HIDATO Puzzle

 📝 Are you looking for a new challenge that can bring you moments of stillness and mindfulness in this fast-paced digital world?

 Let me introduce you to Hidato – a captivating puzzle that has taken me on an unexpected journey.

 

🧩 Though the Hidato puzzle is a regular feature in Economic Times, I had not noticed it for a long time. However, curiosity got the better of me one day, and I decided to give it a shot armed with a pencil. Little did I know that it would become a daily ritual and a source of joy in my life.

 

🧠 At first, I struggled to solve the Hidato puzzle. It required patience, logic, and a keen eye to spot the right moves. As days passed, I felt a growing sense of achievement with each solved puzzle. The satisfaction of connecting the numbers in the right sequence was unmatched.

 

💼 Hidato has become a means to take a break from screens and technology. Nowadays I dive into the puzzle with a pen in hand, immersing myself in the challenge and letting go of distractions. It's a meditative experience that clears my mind and allows me to focus on the present moment. Most of the time I find the right sequence without the need for any trial and without using a pencil!

 

🌄 There's something magical about Hidato and if you haven't tried Hidato yet, I encourage you to give it a go! You might be surprised by how much you enjoy it, and you might find yourself looking forward to it just like I do.

 

📢 Share your Hidato experiences in the comments below.

A SIMPLE AND PRACTICAL SOLUTION TO CAUVERY PROBLEM

Today again there is a ‘bandh’. Whatever may be the reason for every ‘bandh’, the sufferings inflicted is on our own country people. The loss of property, loss of opportunity and even loss of lives are of our own country people.

It is high time we need to find an alternate method to resolve our conflicts.

Coming back to Cauvery problem, yes water is essential to all. But it’s a natural resource to be shared equitably by all. The population and usage pattern vastly differ from the days when first this conflict originated and now. The conflict aggravates when there is scanty rain fall.

The availability of water that flows into the river is directly proportional to the amount of rain fall received in the catchment area. So it is prudent to consider the amount of rain fall in the catchment area as a reference for the release of water on a periodical basis.

The experts can arrive at the quantum of water to be released from the reservoirs purely on the basis of amount of rain fall during a particular period. For example, for every x cm of rail fall in the catchment area during a particular period should translate into the y TMC of water release at the end of that particular period.

This approach may look too simplistic and may have lot of practical problems in implementation. 

The real solution to all our interstate as well as intra state conflict is relooking at our mode of protest. It’s better to keep the interest of the whole nation as a focal point in resolving and arriving at a consensus to all our conflicts.

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SUSWASA’S ETHICAL STRENGTH.

It was 10’O clock in the morning and the visuals at this office canteen looked very different than the usual days’. Generally people working in the office come here for a cup of coffee/tea, and few others will have some snacks to compensate for missed breakfast.

Today is a special day. The canteen is celebrating its 10th year of operation and hence offering free tea/coffee and snacks to its patrons. Everyone in the office is busy helping themselves to many rounds of snacks and coffee. However Suswasa is enjoying his usual cup of tea among the ‘mayhem’ of his colleagues. This stark difference was inescapable. So, one of Suswasa’s friends asked him – “Sir, why are you not utilizing this opportunity to savor your favorite dishes for free?”

“I am utilizing the opportunity albeit to build my Ethical strength” uttered Suswasa and continued “I had breakfast in the morning so I can’t eat more. I am happy that I need not pay for my usual cup of tea.

Now everyone in the canteen is listening attentively to Suswasa.

“Few days ago I booked my ticket to attend a workshop conducted by world renowned motivational speaker. I had to drop my idea of carrying camera since the list of do’s and don’ts had clearly indicated that recording of voice, image and video was prohibited. However, when I went into the hall I was surprised to see that many people were happily clicking photos. This continued even after the organizers requested not to record image, voice and video. For a moment my mind waivered and a thought came that I can request my neighbor carrying iphone to click my photo and send by email. But I shook off this idea and resolved to abide by the rules and regulations.

During the course of workshop the motivational speaker emphasized that true leader should not only have strong ethical values but should be implementing in his/her daily life. So when I came out of the hall after the workshop I had the satisfaction of growing the trait of ethical value in my life.

