"MEAN"ingfull LIFE

At times you need to define yourself.
And how do you do that?i.e by qouting your qualities.
Then in that case you need to know the meaning of those qualities which makes you & your life "IDEAL"





This was just a way to recall the essential ingredients of life which add spice to it

ATTITUDE sets ALTITUDE

Ever thought why team India started winning most of its matches played in recent times?
What is it,that brought so much change in India's performance?

Some would say new captain,fresh blood,coach,team selection ..etc.
But I would say it is the ATTITUDE that has done the wonders.
If at all we had lacked in anything till now was ATTITUDE.Compare the team now with the past,it was this thing which we were lacking before.
Let's see if its true!
Lets see power of ATTITUDE!

What marks the difference between a happy & a sad person?-Attitude to the prevailing situation.Happiness is not in the situation,but how we look at certain things,the attitude we have towards life.
People who get upset over trivial matters not only ruin thei day,going around with a long facee,but also end up affecting all those close to them.For such situations not to recur,they only need a positive,winning attitude.
Having the right attitude is half the battle won.
The right attitude can make all difference between winning & losing.One cannot win in every situation.But,one can extract something beneficial from every situation.
A positive attitude will help one analyse situations,whereas a negative attitude will highlight obstacles,both real & imaginary.
Developing a positive attitude is a must for a winner & a leader.It is all within us & we only have to put it to use.It is important to remind ourselves of what our strengths are & how we can use those.Pinging for what we donot have will only make us unhappy.Instead it is easier to give our best using our own resources.Belief in one's own abilities is a must,which is bound to make one successful.

A small example for those good at maths

LUCK
12+21+3+11=47

HARD WORK
8+1+18+4+24+15+18+11=99

ATTITUDE
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5=100

This says those who depend upon luck & hard work,there success rate is 47% & 99%.
But those who have got the right attitude,get 100% success in life.

Since success starts in mind,THINK positive.Since words reflect the innerself,Speak in a positive language.Finally,to execute what is in the mind,ACT.This attitude to THINK,SPEAK,ACT positively will bring success & happiness.

(UN)DIVIDED INDIA

Sorry,folks I could not decide whether to use UNDIVIDED INDIA or DIVIDED INDIA as title for this piece of article.So let us see what caused this ambiguity in me.

INDIA which invented the concept of globalism "VASUDHAIVA KUTUMBAKAM",mainly chanted & followed by Indians,which was even whole heartedly followed by us,slowly things started changing.

We started to move away from this concept from the time we were nearing our independence.Perhaps the first crack in this undivided India started with the demand of separate statehood for the muslims.People who were fighting for the sole cause of independence started fighting against themselves for cause of separate state for muslims.
Then came the day when two nations were created on the world map.Even before the country can heal from the injuries of massacre that followed separation,demand for freeing Kashmir came and even war was fought between the two.
To add to the spur several new states were formed on basis of Languages.Earlier there was north Indian & south Indian,but this resulted in tamilian,kannadiga,Maratha,Punjabi,bihari,rajasthani,Nepali etc.This time people started to fight on basis of Language.To further spiceup the atmosphere pleas for creation of smaller territories like Telangana(Andhra pradesh),Gondwana (Chhattisgarh),Gorkhaland (West Bengal),Kodagu (Karnataka),Bodoland (Assam),Ladakh (Jammu and Kashmir),Garoland (Meghalaya) and Mithilanchal (Bihar),Uttarakhand(U.P),Bundhelkhand(M.P),Khalistan(Punjab) etc have come up.Later or sooner we would be seeing India with 50 states(Difficulty for students in mugging up states & capitals).



For the past 60 yrs we discriminate ourselves by religion,caste,language,statehood, colour,sex,surnames etc.Don't you think this is the time to stop encouraging the further division of country.
United we stand,Divided we fall.
But the only good news I have for you is in despite of all the differences
INDIA is SHINNING.
See the god's created image of country(google image),How beautiful it is
please dont spoil it by drawing boundaries.

Dont you think this should be the time to listen to VANDE MATRAM album(A R Rehman).

Mystery behind your calendar

Have you ever had a thought of who might be the creator of the calendar/photograph(depicting Goddesses lakshmi & saraswati)pasted inside your safety locker or in the puja mandir.Well,if you really wanna know,who he is?
Raja Ravi Varma
would be the answer.
He was an Indian painter from Kerala State who achieved recognition for his depiction of scenes from the epics of the Mahabharata and Ramayana. His paintings are considered to be among the best examples of the fusion of Indian traditions with the techniques of European academic art.His dazzling oil paintings of India’s ancient glory and his mass reproductions through oleography reached out to the Indian populace in an unprecedented scale.

Born on April 29,1848,in Kilimanoor,a small hamlet in the southern state of Kerala,he was not the only person popular in his family,his whole family was busy in different art forms.
Ravi Varma used the indigenous paints made from leaves, flowers,tree bark and soil.He cleverly picked the particularly touching stories and moments from the Sanskrit classics.His exposure in the west came when he won the first prize in Vienna Art Exhibition in 1873.
The small town of Kilimanoor was compelled to open a post office, as letters with requests for paintings arrived from every where.
He was convinced that mass reproduction of his paintings would initiate millions of Indians to real Art, and in 1894 he set up an oleography press called the Ravi Varma Pictures Depot. For photo-litho transfers, the Pictures Depot relied on Phalke's Engraving & Printing whose proprietor, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, became famous as dadasaheb of Indian Cinema a few years later.

