The Act of Dropping!

As human beings, we are biased to overlook our blessings. What is most unfortunate is that we seek misery where none is present. Mostly, we do this by hanging onto the one thing that isn’t going our way. Honestly, it doesn’t matter if ten things or if the whole of life isn’t going our way, because life will pan out in its own manner.

This life is designed by karma, and most of it is already scripted, so there is no point in whining and crying for it not being a certain way. The expectations from life are an added burden of misery we willfully pick up on the way. We do this because we forget that we are passengers of this ride rather than being drivers. Life may joke momentarily into fooling ourselves that we are the drivers. Yet this delusion would in no time get snapped. The illusions are many, and the web of it is stronger than the rays of the summer sun. It is definitely holding us tightly, and no amount of living frees us. The only way to break the hold is by becoming aware.

Now, what does being aware mean?

Being aware means having the capacity to hold one thought at a time in its full capacity, and at the same time, not getting carried away into the whole dialogue that the mind is ready with at the advent of the thought. Being aware is an art of discernment. This is a practice of knowing the gravity of a thought before it becomes cozy visitor in the home of the mind. It is the act of letting truth, love, peace and most importantly “nothing” stay in the mind. It is an act of emptying and becoming more and more blank and having a mind without having a single thought. The mind of no thought is the most powerful form of existence. This might happen as one is working towards a goal. But this surely happens if putting awareness at every moment becomes the ultimate goal. surely the mind has to be engaged in the direction of discernment. This discernment of thought is the first and simple step of untangling oneself from this matrix. We have covered ourselves with different layers of illusions. I am this, I am that. And we have forgotten the real nature of who we are. Even when we are reminded through knowledge and wise gospels of sages, we tend to hear it as if in a trance. We feel deeply relaxed. Yet, that feeling doesn’t stay for long as we again and again engage in the samsara (impressions). We repeat the actions, and forget to detach ourselves from it. And thus get entrenched deeply into the marshy swamp of birth and rebirth cycle. Death comes to us as a solace while swinging like a pendulum that moves from desired outcomes to undesired results. In between crying spells and happy tears, the heart breathes its last. This is the story of every human being irrespective of whether they are rich or poor, lucky or not. The only beautiful thing about this life is that we can really observe this drama once we pause our actions, and hold space for reflections. For reflections show us how we have been moving in a loop of fulfilling likes and avoiding our dislikes. How we are chained to such illusions and how it is making us miserable. Truly, then, there is only one thing to do - detached karma. Detached thoughts, detached words and detached deeds. Love a baby or a pet while being detached. Enter a new job by reminding yourself that you are an replaceable resource who is meant to add value in the brief period of your tenure. This is true because in all probability, either you would change the job or get promoted or might even get fired. In either situation, always be aware of the transient nature of life. When you buy a new house or a car, acknowledge that it is a temporary gift. Everything in life is temporary. Your spouse and your family is also temporary.

Now, you can cry about the transient nature of life or you can cherish the relations! Most of which, we tend to take as granted.

Fate of single screen theatres, Kalayan and Jyoti

Imagine waking up to shutters, the favourite neighbourhood Cineplex near your place closed. The feeling of never being able to sit and have fun with your family or friends, disappearing, as you see the Cineplex shut over many passing days. 

People in the era of 1990s experienced the same when various single screen theatres pulled down the shutters, never to run another show. The days became longer and the nights lost its charm, people doomed at the news of single screen’s closure.

Jyoti, a cineplax situated on the Delhi-UP border in Ghaziabad, is reminisced by many movie buffs for successfully playing movies like Sholay, Zanjeer, Jai Santoshi Maa and more. It happened to be one of the best single screen theatres of its time; Jyoti bragged top class facilities and thousand seats. The cinema hall was so popular that there used to be a special transport for people to come and watch at Jyoti. It was a well renowned hall visited by family, women and kids. Shows ran from nine in the morning till the very last show ending at twelve, night. The demand for tickets at Jyoti was so high, that hardly 50 tickets were sold and a house full sign used to hover. After which most of its tickets were seen to be sold in black. It is said that people used to pay enormous amount for the tickets at Jyoti.The accident of 1982, when balcony of the hall fell over the viewers, killing many, the clouds of doom spread its wings, and its decline started. Though the hall survived for another 8 years by show casing popular flicks, Jyoti closed in 1990.

So why did it go out of business, why did it close? The answers can only be left to wonder. Locals claim, many illegal, unspeakable and law defying activities took place in the once famous theatre. The staff that ran the theatre also earned a lot of money by exploiting the hall in all ways possible. The police was bribed and so the malpractices continued till one day, Jyoti closed forever.

Now, 25 years have passed since the theatre has been left to ruins. Its fate will be decided after the construction of metro from Dilshad Garden to the Ghaziabad route gets green signal. Plans to either construct a mall or nursing home is doing rounds till then.

