Quest for life

Last month I had attended a classical music festival of Bengal Foundation in Dhaka. It was an occasion well attended by Dhaka residents. I was surprised to see that the stadium was full to listen to Indian Santoor Player Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma and Table Player Ustad Zakir Hussain. I have never seen such a great crowd even in India to listen to these maestros. However, soon I realised that the crowd was there not only to listen to these great legends but also to participate in some sort of outdoor activity. Many diplomats told me that there is hardly anything to do in Dhaka for recreation and hence any opportunity that people get they want to avail it. This can be true as I saw the whole upper middle class and upper class people, dressed up for the occasion but there were very few who were paying attention to music. Most people were interested in having food or chatting with friends who they happened to meet in the event. Everyone could locate so many friends and acquaintances there th

This is 3rd January and here I am sitting at Doha airport waiting for my connecting flight to Baku. As usual instead of sleeping or reading I am watching people wandering at the airport and brooding over things. I must be staring at some Burqa clad lady because she just offered me nuts although she is sitting three empty chairs from me. A very cute way to tell me to stop staring :)This made me stop looking at people and do something constructive hence decided to write. This is supposed to be my first journey of 2016. I am thinking what is it that is different between this journey and numerous others that I have had earlier or will go on later. I realised that there is no major difference. So what makes this the first journey of the year? Why should it be a first or middle or last journey of the year? Is it because the date of the calendar has changed from 2015 to 2016? Why do we keep counting time? Why does our lives revolve around the calendars and watches? Of course it is necess

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