Review : Okinawa Praise

[Disclaimer : I am not a brand ambassador nor I have been paid for writing this review. I wrote it to let many people get the information they need regarding this e-scooter as I am tired of explaining the features to many. All the opinions are purely my personal based on my riding experience of this e-scooter. I will be updating this post as time progresses]

Co-incidentally, I am writing this post while a nationwide strike is going on about petrol and diesel price hikes (1 lit petrol = Rs. 85 at the time of this writing) while I am happily riding my e-scooter which is completely free of the word "oil". As I had a requirement to buy a new 2 wheeler, I was searching for options in the market. I had a strong preference to buy an e-scooter due to various reasons that are obvious and planned to buy a petrol based scooter only if I cannot find a viable option in e-scooter ranges. So I started a research, found 3 promising options available in the market - Okinawa, Hero Electric and 22Motors. Hero Electric were initially successful in creating a poor impression 2 years ago on e-scooters, they are coping up with it. However, I liked the Indian startups Okinawa and 22Motors for their varieties. I chose Okinawa and after little more than 1 month of usage with 1st service complete, I am quite happy with it.

What did I buy?

I bought Okinawa Praise for close to Rs 74000 in total in July 2018. I did not attempt to try 22Motors Flow as I personally liked the look and feel of Praise and having a dealership in my city. I am not going to do a price comparison or feature comparison.

Why did I buy? What features does it have? What is so good about it?

These stats are from whatever I gathered and observed with real time driving experience for little over 1 month. I travel about 35 KM every day for office commute and other reasons in the city of Hyderabad and the terrain contains ups, downs, bridges, high traffic, good-bad roads etc.

• Its giving me a mileage of close to 100-120 KM on road per full charge in the city. Each full charge takes 7-8 hours. 
• Its friendly and safety features are a great deal. For example, the wheel lock alarm system, no start on side stand, auto low speed reverse movement while backing up, USB charging outlet, normal plug socket for charging etc are great to have features. 
• No Engine means No Sound, No Combustion, No Pollution, Lesser Maintenance etc. It works simply on a battery set and a motor. I started getting an extra monthly electricity bill of close to Rs 400 for my usage described above against a petrol bill of close to Rs 1600.
• It has a great leg room and regenerative power mechanism during drive.
•  No worries about driving it in the rain as I rode it about a week in rain just to test. 
• It can hit 65 KMPH on road in Sport mode and can additionally get to 75 KMPH in turbo mode if needed in those "over taking" scenarios. 
• Packaged with regular modern features like Tubeless tyres, disc brakes, day lights etc.

What is not so great about it?

• Okinawa Praise has a higher ground clearance which is good in a way as per its design but people who are bit short (< 5'4") will have a problem reaching their legs to ground. 
• Additionally, people accustomed to driving scooters like Activa and Jupiter will have to ergonomically adjust their sitting. 
• Another thing is the turn indicators arrows in the dashboard are not so clearly visible in the Sun light although the actual indicators are clearly blinking. 
• The handle controls are a bit to far to reach from the grip. I felt the fingers needed to be long to reach the controls for horn, head light switch etc.
• No complaints on pick up in general but at times in the traffic when the brake is released, it takes an extra second to accelerate. Its not a negative point but not sure if it can be improved.
• Additionally, the battery indicator does not necessarily show the exact battery levels when you power the bike on. This is explained by the Showroom during the sales as well. You will get to know the accurate battery levels only during the load like, while you are actually driving or when you are driving up the terrain. This will confuse the riders and until you get real experience, you will not get the real idea about how much actual battery you are running with. Adding to this confusion, the battery recharges automatically whenever a break is applied and the level increases indicating the same.

What not to expect?

• Do not expect the same speed and pick up when you are riding with another person on the scooter.It will be a bit less just like a petrol bike.
• Do not expect the same speed while riding up a slope and lesser speeds while riding down.
• Do not expect immediate pick ups after or during a brake.
• Do not expect to be a race winner, while riding it with petrol bikes, but you will almost reach there.
• Do not expect that it will always be a major catastrophic problem if the e-scooter does not charge. Most of the times, it ends being a minor one that can even be fixed over phone.

