Bewitched {Revathi Raj Iyer}

The majestic mountains loomed large, as if supported by the seamless ocean;
The tiny houses neatly stacked, as if a row of cards;
The clouds dispersed in an array, as if gently blown by the wind;
The sun shone radiantly, as if a veil lifted off a beautiful bride;
The slight drizzle that sprayed, as if the aftermath of a heavy downpour.

The little girl waited and looked at the skies;
Oh! It then emerged out of the mountains;
Splash of vivid colours, as if enveloping the skies;
Reflecting in the ocean, as if intermingling with the orange rays cast by the sun;
What an unabashed display of royal splendour!

Bewitched…

The little girl ran as fast as her tiny feet could carry;
Leaving imprints on the wet sand, as if asking the moment to wait;
“Fluff”, she cried out and clapped her hands, with hardly any sound;
The poodle came running to her, as if the girl was in danger;
She pranced until he got close and hugged him tight.

Fluff knew not the beauty, yet looked at the sky;
She could not see the beauty, yet looked at the sky;
Both bewitched !!

• Published in yourstoryclub on 27th May, 2014. Thanks:-)

http://yourstoryclub.com/poetry-and-poem/poem-bewitched-silent-voice/



 

An evening to remember {Revathi Raj Iyer}

An evening to remember

 

Her eyes darted like a frightened deer;
Twinkling blue eye balls as if two tiny stars;
Scouring the bay front frantically;
as she waited for her dear one and only...

Tarsha was proud, bold and ruthless;
Killer looks, lovely gait, women hated her;
She knew this and couldn’t care less;
as she waited for her dear one and only...

Tarsha stood motionless, as she enjoyed her last smoke;
Her smoky eyes searched desperately;
Her mind raced, heart pounded;
Will he or will he not? she mused;
as she waited for her dear one and only...

The Limousine came to a halt, a man in white took a bow;
Tarsha saw the shiny shoes, there stood her dear one and only;
She could not see his face well hidden by a hat;
Was it deliberate she wondered?

Her heart missed a beat, as she saw her hero walk towards her;
Tarsha’s eyes lit up, her heart swelled with pride;
as she stubbed her cigar and ran towards him, straight into his arms

Her son, her dear one and only beloved little master;
For whom she had struggled, determined to make him ‘the man';
Her dream had come true, the smile lasted forever;

Oh yes! She was free now and ever;
This was an evening to remember...

• Published in Woman's Era 2nd fortnight of December, 2014. Thank You :-)

http://www.readwhere.com/read/397649/Womans-Era/December-Second-2014#dual/1/1

 

 

 



1.  

A Considerate Man

This is my humble attempt to share my thoughts about my father-in-law whom we referred to as appa/dada.

I have shared a special bond with appa and an understanding that evolved over time. Our relationship dates back in time when I came into the Iyer family as their first daughter-in-law. Appa used to frequently visit us and was more of a friend to me than a father-in-law. We used to have interesting conversation about all matters that he liked. He would talk and talk and talk and I would be intrigued as to how any person can make such a long conversation without much effort, considering that I myself was a fairly quiet girl.

Initially I used to be quite amazed that his 3 sons would always address him as BOSS and he would call them DORAI . But as I got to know him more - I realized that this was really how he related with all his sons, in a relaxed manner.

When our daughter was born, dada's happiness knew no bounds, and he took joy in being involved in her childhood, as much as he could. I was happy to see how dada became the doting grand dad to his pethi as he fondly referred to my daughter. He never missed a birthday and would take charge of decorating the lounge with balloons and festoons. My little girl would look forward to her share of gems and chocolates and would be very happy to be the centre of attraction. Dingdees and Bublimaas were some of the pet names he would address little Shefali.

Dada would also happily take charge and cover my daughter's school books and text books with brown paper and neatly label it.  We always took this for granted and in 1999 when we moved overseas I suddenly realized as to how dada had lovingly taken charge of such a time consuming and mundane task.

For a person who held a very senior position in one of the multinationals, he also had a much softer side as dada. Appa was a very soft spoken person and looking back I feel that, had he not been a talkative person, ours would have been an empty relationship and I wouldn't have learnt so much about the family and his experiences.

His talks centered around his days as a little boy and his extra large family, how he met his wife, how he raised his sons, his first trip to the UK, his friends, politics, his friends, and not but not the least his career progress and his office. He used to quote funny anecdotes and I used to marvel at how he could remember such minute details. His penchant for books is known to all his family and friends.

