Nothing

I am writing this note sitting beside a lake in Bhandardara, a sleepy Hamlet set in the midst of Sahyadri mountains in Maharashtra. It's so quiet in here that I can hear the sound of silence, the sound of wind passing through the branches, the sound of birds, the sound of oar (chappu) cutting through the water; I can hear all that. The continuous traffic snarls and construction sounds have not made my ears insensitive yet. I can listen to the sound of life.

I am sitting here away from the busy city, away from Bombay, away from the world of chaos, the world of FB and Twitter to make sure that somebody else's thoughts do not fog my mind.

I am sitting here listening to myself, listening to the sound of crickets, listening to the silence of the night.

I am sitting here looking at the single light bulb glowing in the distance, throwing its reflection on the shimmering lake.

I am sitting here in a boat in the middle of the lake, looking at the Sun rising behind a hill.

I am sitting here looking at the village slowly waking up and rising while I do nothing

I am sitting here in a tiny village thinking, why can't we take some time out from our daily life and do nothing. No site seeing, no games, no TV and no books; just nothing.

I am sitting here, thinking, scribbling on my notepad and doing nothing.

I dare!

We all have our fears, most of us conquer theirs' while the rest just learn to live with them. I belonged to the latter group (until recently). I vowed never to as-much-as going close to taking on my biggest fear; the fear of height.

I have always been fattu when it comes to going on roller coaster rides (yes, that include Giant Wheel too). The whole point of hanging in the middle of the air scares me to death and I can feel my guts coming out through my mouth when the wheel descends. On my visit to Essel World I witnessed only 3 rides, one of them being the flimsy Bhoot Bangla or whatever they call it. Given to my plight the more adventurous sports like para-sailing and paragliding have always been a far cry while bungee jumping doesn't even stand a chance.

So, on my recent trip to Goa when the whole group decided to go for water rides I conveniently opted out of the para-sailing part. While one by one all my friends took their turn and came back beaming with joy I shivered in my seat still stuck to my decision of not trying it out. Suddenly everyone in the group decided to pump energy in me and motivate me to try it once. I declined, panicked, held my stomach but no amount of drama could deter them. While I was reasoning with them, the harness was thrust on me and I was being pulled towards the edge of the boat, dialogue from the movie Rangeela looping in my head 'life mein daring karna mangta, daring!' I shut my eyes tight and let time take its course. A minute passed, I opened my eyes and looked around. I was already in the air, sailing over the beautiful ocean, looking at the sprawling Calangute beach. That was my moment of enchantment.

Before

After

I don't know whether I'll take the next step and try paragliding or sit on those crazy roller coaster rides but I can proudly say that I dared to fight my fear for once. And, it felt great.

In the lap of luxury @ Le Meridien, Coimbatore

On 11.11.11, Starwood Group of Hotels launched their 100th Le Meridien brand of hotels in Coimbatore. I attended the grand opening and explored this luxurious hotel in the middle of a small town in south India.

If you are surprised what this French brand is doing in Coimbatore, don’t be. The city is on its way to become an IT hub in South India and truly deserves five-star luxury. It’s also in close proximity to Chennai (about 8 hours), Bangalore (about 6 hours), Kodaikkanal (about 4 hours) and Ooty (about 2 hours) and with Le Meridien opening here it’ll soon become a favourite weekend destination. The hotel has hosted numerous corporate events within a year since it started operating in phases. Read more...

A trip to Nepal ; A nation of 'Bandhs'

I have been born and brought up in a city called Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh which happens to be one of the closest to India-Nepal border. Still I never went beyond Bhairahawa (a town on the Nepal border) and Butwal (22 kms from Bhairahawa) that too with the school picnic.

So, this time when my sisters and I along with our husbands planned to visit Gorakhpur for a wedding my father chalked out a 3 day trip to Nepal. The itinerary included Pokhara and Kathmandu. A winger was booked, bags packed and we set out on our journey. After a 2 hour drive we reached Sunauli (Indian town on the border). We crossed into Nepal and headed to a restaurant for lunch as our driver went to finish some paper work. At the restaurant, we were received by a weedy eyed waiter who sleepily took our order. Time passed as we patiently waited for the food. After 30 mins or so my father himself went into the kitchen to inquire. We were then informed that no restaurant keeps food ready in Nepal. So, that was our first lesson; order well in advance.

After lunch we proceeded to Pokhara which is a 6-7 hours drive from Bhairahawa. On this drive we found out that our driver was quiet a Gorakhpuriya (my friends from that part of the country will know that term). A typical Gorakhpuriya is a person who will never give a straight answer to your questions, will always remain angry, will have complete disregard to what you want and will think that he's doing you a favor even when you're paying him for his services. And. to our amusement, his name was Vijay......haaaiiin...so we chose to call him 'angry young man'.

