The Power of Silence

Columbus Day

The date of Columbus’ arrival in the Americas is widely celebrated in the New World. While the variations in the date are almost as much as the variety in local observances, there is a common thread running through all of these holidays – the celebration of discovery.

Discovery is an important aspect of human life, as it is for all life. It is even more so for man, because of his ability to discover himself. Self-awareness is what makes us homo sapiens as a species unique.

It is a path I have treaded in the past. Somewhere along the way, I took a detour and got lost in the woods. Recently, I got back on this path. I don’t see an end in sight, but the path feels just right.

The large red reset button

Its been ages since my last post. 10 months. and you can hardly call it a post. For that matter, you can hardly call this a blog. Why was this blog born? cos I wanted to be a blogger? cos I know I can write decently? cos I have an exciting new life almost a year back and wanted the world to know? cos I wanted to show off my adventures? Its a bit of all of those.
What didn't hit me then was that a blog is not a place to showcase things about your life. For the most part, a blog is an online journal about yourself, it is a diary. It is you opening up to the world. Boy! was it doomed to fail with me. I hardly ever open up otherwise. Publishing it online - right, that was hardly ever gonna work out on its own.
But its time, it did. Its time for a change. Its time to restart, to reload, to reboot. and the blog shall be part of that change. And taking cue from the first black president of the United States, "Yes I Can"

Snapshots...

The Harekrishnas!

Ripples...


Heaven on earth


Peace

"Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
God saw how good the light was. God then separated the light from the darkness."


White prayer





Royal is an understatement





Dyer's march

1. This was at a wayside stop - you can see the Dhauladhar range in the background, green pastures all the way, a stream flowing nearby. Sitting on a small bridge on the stream, all you could hear were the wind blowing through your hair, the stream gurgling and birds chirping. Absolute bliss.

2. Three kids in an ankle deep river that meandered through the Himachal dusk. Can't imagine being so carefree...

3. Triund - as cold as hell... as beautiful as heaven

4. Words can't describe the beauty

5. Harmandir Sahib - the most beautiful thing ever made by man. Sitting on the banks of the sarovar, watching the golden glimmer in the waters, and listening to the chants of the priests - you feel a blanket of peace and tranquility envelop you

6. A lady who settled down next to me to pray. Would have never imagined how beautiful the snap would turn out. The camera shook a little, blurring her face. White light all around. A golden diya right in front.

7. The best part of the ride - watching the awe on the faces of people in small towns in Himachal as you ride the thumping beast in and out of the town.

8. A sober end to my journey - the narrow passageway through which Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer led a group of 90 British Indian soldiers, creating what history textbooks teach us as the "Jalianwala Bagh Massacre".

Later, in response to the Hunter Commission enquiry Dyer said, "I think it quite possible that I could have dispersed the crowd without firing but they would have come back again and laughed, and I would have made, what I consider, a fool of myself."

If you stand at the point of the passageway and look towards the well in which more than 120 people died trying to escape death by bullets, you can feel the history of the place, you can feel the blood and suffering that went into making this great nation independent. Its a shame most of us take it for granted.

Phobophobia!

After the previous post, I was reminded of the first lady - NO! Not the wife of President kind. The first lady who was in the cab with me. You could see the terror in her eyes as the rain started to come down heavily. She recounted her experience the previous year during the floods. She ended up wading through the water for several hours (as did my cousin, Nisha chechi - almost through the night!)

So as I remembered that story, I was reminded of how scared I was that she might have a phobia of rain. The inevitable question that sprang to mind - "Is there a phobia of phobia?" OF COURSE, there's only one answer to every question - Google Toolbar.

And here it is - http://fearofphobia.com/
Its actually called phobophobia!!!

That's the height of fear!

PS:
1. The most fun part of the blogging experience thus far - making the map. I had a ball of a time!
2. If only things were as easy as it appears in the map - picking up ladies!

