Intent...!

After winning several archery contests, the young and rather boastful champion challenged a Zen master who was renowned for his skill as an archer. The young man demonstrated remarkable technical proficiency when he hit a distant bull's eye on his first try, and then split that arrow with his second shot. 

"There," he said to the old man, "see if you can match that!"

Undisturbed, the master did not draw his bow, but rather motioned for the young archer to follow him up the mountain. Curious about the old fellow's intentions, the champion followed him high into the mountain until they reached a deep chasm spanned by a rather flimsy and shaky log.

Calmly stepping out onto the middle of the unsteady and certainly perilous bridge, the old master picked a far away tree as a target, drew his bow, and fired a clean, direct hit.

"Now it is your turn," he said as he gracefully stepped back onto the safe ground.

Staring with terror into the seemingly bottomless and beckoning abyss, the young man could not force himself to step out onto the log, no less shoot at a target.

"You have much skill with your bow," the master said, sensing his challenger's predicament, "but you have little skill with the mind that lets loose the shot...!"

What brings this story to my mind...!?!

The conference that I attended today..

After all, everything is not about content... 

Few things are about Intent... isn't it...!?!

Stay tuned and Mindful...!

My Balloon...!

Once a group of 50 people was attending a seminar.

Suddenly the speaker stopped and started giving each one a balloon. Each one was asked to write his/her name on it using a marker pen. Then all the balloons were collected and put in another room.

Now these delegates were let in that room and asked to find the balloon which had their name written, within 5 minutes. Everyone was frantically searching for their name, colliding with each other, pushing around others and there was utter chaos.

At the end of 5 minutes no one could find their own balloon...

Now each one was asked to randomly collect a balloon and give it to the the person whose name was written on it. Within minutes everyone had their own balloon.

The speaker concluded...

"Exactly this is happening in our lives. Everyone is frantically looking for happiness all around, not knowing where it is. Our happiness lies in the happiness of other people. Give them their happiness, you will get your own happiness..."

And this is the purpose of human life...!

Is this not what you are looking for...?

Stay tuned and get a balloon, don't mind the name on it...!

GIPE Project

Census Data Center at GIPE, Pune

Proud to be the Designer and Project Manager of this

Creative Conservation Interior Project

Completed Ahead of Schedule and Under Budget...!

Nandan Nilekani's ideas for India's future

Story of Solutions...!

The Story of Solutions explores how we can move our economy in a more sustainable and just direction, starting with orienting ourselves toward a new goal.

In the current 'Game of More', we're told to cheer a growing economy -- more roads, more malls, more Stuff! -- even though our health indicators are worsening, income inequality is growing and polar icecaps are melting.

But what if we changed the point of the game? What if the goal of our economy wasn't more, but better -- better health, better jobs and a better chance to survive on the planet?

Shouldn't that be what winning means?

Surfing...!

Storyteller Bruce Kasanoff explains it well with the metaphor of 'Surfing'... a more homely term now than ever with which almost everybody can identify. The context and hypothesis is out of the world! Thanks Bruce for sharing 'This Surfing Lesson Can Pump Up Your Career'

"My friend Megan Moss Freeman has taken many pictures of surfers, and going through her wonderful images I realized that good surfers may have the answer to the fears that paralyze so many people. Surfers love riding waves so much that they barely notice their failures..."

How to Love Life As Much As Surfers Love Surfing from Bruce Kasanoff

Connect...!

Yesterday, on the evening of the 65th Republic Day of India, I had this opportunity to participate in an incredible and extremely profound activity called Drum Circle. I have never felt so connected to the cosmic energy as I did during this meditative drumming, except for few days when I was doing Viapassana. Although I am very grateful to Rashmi for introducing me to Anand of TAAL INC, who introduced me to an enchanting form of meditation, he never alerted us of the after-effects of it…! My shoulders, fingers and palms are still aching and feeling warm as I write this. This is a good unifying energy, I believe and look forward to have many such events with Anand and TAAL INC.

So, given to my intrinsic inquisitive and analytic nature, I probed into this Djembe and Drum Circle more and found out this one of the legends behind the birth of it...

 

 

Long ago, men did not know the drum; the chimpanzees owned it. At that time, before guns, there was a trapper named So Dyeu. He was the leader of all the trappers. The chimpanzees often came near his camp. One day, he went hunting and noticed the chimpanzees eating fruit in the trees. They were entertaining themselves with a drum. The hunter said, "This thing they are beating is beautiful. I will set a trap." 

 

He dug a hole and laid a trap. The next day, he heard the chimpanzees crying. The baby chimpanzees cried, the young chimpanzees cried, and the old chimpanzees cried. The trap had caught the chimpanzee drummer.

 

 

The hunter called his dog and went into the forest. The chimpanzees fled as he approached, leaving behind them the drummer, caught in the trap with his drum. The hunter took the drum and brought it to the village. That is why the chimpanzees don't have drums anymore and why they beat their chests with their fists. That's why they say "gugu". It isn't a real drum that we hear today, it is the chimpanzee who has stopped breathing and is beating his chest. 

When the hunter arrived at the village, he gave the drum to the chief, who said, "We have heard the voice of this thing for a long time, but no-one had seen it until now. You have brought it to us; you have done well. Take my first daughter for your first wife." 

 

From that day on the person who played the drum was called "tambourine player". That is how we got the drum. The chimpanzees of the bush were men who went astray. They had done wrong, so God cursed them and they became chimpanzees. Today, they no longer have drums and they have to beat their chests.

 

On the celebration of Republic Day, we have more to fear than to cheer and somehow I found a connection between this story and our present status. Can we go back to the Drum Circle and connect with each other first through this holistic drumming…!?! Who knows, we might just find answers to dreadful question within that connect…! Think over it as I will call Anand to organize another Drum Circle…

Stay tuned... keep connected...!