Many houses were made in the traditional hut style: thick walls made out of sand, round in shape, with thatched rooves. They blended in seamlessly with the surroundings.

I have never seen so many stars as I saw there. I milked a cow and held a baby goat! A big thank you goes out to everyone who made my visit so special.

There were once 5,000 Jews living in this teeming port city, but today there are fewer than 35. Israel, 38 with a thin beard, is the youngest by nearly 25 years.

Israel lives inside the only place left where Jews aren’t a minority - the Jewish cemetery. He cares for the graves of his father, his great-grandparents, his uncles and his aunts, along with more than 2,000 other Jewish tombs.

He also tends to the two dozen Jewish elders still living, handles the last rites when they die, and, to stay kosher, butchers his own meat.

It’s not easy being the last of your people.

“It’s only a matter of time before people die or leave,” said Israel. “There is no future. . . . The inevitable, I can’t fight.”

I have to disagree with this statement, though:

Jews came to India as traders some 250 years ago, and today their largest community is in Mumbai, the country’s most cosmopolitan city.

They were in India far before that, in Cochin. Click here for more info.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer.

He spoke intensely about what he does NOT want for Isha….that he did not want Isha to become another cult or religion, but that our purpose should be to have an impact on those we introduced to it. He mentioned riding the wave of bliss, like one that had been created in India, in a small village where most of the population eventually participated in the Inner Engineering, and therefore the Shambhavi.

The thought I took away with me was that we should leave the world in a little better condition than we found it. Such a simple request, such a huge undertaking, but as Sadhguru said, as he looked at each of us, 50 years ago this….and I think he was referring to the whole introduction of Isha Yoga to the US….in addition to that night’s event’s success….would not have been possible.

If 200 volunteers can bring together over 1300 people, we really ARE living in extraordinary times. We are approaching critical mass, the “tipping point” that will allow Isha to continue growing and impacting individuals by its own momentum. We are in a time of great possibility, and I am thrilled to be here, with Isha, at this time.

Let’s join the bliss party and tip this sinking ship over!

Determined to find their own expression, women in Jaipur are increasingly taking up writing as a serious pursuit. Despite cultural challenges and family responsibilities, they are living their passion as successful authors. Today, most of them have to their credit, several books on intriguing subjects and are fast impacting the national literary arena. Busy penning some new tomes, these spirited multitaskers have broken stereotypes and proved that women writers are no more anomalies in Rajasthan.

Tripti Pandey, a journalist, says

“Being a woman, I am blessed with an innate sensitivity that helps me reflect on the nuances of the places that I visit. Village women unveil their faces while interacting with me, share bits of their lives without any inhibitions and happily pose for my camera.”

Lecturer Aradhana Singh says

“Writing gives a woman the strength to break free from cultural bondages. An opinionated woman, however unwelcome she may be, has the power to alter the power equation of a society. I wish more and more woman in my state take up writing and experience the mental liberation it brings.”

Corporate executive Shivali Singh says

“Writing buoys up the self esteem of a woman. I am confident that women in the state will achieve greater heights if they keep on striding towards their goal.”

“When we say ‘yoga’, probably for many of you it means some physical postures: twisting yourself into some impossible postures. That is not what we are referring to as yoga.

Yoga means to be in perfect tune. Your body, mind and spirit and the existence are in absolute harmony. When you fine-tune yourself to such a point where everything functions so beautifully within you, naturally the best of your abilities will just flow out of you. When you’re happy, your energies always function better. Do you see that when you’re happy you have endless energy? Even if you don’t eat, if you don’t sleep, it doesn’t matter; you can go on and on. Have you noticed this? So just a little happiness is liberating you from your normal limitations of energy and capability.

Now, yoga is the science of activating your inner energies in such a way that your body, mind and emotions function at their highest peak. When your body and mind function in a completely different state of relaxation and a certain level of blissfulness, you can be released from so many things that most people are suffering from. Right now, you come and sit in your office, and you have a nagging headache. Your headache isn’t a major disease, but it takes away your whole capability for that day. Just that throbbing takes away everything. With the practice of yoga, your body and mind will be kept at their highest possible peak.

There are also other dimensions to yoga. When you activate your energies, you can function in a different way. As you are sitting here right now, you consider yourself to be a person. You are identified with many things, but what you call as “myself” is just a certain amount of energy.

Do you know, modern science is telling you that the whole existence is just energy manifesting itself in different ways? If this is so, then you’re also just a little bit of energy functioning in a particular way. As far as science is concerned, this same energy which you call as “myself” can be here as a rock, lie there as mud, stand up as a tree, bark as a dog, or sit here as you. Everything is the same energy, but functioning at different levels of capability.

Similarly, among human beings, though we’re all made of the same energy, we still don’t function at the same level of capability. What you call capability or talent, what you call your ability to do things in the world, your creativity, is just a certain way your energy functions. This energy, in one plant it functions to create rose flowers, in another plant it functions to create jasmine, but it’s all the same energy manifesting itself. If you gain a little bit of mastery over your own energies, you will see things that you never imagined possible, you will do simply and naturally. This is the experience of any number of people who have started doing these practices. It is the inner technology of creating situations the way you want them.”

http://www.helpbihar.in

Here are the answers in case you don’t know:

The capital of Bihar is Patna

Which river has caused havoc in Bihar recently? Kosi

We lost ourselves the day we were born

Since then the search began

To find those of our family

We were confused

For we were given a family of birth

We had friends from our situation

In this funny place called “society”

We travelled

And felt the semblance of the primeval sensation of life

We wondered why we felt at home on the road

We were made to believe we were a little strange

For how many stay away from “home” for so long?

How many become the rebels we did?

We wandered on empty streets in the night

Feeling the wind of the sea, the river, the mountains of wherever we lived…

We had so many questions and no answers we found

We searches, always searched

We searched even for ourselves…

We delved in unfathomable depths of the being

We rowed for months in strange alien seas

We searched for friends of the soul

Somehow no friends we had, ever

Seemed like friends enough…

How could we explain what “friends” meant to us?

Friends were beings so akin to us

They could read our minds

Walk in step with us on those roads of life

Friends were those who travelled with us

Climbed mountains, forged rivers, conquered seas…

Friends were one life breath, strangely

Such few “friends” we ever found in this world

We stayed aloof…from so much

The norms, the religions, thought processes of the world

We risked our lives, our positions, our family relations for our beliefs

We did the things we believed in

Worked for none but ourselves

We were called selfish for we cared

About our own well being…

We fought, we battled,

We ran like mad from so many, so much

We hid, we absconded, we hibernated

Some of us found our soulmates

Some of us didn’t

Some of us had homes, children, love

Some of us lived lonely in far away homes

Some of us were fulfilled having found the love

The understanding we seeked, the minds akin to ours

Some of us…after a long time stopped searching having understood that in some lifetimes we were meant to be alone

Our soulmates parted from us, living another life…

May be in another world, probably another time zone…

We, the seekers, the thinkers, the rebels

We ache to get together for nowhere seems like home

We long for company of similar minds, sensibilities

We hurt, we bleed, we pain, we die…

But we live completely, every moment of our lives

Live the good and bad as same

Give all of ourselves to the world…

To nature… to art…

For there is no other way to live we know

We seek answers all the time

We question all the time

We are probably the only ones who know how deep pain carves its being into us

And how full happiness makes us feel…

We are comfortable with extremes

We are comfortable with tears, with abandonment, with aloneness…

We, the unknown ones

We, the misfits

We, the seekers, the thinkers, the rebels…

I my niece will be more fearless than me when taking to India’s roads!