Screaming Silence..

What are you hearing right now? I dont know if its the wrong way to start a post by asking you a question.. but whats the fun in doing everything the so called 'Right' way.. That leaves me with another question.. What is the right way? but lets leave this question for my next post and stick to my first question.. Knowingly, unknowingly or compulsionally , What are you hearing right now.. Even if its 12'O clock in the night, I am sure you must be hearing something.. Some music playing somewhere.. Some vehicle on the road.. Some dog barking far away.. Something.. I bet you will say a yes. Now a days , we don’t get a perfect silence anywhere.

There is something about silence that attracts me. Something mysterious. Infact, god, silence, life and spirituality has been the four things which I ponder about the most.. No no.. dont worry.. I am not going to talk about all that here.

Have you ever imagined a place where no one else is there, you have got plenty of food, serene surroundings but no one to talk to? What would you do?? You would talk to yourself.. Aloud.. Because you know nobody is there to give you a "what a freak look".. I always wonder whether I can stay one whole day-- 24 hours without talking to anybody and listening to nobody/nothing.. I am sure of some missed calls and some "pay back the credit card bill" message beeps from citibank..so switching off the phone would be the best bet but that would mean a scared mom thinking her 70 kilo son has entered a naxal area or is stuck in some church being attacked by freaky illogical mob in some remote inaccessible place. Now coming back to being silent, I want to stay one whole day silent without talking and just closing my eyes and thinking of nothing.. Can a person at some point of time not think of anything?? Blank brain (ofcourse there must be a lot of people whom you call blank brain but I am talking here in actual sense)!! This question fascinates me a lot.

Once I went to a place which was remote.. too remote for any sounds of city din.. No trees so that zeroed the chances of any chirping birds.. It was so remote that for a moment I wondered if I can even find the way back!! I felt happy there. I felt like the king of the place.. I agree loneliness can sometimes be depressing but sometimes, it gives you a chance to think about a lot of stuff that you ignore in your daily life. Lying down in the shade of a huge rock beside a small waterbody, I felt happy. I stayed there for about an hour.. No external voices.. But dunno how I could still hear some voices.. Dunno if this was voice produced by my brain or was it that my ear drum was too used to being beaten by sound waves that it continued its "inertia of beating" ??? I remained silent for an hour there and I would accept that it was the hardest one hour to remain silent, make no noises listen to nothing and sit calm.. Dunno if you would do wonders with this information but just try this once.. Remain silent in a silent place and let nobody disturb you. It would be hard but if you do it, you will feel a lot better that the "an-hour-ago-you".

Mind It!!

As I always say.. depression makes me write.. lot of work makes me write.. This time it was an acute case of melancholia caused by watching an indecipherable flick sending my senses to the dungeons of some ancient martian empire thats making me write.. Well i am not going to crib here about another hopless movie.. Minnnnd it!!!
There are lot of things i realised while watching something as awe-expiring as this.
First, I realised why he keeps saying Minnnd it.. Because.. your mind would go hiding and once in a while you have to keep checking if its still there or slipped to a nearby auditorium.. You should actually hear it as- Watch your Mind!!.. Finnd it..
Second, unlike the expectations, bullets did NOT defy the law of gravity but the hero did.. At places, physics was working a little too much for him by making him fly backwards with a forward gunshot..
Thirdly, on the disgusting side of my analysis, he doesnt need bullets.. because anybody around him would instantly die out of suffocation.. because he hasnt changed clothes since last 25 years[or more..]

and yes.. Its a multilingual movie..subtitled tamil, tinges of telugu, broken hindi and a south-indianised English.. certainly a Jaw-dropping-mind-blocking-excruciating experience my friend..

Yeah .. there are positive sides too.. its certainly better than Jaani Dushman and RGV ki AAG which is my benchmark for real Trauma.. But it surely comes third.
QGM Ke Side effects:
1. I have lost sleep and typing some absurd stuff at 1 AM and cant even figure out why i am doing this.
2. My intestine is not accepting any food to pass thru it as a protest.
An one more thing.. there is only one way you can enjoy this movie.. Keep your brain in the locker, go to the theatre.. and dont watch it.. I mean, use your Minnnd and dont watch It!!!

En..Joy

The sweet buzz around my ear woke me up.. I woke with sleepy eyes to see the orange sun peeping out of a bunch of trees. The time is five thirty in the Morning and the sun behind the far off trees is a spectacle to watch. In case your brain is manufacturing words like "How Wonderful" and "Spectacular", give it a second thought. I would like to make a revelation here..

