Attempt to eat healthy

I see a lot of people around me, different shapes and sizes. Some of the shapes are the one which I don't desire for myself. Deeply fried vegetables, red skin potatoes, patties, cheese dripping from every food puts me into the thinking mode and then the action mode in which I am cooking healthy food.

I tried to cook split pea lentil stew for myself.I put it on flame and got so busy that the water evaporated and what I was left with this :

 

and some experiments turn successful and healthy in life and what I got after some slicing and dicing of vegetables was :



and my plate looks wonderful and healthy



The Indian flat bread (chapati) and the south Indian crepe (dosa) are a little oily.But once I learn how to knead the dough I will not use the oil.

Meditation Session 2

I convinced myself that one day was not enough for me to decide whether I want to continue taking the classes or not ,so I went for the 2nd class.I asked Andrew whether I can come today without signing up for whole course. He said I can, so I hauled a taxi (was getting late ,otherwise I would have taken the brown line towards Kimbal ) and the class began at 1.

Today we dealt with mostly about setting up the meditation space. It should be clean and less distractions, no noise (white/brown or pink noise if you want to block the external sounds. I do it all the time .This is a long duration brown noise link ) . It should be clean so as to bring the point that you love the place and care for the place. Also , free from distractions is a desirable.

The whole idea is meditate where you feel comfortable, respect the process.Respect the idea of meditating and concentrating.Unless you respect it, you won't do it. This is my philosophy.

One can light a candle , it can be stimulating.

I had this doubt that if I am focusing on an event e.g. if I have this issue whether I select X or Y, then focusing on an event will introduce a lot of external variables.As an example, what will I cook for dinner? Veg salad or rice + lentil stew. The words salad and lentil stew are not abstract, they can have many different ideas and events attached to them. e.g. salad can bring in the thought, I have to go to veg market to buy them, then I can think of the lady at the cash counter is very rude, then one of the office mates of mine is very rude, then office reminds me I have to finish the algorithm and design phase by Monday, then tomorrow is Monday, what will I do.

All haywire and you are not concentrating anymore , you are just sitting at a place with your eyes closed and worrying .

I would like to digress for a while here,if you observe the thoughts that you have then you will be able to link how you hopped from one though to the other.Its similar to the connected graphs that I studied in my discrete mathematics course.Rod Bucknell describes his experiences and experiments in though retracing in his article , Experiments in Insight Meditation

Coming back to the point .

Or what I can do is focus on a candle, or a nature's picturesque view.It can help in minimization of the thoughts.

Less number of variables means less number of distractions, sounds right !!

But no, the candle technique is more like focusing technique.

So what?? That's what we do in meditation !!

Well, yes !! But then you need to go to the meaning of meditation.Its not just focusing ,its focusing on ideas, on events, retrospection, introspection and self reflection.Its connection to the inner self about how you truly feel about something. Being true to oneself. So candle is fine, but for long term and or if you want to touch base with your spirit/ soul then it might be temporary.

One more point !! When to meditate? I would personally like to meditate at 2 points, early in the morning and when I am in some difficult situation e.g. multiple geography phone call, you are getting up at odd hour to attend it and people are denigrating your effort in the recent project despite your immense efforts.

I would not like to keep it 'before I go to bed' job because it will mean "now I have done everything, and can meditate". Though nothing wrong with it, but for me its similar to keeping it at the bottom of the totem pole.

So, today I had a strange feeling while meditating. We started with breathing , then focused on body parts and relaxing the body.After some time I began to realize that my body is getting heavier, I had my hands on my upper thighs and fingers intertwined, I was feeling very heavy as my body has become a rock, its solidifying. Some other people also experienced the same .Andrew said its a positive thing, it means that your body is totally relaxed now.

That's a good thing !! :)

I won't say that I was able to ward off the thoughts and for few moments I felt drowsy as well .It was a state of limbo.I was attentive to external stimuli but everything else was slowing down and then I started feeling drowsy. May be that's what happens when you sleep.

I will try to observe the same tonight.

