Final countdown FY 2006

I have been discussing, gossiping, criticizing, tongue lashing about Chennai, world politics, western world and many more, but it is time to take a stock on my self. What do you say?

Well the curtain for the Year 2005 is slowly coming down while the welcome bells for 2006 can be heard loud. Another 32 days to go everybody is making plans FY 2006. It has been quite a challenging year from me but I have managed to hold on to the dinghy and stay alive. I took out my report card to look at the areas where I’ve scored and done well and make a note of other areas where I really needed to put in some work. I would have been disappointed if I had scored straight A’s this year, while the bar raises, there is always room for improvement and more work. My ego is not gloating in pride and success, but rather faltering.

A Lot of changes on the professional front with the new job and added responsibilities, and people complexities. The first half of the year was an adrenalin rush operating on the 4th quadrant without much time to even breath and rest. It was live on the goe kind of life, very reactive. While I had no choice rather than operate on quadrant 4, though personally I am a Q1, Q2 kind of a person. The live wire, electric chair experience can never be forgotten. Though I would have loved a little more time to breath and stretch, but professionally is was absolutely astounding and enriching. More changes happen on the second half of the year. The grass didn’t seem to look greener on the other side anymore. Is this because I have accepted life as it unfolds or settled down to the reality that the grass on the other side is never green? I had a little more time for self and lot different things to play with and learn. Some professional disappointments and set backs but I made up for it in the end of the year. I would rate myself a 7 out of 10 on the professional front.

On the personal front the first half of year was kind of rocky. Professional commitments taking away most of my time I personally hated myself for not having set aside time for me. Living away from the family and frequent travels made weekends even busier. When the body is tired how could the soul feel energetic? The second half of the year was spiritually more fulfilling and satiating for the soul. Moving back to Chennai and living with a family and a taking up less demanding role gave me the much needed rest. My soul was jumping around like energizer bunny making trips to temples from South to North India. Personally evaluating myself, I would rate 5 out of 10.

I have a lot of homework to be done Year 2006. I have started my goal setting exercise both on the personal front and on the professional front. Metrics for evaluation are pretty stringent and very quantitative. Well those of you reading this message will probably have similar plans for the New year. Share your experiences on Year 2005 and your achievements. Isn’t it nice to have a POB (pat on your back) every now and then?


Some of my friends, colleagues will be reading this post. Well if you feel there are a couple of areas where I can improve, feel free to share them with me either on this space or email me at kdbulls@gmail.com . All your comments and suggestions will be taken without any disheartenment and frown.


In the end it is between you and God, remember this during your goal setting excercise. Let us empower the soul and not the ego!

Woods are lovely dark and deep
But I have many promises to keep
Miles to go before I sleep
Miles to go before I sleep…..

Lord Tennyson

The City is warming up for Markazhi (December)

Chennai bades goodbye to the black clouds and gets ready to welcome Markazhi (December). Cricket, Music, cool weather, slew of movies is keeping Chennaiites on their toes.

Temperatures during night have dropped considerably and a lot of people are spotted taking their night walks more regularly. Sun has also become lazy these days and the day break doesn’t happen earlier than 6.30 am. Still black birds, crows and cuckoos are ready by 5.30 am for their day break pandemonium. Sun shine is back in the city and roads are spic and span though some remote areas are still waterlogged. Kudos to Corporation authorities who managed the crisis situation with less noise from the public. Lot less vehicles and population near North Usman road,-T-Nagar, the textile and Jewellery capital of Tamilnadu returns to normalcy. The lakes in the outskirts of the city are near to full and a 5 cm rain will make them overflow. Thanks to the rain god, we will have a drought free summer this year. Well it has been over a decade since the lakes were filled to the brim.

People are found queuing up outside the movie halls to catch the Diwali movie releases. Maja, Ghajini and a few other movies have reaped pretty well in the box office. Post Diwali, Hanuman has taken over the box office and he should decide if he will share some with Harry Potter, the latest sequel opens tomorrow.

Indian cricket team’s Slew of victories over Sri Lanka has boosted the confidence and stature of the Indian team among the common people. People still gather around TV’s shops to catch a boundary by Dhoni. Dhoni has become their over night hero.

The city is gearing up for the Markazhi (December) classical music festival. Loudspeakers replacing fireworks with MS and MLV’s Suprabatham and Thirupaavai. At Music Academy election is over and officer bearers are getting busy for the busiest season of the year. Canteens outside the music venues will soon become the gastronomical venue for music connoisseurs.
Swarm of NRI's will soon head back home to showcase their talent to the local audience. People will soon parade the streets in Silk sarees, mulfers and Cashmere shawls for the morning bhajans in the temples, satsang at sabhas and catch a few free concerts in the afternoon.

Well poor Kushboo is pulled to the court room for her comments on AIDS awareness to a local magazine and Suhasini who supported her comments is on the frying pan too. Well isn’t it time to move on and enjoy other things in life?

