32nd Edition of Shadow Dancing with Mind - CELEBRATING MADRAS DAY

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADRAS!!!

This is my 32nd edition of “Shadow Dancing With Mind”, which celebrates Founding of Madras, (22^nd August, 1639), with a call to "ONE ASPECT I WOULD LIKE TO CHANGE ABOUT CHENNAI"… as well as take you, “UP, CLOSE AND PERSONAL” with some important people I came across in Chennai in recently…

In this edition you will also 'walk' with me through my impressions “STILL LIFE” from Vrindavan, where Krishna’s Love Flowered… And then we end with “THOUGHT THIS WEEK” from Verse Every Day… “BE THE BEAUTIFUL HUMAN BEING THAT YOU ARE…” V.E.D

So here it is and hope you would like the selections from the blog…

A) DON’T CHASE AWAY THE BIRDS…

Well Chennai is a beautiful, peaceful and culturally very important city, the world over. But being a North Indian, living in Chennai for last two decades, I have developed a different perspective of the city. As a resident, we have some way to go, in terms of infrastructure, development, public transport etc. but then these are things that will be hard to achieve as an individual. But we can all chip in to create awareness, about things that are not right in the city. And the one I would like to talk about lakes among 90 wild life and nature spots that we have in and around Chennai…which attract beautiful migratory birds from across the world, apart from sustaining local flora and fauna.

Click here to read more…

B) YOGA: IS YOGA AN INDIAN PRACTICE?

Another famous person from Chennai, is B K S Iyengar, who brought Yoga to the West, died recently, in his honour, I would like to dedicate this post about Yoga and the perspective the west have of it now…

Yoga is practiced by about 15 million people in the United States, for reasons almost as numerous — from the physical benefits mapped in brain scans to the less tangible rewards that New Age journals call spiritual centering. Religion, for the most part, has nothing to do with it. But a group of Indian-Americans has ignited a surprisingly fierce debate in the gentle world of yoga by mounting a campaign to acquaint Westerners with the faith that it says underlies every single yoga style followed in gyms, ashrams and spas: Hinduism.

Click here to read more…

C) UP, CLOSE AND PERSONAL

1) CHANAKYA RETURNS BY TIMERI N MURARI

Over the year, it has been my pleasure to meet and interact with Timeri N Murari, a Chennai based novelist, journalist, playwright and screenwriter; whose best seller ‘Taj’ has been translated into 25 languages. His screenplay of the award-winning Hindi movie Daayraa (1997) was voted one of the ten best films of 1997 by Time magazine. In our discussions, he has remarked about his characters, “Once the story starts growing, one character starts taking over” and this is what is the ‘central character’ of his latest book, ‘Chanakya Returns’ which was recently launched at Odyssey in Chennai.

Click here to read more…

2) QUEEN OF SUFI SINGERS – ABIDA PRAVEEN

The moment I reach the foothills of Himalaya, the soulful Sufi songs of Abida Praveen turns into a pulsating sphere of earth colors, submerging all my consciousness into the vast sea of joy and happiness. The effect of her songs, the words of Sufi saints and the pure mountain air of Himalaya is such that all my worldly worries retreat into oblivion and only the ‘now’ exists, to be cherished as in eternity. The queen of Sufi Songs, Abida Praveen, remains to be my favorite of all times and when the chance came to meet her and hear her soulful singing, I was blissful.

Click here to read more…

3) DAYANITA SINGH – THE DIGITAL DIVIDE

A book maker who uses photography as her vocabulary…

DAYANITA SINGH is the first Indian to have a solo show at London's famous Hayward Gallery in 2013, who vehemently refuses to use Digital Cameras and computers to design and create her books. She loves making her books by her own hand, armed with scissors, knives of various form and sizes with scotch tape, instead of Cntrl+C and Cntrl+V, which is the usual way the 21st century world works in almost every field now.

Click here to read more…

D) STILL LIFE

VRINDAVANA –WHERE KRISHNA’S LOVE FLOWERED

I have been travelling a lot these days, from Chennai - Bangalore - Coorg - Delhi - Vrindavan and back to Chennai. In all these two weeks, spending time in a spiritual retreat like Vrindavan was the most invigorating one.

Click here to read more…

E) THOUGHT THIS WEEK:

1) BE THE BEAUTIFUL HUMAN BEING THAT YOU ARE…

"Absolute love is perhaps the most difficult thing to find in life for many of us, but it comes naturally to a mother… To really love, we should allow love to happen. Remember affection and care almost always transforms into love in depths of our heart and soul." - V.E.D

2) HAIKU TEA SESSION XII

A global creative co-operation of poets writing linked verses at a very popular Haiku group at Google Plus... The poets write one after the other, taking the last line of the previous poet as the link to thread their own creative output. The result is one of the most beautiful collections of verses...

