The First Anniversary

Its one year.

I would love to say that, time flew. On this occasion, i would like to dedicate few things which kept me motivated to write about certain adventures which i experienced and to my friends who commented on my writings.

Yesterday, i happened to meet my friend Saagar's mother. Somewhere during our conversation, this blog thing came up. When i showed her my blog, i realised, my first writing was posted on 12th of Jan, one year back.



Origins:

Till Early Jan 2007

This blog was as a result of impulsive talks and hearings that i used to have along with my few friends. I knew i had something to say, not necessarily the best thing, but i had something. I got lot of things to hear about their experience and adventures.

My bro Anil, had flew from States for a quick vacation. We have conversations on gamut topics and suddenly one day, he told me a story about a person and him writing about what he feels.

I told him, 'i do that'.

In public, on the net? , he asked.

'Here's the point, its good to express things on a wider scale. Somewhere in the future, it will be a very good indicator about one;s journey in this life and things experienced.

I was writing in a diary, few days later decided to start writing on the net.

I was worried about the content and the audience i am catering to.

Well, this is not a commercial medium, atleast for time being. This medium should serve as a catalyst to express things according to my perspective.



The Metamorphosis:

Slowly, i liked sharing my adventures, my challenges, my shortcomings and how i overcame.

I do claim, it is semi-autobiographical, inspiration from my fictional heroes, and not to forget the people whom i have met so far were the main elements on this blog.

Well, special thanks to my mates who took some time off and happen to read this blog.

I feel in the end, this blog is an interpretation of life from my eyes and other sense organs. Liberties were taken, and all i achieved was to satisfy certain things within me.

Tough thing is to satisfy oneself, i did realise this.

I have changed, during this course of my blogging. And will continue to.

Change for good? C'mon give me a break, afterall, life's just an adventure and as long as the self conscious is in feel good terms, does it matter defining what good or bad is?

Till next time,

The Fear Factor!!!

Last week, mundanity returned as I started my journey (I love to call this 2km walk early morning as journey) after a long hiatus. My scheduled journey was interrupted by my travel visits to Goa, Kolkata and Chennai thrice. The wanderlust bug always coincided with my morning walks.

The weather is getting chill, as we approach the mid winter, but still that doesn’t hinder me to get out of my house at around 3 50 early mornings.
Usually, I take the main roads but the shortest route to my stop involves a narrow lane.

I have heard stories in various parts of Bangalore about dog menace. Since I love this shift timing when compared to ‘general shift’, I don’t mind waking up early.

There are reasons which motivate me to get up early. First thing would be, ‘I am a loser if I do not get up, Let what people thing about me being zany, but to me, I would be one loser and ultimately, if I don’t live up to my expectations, does it matter satisfying others in the long run?

I like taking weird routes at times, early mornings provide me an opportunity to walk in dead silence. Since, my house is on the main road, silence is premium which we hardly get. So it’s a good thing to walk through the mist, albeit cool breeze can sometimes be too tough to handle. Nevertheless, we are humans and we have evolved and adapted to various conditions, so more exposure, we shall be alright.

I prefer talking during the next few minutes about how I want my life to go. It makes sense to me to hear what I say since no one around me is making noise. If I am bugging myself, I simply count the steps I take and I ensure over the week, I would have reached a constant number while counting. This is just to ensure how concentrated I am for a particular task when gamut topics and issues are competing to finish ahead in the brain marathon.

I am awake when the whole world is sleeping, % wise, I am correct with this statement. I am walking when others are tired or just about enjoying their sleep. I am getting a chance to utilize this morning to make suitable changes in my life and be better at things which I believed was good previously. I am getting a chance to utilize these early hours to my advantage and finish things which in turn makes me feel as though I have gained time on others.

Ok, enough of me being explicit on why I like early mornings.

The fear element is there, at times, in the past I have chosen different roads to reach since the road ahead were patrolled by dogs occasionally.

I fiddled around four different ways before settling on to the least risk path. Mind you, I was scared one day when group of dogs were just barking as though they haven’t opened their mouth in a long time.