Meditation Sessions 1

Though I am from the land of yoga and meditation but until now I cared two hoots about it.Recent developments and extra load at the work has taken a toll on me. I have been finding it very hard to concentrate, there is something always always at the back of my mind. Even when I am jotting down this blog, pressing the keys furiously, I am thinking of myriad things .The brain is a wonderful organ but sometimes it needs to be tamed so as you can tell yourself that you are the master of your body and your thoughts. People have varied reasons for meditation, some do it for relaxation, some for calmness and tranquility, serenity of their being, some to reach the inner conscience , some want to talk to their inner self and some are just aping others as they don't have anything else to do. Trust me I met a lady in the class of the last kind.

My reason is that I can't concentrate and want to learn how to focus on one thing at a time.

The teacher Andrew Shykofsky is a 48 year old guy who teaches and practices meditation part time apart from his daily full time job as a marketing person in some company. $ 20 is quite steep for a single class, but then too I though let's give it a try.

First of all he removed all the wrong definitions of meditation from my brain. He gave me the dictionary definition, which is thinking deeply and focusing on something for a period of time for religious , spiritual or method of relaxation. I understand the religious and the method of relaxation part but not the spiritual one. Spiritual, as far as I understand pertains to the inner self and your soul. So if one wants connection to inner self then one meditates for spiritual reasons.

I was also asked not to expect anything unless I practice a lot, its not about deciphering the codes and omens, or dream sequence interpretation ,also some shadow of calmness will not engulf me suddenly after meditation. Its like learning a new language , so one has to draw a parallel with the speed and effect of meditations. In nutshell, I will not be jettisoned into a world of concentration and self awareness, it will take time.

I have read about how to meditate online and have one or two android apps on my nexus, but sparingly used. All of them talk about breathing deeply and lotus positions or the padmasana.Of course, they are important and have scientific connection . But for a person like me who sits on a chair whole day and spends around 16 hours in front of a computer, it will be hard for me to sit cross legged for one and a half hour and then concentrate on something simultaneously. The physical pain is one of the most powerful stimuli and winning it over is not what a neophyte like me is looking for. Andrew also agreed with me and to my surprise he had chairs in his room instead of mats. The chairs were comfortable and the seam of the chair left the thigh at just the right length. One should not be totally taut his back, but it should be attentive and not slouchy and sluggish posture. Of course, you don't want to fall asleep or do you? :)

The mental awareness, the physical/body awareness and the emotional awareness are the three parts that will be concentrated upon by the meditation. He said it is the general notion that mind controls everything but there are people who meditate and feel that the true consciousness lies in the upper torso of the body. And he said he can teach us to do so. I was excited.

So, after the theory it was time for practice. I had taken my shorts with me, which I always carry as shorts are the most suited and most comfortable invention of the guy whose pants were torn and tattered , of course below the knee .I had already changed to shorts before the session started.

The meditation session started with dimming of the lights and some transcendental music in the background.Before this Andrew asked me to think of something which I would like to think and focus upon. It can be anything, any relation of mine, any mantra, any face etc. Many articles talk about focusing on the breath, which seems to be very boring to me. So, if I am meditating or trying to meditate I will have to treat my body as a child who doesn't want to drink milk and his mother puts protinex or complan in it to make him do so. So, I thought of some unconventional thing and closed my eyes relaxing my body slowly . The relaxation of body is important, not all of a sudden , but one by one. Start with the feet, then calves, knees, thighs, then upper torso . He had asked me to focus on my breath side by side and breathe deeply while observing the inflation and deflation of the lungs and the abdomen. That's too much work . I tried taking in deep breaths but then my mind started thinking of something else esp. have I received a text on my phone or not? What will I cook on going back etc.

So I let go of deep breaths, concentrated on the task at hand aka thinking and focusing on an already decided thought. I in general take fairly deep breaths.

I would not say that I was successful in concentrating for the whole period, my mind wandered a lot but yes after a while the speed of the thoughts was less. One has to build a wall between yourself and the mind imagining that it is in some other room and you can shut and open the door to that room at your will. After concentrating, focusing for 15-20 min he asked me to open my eyes and discuss how I felt.

