As of now…Lumuhuku has dozed off [Period]

It so happened, that after prodding my colleagues (read friends) a million times, we finally decided to undertake a trip to the desert. A trip on our bikes!!

Our initial calculations showed that it would be of around 1200 Kms, we would have to face temperatures nearing 50 degree Celsius at times, we could, or rather would be caught in dust storms, our bikes could ditch us in the middle of nowhere. J

 This trip, if undertaken, was bound to be tough and testing, no doubt.

And there was also no doubt, that this was never attempted by any one of us. Leave alone 1200 kms, we had not even attempted 200 kms on a trip. So by any measure, this desert ride was bound to be historical.

So history started making itself on the Independence weekend. It so happened that I just returned from Mumbai on the 13^th of August. 14^th & 15^th being holidays and 16^th being a Sunday, gave us the window of opportunity for our trip.

We finally decided our route. We would start somewhere near Ajmer. Then do a Jodhpur-Pokharan-Jaisalmer-Tanot (Indo-Pak Border)-Sam-Jaisalmer-Pokharan-Jodhpur to back from where we came from. This was to be our circuit. We also planned that it would be an experience of a lifetime, if we could make it to the India Pakistan border on the 15^th of August.

So after returning from Mumbai, and having got the permission to rest for a royal half an hour (!), we started our journey towards the North Western end of Rajasthan.

Now that’s Dev.

It would be a good idea to tell you all that we were 5 of us and we took 2 Bikes and a car. A car was necessary as a rest house on wheels and as a place to put are luggage in. Though, initially, I was against taking the car (it would have been more heroic, if it had been just 3 bikes), but now I am glad that we did. It is said that everything happens for the good, and car turned out to be a very essential tool for our trip. You would know why, later in the post.

We luckily were getting very good roads and highways. Just have a look at the picture below to know how it would have felt to have driven your vehicle through roads like these.

Jodhpur wasn’t far…just around 200 kms from our starting point. So we reached there at around 2200 Hrs and relaxed for our long journey the next day. Now in between Jodhpur and Jaisalmer, lies Pokhran. The place where India conducted its Nuclear test.  I was lucky that we were not involved in any incident as the tyre of the bike got punctured. But luckily, this happened near Pokharan, so atleast we were in the middle of somewhere and not in the middle of nowhere.

And I was really amazed by the way that this puncture was made but the so called tyre experts of the highways. He took some FeviQuick and added sand to it. And put the paste from the inside of the puncture to seal it!!! Magical! India does rock in innovation

Being in Pokhran, it was natural to expect that may be, I shall be lucky enough to see the site of the tests in Pokhran. But army thought otherwise and we continued our journey to Jaisalmer.

Now just a look at these national highways tempts you to go fast. All the movies with ‘fast’ word in the title start playing in your mind and you start thinking that your are one of the ‘Gods of the streets’. And I was no exception. I just for a change got my hand at the wheels of the car we took, and started clocking 110ers and 120s.

The above picture shows the most I could manage. A cool 124 kmph. But mind you, I was wearing seat belt, while burning the tarmac.

Eventually, we reached Jaisalmer, in the evening of 14^th August. Now Jaisalmer was unexpectedly small city. I won’t even call it a city. It was something in between a city and a town. But it was beautiful and of sand colored. The entire city was made of sand colored bricks. Nothing else. The fort was spectacularly beautiful and almost a tenth of the population must be living in the fort itself! It was like a self sustained mini city.

And I swear that I have never before in my life, seen carving in bricks and stone , like those I saw in Jaisalmer.

So after doing Jaisalmer, we made a move to our final destination on the 15^th of August. Our independence day. Now, it was not easy as we had to cross crude and real deserts.

We got caught up in small dust storms, which made us flee to the small villages in desert. Now the exact location of these villages just astonished me. Because there was practically, no way of surviving in such a place.

But humans adapt. And that is the real essence of life. Once someone really great said –

“There are alternatives.”

Wow!! How true. And do you have any idea, who said so? Click this link to know ( )

Now, below is the picture of Dev, in the middle of Thar. And Thar can be deadly.

