My Thoughts, My Views, My Experiences....

Faith

2014-12-07T14:34:00.001+05:30

Note: This article is not about questioning religious beliefs. Its about what faith stands for.

Life is a struggle from the word go. Probably a bunch of free-loaders and people with rich mommy and daddy would not agree to this but for a larger percentage of people, life is indeed a struggle. It poses a series of challenges and ups/downs. Either you evolve or you perish as you try to navigate yourself through life. Most of the times, you tend to look at areas which would be comforting, areas or entities that would allow a person to cope well with the challenges.

People tend to believe what they see. More often than not, its what other people saw which goes virals makes people believe that yes it did happen. How many have seen God and His work? Very few? a handful? and how many people believe in God and the fact that His work is always something that happens and solves problems? Billions, Zillions? Countless number of people still believe that God works His way to restore order in lives of people who have been hit by a number of challenges. Some is just simple blind faith while some is experienced faith.

Mostly, it is the former. However, psychologically speaking, His presence in thoughts does help the people who need to be helped. But over time it does get converted into blind faith. I have seen a lot of really bad people (bad in terms of character and approach) donating a lot of serious money to temples in the name of God. I am not sure of the thought process behind this. Maybe they think that paying such a big load of money would rid them of their sins (yea they really think bribing is the approach here as well). However, the lesser people tend to follow in their footsteps. This is a form of faith transference. So, people see a rich person getting away with a lot of crap, getting blessed with an awesome quality of life, start to believe that yes big sacrifices would give them the key to solving life’s problems.

Ultimately what i think is that faith is the most purest form of sense of support. When up against a lot of adversity, the mind still wants to know that it is still been accepted and supported by someone. Most of the people inherently take support from God and His ways in order to get their ways through. This is because of everything in and around your life, God is omni-present and can be found almost everywhere. So, a readily available supply of support is what people get when they want God on their side. Support gives strength, strength gives coherence of thoughts, coherence gives confidence, confidence gives self belief, self belief solves problem - simple with a tricky starting point.

It all comes down to what you think would give you the best confidence and SELF BELIEF. For me for instance, is the notion that my parents, my wife and the rest of my family would be there for me no matter what which allows me to get through my troubled times. Recently, I came to experience that. I tried finding solace in God but I found better solace speaking with my loved ones, giving me coherence, giving me confidence and belief. That is all that is required to get the requisite tools to solve a problem.

Life throws you a curl ball one after the other. People need support to handle the tricky nature of this life’s aspect. Most find comfort in God. A few, like me, find that same comfort in my loved ones. In the end, it is the form of faith that equips the person to find that particular ounce of strength needed to overcome life’s problems and give person a confidence to move ahead in life. We need to think where we put our faith in?

The sight I see

2014-04-21T15:17:00.001+05:30

Words are not enough to describe what I see
Its moments like these, I think about what I really want to be

For being with you is what actually matters
Without you, my life is lying all in tatters

They say beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder
But what I see now is just making me bolder

Smart was the time when I made a crucial life decision
8 & half years later, I have the same really vision

When I held you in my arms for the 1st time
Was the day when my heart started to rhyme

The lights have fallen over the pier
I really wish that you were near

To witness this sight, I need someone close in my life
I would have loved if the sight was shared with my loving Wife!

Why India Needs its Own Dark Knight

2012-08-15T19:38:00.000+05:30

Before I start, I just wanted to state one thing. Read the below article with an open/subjective mind. This has been written with at-most sincerity.

We are on the verge of completing 65 years of Independence. Back then, the historic “when the clock strikes midnight” was the defining moment in Indian history. Years of struggle had paid dividends as India rose to the occasion and took back what was rightfully theirs. That was the time when the entire nation stood united and saluted the cause and bent their backs in achieving it. They looked up to the leaders back then. Although the leaders arguably did some mistakes, but the ultimate decision to separate us from the British Raj was admirable and was taken with a sense of unity in diversity which came to be our motto – our country’s punchline.

After 65 years, it should seem that we have rose from the ashes and should be spreading our wings like a phoenix and fly away. Indians always had the brains to rise above others. Only thing they lacked was leadership and initiative – simply quoting Doc Ock, we all were “Brilliant but Lazy”. So, when we all stood for the 1^st time for our national anthem, it was an appropriate assumption to make that we would do phenomenal progress as a nation. To some extent, we did do brilliantly well in terms of progress. But now, when I look at the nation in which I was born and brought up, I don’t feel proud anymore.

India was a democratic nation. Everyone has a chance to voice their own opinion. But when you go to a fish market, there also everyone “voices” their own opinion. Think about what the resultant feeling is! Further, when the British were here, they used an awesome strategy to rule – Divide and Rule: A strategy which ideally should have been dead and buried. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case. India, in this present form, is still ruled through this strategy but my politicians and parties concerned.

In general, today’s political parties in India are just concerned about 3 things – getting power, keeping power and executing power. They seem to have lost the thought of people welfare. India has been marred with numerous terrorist strikes, but there hasn’t been even 1 conviction, hasn’t even been one arrest. India has seen a number of scams happening, but again, there hasn’t been even 1 conviction, the arrests have happened but all of those are now freely roaming. In this power struggle, comes the true evil which is eating this society from within – corruption. The civil society is right. Corruption is actually the cause of the nonsense happening. Nowadays all politicians and bureaucrats know that they can get away with anything – they seem to have misplaced all sense of accountability.

Although the civil society is doing the right thing but I feel that the means need to be more drastic. These power hungry people aren’t going to mend their ways only by a few of us going on hunger strikes. It needs much more than that. An average Indian was desperate back in 1940s but now the same average Indian is lazy and selfish. I say this becoz I hear instances where a 3^rd person who is trying to mediate and stop a fight gets critically injured in his ordeal. Indians, now, are more looking out for benefits rather than fighting for a big cause. They would stand around a couple of people fighting rather than help and mediate. They are lazy enough NOT to pick sides as there isn’t any benefit for them.

I see millions of people supporting a group of social activist. That’s good. That’s a start. However, what’s that going to achieve? Politicians have grown extremely powerful becoz of the “divide & rule” concept. They absolutely have nothing to fear. They know that their main vote bank is impervious to these “movements”. Even if the current ruling party goes out, the other one that comes in is going to do the same nonsense which we seem to be sick and tired of. The reason for that to happen – all power politicians lack fear!

Back in 2005, we all were exposed to an idea. A silent guardian who fights injustice at night by playing with things people fear the most. Although it may sound funny at 1^st but the Dark Knight trilogy grounded the comic book premise of a vigilante fighting crime/injustice in the realms of reality. It was indeed a bold step which clicked with the audience from an engaging entertainment perspective. But I had a different look to it. From a very high level point what I saw was a city ridden by corruption and powerful people. There were a few good men but those were either put off or pushed aside. These very good men were people who were fighting the system from within but neither of them were successful in doing so. The city got a symbol – a symbol of fear which was used drive the 1 thing which these powerful people needed in their minds – fear. It is the fear of the things which you don’t understand!

So, in the movie, a symbol was used to strike fear in the hearts of the corrupt and the powerful. How that was achieved in the movie is another thing as it tends more towards fantasy. However, the idea of the presence of a symbol is the one which could be retained.

So, for this country to really change, we need a symbol. But is that enough? Currently, civil society is pushing for JanLokpal bill as a means to instill some accountability into the system and reduce corruption. But will that really help? I, personally, am doubtful about it. Although, the bill (from what I know) has the potential to bring accountability, but one begs to think if the time of being accountable has passed. We have entered into a phase in our system where nothing, absolutely, nothing can be done without paying “gift” aka bribe!

Lokpal can work. But the correction required in the system needs to come in a drastic manner. It needs to come in the tone with which it came in the Dark Knight series. The batman signified defiance. He signified fear and he signified the ability to correct the system more drastically. That brings to my original thought – Has India degraded to such an extent that we really need a symbol in form of a fearful masked vigilante to bring about a change and reduce corruption in our society?

Although my view might sound conflicting, they actually aren’t. Although Lokpal can be THE symbol which I am talking about, but it cant bring in the fear quotient. That is partially becoz of the painstakingly long judicial system which we have. Fear is an object which strikes and leaves a victim so fast that the victim doesn’t have time to think straight and succumbs to it. Lokpal gives time. It allows the person to built up a case for himself and the pathetic judicial system allows him to go scot-free regardless of how vicious his crime was!

So quick justice is the answer! A feared mask vigilante who cannot be traced is the answer! Someone who can be a symbol rather than a person – a normal citizen and bring all the people who refrain from being accountable to the people those elect them to justice. Sometimes, a system needs a minor tweak here and there. But sometimes, the system needs a radical overhaul. This wont be possible as long as people belonging to the old way of doing things are at the center of every decision that is taken. These people are the ones who bring in the corruption into the system. These are the people who need to be brought to justice. The Janlokpal can target these people but they would never be brought down by it. The Dark Knight needs to rise in order to save the society from abomination. The question is – what form would he come in?

An Imploding World

2012-07-08T15:54:00.001+05:30

Ever since childhood, I came across stories of the end of the world. As a fragile mind growing up in a country like India, it was often a scary thought to be around when the world ends. During the teenage years, I heard every from rumors that visitors from outer space are coming to Earth in order to survive in the Earth’s atmosphere (this was close to the release of the movie Independence Day) to the predictions given by Nastrodamus where he postulated that the world as we know it is going to cease to exist at a certain point in time – more importantly, during my lifetime!

The Mayan calendar was the cherry on top on all this end of the world news that was falling on my delicate mind. All these news pointed to 2012! So, as any ignorant kid would do, I thought about it for a while and then remained unobvious to it!

Fast forward to 2012 January – the world isn’t bracing itself for the end! In fact, it has become so self-involved, that it is oblivious to the fact – a Mayan fact – that there isn’t a calendar beyond 21^st December 2012!! But then I looked closely and found out something pretty interesting.

The world has come a long way in the last decade. Cellphones which were considered a luxury back then have now become a necessity. Mobile internet which was non-existent has now involved into its 4^th Generation. However, more importantly, the attitudes of the people have changed drastically since a decade. Moreover, on the flip side, changes have also come in for the worst.

In order to support these humongous changes in our day to day lives, humans have exploited natural resources to the nth degree. In order to make our lives cooler, we have heated up the Earth. In order for us to live in luxurious apartments, we have deprived our wildlife of their own homes! All these stem from a commonality which has become a dormant but yet essential catalyst in the “progress” which the world has done in the last decade – competition.

Competition and power go hand in hand. In fact, one can say that people compete so that they can hold a place of power. So, the chase for power is always present in smaller or larger proportions around us. In our workplace, chase for power is in form of promotions, salary hikes etc. Whereas, in the open world, chase for power comes in multiple forms. The only thing that doesn’t change is the outcome of the chase. Humans have become so blinded in their chase for power that they no longer able to see that they actions have a degrading effect on the things around them.

So, such a chase always comes at a cost – in some cases the cost is merely few thousand bucks or in some cases, the cost is more severe. In India, the highly visible chase for power comes in form of political ambition. This thirst for power has left a fairly large negative impact on the country’s administration and law/order capabilities. The result is an inflated price index, a slowing down economy and a huge trade deficit. Although, the more informed people might argue but the fact remains that corruption, as a byproduct of the chase for power, has crippled the country to such a level that very strict reforms are required. If these reforms would actually change the ways of the politicians is a discussion for another day.

Panning out to the entire world, we observed the 1^st phase of recession during the 2008-09 financial season which opened our eyes to a grim reality – not everything can be taken on credit. However, the main focal item which led to this meltdown was also competition and the effort to strive for market domination. The financial firm’s readiness to dispense so much credit for so fewer guarantees was taken very lightly and to some extend bit literally by the consumer. Now, comes the fun part – why did the consumer did what he did? Interestingly, this can also be attributed to the race to succeed, the race to survive.

