The American President Hopeful

What a change this would be, if an african (kenyan roots) american takes on the mantle.....

Wowwww

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewc0srSKj78

Seva, Sadhana and Satsang

I am trying to find my Vashistha's Yoga book. It must be here somewhere

(http://www.amazon.com/Vasisthas-Yoga-Venkatesananda/dp/0791413640/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203817441&sr=8-1)

I believe this is the greatest spiritual work ever written. Of course, I have not traversed the length and breadth of spiritual literature to make this statement, as an authority. Its a strong belief, thats all.

I am yet to complete reading this book though. Every page is a dweller. I read a page and end up spending hours appreciating the obvious stated and fathoming the subtlety. The book is very well translated in simple english.

In the first or the second chapter, the book mentions about the Seva, Sadhana and Satsang. I have diligently been trying to increase the above three S'. Guru Rishi Pragya explains the three S's very well in this link

http://guruvaani.wordpress.com/2008/02/19/talk-on-sadhana-satsang-and-seva-by-rishi-nitya-pragya-ji/

More later...

Variety at the workplace

My immediate client counterpart grew up in the Soviet Union. Part of her growing up in Belarus, was watching bollywood movies in cinema theatres. Well, american movies were banned and bollywood movies were the nonsensical comical dramas, without any political overtones, which the government thought would be safe for its people. Dubbed in russian, along with the song and dance routines, brought people respite from the rigmaroles of the daily struggle. When she enquired what my weekend plans were, and on learning that possibly I would watch a hindi movie, trigerred her curiosity yet again. So are they still the same dance and music routines, she asked? And that is when, I came to know her tryst with bollywood movies, when she was growing up.

Another client colleague from the same project is a german. A young guy, must be the same age as me, very hardworking,. He was with us two weeks ago, but then went back to work from the Frankfurt office, for two reasons. One, that was part of the project plan, so that he could work with his manager there for a while, before heading back (he is coming back next monday) to the project location. And second, he was due for his final exam of the long distance MBA program that he has been diligently pursuing, for the last 4 years ! Apart from learning about the miserable weather patterns of Frankfurt, I got to hear many anecdotes about europe and its denizens. One of them was about a Jan 31st tradition, when women go bersek and start chopping off men's neckties, if one is wearing one. This bizzare tradition is very well practiced. According to the women, thats the day when they symbolically try to subdue men's power ! Men, on that day, wear ties that are very old and haggard, deserving a complete chop.

The next client associate that we work with is a chinese of vietnamese origin! She is again the same age as me, but a bit more crazier, I feel. She mumbles in her work ! Hardworking again, on the job all the time, but keeps talking to herself on every task. I think its the translation thats going on. She must be translating all work processes coded and discussed in english, into vietnamese, decoding it syllable by syllable and then functioning. She doesnt say much about vietnam or china or about other things. And when she is under stress, trying to deliver something on time, she goes on a binging spree. We have some snacks in the corner for hunger pangs (I stay away from them), and she devours them under stress, chatting along to herself at the same time. She is adorable.

My client manager, I am told has her roots from Ukraine. Another client planning manager has greek origins.

As I spend time working on this project, sitting in a conference room, somewhere in a suburb close to chicago, I learn so many facets of life and lifetimes, of other people. I learn about societies, customs, ideologies, notions. I am fascinated, how every day can be so much more....

The daily train journey

Although this blog is for me to post experiences that I have in the US of A, this week, I am kinda reminiscing about Bombay. I couldnt help but write something about an unique trait of the city of Mumbai, and what better or worse, than the Mumbai Local Trains.

Growing up in Mumbai and living mostly in the suburbs, makes you rely heavily on public transport to reach your college or workplace or the bank. Even if you had a car, you wouldnt want to take it out. It would take forever.

Mumbai is a long stretch of land, surrounded by the Arabian Sea. South Mumbai is the area with the fancy spots, whereas the north was the dungeon. Every morning, scores would leave their dungeons to go to work. And the fastest way to reach their goal, was to take the overcrowded local train network.

The train service, one of the most efficient services provided by the government is outdated technology, but yet functional and very much the life line. Each day, traveling on those trains, is a crash course in time management, people handling, health management, 'saving your mind' management, optimization, survival skills, and more. It could also lead to depression, stress, anxiety, cravings, and easy access to suicidal opportunities.

One of my favorite sights on the train, was that of a tall man hanging on to his newspaper neatly folded into many layers, so that the end product is a 15 * 15 cm square piece that he holds skillfully with a strong grip of his left fingers, whereas the right arm dangles, holding the overhead support. He is surrounded by other commuters on all sides, not at a safe distance, but clinging on to him or sticking to him. The shorter ones probably have their heads sticking out under the arm pits of the taller neighbour. Most of them end up breathing air, which is polluted with a generous dosage of body odour. Well, amidst all the chaos, when the train has started moving and is probably about ten mins away from the next station, calmness is restored. The tall man, focuses his attention to his reading material and reads every line on it. The interesting facet is that on the other side, another person too is reading the back side of same square literature. The untold agreement always amazed me. If the bearer of the newspaper finishes his section and wishes to unscramble the newspaper and then fold it back to a different section to read further, he asks the stranger on the other side, if its ok to do so. The stranger might ask the tall man to hold on as he still has the last bit on aishwariya rai to complete. Why would the newspaper owner be curteous enough to check on the other person? Probably because, on the next train journey, he might be on the other side, reading tidbits off another stranger's newspaper and hoping that the favor would be returned.