In the desert I saw a really interesting insect. No it is not pictured above. Rather its picture is given below ;-) –

Now this creature, used to make a ball out of camel’s shit and use to drive it with its hind legs. I don’t know what the hell did he meant to do with it, but whatever he was doing, he seemed to be good at it. And there were millions of them. They seemed to be hatching a plan of overpowering human civilization. Now I have warned you. If something happens now, no one can blame me.

So after driving for more than 600 kms, we reached our destination. The final destination. Tanot. I know the name is neither exciting nor sounding good. But ask someone who drove 600 kms to reach the place and that too in extreme heat, it will be music to his ears.

There we are!!!

And that’s India – Pakistan’s border.

I have zoomed my camera as we were not allowed to go very near to that place. But just the feeling of being at the border on 15^th August was amazing. I had never felt so patriotic in my life before.

After reaching our Tanot, we a made our way towards Sam (pronounced as Sum). It’s a place in the middle of the desert, where we had planned camping for night. After driving for around 50 kms from Jaisalmer, we reached Sam. And it was a place to be at that time. Sand all around and camels moving like ship in the desert.

We also had our share of rides on the camels. And believe me, bike are much more comfortable than camels. Then we also got the opportunity be children once again. We used to climb up on high dunes and then take jump from there.

The feeling was simply amazing. Where else in the world can you jump from heights of 100s of feet and be sure that you won’t get hurt? Desert are awesome!!!

Now I had never camped in my life before, leave alone in deserts. But here, we having booked tents for the night, took our beds out of it, and stayed out all night!! Singing and screaming songs. Drinking tea and counting the stars.

 Lying on my back and looking at the star lit sky is one of my favourite hobbies. And I could not have found a better place than a desert for this. Lying in sand, with a clear sky above. A hazy band of our galaxy, Milky Way with zillions of stars and shooting stars. Wow man!! I could not capture the sky on the camera due to optical limitations, but what a scene it was. You have to be there, do that too know how it felt.

But it wasn’t just the sky that was amazing. I just took this snap of the sand I was lying on and this is what I got –

Isn’t it beautiful and divine?

Morning was expectedly (unexpectedly) cold. I moved inside the tent for a while and to get ready for our journey back to where we came from.

It was now time to go back. We took our vehicles and started our return journey at around 0700 Hrs. We had planned that we would get back by the night or early next morning, as we all had our offices to go. L

Why is it that Mondays are always damned, no matter how likable your job is?

Anyways, till now everything had been going fine and I was regularly breaking my own speed records on bike. At last, I had done a 109 kmph. But then, out of nowhere, our other bike met with an accident. Two buses trying to overtake each other had almost brushed aside the bike. The bike being sucked into the vacuum created after the  departure of fast moving buses, got misbalanced and fell off the road. Luckily, sand was in abundance there too. But handle of the bike had got damaged and one of the friends, broke hi s wrist and the another got bruised!!

This was the temporary first aid that was provided to him in a small dispensary in a village near Pokhran. And bike was also dealt with, in a very crude way. A Hammer, some pulling and bending with hand helped the bike regain shape. And we continued our journey back. Now this is where the idea of taking a car paid off. The injured friend had some place to rest now. But we were 2 drivers less now. So bikes had to be driven by the other two, for the rest of the stretch.  Luckily, we got some pretty cool roads to drive back.

And in the evening around 1800 Hrs, we reached the end point of our return journey. We had some real fun on the way, discount that late disastrous accident, which almost did us in.

But overall, it was an awesome experience. I had never imagined that I would be doing things like these in my life. It was once in a lifetime experience. Thank you M, M, S, P and me

And by the way, one thing is really important to note here. I will give my sincere thanks to the following –

Yes…Tea!!!

Without these, we could not have driven so much. Even in the desert, tea rocks.

[Just observe the background of the tea cups to know the change in environment we had to face.]

So when are you doing the biking thing guys??

Note: This post may make you feel that I take too many risks in life. If that is so, then you are right to an extent. I can be said to be like that. But eventually, I have realised a lot, because of this trekking expedition, which I undertook with a friend(colleague) of mine.

So, let me tell you at the onset, that one of the dreams or wishes of my life has been to climb a mountain. I have always wanted to climb a peak. And by peak, what I mean, is summit. It may have been a summit of a hill also. But that is not important. I just wished to go and climb up a peak and look down upon the world [devilish wish]   Whatever.

