Satyamev Jayate: Will it change it all? Or ‘Sab Chalta hai!’: From an Indian, Non-Indian lens

Today morning, I woke up to see my friends’ facebook update all resonating the same message, ‘Satyamev Jayate’. It’s no Independence Day, Republic Day or Gandhi Jayanti, so what makes everyone so patriotic suddenly. Curious, I searched the internet. Star Plus, it seems has come out of its ‘saas bahu’ closet and has finally realized the positive role it can play as a social media. Amir Khan’s two minute introduction with an indelible mark on the beach sands, that no wave can wash away reads, ‘Satyamev Jayate’. His words were not just his. The thoughts echo in each and every Indian mind, whether those in India & watching the show or those living seven seas away.

There is something about India that pulls me back. But there are many that pull me away. Every time I miss my parents, my home, that familiar environ in which I grew up, the smell of spices, the innocent laughters and the cute cuddling kids who come running towards you, I break down. Nostalgic, home sick, starving for the smell of spicy Indian cuisine, I want to take the first flight back home. And then flipping through the e-versions of Indian papers, I once again change my mind. Every page rotting with the smell of nepotism, bureaucracy, corruption and inefficiency is stark reminder that the dream of home lives only in forsaken hearts. And it’s not just me. Its millions of Indians scattered across the globe longing to get back home and yet, scared of the stark realities that exist. An old ageing man with no social security for the concept doesn’t exist in India; corrupt administrators who you have to bribe to construct your home or collect your own pension;  the age-old stereotypes of male-female divide and the cliché, I am so sick of fighting, ‘sab kuch chalta hai’.

As I watch in the closet of my room, embraced by the blue Alps, reflectively thinking if my home-coming will make a positive difference to my country, my family or the concept of Nation State has been broken down irreparably by the hammer of ‘corruption’, ‘sab chalta hai’ attitude;  I watch on the net ‘Satyamev Jayate’, with fingers crossed and a hope that truth indeed will triumph, ‘Satyamev Jayate’.

Fresh Pasta, Genoa sauce, Gucci & Milano: I am gonna miss you, for sure!

Lazyweekends, hushed up weekday mornings, bright sunny afternoons, long endless days, heavy workloads with unwinding walks in the Piazza. The Italian trip was quite a mix of emotions for me. An interesting cultural experience.. so much like India and quite unlike like India!
There will be things I will miss. Those lazy weekend mornings for instance and a walk to the neighbourhood Pasticcerria to buy fresh pasta and geneoa sauce. The Italian food is perfect for Indian taste buds. But not quite the strong cappuccino. So between those long work hours, every time I would miss the Indian tea and long to have a sip of the same, I would ask the local café guy to serve dark masala tea with scuma milk(creamed milk). The unwitting look on his face told explicitly, there was something definitely un-Italian that I was doing in the heart of Italy! And that’s Italian frankness, a clear heart! If they don’t like you, they let you know. But some people do like you. The vegans for instance. My vegan friend who was so much in love with everything Indian, specially the Indian spicy food, that is ideal for an Italian taste bud. And our long cultural exchanges learning to cook each other’s meals. It was fun!
The Christmas eve had a special aura. Meeting perfect strangers on such a special evening touched my soul with a sense of déjà-vu. I must have known them in some life. Such a special evening is for ones you know, not ones you have never known.
This year, thanks to looming crisis and austerity measures is one of the most difficult that the world’s seventh largest economy has seen in recent times. It was sad to see the sinking spirits on the X-mas evening and my ears longed to hear the usual Buono Natale e Nuova Anne! that one is used to hearing in this special time of the year in all shops across Rome, Venice, Bologna, Florence. But the sinking spirits haven’t dampened a bit of the Italians. The magnificent red in the windows, the glittering swarosky’s, the guccis and the well-lit shops on the high end streets of Milano, Italy will for a long time be place for vita qui e bella! N am gonna miss it for sure!

The Indian (I)nglishh! Eer!

Italian MTV on a warm sunny Sunday siesta springed me with a surprise! There was a group of Italian guys, joie de vivre as they are, on a visit to India. Quite amusing to see my country from a foreign lens. It got me interested.

In Europe, Italians in a sense are the closest to Indians, culturally speaking. Yet, there are diversities. But of course, differences meant to be celebrated, so said Stephen Covey. So I started watching the programme.

Understanding and having lived in and deeply in love with both the countries, I could well appreciate the humour and take on the Indian culture! So like the Italian man who went to Malta, there is this humour in how we Indians speak English.

