View life in the context of death

When someone young, someone close to you passes away, the reality of what life is dawns. As we get engrossed in the daily humdrum of life, fighting petty battles, chasing the next hike, promotion, car, house…, death puts everything in perspective. Life is too short, too fragile, too precious to be wasted in irrelevant, meaningless pursuits.

I have been trying to remember my last meeting with Vishal and for some reason I am not able to remember whether we had met for lunch or was it the drive back home when he was in Bangalore. Irrespective, It just goes to show that I didn't invest my 100% attention in either of those two situations. Conversations - unfinished, unsaid words…..come back to haunt you over and over again.

I met Guruji two weeks back….it was such a solace to hear him….words can't describe it. The knowledge, the practices, the sadhana that we have had been doing as part of the follow up in Art of Living helped me and my wife to a large extent to cope.

For those who are reading this, my only request is to view life in the context of your own death. This is not to turn morbid or fearful. Just to be aware of the impermanance of our own lives and then to give your 100% to everyone and everything around you.

Art of Waking People Up!

“Life’s work is to wake up, to let the things that enter into the circle wake you up rather than put you to sleep. The only way to do this is to be open, be curious, and develop some sense of sympathy for everything that comes along, to get to know its nature and let it teach you what it will. It’s going to stick around until you learn your lesson, at any rate. You can leave your marraige, you can quit your job, you can go where people are going to praise you, you can manipulate your world until you are blue in the face to try to make it always smooth, but the same old demons will always come up until finally you have learned your lesson, the lesson they came to teach you. Then those same demons will appear as friendly, warm-hearted companions on the path.”

Extraced from The Art of Waking People Up by Kenneth Cloak and Joan Goldsmith! 

End of an era?

Is this the end of the Tendulkar era? My heart says no, the head doesn’t agree though! For years I have dropped everything to see him bat. Of late, I wince when I see him bat. Well, all good things come to an end, don’t they? I do hope he doesn’t go the Ganguly route and is given a decent farewell!

Hello WordPress!

I am playing around with wordpress and want to see if I can move my blog to this platform. Two reasons:

a) I like the look and feel of WordPress

b) Saves me money that I was spending with Typepad.

Let me know what you think!

Sat, Mar 04, 2006

Went to this amusement park called Wonderla off Mysore Road today. Loved it. Clean water, hygenic food and great rides!

Leading with Questions

I wrote about questions earlier [here] and [here]. Yesterday I picked up a wonderful book on Leading with Questions waiting to read it on my flight back home.

Meanwhile, if you dear readers have any other references to good articles and books on questioning, inquiry, critical thinking resources etc. please drop in a note or leave a comment. Thanks

Turning Dreams to reality against all odds

There are the dreamers and then there are the doers. This post is about one such person – Dr. Prakash Vinjamuri. An incident in his life early on changed his entire perspective towards life. The result was the birth a dream, a vision that believes in developing informed citizens, so that we have a just society where individuals enjoy good health as a right. 6 years ago, the vision took shape of the form of Life-HRG (Life Health Reinforcement Group)

Life HRG completed 6 years of existence recently and Dr. Prakash was kind enough to email me a report on all the activities they did in the past year. Unlike other NGO, Life-HRG does not have a presence of its on the web though a tripod site does exists, this is a modest effort on my part to summarize their activities out here.

Life-HRG conducts 9 regular activities

1. Urban Clinics run by members of Life HRG – ethical and cost effective health care services are available through these clinics.
2. Rural Clinics: Run every alternate Wednesdays, they primarily serve to limit exploitation and to deliver appropriate health care and to learn what is happening in health care delivery in rural settings.
3. Banana health point: A hunger dispelling and health communication vehicle runs on the principle of sharing food and health information.
4. Mother as Teacher Training Program: An exercise for development of informed citizens in the area of health.
5. Life Discourses: Conducted on every third Sunday of the month, eminent citizens share values and life experiences.
6. Health Days and Annual Day Celebration: Life HRG believes celebration of health days as an opportunity to update and spread message of importance on that day.
7. Community based rehabilitation of the Aged - Life-HRG is convinced that health services should reach doorsteps of aged people. Services are delivered to identified aged people from neighboring slums.
8. Drug Action Forum: Continuous medical education for general practitioners and health personnel for practicing rationality in drug usage.
9. People working with People Forum: A forum to support individuals who opted to work for the society.

