1 Madhav Baug

Yesterday was a very fulfilled day after a real long time. Well not because my husband was out of town, not really. Somehow I could catch up with this 'far-fetched' concept in my dictionary - 'punctuality'. Starting my classes in the morning to being available for the get-together in the noon, I could make myself present on time. And to wrap all that up, a pleasant visual treat - impacts created by 1 Madhav Baug, at Ranga Shankara, ended my day in full contentment.

So whats all about this: Putting aside the story of the Play, which more discussed about the relationship between a Mother and a homosexual son, what impressed me was "Other Voices" and how the theater went on to conceptualize such an amazing idea! More here!
The play was at 9.30 in the night, Bangalore's weather contributing to the mind's chillness. It wasn't conducted in the auditorium where usually all the play/activities happen, which came across to be a sweet surprise. We climbed close to 4 floors up the building, lit by huge scented candles all along the path way. And there we have this cozy rectangular room at the corner set up with dim lights, mattress covered with a white bed linen and a couple of chairs on the sides., for the audience to sit... sit so closely to the actor. A very simple ambiance, dark wood table, a chair and a couple of lamps, created for the play, it added up to the richness of the idea. Revathi was all around the space, performing, the roles of the son and more of the mother. A role well done that she could push a few of them into tears and touch the emotional Q of a lot in the crowd. Hats off to Arundhathi Nag or whomsoever who contributed to all of it.

The play had a quite a lot of simple yet strong ideas to be conveyed. 'Everybody is unique and just someone, because it's a blood relationship, cannot be taken for granted';'Why is your children not growing up to be someone whom you expect them to be is a wrong question, have we all grew up to be what our parents exactly wanted us to be!' - they came across like a hard slap on my face - it felt very timely!

They had a simple Q&A at the end of the play and Revathi answered everything. During the play she often reiterated that the play has got nothing to do with her personal life that evoked this 'why' thought in me and 'whats wrong just if that's the case' which I asked her and was answered partly. What I liked the most is, when someone in the crowd confessed that he is a homosexual himself and his parents accepted him the way he is, she said its also about drawing a midway, before turning to be rebellious or accepted completely - how true!

It was a totally different experience, and I agree, it did create an impact to an extent that I did not expect it to!
Job well done! Kudos!

The best way

to kill time as I discovered is behavioral analysis. As in finding out the answers for the five magnificent "W"s in your own way. On that note, penning down a few funny and curious behaviors of people as I got discuss with 2 of my favorite friends over the weekend.

1. The previous generation, moms/dads and sorts, are so poor at covering up stuff.
- My friend explained an incident with his Mother. Like they planned to go out somewhere where his dad did not want them to go that day. They come back home with a Spencer's packet and his dad got to pull out some eatable, upon tasting he commented 'where did you buy this from, it tastes so bad. You must get this exchanged'. His mom answers curtly, 'the Spencer's next door.... NEXT DOOR na beta errrrr...'. The friend smirks wondering if he was on his dad's shoes, it would have just taken zero effort for him to get the situation so well. Now that's the previous generation for you. This is funny!
Another example: there is something about you that your relative knows already and they just want to open it up with you as if they had no clue about it while you can so very well make out the lame attempt! Now this is annoying!

2. The kind of people who just want to prove their point. As in a point that would be of no use proving it.
- A set of relatives (very elderly people - higher risk if they are in-laws) at home and then there is this someone who stays opposite door, that implies the one who can just watch your moves day in and day out. The previous night before the relatives arrived, I was "out" partying crazily. I was home late that the neighbor had noticed. The next morning while all the relatives are around, she pulls up this topic "so it was verrrrrry late by the time you were home last night, I peeped out at 11.30 and could not find your bike". I was like damn, is it so important to be talked now kinds, "not really I guess I was in by 11.30". Her: "no no.. not at all". Me: "Hmmm... may be 11.35 or something then". She says "Haaannn that's what! I checked exactly at 11.30" like as if she can NEVER be wrong. I mean I just could not make any sense out of the whole act. Or is it that the point proved is I was put at risk and there's some fun behind that? And this is more annoying :P

