Hi! This blog is testament to the fact that the voices in my head are truly out of my control! Rather than going crazy about it, i've decided to channel them constructively!
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Organic Terrace Gardening weekend workshops in Pune (various places) over April 2016
Facilitated by Hemal Patel, who was among the organizers of the recent
Sustainable Living Pune Convergence last Sunday.
Contribution: Rs.1000/person, 50% discount for kids/students.
Contact number: 9011355709 (Hemal)
Monday, March 28, 2016
Please don't give up on love
Please don't give up on love yet. Let time pass, let the wounds heal.
Don't be so hard on yourself; don't go too much into the concept of
what happens on outside being reflection of inner defects only.. it's
all nice n spiritual n all but I think there can be times we take that
too far. We're only human, babaa, there's no need to witch-hunt each
and everything about ourselves. Heck, what characteristic has manifested
as a negative in your experience in relationship, might even have a
positive manifestation in another sphere of your life. By trying to eliminate
one, what if you end up degrading even what's good about you? We
might be better off seeking structures, being in environments that better
accommodate those characteristics of ours, that channel them
constructively.
You may have to analyze your patterns till now and change the way
you look for love. Girls with great looks do attract the worst-fitting
of the males around at first tries :P
Consider these..
- Simplify your tastes (especially when it comes to consumerism),
- Raise some bare-minimum ethical / health standards that had earlier been lowered in the interest of being progressive, non-judgemental, unconditional etc,
- Introduce some grounding parameters, like alignment with causes you're passionate about, or integrity etc in worldly life too (yes, it does matter, our worldly and personal lives aren't completely separated. Extent u decide.),
- Involve community in the search, let your close friends / folks whom you gel with, find and recommend someone, or ask them to help you evaluate someone you're considering.
But please don't give up on love. There will come a time when you'll be
ready for it again, and if you make room for it in your life, it will
be wonderful, something that will make all those trials and
tribulations worth it.
Let it slumber, but please, please don't give up on it. You deserve this. It
will happen, please let it when the time comes.
Sunday, March 27, 2016
Sustainable Living Convergence - March 27th 2016, Pune
newspaper clips and a graphic, thought I'll put it up on the blog once
for posterity.
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Event : Sustainable Living Convergence, Sunday 27th March, full day @ Gandhi Bhavan, Kothrud, Pune
Mark your calendar & be there on Sunday, 27th March @ Gandhi Bhavan, Kothrud, Pune with your friends & families from 10am to 8pm
Registration is mandatory in case you are having healthy lunch with us else entire event is having Free Entry.
For Registration Contact on below numbers :-
Neeta Agarwal - 9175905462
Sharad Bhojane - 9850223494
Priya Phulambrikar - 9766623409
Hemal Patel - 9011355709
Bhushan Patil - 9850000313
OR log in to our website:
http://sustainablelivingpune.org/Registration
This convergence is a place of gathering for Sustainable Living Members to know more about challenges & resolutions related to Food, Air, Water, Energy, healthy lifestyle. These natural resources of Mother Earth once in abundance & available in purest form are scarce & highly polluted in today's times. At convergence you will be interecting & listening to our Sustainable Champions working in synchronization with Mother Earth where how we can turn around from this point.
The future generations are relying on us to hand them over a better,cleaner & healthier planet. Come be part of this full day event on 27th March at Gandhi Bhavan, Kothrud, Pune
(on behalf of Hemal Patel and the organizing team)
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Education as the Domestication of Inner Space - by Layla Abdel Rahim
have you come accross Layla Abdel Rahim? Worth exploring her explorations.
Education as the Domestication of Inner Space
http://www.fifthestate.org/archive/391-springsummer-2014/education-domestication-inner-space/
How Ivan the Fool Defeats Civilized Pedagogies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTYHgXEwlG4
Wild Children – Domesticated Dreams: An Interview with Layla AbdelRahim
"Schools teach children the principles of death and of suffering. They
do not teach them the principles of life, which is diversity, which is
being out there in the world. They teach them within closed systems,
within closed buildings and walls, separated from the rest of the
world. They teach them that violence is legitimate when it is applied
from the top to the bottom and that it is illegitimate when it is
practised in resistance or defence of diversity and life.
http://layla.miltsov.org/wild-children-domesticated-dreams-an-interview-with-layla-abdelrahim/
Layla AbdelRahim is an interdisciplinary author who uses a variety of
research methods and disciplines to understand civilization,
wilderness, and our place in the world. Her recent book, Wild
Children–Domesticated Dreams: Civilization and the Birth of Education
(Fernwood, 2013), examines the connections between civilization,
domestication, and education relying on her journal entries as well as
on anthropological and ethological research.
For more on her critique of education, civilization, literature, and
culture visit her website: www.layla.miltsov.org
Sunday, March 20, 2016
Web-mapping Pune's Development Plans for better citizen engagement
Here's something you can do that might help in bringing more transparency to this matter. At any point on the map, if you click, you get the exact latitude-longitude of the point. You can select and copy that (press Ctrl+C).
