tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97755692024-03-23T23:54:28.689+05:30Reveries"Everything can be taken from a man but ...the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the "why" for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any 'how'! "
Frankl, Viktor E., Man's Search for Meaningpilgrimhawkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11622514301612035386noreply@blogger.comBlogger91125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9775569.post-64395333518273753222011-01-16T12:44:00.029+05:302011-09-12T22:01:22.331+05:30The Spark of Unbearable Compassion - On the life and work of a good friend of mine<span style="font-style:italic;">"If I can stop one heart from breaking,<br />I shall not live in vain;<br />If I can ease one life the aching,<br />Or cool one pain,<br />Or help one fainting robin<br />Unto his nest again,<br />I shall not live in vain."<br />-Emily Dickinson-</span><br /><br />Well, the title of this post came from a report in "Shambala Sun" on my dear friend Sunitha Krishnan.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.shambhalasun.com/sunspace/?p=12988">http://www.shambhalasun.com/sunspace/?p=12988<br /></a><br /> <br />Thought i will do something that could further the cause of well-being of many we do not know. When we cannot reach out to many, I feel the best possible way to further that cause is to support the people who do it as their life’s principal mission.<br /><br />One name came flashing to my mind when I came across this announcement on a sleepless night’s random googling – My dear good friend Dr. Sunitha Krishnan. She perhaps needs no introduction to many, there is so much written about her all over, her recent TED talk turned out to be a pathfinder talk. When thousands of suffering strangers need the help of people like Sunitha, She needs our help to reach out further and do more.<br /><br />Well, I have been watching her rather closely over the years, as the organization grew, as she became increasingly popular …some times even as our communication became minimal, I really wondered …”did she get carried away “ , a doubt that lingered to my mind for quite some time till the day she was bestowed with the 2008 Real Heros Award by the CNN-IBN award presented by Nita Ambani . I switched on the TV, gathered people around me to show them Sunitha, and to my utter dismay I did not see Sunitha walking up to the dais to receive the award from Ms. Nita Ambani, instead I saw her father receiving the award. Quite startled and curious to know how could she miss out this opportunity to “be there” I called her up and came her reply “ I was in a meeting elsewhere, so could not go !” .<br /><br />Some time later I came across this 7 page article in October 2008 issue of ‘Reader’s Digest’ that had her attitude further exemplified. She was invited by the South Korean Government to help them improve the shelters for victims of trafficking. Being a government guest, she was offered accommodation at the best place in South Korea….and she shocked the South Korean officials when she insisted that she wants to stay in a local brothel to study the situation closely. Well, here is the full story :<br /><br /><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/pilgrimhawk/sunitha-krishnan-readersdigestarticleoct2008">http://www.slideshare.net/pilgrimhawk/sunitha-krishnan-readersdigestarticleoct2008</a><br /><br />So while that defines her attitude to luxury and honours, I also realize that people like her cannot really shy away from awards and honours, more so when it brings in much needed funds and resources to keep the crusade running. I do realize the import of what Sunitha wrote in here , now I notice that the blog was posted by her at 3.02 AM ( an older one ) ! <br /><br /><a href="http://sunithakrishnan.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">here is Sunitha's blog</a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Here is some Information on Sunitha :</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Videos:</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YziMgRL8UZM" target="_blank">Ink Talk Video</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/sunitha_krishnan_tedindia.html" target="_blank">Sunitha's TED-India 2009 Talk – Video</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U5IpQGBW1o" target="_blank">Touching, saving 3200 lives and on and on </a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiM9WEu8-cU" target="_blank">The Ugly Truth: Has A Disha (Hope)</a> <br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQOk61MI9Lw" target="_blank">The Sex Slave Rescuer- An Interview clip – Video</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week1019/profile.html" target="_blank">PBS Interview on Sunitha Krishnan-Video</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuBT63EqcrlL8j4ECSlSFPjhxPGCB9oERiLQTARS3S8aFlrNA8Yn6MVfh3UgG-CVqBvpVQz5YKL2EAvf0ViMNx-ygHaFWsep36VioMVoFzEmvO8Hl8YWrfbqG-TqFODfGQk7unlA/s1600/prajwala.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 81px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuBT63EqcrlL8j4ECSlSFPjhxPGCB9oERiLQTARS3S8aFlrNA8Yn6MVfh3UgG-CVqBvpVQz5YKL2EAvf0ViMNx-ygHaFWsep36VioMVoFzEmvO8Hl8YWrfbqG-TqFODfGQk7unlA/s400/prajwala.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5651511410603187954" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YziMgRL8UZM"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Prajwala - New Rehabilitation Centre, Hyderabad</span></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Print Media Reports:</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.shambhalasun.com/sunspace/?p=12988" target="_blank">The Spark of Unbearable Compassion: Sunitha Krishnan speaks at TEDIndia</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.unodc.org/india/rha_sunitha_krishnan190408.html" target="_blank">Dr. Sunitha Krishnan Conferred with CNN IBN 'Real Heroes' Award</a><br /><a href="http://www.hinduonnet.com/mp/2009/07/30/stories/2009073050560100.htm"><br />Keeping hope alive Real-life hero</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/pilgrimhawk/sunitha-krishnan-readersdigestarticleoct2008" target="_blank">Interpid Foe of India’s Sex Industry – 2008 Reader’s Digest Feature</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/society/article2308291.ece">She sets the bonded free</a><br /><a href="http://www.amazingwomenrock.com/myblog/anti-trafficking-crusader-sunitha-krishnan-fights-to-save-women-girls-in-india.html"><br />Anti-Trafficking Crusader Sunitha Krishnan Fights To Save Women & Girls In India</a><br /> <br /><a href="http://www.ppeach.com/blog/2009/12/sunitha-krishnan-and-prajwala-fighting-for-trafficked-children/">Sunitha Krishnan and Prajwala – Fighting for trafficked children</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/india/TED-gain-100-000-in-20-minutes-all-for-a-cause/Article1-473599.aspx">TED gain: $100,000 in 20 minutes, all for a cause</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIQfguB51X3ukWs5dqK0-CPrwRaNysFXAKVk0AG3YIQrjLa0syuEdq0REkHbcRNuQu0U0XGtWvMqE6zzUfS3Ui2NcbRbcAYGN1BWubd4LvoU9unFDpmlWMnl5o_XC3JZ7IDQCizQ/s1600/Sunitha_Krishnan_photo.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 233px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIQfguB51X3ukWs5dqK0-CPrwRaNysFXAKVk0AG3YIQrjLa0syuEdq0REkHbcRNuQu0U0XGtWvMqE6zzUfS3Ui2NcbRbcAYGN1BWubd4LvoU9unFDpmlWMnl5o_XC3JZ7IDQCizQ/s400/Sunitha_Krishnan_photo.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5562679821362448610" /></a><br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><br />“The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.”<br /> - Elie Wiesel -</span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Hawk's wanderings and Pilgrim's perspectives !</div>pilgrimhawkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11622514301612035386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9775569.post-50551952999235004312010-10-14T02:11:00.002+05:302010-10-14T02:15:32.227+05:30Of Miners' rescue and Assembly trust vote ...Anxious hours for any sentient being on earth as they watch/ think of the Chilean miners being rescued one by one.<br /><br />… and a bit more anxiety for the politically aware ones in Bangalore because in a few hours another trust vote will decide the political fate of Kar”nataka” state assembly. Watching the latest development in the state’s political scene used to be a daily dose of entertainment after I reach from work . I was constantly tracking the moves and political acrobatics of these jokers until the Chilean heroes caught my attention .<br /><br />There the Chilean president is right on ground zero where the miners are being rescued on a 30 hours stretch operation. The Bolivian president is flying in to Chile to take home with him the only Bolivian miner among the 33 trapped miners. Their elected leaders are their guardian angels too. Looks like sensible leaders can be chosen only by sensible people.<br /><br /><object width="400" height="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/6ebVR_r9qHc?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6ebVR_r9qHc?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="400" height="300"></embed></object><br /><br />The Karnataka politicians will spend a sleepless night wondering who will win and who will rule….who will cook, who will serve and who will eat, praying to their deities for boons to gratify their greed . Their counterparts in Chile too will spend a sleepless night praying for the safe rescue of all the miners, cheering up every one getting out of the rescue capsule after 69 days’ ordeal 700 meters below, there they stand as true elected representatives, together with the ones who elected them , in the hour of need.<br /><br /><object width="400" height="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/aVn7K0IpQo4?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/aVn7K0IpQo4?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="400" height="300"></embed></object><br /><br />Why did all our news channels celebrate this ongoing political fiasco in Karnataka with of course hearty interludes of Commonwealth games updates. It appears that the proceedings of Karnataka assembly will be telecast live tomorrow… and we are there to watch the jokers in action again.<br /><br />On the other hand <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11518015">BBC seemed to have celebrated</a> the entire Chilean operation with a live coverage. <br /><br />Does this have any pedagogical value dear learned pedagogues ? <br /><br />Yes there is in abundance…. for , what else could be a better example of true heroism, team spirit, compassion, reverence for life, brotherhood, high precision engineering, brilliant task management. <br /><br />Are you listening dear pedagogues ?...or are you busy constructing , deconstructing new post-neo-hyper modern theories of learning, knowledge production, distribution ? ( looks like a new supply chain process) <br /><br />I could not control my tears as I saw the Chilean miners emerged one by one… seeing the whole nation rejoicing … seeing how technology became a path with a heart… seeing the way a rescued miner opened his little bag, just after he got out of the rescue capsule, took out some candies and distributed it to people around. Here is a man , who has not seen sunlight for 69 days, reaching out … seeing clearly through his dark goggles… how true what the little kid said in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince : “ What is essential is invisible to the eyes, it is only with the heart you can truly see “ .