I'm free

 A couple of days back, on my morning walk I found a poem written on someone's memorial card lying outside. I liked it very much. Later when I searched for it online I found that, that poem is used for many memorials. Don't know who the author is though. 

Here it goes:

Don't grieve for me, for now I'm free. 

I'm following the path God has laid you see.

I took His hand when I heard Him call.

I turned my back and left it all.

I could not stay another day,

To laugh, to love, to work or play.

Tasks left undone must stay that way.

I found that peace at the close of the day.

If my parting has left a void,

Then fill it with remembered joys.

A friendship shared, a laugh, a kiss,

Oh yes, these things I too will miss.

Be not burdened with times of sorrow.

I wish you the sunshine of tomorrow.

My life's been full, I savored much,

Good friends, good times, a loved one's touch.

Perhaps my time seemed all too brief.

Don't lengthen it now with undue grief.

Lift up your hearts and peace to thee.

God wanted me now; He set me free!

I like these lines very much:

I turned my back and left it all.

Tasks left undone must stay that way.

Don't lengthen it now with undue grief. 

I interpret this as someone who has lived a content life. They don't have any qualms of the unfinished work, and ready to bid adieu at a moment's notice. At the same time happy for the happy moments that life has offered them. And advising the others living not to dwell on their death, as it's natural and part of life.

I am fine as I am

 For long there has been a discontent in me that I am not following my "perceived passion". I call it perceived because in order to know that it is indeed my passion I should have tried doing it... but I never did. But I know my heart yearns for it. That discontent only grew as I continued on my current path and I grew older. But as I read and thought more I realized that the passion is itself an attachment when you give it so much importance to it. 

If not following it creates so much discontent it sure is going to be a part of your identity when you pursue it and you will pursue it with so much vigor and passion, that everything else becomes secondary. But is there a problem with following your passion... I don't know. As Gita talks about "Nishkama Karma" i.e work that you do dispassionately but sincerely. There is no desire of some personal gain from that work. Then you know you are an instrument and not the subject and you will not attach much significance to you or your identity and it will not lead to the growth of your 'self'. Also, when you are in a pursuit you are always seeking something which is in the future and giving up your present.

That was a digression from the main point of this blog. 

I recently came across UG Krishnamurti and I found him interesting. Although I don't seem to understand much of what he says and hence can't follow, but there are a few things that are true. Following is text from JSRL Narayana Moorty's Introduction to U.G and his Teaching.

There is no problem with our present life. For thought there seems to be one because it extracts certain knowledge out of past pleasures and pains, compares the present with it passes judgments, avoids the present by concocting a future and pursuing it. But for the comparisons that thought makes there is no problem with our life as it is; and there is no other life. It is precisely our thought of a better state that prevents us from coming to terms with our life as it is.

And towards the end of the article he writes: 

In this muddle of U. G., ourselves, and his conversations or talks with us, we get all mixed up, get separated and get mixed up again, and we haven't the faintest idea of where this is all leading. Where does it, U.G.? 

It does not have to lead anywhere. U. G. constantly reminds us that it is the urge to know and to create a state of permanence that makes us ask all these questions, and when we quit them, everything will be all right, as it should be. You take what comes, and no questions asked. No one is there to keep a tally. No accounts kept. And what's wrong with that? Where is a problem there? What happens, then as U. G. says, would be none of our concern. 

 After reading this and some of what U. G. says, I have realized that I don't have to do anything great or achieve something to say that I have lived a fulfilled life. I am fine as I am. 

Granted, the society gives a great importance to people who have achieved something and they continue to live beyond their death because of what they have done, but it's the individual's thoughts/desires/aspirations or some other reasons that made them do what they did. Not achieving something does not trifle your life. It should not cause me discontent and inner turmoil. Just being is good enough. After all from nature's point of view, just being is good enough like a tree or a creature. You have fulfilled your role by just being there/just living. Rest all is the creation of human thought and societal conditioning.

This does not mean that I will voluntarily stop doing the thing I am passionate about. It means that I will not call it passion, but instead do it because I feel like.. not because it will give me a purpose to my life... not because it's a noble thing to do ... not because it will make me feel important in the eyes of the society.

Freedom of Inconsequentiality

The freedom that comes when you are aware of your inconsequentiality is limitless

An excerpt from Toni Morrison's Sarah Lawrence Commencement Address

It is possible to live without defending property or surrendering it, but we will never live that way unless our thinking is shot through with dreams. And it is necessary now because if you don't educate the unschooled with the very best you have, don't give them the help, the courtesy, the respect you had in becoming educated, then they will educate themselves, and the things they will teach and the things they will learn will destabilize all that you know. And by education I do not mean hobbling the mind, but liberating it; by education I do not mean passing on monologues, but engaging in dialogues. Listening, assuming sometimes that I have a history, a language, a view, an idea, a specificity. Assuming that what I know may be useful, may enhance what you know, may extend or complete it. My memory is as necessary to yours a you memory is to mine. Before we look fro a "usable past" we ought to know all of the past. Before we start "reclaiming a legacy" we ought to know exactly what that Legacy is--- all of it and where it came from. In the business of education there are no minorities, only minor thinking. For if education requires tuition but no meaning, if it is to be about nothing other than careers, if it is to be about nothing other than definiig and husbanding beauty or isolating goods and making sure enrichment is the privilege of the few, then it can be stopped in the sixth grade, or the sixth century, when it had been mastered. The rest is reinforcement. The function of tewentieth-century education must be to produce humane human beings. To refuse to continue to produce generation after generation of people trained to make expedient decisions rather than humane ones.

Betrayal of Love

What is the punishment for "Betrayal of Love". None !!! I am guilty of that.

Akshara Finishes her First 5K run

July 23, 2017 will be a memorable day for all of us as Akshara finished her first 5K run. She ran strong for 1.5 km, jogged for a km and walked for a km to the finish line of The San Francisco Half Marathon

Perception

Are you seeing what you want to see or what it actually is?

An incident to remember

This is an incident that can be termed as 'Don't trust the Doctors' or 'Conviction of Mother's intuition', 'About medical tests and their accuracy'.