It reached a point wherein the least risk path was also getting affected. Now I loved this road and route. So one day I decided, ‘Its karma’, if I am suppose to be bitten by a dog, I cannot avoid. Slowly I started walking past them, goose bumps all over my body as I went passed them.

Woof, what a relief. The other side of fear is freedom.

Last week, a ferocious dog, just one, was barking and staring at me simultaneously. It was scary. Two seconds, I decided to walk straight without bothering what it might do.

It started barking more, but I was marching ahead without looking at it.

Barking intensity increased but I could notice, it was moving backwards and barking.

Now, I was looking at the dog and approaching it, it was moving backwards and barking. It stopped finally and ran away, stopped and as I went past it, it didn’t do anything.

Am I lucky??? You can club me into that category.

But I would like to look at it this way.

The rest of my walk was more on thinking as to why dog behaved this way.

‘Fear was – Being bitten by the dog.’

Last year, fear was, climbing Mount Abu but I overcame it by facing that fear of losing than avoiding it.

To be frank, I faced fear and started walking towards it. Now all I can think of is,

Exposing to the unknown. I always felt, I feared when I encountered a new situation and fear element was as a result of many uncertainties involved pertaining to what if this new thing goes wrong.

Now, same applied to the dog, when dog barks, normal reaction would be to back off and go backwards or runaway fearing dog bites. Now, this is what a dog expects.

I did completely opposite and to my surprise, I saw dog moving backwards and eventually ceased its ferocity as I kept marching. It was exposed to a zone of uncertainty and hence fear element would creep, so it was confused as to what needs to be done, and by the time it decides, I was through……….

So, in a way, this did give me to understand what ‘Walking towards fear rather than away’ actually meant.

It’s a nice story isn’t it? The one in which I emerged victorious. Things could have been different if dog would have behaved badly or I encountering a mad dog.

But, I always feel, as a student of life, one needs to look at it in all respects, so this time I was convinced ‘You can walk towards your fears and emerge triumphant’. Next time, it may or it may not. But I am happy that I did something different than last time and it worked.

I got reminded of a quote from Anne Frank:
“The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature.”

Well, this was just an experience I wanted to share as to how I experimented with my life when same situation encountered. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.

Ok, my journey to work is about 90 minutes which is enough for me to catch up on sleep to and fro which makes me sleep at the same time others or in general majority of people choose to sleep.

So what can happen to me tomorrow????

Let’s put it this way….. I am not afraid of tomorrow, for I have seen yesterday and I love today and never been in such deep love.

It will take some time to pull off those lines in full conviction, but effort has to be made and what better day than today and the best time would be now……….

Om Shanti Om

Fortnight ago one Sunday, I watched OSO (Om Shanti Om). To be frank, quite a mundane movie. The good part was the '31 Stars' video and Deepika Padukone. Overall, it was a time pass movie. I dont want to criticise this movie because it is a super hit (that's what public says).
Well, Farah Khan does know what it takes to make a hit movie. People with no expectations would have appreciated this movie much better. Overall, a slight improvement over her previous movie, Main Hoon Naa. I guess, some people just know what clicks in this ever vacillating film business.

The highlight of the movie: People who have watched tend to agree with. In a parody of Filmfare Awards, there is a nomination of Best Actor category. Akshay Kumar gets his nomination in the movie 'Return of the Khiladi'. The rushes shown were just too brilliant. Watch this video

Now Watch this : This one's my favourite

The Above video is from the 2003 Swedish Movie 'Kopps'. Well, OSO was not just about Indian cinemas of yesteryears relived, but a touch of international as well.

Life is a bar of chocolate.............

I am back, after a while, where in I had planned many times to fill this up. Most of the times, situations made me to be in a position of lurking at things.

The question is what made me to write after a long time??

First thing, I didn’t want my blog to sere up without any new additions, secondly, I really enjoy writing my adventures or in simple terms, I just love writing what I feel like.

Finally, this happens to be the reason for this particular blog post.

18 years back, we all know Sachin made his debut. But this isn’t about it. Somewhere in Bangalore, I was a school going student and that time I was in class one.