Water is not a slight touch on the tongue like W-A-T-E-R for an Englishman(or woman). It is like V-A-T-U-R-R-r-r!!!!!! And so is ‘hello, how are you?’ .. Its like ‘H-H-H-A-L-U-U hoooowww arrre yoooou?’. Absolutely no problem, after all these are benevolent Indian contributions to English phonetics!!

I am reminded of a humourist, who once wittingly impersonated his Indian counterpart immigrant at the British check-in counter giving a small interview for Border check. When confronted with the situation to introduce himself in his beloved English language, he confidently described his Indian background and reasons to visit England in English. The immigration officer, unable to understand, requested him to repeat and then re-repeat in English. This went on for about 5-6 times. Exasperated, the Englishman suggested, ‘Gentleman, Can you p-l-e-a-s-e, speak in English.’

Astonished, my countryman, replied to the Englishman, ‘S-S-I-Rrrrrr ji, I do NAT now, wat languaage you arrrre taulkingh in, bbuuuttt I speaaakkk ONNNNLYYYY E-N-G-G-G-LISSSSHhhhhh!’

A Spiritual Life... Kabhi khushi kabhi ghum

Life is beautiful not coz its easy but coz its so very much full of challenges... sometimes I wonder how life must be without challenges... People are said to be born with a silver spoon.. but mine was a challenging spoon... So challenging that pretty much difficult to bring it to the mouth!... Dont ask what context I write in... but believe me that’s the sentiment that we all have at some point of time in lives. And these moments can be really beautiful. The moment we accept life as it is... full of challenges, difficulties... it becomes so much beautiful... sometimes pain, sometimes pleasure, for that’s life. And that’s spiritual too. In Bhagvad Gita, 6th chapter, 31st shloka, the Divine says :

sarva-bhuta-sthitam yo mam
bhajaty ekatvam asthitah
sarvatha vartamano 'pi
sa yogi mayi vartate


The shloka has the following important elements:
1. The one who takes shelter in the Divine, that Ultimate Supreme, with all the thoughts, feelings and absolute single mindedness
2. See the Divine and look and respect at the Divine residing inside each one of the creations of the Divine
Such a person is referred to as a Yogi.
Such a living entity has perfected the science of uniting the individual Consciousness with the Divine & Ultimate Consciousness
And No matter what kind of circumstances does he live in, the good, the bad, the happy, the unhappy, he forever resides in the Divine at all times.
So simple is the key to this mysterious life. Kabhi khushi, kabhi gum!

Diwali... the festival of lights, love and spirituality

Long after you have left home, long after you have gone too far, long after you missed some people on the way, you realize how much you have lost. Those little joys of life. Those festival of lights, those moments of colours.

To be with someone, you lose someone. To be someone, you lose to be someone. But this would perhaps be a constricted way of seeing things. On a more cosmic level, everything belongs to the Divine and every creation of His, reflects Him. And that is the beauty of Universe. A reflection of the divinity in everything: light and dark, colours and their somber shades, spicy and sugary, heavy and light, big and small, away but not so far. Diwali the festival of lights signifies this spiritual aspect of existence.

Legends galore why the festival is reveringly celebrated all over India and perhaps the world. But the most beloved is the one that refers to Lord Rama’s return from exile after fourteen years. Lord Rama, is referred to as the ‘Maryada Purshottam’ in the Vedas. ‘Maryada Purshottam’ a Sanskrit word, when translated literally means, the highest and the best amongst all human beings. That is He signifies the best of human qualities, closest to the Divine.

In Hindu spirituality, there is a strong faith in re-birth and incarnation. It is believed that one of the reasons that Lord incarnates from time to time is to show love and come as a close relationship to those who loved and prayed the Lord in their last lives and wanted to have Him as their child, spouse or parent. The other important reason, Lord incarnates, is to destroy the demons and bring peace to the world. And finally to set an example for the world, as to how the best and ideal men & women should behave.

Lord Rama as ‘maryada purshottam’ as the ideal human set an example for the humans to act with serenity in the most difficult of circumstances, to fight the evil and to love everyone. It is said that Lord Rama was so much loved and revered by the people all over Bharat(as India was referred to then), that when their beloved Rama came back from exile, after fourteen years, people lighted their homes with ‘diyas’(kind of candles burnt with ghee, a type of Indian butter made from cow milk) and celebrated sweets.

Thousands of years may have passed away since then, but the spirit remains. The fragrance of this festival lingers on, the light lightens our spirits and reminds of those waiting somewhere for us. And in my heart, brings a promise to my parents, that next year there really will be a Diwali at home…. Till then, just a promise .. na juda honge hum, kabhi khushi, kabhi gham….

