Though the Dalai Lama seems to have given this message for those dreading Mr. Trump's 4 years in the White House, it is equally applicable to those of us who have bigger things to worry about than the next US President. I especially liked the bit about self-compassion, which I practically seem to have none. Of course, I haven't minded it all these years because the line dividing self-compassion and self-pity is a thin one. But this article did force me to rethink. It also reminded me that a visit to Leh-Ladakh and Bhutan is long overdue. I must do it this year.

There's a funny thing about fragrances - there is no telling where they can transport you within the blink of an eye. I realized this once again during my weekend trip the exhibition at the reclamation. Mom and I were roaming about the aisles - eyes peeled for anything remotely interesting or novel when I suddenly started taking long deep breaths. At first mom didn't notice, then she looked at me quizzically as if I had gone berserk and decided to do my breathing exercises right in the middle of a crowded exhibition.

'Can you smell it?' I asked her, all the while inhaling deeply.
'No. What is it?' she asked, alarmed, fishing out her kerchief, all ready to cover her nose.
'Relax mom. It's not an odor. In fact it's a fragrance I remember from our vacations in Belgaum'.

Now she too took deep breaths. 'Oh yeah, I thought it felt familiar but couldn't quite place it. You are right.'

I was hardly paying her any attention - my mind filled with memories from my grandparents' home in the city of Belgaum in Karnataka. My brother, mom and I used to spend part of our summer holidays there. A thousand memories must have flashed through my mind during a span of, maybe, 5 minutes.

I looked around desperately - maybe someone was selling incense sticks. Maybe I can purchase them, light up one in the evening and pretend that I am back in the house in Belgaum. No such luck. At least that particular isle didn't have any stalls selling incense sticks.

Reluctantly, I moved on. On our way back, I lamented that I should have checked a few nearby isles and looked harder for those incense sticks. Mom smiled and remarked that it was funny how I always seem to miss that house and those days more than she ever did.

'That's because that was my childhood, mom. Not yours.' I smiled at her. And for once she agreed :-)

I am not sure I want to watch this weekend's episodes of 'The Bible' on History channel. I have always found myself wincing at the image of Christ, crucified with nails driven deep into His hands and legs, blood pouring forth through the wounds. I very much prefer the picture of baby Christ with His Mother or baby Christ sleeping happily in the barn with his parents around Him.

But I know I will watch the last 2 episodes because when I started watching this series, I had decided to watch it till the very bitter end.

अर्ज किया है.....

अदबसे झुक जाना हमारी फितरतमें शामिल था
मगर हम क्या झुके...लोग खुदा हो गये

(Forwarded)

Mahalakshmi Saras Exhibition (Bandra Reclamation, till 23rd January)

I have been going to this exhibition since past couple of years. But the change has been noticeable since last year, I think. There wasn't too much of a variety either in the food court or in the stalls put up by the sellers last year. So I was keen to find out what the scenario is this time around. As soon as a friend informed me that the exhibition is on, I headed to reclamation on the first Sunday.

It was close to 1pm by the time we reached so the first stop was, obviously, the food court. Major disappointment! No stall from the state of Rajasthan. My dreams of tucking into rich smooth Moong Daal Ka Halwa evaporated into thin air. :-( There was no stall from Delhi either - so goodbye chaat and kulfi. Everywhere you looked you could see Mutton Thali, Chicken Thali, Tambada-pandhara rassa (white or red mutton curry) from Kolhapur, Sawaji mutton (a very spicy mutton preparation from Nagpur region of Maharashtra) and assorted other non-veg offerings. The stalls selling vegetarian dishes were few and far between. My past experience has been that the non-veg food served here isn't piping hot. Plus I don't like the idea of eating chicken with bones in public. So I steered clear of stalls selling non-veg items. Instead, we headed for the one selling spicy Kolhapuri Misal with bread. The misal, as per their advertisement, was very spicy. But I think it was average in its taste department. The jaggery puranpoli was okay. The Solkadhi that we got from nearby stall was a bit on the saltier side. All in all, the food was nothing to write home about.

