Watch your thoughts, they become your words
Watch your words, they become your actions
Watch your actions, they become your character

This is well said and for those who are on a spiritual journey to find deeper meaning to life and lasting inner peace and happiness, this is a theory very much implementable on the ground level. It is widely believed that much of our problems actually stem from our own mind and thoughts. Mind Control is an age-old concept in Hinduism and also explains the immense powers of the heroic characters in Hindu mythology. I like to believe that there is a foundation of truth in the fictitious powers demonstrated by most of the kings, ascetics and preachers of that era. By disciplining the mind through regular meditation, fasting, penance and other religious practices, I am sure they were able to acquire divine powers which enabled them to become invincible personalities displaying miraculous capabilities, as allegorically described in the mythological tales.

Mind Control is being practiced since ages and even today, I think it is a hard but not an impossible task. It is strongly believed by most saints and philosophers that every human mind is connected to the universal mind and to every other mind. Our minds are believed to be small scattered fragments of a bigger universal force like droplets of water in the ocean when sprinkeld in different directions. In fact, such is the power of our human mind, that if you have a strong mental wish or desire, and you literally sort of “will” something to happen, simply by focusing your mind, your thoughts and your energy on that desire, without any negative thoughts of fear or worry, then your desire actually becomes a reality. This works provided you strongly wish for an outcome that is pure, sincere and heartfelt. Then as they say "if you truly wish it to happen, then the whole universe conspires to make your wish come true". This is the whole reality about mind power and it works if you believe in it and practice it enough. But, mind you it needs to be “practiced enough” for it to work.

From my association with various spiritual works, I understand that the keys to this are through detachment to worldly pleasures, self-discipline and meditation or the practice of controlling the focus of the mind. One can begin by purifying the mind and body. A satvik (vegan) diet and regular fasting helps in purifying the body and attaining some control over our temptations and cravings. This part is not so difficult as fasting is a concept inherent in many religious practices and we Indians grow up with the idea of temporary control over our urge for food and water. The next step of purifying the mind is all about controlling the flow of thoughts and ideas into your mind. Broadly that means all that your brains and senses are exposed to. Then once you have control over your body and subsequently over your mind, by practicing meditation you can focus your mind and energies on those outcomes you want in your life.

If you read a lot of spiritual literature, you realize mind control is based on the fundamental philosophy described by most of the saints, seer s and thought leaders, which is “you attract into your life whatever you think about most” Most of the positive and negative outcomes in your life are actually a result of what your mind dwells on. So if there is that outcome that you fear the most, and if you frequently visualize negative consequences, if you constantly think about negative outcomes, then the situation you fear the most is actually what you draw into your life by constantly focusing your thoughts and energy on it. It becomes your reality. If you consciously put out all negative thoughts from your head and dwell on positive mental images and visualization, then it is believed that you can subconsciously attract positive events into your life.

These thoughts are also pretty much connected to the philosophy of the three monkeys, who see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil, advocated by ancient Oriental philosophers and later in India, by Gandhi. The underlying philosophy behind the three monkeys really tells you is not to expose yourself, your senses and your thoughts to anything negative or in other words do not absorb negative energy and thus you will also not generate any negative ideas, thoughts, energy or vibes.

I have often tried to put these ideas into practice and although it is harder than we think, I know for a fact that when we intensely focus our mind and energy a particular outcome, practice mental imagery and affirmations, miraculously our sincere desires do come true.

Therefore all these ideas often raise several questions in my mind. By limiting or eliminating all exposure to local or world news through any media can we keep out the negativities? Take for example the newspaper. What makes news? The unsual happennings or more likely the negative issues and events in the world around us. Of course I understand that not reading the newspaper does not change anything in the world around me. BUT when think about it, I realize by not reading the newspaper for half an hour every day, I do prevent my mind from from focusing on many negative feelings of anger, fear, worry, religious, racial or cultural resentment, that are reported in the newspaper from places all over the world. etc. Mostly because the truth is that negative events and happennings make more news than the postive stuff. I sincerely belive that to some extent ignorance about bad and ugly events can be bliss. In fact that the very concept of news is warped these days. In reality a scoop or story actually sells and becomes more thrilling if it has negative elements in it. So the good deeds hardly receive much limelight as do the gruesome murders, scams, scandals, terrorism acts, rapes, suicides, gossip, fraud, robberies, broken promises, breaches of trust, etc. So it is with the action blockbuster films and many thrillers and bestselling books.

But I also wonder, how far is it possible for us to consistenly consciously block out all negative input to our brain, wherever we do have a choice to do so. I seriously ponder about what kind of a place the world would be if each one of us consciously and selectively exposes our self to positive content through all media, be it books, television, internet or even our conversations. I also wonder that if each one of us shuts out such negative inputs, and makes a sustained effort to focus only on good events happening in the world around us, would we, as a human race, be able to attract more peace and positive events into our lives and into the world?

The languages of my day

"Hey!!! How are you?" A friend at office greets me. That's the coolest, Americanized way to
greet the cool and not so cool people in the yuppie metro culture in India. "Great", I say these days, instead of plain old "fine". I've imbibed this one. But somehow, a "hey" just does not come out as spontaneously as the good old last century "hi". I think a lot about these and other
words that I use in my daily vocabulary. Which makes me ponder over not just the range
of words, but also the range of languages I use in a day.