<br /><br />Are we blinded by too much light?<br /><br />For the trapped miners the first step on earth was freedom …and for us we need wings for flights of freedom out of earth’s bounds.<br /><br />So, Freedom too is relative ?<div class="blogger-post-footer">Hawk's wanderings and Pilgrim's perspectives !</div>pilgrimhawkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11622514301612035386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9775569.post-70080335887156874802010-07-29T20:07:00.012+05:302010-07-29T22:58:50.504+05:30Semantic rains ...A rainy evening, a soulful conversation...then a walk in the rain right on through the memory lane with those scenes from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaji_N._Karun">Shaji M Karun's</a> Malayalam movie flashing forth in my mind . I do not know of any other malayalam movie other than "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piravi">Piravi</a>" that captured the nostalgic bliss of rains in Kerala while depicting the silent plight of a dying father waiting for his long lost son's return. <br><br />Came home and got on to the internet to look for Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan's violin composition "Cauvery"...and stumbled upon this magnificent video of Dr.L Subramanyam and his son Ambi Subramanyam playing together.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Like father...Son</span><br /><object width="400" height="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/6EfQ5_6Z70E&hl=en_US&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6EfQ5_6Z70E&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="400" height="300"></embed></object><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">... this father waiting for his lost son</span><br /><object width="400" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Is4YvEaluTs&hl=en_US&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Is4YvEaluTs&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="400" height="300"></embed></object><br /><br />Saw 2 fathers and one son in 10 minutes, both on youtube - one in extreme silent agony and the other in eloquent ecstatic symphony.<br /><br />... and the connecting thread, rains again, weaved a pattern that connects both - the quotes from "Kaushitaki Upanishad" in the beginning of the movie "Piravi" .<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Father : My speech in you I would place<br />Son : Your speech in me I take<br /><br />Father : My breath in you I would place<br />Son : Your breath in me I take<br /><br />Father : My eye in you I would place<br />Son : Your eye in me I take<br /><br />Father : My ear in you I would place<br />Son : Your ear in me I take<br /><br />Father : My tastes in you I would place<br />Son : Your tastes in me I take<br /><br />Father : My deeds in you I would place<br />Son : Your deeds in me I take<br /><br />Father : My pleasure and pain in you I would place<br />Son : Your pleasure and pain in me I take<br /><br />Father : My bliss, delight and procreation in you I would place<br />Son : Your bliss, delight and procreation in me I take<br /><br />Father : My goings in you I would place<br />Son : Your goings in me I take<br /><br />Father : My mind in you I would place<br />Son : Your mind in me I take<br /><br />Father : My intelligence in you I would place<br />Son : Your intelligence in me I take<br /><br />A Dying man's bequest to his son - Kaushitaki Upanishad</span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Hawk's wanderings and Pilgrim's perspectives !</div>pilgrimhawkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11622514301612035386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9775569.post-56147397106227713942010-03-18T21:21:00.006+05:302010-04-23T09:41:03.363+05:30Long live Web 3.0wow..what more do we need to believe that we are living in the web 3.0 era...<br /><br />Google ads just proved it incredibly well.<br /><br />The basic funda of google ads is that it places ads relevant to the content , then a set of complex algorithms decide on the exact nature of the ad placed on the page. Well, this is my understanding of it and I could a bit less informed, but surely not absolutely wrong.<br /><br />so let us look at <a href="http://www.labnol.org/internet/web-3-concepts-explained/8908/">Web V1.0, 2.0, 3.0</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Web 1.0</span> – That Geocities & Hotmail era was all about read-only content and static HTML websites. People preferred navigating the web through link directories of Yahoo! and dmoz.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Web 2.0</span> – This is about user-generated content and the read-write web. People are consuming as well as contributing information through blogs or sites like Flickr, YouTube, Digg, etc. The line dividing a consumer and content publisher is increasingly getting blurred in the Web 2.0 era.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Web 3.0</span> – This will be about semantic web (or the meaning of data), personalization (e.g. iGoogle), intelligent search and behavioral advertising among other things. <br /><br />and this is what i came across few minutes back... looking for updates on the newsed up trancey-sexed up Paramahamsa Nithyananda of Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam.<br /><br />My God, did you see that : "Paramahamsa" - how beautiful it looked as a suffix in "Sri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa" and how out of place it looks as a prefix before the name of the one in context, on news headlines these days.<br /><br />Web 3.0 seems to have understood it still better.<br /><br />Check out <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Modi-was-in-touch-with-tainted-Swami-Nityananda/articleshow/5649139.cms">this </a><br /><br />it is quite possible that there is a new ad in place of what i saw few minutes back.<br /><br />so, this is what i saw ..may be what you can still see:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeWG4a2wopPiPWe6lnlkU7oQWhonRgXy0MaE-af_LkOjl2E5kflRybH95yV4n7_oIe8ey-90cM8Dhg15OpdXSBCQmtoJZ4J5BPgzHO5Yoy4kcMa-5UfowDPQXBwcYH_3OMH5JMNg/s1600-h/long-live-web3.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 208px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeWG4a2wopPiPWe6lnlkU7oQWhonRgXy0MaE-af_LkOjl2E5kflRybH95yV4n7_oIe8ey-90cM8Dhg15OpdXSBCQmtoJZ4J5BPgzHO5Yoy4kcMa-5UfowDPQXBwcYH_3OMH5JMNg/s400/long-live-web3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450008673112846498" /></a><br /><image> Please click on the image to enlarge<br /><br />see the text inside the red outline just below the news headline on the godman and his befitting counterpart. I still cannot figure out how on earth this ad on "sanitary ware" got in place just below the news headline because nothing on the entire web page has any content even remotely connected to the ad, except of course the protagonists in the news headline :-)<br /><br />Marvin Minsky defines AI thus :<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">"Artificial Intelligence ( AI) is the science of making machines do things that would require intelligence if done by men"</span><br /><br />Well, i am not a strong AI proponent, but this typical advertisement below this specific news headline baffles me outright. But the point is that the web too understands what is the right ad to place along with crap news on crappier people.<br /><br />This ad with its timely appearance on this specific news page seems to have scaled the metaphorical depths of the news and its readers' psyche.<br /><br />yes, we need better sanitaryware within us, to flush out the dirt within and to flush these bigots out of our minds!!<br /><br />..and yes, i remember the first principle I learnt as a novice in the area of computer science : " Garbage in, garbage out".<br /><br />there could not be any better ad than the sanitary ware ad for this news item...<br /><br />Long live Web 3.0 ...can't wait for web 4.0<br /><br />:-)<div class="blogger-post-footer">Hawk's wanderings and Pilgrim's perspectives !</div>pilgrimhawkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11622514301612035386noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9775569.post-79622871607555577592010-01-10T22:10:00.001+05:302010-01-10T22:12:22.643+05:30tiger, tiger burning bright ( on TV) ...More of fallen Tiger Woods <br />on TV <br />than the rising star <br />he once was!<br /><br />... we envied him first, <br />then emulated him and <br />later worshiped him <br />as a superhuman. <br /><br />Now, when he fell from glory <br />and became just one of us <br />we scorn him <br />and denounce him <br />outright. <br /><br />Quo vadis?<div class="blogger-post-footer">Hawk's wanderings and Pilgrim's perspectives !</div>pilgrimhawkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11622514301612035386noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9775569.post-60520588763482831932009-04-23T11:22:00.002+05:302009-06-30T23:15:13.468+05:30Zorba the Geek aka Ravi Saldanha - Part 1<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnQo8jonubvZjxhGWUzdc5mOkP78xj5hXgC8expLh7HmT0LK0Ik-jtytnzAo5ju_LxiTaPnXEWLtAXQuC0rjBI2D31EFBh77c3Nr07hbXurYCZpeEb-hb8eRfDNCfVUg73T8Po1w/s1600-h/ravi_saldanha_dancing.jpg" alt="Prof.Deepak Gupta of Amrits School of Business and Ravi breaking into a spontaneous samba session"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer;cursor:hand;width: 250px; height: 188px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnQo8jonubvZjxhGWUzdc5mOkP78xj5hXgC8expLh7HmT0LK0Ik-jtytnzAo5ju_LxiTaPnXEWLtAXQuC0rjBI2D31EFBh77c3Nr07hbXurYCZpeEb-hb8eRfDNCfVUg73T8Po1w/s320/ravi_saldanha_dancing.