Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Why to look Good ?

There was a phase in my life... I used to spend a lot of time in front of the mirror... Combing my hair, changing hairstyles, making funny faces, looking at my body... admiring myself...commenting on myself... etc...

One day I had this question... Why do I want to look good? So that people look at me? So that people get attracted to me? So that people come and speak to me? So that they take care of me? That day I decided... I don't want to look good ! I want to look bad... I want to look ugly ! I wanted to check, will people still love me?

So, I started growing my hair, beard, didn't care about what I wore, and made sure that I didn't wear something that looked very nice... I had started looking not cool at all ! I noticed that now, I didn't care to come in front of the camera if someone took a pic... I started noticing that some people would not talk properly to me, some would ignore me, some would even run away from me, some would talk with pity !

Another thing that I noticed was... I had started looking really horrible ! Long uncombed hair with scanty beard already looked yuk... but to add further, I had a fall on ice and got my eye swollen, and then I hit the same spot again... and the swelling only increased ! I cut my tongue... with all that I had started to look like a ghost !


Thats when this thing struck me... I had decided to look ugly, so the nature also started to support me! Thats when I realized the power of my thought, and the unseen universe helping me to manifest my thoughts ( watch the movie/book "The Secret" )... And then I realized, OK... One ought to look presentable so that people atleast talk to me without pity or being repelled! And not be obsessed with LOOKS :) !

Holland - Delft

I was just scanning through my picture album and came across some photos of my europe stay... After spending a year at Dresden ( Germany ), I spent my second year of masters at Delft ( Holland )... Holland is a country 1/3 of which is below sea level ! Its populated with really tall and human beings ( avg height of men is more than 6 feet 1 )... Here are some pics during my stay there...

This is the 13th floor where one of my friend (Manoj ) stayed... we used to meet up very often and cook and eat our food together...



Holland has a lot of people from Suryanam ( it was a dutch colony in South America and has a large population of migrated Indians ( Biharis ). Holi is celebrated very nicely by the Suryanamese there. The pic below is with Mandar Apte, he is the guy who got me back into art of living !


Den Haag ( The Hague ) is a city about 10 -15 mins ( by train ) from Delft. It has a beautiful beach and there are trampolines at the beach side... Summers over there were simply awesome ! And by the way how do u find my long hair 60's look ;)...




Holland is a beautiful place with loads of rainfall round the year... Some really strong winds at times !


With its capital as Amsterdam, Holland is really famous for a lot of things... like the Tulip Garden ( now what were u thinking ;) )...


Holland is also famous for many other things also like art, museums, windmills, dykes, bicycles, cheese... and ofcourse drugs and prostitution !

My entire stay at Europe, was superb! Had an amazing scholarship, was studying at one of the topmost universities in the world in a world renowned lab, had a car of my own, had a German girlfriend, had a nice set friends, very often traveled around the country and the continent.

Although seemingly it was all superb, I felt some kind of emptiness deep inside... some kind of vacuum... Nothing could really fill that vacuum... No amount of going to the beach, partying, sports, gym, lab work, studies, spending time with friends/girlfriend, TV, talking on the phone or anything could really do anything to fill that... All it could do was... give me some consolation for some time and then I'm back with the same emptiness ! I had everything yet nothing ! Life had become juice-less !! Until............ will continue some other time....





Friday, April 24, 2009

DCE YES!+

An absolutely stunning YES!+ course just finished at DCE. Every course is such a unique and beautiful experience ! Its so incredible. Each time I sit or teach a course, there are so many new insights of myself ! Each course only consolidates my belief that, the course is not about what we speak, but about the whole experience !


The students of the DCE course were indeed sooo special ! Energy, enthusiasm, commitment and a childlike innocence in all of them ! Also special about the students in this course was that... Each of them had an interview before they entered the course !



It was matched by equally superb volunteers and teachers. Awesome singing & guitaring by Sachin. The HR queens Priyanka & Pallavi ( also abhishek @ IIT Delhi ) interviewed most of the participants. The DCE anchors Tanvi & Pooja showed outstanding commitment and enthusiasm to make this course happen !!!


Some simply divine sessions by saleelda especially on love and relationship left everyone ( including him and me ! ) in awe and wonder ! and yaaa.. the last day was traditional dressing... and u can see urs truly in guruji's attire :)... ( btw it was the first time i've worn this kind of dress in a course ! )