Life Lessons- 1

Since my last post, things have changed a lot. Things within and things outside in the world around me. We are currently living in an unprecedented time where getting out of the house puts you at risk and staying indoor is getting more and more stressful with every passing day.
If most of us are talking about the importance of staying healthy and some of us are also aware that it extends to mental health.

I don't claim to be a qualified counselor or therapist but just like anyone else, life has taught me many lessons that may help you. My biggest lesson is- "there is no better teacher than life and better lessons than your experiences". So, here is the first of many ( hopefully),

Lesson - how to focus when there is an unbearable noise in your mind which is making you anxious and edgy.

Step 1: Observe
Observe the noise around you. It helps you take the focus off the noise inside. Observe the chatter in the background or the humming noise of the coffee machine, printer, tube lights, clicks of the mouse around you. If you are at home, observe the sound of fan, A.C, microwave, TV (put on a random channel). Just observe these sounds one by one, one after the other, and try to be aware every time there is a new sound. Open your ears to every sound that is around you

Step 2: Find a rhythm
You will soon realize that there is a pattern in randomness. Like the way mouse clicks at regular intervals or the way people speak in a defined tone, follow that rhythm and sync yourself to this. 

Step 3: Sync 
As you sync yourself to the rhythm, you will find that the noise in your head is not so close now. This is the time to observe your work and observe the small movements that you make in order to complete that work. In between, whenever you think about it, take deep breaths and try to smile. Slowly, the work will become your focal point and all the noise around you will go back to the background but would appear like a systematic orchestrated sound.

When you realize that you have found your focus on work, smile and congratulate yourself. You did it! Every time that you lose focus, try these steps again.

In my next post, I'll speak about Music and its healing properties. Till then have happy working hours and let me know if this helped you.

Faith

In a world where everyone lives, more or less by the guidelines of the religion they follow, I am of those few who do not believe in religion. That does not mean that I am not Hindu, I am. The best part of being a Hindu is that it’s not a religion. It’s actually an age old way of life. For every un-written decree, there’s totally acceptable way out of it. So, its all who you want to be. You get to choose your own good, bad or evil. All you need is a little faith, in the better good.

When I decided to go on Badrinath-Kedarnath yatra, it wasn’t my faith, spirituality or religion that was calling me. I felt a sense of responsibility that being an avid traveler I should go with my parents so that I can be of some help. Yes I knew the travel will be tough, I knew that they would not be able to handle it by themselves and I knew that they would not accept this or accept me as a grown up. I went because I felt I should.

I wasn’t hoping a soulful awakening. I wasn’t expecting anything to be honest. It was one of the few trips when I planned nothing and went as blank as a new slate.

On the way to Haridwar, our first pit stop, it was my shear enthusiasm of seeing the Ganga at the foot steps of Hari. Haridwar- the door to Hari. This is where  Ganga becomes calm. Interesting isn’t it, how we personify a natural element!!

Well she wasn’t calm, she was cold and had enough current to take you off your feet if you don’t hold on to the chains in the ghat. The dip in Ganga makes you feel fresh, when the blood tries to run faster in the veins to warm you up. Haridwar is known for the aarti at Har ki Pauri. For the first timers at Haridwar,  go to the Har ki pauri facing the Ganga temple. Don’t let the crowd sitting all over the ghat intimidate you. Its only next to the temple, where you can see the legendary aarti.

Kedarnath greeted me with a sense of empowering responsibility for people around me. I had taken responsibility to bring back a wife to her husband. Yes, my father stayed back at the foot hill, as he came face to face with his fears. Height, crowd and cold feet. This is what I had been dreading and somehow I was mentally prepared for. I asked my mother, if she wanted to continue. I knew I couldn’t force her against her will and I knew saying that ‘I’ll take care’ was a big responsibility. There was no network and no way I could have let my dad know that we, specially mum was safe and sound for next 24 hours. I don’t know what was going on in my mind, when I was trying to convince my teary mother that it will be fine. I have no idea how I juggled between separating the required woolen in one bag and trying to rent a room for my dad for the night. I was little scared but once you have made a plan you just have to stick to it. Fear has no place once you commit. I wonder if I would have gone ahead with the journey, incase my mum would have decided to stay back too.

