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.

Hey How are you? and other observations

The last couple of weeks have been tremendous fun! I travelled via cold cold London, on a grey grey morning to a sunny, clear Boston which, ironically was even colder than London.

Amherst was awesome and i stayed at Chachi's place. Got introduced to all sorts of meat, pork, chicken and other vegetarian delicacies made entirely from soy. Have to admit though that even the meat-free meats dont taste so great any more....Got my basic setup and acclimatization done and learnt some driving here. There are so many strange things to driving in America, of which the cake goes to the 'Stop' signs. They seem to be be everywhere and the driver necessarily needs to stop at all of them. And the speed l;imit is very strongly adhered to. My cousins are big gamers, and we spent many hours playing titles on their XBOX 360. The younger one is an awesome rock guitarist at the tender age of 14. He made his satsang debut in the satsng concert held to honor the 'teacher from India'. The satsng concert was a blast, with 2 elec guitars and 5 drums. 

Sports and people's fascination here has been a revelation. Most conversations are peppered with the updated basketball/football/baseball scores. The gymnasiums here, and the national fascination with basketball are to be seen to be believed. At the UMASS campus at amherst, one 'gymanasium' had 5 gyms and 10 basketball courts under one roof. And college students spend a lot of time playing. 

I landed in Gainesville the day before, a big welcome change from the cold New England weather. he trees and vegetation seems very close to India. The University of Florida is an enormous, school with noble laureaes and olympians having graced its halls in their student years. The student community here is close to 60,000. UF is big into sports with many students who compete in the olympics from their countries.

I am comfortably settled into a major Indian enclave here, and have started watching streaming TV shows to acclimatise in the new culture. I loved the series"How i met you mom", of which i have seen5 episodes now.

Have not taken too many photos, but shall clcik some soon and upload them too.  

A nice journey

The last week was a blur of activity in preparation of my travel to the US. Packing for traveling to the US kept throwing up new 'must-carry' items everyday, and it was finally concluded on Saturday evening at 8.00 pm. Plus taking a backup of all the documents on the laptop, installing essential software, copying all the beautiful photos of the wonderful 3 months onto the ew laptop, getting all papers in place.It is always a good idea to check out your university's Indian students' association web pages for checklists and reminders. So i was finally set to leave yesterday at around 8 pm.

Our AD YES+ group got together last evening at 8 pm and we were all together till the airport. Plenty of wonderful conversations, and gifts were exchanged, We reached the Abu Dhabi airport at 11.20 pm last night and after completing the check-in formalities, I came out to the main gate where our group waited. Lots of hugs, wonderful memories, full hearts and gifts marked the meeting.

The BA flight for heathrow took off at 2 am, and 7 and a half hours later, i was flying through dense grey clouds into terminal 5 at London. The skies in london were so grey, it reminded me of all the english books i had read . And it was cold, yet the airport was spic and span. It looked sterilized actually, quiet and clean like the insides of a hospital. I visited the Heathrow lounge and found an interesting chewable toothbrush, a chewing gum with bristles which means you can discard the toothpaste and just chew on. Then there was the Multi-faith prayer room, a room with a chapel, prayer mats, and yoga books. I did my Kriya and sadhana here, and then had some of the lovely parathas mum had packed. I then proceeded to the departure gate, which was a good 7 minute walk from the lounge and our flight to the US was off an hour and a half after scheduled. Seems the captain found a funny 'smell' on the aircraft.

THe trip to Boston also took 7.5 hours. I had an interesting, scottish businessman for my neighbor. He heads marketing for a huge firm and shred nice insights into the marketing profession.We talked at length about politics, sports and was a lot of fun. When we landed at Boston, it seemed warmer than London, but was not. Turned out that American Airlines had left half the luggage in London, something they usually do, and i had to file a 'request' for my luggage with the American Airlines counter, who promptly drove the bag down to Uncle's house the next day.

The first few days at my aunt's place in the US have been interesting. Have learnt a bit about driving here, visited huge stores, eaten varieties of bacon, turkey and sausages made from tofu, and had a loong intense basketball game in UMass' massive indoor stadium today (there are 10 full sized basketball courts within a single structure). I considered myself fit, but the experience of working out with American college kids has left me with a stronger determination to adopt a better diet and fitness plan :) will experiment with rajesh bhaiya's high protein, low carb diet.

