Bye Bye Persistent...

Today as I prepare myself for beginning a new life, there are so many things that I need to leave behind: my family, my friends and my home sweet home. But one thing that I'm gonna miss the most is Persistent!

I can still remember the day I went for my first campus interview. I was very excited that day to know that even Nagpur has a reputed company called Persistent, who recruited mostly from IIT's earlier. I didn't want to leave Nagpur, and if I could manage to get a job in Nagpur itself, it would be my biggest dream come true! I really wanted to get this job.

I still remember how much I had prayed that day before appearing for the written test and how thankful I was when I cleared it. I remember how impressed I was on seeing Persistent's beautiful office the next day, when we went for our interview. I remember how I felt like dancing when I was told that I was selected. I remember the excitement amongst my friends to get the news,I remember the smile on my parent's face when I gave them the news. I remember how proud I was that day to become the first one to get a job in my class. It all felt so great. That was one of the best moments in my life!

The first day at Persistent was wonderful. We got a very warm welcome. I met so many new people, all coming from different cities like Indore and Bhopal. I was the only person from my college to join Persistent. Moreover, I was the only one amongst the girls who was from Nagpur itself. So everyone was new. I didn't know anyone at all, and so it was like a fresh start for me.

We had a month long training during which we learnt a lot of new things like Linux, Oracle, Perl, Java, QTP etc. I made a lot of new friends that time, some of whom I'm sure will remain friends for life.

The work atmosphere in Persistent was absolutely wonderful. It was more like having fun at work. The facilities provided were great. No dress codes, no timing restriction, first name culture, and free lunch and snacks, unlimited internet(though a few restrictions were there!). And the best part, we could listen to music with our headphones even during the office hours! And as you know I'm a music manic! So, what more could I want?

Even when I had loads of work,I never felt over burdened. I could always find time for my friends and family. I was hardly ever required to work over time except for may be a couple of times.

The most memorable period was during the Second Anniversary celebrations last November. I had a great time then, participating in all the events including cubicle decoration, treasure hunt, antakshari, talent display and so many other events which I can't even recollect now. I must say, I had my best time during that one week!

Even during the Gudi Padwa celebrations we had a rocking time. I knew this was my last event in Persistent and tried to make the most of it.

Eversince I joined Persistent, my outlook towards life changed completely. I find myself a completely new human being today, and I think most of it is for the better. The days I spent at Persistent will remain memorable all my life. I really thank God that something as good as Persistent happened to me!

Thank you to all the people at Persistent for making it such a wonderful experience for me. And yes, most importantly, I want to thank my parents for educating me so that I could get selected in Persistent, and also for letting me join Persistent. 'Cause without their support I would never have been able to make it where I am today!

And this is for all my friends at Persistent:
You were one of the best things that has ever happened to me in my life. I'll always miss all the good times we had together. I'll miss going to the vending m/c everyday, just to give you company. I'll miss seeing you at lunch time. I'll miss calling you up for snacks. I'll miss all the gossip that we shared and the jokes you cracked. I'll miss your commenting on seeing a chat or orkut window on my screen.

I'm gonna miss you all each and everyday of my life 'cause you were forever so nice to me. I wish you all, the best of luck for your future and just hope that someday, somewhere, somehow, when we happen to bump into each other, we'll be able to smile at each other and just say Hi! That will be the best day of my life!

Finding that Perfect Someone....

All Indian girls have just one cherished dream right from childhood and that is, finding that perfect someone. As a kid, I also dreamed about that perfect someone for me.

But one day I read in some numerological horoscope that my life partner would not be up to my expectations! I got very disappointed after reading this. But I didn't want to let anyone disappoint me. So I thought that if I don't expect anything, how will anyone be able to not meet my expectations!

I always thought I'll be able to keep up with this ideology. But as the days passed by, and I gained more experience in relationships, unconsciously I started picturing my sweet heart. Even though I kept reminding myself not to expect too much, somehow I just couldn't help it! After all, how can you not have any expectations about someone you are going to spend your entire life with?

Only thing I could do was to not expect anything out of the blue from him! But at least I could expect him to be well educated, have a good job, love his family, be honest, sensitive and romantic, love music and dance, and most of all, be my best friend, with whom I can share everything!

This was about all I expected from my Perfect Someone. Looks wasn't an important criterion for me, 'cause after all I'm not the most beautiful girl in this world, and I couldn't expect someone who's so perfect to fall for me.

