stopover..

A sweet voice beckons me to the golden plates with mounds of mouth watering delights , as I get down from my bright and warm carriage. The journey had been long and wonderful but I am tired and irritated.

I recognize the greenest and freshest treasures from our garden, and my mouth resembles the suez canal.

My mother's preparations adorn this royal feast and I start picking up one after the other, commenting on how each one tastes and occasionally ignoring a bit of imperfection.

I eat to satisfaction and dunk myself into the refreshing juices from the orchards, while eyeing the mounds of ice cream made from the ice brought in from the Himalayas.

The same Himalayas, on the peaks of which I sang a hopeful song before returning home for the feast. No mountains can keep me away from the love of a handful of rice. Or was it just the growl of the tummy? Anyway here I am, and I would have regretted if I wasn't.

As the feast ends, I eye the clock and the voice in the head starts uttering strange things. It is time to leave and my carriage has arrived. The carriage painted in bright yellow, with green stripes seems hypnotizing and the voice in the head seems more and more distant as I get into the carriage and tuck myself in, into the comfort of the warm blankets, and continue my wild quest into the lands unknown.

Sayonara and happy lazy sunday evening :)

250th Edition - "What goes around comes around"

Its official. This is the 250th published article!

When I left for Chennai last weekend for some time with relatives, my mind was in turmoil. I had written 249( including 1 draft) articles by the end of exactly 7 and a half years from the very first post. I wanted to write something special for the 250th, but I was out of unique ideas and only had some travelogue series going on.

On Monday, I was back in Bangalore and was checking my mails in a hurry before leaving for office. One comment on my blog caught my attention. I have been nominated again for a Liebster's award - this time by Divya. How timely!! I finally found a fitting content for the 250th post. But on checking her blog, I found even more reasons to rejoice.

If readers remember, it has hardly been a fortnight since my first nomination for the Liebster award. As part of the nomination process, I had nominated ten other bloggers for the same award. After giving out my nominations, I planned to track all the blogger who would be nominated down the line and observe how the tree would expand. I knew a couple of recipients personally, and a few more through online interaction, but the rest were pure strangers. But, after tracking a few nominees, the interest fizzled out and soon it was all forgotten.

On tracking back from Divya, I found an interesting relation. Here is a pictorial representation of it. And none of these are people I know personally..

"What goes around, comes around". Whoever coined that line must have been insanely brilliant or just plain wise. Yes, it was my first Liebster nomination that eventually led to my second. But the credit purely goes to each one who received a nomination and passed it on those whom they appreciated. A first, second or 100th Liebster doesn't depict anything more than the level of appreciation people have for one's works. And that appreciation is very important to each and every one of us, as Aparna pointed out in her response to my nomination.

that explains the circular arrows

I am glad I could pass on the valuable appreciation to ten talented writers, and to get that chance again makes me every more luckier. I am deeply honoured by the appreciation and support given to me in the blogosphere, especially Indiblogger. Good begets good, they say. It can't be any truer. I hope my nominations had motivated hundreds down the line to write with greater vigour and  contribute to making the blogosphere richer :) Seriously, I am still in awe at the way my 250th article was formed out of nowhere by a serendipitous nomination from unknown persons, remotely linked to my own action of sharing goodness :D

Enough ramblings, here are the answers to the questions raised by Divya.

1)    What is your favourite place and why?
Ans: My room in my house at Kochi. That is the place where I forged my dreams, fought my demons and learnt to take my own steps. I am me in all of my colours there, and only there.

2)    What would be that one wild thing you intend to do in your lifetime?
Ans: Leave the norms of society and become a villian who tries to break it and show people how brittle we really are.

3)    How do you define serenity? Illustrate with examples.
Ans: Serenity is when you mind is devoid of nagging conscious thoughts. Serenity is when you sense the peace within and outside merge into unity. I feel it when I sit by the ocean, when I see the long road ahead and no one beside me, when I lie listening to the raindrops, when I wake up one fine morning after a good sleep and thank God for the wonderful life I have been given.

4)    If you were to ask only one question to an alien, what would that be?
Ans: Can you hear me? :)

5)    Light shades or dark colours? Reasons?
Ans: I prefer light shades when I want to express myself and in dark colours when I tend to keep to myself or don't bother to express explicitly. I guess its because light colours catch attention, whereas dark repel.

6)    What is your dream job?
Ans: But my dream job is to be a dreamer.

