JUST ANOTHER DAY IN THE LIFE OF VENKAT-part III

What did guruji do?
The very second we took the mike to sing, guruji took his mike to talk!! HELL. FREEZE. STORY OVER. WISH, CRUSHED!
We can’t even blame anyone now! But guess what!!!!! The very second after that, he saw us with the mike and adorning that ‘all-knowing’ smile, he indicated us to sing, pushing away his mike and gently closing his eyes to meditate. Wow. The moment felt too perfect to be true! Srivi and I mentally broke into a dance and sang the song, albeit pretty beautifully. Oh my god, we were so happy to sing for Him!! From a distance, Bhanumaa waved and smiled acknowledgingly. Utterly elated we were!;)

Satsang’s with guruji always end with, “People with birthdays come forward…” and I plunged happily towards my guru. In a flash, like a flash, abhiram appeared magically producing a gorgeous strawberry cake and frizbeed it into my hands. guruji garlanded me and blessed the cake. the cake then magically vanished as magically as it had appeared.;)

My venkat day spree was summing up glamorously! Further, at 10pm, i even got to walk few meters with guruji and ask him if he enjoyed the now famous dahi wada. Guruji said, ” I ate little bit, but the garnishing was very good”. Man, I dissolved in ecstasy. By the end of it all, I felt so loved and content that I totally forgot to be miserable over turning older.

However, it doesn’t pinch so bad when friends (read Eby Felix) write such poetry for you..
I humbly present to you one among my precious birthday gifts’ this year.

“happy birthday”

” to your eyes, intimidating
otherwise telling a story
of innocence jaded
with pastel colors…”

” to your existence, powerful
otherwise with a simple taste
of exquisite flavor
from food to meditation”

” to your laugh, overpowering
otherwise making sounds
of nocturnal seas
that reach your soul within”

” to your love, exclusive
otherwise like all good things
free…for them who find meaning
in those subtleties, like me”

What is the moral of the story?
Hell, I AM 25!!

JUST ANOTHER DAY IN THE LIFE OF VENKAT-part II

Did guruji eat the dahi wadas’?
Well, that I will save for little later. 3 more lots of dahi wadas was made for local consumption from noon to dusk cos apparently they tasted like ambrosia in semi solid state. I served it to the who’s who of the ashram namely, Swami Vishnupaadji (he granted me a wish for my birthday;)), young and very dashing Swami Gyantej who shared his interesting life story in return, Vinod Menon (*take a bow*) who gave me 7.5/10 for my creation ( now that score from him is like getting into IIT without evening writing IITJEE;)) and needless to say, BnD who mean the world to me & most of the rest of the world.;) The wada’s had been lucky to enter the oesophaguses of such higher (im)mortals.

Satsang time of day was nearing. Srivi (one of my crazy beautiful room mates’) and I had decided to sing a devi bhajan ‘Vishalakshi devi, ananda roopini’, cos 7th jan also happens to be guruji’s mum -vishalakshi amma’s birthday. Yes, I am one lucky thing. No, I am not all that whiney.;)

Coming back, Srivi and my decision to sing did not mean anything to the VVIP singers who have been singing to guruji in satsangs for gazillion years and continue to itch for the mike as if they suffer from acute chicken pox. So when guruji walked into the Vishalakshi Mandap and sat, one among the VVIP chicken poxed women, converted her bhajan into a medley long enough to feel married to the mike. But the two of us managed to procure the mike the very moment she fell silent. What guruji did after that nearly killed us both from within.

What did guruji do?
Your turn to ‘itch’ with impatience;) until tomorrow;) You could read the other posts in the meanwhile;)

‘aapy neu yearrr!

THEOREM: having a guru= abundance!

PROOF: the new year began in utter opulence as I welcomed 3 new years sitting in one place! Ofcourse the ‘one place’ i am talking about is the international art of living ashram! If ur jealous, then its the right emotion ur experiencing.hehe
around 8pm IST, I celebrated new year no.1 of bangkok, where my parents n granma were chilling. I screamed my good wishes over the phone while cutting the weird veggies that are contained in bawa’s humongous fridge. We were getting ready to have an elaborate feast for the indian new yr. (visit bawa’s blog for the final product and drool)

new yr no.2 was apna desh ka. this one we called in with the mind blowing guru pooja. i say ‘we’ cos there were 1500 youth sitting cutely with eyes closed in vishalakshi mandap during the pooja. this i am guessing cos my eyes were closed too,hehe. 2010 entered in blissful silence and went on to get louder slowly and steadily. within half an hr, all of us irritatingly happy people were dancing our head off!! I have been to my share of discs, but believe u me, this one beat it hollow(and empty;))

the ultimate icing on the cake was new yr no.3 of germany which was were sri sri was chilling (literally also…was snowing there they say). around 3am IST,1st jan, 2010 was midnight there. i was sitting in bawa’s room, just me and the imac with guruji in it, (as if personally) taking me through a meditation ringing in the german new yr. superb ha!

