Me and this world - a tête-à-tête

It has been years that I started trekking.  My first memory of the trek dates back to 1991, when a group of school buddies decided to go for a one day monsoon trek. The most enthusiastic girl in the class was our leader. It was muddy trail, and by the time we returned almost everyone from the group had become an experienced trekker. It took a while for me to understand what this business was. But it was that day when I got high with my insignificance on this earth. A pinnacle as proud as a nose of Duke, told me that to respect is the only way to appreciate the Mother Nature. Several years have passed by; Trekking has become most integral part of my day today life. But the love for this place is ever growing. Every year when the sky clouds with a promise of monsoons and greener earth, every wanderer gives a shout to the other, "Hey, his nose awaits us". The plans are made, dates are fixed. Every other commitment is compromised and the wanderers set out on a ...

As Richard Bach says: “Your friends will know you better in the first minute you meet than your acquaintances will know you in a thousand years.” When you know you have found your flock, you are ready to fly with them anytime. The simplest thing you can do for someone is just be their friend. The birds with lenses wanted to do a photography tour of Induri Fort; Chakan Fort... another bird wanted to surrender at Bhamchandra Dongar And I was just enthusiastic about wandering. So there was a perfect exploring plan which was ready to be executed. On a Saturday morning, we left the city and rode on old NH4 towards Talegaon.  After a long time, I managed to catch a breakfast at McDonalds, Chinchwad. A Veg Muffin started one of the best days of my life.  After one more snacks break, we reached Talegaon. On Talegaon - Chakan road, at Village Induri, there is a small fortification built on Left hand side. This fortification was built by Khanderao Dabhade duri...

Film: Amazing Spiderman (2012) I couldn't get the original dialogues word by word but here's the scene which impressed me the most. The scene is when Spideman attempts to rescue a scared kid stuck in the car hanging by the bridge. Spiderman offers his mask to the kid & tells him that the mask is magical, it would offer the strength (courage) to the kid to get out of his seat & move towards. The kid somehow believes and takes the mask & wears. Spiderman then helps the kid to reach atop the bridge & hands over to his dad. This scene portrays characteristics of a true friend. That they wont leave you when you need them, That they stand by you when you are at the lowest. That they help you in every possible way. They bring the best out of you, Give you strength  when you are weak and do every possible thing to make everything alright... The lesson from the childhood holds good everyday of our life: To Have A Friend, Be A Friend. No wonder at ...

Idea Floats… Four Jump in, one jumps out… Long lost friend is roped in… He pulls two more… A small group… Six set out on a Sunday early Morning… Highway Ride… Punctured Tyre… Street food & tea for breakfast… Final Destination… Walk in the Mud… Bike Ride in mud, to test the brand new tyres probably… Random Questions.. Out of context answers…  Ladders up the hill… All fog, zero visibility… Lots of Rain… Aloo Mash & Roti from the Tiffin Hogging Pithala Bhakari… Lots of Rain, Lost Avenues and Just a few snaps... Too many waterfalls… Only One making its point clear! And we reach base… Bike is washed & we start for pavilion. Some tea cups… With a promise to ourselves & friends that we will return soon…

Today I can proudly say that I am destiny's favorite child. God has given me chances far more than anyone should ask. My first relationship failed, I learnt nothing. I casually put the blame on my destiny and moved on... My second relationship failed I carried on as if nothing has happened. After all, what else could be expected from an uneducated man. My third relationship failed, this time God made sure that I had learnt the lesson. A lesson which taught me to hold myself when the entire world was falling apart, to understand what is right and what is wrong, to know the difference between people who would use themselves for your good and people who would use you no matter what. The final blow of my third relationship was when it was confirmed that this man was a con and was simply manipulating me to fulfill his and his family's financial ambitions. I was fortunate enough, that I realized this well in time. He snatched my credit cards initially, when I...