I used to commute via rickshaw which was hired just to pick and drop me to school and home. I used to be agog to play my peevish or say pettish tricks which did make some of my fellow mates and teachers (not everyone though) go mad. Chocolates, I love them. I never forced anyone to have chocolates and always fought with my sister to have her share also.
I am the happiest guy, when I see chocolates and people not liking them. How can someone hate chocolates?
The answer is simple, ‘How can you hate having curds?’ Many people ask me this. I can understand, but curds and chocolates cannot be compared. But who cares, if people don’t like chocolates.

REWIND:
One day while I was getting ready to go to school (1989), I saw an advert of Campco bar chocolate in the newspaper. I wanted this badly. My dad didn’t concur with my incessant pleading. I even threatened not going to school, if I didn’t get my Campco.
Finally, my dad agreed and he promised me he will get one in the evening. I refused and forced him to get this choco bar at that moment.

By this time, the pick up auto had come. I had to go to School. I refused to get inside the auto. After a while, my dad gave in. I asked my dad to come along with me to school. On our way to school, I knew a shop that used to sell these Campco bars. So my dad was forced to come along with me in the auto. He was leaving to work and many times, he used to take the same route to catch his bus to work. He came along with me with his suitcase which had many of his files in it.

I was so happy. I could just imagine how well, the bar would be melting inside my mouth. I felt like a mollycoddle.
Just before the shop, there is a crossroad, wherein my dad usually used to take right and I was supposed to go straight on the same road to school. I was surprised when he asked the auto guy to stop at the crossroad.

I asked, ‘The shop is not here, why stopping?’

My dad got down and instructed the auto driver to go to school. That’s it.

I was shattered and I kept shouting my dad’s name. By the way, I call him ‘Anna’. I kept shouting ‘Anna, Anna………’

Tears…….. I was furious and I just couldn’t stop myself crying and shouting for what happened. The auto was heading towards the school and I was shouting for not having got my chocolate bar. I did complain my mom about this incident. My dad, the usual way, just started laughing about it.
To be frank, I don’t remember, whether I got my choco bar. My instinct says I did get it after few days. Now, no matter what, I can never forgive my dad for what he did. I just can't get over this, even though its a silly matter.

I never raise this ‘so-called’ kinder- heart breaking issue with him, but this incident happens to be my recurring dream. It keeps coming back to me.
I have cried when I was alone many times when I just think about this incident.

Now, last Sunday, I had kept my chocolates safely in the freezer. My sister’s share along with mine was both kept. Later, when I returned, I saw, there wasn’t to be any more left. I was furious and asked my sister about this. She pointed out, ‘dad had your share’.
Now, I just told ‘Dad, why you have to do all these things, I still get reminded of what you did to me when I was a kid?’
Although, my dad and sis didn’t have much clue as to which incident I was mentioning. I was upset. With a smile, I went back to my room and that’s it.

One thing, its silly, but many things do stay like this and when I look back, my dad has given me many things I have asked him for, then why I need to be unhappy about what happened when I was a kid.

Last year, I had promised my niece, I would be getting her fruit cake that night so that she could carry them to school the next day. I failed to live up to my promise, and I did call up my sister to say I am sorry, I just didn’t get any. She said ‘It seems you had promised her’.
I had to leave early next morning to work. Just when I was about to leave, I got reminded of the above incident and how bad I felt for not getting what I was promised.

My niece won’t understand why I didn’t get it. She might forget this after some time. But, I didn’t want to take chances and I didn’t want to give an inch so that she feels bad for not getting her fruit cake.
Instead of catching the cab, I waited for one and half hours so that, the confectionary guy opened his store and after some time, I took a parcel of fruit cake.
I went to my niece’s place. She was taking bath. I just kept it on the table.

My sis asked, ‘Why you had to do all these things, you should have gone to work, she is young and she will forget it within a day’.
I just replied, ‘I just know how it feels, especially when young, when you don’t get after a promise was made’.
I left. I was a relieved man. That evening, I was playing with my niece, ‘Thank you Mamu for the cake’, she remarked.

A smile on her face and it was very satisfying for me.

