the year that was..

Almost everything around me has changed so, so much. Yet, everything is still the same. Several eras have come to an end in this very year, that I think I've lost count. I still work for the same project, but my office location has changed. My work is still the same, but my designation isn’t. My hair are still straight and silky, but there are now of half the length. I still stay at the same place, but with different set of roommates. My contact number is the same, but my handset isn’t. Even on my new handset I’ve contacts on my speed dial, but the contacts have changed. Speaking of contacts, I’ve lost contact with many people, even with some extremely close ones. But the biggest loss that I’ve faced is that of my grandmother, which came as the biggest shock of my life. Wherever she is, may her soul rest in peace.
I know the blog title sounds like a little too late entry to reflect on the last year, but I usually look back recapitulate things on a special occasion [my budday!!!], and with less than a week left for my birthday, I cannot help but reflect on what all has changed in this one year. It has been one helluva ride.. I’ve gained more weight and lost even more hair..I saw Mumbai Indians vs. RCB IPL cricket match in the stadium, and I saw Sachin from a stone’s throw distance!! Speaking of distances, I’ve pushed out some people away from my life, and have been kicked out by many from their lives..daddy got promoted on my birthday last year and I got promoted 1 week before his. In fact on his birthday we were in Singapore..and we also went to Badrinath and Kedarnath in May [also available as my second blog entry.. ;) ]. Definitely going back there someday; not exactly to the temples but to Badrinath and Kedarnath for trekking purposes and to Malaysia and Singapore for the very same purposes... I went to so many other lovely places around Bangalore, did some amazing stuff.. and ironically, most of the people I went with are either out of Bangalore, or I’ve lost touch with them for various reasons.. I really wish that the last time I met all those people with whom I am no longer in touch, I knew that it was going to be the last time..I wish the last time I met my grandmother, I knew it was for the last time...but then again if I had it my way, there would have been no last time..
Going through all the picture albums of last year, I realize that some of the best moments have not been captured, simply cause in spite of having a camera, and a camera phone, AND a laptop with webcam ;) those little moments just happened out of the blue, totally unexpected, or either I didn’t have a camera or the battery was out!!
So in the end I just want to thank everybody who has a part of those memorable moments..want to thank everybody cause of whom those memorable moments actually became so.. and I want to thank everybody who stood by me when I needed them. I know I sound like a BIG emotional fool right now [funny how the things you want to change about you, don’t ever change!! ], but it’s just that so I’ve experience so much unexpected stuff, [plus I just saw the HIMYM episode on “The last words” ] that I can’t help but sound like a BIG emotional fool !!
Anyhow, to sum up my last year has been like a big roller coaster ride, or maybe like that ride in Wonderla which throws you in all directions and which I enjoyed the most but can’t recall its name at this moment [still pathetic at remembering names- hope it improve by next year though..] Right now, all I hope and pray is that the next year, and every year brings the best of health, wealth and happiness.. Cheers !!

Travel

Its been ages since i wrote my last blog, which was actually my first, and a lot has happened since; one of them my trip to kedar-badri with my folks. I later wrote an article on it for my company's magazine. Thought I should put it up here, so here goes............
First things first: My trip to Badrinath and Kedarnath was to accompany my parents. They had their religious sentiments involved, and me, I just never leave a chance for any kind of such adventurous trips. My only motive was to trek 14kms one-way to Kedarnath temple in a single day, without a  single break. Am so proud of it that I think I might put it up on my CV!! So basically I covered about 1500kms of distance from Bengaluru to Kedarnath just for that 28kms of trek :)
We went by those conducted tours that numerous travel agencies conduct. Ours was a week's trip, from Delhi and back by a mini bus. Just to make sure that I don't miss Bengaluru while am away for a week, my daddy dear had chosen a agency for south-Indians, so we not only got south-Indian food in the entire trip, in fact we were the only north Indian family in the bus.

Badrinath Temple

Badrinath is a Hindu holy town and a nagar panchayat in Chamoli district in the state of Uttarakhand. It is the most important of the four sites in India's Char Dham pilgrimage. It has an average elevation of 3,415 meters (11,204 feet). It is in the Garhwal hills, on the banks of the Alaknanda River. The most remote of the four Char Dham sites, Kedarnath is located in the Himalayas, about 3584m above sea level near the head of river Mandakini, and is flanked by breathtaking snow-capped peaks. Kedarnath hosts one of the holiest Hindu temples, the Kedarnath Temple, and is a popular destination for Hindu pilgrims from all over the world, being one of the four major sites in India's Chota Char Dham pilgrimage.

All this is just to give you an idea about how significant these places are according to the Hindu mythology. But what really disappointed me was the fact that none of them were well maintained. On the way up to Kedarnath, one has to share the path with the ponies, which some devotees use to climb up to the temple.

