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I completed my Fall semester at UF at the begining of December and am at home in Abu Dhabi, enjoying an interesting break. We concluded a YES+ here today with 12 bright shining graduates. Also, my family watched Avatar at the Grand Cineplex IMAX in Ibm Battuta Mall today. The Pocahontas story rendered in a jaw-droppingly realistic environment evinced memories of Isaac Asimov, Braveheart and my ethics professor. The after-debate on the drive back to Abu Dhabi was more interesting. We talked ethics, different value systems and other stuff all the way on the two hour drive. The story was predicatable, but the action and the pace were interesting. Wish Cameron put some more thought and made the storyline as gripping as 'Sunshine' or 'I am Legend'.

Will be looking forward to more fun over the coming days in Abu Dhabi.

College Essay

Q. ARE THERE ANY SIGNIFICANT EXPERIENCES YOU HAVE HAD, OR ACCOMPLISHMENTS YOU HAVE REALIZED, THAT HAVE HELPED DEFINE YOU AS A PERSON?

A. I am a dynamic figure, often scaling walls and crushing ice. I have been known to remodel train stations

on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I translate ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees, I write award-winning operas, I manage time efficiently. Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row.

I woo women with my sensuous and godlike trombone playing, I can pilot bicycles up several inclines with unflagging speed, and I cook thirty-minute brownies in 20 minutes. I am an expert in stucco, a veteran in love, an outlaw in Peru.

Using only a hoe and a large glass of water, I once single-handedly defended a small village in the Amazon Basin from a horde of ferocious ants. I play bluegrass cello, I was scouted by the Mets, I am the subject of numerous documentaries. When I’m bored, I build large suspension bridges in my yard. I enjoy urban hang gliding. On Wednesdays, after school, I repair electrical appliances free of charge.

I am an abstract artist, a concrete analyst, and a ruthless bookie. Critics worldwide swoon over my original line of corduroy evening wear. I don’t perspire. I am a private citizen, yet I receive fan mail. I have been caller number nine and have won the weekend passes. Last summer, I toured New Jersey with a travelling centrifugal-force demonstration. I bat .400. My deft floral arrangements have earned me fame in international botany circles. Children trust me.

I can hurl tennis rackets at small moving objects with deadly accuracy. I once read Paradise Lost, Moby Dick, and David Copperfield in one day and still had time to refurbish an entire dining room that evening. I know the exact location of every food item in the supermarket. I have performed several covert operations for the CIA. I sleep once a week; when I do sleep, I sleep in a chair. While on vacation in Canada, I successfully negotiated with a group of terrorists who had seized a small bakery. The laws of physics do not apply to me.

I balance, I weave, I dodge, I frolic and all my bills are paid. On weekends, to let off steam, I participate in full-contact origami. Years ago I discovered the meaning of life but forgot to write it down. I have made extraordinary four course meals using only a mouli and a toaster oven. I breed prizewinning clams. I have won bullfights in San Juan, cliffdiving competitions in Sri Lanka and spelling bees in the Kremlin. I have played Hamlet, I have performed open-heart surgery, and I have spoken with Elvis.

But I have not yet gone to college.

Some fun moments

“Hey Habi! Whats going oooooonnnnnn”

6 months into the MBA and 5 months to go. I just realized today how incredibly diverse people I interact with on a daily basis. The above is my southern friend Chris’ friendly drawl. Most people I have met so far have trouble pronouncing ‘Abhishek’, so ‘Aabi’ it is. As much as I love diversity, I hate being led on tours. While being hustled with a bunch of tourists by loud, overenthusiastic guides may remain the world’s preferred way of traveling, I enjoy entering alone into new sorroundings, letting the solitude foster a silent, expectation-free, trusting bond between the two of us. The university has a plethora of such hidden delights, which I keep discovering accidentally. Some memorable experiences –

• 1. Swimming in the O’Connell pool for the first time, which is a full Olympic sized indoor pool freely available to university students.
• 2. Dinner at Gator Dining, with a 24-dish salad spread, Italian, Mexican and Mediterranean counters for food, unlimited beverages and desserts, worth every penny.
• 3. Lake Wauberg, with facilities for rock climbing, kayaking, beach volleyball and more.
• 4. Drifitng into the political science building, with its congressional décor, dark burnished wood flooring and low overhanging lamps.
• 5. Downtown Gainesville, with tons of partygoers thronging the pubs and discos.
• 6. Playing the basketball intramurals, winning 3 games and partying afterwards.
• 7. Meeting and learning from a plethora of new people, Cameroonian, French, Chinese and of course, Floridan.
• 8. Football games at the swamp! 90,000 loud , cheering fans egging on the number one rated gators onto SEC dominance.

What is right?

What is right? As long as something does not hurt someone is it right? Which moral codes are valid, which are simply brainchilds of a fanatical mind? What i value most in a human being is his or her respect for himself and his/her honor for others....Beliefs and practices come in second. Some of the best people i have known, some of my closest friends drink like fish, party like crazy and a lot of wrong things. Yet they are people i can count on when times get rough. A lot of 'respectable' people are the kinds who spend their entire lives in the pursuit of fame, wealth and status. People who could appear sensitive but are so cold-blooded that it scares me. Who is right? How can one judge a person to be good or bad - is it because he/she does not smoke/drink/socialize? Is it because he/she is outgoing and daring? I have had plenty of friends of both kinds who are flawed but wonderfully caring people, and i have plenty of those who live like moths, chasing the flame that consumes them. I get confused at times.

A bit on cultural sensitivity

“Who Am I?” – such a profound multi-dimensional question! The quality, and the timing, of the answer are directly proportional to worldly and spiritual success.

