Journey and Introspection

Living in Sweden, one gets starved of Indian content on Netflix. There are other alternatives like Amazon prime , chitram TV etc, but for myriad reasons we have not gotten around to subscribing to them. This means that any Indian content is greedily devoured. Actually devoured is a wrong word. We savour it. The taste can be great, average or in certain instances unpalatable. The shows based out of India, available here tends to veer to the darker side ( Violence, dysfunctional families,molestation or worse, social injustice, poverty etc) and there are very few and far in between bright spots like Love per Square Foot or Ginny weds Sunny , that are fun to watch. Tribhanga started off dangerously veering into the territory of unpalatable and transformed into a solid varan bhat ( or aloo shedo bhaat for a Bong) by the end of it which is to say that while it was not outstanding, it was a deeply satisfying meal  watch. The film is a story of an award winning  writer  ( Tanvi Azmi) who lead

  Trivandrum in the late 1980's was an interesting place. The Gulf ( 'Gelf') boom was in full swing and there was a newfound prosperity. Brand new houses were springing up in the midst of coconut groves. In the country, Reliance had bid for the world cup and for the first time, a cricket world cup was being held outside England. My father had just got  posted to Trivandrum after three happy years in Bangalore.  Bangalore in the late 80's was a wonderful place to be in, and the move to Trivandrum was not comfortable. Bangalore had a Air Force Camps where everyone spoke English /Hindi and life was  lived in a comfortable cocoon.Bangalore city, with Rex theatre, Cubbon park, Nilgiris Mall was heaven ( still is in my mind) Trivandrum was a shock. There was no camp to live in. We lived independently, the normal patterns of life were disturbed. No more did my school friends live in houses next to me, There was no playground to slaunter down to and make friends. Now it was jus

Attended a yoga class yesterday. Taught by Kavita Feeling pride and not proud

 Sadhak is one who embraces the philosophy of Yoga and starts in the journey. A student/traveller. There are two aspects of Yoga. As a discipline and as a goal i.e to be a way of life. Asana are the physical preparatory steps to help prepare the body for the demands that Yoga asks of a Sadhak. The beauty of yoga for me is that is is holistic. Apart from the body it also focuses on the mind and hence emotional well being. There are various mental techniques to be followed that help in establishing an emotional fitness. This needs physical mental well being needs to be maintained through following asana, pranayama, yama niyama , kriyas etc . In other words, incorporating Yoga into daily life , and not limiting it to physical exercises. Food and diet is an essential component, and as important as what to eat and what not to eat, are when to eat and how to eat.  Two books which are particularly recommended by the yoga institite are Hata Yoga Pradipika by Yogi Swatmaram Gheranda Samitha by

  It is a good thought. To follow the principles of yoga and live life accordingly.The most obvious actions that come to mind in order to adopt/adapt a yoga way of life are: 1. Asana practice : practice asana for at least an hour a day 2. Diet : Move to a Sattvik diet. This would mean becoming vegetarian, and also stopping alcohol, tea and coffee 3.Get a kick ass tattoo to show that the person in question is a yogi. A little introspection showed that this was not wrong,but shallow. So have started reading the teacher training manual from the yoga institute as a starting point, Adopting a yoga based lifestyle will involve a fundamental shift in the way I live 24 7. This means a change in thoughts, behaviours and habits. Have reopened the 21 day better living course that Kavita joined early this year. It will help give a concise summary. Will note what was powerful and what i would like to see in the programme to make it more complete. Lesson :  There are two ways of life  1) vegetative

     The one excuse not to blog regularly has now disappeared. The lack of a 'proper' laptop was my excuse not to blog regularly. Also, i find it easier to write with a pen and paper. Its oddly old fashioned, but then it's like reading a book. Kindle is practical, light, stores tons of books, but at the end of the day cannot beat the pleasure of a paper book. It's a tactile sensation of paper , the volume of the book and yet the lightness.      Times change and one must adapt.   Correct that, in order to not adapt ,takes more effort over time. Its sensible to adapt, unless one is convinced enough to make the effort to retain the 'old' and mostly more cumbersome ways.     The year is coming to an end. It's been a landmark year, which will not be forgotten.two decades into the new millenium and a flu has brought the world to a standstill. Man was proud of medical advances, genome mapping, playing God by creating life in test tubes, and then the world went bats