A happening weekend.. :-)

Yea, I have been away.. but all for good reason.
Currently cooling my heals at my home town of Pune. Social
obligations are a necessary evil. This time it brought into focus
the networking skills of the previous generation. Functions like
weddings, naming ceremonies, engagements, even death - used to
be their only source of connection with new people. And I will not
hesitate to say that the previous generation was not shy to
make new contacts. The best part of it I think was that though
they wanted to grow their network primarily to get an advantage -
either social image upgradation or financial discounts or plain
physical help - they maintained it with more affection and care
than the current generation does. Anyhow.

So yeah, I had a happening weekend. For heaven's sake - I
woke up at 4am in the morning to travel 3 hours to a wedding
which wasn't even mine :-P The wedding was at Mumbai and in
March end - so you can imagine the heat and humidity. Thankfully
the wedding hall was air conditioned, so that was a HUGE relief.
Then met a dear ol' friend of mine. I surprised myself when i met
him. I never expected myself to choke up on emotions after meeting
someone after such a long gap. It was amazing and just goes to
tell me how much deeper still waters run.

Then happened the happening part. Met another friend of mine
and we went out partying. Enigma at JW Mariott in Juhu was hell
crowded for a saturday night! :-( Gosh - Mumbai has too many HNI's.
Get more discs/pubs Mumbai - or get a bigger place :-)
Well that wasn't happening. What was that we saw Raghuram, the now
executive producer of MTV Roadies fame along with Bani (last year's
runner up and now VJ) and Anmol (this year's contestant who was voted
out in the knock out episodes). So we went and said "hi hello" and told
Raghu how much we like Roadies. Towards the end of the evening
Raghu and I shook a leg and this event came close to being the highlight
of my trip. Was a good feeling partying till 3/4 am in the morning which
mere mortals in Bangalore can never get to do - thanks to the administration
which believes going back home early will prevent crime (as if the daylight
dacoities and murders aren't enough proof against it).
Sunday till afternoon was normal with me getting the real feel of Mumbai
after I took a local train till Dadar. Till the time I stepped my foot on the
platform I wasn't sure I was gonna be able to alight on time.
Well the rest of Sunday was alright - had to deck up and sit pretty for
most part of the evening. Unfortunately the cool dude at the wedding reception
made an early exit, so was a bummer. But nevertheless :-)

So how was your weekend? :-)

Self-annihilating Love Destroys And Liberates

Love essentially means somebody else has become far more important than yourself. That may be distressing for your existence is threatened. You will lose all your freedom and everything that you have. The moment you say “I love you” you can no more do what you want in your life.
There are innumerable problems, but at the same time it’s pleasant. It’s sweet. It drags you in. It is self-annihilating. If you do not annihilate yourself, you will never know love. Some part of you must die. If you don’t let this happen, there is no love, only calculation.
What you call as love generally is a mutual benefit scheme. It’s an arrangement. There is still some sweetness in this; mutually, both people are benefited, but it is conditional. If you get very unreasonable the other person will slowly back off. Even in your love affair you have to be reasonable. But devotion is unreasonable love. It is one-sided madness. That is the beauty of loving God because you don’t have to have a relationship — you can just love. And if you have a relationship, it’s all on your terms...
Love is self-annihilating because your personality, likes, dislikes — you are willing to surrender when you really love somebody. When there is no love, people are rigid. When suddenly they fall in love with someone, they are willing to twist themselves any way they need to, which is a fantastic spiritual process because you are becoming flexible.
So love is definitely self-annihilating; that’s the most beautiful part of it, as long as you don’t handle it as a deal. We have formed a variety of relationships in our lives. There is indeed expression of love in these relationships. It should be there in everything that you do. But when we are talking about love as a spiritual process, as a process of self-annihilation, when we use the word “annihilation”, it looks like a negative word.
Whether you call it annihilation or liberation, destruction or nirvana, when we say, Shiva is a destroyer, we are saying he is a compulsive lover. Love is not necessarily self-annihilation, it could be just annihilation. It all depends who you love. So he destroys you; because if it doesn’t destroy you, it is not a genuine love affair.
When i say “destroy you”, it doesn’t mean destroying your home, your business, this or that. When what you call as “myself ”, your rigid personality, is destroyed in the process of loving, that is self-annihilation.
If you love a man, woman or a child, in the process of loving not just you are getting entangled, the other person also gets entangled. Once the entanglement is mutual, you cannot release yourself when you grow out of it.
The idea of looking up and loving Krishna, loving Jesus, loving something up there or loving a guru is because you need not have any fear of entanglement from the other side. You love as much as you want; when you grow out of it, there is no resistance from the other side. That is the beauty of devotion. Without some sense of love in you, without some sense of self-annihilation, you cannot meditate. If you pull down the whole of what you call as “myself ”, you will become absolutely still and transcendent.

No no... I haven't become a sadhvi or "devdas"i yet. :-)
I found this interesting piece in the "Speaking Tree" section of my daily newspaper.
So thought would share. It makes sense, doesn't it?

Kashti, Kinara

Itani berukhi se wo muh mod ke chal diye
aankhon me jo tha moti, samandar chala gaya
jhoomati naiyya ko kinara jaise mil gaya tha
toofan thama to jazeera bhi na saamne aaya
Aisi berukhi se bhala hua hai bhala kiska
na kashti na kinara paa saka muqaddar khudka

Only Q... No A

Is being cynical same as being an "informed rational" ?
Does optimism come from strength or does is it come from being foolhardy?
Does your preference for "enjoying the ride" label you as commitment phobic?
Have you noticed.. if you keep adjusting/adapting to everything you tend to be taken for granted?
Do you think "acceptance" can help you make peace with the outside?
Do you agree that the more educated/sophisticated of people are the ones who tend to stick more to traditions/rituals?
Do you think it is difficult to connect to people who have been part of/dug into your baggage?
Have you met any seriously boring people? But still ended up having a good conversation? :-P
Why is relativity so distantly related between people?
Is your strength perceived as your weakness? How do you handle it?
Are you worried about getting wrongly labeled?
Do you think that if you don't reach out things will not happen?
Are humans inherently "once bitten, twice shy" or are they hopelessly optimistic cos "ummeed pe duniya kayam hai" ?
Are stable systems stagnant?
Why do rules change with every player when humans, true to their genes, inevitably play the same game?
Does an ill-fitting shoe hurt less only because it's branded?
Do you agree that at times its insanity which brings calm in a crazy world?

The Unbearable Lightness Of Being.... do you feel it?