Why the poem Daffodils by William Wordsworth is particularly meaningful to me:

The Poem Daffodils by William Wordsworth captures the beauty of tens of thousands of daffodils that he suddenly finds as he keeps going around the valleys and hills, next to the lake.

They appear to be dancing and swinging as they remind him of the innumerable stars that twinkle in the Milky Way, and although the waves next to the daffodils came and went, they were no way close to the waves created by the daffodils and keeps looking at them until he can quench his eyes, of seeing the beauty of nature. He carries that very scene, with him in his heart, and remembers it any time he finds himself pensive. 

This thought of remembering the beauty of nature and finding oneself happy is so close to my heart. Any time I find myself not very cheerful, or absorbed in some deep thoughts, I recollect the poem and the flowers that I can imagine and visualize, as the poet may have found, all of a sudden and feel like my burden is removed and floats away like a dark cloud in a windy evening. I also remember the beauty of flowers I have seen in Kodaicanal and the Himalayas, in a Sikari boat across Dal lake and also the beauty of the hills, reckons me that the world offers much more beauty than one is able to remember always. Neither stars or moonlight or pleasant skies, which are all so beautiful, are asking anyone to pay price to enjoy their beauty! All we have to do, to forget about the problems one encounters is just to dwell upon the beauty of earth, and Universe, and trust the eternal truth, that Universe is ever so changing and lovely. 

Poem: Daffodils

Poet: William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils; 

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed- and gazed- but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude; 

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils. 

On Dr. Chitra Divakaruni's novel, Before We Visit The Goddess:

Unlike other books, that are routine, narratives of stories, in a chronological way, books that are thought provoking are chasing one's laziness, and lethargy, in reading a novel, and expect them to run with them, do things, chores, and dream and come back and enjoy what they gathered all along and then again go back and continue re reading to understand the depth of the story and heart of the author.

Before We Visit The Goddess, is one such novel, sculpted by Dr. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, and lead the reader to run, and swim along as they present the story in different parts of the world, and times, and bringing them all together, in the unity of the Universal Truth, the generosity of the Divine Mother. After reading this book, on hearing the author narrate the excerpts, one cannot but dwell upon this Universal Truth, that the Divine Mother is the reason, and leader of our lives and destiny. Whether one wants to think of the Adi ParaaSakthi or the mother, who brought them into this world, raised them, trained them, and brought them up, and watched one achieve their dreams, struggle for success, it is mother, the Reason D'être. This sensitive feeling, like a very delicate wet strand of thread, unites our consciousness,  humanity and the World, whether it is East or West, occidental or Oriental, Earth or outer space, living beings or life giving planets and stars. It is that thread, like gravitational pull, keeps the strings in their orbits and choreograph the cosmic dance, with an artistic balance of music, color and splendour!

The seriousness of the traditional, Bengali mom, in being concerned about her children, and taking the responsibility of transmitting the culture to the newest generations, the anxiety of a typical mom, in the present age about the concerns regarding their offspring and their future goals, achievements, and perceiving the Truth, the challenges a young woman faces in her life and the conflict as they find their expectations and dreams and reality clutter, like spilled pearls on a string, until they take each one with the grace of Divine Mother and sort their reality, that she is not just a belief system, but the source and inspiration for every thing to be created, then the path is clear, for one to be prepared, Before We Visit The Goddess!

I cannot help my mind slipping away into imagination and seeing what a great production this story generates, like a Hollywood movie, going fast, going slow, now present, intertwined with past, and jumping in quanta into the future, and never know where it would pull us, to float into the celestial and beyond! Never read one before, of such pleasing, thought provoking, challenging and dynamic imagination!

Kudos to Dr. Chitra Divakaruni, and cannot wait for the next work of art, science, aesthetics and charisma!

Uma Pochampalli

Mind Matters

http://www.mindmattersonline.com/ is an online site for psychiatric problems and psychological problems. It is an online caring website, coming into your homes with treatments for your problems. Completely confidential, so do not hesitate to seek help.

