Optical Illusion

Optical Illusion -

My morning travel to office is amazing. The pondering and realization is unbelievable.
How and Why do people fall in trouble and live in trouble?
I have been told multiple times by many of them about fate and destiny that both exist and are accepted by everyone. If it were so then we as human are nothing but "puppets without your strings in your hand".

I do not believe that is true, there is something else above and below fate, destiny whatever you want to call it.
So what is it? Now this is getting right down to very basic so please read carefully -
1) There is fate but you have ability to change the default.
2) Fate depends on your actions (karmas) done in the past. (below fate is your past).
3) The present hold keys to both your past and future (yes both past and future). (Above fate is your future).
4) Human mind was born free and as your past karmas start reaping results, the bondages are created.

Let us understand this with an example.
One family is going out for a vacation. As fate has it, they miss the train. Now missing the train was because of thier past karma or the joint energy imbalance (there is a science behind it that cannot be explained and only experienced). Now fate has created an incident, just an incident not the result. Now that you have missed the train you have 2 options - either to crib about it and blame each other (Note - A logical mind will try to reason and find problem, A person who works from heart will look at the solution at this point) or to look at the best next option and move On.
Simply put - the fall and uprise is guided by your fate (even this is your own creation) but reaction is left to you. So you are given a choice by "life". We easily manage to skip this choice and blame the fate and this is the trap you have to be aware.
So missing the train was your fate due to the past, reacting to the situation is your present and thus present is holding the key to your future.

Now, there is another way to look at the same thing. Context is different but the message is same.
This is coming from my personal experience of my work life. I have always got good colleagues at work and my work life has always been positive (ofcourse I have these "Sulemanees" which make me do the hops ;)) I am sure many of us have experienced the same as against many of those who are always dissatisfied with thier worklife or more problematic work life. Now why is that difference in circumstances? It is because of a very subtle world within ourselves. I pray to god for the best possible work and promise a superior outcome to him and the result is -
-I get collegues who make my work easy and sometimes "free"
-Sometimes, I do not have to work and result are the blog entries. he..he.
-The outcome of every project is nothing but positive and the best the man can get (I am not advertising gillete, just myself :))
-Everyone working feels satisfied, able and confident to deliver.

Coming back to my first point that you have ability to change the default. To be able to do this you have free yourself from the emotional bondages and then only it is possible.

I am completely aware while I write this that fate can sometimes be acute, unexplained and unexpected depending on your past and evolution. But the essence of this post is that you have the ability to change it, clean it or at least accept it so that pain is reduced.

I will end with a quote I like very much -
"Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, its about dancing in the rains"

Food For Thought

My 2nd favourite topic is "Food". After money comes the food.
(I must admit that sometime back, I used to eat the same things I am about to criticize here )
"AA Khushee se Khud Khushee kar le"
I came to mumbai when I was in 4th standard.
I had a deadly migraine in few years after I came to mumbai.
This lasted for a number of years. It was so bad that I used to keep anacin in my pocket.
Years passed by and it never went away. I tried ayurvedic medicine, it stopped for sometime. As soon as I stopped medicines, it came back again. I tried homeopathy, it never worked.
I stopped taking any pain killers and decided to suffer the migraine. Everytime, I would vomit the food and couple of hours later I was fine.
I tried to diagonize myself and found the root cause - food and food habits.
My food habits made me suffer from this deadly headache for more then 15 years (and ofcourse my tongue enjoyed only for the time I ate food, right). I feel ridiculous when I think about it.
I changed my food and food habits. Stopped eating spicy food, stopped eating fermented food at night, dinner before 7:30pm max (as early as 6:30 on weekends). And guess what? I have not had this migraine for almost over 1 year now.
No doctor could determine this simple root cause? So doctors cannot treat you, only you can treat yourself ;)
Our World of Perceptions -
I hate to think of mistakes I have made when it comes to food. I had these "perceptions" -
-My stomach can digest anything
-Spicy food is the only tasty food.
- Eating bad food makes your stomach stronger because now it can digest anything, wow!
Ofcourse all of the above are plain wrong.
Think about it, your tongue enjoys but your stomach, it suffers. Its a no brainer.

