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Message For the Day…” Whatever You Think , Speak or Do, Consider it as the Command of God…”

November 10, 2014NatarajanLeave a comment

While performing your duties in your house or outside, constantly remind yourself, “Whatever I do, think or speak, everything belongs to God.” The proper attitude should be, ‘Sarva karma Bhagavath preethyartham’. Take for example, the process of cooking. You add different ingredients to the dish being cooked in definite proportions and try to make them tasty. But the real taste comes only when the job of cooking is done as an offering to God. The food becomes divine when it is offered to God. On the other hand, if the various items are cooked with the attitude, ‘I am doing this job as a routine; I am cooking these items for my family members to partake’, it does not reach God. Hence undertake every act in your life as an offering to God, chanting His Name. Whatever you think, speak or do, consider it as God’s command, God’s work.

Few Surprising Facts about the Fall of Berlin Wall …

November 9, 2014NatarajanLeave a comment

Nov. 9 marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the iconic barrier that completely enclosed East Berlin between 1961 and 1989 and symbolized the height of Cold War tensions.

West Berliners crowd in front of the Berlin Wall Nov. 11, 1989, as they watch East German border guards demolish a section to open a crossing point. (Photo: Gerard Malie, AFP/Getty Images)

Around the world, the international German community and others are marking the milestone with celebrations and shared memories. In Germany, artists have recreated the Wall with illuminated white balloons along the path that the structure once traced. The 8,000 balloons stretch more than nine miles across the city, according to the German embassy in London.

With the anniversary putting the Cold War fresh in most people’s minds, here are nine facts about the Berlin Wall that may be new to you:

• A mistake helped lead to the fall of the Wall. The flood of East Germans and West Germans to the Wall, which led to its ultimate collapse, came after East German Politburo member Guenther Schabowski on Nov. 9, 1989, mistakenly announced that East Germans would be allowed to cross into West Germany effective immediately, according to National Public Radio.

• What the world saw as the Berlin Wall was actually two concrete barriers with a 160-yard “death strip” in between that included watchtowers, trenches, runs for guard dogs, flood lights and trip-wire machine guns, according to History.com.

• Parts of the Wall are on display or in private safekeeping all over the world. One section of the Wall is in a men’s room of the Main Street Casino in Las Vegas, History.com reports. Urinals are mounted on the graffiti-covered segment, which is protected by glass. Another section is in the gardens of the Vatican. If you don’t feel like traveling to Italy or Vegas to see a part of the Wall, you can have your own little slice for as little as $10 on eBay. And you can consider that a steal; an 8,000-pound slab went for $23,500 at an Atlanta auction

• A mass exodus of East Germans into West Germany began almost 15 years before the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961. In fact, so many left that by the time the Wall went up, East Germany lost one-sixth of its population, according to the Berlin Wall Memorial website.

• The Wall and several U.S. presidents shared a relationship. President Kennedy visited in the summer of 1963, not long before his assassination that November. He said in a rousing speech that Berlin could help the world understand the divisions between the Communist and non-Communist world.

In 1987, Reagan challenged Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “Tear down this wall” during a June 1987 speech near the Wall.

When Clinton visited in 1994, he told the crowd of Berliners, “You have proved that no Wall can forever contain the mighty power of freedom.”

During President Obama’s June 2013 visit, he noted neither he nor German Chancellor Angela Merkel looked like their predecessors.

“The fact that we can stand here today, along the fault line where a city was divided, speaks to an eternal truth: No wall can stand against the yearning of justice, the yearnings for freedom, the yearnings for peace that burns in the human heart,” he said.

• The formal reunification of East and West Germany did not happen until Oct. 3, 1990, almost a year after the fall of the Wall, according to History.com.

• A July 1988 concert by Bruce Springsteen in East Berlin may have led to the growing sense of dissent in the walled city that contributed to the fall of the Wall, according to the CBC. “The Boss” told the crowd in German, “I’ve come to play rock ‘n’ roll for you in the hope that one day all the barriers will be torn down.”