The 14 km trek on mare took 4 hrs and let me tell u,- “it hurts”. Halfway through the trek, the scene completely changes once you can see the snow covered Himalayan caps. The enthusiasm of seeing snow for the first time is so infectious that I couldn’t stop smiling every time my mum would shout in a childlike high pitch enthusiasm- “ohh see there…and there and there”

The temple is surrounded by snow caps on three sides. The mornings clear sun makes those mountains appear they are just a hand away. The air is so clear in the morning that it gives a very different 3D perspective from what you remember of night before. And its etched in your brain like something carved on stones. I could not believe that nature could be such an illusionist but there is was like a curtain of the theater changing scenes from a Shakespearean drama.

I have been to many Shiva temples as a child, but what I saw there at Kedarnath was something different. A faith that can make an old fragile woman climb mountains. Everyone is a little achiever following their call. There, seeing pure faith that drives people to achieve something really difficult gave me a reason to believe in will of human being. Its will that drives us, to do and achieve what may seem a huge mountain of a task.

After Kedarnath, Badrinath  was like rediscovering the science behind the religious places. The smell of sulphur in the natural hot springs tells you to open your senses. Join the dots together and understand how religion is the oldest paper written on natural geophysical science.

On our way down, Hrishikesh gave me calmness and a sense of achievement. I have no clue what had I achieved, what did I do differently, but it felt nice. Felt nice to sit on the marble floor, dipping my feel in crystal clear water and looking at people around me in harmony. If it is your religion that binds you together, gives you a rhythm to sing a song together in sync with thousands of strangers, it is beautiful. I may not be religious but I believe in faith, I believe that if something can bind so many strangers together in One group and can direct them to a greater good, it is all we need. We needed it thousands of year ago to create a civilized society, and looking around all those faces following an age old tradition inculcated in them through generations, felt nice. I was singing, what they were singing, I was one of them. At that moment I wasnt just a traveller, I was one of them- A Yatri. Its so ironic that I found my reason on be there at the last leg of the Yatra. 

We travel all the time to different places for a reason. I often travel far to see something different, different landscape, people and culture. This was yet another travel that helped me travel within, to find a stronger person, not religious yet someone who understood the religion she belonged to a tad bit better. 

...That its the faith drives us. We may find our faith in the glow of dim light coming from a single diya, we may find our faith in a flat stone, thousands of miles above sea level and we may find our faith in a cacti- "Brahm-Kamal".. but its important to find that faith!

Why do we travel so far, is to ask ourselves how a matter of coincidence made something so beautiful. We travel so far to fine something in the core of our mind. Faith, that can make you  move a mountain or certainly climb one!

Ode to Wayanad

The tug of war in my mind was tearing me apart. I needed to spill it out. Like always, I did not know where do find that someone who could give me a fair judgment without judging me.

I was missing a particular friend of mine. I called her to find that she is at her hometown Wayanad and her husband is going there to meet her the next week. On an impulse I said I’ll come down there too. Less than 5 days in hand and that was the most impulsive trip in my kitty. Till the minute the journey actually began, I did not know who all are going and whether it’s on bike or in car.

I had met my fellow travelers once before. They were my friend’s husband, her cousin and her younger brother. It’s needless to say that this trip gave me three new friends.

This was my second trip to Waynad but this was delightfully the most authentic stay. Staying in a typical Kerala home where the bathroom had clay heater installed in the bathroom for hot water. I stayed at a “home” which had a green house, well, pond and a small farm. To top it all the house faced a hill. The scenic beauty was just unreal. I envy those who get to live like that. Simplicity, warmth and a welcome that makes you feel at peace after a long road journey.

Reaching midnight and waking up early morning to the earthy smell of all the plants around you. I was amidst Orchids, Flamingo, topical red and yellow blooms and the big green chillies. I had not seen so many varieties of Orchids before and my personal favourite till date remains to be “dove orchids.”

I wish I had written this piece then and there when the aroma was fresh in my mind because today when I look back, the idiappam, appams and all those fresh curries are mixed up in my mind. For a hard core non vegetarian you would say that staying in a Jain’s home would be defined as disappointing cuisine. But take my words for it that when food is as tasty and homely as what I had, you do not even miss the Kerala fish fry in Kerala.

