Life in Balance: Amit D. Chaudhary’s Blog
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Somehow long trips have appealed to me, the chance of seeing new places, meeting people, really have deep, new and different experiences.

Aha, what an idea.

I will blog over the next few days about some from other people’s lives that stood out.

Around the World… with kids, 28 countries in one year

The Highams, a Silicon Valley based family traveled with their two children, aged 8 and 11 in 2005-2006 around the world. The trip was one year in duration, 10 years in planning, with a minimal budget of U$120,000.

The Countries they visited: Iceland, England, France, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Dubai, U.A.E, Tanzania, Mauritius, Singapore, Japan, China, Thailand, Cambodia, Costa Rica, Panama, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Peru, Belize. The children kept up with their school work during the trip.

The above link is to the San Jose Mercury News article, the Highams also have an informative website called Armageddon Pills which includes an FAQ, Some stories, Pictures in a gallery or on a map, How to plan your own trip and the book they are writing.

Here are some pictures from their trip:

A interesting mini quiz when will your life peak?. My Results

When will your life peak?
0-15y	16-35y	35+ y
Your life will peak when you are over 35.
When will your life peak? at QuizGalaxy.com

Mostly for fun, I took this test. Needed to find the meaning of recant and gullible.
As far as I can be sure, I am more of a non-religious person, though spirituality in general is important to me, so it is kind of right, though I do find the “0% reason oriented” comment slightly offensive! they probably intended it to mean I am neutral towards reason.

The results:

You fit in with: Taoism Your ideals mostly resemble those of the Taoist faith. Spirituality is the most important thing in your life. You strive to live by all of your ideals, and live a very intellectually focused life. 20% spiritual. 0% reason-oriented.

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

Interesting personality quiz for fun

The What D&D Character are you? Test

Note from the quiz: Ok geeks, listen up! We all have our favorite characters. Some of us pick the character who can do the most damage; others choose to play a character they can roleplay really well. So, come on, see who you really are in the fantasy world.

My results as a gamer though , it is atleast partially off the mark, still was fun and worth trying

Fighter! Victory! You scored 41!

The clash of steel, the heat of battle, the chaffing of your chainmail bikini. Looks like you’re the fighter. You are tough, strong and have cool head about you. You’re disiplined and tactical. You tend to think with just your muscles though and sometimes you have to get a little help from your more scholarly friends. But don’t worry; somebody’s gotta knock down the door later and smashing’s what you do best. So layeth on the smackdown good warrior and may thine boot find thine opponent’s ass verily.

My results as how I look at life are below, though again it off the mark

Monk! Victory! You scored 3!

“It is time for you to leave Grasshopper.” You travel. Work. Sleep when you can. You’re a monk. You are contemplative, simple and quiet. However, the second anyone gives you shit you fly into a furious whirlwind of martial arts mayhem. Your friends give you the space you need and you only speak when neccessary. However, you’re a mystery to most. You’re most likely to end up wandering the frontier, barefoot with the sun beating down on your ragged hat and on the run from someone. It’s all good though. With any luck, you can get into one of Quentin Tarantino’s films.

Need Humility: There is somebody better than you

I am a believer in “Three distinct qualities in approximately equal measure: Common Sense, Skepticism and Openness” and yet explore methods as an experiential basis, these have included Law of attraction aka The Secret and Vipassana.

After sufficiently quoting myself as a friend pointed out some bloggers tend to do, I would like to recommend a Novella (kind of a long story, but much shorter than a novel) which is also a 2006 Hugo Award winner:

• Inside Job by Connie Willis

The complete online version is made available by the Asimov SciFi magazine and a book is also available from Amazon.com

It is a story of a skeptic meeting a channeler, a very nicely balanced work and has extra appeal to the science minded (Due to the puzzle, it is indeed a strange loop) and the supernatural minded.

Gayatri Mantra in Battlestar Galactica

It is back.

Probably the best Sci-Fi TV serial on air, Battlestar Galactica is back, though Doctor Who and Heroes are strong contenders. The link is for Wikipedia as the original website on scifi does not display at all on firefox and linux showing only the ads and not the contents.

Which brings me to the Gayatri Mantra which is the theme song of Battlestar Galactica. For those who do not know about it, it comes from ancient Indian (Sanskrit) books called Upanishads. From Wikipedia

• In Devanagari:

ॐ भूर्भुवस्वः ।

तत् सवितुर्वरेण्यं ।

भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि ।

धियो यो नः प्रचोदयात् ॥

• In IAST

oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ

(a) tát savitúr váren_iyaṃ

(b) bhárgo devásya dhīmahi

(c) dhíyo yó naḥ pracodáyāt

• In English by Gayatri Pariwar

O God, Thou art the giver of life, the remover of pain and sorrow, the bestower of happiness; O Creator of the Universe, may we receive Thy supreme, sin destroying light; may Thou guide our intellect in the right direction

Here it is incase you have not watched it yet.

I prefer the version in Chants of India created by Ravi Shankar, George Harrison and team due to the normal tempo and classical indian background music, it is refreshing to hear Indian music during my normal TV viewing. If you prefer the Battlestar Galactica version it is available on the composer Richard Gibb’s website and for sale as a CD.

Chaiya Chaiya in Spike Lee’s Inside Man

The other Indian music in the mix has been Chaiya Chaiya song from the movie “Dil Se” with music from A.R. Rahman which was in Spike Lee’s movie Inside Man and in the first episode of the TV series, Smith. Link for lyrics and translation in English of Chaiya chaiya

Jaan Pehechaan Ho in Ghostworld

And then there was Jaan Pehechaan Ho in the fabulous movie, GhostWorld from an old Indian movie Gumnaam.

The lyrics translated roughly mean “If we come to know each other, life will be a little easier”
Here’s to more Indian music, it is getting to be a good mix.

Technorati Tags: Bollywood Indian Music Sanskrit

Update: Sepia mutiny has an article on something similar,Battlestar Galactica is desi friendly. They do have a point about ignorance in US TV serial,s the unit had the CIA department head ‘detecting’ the off shore call center employee and telling her that he knows she is in “Karachi, India” and the list goes on.

Update Feb 2007: Added YouTube videos