Are human beings becoming insecure? Are they becoming too self involved? Are we evolving into a species which cannot co-exist with each other and fellow mammals? These are the questions which seem to outline the circumstances of what we are experiencing today. The fact remains that humans are degrading themselves and the environment they live in order to achieve some false sense of power. Right now, most of the world economies are on the brink of disaster and those who aren’t, have such a bad governance that the very people designated to ensure their well beings are slowly but surely eating away at the environment (natural as well as man made).

Maybe our forefathers were right. Maybe Nastrodamus and the Mayans knew this stage of human evolution. Maybe, they knew that although humans would grow to be sophisticated, they would still retain the raw animal instincts underneath. So, the next stage of evolution would hint at humans devouring others of the same and different species in order to fulfill the one urge that has driven us all these thousands of years – the instinct to survive.

This could mean that the reason the Mayans stopped writing their calendar beyond 21^st December 2012 was becoz they couldn’t vision a human race beyond that point in time. Maybe, they couldn’t just recognize what had become of a human being. All this points to a simple yet somewhat logical reality – The world isn’t coming to an end, we humans are merely going to step into the next age of evolution. The world is going to reach the pinnacle of development before crashing down to the point where a mental and physiological rebuilt is warranted.

The world isn’t going to come to an end – We humans are just going to make it implode….

Perceptions

2012-04-11T23:25:00.003+05:30

What is it that makes us like people? Is it their common interests that attract us towards them? Or is the karma that they symbolize which makes us want to interact with them? What if this karma is a falsifying attempt of such individuals to achieve what they want to achieve, get what they want to get, make us do what they want us to do? Or is it just the human mind which makes us feel closer to such individuals at a certain level so much so that the karmic energies just seem to synergize and provide us with an experience which depicts the most common of human emotions – acceptance.

The human mind is a puzzle. Every nook and corner of it is embedded with demons which prevent us from exploring the mind to a point beyond the realm of certainty. To further aggravate the complications, the human mind is exposed to external demons as well. These demons are not only a manifest of human emotions but they are also projections of the human mind – the external human mind. The projections are nothing but the inner demons of other human minds which come alive and exhort a force of sometimes uncontrollable nature which influences the subjected human mind to such a degree that the inner demons are dominated and educated to do something which they are never really trained to do. The result is a self-learning demon which propels the karmic energy to bend itself around the people with whom a synergy is possible. This results in a distortion in the karmic energy of not only the subjected human mind but also the mind which, now allegedly, the subjected mind was apparently attracted to. This ultimate realization gives rise to an understanding which in common knowledge is labeled as perception.

A perception is a very figurative being. It can make or break the human mind. The most intriguing part about perception is that it is indeed a parasite. This is the true trainer of the demons roaming inside the human mind. It has great amplification capabilities – able to infect thousands (if not) millions of human minds. Perceptions are tools which human emotions turn to when they aren’t able to understand the demons reaction to the karmic energy which it experiences during an interaction. However, this is just detour which the demon allows the human emotions to take in a bid to distort and prevent the synergy which otherwise would have resulted in the triumphant destruction of the demon. So, ultimately, it is all about survival.

If we pan out, we realize that perception, really, is sometimes the creation of one repulsion of karmic energy. When the human mind encounters a karmic energy which it truly dislikes, the resultant acrimony fuels the demons in that mind to repulse the idea of getting itself entangled with that karmic energy. However, it doesn’t stop there. This repulsion is nothing but a mutated form of karmic energy which tries to dominate and educate the demons hidden in the subjected human mind so as to twist its own inner demons into thinking that the friendly karmic energy is actually a repulsive one resulting in perception spreading like a disease through multiple human minds.

This brings us to the very basic question – what can be done about these demons? Can they be ever controlled? Can the virus of perception have any cure? Weirdly, the answer comes from within – as I mentioned that the human mind is a puzzle, so along with these demons are small karmic energy points spread all across the mind, prompting you at every step of the way. The sad part is that the demons grow so loud that you cant really make them out. The best way to combat the perception problem is to hear the very karmic energy which is trying to reach out to you and the like minded human with a view to have a synergy which can, in the end, provide the human mind with the level of acceptance that it always craves. Resultant synergy also has the capability of changing the minuses to pulse, changing the wrongs to rights, it has the power of enslaving the demons which would allow the disease of perception from spreading – think about it!

Expectations

2012-04-05T23:37:00.003+05:30

Human nature. What is it that makes human nature different? Is it the sense of instinct which drives each and every human being? Is it the competition that we are constantly exposed to in our day to day life? After all, we are, at the end of the day, just descendants of beasts – a species which constantly within themselves try to establish an alpha male. I cant help but wonder whether years and years of evolution failed to eradicate the 1 very basic quality which, essentially, is the constant driving force of an individual to strive for the best – the quality of competition.

It can be argued that competition always brings out the best in people. Is this really true? One thing that history has taught is never to be naïve. Historical events tell the tale of people who took competition so seriously that they did anything, absolutely anything, to maintain their competitive advantage. This is but the sad part of human nature. They say that humans have the most evolved spirits – yet time and time again, we have proven to our overlords that this spirit is tainted and that the constant evolution minus direction dilutes the spirits to such an extent that it bends the minds of people who start doing the most unexpected things in the most unorthodox manner. The weirdest part to all this is that they remain impervious to the most obvious quality which humans uniquely possess – perspective.

The most common reaction to this argument is denial. What one human sees as an act of unworthiness is perceived by others as an act to just make ends meet. So, who is to draw the line of expectations? Who is to say and dictate what is the expectation in terms of the action performed by the humans as they go about their day to day chores? These lines are drawn by a group of humans in society who summation of perspectives comes out to be zero. However, the real question beckons here is if the summation is actually zero? Is it possible that you get the precisely right amount of ying and yangs, pluses and minuses to balance out a human equation? Isnt the existence of an anomaly the most obvious truth which ensures that the society and in extension the universe balances itself out? Then you sit and wonder who or rather what brings about such anomaly? Is it a human quality? Is it just plain simple quantity of human beings? Or is it a perspective of the 3rd dimension? Further comes a thought that if there is indeed an anomaly, who in turn sets the expectations for the scope of this anomaly?

If for a moment, we consider that the summation of perspectives is indeed zero, then the outcome of these perspectives should ideally be a line by line setting of expectation. If an expectation is set in such a unique way, then all humans would respond to competition in the same exact manner. This would mean that only true talent can allow for one human to triumph over the other in pure competition. This would mean that all talent is supplemented by something which humans again have inherited from their beasty ancestors – survival instinct. But isn’t it natural for any life form to do whatever it takes to survive? This would mean that in order to survive, humans would unearth talents which aren’t the best ones always thereby leading to a state where a human tries to dictate its position as an alpha male in forcible circumstances.

This makes me think if really in order to set the expectation, we try to use the excuse of an anomaly to balance the perspectives out. So, ultimately isn’t the anomaly nothing but the degree to which humans can go to survive in a competitive world? And isn’t the root of the immergence of this anomaly attributed to the presence of the need to have expectations in a bid to have order to the way humans compete in this world? So, is it wrong to say that we have evolved from our ancestors or are we just a highly intellectual descendants of them who undertake the same tactics to be the alpha male but only in a civilized/humanized manner?

Travel Diaries – Srinagar and the Long Ride Home!

2011-12-05T23:03:00.005+05:30

Yes, it was a houseboat! Before I get into that, my 1^st impression of the Dal Lake follows. I had only seen the Dal Lake in movies famously in Mission Kashmir. However, when I actually came to see it for the 1^st time, I was awestruck. A massive piece of water mass! Never before have I seen such a huge mass of water which is labeled as a Lake! This should have been categorized as a mini Sea! Simply beautiful. From a distance, watching the shikara glide over the silk like surface is something which you can only see to believe.

Then finally, we got a chance to glide over the lake in a Shikara. From a distance, it seems like any other boat in which you can sit and go over water. However, it’s really a different story when you are in it! It simply submerges into the water to such an extent that you feel that it can go under any time!

Once the Shikara beings its journey, all you can do is sit still!! Our houseboat was further away from the edge of the lake. So, the Shikara ride was a longer one. It’s sometimes very amazing that how easily the rowers can navigate the Shikara towards its destination. The view of lotuses on the Lake with the sun shining in the backdrop is something which any DSLR owner would want to take and keep it locked up in their harddrive! Further during our ride to the houseboat, we had other shikaras containing salesmen who used to pull up and join the boats so that they can sell something to us!!

We finally reached our houseboat and were greeted by a grand archway which led into the living room! A houseboat is a very modest name which is given to this structure. It should have been called a Palaceboat!! Its basically a 4 BHK on the lake! Its constructed in linear fashion (one room leads into another). We started off with a grand hall which had really royal style sofas and chairs. Modern amenities like DTH and tube lights and bulbs along with a table fan grace the spectacular woodwork! The hall led into the dining area which again comprised of a huge table capable of seating around 8-9 people. The most interesting thing about these 2 rooms was the décor! Amazing woodwork and polish which really sets the tone for a grand place! From the dining room, we had a long but narrow corridor which ultimately terminated into a master bedroom. Along the way, there were small rooms on the left and windows on the right. The rooms were the kitchen followed by 3 double beds – each of which equipped with a wardrobe and a bathroom!

All in all a really beautiful place to stay. However, walking through the corridor was creepy as the wood below made squeaky sounds which were reminiscent of the horror movies of the 70s and 80s!

After relaxing for a while, we headed out again and went to a relatively famous place in Srinagar – Adhoos restaurant for late lunch. Food was nice but had a Kashmiri/Mughali flavor to it! Sadly couldn’t enjoy much as I was forced to eat veg!

Staying in a palace like structure, we wanted to keep the feeling of being royal alive. So, we headed over to the Mughal Gardens which were on the other side of the Dal Lake.

The gardens were typical ones which you would find – only difference being that they were huge and had wide varieties of flowers and trees! It essentially is a photographer and Lover’s delight!

After spending the evening there, we headed back to the houseboat to enjoy the beautiful evening lights that could be experienced at the Lake. It’s magical what lights can do to completely lift the beauty of the place!

Time spent in Srinagar was too less and we definitely need to come back again for a longer exploration of the place. After a peaceful sleep (something which we had after a long time), we packed our bags one last time and headed over to the airport. Since being Srinagar, we had to reach the airport really early (3 hours before departure). Around 5-10 kms before the airport, we had to get out of the car, do a scan of our luggage and ourselves! The level of security was unparalleled to anything which I had seen!

After reaching the airport, we had to even checkin our hand luggage – basically get into the flight with nothing but wallets! Thankfully, we had booked our return flights on Kingfisher Class – food served was on the house!

The Kingfisher flight was a relaxing one as it took us from Kashmir via Delhi to Mumbai. For obvious reasons, my friends really enjoyed the flightJ. All in all, an awesome end to a spectacular journey!

Epilogue

While we checked and loaded our luggage onto the trolley, there was a sense of sadness amongst us. These 10 days were really incredible considering the various ups and downs that we saw but we really pulled through. Even as we left the airport waving our good byes, we knew that this was just an adventure trip which we took to get away from our real lives – the lives which we were to resume a day later. Even today, when I feel exhausted, I close my eyes and try to remember the green/white/brown picturesque views of Rohtang/Ladakh/Kargil. It makes me feel relaxed and calms me down – in short refreshes me! Such is the impact, a trip like this can have!