Another in the U.S. music industry, conductor Leonard Bernstein, performed a series of concerts in venues on both sides of the barrier just weeks after the November 1989 fall of the Wall. Bernstein’s international orchestra included musicians from the four countries that had occupied Berlin after World War II: the United States, the former Soviet Union, France and England. Bernstein led Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and altered its final movement, “Ode to Joy,” to become “Ode to Freedom.”

• Some parts of the barrier became world famous. Checkpoint Charlie, formally known as Checkpoint C, was the nickname that Western Allies gave the best-known border crossing point between East and West Berlin.

Also, the Brandenburg Gate is an 18th-century arch that is built on the site of a former gate that marked the start of a road that led from Berlin to the town of Brandenburg. Because of its location, it was associated with the Berlin Wall for a time.

• The physical demolition of the Berlin Wall was not complete until 1992, according to the BBC.

SOURCE::::www.usatoday.com

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” Hello Uncle….Hello Aunty …” !!!

November 9, 2014November 9, 2014NatarajanLeave a comment

The HinduIllustration by Satwik Gade

On being pushed up in the seniority stakes after marriage, no matter what your age.

We all know that age carries clout in India. As the website indianchild.com says, “Respect for elders is a major component in Indian culture”. In ancient times, this meant that youngsters would touch the feet of elders in greeting, talk to them deferentially and fetch things for them. But the modern guideline for respecting elders in India is crisper: simply address them ‘uncle’ and ‘aunty’.

I discovered this truth early in my marriage, at the tender age of 24. An older couple and their three-year-old daughter were staying in the ground floor of our apartment building. On our first visit to their house, the girl smiled sweetly at us and said, “Hello uncle; hello aunty’. My wife and I found it endearing to be addressed like this by the little one. Two days later, we were trudging up the stairs to our flat when the door of the apartment on the second floor opened and a man walked out. He politely moved out of the way to let us pass and said, “Hullo uncle; hullo aunty.” I looked at him closely. He had a thick moustache and a three-day stubble that made him look older than me. Yet he was calling me ‘uncle’ and his only excuse was that I was married!

“Hullo,” I said coldly and offered my hand. “I’m Paddy. And you?”

As he shook hands with me, his smile became friendlier. I thought he had recognised his error and would now address me by my name. “I’m Ajit, uncle,” he said. “I just finished my B. Com and am looking for a job.” Maybe he needed a broader hint. “I’m a graduate engineering trainee at Telco,” I said, subtly conveying that I had an engineering degree and had just got a job, and was, therefore, not more than two years older than him. “That’s great, uncle,” he said. “My dad works there too, at the forge.” After that initiation, my wife and I became reconciled to being addressed as ‘uncle’ and ‘aunty’ by men and women who did not look much younger than us. We would return their greetings graciously and later, in the privacy of our bedroom, have a quiet laugh together. A few years later, on another staircase to another flat in another city, we met another young man.

At six feet five inches, he towered over us and, in the dimly lit corridor, looked a shade dangerous. I remember thinking that if I had met him in a dark, lonely alley, I’d have handed him my wallet and watch without waiting to be asked. But, as he greeted us, it was obvious that he had met my wife, “Hello akka(elder sister),” he said, “nice to see you again.” I smiled with pleasure at his ability to impart respect without making my wife feel ancient. As I beamed at him, I noticed how pleasant and gentle he was and wondered how I could have thought he looked dangerous.

“And is this your husband?” the fine fellow continued. As my wife nodded, he turned to me and offered his hand. “Hullo uncle! So nice to meet you at last.”

“Nasty specimen,” I said to my wife when we entered our flat. “Doesn’t he look like a villain.?”

“No!” she said. “I think he looks sweet and innocent.”