This happened a week ago. Our daughter Akshara fell ill and she was having high fever for 2 days. Anitha did her online research and was suspicious that it could be viral fever or it sometimes could be due to UTI (Urinary Tract Infection) . We reached out to the doctor and she asked us to come in to do a urine test so that UTI could be ruled out. If not detected, UTI could be pretty serious damaging the kidney's. We took Akshara for the urine test and the doctor did a visual check and she felt chances of UTI are low. But we should wait for 2 days for the culture in the urine to be tested. She also said that it looked more like a viral fever and would go away in 72 hours from when it started. We were a little relieved and headed home. The fever went down after a day and Akshara was normal. But then we got a call from the nurse saying that the test for UTI came out positive and prescribed some antibiotics. We were really concerned now. Armed with her online research and her own analysis of the circumstances, Anitha wasn't convinced that it could be UTI. If the fever was related to UTI then it shouldn't have gone and the likelihood of both UTI and an unrelated fever was quite low. So she decided to take a re-test. We went in again and gave the sample again for retest. And her hypothesis turned out to be true. The test's came negative now. Apparently the bacteria is present on the skin, and unless we don't wipe the skin clean, the traces would be found in the sample.

If not for Anitha's online research we would have followed the nurse's advice and would have unnecessarily given the antibiotics to Akshara for 10 days, which would have killed some of the good bacteria too. So the bottom-line is to not to blindly follow the doctor's/nurse's advice. Considering Doing online research has both sides. You could read some scary incidents of how worse the problem could become. But you would also gain more knowledge about the symptoms, causes, likely treatments/precautions. It's better to be aware and prepared than to be ignorant and happy.

We are all different and yet we are all the same

The thought in the title of this post stems from my understanding that we humans are only as significant as any other creature (that inhabits the earth) from the point of view of the earth. If that is the case, then why do we seek a position of privilege from other creatures and even from other humans. Yes, each of us might have different strengths and different qualities but deep with-in we are all same. We yearn for the same love. respect and identity. Maybe this is the reason why Hinduism says that there is god in every being and so everyone should try to understand this and treat every being with respect and worship each other.

We might be holding different positions in our society (the value of which might depend on the significance the society places on that position), but that doesn't mean that we treat people with lower positions with disrespect. One might be a CEO of a company while the other might be a cleaner, but both of these should treat themselves with respect irrespective of their roles in the society/organization.

Purpose of Life : Yet Another Thought

The significance and purpose of our life can be different at different planes/spheres. I have started to believe that at the higher plane of universe (i.e at the cosmic level), an individual's life is purpose-less and hence does not impact anything irrespective of the outcome of his/her life. We are like just any other insect/animal/creature from the higher point of view.

When coming down a lower plane i.e from the point of view of the earth the purpose of an individual's life is only to sustain life on it (i.e. planet). As humans we are part of the big ecology and the complex food chain that exists on earth. All that matters is that we consume some of the creatures and some other creatures consume us. Fortunately or Unfortunately due to our scientific advances we have been able to protect ourselves from being prey to other creatures. But we are still not entirely protected because of the various viral, bacterial and other diseases (like cancer) which consume us.

When we come to an even lower plane i.e the plane of our society, the one which is entirely artificial created by the humans themselves, an individual's life becomes significant depending on the role that he/she plays in the society. At this level there is some purpose to his/her life. According to the norms of the society the individual gets rewarded according to the significance of his role. But the 'significance' is entirely subjective to the rules of each society. In capitalistic societies the significance is only attached to monetary importance. The market decides which has higher significance. For that reason, a teacher who although adds a higher value (by a humane/social yardstick) gets rewarded comparatively less than a software engineer who adds little value (in terms of the same yardstick).

So if you are thinking of a role which will help you in fulfilling your spiritual desires, do not go by the significance attached to the roles by the society. But the question is, whether there really is something called 'Spirituality' because at all higher planes it does not matter what we do in our daily lives, it does not matter what profession we are in, it does not matter how we achieve our physical/emotional needs. There is no morality, there are no values of 'REAL' significance. It is the individual who tends to attach significance to his/her life, differentiating (him/her)self from other individuals. He/she wants to feel that he/she is better than the individual next to him. Is it the insecurity or the ego that drives this feeling.

Seeking Knowledge vs Seeking Designations

In the long run seeking Knowledge is what is going to pay off than seeking Designations. The sooner we learn in the profession the better it will be.

Values to instill in my daughter

Just like any other parent I have some expectations from my daughter. Although it is too early to have some expectations from an infant. Some want their kids to grow up and become famous, others want them to gain positions of power/status in the society, while others want them to own big businesses. But these expectations are more from ourselves (as parents).

We as parents want to raise her in such a way that :-

• She has 'empathy' for others. I believe empathy is a cornerstone for humanity. We live in a society where people are at different levels (socially/economically). If we cannot feel for the person next to us (in-spite of all the differences), then we cannot call ourselves human.
• She 'respects' everyone around her. I want her to treat every person as a human first. I want her to understand that beneath all the covers everyone is just another human being like her. So everyone deserves the same respect that she expects from others.
• She is 'humble'. Because no matter how good you are, there are umpteen others who are better than you. Be confident about yourself, but don't let it create ego in you.
• She is 'inquisitive'. I want her to question everything before believing anything. Sure, it'll be a tough job explaining  her everything, but this is one quality very much essential to know yourself and the world around you. If you don't question, you don't progress. If you don't question then you will live a life guided by the norms and customs of the society. If you don't question then you'll live by the definition of the 'success' the society has created rather than defining yourself what your success is.
• She is 'confident' : Of expressing her views, Of traveling the untraveled road if that is where here passion is, Of taking her own decisions.

This is a tough ask from ourselves and from her, but we can call ourselves successful parents only if we we can instill these values in her.  These values are important because they are needed to make this world a better place to live.

I don't really place high importance on what profession she chooses or whether she is 'successful' (as per the regular definition of the society). For me those are secondary. Because the happiness gained by it is materialistic happiness and is very shallow and temporary.

It sure will take a lot of our time, but we are prepared for it.

Our daughter Akshara Kranti is born

It is with great pleasure I announce the arrival of our beloved daughter Akshara Kranti. She was born on 29 Sept 2014. It was a very delightful moment when I had to announce the gender of our baby. Anitha's joy knew no bounds, as she had been waiting with bated breath for this moment, when she could hold the baby to her body. We had intentionally decided not to know the gender until she was born and it was good surprise. Seeing her enter this world was a wonderful experience and made me wonder in amazement about the whole process of birth.

The name in literal sense means 'Imperishable Revolution'. We had made a conscious decision to not have my last name as her last name because we believe the practice of carrying the fathers' last name symbolizes a subtle patriarchy in our culture.