Will start with seva soon. Have just been absorbing all the wonderful Guru stories that chacha and chachi have, and have also been doing sadhana in the room Guruji gave darshan in.

Its a nice start overall, lets see how things shape up!

New happenings

Has been an interesting last week at Abu Dhabi, a mixture of seva and fun all coming together. Played some Grand Theft Auto 4 on the PS3. Rockstar games have cleverly redefined and rendered New York City as Liberty City in the game. This is the first time that I am playing a game of this franchise, and the open-world, sandbox game, comprising elements of driving, shooting and puzzles is good fun. Unfortunately, it is too long and i am afraid i would not be able to finish it due to other priorities. Besides, i am desperately trying to clean up my act by shifting from FPS games/solo adventures to more mature, complex strategy games (think Age of Empires). The thing about these games is that there is a high learning curve, so the thought of starting a new game can be quite intimidating. I have played AOE, and Warcraft 3 earlier. I remember how other activities would suddenly start seeming important when i would play these games :) I pushed myself into Warcraft purely because i loved the plot, so reminiscent of LOTR, one of my favorite reads. Once the tough learning curve was crossed though, i found the gameplay very engaging and rewarding. Strategy games have this positive effect in making you a better planner and allowing you to better organize, and execute, your activities. So i had bought Civilization Revolutions, one of the very few strategy games for the PS3, and have been diligently reading the internet guides to understand how to play! 

Have also been re-reading Ramesh Menon's brilliant rewritng of Ramayana, the highest selling English translation on Amazon.com. I just loooovvveee grand fantasies (though Ramayana is not one).

Had an inspiring meeting with Aban aunty in Bangalore and have donated towards the VISTA project, Pitaji's initiative to empower rural women in north Karnataka. Met Bau and took his blessings for further seva. I enquired if I would see him in the US, to which he responded "This (the ashram) is the best place to vacation. Come back here only." 

Got a multiple entry Canada visa yesterday. We had a couple of great intro talks and two wonderful satsangs over the last week, with electronic dholaks and an elec guitar. We seem set for our third YES+ in Abu Dhabi from the 22nd.

An amazing Advance Course!

Waves of silent joy and contentment washed over the 49 participants at the advance course concluded at the ashram today. By personal choice, i feel that the advance course is the most beautiful program we have, with techniques cleansing the farthest reaches of the mind and beyond. My 11th course was special, with Joshi ji wonderfully guiding us through the enchanting, energizing journey. In a short spell of 4 days, difficult emotional blocks were confronted and transcended, for us to experience higher and higher energy and purity. The pearls of creation in the program were all polished punah punah. Even the pics are so white without any flash employed :)

Prior to that was my cousin's wedding in Mumbai which was a traditional Bangalorean one (the groom is bangalorean). Will update pics soon. Am too awash with Advance course bliss at present :)

US F1 visa interview

Have just completed my visa formalities in mumbai today. Am unable to post pictures simply because photography is not permitted even near the premises :)

So i had prepared my dossier of documents before leaving abu dhabi - the I20 form, the DS forms, the financial proofs, the education certificates, the MRV fee proof, etc. When i landed in mumbai on saturday, i travelled to mahalaxmi to see the US consulate which is at breach candy. I also went through a few typical questions for the interview on the internet, only to realize that the questions are fairly straightforward - why are you going to the US? where will you study? who will pay for the trip. I remembered prashant's advise on being prepared with questions on funding. That was helpful.

I also remember him sharing horror stories of people queuing up outside the consulate 3-4 hours in advance of the interview time. That was not very helpful. Turns out it was not required either (fortunately).

I left kandivli around 7 am and it took me 45 mins (nice) and 500 bucks (not nice) in a cab to the consulate. People were queued outside the consulate. The security guards were quite good at handling the crowd. Of course, since it is the american consulate, i did'nt expect very polite security, so probably that helped me adjust to the way crowds were handled there. At around 8.45 all those for an 8.30 am appointemnt were called to form a new queue, we were told to bundle our I20, passport, and the pink slip from HDFC together. A little ahead another security guy instructed us in chaste bihari english to not carry any medhicines, any mobhile phone, any drinking bhater, etc. Bhatches bhere allowed, i bhas instructed. So bhere accessories, much to the delight of the style bhai standing behind me.

