Kalki- Do you know him?

Who is the 10th incarnation of Lord Vishnu? – was the 1st question of the quiz? I didn’t know the answer but expected it to be someone familiar after all, I have grown listening to mythological fables and have been enchanted by them too. “Kalki” was the answer…at first I thought it is “Kali” but on second glance I found that it was indeed “Kalki”. I have never heard of him – I said to myself and thus began my quest to find more about him.

It was an interesting quest as it reminded me of all the incarnations of Lord Vishnu and the one that is yet to come. Yes, the tenth incarnation of Vishnu, Kalki, is suppose to arrive when the world will be at a brink of complete chaos. He will rise from the sea on a white horse and destroy all evil, probably at the end of Kalyug.

I also came to know about the interesting dispute about the 9th incarnation of Vishnu. Some people believe that Balram (Lord Krishna’s brother in Mahabharta) was the 9th incarnation whereas others believe the Budha was the 9th incarnation. Here too, there are two different beliefs for the purpose of this incarnation. According to one belief Vishnu incarnated as Buddha to preach non-violence and against animal sacrificing in religious ceremony. According to other belief, Vishnu incarnated as Buddha to start a new religion with a specific intention to convince some demons to give up worshipping Lord Shiva. For, Lord Shiva protected his worshippers and these demons used this protection to do whatever they wanted. Buddha convinced them with his new religion and they stopped worshipping Lord Shiva, which in turn allowed Shiva to punish them.

The incarnations of Lord Vishnu are mentioned in order below:

• Matsya (The fish incarnation)
• Kurma (The turtle)
• Varaha (The boar)
• Narsimha (Half man and half animal)
• Vamana (The dwarf )
• Parsuram (The Priest)
• Rama (as in Ramayana)
• Krishna (as in Mahabharta)
• Balram or Budha
• Kalki (yet to appear)

I got the information from the following sites and will recommend visiting them to get more information on the incarnations of Lord Vishnu and more:

http://adaniel.tripod.com/incarnations.htm
http://www.sanatansociety.org/hindu_gods_and_goddesses/vishnu.htm

Gandhigiri makes a dude cool?

I saw “Munnabhai Lage Raho” today and I loved watching the movie but the fact that we, the people of India, have forgotten Bapu and his ideals made me sad. I wondered if this movie could make Gandhigiri cool? Most importantly, I wondered if it would stay or pass by as another cool wave….on the birth anniversary of Gandhijee, this was the best thing to ponder upon…

Gandhigiri, as we err… Munnabhai says it, is not to stay for long. So, am I dismissing it as a mere facet of entertainment? Would the impressions of Gandhigiri made by a movie would be forgotten once it is out of theatres and people’s mind?

Unfortunately, yes! There have been movies on numerable issues like dowry, killing of girl child at birth, the plight of widows and above all on corruption. Only if we had persisted with our feeling of the evils, which these practises unleash on our socieities, our country would have been a utopian society.

“I love Gandhigiri in the movie”, my friend said “and I am going to watch it again”. He added that “I loved the movie so much that I have bought the tickets in black!” My nephew told me that “it is an ultimate movie, we missed school to see it again”. Now wait, it’s not what Gandhigiri is or am I missing the point?

Like many, I am also influenced by Gandhiji’s principles and I believe that movie has done a lot good to the country. Even if most of the people will remember only the movie and not Gandhiji’s ideals, there would be a small percentage of people whose faith in Gandhigiri would strengthen. These are those people who believed in Gandhiji and were ridiculed by others who thought it’s not cool. They needed support and an opportunity to ascertain themselves that their faith is not misled. This movie provided the opportunity and saved many “Gandhians” to lost in the “cool” wave of unethical opportunitism.

These people, handful they might be, and their resolve to change will definitely affect others and would leave a lasting impression, unlike the movie.

