In Mourning

Today, the brave heart passed away.  

Today, I feel ashamed to be an Indian male.

Sister, may you rest in peace.

May your sacrifice wakes us up from our slumber and leads us to shed away our blindfolds and veils.

Pursuit of Excellence

How do we achieve personal excellence ? How do we raise the bar ? There are numerous means espoused by intellectuals that advocate a number of things and activities for this. However, the power and indeed the ability to excel and to evolve lies solely with us. Agreed, spiritual leaders, intellectuals can assist as facilitators but the ultimate capability lies within us - and remains often untapped.

No matter whether we are working or playing, we must ask ourselves - "Is it my best performance ?", "Is it the best that I can do at the moment and in the given circumstances ?"   If our answer is "Yes" - we are doing good. If the answer is "No", we must put in our best. Let me give an example from practical life to illustrate this point.  As I run a marathon, I must ask myself whether I am giving it everything that I have in me or not and if I feel that I still have a little reserve of energy in me, I must lengthen my strides and better my timing. This applies to all individuals -  the washer man cleaning the clothes, the student doing his homework, l - the chef making the food, the typist typing a document, an engineer constructing a dam, a painter painting the wall, a sculptor chiselling away a stone, a scientist making a missile, a bureaucrat analysing an issue, a soldier at a relief work or at the battlefield.

And here are the bonuses that come with it - we live in the moment, we are more focussed, we make an honest attempt at the task at hand and gradually push the frontiers of our perceived capabilities. This also gives us an inner happiness.

A Goan Holiday

Goa !

Sun kissed beaches, crsip morning air, languorous afternoons, glitzy nights and tonnes of fun - that is Goa for you. Long walks at lesser known beaches, far  away from the maddening crowd is bliss and some more. An all enveloping silence with just a murmur of the sea and the breeze in the face is spiritually uplifting and brings a smile for no apparent reason or is there one?

Everyday Philosophy

I am pained to hear that someone spoke ill of me. Therefore, I must not speak ill of someone - ever

There are times when I have not measured up to everything I believe. Sometimes though, I may get another chance. If it happens, I will take it. And perhaps I'll grow taller in my eyes !

Nirvana at Sea

The bright Sun blinds me as I step out on the tarmac at the Veer Sawarkar Airport. But for a few vagabond clouds the sky is so alarmingly blue that one can almost mistake it as a reflection of the sea. As I am driven to my hotel, I peer out of the window and witness the hustle and bustle of Port Blair – buses honking away, camera toting excited tourists, small eateries cheek by jowl with plush hotels, road side kiosks selling mineral water and soft drinks, a steady traffic of office goers and impish school kids rushing to their schools. As the car drops me at the hotel, I eye a vendor selling coconuts close by.  A coconut and two burps later I check in at my hotel – my base camp for a week.

Muthu - the coconut vendor and the friendly deer at Ross Island

Port Blair, the capital and the largest town of Andaman and Nicobar islands gets its name from Lieutenant Archibald Blair of the East India Company. It is connected to the mainland India by regular flights from Kolkata, Chennai and Bhubaneshwar. Intrepid sea farers may also sail to Port Blair. For centuries, their relative remoteness had given these islands an aura of mystique and kept them unexplored by the tourists. However, of late their pristine beauty and pleasant climes have enthralled all those who have come to its shores.

This beautiful town has a magical charm that slowly grows on you so much so that it easily  wipes away the scowls of the most disdainful and indifferent tourists without their knowledge.  It helps when raw natural beauty of the islands and friendly locals are on your side. Well, booze helps too!  The town runs at an easy pace and offers its unique sights and smells to tourists, whose footfalls, I am told, are on the rise every passing year.

A coral at Samudrika Naval Maritime Museum

Impressive museums like the Anthropological Museum, Samudrika Naval Maritime Museum, Marine Museum and the Forest Museum dot this lovely town. However, the piece de resistance of Port Blair remains the Cellular Jail. The imposing structure made up of puce colured bricks that came from erstwhile Burma stands a mute testimony to the travails of the Indian prisoners who endured  torture and braved abject inhuman conditions during the colonial rule with remarkable stoicism. The light and sound show at the Cellular Jail staged in the evenings conjures up a riveting and vivid imagery of the saga of pain, loneliness, sacrifice and the triumph of the human spirit. This poignant story narrated in the anguish laden  voice of veteran actor Om Puri touches a chord somewhere deep in the heart and haunts one for days altogether.

