I learnt,

that there are only illiterates in this world. I will never call a person uneducated.

Search for the Bodhi Tree

Place - Tashi Lhumpo Monastery

Location - 200 kms from Mysore
How to get there - KSRTC Bus, Kushal Nagar Busstop
Ticket cost - Rs.47

So after fixing the date with my Monk friend 'Lama' Lobsang Norbu ('Lama' means monk.. hence Dalai Lama) I started from Mysore at 10.30am on a saturday morning with a backpack and waterbottle. I always travel with atleast two books for company. So started my first one, 'Memoirs of Geisha' when I boarded the bus. The bus I was in, was quite crowded. I got absorbed into the book . Needless to say, reading about a Japanese Geisha and getting into eastern culture was quite a start for the two-day journey.

I've taken upto reading books that have been made into movies. Its very interesting to see how the stories are adapted to screenplays and then finally the screen. Though more on that later, on another day, in another post.

I reached the Kushal nagar busstop at 1.00. I was greated by two monks, one, my friend, the other, the driver for the monastery. Imagine, after all that book talk about the monk who sold his ferrari.. I guess these guys settled down to a Qualis, that was parked to pick me up! After I had lunch while they had 'chai' which they pronounced as 'cha' and finally reached the monastery by 2:30.

The way to the monastery brought that unknown calmness, that the city-bred-us are unfamiliar about. It was green, greener fields, sunflowers popping out of nowhere, and lush vegetation.. And tibetan people all around! Only after reaching there, I found that there were tibetan communities of about 5000 and more people all around!

We reached and they put me up in their guest rooms, which I fell in love with. It had two beds, one by the window which opened up to such greenery that I felt quite pampered. And the windows themselves opened in such a way that you could sit with your legs dangling ouside.

I was told about their very simple schedule.
6.00 - 8.00am - Chanting and breakfast + Cha
11.30 - Lunch - Dal + chaawal
3.00 - 4.30pm - Chanting + Cha
6.00 - Dinner
6.30 - 78.00 - Chanting + Cha + Debates

When I said I was in a guest house, it is necessary you should understand the geography. I suppose the monastery area covers about 4-5 acres.. which housed The monastery, rooms for all the monks, the place/ hall where lunch and dinner was served, the guest house and a small hospital and a two floor place which had libraries and a grand room for Dalai Lama to stay if he visited. So all these were connected as a small colony.

My room was in the first floor and the ground floor had a small shop and canteen maintained by monks, thankfully a PCO+STD+ISD. I had to let one of my friends know that there existed people who drank more Chai than us! After a few calls, I left for 3.00pm chanting.



Tea that is served, is very light and very sweet. And is served during the chanting! by the kutti monks. It was so cute to see small ones running around with huge kettles to serve all of us. The monastery I was staying in, hosted 300 monks. I used to always think, that monasteries are pretty strict places, and I was surprised first to be allowed to sit with them during chanting, also allowed to take photos. But to be served tea and eatables, was quite unexpected. The smaller ones whom I was seated next to, peeped at me, once in a while out of curiousity and chanted vigorously when I caught them. They were absolutely adorable. Wanted to grab one and bring him with me.. Little ones, with shaven heads and red attires and so shy.. and the chants! Oh, the chants, all two hundred odds did not once go out of tune. It really calms your mind, to just let go off all thoughts and dwell in those tibetan verses. Almost all chants were in Raagam Mohanam. This raagam itself is so pleasing.. almost all chinese/jap songs are based on this raagam.. We have used it quite a lot in our films too.. typical example would be, 'Sayonara, sayonara' in the movie 'Love in Tokyo'. 'Return to Innocence' by Enigma also falls under this raagam. They also used the long horns quite a lot, the same one that was played in my concert.

At 4.30, when the chanting was about to get over, the children started fidgetting and they rushed out, just like how we did when the school bell rang.. the monks I heard, join the monastery at the age of 5. Nobody is forced to stay in the monastery. Not all of them stay. They had lost some monks over the years, though it was a small percentage. And what do they do after becoming a monk? They engage in buddhist studies. Turns out, they have colleges, Buddhist universities some 5 kms away.

As I was trying to gather information about their life, I came across a small rundown place, right next to my guest house. I walk in and see Tibetan paintings being done on canvas! The lines and the colours were extremely beautiful. I saw them as they were being sketched and painted. And there were so many tibetan gods that I lost the count. They also have God of love, of wealth etc. The style was very different and very detailed. I was given a tour of the monastery. I met the head of the monastery who gave me a very warm welcome. After which I was taken to the places I mentioned above. They also had a small vegetation land, when the monks grew their own vegetables and fruits. They even had a basement factory where incense sticks were made. The hospital had a swiss nurse who I met earlier as she was staying in the room next to mine. She again welcomed me and we chat for sometime. All this while, I saw little monks studying in their own corner spaces. One video which I had already uploaded.

