well summer is finally over, the fall classes started yesterday. the university is again crowded with all the undergrads. also finally busy with experiments in the lab, having regular meetings with my advisor.
at the home front, nothing much to write about. have been tooling a bit with my electric guitar, listening to lots of old hindi songs nowadays (esp. to rd burman gulzar combo), and generally lazing around. cataloged my itunes library and arranged stuff. was at home during the weekend after what seems like a long time, moreover my room-mate was out of town. so had the whole house to myself - reminiscent of my hopkins days. movies seen recently: ray, okkadu (telugu) and sarkar (hindi).

quotes for the day: (chang tzu)
The purpose of a fish-trap is to catch fish, and when the fish are caught the trap is forgotten. The purpose of words is to convey ideas, when the ideas are grasped the words are forgotten. Where can I find a man, who has forgotten words, he is the one I would like to talk to.

To have no thought and put forth no effort in the first step towards understanding the Tao. To go nowhere and do nothing is the first step towards finding peace in the Tao. To start from no point and follow no road is the first step towards reaching the Tao.

whats in a name? - the kabalarian philosophy.
find out more about it HERE

the analysis of my first name:
While the name R******** creates the urge to be self-expressive and happy, we point out that causes a scattered and emotional nature. In the long term, it can frustrate happiness, contentment, and success, as well as cause health weaknesses in the liver and bloodstream.
Your first name of R******** makes you extremely generous. You have a bubbling, spontaneous nature and a happy-go-lucky outlook which helps smooth the pathway of life. Also you are sympathetic to the needs of others. Interested in art, music, singing, dancing, and anything of an artistic nature, you could become a very fine performer. Your spontaneous expression stands you in good stead during arguments or debates, though you are perhaps too outspoken and inclined to sarcasm.

the analysis of my last name (the name by which i am usually called):
Although the name T*** creates an active mind and a restless urge to explore new ideas, we emphasize that it causes an emotional intensity that is hard to control. This name, when combined with the last name, can frustrate happiness, contentment, and success, as well as cause health weaknesses in the solar plexus, and nervous system.
The name of T*** gives you a very inquisitive, restless, seeking nature. You feel impelled by intense desires that you cannot comprehend or satisfy. You have had the desire to accomplish something outstanding and to do something very worthwhile for humanity, especially early in your life. This name gives you a versatile, clever, analytical mind, but unfortunately you cannot direct your interest toward an undertaking for long, as you do not have the patience and practicality for systematic hard work and attention to detail. You resent obstacles, delays, and restrictions. This name gives you ambition, high ideals, and much creative ability, but the intense dynamic nature is too often spent in feelings and in moods, rather than in constructive action.

albums i heard recently:

1) mangal pandey (the rising) - a r rahman (hindi)
2) vishwa thulasi - illayaraja & m s viswanathan (tamil)
3) kandha naan mudhal - yuvan shankar raja (tamil)
4) iqbal - various (nagesh kukkunoor's latest hindi movie)
5) transatlanticism - death cab for cutie
6) give up - the postal service
7) salaam namaste - vishal shekhar (hindi)
8) between heaven and earth - a r rahman (soundtrack)
9) super - sandeep chowta (telugu)
10) in time (the best of) - r.e.m.
11) rare gems - jagjit & chitra singh (ghazals)

saw the movie "the road home" recently. its a chinese movie made by the well known director yimou zhang, starring zhang ziyi. well made, nice touching storyline, beautiful visuals and a plain and effective background score. its set in a small village in china and about a village girl who falls in love with a teacher who comes to teach in the village school from the city. seeing it made me realize that chinese culture is pretty close to indian in many respects, you could pass off the movie as being set in an indian village.