However, the drive was pleasant and filled with scenic beauty and we enjoyed it to the most. We reached Pokhara around 9.00 pm and as per the first lesson the first thing we did was order food. So while we checked in our hotel and got fresh our dinner was getting ready. As we were planning our next day the driver broke the news; 'Kal Pokhra band hai...chakka jam. gadi nai niklegi' (Pokhara is closed tomorrow, no vehicle on the road). Since democracy has taken over in Nepal, a city or the other is closed every now and then.There went our plan. The next day we set out on foot, had our breakfast by the famous Fewa lake and went on a boat ride. The lake surrounded with tall mountains was absolutely enchanting.

There wasn't much to do after that since the shops too were shut. We were told that the 'bandh' will be over by 4 and then we can go sight seeing. So the youngsters decided to pick up few bicycles and go for a ride while the elders rested. We rented the bikes (cleaned them and pumped air in the tyres too :P ). We din't go very far when the first one got punctured....and after a while the second one too...an hour was spend trying to mend them but in vain. We went back and immortalized the saying 'khaya piya kuch nai, gilas toda barah ana' (don't ask me the meaning now).

After lunch at Laxman's restaurant and Bar (I must admit, the yummiest momos I've ever had and some great fish curry with rice) it was time to get the wheels out. As we moved towards the Devi's Fall we found out that the band wasn't yet over and sensing danger went in a casino (and blew off some money too :D ). We came out after 20 mins and finally went on to see the Devi's fall, Gupteshwar cave and Bhadra Kali temple.

As we were heading back to our hotel from Bhadra Kali temple it started raining and there was a sudden urge for 'garam chai'. We went in a small tea shop. Since it was raining and we are Indians, we also wanted some 'pakoras' but the shop owner didn't sell any food. So, we offered to make them ourselves in her personal kitchen if she gave us raw stuff, which she did. And there were hot pakoras and 'adrak wali chai'. Amongst this merry making we forgot to talk money and the shop owner charged us a hefty 500 Nepali Rupees for that. But our 'angry young man' intervened and we paid only 300 NC.

We went back to the hotel, planned our next day which was to see the sunrise point and head to Kathmandu. The day was pretty much over for the senior people but the 'young gang' was not done yet. It was my husband's birthday the next day so we planned to head out for a couple of drinks. We found an amazing restaurant at the lake side where the bartender mixed up some amazing cocktails for us.

Next morning we went to the sunrise point. The Himalayan ranges (annapurna, dhaulagiri) turned beautiful golden as sun cast its rays on them.

The sight was breathtakingly beautiful. After a cup of tea and some light breakfast we started towards Kathmandu, again an 8 hours drive from Pokhara.

We reached Kathmandu at around 3 in the afternoon, checked into the hotel and as we were going out for lunch another bomb blasted. Kathmandu was also closed the next day (21st May). Since we had a flight to catch from Lucknow on the 23rd we only had an evening in Kathmandu. We planned to make the most of it and decided to visit the Pashupatinath and Swayambhu temple right after lunch. Thankfully the restaurant in Kathmandu had the food ready and our order arrived in 10 minutes.

As we were going towards Swayambhu from Pashupatinath, our winger broke down and we waited for another one which took us to the temple. Swayambhunath or The monkey temple as its famously called (because of the resident monkeys) is set atop a hill and is visited by Budhists all over the world. The Stupa is beautifully lit and you can see the whole town from the top.

After the temple visit we came back to the hotel and planned to leave early in the morning as Kathmandu was 'bandh' and yeah...our car had broken down so we had to adjust ourselves in the smaller one. 9 of us in a Tavera. We started towards India. On our way we stopped at Manakamna temple. The temple is accessible through a cable car from Kurintar, 2 hours drive from Kathmandu. To our relief there wasn't much crowd and we got into the longest cable car in Asia. It crossed through 3 hills with a river flowing at the bottom. The car ride was amazing but to our bad luck the temple was closed for a special pooja. We chose to have breakfast instead and then took a cable car back to Kurintar. Well, the 'bandh' didn't just leave us there. As we were on our way back the cable car also stopped for a couple of minutes. But it wasn't scary and we had a nice view of the hills.

Praying no more 'bandhs' on our way we headed straight to India.

Nepal is a beautiful country but is heavily affected by the current political scenario. So, if you are planning a trip to Nepal make sure that you don't bump into a 'bandh'.

What the hell are we fighting for?

