Masti kee Aag

Launching the premier of:

http://yesplusbangalore.wordpress.com

:) N'Joy surfing!

Happy Birthday Sabari!!

Dear Sabari,
There has been plenty of moments
Spent with you in joy
Gone too soon!
:)
Abhay

"Gone Too Soon":- Michael Jackson

Like A Comet
Blazing 'Cross The Evening Sky
Gone Too Soon

Like A Rainbow
Fading In The Twinkling Of An Eye
Gone Too Soon

Shiny And Sparkly
And Splendidly Bright
Here One Day
Gone One Night

Like The Loss Of Sunlight
On A Cloudy Afternoon
Gone Too Soon

Like A Castle
Built Upon A Sandy Beach
Gone Too Soon

Like A Perfect Flower
That Is Just Beyond Your Reach
Gone Too Soon

Born To Amuse, To Inspire, To Delight
Here One Day
Gone One Night

Like A Sunset
Dying With The Rising Of The Moon
Gone Too Soon

Gone Too Soon

A Tile to heal

kindly download and enlarge for ease of reading.

The Wall Project

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9822921861
I love this activity some youth are doing:- They take permission of owners, and paint their walls! See the attached photos. Won't it be nice to have some interesting designs on the walls of the city homes!

If you would like to do similar activity, contact me!
Abhay.

Angels - 2

So Who is the Angel !? :)

Saint Kabir's songs

Bhawana, Danke Schon for the link ! Verses translated freely by me.

Jaise Til Mein Tel Hai, Jyon Chakmak Mein Aag
Tera Sayeen Tujh Mein Hai, Tu Jaag Sake To Jaag

Like there is oil in the seeds, and fire in the matchstick,
your Lord is within you, you wake up if you can !

Bada Hua To Kya Hua, Jaise Ped Khajoor
Panthi Ko Chaya Nahin, Phal Laage Atidoor

What use is the greatness, if it is like a Date Tree?
It doesn't give shadow to a traveller, and its fruits are out of reach.

Guru Dhobi Sikh Kapda, Saboo Sirjan Har
Surti Sila Pur Dhoiye, Nikse Jyoti Apaar

Guru is the washerman, the devotee is the cloth, the soap is the name of the Lord.
Get washed well, then your inner light will shine!

Pehle Agan Birha Ki, Pachhe Prem Ki Pyas
Kahe Kabir Tub Janiye, Naam Milan Ki Aaas

{When There is } First the longing for the beloved, Then the Thirst for attaining love
Then only you are eligible for the Mantra {from a Guru} , Says Kabir.

Kabir Maala Kaath Kee, Kahi Samjhave Tohi
Man Na Firave Aapna, Kaha Firave Mohi

Kabir, what does the Maala (Chain) used for chanting Mantra tell you?
If you aren't turning the mind (from outward desires to the inward Lordship), Then what's the point of turning me(The Chain)!

Kabira Teri Jhompri Gal Katiyan Ke Paas
Jo Karenge So Bharenge Tu Kyon Bhayo Udaas

(Disappointed by killings of animals), Kabir (says to himself) your hut is near the butcher's place.
Those who do these acts will pay for it themselves. Why are you getting remorse. (Not Being Wrong against things that are wrong...)

Geopolitics and Samskrit Phobia

Jul 5 2005 | Views 32933 | Comments (1222)

For detailed article, visit this page.

Geopolitics and Samskrit Phobia - Rajiv Malhotra.

This paper discusses the historical and contemporary relationship between geopolitics and Sanskrit, and consists of the following sections:

I. Sanskrit is more than a language. Like all languages, its structures and categories contain a built-in framework for representing specific worldviews. Sanskriti is the name of the culture and civilization that embodies this framework. One may say that Sanskriti is the term for what has recently become known as Indic Civilization, a civilization that goes well beyond the borders of modern India to encompass South Asia and much of Southeast Asia. At one time, it included much of Asia.

II. Interactions among different regions of Asia helped to develop and exchange this pan-Asian Sanskriti. Numerous examples involving India, Southeast Asia and China are given.

