Sorry, what was that again, Rediff?

Rediff on the Bangalore bomb blasts

While four low-intensity blasts went off at Nayandahalli, Madivala, Adugodi areas on the outskirts, blasts also rocked the tony areas near Mallya Hospital, Langford Road and Richmond Circle in Bengaluru city. Two blasts were reported in Madivala.

Reports suggest that it may be an act of terror.

Didn’t knew that one would go about exploding bombs for any other reason!

We have come to a sad state of affairs in this country and unless we have criminals and corrupt netas as our elected representatives looking to serve their own narrow needs, unless the police is freed from the clutches of politicians, unless we have a fast moving judicial process and a mature media… this reign of terror would continue…and who is to change this? It is up to you and me, we have to be the agents of change and we cannot look the other way any more and most importantly have faith.

As Garrison Keilor said “What else will do except faith in such a cynical, corrupt time? When the country goes temporarily to the dogs, cats must learn to be circumspect, walk on fences, sleep in trees, and have faith that all this woofing is not the last word.”

Little Visitor

Seems like animal stories time on this blog!  This is a busy week for me with lots of travel and I was busy preparing for it. The IT returns had to be filed and then one of my friends wife underwent a surgery today morning, so a hospital visit was due and I had pushed out some last minute purchases and packing to evening. After the visit to the Hospital in the evening, as Meena and I entered the house, saw a very small puppy right inside the gate - our first instinct was to locate its mother. Now there are several street dogs in our street, but we hadn’t seen a litter, so were surprised to find it and the kids were very very excited, it was their dream come true - a puppy at home!

We got some milk to feed it and then to our horror discovered that it was badly injured - the tail had come off. We took it to a vet and discovered that it was only the skin that had peeled and luckily the tail was still there - got it dressed, bought the medicines, brought it back to the house, wrapped it up in a warm cloth and tried to feed it again without luck.

We leave early morning tomorrow for an outstation trip and we just couldn’t leave the puppy without having someone taking care of it. Made several calls to CUPA and Karuna Animal Shelter, but couldn’t get them to coming round to pick up the puppy. There was no power at home, it was threatening to rain as well and in the middle of all this, we had someone drop by to pick up few saplings of LakshmiTaru - talk of timing! So we ended up taking a trip to CUPA to leave the puppy in their care.

All my thoughts tonight are with the puppy - I just hope it gets good care and good owners through CUPA.

Providence had it that it entered our house at the right time, a little later, it would have gotten dark and we wouldn’t have noticed it at all! Meena and I were reflecting about this as to how things turn out to be. The three hours were all that we were meant to be part of the Puppy’s life and that’s how it goes with life as well, isn’t it?

Living my dream!

I am taking some time off from the Industry to volunteer with the Art of Living Foundation. I have been wanting to do this for long. In my first few posts on this blog I wrote:

For the last 2 years or so, there has been a deep yearning to give something back to the society in whatever way we could. We started off with contributing to organizations and causes in whatever modest we way could. However there was always this feeling that by donating money itself, one is really not doing a service……

Things changed over time in the last four years since I wrote that sentence, only that the yearning to do something more concrete for the society deepened. I dabbled with NGO’s and charities including a venture of mine that failed to fructify due to finances. At the same time, I started getting more and more involved with Art of Living, listening to Guruji, meeting Him and being in His presence to the extent possible. As my practices deepened, I began to experience a deep sense of peace and reverence for life and the realization that we are all connected. And one fine evening in April 2005, Guruji said “Become a teacher” and my life took a different turn… It was in late 2007 that I was blessed to teach the ever popular Part 1 course part time.

But that was just the begining of making a difference in people’ life! And then the thought began to surface that I should probably take a sabbatical to teach the courses and spread the joy and peace of being still! I bounced the idea off with Meena and had her full support and then in discussion with my brother and sister-in-law it got more and more firm.

