Lost and found.. or still lost?

Please note that my blogs do not follow any format.. I write as it comes my head..

I was reading Ashwin's post just now and that got me thinking.. Usually, my thought process is fast enough to make me forget the start point (or am horribly forgetful and my thought process erratic).. :p Any way, I remembered this conversation that I had with this person- about how Indians had already discovered that earth revolves around the Sun long before the heliocentric views surfaced in the modern world. He took out a fat book which had translations along with shlokas. He asked me to read this particular one, which in his view proved the point. I read it and I did not know what to say really.. My linguistic skills are terrible enough that I can not comprehend the original shloka written in Sanskit (I really feel ashamed). Thus, I read the translation. It was two pages long and vaguely conveyed his point. I did not know if the one who translated, superimposed his/ her views on the actual matter..

As I see it, the problem is at two levels- 1. hardly anyone today has a good hold on Sanskrit (am talking about mass. Adwait's Sanskrit is fantastic compared to mine). 2. As most of the literature available is not easily read in the original language, one tends to read the views of the person who translates it. For anyone who thinks logically, 2nd point strikes while reading translations. At least as far as I am concerned, I have to read the actual text it to believe that that is the matter author is trying to put forth. I can not believe just because someone told me that 'they' have found ancient Hindu texts sighting the inventions of the olden times and how they were advanced. Prove it.. show the original texts.. carry out carbon dating.. Many tend to receive my stance as 'she does not believe in our culture or something like that..' Now why will I do that? It is a simple thing that scientific proof is required. It does not take an Einstein to consider that one who knows Sanskrit can easily write what he/ she wishes. It is like, how do you know that it is not a fake Picasso?

All our texts are with Germans (how shameful is that!!) and on top of that, most of the people are educated in English who can poorly read their mother tongue.. leave apart Sanskrit. As most of the mass is of that kind (including me, though medium of my education was Marathi and I can read Marathi very well, I can't understand Sanskrit much) we are so ignorant about what was already known to ancestors.. I was reading this book on Greece and I was stunned to know that majority of the mass knows about how Greeks lived in the past, what they knew etc. It was so well preserved through the time. Now, Greece compared to India is a very small country with almost a single language of communication. I know that. We have too many languages and slowly we are losing on the knowledge of those as well..

We need to collaborate.. the people who know current science and people who have good hold on languages in which olden text was written. Western people are coming here to excavate and find how Aryan towns were planned.. why can't we do that? Rather, why don't we already know it? I really am thinking of learning Sanskrit all over again and keep it alive in my head. I don't want to read translations. Think about it. It is in our hand to preserve what's already known so that learn from our past and take it along.

:)

Action please..

After retirement, Adwait's father (my father-in-law) started to work in small factory in Aurangabad. When he came down to Bangalore for work, he stayed with us. After having lunch, we began to chat.. him, Adwait and me. Adwait said, ''I am thinking of selling my Enfield. Probably, I can buy a bike which gives better average." Adwait's father and I just fell silent. We knew how Adwait loves biking and his Royal Enfield. He can spend hours to make that bike shine. I could almost feel his pain. Adwait continued,"I will waste less petrol, by doing so. We have no right to discuss about ever increasing prices if we keep wasting things." He is right. Absolutely right. Adwait's father said, "one day, after lunch I heard two workers chatting. One said, it is so costly to educate children these days! I have to pay Rs. 4,000 this month to my daughter's school. The other said, what? Is it so costly? How will you manage? The first one replied, we will try and pull as much as we can. Otherwise, one day, along with my daughter I will.... (commit suicide)." Oh dear lord! My mind was numb.. All these days, I heard of such thing only in news and in news papers about farmers in Maharashtra. However, Adwait's father knew these workers. They worked under him everyday.. I asked, "How much are they paid every month?" He said, "Not much. four to five thousand a month." I had no idea that majority of the working class earned so little. When I began my Ph.D, I was paid 12,000 and I hardly kept a track of how I spent. I felt so ashamed..Right now, dal costs close to Rs. 100/kg. How the hell was this worker going to eat? Largely, these people will then stop eating rice which is part of their staple diet. Or they will try and eat other pulses.. This whole thing is crazy.. The main occupation of our country is 'suppose' to be farming and we import the most basic ingredients of meal. We import fruits.. what not? It has been two years since I saw indian apples in shops.. Apples are now Rs. 180/kg in Bangalore. Who can afford that? We know all the figures.. these many people can not have two meals a day.. What do we do about it?? We blame the government and every other thing we can think of, but never ourselves.
It is time for action, people. Take a moment and think. Have you gone to marriages where they arrange a buffet? Do we look at the baskets where we keep used plates? There is so much food wasted.. thrown away..
And it is not only food.. time, money, resources, intelligence.. everything. Let us think and use. Let us use wisely. Let us not waste..
I used to give reason of running short of time. Then I really sat down and thought, can't I organize things in such a way that I will still have some time to make sure that I do not waste anything? Is it really so impossible? Obviously not! Now, it is not that I am managing it all.. but, I have started. Taken a step ahead. I ask you to think.. and find ways that you can use things in a better way and try not to waste. We can make it happen.

