What exactly is Spirituality?

Wikipedia says “Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit, a concept closely tied to religious belief and faith, a transcendent reality, or one or more deities.”

Frankly, I am forced to disagree with the fact that Spirituality is a concept.

It might be a state of mind.
But why then does one’s whole body and soul earn for it?

It might relate to one’s matters of the heart.
But why is the ache felt not just in the heart but in the person as a whole?

To me, I feel like a battery. When I visit places of faith - the divine presence there, the ambiance, the atmosphere, the regularity of the chant of mantras, the radiations from the murthies themselves… I feel that my being is recharged.

Can spirituality be defined? If so, how?

I returned home late from work as usual that night. When I entered the living room to see my wife smiling at me, I knew something was up as her smile was weak and beneath it was an expression of exhaustion and pain. I immediately asked her what was wrong. She shrugged it off as baby’s movements which had made her tired.

After food, before retiring to bed she seemed to have mild contractions which she’s never had before. I promptly googled it to find out that irregular contractions were bound to happen around this time (38th week) and they even had a name for it - Braxton’s Hicks.

As tired I was from work and the long drive back home, I hit the sack and fell asleep in a wink. It seemed like a few minutes of dozing and I groggily got up to my wife waking me up with half-worry and half-fear at four am in the morning. Half-worry because it might be nothing and half fear because it might turn out to be something. The contractions had stayed on the whole night and had become more and more regular. After a few more minutes of googling and re-assuring her that it was ok and there was nothing to worry, I called the Doc at 5 in the morning. Thankfully the doc answered the call and asked us to come at 8 in the morning.

Wife tried to stuff herself with some food and juice just to find herself throwing up a few minutes later. I got ready for the doc’s visit and drove to the doctor’s clinic at 8 am where the doc shocked me by diagnosing that my wife had gone into early labour. Damn! I had to get us to Anna Nagar because we had registered for delivery there. It was a 26 odd km drive and peak hour morning traffic wasn’t gonna help me either. I hurriedly called everyone of her and my family members informing them to come to the hospital in Anna Nagar.

The railway gates in Tambaram were closed with a long q as usual and the subway was filled with 2 feet of water. Even reaching the subway entailed taking a circuitous route. I took a quick call to take the subway and when I reached there, the thoroughfare route was closed. I threw caution to the winds and got into the right side of the route which allows oncoming vehicles to pass through. This subway is tiny one and allows passage of only one vehicle at a time. If another vehicle had entered from the other side I would have had to collide with it head-on. But I persisted with my hands clamping down on the horns. Got through the subway to get to the highway. If the situation hadn’t been so tense I might have kissed my Hyundai for having performed the stunt of getting through the water without stalling.

25 minutes later - Entrance of Maduravayil road. Bumper to bumper traffic with vehicles inching by. It was driving me crazy to have a struggling pregnant woman beside me trying to keep herself calm, trying to bear the pain and to be stuck halfway between my home the hospital. That the woman in pain is my wife made things worse and tense. At times, I would just take the wrong side of the road honking loudly taking abuses from disgruntled oncoming vehicles.

45 minutes later - I had just reached the koyambedu junction. The traffic didn’t seem to let up. I was on the verge of desperation and insanity. There was a time when I saw a small hospital on the road and I thought I’ll just stop my car in the middle of the road and get my wife inside there and get the delivery done. The world around me and the people creating the traffic didn’t seem to care. Why should I?

I curbed that urge with great difficulty and got on with driving through the bad roads to reach the original hospital. We were greeted by two anxious people in front of the hospital - My mother-in-law and sister-in-law who took charge of my wife from there and took her inside. I heaved a huge huge sigh of relief that I had at least gotten to the safety of the hospital before the delivery. I thanked all the Gods then that we had reached the hospital safe and sound.

Time for Round 2.

Its been a wonderful journey so far. Marrying the girl I fell in love with… Leading a life I’ve always wanted to lead… In a position of reasonable power at work… Fairly luxurious life with no hardships… having travelled to some great places around the world!

Now I am eagerly looking forward to another one of those things… Parenting. By December, my house will have a tiny addition. And this time around, I’m going to be playing the role of a doting father. And boy, am I nervous. Very very nervous!

How will I know if my baby wants something? How will I react to situations when I might be disturbed one too many times? Will I make a good dad?

I don’t know! 

But parenting is a huge, huge decision! All of those wannabe parents out there must really think twice before taking the plunge!

The weekend so far has been quite a mix of things… Shopping, Long Drives, A walk in the park and finally a great movie - Rock On! Way to go…

Visited Madhar Sha in Purasawalkam. No matter how the face of Chennai changes, purasawalkam still remains the same. Going back to Kilpauk took me down the memory lane of how I started work again in Chennai as a Customer Relationship Manager. I worked in Kilpauk. The quiet lane which was situated bang in between purasawalkam and poonnamalee high road. Wow! Those were some days. Madhar Sha was quite run down but it attracts a huge crowd. Maybe because of Diwali Shopping Crowds in the area. Bought a beautiful two tone purple silk saree for the wife. I loved the colour. Silk has its own magic. Prices were very reasonable which was why wifey dearest wanted to get to Madhar Sha. Since I was not the one who was driving, I had no problems. Customer Service in Madhar Sha really needs to improve. Apart from that, men’s clothing didn’t appear to have a range of brands.

After a longish chat with my knowledgeable bro-in-law, we started our way back to my house. The long drive in the afternoon along the by-pass road which connects Tambaram and Anna Nagar is an experience to relish. Driving at 110 Kmph along almost perfect roads is still a possibility in Chennai. Too damn bad I didn’t lug along my camera.

There is a newly constructed park in Rajakilpakkam which has become the favourite haunt of evening walkers, energetic kids, badminton players and it even has its own pani puri wallah. I was very impressed with the park. I’m thinking of getting my lazy ass down there more often. It is superbly maintained with markers on the distance that walkers have walked. It also has a cool fountain right in the centre. Taking a few shots of it definitely goes into my list of things to do. I’ll share the pics with you guys when I get to do that.

Finally I went and watched a great movie - Rock On! It was not really a movie. Rather, it was a documentary which takes you down the life of 4 cool guys and their lives. Sentiments, superb music, hate, love, friendship, fights(if you can call it that), rivalry, relationships and much more. You name it. It had it. Very nice movie.

And now, its time to hit the sack. I am fully content with how the first day of my week-end has gone so far. See you soon guys.

Yayyyy. Week-end is finally here. And I’ve been getting around. I’ve been able to lose a good 6-7 kilos after havinf joined my new company. No, the food isn’t bad. In fact, It is better and healthier compared to a load of junk I was existing on before here. So I’m feeling quite good. And No, I don’t buy my food from my office cafeteria.

Airtel have released this awesome ad which has half of India’s celebrities in it. Amazing. I’ve always had this deep, profound respect for the brand, that is AIRTEL. Whatever products I’ve used of theirs, they’ve always delivered their promises. So I’m looking forward to Airtel Digital TV. Will I change from Tata Sky to Airtel DTH? It these were the only two options, hell yeah! I would Airtel over Tata anyday. But I have choices and good ones at that. My local cable wallah provides an amazing array of 300 odd channels for a lesser price than Tata and Airtel. So he is a serious contender. Lets see what happens.

The guys at the Stock Market have been wondering when the ground will open up and swallow them. There are rumours of one or two well know banking institutions going down in India too. If that happens, India will have to look down a barrel for the next 5 years until there is some hope for economic improvement. Interestingly Dow Jones in the US is back to where it was some 10 years back. With the inflation increasing by the day, and the stock markets tumbling around the world… I am just waiting for it to hit the bottom and start building up towards a sturdier future. So the Economic Boom has ended for the world and consequently in India. Here on, you’ll see private business operators madly getting in line to get a piece of the Indian Market’s Real Estate. Economic Boom… It was good while it lasted.

I’ve also been successful in selling my first item on Ebay. My 4 months old Blackberry Curve 8310. I was in two minds and had just decided that I would keep the phone for the next 6 months when someone bought the phone off me on Ebay! Anyways, the decision is made and I’m looking at a few phones. Blackberry Bold is very tempting but the width and size really puts me off. Blackberry Javelin is gonna take some time for a launch in India and I can’t be without a phone that long. Nokia N96 looks good except for the Symbian Software which really slows down over time. Sony Ericsson haven’t really made any groundbreaking stuff from the last Sony Ericsson K850i I had. Same old same old. So I still haven’t come to a decision on it.

And I went and got a Sony PSP. Thoroughly enjoying it man. I also got a game free with it. NFS Underground Rivals. I’ve been able to listen to music, swap memory cards, view pictures, connect to the wi-fi and most importantly kick some Dodge ass with my Toyola Celica on NFS. Amazing device. Simply Wow…

What a week it has been…Nice!