http://tamilkey.mozdev.org/installation.html
இது நாள் வரை தமிழில் blog எழுதுவதற்க்கு, special keyboard அல்லது ஏதாவது தளத்தில் எழுதி பின்னர் இங்கே copy செய்ய வேன்டி இருக்கும். ஆனால் இப்பொழுதோ, tamilkey உபயோகித்து இங்கேயே எழுத முடிகிறது. ஆங்கிலம் - தமிழ் என்று மாற்றி மாற்றி எழுதுவதும் மிக சுலபமாக உள்ளது. இதற்காகத்தான் இத்தனை நாட்கள் (அறியாமையில்) காத்திருந்தேன்.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
Change is huge
Change is huge, be it change of school, change of city or changing the world. But any change requires some effort from our side, without which we cannot survive.
Many of us know that trees should be planted, roads should be cleaned, wildlife should be preserved, food contamination should be prevented, bribery should be abolished, violence should be shown its exit door, kids should be protected from abuse, current education system should be changed and more and more. We keep waiting for that one person who will come and change this world. Yes, we had a Gandhi to help us get independence, but if lakhs and lakhs of people had not come out of their homes to fight against the British, we wouldn't have had this independence. So why are we now waiting for just that one person or organization to work towards making this world a better place. Isn't it time we give atleast little bit of our time, effort or/and money to make this change?
http://www.ted.com/index.php/speakers/view/id/147
"There's never one right way to make change....
One can do it as a Tech person, Finance person, non-profit person or an entertainment person. Everyone of us is all of those things and more. And I believe if we do these things, we can close the OPPORTUNITY gaps, we can close the HOPE gaps and if we can do this, the headlines in 10 years might read something like this...
New AIDS cases in Africa falls to zero
US imports its last barrel of oil
Israelis and Palestinians celebrate 10 years of peaceful co-existence
Snows have returned to Kilimanjaro
eBay listing for a presentation - obsolete museum piece, contact AlGore"
That's when he brought tears to my eyes. Many of us, even those involved in making this change, lose hope sometimes. Thanks to people like Jeff Skoll, this Change is inevitable!!
Many of us know that trees should be planted, roads should be cleaned, wildlife should be preserved, food contamination should be prevented, bribery should be abolished, violence should be shown its exit door, kids should be protected from abuse, current education system should be changed and more and more. We keep waiting for that one person who will come and change this world. Yes, we had a Gandhi to help us get independence, but if lakhs and lakhs of people had not come out of their homes to fight against the British, we wouldn't have had this independence. So why are we now waiting for just that one person or organization to work towards making this world a better place. Isn't it time we give atleast little bit of our time, effort or/and money to make this change?
http://www.ted.com/index.php/speakers/view/id/147
"There's never one right way to make change....
One can do it as a Tech person, Finance person, non-profit person or an entertainment person. Everyone of us is all of those things and more. And I believe if we do these things, we can close the OPPORTUNITY gaps, we can close the HOPE gaps and if we can do this, the headlines in 10 years might read something like this...
New AIDS cases in Africa falls to zero
US imports its last barrel of oil
Israelis and Palestinians celebrate 10 years of peaceful co-existence
Snows have returned to Kilimanjaro
eBay listing for a presentation - obsolete museum piece, contact AlGore"
That's when he brought tears to my eyes. Many of us, even those involved in making this change, lose hope sometimes. Thanks to people like Jeff Skoll, this Change is inevitable!!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Monday, June 16, 2008
Hiking the Camelback mountains in Scottsdale
After a wonderful trip to the Grand Canyons, my husband was quite pepped up about hiking. So the next weekend, we decided to hike the Camelback mountains which is a few miles from home. The trail is just 1.5 mile long and the summit is at around 2700 feet. I didn't know that the trail has been ranked as a strenuous one. All I was worried about was the Arizona summer heat. So we had 3 liters of water for the two of us and took some salty snacks - suggested for a Grand canyon hike, not required here :)
We started the hike 2 hours after sunrise, at 7am. Initially it was very interesting - walking along the trail which was a little bumpy. A rattle snake crossed our path on our way up. The snake and every other fauna and flora seemed to merge with the landscape. Everything was brown in colour - with the exception of a few bushes and the Sahuaro(the long cylindrical cactus plant in the photos). Last week, Sahuaro had beautiful white flowers, and now we could see red fruits which added colour to this scenery. Scottsdale with its palm trees and golf courses looked green and beautiful from our trail.