I wanted to do something more…. and the more I thought about it, it became clearer to me that it was not possible for me to sail in two boats at the same time and do justice to either of them. I don’t know how many hundred times Meena and I discussed this option…over and over again..Trust me, this wasn’t an easy decision to chuck away a well paying job to volunteer full time for a year. The loss of pay apart, I am still not sure how this will be received in the Industry when I chose to return.

Anyway, no major decisions are taken with Guruji’s blessing and knowing that He does not encourage people with responsibilities to quit their job….I approched Him with a great deal of hesitation in March and told him about my plans. He agreed and the decision was sealed that instant!

It was only in June end that I was able to resign and move ahead.

So here I am finally living my dream and passion! I am also looking at this period as a time for deeper introspection, renewal and growth. Will continue to blog occassionally as usual!

What will you regret

A fortnight back, Marshall Goldsmith, in the Harvard Business Online’ discussion forum, answered the following question:

In your experience, what are the biggest regrets people have at the end of their careers? What do people wish they had learned sooner?

Marshall responds “

…..

My friend John Izzo is the author of a great new book-The Five Secrets You Must Discover before You Die. The book is based on 250 interviews he conducted with people from age 59-106 asking them to reflect back on their lives and careers. Though the people he interviewed ranged from a town barber to successful CEOs, the themes that emerged were clear. Here is some of what he learned about regrets and the things we wished we had learned sooner.

The first thing he learned is that people don’t regret their failures and that most people wished they had risked more. Most of us go through our careers fearing failure, but Izzo discovered that trying and failing is something we can deal with. The happiest people felt they had pursued their dreams and stretched themselves in their lives and careers. So we are more likely to regret having not tried for a dream than to have failed at it. This is particularly interesting because most of us think failure is about the worst thing that can happen to us but it turns out that not trying or playing it safe in our careers is what we should actually be worrying about.

….. each of us has an inner voice that is speaking to us. Those people whose inner voice was telling that they were sacrificing too much or not being true to themselves had deep regrets.

…..

The most important thing Izzo learned about the things we regret was the importance of being true to self. Many of those, I’ve interviewed looked back and felt they were too influenced by others’ opinions. They told me how absolutely critical it is to follow your own definition of success. Don’t take that promotion or job because someone tells you it’s the natural next step. Make to ask yourself if that is the step you want to take.

A final lesson from these people is that status and power aren’t what you will remember as you look back. Rather, most people said it was the things they gave and the people they mentored that give them satisfaction. The town barber put it plainly: “The money in your wallet is not the definition of your success but how many lives you touched.” Turns out that is one thing the barbers and the CEO’s agreed on.

I cannot, but agree more, I have myself embarked on a similar journey to make a difference in people’s lives. More about it in the next post.

Making Love with Life

[Via Ode Magazine]

A warm smile. An unexpected compliment. Moonlit nights. A bear hug.

The smell of burning logs on a cold wintry night, the soft rhythmic sound of wind chimes in my balcony, the rain soaked breeze entering my bedroom window. Seeing a long awaited mail in my inbox, smell of freshly sharpened pencils.

Decorating a perfect Christmas tree and dreaming of Santa Claus. Having a frothy cappuccino with warm, blueberry muffins at my favourite café.

A deeply satisfying kiss!

Go read more….

What good we need to do, we have to do in our present life!

A chance encounter over the web and the next thing I knew that Rajesh personally came down to meet me when I was at Accenture way back in 2003. I have cherished that meeting. Ever since I have been a close follower of Emergic and Rajesh’ writing. His blog entry “On Turning 40” is a must read.

He writes:

“The day after we had sold IndiaWorld for $115 million in November 1999, my wife, Bhavana, told me: “We are custodians of God’s money. If God has given us money at such an early age, there must be something He has in mind for us. We have to utilise this wealth for the greater good.” These are words which have formed the bedrock of my life since then. Till then, I was an entrepreneur trying to prove that I could, even after repeated failures, be successful at least once. Since then, I have come to believe that what good we need to do, we have to do in our present life - while we still have the physical and mental energies. “

What an amazing spiritual thought process this couple have!.

Thanks to the unknown KSTDC driver!