This was the 1^st time I ever undertook a trip like this and boy how amazing it turned out. We could easily have got stuck, got undone by nature, hell could have been fallen to our deaths, but we pulled through. I didn’t want to prove anything to anyone by going through with this trip but I proved one thing to myself – I pulled through adversity to witness some of the most beautiful views that nature had prepared to be seen!

I don’t know if ever I will undertake such an adventurous trip, but I do know one thing – I am really glad that I said “Yes” when asked about this!

Travel Diaries – Kargil to Kashmir – The Final Frontier

2011-12-05T23:03:00.003+05:30

It was the month of Ramzan when we arrived into Kargil. It’s a Muslim dominated town. So, it felt really kind of sacred and festivy! Having said that, this festival is one of the toughest one I have ever seen! Imagine going without food for the entire time the sun is in the air!!

Well, the plan was simple on the morning when we were to leave for Kashmir. We had to leave as early as possible as around some time in the morning, the military convoy makes its trip from the Kargil base to Kashmir. When this happens, the entire road was said to be blocked off – which translates into delays!

The journey had made us smart and wise, so we decided to use some of the wiseness and smartness and ensure that atleast the last leg of our rather adventurous journey be peaceful and more importantly uneventful! So, we decided to leave Kargil right at 5 am in the morning!!

The air had a chill in it – a direct signal to the fact that winter was coming in quick! So there wasn’t any question of taking a bath :). Anyways, the hotel guys were kind enough to properly pack food for us and provide us with some really awesome tea! After saddling up all the goodies, we left town.

Being a war town a decade ago, we got to see how this seemingly peaceful town was a bed of violence! Just out of Kargil market, we came across a very weird wall which looked haphazardly built and covered a beautiful view of 3 interweaved mountains. Our driver told us that the mountain in the center was actually Pakistani territory and the wall served as a foil for Indian army to commute during war times!

After driving for a few hours, we came to pay our respects to our Jawans at VijayPath. It was a memorial built for soldiers who lost their lives in trying to save ours. In the words of the Jawans – they lost their present to save our future. The memorial served us as a reminder as to how gruesome wars can be for both sides. The emotions which I felt when the Armyman pointed towards tiger hill and told us about the extreme conditions under which the Jawans held fort are inexpressible. This was a place where I felt deeply indepth to our 1^st line of defense.

Another highlight was us passing through the 2^nd most cold town to have civilization – Drass! In July of 1993 (I think), this town recorded an extremely low temperature of -65 degrees Celsius!

The drive was a smooth affair without many hassles. The road was awesome as it was maintained by the army. The view was spectacular. At one point, we were going through a vast field where we could see horses and sheep’s grazing as we zoomed passed them! It was truly surreal and surprising to see such beauty in India. The military bootcamp in the journey made us see how the life is in Kargil and the expectations that need to be met in order to survive in the army and against nature!

We reached just in time as the convoy started to make its way – the problem was that we couldn’t get ahead of it! The entire journey through the pass connecting to Sonamarg we pursued the convoy who kept an eye out on us. Felt secure as well as scared as the eyes used to scan the car every few mins!

Sonamarg was beautiful! Just like how I expected Kashmir to be! Extremely green, picturesque, cold but warm at the same time. It was treat to be there. Although we knew that the last stage of the vacation was reached, we were really refreshed by the superb view which was there on offer.

The drive down to Srinagar there on was a glide. Rivers flowing on the left and trees and trees going pass us, it truly felt like heaven on earth!

We stopped for a few clicks, I even saw how the walnuts grew on trees!! Got to break some down and run away before people to catch us! Such was the fun filled trip right upto Dal Lake where things started to get warm! Just about to reach our destination, we stopped again but this time to shop for walnuts, saffron and all the delicacies of the north!

Finally we were dropped off at Dal Lake. We had to completely circle the lake to reach a point which was closest to our hotel – yea, it was a houseboat!

Travel Diaries – Leh Ladakh to Kargil

2011-12-05T23:03:00.001+05:30

2 days in the Ladakhi weather are just paradise. Although we went towards the end of the season, the weather was still pretty pleasant in the day and nicely cold in the night. 2 days just breezed by. At the end of it, I felt that 2 days aint enough to totally enjoy Ladakh. Based on how our journey had panned out, you need atleast 4-5 days in Ladakh itself. 1-2 days should just be to acclimatize yourself to the ladakhi altitude and the temperature changes. Then further 2-3 days to move around ladakh and visit all the sights I mentioned in my previous posts.

Special note for people with asthama problems and bronchitis – please take extra precaution in ladakh. If possible, carry some canisters of oxygen with you in case you travel by road. If you take the flight to Ladakh, ensure that you spend 2 days by just resting and not taking hectic travels. For you, flight is the best option!

So, finally we packed our bags, this time with some added goodies from Ladakh and prepared to move along to Kargil. When I say prepared, I mean mentally and physically because the way our journey had occurred till now, a small 1 hour delay in traffic is just another day in the office.

Kargil was a tricky thing. It was the month of Ramzan. So, all shops and activities in Kargil would wind up early. Coupled that with early sunset meant that we had to move quickly towards Kargil so that we reach there, check in before the prayers began. The thing on our side was the fact that the road was very clean with no sign of snow and relative less amount of distance to cover.

Loading our bags we started off from Hotel Chubi towards Kargil and we were met with some really bright sunshine along with warmth which we hadn’t seen since we reached Manali. En-route to Kargil, there are 2 places to visit just as you leave Ladakh – a gurudwara and a place called as Magnetic Hill.

I don’t know the significance of the magnetic hill but the thing is that it’s a somewhat steep slope where, if you keep your car in a marked area, instead of sliding down when not in gear, it moves up! You have to see it to believe it!

The road to kargil was relatively dry with absolute no sign of moisture. The road, however, is pretty neat and developed compared to the ones we got from Manali till Leh. In addition to the 2 points I mentioned above, on the way, we saw a nice Buddha temple which has a 4 storey high Buddha statue! It’s a thing of beauty!

We stopped a couple of places for our breakfast and then some tea. The apricots in this area are awesome along with local vegetation which is extremely fresh. We drove past a lot of small-small villages where there were not more than 5-10 houses (out on the main road) and there was a lot of cultivation in place. One thing to note – the villages were spaced only 10-15 kms apart. So, we would have encountered around, say, 20 odd villages between Ladakh and Kargil!

We had lunch at an extremely small dhaba. The food was nice as I was told. The thing about such places is that it is really honest cooking. They don’t cheat, they don’t need to impress anyone, they just cook the best they can with what they have. Fellow travelers reveled in Rajma chawal along with some really nice parathas and omlettes!

Well, you must be wondering how come the journey has been so enriched with pleasant and incident free experiences. The thing is that we were really cruising to Kargil – at around 3 pm, we were around 30 kms away from our destination. However, when we finally checked into our hotel, my watch showed the time – 7 pm!

4 hours, it took to cover 30 kms. No it wasn’t traffic – it was nature again. See, when you push something, it pushes back! That’s exactly what happened when delayed us. The road which connects Ladakh to Kargil is a national Highway which is used by Military a lot. However, the road is narrow as you move along the mountain region. In the name of development, we noticed that at a lot of places, road widening activities were taking place. They were tearing up a side of the mountain so that the road could be widened. At some such place, they were drilling and suddenly, just about 500 meters from where they were drilling, the side of the mountain gave way and a manmade landslide happened. The problem wasn’t about the huge stones which were there on the road, the problem was this enormous piece of stone which was stuck to the side of the mountain threatening to slide down onto the road.

As a precaution, no one was allowed to go through. Even military trucks were blocked! After much discussions and deliberations, it was decided that they drill at the base of this stone so that it slides out – easier said than done. They tried drilling for around an hour and a half but still no luck! Now since there was a lot of traffic accumulated at either end, a discussion was taken to allow the current set of vehicles to start rolling under extreme precautions. Lucky for us was the fact that our side of the traffic was asked to clear out!

So finally, we started the last 30 kms of our journey, through a couple of villages and behind a lot of traffic till we finally limped into our hotel at 7 pm!

Kargil, in the evening, was a pretty quiet place. People were just in the mood to wind up their day, head home and think about what they were going to do for the next day. The hotel where we were put up – Hotel Siachen – was a decent enough place to spend a night. Special mention of the food there – it was awesome!

Btw, it was our planner’s birthday the next day, so we had a small sponge cake which we bought and had a 12 o clock cake cutting ceremony there. However, the cake was such that we didn’t even attempt to eat it – it was as they say, a stage prop!

Travel Diaries – Up & About in Leh-Ladakh

2011-12-05T22:53:00.001+05:30

The morning washed all the frustration away and welcomed us to 1 very happy feeling – We were on vacation!!! As I mentioned in my earlier post, the hotel where we were put up – Hotel Chubi – was a very homely hotel. The tea and the breakfast – Omlette and Aloo da Paratha – were really simple to taste and really helped us relax. The only prick in our sides was the annoying caretaker who was very rigid in his approach towards handling customers. “Aap aur khaoge?” was a classic dialogue which made you think as to who is paying the bills around there!

Another fantastic thing about the hotel was the fact that they cultivated most of their vegetables! They had a big garden which housed a number of vegetable plants along with apricot and apple trees! Being a guy from the city, sights like these were something to which I cannot control my excitement! It was a superb experience to witness such things.

The evening when we reached Ladakh, our travel agent over there came around to take our photo ids. These were required for making our permits for Nubra Valley and Pangong Lake. These permits take about a day to be made. So, a travel tip – ensure that you enroll for these and plan for your visit accordingly.

Since it was going to take a day to prepare the permits, we stuck to visiting only some local places during the course of the day. Below is a walkthrough of the same:1

Thiksey Monastery:

Located on the outskirts of town, the Thiksey Monastery is home to all the Tibetan monks in Ladakh. Its one of the quietest places in the world – a place where even I was quiet! It’s located on top of a hill, so walking on top to the various temples is a real challenge. From the monastery, you have a nice cool view of 2 parts of ladakh – the dry mountainous region and the oasis that is the Ladakhi town! The highlight of this place is the monks who move around effortlessly in their area. They are serious contenders in the sport of parkour. Another highlight is the sheer simple approach towards Buddhism which is portrayed here. I aint a religious guy but I loved the way the people here value peace and silence.

Indus River bank:

The river bank aka ghat was inaugurated by our then Prime Minister Mr Vajpayee. Its basically a small sightseeing kinda place built on the banks of the river indus as it gains momentum and flows down from the Himalayas. It is also used for performing some rituals. Its was an awesome place to attain inner peace :)

Shanti Stupa:

One of the highlights of the day for me! It’s the top most peak of ladakh where a small Buddist monument has been made. Its supposed to be a symbol of peace. All I can say is, it provides another awesome view of the entry valley – a panoramic view! Its simply surreal to be there, a feeling that can only be expressed by actually visiting that place!

Kargil Monument & Museum:

Ladakh has a Kargil monument which was laid down to honour those who lost their lives during the Kargil conflict. The monument gives even the most unpatriotic person a feeling of Patriotism. The monument is preceded by a war museum which documents the various strategies undertaken by our military to stamp out the infiltrators. It has a lot of models showing the strategies employed, equipment used in war and for survival, the medals bestowed and the enemy equipment and artifacts confiscated. It definitely increased the respect which I had for the military and changed my outlook towards the entire defence system employed by the country. This is 1 place which I recommend should not be missed whilst in Ladakh.

Speaking of places which we missed – there were 2 places which were missed by us due to time and health constraints:

Nubra Valley
Pangong Lake

Yea, I know I would be criticized for missing these but there are some issues which you cant really keep aside – one being a health one. As I always say, there is always next time!

