Heidelberg....Philosophers....Walk...

During the spring of 2009 I had a business trip to Waldorf Germany. During my previous trips I have covered Munich, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Berlin and Kolhn.  I did the Rhine valley tour and had a glimpse of the black forest.  With this assignment I had 3 weekends to visit the cities around Mannheim where I stayed.  As always Hertz gave me a nice Benz with GPS and it was a breeze to drive on the auto bahn.  The right hand drive is just like the US and I really enjoyed my commute from Mannheim to Waldorf every day.

Heidelberg is a city famous for its castle, university and the philosophers walk! The old universities all over the World fascinate me partly becasue of my late realization that I should have completed the thesis towards a Ph.D. A research dropout! cannot stick to one subject... thus ending up in the right field IT!  I always wanted to hike the Philosophers Walk or Philosophenweg. So on a fine Saturday  I managed to hike the Philospher's walk. The morning was lovely and the university students were kayaking in the river Necker.  The fresh smell of pastries and breads filled the air. I crossed the bridge to enter the city center.  The city has nice cobbled stone streets and narrow clean alleys.  A nice cup of coffee and a pastry had magic. I forgot the academics, philosophy, work, achievements and non-achievements, happy and sad moments of life.
The  river, the flowers, the sky, the castle, people around me everything looked very familiar as though I lived there all my life. The connection with nature and humanity and the awareness of it energized me more. The church bells started ringing and I walked or rather hopped happily towards the castle.

All content copyright © by Sobana Iyengar.

Random...Cosmic....Design....

Usually I skip the book review if the subject or author happened to be my favorite.  Recently, "The Economist" has published a review on Stephen Hawking's "The Grand Design".  It seems to be an impartial review. It brought the factual errors and also how Hawking and his co-writer Mlodinow have been flippant and no conclusive answers. http://www.economist.com/node/16990802

This review has poked my interest and I want to read the whole book to know more about how these two scientists try to provide the real grand design of the cosmos or failed to explain what exactly is the grand design.

Currently, I am reading the book "A search in secret Egypt" by Dr. Paul Brunton the British philosopher and Yogi.  This book is fascinating just like his other book " A search in secret India".   In his travels, Brunton met with numerous yogis, mystics, mendicants, hypnotists and even magicians to find out the links between the self and the universe.  In Egypt, Brunton had managed to spend a night alone inside the great pyramid.  Brunton has captivated me through the simple narration of his experience and connecting the dots - self and the cosmos. Yet, the questions on why we are here and what lies beyond the universe remains a mystery.

This morning I looked at the rising sun's rays smiling through the oak tress in the backyard. The branches moved gently in the wind and the rays moved randomly  creating multiple designs like a kaleidoscope.  Undeterred by the wind or light, not worrying about the "Grand Design" or not I saw a squirrel focusing on the acorn on one of the branches.

Photo Courtesy: National Geographic



Post Script:  I did not have a camera handy with me. Got this photo from National Geographic!

All content copyright © by Sobana Iyengar.