What do you do in the morning aka Morning Ritual

This is my morning routine. 

• Complete sentence stems (personal journal)
• Read a few pages of the book that I am reading. 
• Prepare a protein smoothie (Whey + bee pollen + blueberries + yogurt + celery + fish oil)
• Take supplements (Multivitamin, Vitamin D and C, ECGC, Garlicin, Korean Ginseng)
• Breakfast (3 or 4 Eggs, Feta Cheese) -- (Optional)
• Prepare my bag (gym clothes, lunch box) to go to work

What you eat + what you do = Healthy

I follow a website called Mark's Daily Apple

And my understanding so far from this is that

1. 80% of  how your body looks is determined by what you eat not the workout you do. 
2. Working out every day is not a good idea.
3. Coffee and Alcohol in moderation is good.
4. It is important that you find some time to play. 
5. Eliminate stress. 

Goal of education

To teach 

1. How to think
2. How to recognize logical fallacies
3. How to be creative
4. How to learn

Physical, Mental And Emotional

If you want to excel in any activity there are 3 areas you has to focus on.
1. Mental
2. Emotional
3. Physical

The war has to be won in the head first. Which is the mental and emotional aspect of it.
And of course physical manifestation will be an extension of this.

Watch your thoughts for they become words. Watch your words for they become actions. Watch your actions for they become...habits. Watch your habits, for they become your character. And watch your character, for it becomes your destiny - Margaret Thatcher

To Do List

1. Clean up the blog template or change the theme

2. Write at least one article per month

3. Improve my writing ability in the process

Speed Reading Tips

1. Sit up straight

If you are recline, your mind will think it is time to relax and slow down.

2. Let your fingers guide you
Place your index fingers on opposite sides of the line you are reading and drag them both down as you read. This encourages your eyes to move down, not across, the page, preventing you from lingering on one word for too long.

3. Focus on the negative space
Don't look directly at the words. Instead, look at the white space directly above the line. You will automatically absorb many words simultaneously.

4. Skip the little guys.
Don't waste time on words like "the", "of" and "on". Scan for verbs and nouns; your brain will compute the rest of the sentence.

- Men's Health Article

Morning Pages Week 3

What was I thinking when I started this whole writing in the morning? So, far what I have gained is nothing. I feel totally blank most of the mornings and what I end up writing doesn't make much sense. It is as if I am repeating the stuff I have read somewhere or I have heard someone talking. Sometimes I wonder am I just a reflector of the knowledge of others? Am I just repeating what people have already said. Where is the originality in my thought? Who am I? A person repeating things that has been already said before. I think this is one of the biggest realization from the morning pages. That I am just another reflector of other's thoughts, who barely has thoughts of his own. The idea of original thinking has gone out of the window. In fact there is no time to do something called thinking in this world. That is why I read and read, thinking that I might get an idea or information from the other sources which will inspire me to come out with thoughts of my own. And what comes out is what has been already said before. In fact this whole blog has been about ideas adopted from others. There is none which I can call my own. They just occurred to me and they just happen to be found here. These thoughts they are not mine. These ideas they are not mine. I am not any of this that you read here. 

Well that is the biggest realization so far from the morning pages.  I am in the final week now. And the only thing I could not keep up with is getting up a bit early in the morning. I still wake up the same time that I normally do. And surprisingly I find enough time to write the morning pages. 

Morning Pages Week 1

I am almost in the end of the week 1 of morning pages. So, far I have not felt any drastic differences. Getting up early in the morning is still an issue with me. I think I am more on the night owl side than an early lark. So, getting up even at 7 in the morning affects my day. Once in a month and half I have to log in to the office network and check the system. So, that week usually my sleep pattern changes. As I have to get up at 7. This week happens to be the week after that week. And I have been pretty consistent getting up between 7 and 8. So, I have been able to make progress with morning pages. Initial 2 days have been tough, as I was still half awake and my handwriting suffered because of that. And I don't remember what I wrote in them. However after 3 days I was able to write some stuff out which actually made sense. I also observed that once the writing is done I am fully awake and ready to face the world. It feels like a part of my brain suddenly can see the world as a series of sequences rather than a random disconnected events. This happens to me in the morning when I am damn sleepy. And the morning pages has shorten that mode. Most of the writings makes sense and some of  it is utter non sense brain noise dump. I will go through what I wrote may be the end of the month and try to see whether I see a pattern. So far I have been able to stick to the exercise. Let the second week begin.