The entrance of the consulate is like a small airport check in counter, where we were frisked, our documents rearranged and walked through a metal detector. The inteview lounge is like a railway ticketing counter, we were issued tokens and waited for one of the interviewers to beckon us to any of the 20 odd counters. Mumbai consulate covers the states of maharashtra and gujarat and inteviews are conducted in english, marathi and gujarati. so for every "Token numbers 704, 705, 707, 709, please come to counter number 7 with your pink tokens" there would be a "Kisanbhai rajubhai patel and family, counter solah avedu chhu" announcement. There were plnety and plenty of patels there, by the way.

I finally heard my token number 963 being called. The counter is like a confession chamber. The interviewer sits on one side, and you stand, sweating, on the other. My interviewer was an indian american who was joined by an american american (?) consular officer midway through my first question - "What are you going to study?" They started chatting with each other with me listening to how so and so candidate should be given higher priority than the other. Then he started explaining to his compatriot about how "IIT is a very famous school in India. Plus he has worked for all these top companies." She said "And he is an Art of Living instructor too." To which he told her "Yes he is a golden boy" and then both turned to me and said "Congratulations you have got your visa. It shall be mailed to you at your address within two days" So that was that, and i headed out to the Bandra station, where i celebrated my american visa in true indian style - having a couple of wada paos and a mango lassi.

Anniversary Party!

It was mum and dad's anniversary yesterday and our YES+ group got together for a fabulous party. Sudha brought over all the stuff for the arrangements and khyati, chetan, vishwan ji, soumen, prasoon, swati all chipped in to arrange the hall and food. We had nice scented candles, confetti filled balloons and a big pineapple cake for the occassion, and it was graced by many of our part 1 teachers including ramdas ji, vijaya ji, dr veena and pramod ji, anil and bindu ji, ragini. With a couple of family friends and our YES+ group thrown in, we had a rocking group of both the young and the young at heart. The cake cutting was fun with mum and dad having to simultaneously blow out two different candles on the cake. 

Saroja conducted a fun session where mum and dad got to speak about how they first met. We had an antakshari and a couple of songs on the guitar. Dinner was nice - traditional khana plus some good homemade gulabjamuns and dahi bhallas from tripti aunty. This was followed by a superb mimicry session with Rebecca, who was brilliant alternately as a philipina, an arab, an aussie, a scotsman, and of course, as a malayali. Once the dancing started it went on for hours. The best thing was mum and dad's total happiness with the party. 

Looking forward to our next get together.

YES+ @ AD...Once more!

The YES+ deuxieme concluded with glowing smiles, flowing hearts and growing minds. Each day, starting from the 10^th, brought forth a blossoming of the participants’ hearts. We played, we danced, we sang, we shared wisdom and ,naturally, we breathed to celebrate His priceless gift to humanity – the YES+ program. From the eventful first day at the India Social Center, to the next 5 days at our Abu Dhabi AOL center, and the finale at our home, I had the honor of guiding 25 loved ones to His light. 

Day 1 was fun. The riddle nearly started a riot. On Day 2 all of us unlocked secrets of unending enthusiasm and had our first peek into infinity. The experience of 

vastness deepened on Day 3 while tough insights were had to discover what holds us back in life. Day 4 was our picnic where even at the end of a whole day of discovery and fun, the participants wanted more and more. Day 5 was marked with colourful (or rather dimly lit) skits symbolizing the different groups. The group presentations on vegetarianism were very insightful, and reiterated the crying need for all of us to turn vegetarian to save our bodies, our planet and our wallets. When we parted on day 6, our hearts were full and our heads light and clear, and we committed to making life a celebration for more people.

There were many snapshots in the course - Saroja proposing to the whole group on Valentine’s day with roses; the Suryanamaskar relay races which brought out the best (or worst?) of the different groups; Avanish ji’s enthusiasm and belongingness belying his age; the long and amazing yoga sessions; the games and the games and more games; Suraj’s “YESmobile” delivering people safely after the course, and so many more. Swati, saroja, vishwan ji and soumein showed fabulous commitment in the way they were at the venue every day, making all the arrangements happen, so that the course was a seamless, smooth experience for all the participants. The satsangs were divine, and Guruji’s blessings flowed so abundantly. 