By the time I was done with the tour it was back to the monastery for chanting. And this time, it was outside on the grounds. It was becoming a little cold though the monks had no problem. I was shivering and sitting with them trying to take photos and videos of the chant.





After which I returned back to the guest house canteen to have soup and eat a tibetan food called Momo. This was a wheat flour mix stuffed with spinach and paneer inside and is steamed and looked like tibetan kozhakattai. The monks who ate with me gobbled up and got more plates..(Each plate had about 15 of them and pretty big in size) while I could not cross more than a pitiable three. It was fun to see them eat though. Finally I left for my room to crash cuddling into a comfy quilt they had provided.

My phone alarm jerked me out of my sleep, quite rudely. I got ready for the morning chant and left for the monastery. If the evening chants were charming, the morning ones with the hesitant sunrays slowly filtering through the hall, in that beautiful dawn, felt like tapas.. Only after about forty five minutes I realised I had a quite smile on my face all the while. There was no hurry, no pressure, nothing. Just a laid back meditation.. ofcourse with 'cha'!

Being there and experiencing something that I knew was quite above me to comprehend. So I did not question it. Just accepted the inner peace and let it sway my line of thought. And after coming back from there, I 've noticed that I've become a little subdued and laid back when I'm with people. Things that used to bother me, doesnt seem to matter.

At 9, after tibetan bread and omelet, they had the vehicle ready for me for a tour around the monastery. First thing I attended was the Buddhist University which was started by Dalai Lama himself.Imagine my astonishment to find 2500 monks seated in a great hall, reading verses from what seemed like 'olai chuvadu'. All were seaed on the mat and had a little table. And the background were three Tibetan Gods with Buddha in the centre. I could, I was told, to take snaps and do whatever I want. That moment I yearned that I did not bring my Canon. Still, the sight is still etched in my mind.

From there, to another University hall, which was quite empty. Though it had a courtyard high up where the monks were. Here I found them doing a debate. Their style of debate is unque and needs careful studying. The debate usually happens in a pair consisting an elder monk and a younger one. The elder one is seated and answers question while the younger one is standing jumping and dancing and clapping everytime he asks a question about Buddhism. I have provided a video clip of that below.. for better understanding. This was such a fascinating sight, kept me quite captivated for some time.



After this, the Qualis took the turn for the thing I had been waiting for all this while. Called the 'Golden Temple'. The entrance was stunning. The architecture sans people transcends you to a different place. Since all this while I was reading, 'Memoirs of Geisha' (I know its japanese, still)I was living the experience of being in the real oriental world.

At the side, they had a huge hall which had a 60ft Buddha.. that was so overwhelming that I had to pause for quite sometime before switching on the camera. Quite a lot of toursits since it was a sunday, though not distracting thankfully. I sat down for some time to take in all the colours and details. We went around the golden temple to see a few more structures.. with monks everywhere doing their chants and prayers, banging their cymbals..


We even saw a nunnery, (Women monks!) though didnt stop by. The nuns looked quite the same.. shaven heads and same attire.. reminded me of the scene from 'Anna and the King'.

I have an italian friend who had tibetan flags in his hall, and I had been wanting to get that for a long time. This I found in one of the tourist shops. Each flag represents an element, earth-sun-wind-water-soul. And all sorts of prayers are written on them. Supposed to hang it in such that the wind flaps them to spread the prayers. Now it hangs in my room by the window..

After Golden Temple, returned back to the monastery.. Needless to say, I was quite pooped. Rested for a while after a dal-chaawal lunch and got ready my painting things for afternoon chants. I wanted to do a painting of the monastery while the monks were busy chantin inside.

I started my work at 3 and finished by 5.The result was not that great, but it was my first live water colour structure..

After some snacks, returned back for the 6.00 pm chant and sat with the monks again. It was more pleasant than the previous evening. I had another encounter with another Tibetan delicacy for dinner.

The next day morning after a beautiful walk through the fields, Lobsang gifted me a white silk shawl and some incense sticks and led a quite hesitant-me to the busstop to reach Mysore. My two day stay was more than wonderful. My eyes had got quite used to the red attired monks everywhere doing their own chores in their own speed. I never knew before I encountered monks, that one could see peacefulness, on faces and feel that positive energy vibrating from them. If I could call it being complacent, but not in a negative way.



Everytime I heard their chants, I remembered this phrase, that I was taught in my Balavikas classes some 12 years ago..

'Aham Brahmasmi'
meant, I am Brahman, I am God',
where 'I' is not referred to self, but to the athma within.

'Tat tvam asi'
meaning, 'you are that' wherein,
'that' referes to a nameless form..
meaning you exist, but without form.

