Rotation & Revolution

CAUTION: This post is not a Physics lecture nor I wanted to support a religion. This post is a complex imagination which even I am not clear of and might require some effort to understand. In fact, the reader is required to think in the same way I thought while writing the post :) . However I tried to keep this simple and it can eventually be reviewed as a junk post too which I don’t mind. So if you have no plans to invest your brain and time now, please come back later to read this post.
Recently after observing few things and listening to few people, a weird thought stuck my mind. Although I will explain the reasons few sentences later in this post, I want to mention my thought straight away. “Any motion by any one or any thing real or imaginary or scientific or philosophical will always eventually be rotation or revolution.” I think this is a pretty generalized statement which I want to explain in depth. Simple definition of rotation is circular (or near circular) motion of a body (or object) about a center. People sometimes use the words rotation and revolution synonymously but there is a slight difference between the two. If the proposed center of object’s circular motion is with in the object, it is considered to be rotation. If the proposed center of object’s circular motion is outside the object, it is revolution. So the common point to catch here is circular motion. “Circular” – Start at a point and reach the same point after travelling in some “time” and start again.
Consider an atom, the smallest unit of matter. It has a nucleus which contains protons mainly and the nucleus has electrons revolving around them. Electrons also rotate on their own axis too. Such atoms which club together to form larger units of matter that is living or non living. One of such largest non living matter, for example, is our own planet Earth, along with other planets does both rotation and revolution. On a side note, I considered Earth to be non living but many cultures in this world treat Earth has life and is also treated as Mother and Goddess. Although I do not have any proofs to show, I imagine this ‘Milky way’ galaxy is also revolving around something. And I trust my imagination that says this universe, for which no boundaries have been found yet, is also rotating and revolving something. Fact is that imaginations have no boundaries !!
So basically coming back to Earth, a human being who is considered to be the wisest of all the living matter, is also rotating and revolving. To make myself clear here, in reality although he is walking with his legs in various directions, he is living for himself. In other words, his mind is rotating thinking about himself, about how he has to live, about how he has to eat etc.. Also his mind revolves around all worldly things, all desires, revolves around his family. Especially different in people fields have different paths (orbits) of revolutions. This applies to all the animals and other living beings too. And as per Hindu philosophy, (I don’t know about other religious philosophies) there is a concept of rebirth. Life after life which is a cycle, circular motion. This circle of life and death can be only broken if you get the blessings of the Brahman. So this circular motion is inevitable whether the object has life or not. Even if you don’t believe my imagination, I think it is acceptable to say that as everyone and everything around us are on Earth which is rotating and revolving, effectively an object on the earth is also doing the rotation and revolution.
Sometimes, my imaginations go very weird that I feel this solar system is an atom of another matter where the Sun is the nucleus and the planets are electrons. And such atoms which form the matter is the universe that we know of. In other way, let us take the water which comprises of hydrogen and oxygen atoms. Each of these atoms is a planetary system where the nucleus of oxygen atom is a star and electrons of the oxygen atom are the planets. I think this relationship of one being in another, one being the subset of other is a continuous circular hierarchy too.
Coming out of this circular imaginations, I just wanted to express my imaginations in this post. There might nothing that the reader get out of this post. I would like to see if someone felt like this anytime. Have a nice day!!

New York and Niagara - 3

On the 11th of Sep, we woke up late as we didn’t have any plans for the morning except for getting ourselves ready to ‘TRAVEL’ to the JFK airport again and fly to Niagara. By the way, the destination airport was Buffalo International Airport. Although there were various modes of transport available to reach Niagara like bus and train services. The only reason I opted to fly to Niagara was that the travel time was 1 hour and most importantly, it is difficult to hold my 16 month old kid more than that period. We had ordered for lunch to be delivered to our place in Jersey city. Everything went on time and our taxi to JFK took around 70 minutes to reach the destination. I was expecting traffic as the date was 09/11 but it was not bad. Our flight was at 4.30 PM and we reached Buffalo city at around 5.30 PM. We picked up the car that we rented in advance and we reached the hotel that we booked in advance by 6 PM. It was a pleasant stay at the hotel.

One of the reasons that we wanted to reach Buffalo by evening was that we wanted to visit falls in the illumination in the night. We didn’t plan to go towards the Canadian side of the falls as we did not have a valid Canadian visa. We took rest for a while in the hotel and by 7.30 PM, we set off to see the falls in the night. We had dinner on our way at the “Palace Of Dosas”. I have to mention here that the restaurant manager assisted us in all ways. Firstly, they don’t serve dinners on Tuesdays. Unfortunately, we went there on a Tuesday. Although they serve only To-Go, they still took our order and served us at the table. Then we went ahead to Niagara falls. I was using my phone as GPS and it was pretty good in directing me to Niagara on toll free roads. We reached the point where we could only listen to roars of the fall but we couldn’t figure out where the falls were actually located. We parked the car in the official parking lot and saw people coming out of a park. We went into that park and we were able to see the falls in the night. They were varying the colors of the focus lights. I liked the white illumination as the falls looked just like milk spilling out of a glass. It was awesome!! Also on our way to the falls in the park, we understood that it was the same point to which we should arrive next day morning to take “Maid Of the Mist” boat ride. We came back to the hotel by 11 PM.