Euro News ‘n’ my Mail box

September 26, 2006

What I enjoyed most doing today:

The best thing I like about a cloudy, chilling morning with blows of cold breeze coming into the room intermittently from a slightly opened bedroom window is sleeping under a cozy quilt in my comfortable bed! And, what is the worst thing? Obviously, it’s being pulled out of the bed as early as 0630 and being asked to get ready for a gym session! A great mind has truly said that life is not at all about charms but the difficulties one face. The difficulties of doing a tough gym session after a beautiful sleep, perhaps!

The good thing about this gym (Passage Fitness) I goto, is that they have around 8-10 TV sets which one can watch while working out on one’s body. Though, there are very few English channels but I came across this channel “Euro News”, which then became the perfect match for my “moon walker”. It presents news related to Europe (mainly), as the name suggests, and is precise to the point. Doing exercise is no longer boring and time consuming. With Euro news on the TV, and working out on “moon walker”, I am burning 400 calories every day. So the best thing of the day was this channel that had made my exercise virtually effortless.

What I didn’t enjoy doing today:

When I switched on my PC in office today, I found that my Microsoft Outlook was not working. This meant that I would not be receiving my mails and would not be able to send any till the problem is resolved. Before I could start bashing Mr. Bill Gates for selling his error prone software to the world junta, like many of my peers, overly undermining the fact that almost all the offices in the world uses the software made by his company and without giving any thought as to why it is the software by choice, I quickly established that it was a problem with the network connection to the mail server and not any problem with the software. Whatever be the reason, eventually I would not be able to use my “outlook”.

It doesn’t seem very bad for ½ hour after which I started becoming impatient. I felt like

• I have been quarantined from the world and that too for none of my fault.
• I could still use my phone, I could talk to a person sitting next to me but a mere feeling that I would not be able to mail him, sent shiver through my spine.
• I felt like I would not be able to do anything! Dude, it’s only 1 software, you have hundred things to do. I know it but I felt like that’s it – my day at work ended before I could start it!

The network problem was solved in the afternoon and the 4 hrs. of the day without being able to use “outlook” was the worst thing that could have happened today.

Obesity - a lethal weapon?

Aug 29, 2006 – Tuesday

What I enjoyed doing today:

In Belgium, there are only few channels that show movies in English (thank God!) and VT4 is 1 of them. Yesterday they showed a movie named – “Lethal Weapon IV”. I didn’t even know that there were 3 sequels to “Lethal Weapon”. Is there a 4th one too?

I started seeing English movies when I was in 10th standard when STAR Movies and HBO have just started their telecast in India. In those times, the English movies used to come with Hindi sub-titles and believe me, it was funny. Now you would know that in English movies, they somehow always have to say “the Shit” or the F*** word – as a curse or in sheer enjoyment. The translations used to state something like “dhatt tere ki” (oops) or “nalayak kahin ka”(you worthless fellow…) in Hindi. Funny, isn’t it?

I would love to understand the sub titles here too, which are in Dutch but I guess here they could translate the ” F” word literally, being on the same cultural plane. I hope so! Everything apart, I enjoyed the movie and besides, Mel Gibson is 1 of my favourite Hollywood star so this was the best thing I did today.

What I least enjoyed doing today:

I have always like “more”. If I get a salary raise of 1000 rupees, still I would have liked to get more. If I have got 80% marks in exam, I would like to get more marks in next exam. There are only few things that I like less – and my body weight is 1 of them.

I have gained so much weight in last year that I feel ashamed of myself. Though I could see this trend for 3-4 years but I had this strange feeling that it will stop some day. Magically? Yes! After all, there is a limit to which one’s weight could increase but alas, it wasn’t true. Why am I not able to restrict my body weight? I guess that because I love eating food especially in restaurants, at fast food joints or in my own grand kitchen (parathas, pooris, biryani…yummm………).