From 1888 to 1894,Ravi Varma and his younger brother C.Raja Raja Varma took a tour around India,in search of images and landscapes for inspiration.On his return from the second tour,Ravi Varma painted a batch of pictures especially for reproduction at his new press, the Picture Depot.The aristocratic orientalism in his imagery was now replaced by a little more folkish, more iconic and more marketable forms.And there was no looking back for this legend.
Raja Ravi Varma died of diabetes on October 2, 1906, in his Kilimanoor Palace home filled with friends,relatives,dignitaries and the media.
Ravi Varma is particularly noted for his paintings depicting episodes from the story of Dushyanta and Shakuntala, and Nala and Damayanti, from the Mahabharata.
Village Belle
Lady Lost in Thought
Damayanti Talking to a Swan
The Orchestra
Arjuna and Subhadra
Lady with lemon
The Heartbroken
Swarbat Player
Shakuntala
Lord Krishna as Ambassador
Jatayu, a bird devotee of Lord Rama is mauled by Rawana
Victory of Indrajit
A Family of Beggars
A Lady Playing Swarbat
Lady Giving Alms at the Temple
Lord Rama Conquers Varuna
Nair Woman
Romancing Couple
Draupadi Dreading to Meet Kichaka
Shantanu and Matsyagandha
Shakuntala Composing a Love Letter to King Dushyanta
Girl in Sage Kanwa's Hermitage (Rishi-Kanya)

Are some of the popular paintings of him,which I am sure you have seen before,but will start recognizing after reading this piece.

MALGUDI TIMES

Still remember the time when I was regularly following the serial on doordarshan "MALGUDI DAYS".It was the serial which won the heart's of all ages,shown at the primetime,almost equally popular with that of rangeela.
It was also included in the curriculum of primary education.
Let's see what the magic of Malgudi days was.
Malgudi Days is a collection of short stories by R.K.Narayan that focused on the trial and tribulations of a small Indian town of Malgudi. According to R.K. Narayan, Malgudi is a town "habited by timeless characters who could be living anywhere in the world".
It was an attempt by the Government of India to popularize the powerful medium.The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting invited independent producers and directors to shoot television serials on a regular basis,Malgudi Days was one such television serial.
The serial was directed by the late Kannada actor and director, Shankar Nag in 1987, and was shot entirely near Agumbe in Shimoga District, Karnataka. The music was rendered by L. Vaidyanathan and was produced by T.S. Narasimhan of the Padam Rag Films.

It was not that R.K.Narayan,was only poplular for the MALGUDI DAYS,infact he was also popular for his work in literature,simple language and stories of village life,gentle humour.
The characters in his novels were very ordinary, down-to-earth Indians trying to blend tradition with modernisation, often resulting in tragi-comic situations.

The good news is that the National Film Award-winning film-maker Kavitha Lankesh was recently hired by Doordarshan to re-shoot the serial in an effort to resuscitate it. Currently,she is creating 26 new episodes of "Malgudi Days" in Hindi based on R.K. Narayan's short stories/novel.

I hope your childhood memories are cherished with this.Its so simple to bring back that good old days,simply read/watch the stories/novels.
Ta na na tana nana naaa
Ta na na tana nana naaa
Also try out the remix of malgudi days by crazy frog.

HARE KRISHNA HARE RAM

Last 3 times when I was in bangalore I didnt missed the chance to pay a visit to ISKCON temple in bangalore.Let me share some intresting things about this temple.
ISKCON stands for International Society for Krishna Consciousness.
Founder of ISKCON: His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Its temples,organizations,activities are spread across the globe.The one which I liked the most was that of bangalore's temple.
This temple looks nothing less than a MNC building.As soon as you enter the ISKCON bangalore temple you find find shrine's of lord Narasimha swamy & lord Venkateswara(balaji).While you are in a queue for darshan,a unique and different way is followed at one place,which is,108 tiles are placed(at a distance of 1 feet),and devotees are asked to chant the divine mantra on each tile before moving on to other tile.

The echo of the maha mantra reaches every corner of the temple.After the darshan at both shrines,you head towards the main temple where the idols of Radha Krishna,Krishna & Balaram are worshipped.
This temple is visited daily by thousands of people,and this no shoots upto nearly a lakh at weekends & festivals.Temple premises also has shopping complex & food stalls where you can find all things related to lord Krishna ranging from Rs10 to Rslakhs.All the earnings here are used for the programs conducted by the trust.It has also got a Annakuta-vegetarian restaurent(dont miss) and a Dwarakapuri-kalyan mandapam,kolleru etc.
Also dont miss the prasadam after the darshan.

Some of the programs/activities of ISKCON are
Akshaya Patra(providing food to under privileged school children)
FOLK(Friends Of Lord Krishna-program for youth)
Scholarships
Shri Krishna Kalakshetra's sangeeta seva
It has a rule that nobody in the radius of 10km from temple should be hungry,so everyday food packets are distributed.
And numerous other activities from time to time are also organized.

MAHA MANTRA-
HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA
KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE
HARE RAMA HARE RAMA
RAMA RAMA HARE HARE

Let's start DREAMing

I still remember last time,when I was along with some of my friends discussing the questions asked to us in the Hr round.The one common question was "who is your role model?".Amazingly 80-90% were projecting A P J Abdul Kalam as their role models.
Its very much understandable if someone of my age takes a personality from films,sports,music,arts etc as a role model.
But on the contrary,Kalam sir has left aside all these people & emerged as YOUTH ICON(perhaps thats the reason why he was nominated for MTV YOUTH ICON).
For all those people who criticize saying that youth is getting spoiled and getting inspired by bad elements,this is an perfect example to show that their notion is completly false.
Many still think that he was succesfull and popular after 1998,but let me make you clear that he brought meaning to his life before I was even born.