Reports

There is an interesting story in the Mahabharata not as often retold. It is the story of how the illustrious, valiant clan of the Yadavas to which Krishna belonged, destroyed themselves. Fearing bad omens surfacing in his land, Krishna and the Yadavas go on a pilgrimage to Prabas – a holy town near the ocean. A fight breaks out between factions that cannot agree assumedly on what had transpired in the great war of Mahabharata. Words lead to blows. In a fit of anger, Krishna reaches out to a blade of Eraku grass that miraculously… Read More »Guns and grass

I visited Mumbai right after the blasts had burdened the psyche of the city and the world in December 2008. Newspapers, TV stations were only broadcasting the incredulity of, the anger of, the tragedy of the blasts. Among all the tragic news I spotted one article in the Mumbai times about a guy who believed in doing random acts of kindness. All he did was do something nice – like have tea with the autorickshaw driver, expect nothing in return and ask him to pass it on. There was a picture of the guy –… Read More »Random Acts of Kindness – The sequence

Evening of December 14th. It was a normal winter evening for Mumbai. People came to Marine drive from other cities just visiting the place, on work, on vacation. Housewives took a break and walked in groups. Young joggers, old joggers, dog joggers all streamed in and by. In one end of Marine Drive stood a group – just introduced to each other gathered together to do something random. A random act of kindness – a random act of connecting to people. Mumbai was scarred and scared after the blasts and we wanted to reach out… Read More »Random Acts of Kindness – Connecting (see post below)

Polka dotted red, straw hat, pushing a crib – young long legged mother of twoA little lumpy, sweet and old – yellow flower on her ear orders the cinnamon butter crepesThere was a student at this stand who went to UniversityLast season he made me crepes, with a little extra feta cheese in itStrumming the guitar, long moustathioed friendly artistChubby toddlers; stumbling achieversPetitions’ Stand with cynical signersGarden vegetable stand with exotic labelsRustic sugarcanes, pink strawberries, white orchidsAll this, and of course – a cup of warm Coffee, is very good for the soul

Have been reading The Zahir by Paulo Coelho. The gist of his books are always of a journey of self discovery – of finding personal legends, understanding the nature of love, destiny, choice and all the unexplained but overexplained stuff. This one was about personal history and the need to lot go. To let go of the ghosts of the past, demons of the future – the Zahirs of your life. At a seminar about wellness I went to on Saturday learnt or rather relearnt one thing. Emotions will always come. Sometimes they are sad,… Read More »The Zahir

OK, So just finished watching I love Huckabees. Pretty interesting movie I must say. But it gets to you in the end and confuses the hell out of you. There is a “Everything is connected” theory and a “Nothingness” theory that run in parallel for a while and then merge at the end of the movie. All this existential talk is exhausting.

I finished seeing the movie Motorcycle Diaries yesterday. It is indeed a story of a journey not of places but through the inner most sanctums of ones soul. A cause is what converts an existence to a living. That flame of self fulfillment is what is so attractive about some people. Here a thought for the day. What is the goal of an organization? According to the book I am reading (The Goal), it is to make money. I disagree. The bane of capitalism is this obsession to make more money at any cost. Efficiency… Read More »The Goal