Mass Hypnosis
Please refer the word Meme, it accurately describes the phenomemenon - Meme
Its like a mass hypnosis whereby nobody is bothered of what he is eating?
Food is the only source of energy you need to survive and you don't even think twice before you eat anything? Its absurd.
Good food is difficult but bad food is easy to get -
Try this - Go on a walk for few 100 meters and look around, you will easily find vada-pav, pizzas, chips, burgers round
the corner. But show me one shop in that few hundred meters selling chaas, lassi, fresh fruit salad, coconut water.
Why? Because those have become more sellable. we all are responsible for it.
Take cold drinks and icecreams for example, I am sure everyone enjoys icecream. Now think about this, you are sleeping and someone puts cold water on you, how will you react? You are doing the exact same thing to your internal body without realizing the same when you drink cold drink or eat ice cream.
This is one part of the story. second part is which ice-cream you are eating? More then 90% of the icecreams are adulterated.
Next comes the packed food and foreign drinks. Chips and colas are eaten like guru prasad, they are good for nothing.
India is nation where milk, chaas and lassis used to flow, what have we made of it? I see no one prefering a coconut water to colas, chaas to colas so on and so forth.

Impressions on our children -
We have defined the word "majja" as chips, pizzas, chocolate, ice-cream, pre-packed juices. Why didn't we define the word "majja" as chaas, Lassi, Fruits, Fruit juice, Halwasan, Mohan thal? We have no right to complain as parents when child is asking for chocolate as an appreciation and not fruit juice. And even if we as parent try to do this, social environment around you will invariable not let it happen (again search for word "meme", its a phenomenon). Everyone who comes home to meet us brings chocolates, it becomes a default gift. Why? Do we as adults do not know that chocolates are bad? why not bring some good quality fruits for a change?
Everytime I enter a kirana shop, I see a parent buying thier child chips or chocolates. For god's sake, if your kids grow up on colas and chips, what will they become?
we will easily create another a smaller US in India in time to come. (It hurts).
Another thing which I face is "sometimes it is ok to eat these things". Think about it, young minds are like sponge, if you allow them sometimes, you will not know when it becomes a part of them. And as I said before junk food is easy to get and hence will easily attract them.
Chocolates, Ice-Creams and cold drinks are your children's worst enemies, keep them away from these things. You are not depriving them of any good thing.

Last but not the least - Adulteration
Believe it or not - Everything you buy from the market from milk to vegetables to fruits is adulterated. So be careful when you buy things from the market. Try to get things from authentic source (unbranded preferred).

I would end with a famous gujarati quote -
"Ann banave Mann" (It means your qualities come from your food).

Truth Vindicated series - Money

Background of truth vindicated series -
You all already read that I believe we are socially conditioned. My idea is to write a series of essays or articles for social unconditioning. Its just the passion for writing (it came late into me) and idea of spreading some right messages in most open manner –

So one of my favourite topics comes first and that is Money.

Money is created in the mind -

A very dear one had once told me that "money is made in the mind" but at a very logical level.
But just wondering about it, I really think that money is made in the mind. It may appear externally but its creation as well as use is in and by the mind.

What is more important? Earning huge amount of money and not live it or Earning enough and live that money?
I came across a very interesting short story named 'The Undomestic Goddess'. It is the story of a very successful, top lawyer, who runs away from her life when she realises that she made a huge mistake. She takes up a job as a housekeeper in a small village, thinking that she'd go back the moment things were set right. Instead, she learns an entire new way of life - where the stress is absent and the weekends are free.
She later realises that she had been framed. She goes back and reclaims her dignity, but finally returns to her $500 per week housekeeper job, as opposed to the $500 per hour she was earning before.

Some basic things I have observed about money is -
-The more you seek money the faster it will run away from you.
-The more you try to squeeze money (I am not saying here to spend lavishly, its about the mindset), you will not get much money.
- Hard work may not always earn you more money, but smart work does.
- Greed is evil, it will wipe out money.
- If you say/think you have enough money, you will always have enough money.