Welcome to this world Akshara !!!

On Success : Jiddu Krishnamurti

Questioner: I want to do a certain thing, and though I have tried many times I have not been successful in doing it. Should I give up striving, or should I persist in this effort?

Krishnamurti: To be successful is to arrive, to get somewhere; and we worship success, do we not? When a poor boy grows up and becomes a multimillionaire, or an ordinary student becomes the prime minister, he is applauded, made much of; so every boy and girl wants in one way or another to succeed. Now, is there such a thing as success, or is it only an idea which man pursues? Because the moment you arrive there is always a point further ahead at which you have yet to arrive. As long as you pursue success in any direction you are bound to be in strife, in conflict, are you not? Even when you have arrived, there is no rest for you, because you want to go still higher, you want to have more. Do you understand?The pursuit of success is the desire for the `more', and a mind that is constantly demanding the `more' is not an intelligent mind; on the contrary, it is a mediocre, stupid mind, because its demand for the `more' implies a constant struggle in terms of the pattern which society has set for it.

After all, what is contentment, and what is discontent? Discontent is the striving after the `more', and contentment is the cessation of that struggle; but you cannot come to contentment without understanding the whole process of the `more', and why the mind demands it.

If you fail in an examination, for example, you have to take it again, do you not? Examinations in any case are most unfortunate, because they don't indicate anything significant, they don't reveal the true worth of your intelligence. Passing an examination is largely a trick of memory, or it may be a matter of chance; but you strive to pass your examinations, and if you don't succeed you keep at it. With most of us it is the same process in everyday life. We are struggling after something, and we have newer paused to inquire if the thing we are after is worth struggling for. We have never asked ourselves if it's worth the effort, so we haven't yet discovered that it's not and withstood the opinion of our parents, of society, of all the Masters and gurus. It is only when we have understood the whole significance of the `more' that we cease to think in terms of failure and success.

You see, we are so afraid to fail, to make mistakes, not only in examinations but in life. To make a mistake is considered terrible because we will be criticized for it, somebody will scold us. But, after all, why should you not make a mistake? Are not all the people in the world making mistakes? And would the world cease to be in this horrible mess if you were never to make a mistake? If you are afraid of making mistakes you will never learn. The older people are making mistakes all the time, but they don't want you to make mistakes, and thereby they smother your initiative. Why? Because they are afraid that by observing and questioning everything, by experimenting and making mistakes you may find out something for yourself and break away from the authority of your parents, of society, of tradition. That is why the ideal of success is held up for you to follow; and success, you will notice, is always in terms of respectability. Even the saint in his so-called spiritual achievements must become respectable, otherwise he has no recognition, no following.

So we are always thinking in terms of success, in terms of the `more' and the `more' is evaluated by the respectable society. In other words, society has very carefully established a certain pattern according to which it pronounces you a success or a failure. But if you love to do something with all your being you are then not concerned with success and failure. No intelligent person is. But unfortunately there are very few intelligent people, and nobody tells you about all this. The whole concern of an intelligent person is to see the facts and understand the problem - which is not to think in terms of succeeding or failing. It is only when we don't really love what we are doing that we think in those terms.

Finally completed a 1 mile swim in the Pool

Swam for 1700 yards continuously for 1 hour. This is a personal achievement for me. Never did I think that I would be able to swim that long. This didn't happen in a day or a week. Took months of efforts to reach this stage. Thanks to registering for the Alcatraz Sharkfest, I had to make myself do all this practice, which I wouldn't have done if not for this.

I am very thankful to Anitha for supporting me in this endeavor. She pushed me to go for the swim on the days I became lazy to go. Thanks to the availability of the swimming pool at Oracle headquarters, close to my home. There was no excuse left for me.

Apparently a swim mile is 1650 yards and not 1750 yards. 

Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying

Saw the amazing movie 'Shawshank Redemption' today in the theater in San Mateo. The lines

Get busy Living or Get busy Dying

 are from this movie. The movie is all about Hope and the protagonist Andy Dreyfus is the quintessential personification of that.

It's up-to us how we want to spend our life: Live with Hope or Wait for Death with no Hope.

What frightens me most?

The sight of a fragile old person who is as dependent as an infant for his/her existence frightens me the most. The thought that one day, I will be like that, so helpless that I would need somebody's help for everything. The question comes to my mind, what does that old person think? What is the motivation for this old person to continue his life, when he/she knows that he/she is so weak to do anything at all. Wouldn't it be better to end this misery? But reasons of moral obligation do not permit to do this or is the reason a love for life?

Maybe I have a very pessimistic outlook. Looking from another point, this can be perceived as the strongest point of humans, the eternal hope even in the very difficult circumstances.

Philosophical Conversations : Purpose of Life

Disciple: Swamiji, what is the purpose of life?

Swamiji: Life has no purpose. Just like all other beings on this earth, we come into existence and we walk out of it. It's the human ego that makes us think we are more important than other beings and others, and that we are significant enough to make a difference.

Disciple: I am enlightened Swamiji. This puts an end to my long search for the purpose of life. But I have another question. If life has no purpose then how should I live my life (from the time I take birth to the time I die)? Should it really matter if I take the path of Good or the path of Bad?

Swamiji: Ah! You think too much. Let me tell you a trick. Stop questioning and you'll find happiness. Ignorance is Bliss.

Disciple: Sure it is. But should I be purusing happiness or should I be pursuing knowledge?

Swamiji: Now you are starting to annoy me. You are not following my advice.

Knowledge vs Happiness

What should be the goal of life?

Should life be a pursuit of happiness or a pursuit of knowledge?

For long I have believed that life is all about being happy but as per Vivekananda, life should be a pursuit of knowledge. I haven't understood his reasoning, but I will think over it.

Attitude vs Aptitude

Close to 10 years back, I remember reading this (or something on the same line) as part of the email signature of my friend Thiyagarajan:-
"It’s your ATTITUDE not your APTITUDE that determines your ALTITUDE"
At that point of time, I wasn't sure about how true this was, because I then thought that APTITUDE was played the primary role.
But over the years as time passed by I have realized that the maxim is true. In my career and in many personal life I have seen many people with the right ATTITUDE reaching higher than those possess the required APTITUDE but little or no ATTITUDE.
If you have the right ATTITUDE you'll find the drive and motivation to reach above your potential.

Had I realized this earlier,  I would have been a different person. But better late than never.