Is this e-scooter for me?

Re-consider purchasing e-scooter if any of the answers for the following is an yes for you. Some of the questions might not be suitable in future when Lithium battery is used or when charging stations come up on roads and highways.

• Do I ride my normal petrol bike crazily on the road and traffic as if I am hero performing stunt?
• Do I ride more than 100 KM per day and cannot charge after that?
• Do I ride in hilly areas where the road inclination angle is more than 22 deg ?
• Do I need more than 65 KMPH speed?
• Can I manage to get a charging point in the parking lot where I park my e-scooter?
• Do you frequently travel with a partner with whom the combined passenger weight crosses 150 KG?

What if the battery dies while I am riding?

To be honest, at the moment you cannot do anything but to charge it by plugging it in to a near by socket or carry the vehicle in a truck to home and charge it there. Yes, that is the answer a normal commuter expects too. Imagine you are on road with very less petrol in your bike, you still started to office thinking you will be able to manage. But the bike ran out of petrol and stopped in a no petrol bunk for 10 KM area. What do you do? Its the same thing. You take care of your battery charge in advance. You plan your commutes based on the battery levels shown in the indicator. The problem might be less painful with more EV charging stations coming up soon but yes, for now, plan your commutes properly. The simplest way is to charge it daily after your commute is done for the day. It charges whatever it needs and cuts off automatically. It is the recommended procedure for long life of the batteries too. By the way, the batteries are to be replaced after 36000 KMs. A Li ion battery variant is expected to be released by Dec 2018 and the charging time of the battery is expected to be decreased by 50%.

Finally, Why did I take risk of buying an e-scooter when there are no solid reviews about it and which is recently launched in the market?

I believed that Petrol/Diesel is not the future. We need cleaner energy production and consumption. I was surprised by the features during the research as the initial electric scooters were not so great. I believed that I got what I wanted after walking and talking to the dealership. I might have written this review too early, just after 45 days of buying it. Well, that's the first impression. Things like overall performance might change later on aging but till now its running as promised by the dealer. So I trust them and at the moment, I am proud of buying it too.

My Current Rating - 4.5/5 - Excellent

Review after 2.5 years

So I had to change the battery pack from Lead Acid to Lithium Ion. This is a great upgrade. Disappointing fact is that the lead acid battery pack did not reach the mileage as promised initially by Okinawa. So that was a double investment for me and it almost costed same as the original Okinawa praise pro with Li battery thats in market right now. So its not a disaster in terms of total investment that I made on my vehicle but its a disappointment it didnt reach the expectation. Do you need to worry about it if you are going to buy this? NO. Because there are no lead acid battery vehicles in the market now.

Updated rating - 4/5 - mainly because I had to change the battery sooner than expected

"Everyone talks about having a change in the world for good but very less think that the change starts within, for the world to change"    ---  Leo Tolstoy

A Meme Advice

An Interesting Incident..

On a breezy evening, a couple went on a shopping spree. They were accompanied by their elder daughter and younger son. They entered into one of the busiest shopping streets in town. It was a service road, looks like shoulders, of a highway, with shopping malls on one side and street hawkers on the other side. The hawkers made equal, or sometimes, more business than the shopping malls. So, the couple were walking on the street looking at various hawker stalls and stopped at some stalls.

Suddenly, a lady beggar followed them and started begging the wife standing right behind her.

Beggar said,"Oh mam, please give some money, you will have a nice and helpful husband".

Wife was taken aback and said, " I am already married to a nice and helpful husband who is walking in front of me. And I do not have change to give you.". She started walking again. However the beggar followed her.

Now, the beggar again said, "Oh mam, please give money, you both will have a daughter who will love you a lot".

Wife wanted to stop her and said," I do not have change now and I cannot give money. And we are already blessed with my daughter who love us a lot", showing their daughter who was walking on the other side. She started following her husband again.

The beggar hurried again and said, "Oh mam, please give money, you will have a son who will bring fortunes".

Wife impatiently said, "I said I do not have change. You are wasting your time. And the kid that my husband holding in his hands is my son. He brought some fortunes after he was born. Now please beg someone else".