A similar single screen theatre is Kalyan situated in Seelampur.  A 3km drive from Seelampur metro station; formed in 1976, the cinema hall used to entertain the hearts of many. The hall could seat a crowd of around 750 people at a time. Like most Cinema halls, Kalyan worked from nine in the morning to twelve at night. Films of Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra lured the audience to Kalyan and yet it were films like Jai Santoshi Maa and Sanyasi that broke all records.  Kalyan too was a prime theatre crowded with women and kids till B-grade movies started playing on the screen. The story has twists. One of the owner’s son claim that some people came to sell a B-grade movie to their theatre. The operator refused to play the movie but the people claimed themselves to be from government agencies and under pressure, the operator had to play the movie. The operator got trapped as the same people demanded bribe; threatened to report the incident and shut the hall. The owner refused to pay bribe and with time, the license got cancelled. After which the cinema was shut down at 16^th June, 2006. The land was sold and flats were built.

The locals claim otherwise; B-grade movies honed the halls, unpaid tax and dues led to cancellation of license. The owner sold the land as soon as the license got cancelled. 

The single screen theatres have now given way to Cineplex and multiplex which has more to offer to people than just movies. The surviving theatres are bidding their time to hit the nail at the right moment. With various development undertakings happening all over the capital, many lucrative opportunities await the owners to the various cinema halls; like Jyoti waiting for Delhi Metro to decide its fate.

'Food is in her Nature’

Does your day start by checking yourself out in the mirror, looking for signs of weight loss? Do you keep tabs on new fitness regimes? Has checking out weight loss products become part of your lifestyle? Has exercise become a chore rather than a fitness routine? Is thinking of weight loss driving you crazy day and night? If yes then Pooja Makhija, leading nutritionist to Bollywood hotshots Deepika Padukone, Ranbir Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor and their likes, revealed some secrets after the launch of her new book, ‘eat.delete’.

Pooja was inspired to write eat.delete after seeing the aftermath of the ‘Quick fix’ path to weight loss which is crashing the physical as well as mental health of many. So what is the solution? “Eat often and correctly”, this is the advice she gave to former Ms. Universe Sushmita Sen when she came to her wellbeing centre ‘Nourish’. Also she adds; keep eating something every two hours. She guarantees to be never caught without food and claims to carry a fruit or biscuit while travelling. The reason behind this is to ‘eat.delete’, meaning eating to delete. She says “the more you eat, the more your body will work to burn or digest the food you eat”.

For Pooja, ‘pet pooja’ is very important and that’s why she has anything from a fruit to a khakhara within half an hour of waking up in the morning. She also says that every fruit’s important irrespective of its sugar content, each has to offer something unique from its counterparts and that none should be ignored. After ‘pet pooja’ Pooja has a twenty minute workout on Power Plate three times a week.

Pooja being a nutritionist, its hard to imagine her falling sick, yet on the face of flu or Virus, even the nutritionist seems helpless. On that note, she says that the kind of food she eats, equips her to heal faster and keep her immunity on a high than someone who is unaware of the nature of food. She suggests some high quality protein food like Tofu, Soya, and Egg white, Dal in small amounts to help the body heal from the wear and tear of flu or virus.

Living healthy is not all about food, what about the stress which makes you binge on that chocolate cake or the stuffed samosa, how does she deal with the stress? Playing with children and her passion for working is her mantra to remain chilled. She explains that the aura of the clinic and helping people change their relationship with food and better their life is what makes her fight stress.

Pooja’s path as a nutritionist was set by her mother. She says 'food was in my nature' and when she took Home science, she realized her love for food. She claims her mother to be her guiding star and that the rest was done by destiny.  Today Pooja’s efforts have led to transforming many lives. She stresses that our body has a beautiful mechanism and one needs to trust it to work wonders. 

iSkates- review

As you enter iSkates, you're filled with excitement, the ice, the skates all look a scene come true out of a Hollywood film. You and your gang of friends are all set to step on the ice; the bet is on to see who falls first. As you carefully make your way into the rink, you realize it’s not going to be easy. The instructions have already been given, keep your heels closer forming a V shape, bend your knees and shift your weight forward. You are asked to take baby steps, so you do.

While you are very careful not to slip, hanging on to the side railing you start moving with the instructions of the Marshall ringing in your mind. For some time you follow what you are told, now the first round has been completed by you, you decide to take a little risk and explore the central arena of the rink. Balancing your body, you take the plunge and you are doing good. This inspires your friends and they decide to follow your lead. The Pappu of the gang falls and gives you all, a chance to have a hearty laugh. As you laugh your way to glory, you slip a little and grope the hands you find and take your friends down with you. Now you laugh harder than ever, the fact that you fell down taking along your friends makes it the epic iSkate moment. The Marshall rushes and helps you all stand. The funny part is you can't stop laughing, making it harder for the Marshall to pick you up. Such are the sights that meet your eyes at iSkates, Ambience mall in Gurgaon.

