A day of KaNaMeNaSe peeping out of window

This is a bed time story I told on my own to my son. I wanted to share it here to spread positive thinking.

It was the dawn of a sunny day and KaNaMeNaSe was browsing through her favorite book when she heard her mother calling out “Let’s have breakfast”. After finishing the breakfast, KaNaMeNaSe’s mother told,”Kiddo, play for a while inside home and let me finish some household chores before taking you out.” KaNaMeNaSe, a happy girl by nature, walked slowly towards the window of their living room and got interested in watching the hustling bustling morning lives of different people on the streets.

Her eyes got caught on a bread-seller who approached few houses before their home, rang his bells in the bicycle and stopped to sell some bread. He then continued his bicycle journey, but this time without ringing his bells. As he crossed KaNaMeNaSe’s home, she yelled out, “Bread uncle, Bread uncle have a look here behind the window”. Hearing someone calling out for him, he stopped and looked back and saw KaNaMeNaSe peeping out through her window.

KaNaMeNaSe spoke out, “Why you did not ring bells when you crossed our home?”

He replied, “Oh, that’s because I know your mother won’t buy breads from me and so I didn’t ring the bells.”

KaNaMeNaSe astonishingly replied, “But you know, I have asked my mother yesterday to get me sweet bread. Perhaps, if you would have rang the bells and yelled out, my mother would have brought it from you! Who knows each house could have similar stories, if only you ring the bells you will sell more breads, isn’t it? 

Now some bells started ringing in the minds of bread-seller, he replied.

“You are right; I used to do it before. Off late I have somehow missed it as a result of my routine boredom. Thanks sweetie for reminding me of it. Please accept bread from me.”

Saying so, he continued pressing his pedals and yelling out “Breads, Breads, fresh sweet breads.”

Now KaNaMeNaSe was looking forward to catch up with another chat. There came the postman who delivered letters to her neighbor aunty. As he crossed her house, KaNaMeNaSe called out to him.

Postman replied from a distance, “You have no letters for your home KaNaMeNaSe”.

KaNaMeNaSe continued, “I want to ask you something, can you come close by?”

Postman came near the window and heard her voice, “Postman uncle, though we did not

have any letters for us, can I get some letter from you”.

Postman got amused and replied, “I cannot give you any letter to you now!”

“But why?”

“I do not have any paper to write a letter”

“You should be having some advertisement papers, give me that as a letter”

“Perhaps, but I do not have a pen to write something for you on that”

“Do letters need writing; can’t you make something and give me?”

“Make something? I don’t have time for that!”

“Oh, it’s very easy, I am sure your kids would know it. I can make a small paper airplane with it and you can give it to me”

Saying so, she quickly folded the ad paper and made a simple airplane in seconds. Postman was astonished seeing her dexterity and gave her a pat and the airplane! He did pay attention to the steps in creating airplane, to impress his kids by making one.

“KaNaMeNaSe get ready, let’s go out to see doctor” mother called her.

KaNaMeNaSe slowly got down from her seat near window and took her pair of crutches and started walking using them.

 

Spreading  positive thought not only energizes others, but also oneself. Let's cheer others with our positive thoughts amidst our own problems and challenges.

Life in a startup company!

Whenever I hear success stories about big companies or small companies which have made a feat, I would get goosebumps and hooked up completely on it. Especially when I read lines saying how it all started from a garage or a room in their house and how they could hit the headlines of the newspapers later. Sometimes, out of sheer regular office boredom work, I have even imagined how it would have been, if I was part of that small team! The team which brought in the wonderful product that all of us are using now.

Time indeed had come! But for a short while though. I was given an opportunity in a small ambitious start up company which aims to reap benefits of wind power at high altitudes. I never really hoped that I would get an interview call when I applied for the developer position in this start up company. It was like a cake-walk for me during the interview, that I simply made them flat with the knowledge I had acquired all these years! However, my hunch for being selected was the airplane terms that I used which were highly relevant to the work they are doing. I learned terms like ailerons, flaps, fuselage etc when I taught my son "parts of an airplane!" and I believe that helped me to get through this interview :-) (and, of course God's wish as well).

