Reflections

When the Tides get rough and life gets tough Just hang on for life goes on Let the spirit of a mountain be the spirit of your life Let the song of a river be the song on your lips Clouds may pass, leaving you lost Endure my dear troubles never last!

This one has been going on in the back of my mind for a few weeks. Finally managed to close this around Saraswathi Pooja. Could not get the right "Sa" in the last para, purists please forgive me. I did start writing something about Saraswathi and Ayudha pooja but have not had the patience to complete it. வேதம் நான்கின் சாறெடுத்து உபநிடதங்கள் பொருள் சேர்த்து எளிமையாக வழி வகுத்து கண்ணன் தந்த ஆரமுது ஆடைகள் போல் உடல் மாறும் அழியாதது ஆன்மா என்று அழகான விளக்கம் தந்த அச்சுதனின் அறிவமுது பக்தியென்றும் ஞானமென்றும் மார்க்கங்கள் இருந்தாலும் இவையேதும் அறியாத பாமரமனும் முக்தி பெற இனிமையான வழி சொன்ன பரந்தாமன் பெரும் படைப்பு பலனைப் பற்றி எண்ணாமல் கடமை தன்னை செய்து வந்தால் கண்ணன் அடி ஸேர்ந்திடலாம் என்று புதுமையான பொருள் சொன்ன வாசுதேவன் நற்படைப்பு

Life is all about living in the present. The past is always a comfort zone where one can hide. The future is something most of mankind cannot comprehend. Then how does one stay as fresh as a flower or the cool breeze or a spring? How does one carry on with changing generations, changing tastes, changing cultures? Life is all about unlearning what one has learnt,learning what one has not learnt. Life is all about undoing what one has done, doing what one has not done. Life is all about accepting change. Life is all about staying abreast with what is current. Life is all about living in the present ..

I seemed to have caught Lord Shiva in an uncomfortable caricature like position. I am no cartoonist, so I thought I will describe what I saw. It appeared like he was trying to dance. Parvathy who had occupied half his body seemed to have decided not to cooperate. The third eye was open but it had lost fire. Ganga seemed to have changed course and was focussed on the lord immersing him in a shower. Maybe that had extinguished all the emanating flames from the third eye. The snake appeared to have lost itself enjoying the much awaited shower and was unknowingly strangling the lord slightly in his excitement. In my daze I forgot to take stock of the number of his hands but all of them seemed occupied somehow or the other. Just as I was trying to conclude that Lord Shiva seemed to be trying to balance too many things without making any compromise, I was startled by an irritating loud noise. Shiva vanished just as he had come and there I was on my bed. I got up thinking of the strange dream...

Logging back into blogger after ages. I found this note saved in my drafts. I don't know why I started it and I don't know what to do with it. I thought of calling this note incomplete but then stopped short for I realized I didn't know what is complete! I leave it to you to decide. I entered a maze several years back. I have come a long way and now there is no going back. The burden of my mistakes has grown over the years. Lost opportunities, missed paths which could have taken me there earlier.. there are X marks all over the place! Ah but it is not over yet! I still have time to get there and I want to make each day count.

Logging into Blogger after ages thanks to Viral fever which has kept me occupied for a couple of weeks now. This one strangely is a kind of prayer coming from me out of the blue, maybe it's the viral fever that's doing this to me. Give me knowledge to set me free Give me the passion to fulfill my duties Give me love to light up other's lives Give me the power to wipe out suffering Give me humour to make others laugh Give me the maturity to laugh at myself Give me character to stand through tough times Give me the courage to stand by my principles Give me success that is not hollow Give me the heart to lose with grace

There are two reports of hooliganism around the 60th Republic day of India Violence in a Mangalore pub against women by a group called Ram Sena http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20090081377&ch=633686650503048750 Violence in Nashik by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) against North Indians in a school celebration http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20090081498&ch=633686661721816250 While the big question remains as to whether our politicians will give up their fear for votes and take a stand on such religious outfits, who take law in their hands and do moral policing in the name of religion and tradition, I have another question which was triggered by a response from one of the Mangalore police officers to the media. How does the media come to know of these things and arrive at the scene prompt with their video cameras and shoot all these incidents unattacked? While the media is focussed on creating scoops out of such incidents and public...