Next day, the Sep 12, we started at 9 AM to the same park. In the sunlight, we noticed many things. The road which took us to the Niagara State Park was actually along the river that converted in to the falls. Also, there was a parking fee of $10 in the morning. We went ahead to the park tourist center, bought our tickets to the maid of the mist trip and the observation tower too. We first went to the observation tower from where we could see the American falls (also called bridal falls, I guess) and a part of Canadian or horse shoe falls. One would definitely observe rainbows here and its an amazing experience for a person who had rarely seen rainbows in his life. Kids would definitely enjoy it. We took few snaps from the observation tower and then we got onto the elevators on the observation tower that took us all the way down to the place where we could board the maid of the mist ferry. They would provide polythene recyclable covers to cover ourselves so that we would not get wet in the mist of the falls. The ferry trip was an excellent one. The closer we got to the falls, the more would be mist all around and the falls would become visible on one side and invisible on the other side. The ferry took us to the mid of the horse shoe falls and again returned to the same point where boarded the ferry. It was an enjoyable trip.

We came back to the top of observation tower. The rainbow bridge which connects America and Canada was also visible from this place. We walked in the park to a point where we were adjacent to the falls. The river which looked still few miles before the falls, was flowing with visible speed near the falls. We then walked towards Goat Island which was an island on the other side of the American falls. It was also the same place where one could go for the “Cave Of the Winds” attraction. Cave of the Winds was an attraction where a visitor would be able to go down to the bottom most and nearest point to the American falls. Although we opted not to go for that, it is a worth visiting attraction too. Going further from this point, we reached the top most and the closest point to Horse shoe falls on the American land. Although Horse shoe falls were more clearly visible from the Canadian land, it was not a bad thought to visit it from Goat Island. It was a long walk from Niagara state park to the Goat island and we were already exhausted. We came back to the car and went to an Indian Restaurant (again) for lunch and reached the hotel. We took rest for a while and got ourselves packed up for our return journey to Houston. The flight was at 6 PM and it was a one stop flight via Baltimore. We reached Houston by 11 PM as the flight got delayed.

Overall, it was a nice and exciting trip that came to an end. We collected the souvenir magnets at every place we visited and our refrigerator is full of such magnets now. Thanks to God for giving us a chance to visit these beautiful places safely and as planned!!

New York and Niagara - 2

 

The next day, we started a little late and went to see the Downtown of NY city. The PATH train services were convenient to travel from Journal Square of Jersey City to WTC (World Trade Center), NY. Just outside the PATH station of WTC, NY, we saw the new WTC tower that was being constructed. It was high enough just like the old ones. However, we started roaming in downtown. We walked towards the World Financial Center. However, my eyes were looking into the sky half of the time. Again, when did they build all this? I was imagining the number of people, the number of companies and offices in this area. Where are these people parking their vehicles? Oh my God, no wonder this city is called the City of Skyscrapers.

The World Financial Center is home of various big companies like Merrill Lynch, American Express etc. From the Winter Garden of World Financial Center, we walked along the bay of Hudson River towards Battery Park. The Battery Park is the place from which the cruises towards the Liberty Island which is known for Statue of Liberty. However, our trip to Statue of Liberty was not planned for this day. We walked few steps further to visit the Bull of Wall Street, also known as the Charging Bull. It indicates the aggressive financial optimism (as defined in Wiki).

 

We walked few streets further in Broad street and into the world famous Wall Street, surrounded completely by skyscrapers, it was an unique experience. The New York Stock Exchange (just like BSE in India) building was awesome. Few steps further on the same street, the Federal Hall which was served initially as New York City hall, later as US Customs house, later as the first capitol building and was the site where George Washington took oath as first president of United States. Currently it is a place of interest for tourists.

We then had lunch in an Indian restaurant in Downtown and then we walked towards the Brooklyn bridge. In fact, we didn’t walk on the bridge as we were already tired of walking in the downtown. We took pictures from a visitor spot, a place from which the Brooklyn bridge was clearly visible. It is known for its age and as one of the oldest suspension bridges. We walked towards the Brooklyn bridge starting point on the Manhattan end and later to WTC memorial. The place itself gave us a feeling that we were missing the towers. A glimpse of the live telecast by CNN on the day of attack while I was a plus two student struck my mind. Being in ground Zero, brought me an imagination of how the people in those flights, people in the towers would have felt on the day of attack. Even the ground floor of World Financial Center was severely damaged during the collapse. The area was highly secured. I was not sure whether the security is generally high in the area or it was just high on the day we went since we visited the place on 09/09 which couple of days before 9/11. They have constructed two pools (biggest man made pools in North America) which exactly sit in the same location where the twin towers stood before. The names of every person who died in the attacks were inscribed on the edge panels of each of the pools. There is a small pool inside each of big pool and I believe there is a tree inside that one. It was not visible though. After the memorial visit, we were tired and exhausted and left home. Another wonderful day of the trip (09/09) came to an end.

The next day (09/10), we set out early to Battery Park for taking a cruise towards Statue of Liberty. The city was clearly visible on the river and from the far, the city looked like a bar code with uneven line lengths. It was not allowed to go inside the statue but we had roamed around the statue on the island. A prerecorded audio guide was provided for understanding the history and greatness of the statue. One thing that mesmerized me was the material with which statue was made. I have been under the impression that it was made of concrete or cement but in fact, it was made of copper plates. It was originally not green in color but it took 20 years to get itself turn into green as the copper metal got oxidized. The cruise trip continued to Ellis Island from Liberty island where there was museum of American history. We didn’t had much interest in it and came back to New York – Battery park. We had lunch, again in another Indian restaurant. There was a reason why we didn’t try other foods. I feel being a vegetarian is a sin in US. Most of the places, vegetarians get salads but nothing else. I am not saying that no vegetarian food is available but whatever that is available doesn’t satisfy my hunger. By the way, New York is a city of street foods. Again this reminds me of India. One would definitely enjoy the street food here. Lots of stalls and lots of varieties (no vegetarian though except donuts).

