H A N D S

imag-e-in: Take a turn at right angle from your path . . .

imag-e-in: Take a turn at right angle from your path . . .: The fondness for nostalgia intimidate at times with thoughts that ignite, especially if such memoirs are familiar to failures and weaknesses...

Take a turn at right angle from your path . . .

The fondness for nostalgia intimidate at times with thoughts that ignite, especially if such memoirs are familiar to failures and weaknesses. I was requested as I alighted from a train that halted at Mangalore railway station by a co-passenger to help guide a person who was blind. Leading him through the platform till the auto-rickshaw stand I enquired whether he was blind from birth and he said yes. I made an enquiry whether he was missing something by not being able to see like others. He answered saying he do, as he has all other faculties functioning well and miss that link of picturing the whole world. He traveled from Chennai to attend a friend’s wedding and as I made him sit in the auto rickshaw, he thanked me and said – “I will find the rest of my way to the wedding hall”. He came to part in a wedding of his old friend’s daughter. I wondered then what my relative had asked me “why I undertake that journey after an accidental fall that injured me?” Hearing the blind man’s story made me realize how purpose defines path. I use a video clipping posted on You Tube on Nick Vujicic during training sessions to demonstrate how obstacles can be visualized as challenges. Most of those who watched the video got charged. We all are luckier than many others. Another man, a double leg amputee made history recently by competing in an athletic event in Olympics with carbon fiber blades and thanked his mother Sheila for instilling values in him. The South African Pistorius watched his 89 year old grandmother flying the national flag as he ran. Sheila never took NO for an answer – “Looser is not a person who gets involved and comes last; but one who don’t get involved”. The nature of habit is an automatic compulsion to do what one has become accustomed to. Habits want to repeat old patterns to stay within comfort zones. Edward de Bono is one who spoke about parallel thinking to find deviations in our life’s journey. Tension can be classified in four type viz. of task, relationship, surprise and mystery. With demanding life styles we try to cope with tension as we are in confrontation with situations and yield in defeat, procrastination or surrender. This is where the familiarity of failure disallows parallel thoughts for improvised action to grow and sustain. As a student of engineering, I studied surface tension and it is termed as the pressure difference between the inside and outside of a BUBBLE. Water strider an insect can freely run along the surface of a quiet pond. There is something we need to learn from the insect – to utilize the tension and move forward! Surface tension in simple terms is the balance between the inner and outer chores. And in a different concept it may be applied as our inner thoughts and environment we live. When the few of us who returned as NRI’s met at Wayanad for a picnic, Vijay Menon had lots of games in stock and if you click You Tube video you will understand his question “how many coins can that glass of water accept without water spilling over?” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2mKpZHnEzw Fact is that human resilience to motor through un-known terrains is huge, and we need to appreciate this as we encounter ups and downs of lives. Most of us won't approach problems, but we seek peace of mind. It’s written on Facebook’s walls – “done” is better than “perfect”. Our lives today place enormous demands on time and energy and these demands exceed our capacity to deal with them. We try to align and attempt to function. Too often, this underlying tension surfaces at slightest provocation, and we find ourselves in conflict. Our responses shift to tensions reflecting conflicts. We need to progress through change of beliefs. I believe tension is a need to vibe to the music in our lives. Guitar makes wonderful sounds with tension in the strings. Like in a symphony, we need to learn and adapt to situations, to avoid tension. Happiness is all about harmony with creation; harmony is all about accepting life as it unfolds. Stretch is the elasticity of comfort zones that can redefine our identity bringing out hidden capabilities. Look at a child – he moves on and on. We should not allow the child in us to grow. Then we can participate in that grand orchestra of life. Essentially, to turn sideways with parallel thinking is to reject mental blocks of conflict management. For most of us, we are so programmed either to submission or aggression. When in the journey of lives, the path is a dim and uncertain we need to take a right angle and yet reach the same goal; and get onto move ahead with life. At times behind a hidden door, the key to that door may have been temporarily misplaced but finding it by wisdom, compassion and enlightened thoughts makes it possible. It’s possible with matured, balanced thoughts without breaking the envelope of water bubble that holds the phenomena of surface tension - Longing to seek peace result in belonging.