So, after pondering over it for a while, I finally decided to make it happen. And I was able to convince one of my colleagues to do the same.  So, we finally shortlisted a peak in the Aravallis range. Aravallis, because they are the nearest to our place of existence.

So on a cool Sunday morning, before the sun could wake up, we woke up and drove to the road, nearest to the peak. Since vehicles could not go to the bottom of the hill, we had to make it on foot.

The picture above shows me going towards the bottom of the peak. I am not sure about the height of the peak, but the main reason of shortlisting the above peak was that, just a few days back, when I was trying to make up my mind for the same, I saw a shepherd at a height of around 30% of the entire height. And you know what, he, from that height, looked just like a speck of color to me. That was it. I had to climb. And this had to be the peak.

By the way, I would like to mention here that I have no formal training in trekking our rock climbing at all.

As mentioned, I am not sure about the height of the peak, but I reckon it to be around 150 mts. Doesn’t seem much? Even I thought so. Till I realized otherwise, during my accent to the top.

So we began climbing, first few meters were quite easy and it seemed that we shall be able to make it no time. But just by looking up, it was visible that the hard part was about to begin. Reason being that, rocks above were much smaller and looser. So putting our foot in the right place would require a real honest effort.

The picture below shows, what I saw at about half way mark. And I swear, it was phenomenal. It seemed that very soon, I would realize my dream of looking down upon the world.

But it seemed that powers above had the idea of my evil thoughts.

A confession here first; Around the time, when the last one third of the height was left, it seemed to us that we had made a huge mistake. We had grossly underestimated the height and the effort required to reach to the top. The problem was that the soil and rocks up there were much smaller and looser than those below. Making it extremely difficult to plant our feet in the rocks. Whenever I tried to push myself upwards, a part of soil below my feet would slip down; making me hanging for my life with my hands. It was tough. Really tough. It was at this time that my friend and I started thinking about our future and life(!) Though both of us knew that we had actually made a mistake, we did not want to show our fears and kept prompting each other to go on.

Also, it was now very sure that we could not, I repeat, could not go back from the side of the mountain, from which we were going up in the first place. It was way too slippery to climb down. We would definitely have slipped.

We had to decide. And we decided that we had to go to the top. It was the only way to save ourselves. Then maybe we could climb down from the other side of the mountain. Now it seems very stupid, but the reality was that all I wanted from God, at that time, was to leave me with a broken hand or foot. That was the least I could have bargained for.

But the point is that you are reading this post. Which means that it must have been posted by someone who did not die. So I am here and alive. This story must have a happy ending therefore.

So, without any options in our hand, we started towards the peak. And this time around, we had to hold cactuses (!) Yes. Cactuses. And that too, many times. We had no other option. We used our handkerchiefs to cover our hand and then held the stem of cactus and pulled ourselves up. The Aravallis have a lot of cactus here. And I never knew, that cactus could be so useful and help me rise. Difficulties make you put in efforts to raise higher.

This is how my target seemed from just below the peak. And this is what was motivating me. I really could not have given up after coming so near to my goal. I couldn’t.

And we continued. But both of us had just one thing in our mind. We would never take such risks ever again. Never.

And just to show the level to which we both had climbed, without any trekking equipment or formal training, just have a look at the picture below -

The picture above, made me realise 3 very important things –

First – I had been really stupid, to have tried something as risky as this.

Second – Never underestimate nature and overestimate yourself. You can be killed. Really.

Third – Trekking is not a time pass sports. And it should never to be done alone. And never without proper equipments and training.

But in life things usually take their own course. And I feel that it has been rightfully said, that if you want something really badly, then the entire universe conspires to help you get it. There could have been so many things that could have gone wrong. But universe had other ideas. It made me achieve, what I wanted to. I was where I always wanted to be.

I had made it to the top. I was alive. I was kicking & I was bruised

But I had achieved what I wanted.

Note: I eventually made it back with my friend. I bruised myself a bit .At last count, there had been a total of 17 cactus’s love marks in both my palms. But that was a bargain to what could have actually happened.

Caution: Never do this, no matter how exciting it may seem at first.