How much time does it take? So far it has taken something like 15 - 25 minutes. I keep writing even though I go blank and write whatever comes to my mind. Sometimes the sentences are bizarre, weird and doesn't make any sense. Then comes a meaningful sentence and then it jumps back to gibberish. Today's morning page was the weirdest of writing of all time. I just wrote gibberish, mindless words. My handwriting looked like a drunk's handwriting. So, I am looking forward for new experiences which morning pages will reveal to me in coming weeks.

A shot at morning pages.

It was mid of September 2006, I was new to New York. And my favorite pass time was to go to Barnes and Noble and browse books there. While going through the popular book section I came across a book called The Artist's Way. A Book written by Julia Cameron. It was a how to book to connect with the creative part and break away from the artist's block. She suggested 2 powerful techniques to do that.
1. Morning pages
2. Artist's date.

I tested the morning pages concept in 2006. However with time, I lost touch with that practice. All I remember from that experience was the grogginess of the mornings and just doodling.

Recently I read  Pragmatic Thinking and Learning. Author of this book, Andy Hunt mentions that morning pages is an effective way to get a core dump of Right brain thinking. His emphasis is that it is very difficult to get hold of the information present in the R brain. And mornings are the times when a person is half awake and that is the time, our R brain thinking will be communicated to us through dreams or symbols. And it would be easy to describe as the memory is very fresh.

So, I have decided to practice the art of morning pages deliberately in the mornings of February as soon as I get up. So, this is the process or protocol that I will be following.

Do this from Feb 1 2011 - March 2 2011 for 30 days.
1. Before going to sleep keep a notepad and a pen next to me.
2. The moment I wake up, I grab the pen and the notepad.
3. Write the date and time, and start writing.
4. The writing can be anything that I feel like writing, it is basically what I feel I write, no stopping thoughts. Just brain dump of what is going on in my head.
5. I will stop when I finish the 3rd page.
6. I note down the time.

On March 3 2011 I will read all that I wrote and may be make sense of it.

I will write a report on this experiment and its effectiveness every week of February.

Keys to the kingdom -- A dancer's state -- A beginner's Mind

Dancing is fun and fantastic for the mind, body and soul. Last night I was at a salsa social. And the thought that was going through my mind was, I have to make every dance count. Basically I didn't want to go into the auto pilot mode of dancing. What I found out initially when I am in a social is that, I allow the creative part of me to open up. The first few dances are where I find new patterns. For me every dance I do is different, and I dont repeat myself. It is a way I found to express myself in a social dancing.

Some fellow dancers will say that a couple dance is not about you, but about the partner. More than anyone a dance is about you, your personal expression. You can go to all kinds of dance schools and learn a great deal about dancing. However, if you are not finding your own self in this process, you are missing a core part of learning, that is to find a part inside you. The goal is to find that human inside you, who expresses him/her freely in a way  you sense the real unique you. I have been wondering a lot about it and wanted to blog about it. Because this is the kind of realization which has set my dancing apart. The dances that I do in the social is always unique and always there is something that I find to express. It may not be an emotion, but it definitely is not common. It is a state where the general rules are broken. Where the rules are in sync with what you are. Where you are present in the moment, interacting with the world as events come to you and you handle it with minimal stress. I use to be stressed a lot about my dancing, but when I actually stopped worrying and started enjoying myself, that is when the real progress happened. It feels as if I have entered a beginner's mind. Where I am open to possibilities, where I allow myself to watch everything that I do or I am going to do through fresh set of eyes. 

Announcing death of my salsa blog

Salsa Bugaloooo that was the name of my salsa blog in rediffblogs. And it was in the domain http://salsablog.rediffblogs.com. Now it is not available any more. And yes I would like to declare it as dead. So Rest In Peace my salsa blog. 


There is a cached version of the website in Google. You can find that here Cached Website


So, that is what I have for now. I am not sure whether I will blog a lot about salsa any more. It is a journey which I started long time ago. And now there is no time or energy or enthusiasm to talk about it. However when I feel the time is right I will blog about dance technique called Dunham Technique. 


Meanwhile there are other interesting things in life which needs a new way of opening up and being aware. So, I will blog about them. I have been thinking a lot of stuff for this blog. And a 5 minute blog is the method that I found is the best way to keep this space updated. 