I am not saying to be careless about money but to be non-attached to money.
That is, when you spend money you have to be sure in your mind and heart that you can spend it without any hitch. If you are anywhere in between that you are providing enough resistance to flow of money. It is easier said then done.
Here comes the twist of "greed" -
Generally, people who have more then enough money will tend to become greedy. Look at all the industrialists, they are
always looking to build new business - "more money".
Take example of people who have done frauds. They had more then enough money but they could never live that money. They lost it all because of "greed".
Are we greedy by nature? Probably "yes".
Understand this, we have vessel in which all our money goes but thing which we forgot is that the vessel has no base. So whatever you put in it goes down the rabbit hole and we all know that nobody knows how deep the rabbit hole goes?
And that is precisely the reason for greed.
Here comes the solution "Sayam" -
This is where concept of "sayam" comes into play. You need to have sayam in your life. There should be sayam in the way you live money as well. Sayam means control. Not having sayam will create greed (yeh dil mange more). Yes, that "mange more" is in reality not good :) because more here is never ending.
I can assure you that if you have sayam in your life, you will never be unhappy. Sayam's output will never let non-satisfaction reach you because it will keep you protected from "seeking".
Now add the positive emotion of "Gratitude" -
Another important thing is gratitude. Very recently, I was driving somewhere and I was filled with gratitude towards god for giving me everything I need for good life. Until this time, I may have not left many incidence for complaining but mostly missed being grateful. It feels good that it has changed. I believe it is extremely important that we give gratitude for things we get so easily in life.

"Be rich, Be a king outside.
Be satisfied, Be a Buddha Inside."

Truth Vindicated Series - Social Conditioning

Truth Vindicated -
(Most of the portion of this post comes from one of my dearest friend Sameer, so kudos to him for the same)

Social Conditioning

Ready steady Go! HimK in 2nd position, Knight rider in 1st position and Foxy P in last position.
HimK has taken the lead is in 1st position and Knight rider is now at 2nd position. This is the final furlong and its looks like a close race. Oh no! it’s getting too excitingggggg....dunno who is going to win? It’s a photo finish, and only one winner!

That’s how I was born.

It wasn’t three horses-- it was a race with almost 3 million sperms that I had to defeat in a race lasting 30 seconds. It was the scariest moments in my life. You cannot imagine the relief I went through as I entered the egg and as I looked back into the distance, I shed a tear for the millions of my brothers or sisters that did not make it and perished along the way.

31 years later, and I am awaiting birth of my 2nd kid. Yeah, again a winner will be born.

Many of us are still in the race. We actually never realized that we have already won. We still fight for our place in society, trains, buses, office. We all are still a sperm. I know most of the you will revolt when you read it. But ask a person who has just lost his job, I bet he will agree that he is fighting for his place. So let’s look at the sperms we have around us. CEO in his nice cabin looking to keep his position, Sperm!, Foot ball player running after the ball, Sperm!, Politician, Looking to keep his seat, Sperm!. (While many of us may not realize that we are still fighting for our space simply because things may come easy to us that do not mean we are not part of it). The social conditioning has gone beyond limits so that we are in constant race in our life.

But I have revolted to this social conditioning. I was born a winner and the race is over. I have won the biggest race of life, and that is to be born. So do not tell me that I still have to struggle for everything.

I think this fear of loss of egg (in our first ever race) is so intrinsic that it immediately manifests when we see something which is scarce and may people are trying to obtain it. It is one of the most difficult things to let go in life. It’s funny however, when I see wealthy people in India and abroad showing the sperm mentality. Nothing is ever enough. The first step I think would be to realise that it exists. Every time you are struggling for that promotion (SPERM!), every time you are fighting over a girl/guy (SPERM!), every time you rush into a train (SPERM!), every time you have to explain to your manager for coming late (SPERM!).

So in someway or the other you will see that 95% of you is because of social conditioning. For e.g. We are made to believe that only doctor’s can treat our illness, Only pain killers can cure headaches, Only English medium schools are good for our kids, Information in the news papers is the ultimate truth, so on and so forth. There is a huge difference between reality (truth) and perception (social conditioning).
The scarcity which exists today cannot be explained in material terms. As I said before nothing is enough when it comes to material world. In spiritual world, I am sure there is plenty for everyone. Just imagine that you have won biggest race in semi-formed state, in a fully formed state, unimaginable power holds.

We are born to enjoy every moment of life; that is the only truth. Now how this would be believed by a child who has just lost his parents in the bomb blast. Again, in material terms, I have no explanation. In spiritual world, the child has learned the biggest lesson of his life that he is here to love himself and that death is the only other reality then life. More often then not we miss the lessons we are meant to learn due to an event. This is purely due to social conditioning.
Yes, I am going too far to blame social conditioning because it is the culprit. Believe me in spite of knowing the culprit; it is difficult to get out of it. But as said before if I won the biggest race of life, I know I can do it and I will do it.

Lucky to be born in Bharat!

