The Great Himalayan Trek…

One thought crossed my mind as I was watching the great Himalayas, What makes a man travel? Any man travels to explore new places or to explore himself? Throughout my Himalayan expedition I was occupied with such cosmic questions yet I was at peace. There was no regret, no guilt, no insecurity. There was no rage about my past, no worries of future. There was just one goal and that was to reach the top exactly at 13,800 ft and one focus, that was ‘Me’.

Himalayas are not only beautiful but mysterious as well. It makes you go silent. You just keep looking at the snow covered peaks and think its so near but eventually those peaks are miles and miles away from you looking down at you. You don’t feel like talking to anyone, you just want let the environment sink in you.

Throughout the trek I wrote random thoughts in my diary. I was not bothered to mention any schedule, day’s routine or anything particular. What I wrote was what I thought. Have you ever been in such trans where you are at complete peace? you cant predict what will happen tomorrow yet your not worried! You know, feeling good about yourself! I was in such trans till I returned. The atmosphere there sets you in such trans. You feel the silent mountains are talking to you.

“Who are you? Just like one of those trekkers who come and go, who consider reaching on top of me as an achievement? And eventually have very less time to admire my beauty?” asked me the proud Himalayas and I answered, “I am not one of those who are exploring you. I am not one of those who consider you as an achievement. I am here to explore myself. Your beauty and greatness has compelled me to do that.”

The ever changing weather in Himalayas post another challenge to your mental strength. There may be a bright sunshine in the morning but after a while suddenly its all cloudy and you already know that its going to rain and going to get tougher, still you know you have to climb . Your goal is set, your road is fixed , tackling its difficulties and reaching on top is what matters.

If I talk about my ultimate realisation in this wonderful trek of Himalayas then that is very simple. I trek because I love nature, I love that activity, I love meeting new people and I simply love clicking photographs and creating wonderful memories. I do not envy those who consider reaching on top as the whole and sole purpose of trek. I do not envy those who hate getting tired and fail to admire the beauty of the mountains. If you aren’t tired then how will you stop and take look at the green lush valleys, snow covered peaks and get back the energy to move ahead? If your photographs do not create memories of a shared laughter with friends then what is the purpose of being together on a trek?

So now I do believe that anybody who has a will power and absolutely loves nature can trek. But do trek with right vision, otherwise it will just turn out to be a hectic holiday. As you reach the base camp you hear a word , acclimatization…more than my body my mind was acclimatized in the great Himalayas…and after this great Himalayan trek I am finding it difficult to acclimatize at home…

Cups of tea + FUKAT time = CONVERSATIONS

Today I write this blog in the honour of the tea time conversation I just had with two of my best of friends. Today I can say that we can talk about anything and anyone on this whole earth! This tea time conversations happen over a cup of tea and I happen to drink many cups of tea in a day so...i have stopped counting the hours I spend in such conversations...they are endless yet intriguing.

Today one ultimate realisation has struck me again. Our conversations have matured by time.

I remember two years before me and my bunch of friends bitching about fellows but now the whole bitching scenario has taken a complete turn. We used to bitch about individuals now we are old enough to blame the whole society, system, cast and creed!

How the whole world is fucked up...that’s the end conclusion of our every time tea talk and we have a good laugh and separate. We don’t leave anybody whether they are our professors, classmates (who do not fall in a category of friends) parents, relatives then we move on to castism, communalism, riots, gender, mentality ....hushhhhhhhhh.....(i told you they are endless)

But these days as my degree course is coming to an end I think a lot about the time we spent at the canteen or at our favourite tea shop...at my place when I make tea for my friends and we keep gathering the fallen crumbs of the biscuits on the floor and keep spilling words from the mouth. With the degree course this part of my life is also going to end. I will keep drinking tea but I don’t know if I’ll get the same company which shares same kind of sentiment about how this world is no better place...!!!

My degree course hasn’t taught me much as these tea conversations have. I wonder what is exactly there in this cup of liquid that just runs into a stomach and makes people say the most sensible and sometimes the dumbest thing in their lives. I am going to miss it...

Again I let my imagination flow and I imagined myself in a same group, with same people that sit and chat with after exactly ten years...hah...the group was standing in the same spot talking the same thing...how this system doesn’t work...!!!

Well, well when I searched within myself about the inevitable thing in my life...the search stopped at one word...CONVERSATION...no wonder I am always up for a CUTTING CHAI...

