Scribblings

- Why is it that most of the film songs focus on the physical union of the male and female either blatantly or subtley, from yesteryear songs to songs just off the shelf... Does it speak of the short sightedness of the lyricist or the short sightedness of the audience. Won't either of them get cloyed?

- If "how are you" is the first question most of the people are asking anyone they meet, which in turn means how one is within himself as the most important aspect of one's life, isn't it imperative that one looks deep enough into addressing how one is instead of dabbling at 1000 useless things in a frivolous attempt to address how one is within.

- Definitions of life, rather, identifications, as I perceive, from the lives of ones around... The attention, initially totally focussed on oneself, be it in terms of apparels, looks, thoughts, whatever the person chooses to identify oneself with, with marriage, shifting drastically to the significant other, then with the child birth, making a total shift to the children, that the children themselves become who they are.... This probably might follow the lives of their children, one event after another, constantly redirecting the focus, that at the end of life, probably one can be sitting with a smug smile, termed "life experiences" to seem wise to the world, while within nothing much has happened except for being constantly kicked around like a ball, by life. "Wordly wise., existentially wasted..."

- The more I come across these few people who are oozing with life, that the possibilty exists for me, is increasingly brightening my days. Soon I shall make my life into one such thing: Simply Life!

- Why am I the stupid spider?

- Life, does rearrange.

- Anecdote from a friend. "People are taken aback, by surprise, when I return "How are you" with "I am happy". That is something they probably haven't heard in eons, that happiness has become foreign and they've come to conclusions that life sucks in general"!!!

- Upaasna, the way I got to understand it yesterday...

- I am happy, for No Reason!

Gift of Trees

Dear Friends,

This project touched my heart and I wanted to share it with you.

"Individuals can make a difference, if each of us did our bit, collectively we will make a major contribution." – Kofi Annan, Former United Nations Secretary General

Let your gift giving and receiving be unique:This holiday season and thereafter give a "Gift of Trees" to help heal the planet!

The "Gift of Trees" was designed by Project Green Hands-USA as an endeavor to raise awareness and funds for a marathon tree planting campaign in Tamil Nadu, India, initiated by Project Green Hands under the auspices of Isha Foundation, a non-profit humanitarian service organization registered both in India and the United States. Purchasing a "Gift of Trees" gift certificate from Project Green Hands-USA is a meaningful tribute towards your coworkers, friends and family as well as future generations. Kindly inform your friends and family who you know are environmentally inclined and would like to contribute towards the mitigation of global warming by giving and /or receiving such a consequential gift.

The certificate can be personalized in the name of the person(s) in whose honor the trees will be planted. The trees sponsored by these gift certificates will be planted in Tamil Nadu, India as part of Project Green Hands' 25 million tree planting initiative for the 2007-2008 year.

To learn more about Project Green Hands kindly visit our website http://www.projectgreenhands.org/.

The cost of planting and nurturing one tree to its self-sufficiency is just $1 and that of a nursery sapling is $0.50. Gift certificates are available in various denominations ($10 - $500) to fit all gift giving budgets. Kindly download, complete and mail or fax the order form from http://www.ishafoundation.org/donate_forms/PGH_Gift_Cetficate_12_1_07.pdf as per the instructions therein. Your gift certificates will be mailed to you within 3-5 business days of order receipt.

See this video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4850700491697347955

Another video on Project Green Hands: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf-QoJKD4mM

Quotes:

Global atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, have increased markedly as a result of human activities since 1750 and now far exceed pre-industrial values …Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations … Afforestation and forest management has the highest and most economical long-term potential for the mitigation of global climate change…" - Fourth Assessment Report by the 'Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change' (IPCC ) presented November 17, 2007 in Valencia, Spain

"Every society needs individuals who will go on planting mango trees, without thinking whether they will get to eat the fruits or not." – Sadhguru, founder Isha Foundation

Sincerely,
Rams.

Thiruvasagam

Everytime I "simply" listen to thiruvasagam, that is, just listen to it without doing anyhthing else, it brings me to tears. Such is the intensity of the words. Such is the intensity of the composition. Ilayaraja avargalukku eththanai murai vendumaanalum nandri sollalaam (Respected Ilayaraja can be thanked how many ever times one wants to...)

Searched for the English translation for thiruvasagam and ended up reading the meaning of a lot of verses. The content is simply mind blowing. Today, reading thiruvasagam has moved me a lot. Life within me is responding in a way I haven't known before...

Pullaagi poodai puzhuvaai maramaagi
Palvirugamaagi paravayaai paambaagi
Kallaai manidharaai peyaai gangalaai vallasuraraagi
Munivaraai devaraai selladhindru iththaavarsangamathul
Ellaa pirappum pirandhilaithen pirandhilaithen...
(So many forms I must wear, so many lives I must bear... )

Uyya en ullathul Omkaaramaai nindra Mei-ye
Omkaaramaai nindra Mei-ye

Namahshivaaya vaazhga...

:')

When purposelessness becomes the purpose
When the path becomes the destination
When the end becomes the beginning
It's Home coming...

Diwali...

It's Diwali today... As I see a few of my friends who are also out of India get notalgic about the Diwalis they celebrated back home, I "attempted" a few moments to see if I did miss anything about the festival. well, as a matter of fact, No! All I used to do if I were at home were to watch TV, go to temple, curse all the "bombers" for screwing my ear as well as burning away money that could be made better use of, tie a kerchief around my lower visage to escape the cracker fumes, eat well, laze around with family, make a few phone calls...

Watching TV isn't as enticing as it used to be, especially given the crap channels out here. Temple, yeah I shall be going here tomorrow. There's a nice place here, and the atmosphere is well maintained with the chants. No crackers [:D]. I never was a fan of the sound-making ones, though I don't complain against the visual-ones. Food, that isn't a problem with so many cooks around here ;-) ISD phone calls to family and friends... that's what can be done about the last two... Also I get to watch Diwali release movies much earlier than in India :D... Heard ATM sucked. I am hitting Vel before ATM though...

One unique thing about this Diwali is that for a few of my acquaintances this is either the "thalai diwali" or first diwali with their offsprings or shall be the last "single-Diwali". Should be more special for them :) Hope they have a memorable day.

And funny, I chose today for my written driver's test and scored a 100% :-) Hope I clear the road test and get a license... Phew! Had to do quite a bit of reading the manual of about 100 pages.

On an unrelated note, food items experimented so far and which I can handle safe: Thakkali saadham, capsicum saadham, carrot saadham, all poriyals and fries, dhal fry, rasam, making dosa and chapathi . Sambhar alone pending... Should do that sometime and may be biryani...

Happiness shouldn't be limited to occasions. I want my life to be an expression of happiness as someone said. I wish it becomes a living reality.

Every moment, bursting with life, oozing with happiness and making the whole journey of life as one full blast of celebration !!!

Life, a vacation that has been offered, to celebrate, life.

Happy birthday !!!

There are so many people we come across... but very few leave lasting impressions on you. For me, I've been blessed to find quite a few people that way, whose very thought can bring about a transformation in what's running through my mind. Nov 5th, is the birthday of one such person: Kumaran :-)

Kumaran has been a great inspiration to a lot of us in the Hyd gang... His energy, his levels of activity, his enthu... the whole place turns lively when he's around... I can write a whole bunch of things :)

Here's wishing you a very very happy birthday da! May all your wishes turn true. It has been a great blessing in knowing you da!!!