I joined the team, knowing that I will be there only for 2 months and with God's wish and more investors pouring in money, I may continue. Isn't taking risk the first trait needed to be part of a start up team? So I accepted the offer!

After many years of experience in working for big companies like Nokia, I prepared myself mentally on how it would be to work in a start up.However, there were still some surprises! The work in fact, demanded more working time and faster response for all the assignments. So no excuses to relax. And, remember the assignments might also include ones which are  different than our previous experience like in my case from web page design to trash clean up.

Two months just went and I had learned also things which are essential for a start up company from day one! Thought it would be useful to all those including me, who are aspiring to build upon your idea and so here I share them.

• How to plan and manage the activities and tasks? You need to have some software which satisfies the purpose on hand (there are many free cloud based software like "Zoho" with limited options). The software will essentially give the power to prioritize your activities and measure your performance. Ah, needless to mention, visualizing the work you have done these weeks does add confidence in your activity and future work.
• Version control is equally important. So if you have some code based projects, having a handy version control will solve umpteen problems that would pop up in later stages. I do not have knowledge on other domains like mechanical, but for software based projects Git is a very handy version control.
• Have your eyes and ears wide open and look for possibilities to collaborate or rope in investors from diverse fields. Certainly, there is more probability that you do not get response from many of them! However, keep trying as there is some reason behind ignoring our requests. At the same time, do not spend more time with those, who are least bothered about your idea. Time is indeed as precious as money for start ups.
• Be prepared to spend time on accounts and other operational activities which grabs time from focus on developing and building the idea.
• Things change fast, that the work going on currently might seem irrelevant. Judiciously plan the work with long term focus and include ifs and buts during planning. Scenario planning will help in coping up with the surprises and changes.
• Last but not the least, cheer yourself and your co-workers often for the work done and that would keep up the spirits high! Indeed it is the spirit which is driving a human to be passionate.

Two months might be shorter time to understand much of start up dynamics and I am sure I have more to learn. Would be great to hear from you, the reader and your experience.

PS: It is indeed bad that I cannot continue my job in this start up and therefore could not see how life in a start up turns into a job in a flourishing company. BUT, it seems God has some better plans for me :-)

My childhood Navarathri days and the transformation!

Navarathri festival which spans for nine days is one of the festival which I cherish forever. Navarathri corresponds to nine (Nava) nights(Rathri). Navarathri is celebrated five times a year and the Maha Navarathri which starts from Amavasya in the Tamil month of Puratasi (today) is the most commonly celebrated one. It has always been a fun to dress up and go around homes, be it a close relative or a new neighbor and invite them to get Tamboolam (betel leaf and nut) at our home. I was fortunate to get good friends during my childhood and we turned to be a fun loving, like minded group. Four or five of us, including my brother, start the evening with a typical cloth bag on one hand and haldi kumkum on another. Starting from our near by neighbors, we then continue to reach out to our friends at a distant place. This hopping goes on, till we are either stomach full eating all varieties of sundal (kind of dhal recipe) from each home or we have realized that it is nearing 8PM and we are expected to be back at home.

Sundal is one of the highlights of this festival which is kind of a driving factor for all the kids to visit and invite people. Sundal is offered to Goddess Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswathi during Navarathri evenings at all home. It had been fun to taste the sundal on our way to the next home. Hmm, needless to say we have started grading homes based on the taste and quantity of the sundal.

Apart from this delicious sundal, there have been many more in this festival, that draws our attention as we grew older. The stacking of various dolls, idols and decoration of the stairs, having a theme based park etc adds beauty to the aura experienced at each home. It was once, when we took all the efforts to visit someone far-off, to have a look at their cricket based doll set and a marriage doll set. People and of course businesses flourishes during this time selling stuff which adds difference to our displays. And as you might have guessed it right, we nag our parents to get new stuff and decorate our Golu (stacking of idols and dolls) and make it different from others!