later i consumed all the holy food bau had cooked, remember?… lasagne, greek-ish salad, mango ice cream, pesto, home made bread, baked potatoes, tomato basil soup. well ya, thats about it.
HENCE, PROVED.

P.S.how i wish the rest of the world gets to experience this magic!
lets party together people! Brother dearest, hope ur reading;)
happy new year world!!

pants and phones

i wonder why crazy things happen with me only! for a while, nuthing mad had happened so i was expecting something soon. and it dint dissappoint me this time too!
flashback- i am an engineer (well thats wat my grad cert. says). engineering has 8 semesters for those who made more intelligent choices to do a bachelors in. haan so point being, each sem i lost a cell phone. it was like meant to happen. come wat may, in random ways, i wud lose my cell phone. once i was wearing a baggy pant wit pockets which had holes. people who know me wont be surprised that i own such clothing.others will simply hv to hv faith! so my cell fell from within that pocket and i dint even realise it. another time my whole freakking bag got stolen from my examination hall where we keep the bags away during the paper! i really thot someone was just pulling a fast one on me. but well there were professional thieves apparently loitering on my college corridor! and i can go on n on abt how i lost the other 6 fones. but but but, wat happend few days ago tops the damn list!
this one’s humourourly embaressingly gross. all these adjectives still fail to describe wat happened! so read at ur own risk.
i wanted to pee real bad on the way back to ashram. i mean it when i say real bad. so i stopped by at a petrol pump to let go. it was an indian toilet. we all know how aromatic public toilets can be. well my cell was in my tight jean pocket and i had a huge bag on me. so while i was doing the deed, the fone popped out of my pocket n went into the black hole! thats it! GONE! frankly i was actually considering putting my hand in more than once and recovering my coveted device that connects me to all those i love n hate. i dint do it becos of the fear of getting leprosy or something more ghastly! euiwwwwww. but i said om namah shivaya restlessly hoping i cud gather guts to jut my hand in. but no! even ONS dint work this time around. so my 9th perished in bangalore’s sewage canal.
but when ur in the ashram, wit a fantastic guru, who is super cool/stylish/profound/dayaloo, u get back more than wat u lose! so now i hv twins! 2 fones! ofcourse rich and dayaloo folks also play a big part! *twinkle* am i blessed or what!! *twinkle*

my fattee buddies

i hv 2 pals to praise.

srividya, a pal for yrs now, a beauudyy YES!+ teacher, who is unbelievely good at everything she takes up. from topping her university witout attending a day,, to learning and performing bharatnatyam and kathak and jive and salsa. from representing India in the youth UN meet to looking frekking pretty in absoulutely any attire. she has made me experience crazy levels of jealousy! i am learning to go beyond being jealous though and take inspiration from her instead. so she was interviewed for an article on ‘women and voting which featured in the main issue of DNA. Here’s the link. You need to click on ’2′ when the page opens.

this is wat she has to say about it. “Most of what I said has been cut out(surprise surprise!) but some of it is manipulated very little and still there. But hey, my pic looks great!enjoy..love you all.”

check it out:

http://epaper.dnaindia.com/epapermain.aspx?queryed=40&username=&useremailid=&parenteditioncode=40&eddate=4%2f18%2f2009

Another amazing new pal i made recently is suniti. soon to be YES!+ teacher! this gurlie in just 4 yrs of learning and playing snooker is now Nationally ranked 4th!! guruji sure does his bit- samai se pehle an jarurat se jyaada! she was sharing with me of how she was super busy arranging utsav in kolkota to empower 2000 youth and hence dint hv time to practice at all for her national snooker championship. she said she practiced only for 10 days and was rather tensed. she called dinesh bhaiyaa,, yeah some people have the luck to knw him…and he told her to chant om namah shivaya everyday.. she did just that and stood 8th in the championship.the deal was, every year the top 3 winners get shortlisted to play internationally. but GUESS WAT!!! THIS YEAR THE TOP 8 GOT SELECTED TO REPRESENT INDIA INTERNATIONALLY!!! super crazy right??/ not 5, not 10…JUST 8!…! this guruji no!! so cutie he is!! lou him for all his spcl effects!!