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5327766431466023618" /></a><br />Few kindred souls – my friends have been repeatedly imploring me to resume my blogging . May be that's why I feel the inclination to write now. I wonder how much of the random thoughts/reflections/memories that ripple across my mind are worth converting into blogs and how many of such blogs are worth being called 'blogs', and how many among them really worth reading. But then this thought too could be one such, So I guess you need not take it seriously and get going :-) – that is to read, reflect and respond. <br /><br />For long I refrained from blogging because I was obsessively concerned about the quality of what I write ( i felt i have to do a good deal of home work on my writing) – it terms of cadence, style and literary merit and I am sure that in that self imposed exile I have missed out sharing a lot of what nourished, enriched and sustained me. So from now onwards I will just go on recording my impressions – memories , dreams and reflections on this blog page – yet another billboard of a soul on the information highway. Oh...those two words – 'soul' and 'highway' reminds me of those lines from the song “O<span style="font-style: italic;">bjects in the rear view mirror “ by MeatLoaf</span> :<br /><br />… <span style="font-style: italic;">“But it was long ago and it was far away, oh God it seems so very far<br />And if life is just a highway, then the soul is just a car<br />And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are“</span><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE8FX1J6oEg">Click here</a> for the song video>><br /><br />I guess I must define the word “CLOSER” as NOT a frightening, ghostly image from the past, instead an endearing, enduring flash or remembrance of the bygone. It cannot be but “closer” to our being right? :-)<br /><br />Moving out of Amrita campus and setting up a dwelling in Hyderabad gave me what I missed all along over the last 8 years . Eight years in Amrita was sheer delight but I had a price to pay as well , ie. time for myself – time to read , reflect and some times just do nothing. Now I understand how important it is to find time for oneself for, it is only during those moments one can look back in retrospect and reflect. I really do now know how am I going to express my gratitude to my wife Laxmi who took upon herself the responsibility to run our home and let me be with myself. What ever good thing I do will obviously have its deep bearing on the sacrifice she made to bequeath unto me these moments of pilgrimage within. I owe her the same thing... now my dream is to see her having time for herself just the way I revel on. Must get going soon...<br /><br />Eight years of sheer delight in Amrita – I will remain thankful to the campus and the students who made my inner landscape greener and richer. It has become so internalized that those eight years form an integral part of my mindscape. Now as I reflect in retrospect I realize that many things that happened in my life eventually prepared me for that wonderful phase of my life at Amrita. <br /><br />Eight years with students from the age group of 16-25 and mind you I was not into teaching. I first walked into the campus, during a terrible phase of my life, as a 28 year old angry young man – confused about career, resentful about relationships and regretful of the mistakes I made...angry with myself and the rest of the world as well I have always wondered how could I get along well with those sweet little frivolous teenagers. There is an old saying that I love “<span style="font-style:italic;">If you are comfortable with yourself, you will be comfortable with others</span>”. Sure, I was so utterly disturbed and perturbed with remorse and retribution swelling up to monstrous levels. <br /><br />But I did not drown... I was gracefully kept afloat. I have always wondered how and why it happened thus.<br /><br />Thankfully many things that got infused into my being unawares blossomed forth. Who sowed those seeds that germinated in inner conditions that I deemed hostile all through...or perhaps those seeds were ordained to sprout in such conditions... <br /><br />As I ponder I am discovering the answers steadily and I realize there are many factors (events and people) I'd love to remain grateful unto my last. <br /><br />Here is one man who played a decisive role in preparing me thus – my friend <span style="font-weight:bold;">Ravi Stephan Saldanha</span>. I write this not just to express my gratitude and reverence for what he was to me then , it is also to redeem the evolving possibilities and primarily to reflect on something that left me awe struck few days back after a brief conversation with him. But before I get at it, one must get a glimpse of passionate-maverick-bubbly fine young man with fire in his belly – and that qualifies him to be called “Zorba the Geek”.<br /><br />But first one needs to know who Zorba was. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUGlSfV3xJs" target="_blank">Please watch this clipping</a> from the movie “Zorba the Greek”. <br /><br />This is more of a very personal narrative...but I am sure that it will give enough glimpses ( through Ravi) of what it takes to remain a true friend and above all a gentle human being. Wow..i have been waiting for these moments....to stretch back and get lost in remembrance of things past... reliving instances and events that will once again take me to the brink of tears... get soaked in those swirling waters of memories...get basked in the radiance of deeds of kindness and goodness I have been so fortunate enough to be bestowed on. It is going to be nothing less than a pilgrimage for me to walk down the memory lane thus during these days when friendship too revolves around the words “win win-trade off-deals”. Remembering the goodness of others with a deep sense of gratitude and benediction is a deeply moving experience, which often helps us invoke those qualities in us as well. I do not know of a better way of purifying oneself.<br /><br />What follows will justify it. <br /><br />After a phase of drifting, when my father found me heading no where and I had no idea of where to go, I joined <a href="http://www.hindustanacademy.com/" target="_blank">Hindustan Aviation Academy</a>. Thanks to my father who was kind enough to spend on me again on education at a time when people expected the eldest son to support the family. Thus began the three and a half years of my life as a full time student. Being in a class with fresh +2 graduates, I must have been 24+ I guess then, was initially an experience that made me question my worth even as an individual, leave alone as an aspiring aviation professional. Things became tough when my seniors who came to rag me discovered that I am much elder to them...and sure it must have given them an added pleasure of having a go at me testifying their ragging sophistication. My peers in the class soon gave me an elder-brother-classmate status though my seniors often saw me as a good specimen to fine tune their ragging skills...thus followed the initial few months of anxiety and terrible self doubt.<br /><br />So there I was in 1995, in a college trying to pursue a highly competitive profession with classmates good number of years younger to me. I was literally on a 'wing and a prayer' in the cloudy sky of self doubt... lot of lonely walks and introspections oscillating between the extremes of new beginnings and points of no return !<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW8UH509-22KHbeeXQGr8lPAr9Xy8gG8HrLtXjOg2zdXpHwlzqgmj6yaMAq1EyW6NX3Ynq7_OofwCxRAxgcA0UC4oguJUkOV8vE0J_tq9laygdUb8Cq-2MK1o_aciQR2YyRY7xmA/s1600-h/ravi_saldanha_godfather.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 236px; height: 201px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW8UH509-22KHbeeXQGr8lPAr9Xy8gG8HrLtXjOg2zdXpHwlzqgmj6yaMAq1EyW6NX3Ynq7_OofwCxRAxgcA0UC4oguJUkOV8vE0J_tq9laygdUb8Cq-2MK1o_aciQR2YyRY7xmA/s320/ravi_saldanha_godfather.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5327763090158417106" border="0"></a> That's the time I noticed Ravi first, who apparently got along well with some of the toughest seniors. I initially had a feeling that he is one of those rich spoilt NRI brats and I came to know that he stayed some where deep , alone in a house in the Munnakolala outskirts of Bangalore. Once I walked down to see that place , envying him deep within for having a place all for himself, and once I saw the place my envy became sympathy. I wondered how on earth could this guy born and brought up in Dubai find himself at ease and peace in such a remote place. As I observed him keenly the sympathy I had for him for this terribly lonely predicament of his gradually turned into appreciation for his uncanny ability to get along with people and bubbly sense of humour, some times streaks of sheer brilliance also shone forth when we were in a group discussing something technical. But we were yet to really talk to each other. The first break for that came during the tea break of our college morning sessions. <br /><br />I was just walking out of the class and he was going out of the campus. He saw me and asked 'coming out?'. As we walked along he asked 'do you smoke?' ...I said 'sometimes' , he had a good laugh at it while he too said 's-o-m-e-t-i-m-e-s'. Initially I think he gave me a good listening and soon I found myself listening when he began to talk. I will never forget that day when he started questioning me outright, challenging my views, presenting alternate views on many things we discussed. It took me quite some time to come in terms with the fact that here is this 18 year old classmate of mine literally flooring me with his incisive reasoning. It was quite a bitter pill to swallow then for, till then I enjoyed immediate acceptance of whatever I spoke to my classmates – I had the taken for granted advantage of being few years elder to them. But then I was feeling out of place all the while because no one really considered me one-among-them and I was pining to feel that togetherness of certain amount of frivolousness and impulsiveness in interactions among peers. Ravi's fierce arguments with me gave me that – I began to feel belonged with no barrier of 'elderliness' in between. Though he took me quite by surprise with his wit, passion with which he did things and deep insights into many things that baffle most of us, he was gentle enough to be explained to when I had a slight upper edge at times ( those occasions were rare though ). He argued and explained with effortless ease, striking originality and most of the time won with abiding grace.<br /><br />Tea breaks turned fag-sessions soon began to gather more people. Even the ones who did not drink tea of smoked began to join the 10 minute expedition to 'dada's shop' in Marathahalli. They were there to be a part of the stimulating discussions that ranged from movies to metaphysics. It is during one such sessions Ravi displayed his maverick wisdom when some one joined us , we had asked for one tea meant to be divided into two (by 2 or /2 ), and it was just time to rush back. Ravi had no qualms in telling dada to make it /3. That was quite unheard of , dada gazed at him with some sense of consternation! A small glass of tea divided into 2 was till then considered to be the maximum drinkable divisibility. Ravi proved further divisibility and dada from then on had no problem in make /3 tea though it meant less business for him. Well, that was the charm of his expressions which had an inherent persuasiveness that one would happily give into.