So, the wrong places, misallocations, deletions etc that were mentioned recent petitions.. please identify them, copy their exact lat-long points, and then write it out in the comments section at the bottom of the page, with lat-long (this is key!), so that it's publicly available, and then other people seeing the page can go to that location and check it out and give futher inputs. Also it would be great to just zoom in to your own neighbourhood, check out the DP map for your area and explore the various allocations etc.
Happy mapping!
Tip: You can post comments anonymously also, by checking on the "I'd rather post as a guest" option when you are typing your comment.
Thursday, March 17, 2016
Simple is more mature
Siddharth Sthalekar.
He shared how as he got to know more and more about how the money
system really works, his advice (as a reputed financial advisor) got
simpler and simpler. He offered this simple talisman-type thing:
If he/she seems like a nice person,
you like what they're doing,
and the world needs more of them,
then invest in them.
I felt myself connecting with this. I couldn't help but feel that this
applies to even other realms.
Over the past few years, in multiple interest fields, I'm converging
on similar thoughts : that keeping things simple is actually a sign of
wisdom and maturity, whereas making things overly complicated implies
immaturity, and is another example of the tricks the mind plays to
maintain its hegemony. Could it be that going complex only serves to
deviate us from the simplicity of reality?
So that brings me to one focus topic...
Ladies!
He's a nice guy.
You like what he does.
And the world needs more people like him.
Please. Forget all the other complications.
Just say yes!
:D :P
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Trip for students by Academy for Earth Sustainability
Last month, 40 of our students spent a week with the Academy for Earth
Sustainability <http://www.aeslife.in/>, for their Eco-Embark program.
Located on a farm in Karjat, Maharashtra, the program introduced children
to sustainable living, diving into critical issues around and solutions for
food, water, waste, and energy.
I am an educator and a difficult one. I am a thorough planner and i always
expect that from people who work with children. I am writing to all of you,
because that's what I found extraordinary about the program of AES. They
were heartful and soulful and skillful in their way of dealing with
children and their understanding about sustainability!
They were wonderfully communicative about the program design and it was so
beautifully custom made for us! :D It was not just do-do-do-do but it was
about reflecting emotionally and intellectually! :)
If any of you parents, educators are looking for something heartful and
valuable for your children, I recommend this. You can get in touch with me
to know my experience on <comment below>. I work in Hyderabad and I took
children all the way from here and it was worth all the effort :).
If someone wants to know more they can directly contact Chandan Mulherkar
at [..] chandan [at] aeslife.in .
This is NOT an advertisement. This is an honest sharing for I want more
children / adults to meet these inspiring people, who care so much about
the Earth and are doing something about it :)
Love,
Aditya
Saturday, March 12, 2016
Great-boxing
Heres a thought thats coming up for me this morning. Its a bit controversial, so apologies if offense caused :
If there is a wonderful person in my life whom i respect highly for some wonderful traits in their personality, if i put him/her up on a pedestal and praise and idolize them, then i don't really have an inclination to implement those good practices in my own life. Because thats only something that "great people" can do.
But on the other hand if I see that person as another person who's not very different from me, then it becomes my responsibility to also implement those good traits in my own life. I cannot excuse myself saying that only great people can do that.
I wonder if that is one reason why we make mahatmas and bhagwans out of our best humans : so that we can escape from the responsibility of emulating those good traits? I know there are other reasons also, but I want to provoke these questions:
What are good traits in my idols that i am refusing to inculcate by boxing them into the great-box and saying i can't be like that?
Is my refusal to do so, then leading to problems in my life that those idols don't have?
Am I then claiming that I have too many problems so I cannot be great like those people? Isn't that then an implicit accusation that those people I respect have it easy and aren't really so great after all? So doesn't this policy (of great-boxing people) become self-contradictory and self-defeating?
Breaking out of that cycle, would my respect for that great person be higher and more authentic if I considered him/her as another human being like myself?
Friday, March 11, 2016
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
An India who loves the World
An India who loves the World
Sunday, March 6, 2016
Story: the 99 Club
Story: (shared over whatsapp)
Once upon a time, there lived a King who, despite his luxurious lifestyle, was not happy at all.
One day, the King came upon a servant who was singing happily while he worked. This fascinated the King; Why was he, the Supreme Ruler of the Land, unhappy and gloomy, while a lowly servant had so much joy?
The King asked the servant, 'Why are you so happy?'
The man replied, 'Your Majesty, I am nothing but a servant, but my family and I don't need too much - just a roof over our heads and warm food to fill our tummies.'
The king sought the advice of his most trusted advisor. After hearing the story, the advisor said, 'Your Majesty, the servant has not yet joined "The 99 Club".'
'The 99 Club? And what is that?' the King inquired.
The advisor replied, 'To truly know what The 99 Club is, just place 99 Gold coins in a bag and leave it at this servant's doorstep.'
When the servant saw the bag, he let out a great shout of joy... so many gold coins. He began to count them. After several counts, he was at last convinced that there were only 99 coins.
