3 weeks in Gods Own Country.

So it has been a while since I have posted something on my BLOG. It has been 20 days since I have landed in Gods Own Country. The experience so far has been like a fresh new day, new with each instance. So what experiences am I talking about here?

1) Practice the language before you reach a new place. Learn a few important words. And even after you have done then learn to see people laughing at you for your pronunciations! And just in case you haven't learnt any words then invoke the blessings from The Gods of Dumb Charades. I've been doing just that.

2) "When in Rome Be Like The Romans Are" So it's time for lungi /mundu. The natives still wouldn't accept you completely obviously because you are out of place. Confidence matters but with the fear of what would go faster, the Mundu or your IZZZAT, tell me where is the scope to have confidence and walk!

3) Learn to cook and eat. Unfortunately I am in a land of non vegetarian food lovers and me being an eggetarian struggle to find some good food. Funnier is when you DARE to EAT some North Indian dish and then spend time in the loo. :P It isn't as funny as one might feel on reading. I was MIGHTY PLEASED when I visited a 4 Star with an ambience which could give some of our Mumbai restaurants a run for their money. MULTI CUISINE RESTAURANT, they declared on their Tariff Card and I promised the Manager I would come back soon. The next time I visited the area I made it a point to visit the MULTI CUISINE RESTAURANT. "Paneer Kitne Din se nahin khaaya." my heart shouted!

Waiter: "Sir would you like to have some dish in Paneer for the main course?"

WTF???????????????

Me: "Ah well yeah. Get me a dish of Paneer Butter Masala along with a dish of Appam."

I waited patiently with a wish to have Paneer after 3 weeks! *Slurp*

The wait was't worth, the Paneer Butter Masala completely drowned my desire to come back to this MULTI CUISINE RESTAURANT. So from there I head to my meeting. All of a sudden there is some "hul-chal"

KAHAN?

Stomach dear had an immediate Mood Change due to the food at the MULTI CUISINE RESTAURANT. :( The rest? The lesser said the better!

4) Get ready for an overdose of the local actors on television. Movies, TV Advertisements, Hoardings, you will see them everywhere. If that wasn't less you would see them in the most funniest of poses and clothes!

5) Be ready to meet some visitors who might give you creeps. They are in plenty here. Thankfully the one's that I am scared of, haven't REALLY made their presence felt.

Is it all that bad?

1) The Peace here cannot be bought by any amount of urbanisation. All that we miss in a city like Mumbai is some peace which is in abundance here. :D A day full of working from home and then a walk with an elder to the local temple, the knowledge that you get while talking to them, the fields that you pass by, the local houses from where the kids come out running to see a person whom they haven't seen previously and all the customs and traditions which we as city dwellers can never experience. They still, also, use the traditional methods of cooking with the dried up wood what we call as the "Choolaah"

2) The smile and the warmth of the people whom you might not know and yet they would stand and explain to you, how they are related and then their favourite statements "How would you remember us? The last you had seen was when you were 6 years old!" What memory!!!!!! :-o

3) The weather during evening times is absolutely awesome! I have been experiencing breeze which we "could probably" experience only during Winters in city.

4) The sanctity of the holy places would have to be seen to be believed. The precision with which people follow each of these practices shows the power of beliefs! At many of the temples, including the local one,that I have visited the people still don't cross the path if they see the priest coming. The temples still haven't been commercialised. I have been completely bowled over by a group of 3 kids who used to come ever evening, until their schools started, to recite Bhajans. I doubt if this could be ever seen in the city.

5) Everything over here is so planned and organised in their own little way. We as city dwellers never get time from our usual schedule to have lunch on time, to have tea on time or probably to reach home for dinner on time. But here day in- day out,their schedules never go wrong. Breakfast is sharp at 7 (not for me though), another tea session by 11, followed by lunch at 1pm, Snacks at 4 and finally dinner by 10 pm. They plan for their day-to-day activity in advance. Like for eg. cut the wood and store well in advance before rains for cooking purposes. And to add to it they live a HAPPY (content) LIFE. Makes me wonder, what is it that I am searching for in life?

Each day that gets me a new experience, good or bad, has only reinforced my decision of having taken up a rural internship for my Summers.

Lal Salaam!