It is a general tendency to stack up things especially when something is available for free. This tendency will drive the person to stack up even when that person is not yet worthy of getting it. This will eventually lead the person to snatch the things from others. Here things refer to money, comforts, status, favors and all such things.

So better way to avoid getting into the vicious cycle of unethical practices is, to remember that when we stack up things which truly does not belong to us, we also stack up stones in gall bladders, we stack up tired muscles in our heart and we stack up cancerous cells in our body.

So for me choice is clear” concluded Suswasa with his last sip of tea and walked towards his office cubicle.
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For Details of Dream Workshop - Summer camp.

YAWN

Yawn – A very common phenomenon. Everyone does it, irrespective of whether a person is young or aged, male or female, literate or illiterate, poor or rich.


Yawn is a one of very few things which show up on every person without any discrimination! Ha! It is very difficult to suppress.


Yawn is a sign of weariness. In fact it is an acronym for - Yes, ‘Am Weary Now!


Yawn is a precursor to the impending sleep taking over all senses. Yawn is also a sign of disinterest. Some people say we yawn, when the body needs more oxygen.


Yawning does not involve any sound. However it gives out the loud and clear message about the person yawning.


A person coming out of the dining hall yawns means the person’s body requires rest.


A person listening to a lecture yawns means he/she is thoroughly disinterested.


But yawn is a beautiful thing, irrespective of the reason behind it. The joy of yawning - the long inhalation of air, the closing of eyes which invariably become moist - is beyond words. Finally the yawn of babies is real treat to the watcher.


Hope you are not yawning after reading about my musings on y a w n.
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FREEDOM AND DISCIPLINE

What is freedom? What is discipline?

Isn’t freedom curtailing discipline? Will discipline curbs freedom?

These are the some of the issues that come across our mind when we think of freedom and discipline.
Actually they are same. They are like two side of a coin. They are coexistent.

There cannot be freedom without discipline and vice versa.

Flock of birds flying in the sky is a perfect example of freedom and discipline being the same. We have not heard of any accidents even though hundreds of birds will be flying together. Each bird has freedom to fly to its destination, however it has a discipline of flying in formation with other birds. This arrangement of flying allows them to circumvent the air resistance. All birds take turn to lead and follow while flying in formation.

Now let’s see how this understanding when shared with the young children will bring about a change. The following examples will certainly make not only young people but also everyone to enjoy the freedom in a responsible way thereby leading to disciplined way of life!

• I have freedom to use the roads. At the same time others too have freedom to use those roads. So if I respect others freedom, I will automatically follow the traffic rules. And this is nothing but disciplined way of using the roads.
• I have freedom to use toilets (specially public toilets). Others too have freedom to use clean toilets. So if I respect others freedom, I will be aware of my civic sense. Is it not a disciplined way of life?
• I have freedom to smoke. But others too have freedom to inhale pure air. Respecting others freedom in this case definitely give relief to people suffering from passive smoking.

Therefore respecting others freedom is nothing but discipline. So it is possible to live in freedom while allowing others their freedom.

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DREAM WORKSHOP

A child will be living in a dreamy world once it enters the teenage. The teenage is a bridge between adolescent and adulthood. So, stepping into teenage leaving behind the adolescent years and continuing the life journey towards adulthood poses a lot of challenge to the child, parents as well as teachers.

The personality of the child gets crystallised during teenage. Therefore proper guidance will go a long way in moulding the personality of the child.

The Dream Workshop is designed to help transform adorable adolescents to lovable teens and finally into responsible adults.

It is very common that parents and teachers notice a major shift in the attitude and behaviour of the children of age 11 years and above.
As mentioned earlier teenagers are in their own dreamy world and hence many a time they are unable to relate to the reality around them. The handling of relationships with parents, peers, teachers and others, difference between confidence and arrogance, balancing of academics and other interests will take a heavy toll on the mind of teenager leading to stress and other behavioural complications.

The Dream Workshop will address these issues in a unique interactive way and kindles an awareness of how to dream more and more and make each one of them real for sure. Teenagers will be given the seed of understanding that they are all extraordinary persons and also the knowledge of nourishing and growing it into a big tree.

The Dream Workshop is conducted for a group of twenty to thirty children and the duration is three hours each for five days. A small briefing session will be conducted for the parents of the registered children prior to the workshop.

Special offer: Educational institutions interested in organising this workshop will get discount in the fees.

