Sunday, January 29, 2012

New Age Nursery Rhymes

Baba black sheep why do you drool?

I just got bribery 3 bags full.
1 for my master 1 for myself,
1 for the rowdy boys, to buy voters down the lane.

Pussy cat Pussy cat where had you been?
I had been to 10 janpath to look at the queen.
Pussy cat, Pussy cat, what did you there?
I saw a frightened minister under the chair.


Twinkle twinkle gold bars,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the reach so high.
Soothing the black market, in the sky.

Humpty dumpty sat on a stock
Humpty dumpty had a great fall.
And all the Queen's politics and the corruption fame
Couldn't put Humpty dumpty together again.

Sonia had an old lamb, old lamb an old lamb,
Sonia had an old lamb
His integrity was white as snow.
And whatever Sonia said, Sonia said, Sonia said and whatever Sonia said
The lamb was sure to follow.

Sunday, January 01, 2012

Om Shanti Shanti

I hear people give up on religious beliefs in the interest of preventing terrorism. It seems they take the lines by Colonial Cousins 'Religion is the reason, the world is breaking up into pieces ' too seriously. But honestly, the world will anyway break into pieces. If not religion there will be something else to take care of that aspect of human evolution. We need a paradigm shift in our understanding of terrorism.

Paradoxically, hatred is an emotion that people love to nurture. Add to that our daily encounters of fear, anger and jealousy that creates a pool of sewage where we sink our tender hearts . Then eventually comes one intellectual with amazing oratory skills and mind blowing convincing power, that points finger to a section of community while belonging to another particular section of community thus channelizing this sewage into that direction. So whether it's religion or something else depends upon the 'leader', and his/her oration. Hitler channelized this hatred against Jews, Osama Bin Laden channelized this against Americans, Hafiz Saeed channelized this against Hindus while L. K. Advani channelized this against Muslims, Rahul Gandhi used this against the saffron clad sadhus, Digvijay Singh against the anti-corruption lobby, Maoists against the capitalist government, KCR against non telangana brethren and Raj Thackeray did the same against north Indians giving equal opportunity to Sanjay Nirupam against Marathi people. What we need to understand here is what is at the core? Is it religion or is it a philosophy? If you look deeper you will understand that it's human emotion given a shape of philosophy that eventually vents into religion, caste, nationality, community et al . And the opportunity for such philosophies to crop up is plenty because the breeding ground of anger, jealousy and fear eventually leading to hatred is bountiful with our minute to minute encounters.

Our leaders have a hobby of collecting such pieces of hatred and then channelize them with their convincing power. "You see that fellow is going ahead of you killing your opportunity to progress" thus blossoming jealousy into hatred. "You see the way so and so religion is growing? They will soon eat up our space on this planet" thus allowing fear to rise into hatred. "You know why you were late for the interview? Because chaps from the unwanted community have occupied all of our public transport leaving no space for you to travel and breathe", sculpting anger into hatred. All these "leaders" need is; to nurture hatred in us which coincidentally turns out to be our favorite hobby. The argument they make to convince us seem plausible, since it is something we can relate to and is served to us in oration at its best.

Try to look little deeper, in their arguments; it's not the solution of the problem, but but it is our emotion of hatred that gets pumped up. And what is missing in all of the scenarios mentioned above is understanding of human values.

There is a very valuable quote from H. H. Sri Sri Ravishankar that says "Fanaticism flourishes when religious concepts are kept before human values." And there lies the solution to our problems. Understanding the depths of human values is what can help us get rid of these emotions.

I am not in denial of the problems people face. With increasing population and limited resources to live on, our socio-economic fabric is bound to go through the acid test. But we tend to find out solutions in philosophies that promote hatred, and probably because that's an easier way out. When it is hatred that we need to get rid of, we struggle to get rid of a particular community or religion. Who imbibes this hatred within us? Is it religion? No, it is a philosophy without the background of human values. It is religion without the spiritual essence.

