Mineral King -- a hidden secluded Gem

If you plan to visit Mineral King, do not take your camera, because every minute you spend adjusting and taking a picture, you will be seeing that minute less of the beauty of nature. If you think this is an exaggeration of expression, I will wait for you to visit Mineral King and say " you know what dude! you were right". One more piece of information, I took my camera and it has a 4GB memory card, and my memory was full in first hour of my visit. Mineral King is a valley in the Sequoia National Park. Its closed for all of the winter ( from Nov 1st to June). The drive to Mineral king is torturous, the mineral king road is a single lane road with countless hairpin bends. Since I was enjoying the beauty of Mineral king road, it took 2 hrs for me to drive the 25 miles. The dense trees on the road make you feel you've been transported to some tropical location. I took numerous stops to enjoy small water streams, big sequoia trees, some chirping of birds and occasional deer spotting. A midst all this drive and hiking at the valley, I hardly saw 15 people, in total, believe me on that. Even the Park Ranger station had no people there. On the hike infact, I was alone. In the middle of the valley, which has a sign board " Active Bear Area", I was alone, a little apprehensive, but what the heck, I cared less, because I was enjoying the beauty of the valley so much. On the beauty of the valley: I was trying to search for some phrases that can describe the valley, "Rendezvous with Nature", "Forget-Yash-chopra-song-location" etc etc. but truly speaking, all these will not make any sense till you visit the valley. The only regret you can ever have, after visiting Mineral King, is of not having spent enough time there.

High-handed

Today is one of those days, when I use words or do things that are so uncharacteristic of me. Result, I had moments of remorse. But when I ponder over a bit, I realize, being proud, or rather being pompous, is one of those last bad things I want to do in my life. Let me put it this way, if I had a list of things, I DID NOT want to do in life, starting with least bad and ending with most bad. Taking drugs would come before being pompous in that list.

So why does this happen? its that one compulsive moment. Just that one compulsive moment, when you are dis-honest to yourself. Sometimes this is driven by situation, a situation that decides its compulsion. But sometimes its not so much situation driven, it just happens, like Sachin Tendulkar will walk for "most" of the times when he has nicked a ball, but there have been those compulsive moments when he has not walked. All of us might have had these compulsive moments, in a gamut of forms, from getting angry to being coward, from wanting to lie to ogling, from being dis-respectful to elders to questioning the existence of God.

But yes, this compulsive moment is what differentiates, the great from the ordinary, and the ordinary from bad. Its very important to develop a "Character" that does not create this compulsive moment. I have promised myself to work towards this "Character" that doesn't have compulsive moments of being pompous, because frankly, one cannot be pompous on achievements that are based on sacrifices made by others. I pray to God, to give me enough strength and resources to develop this character free of being pompous.

If there is anything I want to be pompous about, it would be sharing love with my loved ones.

Feeling Special!

I can't remember when I had this kind of feeling... probably never.... its different. On cloud 9, no, that sounds unreal. This is real, difficult to believe but its real. Its better than a feeling of winning a hard fought prize in a tough competition. This feeling is not comparable to accomplishment, satisfaction or victory. Its just making me smile, all day, at everyone, sometimes even scaring because I wouldn't remember if I crossed an intersection despite the red signal. Its making me forgive people, if I had anything against them. I am not even bothered with what is going to happen with the most-important-critical-crucial India Pakistan semi final.

Princess and the Vagabond ... contd.....

The princess speaks...

You are right, I had my self beguiled
I should've known, me ain't a destiny's child
but turn of events is ever so worse
never realized, my prosperity is my curse

I will not stop myself, I will cry
moist,my eyes may seem, soon they will run dry
no words to describe my hearts excruciating pain
nothing can ever hurt me so much, that is what I gain

you looked into my eyes, when you held open that lions jaw
your smile allayed my worry and I was just in complete awe
Uncouth you may be to people,I just saw you as man with valor
When you smiled at me and you did my life a favor

Few seconds of eye contact, that seemed to last a lifetime
right there and then, I lived my life, everything so perfect and sublime
You smiled and laughed with other women, I acted impervious
in truth, I thought of beating them to pulp, I was so jealous

Life stops for none, and it will not for me
crumbled, my dream lies, of together we
Happy, I know, I will never be in life again
But I Promise, I will pretend like having no pain.

