A Happy Post :)

With a sudden drop in the level of activity on this blog, you all must have realized that I am back to work. My life has again started revolving around the office, and all my thoughts are in one way or the other linked to my workplace. I had been meaning to update my blog for the last two weeks, and had even started some posts, but as always, I lost my train of thought somewhere in the middle and had to drop the idea. Then on Friday a weird thing happened at work, which made me aware of the fact that how small gestures and words can bring a smile to someone's face and lift their spirits. In this case, that someone is yours truly. I decided that I just had to write this post. My hands were itching to type it as soon as possible.


The incident (I don't know whether this is a correct word to use, but I can't think of any other more appropriate word right now) turned out to be quite funny, but it just made my day! Here's what happened:


It started as a normal day. As usual, I woke up at 5 AM, got ready in my workout gear and hit the gym. After working out for an hour, I came back home, got ready for work, and was sitting in the office cab by 8 AM. Since I was feeling a little sleepy, I put on my headphones, started listening to songs on my mobile, and closed my eyes. The last song I heard before reaching office was Quit Playing Games With my Heart, by Backstreet Boys. It's quite an old song, but I simply love it. I still remember when I first heard it. I was in the seventh or eighth standard, and my cousin had got a "cassette" recorded from a music shop nearby. He had given me the cassette to listen to his choice of songs, and had specially recommended this number. I admit that from the first time I heard the song, I fell in love with it. Since then, it has always been there on all my music players, cell phones, PCs, laptops, etc, and I listen to it as often as I can. Well, coming back to the topic at hand.


As I told you, this song was the last one I heard before I reached office and switched off the music. But, the lyrics were still swirling in my mind. There are these particular lines in the song, I am extremely fond of. They are:

Deep within my soul, I feel

Nothing's like it used to be

Sometimes I wish I could

Turn back time

Impossible as it may seem

But I wish I could

So bad

Whenever I listen to these lines I get a different sort of feeling, which cannot be expressed in words. Since the lyrics were still going through my mind, after I had switched on my computer, checked my mail, and logged into AOL messenger (our official messenger), I made the lines my status message on the messenger. Then I started on with my work. Barely five minutes later, I received a 'ping' from my counselor, which said: "Hi, how are you? Are you feeling fine?" To tell you the truth, I was a little surprised at receiving this. Before you make any assumptions, let me clarify that I share a very good relationship with my counselor. She and I chat pretty regularly and whatever problem I have, I go directly to her to discuss it. But, despite our good bonding and friendly relationship, it is still a little weird to get a ping from her out of the blue, and that also at the very start of the day. So, I replied by saying that I was fine and everything was going well. At this point she questioned me, whether I was telling the truth!! Again, not a normal question at all. So, I 'pinged' her again and asked as to what made her feel that I was not fine, to which she replied, "I got worried after reading your status message. It sounds sad. So, I thought I'll ask you what the problem is." Wow!! Now this was unusual. I assured her that nothing was wrong, and I just like this song and hence, put some lines from it as the status. But she still asked me to meet her after sometime and have a casual chat. So, I ended up having a half an hour long discussion with my counselor during which I tried to convince her that everything was great on my side. I also ended up giving her this song, as she was also quite fond of it.

But, this was not the end of it either. After sometime, a friend of my mine came to my workstation and straight away asked me, "Kya hua? Itni dukhi kyun hai?" (What happened? Why are you so upset?). I did not understand the question and just kept on staring at her with a puzzled look on my face. After a minute she told me that my status message gave the impression that I am sad and depressed. I started laughing and assured her that it was nothing, just a song. She got convinced, we talked generally for a few minutes and then she left. About 15-20 minutes later, another friend of mine dropped by and asked the very same question! At this point I was thinking to myself, "These guys give so much importance to status messages on AOL!! What's wrong with them?" But, I repeated the very same answer, which I had given to my other friend earlier. He also started laughing and went away shaking his head.

The story does not end here also. One of my cab mates was on leave that day. But, she was online from home, in an invisible mode. Suddenly, she sent me a ping which said,"Awesome status message!! But what happened? All well?" This is it, I decided. I had to change my message. I never knew that a status message can create such an impression on people. I gave her the very same reply once again. Soon after that I removed the controversial message, and instead put something simple instead.

After reaching home, when I looked back on the incident, I had a really good laugh. But also, I felt humbled by the concern of so many people. A mere status message made me realize that there are people, other than my family and a few close friends, who genuinely care about me. Thanks for all your questions and worries guys! It meant a lot to me.

Signing Out,

Ciao!

Think About It

My mom recently went to a Parent Teacher Meeting (PTM) at my sister's school. There, each parent was given a circular which contained a few paragraphs, depicting the reality of today's life. After reading the circular, I thought of sharing those lines with you, as they are so relevant in today's times.

Think About It

The paradox of our time in history is that:

We have taller buildings , but shorter tempers; wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy it less.

