a common man ಸಂಜಯ

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  • celebrating my dad's birthday

    Now, well after almost a decade after my dad died… this year of 2009 we decided to celebrate his birthday a little more significantly than just remembering him.

    So we went to this place called Samarthanam Trust in a quiet corner of Jayanagar, and asked them about any deserving candidate who was a good student but just lacked the opportunity to take their talent further. The caretaker there thought a while, and then came up with the name of a girl who was doing her 10th standard but was in real poverty with her parents struggling to make ends meet. We even got to meet this girl, of course we only had a general conversation with her, and she had some fun playing with my baby son for a few minutes and then went on her way.

    It was nice to have met her, and after she left we wrote the cheque for her, wishing that it would give the chance for the sparkle in her eyes to keep shining!

    We left the place with a sort of undescrible feeling of a quiet joy, and wished the same for my Dad. 🙂

  • love is blind?

    Well known saying that “Love is blind”

    Today I came across a quote so uplifting that it simply took my breath away… Though I felt I should avoid writing about meditation any more as I’m too much of an irregular novice, I could not help sharing this quote here 🙂

    (More about it the reader is free to find on google)

    Love alone is blind;
    meditation gives it eyes.
    Meditation gives it understanding.
    And once your love is both love and meditation,
    you become fellow travelers.
    Then it is no longer an ordinary relationship.
    Then it becomes a friendliness on the path
    towards discovering the mysteries of life.

  • art tutor for a day

    Very unexpectedly, I ended up teaching a couple of neighborhood kids how to paint. Here are some of the ideas.

    Assumed that there is already an initial outline picture on the paper which is to be filled in…

    • only the tip of the paintbrush should be dipped in paint, not the entire brush.
    • first paint the outline very carefully and neatly, making sure not even a single drop of paint comes outside, and then paint the interior gradually
    • use only strokes in the same direction as much as possible
    • wait for a coat to dry before applying a second coat
    • clean the brush thoroughly after use
    • its good to buy a coloring book which has empty outlines where the child can paint inside. But its can also be fun to actually ask him what he wants to draw, draw the outline for him on the spot, and then he paints it.

    [optional reading] Background trigger… series of unrelated events…

    I was recently watching What Dreams May Come had seen it earlier once long ago, but watching it again the dialogues and story was more rivetting than ever, and the main point related to this post is that there’s a LOT of painting involved in this movie…

    Was browsing through the very colorful Jana’s Journal and appreciating the lovely pictures there…

    And recently was writing to my Mukthabalaga friends on a nice activity at home – my wife gives my son a watercolor paintbox and paintbrush, and then sits with him somewhat nonobstrusively, aiding him to just experiment with colors.

    So recently a couple of neighbouring kids were playing at home with Abhinav, and they started using his paint set and I was passing by and was really aghast looking at them scrubbing the paper like they were using a toilet brush to remove a stain. I had to stop myself from shouting “NOooo Noooo nOOOO…” :mrgreen: So sat down with them, and started explaining how to paint. As I started, I started recollecting more and more how I used to really enjoy painting during my school days – and it was a really nice time 😎

  • excerpt from seven laws #1

    As a beginning to this year 2009 I would like to post one law a week from a simple, wonderful book I’d read a few years ago by Deepak Chopra. The radical ideas expressed in powerful words are pretty motivating. In fact I liked it so much that I gifted several people on many occasions a copy of the book (now I need to get another one myself again!)

    Below summary/excerpts are not really a substitute to actually reading the book. However if you could contemplate on each law it would be great to hear your thoughts about the ideas in it.

    The Law of Pure Potentiality

    This law is based on the fact that we are, in our essential state, pure consciousness. Pure consciousness is pure potentiality; it is the field of all possibilities and infinite creativity. When you discover your essential nature and know who you really are, in that knowing itself is the ability to fulfill any dream you have, because you are the eternal possibility, the immeasurable potential of all that was, is and will be. This law could also be called the Law of Unity, because underlying the infinite diversity of life is the unity of one all-pervasive spirit. There is no separation between you and this field of energy. One way to access the field is through the daily practice of silence, meditation and non-judgment. Spending time in nature will also give you access to the qualities inherent in the field: infinite creativity, freedom and bliss.

