Quest for life

Sometimes I wonder what is it that makes people travel. Is it the natural curiosity to see other places, an urge to find what lies beyond familiar surroundings, better prospects in comparison with the current situation, need for a change, boredom, attraction of unknown, or in modern times it can also be a reason to boast amungst friends. People have different reasons to travel. Some travel to explore the world, find out about the unknown or unfamiliar things. Learning about new things is like being a child again. New things and alien cultures can surprise you and enrich your experiences. Trying new things and meeting new people expands awareness and makes you a more accepting person.  Some people travel to get away from the routine. They want to unwind and travel brings that much needed break to rejuvenate. They escape their daily lives for some period by traveling and it does give their mind and body a boost required to live a healthy life. Such people reduce stress and gain

Recently met a very charming French lady and we started talking about her travel experiences in India. She is a well traveled lady. I have also had few foreign travel experiences and although my ex-boss keeps teasing me about my travels saying that I have wings on my feet I feel that I do not travel enough. I should be in Modi's team to be considered well traveled:). I keep hoping PMO will call me and consider me to be part of the team:) ! Anyhow, back to the French lady and her experiences. While talking about our experience of different places and different cultures we started talking about stereotypes. We both agreed that stereotypes do exist and some of them are fairly common to that particular culture. Hence Stereotypes can be taken as fairly typical of various cultures. This can be a fairly offensive statement for few die hard liberal people who think that we can't generalize people and nations like that. Intellectuals may consider it too simplistic to believe in stere

Recently, one guy told me that when he was a child he used to race with the rains. As soon as he said that I could picture a lanky dark guy in loose cotton shirt and shorts, barefoot, racing with rains and enjoying this pleasurable shower on his face and body and caring about nothing but following the direction of the rains. For those who have never seen tropical rains in the mountains it would be difficult to picture this but for those of us who have seen sheets and sheets of rain changing directions with the winds know that racing rains can be fun. When the rain is pouring and you can see it changing directions or speeding to one side or the other, children do race the rains. Have you noticed that as we loose childhood and innocence we also loose the ability to enjoy being in the moment and behaving carefree as we did when we did race the rains. Children have this amazing quality to live in the present. For them the concept of time is mostly defined by their ability to enjoy the p

This is my third trip to Dhaka. The first two were short and hectic but this time I have plenty of time and hence this post.  At first glance everything seems so gloomy. Political situation is not what it should be. The security situation is worsening. I see intolerance and distrust. The social situation at first glace is even worse than it is in Nepal. Human rights situation is bad and so is gender parity. The environment is in real bad shape and so is general health of people. However when I visited Dhaka University I immediately was filled with hope. Here was the youth full of hope and dreams.  The university was established in 1921 and Curzon Hall is one of the attraction of this building. However, the impressive architecture is not what made me feel good but the general atmosphere of the university.  Here was a normal university scene like it would have been in Delhi or in any other university in any part of the world for that matter. I could see male and female students

Recently, I changed my "Whatsapp" status to Seeking, searching, looking, delving, hunting, gunning, pursuing.....". The remarks I got for this status are quite amusing. Some people only took the later part of status of "hunting, gunning" etc. and asked me whats going on. I told them that I am exactly doing what is written in the status. But it is mostly for knowledge and experiences, and not for a man as they seem to understand or imply. Isn't it amazing how people perceive as per their limited experience and knowledge and then insist that there interpretation is the right one. I should admit that I used to be like that too and have never been a keen observer. A quality that I am trying to develop only so late in my life. Observing your surroundings can teach you so many things that you don't learn from books. Life's most interesting and important lessons can be derived only by observing people and overall happenings around you. This is part of s

I have just realised that one witnesses maximum amount of family politics at the time of a death in Family. I would have thought it would be more at the time of weddings but I now realise that it is more when someone dies. I recently had a death in my family and this is the conclusion I have come to. I usually avoid going to such family gatherings but when you do go you get amazing lessons in patience and also in human tendencies. You will have cruel aunts, smart cousins, petty cousins, greedy uncles and drama queens under the disguise of well meaning in laws etc. etc. Everyone is doing better than you and everyone has an advise for you. You wonder how can life be so good for others and be a bitch for you. You feel miserable but at the same time self righteous. Aren't you the good one. At least you are not the one who pretends or snatches someone else's share or is a hypocrite or greedy or conniving or back biting. Have you ever thought how do you become soooo good. Well, is