I am NOT enjoying this at all.. If you are wondering why, The sweet buzz was not "sweet" but it was an irritating Buzz by a mosquito who might have become a hero in its world by fighting all my efforts to kick its micro butt and managing to creep into my room and suck a gallon of blood out of my ear.Dunno what love these mosquitoes have with ears. That too in the mornings when my dream is in its climax.. 90% of the times, this mosquito turns out to be the villain in my story stopping the hero to watch the climax of his dream. I love early mornings.. Last few months I have even been successful in waking up early daily and go jogging. But if you sleep at 3 AM and a blood sucking buzzing freak wakes you up at 5:30 , no orange suns and beautiful mornings can give you pleasure.. Dont you think so?? I'm sure you do..

Joy is a relative concept. The example that i gave you is just one such incident which proves this. joy.. happiness.. when do we get it? can we generalise it? 'Yes' to some extent.. and 'No' to much more.. You love rock music.. You've been a die hard fan.. now imagine.. you are slogging @ office for last 3 days and slept for just 4 hours in last 72 hours. You are done now and trying to sleep.. and you hear an loud unstoppable rock.. each sound spike you hear will be like a 5 inch nail piereced right through your cerebrum. Now tell me.. do you like rock??? there you go..

The world is weird.. and the weirdest things in the world are humans.. i am not sure if homo sapiens know what they want.. once upon a time, we lived with the nature.. wearing the air.. eating what nature gives.. living in jungles.. and then.. somebody ate mintos.. started building houses, cutting trees, polluted air, invented money(which is essentially the cause of most of the problems today) and most importantly(rather unnessarily) invented laziness.. what an !dea.. and now.. to search happiness and solitude people camp in jungles.. some groups boast of organising tree planting programs.. and weight loss and fitness programs are always a hit now a days.. and on top of it , we pay for all this.. I know.. you would say its all development and its consequences.. but are we going anywhere with this? is this of any use? doesnt man need a simple meal to survive? why did i need to slog 72 hours @ office, lose my sleep, get irritated by music and write this blog?

I know its not simple.. but if you think, its also not that complicated too.. all working for a common cause of simple survival .. grow food and eat it.. did you just visualise a prehistoric indian tribe?? I just did.. and i am sure they are lot happier than we are.. whatdya say?

Chronicles Of Himalayas...

40 talents.. 11 days..7 Camps.. 1 Target.. Sar-Pass in the Shivalik Range of Himalayas
Sounds Exciting isnt it? Yes it was.. but what it turned out to be was least expected by the "Talented 40". Each one of us lost some weight... and gained a lot lot precious thing.. Confidence , self satisfaction and genuine happiness.. thats a rarity now a days.. Watch the photos here

Initially, while starting off the names of places like Bhunter, Kasol, Barsheni gave me an alien impression.. I was imagining how they would look like and what would the base camp be like.. and i bet by end of the trek all 40 of us were so attached to these places that we felt bad to go back!!! We even stood there pondering for sometime and capturing the last moments before leaving..

It was chilling cold when we were reaching Bhunter from Delhi by an "Executive Coach" that they called it which had provided a lavish leg space for the biggest ant in the world.. Dunno if thay had even imagined a human would sit there.. but all the uncomfortablity vanished as i opened my eyes into the morning mist at mandi.. It refreshed me to every bit and i felt as if i am floating in the clouds.. We reached bhunter where we had to change the bus to reach Kasol.. Incidently, two girls in our bus were also travelling to the YHAI Base Camp (and were in our own group) but we had never imagined that they were going there.. Instead, we expected a group of foreigners carrying huge back packs to be coming for trekking.. But it turned the other way round.. which we found out once we were at the base camp.
On the way to the base camp was my first glimpse of the snow capped mountain.. Far away, the blue mountain with white snow..it was spectacular.. and what more, it constituted the background of our base camp :)
The water at the camp was so chilling that my hands became numb once i tried washing them. The plan to take bath was instantly dropped for next 10 days.. But somehow, hot springs the the adjacent areas came to our rescue. The first day was Quite Boring except for the visit to manikaran and bath at the Hot Water Spring(which was a great experience). Our Josh made us walk to manikaran and back(10 kms)Evening, we were served dinner at 7 PM.. the earliest i had ever had.. and later we were told the daily routine which i thought i will never be able to follow..