highlights of the past week: (Aug 8th - 16th)
had root canal treatment on tuesday. prof returned from his trip on thursday. set up my experiment and it seems to be working. showed that to him on friday. rented a car and drove to baltimore. started here at 5 and reached my friend's house there at 1 in the night. next morning went to inner harbour, fell's point and fort mchenry in baltimore. in the evening there was a friendly cricket tournament, some music, tambola, food and movie screening organized by the grad indian students association in hopkins. helped my friends with the sound setup for their gig. on sunday drove to washington dc. saw the smithsonian air and space museum and the museum of natural history. also went around the memorials area. that night went to indian restaurant for dinner in baltimore with friends. monday morning went to the my old department at hopkins and met my prof. left for newark, and met an old undergrad branch-mate and had dinner with him. started for home early on tuesday morning and returned the car in time around 12.
movies seen: cat people, a love song for bobby long,

Know about your Life Path Number

The Life Path is the sum of the birth date. This number represents who you are at birth and the native traits that you will carry with you through life. The most important number is your Life Path number. The Life Path describes the nature of this journey through life.

The Personal Years form the building steps that mark your progress through life. Your maturity and development take place in nine-year stages. Each nine-year period marks the beginning and the end of a particular stage of development. Each has a natural rhythm and flow, as summarized by the nine stages described briefly below:

The 1 Year: A year of new beginnings, seed-planting, and high energy.
The 2 Year: A year of relationships, sensitivity, and cooperation.
The 3 Year: A year of creativity, motivation, and inspiration.
The 4 Year: A year of hard work, discipline, and opportunities.
The 5 Year: A year of change, freedom, and unpredictability.
The 6 Year: A year of responsibility, domestic affairs, and service.
The 7 Year: A year of contemplation, self-awareness, and spiritual atonement.
The 8 Year: A year of reward, respect, and recognition.
The 9 Year: A year of completion, release, and transformation.

PS - one's personal year number can be calculated by adding the digits of one's day and month of birth to the digits of the current year. eg. for someone born on 15th September, the year 2005 would be a (1+5+9+2+0+0+5 = 22 = 2+2 = 4) would be personal year 4.
For more on this click HERE

decided to make a list of my favorite movies, albums and songs. this is a work in progress and the titles are in no particular order.

FAV MOVIES
1. casablanca
2. edward scissorhands
3. the thomas crown affair
4. the matrix
5. a river runs through it
6. crouching tiger, hidden dragon
7. the godfather
8. before sunrise
9. as good as it gets
10. the fifth element

FAV ALBUMS
1. radiohead - ok computer
2. bob dylan - blood on the tracks
3. u2 - achtung baby
4. the flamin lips - yoshimi battles the pink robots
5. jeff buckley - grace
6. various artists - gardenstate soundtrack
7. pete yorn - musicforthemorningafter
8. the wallflowers - wallflowers
9. pink floyd - wish you were here
10. wilco - yankee foxtrot hotel

FAV SONGS
1. john lennon - oh my love
2. jeff buckley - lover, you should've come over
3. al green - in the dark
4. the wallflowers - 6th avenue heartache
5. fleetwood mac - sarah
6. bob dylan - tangled up in blue
7. pink floyd - wish you were here
8. nick drake - northern sky
9. van morrison - queen of the slipstream
10. lou reed - coney island love

poem for the day: (untitled - self)

Life seems to go by
moment by moment
each moment lasts an eternity,
and takes me closer to
the empty sky above.

And i don't seem to go anywhere
standing at the waters' edge
watching the surface beckon me,
luring me to its depths
of a great peaceful expanse.

went to the dentist and got a root canal treatment done on one of my molars. i've had a cavity in that tooth for maybe 5-6 years. i got filling done twice, the last filling came out about more than a year ago, but never felt any sort of pain in the tooth. started feeling some slight inkling of pain last week, so decided i should finally get a root canal done. it was totally painless, the only painful sensation i had was only a tingling one, that also only once, when the dentist was injecting the anesthetic. then my whole lower left lip became numb and it was quite funny to touch that part. the whole procedure lasted about 40 min, i think. he basically drilled a hole in that teeth, cleaned out all the nerve tissue there in multiple scrapings, drillings, cleanings with water; and then put some polymeric substance into the cavity and kind of fused it. he showed me the x-ray after the treatment and the whole tooth looked pretty good compared to how it was before. it was clearly noticable that he had done a pretty good job, since the filling seemed to fill up the whole nerve cavity without any left out nooks.