Is it possible to love without expectation? To me it is hard to comprehend. We are raised in such a manner that we can't fathom that it is possible or at least I can't. Each loving relationship that we have seems to be based on the basis of reciprocation. Our parents brought us into this world hoping that we shall give them the sense of happiness and in eastern cultures it may also be an insurance for the old age. Expectations are many different things. We expect all sorts of things in our relationships; security, communication, intimacy, affection, sex, companionship, love, appreciation, boost to our self esteem, money, boundaries, values, goals and many other things. In fact we even have expectation from our own selves. We don't love ourselves without expectation. We don't even accept ourselves the way we are. We have to look a certain way, be a certain way and feel a certain way so that we can love ourselves completely. Isn't it true? So when there is a talk abo

I was in Bangladesh last few days. What a country! Makes you reflect about many things. I was not at all in reflecting mood and was quite busy chasing government officials to get my file moving but still the newspaper headlines, the appalling disparity and general life style of people made me think about fate. One gentleman in Dhaka described fate to me in the following manner; if you are born as a bull in the upper part of Ganges then you are worshipped and if you are born as a bull in lower part of Ganges then you are killed and eaten and that's fate for you. How true! Am I not lucky to be born in India and not in a country where one third of the females are married before the age of 15? I have been given education and freedom to choose my work and yet I get pissed when my parents object to my wearing some dress which is not conforming to social standards of "their" (I have stopped considering myself as part of that one) society. If you can detect the paradox in my p

At this point of time I am going through a difficult phase of my life. It doesn't feel as difficult until I start thinking about it deeply. Then the reality sets in and I feel "oh my God what have I gotten myself into". Come to think of it, everything is in your mind. You can feel happy and sad by just thinking differently about the same situation. It is your heart which makes noises and doesn't let you be at peace when things are not going the way it desires. There is another thing that makes us miserable and that is our expectations from others. We give but expect back the return. I am doing the same and that is what is causing me misery. I am feeling that I should get back some of what I have been giving. Worse still, I am not only feeling it but demanding it from the other in so many words. Makes me feel very small but can't help it. I think heart has taken over my mind for sometime. However.....I know that I shall be alright soon. My heart will stop bein

I am in a strange mood today. Nothing special or nothing wrong but still it is not on a good side. I don't like moody people but to tell you the truth I must be one of the moodiest one. I hope that this mood swing is over soon. I don't like to be this moody.

So, today I was listening to U2 and the song 'With or Without you' which is my favorite song. And that for the first time I was not charged emotionally while listening to this particular song. And wow, what a good thing it was. It got me thinking. Why is it that it is necessary for us to live with or without someone? Is it because we are positioned by the society in such a manner that we always feel it that way or nature has made us that way? Why is it that there has to be a 'You' in our lives. Why can't we feel complete all on our own? God has sent us alone and he takes us back like that too. Still almost all our lives we are after this 'Mrigtrishna' (mirage) of happiness which we feel comes from being with someone. I feel happy alone too. I would like to share my happiness with someone but this does not mean that the other person influences my state of mind by being or not being there. I feel happy with myself and I feel that if I am happy with me then

Being Positive Does it pay to be positive all the time? I was just wondering why people insist that one should stay positive all the time. I am a happy go lucky girl but even I feel down sometimes and there are times when I just want to feel a teeny- weeny bit sorry for myself just give loads of sympathetic talk to my sorry self. It gives me excuse to do nothing and it can also give me excuse to eat chocolates which my trainer has strictly prohibited me. Sometimes I feel that all good things are related to sin. Why should bad girls have all the fun? Just imagine just for eating chocolates one has to feel sad and lonely. Is it fair? Anyhow, am reading ‘The breakthrough experience” by Dr D’martini. The book says that we should live a balanced life and should be able to see opportunity in every crisis and disaster in every elated moment. Until we see the balance in life we can’t be grateful and unless we are in deep gratitude life will keep attracting what we are trying to avoid

WHEN INTUITION GOES WRONG When I started this blog I had thought that I shall write regular columns on my travel experiences and shall start a journey to be a successful blogger. Alas, isn’t it amazing how many plans we make. If I was to make a wall out of the plans that I make, I am sure it shall beat the Great Wall of China many times over. I travelled to Nepal, Kenya, Dubai, US and Morocco in last 8 months and no articles to show for it. Well..... I was busy, had no time, very hectic job and the biggest one “I have to work 6 days a week” are the usual excuses that I try to give my other self which keeps shaming me on my behaviour. The self scolding we do may be enough to really put us down but then our other confident self comes to rescue and says but all of these things are true and that I have been BUSY. Ok so enough of the excuses. I have decided to write my experiences on the blog. I am not going to limit it to travel experiences. This is going to be a place where I let my