To the little Iraqi girl in a Time magazine photograph

Across the culture, space and language that separates us
I reach out to you to comfort you
Six-year-little-Iraqi-girl wailing, helpless, sittingonthesidewalk
next to the car that pretended to protect
your just dead mother and father
victims of this new hot war.

All I want to do is cry with you
let your tears wet my shirt.

My cry too is wordless, I have no excuses
filled with empty phrases like 'collateral damage'.

Both, words and I
utterly, hopelessly incapable of answering
the one burning question that your eyes are asking.

Ana asef that I didn’t and still don’t do more
Victim that I am of my own tyranny of comforts.

Sanjiv Shah

I don't know what God is....

I dont know what God is, but what I do know is that every once in a while I encounter moments that take my breath away. It was a beautiful summer morning just a couple of weeks back and my tennis sparring partner Todd and I were out on the tennis courts, battling it out. Between serves, Todd remarked how perfect it was right then, adding, "this must be what heaven is like, except I wish we could play better tennis". I could'nt agree with him more. We are both actually pretty decent club level players, but unforced errors, missed putaways, double faults - we have a good share of those too... The weather was just right, a mix of sun and clouds, birds singing, feeling fit, plenty of time to play till we got tired, and to crown it, this occasional waft of breeze heavily laden with the sweetest fragrance you can imagine from a huge honeysuckle blossom nearby...ahhhh....Then I got thinking about what he had just said about his game, playing that out in my mind. In the imaginary realm where every serve, every shot was great, things would probably get boring pretty quickly. It started to dawn on me that in a strange way, the struggle with the game, the drive to be better, the occasional frustration with a shot that you know you could have done better, actually added to how perfect it was - and there it was, my aha, magical breathtaking moment. On our next pause in the game I told Todd what I was thinking. I said you know what, it is really just perfect the way it is, the skies, the flowers, all of it along with the muffed tennis shots, I would'nt want it any other way right now. He seemed to agree, shrugged, started to walk back towards his baseline, turned abruptly and asked "Wait, are you religious?". But I've already told you I don't know what God is.

Stay tuned for more....

Set yourself free with cruelty-free consumption

A wave of seeking out cruelty-free food and other products has overtaken our household the last couple of days. During her reading when she does Samayik (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samayika) my mother read a book (amidst tears) about the atrocities committed on cows and other livestock in the name of maximizing the production of milk, eggs etc. While she has completely turned away from milk and items containing milk, I have followed suit making an exception for food that contains small amounts of milk products, Harsha has sworn off eggs, Neil is still weighing his options, Karishma and Supriya though vegetarians, are not yet aware of these latest developments. My mother who has never eaten rotli without ghee or tea without milk was surprised to find that neither item was really worse off and actually tasted even better than the originals that used milk products. "Its mind over matter" she mused, "Now that I am aware of the cruelty behind some of these products, my mind is completely prepared to accept the taste of food without those products. I don't think I would have liked black tea if I would have tried it before this awareness".

I've been researching the vegan sites for products and am so glad that there are plenty of options out there. Even if there weren't I think it would be hard for me to participate in the on-going, generally accepted state of cruelty to animals. The problem at large is that on the store shelves we see the end products (silk ties, eggs, milk, chocolates etc.) in perfectly benign and even attractive packaging which isolates us from the blood that has been shed, the pain and suffering that has occurred in bringing these products to us. So in our ignorance we merrily pay for and use these products and participate unwittingly in the continuation of these atrocities.

Imagine this story:
At the beginning of the year a mythical "On-site Product Provider" visits your home and asks for a list of things that your family would like to use during the upcoming year. You make up a list of foods, shoes, clothes, medicines, toiletries...just "normal" routine stuff, nothing too fancy. OPP says that your list is quite reasonable, nothing out of the ordinary and proceeds to line up in front of your house all the things that will be needed to meet your needs. Apart from the cotton, wool, vegetables and grains, you are surprised to find that standing in your front yard are a couple of cows, a horse, several hens, some fish and sea animals in a water tank, a few mice, rabbits and thousands of bees, bugs and other creatures.
"But wait" you protest "We are vegetarians. You are not telling me that these creatures have to be sacrificed for us, are you?" OPP shrugs matter-of-factly and responds "Yes, and I hope you are not too squeamish about the fact that they will suffer before they are sacrificed to give you the products you have asked for."
"Wait. Details OPP! I can't let you do this unless I am convinced that there is no other way".
"Its just economics". OPP explains "Cows would normally live 15+ years but after their first 5 or 6 years during which I must make sure they remain pregnant most of the time and feed them hormones, antibiotics and other painful drugs, they are just not productive. It makes more sense to 'replace' them. Similar story for hens for eggs".

"But what about those little mice and rabbits and fish and worms... " you plead, a little desperation creeping into your voice.

