Early morning at Archipelago

Early morning at Archipelago
Originally uploaded by www.sandeepmall.com

The early morning skies over Baltic sea in Archipelago, Finland. Its amazing how the sky changes its colors from the morning to night. The colors could not have been better. Simply awesome

Life is today and not tomorrow

I am at this one of the bigger towns of Finland - Turku. It has a population of just 1.5 lacs. Flew in Finair for the first time and they have nice new aircraft. Had a free evening. So went for some bird watching . Went to the Ruissalo Islands and did a 3 km nature walk in the park. Saw some new species of birds not seen in our part of the country. Didnt carry my camera but binos. Wonderful moment and environment. Picked up a pizza on way to a park. Had my dinner by the stream. Setting sun and rising moon gave the sky one of the best colors I have ever seen. The moon looks quiet bigger here may be because of 7000 kms nearer to our place. Went to meet a friends wife and she had come out of breast cancer surgery. Was trying to motivate her with some gyan when she gave me the gyan of my life - Life is today and not tomorrow. Never to forget words. Leaving for an early meeting and then to a beach house for next three nights. Will go to various islands on the speed boat exploring the fauna and flora of this country. No internet and cellphone just pure nature. Carrying some Utpal Dutt DVD's, books and my camera for company. Trying to live life today. Next week is going to be tiring, hectic with all travels, meetings and training.

Every denial brings attraction

I received a nice mail from my dear friend Rajesh titled." If you cant enjoy then what is life for". Basically he shares with me Osho Rajneesh' s words. I also read and hear a lot of his CD's and find them so true and practical. Todays write up reminded me of my past and present. I did my schooling at Rama Krishna Mission Vidyapith which is one of the most religious and orthodox schools in the country. It was time of long hairs and bellbottoms. The school authorities wanted us to always wear narrow bottoms and keeping long hairs was just a dream. Watching a hindi bollywood movie was a taboo. The school authorities only showed us Vande Mataram ( I might have seen it so many times that the author Bankim Chandra Chattapadhyay will find it difficult to face me in a quiz on it) or movies based on life of Rama Krishna Paramhans or other religious ones. This restriction on fashion, movies and other things "bad" had such a counter effect that all the guys would compulsorily watch movies everyday during the holidays. Those days there were no multiplexes and movies used to run for weeks. So during most of the holidays it would be one or max two movie changes and each movie was watched nth time. Similar incidences happen now with my kids and how we bring them up. But with all the exposure of todays world - I myself get confused whether going happily to a pub is better than going unhappily to a temple. Is Happiness not the desired end? Are we supposed to do all things for future happiness? Does Life wait for long? Is it all just not NOW. If I am unhappy, something is wrong with myself. If I have some hesitation and feel guilty in doing something that means somewhere some external factor is overshadowing me. Hesitation means there is contradiction. I feel, the more my wife says Icecream is bad for my cholesterol, the more I am attracted to eat it. Denial brings attraction. Every time I have my Ice cream , hesitation crops in. I am unable to enjoy my Ice Cream. Similarly there is hesitation in most of the things in life and I feel I will miss my whole life. Its high time I have to drop my hesitations. I am sure the moment I drop my hesitation ice cream will become an ordinary thing. I will understand that I can enjoy it sometimes and it should not be an obsession. Sometimes even harmful things are not that harmful Obsession is part of repression. Living in hesitation has become a bad habit and as Osho says ," If you cant enjoy, then what is Life for". Drop hesitation. Live life happily

The Angry India

In few days we are going to celebrate our Independence. 64 years of Independent country. One of the worlds fastest growing economy. Tremendous wealth creation for its citizen. Some of the best entrepreneurs and corporates ( The world is least bothered if some senator calls Infosys Chop shop). Some of the world largest corporates now are headed by Indians. It will not be a surprise to see some Indian becoming head of state of the so called First world countries in the next few years.

Then why don't we have quality life? Why don't we have civic sense? Why do we believe in always breaking the law of state? Why are we sadist? Whether newspapers or television - all show ugly sad and bad news? Why don't we have happy news? We always try to sympathize and also create an atmosphere around us where people can sympathize.

Everyday we have incidences of people destroying public property. For every mundane thing happening , some buses are broken, trains set on fire etc.... Why this anger? Why the frustration? Is it because we are attached with the way things are? Or we identify with the pain and feel it ourselves? Or is it frustration of being ruled for donkeys years by Mughals, Britishers and now the politicians. What ever be the reason - we do not see and realise that its us who loose. We only hurt ourselves. I have never seen or heard anger make any positive impact on anyone. Have you? I think we feel that if we don't show anger and be dormant , the other guy will walk over . This is a myth. We should be assertive, positively assertive instead of angry. We don't see any solution by being angry. We only get un necessary victims. People get killed and public property destroyed. Our own property. The taxpayers money. Its a different story that only 4 billion of the 120 in this country pay taxes. How do we bring the change? Of the various means available and possible the simplest I believe is Media. I have been following Indian Idol on TV and was discussing with Dad last night when one of the participants danced and hug Amir Khan - how this "nobody" suddenly has become a known figure within few weeks and till this time he never even dreamt of seeing Amir Khan in person and today he was dancing with him. There are hundred such examples. Ramdevbaba and his yoga would have not gone beyond Haridwar without media. I feel if the media spreads positivity - things may change drastically. Lets not glorify the wrongs. Why does the Media not do something to help making the situation better? Trouble is it has become a compulsive complainer. If it just keeps complaining that means it is not prepared to actually do something about it.

Hey friends, lets do something to make this country a heaven that is now part of only grandma's story. Even that generation has forgotten it as a Sone ki chidiya. Lets be honest towards our country and its people. Jai Hind and Wish all a happy Independence day.

Ashy Prinia on the grills

Ashy Prinia on the grills
Originally uploaded by www.sandeepmall.com

The Ashy Prinia or Ashy Wren-Warbler (Prinia socialis), is a small warbler. This prinia is a resident breeder in the Indian subcontinent, western Myanmar and Sri Lanka. It is a familiar bird of urban gardens and farmland in many parts of India and its small size, distinctive colours and upright tail make it easy to identify.These 13–14 cm long warblers have short rounded wings, a longish tail usually held upright, strong legs and a short black bill. The crown is grey and the underparts rufous in most plumages. In breeding plumage, adults are ash grey above, with a black crown and cheek with no supercilium and rufescent wings. In non-breeding season there is a short and narrow white supercilium and the tail is longer.

Twilight

Twilight
Originally uploaded by www.sandeepmall.com

In India, the word "Sandhya" -Twilight is synonymn with prayer. If you approach an orthodox Hindu family who is praying , he will say "I am doing my Sandhya". When the sun rises , there is a great change.The whole passive existence becomes active.Sleep is broken, dreams dissappear. Everyone arises.A resurrection,.An opportunity to rise to new peaks.

And the same change happens when sun sets.Everything quiets,calms. A tranquility, a deep silence, pervades existence. In that moment we reach to depths.

Both moments are beautiful. Either go high or go deep. In both ways you transcend yourself.

The Killer looks

The Killer looks
Originally uploaded by Thanks for 40K+ visits

It's the eye of the tiger, it's the cream of the fight
Risin' up to the challenge of our rival
And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night
And he's watchin' us all in the eye of the tiger

Risin' up, straight to the top
Have the guts, got the glory
Went the distance, now I'm not gonna stop
Just a man and his will to survive