Swimming Thoughts

My swimming lessons are over. Am I able to swim well? Yes and No… Yes coz I can swim now and No coz I can’t swim long distance. But the coach is happy about me. He said, now all I need to do is swim more.

Be it what, when I learn something, I try to understand the logic. It is hard for me to by-heart illogical things. Some are good at mug up and deliver but I am not at all good at it. It was same with my swimming lessons. I couldn’t agree with my coach, many a times. So I put some extra effort to check out how professionals swim and what is the logic behind ‘you should do this you should do that’. The result was shocking – I found out that my coach is not a professional. The way he taught wasn’t the professional way to teach. Now most of us who attended the 20 days (I think I missed 4-5 days) camp can swim (yes there are people who still can’t swim). But none of us are swimming in a similar way, though taught by the same person. Thus I decided to watch how others swim.

There were many guys who came to the pool when I was there in the pool. I stood in the pool and when they passed me, I took a dip and went under water and checked out their leg movements. And yes, their hand movements too. Then the way they take breath. Every day I spent some time to study this. But I did not try to imitate anybody. I found that each and every one has got their own rhythm or style. And now I can tell that the way most of them used to swim is technically wrong (or may be they did not learn it from a professional coach). I talked to many of them, including a senior citizen who is more than 60 yrs old. The most interesting thing that is happening in our pool (when I am there) is that, though many of them are very young, nobody swims like this senior man.

Initially, I got frustrated when I was not able to take breath while swimming and I consulted this gentleman. The first thing he asked me was:

“When did you start swimming?”

“Since 15 days.”

He shook his head, smiled and said:

“Its nothing, don’t worry and don’t get frustrated, you give six months time for you and then see the difference… in my case, I started swimming from childhood”

Thus, he became my motivation and inspiration. And then on whenever we met, he started asking me about my improvement.

After going through many professional videos, I realized that I did not learn many basic things in the proper way. When we learn something, it is better we learn it in the proper way, even if it takes some time rather than learning it somehow and then trying to correct it. It is not easy that way.I had similar experience with my Karate lessons. I learnt certain kicks in the wrong way and it was very difficult to correct it later.

So, today I decided to go on in my own way. May be I have to go back to the basics. And soon I will find my own rhythm. Let it take some time, but I want to swim gracefully.

Swimming offer lots of health benefits, true. So, there is no harm? Does it offer only positives? That too when we swim in pools? I thought in that direction also.

I observed that I became tanned (yes, I still can get tanned… now I remember an old Russian friend of mine asking me teasingly – “what is there to get tanned in you?”, when I told her that I was running around in sun and got tanned)… my skin became rough. Sometimes my eyes became itchy. I was wondering why my skin smelled chlorine, even after I took a shower after swim.

Then I found out that the chlorine can not be easily washed out. It stays in the skin even after a bath in anhydrous form and when it becomes an aqueous solution, again it becomes odorous. Chlorine can damage the hair (yes, I still have some hair left on my head). If people with brown hair swim in pools regularly, without protecting their hair, it will turn into light blonde. Another thing is, if the water comes in contact with copper, the chlorine will dissolve the copper and this will cause the blonde hair to turn into green…. The Ph value of water in pools is high and hence is not friendly with our skin.

Asthmatic people invite more trouble if they stay more time in pools coz, breathing chlorine is not at all good for them. And they should always prefer open and airy pools, to be on the safer side.

Pool water can give us lots of infection and skin irritation. One day my son developed swelling around his eyes when he returned from the pool. Chlorine can not kill all the germs and microbes and hence if people entering the pool are not maintaining good hygiene, it affects every one of us. I have seen many people entering the pool without proper swimming attire.

The most common infection in connection with swimming (in pools) is fungus infection and then the ear infection called ‘Swimmers ear’.

Too much of anything is bad. Same with swimming too. Too much of butterfly stroke can lead into back pain. Too much of breaststroke can give us knee pain. Even the most common free style, when overdone can give shoulder pain and injury…. Since there is buoyancy, exercise done in the pool has more effect on our body than done outside. I got carried away by the swimming and put lots of effort and the result? I lost two kilo just like that. Now, it will take about a month for me to gain that weight….huhuhu

So, there is a limit for everything…

Neck and Shoulder Pain

Why do we get neck pain? In my case, I have a specific reason – Cervical Spondylosis. What about others? Till sometime ago, I thought only people like me suffer from it and then one day I saw my wife getting up with a neck pain. This happened a little long ago and I read more about it that time and came to know that I am not left alone. It has become a common issue even among youth. The other day I once again woke up with a stiff neck which gave a decent amount of pain, coz of a wrong sleeping position.

So, why is this neck and shoulder pain? In this modern world, culprit number one is the one who is helping me to type this – the computer. Especially the use of laptops for daily use that too for many hours. Why laptops? Mainly coz of the wrong or un-ergonomic position. It is suggested that we should sit in such a position that we look at the monitor straight. That too keeping our both feet resting on the floor. One need to give proper lower back support too. Using external keyboard is helpful to keep our head straight, by keeping the laptop in a proper position so that our eyes are straight to the screen. The major issue here is bending our neck to view the screen, that too for a long time. Obviously this is applicable to viewing of TV too.

It is observed that using high heels is one of the main reasons for neck and shoulder/back pain in women. In my case, if I use the cell phone for longer time, I get neck pain. If we keep the head straight while speaking over mobile, we need to raise our elbow a little up which strains the shoulder part. If the elbow touch our body, we need to tilt our head to one side, which strains the neck. Not just mobile phone, this can happen with regular phone too. If I know that it will be a long talk, I use my hands free, these days.

