Today I read a short story that I have heard years before. Whenever I feel low, defeated or think I need that extra strength to overcome my shortcomings and achieve more, I get reminded of the message from this story.
Some of the nice things that I have learnt in my life so far are those that one should treasure for life long.

Here is the story:

Once a King called upon all of his wise men and asked them "Is there a
mantra or suggestion which works in every situation, in every circumstance,
in every place and in every time? Tell me is there any mantra?"

After a lengthy discussion, an old man suggested something which appealed to
all of them. They went to the king and gave him something written on paper.
But the condition was that king was not to see it out of curiosity. Only in
extreme danger, when the King finds himself alone and there seems to be no
way, only then he’ll have to see it. The King put the paper under his
Diamond ring.

After a few days, the neighbors attacked the Kingdom. It was a collective
surprise attack of the King’s enemies. King and his army fought bravely but
lost the battle. King had to flee on his horse. The enemies were following
him. He could hear many troops of horses following him and the noise was
coming closer and closer. Suddenly the King found himself standing at the
end of the road - that road was not going anywhere. Underneath there was a
rocky valley 1000 feet deep. The sound of enemy’s horses was approaching
fast. The King became restless.

Then suddenly he saw the Diamond ring shining in the sun, and he remembered
the message hidden in the ring. He opened the diamond and read the message.
The message was very small but very great. The message was – “This too will
pass."

The King read it. Again read it. Again & again he read it. Suddenly
something struck him- Yes! It too will pass. Only a few days ago, I was
enjoying my kingdom. I was the mightiest of all the Kings. Yet today, the
Kingdom and all the pleasure have gone. I am here trying to escape from
enemies. However when those days of luxuries have gone, this day of danger
too will pass. Calm come on his face. The revelation of the message had a
great effect on him. He relaxed and forgot about those following him.

After a few minutes he realized that the noise of the horses and the enemy
coming was receding. They moved into some other part of the mountains and
were not on his path. The King was very brave. He reorganized his army and
fought again. He defeated the enemy and regained his lost empire. For a
moment King said to himself," I am one of the bravest and greatest Kings. It
is not easy to defeat me..:

People were dancing and singing. With all the reception and celebration he
saw an ego emerging in him. Suddenly the Diamond of his ring flashed in the
sunlight and reminded him of the message. He opened it and read it again:
"This too will pass" He became silent. His face went through a total change
-from the egoist he moved to a state of utter humbleness.

“If this too is going to pass, it is not yours. The defeat was not yours,
the victory is not yours. You are just a watcher. Everything passes by. We
are witnessing all this. We are the perceiver. Life comes and goes.
Happiness comes and goes. Sorrow comes and goes.”

PS: There is nothing permanent in this world. Nothing is real. Everything is
an illusion. Every thing changes except the law of change. If there are
problems in the present, they too will pass away. Because nothing remains
forever. Joy and sorrow are the two faces of the same coin. They both will
pass away.

Few years back, I attended a yoga class and that helped me learn lot of things.
One of the lessons from that was “When there is an expectation out of something, there is a probability of disappointment”. I cannot lie that I stopped expecting. But my perception has definitely changed. Always when something expected happens I feel happy. But when it does not happen, I started believing that I have no gain out of it and never know what harm in it was.

I enjoyed reading this story after a long time and thought would share this with all the readers.

Nothing can be won on demand,
Everything has to naturally fall in place.

-smilie

Lyrics

This is a very nice song from a tamil film. I like this song a lot.
I like the second para especially.
Doesn’t it explain darwin’s theory (survival of the fittest)?? And I believe
Every individual has the caliber to survive.
Today I was listening to this song and thought would share the lyrics.

P.S: Click on the image for better clarity

A Poem Dedicated

मई यह कविता अपनी नानाजी के लिए समर्पित करती हूँ।
मई अपनी बचपन में बहुत सारी कविताओं के बारे में अपनी नानाजी से बातचीत किया करती थी।
उन अनमोल स्रुष्टियों में यह अति सुंदर और हमेशा याद दिलानेवाली कविता है।
smilie says:
हे भगवान्, कभी कभी मन चिंता में डूब जाती है यह सोचके की, तुम दयालु हो की नही?
मेरे नानाजी जैसे उन्मत्ता प्रेमियों को भी तुम बहुत सताये हो। क्या येही है तुम्हारी विधि?

Here the poetess prays aloud to the almighty.The poetess describes that she does not know how to perform rituals. she is neither rich enough to give garlands to the god nor can sing sweet songs for him. She doesn't have anything to give in charity.She says oh god! accept my true devotion. All that I have is love for you and true devotion.

This is a wonderful poem written by subadra kumari chouhan. This is an all time favorite for me.This one is my grandpas favourite too. I remember he was seraching for this poem for a long time. When I first read it in school, I discussed with him about this. He wrote the poem legibly on a big paper and stuck it on a cardboard and hung in his room.Also he copied it to his diary and the diary was with him always with lot many things that he wrote in it. I saw the diary in his cupboard even in his death bed.