Of all kinds of writing I do, travelogues are something that I have always enjoyed. I love sharing those small but memorable incidents happened on the journey. I believe they always stay with you, more than the place itself.

One such incident happened while I was on the train from Mumbai to Gorakhpur (my home town). I was traveling with my husband, my sister and sister's husband. There was a couple in our compartment with their two kids. With their language and dialect they pretty much looked North Indians. More than the husband, the wife looked from north because of her sing-song tone. After a while we noticed her speaking in Marathi with her kids. The obvious guess was that she must've picked up the language in all these years she stayed in Mumbai.

After a lot of guessing and assumptions we finally decided to ask her whether she was a Maharashtriyan or a North Indian. Her reply came to us as a surprise. She was a Marathi and had picked up the accent from her husband who was a North Indian. Trust me, her accent, dialect whatever you call it was way better than any UPite or Bihari and the husband had a very Mumbaiya tone.

The whole incident made me think. Does a common man really care about people migrating from one city to other for work? Does aam junta appreciate the mas pooja conducted by Laloo Yadav or beatings of North Indians by MNS? I guess not. This is a country that unites for a Marathi cricketer who plays under a Bihari captain. So I think that the politicians should leave the language and let it be just a tool to communicate.

The 'S' word

Standing in the midst of The Meenakshi Temple in Madurai, I was wondering, is this the same country I live in? Is this the same India or Bharat or Hindustan? whatever you call it.

The same country where walls of ancient temples are carved with nude Gods and Godesses, where one can see cave paintings depicting humans indulging the sacred act of reproduction i.e SEX. Why has this 3 letter word wrecked such a havoc in this country?


In India where population goes around 1.2 billion, we can't even utter the 'S' word.

Is it the same place where the famous Kamasutra was written? where people so openly worship the Shivalingam (for those who don't know, Shivalingam represents the male and female reproductive organs). So why is it that a filmmaker has to struggle forever to get a kissing scene passed through the censor board? why does a painter gets thrashed for painting nudes?

Do we have any idea where all this hypocrisy leads to? A confused generation. Can't we just accept the fact that people have sex in our country, before marriage or after marriage and then educate the younger generation rather than keeping it under covers and letting them explore it on their own. Be it the right way or wrong way?

Applause

Munnar, a beautiful hill station in Kerela was the second destination of our South India Trip. This place is mostly visited for its lush green Tea Estates, Dams, rivers and of course the most famous Ayurvedic massages (by now if you are thinking that this is going to be a 500 words' essay on Munnar..... then no it's not)

After visiting all the tourist spots, clicking photographs, spending (read wasting) some time and money in the Tata tea museum, our (my husband and me) quest to find something that's hidden and not so famous took us to MUDRA, a small platform for the local Kathakali artists (for those who don't know, Kathakali is one of the most famous and ancient dance forms of Southern India). So, we reached this small (actually very small) theatre. It was a small room with a very small stage and plastic chairs to accomodate hardly 50 people. Tickets for the show were priced around Rs. 200 per head. So, after a short discussion over, whether the small place and plastic chairs were worth the money and BLAH... BLAH.... BLAH.... (won't go into details) Vishesh (my husband) and I decided to go for it while the rest of the group left.

After half an hour of makeup session (which we could actually see), the performance started. I can't describe the whole experience here as you got to see it to experience it. but trust me, it was worth every single penny and even more than that. I was amazed to see how such a small stage and merely 25-30 people in the audience could fill an artist with so much enthusiasm.

No place or stage is bigger than the artist himself. All he/she needs is a few claps and smiling faces.

In God's Own Country - Kerala

Came back from a vacation in Kerela a couple of days back. It felt like I was floating in a dream and was shaken back to the harsh reality.... Mumbai. The mere feeling of being away from the chaos of the city as soon as you step in the God's own land rejuvenates you. So much green, so much peace and so much nature filled me with a new life. The beauty of kerela reflects in people as well. It seems as if they inherit their calmness, sweetness and honesty from their land.

I remember one incident when we booked a houseboat on the day we reached Alleppey. We were offered a price of 12,000 Rs. The next morning when we were loading our luggage and ourselves on the boat, the manager of the Houseboat company asked us for 13,000 Rs. After a brief and a little hot discussion the manager realised that he mistook us with some other client. I guess for him it was the most embarassing moment. He had apology written all over his face and tears in his eyes. He said sorry to almost everyone in the group and send Nariyal pani (coconut water) for each of us. It might not have cost him much but the sheer gesture left a mark on us. By that simple act of his he gave us a piece of his land.

Small incidents make your travel experience worth remembering.... and this is one of them.