In the journey called life!

'There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is.'  ~ Albert Einstein ~ 1

I finally found something which  truly inspired me to write a blog. Its interesting for sure and in my opinion something fascinating. But I realised I put my feet into an ocean.  An ocean of knowledge which is endless in the true sense. Let me explain what I am talking about

It was in late march 2013 when something strange happened to me during my annual visit to Chennai. I met a person who made a prediction for me. Its not something unusual. India has always had a long history of mysticism and astrology. It’s a part and parcel of the  life of Indians who firmly believe in these things. That has annoyed me in the past. Why do they blindly believe in something they really don’t have much knowledge about? I have also heard about a number of fraud astrologers out there who have scared people by telling them they have this or that dosha (affliction). They prescribe remedial measures which I found absolutely absurd and baseless. This is not just my opinion. There are many many young Indians out there who would agree with me. The thought would be ' This is bullshit. What a scam!'.

That One day….

But still that one day, that one experience  I had in march 2013 penetrated deep into my head. Till date I cannot explain why. It just happened. I was intrigued by this prediction. How does this guy have this superpower to look at a birthchart and tell things about a person he is meeting for the first time in his life?! What is this birthchart all about? Why do people carry their charts to the astrologer with doubts about their life?.... One thing led to another and in the DNAge of free accessible information*, all you need is interest and some time. I generated my birthchart on an online website**. I then stared at it for the first time. What are these boxes? What do the numbers inside them represent? What are these planets doing  in the boxes ?!

When I think back now..i realise I had been so ignorant about so many things all these years. When I got into it...my curiosity turned into interest which turned into investigation which turned into fascination! The transformation was smooth, of course it involved a lot of hard work and needed some time out of my busy schedule. I was writing my PhD thesis and I had to also prepare for the PhD defence during this time. Funnily enough, the subject was so exciting that even after a tough day of writing and learning, followed by my fitness regime, I could come back home and read about it till sleep overtook my interest. 

Burning the midnight oil..

I started with the birthchart..It is the snapshot of the sky the moment you were born and where you were  born. Ahan,  how can that tell about your life? I had never  thought about this before. But as I realised it tells a lot about your personality and your journey you were born to take.  Being a scientist, this was so hard for me to believe. I needed more proof. I needed to test the theories. I started with the twelve zodiac signs and their ruling planets. I figured out what these boxes in the chart were all about. Ohh, 12 boxes(houses)  for the 12 signs, now I get it! I checked out how to read this chart. How the numbering of the houses work and what  these 12 houses all about. Apparently these are different facets of your life. I see..Interesting!.. I found Youtube videos on what different planets in different houses mean. When I checked the planetary positions of my chart and their meanings in the houses..I saw a lot of myself in the description. It took me by surprise. How is this possible?  Here I must warn you that once you try something like this, not only does your curiosity increase, it becomes hard for you to retreat! The reason being that you are sure to be awed by the advanced science of astrology which was practiced in Ancient India.

I kept learning more and more. This whole regime of learning totally different subjects during the day and night actually increased my concentration power by manifolds ( for both the subjects). I used to feel like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, changing my avatar. I learnt about planetary time periods being the most crucial thing in the entire astrological interpretation of the chart. When I learnt the principles, I started learning more things about myself. Why I did, what I did and most impotantly when I did it! I could actually pin-point the time period when this sudden interest in astrology started for me. Did I have the inclination towards astrology indicated in my chart? Yes. Why did this interest not rear its head all these years? Simple answer was, the time period did not support developing this interest. When the time came, the interest came. The promise indicated in the chart fructified.  My fascination increased even further. I was not satisfied by just looking at my own chart. I started asking birth details of my close friends who I knew very well. I wanted to test this also on their charts. Since knowing about oneself is fun for any person, I got great cooperation from them. I started checking their planetary positions and asked them whether some things which it was supposed to indicate was true or false.

The epic journey to the capital

PhD got over. I got my degree in front of my proud parents. But the fascination for the  astrological science did not stop after that..six months down the lane. One thing led to another and before I knew I was taking a flight to New Delhi to attend a course on Jaimini technique in astrology.  Where did I hear about it? From an interview on a Youtube channel. I headed to Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, especially to meet one man, the one I heard and read so much about. Watching his interview, listening to his ideology, his school of thought  of having a rational scientific research approach to promote  astrology as science awed me. I had to meet him and that time was now!!.......Click this link for the continuation... ( http://i-believe-in-simplicity.blogspot.in/2013/11/in-journey-called-life-part-ii.html)

1Pasted from <http://gladstone7.tripod.com/pageone.html>

* among many other websites, there are rather informative Youtube channels on astrology which are available these days.

** Warning- Please be beware that the information available on different astrology websites are not always true. Lot of things vary from one software to another.

