Where I went for an off-site!

Sometime in 2006, I received an email from a colleague-turned friend who had relocated to Pune after a long stint in Gurgaon! The email was titled "Where I went for an off-site" and contained some of the most picturesque images that the eye can see! Years later, after having relocated to Pune myself, I am thankful for the opportunity to savour the natural beauty of a wonderful locale! Via this post, I'd like to show you some truly brilliant images of the surroundings of Pune, Lohagad in particular which once housed the Fort of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, the founder of the Maratha Empire!

I ran a twelve part series of these images on my Photo Blog beginning here and ending here!

Almost always, many a situation in life is like this. One needs to skillfully tide over it!

Gradually, one becomes experienced with the verses of living and learns to see the bigger picture!

A lot in life depends upon perspective! Where the perspective is right combined with a related attitude, there is bliss!

But, life is not always a cushy destination to arrive at. One requires a great deal of courage and determination!

For the willing, rewards are aplenty!

And for the persistent ones, bliss is never-ending!

Some situations are stranger than fiction, often demanding a great deal of wisdom and discretion!

But, with faith in the omnipotent, even the most turbulent sail paces steadily ahead!

What appears docile, might not always so be, for the magnitude of forces can never be discerned!

In the end, life always goes forward no matter what, and there is always a great deal of tranquility!

The Man Who Sold The World

I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.

- Kurt Cobain, Nirvana, February 20, 1967 – April 5, 1994

April 5, 1994 was different. Sometime during the day, a shot gun did the ominous task of delivering its deadly cargo into a human head resulting in almost instantaneous death! Three days later on April 8, the world was told of Kurt Cobain's death! A lot was said and some out of the ordinary speculations were made from time to time by many people connected to the investigations. But what remains is that at 27, the world had come to tragically lose one of the best musicians it had ever known!

So it Smells like teen spirit? But you said Come as you are, in a Heart Shaped Box! Why? For All Apologies? It must be for Polly to Drain You right? I can understand how it is In Bloom when Something in the Way, About a Girl seems Dumb to Breed the question Where Did You Sleep Last Night! Did you drink PennyRoyal Tea, On a Plain, near the School? I'm sure the Radio Friendly Unit Shifter taught you to know what it was like to have Been a Son more than a Scentless Apprentice! You Know You're Right when you Serve the Servants but I will not understand the Negative Creep, when you say Downer in Stain! No I will not be Sifting the Turnaround for the Very Ape Swap Meet and I certainly will not appreciate you calling Floyd the Barber!

Hey Kurt, wake up, you've turned 42! Its your Birthday today, Wake up Mr. Moustache, lets go get ourselves some Mexican Seafood!

Dammit, what the heck have you done? I should have freakin known when you yelled I Hate Myself and Want to Die! This is a lot more than Bambi Slaughter!

What can I say of the Man Who Sold the World?

Rest In Peace!

Footnotes:

The Blog

The Biography

The Memorial

Another Memorial

Justice for Kurt

The Suicide Note

Quotes by Kurt Cobain

Death of Kurt Cobain

Image Courtesy: The Canadian Guitar Forum

An Inconvenient Truth

You can go home again...... as long as you understand that home is a place where you never have been

- Ursula Le Guin

Today marks the 4rth anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol. As we continue to grapple with issues such as global warming, emission control and carbon credits to name a few, I wanted to showcase some very powerful illustrations that depict our current standing and where we are headed.

A divided world

Fragments of disaster

(History of changes in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide taken for direct measurements made in Mauna Loa, Hawaii since 1958.)

(Shows the timescales over which emitted carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere. Mixing in the biosphere and oceans remove 70-85% of emissions after 200 years, but the remainder establishes a new equilibrium that may persist for hundreds of thousands of years.)

Slayers-in-arms

Closing Statements - 12:39 PM IST, February 16, 2009

World Population 6,749,524,000

Number of people born 3300

Number of people died 2000

600,000 tonnes of CO2 have been emitted.

Footnotes

The Kyoto Protocol - Full Text

Inputs & Graphical Representations from Global Warming Art

Other Inputs from

Wikipedia,

Earth Communications Office,

Breathing Earth; and

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Stop monkeying around!

