Angels...

Yes... so many of them exist. Am so pleased that I came across a few of them... and am ecstatic that I got to spend sometime with one of them recently. A million thanks to her, him and Life!

Isha Gramotsavam

Isha has been deeply involved in the Action for Rural Rejuvenation (ARR): a project undertaken for the upliftment of the rural Tamil Nadu. ARR has come as a great source of rejuvenation in the lives of the village community. Also, not to forget the Tsunami relief work and the restoration of the ravaged lives of the coastal community. As a celebration of this project, Gramotsavam is held annually.

Project Greenhands, a massive tree plantation project aimed at restoring the disappearing green cover of Tamil Nadu to the optimal 33%, already did a Guinness record last year for the maximum number of tree plantations in one day. This year's continued drive of GreenHands is going to be kicked start on the day of Gramotsavam. Details can be found at http://gramotsavam.ishafoundation.org/project-green-hands/
An excellent video is at http://gramotsavam.ishafoundation.org/project-green-hands/22/

This year, it is going to be happening in Anna University grounds on Sept 23, 2007. I sincerely hope at least the Chennai-ites make to this gala event.

The itinerary for the day can be found at http://www.ishafoundation.org/eflyers/gramotsavam.html

For those interested, the gramotsavam website is at http://gramotsavam.ishafoundation.org/

An excellent short video on Gramotsavam 2005 is available at http://gramotsavam.ishafoundation.org/about-gramotsavam/past-gramotsavam-highlights/

Please do make it to the Gramotsavam. You won't be disappointed!!!

Random

Practices... light breakfast that varies from bread to fruits to pazhaya saadham... Office... impromptu lunch: one from the wide variety of junk that's available in the cafetaria..be it the veg salad that even a cow may think twice before having it (anto relishes it though... any pun deciphered is purely reader's assumptions ;-)), oily spicy indian food, fruits, biscuits, pattini... Lots of meetings and work [the thoughest part]... back home... dinner that is mostly simple south indian food of rice with sambar/rasam,curd... at times frozen food/fruits as well... bantering with roomies, sleep...

Relishable natural richness, boring skyscrapers, junk tv channels, weird eating habits, easy to annoy people, solace offering institutions, running after all unimaginable stuff... passion to do what one wants to... not caring much about the onlookers... freedom to freak out... crazy convictions... amazing infrastructure and technology... as clueless as most people in the world are...

Hmm...

Well... a long break that was... Few of the life parameters have changed... Had taken a 5 week vacation... Had been roaming around quite a bit... the most significant of which was my yatra to Mt. Kailash and Mansarover with my Guru... Had spent some wonderful time with my parents, sister's family, friends... before I left to the current place from where I am writing this: Redmond. Decided that I shall work in a foreign place for sometime...why...I dunno...I thought working in a foreign land was less boring than working back at home... having a good time here with a few other of my Hyd roomies who hav also relocated (anto and naresh)...

Observations in the alien land:
* Excessive coffee, cheese, non-veg consumption here
* Lots of traffic sense
* Amazing infrastructure of roads
* Extreme wealth of natural vegetation
* High levels of craziness [in different aspects]
* Too much of a choice in everything, from vegetables to cars to ...
* Excessive dependence on technology. One screw out of place can cause havoc!
* People expect me to work in a timely fashion.

Whatever!