Bollywood-Kollywood Alliance

This was a petty topic when compared what economist analyse in the world today with the markets and brain drain. Well I couldn’t resist from thinking about this, if you think this is drab and trash then you can exit right now.

Bollywood and Kollywood stars moving in search of greener pastures and vice versa is nothing new to this film industry. The beauty drain of the yesteryears started with Vyjayanthimala in the 60’s and followed by the trio Hemamalini, Rekha and Sridevi in the early 80’s. It is not new for Tamil actress to move to Bollywood to cash in on their beauty and then become Bollywood daughter-in-laws Sridevi and Hemamalini.

For those who feel that they’ve lost the queens to Bollywood have some reasons to feel happy. South has got only more in the trade. The 90’s saw the reversal of this exodus. We don’t if was a simple supply demand situation or was a pattern. The Mumbai beauty queens paraded to Kollywood and made a good fortune. me of the actress made single appearances and were never spotted but Sarika, Kushboo, Simran, Jothika formed the suit of successful professionals and decided to settle back.

Where does North meet the South? Is it just at work or is it also in life? While labor theory can explain the movement for work but the nothing can predict nor explain the selection of the better halves. Some partnerships just extend beyond reel life into real life. The much spoken Sarika- Kamalhassn of the 80’s, Kushboo-Sundar of the 90’s. The much talked about pair of the town today and this decade is Jo-Surya and Sonia Agarwal/Selvaraghavan.

With RMKV ads throwing their new ad campaigns with Jo and the industry speculating the Jo/Surya pair things got more interesting and hot just like the couple. It was not a cakewalk for this couple to get their folks agree to this marraige. After much convincing the couple will tiew the knot on Sept 11. The town has turned sleepless debating the color of Jo's wedding and Reception saree. Sometimes reel life become reality.

Some lifetime partnerships have been very successful while some failed due to reasons beyond debate. Let us welcome the new daughter-in-laws of Kollywood and wish them happiness and partnership of a lifetime.

The Nehru Dynasty

I had an interesting mail delivered to my mailbox yesterday. I don't authenticate the cerdibility of such aspersions, but atleast looks very jarringly truthful at the sight of it.

Enjoy and let me know your views on this.

At the very beginning of his book, "The Nehru Dynasty", astrologer K.N.Rao mentions the names of Jawaharlal's father and grandfather. Jawahar Lal's father was believed to be Motilal and Motilal's father was one Gangadhar Nehru. And we all know that Jawaharlal's only daughter was Indira Priyadarshini Nehru; Kamala Nehru was her mother, who died in Switzerland of tuberculosis. She was totally against Indira's proposed marriage with Feroze. Why? No one tells us that! Now, who is this Feroze? We are told by many that he was the son of the family grocer. The grocer supplied wines, etc. to Anand Bhavan (previously known as Ishrat Manzil)

What was the family grocer's name? One frequently hears that Rajiv Gandhi's grandfather was Pandit Nehru. But then we all know that everyone has two grandfathers, the paternal and the maternal grandfathers. In fact, the paternal grandfather is deemed to be the more important grandfather in most societies. Why is it then, no where, we find Rajiv Gandhi's paternal grandfather's name? It appears that the reason is simply this. Rajiv Gandhi's paternal grandfather was a Muslim gentleman from the Junagadh area of Gujarat. This Muslim grocer by the name of Nawab Khan, had married a Parsi woman after converting her to Islam. This is the source where from t! he myth of Rajiv being a Parsi was derived. Rajiv's father Feroze, was Feroze Khan before he married Indira, against Kamala Nehru's wishes. Feroze's mother's family name was Ghandy, often associated with Parsis and this was changed to Gandhi, sometime before his wedding with Indira, by an affidavit. The fact of the matter is that (and this fact can be found in many writings) Indira was very lonely. Chased out of the Shantiniketan University by Guru Dev Rabindranath himself for misdemeanor, the lonely girl was all by herself, while father Jawahar was busy with politics, pretty women and illicit sex; the mother was in hospital. Feroze Khan, the grocer's son was then in England and he was quite sympathetic to Indira and soon enough she changed her religion, became a Muslim woman and married Feroze Khan in a London mosque. Nehru was not happy; Kamala was dead already or dying . In fact, the paternal grandfather is deemed to be the more important grandfather in most societies.

