Threading Ceremony

Yesterday I had an opportunity to participate in an Indian thread ceremony for a colleague’s son. This ceremony is a rite of passage similar to a confirmation, or bar mitzvah in the Hindu context. Every intricate detail had rich meaning and to be apart of the experience was amazing.



Background info on Upanayanam (Thread Ceremony)

Upanayanam is the Samskara or the ceremonial rite in which the young Brahmin boy is invested with the sacred thread and initiated into the Gayatri - the Holiest of all mantras in the legacy of the Rishis. This ceremony is only for boys from the top three social classes. Traditionally, an auspicious time and date is chosen to shave the boy's head completely, leaving only a small tuft in the centre of the scalp, called bodi.
The sacred thread used for the ceremony consists of three strands, joined by a knot known as Brahmagranthi or the knot of Brahma. The three strands symbolise the Hindu trinity - Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma. There are various interpretations of the three strands to represent many of the other triads like Mahasarasvati, Mahalakshmi and Mahakali. Or the three qualities known as sattva, rajas and tamas; past, present and the future; the three states - wakefulness, dream and deep sleep. Some even say that it represents the three dimensions known as heaven (swarga), earth (martyaloka) and netherworld (patala). The twist of the thread must be upwards to ensure that the Sattwaguna or the good quality of truth predominates.
The most important meaning of the three strands is ida, pingala and susumna nadi, through which the kundalini energy manifests as prana and consciousness. Yajno-pavita means 'thread of sacrifice.' That is so called because it symbolises the sacrifice of ego.
The sacred thread was a passport to obtain education. It was a prerequisite for education and also for marriage. Without it, no man could dream of getting a bride for himself. It was considered important because a person with Yajnopavita should have undergone all the oaths associated with wearing it, led a celibate life and completed a major portion of his education. Brahmachari or the bachelor (also, a learner) wore a single sacred thread while the householder or the married person wore two. A person who was married and had lost one or both of his parents wore three.
There are different methods of wearing the Sacred Thread at different occasions. While performing an auspicious ceremony one should be Upaviti, that is, the Sacred Thread should hang from his left shoulder. At the performance of some inauspicious ceremony one should be Prachnaviti, that is, the Sacred Thread should hang from the right shoulder; and at times he is called Niviti when the Sacred Thread is worn round the neck like a garland.

This ceremony has evolved over time and to see more of my experience you can check out the links to my pics and videos

Growth

There in no doubt that India is hot right now, especially since it is summer and temperature has been in the hundreds. Thank god for the monsoons which are arriving any day now... While the seasons are about to change, India’s economic climate continues to be hot like fire. Growth rates the past few years have skyrocketed and there is a constant debate about which country will be the next superpower, India or China. There is currently a war for talent in the global market that will continue to heat up as baby boomers retire and we live in a world where EVERTHING is outsourced (read the world is flat for some crazy accounts of this phenomenon).The growth in such a raw place was one of many drivers fueling my desire to live in this mystic country. Lately, Indian business has been known for its technology. In fact many people are comparing what is happening here to what happened during the dotcom area in terms of business opportunities. While all of this is extremely exciting and India is getting a lot of press, it is still a third world country and the infrastructure is in need of serious development. Some people see this as a weakness; I look at it as opportunity.
In terms of the workforce; the people, time management, presentation, deductive reasoning, consulting, business development, and customer service skills are in need of serious fine tuning. My role is to facilitate human performance and process improvement for the Leadership of Satyam (the top 5% of a 30,000 people). After working for the #1 corporate university in the world, my director from my previous company, our new staff and I are in start up mode attempting to deliver the same quality product. Building the school brick by brick is challenging but also fulfilling. The physical school of leadership is scheduled to be open in November and will be a 240,000sq ft world class facility. We are open for business now and continue to expand our infrastucture and service offerings. Satyam has a vision of growing from 30,000 employees today to 90,000 in the next five years! In order for the vision to be attained they must have world class leaders that can navigate an increasing complex global marketplace. Our mission as the school of leadership is to empower and equip these leaders with the necessary skills to flourish. As we build the schools processes, programs and leaders a fleet of men and women are building the actual structure. I go over to the site at least once a week to look at the progress. Watching these people work is incredible. They only utilize a very small amount of machinery as they take away from the employment and livelihood of people. This construction team is over 200 hundred people working two shifts per day and living in tent communities on the land. The area that the construction is taking place is called Cyber City and if you drive around a five square block radius you will see companies such as IBM, Google, Deliotte, Mckinsey, Dell, and many more all putting skin in the game..