<br /><br />Soon those sessions extended to lengthy lunch break. It was quite a scene … people pinching off chappati portions form his plate and when left alone, there was that quintessential Ravi sharing his meal with stray dogs too...some times I have seen him feeding them as well. I had read and heard about the web of life-interconnectedness-compassion to living creatures. But Ravi showed me what it is to feel connected. Though I could never elevate myself to that realm of exemplifying reverence for life , I realized that it is possible for, I could see a living embodiment of it on a day to day basis. So there was this 19 year old guy who by then had become my biggest intellectual challenge and often I looked upon him for guidance as well during those intermittent phases of delusion. It did not take Ravi much to make me realize that age has nothing to do with maturity , an important reckoning that kept me going all through my 8 years at Amrita.<br /><br />I have always wondered how did Ravi end up doing Avionics engineering in a college that was not quite known then. This guy with his abilities should have been in one of those Ivy-league colleges . I have often felt that Ravi got misguided into this programme. With his inherent curiosity and intelligence he should have been in a place with the finest professors and the best experimental facilities. I got to see Ravi's versatility after the Avionics engineering programme as he went on to become a Geek - a self taught programmer-techie of the maverick kind. We will have a few glimpses of it later.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb1UEjiUf1LIYQqmRXYlGH6ys8gsWWpSbHwZ6OPyCTypIaK2vuWNIGPFY0liK8uypJ2eQcPOU5uJGHPzxobXgqBjMi4vuVWoW2PIjqOsL8iwv8GJWrORDahPpmNmQUtUOUM63wiQ/s1600-h/ravi_saldanha_bike.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 197px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb1UEjiUf1LIYQqmRXYlGH6ys8gsWWpSbHwZ6OPyCTypIaK2vuWNIGPFY0liK8uypJ2eQcPOU5uJGHPzxobXgqBjMi4vuVWoW2PIjqOsL8iwv8GJWrORDahPpmNmQUtUOUM63wiQ/s320/ravi_saldanha_bike.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5327762490742286130" border="0"></a> It was fun watching him ride his bike-he had a Yamaha RX100 (later he bought an Enfield Bullet) that he rode like a Harley Davision. I was in for another shock when some one told that he began riding to the college through Bangalore city traffic with minimum learning practice. No just that, he mostly rode with a pillion rider. I will never forget the fist ride on his bike … it was scary! But then I felt thus only once, after the first ride you feel as if you got enough field experience on Ravi’s bike riding to trust his alertness an instincts for a life time. I got to ride with him many times after that I never got petrified again at his speed or maneuvering. You just feel that this guy is in total control of his bike and the bike responds to him as well like a tamed wild horse. This is my earliest glimpse into man-machine synchronicity – some thing I continue to see in him till this day, be it handling a bike or guitar or any other gadget. Machines responded to him as if they are extensions of his being. That was my first initiation into man-machine synchronicity which I later experienced at Amrita – the only difference was that my interaction was with a couple of web servers. The synchronicity I observed with Ravi and his bike, and later what ever gadgets he handled with ease, is what later opened up pathways for me to work on technologies and platforms I never got formally trained on. The way Ravi stayed in communion with literally every part of his bike and his favourite gadgets made me understand one thing – that apparently inanimate objects can respond and become an extension of your being if you take care of them as an indispensable unit that will facilitate your explorations and expressions.<br /><br />Music used to be another topic we used to discuss a lot on. I was just a novice in the world of world-music. Though I could not quite listen to much Jazz music , one of his Ravi's intense passions, with him during our college days , later when I got to listen to a bit of Jazz and read about the background of Jazz I got to understand Ravi a bit deeper - his favorite music too defines his inner profile – spontaneity and originality issuing forth with child like glee and abandon. One day I heard him humming a beautiful tune in the class...so captivating even in its humming form itself. When I asked him about it he told it is John Devner's song “Anne's Song”... later he sang it as well in his shack like dwelling in Wilson Garden, he played his guitar too and sang “<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkGS263lGsQ" target="_blank">Anne's song</a>” with such deep self absorption. That was another insight into Ravi.<br /><br />His shack like dwelling in Wilson Garden...that brings back torrents of memories. Being a typical 'joie de vivre' one , he had little concern for even locking his home. His innate trust-all nature later took a heavy toll on him. But the way he handled his losses makes me call him a indefatigable-magnificent loser as well. I love this beautiful poem <a href="http://www.cs.rice.edu/%7Essiyer/minstrels/poems/639.html" target="_blank">One Art by Elizabeth Bishop</a><br />...in Ravi I see a living embodiment of that poem.<br /><br />   <span style="font-style:italic;">From that onwards in my next post</span>.<br /><br /> I must call him now to wish him. Today is his birthday.<br /><br /> ...and this is the first birthday gift to him!<br /><br />... a friend's expressions of reverence, affection and gratitude.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Hawk's wanderings and Pilgrim's perspectives !</div>pilgrimhawkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11622514301612035386noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9775569.post-41656615362406128602009-04-03T21:19:00.000+05:302009-04-03T21:30:43.461+05:30Post VIDYA post ...This is the longest spell ever of my being away from Amrita University campus , Ettimadai and it has brought in a terrible sense of missing ... the students, working on VIDYA and the noise in the hostel. All those provided the vital escape door from the quagmire of uncertainties and ghosts of the past.<br /><br />It looks like the escape door too escaped, perhaps to resurface as the entrance door...<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMUsxFY52VJoXdilQnWYJ96udxLPtEhbDYb8cxrMfDU9iT2uWvipgaib7g0YdxlExvFHCq95ExYd_I598uMrg6pJvl_xL1QwRFAhI7sy8YaRj4Pdvxp58K92EM7TQN868BqV0uyg/s1600-h/escape-key.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMUsxFY52VJoXdilQnWYJ96udxLPtEhbDYb8cxrMfDU9iT2uWvipgaib7g0YdxlExvFHCq95ExYd_I598uMrg6pJvl_xL1QwRFAhI7sy8YaRj4Pdvxp58K92EM7TQN868BqV0uyg/s320/escape-key.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5320495046997465474" /></a><br /><br />The only way to relive my VIDYA days now is to walk down the memory lane ...i have a lot of people to thank and a story to tell as well. Hence this <a href="http://vidya-speak.blogspot.com/">blog on VIDYA</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">Hawk's wanderings and Pilgrim's perspectives !</div>pilgrimhawkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11622514301612035386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9775569.post-67274466282626577402009-04-02T21:29:00.000+05:302009-04-03T21:37:57.044+05:30Peter’s principle with an example<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhivoDOu7Z7UL-zwyqQK6JLCe-m4hBKsf2rChzxbsikMatIs4rV50UKXyJvqgsEYZvBRJUcmi6VbOZQJpFSecCFZIBR2FsCzuDJg96NtlGdImu19SQEd-E8yFZHOt8zHB_DhL7KEA/s1600-h/self-control.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhivoDOu7Z7UL-zwyqQK6JLCe-m4hBKsf2rChzxbsikMatIs4rV50UKXyJvqgsEYZvBRJUcmi6VbOZQJpFSecCFZIBR2FsCzuDJg96NtlGdImu19SQEd-E8yFZHOt8zHB_DhL7KEA/s320/self-control.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5320497541291159506" /></a><br /><br />X : Her internet connection should be taken off !<br /><br />Y : Why?<br /><br />X: She seems to have time only for checking her mails during office hours resulting in total negligence at work.<br /><br />Y: Well, if she looks out through her window watching a train passing by, will you go and stop the train?<div class="blogger-post-footer">Hawk's wanderings and Pilgrim's perspectives !</div>pilgrimhawkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11622514301612035386noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9775569.post-4730839723815479642008-07-27T10:03:00.002+05:302008-07-27T10:05:31.812+05:30Vidya Story<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJT9UrGn8FHNdk882uqSLN5FH54TkdNR4Ig4N676cisnWRx9ErD3oYP9PcScrFp4XQ3QfmvXj4WZquF0LULNSkg59DQSnJ_QLKYzfp4usYR4K695lbKs9wUOrVzN5FD6qMYHsahw/s1600-h/vidya-amrita-university.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJT9UrGn8FHNdk882uqSLN5FH54TkdNR4Ig4N676cisnWRx9ErD3oYP9PcScrFp4XQ3QfmvXj4WZquF0LULNSkg59DQSnJ_QLKYzfp4usYR4K695lbKs9wUOrVzN5FD6qMYHsahw/s320/vidya-amrita-university.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5227547780487016690" border="0" /></a><br />Here's the 'Building of Vidya Story' many had asked for... though not fully told, i guess it conveys the essence of my 7 years with students@Amrita University.<br /><br />Check out this new letter , it has the interview and more:<br /><a href="http://www.amrita.edu/ase/coimbatore/astha/anweshi4.pdf"><br />http://www.amrita.edu/ase/coimbatore/astha/anweshi4.pdf</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">Hawk's wanderings and Pilgrim's perspectives !</div>pilgrimhawkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11622514301612035386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9775569.post-52869442714708800282008-06-01T16:10:00.000+05:302008-06-01T16:24:00.467+05:30The aftermath of a spell of writer's block<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCLOxSDKaagptGdl7AWti8DukrtecnNhf7s5bshYCs76y-T7m__VOeCtn2OWw_bB4USMSCKS5v9ij1bIOpwN6D6niWI3qhlr49BEGqZnXMeSZidsfQqamEVUnJSG5_90xx0ZJefQ/s1600-h/butterfly.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCLOxSDKaagptGdl7AWti8DukrtecnNhf7s5bshYCs76y-T7m__VOeCtn2OWw_bB4USMSCKS5v9ij1bIOpwN6D6niWI3qhlr49BEGqZnXMeSZidsfQqamEVUnJSG5_90xx0ZJefQ/s320/butterfly.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5206864057559057090" border="0" /></a><br /> <p class="MsoNormal">Your lips flutter<br />like red wings<br />of a butterfly<br />from word to word.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>I gasp and run<br />in a desperate bid<br />to pluck the flowers<br />you perched on<br />and gather them all<br />into the vase of silence.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p>But unawares I pin down<br />the coordinates on the mindscape<br />making it yet another plot<br />of buds yet to bloom<br />and seeds still to germinate,<br />while you vanished…</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Or is it you<br />divided into further fullness<br />breathing life into the caterpillars<br />clinging to the buds.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Hawk's wanderings and Pilgrim's perspectives !