III. Sanskrit started to decline after the West Asian invasions of the Indian subcontinent. This had a devastating impact on Sanskriti, as many world-famous centers of learning were destroyed, and no single major university was built for many centuries by the conquerors.

IV. Besides Asia, Sanskrit and Sanskriti influenced Europe's modernity, and Sanskrit Studies became a large-scale formal activity in most European universities. These influences shaped many intellectual disciplines that are (falsely) classified as “Western”. But the “discovery” of Sanskrit by Europe also had the negative influence of fueling European racism since the 19th century.

V. Meanwhile, in colonial India, the education system was de-Sanskritized and replaced by an English based education. This served to train clerks and low level employees to administer the Empire, and to start the process of self-denigration among Indians, a trend that continues today. Many prominent Indians achieved fame and success as middlemen serving the Empire, and Gandhi's famous 1908 monograph, “Hind Swaraj,” discusses this phenomenon.

VI. After India's independence, there was a broad based Nehruvian love affair with Sanskrit as an important nation-building vehicle. However, successive generations of Indian intellectuals have replaced this with what this paper terms “Sanskrit Phobia,” i.e. a body of beliefs now widely disseminated according to which Sanskrit and Sanskriti are blamed for all sorts of social, economic and political problems facing India's underprivileged classes. This section illustrates such phobia among prominent Western Indologists and among trendy Indians involved in South Asian Studies who learn about Sanskrit and Sanskriti according to Western frameworks and biases.

VII. The clash of civilizations among the West, China and Islam is used as a lens to discuss the future of Sanskriti across South and Southeast Asia.

VIII. Some concrete suggestions are made for further consideration to revitalize Sanskrit as a living language that has potential for future knowledge development and empowerment of humanity.

Let's Speak Samskrit !!

I was looking forward for such an initiative!! Check out the blog

http://speaksamskrit.blogspot.com/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Samskrita Bharati is conducting 2 full days Samskrit Sambhashan Shibirs (Samskrit speaking workshops) on Nov.22 (Saturday) and Nov.23 (Sunday), 2008, considering the constraints of not being able to attend 10 days course by professionals..

Salient features:

1. Knowledge of Devanagari Script is not required.

2. Can learn Samskrit speaking in our neighborhood in just 2 days.

3. Families and neighbors attend and hence an opportunity to continue it afterwards also.

4. Learning through games – learn while you play.

5. Learn while you eat also.

6. CD show during breaks.

7. Chart exhibition pertaining to Ancient Indian Contribution to Science.

8. Exhibition of daily usage items with Samskrit names.

9. Book-stall for selling books/ CDs etc. in Samskrit.

10. On the spot registration for furthering the study (may be correspondence etc.).

11. An opportunity to learn further (read and write) at neighborhood if sufficient number of people (25 no.) are willing.

Learning Samskrita is as simple as saying A-U-M !

Kindly note:

• Registration is first come, first serve basis.
• Registration charges per person are – Rs. 200/- for adults and Rs.100/- for children.
• Limited 25 seats only.
• Children can participate, if only parents participate.
• Participants are expected to be present by 9.00AM on both days and are required to be late in the evening.
• Contact persons from Extended Contact List for the nearest centre.

The most difficult job in the world ...

Anyone can work under a given set of instructions, in survilance of a supervisor, with a team etc, given any amount of hardwork required...
The most difficult job in the world is when you are on your own, without any set of instructions, your own judging and your own drive..!

Wake up now!

It is never really dark out there,
The Sun's light is always available.
Wake up and go out now,
Since you know that there is light there.
Else the apparant night will continue,
Casting dark shadows from candles lit by self effort.
Let the self effort be to open the door
and go out, to bathe in the warmth of Grace.

