Week 4: The Bhagwad Gita

For those who are not aware, I am on a 52 weeks adventure this year where in I decide my own adventures! For more details, check out here!

After the last week's super exciting adventure of jet skiing and para sailing, finding adventures in routine life seemed a difficult task. But this is what this venture is about - grow as a person amidst your routine life. So my this week's learning is - a glimpse into the mighty holy book of Bhagwad Gita!

It does not matter if you are an atheist, a God fearing human or a neutral being with no feelings for God - Bhagwad Gita has a lot to teach each of you! 

The Bhagwad Gita is a holy book in which the preachings of Lord Krishna to the Panadava prince Arjuna are presented in a beautiful verse format. And why did Arjuna require Lord Krishna's teachings? Arjuna was himself the greatest warriors of his times and yet he turned to Lord Krishna for advice. Arjuna was amidst a chaos where in he is struggling to perform his duty, to fight against his own Gurus, his brothers and relatives in the righteous war between Kauravas and Pandavas.

When my dearest friend Deepti mentioned that she was reading the Gita, I took the opportunity to ask her to have a small session over phone for me based on her learning so far. To this Deepti agreed whole heartedly and we had an half an hour session on the Bhagwad Gita.

Special thanks to Deepti and her session, here is my humble attempt at precisely describing a very small part of the vast knowledge buried in this mammoth book - The Bhagwad Gita.

The Gita has the complete essence of vedic wisdom which enables the reader to awaken the pure consciousness. Lord Krishna states that there are 5 basic truths -

• Jiva: It is the immortal essence or soul of any living organism
• Iswara: Is the Lord, or Almighty
• Prakriti: Means nature, which is the essential constituent of the universe and is basis of all the activity of the creation
• Time
• Karma: It means 'action'. It is a store of good and bad actions, accumulated over many lives, and it is this store of actions that binds one to phenomenal existence.

An important lesson mentioned in the Gita revolves around the karma  - The universe responds to you, sooner or later, according to your quality of actions. If you sow good seeds, you will reap a good harvest. 

There are 3 types of Gunas (or characteristics) within us. Our nature is defined by which Guna is dominant in our actions. The Gunas - 

• Sattva Guna: This is known as the mode of goodness. It is the pure, elevated and enlightened soul. In today's world it is very difficult to find such people as none of us are pure, there is a bit of selfishness in all of us to survive this rat race.
• Rajas Guna: Or the mode of passion. This motivates us to create, acquire and enjoy. Most of us are in this form currently with the desire to create new things, acquire higher accolades and enjoy the material pursuits.
• Tamas Guna: Or the mode of ignorance. It is this characteristic which motivates us to destroy and destruct. Unfortunately we have such folks also around in today's world - the Peshawar school massacre being a mournful example.

So the human being you are is decided by which Guna are you cultivating within yourself. 

Get rid of those material possessions and your life will be happier. Do you really need those 2 cars, 2 houses and those cupboard full of clothes? It is such a simple truth and yet we just cannot get rid of all our attachments and our possessions. It is easier said than done. But I believe just being aware of the root cause of our problems takes us one step ahead in our 'self realization' journey.

This was an excerpt of my learning from the first session. The Bhagwad Gita has a lot to offer and as I assimilate Lord Krishna's teachings there is one verse which always stays with me - 

dukhesv anudvigna-manah

sukhesu vigata-sprhah

vita-raga-bhaya-khrodha

stitha-dhir munir ucyate

Meaning -  One who is not disturbed in spite of the threefold miseries, who is not elated when there is happiness, and who is free from attachment, fear and anger, is called a sage of steady mind.

Week 3: And I fly!

For those who are not aware, I am on a 52 weeks adventure this year where in I decide my own adventures! For more details, check out here!

This is my 3rd week of adventure. The earlier 2 weeks I have been getting messages from folks that you are not doing conventional adventures, you are doing maybe something different and terming it as an adventure! As I said, this venture is about doing something new, growing as a person. Every week is not going to be about 'adventure' like jumping down a cliff or being amidst the wild. 

Never the less my this week's adventure should make people happy as it was something really in the adventurous gear!

So the day started at 5 am for us. We were going to Key West, an island 4 hours from our place to do water sports. The agenda was to do snorkeling, jet skiing and para sailing. Before the week, there was a small voice inside me urging me to go out there and try the never done. But I was not sure what will happen on the D day, whether the voice will drown down with the weight of fear and anxiety or whether it will soar high with motivation. I had to go there and see for myself!

Our jet skiing was there at 10.30 am, however we missed it as we reached late. We rescheduled it for 11.30 am. We reached the jet skiing spot. It was chilly and we thought of wearing the gear that will keep us warm.

