The MInd, Body and Yoga

Ok..so here I am on the path to finding myself and an important part of this project is to have some kind of discipline in life, the ability to shut off negative influences and concentrate on what is important to you as a person, a pure mind and body etc., I am not going to go on cos I might sound like a philosopher which I am not even close to... Speaking of a pure body and mind (ahem!! My body probably cries every time I feed it junk and my brains are overworked as they never rest) I have just started taking yoga classes as an important step of this journey :) I was skeptical at first about yoga - you would be too if parts of your childhood were spent sitting with an aunt who chanted "Om" when you looked on like a deer struck by headlights wondering how this supposed to be fun! Anyways I digress.

Have you ever had the experience of trying to stretch like a cat years after school and college ? More simply put you are no longer between the age range of 16-27?? The only way I can describe how I felt when I tried the most simple and basic yoga stretches is confusion and pain!Here I was trying to concentrate on holding a cat-dog or cow or some kind of animal pose (maybe it was pigeon which actually makes it a bird pose) without tripping on myself or someone next to me! It seemed to be that my body was taking revenge on me for the years of abuse it had been subjected to over the last 3 decades!! And you what they say about pay backs - you get much more than you gave! And it didn't help that some others were doing all of this without breaking into a sweat when I couldn't even touch my toes..Those who know me well know that I am obsessed with touching my toes. It has been a life long endeavour of mine to touch my toes...I couldn't do it when I was a kid, when I was dancing full time and I still can't do it! I keep blaming it on my genes whilst some say its my hamstrings. This "unable to touch my own toes complex" has become a regular joke in my life because of which I have decided to overlook this inability of mine while navigating the journey of life. Getting back to my class, towards the end of it I was desperately looking forward to the death pose where you just lie down and relax!

All said and done a few classes later I find that I can do the cats, cows,dogs and even cobras but not the bird!! I try to take inspiration from my cat who can stretch himself like nobodies business and who thinks I am just being silly when I try to do the cat-cow and dog... he runs beneath me trying to play the "let me see if you will fall" game! But I do look forward to every class so maybe, just maybe I am finding some kind of discipline in my life after all.

So here is to me trying and filing my experiences here so that I can look back one day when I can do all the fancy back bends and remember my humble beginnings and laugh at the girl who was trying to something - I am hoping the future me would have it figured out the "something" by then :-)


P.S - I had a very silly look on my face as I typed out this post - I have missed not posting on the weekend and I had nominated myself for the nablopo of all things....

TGIF!!!!! 08-Oct-10

It's Friday! Yay! It has been a long week and I am looking forward to this week end more than I normally do! The only thing I have planned is to attend my yoga class. on Saturday. A separate post on that will come soon. What I'd like to do other than that has been summed up well by furry little pal:-)

On a different note I am going to give nablopo a try and am starting off small but cute (with this post) Also going forward I am going to do TGIF posts every Friday. These posts will be the best way for me to unwind after my week...everybody does wordless Wednesdays so why shouldn't I do TGIF Fridays?? :) For those who may not know (though I am sure that is a rarity) TGIF is an acronym for Thank God It's Friday! What do you have planned for the week end??

Of Concentration, Me and MM

Have you ever wondered what happens to your sense of concentration once you are done with college? I have been trying hard (not real hard though) to start studying for a very important exam which I have been planning to write for quite some time now. Every time I open my books I go through the same experience which can very comically be described like this:

Me: Ok! Time to get serious..I need to pull up my socks and get this done! After all its for my own good...I can snag that corner office with a view some day (soon)!
MM: That's right babe! You can do it...together we can conquer the world!

5 minutes later:

Me: Chapter 1: "XYZ is the term that is used to define process which describes........"
MM: Are you comfortable in this seating position???
Me: Sure...I have never used a table and chair all my life! Why start now? XYZ is the terms that is used to define process which describes........
MM: Sorry to interrupt, but your back is going to get all bendy this way and you will start hunching more than usual....
Me: grrrr...ok fine! I am moving to the table

After moving to the table:

Me:"XYZ is the term that is used to define process which describes blah blah and Blee. Those who are very adept at following these processes are referred to as........"
MM: Gosh! What's the sound I hear?? Is someone walking past your window??
Me: Grrr....shut up and concentrate! "XYZ is the terms...."
MM: Whatever! I think I need some coffee so that you can be fresh and really concentrate..
Me: Good Lord!! U are a pain...fine will get the coffee..

