Walking-The-Road-Writing-The-Way

Capt. Ramsey : You do qualify your remarks. If someone asked me if we should bomb Japan, a simple "Yes. By all means sir, drop that fucker, twice!" I don't mean to suggest that you're indecisive, Mr. Hunter. Not at all. Just, uh... complicated. 'course, that's the way the Navy wants you. Me, they wanted simple. Hunter : Well, you certainly fooled them, sir. Ramsey :  [chuckles]  Be careful there, Mr. Hunter. It's all I've got to rely on, being a simple-minded son of a bitch. Rickover gave me my command, a checklist, a target and a button to push. All I gotta know is how to push it, they tell me when. They seem to want you to know why. Hunter : I would hope they'd want us all to know why, sir. Ramsey : At the Naval War College it was metallurgy and nuclear reactors, not 19th-century philosophy. "War is a continuation of politics by other means."  Von Clausewitz . Hunter : I think, sir, that what he was actually trying to say was a little ...

Physical Pain A way to true penance I can remember being aghast, seeing the rows and rows of devotees hanging by their backs. They were all suspended from a leaning pole, by hooks pierced on to the skin of their backs. Face down, arms spread, and in an angle as if ready for flight into the skies. I can remember the images of devotees with small spears pierced through their cheeks. They all seemed as if from some other planet. I can remember the images of devotees pulling the temple-chariot  by the ropes tied on to the hooks which were pierced on to their backs. As a kid I remember feeling shocked and numb. These images of self-crafted pain became imprinted on to my memory undelibally. Over time, these images somehow became a part of my inner imagery of this worldly life itself: images of living that I had encountered in my life for which I had no answers. To me these images of pain, became a part of a collage of images that symbolically represented life and its sufferings that...

TAKE 5 Take a break! The world has turned topsy turvy Life seems reduced to a senseless ritual Man seems to have  turned against man It seems a pure jungle. There is an ignorance and perversion that seems to have permeated every moment and space of our existence The very air we breathe seems polluted with this ignorance and perversion. 'Society' has failed us, 'Government' has betrayed us, 'Civilization' seems to be leading to some perverse reality, 'Knowledge' has only pitched and divided man aganist man 'Relationships' have lost meaning, leading to estrangement 'Religion' seems dogmatic 'Philosophy' seems escapist. The only assured thing seems to be an inglorious and sorrowful end as ‘innocent victims’, at best to some natural calamity, or may be to some ‘human-error’, or most likely  as victims to the wantom perversiveness of man against man. Man against life. Is there any hop...

To all Bird / Nature lovers, I would like to recommend a book, 'The Rites of Autumn' by Dan O'brien- #theritesofautumn. It is about how a peregrine falcon born in captivity is nurtured and prepared to get back to wilderness and survive on its own. It is a poignant story of man, a bird and the landscape.  I think it is a book that will also be therapeutic to the malaise of our times  :-) (noisy-world-on-our-face kind of malaise.) I first read it more than 20 years back and I am re-reading it again since I desperately felt the need for the therapy myself. It is a very old publication and is available on amazon.com. If anybody is interested in buying and reading it I request they dont read any other review since I feel it might lessen the impact/feelings that would come from the full reading of the book. I assure you it is a great book for nature lovers. I think it is available free in PDF also - but with the caveat that PDF would spoil the special charm of this st...

My MADurai-  Temples, Vadais' and blaring speakers !!! “enna ooruda ithu ! che!”  A typical Madurai morning morns to blaring speakers..for some godly festival or to an inauguration of some tea-kadai!!! Nothing new, this happens almost everyday. -Something is celebrated everyday, and everyday the speakers blare somewhere in the neighbourhood. That’s the only way this city knows to celebrate. Sound. Noise. “enna ooruda ithu ! che!” Correction - Madurai is no city, just a bursting, bumbling, over populated village. And this place has got temples in every direction you see, and in all sizes. This place is not just ‘a Temple city’ as it is traditionally known, but truly a city of Temples. And the Gods revel in blaring speakers.   Today it is goddess Saraswathy, tomorrow it may be the street-corner Mari-amman, and the day after that it might be one ‘muni-samy’. I think that all the Gods that might have been conceived in the entire universe in its entire history...

Information vs Knowlegde 10.33 pm 16th Saturday 2013  The actual real experience of getting to know any information was the experience of gaining knowledge. So if a person had information then it meant he had gained some valuable knowledge and a perspective on that information and in a way on life too. That was before the Internet and the flood of information pouring out of it. Now everybody and anybody has any rare and all information easily available to him. The click and tap being the only effort and experience by which that person gets that information. No knowledge, no valuable effort put forth or experience gained. Just information on which he/ she has no perspective or insight.Sad, in a way.

Chapter I Walking - The - Road Writing - The - Way  Introduction & Overview Walking - The - Road is both what it literally means and also a metaphor. It is the ritual of physically walking to a holy place, a pilgrimage, as well as a metaphor for the inner spiritual progress to self-realisation. It is both an inner as well as an outer pilgrimage. Thus It takes us to a holy place on both dimensions. It is a journey between two different dimensions. It begins from a physical place but its final destination is a spiritual one. Writing - The - Way is both what it literally means  and also a metaphor too. It is the ritual of writing about the external journeys that one takes to places of worship, as well as a metaphor for the way of writing or articulating one’s way to inner progress, to new knowledge and to self-realisation. In my case it has been the metaphorical meaning of both the terms that have been my deeper concern and occupation. In fact I could call them my wa...