Happy New Year 2011

Here is wishing every one a very happy new year 2011. 

This year is definitely the year of honing my productive skills. So, a couple of weeks I have been trying to follow a system. As part of that, this blog post is being written in only 5 minutes. Yes that is right. I allow only 5 minutes to finish this post. Of course the editing might take more than a few minutes but the content is produced in a 5 minute burst. 

So before I go on ranting about productivity in the future as I progress. I want to do one thing which I have been thinking of doing for a while. That is to ask forgiveness from you. I ask forgiveness from each and everyone. I am sorry, if I have been mean, bad or indifferent towards you. If you think that I have done something to harm you. I am really sorry. Please forgive me. If certain things have happened in your life to which you feel that I have to be blamed. I seek forgiveness from you. If you think I have ignored you, I am sorry. If you think that I have not met your expectations I am sorry. 

I am sorry, please forgive me. 

year 2011 is the beginning of a new decade. So a very happy new decade everyone. 

Four years of this American Life... and an Indian baby shower..

In the summer of 2005 and spring of 2006 I visited New York City for work. At that time my idea about the american culture or its way of life I could say was zero. For me travelling to America was like this coolest hip thing that could happen to me. I also thought how nice it would be live and work in NYC. And it happened in the summer of 2006. And this summer of 2010 I completed 4 years living in America. And I feel I have now slowly started adapting to this way of life. I remember a friend of mine telling me, when you move to a new country it takes around four years to adjust. I wondered about it. Now when I look back at it. I think that even four years is not enough to say that you understand the way of the world in a new country. Understanding and blending within a culture is easy on a superficial level, not that easy on a deeper level.

Last weekend my room mate from college invited me for his wife's baby shower. The ceremony was in a Krishna temple in New Jersey. Initially I was reluctant about going to New Jersey. But then my friend persisted and kept calling me. So, I thought I must make the trip.

When I reached the temple the ceremony had not started. The ceremony was being held in a hall inside the temple. My friend was in a traditional indian dress. I thought wow, this is a a traditional ceremony.  The priest  comes from the same area where my friend is from in India. There was indian style sweets, I ate udupi style indian food (a small town in Karnata state in India). For those few hours I felt like I was in India. I am very impressed by the way how some people from India are trying to protect their identity, their culture even though they are in a foreign land. I am glad that I got to see a glimpse of India in America on a Sunday.

New York Salsa Congress 2010

I have been attending the New York Salsa congress from 2005. In the year 2005 I was this guy fresh from India. I was dancing the On1 style of salsa. And I was mesmerized by the charm of it. That was the time I was in the fan mode. I took pictures with famous salsa celebrities and took a few salsa workshops. I was just another beginner in the scene and I never thought that I will be living in New York City area to tell another story, the story of my dancing. I use to have a blog on salsa. But then I lost the password. So I am unable to do anything in that blog now. So, I have decided to write about my dance experiences in this blog.

Fast forward to 2010 New York Salsa Congress. When I look at the person of 2005 to now, I see a lot of difference. The person at that time was fascinated. The person now is no more fascinated about the congress than he was before. He is more relaxed and has accepted the craziness of the congress. The energy at the congress socials is very high. It is because of the quality of the dancers. And I can actually tap into that energy and ride that wave. Previously it was a bit difficult. Now as a mature social dancer I am more aware about these shifting energies in dancing and accordingly pace myself.

This congress also marks the beginnings of incorporating Dunham technique in my salsa dancing. What this technique has taught me is about grounding yourself while dancing and also using the pelvis muscles. Also some hand movements. I have been taking classes regularly for the past 2 years now. And I definitely see the difference in my dancing. So, tonight I have 2 hours of strenuous Dunham workout class. And then later I will be hitting the dance floor at the NY salsa congress. This is my fifth NY Salsa congress and I am already excited about it.

Everything is going to be okay...

Dear Pramodh,

As I type this blog post, I know that you are in a lot of confusion, chaotic state of mind. And you are right there where you are suppose to be, in the middle of chaos. I am not going to give you an advise about what ifs, what buts. But I am going to tell you one thing that I am sure will not make sense now. But when you do come to your senses will make a lot of sense.