Click on the photo to see other hikers on the summit.
The sun was getting on to us. Atleast 4 times, I had to pour water on my head to cool me off . It was very hot and we were getting tired. I envied those people who were climbing down, since they had started earlier. When we crossed a mile, we noticed that we just crossed the first hump of the camelback mountain. We were wondering if we should go back, since this is the first time we were trying something like this. Fortunately, after drinking more water and taking some rest, both of us decided to continue. The last half a mile was very strenuous. We had to literally crawl/use all our 4 limbs to climb up. The photo was taken from this last half a mile. There was no trail here.
This is just the 2nd time I'm going for such a hike. The first one was in Bangalore - don't remember the name of that place - where we went so unprepared. There was no trail and we hiked just after a heavy lunch. We had no water and I blacked out then. That has been a good lesson. With enough water, I now know that I can survive any such hikes.
We loved it so much that we decided to hike every weekend. Last sunday, when we went again, we started hiking at 6am and it made all the difference. Last time, we took 2 hours to climb up, but this time we made it in one hour. However, the return trip took the same 1 hour.
One best thing about hiking is that you are always alert. Every step has to be taken consciously. With an ankle that is prone to sprains(old injury), during the first hike, I had to endure severe pain when I twisted my ankle. Also, I noticed that I let my body loose while coming down the slope. I always have a tendency to run down a slope, since gravity would aid me immensely. I could not afford to do that here, because, the trail was so rocky. I learned to control my speed and took every step with full awareness - I wish I could be this aware during my yoga practices. Maybe I should practice my kriyas somewhere on this narrow trail, where a slight misstep would result in a steep fall. Mind-body coordination also improved over the last one week. How amazing life would be if every moment could be lived like this!!
We started the hike 2 hours after sunrise, at 7am. Initially it was very interesting - walking along the trail which was a little bumpy. A rattle snake crossed our path on our way up. The snake and every other fauna and flora seemed to merge with the landscape. Everything was brown in colour - with the exception of a few bushes and the Sahuaro(the long cylindrical cactus plant in the photos). Last week, Sahuaro had beautiful white flowers, and now we could see red fruits which added colour to this scenery. Scottsdale with its palm trees and golf courses looked green and beautiful from our trail.
Click on the photo to see other hikers on the summit.
The sun was getting on to us. Atleast 4 times, I had to pour water on my head to cool me off . It was very hot and we were getting tired. I envied those people who were climbing down, since they had started earlier. When we crossed a mile, we noticed that we just crossed the first hump of the camelback mountain. We were wondering if we should go back, since this is the first time we were trying something like this. Fortunately, after drinking more water and taking some rest, both of us decided to continue. The last half a mile was very strenuous. We had to literally crawl/use all our 4 limbs to climb up. The photo was taken from this last half a mile. There was no trail here.
This is just the 2nd time I'm going for such a hike. The first one was in Bangalore - don't remember the name of that place - where we went so unprepared. There was no trail and we hiked just after a heavy lunch. We had no water and I blacked out then. That has been a good lesson. With enough water, I now know that I can survive any such hikes.
We loved it so much that we decided to hike every weekend. Last sunday, when we went again, we started hiking at 6am and it made all the difference. Last time, we took 2 hours to climb up, but this time we made it in one hour. However, the return trip took the same 1 hour.
One best thing about hiking is that you are always alert. Every step has to be taken consciously. With an ankle that is prone to sprains(old injury), during the first hike, I had to endure severe pain when I twisted my ankle. Also, I noticed that I let my body loose while coming down the slope. I always have a tendency to run down a slope, since gravity would aid me immensely. I could not afford to do that here, because, the trail was so rocky. I learned to control my speed and took every step with full awareness - I wish I could be this aware during my yoga practices. Maybe I should practice my kriyas somewhere on this narrow trail, where a slight misstep would result in a steep fall. Mind-body coordination also improved over the last one week. How amazing life would be if every moment could be lived like this!!