After the great exercise session in the rink, you’re unmistakably hungry. Your Nose finds its way home to the iSkate café where Chef Nishant Choubey awaits you with his healthy delights. The wide range of choices in Italian, Japanese, Mediterranean and Indian makes your mouth water and you become quite unsure of what to have. The chef makes sure you get what you really want; he asks you questions from what bread, what toppings to the type of crust you want, thin or thick crust that's if you are ordering a pizza. Choosing a dessert seems no less a task then figuring out on two equally good things. New innovative methods are used to create new flavours out of the existing ones by mixing them in Tappenyaki (tappen meaning plate and yaki meaning cooking).

After having your tummy filled, you now feel like exploring the upper floor where you find a mock tail bar, a party lounge and a Karaoke room. You look around and savour the fun, and before you know it’s time to leave. The thought that there is a little Iceland within your reach, gives you hope to face the Delhi heat.

Location: Getting down at IIFCO Chowk, one will have to take an auto. Charges may vary between Rs 60-80. Just before the toll tax, on the NH-8 highway right at the Delhi - Gurgaon border, Ambience Mall stands tall and erect. Entering Gate No.4 and moving up to the 6^th Floor from lift no.2, you’ll find iSkates on the left hand side. You can have an icy experience anytime between 10.00am-10.00pm with Charges varying from Rs 330 on weekdays and Rs 440 on weekends.

Understanding superstition!

I believe man was born with reason and his actions must have been reasonable as much was possible for him to, let them to be. I also believe that our ancestors were really intelligent beings. Some myths and superstitions do make it a counter argument, but read on to time travel and unravel the mystery behind the superstitions.

Some are just repeated coincidences influencing the psyche

Don't cut nails after dusk. This one's the common one practiced by the elder-lies till date in many parts of India. One has to understand that these are traditional practices. Now in earlier times, medicine was not as advanced as it is today. Death due to infections were common. No tetanus injections were available till the very late twentieth century. Also was the lack of proper lighting absent. Now when this superstition would have come to force, the only aim would have been to ensure safety. Explaining people would have become tedious task, so religion was dragged to dirt. People never question the ways of lords. The fear of incurring the wrath of the gods by questioning their rules was unwanted by all.
Also another thing to be considered is the splattering of nails everywhere while cutting. People earlier used to walk barefoot. So their feet used to get cuts, and the nails lying on the floor could easily infect them. So nails were supposed to be thrown somewhere where no human would walk by.

Another superstition that is strictly followed in the Brahmin families is to not cut hair inside home. This one's simple enough. Hair is light, can get carried of far. If it enters the kitchen area, it can get inside the food too. If it gets into the food and goes inside the stomach, then it simply stays there! It does not get digested! Nobody wants a bush of undigested hair, right?

Another ritual that I have observed is bathing outside home when returning from funeral. Obviously today nobody actually bathes but Ganga jal is sprinkled before entering the house. This one's also easy to guess. One, the bodies start degrading and the germs inhabits the body. Two many a times, the death used to occur due to infections. So people used to bathe outside before entering inside their homes.

Superstitions or no superstition. One must give thoughts to reason. Life can get complicated when you start believing things like "black cats crossing the way ahead can bring bad luck!". Life is simple, keep it simple.

Why one should have babies?

Darwin, the father of evolution believed every coming generation to be advanced, genetically more evolved than its previous one. After all evolution is about getting better with passing day. The universe is evolving so are all beings so that the coming tomorrow is better than the passing today. This can be seen practically, when one sees these days a two year old child easily operating a computer, mobile phones and other such technologically advanced devices. Accept it or not, our children are going to be born more intelligent. They're going to be smarter. We would have experience, but our minds would not be as sharp as they are today. We will age and with time, our kids will grow. They'll learn new things, do things and give birth to a complete new world.

 
In India, most people get married and have kids without much thought. Getting married doesn't mean one should start producing babies! Marriage is a life long companionship where you promise to hold on to each other through thick and thin whereas having babies is a completely different story.

One should understand the responsibilities of having a baby. A baby holds the key to the future. How you shape the key decides which door you will open. A baby, depending on how you bring him up would help either construct or destroy the world. We all should strive to give our kids such education and values that the world may value their presence.

In ancient times, a mother would inculcate such values in her child that her child contributes to social change and progress. Failure to follow the values was met with harsh consequences. If a son disgraced the family, his parents would disown him. In the movie "Mother India" , Nargis punishes Dutt with her own hands when the village girls report his misconduct. In the end she even kills  her son for becoming a thug. Similarly, Yashodha ties up Krishna, beats him up when the gopis complain about his mischievous behavior.
All such actions of a mother were efforts to give this world a better creation. Maybe as an individual, you failed but when you have a kid, it's like getting another opportunity to do things right. Being a good parent and helping your kid become a good citizen is leaving behind a trace of goodness in the world.
You google any person, their parental history is always carried through the page. So, being a parent, life gives you another opportunity to leave a good mark behind.