I realised that as long as we had shared the rewards of seniority equally and had been able to laugh together at the foibles of youth, things had been bearable. But now it appeared that I might overtake my wife on the path to seniority. I felt a shiver go down my spine. What if, over the years, I got promoted from ‘uncle’ to thatha (grandfather) while she remained akka? Luckily, that didn’t happen. Apart from the occasional akka thrown her way, we’ve collected an equal quota of ‘uncles’ and ‘aunties’ from an array of fellow Indians in different places and at different times. Just last week, returning from an outing, we saw a couple in their late forties struggling with their shopping at the entrance to our apartment. The man was balding and, among the few hairs left on his head, the colour grey dominated. My wife and I helped them by picking up a few bags and carrying them to the lift. “Thank you so much,” the man said as the lift came to a stop. I began to smile to imply ‘it was no trouble’ when he continued, “It’s so kind of you, uncle.”

“I think I have more hair on my head than you,” I wanted to say but he had left the lift. Two days after this I was talking to my 26-year-old son in Mumbai. “You won’t believe this, appa,” he said. “In the lift today, I met a man in his thirties and his three-year-old son. The boy called me ‘uncle’! I felt very old.”

“Don’t worry,” I told him. “Once you marry, the boy’s father will also call you ‘uncle’!”

Paddy Rangappa is a freelance writer.

E-mail: Paddy.Rangappa@apmea.mcd.com

Keywords: After marriage life, seniority, human Interest

SOURCE:::: Paddy Rangappa in http://www.thehindu.com

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Detroit Gets Court”s Nod to exit Bankruptcy !!!

November 9, 2014NatarajanLeave a comment

Detroit won U.S. Bankruptcy Court approval on Friday for a road map to end its fiscal free fall and revitalise a city sinking under a huge debt load and dysfunctional government.

Judge Steven Rhodes confirmed the city’s plan to shed about $7 billion of its $18 billion of debt and obligations and plough $1.7 billion into improvements, finding it both fair to creditors and feasible to implement.

“The city has worked honestly, diligently, and tirelessly to accomplish precisely the remedy that the bankruptcy code establishes for municipalities,” Mr. Rhodes said.

He acknowledged the anger the bankruptcy fuelled among many Detroit residents and urged them to look forward.

Keywords: Detroit, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Detroit bailout

SOURCE::::www.thehindu.com

Natarajan

BOTTOM LINE :::: Kindly read my earlier post on Detroit with a simple click on the following link and read the story …Post Published on July 19 2013.

Natarajan

https://natarajank.com/2013/07/19/detroit-once-the-seat-of-auto-industries-is-bankrupt-today/

” Silence is the Thing, amid the Din…”

November 9, 2014November 9, 2014NatarajanLeave a comment

The noise and confusion that reigns in the world around us.

A French black-and-white silent movie, The Artist, won top honours at the Academy Awards in 2012. It had to happen. There is so much eloquence in silence. Remember the Charlie Chaplin genre of films? Are they coming back? I am no movie buff. But violence and noise are things humankind should shun. And silence being golden is a good break, and we are in dire need of it. The cacophony all around is killing.

We watch on television the noise and confusion that reigns in the world around us. Everybody has something to say but nobody wants to listen. There is zero tolerance.

We watch programmes on TV where the anchor and a panel of experts discuss and analyse issues. They begin nicely enough, but when the debate gets heated, sparks fly and everyone begins to talk simultaneously. Even the anchor has a problem controlling them. The one with most lung power out-speaks others. We are left numb.

Thank god we have the option of switching off the TV to get instant relief. Today’s music is also all noise. Where are the lyrics and the soft and soothing voices? Thank god for classical music — we still can listen to them and derive soul satisfaction.

I admire the silence of the West. Their neighbourhoods are so quiet. One can drink deep of such silence, especially when one is on a walk absorbing a lot of things. I love my India alright, but our strong point is not silence. We may well be one of the noisiest countries on the planet. In the bus, or in queues, in movies theatres, restaurants or even when they go for walks, people talk so loudly that they will wake up entire neighbourhoods — especially early in the morning. Now with dogs abounding on every street, if one dog starts barking, others follow it up with a chorus.