Onto, this set of elder generation who can never agree to what the younger ones say, well at the least not as a counter argument or as a "suggestion", not even while you have a general conversation. I'm unsure if I should call it ego or stubbornness or a time pass. Really. I mean there are people who want to make an argument, for the sake of passing time.
And then you find these people in town who make random comments. What's funny is that the amount of satisfaction they feel by doing that, how foolish! They can know that thing that doesn't even exist anywhere in the world, I mean that so random and then they can give you great ideas on all that if ever you tend to try that out!
Okay, its not that I want to create a Revolution 2020 that I want people to start thinking into stuff and work towards harmony. Just some passing thought, and of course, for the records ;)

So I wish you, the reader, to meet people who are that random, at some point of time in life, just to have some good laugh when you look back :)

Steve Jobs

Like so many others around, on the 6th of Oct '11 I too did not wake up to a good morning, rather its a sense of emptiness!
Emptiness is something I define to be an intense thought, that half of the crowd out there bump onto, when there are too many things for us to work on while we can never be able to connect the dots! Everybody would have a push to make it big in life. We work, live, fail, succeed.. and when the taste of all of these is known, we hit this point called emptiness. I mean, the point where I do not anymore be able to make sense out of all those things that I am doing.
The very first time I read this Stanford Univ speech that Steve delivered was in 2007, sitting at my cubicle in MindTree.. and firstly, I felt pathetic to not know the world that so much that I got to come across it after 2 whole years after it was actually done. Ever since, for lack of a better synonym, I'm a great fan of Steve! cuz like what I learned in MindTree, working through this life is not just for money and fame, its more about adding values to my own life. He did that. Through a lot of other sources, I have heard that he has been a very authoritative leader, that some people call him rude and hostile. I still believed what he does is right, for I'm a person who is actually of the same sorts and I always felt there is nothing wrong in being that way when ever its required!
I felt so insane upon hearing the news, that I went on to change my DP on FB to black and tagged it Steve Jobs and I was fuming so much that I just had to make up my mind that the darkness is something that I feel in my heart but the mind should know he lives forever some way or the other.
The past couple of months, there has been a highly agitated mood prevailing in and around me. And I have not been able to figure a good way out. I'm through with the struggle for money and love. Now everything has reached the 'maintenance and support' phase by software jargon. I'm unable to think like what if today is the last day of life, for I aint diagnosed with some incurable cancer or anything neither that I'm so old to think that I must now start living life for people around me rather than myself for that, I believe, is a parallel process at any point of time in life.
That's when the Stanford university speech is something that I ponder on over and over again. For a lot of us, life without the 'i' today would have been quite a threat. While a person who could make a remarkable change to the world only could connect the dots after few long years, how highly applicable such a thing to me is what I have realized.
The recent trip that we did to Rome, when looked back again gets a rush under my stomach. I'm unsure if Leonardo DaVinci or Michael Angelo would have ever dreamed of doing what they actually did or believed that they would bring in such a positive change to the whole of Universe. So much so that the Human civilization today would have been nothing without them.
While everything I believe is about the inner sense and about a person self to get the way your life is going in the first place, the push to living this life is undoubtedly, a lot outside you. Very much!
Wish the reader, there is going to be a time in your life when you can completely feel the positivity of emptiness and that brings in a new dawn into your life, the kind that you've never seen so far!
Kudos Steve Jobs!

Learnings from the Bhagavad Gita - I

Buying a 'Bhagavad Gita' remained a long time wish until I had been to Iskcon a couple of months ago. After I bought it, I "wanted to" & tried reading a few portion at least every day, later realized that it was becoming an unfulfilled agenda. Slowly I tried becoming a regular reader, currently at an average extent. And wanted to record the learning from what I read!
The edition that I have is the 'Bhagavd-Gita As it is', by the Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the well known founder of Iskcon and it encloses the Sanskrit, Hindi and tamil version of the phrases with a detailed description of the intent and meaning of every phrase. When I first started, reading both the Sanskrit and tamil scripts was the motto, but later reading only the Tamil phrase. As I wanted to read the Gita all over again once I complete reading the full for the first time, it would make more sense to read through everything the second time than doing it now. Needless to mention, the day is more peaceful and the mind is more stable through the day.

