When
I sit in padmasana and closed my eyes to meditate, I visualise fast flowing
holy river Ganga (Bhagirathi), Sivananda Ashram, my teachers (Guru) and
sometimes batch-mates. I slowly try to drag my mind to my object of meditation
but surprisingly it jumps back to the serenity of river Ganga. My mind remains
calm while meditating on the river Ganga and the ashram situated near it, may
be the time I spent there was the most peaceful time of my life!
Spending
one month with the persons of different cultures, age groups, professions and
countries was an experience of its own kind. But we all had one thing in common-
a very strong desire to learn yoga which might be the reason that we stayed
together for 30 days.
The
yoga teacher was nice and caring. She explained everything in detail and tried
to clear all our doubts. While practicing difficult asanas she encouraged the
student to do it in its best possible way, only gave the required support and
never let the student fall off even if the student’s weight is too much and the
body is too rigid. I was impressed with her on the day we practiced 108 Om
Surya Namaskar, she spoke continuously without making a single mistake of left
and right side. As I yoga teacher myself, I found it difficult to do.
The
teacher who taught Bhagwat Gita always told stories, shared experiences and
solved life’s complicated problems in a very simple way. He always encouraged
the students to ask more questions. One day a student asked, “If a person moves
while doing meditation, does it means his Kundalini is awakened?” He replied, “It
means the person is going through a mental or emotional cleaning process and
you should help that person.”
The
food was sattvik without onion and garlic. Mostly they give south Indian food
like idli, appam, idiyapam, rice and sambhar. Sometimes they give north Indian
food like rajma rice, chickpea rice and parathas with pea potato veg. On the last
day of the course, delicious treat was given which include samosa, gulab jamun,
palak paneer, fried papad, ice cream, kheer and rice.
I
was proud of my knowledge about yoga and Indian philosophy before joining the
course. One of my batch-mates, a foreigner guy could perform much better yoga
asanas than me. Not only that, he knew Indian philosophy much more than me. May
be God sent him in my life to annihilate my ego!
The air was clean and
environment was serene. The mountains, waterfalls, clouds, stars, moon, sun,
rains, rainbow were mesmerising. The silent walk in the nature helped me in
understanding myself better. The desire to eat delicious food and to surf on
internet brought me back in this materialistic world otherwise I would have
stayed there forever.
Dear readers, you can read my experience of Sadhana Intensive course here.
On
the last day of Teacher Training Course, Netala one of my roommates gave me a
handmade card. I kept it in my bag and decided to write a blog post about it
after I returned home. I was registered for the next course, which was to start
after 5-6 days. As I had some free days, I decided to go for trekking to Dayara
Bugyal and Gaumukh.
I divided my belongings in two parts. One I took with me
and the other I left in the ashram. After I returned to the ashram, I became
busy with the tight schedule of studying and practicing yoga and sadhana. On the
completion of course, when I returned home, I unpacked my things but could not
find that card. I searched my notes, clothes and other items thoroughly. I even
searched different pockets of my bag but could not locate it. I undoubtedly
remembered that I did not throw that card but safely placed in my bag. Even on
repeated searches, there was no success. At last, I dropped the idea of
searching it and thought that it might be lost somewhere in the journey.
Today,
I finished Samadhi Yoga by Swami Sivananda. I placed that book in my book self
and took out another book for reading. As I opened it, to my surprise I found
that card lying in between page no. 28 and 29. How it reached, there is still a
mystery for me!
Swami
Sivananda’s sayings were creatively scribbled on the front of that yellow
coloured card. Inside it was written beautiful messages and some nice words
about me. Although I am not that good as she had mentioned but it is polite of
her to say so. I thank her sincerely. It wasn’t a card but a hug folded in it!
During
winter season, most of us have visited Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary which is near Gurgaon.
It is popular because of its easy accessibility, nice restaurant and good connectivity
with roads. There is one more bird sanctuary lesser known because of not that
good roads, non-availability of food and water. In Jhajjar district near about
fifteen kilometres from the Jhajjar city, Bhindawas Bird Sanctuary is one of
the most wonderful bird sanctuaries of North India. It is located near Delhi
and Gurgaon just an hour or so run by car. It is a great picnic spot!
One
can reach Bhindawas by following Google maps to some extent but there is no
need to take a long round about as Google maps shows. When one is close to the
sanctuary, one can follow road maps or can ask villagers for short and good
roads leading to Bhindawas Bird Sanctuary. It is man-made wetland. It was
constructed to store excess water from JNL Feeder and its channals at the time
of power failure of Lift Canal System. It spreads over 1074 acres. Around the
lake, it has 12 kilometer long vehicle track. The road is kachcha at few
places. There are small islands, which enhances its beauty.
