Here I stopped by, to reflect my yesterdays, being an observer of my own life...Past is like a dream...past incidents:favourable and adverse, experiences:ecstacy and misery, feelings:pleasure and pain, are all dissolved, incorrigible and cease to exist now.Present is all about awakening from the dream, being in the current moment fully awake and preparing for a future of our dreams!!

Success is an on going process. After one success there is another greater challenge waiting to be overcome...there is no time to rest on our laurels, life is a continuous strive to meet expectations, both ours and of the world-----Bindu----- More of it at http://portraitsofyesterday.blogspot.sg/p/as-i-see-it.html

Here I stopped by, to reflect my yesterdays, being an observer of my own life...Past is like a dream...past incidents:favourable and adverse, experiences:ecstacy and misery, feelings:pleasure and pain, are all dissolved, incorrigible and cease to exist now.Present is all about awakening from the dream, being in the current moment fully awake and preparing for a future of our dreams!!

Yesterday's portraits of my ardent journey through the miracle called life!!

Here I stopped by, to reflect my yesterdays, being an observer of my own life...Past is like a dream...past incidents:favourable and adverse, experiences:ecstacy and misery, feelings:pleasure and pain, are all dissolved, incorrigible and cease to exist now.Present is all about awakening from the dream, being in the current moment fully awake and preparing for a future of our dreams!!

Monday 24 May 2010

The uniqueness of human mind and Hinduism!

Today let me write about the uniqueness of human mind. When I thought about it, I found it interesting to connect it with how Hinduism appreciates and celebrate that uniqueness and its delicate nature. Every mind is unique and that in turn result in every human being being different. What human being can perceive in the universe is limited to the physical capacity of his brain and how it control the senses. There is a limit to our audible voice, there is a limit to the spectra of colours which we humans can sense. So there is a limit to what we see, hear and know in this universe. This is different from what animals or other living beings can perceive. So whats real could be much different from what humans see or understand. Yet we boss around telling that we are the masters of the universe.

Our mind tends to believe that hurt, happiness, pleasure etc are bestowed upon us because of other people's actions, which is totally wrong. The story which swami Udit Chaithanya narrated really woke me up. It goes like this. A dog was eating a bone and got hurt in its mouth by its sharp edge. Blood started oozing out and still the dog continued to chew the bone thinking that the blood is really coming out from the bone and enjoyed its own blood. Similar way what we presume as pleasure or pain given by others is just because of our perception and our own body. No body can give anything more than what our mind and body can sense or perceive.

I have heard so many criticisms about Hinduism having so many 'Gods'. But the real Hinduism insists on only 'One God' the almighty which is nothing different from the energy that fills us. The total energy in the universe is a constant and matter and energy are inter convertible and is proved scientifically by Einstein. Matter as we see around us has an origin and end.  So the perishable universe we see around us has a beginning and end.But energy remains the same. This energy Hinduism considers as 'The God'. The ultimate power that has designed the tiny atoms to the cells of our brain which no supercomputer can beat yet.

Sometimes after visiting a shop I come out of it being unable to find things that I like there and tag it as 'not good'. But later I have realised that its just that it doesn't have the collection of my liking which is evolved in me due to the environment in which I am being in and the taste of my parents which later sank in to me and formed as my preference. If a shop owner just collects things of his liking, only those with his taste can buy things from there. So, the vast diversity of likings of human mind is to be taken into account while choosing to serve the public in any kind of business.So as every human mind is different, like every shop owner keeps wide variety of items for different people's liking, Hinduism is offering wide variety of Gods for each person to choose and worship in his nursery stage of understanding the religion. And as he graduates, he has to come out of the form and know and feel the divine energy in its real form. When we worship an idol its not the idol we worship, its the divine master, similar to the fact that we see the person and not the paper or the frame when we see the portrait of a person.