"Listen. Where do you think the medicines that you take comes from? Some of it is from organs of some of these animals. The mice, I need to experiment for medicines to make sure they are safe for you. That skin lotion? I need the fish. Your mascara, perfumes, I have to inject directly into the rabbits eyes to see of it is going to be safe enough for your eyes...you get the picture. Now if you really want all this stuff, I have a lot of work to do...."

"Let me see that list again" you say. Your mind is racing. You are thinking, if this is the impact in one year, how about over the rest of my life and multiply that by all the millions of households like mine all over the world...

Armed with the awareness of the-way-things-are imparted by OPP, you decide to shorten the list. Many things are easy to take off. As you strike things off or substitute them with plant-based products, one by one the animals are set free. The harder ones...milk, yoghurt, ice cream, chocolates, moisturizer, medicines need more work to take off the list. You research the web, improvise, substitute. You discover it is not that hard after all. Many people and companies have already thought about this. The cost of these substitutes is higher than the cruelty-based originals, but trivial compared to the cost of a de-sensitized heart. OPP realizes that there is a business opportunity in terms of higher revenues going the cruelty-free/vegan/organic way and goes the extra mile in finding you all of your remaining requirements using humane methods and sources. Turns out your neghbourhoods and cities and the world has gone through this same experience. Turns out that less deforestation, less depletion of the ozone layer will occur as a result of this new way. Turns out that due to this heightened awareness and consumption of benign foods, people are less angry, more satisfied with less, crime rates have dropped, wars are ending. Turns out we will be able to live on this planet far into the distant future and we won't need a whole second planet worth of resources for our grandchildren to survive...

Am I dreaming or is it the rice-milk I just had?

For some eye-opening more information on current production methods visit:
www.hfa.org
www.yja.org/Jivdaya
www.peta.org
www.abolitionist-online.com


For humane product substitution visit:
www.bwcindia.org
www.vegan.org
www.vegsource.org
www.pcrm.org

For meditation to strengthen your resolve and to experience bliss:
www.ssy.org

Myth debunked

I grew up believing, knowing that life matters, that I make a difference, that love makes a difference. Somewhere along the way, I began to challenge and question that belief. As a matter of fact, I eventually became convinced that the Universe did'nt really care. The Universe seemed to be perfectly willing to let species go extinct, to allow violence and hatred to rise exponentially... It did'nt care whether I was loving and kind or cynical and indifferent. The trees, the stars, did'nt care whether I was out there in the world making a difference or I was wrapped up in being self-indulgent and comfortable. A spiralling whirlwind of silent desperation overwhelmed me and in its wake unravelled and ravaged my long-cherished, fundamental view of the world.

As a natural progression, the indifference of the stars was projected onto people. "The Universe does not care" quickly became "people don't care" and to "no one cares". With this, I began to understand and even relate to the desolation and desperation that people must feel when they are prompted to commit violence upon themselves or upon others (which may be the same thing). My favorite causes - the end of world hunger, enlightenment, conservation, peace - began to fall by the wayside. In thought and in action. If no one cares, then why bother with any of it?

But there was a fallacy in my thinking. The fallacy came to light when a question arose in my mind. The question was this: If the Universe did care, how would it express itself? My answer startled me. I am a part of this Universe and me caring is how the Universe expresses caring. (The same is true for you, for all of us, but more on that later). If I care, it means the Universe cares! The fallacy was thinking of myself as being separate from the Universe. Does the Universe care when an entire species goes extinct? Unequivocally yes! Beacause I care! I am the little bit of consciousness of this vast Universe, by means of which it cries about senseless violence, about poverty, about hunger....how else could it?

A corollary of this realization is that a myth can be debunked. The myth is that no one cares.
Whether the trees and stars care or not, I don't know, but the truth is that I care....about peace, about the quality of life on this planet, about all of it... about you. And single-handedly, by proclaiming myself as at least one exception, the myth of "no one cares" may forever be banished. I may never know who you are, but I care what happens to you and how you live. The next time in a dark, desperate moment of your life if someone tells you that no one cares (and the someone telling you that may be yourself), you can point to this obscure corner of (cyber)space and say no way!

My belief is that the human spririt is how the Universe expresses the caring, loving, difference-making aspect of itself. If you too care (and in our own unique way, each one of us does), feel free to post a response to this blog and include the phrase "I care" in it. Let the Universe resound with this self-knowledge of itself. Let there be joy!

Tatvam Asi (I am That) - The Upanishad.

And, so are You!!

The most boring blog

Between the 3 of us (me, Mike and Neil) we must have spent at least 50 hours rebuilding my desktop. Even at a conservative $20 er hour, we could have bought 2 new desktop computers for the time we spent! We worked into the wee hours of the morning (esp. I did, since it is after all my computer) and woke up bleary eyed 3 days in a row. I wonder what justifies this kind of time and effort. I think its the challenge of working out the details and finding ways to work around the dozens of obstacles in the way. Sort of like a "real" computer game of Dungeons and Dragons or Windows and Gates (Bill, that is)...