Last week, I attended a week long course called YES+! It stands for Youth Empowerment Seminar, and is designed by Art of Living Foundation. It was such fun! Full of energy, dancing, music, meditation, exercise and breathing techniques designed to calm the mind, improve focus, get rid of negative emotions, find joy & peace in the present moment, feel connection and sense of belonging with others. I recommend it to everybody! It was taught by Natalie, a sweet young american girl who has conducted many many trauma relief workshops in New Orleans for Katrina affected people, inner city youth, prisons. I have always been overawed by all Art of Living teachers I have met. They really 'know' what they are talking about! Lets hope my discipline gets better of my inertia in practicing these techniques :-) Below is a music video made in Montreal YES+ course, which captures beautifully the essence of YES+.
Recently had a very 'memorable' experience with Indian customs, which I was planning to blog about. This was my first firsthand experience with public corruption & bureaucracy, hence quite a learning experience. So this happened, when on my India trip, I naively carried two laptops (one for a friend & one for my work, as I needed both) without thinking twice about the custom trouble it might create :-) I was vaguely aware of 25000Rs limit, was foolishly optimistic of my falling below the custom radar or overly confident of dealing with any eventuality. Alas, on my way out of Mumbai terminal, when asked forthright, I declared the same, and was promptly asked to come to side & open my luggage. The officer, Mr.B was way too good for his job. The free & black market prices of all electronic valuables & accessories were on his fingertips. His knowledge of dell, hp, toshiba, ibm brands alongwith innards of chipsets, ram, dvd specs would compete with authorized sa
Ashish Khetan, the brave journalist from Tehelka.com has found out some very disturbing truth about Gujrat Riots & role of government inaction in it. Listen to these people, as they speak about their, cops', Narendra Modi's role in riots, with exhilaration, without any remorse or moral qualms. Their morality is shaped around Hindutva, and its glory, and hatred of muslims, and feral animosity long cultivated by shakhas, history, fable of past glory, and isolation from Muslim community. They are gullible enough to reveal all, to a relative stranger whom they believe is member of their clan. I have known a person who is very nice person in all other aspects, except this. He is raged with passion, and hatred when he talks about Muslims. He talks about their plan to reproduce and take over India, and his willingness to take up arms when the time for war comes. The first time, I heard him say this, I sincerely wanted to ask him to get a psychoanalysis, or convince him of irratio
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