Kutch Diaries - 2

After a boring month of internship got a mood to write about my first trip here.

After lots of last moment cancellations, finally that day arrived. Our plan for Mandvi and Bhuj trip was materializing. Planned departure:12th April 0600 hrs. Believe me, whenever there are such trips planned I dont know where do we get that energy n will power to get ready on time. All 4 of us got up n got ready and stood there in the entrance waiting for our vehicle to arrive. There it came. White Ford Fiesta. Same one which had picked us from the airport. Our CEO is generous in that sense(we assume so), that he arranged a vehicle on his own for our trip and didnt take money from us(I can say, so far!!).

Anyways our journey started and we reached Bhuj in no time. 90 kms in 90 mins flat. We had some typical Gujarati breakfast. Fafda with tomato ketchup, fried chillies ,cut onion and hot jalebis. What a breakfast sirjee. Pata hi nahi chala ki kuch khaaya :) One of d guy was very curious to take pics of all those food items just like foreigners who click everything in India!!!
Reached Mandvi, heat was slowly picking up. Kutch me aaye ho to garmi se kya darna, haan na Vinayak? Got down from d car. Man awesome beach right in front of ur eyes. Arabian Sea again. It was time to take off our clothes(not literally and not everything ;)).. Jumped into the water without a second thought. I feel, whether u r 27 or 2.7 year old, this water gets that kid in you outside and u play merrily. Waves were not that big and I rolled,slept and jumped in that. What a feeling. Took a Camel ride for the first time in life and it wasn't a disappointing experience. Walked along the beach, writing name on sand(for some strange reason wrote IIML as well, I know what crap). Went for a bike ride deep into Arabian Sea. What an experience.Soon we realized that we had spent close to 2 hrs on beach. Its time to pack up boys. Changed those salty, 'sand'y clothes, in the meantime watched few couples having "good" time, somewhere away on the beach. Well.. hmmm. No comments..

Moved to Vijay Vilas Palace. Apparently Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam was shot here. There was no Aishwarya with me for company but just 3 more guys. Beautiful palace. Awesome interiors and top view was heavenly. What a cool breeze. No wonder Salman n Ash became close here.
After spending some quality time and few clicks, we started to Bhuj. Damn hungry. Reached Hotel Prince for lunch. Whattay a "Prince"ly lunch it was. Gujarati thali. With sweets being served unlimited. Shrikhand,Jalebi and some more sweets whose name we dint even know. As soon as we take few sips of buttermilk the guy used to come n fill them again. Guess I drank only 3 glasses. After the heavy meal, no one was able to get up from their seat. We took our own time to come back to normalcy. Lifted our bodies up and got started for a round of disappointments. Historic Kutch Museum was closed due to Ram Navami(we totally forgot, we are in Gujarat. Wont Modi declare a holiday on Ram Navami? U must be kidding). So we spent some time in the nearby garden surrounded by famous lake. Went to see Aina Mahal(Mirror Palace). But it was closed as well :( Finally started our journey back little disappointed.

On our way back we visited few villages where old Kutchi handicrafts are made. Srujan had costliest collection. Girls' dresses cost- range 3500-4500 for one. Dint even dare to think of buying. Paagal hai kya?3500 for a dress? Thought its time to go back home. Drank water,sugarcane juice,Pepsi(not all at d same time) but nothing was helping. Got into our mast AC car and kept talking on our way back. Reached our nest by 7PM. Took cold water bath n slept off.13 hr trip.6 hrs of good time. It was nice. Really nice.
Rann of Kutch experience I will write some other time.

