Why some of us don't have one true calling

An interesting TED Talk I chanced upon. And especially so for me, as I took the long path figuring it out.

It's weird how constancy and commitment are expected to go hand in hand. If you are interested in something....... if it's genuine, it has to be forever. If you love someone, if it's genuine, it has to last forever. Really ???

I spent a lot of my growing years being called scattered, unsure, fickle....... and later in life worse,.....escapist, self sabotaging and the like.

Today I know different. I know that until the learning and growth are happening it's massive fun, but when one reaches a plateau, it's time to move on.......I even have a fancy phrase for it.....the need to reinvent oneself every few years, as it's the best possible opportunity for learning and growth. Like being in start up phase forever.

And this is nice validation for sure, especially for those yet struggling with it.

NDTV Coverage - Solar Energy

http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/india-matters/india-matters-here-comes-the-sun/389883

Was nice to see how much SELCO there was in it

Sutapa Deb on NDTV Sustainable Energy Challenege UNESCO, United Nations Development Programme - UNDP Ministry of External Affairs, India

Kindle - A Beginning

I was waiting for Sunday for initiation into the Kindle. (it was sitting in its cover a few days now)

So, Saturday morning I put it to charge before going to work, as all these new age instruments need an eight hour first charge, and I didn't want to start and realize I was falling short on charge. Saying how it was all planned and stuff.

Saturday evening was slotted for uploading books which, as promised, Kiran sent me. He asked if I had a wishlist, and I was like.....  you pick and send. I was expecting around three to four books, but I hit bumper, he sent me a long list of over twenty, and it sure was an interesting list of books:

1. Siddhartha: Hermen Hesse
2. Makers of Modern India: Ramchandra Guha
3. How Google Works: Eric Schmidt
4. A Passage to India: E M Forester
5. Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul: Deepak Chopra
6. Mindset: Carol Dweck
7. Toward a Psychology of Being: Maslow
8. Oneness with All Life: Ekhart Tolle
9. A New Earth: Ekhart Tolle
10. I can see Clearly Now: Wayne Dyer
11. The Search: Osho
12. Learning to Silence the Mind: Osho
13. Its All About Change:Osho
14. Collected Works of Rudyard Kipling
15. A Brief History of Time, from Big Bang to Black Holes: Stephen Hawking
16. Fooled by Randomness: Nassim Nicholas Taleb
17. The Virtue of Selfishness: Ayn Rand
18. Fountain Head: Ayn Rand
19. Future Shock: Alvin Toffler
20. Alchemist: Paulo Coelho
21. Adultery: Paulo Coelho
22. Thinking, Fast and Slow: Kahneman Daniel

I was naturally super excited. And while I'd read a few, more than a few I hadn't, and I was itching to get started.

Back from office, I worked at shifting them from mail onto the Kindle, and there I hit my roadblock. I downloaded all, shifted all, but nothing on the Kindle. Third try, I could see them in the Kindle when plugged into the laptop, but open the Kindle, and nothing there. I spent an hour trying, but no luck.

This morning, I figured how a small error ( small, once you know what) was causing the issue. The books were in the Kindle, but in root drive and not the library, so not visible. Showed how a basic error could almost become deal breaker, until you figure your way around. Lesson there.

It's a brilliant feel....great texture and look. Sure, it will take getting used to, but once you've set your mind to overlook the obvious shift from paperback, and focus on the pluses......it looks like a super promising ride.

I've started with 'Fooled by Randomness' by Taleb. The line that caught my attention...'I am convinced after spending almost all my adult and professional years in a fierce fight between my brain (not fooled by randomness) and my emotions (completely fooled by randomness) in which the only success I've had is in going around my emotions rather than rationalizing them'. The preface and reviews sounded high on irreverence and insight, so reading on.

Glad to have the Kindle, and thanks Kiran, for that great start....I know it took effort and time....I'll make it worth it's while :)

Are You Interesting?

This ones from Seth

Are you Interesting?

An interesting person is interesting to us because she combines two things: Truth and Surprise.

The Truth: Not necessarily a law of physics, not necessarily a measurable truth, but merely the truth of experience. "I believe this," or "I see that."

And Surprise. Note that surprise is always local. Surprising to me, the audience. That's one reason that it's said that interesting people are interested—they are empathetic.

Everyone is capable of telling the truth. And everyone has been surprising at least once.

Which means that being an interesting person is a choice. We can choose to show up, to care enough to contribute our humanity to the next interaction.

It's a choice, but a difficult one, because being interesting feels risky. People are afraid to be interesting, not unable to be interesting.

You're not born uninteresting. But it's entirely possible you've persuaded yourself to be so frightened of the consequences that you no longer have the passion, the generosity or the guts to be interesting any longer.

Without a doubt, we need your interesting.

Saarnath

Saarnath is the place of Buddha's first sermon after he attained enlightenment.

It is one of the four holy Buddhist sites of piligrimage, said to have been sanctioned by the Buddha himself. (which is so hard to believe when Buddha's teachings had neither idols nor god)

The tree, representing the place of the first sermon. This tree is from a sapling of the tree in BodhGaya under which he attained enlightenment.

Saarnath is also the place which had the original Ashoka Pillar, of the four lions, which is adopted as the national emblem of India. The lions are said to represent the four fold truths of Buddhism. All that's left at the original spot is the bottom part of the pillar.