However, the beggar didn't leave her and staggered behind the wife. Hastily, the beggar said, "Oh mam, please give money. You will buy a new car and new home."

This time, the wife recollected whatever happened, smiled with in herself and with a deep sigh said, "The fortunes I told you before, are the car and a new house. And I am still saying, I do not have change and I cannot give you money". She thought it would finish the discussion and she could continue with her shopping.

But the beggar said, "Mam, you are fortunate to have everything that a normal human like to have. So why don't you be generous towards me?"

The wife totally wanted to end the discussion and replied in a harsh tone," I already said, I do not have change to give away. I have been telling this to you but you didn't listen."

The beggar stopped following and went away. Through out the episode, the husband never cared about the discussion and didn't even look back. However, he laughed with in himself at times.

Personally, imagining myself in the situation, I had few laughs during the discussion, recollected what grand fathers used to preach and finally, I realized few things important in life.

As a reader, reading this till here, there are 2 questions that can be answered, if you are in the Wife's character. One, what would be your reactions every time the beggar stopped you and asked you? Second, what are those 2 important things that you learnt and realized at the end of the story? You can answer yourself or share in the comment box below. I updated mine in the comments. Hope you had a good read.

How old are we?

[Disclaimer: The stats are taken from Wikipedia and some of my words/opinions may strongly support the practices of Sanatana Dharma. It is probably because I follow the same principles. Please accept my ignorance.]

I was not sarcastic while I set the title to the post. Obviously, everyone knows their age. But I did a research after a question that got triggered in my mind. What is the age of earth? What is the age of the universe where the earth and our solar system is surviving? Although the question as quite simple, in the sense that even a high school student will ask it, the details of the answer could vary depending on the age and level of understanding the person asking this question. I request you to read till the end of the post even if you have no interest/skip the Sanskrit words of this post.


Science (astrophysics) did not give me a solid answer to my question. I went through few sites over the internet and every one quoted approximate values. The most concrete answer being 13.8 billion years since big bang and varying somewhere between 15-20 billion years. However, I did not get satisfied with what Science has answered. I further did some more research in Wiki and found out how the Sanatana Dharma (Hinduism, although I don't like to call it that way) has given some statistics and calculations which no other "ism" has even given a thought. Further to this, the Vedas and Puranas gave exact figures of the age of the universe, which is a small thing when compared to the entire chronology theory proposed by the same Vedas. In its simplest format, see the following calculations. This is all based on how Lord Brahma creates and destroys the universes. Also, there are two scales of time in this, one is Brahma year and the other one is human year. I am not going into more details of how Lord Brahma creates it but all I wanted to talk here is about the time scales.

• Lord Brahma - life is 100 Brahma years.
• 1 Parardha = 50 Brahma Years (Currently we are in Dwitiya parardha, 2nd set of 50 Brahma years)
• 1 Brahma year = 365 Brahma days
• 1 Day of Brahma = 2 Kalpas (1 Kalpa - Brahma Day (time of creation and destruction), 2nd Kalpa - Brahma Night (time of sleep))
• 1 Kalpa = 14 Manvantaras
• 1 Manvantara = 71 Mahayuga
• There is a gap of 4 Charanas after every Manvantara (which will be a total of 6 MahaYugas for 1 Kalpa). So in a more detailed way
• 1 Kalpa = 14 Manvantara + 6 Mahayuga = 14*71 Mahayuga + 6 Mahayuga = 1000 Maha Yuga
• =>1 Kalpa = 1000 Maha Yuga
• 1 Maha Yuga = Total years in 4 Yugas (Satya, Treta, Dwapara, Kali) = 4,320,000 human years
• Satya Yuga - 4 Charanas - 4 x 432000 human years (Charana = Feet of the cow that represents Dharma)
• Treta Yuga - 3 Charanas - 3 x 432000 human years
• Dwapara Yuga - 2 Charanas - 2 x 432000 human years
• Kali Yuga - 1 Charana - 1 x 432000 human years
• Total human years in Maha Yuga = 4320000
• One human year = 2 Aayana
• 1 Aayana = 6 months
• 1 Month = 2 Paksha
• 1 Paksha = 15 Human Days

Average human life is 100 years in Kali Yuga but will go less because of the sins made by Humans.
Also you can reverse calculate the current age of Brahma and current age of this Universe. There are multiple universes. And the cycle rotates with a new Brahma after every 100 Brahma years.

