History brings perspective

Growing up as a kid, I hated Social Studies and specially history. Looking back I blame it on the teachers who refused get us fired up about history. Thanks to my dear friends for getting me hooked up with podcasts and I am becoming a history buff. Granted I still can’t remember the exact dates of events and I am now listening for fun instead of an exam.

One should study history and not just once own country’s history but world history or at the least the major events that shaped the world we live in. I have been listening to this podcast on crusades back in the Middle Ages (1100-1300 ad) and I think it has added a new dimension to my view of the world.  

Before the crusades podcast, my interest in history had been either Indian history or the biggest event of modern times the world war II and to some extent world war I. While listening to the podcasts on ww II I was mind boggled by the scale at which the war took place and finally got to appreciate the fact that  our (Indian) then leaders like Gandhi and Nehru supported the British against the axis forces, that's a separate blog post in itself. It made me believe human consciousness evolves to an extent in parallel across the globe irrespective of the distance.

Now back to crusades podcast, after listening to almost 90 odd episodes each 25 minute long spanning from 1st crusade to king Louis crusade I have learnt the following things

• Back in those days the whole world believed in pillaging and looting of conquered territories
• Back in those days mass killing of captured population was part of common culture
• No empire or kingdom lasts for ever, Rome got destroyed by the barbarians from Europe and Byzantine empire got destroyed by crusaders, the Muslim empire got destroyed by the Mongols and so on
• Intolerance towards practice of other religion was truly up to the whims and fancies of the kings/rulers and their needs.
• If I think Hinduism has too many castes/sects, Christianity and Islam have their own with each one claiming superiority over other
• Infighting and Traitors aren't patented to India alone they exist all over the world
• Destruction of property or materials that are sacred to other religion or conversion of their place of worship to your own was also a common practice
• Feudal system and practice is not a patent of India alone, it existed all over the world
• Money and trade always and mostly trumped religion
• Catholic church in the middle ages was corrupt beyond my imagination, I never truly comprehended this till I started hearing the podcasts

In short, I have been blaming the Islamic invasion of India for destruction of property and looting and killing of innocents and I have to an extent come to terms that the world was like that back in those days and I do feel we have come a long way since then.

Venue hunt - some learning

While searching for a new location for our weekly follow ups (Art of Living) in south Austin, I learnt a thing or 2 as with my tradition if it is worth sharing then it is worth writing.

• Google and Yelp were my best friends to find the space, there were days when I used to peruse craigslist but this time around it seemed like so old
• Cold calls always helps, mostly leaving a message or through email, if they are really interested they will come back in a day or 2
• There are way more number of independent yoga studios in Austin than one can imagine. Also, it so happens most of these studios run on sublease by the hour to different instructors
• Corporate structured studios like Barr3, Todd Pilates, Yoga Yoga don’t entertain renting to outsiders
• I did come across some yoga studios who refused for they were concerned about us competing with their philosophy
• Churches were my first priority to check but most of them said no for they would be busy with their youth ministry activities on Sunday evenings.
• School gymnasiums are nice but the rates are pretty high
• From my experience the going rate for a ~800 SQFT open studio space is somewhere between $25-$35, depending on duration and hours of the contract
• What sells is the pictures of the location both inside and outside. To a large extent Google takes care of the outside pics and it would become business owners responsibility.       

The best part, in the process of searching for a venue I did learn a thing or 2 about marketing our own Art of Living center. Let me see how much I can impact that in the last 3 months as secretary.  

Proud of you Kapil Sharma

To say I am a huge fan of Kapil Sharma is an understatement, I just love his sense of humor, timing and creativity. Ever since he transitioned to Sony I have become a regular audience for all his episodes. 

That said, the episode I saw yesterday increased my respect towards him for the first time he had the para-olympians as guests on the show. Considering the show is mostly used by starts for their movie promos and most of the guests are very closely related to entertainment industry, this was a great refreshingly welcome change. 

How old is too old for a car

My beloved Volkswagen Passat just completed her 14.5 years of life with me and has been a great and very reliable car to drive around. Now with 140K+ miles on the car there is always the thought that lurks in my brain, how many more days with the same old car? the question became even more relevant couple of months ago when the mechanic told me that the solution to fix a check engine light would cost $1000 to fix (it ended up being ~$1600) to fix. Can I not keep the money and dump the VW and buy a different one? my mind said may be but my heart said vehemently no. 

