Blokesblogin

Appa comes to town
Each measured movement reflects hidden and acknowledged pain. The doctors have the x-rays and MRIs to prove the fused state of all the vertebrae. Accomodating his large frame into the small economy class seat, he visits his daughters and grandchildren inspite of the immutable commute of 30 + hours. He belongs to the earlier generation that did not send cards for b'days and anniversaries. But he would be the first to call or take you to the temple to offer our thanks for having been given an opportunity to live and serve in our human form. He was the quiet background on which the rich tapestry of childhood was woven. He is my Appa, an unpretentious person who has quietly served his family, community and nation with little or no recognition. His gruff expressions hide a softie waiting to be cuddled. His dissapointments, he stashes away that impress further upon his spine. Yet, he laughes them away and keeps the phantom of pain just below the epidermis.
Knowing fully well the state of his back, we decide to take him on a pilgrimage to the Grand Canyon. He, who has taken us places- be it within India or parts of Europe, has a few places left in his wish-list for travel. Two of them were the Grand Canyon and the Niagra Falls. So my sister and I hatch a plot: I shall take him to GC and she will do the honors with NF. We plan the trip in stages to make it most convenient. The back is challenged. Not a word or gasp passes through his lips. The tightening of the facial muscles express the intolerable pain, but he persists. He allows us this one opportunity to let us take him out for a change.
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Posted by Meenakshi at 10:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Conversations on Conversion
Awaiting our flight at the airport, we meet a very friendly, elderly couple. We exchange rhetorics and soon the conversation veers towards God. The man says that their youngest is in Brazil proselytizing the word of God. I ask him what that was. He says that God is a man and His son got on the cross to atone for all of us and His resurrection is to take care of our afterlife. I ask him what about the BC era or a time when man had not yet evolved. What about the time before this Earth even existed/ What about a time when there was neither space nor time? What form or shape did this God have to have created this universe in the first place? He could only say that I thought differently. He got curious about what my concept of God was. I said, for me, God was an experience. It could be a he/she experience or it could be an inanimate experience amidst rocks and canyon walls. Or it could be just this intense silence that is also peaceful and comfortable. It could be nothing too.
That conversation set some neurons buzzing. What does anyone know of God to go around proselytizing about? Even if they do, how can one person's truth or experience be the same as another's? Given that many experienced God in Krishna, in Rama, in Jesus, in Mahavir, in the Buddha. My Jewish friend along with my Sikh friend while having lunch today agreed that one could start a religion around parathas, lavosh bread or dosas! As a Tamilian, my experience of making and eating a dosa is more intimate than making and eating Lavosh bread or parathas. Likewise, with my other two friends. If this was the experiential truth with just our food, what about an abstract concept such as God? How can anyone judge objectively that dosa is better than parathas or lavosh bread?! How could I possibly go around defining my experience seeing "blue or white light" as being greater or better than someone else who has seen "red or purple light"?! When I am in ignorance myself, how could I possibly go around telling others about the God that I have heard being described as a He on a cross or carrying a flute, as a She with a thousand arms or putting her child to sleep or as an It a piece of red sandstone sandwiching layers of time within its folds...
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Posted by Meenakshi at 12:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The setting sun glowed red-orange over the coniferous cover of the flat table-top, the mesa, as we drove due north. The Sagueros were left way behind as the altitude increased. The next morning was when we stared into that chasm that had a billion plus years of secrets sandwiched in its multicolored layers. Fossils predating even the dinos, a bed rock called the Vishnu bedrock dated back to 1.2 billion years, seemed but the fair foundation for this vertical "time line" from bottom to top. The upper layers were a measely 100 odd million years old! Here and there, our ancestors, the Anasazis and others, had left behind the original graffiti called petroglyphs, marking these walls with their passage in time. And, we, peering down from the rim, could do nothing but stare, agape. The Colorado running deep down was but an orange ribbon willfully rushing past the red/orange/yellow/white canyon walls, with total disregard to their age!
I was convinced that here was where the Ganga brought down by Bhagiratha flowed (and still does :-)) before she made the Himalayas her abode. The story of Bhagiratha does suggest the Americas as the venue for the deliverance of his forefathers who were stupid enough to get cursed and burnt to ashes for their stealing tendencies. No doubts, the Grand Canyon must have witnessed the descent of the Ganga on to Mother Earth via Shiva's tresses!
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Posted by Meenakshi at 09:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Little drops maketh an ocean- agreed. However I am yet to understand the rationale behind fundraising in a public school context through selling brownies or cookies. The effort, the number of flyers sent home to remind the school population about the event, the money spent by individuals to "donate" the goodies and then splitting the profits sounds a bit off-kilter. To begin with, if each parent "donates" the money that was spent on buying the "goodies", we have saved gas driving to the store, saved the time standing in line at the check out counter and not added to the obesity factor prevelant in this affluent nation! If we just want to have a nice social event where families get together and just chat, hey, lets do a flick with popcorn! The racket ball wall could be used as a ready-made screen and the projector and film need to be scouted around for! eScrip seems the easiest way to fundraise without a sweat. All ye gentle readers living in the US of A, please check out www.escrip.com and register your favorite credit cards with the school code of your choice. To get that, u need to contact that school and get it from them. Then u r set! Each eligible purchase made, pays a percentage to the school. People with kids in the public schools can do it for their kids' schools. For the rest, just support your local neighborhood school. Each drop does count when u are not there counting the drops!
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Posted by Meenakshi at 11:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Scene: A Preschool with 16, 4 yr olds. I am a working parent and the other 3 parents are manning or should I say "womanning" the other 3 centers. In the 4s class, we are the only Asian, let alone Indian family (a rarity in the Bay Area!). I am sitting in at circle waiting for the teacher when a kid snuggles up next to me and looks curiously at my skin and says, " Your skin is brown!" I say, " What good observation, yes it is brown like milk chocolate!" The kid then touches the "chocolate skin". Later at circle he sits on my lap.
