Obama supports gay marriage

Pleasantly surprised and happy about this, still wondering what could be the political motivations behind this cant help feeling warm and fuzzy and nice about the man.good man? :) bold move!
Equal rights and all is great, no body should stop gay marriage.
but why do they want to get married so bad! :-P
The world is moving forward at this pace, half the people dont get married at all...its kinda so irrelevant these days.. married or not...
why care at all about being main stream and get "married"?

associative anger

Observing myself - I notice anger and irritation towards astrology, gold, sarees, vegetarianism. Unfair. Anger, fair or unfair is not necessary for me at this stage in my life.. but easier to get rid of unfair anger I hope.
Its  misdirected anger.
I dont actually hate astrology. I personally know that moon phases affect us, may not be our fate but our moods. I know full moon makes most people restless, brings up pains, body aches, migranes..
so astrology - no hate.. planets can affect us. but  I hate the way people use it or rather misuse it. I hate it that people run to astrologer to ask for solutions and they follow what the astrologer asks them to do with out understanding why or what of it. I like people using intelligence and thinking.I hate the blind following..
I shouldnt hate gold, its a poor blameless metal, what i really hate is the peoples greed and need for it. I hate the way women, especially, place so much importance on it, that makes them so superficial and silly.
I shouldnt hate sarees its a sexy dress after all.
I hate the way people seem to dietyfy sarees, its apparently divine dress- most decent and such crap. sorry, blind people!! It looks ugly on women who put out their tummies on display, It looks ugly on clumsy women who wear it 4 inches off the ground at the back, It looks great on Sushimata sen Priyanka cropra and Sonai gandhi :-) only :-P( and Offcourse on all those women who read this blog( u are all beautiful!) :P and Also on all those men's wives/girlfriends/partners who read this blog :P)
Also I hate the fact that Indians stick on to old traditions blindly like a saree which was probably invented before we learnt to stitch but once we learnt to stitch some 4000 years ago we should have moved on. no?It not sarees fault that people didnt move on to more efficient dresses no? so  I shouldnt hate the blameless saree.
Vegetarianism - similarly long and short of it, if Bramhins are vegetarian and they discriminated and put down other people for thousands of years, It makes those people bad, it does not make being vegetarian bad.
If kids who were vegetarian were sissy, it does not make vegetarianism bad, It was probably their over protective parents. Its a childhood belief which I should let go? Dont I have friends now who are vegetarian and not sissy?I also actually dont hate western vegeterian people do I?
 After venting about vegetarians on my blog, my whole attitude changed! surprisingly! I think I realised I hated because of us and them syndrome and let that go... There is a Jain guy who is a very staunch veggie...When someone taunted him I heard myself saying poor thing, let atleast some people in this world be noble and I actually meant it :) proud of myself!

I walk alone

The most surprising part is how natural it feels. holidaying alone I thought would be awakward but it wasn't. So natural.. so normal. I realise I have done it many many times but havent named it as such thats all.. may all those 2 day train journeys in India - If u enjoyed yourself on those I think u can count on enjoying urself alone anywhere :) and those official trips.
Free, thats the first thing I felt and peace. and Yupieee!I did it kinda feeling :-) as if its a big deal! but may be it is :-) ..but there is a slight fear that I m turning(?!?:P) into this anti social loner, real fear is that I m liking it :-)
Hah! I want to hug the place...bubbles bursting in my heart!:-) I love the sea! I think I also love the fact that I did this :) I want to dissolve into the sea and sink into the sand...
funny I feel like I am getting away from a close friend when I leave this place.. I linger on and on and on on the beach.. its getting cold and hungry.. ah!but I love this! I dont want to go..
I go to the waves to wash my shoes and then leave but stay on and then back on the sand just 5 more minutes.. ntill the birds stop singing.. may be visit all those silly sand things people have done one mroe time before I leave..
the softest sand and the gentle waves..crystal clear water...the fading light..I want to roll in the sand and rub my back in sand like a doggy but then I guess I have not gone that crazy yet.. I refrain sadly..
I finally get up and leave.. my stomach is very persuasive ..

