Finding Nemo

Recently my wife and I completed 12 years of togetherness. We were just going through the memory lane and realizing what worked for us and what did not! The years had been rollercoaster of events, emotions and actions. One thing that stood out most importantly was strengthening of the resolve that we will always be together. I still dread the days when she goes out vacationing with our kids. Even with all the independence and the fun and frolicking with friends, there is a big void deep in the heart longing for the family. I was happy that we did share the same feeling. While discussing, we digressed from ourselves and wondered how the other people fared – particularly those who remain single. Being a male-chauvinist (my wife often holds me up to that), I would try to delve into the stories involving the male spinsters. Spinster is a word used for describing an old childless woman who has never been married. However, for the lack of a better word, I call the male counterpart a Male Spi

Last week all my friends and we went out shopping during the greatest shopping fever in USA – Black Friday. To add the icing, today is the Cyber Monday – thereby adding wonderful deals on the internet encouraging the shoppers to shop around if they missed anything on the Friday. While on the way back home and discussing our loots, we discussed how consumer centric have all the festivals became? The day – "Black Friday" was supposed to be the "day after thanksgiving". As a tradition, the family would get together for the dinner on Thanksgiving Day and discuss their ideas. Getting clues from the discussions, the enthusiasts would then go out and buy the gifts to place under the Christmas tree. And look what has Black Friday turned out to be? Is this insane? Does this happens only in US? Don't we Indians, despise such an expose of consumerism? NO. Just look at the lines of the consumers hoarding at the jewelers to buy gold on " Akshaya Tritiya " or the l

My previous posts – " Generosity or Charity?" and " Generosity – contd. " have been focused on the power and effects of giving. The act of giving and sharing s so beautiful in countless ways. However, we have to be careful on what we want to give away and got to be cautious of what is being asked of us. This is the theme of my today's post. We know we need to possess the material before we can pledge it to someone else or in easier words – give it away. What we do not have, cannot be given. At the same time, it doesn't takes much to share the love or spiritual comfort from within yourself. As the luck would have it, meeting the requirements most of the time, renders a thought of being omnipotent. And this is where we tend to make mistakes and overlook the power of the ask. Let ponder on some of the very well-known stories – Vaman and Bali – When the Asura king Bali became powerful and expelled the gods from their heavenly abode – Swarga, Vishnu took the ava

Expanding on the thought I seeded in the previous blog, generosity is also the display of the mental state of the human being. This is seen through a comparison of two interesting stories from the Mahabharata. Both the stories start on similar grounds with two friends spending their childhood together playing, learning and growing up. One of the two friends grows up to be a king and the other a poor Brahmin. Bowing to their family and financial pressure, the poor Brahmin friend goes to the king friend asking for help. Now the stories take different turns. In the first story, the Brahmin is unable to ask for any help. Yet the king understands the need and provides everything without being asked. In the second story, the poor Brahmin approaches his friend and demands for provisions as they discussed in the childhood. The king, in return, derides the Brahmin and throws him out of the court. The first story is of Krishna – Sudama, while the other is of Drupada – Drona. It's the den

Generosity is often described as charity. Are they same? I believe not! While charity is an act of giving away something from your possession to the needy, generosity is the spirit that helps you think about charity. Charity is materialistic and is related to tangible resources only. While generosity on the other hand involved intangible resources like love. A generous heart soothes the needy more than the charity. Charity is transactional in nature – you give what is asked for – nothing more, nothing less. While generosity goes beyond the boundaries of transactions and gives away without being asked or looking for anything in return. Throughout or vast history, there are stories of generous kings and their subjects that have stood out as examples of greatness. Be it Karna, Bali, Virochana, Bhoj etc. However, in each of the story we always focus on the act of charity than the spirit of generosity. All these great men gave what they had and much more, when asked. At the same time, there

"I could have done better in the exams, if the neighbor had kept the music on a lower volume" "These stupid people don't know when to stop partying. Can't they see I'm focusing for my interview?" "I find happiness in other's happiness. I have given away myself for the others." I am sure, we all come across such statements every day. We often know and revere the originators of such statements. May I please have the liberty to hurt your feelings and call these revered people as cowards? Yes these people are cowards who shy away from taking the responsibilities on their head and solving it. It is the easiest path for anyone to walk away from our responsibilities. After all, the world was created by the God for all of us to live happily or live with the consequences of our choices. God made all of us equal – giving the choice and the ability to think through. Then why do we blame someone else for our happiness? It is because we do not want to t

We have all heard innumerable stories about the Devas or Suras and their arch-rivals Asuras . The story of their enmity has often taken heights and has been showcased by multiple high grossing Hollywood as well as Bollywood movies. Do you know that there are positions available amongst the Suras and Asuras equally if you are interested? Many of us might recall the Sura and Asura are both brothers from the same father – Maharishi Kashyap but different mothers – Diti and Aditi . Due to their constant strife for power they are both assigned different homes – the sky (Heaven or Swarga ) and underground ( Patala ), We have always visualized the Suras as the nice looking heroes who are always struggling to keep ugly looking, wrong doing Asuras at bay from capturing their abode. Let's take a slightly distorted view and consider them equal and then understand them both! Both Devatas and Asuras are the offspring of the same maharishi. They are both the creatures of the same God –