banglored

I am going to be Bangalored. I will be visiting Bangalore over the next weekend.

visiting baba dham (contd...)

We woke up in the morning at around 4 and started to get ready. The water was really cold so we waited for the geyser to heat it up. Though the geyser didn’t seem to be working there, or may be not as effectively as we would have wanted. Anyways hot or cold we had to take the bath and be ready in an hour. So we all got ready and got into the car that we booked yesterday night. As we came out just out side the main gate was a chai- shop. So garam garam chai was really enjoyable in that chilling weather. Wonder what the condition here would be in the months of December and January when the winter is at its peak. Anyways it was Jharkhand and as we moved forward I saw the dhoni effect taking place with a gang of 6 or 7 girls, with tikka smeared on their foreheads and cricket bat and ball in hands gearing up for a battle on the pitch nearby, maybe. One thing that I really liked was the fact that the roads there were very well built. The driver said that they were built during the time when the state was born a decade back and this area of Jharkhand was well maintained, but also there is not much of heavy duty truck to do damage to the roads. It was early in the morning so the place was quiet but some people were to be seen near the small market place. We traveled for around an hour and half. Then we reached a small market-place where no shops except the tea shops were open. We left our slippers in the car and proceeded towards the temple. As we reached the gate we were flanked by four or five pundits who would want to take us through the temple. Basically the temple compound has 22 temples but we didn’t have to go through all of them. I often pity the lack of time when on a trip to some place. Anyways we went to the main temple (the temple of lord Shiva called the baba-dham). It was pretty crowded. We took the mugs containing a mixture of Ganga-jal, milk, sandalwood paste, bhaang etc. and entered the temple. It was a small door about seven foot high and the floor was very slippery because of the water that kept spilling on the floor with people finding it hard to balance themselves in the rush. That was the rush early in the morning; I wonder what would happen when the day grows. What people do inside the temple? Well there is the top of a huge Shiva-ling that is visible and the structure is not more than a foot tall. Thought they claim there is a huge Shiva-ling beneath. People pour the water, milk etc. on the ling. With such a jam-packed area the people are literally swarming over each other and most of the mortals are bathed in the holy mixture. The pundits who sit the closest to ling keep pleading and coaxing the devotees to put some money there and the pundits that bring people into the temple keep yelling at others to give space. Thankfully the enclosure is not really large and can accommodate not more than 30 people at a time. So we get out of that place and then we are guided to the Parvati temple just opposite the one we just visited. Here the idols are placed on a platform and there are stairs that lead to them. Though they are just three steps but they are each one foot high; again it is the same wet slippery floor. Thankfully it is coarse stones else people would certainly slip and hurt themselves. (Though that does seem to be a possibility is not a certainty). There is no sense to the climbing and descending of the stairs and that is what creates a chaos of sorts. On the high platform are a couple of idols carved out of the stones. The idols carved on the walls of the enclosure are bright orange (result of being smeared with the tikka for a long time now.) We come back and buy some pedas that this place is famous for. Then we make a move towards basukhi-nath (another temple of lord Shiva about 60 kms from baba-dham). It was pretty similar to this place except for the fact that it was smaller and had a lesser number of temples in the compound and the floor was covered with marble tiles and at the entry there was a person who was beating a big drum with some vigor. Wonder whether he can carry that enthusiasm though the day. We didn’t spend much time there either. We decided to make a move and reach the Jasidhi station where we had to catch a train at 11.30 am. We reached the station an hour before the scheduled departure. We had to get some food packed that we could have on the train. It was hard to believe that it was the same station that I came to last evening, with so much movement around. It was hard to recognize the place as it was pitch dark yesterday night. I moved around to different shops enquiring what they had to offer. Got the puri and sabzi packed and returned to the station to find that the train is running an hour late. We got a couple of seats in the waiting room. I went around the station just for some time pass. It was a pretty long station for a small town. Actually at the last track of the junction the goods carriage is lightened and loaded and thus to accommodate those long trains such a long platform had been built. Just as I was roaming about I found an assemblage near a shop. I wondered what it was all about. Then on closing in I found that there was a cricket match between India and Australia, final of a series and there was a television in the shop that was beaming it. Now that explained the occasional cheer that was to be heard. Finally the train arrived half an hour late than the delayed time. No need to complain at least it came.

