About Arundhati (Genre - Life and Living)

I always wondered about this concept of showing the Arundhati nakshatram during hindu marriages especially in the south. I never understood the significance of the custom which is followed without fail, until today. Read the following article which clarified it. Nice to know, there are people who know the significance and kind enough to share it.

We look up to virtuous people as role models. But, sometimes it happens that those who are virtuous are proud of their good conduct and proud of their devotion to God too. When they display such pride, God does not fail to take them down a peg or two. This was seen in the case of the Saptarishis too, Sarala Rajagopalan said, explaining the significance of the star Arundhati.

The story goes that the Saptarishis became arrogant because they felt that no one could perform penance better than they. Their wives had the idea that there were no women more virtuous than they, and there could be no wives so loyal as they were. Such pride would be inexcusable in anyone, and for sages and their wives to have such pride was unthinkable. So Lord Siva decided to teach them a lesson. So He took the form of Bikshandar. Lord Narayana joined Siva by taking the form of a beautiful woman Mohini.

Since the sages claimed that they were steadfast in their devotion to God and they had no thoughts except thoughts of the Divine, Lord Narayana, as Mohini, decided to test their will power. So He went to the place where the sages were involved in worship. The sages took a look at Mohini's beauty and forgot themselves, and about their penance. They forgot that they should be beacon lights to others through their own upright conduct. They were taken in by Mohini's beauty!

As for their wives, the moment Siva as Bikshandar made His appearance before them, they too began to admire His good looks, forgetting that they had not so long ago claimed that they were among the most virtuous in the land! But among the sages, Vasistha was not tempted by Mohini. And among the women, Arundhati was not tempted by Bikshandar. That is why Arundhati was granted an exalted position. She was made part of the Saptarishi mandalam (the Great Bear constellation), and is seen next to Vasistha in the constellation. At the time of marriage, the bride is asked to see the Arundhati to indicate to her that she should at all times be loyal to her husband. The presence of Arundhati near her husband Vasistha also shows that a husband and wife must always remain united.

Editing Memories (Genre - Life and Living)

The other day as I was browsing through the channels, I stopped by a clipping on the series "Everybody Loves Raymond". I am not very fond of this series, but still decided to watch it as the scene was that of a wedding  - "Robert and Amy". And usually in these type of series there is usually a goof up - like in Friends Series (Ross blurting out the name of his ex - Rachel instead of the bride Emily)

Background - The guy who is the brother of the main character in the series, a very grownup cop living and being taken care of by his overbearing parents esp his sarcastic mother ; which in the context of American lives is an oddity.
Back to the scene - Just when the minister starts reading  the vows he makes a casual remark as to anyone having any objections to the marriage, the mother steps in and objects and says she has a problem although not a real one. Its just about letting her son go !! Finally after lot of talking the couple finally get married.
Cute ending !! Well what I liked happened just after the wedding - it was the toast made by the best man Raymond about "editing our memories" and  "just keeping the good pictures" ; which was beautiful.
I would probably not do justice to what he said ...so please hear it from the horses mouth.

Got me thinking and I am so totally in sync with what he said. Its so important to just remember and keep the good pictures in our mind and edit out the bad ones.In my opinion this is the essence of positive living. This is one thing I really like to follow - cause that's what makes me live a positive life and helps me to look forward for more cherishing relationships.
In trying to live the bad moments we are spoiling and overriding all the good times and making our present more miserable. Like he says use the technology of editing in our heads and block out the bad pictures.
Enough of gyan and melodrama ... :) ; what I also liked about this particular episode was the wedding dance on a song which happens to be one of my favorites. The song is none other than that of Elvis Presley - " A Little less conversation". Cheers and keep up the good memories ... and don't forget to pump up the volume :)

Demonic Hero (Genre - Life and Living)

Who is a hero and how do you identify one ??
Now since its subjective I would limit the scope of the blog to our Indian movies. Here too there are some very unique individuals who are beyond the laws of physics ... like one "Thalaiyva" - he would be termed above hero and close to God !! Lets talk about the more mortal ones.

The definition that I always liked was "Heroes are ordinary men who do extraordinary things in extraordinary times" - this was the tagline for the movie U-571.

The dictionary would probably describe it as follows...,
he·ro   [heer-oh]  noun, plural -roes; for also -ros.
1. a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.
2. a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal: He was a local hero when he saved the drowning child.
3. the principal male character in a story, play, film, etc.
4. Classical Mythology .
a. a being of godlike prowess and beneficence who often came to be honored as a divinity.
b. (in the Homeric period) a warrior-chieftain of special strength, courage, or ability.
c. (in later antiquity) an immortal being; demigod.

That was what I thought till a week ago. Then it changed !!

