UN MDG Summit - Day 1

 I have underlined stuff so you can just skim this article and don't feel daunted by having to read all of this!

We had inaugural dinner on the 7th. I made use of the occasion by tasting both the wines they served so I now know my preference in wine.

I prefer red wine in taste only cause I can make out the grape in it, while in white wine I could not detect the grape taste... 

I also met an ex professor of mine Mr. J. B. Mistry, reminded me of my geeky days as a Physics student. Well I am still quite geeky instead of mechanics, thermodynamics and relativity I now discuss politics and business structure :)

So that was the inaugural dinner.... Now the first day was well terrible (so was saving it for last)

Not blaming any one or anything, the projector did not work so we could not watch the planned movie inconsequential truth. So we kind of looked around and introduced ourselves and as it turns out I did not have to be apprehensive since none of us had prepared a speech :D

Then we had a lecture by an ex Jaihindite Swami Swaroopananda, well this made me queasy in my stomach cause monks remind me of my days when I lived with monks at the Isha Yoga Centre and well that was a profound experience of my life.
Anyway Swami Swaroopananda is from the Chinamayananda mission. I know this mission a little closely cause one of my Moms friend is quite involved in it. I have also stayed at this ashram in Powai for a day and had a chat with another swami there ....

One of the interesting things he said was that we should be able to distinguish between needs, desires and goals. Needs being the basic needs of food, clothing and shelter. Also emotional and psychological needs. We cannot live for long without these needs being fulfilled. Desires are many and fulfilling of desires make us happy. Goals he said are those that while achieving them we transform! I think that was deep. Some food for contemplation. :)

Then we had a lec by Mr. Chetan Narain, he is seemingly a big shot in Real Estate. Well he tried to talk to us about life and some personal theory of his which made sense but frankly IMHO had nothing to do with our research about the MDG goals or UN .... and hence a lot of us felt disgruntled about it.

Which reminds me I should put a post about the MDG's of UN!! Will do that tomorrow....

Then we had a panel discussion where we were given more gyaan about empowering ourselves. I felt I had come to 'how to manage your life' summit. 

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