So, in the initial few portions before Krishna starts the Upadesam, the war field formation of the Kurukshetra with all other nuances involved along with the ability of the soldiers on both the sides, the Dhritarashtra and the Pandavas is described beautifully.
Coming to the learning, I was at a complete awe to read about how fear encompassed Arjuna, when he looked at the war field, and to fight so many of them considering the dharma. He slides away the bow and tells Krishna, this is not how he wanted to make this life of his. There are so many soldiers, elders, relatives etc and killing them becomes the greatest sin. It also shows up the wrong path to the next generation that's growing up in the Raja Vamsam.
- I realize, the greatest of human, the Arjuna, would also feel 'fear'! Being afraid of something at some point of life is no wrong. Without that, life doesn't run into the right path.

So, to this question of Arjun, Krishna replies, 'the most powerful, ambidextrous archer, Arjuna! this is not what I expected out of you. Being the most skillful, I thought you knew to differentiate between the permanent and the temporary. All of those who are going to be killed by you in this battle of Kurukshetra would lose only the life (athma). It is only their body, that's temporary, will be destroyed; the athma is permanent, it will stay back and get transferred to another body.'

- All the good and bad deeds in this life, has no destruction. They will stay back with your athma. Being more careful about one's every action is vital for a human!

On a side note, when I was on my way to office in the morning today, I thought through point #2 and felt, 'so what about the athmas that are not yet transferred to another body! Are they just strolling around here. there are so many people dying each day and is this world full of athmas. suddenly I imagine around me a set of white human structures, without legs, floating in the air like what we see in the ghost movies, phew! whoaaa!' :P

Credit Card Skimming – Beware (June 2011)

- From my husband -

I’m one of those who has multiple credit cards and have been using these for close to 6 yrs. One of those cards (from a bank which claims to never sleep) has given me sleepless nights from the past 2-3 days. While I had the card in my possession, I suddenly got an alert for a transaction from my card. I immediately called the customer care and got the card blocked. I usually check my online account every 2-3 days, but the transactions reflect only after 3 days. In the next few days, I realized there were 29 transactions totaling to an amount of Rs. 45,000 which weren’t made by me. All of these are swipe transactions and not online. The bank will now investigate this and settle the amount in my account if these are found to be fraud transactions.

The fraudster who used the fake credit card number with the same number as mine made merry with the card in just 5 days. The guy started from a wine shop/bar, bought some goggles at an optical shop, some food at a super market, had a sumptuous meal in a restaurant, got himself some nice boots, went on to buy some mp3 players, filled fuel into his cars 6 times full totaling upto 15k, bought another goggles for his friend, had the best sweets in town. Finally when he decided to treat himself with a mobile phone worth > 5000 – it triggered an alert and I guess he moved onto the next card. All of this in 5 days.

I intend to fight this and get the charges off my account and I also believe it will not be very difficult for whoever it is to apprehend this guy given that he had the audacity to shop all of this in & around just one locality – Jayanagar 4^th block, Bangalore.

Reason for this mail though is to give some Dos & Don’ts to all those smart ones out there using Credit Cards. Here goes:

Dos:

1. Ensure card is always in your possession
2. Memorize your credit card numbers
3. Have customer care numbers stored on your phone
4. Opt for lesser credit limit on the cards
5. Configure transaction alerts for any amount greater than 500
6. Have online account access and regularly monitor the transactions
7. CVV should be scratched out

Donts:

1. Swipe your card in shady places (Bars, Petrol pumps)
2. Convey credit card details to anyone over phone
3. Give Xerox copies of your existing cards when applying for fresh ones