September 22 & Sodium Ricinoleate

Today is September 22, 2015. Nothing very special,  but dating back to the same date in 1955, the first British television commercial was broadcasted. It was all about a toothpaste called Gibbs SR. The 'SR' stands for sodium Ricinoleate, the chemical ingredient which was then known to be good for teeth and gums. I just wondered people would have bought a toothpaste anyway without them being advertised, or am I thinking wrong?
I like TV adverts more than soaps. I don't have the inherent patience to watch soaps, so I never watch them. Adverts always capture my attention for their creativity, style and simplicity. I do condemn certain adverts on some TV channels because of their quality, dishonesty and lack of evidence.
I do condemn the ads that ask money for charity and those that do emotional blackmails.

In those days when I was a child I remember watching ads on TV saying how important is to eat eggs. This is an initiative from the government. I am thinking, now a days such ads will be banned because there are lot of people out there that suffer from egg allergies.

Advertisements need to be professional and should not inculcate competition. It has to be done ethically without hurting the feelings of the population.
 Advertising should be regulated especially if done online. I must say I have seen unprofessional selling of services with no due thought about the consequence of effect on another colleague's business.
Such businesses may thrive initially, but will lose shine sooner or later.
Media has influenced on how people think, so advertising ethically should be taught even in schools as part of communication skills development.

Vithura Needhi

Vithura Needhi is from the Udyoga Parvadham of Mahabharatham. King Dhirudrarastra who was in a state of restlessness and sleeplessness seeks advice from  Vithura.
For the last week or so I had the opportunity to read and hear about Vithura Needhi.
It describes the qualities of a wise man. First and foremost thing I learnt is that ' advice only if requested'. In every day's life I do get sidetracked with what may be good for my dear and near ones that I do occasionally advice people. From today, I will remind myself and refrain myself from doing it.
Secondly, as one is detached from something he will not be affected from its drawbacks. It is very true and the minute I see a drawback in something I know I am attached to that object. I bought something, but later found that it was damaged. I did not even bother about it and left it aside. Basically if I were attached to that object I would have returned the item for a new one.
The same applies to human relations. The more detached I am with a person, the less I will be affected by their behaviours be it good or bad. If I am detached to everything then Nothing will affect me.
I hope I will complete Vithuta Needhi and gain more insight into the qualities of wise men. 

Curly Wurly

My chocolate brownies are getting ready in the oven. Baking is a lot of science and experimentation. I try and understand the science behind it, and try to stay away from the experimentation. 

As a kid, my chocolate experience was all about having a couple of ' Lacto king' and the 'Coffee Bite'. The real world  of  chocolate can be experienced at the World famous Cadbury World in Birmingham. I visited this place a few years back. My memories are still green about this place. At the end of the visit the guests get a pack of Cadbury souvenirs to take home. I got a lot of curly wurlies. I don't like them as they are very sticky toffees, but my son likes them very much. He had save up some money to buy a bar of chocolate for himself. At the store, he chose curly Wurly. He kindly offered me a share, but I declined to accept and told him that they stick to the teeth too much and that I don't like them. He opened his pack of curly Wurly on the way back home. Funnily just as the main door was getting opened, he screamed ' Amma, my tooth has just come out'!!! He pulled his baby tooth out which was covered in the sticky toffee of curly Wurly!! 

I am a collector of his falling teeth. The last tooth he lost was a couple of year ago. All the memories of the Cadbury World, Curly Wurly and the baby tooth synced well with my chocolate brownies. My brownies turned out well. Just how they should be, moist and slightly gooey on the inside, crisp on the outside.

My next brownie is getting the Cadbury Bournville chocolate bar added to it. Dare I experiment!!

Flying Objects

I thought that humans are designed to flee at the sight of any harmful object- object that could harm someone physically . Why is it that some people are doing the opposite? Why would some one want to catch a hard cricket ball knowing that it can harm you? Where is the body's response to fleeing in such a situation? Is this because the design also accepts challenges?

Today, I read the news about the young lad who lost his life playing cricket for Surrey league. He collapsed at the field soon after a ball hit his chest. No amount of words can carry my sympathies for his family. There are similar stories of young children dying in the cricket field  after getting hit by a ball.
It makes me think, what are the safety standards for a sport like cricket? My son plays cricket for  his cricket club across Surrey and there isn't a single day I don't winge about the safety. Batsmen and Wicket keepers normally are protected, but the cricket world is not doing enough. What is protecting their neck and spine? The fielders are at a greater risk for bone fractures, leave alone losing life.

