Sixteen wealths

Am roughly with my bad english transilating "pathinaru selvangal" as "16 wealths" .. in Tamilnadu when any person is blessing, he/she would bless saying "pathinarum petru peru vazvu vazga" . roughly translating to "live a great life with possession of all 16 wealths" !

Abirami Thudhi


I had long time wondered what are those 16 types of wealth. Asked few old people, but what they said was "yellarum solluvanga appadiye nangalum sollaroam" .. "ie., everyone is saying like that so we too do the same..(but dont know what)"
We went on a Temple tour and at Tirunallur, there is a Appar Kovil, where these 16 types are wealth are described as a poem, and reciting it as a Mantra will bless us with those wealth. The poem is sung by Appar, one of the great poets of Tamil and is dedicated for Abirami.
I just snapped it. Its really worth knowing the wealth, since we think money and assets are the only wealth, our ancesstors are very brilliant that they know money is not the only wealth, but its one of the wealth among the 16 types. Perhaps we forgot and forget it !
Just translating it -
1. Education
2. Age
3. Friendship
4. Prosperity
5. Youth
6. Physique
7. Mind
8. Wife
9. Patience / Perseverance
10.Popularity
11.Truthness
12.charitableness
13.Fund
14.Management
15.Life
16.Love

Golden Code for Healthy Living - G.R.Sarwate

Meeting new People every now and then is itself a invigorating experience .. I like meeting people, sharing their experiences. Its something like a reading a biography, even if he/she is not a celebrity, others life has lot to say and lot to learn !
And I got this habit from my father .. He travels through out India - mostly to southern parts of India for his engineering work ..
He was on a trip to Vishakapatnam (Vizag) .. there he met his fellow engineer, who took him to his home and introduced to his family.
Most interesting was his fellow engineer's father G.R.Sarwate, who was around 90 years of age, still walking with out stick, thin and healthy.
My father had a brief chat with Mr.Sarwate .. He said his interesting hobby was reading (as many lone old people) and he has written a book called "Golden Code for Healthy Living", out of his experiences he faced in his health as a child and the awareness to his surroundings. The interesting flip of the book, he said, he has written how to select a child's gender even before birth and prepare for the outcome of healthy (as liked) offsprings.
He thrusted a 15 page booklet into my father's hands and said it has all information about it. He didn't accept any monetary for the book, and he added his mission was to make people aware of their body health, prevent diseases and select and give this world, healthy peaceloving offsprings. At age 90 he has a mission in his life, a goal, something which he thought 'value add' to this world. Such people are great.

Summary of his book-
No summary, please read the book its just 15 pages, already summarized ! :-)

For the convenience of people on the net i ve, scanned the book and uploaded to a public site(box.net). It has no copyrights, no strings, just simple and straightforward. Please use it free. Download here.

And one more thing, when i wanted to upload the files to a publicly accesiable location, box.net was helpful. Its free upto 1GB, has a nice UI, fast (really). I would like to say thanks to the box.net team. THANKS !

Kicking causes most severe injury

Do you know that .. the most powerful weapon is with in you .. yes your legs .. says Kicking causes most severe injury than any sharp instruments ...

Art of Living (AOL) - Introductory Class

.. so i went for the Introductory Class of AOL. It was supposed to start at 6:30 .. i was there at 6:10. 6:30 passed but only 2 grandmothers and 2 grandfathers .. and me .. my friend pushed me "mmm .. you have brought me to such a place where only oldies come ... and will it start or not its already 6:35".
We were given registration forms to fill up. I did.
Then at 6:40 3 youngsters came.. the course conductor sat in a wooden chair covered with white cloth .. at the background was the photo of Sri Sri garlanded .. pleasant smell of agarbathis .. large hall .. tiles over ..
He introduced and asked "do you know anything about AOL ? .. what is art of living ? .. can we really master it ?". Couple of them were answering his questions ..
He then said about 7 traits of humans .. ego, physique, intellect, .. (i dont rem'r).. then explained what is prana .. he was mostly saying "prana is the one which says we are alive .. thats the difference b/w the living and the dead.."
We were asked to meditate for 15 minutes .. it was a guided meditation .. with he saying .. "take a deep breath .. become aware of your body, surroundings, your mind, the noise .. ". When we opened our eyes slowly .. wow amazing .. we could see some 30-35 people and few more were entering into the hall .. it was almost 7:15 ! For the one who didn't know .. they were punctual by "Indian Standard Time" but the instructor started it early ;-)
We were shown the videos of Sri Sri's travel across 137 countries .. (thats pretty amazing..) and the people's experience of Sudharshan Kriya ..
Atlast we were said "The course is 40 hours totally split across four days(Tu to Fr 6:30-9:30am or pm) and little longer on weekends(sat 7-11:30 am Sun 9-1 and post lunch to ashram) and the 'donation' for the course is 1000 rupees."
Personally i feel (and after lot of comments :-) its worth taking it up atleast for testing the authenticity of Sudharshan Kriya .. then with our own head come to a belief its good or not. Simply accepting as others say .. we should not be and even am not that way .. try it .. test it .. recommend it .. as "word of mouth" is always the best.. Sudharshan Kriya has already spread through word of mouth. I hope I take it up and benefit. About the instructor, to be frank, he was not the best that i can take up him as a Guru and learn from him. I expect more of a old knowleadgeable master to teach me than pretty dressed polished guy. I would try definitely sometime but hopefully with a master that I like.

