|| Swanta Sukhaya ||

Greetings! A book that I recently read proclaimed that "What things are, doesn't really matter, but what they mean to us is what matters".  As if by cue, (or in other words, as the invisible hands of coincidences would have it), it clicked with a movie that was being reminisced by a good friend recently! And here I share with you how the twains met, but before that, little bit about the movie. Every once in a while, a masterpiece of a movie is created that brings out fundamental human qualities vs. fallacies, are acted brilliantly, cinematographed richly and directed impactfully – “Men of Honor” is one such masterpiece. If you haven't watched it, then please do - I would definitely recommend it.  This is the story of Carl Brashear, who joins U.S. Navy to become the first African American Master Diver and a no-nonsense, bitter but a true patriot "Master Chief" Billy Sunday. These are the two "Men of Honor". While they alternately spar and respect ea...

Greetings! In rocketry, "staging" means mounting multiple separable parts (with their own engines and propellants) to create a multistage rocket. These stages might be in tandem (that is one above other) or in parallel to each other. The most popular is a 2-stage rocket but there could be 5 (or even more) stages.  For a rocket, the ultimate aim is to put the payload in orbit. Each of the stage plays it's part in giving it the right speed and proper height. These parts do their "part" (literally), and then usually get jettisoned away, with explosive bolts. The rocket launch is successful, when each of these stages fire up, burn out, remain attached, as well as get detached, in the right place and at the right time (which is usually not a moment before nor a moment after they are supposed to do so) You may say, this is all good, but why write a blog on it? Well, because i think this entire process maps to life and growth as each one of us experiences it. As we gro...

Greetings! One thing common among the greatest music legends is that, they thoroughly excel in the art of call -response. In fact, they revel in call-response as the music approaches crescendo! If you have any doubt, then you just need to play this great composition by Shakti,  an extra-ordinary Jazz-Indian Classical Music fusion band - made up of the amazing  quartet of John McLaughlin (guitar), L. Shankar (violin), Vikku Vinayakram (ghatam) and Zakir Hussain (tabla).   Although this video is dated (and you may want to turn up the volume to enjoy it better), you can also see (and hear) what a joy it was for these four to call-response among each other as they created music that makes our emotions dance!  And so, they aptly (and quite elaborately) named this composition as  " What Need Have I For This?-What Need Have I For That?-I Am Dancing At The Feet Of My Lord-All is  Bliss -All is Bliss-All is Bliss"   (Go ahead, play the video, watch enough ...

Greetings! Everyone (well, at least everyone who knows a little about English Literature), knows the plot of a play named 'Romeo and Juliet', written by that gifted prolific playwright - William Shakespeare.  It is a tragedy that has been played on stage for centuries and adapted into most of the languages. This tale has inspired countless adaptations, musicals and movies.  It has also been analyzed, critiqued and discussed over perhaps millions of conversations.  Still, as is the case with such timeless tales, once in a while someone sees one or more dimensions of this story and cannot help sharing what has been glimpsed. (Now, that I have given justification of writing once more about this oft written about tale - let me get on with it ..)  So, in the dimension that I glimpsed, I see Romeo as the intelligent, idealistic but impulsive and immature force of passion that lies within all of us. Romeo is the part within us that climbs the walls, jumps the balconies and ...

Greetings! One thing common among Zoologists and Management Gurus (and perhaps the rare amphibian-cuisine-connoisseurs) is their fascination with the boiled frog! So, what is this oft-repeated sordid tale of the poor and ultimately scathed amphibian?  The pop version goes as follows -  "A frog is let into a pot with water. It makes itself comfy and takes to it like a fish (or rather like a frog) in water. Then the pot is very slowly heated. The frog ignores this slow, gradual, incremental change. But then, at one point of time, the water starts boiling and it is too late for the frog to get out of situation. The frog gets boiled eventually." Morale of this pop version of story is clear - beware of slow, gradual, incremental changes. Watch out for tell-tale signs, lest the situation worsens to the doomsday scenario.  They even have a name for this condition where people, organizations and societies go on ignoring gradual change and then eventually face their doom on accoun...

