Mysorean

100 posts

165 days

388 comments (More than 100 would be mine in that!!)
Including one from A R Rahman (the best thing that could have possibly happened to my blog!)

4000+ hits (More than 1000 would be me!!)

Well, not a bad deal na?! :)

Blogging began as my friend Krishna introduced me to it. I didn’t know what a blog was at that point of time. It was another word of the computer terminology that I would never understand. But times changed. I changed.

Today I work in a company that designs develops and manufactures computer hardware.

I have made friends on the blogsphere. Few of whom I am going to meet tomorrow! Blogging has helped me grow as a person. And am very proud of my blog.

Initially, I was very serious about the blog. There was a particular month when I wrote daily. When I published a post today I would also specify what I would write tomorrow. I had desired that level of professionalism in me which I couldn’t sustain beyond a month.

Harish was the first person to have commented on my first post.

TJ was the first person to have blogrolled me.

Divya was the first person to tag me.

Arjuna was the first person to convert a blog conversation to a tele-conversation and looks like he will be the first blogger I will be meeting in person too.

Cosmic Consciousness is my first blog as a member of a group.

Can’t think of anymore useful statistics.

Blogging has become an integral part of my daily life. I enjoy blogging and the feedback I get from people eggs me on to write more.

I hope to continue blogging and expect the same love, encouragement and critique from all of you.

Thank you! :)

We were friends during school. Close friends. We did a project about a fighter tank for the Open Day at our school. We wrote a story together for our school magazine. A great writer, excellent painter and a revolutionary thinker. We were a good team. We were frank with each other about everything.

Whenever I used to go back to Mysore during my Intermediate days I used to make it a point to visit him.

During my engineering days, we weren’t in touch much. He was doing his engineering from another college in the same city. And we were busy with our lives. We used to catch up on phone.

After that for 5 years, I was out of touch with him. Only recently we got in touch through a certain e-group for our schoolmates.

He hasn’t lost a bit of enthusiasm. He has become a greater writer, I don’t know if he still paints, but the same artist shows in his photos. Photography is a great hobby to have if you are good at it! ;) [PJ!] And if you read his blog you will know the level of his thinking.

Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome Chaitanya Vikas. My good old friend. We haven’t been in touch with each other for long time. It’s now time to renew the old ties buddy!

Divya tagged me again! Thanks again! :) Here we go…

Five movies which I like the most

1. Anand (Hindi)

2. Black (Hindi)

3. Kshana Kshanam (Telugu)

4. The Matrix trilogy (English)

5. Titanic (English)

Five things I can never live without

1. Acceptance

2. Happiness

3. Peace of mind

4. Love

5. Satisfaction

Five most favourite celebrities (Div, sorry I changed it to my convenience)

1. A R Rahman

2. Amitabh Bachchan

3. Sachin Tendulkar

4. Rahul Dravid

5. Venkatesh (Telugu film star)

Five things I miss now

1. My parents (They stay in Hyderabad, I work in Chennai)

2. My brother (He stays with my parents)

3. My little cousin – Gauri (She stays in Dubai)

4. My grandmother (She is presently on tour!)

5. My 3 closest friends (Two are in Bangalore and one in Mumbai)

Five things I plan to do in near future

1. Restart Yoga and meditation

2. Investing in the stock market

3. Buy a helment and Raincoat (The heavens are pouring in Chennai I tell you!)

4. Write the sequel to my post on Novatium

5. Enjoy the weekend

Last movie I borrowed to watch & still not given back

I don’t watch movies on CD’s!

Five books I love

1. Bhagavad Gita – C. Rajagopalachari

2. Animal Farm – George Orwell

3. Blink – Malcolm Gladwell

4. The Goal – Eliyahu M Goldratt

5. Five-point someone – Chetan Bhagat

Five people I pass this HIGH FIVES to

1. Veda

2. Lisa

3. Sudhu

4. Cb

5. Kasthuri

Thanks divya for tagging me. It’s my first ever tag. And I like the feeling that somebody thought of me first among the list of people to tag.

here’s my part of the story tree..

He thought it would be an ordinary journey. Standing behind the pillar he watched the train snort arrogantly into the station. With each snort he was reminded of his grandfather’s words “You will fail in the city and return penniless”; with every heavenward whistle, he heard his cousin, “Don’t worry. Come here and I will get you a job at the construction site.” Now he had a 34-hour journey to prove one of them wrong, and he expected the excitement at the end of the journey. He looked at his ticket once again: compartment S9 berth 23.

Pushing his luggage under the seat, he sat close to the window. “Papa, when will you be back?” – his four year old daughter Munni asked innocently. He stared into those soft brown eyes of the motherless kid. He held her frail palms in his, through the window. “Munni, Papa will get you a nice gudiya from the city..Say tata,” his sister spoke to the kid, to avoid an emotional outburst. In a minute, the train pulled forward, and Munni’s little fingers parted from between his. “I need to go..”, he thought, “I have to, at least for Munni’s sake..”

