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Blessedart!

Quote for the Week on “Inspiration”

INSPIRE

Life doesn’t cheer the weak the timid or those content with their fifteen minutes of fame.
It applauds the dreamers, the adventurers and those who swore to rise above horizons.

For only those bold enough to chase dreams are the ones who finally catch them.
It doesn’t matter who you are today, what or who you were and what you will be.

All that matters is the legacy you finally leave behind.

Did you become all that you are capable of becoming?
Did you give more than you could take?
Did you achieve your dreams, while all around you thought you were chasing illusions?

Think, plan, implement and contribute – GROW more than just ‘numbers’

Have a great weekend!

Ananth V

Dear Friends,

I would like to sincerely THANK YOU for all your support in making Expressions a well reviewed and cherished coffee table Poetry Book.

EXPRESSIONS

I would also like to thank the Times Of India team & Amazon for having faith in my work and helping me make it my first publication success. It’s been three years almost since the first launch and the reviews and ratings are only getting better, thanks to all of you.

I have asked through TD Studios to release one of the chapters from the heart of EXPRESSIONS for your viewing including it’s symbolism artwork.

You can also read few of the readers reviews here: Reader review

SPECIAL LIMITED TIME OFFER:

For Indian residents: Purchasing a paperback copy inside INDIA is available for a special price of Rs.150/-* till March 25^th, 2010 only.

Write to us at: admin@techdivine.com for more details

* Courier charges Extra as applicable - Will be delivered at Your place of residence

Again, a sincere thanks for all your trust and faith.

Thanks and Regards

Ananth V

Product Consultant

TECHDIVINE Creative Services

ananthv@techdivine.com

Hi friends,

I am back again with yet another post.

Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon (SCMM) – 2010 – MY DREAM RUN!!!!

The Start, the dream run and the finish:

I thought that a mere reply or comment to Techdivine’s SCMM article may not encapsulate the myriad range of feelings that one encountered during the Marathon.

I Would like to thank TECHDIVINE Creative Services for updating through tweets too the status of the marathon.

The Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon has been around for 7 years now and I have had the good luck of running the marathon 6 times leaving aside the first time. However this year was a watershed year for me personally speaking. I have had 2 Dream-runs, 3 Half-Marathons & this year I ran the FULL MARATHON!

Let me trace the steps that led to this marathon for me.

Somewhere in the beginning of August, one of my friends’ mailed me about registrations for the marathon being open.

Lazy as I am, I logged onto the SCMM site a week after the communiqué. I was surprised to find that the registrations for the half-marathon were closed. Hence I registered for the next best option – the 42 Km Full Marathon. This was done keeping in mind the fact that the runners for the 21 Kms & 42 Kms begin their respective races from the same starting point. Hence I always had it at the back of mind that I will start off as a full marathon runner and end up running the 21 Km Half-marathon along with my friends.

Come Saturday 16 Jan 2010, my friend and me, went to collect the Bibs and Goodie bags. At the WTC Expo, realization dawned on me that the starting points for both the Half-marathon and Full marathons were different. While the Full Marathon commenced from CST, the Half marathon started from Bandra.

I saw this as a great opportunity coming my way. Never had I attempted anything of such a kind. As for practice for these races, the only practice that I ever did was on Race day!!!.

So, come race day & I was pretty much eager to go the full distance. (Kindly note, this is not advised at all)

I have always been either a quick runner or a brisk walker. Not the average jogger kind of guy who would easily go on jogging till the end of the race. Normally, I carry a small travel bag with all sundries in it and deposit it at the baggage counter. However, today, I had made up my mind that, if it seemed tough, I may return from the very place where I gave up. Hence I carried only my backpack which had a change of shirt and a few energy packs of electrals (FDC Ltd).

On Race day, I reached the venue 15 minutes before time. The race started sharp at the anointed time of 6:45 AM and there were a million feet pounding the asphalt. Here I was, surrounded by a sea of people many of who were playing the follow the leader game & went where the person ahead of him was going. I tried to keep up pace but after 10 minutes, I started my walk.