Everything is fine. This is an opportunity for you to grow and blossom into a better human being to be the best you are meant to be. Don't look at it the way you are looking at it now. It is not you. You never will have the control on any situation. So, give up the childish nature of trying to control everything. One thing that you can control is where you can focus your attention. You can sit and cry and say.. why me? Or You can just look outside and think about all the wonderful knowledge that you have to possess and this world has to offer. You are creating new connections with yourself that you have to grow.

It was never about you nor anything in the future will ever be about you. So, just let go, feel the waves of change approaching and let them take you on a ride. Don't fight them, just blend in and enjoy the experience.

I know it is hard, it is painful, it is devastating. Let me tell you that, it is just an illusion. There is nothing there actually. You are using all these words, rich sentences to create it. It is just a few damn chemicals running all over your body. There is nothing there. It is just a ripple that you are creating in yourself. It is a sign that you are alive, to feel all these emotions.

When you feel that you have to mourn. just mourn. Observe yourself. Appreciate that, these are all physical phenomenons to keep the homeostasis in your body. You are fine Pramodh. You will be fine.

Pramodh

Stop Being So Critical... About Everything

I am a very crticial person. Almost all my waking moments are spent living in my head. It is very rare that I live in the now or in the moment. Most of the time I would be thinking about my interactions with the environment. When I speak about my environment, it encompasses people in my life. I have observed that most of the time my thoughts envelope around the interactions that happened a few hours before. I will be analyzing and breaking down each and every minute details and trying to understand what that person meant or what was he or she thinking when she said that to me.

My friend told me that in the past one year I have become very calm and cool. I was very surprised to hear that. For I have observed that lately I have become more introspective and self observing. And that self observer found out that I am heading off in a totally different direction which is definitely not calm or cool. There was a time I use to do Tai Chi every day. That was 20 minutes of a day set aside exclusively for that activity. And those were the days I was calm inside all the time. I was really good at handling stress and its after effects. As time progressed, I lost my control over time and started slacking on it. And now if I do Tai Chi once in a month that would be really nice. Now I live in a smaller apartment and I have to make space in order to do Tai Chi. It is something I would like to practice every day. I recommend Tai Chi or meditation to any one who wants to get a better grip on themselves. I have done a couple of activities in order to have a better control over myself. I have maintained a journal, I have done meditation, I have maintained a how I feel now diary, I did Tai Chi, Visualization exercises. These are the ones I can think off the head. Then there are a few others which I could not stick for a long time. All these have made me a better person.

Now I am deliberately teaching myself not to be so much critical about others or anything in general. I have to say that it is one hell of a tough task. I have to replace this process with another process which is going to be very postive for me. For I found out when I criticize, I loose an enormous amount of energy and time on that thought. Now the question is how do I handle these emotions and push them in a positive direction?

Project Sexy Body

Some of the so called self help blogs have advocated that, if you want something commit to it publicly. I have been always hesitant about that. May be it is because I was afraid that I will fail. And today morning while I was showering, I was thinking about how the muscles in our body get bigger. An epiphany immediately popped in my brain. You need to fail in order to get bigger and stronger. And that motivated me to put up this post. I know that the possibility of not reaching the goal is higher than the possibility of reaching it. But it is better to have given it a shot than saying ohh I never tried it.

So, with that in my mind. I will say, given enough time and resource and all the money in the world, I would dedicate myself to achieve a good healthy sexy body. And my epitome of a perfect healthy and sexy body are dancers bodies. And that is my dream "to achieve a dancers body". Some of the pics that represent that.

According to actor and fitness expert Elise Gulan a dancer's body is a long streamlined physique with flat abs, lean lower body and beautifully defined muscles. 

Well the few pics that are here are definitely not dancers, but that is what I aspire to have. Getting lean and ripped is easier than it was thought before. Right exercise regimen, diet, rest and a stress free life makes it a reality.

My future post will focus on what I am doing on a regular basis in order to achieve this goal.

Is there a meaning?

Is there a meaning to our existence? I have asked this question to myself a many a times. And my study so far has clearly pointed out that I am the source of that meaning. It is me who is generating it. Why am I generating it? What is making me generate it? And thus starts flowing questions or enquiries and I end up with more questions than answers. A wise man once said that, when you ask a question, you can find the answer in the question or you can find the direction for the answer to that question.

