Your family’ s collective personality ,a bundle of all the personalities, subsysytems, roles and rules that exist,values embraced, togetherness ( or lack of) in which you live,standards and expectations and the thoughts and beliefs you share. The collective personality of the family can affirm and build on what you have to start with or it can countermand and erode the family unit.

Dr Phil McGraw,

..

Every journey has its surprises.

Using travelogue to generate conversations,joint journals, experiences, I took my sister Shailu and nephew Mayank to some monuments,institutions in Delhi, and later drove to Palam ,saw some family albums, momentoes, and prayed together

A TEENAGER’S TALKS AT SRI AUROBINDO ASHRAM

Aurobindo Ashram-Delhi-21.11.16

As we went around the campus of Sri Aurobindo ashram,Mayank remembered how he had been.a bit afraid of exploring the Kutir, next to the Samadhi memorial of the founder of Aurobindo ashram,Delhi,S N Jauhar. He said he wants to explore what is inside the Kutir.
I asked him what he would do if it was closed. He smiled and said he would force it open. ( but he did not)
He saw a ladder and told that he wants to climb the roof. When I told it is for cleaning, he said he will volunteer to clean the roof. A peacock is there in the campus now.

These titbits of our talks,walks in the ashram made a good start of the day.

These were of a different dynamic and focus than the Sunday. Satsang where the speaker had spoken on the relevance
of Vedas in 21 st century India.

QUTUB GROUP OF MONUMENTS
WORLD ARCHEOLOGY WEEK

Qutub Minar-21.11.16

Saw a beautiful book on 150 years of Archeology Survey of India ( ASI). But the shop was not accepting credit/ debit cards and the present economic emergency in India makes one wary of spending too much cash. From 9 th November, 500/1000 notes have ceased to be legal tenders,in PM Modi’ s campaign against Black money.

Memories…Told Mayank how our father had brought us here, around 35 years ago, and we had stood beside the Iron Pillar and looked at Qutub Minar.
Now we took pictures with Mayank at the same spot. The Qutub group of monuments have been a place of visit,picnic for four generations of our family. My elder cousins tell how my paternal grandfather ( of whom I have no living memory,as he passed away when I was one year old) used to bring them to Qutub,tell them to take rounds,while he rested on the grass.
Shailu remembered coming here in 2011 with Sagar,Sahil,Mamta,along with Divya,Mayank.

REFLECTION…on the shape of family,directions…now with children in high school, they are concentrating more on getting entrance to college,good professional courses. Maybe at a later date, they will rejoin me in this joint journey of exploring and sitting in monuments,to read and reflect.

Trees at Palam

WORDS OF DR PHIL..On the joint personality of family….The writer psychologist Dr Phil always tells in his books, not to read them passively, but take out a pen and put your own inputs on the different exercises he tells about on paper. Once you put them on paper,you can study your thoughts,like you study your face in a mirror.

I have read and applied many of Dr Phil’ s books, and they are a great help. The above mentioned lines of Dr Phil on the joint personality of a Family or Group,if applied consciously, are a great way to generate perspective
Through walks and meditations , reflecting in silence at monuments like the Relics of Sri Aurobindo, the Qutub Minar, remembering our previous visits there,recalling some conversations, one gets an idea of the values,togetherness and roles- rules different persons play

PALAM….and then we went to Palam, and prayed ,saw some photo albums, and momentoes.