No human mind is same. And we can never know what is really going on in another human mind. Humans does not have the ability to like something which it cannot perceive, either see, hear, touch or smell. So, when the human race was struggling because of desire, lust, want for money, land etc, the spiritual gurus had to device stories to raise it from the puddle and bring it into a higher level. There came the great epics like Mahabharatha and Ramayana. The five pandavas in Mahabharatha are the five senses and the hundred Kauravas are the evils with which our senses has to fight every day. Our mind needs 'bhagavat gita' at times when our mind struggles between its desire to keep or kill the evils. Bhishma is the stubbornness in us which refuses to leave us. Bhishma is dying after being in the bed of arrows for eighteen days. It shows how difficult it is to overcome our stubbornness.

In the nursery stage of knowing my religion I have taken Krishna as my idol as my mother was a devotee of Krishna. As we move on to higher plains of understanding we do not really need an idol to worship. First time when I came across the fact that Krishna is just a brain child of the great guru Veda Vyasa, it hurt me, I cried. But later it increased my desire to learn more about the religion and the real facts about its diversity of Gods.

So, lets celebrate every human mind and its uniqueness, which makes it all the more interesting in this beautiful world which we are given, with the  limitations our senses can perceive, as everything else is not really necessary for us, as our creator knows what is best for His masterpiece!!!


Friday 21 May 2010

Communication Gap!!

I was feeding Kannan in the bedroom when my sweetie's voice came from the hall,
"amma, whats papa doing??"
I replied, "he is praying Ponni!!"
Again, "amma, whats he doing there??" (the stress is on word 'there')
I said, "he is praying there da"
Again, "amma, can you tell me whats he doing ??" (stress is on 'tell')
I said, "I have already told that he is praying" (tone is changing)
Again, "amma, are u sure he is praying??" (stress is on 'are u sure')
I said,"I have told enough number of times that he is praying, whats your problem??" (already smoke is coming out..)
Again,"amma,whats he really doing??"(stress is on 'really')
I said,"just wait there, I am coming out, u will get nicely from me"
I ran out like a fierce dragon when she said "amma, why is he praying inside the bathroom!!??"


PS: all the time she knew that he was in bathroom and I was thinking he is in his room....

The Magic of Amar chithra katha!!!

I was searching Amar chithra katha for Achu for so long and got the feeling that I have found what I wanted when I came across 'Tinkle Digest' which my brother-in-law was reading. From there I got the reference to the website from where we can buy Amar chithra katha online:  http://www.amarchitrakatha.com. Ever since I came across Tinkle Digest, on every trip to India, we collect as many of it as possible. 

Stories and music are food to the soul. At least I can remember my thirst for stories in my childhood days. Mom used to say that when she ran out of stories and made-up stories she started buying books and reading it for me... I would pester her and whoever I found could narrate stories well,  for more and more and when I grew big and could read myself, the magical world of children's comics unveiled a whole new world in front of me. The first line of the first chithra katha I read is still in my mind ...It had the picture of a rabbit getting the aroma of food and saying 'haai nalla neyyappathinte manam'... I would have been five years then. Also a vague picture of a boy holding a lollipop in his hand which was part of an English story which my mom narrated to me is still lingering in mind. The rabbits, cats, elephants, tigers, foxes, crows, flowers, trees, forests, springs, mountains, sun , moon etc were in neat cute sketches and were able to talk human language. Me and my cousin would fight for reading the comics first. Until I finish reading cover to cover, there is no peace of mind and once we know it has arrived,  until it reaches my hand I used to feel uneasy....The ones I remember passionately is the Mahabharatha Amar chithra katha. There is no other appropriate way to explain the wonderful and the best epic ever, from the greatest guru Veda Vyasa, to our future generation than getting children to taste the magical and powerful world of reading amar chithra katha. The beautiful narration and the artistic illustration gets our imagination to fly... If u ask me the history lessons which I learned in school, I wouldn't be remembering it. We shouldn't forget history but its one of the boring subjects I have ever learned. Sorry if it hurts history enthusiasts...  that's a fact.  But if you ask any stories from the great epic, I can tell it with zeal and pleasure....So, long live Amar chithra katha....:-)

Sunday 16 May 2010

Old Town, New Address...

