Hoorray!

Vivekananda 150 at Sri Krishna Gana Sabha , a set on Flickr.

Why is it that I can never do the one most important thing I always want to do, i.e. write 1000 words a day? This is one serious issue, which I never could fathom. I write reams of comments on facebook - a lot of arguments, debates, jabs and pokes, and plain nonsense. But I somehow seem to slowly lose the ability to sit down and compile my thoughts. It is with such a sad state of affairs that I have to welcome an otherwise hearty 2013, after a nice, overall pleasant and wonderful passing of 2012. 2012 brought me several new friends. I started learning a foreign language - español - and hope to reach a comfortable level, to speak and write. I learned swimming, though I am yet to perfect it. I got a comfortable new job, in which I can confidently stay for a good amount of time to come. I added quite a number of books to my library. Oh yes, I even got this brand new laptop,  Lenovo Y480 . It is another story that I could not do much of what I primarily wanted to do with this laptop ...

Serve We can get anything today for money. This bartering of money for objects and results has undervalued the value of both money and the thing it buys. The irony is calling that effort or result bought with money as a “service”. What then, is the real meaning of service? Expending one’s efforts with no expectations of any kind in return is service. It is done for the sake of the effort, for love, for the betterment of the person receiving it. To serve is to learn, to grow, to realize, and to enjoy. The act of serving helps the person performing the service more than the person receiving it. It clears the mind and purifies the heart. Such is the power of service, where even those who at first are not inclined to perform the act willingly, are soon touched by the joy of service. After all, they cannot escape the virtue of happiness and contentment when it spreads from their own hand. We “I” do not serve. “You” do not serve. “He, She, It” does not and “They” do not se...

Sometime back, I encountered a puzzle posted by a member in a LinkedIn group. It was called a Million Dollar Suitcase . A scenario with a challenge was described and we had to find a solution. It went like this: Three suitcases are all labeled incorrectly, and you must get the labels right in order to find the million dollar suitcase (the one full of hundred dollar bills).  The labels on the suitcases read as follows: $100 Bills $1 Bills Both ($100 & $1 Bills) You are allowed one test. You may remove only one bill from a single suitcase, after which you must make your determination. You can’t peek into the suitcases. Can you find the million dollar suitcase? The Solution I read about it and devised a solution before checking it out on the site. My explanation was: Assuming all of the suitcases are definitely mislabeled - we can safely remove one (i.e. the $100 suitcase) from the game and consider only two suitcases: $1 and Both.  If we select the one ...

Do you love masala movies? If you do, then you’ll definitely like Along The Way. To be true to the style of the book, it is the story of one Mr. VSA Tanikaburla by Mr. TGC Prasad. Venkata Subramaniam Adisankara Tanikaburla, also called as Venkat or more jovially as VSAT is our hero - who starts off as a very unassuming third year mechanical engineering student at NIT, Kozhikode and ends up as a... easy to guess if you like or at least have watched a masala movie - especially the Telugu or Tamil varieties. When you watch one such movie, you can predict what will happen next. This book is very similar, since it is full of cliches of the ‘boy-meets-girl’ kind and has everything - love, friendship, family, sorrow, trials and triumphs, except one thing - fights. In spite of the cliches, I couldn’t help laughing at the so many humorous digs at friends, girlfriends, parents, in-laws and most importantly - managers at workplaces. And our hero is honest enough to be “vocally self-critical”(...

I've taken a really long break from writing - thanks in good measure to frequently disrupted internet connectivity. Added to that, my new "occupation" that never is, has also began and is eating up my time and health. I couldnt even record my experiences of the last year and explore what I might do this year on time. So here goes... Hopefully, like last year, this year too, I am looking forward to change. Many lessons were learnt and unlearnt last year, which began with a few painful happenings and peaked with my dad's undergoing a medical crisis. In the end, everything fell in place: dad's back in top condition, happy events(including a full two days spent with Swami Dayananda Saraswati, at his ashram!), new people, new hopes and as usual - backbreaking work. I travelled last year, though not as much as I wanted and not to too many new places. I am yet to learn a new language(German!). I have read loads of books, but far lesser than I could have with the ti...

अगजानन पद्मार्कम् गजाननम् अहर्निशम्। अनेकदन्तम् भक्तानाम् एकदन्तम् उपास्महे॥ agajānana padmārkam gajānanam aharniśam| anekadantam bhaktānām ekadantam upāsmahe||   What a beautiful verse to behold and listen! I heard it first when this verse was suggested as an invocation for our magazine Yuva Bharati by my brother a couple of years ago. (Yup! I promptly posted it on facebook - even social networks have been permeated by spirituality :-D) A couple of months back, I had the good fortune to sit at the feet of Swami Dayananda Saraswati and learn this same verse - how to say it and its meaning. Recollecting that experience from memory, I'll try to share the beauty and the brilliance of this verse here. ānana means face. Gajānana is the Lord who has the face of an elephant or gaja . On seeing the face of Gajānana , the face of Agaja , daughter of the king among mountains ( aga) , Himavan or Parvata , one who is called Himavati or Parvati , lightens up. This is so natura...