To The Free World

To the free world let us walk,
to the freedom of life......
To the free life let us gift our souls....
To the jungle let us flee, from where we all began....
To the jungle where all blend-- Heaven, Earth and
Hell, to give what we call Nature....

Before the Death Knell rings and we get our call,
Before we give away our place to others waiting to overtake,
Let us be free--without any questions being asked,
and answers to be given, without any reason whatsoever.

The Sun doesn't give any reason for blasting the moonlit night,
The cloud doesn't seek permission before blanketing the sun.
The source of Life is the freedom of the ultimate Will.
The seven colors does not limit the Canvas of Nature,
The seven suras doesn't limit the melody of life.

I had written this poem ( if I'm permitted to call it so) in blank verse in a frenzy, one night during the Durga Pujas of 2005. It was around 3'o clock in the morning and I was stuck in my room. While I watched people (pandal hoppers) throng the streets, who were enjoying the festive season head-on, I thought about FREEDOM.

The above picture depicts a man enlightened, running ahead like a burning torch, trying to dispel fear and unfounded ignominy. I had painted it probably in the year 2004.

The Twilight Saga : Another Societal Addiction ?

Without showing any disregard to Stephenie Meyer's novels or her caliber as a writer, I would like to believe that the Twilight series owed its success, atleast partially, to trend followers, if I'm allowed to call them so.

I've great respect for any author, popular or not, but I'm appalled at the fact that anybody should read a series of novels having the same theme written by the same author, and nothing else at all. I know some friends of mine whose reading list include nothing other than Harry Potter novels, with only the new avatar, The Twilight Saga, at their rescue ! I can bet most of them never actually ventured out hunting for good pieces of literature, relying only upon 'Top Charts' and friend review. After all who would want to be left behind when their snobbish friends have all read them? I like the following quote --
"Nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose - a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye."

I think it has been unfortunately misconstrued. Can you imagine how much it hurts when somebody says that the only novel they've ever read, cover to cover, since childhood is Harry Potter and the half blood 'son-of-a-.....' ? Sorry for the expression of anger, rather despair......I may sound like an unsuccessful, disgruntled author who knows nothing but pouring vile into others' brain, but I'm sorry, can't help. I'm no author though.

But I am a reader, and a connoisseur of good books too. And I respect the 'Art of Reading'. I'm ready to read anything and everything under the sun if it is a good read and the writer believes in his or her work. I don't care loading my bookshelf only with popular works, simply for showing off the heavy arsenal of books I've read. I'm actually troubled by the reading habits of children these days. Comparing my grandpa with my cousins I find the younger generation living their lives out of cocoons. Their day start and end with Orkut or Facebook, with Second Life to live out their dreams, and Twilight or Harry Potter thrown in for some flights of imagination. Reading should not be like wearing the latest fashion in clothing; there should be one's individualistic choice of reading that reflect one's orientation towards literature. Richness in literature lies in its abundance and variety.

But I would like to add that I like the choice of the book cover for Twilight. Stephenie Meyer has stated that the apple on the cover represents the forbidden fruit from the Book of Genesis. It symbolizes Bella and Edward's love, which is forbidden, similar to the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, as is implied by the quote from Genesis 2:17 that is quoted at the beginning of the book. It also represents Bella's knowledge of what good and evil are, and the choice that she has in partaking of the "forbidden fruit", Edward, or choosing not to see him.

I hope the readers understand what I'm trying to imply.

Ratan: The Jewel (A brief introduction to Ratan Naval Tata)

I am posting this article not because I've been currently hired by TCS, but because this man, named Ratan Naval Tata, at the age of 72, was voted as India Inc’s Most Powerful CEO for 2009, second year running and also India Inc’s CEO of the Decade by the 500 respondents interviewed by IMRB for The Economic Times Corporate Dossier magazine, beating the likes of Mukesh Ambani, NR Narayana Murthy, Anil Ambani, Sunil Mittal and Rahul Bajaj.

Ratan N. Tata was born on December 28, 1937 in Mumbai, India in one of the richest families in the country. His great grandfather, Jamsedji Tata, was the founder of the Tata group and passed the power and inheritance down to his family. Ratan grew up in a broken household, however, after his parents split in the mid-1940s and he and his brother were raised by their grandmother, Lady Navajbai.

Ratan was a good student and studied hard at the Campion School in Mumbai followed by studies in architecture and structural engineering at Cornell University. Ratan Tata completed his BSc degree from Cornell University in 1962, and the Advanced Management Program from Harvard Business School in 1975. During the 10 years that he spent in the US, Ratan took up all kinds of jobs, including washing dishes, to make ends meet. The dollars mandated by the Reserve Bank were not enough. In December 1962 he joined the Tata Group founded by Jamsetji Tata in 1868, after turning down a job with IBM on the advice of JRD Tata. He was first sent to Jamshedpur to work at Tata Steel. He worked on the floor along with other blue-collar employees, shoveling limestone and handling the blast furnaces. Although this original job was physically difficult, it helped Ratan Tata gain a better understanding and appreciation for the business and he gradually began taking on more responsibility.