To compensate, we explored the ladakhi market and had good at some quite nice places in and around ladakh. The ladakhi market is more or less oriented to support foreign tourists and is loaded with Pashmina silk shops which give shawls, sweaters at phenomenally high prices. The reason for high prices is simple – the valley is closed for 6 months of the year, so all the profit which has to be earned is earned in the remaining 6 months! My friend introduced me to some really nice brass artifacts – one which makes an ‘OM’ sound when you swipe its brim with a wooden rod through resonance. Another nice ones were of candle stands, daggers with decorated hilt etc etc. The Ladakhi market is definitely another place not to be missed!

Our stay in Ladakh was a breeze. 3 nights just went pass by without us knowing about it! Sometimes when I travel through the noisy, frustration generating streets of Mumbai, I really long for the quiet and peaceful bylanes of Ladakh and the inner peace which I could attend by just glazing out from the Shanti Stupa!

Travel Diaries – Sarchu to Leh-Ladakh

2011-12-04T21:38:00.001+05:30

Sometimes I really wonder, what would I classify as my more horrific nights? Was it the one when I saw a horror movie for the 1^st time? What it when I was left home alone? Well, the night I spent in Sarchu was definitely one of the horrific ones. Headaches dominated the night with the low temperatures (dropping to -10 degrees) to give it company. The bed was unforgiving as well. Turning ice cold within a blink of an eye! I vaguely remember getting frustrated, getting up in the night and gulping a shot of brandy and trying to go back to sleep. A help note – drinking brandy in such a cold and high altitude environment doesn’t help at all!

But as we all know, the night changes a lot of things. I was woken up by the local caretaker who gave half a bucket of warm water for me and my wife to finish off our morning chores. When asked for more water, we were told that due to shortage of kerosene, they weren’t in a position to warm a lot of it as they had to ration it for the next 2-3days. Of course, no one in their right mind would even think about taking a bath in that weather. Once I freshened up, I was a changed man! Felt upbeat and somehow I had a feeling of triumph as I survived a night which I felt was unlivable.

Unzipping the main entrance of the tent, I felt as if I entered heaven. Snow covered mountain peaks seen up close and then greeted by the Gods with white flakes of clouds showering down on you – I experienced my very 1^st snow fall. It was simply amazing!! Never really imagined that I would experience such a feeling at such an unlikely place!

Rest of the gang weren’t as high spirited as I was. The snow fall continued and intensified as time progressed. Our drivers urged us to get started on the road as soon as possible.

After having some really god sent breakfast (omlette and bread with warm warm tea), we jumped into our cars and decided to head off to the Leh-Ladakh, our final destination in a race against nature!

The 1^st couple of hours were pretty smooth considering the journey experienced till now. The route was pretty beautiful – rocky path covered in snow with a single trail which would indicate the route to be taken! We were approaching the 2^nd highest motorable roadway in the world – Tanglang La Pass!!

But before we reached there, we had a scary moment! At around 15000 feet, as we were approaching a turn, we heard a soft little sound of the tyre giving away! As we stopped and inspected the puncture, we noticed another thing – the 2^nd car which had been driving in front of us had disappeared and now was nowhere in sight!

Life at 15K feet is tough…so imagine changing a tyre at that height…especially when your Toyota Innova is jam packed with luggage, it’s snowing and you realize that the tiny jack which is supposed to elevate a car filled with 4 individuals isn’t working due to the rough terrain it has to rest on!! Panic set into my friend and then into me. However, looking at the positives, we thought – it’s the middle of the day, this is an open road – someone is bound to come through this route and help us! And help we did get!! A fellow travelling Sumo approached, lent its jack to us which helped us to change our tyre and get the hell out of there before we all froze to death!

As we resumed our journey, we saw a familiar sight – our 2^nd car who realized that we aren’t behind was coming back for us!

From here on it, in typical filmi style, the weather started clearing, snowing stopped, we dropped down to a modest altitude - 11 thousand feet – and for the 1^st time in 2 days, we started enjoying the drive! Moods started getting better and excitement started reaching the high point at which it was when we boarded the Rajdhani from Mumbai! The road translated from a cold snowy one to a more dry mountainous one! However, we noticed that the air wasn’t as dry and hot as the surrounding was! We had our final pitstop in Pang before heading off to the beautiful place that is Leh Ladakh!

The area is quite a secure area. On the outskirts of ladakh, we halted for some refreshments. The drivers took the opportunity to clean the car. It is here where I had my very 1^st Kashmir tea – kava!! In the words of the planner, it was Jannat for me!

We had to cross 3 check posts before we could enter Ladakh. Once in, we were told that in Ladakh, outside vehicles cannot be used and only local transportation needs to be availed off. This is to ensure that locals make some money off you. The drive from the check post to the actual ladakh town was around 50 kms and we had to pass through some military camps - More on the military establishments later on. One more thing – in ladakh only Airtel network is the one which can be used. Prepaid numbers do not work and the post paid numbers get network as we get water in Mumbai – only 3 to 4 hours in a day. Fortunately, we had a couple of airtel guys – so 1^st thing we did was to contact our parents. We weren’t in contact with them for over 2 days now!

Finally, cruising now towards ladakh, we finally entered the ladakh town and started searching for our hotel – google really disappointed here! We might have crossed our hotel – Hotel Chubi – a couple of times before we finally arrived at it. The hotel was a modest one but it had a homely feeling. The owners had lend their house as a hotel. They interacted with the guests, provided them with a home like feeling – apart from the annoying head caretaker – helped us enjoy our ladakhi experience.

We quickly checked in, went up to our rooms, kept our bags and finally soaked in the feeling of being on a vacation!

Travel Diaries – Manali to Sarchu

2011-11-13T20:27:00.001+05:30

It is said that in a race between human and nature, nature always triumphs. In our case, we got a 1st hand experience of this saying.

It was never in our plan to stay in Manali. But after the mayhem, the trip from Delhi to Manali caused, we thought it would be wise to have a pitstop here. Our original plan was and should have been to reach Manali around afternoon and then head over to Keylong by late evening. In a perfect scenario, this was a perfect plan.

But we improvised and stayed over at Manali owing to the cloud burst. Late evening in Manali, we came to know that the road to Leh which begins with Rohtang Pass was now deemed ok to be travelled on. We also came to know that the transport trucks would be given a nod next morning (which was our morning) at 6 am to use that road.

After settling the bills, getting some breakfast packed, we left Manali at 530 am exactly all thanks to our

driver who came in late. Once we hit the road, it was a beautiful picturesque journey right uptill the beginning of the pass. We had heard stories about the pass’s beautiful view of the valley, but clearly someone left out the journey of the pass itself.

We were greeted by ankle high soft mud which ensured that our cars swayed like rally cars as we tried going up the mountain. It’s a 2 lane road (1 for incoming and 1 for outgoing) but when your cars slide like that, even 2 lanes aren’t enough. If that wasn’t going to cause panic, imagine this, getting your car stuck in mud at 8000 feet! So, we had to step out and push the car out of the ditch and hope that it doesn’t get stuck some place else!

This entire transit continued for around 4 hours. At one point, we were part of a traffic jam resulting becoz one of the cars ahead of us got stuck and at the same time, its tire was punctured! So, there we are, at 8000 feet, behind a battery of trucks and SUVs while people are trying desperately to help out the poor car driver! One fellow traveler almost lost his senses when he saw the driver of a fuel tanker lit a burner next to the driver seat just so that he can make tea!

After a successful tire change which saw done despite some really ingenious thought process of changing tires (I meant it sarcastically), the traffic moved again. But as fate would have it, the same ditch caught its next victim – Us :(

The thing about such routes is that once you are able to accelerate, you shouldn’t stop otherwise you risk getting stuck again. So, we had to leave our car and push it out of safety. Not only that, once the car got out of the ditch, painting my face with mud in the process, the driver told us that he wont stop. All we had to do was to jog at 8000 feet climbing a slope!

If that wasn’t enough, after slowly panting our way upto the car, the driver informed us about another fun trivia – “rocks are sliding ahead, you would have to get out of the car and walk some more distance”. So, grabbing my wife’s hand, cautiously we made our way through fallen rocks to the other side!

The entire frustration of the trip till now melted quickly as we reached the top of the Pass. It was simply beautiful. Just as I had expected – mountains looked as a milk chocolate cake with some white icing on top, an icing which I could touch and throw around. The pushing of the car, the mud on the face was forgotten and forgiven. We moved on from that to some snow, some fire to warm ourselves and MAGGI! :)

After having some fun at the pitstop, we began our descend which was nothing like the things which we saw during our way up! It was spectacular. I can never have words enough to describe the beautiful snow mountains. It was clearly nature at its finest!

Admiring the beauty, we made our way to Keylong where we were greeted by another troubling news. Due to the heavy rains, the small rivers in the area had flooded. More specifically, a ‘nala’ called ‘pagal nala’ had taken its name to heart. It had really gone mad and had flooded the road which connected Keylong to Sarchu. The only way around it was a single lane road through an adjoining village. Further to intrigue our endurance trip, we had all sorts of electric poles and wires blocking our way. To add to that, we had traffic coming from the other side – imagine managing 2 cars side by side on a road meant for only 1!

Finally, we made our way across and reached a petrol pump which had a sign board which read – “Next petrol pump 365 Kms away in Leh Ladakh”. Although some people would find it scary to see something like this, it is really intriguing for me personally,

The road from Keylong to Sarchu passes through a military controlled area (its termed as NH21) and is considered to be relatively safe. However, due to all the experiences of the day, a new enemy surfaced for us – time! We had around 2 hours to cross over from Keylong to Sarchu before night fall. To make matters more complex, we had 2 fellow travelers suffering from nausea and trouble adapting to drop in oxygen levels and another small fact of an impending snow fall.

The 2 hour drive was the most tensed one. Although the passage was extremely beautiful, I personally wasn’t able to enjoy it. I never experienced snow fall before and as it started to shower flakes of snow, I wasn’t able to enjoy it. During these 2 hours, barring a couple of stops due to health issues, we drove at a consistent pace and finally reached 13000 feet camp!

The cold was unreal – something none of us had ever experienced. Enroute to our pitstop for the night, the drivers stopped to drink tea at a shop which also sold warm bed covers. Seeing the opportunity at hand, one of my friend got out of the car, and jumped into the 1^st bed cover he could see and covered himself up and began walking around in it!! Of course, he didn’t buy it J

Finally, we reached the base camp. To be honest, I don’t really recall anything that happened that evening. I, myself, had a splitting headache and only had blur memories of our car getting stuck in the parking area of the camp, me getting out and asking someone as to which tents are booked for us, opening one of the tents, and then falling on one of the beds. The final thing that I do remember correctly was the intense chill my body experienced on heading the bed – it was as if I fell onto a block of ice, covered in cloth!

Travel Diaries – Delhi to Manali

2011-09-28T00:04:00.000+05:30

The funny thing about a plan is the most obvious fact – they never succeed. So, if for a second, you feel that the plan lined up by our planner was 100% success, well then I bet the planner would give you a big treat for sure….I am still waiting for mine btw J

So, all was set. Tickets, receipts, clothes, phone numbers, meds, lots of good luck & advice – we collected just about everything! The only thing which we missed out was some good fortune. Anyways, let me tell you another fun fact – the way you begin a trip sets the tone for the rest, so what I will now do is lay down the facts in terms of how we began the trip!