If I look back, based on my experience, I would categorise the whole process (process….heh!) of gaining weight and then loosing it to be fit in the following stages:

• Somebody tells you that you are overweight (being underweight is never a problem, if you ask me. I envy those guys who can eat anything on earth and still dont gain an ounce of weight)
• People keep talking. They are jealous. But in 2nd stage, you realize that indeed, you are overweight. The pants getting tight from waist every 2 months. The length of the pants increses – now this happens because the pant doen’t fit your tummy and it slides to reach the most stable state just beneath your tummy. While stting, you aften use your tummy as hand rest and finally your shirt keep coming out of your pant – I still have to figure, why this happens.
• In the 3rd stage, you think that you should exercise and restrict yourself from eting fried/unhealthy food to become physically fit again. Mind it, I said think!
• And in final stage, you actually do exercise and show some restraint to loose weight.

I am stuck in the 3rd stage for long now this feeling made me sad today. I have, yet again make plans to be in final stage. Lets see if I could persist.

Certification over Mood Swings

Aug 28, 2006 – Monday

What I enjoyed doing today:

Waking up on Monday morning, breaking the inertia of rest gathered during the weekend, is always difficult for me. However today, it was different. Shivani was going to take her certification exam in Java

Now, the exam is conducted online but still you cannot take the exam from your home or from cyber cafe. There are designated centres which conduct exams on bahalf of the organization, who owns the certification. This business idea was quite desruptive and innovative. The idea seems so trivial but still it worked and the organizations like Prometric are flourishing as a result.

She cleared her exam with flying colours and we celebrated in the evening. She was relieved to have this monkey off her back and that now she won’t have to sacrifice her favourite TV shows for studies. Well, we know it’s a short lived joy because we both have to clear 2 more certifications before end of this year….yeah…we work in IT and have to keep pace with changing times….

Did I tell you that I gathered some more brownie points by insisting and then going with her to the test center :)

What I least enjoyed doing today:

Mood swings. I hate this and I assume nobody likes when our mood swings to a “bad mood”. I was sitting with a friend when he stated that he was not feeling usual self and doesn’t knew why it was like. “I am just not in mood to do anything” – he stated.

How could one save himself from bad moods. I feel that it generally happens when something unexpected happens that doesn’t benefit you or doesn’t make you happy. More so, it is something that you were mostly sure that it won’t happen.

“I don’t know the reason of my bad mood” – this is something that I used to say a lot. Well over the time, I felt that it was not true. I knew the reason but I was just not man enough to admit that I could be brooding over such a trivial thing. Once I knew that I had to accept the reason and work upon it to get out of this mood – I found myself rational again. One more thing can also help lifting our mood, which is, speaking to someone who listens or writing whatever you feel in a diary. It helped me, atleast!

Bad mood is something that could ruin your day. I felt it for my friend and know that today, probably, was not a pleasant day for him.

No arguments over Parathas

Aug 27, 2006 - Sunday

What I enjoyed doing most, today:

Shivani knew that I enjoyed the breakfast, I made yesterday and that I had blogged it. By mentioning this 1 act of mine (that happens once in a while), and not mentioning numerous others done by Shivani (that happens almost every day), I was trying to gain some brownie points. I could have teased her saying that I did a nice breakfast for us and she didn’t simply because the blog doesn’t mention it. But whom was I kidding……ladies are smart!

She prepared wonderful “parathas” for me and I just couldn’t stop eating them. So this gourmet treat was the best part of the day!

What I least enjoyed doing today:

We often have arguments with people. It does not matter if I loose or you win the arguments, I always feel a bit down so why do I argue or rather why do we argue? Because, we have different opinions about the same thing. Why do we have different opinions? Because, our previous experience had been different and successful so we all think that “my opinion is correct because I did it in past and I was succesful”. How come 2 people have different experience for the same thing and still sucessful. It can’t be right….but it is. It is because the environment or perspective (the external conditions) to our experience were different.

Let’s take an example:

Question: How do you eat Dosa (pancake like stuff eaten in India)?
Anwers: North Indian guy will reply -- with fork and spoon where as a south Indian guy will reply -- with hands!

Both are saying right but they are also saying different things. We can argue over this but because we know that the perspective of both answers is different, we understand their answers. In north India, restaurants serve dosas with forks where as in south India, it is a normal practice to eat with hands.

