Baba Ramdev

18th May, 2008

Recently God fulfilled my wish. An important one. Out of overwhelming thankfulness, I told him, now I grant you one wish. Any one thing, that you want me to do, I will do it. Promise, promise I will. He told me to start doing yoga.

Well, alright. I shall begin today. And so I did. I put Baba Ramdev's DVD, which I had purchased in Toronto for $5, into the player. It had a menu, several messages warning against piracy, an intro montage with graphics of a silhoutte yogi and English language option. Very neat. Very fancy. Its only a matter of time before Indian yogis will have their own podcasts for a satsang on the move, I observed and played the DVD.

He sat on the river bank with a cordless lapel mike attached to his daushala and demonstrated such simple breathing techniques - that are supposed to cure paralysis, heart blockages, deformities, uterus related issues, depression, High BP - I thought the man coudn't be serious.

But as I watched through the course of the DVD, I got more and more drawn to his confidence in the yogic asanas. He also claimed that millions of people were benefitting from the asanas.

I thought of a certain Mr. Kakaji, the person who started Bikanerwala Sweets in Delhi. He lives across our house in Delhi and every time he saw any one of us kids, he prompted to do pranayam.

My sister got her hair colored burgundy. We were walking in the park and as he walked behind us, he said, "Eww, what is wrong with you, your hair is so dull and colorless. You must do pranayam, 5 minutes daily." And he began to demonstrate how.

Then, before marriage we used to make fun of his obsession with yoga, but watching Ramdev now, sitting miles away from India, I think of Kakaji fondly. Where else but in India do people care so much about others?

So if Baba Ramdev's breathing techniques - actually not his, but written in ancient Indian shastras - are applied, I could get a glowing skin, a sharp and focused mind, I will be able to rid myself of all that is bad and imbibe from the universe all that is pure and Godly.

I tried it yesterday and if not anything else, felt great. Today, I am again a bit late in rising up, but hell, who cares. Air is still available, my nose can still breathe and my mind can still do what it had promised to God.

Love,

Radhika

Being an Artist

17th May, 2008

Its not a coincidence how things work in the world of Arts. At least in my world of art, this is how it happens:

Whenever I pick up the pen, or the camera to create something, it is usually either for myself, or for others. When it is for myself, and I do not care whether others pay or not, view or not, nod their heads in approval of me and the piece or not, it comes through as work I feel happy about.

In other cases, when the so called art is being created to showcase to the world for some benefit of some kind, it flops. It just flops. I tell ya, the twisted ways of arts is what I don't like.

When I have to write to present it to say, an editor, I write for the editor. It stops being about my basic human right to express myself freely. The editor jails me.

I am principally against reading self-help books. So there is little possibility of finding a solution to this problem unless my soul comes up with an answer on its own. Or if someone experienced offers a word of advise.

Radhika

Rivers Have to Flow

17th May, 2008

I vehemently disapproved of blogs. Spilling out precious thoughts onto some vague area on the net. They are neither read by the desired number, nor do they remain exclusive. Why not print a book with those ideas, I thought and kept myself shut.

This afternoon, I got up from my sleep and dragged myself on to the sofa where this laptop sits all day, only to get fed by the power grid of America and to be used by me to check my 4 email accounts, Orkut, Facebook and nothing else.

Nothing is happening, man! Nothing is moving in this life of mine. Its pretty smooth, sort of structured and secure. But its not how I ever wanted it to be. I want to travel, dance at parties, hang out with friends, take pictures and write travel columns for little known magazines and be content.

But look, what I do for most part of my day: Sleep at midnight daily, only to get up 2-3 times in the night to pee, for I'm in the first semester of my pregnancy. Then dream a lot. I mean a lot. With the amount I dream, and the details in my dreams, its almost like my dreamy mind is just waiting with crayons to start work as soon as I shut my eyelids.

Hey I know now that my baby has eyelids. Its eyelids are shut for some time now and will open in the 28th week or so. Yesterday while reading online that my baby would by now have webbed feet and figers and eyelids and bones, I almost got scared. What a little creature.

I understand there is a universe inside me right now. Complete with planets, stars, outer space matter and orbits.

Time to feed the universe.

Bye,

Radhika