Bible says: " See the birds of the sky, that they don't sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns......". But they sure do make nests, so do us humans and passionately call it our home, gathering each twig with so much care and love, keeping the comfort and happiness of our baby birds in mind...Recently we changed our nest, to a more 'comfy cosy' one (borrowing Achu's vocabulary). We brought along sovereigns from all our previous nests which delicately links our memories to the paths we have travelled. Unfolding each piece of cloth, turning each page of books all brought lot of memories some of which were forgotten but always lay hidden like fire in ash. I had to be merciless in throwing certain things to which I was emotionally attached, things which have turned useless over time. That's the cruelty of time, those which were nurtured and cherished preciously turns useless over time. After all, man could never make anything non-perishable, not even feelings.

When the dawn broke in Singapore on May 8th we were prayerfully starting a new life in our new home. The pooja was conducted by the honourable priest from Sengkang temple. My journey in Singapore started from Lakeside, one of the western most part of Singapore. Maash, that's how I call Sajeev because all his friends call him so, had given me a clear picture of Singapore in the six months of our acquaintance before marriage. The moment I landed here I could breath a clean air, see clean people and clean roads, everything was neat and clean. Flat-life was not new to me as I had lived a couple of years in Kuwait while I was doing my eleventh and twelfth. Those were wonderful days, the memories of which I hold dearly to my heart. The abode Maash rented to start our new life was a new and awesome five room apartment, the details of which he kept as a secret. It was right in front of the main gate of Chinese garden. My first reaction was, oh my god,its so big, how am I going to maintain it, to which Maash just gave a smile.Our evening walks through the beautiful avenue of Tah Ching Road  and the banks of reservoir are unforgettable. We used to dream and make plans for future. I did my masters degree while staying there and it was very convenient for me as NTU was quite nearby. From that beautiful house we had to move to a house in Clementi, where I could see the hustle and bustle of a city life. I was carrying Aishwarya and came to India for delivery and started working in Motorola upon return when she was six months old, while we were staying there. From there to a JTC apartment in Khatib as I joined Motorola.Thanks to Maash as he always put my convenience before his. From Khatib to Sengkang,our present town.

We are still in the old town, but just changed address. We fell in love with the place the first time we visited here. Its one of the newly developed areas of Singapore, it has lot of empty spaces where families and enthusiasts come and fly kites on evenings and weekends, the houses here are well designed, got a sports complex, well known schools, a fruit park and a river very nearby (evening walks over the bridge, feeling the gentle breeze, is something we love to do as a family). After three years of stay we decided to look for more space for our baby birds to run around, fly around, hop around,crawl around and what not. The moment we saw this Executive apartment , we decided that its ours. We didn't bargain much about the price.Maash never bargains over things he like, a quality I really like in him. It has open space in front, it is facing North, got a couple of tall acacia in front of the house which reminds me of the cypress tree in the courtyard of my mother's house, its in the path of wind and can enjoy cool breeze all the time, and most importantly its a plain house and can view the horizon from the house. We like to craft our house from scratch ourselves. Mash spent hours designing it using google sketchup, each and every room and each and every angle, while I was giving my ideas on how things should be. We form a good team and this time around the designing was easier as it is the second time we are doing so. Once designing was over, we went around looking for contractors. The big names quoted higher prices, so we went for independent contractors and we got one which fitted our budget and personality.

We were on a tight schedule. The contractor was given only three weeks to complete it, which was really a Herculean task for him and they worked overnight to complete our work, hats off to their hard and excellent work. And thanks to my dear papa who was there to see through all the activities. He was of great help mentally as well.He is a great strength and moral support to us, his daughters.I am lucky and proud of being his daughter. Maash had his project submission and presentation. He had to spent nights working over it after office hours in between all these. Hard work never goes wasted. We felt like being tested in all the ways possible.Our new helper, Aman,was also of great help in the process of packing and unpacking. And in between Kannan started rolling over and my sweet naughty fell down from bed taking my breath away.We managed it all, together as a team and we are proud and happy that we did it all not by our merit but by God's grace....:)

Thought for the Day

Why are treasures guarded by demons and not angels ???