For further clarifications please contact;
SUBRAMANI. SARODE.
Mobile No.919980716488
Email : sarodess@yahoo.com

WORKSHOP ON RE-ENGINEERING THOUGHT REBUILD LIFE

HAPPY LIFE is every individual's ultimate goal. Earning money, gaining power, achieving success, and retaining status are all the ways toward achieving this goal. However somewhere along the time line these things get diffused with being healthy, peaceful and having good relationships. It becomes a Herculean task to balance the things (material as well as spiritual) in life, leading to misery, frustration and dejection.
THINK YOU CAN, THINK YOU CAN'T
EITHER WAY YOU ARE RIGHT!
is a famous quote, as also - THE WAY YOU THINK SO YOU BECOME.
So, the thoughts that we harbour are very powerful and understanding the thought process will help us in leading a happy life.
It does not matter who the person is? How the person thinks alone matters.
Being happy does not depend on any attributes of the person like richness, power, and intelligence but solely on the way the thought process is harnessed.

In short, this one-day workshop will give a clear-cut definition of being HAPPY and the way to be in that happiness always.
Being happy always is possible. For the first time a correlation has been established between material world and spiritual world. Astonishingly simple and easy to understand mathematical model developed by me will re-engineer our thought process and harness its immense potential.

Once a person is happy with the self, will spread the happiness all around and happy people are always preferred in any corporate and institutions, as they contribute much more than the "productivity" to the society.
Feel free to contact me, if you are interested in this workshop for your group.
Regards,
Subramani. Sarode.
Ph: 99807 16488
N.B: I have also developed a five-day workshop especially for the teenagers. This workshop will help teenagers to develop healthy relationship with everyone and organise themselves to turn every dream into a reality. Most importantly the workshop will bring awareness of ‘how to dream’, manage the strength and weakness, developing good habits and getting rid of bad habits if any._______________________________________________________________________________

RE-ENGINEER THOUGHTS, RE-BUILD LIFE

Here is a true story. A person was suffering from severe back pain for a long time. Even medicines of different “pathy” (allo, homeo, naturo,etc) did not help in providing slightest relief. One day this person happens to listen to a spiritual master’s discourse. Charmed by the master’s simple way of imparting knowledge, the person underwent a course and miraculously got rid of his ailment. The person became an ardent fan of the master and urged others to follow the master. Many people got benefited and started telling their own stories of improved health, finances and relationships. Some among these had followed other spiritual masters also without much benefit.
Soon the master had a large number of followers all across the world.

The study of evolution of religions shows that, this pattern is more or less pretty same.

Now the points to ponder are –

How a person gets a feel good factor only with a particular master, even though every master is leading to the same destiny?

In case of Nityananda swami and many of his ilk, people had the experience of healing and solace. However when the truth came out, the Magic, the Halo and the Aura surrounding these masters suddenly became dysfunctional. Why?

As true masters say, all this boils down to being aware of our own thoughts. “Awareness is Guru” is a famous saying in Kannada. So if we are aware of our own thought process and re-engineer them, it’s very easy to rebuild our life. This is possible at any stage of the life. Feel free to receive help through Re-engineering sessions.
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ANTI-TERROR RALLY AND POLITICIANS

It is a great relief that the anti terror rally passed off without any incident.
However what intrigues me is that this very rally terrorised the common citizens to avoid particular roads on that day!

Politicians have whipped up the misconception that only the acts of people belonging to a particular country and community terrorise the people.
Now elections are nearing, these politicians are engineering the emotions of the mass with such rhetoric.

Some misguided Maharashtrians think beating and creating fear among north Indians is their duty! Some misguided Tamilians think supporting terrorist outfit like LTTE is above our national interest. Some misguided religious followers think anyone not fitting into their ideology is enemy! Similarly some misguided linguistic chauvinists think only their language is superior.
These peoples' action cause so much terror to our own citizens that it is creating a mistrust among the fellow citizens, which is very bad for any country's well being.

Indian culture basically is non-aggression. And we have thousands of years of history to prove that this is right. That is why whole world is curious about learning Yoga, our philosophy, our cuisine and even our cinema!

So the very first thing needed is zero tolerance towards people who indulge in terrorising our own fellow citizens in the name of cast, creed, religion and language. When we stand united within as Indians without discriminations among different region, religion and language, then no terror act from without will succeed.

