लेकिन...(Lekin...)

बड़ी मुद्दत के बाद पोहचे है यहाँ...लेकिन तेरा साथ नहीं तो ये मंजिल क्या है। जहा भी देखू , ख़ुशी का आलम है...लेकिन जिस मे तू नहीं वो मेहफिल क्या है। पाया हमने बोहुत इस जहान में...लेकिन तुझे जो खोया तो किया हासिल क्या है। सांस तो लेते है लेने के लिए अब हम...लेकिन जिस मे तू नहीं, वो ज़िन्दगी क्या है।

Badi muddat ke baad pohache hai yaha...lekin Ab tera saath nahin, to yeh manzil kya hai. Jaha bhi dekhu, khushi ka aalam hai...lekin Jis me TU nahin, woh mehfil kya hai. Paya humne bohot is jahan mein...lekin Tujhe jo khoya, to kiya haasil kya hai. Saans to lete hai lene ke liye ab hum...lekin Jis me tu nahin, who zindagi kya hai.

New York --> Naya Ghad

It’s interesting to see let’s-change-the-name-of-an-Indian-city craze which is going on for years now. Be it Madras to Chennai, Bombay to Mumbai, Calcutta to Kolkotta, and recently Bangalore to Bengaluru. I also wonder why some politician hasn’t yet suggested changing Delhi to Indraprasth or go even further and changing India to Hindusthan [nah!! That will not get him so called minority votes then, will it? ;)].

Anyways, while thinking about this, I had this crazy thought. What if NRIs/OCIs living overseas had a similar urge to change the name of the suburb, city, state or country they live in to something more Indian? What they would be called? Let’s see some example:

New York = Naya Ghad (we already have Junaghad, don't we :-p)
Valley View = V V Puram
Washington = Dhobi Ghat [Courtesy: MBCA :)]
Sydney = Sitapore
Maribyrnong = Mylapur
Adelaide = Anand Nagar
Port Adelaide = Anand Bandar :) or Anandapatanam
Brisbane = Bana(na)ras
Gold Coast = Sonpuri
Kensington Garden = Kishan Bagh

Now let's see what can we change London, California etc into. Go ahead and go wild with your imagination.

Sewing Machine

I have always been fascinated by machines and technology। For me the main fascination is "How does that thing work?”, or even better “Can I contribute in creating one of them?". As a kid, I always wondered seeing a person riding a bicycle, "How does he stay upright and not fall?" or "How do they make that thing?”. So from very early I was thinking like an engineer. :) And even though I never consciously pursued to be an engineer, all stars aligned during my schooling years and helped me purse a career which I never knew I was made for. And today, even though I’m not the best engineer going around, I love what I do and that’s got be priceless.

Anyways, another machine which always caught my fancy was good old sewing machine. We used to have one of these (see below) in our house and as a kid, I used to watch - wide eyed - the ladies at home mending torn clothes or tailors on the ground floor shop stitching shirts and pants for their customers. Among lot of others things, I wanted to be that tailor and create that amazing shirt out of a piece of cloth. Even though I did get a chance to play with a sewing machine at home a bit here and there, like replacing the main spindle of thread or bobbin or operate the pedal under supervision, but never was allowed to operate it independently.

Now cut to recent past, i.e. last week, I saw and touched that sewing machine again. Even though this machine was not the same as one pictured above but it still very much behaved like one. These machines have gone through tremendous transformation from being all mechanical to one where now they use electricity and are so much easier to operate.

The place where I come from, one of the stereotypes is that man of the house never operates sewing machine. It’s women’s job, even though majority of tailors in India were/are men. So when we borrowed the machine from a friend of ours on Monday last week, my wife promptly assumed the responsibility of operating it. The other reasons behind it were that she had taken a quick “how to operate this beast” lesson before getting it and also she knew the nitty gritty of sewing from her mother during her teenage years. We both got to work immediately and sew caftan for Samyak and I on the same night. I hovered around helping her with the measurements, cutting etc. Seeing how natural she was with sewing and also machine being on loan, I did not want to take the reins and ruin it by not operating it properly.