The truth is we are alive, we can see, hear, smell, taste, touch. We are organisms interacting with the outside world and making sense of it. Why are we alive? So far the scientifically justified theory is that. We are carriers of a set of protein assembly called genes which are present in the cells in our body. Our body is nothing but a huge assembly of cells and each cell in it is specialized to do only one task. And the body cant live forever. It has a time stamp or death.
So, this body has to find a way to pass the genes on. Thus it becomes a carrier. So far the effective way which nature has chosen is sexual reproduction. We have a male and a female and their union produces another body with a mixed set of genes. And in order to do that the body has to find a way to protect itself as well as find a suitable mate through which it can initiate the process of gene passover. In order to do that we have to interact with an external world where the possible mates reside. And thus our body has developed advanced capabilities to interact with the nature through smell, taste, touch, vision, sound. And to decode the signals coming from the outside world we have a brain. So, what ever understanding we have about us and others resides in our brain. If our brain gets damaged, so does our reality and ability to understand. And this brain has enormous ability to create meaning out of pure signals. We see something, basically that is nothing but light entering our eyes and that gets decoded and an object is formed in our brain which is given a name based on whether the object is already familiar or not. If it is familiar then comes all the meanings associated with it. If it is not a new set of meaning is generated. The same applies to sense of touch, sound, smell. Thus we can very well say that our brain is a meaning generating machine a computer which was selected by nature and we have been suitably rewarded so far by it. We have learned how to tweak and control certain aspects of nature. We moved out of the forest and formed civilizations, invented agriculture, cities, industries, cultures, wars. And all these are nothing but through meanings perceived in our brains. So, by nature there is no meaning but we as humans have created it and have thus become so far the powerful organism ever to walk on this earth. And it is not by sheer strength but through our brains and the meanings it has derived. And when this body dies, there ends its search for meaning too.

Faces Of America

Couple of weeks back when I was travelling in a subway train in Manhattan, an advertisement for a TV series caught my attention. The series name was "Faces of America". It is being hosted by a gentleman named Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. And I saw some familiar faces like Stephen Colbert, Yo Yo Ma, Meryl Streep, Malcolm Gladwell. And I told myself, this might be interesting. At that time I had no clue that this show was about the ancestors of these celebrities.

After a couple of weeks when I was home, my room mate mentioned about the series again and said it was hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr. And he also pointed out that, he was recently in news because of an arrest which sparked a racial profiling controversy. Finally to lighten the matters, Obama had a beer with him and the police officer in the white house.

So, finally PBS, the channel which was broadcasting this show, put the series online and I started watching it. I dont know what it is, this show made me very emotional. The mention of ancestors and how each of the person who was featured in that program was responding to that made a deep emotional impact. May be it is the music, the presentation or the drama all together which was kicking those neurons inside my head which made me very mushy inside.

I have been curious about my own ancestry and 2 years back I did a geneology test to determine from where my ancestors came. And this program does talk about the haploid groups in your genes. I don't think in India where I am from will there be any elaborate evidence of my ancestors. All I can trace up to is till my great grand father and that is where the trace ends. And I always wonder how much of that will give a new meaning to my existence. Malcolm Gladwell in that program says, it is not going to change anything at the present, but definitely will add a new dimension to what we know. For me what it does is to appreciate the significance of it. Because, their struggle for survival and finding a mate was successful, that we are here. And knowing how they lived, how they handled their doubts and inner conflicts and environment, we appreciate the value of our existence more.

Click on this link to go to the video web page.

Here are the videos. I hope the videos will be online for a while.

Episode 1: Faces of America: Our American Stories
Episode 2: Faces of America: Becoming American
Episode 3:Faces of America: Making America
Episode 4: Faces of America: Know Thyself

Purpose of life

Many a people have tried to figure out what is their purpose in life.
Even I also wonder what is the purpose of ones whole existence. After
going through a small research myself I have come to the realization
that there is no purpose in life. There is no purpose what so ever.
Purpose is what we make for ourselves and work towards it. Meaning is
what we give to it. Story is what we write about it. If you don't do
it for yourself, society will do it for you. If you don't accept it,
it will discard you like an engine spitting out Carbon.

However it might seem very harmful to think of yourself like that. But at the same time there is a true liberation too. For now, one has the power to do what one wants to do. When I say I dont have any purpose, I say that well I don't have any purpose. So, I dont have to worry about my actions. But When I say, I have a purpose, then every move, every step I take I have to keep that purpose in my mind and I have to ensure that all my actions are in accordance with that. You see how liberating it is to feel not to be burdened by a projection of your own mind called purpose.

