Happy Birthday Oakenfold

Today is the birthday of the British disc jockey and king of trance music, Paul Oakenfold.

For those of who know and follow this legend, his musical creations are a world apart, invoking within oneself a different realm that allows one to smell red, see ecstasy and feel the electric sense of an upbeat mood, without the assistance of any hallucinogenic substance, but merely as a result of wonderful conceptualized music!

So, facelifter, bunkka man, and popkiller, as you continue to rock the world with likes of Earth, Wind and Fire, Redefining Oblivion wishes you a very happy birthday! May you continue to find the inspiration to chart interstellar journeys for millions of us who trip and travel unaided, fuelled only by the stunning doses of your magnificent composition!

Go on, make us the sound of tomorrow!

Footnotes:

Official Website - Paul Oakenfold

Image courtesy: Google Images

The Others

Very quietly, my other blogs, the photoblog - Imaging Oblivion © ® and the Geo-political space - Thoughts of a Geo-political Observer © ®, are coming of age. They are now 20 and 15 months old respectively and are striving to shirk off their fledgling state while showcasing some unique and interesting depictions and points of view!

For me, nothing seems to be more rewarding than to see my creative actions being well appreciated and received in the right spirit. There, perhaps, is no equal to a feeling that evokes a sense of elation when one witnesses his own conception take wings! More importantly, these exercises continue to help me advance a long cherished dream, one that involves furthering one's passion above all else, in an attempt to remain happy at all times, and to be able to understand the world around!

It is a very content and happy feeling to be able to connect with people far and wide and to gain an understanding of different perspectives, and attempt to comprehend the driving forces behind every creative action, no matter how insignificant it may appear to be. In doing so, I believe, one broadens the scope of one's own horizon, allowing much to be seen and understood, in a rather equitable state of being!

As always, thank you for your kind patronage!

Wishes on Onam

Today is Onam, the most celebrated festival of Kerala, marking the homecoming of the legendary King Mahabali, during whose benevolent rule Kerala enjoyed a golden era, one of peace, prosperity and general well-being, which is believed to be unmatched to this day!

The following words of Mahabali hold immense significance even today and should well be considered as a model code for existence, "Prana (life) and Maana (honour) are like the two eyes of a person. Even if life goes, honour should be protected. Knowing that the person that has come now is the Lord Himself, I should be the most fortunate one as the Lord, who gives everything to mankind, is seeking something from me."

On this joyous occasion, I extend my wishes for a very happy and peaceful life, with prayers for a healthy and prosperous being, one that is constantly driven by purpose and goodwill.

God bless!

Self subjective

And remember, no matter where you go, there you are!

-- Confucius 

Just how important is faith? Or, how realistically resilient should one be? Better still, how pertinent is patience in the face of continuing adversity? Difficult questions? Or means for renewed introspection, I wonder!

Every facet of life is something that presents a unique opportunity to understand oneself more than anything or anyone else, for the entity called the self is really the only variable, though seemingly constant, with other things being merely subjective influences - Cēterīs paribus, in better known terms! So, if assumptions are really characteristic only to the basis of incurred instances, the most fundamental supposition should be based upon the premise that every occurrence is as similar as another! Yet we know well that such is hardly the case. So, could this be termed as a paradox? Of what, understanding or the lack of it?

Now, everything that falls into the element of being subjective is time-bound! Yet, why do the effects of such subjective influences outlast the catalysts themselves? Is it possibly because of dependent variables being mired into the equation at a fundamental level and furthered by a larger cause of pursuit? Come to think of it, some events, themselves, may not be as prolonging in their happening when compared to the effects of their consequences, such as for instance the nuclear weapons detonated at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, both of which actions though confined only to a few moments, their resultant fallout having lasted for decades!

So, the questions really are how much, how long, how far, how high, how more or less? Subjective? Well, why do I get the feeling that the beginning is as important as the proceeding!