With the lunch taken care of, we headed towards the main exhibition. The first stall was selling, luckily for us, mawa pedhas and Kunda (a specialty, usually from Belgaum) - only thing was the Kunda that they were selling wasn't from Belgaum. Never mind that. The sample was good enough and we ended up purchasing both. More stalls followed and our shopping bags grew heavier with assorted varieties of rice, chips, spices etc. After a couple of isles, the stalls began to feel repetitive. How many times can you see spices, pulses and pickles? This was the case last year as well. We just kept moving on in the hopes of coming across the lovely Halwa from Keral. But no such luck :-( I am not sure why there aren't more food items from other states on sell.

I was very reluctant to go into the isle from Kashmir. Don't get me wrong. I am not against Kashmiris or anything like that. It is just that the recent violence in the valley and their demand for independence is too fresh to forget. The message written on the road - 'Indian Dogs Go Back' - is pretty hard to erase from one's psyche. I agree that the people doing that and the people selling their stuff here could be different. Not all Kashmiris think that way. But what if they do? Then why should I spend my hard-earned money on anything that they are selling? But mom wasn't having any of it. 'We will just look' was her mantra. I wasn't paying any attention to even the stalls selling any jewellery items lest I get tempted to buy something. 'Oh, they have lovely collection of rings' mom had come to a stop in front of a stall. Reluctantly, I retraced my steps. One of the rings caught my eye and I loved it. It was only after I purchased it without bothering to haggle that I remembered that I had vowed not to buy anything. I didn't look but I know that mom must have grinned from ear to ear.

It's hard not to love Kashmir, isn't it?

When I started listening to the BBC History Hour podcast featuring the division of Korea, I couldn't help but think of an episode of the American TV series 'Lost'. When one of the characters, Hurley, finds out that a couple among the passengers of the crashed aircraft is from South Korea, he blurts out 'Is that the good Korea or the bad one?'. I had laughed out aloud. Though I have often wondered about what caused the partition, I had never taken the pains to find out. So I started listening with great interest. The first 'Aha' came when I learnt that the North side was governed by the Russians and the South by the US. The podcast went on to talk about the events of the day but somehow I don't think it spelt out the reasons for the split clearly. I guess I will have to look up on the net after all.

There were two stories from the podcast - one of an Algerian man who was held captive at the French Penal Colony in French Guinea called "Devil's Island" and another of a young American girl, who along with her 3 siblings, had to live in a Japanese concentration camp in China during WW2 - that moved me. The first is a story of what tortures humans are capable of inflicting on others and the second one talks about how humans are capable of making the best of what life has thrown their way.

These podcasts are like frozen pieces of history. Stories of people who you or I wouldn't have otherwise heard about. They would never be talked about in any classrooms, perhaps not even published in any books. There won't be any movies about them. And yet they are so very important, perhaps more important than dry academic discussions about world history - simply because they are stories of real people like you and me, just from a different slice of time.

Sometimes the trees are more important than the forest.

Patanjali Yoga Course - Day 7

Looks like my body clock reset itself on Sunday. Hercules would have been mighty proud of the effort I put into getting out of the bed and dragging myself to the class. I am pretty sure I sleep-walked during parts of the (what looked like never-ending!) walk. Even when I entered the classroom I was rubbing the last vestiges of sleep off my eyes. At this rate, I don't think I will be making much progress on spiritual or health fronts in this lifetime. :-)

The class appeared fuller today because there were 3-4 participants of this week's batch. As the instructor gathered all of us together and went over some of the material covered during last week - as a recap for us and new information for this week's batch - I, in my sleep-deprived state, wondered if it would have been wiser to stay in bed instead. As he went on, I was afraid that he would ask us to come again tomorrow because the time was up. But fortunately, nothing of that sort happened. He soon announced that we would be doing the 12 asanas that were demonstrated last week.

Well, what can I say? Some of the asanas were fun. Some were total body-twisters. And others were eye-openers as each one of us was able to gauge how fit we really were and how much effort lay ahead.