AIDS awareness - why is it difficult to reach the middle and upper class people
http://specials.rediff.com/news/2004/nov/30sld1.htm
Why is it difficult to reach people who are not in the lower strata of life?
2 years back, when I met Dr.Manorama, she showed me a video on how this adoption materialized. I have written about this in my previous post 'Child Adoption'.
Why is it difficult to reach people who are not in the lower strata of life?
2 years back, when I met Dr.Manorama, she showed me a video on how this adoption materialized. I have written about this in my previous post 'Child Adoption'.
Friday, June 13, 2008
4 Books and 3 movies
Sitting at home for the last 3 months, I used the opportunity to read a lot of books and watch some selected movies. Some of these impressed me, rather transformed me in their own ways.
Every Second Counts by Lance Armstrong
Before reading the book, I knew very little about Lance Armstrong - a cancer survivor who won 'Tour de France' title seven consecutive times between 1999 to 2005 . This book gave a glimpse of his life - living through the chemos, life after cancer treatment and preparation for 'Tour de France' in a great detail. True to the title of the book, he has lived his life as though 'Every Second Counts'. I hear many people talk about how a near death experience transforms them and it is after such an experience that they live life more intensely. This is a must read book to understand this better.
Autobiography of a Yogi - Paramhansa Yogananda
Wow...Aha....Whoooooaaaaa.....
I can't think of any more words to express what I felt while reading this book.
Snow - Maxence Fermine
A very beautiful poetic story.
The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri
Not my best pick. But okay to read once. Got a glimpse of how life turns out when you you live in America and have Indian roots
3 Very interesting movies:
1. King Corn - After this movie, I started realizing how much America is living on Corn, from food to cars, there's corn everywhere. Almost every cereal box and fruit juice box has corn syrup in the ingredient list. The guy with a car registeration plate as 'CORNFED' said it all.
2. What the Bleep do we know
One other movie that brings Science(Quantum physics) and Spirituality together. Oh my, there's so much in this existence that we are unaware of, but we human beings go about assuming that we've got nature under our control. Pity us!!
3. Phenomenon
Review from Wikipedia: "George Malley (John Travolta) is a man whose life is transformed by a strange flash of light he observes on the evening of his 37th birthday. Over the course of the following days, George starts to experience an extraordinary form of genius-level intelligence, rapidly absorbing vast amounts of information, formulating new, revolutionary ideas, and even exhibiting telekinetic abilities."
Every Second Counts by Lance Armstrong
Before reading the book, I knew very little about Lance Armstrong - a cancer survivor who won 'Tour de France' title seven consecutive times between 1999 to 2005 . This book gave a glimpse of his life - living through the chemos, life after cancer treatment and preparation for 'Tour de France' in a great detail. True to the title of the book, he has lived his life as though 'Every Second Counts'. I hear many people talk about how a near death experience transforms them and it is after such an experience that they live life more intensely. This is a must read book to understand this better.
Autobiography of a Yogi - Paramhansa Yogananda
Wow...Aha....Whoooooaaaaa.....
I can't think of any more words to express what I felt while reading this book.
Snow - Maxence Fermine
A very beautiful poetic story.
The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri
Not my best pick. But okay to read once. Got a glimpse of how life turns out when you you live in America and have Indian roots
3 Very interesting movies:
1. King Corn - After this movie, I started realizing how much America is living on Corn, from food to cars, there's corn everywhere. Almost every cereal box and fruit juice box has corn syrup in the ingredient list. The guy with a car registeration plate as 'CORNFED' said it all.
2. What the Bleep do we know
One other movie that brings Science(Quantum physics) and Spirituality together. Oh my, there's so much in this existence that we are unaware of, but we human beings go about assuming that we've got nature under our control. Pity us!!
3. Phenomenon
Review from Wikipedia: "George Malley (John Travolta) is a man whose life is transformed by a strange flash of light he observes on the evening of his 37th birthday. Over the course of the following days, George starts to experience an extraordinary form of genius-level intelligence, rapidly absorbing vast amounts of information, formulating new, revolutionary ideas, and even exhibiting telekinetic abilities."
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