Wrong reading/driving position is also can cause neck stiffness. If we lift weights (anything which has some ‘weight’ )in improper position, the common belief is that it will affect the back. Especially the lower back. That is 100% true. I personally experienced such pain many a times. But the thing is, it also can affect the neck, if we hold the neck in awkward position while lifting something.

Another thing that comes to my mind now is the use of laptop bags. That is another reason for these kind of pain. I personally don’t have any experience in this connection coz, I don’t carry my laptop on a regular basis. But my wife developed shoulder pain. It became a kind of radiating pain and started spreading over to her chest and hand. The doc asked her to take a break (ie, not to use the bag for sometime) and then shift to a (light weight) backpack. It was helpful. I think, though it has some cost element involved in it, it is better we have two charger/power cords, which is usually bit heavy. Keep one at work. This way we can avoid carrying it on a daily basis.

Anyway, doing neck exercises on a daily basis is highly recommended. I am advised to do a couple of exercises by an orthopedic doc. So, from my personal experience, I found it works.

These are some causes and how to avoid it. But what to do if we get such a pain. The best thing is to meet a doc. I have this habit of meeting MY DOC, even for silly matters. This is coz, he won’t put me under medication without any solid reason. Many a times, we just talk for sometime and I return without any prescription but with some extra info/knowledge. This may not be the case with many other docs. But still meeting a doc is a good idea. But what I personally do is do a herbal oil massage (mostly I do it myself) and apply heat. The best way to apply heat is hot shower. I use the maximum temperature I can bear and while the hot water falls on my neck and shoulder, I slowly turn my neck both ways to give a very light exercise (well, don’t let the hot water fall on your head!!). If turning the neck gives extra pain, dont do it at all. In that case, start the neck exercises, only after the pain is over. And then?

Then Make it a habit...

Vishing

There are mainly two categories of people to whom I don’t like to speak over phone. One is Telemarketing people and then the so called Customer Care Support (especially when technical issues sorted out by females). One of my friends is into Telemarketing and no offence meant to her. (The other day I had to deal with some customer care people to fix some issues related to my broadband. The first support executive, a lady, made it worse and messed everything up)….ok, so Vishing…what is that?

Most of us are aware of Phishing, which is mail based fraud and criminal activity. This Vishing is the telephonic version of that. It is a combination of ‘Voice’ and ‘Phishing’ hence Vishing.

They use the VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol – a protocol used to transmit voice through internet) and IVR (Interactive Voice Response – the typical ‘press one to hear your account info or nine to speak to a customer care executive’ kinda software stuff) Many people around the world got cheated by Vishing. And this fraud is picking up fast.

Here, you get a call telling there is some problem with your credit card (in most of the cases, sometimes it can be insurance, vehicle related things etc). In general, they won’t tell which card bearing what number. Sometimes it can be a message left in your voice box/answering machine asking you to call back to a toll free number. Usually, it is recorded voice (this can give a better (though fake) authenticity and then you can’t record the caller’s original voice). Before we speak to the customer care support, we will be asked to enter our credit card info, PIN etc (sometimes they even collect the postal address, pretending as verification)….when all the info is entered, its all over and the person who entered is in big financial trouble…

These guys change their telephone number (from where the call originate), location etc very professionally. They use Caller ID spoofing so that the number displayed on our Caller ID will be wrong. So its not easy for us to trace them. So the best defense against Vishing is to ignore them. Or if you want to clear your doubt, call up the credit card company directly, ALWAYS…

My Death

How might I die and when? I don’t know.

But I thought of my death for a moment, though not for the first time. What could be the cause? Liver Cancer? Or Liver cirrhosis? Will it be painful? I don’t know. So far, I haven’t read much about both. May be its painful.... It can be a heart or kidney failure, it can be anything like that…May be I will die in an accident. Given a choice, I won’t prefer that.

Who will be there with me that time? I don’t know… will I be left alone? I don’t want to…

Death is death but I want it to be a peaceful one. I want to die gracefully….

OMG !

‘Oh My God’ has become just an expression these days, isn’t it so? At least I have used it without remembering God in my mind……Sometimes even a person who don’t believe in God might say it (well, am not sure, to be frank). There is this story of ‘Oh God’…

When a disciple did a great job, he was awarded with a special horse. The head priest told him

"when you want to make the horse move, say ‘Oh God’ and if you say it again, the horse will move more fast and you can stop the horse by saying ‘Thank you God’ "

Disciple mounted the horse and proceeded towards a mountain saying ‘Oh God’… He got excited and said ‘Oh God’ again and again…the horse moved faster and faster and he saw that it is proceeding towards a cliff… He panicked and forgot what to do. Finally he remembered the words to stop the horse and he said :

“Thank you God”

and the horse stopped. He realized that they were standing at the tip of the cliff and it was a narrow escape…. in a relief he said :

“Oh God”

We can guess what might have happened …..

From today on, I will try to remember God, whenever I hear or say ‘ OMG’ ….

Spirituality and Being Spiritual...

Looking at my profile or looking at the way I describe myself, many a times my friends or acquaintances had asked me – what you mean by you are spiritual than religious?

