Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication - L. Da Vinci

Watched this movie, Golmaal today, Enjoyed it, Pet dukhney lag gaya has has ke. best was when Ajay Devgan and Arshad Warsi become Dada and Dadi and Professor comes home to invite them to the cultural event at the college. Dono, Dada/Dadi bankar professor ke maje lete hai. Professor says, ‘hamne starting mein Puja rakhi hai’, ajay as a dadaji asks, ‘Beauty contest bhi hai kya’ Simply hilarious. Definitely worth watching. songs are good to.

Ok, I have decided to create a few to do’s in my life. I’ll use this blog/ post to monitor how I go about it. Reason being I can post to it from anywhere as long as I have access to the internet and that’s fairly easy to find anywhere. So, my to do list is:

• Start work by 9 (6:30) wakeup
• Deep/ alternate breathing everyday
• What have i done for long term (future) today?

I like to capture growth, like growing of plants, thoughts, people. Capturing growth of plant is easy. We can take pictures. Thoughts can be captured as well in a sense that I write what I think. hence it becomes a proof of my mind. I think individual person growth is hard to capture, but if I record my thoughts over a period of time, I can reflect on that over the years and see how thought changes. Interesting!! There are so many things that happen in life. Decisions, experiences, thoughts, relationships, career that affects our choices. It’s only when we sit back and reflect on it, that we realize their importance. Sometimes a big emotional event like a birth or death brings about change, sometimes it’s a story or news that can do that or it could just be a simple line like “You have created all that happens, in your life” “And you also have the power to create all that you want”. Stuff from NLP training that brought good change in me.

I was reading this article about using stem cells for treating disorders and that there would be voting in the parliament in US, to go ahead with it or ban it.

As I understand, stems cells can be obtained from an embryo or a foetus (dead or alive) to use. But if taken from an embryo, the embryo dies. Please let me know if I am wrong. So the debate is that is it ethical to do this.

It’s not an easy question to answer for sure. We kill a life to save a life. I follow Jainisim, and in our religion this is explained as Raag (attachment) and Dwesha(aversion).When I was 15, we had a dog named Julie, an Alsasian Shepherd. Sometimes she used to get ticks on her body. Ticks are little creatures that suck blood. and because I loved my dog, I hated those ticks sucking on my dogs blood. so I used to kill them. I did not feel good doing that either, and that’s when my Aunt & Mom explained me this concept of raag and dwesh, and indulging in that causes Karmic bondage. Karmic bondage comes from the Law of Karma which in simple terms means every action has a consequence and you bear the consequences of all your actions.

But till this date, I wonder about it. Because when I reflect on my day to day activity like work, eating, gardening, socializing, etc. Raag and dwesh situations arise and it gets confusing what choice to make. Because either choice have their pros and cons. Deep down though, i feel that there’s truth in this law of raag and dwesh and that there is a state beyond all this which I curious to know.

So back to debate of Stem cells, I think we should not go down this path of using embryos or foetuses for stem cells. If we allow it, it might have other implications like directly or indirectly in the field of cloning, abortions, religious fights, etc. So it’s very much like a path to doom, that may just get worse and worse. But if we say no to this, then we’ll focus our energies on looking alternative options and surely come up with a solution. I read that stem cells could aslo be obtained from adults. If scientists can do that, our problem would be solved

I was asked to dance on bollywood song Dholna by Shuba Mudgal for Eastern Evening 2006 organized by GAQ (Gujarati Association of Queensland). I thought it would be fun, interesting and would give me a chance to meet new people. So I said yes and began practising for it 2 weeks ago. 8 of us were to dance in pairs of 2. 4 girls and 4 boys. The girls had to dance more but we had to dance only for a part of the song. Thank God for that, We all got together for practise sessions for about 3-4 times. The steps looked easy, but when I started to do it, it wasn’t as easy i expected. So I had to learn the steps over and over again a few times. And in situations like these when you are bit nervous to get things right, memory doesn’t do that well. So i tried to learn and remember as much as i could.

And some of the steps were quite energy consuming, like the 360 degree jump. I couldn’t do it first because I was throwing myself out of balance half way, but eventually got the hang of it.

To really perfect the steps, I knew that I had to practise as much as I could. So I used one of the techniques I used while learning to drive. Visualising and revising in the mind. I read about this technique in Accelerated Learning for 21st century book by Colin rose. It worked wonders for me then. I went through all the dance steps in my minds eye trying to remember the sequence and movements.Every time I practised I did the visualization after.

And just before the last day of the event, my dancing ability had improved a lot. I am proud to add a new skill to my life now. The final event was great. Very well organized and managed. The hosts, Viral bhai and Tejal, did an excellent job. And ofcourse, as expected our dance was just spot on. Great coordination amongst us, good energy and lots of whistles and “once more” from the crowd. Couldn’t wish for more than that. All the other dancers did a great job as well. And because I was a participant in the event, I didn’t have to pay the entry fees (25$$) which was to cover the food as well. So got free food.

And at the end we had Dj Krish mixing some Bhangra music. Overall a great night with lots of masti. All the hard work and practise paid off. Made lots of new friends and contacts. Thanks to all who played a part in that night. I have a video of my dance. Will see if I can post it online.

Dholna Part 1 (2.4 MB)

Dholna Part 2 (8.0 MB)