Peace

It has been some time since I blogged. In fact, it has been six whole months! In Dec. I got married and after that time flew by managing work and the rest of life. Today, I want to slow down a bit, after working the whole weekend. Breath deep. Not get involved in filthy things that tag along with professional life.

Yesterday, I did a very unusual thing. I wrote the most harsh mail to my Ph.D guide. Of course, there was a reason. And I felt free. As if, a huge burden was off my chest. My husband (Adwait) got his MS degree certificate and we decided to have chaat and stuff at this place which is a small shop. It felt so good to get in touch with a tension free, relaxed, simple life.. Happy. I felt free. I slept off with a smile on my face.

Other day, I was talking to one of my colleague. We are close. He is like a brother. I said, Adwait was asking me the other day, when will we get time to trek up Sahyadris and stand on one the peaks, facing lashing rain. To just stand there.. to wash off all unwanted masks that we put up, wash off all the anger, restlessness.. when? To feel the peace and content. My colleague smiled and said, I am married for last three years and have been away from home and wife for more than two years. And we will get Ph.D!! Wow! We both sighed.

I was going home in a bus. It began to rain. I thought, do I feel content? Have I found my 'drive'? Why do I remember standing under a tree planted in my grandfather's garden in this small village? And when I remember that, why does it suddenly feel peaceful? Many times, I feel that my husband and I just leave everything and move to a village. Leave Ph.D and go for farming? It is really unsettling to know that you hardly know anything about yourself, what you really want. And even more troubling is the fact that, whatever you say, you will be always a bit scared about uncertainty. The worst is, feeling of being lost.

It is easier, to gather yourself and collect these moments of content. To live in the present and nurture it. Give time to yourself.

Peace.

We the book lovers..

Well, hello.. I guess you are also a book lover and LOOOOVE to read. The title of this blog is inspired from 'we the living' by Ayn Rand. It was one of her early books. I like her work.. a lot. This blog is dedicated to all those who love to read. I am a typical traditional reader.. who loves leather bound books containing pages of slight rough texture. The reason I thought of writing this lil piece is what Steve Jobs said when asked about Amazon Kindle (http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/the-passion-of-steve-jobs/). If it is true, it is sad. At least in India, the situation is not the same, I think. We love to read, largely. Some famous people wrote some good things about love for books (which I found on net!).. :)

All good and true book-lovers practice the pleasing and improving avocation of reading in bed....No book can be appreciated until it has been slept with and dreamed over. ~Eugene Field, Love Affairs of a Bibliomaniac (1896) (true, true..I love to read before I sleep)

To distract myself from tiresome thoughts, I have only to resort to books; they easily draw my mind to themselves and away from other things. ~Michel Montaigne

I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library. ~Jorge Luis Borges

I am pretty sure you have visited sites like http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page and http://manybooks.net and if not, I suggest that you visit them. I personally don't like reading books on comp. However, I guess I should work on it. I heard from this nano tech scientist that they are developing a material on which you can download a book and it will not emit lighte like the comp screens do, but it will be like a book page on which light would fall and we can read :) I am really waiting for it. Yeah.. we are moving ahead with time..

Keep reading and dreaming.. :)

Cheers!

Nandini

Our own GOOD world

It is my dream to get my neurons fired in a perfect setting. e. g. I am sitting in a french window looking upon vast greens, holding a steaming hot cup of coffee. Well, as you can guess, it doesn't really happen that way. What I am going to write is what I began thinking about when I was cleaning the vessels!! What a perfect setting! Well.. something better than nothing..

