Philosophies and religions of the world exalt all human beings to forget about the past, not worry about the future and live in the present. Live- in the moment, for the moment, forever in the moment. The hoi-polloi undertakes arduous yoga asanas, breathing exercises, abstinence, renunciation, meditation, fasting, et al, to find this pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Someone above seems to love us SCMHRDians very much- we don’t have to go through this rigmarole to learn one of the most important lessons that life has to offer. We learn it here at SCMHRD, and I am not talking about Vedanta (obviously!); don’t worry its not an additional subject either (whew!). Its part and parcel of life at SCMHRD- you see it, don’t you? After two days of non-stop OB role-playing with five people of diametrically opposite personality types, we juniors surely do. After spending a little more than an year here the senior batch must do too! With so much being packed into each day, you hardly have time to sulk about the future or lament over the past- you live in the present. Finish Marketing assignment. Study for FCQ. Study for Back(s) (). Freshers’ Party shopping. Committee meeting. Learning group meeting. PLC batch meet (!!!). Read Finance Sense/ Marketing Warfare. Sleep (???). Attend classes. Go to Mezza9/ Talk About. Hangout at the cafeteria. Non-acads. Night long sessions- assignments, gossip, movies, music,.. City-hopping. Just do it- enjoy it (some you can’t of course), live it (some you barely manage to live through!) and move on. For there is a whole new world awaiting you- full of more challenges, more opportunities, more tasks to be accomplished, more fun and frolic to be had, more fiestas to eat, more laughters to be shared, more people and places to be explored. There may be some of us who hate the frenetic pace of life here- the unending mad-rush towards God or only Subbu Sir what! O yes this is madness, and it is madness that is being ingrained in us- to live our every living moment to the fullest, to the very last drop of blood that flows through our muscle and sinew. But it is only the mad who drive this world, take it forward- for they don’t, can’t think or act like the ordinary men and women around them and that’s what makes them stand apart in a crowd, at its vanguard. Avante garde- that’s what all of us are being moulded into here at our alma mater.

P.S.: The above is a copy-paste job from what I wrote for "from the editor's desk" for my college newsletter...at 3:30 a.m can hardly be expected to come up with something new! I am just so glad to get my username and password back for this blog that I had to post something...lets see if and when I better myself...cheers!

Bangalore diaries...My acquaintance with this city of gardens began last year in August when the company that I work in currently posted me there. People who know have accused me of being one of the few, may be the only north Indian to have fallen in love with the city. There are reasons...the primary being that I realize the true worth of a thing only after I have lost it...so sitting here in Delhi my mind often goes back to the eight eventful months that I spent in the city of gardens...though when there I have missed Delhi terribly too sometimes...after all its home. Though right now I would gladly give a limb to get out of this god forsaken place! And then follow it up an ode to Delhi when I start missing it...that's how life works for me! Anyways getting back to Bangalore, here is a list of things that I have done there, wished I could have done there that make memories of that place special to me...

#Filter coffee...loads of it and in every variation...light...regular...strong...or as my dear friends from FSS Bangalore called "extra strong" variation abnormal! One particular friend in FSS started the practice of adding some bournvita (or was it boost?) to it...the result...our very own lip smacking mocha filter coffee! coffee with breakfast at nine...the eleven am coffee break...the four pm coffee break...coffee with evening snacks at six! What particularly endears me to the coffee is not only that it was a gastronomical delight but that each cuppa has memories attached to it...of chit chats, jokes, book discussions, woes, worries, cray ideas, dreams, thoughts, aspirations...what not! shared with friends.

#Bookworm on Brigade Road and MG Road...this nondescript little place is a book lover's haven...with its amazing collection of used as well as new books in a place which is smaller than my bedroom...ahh! the musty smell of old used books...the courteous, ever helpful owner...and the books...filling up shelves from floor to the ceiling...at an affordable price too...though later I discovered that one could easily bargain too! I have spent many a happy hour there...looking for stories...The Brothers Karamazov, Lolita, PG Wodehouses, Rubaiyat, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Exodus,...and for tales that each second hand book carries...the histories of the owners through whose hands it has passed...names, places, dates, scribblings, notes... Even the diary that the owner kept to make a note of the books requested bythe patrons but not available with Bookworm had a story of its own...It was gift from a man to his beloved...with a lovely note on the first page dated sometime in the 1970s...bound in black or maroon, I forget with a motif on the front...what followed inside was even better...the pages were yellowed with a hint of gold and also with age and each page had a quote by Kahlil Gibran...for each day of the year! How the diray had to come to land up in that place no one, not even the owner had a clue! For a long time I coveted that diary but as to how to procure another one like that was never able to find out... Of course there were Blossoms and Premier and Crosswords and LandMark and zillion other places that sold books but for some reason Bookworm will always be the one closest to my heart.

That's all for now...Bangalore diaries will be continued in the next posting...cheers!