Every time I felt some amount of energy in my body, I would run. Then once I was exhausted, I continued walking. I had one simple plan and a few smaller ones that helped me on my way. From my past experience, I knew that an hour of walking will enable me to complete a minimum of 7 Kms. This translated into 6 hours for 42 Kms. So rather than counting the Kms left, I counted the hours.

Smaller numbers meant the brain was always in agreement.

Then another trick was when a marker came along, indicating the number of kms completed, I told myself that 21 Kms still remained.

Irrespective of whether the marker showed 5 Kms or 10 Kms or 15 or 25, I tricked my mind into believing that there were only 20 Kms left to travel and since I had done the 21 Km half-marathon before, the brain sheepishly nodded in agreement.

By the time, I was convinced that I would be able to complete the marathon came the stunning and mighty Bandra Worli Sea Link.

For someone who has never seen it previously, this was a God sent opportunity. However little did I know that this was also one of the worst stretches that the Marathon had to offer. With the clock reading 10:30, I set foot onto the Bandra Worli Sea Link (BWSL).

The sun was at the horizon and every thought of a cool breeze subsided. This coincided with the fact that the water stations that we runners took for granted at every 100 mts, were nowhere in sight. All runners were left to fend for themselves for the entire stretch of 6 Kms on the sea link. So much that all of us were quite thankful when we stepped off the BWSL.

By this time, I had only around 8-9 kms left to complete my first full marathon. As if on cue, my leg started sending signals to the brain that it had had enough and that it may stop walking any minute. There were some indications of this happening earlier too before I set foot on the sea link resulting in a small icepack session at the medical stall put up for this purpose. By the time, I reached within a striking distance of 7 Kms, my legs literally gave way. My toes were starting to turn inwards, my calf starting to bend backwards and my thighs unable to sustain any more body weight. I limped my way actually dragging both legs upto the finish line and heaved a great sigh of relief to have completed the Marathon and still in one piece.

However I would like to thank all those who made this possible. My friends who supported me throughout the race. Then there were parents with their kids lining the streets encouraging us participants to go on. There were kids handing out Parle-G and Marie biscuits, some enterprising ones even handing out soft drinks to the thirsty. There were little slum kids who were thrilled at the number of people who were running and gave us hi-fives. It was a pleasure to see those lit up faces. To see the people who came out onto the streets on a Sunday morning for no reason of their own but just to watch all of us participate and to egg us on in our initiative.

I would like to also make a special mention of the seniors who were running this marathon just like any other youngster and yes there have been many who in their 60s have gone past me while jogging along as against my trundling.

It is really a big appreciative effort on part of the populace to turn up to attend events like this and make their august presence felt and make Mumbai known for what is famous the world over. – For its welcoming hands and open heart.

This was my Marathon and I lived every kilometer of it. Would participate the next year too!!!

Thanks

Your views are welcome.

Mani (A.k.a Ananth.S.).

ALI!

Happy Birthday - ALI!

Wishing Muhammad Ali – A Very Happy Birthday on 17th Jan, 2010

You truly are the greatest! – From Darkness to the Light!

Related Post:

Ali, the Greatest

Image Source:ALI

Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2010

The 7^th Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon (SCMM) 2010 kicked off at the crack of dawn today (Sunday, 17^th Jan,2010). This event representing each individual running for their cause is undoubtedly one of Asia’s largest philanthropic events in India.

The event was alive at this 7^th year SCMM run with each one running for the causes they believed for (Children, Orphans, Senior citizens, Physically challenged, HIV, Water, Pollution……)

Catch our Tweets on this HERE as this year Kenya’s Dennis Ndiso and Ethiopia’s Bizunesh Mohammed won the men’s and women’s titles respectively in the $310,000 seventh Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon.

Ndiso finished in 2 hours 12 minutes & 33 seconds(2:12:33), just over his personal best of 2:13.51 seconds and the course record of 2:11.51 seconds.

The run was all across the streets of Mumbai, as Mumbai’s CST, Bandra Worli sea link and so many zones all across saw the unbreakable spirit of runners with a cause.

Amongst celebrated names and organization’s one amazing spirited team definitely were from Cadbury, as they were seen jingling and running with the cause for Saving water.

John Abraham who is supporting scores of NGO’s was pouring his heart out on the event. He was also seen giving fitness tips on having a safe run.