Till then, lets try spread the infectious spirit of love, life and spirituality wherever we are, wherever we go. Live a little bit of spirituality wherever we are, see that Divine residing inside each one of us that makes us a little more good, a little less bad!! … Happy Diwali!

Of babies, economics, flowers & Moksha!

My friend loves babies. Nothing special. We all do. Specially the women. But having them and that too one after another is quite a ball game. So when my special friend had her third baby, I called her congratulating on the occasion & teasingly I demanded, so when do you plan to have the next. Benignly caressing through the modest tresses & the diminutive features of her new born angel, absorbed in the ecstasy of motherhood, she replied, possibly in 2015. Wow!! Pulling her leg, I asked her, isn’t there something like the law of Diminishing Marginal Utility in Economics. Simply speaking, for those divorced from the bizarre world of economics, it means that for each additional unit of a given thing I have, the value added for every subsequent unit that I can have, falls proportionately. Serene & smiling she replied, ‘children are like flowers, the more you want, the more you want to have them’. From my friend's lens, for the geeky economist, they disobey all the laws of classical economics!

So what is it about being a mother that makes it so exceptional. Perhaps its the mother inside a woman’s heart that makes her so feminine, so mother-like. After all how can you not love them? As someone once famously said, ‘a woman is one who shows man, what love, care and share is all about.’ Being a mother is one of the most special and divine ways to express this selfless form of love. It is an expression of giving. Helping this new born grow up, becoming a part of the world. 'Osho' believed that one of best ways to have a lifelong loving relationship between spouses is to love them like a baby. That doesn’t quite mean acting like a mummy. But there is an abstract element of that feminity that he referred to. The element is one of ‘selflesslessness’.

In the Yogic philosophy too, it is said that ‘ahankar’ is the root of existence. Difficult to translate exactly in English, literally speaking it means ‘ego’. The surrender of this ego and absolute selfless love for the Divine, for all His creations is Spirituality, the path to Moksha. Yoga is that first step towards selflessness. In the more earthly sense, perhaps its motherhood. Imagine there is this sweet little creation, who you almost sense as an extension of your own and then you give away all that you have to this little one. This for sure is the way to selflessness. Would children, ethereally speaking, be the road to moksha then?

Till we experience, between us!

La vita è bella

Three days in Italy and the same sense of déjà vu as thirty years in India. There is more than an ‘I’ in common between Italy & India.
Celebrated as a gazetted holiday, 4th October in Bologna marks the day of Saint Petronio, the patron saint of Bologna. Infact, every city in Italy have had a patron saint. So I thought, it was going to be a long lazy afternoon. But the warm Italians had something more in store for me. So when a ‘joie de vivre’ elderly couple invited me to lunch, I could not resist, but to consent.
Walking through the historical boulevards, neatly carved narrow meandering lanes of Bologna, I finally reached the home of my hosts. It was more then just a lunch. A cozily set-up traditional home, a peep into the conventional habitat was far more enriching then spending an afternoon. It was an ethnic encounter. Where else could I expect a perfectly alien couple to give me all their afternoon, prepare a special ‘vegetarian’ lunch for a stranger, someone they had never seen, never known before. Serving me the pasta, they told, it was not a simple, any other italian cuisine. It was a purgatoire. Enjoying my stay in the land of Dante, the creator of Divine Comedy, I could sense the food eaten somewhere between hell and heaven.
Cracking endless jokes on cultural encounters or (mis)encounters, I could sense a thread of similarity that runs between the two cultures. Specially our love for English and the brazen abuse of the dialect. Be it the ‘Italian man who went to Malta’ or the ‘Indian who goes to England’, our English encounters are devastatingly humorous.
Emotionally speaking particularly moving, was the passion with which they gave me a virtual tour through the historical lanes of Bologna. Armed with an old book, containing very old maps of the city, the world’s oldest running university, my hosts took me through the constricted city in time and in space. And in one afternoon, I traveled through the lifetime of this historic place. I left the home with a feeling that I had seen all that was to be seen in Bologna. And I saw from the eyes of a couple who lived the city and loved it. I felt connected. I was touched. I saw more then I could ever see as a tourist, more then I could ever experience as an artist. It brought back a sense of déjà vu. A feeling long lost since I left home. The pleasant & kind couple reminded me of my parents back home. Just the way they would invite every stranger to eat with them, stay with them. There, it seemed, was a place somewhere else, under the sun, where they believed in athithi devobhav, that is the guests are symbolic representations of the Divine.
There was more warmth to the culture then just the shinning sun. Perhaps the affection emanating from the heart, that creates an ambiance of nostalgia & pleasantness in this sunny country.