Yet another PL season

P.L (Prep leave) has always been a time for experimentation. The most ideal(idle) time to devote uninterrupted college-less hours to any new unexplored activity. This is the period of maximum patience, when even the most hitherto seemingly uninteresting activity starts to look all exciting. One of the recent far-fetched pastimes I took up last semester was ... uhm ... SKATING. That too, in my drawing hall. Much to the annoyance of my parents. The whole idea seemed so novel, last PL ! It felt wonderfully satisfying skating all over the house.. very liberating.  (and even more fun bumping into parents and getting them irritated. ) It gave me a sense of doing something in life. The speed, the force with which I would turn around at the corners of the room... most entertaining ! 

  This time around, I've taken myself by surprise. I've been attending Chinmaya Mission's session for three consecutive days now. I am 100% sure that I would never have managed the time for any such session during normal college days. What's more - I never imagined I would be blogging on this subject when I attended the first session either.

 These sessions have been a part of Chinmaya Mission's 'FAST Management' programme ( Fear, Anger, Stress, Time Management)  by Br.Sattvik Chaitanya for 5 consecutive days from Monday through Friday.  (Of these, I attended the last three.) His presentations, using his laptop and a wireless mouse, have been very well-structured, and he has used this form of visual communication most effectively to systematise his session.

 His talks have been thought-provoking. The most interesting point he brought out - although very tangential to the topic itself - was the whole idea of Hindu Fundamentalism, and his idea of exactly what led to the origin of political groups based on Hinduism.  The talks set me thinking about a bunch of new things, to say the least. 

 According to him, every hour of pre-midnight sleep is infact an equivalent of two hours of sleep.Interesting. He mentioned this in the context of time management, and went on to describe how one could save considerable time if this "fact" was used to one's advantage. Now, PL being the time for absolute lukkhagiri, what better opportunity or time of the year would I get to test such theories? So I actually set out to try something I never imagined myself capable of doing except on Diwali days - waking up at what I previously considered "unearthly" hours ! I actually attempted an "Early to bed, Early to Rise" today ! Went to bed at 10.30 pm (as against my usual 2a.m) and I must admit, although I fell asleep only at around 12.45am -  I woke at 5.50am, UNBELIEVABLY HIGH by my standards.

 I'd planned meticulously. After moving my bed to my study room(solely with the objective of waking early) , ensuring the room was mosquito-free, testing and setting up my music system's alarm clock( in addition to my cellphone's alarm) to play loud music at 5.30 am and discussing with my father the possibililty of a scared watchman rushing to our home at the sudden blast of early morning music, :  the Jan, feeling like a farmer, finally went to bed at 10.30pm. 

  I was to read "My Experiments with Truth", Gandhiji's autobiography, for sometime before I actually tried to fall asleep. NOT that it's a boring book.. far from that, actually - I've completely loved it so far! 

 I woke this morning(dawn, actually), had a bath and continued to read for 3 hours. A pah! to my parents for ridiculing me, making fun of me and challenging me that I would n't wake a minute before 10a.m. <> 

Incidentally, I'd begun to read an abridged version of the Bhagwat Gita earlier this week. 

 So to those who asked me a "Whatsup" in the past week (and might do so over the next 3 days) - it's the Gita,Mahatma Gandhi's autobiography and a final conclusive Chinmaya Mission session exclusively for the youth on "Attract and Achieve"( how to attract exactly what you want in your life, how to stay focussed and achieve it)  that'l keep me occupied. :)

Good Luck, Obama !

I have no idea why I am this excited about the US Presidential Elections. Let's see, now.

1)  Monsieur Barack HUSSEIN Obama. It's amazing how his campaign has successfully managed to drop his middle name from public memory altogether.  The McCain campaign's attempts to keep reminding the people of Obama's middle name have n't quite worked. They've been wanting to capitalize on the general American mistrust in Muslims (post 9/11) by highlighting his Islam factor, but wow, people just don't seem to want to hear much of it.

2)  Sarah Palin has got so much more publicity ( good or bad) than Joe Biden! Be it all those millions of dollars (150000$ to be precise.. ROFL !!) that GOP spent on her hairdo/ makeup/wardrobe, debates on whether she had sufficient experience to deserve her candidature,  or deliberations on why McCain finally zeroed in on her for his running mate. I cannot help but feel that the only reason McCain has chosen her for his running mate, inspite of all his repeated claims of Palin being a " born reformer"  is because she strongly represents everything that is American - again, a complete contrast to the situation with Obama, given his mixed background factor. Mixed ? That's understating things. It almost looks confused to me ! His father was a "raised Islam" who finally became an atheist. His mother was raised by non-religious parents, while Obama himself is a Christian. Phew. Someone should remind the family's future generations of the remaining options - Hinduism, Buddhism or turning agnostic ; that'd make them complete in having explored every possible religious status.

3) McCain is a paavam thatha. At 72, perhaps it would be better for him to relax at home and spend time with his grandchildren ! ( I heard he has cholestrol problems.)

 Happened to watch the final round of the Presidential Debates. McCain seemed to have a temperament problem, he seemed extremely angry throughout the debate. His powerfully offensive, aggressive attitude towards Obama and his constant accusations were a huge turnoff. This contrast became even more obvious when compared to Obama's cool, calm, patient smiles while answering every one of McCain's charges. Cautions never to return McCain's anger, Obama handled McCain skillfully well and deservingly emerged as the winner of the final round. And I really think McCain should've stopped harping about how he disapproved of Obama's selective taxation policy (higher taxation for the richer) especially because Obama had already given him a lengthy justification and was finished with expressing his views. To questions of whether the candidates had been hurt by each other's campaigns, I remember, McCain definitely looked defeated. 

4) I don't quite understand why Indians particularly prefer Democratic candidates over the Republicans. The Bush administration certainly did enough to try and push the Nuclear Deal through and even got an FTA signed recently. I don't understand why people insist Democrats would have done more.

5) It is interesting to note that while Obama has 50% support and McCain 44%, 6 % are undecided. Is it really possible that they're confused ? After so many months of intensive campaigning, don't they know the candidates and all their policies on healthcare, taxation, economy and even their janma-kundlis? It infact seems more likely that they are hesitant Obama-supporters, unwilling to support him openly in view of his background. I also wonder if there will be another situation of the Bradley effect ! ( the black who ran for Governor : every poll predicted he would win, but it turned out he finally did not !) .

6) The outcome of this election is going to make history no matter who wins ! Interestingly, Obama, at 47, will be amongst the youngest Presidents in history to get elected. McCain at 72, the oldest !

Obama becoming the President of the United States would mean a HUGE image makeover for the USA. As Shashi Tharoor pointed out, for one, relations for the USA with other nations can only improve with him as President. Personally, I would like to see a situation where the conventional American racist would have voted for an African-American :) . And on the downside, Obama's protectionist fundas and him not believing in offering too many H1-B visas are a little daunting. (Especially because my brother is in SFO and he needs an H1-B!!).

Anyway, Obama is leading comfortably. :) Dixville Notch (which has a history of voting for Republicans since 14 years!)  has voted for him, and has, well, "Voted For Change".

(Jan suddenly realizes she has a Mobile Communications viva scheduled for the next day, abandons the post and hurries away.)