Life is Beautiful!

2011 has been fairly a good year for me. The year started with Fa and I hanging out at a New Year's party. She always brings excitement in my life and we both felt the comfort that we are not alone and we had each other. So many big milestones have been met this year. I bought a place! Our annual dance recital at Long Center (what more can I ask) turned out great! The big news is I turned 30! I thought it was just a number, but no, I had moments where I wasn't comfortable. But I turned out fine and I’m still fit and maybe little smarter than before:-) I was glad to hear my dance teacher (Anu akka) turned 50 and her dad turned 80. It means this is a perfect year to turn something!J

I had one heart break very early in the year but it feels so unimportant now. I think what keeps me going is that life is beautiful in many ways. I made some great friends this year (Dora and Stewie), some friendships gotten stronger (Garfield). We had a great Halloween party! I explored Japan. India trip was also fruitful. I visited the Sankuratri Foundation (if you are curious, Wiki this) and met the man behind it. I'm posting some pictures from the school. Even career wise, I could say I advanced a little. I got my promotion which was long due and now they are getting me up to doing more complex designs. Even if the company is not in the best shape and my team hasn’t been the best place, I believe I have an opportunity here to grow and I hope the first half of 2012 will teach me something.

Finally I want to thank my three friends here who made this journey (2011) fun and exciting. The holiday season is the right time to reflect back on old memories and know how much we have grown, wiser and hopefully healthier and stronger. As Green Lantern concludes, fear is not a bad thing, you just have to stand up to it. One thing is very clear to me in life now, focus on the right things, that includes moving on from the past and making the right choices, you’ll be given what you want. As Alchemist says, the universe is conspiring to help you get there, you just have to believe in itJ (thanks Garfield).

Yours Truly,
Ender

Two weeks to go

Ah 2011!  You were my first year of keeping resolutions (okay, some of them at least). And looking back I like the ones I kept. So lets reflect on the ones I kept. This year I wanted to learn something new, for me this was meant to be pottery. I love it! I love going in with a set intention to my pottery studio and coming out with completely different accomplishments. Pottery - has been the best experience of 2011. I wanted to travel somewhere new - Germany, Austria, Key West (FL) all were new and super fun. I wanted to change jobs. Sorta accomplished by moving to a new role! 

Of course I have tons of resolutions that were not accomplished but that's a part of the tradition of making and breaking resolutions. So lets not focus on that!

2011 you were a good year but lets make room for 2012 and new dreams and aspirations. 

Garfield

'Tis the season

I love the holidays. I love every day from Thanksgiving to New Year's day. I love that the whole city starts lighting up like a jewelry box on display through this month. The lights really do light up my heart! I love that the spirit of this season is to give and be thankful. I have a lot to be thankful for this year- especially a healthy, happy family. I also love that this is the season of forgiveness. I have resolved to end some petty anger that I have been harboring against certain people. Just making that resolution was so liberating. I hope everyone of you has such a rewarding experience this holiday season. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Dora... Out... Woof!

Carpe Diem Baby

I am starting to think this is my personal blog rather than a group blog. Either that or everyone else has a life and stuff to do and the best thing I have going on is this blog. However that may be, I just had the most amazing day and I simply have to share it with the world.

Today I attended the "Get Motivated" seminar series at the Austin Convention Center. The event started at 8AM. My friend and I left home at 7:20AM but we got stuck in traffic and circled around a bit trying to find parking so we didn't make it into the hall until 8:40AM. 

The first speaker we heard was Mr.Krish Dhanam. Mr. Dhanam is a trained sales person and a professional motivational speaker. My favorite line from his speech was "Political correctness will be the death of this nation" - the nation in question being America. I also loved his introduction- "I am an Indian by birth and an American by choice". Captures the essence of his mindset very nicely. Suffice to say- he started the day with quite a bang for me. I was captivated.

The next two headliners to speak were Generals Colin Powell and Stanley McChrystal. Mr. McChrystal was interesting and of course he has quite a presence but I do not remember much from his speech. Mr. Powell on the other hand was an impressive speaker. He focused on leadership and his best line for me was "A leader focuses on his follower-ship". Another poignant part of his speech was when he described the mental tribulation that accompanies a step down from power. I had never given much thought to the day after the  Presidential swearing in ceremony. The President and his cabinet are now just common people where they had been the leaders of the free world the night before. Imagine the attitude adjustment that transition demands!

After a lunch break, we got to hear from my top three speakers of the day. First up was Mary Lou Retton. Her speech was preceded by a quick video showing the moments leading up to the first non-eastern European and first American all-around Olympic Gold in gymnastics. I think I would've been hard pressed to find anyone in that room who did not have goose-bumps after watching that video. Ms. Retton's story was just dripping with inspiration. A perfect underdog tale that was delivered with so much passion, I was all choked up when she left the stage. She was followed by the legendary Bill Cosby. Mr.Cosby's theme was Do It. He essentially elaborated on the theme that God helps those who help themselves- the catch being that we must be willing to *do* something other than whining and/or praying. It was funny and absolutely riveting. My list of favorites was rounded up by football coach extraordinaire- Lou Holtz. In terms of delivery and content combined, Mr. Holtz was the leader of the pack today. He spoke about success and what it takes to get to a state of being successful. His simple three point formula- Do the right thing, give your best to everything you do and show people you care- resonated so much with me. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to hear him present it.

The last two headline speakers were Rudy Guiliani and Mary Buffet. Mr. Guiliani's speech was well thought out and well presented. Ms. Buffet's presentation was the most canned of them all but she had words of investing wisdom to share from her famous mentor, Warren Buffet himself.  The only speaker we missed was the former President and CEO of Southwest Airlines- Howard Putnam. 