My Favourite Chocolate quote : "Life is a box of chocolates, you never know which one you get". In my case, i just know, when i missed it.

The Stick Game!!! Chak De

I am writing this as a fond memory of a person who was instrumental in me picking up a game which I wasn’t aware at that time (1991-92), although it was short lived.

Meet, Dr. KrishnaSwamy, a highly respected doctor, who was revered for his skills as a doctor in Chintamani, Kolar district. He retired and spent later part of his life with each of his son’s place. (3 to 6 months on a shift basis).

To me, he was known as a person whom I heard my cousins calling him ‘Doctor Thatha (Dr. Grandpa)’. This was how I knew him when I was barely 3 years old. Since, I do not remember much time spending with him till I reached 7 years; I am unable to recall any sort of interaction with him prior to this.

It was 1991 and towards the end of the year, I vividly remember, he was staying at our place. By this time, I was famous or say infamous at times for my antics both at home and everywhere my parents took me along. Dennis the Menace, my nickname and co-incidentally Dennis is also the name of one of my sporting idols (Dennis Bergkemp from Netherlands).

Flash Back 1991-92:
Early morning, I used to wake up. My grandpa would be chatting with my mom. He used to be a helping hand to my mom, making her task a bit easy by cutting the vegetables and catering other needs. He just loved doing all such things especially pertaining to kitchen stuff.
I fondly remember, one day, unwittingly I asked him; ‘I am 7 years, how old are you?’
I didn’t get an answer, he just replied, I am too old. I didn’t question him further.

He wasn’t the urbane sort of doctors I had seen previously. Doctors to me were the people who were associated with syringes, vitriolic tablets; which my mom used to crush and dissolve it in hot water for appeasing me whenever I refused to swallow a tablet.

I never believed the fact that he was a doctor. He never dressed up like one and never had a clinic. Although, I did see him go to our neighbour’s house now and then and do a routine check up, mainly through words and at times by prescribing few medicines.

He was bald, had a charming face, and used to smile very often. Never, I saw him get depressed either with his age related problems or any other issues. He was vivacious and that helped me because I never liked people who were idle and morose. I wanted everyone to play alongside me or at least allow me to play my pranks.

555 was his brand which I wasn’t aware till I caught him once in the restroom and asked him, what’s this smoke doing here and why it is smelling bad and vitiating our restroom ???
He was embarrassed and later my dad told me, it’s same as what your uncles do. That was it, I mean, it was an explanation for what we call ‘smoking’ and somehow I wasn’t curious ever after in my life to find out what exactly it was or how it tasted.

One thing I was fascinated about my grandpa was the way he used to feed me right after I returned from school. He used to make a glass of hot milk for me, it had boost in it. I used to love boost because it was associated with cricketers. I am not sure, whether Sachin used to endorse it in 1991, but I am sure after 1992 World Cup, Kapil Dev and Sachin did endorse the brand.

Later, I had a penchant to the taste of Bournvita powder compared to boost; hence I stopped drinking boost, instead started eating lots of Bournvita powder for which my teeth used to be coated with brown powder and my mom and dad used to blast me.
Till the age of 15, I was addicted to eat Bournvita powder.

My grandpa hated me for one reason. I used to run away with his walking stick whenever he wasn’t using. Be it while he was at our neighbour’s place or at our place, he was always being vexed by me and especially when I used to snatch his walking stick in front of him.

He used to shout and I knew, it was momentarily, because he wasn’t vindictive in his approach, not even complaining to my parents. But whenever I did this in front of my parents, my mom used to give me a glare but my dad never said anything.

Now what was in this stick that made me go crazy over it? I was a fervent follower of sports, mainly cricket and tennis at that time.
I had my cricket bat but I used to use this stick to imitate an innings of a cricketer when he had scored big runs, replicating shot by shot, giving commentary to myself, (it had similar words those used by the commentators) and used to enjoy vicariously what a cricketer went through.

Sometime, after 1992 Cricket World Cup, I read a funny name in one of the sports columns of Deccan Herald. In local language his last name sounded funny. ‘Pillay’ and I used to call many people as Chota Pillay (small dwarf). I was 8 years and look at me; I used to call my peers by this name.