Happened to see a couple of movies in hindi, tamil and a blockbuster telugu one. The gory set of fights the mindless killing in the name of bashing up the goons - butchering people in the most horrific manner which would probably put the most brutal murders of our times to shame !! I was left wondering if the protagonist even has a conscience ??  He seemed more like the villian when it came to killing people with least hesitation - almost a serial killer. Where is the nobility and righteousness associated with a hero ??

It seemed like the rise of the Demonic Hero - a sweet looking, romantic loverboy turned to a devilish schizophrenic mass murderer !!

To top it I was appalled with the whistling men, swooning and crooning teenage belles, family folks calling him a superstar. It made me feel sick. Do people even realize that in the name of promoting a macho image they are promoting such senseless violence and more importantly justifying split personalities and calling them heros ??
This again translates on the streets to silly and needless machismo by teenagers keen on impressing their equally mesmerised femme-fatal s !!
At this rate and considering the level of ignorance about mental disorders - such personalities would be considered normal even a hero - albeit a demonic one !!
Will the real hero please stand up ?? !!

GPS Lessons (Genre - Life and Living)

One day not too far in the future we will be ruled by the machines and we wouldn't mind it. 

Sarah Connor in Terminator 2 - Judgement Day : "Watching John with the machine, it was suddenly so clear. The terminator wouldn't stop, it would never leave him. It would never hurt him or shout at him or get drunk and hit him or say it was too busy to spend time with him. And it would die to protect him. Of all the would-be fathers that came over the years, this thing, this machine, was the only thing that measured up. In an insane world, it was the sanest choice."

We planned for a long drive this summer we were confident about the road to take as we were sure about our GPS Navigator. We had a bad start with the fuse in the car blowing out and we were without power for the GPS. So we planned to ride half way through to the next major city and fix it which we were confident of finding our way.And the teaching started...,
Once we diverted from the main highway trouble started with all the confusion, different directions, multiple directions you name it and we were a little frustrated with our navigation skills and tempers flared. Until we fixed the fuse and our Navigation God appeared to guide us and lead us to all the destinations we planned without a hitch.
Sitting in the co-drivers seat I often stared at this piece of square screen which blurted out directions in as polite way as possible. The above dialogue from Terminator ran through my head the moment I started thinking about the sanity in choosing a machine to lead our lives.
Some points which came to me, would probably put to shame the famed gurus of our times who seem to waver as soon as they open their so called godly mouths. Still worth pondering about.


1. Let your ego aside !! The biggest and most alluring aspect about the GPS and a lesson for us is to deal with our egos. How often we shout at people who don't listen to what we have to say !! Our ego and superiority complex kicks in. But a GPS would not mind if you decide not to listen to its instructions, its not programmed that way ... so why are we ??
2. Don't be rude !! A GPS will never be rude to you if you don't listen to it. It will pause for a moment of silence and then politely asks you to take an alternative route and it will do that in an equally polite way as many times as required .....and as long as its required to reach the destination. It will always correct itself rather than expecting others to listen to it. In the end our ego is satisfied and the GPS has achieved its objective.The only person we can control is our self, if we can mend our-self to the winding road of life, sailing through without friction would be a breeze.
3. Plan and Organize !! Once fed with the destination, it will not only show the shortest way, it will tell you what routes to avoid and all the pit stops required for the journey including food and fuel. I was fascinated as a child as to how accurate it was and how well organized the program was. Out of curiosity I set it multiple tests to figure our places of interest to check its accuracy - the GPS came trumps every time.I feel in life too if we are sure about our destinations and the pit stops required it would be a breeze to reach where we are headed.
4.Build Trust !! With its accuracy and attitude we reposed immense faith on it. It grew on us to an extent that we trusted it blindly to take us to our destination. As a person we should probably try to build the same kind of ethics and integrity for people to trust us. This one is tough ...but not impossible.

If a machine is measuring up to such high standards of living, then I am sure that we the people who built it are capable of doing it too.Hope we will continue to rule them rather than letting them teach us lessons we taught them.

The Stranger !! (Genre - Life and Living)

A short story which I read and liked to share. Come to think of it how we let these strangers take control over our lives knowingly and unknowingly. Think about it. Author unknown.

A while ago, my Dad met a stranger who was new to our small town. From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer and soon invited him to live with our family. The stranger was quickly accepted and was around from then on.

As I grew up, I never questioned his place in my family. In my young mind, he had a special niche. My parents were complementary instructors: Mom taught me good from evil, and Dad taught me to obey. But the stranger..he was our storyteller. He would keep us spellbound for hours on end with adventures, mysteries and comedies.


If I wanted to know anything about politics, history or science, he always knew the answers about the past, understood the present and even seemed able to predict the future! He took my family to the first major league ball game. He made me laugh, and he made me cry. The stranger never stopped talking, but Dad didn't seem to mind.