Who is a religious person? If one want to be a religious person, one should believe in his/her religion (in case of many Hindus, they might show interest in some other faith also, at least thy don’t oppose other religions), follow the customs and rituals or believes in it. Reads their scripture (even if it’s a verbal exercise, many a times) and most of the times their faith is blind and not logical…they fear to question it, visits their place of worships on a regular basis…., many a times ‘God fearing’ and not God loving (I remember one recent incident – a relative offers a sweet to my son, which was ‘prasadam’ (sacred food offered from temples or after a puja). He rejected that and that person said – you will get ‘dosham’…. I don’t know the English word for dosham its sort of ‘bad’ or anger from God or deity etc etc). If in a situation where milk or wine or sweets or anything like that which is part of any religious service is offered to a religious person, even if he/she is not medically advised to not to take such things (due to specific reasons like sweet for a diabetic person), he/she might take it, though it will do only harm and not good and this happens mainly coz of fear to reject it. A religious person’s religious activities are external, which has something to do with physical objects and activities….. one way or another they ‘believe’ in a religion, which is mostly founded by a single man ......these are only some of the identities of a ‘religious’ person…

A spiritual person is not ‘bound’ to religion, even though one might stay in a religion. Religion is not the primary thing for him/her. He/she is not ‘God fearing’ but ‘God loving’. They look at the meaning of life than blindly following some rituals. They don’t need a place of worship to pray. They believe in a higher power which is beyond names. Some worship music, nature, some believes in a secular community, they too might pray….. Spirituality doesn’t have s single definition but may be it has more to do with ‘spirit’ than ‘body’…

One major distinction between a spiritual person and a religious person is that, a spiritual person looks inside (at the self) and the religious person looks outside. A spiritual person’s main tool is his/her mind and meditation. There is more silence in spirituality and there is more ‘sound’ in religion…

But these days, efforts are being taken by many religious bodies to bridge the gap and they also started implementing the practice of meditation.

This is only a short note on what I mean by being spiritual than religious. The personal definition of spirituality might change from person to person, but spirituality is a dynamic process and it also is a constantly evolving internal journey………

Friendship - An Investment

What is one of the best investments? Is there any investment that can benefit your health, both physical and mental?

Yes, invest in friendship… having a couple of good friends or having a best friend with whom you can share your good and bad moments can definitely pay off. It is a worth investment in your life. When you are with friends, you don’t feel left alone but it gives you a sense of belonging. After a hectic day or week at work, when you sit with a friend and have a cup of coffee, you can feel the difference. It is a great way to unwind. It is an anti-stress…it is an anti-depressant

Friendships can build resilience. We feel from nobody to somebody, when we are with our friends. There is comfort and companionship in true friendships. We face many emotional pains in our life caused by many different situations like a broken relationship, death of a loved one, losing a job…. Good friends can always ease the trauma from such incidents. I have personally experienced that during the death of my dad and then mom. In both situations, I can not forget the support given by them - friend(s).

Not just that, take any happy moments in our life, a highly paid new job, getting engaged, a new baby in our life, buying a new apartment or car…anything.. when you share such moments with friends, the happiness gets multiplied.

Yes, when you feel hopeless, irritating, stressed out or started behaving indifferently, remember that a friend can help you out…

I know that we can not buy true friends. Friendship just happens. May be sometimes, we need to take some extra effort to build up some friendships…. It may not be always possible to have lots of friends. But at least we can always improve the existing relations……Whether we are the one who is supporting or being supported, friendship is a worth investment…yes, I am talking about true friends….

Kurumba Village Resort - A Trip..

16-apr-08

We had planned to start at 5 am sharp, tomorrow, since we need to reach the resort by noon, the check-in time (I booked/ paid in advance). Wife kept alarm at 4 am. But I asked her, “ should I also set alarm in my fone?” she said

‘No need’ ….

(Our cook had come in the evening and while cooking, saying the weather is hot, she kept the door (to balcony) open and thus mosquitoes already entered the house and hid at tactical places, without my knowledge)

It really was a hot night. I can’t sleep just under the fan as it might give a stiff neck (coz of my cervical spondylosis) . Can’t keep the windows open since there might be some disturbance (honking, police siren, dogs) and I am a light sleeper (who actually needs some sleep)….we decided to go to bed very early….

There came a thought about my friends… it wasn’t pleasant. I felt a lil sad…. then I felt like sending a mail to a friend….but the internet wasn’t working since an hour or so….but then I saw it started working… I sent a one-liner …before I could do anything with the net, it failed again….

I stayed awake for sometime….then I slept, may be by 11 or 11.30 …

Within 10-15 minutes I woke up again… it was hot… I got up and opened the windows.. I saw some dogs running towards my apartment's direction, barking (not at me !) … so I closed the windows … mosquitoes…. Then I decided to sleep in the hall switching on the far off fan, by that time it became 1 am, already… I could not sleep…then I thought of some pleasant moments in my life, to comfort myself…and …

17-apr-08

“Wake up, we are already late!” wife woke me up… so its already 4 am…. “ its 4.20, get up, I woke up at 4 am and thought that I will snooze for a short while but I fell asleep…” said my wife…

“very good…I told you that I will also keep the alarm…”..

The other day , I did some swimming, there was some running around, went to gym at night, did not drink enough water and did not get enough sleep too… so I felt like I just came out of my grave…, tired…

Then for a moment I thought – should I blame her and crib? Then the mood will go…that will spoil the enjoyment of the trip….anyway we cant help , we are late and just accept it and start as early as possible … then I thought of some alternative options, drive a lil more fast (which I couldn’t convince myself), reduce rest in between…. not to drink enough water so that I don’t have to stop to pee many times….

When we all got ready, it became 5.35… and we started by 5.47 sharp. 47 minutes late !!

The result? From my apartment itself, there was traffic, though not that heavy.. I couldn’t reach the main road (to Mysore) in time..

Main road, the Highway, too had traffic, but it wasn’t that heavy…I was the fastest on the road, on that time and I overtook all the vehicles that were in front of me, at some point of time, I touched 150 km/hr, may be the maximum my car can go… I tried to keep some steady speed and the result?