To the traveller who has had his fill of Port Blair, the Andaman and Nicobar islands have plenty of other charms to offer. One can either take a short ferry trip to the historic Ross Island – a prominent British base of the yesteryears now in ruins – partly due to the vagaries of time and largely due to the Tsunami or head for the North Bay for some fun filled frolicking in the waters.

Vagaries of time and nature 

 Nature lovers may also take the day long trip through the Jarawa passage to Baratang to witness the surreal stalactites and stalagmites in the limestone caves. It is an excellent drive on the winding roads through the mysterious woods.  Luck is on my side. A Jarawa family –  a bow wielding male, a female and two little kids cross the road benefitting me with a casual glance and the hint of a smile and then melt away in the dark  woods.  I have a feeling this image will stay with me for all my life.  

                               

On way to the Jarwa Passage

A drive up to the Mount Harriet is again an amazing experience. At an altitude of 365 metres, Mount Harriet is around 55 km from Port Blair and frequented by nature lovers who are keen on bird watching. I am glad that I made the journey to Mount Harriet on the expert recommendations of my driver. The drive is steep, the traffic sparse and the scenic beauty of the rainforest deeply enticing. Dew kissed coconut trees jostle for space with thick sinuous vegetation and flank the road as it snakes up. Shards of sunlight penetrate the green canopy of the trees here and there. But for the purr of the engine and the occasional birdsong there is a pleasing silence that takes me in its fold. I reach the top and sit mesmerised in a gazebo gazing at a ship that bobs in the sea in the misty horizon. Soon a cooing Andaman Wood pigeon heralds its arrival and perches nearby. It is bliss and some more. 

Any trip to the Andamans is not complete without a trip to the Havelock island.  Named after the British General Henry Havelock, the island is famous for its Radhanagar Beach – once rated as the best beach in Asia by the very definitive Time magazine. Just fifty seven kilometres away from Port Blair, the island can be reached by government and private run ferries and also by sea planes.

Radhanagar beach would definitely be the cleanest beach in India. I find the crowd at the beach to be just right – neither too large to be irritating nor too small to be unnerving. The amazingly clear sea beckons one with its myriad shades of blue - cobalt, aquamarine, turquoise, teal, steel, electric, tiffany, sky, deep sky, baby, carolina, cyan ……have your pick.

A Happy Rahul

Fun Time at North Bay

If your idea of a beach holiday is lazing for endless hours in the Sun, taking long walks on the beach leaving behind footprints and then secretly admiring them, allowing yourself to get bedazzled by the play of the Sun on the crests of the waves - Havelock is just the place for you. For all those given to activities more strenuous than plonking oneself in a hammock with a good book, Havelock is also the place for scuba diving. Ditto for all ye in pursuit of sea food.

The Magic of  Radhanagar Beach

Sunset at Radhanagar Beach

Young Sailors at Havelock

After two days in paradise aka Havelock, I am back in Port Blair with a day to spare. I am told a fitting finale to this trip should be a visit to Jolly Buoy island. A thirty kilometre drive from Port Blair takes me to Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park at Wandoor and from there on a further forty minutes sail by the ferry takes me to the Jolly Buoy island.

It is a truly jaw dropping experience - an uninhabited island, pristine surroundings, no garbage, no polythene bags, just a whisper of the coconut trees that sway in rhythm with the gentle ebb and flow of the waves.   I opt for snorkelling instead of the glass boat ride and get transported to a world that I never knew existed. A wide array of marine life – sea lilies, sea cucumbers, sea anemones, star fishes of different hues lie bejewelled on the sea bed even as small shoals of colourful fishes flit through the equally majestic corals. I attain Nirvana. I exclaim in wonderment at the beauty of the moment and the salty sea water stings my mouth with a vengeance. It makes   me realize the bizarre similarity in snorkelling and life - a good time to keep your mouth shut is when you are in deep waters! 

