Everything is gonna be alright, baby……….. February 17, 2009

This is a conversation between a Dad and his child:

The train was about to leave the Chennai station.  5 year old Shyam was quietly playing with his Penguin toy that I bought him at the station. I made him sit on my lap and started playing with him.  He looked up suddenly and said, ‘Daddy, when will we see Mommy?’.

‘Mommy will be at the Bangalore station, child. You are going to see her as soon as we reach bangalore’, his dad assured him. He gave a faint smile and got himself engaged in playing with his Penguin again.

‘Daddy, when will I see you again?’, he asked again looking up. My heart sank at the question. How was I going to explain to him that he was not going to see his parents together ever? His dad explained ‘You will come to see me during the summer, sweetu’ and his dad tried to look away, trying to escape the questions in his eyes . He held his dad’s  hand tight and asked, ‘Why?. Why will you not be with me and Mommy in Bangalore?’.

‘Because Daddy and Mommy are not going to live together, child. But you as soon as the summer arrives, you will come to Daddy and we will spend time together. Daddy will take you to the park and you can play on the slides and swings. Daddy will bring you ice cream and chocolates. But first you must be a good boy and spend time with your Mommy.’, his dad said with a heavy heart, trying hard to keep his gaze into the uncertain eyes of the child.

‘Will Mommy come with me to see you then?’
‘No child, Mommy will not see Daddy. You will come alone. Daddy and Mommy will not meet each other.’
‘But why Daddy? Why?’

And a tear rolled down his left cheek. It has always been like this with him. It is always the left eye which gives way to his tears first. And he started sobbing then. Pressing his head against my chest and curling his little arms around me. I did not know how to comfort him . I did not have logical answers to his ‘Whys’. I did not know what went wrong. All I know is Shyam did not deserve this.

I held him tight. Trying to calm him sobbing. The deep humming of the train engine went on in the background.
P.S. – Inspired by a little boy and his father, sitting next to me in one of the Shatabdi trains I took once. The conversation didn’t take place actually. Just a work of fiction.

Tryst with Nature……… February 4, 2009

ANGER

SADNESS

PASSION

AGILITY

HOPE

WISDOM

PEACE

INNOCENCE

JOY

LOVE

YOUTH

Sri Sri on Sanathana Dharma January 11, 2009

Gurudev, HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji gave this following talk on 8^th Dec, 2008 at Bangalore

For the continued sustainance of Sanathana Dharma in the society, dharmic institutions are a must.

When I was travelling around the country, i realised that, wherever the dharmic institutions & peethas (seats) are present, the dharma has been protected. Where they are not, there has been a decline in the number of temples.

Take Andhra Pradesh for example. Out of 38,000 temples, nearly 28,000 of them have closed down today and just 9 to 10,000 have survived. The main reason for this is – unlike Karnataka, there are very few dharmic institutions there. They are present, but in a very small number.

If our Dharma has to be revived in the society, each one of us has to work towards it.

All these days we thought that – dharma was for an individual and confined it to our homes.
But today, if this individual dharma is not spread at a societal & national level, then it will be disappear.

In Arunachal Pradesh, when I went 10 yrs back, numerous local dharmic institutions were present – which were following Sanathana Dharma. Today, the followers of Sanathana Dharma in Itanagar has reduced to just 20% of their number! Rest have all got converted. Why have they done this? It’s because of the decline in the activity & the eventual disappearance of these dharmic institutions.

If as good citizens we have to give back something to our society, then its possible only through our dharmic and spiritual peethas.

Today, terrorism has pervaded all over the nation. There are various types of terrorism – one is the naxalite/communist ideologies; anti-social elements in the society resorting to violence; And then there is the jehadi.

If this terrorism has to be eliminated, then our dharmic institutions and ashrams have to disseminate more and more spiritual education to the people. There are many dignitaries here who are doing it.

We have to give a new face to our nation.

A leader who is leading our society has to have – ‘dooradarshi’ (visionary), ‘paaradarsi’ (transparent), ’satya darshi’ (truthful) and ’samadarshi’ (equanimous). He will be able to lead the society only if these 4 qualities are present in him.

To become such a leader, his right education is the key.

Today, we have to imbibe in the youth of our nation – the strength and valour, in the same way as Lord Krishna kindled it in Arjuna.

If the youth today can stay focussed and not waver in the face of difference of opinions and ideologies; and if they can maintain their enthusiasm, then they can bring forth our nation’s glory and dharma as a gift to this world.

If every Hindu starts doing satsang, then we can definitely bring about a transformation in our country. Many times, if you ask – how many people have read the Bhagavat Geetha, there will be lot of people who wouldn’t have read it.

Bhagavat Geeta is the foremost literature in our dharma. If you don’t read it even once, then how can you understand our country? We can’t afford to forget our own roots – Vachana Sahitya, Bhagavat Geeta, Ramayana, Mahabharata – they are all the very roots of our country, of our culture.
We should save our roots and nurture them – and fill enthusiasm in the people.

I wish more and more youth walk on this path.

Happy New Year! January 1, 2009

Wish you a very very happy New Year.

2008 has been a fantabulous year for me. My gratitude to Gurudev, he has literally guided me in every step that I have taken. For me the year started on the Art of Living advanced course in Bangalore Ashram. I was in silence and Guru Pooja was going on right at 00:00 of 1st Jan 2008. Previously, I used to jump, dance, make noise, hug friends but this year, I was in complete silence, even the hug was quiet; no halla-gulla, no dance, no singing, and still blissful from inside.