Sri Sri has the perfect metaphor in this context, "Religion is the outer banana skin, while spirituality is real banana. People stuck on religion chew on the skin while throwing out the banana." What really is this word spirituality? Sri Sri puts it up simply, "Spirituality is nothing but caring & sharing ; offering oneself in service." When we are in service, we end up taking a voluntary responsibility, thus committing ourselves to be the social change agents, attempting to build an ideal society through love and compassion.

So changing our religious beliefs will not help since the trend says that our "leaders " always have some agenda to make sure we nurture hatred for the sake of their power in our society. Society changes, ideologies change, philosophies change, beliefs change, what remains the same is the "leader " with a pointed finger, with new ideology, new belief, new agenda to nurture hatred so that s/he can securely fasten the seatbelt of power and enjoy the ride while we juggle the tower of our principles and religious beliefs on the tune of those new philosophies. Whether it's the way Muslims say Aamin, Christians attend mass prayers or Sikhs sing Ek Onkar every religion in its every prayer harbors peace and happiness in our hearts. Observe the way Jews greet, Buddhist meditate, Jains live their lives and the Hindus end their sessions.

Loka samastha sukhino bhavantu,
Om Shanti Shanti Shaaantihi

(Let there be happiness everywhere.
Om peace peace peace)

Sunday, October 16, 2011

SaaRe GaaNaa

The music industry has been claiming ,
Sangeet ko na roke deewar
Sangeet jaye sarhad ke paar.
(Nothing can stop music. It travels beyond borders ).
This line proves itself every time we rock our head to the tunes of Strings or sway our hands to Bryan Adam's Here I am. The jury at Oscars that commemorated Rahman or the Afgan in Kabul admiring Kishoreda's melodies would nod their heads on the translation of these lines.

But did you ever contemplate that music creates boundaries at a very subtle level? Instruments like Violins, trumpets etc rarely see the light in a poor man's shop. A college fest cannot host a cultural event without a guitar and a drum. Pandit Ravishankar and his daughter Anoushka are heroes amongst the elite while we need specialized singers for the Bhojpuri audience. The August crowd takes it as a matter of "taste" to get charmed by Pandit Bhimsen Joshi while we make provision of Vithal Umap for our folk people.

Generally and rather thankfully people are open to different types of music. But imagine if these subtle boundaries becomes rigid. Imagine if the flavor of nationalism pours itself into the tender brains of music lovers. Music being a matter of passion has the potential to breed the patriotism type flavor.

My theory is that human brain doesn't take effort in raising doubts. Mind somehow loves the taste of negativity and uses this drug as the prescription of life. Just today I happened to meet someone who was keen on 2012 disaster since according to him it would liberate him off these daily life's problems - clear indications of a mind bred in negativity and hatred. We love to hate someone and eventually live to hate the same entity. So if the nations are at peace, imagine (I know hypothetical but still imagine ) that India and Pakistan suddenly become chaddi buddies. Obama is revered across all Muslim countries. There is no reason for the world now to hate each other. An unaware mind might scout for other reasons to breed hatred. Imagine the Heavy Metal youth forming cult underground societies across the globe to take over from the elite Classicals. The folk music people fighting for their rights to capture the center stage. Imagine the Classical Fraternity of India (CFI) forms a coalition govt with the Jazz Club of India with someone to the likes of Zakir Hussain is leading the pack as Prime Minister . Evidently the tabla lobby being strong within CFI they are currently pushing the bill to make tabla mandatory till school level. There is a strong opposition from the pianist who are always under represented in the house. To revolt against this oppression and the lack of freedom of choice the underground Guns&Dozes is planning a revolutionary attack over the kurta pajama chaps.

Thankfully there is little or no space for the above scenario to be true ever. We all know we have reservations over certain type of music branded by certain type of instrument. These are very subtle and invisible boundaries. I have simply aggravated these subtle boundaries in the picture painted above.