As we still grew old and started learning music lessons, we eagerly wait for the Navarathri time to grab audience attention by singing songs and put our singing capabilities to test. I have to say that though I do not have a mellifluous or clarity voice, or even a good singer, I have never shied away from singing. I have always liked to sing at each home and wanted to learn more in order not to repeat songs. I believe this festival have slowly inculcated the fond of singing in me, irrespective of whether people like it or not! ;-) These childhood days have brought my heart closer to God and the devoted singing enabled me to get even more closer.

After many years of my childhood school days, when I had started my career, I could not find time to spend at home during Navarathri. Once, when I happened to visit my Aunt's (father's sister) home during Navarathri, I visited few homes nearby with my aunt. There were some differences in my experience then from my childhood. The most astonishing was, there was never a request placed to sing a song!With my innate passion to sing songs during Navarathri, I myself offered to sing some songs of Ganapathi, Devi (Goddess), Krishna. I could not resist myself but sing, as I enjoyed it and believed it as my offering to God.

When I retrospect now about my childhood days during Navarathri, I could realize how it transformed from a sundal delicacy driven festival to devoted singing. This thought adds up to my assurance, that all our rituals and practices had an inner motive of reaching(realizing) the highest Truth and Navarathri is surely the best of them from my experience.

Kanchi Paramacharya HH Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Swamigal, has mentioned the significance of Navarathri Golu (idols and dolls stacking). We used to keep idols of Gods and Goddesses (like Ganapathi, Krishna, Rama, Durga, Saraswathi) in the top one or two rows of the Golu steps, which is followed later with saints and holy men (like Meera Bai, Vivekananda) and then some human dolls (like our exciting marriage dolls, cricket set) followed by some animal dolls (ah, yes yes our self created park of animals). Paramacharya shared the insight on this idols and dolls arrangement as the steps to reach higher Self.  If human beings have good thoughts and do good to others, they will be raised to great men, then to saints and finally merge with God. On the other hand, if they tend to have bad thoughts and do evil to others they will go down to the animal level step by step.

The steps in the Navarathri Golu therefore convey us a message of reaching the higher Self by taking each good step in our lives. Hmm, perhaps I have started this Navarathri journey with sundal and have now reached at devoted singing step. More steps for me to go forward to reach (realize) God. I am sure you would have enjoyed your journey towards God through your steps. During this festive occasion, let us pray God to bestow us with energy and faith to take more steps towards Him.

Here is a Navarathri Golu photo of my friend Geetha.



Picture credits: (Geetha Vijay)

Surprising similarities!

I was surprised on listening to some similarities in culture among people from entirely different geographies! Especially at a time when there is no ways of communication across countries and borders. But these similarities could substantiate the theory that human minds could think alike even when distanced apart and does not need any communication tools.

And, the similarities I observed from the two cultures is of course from my motherland India and resident land Finland. One of my colleagues in Finland, had arranged for a team get together in his family owned country side Inn. I got to visit the museum portraying the place's historical roots and the Finnish's cultural highlight "smoke sauna". It was interesting to see the lantern used in the early days, to find the way to sauna which is few meters from the Inn. The lantern looked very similar to those used during my childhood days in India. I am sure these are designed many decades or even centuries before but I wonder how people came up with similar designs, or perhaps settled with this design after many other improper ones.

Then during the dinner time, I was surprised to listen to the Finnish tradition of using "rye-juuri" meaning "root of rye", to prepare Finnish's famous rye breads. They believe some angel would have bestowed them the original rye-juuri and it has been passed along all these years. This rye-juuri is added in small quantities while making bread and is preserved in a container for later use. It seems breads which are prepared without using it is not tasting good. And we had a good round of laughter, when we heard that this rye-juuri could also be bought from super markets! :-) I supplemented the discussion saying that we also have this kind of tradition in India to make curd (yogurt), wherein we save some used curd to prepare curd for the coming days. The obvious question of how the first curd prepared, remains a mystery (at least to me)!

