Rise and Shine

Proud to say I have Coorgi blood flowing in my veins.
We are an annoyingly stubborn,proud,
coffee loving community that the English could never conquer,
through battle or by any other means...
I guess that explains why it has produced some of India's finest military generals.....
......and it also explains my blown up ego and dangerous coffee addiction !

Consuming gallons of coffee on virtually any occasion....
had gotten me staying awake way too long.....
It sent my body clock on a similar schedule as my OU exams.
An hour of sleep here........36 hours of work there.
My head buzzing.....hands shaking....Songs playing in my head.
Stubborn as I am,I just kept going on and on......
before I realized I was getting way too addicted to work.
I knew I needed help and this time....Miles Davis' music was'nt going to do it.

Enter Mommy....
Ma's been an AOL volunteer for years 

and has always wanted me to be a little more spiritually inclined :-)
Not that that I disregarded spirituality......or any of our Yogic and Spiritual Gurus.
Just that I've always felt that if I was going to go in that direction,
 it should be wholeheartedly and not cause I had to be pushed towards it.
Anyways......watching me do the crazy robot .....pushed my Mom's panic button.
I am pretty sure she said to herself in a most Matrix like fashion......"It is time."....

Give your son a blasting of his life,
tell him he is a total moron.....

and tell him he totally takes after his Dad ! :-)
Then cool down....and explain to him that he needs to get a life..

.......one that he is in control of...
And then do the unthinkable.......enroll him into a Yoga class !

Mommy Dearest...

All my life,you have embarrassed me more than a few times ...
but this is more than I can take....or so I thought to myself.
Watching yoga on TV is fun (sometimes) but I never thought
I would actually be the one stretching my insides 

and taking on the most awkward of poses.

To top it all up...I had to rise early.
'Early'.....ah ! .......I now remember that word.....

So I began on a Monday....

Woke up at 5 and got to the hall by 6.
I was the youngest person there.

Told myself,"Keep your eyes closed and you'll be fine".

Began with some light breathing exercises, chanted the 'OM'.
and we started off with some stretches I had never imagined possible.
 

It had only been an hour.......
and I had already become a cat,a monkey,a baby,a dog.
I had ridden an imaginary bicycle,rowed an imaginary boat,

pushed against walls,churned butter and played SuperMan.

( if you could visualize what that Asana might be like.....you could feel my pain. )
God....How much longer ? .....How much more pain?
Talk yourself through it.....All in your head !.....All in your Head !

It was then that I felt the transformation......an overwhelming force
and yet a comfortable feeling that my system was beginning to heal itself.
I lost hold of all the thoughts that were going through my head.
My mind went blank and I just did'nt care about what I could or could'nt do.

I did'nt 'think' of doing,
I did'nt 'try' to do,
.........I just 'did'..........
There was no thought...just action.

There was neither my work...nor my concerns.....nor my ego......nor me.
Just the voice and the feel.....
A flow that was new to me and yet....not a stranger .

Yoga is derived from the ancient word 'Yuj'.
Means "Union with the Divine".
The approach of Yoga is to balance the flow of energy through the mind and body...

By unblocking our energy channels,
it unlocks any clogs in our system
and regulates the flow of "Prana"-meaning the life force.

I left the hall with something I came without.
A new found awareness, an energy unlocked.
At the end of each hour I find myself........relaxed and refreshed.

To be introduced to something that someone in my place would generally consider uncool,
and to experience first hand....something that empowers and yet grounds....is a first for me.
Would I recommend it to my peers ?..yes I would...
Would I expect them to take to it.......No I would'nt.
At our age,we are way too exposed and conditioned by the Tube and the Puppet Masters,
to understand and regard the value of this ancient yet timeless knowledge.

By some unusual twist of  circumstances,

I find myself lucky to have experienced what I did.
Feeling silly and yet a lot wiser .

Like they say......Mom knows best.
Mom...I guess you do.....
And the next time you plan to embarrass your Silly Son !
....There'll be a 'Thank You' card waiting :-)

Etc Etc.

Not that I'd love the ones that I do,any less on any other day.
But V-Day seems  to have officially earmarked all the cliches of affection.
Pink,Pink,Pink.....wait a sec....Pink :-)
Coffee Shop Managers,Street Side Florists and the Shiv Sena
are gonna have a better day than most of the Love Birds out there.

Alas, that's not the case with the us students of the MCA dept.
Our exams begin tomorrow and even the most affectionate Valentine's Greeting,
would feel like a cruel joke.

It's been been a pretty hectic fortnight and it hasn't gotten any better.
My project's gotten fast tracked and while it's pretty glamorous to work with the world's most popular networking site....one has to remember that it's still work and it has to be done.
Like I've posted before,I always get more work piled up when my hands are already full,
and it's happened yet again.

Our college hosted it's BasketBall tournament last week and had 16 teams in the pool.
Our PD has been at me for two years to join the basketball team but I managed to dodge it everytime.
Not that I'm lazy or can't perform for the team....but I've got to focus on a lot of stuff in life and sports in our college doesn't get the perks it deserves.
In spite of that, I've nothing but respect for our PD for putting his heart and soul into building a sports platform for our college.
So he tells me that he want's me manning the Score table during the tournament.
Since I've been avoiding the team for two years,I figured it's the least I could do.
It wasn't until two days before the tournament that that I was told that the table had to be manned by a third party official and that I had to shift my duties to coach the B Team.


The B team was made up mostly of first years who had barely learnt to shoot and dribble.
They had never played a tournament in their life.
Bad news.....they had just two days to practice.
...worse news....they now had me as their coach...
Practice at what ?....I had no clue...
The best I could do was build up an offensive strategy and show them a few defensive formations.
Apart from that I told to play the game at their own pace while trusting each other and they would be fine.

I knew there wasn't much that the team could do with such little practice and not having played a tournament before....But I also knew they would give it their best shot and would learn something.
We lost all the matches we played but against veteran teams that had some of the best players in the university.
The last match we played was against Bhavan's that had African imports on the team.I was pretty amazed and happy to see our team take lead till half time,we lost be a large margin but showed consistent form throughtout out the game.
By the time our team was eliminated there was no sense of loss or disappointment but rather a sense of confidence and joy that the performed pretty well for their first tournament.With each match I could see their confidence grow and their game evolve.
I got appreciated by PD and the team for whatever little I could do salvage their efforts.Considering that many from this team will be in next year's A team makes me feel happy that I will always have the privilege of being their first coach (he he !) no matter how short a period of time.

Coming back to V-Day, I have always been aware that it's a day for celebrating love and not just lovers.
Friends and family and the special someones...all deserve to be under the pink umbrella.
Thinking about love and and what it means to me....
I've realized that I can love the ones that I do no matter what.
I would go out on a limb to look out for the ones that I care about without expecting something in return.

Hey Sneha...Hope you doing good :-)
It's been quite a while since I got to hear bout you or read anything you've written.
Nonetheless it doesn't change the way I feel bout you.
If I'm lucky...maybe someday you will know how much you mean to me.
And If I'm luckier....it will mean something to you.
Have fun.

Got to get back to my books for now.
I hope my exams go well, fingers crossed.

:-)