In around a couple of months from today, Keshav will join his first regular school. He has been attending nursery (or pre-nursery, whatever they call it nowadays) nearby, and it has been a delightful experience. I really wish that Building Blocks had a school to continue the wonderful work that they have been doing with …
One of the Shlokas that I want to teach Rohāmrta is the Deepa Jyothi shloka. I did try hard to search for its original source, but was unsuccessful. But sometimes origins do not matter. Here is a shloka that a child can recite in the evening, after lighting a Deepa. Not a candle, but a …
सरस्वति नमस्तुभ्यं वरदे कामरूपिणि ।विद्यारम्भं करिष्यामि सिद्धिर्भवतु मे सदा ॥ sarasvati namastubhyaṃ varade kāmarūpiṇi .vidyārambhaṃ kariṣyāmi siddhirbhavatu me sadā .. Namaskar, O Saraswati, grantor of blessings and embodiment of all wishes. Bless me as I commence my studies, and help me to be successful in the gain of knowledge. Today’s shloka is as relevant for …
“In fact, public speaking anxiety may be primal and quintessentially human, not limited to those of us born with a high-reactive nervous system. One theory, based on the writings of the sociobiologist E. O. Wilson, holds that when our ancestors lived on the savannah, being watched intently meant only one thing: a wild animal was …
Status-quo bias – The tendency for people to stay committed to current situations, for fear of changing to the unknown. Status quo bias is also caused by laziness, aversion to complexity, unnatural learning style demands, reading small print, etc. I have been reading this book – Nudge – by Richard H Thaler and Cass R Sunstein. The crux of the …
Had a chance meeting with an elderly gentleman today, at the Arte Market at Times Square Mall. A grandfather of many, John Felton retired 17 years back and settled in Dubai – he now writes delightful rhymes for kids packaged with beautiful illustrations. I found Keshav responding to his way of narrating stories and we …
One year back 🙂 Chaulam is also called Cūḍākarma (चूडाकर्म) and Cūḍākaraṇam ((चूडाकरणम्) Chudakarana). Cūḍā means tuft (of hair) that is kept on the back side of the head while the remaining part is clean shaven. In tradition it is popularly called “Śikhā”. In Sanskrit the letters “ल (la)” and “ड (ḍa)” are often interchanged. …
Nadi is a subtle energy channel in the human body – there are 72,000 Nadis in all. Shodhana means cleaning or purification, and Pranayama is a breathing technique. Nadis are subtle energy channels in the human body that can get blocked due to various reasons. The Nadi Shodhana pranayama is a breathing technique that helps …
It’s that time of the year again! So the cold caught up with me, brought with it a nice sore throat and a light fever to boot. Along came downtime, missed calls and fuming clients. But a man’s sick and can’t help it now can I? The young one went to visit the Safari (part …
Did you know that strozzapreti (a type of pasta) means ‘strangled priests’, or that vermicelli means ‘little worms’? Or that the Scottish word sgiomlaireachd (yes it’s a mouthful) means ‘the habit of dropping in at mealtimes’? Of course, you know that German is full of jaw-crunching words like Wirtschaftstreuhandgesellschaft (business trust company), Bundesbahnangestelltenwitwe (a widow of a federal railway employee), and Kriegsgefangenenentschadigungsgesetz (a …