An Internal dialogue – between me and I

That was after a few years since I drove on that road in front of Christian College on the East side that takes to Mavoor Road, a bye-lane those days that now is a busy lane. I followed a huge Volvo bus that steered in front of me all the way up. I felt it was almost difficult for me to overtake as vehicles moved this side as well with attention and difficulty to pass through. I then thought of the “Just Do It” slogan of Nike shoes, that I am glued with at my native place, Calicut. With the passage of time, the social system has undergone changes. We are experiencing new things or at least hearing about such things frequently and getting used to it. New freedom has given way to new frontiers. We begin with big dreams and high ambitions. Some of us achieve them and others don’t – but both sets are either happy or unhappy. “I love you” that used to be a murmur those days have given way to “I love ME” in loud terms. Commercially every possible item is on sale at a discount and the affordability to buy is also high. Lifestyle has undergone a variety of changes and people accept the New Paradigm easily as the group or peer pressure is allowing them to adapt and acquire at a rate that supersede thought processes. When our desires or ambitions manifest it creates a momentum of action in us. The mistake may be, in our ignorance that we tend to believe that whatever we think or dream of, will come true if we work hard for it. When boundaries are reset, freedom provides new meanings. Culture – the so called – also amends to suit the need, based on young minds and their demand on themselves. When I was a student, the model of code was totally different from what I set for my children and what is set by my children on my grandchild on a transitional model of code of ethic. This is when I got tuned to a definition on how to fit a square plug in a round hole theory and find ways and means to deal with the aspirations and execution of ideas that make our future life. The authority of the social fabric has shifted many rotations and touched a limit that we appreciate now, and that is due to the economic freedom coupled with the knowledge base of the people. The opportunities that galore with the new dimensions of business, deal with technology that embraces today’s life style are another dimension. This context is important where the grandfather was recently told by the youngster that “Your retirement salary is what I earned last month” and that focus on the wealth creation by the opportunity from knowledge based work and skill. When we use the force of ego and power our action and then drop it before the momentum of action takes over we are making a sacrifice. This causes frustration. When this happen, with vested economic authority the old boundaries cannot make any sense and loses its sensibilities. The issue that we confront has a lot to do with old mind sets with enlarged freedom and the new paradigms that rule the world. “Just Do It” or “I know my way” are redefining self-confidence and if directed through right channels will bring in more confidence and new ideas to deal and challenge the un-known - that is future. The sense of RIGHT and WRONG are no more perfect whites or perfect blacks – it runs down to a kind of grey where majority traverse with their lives. For arriving at this grey, we need to have an internal dialogue among ourselves. Then we need to interpret these with the freedom quotient and redefine new frontiers of authority that weaves today’s social patterns that mature and blend with the modern times, as we progress. That will engrave a deeper and more enduring and sustainable reality into the social fabric. Modern in outlook and deep-rooted with value system; like they say the old wine in a new bottle. Then we move away from extremes in behavior nurtured with an attitude that keeps us in between, in balance, like the grey that we heard before, a path that governs respectful and tolerant patterns of understanding of human values. If the aspirations of a strong India have to become real, we also need to monitor and generate codes with extended freedom within a new set of boundaries – this is the challenge. We live here at present and need to design what’s ahead by renewed thought processes without any bias and mis-belief of the environment so that not the perfect, but a more desirable outcome is evidenced. “True North” is the way management experts talk about the path finder compass. Let all of us define the broader boundaries of behavior in our social system to suit in terms of progress and shifted authorities generated by economic freedom, and look at True North and focus our attention to set forth new codes of ethics framed in such a way, confrontation give way by compassion and love for each other. If in this process we find ourselves falling off the wagon, or we are struggling to stay on it, let’s reduce the challenge, let’s re-visit and stay course to the cause so that the New Year will end at a better note than what we anticipate.