</div>pilgrimhawkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11622514301612035386noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9775569.post-83991316778043700912007-07-28T21:08:00.000+05:302007-09-23T11:37:23.040+05:30God's Great Banana Skin<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKPXx-iQDId9ciuMCcv3evJAG7f6DBRRHftPWuw7Y2VqCHTWFVdGGCGlAKnE99HdwJuPGQU84OGz5A3blull6x5kgZmBO0p-g82gfgATGRaNoMMnT61itnZHPkf2lmy4tHVQx-TA/s1600-h/gods-yellow-banana-skin.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKPXx-iQDId9ciuMCcv3evJAG7f6DBRRHftPWuw7Y2VqCHTWFVdGGCGlAKnE99HdwJuPGQU84OGz5A3blull6x5kgZmBO0p-g82gfgATGRaNoMMnT61itnZHPkf2lmy4tHVQx-TA/s320/gods-yellow-banana-skin.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5092276142306782594" border="0" /></a><br /><br />When i was rushing to office this morning all that i had in mind was the task ahead - to finish the work that had of late begun to create so much of mental noise that rendered every attempt to sleep to a restless silence of cacophony .<br /><br />Its just when i turned to climb down the stairs i noticed that banana peal hung on the window grills, some one threw hunger out of the windows and there it remained - a relic of careless abandon or a suspended expression of playfulness.<br /><br />The misty mountains in the backdrop and a tilt frame added a mystic touch to the whole perception Chris Rea's album title "God's Great Banana Skin" found a new cover then...<br /><br />Here's Rea's Song '<span style="font-weight: bold;">God's Great Banana Skin</span>' :<br /><br />Go down my road running just as fast as I can<br />Nobody knows which is the better way<br />But when that man in the sky points his finger at you<br />Don't you ever think no-ones better than you<br /><br />Gods great banana skin<br />Don't you laugh at nobody<br />Youll let the bad luck in<br />Gods great banana skin<br />Its the way that it gets you<br />With every day good luck comes in the strangest of ways<br />Just keep your head down dont listen what your ego will say<br />cos when that man in the sky points his finger at you<br />Don't you ever think no-ones better than you<br /><br />Gods great banana skin<br />Gonna get you<br />Gods great banana skin<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">- Chris Rea › God’s Great Banana Skin -<br /><br /></span><span>We let the banana rot and end up worshiping the banana skin - God's great banana skin we pealed off !</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br /><br /></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Hawk's wanderings and Pilgrim's perspectives !</div>pilgrimhawkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11622514301612035386noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9775569.post-5689463470251063962007-07-01T07:50:00.000+05:302007-07-01T08:09:10.089+05:30The Rain Song<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPg6cFCreREEEmCek2Fs8DbtJANb245dgNnvsaD_fZpk9MFuVismhnA2hoV-X2aD2MrJO9M99N4tN_cxyYqKpDJId7WBZco2hbCWW7vRRBpkhcZcqRB-HGSSozpMMG4HK9waV1Lw/s1600-h/rain-song.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5082049316782468402" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPg6cFCreREEEmCek2Fs8DbtJANb245dgNnvsaD_fZpk9MFuVismhnA2hoV-X2aD2MrJO9M99N4tN_cxyYqKpDJId7WBZco2hbCWW7vRRBpkhcZcqRB-HGSSozpMMG4HK9waV1Lw/s320/rain-song.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><br />Rain comes drifting down<br />as if the glowing embers of longing<br />suddenly turned into<br />dew drops sprinkled<br />on parched eyes.<br /><br />Rain comes wafting down<br />like the tears that swell<br />as you touch the forehead<br />of your beloved<br />sleeping like a baby.<br /><br />Rain comes raging down<br />as gushing blood<br />through the veins once sucked dry<br />by the fear of the unknown.<br /><br />Rain comes gracing down<br />dancing in the breeze of solace<br />on the burnt skin of subdued throbs.<br />...So true,<br />how ‘delicate is the sound of thunder’ *!<br /><br />Rain comes blazing down<br />in a backdrop of lightning streaks<br />of electrified perceptions<br />entranced by the synchronized<br />light and sound dance<br />right here and now!<br /><br />How i wish<br />i dissolve like a speck of salt<br />in the surge that swirls and swells<br />and flows<br />before i sleep tonight<br />dreaming of the rainbow<br />i am sure to see tomorrow<br />going through<br />yet another spell of transcendence<br />and stint of lingering to<br />Too!<br /><br />*<em> i saw the Pink Floyd album "Delicate Sound of Thunder" years back in a music shop in Bangalore...The title fascinated me all through but never found a living context till last night.</em></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Hawk's wanderings and Pilgrim's perspectives !</div>pilgrimhawkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11622514301612035386noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9775569.post-79159950983362589062007-06-25T12:05:00.000+05:302007-06-25T12:45:48.261+05:30Morning SongIt was not just a potential haiku when you wrote it then - a caption to one of my photographs.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-KFROyX42LlSpOQSWaNl9nsgSRgxGA-HidclRlXVmHbum1GOIQG4MlSio-q2YJDRDmxVMIn6fo6850Erl7G9komrWfeK1IQ9gspRW4aV45_3R3OTydQ3ct66gnBLFOyqPuk1uoQ/s1600-h/memories.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-KFROyX42LlSpOQSWaNl9nsgSRgxGA-HidclRlXVmHbum1GOIQG4MlSio-q2YJDRDmxVMIn6fo6850Erl7G9komrWfeK1IQ9gspRW4aV45_3R3OTydQ3ct66gnBLFOyqPuk1uoQ/s320/memories.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5079887249314545282" border="0" /></a><br /><p class="MsoNormal">It is more than Three years since you wrote and it is well over a year of estrangement between us as well.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Never thought that the photograph I took of a faded leaf drifting along the river would find such a befitting expression depicting the saga of someone who always strived to reach out.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Today a brisk walk to work and there I saw this yellow-blue leaf in a puddle of water and a closer look brought forth the reflection of the trees near by</p><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxO_6wkjyDk-ocDb9R7V4eWKOTwrbloVzbX2XYJZK9IDLsQsDr7ugxd0kqcjvGuBvSoUlC-FRKh0Y0Tkhhj9JVwDHvmd734_6VGQlwWC2ibI1s4FQm08pIIc4WOHJvu8_KEN02ZQ/s1600-h/morningsong.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 242px; height: 352px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxO_6wkjyDk-ocDb9R7V4eWKOTwrbloVzbX2XYJZK9IDLsQsDr7ugxd0kqcjvGuBvSoUlC-FRKh0Y0Tkhhj9JVwDHvmd734_6VGQlwWC2ibI1s4FQm08pIIc4WOHJvu8_KEN02ZQ/s320/morningsong.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5079896998890307234" border="0" /></a>...My friend, for a few moments I felt I found you, you reached home...carrying the memories of many a forest and landscape...You came home renewed, much like the way spring redeems winter’s devastation, you came along singing the joyous morning song that once sounded like a subdued swansong. <p style="font-style: italic;" class="MsoNormal">"Set adrift to seek a destiny of it’s own<br />Carrying the memories of a Tree!"</p><p style="font-style: italic;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Hawk's wanderings and Pilgrim's perspectives !</div>pilgrimhawkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11622514301612035386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9775569.post-89345427664458491902007-05-31T16:38:00.000+05:302007-06-01T21:55:06.684+05:30Farewell My FriendYou left,<br />finally,<br />leaving a few contrails of silence<br />in the sky of remembrence.<br /><br />Shared tasks, chasing deadlines,<br />instructions, modifications, clarifications<br />and desperations<br />will never mean<br />the same again.<br /><br />Tonight, when I change<br />the server password and mail it<br />to a list with your name struck off,<br />I know I will realize<br />with a tearing sense of forlornness<br />that you have not<br />gone on a long leave, instead<br />you have left<br />never to return !<br /><br /><em>( Dedicated to Pradeep )</em><div class="blogger-post-footer">Hawk's wanderings and Pilgrim's perspectives !</div>pilgrimhawkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11622514301612035386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9775569.post-75691631155737772502007-05-11T14:26:00.000+05:302007-05-11T15:02:38.273+05:30To My Amrita Alumni/ Student Fraternity<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZKvO1FxJStmjpzm5H7bOLv7kC-ADeNBZXQ-yPCxkejV3pdSAKiqG5WeEqAW6ZLAM8gaess74ULs5ZR7P9fB3c0jx16yJtlsAkQJy87fe311pijGz4dKCptBnm0MjvZGFzGPxhyphenhyphenQ/s1600-h/lovevolution.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5063233544942291602" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZKvO1FxJStmjpzm5H7bOLv7kC-ADeNBZXQ-yPCxkejV3pdSAKiqG5WeEqAW6ZLAM8gaess74ULs5ZR7P9fB3c0jx16yJtlsAkQJy87fe311pijGz4dKCptBnm0MjvZGFzGPxhyphenhyphenQ/s320/lovevolution.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPhB90n9yZfecJplSThKdazlr9vTYsdsMDGCIJCIZ4qOxGCbLMmYULqyXHJvgKATsdB-NJgnZ70Jarqv6N3wZookt0-yNFiikATbuxOAxQzCTQqw3Kl6aIItD3eF-HQfYsYIdZmA/s1600-h/digital-library-amrita.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5063225375914494594" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPhB90n9yZfecJplSThKdazlr9vTYsdsMDGCIJCIZ4qOxGCbLMmYULqyXHJvgKATsdB-NJgnZ70Jarqv6N3wZookt0-yNFiikATbuxOAxQzCTQqw3Kl6aIItD3eF-HQfYsYIdZmA/s320/digital-library-amrita.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div>Dear Alumni/ Friends and Current Students,<br /><br />It is my joy to remain related to Amrita Student Fraternity– My 6 years of existence here was made meaningful by the wonderful set of students @ Amrita. Every endeavor I ventured into was enriched and strengthened by the active participation of students of which Project VIDYA – Amrita Digital Library was a major initiative. What began as a modest collection has come a long way and this would not have been possible without you all – Amrita Student fraternity. Being with you all was a wonderful learning experience that forged a deep sense of belonging and bonding which I will cherish unto my last. All this amounted building VIDYA a sheer labor of love. Since I consider Project VIDYA as my major initiative and many of our alumni keep asking about it’s status now I feel the time has come, as I cruise through the last stretch of my stint here, to appraise you all about Project VIDYA in a nutshell to begin with. Please check out this URL that has a brief write up on VIDYA.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.amrita.edu/ase/coimbatore/vidya/index.htm">http://www.amrita.edu/ase/coimbatore/vidya/index.htm</a><br /><br />My reach through this medium is limited, I wish you forward it whomever it really matters – The alumni, current students and prospective students as well so that they remain informed about the learning resource we have which will help all utilize it better. I bequeath VIDYA unto you all. Please let me know your ideas on opinions on VIDYA, wish to work on VIDYA and enrich it till the last moment of my bidding adieu to Ettimadai.