My Sundays are usually reserved for friends and playing games. So yesterday, when I happened to cut my middle finger(!) with a knife (trying to open a packet of milk to prepare some coffee), I felt that I had trashed my Sunday. As I would not be able to play computer games. Though the cut wasn’t terribly bad, but being deep enough, it was paining like hell.

Now we all know that middle finger has a glorious past. J

But for me, its use has been limited to playing racing games. Those familiar with NFS series will know about the fast and calculated use of fingers. I use the middle one of my left hand to get Nitrous Boosts (using the ALT key on the left side) from time to time. And using it is one hell of an important part of playing the game. So what should have I done? Even if I had bandaged it, my entire gaming experience would have become corrupted. So I decided that I shall dump doing my coffee and just like the hero from 300, would sacrifice myself in an effort to score a famous victory in the game.

I started playing with a damaged middle finger.

The main issue was that whenever I tried to use Nitrous to get ahead of my rivals, the blood would start oozing out of my finger. And I could literally feel the pain in my head. And it seemed that the entire stretch of the nerve joining my middle finger to my head was showing middle fingers to me. I felt like showing the middle-finger to everyone. I realized what it is to feel the maximum pain (remember Max Payne!! I wonder why games are so painful.)

So I continued playing and finally after loosing 3 times in a row and wasting a lot my blood, I finally did manage to win it. Win the race of supremecy.

Here it goes again, now I am sorry that I cannot continue writing more, as my finger is again trying to persuade me to stop my immoral endeavour of boring the hell out of the readers (if there are any left by now ).

This is what is known as the pain of victory, or should it be the victory of pain?

Here I am writing a post for Dev. It is an honour I must say, writing the 100^th post. Thanks Dev. I am clueless as to what I’m going to write and I’m sure most of you following the blog would find it monotonous and wonder where he is? But please bear with me, because if I don’t write this, I might disappoint my dearest childhood buddy.

Talking of relationships and disappointments attached to them, most of us feel sad and demented when one of the closest person to us leaves us or drifts away. There is nothing wrong with it and rather, it is quite an obvious feeling. But it’s my feeling that every relationship teaches us something. Something good. No matter how badly it ended. Everyone comes in our life for a reason. They are there with us when we need them the most in our life.

Maybe to share our feelings because we were lonely, to cheer us up or boost up our spirits when we did not believe in ourselves and to lend us a shoulder when we were down and needed a friend. But the mistake we make is that, we want to hold them for life. This is the point when things start to deteriorate. This is indeed the point, when relationships move from ‘not-expecting-anything-in-return’ state to the ones where both sides of the relationships sound like, ‘I-expect-something-from-you’.

People come and go but what remains are the memories that will last with us forever. It’s my personal belief that there is no point in regretting anything in life. It’s always good to listen to everyone, but when the time comes to take the decision, its best to take your own decisions and if something goes wrong then we shall have only ourselves to blame, instead of those who were ‘supposedly’ expected to be influential in our decision making. 

Shifting the focus to the darker and troubled side of relationships – read broken ones, we should look back and smile. Yes. We should smile. It’s because that was the best time, we could have spent with that person at that point in our life. With every bad relationship that ended on a sour note, we should be observant enough to recognise the hidden lesson for the future. And once we are able to understand that, we can be sure that we are not all that vulnerable as we used to be. We can judge people by their behaviour and decide whom to associate with and whom to stay away from. And one of the biggest realisations, that comes out from evolving with the relationships is that, we realise that we should not care for what people say about us. It’s because I believe in living life for myself and for people close to me and not for the society that “supposedly” I should be serving.

Experiences when passed through prisms of life manifest themselves in various human emotions, which are essential to make our personal rainbows colourful and I feel that I am blessed, that God has provided me diverse situations, which have enriched my life. Now I have the power as well as wisdom to appreciate life with all its pitfalls.

Neha K.

There is a dark cult.  A very secret yet widely known one

It is the cult of the office. And believe me, all of us who are working, are a part of the brother hood of this cult.

Below mentioned are some of the observations made by me since I joined this cult -

Never fight over an issue with your boss. You will lose much more than the issue.

Worst thing to receive in your mail is Please Do the Needful. No matter how important things you are doing, if a CC has been sent to someone higher than your boss, then you will have it. Just imagine getting Please Do Then Needful, first thing on Monday morning.