Then the old lady of the house popped in and shared the practice of making "viili" a form of yogurt, in the olden days. They had also added used viili  to milk and prepared new viili and similarly the first viili remains a mystery. The old lady was also telling that they used to hang these viilis in a mud container from the ceiling roof to get it fermented. Ah, this reminds me of the picture of Krishna taking curd and butter from the containers hanging from the roof.

From this short chat about lives in Finland and India, I could observe these few interesting similarities in people's practices in those olden days, despite lack of communication with each other. I am sure there could be many more which might reveal interesting information, like how people's thinking evolves based on the living circumstances and the needs. Perhaps after many tests and trials, people eventually might have settled with the best possible results which could have been same across various regions!

Ever thought about ample free time?

Yes, I had thought about it during my childhood days.. When I study during my school & college days for mid-term tests and exams, my mind used to go behind various interesting things; starting from TV shows, eating delicacies, learning new sports or skills, vacation with relatives to the more "useful" ones reading general books, quiz books, going to library and many more, except concentrating on the course subject. I would try hard to side out those thoughts and concentrate on the subject. I would tell myself that let me do all those things during my holidays after exams. And, yes as the exams gets completed and with the whole 2 months of holidays in front of me, I get completely immersed in playing, watching TV and other things and completely forget my thoughts on "Useful holidays ideas" ;-)

Our school & college days is entirely different from our current working life. But, "I" am the same person now, as I was during my school & college days.. When I am my completely busy with my work assignments, I used to get many more ideas of improving my C skills, learning new technical concepts, try out some hobbies etc.. But now... what happens when I have ample free time?? My mind is not inclined to do those preferred free time activities. I have to agree, that during initial days when I was free to do anything, my mind did support me in doing many things.. But as days goes on, it slowly started being sluggish. I have to cheer myself and prevent from getting distracted often, and make a list of "to-dos" and keep an eye to be on track. Otherwise I am sure I will get lost during this ample free time. I am sure, if I practise this activity regulary, it will help me in continuing those preferred free time activities even during my busy working times.

This makes me wonder, how would it be getting a 2 months holiday every year as we would get during our school days? Perhaps, we all might turn into hobbysists and know more on what we like and can do by ourselves..
Have you ever been in times when you had ample free time after slogging sometime on your work? Pour in your thoughts & experiences at those times.

Transformation!!!

I was going on a walk along with my son to a park nearby, and he exclaimed "ahh" and pointed to a butterfly. This might be the first time he sees the butterfly and yes, spring is already here in Finland (though a bit late this year). This is the third summer for us to be here in Finland and I have to say that this place is entirely different during each season. Anyone who visited this place during winter would not believe how shiny and green it is during summer. The autumn is a delight to watch with trees having different colored leaves and within 2 weeks during late autumn the trees stand tall without any leaves decorating it. Needless to say about the long snow-capped winter - a beauty in itself.

The butterflies and the flowers near our home along the roadside make me wonder, where they were during peak snow-capped winter season. I still do not know if the butterflies would migrate from other far off places(can they fly so far?!) or were they taking rest all these days?(hmm, nay that might not the case).
And, the flower plants I am sure are buried underneath the snow. The wonderful fact is that these plants are not dead, but they are just dormant. They withhold their life, preparing and waiting for the right time to blossom. The moment when the sun starts shining and the place getting warmer, they immediately start blossoming. They send a message to us that, during tough times, if we withhold our life and prepare and wait for an opportunity, we can blossom the moment sun shines in our life through an opportunity! And for sure sun will shine in all our lives after a dark winter.