I am God, so are you. Nobody is any lesser neither are we greater than the other.. Is that why all the monks sported red-attired-shaven-head look? To look alike and to think alike? That when you address the other, you are addressing your self? And hence you would treat the other, the same way you would like to be treated and respected?

Understanding and realising these phrases, maybe.. maybe, brings upon that peaceful element in the eyes that I saw in those monks. It quite questions the way of one's own life. We can brush it away saying, each to his own.. and that's what we do anyway. Even when I visited Auroville, I felt the same way.. that, when there are places that does practise better living standards, with no evil extravagance associated with them, why do we still choose the dirty one? I have no answers except to only cluelessly run back to the chaos, ties and attachements and the materialistic malignant world.

"We don't quit! We dont quit!"

When does a person not quit his job, even with less/no payment, no organised agendas, and sometimes crappy sucking up work/no legible work?

When he is passionate about what he might achieve later?
When he strived months becoming years to get to that place?
When he has patience to go through with it?
When he consoles himself that everywhere its happening to everybody, hence doesnt matter?
When he thinks holding on to it is like a string to a promised future and leaving it might be letting go of it completely?
When he becomes too comfortable with it and is scared to come out of it?

I dont know which of this I am.

Chennai Open Semi Fried Mirch Masala 2008

I have a personal experience with players whom I veto for. They always lose. 'Lose' is actually a very mild word. Their a** gets whopped in royal blues. So I stay away, watch the matches with as much indifference I can summon and 'enjoy' a good match. Even if I favour one teeny weeny bit, some psychological radar hits their telepathy to bring them down in a series of 'unforced' errors. While yesterday started with Mikhail Youzhky vs Marin Cilic, I was on the stands guarding my own preferences, maintaining my halo "Love-all-Players" (pun-unintended) and watching the match, I think I clapped a little harder for Cilic. It was a mistake really. But the Tennis gods wont have that. The croatioan crashed down the first set, finally touched our pavement autorickshaw stand at 6-2, 6-3. Youzhky status - very happy but his meter starts a countdown when he plays tomorrow in Finals. So what if Cilic's ranking was 70 something and Youzhky's 19, Last year Malisse broke Nadal And his was 112 while Nadal was just ..2. Yanyways, Match was not all that great. It passed.

Most aniticipated one was for Carlos Moya vs Rafael Nadal. Now this has a little history that needs to be added before I commence. Last year, this was the most anticipated match. Everyone wanted a Moya-Nadal Finals. Unfortunately for them, Koubek and Malisse beat them to it (Hey, that was not me. I was working with the media backstage and did not get to watch the match).

So this match has been awaited for a year and I think the wait was worth it. Chennai witnessed one of the best games to be ever played here. A total of three hour and fifty minutes of pure unadelterated super quality tennis. Such brilliant volleys, serves and tackles.

The game had a good speed and start. Moya, looked confident, calculating and what poise! He surprised Nadal in the first few minutes. The last two years I've seen him in Chennai Open, I have always wondered how this guy won Chennai Open title twice! But now Carlos played such a healthy game, his aces were perfect. To my knowledge his serve reached 208km/h the highest yesterday.

Watching Moya play was like being asked Trick or Treat during Haloweens! Each set grew on you. Bloody Enjoyable. It was like watching a fierce battle between two Spaniards who had the strength and speed of all missles but only the absence of presence of any.

The first set itself had a grand finale with Moya winning 7-6(3) after about 1:20 minutes. I was sitting on the cemented pathways for a clearer view as my seat had a really lousy one with the Lamp post getting in the way. So needless to say my butt was getting pretty sore. And to add to this, I had such a vareity of bad audience sitting around me (Yes, another radar) I had to work hard at ingnoring the noise and concentrating on the game.
Audience 1 was two kids shouting 'C'mon Moya' after an hour of which the one kid asked someone, "Uncle, who is Moya?"
Audience 2 was one guy with an irritating Cell phone which he refused to keep in silent mode. He started taking Cam pictures during the match, and the camera mode had 'space craft meets kunnakudi' sounds, that I had to ask him to stop it.
Audience 3 were two guys who were shouting for Sania Mirza
Audience 4 was one grandpa who was waiting to get my place, so I could not get off my treasured-seat and get snacks.
Audience 5 were an irritating group of adolescents whom I think have not grown up after kindergarden. The guys in the group were supporting Nadal just to irritate the girls who were supporting Moya. They had brilliant ideas of singing sad tamil numbers everytime Moya lost a shot. Surprisingly after Moya won the first set they all shut up. And I think the group left too. They was just making noise for the sake of it.