When answered sincerely at the end of a profound meditation, it creates moksha. When answered correctly, during preparation of college admission essays or job interviews , it helps make smart decisions and achieve career success. Interviewers are always trying to gauge the candidate’s persona and genuineness through their questions. When introspected before a social gathering, it could lead to interesting conversations and new friends.

Yet, it is a hard hard question to answer. How do we arrive at the answer? A rare few individuals manage to answer this question on the basis of pure insight. Most of us discover the answer by scanning people around us. Ok so that guy is tall, which means I am short. That guy is poor which means I am rich. That girl scored 75% while I scored 90%, which means I am smart. Obviously, we have certain dreams of how we want our lives to be, things that would make us happy. Now, wise men say that happiness is a choice – but the devious mind calls for confirmation and proof to trust oneself and others and be content. Either one can trust that he/she is capable of facing the challenges in life, or he/she can face the challenges, succeed and then trust that this is possible. The two often form a circle, with trust leading to accomplishment leading to more trust and bigger challenges.

I read a wonderful article recently from the Harvard Business Review on how to adapt to cultures and work with people. Titled “Cultural Intelligence” , Earley and Mosakowski, HBR October 2004, this paper indicates two kinds of intelligences – emotional intelligence, which allows us to define who we are and how we are different from others, and cultural intelligence, which is understanding the values and beliefs that drive different groups. Meditation helps develop both – a keen awareness of who I am and going beyond the emotions, and a sharp perception to discern what works and does not work with people. One need not be a football of anyone’s culture, but being sensitive is important. There are three ways of doing this – through the head, through the heart or through the body. Training through the head involves understanding the beliefs, customs, and taboos of new cultures. Learning form the body involves mimicking small gestures the way others do it – it could be a simple way of shaking hands or small mannerisms. A Michigan professor found that candidates who were perceived to be culturally more similar to recruiters often had better chances of landing the job. Learning from the heart involves being strong to face setbacks and failures and keep moving. People can do that if they believe in their own efficacy. If they persevered in the face of challenging situations in the past, their confidence grew. Confidence is always rooted in mastery of a particular task or set of circumstances. This is where seva is so important, it teaches one to persist, to redefine their limitations and to break them, and to keep moving ahead.

Competition and Contemplation in a 10k race

I ran my first 10km race today. Organized by the Living Well foundation and the University of Florida, it was a contest between students and faculty. The track was pretty, with a lake and woods along the way.

What was most interesting was watching the thoughts and emotions arising in my mind:

1. Pre-Race:

I was a little awkward for this was my first competitive 10k run. I have always run alone, for my own sake, and was nervous about running with others. What if i burnt out, or couldn't finish? What if the others were really good? How could i hope to compete with americans who are so much fitter and train so much more for such events? Maybe i should have stayed at home and studied for the imminent exams.

I just kept saying 'No' to these thoughts. Afterall, how can i ever know what is good/bad for me without doing new things? How would i know how good/bad i am without doing things? I am scared by the thought of restricting myself to a limited set of beliefs and learning little about the world. And this kept me going on.

2. During the race -

I had nearly 25 people ahead of me in the first 5k lap. A part of me was saying run or you would be left behind, another part kept saying go slow, dont burn yourself out. I ignored these thoughts, as they are so tiring, and settled into a steady breathing rhythm and kept running at a pace slightly faster than comfortable. Instead of looking to the leader, i would look to the next person ahead of me and catch up to them one by one. By the second lap, i was in third place.

I was helped by the interval training i have done for the last month and a half. This involves alternating between jogging and sprinting. Plus i have been having a more protein rich diet.

3. End of the race-

Throughout the second lap, i kept my focus on the two guys ahead of me and kept gently accelerating to catch up. They had a 120 m lead which i eventually cut to 20m, and i finished third in the race, at 44:11 seconds, 20 seconds behind the second placed guy. Not a bad debut!

I felt a mixture of emotions - euphoria, that i had not only completed the run but had actually been successful against runners who had participated in many more events. My small mind, which was filled with doubts at the begining, was now dying to get back and announce to the whole world that i had won, i had won.

And then i thought, how futile, how juvenile is this mind, which measures my worth based on how the world is, rather than trusting my capability. Guruji had mentioned in 'Feelings and Fools - "How can a piece of wood (an award) be the most important thing in your life? Don't you know that you are good?" And i felt much calmer and clearer then.

In all competitions i have participated in, the winner is always a person who believes in himself, before comparing himself/herself with others. And that self belief is beautiful.

Jai Gurudeva!

Jesus is the only way

Saw a brilliant Jewish preacher lecture untiringly for 5 hours today at an open courtyard about why Jesus is the only way. Students heckled him incessantly but the man was unrelenting. He fervently believed that the Bible was the only way and all those who were not Christians were not good human beings. He was jeered, abused, ridiculed and challenged incessantly by students for the whole time but he kept talking, he never yielded. This was a man who was ready to face anything for his faith and could not accept that there was any other way other than that of Jesus.

I asked him "I am not a Christian does that mean i am not a good human being?" He said, "No". I asked "Are only Christians good human beings? He said "Yes". I asked him "Why is that?" He said "Do you believe 2+2 is 4?" I said "No." He was at a loss. Then he said "I cannot explain to you why 2+2 is 4. It would take too much time." I said, "Then you are being illogical". I said "I have seen another Muslim leader who was 5 times as convinced as you are that his was the onlyway. He addressed an impressionable crowd like you today and He was also right." At which he started objecting "There is a reason why muslims are not right, do you want to know?". I said "You know people like you are the reason why there are suicide bombers in the world today." And he repeated "There is a reason why muslims are not right, do you want to know?" I said "No" and i walked away with the man speechless.