Sometimes, Mom would get up quietly while the rest of us were shushing each other to listen to what he had to say, and she would go to the kitchen for peace and quiet. (I wonder now if she ever prayed for the stranger to leave)


Dad ruled our household with certain moral convictions, but the stranger never felt obligated to honor them. Profanity, for example, was not allowed in our home.. Not from us, our friends or any visitors. Our longtime visitor, however, got away with four-letter words that burned my ears and made my dad squirm and my mother blush. My Dad didn't permit the liberal use of alcohol. But the stranger encouraged us to try it on a regular basis. He made cigarettes look cool, cigars manly and pipes distinguished.


He talked freely (much too freely!) about sex. His comments were sometimes blatant, sometimes suggestive, and generally embarrassing.


I now know that my early concepts about relationships were influenced strongly by the stranger. Time after time, he opposed the values of my parents, yet he was seldom rebuked.. And NEVER asked to leave.


More than fifty years have passed since the stranger moved in with our family. He has blended right in and is not nearly as fascinating as he was at first. Still, if you could walk into my parents' den today, you would still find him sitting over in his corner, waiting for someone to listen to him talk and watch him draw his pictures.

Categorically, he destroyed all the moral values, ethics, love, time for each other and other good qualities we had in our family..whilst adding some unnoticeable quantity of positive stuff also, which any way we would have had even without him.. His name?.. .. .

We just call him 'TV.'

He has a wife now..We call her 'Computer.'
Their first child is "Cell Phone".
Second child "I Pod"

What Will Matter ? (Genre - Life and Living)

What Will Matter: Michael Josephson
Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end.
There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours, or days.
All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else.
Your wealth, fame, and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.
It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.
Your grudges, resentments, frustrations, and jealousies will finally disappear.
So too, your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do lists will expire.
The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.
It won't matter where you came from or what side of the tracks you lived on at the end.
It won't matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.
Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.

So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built; not what you got, but what you gave.
What will matter is not your success, but your significance.
What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.
What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage, or sacrifice that enriched, empowered, or encouraged others to emulate your example.
What will matter is not your competence, but your character.
What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you're gone.
What will matter is not your memories, but the memories that live in those who loved you.
What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom, and for what.

Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident.
It's not a matter of circumstance but of choice

Monsters Inc. (Genre - Life and Living)

There was a wonderful girl who had a dark secret - she was afraid to sleep. If she slept she would have nightmares of monsters chasing her in dark forbidden alleyways.Every night the story was the same, she would go to sleep and then there were hideous monsters chasing her whereever she goes. She had no idea why the monsters were haunting her and never let her sleep in peace. It affected her life a lot and coz she did not sleep she was not active during the day and was termed as a dull head. The problem was affecting her so much, that she contemplated taking her life to get rid of these monsters in her dreams.
One day while she was being chased by a giant, gory looking beast she ended up in a dead end and she had no where to run. She turned around and summoned enough courage to ask the monster " WHY ?? WHY ARE YOU CHASING ME IN MY DREAMS ?? what have I done to you ?? " To this the monster looked at her all confused scratching its head.... and said ...hmmmm..I donno ..its YOUR DREAM....and vanished ....!!! And the girl happily slept ever after.
How often we fail to see the monsters in our head which keep clawing into our peace of mind ... big questions with small consequences - Whats if, this happened ??,what if that happened ?? what will I do ?? How will I cope ?? - We seem to be so preoccupied with answering these questions over and over in our head that we stop living life like the way we want to.
So you see where I am getting at ... the problems we dread to come face to face with are monsters within our heads ..just a bit of courage to turn and face it with a little leap of faith in yourself and they would vanish.
Sweet dreams ever after !! :)

The 3 A's of awesome (Genre - Life and Living)

Here is a nice video, I saw about the 3 A's of Awesome ...

Attitude - Awareness - Authenticity !! Check the Video to know about it

Neil Pasricha: The 3 A's of awesome |

A Brand New Day !! (Genre - Life and Living)

A new year begins ... so starting it with some refreshing lines .... !! Come to think of if why do we have to make resolutions only once a year and forget it within a few days ? why celebrate your birthday once a year  ?? Every day is as good and as brand new as it was yesterday and will be the same every other day. So try to live each day as the only day ... and over a period you would have little to regret about.
If each and every moment we endeavor to make the day special, loving thy neighbors, make every person you meet, Smile :)  make an effort not to hurt anyone (intentionally, I mean) ...life would be bliss... wouldn't it ...??... back to reality ... nice to read but hard to follow ...so why not make the following resolution every morning and see if  its so hard to miss the bliss ??