They have lost no hearts...

We have lost the match. We were no match for Australians... well to all I am talking about HOCKEY here...I love the game and I am not ashamed of it. The whole 90 minutes were gripping and I heard the crowd cheering whenever ball was with the Indian players and I wondered is this why they are still on the field?

I seriously wonder why these men are running, sweating trying to work the ball to the goal post. They were no match for Australians but their game is also no match for the politics that their ‘karta Dharta’s’ play! And now they have a got a great sponsor HERO HONDA, which is running a campaign called ‘fir dil do hockey ko’ ...the campaign is supposed to bring the goodwill back with the game that has lost its shine in the country long ago.

What disappointed me today was not that we lost the match miserably but the miserable advertisement of this campaign. The ad is advertising only Hero Honda bikes where the ‘hockey’ in it is not even for five seconds! Another thing is that we can see a Hero Honda bike actually parked in the studio where the channel telecasts it’s after match analysis...ahh well my ultimate realization struck me again...that they are using HOCKEY as a tool to advertise themselves. Looking at the crowd today in the New Delhi national stadium I did not feel that HOCKEY has lost any hearts!

Another amazing blunder that occurred today, the commentator of the match said proudly that India was so PROUD of their win against Pakistan that they almost declared a national holiday yesterday!...hmnn I don’t expect him to know that yesterday was Holi and it is a national holiday... I think he needs some ultimate realization to strike him!

Anyhow Holi reminds me of a colour red in the form of blood that we ask from our hockey players. The finance and the politics around them are sucking their blood.

I am going to watch every match that India plays in this world cup and the commonwealth and so on but I will not be disappointed if they lose, because They not only have to face the opposite team but the battles within.

Today the Arjun Hallapa and Rajpal Singh(if you know that they are our hockey players and the later one is the CAPTAIN) goal was utmost representation of the SKILLED hockey that we play. When we are in the circle we are a dangerous team...

Whether they are TIGERS, PEACKOKS OR HOCKEY ; I think we don’t like anything that is declared as NATIONAL. Hockey haven’t lost any hearts...it will revive, survive and live longer than any other game!

Get together people...if we cannot contribute to New Delhi ticket box at least contribute to TRP’s

Live on TEN Sports

Unlimited sea but a limited sight…

A beautiful woman with skin as smooth as milk and deep light brown eyes donning a pleasant smile sat opposite me in a local train. She was covered in a burka but her face was unveiled. Looking at her my ultimate realization struck me again that no doubt they want to protect or cover the beauty like hers!

She was with her own child, a little girl. Not more than three years old, she was nicely dressed in pink tee and black jeans. Comfortably occupying her mothers lap she was gazing at the wonderful world outside the window.

“Look at the sea, baby, see how big it is!” said her mother to her by pointing at the sea.

But the little lady was busy in looking at my jeans and her own jeans and suddenly she cried, “Same, same jeans!” her mother and I exchanged smiles as it was really cute indeed!

After few moments her mother covered her liitle head with a burka and said, “beta , dhoop aati hai naa..”

Well, I realized that after few years the little lady will turn into a woman and have her own burka. Her body will be covered by a black cloth while her soul will be bound by certain limitations!

Her religion accepts the limitations openly while others don the happy and ever smiling face or a term called ‘COMPRAMISE’ to cover them all.

I felt as if she is looking at the limitless sea but her sight is going to be so limited within few years!

While coming back home on the same day I saw bunch of women standing at the door of the train facing the sea. I smiled as I sensed that at least half of them are looking at ‘nothing’ but on back of their minds they are thinking about kitchen, family and a struggle that will begin tomorrow again!

It all depends on how you look at the sea and its limitlessness. Most of us see what we are made to see, the vision is given not formed!

I wish to break the limits…

Yes, I believe...!

All these days I was suffering with some kind of a writer’s block. But now it seems I am back and writing again. All these days I was feeling as if something in me has lost and I am searching it all around the city, just forgot to search within, found the chord at the end...better late than never.

On the way to my gym I always see two Bhajiwalla’s sitting on footpath near their respective stalls and saying “Om Sai Ram” continuously. Every time it hits me with the realization that they both are happy while remembering god. Faith or believe that’s what you call it. They sound so clear and plain as if they are just doing this for themselves. I guess such faith is what keeps a man going.