Wife had told me that we need 2 and a half to 3 hours to reach Mysore (she collected this info from the net, reading many trip diaries).. I reached Mysore in one hour and 40 minutes, pretty well. So, now we are not running 47 minutes late.. relief !

The ride through the Bandipur forest region was very good. The road was good (half the way), we were lucky to spot some elephants…



But we weren’t that lucky to spot any leopard or deer or peacocks (if you hit any animal, you straight away go to jail). Forest fire is common here and we saw a stretch like that, with burnt trees.



There were bad roads stretching to 12 km, filled with lots of potholes. I took more than half an hour to cover this. (I love my car - any car that I drive - and hence I never move fast on bad roads).

We stopped at Mysore to have breakfast. I checked mails using my mobile and was happy that I got a reply from a friend and a :) too….

There were 36 hairpin curves to climb up and then 10 to climb down to reach our resort. We reached there well in time, by 12.41 pm, sharp !

The way to (from the road we need to take a side route) the resort was very ‘steeply down’, that too with a sharp curve. For a moment, I thought the tyre might slip and we might hit somewhere and topple. But that did not happen…

Our cottage was near the office/restaurant/pool (I made such a request when I booked). One thing I observed was the use of more wood/bamboo and very less plastic. The door handle, towel rods, lamp units, everything was wooden. Even the electric switches were of Bakelite.







The bath room was very clean. Every cottage had individual electric geyser. So we always had hot water.



My mobile did not work there. It looks like only BSNL connections will work, as of now. TV had very limited channels (one Hindi, one Tamil and one news), no news paper… totally cut from the outside world but in to the deep nature..




We had our lunch. The food was nice( lots of food – sweet corn soup, veg salad, ghee rice, fried rice, plain rice, pulao, roti, dhal thadka, pickles, papad, rasam, pulissery, curd rice, beef fry, fish fry, chicken curry, ice cream, fruits salad, chocolate moose…..).




We took a table at the end so that we can see the hills and forest. The place where this resort is located is not fully natural.




Its mainly an estate. The main plantation is Nutmeg and cloves. But everywhere we turn, its green. Filled with trees.






The place around had a stream (may be coz its summer and later it might become a lil more wider with more water flowing) and then there is pure nature, untouched by humans. It is sort of forest. There were lots of hills around and rocks too….. after all, this is a hill station…..The air was fresh, the weather was cool, though it was summer….




After lunch, we took rest… In the evening, I went to try out the pool. The deep zone was only 5 foot 6 inches, which was safe for me. The pool was good , neat and clear. Initially I did not use any goggles and hence my eyes became red…




Then there was this complementary tea and snacks. Thy were making it fresh. We tell them what we want (from a limited choice like potato baji, onion baji, capsicum baji etc) and the cook will make the snack just for us.

Wife and son borrowed some books and started reading….I spent the time just watching the nature, listening to the sound of the stream, birds etc. ..there were many sight seeing packages which I did not opt for. There were lots of monkeys and birds. There are about 40 types of birds in and around this resort area. I saw only four different types. But we can hear many different types of chirping sounds.



It became night and its dinner time (hot and sour soup, salads, chapatti, noodles, fried rice, plain rice, pepper chicken, beef fry, Chinese chicken, veg cutlet, ice cream, payasam, carrot halwa…)

It became cold. We needed a blanket to cover at night. I enjoyed the cold weather and night….There were lots of glow worms. I managed to catch one and kept it inside my room for a minute to take a pic. But the interesting thing was, as soon as the camera’s focus light fell on it, it stopped glowing…...Good Night…

18-apr-08

I woke up at 6.30 am but stayed in the bed just thinking… …lots of birdie sounds…and the sound of the running stream ….. it was cold and pleasant

A group of monkeys came to visit us... A 'guy' tried to break into the room..He looked like the chief of that group. I gave banana to a couple of them.




We were curious to checkout the breakfast items. There were a lot – corn flake, choco flake, orange juice, pine apple juice, pine apple, papaya, idli, sambar, coconut chutney, tomato and chilly chutney, vada, varieties of dosa and egg items (they will make exclusively for us), puri, potato sagu, chicken sausage, potato fry, tomato fry, bread toast, ragi upma, tea, coffee….

I kept a plate of food on the table and went to take a cup of coffee…and a monkey came and took one puri from my plate, though my wife and son was sitting in the table, they could not do anything… a staff came to take the plate with the rest of the food but I told him I don’t have any issue and I will eat it (share it with monkey). But he did not allow me, he said it’s not healthy and it is unhygienic. He was not ready to take any risk.

Then we visited the stream. Spent lot of time there just playing in the cold water…it was refreshing.. then walked around, rested some time in hammocks, then it became lunch time again….




I did not go to the pool in the evening, but spent time near the stream. I used the pleasant and blessed condition for a quick meditation. It was soo relaxing. …

The thought of ‘we need to leave tomorrow morning’ made all of us a lil disappointed. So we decided not to think about it.

There was camp fire, live music and a housie game at night… it was fun

It became dinner time… it was very cold. I loved that weather. But son did not like it. We did not bring any winter wear even for him…. Back to cottage

19-apr-08

Monkey visit....but nothing to give...

Decided to vacate after breakfast. And also decided to take a different route to go back home. It was said that the new route is more scenic, though we need to travel about 30 km extra. Wife collected this info from somebody’s travel diary. It had also said that, though we need to travel extra distance, the road is much better and there is no hairpin bends. I wasn’t worried about the hairpin curves, which I was very comfortable with. Good road, more scenic and trying a new route… that sounded fine to me…. But?