on several aspects.. inner view

Knowledge when one acquires is kind of like spurs. You find it in all odd things in life. With a dream Kekule's Benzene structure developed. The Hexagon shaped compound with the alternating double bonds linked together at the first and the sixth C positions was in fact an example of how dreams can lead to supreme reality. If it was not for that dream perhaps humanity would be still waiting for someone to come up with a bright idea of the nature perhaps a century later. Why do people dream? That is one aspect dealing with psycho social thought processes. Did dream theory help in bringing out social changes? Did anyone pursue this topic of research I really wonder? When we look at the development that went in the past fifty years or may be even twenty years the classical theories in pure sciences are now obsolete. It was the case with sound structure, Quantum theory and so is the thought about generating light in rays that travel in straight lines. Perhaps some authors may think that light travels in waves. I feel perhaps light travels in circles. The way it is generated. No body ever proved it. I do not think I am doing a grave mistake if I think it might be so. Unless of course some one applies this theory and builds a Rocket to launch on some distant planet unknown and ends up in blaming me i.e... Coming back to where I began, acquiring knowledge is similar to spurs I think. You may get it once like a dream, once like a wave or sometimes it may take you in such high-spirited circles that it may be impossible for one to come back to a level of awareness that is so base, it is so unbelievable. The greatest challenges have been possible on earth because people had tremendous amount of trust in them and believed in the inner spirit that guides them no matter how hard the conditions are. It is because people believed in themselves and believed what they did was achievable; attainable and made it possible. Once the courage of individuals is sparked all the fears and superficial pretenses are shed and a new momentum leads into a whole new spirit of awareness where the ethereal bond between man and soul is revealed. In my opinion this is what is learning, where fear leads to courage and growth spurs into enormous heights that are unbelievable and unforeseeable. A third dimension that is totally different from a person or the other takes its place where no individual can do it all alone or just by them. This becomes a dynamic process where the teams perform and lead with leaps and bounds to attain shores not reached before. This is what forms the basis for the innate desire to know and reveal the truth. The ultimate, the spiritual union that is so sublime generates out of nothingness into a concrete reality when teams participate and bring action into effect. Some changes are so sudden in life that before you can realize they sweep you by your feet and next thing you realize may be when you may be totally different or lost or flabbergasted as if you are walking on an entirely new planet, may be some ethereal world from some 9th heaven; if its not there, may be you will create one of your own; Days may hold no meaning in limiting your activity or make you aware of the thin line between a day or night or the next; everything seems to go in a different awareness level of unbroken continuity and seems to engross in all affairs of life. It is also so surprising how life unfolds itself in its mysterious ways through the super conscious psyche. Many a time one feels as if the incidents that happen are already played and accepted or rejected by the individual's inner self. Many happenings appear as if that was just an enactment of a preordained destiny. May be the person who interacts may have passed the exact scenarios sometime before with almost similar feelings or words that you may express in reality. It may sometimes be like a déjà vu. It may not have occurred at the same time or in the immediate past or at some earlier time that one may recall. It could be a passing phase if one recalls or it could be when all the energy is concentrated and controlled only through the super conscious psyche via the medium of dreams as one may call it, as the mental activities visualize some consequences of action and inaction put together as if solving a multidimensional visual puzzle of sorts where pieces of information are processed according to the inner brain powers that control mind, body and spirit in a unison.

Crisis Management: Money matters

“Jiji, I have a problem” said Roger. Jiji said “ok, what is it?”
“I am in big trouble: I had lost one of my businesses I was managing because the payments have not gone in time.” Roger is into management of businesses. He is very good at communicating and talking to people, showing them businesses they could be interested in and enabling them establish their businesses. He helps in managing their businesses on their behalf of day to day management of repairs and maintenance, procurement of inventory, payment of current liabilities for the businesses. He had an Office Assistant who was very capable for some time and trusted everything on that person. They worked efficiently as a team. Roger used to take care of business in talking, meeting people and communicating and contacting them and his Assistant was helping in taking care of payments and books. Suddenly he found that he was in deep waters as the payments were not being made in time and business dealings were not being enabled because of that. He was in a very crisis situation as those clients did not want them to manage their businesses since they were sent collection and legal notices and had to pay liabilities as a result. This is crisis, but can be worked out, with diligence.
Crisis Management is an important part of business management. What would you do if for some reason you are trusting too much on some one person in your business and to get more business contacts, you participate in marketing and public relations activities? You not only allow the Office Manager/ Secretary/ Accountant all in one person, as yours is a sole proprietorship to take care of business dealings but you give them ability to write checks on your behalf for the company. One fine day, you find that the checks have not been entered in the books, and payments have not gone out in time. The Office Manager/ Secretary/ Accountant all in one person are in fact busy with other things. May be someone in their family needs care or may be that they want to keep busy chatting with their spouse/ mate/ loved ones, may be because they need attention, or simply that priorities have changed and they want to be attentive to something other than office work. What would you do to handle a situation as this, better still, what could you do to avoid this nasty situation ever arise and be protective of your company?

Itemize all the responsibilities that are required and make a weekly checklist of things to do. Regroup activities that you are busy with and involve yourself in the monetary well being of the company. Check your accounts on a day today basis. Watch over your accountant to see if the books are up to date. Make it a point not to allocate the duty of issuing checks to the same person who deposits the money. Take responsibility in sharing the business activities. Make sure you have the back up data of all transactions recorded and also access to all your accounts. Review the progress every day or every week with your Accountant and keep asking questions you need answers, such as who has paid and who have not paid from your clients, what bills are due, and have arrangements made for the payments to go? What is the amount in the bank? What amount is available after the checks have been issued and do the checks overdraft the account in any way? Have all the services been provided to the clients? Have you included the services offered in the invoices to the individual clients? Have the records been updated to reflect the current status of the transactions? If you need to report to your business board about the developments and progress, make sure you have data of open invoices, profit statement, balance sheet prior to the quarter and after the quartet, and if you need to submit human resources data, make sure you report it in time.

Roger hired a different person who could handle things efficiently, attended the board meeting and explained them that he was to blame it also because part of the blame goes to him as he did not pay close attention to the needs of the clients who were trying to reach him, and did not watch the transactions very well. He told them he is back in business as the new bookkeeping already showed evidence of improvement as the bills were entered and invoices being sent in time. Also, the payments are being made in time; the only current liability that is due is payment to himself as he only took half of what he gets paid every month. He is going to be on ninety days probation by accepting only partial payment and making sure that all the business dealings are kept up to date. The board members asked several questions relating to the maintenance of their businesses as well as bookkeeping. Finally, the board decided, it is time to give a try.