I've met a lot of guys in my life time. But somehow, I never found someone as perfect! There was something or the other missing all the time. And if there's something missing, how can it be perfect? Eventually I started thinking that my horoscope was indeed right, I'll never find my Perfect Someone.

But when I met Sandeep, everything changed! There was something really attractive about him. I found myself being drawn towards him. When we started talking, we just went on and on, with not wanting to stop at all. Anyone who saw us talking that day wouldn't have believed that we were meeting for the first time. We were complete strangers, but I could still feel some sort of a bond being formed already!

The best part is that he's modernism and traditionalism combined! I mean, when I did the Art of Living course, I just wished to find a hubby who'd be interested in spirituality and meditation. And when Sandeep said that he was a part of AOL, I felt as if all my dreams had come true in just one instance. It was really too good to be true! I just couldn't believe it!

He possesses all the qualities I wanted in my hubby. He's very friendly and is a heart winner for sure. He loves his family a lot, is very romantic and expressive. I love his honesty and modesty. I love to hear his voice and long to see that cute smile which can make you forget your worries and sorrows completely. He has this extraordinary way of making you feel really special!! You want to believe everything he says, even if he might just try to flatter you!

I never believed so much in arrange marriages earlier! I always thought that arrange marriages are full of compromises on all walks of life. How can you marry someone you hardly know! What if you turn out to be complete opposites? It always looked like a risky proposition to me.

But Thank God! I've been really lucky! I managed to find someone who's more like me than anyone else I've ever known before! And that's what I wanted my Special someone to be like....a reflection of my ownself, someone I can relate to, someone I can trust!

With the passage of each new day, I start liking him even more. Each day I discover something new about him, and then I realize that this is indeed something I wanted in my sweet heart, but didn't expect it to be fulfilled. All I hope is that our love keeps growing like this forever!

No matter how much ever he may try, he'll never be able to convince me that he's luckier than me!! It's true, falling in love makes you a better human being. The whole world seems to be a better place and life itself becomes more meaningful.

After meeting Sandeep I'm convinced that "Someone somewhere is really made for you and one day you'll surely find him!!!"

What is so special about HumTum!!

These days, I've become an Orkut addict! All my colleagues are fed up of seeing it on my screen all the time. They keep askin' me the same question time and again ....
"Aakhir isme aisa hai kya?!!"
So I'm dedicating this blog especially to all those friends of mine.

First of all, Orkut was the place I found all my old friends. You know, I really loved my school a lot. But somehow I managed to lose touch with most of my friends after leaving school. Although I did still recall most of them, but didn't have the slightest idea what they were doing now.

On the first day of joining orkut, it felt completely new. It was quite confusing too, with no help available as such. But then, I found the community of my school in my friend's list and joined it instantly. I found soooo many old friends there, that I hadn't even imagined I ever would.

The initial few months on Orkut was just checking scraps every day, finding old friends and all that. I had just four communities on my list... my school, junior college, college and office. But one day, while surfing on orkut, I found a few interesting communities like Taurus, Friends, Remix on star one, A R Rehman fan club etc. I joined them and started looking for more.

I also created a few communities like "I Love Nature" and "Crazy about blogging". Although these groups haven't been able to create a huge fan following yet, they still helped me find more communities and people having similar interests. I also started participating actively in the forums of these communities.

Then I came across this community called HumTum. I joined it thinking it was a fan club of the movie Hum Tum. But I was wrong. This is how the community is described

The Battle of the Sexes is nothing new.When you get to know someone so different from you, its always a challenge to keep your own identity.Come, join and watch the two opposites react to each other. Its an experience worth fighting for.So come join.. all you boys and girls.

The forums were mostly games like "Guess, who is next", "select a nickname for da gul or guy above u","Last one to Post Wins", "Sing a song for the person above u" and "Antakshari". So I started posting here as well. Interestingly, this community turned out to be more active as compared to the others. I started getting responses immediately, and started enjoying it.

On the first day itself I made a lot many friends on HumTum. Most of them were from the IIT's and were as "fittehaal" as me. I'd like to especially mention Anmol, Akki, Shalini, Bhawna, Rachna, Vikrant, Rahul, Himanshu and Aditya here. They even read my blogs. Not only this, they also tried to popularize it. Isn't that really sweet and amazing!

Moreover, my real life friends never bothered to write any testimonials for me, but friends like Anmol, who hardly even knew me were very keen on doing that. See that's why these people are so very special for me.