Now that the Government has taken oath in the presence of the 26/11 martyr Major Sandeep Unnikrishna's father and great and tough leader Sri L.K.Advani, We all expect that the stringent action will be taken by the Government (not just condemnation in strongest possible words) against all those people who either encourage or indulge in violent act of vandalising public property, beating girls, and such mean acts.
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Good sense mail

You are all aware of the incidents by ‘Rama Sene’ and other self-proclaimed saviours of Hindu culture. These misguided people, in the name of fighting Taliban and such religious extremists are becoming religious extremists themselves.
The irony is, these so called saviours of Hinduism quote Swami Vivekananda extensively and justify their vandalism.

Let us look at what Swami Vivekananda has said about protecting women.
(This is from a book published by Sri Ramakrishna Ashram)

“Who are you to solve women’s problems? Are you the Lord God that you should rule over every widow and every woman? Hands off! They will solve their own problems. Educate your women first and leave them to themselves, then they will tell you what reform are necessary for them.”

I sincerely request you to forward this mail to as many contacts as possible. We have forwarded many ‘good luck’ mails in the hope of getting something for us. Now by forwarding this mail let us spread the good sense all over.
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THE POSITIVE FALLOUT OF MUMBAI TERROR ATTACK

One of the positive fallout of recent terror attack is that common as well as eminent people of Muslim community are voicing their opinion against terrorists in public fearlessly. It is the duty of all Indian citizens to support them.
We need to carry forward this, irrespective of our religious, political and regional affiliations.

Recently when a MLA from Maharashtra did not get the chance to become Chief Minister, threatened that he has proof of nefarious activities of outgoing CM. It simply means he was also part of those nefarious activities or at least concealing the crime. In any case he is abetting crime and has to be punished.

Again a very senior leader of a national political party is questioning the govt on its failure of internal security. However he is conveniently forgetting that the episode of Kandhahar hijack and attack on parliament were also due to failure of internal security and ineffective handling and unnecessary interference into the working of security agencies.

The so called saviours of Kannada and Marathi pride were damaging the government property and beating our own citizens, that too proudly posing for the media cameras. Still no actions were initiated against them.

Again, when a father and son duo paralysed the capital city, just to show off their strength not many voice of eminent people opened their mouth. However, these eminent people sit for ‘dharana’ also to support the bar owners plea of keeping their establishment open well after midnight.

The recent outpour of public outcry is bringing some kind of sense into politicians that they need to be responsible in their ‘walk and talk’.

Whenever any kazi, mullah, swamiji, babaji and our great netajis talk or act in a way that is harmful to India and its citizens, we need to carry forward the act of showing our discontent by questioning their honesty in raking up the issues. We can definitely see a better future for India by sustaining the momentum generated as a result of Mumbai terror attack.
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IDENTITY OF HOAX MAILS.

I received forwarded mail from a friend and it turned out to be a hoax. I ran a simple google search on the author of the email to find the authenticity of the mail. (www.keral.com/specialnews/HIV_ needle_rumour_spreads_through_e-mail.htm)

I request all of you to be careful before forwarding such mails as they add to paranoia which is already high in the present day society due to the power of communication tools.

The hoax mails can be identified easily by observing the following;
1. Normally they start with "do not delete, read fully...."
2. The author of email normally writes fancy job titles, like Director, VP asia pacific operations, etc,
3. The author does not disclose his email-id, phone nos and proper address of the source he refers.
4. Most important is, the email invariably tries to put some fear in the mind, about day-to-day activities.

Finally I urge all of you to continue forwarding mails, but with little caution.

Regards,
- Sarode.

WIIL BJP GOVERNMENT SURVIVE IN KARNATAK?

It’s more than 24 hours since the Karnataka Assembly election results are out and everyone is certain that BJP is going to form the Government. But BJP has to remain alert and should not become complacent in its victory celebrations. Congress has accepted the defeat and ready to sit in opposition. JD(S) also has given statement that they will bow to the peoples’ verdict.

So will it be smooth for the BJP government? During last assembly, none expected that JD(S) will join hands with its arch rival and rule the state. Now there is a window of opportunity for Congress to form the government legally and that too without raising any heckles of manipulation of gubernatorial position.

Let’s see how it can happen?