Why is it then, no where, we find Rajiv Gandhi's paternal grandfather's name?
It appears that the reason is simply this. Rajiv Gandhi's paternal grandfather was a Muslim gentleman from the Junagadh area of Gujarat. This Muslim grocer by the name of Nawab Khan, had married a Parsi woman after converting her to Islam. This is the source where from t! he myth of Rajiv being a Parsi was derived. Rajiv's father Feroze, was Feroze Khan before he married Indira, against Kamala Nehru's wishes. Feroze's mother's family name was Ghandy, often associated with Parsis and this was changed to Gandhi, sometime before his wedding with Indira, by an affidavit. The fact of the matter is that (and this fact can be found in many writings) Indira was very lonely. Chased out of the Shantiniketan University by Guru Dev Rabindranath himself for misdemeanor, the lonely girl was all by herself, while father Jawahar was busy with politics, pretty women and illicit sex; the mother was in hospital.
Feroze Khan, the grocer's son was then in England and he was quite sympathetic to Indira and soon enough she changed her religion, became a Muslim woman and married Feroze Khan in a London mosque. Nehru was not happy; Kamala was dead already or dying.
The news of this marriage eventually reached Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Gandhi urgently called Nehru and practically ordered him to ask the young man to change his name from Khan to Gandhi. It had nothing to do with change of religion, from Islam to Hinduism for instance. It was just a case of a change of name by an affidavit. And so Feroze Khan became Feroze Gandhi. The surprising thing is that the apostle of truth, the old man soon to be declared India's Mahatma and the 'Father of the Nation' didn't mention this game of his in the famous book, 'My Experiments with Truth'. Why? When they returned to India, amok 'Vedic marriage' was instituted for public consumption. On this subject, writes M.O. Mathai (a longtime Private Secretary of Nehru) in his renowned (but now suppressed by the GOI! ) Reminiscences of the Nehru Age' on page94, second paragraph:
"For some inexplicable reason, Nehru allowed the marriage to be performed according to Vedic rites in 1942. An inter-religious and inter-caste marriage under Vedic rites at that time was not valid in law. To be legal, it had to be a civil marriage." It's a known fact that after Rajiv's birth Indira and Feroze lived separately, but they were not divorced.

Feroze used to harass Nehru frequently for money and also interfere in Nehru's political activities. Nehru got fed up and left instructions not to allow him into the Prime Minister's residence Trimurthi Bhavan. Mathai writes that the death of Feroze came as a relief to Nehru and Indira.

The death of Feroze in 1960 before he could consolidate his own political forces, is itself a mystery. Firoze had even planned to remarry. Those who try to keep tabs on our leaders in spite of all the suppressions and deliberate misinformation, are aware of the fact that the second son of Indira (or Mrs.Feroze Khan) known as Sanjay Gandhi was not the son of Feroze. He was the son of another Muslim gentleman, Mohammad Yunus. Here, in passing, we might mention that the second son was originally named Sanjiv. It rhymed with Rajiv, the elder brother's name. It was changed to Sanjay when he was arrested by the British police in England and his passport impounded, for having stolen a car. Krishna Menon was then India's High Commissioner in London. He offered to issue another passport to the felon who changed his name to Sanjay. Incidentally, Sanjay's marriage with the Sikh girl Menaka (now they call her Maneka for Indira Gandhi found the name of Lord Indra's Court dancer rather offensive!) took place quite surprisingly in Mohammad Yunus's house in New Delhi.