It has been raining for the past few days here. Rain always reminds of a few fond memories. Some happy moments that I have got embedded in my mind and associated with rain maybe in the subconcious mind. My attempts as a child to make a paper boat float on the water collected on the road outside, futile attempts I should say but all the same fulfilling and unforgettable. A cold rainy day in Bangalore in the 1980's spent visting all the parks that Bangalore is famous for, amazed at the beauty of the vast greenery around. A joyous ride on a rickshaw along the marina beach on a windy day, protected by a plastic sheet hanging from the top but yet fully drenched, returning to home early because of a cyclone warning. What a wonderful feeling it is, as a child, to return early from school, that too unexpectedly. Rain also reminds me of one particular place, a city that I have visited quite often, Belfast. Belfast greets me with rain almost everytime. I have seen several people associate ra...

You must have noticed that I have added AdSense to my blog recently. This is how adsense works. For every click made by a reader on the ads displayed, AdSense pays the person owning the blog a percentage of the amount that it gets from the partner companies. AdSense reminds me of a website called "pointclick.com". I am not sure if you have heard about it. It was one of those dot-com companies that came up when the internet was booming around year 2000 and crashed immediately in the dot-com crash. The concept was quite simple. You just had to register yourself in the website and after that for every click on the ads displayed in the website users would get 1 cent. The balance would be accumulated and the user had an option of either taking cash or spending the money on partner sites. If spent on purchasing products from partner sites like amazon each click would be worth 2 cents. The idea is very similar to AdSense. However AdSense is a lot more well thought out. Ads are disp...

Today is Martin Luther King day. I had the fortune of listening to Dr.King's famous speech "I have a dream today", courtesy youtube. This is definitely one of the landmark speeches in the history of mankind. This speech is credited to have prompted the 1964 civil rights act. You must listen to the way it is delivered and the choice of words. It is simply amazing. Dr.King for sure had a sense of his place in history. You can watch the video, which contains the full speech, here: I have a Dream speech America has come a long way from the time a black woman, Rosa Parks, was arrested for refusing to move out of a seat in the section reserved for whites, in a Montgomery bus. That was the event in 1955 which triggered Dr.King's civil rights crusade. Nearly 54 years later an African American is less than 24 hours away from taking oath as President of America. King's dream has atleast been realised partially. America has come to a stage where people are not judged by th...

News about the Satyam fiasco is all over the place. Ramalinga Raju has given the media the much needed scoop after 26/11. Almost every news item and debate is around Satyam. At the same time Ramalinga Raju is cooling his heels in a jail, supposedly after refusing VIP treatment but using his political clout to keep away from the law. While the Satyam fiasco has come as a rude schock and raised questions on corporate governance in India and the credibility of Indian IT companies, I think it is good one way. It has given a chance to revisit the laws and put in measures to enforce regulation and compliance. After all while it is great to remind oneself of all the feathers in his cap and keep flying high, one also does need some thorns once in a while to prick and bring back to reality.

I woke up with this poem half formed in my mind today. In my dreams .. I am free like a bird and soar higher and higher I walk up great stages and receive awards I deliver big speeches and get applauded When I wake up .. I am full of hope and waiting for the new day I am raring to go and realise my dreams I take up my tasks with passion and perfection I go to Sleep .. Thinking of the day by gone and the dreams far away Brought to earth sometimes by the absurd world Dented or Polished but my hopes still alive This is my Life .. I am like the waves that keep coming to the beach In pursuit of dreams that one day I will reach Sometimes high and sometimes low relentless at heart all the same though