That was the biggest and only blunder we made during the entire trip (except that we did not carry the charger for the camera). It was scenic, but our camera had no power to take snaps.




The road? Horrible… pathetic…it was nothing but a collection of potholes…At many places, road work is going on…. I was on first and second gear for more than 10- 15 kilometers … thus wasted lots of petrol… now I cant calculate the average mileage my car gave for the trip…. then the wear and tear… car started to produce some creaky sounds… was it only 30 extra kilometers? Nope, at the end, we realized that we travelled at least 50 kilometers extra, that too which had a long stretch of bad roads…

We knew that we wont reach home as per our plan. I don’t like driving at night in the highways coz of two main reasons. One, my car is not fitted with hi-power halogen bulb and the second is most of the vehicles plying will be using those bulbs that too with high beam... so, I decided to take a by-pass which had 10 extra kilometers (than cutting thru the Mysore city) but offered good road. Race ….race …race… race with every car that you see in front of you….. this time, I could not defeat two cars – a Hyundai Terracan and a Skoda Octavia, both high end cars …..

When we reached near our apartment, we stopped to buy dinner and stretch our legs. My knees were paining due to that 10 km of half clutch driving…. But it became OK in a few minutes of walk.

Back home, it was hot…. Fan, cold water bath…. Then wife asked

“ are you not going to check mails?” , she gave a kind of smile…she knew that I was eagerly waiting for that…

“yes, I am” …….

“how many mails are there?”

“46….but mostly from the resident’s association and then the news letters I subscribe…no mails from any of my friends…”

I had told almost every friend I am in touch with that I am going…but, not even a single ‘happy journey’, not even a single ‘ where are you going’ ….not even a single ‘ how are you doing’….not even a single….

Sigh…. Wife looked at me, my face, read something….

“People go for vacations, and sometimes our friends may not wish a happy journey, so forget it”

Sometimes my wife is wise…..

He Was Smiling !

I was sitting, may be thinking
He came to me, smiling…
‘Lets go for a walk’ , He said
We walked; still He was smiling…

We entered a forest, a deep forest
‘Can you see the forest?’, He asked
‘No, I can’t see any forest, but
I only see trees, yes trees’

We were standing near a shore
‘Let’s jump into the sea’ He said
I was scared, though He was with me
But He just smiled, and He giggled

Deep into deep, deep into the sea
I wasn’t scared; still He was smiling..
‘Can you see the sea?’, He asked
‘No, I can not see the sea’…

It was a Banyan tree, under which we sat
He took a fruit, which fell from the tree
It was small, smaller than the tree
He took a seed from it, so tiny it was

With the tiny seen in his hand
He asked, ‘can you see the Tree’?
‘Can you see the Tree?’ He, again
I cried; still, He was smiling…

Krishna !

One of the most popular verses from the Bhagavat Gita is this:

Yada yada hi dharmasya
Glanir bhavati bharata
Abhyutthanam adharmasya
Tadatmanam srjamy aham

- Bhagavat Gita 4:7

What does it mean? One of the most popular translation for this is :

Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion--at that time I descend Myself.

May be that is what almost every non-Hindu and most of the Hindu’s believe. I am not saying that is wrong, but I cant simply believe in that, though that translation is by a world known person, who has millions of followers……

Where I am not comfortable is the translation of the word ‘dharma’ into religion. I am not a Sanskrit expert and my knowledge of Sanskrit is zero compared to the person who translated it. But….. that cant be logically correct… Krishna coming whenever religion declines (Sanatana Dharma is not just another religion…all other religion has a single founder, not for Hinduism….it is not a single person’s view on something…) that is hard to digest…

Here is a better looking translation :

Whenever and wherever there is decline of dharma (righteousness) and ascendance of adharma (unrighteousness), at that time I manifest Myself in visible form. For the protection of the righteous and destruction of the wicked, and for the sake of establishing dharma again, I incarnate Myself on earth ages after ages.

Here dharma is translated as righteousness, which I personally think is better than ‘religion’…. But ‘ I manifest myself in visible form’ …well, does the sloka say so? From where does this come?

So, will Krishna come in a horse with a sword? Those who are waiting to witness such a scene will get disappointed, that is what I personally believe. Coz, when I read Gita, I did not feel like Krishna saying so.

So who is Krishna? Is he just the son of Vasudeva? Just an avatar of Vishnu, who was born about 5000 years ago? Will he come back again as Krishna?

Bhagavat Gita has highest depth of psychology. So, if somebody believes Krishna is JUST son of Vasudeva, they have a long way to go…. I think there is a Krishna in us…in every one of us… and He comes when the righteousness in us declines.. how?

When we say/do something ‘wrong’, if we observe, there comes a voice from within…we can feel somebody saying NO, but this is not a very strong feeling that will drag us from doing that, for every one of us…The more clear your mind is, that is, the more you believe in good /God, the more aware we are, the more will be the pull..when we lie, when we cheat, when we deceive, when we ….. Krishna !

That something which tries to guide us to right is nothing but Krishna (or Christ or.., depending on your religion.). That is the God element in you, the Krishna in you…

Instead of looking for a Krishna (well, any ‘God form’ for that matter) outside, FIRST listen to the Krishna/Christ inside you.