It was an endless chat from an otherwise quiet person (as amma would often remind all of us) who became a talkative man with time and life's experiences. It was funny as to how at times, amma would intervene when his talks used to get repetitive. He used to talk not just to us, but with everybody that he felt close to. I am sure my family members that are reading this note are nodding their heads in agreement.

He pursued 2 years of law post retirement so as to be in touch with the outside world. It was his sweet way of coping up with time and he adjusted beautifully to the change of office routine. He also engaged himself with a vouluntary organisation and that became an interesting topic of conversation.

When we moved overseas they shifted base so as to be in the midst of all our relatives, our communication grew stronger with letter writing. He refused to be part of the techie world and loved his typewriter. It was one of his priced possessions. He never failed to send a birthday card to his grandkids nor did he forget his our wedding anniversaries. A card would arrive promptly on such occasions and his blessings came from his heart.

I cannot help add that for a person who was so easy on a face to face conversation, his phone protocl was also just perfect.  It wouldn't last for more than 3 minutes and always ended with my good wishes to you all.

I noticed that as his grandkids grew he became more content and happy in life. He once told me that he had no complains with life and was in the evening of his life, when we called to wish him on his 80th birthday. Since the past two years, he would tell us that he was in the declining years of life.

In retrospect,  I feel happy and blessed that we made an effort to spend as much time as we could each year, in spite of the distance and our busy lives, and ensured our little girl had the same level of love and warmth, as she grew up into a lovely teen and a young adult.

Although we all wish that he had lived longer and continued to humour us with his stories, I must also admit that I have no regrets that we hadn't spent enough time with him. Dada has three sons and each of them have 1 girl. It was his wish that all his boys with wives and grand kids should unite and this was something we could never work out, due to differing priorities.

However as providence would have it, this long time wish of dada was also fulfilled as the entire family got together at the wedding of his other granddaughter and he bid farewell the very next day, leaving us all in a state of shock and disbelief.

As I write this tribute to appa/dada, on his 13th day of parting from us all, I feel that he has been most considerate, even as he departed.

May his soul rest in peace.

Hari Om

A short biography of Swami Sivananda

A friend suggested that I write a short article on Swami Sivananda for the benefit of my readers. Needless to add more information may be sought from Wikipedia, as well.

Swami Sivananda was born on 8th September, 1887 in a well read and pious Tambrahm family that belonged to a village called Pattamadai, in Tirunelveli District, Tamil Nadu. His noble nature and putting others before self was seen from the early years of his childhood. His grasp of Vedanta seemed natural. He was a born Karma Yogi. True to his nature he qualified as a medical doctor and was so immersed in it that he would not hesitate to travel anywhere if there was a need.

In 1913, he went to Malaya and served in various hospitals for almost 10 years. He spread health awareness vide his writings in medical journals.

He came to Rishikesh in 1924. He did not wish to lead a householder's life and renounced his attachments and career and devoted himself totally to the service of mankind. In 1925 he started a charitable dispensary which is now a full fledged hospital that does not charge a dime for treatment. This hospital has no dearth of doctor volunteers who spend a few months here, in spite of having work commitments, elsewhere.

Swami Sivananda evolved as a Yogi and was not a man of miracles. His motto was 'Be Good, Do Good'. Simple and remarkable !! He inspired people. His generosity was well known. Once his well wisher remarked that he should save for a rainy day and Swamiji smiled and said not to worry about such trifles. 

To give is one thing but to be unconditional and gracious needs a different mindset, isn't?

His spiritual teachings attracted a lot of attention and in 1932 the Sivananda ashram was built on a huge chunk of land that was donated by the erstwhile King and Queen of Tehri Garhwal, District who were his ardent devotees. Today this ashram manifests itself beautifully on the banks of the river Ganges.

Four years later the Divine Life Society was formed to propagate his teachings to the rest of the world, which his ambassadors very ably accomplished. 

A few years later the Yoga Vedanta Forest Academy was set up to conduct organized spiritual lessons in philosophy and yoga. This academy has flourished since then and attracts many students and seekers from all over the world, to understand and disseminate spiritual knowledge.

Swami Sivananda has written almost 300 books in his lifetime. On 14th July, 1963 Swamiji attained enlightenment. 

Om Tat Sat

Share market - a maze s me

Ask any Indian about the share market and he will have a story to tell. If not, he will try and make up an impromptu story at least to strike an interesting conversation. Smart aye? This is the extent to which people are hooked onto the stock market, no matter what their profession is.

