My mind is multi-threaded. So, now, is it all about making it unidirectional, that is single-threaded or is it about making every thread function to its 100% so that the mind is able to perform as the most efficient multi-tasking machine ever ?

I have seen how intensely aware people perform several tasks simulataneously, without compromising on the quality of any of those parallel activities. In fact, quality is enhanced.

I also realise how the mind controls the five senses - for instance, my eyes see only when/what my mind wants to view. Else, even if they are open, they are as good as shut. The ears can hear selectively, the filter being set within the mind. Sometimes we are not aware of what we talk and go back and say 'what was I saying ?'.

Well, I better befriend this mind and get it work the way I want it! It seems to be taking over my entire life :-)...

Few days back, I chanced to read a bit about wheat grass and its goodness. That made me wonder why almost all good things are bitter! I remember the Bitter Guord, the Neem leaf sweet dish, the bitter citrus pickles, the several nature-cure medicines ('Kashaayam') which we were made to gulp with honey when we were children - all these were bitter and yet they did the best to us. Well, almost all.

My third visit to the Grand Canyon in little over a year. And yet I never seem to tire of it. The few moments of silence which I experience, seated on a rock, facing the Eastern Rim of the grand canyon is worth the winding line outside the park and definitely worth the cold winds that kept slamming against us early that morning.

A nature trip leaves you rejuvenated. While trips to amusement parks always leave me exhausted and wanting another vacation, hikes and nature tours fill me with wonder and silence and energize me from deep within. It is like renewing a connection with natural habitat, which appear to be more centered and put together. We even had a deer encounter inside the Kaibab National Forest. Five forest deer went past our car and we shot them, with our video camera, of course.

On our way back, we hiked the Oak Creek trail at Sedona. It was lush green and full of ferns. The stream had dried up a bit but that did not stop us from taking off our shoes and playing around in the gushing water for a while. We did not hike the entire trail as it was almost sunset.

So, here I am back at work today. But I definitely have brought along with me a bit of the smiling green of the red rock trail, a splash of the bubbling enthusiasm of the creek, and loads of the strong splendor of the canyon.

I chanced to visit the website of renowned singer Bombay Jayashri. The intro had me captivated.

does not music
light a spark
fan a flame
set a soul on fire?
Listening...
to the silences within
and the sounds
of silences...

Click away for the entire piece.

Here's a line from her profile that had me nodding my head in agreement - "When music seeps into the hearts of rasikas without themselves perceiving it, then it can be said to have served its ethereal purpose". How true! The very purpose of music is the resonance of souls.

Bombay Jayashri is one of the most popular singers of today with several albums to her credit. Her movie numbers are commercial successes. I was listening to her voice in Suttum Vizhi from Ghajini and it had me wondering about how we have loved her voice in Vaseegara, Ondra Renda Aasaigal and Narumugaiye. And her very latest Partha Mudhal from Kamal's latest flick Vettaiyadu Vilaiyadu is also amazingly convincing.

But when someone mentions Bombay Jayashri, the song that pops into my head is the melodious Pahi Pahi Jagan Mohanakrishna set in the enchanting Nadanamakriya. It brings back fond memories of childhood times.

It is almost impossible for any photographic lens to capture the towering magnificence. It is altogether impossible to take in the monumental water-carved beauty with two mortal organs - the eyes. It is getting increasingly difficult to word the thoughts about the grandeur of this place - the mind was constantly going blank and thoughtless at the timeless magnificence that we were spectators to. All we could do was gape in awe.



They stretched much beyond the field of view and flaunted intracacies in architecture that daunted us. They seemed to beckon, wanting to pass on some timeless message in silence and at the same time, they seemed to be untouched and unabashed by people and events around them. They seemed to share a gushing relationship with air, water and the space above. They are the beautiful Glen canyons. We were at Lake Powell and visited the Glen, Antelope and Marble Canyons over the weekend. This trip, if anything, was only more momentous than the previous ones - The Grand Canyon and Sedona.