Hatred can be cured by acceptance. Recently in one of the satsangs of Art of Living that I attend, I realized that instrument, music, genre etc is no emotion's monopoly. Why can't a devotional song be a rock song where guitar and drums play an instrumental role? The fusion band Indian Ocean is doing fabulous job in creating a symphony of tabla, guitar, sitar, drums etc. Cultures that create a sense of belonging and a will of acceptance bring a great deal of relief to an otherwise hypocrite society. Thanks to such instrumental efforts that today music today has become a tool to bridge gaps, a tool to appreciate each other & a tool to connect hearts.

posted from Bloggeroid

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Straight lines

These are few lines ... straight from my heart ...

Trees in search of water have their roots spread deeper
Nimish

The success of a person can be measured by the kind of people attending his / her funeral
Nimish

However good your intentions are, you cannot clean anything unless you use a clean cloth
Nimish

If it is your idea, then it is your responsibility to make sure it is implemented. Else you are just like anyone else
Nimish

The quest of life should be you noticing yourself rather than you noticing whether others are noticing you or not .
Nimish

Wishes remain incomplete to boost another motivation in your life
Nimish

you may never know the cost to ditch your discipline
Nimish

posted from Bloggeroid
hi its me

Sunday, April 17, 2011

India Won Finals ...

Because Amir Khan wore his lucky old T shirt,
Because Dineshbhai Patel successfully managed his match long maun vrat.

Because N.T.Raju didn't budge to move from his lucky position,
Because 'not to keep left foot down' was Mrs Sen's 4 hr mission.

Because the tri coloured bangles' reponsibility was shouldered by Priety Zinta,
Because Rahul Gandhi positioned himself amongst stadium's aam junta.

Because Ramanathan Iyer performed hrs of Rudra Pooja,
Because justice awarded imprisonment to Shiney Ahuja.

Because Izaz bhai offered a chaddar at the darga of Haji Ali,
Because Tatya Kulkarni fasted in front of the one & only - Bajrangbali.

Because the Wankhede encore in unison 'ganpati bappa morya'
Because of the mere presence of the phenomenon called Tendlya.

Because Sr Bachchan resisted his temptations of live commentary,
Because the words worked in our favour from the commentary of all time jinxed Ravi Shastary .

A billion hopes, a billion superstitions, a billion prayers worked it may seem,
Forgetting all of this at the end we dip ourselves in the national celebration that lauds the efforts of the Indian team.

posted from Bloggeroid

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Dipped in love ...

Love is what attracts the electrons to a positive charge,
Love is the umbilical cord that connects a foetus to the life at large.

Love is the force of earth that holds you abreast,
Love is ur relationship with the air till in peace you rest.

Love is in the comfort of the warm hug at night or in rain,
Love is in the faith that the sun will rise again.

Love is in longing to meet that kills you inside,
Love is in the smile in your eyes that reside.

Love is in the sense of belonging towards your old scooter,
Love is the magic that protected Harry Potter.

Love is in the white flower presented to sentries,
Love is in the music that dissolves the boundaries.

Love is the feeling of Oneness that syncs the universe with thee,
Love is what connects you and me.

Happy Valentine's day.

Nimish.

posted from Bloggeroid

Straight lines

These are few lines ... straight from my heart ...

Trees in search of water have their roots spread deeper
Nimish

The success of a person can be measured by the kind of people attending his / her funeral
Nimish

However good your intentions are, you cannot clean anything unless you use a clean cloth
Nimish

If it is your idea, then it is your responsibility to make sure it is implemented. Else you are just like anyone else
Nimish