Today, when I awoke, I suddenly realized that this is the best day of my life, ever!
There were times when I wondered if I would make it to today; but I did!
And because I did I'm going to celebrate!  Today, I'm going to celebrate what an
unbelievable life I have had so far: the accomplishments, the many blessings,
and, yes, even the hardships because they have served to make me stronger.
I will go through this day with my head held high, and a happy heart.
I will marvel at the seemingly simple gifts: the morning dew,
the sun, the clouds, the trees, the flowers, the birds. 
Today, none of these miraculous creations will escape my notice.
Today, I will share my excitement for life with other people. 
I'll make someone smile.
Today, I'll give a sincere compliment to someone who seems down. 
Today is the day I quit worrying about what I don't have and start
being grateful for all the wonderful things already given to me.
I'll remember that to worry is just a waste of time because faith 
ensures everything will be just fine.
And tonight, before I go to bed,
I'll go outside and raise my eyes to the heavens.
I will stand in awe at the beauty of the stars and the moon,
and I will praise for these magnificent treasures.
As the day ends and I lay my head down on my pillow,
I will thank my lucky stars for the best day of my life. 
And I will sleep the sleep of a contented child, excited with expectation
because I know tomorrow is going to be the best day of my life, ever!

Spiral Eye Needle Lesson (Genre - Life and Living)

They say that sometimes the best solution to a complicated problem is usually a simple one. And in most of the cases its usually the lazy one who has the Eureka moment to solving the problem. I was reading an article on a simple solution to an age old problem and ended up thinking why did it take so long to create. My mothers and aunts way of testing if I had good eye sight and patience was to give me a sewing needle and asking me to thread it. Good marksman would get the maneuvering thread through the eye of a sewing needle in the first shot.  But why make it so difficult, that elders rely  on youngsters to do it. Thats precisely what happened with one Pam Turner and she created the Spiral Eye Needle. 

To thread the Spiral Eye needle, you drape the thread over the needle shaft then pinch it to form a loop around the needle. You slide the looped thread with your fingers towards the eye of the needle. When the thread catches in the slot you stop sliding, and tug the thread into the groove. You then move the thread towards the point and back around the tongue and voila – the thread is through the eye of the needle. So simple and effective even a blind person would thread it. Perfect !!
Come to think of it, the reason probably nobody looked into it for so long might be because it was too small a problem for someone to think about it, and there was a perfectly viable solution available. But now that we have an alternative to it ... the earlier solution of passing the thread through the eye - seems imperfect.
How different is it to lifes problems - which sometimes seem too complex to handle ; We sometimes seem like a thread too big to pass through the complex and tiny opening of lifes needle. Instead of changing the needle with a positive attitude we shed out anxiety to pass through the eye. All we need to do probably is to relax and look at the problem in every possible way to find a meaningful solution and pass the thread effortlessly. If nothing else atleast we would have the satisfaction of having tried ; and anyhow there is always the solution of sharpening ourselves to pass through the eye of life.
Next time we think of a complex problem think of the Spiral Eye Needle and its lesson.

Humility Pays (Genre - Life and Living)

Humility pays ...honestly ... !! If I could quote an example or rather two .. then the Quarter finals of FIFA World Cup, would be it. Two bragging world giants beaten by modest but equally talented sides - Netherlands beat Brazil and Germany massacred Argentina. 
Both Brazil and Argentina are ranked 2 and 1 respectively - both had reputed names with the current number 1 and 2 players in their teams. These nations are passionate and crazy about soccer. But one thing they lacked before the quarter final, according to me, was humility - I read some news clippings where they boasted of their capabilities are made some chest thumping remarks totally uncalled for .... all to what end ... being dragged to the ground from cloud 9 with stunning defeats and now digging dirt to hide their faces.
Human nature often seems  to forget that in the end its a one on one battle and usually its not the stronger or faster man who wins - but its usually the one who work and play as a team and who believe they can.
The advantage of humility and modesty is obvious - some might call it pessimistic - either you are pleasantly surprised by your win or you are humbled by a better side and end up not having your foot in the mouth.
Now what I just wrote not only applies to soccer or cricket or at any macro level but at a micro individual levels too. Quotes which explains it better...I like the second quote.
There are a billion people in China.  It's not easy to be an individual in a crowd of more than a billion people.  Think of it.  More than a BILLION people.  That means even if you're a one-in-a-million type of guy, there are still a thousand guys exactly like you.  ~A. Whitney Brown, The Big Picture
And
Modesty is the lowest of the virtues, and is a confession of the deficiency it indicates.  He who undervalues himself is justly overvalued by others.  ~William Hazlitt

Yin n Yang (Genre - Life and Living)