AID Conference Presentation

I was so motivated after my first AID conference that I made a short presentation at our Bay Area AID chapter, about our conference experience.

http://www.slideshare.net/dhirajdwarapudi/aid-conference2013update

Impressions from our first AID Conference [May 2013, UNC Charlotte]

Prologue

After hearing a lot about the AID (Association for India's Development) annual conference from volunteers at the Bay Area chapter, Anitha and I enrolled for the conference in April 2013. At a point we were thinking if we could donate the money that we incur for the conference instead of attending the conference. But that wouldn't have been wise to do. Looking back, it was one of the best decisions that we made this year. If joining AID was a big milestone for me this year, then going to our first conference turned out to be a bigger milestone. The conference had a lasting impact on us. It was wonderful to see and feel the enthusiasm and energy in the volunteers to learn about and discuss and share the issues that we as AID deal with everyday.

Group photo after the Conference

It's the Volunteers

From infants to seniors like Mohan Bhagat, there were people of all ages. If volunteers who had become parents recently or who had kids came together with their kids, there was no reason for us not to be there. It shows the level of commitment that they have. It was humbling for us to see so many volunteers who were Ph.Ds or who were enrolled in Ph.Ds in various fields. Roughly there were as many students as there were working professionals. Whether it's a student or a working professional it's a tough job to take out time for AID along with the demands of our profession or studies, but all of us volunteers somehow manage to do that. 'The strength in numbers' was there to see.
 

AID Family and Culture

As it is said, every organization has a culture that it builds over the years. The conference is probably the best place to witness the culture of AID. Volunteers of all ages and backgrounds coming together with no inhibitions and discussing openly on how to address their common problems. "No individual is bigger than the organization and it's goals" - this is so true of AID and was clearly visible at the conference. All the senior volunteers including the founders were all very approachable and welcoming to talk and discuss and learn from them.

New and junior volunteers are treated similar to others and given opportunities. For instance, when I approached Naga to check if there was time at the end of the conference to recite 'Gandhiji's Talisman', he immediately accepted and gave the air-time. Like I had noticed previously, any volunteer is allowed to take any initiative and take it forward and most other volunteers come forward and support him/her. In a time where 'social', 'collaboration' and 'crowd-sourced' have become quite popular, I believe an organization can realize it's true potential when this kind of culture exists.

The organization where it's goals are the same as the goals of it's members, is the ideal organization and AID like many other volunteer-based organization is definitely of that kind. Since the volunteers have similar ideas and concerns, it takes only a short while to connect with each other and have meaningful interactions unlike the 'small-talks' that we have in our professional lives which seem so artificial. These interactions are the basis of the bonding and result in the creation/flourishing of the AID family. How often we listen at our workplace the term 'family' and immediately a smirk appears on our face expressing 'Really?'. Things like these cannot always be pushed down from the top, they have to evolve from the bottom.

On the first day, being new to AID we didn't know many of the people at the conference and it looked like a professional setting and we hadn't opened up much and so we didn't really connect much. So we preferred to take rest instead of going for the informal gathering at the dorm later that night. But the next day was a transformation which we hadn't anticipated. We talked to other volunteers and speakers and formed the connections and we soon felt like we were part of the 'AID Family'. This pulled us to go for the gathering that night and we wouldn't have known what we would have missed had we not done so.

As volunteers we become sensitive to many problems that we work on and imbibe a similar outlook in our own lives. AID conference certainly leads by example. Practices like 'Being Green', 'No Gender/Race/Economic Inequality' were there to see at the conference.

Speakers and Grassroots-Workers

This conference was an amazing opportunity to meet, listen to and discuss with notable speakers like Dayamani Barla, Prasad Chacko, G V Ramanjaneyulu, S R Hiremath, Ilena Sen, Meera Rafi, Mallesh, Bharagavi and our Fellows who work on the ground like Ravi Arunachalam, Kiran Vissa.

Speakers

Back in Hyderabad, I had read about an agricultural scientist who had given up his job and who was working independently on sustainable agricultural practices and I was quite influenced by him. All the while, the emails and presentations about the conference speakers were floating around, but I didn't realize that he was one of the speakers. Only after seeing Dr Ramanajneylu in person, the memory of the the news-clip resurfaced in my mind and it was a pleasant surprise to meet him in person. The presentation and the talk on the state of agriculture in India and the impact that their collaborations were able to create using indigenous sustainable practices were very informative and inspiring.

Dr Ilena Sen and Dayamani Barla spoke about the plight of the tribal communities in Chattisgarh and Jharkhand. The strong and fiery talk by Dayamani was a reflection of pain arising out of the atrocities and injustices that the tribal communities encounter in their daily lives. Dr Prasad Chacko explained the history and the causes of the inequality and exploitations in the context of Dalits in India. S R Hiremath presented on how their organization encountered the mining mafia in Bellary.

Apart from the Q&A time after each of the talks, the conference provided us an opportunity to engage in offline conversations with the speakers as most of them were available on both days of the conference.

Fun@Conference

The planned and unplanned fun activities had their own place at the conference. The skit was well done and depicted the different concerns of the members of a family akin to the different concerns of the various sections of the society. The highlight for me was 'the Evvar-Nevvar-Newer Ready' trialogue. It was very well scripted and as it was related to the different phases of an AID volunteer we could instantly relate to it. It was quite humorous and the audience would burst into laughter on many occasions during the event. We thoroughly enjoyed it. This can definitely be termed the signature-fun event at the conference.

Evvar Ready-Nevvar Ready Dialogue

Although we missed the late-night gathering at the dorm on day 1, we were eager to join on day 2. It was during this gathering that we came to know some of the other volunteers well and connected to them. Got an opportunity to listen to some of the good singers in AID including Pavan ;-). We were part of a very interesting discussion on dowry and the flamboyance of Indian marriages. Neela did a good job moderating the discussion.

Late-night gathering at the dorm

We had taken a day off from work after the day of the conference. We hadn't planned anything specific but Naga suggested we drive around the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway. While we were heading for this short-trip we inquired if anyone would be interested  and Rohit joined in. We hadn't imagined it would be so beautiful and it turned out to be a memorable trip: the sight of the waterfalls along the route and the green hills were a treat to our eyes and mind.