In 1971, Tata became Director-in-Charge of the National Radio & Electronics Company Limited (Nelco) in order to help its struggling finances. Ratan has been the Chairman of Tata Sons, the promoter company of the Tata group, since 1991, when JRD stepped aside. He is also the Chairman of the major Tata companies, including Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Power, Tata Tea, Tata Chemicals, Indian Hotels and Tata Teleservices. During his tenure, the group’s revenues have grown nearly 13-fold. When he took charge of the group, 5 per cent of its turnover came from overseas. This rose to 20 per cent in 2002-03, mainly due to TCS emerging as a global force. With Tata Industries, Ratan Tata was able to transform the management and vision of the division and bring in significantly larger dividends. This renewed financial success helped bring the Tata Group to the New York Stock Exchange and gave the company even more international power and prestige. Ratan Tata continued to acquire different industries for the Tata Group, eventually purchasing the steel and aluminum producer, Corus Group as well as Jaguar and Land Rover brands from the Ford Company.

Ratan Tata's dream was to manufacture a car costing Rs 100,000 (1998: approx. US$2,200; today US$2,528). He realized his dream by launching the car in New Delhi Auto Expo on January 10, 2008, saying that "a promise is a promise," referring to his earlier promise to deliver this car at the said cost "Despite Mamata".

A shy man, Ratan rarely features in the society glossies, has lived for years in a book-crammed, dog-filled bachelor flat in Mumbai's Colaba district and is considered to be a gentleman extraordinaire.In an interview , Tata, a bachelor, admitted to being lonely and "too diffident to do anything about it". He keeps away from Mumbai's party circuit, dresses conservatively, and gets to work early in either his black Mercedes or Tata Indigo, sitting beside his driver. Who would have thought this understated man of impeccable manners, who readily sacrificed an airline venture at the altar of government policy, would upset the global corporate order to such an extent? And so often?

Mr Tata is associated with various organisations in India and overseas. He is the Chairman of two of the largest private-sector-promoted philanthropic trusts in India. He is a member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Trade and Industry, the National Hydrogen Energy Board, and the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council. He is the president of the Court of the Indian Institute of Science and Chairman of the Council of management of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. He also serves on the UK Prime Minister’s Business Council for Britain and the International Advisory Council of Singapore’s Economic Development Board. He is also a member of the Global Business Council on HIV / Aids and the Programme Board of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s India Aids initiative. He also serves on the board of directors of Fiat SpA and Alcoa. He is also on the international advisory boards of Mitsubishi Corporation, the American International Group, JP Morgan Chase and Rolls Royce.

The total revenue of Tata companies, taken together, was $70.8 billion (around Rs325,334 crore) in 2008-09, with 64.7 per cent of this coming from business outside India, and they employ around 357,000 people worldwide.

"Question the unquestionable" --Ratan Tata

Karate and its Indian Roots

The evolution of karate began over a 1000 years ago, possibly as early as the 5th century BC. Though the origin of martial arts appears to be somewhat obscure and little is chronicled elaborately, a very significant contribution was made by India towards its early development. A Buddhist monk named Bodhidharma (3rd son of king Sugandha, a Dravidian) set out from the western shores of India to China. Bodhidharma, the first patriarch of Zen Buddhism, also known as Da Mo in Chinese and Daruma Taishi in Japanese, was well versed in Kalarippayathu (a martial art from South India) and rich in Yogasanas. It was he who introduced this sect of the religion to the Middle Kingdom in the fifth century C.E., traveling first from southern India to Canton. It was at Shao-lin-ssu temple that he entered a cave to practice meditation. During the nine years that followed, we are told, he sat motionless before the stone wall in his cave. His concentration was so great that his legs withered, and he cut off is own eyelids to help him stay awake. When he eventually emerged from his isolation and began to teach others, he was disheartened by their lack of physical strength. They were simply unable to endure the long hours of meditation he required of them. Bodhidharma was determined to help his students overcome their physical limitations in order to assist them in their religions pursuits. He and a small group of disciples constructed the Shaolin (Shorin-ji) Monastery, where he established a fighting method for the monks based on the movements of animals, designed to strengthen the mind and body, exercises which allegedly marked the beginning of the Shaolin Style of Art Chan Fa, more popularly known as Kung Fu. The method that he set for the monks is laid down in the “EKKIN SUTRA” of the Dhamapada or the holy scriptures of Buddhism. While the historicity of these accounts is questionable, the story does convey an important lesson; from the beginning, there has been an intimate connection between the martial arts of Asia and Zen Buddhism.Returning to wilderness,

Karate is not a purely Japanese Art

Amongst the regions where Buddhism spread were the Ryukyu Islands. The main island in the chain of Ryukyu Islands is Okinawa which is located in the East China Sea between Kyushu, Japan and Taiwan. Through a constant influence of Chinese sailors and merchants, the indigenous Okinawan fighting forms were heavily influenced by Kung Fu. In the 1400s Sho Shin, the ruler of Okinawa, established a Government by culture and put a ban on use of weapons by civilians. Those who studied martial arts had to do so without any form of weaponry. In 1609 Japan invaded Okinawa, and further to the ban on weaponry, placed a ban upon anyone doing martial arts, and so martial arts training became shrouded in secrecy over the next 300 years. The art, then known as Okinawa-te or Tote (Chinese Hand, To= Chinese, te= Hand), remained clandestine until the early 1900s when Supreme Master Gichin Funakoshi, often considered as the “Father of Modern karate”, was asked to give a demonstration at the First National Athletic Exhibition in Tokyo, which was organised by the Ministry of Education of Japan in 1922. To make the art accepted widely by the Japanese, he changed the calligraphy symbolizing “to” or “China” (which could also be pronounced as Kara) to “Kara” or “Empty”, thus naming the art Kara-te-do. The style name Shotokan was given to Funakoshi’s karate by his students. Shoto was Funakoshi’s pen name as a writer, meaning ‘pine waves’ and Kan means ‘school’. So those who trained at Funakoshi’s ‘school’ became known as the Shotokan.