For me, the experience of conducting the program was as stunning as organizing it. Congrats to all of us who had worked towards it – Swati, Saroja, Bimlesh, Soumein, Vishwan ji, Apporva, Khyati, Sumal, Jitesh, Ranjan. Heading to the malls, our team would randomly meet up people and inform them about the program, and by doing that we feel so much more a part of the city and the community, so many insecurities have vanished, and fears of other people’s judgement diminished. At the same time, the mind feels sharper and more creative, and our communication has improved tremendously. It is amazing that though I have been actively meeting new people  and speaking to them about the course for the last 10 years, yet every time, some awkwardness falls away and I feel much more connected to the World around. It is so much easier to see Guruji's wisdom on how the mind works. All the dullness and false concepts start dropping away when doing seva.

In all, a wonderful journey ended and another amazing one begins now, with all of us fervently praying

 and working towards making our dream a reality – of having Bawa here in the first week of April.

Happenings happenings

It has been a very active week after Atlantis. We had our second YES+ follow up on saturday. After kriya all of us headed to the Abu Dhabi mall for some seva. It is always interesting, no matter how many times you do it, to go as a seller to a place you have always been buying from. We had fun approaching a few sales staff too, to please 'check out our offer' :)

Everyday we have been having some or the other outdoor seva. Also, i have been implementing te "I Love Studies" technique to start studying corporate finance in anticipation of my MBA.Actually the topics are very practical and interesting, but still there is some mysterious repelling force when i sit at the desk...Mum has been very active in garnering registrations for the course. So studies and seva at present. Will update with more soon.

Behold the Atlantis!

The last two days were a fantastic experience at the Atlantis, the new hotel/adventure park at Dubai which has captured the world’s imagination. Themed on the fabled city of Atlantis, the hotel combines cutting edge technology, ultra-modern architecture and landscaping techniques with world-class family entertainment options to create one mind-blowing experience, which has tourists thronging from all over the world. Atlantis comprises several accommodation options, with executive suites offering fantastic views of the Arabian Gulf and the Palm Dubai, presidential suites large enough to accommodate a joint family, and the super special Lost Chamber suites, which have 3 floors of floor-to-wall view into the Ambassador lagoon, a 35000 gallon ‘aquarium’ comprising 30000+ fish of 125 species. The adventure park, Aquaventure has superb water rides, with the showpiece being the Ziggurat, having a 100 foot vertical slide into shark-filled waters! Dad’s company ran a special 2 day stay package at Atlantis for its employees at a small fraction of the original cost. And Boy did we have a good time!

We left Abu Dhabi around 10 and landed first at the Mall of Dubai, which is basically a small city posing to be a mall. Mom bought a mobile phone, I had a cold stone sundae and we rushed to catch the bus to Atlantis. 20 minutes later, we were being ushered into a new world, with architecture inspired by the ocean. 10 minutes and as many photos later we were in our suite and we immediately proceeded for lunch to the ‘Saffron’ dining room below. This was a contemporary dining place with stylish red neon lighting and red and wood seating areas. The food , oh the food! Even though it was predominantly (yuck) non-veg, there was an over-abundance of choice and quantity. There were 30 items in the salad bar, around 100 dishes, a bakery stocking 15 varieties of bread and nearly 40 desserts. Some of the stuff which I could sample included superb Japanese sushi with wasabi and 

soy (thanks to abhilash for introducing me to these in Bangalore, and thanks to hemant for teaching me chopsticks), 2 cheese selections, risotto, double choc chip muffin, blueberry muffin,  dark chocolate mousse, crepe suzettes, labneh zatar, hummus, thin crust original Italian pizza, and some more. The service here has been exceptional too, and we have had bright, smiling staff sensitive to all our requests. Post lunch we visited the ‘Lost Chambers’ where the legends of Atlantis come alive. It is a labyrinthine passage inspired by the atlantis style of architecture. Part-historic, part-fantasy, the structures built inside the chambers - including the Kings court, the Sages council, the mining counter, the emergency exit – were colored with the vivid stories which the tour guides enthusiastically narrated. Also on display were fish from every major ocean in the world, thronging multi-hued in their 

schools. We finished the trip and headed to our room. I went to the fitness center and left after a tough but invigorating 1.5 hour workout. Mum, dad and I headed for our dinner to the ‘Kaleidoscope’ dining hall, and we enjoyed another gigantic spread covering 150+ dishes and 7 different cuisines. We then had a night stroll by the beach, with the ocean contrasting brilliantly with the glittering hotel building.