BTW what do u do with beauty? seeing it is not enough, photographing it..  I get this Arrgh! I want to ..! feeling when I see and feel beauty! some how I want to immerse into it? blend into it, hug it,  dip into it and get it all over me, through me.....

Soul Mates

Caught you attention now ! Din I? :D
hehe!
yeah Soul Mates!
The unexplained affinity,warmth,tenderness, peace, the gentle pull, feel of  coming home when u are with a person...or unbearable attraction and passion, heady feeling, something u cannot shake off no matter what...like being sucked in a vortex.. all at the first glance! Soul mate? :)
A more politically correct or rather less alarming term is being used these days "soul connected" because u can feel this connections with anyone - parents, brothers, sisters,friends - u can have a strong connection but have no romantic interest, u may have strong connection and romantic interest but  u may be already commited ;-) so soul connected ;-)
How does it all fall into place Mystically..
God made all souls in pairs, separated them( I should have said "us" LOL!obviously I dont buy this :) and threw them to earth...we are all basically halfs of a whole and must keep searching and find that one person who completes us! This is the hollywood version of the story.
Another theory is that soul mates are souls with whom u have spent many lifes, who are ur lovers across life times.. but There can be multiple soul mates.. souls dont have gender nor do they have any taboo... these souls have had both romantic and non romantic relationship with u in the past lives.. but close relationships.. so u feel the affinity and closeness with them... you know each other too well...for too long...
Another theory is that if you from the same soul group - imagine there is big higher soul which splits into multiple souls which in turn split and so on.. like branches of a tree.. if u are 2 branches shot out of same trunk u are soul mates..u are literally connected via the trunk..

Master Co from pranic healing had an interesting take on the soul mates funda.. according to him there are two kinds of soul mates, One kind is the regular soul mate  with whom u have had romantic relationships in the past life, who are kind of connected to you in the soul hierarchy and who compliment you, When u see these people ur heart will go mmmmmmm ...
Another type are those that have lessons for you!! :D you will be intensely attracted to people who will teach u lessons in life :-) that means that life with these "soul mates" will definitely be challenging. Suppose ur soul had a purpose that it will learn anger management in this life time. These soul mates will do exactly that, push ur anger buttons and push u to the limits so that u learn!!. so beware of love at first sight ;-) Soul mates can also be people with whom u have unfinished business ( usually actually always unpleasant)  The longer the unfinished business lasts the closer the souls are bought to sort out their issues and messes.. If two people were part of a feud in one life time and developed a lot of hatred with each other and died like that, next life they are probably brought together as friends so that they de-solve the hatred and move on, but instead if they just build on hate, then they are brought together as husband wife or parent child, if u still dont mend ur business - conjoined twins :D So if u dont like someone, better to not have any hatred/anger towards them if not they will return as soul-mates :D

Techniques

1) Glass wall technique... may be this was Dream gyan or may be I read it somewhere in a slightly different way (NLP stuff?) and it was summarised like this... Its a nice way to remember that all the worlds drama is happening inside our head and actual reality is quite fine!..I saw this more as a cartoon video than in words...

I was angry and upset with someone ...The  person was in front of me, I drew big bold crosses on him with a dark red felt pen... then a line connecting  this to my brain and a drew some mess there.... means - this person made my head mess up.
 Then I moved to the side a bit, I saw that all this scribbling and crosses were on a  glass wall in front of me and not on that person at all...that person was fine! I quickly erased off the crosses and then the line and then the mess in my head!! I felt great after this!? no anger! cool or what? :)