Kutch Diaries - 1

Well it all started on a wrong note. First forgot my ticket in hostel room. Was about to get into the cab somehow remembered. Thankfully Sood was awake and he got me those printouts. Reached airport on time. Blunder 2 was awaiting. Just after d security check got a call from home. Picked up my bag and once boarding started went to plane. Was about to keep d bag in upper shelf and felt bag was very light. Holy shit !!! Had forgot laptop in security check !! Conveyed d same to GoAir staff. He took me to security check counter and I had to prove my identity before I could pick up my lappie. Vostro I love u, we would have been separated by now. Thanks to my better senses which work at times :)
Landed at Delhi Airport just to realize that I have to take bus/cab to catch my connecting flight to Delhi-Mumbai-Bhuj from T3. Considering my last experience of missing flight by 5 mins dint want to take any kinda risk. Hired a taxi and reached T3 well before time. But this time around it was my internship mates’ turn to cause panic. There flight from LKO was delayed by an hour, so they came just-in-time to Delhi Airport and reach KF flight on last and final call. Thank God.. So after this initial hiccups we were all set for a great journey. KF treated us well with good food and I spent all my time in eating well.(this was d last royal food I will have for next two months I dint know) .
Reached Bhuj @ 2PM and there was a car waiting to pick us up. Nice gesture considering our reporting place was well 90 kms from Bhuj airport !!! Modi’s Gujarat had good roads to give us company, so dint face any problem reaching our place. There came Swas HealthCare(its called AnandDham Nature Cure Center here) situated in Kharoi village of Bhuj District. It was like back to my primary school days where I stayed in similar village setup. Who doesn’t believe life comes a full circle many a times.
Got introduced to person-incharge Sanjay (who is an IIMA grad and has worked in GSK for 10 yrs before starting this venture). He guided us to our rooms which are called semi-deluxe here with twin sharing. Rooms are posh. This whole campus has lots of trees, which I am sure will make our stay for next 2 months cooler.
Induction was something different. I am sure nobody would have had. After usual briefing of projects of what we are going to do, we were asked to go through the usual naturopathy treatment to understand their mode of operation. First consultation with doctor then proceed to magneto therapy,Acupressure,Spinal bath(just the middle part of body immersed in hot water, what a relaxation I say) , Abdominal massage , Hot and cold treatment where they wrap water soaked clothes around body(heard they increase blood flow towards those body parts).
My typical day starts with Yoga from 6-7. Health drink @7 which I usually skip. Have stopped drinking tea too. Prayer @ 8 followed by breakfast. Then work begins that’s flexible. Lunch is @ 12. AND GUESS WHAT. SIESTA in our schedule. Yes guys we are allowed to take rest from 1 to 3.30. Damn which P&G, HUL will give this privilege?? We get back to work at 3.30. Juice is served at 4 (typically Orange, Musambi or Carrot juice.I drink once in a while) and our day typically ends at 7.
Food is good and served free so far(even if they deduct money won’t mind. It’s nice homemade food but still waiting for Mom’s food). We tried patient's diet food as well. It was ... No comments. Yoga is something I have fallen in love with, even if it doesn’t bring any drastic change but am sure it will get me in good frame of mind and body. Rejuvenated Vinayak after 2 months? Quiet possible. Who said I am doing internship here. It looks like a vacation. Those who scared us with hot weather will have to take a chill pill for now. Dont know whats in store. Will write more soone.

Love is Beautiful

There we sat in her room holding each other’s hand with no words spoken. We hardly realized that we had been sitting like that since afternoon, but still in no mood to take a break.

It was a holiday and we had no readings or submission for the next day. It had been a long time since we both had some private “US” time. We were in different sections, hence could not spend time together, thanks to our schedule. So, I woke up early that day and called her to get ready. She could sense my excitement and happily obliged. [Girls are ever so sweet. When a guy loves them wholeheartedly they always give back more happiness]. When I reached her room, she was just back after taking a head bath. Here I must confess, women get this extra glow after a head bath. In those wet hair they look more “sexy”. I was there at the right time to give my eyes, a much needed relief. My eyes were indeed lucky to enjoy that beauty. What a sight, an eternal bliss. “Thank you God. You must have taken extra time to make this girl for me. You have certainly spent so much time to craft her”. Well I could not resist praising her beauty. It had been a long time since she heard my lovely sweet words and I never lose out on those opportunities :)

She could sense my feelings and as if she read my mind, she sat right next to me. Smell of Acacia concinna (shikakai) can be aphrodisiac sometimes, I realized that day. Well I held her hands and felt she still uses Johnson Baby Soap. They were soft like butter and I always love caressing them. (Not every day you get to feel heaven) All the time she was talking about something or the other. When you are holding your girlfriend’s hand like that, you only hear but never listen. I think she noticed that I wasn’t listening to her so she decided to bring me down to this world with a peck on my cheek. But with that touch of lips, she took me to another world. “Man!. This love will kill me alive me someday”.

We were damn hungry and in no mood to go to the mess. My love for Pizza always loses the war against her love for Dosas and Vadas. With her, my eating habits have certainly gone south but when she feeds those small bites of dosa our LQ(Love Quotient) goes north. Dosa always makes me lazy. I slowly went flat and slept on softest pillow I ever wished for, her lap. While she was happily running her hand through my hair, I was just enjoying that feeling. She always makes me feel lucky to have her in my life and rightly so. I was reading her out a few lines I wrote for her in class.


Girl whose face looks like freshly blossomed jasmine
Girl who cast her beautiful magic is always mine
Girl who comes taking small steps like a deer
Girl who wears infectious smile, that’s you my dear

By end of the word dear, she had melted like an ice cream. Girls love their praising and in that effort feel so shy that you see that beautiful happiness oozing out of their facial expressions. And I was witnessing that after a long time. Experience can’t be explained. I just kept watching her face. Cho chweet cutie pie.