For those who need the addr of AOL @ Bangalore: Ashram/Office (080) 2244 0102, 2244 0103.
Admin (seems) Mr.Ravi 98862 88891. Contact person for Jeevan Beema Nagar AOL Centre- Ms. Manasa or Ms.Meghana - 98450 91292.

All the best wishes on your journey into your inner self. Remember God is in you !

Beginning of an end .. Lakeview cake shop

Just back having a pastry from Lakeview .. taste is fantastic .. the cost is really high for a non-independant person like me .. but still i liked to pay for the taste ..
Rs.45 for a black-forest pastry .. which is 3 * 3 * 3 inches size !
But something has changed in LakeView (MG Road, Bangalore next to GK Vale) which am very unhappy to say .. The Service.
The attendants dont focus on people, they ill-treat customers with a heavy hefty voice (before 3 years .. it was smooth voiced, warm welcome ..) which says damn plainly without empathy "no seat here.. you have to wait.." .. you ask how much time .. the attender would say "who knows .. stand here and watch until some seat is freed .."
Thats pretty bad customer service .. the attendants taking the customers for granted..
when i was to Lakeview 3 years back .. i would see the manager welcoming the customers with a smooth warm voice .. taking order by himself .. but now the manager himself was not there when i went to complain about the service, the person at the cash point bluntly said "Manager is not there...you come afterwards .. " .. you b**** .. we' ve not come for charity fund collection ..
And we were about 7 of them ... we spoke among us that this "Lakeview is marking the beginning of its end." We got pastries packed and drove to Cubbon park ..
Even if the taste is good .. am sure on a long term if people are not respected the customers will not return back ..(we too dont hope to) marketing by word of mouth is the best way to become big. In a competition driven world the only difference that can be made is "service".

People People People ..

"People centric business" - which is now catching up .. may it be software sector or a mechanical workshop .. or whatever it is.
Companies believe the fact .. business is nothing but bunch of people who are ready to pay money for services that are offered.
I have heard a leadership program from Robin Sharma (The Monk who sold his Ferrari fame) which says business revolve around people. I really loved the Extraordinary Leadership Program. I like to hear it again and again .. until my iPod crips down due to low battery.

Art of Living (AOL) - Sri Sri Ravishankar

It was a worst week .. suffering from severe cold .. taking cold pills after every meal .. the climate change in Bangalore .. Bangalore is really coo..oool during Dec .. Jan ..
Observing me taking lot of tablets .. my peers adviced to take up a breathing class at AOL, which as said by one of my friend .. "I had severe Sinusitis which got reduced to nearly 80 % after taking up the Art of Living (AOL as it is called) class .. ".
At a time of Saint controversies i began to ask ".. does it work .. is he genuine .. etc." My friend just replied as plain vanilla, " what he is going to do .. he is only teaching you Yoga, Meditation and Pranayama .." and said ".. you have to trust first." shutting my mouth !
I should accept I got interested much to take up a class after many said its good .. and the articles that appeared in TOI(Times Of India) about the AOL classes ...
Even companies like IBM, Intel, Infosys .. enrol their employees to take up AOL classes or classes by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi which is a Transcendental Meditation program.
Now the wheel of life has come to a full spin .. people running for Spirituality .. seeking to calm their mind.. AOL's speciality is "Sudharshan Chakra" which is a kind of breathing formulated by Sri Sri ..
Contrary to this, a TOI and The Hindu review says that the Standard of living in India has sharply increased .. with people buying mid segment cars than ever before .. buying houses investing approx. 30-50 lacs (for a 3/2 BR flat)
Is the standard really increasing or, are the people loosing their peace, calm and happpiness compromising for monetary possessions ..
I dont have either of assests .. yet its time to turn to spirituality .. i ve enrolled for AOL's introductory class .. will update on it as i take it up..