Imagine your life after college, working in an office. You have been living a monotonous life. Office, work, hanging out with friends once in a rare blue moon. Life in office, is a completely different world. Whereas in college seventy five per cent attendance used to infuriate you, hundred percent attendance in office is going to kill you! When your friends will be free, you may not be and well vice verse would occur too.
Life stops holding meaning. It is difficult to leave behind a world full on fun and enter a world of non stop professionalism. Yet you have to, no slack there mate!
After some time your life will be filled with a monotonous routine. Get up, eat, rush to office, eat in between, come back, eat and sleep. A time would come when everyone will push you to marriage, you would jump the wagon, hoping for the best. Early years of married life are always spicy. Two people living together, getting to know each other, everything is new like the green of spring. A child's foot steps are all it needs to complete your life.

As the kid enters your life, you would get to see things from a different angle. Your child's growth would give you another chance to grow along. All things would be different. All methods would be different. Teaching your kids would be a challenge then. Accept it, sit with them and learn with them. New books, new syllabi, many modifications, would awaken all the old memories of school days, making you nostalgic and before you'll know, your life would be filled with a new breath!

Make your child your best friend and I bet, your life would not turn amazing! Grow with them, understand them at their level.  They will open up to you and disclose many a naughty incidents that will set you laughing. Trust me when your children would enter their teens, life would be, all the more interesting. This is the age when we ourselves have learned more. One turns inquisitive and a need to grow up, rises. You just need to be a little extra cautious here, because this is when the temper shoots up, mood swings occur, a "I know how to live" kind of attitude pops in! A little pause here to recollect your own days would make it easier for your kid, and you to get along. From here on, it all depends how you bring your kid up and what all he faces in his life. He may trust you if you're cool (means you are not too judgmental and parental) or may be he won't. Depends on a lot many things. 

Life would be amazing with a kid around, even if you would not be able to participate in his decision making, you would still have a chance to guide him through his mistakes. I hope you would grant your child the right to make mistakes and let your esteemed comments flow only when they are needed(specially during the rebellious states)!

With kids around, life would be an ever evolving experience. Trust me having babies, or adopting a kid would be a decision that would change your life for the best!

Afraid of helping your friend?

At one time or the other, a well wisher must have told you to hold back your knowledge and trait secrets lest your friend would get ahead.This seems a sensible advise in the competitive world, when actually it hampers the progress of education. One may (or may not) eventually win the race but at what cost?

At many a times, this competition creates bitterness, enmity between friends. In the race to score the maximum marks we forget our roles as friends.

Let's take a pause and think; do we even know why we receive education? Even care to know what good is going to come by learning algebra, quantum physics, various anatomies. This great urge to not disclose the solution to your friend, what is so good in it at all? The whole process of enjoying education is lost in the twilight of the coming night.

One needs to understand that the whole process of evolution is to create a better world. We have to evolve to bring better scientists along with better managers. Though a scientist is socially more respected. It definitely doesn't mean they are the end all. One has to understand that what a needle can do, can't be done by a sword. Each has it's own place.

Meanwhile getting ahead by not sharing information is the lowliest scheme you can try, to usurp your friend's grades. The other way could be, share knowledge, study; prepare well, hone your skills more along with helping your friend. Sometimes the purpose of one could be to help awaken the dream of another.
 
The person you help may escalate way ahead but instead of being disheartened, know this truth that your help contributed in bringing out the best in someone which in turn leads to betterment of society! You must know that every action has its equal and opposite reaction. So every good action of yours will have to come back to you cause that is the law! So be good and be patient. You will be rewarded with time!

Nourish the talent within you, if it's gardening, then be proud that it is so! Explore your dreams. One should strive to do better, not by with-holding information but by sharing information and raising up to the challenge that you'll still do better. Know that your fates are sealed, one ends up at the end where one must whether you help your friends or not! But imagine how good it would be if the day you succeed, there is a friend to embrace you; share your happiness with true sincerity! If your friend succeeds then accept that he was better programmed for that as you are better programmed for something else! We all can not be number one at the same time for the same things. When you help your friend and he succeeds; know that you contributed in bringing out a better professional into the world!

The best of engineers build best of technologies; similarly the best of painters paint the best of painting. As these two are incomparable, so are your roles as friends competing! Each one of you has your own roles. Discover the talent within you and make your move. Accepted it's easy said than done; but once you know your true nature and your unique talent, then every day is a breath of fresh air and life becomes a celebration!