We have bigger houses, but smaller families; more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgement; more experts, but less solutions; more medicines, but less wellness.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too. We've learnt how to make a living, but not a life; we've added years to life, not life to years.

We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbour.

We've conquered outer space, but not inner space; we've split the atom, but not our prejudice. We have higher incomes, but lower morals; we've become long on quantity, but short on quality.

These are the times of tall men, and short character; steep profits, and shallow relationships. These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare; more leisure, but less fun; more kinds of food, but less nutrition.

These are the days of two incomes, but more divorce; of fancier houses, but broken homes. It is a time when there is much in the show window and nothing in the stock-room.

Before ending this post, I would like to share a quote by RW Emerson (again given in that same circular), "We are always getting ready to live, but never living."

Happy Thinking,

Ciao!!

Sathya Sai Baba - A God Man or Just A Man

In the last few weeks, especially since last Sunday, Sathya Sai Baba has become the biggest news in India. You open any newspaper or switch on any news channel, you are bound to find atleast one article about the man. For those who don't know who I am talking about, let me give you a small introduction to the man who called himself God.

Sathya Sai was (and still remains) India's most popular God man. He has approximately 40 million followers across 168 countries in the world. He was born in 1926 in a small town, Puttaparthy, in Andhra Pradesh (India). At the age of 14 he claimed to be the avatar (re-incarnation) of Shirdi Sai Baba. Thus, began the journey of this self proclaimed God and spiritual leader. He died on April 24, 2011, at the age of 84, of multi-organ failure.

With his death came the overflow of information about him, his deeds of philanthropy, miracles performed by him, and what not. Andhra Pradesh declared a four-day state mourning in his honour. Every high profile politician, right from Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh to LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi expressed their grief on Sathya Sai's passing away on national television. Channels constantly showed pictures of lakhs of devotees assembled in the ashram in Puttaparthy, crying as though they had lost a loving member of their family. They also aired old footage showing the various 'miracles' performed by Baba, such as suddenly producing vibhuti (holy ash) in his empty hands and distributing it among his followers, or magically producing watches, necklaces, gold rings and other accessories out of thin air. One video showed a 3 tonne gold lingam (shivling) emerging from within Sathya Sai body, at a Shivratri function in his ashram, in 2004.
Newspapers carried first hand accounts of devotees who had experienced life changing events after they came in contact with Sathya Sai. They also showed photographs of many high profile celebrities like Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar breaking down while sitting in front of his body before the funeral.

I, like every other citizen of India, had heard about Sathya Sai Baba. For me, until recently, he was a guy with long curly black hair who wore only orange clothes, and whose name was similar to the name of another God man. I have been raised to believe that the only God is a power above in the sky, and that no man or woman on Earth can possibly match it. So, I was never interested in learning anything about Sathya Sai, or for that matter any other baba or guru. Then, one fine day in December 2000, I came across an issue of India Today (a leading weekly magazine) lying on my grandfather's bed. I started flipping its pages without much interest, and suddenly came across a story about this self proclaimed God. The article alleged that Sathya Sai was a paedophile who sexually abused small boys and young men, and demanded sexual favors from his devotees. There were first-hand accounts from ex-devotees who described their ordeal and torture in detail. As I read through the story, I felt repulsed by the man and was convinced that every spiritual leader is a fraud who plays with the emotions of innocent and ignorant people to accumulate wealth. However, with time I forgot about the story and about the man itself.

But, with the great influx of news about him in the last few weeks, I became curious. Any news channel I saw or any newspaper I read, I could only find positive stories about Sathya Sai. There was no mention of any controversy around him and no one spoke about him negatively. As I vaguely remembered that old magazine article about him, I started searching about him on the internet. After a few articles which praised him, I found loads and loads of web pages, stories, blogs, and international newspaper articles which condemned Sathya Sai, and told the tales of his misdeeds. During my research, I also stumbled upon a documentary made on him by BBC, called The Secret Swami. The 60-70 minute documentary was a revelation. It contained interviews with devotees, ex-devotees, politicians, and rationalists. It exposed all of baba's 'miracles' as simple magic tricks. Also, it revealed how the BJP government, under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, had taken out an order to close down all the investigations against Sathya Sai, related to sexual abuse and the murder of four of his close aides in 1993. Following are the links of the documentary that can be watched online for free:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7

After watching this documentary, my mind was actually in a turmoil. It was very difficult for me to understand that how could people be so blind so as to ignore the facts staring them in their faces. It was so easy for anyone to just stand up one day and announce they he/she was the avatar of some God and convince foolish people that he/she had magical powers, by showing some cheap tricks. All I could think was that becoming a baba or spiritual leader is the most profitable business worldwide today. Look at Sathya Sai, that's exactly was he did, and gradually became the head of a trust worth Rs. 40,000 crores (approximately $9 billion).

In conclusion, I would just like to say that the picture of Sathya Sai baba that formed in my mind after watching the documentary and reading the numerous articles was that of a con man, and not a god man. What are your thoughts on it? Do let me know.

Signing Out,
Still Confused