</div><br /><div></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Hawk's wanderings and Pilgrim's perspectives !</div>pilgrimhawkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11622514301612035386noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9775569.post-1163573524043861092006-11-15T12:11:00.003+05:302009-07-25T11:34:37.760+05:30Of Tolle, Google and a Few Kindred Souls – A pattern That Connects<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/1600/kindered-blog.0.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/320/kindered-blog.0.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />I still remember how fiercely I despised that book “ The Power of Now” by <a href="http://www.eckharttolle.com">Eckhart Tolle</a> just because I saw it branded a self improvement book. For months together I did not even bother to touch that book though I passed by the railway station news stand and street sellers and book shops at various places. My aversion for self improvement books got all the more fierce after I read <a href="http://www.humanistsofutah.org/1996/IfYouMeetTheBuddhaOnTheRoad_DiscGrp_4-96.html">Sheldon B Kopp's</a> “If you Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him !”. Few months back I was checking out the new arrivals at the railway station books shop and I ended up picking up the very book I hitherto abhorred. I just wanted to read the last few pages of it to see if it is really worth buying it… and I ended up beginning from the very last sentence – rather the very last question and answer :<br /><br />Q: When do I know that I have surrendered?<br /><br />A: When you no longer need to ask that question.<br /><br />That hit me hard…really hard that I felt ( for a few moments) as if a huge pile of my prejudice just dissolved in the sheer forcefulness of that statement. . A simple answer to one of the most difficult questions … an answer that summarizes the entire teachings of Tolle and perhaps all the Masters who grace(d) this planet. <br /><br />If it is providence that made me pick up that book in a way I have never done before, then I felt convinced that this is going to lead to another divine decree call it (cosmic coincidences if you like) with much deeper implications. Few days back I searched on the net for more information on Tolle and with absolutely no surety of getting anything from Google video ( since copyright protected videos hardly appear on Google-video archive) I searched for Tolle videos , got an entire listing of it and downloaded almost everything, I was so excited at the possibility of it reaching real seekers , the very thought of these videos reaching those whom I felt would be immensely benefited by it… that will add a deeper dimension of peace and meaning to their lives used to boost up my energy levels to sit through the nights and download those high quality videos.<br /><br />I had a few people in my mind to give it to…yes , from the sophisticated, learned and the evolved ones to the distraught and lonely ones . I was sure that this will help many to unlearn and learn afresh. I was more inclined to let it all flow towards the latter domain because to the former it would be just another precious thing to quote and possess and to the letter it will be solace and guidance they can live with that will definitely help them live through as well. The first one I picked was an old academician who had done much for this place…who had his time of power and glory till one day when he was unceremoniously eased from the inner circles. He soon became a lonely man with hardly any one around . A well read man, I saw this erudite scholar who often appeared to me as an impenetrable wall of prejudice gently turn into an approachable grandfather figure. I really could not believe myself when he used to walk into my cabin and ask “do have any new books”…”what is your opinion on this…” and then walk out pulling back the chairs to its place. This man who shook this campus once with rules and restrictions seemed to be coming out of his soul cages of power induced ego and knowledge induced prejudice. <br /><br />I wanted him to have Tolle’s video lectures , I just felt that it is going to touch his life in a significant way. When I mentioned that I’d love to write a DVD of Tolle Videos for him , he was just so eager to have it. He at once got up to go and buy 2 DVDs . The next day morning I saw him waiting for me in my cabin and I handed over the DVD to him. Given the fact that he is the man who used to criticize anything and everything , the thought that tomorrow he will come out with a bunch of criticisms on Tolle did cross my mind when I handed over the DVD to him.<br /><br />The next day I saw him, but I managed to escape a conversation that I feared will provoke me . After a few days when I went to the canteen I saw him sitting there..this time I just could not leave the place, I had a few people with me. Just when I was about to take my tea and walk to a table, I felt some one gently touching my shoulder. It was him smiling… a full smile this time, not a forced, difficult smile. I stood there all ready to listen what he had to say in a state of eagerness to know about his experience of listening to Tolle and at the same time caught in an apprehensive repulsiveness wondering how I am going to react if he went on a split hair analysis criticism spree. But I was wrong, terribly wrong. He started speaking :<br /><br />“ I must really thank you for the Tolle videos… thank you very much. He is just amazing…after a long time I found myself listening to some one and it seems to have gone deep into me. You know when I got a PhD I felt that I will be happy , but that happiness did not last for long. When my son was born I felt on top of the world, but soon I found myself falling, When I rose up in my career I felt I am an achiever, but it took me a long time to realize that I won at the cost of distancing many people. When I got a grandchild, I was happy but some how I could not play with my grandchildren…all the attributes I had on myself grew so heavy and crushed me…and now as I grow older every day with my intellect dimming , I began to wonder where I am really heading to. Now you have given me something that will help me emerge out of the gravitating past…I see a meaningful life ahead moving towards peaceful death”<br /><br />Goodness, he thanked me. Thanks must go to everyone right from <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/">Tim Berners-Lee</a> to <a href="http://www.google.com/corporate/execs.html">Larry Page and Sergey Brin.</a><br /><br />For a few moments I felt that I have accomplished my task…but that myth was soon debunked when I found that a search on “Eckhart Tolle” on Google-video archive yielded no results. I just could not believe it…I searched again and again…cleared the system cache, restarted the machine and searched, but no search results on any of the over 15 Tolle videos I got some weeks back. I was stunned !<br /><br />It looks more like Google has accomplished it’s task of touching yet another life in its own inscrutable ways…from a different perspective I feel like rephrasing Kopp’s book title “ If you meet the Buddha on the Road, kill Him” to “If you meet the Buddha on the Road, Hug Him !”<br /><br />The voice of silence spoke :<br /><br />Q: Why do you reach out?<br /><br />A: To get touched !<br /><br />….and the old saying I read long back came flashing forth :<br /><br />“ What is not given is lost!”<br /><br />Now as I read Tolle’s new book “The New Earth “ I feel all the more convinced that we are moving towards an awakening whose glimpses shine forth in almost everything we do. Every technological progress, every act of reaching out has it’s eager counterpart of some one’s life getting transformed somewhere. <br /><br />A parable I read recently in Paulo Coelho’s latest book “ Like the Flowing River” seems to reinforce that sense of fraternity, a realization that we are all heading towards a common destiny - be it either Awakening or Annihilation, the choice is ours…as <a href="http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/wie0bio-1">Elie Wiesel</a> said “Peace is not God’s gift to mankind, it is our gift to each other” !<br /><br />Here’s the parable from Coelho:<br /><br />“ A rabbi gathered together his students and asked them:<br /><br />‘ How do we know the exact moment when night ends and day begins?’<br /><br />‘When it is light enough to tell sheep from a dog’ , said one boy.<br /><br />Another student said : ‘ No when there is light enough to tell an olive tree from a fig tree.’<br /><br />‘No, that’s is not a good definition either.’<br /><br />‘Well, what’s the right answer?’ asked the boys.<br /><br />And the rabbi said:<br /><br />‘When a stranger approaches, and we think he is our brother, and all conflicts disappear, that is the moment when night ends and the day begins.’<br /><br />Mind you, this parable comes from the Jewish tradition !<br /><br />It is time to really look into <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_P._Huntington">Samuel P Huntington's</a> theory that states “"It is my hypothesis that the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future."<br /><br />It is no more a hypothesis...it is a living theory now , the proof is strewn all around , from the domestic front to the global realms...from the holocaust...through Arab-Isreali conflicts...Combodia...Coratia...thorugh September11...through Iraq...<br /><br />to where...<br /><br />the choice is clear !<div class="blogger-post-footer">Hawk's wanderings and Pilgrim's perspectives !</div>pilgrimhawkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11622514301612035386noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9775569.post-1163238692780241072006-11-11T14:46:00.000+05:302006-11-15T12:35:49.653+05:30A Walk Within ...Another walk after hectic hours of mad multitasking…had no idea what this walk would bring back . The sky was colourful though the glow was fading out or because the glow was dying out.<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/1600/sky.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/320/sky.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Walking on the railway track had always been fun...more so when you walk seeing the luminance afar, trying to balance the swinging backpack that suddenly seemed to have become heavier these days. Soon these walks will become constant remembrances and the backpack will become heavier because there is nothing in that i can throw out...hopefully my shoulders will become stronger !<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/1600/track.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/320/track.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Sometimes gleamings from the way side do bring in a metaphorical dimension to one’s perception.