Click here to read more…

Hope you have liked this edition of my blog. Let me know your views and I will be grateful if you can leave your comments …

__

Shashi

ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

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Up, Close & Personal: Chanakya Returns by Timeri N Murari

UPDATE: 
It is my honour that Timeri N Murari wrote introduction to my first Spiritual Fiction "Songs of the Mist" published in Dec, 2015
____
Over the year, it has been my pleasure to meet and interact with Timeri N Murari, a Chennai based novelist, journalist, playwright and screenwriter; whose best seller ‘Taj’ has been translated into 25 languages. His screenplay of the award-winning Hindi movie Daayraa (1997) was voted one of the ten best films of 1997 by Time magazine. The first time I met him at our book club ‘Sans Seriff’ at Apparao Gallery, where he gave a talk on his pilgrimage to Mount Kailash - “Limping To The Center Of The World” (To read review of the book, please click here…).

Pic Curtsy Aleph Publishing

In our discussion at the time, he has remarked about his characters, “Once the story starts growing, one character starts taking over” and this is what is the ‘central character’ of his latest book, ‘Chanakya Returns’ which was recently launched at Odyssey in Chennai.

The book is about Ancient Guru Chanakya, (an Indian teacher, philosopher, and royal advisor to the Emperor Chandragupta) who is reincarnated in the body of a Character Mohanlal who is just a lowly clerk in the beginning. And as the story grows, Chanakya slowly seeps into a powerful position of the top political family of the country, as the trusted and capable advisor to almost everyone in the family. From the beginning, the story anchors you with a deep thoughts and beautiful description of power play, of love and betrayals.

“Love, I advise, and I speak from experience, is a fragile as rotting silks and will disintegrate when infidelities, jealousies, betrayals, impotence infect it. The heart is not to be trusted as it is brainless and mistakes lust for love while the loins mistake love for lust" – says Chanakya in ‘Chanakya Returns’

The way Chanakya works his political machinations within the family is powerful as well as amazing insights into the working of a psyche.

"I lean over, my mouth near the delicate curves of her right ear, and whisper my Shastras. … In sleep a whisper enters the deeper caverns of the mind and lodges there in the crevices and folds of the reason and thought to guide the prince. Of course, he can ignore every word, that is free will, but it is my duty to keep repeating myself in the hope he listens and acts accordingly."

Timeri N Murari announcing the winner of Hindu Literary Prize 2014

I really enjoyed the journey through the political landscape that Tim Murari has created within the book, which could be placed geographically anywhere in South East Asia. When I asked him about this ambiguity, he says, “I did not want it to be identified with any one political party” But I am biased towards reading it from the point of UP and Bihar, a place that I come from. The Family in ‘Chanakya Returns’, of course have an uncanny similarity to the Family Politics that these places have been suffering from since Independence.

.. and the ending is beautifully crafted into an intriguing choice and revelation, leaves you asking for more and probably we might get it too, as Tim Murari informed me in our subsequent discussion.

"Death is not the end, it is the beginning of actions. It always alters the pattern of the lives of those who survive it."

Finally, I would like to share one of the things that Tim Murari feels quite strongly about. The plagiarizing of the real Chanakya’s Book ‘Artha Sastra’ etc. by famous Italian thinker Machiavelli. He makes it a point to say, through the character Chanakya in his book “My life’s work, my treatise on state craft, Arthashastra, was stolen by that Italian plagiarist, Niccolo de Bernardo dei Machiavelli”.

Now I will leave you with some of the thoughts from the book, which I could relate to at deeper level. But before that, here’s…

A brief Biography of Timeri N Murari
(Text Curtsy Timeri N Murari)

Timeri N Murari in conversation at Hindu Lit Festival 2014

Timeri N. Murari began his journalistic career as a police reporter on a small town newspaper in Canada before joining The Guardian in London. For 15 years, he wrote features and interviewed the famous, from Gloria Swanson and Melina Mercouri to Paul Newman and John Fowles. He has also written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The London Times, The Observer, The Hindu, Indian Express, Penthouse and other magazines. He wrote his first novel in 1973 and has since written 18 others, four non-fiction books including a memoir, MY TEMPORARY SON, and on his trekking pilgrimage to Mount Kailas, LIMPING TO THE CENTRE OF THE WORLD. 

He also has made Television documentaries for British TV on Homicide detectives in the South Bronx, Texas Cowboys and black families in the American deep South. ‘THE SQUARE CIRCLE’ (Daayra) a feature film which he wrote and co-produced, was chosen by Time magazine as one of the top 10 best films of the year in 1997. He later adapted it for the stage and directed the play at the Leicester Haymarket Theatre. Parminder Nagra played the main lead. His novel THE TALIBAN CRICKET CLUB was published in eight countries. Aleph publishes his new novel CHANAKYA RETURNS July 2014.