All in all- a day well spent and truly motivating. I will be back soon with what this day meant to me. I have to rush now to prepare for a work meeting.

Until then- stay inspired...

Dora.. Out.. Woof.

Scientia Potestas est

Today I decided to figure out how to make our blog popular. All that means to me is this: one- receive comments on our posts from someone who is not one of the shady friends and two- get more followers (should be easy considering we have one follower- and that is us!). Let me start by saying that I have nothing more to add on this topic. The rest of this posting is about me- as always!

In my quest to make our blog more popular, I went to Salon.com to check out the blogs posted there. I was hoping to get some quick tips. Why Salon.com? Because in this movie I saw last weekend- Julie&Julia- the title character writes about her cooking challenge in a Salon.com blog and obviously- that worked out for her- since I saw the movie! So I go to the site and get distracted. I start reading a posting in their "Dear Cary" column titled "I chase unavailable men". I mean- that title resonated with me so much- I couldn't help myself. The answer from Cary was rather vague and uninteresting to me but the comments were more enlightening. 

One of the commenters said that she had been there herself. She chased men she could not have until she realized one day that she had really been chasing her need for more attention and love from her emotionally distant mother. Her advice to the writer was to figure out what she was lacking from whom and to make her peace with that situation. It didn't take me long to figure out that I am still hurting from my break-up. After all, I spent the last two years chasing the love and attention of the man I was already in love with. The reality was that the first couple of years were spent in a state of uncertainty as well. Just as I had started to get used to being in a secure, committed relationship, the drama started all over again. I am surprised I even want to have another man in my life. This cynicism has been my security blanket and it has served me well. If knowing is half the battle, then I have made some progress today. I want validation from someone else whom I cannot have. Of course, this is not news to me. I recognized this issue within months of the break-up, but if you had asked me this morning, I would have been so sure that I had healed. Apparently, I am going to have to work on that again.

The other comment that hit home was one that talked about the writer's experience with this guy she had met through work. She had felt a connection with him but had later learnt that he was unavailable for whatever reason. But she was persistent- the next time she met him- she started scoping him out again. So the commenter called her out on her stalker-ish behavior and sympathized with the man. Oh boy, have I been there! And it just makes me feel so small, I want to crawl under the bed and stay there forever. I hope I learn from this awful mea culpa! Note to self: when someone says no- just say good luck and walk away. The world does work in black and white when it comes to the things that matter.

To my anonymous reader: If you have something to say: please leave a comment.

Dora... Out... Woof

First love

This past week, I have been thinking about what my passions are. Recently, I have been feeling empty inside. I have been missing the seething intensity that you experience when talking about or doing something that is close to your heart. 

As a student, poetry always stirred my emotions. Today I decided to go back to one of my favorite poets of all time- Percy Bysshe Shelley. I spent the past half hour reading and re-reading one of his classics- Ozymandias.   You can only do justice to reciting a poem like this when you not only understand the words but you also appreciate the delicate nuances of his play with the language. It took me five to six readings to fully grasp and interpret the poem. 

I also learnt today that Ozymandias is written about a real king- the great Pharaoh of Egypt Ramesses. Shelley wrote about the statue of the Pharaoh before it was brought to England. The story goes that Shelley and a friend had a bet about which one of them could create verse about the statue first. And thus was born one of the most beautiful sonnets of our time. 

For now, I will settle for reliving one of my childhood passions- my love of beautiful, classic, English poetry.

Ozymandias- by Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a  traveler from an antique land
Who said- Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them in the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings,
Look on my works, ye mighty and despair."
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Dora.. Out.. Woof

What does honor even mean?

The Penn State child abuse scandal broke out this past weekend. It is simply horrendous that this can happen in one of the most respected universities in the country. I do not understand how we as a society can tolerate such behavior in adults. Aren't we supposed to protect our children? What makes this particular scandal worse than normal is that the prominent players involved are specifically associated with children and teens and their development through sporting activities. These people are coaches and University officials. These people are the role models for the little league coaches and the little league players. These people are the ones who preach success with honor or not at all. 

Child abuse is one of those issues that gets my blood boiling. It scares me. In general people find children irresistible. They are cute, trusting and filled with an incredible energy that makes your heart happy. And I believe they also make you feel important and invincible. If you help them reach a book on a shelf too high for them, they are thrilled. It is so easy to make them happy. It is also so easy to get them to do what you want. A little bribe or a scolding will do the trick more often than not. And that makes them easy targets for the vile adult mind. Protecting our children's mind, body and soul is one of our main responsibilities.  We just cannot interpret this to mean that this responsibility extends only as far as each of our own biological children. Child abuse makes us worse than animals- even animals do not violate their young ones.

So going back to Penn State- what makes it harder for me to accept all this talk about anything becoming a factor in the decision to report or not report the accusations to the authorities is the realization that these people did not recognize that their silence was making them enablers. Or did they realize it and they figured their football program was more important. As a self proclaimed football fanatic, that just makes me sick to the stomach. In any case- this is many times worse than choosing to do nothing to help or interfere in the life of a person who might be addicted to drugs. In that case- the person you choose to not help is the victim of the disease. In the case of Penn State, the entire group of "responsible" citizens decided to not stop the offender. And in the process, they allowed him to continue to create a set of victims that would have never existed. 

I will write again on this subject- as I work my way through the process of figuring out how I can help in the global initiative to stop child abuse. For now- everyone please stop and look around you. Keep in mind that  these predators live amongst us and that we cannot afford to be ignorant. Talk about it with people- because knowledge is indeed power.

Dora.. Out.. Woof.