And the marriage with Menaka who was a model (She had modelled for Bombay Dyeing wearing just a towel) was not so ordinary either. Sanjay was notorious in getting unwed young women pregnant. Menaka too was rendered pregnant by Sanjay. It was then that her father, Colonel Anand, threatened Sanjay with dire consequences if he did not marry her daughter.
And that did the trick. Sanjay married Menaka. It was widely reported in Delhi at the time that Mohammad Yunus was unhappy at the marriage of Sanjay with Menaka. Apparently he had wanted to get him married with a Muslim girl of his choice. It was Mohammad Yunus who cried the most when Sanjay died in the plane accident. In Yunus's book, 'Persons, Passions & Politics' one discovers that baby Sanjay had been circumcised following Islamic custom, although the reason stated was phimosis.

It was always belived that Sanjay used to blackmail Indira Gandhi and due to this she used to turn a blind eye when Sanjay Gandhi started to run the country as though it were his personal feifdom. Was he black mailing her with the secret of who his real father was?: When the news of Sanjay's death reached Indira Gandhi, the first thing she wanted to know was about the bunch of keys which Sanjay had with him. Nehru was no less a player in producing b******s. At least one case is very graphically described by M.O. Mathai in his "Reminiscences of the Nehru Age", page 206.

Mathai writes: "In the autumn of 1948 a young woman from Benares arrived in New Delhi as a sanyasini named Shraddha Mata (an assumed and not a real name). She was a Sanskrit scholar well versed in the ancient Indian scriptures and mythology. People, including MPs, thronged to her to hear her discourses. One day S.D. Upadhyaya, Nehru's old employee, brought a letter in Hindi from Shraddha Mata. Nehru gave her an interview in the PM's house. As she departed, I noticed (Mathai is speaking here) that she was young, shapely and beautiful. Meetings of Nehru with her became rather frequent, mostly after he finished his work at night. During one of Nehru's visits to Lucknow, Shraddha Mata turned up there and Upadhyaya brought a letter from her as usual. Nehru sent her the reply and she visited Nehru at midnight..."Suddenly Shraddha Mata disappeared. In November 1949 a convent in Bangalore sent a decent looking person to Delhi with a bundle of letters. He said that a young woman from Northern India arrived at the convent a few months ago and gave birth to a baby boy. She refused to divulge her name or give any particulars about herself. She left the convent as soon as she was well enough to move out but left the child behind. She however forgot to take with her a small cloth bundle in which, among other things, several letters in Hindi were found. The Mother Superior, who was a foreigner, had the letters examined and was told they were from the Prime Minister. The person who brought the letters surrendered them..."I (Mathai) made discreet inquiries repeatedly about the boy but failed to get a clue about his whereabouts. Convents in such matters are extremely tightlipped and secretive. Had I succeeded in locating the boy, I would have adopted him. He must have grown up as a Catholic Christian blissfully ignorant of who his father was." Coming back to Rajiv Gandhi, we all know now that he changed his so called Parsi religion to become a Catholic to marry Sania Maino of Turin, Italy.

Rajiv became Roberto. His daughter's name is Bianca and son's name is Raul. Quite cleverly the same names are presented to the people of India as Priyanka and Rahul. What is amazing is the extent of our people's ignorance in such matters. The press conference that Rajiv Gandhi gave in London after taking over as Prime minister of India was very informative. In this press conference, Rajiv boasted that he was NOT a Hindu but a Parsi. Mind you, speaking of the Parsi religion, he had no Parsi ancestor at all.

His grandmother (father's mother) had turned Muslim after having abandoned the Parsi religion to marry Nawab Khan. It is the western press that waged a blitz of misinformation on behalf of Rajiv. From the New York Times to the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post, the big guns raised Rajiv to heaven. The children's encyclopedias recorded that Rajiv was a qualified Mechanical Engineer from the revered University of Cambridge. No doubt US kids are among the most misinformed in the world today! The reality is that in all three years of his tenure at that University Rajiv had not passed a single exam. He had therefore to leave Cambridge without a certificate. Sonia too had the same benevolent treatment. She was stated to be a student in Cambridge. Such a description is calculated to mislead Indians.