He played a game, what I called as ‘stick game’. And believe it or not, the hockey stick resembled my grandpa’s walking stick.

After a yearning Cricket World Cup for the Indian team and us having to watch others play, Olympics was something which everyone were looking for. I was sad not to see India in the 1992 World Cup finals, but cricket was my priority and religion, so it didn’t matter at all.

After getting impressed with the game of hockey, I used his stick to play hockey in our house compound. Using tennis ball, I used to dribble and scored goals with wall being the goal post.

I never played this sport outside our compound because, only I had the stick and not even a single friend had a grandpa who used walking sticks. Quite healthy those grandpas I must admit. Mind you, it wasn’t easy at that time to buy a hockey stick because; we had just bought a cricket kit and my parents and my friend’s parents didn’t agree when we asked for a hockey stick.

So hockey happened to be a solo sport for me.
But, crazy that I was, few months later when we bought cricket wickets, we used that to play hockey.

My grandpa’s hockey stick, I mean, walking stick served my so called ‘an insane’ ambition of playing hockey.

This routine of stealing his stick continued for months.

Oct, 1992. A grand party was arranged at our terrace. All possible cousins and relatives gathered on this occasion. The occasion was: ‘Grandpa’s birthday’.
On top of the chocolate cake, these words were creamed –‘Grand Dad 82’. The party was organized by my father and my paternal uncles.
“My grandpa is 82 years”, wondered I.

Instant ramification of the party was to see my grandpa being shifted to one of my uncle’s house. Although, it was very close to our house, I could sense a void of him not being there. Of course, it wasn’t just for the stick, but I really missed him.

Four months later, in Feb, 1993, he passed away at our uncle’s place while my mom was feeding him with a glass of water. He was diabetic and hence the heart attack he suffered didn’t come to our notice. I was at home sleeping when he departed.
Next day, it was just hard to believe that he was no more. I had seen people die in the movies, but, to me, this was the first time I ever had to witness the lamenting situation.
Being a grandson, I was made to do some rituals, just like my other cousins performed.

The stick was burnt along with his body and except for few photos and memories; there aren’t any vestiges of him left with me.

Some years back, I did find few letters which he had written to my mom while he was at our uncle’s place. He used to mention my mom as ‘DIL’ (Daughter-in-law) in short, while he wrote his daily routine and other things.

I haven’t seen the movie, ‘Chak De India’ till date. I haven’t seen full promos of the movie till date. All I have heard is, it resembles the life story of Mir Ranjan Negi, former Indian hockey player, it’s a good movie and Preethi Sabarwhal played by Segarika Ghatge is hot.

But the whole notion of the movie being based on our national game brought back those days when I used to snatch the walking stick from my grandpa.

In hindsight, I feel, I would have enjoyed a lot more talking many things about life with him if he were to be around today.
Rather than cribbing about him not being there, I was at least destined to have met him even if it was for a short time.

I never played hockey from past 13-14 years, because it never suited my fellow mates, also, we enjoyed cricket, soccer, tennis and baseball more than hockey.

I hope the trend changes and soon we see hockey reach the heights once again and add more Olympic gold medals with 8 already being won (World record – 6 in a row from 1928 Amsterdam to 1956 Melbourne). The last one was at Moscow in 1980.

This is to my grandpa and his wonderful walking stick. Hope grandpa’s walking sticks can do wonders to reignite the passion of hockey which is at its nadir at the moment.

Love Story - My Way

There are events which are not certain. When that uncertainty surfaces on our life, things shall not be the same. For a moment, many things we encounter tend to obfuscate us.
Past experiences will help at times to see through the situation or else we need to experience it for the first time.
Many things will be fresh and it is what one learns out of it and uses it effectively next time around, the individuals stand out.
The situation will precipice on the mind. One such situation is to decide about parting ways.

It is really confounding to take a decision when to part and more importantly whom to part with. Being humans, we are controlled by several motives. Ultimately it boils down to personal ethics and personal benefits. Benefits can come through ethics but it is subjective.