Greetings! Hindustani Classical Music stands on a tradition that goes back for thousands of years (perhaps even more). Some of the greatest musical minds have contemplated and honed the essential patterns (ragas), which pass through the thick-skin and dulled-mind and touch the soul. One such raga is "Bhatiyar", that evokes the sense of trickling twilight  of early morning and gently stirs the soul from dark nothingness to the life giving light of - purpose and action!  Over years many musicians and singers have sought refuge of this raga to create timeless melodies.  Let us enjoy one such amazing journey of this raga that resulted into stirring of thousands of hearts - which ended up lifting millions of minds out of centuries of darkness. It all happened suddenly and unexpectedly on one of the balmy Mumbai nights in the 1980s.  Ace singers Suresh Wadkar, Kavita Krishnamurthy and awesome (but relatively unknown) composer Ashok Patki had been working almost non stop si...

"Well... Light, it's been quite fun!" With these words Shinigami (the celestial death agent) Ryuk brought end to a smart young man (Light Yagami), who was drunk on power to kill anyone at will and intellect to get away with it! With this scene our binge-watch of the marvelous manga web-series "Death Note" also came to an end! The series doesn't answer any questions on death but truly makes us take note of how death or rather the fear of death shapes the psyche in particular and society in general. The first question is, who is the hero of the series? Is it Light Yagami? Who shows all the best and worst in human beings put together? Is it "L"? Who, with his amazing power of deduction finds out the real identity of Light Yagami. However "L" loses to Light in a shrewd diabolical plot set by Light and dies. Is it "Near"? The child prodigy who took over from "L" and beats Light at his own game of double-crossing and serves ...

Greetings! T'was a beautiful evening early in Fall season.  It seemed like the blue sky's got smitten by the splash of colors on leaves. I was still new to this place. I was still in awe of diners with their coffee aromas. Tranquil trails, with sporadic boards that warned about a mysterious but cute sounding Lyme disease, were yet to be trodden.  A friend of mine was driving me to a Jazz Cafe (for the very first time in my life). I had heard the magic of walking baseline and swing in Bollywood music before, but didn't know it was Jazz (yet). He asked me, have you ever heard Jazz. "..hmm... not sure..." was my answer. He smiled and just put in a cassette in his car's cassette player...      A guitar started strumming through the speakers... my mind had caught on the rhythm and the feet tapping with the walking baseline.  "...hmmm... the thrill is gone..." B.B. King's sonorous voice started wafting in and led me into the magical musical world of bl...

Greetings! Here is an anecdote that made me think about an insidious infliction that affects humanity. A 'normal' shepherd is chatting with an 'educated' shepherd. Let's call them Norm and Ed. Norm: How many sheep do you have? Ed: White or Black? Norm: White? Ed: 50. By the way I have 50 Black sheep too. Wonder what you have against the Black sheep? Norm: But I asked about all the sheep? Ed: Oh! Did you? You just said, "White?" Norm: Hey Buddy, I don't have anything against any of the sheep. By the way, do you get enough wool ? Ed: From which one? White or Black? Norm: Black? (Thinking he won't repeat the mistake this time!) Ed: Well I get enough from Black ones. By the way I get enough from white ones too. Wonder why are you bent on exploiting the Black sheep for their wool? Norm: (Gives up) I call Ed's infliction as "False Dichotomy". This has been a cognitive conditioning for gullible ones, usually perpetuated by those with ulterio...

Greetings! Shivaji Maharaj is one of the legendary Kings, hailed for his greatness all over the world. According to Prof. Narhar Kurundkar, the greatness of Shivaji Maharaj lies in his ability to inspire people to such an extent that not only the soldiers, but even a common man was ready to lay his life for the Swarajya (Independent Government) led by the great Shivaji Maharaj.  This great King was nurtured to greatness by his mother Jijamata. There was another mother who left an indelible mark on Shivaji Maharaj and inspired him. Her name was ‘Hirkani’ (the name means "A Sparkling Diamond Speck") Those hailing from the western state of Maharashtra in India are aware about the extra-ordinary story of Hirkani. For those who don’t know - here is a short version of the story. Shivaji Maharaj, who reigned the land as well hearts of people, was being coronated. The coronation ceremony needed a lot of milk. Hirkani was the mother of an infant and a milkm...