We are in currently in 5116 year of the Kali Yuga of the 28th Mahayuga of the 7th Manvantara (Vaivaswatha Manvantara) of the 1st Brahma Day (Swetha Varaaha Kalpa) of 51st year (Dwitiya Parardha) of Brahma. For completion of this Mahayuga we are yet to complete Kali Yuga which is 5115 years complete out of 432000 years. For a person who knows about "Sankalpam" of a ritual performed in Sanatana Dharma, this is the time classification that is read.

One can question the validity of this theory. This is not accepted nor proved by Science. Well, I believe science may "discover" this in future. From the science end, the Wiki page says that the Hindu Chronology provides the closest figures to the figures what are quoted by Science. This is what Wikipedia says in their article. This article from Wikipedia is an interesting read where there are quotes mention from various works of Sanatana Dharma like Bhagavat Puran, Srimad Bhagavatam, and The Gita etc. It gives an introduction to various characters like Kakbhushubdi who sees everything everywhere outside normal time, somewhat similar to the "Griffin" character in MIB 3. More interesting things can be understood from the same article which mirrors the concept of a world with in a world and a universe with in another universe as shown in Hollywood blockbusters like "MIB 1" and "A journey to the center of the earth". Another reference is in an article about What Vedas say about age of universe?


Apart from the fact I got amazed after going through all these articles and stats, I am also left with a feeling like how small our life is? Out of 100 years of human life, we spend sleeping for about 50 years. The rest of 50 years, I don't know how far we are able to spend most of it useful. I guess this is where the spiritual knowledge on a religion and practicing the concepts of a particular religion would help. They keep you in the right path, make you do good for the future generations. And still, we spend life with ego, impatience, hatred and dissatisfaction. What a pity! Time to realize!! Time for a change!!

బాలాద్వైతం

అద్వైతము అంటే ద్వైతము కానిది. అంటే రెండు కానిది లేక రెండు గా లేనిది. సరే ఇది అందరికి తెలిసిన అర్ధమే అనుకోండీ! ఈ టపా అర్ధం చెప్పడంతో మొదలు పెట్టాలి కాబట్టి అలా మొదలుపెట్టాను. ఇంతకీ బాలాద్వైతం అని ఎందుకు అన్నాను అంటే ... కింద చదవండి.

మిగిలిన టపా చదవబోయేముందు నేను చెప్పేది ఏంటంటే ఈ కింద రాసింది అంతా నా  అనుభవం లోకి వచ్చిన రకరకాల సందర్భాల సమాహారం. ఎక్కడైనా తప్పులు దొర్లితే నేను క్షమార్హుడను. ఇది పూర్తిగా సనాతన ధర్మానికి సంబంధించిన టపా.

సాధారణంగా అద్వైతం అనే పదాన్ని అద్వైత సిద్ధాంతం గురించి చెప్పేటప్పుడు చెప్తారు. అంటే వేదం ప్రతిపాదించిన పరబ్రహ్మము ఒక్కటే. అది కాకుండా వేరేది లేదు అని దాని అర్ధము. మరి బాలాద్వైతం అంటే? ఇది నేను ప్రయోగించిన పదము. ఇంతకుముందు ఎవరైనా వాడారేమో నాకు తెలియదు. అందుకే ధైర్యంగా నేను ప్రయోగించిన పదము అని చెప్పాను. బాల వయసు లో అనగా పుట్టిన శిశువు పెరుగుతున్న కొద్దీ తాను తన చుట్టూ ఉన్న మనుషులను ప్రపంచాన్ని ఎలా చూడడం మొదలుపెట్టి ఎలా చుస్తూ పెరుగుతున్నాడు ఎలా చూస్తూ చనిపోతాడు అనే ఒక చిన్న ఆలోచన లో నుండి పుట్టిందే ఈ టపా. ముఖ్యంగా ఇది మా అమ్మాయి పుట్టి పెరుగుతున్నపుడు నా అనుభవాల లోనుండి ప్రచోదనము చెందింది. సరిగా ఆ సమయము లోనే నేను పెద్దలు ప్రవచించిన రామాయణ భాగవతాలు విన్నాను. బహుశా దాని ప్రభావమే నాలో ఈ ఆలోచనకి కారణం కావచ్చు.

మలమూత్రంబులతో మహాభయముతో మాతృస్థానాపేక్ష తో 

ఛలమూర్ఖత్వముతో సదా భ్రమతతో చాంచల్య చిత్తంబుతో 

బలువైనట్టి కఫజ్వర గ్రహమహా బాల్యామయ శ్రేణితో 

కలనైన తమ చింత లేక చెడితిన్ కామ్యార్ధినై శంకరా !

ఎందుకో ఈ పద్యము తో మొదలుపెట్టాలని అనిపించింది. పెద్ద సంబంధం లేకపోయినా ఈ పద్యం లో శిశువు యొక్క రకరకాల అవస్థలు చెప్పి ఈ అవస్థల వలన కలలోనైనా నీ ధ్యానము చేయలేదు శంకరా అని శతక కర్త అంటారు . గురువు గారు చాలా సార్లు చెప్పిన పద్యమ్. పుట్టిన వెంటనే శిశువు కి ప్రపంచం లో ఉన్నది ఎవరంటే అమ్మే. పుట్టిన క్షణం నుండి కొన్ని నెలలు నిండే వరకు దేవుడి తో సహా అన్ని అమ్మే. బ్రహ్మము లోనుండి వచ్చి బ్రహ్మము లో ఉండి  బ్రహ్మము లోనే కలిసినట్లు, ముందు అమ్మ లో ఉండి తరువాత బయటకి వచ్చి మళ్లీ అమ్మ లోకే వెళ్తాడు. అందుకే శిశువు గా ఉన్నపుడు అమ్మే పరబ్రహ్మము. రెండొవది లేదు. అదే బాలాద్వైతము.

ఇంతకీ తరువాత ఏంటి అంటే నెలలు నిండి వయసు పెరిగే కొద్దీ, నాన్న ని చూస్తాడు. అద్వైతము నుండి ద్వైతము లోకి వచ్చాడు. ఇంక మొదలుతుంది గొడవ అప్పటినుండి. అమ్మ అరిస్తే నాన్న దగ్గరకి రావటం. నాన్న అరిస్తే అమ్మ దగ్గరకి రావటం. దేనికి అంటే ముద్దులాడటానికి. విష్ణువు కోరిక తీర్చలేదని శివుడు దగ్గరకి, శివుడు కోరికలు తీర్చలేదని విష్ణువు దగ్గరకి ఏడ్చుకుంటూ వెళ్ళే వాళ్ళలాగా ! పొద్దునైతే నాన్న కావాలి నాన్నతో ఆడుకోవాలి. రాత్రి అయితే నాన్న వద్దు అమ్మ కావలి ఎందుకంటే నాన్న నిద్రపుచ్చేస్తారు కాబట్టి ! ఇందాక చెప్పిన శివ విష్ణు ఉదాహరణ మళ్లీ అనువర్తిస్తుంది. అయితే ఇదే సందర్భాన్ని ఇంకో రకంగా చూస్తే వాడికి పొద్దున నాన్న కావాలి (పొద్దున అంటే  విష్ణువు ) రాత్రి అమ్మ(రాత్రి అంటే శివుడు) ఇద్దరూ కావాలంటాడు. అమ్మా నాన్నలకి అభేదం చూసినవాడే ఎలా గొడవ చేయనివాడు ఔతాడో శివకేశవుల మధ్య అభేదం చూసినవాడే పరమాత్మ లో కలుస్తాడు !