The exotic 12.12.12

“We exist in time, but we belong to eternity. We are a penetration of eternity into the world of time” – I read these wonderful words today when the mystique of the date 12.12.12 for some stands alone. I could reflect barely on the magic of this number as I wrote the date of today on this title except that I need to change the calendar for this year 2012 in about 19 days and that I am yet to receive one for the next year. Time gets measured in varied forms to many. For historians it comes in millenniums, for researchers in billions of years and for Bolt who runs for Olympics in split seconds – all valuable with connotations that represent the arena and scope definition of the field involved. How does time measure for you and me? 12.12.12 happens once in 100 years! At 1:21:02 a.m., number lovers can rejoice in the single second that marks when the date-time combination is the same read both forwards and backwards: 2012-12-12 1:21:02 = 201212-1-212102. At 12.12.12pm, today offer fans of the number 12 six repeats - 12.12.12 12.12.12. Some internet doomsayers have picked 12.12.12 as the date for the world’s end. Anyway, Twelve 12 12 is the last of the memorable dates, including 9.9.9, 10.10.10 and 11.11.11, during this century and all of these dates have proved popular. Numerology is watching and understanding the meaning of numbers and at times interesting. Astrologically numbers provide inputs to believes. “The date represents a window of possibility for an evolutionary leap, the awakening can only occur in as much as we decide to create it”. The meaning of 12 12 12 - A Mathematical and Societal Overview of the Number 12: The number 12 is a unique, interesting, and very useful number. The unique usefulness of the number 12 has been recognized by mathematicians, scientists, meta-physicists, and society in general since the beginning of recorded human history. The usefulness of this number derives from its divisibility. There are relatively few small numbers that can be evenly divided into so many subsets. The number 12 can be evenly divided into halves, thirds, fourths, sixths, and twelfths. Multiples of 12, by definition, retain this divisibility. The inherent divisibility is the reason that the number12, and its multiples, are so intertwined into our society. We use it here, there, and everywhere. The general consensus is that the Egyptians came up with the first 12 month calendar. The Romans later modified it, but retained the 12 month format. Both cultures abandoned any attempt to match the calendar with the lunar cycle; all emphasis was placed on the solar cycle. Interestingly I looked at the scenario connected with this hype. Wow, so many things are happening all over the world and include that of the release of Tamil 3D film “Sivaji” of our own megastar Rajnikanth today. 12.12.12 — The Concert for Sandy Relief will be screened at more than 200 USA theaters. This concert will feature performances by Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, The Who, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Billy Joel, Roger Waters, Bon Jovi, Pearl Jam‘s Eddie Vedder,Foo Fighters‘ Dave Grohl and more. Money raised by the show will go to the Robin Hood Relief Fund, to help those hit by the recent hurricane storm – a good thought. About 490,000 babies are born daily around the world. As such, the UN assumes that same numbers of babies were born 12 years ago, and as such, the same number will celebrate a 12th birthday today. And so many will be born today! While some parents say the desire for having a baby on the date is due to numerology, others say it is because of astrology and some say it is to cherish the memory of having a baby on a historic date. Unlike my wife, I keep forgetting birthdays and death anniversary dates and if some of our friends have their children or grandchildren are born today I am sure will remember the date for the convenience of it. A doctor says – “delivery on request is done only if the baby is mature and we do not see any complication. Then we go ahead for request deliveries for 12.12.12”. The question is –“Is timing a delivery ethically and medically proper?” A large number of Hong Kong couples are planning to marry on 12.12.12 – seen as a fairly fortunate date by feng shui masters. For me - "It's just a normal day." Except for one thing it is the last time that I will see those numbers in my lifetime in a calendar, but how does it matter? If this number was to repeat every year and not in 100 years, the digital and social media would have converted the day to one of those very successful market campaigning ones and an eventful day to sell on hard commercial terms. However we shall take some time on December 12, 2012 – perhaps at 12:12 or throughout the day – to celebrate the understanding that we are all interconnected in the living system called Planet Earth. Let us together share one dream, one heart and one intention with an infinite variety of expressions. May be w

e think at this moment share all experience needed to co-create a sustainable, just and fulfilling human presence on this planet. Let this be seen and heard on 12-12-12! Of course I shall remember this day for yet another reason – my old friend Gopi and his wife Thankam leave for Canada to migrate early this morning. In my personal diary that will be an imprint on nostalgia.

Guzarish, the request

GUZARISH, the Request

The scenic beauty depicted is from God’s Own Country. Goa is not far from Kerala in terms of nature where the story of Ethan Mascaranez commenced.

I had read the narration of Guzarish and when Usha wanted to watch this movie, I agreed, though in terms of experimentation, I had felt “no more movies”. There was intent.