Text Curtsy: Timeri N Muri

THOUGHTS FROM ‘CHANAKYA RETURNS’ BY TIMERI N MURARI

Timeri N Murari at our Book Club 'Sans Seriff'

Power is to be pursued. It is an aphrodisiac, it is unending hot sex of 1001 positions, it is magical, it is miraculous.

Heat of women’s loins melts men’s minds.

“The world’s biggest power is the youth and beauty of a woman” Arthshastra

Power and love are incompatible, for power cannot trust the love offered up to it on a gold platter. Men and women are devious serpents in a pit, coiling and uncoiling their calculations to win the love of power.

We are democratic country and we need our dynasties.

Thoughts needs silence, only the sounds of nature, the sigh of the wind, the call of a bird, the rustle of leaves, truly inspired me ...

I have not revealed my true identity to anyone as I know, from my previous existence, that when you are among strangers, you need to keep your true self a secret. You never know who is the friend and who is the enemy.

Its easier to inherit a throne than to win one by an outsider.

We have thousand ways to communicate in this day, but mostly with nothing wise to say, only the babble of disjointed thoughts.

Love is full of porous holes; it will drain away in time.

Democracy is always a famished beast that needs constant nourishment. (Fill the party coffers)

Hope, even if false, is better than being forgotten. No medication can purge love; the sediment clings stubbornly to the walls of a heart.

Sex is a contagion, once tasted, once explored, once sated, it devours the mind and the body.

Even time has not an antidote for such a sweet poison (love).

So common are the statues of Gandhi that he has been rendered invisible.

Self delusion is the charming trait of humans, we will ourselves into the hallucination.

Happiness is as brief as a wisp of breath, fragile, lasting a few seconds then vanishing. Think the thought ‘I am happy’ and you have driven it away.

Love is not happiness, it’s more a physical feeling centered in the heart and the mind, and thinking on love does not banish it. It can last a day, two days, a lifetime.

When you are young, daydreams nourishes you.

Memory plays tricks on all of us. It’s like the wet clay that you can mould into any desired shape to fulfill a fantasy, to recreate a better version of what occurred so many years ago. We believe that what we wanted, what we yearned for in, that mysterious zone below the surface of our thoughts, lie the dreams that we create which, after the passage of years, rise to the surface.

Aren’t our fantasies more comfortable than the heart break of reality?

…Love is watery. But water also has the power to submerge and wear down rocks.

Children understand love better than adults, which is why we regress when we fall in love. They know the happiness of receiving it and also the pain and disappointment when it is withheld.

Have you considered that even the universe could be puzzled by its own existence and searching for its creator? It wants an explanation for why it came into sudden being in five seconds, when it had been sleeping peacefully for an eternity.

In democracy the art of assassination has to be more subtle and revolves around the destruction of the rivals character…

There is some self interest behind every friendship. This is a bitter truth. Friendships are love affairs not consummated in bed but in classes, bars, on playing fields, on long journeys and they fill the void of loneliness that we all experience in this life. The bitterest betrayals are not between lovers or families but friends. They are our companions on this journey and when they vanish into dust and ashes, we know our own time nears. 

They are the last milestone we pass before the end.

Love is as vicious a weapon as power; it can gut the heart, wrench it out and stamp on it.

Always keep your secrets secret.

___________

I hope you have enjoyed reading my take on this lovely book, if you would like to know more about the book or the author then do get in touch or leave a comment... It will be my pleasure to respond or connect you with the author....

__

Shashi

ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

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Limping to the center of the World - Timeri N Murari        The Gypsy Goddess - Meena

TABLOG: Don't Chase Away The Birds...

ONE ASPECT I WOULD LIKE TO CHANGE ABOUT CHENNAI
______________________________________________________

Don’t Chase Away The Birds…

To celebrate the Madras week, in our Chennai Bloggers Club, (CBC) we have started second session of our pet event called Tablog (Where each one of us blogger’s write about one topic and then tag another person). This session has raised a very important question, ‘What one aspect I would like to change about Chennai’. Well Chennai is a beautiful, peaceful and culturally very important city, the world over. With it’s beautiful beaches, Historical Temples and Architecture and enchanting forests and hills all around, it makes for perfect place for living and weekend getaways.