I meditate, I sit here, think about my day, my life, the day's happenings, the problems, the questions, the doubts, the fears, my wife, my kuttyson, all of this.....and wondering ...changing my perspective and thinking about my past.....it's happenings.......and about everybody's life.......the larger world....the mess, the maze, ......and then turn my mind upward......the skies....the cosmos....the whole universe.......space, light, fire, stars, galaxies, light years, and all that is happening in this enormous, unfathomable space.....all that has happened......all the change, all the movement.....all the stuff, ....and then try to connect myself with these cosmic happenings......am I supposed to be connected to all of that? .....the same stuff....somehow ! .? The same stuff is in me? Runs in me? Moves in me? Made of and from the same stuff ???!!! Mind blowing to imagine ...trying to connect my mind with all that space stuff....so far...so huge.....somehow so so alien !!! ....

‘Let Knowledge be my Goal Let Reason be my path Let Courage and Self-effort be my ways Let every other shrine be damned. For I am my own God’. ( Written long long very long ago !)

--> Travel Literature " In Patagonia " Re-visited I am a lay reader and my writing is just as lay. To top it, I am an uncomfortable traveller. And this is my lay review of an unusual travel book by an unusual author. Whenever I read classic travel books I am humbled by the profound detachment these authors seem to have had, travelling alone to places remote and uninviting. I am humbled by the fact that I am not made of that supreme stuff to attempt such feats. One book that completely disorients me is "In Patagonia" by Bruce Chatwin. It was published in 1977 and it was instantly raved as a minor classic. It seems Bruce Chatwin left a message, "Gone to Patagonia", and abruptly left his job at the London Museum . He took off on a ridiculous journey of quest and came back with a minor classic as his debut into the literary world. "In Patagonia " defies any kind of genre classification. It could be called travel...

Here today, gone tomorrow!! Am I ready for it? How am I to come to terms with this truth?

Travel to Thiruvakkarai To Widen Your Perspective (How would you like to travel to a place that will widen your perspective by 20 million years?! Take a break, pack a camera, and travel to Thiruvakkarai. A drive down ECR with a lunch stop-over at Pondicherry is the best that you can do on a Sunday.) Traveling to new places and seeing new things widen one’s perspective. This is an adage that’s surely worn-out and thin from excess usage. The truth is that only some places and some things do and some places and some things don’t. And in this particular place and the particular thing the adage proves its truth, and proves it by a very wide margin- and by the Geological Survey of India’s estimate, by no less than 20 million years!! The place I am talking about is Thiruvakkarai and the phenomenon I am talking about is the fossil trees of Thiruvakkarai . Thiruvakkarai is a quaint little village of South Arcot District. It lies about 20 to 25 kms south west of Pondicherry, between Pondicherry...

"He was overwhelmed with a reminder that at some moments the earth seemed like a fabulous stage set for an imortal drama, or initiation. The trees, the arbours, the orchards, the sweeping fields, the abunant heavens, all the astonishing colours of nature, the flwers, the hills, the lakes - it all seemed the most extra-ordinary setting for wonderful events, for the most fabulous adventures in living, for marvellous festivities of the huma spirit. The perfect setting for humanity to perform the most amazing feats of history making, of self-overcoming, of transcending, of momentous 'becoming' . We have the setting, Lao was thinking, we have the consciousness, but the grand event, the luminous illuminaton is missing. It seems we are not up to it. Here we have a world of legends, of pyramids, of oceans, of mountains, deserts, valleys, meadows, volcanoes, waterfalls, colours that bring tears to the eyes, we have trees and flowers and animals of unbelievable variety, we have civi...

Lt. Dan: Have you found Jesus yet, Gump? Gump: I didn't know I was supposed to be looking for him, sir.

"When am I going to start LIVING this life?.....I mean when I am actually going to become fully ALIVE?...feel the consciousnes of being ALIVE completely, brightly, fully aware, and be charged by the LIFE Energy?" Some days back while suffering from a phase of 'heavy,subdued and hazy consciousness, I could actually feel the burden of my body on my consciousness. I realised that we are victims of this physical body. I could acyually feel the weight and restrictions of this physical boundary on my 'consciousness'-----both in quality and in quantity. And now today I realised that we are all victims of this world around us also....victims to ideas, expectations and 'normal' life-style. We are all only 'half-alive'. We are all living our life 'half-dead'. Should'nt we doing new things, exploring new ideas, activities, places....realising new knowledge...and expanding ourselves? Should'nt we be doing things that make us feel ALIVE every mo...

Emptiness ..and in that Emptiness everything is just 'IS' ....as it is in reality......no strain...no confusion...plain clear and lucid....in Emptiness. And in this Emptiness I got to do, just what I got to do...and everything will just be fine...as they are...everything will just happen just as they have to...everything is as they should be....in Emptiness.

Gump asks, “Whats my destiny moma?” Gump’s moma says, “Life is like a box of chocolates,… you never know what you gonna get until you open it.” “ ..But you gotto do the best with whatever you have got.” Gump wonders, “ Do each of have a destiny or are we all just floating around?”, Gump says, “ May be both of it is true, may be both of it is happening.’’

Walking - The - Road is both what it says and also a metaphor. It is the physical ritual of walking to a holy place, a pilgrimage, as well as a metaphor for the inner spiritual progress to self-realisation. It is both an inner as well as an outer pilgrimage. It takes us to a holy place on both dimensions. It is a journey between two different dimensions, it begins from a physical destination but its final destination is a spiritual one. Writing - The - Way is both what it says and also a metaphor too. It is the ritual of writing about the external journeys that one takes to places of worship, as well as a metaphor for the way of writing or articulating one’s way to inner progress, to new knowledge and to self-realisation.