Reflection of my being

• Subtle emotion which defines a moment, goes a long way. It should not be overdone with why's and buts.

A Dog and a Girl

With the festival season gone, it was the day after it. All that preparations, celebrations and anticipation seems to have come to an abrupt end. My folks and neighbors blew crackers, exchanged sweets and gifts last night though, and that was about it.

For most people, the day after is a bit dull and boring but not for me. With a cup of coffee in one hand and a newspaper in another, I took things deliberately.  My 3 years Labrador who was sitting on my feet, took a turn on his back, stretched, got up and moved out into our roofed backyard. I took all the time to finish off the beverage and then leaned back on the couch. I sat there for sometime wondering what to do with the next moment before getting my lazy butt up, across the lounge area and dropping it into the backyard chair, besides my dog.

 It is important to bring it to the notice of my lovely readers that its generally not like me to be lazy, not even on weekends but everyone has their times and moods. Today was mine.

I was wondering what my dog was gazing at as the life seems to be moving on slow pace. It was a warm winter afternoon. There was nothing noticeably outstanding, except the miles of stillness stretching across. I was curious how my dog look at things, life, his surrounding and us.

I started looking outside in parallel to his line of sight. There were trees, a lot of them some of which were bearing colorful flowers like red, yellow etc. Because of the fall season, some of the flowers had left their branches and created a round flower bed around the trees. Some of the birds were chirping in the trees. One could see a silhouette of a human form or two walking across a trampled-down path in a distance ever once in a while, but not very frequently.

While my dog was looking at all of it, I wondered if it made any sense to him at all.
I had always envied his peace and contentment.

I couldn't say my life is perfect.
There had been times when I had failed, I had fallen,  it had dawned on me that not all dreams deserve to get fulfilled and I had been annoyed about all of it. There have been so many questions engraved in my mind which have kept me awake for so  many nights in a row but couldn't find any answers to.

While sitting in all this stillness and silence, I felt that the  turbulence of mind had come to a rest and all the questions had resurfaced again. At this moment I was not annoyed but was not satisfied either. I  was still deprived of something that was absolutely necessary for me, I still don't have answers to my questions.

I wondered if nature was trying to tell me something. That if a shedding tree , if a blue sky stained with cirrus, if a trampled downed path can be beautiful; so can the deprived life with unanswered questions. I noticed my dog was looking at all of this distastefully, almost with droopy eyes. He was sleepy.
I looked at the book on the table at my right 'life as we know it'. Don’t know when I had left it there and forgot, so I picked it up and opened the bookmarked page. I flipped through its page and sadly more than half of the book was unread.
I  made the book rest on me, closed my eyes, took a deep breath and tried to make sense out of all this. It would take some time to accept the life and things as they had been so far and how they would turn up, in times to come.

Before I commenced reading, I allowed myself to breathe the emptiness for a while.

The slimy and warm tickling on my left hand brought me back. It was my dog telling me to get up. I noticed the warm afternoon had already melted into the cool violet evening. Like so many other days, I had lived through the day without progressing on my reading. It was almost 7:00 on the watch and it could be called a day.

Tomorrow its going to be an another day where so many things need to be taken care of and so many tasks to be accomplished. I picked the book from me, placed the bookmark where it earlier was and put it back on the side.
I got up and gave a last look at the silhouettes of the trees, the violet skies and the trampled downed path which could hardly be seen in the darkness. The whole day had passed and still what had not changed through the day about this whole view is the stillness, the long silence.

To all my lovely readers, I would like to bring to your notice that my 3 years old, shiny haired, cheerful, black Labrador always remains my best buddy, with whom I like to spend my lazy evenings, who loves me unconditionally, never judges me and cheers me up with a warm welcome after a long day. His name happens to be Ceasor.

Holiday Tan

Anant Brij

I always had a different perception to things. Rather than speaking up, I would keep my thoughts to myself as there are only a few who actually understood what I felt.
Writer's angle to everything!
Sometimes, the loud noises around you make you deaf to your soul.
To re-kindle it, you got to leave the haste behind and make a journey back to the basics .