Wishes remain incomplete to boost another motivation in your life
Nimish

you may never know the cost to ditch your discipline
Nimish

posted from Bloggeroid

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Return to your innocence

Isn't it ironic that people engaged in the industry needed for our very existence are found neglected? Why do people we practically cannot live without carry an adjective of "poor" against their identity of "farmer"? Agreed a laborer in every industry doesn't necessarily be rich. A farmer - essentially is a labourer in the agricultural industry is merely working for the landlords, the traders, the merchants and the political bigwigs that govern the rules of the industry. But when you compare it to say a laborer in IT industry, you do not really find a starving person barely able to meet his family's square meal. Again someone would debate that this has always been a difference between a white collar job and a field work job. But should this be a prerogative of the industry that is responsible for our survival? Today all the billionaires have sprung up from the industries without which we lived for centuries together. These industries are not responsible for our survival. They simply soothe our existence. Logic dictates that this economics when peered through the glass of demand and supply asserts that our demand for our survival is no longer given the due importance. I think there is a paradigm shift in our requirements and priorities where today we value our existence more than our survival.

It feels ironic that today we worry about screwed up internet connection while taking our survival for granted. It reminds me of the story where once a lion hired an ant to do some work. The ant being hardworking and efficient impressed the lion very well with her initial deliverables. Lion now wished to increase the efficiency and hired an owl as a consultant. Owl suggested on introducing a grasshopper as a manager to the ant to monitor her work. The grasshopper reported on some infrastructure malfunctioning and requested a crow to repair their "logistics". The owl now suggested that since we are too many people to work, we need a place to work. The lion hired an eagle to scout a right work place and manage the admin of his company. Now with so many people working the lion couldn't really find the time to make sure his employees were happy. So he hired a parrot as an HR. With so many mouths to feed, all of the employees set their expectations towards the ant. They urged the ant to double the output by sitting late and working in double shifts. Ant, mentally tortured by this soon declined in her performance. With low output , the lion demanded a production report from the owl. Owl after a through analysis presented a report stating that ant has performed poorly. The lion then upset over the ant fired the ant. We, at times in the process of organizing our lives and soothing our existence compromise on the simplicity of life.

As stone age man, the funda was simple. We need food to eat. We formed a bunch of hunters. Then we found vegetables, we formed a bunch of farmers. Now someone needed to buy this food, we invented finances. To protect these finances we invented security. In order for this to synchronize, we invented systems. Then came people to govern the political , financial, military, healthcare systems. To automate these systems we invented IT. While all of these systems are needed to soothe our lives, we forget where did all of this began in first place. We have been giving excessive importance over the peripherals. Maybe the effects are slowly cropping up. With farmers committing suicide and increasing agricultural prices, we can infer that our ant is no longer in the mental and physical state to cope up with our increasing demands.

Let us pause our lives for a while, look back and ponder over this. Let us help our "poor" farmer remove the adjective from his identity. Let us return to our innocence.

posted from Bloggeroid

Sunday, October 17, 2010

The Silent Mumbai



There is a paradox in the tile of this blog itself. Mumbai a city that keeps buzzing can never really be silent. Even at night as the eye lids get heavy, you cant escape the energy in the air that resonates along with your morning alarm giving you another purpose to begin a new grind. Pu. La. Deshpande once described that, "Mumbai is the only city that knows that the clock has a minute's and a second's hand. This is a place where a watch is tied not just to a person's wrist, but also to his destiny." In this city of dreams, running is mandatory. If you are not connected with this essence of a Mumbaikar, you will certainly misunderstand a Mumbaikar's resilience towards terrorism as his/her apathy towards a subject of national grief.

I was buffering a clip where actor Siddharth was incorrectly canvassing Mumbaikar's inherent nature to work for himself as a stone cold heart that turns a blind eye towards a scar just cast on him.
I highly despise such insensitive comments. The actor sensing the lively energy in the city, concluded that the city has forgotten about its scars within a month's period. I have read and listened a lot of Mumbai bashing off-late. Critics have been heavy on this 'zindadili' attitude of Mumbai. I would want all of those guys to leave their comfort zones for once and get on field here when Mumbai is actually at seize.

