. Every historic movement starts like this. Vague, uncertain and hesitant but moving towards a common calling motivated by the same inspiration and dream. This is our chance.

Don't tell me that we won't be able to reach out to the people who need to hear what we have to say. These people live among us. There is no limit to what people can achieve when they set out to do something. You are talking about a country whose founding father won a war without raising a weapon, who have lived on stories of Subhash Chandra Bose calling out for blood and promising freedom. Well we've bled. Now it's time to get our freedom. Freedom from our own mindsets. Freedom from shackles we've placed on ourselves.

These last two days have been the worst attack that India has ever dealt with. If this alarm wasn't loud enough, no alarm will ever wake us up.

How many more people have to die before we respond to India's desperate plea for help?

Year 2009: Ode to Renaissance of Self

This post is an attempt to record my feeling today, about how things need to unfold in the coming year. I do not say Year 2008 was boring or unpleasant, but I strongly feel things can get better. I wish to see more clarity in my thought, and also the needed strength to turn my thoughts into action.

Why I wish to record it today i.e. Dec 22nd 2008, I wish to acknowledge the short length of the day today, see the sun set on this interesting year and allow myself the graceful view of an early sun rise next year. I eagerly await to see calmness, for this turbulence is disturbing me beyond description.

I wish to know more, build on what I am now, to create that difference for myself, to seek the dividing gap with strength, and courage to fill it in...I hope!

Happy New Year 2009!

Life: A False Dichotomy

Date: 20th Dec 2008
Place: Abu Dhabi

Dear Life,

I am writing to you to acknowledge the fact that you create many questions. It is up to us, whether or not we wish to answer them. It is interesting to note that these questions form the basis to divisions and inequality within oneself. When we tend to understand the reason behind the need and the necessity for an action, we normally ignore the rules of judgment which we use to judge others. It is important to see how susceptible we are to this logical fallacy, and help ourselves in such a scenario.

It might interest you to know the reason I wanted to acknowledge your role with the questions. Even this question will remain unanswered as many others which remain the same since a long time. But, it is equally necessary to appreciate the effort which I put into attempting an answer. If at all, we could answer all the questions we face, it will be a pleasant world sans complexity...but then, what fun it is to live in simplicity, and feel the lack of complexity?

Lastly, I wish to express my sincere feeling of gratitude for the role you have played in shaping my understanding of self, and the opportunities you have given me to explore this world, and contribute my bit to its complexity.

Thanking you,

Yours truly,
Abhijith Jayanthi

Life : A Chinese Whisper

Life seems to play an interesting game with all of us. All our efforts, throughout our life are directed towards achieving a single goal, control of information/knowledge. Our actions in any role seem to revolve around this vital point. It is important to understand how this knowledge acquired, is to create an hierarchy on the basis of its control.

Information moves from various sources to us through various channels, with few vital facets lost in the way, which might be reconstructed by us for our own convenience, or are neglected. Similar to Chinese Whisper, it seems we need to understand that all that we possess is not all that it truly is. When one can respect this, I am sure we can understand our own limitations and be a better person.

Relationships : A Flickering Flame

Our efforts to create an impact, initiate a positive change, be successful seems to have an intrinsic drawback. It is actually hard for one to realize the influence, and can be easily over shadowed by our desire to celebrate the self. It is important to realize how every relationship we cherish, no matter how strong the emotion is, resembles the delicate subtlety of a flickering flame. In this post, I wish to discuss how we need to balance our emotions, accommodate enough space for critical emotions, even during our time of celebration.

The interesting feature of a diya is when we ignite it, we tend to protect it, give the needed care for a while and then we set it on its own. Then, we see the flame flicker in the gentle breeze, slowly settling into an isolated existence. After a while, if we try to push ourselves to protect it, we probably will be the reason for it to die down, or it will die a natural death. The reason I wanted to discuss this observation was to highlight the analogy between a diya and any emotion we share with our family or friends. We tend to appreciate and nurture the emotion at the start, and when we slowly expose it, the emotion flickers, like a flame seeking our attention to understand its gentle existence. If we choose to ignore it, and let it glow on its own strength, then it is reason enough for it to reach a stage of survival without attention dying a natural death. If we wish to protect the flame at a later stage, we carry a risk of putting it to rest ourselves. It is important that we understand this subtle reality and appreciate every emotion we share, no matter how strong it is... because its important to realize that there is not enough darkness in all the world to put out the light of even one small flame, lets value it!

Saree: Discovering its Importance

P.S. : Before I proceed, I urge the readers to see this post as an attempt to understand the role of a saree, its importance in various spheres, clothing and beyond. I understand this post might create a genuine interest in men (I speak from experience) and also in women, at least to certain extent (It might well be useful to understand how a man views it). I hope each and every reader will enjoy reading the post without getting judgmental about it. Lastly, the photo on display is only a mix and match effort to suit the discussion, and not the true inspiration for this post.

For the benefit of the uninitiated, A sari is a strip of un-stitched cloth, ranging from four to nine meters in length that is draped over the body in various styles. The most common style is for the sari to be wrapped around the waist, with one end then draped over the shoulder. Now, let us understand how a saree, can influence our lives. Besides the obvious needs it addresses like providing warmth (as a part of clothing), social dignity; it also plays a vital role in structuring mindsets, and thus opinions and relationships. Considering the impact this piece of cloth can have, I wanted to spend sometime understanding it, and this post is an attempt to record few of my observations regarding the same.