To do that I went to Nandgaon, a small village of brij kshetra with a population of only few thousand. The village is actually surrounding a temple called Nand bhavan, which is situated on a hill where it is said lord Krishna spent most of his childhood as a loving child of Nandbaba and Yashoda maiya.

I stayed at a friend's place whom I met during a documentary shoot at Nandgaon.

Here, evening is the time for cows to return home after grazing in the forests The dust of their feet would give horizon the reddest shade to the sun set. The happy voices of cows coming home after a long day and kids who took them, fills the whole environment with joy and love.
Its time for kids to wash their hands and feet before they have their food.  

At night the thick sheet of stars follow you even when you make a brief expedition with some newly found friends which were about 12 to 15 people aging between 16to 25, to the Nand bhavan.

The sounds of conch shells and bells of Shayan-aarti ( the evening prayers to sleep lord) can be heard from a distance.The 360 degree view around from the temple comprises of small lamps and lights circling it, each of which mark a home of Nandgaon. There are few monkeys seemingly recognized our enthusiasm, who were equally enthusiastic to see us and were following us from a safe distance on the walls and pillars, while we were circumambulating the temple.

Mornings means waking up to the bells and conch shells at home which would mean awakening the lord and offering him butter and sweets as baal-bhog(the breakfast).
The sage with jatas( long thick hair tied in a bun on the top of head like a yogi) and thick tulasi mala around his neck would call out 'Radhe!' from the door, expecting whatever meagre the household woman has to offer without negotiating for more.

The sounds of the village would melt the heart of a atheist or a yogi, let alone the heart of the devotee.

It was the day to visit the nearby Barsana village, the village of Radha rani the eternal and transcendental counterpart of Lord Krishna.
One has to climb about 200 stairs to reach the Radha rani's palace. The curved flight of stairs to the temple is tagged by male as well as female saints. Few girls were sitting along who are equipped with wood stamps and ink, to create instant body art.

'Do you have Radha-Krishna yougal stamp.' I asked to one of the girls.
The girl started searching in her stamps to find one, while the one sitting on the other end raised a stamp in air to me and said,
'I have got yugal stamp didi.'

I allowed her to create a pattern around the Yugal(the divine couple of Shri Radha Krishna) on my hand. She was more than delighted to grab the opportunity. When she finished it, I asked her how much money it was.
She answered it in a bit stern way that it was ten rupees.
She was expecting me to defend for lesser money but was so happy when I handed her a ten rupees note. I could see the mischievous smile on her face.
For me I felt she should have asked more for all that elaborate design and spending whole day on the stairs of Barsana.

It is important to bring it to the notice of my dear readers, there is nothing to be pitied  about the people of brij bhumi. They would not negotiate the life bestowed to them for any amount of money or manifold higher worldly luxuries.

People here take pride in the lives they lead. When it comes to reciting the lilas of Shri Radha- Krishna, they recite it in a manner as if Lord Krishna still plays with them in the forests of brij and share food with them.

 On my way back from the Radha rani's temple, descending the stairs while holding the flowers that priest gave me, which held the scent of temple and prayers in it, I felt some times it so important to pull yourself back from the hustle of your lives, take a deep breath, hold and breathe out.

Life is not about big houses or luxurious cars, important corporate meetings or a bestseller book  publishing.
Instead it is a preparation, a preparation to remain constantly in touch with your soul that when I am on my death bed, when I look back at my life I do not have any grudge or remorse, but the kind of contentment I saw in the eyes of the girl who drew the Yugal design on my palm in exchange of just ten bucks.

Trip to a land of Ganges

souvenirs non captées

We a bunch of people who happen to share the common work place, in desperate need to break the monotony of our lives and jobs were looking for a vacation and hogged the first opportunity that came by.

A gang of some naive people whom we came to know, were organizing a tour for Rishikesh.
Rishikesh:- A popular tourist place in Uttaranchal; India, enthralls the seekers of spirituality as well as  adrenaline admirers simultaneously.

It was sounding very tempting trip which included few of the much sought adventure sports, stay in semi- outdoors by the river side, a visit to the Haridwar; the land of holy dips and wonderful food.

The next weekend, we had to leave. We packed the backpacks and reached the common spot.