Rahul Bose, Akshay Kumar, Tina Ambani, Anil Ambani, Gul Panag, Amrita Rao, Shahid Kapur, Gulshan Grover and so many other business and cinema celebrities were seen cheering, running and doing their part in adding more life to yet another wonderful event from Standard Chartered!

Thanks to Standard Chartered for yet another amazing event!

Run Mumbai, run!

The spirit of Mumbai, will always shine!

For those who were part of this amazing event, do share with us your views and comments. We would love to hear from you.

Thanks!

Admin

TECHDIVINE Creative Services

www.techdivine.com

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ONLINE Writing Contest MUMBAI Students

Dear Friends,

After you have chosen your topic of choice and received a confirmation mail form our end for ENTRY into the contest, here are a few basic tips on “how do you get started“:

Here are few basic tips: (More Writing tips, resources and links to follow)

YOUR Writing RESOURCE: PART 1: How to get Started:

• Choose your Favourite topic from the Following list as per your category.
• Give yourself plenty of Time to Think before you start writing.
• Some interesting ideas and thoughts may be very simple. For eg. Plan & work on a topic or discussion from the given list, on something that puzzles you. May be, it also puzzle others. So work on those topics, concepts, ideas and stories.
• Then, develop a central idea to your topic. An idea revolving which your write up will be based.
• As for the core behind your topic, discuss it with your peers, friends & read about it online. Discussing these ideas will help you plan the plots and characters many a times based on the people you are discussing with too.
• Ask yourself lots of questions as simple as “Why” would this happen or “How” is this going to create the impact?
• Then you start to slowly narrow your idea down.
• Start writing and state your main idea in the first paragraph unless there is high drama and suspense involved in your story. This gives the reader a base on what the story is all about unless you want your story to be a complete thriller.
• Begin penning your thoughts down with potential arguments that arise when you are discussing the topic and the characters. (Characters should be real and more so, feel real to the reader and make it possible for him / her to relate to the main character or theme.)
• Plan and construct all your arguments and write a draft of your topic with all your ideas. Then pick the ones that leave a possibility for the reader to think more on the subject of your core topic.
• If it is fiction based topic or story that you have in mind, develop  a strong character. Think how you would want that character to think, respond and react to things.
• If you can produce an outline whose structure makes sense, then you can revise by shifting parts of your first draft to easily relate to the outline. In other words, the outline can give shape to the writing you’ve already done. It helps you to develop the storyline also much better.
• Draft it as many times as possible. Write, read and ponder.
• Remember, it has to be interesting and not just loaded with names and statistics.
• More importantly, enjoy this experience, have fun in this process and have a clear mind while you are writing.
• Have an Introduction and conclusion planned. Know your plot well in your head before you eagerly pen it down.
• Plan your punctuations and proof read them before they are final.
• Take your sweet time – You have a month to settle in and plan your Article before submitting to us.

Have a great start!

More tips, resources, links to follow, so SUBSCRIBE here for updates and keep reading this space!

Regards

Admin

TECHDIVINE Creative Services

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“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence,

therefore,

is not an act but a habit“

~Aristotle~

Techdivine Creative Services

Have a wonderful week ahead!

God Bless and Be Well

TECHDIVINE Creative Services

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Married, but to caste and religion

Loves labor lost

A spectacled middle aged woman of average height and looks with tears streaming over her eyes was declaring with emotional fervor: “even in my next birth I want be Mr.’s wife”. The audience was watching this with respectful and emotional silence and clapped thereafter.

I was watching a TV Program on inter caste and religious marriages and the emotional ravages brought by an intolerant society or family on such personal relationships. Some of the experiences described were even more melodramatic that some of the Tamil movies and serials I had watched. Some of the more interesting experiences narrated were :

• senior police officers sensing threat to the lives of the newly wedded couple belonging to different caste/religion, on their own volition,  gave shelter to them in the police station for the night,
• parents living in the same street refusing to recognize such rebellious offsprings and crossing the street to show their displeasure,
• locking newly married daughter in rooms (like Pran in some old movies),
• marriage conducted in a cinema hall while a Kamalahasan movie was on (the parents were outside the theatre keeping a watch on their children) and marriage vows thereafter strengthened in the Hanuman temple outside the theatre.