30 minutes later after coffee:

Me: "XYZ is the term....................blah blah.........bleh!" Yes finally I can remember this...I am done with one page! Yippeee
MM: Good Job! U need a break Let's check whats on TV.....
Me: That is so true....we have been working hard on this for the past 30 minutes! Let's check out the telly...

Another 30 minutes later:

Me: Ok lets get back to work...
MM: Yes! Yes!
Me: "Page 2: The entire XYZ process is depicted in the diagram below...."
MM: Speaking of diagrams did you notice that you still haven't finished that painting??
Me: Yes..will get to it soon...."Page 2: The entire XYZ process...."
MM: You have been saying that for some time now...
Me: Can I please finish this page?? "Page 2: ....."
MM: Look you need to tidy up this place first...It is messing up with the Feng Shui of this room..this is why you can't concentrate...
Me: Good Lord!! Please help :(

Finally, I just closed my books and decided that I was just not up to it at that moment. There was a time in life when I could sit at a place with my books and go on for hours! I woke up at 4:00AM and kept going till 9:00AM sometimes even longer with no real breaks! Only my books got my attention and nothing else...I could concentrate...Now I have become lost in this world of multi-tasking where I have to 100 things at a time to feel satisfied: read my book, check my email, clean my room, think of a solution for a work problem and more!Does life makes us this way? Or do the words of a good friend (who rarely reads this blog ) are true when he says: "It's the age! You are just too old for this stuff!!"

Me:Gulp! I hope not.....dear God please help!
MM: Babes don't you worry.....you can do it!

Sigh....

Conversations with MM

Tuesday afternoon after a long week end my mind (MM)which pretty much likes to do its own thing tells me:

MM: I wanna do something adventurous,
Go back packing some where or just pack and go somewhere (based on convenience),
Stay in a small town, in the mountains....

SR (that's me):Maybe, but please ensure that there is running water and electricity...am all for the simple life but I need to shower everyday and not let the heat and mosquitoes kill me..

MM:(after a whatever expression)....Live the simple life
Write, paint, eat, sleep, grow my own vegetables, cook......

SR: Yeah sure - If we don't get too lazy that is!BTW from where will the funding come for this dream trip??

MM: Why do you have to rain on my parade? Do u have to be practical all the time?? I can't believe I live within you!! I am so adventurous, creative, and happy go lucky and u....

SR: Well.....

- Interrupted by a superior at work (SP@work)

SP@work: So whats the status on the blah blah item we were working on this morning???
SR: Well its going on a blah bleeh mode and should be done soon....

MM: While this silly girl is trying to work on real life let me go back and doze some more before she will let me fly.

Krishna and Me

Today is one of my most favorite Hindu Indian festivals - Krishna Jayanthi as we tam brams call it or Krishna Janmashtami as the rest of India calls it. I am not sure why this is one of my favorite festivals especially when the other festivals are equally amazing. Maybe it is the food quotient attached to this one.......think about it: seedais, murukus, thatais, milk sweets, fruits basically just about everything. But then every tam bram festival is always comes on top where food is concerned. God! all this talk about food makes me want to schedule a day off and go home right now and start eating. Oh! How I digress!

So why is this special to me?? Cos Krishna is my most favorite God! OK..I know there plenty of you ladies out there and a few guys who might claim the same thing, but for me my relationship with Krishna has been a life long thing. If you are interested about the how and why's read on else you can just skip this post right now!

• I befriended Krishna when I was very young! As soon as I started babbling words as a baby. My parents always fondly tell me stories of how I would stay awake (after they though I was asleep)at night speaking to the red night lamp in the room babbling the words "aalithana la lal la lal"!!! Nobody could figure out this meant...almost 2.5 decades later a few years ago my mom who was listening to a discourse somewhere understood what I had meant while saying those words..it was code for aaillai krishna which actually means baby Krishna on a leaf!

