Pranayam - A panacea!

'Prana' means breath and 'aayama' means control hence pranayam is the exercise of controlling your breath. Why control your breath, you may ask. Pranayam enhances the amount of oxygen taken inside, removes the toxins and waste from the body and hence results in a healthy body and mind.

Normally, we do not pay attention to our breathing when, in fact, it is the most vital part of being alive! So a series of breathing exercises brings more oxygen to blood and to the brain and automates flow of blood throughout the body. It regulates the breathing and brings in the vital pranic energy and rejuvenates the mind and body.

Pranayam has innumerable benefits. Regular practitioners have reported relief to many problems like headaches, joint pains, acidity, asthma, diabetes, constipation etc. Even healthy individuals can practise pranayam to keep fit and reap the other intangible benefits.

Pranayam is best when done in the morning on empty stomach. But it can also be practised 4-6hours after meal. Take 2-3 deep breaths between every exercise to relax. One can sit in either padmasana, vajrasana or sadhasana, whichever one is comfortable with, while doing pranayam. One should learn pranayam under the supervision of a doctor or a yoga teacher before practising it independently.

Pranayam is practised as given below:

Bhastrika
Sit in comfortable position in dhyan mudra*. Take a deep breath. Breath out forcefully and uniformly. Repeat this for 5 minutes. Point to note here is that the breathing in and out are done with equal force and pace.

Kapalbhati
Sit in comfortable position in dhyan mudra*. Inhale a little and exhale through both nostrils forcefully. Inhale again and follow with another forceful exhalation passively and effortlessly. Continue these cycles. The frequency should be about 60 strokes/minute. Kapalbhati can be done for 5-15min with short breaks in between.

Anulom-Vilom
Sit comfortably in dhyan mudra*. Close your eyes. Close the right nostril with the right thumb. Inhale slowly through the left nostril. Close your left nostril with the ring and little fingers of the right hand and exhale slowly and completely with the right nostril. Again inhale through the right nostril.Close the right nostril with the right thumb. Breathe out slowly from the left nostril. This is one cycle of anulom-vilom. This pranayam can be done for 5-15min.

Bahya
Sit comfortably in dhyan mudra*. Breathe air out, touch chin to chest, squeeze stomach completely and hold for a while. then release chin, breathe in slowly. This can be done 3-5times.

Bhramari
Sit in comfortable position. Inhale completely, press the base of nostrils with little fingers, close the ears with thumbs, keep the index fingers on the forehead, close the eyes with ring and middle fingers. And now breathe out through nose while humming like a bee. Repeat it at least three times and maximum up to 21 times.

Udgeet
Sit in comfortable position with dhyan mudra*. Breathe in deeply, and chant 'Om' while exhaling. One should inhale and exhale so slowly that he or she should not feel the sound of respiration.

The session is concluded with 5-10min of Shavaasan.

Your comments/experiences/thoughts are welcome.

Some links: DivyaYoga Pranayam on IndianEducation Pranayam Tutorial Pranayam on WikiHow

*dhyan mudra - Touch the tips of the thumb and index fingers with each other and keep the remaining three fingers straight.

Of this and that...

My workstation. :) nice, eh? Again, i'm publishing this from Sony Ericsson W830i. Since i've got internet connection in my phone, have truly been able to explore the features. Pretty cool this is! I can play radio, and record bits of music and make sony Ericsson remember it for me. I can browse through all news portals, blog, check mails, google, Download songs and ringtones etc etc. I even get RSS feeds directly into my phone!! I'll keep this up as long as i'm connected. Tempting it is, but will get heavy on my pocket!

My First Mobile Blog

I'm excited to post my first Mobile blog ever! This pic was taken at the lalbagh flower show.

View Website as Graph!!

After one particular frustrating and boring day at work, I went on an Internet-browsing spree(equivalent of window-shopping in the real world). I came across a lot of new concepts, some surprising and others weird..

Just stumbled across this amazing site. If you give your website address, it parses it and loads it as a Graph!! The program executes an applet to render the graph. It slowly builds the graph and it looks as though a colourful Hydra is spreading its tentacles and stretching itself. You can have a look at this site by clicking here.