We planned to visit the American Museum of Natural History in mid town. I was particularly interested to see the fossils of prehistoric creatures like dinosaurs. We planned it for less time but in fact it was a museum for which we should dedicate a day to completely see each and every hall. Needless to say, an individual who has interest in it should visit it. Visit the website www.amnh.org for more information. Later we took a taxi to one of the most important places in New York, the Empire State Building.

If you are going to NY for one day visit, Empire state building should be there in the list of places to see. We bought the tickets in advance for visiting both 86th deck and 102nd deck. For reaching 86th deck, we should change 2 lifts and then one more to 102 deck. The 86th deck has both an open balcony around the building and a closed observatory. It was amazing and we felt excited to see the said skyscrapers as small buildings from the top. We got a feeling that we were on top of the world and walking in the sky. With high speed cold winds blowing on the four sides, it was absolutely an exciting moment. With in myself, I thanked each and every person who was responsible for me being there. There were no words to describe it and one should feel it. We then went to the 102nd deck which is a closed observatory. It was small as we were almost on top of the building. It was almost evening by the time we were there and the sun was about sign off for the day. It was the time when the actual number of visitors get doubled to see New York in lights. We could see each and every place that we have been to in these two days. The only building which we could see on par in terms of height with Empire state is the new WTC tower. Also, depending on the occasion, colored lights will be turned on top of this building.

We came back home in Jersey city at night and the next afternoon (on 09/11), we flew to Niagara from JFK airport, NY. If you wish to see JFK airport, then plan your boarding point as JFK. Else, if you are not going to stay in NY like how we stayed in Jersey city, please plan your trip from Newark airport or some other closest airport rather than JFK.

I would like continue to write about Niagara in the next sequel of this series and conclude.

New York and Niagara - 1

Before beginning to write about my vacation, I would like to mention that I am an Indian who is working in Houston, TX, USA from past 1 year at the time of publishing this post. So, my perspective of seeing different places in US might sound different and might sound like a “Common man” from India. This might be a good informational post for those who want to visit NY for the first time.

I would like start with my trip’s plan at a high level. My wife, daughter and my self had recently went on 5 day vacation to New York and Niagara. My daughter is just 16 months old by the time I am writing this post and she enjoyed the trip too. We visited the places between September 8th and September 12th both days included. We started our trip from Houston, TX on Sep 8th and reached New York the same day. We stayed in New York for 3 days, till Sep 11. By the evening of Sep 11, we were in Niagara, NY and reached Houston, TX in the mid night of Sep 12th. Effectively its 3 days in NY, 1 day in Niagara and 1 day in travel. Luckily, the climate was absolutely good all these days in both the places. It was neither hot nor cool and was absolutely suitable for roaming around.

        We started from Houston to New York (NY) by an early morning flight. It was a pleasant journey and by lunch time, (we lost 1 hour) we were in JFK International Airport. I knew that the airport is big and is one of the busiest airports but it was bigger than I expected. Through out my stay in New York (and still), I had a question that when did they plan and construct all this city? It is surprising. We planned to stay at my friend’s place while in NY. Their house is at Jersey City, NJ which is on the other side of Hudson River. This river separates both New York and New Jersey states and specifically, New York and Jersey City cities. Both the cities are well connected by road and rail. Two tunnels, Liberty tunnel and Holland Tunnel form the road way and the train service (PATH) connects both the cities. The train service is also inside the water. It is fun to travel inside the tunnel for the first time. We opted to travel with the help of public transport. So we had travel to Jamaica station from the airport terminal via Air Trains. These air trains are like the proposed/running metro trains in Bangalore, Delhi and Hyderabad in India. From Jamaica station, we took a subway train to Port Authority which is a place where you can get public transport to all places around NY. I should tell this here that there a second world beneath the ground in NY. The whole subway train system. Again, a question runs in my mind. When did they build all this?

After getting out of the subway, we took a public bus service to Jersey city from Port Authority. This bus goes through the Liberty tunnel and it a different experience to travel through the tunnel. May be the daily travellers will not feel the same. On the first look through out this journey, except the few high rise buildings that we had seen, I felt NY was very much similar to Mumbai in all aspects. Not sure why I got that feeling but it was very much similar to Mumbai that I have been seeing in TVs and movies(I didn’t visit Mumbai yet). Also it is very difficult to travel via the subways unless we start getting used to it. It is always recommended to take the help of someone local to NY before we take a decision about the train we need to catch. Also at the first look, I felt the city of NY is comparatively very old than Houston. I felt that Houston is brand new and New York needs some paint.

After having lunch, we took rest for sometime and in the evening, we went out to visit Madame Tussauds and Time Square located in the mid town of NY. By the way, as far as I understand, NY is broadly segmented into Downtown, Midtown and Uptown. Most of the tourist locations are present in Downtown and Midtown. Madame Tussauds is a wonderful place where wax statues of renowned people of the world are placed through out the floors of the building. The great thing about these places in NY is that photography is allowed at all the places. This is in converse to few tourist spots in India where photography is not permitted. I recollect the wax statues of Mahatma Gandhi, Amitabhji, Sharukh and Salman in the museum. The 4-D Avenger show was also exciting. It was my first 4-D show that I have ever been to. If you haven’t been to Madame Tussauds, its time to visit once.