I can spend hours together on this community. We play all sorts of silly games like guys+2 gals -2, chain game, last one to post wins etc. Then there are those games which try to introduce you to the person above you, like nicknaming the other person, dedicating a song for him, rating as bro/sis, frnd or bf/gf, rating the display pic etc. My favourite are the music related threads like Antakshari, Gaane ke badle gaana, rapid fire etc. We also have a Competition thread, where we just chat casually in an attempt to create the longest ever thread! All in all, we have a great time out there!

This was just an introduction of this wonderful community called HumTum. To experience the real excitement, you will have to come and be a part of it.

http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=88122

I really thank god for the day I joined this community. Even though there may have been a few fights on the community, but those are not enough to keep you away from your friends!! You do keep coming back to it.

HumTum is now a part of my life, and hopefully it will always remain that way!

Why I went to Bangalore!!

Last week I attended the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the Art of Living foundation at Jakkur Aerodrome in Bangalore. Unlike the rest of the people attending the function, my prime motive behind going for this event was just one......"To see and hear the great man himself!".

No I'm not talking about Shri Shri Ravishankar......that is what everyone else went there for...right? I went there to see and hear the President of India....Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam!!!

The theme for the event was "Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam", or in other words "One World Family". There were people from all over the world who had come from near and far for this grand event. Dignitaries from around 40 countries were expected to attend the function. The crowd was going to be as huge as 25 lakh people. It was going to be a huge extravaganza. In the midst of all this advertisement, I came to know that the Valedictory speech for this event would be given by none other than our President himself. Eversince I came to know about this, it became my dream to attend this great event.

I fought against all odds, convinced my parents to let me go, strived to get a leave from office for one full week, and most of all gathered the courage to go all alone to as far as B'lore with just one vision in front of my eyes. My friends and colleagues thought that I had been influenced spiritually by the Art of Living foundation. Even my parents were afraid I was moving towards taking "sanyas". But I just told everyone one thing...."I'm going to see our President!"

I am a huge fan of Dr. A P J Kalam, no doubt, 'cause I think he's the most suited President for our country. And eversince I've read his book "Ignited Minds" my belief in him has grown leaps and bounds! I had been reading Ignited Minds, when I came to know about this event, and just made a wish, that I may somehow manage to attend this program, and see my idol in person. I really thank god that my wish came true, inspite of all odds!

The entry of the President was really glad, and what was even better was the speech he gave. I have managed to find the speech, and so I'm going to quote it here......

His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji, most respected religious and spiritual Heads of various religions and traditions, His Excellencies, Distinguished Guests and participants. My respects and greetings. I am delighted to participate in the valedictory function of the International Conference on Human Values and Ethics in the Global Scenario being organized on the occasion of the Silver Jubilee of the Art of Living. I greet all the members of the "Art of Living Foundation" on this occasion. I liked the statement of Art of Living Foundation "Life is sacred. Celebrate life. Care for others and share whatever you have with those less fortunate than you. Broaden your vision, for the whole world belongs to you." When I read this I am reminded the advice of Gandhiji’s mother to her son.

"Son, in your entire life time if you can save or better someone's life, your birth as a human being and your life is a success. You have the blessing of the Almighty God".
What a profound thought for a son? Sons and daughters constitute the society irrespective of which religion they belong to. This profound thought provides the meaning of life for each member of the society. I have orbited the sun 74 times and I have witnessed many religious and spiritual meet. Wherever I went within India and abroad, I make it a point to meet religious leaders and have discourse. I found, it is natural, religious meet solutions are advice. I would like to put forth to this great spiritual gathering, an action oriented solution for evolving a happy, prosperous and peaceful society in our planet, which I call as ‘Enlightened Society’. How do we create such an enlightened society, which has three components
(i) Education with value system
(ii) Religion transforming into spirituality and
(iii) Economic development for societal transformation?
Let us discuss.

