When was the last time when you did something for the first time...

Anything for the first time,
Anything exotic,
Anything by the choice of host,
Even if it is poison,
Never say no.

Believe me this is perfectly original and I am myself fascinated with these lines. Thankyou very much Phil for hosting a great evening yesterday.

Coming back to the point......

There are people and the rest of the world, exploring which a lifetime may become short. For the first time, when you jump from 10000 feet - Sky Diving, first four thousand feet dive as a free fall and you just rely on your instructor, air passes fast blowing the skin of your face and you feel awesome.

Then a motley of friends are doing first time the waterfall rappelling, you look below from 1100 feet height, there is vertical cliff with waterfall side by making great noise and really you don't want to see below and first time ever you give so much faith to the thin chord and the harness supporting you tied knotted to it.

Parasailing, learning to ski and first time doing it for 2 kilometers stretch and the first time comfortable with the horse riding when the animal understands you and makes the perfect gallops and you exclaim you are the king......man the world is beautiful.

Yesterday was again one such time and this time it were people. I am in Germany for past 2 months and I have been visiting places around, Mosel valley, Koln, Paris, and Amsterdam. I try to understand a very different culture that encompasses all at macro level. At closer look it differs greatly with countries, even cities, age groups and of course every single person to another one. Yesterday I witnessed the young crowd in Germany.......

So it was plan im promptu. We start from the office and now I remember we ran for every train, always successful to catch it even if it was just 1-2 minute left, sometimes without hope that we can catch it and once to the wrong train.

It was bad weather and I liked it. I was probably unlucky to miss Chicken Doner Kebap preferring croissant and coffee over it. First we are at a pub, a cosy sitting for around one hour where amidst exotic drinks I draw the map of India after 10 years. After that off to the Mittwoch Special of New York Nights. On entry it was deserted. When Amit said if it is deserted in the beginning surely it will be out of control in the last. I thought he was just consoling us, but then he proved true. When some Pamela XYZ started indeed everybody on the floor was on fire. Amit showed his choreography talents on the stage and on the floor, but like us remained a lonely stag. Phil and I did our part of aerobics and after scheduling and rescheduling departed from there nearly at 1:00. Again a run for train followed and then in Essen I waived bye-bye to Amit from the bus after making a few bold plans together.

I make it last to list the exotic things, thanking Phil again for his SMS:

1) Fieger Pils
2) Mexicaner (It is tequila size cocktail of tomato soup, tobasco and some alcohol), my recommendation
3) Wodka Ahoi (It is one packet of soda like stuff you fill in the mouth and then take small size vodka, shake your head and then swallow it). Good
4) Bacardi Red, Cola
5) Wodka Sprite
6) Tequila
7) Jaegermister, it looked like chikoo juice but had 35% alcohol
8) Pernod Cola

More came (it is in the SMS too), mostly beer, but I don't remember. Now that I am out of influence, I make my above poetry more practical:

Anything for the first time,
Anything exotic,
Anything by the choice of host,
Even if it is Marijuana,
Never say no.

Proverbs/Colloquial/Muhaaware

Indeed the jewels of the language. Some of the recent ones I came across:

1) Kutte ko ghee hazam nahin hotaa (The dog can't digest the butter- The lowly person can't appreciate the highly things)

2) Begaani shaadi mein mullaa deewaanaa (The priest is loving someone else's marriage- getting affected by other's affairs).

3) Nayaa Dhobi Saabun Zyaadaa Lagaataa Hai (The new washerman applies more soap/detergent- the new apprentice/worker makes more efforts)

4) In German: An Rheumatismus und wahre Liebe glaubt man erst, wenn man davon befallen wird. (Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach)

(One believes in Rheumatismus and true love only if one will strike of it.)

5) Haathi nikal gayaa, poonch rah gayi. ( The elephant could pass but his tail got stuck- Big matter resolved but small matter remained).

6) Bhaashan kam raashan zyaadaa. (Do less talk and more grocery(work))

7) Pratishtha mein praan gawaanaa. (To die for prestige- bearing pain for want of prestige).

Many of the aboves are courtesy my good friend, AS being one.

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

Read the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad at: http://www.bharatadesam.com/spiritual/upanishads/brihadaranyaka_upanishad.php

I must thank one of my friends, who in a debate of men vs women raised the point about women's contribution in writing Vedas. A little search in net made her factually wrong as she mentioned Maitreyi as one of the architect or RigVeda whereas Maitreyi had her contribution in knowing Brihadranyaka Upanishad from her husband Yajnavalkya.

Now this upanishad itself is one of the most elaborate one. It tries to discover Brahman- The God and finally arrives at Neti, Neti- neither this nor this. Most part of it is full of description of worldly bodies and narrating abode of gods in Human Body itself. Some descriptions are similar(but not exactly same) to the old testament type where the Atman creates the world and other Gods. There are description of Shashtrartha between Yajnavalkya and other brahmins where they try to give exaggerated examples, defining space in terms of earth, sky and heaven etc. Now in the 20th century world of Big-bang and Quantum Mechanics the above things may seem ridiculous, but to be fair with authors of Upanishads there must have been no other way to make fellow human beings understand these concepts in those days. Probably 1000 years later even our knowledge about the world would be seemingly as archaic as we look down the knowledge of our ancestors.

However the philosophies and the eternal questions about ultimate truth have never gone old.

Subchapter 14 in Chapter 3 is about Gayatri mantra. This was something I was looking for quite some time. Next is caste distribution as first there were only Brahmins, then the importance of Kshatriya was perceived, then Vaisya were created and the then Sudras as mother earth were created to nourish all. Also there is line for eating bull's meat for intelligent son. There are several religious rites for many occasions, even the prayer of the dying persons etc.

One funny thing is about how to perform sex in chapter 4. Near porno description of gyration and stroking woman to how to cajole her first with gifts and then with stick. Also how to get white, brown, black, male, female, intelligent or no child thru mantra at the time of sex or even how to get the paramour of your wife impotent thru another ritual. The lady is given certain importance as she needs to be worshipped and then put down below.

Let me have a wife and I experiment all these.