My first rain* in Bombay

It rained today early morning. I had just woken up a few minutes before that. and I heard the heavy pitter patter of water on the sunshade. I went "oh crap! the AC must be leaking again". Then I realised this cant be the AC... so I pull back the drapes. Lo and behold! The rain gods** have bestowed on Bombay*** the first rains for FY2009****. (For those of you who are dizzy seeing all the stars, please scroll down to the bottom, take 50 aspirins and don't call me in the morning)

So here I am standing 5 floors off the ground looking out of the french window (ok there's a grill, but the window takes up almost the entire wall!) and watching Bombay getting wet. And I get ready to take a deep breath and take in the sweet smell of the earth soaking in the rain... and as soon as I do, I go Phtooey! All I get is the smell of the garbage stinking. I soo wished at that moment I was back home. I love the rains in Kerala. I guess its that it always brings back memories of my childhood days.

There are these lovely memories of the rains in Munnoorkode (my mom's native place) that are etched in my memory forever. Especially, one particular Onam probably when I was 8 or 9. It was around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. I came out to the outer verandah. It was getting a little dark. Slowly over the next 15 minutes or so, a curtain of dark rain clouds were pulled up over the sky. And then started thunder and lightning. Even at that age, I used to love thunder and lightning. (After my engineering entrance preparation, I came to love it even more! But thats another story altogether....maybe later) And it poured and it poured. I love the way rain collects and flows like small rivers because of the tiled roofs of the house. Paper boats (big and small) used to be our pass time during Onam. Images etched in memory...

Fast forward to the summer of 2006! I am doing my summers in Bombay and its almost the end of May. Its been burning hot for 2 months. (Of course its freezing cold inside office because of poor Air conditioning management... someone call Bluestar!) And we get news that its going to rain today. (Of course the Meteorological Department was not responsible for that. I think it was just some idiot who looked up at the sky and figured). So we are told we should probably leave early. Being summer interns, we all hang around till our managers leave. and then we decided to scoot. The other interns decides that they shall go to Worli seaface and catch the rains (God bless their poor souls - they are still alive). I say I am going home. So exit Kamala Mills Gate 1. I am crossing the road and I feel a few drops of rain starting to hit the earth and me.

Now I also figure out that I have only 10 bucks in my purse and of course no umbrella. (Those were the days of one wada pav for breakfast, lunch and dinner) And when I reach home, none of the others would be back. So I have to get to an ATM. Now here's the most stupid thing that I did - there's an ICICI ATM right next to the taxi stand. But I want to save the Rs.55 (in those days) charged for an Inter bank ATM withdrawal. So, I decide I shall go to the SBI ATM in Haji Ali, withdraw money and go back home to Saathrasta. So I start off and as soon as I start off, there's this lady flagging down my cab asking if I would mind dropping her off till Mahalaxmi station. So I go "OK. Jump in." (Here's where all the guys will go "Geela # bugger" - but you have nooo idea how "geela"# I am going to get this day!). Off we go. and as we go across the Lower Parel flyover, it starts to pour. And it hasnt poured that badly since. On a good evening Bombay traffic day, it will take you 15 minutes to Mahalaxmi. It took us almost 45 minutes! And all the while, the good lady was lamenting about the rains and her experience the previous year on July 26, 2005 (The day referred to as "the Bombay floods"). And I am sitting here half worried that she might have Ombrophobia $ and strangle me or something!

So we finally get near the station. Now Mahalaxmi station is at the corner of the junction. You turn left to go to Saathrasta and straight to Haji Ali. I go straight. But given the intense rain (torrential is more like it!), we have to keep to the left to drop off the lady. Which we do and drop her off as well. But the cop at the junction gets pissed off at us for trying to go straight instead of taking the free left (considering we are on the left side). So he comes complete in the fluoroscent rain gear..and stands right in front of us and points to the left! We have no choice but to turn to Saathrasta. Now Saathrasta is this circle with 7 roads joining (DUH!). So thats 7 times the traffic. Now add to the equation - A torrential thunderstorm. You have a nice mess. By now, the cab meter has already hit some 30-40 bucks. I, being an idiot (a chivalrous idiot, mind you!), did neither of the two things I could have:

1. Withdraw money from the ICICI ATM, lose 55 bucks but get home in decent time and not so wet.

2. Take some cash from the lady and again get home in decent time and not so wet. (OK I was being a bit chivalrous, but I still don't accept money from someone for dropping them off on the way)

So here I am... soooo close to my house, yet so far.