Friday evening 16:40 was the time when our Mumbai Rajdhani departed. As we were advised, we knew that the train kicks off at precisely that time so we knew what time to reach. As usual, typical IT attitude led us to work for half a day – atleast I did. By the time, I winded up, it was – OMG – 1 pm! Just as Rajnikanth’s Robot, I was quick to finish bath, food, packing, hiring taxi and then finally stuffing 2 big bags and 2 backpacks in it! The time was 245 pm! As luck would have it, traffic jam allowed us to reach the station precisely at the time when the train docked. After settling down, we noticed one simple fact – the planner himself isn’t in the train.

Now the planner is a delhi guy whose claim to fame is the fact that he knows delhi in and out. But we cant say the same about Mumbai. Poor dude had to carry a hefty bag along with him in a taxi which he ditched at Mahalaxmi and took a local all the way to BCT! He stepped into the train just 5 mins before it departed!

Mumbai Rajdhani is one of the elite train services in the country. They treat you like loyalty. The servers actually smile while serving! Unreal aint it? I was thoroughly enjoying the experience. There wasn’t a moment during that entire journey (while I was awake) where they weren’t bringing something to eat. Welcome drink, tea, biscuits, sandwich, soup, meal, sweet, you name it and they gave it – only once!

True to time, the train pulled up at the grand New Delhi terminus. Nothing grand about it, apart from the fact that it was the train station located at the heart of our capital. After the usual train station taxi negotiations, we left for our planner’s house.

Going to a typical Delhi house is always a treat. Big houses with terrance, no big high rise buildings, peaceful surroundings, the works! To top it all off, the food and the welcome gestures, those small aspects which really make a difference. The hospitality shown by the planner’s relatives was supreme and really set the tone for the day. Felt kinda nice and warm about being in Delhi and enjoying company of nice friends and family. In the words of the planner – it was Jannat!

Then came the evening – time to board the bus to Manali! We quickly but reluctantly bid our farewells to the planner’s relatives and hopped onto a concept which for a Delhite, is a point of show off – the delhi metro!

An expansive setup running through the heart of delhi, the metro has been modeled onto

the London tube system. The start atleast seems nice with the condition of the trains being fine and the trains being on time. However, in my opinion, the concept fails at the most common issue in India – human traffic!

Reaching the bus stop, it came to light that due to 15^th August preparations, Janpath road is closed and the buses would leave from another location. So in the words of Delhi belly, we grooved to the song “Bhag bhag D K Bose” and did what D K Bose would have done – we ran to the departure spot. The bus company, Swagatam Travels, was one of the buses in the entire bus cartel that operates the Delhi Manali bus route. Their motto – take the money, care less about the customer. The bus departed at the right time – around 530 pm with a scheduled arrival time of 8 am in Manali. Just before we reached the bus, we came to know that there was a cloud burst in Manali resulting in heavy rains for 24 straight hours which further caused our route to Leh being blocked. That news was like cat amongst the pigeon stuff!

Anyways, the bus ride could have been interesting if it wasn’t for the Delhi traffic and the bus operator putting on Tees Maar Khan. After having a ok dinner, we slept only partially through the night. At around 4 am in the morning, the bus stopped approx 150 KMs from Manali, conveniently in front of a Dhaba citing the fact that the main bridge connecting Delhi and Manali has caved. So now, the Volvo bus cant go. There was a route through the village (Sundernagar) which could be taken but Volvo buses cant go through that route. While the operator was explaining this situation, we could see the State Transport buses wizzing past us. It was clear that the operator – who slept the night sleeping in the bus luggage compartment – was not going to inch ahead to Manali. So, we took matters into our own hand. With a lot of negotiations which went on, we finally got the bus operator to drop us approx 6 kms near a state transport bus station where we can hope of finding a bus or a taxi. The taxi rates touched the skies but we still managed to hook up a cab for approx 5K for 9 people. Dumping all our luggage, 9 of us sat in a Tavera and left for Manali – through the village.

The cool thing about the village is that it is not made for cars and trucks. So you can imagine what would happen when you stuff a whole bunch of vehicles travelling in both directions. I know what happened – a road block for 5 hours and a word which is very much common in India – Chaos! Finally, we had to step out and regulate the traffic and get our car and our asses out of there.

Finally, we could now enjoy the beauty that is the route to Manali. However, that didn’t last long. Another 2 hour halt – this time due to a landslide. To be honest, we were saved by 5 mins! The landslide helped us take in the beautiful place that is the route to Manali (didn’t I say that already?). A super fast river, greenery everywhere, water fall just a few meters away from our car, the fear of landslide happening again – you cant put a price on all this!

Finally the landslide cleared and fortunately, we were the ones who were the 1^st to move! Yey!!

The journey then on was a treat to watch! Awesome river views, dams, driving alongside a valley and moving under a mountain. One of the highlights was – driving through a tunnel in a mountain for approx 3.6 KMs! The drive towards Manali is normal weather is a real treat and for us, specially in the weather we went in was extra special to experience!

After discussing with the tour operator, we shifted our pitstop – from Keylong to Manali for the night! Finally after nearly 25 hours in a car, we reached our hotel, nice little place on top of a hill! Never really saw apples growing on a tree – this was my moment and I was loving every bit of it! After a quick stroll through the market, we came back, had food, some liquid courage and then off to bed, not quite knowing what nature had instore for us the next day – and boy! Nature was all in the mood for surprises!

Travel Diaries – The Leh PrepWork

2011-09-26T23:30:00.001+05:30

There are times when you look back and wonder, “Hell this should have been done that way”. Its always the retrospect which really helps you in enjoying what you have achieved or in other words, what you went through. The retrospect really helps you appreciate and value the experience like how a new born appreciates the world around.

My Leh-Ladakh trip was such an experience. If you prepare a ‘To-Do’ checklist of things which you should have covered in a trip spanning 10 days, then I would come out with a score of 30/100 i.e., I can say that I got 30% worth fun put into the entire trip. In reality, that is not the case. The trip was an exhilarating experience which I would remember for the rest of my life – not becoz of the negative things that did happen..but simply becoz of all the positive things that did happen.

So the trip was a brain child of a single individual. That person actually wanted to do this trip on a bike. The thought of cruising around the country/mountain side on a bullet or Harley sounded unreal. But the support of family members beckoned and the trip became a road trip instead wherein we would hire some cars, buy some train/bus tickets, book some decent hotels and embark on a thrill ride!

The travel planning took only 10 days. After identifying the longest weekend possible, we did booking of train tickets – Mumbai Rajdhani – approx 2 months in advance. To our luck, we were put on waiting list. To complicate matters, bookings were randomly done (2-3 tickets at once). So, the final ticket was at waiting list number 34 – a number which we thought would clear – it did but not without its own sense of twists and turns.

Now comes the difficult part. For starters, there were 14 of us – including a couple who had joined us after chucking their own plan. 14 people, 14 brains, 14 panic buttons, 14 ideas – 1 planner. The planner actually did a lot of research for this trip. Signed up on multiple forums, talked to god knows how many travel companies and finally was able to deliver a perfect package – all thanks to the Intersight Holidays Pvt Ltd.

Originally, we had decided to go from Delhi towards Leh Ladakh via Manali and back. However, due to some really awesome suggestions, we decided to circle the valley and come back via Srinagar. Everyone agreed and the planner started attacking the flight operators for the best available fares. Finally, we got it – Kingfisher Airlines, 4 Star Hotels in the sky – group booking carried at an appreciable cost. Immediately, day dreaming of some folks started - “I will enjoy the road trip and while coming back, will enjoy the inflight hospitalities” – something which wasn’t disappointing at all.

The travel agency managed to give us some really good deals in terms of accommodations and car hires. It turns out that all this planning, we forgot to take in 1 important factor into account – The Cost – The big ‘C’. The cost inflated to around 25K of only travel and living – no personal expenses included. Further to add to the woes was the fact that if anyone pulls out, the cost goes up and it so happens, we have 5 pull outs increasing the cost further!

After a lot of adjustments, we were able to maintain our costs at 27K (give and take 2K here and there). The plan was set – 9 men and women out to conquer the most gruesome journey undertaken – Leh Ladakh, Kargil & Srinagar.

So, we were all fine in the 2 months leading upto the trip, where suddenly panic set in – Waiting list tickets are now only RAC. Further to add to the complications, someone brought in news that RACs aren’t confirmed tickets as far as Rajdhani is concerned! Turmoil struck. Everyone started looking at flight options – the cost barometer was heading due north! Giving him company was sheer frustration! Finally, time took over and calmed us all down and slowly but surely, the tickets trickled over the confirmation line!

A travel like this always is demanding on the body. God knows how many people would have given me advice of what to do and what not to do. Some even went as far as getting me numbers of hospitals and police officials rather than contact numbers of some fancy tourist place! For a moment, it was as if we were heading into a war zone. On top of that, were the numerous advices – don’t talk to army men, don’t use your mobile phone, don’t say holla to the monks! The advices just kept on coming! What you have to do is clear your head – you know your body more than anyone else. Take all the usual meds that you normally need. In addition to that, take Diamox (after proper consultation with your doctor) along with Avomine. In addition, if you have a case of the vertigo, take appropriate meds to suit your needs.

In terms of clothing, buy a good thick jacket, you wont be needing it in Leh Ladakh, but you would need it in your journey between Manali and Leh. Carry warm long sleeve clothes – lots of it.

By now, you must be thinking “Is this guy going to make a documentary out of this trip? Where is the fun!!” Well prepwork is always the boring stuff which no one wants to do but everyone wants to know. Trust me guys and gals, the fun stuff is almost there – right from the beginning of the trip. But that’s for another time.

Stray Thoughts

2010-11-09T16:09:00.000+05:30

This is the 1^st line I have written after early February this year. The last article I wrote was a valentine day special. Well time has clearly flown by and with time, so has my motivation to write something. Now, all I have bottled inside me are random thoughts, mixed thoughts, brief thoughts about everyday things or every mundane thing which we are confronted with in our regular life.

So I decided to collate all these stray thoughts and compile something which just reflects my views on all that is social.

Life is a mess which needs cleaning. Very seldom you identify a lifestyle which is clean as a whistle. Everyone has problems. These problems are the basic motivating or demotivating factors. These causes an individual to take steps which might not be right in others view point but spot on correct in the person’s point of view. This is the basic foundation of good and bad activities. A person taking a bribe is a classic example. For us, its taboo! Why? Becoz we haven’t taken a bribe as yet, becoz society condones it. It is something of an ethical thing or a value based attribute which enables us to decide that what we would undertake is wrong. What we fail to acknowledge the situation under which the person might be pushed to take money for some work. We do understand it but never acknowledge it. The money taking might be due becoz of a not to do well background from which the individual comes. It might also be a compulsion imposed by others. For example, if a traffic cop doesn’t take bribes to do work, people would go to him and others wont be entertained. Yes, wrongdoings can also be compulsion in these scenarios.

Common Wealth Games came and went. The event in itself was breathtaking and awesomely conducted. However, the pre and post activities would always be remembered. What should we attribute this to? Greed? Or just the reason I mentioned above? There is always a motive. Yes, we made jokes and did we get any accountability from these people? The media also just moved on from this piece of news as it wasn’t “happening” enough. People and friends I know also moved on saying “This will toh happen…becoz this is India”. These are the people who look at things with a bias in mind.

The metro is a classic example. Yes it is a step in development of Mumbai. But tell me 1 thing, should we do development for the heck of it? Should be develop one area of our infrastructure and damage the other? These are questions which people fail to understand. Yes metro has long term benefits but those benefits are getting cancelled out by the vehicular traffic the rails would create once operational. Bottom line is that this project was pushed for money making purpose NOT for development as it is projected. Development is a by-product not the chief one. The route which was taken up would make life easy for people. But it would ruin the road development which has been done. Furthermore, ownership would be a key thing here. We, Indian like to wash our hands off things which are ambiguous in nature. Metro developers would build their rails by breaking the concrete road. Once they are done, then they would just move away from the breakage citing that the road development authority should handle it. The Road development authority will then say its your mess clean it up…the media would have field day of pointing to the mess but not doing anything and the common man would learn to drive/walk around it and then mention it to his/her friends saying “Is desh ka kuch nahi ho sakta”.