Greetings! My random playlist was on, while I was lost in the work. Suddenly the song changed and a soothing octate of violins started wafting in. These lilting sounds caught my attention. Then in about half a minute, on the cue of clicketting sticks, piano and guitar took over from the meliflous violins. The music felt as if, it was tugging at something inside me, that wanted to voice itself but somehow remained unspeaking. And then a man started singing ... "करे मन भजण नूं बेपार ..." Loosely translated from Gujarathi as "The mind has started dealing in devotion"! The words were not from my native language so I was trying to decipher them. But the passion with which they have been written and the emotion with which they have been sung by a voice and the divine way in which all instruments join in - felt absolutely amazing. I was being dealt with something outside of this world - yet through the music, the voice and words that are very much from this wor...

Greetings! Have you heard of a German Anatomist and Surgeaon named Dr. Julius Wolff  from 19th century, who (among a prolific bibliography) proposed "The law of transformation of the bone" in 1892? No? I too didn't. (Well at least till last week) While discussing how stress impacts human beings, I heard a wise man talk about Wolff's Law  . Technically, the law (now modified slightly by Utah-Paradigm of Bone physiology) states that mechanical loading influences bone structure by changing the mass (amount of bone) and architecture (its arrangement) to provide a structure that resists habitual loads with an economical amount of material. In simpler words - whenever bones of a healthy person experience tension, compression, shear they respond by becoming stronger! Great! But this leads to another question, does the human mind also respond in such "anti-fragile" way when it comes to the (mostly imagined but sometimes real) stress? The a...

Greetings! Pop Quiz - considering survival, reproduction and count as factors - which group of species can call themselves the most successful species on mother earth? Humans? Bzzzzz (that's me hitting the buzzer that indicates wrong answer!) This award goes to what we call as single cell organisms. With the numbers that are in multiples of, multiples of, multiples of sum of counts of all other species put together, we can simply call them as rulers of earth... (Apologies to the dictators of world who had deluded themselves to have concurred the world or felt that they can... Sorry guys, but you cannot even beat a bacterium... Go figure!) These little(?) folks make up most of the life on the earth and it seems like the human bodies are simply swimming in their oceans. But thank God, at least we have our bodies... or do we? Research says that "There are about 100 trillion cells in a human body. However, even one tenth are hardly real human cells.  The human b...

Greetings! "I have planted them all!", the 9 year old boy in red t-shirt was saying in matter of fact way. I looked at the land, made ready to sow through sheer hard work. The land was cut in steps, pruned off the shrubs. The planting spots were placed in neat rows and columns. Each one had a neatly planted mango sapling. "These saplings would grow with him. They would bear fruits as he would himself blossom into a fine young man and later as he turns into a father, uncle and a grandfather!' ", by the time this train of my thoughts reached next station, this sharp boy was already at the far end of the plot. Tending to a fledgling sapling, he looked at his doting uncle with a question mark. The uncle of his is a true farmer. He tends to his farms the way he would care for his family. He looks after friends, the way he would look after a plantation. Right now he was struggling  to contain his admiration for his nephew. "Let's water them",  ...

Greetings! I had heard about him from those who attended a great institution where he taught for many years. Well, now I myself got the opportunity to get into a learning program that was conceptualized and driven by him. That is when I experienced his teaching first hand... "Essentially, Liability is nothing but source of funds and Asset is nothing but use of funds.", he spoke in a gentle, measured and soft tone. "Is that all?", I thought... I thought he could read my mind, as he simply said, "That is it!" and paused!   It was a learning program unlike any that I had ever attended... He seemed to know what exactly we didn't know and what false notions we harboured. He seemed to know which insight of his would confuse us and to what degree and therefore at what moment to reveal it (and at what moment not to). It was as if a very complex question-processing engine was running in the background of his great mind. Somehow this engine was se...