    —Share Guide

    What it seems to remind us is that even though it may at times appear to be, life really isn’t a rat race… There’s enough for everybody’s needs, and maybe just that we haven’t tapped into it…?

  • this should be easy to draw?

    Finally I uploaded my photo from the previous Bangalore Weekend Shoot photographer’s club meet in Lalbagh…

    the pelican brief

    pelican with a fishy catch

    (Clicking on an image above takes you to a bigger version)

    I would like to invite you dear reader – can you send me a drawing of one of the above pictures…?

    A simple pencil sketch will do, unless you are feeling more enterprising and want to add color as well. You can either draw it on paper and scan it. Or you could even draw it using Windows Paint, Gimp, or Paint.net or any other image editing tool, and then email it to the common man blog. Unless you have strong inclination otherwise, it will soon be posted here with any attribution/link you provide.

    And if you like, you needn’t even get limited to the photo but just use it as a starting point and add anything else.

    This is just for fun and not any kind of competition. Don’t be in a hurry, take your time, but give it your best shot!

    (Maybe its also a chance for me to confront any realisation that this site really have no readers at all heh heh :mrgreen: …Well, I know I’ll get atleast one from a friend who promised he’d send one, and I myself will make an attempt, so that will be a minimum of two…!)

    ———
    See also: Learn How To Draw

    Some encouragement here… Fun With A Pencil by Andrew Loomis

    Excerpt from the introduction…

    MR. WEBSTER DEFINES DRAWING
AS DELINEATION. THAT DOESN’T
TELL YOU HOW MUCH OF A REAL
"BANG" THERE IS IN IT. MAYBE
HE NEVER KNEW. MOST FOLKS
LOVE TO DRAW EVEN WHEN
THEY KNOW LITTLE ABOUT IT. IT
STARTED WITH THE CAVE MAN,
AND STILL SURVIVES ON THE
WALLS OF PUBLIC PLACES... BECAUSE
IT’S SO MUCH FUN, AND
SO EASY, IT’S A SHAME NOT TO BE
ABLE TO DO IT BETTER.
~ ANDREW LOOMIS


ALL THAT YOU NEED TO KNOW, TO START
THIS BOOK, IS HOW TO DRAW A CIRCLE. . . .

Don’t start out with that old gag, "I couldn’t draw a straight
line." Neither can I, freehand. If we need a straight line, we
can use a ruler. Now please try it, just for fun.
And it can be as lopsided as the family budget, and
still work out.

  • weekend exploration of srikalahasti

    Abhinav’s first trip within India, we planned on a one day weekend visit to a temple near Tirupati known as Srikalahasti.

    Conventional visits to such famous temples are like a formula – go in, perform some pooja/ritual, and leave – either to the next temple or back home. We had heard that there wasn’t much to see here and we were wondering what to do for the other half of the day. But at the end of the day, we felt that even one whole day is hardly enough to see and experience this place.

    Bird’s eye view of the temple…

    Birds eye view of Srikalahasti temple

    The main entrance…

    The temple was quite crowded but we did not feel it congested except in a few places where we had to stand in a queue. A very interesting aspect is that after entering, there is a paataaLa Ganesha cave. This is a Ganesha in a cave that is about two storeys deep. Entering and exiting is through a steep hardly a foot wide steel railing staircase, just like one enters one of those old wells. Only batches of 10 at a time are permitted. Esp with slightly aged or not so agile people, standing in the queue can be quite time consuming. Entering the cave was like crawling into a tunnel, which then opens up to the staircase descending into the huge somewhat dark enclosure inside. Getting down there along with Abhinav was quite a challenge but Anand (my brother in law) seemed to manage quite effortlessly. We were the first in our batch, so when we went down we were there alone for a few moments till the others joined us, quite fascinating moments.