Baby is a blank cheque made payable to the human race

Well someone said that “Baby is a blank cheque made payable to the human race”. Don’t you think it is so true? Two side of the coin are never the same. Japan and a few other European countries facing low birth rates and government offering incentives to have more babies countries like China and India are campaigning against it. We will in the age of cloning and where stem cell research has a lot of answers and solutions to life threatening illness. But can we ever predict nature and disobey the laws of nature? Karma catches up pretty fast.
Aftermath of natural calamities are sometime more powerful and longstanding than manmade calamities like Hiroshima bomb-drop, Bhopal gas tragedy. Japan still pays a heavy price with dwindling population and Africa and China suffers with uncared and unfed mouths. Two sides of a coin are always different!!

The recent earthquake in Pakistan and Kashmir very badly affected lives in every way. Casualties were on the rise and at one point they stopped counting. Today there are a ton of bodies trapped in the rubble and the surviving relatives and friends don’t know if their kith and kin escaped the tragedy. While this is something which media has portrayed well there are other stories that rock your heart upon reading.

I caught a story on NDTV last week that reported still born or unborn babies dead. Well this was the aftermath of the earth quake. A quake victim, a carrying mother had visited the nearby hospital for her regular check when the doctors found no life in the womb. The baby had perished due to the stress experienced physically, emotionally, and mentally. Initially doctors thought this was the only case, but other carrying women stopped by the hospitals to discover the fate of their unborn babies. Slowly over a month doctors have seen more than 40 such cases in the hospital. Those women who went to the hospital with hopes came back home as barren lands. May be a highway thief looted them?

Abortion an important sparky topic that decides who sits on the President’s chair in America and fuses religious fervor instigated by catholic churches was done by mother nature without the consent of the mothers and fathers. Nature was unkind to kill a generation of babies. The blank cheque was given to the human race but was snatched at an untimely hour.

Can religion ask their god's for an explanation for such a tyrannical act? May be these babies had very short karma cycles that they never lived to exhaust their karmas’ but rather exhausted them in their mother’s womb. Sometimes we all like to blame it on Karma when science and religion gives no reason and explanation.

Well science has a lot of answers to earthquakes and dead babies but science has no answers to karmic forces of nature? It may explain it but can never prevent it. We will always lose to nature, that is the dictum.

Click on the links below to read more on the pathetic story:
http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/oct2005-daily/27-10-2005/national/n3.htm
http://www.sa.no/Utenriks/internasjonale_nyheter/article1797588.ece?service=print

A dream come true...

Torrential monsoon rains in southern India cancelled trains to north, but my spirits were still high and undeterred to reach Kashi. I took the morning flight on Oct30, 2005 to Delhi and drove 800 Kms to reach Banares aka Varanasi, the mecca of Hindus.

We have seen so many sunrises and sunsets but this sunset was a special one. I felt like a free bird back in the sky when the sun came down on Oct 30, 2005. This was taken in UP on the way to Kanpur. 

We drove 12 hrs from Delhi and reached Allahabad, confluence of sacred rivers Ganga, Saraswathi, and Yamuna. We woke up to the sunshine on the banks of the Sangam.
Good things start with the sunrise and bad things end with the sunset. 

The climate was still cold and the morning fog blanketed the river, but still the sun managed to peep in through the thick fog. Boat ride was the only way to get to the sangam (confluence) and the depth of the river at the point of confluence was more than 50 feet. We managed to get down on the temporary platform built to take a dip at the point of confluence. We had taken a pandit (priest) with us to do the sankalp to atone our sins before the holy dip. I felt light as a feather after the first dip, got relieved of the dust and grime from the long road trip. At the end of the third dip I felt my sins had dissolved like salt in water. It is believed that a dip in Ganges will remove sins of all and any kind. 

We picked up some fruits from the roadside vendor and jumped back in the car and headed towards the Holy City of Varanasi aka Banaras. It is a 3 hrs drive from Allahabad. Streets in this city are narrow and rickshaws are the best way to move around. Well look at the rickshaw parade in this city. Well traffic was backed up for a mile, but still it disperses pretty quick. 

Sweet stalls, fire works and other confetti were sold on the roadside and the vendors were busy making their quick bucks. Here is one such sweet stall …… 

It took 45 minutes to get near the bathing ghats. There are more than 300 bathing ghats that were built along side of Ganges in this holy city by various kings who ruled this city. We got down in Dasha Ashwamedha Ghat, this is believed to have been built by King Dasaradh, father of Lord Rama. 

Ganges is polluted and bathing near the ghats is unhygienic. The river was calm and appeared to be a middle aged mother, patient, calm with a lot of responsibilities and smile. We took the boat ride to the opposite side and disembarked to take the next holy dip.
 

Anybody who dies in the city of Kashi is blessed with Mukthi, no re-birth. Hindus cremate and disperse the ashes in Ganges. We could see people cremating their kith and kin on Manikarnika and Harishchandra Ghats and their ashes being dissolved in Ganges. I was eagerly looking around to see what was happening during my boat ride.