Contact Information

For those of you wanting to connect here is my information:

Cell: 91-9949476478

Address: Plot No: 527-B, Road No: 86, Flat no: 5, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad India

Lighting the way...

Do you remember being a teenager? Sometimes when I reflect on that period of my life it feels like yesterday. Without going into the details of a very interesting time in my life... lets just stay many of my choices were not calculated. The past two weeks Dr Zayd (Traveling from the US) contributed to the development of around 50 teenagers of Satyam employees.

Global Rising Stars is a 4 day/ three night experiential workshop that equips and empowers young people to live purpose driven lives. All participants learn how to:
1. Develop self-leadership
2. Expand attitudes and habits for success
3. Overcome fear and procrastination
4. Turn solutions into action
5. Enhance self-motivation and positive self-image
6. Improve time management

Dr. Z has been successful working with youth in America for many years and I was curious how his program would be receivedd in a different country with a very contrasting culture. I facilitate learning with adults around the world and every region of the world, I must shift my style in order to besuccessful. Believe me, I have gone into other countries using anAmerican style of teaching/facilitation and failed miserably...We learn from what is most painful and I adapted quickly by seeking 1st to understand then trying to be understood. This shift in style, with the kids was not necessary. The saying boys will be boy's or kids will be kids comes to mind. Dr Z's course was a huge success and the cultural difference was not an issue with the teenagers.

I love spending time with young and old people. Either theydon't know or they don't care. Which allows them to be open and free creating a platform to explore and express.
Helping pave a path in a world that is becoming increasingly complex and confusing for youth is a worthy endeavor... Feel free to contact Dr. Zayd (dtsys.com) about youth programs in your community.

Vision

Things and people are not always what they seem. I hope that you agree that we as human beings are complex creatures. However many people are conditioned to dwell on the surface. I believe richness stems from depth, like the roots and soil that feed a tree. But all our eyes see is what is on the surface. What do you spend your time looking at? Aren’t people who are deemed Visionaries individuals who see what others cannot? Which reminds me of this quote “eyesight is a test to see if we can see beyond it…”

I remember the 1st time I saw my mom outside of the singular yet admirable and complex role of my mother. I went to a graduation of her organization, training futures (http://www.nvfs.org/trainingfutures.htm a shamless plug for an amazing organization that is always looking for volunteers). She was speaking in front of over 200 people in a formal business setting. She spoke with such passion and grace. It hit me hard, rocked my world and never looked at her the same again. Getting a peak into another layer of Susan Craver created a deeper sense of respect, admiration and love.

I had a similar experience today when Ed, Pris, Dr Z, (author of a great book called seven steps to deep transitions) Mousina and I went to visit the Satyam (the organization I work for) Foundations. This 30,000 person organization (as I have been learning since joining three weeks ago) is dynamic and impressive. Our journey today took us on a tour of three foundations, an urban development foundation called Satyam foundation….a rural development foundation (Byrraji foundation), and Emergency Management and Research Institute. EMRI is the equivalent to 911 in the US which did not exist anywhere in India until Satyam created and continues to fund the much needed service.
We got to tour the facilities, interact with the leaders of the organizations and learn about how these services have saved and sustained the lives of hundreds of thousands of people throughout India with clean water, health care, education, disaster relief and so on. In a country where 40% of the population lives off of a dollar or less a day and life expectancy is around 64 these types of services are literally lifesavers. Like seeing another facet of my mom, learning about all the important and transformative community development work Satyam does reveals more of its richness and depth. I look forward to sharing my volunteer efforts in the community in the near future.

Helpless

I once saw Moby sing Neil Young's song Helpless in NYC at a Tsunami Relief fundraiser. It was a moving moment after such a tragedy. While nowhere close to that scale, personally this week I experienced the feeling of helplessness....Someone close to me lost their father rather unexpectedly and I wanted to support her with my physical presence yet I could not due to distance. The feeling of helplessness was very hard to handle. I realized prior to leaving that being away from friends and family was going to be the hardest part of this move. However, now that the rubber has hit the road the physical barrier is creating more dis-ease than I imagined (as I know I will miss important rituals such as birthdays (blessings to my Gemini friends), graduations, passing of loved ones, the development of baby Jalen, weddings, little big things and so forth).

Navigating this site

Friends,

Just a quick guide to navigating this site. I will be updating the site and links with content on a fairly regular basis. There is a RSS feed that will send you an email every time the site is updated if you plug in your email address on the bottom left text bar on the home page.

