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.
:)

On THE rainy morning..

Rains were lashing the black tar road that went winding behind the tall lush green trees. Rain drops seemed to bounce off at least a foot high. It made a rhythmic loud sound which intermingled with the whoosh of wind that I though could uproot our tent and send flying back to city! I peeped outside to get a broader view of how spectacular nature looked. The bonfire seemed to have fallen off to sleep in ash and unburnt wood. I liked the smell of it. Up in the canopy, I saw monkeys sitting on a branch. They were drenched. I turned my head to see birds perching patiently, waiting for the rains to stop. The tiny bright wild flowers made the whole scene so picturesque that I wanted to carry that moment back with me! I held hot mug of coffee in my hand and listened to rain. Even in that loud background, everything inside was so calm.. at peace. This noise didn’t bother me like the city traffic. It had the same soothing effect of sound of ocean waves.

After a while, the rains stopped and we decided to take out our jeep in go in the forest. That must be around 7.30 in the morning. In a few minutes we left the main tar road and went deep into the forest. Everything around looked so full of life and verdant! We had the buzz of bees and animal calls as an intermittent interruption to the thick silence around. Suddenly, we all were alert! We heard alarm calls of monkeys from somewhere near by. My heart was pounding.. we were in for a treat! No one spoke a word.. the only expression that everyone had was overwhelming anticipation of which great carnivore were we going to sight? Will we see a tiger? No.. but they were not so common in that forest. But who knows? We might.. or is it leopard? Oh my god! Will it be? It is so difficult to spot one..Will we see the kill? My heart beats were going louder and monkeys were almost shrieking now! We stopped at a little clearing and we were looking in the direction of alarm calls. We must be very close to the predator. Our eyes were searching for that one sight which would stay alive in our minds for ever. Minutes passed, but no luck. Alarm calls were still loud. We got a little disturbed.. we didn’t even manage to spot where the mysterious predator was. My friend sighed and took off her cap. He turned to keep it in the jeep and I suddenly felt her grip tighten on my shoulder. I almost skipped a heart beat. Now was the moment! The predator that we were searching for all this while was sitting with the kill on the branch of a tree around 35 feet behind us. It was a HUGE male leopard. It looked in our eyes and jumped off the branch to disappear in the jungle. We stood there for several minutes spellbound! Man! We saw a leopard! And that too in a situation where he looked at us so closely much longer than we did! We sat in the jeep to head back to the tent and every one was going, ‘oh my god!!’ I am sure the leopard had a smirk on his face seeing that.

It is time..

Empty nights and hollow days,

I look at the rose that once you gave

It sleeps in the book that I then read

Petals now look transparent, but the pages red

It was past and it is past

But there is so much of us in it, how do we deny?

We went full circle and have come face to face

I say No! And run away

What am I scared of?

I do not know

Is it the possibility of failure?

And the pain that I can’t hold.

On the floor so cold awake I lay

Wondering why I didn’t finish putting

Tiles on the wall that we left half way

How do I finish the part that you drew?

Now almost all tiles are in place but a few

Probably now I know what not to hold

It’s time I let myself fly

and the waters flow

What could be the title for this post???

I was watching a video on TED.com on rethinking music videos which set me thinking…Jakob presents one of his creations, moonlight glory. Take a look at it. What do you think?

I thought I should take a closer look at ‘expression of music’ in my head. I closed my eyes (that seems to be the first step for me!!). Music started.. I am still in my room.. I am mentally very aware of where I sit and what is around. Then it slowly fades… I am listening to music intently… I love guitar.. beats are good.. very pleasant tune.. I am smiling. Ok…. Now I am at this resort I went to 2 years back.. at the Singara foot hills. It’s a star studded night sky. There is this strong wet wood’s smell in the air. I am sitting by bonfire in a recliner.. gazing stars… I feel so relaxed… Music stops. I take a little while to come back to my room mentally.