7)    Describe your favourite birthday experience.
Ans: My birthday is very rarely celebrated at home and there are a very few experiences. Hence all of them are special. But the favourite would be the night when my ex-roomie came from afar with a cake to celebrate my birthday. I myself had expected no one to even remember, due to busy schedules and distances. I was living alone those days too, and was going through some depressing times. :-)

8)    Given a chance, what will you change about the planet earth?
Ans: I wish there were no fossil fuels and we all learnt to tap resources that would maintain harmony and balance for all.

9)    What do you do when you have absolutely free time?
Ans: I would have tonnes of pending things in my to-do. Crazy things, big plans, ideas, tasks for self-improvement, places to see, people to meet, cook, eat or sleep even. The list is endless..

10) What is it that you don’t like in someone?
Ans: Inability to sympathize and tolerate people with different ideas and beliefs.


And the questions..
1) Do you acknowledge the evil in you? If so, do you find it easy to accept that you can be evil too?
2) What is the book that you read last?
3) What kind of music do you listen to?
4) Would you prefer religion to be formally taught in schools? Give reasons too.
5) Do you ever imagine yourself doing nasty things to random strangers?
6) When was the last time you made someone smile?
7) If the world were to end tomorrow morning, would you wish to hold onto whatever you have or would you be ready to give up everything and surrender?
8) Are you a morning person or an evening person?
9) What is one thing in your TODO list that has remained there for the longest and you are willing to reveal in public?
10) Finally, do you believe the policy of "paying forward"? According to it, you would prefer to give help, support and do things ahead of time without expecting results or anything in return.

Unforunately, I just googled and found out that a blogger cannot nominate others a second time. Alas. I feel bad for the nominee list I had half prepared :'(
Well, the questions are open for the readers. Feel free to answer them :-)

To the nominees I couldn't nominate (which could be any one of you reading this), keep writing all those wonderful things you write and use every chance to shower your appreciation on other writers who motivate and captivate you with words :-)

Adios

Chasing the monsoon - Season 5

Morning 4 AM:- I woke up with bleary eyes, staring at an unfamiliar roof. It took me a while to figure out where I was. I could make out the outline of the apartment we were put up in Pune. I must have slept like a log for at least 3 hours. Not enough, but given the length of journey lying ahead of us, I was quite content.

Day 2 planning started after a couple of hours once the other chasers were woken up from deep slumber.

I was hungry for adventure and the first day's lengthy rides along the green mountainous roads in the rain were just recce as far as I was concerned. We set out targets for the second day:- Lohagad and Lonavala. It took lots of back and forth discussions to get the routes and schedule right. Finally, the plan was made to hit the two spots asap and head onto Mumbai for the night. I was super excited at the prospects of this plan. I haven't been to Mumbai after a very short visit while waiting for our transit flight to Kochi when I was in my sixth grade. The distance and the prospect of the wild chase entering a large crowded city was challenging, but I trusted my mates who knew Mumbai well. We were off soon, powered by the wonderful Poha, Misal pava and Idly.

Around 60kms from Pune, Lohagad has been in my sights for more than a year now. I had fallen in love with the fort just by visual appeal.

A random album in facebook, narrative by a friend, and follow up research, all that ran through my mind as we made our way through the inviting Mumbai-Pune highway gunning our engines in high spirits.

 

The regular route to Lohagad involved a decent trek. The trek promised to be mesmerizing in the monsoon, and we were already proven monsoon chasers. The image of the lush green routes dripping with fresh rainwater was too exciting to ignore. But we had a practical problem to solve. Lohagad lay right in the path to Lonavala and if we chose to trek the Lohagad, all our plans would get delayed. The distance to Lonavala and Mumbai would never get covered if we were to walk up the Lohagad. So I reluctantly agreed to the plan to 'ride through' Lohagad and move onto Lonavala. At least that is what we could come up, using Google Maps for guidance.

The route to Lohagad takes a deviation from the highway at a point and goes through Kachcha roads and villages. In spite of being an extended weekend, there didn't seem to be much of a crowd. Only children walking along the road going to school or village women carrying pots of water on their heads were visible throughout the route. We were just beginning to wonder why we were the only people on vehicles, when we almost fell into the first ditch. Technically a pothole, but practically it was a well.

We had ourselves deep in dirt when the first pothole led to many more of varying sizes and complexities. Large ditches of mud and puddles meant we crawled through slowly, trying not to fall and make a scene in front of the pretty girls walking in large groups, around and through the same puddles. Keeping our minds firmly on the road and grips on the handles, we moved slowly to the tiny waterfall on the way. I was riding the unicorn rented from a friend of Sumeet, one of the three chasers. Keeping it in control was no small matter. After the trip, I would observe significant muscle development in the region of my right forearm, all thanks to the wonderful accelerator of this unicorn.