Even children don’t lag behind. I remember watching kids at play in a neighbourhood, abroad. There, like the adults the kids hardly ever scream or shout. Only Indian children scream their throats out.

This happened when I was once holidaying in the U.S. in Silicon Valley. A Japanese lady complained to the office of an apartment complex about an Indian family. The parents were off to work, and the grandparents had come for a holiday and they were teaching the kids slokas. Everytime the kids recited back what had been taught, the grandparents and the kids clapped with all their might, creating a ruckus.

The Japanese lady said: “That is the time my baby is fast asleep and my neighbours are yelling their heads off. The baby is startled into waking up and I am unable to finish my house work.” Being in the adjoining building, I too had heard the kids reciting the slokas and thought it to be laudable. The grandparents, I thought, were spending quality time with them, but they could have kept the decibel level low.

Once upon a time fire-crackers were lighted only during Deepavali. Now they are set off on birthdays, weddings, elections and what have you. Accompanying them on such occasions is loud film music. The world, as Wordsworth wrote, ‘is too much with us’. We are drowning in a welter of noise and other negative factors like road rage, violence, fisticuffs and streetfights. We see so much pent-up anger in people on a number of issues waiting to explode. The word ‘kolaveri’ said it all.

Remember the ‘Tower of Babel’ where people were shouting themselves hoarse in a diversity of tongues and nobody wanted to hear the other? We thought it was mythical, but no, it was real enough. All the chaos is back, it seems. As they say there is nothing new under the sun and history has a way of repeating itself. Things have to come full circle.

Keywords: Silence, noise pollution, noise tolerance

SOURCE::::: Prema Ramakrishnan in http://www.thehindu.com

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Message For the Day…” Chant the Divine Name of God …”

November 9, 2014NatarajanLeave a comment

Human life is highly sacred, noble and divine. It should not be wasted in unworthy pursuits. Take to the sacred path and sanctify your time by chanting the divine name. There is no need to allocate a specific time or place for Namasmarana. You can do it wherever you are and whatever you are doing. One needs to pay tax for water, electricity, etc., but there is no tax for Namasmarana. Nobody can stop you from doing it. It is very simple, yet most effective. Many people do not realise its immense value as it is so easy to practise. They think incorrectly that God can be attained only through severe austerities. Chant the divine name without troubling yourself or causing trouble to others. Cultivate love for God. Do not criticise or ridicule anybody. Give happiness to all by sharing your love selflessly. This is true spiritual practice. Follow this simple path, experience ananda and sanctify your lives.

Sathya Sai Baba

“Out of This World …” !!!

November 8, 2014November 8, 2014NatarajanLeave a comment

An American astronaut has offered a rare look inside the International Space Station, with a unique video tour showing viewers his intergalactic workplace.

Reid Wiseman records himself floating through International Space Station
He travels through the dining area and labs before finishing at front end
Space Station is 205 miles from Earth and travels at 18,000 m
Beginning at one end of the ISS, Reid Wiseman, from Baltimore, Maryland, floats through the station in just over a minute and a half as he explains its different rooms.

As he enters one area, Russian religious icons can be seen on the wall behind him, offering a glimpse of a rare personal touch in the highly-functional station.

PL CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINK FOR VIDEO CLIP ….

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2825624/Out-world-American-astronaut-gives-fascinating-video-tour-International-Space-Station.html#v-3880543431001

Reid Wiseman bumps into his colleague Maxim in the dining area, but thankfully there is enough room to pass

Just another day in the office: Reid Wiseman (pictured) continues his scintillating ISS tour

A narrow tube-shaped hallway connects the station’s laboratory, crew quarters and dining area.

Mr Wiseman is greeted by Russian cosmonaut Maxim Surayev in the dining area, which resembles most of the other sections of the station.

The tour also offers a glimpse at the close-quarter manoeuvres astronauts must adopt to function inside the ISS, which travels at a rate of 18,000 mph.

