Hello Oct 2012!

What to put as a title :-) Ended up with this month.

When I started this blog, it was more of a chronicling, possibly for visits down in the future, which I never did for the most part. Last week I happened to chance upon a few of my own posts and it brought with it a queer sense of reliving the incidents, both of which were hilarious ones. I felt a rich experience of it and am quite enthused by the whole affair.

So, right now, am in Delhi for the last 2 weeks... will be here for another 3 months... working towards a big program in Jan. What's happened in the last few months... it's a flurry of so many things, not in any particular order. For the teachers' meet, we went to Mysore; the sathsang at Chamundi was quite memorable for the proximity of my seat was something for the first time; KumarParvat trek was a stamina-tester, but the experience atop, where Subrahmanya was enlightened, was totally mind-blowing!!! The grand Chennai ITC program, a few classes here and there from Mumbai to Kolkatta... the varieties of cuisine, especially the Punjabi - North Indian mix of food in Delhi... so many things...

And yes, am having the right inspiration to write apart from the conducive environment.. yes, a new A.R.Rahman release "Jab tak hai jaan"..

Not going to write a detailed review... Initially I felt it to be more of a YRF album than ARR. But as is the case with many ARR albums, takes a little time to sink in. And now it's quite enjoyable. Will it be an evergreen album for me? I don't think so, but I will savor it every now and then. Harshdeep Kaur, you are scintillating; her son Heer would be on my all time favorite list. Just remembered, there could be an ARR live show in Chennai in Dec it seems; I wish I can make for it. This shall be my new year wish :)

Something that pulled my heart strings in the recent times... the way the kids are growing up, especially in the metros... it's so sad. Parents do not get much time and most of the free time, if there is any that's left after the flurry of classes they go to apart from the regular school, is spent with all kinds of gadgets not to exclude the good-old-enemy TV! And the obesity I find is so shocking: all wrong kind of food is stuffed in, thanks to the pseudo facts proclaimed by these fun-foods! And the lack of life in adults, in the true sense... metro life is so mechanical, and the entire life is a struggle, an endeavour to take care of the survival process; whether at the end of it, they get to survive, I do not know, but I see them dying everyday in their pursuit to survive... very sad...

And I realized last week, that I never posted a pic of Shakthi, my dear wife, even once in this space! It's more than 1.5 years now: Have been through so many things with her: so many fights, so many intimate moments, what not! But she's been such a sweet heart and her support has been quite phenomenal in many ways. I wish I take pics more often... Not many pictures of us... Here's one from our marriage...

Happy Dussehra!!!

May the feminine within blossom more... jai bhairavi devi!

Breaking the long break :-)

so this has become a defunct blog... hmmm... in those times, i had the need to express a lot of things and the blog was an outlet... now if i look at it, the speed at which my life is happening, there isn't much time to write anything nor the need... this is not to be understood as "oh my work! oh this! oh that!"...no, this is not a case of work becoming burdensome... my work is absolutely joyous and i have no qualms about it whatsoever... in fact, it is such an intense game, a privilege...

so, today got some time and i thought i will post a few updates for the sake of those that aren't in touch anymore... in 2009 sept, i quit my job in microsoft, knowing that kind of professional life wouldn't quench my thirst for life and i moved back to india, not certain of what life would offer, just placing the trust on Life. And as it has always been, grace guided me all along (and still is guiding)... with what began as a dabbling, it became my life... went through the process and now am a Isha yoga teacher, and am honored to say that.

and life took another turn too... all those confusions about the path to take and deeper questions effortlessly settled during these 2 years time... i realized my way would be more in tune with Krishna's way of life, the path of Leela (Shakthi would bear testimony to the previous statement :D... what to do, i was born on Krishna Jayanti)... and i got married in Feb this year (2011) in a simple and elegant ceremony at the Isha yoga center. As life takes its course, rough edges are getting smoothened and unexplored territories are getting exposed.

And the joy run continues...

Sky dived!

This Sunday, on June 28th, I sky dived with a bunch of friends in Florida. Quite an experience. From the moment we decided to go sky diving, as always, there wasn't much going within me. It has been the case of late with me, may be the last few years. If I am about to do something special/out-of-ordinary, people ask me "are you excited" and when I look at it, not really, I'm just as always, may be a little intrigued... Well, we had an appointment at 12:30, but it got extended to 3:30.

As we were waiting I could see some of them pretty nervous, some changing from confident-looks to a-bit-scared-looks. Finally our turn came and it was only when I was on the plane up that a little thought was running, just to look at the ground from the open plane was something! When my turn came, I moved along with my tandem instructor "TK" and we moved in a squatted position to the open door. Before jumping out, I had a look at the ground below... took a deep breath and as I was aware of the breath, I uttered "Shiva" and out we dived 13500 ft from above sea level!

For the first 2-3 seconds I didn't know what was happening as we fell off the plane and the wind was hitting the face in full flow and I got in to the position with belly pushed out and arms out-stretched and eyes wide open. I could see the ground approaching at a crazy speed... woahhhhhhhh..... And my instructor was giving signals that we were doing safe and ok and was pointing to the altimeter from time to time... We also did a few rotations during the free fall... My eyes were watering a moment due to the speed and at one point, I realized my mouth was open and how the instructor had advised to inhale through the nose rather than the mouth. As I closed my mouth, I could be aware of the breath in that crazy moment and I was pleased about that :D... And then we had a lucky day as we could move into the clouds. When you dive in to the cloud, you really know how fast you are traveling. And inside the cloud, it's cool, very cool, like a really air conditioned space... By this moment, we had reached the 6000 ft mark and my instructor was signaling for the parachute to be opened and around 5500 ft I pulled the lever to open up the parachute... And then we did a few other things like rotating, suspension, accelerating and moving around in the parachute before finally landing.

Quite an experience, and highly recommended for everyone! A must do, at-least once in a lifetime!

Happy birthday appa

:-)

I know, you don't even know what a blog is and I write something here... I may not have done what you would have wanted me to, or may be I did do something... It doesn't matter, I've done something that is the most life essential to you, which you may not understand now... I only wish you walk along and life completes a full circle :-)

A letter to my ...

This is more of a personal letter rather than a blog post. As the blog is the medium of communication, it makes more sense to put it here rather than an email...

Dear one-particular-reader-from-Chennai,

I am sure many of the posts in this blog don't make sense to you...

I know some of these might even be alarming...

And I also know you can't grasp these things in totality, given the diverse natures of our lives, given the different paths we've taken, given the varied experiences of our lives...

When you don't understand these ramblings fully, it is not necessary to spread this to the whole world...

All that I hope and wish is that you understand that I am experiencing life in a deeper way than you, and I further wish that desire also sprouts within you, that you may also lead life in a peaceful, blissful way... The desire that arises when someone buys a house, a plot, a car, a property, this, that... where is that desire going when it comes to this... the very fundamental question about your life and existence... It's time to wake up... I wish you wake up soon...

Sincerely,
Rams.

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!