All the four seasons are completely different in Finland and a real experience. I am sure my words cannot explain it, neither are my photos. But, just to explode your imagination about the seasons, here are some of my photos.

Snowy winter

Trees and plants covered with snow

Plants blossom as spring dawns

Trees are beautiful with fresh green leaves coming up

Picturesque summer

Sought after summer!

Autumn colors the leaves!

Road-side filled with leaves during autumn

And the cycle just continues like our lives...

Lets spread the good..

There are some questions that usually pops up in my mind always and to some of them I answer myself. However, I would like to know your thoughts on them which would give a different perception altogether.

So here goes them,

1. There are aplenty of stories, articles, songs and talks which emphasize Hindu Dharma and its values. In this digital world they also come in various forms, like ebooks, emails, videos, social networking communities and many more. First I wonder, is there actually a need associated with it.

Yes, there is a need for that always. I can relate with my experience. I have read that our brain and mind, needs to be in constant touch with the skills we want to possess. Otherwise, they will be slowly forgotten. That is why our ancestors insisted on Abhyasam (Practice) and Adhyayanam (Study) and also on SatSangh (good association). Many things that I read and practiced before both spiritually and professionally, are lost in touch now as I have not practiced them consciously. I became aware of that only during some worse situation. Only by constant emphasis of our values and ethics through stories, shlokas etc, I believe we can live our life on track.

2. Now, that I have understood the importance of Abhyasam, I wonder is it enough to practise ourselves and may be impart that to our family. Does it make significance if you have to spread the values you practise to others?

I am really not good in roping people to practise the values that I believe are good. May be I can spread a word about what I do, but really do not push. But when I give a thought of is it all important to spread the values, I have to admit that it is so. And those who do it should be having loads of persistence. Thats where all Satsangh comes into picture. In the present times, people perception largely differs when there is a mention of Satsangh.. It is nothing but being together and doing good together. It really makes a difference when many people are aligned and do somethings together (yes of course constructive).

What is that one get by putting effort to spread values? Fame. Maybe, yes. But that is a side effect and not the root cause. When the root cause behind these efforts is to have compassion towards people who are not aware of such values and hence do not experience them, then all the efforts becomes impeccable. They are not stained by the side effect Fame. As the tamil poet Tirumoolar rightly said, "Yaam petra enbam peruga evvayagam"  meaning "Let the people all over the world be benefited with the Joy I am blessed with"

I could quote two great people from Tamil culture, who emphasized the importance of spreading good.

1. Ramanujar - He is a saint who knocked the doors of his Guru Yamunacharya 17times to get Mantra upadesham and only got upadesham of "Om Namo Narayanaya" mantra in his 18th time and promised not to tell it to anyone and knew if he broke his promise, his head would splatter. But, later he went to the tower of temple "Thirukoshtiyur" and disclosed it to the whole village. He told his guru then, that he would be happy when many people attains benefit of this Mantra instead of him alone. This signifies the importance of spreading goodness.

2. Thiruppavai is a set of songs sung by Andal during the month of Marghazi (dec 15 - jan 13). In the first shloka itself, she calls on all her friends, and tell the importance of the Satsangh and singing praises of Lord. In the later shloka, she mentions waking up her friend saying you have more important job than sleeping. And, its true that sometimes we need to wake up people from their ignorance and it is for sure that you will be faced with challenges.

Both of them does not impart the good values to their family. They want to impart that to the society.

We are now living far from our home country where there is so much of possibility for being in a Satsangh. However, Saptakam, a multi cultural group in Tampere, Finland gives us an opportunity to have the similar feeling. I should also mention here Mr. Ajey Gotkhindikar, the person who wanted people to relish the values of our culture and hence pour in all his relentless efforts to spread the values of our culture. I pray God to grace him in his efforts.

I hope we all have some good values to be shared to others and also learn from others. Lets spread the good we know by whatever means we could.