After couple of days, I went to Spotlight to source a material for Aarnav’s caftan. Once done, we would all be set to present ourselves as Africans in a much anticipated dress-up birthday party. Next day was Saturday and Jyo was busy with Aarnav and some mundane household work. The cloth and sewing machine was on the table and I could not resist any further, I had to do it and yes, I did it. I sewed a cloth and created that shirt I always wanted to create and all my childhood memories associated with this machine came rushing back to me. Sure it was not perfect but hey, who cares, it’s the process of creation which I enjoyed.

Yes! It took me nearly 20yrs but I have lived one of my childhood dreams. What’s next?? Of course will buy a sewing machine very soon and create and pass some happy memories to my kids.

PS: Samyak was itching to get his hands on the sewing machine too.

Karmic Footprint

Yesterday, I was discussing a graphically disturbing email in an email group and I couldn't get that out of my head the whole day. And during one of those thinking phase, a phrase came to me. That phrase was 'Karmic Footprint' which is similar to 'Carbon Footprint' in concept. By reducing our carbon footprint, we can help our earth to cope up with this huge population/pollution explosion. Similarly we should concentrate on our Karmic footprint i.e., reducing our bad karma. Smaller your karmic footprint, closer you are to attaining "Moksha"...makes sense?

Anyways, then I went googling the newly coined phrase to see if anybody has already come up this concept of 'Karmic Footprint' and voila! No surprise there I guess. But what was more surprising was that I found an article (2nd link from the search) which echoed similar sentiments and thoughts as mine. It also takes it further and connects both carbon and karmic footprint and what it means to be a true JAIN.

The article is called "Karmic Footprints: The Ecological Consciousness of the Jains". It's a very nice article...some of the excerpts below:

Jainism means the religion (or way) of the conquerors and the true Jain is one who has conquered him- or her- self. This conquest is identical with realising the true self, which is free from attachment and so has true power, rather than delusional trappings. The starting point of Jainism is the individual. Each life is considered to be unique; this does not just mean human life, but every life form including the supposedly most elementary living systems –which we now know to be at least as complex and intricate as our own, and often indispensable to our survival.
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Jains also reject the idea of formal priesthood. Their ascetic men and women set an example of the ideal way of life, and dramatise Jain principles by taking them to their logical conclusion. But they cannot compel conformity and obedience. As Kanti Mardia, a Jain scientist, has suggested, each Jain is his or her own guru, and the spiritual quest is akin to the processes undertaken by the researcher in a laboratory.
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The basis of Mahavira’s teaching is ‘Parasparopagraho Jivanam’ : ‘All Life is Interconnected’. It follows that ‘Non-violence and kindness to all living beings is kindness to oneself’,and conversely that ‘You are that which you intend to hit, injure, insult, torment, persecute, torture, enslave or kill.
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The principle of interconnection informs the Five Vows (‘Vratas’) undertaken by Jains. These are adhered to by ascetics in a literal way, as the ‘Mahavratas’,or Greater Vows, whereas lay men and women observe them as ‘Anuvratas’(Lesser Vows) and use them as guidelines on which to base their lives. There are references to the Vows in many Jain texts, but are explored in particular detail in the Acaranga Sutra, or ‘Book of Good Conduct’ (3).The Acaranga is the oldest Jain document, probably composed in the 4th century BCE, and it sets out clearly the philosophy of non-violent living associated with the Jain dharma. The Vows are as follows:

• ‘Ahimsa’: Non-violence; abstention or minimisation of anything that causes injury to life, human or non-human;
• ‘Asteya’: Abstention from theft; avoidance of exploitative relationships of all kinds;
• ‘Satya’: Truth; the understanding of what is real, as opposed to illusory attachment;
• ‘Brahmacharya’: Chastity; avoidance of promiscuity, sexual exploitation and the ‘objectification’ of fellow-humans (male or female);
• ‘Aparigraha’: non-possessiveness; reduction of consumption; reduction of ‘carbon footprint’.

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Jain dharma extends the concept of society to include fellow creatures, plants and the various ecosystems of the planet that support life. What better starting point is there for those of us – of all faiths or none –who seek a more balanced relationship between the rest of nature and humankind?