After a gap of nearly two years, I spent the dawn of  a new year in my house in bangalore. I’am not a guy who believes in having a blast and revellry to celebrate new year, so I promptly went to sleep after wishing many of my friends and gosh, I was woken up at midnight 12 due to bursting of crackers in the neighbourhood.  And, this reminded me of the the new year celebrations I had in the ashram doing the YES+ winter break during the last two years wherein we welcome the new year in silence, wishing everybody in silence, praying for everybody in silence and believe me that was the most fulfilling celebrations I ever had for new year in my life. The celebrations, which happen in our neighbourhood, bursting crackers, making merry, drinking, dancing, yelling, i felt is so superficial.You feel so hollow at the end of it.

And, yesterday night I couldnt forgive myself for not having been on this Years YES+ Advance course. Just had to feel contended by the fact that my friends- Balki, Harsha, Karthik, Rikku, sanath and my whole YES+gang were doing the course on behalf of me.

And, for those of you who havent experienced the power of silence, I really pity you.

Jai gurudev,

Vinay

Audacious Antulay ! December 21, 2008

I seriously don’t have any other adjective for this man. This was an act of such audacity! Whether it was a political suicide or a political re-incarnation of himself that we shall see in the coming days but he has gone down to the level in politics where no other politician has dared to go.

Every Indian (or at least every patriotic Indian) is aghast, enraged and numb towards his statement about Hemant Karkare’s death. How could he even think about speaking such thing when the whole nation is united, Hindus and Muslims alike, against terror. He literally exonerated Pakistan from this whole episode in his opinion. I am glad that people like Javed Akhtar have come forward to express the liberal muslim opinion on this and bashed Antulay for his act. And still there are people like Digvijay Singh who join the bandwagon and support Antulay’s remarks. I don’t know what to say to such people. But I can say to the common man that please next time when you go to vote, keep this episode, Antulay, his advocates and his party in mind and then decide on your vote.

Bharat Ratna Pt Bhimsen Joshi November 16, 2008

There could not be a happier moment for a classical music lover. Pt Bhimsen Joshi – the maestro of Hindustani Vocal classical music has been selected for Bharat Ratna – India’s highest civilian award this year. Even though unfortunately I have never had a chance to listen to his divine vocal performance live, I am extremely proud today to see him honored by the government with this award.

Long live Panditjee. We are proud of you!

Old Notebooks August 28, 2008

Imagine the feeling when you come across an old notebook. Specially the one you have forgotten about. And then in that notebook you find pages that reminds you of all the things you have tried in life. You may not have been successful at them, but you still tried. Most of what you wrote, composed, painted etc would not be very appealing. But each of them have memories saved in them.

I accidentally came across my old composition notebook when I was cleaning my room. I had hidden it long, long ago so that no one will read it. I casually brought it back with me and forgot about it again. Last evening, while cleaning up my drawers, I found it and decided to flip through it.

I found several pieces of writing that seemed, now, hilarious. Total junk. I pity my literature teacher who read it and even did a spell check on it. Some writings were, what I then believed, politically relevant ideas. Even now, they look fine to me.

But, above all, I found in that book several sheets of my humble attempts at poetry. I would never ever want anyone to read them, all except one. This one seemed pretty decent to share.

It doesnt have a title, I will try to find something appropriate.

Poem:

My mind is alert as my eyes search.

Cant tell what I am seeking,

As I myself clearly do not know,

I can feel it but not see it

Its hidden yet at hand.

I know I want it

But do not know the means

I know I will find it

But the time is yet to come.

No, I am’nt relying on faith

I am keeping my hopes high

All the things will fall in place

Better judgement will prevail

And help me realize my dream.

Yours Truly,

Vinay Subrahmanya

500 August 3, 2008

Today I finally saw the landmark figure of 500 hits on my Blog. It’s been about 1.5 months since I started the Hit-Counter. Feels good

PS: I like to thank everybody who have visited my blog. If you like any of the posts, feel free to post your comments and pings on the blog. I love to read your comments as much as I love to post on my blog.

Feeling a bit low…… July 26, 2008

Feeling a bit low? Pissed off with people and situations in life? Here is my sincere attempt to make you smile and reassure you that everything will change in due time. Just watch this amazing video:

The Secret is: Feel greatful for what you have got rather than cribbing about what you havent got.

Flux Capacitor is now for real! July 12, 2008

Just like there are resistors, inductors and capacitors, presence of another element called as memristor was predicted in 1971 by professor Leon Chau. It took 37 years for someone to develop it. HP labs has done this feat. Memristor, in short remembers the current passing through it and accordingly changes it resistance. The greatest thing about it is that it performs better as you scale it down, meaning high density chips will be easier to make as against what happens when transistors are packed together.

By all that it looks like, it seems to be a revolution in electronics and is going to redefine nano-technology. Here is a intriguing statement by professor Chau,

“The situation is analogous to what is called Aristotle’s Law of Motion, which was wrong, because he said that force must be proportional to velocity. That misled people for 2000 years until Newton came along and pointed out that Aristotle was using the wrong variables. Newton said that force is proportional to acceleration — the change in velocity. This is exactly the situation with electronic circuit theory today. All electronic text books have been teaching using the wrong variables — voltage and charge–explaining away inaccuracies as anomalies. What they should have been teaching is the relationship between changes in voltage, or flux, and charge.”

And surprise. Memristor’s technically correct name happens to be “Flux Capacitor”. You’ll know what I mean if you have seen the “Back to the Future” trilogy. And if the science in that was correct(ahem)..which used flux capacitor as the basis for time travel…Wait a minute, Doc…ah