To me, truth is much bigger than what we see, hear or experience. What we get is just part of it.

I recently read “Love Story” by Eric Segal. For me the novel’s quote inspired me to read this book.

The word ‘Preppie’ used by the lover girl to call her lover boy gives me Goosebumps.

I hear things must be done this way, that way. Similarly I have heard many times as to how a relationship must work. At times, one shall get good advice but to generalize all situations to one is highly preposterous.

Like I said, we tend to generalize with what we call as reality and this reality is relative and can rise to many opinions which all might sound logical but it might not be the right key.

The book shows the narrator and hero Oliver IV being obnoxious when it came to his dad (Oliver III) and his behavior. It just showcased an over wrought individual having walked under the glory of his father all through his life.

Never really a sincere effort was made to reconcile his differences with his dad.

A girl named Jennifer came into Oliver’s life. He was rich and she was poor.

He claimed that she wasn’t that great looking and she just replied “I know. But can I help it if you think so?”

It was more than just physical attraction. Complete opposites but still they didn’t require some sort of occult to make them get attracted and fall in love.

The next question after love sows its seeds in their hearts. She wasn’t really sure whether the relationship would work because of her background.

He was serious and he did leave his parents for her.
This is how the story proceeds further. I don’t want it to be continued here.

Rather I would appreciate the quote which made me read this book.

“Love means never having to say you’re sorry”.

For most things I would agree with this because love can come only when we accept each other the way we are. At times, things won’t be perfect and we tend to be prone to errors. Hence, if sorry could reverse the aftermath of a decision then the ‘sorry’ word will be equivalent to a dose of panacea.

But since yesterday, I started to wonder the other side of this quote.
I was made to think
“Hey, what do I mean love means never having to say your sorry?"

“Love means being able to say your sorry when you have hurt the person you love so much... and being able to forgive.....”

We are emotionally fixed to certain limits. Hence the word sorry can soothe the disturbed souls.

To me, the above two quotes summed up the pristinely words ‘love and relationship’. In a way, both are different sides of a same coin.

Also, love need not be the only thing which can bind two people. There are many factors associated with it. Just like a dish is made up of many ingredients which contribute to its good taste, similarly a good relationship is not based only on love.

To me, Only Love is not enough.

Regarding the sorry thingies, apology comes and even the concerned is forgiven. It was love which made one apologize and it was the same reciprocation of love the one was forgiven.

I don’t know whether this line holds good- We meet to part and part to meet. Maybe our paths meet some day.

And who said the feelings for the special one you love is perpetual?

It can; but to me,

“It takes someone very special to help you forget someone very special.”

Till we discover that very special it will be a little tough to forget someone very special.

“Thanks Ollie” was her last words.

She wasn’t to be a part of his life for a long time but she did play a role in binding the uncouth differences a son had of his father. At least they ended up being together.

Life isn’t that cruel after all. From what I have learnt, each one has to fight his/her own battles.

To end

He will be asking these questions for some time:

"What can you say about a twenty three old girl who died and wasn’t part of me? That she was beautiful and brilliant? That she loved music, candles, books, power, public affection and me???"

MEET GANDHI- THE FATHER OF OUR NATION

Its Independence Day, 60 years, calls in for a celebration. I felt, looking at the media, our commercial ventures made the Independence Day lose its tactile sensitivity. It is great to see many different ads coming out; I feel, its India as a country have our own tenet when it comes to celebrating any occasion.

Today morning, a friend of mine was writing an article on India and she seemed to be very passionate about it. She wanted to underscore the fact, the beauty of India and I am sure it will be a good reading. I felt, “Chalo, even I shall share few of my adventures associated with Indian Independence with the same verve as she is”.

Last year, some time in July, I selected few places of my own volition. First stop was Ahemadabad. There was a reason to meet one of my good friends, Rachita, who was working out there. Well, first signs of her stay at Gujarat weren’t encouraging. She was accompanied by her mother, but they both didn’t seem to enjoy the visage of that particular environment. In a way, it is tough on us to be leaving our comfort zone (home) to some other place. I guess, at times one shall be wallowed with circumstances when there aren’t many choices given.