Noteworthy

Many other significant experiences, memories are here:-

• Novel fundraising means like Adrita taking pictures with a camera in exchange for donations to AID, selling tickets to entry into the cute structure built by the kids during the conference, auctioning Nishikant's photo album from his site visit
• All the participants taking a pledge not to seek or give dowry and encourage others to do as well
• The popular CVC session where all the chapter office-bearers discussed about the problems that they face and came up with ideas and suggestions to address them. This exchange of ideas was much needed
• It was unfortunate that some of the volunteers {names of the volunteers} who were driving along with Nishikant to the conference met with an accident. Luckily nothing major happened to them and Nishikant was able to make it to the conference.
• Staying in the dorms in the university reminded us of our college days
• Mohan Bhagat, self-christened Beggar and his relentless passion at that age in life
• The chain-reaction kind-of volunteer-introduction where-in one volunteer was introducing the next volunteer in the chain was nice and because of this many volunteers had an opportunity to others, which might not have happened otherwise

Credits

We were quite surprised when we came to know that the Charlotte chapter which hosted this conference had less than 10 active volunteers and only a 2-year old chapter. Right from picking us up from the airport to dropping us at the airport after the conference. Special thanks from our side to Ramana, Vijayshree, Kiran, Deboshree, Shalini and Nitin. Kudos to their incredible efforts without which this conference wouldn't have been a success. Also due credits to all other AID volunteers who helped the charlotte volunteers from behind the scenes.

Charlotte Chapter Volunteers

Epilogue

Like all things impermanent, the impressions from the conference will gradually fade but we have a feeling they will outlive many other memories.

As someone put it :-

'All in all, for us as AID volunteers, this conference was everything an AID conference should be: energizing, rejuvenating, restoring faith in human spirit, tackling difficult issues, connecting volunteers in a deeper way, and showing new directions going forward.'

On Taking the Wrong Road ...

You are never too far down the wrong path to turn around.

- Scottish Proverb

No matter how far you have gone on the wrong road, turn back.
- Turkish Proverb

Vaishnav Jan To : Touching and Inspiring Bhajan from 15th Century

वैष्णव जन तो तेने कहिये जे पीड पराई जाणे रे,
पर दुखे उपकार करे तोये मन अभिमान न आणे रे॥

Above are the starting lines of the popular bhajan written by Gujarati poet Narsinh Mehta in the 15th century. It inspired Gandhi a lot and there have been many renditions by popular indian singers. Full lyrics can be found on wikipedia

Take out the word Vishnu and replace with God and those lines are the essence of what spirituality is for me.

One who is a Vaishnav (one who is a devotee of Vishnu)
Knows the pain of others
Does good to others, especially to those ones who are in misery
Does not let pride enter his mind

This is an old post which remained as a draft...
 
Nightmare with Eclipse
       Had heard much about "Eclipse : the open source Java IDE". Just wanted to try out.
Had tried long back (almost a year from now).  But didn't find it appealing enough as the
other IDE that I was using at that time "Idea from IntelliJ" was par above it. The version
that I had used at that point of time was 2.0. Had done all the setup and the look and feel
was good. The act ended at that point. Never thought I would come back to it.
     1 year after, I (for some reasons...)  had to try the latest version. Downloaded it and
the greatest thing I liked was that there was no installation and anything required. Just
unzip it and run it. I didn't get it running in the first try. It required JDK 1.4 and my
system was holding onto JDK 1.3. So referred the README and there found the way
to run it with a VM as the option.
     eclipse -vm $JVM_PATH
     Got it running and it was late, after configuring all my sources I realized that there
was nothing related to Java in the Menus. No Syntax highlighting and nothing. So what's
this: wasn't this a Java IDE. Suspected my system Java configuration for this and
gave up not knowing what to do. Lot of time passed just reading the Help ...no use though.
The ultimate rescue : search in google. Luckily someone in some part of the world had
faced similar problems and so stepped onto this link
     http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=165604
     This is stupid....No where in the documentation does it mention that Java Develppment
Tool (eclipse-JDT-3.0.zip) has been moved out of the platform SDK and it is a separate plugin that is to be downloaded explicitly. With the 2.0 worship it was packaged into the
core distribution. All my curses to the guy who made this decision ..or the guy whose responsiblity was to document this stuff. So that was the end of all my woes. Am I not to bark against them for all this pain and loss of time (approximately 4 hours) for just getting my project up.

Spelling hint

Came across this useful hint for resolving making myself clear with the spellings of english words involved i and e in succession.

"e before i only after c"

Blind Earthworm

I never paid much attention to the earthworms previously. Yeah, I used to see many of them particularly in the rainy season and sometimes digging the wet mud. We used to use them as bait for catching fish, but it never occurred to know more about them. Only recently I found them interesting, when I saw one of them going on the walkway in my apartment. I noticed it was blind and just to confirm it picked it up and displaced it by 180 degrees and there it was just following the new course going in the direction I put it. A quick search resulted on this page which had many interesting facts about earthworms:-
http://www.biologyjunction.com/earthworm%20facts.htm

Dew worms can live for approximately six and a half years.

They do not have eyes but they do possess light- and touch-sensitive organs (receptor cells) to distinguish differences in light intensity and to feel vibrations in the ground.

 Earthworms are hermaphroditic meaning each worm has organs of both sexes.

 Earthworms respire through their skin, and therefore require humid conditions to prevent drying out.

Squirrel's Nest

While I was walking around my apartment community today, I noticed a squirrel carrying grass in it mouth onto a Pine tree. It caught my attention and I followed the squirrel to find that it was actually making a nest on the Pine tree. It was kind of a surprise that squirrel's live in/make nests. I never thought about it and I didn't know they make nests on trees like birds. I came home and googled to find some interesting facts about squirrel's over here:-
http://www.squirrels.org/facts.html
Some interesting excerpts:-

Squirrel's belong to the order "Rodentia", with 1650 species, it is the largest group of living mammals.  It also comprises forty percent of all present day mammal species. 

Squirrels chew on tree branches to sharpen and clean their teeth. That's why you may see many small branches on the ground around large trees. They will also chew on power lines for the same reason, this has caused many major power outages throughout the country. 

A female squirrel will choose the strongest male during mating season, but is unlikely to breed with that male again. This is natures way of reducing inbreeding,  and to preserve the species. 

A squirrel will break the shell of a nut with its teeth, then clean the nut by licking it or rubbing on its face before it is buried. This action applies a scent to the nut which helps the squirrel find it later, even under a foot of snow.

 

A beautifully written song : Jagame Maaya Bratuke Maaya

A beautifully composed/written/sung song which captures the essence of life. This is from the famous telugu movie 'Devdas'.