The Blue Sea

                Next day, I board the flight back home sporting a tan and a T – shirt that has Andaman and Nicobar Islands emblazoned across it in an arc above the picture of a coconut tree.

I intend to wear the two to work tomorrow. Wink …Wink!

Published Work  http://www.ehitavada.com/site.home/paper_type/10/date/2012-08-19/page_no/8

The Peackeeper

Those were the days as the "Peacekeeper"  !

Please check the link -

http://unifil.unmissions.org/Default.aspx?grm2catid=212&tabid=1513

http://unifil.unmissions.org/Default.aspx?grm2catid=213&tabid=1513

JUST ANOTHER DAY

BADMINTON CHAMPION (SINGLES) 2011 -12

JABALPUR STATION 

The Rivers of Life

Brahmaputra

The majestic Brahmaputra - the sine qua non of Assam ! The creator and the destroyer,the loved and the feared, the sought and the seeker, the benefactor and the progenitor.


The legendary Narmada - the mother river of Madhya Pradesh ! The sacred and the revered, the graceful and the dignified, the mature and the juvenile, the adulated and the venerated.

What a glorious melange of congruity and incongruity !

Blessed indeed is he who is born in this land called, India ! 

                                   

Narmada

A little note...

Brother,

A year has gone by since you bade us your final “good bye”. You are gone but never has there been a day when you haven’t been fondly thought of. You weren’t family….you were a part of me and my life. 

I miss our fun moments, our games, the long walks, the plans that we used to make, those wishful thinkings...."someday", the evening tea, the cooking in the hostel, cycling around, laughing our heads off over silly things….Damn it! Brother, I miss our togetherness….

It had been raining the last few days.

I have discovered that a walk in the rain is cathartic. It washes away the grime, and soothes the ache. It lifts the spirits.

It also hides the tears.

Love

Bhaiya

Rumi

Last few days did some catching up with Rumi. Born Jalal - ad - Din Mohammed Balkhi, Rumi  was a Persian poet of repute. The mystic’s work is delightful and portrays an uncommon wisdom and an extraordinary penmanship. He paints a rich imagery and often uses mundane occurrences around us to convey his message. Remarkable! Truly remarkable!

Here, is an offering. Savour his words – 

Raise your words not voice. It is the rain that grows flowers, not thunder."

Where there is ruin, there is hope for treasure."

"The wound is the place where the Light enters you."

"Silence is the language of God, all else is poor translation."

"Very little grows on jagged rock. Be ground. Be crumbled, so wildflowers will come where you are."

Travellers,  it is late.

Life’s Sun is going to set.

During these brief days that you have strength,

Be quick and spare no effort of your wings.

“Two there are who are never satisfied – the lover of the world and the lover of knowledge.”

And finally my favourite –

'The moon stays bright when it doesn't avoid the night..."

The Mantra To Happiness

We indulge in a large number of activities that give us happiness.

Let's say - a nice leisurely stroll on the beach, admiring the play of the Sun on the sea waves, gazing at the starlit night, listening to nice music (a soulful gazal or Kolaveri D), a good book, a nice movie, a sumptuous dinner, good company and what have you. But stop and ponder - do these activities actually give us happiness ?

Activities that soothe the senses or at some level satiate a craving, give us a warm, complete feeling. The feeling is actually of pleasure. Not happiness.

Happiness is what we have when we realize a goal. Happiness is when we reach that milestone for which we toiled and toiled some more. Happiness is when we see a desire fulfilled. Happiness is when we see a dream come true. This is happiness.

This is also the mantra to happiness !

Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is achieved. - Swami Vivekananda

   

Forgiveness

Read this and loved it. Here have a dekko -

"Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it".    Mark Twain

Some Borrowed Words

The year's gone by.
A mixed year - it was. Fun, revelry, personal loss, grief, betrayal, hurt, tender love, happiness - I had it all. A few reflections in some borrowed words -

What does not destroy me, makes me stronger. - Nietzsche.

And forget not that that earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair. - Gibran.

If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished. Rumi.

And then here is the resolution for the year that greets me. Again some borrowed words -

Meditae.

Live purely. Be quiet.

Do your work with mastery.

 Like the moon, come out from behind the

clouds! Shine.

     - Budhha