Not India's first woman saint

I found this article thought provoking and informative. Francois Gautier, a renowned journalist, tells about responsible journalism. A simple search in Google can show that Indian reporters have simply copied the story from the foreign journalists. Do foreign journalists have a right to talk about Indian History? And do the Indian Reporters have primary education in Indian History?
Taken from:
http://francoisgautier.wordpress.com/2008/10/17/not-india’s-first-woman-saint/

Not India’s first woman saint

Posted by speekout under Hinduism, India, francois gautier, media, missionaries, terrorism | Tags: akkamahadevi, andal, aryans, Auroville, babri masjid, bajrang dal, canonising, dalits, HINDUS, indian mujahideen, journalism, maithreyi, muslims, Narendra modi, saint, saint alphonsa, sangh parivar, Sri Sri Center for media Studies, SSCMS, tamil, terrorism, tribals, vatican |

Francois Gautier, Pioneer

Indian media went into a tizzy while covering the canonisation of Sister Alphonsa, an obscure nun, to prove its secular credentials! Indian journalists forget that this country has had other women saints too.

As a Frenchman, I was coached right from childhood that logic, what we in France call cartesianism, is the greatest gift given to man and that one should use one’s reason to tread in life. Thus, I taught to my students in a Bangalore school of journalism, the SSCMS, that the first tool of a good reporter is to go by his or her own judgement on the ground, with the help of one’s first-hand experience — and not go by second hand information: What your parents thought, what you have read in the newspapers, what your caste, religion, culture pushes you into…

Yet in India, logic does not seem to apply to most of the media, especially when it is anything related to Hindus and Hinduism. One cannot, for instance, equate Muslim terrorists who blow up innocent civilians in market places all over India to angry ordinary Hindus who attack churches without killing anybody. We know that most of these communal incidents often involve persons of the same caste — Dalits and tribals — some of them converted to Christianity and some not.

However reprehensible was the destruction of the Babri Masjid, no Muslim was killed in the process. Compare that with the ‘vengeance’ bombings of 1993 in Mumbai, which killed hundreds of innocent people, mostly Hindus. Yet Indian and Western journalists keep equating the two, or even showing the Babri Masjid destruction as the most horrible act of the two.

How can you compare the Sangh Parivar with the Indian Mujahideen, a deadly terrorist organisation? How can you label Mr Narendra Modi a mass killer when actually it was ordinary middle class, or even Dalit Hindus, who went out into the streets in fury when 56 innocent people, many of them women and children, were burnt in a train?

How can you lobby for the lifting of the ban on SIMI, an organisation which is suspected of having planted bombs in many Indian cities, killing hundreds of innocent people, while advocating a ban on the Bajrang Dal, which attacked some churches after an 84-year-old swami and his followers were brutally murdered?

There is no logic in journalism in this country when it applies itself to minorities. Christians are supposedly only two per cent of the population in India, but look how last Sunday many major television channels showed live the canonisation ceremony of Sister Alphonsa, an obscure nun from Kerala and see how Union Minister Oscar Fernandes led an entire Indian delegation to the Vatican along with the Indian Ambassador. It would be impossible in England, for instance, which may have a two per cent Hindu minority, to have live coverage of a major Hindu ceremony, like the anointment of a new Shankaracharya. What were the 24×7 news channels, which seem to have deliberately chosen to highlight this non-event, trying to prove? That they are secular? Is this secularism?

The headline of the story “India gets its first woman saint”, run by many newspapers, both Indian and Western, is very misleading.

For India has never been short of saints.

The woman sage from over 3,000 years ago, Maithreyi, Andal, the Tamil saint from early in the first Millennium CE and Akkamahadevi, the 15th century saint from modern-day Karnataka, are but a few examples of women saints in India.

What many publications failed to mention in the story is that this is the first woman Christian saint — not the first Indian woman saint.

This statement is ok, when it comes, for instance, from the BBC, which always looks at India through the Christian prism (BBC ran a few months back an untrue and slanderous documentary on Auroville), but when it comes to the Indian media, it only shows the grave lack of grounding in Indian culture and history of most Indian journalists.

As a result, they suffer from an inferiority complex.

