Meandering thoughts - Sita Sreeraman

I came across Shonda Rhimes' book "Year of Yes",  a few years ago.  The blurb introduced the author as the creator of Grey's Anatomy and other series. I am not familiar with the series but nonetheless was curious enough to flip through the pages though not the entire book. I told myself good idea, I should also try and say Yes when I can and try to do more diverse things, attempt new things especially ones that I am bit scared of or am uncomfortable doing. Anyways, that was that. I left it at that, I do remember my trying new things and then Covid struck and that was such a closed phase for the entire world.  Many years later today, I got a summary of the book via The Four Minute books. You can read the sumamry here -  https://fourminutebooks.com/year-of-yes-summary/ .   Here is a quote from the book: “I'm not merely lucky. No one who succeeds is merely lucky. Lucky implies I didn't do anything. Lucky implies something was given to me. Lucky implies that I ...

Manifestation, Visualization, Affirmations - these words have been doing the rounds in my conversations with many friends and family. For some reason, this topic has been more acute the last few months. I have read The Secret, the Alchemist, Louis Hay's books, Monk Who Sold the Ferrari, The Courage to be disliked - among many others which talk of the effect of our inner most thoughts on our Talk and then our actions and hence our life/life choices. And its quality. Closer home, the effect of our innermost throughts is mentioned by almost all Gurus though they tend to phrase it more as to how to tame the monkey mind, reduce our thoughts (99 percent of our thoughts are repetitive in nature) as the starting point of all change. And how Meditation, Yoga Kriyas and Pranayamas can help with over-thinking and calm a person down, develop focus and discpline among other things. There are true believers as are sceptics. While I believe having goals, lesser thoughts, being in the present help...

Sometimes things happen unplanned - spontaneously and effortlessly.  The unexpected Darshan of Guruvayoorappan after a dozen years was one such. And the December 2024 Margazhi at the MAA, TTK Road was another, days of beautiful concerts by the best of the best in a Concert Hall known for its acoustics, ambience and renown and where only the best get to perform. The MAA awards the Sangeetha Kalanidhi every year to the best Carnatic musician - vocalist or Instrument vidwans. More info @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sangita_Kalanidhi  The Academy set at the end of TTK road in Madras evokes so many emotions in me - nostalgia, reverence and awe; the level of expertise, dedication it demands of its artistes is the highest in the country. Artistes are aware of this honour too; they perform at their best here. And in the traditional format as laid out for the concert, starting with Varnam and then Krithis in familair and unfamiliar ragas with Alaapana, including heavy weight ragams...