(i) Education with value system
The best part for a person is his or her childhood and the learning period in school. The prime learning environment is five to sixteen years' of age. Of course, at home, love and affection are imparted. But again most of the time in a day is spent in preparing school's homework and study, eat, play and sleep. Hence the school hours for children are the best time for learning and need the best of environment and mission oriented learning with value system. During this stage, they need value based education in school and at home for them to become good citizens. This reminds me the echo from a great teacher's saying, "give me a child for seven years. Afterwards, let the God or devil take the child. They cannot change the child." For parents and teachers, school campus and home have to have an integrated mission, that is education with value system. They must inculcate moral leadership amongst children which involves two aspects. First it requires the ability to have compelling and powerful dreams or visions of human betterment. A state of things in which human beings could be better off in the future than they are now. Secondly, moral leadership requires a disposition to do the right thing and influence others also to do the right thing. If the child misses the value based education in the school, no government or society can establish a transparent society or a society with integrity.
Elevating the young minds : While I was in college, I remember the lectures given by highest authority of the Jesuit institution Rev Father Rector Kalathil of St. Joshep’s college, Trichirappalli, Tamilnadu. Every Monday, he will take class on moral science for an hour. He used to talk about good human beings, present and past, and what makes a good human being. In this class he used to give lectures on personalities such as Buddha, Confucius, St. Augustine, Califa Omar, Mahatma Gandhi, Einstein, Abraham Lincoln including some scientific personalities and moral stories linked to our civilizational heritage. It is essential in the secondary schools and colleges to arrange a lecture by a great teacher of the institution once in a week for one hour on India’s civilizational heritage. This class can be called as a Moral Science Class. That will elevate the young minds to love the country, to love the other human beings and elevate the young to higher planes. Not only in our country, but throughout the world in every school till the age of 17, it is essential that moral science is taught. Can a religious forum like this, influence the world leaders jointly to introduce moral science class as a part of the curriculum in all the schools in the world. Now I would like to share an experience that I have witnessed religion transforming into a dynamic spiritual force.
(ii) Religion Transforming into Spirituality: Universal Mind
I would like to recall an incident which happened four decades ago. As you all know, Prof Vikram Sarabhai is the visionary of space programme in the country. He is well known for his cosmic ray research area that led to evolving the space research programme for the nation. Both Dr Homi Bhabha and Prof Vikram Sarabhai were looking for a site to establish space research station in the equatorial region. These two great scientists visited a number of places. Thumba in Kerala was selected by the scientific community for space research as it was near the equatorial region and was ideally suited for ionospheric research in upper atmosphere apart from study of atmospheric structure. When Prof Vikram Sarabhai visited Thumba, the locality had series of villages and thousands of fishermen folk were living in that area. It also had a beautiful ancient church, St Mary Magdalene Church, Pallithura and a Bishop's House. Prof Vikram Sarabhai met many politicians and bureaucrats to get the place for the work of space science research. It did not move further because the nature of the place. He was asked to see the Bishop of Trivandrum, at that time in 1962, Rev Father Dr Peter Bernard Pereira. It was a Saturday when Prof Vikram Sarabhai met the Bishop. The Bishop smiled and asked him to meet him the next day, ie Sunday. In the morning Service, the Bishop told the congregation, "my children, I have a famous scientist with me who wants our church and the place I live for the work of space science research. Dear children, science seeks truth by reasoning. In one way, science and spiritualism seek the same divine blessings for doing good for the people. My children, can we give the God's abode for a scientific mission?" There was a chorus of 'Amen' from the congregation and the whole church reverberated. Subsequently, the big event took place in 1962. His Excellency Rct Rev Dr Peter Bernard Pereira, the Bishop of Trivandrum, took the noble decision to dedicate the church in recognition of the national goal for the establishment of the Indian Space Research Organisation at Pallithura, Thumba. That was the church where we had our design centre, started rocket assembly, design of filament winding machine for FRP product and the Bishop's house was our scientists' place. Later, the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) led to the establishment of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) and multiple space centres throughout the country.
When I think of this event, I can see how enlightened spiritual and scientific leaders, all converge towards giving reverence to the human life. New church and new schools were established in record time. Of course the birth of TERLS and then VSSC gave the country the capability of design, development and produce world class huge rocket system and subsequently, India has the capability of launching geo-synchronous, sun-synchronous and meteorology spacecraft, communication satellite, remote sensing satellite thereby provided fast communication, weather forecasting and also locate water resources for the country. Today, among us, Prof Vikram Sarabhai is not there, Rev Dr Peter Bernard Pereira is not there, but those who are responsible for creation and make the flower and blossom will themselves be a different kind of a flower as described in the Bhagwat Gita: "See the flower, how generously it distributes perfume and honey. It gives to all, gives freely of its love. When its work is done, it falls away quietly. Try to be like the flower, unassuming despite all its qualities". What a beautiful message for all generation of this nation, on integration of minds and universal mind. No where in the world a church have been given for a scientific research, it can happen only in India, it is because of the Civilizational heritage of India. It is a great message to be spread. The message is, the best component of the religion can be transformed into a spiritual force that will shape the society. So far I have discussed, necessity of education with value system for world youth and also best elements of religion transforming into a spiritual force, this happened because of unity of two great minds, Rev Father Dr Peter Bernard Pereira and Prof. Vikram Sarabhai. Let me now discuss with you the third component of the enlightened society for transforming the developing nation into a developed nation through achieving economic prosperity, so that large societal imbalances can be removed. In this connection, let me take an example of India, which has one sixth of the global population.