Sad Sad Sad Sad Sad Sad Sad Day.........

"Sit down for a minute guys" he said as we were just about to finish a meeting and get back to work. "What is it?" some of us questioned in a humorous way thinking he would be talking about his retirement. "It is about doctor.." this sentence from him, changed all of our faces into grave."It seems I have a cancer.. and this might be my last day in office... i am going for a surgery next week" as he said this, his eyes turned red and moist. This is way too much for a person like me to handle, here is a person, who lived a terrific adventurous life, who invented stuff that feeds atleast a 100 families and brought smiles to more than 10,000 individuals, who helped every individual that came to him, why does he have to go through this? it wasn't about the cancer, it was about the way he expressed. His eyes were moist, may be not because he had cancer, but because he had to stop what he loved to do, work, innovate and be amongst individuals he treated like family.

There was a pin drop silence and all of us were looking at each other with grave clue-less faces. We didn't know what to say, we've never seen him sit and do nothing, always working, always innovating. He was rated 9.98 on a scale of 10 by his students in university when surveyed about the best teacher they had. When you tell him, "at some point we should do this", his answer would be "lets do it now!". Yes, thats how we know him, "Do it Now". It was funny, how, one fine day, he walked into office, and said "I am thinking of building a baseball pitching machine", a Doctor thinking about a baseball pitching machine, did you think he was kidding, coz we thought so, but he wasn't, he actually started looking for people who sell the parts used in making one. I had all these flashes.

"Its sad" one of his dearest colleague said, "I know, but it is what it is" he answered.

He sighed and dropped another bomb "Okay, lets get back to work". He worked just as before for the rest of the day. But because of his 5 min talk, none of us could concentrate on work for all day, whenever we had time we talked about him, strange how some people leave impact on you.

just one of those days

Just one of those days..when you get up in the morning and your intuition says
.."this day is gonna be bad "...and here I am...writing a blog on my frustration on a tiny mobile screen..in a extremely frustrated state ...I mean come on...writing a blog on mobile...I have seen better days....any events turned out exactly as my intuition said in the morning... and day ends with sachin getting out cheap..laptop crashing...videos turning out bad....and sleeping with a hungry stomach..hope this internet connection stays put till I publish this blog....

So..given a chance to restart this day would I have done anything different ...the answer from the deepest part of heart is No.. I have chosen what I will go through... and I dont mind that ... only if I could teach a lesson to my intuition perhaps????? ...

Chain of Jealousy

I see myself running on this path of life as a 5 yr old, wild and free, caring a little about world and emotions, definitely very little about the destination. No Chains Attached.

As I grow up on that path, still running, I slow down, not knowing why? There are others running with me too now, I am stronger, I am mightier , yet slow. When I allow my conscious, to move out of my body and act as a mirror, so i know whats holding me, I am surprised to see those chains tied to me.

Chains on my hands, chain tied to my hair, chains on my legs, these chains had a text attached to them, fear, money, lust, attachment, anger, jealousy.

I want to be free, so I apply every ounce of energy I have, to break these chains, I feel my muscles tear apart, but I don't give up. I break free from those chains with shattering sound, giving me extreme sense of gratification.

But the chain of Jealousy is still holding on to my leg, the harder I try the stronger it gets. The thoughts,why am I not that entrepreneur on the cover of popular magazine, why am I not the person she writes about, why I don't drive the expensive car that my friend does, these act as steroids to the chain of Jealousy, the more of these thoughts the stronger the chain gets. While everybody is moving forward, I am stuck there trying to break free from the chain. A situation of panic arises as I think I will be left behind.

Then I hear a thought from my sub-conscious mind, "there is more to life than adding pace to it". I calm down, I look at the chain, its thinner than before. Then I look closely, it has a button "look within", I press that button and I break free.