Started 2010 with a bang!!!!

This year has been very interesting for me. Before I started this year, I was thinking of 2 things to do the beginning of this year. one was to move from Jersey City to New York City. Another one was to visit Australia. And those were the 2 activities that I was planning for this year and I can very happily strike it off from my todo list.



Right now I live in a very interesting neighborhood in Manhattan called East Village. My room mate and I found a good deal and we moved here the beginning of January. Moving houses has its own challenges. Especially when you are a tenant you have to ensure that you leave it as you found it, even after three years. Living in East Village has its own benefits. I can take a bus from where I live all the way to my office. A walk to the bus stand takes around 5 minutes. So within 40 minutes I am in the office. One has a lot of choices as far as food is concerned. I have the option of choosing Thai, Japanese, Korean, Moroccon, Afghan, Ukaranian, Middle Eastern, American, Australian, Mexican, Peruvian, Srilankan, Indian, Chinese, Italian, Argentinian.. etc. And all these are within a walkable distance (5-10 minutes) from where I live. I am experiencing the paradox of choice. When I was living in Jersey City, my options were limited. And Now I have more options!!!!


I have been planning my Australia trip from mid November, when I heard the good news that my brother Vinodh was blessed with a baby girl. Since this is the first child in our family, everyone is thrilled and everyone including me wanted to see the baby. However, it was me who had the time and resources at my disposal to afford that trip to Australia. So, I applied for Australian visa the first week of December. It took a while for the visa to arrive. And just a week before the day of travel, I booked the ticket. Travelling to Australia itself is a gruelling task. Thanks to the boredom killers like in-flight entertainment system 16 hours felt like a couple of hours. So, I landed in Australia on January 28th. Saw the baby girl, did a little bit of sightseeing and dancing and returned to New York on Feb 9th.

So, the 2 major tasks for this year have been completed. 2010 has started with a bang already.

2010... beginning of another decade.

The first decade of 21st century is coming to an end. And it also marks the beginning of another decade. The following things have happened in the last decade.

1. Finished college
2. Moved to Bangalore for work.
3. Bought my first motor cycle.
4. Travelled internationally to Japan (Nagoya), United States
5. Learned to dance jive, ball room, salsa.
6. Almost died in a motor cycle accident.
7. Moved to United States, NYC area.
8. Brother's wedding and first baby.

The first half of this decade was a lot about experimenting. It was like I was trying to be something which I was not. The second half was a lot about understanding the shortcomings inside. It was about understanding it was okay to be who I am for what I am. I don't have to try to fight the forces inside me, I just have to work with it. It was about realizing that I am the captain of my ship and only I can be that.

The coming decade has a lot to offer. I look forward to it. And also I look forward to what I need to learn as a student of the biggest education system ever, my life.

Happy New Year 2010.

Mad Men and why it is so addictive...

The past 2 weeks I have been watching Mad Men episodes back to back. Right now I am watching season 2 and let me tell you, this show is very intense and very addictive. It has all the attributes that will hook you on to it and leaves you with that feeling of wanting more. Almost all good TV shows have that. But what Mad Men has is good drama and a very powerful story line which baits you in. And once you get hooked, trust me you will be hooked through the end of the season and you still want more of it.

I did some research about its writer, Matthew Weiner and I came to know that he wrote some of the episodes of The Sopranos.

Mad Men is a short form for men working in Madison Avenue in advertisement in the 1960s. That was the time when public relations boom was happening in America. And a side product of that was media advertisements. The people working in these firms came up with clever lines and changed public opinions. The protagonist is Don Draper, an ambitious upper middle class white man who is the head of the accounts in an ad agency(Sterling and Cooper) on Madison Avenue. The series revolves around Don Draper and people in his lives. Each character in the show is complex. When I say it means they are not white and black. They won't fit the definition of being so perfect or any archetypes. It is about how they all try to manipulate to get what they want. Sometimes you hate these characters for their selfish deeds. At the same time you empathize with them. Sometimes you are shocked and sometimes you applaud them.