Trip to Deoghar

My uncle and aunt arrived from Mumbai in the morning and i went to pick them up at the airport. Well just as is possible only here the flight scheduled at 9.15 a.m landed at 8.50 and the one scheduled at 9 am arrived half an hour late.Anyways waiting inside a centrally air conditioned area doesn't hurt and also some paisa vasool on the Rs. 30 entry fee that they charge at there.
We got a pre paid taxi that took the longer route to my house as the driver wanted to drop the so called helper (or some relative of his as it could be). No qualms from us as the fare was already paid and the road was clear so not much waste for time. And the driver too would be least bothered of the fuel burnt as they charge premium price for pre-paid services.
We reach home and everyone freshens up and we are ready to leave for Deoghar. We leave the home in perfect condition as it is on its own (& we hope it remains that way) for the next 30hours. We reched the railway station one hour before the departure and the train arrived 40 min. before the departure. ( it was the source station)We all got in to the train and so did other passengers on that platform and believe me waiting on the platform is better than sitting in the train and waiting for it to move.
We were 5 of us and my ticket was for a berth in the cabin adjacent to that accommodating my uncle-aunt and my parents.We sat together and had lunch (food we brought from home). Then we decided to get some rest. I went back to my seat to find another person sleeping there. As it turned out to be the person was traveling on an unreserved ticket. Such things keep happening on trains running in these routes. This I figured out a couple of hours later when i woke up from sleep to find that the seat below the berth that is supposed to be reserved for 6 people was accommodating 9 persons and of course i was sleeping on the upper berth. It was a mix of bengalis and biharis, that was good ammunition for war of words. bengalis dont want to leave anything under the sun and have an opinion about everything whereas just keep quite and nod their head in affirmative. but then they have better ideas about the ground situations and thus have simple logic about everything. Bengalis do most of the talking till asansol and biharis after that. that is when the train moves out of bengal and enters bihar!!
There is no catering service on this train and so whatever we bought was from the local vendors and we can bargain like anything. However at the end of it the quantity of whatever they give is very less and so it is only loss for us but then we loose less. The train was running late and it was dark by the time we reached.We were anticipating the arrival of the train at the Jasidi station and just then the train stops. We thought it was waiting for the signal to enter the station. Just then the lights on the station turn on and we realize that the train has already halted beside the platform. Train doesn't stop here for long and so we grab our bags and dash for the gate.We move through the freshly lit station and move towards the exit.though it was dark there was a decent enough crowd there.As soon as we got out of the station we got plunged back into the darkness of the night. some how the auto-wallahs saw us and came to us with their own proposals to loot us.Then we started to move on the road. Just then a vehicle which in true term was like a jeep that was running on the engine of a tempo stop by us. After a bit of bargain it agreed to leave us at arogya bhavan. we reached there at 8 pm and checked in . My dad is very fond of the place . Arogya Bhavan in some sense is the original health resort concept of India. It is a lovely place and I wish that we could have spend a day or at least a morning there. It is full of well maintained gardens and it is residing as close to nature as is possible. Next day morning we are to leave for visiting the temples.

book tag

No. Of Books I own
well i dont buy books . didi buys them and i read quite a few of them . like from me the answer wud be only my academics books.

Last 5 books I bought in my case dosent make sense.


5 Books that mean something

1. alchemist - paul cohelo . made me realise not to forget to dream and much more...

2. the painter of signs - r.k.narayan . had a very good message in it as I saw It.

3. freakonomics .. really freaky

4. 5 point someone ... hilarious

5. indian philosophy... I love reading about india.