When the terrorists were spraying their bullets across the city, there were stories of the common man on the road being brave enough to be at ground zero to help the injured. The city has never let the blood banks go dry in such times. Donations flood not just come in form of money, but also in form of volunteering. During every bomb blasts, it is the locals who have done the first aid even before the police or the paramedics arrive. When we are flood victims, the able cook food and pass it on to the needy. The next day we make a tally of our losses and make a new plan on how to run our lives bearing the catastrophe. Please don't blame a Mumbaikar of forgetting his/her scars.

I have friends who have taken months to recover from the trauma of 26/11 before mustering courage to take a glance at The Taj and The Trident. So Siddharth, if you think that people forgot about 26/11 a month later, then you are sadly mistaken. Do not expect an event of grief to be a piece of conversation on every dining table every single day. And talking about the issue over and over again is certainly not justified. You should make an attempt to give a vent to your grief and look towards the time ahead. As far as actions of Mumbaikars are concerned, you should have been there at the rally of 3rd December 2009. The anger of an average Mumbaikar was pretty evident in the posters, slogans their acts and voices. The aam junta this time was not blaming Pakistan, nor did it booed the terrorists. The protest constructively demanded justice and security from the government.

Yes I agree, the anguish did not reflect in the General Elections that arrived few months later. However I do not still attribute the low turnout as Mumbaikar's indifference towards emotional issues. I think that an average Mumbaikar does not consider politics as an answer to his/her questions a misconception that needs to be changed.

Overcoming yesterday's tragedy by setting out to work is a need in Mumbai. It is this need that drives its engines and makes Mumbai what it is. The resilience of the city begins its day 2 in remembrance of the tragedy, with high emotions, with fear but with a grit - a grit to work for myself, my family which in its own fraction adds some activity towards the nation. I see no reason to discourage this bounce back attitude of the city that in effect destroys the sole purpose of terrorism. I, a Mumbaikar, salute the spirit of the city.

Salaam Mumbai!!

Sunday, October 03, 2010

Where Einstein Meets Hinduism ...

If someone asks you and me, “What time is it?” we would involuntarily check our wrist, or roll our head to the grandfather clock on our wall. But there was a man few decades back who would have snapped back, “You need time in relation to what?” That geeky German / American with innovative hairstyle and a thick moustache acknowledged as world’s most intellectual brain was none other than Albert Einstein. The old man in his”theory of relativity” went down to the pendulum of our grandfather’s clock and changed the definitions and the very foundations of the concept of time. He said that time is different for different people. “Well of course!” you might say “it is night in the USA right now while its day time here.” Please step back from that door in case your thinking is heading there. Do you think someone like Einstein would come up with a world renowned theory to prove that? What the genius meant was that what felt like 2 seconds to you might well be 2 days, 2 decades or maybe 200 years for someone else. “How can that be?” “Is he nuts to think something like that?”

I know, it is something difficult to imagine and understand, but needn’t be difficult to digest, after all even Joey the dumbest of all characters amongst the FRIENDS could assimilate the concept in one of his roles. Joey, acting as Victor on one of his stage performances in season 3 of FRIENDS gets on a spaceship to some BlogOn 7 planet in search of alternative fuels and is set to return back after 300 years. “And, when I return 300 years from now, you would have been long gone, but I wouldn’t have aged at all. So you tell your great, great granddaughter to look up to me. Because Adrian, baby, I would want to meet her.” This concept even decades after Einstein released his papers of “Time Dilation”, is found amongst comic series. People even today find it difficult to understand and easy to mock at. So guys, a standing ovation for the genius who could actually do an out of box thinking and come up with this theory. Come on, get up and applaud the man’s creativity and his efforts to prove that thinking.