She was a student in Cambridge all right, but not of the University of Cambridge, but of one of those fly by night language schools where foreign students come to learn English. Sonia was working as an 'au pair' girl in Cambridge and trying to learn English at the same time. And surprise of surprises, Rajiv was even cremated as per vedic rites in full view of India's public. This is the Nehru dynasty that India worships and now an Italian leads a prestigious national party because of just one qualification being married into the Nehru family. Maneka Gandhi herself is being accepted by the non-Congress parties not because she was a former model or an animal lover, but for her links to the Nehru family.

Saying that an Italian should not lead India will amount to narrow mindedness, but if Sania Maino (Sonia) Had served India like say Mother Teresa or Annie Besant, i.e. in anyway on her own rights, then all Indians should be proud of her just as how proud we are of Mother Teresa.

Presley with Oprah

I caught an episode of Oprah Primetime this afternoon while going through the ritual of channel flipping.

It was an hour with Lisa Marie Presley, the only daughter of the Pop king Elvis Presley. Oprah’s interview with Lisa was very touching though there were some tough questions and tough moments. Oprah was really tough asking her about her learning’s from each of the fall. Lisa Marie pulled it off with grace and gumption.

Sometimes I wonder how it is growing up as kids of famous celebrities. The world already has their eyes on you and has unreasonable high expectations of you. If it is not the real you then living the expectations in the cocoon become very difficult and to break out of it needs lot of support and guts. She had all the money, all the fame of her father to piggybank but there was certainly something missing and she always wanted to live the real Lisa. Did the media and world let her find the real self?

Lisa had issues growing up with a celebrity father and with both parents splitting and going their ways in her early teens only made things awry. The longing sense of emotional security and physical security made her get into a relationship and an early marriage at 19. Before she realized she had a kid from the marriage and was out of it.

Statistics say lightening can never strike a person more than once, but how come she got hit 3 times? Her relationship with the famous Pop king Michael Jackson soon ended in a marriage and not long before the milk curdled. She took two years to gather herself emotionally and physically. Are people born only to just walk into eye of the storm? Her third marriage with Nicholas Cage happened after 2 years of serious relationship and ended 110 days after her marriage. Within the age of 35 she had learned the toughest lessons in life and walked away with smile but the world that verbally walloped her will never get to feel and see her hurt, pain, and tears.

We all make wrong moves in life but we seldom get noticed and talked about. Being a celebrity one pay’s a heavy price to live their real self. The private moments of her life were made so public that to even cry in the private was shameful and she had to watch if someone was looking at her. She was longing to identify her real self and lead a normal life without the world passing their daily judgments.

It took so many whacks and tormenting moments to break out of the cocoon and when it finally happened all we got to see a beautiful butterfly. It didn’t matter much to Lisa today to come on the camera and talk about her troubled relationships with a guffaw.
She has definitely taken life with a stride and she was tested on the lessons before she was taught.

Today she is back in the music industry writing songs and making music albums. People heal their sores and realize their dreams through their children. Her beautiful daughter has taken up to the fashion ramps in Europe. As every parent would, Lisa is ensuring that her children get to live their real self and be around her kids as a friend to ensure they don’t repeat her mistakes.

The world got another chance to autopsy a celebrities life but this time for the right reason. It was a very moving interview and the prodding questions from Oprah at every point only brought out the best of Lisa and her learning’s in life.

Here are my learnings:

1. Making mistakes and falling down is something that happens to everyone in life be it a common man or a celebrity. – Life is fair more than a bitch!

2. Money, power, and celebrity hood does much more damage than good – It is not a bubble world.

3. The soul, heart and mind mature through experiences in life. – This is organic growth and they call this graduation.

4. Bottom line, people are the same and they feel the same irrespective of being of prince or pauper. - There is water in every cactus.