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/1600/cloud.1.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/320/cloud.1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />The railway track shining with the receding rays of the dusk…the rising cloud with a golden glow between the hills … I felt as if I am circumventing Mount Kailash” as I tread my way towards the beckoning luminance afar. Railway track appeared to be a good metaphor of how our inner firmaments should be….<br /><br />Nerves of steel<br />trains of events, thoughts, desires,<br />loads of memories, <br />pungent, sweet, fleeting.<br /><br />Tempered ,remaining in calm repose <br />ready to take on anything that comes on it -<br />a little quiver and few sparks of fire , <br />receding shrill and dying out afterglow, <br />and then calm repose.<br /><br />The next moment you will find it hard to believe that a goods train loaded with crude petrol or a passenger train with hundreds of passengers rolled on it...<br /><br />Got into Tatha’s den for tea, found him totally lost in trying to light his petromax which , as he said once, is older that his eldest son who is now a grandfather.<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/1600/tata1.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/320/tata1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />He was not quite sure if he will be able to light it this time . Every time he manages to light it must be a joyous plunge into brightness.<br /><br />He was really breathing life into the old petromax which I thought may not light up this time or just explode seeing the way he was working on the piston.<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/1600/tata2.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/320/tata2.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />The first glow….unsteady but bright…..<br /><br />The next moment, if flared up… and he was unfazed by that…he just tamed the flared up flame...<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/1600/tata3.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/320/tata3.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />And then the petromax bulb began to glow…the whole place basked in its glow…his face glowing brighter as if he became the luminance itself !<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/1600/tata4.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/320/tata4.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer">Hawk's wanderings and Pilgrim's perspectives !</div>pilgrimhawkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11622514301612035386noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9775569.post-1162716468166657752006-11-05T14:16:00.000+05:302006-11-05T14:17:48.176+05:30ResearchQ: Who is your Ph.D guide?<br /><br />A: Google !<div class="blogger-post-footer">Hawk's wanderings and Pilgrim's perspectives !</div>pilgrimhawkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11622514301612035386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9775569.post-1157297128500533682006-09-03T18:58:00.000+05:302006-09-04T22:31:37.616+05:30Call me by my true names - A Visual ContemplationEvery time i feel the dire need to compose myself within I read one of my best loved poems - "<span style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://www.quietspaces.com/poemHanh.html">Call Me By My True Names</a></span>" by the Vietnamese Monk <span style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thich_Nhat_Hanh">Thich Nhat Hanh</a></span>. This poem to me is more like a Prayer, a chant that has the panacea for the inner ailments of the present era. This time I read it along with Laxmi, my wife. With her dinner half finished, i saw her remaining transfixed for a few moments... and I saw tear drops falling into her plate. I am sure that this must have been the most nourishing meal she ever had.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/1600/tnh.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/320/tnh.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Here's that poem. I tried a different way of contemplating on the poem by correlating the deeper meanings with simple graphics which I fervently wish would make the reading experience more intense and help the reader internalise a more vivid visual imprint. Thanks to GettyImages and GoogleImages that brought to me images very close to the ones i had visualised.<br /><br />Of course the poem does not need any of these...these images are not the flowers to make the poem appear more beautiful, instead it is an offering at the poem's/ poet's altar.<br /><br />Please call me by my true names<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/1600/call-me.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/320/call-me.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Don't say that I will depart tomorrow-<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/1600/depart.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/320/depart.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />even today I am still arriving.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/1600/rainbow1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/320/rainbow1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Look deeply: every second I am arriving to be a bud on a Spring branch, to be a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings, learning to sing in my new nest, to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower, to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/1600/plant-tree.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/320/plant-tree.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry, to fear and to hope. The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death of all that is alive.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/1600/creation.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/320/creation.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />I am a mayfly metamorphosing on the surface of the river. And I am the bird that swoops down to swallow the mayfly.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/1600/may-fly.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/320/may-fly.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />I am a frog swimming happily in the clear water of a pond. And I am the grass-snake that silently feeds itself on the frog.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/1600/eclip.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/320/eclip.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones, my legs as thin as bamboo sticks. And I am the arms merchant, selling deadly weapons to Uganda.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/1600/child.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/320/child.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />I am the twelve-year-old girl, refugee on a small boat, who throws herself into the ocean after being raped by a sea pirate.And I am the pirate, my heart not yet capable of seeing and loving.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/1600/compassion-drawing.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/320/compassion-drawing.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />I am a member of the politburo, with plenty of power in my hands.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/1600/histroy.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/320/histroy.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />And I am the man who has to pay his "debt of blood" to my people dying slowly in a forced-labor camp.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/1600/i-protest.0.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/320/i-protest.0.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />My joy is like Spring, so warm it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth. My pain is like a river of tears, so vast it fills the four oceans.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/1600/dew9.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/320/dew9.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Please call me by my true names, so I can hear all my cries and laughter at once, so I can see that my joy and pain are one.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/1600/buddha.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/320/buddha.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Please call me by my true names, so I can wake up and the door of my heart could be left open,<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/1600/door1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/320/door1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />the door of compassion.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/1600/compassion2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/320/compassion2.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer">Hawk's wanderings and Pilgrim's perspectives !</div>pilgrimhawkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11622514301612035386noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9775569.post-1156873224313364582006-08-29T23:01:00.000+05:302006-08-29T23:10:24.323+05:30(Un)Tramp-led Onam<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/1600/grit-n-grace.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/320/grit-n-grace.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer">Hawk's wanderings and Pilgrim's perspectives !</div>pilgrimhawkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11622514301612035386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9775569.post-1156857586067851042006-08-29T18:44:00.000+05:302006-08-29T23:46:37.996+05:30Sleep Walk ... The life that we dream....The dream that we live...<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/1600/feet1a.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/320/feet1a.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/1600/feet1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/320/feet1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Could not sleep well in the train...i asked for an upper berth and got a middle berth instead...and gazing up thats just what i saw , an image that clearly snapped within with deep metaphorical import. Clicked it at once with my W700i and the image was conceived. But i guess it is a poem by Dylan Thomas that delivered it!