All those elements of tight drama aside, what hooked me into it was its background, the 1960s New York City. Right now I work here and I am curious about what changes this city has witnessed during that time, that is responsible for today's world we live in. The office culture, the cultural influences. And how media and advertisements got a foot hold and influence american life choices. It is as if I am looking into this globe of past and realizing how things were so different. Thus it gives me a perspective to understand the circumstances that shaped today's culture. It is just brilliant TV show. The story writers have done a lot of research in order to make it as authentic as possible. And when you see it, you are drawn deep into the drama of Mad Men and their women.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs

Abraham Maslow is a psychologist very famous for conceptualizing the hierarchy of needs. The diagram above clearly summarizes his theory.

Click here to see the Wikipedia entry.

If you observe the pyramid, you will realize that at any point in our life, we will be trying to solve problems related to these areas. With out the lower level problems resolved, you wont be able to move up the pyramid. Without physiological needs met, you wont be able to feel safety. Without safety, you wont be able to feel loved. Without love, you wont be able to feel self esteem. Without self esteem you wont be able to find yourself. This is a simple, yet powerful illustration of how our brain might be processing information.

Avatar the movie review...

So, I happen to see Avatar in IMAX 3D last Friday. All I can say is I am disappointed. James Cameron didn't focus much on the storyline and direction. His focus was more on graphics, rendering the environment of Pandora and its breath taking visuals.

Before I start bashing the movie, here are the positives.

Avatar is a visual treat. You have these beautiful computer generated environment that makes it so real. And the sound and 3D makes most of it seem so alive. Visually, it is definitely the best movie watching experience I had after so many years. Cameron has gone a long distance to make Pandora as real as possible.

However, just the special effects and graphics is not enough to make a movie great. I liked a lot of movies for its special effects. But a movie cannot survive only on its special effects. It needs to have a story and narration which holds you on the edge of your seats. Terminator did that, Titanic did that. But Avatar somehow could not hold my attention to that extent. And I have to note it, during the times of Terminator and Titanic, I use to watch a lot of movies. Where as now a days I watch only hand picked movies. And I was waiting to watch this movie and when I did watch it I was not impressed.

Some people said that it is James Cameron's Star Wars. According to me...No, it is definitely not his Star Wars. This movie might be a success. But success it will be not for the story or direction but for its spectacular visuals. And I realized finally that I have graduated as a movie watcher. I need quality substance, not just 3D CGI packaging.

Avatar the movie...

Official Avatar Movie

This December 18th, James Cameron's new movie Avatar will be released. And I am all excited about it. Theaters all over the world are installing special movie projectors in order to showcase it. Being a perfectionist James Cameron has gone all the way to create a new world in this movie. Here is a list of things which came out of his vision

1. A new camera to shoot 3-D movies. One can see the 3-D rendered movie while shooting.

2. A new languae called Na'vi was created for this. All the actors had to learn this and speak in this language. Can you imagine creating a new language and speaking in it.

3. A new planet called Pandora and the whole new environment of that planet was created. James took the help of astrophysists, geologists, archaeologists in order to do that.

4. New animals, new plants were created in such a way that they could survive only in the environment of Pandora. And all these plants and animals were given Na'vi names and latin names and were organized according to Taxonomy.

5. An Encyclopedia called as "Pandorapedia" was compiled.

6. Adding to that it is going to be ground breaking as far as movie watching experience goes



If this movie clicks, it is going to draw in many people back to movie theaters. Movie making is going to be totally different from now onwards. And once that becomes a norm it is time for another home theater experience switch. The future of movies never looked so bright. Here is to the new Avatar of movie making.

Why Do We Kiss....

A kiss is an expression of affection. And it is considered too personal. Have you ever wondered why in the beginning of the movie "Pretty Woman" Julia Roberts refused to kiss Richard Gere. For her it was considered as too personal. Eventually she ends up kissing. But that is a different story.

So recently I was reading Desmond Morris's The Naked Woman. It is part 3 of The Naked Ape trilogy. The book is brilliant. It talks about how in the evolution's continuum a woman is advanced compared to any other living organism in the world.

Also in this book Morris talks about the evolutionary reason behind kissing as an expression of affection between 2 individuals.

According to the evolutionary biologists, our ancestors when they were living in the caves use to feed their babies through their mouths. Well just like the old school way of a bird feeding its children. The reason being, at that time one doesn't know what kind of food grew in trees. So, the only way to know whether food is safe for feeding kids was the mother putting the food in her mouth, chewing it, tasting it and removing all the roughness and stones and making a paste and then feeding the kid through her mouth. It showed how a cave mother was ready to sacrifice herself for her kids. Thus was the origin of kissing as an expression of affection.