Please don’t mistake the above words as means of me complaining. I, as media is doing, am just pointing out the flaws. What I am willing to do is come forward and do something about it. But when I look behind, what do I see, nothing. No one to support.

Meter Jam was another awesome initiative. Even I had thought about it but didn’t think it would ever be initiated. Meter Jam did happen. There was only 1 problem. They didn’t take into account the Mumbaikar’s “chalta hai” attitude. The masses (college folks and IT professionals) did try and support the initiative. People I know boycotted rickshaw. Even I said an up-front NO to the auto walas. But the issue was that there were few areas or rather sections of society who weren’t informed or choose to be ignorant of the initiative. They took the rickshaws out of dependency or out of plain opportunistic attitude. “What’s it in for me?” “How this would hamper me today”. These are typical questions which they asked. I won’t consider this as a self centered attitude but more to do with what Mumbai is. It lives in the present, works in the present and plans for the present. It doesn’t think about the past or the future. Not even doing the times of the train blast or the infamous 26/11 attacks. This attitude costs us dearly. This attitude makes us lose out our unity and that is how others take advantage of this. The rickshaw unions celebrated as the Meter Jam folks were embarrassed by the people of Mumbai. However, what they do forget is what goes around comes around. Let’s hope that this attitude doesn’t spurge up when Rickshaw union need public backing to be in business (yes the day would come).

Speaking of Mumbai’s attitude, every step of the way since the 1960s, it has been taken advantage of. That’s till what I can recall. This divide and rule culture has been adopted by all major political parties with a view to make a mark on the country’s financial and commercial capital. This culture involves instigation, provocation and downright ugly protests all in the name of a common man’s struggle. Tell me one thing, when a common man is staying in his house on a hot summer afternoon with 5 hours of load shedding or when he scraps through the day with minimalistic water intake, is there any noise made? If noise is indeed being made then why is the common man still affected with the basic aspects of life? Why is importance given to protests on a movie which calls Mumbai Bombay? Based on my understanding of this subject, Mumbai is better off as Bombay. Atleast it doesn’t have a selfish ring to it. Bombay looks more welcoming and more open towards success. But I am the last one who would just be intimidated by the name. There was a campaign, spanning 5 years, just to change names of institutes and important landmarks. Why wasn’t such an effort spent on improving education or maintaining the landmarks which we so dearly love! As a matter of fact, where were these voices when Mumbai was siege on 26/11 or 11/7? I tell you where these voices would have been. These voices would have been plotting their next move to leverage the predicament of the common man. However, at the end of it all, we always commit the 1 basic mistake, we vote these degenerates back into power.

We are progressing towards success and development. But still I see a lot of wastage in terms of processes and in terms of personnel. Why the hell does one have to undergo N number of form filling just to get his own marksheet? The answer partly to this question is the fraudental nature of this country. This again is attributed to what we began this discussion with (remember the bribery aspect). This country lacks trust. People don’t trust each other, the system and they don’t trust the fact that this country has the capability to deliver. This is seen in all aspects. The level of bargaining which goes on in buying vegetables, the hesitancy in purchasing something online, reluctance of giving someone loan, the list is endless but the source is only 1 word – Trust. Further, I would say that we trust the wrong things in life. We trust the degenerates and vote them in power. We trust that people around us are going to dupe us. This has led to an atmosphere where only distrust has prevailed. Some factions of society have known this all their lives and have been milking it to their advantage.

Trust is an integral part of any nation. It is in full force in the USA. I would say they trust each other too much, hence the recession. There needs to be a balance. Sadly to achieve such a balance, one needs to be in a world where there are no misdeeds. This thought does bring out a chuckle in me. But it is the truth. As of now, as I type this line, I wonder how much balance the forces of good and bad bring into the truth equation. This complicates and to some extent contradicts matters now. Let me sum it up for debating:

Distrust arises due to people engaging in wrong doings. Now, to have a trustful environment, trust needs to prevail. If trust prevails, wrong doings won’t. If wrong doings don’t then there won’t be any different viewpoints and if there are no separate viewpoints, development of a country would get adversely impacted. Putting it in an equation we get:

Development = (Good – Bad) + (Trust – Distrust)

How on earth would this balance out now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

System Fault

2009-01-22T12:05:00.000+05:30

What is a system? A system is defined as a network of interrelated components which have been assembled in order to achieve a common goal/objective. A system basically is set up in order to fulfill that objective and the various components required for attaining the same in a smooth fashion.

An individual’s daily routine can be seen as a journey through various systems. He/she is constantly moving from one system to another in order to get through the day. The system can be self installed or can be a 3rd party process which he/she has to undergo. In other words, we can say that an individual’s routine is achieved through a network of interconnected (NOT interrelated always) systems! Thus this network of systems can be referred to as a Super System! Needless to say that a person’s routine is enriched or harmed based on how this super system works. Expanding the statement, I can say that the quality of the routine depends upon and is restricted by the quality of the each and every individual system he/she transits through.

Now that it is established that all systems impact an individual through their routine, we can have a closer look at the systems themselves. Let’s consider the systems introduced in the country. If the government or whoever it is that wants to help or enrich the life of its citizen would be designing a system to do exactly that. It is very rare to find a system which doesn’t want to assist the individual. Even the legal system provides a way for the guilty suspect to be given a chance. So, basically system is initiated to help! If it helps individuals, it increases satisfaction level which in turns helps them to trust the system. But what if this system turns for the worst? What if the very guidelines or rules which help establish the system lead to more dissatisfaction than trust? Would the individual be right in his place to go ahead and fight it? Ideally yes, he has the right and the power to do the same. But I am bit skeptical if that is possible in a country like ours.

Let me give you an example of the way the Police authorities have established a system. Suppose my bank account is hacked and someone transfers all the money into his own account and goes ahead and withdraws the same from an ATM. This would be a police complain for which I would need to go to a Police station. This should be a simple thing right? However, it is there that I find out that I need to go to multiple places just to get my complaint registered!!! The rules of the system become so conflicting that the Police think of rule 1 and tell me “You need to go to the Police station which is closest to the branch office where you have an account”. When I argue that the transfer was done online and the money was transfer to an account which is in a branch closer to this police station, reply based on rule 2 and 3 says “You need to go to Cyber crime cell as this is an online case”. What this system lacks is accountability and flexibility. This system forgets or ignores the state of mind the people coming have. If they are truly there to help the people then they should not make them run around from point A to B. Instead they should have an internal mechanism which enables them to register a complaint with Cyber Crime branch and also the various other places where this has relevance. How can this be achieved? One answer can be infrastructure. Development of this infrastructure is also system in itself!!! This can establish how 1 system affects another one!

When you face a system which lacks accountability and flexibility, you should have the right (as the basic and primary inputs to the system) to call for a change. However, is it really that simple? Yes it can be, if this request for change is taken in the right spirit. Most of the time, such a request is taken as a threat to the system. Changes involve drawing people out of their comfort zone. This is the simple concept of resistance to change. This resistance becomes prominent which the person doing it has power. In a country like India, system corruption is a common thing. It is a naturally accepted fact. Thus when you try to change the way of functioning of powerful but corrupt people, you rattle the cages which in turn brings about consequences. Now, in a country like India, it is needless to say that people are scared and afraid to fight the system becoz of 3 basic points… (a) No one wants to get their hands dirty; (b) they have dependants which might also land up in problems (c) They just don’t have any time!!

Yes, the natural argument is that “no system is perfect” and “how simple people can bring about a change”. Perfectly valid questions, however, they are not practical enough to be asked and answered. The point is that since the system is so corrupt and dirty, it doesn’t need tuning, it needs an overhaul. A brand new system introduced by new set of individuals is the way to go. This might sound a bit radical but this is the only way one can guarantee that the system becomes corruption-free. But then such a system cannot be perfect from the onset. But there is a surety that such a corruption free system can be made perfect through the concept of evolution. Clean systems would tend to have accountability and flexibility which would in turn increase trust and faith in them. This would further give impetus to improvement and development of the system and also increase the satisfaction levels of the people who are the primary reason these systems are in place - We the People!

A lost Family Member - Remembered

2008-10-07T09:08:00.000+05:30

Human beings are a part of our everyday life. Our relatives, social circles, family etc become a part of a bond which is, even in today’s world, unbreakable. We laugh with them in their good times, we cry with them in their bad times. However, there are a few finer things which we tend to miss out. Those living beings which are actually a part of a family but are not considered as a family member by lots of people that I come across. They are our pets, our companions during tough times.

My dog was always considered as a part of my family. I think remember, around 16 years ago, when my dad got a phone call from one of his friend about a puppy which he was giving away. Dad immediately went out to his house to get the pup. My mom, my sister and me were at the window, as anxious as a would be father outside a delivery room, waiting to see and welcome the new member of our family. A rickshaw stopped and my dad stepped out. He turned around and made his way into the society with a small white snow ball [:)] in his arms. That very moment, a sense of happiness overcame me. The happiness, which at that age also, told me that we had someone new in the family. Someone cute, someone whom I can spend hours on end and someone who can be my companion for life time. My pet dog had arrived! Dad came and placed her in front of every one of us. The puppy, although only 4 months old was aware of the new surrounding and studied each and every one of the family while we were sitting around it. Then it made its 1st move, it slowly, hesitantly, moved towards mom and fell into her lap with ease as though requesting her to take care for life.

She looked like a god sent dog! To such an extent that Lord Dutta’s picture frame which was put up in our mandir at home had pictures of animals surrounding him. One of those animals was a dog which resembled in all ways to her. She always used to be there for me during my good times and especially my bad times. She came to me sensing that I was depressed. She was the solace that no one ever could provide me.

Life was beautiful for the next years to come as having such a cute bundle of joy in the family, someone who is more expressive than all 4 of us combined was really a blessing in the most convectional kind of way. I for one was very proud to have a dog at home. Not only was she a great companion but an awesome conversational piece with friends, relatives and all. I simply enjoyed the times when she used to undergo her mad spells of running here and there in playful moods and biting and tears stuff which was exclusive for her and also some stuff which carried some importance.

She was the most mischievous of us all. She used to hide socks, towels all in her little den and used to sit there and wait for us to come and take it off her. She used to give up her treasure but not before providing a fight! I still remember the day when we thought of getting her “married”. We got a stallion of a dog for her and made them talk in a room but to our dismay, they were totally not into each other and sat at the 2 ends of the room!!!

As years went on, the fun, the comfort, the presence grew more than ever. However, it seemed to me that whatever she used to do previously was something she began to avoid. For example, as our house was on the 3rd floor, she used to perch up onto a window with great speed and agility. However, as days passed, the speed and agility seem to slowly fade away. Although she didn’t ever have any illness in her early years, cold, cough and sightlessness were beginning to creep in. Her time was coming and slowly I realized the same.

I would never forget that week of August. She was trying to be the most cheerful one but wasn’t able to. She was constantly fighting the cold and the cough which irritated her to the max. Even in her worst conditions, she would make an effort to try and come to me. But then, on the unfortunate day of 31st August 2007, she left us. She went to a place where she could once again roam around freely; she could company those souls who had enough trouble in their stint here on earth. She would go and bring joy and happiness to the afterlife….leaving me alone.