So we go round the circle and reach Mahalaxmi station junction back again, cursing the traffic cop and off we move to Haji Ali. All in another 45 minutes. Now we are waiting across from the petrol bunk at Haji Ali, where the SBI ATM is. We are at the front row of traffic. 15 minutes later. We are still at the front row of traffic. Another 30 minutes go by. We are still at the front row. The bl**dy traffic cop was letting vehicles from all other directions clog up the road but he simply wouldnt let us go forward! I was getting irritated. I try and convince the driver to do a major manouever and turn to the left and come from the other side. It takes some time to convince him. Now all this while, the rain has not ceased a bit. I mean, I can see at least an inch of rain water flowing on the road! So I finally convince him and we get across near the petrol bunk and stop in front of the Haji Ali juice centre. And a million people crowd to the cab like fireflies to fire - in the hope of getting some shelter out of the rain. Of course it was not meant to be.

I muster all strength with a zillion prayers to the rain gods, armed with my yellow SBI card. And I took the plunge into my first Bombay rains. And take the plunge I did. With that one inch of water flowing on the road, there is no way you can figure out those gutters on the side of the roads. And I went and stepped straight into them. It was like a scene from Tom & Jerry where Tom steps into air and realises he's not standing on anything solid and zooms down out of the screen. EXCEPT in real life, there is no delay like in the cartoon. Here I am, stuck knee deep in the gutter. Aah of course, its raining like mad, remember. So I get up out the gutter, run and get to the ATM, get some cash and rush back to the cab, where there are still a million people trying to convince the cab driver that I am never coming back since I stepped out into the rains without an umbrella . I push through the mob and get in to the cab. And see a lady sitting in the front seat! She asks candidly "Can you drop me at Mahalaxmi?" And all I can do is laugh..So here we go again. So we push through the crowd and the water and the traffic and move towards Worli. I am completely soaked... completely soaked to my innards, as I never have been again! I am tired and angry. Its been more than 2 hours since I started off in the cab.

But then came two sights that cheered me up. The first was the sight of Haji Ali dargha (one of my favourite places in Bombay) in the middle of the sea in the centre of a thunderstorm through layers and layers of rainfall . Lightning going off the in distance. Waves crashing all over the rocks. Though I am completely against religion, I find Haji Ali one of the most spiritual places (right up there after the Golden Temple). And that rainy day, it was in its element.

The second was when we reached Worli naka. Half the road was filled with water more than knee high...almost waist high! and in the middle of all this, there were people in the road playing water volleyball. And I couldnt help but smile. Thats what I love about Bombay - the people! Their spirit in the face of the most adverse of circumstances - no other city can match that.

Krishna calls up and says he will come pick me up near Race Course. So finally, I leave the cab with the lady headed for Mahalaxmi. Soaked to the core, poorer by 3 hours and by 200 bucks but richer by the "Bombay rain experience", I deposited myself into Krishna's Fiat Uno.

I love rain! :-)

PS: Given the complications of the route involved, you will appreciate the map below:

* NO! It wasn't today but some time towards the end of May 2006.
** I am a non-believer but the concept of "rain gods" is all too romantic not to be used.
*** A city most people refer to as Mumbai. I still love the old name.
**** After-effects of being a consultant working on a Life Insurance model for too long.
# Geela a. 1: in a state of being wet. Ref: Drenched (sourced from the Hindi language)
n. 2: a person, primarily of the male gender (given the skewed ratio) in the premier instutions of the nation of India , majority of whose time on campus is spent in wooing persons of the opposite sex. What is key is plurality of the people involved from the opposite sex. Ref: Geeli, Geelapan, Geelagiri
$ Intense fear of rain (OK fine! I did google that one)

The most enviable job in the world...

Read this post recently on x-bhp. http://www.xbhp.com/gir/blog/?p=379

Its something I have been giving a lot of thought to, of late. Especially because I still have the time and opportunity to... Where is life going? A more pertinent question would be - where am I letting my life lead me to? Is this where I want to go? Is this what I want to do?
The questions are still unanswered...they are still unanswered. But I have my list now. Its become 2 pages already. Actually, it's become 2 lists now! :-)
1. Things to do
2. Places to go
And the lists just keep growing. And Shrutz makes me keep on adding to the list!