Beyond Independence

I dream, of a place where prosperity and peace reign supreme in the hearts and minds of all people alike, where hatred and prejudice find not so much as even a mention. I envision a land where poverty and strife are unknown, where harmony and love prevail unending, where people flourish joyfully, owing to the bounties of nature and self-created wonders of good living, where education and wisdom are at large, for everyone's partaking rather than limited to a select few! I dream of a people free from divisions and discrimination, insulated from disease, misery and maleficence!

I dream, that such a place be known to the world as India and it's people as Indians!

I have a dream!

250 posts later

Since May 2006, until now, 250 posts have come to be on this space. Though relatively small in number, the exercise has undoubtedly blessed me with rich measures of interaction with fellow-bloggers from far and wide, in an attempt to understand people, cultures and mannerisms! Many worthy friendships have been formed and I now feel as if part of a large, yet closely knit family of intellectuals, who continually offer an insight into life in a manner that is certainly unparalleled.

I've often been asked how one can, so closely, relate to a world that can at best be visualized in a very individualistic perspective, far away from one that has a definite structure, hierarchy and system. My answer has always been a simple one, emphasizing upon the need to understand this tapestry of a network as an extension of one's existing life than view it in isolation and resultant colourlessness - best perhaps, to be seen as being among the many facets that make up our very existence!

Not oddly enough, readings and experiences here, have accentuated, among other things, my level of spirituality, a passion for literature and an undying need to go out and see the remarkable wide world! Perhaps, I may not be able to chart a dream journey of sorts or pause enough to read every epic that has ever been written, but through you and your respective spaces, and your valued perspectives, I will continue to see the world and remain immensely comforted at the thought of being able to be connected in such short bursts of time, while so far apart, yet so definitively!

This is a world of leaders, those of creative excellence fueled with a very deep sense of passion and thus being able to bring out from within creations that are timeless and certainly unique, every single one of which holds immense significance and meaning that appeals to the deepest insides of the human spirit! For the same reason, I consider it a matter of pleasure and privilege extraordinaire to be part of this wonderful world and most importantly to be associated so closely with every one of you!

Inception

To dream is to be able to see reality, a setting that exists within the walls of the mind and therefore real in being experienced, seen and lived and yet unreal in the waking state purely because any attempt of it's recreation is most certainly futile. Ever wondered why it is so really difficult to recollect a dream long after it's been played in the mind? Now, that is only the beginning of things, in a way that we know of it, or perhaps not!

It is nearly always impossible to remember the start of a dream, in the element in which it begins to occur. One can at best find oneself deep in the process of the event even as it unfolds in a seemingly random and untraceable state of succession! There may be intermittent parallels to reality in the sense of how the memory contributes it's feed as a direct bearing of having seen and experienced matter in the real world. Such parallels, although appearing to be limitless are confined to a certain pattern, only to the extent of being able to be replicated in the same sense of how reality has contorted the innards of the mind, never free to envision a path anew or afresh! To that extent parallels are only a minute part of the entire configuration and not the pattern itself.

But parallels are not the only things that make up the matter that constitute the process of apparitions that are generated by the subconscious mind. There is the imaginative state that exceeds perhaps even the best of creativity, in giving birth to realms of possibilities that appear so real that one is utterly perplexed at the detail with which they occur, often casting the mind into a spasmodically fearful state. And what one does not understand and comprehend, one can and will only fear!

Then, there are stages that convolute in an endless quagmire, occurring and recurring as if generated by the electrical activity within the brain, combined with an imaginative process that can at most times be colourful yet appear in a sepia like tone! One often struggles to lock away those menacingly replicating states, but finds oneself at the mercy of the subconscious for not being able to do just that. Then the battle to create situations arises, where one would create a prison to carefully shut away those repetitions and assign a characteristic attribute to them all, in a serious effort to calm the conscious state against the tedious and taunting proceedings of the subconscious!