(For those who believe in ‘personal forms’ or ‘human forms’ - So those ‘special guys’ will never return? Logically thinking, understand this - during the life time of Rama, Krishna, Jesus.. how many recognized them? Only a few… So? …. May be thy are already there, who knows? )

They say SO

Worry can reduce life
Work can reduce poverty
Anger can reduce friendship
Extravagance can reduce wealth
Economy can reduce dependence

Hunger knows no taste
Desire knows no justice
Lust knows no relationship
Greed knows no limits

Love can not be won by violence
Wisdom can not be won by arrogance
Success can not be won by impatience
Happiness can not be won by hatred

Knowledge is like a river,
The deeper it is, less noise it makes

Rama's Birthday

Somebody asked me whether there is any birth date available for Rama… or is it just a story (friend, I know your intention)…. how many of us doubt the birth date of Jesus? It is not December 25, but still we believe it, isn’t it so? We question only other faith’s belief… Well, here goes the dates:

Rama’s Birth ............. 4th December 7323 BC
He marries Sita on ............. 7th April 7303 BC
Goes to forest on ............ 29th November 7306 BC
Hanuman first arrives in Lanka on ........... 1st September 7292 BC
War btw Rama and Ravana started on ..... 3rd November 7292 BC
Ravana got killed on .......... 15th November 7292 BC
Rama returns to Ayodhya on ........... 6th December 7272 BC

(Courtesy : Dr.P.V.Vartak)

Past is Past...

Past is past. Forget the past…. Is that really true?

If somebody takes it in its literal meaning, it is not a good idea. I had long unhappy days in my life. It continued till I find a Guru in my life (this doesn’t mean that after reading this, one should run around and find a Guru…. Come on!) He did not call me and tell ‘ jay, your problem is…..’ . Nope, nothing like that. But I realized that my sorrows or unhappiness had a lot to do with my attitude. I used to live in the past… I used to get emotional about it. My Guru’s greatest teaching is about the importance of the present moment. This is not a note on my Guru or his teachings, so….. past….. I was talking about past.

Completely ignoring our past is not wise. The positives in the past, the happiness in the past always has the ability to lift up your sprits, even in the present. Sometimes, when I feel low, what I try to do is to think about some good/pleasant/happy moment that happened in my life. It can be a moment with a friend of mine, the memory of me reading a mail, it can be a small and silly chat with someone, a smile, it can be any such ‘silly’ moments, …… it can be anything… you can feel a difference as soon as you go to that kind of memory (memory is nothing but a collection of records about the past). So, your pleasant past can still help you out. It is not just past.

What about the bad/uncomfortable part of the past? Why should we write off these negative past while it has some positives to offer? Ignoring it completely is not wise. One can always learn something from that. Some lessons… all sorts of relationships we entered into (including friendships), stayed in, or got ended up taught us lessons. When going back to those not-so-good memories, one should be bit careful. One need to just observe at those memories and don’t get involved into it once again. As we move on and on, we gain experience of many kinds…..We grew mentally. When you look at the past with that new mindset, with acceptance, it can even heal your past wounds.

Most of the time, we have this habit of blaming. Either we blame others or we blame ourselves…. “it is your mistake…’ ....”so it is my mistake….” ….When some of us see the past, we see mistakes. So, was that only mistakes? Didn’t those experiences teach us anything? Yes, they did teach us, may be we forgot to look at it with acceptance. To have a mind to accept our ‘mistakes’ will help us a lot. May be one mistake we usually make is misunderstanding them as mistakes…

Today (tonight) , let us go to sleep without any blames… don’t forget the past, but forgive it…

Pseudoscience, Scientific Racism and Blood

Which country studied blood extensively, to disprove something? It is the Japan. It all started when the west said that Asian race mostly has the blood type ‘B’ which is common among animals and thus they are the inferior ones in the evolution (not that those with B type are the inferior ones, but the entire race itself). Then Japan started studying that and they found out that that theory is wrong (Japan has more O and A type than B type). But it did not end there; the Japanese were the first who tried to find a link between blood type and personality. It is as popular as zodiac signs. Even now, they consider blood type for many purposes including match making. What do they think about blood types, in general?

A -Type - The Perfectionist people.

Reserved, patient, sensitive, responsible, punctual, calm (mostly outwards), patient, obsessive, stubborn, conservative, tense, sensitive, overcautious, unable to relax, shy, trustworthy, helps others

Most compatible with A and AB type.

B - The Individualist

Creative, passionate, strong, animal loving, optimistic, flexible, wild, unsociable, critical, indecisive, unpredictable, unforgiving, goal oriented, strong minded, usually completes the task they started, finds their own ways in life

Most compatible with B and AB type.

AB - Rationalist

Popular, sociable, cool, controlled, forgetful, indecisive, critical, irresponsible, self-centered, outgoing (and shy ones too, since they are split personality between A and B), confident, timid, wont go well if assigned with too much responsibility, likes to help others,

Most compatible types – all (A, B,AB,O)

O - Leader / hunter

Ambitions, trendsetter, independent, loyal, athletic, robust, passionate, self confident, arrogant, vain, jealous, insensitive, ruthless, outgoing, very social, initiators, they may not always finish the work they started, creative, they like to be the center of attraction, usually very self confident.

God's Religion

I thought I may not write about religion or God for sometime. But...

I happed to chat with a friend of mine after somewhat long gap. She seemed happy (did not tell me the exact reason), so was I, happy. I hoped from the start that she would not drag God or religion into our chat, which mainly had something to do with dating etc. But…

When she dragged God , I said I might disagree and hence I don’t have any comments on what she said. But I also added that I just want to say :

“For God’s sake, please don’t drag God into everything. Coz, He might be expecting we, the humans, to handle at least something”

Obviously, she said I better don’t comment. Usually she used to make some statements and ask me to not to disagree (e.g. once she said ‘there is final judgment, jay, please don’t argue with me’). For many things her mind is closed, not willing even to hear what others have to say. An attitude, which will stand as a hindrance to spiritual or mental growth or any kind of better understanding irrespective of what field it, is. Moreover, she believes her God (or son of god, whatever) is the only real God.