Two epics - two remakes - one message. Past week had me revisiting two of India's greatest epics Ramayana and Mahabharat. No I am not talking about the Ramanad Sagar and B.R Chopra versions but Mani Ratnam and Prakash Jha in their own versions of Raavan and Rajneeti. 
I am not writing a review of these movies, critics have done their job, but what struck me was the amazing parleys with an age old concept in Chinese philosophy called the Yin and Yang.
Well for beginners the above image is what people associate Yin and Yang with, and in simple words it describes how polar or seemingly contrary forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world, and how they give rise to each other in turn.Many natural dualities — e.g. dark and light, female and male, low and high, cold and hot — are thought of as manifestations of yin and yang. Ok, if that seems hi-funda, let me break it down further White universally stands for purity and Black stands for mystical dark forces - the opposites. If you see the above symbol you see a black spot in a predominantly white area and a white spot in a predominantly black area. Both of them seem to be in the opposite directions. In layman terms it means there is evil the purest of hearts and there is purity even in the most evil of minds and in totality a divine balance !
It seemed to be like both the protagonists in the movie Samar Pratap (Ranbir Kapoor) and  Beera (Abhishek Bachan) displayed this fine variation of evil within the good and the good within the evil balance.
Whats good I seemed to ask whether to be all evil and little good or all good and little evil ?? Well if you go by both the movies .. none ...why ?? because neither Ranbir nor Abhishek get the pretty ladies ... Katrina and Ash...and one gets branded as a conniving cheat and other gets shot ... :P 
Pun aside..the moral of the story as far as I am concerned is that no one is born good or bad... including our mythological Gods ...and the forces of good and evil are within us and ideally should be controlled by us rather than being controlled by them. Its usually the situation you are in that brings the good or bad out. Mastering the Yin and Yang would be difficult but thats what determines which force is dominant within us and on which side you wish to be counted on. May the force be with you :) 


Passing shot : Life is a grindstone ; whether it grinds you down or polishes you up - depends on what you are made up of !!

Luck By Chance (Genre - Life and Living)

Why is it that sometimes I feel life prompts me to think and ponder on things and eventually blog my thoughts ? The ominously strange string of incidents makes me ponder, if there is an invisible hand setting things up !! I read the news papers sometime back- it said there was a lone survivor amongst 103 dead people from a plane crash.He survived with nothing more than fractures. Nothing short of a miracle the papers claim and some others say the boy was very lucky !! A few days back, I was forced to watch the movie "Luck" which also deals with a bunch of rare and fortunate people who have discovered their karmic luck and wager it for their lives. One of my favorite movie is Unbreakable .. where there is lone survivor from a train crash and he discovers the meaning of that - a quite and  deeply subjective movie. And then there was the movie Luck By Chance...where an obscure wanna be actor ends up being the unlikely hero of a movie after a string of unsuspecting incidents. 
Do you believe in Luck ? What is luck ? The dictionary defines it as "Luck or fortuity is a belief in good or bad fortune in life caused by accident chance, and attributed by some to reasons of faith or superstition, which happens beyond a person's control" is it ?? or is it just a gamblers fallacy ?
Well if you ask me, if we rule out miracles like the lone survivor mentioned above ...then luck in simple terms is being in the right place at the right time and most importantly doing the right thing. Being in the right place and right time - well its sort of beyond our control - but doing the right thing ... well thats certainly within our control.
And how does one do the right thing and what is the right thing to do ?? ... well thats the million dollar question - I can tell you that I have done the homework and spell it out ..... but since nobody is giving me a million dollars ... I will try to keep it to myself ... not fair you say ?? ok...ok... I shall try to give the broader picture and if you are smart enough you shall figure the rest out by yourself.
Be Positive - there is nothing called a bad day and every day can be as good as you want it to be. Example-of someone who trips on the sidewalk and twists her ankle. An unlucky person would probably take that as an example of yet another piece of bad luck. A lucky person would probably say that it shows how lucky she is that she didn't break her ankle or worse. Being positive will attract more positive energy from the universe which in turn brings the best in you.
Visualization - Normal Vincent Peale in one of his book says "Dream", "Believe" and "Expect" - well this is nothing but visualization of your end results. You ought to believe that you will receive what you want - coz the fundamentally its all about generating confidence ; As W. Clement Stone said, "Whatever the mind of man 
can conceive and believe, it can achieve". 
Attitude - I dont have to mention this, there are thousands of quotes on this ;This is an offshoot of the first point but still worth mentioning coz without the right attitude no matter how lucky you think you are - you are going no where !! Having the right attitude is a skill in itself and if you ask me this would be the first step to being lucky.
Grooming and mannerisms - Again I would say this is part of being positive and having the right attitude ; Not many people think this acts as a luck generator ; it DOES NOT generate luck ..but it surely facilitates it. Whats the point if lady luck is in front of you and you stink like a skunk ?? get my point ??
Spirituality - I like calling this the "X" factor and I am not talking about religion here ... spirituality transcends religion and is on a different plane altogether. Its an "X" factor coz i cannot describe it as eloquently as I would like but I cannot help but to assert that spirituality does bring about a sense of zen into the whole luck thing.
Live in the present- People often dwell on mistakes of the past, thinking about the bad luck that put them in their present unlucky situation. Lucky people, on the other hand, look to the future. They don't waste time or energy beating themselves up about things that they can't change.Make the present wonderful and it shall lead to some really memorable past in the future.
Thats about it from my end..Can you think of any other factors which contribute to your luck ?? Please do share by posting a comment.
If you notice, all the points mentioned relate to YOU - You are the luck generator you are looking for ; Time to rev up the engine and spread the luck around !!