Depicted well, edited to perfection and sensibility and sensitivity captured to near perfection, I watched and felt that a good theme for a story teller and a good movie for the audiences - Sentiments of love grew as hidden narrations on almost all frames. Sanjay Leela once again has shown his genius in the film making.

More than Guzarsh theme or the film, I enjoyed the scene when the Lawyer was asked to get into the wooden box at the Court room when a magic show was to be conducted – the lawyer was asked to be within the box for 60 seconds and he knocked out of it by punches from within – suffocating in a state of mind of isolation and solitude. If that be the case, Ethan was trying to convince the judge at the court room, this time at his house, that being alone, in isolation even without much pain but in anticipation of the ultimate is very testing and extremely difficult.

Ethan’s story is where he has been on a bed unable to move his legs and hands and almost immobile for more than 12 years, after he met with an accident. His nurse looks after him, and his assistant comes to learn the tricks of the MAGIC, that was Ethan’s profession.

The MAGIC of LIFE is that LIFE itself is a MAGIC.

One needs to understand and appreciate the stories that tell LIFE in various forms.

By learning the MAGIC of life, you tend to soften your approaches and choose paths that are neither pure white of perfection nor black that is filled with thorns and hatred.

Feel the MAGIC of life and that helps you move through the uncertainties that lie ahead in future.

I am reminded of those 100 minutes that preceded with a diagnosis that I had contacted “Transverse Mylettis” – by being within the MRI scanning machine at the Hinduja Hospital. The 60 seconds allotted to the lawyer reminded me of those 100 minutes.

Instead of the 12 odd years that Ethan suffered in the time machine of life, I had passed through more than a month - Un-knowing what was in store for me, hearing from the Neuro physician that I may become a vegetable like Ethan.

Watching Guzarish with Usha was like swimming in the MAGIC pond of my own life – recollecting how and what goes through the mind of Ethan.

Hope comes in various forms and for me on the thirteenth floor at the hospital, it was a dove that sat on the overhanging window pane of my closed room of MAGIC, that I renewed with prayers that life seems to be ahead.

Transformation is part of learning.

I learnt then, that one need not worry much, with prayers that can create MAGIC in life.

I remembered then, what I saw last week at the Karthika Deepam festival at the Thali temple --- when I was handling an earthen lamp, trying to light and fire on the wick using the near by lamp on the boarders of the water pond where reflections were making a MAGIC in the surroundings. The four of the panchaboothas were together that time, but the invisible breeze (air) the fifth of the panchboothas turned my wish down. Determined and praying, I lit more lamps.

Living life with contentment and hope will help engulf love in to the relationships.

Love is the MAGIC that lights the days that challenges with uncertainties.

Guzarish, the request is that we tend to appreciate the natures’ bounties around us, gifted by God, and thank Him and pray for the ultimate to happen, so that we become part of nature, all over, once again.

YATRA (-Travel)

I thought for a second time, about what should be the caption for the contents of this essay and thought of a Sanskrit word meaning “travel” is probably apt. The thoughts that were provocation behind the attempt to write on my journey to work is just that. “YANTRA” the machines with which I am associated at work and in synonym with “YATRA”.

It’s about the road less traveled. The clogged roads that were affected due to rains were being blocked to erect huge drain pipes. The mess created in traffic jams is in the city of BARODA known as Vadodara. The meaning comes from VAD, the banyan trees. The detour made us deviate the way we traveled to work. Changes have always given challenges and that makes good reasons to think different.

The new path passes through the villages and I spotted indicating boards of Karali and Chansad villages. Karali village reminded me of Kairali and Kerala where I grew up. As the road winds up from my house at “Aiswarya” in the town to nearly 27 km away to Por village where I work.. I switched off my urban thoughts by clicking the mouse of my mind to “sleep” and used the rest of faculties and cajole with the childhood times as we deviated the path.