Breathtaking: Wiseman’s photos from the space station have proved hugely popular on Twitter

This incredible shot was taken by the Baltimore astronaut from high above earth

Mr Wiseman takes us to ‘the very front end’ of the International Space Station

Viewers pass through the dining area and the lab as the astronaut gives an insight into his workplace

Reid Wiseman and his colleagues appear in good spirits despite being over 200 miles from Earth

Wiseman has amassed 361,000 followers on Twitter following his postings from outer space

‘Butch, go high,’ Mr Wiseman says as he floats beneath his fellow ISS resident, making sure the two don’t crash into each other.

He ends the brief tour on the front side of the station, roughly 200ft from the back end.

Mr Wiseman has become a Twitter sensation since he joined the ISS crew. He has shared hundreds of photos of Earth from outer space and now has 361,000 followers.

His photos have frequently been used on NASA’s official website as their ‘photo of the day’.

He is due to return to Earth this weekend after spending 165 days orbiting the planet.

Natarajan

Message For the day…” Namasankirtan Must be done with Absolute Concentration& Steady Faith…”

November 8, 2014NatarajanLeave a comment

Akhanda Bhajan involves constant contemplation on God in the morning, evening or even during the night time. No doubt, many people today are repeating the holy name; but not with love and steady faith. Some are concerned about how others are singing, whether their tune is in order, etc. This equates to doing namasankirtan with a wavering mind; no transformation will occur with such namasankirtan, despite doing it for hours together. It must be done with absolute concentration and steady faith to achieve transformation. To attain purity that pulverizes all negativity, it is not enough if chanting of the divine name is confined to a limited period. Hence global Akhanda Bhajan is held for 24 hours, every year. Consider yourself very fortunate to participate in an Akhanda Bhajan. If only you make good use of it, your life will be sanctified. Practice Namasmarana and make it a continuous spiritual exercise throughout your life.

Sathya Sai Baba

Baby Bears” First Sight of the World !!!

November 7, 2014NatarajanLeave a comment

http://emp.bbc.co.uk/emp/embed/smpEmbed.html?playlist=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Ffuture%2Fadpolicy%2Fplaylist%2Fp026100c%2Fpc%2F&title=BBC%20Earth%3A%20Mother%20Polar%20Bear%20and%20Cubs%20Emerging%20from%20Den.mov&product=news

Cute polar bear cubs see the world for the first time ….!!!!

SOURCE:::: bbc.com

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Which Bird Migrates Farthest ?

November 7, 2014NatarajanLeave a comment

The bird that flies farthest is the Arctic Tern, an elegant white seabird. This bird also sees more daylight than any other.

Over its lifetime of about 25 years, an Arctic Tern can fly a million kilometers – nearly three times the distance from the Earth to the moon.

The Arctic Tern breeds on the shores of the Arctic Ocean in northern hemisphere summer. And it feeds over the oceans of the southern hemisphere half a year later – in southern hemisphere summer. So, like many birds, this bird flies great distances every year to maintain its life of endless summertime.

North American Arctic Terns fly about 40,000 kilometers – or 24,000 miles – each year. That’s a distance about equal to the distance around the Earth.

An Arctic Tern can live for 25 years, so in its life-long quest for summer it can fly a million kilometers – nearly three times the distance from the Earth to the moon.

By the way, there are about 120 migratory bird species with populations in the United States and south of the equator. Most of these species cross the equator during migration. For example, the Red Knot flies from New England to far southern South America.

Other birds stay in one hemisphere, but go farther. For example, the Wandering Albatross spends most of its life aloft, circling the world over the oceans of the southern hemisphere. It stops only to breed on storm-swept islands near Antarctica.

A Wandering Albatross might fly 30,000 kilometers – that’s 18,000 miles – between breedings.

So while the Arctic Tern flies farthest of all birds, there are other bird species that come in a close second!

SOURCE:::: earthsky.org

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On being pushed up in the seniority stakes after marriage, no matter what your age.

SOURCE:::: By JOHN HUTCHINSON FOR MAILONLINE