My Grandma

This is a imaginary story, my mothi-aai was really beautiful.

I loved holding her hand, and sometimes moved her back side of the palm against my cheek.The wrinkles, made me tickle. Although I had just stepped into the kindergarten, I understood that those rough hands were result of all the work she did, day-in day-out. She would clean my running nose and whenever I raised my hands signalling I was tired of walking, she obliged and picked me up on her shoulders. At night, she used to wait with the meal plate in her hand, while I used to run around and feed me with her hands when she caught me. Tired of all that running, I would lay in her lap and sleep before she finished her stories, and surprisingly wake up in the bed nicely tucked in a blanket.

All my friends in school laughed at her, some even got scared. She was old, she had her teeth sticking out of her lips, she was dark, her one eye had turned milky white because of the cataract and she was never dressed as neat as my mom or others. They said she was ugly, but for me, my Grandma was the most beautiful woman, I would wait for her to arrive after my school and tell her all that happened in school. I would talk non-stop and even irritate her with questions like "would you do that?". But I never saw her angry, she would smile and answer. I was everything for her.

Then I grew up, I started feeling she was indeed ugly. Now I didn't want to touch her hand, it felt so unclean. When she would try to hold my hand, I would be angry and ask her to let go. I requested mother not to allow her to drop me at school as my friends made fun of me, because she was ugly. I started avoiding her, sometimes by not answering her questions. I didn't want her around me. One fine day, mom said Grandma left for village for good. I was happy.

20 Yrs later, one day when i was driving my car, I get a phone call. Its my mom, telling me that Grandma had expired. Not that I had ever missed her in all these 20 yrs, but the news kind of shook me. For a brief second I felt the same wrinkled palm on my cheek. Only this time, that triggered tears and a thought "would God ever forgive me for whatever I did to her?"

Dive Experience

My heart is pounding, I see my fins through the mask, they look blurry. I put my regulator in the mouth, and breathe. As I get closer to the edge of the boat, my heart is pounding so hard that I feel its going to burst any moment. I breathe shallower and faster. All the noise on the boat, including instructions from Dive Master, start to fade away. All I can hear is my heart beat. I take a giant stride and bllllllluuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrpppppppppppppppppppppp ( I couldn't believe that I actually jumped in ocean).

For a fraction of second, there is pin drop silence and I just see the bubbles and wonder if i am ever going to surface. Good Lord, I do. "Are you OK?" the first thing I hear after I surface, I signal with my hand take the regulator out of my mouth, relax and laugh in jubilation. The first step is done.

After a series of instructions, we all decide to go down. I put my regulator back in the mouth, and take the air out of BCD. I start to sink, the only time I have been happy about sinking. As we go down my ear starts to hurt, this is very typical and is called a squeeze in SCUBA jargon. So I "equalize" and my ears are okay. I look up and the sight of bubbles reaching the ocean surface just made me smile. We go about 15 feet and reach at a point where there is lot of kelp. If you were ever left agape by a picture , where the sun rays are piercing a bunch of thick trees, just use some of your imagination, fill that picture with blue water, add a couple of orange fishes ( Garibaldi ) around those trees and imagine you are watching this picture floating in air. Thats what I got to see. Underwater, the bulky costume, the heavy weights, your air tank, all these don't bother you. You are like an astronaut, without gravity, literally.

We do some hand signals with buddies and instructor to let everyone know, that everybody is fine. And start to swim our way, we see a lot of blacksmiths, bat-rays, lot of snails. I even saw a crab skeleton. After a few minutes, the fishes feel that you are part of system, so they don't try to run away from you ( as long as you don't disturb them). So now, you have fishes swimming with you, wondering what sort of creature you are.

This kind of repeated in the next dive as well. On the third dive, I thought its getting little boring. So the moment arrives, the most beautiful thing I ever saw till date. The salp, I didn't have a camera under water (bummer huh), but the picture is a representation of what i saw, only that the formation was like leaves on a tree branch. I just kept staring at it, for minutes.

Princess and the Vagabond

Hold your hand for life that seems so wondrous
this thought of yours, so delusional and immature.
my life is full of uncertainties and so treacherous
I got nothing to offer you but a pitch dark future.

You live in grandeur with royals, intelligent and mild,
With everyone you share a love bond.
I live in barren trees, with animals dangerous and wild
I have no one, because i am a uncouth vagabond.

The palace is so high, that you look down to see fog
the dust of town dare not touch your heels
I share my dinner plate with my unkempt dog
wearing a footwear, i don't even know how that feels.

For you, my journey might seem an adventurous feat
infested with problems you will forget romance
when the thorns in my path would puncture your feet
you would be, infuriated with my nonchalance

This infatuation will die, bright future you will see
Dont fool yourself, thinking, it is I whom you need
She cried a little and turned her back to me
I stopped my tears and let my heart bleed

Utsav Sharma: A small candle light turning into huge fire?

Curious to know what happened to the Aarushi case. I opened up news websites, the case is very intriguing and so far lack of evidence doesn't allow any body to be indicted. As I read through the report, like CBI even I felt that her parents might have killed her. And the updated picture of her parents, Nupur Talwar and Rajesh Talwar was shown at the top. I saw that Rajesh Talwar had dressing on his both hands and a band-aid strip on his forehead. I was wondering what might have gone wrong.

At the end of the report it said, "Rajesh Talwar was attacked by Utsav Sharma outside Ghaziabad court". I told myself "wait a second... Utsav sharma... I have heard this name before". And all the news web pages i read in the past 6 months were flashing in my brain.

Utsav Sharma was the same individual who had attacked SSP Rathore, the accused on Ruchika Girhotra molestation case. Again outside court, where time and again justice was denied in both cases.

I am thinking, what a spirited soul that is. He is a man on mission, I don't know why news websites don't talk about him. 60% of the news website dedicated for karan johar b'day party photos, bollywood gossips but not much information about Utsav Sharma.

Utsav Sharma is reflection of the anger that resides in all young citizens of India. Taking law into hand is not the solution everytime. But as Guru Teg Bahadur says... "when all means of getting justice are denied, lifting of sword is just"

Dil To Baccha hain Ji : adorable in parts

First of all, its difficult to believe the transition of a director from making documentary type movies to light hearted commercial comedy, considering this is first intentional comedy ( Aan -Men at work was unintentional), Bhandarkar does a commendable job.

The movie is about 3 people and their quest for love. The most adorable among them is Naren, a 38 year old going through his divorce, starts finding love in 21 year old sub-ordinate. The character is aptly portrayed by Ajay Devgan. The most boring one is probably of Abhay or Abby played by Emran Hashmi, again nothing wrong with portrayal but just hackneyed storyline. Om Vaidya as Millind Kelkar does his part of getting few laughs.

The movie has a good laughs but not many and that makes it difficult to sit through it for that long duration. Its a typical masala movie that you can enjoy with your friends. The songs are good, "tu khwab hain.." stands out.

There are very few women who can seduce with their eyes, and Tisca chopra is definately one of them.

Dhobi Ghat - Fastidious Film making

Its one of those movies that feel "very very real" I mean it. I surmise that because its her first film and because there were high expectations, Kiran Rao shot this film with painstaking details so much so, it becomes a challenge for the masses,sometimes unendurable for not-so-masses, and a delight for the connoisseurs.

The story is about 4 random lives in Mumbai, and their not-so-random encounters with each other. All the 4 characters are portrayed and executed so nicely that its difficult to choose the best, but I would rate Prateik's character the best simply because I lived some (very few) parts of that life. What adds to all this is the back-ground music ( again, only for connoisseurs), its haunting. Some scenes are shot exceptionally, like last scene of Prateik, I am running out of words but yes you have to watch to believe me, or the scene in bazaar where Arun passes by shia and munna without noticing them.

Go watch this movie if ever in your life, you switched on the idiot box and there was a documentary being played on discovery channel and you liked it after enduring it for initial 15 mins. And must watch if you appreciate art( in any form).

somebody reminded me of this poem today.. again...