సరే తరువాత ఏంటి అంటే - ఇంకా వయసు పెరిగే కొద్దీ రకరకాల మనుషులు పరిచయం ప్రారంభం. బంధువులు, స్నేహితులు, వైరులు, ఇంకా ఒకరేమిటి రకరకాల వాళ్ళు రకరకాల విషయాలు చెప్పి అతని మనసు ని ప్రభావింప చేస్తారు. మంచి గురువు చేతిలో పడ్డాడా, వాడి బతుకు ధన్యం. చెడు స్నేహం చేసాడా, బతుకు నాశనం. ఇది ఎలాగంటే పెరిగేకొద్దీ చాలా మంది దేవతల పేర్లు తెల్సుకొని వాళ్ళ కోసం కొట్టుకోని మా వాళ్ళు వేరే జాతి వాళ్ళు వేరే మతం వాళ్ళు అని జీవించి ఉండే కొద్ది సమయం వృధా చేసుకోవడం. అదే గురువు ఉంటే ? అన్ని నదులు సముద్రం లోనికి వెళ్ళినట్లు అన్ని మతాలు కులాలు పరబ్రహ్మము లోనికి వెళ్తాయి అని చెప్తాడు. జీవితం బాగు పడుతుంది.

సరే చాలు చివరికి ఏంటి అంటే? ముసలితనం వచ్చేసరికి చావు కళ్ళ ముందు ఉన్నపుడు శత్రువు మిత్రుడు కొడుకులు కూతుళ్ళు మనమలు మనవరాండ్లు చుట్టూ ఉండే ప్రకృతి, జీవాలు, అందరూ అన్నీ ఒకలా కనిపిస్తారు. ఎలాగా ? తనలాగే తనతోపాటే వచ్చిన మనుషుల్లా, జీవాలుగా !! నిష్టగా జీవించి ఉంటే ఇంకొక అడుగు ముందరికి వేసి ఆ పరబ్రహ్మాన్నే చూసి అందులో కలిసిపోతున్నానని సంతోషంగా భగవంతుణ్ణి  తల్చుకుంటూ తనువు చాలిస్తాడు.

యాదృచ్చికంగా మన చరిత్ర కూడా ఇలానే ఉంది.  ముందర ఋషులు మునులు కేవలం ఆ బ్రహ్మాన్నే ధ్యానించి బ్రహ్మజ్ఞానన్నే పొందారు. తరువాత మెల్లగా శైవులు వైష్ణవులు అంటూ కొట్టుక్కున్నారు. ఆ తరువాత హైందవులు మొహమదీయులు క్రైస్తవులు అంటూ కొట్టుకుంటున్నారు. చివరికి అందరూ ఏమౌతారో చూద్దాం.

ఇదే అద్వైతం లోనుండి ద్వైత ము లోనికి వచ్చి మల్లి అద్వైతం లోకి వెళ్ళటం. మనం రోజూ చేసే పూజ అంతరార్ధం!!

శ్రీ రామ జయ రామ జయ జయ రామ 

A trip to Florida

Recently my wife, my daughter and I went on a 5 day trip to Florida State in the United States. Unlike my earlier travel related posts, I decided not write about this trip in multiple posts because there is less to explain and more to experience when we visit this state. Florida is all about enjoying God’s nature and man’s creation. Here are the top tourist places that we visited in Florida. Although there are many other places to visit (list can be found in the internet), these are the must see places that a visitor should keep in mind before planning the visit. 

• Florida Keys and Key West
• Miami – city and the beach
•  Orlando – Various entertainment parks (Disney World, Universal Studios and Sea World)
• Kennedy space centre
• Ft. Lauderdale, Tampa
• Islands around Florida
• Everglades National Park

Can we cover all these in 5 days? NO. You have to spend at least 15 days to cover each and every aspect in detail. However, my visit didn’t include few places in the above list. I will explain them below.

Day 0, we travelled from Houston to Ft. Lauderdale the previous day and reached our cousin’s place; who stay near to Ft. Lauderdale city. The city of Ft. Lauderdale had some road extension constructions going on and luckily, they did not stop us anywhere in the travel. We, along with my cousin’s family travelled together and visited various places.