5:30 AM-- Bed Tea!!! (i would have called it the midnight tea instead.. i generally wake up at 9)
6:00 AM-- Morning Exercise (HA-HA-HA HAAAA)
7:00 AM-- Campus Cleaning (I tried to remember when was the last time I cleaned my bed)
7:30 AM-- Breakfast (Now whats that??? This breakfast concept had vanished from my life since last 4 years.. but thanks to YHAI, I feel hungry in the mornings now a days)

Although i was sure i will skip the bed tea, i woke up at 5:30 on the whitsle by the Camp Leader. It was not my "Will power"... it was the "Chill Power". The morning was so chilling that i HAD to wake up :D. I even Jogged to the place where excercise had to be done.. Although i did it uninterestedly, it did help. It recharged me and i was amazed at how a few streches and pulls can rejuvinate your energy.. It was just the start of the many enlightenments i got during the whole trip. We had to go for acclaimatisation walk by putting the Kambals in our Rucksacks.. It was a good climb and we enjoyed it. What we enjoyed more was the way our intro was taken. Basically, we were paired with another person and we had to introduce ourselves as the one we are paired with.. My intro was like.. "I have two childern and my son in law is here wid me.. " hehe.. it was actually fun..

Next day was equally chilling and so i didnt miss the Bed tea and didnt want to miss the exercise for a change.. We had to see off the group which was going to the higher camps..
The highlight of the day was Rappeling and the Rock Climbing.. It was a deadly experinence. Too good. It was amazing to see the instructors climbing a straight 90 degree rock in a way we climb up the stairs!!! There is one everywhere.. there was one kid in our group who did it well and we named him spidey as he reached top like a spider..
And then struck a brilliant !dea... Lets name each of group members with an SP-26 name (SP-26 was our Group name bye the way..).. and then flowed in creative names for everybody.. jungle raani, markie, bunny, chicken curry, picachoo, Deadly(dat was me :)), Da, bulbul(its a guy bye the way), Mozon ki Raani (Now dats a unique name), Commando.... and the list goes on and on and on...
Actually, this was the place and time when the group started opening up to each other.. may it be the shouting of "look this side" in 7 different languages or celebration of jungle raanis birthday.. Bye the way .. look this side in tamil is - "inge pakka paare" and in marathi is "iikade paha".. New additions to my Vocabulary... We had our first group snap here..

It was our turn next day to move for the higher camps.. I messaged one of my friends in the night saying sheer excitement is not letting me sleep.. It was bed tea whistle by the time i closed my eyes.. So we hurried on for bed tea, returning of blankets, Packing of Rucksacks, breakfast and in no time, the time for departure was there.. We moved on towards the bus stand while the other groups were cheering us...

The bus to uunchdhar from which the trek starts was one more highlight.. We went for 10 Kms sitting on top of the bus... its really is a great feeling and a super view sitting atop a bus in ghati roads particularly when there is a river flowing just beside the road in a deep gorge. From unchdhar, we had to get down some 200 feet towards the river, cross it and then again trek to Guna Paani.. the First Camp.. The trek was quite easy. we had a tea point and a lunch point on the way. At lunch point, i was offered to dare an act to cross a hollow dead tree from one side to the other.. I gracefully declined after looking at the feeble condition of the tree.. We were happy to reach guna paani earlier than the scheduled time.In the camp fire, we discovered a lot of hidden talents like alrrounder, syed, bhavesh bhai, paresh bhai, bunty(this guy could sing a song in reverse order!!).. Rimjhim even added more of Mountains and gushing waters into all the more unwilling us.. I appriciate his enthu of putting forward his poetry..There was an astronomer who accompanied us to Guna Pani and showed us lots of new constellations, stars,planets(we saw jupiter from telescope) and Hydrogen Clouds.. We also spotted some rare himalayan birds..

Fual Paani, the next camp didnt have a good feedback from the previous batches. We started the trek towards it with a full 45 degree climb and it worsened as we kept moving ahead.. We had the first glimpse of snow as we crossed a glacier on the way. With the best views all around we proceeded towards our target.. After a 55 degree climb, crossing of three waterfalls and getting frustrated on when the camp will come , somehow the camp leader welcomed us after an exhaustive climb :) but just when i thought it was over, it actually was not.. we had to walk more than a Km more before we could rest our butts.. and the tent.. that itself was at a 15 degree angle.. We somehow managed as we were less ppl in the group.. The Natures call here was another Circus which i would not like to talk about(Its beyond the scope of this post :D.. Its another post in itself.. hehe).. But the place was a good one.. Surrounded by dense forest and huge boulders it was a perfect camp. we had a good campfire here where we had the naming ceremony for the ppl with their new dhinchak names..