check this out for proof:

http://www.cuesportsindia/myweb/profile/suniti.htm

i am so glad i m perennially surrounded by highly interesting people. i tell u again, do the yes!+ to knw wat i am talking about!

the magic moments have begun!!

gaurav n i took our 1st yes+ in ahemdabad on 2nd march… was crazyy for all the good reasons…

i dressed like a beaudddyy and went all 7 days.(big earrings included;)) we taught (guruji taught rather) superbly.. 1st day itself the fellows had last day ka high energy… i tho thought by last day they wil loose it! hehe

Meghal didi, the SSRVM Principal and TTC teacher came to meet the participants. Among the lovely knowledge she shared, this one blew me away. she said to fight/argue with someone,,, u cant continue for more than 5 min unless u go to the past and bring up something!! was so phenomenal! she said how in a road if accident happens 2 people cant really fight for long and repeat same thing or abuse cos they dont knw each other and hence hv no point with which they can carry on the fight . was insightful! a revelation actually! i wondered how lucky i was to get to sit on THE chair and talk of things i know so little about and still have all of them love me madly!

It was gaurav’s brilliant idea to take everyone on the last day to Wasad ashram..
last day was fanatastic spiritual picnic.. we did our short kriya in the yagya shala! some people hv all the luck . for those who hvnt visited wasad ashram yet, get there asap guys,, guruji’s kutir looks so gorgeous like a tiny tibet/china monastry. full on cutie pie..

guess wat,, when we were done taking all the yes+ processes at the ashram,, magically snehal didi who was taking advance in ashram came,  and spent some time answering everyones questions ..was like a total TTC… surprise biggies who come in and amaze u!

i wish every youth in this world is as lucky as me to have such an amazingly fulfilling profession!

for all those who are hearing words like yes+, kriya, kutir for the 1st time and wondering wat TTC, SSRVM stands for… u can apply for the immediate yes+ in ur city to clear all ur doubts and to experience sheer magic and fun! ask me for details.

god blesssss!!
jai guru dev!!

Divine Love

This one is among my favourite stories of all time..

The Radha-Krishna amour is a love legend of all times. When Lord Krishna left to fight His uncle Kamsa, Radha wept. Krishna told her that her tears were a hindrance for Him to leave on His mission and told her to stop crying. Radha didn’t shed a tear after that day. She longed for her beloved for years and years. The divine love she shared with Krishna was unparalleled.

Lord Krishna overthrew and killed Kamsa and went on to Dwarka where He married Rukmini. Krishna is said to have had 16,108 wives. Rukmini continuously kept complaining about him giving special attention to Radha. She said, “What is the big deal about her. What can she do for you that I can’t?” Rukmini was hopelessly jealous. She complained further that Krishna loved Radha the most though she lived far away in Vrindavan.

One day, Krishna had a terrible head ache. Rukmini and the other queens rushed about with all kinds of remedies but to no avail. They consulted a vaidhya and he asked the Lord Himself to tell him which drug would cure Krishna. Krishna told that his head ache would stop when the feet of a true bhakta is kept on his forehead! Listening to this, Rukmini and all other queens were aghast! They refused to keep their feet on Krishna’s forehead as it was a great sin! They said, “You are god’s manifestation on Earth and our dearest beloved. How can we dare step on your head? We would do anything for you but that!” Thus, no one volunteered and Lord Krishna continued to be in great pain.

The news reached Radha in Vrindavan and she immediately left everything to rush to her beloved. She immediately kept her feet on Krishna’s forehead to rid her Lord of His head ache. Seeing this, the people exclaimed that she would go straight to hell for such a grave sin. Radha smilingly said, “What does it matter if I have to go to hell as long as my Lord is relieved of His pain. I would readily go to hell a hundred lifetimes also!”

This act of Radha made all the other queens realize the divine love she had for Lord Krishna. It was so strong that she put her beloved before everything else, even enlightenment. Thus, Radha’s name is uttered even today whenever Krishna is referred to although she wasn’t married to Him.

Really insightful, isn’t it?

Jai guru dev..