The persons who were describing their travails in love did not look like Ranbir Kapoor or Shahid Kapoor nor were the middle aged women resembling yester years’ film heroines. My mental image of falling in love was restricted handsome men and women with filmy looks and dashing behavior. Ordinary men and women normally toed the parental/community line and gave vent to their fantasies in love through films, dramas and books.

I imagined falling in love with some of the girls I used to stare very hard in school and college. I tried to extend the scenario further. I imagined taking any one of them (several is too expensive) to a movie near my college. There were two cinema halls nearby. Both were awful then and continue this status even now. The tickets cost between Re.1 and Rs. 2. I used to watch all the movies which were released. Perhaps I would have had to take a fifty percent cut on the number of movies I watched. Would romance have bloomed in darkened, dingy and sweaty theatre with only fans circling reluctantly?  Love is blind but may still perhaps seek physical comfort, dampening any ardor. What about pecuniary limitations? Would I have shared the daily dose of the exquisite Mysore Masala or puri bhaji (I alternated between these two dishes everyday) at Vishwa Mahal for an uncertain relationship? Perhaps, I would have asked her to take a soldier cut (my generation’s code for equal sharing).  What would her view be on my smoking unfiltered Charminar? Is it a macho thing or ugh, ugh!!   On the whole, looking back, all this seems too much trouble for uncertain rewards- mental or physical!

I still have my college ID card. The photo stuck to that shows (in my view) a hungry looking desperado, wearing shirt with wild design which even Aamir Khan would have hesitated to wear in his Movie Rangeela. But then, such outrageous dresses were the “in thing” then.

The next scene I imagine is bringing home a girl from same religion but different community/caste (another religion is beyond my imagination). I bring home a girl studying in second year of college (first year of Plus three in today’s parlance) along with me and declare  my honorable intentions (towards that girl) in the presence of my parents and brother. I can imagine my father’s fury, my mother’s bafflement at this extraordinary initiative and my brother’s anger at extending a hobby or pastime into a full time reality.  The girl would have run away immediately and the relationship would have had a premature and painful demise on that day.

On a more serious note, the impact of the program was higher as ordinary persons had gone through an extraordinary experience and were declaring it in a public arena. One good point which the anchor made was that the emphasis in each of the person’s narration hinged on merging their identity with another caste or religion and not retaining their own post marriage.  Why can’t each person continue to live as earlier retaining their own identity and leaving their children to select their path? The chief guests attending the program explained how they implemented this concept in their life of a mixed religion marriage.

What matters most in a religion or caste in our day to day life? It is certainly not concepts of the sort described below.

Dvaita – mean dual(two distinct – atma and God/Pramatma). The proponent was Madhvacharya.

Vishit-advaita – Qualified(Special) – advaita. It is similar to advaita, meaning both atma and paramatma are one/similar in nature/quality(being and consciousness) but not in quantity(paramatma is infinite).

Mostly it is the pattern of behavior, rituals followed, community oneness and familiarity with one portion of the society to which we have a sense of ownership, identity and belonging. We enjoy the familiarity and the memories these observances bring to us and want to continue it to the next generation. One example of this is the number of temples abroad and the sincerity with which the rituals observed there by Indian emigrants. An even better example is the caste and community based organizations in Mumbai which celebrate various festivals with pomp and splendor which is sometimes absent in our respective places of origin.

The question which reverberates in our minds is how we ensure that some part of our way of life which we believe is beautiful and is to be retained for posterity. One source of optimism is the presence of the younger generation in many arts, callings, religious institutions, places of worship in more than expected numbers. The next is the inquiring minds of the present generation which while giving up blind and unquestioning acceptance of our generations, is willing to explore further in finding out what is beautiful about our respective heritage and are willing to toil for it.

When I speak to the younger generation, I find a yearning for marrying for love and not because the identified time has come and it is “your duty to get married.” One person told me with great disappointment that the intense hunt for a suitable spouse did not yield the desired level of success. The middle class society’s quest to earn a living –whether in metro or tier two cities- leaves little time to go close enough to another human being to take the decision to spend rest of the life with that person.

