A life transforming retreat!

On 15th December, I attended a religious retreat, centenary birthday celebration of Swami Ranganathanand-ji's, my 'Guru' and the 13th president of Ramakrishna Math and Mission. This seminar was pivoted upon the topic Total character building for success in lines of Ramakrishna - Vivekananda - Vedanta philosophy. This was the first religious retreat that I have atttended till date. There were eminent monks of the Ramakrishna order, orators of international repute, delegates from across the globe, who shared their views attuned to Ranganathananada's ideals. Some senior monks shared some incidents from Ranganathananada-ji's life, spoke about his ideals, his life and his work. The day was truly an enriching experience. I purchased swami Ranganathananada-ji's book on his interpritation of the bhagvat Gita. This day shall remain etched in my memory as a day that changed me into a better person.

Diwali '08 @ Mukherjees'

I am a Bengali and for most Bengalis, Diwali and Kali Puja are synonymous. A little trivia before I move on, Goddess Kali is a Hindu deity who is the manifestation of eternal power and symbolizes destruction as a prelude to creation. Having said this Kali Puja is big in eastern India.Animesh Mukherjee is my ‘best buddy’ since high school days at VMS, Joka. Every time after Diwali, Animesh used to enthusiastically share stories of the Kali Puja that they celebrate at his place with all his uncle and cousins. I used to be invited to his place for the Puja every year. However the opportunity had eluded me every time because of some reason or the other. Finally in October end 2008, I happened to be in Kolkata staying over my maternal uncle’s place in a place called Parnasree (Animesh’s house is also in Parnasree). By evening I get free enough to consider the option of paying my school ‘best buddy’ a visit. I call him up and say “Animesh, I am in Parnasree, you mind if I swing by your place?” Pleasantly surprised Animesh says “I am with all my relatives preparing for the Kali Puja tonight, but you can come by, no problem”. There was no second thought, giving a damn about the social etiquette of having an invite, I literally was a gate crusher to the Mukherjees’ Puja celebration.Animesh’s grand-father used to perform Kali-puja at his place in his prime days, after him the tradition has been carried forward by Animesh’s father and his seven brothers. Every year the brothers along with their families get together, do the marketing, prepare the sweet-meats, purchase the idol and procure the items for the vesper worship of Goddess Kali.

The day of the puja is the best demonstration of coordinated, cohesive team-work. This year Animesh’s dad did the cooking – ‘khichdi’, ‘paachan’, ‘sabji’, fries, chutney and kheer. One of his uncles did the fruits, decoration and other miscellaneous activities. Animesh’s eldest uncle did the actual vesper worship of the goddess – reciting the Sanskrit hymns and performing the ‘yagna’, while the other uncle was the EQ (entertainment quotient) of the evening, looking after the guests and other invites of the day.Not less than fifty member strong family, all united under the roof with the common goal of having fun - peels of laughter, kids running around and bumping into the grown-ups with innocent demands, youngsters gossiping away on the latest blockbusters watched, aunts sitting in groups scrutinizing every scandal of the locality – all in all, an environment teeming with energy and commotion. The vesper worship culminated at 4:00 am, followed by ‘anjali’ and ‘shanti-jal’. Tonight I would be going back for attending the ‘bisarjan’, will update you folks with the events as they unfold!

Are you a Foodie?

If the answers is a spontaneous yes, then check out Flame n Grill @ South City Mall, Kolkata.

Rock On – a must watch movie

This weekend I could find some time to watch this much hyped movie – Rock On! For movie buffs – it’s a movie of Dil Chahta Hai and Rang De Basanti genre. A must watch for generation today. A subtle portrayal of friendship, love , music and the struggle of budding talents in the music arena runs across the movie.
Farhan Akhtar and Arjun Rampal have performed fabulously and set a league apart for the actors of today to achieve. The script woiter has done marvelously for having spun out this realistic, believable and ‘out –of-the-box’ story with no loops at all!
I would rate Rock On a staggering 9 on a scale of 10. A good movie and a must watch for rock-stars, budding rockers and movie lovers.

A trip to remember!

India over the last few decades has witnessed exponential growth in fields of IT Services. Oxford dictionary has included the term 'bangalored' to define the phenomenon of outsourcing IT and ITES engagements to India. Engineers from of various specializations, across different institutions, are joining into the bandwagon of becoming an IT Engineer or a 'coder' as they say. Reason - its the easiest way to earning decent moolah at the end of the day. Another juicy opportunity that majority of the 'IT guys' seek is an engagement at client location abroad! Earn, enrich your cross-cultural expertise and also visit the tourist spots in and around the place of deputation - what more could you have asked for? This has been the trend in majority of the top tier Indian IT companies. 10+2+4 Yrs of academic track, good communication skills and a decent enough aptitude is all that is needed to be a part of this phenomenon. Well, I am a 'coder' and a part of this IT gamut too!

Mid Jan '08 I set on my maiden flight to Los Angeles, USA. It was indeed exciting - so many a stories my friends had shared, so many a dream did I have! Landing at LAX and reaching the hotel at Pasadena was no less a challenge especially with a full blown jet-lag. Coming from an Indian metro city, the first thing that hit me was the traffic on the freeway. It was such organized, well thought out and disciplined. I reached the Hotel eventless to find there was no drinking water in the room, it did not take me long to realize that you do not have drinking water kept in rooms as you have it even in the cheapest 'dharmashaalas' of India - you have to buy water or drink tap water or die of dehydration. Walked two blocks down to 'Rite Aid' store and bought myself a water container, on the walk back I was almost getting run over my a 4x4! My ignorance at fault, - as is my habit, I was jay walking on Colorado Blvd. In US you also have traffic lights for pedestrians, you only cross a street when you see the 'green-man', or else you stand a chance of getting run over by vehicles zooming past at 50 miles per hour! Back at the room I changed, drank lots of water and dozed off on the couch watching TV. When I awoke, it was well past 9 pm and I was hungry. Went out to grab something to eat, only burger outlets - is that all people eat here? The lack of variety was sad indeed, second shock of the day.

Several shocks unfolded that day - there are signals for pedestrians to cross the road, no jay walking like Indians are so good at. Streets are sparkling clean, neighbourhoods are picture postcard beautiful, fancy cars, beautiful ladies on the streets and awesome steak for lunch. What more could a man possibly ask for?

Tourism has been very consciously and methodically promoted there – be it Disneyland Anaheim, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Hollywood Studios or San Diego Sea World! The US trip was truly a dream come true for this lad from Thakurpukur whose fore-fathers had to leave their homeland in one cloth at the time of partition, struggle for their existence in the initial years.