• I got my first toy a little plastic doll (which I still have btw) right at the time I started to talk... I named him Krishna! Nobody knew why and neither did I. "Krishna papa" stayed with me all the time for a few years. Teddy bears and other toys came and went but "Krishna papa" stayed and enjoys his place on the shelf till date! Maybe one day (hopefully) my kids can play with him.

• When we lived in B'lore my mom had this awesome statue of Lord Krishna playing the flute in the living room. She had drooled over this magnificent piece of art and purchased it for its beauty and craftsmanship. One day as she was working elsewhere in the house, I am presuming it was the kitchen, she heard a loud crashing noise. Since it happened to come from the living room she rushed there only to find the magnificent statue of Krishna on the ground broken in several pieces and yours truly standing / kneeling right beside the "holy" mess! Obviously she was flooded with anger as an expensive piece of art was gone and asked me why I broke the statue. The reason lil ole me gave was "I was playing with Krishna and he fell down"!! Needless to say I received a lot of wacks and mom never ever purchased delicate objects of beauty again - at least not until I grew up!

• During the summer holidays after completing my 5th grade I was introduced to paints and brushes! It took me a year or two to get really friendly with them paints and brushes and then boom! There I was painting pictures of Krishna one after the other. Some of them hang in my house, some were gifted to others and some are still trying to find a spot on the wall where they can proudly rest....This phase continued despite classes, exams, college projects and more..

I don't know what happened with me since I started working! Seems that the more and more I flooded myself with ambitions to snag a corner office with a view somewhere (which I am sad to report that I have not yet done) and travel the world, I immersed myself in a web of meetings, deliverables, late nights with no sleep and bad food and what not. I didn't even realise as Krishna slowly slipped away from my heart and moved far, far away. He was around but we were not as close as before... On this day as Indians across the world celebrate his birthday I hope to make an effort once more to woo him back to where he belongs which is close to my heart. The first step was realisation and I think I did that pretty well...

Happy Krishna Jayanthi to all....What your most favorite Krishna experience? I would love to know...

An award and other random things...

I recently discovered that a few months ago I was conferred the "Honest Scrap" blog award, by Swarna for my thoughts and work on "Oodles of Doodles". That blog and this one have been so ignored by me for the past year that I feel I need to hide under a table to avoid my embarrassment from letting laziness and the humdrum of life take over me! So in all earnestness I am looking at this award and the tag that was associated with it as a sign for me to wake up from hibernation and let my mind flow...

So here goes....25 random things about me! 25 is a bit much but I will try! I just hope I can stop :)

1. I love so many things in life and want to do so many things before I die that its difficult to make a list...........
2. I savor silence, solitude and personal space
3. I have a desperate need for everything to be organized and clean that I feel that I maybe a borderline OCD case!!
4. Even though I don't fall into the short category in terms of height, I am crazy for heels....
5. I am a very private person and don't like other folks intruding in my space
6. I believe in God and that destiny shapes a person's life and that a woman's intuition about something must always be listened to.
7. I love love loooooove my pets! So much that I feel they they are better to hang out with rather than annoying humans!
8. I always find it difficult to make decisions! Even after I make the decision I always ponder and dissect it to ensure that it is correct driving myself nuts in the process!
9. If you force me do to something that I am not sure of or don't want to do I will turn around and run the in other direction away from you!
10. If you were to tell me that I cannot do something, I will always have a need to prove you wrong!
11. I can eat anything vegetarian as long as its not bitter gourd!!
12. If you steal my thunder I would most probably hate you!
13. I dream of the day that I could do what I love for a living
14. I hate politics - at work and in life!
15. Books, music and television are very important in my life
16. I prefer watching comedy genre movies than serious ones!
17. I don't like crowded places; too much commotion drains me out
18. Sometimes I tend to talk a lot..so much that you can't stop me
19. I set the bar really high for myself and am always disappointed if I can't make it
20. I do what I think is right no matter what the rest of world thinks about it
21. I don't like to dominate or be dominated by anyone
22. I have had secret ambitions to be a chef and a writer..
23. Sometimes I lack discipline when it comes to sticking to an exercise or study routine
24. I respect those who respect animals! If someone were to tell me that they hate dogs or cats for no good reason I won't think much of them...
25. Unless they are at an interview I don't think much about folks who keep talking about themselves and try to make themselves seem important and intelligent to get some attention..
    