It was a smooth journey, well I hope as I hardly realized about it. I prefer to sleep then to gaze outside the window.  Trust me I am the most boring person to travel with as I either sleep or read or in rarest of rare cases, keep silent and go to a journey of my own inside.

It was a hot place, we immediately realized as soon as we disembarked.
Our smartphone apps showed 38degrees  of temperature in the region. The sound of gushing Ganges was absolute music to the ears. It was definitely very humid. Well, no problem. Our semi- outdoors nest for next two days were only about 20 feet away.
Let's go!

'Don't tell me that!' I almost had such a loud thought that I hoped the person next to me didn't hear when I saw the real place where we were supposed to dump our stuff and start ourselves on day 1 of 2 of our much awaited weekend.

It was hardly a semi- outdoor fancy stay by the river side we have imagined over so many times .
It was a grey-green, camouflaged tent ( fit to be a military bunker) from outside. When we entered  inside it had two joined beds with off white or yellow colored quilts with matching unkempt pillows. Another perpendicular bed with similar bedding was there on the south of the previous beds. I could hardly make out the color of the sheets and bedding given to the dingy interior of the tent. It smelled of the rains and its previous occupiers.Although I slept during most of the journey, but I could have used little more with my neck and back not twisting. One can easily notice that the temperature inside the tent was higher than the outside, probably because of the green house effect.

Ajay came shouting. He  ripped the supposed door of the tent( which comprised of a long zip ), apart.

 'A group is going off on a trek to a wonderful water fall about 5 kms from here.We can reach to the point where the trek starts. See us in the thatched cottage in ten whosoever is interested! '

'What about the Rafting? It was part of the day 1 plan.' Nidhi asked.

While Ajay was already on his way to repeat the announcement to the occupiers of another tent, one of the tour guide told us, the level of Ganges is too low to do rafting. We have arranged a trek in place of it.

'Sounds perfect!' I sneered.

 The idea of not having to stay in the tent for at-least for some time was appealing, plus the shower in the waterfall could be a good reward at the end of  a mere climb.
I was definitely in for it.



                                                                            ----


'Bhaiyaji! Why did you lie its a 1 km climb? We already  have climbed about 2 kms on a steep wall like hill, and I don't hear any waterfall nearby.'

'We should be there in about ten minutes.'

I and Shivani exchanged surprised looks, and pushed a little harder to make the next supposed 10 minutes shorter.


The sun of three was scorchy. The waterfall was glaring but pleasantly cool.



                                                                           ----

The chocolate ice-cream following the dinner was the second best thing in the whole trip so far. First was the  waterfall.

Count of worst, if I start the list it would go long. One of biggest loss that beats the rest was songs by Rishabh, that we were all forced to listen.

"Shut up Rishabh! My ears are hurting. " I scooped the last spoon of ice cream from the container. "Lets go Shivani to our honeymoon suite. The rat smelling beds are calling." I laughed at my own joke.

"After you baby!" sound from ice-cream filled mouth reverberated from somewhere behind in the same joking manner.

"And I will see you girls in while at the bonfire.It is going to be beside the big rock near the banks."
said Rishabh.


"Bonfire! Now that sounds like a plan. Who is behind this brilliant plan by the way."
I was hoping that he did not recognize the sarcasm in my words.

"It was part of the Rishikesh package. I was looking forward to it for the entire time. I have some special songs ready whose beats I have twisted and ...."
Rishabh's voice trailed off as I reached my tent.

Bonfire! That was the only missing string in this perfect summer trip.

Wait, I heard something! It was coming from my bag. Something is making loud inviting sound.
I opened the zip and pushed aside my skin care kit on one side and my clothes on the other.
Oh! There it is.
My idea of a perfect evening. Be it a riverside or a desert, be a sweaty summer evening or a chilly winter night. It never fails to drown everything out.
Its my book, this time its from Robin Cook.

Next morning it was mostly about how to plan the latter day of the trip. Is it the holy dips in the river Ganges at Haridwar or another trek to a promised undiscovered lands.  It would be great for my readers to know, they have this latter trek also planned in the package. So you can imagine how much undiscovered this land would be. They would be offering this to their every client.