While
travelling through the nearby villages, one can spot quite good number of birds
like jungle babbler, black drongo, Indian roller, woodpecker, white throated
kingfisher, parakeets, common hoopoe, shikra, laughing dove, greater coucal, blue
peafowl and spot billed duck.
The migratory birds one can spot there is
flamingo, great egret, comb duck, northern shoveler, ruddy shelduck, whiskered
tern, Earasian marsh harrier, Palla’s gull and common teal. Along with birds
one can also spot neelgai, jackals, jungle cats, monkeys, cows, buffaloes,
goats and sheep. There are two watch-towers with great view. There are many
picnic spots with the beautiful view of lake and islands in it.
This
year there are many attractive birds there. If you are planning to visit then
take the food and water with you. And do not forget to take binoculars for
better view!
Stand
strong is the fourth book in the series of Ramayana – The Game of Life by
Shubha Vilas. The author has written Roar with Courage, Conquer Fear and Adopt Patience based on Bala Kanda, Ayodhya Kanda and Aranya Kanda of Ramayana epic respectively.
Stand Strong is the modern retelling of the Kishkindha Kanda of Valmiki’s epic
Ramayana. It is an excellent read for mythological readers. And it is a very
special book for the spiritual aspirants. Author compared a spiritual aspirant
to lotus, black tulip and fish.
It
tells about Lord Ram and Lakshman meeting near Rishimukh mountain, Lord Ram’s
friendship with Sugriva, killing of Vali, brother of Sugriva by Lord Ram, Lakshman’s
anger for delay in search of Sita kidnapped by Ravana, sending of monkey-army
in all the four directions to look for Mother Sita by Sugriva, returning of
three armies without any information, in the south the fourth army reaches near
the sea and Sampati, brother of Jatayu helped them in their mission. The
language is lucid and simple to understand. It inspires to find out simple
solutions to the complex problems and to stand strong in difficulties by
conquering fear. The narration is gripping and one can easily relate it with one’s
life and its experiences.
Author
has embedded the story with beautiful gems. Some of the quotes which I liked
are as follows :
1.Accepting
other’ imperfections gracefully is the sign of perfection. Accepting one’s own
imperfection honestly is the sign of progress toward perfection.
2.When
one competes with oneself, one invites celebration instead of competition. When
one compete with others, one invites competition instead of celebration.
3.When
life is peaceful, one goes to buy challenges. When life offers challenges, one
goes in search of peace. Between looking for challenges and running away from
them lies the art of facing them with courage.
4.If
in the beginning and in the end, we are nothing, why then in the middle do we
think we are something?
5.When
one is proud of being detached to attachments, one is in fact attached to
detachment.
Near
Rishimukh Mountain, the description of meeting of Lord Ram with Hanuman brings
tears to my eyes as the disciple meeting his Master is depicted admirably. Physical,
mental and emotional changes one goes through after meeting the true master are
explained so well. Lord Ram thought that what an old, fragile sanyasi is doing
in this uninhabited forest? And Hanuman thought that why these two princes
whose bodies should be adored with jewellery were wearing the dress of sanyasi
and were carrying bow and arrow like warriors?
Lord
Ram, his real Master come to meet Sugriva and his companions. Hanuman’s mother once
told him, “You will never have to go looking for your master and that your master
will come looking for you!” How right she was!
Author
has described all the characteristics so well. But his description of Lord Ram
is beyond words. He described Lord Ram as You are so beautiful that no painting
can ever do justice to Your beauty.
This
book is the must read for motivational readers and spiritual seekers. The part
of the book that describes about the meeting of Lord Ram and Lakshman with
Hanuman near Rishimukh Mountain should not be missed. I must say it is one of
the best creations by Shubha Vilas. Hats off to the author!
Key
Iron Ingredients : Spinach, beetroot, whole bengal gram, chickpea
Duration
: 40 minutes
Ingredients
For
golgappas
Whole-wheat
flour – ½ cup
Suji
– ¼ cup
Maida
– 1/8 cup
Spinach
– 8-10 leaves
Salt
to taste
Oil
for frying
For
Filling
Boiled
sweet corn – ½ cup
Grated
paneer – ½ cup
Boiled
chickpea – ¼ cup
Boiled
whole Bengal gram- ¼ cup
Black
pepper – ½ teaspoon
Red
chilli powder – ¼ tea spoon
Coriander
powder – 1 teaspoon
Mango
powder – ¼ teaspoon
Salt
to taste
For
golgappas water
Water
– ½ liter
Beetroot
– 2
Green
chilli – 1-2
Lemon
– 2
Sugar
– 2 table spoon
Black
pepper – 1/2 teaspoon
Roasted
grinded cumin seed – ¼ teaspoon
Black
Salt – ½ teaspoon
Salt
to taste
Method
1.Take
all the flours and mix well.