2) Using the energy from the emotions technique - may be this helps me disassociate with my emotions ...atleast it helps dissipate them..I dono where this came from.. may be I read this somewhere as well?! May be Louise hay?  .. one of those free books on my Kindle I think . Its similar to some exercises and that book by a psychologist has similar meditations...
When we feel intense emotions like sadness or pain or anger, we can use the strength of those emotions to do something else constructive..Sometimes I remember to do this when I feel strong emotions.
Sometimes feel intensely sad but I dono why, I observe the pain... I try to feel that pain as physical sensation rather than emotion then I imagine(?) that it is actually just energy and then turn it into light(proper flash light) and shine it inside my head - hopefully I will be able to see what it is that is causing the pain.. till today I haven't seen any reason for the pain :) but the sadness dissipates.. I am thinking it is working slowly may be once I shine enough light it will show me the actual reason?
If I know the reason then even better, for example I feel really sad remembering my cats and I cant seem to get over it.. turn the saddness into love( isnt it actually love in the first place?) then send it out from my heart to my cats, to all cats or to just all people connected to me ...I feel better. I imagine proper connections like bright wires of light going out of my heart taking love in them
May be I feel lonely - then I use the sadness to break the walls I have built around my heart so that I can reach out to people ... etc..etc ... :)  I am very creative with the imagination, I sometimes imagine that energy as a flood breaking the walls of a dam, or Like a fist punching off a brick wall.. I imagine the flash light shining in the deep mines/tunnels in my brain looking for stuff which I may have repressed... I imagine myself turning and looking at the pain and asking who are you...why are u making me sad..
yeah all this is too personal but what the heck, this blog is for personal purpose anyway.

I can get tired of beauty but I think the appeal of cuteness is more sustained

swans are beautiful and ducks are cute, I got bored of swans but I still find ducks cute! 

I think its the same with people,most people who I thought looked beautiful started looking dull after a while. ( all girls tho :-D, good looking guys remain good looking :D)

can sounds be cute and beautiful or is it just images?

we do say  a beautiful voice and that doesnot get tiring and cute? when people make cute noises that is definitely annoying :D hehe but thats not realy cute voice is it? itis noise made when people think something else is cute :D

prosthetics

along the same lines.. is the day far away when prosthetics become so good that people will start going in for artifical legs over real legs?
motorised legs with different type fittings - say wheels for smooth surfaces, spikes,  opposable thumb in the foot , extensible hand, u can stretch it long to reach the door or that glass on table on the far side of the bed ?.
Already read reports that golfers get lasik done to normal eyes to improve their performace..
its just a matter of cost isnt it?
If para olympics become as porpular as F1 racing,
if the focus starts shifting from effort to technology.. if companies start competing at entertainment level . I feel this is somewhat politically incorrect, but wont it be great if people put in the same ammount of reaserch into prothetics as into racing cars. and these days showbiz and sport are 2 main things which rake money
Then the day wont be far away when we all become Iron-men. slowly body will fade away,  We will just be pure brains?! :-) Then once we will start augmenting our brains with flash drives and more processing power and then.. even the organic brain will disappear..
Will the organic carbon man remain at all? Isnt that also some kind of evolution?
There are 1000s on movies on this theme I think.

rebel eh? :)

I m putting up picture on skpe for office use. I put up a nice picutre of me in a formal suite.
Then I reaslied everyone else has put up some vague pictures - cartoons animals etc. No one has put their own pic.I m so embarrassed and want to change, It feels like I m silly egotists  who has put up her own pic :D
I think confirmist side is very strong in most of us. me too, tho slightly less than most.
only very weird characters like left wingers or bums are true rebels I think.
I m more confirmist in UK than in India. :) see them as more peers? so when I rebel in India it is not really rebelign at all?
Anyway after this realisation I have let that picture stay...

Dream Gyan- You are taking yourself too seriously! Just Chill!

Can an amputee grow a leg..

To answer my own cheeky question,
Can an amputee grow a leg by changing belief?
Why shud they?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Pistorius
blade runner, Double amputee. Competes with "normal" bodied athletes at Olympic level! He wanted to run in 2008 olympics but this caused debates that the prosthetic legs may infact  have an advantage over normal legs!!!
and how silly of me to ask that question after reading about Nick Vujicic. no hands no legs. SO? He is no hands no legs NO LIMITS!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Vujicic
We have a very very very narrow view of how things should fall into place, universe has limitless possibilities and limitless creativity.  no?
Instead of  having goals and expectations and limiting life( like trying to grow a leg :P),
we should  allow life to flow and see what magnificent things it brings us ...

and one more :-)
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/895926-afghanistan-hero-set-to-climb-mount-everest-with-prosthetic-ice-axe
:-) 

Affirmations

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirmations_(New_Age)

From Wiki -This is related to mind over matter, This is one course of action to change matter with the mind.