While thinking about faith and belief I remembered the day when one of my friends mother asked me whether I believe in god? I simply answered, “No aunty i don’t find any need to believe in god.”

Then she said, “I know it’s because you lost your mother when you were very young but faith is important my dear. Have faith in something or someone. It will bring you peace and satisfaction.”

She spoke the ultimate truth about me. My perception towards god changed extremely after I lost my mother but my life took a turn when I accepted it.

I believe in accepting the reality. I have faith in my friends and family, to be honest every single day when I wake up I feel like,

‘I Love my self’

‘I love my life’

‘I love my friends and family’

So I have realised the course of my faith. I have faith in people and I believe in myself totally. I always used to wonder about why I don’t feel insecurity; again I got my answer within myself.

So it doesn’t matter to me if I don’t go to temple, when I look at it from distance I feel serene and that’s about it.

I belong here...

Exactly at 12 on the New Year’s night I saw firecrackers bursting all over the sky as I travelled back to my home by train. That night the city looked beautiful.

Hmnn...Wait...I am not talking about Mumbai here but about the city of Navi Mumbai!

Since I shifted to Panvel it’s been my routine to take a bus to college in the morning and come back home by the train. I do this just to enjoy the different routes and views of the city in one day itself. Almost every day I wait to see the small wooden boat lying alone on the shore of the backwaters before Kharghar. The cranes, white as milk, fly all over the water every time I happen to see them. The mountains around this city give me strength and the citizens give me hope.

This is the city which allowed me to walk from Sector 4 Nerul to the seawoods station enjoying the lake and the sunset. It was one hour walking but tireless. In this place only I was able to just walk into an ice-cream shop, select my flavour and enjoy every bit of it while walking down to Kharghar station.

I made some of my best friends here. This is the city which taught me struggle, importance of freedom and how to share relationships with people. Few days before I was in an emotional turmoil but the city’s calmness brought me out. My poetry, my writing took birth here. I see tremendous change in me throughout the course of three years but this city hasn’t changed. Kharghar is still as beautiful as it was. Panvel is still as dirty as it was...(i am already used to it) and Vashi still as corporate as it was!

Its like “every day is a new day”, shouts Navi Mumbai at me. “Take life as it is...face it... face it” it keeps me on a roll!

So much is written about the great city of Mumbai everyday but I hardly find anybody talking and writing about this lovely city. So this blog is dedicated to the city of Navi Mumbai and all the Navi Mumbaikars who made me feel at home.

If I ever become successful and have money bundles of money in my bank account, I will buy a house here in this city. I would slip into a comfortable chair in my balcony and go on writing and writing endlessly while sipping my favourite Chai and I am pretty sure that beautiful sunset will give me company!

Ahh...I don’t know why it took me three years to express my love for this city. Today i happily declare myself as Navi Mumbaikar... (Thank god my mother doesn’t read my blog!)

Well, Better late than never...

my first ever blog

The ultimate realization(s)

While sweeping my house that day I thought of writing blogs! I then turned this desire into my New Year resolution, so here it goes!

Few minutes passed while sweeping as I realised ‘well, well I can sweep the floor too!’ I mean I left my home and my city to make my career. I can read, write and blabber (sometimes original, that keeps me going!) I go on trekking and play badminton whenever possible. I can cook, sweep and do dishes too! I waved the broom in the air and cherished my moment of ‘happy realisation’! I felt good of myself after a long (its looooonnnnnggggg) time.

That day itself I went into a book shop and saw one book about women, Indian women to be specific! It was a new ‘Indian best seller’! Though I don’t remember the name of the book I simply could not forget the two golden lines on its back page. They were, “what Indian women want today? ‘Sex’, maybe, ‘Money’, ofcource but of their own!

Suddenly I was hit with another realisation that I am a typical Indian girl, who will be called a woman after a few years, so what do I want? I wondered! I can sweep and cook so I qualify to become a wife (according to my aunties) and as I came to make my career in Mumbai , I am a very responsible daughter (according to my optimistic father) but to tell you honestly what I love the most is my freedom and my independence! It was given to me a few years back...I misused it and then I had to earn it back! That’s the way it is...

Well, well, here I am aspiring to become a critical, serious political and travel writer stuck with brooms and books!

I hope you survive this blog to read the next... hope is a good thing after all!