There will also be information that is housed in the archive you might enjoy reading.

On the road...

Traffic here makes the 405 in LA or the Beltway in DC look like a walk in the park. A chaotic blend of cars, rickshaws,dogs, people, bikes, holy cows and motorcycles (aka two-wheelers) navigate a racetrack with no lanes or proper rules for the road. The commutes to and from work have not seemed long due to all the sensory overload. If people watching is one of your favorite pastimes come to India and you will be intrigued, fascinated, perplexed and alarmed all in the same moment. Women carry water jugs and 4 foot stacks of bricks effortlessly on there heads, people piss in the road (although generally they have the decency to turn away from traffic) cows itch themselves on signposts, women with tiny straw brooms attempt to clean the street, the mosh pit of traffic you have no choice but to jump into, people nudged by cars that shake it off like a fly,the strange melody of horns that is omnipresent and many more never before seen sights. The more open I am, the more rewards I reap from the unknown. All this I see while riding in a car and when I get out of the car I stare directly into the eyes of India.

Tipping The Scale

Do you remember the 1st time you experienced something that was different from what you were used to? I remember as a child going from DC public schools to Catholic private school (and my family is not catholic)…talk about contrast. In the former, I was a racial minority one of three white children in class. In the later the racial contrast was flipped. I am grateful that I experienced such different environments at a young age; however, everything was different, like trying to blend oil and water.
I traded bugle boys for a uniform, jive for structured sentences, Jordan’s for penny loafers, and many more contrasting norms and values.
At that age the changes required little thought; my brain fresh and not yet saturated, absorbed the differences with little effort and I adapted. As an adult, the norms from my social identity groups (i.e. race, gender, sexual orientation, social class in America…) are ingrained patterns that I often personify robotically. To turn off the autopilot and steer manually requires more fuel and as I am shifting from one culture to another since moving to India, what is figural is scale and contrast….
For example, take the difference in money: the cost of dinner at an expensive American restaurant going “all out” would cost $100 per person, the same quality in India costs me $40 American for six people! I got what would have been at least $300 of dry cleaning done and it cost $30. In addition the tipping scale is very different due to the fact 60% of the population of India lives off a dollar a day. So unless you want a following (paparazzi style) you must tip appropriately to the scale here. I have learned that one the hard way----yeah people hear know who I am…which isn’t hard considering I stand out like one red rose in a bouquet surrounded of all white ones Being part of the dominant power group (white men) in America is like a fish in water. Nemo doesn’t even know he is in the water until you take him out...
A quote that comes to mind as I reflect on living in India thus far is: “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. As I behold the sensory overload of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, customs and interactions I find my heart and head feeling similar to a tennis match between the mores of east vs. west. It’s an exciting match however if you keep you’re eye on the ball to long it becomes disorienting and dizzying. In other words, my heart is heavy and my head aches at times and the match has only just begun. However, I am more alive than any other point in my life.

Arrival in India

After an 8 hour flight to Amsterdam, a four hour lay-over and another 9 hour flight I arrived in Hyderabad, India safe and sound.

To learn about my new home check out these links:

http://www.iloveindia.com/travel/hyderabad/index.html

http://www.fullhyderabad.com/htdocs/visiting_the_city/home.phtml

The Hunt...

Trust me
It's Paradise
This is where the hungry come to feed
For mine is a generation that circles the globein search of something we haven't tried before
so never refuse an invitation
never resist the unfamiliar
never fail to be polite and never outstay your welcome
just keep your mind open and
suck in the experienceand if it hurts
you know what... it's probably worth it
you hope, and you dream
but you never believe that
something is going to happen for you
not like it does in the movies
and when it actually does
you expect it to feel different
more visirale
more real
i was waiting for it to hit me
i still believe in paradise
but now at least i know it's not some place you can look forcause it's not where you go
it's how you feel for a moment in your life
and if you find that moment it lasts forever
it lasts forever
lasts forever

A farewell visit from T-Bird

This past weekend T-Bird aka TommyDigital aka one of my closest friends aka Tom Moran flew to CO From NY for a farewell visit prior to my departure to India. The weekend was action packed and felt way too short. T-bird got up on skies for the 1st time ever and managed not to kill himself (barely), and then we were privileged to see a free show by Rusted Root at the foot of Cooper Mountain (Check on the footage on my video link). The music and camaraderie was uplifting!