If you try to be a hero by doing everything, you will officially have to do everything.

No matter how much you like what you do. You would always love your Saturdays (Or Fridays for those of you who are luckier).

Never be too honest. Straight trees are cut first. You must not lie. But you must understand when and where you should compartmentalize the information you have.

If you really want to do something, you need to have intentions for the same. Intentions really do shape the reality. And this approach goes much beyond the office life too.

In Sarkaar Raaj, Abhishek Bachchan did say some really smart dialogues like –  

“Mujhe Koshish Nahi, Nateeje Chahiye.”

“Yahaan galti pehli nahi, aakhiri baar hoti hai.”

Boy….he does talk like our boss…isn’t it?

No matter, who you are. No matter, where you are. & no matter what your job is – one day, you will, feel really fu**** up.

You should never discuss a raise until you’ve had your review. Never. Or you will definitely end up getting a bad review.

When there is a large assignment to be handled by your department and your boss tells you that “We are going to handle this”; then beware…it is you who is going to handle it.

“You have done a great job” – whenever you hear this…more work is about to come your way…run!!

When your boss says that “Let’s call a meeting and discuss” means “I have no time now and shall force my decisions on you later.”

Now one thing is really very important. A lot depends on your reputation. And you should really guard it with everything. Your reputation is everything. People have expectations in accordance with the reputation you have. So if you want to survive and move up the ladder, never associate with a losing cause and build yourself a solid reputation.

To show your power, you should try and make other people come to you and whenever you take some decisions, try to take them on your territory. This is one of the most commonly used tactics of people who know how to display their power.

There are times when you are not at your workplace. You should try to use this absence to increase your respect and honor. How to do this? …try being a bit evil

Never appear too perfect. Or people will try their level best to make you appear less perfect.

Make your victims feel smarter than you are. Keep building pressure on them and simultaneously show them a way out. That ways you will act like a shepherd and still get things done. [I seem to be turning into a devil]

Think as you like, behave as others like.

[Disclaimer : Please understand, that this post in no way, reflects the way I operate at my workplace. I am seriously not a person like my post make me seem. But these are some of the very practical real life lessons, which I have learnt while working with a variety of people at my workplace.]

I was actually planning to write a post titled Things I wish I could start doing. But then I realized that, I have already, done a similar list of things I wish to do. Also, under normal circumstances, we all wish to do a lot of things which we haven’t done. It can be anything. Anything as simple as eating something delicious and long not eaten or extreme stuffs like sky diving. But more importantly, there are certain things, that should not be done on a regular basis. These are the things that have actually become a part of our routine existence and are difficult to break away from. We all are different, so we can have a different list of things to avoid doing. I start here with mine.

Procrastination

Now, this is not unique. Almost all of us have this problem. But what matters to me is that, this is a part of me. Although, I don’t procrastinate big time; I do it enough to annoy myself.  I have tried a lot and I must say that I won’t be boasting if I was to say that I have been successful in reducing this horrible habit of mine to a great extent.

Hero Worship

There are 2 people in this world, who are like God to me. I use God here for the lack of a more apt word. I very diligently try to follow these people, in every way I can. One of them is Howard Roark. A man as a man should be. I swear that after reading Fountainhead, I have changed. Roark, although a fictional character has an impact on me, that even the real life characters could not have on me. I started reading Fountainhead during a long train journey when I was 19 years old. And I won’t be wrong, if I say that, It took me 19 years and a long train journey to find myself. (Remember Lakshya’s tagline J ). The other person is a real person. He is not a character from the books but he is now definitely a part of the folklore. I am talking about Warren Buffet. You should make a note here that I am not a follower of this man because of his money making capabilities or for his knack of being right almost everytime. I worship this person because of his simplicity. For his uncomplex and water like uncomplicated life. So what is wrong with worshipping heroes? Nothing I would say. But only as long as you don’t forget what you yourself are. There is really no point in trying to do each and everything as the person you admire. I remember that when I first finished reading Fountainhead, I tried to assume that I was the real life version of Roark and actually used to make genuine efforts to take decisions in ways that Mr. Roark would have taken in his ‘objectivism’ ways.