    Just a minute or so and we were on our way out, that’s all the time else the queue will never move!

    The main temple is quite big with many interesting sights to see along the way. Its quite important in such ancient temples that one takes time to sit and really experience the ambience. There were many huge lingas, and one of them was made of spatika (it looked like glass but this is crystal I think). It is hardly noticeable and looks like metal, except if you observe that the light from it is not a reflection but light coming through it!

    The main sanctum was magnificient… very beautifull illuminated with lamps inside…

    Excerpts below about temple are from wiki…

    There is a lamp inside the inner sanctum that is constantly flickering despite the lack of air movement inside . The air-linga can be observed to move even when the priests close off the entrance to the main deity room, which does not have any windows. One can see the flames on several ghee lamps flicker as if blown by moving air. The linga is white and is considered Swayambhu, or self-manifested.

    This was quite distant and we could not observe the details mentioned here esp because we had only a few moments and we had to keep moving.

    There was another interesting place in the temple courtyard, where there was a skylight in the roof, through which one could see the pinacles of three other distant pillars/temples from three points marked on the floor. There was a priest who explained this to us, and he seemed to be one of those harikathe speakers, his voice was so wonderfully melodious, and he was so dramatic in his explanation. (If priests of the world had this kind of joy and involvement this priest had, maybe all of humanity’s religious structures would really serve their purpose hmm 🙂 )

    There were two hills, and we went up one of them. Sunset was quite spectacular.

    On top of the hill, we found the legendary Shiva temple depicting Kannappa which was made into a movie Bedara Kannappa starring Dr. Raj Kumar. Here is the main part of the story based on wiki (with some trivial editing)…

    (Of course what happened here is a story but there have been cases of blind devotion inspired by this story, as per news links given at the end of the wiki page above). Let love be the inspiration and not the act itself.

    …one day Thinnan noticed that one of the eyes of the Shiva linga was oozing blood and tears. Sensing that the Lord’s eye had been injured, Dheeran proceeded to pluck his one eye out with one of his arrows and placed it in the spot of the bleeding eye of the Shiva linga. This stopped the bleeding in that eye of the linga.

    He noticed that the other eye of the linga has also started oozing blood. So Thinnan thought that if he were to pluck his other eye too, he would become blind, and wouldn’t be able to exactly locate the spot. So he placed his toe on the linga to mark the spot of the bleeding second eye, and proceeded to pluck out his other remaining eye.

    Moved by his extreme devotion, Shiva appeared before Thinnan and restored both his eyes.

    “Nillu Kannappa” (“Stop Kannappan!”)

    Looks like Abhinav was in form and this pose is a cute coincidence (he probably won’t win any prizes for best dressed kid though heh heh)…

    There was a statue here which he started cleaning with a hanky.

    Upendra had told me how cleaning can also be a form of meditation. We can clean a vessel or the floor with the intention that “let my heart also become clean as I am cleaning this” and then we automatically do it with more immaculately with awareness, and what looks like a menial chore actually becomes a very nice activity. In a way as babies we all start off as natural meditators (but of course we gradually start losing touch with the process as we grow up).

    Rest of us including pujari there gave so many suggestions and he more or less followed all of them…!

    Kalahasti is surrounded by two sacred hills. The Durgamba temple is on the northern hill. On the south hill there is the shrine of Kannabeswara, in memory of the Sage Kannappa, who offered his eyes to the Lord. There is also a temple dedicated to Lord Subramanya on one of the surrounding hills.

    This is the Durgamba hill seen from the river bank.

    Sri Kalahasti is named after the staunch devotees of Lord Shiva. They were the Spider (Sri), the Serpent (Kala) and the Elephant (Hasti). Appeased with their unflinching devotion, Lord Shiva gave them a boon that their names be merged with the Vayulinga and called as Sri Kalahasteeswara.