<br /><br />DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT<br /><br />Do not go gentle into that good night, <br />Old age should burn and rave at close of day; <br />Rage, rage against the dying of the light. <br />Though wise men at their end know dark is right, <br />Because their words had forked no lightning they <br />Do not go gentle into that good night. <br /><br />Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright <br />Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, <br />Rage, rage against the dying of the light. <br /><br />Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, <br />And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, <br />Do not go gentle into that good night. <br /><br />Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight <br />Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, <br />Rage, rage against the dying of the light. <br /><br />And you, my father, there on the sad height, <br />Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray. <br />Do not go gentle into that good night. <br />Rage, rage against the dying of the light. <br /><br />Dylan Thomas<div class="blogger-post-footer">Hawk's wanderings and Pilgrim's perspectives !</div>pilgrimhawkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11622514301612035386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9775569.post-1151345583255450792006-06-26T23:41:00.000+05:302006-06-26T23:43:03.270+05:30So, What's there in a name any way !pilgrimhawk: 109 placed in TCS, 100 in Wipro in 2 days...all 3rd years<br /><br />prabal paharia: great news sir ...how is the average package...<br /><br />pilgrimhawk: hey..Aditi took 5 guys for 35k/pm<br /><br />prabalpaharia: Aditi - who is she...?<br /><br /> pilgrimhawk: Aditi Technologies !<br /><br /><br /> prabal paharia: oh !<div class="blogger-post-footer">Hawk's wanderings and Pilgrim's perspectives !</div>pilgrimhawkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11622514301612035386noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9775569.post-1149446959344532412006-06-04T23:58:00.000+05:302006-06-05T00:20:27.620+05:30World Environment Day - Is it time for a Reality Check ?Ever since we saw the BBC documentary "Global Dimming" we were contemplating on writing on the topic. Today we came up with the first draft of it. Global Dimming theory has brought out some startling revelations that raises fundamental questions on our very survival.<br /><br />If Carl Sagan's documentary "COSMOS" creates in us a deep sense of awe and wonder of belonging to the universe , the BBC documentary "Global Dimming" makes us apprehensive of the future of our planet. The Chaos theory concept "Butterfly Effect" had been a topic for theoretical exploration so far. In Global Dimming you will find Butterfly Effect in action that throws new vistas of understanding into the intricate pattern that connects. How the opulance of a nation at one end of the globe manifests as the destruction of the lesser fortunate on the other side. Jet trails and factory emissions else where leading to the 1984 Ethiopean famine, a reality that points to still imperious realities in the making if left unattended to.<br /><br /><a href="http://geocities.com/pilgrimhawk/GLOBALDIMMING.pdf ">Click Here</a> for a glimpse into Global Dimming and its implications.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Hawk's wanderings and Pilgrim's perspectives !</div>pilgrimhawkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11622514301612035386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9775569.post-1148710698244570782006-05-27T11:44:00.000+05:302006-05-27T22:27:48.163+05:30De-Mock-CrazyThe media space is flodded with news on "Reservation" and the furore it caused. <br /><br />Student protests culminating in self immolation and starving unto death.<br /><br />Fraternity divided into 'Majority' and 'Minority' - It is repeating all over again just as <a href="http://www.iupui.edu/~santedit/index.html">Santayana </a> said "Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it!"<br /><br />Found this interesting cartoon in "Outlook" magazine that tells volumes about the current predicament, so simple yet so deep in its metaphorical import. <br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/1600/reservation.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/320/reservation.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Here we - 'we the people' sit in the corner and there they reach for the stars.<br /><br />Am just reminded of 2 songs by <a href="http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com">Leonard Cohen</a>. I have taken the liberty to mix them and rephrase (with due apologies to the Cohen Estate). The songs "Democracy" and "Who By fire" are infused with such deep passion for humanity as it is with delusion. It is much of a prayer and a rebellious scream as well.<br /><br />The silence in between is the only time we have for contemplation and action.<br /><br />So here is the mutated version with the title:<br /><br /><em><strong>"Who by Democracy Fire"</strong></em><br /><br />It's coming through a hole in the air, <br />from those nights in Tiananmen Square. <br />It's coming from the feel <br />that this ain't exactly real, <br />or it's real, but it ain't exactly there. <br /><br />From the wars against disorder, <br />from the sirens night and day, <br />from the fires of the homeless, <br /><br />Is this Democracy on its way?<br /><br /><em>And who by fire,<br />who by water,<br />who in the sunshine,<br />who in the night time,<br />who by high ordeal,<br />who by common trial,<br />who in your merry merry month of may,<br />who by very slow decay<br />and who shall I say is calling?</em><br /> <br />It's coming through a crack in the wall; <br />on a visionary flood of alcohol; <br />from the staggering account <br />of the Sermons <br />which I don't pretend to understand at all. <br /><br />It's coming from the silence <br />on the dock of the bay, <br />from the brave, the bold, the battered <br />heart of Chevrolet: <br /><br />Is this Democracy on its way?<br /><br />It's coming from the sorrow in the street, <br />the holy places where the races meet; <br />from the homicidal bitchin' <br />that goes down in every kitchen <br />to determine who will serve and who will eat. <br />From the wells of disappointment <br />where the women kneel to pray <br />for the grace of God in the desert here <br />and the desert far away: <br /><br />Is this Democracy on its way?<br /><br /><em>And who in her lonely slip,<br />who by barbiturate,<br />who in these realms of love,<br />who by something blunt,<br />and who by avalanche,<br />who by powder,<br />who for his greed,<br />who for his hunger,<br />and who shall I say is calling?</em><br /><br /><br />Sail on, sail on <br />O mighty Ship of State! <br />To the Shores of Need <br />Past the Reefs of Greed <br />Through the Squalls of Hate <br />Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on. <br /><br />Is it coming around to the <br />cradles of the best and of the worst. <br />It's here they got the range <br />and the machinery for change <br />and it's here they got the spiritual thirst. <br />and it's here the lonely say <br />that the heart has got to open <br />in a fundamental way: <br /><br />Is this Democracy on its way?<br /><br /><br />It's coming from the women and the men. <br />We'll be going down so deep <br />the river's going to weep, <br />and the mountain's going to shout "Come together"<br />It's coming like the tidal flood <br />beneath the lunar sway, <br />imperial, mysterious, <br />in amorous array: <br /><br />Is this Democracy on its way?<br /><br />Sail on, sail on ... <br /><br />I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean <br />I love the country but I can't stand the scene. <br />And I'm neither left or right <br />I'm just staying home tonight, <br />getting lost in that hopeless little screen. <br />But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags <br />that Time cannot decay, <br />I'm junk but I'm still holding up <br />this little wild bouquet: <br /><br /><em>And who by brave assent,<br />who by accident,<br />who in solitude,<br />who in this mirror,<br />who by his lady's command,<br />who by his own hand,<br />who in mortal chains,<br />who in power,<br />and who shall I say is calling?</em><div class="blogger-post-footer">Hawk's wanderings and Pilgrim's perspectives !</div>pilgrimhawkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11622514301612035386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9775569.post-1148670440845896282006-05-27T00:34:00.000+05:302006-05-27T01:03:59.163+05:30Tachyons on ORKUT<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/1600/tachyon.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1227/727/320/tachyon.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Hi,<br /><br />Just started an ORKUT group called "Tachyons" - On Dr.E C G Sudarshan who is regarded as one of the greatest living Mathematical Phycisits. A celebrated scientist nick nemed "Rishi" at the University of Texas-Austin, Dr.Sudarshan surely deserved a Nobel prize for his pioneering contributions. It is worth knowing how he missed it and how others got it. It is indeed surprising that Sudarshan has not even been elected to the U.S. Academy of Science . Shouldn't we care to bother to ask why?<br /><br />Here's a List of Relevant Webpages :<br /><br />1] <a href="http://www.flonnet.com/fl2224/stories/20051202002610200.htm">Sudarshan's letter</a><br /><br />2] <a href="http://www.flonnet.com/fl2224/stories/20051202002210000.htm">Elusive recognition</a><br /><br />3] <a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/printerfriendly.aspx?ref=510342">Scientists Question Nobel</a><br /><br />4] <a href="http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2005/12/first_runnerup.php">First Runner-upWhen the Nobels are handed out, some get left out.</a><br /><br />5] <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/12/07/nobel">Nobel Doubts</a><br /><br />6] <a href="http://www.hinduonnet.com/2005/12/02/stories/2005120206181100.htm">Physicist Sudarshan's omission questioned</a><br /><br />7] <a href="http://www.biospectrumindia.com/content/columns/10603155.asp">What will it take for a resident Indian to win a Nobel Prize</a><br /><br />8] <a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/george-sudarshan">George Sudarshan : Answers.com</a><br /><br />9] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Sudarshan">E C G Sudarshan : WikiPedia</a><br /><br />10] <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1342870,curpg-1.cms">Wrong Choice For The Nobel</a><br /><br />11] <a href="http://nanopolitan.wordpress.com/tag/hype/">Ranjit Nair on this year’s physics Nobel</a><br /><br />12] <a href="http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/Dec132005/snt1734020051212.asp">Nobility of the Nobel prize</a><br /><br />13] <a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/2005/Dec/07/181_1557745,0008.htm">Scientists petition Nobel Academy</a><br /><br />14] <a href="www.ph.utexas.edu/faculty/sudarshan.html ">Dr.Sudarshan's Home page</a><br /><br />15] <a href="http://wildcard.ph.utexas.edu/~sudarshan/publications.htm">The Collected Works of ECG Sudarshan</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">Hawk's wanderings and Pilgrim's perspectives !</div>pilgrimhawkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11622514301612035386noreply@blogger.com1