The movie is Signs. This scene made a lot of sense to me when I was looking for base of a real relationship. Since they aren't prepared well to prevent the alien attack and they are force to take refuge in the basement of the house. Yet the alien finds the way to get close to them through disused coal chute and grabs Morgan. Graham & Merrill do they best and drive away the alien but Morgan suffers an asthma attack. Graham realizes that they left the inhaler upstairs. Then, a worried father speaks to his son to calm him down. He says “Don’t do this to me again. Not again. I hate you. I hate you! The fear is feeding him. Don't be afraid of what's happening. Believe it's going to pass. Believe it. Just wait. Don't be afraid. The air is coming. Believe. We don't have to be afraid. It's about to pass. Here it comes. Don't be afraid. Here comes the air. Don't be afraid, Morgan. Feel my chest. Breathe with me. Together. T...

I have been through a heart break ample of times and the last time I went through it, by God's grace, it was far more painful than ever before. Here are some things I did to get over him. Ø  Do those same activities with a group of friends, preferably friends of same gender, it helps to disassociate the activity with that specific person, thus you can start to let go, and additionally you bond better with your buddies. Ø  Do some scene, see how they react, their stupid behavior will tell you that you were lucky to get away. Ø  Concentrate on your life; make a list that you want to improve in it. Ø  Start doing things that you wanted to do but could never do because of them. Ø  It’s perfectly natural & OK to be angry for a while. Get angry, break things, throw stones, and be mad. Don’t worry, things do settle down in some time. Ø  Make new friends who don’t know what has happened and at the same time make a pact with yourse...

It is really very painful to part your ways with someone whom you have loved, trusted and have dreamt of a future together. There would be hardly anyone who hasn't been through such a experience. No matter how you part ways, it is always painful. A heavenly life becomes hell. At times pain seems to be unbearable. It feels like you would never get over it. If you right set of friends then they try to soothe the pain. If you have shallow fools around you they will keep listening to your pleas of how wrong and bad your ex is. A true friend will tell you to stop whining and look after yourself and will make sure that you really do that. When I broke up sometime early this year, a very dear friend said, “How can you cry over same thing again and again? You thought it would last all your life &it didn't last even a one blow of social pressures." Yes, it was tough phase of my life. All my dreams were shattered in one go. I even lost my temper once ...

This one set me in proper set of mind after a bad day. Movie is Madagascar 3.  Alex learns about Vitaly's glory and failure from the past, yet wants Vitaly to perform. Initially Vitaly denies as the fear of failure & loss of dignity have made place in his mind and heart. Loss of dignity is such a loss that can put anyone in a cocoon. Only true relations can help you come out of it. You become bitter and just lose all the confidence. The world out there is cruel and will do everything to pull you down. You need to have the positive support system along with an assertive attitude. There has to be room for failure, the insistence of being perfect eats away the joy of doing something. Alex reminds him the purpose of doing the act. Vitaly realizes that he was not performing the act to impress anyone. He was doing it only because exploring his own new limits every time was giving him the sense of contentment, a sense of being complete all within himself.  The worth...

I recently had a digital break from this world at the entrance of the Land of Morning Sun... Near Darjeeling. Here are some of my random thoughts I had whilst on the break. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We never move on really, we just learn to lie more efficiently. When a man doesnt want to move out of his COMFORT ZONE, a woman's behavior is always wrong and thus he can never have her. When the relationship is true and honest, one doesnt let the other make mistakes. And when the other is making a mistake one tries to correct other's mistake. All a girl wants is a boy who will fight with the everyone and anyone for the relationship... Only once the girl needs the assurance that the boy means the relationship and will fight with anyone and everyone including the girl to be in that relationship. Then the girl remains a loyal slave for rest of her life. Some people are blessed with amazing sk...

This is one of my favorite scenes in all the Movies:  Movie is Runaway Bride: This is where Maggie (Julia Roberts) expresses her wish to spend her life with Ike (Richard Gere) ...  Look, I guarantee there’ll be tough times. I guarantee that at some time, one or both of us is gonna want to get out of this thing. But I also guarantee that if I don’t ask you to be mine, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life, because I know, in my heart, you’re the only one for me -Runaway Bride

A feeling of emptiness, amidst laugher and joy, it feels so hollow; deep down inside, as my mind drifts away to a world full of dreams and unimaginable possibilites; as I stare listlessly into this matrix, the beating of my heart reverberates through my soul, emotions trying to take control and I realize I am running on empty; exhausted, I try not to think, as the clouds pass by, I wonder if this tree of life has ceased to have a meaning; as the battle to live goes on, in silence I sit in the shadows, for the scars to fade away and paint my dreams afresh... Read more: Original post comes from here