          As it is always suggested to visit Time Square in the nights, we walked towards the Time Square from Madame Tussauds. The streets are lively with visitors all over. I recollected my walk on 6th Street in Austin, TX. We had dinner at an Indian restaurant in between. Time Square is small place surrounded by lights of all kinds, huge screens and sky scrappers. The atmosphere was so lively that even if you go in the midnight, something would be happening over there. Tourists can look around standing in the center where on one side, on top of the building, the new year ball is visible. This ball is rolled down on the new year eve and there will be approximately a million people watching and celebrating this on that day. After this we came back home and that was how our first day of the trip concluded. There were few places in the city which made me really feel that I was in an Indian city like Mumbai for sometime. The subways were hotter than the actual temperature of the ground and as a first time visitor, I felt very insecure and scary in the subway station especially after listening to various shoot-out incidents that happened recently in US. Even the subways reminded me of Max Payne game and 24 television series !!

I am planning to write about  the rest of New York trip in second part and the Niagara trip in the 3rd part.

భాష?రచయిత?

గమనిక : ఈ వ్యాసం ఏ మత ప్రచారం గురించి వ్రాయబడినది కాదు. ఇతర భాషలను తక్కువ చేసి చూపే ప్రయత్నము కాదు. ఇతర రచయితలని తక్కువ చేసి వ్రాసే ఉద్దేశ్యం లేదు.

అమ్మల గన్న యమ్మ ముగ్గురమ్మల మూలపుటమ్మ చాల పె

ద్దమ్మ సురారులమ్మ కడుపారడి పుచ్చిన యమ్మ తన్ను లో

నమ్మిన వేల్పుటమ్మల మనమ్ముల  నుండెడి యమ్మ దుర్గ మా

యమ్మ కృపాబ్ధి నిచ్చుత  మహత్వ కవిత్వ పటుత్వ సంపదల్

ఈ పద్యం  చదివితే, అంతరార్ధం అర్ధంకాకపోయినా చదవటానికే ఎంతో హాయిగా ఉన్నదన్నది నా అభిప్రాయం. బహుశా నా అభిప్రాయం తో అందరు ఏకీభవిస్తారని అనుకుంటున్నాను. అందరికి అమ్మ అయినటువంటి దుర్గా దేవిని భాగవతము వ్రాయబోయే ముందు చేసిన ప్రార్ధన లోని పద్యమిది. నా ఈ వ్యాసమును  ఈ పద్యము తో మొదలుపెట్టినందుకు నాకు ఆనందంగా ఉంది. ఈ ఉత్పలమాలా పద్యము లో వృత్యానుప్రాసాలంకారం వాడారు మహాకవి పోతన. పదకొండు సార్లు 'అమ్మ' ని పిలిచారు. ఆ అమ్మ  పలికినందుకే అంత మంచి ఆణిముత్యం లాంటి భాగవతం మనకు తెలుగు లో లభించింది అని నేను నమ్ముతాను.
చిన్నతనంలో, తెలుగు చదువుకునే రోజుల్లో, "ఇది మనకి తెలియని భాష?" అనే ఒక పొగరు, ధైర్యం ఉండేవి కాని ఈ భాష లోని మాధుర్యం ఇప్పుడిప్పుడే తెలుస్తోంది. చిన్నతనంలోనే  ఒక అభిప్రాయం ఏర్పడుతుంది. "పద్యాలా ? అంత  కష్టమైనవి నాకు ఎక్కవులే.." అని. ఈ పద్యాలు  ఇప్పుడు చదువుతుంటే అసలు అలా అనిపించటంలేదు. ఒక కవి కానీ పండితుడు కాని ఒక కావ్యం లేక కవిత్వం రచించాలంటే కలము కాలము కాగితం ఉంటే సరిపోదు. దానితో పాటు పదాలు కావాలి. ఆ పదాలని ఒక పద్ధతి ప్రకారం సమకూర్చటానికి నియమాలు కావాలి. ఆ నియమాలు రచనని కష్టతరం చేయకుండా ఉండాలి. అలాగే ఆ రచనలో వాడే పద జాలం అర్ధం చేసుకోటానికి సులభంగా ఉండేలా రచించవచ్చు లేక మొదటిసారి చదివినపుడు కేవలము అర్ధము రెండొవ సారి చదివినపుడు ఆ రచన లోని అంతరార్ధము తెలిసేలా రచించవచ్చు . ఆ రచనా నియమాలని, అర్ధాన్ని అందించగలిగిన పద సంపత్తి ని భాష అందించగలగాలి. ఇన్ని ఉన్నా ఆ రచన చేసే వారికీ దేనిని ఎక్కడ ఎలా ప్రయోగించాలో తెలిసి ఉండాలి. ఇన్ని ఒకసారి జరిగితేనే ఒక అందమైన అద్భుతం ఉద్భవిస్తుంది. అందరికి రుచిస్తుంది. రచనా శక్తి రచయితది అయితే ఆ రచన కి కావాల్సిన భాషా సంపత్తిని ఇవ్వగలిగిన సత్తా తెలుగు భాష కి  కచ్చితంగా ఉందని చెప్పగలను. లేకపోతే అసలు ఆంధ్రమహా భాగవతము మనకి వచ్చేది కాదు, మహాభారతము తెలుగు లో ఉండేది కాదు, అన్నమయ్య కీర్తనలను ఆనందించే అవకాశం ఉండేది కాదు.

ఒకసారి ఈ తేటగీతి పద్యాన్ని చూద్దాం. ఇది కూడా పోతన్న గారు వ్రాసిన ప్రార్ధన లోనిదే.