I had heard it many a times earlier, but it was never as effective as today. As someone said...it's always there, we only see it when we are ready.

Here are the lyrics and translation to english:-
http://www.poetfreak.com/text/57036/song-of-devdas.html

Random Thought - Futile Search

Nothing can be more futile than searching for meaning/purpose inside a system that was created by us.

All the rules, ideas and values that we live by were created by us. They don't have any real meaning from the point of the universe or the higher order.

Inequality is our creation. It is we who said a white is superior than a black, one caste is superior to the other, the ruler is superior to the ruled, an intelligent person is superior to a dumb person. It is we who said killing in a war is good but killing someone just like that is not good. We created a system that was unjust and now we fight it and say fighting for a cause is worth living for. That's the same as a war which helps create jobs.

Education is the tool to indoctrinate us. It only helps us navigate the intricate system that we created ourselves. We are born and we die just like any other being. All the things that we do from our birth to death are just to keep ourselves busy, to kill the boredom in life and to stop from killing ourselves.

We are as insignificant as an ant or a microbe. There is no such thing as 'advancement of civilization' or 'the greater good'. They're all lies.

There is no such thing as 'PURPOSE OF LIFE'

On Time Management

A very useful guide on time-management. Many of them we already know, but having them at one place makes it quite useful. Thanks to Etienne Garbugli for compiling this.

26-time-management-hacks-i-wish-id-known-at-20

Wheeling in Change

A very nice video made about adopting cycling and public transport in Bangalore. Proud to see Anitha being part of this. Some concrete benefits in terms of monetary savings and reduction in carbon emissions are really worth noting and amplify the effect.

I hope this video creates a positive change not just in India, but around the world.

NCERT Books Available online

I came to know today that all the NCERT books from Class I to Class XII are available. But this is indeed a good deed by NCERT. They can be accessed from this location: http://www.ncert.nic.in/NCERTS/textbook/textbook.htm

As per this article (http://www.hindu.com/edu/2006/06/06/stories/2006060600070200.htm)
in 'The Hindu' this was done in the year 2006 to overcome the problem of shortage of textbooks

Changed my Blog's title

I have been thinking for quite some time to change the title of my blog. My previous title 'Life as it goes by ...' has been bothering me for quite some time. It was quite passive and was in some way reflecting that I was not in control of my life, I was just a mere observer. Maybe this was my opinion when I started this blog. But I don't carry that belief now. Hence this assertive change.

Mount Diablo Challenge

Results of the Mount Diablo Challenge are out and I clocked 1:19:43.8 and stood at 437/607 participants. The timing for the leader was 47:08:06. I had wanted to do it under an hour but the practice and motivation were not enough to accomplish this.
Here are the results.

My Best Timings

Event/Activity Details	Activity Type	Timing	Distance	Date
Half Marathon in Hyderabad	Running	1:55 hrs	21 km	Nov 21, 2009
Half Marathon in San Francisco	Running	2:20 hrs	21 km	April 2008
Pagemill Climb (from Arastradero to Open Space Reserve)	Cycling	0:54 hrs	7.2 mile	May 2012
Mount Hamilton Climb (from Alum Rock Ave to the top)	Cycling	2:01 hrs	17.84 mile	Sep 30 2012
Mount Diablo Climb (from Athenian School to the top)	Cycling	1:25 hrs	11.2	July 2012
Mount Diablo Climb (from Athenian School to the top) During the Mt. Diablo Challenge	Cycling	1:19:43.8 hrs	11.2	07 Oct 2012
Saratoga Climb (from Pierce Road to the top)	Cycling	0:46 hrs	17.84 mile	2012
Fremont School Pool in Sunnyvale	Swimming	-	260 mtr	Oct 3, 2012

Analysis of 'Fight Club'

http://voices.yahoo.com/a-psychological-analysis-chuck-palahniuks-fight-322034.html

Mount Diablo Challenge

I finally registered for the Mount Diablo Challenge. It's a tough task to climb 3,249 ft over 11.2 km under 1 hour. But I am taking the challenge. Have 3 months for preparation. Unfortunately because of the delay in registering I missed the first 2 waves.
http://www.savemountdiablo.org/activities_events_chal.html

Inability or Disinterest?

I dont know what it is?

Good in everyday life

I met this lady called Chris at a physical therapy office. She was very helpful and when I started a conversation with her regarding Anitha's PT sessions and the coming colorado ride, she started giving good advice borne out of her own experiences. And also about how it feels to have prepared a lot and not being able to ride because of some physical problem just before the ride. She talked nicely to me for a long time and I was wondering the why was she being so good taking out her office time and talking to just another customer. Her voice was genuine and it was not a trained customer service representative's voice. In this world where everybody seems to be so busy and pressed out for time (doing what?) somebody unknown taking time out for you is a scarcity. It humbles you when you receive good from unknown quarters of life. It adds strength to the belief that you can do good by small things in your daily life. You don't have to be a Mahatma.

Ennui

"For too long we have been dreaming a dream from which we are now
waking up: the dream that if we just improve the socioeconomic
situation of people, everything will be okay, people will become
happy. The truth is that as the struggle for survival has subsided,
the question has emerged: survival for what? Ever more people today
have the means to live, but no meaning to live for." - Viktor E Frankl

Irrepressible Desire

I had a desire. I kept pushing it to the wall but it would always come back after a brief hiatus. For various reasons I gave a blind eye to it, but it would never subside. Somebody said, that you cannot kill a desire, you only have to fulfill it.

My Hero calls it a day

Rahul Dravid, my long-time hero and idol as a cricketer and a person, has retired from test cricket. The fact that I am blogging about it almost two days late, calls for some deep introspection.
Numerous articles have been written about the diligent, the hardworking, the gentleman, the true ambassador of the game, the quintessential wall. He knew what he was born for and he carried that duty to perfection. I remember reading this article about him, which compared the two geniuses: Sachin and Rahul. While Sachin was a gifted genius, Rahul was a self-made one. You could not become a Sachin, but you could aspire to become a Rahul, but it's extremely difficult for the same reason.
I was lucky to have seen him on couple of occasions. The class in his batting and his demeanor, can never be forgotten. In those early years, his batting caught my attention and I soon became his admirer and fan. I think it was not just his batting, but the way he performed on/off the field that drew me towards him. I have not been following cricket too-closely for quite some time, but if ever there was a desire to watch a match it was primarily to see him bat.