In our lifetimes, we identify ourselves with several things...animate, inanimate, tangible and intangible. I am somebody's daughter, somebody's sister, somebody's friend. I am also a Delhite, an Indian...and so on. The list of identities we give ourselves run into huge numbers, sometimes. An identity that is very commonly and very vehemently used is that of religion...I am a Hindu, I am a Muslim, I am a Christian, I am a Sikh, I am a Parsi, I am a Buddhist, I am a Jain, I am a Jew... Not content to be identified by a religion alone, we create more identities for ourselves...I am a Shaivite, I am a Brahmin, I am a Shia, I am a Sunni, I am a Catholic, I am a Protestant,... All identities seek to segregate people...to create that feeling of individuality, uniqueness and none more so than structured religion.
Religion...created by man in the name of God and exploited to serve the vested interests of a few. Human beings need more than just food, water and air to survive...being cognitive creatures we need faith, something to believe in. Faith is the life force that flows along with blood in our veins and keeps us alive...a man without a belief is as good as a vegetable. Many people believe in idols, rosary beads, stones, healing waters, messiahs, hymns and mantras. Many other people make fun of these people. But I believe that its okay to believe in whatever you want to as long as that belief stems from love, from longing or just because you want to believe in something. Let your faith not become your fear. Structured religion as we know it uses fear, the terror of God as its basis. Heavens are not going to rain their wrath on you because you ate an egg on a Tuesday, Thursday or a Saturday...or because you don't read the namaz five times daily...or because you haven't been to a Gurudwara in ages...or because inspite of being a Jew you ate at a Christian's house. To fear God's fury because we are made to believe so by some pundit, maulvi, priest or rabbi or anyone else for that matter is the greatest disservice that we do to God and to ourselves.
On one hand creating divisions that are indelibly imprinted in our pysche, religion has united people on the other, brought them together to commit some of the most heinous crime that we have seen in our times...be it the Holy Crusades, the Salem Witch trials or closer home sati, untouchability, honor killings, partition of the country, demolition of the Babri Masjid, burning of a train in Gujarat and the ensuing riots,...the list is a long one. It also has the dubious distinction of fanning the fire of ignorance among guileless people like you and me by promulgating silly superstitions and elaborate rituals and rites...the motive behind these being filling the coffers of the middlemen performing and promoting them rather than the salvation of the souls of the one paying for it all...as it is usually espoused to be.
Faith maybe a basic need of humans...but something that precedes this is the need to love and be loved. Faith and love are very intimately entwined with one another...you repose in whom you love and, the more you love the more you trust...the more you trust, the more you love. Love seeks to liberate...every atom in the body of the lover as well as the beloved. Religion seeks to enslave...from base things like our money and worldly possessions to our minds, hearts and souls...for there is no conquest as complete as the conquest of a man's soul. And a man who has sold his soul, how can he love? How can he have faith in anything or anyone? Without love...without faith...how can such a man said to be living? An identity that threatens God's most beautiful gift to us- life, of such an identity I refuse to partake any part.

Gazing into the eyes of eternity, I behold infinity...stars...tens...hundreds...thousands...millions...countless glistening dewdrops on the seamless pentacle of infinite space...spawning, living, dying over an over in the eternal time warp...star dust to star dust...star ash to star ash.

Everytime, when I first raise my eyes skywards to soak in the magic of the night sky, I see all the familiar stars...those which make up the Orion or the Big Bear (depending on the time of the year) and the planets...Mercury or Venus (depending on the time of the night)...and I am tempted to shrug my shoulders and say,"Huh! So what's new out there?" Then just when I am about to turn my eyeballs backs to the daily chores of mundane existence, a teeny-weeny sparkle in the sky catches my eye, which I had missed before...so there I am squinting hard at it to make sure if it's for real or not when I see another one! Oops! There's another I'd missed...and one there...and another here...and there...and there too...here, here...right over the tip of my nose...how could I have possibly missed that!

And so the night sky never ceases to fascinate...what with the stars playing hide seek and streaks of light flashing across it which turn out to be shooting stars rather than aeroplanes if I am really lucky.

The moon of course, is not to be forgotten...white, chaste, virginal, calm, soothing...so much nearer than the stars, yet distant and aloof in its own way...the lonely sentinel- alone in a crowd, perhaps by choice, perhaps by fate. When full and rotund he peeps at me from between the leaves of a tree, flooding my room with his light...and something more, casting mysterious shadows on the walls- takes my breath away. To look at that waxing and waning crescent is like seeing myself change...on the inside.

The clouds are loved best when they play hide and seek with the moon...chasing him across the skies- hide- seek, seek- hide. Like flamboyant stokes of paint on a shimmering canvas...sometimes rain laden orange...sometimes cotton like plain white.

The sky...heaven...space...cosmos...call it what you may...so dark, so solemn, so powerful, so empty...brought to life by this puppet show of stars, the planets, the moon, other moons, shooting stars, clouds...extra terrestrial life, eh? It is the womb of creation- where the first birth took place and so will the last death...where Eternity and Infinity walk hand in hand...as one day each one of us will...Amen!