Miss you Grandpa.

Raffle tickets draw

Cardinals are going to play super bowl. People here are cheering them in all possible ways.
My work place is not an exception either. We got a mail that the dress code is relaxed till feb 1st. We are free enough to show up on jerseys or anything supporting cardinals and can hang posters in our cubes.

There was a barbeque lunch arranged today for celebrating the upcoming super bowl. There was this lottery event where they were selling raffle tickets. Prize money was declared for winners and few non-cash gifts for some. We have been getting emails for last few days….
All of a sudden, half an hour before the draw time, I planned to purchase a raffle ticket.
To my surprise, I won a cardinals pennant . :))

Note: For those of you who don't know about cardinals , here you go:

The Arizona Cardinals, founded in 1898 and a charter member of the National Football League, hold the distinction of being the oldest continuously run professional American football, club in the US.

Read wiki for more info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_Cardinals

Einstein Says...

“Bear in mind that the wonderful things you learn in your schools are the work of many generations. All this is put in your hands as your inheritance in order that you may receive it, honor it, add to it, and one day faithfully hand it on to your children.”

Verses From BhagawadGita

कर्मन्येवाधिकरस्थे मा फलेषु कधाचन

मा करमा फल हेठुर्भु माथे संग्स्त्व कर्मणि

In English:

karmanye vadhikarasthe maa phaleshu kadhachana

maa karma phala hethurbhu mathe sangstva karmani

In English translation:

You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action। Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty. - Lord Krishna says

Today, I read a status message in gtalk which precisely meant what was told in Gita by Lord Krishna. My mom has cheered me many times saying கடமையை செய் பலனை எதுர்பாக்கதே.

When we work with this attitude, it really helps us to reach horizons.

Airtel Super Singer - a music show

Airtel Super singer is a reality show hosted by Vijay TV (a popular tamil channel of Star network). A singing talent hunt for people of various age groups is conducted and every year a best singer is chosen and awarded “Super Singer” title.

I have been watching super singer 2008 from the beginning. The show is compered by the popular singer ‘Chinmayi’. When I say Chinmayi and if my memory servers right, around 8 years back I have had an opportunity to see Chinmayi singing in ‘Sarang’( A popular cultural event of IIT Madaras). It was when I saw the famous Srinivas even.

Coming back to Super singer….Currently after tough scrutiny in several rounds, top 7 singers have been selected by veterans like srinivas, sujatha, unni Krishnan, Anuradha Sriram.

All the 7 selected so far, have given stunning performances in various rounds. It also makes me very happy that one of the top 7 performers works for my organization.
Few months back, we traveled together almost daily. But haven’t had a chance to say a hello.

Renu, Ranjini, Ravi, Rohith, Prasanna, Vijay & Ajeesh are the contestants.

Out of these 7 contestants, Vijay and Ajeesh have very different voices. Some people like Renu, Ranjini have very beautiful voices by birth and I would say they are gifted.
But I have always felt that Vijay & Ajeesh differ in some ways from the others and deserve good things. In each episode I have observed how dedicated they are.

In the last episode, these two singers received the best singer of the episode title by the legends Chitra & Mano.
Ajeesh sang ‘kalyana then nila’ song with chitra who has received national award several times and the state government awards from all the states in southern zone.

Vijay sang ‘ayirathil naan oruvan’ with Mano from the film Iruvar. It is one of my favorite songs and I enjoyed listening to that song. In its original version, Mano has sung the song with full of energy, voice modulations to simulate the famous singer of 60’s, the one & only TMS.

According to me: dedication, passion for singing and continuous effort to be one among the top few people matters, more than winning the title. That’s what Ajeesh & Vijay had mentioned how they felt when they received the keyboard from Chitra & Mano for the best singer of the episode title. That showed how much passionate they were about singing and all that they focused was to give their best.

I was surprised to hear a rocking performance from Vijay in one of the previous episodes. I even wrote an article but did not post it then.……

My favorite Mahalakshmi Iyer rechristened him as Vijay ‘Adams’ and the striking performance was the fitting finale of the episode.
Man! His voice was just like Bryan Adams…. I felt I was listening to the original version of summer of 69….His attitude was too good. That’s what the judges had mentioned too.
The way he was tapping his toes when he sang “Those were the best days of my life” was too good..
No words to appreciate it…Simply superb!

For those who are interested to see him singing summer of 69, click on the below link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcCEGhrXGLI&feature=related

Enjoy listening!

A few words about Mano :

Mano is one of those singers who had a significant contribution to the film industry. There are few voices which are very famous among everyone and also they are remembered in many occasions. There are many contributions from the singer which are really enjoyable. For a long time he was treated as no more than a successful SPB clone. It was when he sang songs like shenbagame , mukkala, ayirathil naan oruvan which gave him a well deserved break.