A great deal has been said about the notoriously uncouth ultra-right wing faction called the Ram Sene which recently caused havoc to the lives of many a civilized Indian in Mangalore. Via this post, I want to showcase their stupid antics and the reactions of many urbane Indians for the benefit of understanding and knowledge of my friends in the international community. I'm sure all of you have been following very closely some of the most despicable acts of these hooligans over the last couple of weeks erupting especially in a place called Mangalore which is located in the coastal belt of the Southern Indian state of Karnataka.

To give you an overview of the incidents, a bunch of utterly uncultured ruffians swooped down on a pub in Mangalore on January 24 and violently beat up a young crowd present there stating that they were in violation of the principles, tradition and ethos of the Indian culture! The alleged 'violators' were, as per these sick self-appointed guardians of Indian values, letting themselves succumb to a culture that did not belong to India. Now, what many of you from outside India would not know is the fact that this radical fundamentalist organization is headed by an outlaw called Pramod Muthalik who is wanted in more than dozen criminal cases pending against him in various courts of law across Karnataka.

So, you now know the kind of people who enforce moral policing in India under the guise of protecting the youth from the corrupting immoral practices purportedly exported from across borders. Sounds more like some gut sickening pathetic joke, right? Wait until you hear more of it. Barely seven days later, on Jan 31, buckling under political and ideological pressure, the ruling BJP government in Karnataka set scott free the man behind the disgraceful attacks and as if to showcase unruly power over the law, Muthalik addressed a press conference outside the court where he said "This is a victory for all those who are fighting against pub culture in Mangalore. Our agitation has won, What we have done in Mangalore is a big success story in out fight against indecency. We are thankful to our Mangalore cadre for everything that they have done." The judiciary instead of taking suo moto cognizance of these statements and regarding them as a measure of glorifying terror and violating fundamental rights of innocent civilians, did just the opposite - sit tight on their fat bottoms and lend a deaf ear!

And then on February 06, a bunch of cronies belonging to the same inglorious faction stopped a bus travelling to Mangalore when they got wind that the daughter of a Kerala legislator was travelling with her classmate's bother. The issue - either belonged to different religions and hence were violating the so called sacred Indian tradition by travelling together! Unbelievable? Let me call Ripley's to have this included in their archives. The Chief Minister of Kerala lost no time in protesting, especially in the wake of such a licentious incident affecting his partyman. The Centre made a hue and cry about lawlessness, but India being India, nothing concrete materialized and in the view of the world, the Home Minister of Karnataka publicly stated to the victim's father that he should be lucky to have his daughter back home in one piece! I wonder what more could be shameful for a democracy! All that the Centre could manage to say was that it was watching and taking note of the ongoing developments in Mangalore. Union Home Minister P. C. Chidambaram stated that "Sri Ram Sene is a threat to the country. The Centre is watching its activities with great concern."

Despite international outrage, the Ram Sene outfit worries not one bit and has continued to uphold its actions while also issuing open threats to people calling upon them not to celebrate the upcoming Valentine's Day saying that it too violated the letter and spirit of the Indian social system! Under its supremely sick tie-or-die program, it has said that any couple caught dating will be forcefully married off!

Now, fortunately, India is country which has more sensible people than the few random, radical instances of humanitarian failure, and while all these incidents have been happening, there has been an outrage across the nation especially among the youth who have been targeted for the most ridiculous of reasons. Blogs have been simmering about the Pink Chaddi campaign which was kicked off on February 05. It is a powerful yet friendly and peaceful initiative to oppose the Ram Sene and its perverted ideology. I would liken it to Mahatma Gandhi's non-violent movement and urge you to please take part in it and show solidarity to the people of India who want to rid their nation of malaise. Today is a time when collective efforts need to made to improve long pending issues such as healthcare, education, self-sustenance, infrastructure and homeland security. Contrarily radical political groups are harping upon pre-historic politics which is totally unacceptable. India was founded on democratic principles and its roots will always remain pluralistic and harmonious irrespective of what is attempted by uneducated terror mongers.

And finally, I am supremely proud of having written this post!