I was talking about J.Krishnamurthi's views on names and his poem in my earlier post. Here is the full poem: I have no name, I am as the fresh breeze of the mountains. I have no shelter; I am as the wandering waters. I have no sanctuary, like the dark gods; Nor am I in the shadow of deep temples. I have no sacred books; Nor am I well-seasoned in tradition. I am not in the incense Mounting on the high altars, Nor in the pomp of ceremonies. I am neither in the graven image, Nor in the rich chant of a melodious voice. I am not bound by theories, Nor corrupted by beliefs. I am not held in the bondage of religions, Nor in the pious agony of their priests. I am not entrapped by philosophies, Nor held in the power of their sects. I am neither low nor high, I am the worshipper and the worshipped. I am free. My song is the song of the river Calling for the open seas, Wandering, wandering, I am Life. I have no name, I am as the fresh breeze of the mountains. A beautiful poem in simple words...

Day after day you keep coming to me With confidence and hope you simply flatter me! A semblance of sense that's what you want to see An year has gone by but I know it is still not to be! Blogger and Tiwtter are tools that unleash me Your fortune or misfortune you certainly cannot flee! I hail you oh reader my heart goes out to thee Do not stop coming you are like the moon to me!

I was reminded of Shelley today, though I have never read Shelley to a great extent. Don’t ask why.. I have told several times before that weekends do something strange to me. I read the poem “To a Skylark” again and again. This was perhaps the inspiration for Subramanya Bharathy ’s kuyil paattu. I don’t want to take away the beauty of Shelley’s words by giving my description but would just like to say that I am left with much the same feeling as Shelley himself in this poem where he says: Teach us, sprite or bird, What sweet thoughts are thine: I have never heard Praise of love or wine That panted forth a flood of rapture so divine. I will leave you with closing lines of this poem: We look before and after, And pine for what is not: Our sincerest laughter With some pain is fraught; Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought. Yet if we could scorn Hate, and pride, and fear; If we were things born ...

I used to hate History in school. It was mainly because of the dull way in which it was taught to me, as merely a collection of events with more stress on memorising dates. Sometimes when you have bad teachers you end up hating the subject as well. My interest has suddenly turned to history now. Why should one study history, I wonder. Isn't history all about cold blooded murders in the name of war? Isn't history more about singing the glories of so called "heroes" who killed hundreds and thousands of innocents in the name of war? Well it is and it is no longer worth reading history just to show off ones ability to remember dates and events. I feel that history should be studied so that we are reminded of the barbarism that is still left in mankind inspite of the centuries gone by, to understand how one person's eccentricity or someone's selfish interests can send a nation to war . History should be studied so that we are reminded of the indifference that is so...

Ah .. another new year. I just finished musing about life and the need for decisions every moment. Years pass and leave me enriched mostly, they leave me depleted sometimes but always a year older and with an increase in the amount of white hair on my head. Another year gone! Going back to my favourite poem Ulysses about which I blogged earlier http://parthakannan.blogspot.com/2008/12/to-strive-to-seek-to-find-and-not-to.html Maybe Ulysses (or Tennyson rather) sang thus on new year eve when he was musing about life and wondering about getting older with the passing year like me. I am a part of all that I have met; Yet all experience is an arch wherethro' Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades For ever and forever when I move. and then took a new year resolution To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. Another interpretation.. Good poetry is that which reflects your mind.

Life is always a matter of choice. Take something as simple as buying a donut for a pound. Do you want Sugar or Cinnamon? Do you need a topping? Chocolate or Strawberry? Phew.. Imagine a trip to Starbucks. Mocha .. Regular, Tall or Grande? With Cream? Decaf? Life is all about choice. Should you sit and stare at the monitor or Should you go home and spend time with your little one? Should you align to your boss and take nonsense or Should you stand firm and confront him when he is wrong? Should you sit back and watch the present become past or Should you step ahead and create the future? Should you stay in touch and keep abreast or Should you shut yourself up and live in the past? Should you note down an idea and share it with others or should you just let it go? Should you post a comment for this post or should you choose to remain silent? Life is all about choice.. Life is all about decisions.. starting from small things to big things. We take decisions every moment, we falter every m...