Declining Enthusiasm

Following graph is an apt representation of my enthusiasm levels from start till the end of a project. Now, a project can be anything – a relationship, some office work, some assignments, some new and innovative ideas, or just about anything.

As you can see in the graph, just after an idea is born at t=0, the enthusiasm shoots above 100%. But after that, it slowly starts to fizzle out and then abruptly comes to a negligible percentage during the half way mark. And then again the downtrend continues just as if some Universal Law of Declining Intent is making it happen. Ill effects of declining enthusiasm are, I suppose, universally known.

Being too frank

The mere fact that I am writing a post of this nature tells you how frank I am.

Reading too much

Librarian. That would have been a perfect job for me. I just love reading. There are times when I can read 3-4 books simultaneously! There are times, when if I can’t find some good reading material, I start feeling uneasy. This is not a comfortable habit to have. I agree that reading is a good habit. But excess of anything is bad. I can very well utilize my reading time in something more (or rather less) brain taxing. But no. My habit of reading on and on, will never allow me to do so. When I was a kid, I used to make beautiful drawings and sketches. But then one day, I don’t know from where, just like swine flu, I caught Reading Flu. And under current circumstances, it seems incurable.

Taking Risks

I have a habit of taking risks. Some of these are huge ones and some are not. I have taken a lot of life threatening risks too. Some which I have already shared on my blog. I won’t say that what I do is wrong. After all, life is about doing the things that are interesting and difficult. And to do difficult things, we need to take risks.

So, these were some of the things that I wish I could top doing a bit. I won’t say completely, because then I won’t have much to make life exciting.  ;-)

How can I not read?

Why shouldn’t I take risks?

Why shouldn’t I look at my heroes with awe?

Why shouldn’t I be as I am and be frank?

Isn’t it.

All the above pictures are a snapshot of where I was and all were taken with an ancient mobile phone’s camera and each one of them is 90 degrees apart. All the pictures give a 360 degree view of where I was.

First of all, let me put some facts on the table.

I was not air dropped for the shooting of India’s very own version of Man Vs Wild.

I was there for some official purpose (Read There as barren, water & life starved wasteland!!). You must be thinking that there is, in fact, no office to be seen in the vicinity (in all the pictures), so how does the question of something official pops up? Being in the energy sector, my organization regularly sends officers for patrolling purposes in remote areas. And this was the very reason for me being where I was. And just to gain some more points portraying myself as someone heroic, I would like to tell you, that I was 15 Kms away from the nearest road / highway & 8 Kms away from nearest living thing (Don’t count trees here). J

With a cap on my head, a cloth to cover my face, full sleeved shirt and jeans on, safety shoes in legs and a water bottle and some documents, I was ready to start my journey. Here I need to mention the time of starting my journey. The time was 11 am. I am emphasizing on time because it is going to play major role later on. Temperature, I am not sure, but it must have been in late 40s!! …just imagine!

So, what I had to do was to cover my stretch of 6 Kms and meet other officers at a predecided location, around 7 Kms from my starting point.

And please do make a note of the fact that I had to walk it all!! No vehicles or any other means of transport. Just my 2 legs. Reason – Rubber tires would be useless in such a rocky, barren land full of cactus and the other creepy stuffs.

I had to follow certain markers or sort of milestones in the area. Now each of these was around 250 meters apart. To cut the long story short, I completed the first 1.5 Kms with ease. I was actually having fun. And it must have been because I have always been game for testing my limits and doing interesting and sometimes silly things. But all was not fine. At the place, where I should have found a marker of 1.75 Kms, there was nothing. I thought that may be it must have been stolen away or been buried under the soil. I kept moving. Now came the point, where I should have found the 2 Km marker. Again it was absent. At this point I started feeling the heat. And I am sure that temperature at that point must have gone to around 50!! And just to make the matters worse, I decided to take snaps of the barren wastelands I was in. And in doing so, I moved around a bit. I turned back and took snaps; then again some on the left and right and so on.

The result was that I completely lost my sense of direction I came from, with no markers in any direction, I was in a state of shock!! Though I knew that I was mere 5 Kms away from my colleagues, what I did not know was the right direction. And unluckily, there were no telecommunication signals. I could no longer make any calls. And that is not all. At 12 in the noon, even my shadow ditched me. I couldn’t even get the sense of direction using my shadow as a compass.