Day 1, we went on a guided ferry trip in Ft. Lauderdale city. It was a 45 min trip in the back waters of Ft. Lauderdale sea side city. By the way, Ft. Lauderdale is called Venice of the America because of these back waters, just like Alleppey in India. The guide on the ferry explained various places on the trip and mostly, we had seen various costliest houses of the United States that were constructed on banks of back waters. The average prices were in multiples of millions of dollars. Also we happened to see the ‘Oasis Of The Seas’ cruise which is largest cruise ship in the world. After the ferry trip, we went to the city of Miami. Miami is around 40 minutes away from Ft. Lauderdale. We went straight to the Miami Beach which is one of the most famous beaches around the world. There are a many places of interest around the Miami Beach and the beach is famous for various reasons. As a family, there are few places to exclude in that beach but in general, the beach is sandy and water is clear. The water in the beach gives an introduction to how the water is going to be in rest of beaches and Florida Keys. Especially after seeing the beach in Houston, TX (Galveston) and other places, it was a very pleasant experience. The shore looks greenish blue and the water was so clear that we could see our feet when we stood waist depth in the water. We drove back home, had dinner and it was a nice day.

Day 2, we started little late in the morning on the Sunday to Key West. When we saw the map initially, it was given that we have to travel straight on US 1 highway which starts in Key West. That makes sense because Key West is the southernmost point of the country of United States. The sad part is US 1 is not like other highways at least from Miami. It has lot of traffic signals and later is a single lane road. This made driving a little boring for us. After travelling around miles from Ft. Lauderdale, we started crossing the keys, which were basically islands in the form of a chain, Key West being the last island in that chain. There are bridges connecting each key and one of the most important of such bridges is the seven mile bridge which connects Key West to its previous island and is constructed on the sea. Travelling on it is a wonderful experience with blue-greenish water around and white colour sandy shores. Key West is

famous for sunset ride, water sports, parties and liquor. We reached around 2 PM in Key West. We initially planned to do parasailing and snorkelling in our trip. I was very interested in snorkelling and my wife was interested in parasailing. Out of 3 trips that happen every day for snorkelling in Key West, we had reserved for the last trip at 5 PM. Meanwhile, we visited the Key West beach which was again a wonderful beach. That reminded of all the songs of Indian movies that were made in foreign beaches. Then we went on to see the southernmost point buoy in Key West, took some pics. We were left with very less time to reach the point to board the cruise for snorkelling trip. And when I reached the point that we thought we should take the cruise, we came to know that the cruise should be boarded from a different point that is 10 min away. We searched a lot and reached that place finally but were already late as the cruise left. That was how I missed the snorkelling adventure. However,

there was a glass bottomed boat trip to see the corral reeves of the sea. These corral reeves are the second biggest in the world. The tour also included sunset watch which was an awesome experience too. We drove back to home and it was midnight when we reached home.

Day 3 & 4, we travelled to Orlando from Ft. Lauderdale. It was a 3 hour drive on toll way. We went straight to Universal Studios, Orlando. There were 2 parks in Universal Studios; the first one was actual Universal Studios and the second one was ‘The Island of Adventures’. The first one is full of shows/rides and the second one full of rides. We are not physically capable enough to enjoy the rides, so we confined only to park 1. This park had various shows and rides with various movies as their themes. To mention the important ones, the Shrek 4D

show, the Mummy ride, the E.T ride and the Men in Black show were attractive. I did wall climbing as well in Universal Studios. We covered Universal Studio Park pretty much in day because of less rush as we went there on Monday. We left to Hotel and had dinner in the evening. It was a tiring day. The next day we left to Disney World in Orlando. As the name goes, it is a world of its own. It has in total 6 parks with various themes and each park can take a minimum of 1 day to cover. So the Disney world can take up to 6 days if you are interested. We went to the main park, the Magical Kingdom, which was a big park with lot of shows and activities for Kids. There was a castle which the main logo of Disney animations and productions and it was an attraction by itself. Initially, I was bored from morning till evening and we were completely drained out walking in the park. But the

last 3 events in the night: the electrical parade, the projections show on the castle and the fireworks on the castle were the top events one should never miss. Kids might enjoy a lot all throughout the day though. When these 3 shows were over, every visitor leaves this park at the same time. Believe me, you would be under the impression that the entire world was in front of you in the crowd. Disney management had made pretty good arrangements to handle the crowd and made sure they leave the palace with in decent amount of time and less pain. We had come back to Ft. Lauderdale the same night and it was almost 3 AM when we reached home.