First Congress will let BJP to stake claim to form the government. Being single largest party, BJP gets a chance to form the government and will be asked to prove its majority on the floor of the house.

Now BJP has 110 seats, Congress 80, JD(S) 28 and others 6 adding upto 224. The party with 113 seats will get simple majority and mandate to rule.
So Congress can convince the 6 independent candidates and JD(S) to vote against the Confidence motion of BJP.( Of course these things will happen behind the scene and Sound Bytes will be orchestrated in the media saying they will play the role of constructive opposition. So that no one will smell the conspiracies going behind the scene)

This defeat will make BJP government to resign and Governor has to invite
the next largest party to form the government. This way Congress can come
to power. Further it can engineer defections in JD(S) and wean away 26 seats and with independents can have a strength of 112. But then the break-away group and independents will have say in the running of the government.

It may not be possible to determine that who will have the last laugh in this political game but the Tamasha will go on as ever.

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LUCKY MASCOT MAILS

Please start forwarding this mail within 30 minutes of opening it. Do not forget to type 'JAI N-JOY BABA' below, before forwarding.
The results of doing this is given below:

Type 1 time - Your all wishes of the day gets fulfilled.
Typing 2 times - Your all wishes for the week gets fulfilled.
Typing 3 times - Your all wishes for the fortnight gets fulfilled.
Typing 4 times - Your all wishes for the month gets fulfilled.
Typing 5 times - Your all wishes for the year gets fulfilled.
Typing 6 times - Your all wishes for the coming decade gets fulfilled.
Typing 7 times - Your all wishes of the life time gets fullfilled.
Typing 8 times - Your all wishes for all your future lifes gets fulfilled.

IF YOU SIMPLY RETURN THIS MAIL TO THE ORIGINATOR, MY PURPOSE WILL GET FULFILLED!
i.e., MAKING AWARE OF SUCH 'FORWARD OR ELSE.......' MAILS.

JAI N-JOY BABA! JAI N-JOY BABA! JAI N-JOY BABA! JAI N-JOY BABA!
JAI N-JOY BABA! JAI N-JOY BABA! JAI N-JOY BABA! JAI N-JOY BABA!
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FURTHER THOUGHTS ON LIVING IN SIMPLICITY

There was a good discussion on the article 'Living in simlicity' among my e-mail group members.
I have reproduced them below, and these thoughts provide completeness to the article.

- Shivkumar D P wrote:
Hi Sarode,
Life has got all the ingredients, How you mix them is the issue. Off course it is not simple, as you have said.

- Dear Shivakumar,
Thanks for you mail. Yes, I agree that life has many ingredients and the issue is how we mix them. But many a times I may forget that the choice of mixing / not mixing is solely under my discretion. This choice and being comfortable with my choice is the key.
-Sarode.

- Pradeep Basappa Khannur wrote:
I fully agree with you; living in simplicity - is not that simple at all.
Renunciation - supposed to be easy; no need to struggle to give away what we have. Instead, we struggle to earn and accumulate - which finally leads to fear of loosing and unhappiness.
Nitin, any valuable (or invaluable) comment.

- Nitin Sarode wrote:
Pradeep, beacuse you asked me to comment, so here you go:
1) Living in simplicity - is not that simple at all - We are social animal and live in social circles. Because social life is no more 'simple' (please note it is relative word), the life we live in is no more simple.
2) Earlier the trading was a simple bartering system. You get the things needed by you simply exchanging the things you had at your disposal - This is our perception of olden days practice. In the same way, I can explain today's trading pratice as very simple. You just sit at the computer, chose your commodity, and either buy or sell, all at your convenience in a room. No need to go cross the seas or lands.
Now to your point
3) Renunciation - supposed to be easy; no need to struggle to give away what we have. Instead, we struggle to earn and accumulate - which finally leads to fear of loosing and unhappiness.
To give away, one should have and to have, one has to struggle.....

Hi All,
Thanks for giving a thought on the article and sharing with all. It has brought out the point the article intended i.e., LIVING IN SIMPLICITY IS REALLY VERY SIMPLE.

* Since we are social animals, we have strong safety of social network.

* Yes, we need to be aware of our perceptions. We are tuned to think that olden days were golden because we perceive fear of future and struggle in the present.

