jump trip hop

06th oct 2010
bangalore

jaigurudev !

wow its been nearly a year since i wrote anything..

well navratri is around the corner and the master is here :). The ashram is abuzz with the excitement that is so unique to this time of the year. people flow into the ashram in what begins as a trickle and over a few days builds into a formidable tidal wave of humanity.. brought together by the guru..eager to soak up the sattva of the poojas , the knowledge that emerges with Him from his silence and the merriment of the satsangs ..its when nature herself in all her splendor joins us in welcoming the devi anew into all our hearts ..

while all the girls scurry about finding the right saree for each pooja :) and the right accessory for each saree.. this year, i watch as a bemused spectator.. thanks to my overenthused reaction a week ago, on getting to know that we (waye office) had become proud owners of a trampoline (dinesh bhaiya’s birthday gift ).. i merrily let my nearly six foot frame mock the very concept of my center of gravity.. bouncing higgeldy-spiggeldy and finally landing on the only ankle willing to take responsibiilty for my considerable weight (im a solid 65kgs and proud of it :)) i immediately heard what can only fairly be called a “sklrunch” and knew that something had given way. so somehow reached my room with my entire aura reeking of relispray and slept hoping all would be well in the morning..
all isnt well when your entire foot throws a tantrum in complete non-cooperation for the meekest request of moving just a toe.. a visit from the doc-of-all-trades PD resulted in a tsch-tsch nod (you know what i mean, its the look doctors gives to the patient in movies right before the scene where the mum of the guy is praying in front of the hospital temple thing) and i was like uh-oh is this thing going to go into a cast ?! and PD gave me an im-afraid-so smile.. well then i was bundled up in a car and taken to the city orthopedist with rajiv and kamatchi as my companions. We reached what looked more like a 5-star hotel lobby and not even remotely like the stern military hospitals i ve always been to. Just the look of that place made my money hug me and plead in a choked voice ,” you know how much i love you , please never let me go “ i swear it was just like a separation scene in the movies ..

nevertheless, the big doc was sooper cool :) incredibly cute sense of humour and the toothiest grin ever.. i love doctors who have such a light countenance!
the ultimate highlight was the wheelchair i was ceremoniously driven around in .. i could imagine the taa-ra--ra-rum-paraaa of trumpets sounding everytime i was wheeled into a lift and the commonfolk parted to make space for royalty. he he

returned home (ashram) with the brightest damn cobalt blue of a cast protecting a couple of torn ligaments .. but here’s the thing- ive never really injured my self more than the occassional cut n bruise.. and over the years i have come to think of myself as immune to any kind of illness .. i do pride myself on my superior immunity and my generally cautious nature around anything even faintly dangerous to my wellbeing. so i had still not registered that i had “actually” gotten myself into this month long torturato. The first slap of reality hit me when reaching vishwamitra from old kitchen took me close to half an hour .. something i take microseconds to do at my usual gallop :( boo hoo
i have always been a fiercely (tending towards idiotic) independent girl.
eg1- lugging 55 kgs of luggage for nearly a kilometer in the chennai heat coz the coolie asked for too much and on my refusal gave me a look which said - what other option do you have scrawny 18 yr old girl (hrmph that ought to show him).
eg 2 - on my first three (actually there were only three of them altogether) dates with my college sweetheart (read moron) i dutched the first two and paid entirely for the third, which was a pretty big dent for an undergrad.
dumb ! i know, but thats why, calling someone to help me to my feet, help me get to the dining table or do a million other tiny things that you need both feet for, became so crushing for what was left of my ego :)

then a close friend of mine reminded me of something so awesome from the course - give generously and take graciously :) and i said alrighty-doo. I started asking politely for help rather than wait around sending mental signals :) its still pretty tough but im not an army man’s daughter for nothing :)

also like most things, everything became a lot better when i saw guruji.. and my two guardian angels - bawa (magic man) and dinesh bhaiya

so its one week down and two more to go :) :)

wish me luck !

love
tanu

ps - been reading a lot, thanks to the magic man’s incredible scribe collection so you can look forward to some nice lil reviews soon:):)

ambrosia :)

jai gurudev!

just recovering from one of the most satisfying meals ever.. :) i have always looked at european cuisine as something that can just be pecked at ..a snack ,not really a meal .. but this concept was totally shattered today.. was lucky to witness bau cooking again ..jeetu was assistant chef and i was in-charge of some veggie cutting and dishwashing.. :)

then bawa started cooking ..what followed was nothing short of watching a rostropovich concert.. one ingredient after another ..tossed in ..precise yet effortless..a maestro in action..

and after about twenty mins (and countless vessels) .. it was done! .. he then gathered everyone and we sat down to eat a meal i wont forget in a hurry ..:) everything looked like a million bucks.. (will upload some pics soon)

i began with the salad .. it was like walking into a rainforest.. the sight , the smell , the taste of the dressing .. the juices of the tomatoes, the feta cheese and mushrooms .. the crunch of the lettuce and the cabbage.. like a sensory explosion

i pulled myself away from the salad to land on pasta territory only to realize that i could eat this for the rest of my life.. it was soo aromatic.. basil, ginger, fresh garlic..

and finally the dark horse of the meal - caramelized mushrooms - my sceptic conservative tongue advised me to take a teenie tiny serving.. but the first bite and i was in love.. it was soo smooth ..warm and mellow like soft sunshine :) bau had used jaggery and balsamic vinegar to coat the sauteyed mushrooms..wonder how he thinks of these combinations ..it was like my taste buds had died and gone to heaven ..

all the lucky souls who shared the meal know what im talking about and the rest should pray that they are there the next time the maestro performs ..