I reached the place and first thing I did was to book a hotel room for myself. The weather was not dry and was cloudy. It was that time of the season where monsoon was expected any moment. I never set my heart on myself while traveling, I keep reminding that I have got too much wanderlust at times and hence I allow my mind to control most of the situations. I did meet Rachita and her mom. In a way, they were happy to see me being there when there aren’t familiar faces around. They were staying at company’s guest house until she found herself a house to stay.

THE DRAWING ROOM OF THE GUEST HOUSE

First day was spent in me spending most of my time with them. Rachita wasn’t feeling well for some days. I and her mom went out in search of a house. We did meet quite a few agents and lots of houses. We weren’t quite happy with what we saw. In a way getting a house which aunt and Rachita wanted seemed very tenuous, but never did they or even I lose any hope.

On my way back, next to my hotel, there was a theater. I am fond of movies and I just went in to watch “Omkara”. I paid 20 bucks for this and got a good deal with the seating as well. I did realize the entertainment taxes out here in Bangalore were too much. I guess that goes the same ways with any inter state movies.

Day 2: Wanted to visit places. I was sure this place was close. Took the rickshaw and out I went.

Sabramati Ashram it was………

To be frank, I was always fascinated with the way, Gandhi worked out his ways. Be it, via Ben Kingseley in the movie ‘Gandhi’ or his experiments with truth, he some how epitomized a man who is not just known for his tonsure.

Previously, I knew Gandhi only through movies and literature. As I walked into this tract of infinite wisdom, I was astonished to see and hear many facts about his life.

The ambience was refreshing and the first thing I did was to enter the museum, which had many of his writings along with his photographs.

One by one as it flickered, I was in alacrity to know the reason for him being transcendent and set an example of being truculent by imbibing the concept of ahimsa.

Many of the portraits explained the transports of people and Gandhi in particular for a common purpose. Being Independent; free of being held in thrall by the British.

ONE OF THE SET OF PHOTOGRAPHS BEING DISPLAYED AT THE MUSEUM

By looking at the photographs and the events depicted, I was being vicarious with the events.
The vision of Gandhi was clear, to turn the barren administration into a verdant.
His veneer appearance spoke more than his abstinence practices. He had principles and he followed it vehemently. Few would argue or doubt his principles, but, he had a vision and a dream, he sensed to negate the ever growing vex among his fellow countrymen, ahimsa was the way to go. He never veered with his principles even at the time of adversity. It spoke volumes of a man, who stood by what he thought was veracious.

It was time, to give back the voyeur British Government to stop impaling Indians (as we proudly say it) with their illogical, adamant and more importantly egoistic practices at times.

Like, we say, British did a lot of things which were responsible for the uproar. Spreading English education by Sir William Bentick and encouraging Indians to take part in civil services were precedent for self awakening for souls.

It was at times, the vitriolic and virulent attitude of certain officers made us realize, it was high time we needed our land to be ruled by our leaders, not aliens.

I don’t want to go back into history, but would like to share the vignette I have or rather I saw out there at ashram.

It was his sheer dedication and determination that saw British wane out eventually.

Well, Gandhi didn’t become a leader, he was made to lead. Not only he led because people had faith in him, he had faith in himself and his abilities to take on the unbridled opposition.

However, there were people who were in opposition to what he believed in. But, instead of blaming each other, we must acknowledge the best of all the worlds, because, everyone had a common goal.

A nation boasting people who are religious, moral, unsavory, fearless, timorous etc

There are possibilities of conflicts of principles and interests. But in this case, it was only principles because the interest was same. All had a common interest.

At last, the Gandhian principles prevailed and he turned out to be the main catalyst for our freedom. So he was our Father of the Nation. If Bose would have survived and got us the freedom through his principles, he would have been bestowed with the above title.

Ultimately, it is all about being survival of the fittest, Gandhi just proved, he need not be physically fit, his taut principles and the tensile strength of it were indeed very fit.