OK. time for me to stop!!! If you stop by this blog please do say Hi using the comments section!

And I start this year with......Books!

Art and Books are perfect beginning for my blogs this year! I have been more regular with my brushes than I have been with my writing! It seemed like I couldn't write about anything when the topics of books hit me...I have been reading two of them this month and wanted to post my thoughts.

The first one was "Devil Bones" by Kathy Reichs. The author is an renowned anthropologist and her life and experiences have been made into the hit reality TV show "Bones" of which I am a great fan of. I had been waiting to read her books for a really long time and finally found them at the local library. Well to say I was not disappointed would be far from the truth. The author says that she is not a trained writer and it shows! This was one book where I actually skipped pages just to get through...it is so strange considering the synopsis of the book guarantees a page turner. This is what the synopsis said:

"In a house under renovation, a plumber uncovers a cellar no one knew about, and makes a rather grisly discovery — a decapitated chicken, animal bones, and cauldrons containing beads, feathers, and other relics of religious ceremonies. In the center of the shrine is the skull of a teenage girl. Meanwhile, on a nearby lake shore, the headless body of a teenage boy is found by a man walking his dog.

Led by a preacher turned politician, citizen vigilantes blame devil worshippers and Wiccans and begin a witch hunt, intent on seeking revenge. Forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan — "five-five, feisty, and forty-plus" — is called in to investigate, and a complex and gripping tale unfolds in this deadly mix of voodoo, Santería, and devil worship."


This seemingly thrilling plot was intertwined with useless romances of the main protagonist, voodoo and devil worship (which may get a readers attention ) and descriptions of the human anatomy (which is not my strong subject) and high way descriptions of North Carolina! Half way through the book, I forgot who the characters were and what exactly each one was trying to or had done! If you like human anatomy and scientific research give the book a try and maybe you wont feel like me! I was let down - maybe it's because I am so used to the dynamic, intelligent portrait of Dr. Temperance Brennan and the strong, charming and funny FBI agent Seeley Booth on the TV series. Neither the character of Tempe nor the FBI detectives live up to this mark..


Just to balance reading something like "Devil Bones" I started reading Sophie Kinsella's "Can you keep a secret?" OK! I have to tell you I was tempted to pick up this book as this author is frequently mentioned on one of my favorite blogs "Life, Books and More". Plus I haven't read chick lit in years.....now this book was funny and entertaining! The classic story of the black horse that triumphs, only the black horse in this case being Emma - a twenty something Londoner with a crappy job, struggling with crazy colleagues, few best friends, a cousin who stole most of her childhood and other equally crazy characters. While on a business trip, the plane on which Emma is flying heads into turbulence. Fearing that she may die, she gives in to a sudden bout of hysterics and reveals all her secrets including the most embarrassing ones to her fellow passenger. Now for the twist in the tale - she turns up to work the next day and guess who is visiting the company to supervise its European operations? None other than one of the companies founder Jack Harper - the fellow passenger from Emma's flight! After that its a Laughton all the way to the end and how Emma finally gets what makes her happy and her romance with the mysterious Jack Harper forms the rest of the book!

I loved it... It is a wonderful feeling to escape from real life into books such as these. But me being me, my silly mind wandered to imagine how it would be if something like this were to happen in real life... The heroine would probably work in a software company surrounded by colleagues who are silly in their own ways and the bosses would most probably be egoistic middle aged males, if not middle aged I am pretty sure a good chunk of them would be obnoxious.....the chance of romance - pretty much zero! A male reader may be getting ready to shoot me a hate mail but try polling female readers and many would be support what I just said :D