Footnotes:

The Pink Chaddi Campaign Blog

The Facebook Group - Pink Chaddi Campaign

What is the Pink Chaddi Campaign?

Contact:

Benson +919845167575
Areeba +919900569456
Samir +919246282223
Nithin +919886081269
Kaushik +919703508756

The Freaky Devotees

Passion and purpose go hand in hand. When you discover your purpose, you will normally find it’s something you’re tremendously passionate about.

- Steve Pavlina

Passion is what arms people to go into the chaotic future unaided. Passion is what drives ordinary people to perform extraordinary feats and create legends of themselves. As a very essential ingredient in the haphazard concoction of life, it is what prompts some of us to delve deep and discover our real selves and understand the purpose behind our existence.

One such instance of marvel is the Freaky Devotees band which was formed by very intimate friends of mine, brothers, Sourin and Subhrojyoti. Either of them like many of us are tied to the vagaries of corporate life and yet have taken the time and made the effort to realize their passion and thus add a substantial amount of satisfaction and joy to their otherwise robotic and hectic lives.

Sourin and Subhrojyoti were born in the 70s in Shillong, a place tucked away in a corner of India. They traveled widely with their parents and learnt to appreciate Mother Nature and music much better. They learned music from their parents. Sourin continued to pursue the traditional folk and classical form of Indian music while Subhrojyoti developed an immense liking for rock music and started performing while studying engineering at the National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur. While in school Sourin met Zubin, now a very successful musician in Bollywood. Sourin collaborated with Zubin on a number of occasions, recording soundtracks for movies. He also collaborated with Lyton, a friend from college, for recording movie tracks. Zubin introduced Sourin to Utpal, a creative composer and arranger. Sourin, Subhro and Utpal formed "The Freaky Devotees Band." They recorded eight tracks for their first album "Sacred Musings". Mr. Subimal Roy Chaudhuri (Sourin's and Subhro’s father) produced the album and provided great support to the band.

I decided to do a post on them not merely because of them being good friends of mine, but because of them being shining examples of people who choose to better understand the purpose of their lives and unfailingly strive every moment to realize it and continually make reflective inward progress and change, something that has been a significant motivation to many of us who know the duo. The true purpose of life is in living unaided in the endeavour to seek ultimate bliss through one's actions no matter however small they seem to be. It takes courage, dedication and steadfast will in the face of all opposition! Efforts are always well paid. The band has been nominated for the prestigious Effigy Awards after having been voted favourites across 88 nations.

Footnotes:

I also thought it well to put a link to their music which can be downloaded upon payment, for those who would be interested to sample it. Do visit it here. I have also put a small column window with the profile and the music download portal.

Image Courtesy: Subhro and Sourin, The Freaky Devotees Band

They can also be reached via email at freakydevotees@gmail.com

Incidentally, this is my 100th post

Mother

"To her who loves us before she meets us"

- The inscription on Monumento a la Madre in Mexico City

But her uneasiness increased. Since her son's strangeness was not clarified with time, her heart became more and more sharply troubled with a foreboding of something unusual. Every now and then she felt a certain dissatisfaction with him, and she thought: "All people are like people, and he is like a monk. He is so stern. It's not according to his years."

She listened and shook her head dolefully, feeling something new, unknown to her, both sorrowful and gladsome, like a caress to her troubled and aching heart. It was the first time she had heard such language about herself, her own life. It awakened in her misty, dim thoughts, long dormant; gently roused an almost extinct feeling of rebellion, perplexed dissatisfaction--thoughts and feelings of a remote youth. She often discussed life with her neighbors, spoke a great deal about everything; but all, herself included, only complained; no one explained why life was so hard and burdensome.

"Lord in heaven, have mercy!" the mother muttered again, shuddering with the cold and horror of an unformed fear.

- Random Lines from Mother by Maxim Gorky, 1906

Footnotes:

This is a tribute for my Mother who turned 51 today. I can't help think about all those painful sacrifices she made, to make me a better person. Utterly selfless and unconditionally committed, she stood like a strengthening force in whom I found a lot of support, courage and value. I pray to God to give her the strength for the most burdernsome task, which is to be able to continue to bear the utterly incorrigible spoiled brat of me, to say the least!