Whenever there is any discrimination or even differentiation between black or white, between hindu muslim, between north-Indian south-Indian,between marathi non-marathi I am reminded of this poem from my 6th standard. As they say, some poems make an impact of lifetime...

In Germany they first came for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me -
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

Failure is not an option

These words kept ringing in my brain when I was driving back. I put my car on cruise and as it happens sometimes, you are lost in thought and things around you happen and you really don't pay attention. The car lights on the street were like people in a party and my failure thought was "the" beautiful girl in that party. All I could see was that beautiful girl. Lame simile, well that is what a failure does to me.

If you thought that was lame, here this, on the way back, I told myself "so what, even Martin Luther King Jr. failed" ( just so you know, it was his day today) then I came to senses and told myself "HOW DAMN LAME, a swimming test failure to Martin Luther King Jr's struggle for rights".

Then I smiled, I smiled at myself. Like when I do something extra-ordinary I needed a mirror. So I swing the sun visor down ( I spent 10 min on google to find this part name in a car) open up the mirror and give myself a smirk. I have failed a zillion times in life, so much so, sometimes I spend the entire night thinking about my failures. But the only way they have affected me, is to get better, to face them and not accept defeat so easily ( I repeat so easily, I might, but not so easily).

Then I do my favorite act, the chewing gum act. Pretend you have chewing gum in your mouth(even if you dont) and put an "So what, IDGAF" expression, increase the volume of the song played and sing along :).

The "Dream" journey to Salvation

The strong stream of the river was scaring me and I was too nervous to take that step.

"Like I said you have to trust me on this!" I look up to see someone(never seen before, never heard before) leading me.

"huh" I respond to him, like I came out of my scary thoughts.

"Take the step, have faith" he tried to instill faith in me.

It was difficult to believe, in that strong stream of river, as he took steps, a log of wood would come in the stream and stop right at the place where he was going to step, he would step on that, walk on that and just when it appeared he reached its end another one appeared.

I close my eyes and decide to follow him, as I am about the place my step, I see that the log of wood coming in the stream and stop right where I would place my step. Same thing happened with me, I step on it, walk on it and just when I would reach its end, another wood block would come near by and I jump on it.

We crossed the river and reached a deserted town, not a single soul around. I would just see the houses, not very big, but typical old Indian houses made of bricks and limestone , call them pristine or dilapidated.

"Everybody migrates this time of the year, to the other side of the mountains" my leader continued.

He opened the window of a house and asked me to get in, I got in, I see a picture frame, I tell myself, "I know these guys" but I cannot recollect.

He opens door to a tunnel like thing and asks me to get in and sleep in that.

"If nobodys around why can't I sleep here" I was probably pointing at a bed in hall.

"Its not safe" a terse answer that kind of scared me and I agreed and slept in that tunnel.

As I wake up, I find myself walking in a dense forest.

"Did you have a good sleep?" He asked and I wondered how could I be walking in sleep.

I do not answer him but continue to follow him in that dense forest.

We reach at a point where there is a pitch black tunnel, standing at the entrance of that he says "Come with me.."

Just as the thought about my life and me returning to my loved ones around appeared in my mind, he disappeared. I decide not to walk into that tunnel.

And my alarm wakes me up.

No One Killed Jessica

The last time I saw the story about a woman fighting a judicial system and against powerful family was in Damini and it was inspiring and engaging. Alas, Raj Kumar Gupta, couldn't do a Raj Kumar Santoshi. No One Killed Jessica is neither inspiring nor engaging.

The story is loosely based ( as claimed) on the Jessica Lal murder case. The repetitive dialogs, monotonous treatment to subject bore you to death. And rubbing salt is worst acting performances of almost everybody on screen ( except one or two). Even the characterization is so overdone that at some point you say "ENOUGH".

The only good think about the movie is the music, the peppy D-D-Delhi sticks in your brain.

Movie has few scenes that move you,my favorite being Sabrina explaining Meera how she is least interested in the case as it took away precious 6 yrs of her life, but seriously this doesn't deserve a trip to theater. Give it a miss, "Gee T.V pe dekhlene ka".