Fual paani to Zirmi Thatch was comparatively steeper.. We crossed Mica Mountains, woods, and the landscape was so different that what it was last two days.. the angle of climb kept on increasing but by now everybody was aquainted with this so that was nice now.. On the way, we could still see the road on which we came to uunch dhaar and started to trek. It was 3 days now and i was getting frustrated at why it is still visible although its distancing away.. Me and Jungle raani decided to put a case if the road is visible from sarpass as well. We reached Zirmi pretty early and had the first glimpse of the Sar Mountain. We got the best tent here.. lot cleaner and bigger.. The best part of zirmi was the aniversary celebration of makrand and vandana 11000 feet above sea level.. without they even guessing it will happen.. and all the more fun was the biscuit cake that was prepared defying all the constraints of resources.. With almost no resources around, conceptualising a cake and celebrating an aniversary..Hats off to the concept.. Click on the photo on the left hand side and look at the cake.. does it even look as if it has been made out of 3 packets of Parle G!!! Result: Makrand and vandana.. happiest couple around..

The next camp Tila Lotni was the Highest camp before sarpass.. The terrain was too good and the day was marked by grasslands, patches of snow here and there, crossing glaciers through jungle of Rhododendron flowers.. peoples feet getting blisters, competetion on who has the biggest blister(fore runners for the shield being antenna and bunny).. The day passed happily while we crossed the biggest patch of snow slowly taking care not to slip. Da even slipped and lost his stick. As this was the highest camp, the we had body piercing chill.. All the warm clothes, gloves, socks and everything we had carried this far had been put to use here and we were still shivering.. Located with the SAR as the background, with patches of snow here and there(one patch even loking like india map) and snow capped peaks all around changing colours with every passing second, we could never have asked for a better camp site than this. We had the earliest dinner of our lifetime here at 6 PM.. We even had a camp fire where we played the story building game.. Its a different story that the story became somewhat like the ekta kapoor soap.

We had to get up reeal early next day. Bed tea was 4 AM. We had to leave by 6 which somehow didnt happen and we left at 7. We had to leave behind rimjhim in the camp as he(yes its a guy) got high fever. With the beautiful sights of sunrays piercing out through the clouds, we started our assault towards the SAR.. The climb started right from the Camp and by the time we reached the 1st rest point, we could see the Sar Pass Clearly and it was snow all the way!!!.. As soon as we entered the snow, we started playing with the snow balls.. the sight was too good.. adults playing like kids.. We moved ahead in snow playing wherever we get chance.. we reached the SAR Lake.. It was a frozen lake at a height of 13000 feet and was a spectacle to see.. Miles off from the civilization, we felt like the owners of the mountains and the snow with nobody to stop us from being a kid again and playing with snow, drenching in rain, sliding multiple times and still wanting to do it more... Full Freedom..It was unexplainable...We reached a place where we had to slide on the slope and go down... Although a bit scary, it was enjoyable.. I even went halfway and tried to slide again :D... We moved ahead on the snow mountain slopes ahead when hailstorm greeted us. Most of us stopped walking. Hats off to sheriff who fought the battle all alone with nobody around him... Moving forward, we had the steepest climb in snow which took us to 13800 feet and from thare we had a long long long slide which took us to a tea point.. This slide was too good and the deadliest experience i ever had..