(iii) Economic development: Transforming India into a developed nation
We have a population of over one billion people of which 260 million are still living below the poverty line. They need education, they need habitat, they need health care, and creation of employment potential. To meet their needs we have the second vision of transforming India into a developed nation by the year 2020. We have identified five areas where India has a core competence for integrated action:
(1) Agriculture and food processing
(2) Reliable and quality electric power and surface transport for all parts of the country.
(3) Education and Healthcare
(4) Information and Communication Technology
(5) Self reliance in critical technologies.
These five areas are closely inter-related and if implemented in a co-ordinated fashion will lead to food, and economic security, and national security. A strong partnership among the R&D, academy, industry and the community as a whole with the Government departments will be essential to accomplish the vision for a developed India. Indian GDP is growing at an average rate of 7.5% p.a. whereas the economists suggest that to remove the poverty of 260 million people we have to grow at the rate of 10% p.a. consistently for over a decade. One of the components through which the rural-urban divide will be bridged and prosperity will be brought to the seven hundred million people living in six hundred thousand villages is Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA).
The Mission of PURA (Providing Urban amenities in Rural Areas)
The number of PURA units for the whole country is estimated to be 7000. This envisages integrated connectivities to bring prosperity to rural India. These are - physical connectivity of the village clusters through quality roads and transport; electronic connectivity through tele-communication with high bandwidth fiber optic cables reaching the rural areas from urban cities and through Internet kiosks; and knowledge connectivity through education, vocational training for farmers, artisans and craftsmen and entrepreneurship programmes. These three connectives will lead to economic connectivity through starting of enterprises with the help of banks, micro credits and marketing of the products.
Each PURA cluster will connect about 20-30 villages depending upon the region and population and will cost about twenty million dollars. There are three types of PURA’s: Plain terrain PURA, Costal PURA and Hill PURA. This is a viable and sustainable business proposition. After initial short-term employment during construction etc., we have to plan for initiating actions for providing regular employment and self employment opportunities in nationally competitive small enterprises in agro processing, manufacturing and services sectors for about 3000 people. If the industrial/business parks are marketed well, they can generate employment opportunities in support and services sector for about 10000 people. This will provide sustainable economy for the rural sector. In this national mission, bankers can promote entrepreneurship in the rural areas. This will lead to the removal of urban-rural divide. The PURA complexes should also have the spiritual connectivity in addition to the four connectivities which I have described above. This will be a unique Indian contribution to societal development. Recently, when I was in Philippines and Republic of South Korea, I had discussions with political, bureaucratic, scientific, entrepreneurial, intellectuals and students community of these nations on PURA. They all feel that PURA is definitely a unique development model and is applicable to many countries.
Dear respected religious leaders and the members who have assembled here, I have put forth a three dimensional approach for the evolution of an enlightened society. Can the art of living with multiple religion congregated here will lead to evolving a system that can capture and propagate an action oriented doctrine on the evolution of enlightened citizen. This I will call it as an "Organization of Spiritual Glad tidings", if you all agree. Spiritual Glad tidings can have the following missions:
1. Evolving an enlightened society with three components: Education with value system, religion transforming into a spiritual force and economic development for removal of societal imbalances
2. Using the music as a binding force of violent hearts throughout the world.
3. Making fine arts as a part of the curriculum in the secondary and university education.
4. Celebration of inter-religious festivals: Every religious organization should celebrate the festivals of other religions.
5. Multi-religious community projects: For example, a religious school should welcome 20% poor boys and girls from other religions.
6. Education in and with the ambience of unity of religions: The education system must be able to draw the best thoughts from all religions and promote among all the participants. A healthy exchange of ideas and promotion of a common goal among all participants to become a useful member of the entire society radiating harmony everywhere should be the goal of the entire education process.
7. Interfaith dialogue: In my childhood days when I was 10 years old I used to see my father meet his friends Pakshi Lakshmana Shastrigal. A great Hindu devotee of Rameshwaram Siva Temple with the priesthood and Rev. Father Bodal who built Rameshwaram Island’s first church. In childhood I am indeed blessed to hear the discussion of the great three. At least once in a week they met and discussed on integration of thoughts from Holy Quran, Old Testament of Bible and Bhagavat Gita of Mahabaratha. From the essence of their discussions, I learnt that "whatever religion you belong to, the path you select will lead you to bliss, based on your good action. Life should be just like a flower that gives fragrance and beauty in the morning and it falls silently to the ground in the evening from where it was created".