5. Did someone say life is a bed of roses? No, we all find ways to heal our hurt and move on in life. – Be the Phoenix bird.

6. Play the game of life with grace and confidence no one wins nor loses neither do people finish ahead of you. - Shit happens all the time, be sportive, we are here to learn.

One Billion Eyes - Slums of Mumbai

One Billion Eyes (http://www.abillioneyes.in/festival06.htm), The Annual Indian Documentary Film Fest organized by Prakriti Foundation opened their festival in Chennai today (August 15). This year’s theme revolves around Cities and Lifestyle.

The curtains went up this year with the screening of Bombay: Our City directed by Anand Patwardhan. We have various reasons to proud of the city of Bombay, but this documentary show the not so proud moment of Mumbai. The story is on the slum dwellers of Mumbai, who get evicted by the local government as a part of the Mumbai beautification campaign. The slum dwellers of Mumbai make up half the city’s population today, but their bargaining power is nil. Construction workers, domestic helpers, cobblers, municipal workers and the entire ecosystem that supports the Ritchie rich of Mumbai live in these tenements without water, electricity, and proper sanitation. Though the documentary was shot in 1985 while the Slum dwellers in Bandra were evicted and it continues to be so relevant and an eyesore to Mumbai’s skyline after 22 years.

The seventy-five minute documentary sparked some serious debate on who is responsible for creating slums, managing and shutting them down? Should government allow such tenements in the first place though they are illegal encroachments? Should government provide alternative housing before eviction? One must not forget that these people were responsible for building Mumbai as construction workers, municipal cleaners and rag pickers tidying up the streets of Mumbai are now called the “Scum”. The parody is that these worms walk away with the title “slum dwellers”, “criminals”, “outcast”.

Most of the Chennaiites in the room realized that the problem was ubiquitous in all metros and not just Mumbai. Having realized the imminent problem, Chennaiites fell into the same trap caught in the blame game pointing fingers at the government, slum dwellers and the policy makers and were bitterly arguing who should take the moral responsibility of fixing the slums all over India.

I would like to share a few questions and thoughts that went through my mind in logically answering the question of responsibility.

Where do slum dwellers come from? Why are slums created?
Agriculture in India has taken a major set back with no support from the Government and with very less subsidies adding to the failing monsoon. The farmers are forced to move to the cities in search of jobs for survival and not for glitter or glamour. Every city when created needs labor and people. With little or no education they city doesn’t offer them blue color jobs nor a red carpet welcome. Many of them end up in the city cleaning gutters, washing cars, being a domestic help, construction workers, beggars, street hawkers, and cobblers etc.

We have all been doing that for ages be it across the country or overseas and there is nothing wrong in the movement for survival. For educated ones America throws a red carpet but for the illiterate ones slums are as good as it can get.

The capitalistic society attracts the drones but fail to provide proper housing facilities with electricity, water and sanitation. Politicians remember these vote banks when it comes to elections but soon they forget that landscape in the city. With no facilities in the dwelling units like water, toilets, electricity cities are invaded for shelter, water, electricity, and public places as toilets.

Who lives in the Slum?
Predominantly they are people who’ve moved from nearby villages to the cities in search of jobs for survival. Not the cream de la cream but rather housemaids, newspaper boy, cobbler, sewage cleaner, watchman who service the city gods and goddesses inhabit in the cess pool.

What is the living condition in the slums?
Basic human needs are totally absent in the slum ecosystem. Did someone say they are concentration camps? Unhygienic living conditions without good drinking water, no proper housing, no ventilation, no protection against sweltering heat and torrential downpours, lack of toilets. It is a perfect breeding ground for all kinds of viral and bacterial diseases. None of the inhabitants of this place live average life expectancy of a city dweller due to their living conditions.