The situation was the process of marriage. Dating many-date one-relationship-marriage….. Why many guys did not date her? or why she remains unmarried even at an age where she was supposed to be playing the role of a mother with at least 3 kids (as per her country’s criteria)?

She partly blamed men and then said, when she prayed to God, it seemed God had some other plans. God told her that way…. ridiculous..

These talking gods are a big problem . These gods are very selfish. They use men and women for carrying out his ‘exclusive’ jobs !!! He doesn’t have any other job?

Sometimes I am rude. But I never can be this rude to tell her :

“You ever looked at your image, in a mirror?”

She needs to understand that she is not beautiful, externally. What about internal beauty? She has very strong views, not ready to bend or adjust. Well, as a man myself, I would say men usually don’t prefer such types. Married life is a lifetime commitment. It is very hard to live with somebody who is not ready for any compromise, or at least not ready to listen. But if somebody is extremely beautiful/handsome, one might at least give it a try (most of the celebrity marriages)

Else, she need to find a man who has very similar views, especially in religion(again if ‘God’ gives different instruction to them, they argue and might split up!). But so far what I have observed is people with very similar views on everything make good friends but not good couple.

Then why drag God into it? Why some people ‘think’ God is assigning jobs to them every now and then?

At least for some people running after God is nothing but escapism. When their deepest desires are not fulfilled….when they had to face some harsh realities….. when their love fails…. Reasons are many, they will select the ‘service’ path. And for some, it also is an easy way of earning their bread, without much effort. But how many of them really serve humans as humans, irrespective of the caste, creed and religion? Very few…

What happens when we ask God : “God, should I get married?” . You will get your deepest desire as the answer. What if you can’t find a man/woman of your choice? Again drag God into it and just say : He has different plans. And in many a cases, these people feels jealous when they see others who live like the way they wanted to live…

Which is the real God? Which religion own Him? Or what is God’s religion? Or to whom is God partial to? To whom He answers? There is one easy way to find. Ask your friends from different religions (if you don’t have friends from other religions, make friends, don’t be that stubborn) about their experience of prayer. Did God respond to any of their prayers?

Almost every one from any religion for that matter might have had at least one such experience. What does it shows? At least my Christian, Jew, Islam, Buddhist and Hindu friends have such experience. I can’t say all except the Hindu is lying.

(I can share one anecdote. For more than six months, I watch one song based reality show, regularly. Now it is the final stage. One guy hardly made into the final. He could not score much during the final segments. He never was exceptionally well throughout the show. But the other day, he sung exceptionally well. It really was stunning. Wonderful….amazing ….and what not? I have never seen him singing like this, so was the condition of even the judges and others. The audience were shocked, the judges got shocked, those who gave him instrumental support got surprised and finally, when he finished, he cried… the judges cried… he got the highest score in the history of that show (yes, I am talking about Tushar, the show is Star Singer and the channel is Asianet) when the hostess asked whether he has got anything to say, he said:

“I think it is not me who sung today… I felt some unknown force behind me… this is for the first time I ended up crying at the end ………….”

And to who did he gave the credit? He gave it to ‘Guruvayoorappan’ a popular Hindu deity in Kerala, which is considered as Lord Vishnu. He said he prayed to that deity and requested to make him sing.

Was he lying?, though I am not a devotee of Guruvayuoorappan, I cant say he is lying. He was true to the core of his belief.)

What does it show? If you happened to read in any particular scripture, any ‘God’ say, ‘I am the only God’ , understand that it means ‘There is only one God’…

(and if the very next thought one getting is ' and that ONLY God is mine..others are worshiping false gods..', that person is in the wrong track)

Here I am not targeting any person. But I am talking about a ‘type’. I am not telling ‘oh this person is wrong, that person is wrong’ and pretending I am the only right one. That friend of mine just happened to be the trigger for these thoughts. And I am thankful for that. She will remain as my friend, even if she drag God into our next talks. Friendship is beyond religion, like God. One can differ with me and I am ready and willing to listen to …..May be God ‘asked me’ to write this and somebody who is totally unknown to me might be looking for this…who knows?

Global Warming

What are the effects of global warming? I can write a few pages , based on what I have read so far. But I don’t want to. There are hundreds of sites which provide more than enough info on that. Is that all true? I don’t know and personally I don’t believe everything I read about it. If anybody thinks nature is that predictable, well, what to say?

Year after year, my city, which was known as the ‘air-conditioned city’ (coz of the pleasant weather round the year) is getting hotter and hotter, it’s a fact. May be it is coz of global warming. But what made me think of global warming, right now?

It was six in the evening, I was standing in the balcony of my apartment and the sight was interesting. It was foggy. No, it is not coz of something wrong with my vision. My city (I can see more than 10 kilometers of my city from the balcony) is about to sleep covering her with a foggy blanket.

For the past couple of days, it rained. Sometimes it rained heavily. It even blessed us with hailstones... What is the big thing in a rain? Coz, it is the start of April and we were supposed to be experiencing a hot summer. In some part of the southern States, it rained that heavily which lead to flood and human fatality.

I don’t have any cynical view on the predictions by those scientists but I don’t hesitate to tell that what I personally experienced is totally against some predictions (which included the year 2008) I read, some years ago. Usually, while sleeping at night, we avoid blanket during March-April. People switch on electric fan or air conditioning equipments (then we might need blanket). But this year, during some nights I had to grab my blanket.