It was the time when these serial blasts happened in number of cities in India. In my opinion, there are two ways to look at the situation. You can suggest the third one, if any. One being macroscopic and other being microscopic way. I started with the later. Let me think about what happened to me. If I sit down and try to make a list of people whom I hate, how long does my list go? Hmmn... OK. I thought about my childhood, adolescence and past few years. Whom do I hate? I did not know that this was such a difficult question. It does not mean that my life has been rosy pink. I have had unusual childhood when compared to an average maharashtrian kid from city. I have had bitter experiences. But, the question is, do I hate the people associated with such experiences? Notice the word associated. What I mean by that is, if I had a bad experience in my childhood for which I thought person X was responsible at that point of time, in retrospection, largely, I found those people to behave in that way given the circumstances that were there and the kind of thinking they show. And as a result, I tend to erase the label 'bitter' and just catalogue it as 'an' experience in my brain. The hidden meaning of the dialogue (or monologue) above is that every person is good. This can be more evident in the 'networked' world. Let us take an example of Orkut. Strange as it may sound, it is true. I did an experiment. In my post graduate class, there were certain people who sort of troubled me (knowingly or unknowingly). As a result, I kept away from them as much as possible. The image that I had in my mind of them was obviously murky. This troubled me a bit for some reason. What I did was I visited their Orkut page and read the testimonials that other people had written. Apparently, to those who had written testimonials, these people were real good human beings. That struck me as a bolt of light. Wow! it was a discovery (or reinvention of things that someone has already said somewhere).. really there was no reason for me to dislike anyone. Trust me, it is a fantastic feeling! One often takes hatred and dislike as normal reactions and gets used to their expression. What we forget is that we just don't express, but also carry an impression of it in our mind which is a mighty heavy load. After shaking that off, I really felt light and refreshed. And something very important is that if I want to make a list of people who have been really good to me, it will be a LOOOOOOONG one (that includes people from many religions).

Now let me turn to the macroscopic view, where I am just a dot in the picture. Obviously, there is lot of pain, agony, hatred. We can say that unless one goes through the situation that these blast or terrorism victims did, it is easy to blabber about liking everyone around, peace, love and blah blah. I know that. And I agree that what happened and is happening is hurting, leaving scars. But, is revenge always the way? I can not say. What I want to say is, let us start at the grass root level. From self. Me liking (or at least, not hating) x number of people is going to have an exponential effect. Forgive and forget is really possible. Small small things one day reflect in one huge thing.

I see a good chance that if one thinks and decides, it is possible to make it happen. I am positive and have a lot of hope in the fact in near future, everyone will feel that it is 'our own good world' that we live in.

Cheers!

Nandini

Phir Dekhiye..

Love this song.. well composed n sung :)
Song Title: Phir Dekhiye
Movie Title: Rock On

Aankhon Mein Jis Ke Koi To Khwab Hai
Khush Tha Wahin Jo Thoda Betaab Hai
Zindagi Mein Koi Arzoo Kijiye
Phir Dekhiye ……

Hoton Pe Jis Ke Koi To Geet Hai
Woh Haare Bhi To Us Ki Hi Jeet Hai
Dil Mein Jo Geet Hai Gun Guna Lijiye
Phir Dekhiye…….

Yaadon Mein Jis Ke Kisi Ka Naam Hai
Sapno Ke Jaise Us Ki Har Sham Hai
Koi To Aaj Se Apna Dil Dijiye
Phir Dekhiye…..

Khwab Buun Yeh Zara Geet Sun Yeh Zara
Phool Chun Yeh Zara
Phir Dekhiye….

:)

Dance like no one is watching.. :)

Instead of giving URL, I thought pasting the page contents is a better idea..



We convince ourselves that life will be better after we get married, have a baby, then another.

Then we are frustrated that the kids aren't old enough
and we'll be more content when they are.

After that we're frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with. We will certainly be happy when they are out of that stage.

We tell ourselves that our life will be complete when our spouse gets his or her act together, when we get a nicer car, are able to go on a nice vacation, when we retire.

The truth is, there's no better time to be happy than right now.

If not now ... when?

Your life will always be filled with challenges. It's best to admit this to yourself and decide to be happy anyway.

One of my favorite quotes comes from Alfred D Souza ...

"For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin.
But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life."

This perspective has helped me to see that there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.

So, treasure every moment that you have. And treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time ... and remember that time waits for no one ...

So stop waiting until you finish school ... until you go back to school ... until you lose ten pounds ... until you gain ten pounds ... until you have kids ... until your kids leave the house ... until you start work ... until you retire ... until you get married ... until you get divorced ... until Friday night ... until Sunday morning ... until you get a new car or home ... until your car or home is paid off ... until spring, until summer ... until fall ... until winter ... until you are off welfare ... until the first or fifteenth ... until your song comes on ... until you've had a drink ... until you've sobered up ... until you die ... until you are born again to decide that there is no better time than right now to be happy ...

Happiness is a journey ... not a destination!!

Thought for the day:

"Work like you don't need money,
Love like you've never been hurt,
And dance like no one's watching."

I saw this posted on Steve Jobs' blog and I liked it.
:)