Conclusion
Conscience is the light of the Soul that burns within the chambers of our psychological heart. It is as real as life. It raises the voice in protest whenever anything is thought of or done contrary to the righteousness. Conscience is a form of truth that has been transferred through our genetic stock in the form of the knowledge of our own acts and feelings as right or wrong.
A virtuous and courageous person can alone use the instrument of conscience. He or she can alone hear the inner voice of the soul clearly. In an impious person this faculty is dead. The sensitive nature of his or her conscience has been destroyed by sin. Hence he or she is unable to discriminate right from wrong. The members of the "Organization of Spiritual Glad tidings" should develop this virtue of the ability to use their own conscience and also inspire others to do so which will enable them to enjoy the freedom and remove their anxiety and worries. Wisdom has got to be inculcated to the mankind by the parents, teachers and leaders from various walks of life in the society and most respected religious and spiritual leaders of various religions and traditions. Such training and exposure among our youth will definitely enable them to develop human values and ethics needed for promoting universal harmony.
Dear respected friends, I heard a divine hymn in a spiritual atmosphere, I am going to recite. May I request you to join me.

Righteousness
Where there is righteousness in the heart
There is beauty in the character.
When there is beauty in the character,
There is harmony in the home.
When there is harmony in the home.
There is an order in the nation.
When there is order in the nation,
There is peace in the world.

My greetings to all the members of the Art of Living Foundation and the participants in this Silver Jubilee Celebrations and my best wishes for success in their mission of promoting friendly, cooperative and compassionate society.
May God bless you.

Wasn't that simply superb!! I got so charged up after hearing this speech...that I don't even have words to describe it! I think we should all consider these words seriously, and work for the betterment of our country!

I really thank God for making my trip a success, 'cause had I not been able to see and hear Dr. Kalam, all my efforts would have been wasted!!!

The Art of Living

Have you heard about Hon. Shri Ravishankar and the organization “The Art of Living”? I had heard about them when I was in school I guess. But I had never thought about joining it then. The only thing I was fascinated with was meditation. My Nani (Grandmother) used to do it and so I always wanted to learn that too.

This year The Art of Living organization is celebrating its 25th anniversary along with Shri Ravishankar’s 50th birthday celebrations. To mark this occasion, the organization has decided to grow. For this they’ve conducted the Basic Course (Part1) for free which normally costs around a thousand bucks in Nagpur.

A friend told me about one such module which was going to start on the 24th of January. But there was one problem…the timings were 6-9 AM. Getting up at 5 in these winters! Oh God! I couldn’t imagine myself doing that. Plus, that time I didn’t have the full information, I mean I didn’t know she was talking about THE Art of Living..the one about which I had heard during my school days! I just thought it was just another course where they’ll expect us to do bhajan-kirtan, daan- dharma and pooja path. So that time I didn’t take it too seriously.

But then, she attended the course, and was all Ga-Ga about it. My mom got very impressed, plus it was such a good deal huh…a course worth a thousand bucks for free! After all, like all typical moms she also runs after all sorts of discounts! So I was made to fill the admission form, which of course my friend had brought for me. While filling the form I observed one thing, they were asking if I had any sort of health problems like hypertension etc. I just wondered why they were asking all this…and then suddenly my bulb glowed…Oh yes….it was THE Art of living…probably they were going to teach Yoga and Meditation! All of a sudden, I got inspired, so much so….that I was willing to get up at 5 AM to attend the course!!

Finally the D-day arrived….I had set double alarm…and so luckily enough I did manage to actually wake up at 5. Well the truth is that out of fear of not being able to wake up in time, I couldn’t sleep properly that night. So obviously I had to wake up in time!

I reached the venue at 5:45.Can you believe it...there was such a huge gathering there, in spite of the winters, in spite of the timings! At that time I thought people were really crazy to have come there. I was myself not sure why I was doing this. The only savoir was thought that I’d learn some Yoga! That would mean at least some exercise, and I think I desperately needed that.

Our teacher Mrs. Pratibha Shetty reached the venue at 5:55. The class didn’t start before 6:20 and I was feeling upset because of the delay. But once it did start, things changed in my life from thereon…..I’m not saying “everything changed forever”, cause that’d be dramatic, isn’t it? I’m the same person, I still continue with my chatting, blogging, orkutting etc. But yes, my outlook towards life did change a bit. But that bit was also quite significant, and I’m sure it will be with me for a long time.