While at playtime, another parent who had overheard this conversation wanted to ensure that I didnt feel hurt and I cut her short. I told her, for that child, it was plain observation and no judgement. He was learning to experience and explore the world around him through his senses.
As adults, we are the ones who need to learn the art of non-judgement and dropping our prejudices. As we "educate" ourselves, we learn the art of discrimination. As a child, we just observe and have no discrimination. We may have preferences, like enjoying icecream over a cup of milk! But with discrimination, we learn that milk is healthier than icecream! Then we can actually "act" upon that- will it be ice cream or milk? Getting back to the parent, she was so relieved and shared another story of a child meeting an African American for the 1st time and how she also handled the situation maturely. Like all children, once their curiosity is sated, they are off to their next thing! We, the all-knowing-discriminating Adults, end up dissecting, reading meanings into inanities (read insanity:-)) and make a royal mess and tag our shortcomings on the rest of the world!
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Posted by Meenakshi at 08:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Today this thought struck me that the Thattumettu sequence in a Bharathanatyam piece is a great balance between the analog and digital world. Let me explain:
Thattumettu is an interlude sequence where the dancer stamps a staccatto in 3s, 4s, 5s and/or 7 beats with her feet while her hands and body move and express the sentiments portrayed in the song (the analog). When you come to think of it, the brain is totally used- the feet could be dancing to a 123, 123 (takitta, takitta) beat or a 12-123 (taka-takitta) but the hands and body could be gesturing/emoting at a totally different "laya" or speed and at variance with the digital beats of the feet. It is little wonder that ALL kids I know, who learn dance, do extremely well at school. The program my friend & I attended was art in perfection. Each angle and gesture from the spatial plane resonated with the temporal notes and beats, opening up the experiential. The musicians from India were amazing- The Government Music and Art college of Tamil Nadu is truly producing some fine artists. There is a beautiful blend here of the traditional Guru-sishya tradition where great artists are part of its faculty and at the same time, the structured environment of a university semester system makes for a tight timeline and syllabus.
My friend and I decided that it was time to set aside a budget item to allocate funds towards these wonderful programs we are graced with, here in the bay area! Both local artists and visting artists make the dance and music scene here extremely hectic but vibrant. But then there is never too much of a good thing is there?! The next one coming up is the "Draupadi" Dance ballet by Hema Malini ( For details check out www.5h.org). Hope to see some of ye readers there :-)
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Posted by Meenakshi at 08:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I had this old grand aunt, who was a feminist in her days, for one, never wanted to marry and be under the control of any man -we are talking 1920's here :-). She taught me the science or should I say the art of folding clothes! Towels are a no brainer, u would think, to fold. Regular rectangles, so whats so difficult about that? Well, she inisted that you repetedly fold them along their length and then fold them finally along the width such that when they are ready to be used, all it takes is a flick of the wrist to undo all the folding! As an 8 year old, I didnt think much of it then. Now, I do! Thank you thathi! I have passed it on to several other maidservants and now am teaching the technique to my 9 yr old son.

Yesterday, it was my turn to celebrate Laundry Day! Ya ya it is more in synch with Labor Day, but governments do not give a day off for that :-(! Keeping in mind the towel as role model, I realised the intricacies of folding flared cuts, cuffs and collars into regular rectangles or squares. The worst is the fitted sheet! Surely designed by a guy who didnt want to tuck his sheets down and would refuse to fold the laundry afterwards! It is a bane for all laundrettes! My hubby tells me to leave it to him to fold as I feel sooo strongly about it. But then it will sit in the basket until it is ready to be fitted back on the mattress! I wonder if my grand aunt had an inkling of what it was to live with a man and refused that state...!
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Posted by Meenakshi at 09:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My dear friend from Israel sent all of us greetings for Rosh-Hashana. My local jewish friend called me to remind me! As the Madhatter would, there is much to celebrate on un-birthdays! As Chronos ticks away to glory, we shall leave measurements behind and enter the realm of celebration. How many unbirthdays do we celebrate in a year? My Telugu friend will be celebrating the Swarna Gowri vrata tomorrow and many of us Hindus will be having a Ganesha Gambol Chathurthi on saturday- now that is a Birthday! All those modaks instead of cakes *slurp-smack* ! Those of u who find their eardrums assaulted with over enthusiastic celebrators, blaring their music away, get hold of your nearest Art of Living chapter (www.artofliving.org) and ask them to come to that site and lead a group meditation- ask specially for Nav Chetana Shibir volunteers/ teachers! That should help keep the silence within and without for sometime. And once people get a taste of the real silence that is celebrative, loud speakers become defunct!
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Posted by Meenakshi at 09:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Ancient Indians thought up varied ways of calculating Time. One such system was the Tatpara measure. A Tatpara is defined as "the time taken for an impulse in the brain to generate an action" (Ravishankar,2002). In layman terms- a thought (2 act upon or not?!). They further agrandised it in a hexadecimal progression until they got to a 24 hour period and ended up with a gargantuan number- 46.65 billion tatparas/day! Wonder how we earthlings just dont explode with all that neuronic activity! Anyways, getting back to neuronics ( I wonder if that word exists in a dico or shall one of my neural connections take credit for this neologism?!), if we were to act upon each of said impulses, Newton's 1st law can take a walk! Thank goodness for Inertia- the making and breaking of mankind! I wish all my Jewish friends a happy Rosh-ha'shana-SHANA TOVA (happy new year), and a great year ahead- To another chronological measure!
Keep those tatparas buzzing until the next post...
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Posted by Meenakshi at 05:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)