It was raining hard when we reached the tea point. People who had reached earlier there had already left for the camp and We waited for the rain to stop. Imagine 20 people sitting/standing/Tumbling in a 5X2 m shed. But anything to escape the hard rain outside.What i realised here was that by now, I had a changed attitude towards everything. The word Dirty had been erased from my mind.I sat just beside a cowdung inside the shed which i would never have done under normal circumstances. Once the rain cleared, we came outside and the sight was as too refreshing.. we were standing in a grassland surrounded by white mountains with brown patches where snow didnt stand... Just behind the tea shed was flowing clear white water from the river just originating from under the glacier on which we slid and came down.. and one well trodden narrow pathway through the grasslands which we needed to take to reach our destination... Biskeri.. By now, walking the unending path we were exhausted.. we had walked for some 9 hours now and the guide told us the camp is still 2 hours far.. With the refreshing sight, determined we decided to cover this distance in an hour.. we walked fast... on the narrow muddy pathway on the slope of a hill... From the hilltop was Visible our camp.. Amidst the clouds... Biskeri.. here we come... But we walked and walked.. and walked.. we even found another slide on the way.. only this time, it was not snow... it was MUD!!!! and it was amazing.. just when you start losing hope, you find something refreshing.. We found an amazing rainbow at eyelevel!!! Mostly i had seen rainbows looking upwards... but here was one which i was looking amidst the mountains and greenery.. without looking up... and that was not it!!!! There was more to come... We looked down and we saw green medows everywhere and horses running and grazing on it!!! Recharged we trodded towards the camp and crossed one more unbelievable pathway... It was full of a mix of mud, cow, sheep and horse shit... No its not disgusting to write this... because as i said.. there is nothing called dirty now.. And that was worth it.. The places we visited, things we saw, things we did would never had been possible without doing this.. Finall, we reached the camp and the feeling was as if we conquered mount everest.. We were exhausted, drenched wet, muddy, full of patches of unknown substances on our dresses but inside, we were clean,happy and full of an unknown satisfaction that still lasts... And it still didnt end.. we had the best Tea-Pakodi combi in our life here.. and i need to add... the ROAD WAS STILL VISIBLE.. Although we wanted to have a campfire today, commando ordered us to give campfire a holiday for a change.. So campfire went and rested... and we did too..

After the longest day of the trek, now was the time to get down... We started descending towards Bhandak generally compared to switzerland.. I was sure it wont be that good because I had already seen the best... We descended.. and descended.. Me, commando and Jungle raani even got lost in jungle for some time.. but Our SOS calls got us back on track.. For those who dont know, "eeeeyooo" was our SOS call and we should proceed towards the direction the return "eeeeyooo" comes from... We had to do rappeling at a place to get down and cross a river....

The Place we had lunch, according to "i object gal" it was the best trek, best meadow and best lunch... best maggie was what antenna added.. and i agreed.. the natural meadow we were in would outclass the best maintained parks/gardens of india by miles... And we reached bhandak... now.. I should accept that this was the best camp we were ever in.. Ground was not wet for a change and we could roam around in grass barefoot..The ladies on reaching the camp didnt go into the tent and camped outside for sometime.. and enjoyed the view.. It was amazing that I kept addressing each passing camp as the best.. each of the 7 camps was best in some way or the other and had something memorable to take along... We played tug of war, kabaddi and a chain game which was fun and was quite innovative.. It was deadly... now i am at loss of words for adjectives for things we did, things we saw.. so henceforth please assume the best adjective you know..

Next day, we were sad that the trek is going to end.. we had to trek down still and reach barsheni roadhead to catch a bus back to kasol base camp.. Even this trek was quite different.. We kept talking, taking photographs of snake lilies, talking abt forts, ghost stories, what we would do on reaching the base camp... We also had the Bhalu dog who accompanied us from the till the barsheni roadhead.. All the way.. He also helped us in another way.. He alone finished 4-5 Parle-G biscuit packets that we were struggling to finish all the way.. Somehow after lot of effort we reached barsheni and climbed atop the bus.. The bus journey was fun.. we tried singing songs which somehow had vanished from our memory now.. so we tried singing ads like "bijli hai shakti ise vyarth na gawaao.. jitni zarurat ho utni jalao" and "washing powder nirma.." we shouted our group slogan "ek do teen chaar... SP-26 superstar", "Jo bole so nihaal.. sasriyakaal" and "Ganpati bappaa.. moriyaa.." Hashi khushi we came back to the base camp... We were happy and sad too.. Happy to have completed the Trek and sad because we would have to part now... Truly i had never imagined 11 days would bond 40 people in such a strong friendship.. Manikaran welcomed us with hot water springs.. Bath after long time.. refreshing.. Icing on the cake.. The last campfire was fun too.. we had arranged a momento for everybody.. and everybody was too happy to possess it..

The enlightments we got...