Day 5, we had the small disappointment that we couldn’t complete snorkelling and parasailing. So

we did parasailing in Ft. Lauderdale that day. It was an experience that cannot be explained in words. One should feel it when you are tied with belts to a parachute which in turned was tied to a boat going at a regulated speed in the sea. We would be sent slowly from the running boat (sea level) to the parachute (400ft from sea level). Those few minutes make an exciting journey when we the corrals from that height beneath the ocean and birds would be flying under your feet catching the fish. That was a wonderful experience and completely safe to do. This was the same day we returned back to Houston and the trip ended. Overall, it was a nice experience. The one line that came into my mind, when we went to see the sea shores, was from a keerthana by Shree Annamayya.

                చిత్తములో భావమెల్లా శ్రీవేంకటేశుడే హత్తినప్రకృతి యెల్లా నాతనిమాయే

Which means All the feelings in the mind is the Lord Venkateswara and the entire nature that attracts your mind is His magic.

I know I could not cover much but we had a list of to-cover items and we managed to cover them all in 5 days.

Manufactured Demand & Environment

Before reading any further, just watch each video. They do not take much of your time but give you lot of information. I am grateful to “The Story of Stuff” project for enlightening me and everyone.

I think the situation explained in these videos is not explicitly related to US but to all other countries. Consider the situation of bottled water. We all know, especially in India, how we use bottled water. How much environmental damage are we causing just for the water that we buy and drink? Although I had little idea about it, I realized its worse than what I have thought. And can you really explain why the plastic bottle waste is sent to India for recycling? Does the government of India realize that we are actually cleaning someone’s waste? Are we in such a bad situation to increase our revenue in all possible ways? Reasons like this are behind taking India for granted as a cheap country despite the fact that we are one of the fast growing countries in terms of science, technology and economy. Reasons like this are giving scope to the words like ‘Third World’. Why do we need to degrade ourselves like this just for money? I recollect the words by Amitabh Bachchan when he disliked Oscars being given to “The Slumdog Millionaire” where India is projected as a poor and backward country. Its not only the government, the politicians but also every Indian should consider this as a matter of self respect. No doubt that we need money but we do not need it the stake of self respect. Please do not fall for the manufactured demand. There are ways better than what we have now. As mentioned in the video, it is our right to ask Government to supply better water rather than relying on bottled water.
Just watch this video which is of completely different topic.

Can you guess what I am about to propose after watching this video? I am not going to tell you to stop using your toothpaste or soap or deodorant or shampoo. Because you would have already realized the facts around them. I am going to tell you the things that you already know of but, probably, never understood the importance of them. These are the alternatives to the cosmetics that we are using. Luckily these are part of our Indian tradition. The nature is giving a lot to us and there is no need to run behind these cosmetics. Neem or the Margosa sticks instead of a toothpaste is an alternative. Instead of soaps, you can use, Sunni pindi, a herbal bath powder. Use turmeric powder for healthy skin. How about using Reetha or Gooseberry (Amla) for head wash? Aren't they good an natural? We have to always remember that good and profitable things come in difficult way. Bad and harmful things come in an easy way. These cosmetic companies are experimenting on us? Isn't the Indian tradition more powerful than these products? Please come out of the manufactured demand. We do not need these. If someone asks me are you following these before telling someone? I would say no but I understood the importance of it and rather than using them now and then, I will follow them regularly from now.
The bad luck is that our (Indian) people are making fun of ourselves and our tradition. Let us not do that and let us not cause any more damage to our environment. We are already experiencing the results of the damage. Let us live and let others live by creating sustainable culture. Let us not throw waste just like that and let us not do things that cause damage to our respect. Thanks for understanding and following.
I am not going to talk about this video but just watch it, it is an informational one too.

A new threat, the micro beads. So updating my post.

           

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.