 While all this planning I was sitting at the corner of the dinning table in the thatched cottage with plate full of fruits, porridge, bread, butter and fruit jam. The dilemma I was having  right now was bread with butter should be eaten first or bread with fruit jam. While I deciding and taking big bites of water melon, some one from the other corner of the table shot,"So P, which plan sounds better is it the holy dips or trek to a Hot Spot."

I started to wonder if they were providing us the free wi-fi( Hot- spot as in a wi-fi setup) also for our cell phones and laptops as the part of the package. I shook off the thought by putting down another mouth full piece of water melon and realizing its the biodiversity hot spot he is talking about.

Before I could offer my valued recommendation, some one from the next table replied. "Let her eat. We should go for the Holy dip. If we come to Rishikesh, our trip wont be considered complete if we don't go to Haridwar."

Not having to answer the question was a bit of a relief and I meanwhile decided to put butter and jam together on my bread.

                                                                   ---x---

To my lovely readers:-

Well, the idea of this blog is not to defame any backpacking planners, but sole humor.
You must have read many travel blogs about how wonderful a place is and how great the author's experience is.
This blog is with a twist. Even a tour turned out bad can bring an experience of a kind.

I also wanted to give a message that if we plan a trip its onus is on to us to do proper research about the place and not depend on the paid planners wholeheartedly .

I hope you guys had a good laugh reading it as much as I had while I was writing.
As I am new to writing, perhaps. If you do constructive critique or leave a comment it would be much appreciated.

Cow protection bill: choice or need?

Today, it started with a simple chat with an old chat cum phone friend of mine.
We know each other for at-least half a decade. He recently gave  IAS mains and waiting for his result. The conversation started off with 'What are your views about government trying to pass bill to stop the killing of cows in the country?' I asked him.
As against my hope he said, its like forcing your choice to some one. Alright If you don't want to have meat or beef, go on don't have but you can't ask others to not have it. I was pretty much shocked.
Killing in any form is not a matter of choice, its a crime and bigger it becomes if you kill the more innocent one.

Cow is the mother, and I am saying not because I am a Hindu. She nurtures everyone irrespective of their religions.
Our country has been a country where most of the people dwell on agriculture. Cow, through out her lifespan is important for our survival. Cow when gives birth to her calf, provide enough milk not for calf but also for our consumption. Her male counter helps to plough field in traditional agriculture methods which are still being practiced in many parts of the country. Even when not milching her gobar is useful manure for fields and many researches have found that cow urine is a very good insecticide for crops and bio-fertilizer. In various Ayurveda medicines cow- urine is an important component.

His next comment was if a cow is a milching one, we should spare it, otherwise when cow becomes old we can kill her and use her as beef and leather.
What kind of statement is that? It really scared me, what is the thought process people are holding.
Our thinking has so much blinded by consumerism and short term self interest that we have forgotten our roots. Our ancestors were Arya who consider even a small gesture of generosity to be reciprocated even if it costs their lives. And here we are talking about cow, whose whole life is paropkara.

Arjuna, on the verge of his 13 year vanwas and while serving the last moments of agyaat vas, which was most vulnerable period of the lives of pandavas of being discovered and to repeat the vicious circle of vanvas and agyat again, when found that cows Virata's(country where the pandavas were spending their 13th year of vanwas) in danger, put his and his brothers'  whole tapa of 13 years at stake and without a second thought went out to protect her.

We don't judge our mothers milching or non milching, she would bless us and we could win the biggest battle of our lives smoothly even though she would look weak and disabled outside.
The biggest enemy in our country today is poverty, addiction of drugs and alcohol in youth.
This is the moment we need the blessing of our mother, cow is the mother of our nation we should protect her, need her to bless us so we can win these battles and emerge again as the iconic nation we once used to be.

Malhar

Aaj fir barish ki fuhaar

mein jeevan hua nav nootan

kahin door krishna ki vanshi par

gopion ne bhuli sudh budh

raag malhar aisa bajaya

gopion sang pashu pakshi

bhi jhoomein honge

are dekho woh vraksh

are woh parbat

are nahin upar aakash bhi thirak utha hai