So, often in arguments, there is no right or wrong answers and what we need to do is understand perspective and then start all over again. I am sure it wil lead to a more constructive talk than argument.

I had an argument today and I felt bad but the fact that I was able to understand other’s perspective, relieves me!

Sleeping tight over Scrambled eggs

Aug 26, 2006 - Saturday

What i enjoyed doing today;

I woke up early today morning. It was 9 AM and yes it was early because today is Saturday! On weekends, though there is no change in nature, I mean, Sun does not come out late or something just to let some people like me to sleep till late or the birds do not take a chill pill and get cozy in their nests but it's different for them. They don't have to go to office daily and spend 8-9 hrs. doing something that has to be done.

By the time I woke up, Shivani was already in action and was fully into her laptop preparing for her exam so I took the apron and prepared myself for a show in kitchen. I made omelet and half-fried (bull's eye) eggs for breakfast. I took special care that the shape of omelet comes out round and it's in 1 piece. I also tried to make it look good s I used some coriander and persil leaves for garnishing. Finally it came out perfect. Shivani relished it and it made my day :)

What I didn't enjoy doing today:

After we came back from supermarket from our weekly shopping, I was feeling a bit tired. I had a stiff neck for last 3-4 days and was feeling an urge to rest. I laid straight on my back after some time it happened. I slept!

There is nothing wrong with sleeping in the afternoon but I didn't feel good when I woke up.It was like I was sleeping the whole day and had wasted my Saturday. Even the aromatic evening tea couldn't lift my spirits. I think from next time, if i decided to sleep in afternoon, I will make sure to put an alarm and not oversleep. Oversleeping! - I think that this was the problem. I overslept and this was the reason that i was feeling weird. Did I tell you that I slept for 4 hrs!!

Indian curry with Five Point Someone...

Aug 25, 2006 - Friday

What I enjoyed doing today:

After a long time, I read a novel - "Five Point Someone" by Chetan Bhagat - and I completed it in one sitting. I picked this book because I wanted to read something light, and light it was. I would definitely recommend reading this book because:

• You can read it anytime; you really don't need to be in any particular frame of mind to read this book.
• The book is very well written, in a simple language and has a pace that will not let you bore.
• People, who had lived in hostels, would relate to the story. However, there is a chapter in the book about stealing exam papers in IIT, which is pretty hard for me to believe. After all, IIT is the most prestigious institute in the country.
• In the end, you would be left with a "feel good factor" and feel that justice was done with each character. They got what they deserved.

I think, I will definitely read 2nd book by the same author pretty soon but for the mean time I have started reading a book - Cross train your brain by Stephan D. Eiffert.

What I didn't enjoy doing today:

Today, I and Shivani, sneaked out from office for lunch. Usually, we don't go out and either relish the home made food or content ourselves with a sandwich. We first went to Fu-Hao, a Chinese restaurant, but it was full and instead of waiting , we decided to go to an Indian restaurant called "Sawad", which is also near our office. We were lucky to get their in time because only 1 table was unoccupied then. Now, we have been to this restaurant many times earlier and we have always liked the food but qfter lunch, we had a mutual feeling of not having great time. We didn't enjoy our lunch - why?

• It was a buffet. The quality of food was not bad but the staff wasn't caring enough to see if something needed to be re-filled. We have to wait for "Naan" - an Indian bread for about 20 minutes!
• It was optional in restaurant to have a buffet or order from Menu. I felt that more attention was being given to the people who ordered from the menu.
• No salad and pappadums in the buffet!
• We like the restaurants, which are peaceful, have good ambiance and we get proper attention of the staff. Sawad is one of those places but only in the evenings. It is not less than a mess in the afternoon - the place is always full of people, the staff is on their toes to server everyone and such hustle-bustle and not getting proper attention from staff - really bothers me. (Did I mention that there were only 2 staff members to serve around 40 people)

Next time , I think, I would go to a buffet when it just starts. There would be less people around, I would get proper attention of the staff and I would not have to wait for my breads!