highlights of the past week: (Aug 1st-7th)
didn't accomplish much in the lab the whole of last week. my equipment finally arrived, i think on thursday. also my prof. wasn't in town, so didn't put much enthu into research. the only thing i was serious about was going for swimming in the evenings. managed to do that on all 5 weekdays. also played soccer on wednesday.
on the weekend most of saturday went in sleeping. went out for dinner to a mexican restaurent, named gracias. i think i had a chicken fajita quesadilla. it was ok. on sunday had a 8-on-8 cricket match in the afti. my bowling got thulped, but was able to bat decently. made 28, with 6 fours (ps - there were only 7 fielders), but got out to a unlucky top edge. later in the evening my previous room-mate came over to see the new house.
movies seen: strictly ballroom, big fish, kimberly, blast from the past (3rd or 4th time)

urdu ghazal of the day: (mirza ghalib)

hazaroon khwahishen aisi ki har khwahish pe dam nikle
bahut nikle mere armaan lekin phir bhi kam nikle

dare kyon mera kaatil kya rahega uski gardan par
vo khoon jo chasme-tar se umr-bhar yun dam-ba-dam nikle

nikalna khuld se aadam ka sunte aaye the lekin
bahut beaabru hokar tere kuche se hum nikle

mohabbat mein nahin hai fark jeene aur marne ka
usi ko dekh kar jeete hain jiss kaafir pe dam nikle

zaraa kar zor seene par ki teere-pur-sitam nikle
jo vo nikle to dil nikle jo dil nikle to dam nikle

khuda ke vaaste pardaa na kaabe ka utha ghalib
kahin aisa na ho yaan bhi vahi kaafir sanam nikle

quote for the day: (sri sri)
the more you surrender, the more responsible you become.
total responsiblity is total surrender. it is a little hard to chew but this is the truth. people usually say either "i take responsibility" or "i surrender", but i tell you they go hand in hand. if you are surrendered to the knowledge, you are commited to sharing it with others. you take responsibility to see that it flourishes.

urdu ghazal of the day: (mirza ghalib)

ye na thi hamaari kismat ki visaal-e-yaar hota
agar aur jeete rehte yahii intezaar hota

tere vaade par jiye hum to yeh jaan jhoot jana
ki kushi se mar na jaate agar eitbaar hota

teri naazuki se jaana ki bandha thaa ahad boda
kabhi tu na tod sakta agar ustuvaar hota

koi mere dil se pooche tere teer-e-neemkash ko
ye khalish kahaan se hoti jo jigar ke paar hota

ye kahaan ki dosti hai ki bane hain dost naaseh
koi charaasaaz hota koi ghamgusaar hota

rang-e-sang se tapakta vo lahu ki phir na thamta
jisse gham samajh rahe ho ye agar sharaar hota

gham agarche jaan-gusil hai par kahaan bachen ki dil hai
gham-e-ishq gar na hota gham-e-roozgaar hota

kahoon kisse main ki kya hai shab-e-gham buri balaa hai
mujhe kya bura tha marna agar ek baar hota

huye mar ke hum jo rusvaa hue kyon na garke-dariya
na kabhi janaazaa uthta na kahin mazaar hota

ye masaaile tasavvuf ye tera bayaan ghalib
tujhe hum valii samajhte jo na badaakhvaar hota.

poem of the day: (jelaluddin rumi)

The intellectual is always showing off,
the lover is always getting lost.
The intellectual runs away.
afraid of drowning;
the whole business of love
is to drown in the sea.
Intellectuals plan their repose;
lovers are ashamed to rest.
The lover is always alone.
even surrounded by people;
like water and oil, he remains apart.
The man who goes to the trouble
of giving advice to a lover
get nothing. He's mocked by passion.
Love is like musk. It attracts attention.
Love is a tree, and the lovers are its shade.

came across a passage by sri sri where he talks about the ramayana. what he said was quite amazing:

Ra in sanskrit means that which is radiant and "ma" means myself. that which shines forth within me is rama. that which is radiant in every particle of my being is rama.
rama was born to dashratha and kaushalya. dashratha means "the ten-charioted one" in sanskrit. it signifies the five sense organs and the five organs of action. kaushalya is sanskrit for "skilled". the skillful driver of the ten chariots can give birth to rama. when the five sense organs and the five organs of action are used skillfully, radiance is born within.
rama was born in ayodhya, which in sanskrit means "the place where no war can happen". when there is no conflict in our mind, then radiance can dawn.
lakshmana, the brother of rama, was born of sumitra - the good friend. when the five sense organs and five organs of action are cooperating within you, awareness is born and you become radiant. often we try to look within for radiance. just realize that you are radiant.

10 Sufi Thoughts by Hazrat Inayat Khan from "The Way of Illumination":

1) There is one God, the Eternal, the Only Being; none else exists save God.
2) There is one Master, the Guiding Spirit of all souls, who constantly leads all followers towards the light.
3) There is one Holy Book, the sacred manuscript of nature, which truly enlightens all readers.
4) There is one Religion, the unswerving progress in the right direction towards the ideal, which fulfils the life's purpose of every soul.
5) There is one Law, the law of Reciprocity, which can be observed by a selfless conscience together with a sense of awakened justice.
6) There is one human Brotherhood, the Brotherhood and Sisterhood which unites the children of earth indiscriminately in the Fatherhood of God.
7) There is one Moral Principle, the love which springs forth from self-denial, and blooms in deeds of beneficence.
8) There is one Object of Praise, the beauty which uplifts the heart of its worshipper through all aspects from the seen to the unseen.
9) There is one Truth, the true knowledge of our being within and without which is the essence of all wisdom.
10) There is one Path, the annihilation of the false ego in the real, which raises the mortal to immortality and in which resides all perfection.

quote for the day 2: (aurobindo)
Medical Science has been more a curse to mankind than a blessing. It has broken the force of epidemics and unveiled a marvellous surgery; but, also, it has weakened the natural health of man and multiplied individual diseases; it has implanted fear and dependence in the mind and body; it has taught our health to repose not on natural soundness but a rickety & distasteful crutch compact from the mineral and vegetable kingdoms.

quote for the day: (sri sri)
only one who has renounced can truly love. to the degree you have renounced, to that degree will you have the ability to love. often people think those who renounce cannot love, and those who love cannot renounce. this is because renunciates do not seem to be in love, and so-called lovers are possessive and needy.
true love is not possessive; it brings freedom, and renunciation is nothing but freedom. only in freedom can love blossom fully. when you are in love you say, "i want nothing; i just want this." renunciation is, "i do not want anything. i am free." in love there are no other needs. renunciation is having no needs. love and renunciation, although appearing to be opposites, are two sides of the same coin.

song of the day: (kabhi kabhi - sahir ludhiyanavi)

kabhi kabhi mere dil mein khayaal aata hai...
ki zindagi tere zulf ki narm chaoon mein guzarne pati
to shadaab ho bhi sakti thi.
ye ranj-o-gham ki syaahi jo dil pe chhaai hai
teri nazar ki shuaoon mein kho bhi sakti thi.

magar ye ho na sakaa aur ab ye aalam hai
ke tuu nahin, tera gham, teri justajoo bhi nahin;
guzar rahi hai kuch iss tarah zindagi jaise
ise kisi ke sahaare ki aarzoo bhi nahin.

na koi zadaa na manzil na raushni kaa suraag,
bhatak rahi hai andheroon mein zindagi meri;
inhi andheroon mein reh jaaunga kabhi khokar
main jaanta hun meri hum-nafaz magar yuhin
kabhi kabhi mere dil mein khayaal aata hai.

today in swimming, was able to put 3/4 lap in butterfly for the first time.

while going through a friend's blog, i thought about why do people lie. it came to me that the main reason for lying is fear. now this fear can be of two types: fear for oneself, and fear for others. so either one is afraid of someone/something or one is afraid for someone. it is in the second case that one lies out of concern for the other person ie because they think the other person cannot handle the truth, but the root cause is still fear.
so in either case one shouldn't be critical or angry with the person who's lying, but be forgiving because it is due to their own fear that they've resorted to lying. one should help the other person overcome the fear which is at the root of the lie.