I read last night about the loss of Jyoti Basu, undoubtedly who along with Vajpayee is among the last “good breed” of leaders we have left in our country. Unfortunately I couldn’t catch up with the news as tired body pushed me to sleep. However as I woke up today morning I couldn’t stop myself from watching the news, so much so that I decided against going for the first lecture. (anywhich ways watching and learning about Jyoti Basu was much better than Virus, no comparison actually!)
I caught up with news and thankfully NDTV was running a re-telecast of their special show on Jyoti Basu with all top leaders and thinkers joining in to share their thoughts. Pranab Mukherjee, Buddhadeb, Sitaram Yechury, N Ram, Tarun Das and Amartya Sen shared their views on the leader whom they unanimously called “the greatest” in the post independence era!

The program began with visuals of how Bimon Roy came out and announced the sad news. Choked he was and so was everyone else after having heard the news. Wailing people and shouts of Lal Salaam echoed around, as news persons gathered each and every visual that they could. They would have succeeded to make a news with just a simple one liner about the loss. That was the power of the leader which brought me to think about what exactly would you define a leader as, what are the characteristics?

Jyoti Basu was a Leader to everyone. He was a man of Principles who always weighed the Principles set by his comrades above his own preferences. That’s why he didn’t become the Prime Minister when he was invited him to, as his party decided against it. His thoughts though communist were never against the development of the region where he came from. The charisma that he had, would just not be confined to his people but also to his critics and media. In the words of Pranab Mukherjee,”He would definitely have been a good Prime Minister.” In the words of the media,”He was a man who complemented them for our efforts.” That is the reason why today we sit and notice the loss of this great man, who went on to become the longest serving Chief Minister of any state in India. At a time when we find it difficult to have a mandate for a single term, here was a guy who led his state for 2 decades! He was truly a Regional Leader of National stature.

What was also noteworthy was his ability to understand when to exit. Just yesterday, we had a senior person from the industry who came for a lecture and told us that as important it is to venture into something, one should also know when to exit. Abhimanyu in Mahabharta is a fine example of someone who knew only to enter but not to exit. Thankfully Jyoti Basu was no Abhimanyu. He quit from his post and handed over the reins to Budhhadeb in a perfectly timed move which gave him good enough time to prove himself before the elections. This helped him come back to power.

The equations have however changed since then and the Communists are falling into the deep gorge from where revival would only be termed as a miracle. Could Jyoti Basu’s exit give them that miracle? Could they ride on the wave of emotions after his demise to improve their standing in general public. Even if they do, I don’t see that running for long for Jyoti Basu’s leadership has taught the masses in Bengal to think what is right and reject what is wrong in their own ways. That’s the reason we saw unrest in Singur to initiatives led by the same Government whom they had voted to power 7 times in a row.

Jyoti Basu’s death reminded me of an update I had read recently on Facebook,which said "after your death you leave behind your children and what google says about you." Well in case of Jyoti Basu Google might fall short of words because that’s the level of reach that he had with his masses which can never be summed up by anyone. That’s a True Leader!

We will miss you Jyoti Basu for they don’t make them like you, anymore!

R.I.P. Jyoti Basu. Lal Salaam!

Personal Collection 6

Work In Progress.

United We Stand, Divided We Fall!

Another Perfect Setting.

A traditional Temple Enterance in Kerala.

Teen Darwaaza at Ahmedabad.

Personal Collection 5

Stripped!

I fell in love with this place on the Konkan route!

Larger than Life!

The Nawabs Mahal.

A Mosque of religious importance, down South in Kerala.

Personal Collection 4

Mesimerising.

I don't know what do I name this, any suggestions?

Innocence Personified!

History.

Guided!

Personal Collection 3

Golden Waters.

Freedom!

Feedback cum Advertising!

Everything has to end one day, including the day.

Colourful!

Personal Collection 2

Despair!

Courage.

Colourful beliefs.

Complementing each other; the beauty & the beast!

Ideas half thought never see the light of the day!

Personal Collection 1

At peace!

A Private beach at Alibaugh which made me believe that some of the natural beauty which is left in India, if the Govt.cannot manage or conserve them, should be given to private players.

A breathtaking place, where I am sure you could sit for hours together just watching the water flow.

A Structure outside Ahmedabad Railway station. Heritage fascinates me always and this one did steal my heart!