My tryst with airlines

First written on May 1st in Sarovas*:

I am home now - WOOHOO!! But airlines and I seem to be at loggerheads all the time. The one thing I missed out about my Himachal trip in the last post was how I almost missed my flight back from Delhi.
Krishna had to leave early so he preponed to an early morning flight..and I stayed back to go around and see Delhi (in the blooody heat..and not that what I saw was great fun either - Amritsar was much more lovely than Delhi!) and Sunday afternoon, I get to the airport in plenty of time after a leisurely lunch at Piccadelhi..security check etc etc..I am sitting there sipping the cold coffee from McD outlet, reading a book on southwest airlines - with their 10 minute turn around time et al; thinking how wonderful it'd be if Indian airlines would achieve the same thing AND listening to my iPod using Creative's EP640 (almost noise cancelling earphones, which I bought from Paalika Bazaar - THE best earphones ever!). Now, I don't usually wear a watch and I lost my phone on the trip, remember? Sooo, I have no track of time, though, once in a while, I go check the monitor...I decide to check the monitor once more. I realise - its 10 mins to departure time and it still says "on time"! and I go "hmmm... that can't be right." So I proceed to pull one of the earphones off...and as I do, I hear the lady's voice screaming over the PA system - "... paging for Mr. Hari Nair, passenger on Kingfisher flight XXX this is your last and final boarding call. Please report to gate no. blah blah immediately."
So it was like one of the scenes from mallu movies (ok..I ain't no Mohanlal..but hey! I was mistaken for a Mallu actor/superstar an hour back at the same airport - really! :D) where the superstar (ahem!) suddenly has to rush/run AND the scene suddenly goes into slow motion.
I run back to my seat - the southwest airlines book in one hand (the irony of it all!), the earphones dangling, pick up my rucksack and run to the gate. The lady at the gate gave me a look like I was responsible for screwing up the schedule for airlines in India. And so I get onto an air-conditioned coach with the leather sofa seats, that are usually reserved for the executive class travellers...all for myself! And I made it back to Bombay!

And coming back to yesterday - my goair flight which was supposed to take off at 4:40PM and get me to cochin by 6:40 PM so that I had plenty of time to take the next flight of IA at 9:20..took off at 6:10 and landed at 9:20!! I think I saw the IA flight take off as I was deboarding the goair flight. (which for once, was exactly on time!!)
Please never fly goair! EVER!** Forget that their flights are only 3 to 4 hours late as a practice. Forget that their stewards and stewardesses dont smile. Forget all of that. They don't even respond to the blinking light that comes on when you page for them!! As soon as I got to my seat, I paged for them. The guy walked past three or four times. Never took notice..I was sitting in the emergency aisle. He came by to brief us on the emergency procedure, calmly switched it off and never enquired!! At the end of his lecture, I asked him - did you notice it was blinking? he apologised.
I think OK..one mistake. So 5 minutes later...3 blinking lights in seats ahead of me and 3 irritated passengers...but he completely ignores them! I called the chap and showed him where the other passengers had paged with lights blinking away like they were bombs and told him that they are meant for him!
At the end of the journey, after the pilot had circled some 20 times over the city of Cochin, ensuring whatever inkling of a chance I had of making my connecting flight was shot to hell..I gave them a good piece of my mind. I abused the airline enough. And I gave them the ultimate insult - the stewardess was standing at the door with me (I was the first to deplane - in case I had a chance to get the other flight - YA RIGHT!) and tells me IA should hopefully be late. I told her - "NO way..they cant be as bad as you!"

For all the trouble that Air Deccan seems to be, i have never had one bad experience with them (except once, when because of my fault - I have missed one of their flights***!). My worst experiences have been GoAir and JetLite so far. Both of which I have vowed to never use again.

* Home for the first 21 years of my life
** Please never fly goair! EVER!
*** To go home to my sister's wedding :O - subject for another post.

A journey to the foothills of Himalayas and to the end of India

From a mail written to my family on May 1st 2007, 2 weeks after the trip:

I did a wonderful 9 day journey recently with my friend Krishna from Cal...Dharamsala for the most part and bits and pieces of Punjab - mostly Amritsar, which I fell in love with.
We started off by reaching Chandigarh on Saturday in our hired car from Delhi; with Sunday morning at the Rock Garden et al, then off to Dharamsala, an amazingly beautiful and serene place (which seemed to be the theme for the trip). My hotel room had the best view of the mountains. Monday, we went up to Mcleodganj, seat of the Dalai Lama. Monastery, tibetians. lots of shops, lots more firangs. and we planned out the next 3 days.
We did a 9km trek starting at 2000m up to Triund on Tuesday . It rained heavily on the way up and cold winds too. At Triund, 3000m up, you get an up close view of the Dhauladhar ranges with green pastures at the top, I was dead tired but the view was rewarding enough.