With pittens that we pay them as remuneration and sucking their blood and life these people are left with tough choices in life.
Food or medicine?
Shelter or electricity?
Water or milk?
Toilets or parks?
Clothing or personal hygiene?

Who should take responsibility?
Unfortunately three decades have gone by just asking the simple question Who? and Is it me? Well it should be the collective responsibility of the local governments, policy makers, corporates and individuals to do the clean up act and to make sure we have proper infrastructure for such people in the future.

A few more questions for the educated individuals enjoying their cushy jobs in government and other private sector.
1. When was the last time you gave a day off for the domestic maid?
She works 7 days a week until she falls fatally ill. She is a machine who gets to clean your house, do your dishes and wash your clothes when you sit home and watch television all day long on national holidays and other personal holidays.
2. Has your maid asked you for pension, medical benefits and life insurance?
We flash your medical insurance card and get treated in the private hospital when you fall sick. You get covered by insurance incase of work place accident. These people end up in careless government hospitals where life is a worthless commodity and for all that they do for us we just gives our sympathies.
3. Have your ever visited your maids house? Do you know her living conditions?
We just don’t care and don’t want to know. We know her as long as she comes into our house and we conveniently forget as soon as she leaves my house.

We all live with the split personality disorder. We suitably don the role of a capitalist, socialist, communist, materialist, philanthropist, and sadist. We have proved to be social animals. Most of the city beautification programs are funded by NRI who ran away from the country scared of the dirt and the clean-up and today are coming back with the dollar power to wipe away not the slums but the life in the slums.

Prakriti Foundation, non- NRI NGO as a part of their social responsibility on August 15, 2006 has opened the eyes and mind of Chennaiites through filming this documentary. More such films must be played on National television, screened in schools and colleges so that the next generation realizes the problem facing the nation and will take complete ownership and are socially and morally obligated to eradicated slums like Dharavi and so on in India. It is left to us make such films to be of irrelevance in the future. I don’t want to watch this with my son and grandson. Let us make this planet a better place if not the best for everyone.

The Alchemist

Well each of our journeys in life is very different, sometimes long and winding but in the end they are purposeful and rewarding. The journey towards the final destination is not time bound but eternal. We often fail to connect with the Universe, and dreams and the people it plants in our lives. Worried about time and distance we’ve covered, in haste we never make the effort to slow down and look at the rear view mirror, the truth is that "OBJECTS IN THE REAR VIEW ARE ALWAYS CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR". More often the bulb goes on only when dreams end and when messiahs depart my journey of life to their next destination.

The clues that the universe drops, the simple language it speaks, the truth it unravels is very basic and lucid. I look back at my past and pen down my experiences and as I recollect the messiahs who’ve trespassed for a short while and taught me what I need to learn and remember in life, my eyes tear in happiness and my soul inflates in contentment.

Life is all about being in-sync with the universe. The chemistry between mankind and universe is fundamental and deep-rooted. “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho engrains and etches the messages from the universe. This neo-classical tell-tale reinforces and re-establishes the connection between every soul and universe.

The book raises a lot of questions and answers them with credibility. A few of them ….
Why do we have desires? Should desires be curtailed? What do they teach us? Why do we have dreams? Should we follow our dreams? Why do messiahs come in our life? Why do they leave? Do dreams make our life interesting and worthwhile? Can we talk the language of universe? Why do only a few souls can understand the language of the universe?

Here are a few excerpts from the book…..

“And dreams are the language of God. When he speaks in our language, I can interpret what he has said. But if he speaks in the language of the soul, it is only you who can decipher.”

“It is the possibility of having a dream come true that make life interesting.”

“It is this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what’s happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That’s the world’s greatest lie.”

“Everyone, when they are young, knows what their destiny is. At that point in their lives, everything is clear and possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives. But, as time passes, a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realize their destiny”.

“The Soul of the World is nourished by people’s happiness. And also by unhappiness, envy and jealousy. To realize one’s destiny is a person’s only real obligation.”