The worst kind of a dream is perhaps one in which the entity sees itself in a surrounding which appears to be undergoing a terrible state of degeneration, such as structures falling apart and streets splitting wide open, where despite every effort, the overwhelming succession of events provide no opportunity to gain control over the situation, to be able to attempt to reverse it! One feels as if transcending not just places and time but also realms outside of the Earth, far away and deep inside space! Escape, or liberation as some may prefer to call it, comes from well within, through what are mental projections generated at speeds faster than light in order to create a situation, binding upon which the entity will then further. These projections could by far create an unending network of places and people which seem real right down to the experience of emotion or the familiarity of the place, despite not ever having been there before! Laws of physics do not matter or hold importance of this realm, and can best be used to deduce the state which one is in!

There cannot possibly be any explanation for the realities that exist and happen in such remarkable detail within our minds. They could be as a result of the past, present or maybe even the future, and we have no means of knowing that ever! Momentarily gaining control during the whole process, the conscious stage attempts to offer comfort or courage as the case maybe, and then again allows it's counterpart to chart another course that although appearing remarkably familiar, may well be one that cannot ever be connected to, despite the need to decipher and understood, as if perhaps bearing the very elixir of life!

Sunlight, and another form of reality appears, and for that matter, every dream is only half remembered!

Footnotes:

As you may have guessed, this post was created immediately after I watched Christopher Nolan's epic Inception. Dreams and their occurrences have fascinated me more than I can ever explain and hence I found this movie remarkably well made despite the radical storyline it was based upon. The scene related to the beach landing of the protagonist and an accompanying character, where massive edifices at the waterfront appear to be crumbling down, was eerily familiar to me, having seen the exact setting in a dream a very long time ago, yet so well etched in my mind!

Remembering Dr. Oppenheimer

Very few have, perhaps, endured the dichotomies of life as has J. Robert Oppenheimer, going from an absolutely iconic state to tragic infamy, in a succession of events that can at best be described as unfortunate and fateful!

Presently reading the biography of who is best known as the father of the American atom bomb, I'm given an opportunity to understand the mind of Dr. Oppenheimer, famously known for its complexities, as baffling as mathematical convolutions or the laws governing thermodynamics in physics! But the remarkably articulate and factual work of Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, free from any form of prejudice, or opinionated distortions, usually adopted by many a narrator, is a true classic, having arrived upon after a great deal of painstaking research compiled with immense meticulousness and detail for the reader to assimilate.

Titled American Prometheus - The triumph and tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, this booker prize winning work not only details, in outstanding simplicity, the life and times of Dr. Oppenheimer but also introduces the reader to a socio-political mindset, prevalent during what was perhaps the beginning of divisions in the world, as blocs, in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, created purely on an ideological basis - a state of alignment that would last for decades, culminating into the Cold War.

Reading this book is quite like living a situation that is not very uncommon in today's world of speed success that dictates entities to plot against one another in a feverish attempt to 'climb the ladder,' of which, here, the protagonist falls victim to! I can safely say that this book is more than just an account of a person and his actions, or inactions as many historians would like to remark! To me, it is nothing short of an almanac of history, one that unmistakably outlines very many facts about how history was shaped and thereafter written and hence recognizable in the form that we know today!

Footnotes:

It was on this day in 1932 that the American physicist Carl David Anderson announced the discovery of the Positron, a fact earlier theorized by Dr. Oppenheimer in his paper titled "On the theory of electrons and protons."

Also on this day in 1939, scientists Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd wrote to then US President Franklin Roosevelt, urging him to begin the Manhattan Project to develop a nuclear weapon. Dr. Oppenheimer would later serve as scientific director of the project.

The Spidabutt

He who is not with me is against me!

-- Matthew 12:30 & Luke 11:23 -- The Holy Bible

The blogosphere has been known to enjoy a sense of calm, a lot of peace among it's inhabitants while being relatively incident free and contributing to the coming together of many wonderful minds individually and collectively responsible for some of the finest creative expressions known to the world! However, that very fabric upon which it has been diligently woven together, with multitudes of cultural interchanges and the warm bonhomie among it's co-creators is being gravely threatened!