The second set was in no way less equivalent. It was exciting. The pace stayed. The players never let go. They held their ferocity all throughout. And Moya, again was such a pleasure to watch. He did a lot of unanticipated moves. Why am I not talking about Nadal? Well, I wouldnt say he did not play well. He is world No.2, he played as he would. Only Moya was a surprise package. I was not against Nadal, I was FOR Moya.. makes a difference, see.. The tie breaker for the second set was brilliantly not-choreographed. Such intensity cannot but help be felt in the stands. Very infectious.
Finally rounded to 7-6(8) in favour of Nadal.

We were in the third hour when the third set started and still saw serves in 200'skm/hr. What stamina you need to do this and still play the finals the next day! Inbetween the third set saw Moya getting more net serves than before otherwise each was a hard earned point. The crowd pitch rose when both reached 6 all and started the tie breaker, here Nadal gained 4-0 which put him at a brilliant advantage. When he got five, Moya made his first point and unfortunately the last one.(Sorry I was cheering for you) The third set finished at 7-6(1)

Moya got the sportsmanship 2008 award from Vijay Amritraj. For a persevering three hour fifty odd minutes of magnificent tennis, a well deserved one. Hats off Carlos! May you have better fans cheering with less default-loser-radar-syndrome problem and may you have a great year ahead.

Little Buddhas

From the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery,

Today is the first day for the rest of my life.

A stray comment on my two year old post 'Love all' made me read all over about my Player Service experience in Chennai Open. And this new years eve, I was on the stands, watching Malisse vs Muller and the doubles with Baghdatis, Gicquel vs Nadal, Vidal, I couldn't help feeling a little lost in the crowds missing the chaos on the courts. Though a friend of mine working there gave me good company. Still raring to be there for the Jiri Vanek, and Mertinak (one of my fav)'s double match, I caught chill and my temperature rose, so had to leave mid-way. There actually wasn't much of a best-laid-plan for new year. So after a good meal, I slept through to the new one.
The morning was quite peaceful with just me and mom. Returned all my calls, smsed my wishes to everyone, and I was done. Received a call from the sets, asking why I was not there for work.

My last year, was quite a spiritual one whether I intended to have one or not. I visited Jerusalem. quite by accident is how I will put it. Encountering Jesus tomb, visiting the last supper room, attending bar-mitzvah at a synagogue dressed in saree, visiting Bahai gardens(did not even know such a religion existed), closer look at Matr Mandir at auroville, to top it up with two day stay at Buddhist Monastery.

Now to think of it, it might not be all that accidental you know. Some spiritual force, that combined to bring a common good will for me to share. I somehow always knew that I cannot be restrained to one religion. A combo always worked for me. So when I encountered all these at close quarters, I am at loss for words now.

When I wrote last year, that 2007 would be my year of travel, I guess someone up there took it quite seriously!

Somehow this year I feel it is going to be a great one. For travel and financial wise. And more satisfying. Have gotten to know lovely people, who have taken me as I am, excusing the madness. And very encouraging too.

Its difficult to word out what I feel. Its a very new day for me. Today. This moment. Though there is one song, which fulfills every part that I emote. I will try describing it with my limited vocabulary.

It is the very essence of living. And it is because of you that I'm alive. And without you I'm a directionless sailor without a northern star.
I live to be. To be yours. It is impossible to be anything else. It is senseless to live otherwise. You are my life. You are everything that makes me alive.
It is with that I wake everyday with a new hope. New day it is for me. Even one moment could transcribe to a limitless bliss that I cannot achieve in a janma. For that moment, I strive to live.I break free all barriers and float all oceans, pass all penance for one wish one destiny. To be one with you. That being with you, will be being you. I can sway to your tune and be the tune itself. A part of the song. I can only cry selfishly that it is not forever as I try holding on to the same tune. I can only cry. And I do.
What is that I'm living for . What is the purpose, born one day to die another. Where is that promised love.
Maybe I'm not worth that. It does seem unkind to withold all that love. When there is so much there for me to give ,and to not know whom to give.
Like the sunflower ever reaching, ever thirsty for those rays. To absorb to be fulfilled.. Half bitten agony.. that it seem so much beyond hope.
Such agony, yet such beauty how can it entwine together in those notes? A silent prayer, a silent cry a tear that falls unnoticed. How can there be such sweet sadness. It does seem cruel to be tortured so, to want more. Its like giving all the colors and stealing the canvas.
So claustrophobic.
How can there be something called too much love? Is that how it suffocates. Is there only too much or nothing?
I am not for this materialistic world. I dont belong. It seems such a waste to try embracing it. I am destined for something much more. I am the wrong person at the wrong time. What does one do when that happens. My yuga is set eons back.
I search every wave that travel. Those lovely sunrays caress and touch and feel.And I can feel the immensity of weightless love lift me above, from the nothing to everything filling me with everlasting happiness if there is one such. No one can, I repeat, no once can get what I got.

From that I pass to a heavy nothingness when the song ends.