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.”

Last Friday was Guru Poornima and I was fortunate to be present in the local celebration at Hospet where Shri Naikji conducted a special Guru Puja and sang some scintillating bhajans.

Attached image has Guruji’s message (transcribed in Hindi) I do not have the exact english translation, so if any reader of the blog can kindly translate and leave the translation in English, I would greatly appreciate it.

Both Lepakshi and Kabini were travel trips, but I was at Hospet to conduct an Apex program and very fortunately the customer wanted the course between 7 and 3.30PM leaving me free for the evening and I utilized the opportunity to visit Hampi twice. I had heard about it several times, but this was my first visit to Hampi and I now know why everyone makes such a great deal about this place.

And for the first time I wished I had a camera with me.

The place is stunningly beautiful and no words nor any camera can do any justice to the place. I could never imagine that there could be such a beauty in ruins!! And the vivid image of the Vijaya Vittalla temple ensconced within the miles and miles of stunning hillocks! (See this pan-image to get an idea of ruins of Hampi)  Just can’t wait to get back to this place with my family!

Last week we drove down to Lepakshi - a small town in Anantapur District of AP and about 120Kms (~ 2 hours of drive) from Bangalore. Worth a visit to take a look at the architecture marvel of the Veerabadhra temple. Pack your own lunch for there is hardly any place for the visitor at Lepakshi.

And then it was onto Kabini for a night’s visit. This was our second visit to Kabini and it was worth it. The weather mercifully held up and we did get to see quite a few animals including a new born baby elephant and a whole lot of birds!

I leave for Hospet tonight to teach the Apex program and have a busy rest of the month with couple of more courses scheduled, so posts will be slow to come by!

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?

Recently saw a big snake crossing the service road in HRBR layout and last week a 7 feet long snake made its way into one of our friends house and then I come across this post:

Every moment around Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is a lesson in the Art of Living!
I heard this latest story from Sangeeta Jani-

Recently a big King Cobra had been lying inside a water pipe in Guruji’s Kutir.
When Guruji realised that the the snake had not moved for a couple of days, he had the snake gently removed from the pipe and called a veterinary doctor. The doctor diagnosed the problem as that of food poisoning. Guruji was so concerned about the health of the snake that he had the snake moved to an intensive care unit in a veterinary hospital in Bangalore.
This is another glimpse of our master’s unconditional love. His love is constant, be it male or female, rich or poor, human or animal.

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!

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.

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i//msnbc/Components/spectra/index.html

[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….