Of late, two conflicting ideologues, one of evil and the other of it's opposer, have been fast engulfing this hitherto serene world and escalating in a very dangerous proportion, unprecedented in this sphere! Imminently about to create violent divisions, and factions, each sworn in their belief stronger than the other, this vast vestige of human intervention is surely coming to see the likes of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Cold War, which one sincerely hopes does not manifest into a full scale war of epic proportions!

The person responsible for this is none other than Vimal Vijayan, popularly known to his friends, fellow-bloggers, family members and associates as Vimmuuu, and the contention is his ill-placed belief of Spiderman being the true superhero of the universe, which, as many of you know, is based on fallacies, lies and fantasies at best! So technically, here is someone who is ardently propagating what is malicious and false, knowing fully well that his claims are refutable and baseless. Worse still, over a series of exchanges, he has had the audacity to deride Superman in ways that would put the worst Indian politicians to shame! :) As a truly peace loving citizen of the  blogosphere, I offered him many chances to redeem himself and come clean, thereby accepting his monumental blunder and make amends by pledging his allegiance to Superman, something which he has sternly refused to do, even as I write this post!

Therefore, knowing fully well that a battle is at hand, I now call upon fellow bloggers to seriously contemplate and opine about the sides they are about to take, or, in the course of time, be forced into! Ask yourselves, if your true purpose lies in upholding the good or partaking with the evil? :) To think of it, there cannot be a web-spinning, creepy jerk of a joke that can be worthy of being recognized as a hero! Would you want to cast your fate at the hands of a spider? Or rather, the legs of it? (Spiders don't have hands, do they?) One that has no lineage of excellence and virtue but simply driven (madly) by impulses created as a result of a chemical reaction, that it has no control over? Would you want your children to be known as impudent beings, won over by the influence of malevolence? Remember what Edmund Burke said about evil that "all that is necessary for it's triumph is that good men do nothing?"

So, when the time comes, who would you find yourself being aligned with? I'm asking this to your respective states of conscious, as true keepers of justice and integrity! Responsible citizens with a clean slate, you don't have to be seen thinking hard on this, for the choice is simple! Is it not easy enough to support the just, and join the cause to exterminate the evil web-spinning horror and grant the world a measure of peace that we all so much owe it, as part of our duty? So then, come up without dither, doubt or fear and be part of Operation Spidabutt - mankind's singularly most concerted effort to rid the universe of iniquity!

Finally, I'd like you to be reminded that "he who is not with me is against me." :)

Twelve

What did you think? Time?

Now, there are somethings I'd so want to do, rather need to do, before I die! Call them wanton pleasures of a wishful man, but since they are on my list they become absolute must do's, speaking for myself that is.

1.Travel the world over and meet fellow bloggers, every single one of them I'm connected with, Moscow to British Columbia, Toruń included!
2. Visit the poles; Nothing beats tranquility and the massive white expanse, does it?
3. Para-drop from 30,000 feet; I want to do the helicopter spin! Sweetheart Samby, where are you?
4. Fly over the Everest; I'm guess I'm too incompetent to climb it, or even think of it!
5. Visit the headquarters of the United Nations and NATO! Even diplomacy needs some working understanding, I suppose, geo-politically speaking that is!
6. Scuba dive in the Mauritian waters; Maybe that's where I can be underwater and still get a tan! Talk about attitude, huh?
7. Donate, donate and donate! I learn't that from my parents! Ted Turner and Warren Buffet are textbook examples, at best!
8. Fly into space; Can you imagine how powerful and overwhelming a feeling it would be to be able to see the Earth when you are not on it?
9. Not get married, but have children; Sorry folks, no explanations here - no clarifications either! Haven't you heard that happily-married is just another oxymoron?
10. Meet Stephen Hawking! What can I possibly say about the father of time?
11. Go on a pilgrimage! Om Namah Shivaya! In case you don't already know, salvation is more than just a quest to embark upon, more potential than stepping out on a search for the Holy Grail, I presume!
12. Die young! Better to be a force to reckon with, than be a spent force!