But then times are changing.  But they are changing slowly. We still see ads of the following kind:

Wanted Bride: only very beautiful, fair & slim, up to 24 years, from middle class or even lower middle class with educational qualification like graduate/ undergraduate or even  plus 2 for—–.

I would love to hear the younger generation’s response to this. Do give me your views on the same.

Regards

Anjeneyan

Everything I touch seems to have life. Or is it that our passion rubs off on to those around us.

LIFE: Stay Positive

Well, if that be true, let’s stay and share things that can make us more positive everyday.

Belief and system have never gone hand in hand and that’s why we have those with the unconventional approach positively changing million lives. We have been so hooked with the “this is right” approach that we at times tend to forget the bends and twists that life gives us to feel the curves ahead. It’s not just a bumpy ride it’s a life time of learning that comes out of it.

During loneliness we seem to miss the presence, during downfall we miss the hand that shoulders us, during pain we miss words of comfort. We never heard anyone say, I missed a bag of money or a big house when we are sad, down or hungry. For those who have lost touch, these are some human emotions which are still around with few across the globe.

We miss being well, at times miss just being human or can I quote being human enough.

I recently met a lad in his early thirties, eyes moist, heart uncontrolled, palms untamed, asking me “Where do I go from here?” and when I asked him what are you looking for, he cared to mention in his haste of finding the way, “I am looking to be free and successful” I laughed not in his face though and I said, “If I knew it today, I would be on Forbes magazine too”.

But something told me that his definition of success was going to be different. Why? To start with he had just parked his brand new Hyundai outside the café shop and his well styled hand stitched Italian shoes were only overshadowed by his branded designer wear. So it was clear, he was not looking for money’s success tunes to bless his disturbed soul.

I just looked at him and his constantly shaking and restless fingers and bulky eye bags that told me he needed someone to just listen to him.

I felt, it was simple. You can’t be guided but only heard to. It’s true every man makes his own destiny. But not every one of us would get a chance to touch someone’s heart and make that impact. Not all of us are blessed like the holy mother (Teresa) or as wise as the Swami (Vivekananda) himself, but all of us have the ability to either make someone or well, even break someone. I had not such a huge opportunity, but at least to sit and listen. So I did just that.

I have stopped giving the right to anyone to guide me. But I am always ready to listen to you. Why? Simply because, I realized when things go wrong after listening to someone else, you can even blame yourself for it, so why take the pains. Just follow your heart.

After I had listened to the young lad, it was clear, he wanted to rectify a wrong in a different kind of way & it was well unique.

He was a successful corporate hero in his early thirties. He had shaken up a few chairs, competed wildly in the jungle to survive the rat race and pushed a few bright minds down the clogged drain to come out well, successful. It was Darwins theory simplified, ‘only the fittest survive’.

It was not until a month ago he had realized that one of his peers whom he had pushed right below in the routine rat race of the corporate world, died of a massive heart attack. He had left behind his mother with his wife and his two year old kid. With that of course the young couples mortgaged house and a car loan. When he went to their house to pay his respects, the deceased’s family let go of a wrath of anger blaming him for his downfall and corporate agony.

It sounded so ‘movie-like’

It was real and it’s as real as it could get. Probably that’s why when movies on these come up, we tend to quote, “that was filmy” reassuring ourselves of such things not happening with us or around us.

Now after listening to this lad, I had a feeling that there was something more than meets the eye. He was restless even after sharing it and his beady eyes screamed of shutting this sudden chaos around him, but his heart never quoted a sense of dismay for the family that was affected. It was not even sheer guilt eating him up and when he blurted, I was shocked, “I cannot take this blame. It will affect my corporate stature. How do I get free?” he said.

I did not know what to say. I just finished my coffee, put my bill money on the table and smiled as I moved out of the café.

Never surround yourself with things that can negate your life or add sinful energy to your thinking. As everything you touch has life, it gets affected one way or the other. So stay positive, stay calm & live Free!

I guess it is true. Life gives us lessons through ‘us and others’, everyday. Listen, pay heed to it and well get on with it.

It’s a long road ahead. Life isn’t short.

It’s long enough and we have enough time to think, act, react and play it well. We may not be able to even choose the path at times, but we can at least try to steer it right.

Stay positive, dream big and play it well.

Learn, grow and be well.

Live Free!