                     

The Dhamek Stupa, is one of the most prominent of the Buddhist stupas, was constructed by Ashoka in 300 BC to house the relics of Buddhas teachings, and a tablet with inscriptions of the original teachings was discovered by boring a hole through the Stupa in 1905

      

Matka lassi, was the curtains downing of a 'once in a life time' trip

Janardhan uncle and Kamlesh aunty, huge huge thanks over again....... one of my most memorable trips ever.

Benares Hindu University

The reason we visited the Benares Hindu University, is because my cousins grandmom was one of the first principals there, way back in 1946. And she was apparently a huge influence and role model for my aunt and my mother. So we went.

She was widowed very early, with a two year old son.  She then happened to meet Madan Mohan Malaviya, who was founder of BHU, and motivated by him enrolled in the college. After graduation, she went on to become a lecturer in the same college, and further more to become it's principal.

What a story ....I sure got why she was inspiration.

And it was so wonderful to see her picture on the wall in the principals office, in a long line of principals.... the second from left, K Venkateshwaran.

And dadi, as we all knew her, was also a direct influence on my own grandmother. Also lost her husband at a very young age, and left with a one year old daughter, and when still expecting (my mother). I remember her telling me 'dadi chepaka pothe. naa jeevitham antha kitchen lo chapathilu chesthu undedani' ( if it wasn't for dadi, I would have spent my whole life making chapathis in the kitchen). 

Dadi, who knew Durgabai Deshmukh, the founder of Andhra Mahila Sabha, got my grandmother the job of  hostel warden there, and convinced people at home to let her go work, and that was turning point in her life. She grew to be an independent and confident woman, an inspiration to many, me included. Even after retirement, she lived alone all of thirty two years, by choice, until she passed away two years back. 

This is dadi with Sarojini Naidu, taking the guard of honour in their college, a picture in the BHU heritage hall.

The Heritage Hall of the college........and the two sisters, my aunt and mom.

The heritage hall is another step into history........ old chairs, old fans, old feel....... with huge pictures of Gandhi, Patel, Radhakrishnan, Tagore and others adorning it's walls. You can still feel the air of those times in there.

Gallis of Varanasi

If the Ghats, with their magnificent palaces, the bathing ghats and the ongoing cremations made Varanasi an intense experience, the galli's of Varanasi added an intriguing perspective.

Soon as we got there, Janardhan uncle asks....is Varanasi north of Ganges or South? Oh..Oh..didn't know.....  so got this map from the hotel.   It looked like it was flowing south but I knew Patna where I'd seen the Ganges earlier was downstream, but north of Varanasi, so I really couldn't figure it out. Even on the boat, you realize the river is flowing north, which was weird. 

It just didn't fit. And it took some research to see that it actually flows down from the west side of Varanasi, takes a U turn and then flows upwards on its's east, making Varanasi north of Ganges as also East. Was an interesting twist, pun intended.

The city itself : I've never, ever, seen such narrow galli's...... they just go on and on, bylanes into bylanes, like a maze. They are just three to four feet in width, with old old houses on either side, lots of people, lots of cows and dogs, an occasional scooter and bike too, (when there's no place to even stand on the side at times), and,.......and so so much trash and dung, it redefines dirty.

We stepped into one of those little doors, (who would resist a doorway to heaven), as it also had a benares silk weaving place within, and you step into this haveli.. It is 92 houses in there, and mostly from one family with the rest of the houses being occupied by their workers, benares saree weavers.

That's Kamlesh aunty with the cow, you just have to trust they are friendly, but for the mean looking ones, it's a challenge to avoid. After all, it's not only us humans who have prerogative to moods you know.

When you walk you want to look, no stare, gape, at all the unique sights around, like even peep through those little doors into staircases and rooms which are as fascinating.........but you take your eyes off the path for a second, and there's high chance you'll step on filth and I'm not exaggerating......we did you know, on fresh dung, not once but twice.

If the galli's are mesmerizing, the filth and dung are an assault on the senses and it takes monumental effort to rise above them and see the mysterious beauty and intrigue of the place. But if you do, you'll see it and it's amazing, crazy amazing.

And we walked and we walked........and a lot of it without even footwear, as it was access to the Kasi Vishwanath temple.

The Kasi Vishwanath temple is one of the twelve jyotir lingas, and is said to be the holiest of Shiva temples. It has apparently been destroyed and re-constructed a number of times with the last structure demolished by Aurangzeb, who constructed the Gyanvapi Mosque on its site.

The mosque is also visible in this picture and it's a courtesy Google pic, as we're not allowed to take cameras or phones in.

Kachori and Jalebi, the local favorite, and such a quaint person, he just fit the surroundings so well.

A lot of times I found 'woh kaike paan banaras wala, kul jaaye bandh akal ka taala' playing in my head. Paan is just such an integral part of life there.

I'm standing in this store looking at statues of Shiva to get back as memoir of trip, and Anupam, our cab driver, walks up and says 'paan loge madam?' and I was like 'Abhi?' and he goes, paan keliye koi time hota hai kya?

Walking these galli's is akin to time travel.....it's when you see why Varanasi is the world's oldest living city.