The first question our teacher asked us was “What did we expect to learn in the next six days?” There were all sorts of answers, like I want to get my peace of mind; I want to learn to be happy etc. But our teacher said “You will not learn anything from this course. If it was Ok with us, then only you should continue with the class.” This was the first lesson we learnt, to stop expecting things all the time.

Expectations, if not met, cause disappointment, and if met, give rise to higher expectations.

Then we were told that there were 7 levels of the Human Body:
1. Body
2. Breath
3. Mind
4. Brain
5. Memory
6. Pride
7. Consciousness

Then we had an exercise called “Sangchadvam”. In this exercise, we had to introduce ourselves to the other members of the group. Oh yes! I forgot to tell you, we had formed groups of 10 people each. We were told that we’ll be working on all these seven levels during the next 6 days.

We learnt something called “Ujjaiyi shwaas” on the first day. All the other kriyas, or sadhnas would be based on this. We also learnt to do Pranayam on the first day itself. Pran is the suttle life force energy and there are four sources for this energy:
1. Food
2. Breath
3. Sleep
4. Knowledge or meditation

They also said that just 20 min of meditation is equivalent to 4 hrs. of sleep!!

Then during the next five days we learnt the “Sutras”. I’ll list them here, just in case you’d be interested….
1. Opposites are complementary to each other
This means that both are incomplete without each other.
2. Present moment is inevitable
You can’t change your past; neither is worrying about the future going to help you much. So it’s better to live in the present moment which is inevitable.
3. Don’t see intention behind other’s mistakes
Mistakes are caused by accident; no one does them on purpose.
4. Accept people and situation as they are
If you don’t like a person or a situation, your mind will be at unrest. And our mind and its peace should be of utmost importance to us, and we should not let anything affect it.

The best feature of the program was the “Sudarshan Kriya”. They say it’s such a powerful exercise, that it can heal all sorts of ailments. It is said to have healed Cancer and AIDS too…can you believe it? In the beginning I was a bit uncomfortable with it, but slowly I’m learning to get used to it.

Then there were other exercises like meditation. On the last day, we had a long class. We had snacks in our groups, and an exercise called “Dance Meditation”. Also, on the last day we had to gift our group members.

The lesson I loved the most during the course was something like this:
Just as we control the channels on the Television with a remote control, similarly our feelings and emotions also have a remote control. We’ve given this remote to others. When they praise us, we become happy, and when they criticize, we become sad. Our life is our own, and our emotions affect us only. Then why should we let others control them? We should keep our remote with us. As they say, happiness brings expansion, whereas sadness results in contraction. So we should try to be happy, so that we can grow, we can expand.

And the best part was the concluding line...”I haven’t taught you anything, you already knew everything. I’ve just awaked you!!” This is what our teacher had to say in the end. She was so right on the first day when she said we won’t learn anything new, ‘cause all that we learnt, was something we knew already.

After doing this course, I’ve developed a new perspective towards life. I’m really glad I became a part of this organization and I hope after reading this blog you would also like to enlighten your lives in a similar fashion!!

First Name Goof Ups!!!

     Has it ever happened that you confused someone with someone else just because of the same first names? It happened with me…..and can you believe it….twice in the same day!!!!     I’ll try to tell you about both the incidents in all the details I can recollect.