Felt like aqua creatures :)

We had a small tutorial by our guide Justin, who explained us how to operate the jet ski, the interpretation of different hand signals and what to do in emergency. The tutorial took some 5 minutes and then we were set to drive!

The tutorial

And here we go!

I was not so worried about the jet skiing as I knew I will be sitting behind Sujoy and it will not be that scary. Plus I just love water. Even though I can't swim, I still love water. So Sujoy started the ignition of the jet skii and we were in motion. The jet skii works best at high speed. At low speed there is a lag in the steering and it takes time to turn the vehicle at low speed. Also with speed, the water tends to support the motion. Sujoy started the jet skii and within 5 minutes he was driving like a pro. The moment the speed was going above 35 miles/hour, I used to nudge him a little to slow down. Never the less he reached till 44 miles/hour and that was too fast. Sujoy is a pro in driving, I will not be surprised if one day he learns to operate a plane and that too in minimum days.

I have to let in a small secret here. Whenever I have done something like this - like the only 2 rides in Universal, I have closed my eyes and prayed for the thing to get over soon. But yesterday was a different story. I did not pray for a single moment and my eyes were wide open, soaking in the scenery and looking around at water everywhere. The speed of the vehicle was letting air gush on my face and sometimes some waves just splattered on me! I could just sit there and do nothing but gaze at the waters! I was in between Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.

The jet skii tour was 28 miles which covered almost all of Key West and we saw some nice spots on the tour. Last time when we had gone to Key West, we had gone to the Southernmost Point of USA by road. This time, we saw that point from the waters! The guide mentioned this is the second highest clicked spot in Florida after of course Cindrella's castle in Disney Orlando!

Do you see the water behind? This time we were behind this pole in the waters looking at folks clicking photographs!

We went to a place in the waters called the 'Sand Bar'. Here the water was very shallow and there was sand beneath the waters in the form of sand dunes. It looked like there were sand waves beneath the water. We got down here and relaxed for 2 minutes.

Can you see those sand waves?

We were half way through our trip and it was time to head back to the coast. Sujoy asked me to drive the jet skii back and this time with no crying, no arguments, no embarrassment I said, "Yes" in the first go and took the bike in my hands. The guide asked Sujoy, "Is she driving now?" When Sujoy replied affirmatively the guide said, "Oh no, all the best to you!"

I took the jet skii in my control. I have never driven a two wheeler. The jet skii was heavy. I started the engine. I accelerated. The jet skii went ahead. I got a little adrenaline rush. I increased my speed....From 5 miles/hour I went to 20 miles/hour. I felt the air gushing on my face. The speed was intoxicating me. I increased my speed further, I went up to 30 miles/hour. Waves were splashing on my face. I got rejuvenated. I accelerated and I went upto 40 miles/hour i.e. around 65 km/hour. I felt like I was one of those Fast and Furious guys! The way back was not smooth, the waves were a little big and many. The happiness of maneuvering through those giant leaps was inexplicable! I was getting drunk on it! 

We stopped to see another spot in between and I asked Sujoy to take on the driver's seat. He refused and I continued my first ever adventurous journey. It was the first time Sujoy was sitting behind me and enjoying the view! That is such a rare thing! Rarest of all!

We came back to the dock, me happy like a child with my new found guts!

Next was para sailing. But before that we had lunch on a nice bench overlooking the sea. We had brought food from home. Soft chapatis made by Prachi and Coccinia Indica (our very own tindora or tondli) vegetable cooked by me! After having a hearty lunch by the sea, we went to our next destination - Para sailing!

I was scared of this, as I have a little fear of heights. We sat in the ship and I was nervously looking at the gear which will be holding us. Then Prachi said, "What if one of the strings breaks when we are up?".....And that was it....the little courageous voice inside me started drowning. The first group went, enjoyed up the sky and came back. Second in line were Prachi and Yatin. They went, they waved, they smiled, they yelled and they came back. Next was us. I started praying a little. The guide was helping me with the gear. We came up the dock of the ship. We sat down. We were tied to the parachute. Slowly we started going up. My heartbeats increased, my prayers increased double fold.

The scared me as we were going upwards!

We went higher, Sujoy was like leave your hands. I was like no, I held to the rope as a child who clings to the mother when scared. We were going up slowly. Sujoy spent some 10 minutes convincing me to leave my hand and somehow I managed to leave one hand!

That smile is a farce! Me holding tightly to the ropes.

Finally me letting off one hand!

I was like, "OMG, what is happening?"

We soared high, above the sun in the clouds with water all around us beneath. I looked down, I was scared. Looking at my face, Sujoy looked down and he got a little scared too ;)
But then he told me to look at the horizon, to look at the colours, to look at the ships, to look at the birds. It was at this point that I stopped praying and started looking! Breathtaking! I was a bird, looking from top at the beautiful world below me. Assimilating everything in my sight and being amazed on how beautiful the nature is! I saw tiny people on ships and wondered if this is what Sandra Bullock was talking about in Gravity, tiny beings seen from the space. The water was blue, pink and green taking colours from the sky, plants and sunlight. If I could capture a moment to be cherished forever, it will be this!!!!