The vastness in the culture within the communities of a state still amazes me about our country. Having a relative whose origin is in Kerala, I have childhood memory of Kerala synonymed with kerala fish curry. And there I was sitting with my plate full of rice noodles served with the most amazing curry, impossible to believe, to be vegetarian.

This trip took me to all the not so commercial places. A small Temple, at the hill and sunset at the sunset/suicide point. This was the first time I realized that you do not need a flier telling you about all the tourist spots to have fun. I had seen those tourist spots before but this was the time to explore the city as if it was mine, as if I have lived there.

Posing on a rock in the middle of a tea estate was crazy fun. Whenever I see those pictures, I  smile. It almost felt like I have been breathing in that familiar air all my life. It felt real, it felt like home.

The trek to Meenmukki point was the highlight of the trip. That is when I knew I was with friends. We sat at the edge of the hill overlooking valley. It was almost like a world ends here and another starts somewhere right in front of us. We sat at the point with no fear, no fatigue and definitely not as a traveler. We sat there and chatted about random people and our school days. Isn’t that what friends do. Without any effort I was welcomed in the group of friends while my friend was making finger licking food at home.

I learnt that language and culture is not a barrier. I have seen people judging me by my origin, my native place but the warmth in that home told me otherwise. I was welcomed like a family member. I was allowed to cook mushroom^* in that kitchen.

It was the time when I was trying to let go of someone by overwriting another one over it. It wasn’t what I wanted and it certainly wasn’t going well down with me. My second day at Waynad and the over script says that I am irresponsible and carefree coz I chose to go on this impulsive trip when I could have flew down to Delhi to meet him.That day I asked myself why is it that I need to answer and explain myself. I was with my friends who asked me nothing and took me just the way I am. A little difficult, little confused and ready to soak in anything that life would offer. If that makes me carefree then that’s how I am. I had travelled 500km to meet my friends and have a talk with her. Listen to her advice and when I looked around I had four friends laughing on something I had said. Laughing with me as if they have known me all my life. Little did they know that midnight laughter was about to change the course of my life. If I wouldn’t have been there I might have gone ahead with the "over written" guy. I would have given up and give in to the obligations called a girl's life.

The warmth that I felt left me with no reason to ask anyone anything. I did not need a session to be told that I have gone mad. Yes I am a little crazy but I was at peace without any effort. I knew all I needed was to walk. Walk away or may be walk toward, but just keep walking because I knew if I looked around there were people I could call my friends. Thanks to that trip I wasn’t lonely anymore.

Way back, the road trip was non-stop singing from jingles to Maestro Lata for all of 6 hrs and I can’t say how much fun that was. One day I’d go on another road trip just for that sing along may be. Until then that trip remains close to my heart for the warm welcome and coming face to face with myself. Confused, complex yet happy!!! 




*mushroom is not a welcome ingredient in Jain's kitchen

Mile zero- Start point

In past two years I have come to various realizations of myself and my travel has been a great deal part of it. Being single and alone, it’s natural that when I travel, its mostly to meet or with people I want to meet, who are part of my life and are geographically away.

These travel experiences has been like mirrors reflecting a small part of me that I had not seen before. Most of these travels have been to take a break from the chaos of life and get away from my own mind. Theses experiences have shown me a side of me that I was clueless about. Exploring the maps and exploring within to come in terms with what my life is truly about.

When I was 18 my dream job was to be part of discovery channel. I was a big fan of Lonely Planet presented by Ian Wright. I often wondered in my day dreams how would I do a segment on India with him.

Now that I travel I am trying to put together the essence of my experiences, interactions and self realizations.

I have been trying to start this travel based blog for a long time but i just did not know how do I present my travel in my own way.Thanks to someone’s blog I read today I could finally Kick start my engine. His blog is all about him. The mouth watering delights that he presents have a story and has a part of him. That is how I am trying to be here, a part of me in every travel.

If you are reading it you know you are my inspiration behind it. Hugs for “now”!!

Cheers to the beginning of a journey that hopefully would touch many milestones!!