As I write, I think. Mostly I try to think in English. Obviously as a writer I would have a good command over English. But wait a minute, which English? You think, this would be a no-brainer, because there is only one language called English, plain and simple! Unfortunately no! At the Indian writer level, working in an American company, who has studied and imbibed the English language and grammar in a British convent school for over a decade, is daily and hourly exposed to Bollywoood media, and is living in the Shiv Sena-dominated, politically driven, communist Maharashtrian culture, would you believe, there are a few "Englishes" to chose from?

Thanks to 10 or more years of convent education, some formidable nuns, and tons of Enid Blytons, Jane Austen, Shakespeare, and Arthur Conan Doyle, British English has seeped into 78.593% pores of my skin. It has just been flowing out from my tongue in auto-mode, on the default setting for many years. But after entering the professional world, inevitably the American dollars beckoned. Soon came the realization that at American-affiliated Indian IT companies, any female Indian writer is more than willing to embrace the American stars, stripes, slang, terminology, even the handsome Obama, et al. In fact, in the race of life, an Indian writer can shift into fourth gear by learning American English, and get on to fast track career growth. It's not so challenging. Even though one is tuned to thinking in British English, one can manage to keep up with the professional writing in American English.


Switching on and off between these two language modes is one problem that can be easily resolved. One just has to try not to confuse oneself and tangle one's thought process within these two "Englishes". At the same time, what I always believe is that one must try not to forget how to converse in the common language of the people, that is "Hinglish". Sooner or later you realize that it's hard to converse with colleagues, buddies, and pals, if you cannot converse in the common dialect, by somehow attaining a balance of Hindi and English in your daily conversation. So if you started that sentence in English, the trick is to finish it off in Hindi. Everyone does it! See how TRP advertisers sell their FMCG wares? You got it! They speak "Hinglish", the dialect of the people. So of course, "Hinglish" just creeps into the remaining pores of your skin. But one has to try to squeeze the regional language Marathi into the pores, too. After all, in Pune, local colleagues at work might just lapse into a little Marathi without warning. So if you add in a few words of Marathi into the Maharashtra-based Indian writer's articulation technique, then you get the fourth type of English, which is "Indian Regional English".

I do like to think of "Indian Regional English" as different from the "spoken vernacular" and the "written vernacular", Marathi. And mind you, both "Indian Regional English" and the "spoken vernacular " are such important languages in your daily life, you just cannot afford to chill, and freeze on a limited selection of words for emergency use. You need to strive to expand your vocabulary in these areas as well. For instance on any day in office, you might not be pre-warned when a colleague answers several critical technical queries in "Indian Regional English", at home your domestic help mutters that she's not available for the next four days, or on the road the noveau-riche owner of a flashy car curses you and your slow but steady driving, all in the "vernacular".


Switching to and from different English modes can be done with ease, and can become as simple as switching automotive gears, if one practices hard enough. Although these seem like several languages to master, it's sad that one can't really claim to be a multi linguist at this. You see, the four versions of English are just sub-languages, and the "umbrella" or "blanket" language is actually only English. So I was about to conclude this blog with the sum total of the languages I speak, that is only 3. But a couple of phone calls that jolted me out of my linguistic reverie! One call was from my mother, to whom I responded in my mother-tongue, that is Sindhi. Oooh, I completely forgot to add this language to my list. The language of my childhood and my impressionable years. The other call was from my father-in-law who let out a few phrases in the Punjabi language, that is my husband's "father-tongue". I attempted to answer in the same "tongue" as a few thoughts occured to me. You see hubby's mother is a Maharashtrian, so the "mother-tongue" ought to be Marathi. Now I know that there is a confusion here because the language his mother speaks would not be his mother-tongue, but the language his father speaks would be his mother-tongue. And you might be wondering which of these is my daughter's mother-tongue? Worry not! I shall not let the strangeness of the English language dilute my focus on this blog post about "my" language medley and the pontifications that make me wonder which languages I speak in, write in and think in.


Back on track, I chewed my pen and decided that sleeping over the confusion would restore my clarity of thought and language for this blog post, so I left it at that. But the evening conversation with my daughter churned up some more thought-provoking words or rather words-provoked thoughts. As I entered the house, my daughter chirped, "Hey dude!". Then later she went on to ask me what "modhu" meant, as her cousin brother (whose mother is from Gujarat and speaks Gujarati) had told her "shut your modhu", just for fun, and a fight had ensued because of the language barrier and incomprehension. "Modhu" means mouth in the Gujarati language. Simple and harmless, not at all profane, I explained to her! Fortunately, since I knew the meaning, I had prevented a little Gujarati spark from fanning into a linguistic fire right there. As her cousin interjected a few more words in Gujarati, my daughter quipped, " Mama, if you know Gujarati, then you have to teach me also". Thankfully, my son has just learnt to speak only a few words of a single language, and still has a long way to go before he reports any such perils.

And last but not the least, I must mention that my day finally ended after a late-evening call from hubby dear with some friends, seated at a wine-tasting lounge in Nasik, which is like the Napa valley of India. Completely oblivious of my linguistic dilemma, he read aloud from a wine menu and asked if I knew what "aperitif" meant? I racked my brains to dig up French vocabulary learnt at school. Yes, I said, making the final language switch for the day. "Aperitif" means an appetising drink, served before meals.

Linguistically tired, I tried to sleep, thoughts still lingering on my lexical predicament, pondering and wondering which of the above languages I would use in my dreams.