My site looks like this:

System Requirement: J2SE Ver 1.5.
Link Courtesy: VishnuPrasad
Related Links: Author | Processing | Traer Physics | HTMLParser

Want to know where your bus is? SMS `Yelli Iddira'

When techies and tech companies have gone hi-tech in India's Silicon Valley, why should BMTC be left behind? A first of its kind in India, BMTC has started a revolutionary SMS initiative called YI to track Volvo bus where about. YI is a short form for "Yelli Iddira" which translates into "Where are you?" and you can ask this of the Volvo buses v356C and v335E by sending an SMS. And you will get an instant reply of the whereabouts of the bus.

Currently, the service is available on two Volvo routes — V356C between Kempe Gowda Bus Station(KBS) and Electronic City(EC) and V335E between KBS and Kadugudi via ITPL. To avail oneself of the facility,one has to send an SMS from the mobile phone in the following manner — YI Volvo Route Number U or D to 9945634666. For example, YI 356C U to 9945634666.

But there is one problem. There is one 356C plying out of KBS every 20-30min. And the total journey time from KBS to EC is around one to one-and-a-half hours depending on the traffic on 356C's bus route. Bus Routes info can be found here: ಕನ್ನಡ and English. If you SMS YI 356C at, say, 9.30am, the bus which started from KBS @8am would have almost reached EC, the one started @8.30am would be near Madiwala/Silk Board, the one which left @9am would be near Wilson Garden/Dairy Circle whereas another would just have left KBS @9.30. Whereas the SMS should give info regarding all the 4 buses, it gives the whereabouts of only one bus. So the yardstick for deciding which bus will be included in the SMS is not clear. The same happened to me one day. I SMSed @9.40am from Madiwala and the SMS said v356C is near Wilson Garden, and lo! another bus is in Madiwala( much to my delight!!).

All in all, a truly commendable initiative by BMTC and hope it will be extended to all the other volvo buses soon. And who knows, we may also be able to know where our regular BMTC bus is, in not so distant future!!!

Your comments/thoughts are welcome.

Information regarding the firm that developed this software can be found here.

Related Links:
Nidhi's Article on Volvo
Volvo Bus Routes |ವೋಲ್ವೊ ಬಸ್ ಮಾಹಿತಿ| The Hindu Article
For more Info Regarding the SMS Alert: YI

Nike Crazy Ad

I happened to watch this ad on TV over the weekend. I fell in love with it!!! I wonder how they picturised it.... An Ad I'd blindly rate with 5 stars!

My First Post

First impression is the best impression.
Having read this so many times, it popped up the moment I sat down to write my first post. Made me think whether the first impression is truly the best.

Is it not true that the first impressions we have had of people change due course of time as a profound understanding of plausible reasons for a person's behaviour at the first meeting dawns over us? Is it not true a song that we first thought was despicable grows on us so much sometimes, that we find ourselves humming it unconsciously?

Well, what I think is, first impression is not always the best impression. We can not see everybody under the same light. Because the circumstances in which we meet different people differ and most importantly, the people we meet differ in their attitude, thinking, upbringing etc which deeply influence a person's behaviour. True, one who is boisterous and full of interesting pieces of anecdotes may present a positive first impression whereas someone sitting silently at a corner of a room observing others may incite negative first impression. But it is when we truly get to know him/her well that we truly understand how he/she thinks and why does he/she do so. If we judge someone on the basis of how serious or jolly he/she looks, we would be making a big mistake. Because there are so many people who appear reserved at first but turn out to be quite easy-going, funny and friendly (read,ME :-)). The body language itself is capable of telling the entire story on its own. But what I say is never make a judgment on the basis of first impression, who knows; you may be missing out on the finer-things in life just because you erred in haste.

How can I forget to include about making first impressions in the corporate world? It is stressed upon so much during the endless training sessions that we go through; that a good first impression is crucial to gaining respect, trust and confidence and that it will take you a long way in your life. So in the corporate world, you must always be ready to present your best self and make the first impression the best (Then what about later? It's truly difficult to impress later, don't you think? Beacuse how will you better the best???).

Ok people, that's all from me.
Let me know what you think... Are first impressions truly the best?