This has been circling in my mind since quite sometime.
I Love India.
Most youngster think that India is the worst place to do a post grad and work etc.
There is too much politics so everything is difficult and most of them go abroad for further studies and then work outside India only. That may help India reduce the population :)
I had been in US for 2+ years and I agree that life is easy and comfortable in the US.
Now lets look at it from a different perspective.
We are born and bought up in India. What do we have here which cannot exist anywhere else?
Describe your childhood to anybody outside india, I am sure he would agree that you are lucky to have such a childhood.
The games we played, the festivals we celebtrated, the enthusiasm we carried is simply non-existent in other parts of the world.

Everything is difficult in India, right from riding a motor cycle to getting your passport.
Does this mean - it is bad? The answer is "NO".
This actually means that if you can ride in India, you can ride anywhere in the world but vice-versa is not true.
Ask a US citizen to drive in India, he will give up. Ask Indian citizen drive in US, he will fly :)
So Ironical that I could not teach my wife to drive in US (even when it was so easy). But I could teach her in India. This is because of the small lanes where there are no cars, you can use the same to learn driving ;)
Do you find the same in US? If you find one, you will find a police man patrolling it and you will be screwed.
Talk about the variety food that you get in India, I can bet there is no better place then India for good food.

US home loan market crashed to no limits. We also have huge home loans, but did the same happen to the same sector in India? It did not happen because we are conservative and that saved us. We still fear taking loan and we want to pay it back as soon as possible and that is the "honesty" we carry in ourselves.

I can go on to tell things which makes us what we are today? The best and miles ahead of other countries in some way or the other. So lets be proved of it.

India is blessed by the nature, it has mountains on one side and sea on another. Nature protects us and we are lucky to be born in "Bharat"

For my love thy movies - Trilogy

This is a submission for the Reel-life Bloggers contest www.wogma.com and http://reviewgang.com/
An action packed thrill of 3 movies
1) Luck By chance -

I am vary of seeing movies as I am very critical of the same ;)
But thanks to swati (my wife), I sometimes end up seeing a few of them.
I promise you that you will be confused by the end of this review and so you will go and watch the movie ;)

Its always my tendency to take some good things of a movie and learn from it.
The best thing about this movie was that it was relatively a casual movie and thus light.
The shots are taken in normal day to day lanes and homes so that brings some reality.
Everyone would agree that they see a new star in Farhan Akhtar.
But this movie by far was konkana sen's movie (ok, as a guy, I will always be biased ;)).
Her subtle expressions are the highlights of the movie.
The subtle comedy of the movie is awesome.
Like there is something about poems whereby everyone can interpret in its own way, the same applies to the movie too. One can view it from many different view points.
So here is luck by chance from my 4 eyes (2 normal and 2 with a lot of power glass ;)) -
Luck by chance is about creating destiny vs living the destiny. It also shows that you can get lucky by chance but that will most likely not sustain.
I always believe you have to go and knock at the oppurtunity, if you believe is oppurtunity knocking at your door, most likely you will miss it.
So here is a movie in which luck by chance, one gets lucky but other one gets luckier as she learns to live life as it is!
Farhan Akhtar believes in creating destiny (kismet bantee nahee, bananee padti hain). Only wishing means nothing to him.
So the guy creates oppurtunity, walks through it. Leaving behind her girl friend Konkana.
All this happens luck by chance.
It is almost as if Konkana's luck is replaced by Farhan's luck.
Although for a brief period, she is upset but she thanks him for the things she learned from him and then lives in that fashion. Now she is on to creating opportunities but in much more subtle and resilient way.
What is the difference? Now, she continues to enjoy things she is doing. She is no longer waiting for the chance she may get in "future".
So luck by chance a struggling movie actress who lived every moment based on the future role, turns to her present life and starts loving what she is doing everyday. And this she learnt from her lost love.
In turn her lost love Farhan turns lucky by chance but looses all good people in his life.
It poses a very good question. What is more important? Living every moment as it is or longing for something to achieve in future.
Rather both and strike a balance.
Few lines from the poem "IF" summarizes it very well -
If you can dream and not make dreams your master.
If you can think and not make thoughts your aim.
If you can meet with Triumph and disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same.
;)