Touch 'n' Go (Genre - Life and Living)

Its so ironic that sometimes the people who seem to touch you the most are the ones you have never met. Past couple of days has been a constant reminder for that. I have the habit of listening to radio on my way to office and back from it. One particular show which I am fond of listening is the "Full to bindass" on 93.5 RedFM, mainly because of the bindass RJ Prateeka. Two days back she announced that she was quitting the show to pursue her masters in US....ideally it shouldnt matter ...but it did. The response to that was overwhelming ...making people beg, cry, scold, write poems, take autogrpahs, profess love to her and what not ?? ..... just to make her stay. I don't know why.. but to tell you the truth I too felt bad that I wouldnt be listening to her bubbly comments and real whacko college lingo and some soul searching thoughts and way down to earth attitude.It was a real treasure of experience in human emotions - hardly you get to know about unknown faces breaking down for an unknown face...just connected by the airwaves of the radio ....in front of millions of listeners. It speaks a lot about the need to be heard, someone to just listen to your mundane problems and offer a shoulder to hang on and advise and tell you ... 'Its ok'...however sarcastic it might be. Kind of the Munnabhai and his Gandhigiri on radio .... !!

I have not seen her, never called her show then how is it that I feel the connection ?? In Avataar the movie, they say that all life forms are connected - in the movie they show it in the form of a jungle being interconnected, there you just plug into a tree or an animal and you feel the vibrations free two way of emotions. Thats a very beautiful concept or is it reality ?? It shows the need of one for the other. The balance of mankind depends on such connections and bonding which seems to be beyond our visible 5 senses.Like in the movie we as humans have become so selfish and superfulous that we never feel the need to plug into the network of emotions and it takes a radio show to remind people how important emotions are and how important its to empathize with each and every living creature on the planet.
And like she always says on the show ... be happy and make others happy !!

RJ Prateeka .. you rock !! All the best for your future ... !!! Cheers !! :)

Who am i ? (Genre - Life and Living)

The greatest explorer on this earth never takes voyages as long as those of the man who descends to the depth of his heart. ~Julien Green

I read this quote and fell in love with it instantly, how often have we tried to know who we really are and how many of us have asked this question; Who am I ?
I know the standard reply would me Mr./Miss/Ms. Xyz , S/D/W/o . So and So. Agreed and I am not denying it, but when it comes to knowing yourself the reply would be a fact which is 100% true and 100% useless.
But if you were to ask me, I would say that is the self for others , it’s a reference point for others to call you to identify your place in the society and merely that. Lot of wise people have said, before you endeavour to understand others its imperative that you understand yourself. More often than not, we are perplexed with whats happening around us rather than whats happening within us. And the answer also lies within us.
Rainer Maria in the “Letters to a young poet” has mentioned this beautifully.
Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given to you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will find them gradually, without noticing it, and live along some distant day into the answer.
So on searching a bit, I came across a set of simple questions which you ask yourself and which tries to answer the mother of all questions. Who am I ??
Without much ado, I shall let you take the questionnaire, but this set comes with rules of its own.
1. Since these are questions which is about you, you don’t have to and ideally you should not share it with others. These questions are by you, to you & for you .... :). I am not saying this to be secretive or anything, the bottomline is “No one will understand it”. What you are going through and how you feel, no one is capable of understanding it other than yourself. So no point in sharing it with others .
2. Take it when you are in a mood for introspection and ideally alone, if you wish you can write down the answers. Sometimes it you might have a conflict, write down both the conflicting opinions.
3. When I was going through the questions the first time, I noticed a sort of defiance from my ego, which refused to accept the obvious answer. It was a knee jerk reaction by the mind. But since it was me and only me I tried to soothe the ego and then the mind started seeing things differently. So you see the more honest you are with answering these questions the better results you would see. RESULTS ?? When did I talk about results ? well the result is a better you.
4. Don’t cheat…be honest, since no one is going to judge you or taunt you or appreciate you answer these questions honestly, without 'prejudice to yourself 'and hopefully you will realize your true self and answer some of the questions which you knew were bothering you but you never came to terms with it.
5. These questions can be answered in the “Yes” and “No” . But I would recommend you answering with as many examples or instances which you think applies to it. That way you can prove it was just not your ego answering it.
6. Some question might not make sense when you read it once, read it again. Keep it pending, read the other questions and come back to the pending ones later.
7. Take your time to answer, don’t expect to unravel yourself at the end of the questionnaire …its just the beginning.
All the best, I hope you find atleast some answers to the question-“Who am I ?” To the question of your life you are the answer, and to the problems of your life you are the solution. ~Joe Cordare


Questions to ask yourself..!
1. Why not me?
2. Am I nice?
3. Am I doing what I really want to do?
4. What am I grateful for?
5. What’s missing in my life?
6. Am I honest?
7. Do I listen to others?
8. Do I work hard?