Some people make an impact on your life. When they desert you or leave you, you feel lonely, left out, as if a part of your body has been separated from you. Same goes for living beings who can’t speak anything but have an enormous impact on your life with their presence. You don’t feel much when they are around you, when they come up to you with their wishful, hopeful eyes and give up all the feeling of belonging which they want to give without asking for anything in return. But when such things stop happening, you do feel cut off. Even today, I sometimes keep my hand on the side of the bed with a hope that she would pass under it……

But I know that she is there…watching us…not forgetting the house where she was loved and adored. That is why this year, on the same exact day, she sent her messenger, a small cat that came into our house, made it its own, visited places where she used to sit and then vanished the next day! I wonder if the cat came only to provide us with the support we needed to go through the day when we lost one of our family member, on the day when I lost one of my companions I had known for 16 years…….

The formula for Success!!

2008-03-09T10:56:00.000+05:30

No!!! This is not another inspiration speech on how to attain success in whatever you do. This is more an observation on what I think nowadays holds the key for people who are successful in the modern world. Also, this is not a piece where I am pouring out my jealous for anybody, anyone.

My dad always used to say, “Son, whatever we do in life, we should do it honestly, be true to yourself and we would achieve what we have set out to achieve, attain our destiny”. As a kid, I had no alternative but to listen and follow my dad’s work. So I began my life’s journey, took on both sorrow as well as joy in whatever I did. The tension of studies, the emotions of a good/bad score, I had everything in life. Got good marks, attended college, did my degree, got recruited into a good company. In this short journey, I had the usual ups and downs with the ups playing a dominant role. However, when I look back now, 3 years since my graduation, I don’t think the ups in my life hold any value. I wonder, what is it that has led me to this position in life?

People say that the foundation of your success is laid down in the early years of your life. Well, in that case, in my early years, I have been a dedicated student, always completing my homework, being disciplined when it comes to exams and studies. I carried this attitude into college. Being a regular student in college, having 90% attendance, being a teacher favourite, being on top o my game, I thought I had laid that foundation well. But now, looking at the situation, I feel lost! All the friends/acquittances I had during my study years, those who were exactly opposite me, have achieved something in life. Something big, something interesting, something which even I couldn’t achieve. They have achieved success!!

So, what is it that drives a person to success? Is it the financial backing? Well if that is so, then unfortunately I didn’t have that. Was that a mistake on my part? Should the amount of money in your family’s account determine how your success should be? Bottom line: Can Success be bought?

The answer is a complex one. It’s a yes and no. Yes because, money allows you to secure the tools (degree, skills etc) to attain success. Money can also help you buy yourself a job, something which is also considered as a corner stone for getting success. No because, there is a limit to which you can use cash to go up the success ladder. Wait, does it mean one has to buy aka bribe i.e use the dishonest path to glory? As I said the answer is a complex one. But I will try to explain this.

Success is like a linear equation. You need to balance both sides. It’s a system. The amount of inputs you provide, based on the nature of the input, you get an appropriate output. People who make use of money and other negative means to achieve success might get it eventually, but what they fail to see is how much grander the success would have been if some amount of money was substituted with hard work and honesty! As for people like us, well, once we really come face to face with success, our life has come full circle.

Caged Animal

2008-01-02T22:34:00.003+05:30

Violent games, movies provide me entertainment,
action has become my latest craving,
but the problem resides in me,
caged animal in me wants to break free.

Society doesn't treat me right,
my friends spit on me at every sight,
I cant do anything about it,
fear of rejection grips me,
caged animal in me wants to break free.

Workplace has become a horror story,
Every monster plays trick or treat,
Their tricks are making me vary,
there is no future in the path that i see,
caged animal in me wants to break free.

Slowly but surely the animal has been growing,
it groans at all the mistreats it sees flowing,
but the laughter covers the groans,
but the fire is raging in me,
caged animal in me wants to break free.

Fear

2007-12-23T23:49:00.000+05:30

People often come up to me and tell the various perils they have in their life…..”Man I need to clear my exams”….”this is very bad for my career”…etc etc….I often think what it is that drives the people to worry about their upcoming activities…or the ones completed already…Even I have been in such a scenario when I have been very tensed about my future and career activities…This tension is attributed to a fear…

We come across a number of fears in our life….One is actually known to us as fear while others we term as something else….When we are in college, we are often worried about exams and how we would fair and stuff..this is actually a fear…fear of not being able to see a future for yourself if the current obstacle (exam) is not overcome….similarly when at work, we wonder, where is my career heading? Will I ever “grow” in this job? This thought is also associated with a fear..this one is a very big one…it basically starts from the thought that if we continue doing what we are..we would be overtaken in this race of life…due to this, we wont be able to earn extra cash…this would in term affect the way we live our life…we wont be able to fulfil the responsibilities which we have inherited living in this black hole called as society….this thought is scared and hence fearful….

The tragedy of this world is that we are bounded to the society with our so called set of responsibilities hence making us fearful of our actions…..every action has a cause and effect….If we do not do well in our job (cause) we wont be able to fulfil the current obligations which we have on our minds (effect)..This fear makes us strive to achieve the impossible…but in this all mess do we really think sometimes…what would the world be if the bonds of responsibilities do not exist? If I can live in this world just for myself with a constant supply of the necessities of life?

I wonder if I can one night get up, think and just grab a bunch of clothes, put them in a bag and then head out in a direction which I just thought of 10 mins ago? If the bonds of responsibilities are not present I would be able to carry out such a stunt..as I wont have the fear of the people/obligations that I am accounted for bound me to the house, the life that I am in….I cannot afford to be off the grid for a time period which depends on my mood…Very few people have such a luxury….Some people whom we know very well have this kind of luxury…to do what comes into their minds...the criminals of society…Pity that with no responsibilities they think only about negative aspects of freedom rather than the positive ones…Some actually do wrong things to attend a dream which can be fulfilled only with pots and pots of money!!!!

At the end of it all, the basic problem with human fear is that it is gripping…it plays on your mind all the time…there is no escaping it…even though you go off the grid for some days..that fear will ensure that you are back in that seat in office Monday after your leave (to go off the grid) is completed….otherwise the opportunities which will help better your life would be handed over to others….

Fear induces greed in people…I have never been able to understand what drives celebrities to increase their paycheck size…the amount of money they make in a year for some is a gross amount earned in a lifetime…it is the fear which induces the greed to have more money in your life…the fear that the good looks and good acting would one day cease to exist and the excellent lifestyle would be a thing of the past… This greed is in normal human being also….the average middle class worker also has this greed…this one is induced by fear to better on the current way of living otherwise the same will consume you up!!

What I would really want to do is to wash off my hands with all the burdens of life and go off in the wilderness with absolute no clue as to what my destination is….However, I cant do this….the reason…I am afraid….

Twister

2007-12-23T23:34:00.000+05:30

The world is a funny place…it is a paradise set in hell….there are angels but for some reason portray themselves like the devil workers….they are all capable of doing good deeds but always think and talk about negative and evil activities….Some portion of the society are always complaining..They complain about the hot temperatures but also complain when they see a steep electricity bill…See this is a funny world…a double edged sword….To me this place feels like the circus and the circus which is full of clowns..

Clowns are running all over the place here….any particular thing done by 1 individual is or might be humorous to the other…For eg, when a person does RnD for a week to decide which kind of clothes to buy for his vacation is totally funny to the others…The documents which we (IT professional) type and maintain like our life and our careers depend on it, if such documents are given to a layman, he would just laugh at its contents becoz he wont understand squat of what is written in that document…That’s why I say this world is made of clowns….every act performed by 1 person would at any given time make someone or the other in this world laugh!!!

In old movies, when the hero’s mom used to die, he used to come home and then run his mouth with very melodramatic dialogues which just make us go crazy laughing in our seat…taken that the movie is a fictional one but the thought of someone dying is always a serious one…But still we laugh, why? The question here is not why do we laugh..the question is Why shouldn’t we laugh? Why we have to be so serious all the time? Why so serious all the time when some act in this world is bound to crack your insides up?

The answer to this question is tricky. Why So serious? Is the real question…..Whenever we are down…whenever we are totally de-motivated…lost the will to enjoy, we should ask ourself…why should serious? This simple question would make us look around, all the people around us are our source of entertainment…look at them…enjoy their weird behaviour and bring a smile to your face….

So now the world is full of clowns….At a particular instant…everyone is doing something or the other right? Now imagine all the people of the world in a room looking at each other’s activities at the same time, everyone should burst out laughing as every act would inspire someone or the other to laugh their heart’s out…Isnt this something freaky? Isnt this something which if happens would really be a cool coincidence?

But nothing that happens in this world a coincidence....it is a plan…a awesomely orchestrated plan….Now don’t ask me who plans it….but it happens…it is fate…this one time I was coming home…the journey was a long one…estimated time span of 1.5 hours….I was dead thirsty….the only mistake that I did was not to quench my thirst when I had the chance…I sat in the bus…I saw a shop on the outside with all kinds of cold drinks on display…the driver was in the bus along with the conductor so I was hesitant to get down as missing this bus would be waiting for an additional 30 mins…After a good 7 mins I made up my mind to get down…just as I got up…the bus started and we were off..Then all the way I got n number of phone cal..a record in that time span…the heat increased along with the traffic…All this made me think…who planned this all? Why did this happen?? Believe me there has been some incidences in your life which might have put a doubt in your mind..some incidence which you might have put on density…some incidence which we term as “they are meant to happen”…But don’t you think that these things might be a plot…a plan?

So to round it all up….The world is a place inhabited by clowns…Also the events that trigger people to laugh are something which are planned… a part of the plot….So if there are instances which are planned to make people laugh which means that a joke is pre-planned…something you know is coming….will a joke which you know is coming be at all funny?? Would you laugh at something you know is destined to happen??? People who figure this out are the ones who don’t need to laugh…Then what would they do??? They are the ones who are sad….Thats how the balance of the world is planned!!! Savy? :)

My Mask Or me??

2007-12-23T23:30:00.000+05:30

As i walked in the rain
the beads of heaven splashing down on my mask,
thats when i wonder, who am i really?
My Mask Or me??

My identity is a question
the answer to which i dont have
the reason for my existance
really makes me think, if my identity
is My Mask Or me??

Taste of rich food has left me,
nice movies, awesome music dont interest me,
Am amazed to think that,
if these things were enjoyed by
My Mask Or me??

Now, the spots of rain have dried up,
the sun is shining in the sky,
when a joke is cracked, devil in me laughs on the fly,
Closing my eyes, I see the devil,
Is he My Mask Or me??

Love at First Sight: Truth or Myth!

2007-12-23T23:27:00.000+05:30

Once my friend uttered these glorious words “It is simply impossible to fall in love at first sight. This is a load of crap!” Exactly a month later, another set of golden words are uttered by him “Man, she is so awesome!! The moment I saw her I knew that she is the one to tolerate me for the rest of her life.” Considering the circumstances they met, I am surprised that they fell in love.

The dude was in a shopping mall spreading his principles all over the place. That’s when he spotted her. She was doing the only thing a girl knows to do…..shopping and combined with the 2nd best thing girls like to do…complaining she was having a ball (meaning she was complaining about not having any variety in the stuff she was looking at). The guy was mesmerized by this chick and wandered over to the girls section and when he thought he would be in a position to speak to her, she started looking him in a very weird way….. The camera zoomed out to reveal that this guy was in the lingerie section looking at a potential item of purchase!!! She just walked off and ended up in a coffee shop where this dude happened to land up! He was still under the spell of her beauty and was totally excited to see her. Then in the typical hindi film style he asked her “is this seat taken” In true hindi fashion she said “No” showing no interest at all as of she still angry at the fact that a small size t shirt didn’t fit her! That’s the opening the dude required to convey his feelings to her. All I can say is that they left the coffee house hand in hand.