What happened? Music had this inherent mood. The moment I connect with it, I associate a visual impression that I vividly remember and which identifies with the mood. This is what happened with this music piece.. But there were times when I visualize places that I have never been to or even at times, don’t visualize anything but a few abstracts.

Then I close my eyes again. I go back to the same resort.. star studded sky… which is this music going on in the background? It is the music piece which listened to when I was actually there..not the one I listened to a few minutes back.

In a way this was not an unexpected outcome for me. I am more of a visual impession person than an audio impression one! The reverse synthesis of music doesn’t work for me! Are these two processes interconnected necessarily? Hmmnn…I remember sitting in my garden back home and I just had music notes in my head… no visual impressions..music emerged like a fountain from somewhere unknown Well, I used to compose music… a few years back.

I am a little surprised at how my brain works knowing how much I like music , drawing, painting or visuals in any form! Or am I taking wrong parameters into consideration? Hee hee…

Cheers to the colorful musical world that we share!

Anubhuti

chocolates, music and much more

That's a great way to start a new year, isn't it? :D chocolates, music...wow! I haven't blogged for some time.. and now I have something to write about, something to share or nothing at all.. just some random thoughts.. random is what's natural to me.. that is why the name mosaic as i have mentioned in my first blog. To be honest, this randomness is not completely true.. which sort of makes me a little sad. there is a link.. so deep that it's not apparent superficially.. but i can sense it. For my own selfish satisfaction, i would like to accept my thought process as random.. it gives me a pleasure of being... ummnnn... kind of rebellious!! hee hee.. Am i making any sense to u?? Any way, chuck it!

So.. CHOCOLATES... whoever discovered this divine thing, should be given the highest honor in the word!! According to the history, Aztecs of Mexico discovered chocolates. then, was i an Aztec in my last birth? hee hee.. If I wasn't the one who discovered it, am sure I must have been among those who promoted it! I just love chocolates!! and unfortunately due to my weak vocab i can't stress it enough! To bore you a little, chocolates are thought to have link with levels of serotonin, a hormone, an important one. Chocolate lovers, do take full advantage of this link to serotonin!! :D next time you are tempted to have chocolate when you are just not suppose to, throw in this nice reason... for good health! :D Just chocolate, chocolate ice-cream or chocolate pastry or any other form of chocolate.. enrich life in true sense.. hee hee.. one bite.. just one bite and it's so soothing! have you tried eating rich chocolate pastry with hands and not use a spoon and a fork?? I did.. on 1st of jan! Its lot more fun u know!! when there is chocolate all over your fingers.. you feel like you have really eaten a chocolate.. being sophisticated just doesn't help here, my friends! really, try it out. And if you eat like that in a place like ITPL, where there are lot of sophisticated IT people around you, like i did, it rocks!! It's a pleasure to look at people when they are amazed to see that one can truly enjoy something without worrying about what world says! And on top of it, you have really enjoyed your chocolate pastry! ha ha...

In the first week of jan, I attended this awesome concert by Sanjeev Abhyankar. I know it's a little unusual combination.. to like both western and indian classical music. I love yanni's compositions as much as a raaga sung by sanjeev abhyankar. I do not understand technicalities of either but i listen to them keenly, experience deeply. Even as of now, I can hear One Man's Dream.. as if played somewhere far away..It has an ability to make me forget everything around and take me into a different world, confer a mood... When I listen to Megha malhar, i experience it.. live it.. there is thunder, there is lightening, heavy rains and human emotions in response to all this.. To demonstrate all of it in just five notes of which Megha Malhar is composed of.. man! that's quite something!! Hats off to whoever composed Megha Malhar and many more such raagas! It really is not necessary that you understand technicalities of things that give you pleasure.. or do it the way world has been doing it over years.. It is for you, your happiness..and the fact that it helps you live that moment to the fullest! do it the way you really enjoy it and.. you will smile.. smile from within :)


Cheers!