2) ZNMD -


It is saturday morning, been a long time saw any movie so here was my chance. Looked up the theatre and time, off we want for the movie. High expectations from 3 rocking stars and good punch in the name.
Friendship is one relationship which I feel is the most real one since my childhood and I am sure for most of us it is the same. "Dil Chahta hain" was hit for this very reason.
Some friends where ever they may be are friends for ever.
ZNMD was about 3 friends and their promise to have journey of a life time with 3 selected destinations with 3 activities they can choose and all 3 of them must do it.
We all know Hrithik is crowd puller. But the star of this movie was some one else, it was Abhay Deol for me and Farhan Akhtar for my Swati.
The movie showed Hrithik to be a money minter with almost no life, well, eye opener for many of us that forget living life in the crazy world of making money. Farhan is a moldable die, he fits almost any role given to him. By far awesome. The star of the movie was Abhay with his classic looks.
The beautiful Katrina was meaningful too with a very simple message of "live life, Queen size". The little bit of zen about "the moment that matters" comes out very cleanly in Katrina's role as a deep sea diver.
Let's switch to the location, Amazing locations with deep sea diving, lot of greener pastures, unseen empty roads and awesome car. The movie is a visual treat apart from being a passionate story too.
The most exciting thing about the movie was the "fear factor". Each of us have different fears - fear of height, fear of water, fear of animals, fear of death (by far the deadliest ;)).
In Matrix 1 - Neo is told "Let it all go Neo, fear, doubts and disbelief". And here you have it - story of 3 friends on a journey to "letting it all go"
If you miss the movie, you are missing a great lesson for yourself, so go watch it NOW!

Matrix 1 - "You have to let is all go Neo - Fear, Doubts, Disbelief"

I must admit, I did not move beyond matrix 1 as I am still digesting matrix 1.
I had watched it during my college days and let it go as an action movie which by far matrix is NOT.
Matrix is about so many things not some particular thing. There are so many perspectives to this movie that this review will short fall of it so you will have to see the movie to get your own perspective.
If you even blink your eye, you lost a lesson from the movie, that's how quick the movie is made. There are sharp turns all through out the movie.
In short, its a about "Neo" who has the instinct that "something is wrong with the world" and how he is guided by his mentor to become "real him" by the thoughts and the mind.
There are amazing fight sequence with excellent dialogue. The simulated fight between neo and morpheus is the sequence to rewind and watch, rewind and watch.
So if you want to know "how deep the rabit hole goes", if you think "it's the mind which makes it real", if you want to "load anything you like" and if you think "when you are ready, you won't have to" go on unload yourself and watch this movie. I am sure "once is not enough" or rather "first time watch is just the beginning".
Enjoy the movie!

A song for prayer to God!

There are times when you make me laugh
there are moments when you drive me mad
there are seconds when I see the light
though many times you made me cry

There's something you don't understand
I want to be your man

Chorus:
Nothing to lose
your love to win
hoping so bad that you'll let me in

I'm at your feet
waiting for you
I've got time and nothing to lose

There are times when I believe in you
these moments when I feel close to you
there are times I think that I am yours
though many times I feel unsure

There's something you don't understand
I want to be your man

Chorus:
Nothing to lose
your love to win
hoping so bad that you'll let me in

I'm at your feet
waiting for you
I've got time and nothing to lose

I'll always be around you
keep an eye on you
cos my patience is strong
and I won't let you run
cos you are the only one

Nothing to lose
your love to win
hoping so bad that you'll let me in

I'm at your feet
waiting for you
I've got time and nothing to loose.

3vs of progress - volcano, vows and victory

The 3Vs of progress - volcano, vows and victory -
I have been just blown with a volcano inside me. The fumes are still coming out but its settling down.
If this volcano does not result into the right vows, the person mostly gets frustated and goes down the wrong path.
Its a test which you cannot afford to fail.
Now why vows and not anything else? Because vows cannot be broken.
So I will take some vows and those will lead me to victory, freedom or whatever you may want to call it.

I know this post is a bit nasty and hazy but its deep.
Let me put it this way, there is a reason for anything and everything that happens in your life.
There are severe kick backs and we tend to think Life sucks but those kicks have a purpose.
Purpose of making your determination unbreakable infact untouchable.
Its a fire and we all know, fire can be used to cook or it can be used to burn.
All you have to do it use this fire in a good way for yourself.

If you can trust yourself when all Men doubt you

If you can trust yourself when all Men doubt you
I got some message today from god. He showed me what is "ahmkara"?
And my perception that I have no Ego was shattered to pieces.
I was unable to stop myself from reacting. This effectively means that there is bondage.
The only good thing this time was the awareness of the bondage.
The "ahmkara" was still present but introspection made me realize the same.