2.Grind
spinach with little water.
3.Knead
the dough with the spinach paste.
4.Make
small balls and roll them with the help of rolling pin.
5.Leave
them for 40 minutes so that crust is formed on upper side.
6.Deep-fry
them on medium fire.
7.Spread
them on the paper so that paper absorbs excess oil.
8.For
filling, grind boiled sweet corn.
9.Gently
mix all the ingredients, add spices and salt to it.
10.The
filling is ready.
11.For water, dissolve sugar in the water.
12.Peel
beetroot and cut in small pieces.
13.Grind
beetroot and green chillies to make a paste. If required add little water to
it.
14.Squeeze
the paste to collect red coloured water below in a bowl.
15.Add
that to sugar water.
16.Add
the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
17.Keep
it in freeze and serve chilled.
In this recipe, I have used iron rich ingredients
like spinach, beet-root, chickpea and whole bengal gram. I have added limejuice
as it contains Vitamin C for better iron absorption. I have cut the vegetables
with iron knife and used vessels made up of iron for cooking it to increase the
iron content in the recipe.
Qarib
Qarib Singlle is a middle-aged love story. A new concept indeed for Bollywood!
Not so young and vibrant Yogi (Irrfan Khan) and Jaya (Parvathy Thiruvothu) meet
via an online dating site. They are polar apart personalities. Yogi is a rich person
who has lots of money to spend where as Jaya works in an office and spends her
money judiciously. Yogi loves poetry and Jaya loves nature. Yogi is a
chit-chatter where as Jaya is quiet. Yogi likes books and Jaya is techno savvy.
They plan a trip to Rishikesh, Jaipur and Gangtok to explore their past
relationships. During this trip, crazy incidences happened which help them to
understand themselves in a better way.
Irrfan
Khan plays well the role of jovial guy whose jokes everyone enjoys even his ex-girlfriends.
Parvathy plays her role nicely. Her round face is attractive and big eyes are
beautiful. She looks stunning in the last scene when she is wearing dark pink
colour silk sari with turquoise blue blouse.
Movie
is full of funny scenes. But I liked the one in which Yogi and Jaya planned for
a trip to date. But instead of booking rooms in hotels, Jaya books rooms in an
ashram in Rishikesh. Direction of Tanuja Chandra is nice. Neha Dhupia’s face
looks bonny and aged. The rest of the cast is interesting.
I
was laughing throughout the whole movie, tears were flowing from my eyes. Neither
my laughing stopped nor my tears stopped till the end of movie. Tears smudged my
kohl eyes, wetted and blackened my fair cheeks. I paid no attention to them as
the movie was too gripping, enjoying and funny.
“What
happened, dear sister? Why are you sitting alone? Is there something that is
troubling you?” My little cousin asked.
“I
want to make Delhi a better city, a smart city” I replied.
“From
tomorrow onwards, you should go to your office on cycle rather on car. There will
be less air pollution which will make Delhi a better place to live.” He laughed
aloud on his stupid joke.
“It
is not funny. And it not that simple.”
“Sis,
I can suggest you some of the positive ways to improve the city after all it is
our city.”
“Hotspot,
you are so sweet.”
“You
know sis, Vodafone has already done a lot to improve Delhi and NCR! Vodafone
has created the first air purifying bus shelter in the city so that we can
breathe in pollution free air while waiting for bus. Vodafone has also created
the first Wifi bus shelter in Gurgaon. It provides free Wifi to all customers
for 20 minutes. A milestone in digitizing Delhi and NCR!”
“Vodafone
is digitally connecting Delhi and NCR by providing free Wifi zones like
Airport, Khan Market, Delhi Haat, DLF Mall of India, Fortis Hospital etc.”
“All
over Delhi and NCR, Vodafone provides free Wifi at 120 places. Vodafone
receives one customer appreciation every 30 seconds.”
“There
are 1.2 crore Vodafone customers in Delhi and NCR which means half of Delhities
are using Vodafone. Vodafone is #CelebratingSuper.”
“Let
us make Vodafone choice of everybody in Delhi and NCR. I will suggest you some
ideas that whole Delhi and NCR will be talking about VODAFONE only and none
other mobile networking company.”
“How
is that possible?”
“Sis,
you are giving a big responsibility to a little child.” He winked and
continued. “Vodafone should target students as they can be Vodafone permanent
future customers.”
“You
mean to say both school and college students.”
He
nodded in a style and said, “Mobile library is the easy, quick and fast way to
do that.”
“Mobile
library, a moving vehicle with has books on varied topics which stop at
different places so that poor and underprivileged children can be benefitted
from it.”
