Where The Mind is Without Fear

It is tough to not feel patriotic when one hears the National Anthem,it makes me want to be an Indian,forver. To be patriotic is old fashioned and uncool for some :), for me it is a fashion statement!!
On this day, as we celebrate 'Republic of India',it is worth the time taken to remember the great man's immortalised offering...

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow
domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the
dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought
and action--
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

-Rabindranath Tagore

P.S :- Let us vow to do our bit..

single at 31....

some idiot ( who is all of 23 years ) is stupid enough to ask me why am single at 31 :) he also wants to know how tall am,as if that matters to his existence :) I pity all these young things who have not much to do in life..
At 23, I was sensible enough not waste time sending crazy messages to strangers asking them why they were single at 31!! I had better ideas for my life dude.Today when am 31 ( that must be 'old' for you guys right ? ) , my decisions then,have made me what am and I have absolutely no regrets understand ?

maybe I hate men?
maybe I did not do the right things to get a guy to marry me when I was 23 ?
maybe I was too busy making mistakes ?
maybe I was too honest and emotional ?

dude, does that answer your question ? i really pity you!!!
now shut up and go get a life..when you are 31, I shall ask you some questions, prepare yourself to answer them ok ?

random thoughts on Monday morning....

felt bored to come to work..esp when weekend was cozy and nice at home...
bought a new cellphone Samsung.. all flashy and colorful but I miss my Nokia..nothing is more sophisticated than simplicity for sure :)
heard a keeravani RTP of Unnikrishnan on the way to work..simply superb..Unni's music is nostalgic, pity his music got overshadowed with playback singing..
on a saving spree now, this damn cell phone skewed it up a bit...dreams of Europe in distant corners of the mind.. this year my predictions say i shall travel places.. now thats what I call user-friendly predictions..
my finances in order.... trying to sell some stock but greed is overtaking me all the time... :)

The hero of Vallam...

I'am talking about Vallavarayan Vandiyathevan, warrior of the Vana clan from ThiruVallam('Thiru' in Tamil means 'sacred','respected' etc),the hero whose valour,sword and lance takes him places...
Hear the glory of the Chozhas through his descriptions, see the beauty of 'Ponni' and her tributaries through his eyes, watch the majestic forts and palaces in Pazhayarai, Thanjavur on his horse, get lost in secret dungeons of the Thanjavur palace, fight warriors hidden in dark corners of the palace,meet beautiful women like Nandini Devi who can bewitch you with witchcraft and magentic,sensual beauty or fall in love with the one and only 'Kundavai', intelligent smart and beautiful-hearted princess among the Chozhas!!, overhear a conspiracy for the throne, forces fighting in Eezham, spies roaming around like astrologers,saints and picking fights,a wicked magician,wicked commanders who double-cross their beloved king, a mendicant prince - a Siva devotee's sudden wish to reign,ancient Tamil wars of Pandyas and Chozhas,Rashtrakutas and Pallavas,the magnificent temple gopurams, music and dance - kuravai koothu, trance and mediums fortelling the royal destiny, poetry of those ages, kings and their numerous wives and concubines, a gypsy girl in love with the prince, a prince who is the darling of the kingdom - 'Ponniyin Selvan' Raja Raja Chola the Second.

Our hero from Vallam traverses all these and more and you will be transported to that magical era;he weaves stories like those in Kanchipuram weave a pattu saree, resplendent and colourful...

It is a must read for those of us who are interested to go back to South Indian history..

P.S :-For those of you who wish to read this book.. 'Ponniyin Selvan' penned by Kalki Krishnamurthy in Tamil also has an English translation by Karthik Narayanan, available in all leading book stores in 5 volumes - a magnum opus indeed :)

Your dearest wish will come true...

my orkukkee for the day this one. I hate such ones.I prefer the ones like I had a couple of days ago, on the lines of 'something bad bypasses you' ,'you will be successful', 'you will be wealthy in your old age' kinds...
Today's one makes me weak, gives me false hopes, puts me back to the state of mind that I keep trying to run away from everyday. Every time, the transition hurts and badly too.. When one fights one's battles ,the last thing one needs is an opponent who tries to ensnare into a 'chakravyuah' - the maze out of which you cannot escape. You would rather have a strong opponent who fights you, hurts you and kills you fighting you face-to-face.
Some battles go one forever, mine shall until I fall forever... till that time, my wishes need to be just encouraging enough for me to fight. The day I stop fighting, I shall wish 'Let my dearest wish come true' for then I can afford to become weak, to give up all and run away from this mad world, to a faraway place which has but NOTHING in it...

you don't wanna be me now....

P.S what i need is a dinner, a warm glass of milk, a dose of PGW :)

To the heroine in my life, my dearest Palla..

I'am on cloud nine today,not just me but all of us in my family.. a special reason to rejoice.My dearest sister Pallavi (in short Palla) cleared her CA final group exam in the 9th attempt.She finally made it and with great scores!! (56,81,50,etc.. if u think this is less,talk to a CA student :) )
Scores that can put the best income-tax guy in India to shame -this is an exaggerated statement but today calls for it. I have seen her study endlessly for the last 6 years every 6 months not giving up a bit. CA is one hell, I tell you. The exam is so difficult to score , it is not at all nice after a point.Most people give up or slide down.

My sister is a fighter,she never gives up.She always has had a business acumen , a keen sharp intellect, just right for the finance job. She would excel if she specalised in Income tax. Her knowledge of the finance world simply baffles me. To be abreast of everything that happens in the market today, to know the policies,understand case laws, know the stock market, to understand most of what P Chidambaram and others in the past have said on Feb 28th every year is in my opinion not a joke.

One look at her exam preparation and you know how she can keep in her small brain, all those 500 odd case laws or income tax clauses, I would just die you know... Look at her work sheets and you see the numerous ways she would have handled a sales tax question of weird complexity. Look at her management science answers and you will admire her handwriting. She tells me she keeps it that way even in the exam answers sheet.. (The pace at which she writes does not spoil the way her writing looks like it would to most of us)

She is my herione, my sweetest dear little sister who today stands tall ( litrally and figuratively)
because of her hardwork and dedication. She is now just a step away from becoming a top-notch
Chartered Accountant, the first in my family!! Today is the happiest day in my life!!

Oh 'world of money matters'!! 6 months from now,be ready to welcome one of the smartest brains...

'Pahaadi' in hindi films...

'Bahaaron mera jeevan bhi sawaaron'(Aaakhri Khat) gives me 'goosepimples'!!
Friday noon, hungry and waiting for my friends to go lunching, am too bored to work, so I switch on to music india online, in mood for some old hindi numbers, here comes on Lata Mangeshkar's page. I chose this song as I do always first. Numerous songs in film music make use of this raga 'Pahaadi'to perfection. It reminds one of the mountains (Himalayas) as the name suggests.
Every 'Pahaadi' I have listened to till now takes me away to some misty mountains,plains with rivers flowing across, flower gardens in the middle, freshness and nature in summation.
What strikes me most about 'Pahaadi' is how nature-loving the raga is structured. Indian music student that I'm, me always trying to analyse why certain ragas remind me of certain places, people and such,with Pahaadi it is not different. Only difference here is that 'Pahaadi' is so rustic to the ears,I forget to analyse, I stop being the eternal Indian music student and become a lay-listener. I close my mind and open my heart!!