Benefits of Reading

The public library is a phenomena that to this day I still can’t get over. Free knowledge, for anyone. Literally, anyone. I can’t think of an equivalent other than going to a clothing store, “checking out” an outfit. Except books are so much better than clothes.
Recently I’ve been on a huge reading kick, checking out anything I can get my hands on in the Cross-word store near my office. I’ve found that no matter what I read, the act of reading every day has helped me in nearly every aspect of my life.

Enhanced Smarts: Apart from high general knowledge this has other advantages too. Reading is an excellent way to get where you’re wanting to go. People who read are generally more acceptable as they’re fun to be around with so many things to talk of. What better way to be a favourite and life of a group.
Reading reduces stress: When I’m reading a book, my mind shifts gears. Where I might have a had a stressful day, a book can easily distract me. Fiction is fantastic for this. Reading an awesome fiction book is perfect right before bed time.
Greater tranquility: Reading can soothe like no other. Given that I’m a pretty high-energy person, reading forces me to sit and be still. This daily act of making myself be quiet and still has been nothing short of miraculous for my anxiety.
Increased vocabulary: It’s no secret that reading increases your vocabulary and improves your spelling, but did you know that reading increases your vocabulary more than talking or direct teaching? Increased vocabulary is especially crucial for people like me who are trying their hand at blogging or writing. Knowing what other people are saying and using the perfect words to convey your feelings is a critical part of being a better human. Better listeners are more successful in life.
Improved memory: I have an awful memory, ask my colleagues. I usually can’t remember names and addresss. Yet I’ve been finding that I can remember stuff much easier when I’ve been reading consistently. I try to connect names with some fiction character I read about, this works for me. May work for you too.
Improved writing skills: This isn’t much of a stretch, considering that reading improves vocabulary and critical thinking. That’s why English classes in High School make you read “the classics”. The more you read, the better of a writer you’ll become.
Helps prioritize goals: Many times we’re certain we know what we “really want” in life. Yet I’ve found that activities like reading show me things I didn’t know about myself. My mind will drift to things that I’d really like to do. The same sort of goals keep popping into my head, allowing me to see what I really want to do.
No time? No money?
If you think that you don’t have enough time to start reading, you’re wrong. How do I know? Because we make time for the things that are important to us. How much TV do you watch? How much time do you spend trawling the web? You could easily replace reading with those activities.
If you’re worried about the cost of books, check them out at the local library. Most libraries lend books for a period for a nominal fee.
Also you can check with your friends who read so that you can exchange books without actually buying all the books. Just keep in mind, both your interests match

There’s really no excuse to start reading on a regular basis. The benefits far outweigh the costs, and more knowledge never hurt anybody.

Smart one this is!

There was a man who had worked all of his life, had saved all of his money, and was a real miser when it came to his money. Just before he died, he said to his wife, "When I die, I want you to take all my money and put it in the casket with me. I want to take my money to the afterlife with me." And so he got his wife to promise him with all of her heart that when he died, she would put all of the money in the casket with him. Well, he died. He was stretched out in the casket, his wife was sitting there in black, and her friend was sitting next to her. When they finished the ceremony, just before the undertakers got ready ! to close the casket, the wife said, "Wait just a minute!"

She had a box with her; she came over with the box and put it in the casket. Then the undertakers locked the casket down, and they rolled it away.

So her friend said, "Girl, I know you weren't fool enough to put all that money in there with your husband."

The loyal wife replied, "Listen, I'm a Christian, I can't go back on my word. I promised him

that I was going to put that money in that casket with him."

"You mean to tell me you put that money in the casket with him!!!!?"

"I sure did," said the wife. "I got it all together, put it into my account and wrote him a check.

If he can cash it, he can spend it!"

Goswami Tulsidas version of Ramayan- a glimpse

The author of Ramcharitmanas is Goswami Tulsidas. He was born in a Brahmin family in the village Soron of Banda district near Allahabad. His father's name was Pandit Atmaram Dubey. He was born with all the thirty-two teeth and did not cry like ordinary infants but pronounced the name of Rama. Thus he was named Rambola.

Considering the child as an inauspicious sign, his parents abandoned him. He was brought up by a maid but soon he joined a group of Sanyaasis. In the company of the sages and hermits, he learnt to write. Then he migrated to Varanasi where one learned Brahmin Ramanand inducted him in his hermitage as his disciple. It is said that at the behest of Lord Shiva, Tulsidas wrote Ramcharitmanas in popular Hindi.

In Ramcharitmanas first light has been shed on the greatness of the name Rama, which shows that nothing can be achieved in life without penance and hard work.