Sounds that reach my drums recall the old memoirs of Bharata Puzha, the river that has a bridge at Kuttipuram, a village those days on way to the Guruvayoor temple. Here on the way to Por, I heard parrots and some other birds singing, some even flew close to the windshield of the car. I thought of the meditation practices when you calm your mind and observe your thoughts & you listen to many sounds. Bids flew out from where they hang around in the bushes and sat close to the trishul on the temples. As I crossed the temple, I observed the bells ring at the temple, no bird flew out. They probably knew it was serene.
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It was interesting to watch groups of girls and boys not in uniform running around and falling in line for the morning prayers during school assemble. In one school, I watched them play in comparison to carrying heavy loads of books by urban children. The bullock carts that roll out on the one line road carried some of them. I was reminded of the times when I used to ride a cycle to the college of engineering that was close to Malampuzha dam. Seeing a wheeled shop that sold sweets brought in the memories of the ½ “a’na” (those days, 16 a’nas made up for one rupee) priced ice candies and ground nut toffees that we bought during school intervals from a close by shop in Calicut, near Malabar Christian College School. Passing on the road were squirrels and mongoose, in a hurry to meet their needs! Once I saw an elephant unable to give way for the car, we moved and parked aside. Seeing monkeys (?) in their natural habitat was another dot that made my day from the animal kingdom. That day I remembered the grand building that is called HABITAT, on the Al-Khobar road in Saudi Arabia. Within HABITAT, humans were aping and here on the road less traveled monkeys were in their own field, displaying probably contempt for the passers by. I was thinking of the HSBC, advertisement “Culture or fashion?” when I noticed one youth riding a cycle, with a stud on his ear lobe. Did I see goats around the KARALI village? I went back years behind in thoughts when my mother took out leaves from the jackfruit tree’s branch and followed to beat me for a fault that I did that day. In our house hold, much before the sachets of milk came in home, we had goats to milk. Thereafter we had a herd of cows. Here on the way, it was more of bullocks than cows. Bullocks, I believe takes about seven years before they are used to work. Some of the bullocks plough fields; carry loads of materials in carts. They walked in elegance with their huge horns matching those of tuskers. It was needed once to protect the bulls, but now within the surroundings they work, these horns appear as un-used ammunition, resembling a sign of peace. I wonder how by listening to the car, bullocks moved away to the sides of the thin road, accepting natural ways of giving ways! A deer with its head up was on the side lanes, out of the woods and close to us, one morning.

My mind signaled, yet another forgotten story of plucking flowers for the Onam festivities during child hood. Fiery red and yellows are most of the wild flowers seen on the way. The green arch that formed on the thin stretches of the road made a contrast to the blooming flowers of the spring season. I was thinking then of the pure white thin small “thumba” flowers that once upon a time decorated Onam flower decks. Those little ones had no fragrance to throw out. It represents the moon light soothing the nerves and creating an atmosphere for love to flow freely. The indigos that lined some where close to the railway tracks was yet another variation identified with my keen eyes, that wandered to find newer and different flowers species on the way. Curious is what I have become all of a sudden. I even compared the sand dunes that change colors as I used traveled through deserts on my way to work in the Gulf. Up in the sky here the blue is bluer. And as I return home, I watch with gratitude the amber streams that comes out through the dawning skies. Between the sun and me were green bushes that prevented me to have a full sight of the setting sun. Alas I thought, I could see the sun sets on my way from work and enjoy the gifts of the day. As the window panes were open the wind whispered in tandem with my breath. As I listened to these sounds and colors, I was reminded of His unity in nature.

Thank God, that the Municipal corporation at last decided to cut the roads and burry the pipelines to carry the rainy water. Thanks are for those who drive madly on the roads to make sure that each one of them in that process made the rest to get stuck between those many and reach destinations late. Thanks to Sanjay my driver who opted to deviate and suggest a new Yatra to the Yantras.

The whole episode helped me to reinvent the child in me to become enthused about looking beyond to witness some of those unique frequencies in sound, variations in color, un-masked human beings that represented nature, animals in their habitat, purer air to breath and scenic sequences without the hassle and bustle of routines that have embedded in work life for such a long time. I even felt that a stream that now flows under a bridge that spans huge may once get enough water for me to I step out and watch the river that would have some of the species of fish. Did I become a child for a while? Are we in a hurry to grow up and then we long for our lost child hood? Do we ever step out and look at nature and life as we focus on the work front?

My car, thus celebrated the drive in an unknown path and I appreciated God sent beauty of nature. All because, we deviated from the urban path until then, I had felt was within the comfort zone of travel to work. We just deviated and made a change and then had loads of surprises that were in offer and to our heart’s content. At times we must be prepared to get rid of the lives we plan, so as to have the life that is waiting for us on the side lanes.