I slept for an hour. When I woke up, she was sitting still, in no mood to disturb my sleep. I’m always happy to know she loves me so much. Did I tell, I returned back her loan that very moment with interest and principal? Yeah. I kissed her on both the cheeks. When she offered her cheeks so obediently, there was so much innocence yet grace. That touch is magical. Is this the feeling that they call being on Cloud Nine? Then it certainly was. Sweet talks with you hundreds of hours.Romantic glances at you millions of times. Hugging you with care countless. Spending life with you PRICELESS

'Love'ly Moments 'Love'ly Feelings

There was much anticipation when the month of February arrived. Her antics and talks made me feel she loves me. But three golden words of 1 4 3 never slipped out of her mouth, though they had slipped out of mine thousand times without being acknowledged. However I never lost hope or may be I was born to be optimistic. I felt if at all she loved me, she will confess this Feb 14^th or she never will. Finally D-day was at my door step.

It was 11.40 PM on 13^th Feb and my eyes started dragging me into the world of sleep. Damn sleep !!! Whenever there are any exams or tests you tend to be more sleepy. Feb 13^th being a night before my test of love was no different. Even the urge to know her feelings could not stop me. I dozed off unknowingly. Suddenly my sleep broke at 1 AM. Picked up my cell to see “2 Messages Received”. Both were from her. I became anxious now. First one I opened to find a forwarded friendship message. I was like “Oh god, why are you not upgrading me from a pal to be with her every pal(hindi,moment)?” (Somewhere at the back of my mind, Pyar Dosti Hai line also flashed in bold red colour). But I wanted an affirmative answer, either Pyar or dosti. I did not even think that second message will make distinctions very clear. Yup, you guessed it right. Hold your breath. “Happy Valentine’s Day dear. I love you so much” message sealed our future and solved my life’s biggest puzzle. I will not say I toiled hard for this day, but I surely never relented in my efforts to woo her. I think she was waiting to make my day and what a day she chose. Perfect 10 sweetheart.

Next day morning we met at a friend’s place to see each other’s smiling(beaming) face. As a perfect valentine’s day gift to share my lovely joy with my would-be-wife, I took a pink teddy bear and loads of Dairy Milk chocolates. She smiled all the while. Lot of sweet talks flowed in those 4 hours. What we spoke that day will remain secret as we held them between our tightly held hands J

I formally proposed her. It wasn’t a typical “I love you, do you love me?”. In one sms she asked me to write some four lines about her. I was thinking “Oh my girl, JUST FOUR LINES?” How could I explain an epitome of love, a replica of Venus in just 4 lines? But I chose words judiciously, framed them cautiously and sent it hurriedly. It was well past 2 AM. I was trying to keep my eyes open and see her reply. 10 long minutes flew past me. Did she sleep off? Nope. My cell vibrated, so did my heart. She agreed to my proposal by writing few romantic lines for me. WOW. Indeed an ecstatic feeling of “SHE IS MINE”. More phone calls whenever we got time and cute little messages every now and then followed. [ Airtel stock prices have shot up 70% YoY in our one year of love]. Literally we never slept. Messages flowed between 7AM to 5AM. I was her sweet apple and she was my cutie pie. There is so much sweetness in the name your partner calls you. Everything is “cho chweet”.

We both are eagerly waiting for our D-day when she can be in my arms all night. I want to sleep in her lap, she should caress me with her fingers slowly running through my hair. She should let her long hairs fall on my face, bring her face near to mine and we slowly become one and ……….

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'Caste'ing Couch

I am always proud to be an Indian and would call it "my country" whenever I have to make any reference to India. But when I have to mention something about the caste based system followed in India(still followed) , I don't feel bad calling "my country" as India.. "Jo Kabhi nahi jaati usi ko 'Jaati' kehte hai" ,was the famous quote from movie Swades. But what India is achieving by following this age-old system of relating a person to his caste. I will write my own and others' experience in this blog. And dedicate this to all the ppl who have been victims of the bloody traditional system.

Maybe it was somewhere during school days a teacher was asking us to raise our hands by screaming out all the castes he could remember. We were hardly 10 years old so naturally did not know much difference what it means to be a Brahmin,Lingayat,Muslim or Christian..Our impression of caste/religion was just a different food habits and its taste :) Non-hindus were Non-vegetarians. Thats where the comparison ended for us. As we grew up, we felt or made to feel being children of different gods.(or others were deemed to be children of lesser god!!)