This inferiority complex, as expressed by television’s live coverage of the canonisation of Sister Alphonsa, is a legacy of the British, who strove to show themselves as superior and Indian culture as inferior (and inheritor of the ‘White Aryans’, a totally false theory).

Is it not time to institute schools of journalism, both private and public, where not only logic will be taught, but where students shall be made aware of Indian history and of the greatness of Indian culture, so that when they go out to report, they will use their own judgement and become Indian journalists, with a little bit of feeling, pride and love for their own country?

Lost Mobile.

I lost my mobile. I had previously 5-6 times lost/misplaced it, and miraculously found it back. This time, its giving no chance of return.
Once when I lost it, I really missed it so much, that getting it back was inevitable.
I always liked the nice colored display it had, and every digit would show up in different color.
Somehow, I was not able to keep it well. The back cover of battery had got lost, the battery was short lived. I wished to preserve it as a monument, and buy new one. Since this got delayed, I have now lost it for ever.
This sense of separation is bit painful!
There were so many nice messages of my friends in it...
It really served me well. Travelled with me to Germany, where I used it as a timekeeper.
It did lot of seva, brought people in knowledge.
It had more than 500 contacts, and fortunately I made a partial list of those, so I have some of them still with me on my comp. But half are lost.
It had a life of its own. Its battery in particular. It would stay on and on, even if the indicator showed emptiness, when I was on an important call !
Once it had got wet, and suddenly stopped working, all buttons stopped working. Soon, as it got more and more dried up, the buttons started working. It sprang back to life.
Hmmmmm. Its over now.

Angels - 1

Bawa wrote about Angels recently, so I also recalled seeing them in my photos. Here is one recent snap during Diwali celebrations, to begin with:

Sri Sri addresses Nobel Laureates

Mulakat

Aap aaye the yahan, hum ne jaana apne doston se ...
Khush huve the hum kee aap ke kadam yahan pahunche!

Aise to humein kuchh bahana chahiye aap se milne ka,
Kabhi aap aaiyen, Kabhi humse milen!

Muddaten gujari jab hum aapse milen,
Lekin woh aakhari mulakat ab bhi yaad hai|

Woh najaron se aapke bahata huva pyaar,
Woh ek jhalak aakhari, jise hum ne kiya alvida|

Ab mitaye nahin mitati woh yaaden,
Bas mil jaiyega aankh mitne se pahle ||

Good news + general update...

Hello Everybody!!

I am a back from a much needed break and fun at home, celebrating my favourite Diwali festival!!

And today when I arrived at my desk, I have received the good news of acceptance of my first research paper for publication in Astrophysical journal!! hurray!
A publication is the only quantitative assessment of a researcher, and this is the best gift I could have asked for!

hmmmmm... Life seems to be all set to roll on now...

Back from Mumbai, I met up with Sabari last evening. We are generally used to meeting daily, and a gap of a week is like a long long time!
I updated him on what is happening in Maharashtra and Goa, we exchanged lots of new learnings about the game called "Life". He told me things I missed in YES!+ here. Even a week's gap in YES!+ activities, and it seems I have fallen out of place! After lot of gupshup and go-sip {"go-means-knowledge"!}, we went to attend Shant's brother's wedding. I met some more YES!+ friends there, and we had a great dinner. On the way we had bought a flower bouquet and I enjoyed learning how nicely he was packaging it. At the wedding, it was so nice celebrative atmosphere. Lots of interesting faces, there! :) I noticed some nice shining jewellary. In the dinner I enjoyed more of Puri and Chhole, Sabari liked more of rice variety. All of us liked the buttermilk! As soon as my stomach gave me a full signal, I stopped back this time...! Actually we are supposed to have 1/2 of our stomach with solids, 1/4th with liquid, and leave 1/4 empty! That empty quarter I have not experienced in my life! hahaha!
Back to Sabari's home we did some more go-ssip and I saw nice clothings for Sabari's wedding. hmmmm. The countdown has began, the tickets are booked by Mahesh!

Looks like a fantastic week ahead. My best wishes to you all too!!