My problem was 2 fold, I need to spend the money to fix the check engine light on the car or else whoever willing to buy the car would negotiate the price of the car as though it would be sold for parts. Secondly, since I am already paying for a car loan I didn’t want to add one more car payment (if I can avoid it). I guess this is the first time in the 14 years I have owned the car I did a compilation of how much I have spent over the years (last 5-6) in maintaining/up keeping the car, turned out in the last 6 years on an average I have spent $1,200/year on maintenance including brakes, tires and battery. So, technically the costs were in favor of keeping the car.   

I pretty much discussed with every one I can think of about the car (to fix it or not to) and I think the best answer came from a colleague of mine. Its not the money spent alone but also the time the car needs to spend in the mechanic shop and the inconvenience it would cause and how much of it can you bear and endure, there are advantages of keeping the old car for you don’t have to worry about car payments and if the car is sufficiently old enough you can save on the insurance too and in the end if you can find a good mechanic you can trust and bear with the car’s absence for a few days in a year then longer you keep the better off you are financially.

After going through 3 different mechanics in last 7 or so years, I think I have found a good mechanic in Brink Motorsports and true to their ratings on all websites (Google, Yelp etc), I recommend them in a heart beat for VW/Audi repairs.

Yes I did make my car street legal and have to decided to run it for another 2 to 3 years or longer if possible :).    

The industry of pet food

While talking to a friend of mine, the conversation steered towards "when so many people are dying of hunger, shouldn't the world address that first.before addressing pet food needs and organizing fund raisers for pet foods". 

Fair question, at that time I put it off saying each person has his/her own passion that they are free to pursue, some like to drive human cause while others like to drive animal causes. After a few minutes a thought occurred to me that most of the pet food sold in the pet stores are made from meat/part of the animals that are considered not fit enough for human consumption.  To my knowledge there is only 1 company called honest kitchen which has been approved by FDA that the meat used is human grade in their pet food. 

To elaborate, the meat industry in the USA and I am guessing other developed countries is so huge huge and organized and have found an answer to the question of what to do with all the left over's after taking out the meat fit for human consumption?, Convert to pet food, after raising Daisy for a year and half I am convinced that not a single part of any animal used in human food will ever go wasted, everything from bones to hide to cartilage and intestines are used in some form of other as pet food. 

I am not here trying to take a stance and saying right or wrong but this connection boggled my mind. If I stress myself further the same is true for vegetarian food cycle too, the husk the grass is all used to feed the animals, I guess I didn’t notice it back in India for it was never that organized and not commercialized like the pet food industry we have here in the USA.

Farwell dear Rajima

It is hard to believe that she is no more and she has said her final good bye, when I heard the news last night for a few seconds I became numb. Yes farewell my dearest teacher Rajima. She was a firebrand, intellect of highest order, devotee of the highest order, a true saint, kind hearted and one who knew how to effectively use carrot and stick.

Her sessions let it be Art of Living courses or the sessions of Bhagavata or Yoga Vasista were divine. She was one of those personalities which either attracted people like a magnet and kept them devoted to her or repulsed them from the get go, I don’t think there ever was an intermediate level. 

I still remember the day back in 2008 when she looked me in the eye and asked “why are you not writing down and where is your notebook?”, in the same course when I had asked a “hypothetical question”, she had shunned me off and pointed towards action. A true yogi who really understood the 7 layers of existence.

Here presence was enough to change energy of the place. I would not be an exaggeration to say that she transformed people for better, she believed in action and always lead from the front. One teacher in my experience who made no exceptions for the rules, including herself. 

May her soul rest in peace, we miss you Rajima.

Te3n – Hindi Movie

There are “thrillers” and real thrillers, Te3n movie belongs to the category of real thrillers, I would qualify it in the same league as Kahani or Drishya if not higher. Going by the title I had presumed the movie has got to do with game of cards and was pleasantly surprised when that was not true.

The movie kept me and Sandhya on the toes from the start to end.  Sandhya, who usually is good in guessing the plot half way through the movie was also thrilled by the movie.

The story line is simple, a desperate grand father wants a closure to the kidnap and eventual death of his beloved grand daughter. For everyone including the police department it is a closed case for despite their best efforts at the time of incident they couldn't solve it and there is no new intel that can throw some fresh light. To top it off, the kidnapping/death is one such unique case and such a case has never repeated again. For the police it is a case file and for the grand father it is his grand daughter. What happens next is the story. All the actors (Amitabh Bachan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vidya Balan and few others) have given very real controlled performances, no item songs or fight scenes. 

Grab a bucket of popcorn, find the movie and watch it without fail, you can thank me later for recommending it. 

ps: it is available on einthusan.com