The next 2 days were special as well. None of you know the actual mode of transport - I didn't reveal it till now cos I knew you'd be worried and anxious (unnecessarily). So I left that part out intentionally :) (Sorry amma/acha) We rented out 2 royal enfields (read: large bikes with the meanest sounds you'd have heard) and went biking to Manali (250km from Dharamsala) - or at least, that was the plan.

It was a good ride to start with..unfortunately the weather started to sour..Thunderstorms! Hailstorms! hailstones are pretty painful! Obviously they slowed us down to a great extent. and to top it all, my bike broke down completely. and i pulled some muscle in my ankle kicking the starter. So Krishna decided to take my bike and ride it down (luckily it was mostly downhill till the next town). I took his bike and rode ahead to the town to get a mechanic..but by the time the mechanic came around, Krishna had reached the town. So i just try starting the bike and lo and behold! start it does (the roar of a running enfield is a beauuutiful sound! defly better than the sound of a dead one - as you will soon learn). So bikes seem to be A OK. we are now 30km from Mandi (the halfway point) and its already 5. we realise we can only reach Mandi that day with not much time left to sundown. So we continue onward on our resp bikes.. I tell Krishna to ride ahead since my bike still had some gear issues and I was riding a lil slow. Now, I had lost my mobile in the morning while riding (cos I like a jackass put it in my jacket! ). So Krishna rides ahead..and 5 mins later, my bike goes PFFFT! and remember, the downhill that we had earlier? thats to be seen no more....so at 5:30 i start pushing.reach the nearest PCO at 7. :) call up Krishna and give the news (who had stopped another 10km ahead and was waiting for me, asking every other motorist, if there was a big fat guy lying crushed under some truck or something :D) i push ahead...20 mins later, Krishna turns up with a mechanic. By now I can feel every joint in my hands (blood heavy bike it is eh)
So bike fixing bike fixing and more bike fixing later, we put up at a small hotel near the workshop. and next day morning decide to push back cos there was no point going fwd with these bikes. the return journey was good - the sun out all shining, winding mountain roads, views that you'd die for...very beautiful state, himachal. Though we met every mechanic on the way back fixing clutch lines, accelerator lines, cleaning carburettors, replacing spark plugs... If you ever need the help of a mechanic on this route, show them our pic, I am sure you will get a discount! and then back at dharamsala for one last night.

next day morning - we do some minor shopping at mcleod and left for Wagah. Lunch at a dhaba amidst the Punjabi wheat fields complete with a swing et al. and reached Wagah border in the evening in plenty of time for the Marching retreat. It was a circus but the show was nice after all.
Reached Amritsar in the night. Put up at a hotel and went to the Golden Temple, which is the single most beautiful man made structure in my opinion and overtook, in my mind, Padmanabhaswamy shetram as the best centre for a religion. Amazingly serene and peaceful, must have spent a couple of hours on its banks. Had the roti, dal and kheer at the Langar (community food centre). Next morning I spent some more time at the temple and saw the jalianwala bagh and the alleyways of Amritsar. Old Amritsar gives you that feel of a 1800s-1900s city - transports you to a different time and era.

Back to Delhi through Punjab..more dhabas. stayed over at a friend's place at night. went around and saw the std tourist spots. Didnt enjoy Delhi much..twas tooo hot anyway..plus they felt like just monuments. i didnt feel the power of history in them like i felt at jalianwala bagh or the golden temple. was a slight whimper of an end.
and we were back in good ol' bombay by evening.

Learnings from the trip -
1. Never take a bike for rent without thoroughly and i mean thoroughy testing it!
2. I need to get in shape bigtime before I do the trek in Nepal
3. I love travelling ever more. My list of places to visit seems to grow longer day by day! :-)
4. I like photography. Esp after the pics at Golden temple, I realised I really enjoyed it
5. I have to go home cos I didnt go even though I had a 9 day break! (I could feel the pain and anger in achan/amma's voices). Sorry but I had to do this. and hence I am off home for a 4 day break :-)