We moved back to the shore as the crimson red sun came down. We spent the rest of the evening watching the aarthi performed by the pandas (priests) at the Prayag Ghat, a feast for eyes. The warmth of the aarthi compensated for the cool breeze on the ghat. 

Before the crowd dispersed from the ghat we vanished from there to Viswanatha (Shiva) temple. We were thoroughly searched for weapons and we were stripped of cameras and mobile phones and other sharp items before we entered the temple. The queue was not that long, we had a 10 minute wait to visit him. We prayed to Dundi Ganapathi (elephant god, son of Shiva) the obstacle remover before we entered the sanctum sanctorum. 

There is a big size nandi (bull) in the back of the Shiva temple. The bull, vehicle of Shiva sits in front of his idol. The wall separates Shiva temple and a Mosque. While the Nandhi is caught in the temple Shiva is believed to be caught in the Mosque. A10 feet high, 1 feet wide wall between the bull and Shiva is the aftermath of muslim invasion in the hindu’s holy city of Banaras. 

We got out of the temple and was lost looking around the Parvathi temple aka Annapoorna temple. Shiva is believed to have been cursed and he goes around this town with a morcel and Mother Parvathi comes down and Annapoorna and feeds him. She is accompanied by Sri Devi and Bho Devi (consort of Vishnu) on either side. All the deities are adorned with gold kavach (dresses) on this special day.
On the day of Diwali Shiva is offered with fruits, vegetables, sweets of all kinds. While Parvathi rides on a Chariot made of Laddus (sweets). 

We then rushed to the other side of the city to catch a glimpse of Kala Bairav, messenger of Shiva. Without his darshan the trip to Kashi never gets completed.

Kashi is famous for Silk sarees, cows that loaf freely on streets, Supari, fresh yogurt and ofcourse the sweet Ganga water. 24 hours stay in Kashi gave me a strong sense of attachment to the place. While I prayed God to bless me with a subsequent trip soon, I took a rickshaw to Mughalsarai station to the board the train to Gaya.

Don’t doubt if I had taken a ride on the bull to reach Gaya. I took the train along with the bull. Well we in India believe in coexistence. Trains and the bull travel at the same pace in that part of India. 

Once we got into Bihar, the most backward state in India run by the biggest thug, and the cattle coffer Lalu Prasad Yadav, no rules were applicable. I had to sacrifice my reserved seats to a stranger for no reason and had to stand the entire journey. I was given a spot besides the hanging milk cans on the window grills and parked cycles in the bogie(See below). 

Well this is only when you travel in Bihar. If you happen to visit India never venture to this state. We, normal people get into the vehicle and travel while Bihari’s get on top of the vehicle. I can’t believe my eyes. I shot this on the way to Gaya. This is real time picture and not reel time picture. 

We stopped by Gaya for couple of hours and jumped back on the train to Ayodhya. I was scared to even take my camera out and take a few snaps. 

The next holy city the place of birth of Lord Rama (incarnation of Vishnu) was our destination. Ayodhya is 170 kms from Varanasi, a 4 hour drive and 400 kms from Gaya, a 10 hr drive. Muslims as always invaded every Hindu town and demolished temples and built mosques. Well this was no exception. 

This city today is under heavy vigilance to keep Hindus and Muslims engaging in a battle. It is a small town and the calm River Sarayu runs through the city. She was peaceful, pristine, and very friendly. We stopped by Dasharath’s palace where Rama grew up. Well the police guarded this palace as always. Somethings don’t change even when the King is dead. This was the place where Rama grew up as child.(See image below) 

As we moved through streets of Ayodhya, we were discussing that Rama would have walked down the streets with his friends, may be he would have sat on this piece of stone. Our imagination went rampant. 

Then we stopped by Sita’s palace called the Kanaka Bhavan. It is believed that Rama made a statue of Sita in Gold when she was in exile to perform the Ashwamedha Yagna and since then this has been called the Kanka Bhavan. 

We had a darshan of Rama’s family at the temple and then moved on to Nageshwar temple (Shiva Temple) and visited Hanuman Temple (monkey God) before we left the city. 

We bade goodbye to Ayodhya and took the next train to Lucknow. We reached Lucknow after a 3 hour train journey in the afternoon and then rented a cab to Nimshar, 100 kms from Lucknow and 35 Kms from Sitapur. Lord Vishnu sits in the middle of the jungle and venturing into the forest in the evening was a bit risky. But still the darshan was worth the risk.


Our next journey from Lucknow was to Puri. We took Neelachal express and the 24 hour train ride took us through Bihar, Jharkand, West Bengal before we reached Orissa. It was again Vishnu temple there in Puri. He stands with his brother Balarama and sister Shubadhra in this temple. 

We visited Chakra theertham, Sakhi Gopal temple before we left the city to Konark, a dedicated temple to Sun God. 

Well this is not a wheel of fortune game show. I tried spinning the wheels and I gave up atlast. The temple is built on a single piece of stone and is shaped like a chariot and this is one of the 8 wheels of the chariot.