Wednesday 29 April 2015

World Dance Day 2015

Today 29th April is World Dance Day, also called International Dance Day.
The trigger for this post came from Dr Srinivasan's invite for a dance performance by her daughter Priya in Bangalore on World Dance Day.

Courtesy Wikipedia,  International Dance Day was introduced in 1982 by the International Dance Council (CID, Conseil International de la Danse), a UNESCO partner NGO, and is celebrated yearly, on April 29. The date is not linked to a particular person or a particular form of dance, although it's also the day when the French dancer and ballet master Jean-Georges Noverre was born.

The main purpose of Dance Day events is to attract the attention of the wider public to the art of dance.

Dance has no boundaries, no religion, no discrimination. Dance is sheer joy. See the pictures below from a performance earlier this year in Secunderabad.




If you love dancing, am sure you will agree with the quotations in above pictures.

Ghumakkad's earlier post on Dance can be viewed by double clicking the link below:
Dance is Discovery 

Happy World Dance Day and thanks for browsing.

   Harsh-the-Ghuamkkad/ 29th April 2015


Monday 13 April 2015

Golf and Yoga

Golf and Yoga

Intrigued by the title? Well, this has been my theory that golf is very much like yoga योग . My golfing partners have heard it from me many times. But you may ask 'How is Golf like Yoga' or vice versa?


Yoga is all about concentration and control of your mind or the inner self. And so is golf.


For those of us who love golf, will vouch that golf is a mind game. The day you can keep your mind under check, you will keep your scores low. But the day you let go of your mind on the golf course (and give up saying 'it is not my day' or some such excuse), you hit a 'century'. For non-golfers, hitting a century i.e. returning a card of  '100', is an extremely poor score for amateur golfers like me. Other golfers reading the blog will most likely echo the sentiment!

OK, yoga is about the mind. What else is Yoga? Bhagwad Gita भगवत गीता says Yoga is the journey of the self...


Another take on yoga is that it is 99% practice and 1% theory. And so is Golf. Practice and more practice is the only way to keep your scores low and maintain the handicap.


Talking of keeping your cool while playing golf- the new Masters Champion Jordan Spieth is a live example. This 21-year old golfer set many a record last week in Augusta Masters Tournament 2015.
 


Jordan plays a superb game. But he also makes mistakes. He also drove his tee-shots into the trees or roughs. But it was his ability to remain cool and stoic in such situations, which gave him the inner strength to recover.He was a picture of concentration whether lining up for a putt or driving off the tee box while thousands of eyes were watching.



Talking of concentration, we all need it in our lives. Whether at work or golfing or mowing the fairways in a golf course, concentration does it. See the picture of Augusta Golf Course below.




So, take up yoga if you wish to achieve better mind control in your life. Whether you play golf or not does not matter. But if you are a golfer, remember golf and yoga are alike. Both require concentration and mind control.

My yoga practitioner friends may say yoga is much more than mind control. No issues with that.

Hope you enjoyed the likeness between yoga and golf. The previous post on golf can be browsed by clicking the link below:
Why I love Golfing? 

I would like to close with a quote from Gautam Buddha:



Have a great day!
Bye till the next post,

     - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad/ 13th April 2015


Note: Copyrighted pictures of Masters 2015 Championship and Jordan Speith from the net are gratefully acknowledged.

Thursday 2 April 2015

Rural Jugaad

Jaipur never stops surprising me.
 
While in Jaipur last week, a  vendor selling fresh sugarcane juice came selling door to door.
His machine was neither hand-driven nor electric-powered. Then how did it work? And how did he move it door to door, colony to colony?

Answer lies in 'Jugaad'  जुगाड़ -- meaning innovation based on local needs.
His vehicle was driven by an agriculture pump installed on a platform. When not in motion, it powered the sugarcane crusher. Simple. Unfortunately I could not take a picture. What I could get from the net courtesy www.carwale.com is this:


The foot pedal on bottom right enables forward movement of the platform. No driving license required.

Impressed? And his pricing was competitive too. Rs 10 for a glass with ice or Rs 12 a glass without ice! Amazing!
This is real India.

The machine was made in Rajkot Gujarat and deployed in Rajasthan.

Jaipur is a blend of old and the new. The city does have a changing face. Those who have seen it in 1970s-90s will find a change. If you wish to browse the previous post on the Pink City please click the link below:
Changing face of Jaipur

Thanks for browsing.

  Harsh-the-Ghumakkad/ 2nd April 2015