Healthy cooking

Dear readers, can you guess what I am cooking?
(Hint Healthy recipe)

Filling a cheque

“So, should we start the business meeting?” I asked two gentlemen sitting in front of me.

“We can do the meeting in the bank!” One of them suggested.

“Why in a bank?”

 “Actually I have to present the cheque of Rs. 37 lacs.” He replied. “You come along with us and we can do the meeting in the bank.”

“You can present the cheque after this meeting; it is only 9:45 a.m. yet.”

“Ya, but it is very urgent. If it is not presented early, it will not be cleared.”

“Fine. Then present your cheque first, I am waiting for you here. When you come back then we will talk about business.”

Both of them went away, I took out my novel and started reading.

Two hours later, they came back.

“Just because of YOU, my work was not completed.” The person who had to present the cheque complained.

“What did I do? I was sitting here reading my novel. I said. “How can I disturb you?”

He realized that he picked up wrong words and said politely, “As you were waiting here, in hurry to return back while filling the cheque I wrote 37 thousands instead of 37 lacs. My cheque got wasted.”

“If you were so concerned about me and thinking about me while filling a cheque then why you filled only 37 thousands, you should have filled 37 crores.” I thought. ;)

Book Review : If Truth be Told – A Monk’s Memoir

I have read the memoirs written by so many saints and sages but Om Swami’s memoirs ‘If Truth be Told – A Monk’s Memoir’ is one of the best. The flow is simple, lucid and interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.

I went to HarperCollins office to attend a meeting organised by Indibloggers. At the end of the meeting, one of the staff members asked all the bloggers to pick any book which they liked the most from the HarperCollins office. As I passed through the passage with cabins on both the sides, I saw an ochre colour book on the shelf above the sitting area. I went closed to it and found it was written by ‘Om Swami’. Wow! I am a regular reader of Om Swami’s blog and have watched some of his videos. His talk about ‘What is God?’ inspires me the most. Earlier, I desperately wanted to visit the function of the release of ‘If Truth Be Told – A Monk’s Memoir’ at Delhi. But I couldn’t as I was busy or ill or both, I couldn’t remember correctly now. I picked up that book and announce that I wanted this book. I was the first blogger to choose.

This book tells about the life of Om Swami before and after taking ‘sanyasa’. He was voracious reader from his childhood days. He learnt astrology and tantric practices at young age. His name was Amit Sharma and lived in Patiala along with his parents, sister and brother. At the age of eighteen he went to Australia for higher studies. He worked hard to earn and to learn simultaneously. He made a good amount of money and started his own business which he later on extended to U.S. and Europe. He took sanyasa from a naga sadhu but left him as sadhu had not yet mastered his emotions like anger. He went to Himalayas to do intense meditation in silence and solitude. He succeeded and realised himself. He felt a sense of dispassion and detachment arising from within without any effort. Just like when we churn milk it turn into butter and that butter can never be converted back into milk, his mind experienced an irreversible peace and immense joy.

Some of the wisdom gems from this book are listed below:-

1.  When you write, I want the writing to be so taut that if anyone is to remove even a comma from your sentence, the entire paragraph will have to be rewritten. When you speak, I want you to struggle, not because you cannot think of words with which to express yourself but because so many rush to your mind that you have to really choose to pick the word that is most apt, that is perfect.
2. Never lose stocks. Never forget that you buy them to make a profit. Once you have reached a profitable position, exit. If they betray you and you are making a loss, exit. Your goal is to make more profits than losses.
3. Why do we earn, and why do we learn?
4. It is wrongly assumed that tantra is about tantric sex, tantric massage, tantric yoga and so on. This is not where tantra starts or ends. Tantra is an inner journey the practitioner undertakes to break the conditioning of the mind and move beyond the conditioned and egoistic self, so that he may see himself as he truly is.
5. Meditation, worship, praying it’s all useless if we are unable to go beyond what holds us back.
6. Self-realization is removing yourself from the support structure. You no longer require the pillars; in fact, you become a pillar of divine love and light.
7. The eternal truth is that you have the right to live your life to the fullest. Every moment.
8. Find what makes you happy and pursue it.
9. You are a master of infinite possibilities.

In the end OM Swami said, “I’ve given you my truth. Go, discover yours.”

Dear readers, I think this is my longest post, may be because I am a great admirer of Om Swami. :)

WORD UP 2015! Gurgaon

I am sitting next to Ashish Chopra in WORD UP, 2015, Gurgaon whose videos go viral on Youtube especially the one in which he paid the toll of the car behind him on Delhi - Gurgaon Toll Plaza. 


Some of his famous videos are as follows 
1. How to travel visa free https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmJVs_I-I5w
2. Premium Auto Rickshaw Service https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe6cI5REP-0
3. Travel light https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQbJOod7fTM

Earlier his lecture on 'Vlogging how to's' was very interesting and inspiring. 

Book Review : Those Small Lil Things In Life and Love by Rahul Saini

‘Those Small Lil Things In Life and Love’ by Rahul Saini is very interesting, simple and humorous. For light reading, for time pass this novel is a good read or rather should not be missed. It tells about the friendships, relationships and family life of a guy named ‘Raj’. The most interesting point I liked in this book is Rahul gifted soap to his girlfriend, in his school days. The Bollywood songs and scenes give an exciting filmy angles to the incidences happening in Raj’s life. There are no erotic romantic scenes to attract masses but sweet,light romance. 

In this book the story moves alternately in past and present. The font sizes are unlike to differentiate between the present and past. I must say that I like the past more than the present especially the school days memories of Rahul which are very interesting and full of surprises. One can easily relate to the main character and his naughtiness. 

There are some typing mistakes which can be ignored as the language used is casual and not literary. 

Rahul Saini is the author of ‘Just for You’, ‘Paperback Dreams’, ‘The Orange Hangover’ and ‘Just Like in the Movies’. ‘ThoseSmall Lil Things in Life and Love’ is his first book. He resides in Gurgaon. He is architect by profession. He loves to write stories and paint. The collection of photographs on his blog is very beautiful.  

This novel is like a soothing breeze!

Avid reader

"I bought two books a day before yesterday. Today, I finished reading both." I said.
"You read so fast. Do you read in washroom?" Miss. 'I' asked.
"No. I am not that avid reader."
"Actually, I read books in toilet as my sister doesn't allow me to keep the tubelight on after 10 p.m. as she likes to sleep in dark room. So, I have to go to washroom, to sit there and read and read till I feel sleepy."

WORD UP! 2015

I attended Word Up! 2015 organised by Indibloggers at Striker, Gurgaon. It was a nice experience to hear the views of Lakshmipathy Bhat, Nandita Iyer, Ranchit Hirani, Kiran Manral, Vishal Shroff, Arun Nair and Ahish Chopra. Kiran Manral gave a lecture on 'Confessions of a Reformed Blogger'. She is the author of 'Once upon a crush' and 'The Reluctant Detective'. I got the chance to click photos when she was sitting just next to me. :)))

Kiran Manral is busy surfing and I posing for some more pics with her! :))

Overall I was a nice experience to be a part of Indiblogger Meet and I had a great time there. :)

Dear readers, this is 700th post. :)