During the periods 2005 - 07, the Sensex sky rocketed up from 6k to 20k and people made obscene amount of money. Bravo to the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) that had come to power in 2004 and was serving their first term, Indian economy was booming with increased growth and productivity and so was the world economy, in general. 

Everybody was making merry including the Indian housewives who left their nest and got hooked onto their computers and started trading. Bollywood wasted no time in making a satire 'saas, bahu aur sensex (mother in law, daughter in law and sensex). Those years were mind boggling and every share had a midas touch literally. NRI's felt very miserable squirming and fretting as to how their uncles, aunts, nephews and nieces were making easy money. This was a no brainer to them. 

The party did not last for ever. European banks and the American investment banks well took care of that aspect in 2009 and the markets were doomed so to say. The last four years have witnessed serious global financial and economic disasters one after another starting with collapse of Lehman Brothers, Barclays Bank, Sub prime mortgage crisis, European economy hitting rock bottom and the economy is not on a glorious path of recovery yet. 

In the mean while the UPA enters its second term in 2009 and a year later the Indian people were in for bigger shocks as the media made shocking revelations by exposing the apathy, gross mismanagement and collapse of governance by the Government caught up in an endless list of scams involving billions of dollars and loss to the exchequer. The country is still reeling under the impact and there were rumors of mid term polls last year. All this has left an indelible mark on the share market and the market has been quite wishy washy ever since, with occasional signs of probable recovery, but not gaining any momentum. 

Year 2014 is the election year and in spite of all odds UPA could come to power but the flip side would be that the market could go either way. Strange is the behavior of the share market. Market belies reason and logic. Market mood is unpredictable.

Let me give you  the current position from a broad perspective.

• In 2013 the Sensex has crossed 20k for the third time, twice in January and now on 8th May. 
• During the periods from July 2012 to March 2013, FII on an average have pumped in approximately $ 2. billion. 
• In April the investments were less than $1 billion. 
• In May the foreign investments  has been steadily increasing.
• Inflation is down to 6%
• Commodity prices (gold, oil)  have gone down considerably.
• Normal monsoon weather has been predicted by Met Department.
• The Reserve Bank of India has reduced the interest rates by 25 basis points.  Hence the rate at which banks can borrow from RBI is 7.25% - lowest for the last 2 years.

Flip side:

• The Current Account Deficit (CAD) is still high at over 6%
• Government is in a mess. 
• Corruption allegations are rampant.
• Corporates are still not investing in a big way on Capex
• Retail investors are yet to participate in the equity market
• No meaningful IPO in the horizon.
• Traditionally May has been a bad month for investments (except in 2009 and 2004 where the returns were in excess of 15% - election months)

Which way the market will swing and start a trend one more time will be interesting to see !!