1. Each of us gained 39 new friends...
2. The confidence that we can do lot more than what we think we can do..
3. Came to know how precious Tissue papers can be..
4. I personally was surprised that i can live without using my cellphone for such a long time.
5. The word Dirty has been erased from my mind.
6. I can live without taking bath for atleast a week..
7. The amount of cow, sheep, horse and human shit i have stepped on will be more than what i have seen in my whole life..

8. No more potatoes for next 6 months..

9.I invariably wake up at 5:30 in the morning even now for the bed tea..(which till now was as difficult as moving mountains and stopping tsunami)

But on a serious note, it was something i would treasure all my life.. like permanent dew drops on the petals of a red rose called life... Wow.. that was poetic...

They say "Life is like a box of chocolates.. you never know when you gonna get.." and WE GOT IT!!!

Why My Mind is "Blogged"

I am a Trekker
After about a months preparation for my Himalayan Trek(To SAR-Pass), I am finally leaving tonight to delhi.. This preparation has been somewhat messyly interesting. After about 20-25 days of trying to motivte myself to get up early for jogging, i ended up jogging for five days in total, and finished motivational books from Swami Vivekananda to shiv khera.. Bye the way, Swami Vivekananda very strongly recommends not being a "slave" of sleep (He would have been furious if he were here specially because i call him my guru..).

I am a Believer
After about 14 months of writing my 2nd Post - Five Minutes More , I still feel same about sleep. Now as a workaround i tried my office Gym to prepare myself. I was driven away on the grounds of receiving too many calls while working out. I am a believer.. I believe in will power.. But how on earth will my will power get me a berth on the train... After 1-1/2 months of booking the ticket, Its still on Waiting List 1. I still believe by the time I reach the station, the seat will be eagerly waiting for me to sit on it..

I am Helpful (i avoided the word Helper :) )
About shopping for the trek? I had a strong will power of finishing it a week before.. but.. I still have to go buy Warm clothes.. while i am typing this, i am wondering on the roadmap on how to go about getting that stuff.. One of the reason why sometimes mind doesnt work properly, is you think everything is ready and perfect, then something unexpected happens... and that happens again... and again.. For example, I started my bike to go get some trekking Gear and i get a call.. Urgent..hai bhai..Abhi ye karna hai.. "Zindagi aur maut ka sawaal hai".. Ok.. this is a motivational phrase for your reference.. you feel as a real saviour although you actually did something stupid.. Anyways as i like helping people, i postponed my shopping plan.. But then, Another day.. another Motivational phrase... "Meri naukri bachaa le yaar".. Theek hai yar.. I saved everybody.. Ab mujhe Himalay ki thandi se kaun bachayega bhai?

I am a Thinker(But i think too much :P)
Mind has puzzled me all my life (although i have not reached the "no teeth-no hair" stage, but i meant.. till date).. Have you ever wondered what all our mind goes through when it hears something? i did... It hears you.. and in a split second analyses so many things.. Somebody says "meri naukri bachale", and you melt down even if your heart is made of diamond(i refer to the hardness and not to the costliness).The moment you read the title of this post, you might have related the words "Blogged" and "Blocked" even without me saying anything..

I am a Weirdo
One more thing i wonder is how these little kids manage to get all jumbo sized stuff for them? While one of the shopping expedition in some mall, I saw a 1 year old kid sitting on the lap of a 4 feet teddy.. even the baloon the kid was holding was as big as he himself..(or was it a she??? forget it..) and of course, all kids get Jumbo sized attention... I know i am typing crap.. and you must have realised the state of mind i am in by now.. Finishing off the pending tasks before i go has taken most of my time in last 3 weeks.. and ofcourse.. the preparartion that didnt happen was the next one.. and the excitement to go there came third..

I am an Optimist
I am a Optimist too.. I look forward to clear this Jammed mind.. once i am in the himalayas.. 16 days of eternity... hope to come back fresh.. with new zeal and joy.. and never remember the mess that i am in now...

Oh My Gawd...

If not for a couple of logically challenged reasons, i would have completed atleast the quarter century of the number of posts on my blog. But some superstitions glued me back.. I dont know if the glue used was fevicol,but it took me really really hard to cross the laxmanrekha and type this blog. Now not getting into the technicalities of the un-explainable superstitions, i will start doing what i enjoy doing.. venting 1100 pound compressed overstuffed thoughts in my mind out on to the blog..