 

It was interesting to see how the hotel has attracted tourists from all over the world. A majority seemed to be Asian – Japanese, hong kong, Singaporeans, etc. Plenty of arab and European visitors too. And fashionable crowds too, which means that the boots covered more than the skirts did. The nightclub, Sanctuary, had a cool red and black theme, and the DJ was really smooth.

Saturday morning saw us getting ready for the Aquaventure. I had a nice jog by the ocean and went to the gym for a while. Then we moved to the Aquaventure, specifically to the Ziggurat, as I wanted to do the slide on an empty stomach. The life guards were mostly Kenyan and were ready with bright smiles for all instructions. The service throughout the facilities was amazing,

 polite yet very attentive. They really put us all at ease. The Ziggurat, which is a Sumerian word for temple, has 7 different rides and slides. The most famous of these is the Leap of Faith, a 30 m near vertical dip, which requires us to climb up 3 storeys. I literally ‘fell’ in love with it, the only regret being that it was over too soon.  After 2 nearly heart-stopping runs down that slide I went to the shark lagoon, where you can float through a transparent tube surrounded by shark filled waters. We caught the golf cart back to the hotel , stopping by at the dolphin beach on the way. Breakfast was again at Saffron, with an overwhelming choice of fruits, cereals, fresh breads, Indian, thai, Japanese, Arabic and Italian delicacies. The waffles and pancakes were great. We packed and checked out of the hotel after that, headed to Abu Dhabi. 

Developments...

The last 2 weeks hae been full of activity since Tanvi's birthday, which was a blast.  Tanvi and mum channeled all their efforts into cooking so we had a dream menu comprising hummous and tabbouleh, 5 layer guacamole and salsa dip with nachos, broccoli farafelle, rich chocolate cheesecake, and a greek salad. I compered and hosted the games and dad photographed the proceedings. We played a fun mummy game, where two teams had to make a 'mummy' and wrap it up in one roll of toilet paper. The results were fun, with one mummy and one half mummy.

Tanvi travelled to Dubai on the 6th for her GMAT, and i was amazed by her complete lack of

 tension before the exam. She did pretty well too. With just 2 weeks of studying she got a 690. We celebrated in the Mall of Dubai, which has a huge 3 storey aquarium filled with all manners of fish. Hammerhead sharks, baby white sharks, 

schools and schools of colorful fish, manta rays. Watching them swim was like seeing clouds floating. The mall of Dubai has humongous floorspace. The floorplan is circular, and it must at least be 200 metres going around one floor! It took mum, Tanvi and me a good 10 minutes to complete one round.

After she left on the 7th i was completely engrossed playing Metal Gear Solid 4 for the next few days. It is like playing the lead role in a tense war/espionage movie where there are plenty of

 mini-movies and of course the game itself. Also watched Shoot on Sight, a nice movie about a dedicated, moderate muslim cop 

(Naseeruddin Shah) caught in the social dillemma thrown up in the wake of fundamentalism and terrorism in present Britain. 

The last 4 days have been familiar action again. We are working on the first YES+ course in Abu Dhabi and there have been 2 intro talks with volunteers enthusiastically reaching out to new people. The course starts today evening. So hoping for the best in the days to come.

Happy New Year!

Many many many wishes for a great new year...

Celebrations here were fun. A satsang was organized at the camp at Asab, an oil field in the interior of Abu Dhabi emirate, where we had around 150 devotees in a well decorated hall. We ushered in the new year with a meditation and prayer. There was satsang, cake cutting, dinner, meditation, some games and a long bus ride to and from the destination.

Also, today is Tanvi's birthday so its a double celebration. We gifted her an iPod last night and are planning for an interesting get together in the evening today.