I strongly feel that cricket sporting standards should create awareness about this and do more research in to accessories to provide protection. Young kids like mine do not even know what risks they have and it is vital that these are explained to them before they take up the sport.

If hitting a ball is going to cost someone's life, my son may not be willing to play the sport.

Sometimes my words fall on the deaf ears of my other half and I get fed up if he pulls up the stats saying that cricketers have the same risk of someone hit by a lightening... the argument continues, but I not willing to change my stand.

Risk assessments and limitations should be done for all sports. It is probably safer to drive an F1 car than to play cricket, I think. 

Srirangam to Delhi

Srirangam, is not only my birthplace in India, but also a very important spiritual place of worship to Vaishnavaites (those who follow Vishnu, Hinduism). Lord Ranganathan (form of Vishnu) is the main deity at the Ranganathaswamy temple. Although, I am not a vaishnavaite by birth, Lord Ranganathan has been a part and parcel of my spiritual journey.
I feel that there should be no religious fights amongst people because all are one and the same.
There is no better place than Srirangam that will prove the Love of God to mankind irrespective of the religion.
The best example is the story of 'Thulukka Nachiyar'. Srirangam was ruled by Mughals for sometime in the early 14th Century. Temples and idols became the ill targets of the then emperors. Surathani, was the Muslim Princess and she begged the King, that she will keep the Panchaloga (five metals/alloys) idol of Azhagiyamanavalar Perumal (another form of Vishnu). They all returned to Delhi.  Gradually, she fell in love with the Lord himself . Perumal has also given  her dharshans in various forms every night. The king realising the situation decided to return the idol to Sri  Ramanujar. (preacher and follower of Vaishnavism) . Not withstanding the separation from the Lord, Surathani also returned to Srirangam and vanished in the air mysteriously. Lord Ranganathan appeared in the dreams of the then head priest and pronounced Surathani to be his beloved wife.
The story sent goose bumps all over me as I was reading it from several other sources.-A Hindu God marrying a Muslim Princess!!!

Love of God is common to all. The Bhakti of mankind to the Supreme is the purest form of Love. The Supreme power has taken different avatars, be it  Lord Ranganathan or Allah?  So has the mankind- our avatars in the name of religion-be it Hindu or Muslim. What more proof do one need for the confused minds?

A  spiritual journey of Love from Srirangam to Delhi! Butter rotis are served to 'Thulukka Nachiyar' and she can also be seen as a deity in veil at the feet of the Lord.

I was so impressed with this story, so I entered it in my blog diary today. I have made no attempts to narrate the complete story. For those who are interested more about this, please visit other blogs /books where further informations can be obtained. I myself read the story online and my due credit goes to all the sources/authors of other blogs that I have read.

Today, I originally set myself out to write about the Tudor way of living in modern Britain, but history took a different turn, so I will gladly reserve that for another time.

Although the equality in divinity has become crystal clear, there is still food for thought. Do temples allow and treat people of all religions equally?  Who should answer this? Priests or Trusts or every individual? 

Confrontation

At what age does one starts to confront others? Can the first cry by a new born be classified as a confrontation? Can our genetics decide if we are more confrontational than others? There is mention of 'Prakruti'  in Ayurveda which explains how our physical and mental nature is designed by our genes. Blame it on my son's genetic codes that were derived from me. He is as heavily opinionated and confrontational as me!

All these questions arise in my mind when I , for the first time, felt that my only son has been 'confronting' me for some time. I wondered if it is even a good idea to use this as a blog topic especially when the aim of this blog is to write about the joys of life.

Joy can not be fully understood without the company of difficulties and challenges in life. So, I think 'confrontation' can be blogged here.

Mentally,  the 'teenage' begins even before the thirteen years of age. I recognise the change in emotions in my child when he throws 'temper tantrums' that are a result of confrontation with me. It is a big challenge to me as a mother as to deal with the ocean of emotions that my child is surfing.

Going back to knowing the duties of a mother, what is it that is my duty to my child? I questioned my self if there is anything I could 'teach' him to make him feel better. Well, there is no such thing as 'teaching' others. I have strong opinions that no one can 'teach' anything to anyone, so the word 'Teacher' is an unnecessary word in English. Instead, I believe in some one being a 'guide ' to others to help them learn for themselves.