Kedarnath

The ponies have the mind of their own, and are plenty in number, so you really have to watch out as they keep coming at you from left right and center and leave little space for those on foot. If you aren’t watchfully enough they might just bump into you! The narrow stoned path becomes filthy by the end of the day covered with their dung, especially when it rains. Maybe that’s why people climb up on the ponies. Few even prefer to reach to the top via helicopters, which sounds cool, but then I strongly believe in "have feet will trek”!! There is also an option of taking a palanquin [doli], which is carried by 4 doli-carriers and usually costs more than the pony. No matter which mode you opt for, everyone are left speechless the moment you reach the top. I felt so very charged and rejuvenated by the scenic beauty around me. It’s a sight that’s going to stay in the memory everlastingly. Both the temples are surrounded with snow-clad mountains, which really is a glorious sight. Unlike in the case of Kedarnath, where the motor road stops at Gaurikund, one can go right up to the Badrinath temple by road [which was a bit heart-breaking for me a bit because I really wanted to trek all the way up again!!]. At Badrninath, allegedly some might experience tiredness or uneasiness due to the dip in oxygen levels. But then just forget about the temples. The world looks so different and IS so different at the height of about 3500m above the sea level!! One can see the Dhauladhar range from my grandparents' house easily, and all this while I used to think they are the best of the lot the Himalayan range has. But the mountains at both the places are just so amazingly bigger and better! Just looking at them is so mesmerizing; it used to gimme the strong urge to climb each one of them!!
 On our way we covered lots of other places with religious significance as well, especially all the sangams of rivers/distributaries. The blending of two water bodies of different colors is another astonishing sight. But what interested me more were the numerous adventure camps near them. There are loads of adventure clubs in Rishikesh and places around, which conduct all sorts of adventure camps, mostly for river rafting on the Ganges and its distributaries. One place which deserves a special mention is the Mana Village: a little self sufficient village just 3 kms away from Badrinath. Located just few meters inside the Indo-Tibet border in the Himalayas, this village is referred to as the last village of India on the Indo-Tibet border and has been designated as a ‘tourism village’ by the Uttarakhand government. With 10,248 ft above sea, Mana village holds a lot of mythological relevance and one can actually see traces of the Mahabharata scattered across this small village. Another interesting must-see is Bheem pul, a huge rock formed as a bridge across river Saraswati. Legend has it that when Pandavas were crossing this river on their ‘swargarohana’, Draupadi was panic-stricken. Bheem then lifted a huge rock and placed it over the river to form a natural bridge, thereby making it easy for her to cross the river. After climbing about a thousand odd steps to reach to the top of the hill at Mana the air becomes more rarefied and it is difficult to breathe. There a board announcing ‘India’s last tea shop’ and every tourist get excited to relish a cuppa "high tea" from the shop!
 All said and done, I would definitely like to recommend this trip to all of you. Me, I’ve already noted down the numbers of popular adventure clubs and am definitely going [purely for river rafting and trekking though] once again!!! :)

From a Branded Resource..

This post is what I've written for a magzine at work, and this title also comes courtesy work. People here are actually branded as "Resources" ,more on that some other time. The magzine was issued today, and I want to share it with all of you as well,with only slight modifications/additions [they had word limits !!], so here it goes.................

Being from a defence background, I had never thought that I could feel the difference while having to live in any particular part of the country to work, and why should I; I have lived almost in every part of the country courtesy my dad’s profession. I mean I have changed 8 schools in my total 12 years of schooling so you can imagine how much I have travelled around the country. In fact whenever somebody asks me from which place I am, I am dumbstruck for a moment and sometimes end up saying India, which is not inspired from the lecture that Shah Rukh Khan gave in Chak de India, who by the way is my favourite actor, and sadly enough, I have not yet got a chance to watch My Name is Khan. I think it’s going to be his next Chak De, a break from the nonsense kind of films he has been doing lately. But this is not about SRK, nor is it a movie review, hell it’s not even about me. In fact it’s just what all I was tempted to pen down when struck by the massive dissimilarities that can be felt in the lifestyle here, coming from the northern part of the country [which I can fairly establish], and no offence meant to the local people in any way. So once again I shall get back on the track, which is very hard for me being a nonstop blabberer, as you must have realised by now, and try not to deviate much....

So as I said earlier, I have been all around the country, and it’s not the first time I’ve come to the southern part of our country. Dad was posted for a year in Tamil nadu in a place called Wellington, and that’s about it. Have done my third standard from there. Of course I don’t remember much about the place, but from whatever I can recollect about the place and the people and its culture are still visible. The first and foremost being the fact that here, English is actually Hindi. Be it your rick driver or your normal grocery store chap, there are more chances of the person knowing English than Hindi, which trust me, was very difficult for me to digest initially, but I’ve made my peace with it. Having said that, what really gets on my nerves is that everybody here appends an H after T in my name, and insist on being correct. Like one of my friends says, students are taught their alphabets with an H after the T!!! I would like to take this opportunity to reach out to everybody and make it clear that my name ends with a “TA” and not a “THA” and I would really appreciate it if they would get it right at one go itself...it’s really not a very difficult name!

Speaking of language, I am horrible at remembering names...be it people’s name or names of some place. It’s really tough for me to get my proper nouns right at once. On top of that, I find myself in the land where names of not just places and people but general stores and streets are hard to pronounce, leave alone memorize, especially for a person like me who suffers from serious short term memory loss when it comes to names! I don’t think I had that much trouble memorizing the history dates in school compared to what I have to now to land in the right place in the city which has all kinds of tongue twisters as names of places!!

 And then there is the intense smell of sandalwood in the air here there and everywhere, especially in the temples, in which I just can’t recognize any of the Gods’ idols!!! What left me completely baffled was the “Prasad” that I once got in one of the temples: a very spicy dish of black channa. Right from the time I gained consciousness about the world we live in, I have associated the temple Prasad with sweetness. As a kid, the sweet was the only motivational factor to go to any temple!

 Almost everybody here is a god-loving person, and absolutely everybody here is a gajra-loving person. Its not hard to spot a garland the moment you step out of your place..you can find plenty on any female's hair bun, or hanging on any vehicle's rear view mirror, [be it a merc or a rick], or at the entrance of any shop or your neighbour's house.

 Talking about neighbour's entrance, one more thing thats really really hard to miss is a rangoli. It doesn't have to be a big and colourful one..most of them are plain and simple kinds, but what I appreciate is that there is a new one day after day everyday without fail.

And I appreciate you for having read the entire thing, i know its way too long, but then i am yet to learn how to control my nonstop blabberings, which I like to blurt it all out in one breath, and till then, i'll continue appreacting your patience for staying with me through it and you can continue appreciating my blabberings :)