Footnotes:

The human mind, it is said, is fickle and hence this list automatically becomes far from exhaustive! No sarcasms here, only realistic assumptions, conditions notwithstanding that is! Forgive me for appearing to be convenient.

Life 2.0

Gadgetry has perhaps changed our lives in ways we cannot possibly imagine. I'm not talking about the numerous benefits of being connected and to be able to hear and see each other, despite the distance! I'm reasonably sure user literatures have educated almost all of us enough to the point of being able to smartly distinguish one offering from another!

Whatever happened to the handwritten letter culture and periodical courtesy visits that were routine exercises during childhood? Quite like languages, cultures and people, these pleasurable aspects of life seem to be dying down at a pace that cannot quite be understood! There is a serious sense of individualistic realm that seems to have encroached upon our minds today, taking us far and further apart from one another, making us so aloof that we have begun to forget how we were together!

I'm not about to elucidate the wrongs and rights of such an upcoming trend. I'd rather leave the statisticians and the psychiatrists to publish their well learned facts over time. But, I'm surely concerned, if not always alarmed, about how perilously distant and single we have become, often seeking companionship in snazzy gadgets that allow us to view the world through a seemingly magnified perspective, not knowing that we are being robbed off the human element and most importantly a sense of forbearance, which was once so very abundant!

Little wonder, some enlightened soul once remarked that one telephone is necessity, two is luxury, three is opulence while none is paradise! I couldn't agree more!

Defining a paradox

Life is so full of paradoxes! Efforts do not always lead to desired results. Ends hardly justify the means. Right doesn't always mean being right and wrongs, are like what they say, almost always subjective! Even time and nature hold paradoxes. Things may seem ordained in a certain manner but they are rife with contradictions. Questions relating to life, poverty, results, mannerisms and so on do not have definitive answers and yet linger in us at all times, not very unlike the passage of water in a brook, unfamiliar of where it would end up over the course of time, or merely keep flowing on!

What really are these paradoxes and their purpose, I wonder! Are they stumbling blocks purported to arise and exist in order to contribute to our evolution which happens over a period of time? Do they actually serve as a measure of understanding oneself? Maybe they are randomly occurring variables coming to being as a result of a certain course of action? But having said that, one wonders why there is a compulsion to embark upon a certain path that leads to an action that results in a paradox!

I'm not sure if I'd be able to chart a path forward! I'm often riddled with possibilities and yet really unsure of how to walk! There is a reassuring voice inside, but I'm not too sure if it is bias that is being vocal in an effort to nudge me forward! Unbeknown to me, there probably is a story unfolding in time, or so I'd like to believe, one that will bring about some sense of clarity!

Not a day passes without the thought of what it is that I'm really waiting for! And the more I think, there are only questions, hideous and painful ones, all too far from the answers!

Hello, Mr. Hawking

Just the other day I was intently watching a feature of Stephen Hawking on TV and couldn't help admiring the man for his profoundness in passion and the ability to dream outside permissible limits, such as for instance, time travel! He has always fascinated me, and that began several years ago, when I first read his very articulate account of the universe, space and time, titled 'A brief history of time,' which, most certainly, is a very authoritative text on the four dimensions that we surround our existence in!

It amazes me beyond imagination how someone so severely disabled, (by motor neurone disease also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS), continues to delve into the nuances of space and time with a sense of ease and passion like that employed by a child during it's course of play.

What is certainly commendable about him is his ability to transcend boundaries despite his massive incapacity! Sometime in early 2007, he became the first paralytic to undertake a zero gravity flight as a precursor to his sub-orbital flight in space, which I'm not sure has happened yet.