Affirmations in New Thought and New Age terminology refers primarily to the practice of positive^{[clarification needed]} thinking—fostering a belief that "a positive mental attitude supported by affirmations will achieve success in anything."^[1] More specifically an affirmation is a carefully formatted statement that should be repeated to one's self and written down frequently. For an affirmation to be effective, it needs to be present tense, positive, personal and specific.^[2]

rebel or conformist?

Walk the untroden path, Do something new, that no one has done before..
Lot of great people say this.. and everyone listens and seems to be inspired by the words, but very very few people actually do it??
is this really for everyone???
Turns out not! There is a definite reason for vast majority of us to be sheep who follow the trends and very few who actually try out something different, who dare do something new. Biology and the usual cultprit evolution.
I saw this on BBC.
The host was asked to rate some 50 people for beauty on 1 to 10 and as soon as he rated them, he was shown the crowd score for that face. As he did this, his brain was scaned and based on the activity in certain part of  his brain, they could determine if he is a rebel or a conformist.
If you are a conforist, as soon as u think u have done something different from the group, one part of ur brain screems Ouch! If you are a rebel, this part of the brain remain quite. This is hard wired into ur brain. The host was asked to rate the people all over again and they predicted how much of his opinion would have changed based on his brain activity. They told him so , he tried hard to be fair and not change his opinion but he ended up being part conforist unconsciosuly! :)

Why so few rebels and so any conformists? Evolution. Groups is smarter than the individual at least most individuals anyway ;-) so safer to be conformist. But if all were conformists he population would stagnate. so ESS (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/06/2/l_062_03.html) allows for a small number to be rebels to explore the new horizons and take humanity forward..

Am I a rebel or conformist? I think I m like the host part rebel and part conformist. slightly more rebel than most.
BTW most of these teenage rebels are actually conformists, who are conforming to their peer group.

mind over matter

why do I still need convincing with this? :)
I mean after all these years of reading and experiences, you would think my beliefs have changed.
I would think my beliefs have changed but I feel such a strong need to convince others that mind indeed can model matter.. looks like I too still need convincing.

Law of attraction and many of the books say that whole of our reality and whole of our life is created by us, by what we think and what we believe in. If I believe life sucks, thats what I get, If I believe people are cheats I will end up meeting cheats , If I believe life is good, and I m lucky, I will indeed be presented with lot of luck. Mind over matter see?
A subset of that, Louise Hay says that every ailment in your body is related to some belief of you and you can cure anything by changing ur beliefs. It sounds like a load of crap? Or you may think for small things like headache maybe I will cure it by wishing it away but not diabetes or say Arthritis or Cancer?
Look at this.

MPD or Multiple personality disorder-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/36533449@N02/3550534660/
people are known to change eye colour between personalities. not just that, one personality has diabetes another does not. even scars and bee stings! I read of this in Phantoms in the brain( excellent book btw). Disorders really give us so much more insight into the working of the brain than normal( ! ) brains. It feels like there is a process control block or something in our brain , a structure which has flags, arthritis = yes; eye_color = brown, handedness = right and so on. If you have MPD u  make a copy of that and change it as per current beliefs. Its like spawning a new  process with different arguments. we have one ego or self identity process, they have many.. and the whole body just responds to these few parameters in a matter of minutes. The difference between a person with short sight and normal person is just a few bits in the brain? Unbelievable but true(if u believe it!).
So..Can an amputee grow a leg like this? ;-) frankly I donno! Is there a limit at all? There shouldnt be, I mean no need to get into paranormal -just look at animal kingdom If a lizard can grow back a tail...? if a female fish can turn into male...? BTW did u know that Turkeys can give birth by Virgin birth? Female turkeys (obviously ) give birth to male Turkeys, Asexually.