“My
idea is that mobile library will have no books, no books at all. But it will have
free Wifi access for everyone. There can be some trained staff to encourage school
and college students to use Wifi to study more and to learn more. The students
should be motivated to utilise information in making projects, in solving their
problems related to Maths, Physics and other subjects. They should be
encouraged to get the detailed information about the topics they like to read
and to talk about more. All information should be just at the click of a
button.”
“If
they click the button leading to wrong or dirty information then....... I
mean..... you know.....”
“Such
sites can be blocked.” I was hesitant and he was confident.
“Free Wifi will help them in becoming more learned and
responsible citizens.”
“On
using free Wifi, they will know the importance of Vodafone Wifi, how useful and
beneficial it is for them. Then they will shift to paid services of Vodafone
which means more customers for Vodafone.”
“My
little business expert!”
“Vodafone
sign boards should be made on metro pillars by doing vertical gardening on
them. It will give clean air to us and more customers to Vodafone! The walls of
huge concrete buildings can be covered with vertical gardening. On huge roofs,
roof top gardening can be planned in such a way that an aerial view as seen on
Google maps imprints ‘Vodafone’.
“Vodafone is doing a great job but what we can do as
residents to make our city better.”
“As a kid, I can make a drawing of smart city.”
“God has blessed you with a beautiful hand and mind.”
“My parents motivate the people residing in our society
to use two-bin segregation system for garbage. Segregation is the first step of
waste management. Green dustbins are for disposing of wet waste which includes
waste from fruits and vegetables, cooked or uncooked food, leaves etc. and blue
dustbins are for disposing dry waste which includes paper, metal, plastic
products etc. It helps in segregating waste as they recycled differently. Wet
waste is organic whereas dry is not. Segregated recycling helps in cleaning the
environment quickly.”
“You know a lot about garbage management.”
“I learnt this on a Youtube video which I watch using
free Wifi at Delhi Airport while waiting for my flight to my grandparent’s
home.”
“Free Wifi zones will make people more intelligent and
aware.”
“For
that, metro stations and railway platforms should be free Wifi zones and all passengers
should be given free Vodafone oxygen bombs.”
“Aloe
vera growing in a plastic vessel with Vodafone printed on it. The plant requires
least maintenance as it can grow well in less water and plenty of sunlight. It
grows well in Delhi weather. It can be used as an ayurvedic medicine for
stomach and face.”
“Nah!
They should give tomato plants, as the plants will bear red tomatoes, similar in
color to Vodafone logo. Organic tomatoes will give fresh air and fruits to
Delhites.” He plucked a ripe tomato from the plant growing in the pot on the windowsill
of the room and gulped it down.
“Have you ever done anything to make Delhi and NCR a
better city to live?”
“Last Sunday we
went to a nearby slum area, it was stinking as garbage was scattered everywhere.
If Vodafone, starts a new scheme that no garbage zone will be
free Wifi zones then India will become garbage free overnight.” He smiled.
“What
if after getting the facility they again start polluting their surroundings.”
“Garbage
free, neat and clean colonies can be made free Wifi zones for specific period.
If they maintain the same level of cleanliness, then the facility can be
extended, else withdrawn. Persons residing in other colonies and societies will
be motivated to make their surrounding garbage free.”
“Garbage
free India will encourage more foreigners to visit India. They will give more
business to Vodafone while calling back home or while using internet to search
decent site seeing or a nice restaurant nearby or while booking a cab or while
making payments.”
“In my Diwali vacations, we went to a nearby village to educate farmers
how to improve their farming knowledge by teaching them how to watch Youtube
videos on the topics related to them. I showed them videos on how to prepare gobar
gas plant, how to use solar light to run tube-wells, how to generate
electricity from wind, how to make rain harvesting pits, how to use battery
operated vehicles, how to do organic farming, how to make vermicompost and how
to make more money. I didn’t teach them how to count more money.” He giggled.
“How
was the sewage system in the village?”
“My
father taught them how to prepare low cost disposable sewage systems and told
them about the links from where they can gather more information about it.”
“Vodafone
help start-ups during their incubation stage by giving them Vodafone products.”
I told.
“They
can give free Wifi for those who use toilets with closed doors.” There was
naughtiness in his voice as well as in his eyes.
“Hotspot!”
“Why do you call me Hotspot?”
“Because
I can access information from you free of cost any time with
just a click.” I lightly touch the tip of his nose with my index finger.
“I
tell you a secret that I didn’t like to eat spinach but now I have started
eating spinach like Popeye as I grow organic spinach in PVC pipes in my
balcony.”
“Let
us make a video to share this information with family, neighbours and friends.”
“Excellent
idea!”
“I
am unable to upload my video.”
“Sis,
first of all you shift to Vodafone leaving X, Y, Z companies behind!” He said
with a laugh.