చేతులారంగ శివుని బూజింపడేని, నూరునోవ్వంగా హరికీర్తినుడువడేని,

దయయు సత్యంబులో ను గా దలుపడేని, కలుగ నేటికి తల్లుల కడుపుచేటు

అసలు ఈ పద్యం లో అర్ధంకాకపోవటానికి ఏముంది? ఎంత శ్రావ్యమయిన చిన్న చిన్న పదాలు వాడి అందించవలసిన భావాన్ని పూర్తిగా అందించారు. ఇలాంటి పద్యాలు చదువుతుంటే ఒక రకమైన అనుభూతి కి లోనౌతాం. ఆ అనుభూతి ని వర్ణించాలంటే నాకైతే మాటలు రావు. తెలుగు లోనే రావు. మరి అలంటి అనుభూతిని కూడా పైన చెప్పిన షరతులని కలుపుకుంటూ ఒక పద్యాన్నో ఒక పాటనో ఒక కీర్తననో రాయాలంటే ఎంత అదృష్టం చేసుకోవాలి. ఎంత అవగాహనా ఉండాలి. అందుకే పోతన గారు భాగవతం మొదట్లో నే ఈ కంద  పద్యం చెప్తారు. ఇది నా గొప్పతనం కాదు, రాముడు రాయిస్తే నేను రాసాను అని. దీనికి కూడా నేను ప్రత్యేకించి అర్ధం చెప్పక్కర్లేదు.

పలికెడిది భాగవతమట, పలికించెడివాడు రామభాద్రుందట నే

పలికిన భవహరమగునట, పలికెద వేరోక్కగాధ పలుకగనేల

ఇలా రాసుకుంటూ పోతే ఎన్ని పద్యాలో రాయచ్చు. అలాగే ఇంకా కీర్తనల విషయానికి వస్తే ముఖ్యంగా చెప్పుకోవాల్సిన (మొట్టమొదటి) తెలుగు వాగ్గేయకారుడు  శ్రీ అన్నమాచార్యుల వారు. నేను విన్నటువంటి కొద్దిపాటి అన్నమాచర్య కీర్తనలలో నాకు అర్ధమైనది ఒకటుంది. అదేమిటంటే అనుభూతి ని పాటగా ఎలా మరల్చవచ్చు అనే ప్రశ్న కి సమాధానం. దేవుడిని అందరు పూజిస్తారు కొలుస్తారు. కాని దైవత్వాన్ని అనుభవించి ఆ అనుభవాన్ని కీర్తనల రూపం లో అందించారు. ఆయన వ్రాసిన వేల కొద్ది కీర్తనలని సుప్రభాత  కీర్తనలని, శృంగార కీర్తనలని, వర్ణనా కీర్తనలని, వైరాగ్య కీర్తనలుగా ఇలా రకరకాలుగా విభజించవచ్చు. ఉదాహరణ కి "విన్నపాలు వినవలె వింతవింతలు.." అనే కీర్తన లోని చరణం లో ఈ రెండు వాక్యాలు చుడండి. ఎంత చిన్న చిన్న పదాలతో ఎంత అర్ధాన్ని, ఎంత వర్ణనని పొందుపర్చారో!! నాకు తెల్సినంతవరకు ఇది ఒక సుప్రభాత కీర్తన.

చల్లని తమ్మి రేకుల ... సారసపు కన్నులూ

మెల్ల మెల్లనే విచ్చి ... మేలుకోనవేలయ్య ...

ఇంకొక ఉదాహరణ. ఇది కూడా వర్ణనే. ఇందులో శ్రీ వేంకటేశ్వరుడిని మరియు అలిమేలుమంగా దేవిని కలిపి వర్ణించారు. ఈ వాక్యాలు "ఒకపరికొకపరి వయ్యారమై ..." అనే కీర్తన లోనివి.

మెరుపు తోటి ...అలమేలుమంగాయుతాను ..

మెరుపూ మేఘము కూడి మెరసినట్లుండె .....

ఈ వాక్యాలలో ఉపమాలంకారం తో పాటు వృత్యానుప్రాసాలంకారం కలిపి ఉన్నది. ఇంకా ఇలాంటి కీర్తనలని ఆలపించినపుడు కానీ వింటున్నపుడు కానీ కలిగే అనుభూతి వర్ణనాతీతం. ఎన్ని సార్లు విన్నా వినాలని అనిపిస్తుంది. మనకి లభిస్తున్న 12000 కీర్తనలు గురించి సమీక్షించాలంటే?అంత అవసరం లేదు. రుచి చెప్పటానికి పండు అంతా తిననక్కర్లేదు కదా !! నేను విన్న కొన్ని అన్నమయ్య కీర్తనలలో నాకు బాగా నచ్చినది "ముద్దుగారే యశోద.." శ్రీ వేంకటేశ్వరుడి నవరత్నాలను కృష్ణుడి కధకి జోడించి చేసిన కీర్తన అది.

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సతమై శంఖ చక్రాల సందుల వైడూర్యము

గతియై మమ్ము కాచే కమలాక్షుడు ....

కాళింగుడి తలల ఫై కప్పిన పుష్యరాగము 

ఏలేటి శ్రీ వేంకటాద్రి  ఇంద్రనీలము 

పాల జలనిధి లోన పాయని దివ్య రత్నము 

బాలుని వలె తిరిగీ ..పద్మనాభుడూ..