If u are psycho(or an animal :P) u do all this without ur knowledge, but if u become  an expert brain hacker like Neo from Matrix , can we do this ourselves? :-)?  Yes!!!  I believe life is THIS interesting ! :) Its a matter of time and figuring out how.

shantap paapam

shantam paapam shantam paapam.. :) do u remember this? patting our cheeks and saying shantam paapam  :-)
mostly to embarrass friends!so long since I did that :)

synchronocity 3

Few weeks back, walking home, some how sad bout something ...some kids has thrown some flowers on the street, felt sad (when we are sad we feel more sad for others ;-) ) and picked up one, very pretty... I can almost see a lil fairy sitting on that flower :) too much miyazaki :) fairy looks like Kodama spirit in a tutu :D as if someone put it there to cheer me up! :) I took it home and put it on the altar.

. 

Very pretty  rose like flowers... camellia ...after that day I have looked for those flowers again,, always found them in the plants not on the street..I din pluck flowers - some stupid value. (flowers are so attractive and so plenty, they beg to be picked actually. If u pick one and touch 3, u are pollinating, plants will love that more than if u just stay away.. but still somehow we "shouldnt pick flowers!" Grrr)

Today also feeling somehow low...walking back home...there is a canal on the way. I notice there is a canal road dono where it goes..should I take it? took it anyway. Started walking .. soon (not soon enough :P) I realise it's a bit stupid to do this...Sun has almost set.. its getting dark fast and there are no lights on that road :D there is no way out either. one side canal another side fence :D absolutely no one else on the road...how far before some exit!!???  5 more mins.. 10 mins.. no exit!! mummy!! and now its long way back!!! :) .. then a bridge ..on the other side.. a hole in the fence!!  Great! but now I am in a huge huge football field ..empty..  also fenced! and where is the bloody entrance( exit actually )? Now it is almost dark. I can already see Venus and Jupiter?! hello there :P!! Aaaaaaa :D only I can get into a fix like this, in the city!! hehe!  luckliy some car tracks- followed - running ! I m afraid of the dark!! :) finally  I m out! civilization! Sigh!!!! 

and There a beautiful house -garden-same flower tree-same flowers all torn down and all over the street!!! :) :-) as if  strewn there just for me!! a gift?!! This time I pick up two :) It 's as if I was led through that sucha weird route to that particular place just so that I could pick those flowers up and cheer myself up ( Actually?! what sad? can anyone be sad and scared at the same time? no!!!! :-))

co-incidence :) but so longwinded and so sweet! :) 

mirror

Nostalgia actually
I bought this essential oil - lavender for aroma therapy.. funnily it does not smell nice at all..It smells just like my dad's old shaving cream :)  Good old days ... I used to be so intrigued by shaving!! The small round shaving cream box, shaving brush.. and the razor which opened up magically when we turned its handle :) the foldable razor was heights of technology I just loved that!( our parents let us handle blades and razors even when we were like 7!?! cool!) haha! I also loved to see my dad make faces when he shaved :D
That makes me think, actually shaving was sucha  ritual in those good old days.. he used to actually sit in the living room with a small mirror and a mug of water to shave!! ah! we didnt have a wash basin in those days!!! there was no mirror in bathroom!! actually if I think about it there were so few mirrors in those days! There was only one mirror in the house.. small face mirror and that shaving mirror! there was so full length mirror at all!!! same with my grandparents house.. no full length mirror at all!!!  people never knew or cared how they looked,except their face!
I remember my uncles often quoted joke about this girl he saw( for marriage )
He was like she looks just like Hema malini, He looks just like Hema mailini... neck down that is! :D :D meaning she is NOT good.
Today if some said that girl looks just like Scarlet Johansen...Neck down that is! we would  go WOoooooooooooooooo (howl  :P :P)  even better than  Scarlet Johanson neck up eh? ;-)
Full length mirrors are the reason for this? full length mirrors have changed our focus from face to body ?  I think :)
even then people saw others full length, but they cared only about face because they couldnt see themselves full length? :D funny :)