* Renunciation is a matter of choice. If we are comfortable with our choice of renouncing / not renouncing, there is no scope for struggle.

So, friends, let's look at the complexity we have woven around us , drop the shackles and LIVING IN SIMPLICITY IS REALLY VERY SIMPLE .
- Sarode.
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LIVING IN SIMPLICITY

Living in simplicity – is not that simple at all.
We all love and strive to be happy and hence make our lives complicated !!!

Look at the sub prime issue dogging the world financial markets, the hit taken by the savvy Citibank, the losses suffered by IT companies in hedging the currency fluctuations, The woes of option and futures traders after the gyrations of the stock market.

Earlier the trading was a simple bartering system. You get the things needed by you simply exchanging the things you had at your disposal. As we started protecting against calamities, either manmade or natural, we started devising monetary products.

The derivatives- futures and options, hedging funds, arbitrages are all devised to secure the future by overcoming the fluctuations of stock market, commodity prices, and foreign exchanges. But did it secure the future? Unfortunately the answer is No.

The point to be noted here is – the same kind of mistakes we make in our otherwise simple enjoyable life and get entangled like derivative operators.

We can dig out lot of our own life examples by contemplating the way we are living, the way we think we are living. So that it helps in making our life simple and enjoyable.

(We may ponder over the way we go about our livelihood, the act of ‘giving and receiving’)
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CONTROVERSY IN UDUPI

Dear All,

A controversy is going on since a couple of months on performing Paryaya Pooja by a pontiff (Puttige math) who travelled outside India to spread the Hindu way of life. Many scholars including Pejawar Seer is against him.

It's very strange that such a great issue which concerns the common people is being ignored by the people/media who have a tremendous hold over the psyche of common people.

I had written about this to a news paper to be published in 'letters to the editor' column. And as expected it didn't get published.

I have reproduced the matter below, and if your thoughts are with me, you may please forward to your contacts.

Thanking you all,
Subramani.S.Sarode
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Reference is made to the paryaya issue being reported in the media. It makes common people to ponder over the following points:

1. All these great religious leaders quoting Krishna in all their pravachans tell us ‘vasudaiva kutumbakam’ meaning the entire earth is one family. But in their narrow vision are saying only Indian soil constitute the earth.

2. Some so called devotees of Krishna have gone to court to stop Puttige seer performing pooja sighting age old tradition. In that case Lord Krishna should be punished since he gave darshan to Kanakadasa, (an untouchable person) against the then age old tradition.

3. It is ironical that at the very place where Lord Krishna has shown us the way, religious leaders are fighting over trivial issue. All these people quote Krishna’s Geethopadesha wherein he says ‘I am in everything and everything is in me’. Then why this one-upmanship?

4. Another irony is – all our intellectuals and political leaders are keeping mum on the issue. They take up the issues only when it suits them and not in the larger interest of uniting people. Even the media which makes lot of hulla gulla is surprisingly silent.

5. Finally I have a doubt about publishing this letter as it appears to be against some well known personalities.
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COMPARE

“The root cause of misery is comparison” was the message in an article by Khushwnat Singh. Of course we have all come across – don’t compare your children with others, don’t compare your status with that of others, don’t compare your happiness with others – in different media.

How can I prosper without comparing? How can I know where do I stand as of now and where and how to move?

Comparing is necessary but we need to do ‘true comparison’. First let us see what is not true comparison.

Recently there was a controversy about N.R. Narayanamurthy’s alleged disrespect to the national flag. Many people were eager to cast a stone at him and feel that ‘I am more patriotic than NRN but see I don’t have few thousand rupees but the fellow has made crores!’ In a flash we just forget all the struggle and service done by NRN.

The comparison if any with regard to patriotism is necessary, then we should look at Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and the likes. Are we ready to undergo such a gruelling life and prove our patriotism?

Similarly compare yourself with Amitabh Bachan in terms of acting talents. Make Tenzing Norgay as the bench mark for that terrific determination. Mother Teresa to the quality of service, A.R.Rehman the musical talents, Dr.Rajkumar for his acting talents. Let us not pollute our mind with Rajkumar’s kidnap episode, Amitabh’s friendship with Amarsingh and Mulayam Singh.
Ha! Do not ridicule Lalu with his Bihar rule in mind, but look at his performance as Railway minister.