“And when you want something, all the universe conspires to help you to achieve it.”

“You must always know what is that you want. Never stop dreaming and follow the omens.”

“There is a language in the world that everyone understood, it was the language of enthusiasm, of things accomplished with love and purpose, and as part of a search for something believed in and desired.”

“I am always nearby, when someone wants to realize their destiny.”

“Everything in life is an omen.”

“The mysterious chain that links one thing to another, the same chain that has caused him to become a shepard, that had caused his recurring dream, that has brought him to a city near Africa, to find a king, and to be robbed in order to meet a crystal merchant, and….
The closer one gets to realize his destiny, the more that destiny becomes his true reason for being.”

“Intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life, where the histories of people are connected and we are able to know everything, because it is all written there.”

“We are afraid of losing what we have, whether it is our life or our possessions and property. But this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and histories of the world were written by the same hand.”

“Sometimes, their caravan met with another. One always had something that the other needed- as if everything were indeed written by one hand.”

“We make a lot of detours, but we’re always heading for the same destination”.

“In alchemy, it is called the Soul of the World. When you want something will all your heart, that’s when you are closest to the Soul of the World. It is always a positive force.”

“Everything on earth is being continuously transformed, because the earth is alive ….and it has a soul. We are part of the soul, so we rarely recognize that it is working for us.”

“The alchemist spent years in their laboratories, observing the fire that purified the metals. They spent so much time close to the fire that gradually they gave up the vanities of the world. They discovered that the purification of the metals has led to purification of themselves.”

“Everyone has his or her own way of learning things.”

“I learned that the world has a soul, and that whoever understands that soul can also understand the language of things. I learned that many alchemist realized their destinies, and wound up discovering the Soul of the World, the Philosopher’s stone and the Elixir of Life.”
“Because I don’t live in either mypast or my future. I am interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you’ll be a happy man.”

“God revealed his secrets easily to all his creatures. Because people become fascinated with pictures and words, and wind up forgetting the Language of the World.”

“When you are in love things make even more sense.”

“It was the pure language of the world. It required no explanation, just as the universe needs none as it travels through endless time.”

“One could open a book to any page, or look at a person’s hand; one could turn a card, or watch the flight of birds….whatever the thing observed, one could find a connection with his experience of the moment.”

“If good things are coming, they will be a pleasant surprise. If bad things are coming you will known in advance and you will suffer greatly before they even occur.”

“The secret is here in the present. If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. And if you improve upon the present, what comes later will also be better. Forget about the future, and live each day according to the teachings, confident that God loves his children. Each day, in itself, brings with it an eternity.”

“Courage is the quality most essential to understanding the Language of the World.”

“Life attracts life.”

“You must understand that love never keeps a man from pursuing his destiny. If he abandons that pursuit, it is because it wasn’t true love….the love that speaks the Language of the World.”

“The wise men understood that this natural world is only an image and a copy of paradise. The existence of this world is simple guarantee that there exist a world that is perfect. God created the world so that, through its visible objects, men could understand his spiritual teachings and marvels of his wisdom.”

“People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams because they feel they don’t deserve them, or that they will be unable to achieve them. We, their hearts, become fearful just thinking of loved ones who go away forever, or of the moments that could have been but weren’t, or of treasures that might have been found but were forever hidden in the sands. Because when these things happen we suffer terribly.”

“Tell your heart that the dear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second’s encounter with God and with eternity.”

“Before a dream is realized, the Soul of the World tests everything that was learned along the way. It does this not because it is evil, but so that we can, in addition to realizing our dreams, master the lessons we’ve learned as we’ve moved toward the dream. That’s the point at which most people give up. It is the point at which, we say in the language of the desert, one ‘does of thirst just when the palm trees have appeared on the horizon.”

“Every search begins with beginner’s luck. And every search ends with the victor is being severely tested.”

“When you possess great treasures within you, and try to tell others of them, seldom are you believed.”