quote for the day: (sri sri)
how can you always be happy? forget about "always" - then you will be happy.
in always wanting to be comfortable, you become lazy.
in always wanting perfection, you become angry.
in always wanting to be rich, you become greedy.
fear arises when we do not realize that only life is for always. this projection of the nature of self - which is "always" - onto the temporal - which can never be "always" - is called maya.

urdu couplet of the day: (ahmed faraz)
tu paas bhi ho to dil bekaraar apna hai,
ke hum ko tera nahin intezaar apna hai.

had resumed going for swimming in the evening, since the past 3 days, ie after moving properly into the new house. today i was able to put 10 laps, not exactly continuously, in breast-stroke. before this my shoulders used to ache after a lap or two of breast-stroke, for the first time breast-stoke came so effortlessly.
later played soccer with my new reebok studs bought from the outlet mall.

urdu couplet of the day: (mirza ghalib)
unke dekhe se jo aa jaati hai muhn pe raunak,
vo samajhte hain ki beemar ka haal acha hai.

translation:
on seeing her when one's face lights up,
she thinks that the unwell is in good spirits.

urdu couplet of the day: (sahir ludhiyanavi)
na to caravaan ki talaash hai, na to humsafar ki talaash hai,
mere shauq-e-khaana kharaab ko, tere rehguzar ki talaash hai.

translation: (my interpretation)
there is no search for a caravan, there is no search for a fellow traveller,
the ruined place from where i yearn, is in search of the path that leads to You.

song of the day: (oh my love - john lennon, imagine)

oh my love for the first time in my life
my eyes are wide open
oh my lover for the first time in my life
my eyes can see
i see the wind, oh i see the trees
everything is clear in my heart
i see the clouds, oh i see the sky
everything is clear in our world
oh my love for the first time in my life
my mind is wide open
oh my lover for the first time in my life
my mind can feel
i feel sorrow, oh i feel dreams
everything is clear in my heart
everything is clear in our world
i feel life, oh i feel love

pics of my room in the new house

know your past life

also finally settled on the new title/subtitle for my blog. most of the advaitic traditions seem kind of dry (to me) and i think the only thing missing from them is the love aspect. so guess i am trying to say that - nothing matters in life but love. if you feel love for others in whatever form, then you are on the way to the divine/ enlightenment/ happiness/ contenment/ being a better person etc. and the thing is that you can begin to feel this love for others only when you overcome the "love of yourself" and rise above your own petty desires/ problems/ concerns etc.

to put it in sri sri's words - "The direction of life is towards one thing: that is love. You be prosperous and have no love, that prosperity has no value. You are on spiritual path but you don't experience (love), then that spiritual path is no path, it is very dry: it's all up here."

today seems to a be pretty good day for me. was staying temporarily in a friends house and then moving slowly into the new house and setting it all up over the past 2 weeks. finally the house is all set up. our lease officially starts from today.
and was pleasantly surprised to finally get the equipment i had been waiting for over the past month. the company people had initially said that it would reach around the 15th of august, so wasn't expecting it so soon. so finally i can get down to work and do some research. the past 2 weeks i had been dallying around, trying to read up on related stuff but could hardly get myself to do so.
also plan to take my own home-prepared lunch to the lab from today onwards and try to save some money by not eating in the university joint everyday. i would like to buy a car by the end of the this year. so hopefully i can save enough by then.

quote for the day: (sri sri)
Is enlightenment really possible for the average person? Yes. Big Yes. Enlightenment is very possible for the ordinary individual. Actually it is easier than for some one who thinks that they are special ....whenever someone is ordinary, simple, innocent and natural, that is enlightenment"

quote for the day 2: (sri sri)
Enlightenment is that state of being so mature and unshakable by any circumstance. Come what may, nothing can rob the smile from your heart. Not identifying with limited boundaries and feeling "all that exists in this universe belongs to me," this is enlightenment.