The humid summer breeze and the rattling train coaxed him into an uncomfortable state of drowsy consciousness. He dreamt that Munni ran away, the closer he ran to her, the farther she was, like a mirage. He woke up with a start and squinted at his watch.”What is the time please?”A smallish woman, a meek voice as if she was scared that her existence would annoy someone. Her only noticeable feature was her rather large, expressive eyes.”4.30″Something made him look at the woman again. He had stopped noticing women long back. Ever since Meenakshi passed away…

But this woman was different. She reminded him of someone he knew. In an instant he realized who and the painful memories came flooding back. She looked exactly like his childhood sweetheart Madhu. As teenage lovers in a conservative society, they had often met secretly and had declared undying love for each other.
Then someone had found out and all hell had broken loose. The elders in the village Panchayat had ostracized Madhu’s family as she was from a lower caste. Unable to bear the humiliation, she had committed suicide by drowning. That was twelve years back…

Could it be? Could it really be him? He seems different, weary and downcast. Oh no will he recognise me? No, I am dead to the world. Still she cautiously wrapped her saree end around her head and across her face. Behind the cotton screen, her mind drifted to happier times, languid strolls in the corn fields, games at the riverbed, his gentle caress, whispered sweet nothings, stolen glances at the temple fair.
Tempted to take one last look, she consoled herself that he wouldn’t notice. Slowly
she lifted her eyes only to find Rupak staring back at her.

She quickly glanced the other way.

‘No, this girl looks too close to be any other person. She is infact Madhu!! “Hey, Madhu!” he called.

She struggled hard not to respond to that call. And successfully managed it too.

“Hey Madhu, you forgot me?” he inquired her and came closer.

The old lady sitting opposite to him was looking at this unapprovingly.

“No, you are mistaken, My name is not Madhu.. I am Supriya” she lied.

“Hey Ram!, a young girl cannot travel safely in this country without being stalked!” the old lady muttered angrily.

The girl walked briskly away from him, trying to escape his glances, as though she was hiding something, not wanting to be discovered. He stood confused, she had said her name wasn’t Madhu, and should he run after her? Or should he let it pass, after all he still had a train to catch.

His heart told him it was Madhu, followed her, all thoughts about going to the city vanished; he was on delighted to have met Madhu after such a long time. He was filled with memories of their time together. He finally caught up with her. Looking into her eyes he said ‘ Why Madhu? Why this to me?’
“Please dont lie to me anymore”; sounding more like the Mani he used to be ten years back when he had first met her at the Village temple, rather than the arrogant side that seemed to rule his life now. “I know it is you, nobody else but you Madhu”. Tears roll down her cheecks as she tries to remember why they ended up this way. Was it destiny or fate that they had to meet now?

As she speaks up, the train which for a while had be at a halt, slowly starts to move.

She couldn’t speak out even a word. All that was seen , tears rolling down her cheeks out of happiness.
Now,he was not in a state to loose her again .Though they didn’t speak any word ,everything was clear .Now also ,they were able to read what was running in each others mind.
He slowly held her palms into his. She couldn’t stop him though she wanted too.
For a moment ,they forgot everything.All that was felt,they want to live a new life together.
He later discovered that both were going to the same construction site for the job..

God was not fair to Rupak Mani. His life seemed to be a bouquet of forced choices. At birth, his father had to choose between Mani and his mom. During childhood Mani had to choose from school or agriculture. He chose agriculture to support his ailing father and grandparents. But he burnt the midnight oil and completed his matriculation. And at the same time he ensured prosperity of the household.

Mani was a role model to everyone in the village. He started going to the college in the nearby town for his degree. And that’s where he had met Madhu. Mani knew that Madhu (a girl from the lower-caste) would never be accepted at his home. This time he had to choose between respectability and Madhu.

Mani married Meenakshi. A traditional South Indian girl who was suggested by a friend of Mani’s father. The marriage went fine till Mani had to decide between his wife and Munni.

And now God re-introduces Madhu back into his life. With both of them heading for the same construction site, the journey ahead looked more exciting than the journey they had been through.

***************************************************************

Everything below the dashed line and above should be copied and pasted with every accepted tag)

This is a Story Tree and is best nurtured as follows:
1. A blogger can add only 90-100 words (not more or less) at a time
2. All previous snippets of 90-100 words need to be copied before the new set of 90-100 words are appended.
3. Each entire snippet should be linked to the respective author (and not just the first sentence or so)
4. Characters, scenes, etc. can be introduced by an author5. Bizarre twists, sci-fi, fantasy sequences are best avoided.
6. A tag must be accepted within 7 days else the branch is a dead branch
7. After appending 90-100, the Story Tree can be passed on to at most 3 bloggers.
8. If more than 1 branch leads to a blogger, s/he is free to choose any one of them but cannot mix the snippets of the individual branches.
9. The Story Tree is best left to grow than concluded
10. Please attach the image of the Story Tree below with each accepted tag (the link address can be copied and used).

I would like to tag

Arjuna
Aatma
Krishna

When desires try to understand each other through the eyes,
And souls communicating with each other,
Dreams reach out
to the ecstasy that our imagination cannot.

With emotions settling down for a deep conversation,
And thoughts revolving around the other,
Feelings touch each other
for a joy that superficial physical touch cannot.

When minds talk to each other,
Spoken words seem so emotionless,
The enveloping silence
conveys more than what words can only hope.

Adi

My first post on Cosmic Consciousness. It is on the discourse at Ramakrishna Ashram by Swami Atmashraddhananda. Please click on “Reference” to take you to the article.

Before me there have been the following posts:

1. Venky says on Thirumoolar
2. Arjuna says on Hinduism and Jiva: The constitution of man – The Jiva

There were two introductory posts where the foundation stone was laid.

Keep a watch on this space. This blog will be a powerhouse of spiritual knowledge.

In response to this post on Swahilya’s blog an improptu poem came up from within me: