Invictus

Unconquered. That's what 'Invictus' stands for. It's a inspiring poem by William Ernest Henley when he was just out of his recovery bed.

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

I happened to watch this movie with the same title based on a story of how Nelson Mandela found inspiration in this poem and passed it to the captain of Springbok, that was mainly a minority white team playing Rugby for South Africa, which helped the team move towards victory.

What I really liked about the entire story was the strategy that was used by Mandela to bring the apartheid torn nation united. That's how a true leader thinks. Devoid of any malice and purely for the upbringing of the nation. We need to learn from Mr Mandela. Brilliant movie and brilliant direction with a brilliant message.

What Makes You Beautiful?

A pretty face, a lovely sight,
Every man would wish to see her everyday and wish to think of her every night.
She indeed had those charming looks,
To entice equally the good and the crooks.
And with beauty and brains to combine.
She looked heavenly, she looked divine.
But at the heart she was a devil.
Something on her mind was always evil.

Very next to her lived this simple girl.
Who wasn't pretty to look at but was a dark pearl.
Though she smiled but that was very rare,
And rarely did she open the bundle of her long hair.
Though her looks never gave anyone a start,
But the best thing about her was her beautiful heart.
And if someone stopped by even for a little favor,
She would never ever say never.

So beauty lies in looks or being?
Does it show with showing or in doing?
Which of the two girls within you is prominent and would rule?
It is for you to think and decide, what makes you really beautiful?

And Even When I Longed For It...

Wants and more wants and running behind them like crazy.
Weird and lost, the way seemed so hazy.
When everything was just there they still were lost.
Frozen and cold and refusing to defrost.
From the window pane now all left was dark and wet.
And even when I longed for it, the sun began to set.

There was a pretty time when things were not the same.
I could control them, they were something I could tame.
Life was busy though, but it was happy and gay.
And everything I wanted all happened in my way.
Even the memories of that time give such a joyful feeling.
I wished I could go back and I'm more than willing.

But now I've come so far that the wants need to be met.
And even if I long for it, the sun will always set.

Imagine

Imagination. A world that has no restrictions, no boundaries. A world that is untrammeled and unbridled. A world that has no limits and is free to fly wherever it likes...

I enjoy spending time in this world of imagination. I enjoy dreaming. I enjoy imagining that everything looks beautiful and if it doesn't then it will.

I felt at peace when I just heard this song in the morning by John Lennon. It still brings the same freshness and smile that it brought when I first heard it. Every line of it has a true meaning. The song leaves you with an indubitable feeling that it comes right from the bottom of the heart of the writer.


Imagine - John Lennon (cover) | Upload Music

It's every worth imagining as long as it is constructive and leaves a lasting positive impression on peoples' hearts. Making peace with yourself and the world is so very important. If it's not happening at the moment then nothing should really stop your imagination in which the peace begins to get real. After all, there is always a blueprint that precedes the masterpiece edifice, which later goes to become a real structure. You may say that I am a dreamer and if you are not then I'm sure you will soon join me :)

But It Rained

It began drizzling today. The mud gave a sweet and pleasant smell. I wished it lasted forever. Swiftly I ran down the memory lane with memoirs of all the rains that I had had in my life hitherto. Some good and some bad.

Incidentally, I also heard the beautiful song by Parikrama in the morning. An excerpt of the story taken from Parikrama's website http://www.parikrama.com/bir/story.html says:

thousands are reported missing each year...
this is about those who are left behind

" ... Meanwhile, relatives of the four kidnapped tourists are back in the country to make yet another appeal. It has been a year now since the abduction, and the last seven months have seen little but a stony silence.”

"Amid reports of illness, injury and threats of death, was the uncertainty of not knowing what to believe ... she did not even get to say goodbye" said the wife of one of the hostages. More appeals have been made some even by other militant organizations, but the message is ..."

This is an excerpt from a magazine report published more than 5 years ago. It hit us in the face then, it still tingles in the spine each time. We wrote this song then, in an effort to feel the uncertainty, the futility, ourselves. To share the yet shimmering hope of those who are left waiting for a loved one. At times forever. It's worse still, not having even said a goodbye, or caught the last eye. As funerals are. Ceremonial farewells, perhaps?

Five long years, not a word, nor a trace. Some of them have still not given up, as we read in the papers recently. They wait, even today ... we can hear the strain ...

Written and featured wonderfully, the pleasant to ears rock song shot in remote Spiti Valley in the Himalayas (which is 12 hours from Rohtang Paas) will definitely touch your heart while it rains and even otherwise.

I quickly got over the bad memories of rains and rejoiced the good ones. Perhaps the bad ones were not so bad indeed. They had a lesson hidden deep inside.

One song and the feeling that one must count more on the blessings than wail on imprecations got so lucidly dawned. Indeed, life doesn't give you all sunshines and you never know when it might terribly rain.

Suddenly Someone

My eyes refused to close at night after the forty winks in the noon. It's been quite sometime since I'm in the USA and I'm feeling the heat of being here.

The place is relatively new and lonely. New because you don't find the Mumbai crowd jam packed with people that run healther skelther to catch the train bus or run to their workplaces and yet manage to reach late & lonely because you don't see a single soul walking on the roads arbitrarily the way you did back in India, all you see is just some vehicles zooming very fast.

It bites you every minute with the thought and want to occupy the somber looking drab but enormous space. The silence and loneliness could kill you if you were someone who loves being thronged by people. To add to it there are somethings that make me feel weird about being here. One such thing is being suddenly someone.

I never had an identity of being the most brilliant or a go getter or for that matter someone who wanted to achieve great heights hence a lot of people decided to quit being by my side simply for a reason that I was not upto their mark of being perfect. It broke my heart terribly and it would for anyone who felt that these were some important people in your life.

But it really makes me feel indignant that why I am suddenly someone now? What was wrong then? Perhaps I wasn't doing so good, but I didn't deserve to be thrown out of life for sure. Nevertheless, they have been important people as I have learnt what friends of good times are.

I thank God that atleast some people close to me had been there, are and will always be to stand by me in my thick or thin. For whom my being anything doesn't matter. They love and care for me the way that I'm. I'm someone for them no matter where I'm. And the best thing is that it is not suddenly...

Chandigarh

Chandigarh is the most planned and I can say the cleanest city in India. You have fines for litering on the roads and this state follows it religiously. The capital of Punjab, Haryana and a Union Territory in itself, it has 47 sectors of which sector 13 is missing.





Roads of Chandigarh: Aren't they spec clean and beautiful? The entire avenue has trees on both sides that gives such a soothing feeling to drive in between the roads.





























Rock Garden: Man made garden by Mr Nek Chand. For those interested in knowing about this place in detail you may visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nek_Chand.





























Buildings: The houses here have symmetry about their size. Throughout the same sector you will find them all with same colors and can easily confuse a new comer with number if he fails to get the wing under a particular sector that he intends to enter. Nevertheless, the buildings look awesome with brick work visibly carved on almost 80% of the structures.















Sukhna lake: It is Chandigarh's place of weekend visit the way Juhu beach is for Mumbai. It's a nice tranquil place where you will find enough stretch of road for strolling and eating chat :)
At this place there are some great painters that draw your pencil sketch just by looking at your face. That's something very unusual, right?
The romantic lake with ducks and swans that ride in it is a wonderful place to spend your time with someone you love :)












Rose Garden: Chandigarh is a house for ample of gardens of which this is perhaps the largest and occupies a land of 30 acre. Since I had visited this place in scorched summer I barely got to see a few varieties of roses intact. Otherwise there are around 1600 varieties of roses in this garden. It reminded me of Aarey Garden in Mumbai.














Sector 17: The cute little squrrel was literally running on the the roads of sector 17 of Chandigarh which is the biggest market of the city. Below is a glimpse of the market in the evening. Every sector has it's own small market but this one is the biggest. Just kind of an open mall area.





























Pinjore Garden: It's the most beautiful of gardens that you can ever visit. It falls on the route to Shimla from Chandigarh and definitely a must see.

History of the garden -

Entrance of the garden -

The side view of pinjore garden.

Jal Mahal inside the garden -

- The outside of Pinjore garden: The structure is fortlike and was our last stop on Chandigarh ride. I hope you enjoyed visiting some parts of North India through these pics :)

The Unsolicited

A chill runs down my spine when someone I don't even know expects me to be his friend. There were times when I din't mind being friends with the unknown and some of those once unknown people are good friends today.

But I must admit that I haven't been that lucky always. Few people have left a very deep impact on my naive understanding about human beings. I have learnt through some costly mistakes that not everybody on earth is good and that many wear a mask of goodness about them which otherwise seldom exists on their real face.

Just being from a very good college or working with a very good company or belonging to my community don't make you an eligible friend. And no doubt after my mistakes of making false friends I prefer being scrupulous enough in terms of choosing people that I would want to share my thoughts or any piece of information with.

A man is known by the company he keeps, so as a kid I preferred having no company instead of bad ones. But as I grew I felt that I could have been wrong. Perhaps, it was more of my own conviction that was required. If I'm strong enough then no company can change my conviction. But that's not the case. Unfortunately, you automatically get linked with the company.

So when I get poured with requests of people wanting to make friends with me, I find it very surprising that when I don't wish to join the unknown company, when I don't know the unsolicited person, when I don't share any common interest with him or when I don't see any reasons of why we must be friends, yet such people wish to befriend me.

Over a period of time I have learnt not to trust people easily. I have learnt to have an air of defiance about me and I refuse to shed this shield, the absence of which would harm me. I feel solace in the fact that I eschew these unsolicited people. No doubt then, I would continue to abjure them. And I prefer it that way.

There Is Nothing Cool About Smoking

Smoking probably looks and sounds very soothing and 'cool' to people who enjoy lighting the tobacco stick. But research proves it otherwise. An year's consumption of tobacco and cigarette can produce so much of tar in your lungs that if you squeeze them, they can fill a glass and this glass full tar can be sufficient to produce cancer that will make you sick, extremely sick.

Perhaps, smoking persistently causes one to have a craving for it and if not consumed at a frequent rate these guys tend to be missing out on something. But somewhere this habit needs to be broken because it adds to the inconvenience to many walking on the already muddy and potholed roads in our country .

Most importantly that it causes inconvenience to everybodys bodies, be it the smoker or the passive smoker. For non smokers like me, it's very irritating to see smokers smoke on the roads with all the liberty of littering the air at their hearts delight. The conditions go further irksome for sensitive lungs of people who have bronchitis and asthma.

Even after months of implementing the law of not smoking in public places people shamelessly puff the cigarette mocking the litigation as if it has no value. Perhaps it indeed doesn't have any because nobody is restricted or fined. As a matter of irony the public servants themselves don't try to implement this as a rule on their own selves so forget about the common people.

But smoking is a serious problem and needs to be addressed strictly. Worldwide statistics show a ghastly figure that the consumption of tobacco has reached the proportions of a global epidemic. Tobacco companies are cranking out cigarettes at the rate of five and a half trillion a year – nearly 1,000 cigarettes for every man, woman, and child on the planet. (courtesy: http://www.who.int/tobacco/en/atlas8.pdf ) At this rate cancer would love to spread its wings and embrace the world.

There have been some very sensible advertisements which show that smoking can cause harm to your lungs, heart and teeth; it can make you prone to cancer and will make your family a passive smoker; it will slowly kill you. But somehow the habit of smoking to the inveterate smoker seems so difficult to quit as if someone has asked him to remain hungry forever. Perhaps, he might not even mind remaining hungry if all he's allowed to do is smoke. But the question lies with us to answer that is it so difficult not to smoke or let the lungs breathe clean air?

I caught a good poem and some gruesome but real pictures from the net. I would be glad if it would help encourage even one person to quit smoking.

A Lesson Learnt Late

It was, I remember, many years ago,
When I had failed to distinguish between a friend and a foe,
When they had invited me ,holding open the pack,
When I lost to curiosity, instead of being taken aback,
When on that fateful day , for the first time,
I held a cigarette in my hand.

It was, I felt a part of being in the teens,
And what had started with a puff or two became a routine.
The smoke's illusion blinded me for as it arose,
Arose my spirits too, and I muttered to myself, "I can" because,
With a cigarette in my hand ,
I felt like a man.

Soon it came out in the open, for it had become a habit I could not hide,
I was helpless, for I could not help but continue,
Even when I knew, it was eating me up from inside,
I was sick...my body and my soul and I realized,
With the cigarette in my hand,
I was a dying man.

Soon I was just a lifeless form, a hollow,
People shunned me everywhere, I wished,
If only had I done something which others could follow,
But it was too late, I had taken the wrong path, and I was ignored, because
With a cigarette in my hand,
I was a hated man.

All the time, tears filled my eyes,
For people had bid me their good byes,
I wept because my cells , my body was choking ,
If only on that first day,my friends had been joking,
And then one day, the cigarette dropped from my hand,
I was a dead man

Believe me, smoking really ain't cool. It makes you look ugly. Very ugly.

My F1 Visa Interview Experience

When I got my I-20 from my desired University it was all thrills at home which followed with the onset of procedure for Visa Interview. I bought the HDFC receipts and then registered for the visa date. I got a date that was almost two weeks away from the registration date. That gave me ample of time to prepare for the interview. I had checked out on google for "F1 Visa Interview Questions" and got sufficient enough questions to prepare.

In the mean time I had been to VFS office to submit the photocopies of documents that they had asked for. There was one I-901 fee payment which I missed out on and was not even aware of till I had been to VFS office for photocopies submission. This year I-901 fee was $200 which is supposed to be paid through http://www.ice.gov/sevis/i901/index.htm.

After weeks of preparation for the D-day, finally I arrived at the VFS office that took me to the US Visa Consulate.

Prior, I bought the lounge coupon given by VFS office for Rs 250/- which proved to be helpful as I didn't have to stand in the big queue to go inside the consulate. Plus they provided a locker to keep my bag and stuff which helped me since I din't have anyone accompanying me for the interview. It helps even more if your interview is in the afternoon. Not that I'm promoting it, but I had seen some people standing in a big queue that was hardly moving as the time went beyond 10 o'ck. So I felt it helped because I got to get inside the office and sit there a bit earlier. But I had also seen some people who hadn't brought this coupon and yet managed to get in and finish with their visa interview before me.

During my time it was drizzling and single ladies were given first preference for going into the office. So even when my time was scheduled to be 8.15am, we were in the bus outside VFS office by 7.45 am. By 8.15am the ladies queue was ready to go inside the consulate. Before going in, your plastic bag and you go through a thorough check. Unfortunately, I had left a glue stick in my plastic bag which became a problem. They asked me to go out and throw it and then again I had to stand in the queue. Though it was a small one but my number jumped behind from 105 to 127 straight and that caused me a delay for interview call by almost an hour.

So never carry any electronic items, pens, glue sticks etc for your visa interview. You won't require them inside. Just carry papers.

Once inside, first you stand in the queue for taking your electronic finger prints and then you are asked to take a seat till they call your assigned number. I sat on a chair and it was past one hour. I was a bit tensed by now because all numbers before and after my number had been announced. I was afraid if I missed out on hearing my number. But soon the lady on counter number 13 called out my number along with the others which were in the series of number 300 and I rushed in first. It was 10.15am. By now I was a bit tired and thirsty because I din't have water since morning and there was no facility to have a glass of water in the consulate.

But the moment I met the interviewer I simply forgot all tiresomeness and thirst :) I was very glad. I greeted her "Good morning". She first asked me "Which course are you going there for?" , when I told her she looked at my I20 and told me that I had partial funding. I was surprised because I had a full funding. But this question popped up because my college had also put in the amount which they asked me to show as family funds during application in the column 8 of I20.

She asked me how was I going to make an arrangement for the rest of the money. I told her through family funds and told her that I could show her the papers. She refused to see the papers and asked me only to answer her questions. Then she asked me "What does your father do?", "What does your mother do?", "How much does your dad earn per year?" When I answered these questions she said "Well, your Visa is granted. Wish you a pleasant stay in the United States."

I came out with a smile . You can see that on everyones face who gets a visa.

I had also seen some people since morning whose Visa was rejected. Reasons varied. One girl was refused because she wasn't funded by her college and she couldn't prove that she had sufficient funds to go to the US.

I felt that it was better to be very well prepared and then not been asked for the documents rather than not taking some documents and then been asked for them by the interviewer.

Overall my preparation for the interview paid off. It's a nice experience and as my dad says it, "No one troubles you for any unnecessary reasons. And when you have a valid reason to go there then the question of rejecting your visa just doesn't arise."

Why are you still carrying her?

Two monks left on a pilgrimage leaving their temple of silver,
On their long and tiresome way they came across a river.
Near the banks they saw a lady in her own worry,
She was dressed in finery, emeralds and jewelery.

One of the monks went to her to ask her cause of tension.
She said,"There is only one that I would like to mention.
I want to cross the river wide and move on the other side,
But with the finery that I have worn it's difficult to cross the river wide."

The monk agreed to drop her on the other side of the river,
And so they crossed the river wide within almost an hour.
The monk left the lady on the banks and did forget,
The two monks together began their journey ahead.

After an hour the other monk began to complain,
"How come you walked with that lady in your alms in vain?
Why didn't you want the rules of monks to abide?
Why did you lift her to the river's other side?"

The monk initially decided to continue his quiet walk,
But the other monk had no intention to stop his talk.
The monk then replied with a small laughter,
"My friend I left her an hour back but why are you still carrying her?"

When The God In Your Own Heart Lurks With Hunger

There is a temple close to my house. As a kid I have played on this land where today the temple stands tall. There was a garden in that space where my granny used to take me to play. It's the place where I first began crawling on the soft grass.

Today the land is thronged more with crowd of people and many idols of Gods.

I see a lot of people gathering to gain peace of mind and blessings from the God. At occasions even I used to go and sit there. But over a period of time the crowd of Gods within the temple has grown with popularity. Today it looks more of a business than place of spirituality.

There are some people that beg on the roads. Many near the road. Losing their self respect. Some out of poverty, some out of helplessness, some out of laziness. Then there are some who donate - heavily to the God and to the poor and some meagerly to both. While some have enough only to give it to the God in return of a favor fulfilled by Him.

It's quite an irony...while the idol sits nicely in the temple, it gets bathed and prayed by the Pandits, and the temple gets closed for God to take rest but people are least cared about.

I wonder if God really resides in any of the temples we know when the one in the hearts of men is more asleep than awaken.

You feel sad about a lot of worldly happenings but all you can do is be a mute spectator.

While in the turmoil of these thoughts, I heard this beautiful bhaktigeet song by Sudhir Phadke, mused about its meaning and just felt, 'let me try to awaken the God in my heart'.

कुठे शोधिसी रामेश्वर अन कुठे शोधिसी काशी
हृदयातील भगवंत राहीला, हृदयातून उपाशी

झाड फुलांनी आले बहरुन, तू न पाहीले डोळे उघडून
वर्षाकाठी पाऊस धारा, तुला न दिसला त्यात इशारा
काय तुला उपयोग आंधळ्या, दीप असून उशासी

रुद्राक्षांच्या गळ्यात माळा, लाविलेस तू भस्म कपाळा
कधी न घेऊन नांगर हाती, पिकविलेस मातीतून मोती
हाय अभाग्या भगवे नेसून घर सन्यासून जाशी

देव बोलतो बाळ मुखातून, देव डोलतो उंच पिकातून
कधी होऊनी देव भिकारी, अन्नासाठी आर्त पुकारी
अवती भवती असून दिसेना, शोधितोस आकाशी

Link to the song is as below (Please press the play button once the site opens) :
http://www.mazafm.com/marathimusic/details.php?image_id=1231

For those who don't understand marathi, here's what it means:

Where do you search for in Rameshwar and Kashi
when the God in your own heart lurks with hunger

While the tree looks full with blossoms, you don't even care to see it with open eyes
Every year it rains and there are showers, but you can't even understand what they convey
What's the use O blind folded man, when you have a lamp but you keep it under your pillow

You wear a garland of Rudraksha, and apply a tilak on your forehead
Without taking a plough in your hand, you reaped pearls from the soil
But ultimately, you are so unfortunate that you leave your home and your people despised, just to become a hermit

God speaks through baby's lips, God shakes through tall peaks
Sometimes God becomes a beggar, and pleads for food
What a pity that when it's all near you, you can't see it and search for it in the skies

Unending Love

"Love is an endless mystery, for it has nothing else to explain it."
- Rabindranath Tagore

While his thoughts reflect beautifully in the lines above I managed to find from his collection, a heart touching poem that simplifies the connotation of love and spirituality of soul over and over, again and again. Here it is:

Unending Love

I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times…
In life after life, in age after age, forever.
My spellbound heart has made and remade the necklace of songs,
That you take as a gift, wear round your neck in your many forms,
In life after life, in age after age, forever.

Whenever I hear old chronicles of love, it's age-old pain,
It's ancient tale of being apart or together.
As I stare on and on into the past, in the end you emerge,
Clad in the light of a pole-star piercing the darkness of time:
You become an image of what is remembered forever.

You and I have floated here on the stream that brings from the fount.
At the heart of time, love of one for another.
We have played along side millions of lovers, shared in the same
Shy sweetness of meeting, the same distressful tears of farewell-
Old love but in shapes that renew and renew forever.

Today it is heaped at your feet, it has found its end in you
The love of all man’s days both past and forever:
Universal joy, universal sorrow, universal life.
The memories of all loves merging with this one love of ours –
And the songs of every poet past and forever.

- Rabindranath Tagore

Amritsar

Amritsar means "Lake of Holy Nectar". It's one of the oldest cities in Punjab and has a proximity to Pakistan. You can see acres of land irrigated for farming. The land is prolific with abundance of air, water, wealth, health and willingness of people to work. The mesmerizing view of Golden Temple and the Wagha Border parade are the few instances which give Amritsar an opportunity to take pride in itself.


The Golden Temple :


A night view of Golden Temple (or Harimandir Sahib) which is a home to Guru Grant Sahib which is the last guru of Sikhs. The shrine is the most fascinating one as for its history as well as its present. The entire top portion of the temple and its fencing are made up of pure gold, the work of which was accomplished under the great Maharaja Ranjit Singh.








This is the interior view of the temple at night. Worth watching and admiring. Everyone is supposed to cover their head while going in. Though I could not understand the significance of it but i guess that is to mark a respect to the guru. Well, I must not forget to mention that the delicious prasad here is made up of absolutely pure ghee and is too very tasty. Infact, you get it at every spot of small temples within the shrine. After having prasads at 2 such temples we were completely full and had no place in stomach to eat it at the third one :)











We had taken this snap at around night 11 o ck when the ceremony of shifting the holy Grant Sahib to adjacent building was taking place after prayers. You can see the shining thing at the centre? Well that is actually a 'palkhi' through which the Grant Sahib gets carried. The whole night the actual place of the book in the Golden Temple gets cleaned by various people from Sikh community (it's a form of their Kar Seva, a nice concept...i feel every religion should have something like this) and the Holy Granth is restored at around 4 am with prayers.










This is the Golden Temple at day time. During day time people have a bath in the waters of the shrine. You know something surprising. This water when tested for bacteria content shows it as nil. It is that pure even when people have a bath. Well, the reason is these fishes in the waters (on the left). Nice pets. :)











The Jallianwala Bagh:



This is a famous spot where peaceful protesters were mercilessly massacred in 1919 under British Office order of Gen. Dyer. More than 1500 people were injured with close to 500 killed in the casualty.










This is the narrow lane through which the armed battalion of Britisher soilders went in to fire the protesters.















This is the place from where the firing took place. Your blood really boils when you stand here. Well, one reason could also be 'coz it was scorching 43 deg there!

















Summer Palace of Maharaja Ranjit Singh - This is the entrance and perhaps the only remains of the palace now.




















Maharaja Ranjit Singh Panorama Museum - The museum displays the entire life of Maharaja Ranjit Singh who was a brave, powerful, wise, kind, committed and intelligent king of his time. He owned the famous Kohinoor diamond which he put on his throne and the Britishers din't dare to invade his territory till the time he was alive. A very admirable man who assumed the throne and began his ventures to capturing the enemies right since 15th year of his age.










Wagha Border :







Do I need to say anything about this spot? Its the border between India and Pakistan. Every evening there is a co-ordinated parade that takes place between the two countries. Worth watching parade where both the commanders look very aggressive, perform superb and carry the dignity of their countries with equal pride.











The time when both the country men are right in front of each others open gates. They salute each other with stamping feet and move on. A heart warming scene. The crowd on the other end belongs to Pak. A lots of seats are still empty. What made me further annoyed was that there were barely a few ladies to watch the show. You could even count them. Yes, they were only 5. A very disappointing number. Isn't it? Perhaps they need a ladies reservation bill more badly :(













And have a look at this one. This is the crowd on Indian side. Jam packed. While the parade was going on, there were comparees on both sides. The one on Indian side would scream, "Hindustan" and we replied in "Zindabaad" while the one on Pak side screamed, "Jio Jio" and they replied in "Pakistan". The patriotic feeling grew very stong at the very spot.








India, no man's land and Pakistan - The land on this side belongs to India and on other side to Pak farmers. While the one in between is that of no one. They could grow some good plants in between but weeds enjoy on the area as it belongs to no one. The fencing is shorted with High Voltage Power to avoid border crossing. Surprising that nothing can tame the air that crosses the borders. It's a strange, sad but true feeling.













Attari Station- The famous station from where Samzhauta Express to Pak departs and arrives. This was our last stop. And now we were off to our last destination, Chandigarh.

All That Remains..

At times life takes weird turns. Sometimes they are just against us. And the more we try to repeal the more they decide to become difficult.

A few days back, a friend of mine had a terrible parting with his girlfriend of a decade. It was her decision to leave. My friend was shattered. Things between the two got bitter over these days but some memories were always sweet. They had a memorable time together, both being long time friends prior. There was not a single beautiful moment that they spent without each other. Be it happiness or sorrows, everything was for both together.

Then, he couldn't understand what made her leave him when he was at a turning point of his career and when he wanted her support the most. But she didn't wait.

Questions like what was his fault? What really went wrong? Why did she leave? Was something lacking in him? began indefinitely troubling his mind. The memories of his past refused to leave him . They haunted his mind every second like ghosts and chased him like shadows. Trusting someone seemed so difficult for him.

It is right that you are either hunter or hunted. And each has their side. He was hunted and perhaps she had her valid reasons for being the hunter. May be their relationship turned out to be sour over a period of time and she couldn't bear it. May be she found a better man than him. May be she thought her life would be better without him.

But he's yet not found why. He was on the receiving side and things were more painful for him and could be a bit or equally for her too. His friends stood by his side and hers by her. And all that remains on both sides today is hurt, pain, anguish, melancholy, feeling of betrayal, anger, tears, fear, remorse, broken relationships and a lesson that the one that leaves never does so to return because that person cannot be the same and neither you or your views for that person will.

When someone decides to walk out of your life there is just nothing that remains in his or her heart for you. Perhaps that was inevitable for the girl in my friend's case. Nonetheless, things between the two will never be the same again.

My friend has tried to move on in life but the shadows of his past are still distinctly visible in his surrounding. They refuse to go or not haunt him. Nevertheless, his past has managed to change my friend, his one time girlfriend and things between them forever.

Dharamshala

Dharamshala is the capital of Kangra District. Kangra Valley and hence Dharamshala was supposed to be the Summer Capital of India during British times, but in 1905 an earthquake here killed approx 20,000 people hence the Summer Capital was shifted to Shimla. Dharamshala has religious importance to Buddhists (especially the ones from Tibet) as it is the home to 14th Dalai Lama who took refugee in India in 1959 after being exiled from Tibet.









Route to Dharamshala: Pleasant mountains which looked folded due to buildup of roads was visible on our path to Dharamshala. A pleasant sight against river Beas flowing by.













Tea Gardens: These were located on the route. Around 22 acres of land is occupied by the gardens. The tea leaves from here are purchased by brand companies and blended with other tea leaves (mainly that of Darjeeling).













Kangra Valley: A view of the beautiful valley in day time.


















Sunset: An evening view of the valley from my window.

























Old Buddhist Temple and Stupa: Currently under renovation it is mainly known for its prayer wheels.


















Namgyal Monastery: This is The Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso's personal monastery. It is especially privileged and honored to perform annually the sacred rites and rituals established by the successive Dalai Lama for the temporal and spiritual benefits and prosperity of Tibet and its people, and for world peace in general.

The monastery has nearly two hundred monks and younger monks are engaged in study of the major texts of Buddhist Sutras and Tantras while at the same time pursuing the modern studies of both Tibetan and English Language. Their curriculum includes the study of Sutra and Tantra texts, Buddhist Philosophy, practicing debate as well as making butter sculptures, torma offerings, sand mandalas, playing various ritual musical instruments, ritual chanting, and dances.









The "Om Mani Padma Hum" wheel: "Om Mani Padma Hum" literally means "Jewel in Lotus". The wheels have this Mantra written on them and rotating them equals humming the mantra itself. It means that in dependence on the practice which is in indivisible union of method and wisdom, you can transform your impure body, speech and mind into the pure body, speech, and mind of a Buddha.









Dal Lake: This was our last destination at Dharamshala. It has a beautiful sight surrounded by long deodar trees. You will find a lot of crowd in the evenings for boating.