Anyway, no sooner had we taken a few customary clicks at the crowded waterfall, the heavens opened up and the crowd of youngsters vanished under rain coats and umbrellas. I felt very jealous. While they laughed and walked up the scenic rocky routes under their raincoats,

we had an almost impossible task to ride the slick FZ and the monstrously unyielding Unicorn up the 60 degree slope that was fast turning into a river of mud through slippery rocks the size of  footballs. We stopped at a small shop to ask some locals if we could ride the bikes all the way to the top and continue to Lonavala. The local fellows in the shop made a mockery of us and asked us to take an auto. Hearing that, all our frustration turned to pure determination and we rode ahead with renewed vigour and confidence, with only the cold rain leaving no spot warm on us.

And so started the long and precarious ride. I had never in my life attempted such adventures with bikes, and never so far away with someone else's bikes. The unicorn's accelerator too didn't help in making it any easier to traverse the boulders and maneuver on the slippery mud. We made slow progress and to the amazement of the small groups of trekkers, we managed to climb most of the hill without much incidents, apart from a few times when we had to push the bikes up to avoid slipping all the way down. Then we came to this..

My heart sank on seeing it. But there was no turning back. I could in no way rely on my physical strength to push the heavy unicorn up this one. We both gave it our best to climb up the almost 75 degree mess. There were no foot holds, no even surface. Only deep sticky mud with lots of loose rocks. Even after many attempts, we found ourselves close to the foot of this small hill, bikes already covered in thick layers of mud and hot fumes emanating from the engines. Fortunately for me, a local boy came along and offered to help. He took over my bike and I resorted to supporting him by guiding and pushing from the back. Aswin did the same to the lighter FZ while Sumeet was on the saddle. Slowly, painfully, we pushed both the bikes up the 50m slope. Puffing, panting and covered in mud, we were close to exhaustion. But relieved off the mortal danger we were in, we thanked the boy and paid him Rs 100.

The road began there and all the tension and pressure of the dangerous climb were soon forgotten as we rode freely through the heavy rains, surprising many a gang of trekkers who would have been basking in the glory of having climbed that hellish path. Yes, we did the ultimate. We rode on heavy bikes through that difficult-to-climb path. Our euphoria and excitement was back. I could imagine myself as the heavy cavalry of Hannibal that traversed the impossible Alps to launch a surprise attack at the Romans. Soon we had our fort in sights, and were more than ready to unleash ourselves on it.

The trek up the steps of the Lohagad was refreshing after two days on the bike saddle. I could feel the fresh oxygen energize every cell of my body as my mind was seduced by the naked beauty of nature that was draped in the thin veils of fog that hung almost everywhere. Strategically crafted pathways, bastions, towers, large gates, all covered in slippery green moss gave an eerie feeling to the entire place.

Only the thick white fog that hung everywhere and the water that flowed down the steps reminded one that the fort was no longer operational. But standing at an isolated tower, I got goosebumps imagining being under the watchful eyes of hundreds of carefully positioned guards of Sivaji.




Needless to say, I was in love with the fort in its wintery, foggy, wet outfit. But I also wanted to love its green version and marked in my heart to revisit the fort in another season. As usual, I had to be dragged out of the fort by my mates. That was a fort we fought hard to conquer! I had to say goodbye with a heavy heart..

Soon, we were on our way to Lonavala. There wasn't much of interest there. Tiger's leap was the only point that was recommended. But the heavy rains and thick fog which had begun rolling all over the region made it inaccessible to us. We had a long way ahead and decided to skip most of the places,and apart from a beautiful waterfall we stumbled upon by the road side, we mostly focussed on riding to Aamchi Mumbai..

some costly snacks

The roads were perfect, the scenery mesmerizing and the rain kept constant companion. As I was wondering how Maharashtra manages to provide such good roads everywhere, we hit an even wider road with mind blowing quality of lanes and it smelled of international quality. I was taken aback and we riders exchanged amused glances while maintaining the bikes at top speed.

It was not until we noticed the angry stares and constant honking of trucks and cars that we stopped to think. Then it stuck us.

We were in the Mumbai-Pune expressway. Wow!!! Jackpot!! Wait.. what did that board read? "Two-Wheelers Prohibited." Shit. We realized that if caught, it would not just be a matter of paying up. Three mud covered, unkempt youngsters claiming to be engineers from Bangalore riding a rented bike from Pune with almost no papers and a Karnataka registered bike in someone else's name, speeding at 100kmph in the heavy rains on the expressway on Aug 16th would need a lot of explaining.

the illegitimate ones..

 
That was exactly when the police jeep we saw earlier came round the corner, and I thought I could see the wicked smile on the officer's face. We were screwed..

To be Continued..