I am enjoying my stay here, looking to expand my social circle, as most of my friends are outside. Have joined a gym here and then there is the corniche, a beautiful 10 km walking and cycling stretch by the arabian sea. So am working out a lot, which is necessary considering mum's

 impassioned efforts at making me put on weight. Am helping tanvi prepare her applications for further studies by writing her essays. She is very happy with the same.

This place is just full of all the comforts i could imagine, unlimited movies to choose from dad's library, video games, malls selling everything, abundant food, and the best thing - our whole family being together.

Indulgence!

Coming home to Abu Dhabi the last 5 days have been complete indulgence. Abu Dhabi is the capital emirate of the desert kingdom of United Arab Emirates, 180 km from its more famed cousin, Dubai. Although the economy here is literally fuelled by oil, this place is full of shops and restaurants and more shops. Pleasant past memories keep coming back as i did my schooling from 8th to 12th here. 

I arrived on the 23rd night and dad, mum and tanvi were here to pick me. Tanvi was sweet enough to arrange a Starbucks blueberry cheesecake for the welcome, which she later ate. Home has been overhauled completely with a brand new 46 inch

 Samsung HDTV, and new furniture. It all seemed very impressive when entering. Mum, dad and tanvi were concerned with the weight loss as usual. Thursday was the day of our Abu Dhabi satsang, and around a 100 devotees were at Mr Menon's place at 7 pm. Deepa (Menon) is here with her husband Kartik and they have been doing amazing seva in washington DC. Deepa is busy organizing big AOL events in US while Kartik is teaching there. The satsang was nice. 

Day 3 was a shopping trip to Dubai. The roads are amazing so we covered 180 kms to dubai in 1.5 hours. We had a nice multi-cuisine lunch covering papaya salad (thai), grilled haloumi (lebanese), submarine sandwiches, thalis, pasta, enchiladas, fries and doughnuts. That folowed by the purchase of a brand new PS3!

The next day was about setting up the ps3 on the HDMI port to get the full-1080p output. Man

 the TV really came alive when playing the games. I had asked dad to bring a blu-ray edition of Dark Knight rom the US. The images look so real, you can even discern the strands of Heath Ledger's hair. It was indeed a merry christmas :)

And we saw ghajini yesterday, which i personally did not like. But the caramel popcorn and nachos with cheese dips at the theater made up for it. God, i had to jog nearly 5kms today to burn off some of those calories...

Total indulgence, total holiday...

Small Issues

Coming back to bangalore was pleasant - a nice volvo bus with spacious seating, and then a spice jet from guwahati to bangalore, followed by anoter volvo from the airport to woody's. Had a pizza after 2 months, and well i realised i was quite well off with the food in Itanagar :)

Am just tying up loose ends, getting last minute formalities done. Had a weird experience with Reliance Money. I had applied for the demat account and all formalities were done. By the time they finally sent the welcome kit, i had left for arunachal. I got a call from their executive that once i was back in Bangalore i could collect the kit. When i went ther today, the executive at the desk checked her records and told me it is alrady delivered. Now a demat account is almost like a pasport, you cant just deliver it to anybody without proper identification, and these people had done just that. On asking why they did not check for identity, they coolly replied that that is how the courier company operates. I was bemused by how coolly they just pass the buck. Am working on resolving the issue at present. Lets see how it shapes up.

More Pics

The last 3 weeks have been an education, in people, practices and in myself..It was almost like being back in IIT again! As a snapshot, we covered plenty of homes inviting people for Guruji's PDS, i set a divine shop stall in the midst of Nahar Lagu's takkar complex for a week, and took lots of pics:) More detailed post coming soon. Some pics in the meantime !...enjoy

An adventure begins

Day 1 : You will never walk alone 

As they say, the defining moments in life are not one-off things, but are the climax of a journey that started earlier. Monday, October 14 2008 was one such defining moment for me – the day I set out for Itanagar to work for my Guru. Even waking up at 4.30 am seemed pleasant that day. I finished my packing and left at 7.10 from home. I called up as many of my relatives as I could on the way.