But a Hindu would find a man in orange robes, with garland on his wrists and a pair of chaps in one of his hands that when stroked together add background music to his rhymes of, “Narayan, Narayan!” smiling at this discovery. Ladies and gentlemen meet Mr. Narad Muni, a divine sage in Hindu scriptures given the powers and the ability to travel between different planes and planets of the universe. If the Hindu mythology really exists then Narad Muni is the one who should know about this and the means to tackle with this kind of physics, mainly because the Hindu scriptures have professed this theory more than 5000 years back. “Now what was that?” Let me tell you a short story found in the epic of Mahabharata.

Once upon a time (isn’t this how a story should always start?) there was a kingdom beneath the oceans. It was ruled by a nice benevolent king called as Kakudmi who had an extremely beautiful daughter Revati. Kakudmi finding none amongst the earthlings as a capable life partner for his daughter, decided to consult Bramha the creator of the universe himself to find a capable groom for Revati. Since Lord Bramha was already engrossed in the music of the Gandharvas (yes, Gods rock too), Kakudmi decided to wait patiently for Gandharvas to finish their concert. After applauding their performance, Lord Bramha was amused to see King Kakudmi an earthling waiting at his door step with his daughter. Kakudmi sought consultations of the Lord Himself to find an appropriate groom for Revati. Bramha laughed at that moment and said, “O King, you have come to my door step. Here on this plane of the universe, time is different from what it is on earth. In the time that you were waiting here, 27 chaturyugs have passed by on earth. Your kingdom is long gone by and all of the grooms existing in your era on earth are now dead. All of your fore generations are already dead and an altogether different kind of human life is now growing itself on earth.”

Now let us dig deeper into this concept of Chaturyugs. 1 Chaturyug is actually 1 Mahayug made up of the 4 Yugs viz. the Satya Yug, Treta Yug, Dwapara Yug and the Kali Yug. 1 Yug equals to 432,000 human years. But the Hindu scriptures shaking hands with Einstein’s theory of relativity assert that these 432,000 human years are nothing but 0.01% of 1 day of Lord Bramha.




While 1 Maha Yug is 0.1% of Bramha’s day. So if you calculate backwards, 27 Chaturyugs (27 Maha Yugs) roughly turn out to be 78 minutes of Bramha’s day and that is the time King Kakudmi was waiting at Bramha’s doorstep with his daughter while the earth below spinning itself while revolving around the sun successfully completed 432,000*10*27 years of its life (1 Maha Yug = 10 Yugs). I am sure Einstein must have applauded this story. Now what happens later to King Kakudmi?

Lord Brahma assures him that the Lords themselves are now set to take an Avatar on the earth and thus you can marry this pure and pious Revati to one of them. King Kakudmi after setting back on earth finds a complete different picture from the time he left. Not just that the landscape and the places have changed, but the striking difference is the change in the human race itself. Instead of progressing, the human race has degraded itself. People now are that of lower intellectual and physical capabilities. But then comes Lord Balaram, the brother of Lord Krishna himself who is one capable person to marry Revati. So as per Brahma’s suggestions, Kakudmi marries Revati to Balaram.

This Yug philisophy is very much in sync with the Greek mythology where the Greeks have divided the life of human race into 4 ages viz. the Golden Age, the Silver Age, the Bronze age and the Iron Age. The Greeks profess that humans have degraded way of life from the Golden Age to the Iron Age. Each of the ages can be related to each of the Yugs in the Hindu philosophy. So when the Greeks say that we are now living in the Iron Age, Hindus christen the current time as the Kali Yug. The definitions and the descriptions of each of these Yugs do go hand in hand with the Greek Ages.

The difference that I would notice in the philosophies is that Hinduism drags the concept further to a cycle of Maha Yugs that come and go every now and then. And all of these 432,000*10 human years are nothing but few minutes of Lord Brahma. As per the calculations made in the Hindu scriptures, we are currently living in the 51st year of Lord Brahma and Lord Brahma along with this materialistic Brahmanda or today what we call as the universe, is set to live and exist for another 49 years. Ah well, excuse me, ‘Ahem!!’ 49 Brahma’s years.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010