End of last week, I flew down from Hyderabad to Bangalore, picked a pre paid taxi from the KSTDC counter to go home. While booking the taxi I also picked up a copy of a newspaper from the KSTDC counter. Reached home,. got ready to go to office, only to realize that my cell phone was missing. I had taken a call in the cab and later had left the mobile besides me and picked the newspaper to read. As I neared my residence, I probably kept the newspaper on the cell and got off from the cab.

I called from the local landline, it kept ringing but I couldn’t hear the cell ringing in my house, then I realized I probably might have left it in the cab. I had very little hope of getting it back - I had previous experience of losing my mobile - so called Hutch, got my SIM card suspended. On a hunch, called the KSTDC counter and told them that I probably left my mobile in the Taxi and got a standard response that if they happen to find it, they will call me back.

And surprise, within two hours I had a call from KSTDC asking me to come and collect the mobile!

I was pleasantly surprised by the honesty of the driver and the KSTDC staff. My effort to meet the Taxi Driver went in vain as he was away on another trip.

Events such as this reinforce my belief in the goodness of the people at large.

Another big lesson - I use my E61 extensively for browsing and checking my emails. It is the first time I realized that how dangerous it could be to lose my cell which contained a lot of personal sensitive data. Naturally, the first thing I have done is to ensure that I delete any sensitive information. It isn’t worth keeping it on the cell anyway!

Living your life!

The following is an extract from an interview of author Marcus Buckingham that appeared in Gallup Management Journal.

    GMJ: All indications are that this book should at least change the business world.         Has it occurred to you that it could change the rest of the world, too?

MB: One of the people we interviewed was a Benedictine prioress, and she said, “I live my life in such a way that when I die, and my Maker asks me if I lived the life I was given, I can honestly answer yes.” If you think about it, that’s a pretty intimidating question, particularly if most people think they’re just making their life up as they go along. I think we can help millions upon millions of people to identify their strengths, then we can educate people to know that, regardless of your career, or your career trajectory, or how successful you are or aren’t, if you’re living a life that consistently asks you to play to your strongest themes, then you’re living the life God gave you.

Guidelines for Daily Living

The spring issue of The Blue Mountain journal is available here. The journal focuses on Guidelines for Daily Living. Sri Eknath Easwaran offers some simple but effective ways to transform our thinking process and create a brighter future for ourselves and those around us.

He writes:

India has a great festival called Dipavali, from dipa, light, and avali, rows. Homes all over India will be lit by rows of lights. It’s a beautiful sight, but in every religion the real festival of lights is the display within: patience, sympathy, good will, security, selflessness, love, wisdom. What a long row! We can go in the midst of people and they will receive the benefit of this light. One person being patient brightens everything around. Being patient with those who differ from us, with those who oppose us, with those who aren’t patient with us – this is the real meaning of spiritual growth.

We can start doing this from today onward. We may not have much to offer at the outset: two cents’ worth of patience, three cents’ of goodwill, and when it comes to the capacity to return love for hatred, all we may have is an empty piggybank we hope to add to later. It doesn’t matter. Next year, instead of two pennies, we will have five. The year after, we may have a dime. A year or two later, the dime has become a dollar. It takes a lot of hard work, but over a long, long period these capacities grow.

The important thing is to keep trying, day in and day out, in every relationship, doing your very best. Be regular and systematic in your meditation, and sustain your enthusiasm whatever happens. It may not appear that you are making progress. Sometimes you may even feel that you are going backwards. But as long as you keep doing your best, the Gita promises, you will get where you are going: “On this path effort never goes to waste, and there is no failure. Even a little effort toward spiritual awareness will yield protection from the greatest fear.”

I Weave a Silence

I weave a silence onto my lips.

I weave a silence into my mind.

I weave a silence within my heart.

I close my ears to distractions.

I close my eyes to attractions.

I close my heart to temptations.

Calm me, O Lord, as you stilled the storm.

Still me, O Lord; keep me from harm.

Let all tumult within me cease.

Enfold me, Lord, in your peace.

A Gaelic Prayer