sexist western society

Why does every comedy serial have this episode where the women talk about how they want a great wedding, about girls dreams of elaborate expensive weddings and how they have been planning it all their life?!!!?! It is not funny :( It is plain wrong. sucha waste of money and resorces and such a wrong direction for young women.and it is setting a very bad example for all young girls :(
:-(
how can all these sitcoms justify waste of money over silly ceremonies and glorify it? I hate it! supposedly pro-women sitcoms are so sexist. Its plain wrong :( Sex and the City, Friends,movies like father of the bride.. all.. and yeah - girls father pays for the wedding! :-O

and the biological clock ticking hysteria?!? it is kinda funny at times...!  exactly like the hysteria about getting daughters married in conservative households in india.. there age bar is 22 here 40.. but its the same anxiety/fear/desperation.  ( BTW I think our first lady princess Aishwarya having a baby at 37 should chill a lot of people and raise the bar in india? ;-) )

and the girls are bad at maths thing! There are absolutely NO lady engineers here in the UK! Zero! Thanks to such sexist propaganda! Girls are bad at maths! There were hardly any boys in my class as good at maths as me!
In India there is an awareness about such things atleast some people are feminist, people are fighting against such views. There is always an uproar about sexist ad campaigns, here there is nothing. pink and blue. why  so much distinguishing at such young age.. why not green/yellow/purple/red prams!?! just let them be, instead of doing this boy/girl thing!
I dont like :-(

Yes there is Sexism here but .....
 I had to add the PS:
After  bumming on the beach, in a bikini, alone.  topless babes sun bathing around me, often alone, roaming around in clothes definitely classified as very skimpy in India in the wee hours of the night, drinking alone( :-O?:-P) and feeling so safe to be able to do this.. I felt very touched and grateful to this culture and society actually.
I remember how we went to the beach in India.. my river dress . thick grey trousers and thick dark black and red shirt.. I felt sad for me for that... I remember kerala - people following me on the beach even when getting into water fully clothed. Yew! disgusting that... from that to this!!! Liberating!
West has got something right, and India is like very very very very long way behind.... after tasting freedom like this..  will I ever be able to go back to that?
.. 

pursuit of happiness

Money fame power...
pursuing these... people say wont really lead you to happiness, they say these are shallow goals, superficial, when u achieve still u feel empty etc.. kind of like the gold pot under rainbow pursuits...
Family, people, love they say  bring real joy!
Travelling alone I realised even these goals family/love/stability/perfection...even these are rainbow- gold pot type pursuits. controversial but true. Its the same thing as power fame money...
unless we  find happiness inside ourself, everything else is still gold pot under rainbow pursuit- no?

I m sure having good close friends, loving partner and kids bring us a lot of joy no doubt... making money, being successful? also brings us joy...
well actually what I think I m trying to say that the converse is not true.
 making money, being successful? also brings us joy..,not having money or success need not necessarily make us sad! :-)
Ye!!! yes this is exactly what I actually thought -
similarly having good close friends, loving partner and kids bring us a lot of joy no doubt...but not having these need not make us sad at all :)

What I actually thought is that these things as such are not bad at all, they bring us joy, but pursuit is bad,? Pursuit is also not bad, making something a pre-condition for our happiness is bad. "I will be happy if..." I think the "will be" and "if..." part  of that statement are wrong. "I m happy!" May be There are no pre conditions for happiness! ( yeah, not original - this is new age funda : ) but nice funda. )

Miyazaki has 2 sons and no daughters!
Aww sucha pity!  He would make a really lovely dad to a daughter.. such a sweet man and his understanding of girls is just .... awww...
Paulo Coehlo - Feminist - no children :)
How come these two great artists with such beautiful hearts are such avid feminists! Aww  I m touched..
<3 * <3* <3
C S Lewis - people criticize him to be sexist and religious. I actually found him also to be a feminist, this lead is a lil girl. she is the one who almost always gets people out of trouble and Aslans favourite. I din find his books too religious or evangelic either.. :P