Even now, his idealisms, doesn’t seem to be uncouth, it’s just that we need courage to follow it. One has to be tendentious and then follow it up. Gandhi’s idealisms were accepted at that time, because, we were short of ideas and we just accepted it because it worked for us. So in theory, situation is very different now. We need to use these idealisms to fight within rather than people.

Also, people wanted and waited to hear at that time, and it isn’t same, although people want to hear, but, do they have time to wait?

And by the time, I reached the end of portrait section, I did realize, being independent doesn’t mean staying away or not being dependent on others, Independent means, unclogging our self with the ailments we carry through out the day. So freedom in actual sense means to free our self from the prison of our thoughts which inhibits our movements. This could bring a degree of tempestuous situations at times within us, but it is better to tarry decisions than to end up being tawdry.

Sometimes, we need to carry the necessary unguent to the sore mental muscles. That comes with wisdom. Gandhi, in his veracity expressed the need to read literature and to be aware of the world that takes us a step closer to being independent.

If, independent means to be not being dependent, then wisdom helps us to be aware of situations and hence less dependent on others. Serve the food you like, buffet is ready.

But, it is better to enjoy the best of all worlds at our disposal than criticize being drawn to comparison. Although, if comparison is what that brings in the money for others, let it be at professional life than taking it to our personal lives.

Towards the end of the portrait section, a portrait of his funeral is displayed. Nearly three lakh people gathered on that day.

THE NEWSPAPERS ALL OVER THE WORLD COVERING GANDHI'S DEATH

THE DEATH BED

THE FINAL RITES

He wore the robe of verisimilitude. His deeds are indeed highly venerable from all places across the world.

After a while, I visited his home, Hriday Kunj. A familiar sight of a Gandhian sat there. I asked him about the history of this place, he explained in a detailed manner. He did mix his Hindi with Gujarati; I was being unimpeachable and didn’t show any signs of not understanding when he spoke in Gujarati. But I could sense, what it meant.

HRIDAY KUNJ

I entered the place, it was refreshing. One could forget all the venial thoughts. Except for his room, all other rooms were accessible. Although, one could get a glance of how his room looked like.

THE MAIN DOOR OF THE HOUSE

KASTURBA GANDHI'S ROOM ENTRANCE

GANDHI"S ROOM ENTRANCE

THE PLACE WHERE GANDHI SPENT MOST OF HIS TIME- HIS ROOM- PHOTO TAKEN FROM LITTLE OPENING

And after this, I could see the sad sight of River Sabramati. It was polluted and dry. Thankfully, Government is restoring the river through one of its projects.

Forecast was rain showers on that day, but even the weather gods couldn’t vitiate my visit to this ashram.

At the end of the day, I could summarize his principles in this way. V for Verity and not Vendetta.

In a way, whenever I behave in a waggish manner, never I realized what went before me. Did people of my age at that time enjoyed similar privileges?

The point is its not comparing our lives with that of our ancestors. It is all about learning and being progressive. Like we progressed from monkeys to humans, our thoughts must progress. It is all about creating better positions for the coming generations rather than concentrating on trifling issues.

I know our tyranny might not help us in progressing. But doesn’t the situation arise once again what our ancestors faced.

It is true, history repeats. And it is also true, one must learn from our history.

Sometimes we do dream to have many things. It is all about transmuting our dreams into actualities. The challenges faced in realizing our dreams are what we call the driving forces of Life. One could be a hero like Gandhi, Bose etc bowled by their talisman qualities.

The way our mind progresses, the problems would have reached another level as well. As proportionately, we are all in the same league as our ancestors were.

In a way, it is tantamount with the lives we live with the ways our forefathers lived. I know it has changed a lot. But, change is the only constant thing in this world.

It is not just to remember them on particular days being allotted as National Holidays.

The way they thought about us being in good positions, it would be better if we do the same by thinking of our country’s future. Oh yes, there would be a Gandhi, Bose coming out again. It is likely to be a combination of many qualities than those reminiscent of Gandhi alone or in particular any other person alone.

I managed to catch the rickshaw and headed towards the hotel. I indeed realized every idea works as long as it works and continues to work if it had worked.