So next time when you are kissing someone remember that the same mechanism saved your ancestor from death. As a result you are alive today to kiss and experience its pleasures.

Shadow Self... Hmnmm.. That is Interesting

When I read the title of this blog, I always wonder wow when did the realization actually happen. The more you delve deeper into the alleys of your thought, the more realizations and conceptualization happens. According to evolution emotion based thinking is much more powerful than the logical thinking. If you have read "blink" by Malcom Gladwell, you will know that. Most of the time, the rationalizations that we do after making a decision is directly related to that. Backward rationalization is a mechanism that we developed in our head to fit in what we did because of our emotions.

Sometimes I wish I could be as regular to this blog as I am to hitting the gym or going out salsa dancing. These activities have enriched me. They have made me a man now. Yes, it took a while for me to man up. Being mature and responsible that is what a manhood is about. And for me everyday it is a learning experience in that.

Once upon a time I thought I want the whole world to like me for who I am. But now I think if I like myself for who I am, the world will like me. We project what we see in ourselves to others. If I love my organism, if I forgive myself, if I just accept myself and if I just allow myself to be I can be that. The war won internally in your head is worth more than the battles fought outside. Mastery of ones self, that is what I am looking forward to. A couple of years back, I thought why am I feeling negative emotions. Most of the time I will be feeling good, but sometimes when the bad feelings and moods come in, they will just drown all those good feelings and a monster inside arises. And once that rises, game is over. I wondered what it was. According to Jung that is your shadow self. And I wanted to tame it and I wanted to be happy. And the journey so far has been good. I realized in order to conquer myself I have to be my best friend. I have to be a friend to my shadow self. That is the first step in acceptance. I am not fighting with you my friend, because you are not my enemy. You are my friend, my doors are open. You can come and stay whenever you want. All I will say when you do that is... "hmmmm that is interesting".

You an Organism

Human beings are nothing but organisms. And what a beautiful organism we are. We are held in an equilibrium of opposite forces a yin and a yang. And we have the ability to go in opposite directions just like a pendulum which swings from one end to the other.

I think that all these are mechanisms developed in our brain over several thousands of years as survival instincts. They are all hidden inside us in our organism. There are so many basal emotions which if we try to plot on a graph fall on the positive and negative side. And believe or not, they are inside us. There is an honest person as well as a dishonest person. There is a happy person and an unhappy person etc etc. The balance is more like how a tent is held erect, by pulling it in opposite directions. You wont be mentally sane, if you dont know what being happy or being unhappy is all about.

Take the case of our muscles. There are muscles which help in contraction and there are muscles which help in release. There are muscles which help us pull up and there are muscles which pull us down. Thus we are an organism which not only survived physically but also mentally.

To be an organism in equilibrium means, the organism has mastered the art of balancing all the opposite forces and achieved that line of alignment, where it functions optimally. This can be applied not only on your body, but also on your mind.

Welcome to an organismic universe.

You...An Individual...

You are an individual. You are not part of any government, any organization, any tribe. You become a part of them in return for some resources. It is a barter trade. You are living in this society, because society provides you with a safety net, where you can live comfortably. Most of the ancient issues like food, shelter and safety is resolved by the society. And in return to that you will offer your services by work to support the structure created by the society. Thus society is a self sustained system. You can decide, if you want to forsake all these. You can decide to stop working for the society. You can become independent. And you will be tossed back into figuring out food, shelter, safety issues.

Society appreciates a martyr, a person who makes it affluent. Also society hates a person who pushes it towards non affluence or harms it in any way. When you look at it from a purely logical perspective, society is a self sustained system where the individuals are working for its growth. When a society grows, individuals also benefit and vice versa. And society gives choices to an individual based on a set of boundaries. Any individual whose choices comes into friction with these boundaries, the society will raise against the individual and will try to contain him. When that happens an individuals misconception that he has free will shatters. That is the time he decides to fight for his rights or to be another sheep. When we open the newspapers we see instances of these. Why do we do it ? It is fight which is fought in the higher planes of the logical brain. We wont come down to our animal levels in the beginning. When the cerebral level fails society will stoop to its animal levels. And when that happens, the individual will die.