This ahmkara was invoked by the doubt in somebody's mind about myself.
And the result was that I doubted myself and that is precisely my ego.
We mis-interpret ego as pride. Ego changes form in different circumstances.
Ego is your reaction to an event. The reason for the reaction is your sanskar which is embedded in your chitta.
Unless you do sadhna you will niether realize this nor will come out of it.
By purifying your chitta through sadhna, you become sub-consiously aware of the events and your
chitta stops reacting. It is a slow process. First your awareness increases, you still react.
But remember, interpreting and introspecting is good but these are only the means.
Sadhna is the only way to imbibe the above in oneself.
I will end with few lines from Poem "IF" -
"If you can trust yourself when all Men doubt you, But make allowance for thier doubting too" :)

Matrix

Morpheus: I imagine that right now you're feeling a bit like Alice. Tumbling down the rabbit hole?
Neo: You could say that.
Morpheus: I can see it in your eyes. You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he's expecting to wake up. Ironically, this is not far from the truth. Do you believe in fate, Neo?
Neo: No.
Morpheus: Why not?
Neo: 'Cause I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life.
Morpheus: I know exactly what you mean. Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know, you can't explain. But you feel it. You felt it your entire life. That there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there. Like a splinter in your mind -- driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I'm talking about?
Neo: The Matrix?
Morpheus: Do you want to know what it is?
(Neo nods his head.)
Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere, it is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window, or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, or when go to church or when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, born inside a prison that you cannot smell, taste, or touch. A prison for your mind. (long pause, sighs) Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself. This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back.
(In his left hand, Morpheus shows a blue pill.)
Morpheus: You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. (a red pill is shown in his other hand) You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes. (Long pause; Neo begins to reach for the red pill) Remember -- all I am offering is the truth, nothing more.
(Neo takes the red pill and swallows it with a glass of water)

Poem 2 - 100% Attitude

Mountain is hard, Crack it
Sea is wild, Sail it
Wind is high, Walk through it
Thunder and Lightning, Live it,
Do whatever it takes my friend, Just do it

Poems can be interpreted by a reader in its own way. That is the beauty of a poem.
As an author, I must say this poem has a deep meaning then its words.
Its about the attitude you carry in life.
You either blame it on x,y,z or be a warrior and fight it.

The Trip

Just back from a good trip.
Somnath-Gir-Rannriders resort-Little Rann of kutch
This is a perfect trip with mix of wild life, nature and lot of train travel
I had to research it, so sending this out so that its easy if anyone wants to do the trip.
Before I write about the trip planning few things to note -
- Best season to see lions is summer as they are on move in search of water as far as gir is concerned
- Summers are extremely hot in kutch :)
- Both the locations Gir and Kutch are bird watchers paradise. Amazing migratory birds too.
- Book your tickets and accomodation well in advance.
- You need atleast 12X+ optical zoom camera to capture everything well.
Reference URLs -
http://www.girnationalpark.com/
http://www.rannriders.com/
http://www.nivalink.com/GUJARAT/jungle.html

Photos -
http://picasaweb.google.com/himanshukhona/GirKutchRannriders

Here is how you plan your trip -
Mumbai - Somnath
Take a train to veraval from mumbai. There are trains from veraval to Sasangir around 2-3 times in the day,
so check the time of that train. There is one around 9:40, which is perfect if you have a train which arrives from
mumbai early morning.
Get down at veraval and visit Somanth temple which is 7km from the station
Take a rick or something. Come back to verval railway station.
Veraval - Sasan gir
Take a passenger steam train from veraval to sasangir. you can go by road but the road stretch of 60 km just sucks.
It was too painful, so the train works the best.
All the resorts are in few km range from the sasangir railway station and the resort owner will provide you
free pickup.
Tip - Please book yourself in advance in a good resort. Resorts are expensive, and the ones which are cheap
are not worth it.
Try and do early morning 6:30 safari which costs 1350 for 4 people. So try to visit in a group.
If you do not see a lion in the above safari, take a trip to devalia park which is around 12 km
and they have put around 7 lions in 12km area, so you can be sure to see a lion.
Sasangir - veraval
Take the same passenger train from sasangir to veraval.
Veraval - Viramgam
Take somnath express(there is one more train) to Viramgam.
Ask the rannriders resort owner to provide you with free pick up (http://www.rannriders.com)
Enjoy the resort and safari to Little Rann of kutch. There are very good birds too.

viramgam - Mumbai -
Take a train :)

Now something on the rann riders resort -
The resort is one of it kinds with a clear sunrise to be seen from backyard and sunset from the front yard.
There are around 18 Huts with excellent facility and interiors.
Each of them has a unique toilet which is open to sky and surrounded by trees.
The food was very good.