Apart from this, Life HRG also has health units that have outreach to the districts surrounding Hyderabad.

1)Women Health Unit:
a. Clinical Services for Women.
b. Resource Center on Contraception and abortion
c. Congregation point for MTTP volunteers
d. Day care center for women
e. Outreach: Medak district.

2)Parent Health Unit:
a. Training and Development Center
b. Resource center for Rationality in Drug Use.
c. Resource center for promotion of Health care of the Aged.
d. Proposed Out Reach: Nalgonda District

3) Amrutha Child Care Institute:
a. Tertiary Health Care Services for NeoNates, Infants and Children
b. Training and Development unit for emergency pediatric care
c. Nutrition rehab unit for children
d. Outreach: Warangal District.

As I mentioned earlier, Prakash gave up his full time practice to bring his dream to a reality and as is true with any such causes, resources – financial and otherwise are hard to come by. All of you who are reading this post and want to make a difference at the grass roots, this is a good opportunity. The money would be put to good use and unlike other NGO’s they operate at negligible overhead cost, so what it means is that the money you donate, goes straight to causes mentioned above. Those willing to support Dr. Prakash in his endeavors can reach out to him at lifehrg@gmail.com or at 040-56550140 9848669840

Be prepared to wait longer at the ATMs

There is no escape…

Earlier this month, the BMP (Bangalore Mahanagar Palike - the corporation) decided to impose what it called a ‘basic infrastructure (where is it?) cess’ and a monthly cess on ’solid waste management’. This is apart from what the BMP collects from its citizen called the Property Tax.

Lest we forget, Petrol in Karnataka costs probably the highest in the country. That is because every FM in Karnataka kept on adding a % point cess over and above the Sales Tax.

Today, the FM rolls out a wonderful scheme, tax the withdrawls from bank! Oops! Did I read it right?  So here is what, I earn a salary, that gets taxed almost 35%, with no returns on the tax paid (such as social security, health etc.) The deductions from salaries that are exempt are laughable. 200 rupees for a kids education! Rs.20,000 as standard deduction for the entire year! To top it, whatever little money that I save in the bank, is now being eyed by the FM! 

With Yoga being brought under the ambit of Services recently, the only thing that is left out is O2. If you have innovative ideas as to how to tax the air, send them to our minsters and councillors….they somehow need to generate revenue!

MSNBC on Art of Living

Check out this 4 minute video on Art of Living course and its benefits.

http://artoflivingaz.org/msnbc_ntsc768.wmv

Next Steps.

We have a short memory.  It probably also has to do with the fact that natural and unnatural calamities strike so many times that we no longer feel about the loss of human lives and the tragedy behind the losses. Once the story becomes stale, the media drops it from the first page and we go about with our business as if nothing had happened.

Rajesh writes

what we must attempt to do is to live our lives well so that we can make a positive difference in the time that we are on Earth.

I do hope this compells us to reflect on our lives and to make whatever changes we ought to.

I also hope that the relief work continues sustainedly over the next 4 to 6 months with the enthusiasm with what it has started till it has reached every one who needs relief.

I do hope that the people do not just donate money and wash their guilt concious away. I do hope that they contribute in more meaningful way so that it touches someone’s life.

I do hope that people do not just donate money and forget about it. I believe that the agencies owe it to their donors to explain where their money was spent and how it was spent.

Meanwhile, If anyone of you know who can help us out with storage space in Bangalore over the period of next 3 to 6 months, do drop me a line. Anyone who knows any Transport agencies that are willing to provide us a discounted delivery from Blr to Chennai, drop me a note. The email is Rajwaghray@gmail.com

Update from Art of Living esatsang group

India:   
——
We welcome non-perishable food, medicines, clothes and financial assistance.

Cheques can be made in favor of IAHV-Disaster Relief Fund. 
Donations are exempt from tax under Section 80 G.
Mr Joseph Enok, IAHV Disaster Relief Committee Member
Old no 43, new no 24, Park Road, Anna Nagar West, Chennai 600101
For further information please contact
Joseph Enok 98410-21936
PK Venugopal 938221-46268
relief@artofliving.org

United States:
————–
Checks in favor of IAHV (Memo: Disaster Relief Fund) can be mailed to
IAHV, 12121 Quadrille Lane, Bowie, MD 20720 
Contact: Madhu Kadari 301-806-7983 madhu@iahv.org 
All donations to IAHV are tax-deductible in United States.