 Loaded with a ton of things, I was mentally thanking Ritu for having spoken to her friend who had waived off 40 kgs of my luggage. On the way, the momentousness of the journey I had begun caught up. I was off on the greatest adventure of my life till date, to work for my Guru! I called up atul chacha and dadi in the US for their blessings, omi bua, then ma and papa. They showered such abundant blessings. Then Guruji sent a reminder in His style. While I was speaking to mum and dad I looked out of my window and saw a pulsar standing next to the car. On its fuel tank, was a sticker which read “You will never walk alone.” I was so blissed.

 There was a bit of an adventure at the airport and the luggage was not waived off but that hardly seemed to matter as I boarded the aircraft. The spice jet flight flew via kolkata and I was in guwahati 1.45 pm. Gurujis grace was evident once again as Vinay, whom I had met during navaratri in the ashram was also on the flight and he dropped me in his car to the guwahati art of living center. I parked my luggage in a small and cosy teachers room built inside the center, had a light lunch and a short nap and had a nice evening walk by the brahmaputra in the evening. I left the center at 7, picked up some amazing cheese loaf and milk loaf from JBs, and reaced the bus depot. The driver, dilip amazed me with his questions on spirituality, enlightenment and Indian legends. We had a long and interesting drive and chat and he was looking forward to doing the next art of living course available. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the bus I was o take to itanagar was a fairly spacious Volvo. Boarding the bus I had my ‘dinner’ on the way and sipped into a happy long sleep , awaiting the next day. 

Day 2: Welcome to Itanagar 

Morning 6.20 am, as I opened my eyes, I was surrounded by beauty I had dreamt of. Lush green rolling hills on the roadside, clear skies. Beauty, so much of it. Then we reached a grand gate which read, “Welcome to Itanagar”. The rest of the adventure follows in the next post.

'Slip' of Tongue

This is one funny story i had to share. Balwant, Amit, Ballu's sister - Jagmeet, I and a certain Mr X were returning from the ashram today after a fantastic navaratri satsang. The atmosphere at the ashram is absolutely electric - you just need to close your eyes for a few seconds and you can feel the energy coursing through you! Some people do get affected in funny ways by the energy - so here goes...

In the car, we were having a freewheeling gossip session in progress, and the topic eventually

 veered to Balwant's desire to buy his Japanese friend a birthday gift.

Balwant - "Yaar i need to get something for her. I wanted to buy her a sari. But, Guruji has instructed Japanese nationals to not wear indian clothes. So i will have to look for something else. Ratna, kuch bata?"

I - "Er, maybe you can look for a kurta.."

Ballu - "No yaar no indian dress"

I - "Nahi nahi, i meant a small kurta - the kind they can wear with jeans"

Ballu - "Haan thats a good idea. I can look for a skirt in Fab India"

Jagmeet - "Or something in khadi.."

Ballu - "Haan thats a good idea. Hmmm"

Suddenly, Mr X, who had been silent all along, spoke significantly - "Andar ke kapde de sakte hain kya? (Can we gift her inner wear)"

I was in splits, Jagmeet had (hopefully) not heard the comment, ballu was in shocked silence praying that jaggi had not heard it, and Amit said "Yaar X you have a weird sense of humor"

Mr X, confusing Ballu's silence as a sign that Ballu had not heard anything, spoke more forcefully (in a voice that carried to the next car as well) "ANDAR KE KAPDE DE SAKTE HAIN KYA?" Jaggi definitely heard it this time because she was half blushing half choking with laughter. I was laughing my head out. Ballu and Amit started admonishing him.

Sensing the opportunity, i started - "Ballu, you know you have been speaking so sweetly about this female. You are going to be in Japan for a long time, and you may consider settling there"

Amit, cottoning on, added "Haan and if you marry a japanese you can get a Japanese pasport real quick and you can settle there without hassles."

I - "So, as you already know this chick well, and it makes sense for you to look for a commitment in Japan, it could be a good idea for you to buy this person andar ke kapde...."

Mr X was nodding in wholehearted agreement, amazed at the profoundness of his suggestion.

Ballu bellowed, in his most sardarlike voice "OYE...RATNAAAA"

Amit and I, half cackling, added "Cmon ballu, it would be a stylish way of proposing. You might end up married and with a Japanese passport. You can do all the seva you want"

Ballu "OYEEEE!"