-From a wanna be popular singer :))

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Santa - Funtoon

It’s nice to see Christmas decorations everywhere. Glowing lamps in different colors, lot of posters, bells, trees, gifts, candies & the list goes on………….. At work, its fun to watch people playing secret Santa. It reminds me the “chris mom chris child” kind of games that we played during school and college days.

Today some of us wore a santa cap like the one I have painted and took pictures........... :-)

Stepping on the golden post

It has been a great pleasure writing here for the past two years. Now am there writing my
50th post.

Man is a perverse creature. He is very stubborn on many things and also very emotional in many aspects. So it’s a kind of unbalanced emotions that most of them have. To have neutral, balanced emotions comes from extensive practice put into actions. Can we call all those who have controlled emotions as saints? Or yogis?
Well, it’s a stage attained in enjoying and understanding the life in minuscule level. They know the granular level details of the lesson called life.

The difference I have read in the yogis and the normal people is expression of thoughts. Yogis know how to enjoy the essence of life without impacting others. But the normal person reacts for every action in life and has an outcome called action, there by demonstrating Newton’s 3rd law every now and then.

But I am a normal person. Enjoy every moment of life by expressing my views. Hence landed up into this blogging world. So far I have written on varied topics mostly of my interests. Here I have grumbled and crumbled sometimes. I have tried funtoons and it was fun trying it out. Revived my passion for hindi. Started a new blogspace for my paintings. Sometimes posts on tribute to my teachers, mangers by whom I was inspired, glimpse of joys, racking pain. After my school days, I found this as a very good medium where I could live with my interests. School days are wonderful period for anyone. I loved my schooldays too.

This blog is full of life. I have put many things across wherever I can. Like butterflies, balloons, sunflowers, lavender flowers, smileys, stars, sunlight kisses, rain drops. Sometimes the dream world could be very unrealistic with all that we like, so as this blog world is like I have put all that I cherish.
Smiles are the testimonies to the fact that one enjoys every moment of life. The exquisite life calls me to write more and more about all that I perceive out of it.
I have no shy in writing or expressing that I still like crunching the dried leaves fallen all over. The sound that comes out of crumpling is a kind of enjoyment. I feel happier and feel happy when others enjoy doing it too. Whistling a music, bursting the bubbled cover, blowing a bubble gum, music from guitar, eating caramel pop corn, sipping vanilla latte, still buying crayons, making dolls out of candy wrappers, dora cartoons.
Man! So many things to enjoy in life.

Believe me the fear of death and the rim of death are really awkward and are part of life. So there may not be next minute. Doesn’t mean one has to compromise on beliefs and principles. Before one gets into those chapters, it’s wise to enjoy as much as one can without crucifixions.

“It would be possible to describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense; it would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure”-Albert Einstein

Precisely I am a person who call music as a real music and not anything else J
All the more it makes me happy writing here.

Ram Darbar & MythiliSharan Gupta (पंचवटी)

Recently I had been to a temple close by to my place.
Out of all the deities, the Ram Darbar was the most beautiful ones.
Ram, Lakshman & Sita in gorgeous mustard costume was awesome.
It reminded me of mythiliji’s “Panchavati”. It was a khand kavya written by the
Rashtra Kavi. In those days when I have read Panchavati, I fondly remembered the verses
as it was a great pleasure in telling them again & again.

I have never read Tulsi’s Ramcharithmanas , valmiki ramayan or the kamaba ramayanam. But Panchavati gave me a very good illustration of most of the characters and also the place there by the classic creation got registered very easily.

Here are few verses from Panchavati:
चारू चंद्र की चंचल किरणें खेल रही हैं जल थल में
स्वच्छ चान्दिनी बिची हुई है अवनी और अम्बर थल में
पुलक प्रकट करती है धरती हरित तरुणों की झोंकों में
मनो झूम रहें हैं तरु भी मंद पवन के झोंकों में
The above verses descibes the Panchavati. Kavi ji personifies the location with Ram's beauty.
He says the moon race plays in the water..The pure chandini is spread across the sky and the earth.The earth expresses its happiness when the grass moves in the breeze and it looks as if even trees swing in the lovely breeze.

Lakshman :
कौन जाग रहा है धनुर्धर जब की भुवन भर सोता है
भोगी कुसुमायुध योगी सा बना दृष्टिगत होता है
Lakshman takes care of Ram & Sita devi throught out the night when the entire earth
is in rest. This beautifuly explains the love of Lakshman for his beloved brother Ram and most respectful Sita Devi.

Sita:
मर्त्य लोक मालिन्य मेटने स्वामी संग जो आई है
तीन लोक की लक्ष्मी ने यह कुटी आज अपनाई है
Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswathi are referred to as trinities. Sita devi is such a powerfull godess, wife of respectful Ram who is equivalent to all three godess.

Mythili ji's wonderful creation is Panchavati.