Outside Vs Inside

Be rich, Be a king outside.
Be satisfied, Be a Buddha Inside
Live life outside, remember death inside

Think with the mind, do with the heart
Be with the body, live with the soul

Open your eyes, see the world outside
Close your eyes, see the universe inside

Go to the temples outside, worship the god inside.
Help others outside, help yourself inside

Singh is King

Singh is King -
On the way to office, was listening to this song of singh is king.
It has a line which touched me. It is very true as well. It goes -
"Dil sacha ho to Rab kar de setting" :)
I have experienced the above almost everytime.
A prayer with clear heart always gets answered.
Faith and honesty togather can work wonders.

What does meditation do to you?

Well, First thing is why are you meditating? Mostly to get peace, harmony, soul searching.
If you are doing it correct, it will have tremendous result in your life. If there are no results, you are not doing the right thing.
There is so much agression all around us that we get angry very easily. The disturbance is already in the mind, a slight trigger results into eruption. First thing that happened to me is awareness of the moments spend in anger.
Next was reduction in number of anger episodes and also the level of anger. One of the important points here is to have saatvik food, it will by far tune your mind as well.
The next level is constant awareness of living in the present, just be and do nothing (not in literal sense). Once the triggers to you stop, you with awareness stop the triggers as well.
After this, everyone likes you and they have smiles on thier faces when they meet you.
The sour relations turn sweet, there is no detachment or scare in the relation.
Thus it has extremely good effect on your life if done correctly, done with right guidance (not books, experience guidance)

Lord Mahavira's Sankalp

Lord Mahavira's sankalp -

Lord Mahavir looked at her and noticed that one of his pre-decided conditions was still missing. So, without accepting food, he kept on going. [His conditions were, 1) The person who would be offering should be a princess, 2) she should be bald headed, 3) she should be in chains, 4) while offering uncooked lentils, her one foot should be inside the house and other one out side the house, 5) and she should be in tears.] So, you might have realized that she met all conditions except tears in her eyes, and therefore, Lord Mahavir went on. Chandana felt very sad and tears started running down her face. She started thinking that how unfortunate she was that even though she had a chance to offer food to the monk, he would not accept it. She, in her crying voice, once again, requested a monk to accept the food. Lord Mahavir turned back and saw tears in her eyes. Mahavir came back to accept the food knowing that all his conditions were met. She put the lentils in Lord Mahavir�s hand and felt satisfied.
Lord Mahavir was looking for pre-conditioned food, and meanwhile, he fasted for five months and twenty-five days.
This is what I call Sankalp. Immensely strong.

Lagaan was a classic -

Lagaan was a classic -
People may call me boring as I was seeing Lagaan last night. Yeah, I know its not the latest movie.
From a movie perspective, everything was good about it. Actors, the plot, sequence. Interest was kept every moment of the movie.
I watch the same movie for many things. So the thing which was fascinating in this movie was about the "Sankalp" of Bhuvan who wants to the village out of the problem. He saw a way where everyone saw danger. That is how "sankalp" should be. It should be so strong that that you don't move a mm back on your sankalp. You are bound not to fail. Even if you fail, the grace will still remain and that itself will be your victory.

Goals, Desires etc

We live direction less life currently. There is no direction to it.
Often, we say this is my goal in life. It will either be an end point or career related etc.
But we never think beyond it. What is beyond it?
Beyond it is a harsh reality called "death".
If we build our goals as an end point, we often invite bad times.
Take for example a CEO of a small company, he will desire to make his company big. For the same he works, overworks
and in the end screw his own life. He does not realize that the life is too short for him to grow his company. He forgets his identify, he becomes the company. That is where the error lies. Our choices are wrong, Our goals are wrong.

Amboli trip - Fog, Mist, waterfalls, snakes, frogs and greens

Amboli -(15th Aug 2008 - 17th Aug 2008)
We were 16 of us and 4 kids in all ready for the trip. All bookings were done far in advance considering the holiday

season.
Travel - Konkanya express (0111/0112) both ways - http://www.irctc.co.in
Stay - Whilsting Woods, Amboli - http://www.amboliww.com.