Go Orange on Queen's day!

It was the spring of 2009, precisely on the 30th april, during my short stint in the Netherlands. I had gone to the pretty little city of Delft in Netherlands for a period of 6 months for my final master thesis work. I worked in one of the departments in the Delft University of technology.

Having arrived on the 15th of april, i was still very new to the place. I lived in one of the most happening student hostels in Delft called 'Marcushof', which mostly hosted all the exchange students to the University from all parts of the world. It was a different type of an intercultural experiance. Since the students were there mostly for a short period of time, their basic motto during the stay over there was, Party hard on weekdays, and Party harder on weekends!!!...Well, what can i say..they indeed lived upto it! I on the other hand was still pretty much closed. I was still getting used to using the common kitchen to which i had to rush even if i had to boil a glass of milk. The kitchen was filled with people almost always when i entered it. People sitting with their beer bottles or wine glasses and chatting or cooking together, or just chilling out on the sofa and smoking.

A day earlier, i entered the kitchen and smiled at the people who were sitting inside and told my usual 'hi'. Two Italian girls were making their usual pasta. They greeted me back. One of them called out to me, " Ciao Aash, so are you also coming to Amsterdam tomorrow with us?". I was puzzled, " Amsterdam? what is happening in Amsterdam tomorrow?". She replied,"Well it is the Queens birthday tomorrow, there is going to be a big party and lots of concerts in the city"..I could see the excitement on her face. I was embarassed of my ignorance about the country i had decided to come to. I was completely unaware of the monarchy in the Netherlands. I said, " The Queens birthday is it?, cool. I can come, i have never been to Amsterdam till now".

As we reached the Amsterdam station it was 11 AM. In total 20 of us from our hostel went together in the train. I hardly knew any of my companions. Just as we came out of the station there were people standing on the way and distributing bright orange foldable hats. We all took it in our hands and wore it. The italian girl walking beside me told me, " Oh ya, i heard that everyone should dress up in orange today because that is the national colour of Netherlands". Hmmm....wierd i thought. I didnt know what was in store for us. As we went to the main street, we were all really surprised..In front of us was a swamp of people, all dressed in bright fluorescent orange. Tees, skirts, bikinis, hats, garlands, giant cooling glasses, masks, armbands, earings, lipstick, Boobytubes...everything everything in orange. We all looked at ourselves, we were dressed normally, looking out of place. We bought ourselves an orange garland.

The streets were crowded like crazy. keeping to the group was very difficult.But i was always concious of the fact that this was my first time in Amsterdam and i had no idea of the routes. All local transport was non-functional on that day. It was a national holiday. The city was so crowded and so orange. People were carrying pom-poms and whistles and small drums with them. Each and every street was packed with people. Even the famous canals of amsterdam carried big boats filled with people dressed in orange shouting out in celebration and waving their hands to the onlookers on the streets. There were several concerts all over the city...and several people on the streets selling different things, right from cloths, souveneirs, handicrafts items and every other thing which one could think of. And last but not least loads and loads of alcohol was sold on the streets. My companions from the hostel had an amazing capacity for alcohol. I was awed by the amount of alcohol they consumed. They bought shots which were brewed and sold in test-tubes too. They smoked pot (oh ya isnt it Amsterdam, its legal there!!). On top of that they carried big bottles of vodka mixed with orange juice in their backpacks (well that was for when they felt thirsty!). What did i do?...i stood there and walked with my group, just amazed by the sight around me.

My group decided to go to one of the major concerts in the heart of the city. We pulled and pushed our way and found the place the concert took place. We had already walked for 4 hours without finding a place to sit down in the crowd. My feet hurt badly. But as i noticed, i didnt see a single sign of tiredness on the face of any of my companions. We pushed our way with a lot of difficulty into the crowd to get a decent location at the concert. I went on for another 2 more hours. I had not sat in 6 hours...and i was really thirsty. I finally decided to give up my apprehensions and moved away from my group in search of some coke. I lost them in the crowd and surprisingly i was so happy to be lost!! I found a empty place on a bench and immediately sat down. It was already 5:30 PM. I really didnt want to get back into the crowded concert or my alcoholic companions. I asked people around how to get back to the train station and headed back to Delft! Pheww, i fell dead on my bed like a dead person! But it was a day worth experiancing once in a lifetime.

Some facts about the day: On April 30, the Dutch celebrate Koninginnedag ("Queen's Day"), a national holiday to commemorate the birthday of the country's (former) Queen. It is by far the most widely celebrated holiday in the Netherlands. Amsterdam is packed to the gills on April 30, welcoming up to two million party-going visitors. The Dutch have been observing Queen's Day on April 30 since 1949, when the new Queen Juliana ascended the throne.