Our Gratitude to Sivananda Ashram

I recently spent two weeks at the Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh, along with my husband. This being our first trip to a monastery, our knowledge was limited to online information only. We were received warmly and efficiently at the reception and then directed to accommodation after a brief explanation of the ashram routine and activity. The room allotted was neat, with clean sheets and had all the basic facilities that one would need. Our intention was to stay within the ashram for the entire duration of our stay and partake in all the daily activities. The ashram has a continuous and structured activity schedule. The morning activity starts at 5 am at the Samadhi Shrine with prayer, meditation and a short spiritual talk for one hour. This was followed by the chanting of Om Namah Shivaya at the Vishwanath Mandir, concluding with mangala aarti at 7 am. The breakfast is served sharp at 7 am and from 7.30 onwards there is a recitation of Vishnu Sahasranamam for half an hour; followed by one hour of meditation (chanting Om Namo Narayanaya) . From 9 am to 11 am it was our routine to be at the Library. Again in the afternoon for two hours, from 2 pm to 4 pm we were at the Audio Visual Library. Daily four hours of either reading from the vast collection of spiritual books and listening to audio CDs became our routine for the entire duration of our stay. Both the Library and Audio Visual Library have an amazing collection of books and CDs . The lunch is served at 11 am and dinner at 7 pm with a second batch after half an hour, respectively. The lunch and the dinner bell brought back memories of my school days. The traditional way of sitting down and eating, also reminded us of our younger days at home. The prayer before lunch and dinner was like music to my ears, although I had no idea of the verses, except for a few which I had learnt in my childhood. We both belong to the Tamil Brahmin family, and saying our prayers daily in the morning and evening for a brief while, was part of our upbringing. However, we were not into recitations of the holy books, although we were broadly aware of the stories and the values conveyed by the scriptures. This we had learnt from our grandparents and parents. A prayer before lunch and supper was a novel experience to us and very energizing. The Satsang that followed from 7.30 pm to 9.30 p.m. was very soothing. The prayer book that we purchased from the library was of immense help in the chanting and recitation of all the shlokas . In the evenings, just before dinner we made our way to the Ganges and listened to the prayer by the river side at Gurudev Kutir. It was simply marvellous. It was almost as if we felt the presence of the Divine at Gurudev Kutir. By day 3, we had started meeting and bonding with people from different walks of life and different parts of the world. We met devotees from Switzerland, Japan, Italy, England, Netherlands and from Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and many other parts of India. This indeed was ‘Unity in Diversity’. We started getting to know each other better as time went by. We were also very fortunate to attend some of the lectures conducted by the Vedanta Academy as guests. The lectures by the Swamijis on wide ranging subjects from Religious Consciousness, Yoga Sutras, Upanishads and Modern Philosophers were very refreshing and insightful which made me think about philosophy, religion and life in general. Basically it made us think, think and think. This too became part of our routine. During this period we got the opportunity to meet the Swamijis. They were very nice and made the time and effort to understand who we were and what we did. We were very humbled by their kindness. Swami Sivananda's abiding principle that no work is menial was so adequately displayed in the mix of devotees that took part in doing kitchen duties like cutting vegetables and serving food . As part of Seva my husband would go cut veggies in the kitchen and I was given a wee responsibility in proof checking a manuscript. We felt so good about it. With each passing day we felt deeply involved both physically, mentally and emotionally towards the ashram routine. We were involved for over eight hours a day in the Morning Prayers, chants, meditation, the mangala aarti and the Satsang. We could feel the vibrancy in the air and the resplendent surroundings added to the divinity. Although initially, both of us were unable to keep pace with the recitation of the Bhagvad Gita and the Vishnu Sahasranamam, we felt the energy and found it so mesmerizing that we would close our eyes and be in the moment. However, in a week’s time we were able to recite the prayers as this was slowly getting embedded in our minds. We felt happy about the progress we had made and the fact that we were able to participate meaningfully. I was also a part of the Matru Satsang readings, as well on a daily basis for one hour. This focussed on readings from the autobiography of Swami Sivananda and Holy Scriptures both in English and Hindi. All the matajis were very helpful and made me feel part of the gathering. By end of the week I knew all of them, not just by their names but each one had an interesting story to tell about their association with the ashram, which dated back to much before I was born. I could sense their warmth and joy as they were remembering their past. They literally grew up with Gurudev. I was overwhelmed at their devotion and dedication to the ashram. They were kind enough to gift me a book which had Gurudev’s teachings, in appreciation of the fact that I made it a point to attend the Matru Satsang without fail. I was quite touched by this gesture. Last but not the least, how could one not mention about the tasty prasadams? They were practically like a mini meal. There was too much food here and we were humbled by this generosity. The sattvic and healthy food made us feel light and energetic all day long. I would like to conclude by stating that both of us have taken our baby steps in this divine path of spirituality. We realize that we have a long way to go. Learning, understanding, adapting and slowly evolving into a still better human being, what more could we ask for? We already feel that the two weeks stay has given us freshness, joy, positivity and renewed energy. We truly feel blessed!! This ashram set amidst the majestic Himalayas is definitely a heaven on earth – Devlokha in this Kaliyug. We are ever so glad we made this trip. HARI OM TAT SAT

Gross National Happiness

I have always been intrigued by the Tibetan ideology or concept about Gross National Happiness (GNH). We all have been taught to understand GDP, isn't?

What is Gross National Happiness, then? How can an intangible thingy be measured at all in the first place?

The Tibetans believe that it is possible to measure a happiness quotient by creating a habitat that brings about happiness and they have arrived at a simple formula, as well.

Happiness = 'Wanting what you have' divided by 'Having what you want'

It may sound a bit impractical to those who have become a part of the material world. But pause and think !! and try to apply to oneself and I am sure we will all agree that there is certainly an element of truth and rationale behind it. If we don't realize it today, someday we will:)

Check this link to learn more...

http://www.ted.com/talks/chip_conley_measuring_what_makes_life_worthwhile.html