LETS NOT CHASE THEM AWAY

But being a North Indian, living in Chennai for last two decades, I have developed a different perspective of the city. As a resident, we have some way to go, in terms of infrastructure, development, public transport etc. but then these are things that will be hard to achieve as an individual. But just like this session of Tablog, we can all chip in to create awareness, about things that are not right in the city. And the one I would like to talk about lakes among 90 wild life and nature spots that we have in and around Chennai… (Click here to get the list) which attract beautiful migratory birds from across the world, apart from sustaining local flora and fauna.

On the outskirts of Chennai... 

There are almost 54 lakes in and around the city. Well when I say almost, it basically means that some of them are almost on the verge of extinction. Just like the domestic sparrow, which nowadays, we don’t see around, thanks to the process of extreme modernization and change in the living habits of people. I have been travelling around the city, visiting most of them and taking some pictures. So this post is not going to be of a sermon type, but a visual journey to trigger a desire to visit, popularize these spots and in turn, help in creating in awareness about the construction, filth and neglect that’s choking these places to die an un-natural death.

Some of the birds in Palnikarai Lake

So, come walk with me…

Chennai is home to large number of Migratory birds...

Making it their home and place of joy...

But as slowly the encroachments, neglect...

... and Filth takes over..

These birds of beauty are fighting for space...

Lets not chase them away...

THIS POST IS CONTINUATION OF THE TABLOG SESSION II, DISCUSSING ONE ASPECT OF CHENNAI ONE WOULD LIKE TO CHANGE.

I was honored to be introduced by Deepak Raghuraman, a great blogger on social causes whose interview on Deccan Chronicle was published recently. And I pass on the baton to a passionate soul, Shivaranjini, a budding writer, whose thoughts and stories I loved reading... click here to visit her blog.

CELEBRATING MADRAS WEEK (22nd Aug)

_

Shashi

ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

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Thoughts This Week

TTW: Thought & Haiku of the Week and Haiku Tea Session XII

THOUGHT THIS WEEK:
BE THE BEAUTIFUL HUMAN BEING THAT YOU ARE… 

"Absolute love is perhaps the most difficult thing to find in life for many of us, but it comes naturally to a mother. Because, a mother allows her caring to seep deep into her soul, manifesting pure love without any expectations. Whereas most of us build walls around us, with our needs, desire and lust; and we almost always wish to own and transform our loved ones."

"To really love, we should allow love to happen. Remember affection and care almost always transforms into love in depths of our heart and soul." - V.E.D

HAIKU TEA SESSION XII

A global creative co-operation of poets writing linked verses at a very popular Haiku group at Google Plus... The poets write one after the other, taking the last line of the previous poet as the link to thread their own creative output. The result is one of the most beautiful collections of verses... as below. I am sure that you will enjoy it as much as we all did.... The name next to it is the poet who has written those lines... To read the original session and see the process, please click here...

Soul prisoners search
A meaning of 'being'; In
Voids of love; Alone                                -  

Tears withheld from empty skies
under sullen summer breaths...              -  

a warbling chick
nothing but sticks, flesh, chirps, nest
the whole of one                                     -  

bathing in the distant flow
the ripples… they disappear...               -  

wandering within
foraging in still silence
gathering moments                               -  

an old, empty room pregnant
with memories                                     -  

that the bars cannot contain
love's fluidity...flows free                     -  

laughter of a child
a dirty, torn summer dress ...
captured memory                                -  

Safe in a bottle
Floating between images
Linked by counted breathes               -  

rising and falling like tides
forever chasing the moon                   -  

watching the night bend
and tumble amidst the stars
the cold black ocean                          -  

waves of memories lapping
ships in the night pass you by            -  

drowning tears awaken
the senses from twilight
island muses to ponder                       -  

once again the meaning of
Being, and Loving Freely                    -  

What is being free...
By my own definition(s)...
I'm a prisoner...                                   -  

To society's bleak cage
How to find self amongst crowds        -  

caged between the bars 
bruised wings of forlorn dotage
yearns to fly again                             -  

butterfly in sunshine- hating
walls every second, evading             -  

how light is the heart
that finds love without searching
soul mates hand in hand                    - 

we chart the ultimate course
sojourners in time and space            -  

until we escape
limits and predefined paths
to feel being one                               -  
____
END

To join the next session, please leave a message below or at my profile at Google+ 

HAIKU OF THE WEEK

Gopi's love...

___________________

Krishna unfolds me

Into flowering petals

Of sweet ecstasy

IMAGE: The wild plants of Vana Tulsi at Nidhivan in Vrindavan, where Krishna used to dance with the Gopis - the village girls, whole night which is known as Raslila. It's said that this forest of Wild Basilica plants still hosts the Raslila of Krishna every night...

To know more about Vrindavan, come walk with me to the place where Krishna's love flowered... Click here

_

Shashi

ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

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Haiku Session V