However the best was yet to come. Mr X, had another brainwave and he loudly blurted - "Achchha jisse shadi kar rahe ho woh ladka hai ya ladki?"

By now everyone in the was rolling in doldrums of laughter. This is one conversation none of us would be forgetting in a hurry....:)

‘Confusion’ keeps volunteers locked in

The Monday morning TOI carried this story about how KK and Amrita were locked in at Bangalore’s famous Christ college. The article claimed that ‘confusion’ kept our volunteers locked in at Christ college. This is an unprecedented event in history. As the newspaper did not elaborate much on how ‘confusion’ locked in KK and Amrita, we may, for the time being, assume that the warden at the Christ college's girls hostel did so.

Here is the actual account. At 9.00 pm on Saturday evening, Amrita and KK entered the Chirst college campus to register a participant in the Girl’s hostel for Utsav and to speak to a few students about the course. They went in without incident and when they were leaving the warden confronted them asking where they were going so late. So KK and Amrita described the situation to her. At the mention of the Art of Living, the warden panicked and immediately began to threaten the two girls even saying things like “the official time for meeting guests is between 6.30 pm – 7.00 pm”. She conveniently forgot to mention that she had given the oral consent for our volunteers to visit their campus. Usually such circumstances would result in strict remonstration followed by letting the volunteers leave but the warden forcibly detained them overnight without their consent. She even tried to confiscate their mobile phones, which KK and Amrita bravely refused to concede to. The girls, were so caring even in their predicament, that they were ready to go back in the morning without disturbing anyone lest they create unnecessary panic.

It was in the morning that the authorities showed their true colors. Even at 9.30 am the girls were not being allowed off the campus. Realizing the gravity of the situation, KK called up Bau and Dinesh Bhaiya, who promptly guided Devang and Guruprasad, one of the senior members of our YES+ team in Bangalore, to handle the situation. Guru called me and I contacted some of our senior Art of Living faculty who also rushed to the college. At first the security would not let us in, but he relented when we told him that either he let us in or we call the police. 5 of our senior teachers and volunteers, Radhika Ji, Santa uncle, Smita didi, Guruprasad and later Uchil uncle went to discuss the issue with the warden. In the meantime, as per Dinesh Bhaiya’s instructions, all Bangalore YES+ volunteers were informed and urged to come to the gates. In less than an hour, by around 12 pm, we had more than 100 YES+ team members at the gates of Christ college. The discussions were underway inside, and Savitha one of our journalist devotees had even got the crew from Times now at the college gates. At 12 pm we discovered that the girls had still not been offered food and water and we rushed to get something for them. The security, who had come to their senses by then by seeing the congregation outside the gate, were still a little hesitant to let us in but we marched ahead. We later discovered that Amrita, who had informed the warden that she needed to eat before her medicines had been denied food till then, and had fainted. It was only then that the authorities at Christ college brought them idlis. Till about 2pm, our representatives inside were kept waiting, while the Father at Christ college, unmindful of the girls’ condition, took his own time getting to the campus. Finally, at about 4.45, the girls were let off and they described their plight in an interview immediately afterwards.

Is it justifiable to lock up two adults without their consent when they pose no threat? Even our jails offer food and water to the inmates, but ‘Christ’ college would not do the same for two girls who posed them no threat. None of the girls’ families were informed. The warden kept changing her statements every 5 minutes in the discussion with out people and we could gauge that she had no logical reason for her actions.

In contrast to their attitude, our volunteers and teachers, who had rushed to the campus as soon as they heard the news, consulted the senior authorities in the government and the Apex body to quickly prepare the best course of action. There was no commotion or disturbance created at the campus gates, and the police who had been called to ‘control’ the situation looked about rather foolishly on what to do with a bunch of people meditating outside a college gate. We even joked to each other that this was the biggest YES+ volunteers meet we have had in Bangalore till date. After much discussion and deliberation till late night, we decided to not take legal action against the college authorities because we have had cordial relations with them in the past.

Now, Jesus Christ embodied love, forgiveness and total compassion. It is surprising that the people who built an eduational institution in his name seem to completely miss the point. Clearly, these values reflected in the actions of the other party completely.

PS: Here is another article on the same event