We came down twice from the height to touch the waters. It looked as if we were water walking. The first time we came down, Sujoy was revolving like a merry child on a swing. And due to his motion in turn I was moving sideways. I first thought, he could not control himself and thus this revolving happening. However later I came to know he did that on purpose! I must have skipped 3 heartbeats in all that movement!

The water splash!

Sujoy going haywire and in turn making me go haywire!

Repelling!

Above the sun!

Look, who is up there!

After going up again, we came back. We came back on the ship and I gave a sigh of relief! And as I was removing my gear, Sujoy did what he does best - imitate me! Then I had to try to explain it to him why I was so scared and could not leave my hands!

That is Sujoy imitating me! My face looked like that when we were up!

Me with my silliest explanations!

And so I was back on the ship, back to normality, back to being the same old boring self and yet I had a sense of accomplishment that day! I did the never done, I did the never thought of! Back on the ship reminiscing the best moments, we just relaxed!

Picture Perfect!

We missed snorkeling this time! But as Prachi said, I should keep some adventure for other weeks too! ;) Looking forward to that adventure! :)

PS: For all those looking for conventional adventures on my blog, this might be the only one in the year. So just be glad that I did atleast one adventure in the entire 52 weeks ;)

Week 2: Speaking up finally!

For those who are not aware, I am on a 52 weeks adventure this year where in I decide my own adventures! For more details, check out here!

So the adventure for week 2 was, after a lot of contemplation and dread I finally stepped into a Toastmasters Club Meeting as a guest! For those who are not aware about Toastmasters International - Toastmasters International is a non profit educational organization that operates clubs worldwide for the purpose of helping members improve their communication, public speaking and leadership skills. Through its thousands of member clubs, Toastmasters International offers a program of communication and leadership projects designed to help people learn the arts of speaking, listening, and thinking.

Yes this is an adventure for me as I have take the first step towards fearless public speaking. It is not that I have never spoken in front of audience before, I have, my earlier job demanded that but then I have not been a very good orator. I am average. I would rather like to send emails to employees than conduct a session, but never the less I did conduct sessions and gave presentations at work! 

I am on a hiatus right now - no emails, no outlook calendars, no sessions, no presentation....just doing what you love! Yet I feel good speaking skills are necessary irrespective of who you are, what you do! And so here is my beginning towards improvement, towards progress.

I visited the Plantation Toastmasters Club this Tuesday as a guest and here is an excerpt of my experience!

The Plantation Toastmasters Club has 39 members in total and on this particular Tuesday there were 18 members present along with 6 more guests (that was a relief). I found the club members to be very warm and they made us comfortable. When I say 'us', it is my husband Sujoy and me. I asked him to join me telling him that I wanted him to know what Toastmasters is all about. But the real reason was I needed a little of my comfort zone in that unknown territory :P

I was surprised to see a 11 or maybe 12 year old boy as a guest. Noah had joined his father for the session. Looking at him I felt, am I too late to join this bandwagon? But then there were folks from all age groups and I felt a little relieved.

Before the meeting started, agenda of the meeting was passed on to all the participants. We started with general announcements from the club members. One of which interested me was the club was going for movies coming Saturday. That surely added a sparkle to my eyes. 

The program begun with the introduction of the Toastmaster for the evening, who basically hosts the program with a chosen theme. The Toastmasters for the night was Shoshonna and her theme was Martin Luther King Jr's quotes. 

The introduction was followed by the Word Master, who picked up the word for the day and explained the meaning of the same. The word for the day was 'elucidate' meaning to explain, provide clarifications. 

Following that we had the Tip of the Day by Darlene Hnatiw. 

Then we had introductions of each member, and each member used the word elucidate in their introductions. When my turn came, I was blank for a second and then mumbled something. 

And then came the interesting part - prepared speeches by 3 members. We had varied topics chosen like 'Live for Today' by Shelby, Excerpts from 'A Christmas Carol' by Wolfgang and The Winning Proposal: Getting new members for Plantation Toastmasters Club by Daniel.

Shelby touched a cord in the audience by her emotional talk on volunteering and giving back to the society, Wolfgang was fantastic with his voice modulations and almost everybody was hung up on Daniel's proposal of giving cookies to add more members to the club. So much so that the President signed an executive order asking Daniel to get home baked cookies for the next session! ;)

Each speaker was appraised by an independent evaluator who gave their evaluations at the end of the speeches.