We can even compare with Bin Laden. For a moment keep aside his Al Queda. See at his team building and goal setting capabilities.

Charles Shobhraj: The very name itself brings the image of a womaniser and serial killer. But his pesevarance with which he studies the local law books and defends himself is a worth comparing point.

So, the plain simple thing is, the parameters, which we choose to compare ourselves with others determine the development of our character!

Therefore go ahead and compare and compare and compare with anything and everyone but be clear about where to focus on.
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I DREAM MORE & MORE
AND MAKE IT REAL FOR SURE!

I came up with this slogan recently, while designing the summer workshop for the children in the age group of 12 – 15 years. More I thought about this slogan, more I started liking it.

The year 2006 is drawing to a close, and many people may be scratching their heads in search of a suitable New Year resolution.

Once Mulla Nasruddin was boasting that he is successful in implementing the New Year resolution year after year without fail. When someone asked how is it possible, “My New Year resolution is – remember to take resolution on 31st December every year!” replied the Mulla Nasruddin.

Normally, the New Year resolutions read like – ‘should become slim’, ‘start exercises’, ‘read’, ‘earn money’, ‘save money’, ‘buy assets’, ‘learn something’, ‘stop smoking’ etc. Many times these are born out of our immediate concerns and hence we limit ourselves to few tasks. Moreover the resolution remains just that – resolution. It does not get implemented. But there is a way out. Consider the slogan at beginning of this write up.

“I dream more & more and make it real for sure”.

This resolution need not wait till the clock strikes 12 on the mid night of 31st December. Any time will do, but now is the best time. This resolution automatically triggers our awareness as to what kind of dreams we need to have. After all they are to be made real. Since the resolution says to dream more and more, it doesn’t stop at just ‘stop smoking’, ‘start exercising’ but seamlessly move forward, thereby having more and more goals and means to achieve them on a continuous basis.

Is this not success?

Is this not happiness?

Then is it not appropriate to take this resolution - “I dream more & more and make it real for sure” - now itself.

WISHING YOU ALL ‘DREAMS COME TRUE’ NEW YEAR, ALL THROUGH THE YEAR, YEAR AFTER YEAR.

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'How to Do' Meditation

The caption itself is a misnomer. And it is this urge ‘to do’ meditation leaves us more jittery, angry and frustrated after the daily ritual of meditation.
So, the first thing to be realised is – we need to be in meditative mode, here, now and always. To be in meditation means to know and experience our being and nothing else. So, really there is nothing to do to experience our being. Only we need to ‘do’ or ‘not do’ something without expectation. That is the key for meditation.

In this information age, we have collected lot of info regarding meditation. We even fish out the facts about a Guru and his methods before deciding to seek the help -through cyber space and acquaintances. With this our mind gets prejudiced.

For many people the reason ‘to do’ meditation is to find peace, improve relationships, improve concentration then aspire for success in whatever they are doing. When we sit and close eyes ‘to do’ meditation with all these kind of expectations, there is an explosion of information in the mind, thoughts whirl around, and heart beat races up. This unsettles us. By that time the daily quota allotted for meditation gets over. Then we hurry up to do our routine chores. This cycle repeats on and on with the result of increased anxiety, angry, complexes and helplessness.

So what to do?

There is a distinct connectivity between our thoughts, words, action and the breath. Once we become aware of this, meditation happens. You can experiment the following;

When you sit for meditation next time do not worry about the method you have adopted. For few days just keep observing your thoughts, the self-talk that’s going on, heart beat, your sitting posture and the breath. Now steady any one of the above. You are free to choose any one and be comfortable with your choice.

Suppose if you choose breath, keep observing its pattern and slowly come to a rhythm. Now shift your awareness to heartbeat, self-talk or thoughts. Look what’s happened?
This way you experiment with different combination and find out the most comforting one.
Now, you are on a meditation expedition. But the most intriguing question remained unresolved. That is – When to meditate? and how much time to devote?

Again try out different time of the day/night and as long as you can give time for yourself, so that the observing game is in comfort zone.

After a few days of experimentation, you will have the knowledge of your comfortable period and quantum of time. Armed with this knowledge, continue the experiment for few more days. Of course do not have any expectations or search for results out of this experiment.
Then you will definitely experience your own being and you are on auto pilot to lead your life. Also you will be in meditative mode forever.
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