He wondered, 'What could've happened to that last gold coin? Surely, no one would leave 99 coins!'
He looked everywhere, but that final coin was elusive. Finally he decided that he was going to work harder than ever to earn that 100th gold coin.
From that day, the servant was a changed man. He was overworked, grumpy, and blamed his family for not helping him make that 100th gold coin.
And he had stopped singing while he worked.
Witnessing this drastic transformation, the King was puzzled. The advisor said, 'Your Majesty, the servant has now officially joined The 99 Club.'
He continued, 'The 99 Club is a name given to those people who have enough to be happy but are never content, because they're always wanting that extra 1, saying to themselves:
"Let me get that one final thing and then I will be happy for life."
We can be happy with very little in our lives, but the minute we're given something bigger and better, we want more ...and even more! We lose our sleep, our happiness, as the price for our growing needs and desires.
That's "The 99 Club"...
Zero Membership fee to enter, but you pay for it with your entire life! ☺
Saturday, March 5, 2016
Beauty of the Mosaic by Rosalina Chai
http://www.awakin.org/read/view.php?tid=2138
Beauty of the Mosaic
-by Rosalina Chai
For as long as I recall having memory, I've found mosaic incredibly
mesmerising. Alongside the increasing presence of grey hair on my head
grew my awareness of how aptly the mosaic can serve as a metaphor for
perceiving and understanding the human condition.
Mosaic is at once intricate yet majestic. And it is precisely its
brokeness that lends mosaic its perception of fragile beauty - the
space between the tiles is as much an intricate part of its language
of beauty as the mosaic tile itself. And isn't this true too of our
humanity?
Whilst there are numerous titles out there extolling the necessity,
power and beauty of our essential brokenness, more often that not, our
daily interactions with our fellow human beings appears to be
motivated by unconscious "should-ism" that demands perfection of one
another. What is it about brokenness that we find so offensive?
What would happen when we accept and embrace that being broken is an
essential part of humanity's be-ing? What would happen when we cease
to label brokenness as bad? What would it take for us to cease
labelling brokenness as bad? I can imagine one certainty ... more
peace.
Accepting and embracing brokenness is not the same as using another's
brokenness to feel better about ourselves. Rather, it is an
acknowledgment of our common humanity. When I accept my own
brokenness, and do not judge myself harshly because of it, I find
myself capable of more compassion towards others regardless of whether
I am aware of the form of brokenness they've experienced.
Finally, it is the coming together of many many many mosaic tiles that
the meaning of its language of beauty is expressed. We were not meant
to be alone in our brokenness. We were meant to come together, so that
another form of beauty may be birthed through the collective.
I would like to leave you with this story.
At the beginning and end of time, Truth was a beautiful glowing orb.
One day, the orb was shattered into shards that outnumbered the stars
in the universe by one to infinity. These shards became souls. Thus it
is that each soul represented one part of Truth. But Life intervened,
and many souls believed that they were Truth, and so Hatred was bred.
But some souls held onto the memory, and attempted to remind the souls
who've forgotten.
I do not know the end of the story as it is yet to be written. But I
do know that when all the souls are reunited, the space between the
shards would be where the light shines through. And that Truth's
beauty would then take another form.
Roslina Chai is an author, mother, and "seeker of beauty, curator of
experiences, and holder of space." She lives in Singapore, and the
excerpt was originally taken from her blog.
(http://www.mosaik.sg/writing)
- See more at: http://www.awakin.org/read/view.php?tid=2138#sthash.TZWNQ5Fh.dpuf
Thursday, March 3, 2016
Article on a teenager murdered and then accused
http://thewire.in/2016/03/02/the-second-killing-of-ishrat-jahan-23407/
And try to understand the consequences of continuing the hatred that makes things like these happen. We can't keep on chalking up everything to the Mughals, at some point we need to take responsibility and start behaving better than the Mughals did.
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Psychological chilling effect of using "negative", "dark" words in physics
=======
"It turns out that roughly 68% of the Universe is dark energy. Dark matter makes up about 27%. The rest - everything on Earth, everything ever observed with all of our instruments, all normal matter - adds up to less than 5% of the Universe."
--http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy/
Well, there's other things the instruments haven't been able to detect. And their technology's failings has been used by them (the scientific mainstream) as an excuse to refute the existence of what they're failing to detect.
Belief and trust induced healing, growing of plants.
People's movements where without any real central structure or source material that everyone would have looked that, the same ideas spontaneously spring up in many minds at once.
The word "dark".
What if pranic/orgone energy that is being used to heal and purify and transformed harmful into beneficial, is coming from that "dark energy" that, as per the scientific status quo, encompasses our universe?
Ok, back to...
What if (sorry for the sacrilege my materialistic friends) dark energy / dark matter actually has an inherent positive bias or positive nature to it?
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
Is planning ahead being logical or being caring?
I'm really appreciating the ability of mothers to extend their emotion of caring across the 4th dimension of time. If guys try to do that then they get accused of being too logical.
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