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ఇంతకి ఇదంతా వ్రాసాను కానీ, రచయిత గొప్ప భాష గొప్ప అనే ప్రశ్న మాత్రం నన్ను వెంటాడుతూనే ఉంది. భాష బావుంటే రచన బావుంటుంది అనేది నిజమే. భాష కావాల్సినవన్నీ ఇస్తున్నా రచయిత సరిగా వాడు కోక పోతే అది మంచి రచన కాజాలదు అన్న వాదన లో కూడా తప్పు లేదు అని అనిపిస్తుంది. ఏది ఏమైనా నాకు అర్ధమైంది ఏమిటంటే, ఒక రచయిత తను చెప్పదలచుకుంది ముందు తాను అనుభూతి చెందితే ఆ రచన కి కావాల్సిన పదాలు  తెలియకుండా అలవోకగా ఆ రచన లోకి వచేస్తాయి. తప్పంటారా? ఇన్ని విని చదివినతరువాత నాకు ఎందుకు ఇలా   అనిపించిందంటే దాని కారణం ఈ కింద శ్రీ రామదాసు కీర్తన.

శ్రీ రామ నీ నామమెంతో రుచిరా .. ఎంతో రుచి ఎంతో రుచి ఎంతో రుచిరా...

'రుచి' అనేది ఒక అనుభవం. కాని అది తిండి విషయంలోనే వాడతాము. ఒక అనుభూతి ని తెలియపరచడానికి 'రుచి' అనే పదం వాడొచ్చని నాకు అప్పుడే అర్ధమైంది. రామదాసు రామ నామములోని, రామాయణం లోని అర్ధాన్ని  దైవత్వాన్ని పూర్తిగా అనుభవించారు కాబట్టే అంత అనుభవాన్ని రుచి అనే రెండు అక్షరముల చిన్న పదం లో ఆవిష్కరించారు. పోతన్న పద్యాలు కానీ అన్నమయ్య కీర్తనలు కానీ వారు ఆ అనుభూతి కి లోనయ్యారు కనకనే వారి సాహిత్యం ఎంత కాలమైన అల నిలిచిపాయింది. ఇప్పటికి వారి అనుభూతి లోని  కొంత భాగమైన మనం అనుభవించగల్గుతున్నాం అన్నది నా అభిప్రాయం. ఇది తెలుగు వాడిగా నేను, ఈ వ్యాసం చదివే ప్రతి ఒక్కరు చేసుకున్న అదృష్టం!! ఎంత అందమైన భాష అంటే, పిల్లలకి అప్పుడప్పుడే మాటలు వస్తుంటే వాళ్ళు అమ్మ, నాన్న, తాత, మామ్మఅని రెండు అక్షరాల పదాలు అనటం మొదలు పెడతారు. ఎంత ముద్దుగా అంటారో చెప్పాల్సిన పని లేదు. తెలుగు భాష ఎప్పుడు మొదలైందో తెలియదు కానీ, అవే పదాలని వాళ్ళు ఇంట్లో రక్త సంబంధాలని పిలవటానికి వాడాలి అని పెట్టారు. దాని వల్ల పిల్లలకి పెద్దవాళ్ళకి మధ్య వ్యక్తిగత సంబంధాలని చివరి దాక నిలుపుతుంది.

A Word to My Fellow Indians…

 

As I want to write ‘disclaimers’ for my posts all the time, here are few disclaimers for this post too. The important one being, “I am not trying to say that all other countries, other religions and other cultures are useless. I am just saying about and quoting things that I know & see. I agree to the fact that I don’t know lot of things.” Moreover, I might have included ‘everyone’ in the entire text below. Every line that I am going to say below is known to everyone who is capable to read this blog/post. Its just that I am reiterating the facts. Its just that I am reminding things. Its just about you, me and people around us in India.

At this moment, I am in a confusion about where to start this post as the title contains the WORD, India. May be the  word WORD is very lightly weighed when followed by a great country’s name. Yes, definitely, I am proud of my country. I never heard anyone saying they hate their own country. There might be people under such category. I am writing this post after seeing the various articles in new papers daily and couldn’t understand what is happening to our people. Just to remind the history and what we are, here are few points.

• We are the descendants of one of the oldest living civilizations in the world.
• We are among the firsts to have a script for a language, firsts to build cities and firsts to have one of the finest drainage systems.
• We are the ones who invented the digit ‘zero (0)’ with out which we cannot live now. Imagine how the world would have run on the most complex Roman numerals.
• The religions that were born here never differentiated human beings with other life and even, the environment. In fact, apart from bringing the most decent and scientifically advanced practices, our religions wanted to pray the omnipresent in each and every thing that you see. The most important of all the practices is monogamy and we understood how important it is.
• We have given the world, our own natural medical system i.e, Ayurveda which not only includes various points about general medicine but also details about surgeries.
• Yoga and meditation are the gifts to the world from India. Do you know how much response you get if you start yoga training abroad?
• It is a fact many non-Indian writers/researchers did research about our culture, civilization, religions and gods. They have published articles describing how crucial in making one’s life happy and peaceful. Stories, especially about Hindu gods, are told popularly to children and adults to develop their personality and positive attitude.
• We have developed our own ways of life without depending on any other foreign country. Luckily, we provided with the abundant resources as well.

The above points are just few feathers in the cap. There are many to add these. What do they all say? Ancestral Indians included very intelligent, research oriented scholars, writers, scientists, priests, labor, technicians, artists and the most (of the) common people who practiced the best ‘VALUES’ of life and who were good at heart. Consequently, they prospered with material luxuries, money and happiness. I saw a post in Facebook which contained an original picture of a British high commissioner writing about the togetherness among the people and how healthier and wealthier they were here before they actually occupied the entire Indian territory.

But, what is happening to us? From an individual who wants to occupy personal space of others in any way to a person who is sitting at one of highest positions in terms of power or governing bodies trying to bluff people and take no care about the people he is ruling, why is everyone thinking in the wrong ways? Why is an individual’s attitude getting close to what is called as bad?Why someone wants to go to higher positions at the cost of others? Don’t you have any idea about morals and values or Do you think that being bad is being great? This is how people you interact daily with are.

When you travel in a packed train, and someone standing beside you requests you to adjust a little so that he can sit beside you. With a good heart you give him/her a seat. But they start taking advantage of it. After sometime when you go out to buy a water bottle and come back, that person would have occupied 90% of the seat and shows you some other seat to sit. People like this sit in reservation compartments and demand that its their seat. TC of the train never bother about these as they get money too.

A person brutally kills his girl friend because she broke the relationship with him understanding that he is the wrong guy.

A public servant needs additional money from the public apart from his salary in order to accomplish his responsibility.

An IAS officer amasses money to favor someone or get involved in a fraud.

A CEO of a group of companies illegally manages the company’s money and cheats his shareholders.

A common auto driver molesting foreign tourist. (Where is Athidhi devo bhava?)

Some people use phrases like “No matter who ever come and tell me, I do not change my decision”. Some people doesn’t give respect to their parents, at any cost. Most of the students never respects their teacher/lecturer. Some people do not show respect towards the old and elders. Some people show arrogance and head strength in their words. Some people never care to listen to his well wishers. Some can never identify and differentiate a good and a bad friend. To be true, these are not part of our Indian culture and in Hindu mythology, these were proven to be symptoms of evil (Rakshasa or Asura).

A group of ministers watching porn in a place where they are expected to discuss about people’s problems. We have so many ‘Sabha’s like Loksabha, Rajyasabha, vidhanasabha more generally called as Parliament and Assembly. What is happening in assemblies, parliament these days? Is there a single proper useful discussion happening? Every party/member wants to walk out, start abusing each other. It has reached to a peak level that people started throwing their footwear at speakers and among themselves. They all knew that people’s money is behind successfully organizing an assembly and they are wasting it. Its our misfortune that we are living in such times. How should one organize a ‘Sabha’ and how should one behave in such Sabha? We do not need lectures from foreign universities to answer that question. Our own ‘Ramayana’ has a clear answer. Just before onset of war with Raavana, Maharshi Valmiki compares two ‘Sabha’s in Yuddhakanda. One by Raavana and the other by Rama. You can refer to those verses and you can exactly identify which type of Sabha is currently running in our Parliament and state assemblies. You can also identify how a ‘Sabha’ should run.

A change in the mindset of every Indian at the root is what we need now.  The way in which people greet each other, the way in which people talk to each other, the topics about which a group of people or friends or families discuss etc, everything should change. That is what will happen when your mindset inclines towards positive attitude. That is when your personality develops. The first step towards a high valued life is the way in which you talk. If you lose some’thing’ important in your life, you might get it back but if you lose your word, you would never recover the damage caused by it. For example, again from the same Ramayana, Hanuma has wiped out the thought of committing a suicide from the mind of Sita, only with his words. Another example from the same epic, Lord Rama says to Sugreeva like this “Sugreeva, there is no brother like Bharatha, no wife like Sita and no friend like you”. This is in a situation when he wanted to contradict a statement made by Sugreeva. Understand the depth and sweetness in the words and the way in which he contradicted his friend’s statement.

In spite of these many mentalities around us, we are still respected only because of our own traditions and culture which is also our heritage; only because there are at least few people who are good at heart; only because of epics like Ramayana are still being preached everywhere to develop the personality.  But I got a fear that this might get worsened and hence I wanted to give a precaution to everyone.  I would really love to see if many stories of Ramayana are included as a part of curriculum to school students to develop their personality. I want to add few points about Ramayana as well in this post as I coined it above. Although people might think that this post is something that promotes a religion, I want to say its not a promotion but a precaution. Someone might say “Ramayana is story of Lord Rama who is the incarnation of Lord Vishnu, a God. But I am not a God and I can not follow all those principles”. For those who say this, please understand that the incarnation is a human being. No where in his life, he showed himself as God. He proved everyone that a human being can live with values. If you read Ramayana as story of God, you do not get any thing to change in your life but if you read it as a story of a human, you have got something to change in your life. Also I agree that there are many changes that our culture underwent because of various invasions, scientific improvements etc. But there is no one who said to leave the good in you.

All in all, I just want to say “Be good to yourself and be good to others”.

“There can be a time when there is no person to listen to a good word told by someone but there should not be a time when there is no person to tell a good word.”

What is this feeling called?

[

Legend
Images – As seen by eyes at that moment
Text in Red – Heart Beat
Text in Blue – As listened by Ears
Text in white – As mind speaks and orders me, a one side converse
< Text in half arrows > – Comments just for understanding
]

- I will start to home now. I might not have chance to go at 3 AM when the actual work starts in complete night shifts. Knowledge Transition is the only stage of support life cycle that is always safe and advantageous. Press Start –> Shutdown in your computer.
- tdin…tde n ..tda n..tda n < typical WinXP Logoff sound >
- Why did not you shutdown and just logged off? It is a power wastage. Anyways, take the jerk-in. It should be quiet and chill outside the building with cold breeze.Also the body that I am controlling is very sensitive to cold…………..Ok, towards the lift bay.
- lub dub lub dub lub dub lub dub < HB less than 72 per min >
- <10 seconds later> Stop walking…Just wait a minute …this building is noise less at this time…feel the pin drop silence. Look at the whole building, standing at the edge of the floor fence in 3rd floor. Lights at very few desks on different floors making the hallow structure inside the glass skin of the building, just visible.

- Enough waiting here. Felt the silence a lot! Start towards the elevator. <5 seconds later> Good that the company takes care of power saving by just operating only one lift out of 6 in the nights. Press the down arrow. I know you always get confused while selecting the direction arrow.
- The red light is glowing around the button and is coming from 6th floor. Just look at how this ‘front load washing machine’ kind of building is constructed with the hole in the front end of central part of building. Its awesome to see that a couple of bridges connect the two halves of the building in 3rd and 6th floors. But its very scary to see this in the night with a decorative green bulb giving light towards 6th floor. Gives some kind of bizarre feeling.

- lub dub lub dub lub dub lub dub lub dub lub dub < HB = 72/min >
- Hey where is this lift. In Ground floooorrr!!!!!! … What happened? It did not stop at 3rd floor? The red notifying light around downward button has stopped glowing. That means I missed the lift watching the central hollow part of the building? Impossible!!! I could not have missed it in this silence. Am I so much involved in the green light that I did not take the elevator? However, press the button again. This time, wait watching the floor indicator of the lift.
- Dtannnnnn tdinnnnnn ttiiddinnnnnnnn <An iron rod fell on the ground from at least 2ft height, somewhere >
- Bang!! What is that sound? Just shout if anybody is there. I know that some construction work is going on in first floor but not at this time.
- Hello !! Is any body there? …….. ………….. <Heard my voice with an echo and then silence>
- lubdublubdublubdublubdublubdublubdublubdublubdub <HB = 80/min>
- No reply. Why all scary things are happening today? Have to do something to forget this. Enter the lift now, the doors are open. Press 0 for ground floor and do not press 3, idiot. I am getting weird thoughts now and it will make your body sweat. I am feeling as if some shadow is getting reflected in the closed doors of the lift.- Who is at my back? Turn back…no one…..lift is going down silently and you are seeing yourself in the mirror. Hope no hands come out of the mirror…..Oops…I am falling into some kind of a fear trap. Just get out of it by concentrating on some thing else. Take a photograph of yourself, and the invisible me in you, in the mirror. Look at your right leg, twisted at an angle. What happened?

- lub dub lub dub lub dub lub dub lub dub lub dub <HB = 75/min>
- Play a song on our mobile and swipe out for attendance. Look how the security guard sitting in the reception desk is watching you, as if you are a thief. Dont care!! Walk out of the building and wear the jerk-in. Hey where is the jerk in. I reminded you but you did not take it. Punk!!! Its up to your body to face the coldness outside. Open the building exit door and you will feel the chill.
- heww….phewww…hwwww…Everynight in my dreams …. hewww…phewww…hoooo….I see you…I feel you….. <Cold breeze and song from my mobile. Very coincidental>
- Is that song necessary at this hour? I am just recovering from an unknown fear and you made me remember it again. It might be a romantic song but its not getting suited now. Either stop it or play another song. Ok…good that you stopped it. The outside surroundings of the building are very silent also. Strange and there is no one around and you are alone. Freaky night.
- Whoo…Whoo……….Whoo..Whoo < An Owl is making sound somewhere >
-lubdublubdublubdublubdublubdub <HB = 85/min>
- Ohh God..Save me…I am getting frightened and look how your (my) body is sweating in the cool atmosphere. Look at the road. I am feeling as if no life is existing except you and that owl. I am also feeling that something is following me (you). Please walk faster dear. You can wipe out your sweat later. This road, perpendicular to the branches of ‘E’ shaped Employee Care Center building, is now looking ghostly to me.

- hewww….pheeeowwww…ghewwww…RRr….Aaa….V…..III…….ghewww… < heard my name in that breeze >
- I heard some one calling your name, Ravi, in the breeze. Some thing ghostly is really following you. Look around….. No one is there. But who called you. Is this just your scary feeling? Something is happening around you? Run … dont just walk briskly like that. Run Run Run…Look at your shadow. There are 4. Ok it is because there are 4 sources of light. Other shadows belong to trees along the side of the road. Nothing else. Do not get tensed.
-ludululuduludulududuluduluduluduluduluduluduludu <HB = Dont know, probability of reaching infinity = 1>
- I feel like some one is patting me at my back and some hand is following you to rest on your shoulder. Look back!!! … No one !!! Do not stop like that. Look back while you are running. You are almost reaching the security at the office exit.
- <silence>
-Uff I can see the security now. Cool down. Nothing is there. Cool down. What a SPOOKY feeling. Swipe out at the turnstile and just get out of the office. I can see lot of people waiting for cabs and there is some one or the other moving on the road outside. You can now walk safely to home with out that feeling of fear.
- lub dub lub dub lub dub lub dub lub dub lub dub <HB = 80/min>
- lub dub lub dub lub dub lub dub lub dub lub dub < HB = 75/min, few minutes later >
- <few minutes later> By the way, what is this feeling of fear called in psychology? Para normality?…..
- <few minutes later> Hey did you love any girl and then sadistically killed her in the past with out my notice? I feared that she became ghost and is following you……………………..No problem, you can tell me wiping out your sweat……….Do not fear!!! I would not tell any one. After all, you are controlling me ….
AND THE CONVERSATION GOES ON……………



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