Each and every character of the epic Ramcharitamanas is unique. Even the characters like Ravan and Kumbhakarn are unique in their own ways.

Ravan was the son of sage Visvashrava. Once Visvashrava went away to observe penance and returned after ten months. During those ten months his wife Kekasi had collected all the ten pieces of menstrual-clothings. When sage Visvashrava returned, she told him that if he were present during those months she would have conceived ten times.

Sage Visvashrava gave her a boon of conceiving a son who would be as powerful as ten people and who would actually have ten heads.

Kumbhakarn symbolises lethargy. Seeing his enormous physique, Brahma thought that if he remained awake for a year, the whole world would become short of foodgrains. So he gave him a boon of six months sleep.

Lord Brahma had blessed Ravan that he would not be killed by anybody other than man and monkey. Vibhishana was given a boon of being in the company of Lord Rama.

After being blessed with the boon Ravan became proud and arrogant. He started to torture all the creatures. When his cruelty surpassed all limits, the giant Maya gave his most beautiful daughter Mandodari as a bride to Ravan thinking that she would become the mistress of all the three worlds. He also presented Ravan with Lanka which was more beautiful than heaven.

Once Ravan called an assembly of all his family members, ministers and army chiefs. Meghanaad, the son of Ravan, who had a thundering-like voice gave an order, to propagate evils and demerits. He also gave an order to kill such sages and hermits who were unbale to pay taxes.
Then Brahma, Shiva and the other gods prayed to Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishnu assured them about his imminent incarnation to kill Ravan. He also told them that he would take incarnation as Dashrath's son.

Dashrath and Kaushalya were sage Kashyap and Aditi in their previous birth during Satayuga. Both of them had performed a severe penance pleased by which Lord Vishnu appeared before them.
They expressed their desire to have him as their son, which Lord Vishnu accepted and assured them that their wished would be fulfilled in tretayuga.

One day, before attending royal assembly king Dashrath saw his face in the mirror and noticed his greying hairs. Realising that he had grown old he began to worry about his inheritor.
He at once prayed sage Vashishtha to find some way to get a successor of his throne. After much contemplation Vashishth said that sage Shringi could help him with his expertise in the performance of a 'Putreshti Yagya.'

The demon king Ravan was a great astrologer also. He could foresee the future and knew everything from the past and present. When he learnt that he would be killed by Dashrath's son, he observed a penance to please Brahma. Brahma appeared before him and granted him a boon that king Dashrth would remain issueless.

Different Versions of Ramayana

Three hundred to as many as thousands of versions of the Indian epic poem the Ramayana are known to exist. The oldest version is generally recognized to be the Sanskrit version attributed to the sage Valmiki.

In northern part of India, the Tulsidas Ramayana, also known as the Ramcharitmanasa, is the most popular. Goswami Tulsidas rewrote the Valmiki version in Hindi in about 1574, changing it somewhat to emphasize Rama as an avatara(incarnation) of Vishnu. Another notable change was that Sita had a duplicate (cchaya site), who was kidnapped while Sita remained safe.

The Kamban Ramayana is popular in the state of Tamil Nadu and is of course written in Tamil. Segments of the strory were changed to better reflect Tamil ideas, including Ravana not being as cruel to Site.

These are just some of the versions and many more do exist.

Other  versions range from Jain, Buddhist and even Islamic interpretations of the story of Rama to Mynamarese, Laotian, Cambodian, Indonesian, Malaysian variations.

In the Buddhist variant of the Ramayana, Dasaratha was the king of Benares and not Ayodhya. Rama, Sita and Lakshmana were the siblings born to the first wife of Dasaratha. To protect his children from his second wife, the king sent the three in exile to the Himalayas. Twelve years later, the trio came back to the kingdom with Rama and Sita ruling as consorts. The abduction of Sita did not find a place in this version.

The Jain versions have some variations from Valmiki’s Ramayana. Dasharatha, the king of Saketa had four queens: Aparajita, Sumitra, Suprabha and Kaikeyi. These four queens had four sons. Aparajita’s son was Padma, and he became known by the name of Rama.. According to Jain texts, Ravana will be the future Tirthankara (omniscient teacher) of Jainism.

When it comes to the Islamic interpretation of the Ramayana we have to go to Kerala. Amongst the Mappila Muslims of Kerala. The Muslim Ramayana from Kerala or the Mapilla Ramayan as it is known existed as an oral text till it was collected by Malayalam scholar and writer M N Karassery in 1960. This version forms a part of the Mappillapattu which is a genre of folk singing, popular amongst the Muslims of Kerala and Lakshadweep.