The fact that "The Hindu" carried a front-page section for his retirement speaks of his greatness. The title is 'Standing tall, ‘The Wall' bows out'.
Here's his retirement press conference : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qteHves1MYQ
Anybody who had contributed so much to cricket would have loved to have a farewell on the field, but he chose it inappropriate to do that considering that this decision was after the completion of a series and hanging in there for one last test for just this reason would be selfish. That's the person he is. I wish I will continue to hear of him from the press. I hope he would write an auto-biography one day so that I could peek into his life, but I am sure he will not do that. He's too modest to do something like that. Some people want to be nice, and some people are just nice.

Amul...too has reserved a billboard for this moment:-
http://www.amul.com/files/hits/amul-hits-1402.jpg
http://www.amul.com/files/hits/amul-hits-1394.jpg

An example of "Vision"

Around 5 yrs back I posted on my blog about the MMTS service that was started in hyderabad around the year 2003. Here's the link for the post:-

http://dhiraj.blogspot.com/2006/01/hi-tech-city-station.html

The service then was not a big hit and was criticized for the low occupancy. Fast forward it to now...8 yrs later...today during the peak hours it's full to the brim, offers a cheap, fast, green alternative to other modes of transport. Considering the growing demand, additional trains and coaches were introduced couple of days back. My wife and I are both using this service to commute to work and cant stop praising/thanking it everyday. This is a true example of a vision. The vision of Mr. Chandrababu Naidu (and his team). Kudos to them. We need leaders like him.

Excellent Post on Time Management

http://www.stevepavlina.com/articles/do-it-now.htm

Java Anti Patterns

Came across this nice articles which enumerates some quite basic and common mistakes done by Java programmes. Definitely worth a read.

http://www.odi.ch/prog/design/newbies.php

Another Brick in the wall

It's very easy to give up...

Extremely difficult to stand up and fight.

If you think giving up/detachment is a virtue... then you are wrong... the separation is thin. Detachment is the state in which you didn't have a yearning for it, but you give up something, to which you were attached some point of time. You gave up not because you wanted to be detached...rather you accepted the defeat and were forced to forfeit and be detached.

Dont give up... be detached !!! pun....it's a big pun

Cycling in hyderabad

After a long time did a long ride along with Anitha. She on her Merida and I on my Specialized. Got up early and started at 6.15 am from our house in srinagar colony and went all the way to Gandipet lake (a.k.a Osman Sagar Lake). It's around 28km one way. It was a little cold on the way and roads were empty and the road through Artillery center was very good. It was a pleasant ride to Gandipet. It got hotter on the way back though and the traffic at Mehdipatnam was a spoiler. Were back at our home by 9.45 am. Here's the Google pedometer map of the route : http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4329901 . Good to be back on the bike after quite some time. Both of us enjoyed it.

Cricket Grounds in Hyderabad

It's quite difficult to find a proper cricket ground in hyderabad. Some of them that I am aware of :-

• HCA Gymkhana ground, SD Road, Paradise. This is a beautiful ground and many Ranji matches are played here. Turf and grass all along the ground. Contact Dutta (9885830200)
• Sanatnagar Welfare Center Cricket Ground, Sanatnagar. Mat, no grass on the ground. Contact Dhanraj Babu (9394556356). More details over here:- http://www.sudeep.me/2008/01/cricket-grounds-in-hyderabad.html
• Sarojini Cricket & Fitness Academy, Bagh Lingampally. Very small ground, but there's good amount of grass. Played on mat. More details here
• MCH ground, opposite Shenoy Nursing home, Marredpally. Small ground. No grass, played on mat.

Participating in AIDS Lifecycle 8

It's been a long time since I posted anything. I am doing the AIDS Lifecycle ride
this year too. Look over here:-
http://www.tofighthiv.org/goto/dhiraj

And this is the video I created in preparation for the ride:-



Prepared it using Microsoft Photo Story 3. Used the pictures that we took on the previous years ride and some others from www.jeffbrockstudio.com.

Tour oF Nilgiris

I am happy to see that organized long-distance cycling events are starting to take place in India. Stumbled upon the link to "Tour of Nilgiris", 7 day 919 km cycling event from Bangalore to Mysore. The culture of cycling is spreading to India...one good effects of globalization ;-)

Comfortably numb

The child is grown, the dream is gone.
I have become comfortably numb.

- The Wall, Pink Floyd

It's all about Biking (Bicycling)

4000 miles on my bike and still going. Little did I think that I would do so much of cycling when I bought my road bike in May 2007. Thanks to biker-friendly California and the sport of Bicycling itself, it has become my passion. Sometimes I even foolishly think of becoming a Pro.

It was in the month of May 2007 that I first rode on my bicycle, a mere 12 miles. But it wasn't until Oct 2007 that I seriously started cycling. I have been commuting to office on my bicycle since then, 17 miles a day. At around the same time Sudhir and I decided to participate in the annual AIDS LifeCycle'08 event, in which we had to cover 545 miles from SF to LA in 7 days. It was in that event that I did my first century on the bike. That ride increased my interest in cycling even more and nowadays I spend some of my weekends going on long rides on my bicycle. For the first time I watched Tour De France 08 and also started keenly following the Pro races. Had I been into this a little earlier, I would have followed the AMGEN Tour of California where most of the Pro teams around the world complete. Hopefully my wish of watching a Pro race with my naked eyes will be fulfilled in Feb '09. That's when the Tour of California will begin.

Road Cycling is a wonderful sport. You can enjoy it in solo, no company required. You can go to far away places and enjoy the natural beauty along the way, as if riding in a car with an open-top. It's a nice way to keep you in shape. Unlike Running, there isn't so much of impact on your legs and knees. And if you commute daily on bike then you are being very Green and also saving a lot of money on Gas. For e.g 4000 miles would mean (4000/30)*4 ~ 500$ of savings in a year.

Thanks to America for bringing me into contact with Biking. Hopefully I will be able to continue Biking throughout my life, irrespective of where I will be.