Mantras

(this is kinda random post)
Om mani padme hum - from tibetan incantatons mp3 from friend
Om Thrembakam yajamahe - this one just came to me? may be when I searched for Om joom, I found that, that was maha mrytuyunjaya mantra but full form was this one, This was also chanted at the end of yoga class, but I never got it then
Om joom saha maam palay palay saha joom om -astrologer, He says anger will come down, but from personal experience I think this is for good health.
Om namah shivaya Om - childhood one :) My parents ploy to keep kids quite during power cut, Do Tapas like Druva they used to say  and I will get a vara :D haha! but Druva must have worshiped Vishnu...my parents told me Om namah shivaya.. I say this when I am scared of ghosts also, funny My brother says Jai Bajarang bali :)
So ham - pranic healing. Ham-sa - It is the opposite of so hum, supposedly milder version.
Om bhur bhuvasvaha - most popular mantra :)  These days it is played everywhere. 1998 - A friend was offended that this mantra was chanted in a movie( Stupid movie Mohobatein), Apparently it should nt be chanted by women, lower class people, actually anyone except some initiated bramhin male :) and how things have changed since then.. heart warming.. Thanks to Vivekananda and Theosophical soceity and all those movements which started about 150 years ago...and most recently internet and western interest in these things... foreign influence breaks bonds..
Om namo parabhraman om - pranic healing
Om purnamidam - I heard this in the closing of yoga class and loved it. I like the shanti mantra too..( from Vedas, kind of non religious) 
http://yoga108.org/pages/show/69-closing-mantras-of-yoga-class
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTwtGu-XZBE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCZVm6slzE0


From childhood
Om asatoma sad gamaya - school prayer/Uncle...
Budham sharanam gachami - Uncle
Guru bramha -Uncle/Dad
Sahana vavatu -School prayer
Poojyaya raghavendraya -Dad
Ganesha mantra -
Vakra-Tunndda Maha-Kaaya Surya-Kotti Samaprabha
Nirvighnam Kuru Me Deva Sarva-Kaaryessu Sarvadaa


Shuklaambaradharam Vissnnum Shashivarnnam Caturbhujam 
Prasannavadanam Dhyaayet Sarvavighnopashaantaye 

Karagre vasate lakshmi.. Home. but these 3 never entered my thick head :D


Yakundendu tushara hara - school prayer. I din like this, it used to fill my heart with dread :( I guess I din like that school at all... Our Florence English school suited me much better. Our father in heaven :) Lords prayer.. apparently even that is a a very powerful mystic symbolism...


Wow! This post started off as something mystic.. but This is more like a nostalgia trip !!! :-)
Mantras are good, I wanted to find a mantra for each occasion but it turns out.. my uncle and dad and my family have taught me so many little things in my childhood. I feel misty eyed.. I love you uncle doctor bappa! he has touched our lives in so many ways... dad and uncle .. little tihngs they taugt us.
I remember I used to resent learning these as I got slightly older.. I used to run away and ignore.. :) but now when I read these I feel so good.. not about the mantra but about the care they took and the love that was behind all this :)


This makes me think of the comedian Dara O brien who says he is ethinic catholic even tho he is atheist.
exactly my sentiments.. I am ethinic hindu.. hindu culture is in me but I am not a religious hindu..I have lot of anger and hatred for some aspect of Hinduism but it is still in me.




awesome, I ran into these while looking for mantras..!Written by Ravana one of them is :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp9OwlYrEUY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5oGpRzlPO0&feature=related
New found  Om tare tuttare ture Svaha! Green Tara Mantra, chanted in chinese style. I loved this one too
http://www.greenmesg.org/mantras_slokas.php#Ganesha


This post is no way complete...I started out to research but now just emotional..lost the will to research.. 
To do
1) what really is the power of mantras?
2) What are Beeja mantra's?
When we were kids we used to say Hram Hreem Hrooom... pretending to mantravaadi's ( bad black magic people;) but this is chanted along with Surya Namaskara for additional benifit.
I have read a lot about beeja mantras - seed mantra! ? but I havent really figured what they are! they make the normal mantra more potent, but hram hreem are just chanted by themselves too? Om Btw is the Ultimate beeja mantra I suppose?
3) Wama mantras? ;-) Are there any? 
4) other Religion mantras? Chants are very common - Sufi - Dama Dum Mast Khalandar! Tora - is all about chanting right?


ps: I would love to see one post by my friend M about such things, that would be real technical/scientific and real vedic perspective on all this... it would be awesome.