I was just happy enough to call myself a Hindu and nothing more. Friends’ caste or status hardly made any impact on us, as we used to measure the closeness with “gelling well” factor than anything else. So it was all fun then. In school when they used to give scholarships to SC/ST guys we never knew what those castes meant but we were just jealous that those guys are getting some money.(scholarship of 100-200rs and concession for yearly fee of 65Rs itself was richness in those days).. Days passed by, we were promoted to high school and became more aware of environment surrounding us. Studying 3 years of Sanskrit made us feel that we are chanting mantras and slokas like priests do in temple and we assumed that we are “Holy Boys”

So when did I start feeling the real starkness or bloody difference ? We finished up important phase of anybody’s study phase..Second PUC.. We being science students and always had that dream of getting into our “dream” college with exceptional marks in PU and CET.. Though it was not all that tough to get into any college as Karnataka boasts of Engineering college hub than any state in India.. But to get into so called esteemed colleges one needed 2 digit CET ranks. That’s when I came to know there is something called as Quota System and anyone who has 4 digit rank also gets into such institute. That’s where my experiences of childhood jealousy of “other” guys turned into “anger” against the worst system of India.

But who is to blame for it? Ambedkar back in 1947 had thought about the plight of “untouchables” and wanted to bring them into mainstream. And I would say in every word he was right. But there should have been review of the provisions made for them on periodic basis and entry points for someone to be called as “backward” should have been redefined. No one did it. Why?? SC/ST/OBC forming a major chunk of vote bank politicians never had the guts to face the so called “wrath” of “their” people. So using the loopholes of the system all “forwardly backward” people too benefitted.

But after seeing recent upsurge of the communal divide in India, my brain goes crazy. Division of people based on their caste is much more worse than what I thought it to be.
There is something more to it. Crazy people(from certain group) turning up against Christians at one place to protest against conversion and terror attacks in different places with intentions of targeting common people should be condemned. One national party taking side of Hindus and the other party taking stand for other religion is really a dangerous sign for the country. We are in fact left with a choice of the bad among the worst. It is said “Follow the Leader” but in our case Leader himself doesn’t know where he is leading, so how can we even trust him. I am sorry to say that I am an Indian with such a worst scenario back in “my country”. I just wish that better sense prevails among the people and everyone live happily together. That’s too much of idealism but what’s wrong in dreaming good, if that brings happiness to all of us.

Tour De Paris

It all started on beautiful September weekend. A week after I turned 26, I thought let me start conquering Europe with a so called Romantic place PARIS.(but without a romantic partner,indeed.. Main aur meri tanhayee aksar ye baatein..whatever)..

Got up in the morning at 5 o clock as I had to catch my Eurolines bus to Paris @6.45AM. Rushed up and got ready at 6.15.. Suddenly I see that next available bus/tram is @6.35. Oh My GOD..What will I do?? But no option like in Bangalore of catching any auto :) Now I know money can't buy you everything..and definitely u can't buy anything that early morning.. I reached the Eurolines stop exactly @ 6.45.. Oh the bus has started already. I waived my hand and for my luck the bus stopped. I asked is this bus going to Paris? And he said u r late buddy. (in his mind,he wud have said, Indians will never be on time.. Kya kare..hamare yahaan aisi achchi aadat nahi logon ko).. But finally he took me in with quiet a horrible stare..Who cares..Its PARIS TRIP..

I was dreaming that some nice girl will sit next to me in the bus and I will have a dreamy romantic journey to Paris.. But never in my wildest dream I had thought a horrible lady will come n sit with me..But worst things do happen.. So throughout my journey I kept looking outside the window..

After 5.5 hours of journey I landed @ 12.30PM. I had experience of Metro in NY, so taking metro to my hostel(ABsolute Paris) was an easy task for me. Quickly reached hostel,checked in,kept my clothes and started off from there.

If you are a bachelor/group of bachelors out to explore, you can book cheap hostels from this site. They are almost there all over Europe:

http://www.hostelworld.com/

Things to keep in my mind if u r exploring the city all alone

a) Note down your route map - which metros to take to reach a place and try out shortest path approach. The following link gives you Metro map of Paris(however all hostels provide a city map but still..)

http://www.ratp.info/orienter/f_plan_ang.php?loc=reseaux&nompdf=metro&fm=gif

b) Carry enough water bottle and snacks (apple,biscuit,chocolates) - tourist places are bit costly and vegetarians will surely have tough time in foreign country.

Destination 1: Palais Royal-Musee Du Louvre

-->Metro lines - 1 and 7 go to this stop directly

There were already too many ppl lined up to get into the museum..But as there were many counters I got in 10 mins.. 9 Euros entry fee + 6 euros for audio tour of museum. I would advise you to buy that audio tour as it will explain the importance of the sculpture/paintings/art structure. Otherwise u will end up knowing nothing about the things in Louvre.

I had heard a lot about Louvre ofcourse in reference to Gr8 MonaLisa painting. So instead of jumping directly to that painting section, I planned to explore museum floor by floor.

Medieval Louvre with its old structures reminded me of my childhood days. It has resemblance to fort structures I used to visit in Badami.