9. Do I help others?

10. What do I need to change about myself?

11. Have I hurt others?

12. Do I complain?

13. What’s next for me?

14. Do I have fun?

15. Have I seized opportunities?

16. Do I care about others?

17. Do I spend enough time with my family?

18. Am I open-minded?

19. Have I seen enough of the world?

20. Do I judge others?

21. Do I take risks?

22. What is my purpose?

23. What is my biggest fear?

24. How can I conquer that fear?

25. Do I thank people enough?

26. Am I successful?

27. What am I ashamed of?

28. Do I annoy others?

29. What are my dreams?

30. Am I positive?

31. Am I negative?

32. Is there an afterlife?

33. Does everything happen for a reason?

34. What can I do to change the world?

35. What is the most foolish thing I’ve ever done?

36. Am I cheap?

37. Am I greedy?

38. Who do I love, self or others?

39. Who do I want to meet?

40. Where do I want to go?

41. What am I most proud of?

42. Do I care what others think about me?

43. What are my talents?

44. Do I utilize those talents?

45. What makes me happy?

46. What makes me sad?

47. What makes me angry?

48. Am I satisfied with my appearance?

49. Am I healthy?

50. What was the toughest time in my life?

51. What was the easiest time in my life?

52. Am I selfish?

53. What was the craziest thing I did?

54. What is the craziest thing I want to do?

55. Do I procrastinate?

56. What is my greatest regret?

57. What has had the greatest impact on my life?

58. Who has had the greatest impact on my life?

59. Do I stand up for myself?

60. Have I settled for mediocrity?

61. Do I hold grudges?

62. Do I read enough?

63. Do I listen to my heart?

64. Do I donate enough to the less fortunate?

65. Do I pray only when I want something?

66. Do I constantly dwell on the past?

67. Do I let other people’s negativity affect me?

68. Do I forgive myself?

69. When I help someone do I think “What’s in it for me”?

70. Am I aware that someone always has it worse than me?

71. Do I smile more than I frown?

72. Do I surround myself with good people?

73. Do I take time out for myself?

74. Do I ask enough questions?

75. What other questions do I have?

Life Lessons from a Star (Genre - Life and Living)