The other day, i was sitting in coffee day sipping hot coffee with a book called "undercover economist"(although understanding that subject for me is like explaining thermodynamics to a clever mouse, its a good read).. It was quite cold as it was raining outside.. Cafe was filled with beautiful couples sitting on cosy couches.. There was one such Bunty and Babli who entered the cafe, fully drenched and sat just behind me... Just when i was desperately trying to remember when was the last time i went to such a cafe with a girl, what babli said pulled me away from the undercover economist and made me think.. food for thought you know.. She said.. "Oh god.. Why did you do this.. We shud have been in the theater by now"

Now.. don't you think god has 1001 other problems as well to care for.. I thought improving indo-pak relations was more important... I mean.. Isnt "Being God" a difficult concept?... I am amazed at how he creates different people , create people dependent on them, affected by them and in turn create more people depending on the dependents... uff .. How does he maintain the family tree of the world ??? A small change in one life affects so many others..

I wanna meet god desperately.. not for high level fundas like Moksha and all but to clear some basic doubts. I would like to ask him which Database Software does he use to maintain all this huge data, the mappings and who gives him emergency support? Think of a hard disk crash on his server.. We are instantly going to lose our identities, relationships and everything gets reset!!! Don't even think of it..

I just cant imagine myself hearing all those wishes that we mortals pray to him and making choice of which wish to grant.. Moreover, wish by one person may be just contradictory to the wish of other person.. or.. two persons might wish for the same girl !!! In both cases, we cant grant the wishes of both persons.. Imagine a screwup at this point.. Two guys granted the same girl !!! Noooooooooo.... One more problem is answering the same question again and again to different people.. the Question "GOD!!! Why did you do this to me???" How would it feel like saying "I had to do it my child!" 2876954 times a day???

Gawd!!! How do you do it??? So thin chance of mistake.. and if you do, you screwup the life of your kids.. He must be having ISO 9002 certification(or 6 sigma maybe) for what he does..
I wish i could talk to god, i would have asked him to gimme a tourist pass of his workplace for a week.. and of course.. grant some of my wishes :) GOD thou art great!!! All this might sound stupid but.. doubts are doubts and are meant to be cleared isn't it?

Sparkling Stars, Silvery Moon and Simplicity...

Sometimes, one word or a sentence takes you to a whole new world... Couple of days back, i came across the words "Night Breeze" on one of those social networking sites.. That instantly took me back to the little town where i was brought up.. Where we actually used to enjoy the Summer Nights and night breezes..

Lying down on the terrace in the silvery glow of the moon watching the stars.. identifying the constellations... feeling the light summer breeze and soft moonlight, quickly closing eyes and wishing for something when you see a shooting star.. isnt that something that all of us invariably enjoy doing? Only that now a days, we dont often get a chance to do that..

If you ask me, the Real charm of India lies in the little towns and the rustic villages. The places where life is not fast.. Where everybody knows everybody else.. where you are like big family.. You have a life of yourself.. and you are happy with that... No hurry to do something, no hurry to reach somewhere.. Where you dont have to close your nose at traffic signals.. and the only time you do that is when a herd of cattle passes you at dusk. Where you can inhale lungsfull of refreshing distinct scent after the first rain. Where there will be nobody to stop you or stare at you when you crazily get wet in the rain..
Where one can walk into the vineyards, enjoy the amazing sight of numerous bunches of grapes hanging down, Where you can quietly slip into some mango farm and steal some mangoes.. Thats the real fun!!!


Moreover, you can spend hours sitting beside the local reservoir or the water body watching the ripples in water, the variety of birds that land up there and the kids trying to make a stone jump on water several times before it goes down ...
You can watch the different shades of green in the fields being cultivated by farmers or you can watch farmers winnowing and separating grains from chaff..

The mud houses plastered with cow dung under huge banyan or peepal trees, little kids running around, veiled women filling water near the municipal tap, creaking bullock carts, old men reading regional newspaper or smoking under the trees.. Radio playing somewhere in distance.. Sheeps grazing leisurely in the evening.. this is so near to heart that you instantly fall in love with these things.. And can you tell me why? maybe because because it takes you to the world of an easy simple happy life..
But then, why do we run towards cities and fast life leaving behind this simplicity for extinction? Is that the definition of progress? I understand that the country needs to progress but do we really need to lose this simple life? And as usual, i will leave this question for you to think and tell me..
All the photos above except the first one have been taken in villages around bangalore.. Its a totally different feeling being at these places.. Its a different world in itself.. We are so near yet so far from this simplicity..