This post is dedicated to one of the girls I met on my recent trek in the Himalayas. She was psychopathy personified. These are my thoughts when I was interacting with her. She hailed  from a small town of Odisha. She strongly reminded of someone I had recently parted my ways with. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Some people are naive, some are stupid and some are oversmart. You need to have smart understanding of human psychology to know the difference. The oversmart people act naive and can con you like never before. They have a concise plan ready all the time to fool you. Their plans are so carefully crafted that they treat you like their slave and you very happily accept it. Only the tip of the iceberge is seen that may warn you about their intentions. All the plans you make are always trashed for their so called better plans. If you trash their plans, you become the worst person that ma...

The tickets were not confirmed, bags were not packed. A lot of shopping was  pending. Overall, it was a messy Saturday morning. At 1.15 JB told me that I should sit back home as tickets were not confirmed. Praj told me that we will go to the station and talk it out with TT or someone. With all further reservations in hand we didnot want to miss this train. The TT told us that since it was a e-ticket it was as good as cancelled. It was almost 3.15 pm and he was not convinced. Praj ran to the other end of the platform and found some other TT. He said he would let us travel on the train but we will have to pay fine. We had to accept this plan. The train moved and we jumped on the train.It was first ever experience of travelling without ticket. We had to take this risk. The only thought was its better to fail than keep thinking what could have happened. During the train journey we were informed by the IRCTC that our next ticket from Kolkata to New Jal Paiguri was confirmed....

The only thing that I can plan and execute too well is what to do on the weekend coming up. I have had pre-planned weekends for months in advance. It is said that a life is well spent if it is full of experiences. Every minute of our life is important as once it is spent, you cannot reclaim it. It is said that time is money and one should invest it wisely. For quite some time I had ignored this principle and wasted my time in doing things which gave me nothing in return. It is time to put things in right places and get going. It was almost a chaotic half year since I had stopped to smell the flowers, to count the stars. The urge to reconnect with nature was becoming irresistible. So when my trek buddy asked me if I was up for a moon light trek from Katraj to Sinhgad, there was an impulsive agreement.  This is a rigorous trek from Katraj to Sinhgad and trek involves a hike across 15 to 16 hills for roughly 12 – 14 kms. The experience of trekking this terrain twice was...

The phrase "Body Art" fasc inated me for quite sometime. It was those days when I used Orkut for online social networking. There used to be a column: Body Art. I could never fill it as I had none. Some people would fill that information as tattoo. Coming from a typical Indian middle-class family I had hardly seen anyone with a tattoo. I often wondered what a tattoo was like. When I started working, I came across a few people who had tattoo. There would be casual conversations what the tattoo was like, did it pain, and most important, how much did it cost? The people gave varied answers. The location of tattoo would decide how much it would pain, the size would decide the cost etc. etc. But I heard no one talking about anything about the designs. I had read sometime that doodles are the interpretations of ones hidden desires. I am not sure why, but I felt tattoo also represented same. Then, I started looking around. I found someone at work place, who has tattooed Ron...

Highlights of the Union Budget 2012-13 GROWTH PROSPECTS 1) GDP growth is expected to be 7.6 per cent (+ 0.25 percent) during 2012-13. 2) Agriculture and services continuing to perform well, India’s slowdown can be attributed to weak industrial growth. 3) Growth recovery, Private investment, Supply bottlenecks, Malnutrition and Governance matters are the five objectives of the budget 2012-13. GOVERNANCE 1) For better e-governance a central “Know Your Customer” depository to be developed. 2) Government will bring a White Paper on Black Money. 3) UID-Aadhar to get adequate funds for enrolment of 40 crore persons. 4) The central plan scheme monitoring system would be expanded to facilitate better tracking and utilisation of funds released by the central government. 5) Amendment to the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, 2003 (FRBM Act) proposed as part of Finance Bill. 6) New concepts of “Effective Revenue Deficit” and “Medium Term Expenditure Framework” introduced. AGRICU...