I felt a little sleepy for a while, but yes I was able to concentrate keeping other thoughts at bay at least for few seconds. This needs to be consolidated and practiced enough to experience the true power and taste the fruit. After all, meditation is not any low hanging fruit for me.

PS : Generally I am very critical about teachers and want people who are absolutely flawless in their knowledge to teach me. I have had few such teachers in past, One was Rahul Vohra who taught me chemistry ,another one was Amitava Sengupta who mentored me in National Physical Lab, New Delhi.

Andrew reads from a manual which spoils the fun of learning a new subject .Again, its a personal opinion .I am not undermining the 30 years of experience in this subject which he brings on the table with him.

Best motivational speeches in one video

Al Pacino and Mohd Ali !! What a motivating speech.

A cab ride

I had only 45 minute with me and the Google maps showed , 37 min from my location to the Lincoln Avenue. Based on my past experiences I shuddered to rely on my navigation skills and hauled a cab.Though it can burn a hole in your pockets, but always better than getting late. The cab driver greeted me and asked about my well being. I was in such a hurry that I had skipped the breakfast, had guzzled down a small glass of orange juice only. So I started eating the banana and the yogurt that I had with me. Driver asked me if I am vegan. I said No, but vegetarian. He said he lives near the Indian community of Chicago and there are many veg restaurants if I want to try. I asked him if he was talking about Devon avenue. he answered was affirmative. I told him that I am from India only.He was very pleased to hear this and told me that he is from Somalia and eats Indian food all the time. He told me about the uncountable number of Indian movies he has seen. He likes Indian movies, not the western ones. He told me that 15-20 % of the Somalian culture derives its roots from Indian culture and till few years ago, almost all the females of his land draped themselves in Saree, which is the authentic and indigenous Indian attire for females.All women dress according to muslim standards nowadays, wear hijab and burqas. He told me that Somalia is 99 % Shia Muslims. I asked him the difference between Shias and Sunnis, he himself was not very sure. I have read this difference once or twice but I always forget.


The words such as roti, gaadi are common in both languages.I told him that these words are not from Hindi but from middle eastern languages and have been used since ages for the meting of cultural pots in Indian plains.


Old Hindi movies are accepted in Somalia because they are good for entertainment and also there is minimum physical contact between male and female actors . This reminded me of the old movies in which hero is running behind the girl in a garden and the kissing scenes are obviated by showing two intertwined buds , flowers or 2 birds in vicinity. This reminds me of all the scenes in old hindi movies portraying the first night after the wedding in which the light would just go off signifying passion .


Anyway, Hindi movies are quite debatable . I should not digress.


This affection towards old hindi movies for a reason gave me some points about the society in Somalia. He told me that if you like a girl, you send your parents to their house asking for proposal rather than doing everything by yourself .


I was trying hard which movie I have seen is based on Somalia and it struck me suddenly that it was Black Hawk Down by Ridley Scott and also Captain Phillips starring Tom Hanks. I told him so and inquired about the rule of Mohd Farrah Aidid. He gave me some quick facts about his rule, the civil war in Somalia, how 18 regions have fought over a period of time with each other and how they are trying to bring their country towards a democratic election. He told me that everyone carries a gun there for safety purpose. I shuddered at the thought.


He then asked me if I think Manmohan Singh will win the election this time. I chuckled at this. This man driving me to Lincoln av, is surely has decent general knowledge.


What I liked about him was despite all of such problems he loved his country and is planning to go back to meet his relatives and his friends there whom he left 20 years ago.


Sometimes you just gain the knowledge from someone you expect least.


BTW : One should always be politically correct, I had an instance when I was sharing a cab with a girl and the driver was a Palestinian. The mention of Yaseer Arafat made him go bonkers and he was willing to let go off the cab fare if we disembarked his cab instantly.

The Lessons of History

http://prashantmudgal.wordpress.com/2014/02/09/the-lessons-of-history/

The Lessons of History

Kipling

Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the two shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat;