The blue sky

As you all already know by now my son, T goes to a Kindergarten nearby and has a wonderful time there with his multi-ethnic friends and he looks forward to go there every morning. He has now caught a fancy to take a small tiffin box for snacks in the Kindergarten. Usually all the meal times are taken care over there, but recently his friend Alex started getting "Milchbrot" (Milk bread) with some sausages and honey to the Kindergarten and the fever of bringing snacks spread to other household too. T and I explored at least 2-3 supermarkets to search Milchbrot and finally found a packet of 8 small breads (very unhealthy, contains Maida and complex sounding chemicals which we have no idea of what it exactly is). I bought it for him because he was so looking forward to it but I managed to convince him that it can't be consumed on a daily basis for 2-3 weeks in a row. Thankfully he understood and then began a series of food surprises in his tiffin box.

Back in 2008 when I had been to Hyderabad with my colleague, Ranjani for official visit, I was introduced to the phrase 'Man myoho Renge kyo', which is a part of Buddhist philosophy. Ranjani was also recently introduced to it and she chanted daily for half an hour and it had brought positive things in her personality and also in her life and she asked me to join her in daily chanting. After coming back to Bangalore, I continued for a few months, attended a few sessions of group chanting and later stopped practicing. I do not remember now why I stopped it. Then I got into the usual rut of family, job, kids, stay in Germany for 2 years, came back to India and then again after a break moved to another city in Germany with family. After moving to the new city with no job and no friends and family, I began to sink deep into frustration and depression until one day I read a short story about the Buddhist practice in a book  on my Kindle. And it changed my life.

I had read the story titled 'My mother is the most beautiful woman on earth' in school and I very well remember the teacher who taught it to us in Secondary School. Ms. Majumdar was well versed with English and was an excellent orator. She was also the head teacher and she also choreographed our skits and dances for the Annual Day. She was always very warm and smiling and a favorite among the students. The story goes like this:

Last week, I met one more mamma of T's friend. That friend is 2 years younger to him, but they get along well with each other and often play together in the Kindergarten. 3 weeks back I met his mom in the Kindergarten and we exchanged phone numbers to decide about a play date. It was easy as we stay close-by. But she cancelled twice due to family emergencies and we finally met last week. As we chatted along, I got to know that she is from Kazakhstan and in Germany since 28 years now. I told here that I am from India. And the next sentence blew me off, she was a great fan of Mithun Chakraborty and has watched all his movies when she was in college in Kazakhstan. I was pleasantly surprised! Mithun had a fan base in Kazakhstan!? What!? Really!?

I left my job, my home, my parents, my social life and my best friends and came to Germany around 5 months back. I had no idea how I was going to have a foothold here in a new city. Earlier when I was in Germany, but in different city, I had made a few Indian and German friends there. But this was a totally new city and environment. I am not working here either, so chances of going to office and making friends there was also ruled out. I am a true Libran and I have to be surrounded by people. If not for talking, but at least for company, I need people around me. I need to see people, hear sounds, hear them talk and interact and then I feel that there is life around me and that I am alive. For the first 3 months, I had absolutely no contact with anyone around the area, except the immediate neighbors of course. Also it was winter here and people all rushed back home. Hardly anyone was seen on the road or in the play area nearby. I felt extremely lonely and had thoughts about the good ti...

July 2017 was a turning point in my life. I came across the term 'Intermittent Fasting' in one of Luke Coutinho, the celebrity coach's online video stressing the importance of giving break to the body by not eating for a certain number of hours and the benefits it brought with such a "fasting" phase once a while. Not eating for around 12 or 14 or 16 hours? And me? How was I going to sustain and even live for a day by doing it? I read a lot of books about it. I read many articles online. I gathered information, got convinced by it, made up my mind and took up this lifestyle. Read on to know more about this lifestyle, which I have adopted very successfully, lost a lot of weight and also introduced a lot of friends and family members into it who are reaping its benefits every single day.