“Your eyes show the strength of your soul.”

“You already know about alchemy. It is about penetrating the Soul of the World and discovering the treasure reserved for you.”

Men have never understood the words of the wise. So gold, instead of being a symbol of evolution has become the basis of conflict.”

Anyone who interferes with the destiny of other things never discovers his own.”

“Everything has its destiny, but one day that destiny will be realized. So each thing has to transform itself into something better, and to acquire a new destiny, until someday, the Soul of the World becomes one thing only.”

“Love is the force that transforms and improves the Soul of the World.”

“No matter what he does, every person on the earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally he doesn’t know it.”

I have posted a few paragraphs that hit me real hard and that made me look at the rear view mirror and blinds spots that I was never aware of. Our wants, needs, searches and dreams and different, but this books contains simple messages for everyone in this world who is on their quest of search. This is definitely a neo-classical bible in this conflict laden ear where no religions meet in theory and practice. This Alchemist definitely catalyzes the reaction between the human Soul and the Soul of the World.

Get your copy and enjoy every word and every page of wisdom for this century and many more to come.

Rumination of this silly mind….

The recent spate of violence rocking through the peaceful suburbs of Mumbai and ever smoldering Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza strip, Sri Lanka had left a few questions lurking in my mind both at micro and macro level. Complex questions..... are answers simple?

Why would people have to go through languishing and tormenting bloody wars loosing families and other kith and kin?
Why some people are specially chosen for this kind of suffering?
Are people specially selected to be born in such nations which are constantly torn by strife, poverty and other natural calamities?
Why is it that some countries are peaceful while the rest of them have their swords always hanging out of the dagger?
Why should this peaceful earth turn into a mortuary?

Sometimes we will have to seek answers within or extrapolate few readings to bring closure. I parked these questions in the back of my mind and continued reading this book that I have been trying to finish for a long time. Why me? Why now? Why this? written by Robin Norwood.

Here is the excerpt from one of the chapters that answered my questions to some extent at the micro level.

“Not every individual outgrows their childhood, nor does every individual mature into someone capable of expressing humanity’s highest attainments. The capacity of the individual depends on several factors: the individual’s own stage of conscious evolvement, attained through the sum of the completed lifetimes; the strengths and limitations of the present physical, astral/emotional, and mental bodies; and determining factors of the chosen present-life environment, including the individual’s family, the overall social group, and the general culture at large. Obviously each of these factors may serve to either encourage or inhibit the fullest expression of what the individual has achieved on behalf of the soul.”

The author had subscribed to the Karma theory in Hinduism, the underlying platform to answer to all the above questions. We are all born to expunge our karmas from the previous births. Every soul that journeys to this earth has it purpose and level of consciousness. With every journey the level of consciousness goes up and the lessons get tougher and tougher. While books can impart wisdom to the mind, but the wisdom to the soul comes from the experience from several hundred reincarnations. These learning’s are organic and never be borrowed or amassed from reading scriptures. Every soul has the same final destiny but the in between destinies vary. I extrapolated the same to the Universe. The universe is also a part of us and it goes through similar experiences to get the final destination.

My next question was does the Universe conspire such events so that every individual gets to the highest attainments at the end of their journeys? Subscribing to Paulo Coelho theory from his book “The Alchemist”, “Everything on earth is being continuously transformed, because the earth is alive…. And it has a soul. We are a part of that soul, so we rarely recognize that it is working for us.”

“Love is the force that transforms and improves the Soul of the World. It is we who nourish the Soul of the World, and the world we live in will be either better or worse, depending on whether we become better or worse.”

“The Soul of the World is nourished by people’s happiness. And also by unhappiness, envy, jealousy. To realize one’s destiny is a person’s real obligation. And , when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

It was all clear and convincing now and my parking lot suddenly got empty. It is self perpetuating cycle that goes on till every soul and the universe expunges its karma. Let us all wish and dream for peaceful and loving universe.