Interesting story isn’t it. You can debate that this is fictional and things like this don’t happen in real life but this is the way life is!! I myself am not a believer in love at 1st sight! I too think it is a load of crap!! But still I wanted to fall into love in this manner! Its something like a geek who knows aliens don’t exist but would give away the world to see a glimpse of them!

According to me, love is a something a little more than a friendship feeling. It is very difficult to perfectly define the feeling of being loved. Take my case for instance, I never knew what I felt until one moment changed it all. I looked into her eyes and felt supreme comfort and that was the time I said those words “I love you”. At first I thought that I have lost a great friend forever. But then she smiled….a smile with which I fell in love with, all over again!

For me love at 1st sight is something which u might get by luck…..I have seldom seen people who have fallen head over heals for someone and actually going on to complete the beautiful story of love!! The major thing which I come across is a misconception! I was under one such misconception that love only occurs by 1st sight! I used to try my luck at this every now and then. In this search for the perfect sight, my eyes always overlooked the beautiful being which was slowly coming into my life and forming a part of it. I too subconsciously grew close to this cute thing, helping her in every step of the way, laughing with her, getting sad with her, advising her about right and wrong, going out of the way to help her. Then there came a time when we were not in touch for a couple of weeks. It is during this time that I came to know how much this awesome individual had come into my life. I couldn’t imagine a life, which doesn’t involve her! Could this be love??? Could this be really happening? These are just a couple of the many questions which circled in my mind. But ultimately the glow on her face was the only thing which
I needed to see to confirm the very glorious fact!.... She is the one for me”

See, for me love at 1st sight is just a physical thing….My love was developed over a period of time..both of us came to know about all the skeletons in our closets well before we fell in love and I feel that is the main USP of our relationship. We started in exactly the reverse order!!

This has been a wonderful journey so far!! I have enjoyed every moment of it! And I sincerely hope that this just the beginning of paradise!! So here I am wishing you dear….Happy one year Anniversary!

Temper Temper!!! The fanatical stuff that people do!!!

2007-12-23T23:25:00.000+05:30

Well a different title from me to write but believe me, I know everything there is to know about temper flaring!! I have always been a hot headed person..so much so that my mom was actually scared of me losing my temper!! She tried a lot of things to calm me down…even remember bribing me with sweets only if I cool down!

I was a mess during my early teens…never able to control my temper,…once I got so mad that I threw a cricket bat at my friend…..don’t worry it wasn’t my bat!! Then one day I met a professor who took history lessons for me during my 10th grade exam… He said “ Vaats, tu katehi gussa mat ho, jabhi tuhje gussa aaye bhagawan ko yaad kar aur uske banaye hue praniyonko yaad kar…..phir dekhna, tera tapit vyavwahar kaam ho jayega aur tu zindagi mein kafi acche sunder dost banayega!” I knw I knw, this is not exactly the words he mentioned but what the hell this is my piece of work isn’t it? :) Well I decided to follow his advice and try out this new technique…and it was a grand success. Now whenever I get angry I think of a variety of scenarios which are really awesome!

When people get angry they behave in an unusual manner…there is no rational behaviour which u can tag to a person who has his hell’s kitchen on fire! I saw people who wear suits to people who wearing lungi behave the same way when provoked by a situation. However, the people in suits didn’t really create any impact on the situation as the lungi walas did!! There was this teacher of mine who had a knack for getting irritated by what we said and did!! So what if we played X and Zero during Science class! Well once she got sooo angry that her temperature reached boiling point, she grabbed a ruler and in her own unique way shouted out “ I will kick you with this ruler!!!!” We knew at that moment itself that she aint a football fan! Normally when a teacher roars, we tend to keep quiet but on this occasion the entire class burst into a laughter which only subsided when we had to run 5 rounds of the sports ground!

Anger I think brings out the badass tendency in people. You come to know who has the guts of confrontation and who doesn’t! All you need to do is to make that person angry! Once I was traveling on a BEST bus…it was a usual June afternoon wherein a 79 seater bus was housing around 150 people…everyone in their own comfort zone and all…in such a nice non sticky atmosphere, a guy in his mid twenties was standing in a double line when someone stood on his feet!! The guy had his girlfriend with him so of course he tried to act macho in front of her. He announced! “Kisne pair rakha kisne rakha! Abe **** tune hi rakha hoga” he challenged a short guy next to him…..the short guy petrified as he was muttered “ Maine nahi kiya”…just when Mr Macho was about to sling another lasso of words at him, a small cute voice penetrated the tension and the background noise and the businessman’s voice shouting share market rates on the phone….that voice said “Sorry, maine mazak mein pair mara tuhje!” It was the macho guy’s super girl friend who I think found out that day the kind of angry which she might have to witness in the future years to come if it gets to that!

The best display of anger is when people bump their heads in traffic…In one such situation, there was an instant when a Sedan kissed the rear of a autoricksaw…Now, normally when this happens the Sedan owner will shower his golden words passed down thru generations to the ricksaw driver….however, it was surprising to see the ricksaw driver climbing all over the Sedan to get a smack of the owner!! The owner who was a smart thud in his college was just repeating these words “**** jyada bola na toh dekh lena…” The ricksaw driver getting provoked at every occurrence of these words came at the Sedan thud with a great deal of velocity….velocity of words…some which even I had never heard of and the combinations which he used didn’t make sense at the time but required a great knowledge of the Swearing language to sink in! This proved to me once and for all that how much big a thud u are, you will always find a match! “For every word slinging bad mouthing gentleman, there is an equally qualified scholar!”

Saving the best for last, to witness a woman fighting is like witnessing a rocket launch or witnessing a sack full of tuning forks falling on the ground….there is a rumbling in the beginning followed by ultrasonic blasts as the lady goes into a full blooded word attack on its prey!! If you want to witness it, I knw a trigger, Just sit in the ladies seat in a bus and refuse to get up from it only twice…That is enough for the female to achieve super nova!!! The people who bear the brunt of this heat are bus conductors with whom these lady negotiate ticket fairs, vegetable sellers (self explained) and anyone who will cross their path!! What I really enjoy in these fits of anger is the “K” factor….the type of dialogue are the ones which Ekta Kapoor feeds on!! Even Ramanand Sagar didn’t have this much amount of melodrama in his Ramayan!!!

Taking a look at these people makes me happy to knw that I am not alone in this world…There are people who throw amazing performances so great that they can actually get nominated for the Oscar for “Best Performance in the Insanely angry category”. I knw lots of you make be thinking what do I do when I get angry! There is only one way to find out…………..Care to tick me off ? :)

Mumbai-The city of AJ :)

2007-12-23T23:24:00.000+05:30

Well you love this place, you hate this place!!...This is the face of Mumbai!. Infact this is the fact with all the cities in the world but there is a difference in this one. I have been a mumbaitie all my life….was born here…enjoyed a good school life and then excellent college life and am now employed in mumbai itself.

Over the years I have observed a lot of facets of Mumbai which are normal and routine for a lot of people but we don’t enjoy the uniqueness of them. I feel that Mumbai is the place where no 2 days of your life are the same. If you look closely there will always be something happening in the city which has the potential to catch your eye. There are a lot of new things which happen in this city which I have come to see in the past few years!

One of those is the explosion of multiplex theaters! Once upon a time in a city far far different from its current version, a show ticket use to cost a very affordable 50 -60 rupees. But now I feel that with this amount I wont even get a good bag of popcorns which I can enjoy for atleast 10 mins of the movie! The new multiplexes flex their muscles and make the people of Mumbai to submit to the over the top ticket prices of around 160 rupees for a weekend movie which is worse than a good B grade mithun da movie!! (no offence or no pun intended). However, I still know of a few theaters which still have tickets prices round about 70 rupees but these are very low in quality as compared to the BIG mall cum multiplex theaters! This is the thing about Mumbai. It changed to keep up with the pace of time but still has a few places which reflect the past!

Another important part of Mumbai is the public transportation. The autorickshaw and taxi people are the lords on this! When you ask them for a particular location and if they are not in the “mood”, you will be definitely be ignored! You should be really grateful if they respond at your request! However, if you by chance ask them for a destination while coming out from an airport or a train station (even though you came to leave someone there!), you would be treated with a lot of respect with the lords saying” ok” or no. They will actually try and communicate with you! Once you get into a rickshaw, you get to know how people feel when they sit in a car with Michael Schumacher! They will drive thru the streets of Mumbai as if they are competing in a grand prix!! Of course the yelling and the swearing is not beeped out in this version of the race! Also these guys are a bit weak in Maths. When you give them a 50 rupee note for a travel charge of 48 rupees, you should not expect any change back. You would be lucky if that dude even stays there for a while! These guys are sooo very busy you know! J However, despite this, this mode of transport has been and is still the best and the safest way to move around the city!

Another interesting part of public transportation is the Mumbai BEST buses! The buses have always been the best way to commutate thru the city. My personal favorite mode of transport. I really enjoy Mumbai passing me by as I am traveling thru a BEST bus surrounded by hefty business men who decide to sweat just as I get onto the bus! Then there is always entertainment on the bus when the conductor starts fighting with a fellow customer who doesn’t knw where to go but somehow knows the exact price of the ticket! Another piece of entertainment is the usual fight over rights as to who will sit down on a ladies only seat or on a senior citizen seat! I tell you the best way to acquire a seat on a bus is to be an old aged lady! You get a lot of options! Also the bus allows you to explore the strategic side of your mind when you try to find a comfortable seat for yourself! You should analyse a lot of variables like distance of travel, sun positions, which seats to target, the temperature, wind direction etc etc! And then deduce a seat which is best suited for you. And the irony is that when you target a particular seat, the occupant gets down just before or with you! Also, sometimes you have to play musical chairs with fellow travelers to see who gets the seat when someone gets up!! The drivers of these buses also dawn the Michael Schumacher shoes after 10:30 pm! I tell you…go and board a 84 ltd or a 4 ltd bus and see the actual Mumbai as you travel from Andheri till Churchgate. This is better than even the Mumbai darshan rides.

Finally the king of transport in Mumbai is the local trains! If buses test your strategic side, the trains will surely test your physical side and the strength of the stitching of your clothes! It’s a very good warm up in the morning for people when they run behind or run for a train which is about to leave and you are still stuck on the stairs trying to play dodge ball with fellow commutators! You also sharpen your navigational skills here! Some people also use this place to practice their swift hand trick skills! I never used to enjoy this mode of transport as this mode doesn’t actually show you the kind of Mumbai you wanna see!!

But what is Mumbai without its people!!.. The people in Mumbai are the most sophisticated people you will ever come across! They always try to be ahead of others in terms of loudness, excitement, anger, ignorance etc etc. The planning of people is impeccable. If you have to catch a 9:15 local you will leave your house exactly at 9 and if you get delayed, you will ofcourse blame that on the one thing Mumbai is famous for….traffic!! The favourite pastime of the government workers in mumbai nowadays seems to be digging up a lot of holes which I believe they have done to prevent the water shortage which the city is facing at the moment. However, in event of adversity these very people come together and help out each other. Mumbai in that respect has seen a lot of intense times and has survive thru those times. This survival is all created to the resolve of the very people who combine together to form this tough city!

Mumbai I feel is a fun place to grow up in. Everyday I am exposed to a new situation in Mumbai…something which I haven’t come across in 22 years of my existence in this city. This city gives me the trills to live, gives me the occasion to smile and gives me the moment to make a difference.

So to round up, I would like to complete the very first line of this blog…..” Well you love this place, you hate this place…but you cant live without this place once you got the taste of it!”

obrigado muito muito!

AJ