Perhaps, the two things I absolutely like about him are, among others, one, his belief that alien life does exist in other parts of the universe, and two, his answer to the question of 'What came before the Big Bang?' which he asserted was meaningless, when he compared it to asking 'What lies north of the North Pole?'

Simply complex?

What do you like yourself to be seen as? Complicated, unknown, mysterious and unpredictable? Hold on, you aren't alone and that supposedly individualistic feeling of being unique in thinking or saying so is not so uncommon after all! Have you realized that it is a fad now, for people to say that they are complicated and not too easy to understand? I'm wondering if all of that jabber is as a result of serious insecurities from within, after all!

With relationships and their durations going bonkers with each passing day, it seems to be more of a statement, or an in thing for one to declare about oneself being complicated in the mind, and tough to understand, often failing to realize that such a statement almost always betrays one's fragile and utterly weak state of being, rather than appearing to sound uber-cool or chic!

Undoubtedly, the most appreciable state is that of simplicity, which if displayed from the outside wins admiration and if reflected from within, wins devotion. Simply, how difficult is that to understand? It's absolutely strange of how people, these days, don't want to be understood, when in reality that is exactly the biggest quest each one of us undertakes on a very continual basis, with or without realization!

Psychologically, perhaps, the ones who claim to be difficult to understand surely find themselves at loggerheads with their own personalities, coupled with a delusional understanding of the self that often borders on a very deranged sense of being from within!

Thank God for simplicity now!

The Russell–Einstein Manifesto

55 years ago, on this day, in London, a note was issued, urging world leaders to recognize and understand the threat of nuclear weapons in the hope of nuclear disarmament. It was signed by, among others, as the name itself suggests, Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell.

Today, the cold war is history, but if estimations are to believed, there exist about 23000 active nuclear weapons, in the form of either missiles that can be launched within a matter of minutes, or strategic weapons placed in different nations. One can seek consolation from the fact that their numbers have fallen from the total of 65000 active such weapons known to have existed in the year 1985.

Reduction in the number of weapons of mass destruction simply isn't a solution, for the threat nevertheless looms large. For instance, a gun with 3 rounds poses just about the same threat to life as another fully loaded one. Treaties such as START, SALT and the NPT, among others seek the ultimate goal of eliminating nuclear weapons, however, they are not without flaws and bias!

The last time the world came dangerously close a nuclear conflict was in October 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Today, nations and people have come to work closely with one another thanks very much to the politics of diplomacy. Yet, the threat of a dirty bomb is ever present, thanks to a rabid proliferation network established by the likes of A. Q. Khan with the complicity of intelligence services of China and Pakistan, to name a few that is!

Therefore, E. L. Doctorow couldn't have been more right when, at the thick of the cold war, he wrote, that "it was first our weaponry and then our diplomacy, and now it is our economy! How can we suppose that something so monstrously powerful would not, after forty years, compose our identity?"

Footnotes:

Full text of the Russell–Einstein Manifesto

Goodbye my Lord! So long!

I have known them since 1986, and very intimately at that! To me, they have been iconic, and a very significant and powerful representation of timeless existence of courage, charm, strength and endurance.

They have been more than just a landmark and have known to have existed for over 80 years! Towering well over the tallest of man made structures here, they have been a symbol of nature's unconditionally everlasting process of creation to make this a wonderful place to live in. One cannot, therefore, possibly imagine the legacy, and void, that they leave behind in the minds and hearts of all those who have loved them and opened their eyes to them every single morning - me included!

On the morning of the 30th, sometime last week, as I was leaving for work, I heard an electrostatic hum of some machine. Stopping to gauge it's source, I realized that the culprit was a battery powered chainsaw being put to use to bring down two magnificent Eucalyptus trees in the neighbourhood!

What I could say about those wonderful trees, even in the most descriptively flowery language, will not make up for what they truly are, rather were, now since they have been consigned to history and exist only in the depths of our minds!