Some predictions give us a feeling that earth and the living creatures on it will end very soon and another set of scientists claim that it will remain for another 4-5 billion years.

So, as a layman, I got confused, sometimes. Luckily, at this point of time, I am not an atheist. Hence the thought of God is comforting. If He can create (did he really ‘create’? my faith and belief has a different view, but for the time being, at least for this blog, lets assume that way) and manage it till date, well, I think, we can trust Him….

(I am not saying ‘just sit and relax’. But the ‘hope’ part is that - New and new ways/ideas/theories/thoughts/etc will emerge in the coming future….)

Jay Learns to Swim !

Among other species, humans are the only one who are not natural swimmers. We need to learn. How good am I as a swimmer? I don’t know… I can’t rate myself since I don’t know how to swim…

Today I took my first swimming lesson…

I first entered a swimming pool some 18 years ago. Some of my friends and a cousin of mine used to go to pool. One day, I accompanied them. It was that cousin of mine who told me that he will teach me how to swim. Every one jumped into the pool and so did I. Man, it was suffocating! The pressure! When I looked around, I saw many grinning faces, those who came with me!

A couple of them gave me some basic lessons. One was how to stay in deep water using the ‘cycling method’ (I don’t know the technical term). The theory session went fine and then my cousin asked me to come to the deep zone which was 14 feet deep, grabbing the sides of the pool. I did that.

Now is the time to put all my cycling theory into practice. I started doing what he said, moving my legs in a cycle riding way and moving my hands in an up and down fashion. And the result?

It was a fantastic experience. I started going down… I started getting drowned…. I tried to call for help, but the sound is not coming….. I drank lots of water…. Down and down…. Then I saw a hand coming towards me and I grabbed it with all my energy… it was my cousin’s hand…he still was grinning, though it looked like he too got scared a lil (otherwise, he is always a smiling guy and cracks joke all the time)…. Luckily, the pool authorities did not ask me to pay for the water I drank !

I never tried the deep zone again, in that way (but I did go there catching the sides of the pool) and there ended the cycling session. Why he tried to teach me that first? He said if you know this, you can at least survive. But I changed my mind and decided to learn how to float and swim. Since the pool wasn’t free, the guys who came with me were busy swimming and I was left alone. But when I call them, they came to me and gave some tips and then disappeared.

Then I finally floated a little….then I started beating my legs….hey, it works…. I moved forward and I was happy about it. So I did that a couple of times and then decided to use my hands too. I started moving using the legs only and then started using my hand…sway …sway… and I hit something. I saw a guy standing in front of me bleeding!!! I hit his face and coz of my nails, he got slightly injured. I said sorry and he didn’t say anything….

In a day or two, others stopped (first was that cousin) going to pool and so did I….

(In between, a few months ago, I went to our pool with my gym trainer, who had no idea how to teach and there ended it)

When I came to know that summer swimming camp is coming again, in our club, I did not think twice. Last year too I enrolled but I could not take up the lessons since I had to travel to Bangkok. This time I didn’t want to miss it.

Today morning I woke up early… i didn’t get enough sleep and hence I felt like I just came out of my grave… but its my first swimming lesson… cant miss it… I had to do some online transaction which was urgent and hence I went online and …. Yes, as I told yesterday, being with friends we like is a boost (what if that friend is a swimmer?)…. YEHEY!

My slot was 7-8 am and I went punctually. I did not see anybody except somebody sitting on a sofa. I asked the security where these swimming people go. And he said that is one of the coaches. So I went to him an introduced myself. Four people were supposed to come and none of them turned up. My coach’s name was Jacob and he was from native State. We waited for 15 minutes and then decided to start the lesson. The coach disappeared for a moment….

I changed into swimming trunk, took a shower and sat on a chair waiting for the coach. It was windy and I started shivering…. Then I saw a man waving hands to me, smiling. I looked at him and I have no idea who he is. There were two others with him, a teenage boy and a kid. I thot, may ne he is waving to somebody behind, I didn’t see anybody behind so I just smiled at him and nodded my head in acknowledgement, wondering what is happening around. Then I thought it out. He is there to take the swimming lessons and he thought I am the coach!!!

(well, I was wearing just swimming trunks sporting my athletic body…. so can’t blame him).

He too sensed the situation based on my cold response. So, he asked :

“Where is the coach?” …..

There came one more coach and he was assigned exclusively for me. I was asked to walk inside the pool…. Then this bubbling, I was asked to take deep breath, take a dip and then breath out slowly keeping my head inside water…. As soon as I went inside the water, I got pushed out and here my head comes up…… then floating lesson….. When I did that, I started getting drowned!!!

God, I love your ways! Very funny !!

HowToBuyANewPhone

How to buy a mobile phone? What are the things to be considered? Some months ago, I bought a new phone, so I can tell how to buy.

First I decided to have a budget. Then I thought of what are the features that I want to have in my new phone. I noted it down. I had decided to go with Nokia, coz I was using Nokia since 5-6 years and I am comfortable with it.

Then I went to Nokia website and checked the phone models. Shortlisted three of them and compared its features. Then read many reviews in many forums. And finally zeroed in to one. Then called up one or two shops to know who gives the best price.

I went to a shop and they didn’t have stock of that model. Then I went to another shop. They also did not have it. Third shop people said it might come by evening. So I revisited them in the evening and then they said the stock did not come but it will come a day or two, or even next day itself.

My usual attitude is if I decided to buy something, I will buy it. So I told them my requirement and asked them to suggest a phone. I went back home with a brand new phone….. How happy I am with that phone?

Well, I am not happy. Now you know how NOT to buy a mobile phone !!!!!