Elaborating on my first point, Saree plays a leading role in influencing our minds regarding the attitude and outlook of the person. The reason I say this is pretty obvious, our clothing is an index of what we wish others to perceive us to be, ranging from rich linen to poor raw-cloth, our choice of cloth, design and the way we carry it off indicate our true self, and also define an image about us. This brings us to my second point, of creating an opinion, images of a person are a primary source of inspiration in framing an opinion about that person. Ranging from socially active to someone who prefers to be by himself/herself, an image of our dressing creates an opinion about us. Opinions make our social life, which is a pretty straight forward remark that can be easily seen. This connect between Sarees and our relationships has a secondary link as well, it is important to throw some light on how clothing enhances our image. Picking the right clothing, helps us to create a positive vibe, that can help bring people closer. In this regard, Saree I feel has the essentials to influence and create that needed vibe. I take this opportunity, to acknowledge my sincere appreciation for the creators of Saree...for it did, and will continue to influence our lives!

Being Vulnerable: Understanding Loneliness

In the past, I have made repeated attempts to understand what loneliness truly speaks of, and whereof it arises from. In this post, I wish to speak about my recent (and allow me to say, “ …the closest I could get to what truly it is” ) attempt in this endeavor. Before I proceed to speak about it, I wish to speak about few interesting, yet incomplete observations of such ambitious excursions in the past, seeking a better understanding of loneliness.

Two successive summers (2006 and 2007), I was in Italy, known as one of the most beautiful countries and home to scenic beauty. During this period, I made my first conscious effort in understanding what loneliness truly meant, and how to see it. I have been on my own before, been to different places before; all by me, but this experience was different, different in a way beyond comprehension. I started to understand how one is bound not only by the element of achievement in life, but also the use of such a feat. It is interesting to understand how emotional strength and emotional dependence go hand in hand. Most of the time, we feel emotional dependence makes us surrender, with emotional strength taking a hit. But, on the contrary, what makes us go the distance (be emotionally strong) is the dependence itself, the sense of attachment, the want to understand people whom we care for better, in an attempt to understand ourselves better.

My recent tryst with loneliness, is an interesting experience, I understood loneliness is felt when we are deserted by our own soul within. It is more to do with how we feel disconnected with our own self, than anything else. When one is not in complete harmony with his/her inner self (being poles apart), it will create a vacuum of confusion, and the need to meet the other end and come to amicable terms is not supported. This leads to further deepening of the divide, pushing us to feel left out, lonely seeking support to connect us with our self within, to establish the missing link…This makes one vulnerable to external influences, which might be good or bad. The decisive ability takes a back seat with the immediate need to establish the connection, which spirals into a bigger problem of losing further control over self.

This post is an attempt to record my understanding of loneliness, which I wish to further explore, to understand the need of the vulnerable. Comments are highly solicited.

Destination Moon: Chandrayaan-I

I wanted to record one of those milestones in India's Growth i.e. Chandrayaan-I which speaks of India's entry into list of countries with top-end space research capabilities, and also exploring economics of Space. It is the latter, that interests me more than the former. The potential which this industry offers is not tapped completely, and with such a successful effort, India stands a good chance in turning this area into a major player in supporting her revenue.

Jai Hind!

Destiny: The Greater Cosmic Secret

Perhaps, one of the factors which is normally misquoted in assessing our equations is Destiny. Destiny, the fixed natural order to the Universe is always held responsible for events which did not turn in our favor, especially when things go wrong at the ultimate end. What is worth noticing is destiny's efforts in standing by us till then.

We tend to create an impression that destiny seems to be play a role only in the future prospects of an issue, but what I wish to talk about in this post is how destiny plays a leading role in connecting all the past links to create an understanding of our present. Allow me to elaborate my point with the help of an example, let us speak of a situation, we normally lose contact with people from your previous work area, or any such experience which involves a social networking aspect. It is interesting to see, how things to be get connected ( in other words, how small this world seems to be) when you come across them. Now, let us see how destiny plays a leading role in this example. We need to understand how we move away from the social circle and our efforts to remain in touch with few people is always proportional to the closeness we enjoy with them. But, destiny plays a different game of completing the circle...starting as acquaintances (or complete strangers) at present (or back then) and then moving into a closer friends circle at a later point in our life.

We normally discount the factor of destiny at present, and lack the understanding of its role in shaping the bigger picture for us. I hope I can appreciate its role, in not only shaping my future, but also in connecting our past to the present.

LEAP: Lets Eradicate Any-form of Poverty

This Article can also be found at Work and Economics (Poverty) Issue Section, as a part of Understanding Issues Project of TakingITGlobal

Every human being needs a range of basic necessities, such as food, water, clothing, shelter, education, and health care, for his or her daily life. The economic condition of lacking these essential goods and services to meet basic needs of life is called poverty.

While poverty exists everywhere, it is most severe in developing countries, where more than one person in five lives on less than $1 a day – the threshold, which is being used by the World Bank to define extreme poverty. In 2001, over 1 billion people lived in extreme poverty and nearly half the world’s population (2.8 million) lived on less than $2 a day.

In developed countries, poverty results in wandering homeless people and poor suburbs and ghettos. In these cases we talk about relative poverty (in contrast to absolute poverty), which is measured by comparing one group’s situation to the situations of those who are more advantaged.

The causes of poverty vary: lack of education, war, natural disasters, political corruption, mental illness, and disability are among the most common causes.

Eliminating poverty in developing countries is the goal of international development initiatives and the many international organizations working in the field. Strategies on how to eradicate poverty are, however, as numerous as the causes of poverty itself. The World Bank’s anti-poverty strategy, for example, depends heavily on reducing poverty though the promotion of economic growth.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which are part of the Millennium Declaration, signed by the member states of the United Nations at the Millennium Summit in 2000, regard the elimination of extreme poverty as a much more complex task. Empowering women, combating HIV/AIDS and other diseases and ensuring sustainable development are among the goals and are all seen as necessary if extreme poverty is to be alleviated.

Euphonious Melodies of Life