With no mobile signals, extreme heat, without directions and with a ditching shadow, I was really at the mercy of the nature. I could really feel what Power of Nature exactly meant.

Now one of the greatest questions that I have ever faced had to be answered then and there.

In which direction should I head?

At that point I remembered something. Just before reaching the very spot I was stranded on, I had spitted some water while drinking. That was the only mark I could have found. It was indeed my last hope of finding the direction from which I came from. But I had to find that spitted water fast. Or the heat would have evaporated it. So I put a mark at the point at which I was standing and with a radius of about 20 meters, I searched the entire area of the resultant circle. And with god’s grace, I found it. I found my spit. I had never imagined that, one day I will be so happy to see my spit. I had never known that, my spit; my very own spit will save me one day.

Having got my sense of direction, I started moving ahead. And finally after walking for about 300-400 meters, I found the marker. I was finally on the right track.

Lesson for life : Anything. Absolutely anything can save your life one day. Even your spit.

Though I was on right path, I still had to walk around 3 more kilometers. Only thing that was missing from my ‘hot’ adventure was dehydration. And that was the very thing that started catching me wrong footed. I just had half a liter of water left with me for the next 3 kilometers. But I had no option, I couldn’t stop and relax as there were no trees in the wasteland to relax under. If I drank all the available water, I might dehydrate even before reaching the end of my journey. I had to keep walking. And that was the very thing that I kept doing.

I could literally feel my blood boiling. I even came across a small wet pond of sorts. But couldn’t even have drop of water from there because a dead animal’s body was lying in that water patch, smelling like hell.

Time went on and I walked on. And finally, after some time and a few bruises, I did make it to the end. Met my colleagues there, who themselves had quite a torrid time in the field. So, finally, I had survived. I never knew that a walk of 6 odd kilometers could be such an effort.

But this official trip of mine did teach me a lot of things –

Nature is supremely powerful. If it doesn’t want, we can never win from it.

Keep a compass, if you plan getting lost around noon time, in the middle of nowhere.

Anything. Absolutely anything can save your life one day. Even your spit.

Being befriended by a bird

After not thinking about it so much, I have finally decided to work for Twitter. No, I am not joining the company. I am just increasing their user count by 1.

When Twitter started making news, I just thought it to be another Waste Your Time type of stuff. I won’t judge it now. I have just started using it. Let’s see how it works out.

So if you have nothing much to do, you can have a glance at my tweets here. Or better, save your clicks and become a follower.

A part of me has died. My friend died recently in a road accident, in which a bus from Infosys was involved and 5 employees of the company died.

In life, there comes a time when the events happening around us, just don’t leave us shattered. They fracture our very soul.

But I also believed that, there are things that are just not supposed to happen. I could have never imagined that he is going to leave us all so soon. I still am not able to believe that I won’t be talking to him ever again.

When I got a call about this sad news from a friend, saying that my friend was in an accident and didn’t make it through it, I was, for a lack of better word, destroyed. I was in my office and I literally broke down and did not know what had just hit my life. How could it ever happen?? I just had a talk with him 2 days back and we had even decided to meet in Delhi. How the hell could this happen? I was really not able to control myself. I took a leave and went back home. I just did not know what to do. Just consider this: one minute, I have a friend, without talking to whom, my life doesn’t seem to be complete. Another moment he is not there. He is nowhere around. He has just become a memory. And when I think about his family, I get shivers. A happy family of four is reduced to a family of three. The entire trajectory of life has changed. Everything I knew to be true no longer holds. God, without even consulting us, has taken a decision that has rudely jolted us from a happy life into a terrifyingly sad one.

He was one person who had an enormous effect on me. I feel afraid to imagine my life without him. In college life too, he was the one, who was always the first person to come to our rescue. But just after the accident, there was literally no one to rescue him. Makes me feel that it is no use being good. Why should someone help others when even God can betray you? And whosoever said that ‘Jo hota hai achche ke liye hota hai’, was not right.

Death ends life. But it can’t end a relationship. Rachit, now you are not there. But our relationship will continue as long as I am alive. And I promise you, that I will continue to live in the way you wanted me to. Where ever you are, I know you must be at peace. I know, that you will always remain my guiding force.