By the time the class ended I was, of course, glad that I had not skipped it. The instructor invited us to join either of the 2 practice sessions that go on downstairs every day - 5:30am-7am and 7:15am-9am - for a month. He said it would be best if we can attend the 5:30 session as the effect of the Pranayama starts decreasing after sunrise. The thought of reaching the class at 5:30am chilled me to the bone. :-) I do pride myself on my will power - if I decide not to reach out for another piece of sweet, I usually manage to steer clear of it - but it has its limits. And getting up at 5am is definitely outside its jurisdiction :-) Plus I see no point in going to these sessions and getting disheartened because others can do it faster and better.

So I am going to take it slow but steady. For starters, I am going to concentrate on Kapaalbhaati, Bhastrika and Anulom-Vilom. That's as much as I can bite off, chew, swallow and digest. And then I am going to add one Asana at a time to my daily exercise regime - starting with the one that will help tone the stomach muscles. I am going to follow it for a week and only when I am comfortable I am going to add one more Asana.

As I chalked out this plan, I suddenly realized that by going for this class I have already managed to fulfill one of my new year resolutions - Learn a New Skill :-) Way to go gal!

I don't travel by bus anymore. But the annual Mahalakshmi Saras exhibition is on at Bandra Reclamation (till 23rd) so decided to accompany mom there. For the fun of it we chose to go by bus from her place. The wait was a long one - a shade too long. But we didn't mind. Perched comfortably on the bench at the bus stop, we commented on the passers-by and caught up on a lot of subjects. As the buses came and went, thinning the crowd at the bus stop, I floated the idea of taking the cab. But mom would hear none of it. 'Absolutely not. We have decided to take the bus and we will take it - come hell or high water'. Of course, I had suggested the measure rather half-heartedly because being the chip off the old block, the idea of reversing the earlier decision wasn't appealing to me either.

One more bus appeared round the corner. The guy sitting next to us suddenly came to life and asked 'Which bus is that?'. At first, I thought he was asking someone else so didn't answer. He asked again and I looked closely to check if he was visually impaired. But he were that, he wouldn't have been able to see the bus. Maybe his eye-sight was weak. Whatever. I looked at the bus and said 'Looks like xyz to me'. At this, he jumped with joy and said 'My bus has arrived'. You won't believe me but he was actually grinning from ear to ear. I looked at him as if he was insane. Was he waiting for the bus since centuries? What's the matter with this guy? I don't remember the last time I was this insanely happy over such a trivial thing.

Absorbed as I was in my own thoughts, I must have missed what he said after 'Thank you madam'. After a minute or two, when I reconnected with the outside world, I commented to my mom 'Was that guy for real? What was there to be so happy about?'. My mom grinned and said 'Must be waiting since a long time for that bus'. Then she paused and said "In fact he was so happy that he said 'Bless you madam. May God grant all your wishes'". Now, it is true that this bus-stop is right outside one of Mumbai's famous temples and that could be the reason for his sudden outburst of - what looked, at least to me, as unnecessary - benevolence.

But I cannot remember the last time a total stranger had blessed me like this. And there is no denying that it felt good - whether God grants my wishes or not. :-)

Patanjali Yoga Course - Day 6

Another busy day yesterday. The first hour was spent in learning about Acupressure from an expert. He showed various exercises for back problems, diabetes and assorted other ailments. I was floored when this expert, who was in his early 80s (but looked as if he was somewhere between 65 and 70), nimbly walked over the body of a class participant (a senior citizen!) to relieve him of his back pain. Boy! If I am destined to live long I want health like this or else I absolutely don't mind shuffling off my mortal coil early.

Then our regular Yoga instructor showed us the last 3 remaining exercises of the course (First 5 were Bhastrika, Kapaalbhaati, Bahya Pranayam, Utjayi and Anulom Vilom) - Bhramari, Udgith and Pranav. I have already written about Bhramari. Udgith is chanting of Om as explained earlier - this is supposed to cure insomnia. Pranav means Pran or breath and consists of concentrating on your breath with closed eyes while chanting Om in your mind.

What followed was a demonstration of series of asanas meant to exercise different limbs - Mandukasan, Shashakasan, Shalabhasan, Makarasan and Bhujangasan to name a few. I was feeling crestfallen that they were taught at such a breakneck speed without giving us a chance to practice them when the instructor told us that we need to come on Monday to practice these.

Must say that though this involves dragging myself outta bed in the wee hours of the morning once again, I am already looking forward to it. :-)