annadata sukhi bhavah !

lots of love
tanu

security

jai gurudev!

i just realized something very nice today :) ..when i was doing my MS and later when i worked for a while .. i was earning quite a bit in terms of the green stuff and had that so called financial security; but i remember i was ever so concerned about having enough money ..i used to keep checking my account.. how much there is ..is it enough .. calculating..assuring myself ..

then i made the most intelligent decision of my life.. decided to do what i really want to do.. got into the TTC ..and out in a piece :) life as a teacher started with 2 fab courses in 2 weeks.. it was awesome to say the least..lots of travelling .. and then found out that i was lucky enough to come to bombay to work for the mega yes!+ .. just today i realized that in the past one and half odd months it had never struck me to think about finances .. i then remembered one of the knowledge sheets -

Weekly Knowledge #138 Santa Monica, California 28 Jan 1998 USA False Security False securities do not allow your faith to grow. When you have dropped your securities, then your faith grows. When you buffer your life with securities, you keep the faith away. It is the faith that brings perfection in you. Faith is the greatest security. If you have all the material securities and not have faith, you will still reel in fear. You have to let go of all possessions in the mind. False security is keeping things where they don't belong. It is an illusion of security because of having a job, a house, friends. Keep the house where it belongs, not in the mind. Keep the money in the bank or in the pocket, not in the mind. Keep friends and family where they belong, not in the mind. The Divine is your only security. Faith is realizing that you always get what you need. Faith is giving the Divine a chance to act. Your body belongs to the world. Your spirit belongs to the Divine.

this was one of those sheets which always sounded very good to me but i didnt quite get it.. until today .. safety is really not in the money or the house or the car.. its in the mind .. im so secure now.. a feeling of being totally taken care of .. i have nothing against luxury infact i quite enjoy it ;) .. but that feverishness is gone :)

lots of love
tanu

classic

love this one !

Manipal :)

jaigurudev !

landed here on the 18th for 6 days of total craziness :) the funnest YES!+ happened ! the participants were beeyond awesome ..volunteers were an epitome of perfection .. so obviously the course was a rave :)

towards the end ashok ji said lets go meet guruji .. and so 15 of us jumped in .. reached the famed tiger circle to catch the bus , only to see the bus driving away without us , but with our tickets :)
in an almost bollywoodish attempt to save the day we catch four autos and rush to udupi (next stop) to catch the truant bus .. somehow tumble in .. bags n all ..quick head count ..everyone made it !! yeah , off to ashram ! three blissed out days in ashram.. went to shakti kutir .. sadhana at sumeru mantap.. gowshala..ved pathshala.. radha kunj ..
these guys came back ..i stayed on for two days of glorious laziness at lee aaty's home ..

and then to mangalore to co-teach a three day foundation YES!+ with vini .. btw her house is nothing short of a cottage in a resort .. sunlight streaming in thru palm trees , a picturesque well, dainty lil road, flowers in full bloom.. beeautiful :) plus her mom is the most amazing cook ever :)slurp.. the memory of that divine huli( kannada for sambhar) is going to linger for quite a while :) another place not to be missed when in mangalore is pabba's ..its ice-cream heaven.. i want like a life time membership to that store

reached manipal yest morn.. was blown out of my socks by the way the YES!+upgrade went ..all teams rocked it .. had amazing chai at shashwati's house afterwards and then dinner with the sooper YES!+ crowd ..

wow guruji :) all this in 12 days .. talk about whirlwind

lots of love
tanu

ps- ( coming up - a post bout our trip to kollur mookambike , a stunning devi temple near manipal )

Dido ( die-do not dee-do ) ;)

jgd :)


im a huuuge dido fan and have been wanting to write this post for a long time but was waiting for dido's newest album to come out so that it could be a comprehensive review of sorts .. and it did, so here i am :)

now i first listened to dido when i was 18 and i was instantly lost in that velvety smooth voice .. in the lyrics .. the music ..which grew like a creeper at first demurely peeking in and out of my mind and then quite firmly as a constant element of my days in college; quite like a good friend .. i wanted to keep listening to her and then again some more :) :)

that album was her first and was called " no angel " .. its still my favourite of the three that she s made .. most of her songs are about heartbreak and loss .. and i usually gravitate towards happy songs so i was a lil surprised that i liked her music so much but i guess the blend of strength and vulnerability and above all a sparkling honesty in her songs left me no choice.. the songs from this album that touched me most i think were "thank you"and "Im no angel"..

then came the next one after about two years i think - it was called " Life for rent " .. It was a beeautiful album ..one in which its impossible to pick favorites , but the moment i heard " sand in my shoes" i had this really weird feeling of secondary deja vu ..like being introduced to your own thoughts by someone else .. he he ..this sounds retarded .. and there was this one song called " this land is mine" ..

then last year came after the longest break her next master piece - "safe trip home"
dido's people did an awful lot of publicity for this one and i was afraid it may not live up to all that one begins to expect..but well i was totally wrong.. it was more beautiful than i could ever imagine .. there was a distinct dido flavor but there was this amazing newness .. the lyrics as always were outstanding.. each song a piece of art.. carefully moulded around a feeling.. subtle and yet very lucid. And her voice rising above everything else with a quality that cant be described with a word. my favs of this one and the ones that i politely suggest you must listen to once at least are - us 2 lil gods , lets do the things and the day before the day. Now the last one (the day before the day) is about a person losing a family member .. about how the world could move on like nothing happened .. about not getting to say goodbye ..

and then there's the really happy "us 2 lil gods" .. a song about two people in love..

i pray she makes music for as long as possible :)

lots of love
tanu