Greetings! He had keen, playful and observant eyes. Although our acquaintance was few days old; we were speaking with an ease of old friends who have met after a long time. "Let me tell you the most important learning of my life!", he quipped. I was all ears. "There is someone who has been a Godfather to me and shaped my career entirely for two decades. I have no qualms in saying that he prodded, nudged, cajoled, pushed, intimidated, motivated and gave almost all growth opportunities in my career." I could see the respect in his eyes too. But there was a glint of sadness and a lining of wisdom. I was intrigued. "But, it so happened that the day I grew out of his shadow and into my own was the very same day he started treating me with excruciating vehemence. It went on for months.  Nothing in my life has hurt me so much. This just crushed me to the core.", He took a moment to glance out of the window. I held my breath. "And you know what? When...

Greetings! Let's look for a moment that has both happiness and sadness put together. Where do you find them? All one has to do is to look little bit closely at life turning moments. You will be surprised to find such moments in the points of life that turn a leaf in life... King Ashoka expected a moment of triumph as he overlooked a river turned red with blood of enemy. He sensed it, but he also faced a deep sense of remorse! A dichotomy of triumph! Famous people face this dichotomy of emotions too. While they are adulated by millions, they face the loneliness of not having a true and warm relation! A dichotomy of fame! A mountaineer struggles to reach the summit, he faces treacherous paths, steep slopes and draining exhaustion. The moment of reaching the summit brings exhilarating fulfillment as well as the empty dreadful prospect of not having any goal to reach! A dichotomy of success! A father of bride strives in all ways to get the daughter married. He tries to ens...

Greetings! We all are very good at putting up a face and hiding our emotions behind it. This ability has helped our ancestors survive. It helps in so many situations, right from winning poker to getting favourable international treaties. Look at most of the selfies and group snaps. If we can't put up a face properly, then there are filters to do the rest of job for us. One can put up an excellent show of having fun while the reality might be totally different. (I guess this is usually the case). We are also very good at using euphemisms, great flowery words. Look at most of the videos. The words spoken consciously on videos are also usually made up, politically correct and don't reflect the real intent as well as the content of what is going inside our heads. We all know it and usually take this in stride. But what if we want to go beyond and see what is going on inside someone rather than the facade that has been put up? There are many ways to do it and reams of lit...

Greetings! It is said that when life closes a door, it opens a thousand doors for you. I suppose it is meant to be said to those who feel down due to a lost opportunity.  It is a good way to console the sad, to uplift the lowered spirit. But I think the more accurate analogy is -  When life closes  a door, we should first look at the window of opportunity!  The door is the path trodden by others, which we too are following. If it was an uncharted path, then there wouldn't have been a door there in first place.  The openings and clearing in the jungle of life, are made by those, who ventured through them for the first time.  We merely follow these footsteps, when we too venture through the same. I think when a door is closed, it is the God's way of alerting us about the path that it would have led us to. So even if we do find another door (or nine hundred and ninety nine more doors, for proverb's sake), it may be leading us to the same place. If ...

Greetings! Peacock wields myriad colours, Turquoise, green, blue among many others, Dancing to the life as monsoon ushers, What would I choose - dance of life, or dead feathers? It is really a privilege to watch a peacock dance. The child like little off rhythm steps, the artistic movement of neck and of course the glorious fan of feathers! It is a celebration of life. Both, the life that is full to the brim already and the life that may be coming as next generation. Indian monsoon brings up the life in the jungle. The parched land gets the life sap it has been thirsting for since the onset of Indian summer. The grass seeds, lurking just below the veneer of soil, start germinating with valour. The sky pours, earth breathes out heady fragrance, flora springs up and fauna is looking forward to get food and water to heart's content. But what do we do? Do we assimilate ourselves in this dance of nature? Do we take time to touch and breathe in the fragrant earth? Do we t...