"Ha" moments..

The best pieces of writing are those that touch your heart before your mind has even fathomed the meaning of what you just read! At those moments, my heart exclaims "Ha!" with pleasant surprise and admiration. I had one of those this morning when I read these lines from Khalil Gibran's "The Prophet":

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.

Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?

And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see in truth that you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

DNC -- History is made!

Barack Obama was nominated by acclamation as the candidate of the Democratic Party for Election 2008, the first African-American to ever lead a major part ticket. It was an emotional moment for African-Americans. Tears were rolling down their cheeks. Many of them were crying outright as they raised their heads proudly. An African-American party official said he wanted to dedicate this moment to his late father who lived through segregation and racial discrimination in the 50s. Finally, finally, vindication that they could aspire to the highest office in the USA and officially represent a major party!

It was a historic moment and I can now say that I watched it live.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I've been following the race for the President of the US since January this year through the
grueling primaries, Hillary's defeat and the melodrama that followed afterward. I, for one, thought that Bill Clinton, after his wife's defeat, was a shadow of his former self, acting like a baby denied candy. I thought I'd see more of his wordplay yesterday night and a wishy-washy approval of Obama.

Instead, he came out swinging with his GOP slamming and outright approval of Obama. In the process, he showed everyone how its done..:) The thing with Clinton is that you forget all his faults when he shows up and starts talking nice. He sounds so sincere, eloquent and coherent that you want to believe him. Thus far, I thought no one, including the candidate, made a case for himself so strongly as Bill did for Obama! Definitely, one of the best talks of the convention.

S & I were wondering how in the world the country managed to listen to George W. Bush for 8 years after hearing someone like Bill.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Tonight is Obama's acceptance speech. I am a sucker for good speeches and am looking forward to hearing this guy speak! :)

Yoga Craze

I've become a Yoga freak. Initially, I tried a couple of Ayurvedic home remedies and they worked like a charm. Then, one day, I came home with a tension headache and read somewhere that Sarvangasana (Shoulder Stand Pose) cures tension headaches. I tried it and in a couple of minutes, I was feeling much better! So, I am officially now a Yoga fan. We got this BKS Iyengar book about Yoga yesterday and I am planning to religiously follow a Yoga regimen.

Of course, as with all fads that hit me, let's see if I actually follow this through to completion. But, this one, I really, really, really, really want to do be consistent!:)

Powered by ScribeFire.

Music mania!

A bunch of music maniacs got together this Thanksgiving holiday at our home. We rented a few instruments from a local music shop, put together a list of film songs and started jamming. Dinesh wanted to sing "recordable" material -- so we sang a few songs for the "record"..:) Arun was our aasthana keyboardist. Sujan & Dinesh were the drummers. RT, me, Nick, Moni and a few others were the vocalists. ANM and Venky were our sound/recording guys. Amidst giggling, musical missteps and flashes of brilliance, we managed to record a couple of songs with probably an hour of practice..:) I consider that quite a feat..

It was fun to have the camaraderie of practicing together;of laughing together at some good and some dead-end jokes; of just just giggling away to glory for the most trivial of things; of just having friends over for the holidays.

Later in the night, after wolfing down pizza, we had a Carnatic music session. It went on and on and on until 2.30 AM in the morning..! :) Finally, exhausted but thoroughly entertained after a long evening, we settled down to just "talk" into the wee hours of the morning..

Here's a song we recorded with our miscues and all..:)

Singers: Subha & RT
Drums: Sujan & Dinesh
Keyboard: Arun

Ahh, it was a memorable thanksgiving! :)

A quote that inspired me...

"What you are is God's gift to you; what you become is your gift to God"

- Andre Agassi

Powered by ScribeFire.

To see the world in a grain of sand....

To see the world in a grain of sand

And  heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand

And eternity in an hour.

I found these words accidentally when I was frantically messaging in multiple forums for an answer to my ColdFusion troubles. One of the persons in the forum had this in his signature. I was rather harried and mentally hyper till I saw this quote. It kind of calmed me down. It is amazing how we turn to technology to make our lives easier and simpler. We use so many gadgets , software and what-not to improve our standard of living. And yet, it is ironic that that same complicated technology cannot provide us with two seconds of mental tranquillity that a beautiful piece of verse gives!

Sometimes I wonder if all that technology doesn't just drive us into hyper-mode and make us all the more agitated. And a mind that is agitated cannot plumb its creative depths. Perhaps, that's why even the greatest scientific geniuses have led simple lives in harmony with nature - Edison, Einstein, Newton.....

Now that my two minutes of introspection are up, I've got to get back to battling the demons of ColdFusion/Java Script in the world of Technology!