Outside India the Ramayana could not escape assimilation and indigenisation in each country. Depending on a country’s social priorities, Rama may be depicted as a god, a romantic hero, an ideal husband, a womaniser, a temperamental brother; Sita a goddess of love, a faithful wife, or vengeful demi-goddess; Hanuman a chaste bachelor, a fickle lover and father of many children; and Ravana a cruel tyrant, sincere ascetic, and a gentle young man.

Malaysian natives, seers and Islamic prophets figure in the ‘Hikayat Seri Rama’. It is the oldest extant copy of Malay version of the Ramayana. Described by scholars as a Malay literary work of “a Hindu prose narration with a few Islamic adjustments here and there” ...at the onset. In Malaysia, a predominantly Muslim country, all the ministers including the Prime Minister take oath in the name of the ‘Sri Paduka’, the Sanskrit version for the footwear of Rama. Remember that Bharata ruled Ayodhya for 14 years worshipping the Rama Paduka during the Lord’s ‘vanvas’.

The President of Malaysia (who is elected from among the nine sultans) takes oath of office and secrecy in the name of ‘Seri Paduka Dhuli’, which means the dust of Rama’s Paduka.

In Lao it is claimed that Buddha recited the story of Rama to his disciples, and Laotians believe that the jataka tale to be tale of Buddha’s previous birth. There are two popular versions of Ramayana namely Phra Lak Phra Lam and Gvay Dvorahbi. According to these Ramayanas, Ravana is the nephew of King Dasarath. Rama while roaming in the desert in search of Sita eats a fruit and becomes a monkey.

Cambodian version of the Ramayana “The Reamkher” states Ram as incarnation of Vishnu. Akaingameso which means God’s doorkeeper was reborn as Ravana. Sita, in her earlier birth was the wife of Indra, who was insulted by Ravana. To avenge the wrong, she was born as Ravana’s daughter. Ravana was cautioned by his astrologer and brother Bibhek about his daughter’s evil birth. Ravana put her in a chest and buried her. King Janaka later discovered her. There is one important deviation. Sita gave birth to a son named Ramalaksha parented by Valmiki! One day she went to the river for a bath with her son when the sage was in deep meditation. After meditation Vamiki could not see his son, hence created another son by his yogic power and named him Jupalaksha.

Indonesian Ramayana is known as the Ramayana Kakawin. The first half of the story is very similar to the Indian Ramayana. In the second half it acquires a distinctly Indonesian flavour. Enter the guardian god of Java, Semar and his four misshapen sons known as the ‘clown servants’ and the end result is something totally unrecognisable from the familiar story of the prince fighting the demon king to win his wife back.

In the Philippines the epic becomes the story of a Sultan’s sons and a monkey named Laksmana. Here is the tale of the eight-headed Maharadia Lawana, a prince who was banished to another island to rule because of his unworthy ways. Later on in the story come Radia Mangandiri and Radia Mangawa, two sons of a Sultan who are on a ten-year journey to ultimately court Malaila Ganding, a princess in a distant land.

Yama Zatdaw unofficially Myanmar’s national epic, is the Burmese version of the Ramayana. There are nine known pieces of the Yama Zatdaw in Myanmar. The Burmese name for the story itself is Yamayana, while zatdaw refers to the acted play or being part of jataka tales of Theravada Buddhism.

In the South East Asia, each country infused its own value system into the Ramayana, thereby modifying or transforming the epic’s characters and plot

To do or not!

A few months back, when Me and my friend were talking about something, the talk turned to the issues of "waxing", "threading" and the like.  OK - no dramatics but just a couple of months back, She had rather resolutely, unwaveringly, unfalteringly, unswervingly, resolutely, persistently and very very firmly told the me that she would not, under any circumstances, put herself through the torment and the pain of waxing.

I had said "Tell me the same thing a year or two from now and I will believe you".

Turns out, I did not have to wait that long, after all. :-))

But then again, you see, I'm not the kind of person who goes around telling her "I told you so" every five minutes. 

I just tell her that about once in every half an hour. :-))))))))))))))

Yeah, I'm very considerate that way.

:-))))))))))))))

I hate

*people who keep tapping their toes while talking
*people barge in the middle of any conversation
*people keep commenting and joking around about rest of the world
*people who think they are best in everything
*people who send forwarded sms
*people who do not value others’ time
*people who make promise and forget
*people who dont’ respect women
*people who value money more than the compassionate profession

 Oh actually its not people, its one person who calls himself my friend.
If you think you fit in, punn intended
  

Deepshi's 2nd birthday



Just back from school, up for B'day lunch



Blessings from all

Lunch..



Let me try, on my own!




Hmmm...








 


This is good!