Day 1 -
We started off for 3 places -
Nagartas waterfall - This is huge waterfall(one can only see the waterfall) where water rushes down from around 50 feet into a deep valley and then becomes a narrow stream. Its a breath taking view of the water gushing down from such height in a narrow passage.

Kavelsad Point - Enter a complete fog area. You cannot see anything in the valley, but look closer. You will see the water drops coming upwards and they look light small white lights coming up due to wind blowing in opposite direction to the water flow. One of the best sites I have ever seen.

HiranyaKashi river - This is the starting point of hiranyakeshi river. It starts from under the cave and water from all sides flows into the river. There is a old temple of shiva for your prayers. On the way back from the point, we saw 2 small waterfall. As usual, I could not stop myself and went right in it. Few of us took the majja of the waterfall before heading back to the car.

Day 2 -
We started off for rest of the 3 points -
Amboli waterfall - Fortunately, the crowd was less on this day due to rakshabandhan. So we spend almost couple of hours in the fall. Rather under the fall. The force of the water was too much at some places. The water was also very cold, but it was too much fun. We came out and had vada pav etc which caused too much gas in the night that we had to use perfumes as air fresheners ;)
Mahadevghad - Lush green out fields and differently shaped mountains awaited us. The photography session was unending right from on the trees to stones.
Shirgaonkar point - This should actually be called leech point because we had our blood sucked by leeches. And worst part was there was nothing to see on the point.

The evening was fun-filled with playing cards, dumb charade followed by story telling by everyone. All of us were met by nice surprises about others and it got pretty interesting. Ended the day(pretty much start of the next day) at 1:45am and decided that we all will get up late.

Day 3 - Late start 10:-11:0am for breakfast. By the time we ended breakfast, it was almost noon. We had to checkout 4 rooms because resort owner had bookings. Now it was time for relaxed walk and a big photo session. We covered almost all poses from standing to sitting to sleeping. The photos came out too good.
It was time to go back, nobody wanted to go back but we had to.
It was interesting to see resort owners life with his house in the backyard of the resort and a nice healthy dog.
Decided to check out early and have late lunch (that was really late 5:00pm) at sawantwadi. We reached sawantwadi in time and had to wait nearly 30min for the train to come.

Somethings to watch out -
a) If you are taking konkan kanya, board from the first station CST.
b) Order your food 1.5 hours before you intend to eat it. We took more then 2 hours at a time for all meals. Best is to order in advance and get it to the resort.
c) Buy and carry leech guard so that you can visit the jungle.
d) The main waterfall has many drunkards on holidays, so schedule your trip to waterfall on a odd day.

Lush green out fields, wet roads and bike ride it's a unique experience.

Lush green, Wet outfields and bike ride is a unique experience.
This was my 2nd ride on the bike. Location unknown but had read on the internet
that it was awesome.
After all the dropouts, 5 of us were ready to roll.
Unlike the first ride, this time rain was going to hit us hard.
The route was virar-ambada-wada-suryamal-khodala
The stretch upto Ambada was pain, the road to virar was broken with pot holes all
the way.
The stretch from wada to suryamal is something unseen (best possible wet roads with lot of fog on the way), unheard (you can only hear the flow of water).
The ride itself was eventful. We were 5 of us - Amit, Jigar, myself (netmagic),
Amog, Niket (bombaybikers).
On road from virar to vrajeshwari, Amog skid on his bike. It hurt him a bit, bike was fine.
On stretch from ambada to wada - Jigar fell down. His bike in one pot hole, himself
in another. But as he says, he is experienced by now to fall from the bike ;).
Guess who was next? None other then myself.
There was water flow on the road which had lot of "Leel". 3 of them went through with thier bikes shaking but not falling down. I did not see it. I went through and there I went skidding. Fortunately bike slipped away from me and nothing happened to me. Bike's leg guard was twisted. Footpeg bent. Amit was quick to pull the bike
up. So very eventful trip ;)
The waterfalls were just amazing and so many of them on the way. We bathed in 2 of them.
The photo sessions were unending as there was so much to capture. The roads were empty whereby we parked our bikes on the road to click photos (and from all angles too).
With some hot tea in the cold weather (yeah all of us were shaking), we were ready to return.
There was only 1 sad thing in the end. The road from virar to borivali was 40km of pot holes with some roads in between. It was literally "pain in the butt".
The photos captured have come awesome and will upload it to picasa soon and post the link here.