Book Excerpt : Its not about the bike

This is an extract from the book "It's not about the bike, My journey back to life" on Lance Armstrong the seven time Tour-de-France champion:-

THE QUESTION THAT LINGERS IS, HOW MUCH WAS I A factor in my own survival, and how much was science, and how much miracle?
I don't have the answer to that question. Other people look to me for the answer, I know. But if I could answer it, we would have the cure for cancer, and what's more, we would fathom the true meaning of our existences. I can deliver motivation, inspiration, hope, courage, and counsel, but I can't answer the unknowable. Personally, I don't need to try. I'm content with simply being alive to enjoy the mystery.
Good joke:
A man is caught in a flood, and as the water rises he climbs to the roof of his house and waits to be rescued. A guy in a motorboat comes by and he says, "Hop in, I'll save you."
"No, thanks," the man on the rooftop says. "My Lord will save me."
But the floodwaters keep rising. A few minutes later, a rescue plane flies overhead and the pilot drops a line.
"No, thanks," the man on the rooftop says. "My Lord will save me." But the floodwaters rise ever higher, and finally, they overflow the roof and the man drowns.
When he gets to heaven, he confronts God.
"My Lord, whey didn't you save me?" he implores.
"You idiot," God says. "I sent you a boat, I sent you a plane".
I think in a way we are all just like the guy on the rooftop. Things take place, there is a confluence of events and circumstances, and we can't always know their purpose, or even if there is one,. But we can take responsibility for ourselves and be brave.

Red-use, Re-use, Recycle

Yesterday (April 22nd) was Earth Day. If I were not in US probably I wouldn't have known about it. Lot of people here are concerned about their carbon footprint. It's a different matter that US does most of the climate damage.
There's a lot of talk about Recycling. That's nice but the other problem is that the US economy is primarily driven by consumption. For a variety of reasons (cost, convenience), there is excessive consumption. This is really bad for the environment. It's economically cheaper to buy a new good instead of getting it repaired because of the labor cost. Just dump it and buy a new one. And yeah we can recycle it. There is extra cost for recycling it. It would have helped the environment a lot if the good was reused and extra goods were not manufactured at all.
One fact I realized is that there is a lot of food that gets flown via flights to different parts of the world. This contributes to significant amount of global warming because of the fuel required for transport. Often the cost to environment is not considered in the economics.
Individual can do considerable help in reducing global warming. Some of the things are:-
- Switching off lights when not in use
- Carpooling/Biking/Taking buses etc whenever possible
- Avoiding using throwaway plastic cutlery and styrofoam plates
- Reusing stuff as much as possible

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle as much as possible.

AIDS/Lifecycle Practice 1

Now that the event AIDS/Lifecycle is just 6 weeks away, and now that the California Summer of 2008 has arrived (Forget the afternoon, but the evenings are amazingly refreshing), I shred my lethargy and went for my first practice ride from Cupertino to Stanford and back a total of 24 miles at a stretch. Did it in 2 hrs, my usual speed. I know it's very less and I feel the pinch every now and then when somebody overtakes with ease :-(. This is a good beginging and if I keep commuting to office on my bicycle that should serve the minimum training. But I need to build my lower-back muscles so that they are strong enough to keep in the riding position everyday for 80 miles for a week. My back started aching towards the last quarter of the ride today. Time to go to gym.
Here's the map from Google Pedometer
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1790162

My First Half-Marathon

I have been jogging all through my life but never for more than 1 hour and never very seriously. The last public event of worth mentioning is Hyderabad 10k run (in 2005) around the Hussain Sagar. I guess I completed it in a little over 1 hour. On that day I realized that I could run for even 2 hrs at that low speed. Running very slowly is the key atleast for beginers.

Thanks to Vamsi & Sudhir, we all (including Bharath) registered for this event that was to happen on April 5th 2008. Sudhir & myself knew that running 13 miles wouldn't be easy without practice, so we started practicing running on school tracks in the evenings. The practice helped us a little, but little did we know how hilly the terrain would be in the Golden Gate Headlands Marathon (Rodeo Beach, California). The idea of going to the Rancho San Antonia Park, turned out to be helpful as we realized how difficult it would be to run on Hills. Then, couple of days before the event Sudhir saw the altitude graph of the terrain, and then we had some vague idea of the difficulty involved. At least these events prepared us mentally for the half-marathon.

It was nice to see the number of participants of all ages. This was my first such public event in USA. In the begining itself we had to climb a hill and the altitude gain in the first 1.5 miles was around 600 ft (600 ft looks very small, but you'll know only when you run it :-). And there were steps in one place. We were happy to see the steps as we could stop running there and walk for some time. Sudhir and I ran together and completed the half-marathon in 2 hrs 19 mins. It's not a bad timing considering the terrain and that this was the first one for us and we hadn't
really practiced much before the event and I felt good. The last stretch on the beach was quite tough and it sapped me completely. But seeing Sudhir continuing, I pushed myself. Running together helps a lot atleast for beginers like us. I had a small knee pain, which I generally get if I use too much of my legs. Other than that there weren't any problems.
Check out the result here:-
http://www.envirosports.com/results/event/2216/results.php?p=2&bib=766

And the photos are available here on Flickr:-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dhiraj/tags/halfmarathon/

Jo Beet gayi so baat gayi-Harivansh Rai Bachchan

One poem from my school days which is my favorite and it still echoes in my mind. That's the beauty of it. It was written by Harivansh Rai Bachchan (father of Amitabh Bachchan) at the time of the demise of one of his dear friends. It goes like this:-

जीवन में एक सितारा था
माना वह बेहद प्यारा था
वह डूब गया तो डूब गया
अंबर के आनन को देखो
कितने इसके तारे टूटे
कितने इसके प्यारे छूटे
जो छूट गए फ़िर कहाँ मिले
पर बोलो टूटे तारों पर
कब अंबर शोक मनाता है
जो बीत गई सो बात गई

Read the rest of it over here. (Thanks to Sandeep for writing it in Hindi)

AIDS Lifecycle : Cycling for a cause

This summer (June 1-7, 2008) I will be cycling from San Fransisco to Los Angeles (a total of 545 miles in 7 days) to raise donations for fighting AIDS Worldwide. I will be one of the ~2500 people participating in this tremendous event. It's a tough physical job but I hope to complete it successfully with months of training and support from near and dear.

Visit my personal page for details and donate/leave a note of support.
http://www.aidslifecycle.org/6691

Words of wisdom...

From one of those email forwards:-

Forget about the days
when its been cloudy, but
don't forget your hours in the sun.

Forget about mistakes
that you can't change now, but
don't forget the lessons
that you've learned.


Forget about the times
you've been defeated, but
don't forget the victories you've won.


Forget about the days
when you've been lonely, but
don't forget the friendly smiles you've seen.


Forget about the plans
that didn't seem
To work out right, but...

Don't forget to Always Have A Dream

Keep Smiling