    Views from the top of the Kannappa hill…


    They’re definitely enjoying their practice…

    Never seen anything like this before…

    On the way back from the temple, Anand and me just meandered offtrack to see what was around the corner…

    Pity we didn’t have more time but it was good we saw atleast this much…

    Went till here and returned back…

    And Anand spotted this rather unusual rock – do you see what he saw in it?

    It was pretty good advice from a friend to not return to Tirupati in the afternoon but to take a return bus to Bangalore from Kalahasti itself. This way we got more time there. And looks like we did not miss much as there was a magnificient miniature in our hotel lobby!

    ——
    See also:

  • raw material of life

    When construction of a new lovely house we begin
    If we ignore the quality of the the raw material within
    The building may still look real pretty!
    Even if the inside may be a bit messy!

    Then for the slightest drizzling rain
    A leaking roof is going to be a real pain
    And a gusty draft of wind or tremor
    Is going to make the rafters shiver
    And all those cracks and secret damp places
    Oh pests are just going to love those spaces!

    So raw material we know better than to neglect
    And attention to its quality we better respect

    Then while we are constructing our life
    Every single day amidst all its joys and strife
    We better then have a closer look
    Instead of just going by our self-authored book?

    We can free ourselves from every monotonous rythm
    Starting with this line right here 😉
    Lets atleast reduce using low grade anger
    And lets eliminate our petty prejudices
    And lets even retire our shoddy ill-will
    And every other thing else based on ignorance!

    This new year, let us develop our heart
    And truly strengthen the home for now and our future
    That we are building every single day: ourself
    Using high grade RCC – Relax Care and Compassion
    Radically catapulting the quality of our life!

    ——

    PS: A reader Vidyashankar raised a pretty good point…

    Although everybody wants to build home using good raw material, we may be limited by budget?!

    Hmm indeed its a pretty good possibility… as long as we are ignoring the emperor within… 🙂

  • trip to mumbai

    Leaving today, returning to Bengaluru on 22nd night.

    More when we’re back… see you soon…

  • Bangalore Weekend Shoot




    BWS_2009cal

    Originally uploaded by AjantaKVS.

    Joined Sudhi last Sunday and went to Lalbagh at 5 AM for my first BWS shoot. There were plenty of other enthusiastic photographers as well though we were one of the first to be there, and it was a pretty good crowd. It was a wonderful morning – apart from the photography, just the energetic crowd in Lalbagh with people doing yoga, excercise and even a drama troupe practicing for a skit. Highlight was a couple of pelicans which came pretty close, and I could get some nice shots esp borrowing Sudhi’s zoom lens. Will be posting some pictures soon.

  • FW: Mumbai: We will not be divided

    I just signed a message calling for unity following the attacks in Mumbai. Read the email below – Thanks

    ————————–

    Dear friends across India and the world,

    We’re all feeling the shock of the awful attacks in Mumbai. All our hearts go out to the victims and their families.

    The attacks were aimed at our people, our prosperity and our peace. But
    their top target was something else: our unity. If these attacks cause
    us to turn on each other in hatred and conflict, the terrorists will
    have won. They know that hatred and chaos feed on division. As radical
    extremists, their only hope of winning is by turning the rest of us
    against each other.

    Let’s deny them that victory. We’re launching a message to extremists
    on all sides and all our political leaders, one that will soon be
    published in newspapers across India and Pakistan. The message is that
    these tactics have failed, that we’re more united than ever, united in
    our love and support to each other, determined to work together against
    terror and call on our leaders to do the same. If millions of people
    sign it, our message will be unmistakable, click below to sign it and
    please forward this email widely:

    http://www.avaaz.org/en/india_undivided/98.php/?cl_tf_sign=1

    It’s time to speak out, let’s do it together.

    Thanks