The last one fell yesterday, painfully, amidst a nasty persisting drizzle and the sweeping cold. I stood still, numbed by what was unfolding, ashamed at containing a beast-like rage and not being able to do a thing about it!

Charity does begin at home

That charity begins at home is perhaps the most compassionate statements one would hear universally! Nothing can outshine it in intent, good will and most importantly in being humane and cognizant of another person’s condition and the effort to constantly work towards remedial measures which are so much of a dire need in today’s circumstances.

Speaking only for India, I've made a compilation of the following facts and figures which are absolute shockers!

The World Bank estimates that 456 million Indians (41.6 % of the total Indian population) now live under the global poverty line of $1.25 per day. This means that a third of the global poor now reside in India.

A 2007 report by the state-run National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) found that 77% of Indians, or 836 million people, lived on less than 20 rupees per day, with most working in "informal labour sector with no job or social security, living in abject poverty." However, a new report from the UN disputes this, finding that the number of people living on $1.25 a day is expected to go down from 435 million or 51.3 percent in 1990 to 295 million or 23.6 percent by 2015 and 268 million or 20.3 percent by 2020.

India is home to the world’s largest population of street children, estimated at 57 million. The Republic of India is the seventh largest and second most populous country in the world. With acceleration in economic growth, India has become one of the fastest growing developing countries. This has created a rift between poor and rich; 22 percent of the population lives below the income poverty line. Owing to unemployment, increasing rural-urban migration, attraction of city life and a lack of political will, India now has one of the largest number of child laborers in the world.

Street children are subject to malnutrition, hunger, health problems, substance abuse, theft, commercial sexual exploitation of children, harassment by the city police and railway authorities, as well as physical and sexual abuse, although the Government of India has taken some corrective measures and declared child labor illegal.

So, when on the morning of 30th June, Elizabeth Sholtys, Co-founder and Chief Executive of an non-profit organization called the Ashraya Initiative for Children (AIC), wrote me an email introducing herself and her organization and what they do, along with a request to show support for their efforts, I decided to feature them on my blog, knowing fully well that such a noble cause requires marathon effort, courage, persistence and above all a sense of dedication that cannot for once be compromised.

The Ashraya Initiative for Children (AIC) is dedicated to improving the lives and shaping the futures of vulnerable children in Pune, India by advancing educational opportunities, nurturing holistic development and building healthy, empowered communities.

AIC is in the running for $250,000 through the Chase Community Giving contest via Facebook. AIC is currently #12 in the list of more than 500,000 organizations, and is trying to secure more votes to move up to be within the top 5. Each organization within the top 200 will receive $20,000, but if AIC can make it to the top 5, they will receive $100,000 when the contest ends on July 12th. Only American organizations are eligible to compete, so there are very few other organizations that work in India participating in the contest (AIC is the only organization working in India that has been placed in the top 40 list).

Quoting Elizabeth Sholtys herself –

“Even $20,000 goes a long way for AIC - for example, it pays for ALL of the school-related expenses for ALL 200 street kids and slum children in our Education Outreach Program. This includes school tuition fees for both public and private schools, exam fees, uniforms, underwear, shoes, sweaters, hair ribbons, lunch boxes, textbooks, notebooks, pens, pencils, art supplies, backpacks, external tutoring fees for our oldest students who attend a year-long prep course to help get them ready for the 10th standard board exams, and many other things.

You can help make a huge difference in the lives of 200 extremely needy children, just by voting. And in honor of our 5 year anniversary, please spread the word to at least 5 (or more!) friends and family members and convince them to support our cause.

Thank you so much!”

Folks, take a few moments to visit the following link and caste a vote to ensure that this effort is sustained.

AIC’s campaign on Chase Community Giving contest on Facebook

Footnotes:

Statistical facts and figures, as per reports and publications, given hereunder.

Poverty in India 
Street children in India 
India: Urban Poverty Report 2009 

Ashraya Initiative for Children (AIC) on Facebook and Twitter

The official AIC video

CBC documentaries on AIC
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3 

Obscured by clouds

There is no bigger surprise than the one that involves surprising yourself with the ability of doing something that you thought you'd never be able to do!

-- Told to a friend during a conversation on Saturday, 26 June 2010

There are times I don't want to be me, but something monumentally different! I wonder where that thought comes from really. Is it as a result of a certain degree of understanding the self? I'm not proclaiming that I have reached the pinnacle of self-realization, I've hardly scraped the surface. Knowing the self all to well itself is an act of liberation I'm told, something that leads to bliss! And I can assure that there is no sense of self-loathing, despite any number of regrets!

But then what is it really that is making me think about being that something that is not me? I wonder! It has nothing to do with fear of any kind. Maybe it is the impulse of wanting to undo everything that was done in a manner that was done. Now, even if that were to happen, I realize very well that I cannot stop from being me or having been me before!

How does one alter the course of life? Is it supposedly easy to just walk away and change skins? What is the measure of achieving a radical shift? Hop, skip and jump, or just change gears?

Monsoon mania

Diplomacy can at best be described as an act of throwing your wife out of the window and singing love is in the air!

-- Anonymous / Writing on the wall

Now that the monsoons are here, I've got a lot of complaining to do!

It's not like I'm staying in a sweltering place where temperatures are a sorely killing issue! What begins to be a bright sunny day soon turns out to be a squall, which results in the momentary euphoria of the mind to fast become a damp squib!

At first there's warm welcoming sunshine with a mild caressing breeze. As the hours speed by, there's a looming clump of menacing cloud that multiplies faster than perhaps rabbits can reproduce! Then the mass turns dark gray as if to announce a sudden onslaught of it's new-found might! And lo, pour the rains throwing life into a tizzy! What continues is a rotten steady drizzle that wouldn't quench even the thirst of finger-sized bird, let alone a parched field!

And to make matters absolutely worse, there's the maddening echo of this someone whose orgasmic type yells, of "ah, what wonderful weather, what delicious mud, ooooh," puncture the innards of my ear to no end! Sickening to the gut!

So much for the number of weather widgets on my computer and two smart-phones! All I can do is seek solace in the adage that "the trouble with weather forecasting is that it's right too often for us to ignore it and wrong too often for us to rely on it!"

Note to the Lion

Dear Dad

Ordinarily, this note would have been very difficult to write, but what's making it easy for me is my million odd faults as a son and my being nothing of the sort that you envisioned and dreamed of me to be.

While other Fathers proudly bask in the glory and achievements of their children, here I am, a fitting example of nothingness, out of who nothing big can be expected. I'm not complaining, but merely admitting something that you already know and have known for a very long time now. So then, the question of why writing this note in the first place?

Well, for all of my misgivings as a son, I wanted to tell the world of how much you toiled in order to make my life rewarding and happy! Of all the times when you put me ahead of you to make sure that I had the best always and all ways! For having made sure that I went to fine places to seek education and had among the best of literature to read from! Ensuring always that I had a very good meal to savour when a lot of my kind went starving because they were not fortunate enough to have someone such as you for a Father!

We've had our differences and agreements, and many a times I could not reason your logic as you would have desired me to do, but I cannot say enough in appreciation of the wonderfully everlasting lessons that I have learnt from you! You have taught me far more than what books and exponents could and it is a shame that I cannot demonstrate any of that in a manner you'd have wanted to see!

I'm not writing this to eulogize you, that's not the objective and you know I hate to do just that! I'm simply telling the world that your absence would have made things unimaginably worse for me!

I'd have missed the opportunity to be a step closer to God had you not been around!

Enough said, I guess!

Footnotes:

Not quite a tribute on occasion of Father's day which happened yesterday! Just a random note in appreciation, would be more like it!