Don't forget to breathe ...

So I said to the gym instructor: 'Can you teach me to do the splits?' He said: 'How flexible are you?' I said: I can't make Tuesdays.'  Courtesy – Google+some weird site.

Continuing from what was to what is : http://vinodc.blogspot.in/2009/10/blessed-are-flexible-for-they-shall-not.html

New Area New Yoga :

I have joined yet another yoga class to enlighten my mind, body and soul. I read somewhere that yoga is believed to calm our mind and soul, free our body from toxins and reduce the degeneration of cells. Well I am not sure if it is working for me. After 6 classes waking up at 5.45 and looking forward to some back breaking and toe touching exercises, do I see the light ? No not yet.

But I can hear the dogs again , well they are relatively closer these days, maybe because of the BBMP strike. Garbage everywhere.

Some of the new exercises that I am learning is Bhramari. You have to keep our two thumbs on two external auditory canal, index and middle finger together on two closed eyes and ring finger on the two sides of the nose. During exhalation you must chant the word "O-U-Mmmma" with a humming nasal sound mimicking the sound of a humming wasp , so that the laryngeal walls and the inner walls of the nostril mildly vibrate. I believe that this will definitely reduce your Blood Pressure. Now can you use this in a project meeting. Of course you can. Just go into the Bhramari pose and Boom!  Your BP is down and you are out.

The Yoga center that I go to is run by a lady who was recognized for quitting her “high paying IT job’ and is now taking pains to enrich human life by teaching yoga. Ahem ahem..

I am still in the “new joinee” list and soon will be able to do 40 minutes of nonstop sweating exercises . I wonder if I still have that scar on my toe :) or was in on my knee ??

Q: What do yoga meditation and an apple peeler have in common? 

A: They both take you to the core.

My pics from the photowalk

And walking we will GO !

I was fortunate enough to be part of the http://worldwidephotowalk.com/ held in more than 100 countries. I was disappointed that none of my friends and colleagues could make it, not for the lack of interest, but as they were not able to wake up at 6.30 am on a Saturday morning.

The leader , who was a young kid, was fashionably  late .The group consisting of 31 gathered at Town Hall to start our 2 hour walk through the bylanes of Bangalore. I found it interesting that the group was mostly from the other states,like the Bengali currently pursuing his PhD at IISC, a couple of Android programmers from Pune, a lot of them from the IT bigwigs HP, INFY,WIPRO and IBM primarily from Tamil Nadu and AP.The number of Bangaloreans was less than 8 .It was funny when someone approached us and said that he was new in town and found out about our walk and wanted to know if he could tag along so that he could see the sights of the city, for free. Our leader smiled and said no , invitations were based on registrations only. Well out of the 50 only 31 turned up.

When we got the go ahead, I went along with this guy from AP, new in town and so I acted like the local guide telling him about the buildings and culture of Bangalore.Later we formed a smaller group consisting of a Bengali, a person from Andhra ,a Tamilian and a couple of Kannadigas ( including me). Talk about diversity ;).

I was surprised with the “group shot”. For someone who knew so much about camera’s, the dude who shot it completely ignored the photographers and was focusing more on the ‘building’.Sigh.

Taking snaps of unknown people is so much fun, especially if you are in group. I learnt that people tend to pose and smile naturally if prodded. The street was just waking up and it was fun looking for those small things that we usually miss. Most of them went for “portraits” and a few for those obtuse angle shots of people and animals.

The bystanders were caught unawares, but curiosity always wins . They approached us and asked us a lot of “pointed questions” like : Why this road ? What will you do with the photographs ? Are you from the Government? Are you from the Media ? and so on. It always ended up with ‘Take a photo of me” J

One passerby wanted to know the difference between Photo day and Photograph day J .  I still remember a cop coming up and asking what was going on and we had to show our bands ( Thank God) and explain about the World Photowalk.It seems some person actually shouted at a few of the “walkers” and asked them not to take photos of the drainage and filth and that they were showing Bangalore in a “bad light”. Reality Sucks. When we were waiting for others to join in, the owner of a nearby hotel approached us and asked why we were standing there with cameras :) , maybe he was afraid we would take photos and inform the Health department.

We ended our walk – tired and hungry- at the Udupi Sri Krishna Bhavan. Yummy Masala Dosa and sweet IdliVada Sambar .

Later that evening I saw the pics that were being uploaded and was shocked. The pics were amazing ! I have decided to take my friends on a walk too J

Change the channel.

 Change is a bunch of coins which sum up to the value of a paper note

Change is what a chameleon does when it sees a dragonfly on a green leaf.

Change is what we do after a hard day’s work.

Change is what differentiates us from the sea.

Change is what happened to Dhoni’s hairstyle.

Change is what happens if you don't keep the milk in the refrigerator,overnight.

Change is what we look for every day.

Change before you have to.