The other day I was watching a tamil blockbuster movie Padayappa, starring the legend "Rajnikanth" - and thoughts began forming in my mind. Thats when I decided I need to pen them into a blog. Having decided to write one, I have been thinking about the stereotypes in movies and relation between reel and real life.May be I am halucinating but there seems to be some kind of parleys between the two. 
For starters I took the example of three of my favourite stars  Amitabh bachan, Kamal hasan and Rajnikanth. AB has been initially sterotyped as an angry young man and that reference has hardly been altered over decades of actors in the industry - come to think of it ; AB was know to be a hot headed man during the 70's with his penchant for being very fussy onthe sets(ref: Zanjeer, Deewar etc.,)- he later migrated to do complex love stories (Ref : silsila, Khabhi Khabhi) followed recently by movies with strained family ties ( Mohabattein, KKKG  etc.,) which strangely seems to coincide with his personal life at that point of  time. Coming to Kamal Hasan - this is one hell of a versatile actor with a penchant for doing very complicated characters in twistingly complex situation we only hope one does not encounter in real life, and the best part it he does it with elan and conviction to silence the best of critics - the movies that come to my mind are numerous ( Mahanadi, Nayagan, Thevar magan, Anbe sivam...boy almost all his movies are complicated !!) now coming to his personal life ... its complicated ... with his 2 and half spouses and interestingly placed children. Now I cant help but think do they select the roles based on its complexity just because they themselves identify with the situation and are able to deliver so much conviction into their roles due to what happens in their personal lives ?? You may call me biased with the movies .. may be I am but I am talking about the blockbuster movies of those years. 
Before I become more serious and divert the attention from the main protagonist of this blog - "Thalaiva"- hmm... yea the main story is yet to begin ... what you just read happens to be the boring introduction to art movies wish it would end sooner than later... and wait for the raunchy item numbers, action sequence and punch dialouges !! Kanna ....how is it possible to write an article on superstar and forget his punch ..right ??  
Well the introduction was meant to introduce the stereotype heros .. and what is Rajni's stereotype ? In my opinion .. he makes being the loser and underdog and his effort to trump life..real good. I think his movies which have ripped the box office many have been those where people have given him a raw deal and how he comes toppers in all the situations. For that matter if you look at his personal life too, the transformation from Sivaji Rao Gaekwad to superstar is anything but coincidental to the movies... dont you think .. exactly what I was trying to imply in my intro ... ahh .. now you see the point ??
There have been other actors who have potrayed this role, but he makes it look good. No matter how many times I see "Padayappa", "Arunachalam", "Mutthu", "Basha", "Sivaji" - I just feel good at the end of it. Coupled with his punch lines which seem to have meaning beyond the four corners of the movie and spread across the way to live your life makes it all the more enchanting. 
Here are a compilation of some of his famous dialouges and the hidden meanings I see in them. I may be wrong...but do I care .... naaaa !!
Annamalai - “Naan solrathaiyum seiven, sollathathiyum seiven.” (“I will do what I  say, I will also do what I don’t say.”) - If you promise someone something, you better keep it and its always a good idea that you deliver more than what you promise.That makes people trust you and ensure that they can count on you in times when they need you. At the same time dont say anything you cannot fulfill.
Basha -“Naan oru dhadavai sonna nooru dhadavai sonna madhiri.” ("What I say once is equivalent to saying it to a 100 times") - When you say something have total conviction in it, that other dont ask you to repeat it.Conviction comes from confidence and confidence comes from a clear conscience.
Muthu -“Naan eppa varuven, eppadi varuvennu yarukkum theriyadhu, aana varavendiya neratthil correct-ange varuven.”( No one knows when or how I come, but will make it when its rightly required) - Well you must be thinking I am crazy but to me it sounded more like Morpheaus telling Neo in The Matrix - "You are in here at this time and place for a reason, you saw exactly what you should see and you heard exactly what you were supposed to hear and you said exactly what you need to say - there are no ironies in life and everything happens as per a larger plan - things will become more clear as time progresses. So you see in life you are the right person in the right place in the right time...always...provided you see it positively!! There are no mistakes in life-just ask any wise man in his death bed - if his life makes any sense to him .... and he would say he now can connect all the dots.
Arunachalam- “Andavan solran. Arunachalam seiran.” (Gods instructs and Arunachalam executes)- Have you ever observed that the more you try to take control of life and situation  into your hands the more out of control it gets and the moment you hand over the reins to the one above and stop forcing circumstances to change the way you like it -everything falls in place..albeit in a span of time. One of the physics priciple which comes to my mind  "Resistance leads to friction and friction leads to heat" !! Cant help but to think we are mere pawns in a larger game of life.
Padayappa - “En vazhi...thani vazhi.” ( My way is a unique way) This happens to be my all time favourite movie of Rajni and its littered with memorable lines all over the movie though I choose this one coz I feel its the one others should try to be.Though most people follow the footsteps of others, the path of righteous principles one creates for oneself should be one such that others follow it.When one sets principles, it somehow feels that the whole world is set to detract you from those said principles - but the one who sticks to it will be the one remembered till the end.
Baba -“Gatham, gatham" (Past is past) This was one pathetic movie !! but the wisdom pearl it leaves is a profound one. Any moment which has touched the realms of past cannot be altered, no matter how good, bad or ugly you have been, no amount of power or wealth will get it back to you for a correction. So its just futile to fret about it, instead we should concentrate on the current moment with a view to the future. If we manage to make this moment memorable it will automatically translate to a beautiful past.
Now when I read the above blog it reads like a politicians bhashan :), I feel I have convinced myself in writing the way I wrote with rose tinted glasses- for others who have seen those movies - it must be pure entertainment value or just silly people blabbering. Thats the beauty of life, it looks exactly like the way you want it to look. The sooner people realise that the power in ones hand, the sooner they shall learn to wield it.
Feel free to add your favourite quotes from movies and which you think has a deeper meaning in it.

Past Perfect,Future Tense (Genre - Life & Living)

Its so amazing that when someone utters some innocent sounding words, it sometimes leaves such a profound impact on people. Well something like that happened to me - when someone innocently corrected my grammar -  It seemed to decipher life's grammar in my head. It got my head spinning for a couple of days and seemed to put into perspective what and how we see life. It got me involved enough to pen a poem on my thoughts...


Past Perfect, Future Tense 
By Vipin
When a lady corrected my lame grammar sense,
she said its Past Perfect and not Future Tense.
In innocence she uttered such profound words,
it seemed so apt for life, seemingly unheard.
Our mind tells us, what happened is for the good,
Past was perfect, an imperfect lifes soul food.
With its unpredictability we are tensed about the future,
unknowingly its our fears that we care to nurture.
The future cannot be controlled, neither can the past,
the wise men have always said that, they all seem type cast.
But in all the past and the future, our present we forget,
its something once lost, we will never again - get.
Its so easy to forget what we have in our hand,
its OUR today, make it memorable and possibly grand.
Thats the way to enjoy life in its full glory,
a precursor to life's perfect past, a life without worry.
So for a happy life we control our "Present Sense",
stop living in the "Past Perfect" or "Future Tense".