We had the Table Topics Master coming up on the stage later who randomly picked up people from the audience and asked them to talk on a particular topic. The Table Topics Master for the evening Alain beautifully wrapped his talk around current affairs and asked folks opinions on sports, weather, time capsule, animals etc. I loved the way he conducted his session!

And then we had the raffle. One ticket for $1. The amount collected is divided into half. Half goes to the raffle winner and other half to the club. We bought one ticket and when the winning number was being called out, Sujoy was not even looking at his ticket. He was so sure that he will not win as he kept on telling me, "I have never won in such things. Even during playing Housie, I never won." But I kept an eye on his ticket no. And guess what? We won!! I told Sujoy, "I am your lucky charm. Take me everywhere and you will win." So there was some incentive received for our visit!

The raffle was followed by prizes! Who doesn't like to win! There were prizes for best speaker, best evaluator and best Table Topics speaker. The winner is decided by votes cast by all the members. The winners for the day were presented small trophies. What a way to motivate!

There was a Grammarian for the session who kept an eye or should I say kept an ear on everybody's speeches and noted down grammatical errors. Also at the same time he noted down any beautiful usage of the language which made the audience paint a picturesque picture with the help of those words. On that night there were no grammatical mistakes made and it was a 100% error free night!

There was a 'Ah! Counter'. Now this is the person whom all speakers must be hating from their heart. This person keeps a count of your Umms, Ahhs, So, Like that, blanks - anything other than a proper English word. And why people hate him so much? As he has this whistle which he rings every time you do this mistake. Imagine you saying Umm 5 times in your speech and then that whistle blowing 5 times like a leash on your body. Ya he is a man to be scared of!

Through out the session, there are notes flowing all over. I myself must have passed some 12 notes from one end to other. Initially I was irritated with this and failed to understand what is going on. But then later came to know these are appreciation notes from one member to other on how well they spoke. And suddenly my irritation was converted into a BIG smile! Appreciation is what makes you put in bonus efforts and go that extra mile. And all these folks had imbibed it so well!

In the end, the guests were asked what did they like about the session. For me it was the energy of the group which I found remarkable. All of them were from different work groups, different ages, different cultures. I think what bound them together was this energy. The second thing was the appreciation notes. It is a nice gesture to let someone know that their work was liked!

Noah, the 11-12 year old boy said "I liked being here today. This is so much better than playing video games at home." Now that I think is the biggest compliment this club can ever get!

We came back home and I thought I was done for the day with Toastmasters. But no, just before going to sleep I saw a mail from Nick, the club's secretary 'elucidating' on the minutes of the meeting and I reminisced on the time spent there that day!

So over all it was a very refreshing experience for me! The warmth of the Club is welcoming. And I think, I will go for the next session also just to have cookies baked by Daniel! :)

Week 1: And I do the never done!

So I got this idea of 52 weeks of adventure from Brenda's blog - Embark: Fifty Two Weeks of Adventure. And again from Lily Elyn's blog! And I just loved the idea!

Brenda invites readers to join her on fifty-two weeks of adventures for 2015.

"Embark with me as I take fifty-two adventures and re-discover the joy of ordinary life being lived to its fullest.

I challenge you to find a way to learn, to grow, to care and to breathe, each day, for fifty-two weeks. Nourish your mind, soul, heart and body. And each week, go on an adventure."

And I was like seriously! An adventure every week this entire year!!! Sounds fun. And what makes it interesting is you are the one who will decide what is your adventure - it can be as simple as eating a fruit or a little difficult like no social media for a week or something outrageous like para gliding! Just anything which you decide as an adventure! 

So here I am writing my adventure for Week 1:

I hit the gym!!!!

Now you will say, "So what is an adventure about hitting the gym? We did it everyday. Duh....how idiot can one be to call it an adventure....."

But hello, wait....listen to my entire story and then give your verdict.

In my entire life till now I have never ever gone to a gym! Ya that is the truth. You will ask now, "How is that possible?" 

It is, as I never felt the need to excercise. I have been thin as a stick all my life and always thought excercise is for obese people and hence never went to the gym. Never ever felt the need to go and run on the treadmill, check how many calories I burnt and then feel good about it.

Ironically it was the the way for me. I have to instead count how many calories I am eating so that I can put on weight ;)

So ya, I went to the gym. All thanks to my husband's pestering. It is only because of him that I went. He is sporty one amongst us. I am the lazy bone - give me a book and a chair and I am done! Don't need anything else. But that day, he pestered for half an hour. He was hovering over my neck saying, "You just sit at home with no physical activity. Go out, run, do some exercise..blah blah blah". Finally I was like, " Ok fine, let us do it!"

It was a nice experience :) I walked on the treadmill on a speed of 3. Don't laugh! And then did some bicep tricep machines and saw how the cycling device operates. Lifted some weight! And tadaaa that was my gym adventure :)