I can 'guide' my son and show him a path which may lead him to his betterment, but I can in no way 'teach' him anything. Universe and human mind are one and the same with mysteries. I myself have not demystified anything leave alone 'teaching' somebody.

In olden days, 'Gurus' were a  much revered people. They were the humble guide to enlightenment. I believe in 'Gurus'. As a mother, I think it is my duty to talk to my son about a 'Guru' that can guide him through and hopefully my duty ends there or is it my Maya to imagine that I am duty bound? Hard to find the answers when I am confronting myself!

Infraordinary person

Yet another day when my optimism is thrown in the rubbish bin. A long awaited news turning unfavourable is just enough to hit my spirits low. Although my spirit is running out of fuel, something is telling me I should not regret anything as nothing is decided by me. The supernatural power wants me to know its presence and the events to follow.

How many times in my life have I felt like a puppet uncontrolled by the self? I am just tired to struggle with this life. It will be so much easy if I can find an end at the beginning. I don't see a point in this boring routine living as each day is much the same.

What ever is new and exciting at the start eventually turns to be a done and dusted thing. There is no more to explore unless I fight to see a tiny challenge and make it bigger. I feel that all the life events will eventually become insignificant that unless a huge amount of emotion is pumped in they would mean nothing to a person. That stage of numbness is achieved by everyone, so I am not an exclusion.

Today I learnt a lesson- the lesson being I am not special -just an ordinary or infra ordinary person. I learnt that it is not easy to be an infra ordinary person. The brain has to function in a certain fashion to become that person.

Does today's blog sound a bit petulant? I can be bit childish sometimes........

Writing is a form of happiness

I never knew that life can be this challenging and uncertain. There is so much planning to do every morning and I can not stop my planning even for a single minute. The irony of all this planning is the fact that I can not plan for the uncertainty behind the veil of time.
Day to day life has been very very stressful for me in the last couple of months. Today is my first day of my 10 days vacation and I could not relax because it is a strange feeling to even try and relax.

Little did I know that writing a blog even from a mobile in the middle of the night covering my head under the blanket can relax me immediately. It is making me happy and peaceful. I sometimes write my heart; sometimes my mind.

Someone drove me home from a garage and he asked me today what I want to do if I were not doing the job that I am doing now. I immediately said I want to be a writer. How of this utterance is true I don't know. I don't want to write to earn money, I don't want to write to become famous, I just want to write for the sheer joy of  writing. There are millions of good souls out there who have the passion for writing. I doubt my passion because I positively hate being passionate about anything in life because I have the fear of falling for it. I do make drastic decisions to stay away from things I love for the same fear.
If I conquered my fear I will go to the top,  but I respect my fear which helps me to keep the balance right.

Beemer Beemer Beemer...My joy!

I have quite forgotten that I used to blog. My last post was in September 2014. Lot of things have happened since then. Some things I could share in a public blog like this and some to be stored for ever frozen in the thoughts of the mind.
Where do I start? Let me start with my Christmas day.I boarded my plane to my home town on Xmas eve and was in the Middleeast on a transit journey. Oil rich countries and their currencies; I am afraid I don't want to spend anything. I spent nearly four days in my home town. The weather was not all that great, with wet ness and smog surrounding me like an unwanted armour.
I bought books by Paul Brunton and was trying to read them on my way back. I have to admit that I did not understand much. I had the company of a philosopher on Whataspp and my transit was not a burden.
I have been busy since my return from my trip with my PG application, loads of work, work , work and hardly any relaxation.
On 6th of March, 2015, I crashed my joy of living aka BMW into a Mercedes for no fault of mine and lost my beemer. I could not emotionally react until 15 days later when I bought another one that I cried my heart out and realised how I was attached to my old car. No other car can replace my SG07 AUF. My new Beemer is a lot efficient, powerful, sporty etc, etc...but I really really miss my old car. I don't get the same feel. I have to get used to it. I did not know how I got an attachment to such an inanimate object like  a car. I have to say it was not just a car, it is a feel good factor.
Anyway, now that everything is settled it is time for me to rest my mind and enjoy my Easter Break in Barcelona!!
Barcelona here I come and hopefully my flight journey will be a safe one with no pilots attempting to commit suicide.