So let me start with the first one. This Sunday I got a message from an unknown number saying “Hi How r u?” I just casually replied back saying “I’m fine…how about you. By the way, who are you?” The reply was “Hi I’m Kapil”.
Now Kapil happens to be my school friend, and just the day before I had got a message from him giving me his new number. I was surprised and so I replied “Cool yaar…so now you’ve got three cells” to which he replied “No dear, this is my new number”. I asked him where he was, because he’s studying in Ranchi, and the number seemed to be a local one. He said he was in Nagpur and asked me what I was doing in the evening.
That day, I had planned to attend the singing contest at VNIT as a part of their annual cultural fest “AAROHI”. I told this to him and he said that he’ll also come to VNIT but then later he told me that he wanted me to meet his “would be fiancé’” in a place free from noise pollution. He suggested we meet at Tuli. But that happens to be very far from my place, and so I called up to tell him that I won’t be able to make it.
To my surprise, I couldn’t recognize his voice….and I also told this to him. I don’t talk to Kapil everyday, but still, this couldn’t be him! Anyways, he also said that he didn’t recognize my voice, so I thought may be it’s because we’re talking after a really long time.
When I told him I couldn’t come to Tuli, he asked me to suggest a convenient venue and surprisingly, he immediately accepted my suggestion. I told my parents about this whole thing, and after a bit of persuasion they permitted me to meet him. Meanwhile, Kapil had told me that there’ll around 10 more people at the get together, so I asked him if I knew any of them. He said that’s a surprise and I know three of them. I felt relieved, but I was very confused…Why did he want me to meet his girl friend? Why did he call he “would be fiancé” instead of simply saying girl friend.
With all there question running through my head, I got ready and reached my car. Just then my sandal ruptured. I thought it was a bad omen, any way; I changed my sandals and left for the place. But all the way, I was feeling really nervous. Somehow I managed to reach the place, and as I had already anticipated, I was the first one to reach!
I enquired if there was a booking by Kapil’s name, but there wasn’t any! I waited for sometime and then I called him up. He said his friend met with an accident and so he won’t be able to make it that day. I felt really bad, didn’t know what to do. I told my mom about the incidence and went to VNIT.
Later when I came back home, my dad was pretty upset with Kapil. He said he should’ve at least informed me if the programme was cancelled. Although I didn’t quite agree with him, but still I thought may be he was right. He should have given me some indication….moreover, he didn’t even bother to call me afterwards.
It was then that something dawned on me. Could it be that this Kapil was some other Kapil. After all, I hadn’t confirmed his surname! Then I also recollected the fact that I couldn’t recognize his voice.
Oh no! This very thought sent a chill through my spine!! Oh god! Had I been talking to a stranger….even went out to meet him!! Oh no! This couldn’t be true! I just hoped this was just my misconception, and that it was really my friend Kapil that I’d been talking to all this while.
But Alas! I got a mail from my friend Kapil the very next day, asking me where I’d been all these days. Evidently, he hadn’t heard from me for months!
Then I decided to sort things out. I asked this other Kapil his full name and obviously it wasn’t what I had expected! After that I gave him a good thrashing (verbal one) and warned him not to send me any more messages!!
God! This was one of the strangest experiences of my life! How much I thank god for him not being able to make it that day! God knows how I would have handled the situation!
I still don’t understand how this guy managed to get my phone number, and how I could be foolish enough to not think there exist other Kapil’s in the world too!!
So guys and gals, please be careful before you take someone as your friend! For you never know, what the truth is!!

Proud to be 4 pt Someone!!!

On 4th January 2006, I completed 6 months at Persistent. This marked the end of my probation period and thus 'twas the time for my first appraisal- Probationary Appraisal!!!

I completed my self appraisal in December itself. Although I worked really hard, and always tried to put in my best, I wasn't sure what grade I'll get in my supervisory appraisal.

The simple reason for this being, that I hadn't been allocated to any project then. So I was really worried about the reason, why, even after completing 6 months at work, I was still on bench (atleast officially)!!

I had worked really hard for my mentor project, Zimbra, but still couldn't manage to be included in the actual team. Since the reason behind this is still unknown to me, I blame myself!! Probably I wasn't worthy enough, or had not been able to work hard enough to be able to prove my worth.

Then came the project idea Approva. I had done some work on this project earlier, and so I got an upper hand in the job. But still, the project idea couldn't materialize, and so I was left on Bench!!!

So, in all, even after spending 6 months in Persistent, I couldn't manage to get billed and this I thought was because of some fault of my own.

Moreover, in my objective setting, I was expected to join one of WAG, SAG or Food Committee and also I had to contribute some questions in the SAS question bank. I had been unbale to achieve both these objectives, and so I was pretty nervous about the whole Appraisal thing!!

One more thing that bothered me was that my appraisal would be done by our HR manager, since I was yet "to be allocated" any project. She wouldn't know much about my contributions to the two projects, and so, I was prepared to get the worst kind of supervisory appraisal!!!

But then, as they say, God is Great!!!

And so, much beyond my expectations, I got 4 points out of the maximum 5 in my Supervisory appraisal!!! This was really a pleasant surprise for me.

My HR manager had consulted both my previous managers, and fortunately both of them said only good things about me.

I want to thank all the people at Persistent for helping me in doing a good job and letting me get such a good appraisal....'cause I don't know what would happen otherwise!!

The New year has begun on a pleasant note and I hope the rest of the year also continues the same way! I just hope to get a project really soon, and start proving my worth!!!

Once I get a project...I'll really prove that I deserve the 4 pts I got and am really Proud to be 4 pt someone!!