checkout : my shelf at shelfari

visiting chennai

I was born in Mumbai but spent the first 7 years of my life in the crazy city of madras (was not named Chennai till then). Such is a chance that I am appearing for an exam and my centre is in Chennai. It is a strange feeling coming back to the city after almost 14 years. Not that I remembered anything much about the place. Also I had long ago forgotten whatever little Tamil I had ever learnt. Well started the preparation to go to the city. Trains are all booked up and so I decided to avail the bus service. After a whole lot of roaming around the garden city I finally got a ticket to Chennai in a Volvo bus at a decent enough rate. It was a first hand experience for me travelling in a bus (a so called luxury one at that). The seats were comfortable and A/C was reprieve from the heat. I had been warned of the torture of watching tamil movies played on the TV. There was a tamil movie going on there. As usual a night before the exams I never feel sleepy. So what better to do than watch a movie? It was decent movie overall. Though, the ending was a bit shocking. (Ok I understood all that was going on thanks largely to the English subtitles). Well the aunty that was sleeping beside me was very troublesome and another elderly couple at my back was not comfortable so I could say good bye to my sweet-dreams. So whenever the bus stopped I got down getting some fresh air. It was always a good site to watch a well maintained brightly lighted highway. Anyways I woke up (not that I slept too much) at 5 am and by 5.30 I am at the bus stand and then I called uncle (a former colleague and close friend of my father). He comes up on his motor bike. Well reached his home and freshened up and got ready to go to my exam centre. Aunty prepared some dosa for me. It was really tasty, can’t wonder where I will be able to so tasty chutney. Ummmm… Then uncle takes me to the centre.. It takes almost quarter to an hour to buzz through the busy roads on a scooter. We had great food in lunch and I was just hoping that I wont get sleep after having eaten so much food. Then we went to the examination hall and uncle sat there in the school compound till the exam got over and this entire period he was just watching the school students indulge in a close game of soccer on the school grounds.

Then after the exam I came out and we went and spent some time on the marina beach. My parents used to bring me here every alternate weekend quite some time back and today I come back to the place again. I hardly remember having been here earlier.

We have some snacks and talk a little and then we move back to home. Back though a maddening traffic we squeeze our way out on the scooter. Then we had a photo-session of sorts and had dinner and back to bus stand and going for catch a bus back to the garden city.

My sincere thanks to uncle and aunty for their assistance and hospitality.

Indianism

Have you noticed how we are always in a hurry but never make it on time? Indians are known for how much they honk on the road and break all traffic rules with impunity because, one presumes, they have to reach their destinations fast. Then why are we always late - for movies, picnics, interviews, appointments, dates, receptions, birthday celebrations, funeral proceedings - and are known for being hopeless at keeping time?

I honestly don’t know many desis, except perhaps Mumbai brokers, who respect time. Have you noticed how our houses are the cleanest but we live in the dirtiest neighbourhoods? I mean, if we take off our shoes before entering our drawing rooms and subject visitors to the same exercise, even unsuspecting ones whose cultures don’t recommend this purification rite, it would only be in the fitness of things that the roads we walk on or drive past, the parks we loll around in and the public places we visit are equally sanitised. But they aren’t.

Have you noticed how we worship everything that even remotely represents or connotes a god, goddess, deity or holy spirit? You must have surely seen people touching books and pens, coins etc to their heads and raising their hands to their foreheads at every passing holy site. Then how come we just don’t take care of our temples, mosques, gurdwaras and churches?

How you noticed how we must surely be among the last surviving lot on earth that has such a prudish attitude towards sex? In which case we should be borrowing people from outside to fill up our country, but it is brimming with men, women and children. So who’s doing all the rolling in the haystack? Have you noticed how we get really affronted when westerners mention our brown skins but ourselves think nothing of jeering at anyone who is black or yellow? Have you noticed how patriotic we are?

The number of deshbhakti songs, films, hymns, bhajans, stories and novels we have is astounding. We treat our national flag like a consignment from heaven and for a long time we didn’t even have the right to put it atop our homes. Then why are we always making a beeline to go abroad? The list of Indian inconsistencies is long and interesting. We are like this only or only we are like this?

Boyz dont cry

Becoming a mature person has got a hell lot to do with controlling emotions. As i grew up i always had one thing in my mind and that was to express emotions that people who care would like to see. So this meant that try and smile, never show that any thing is disturbing me. I always tried to hide emotions because the concern from my family always went more than i could handle. I couldn't show that i was bothered by something, because the attention that i received after that was more of a bother. This might be considered to be a temporary phase when one tries to control emotions but it has a lasting effect over a period of time. once we try to control emotions we start losing the spontaneity of our expression. I realize that i decided not to cry. No matter what happens I never shed a tear. I took pride in this practice for a long period of time. A common notion that boys don't cry. of course, I was happy to follow it. Then things started becoming more and more complex. There are certain things that one can say and express and there is para-language that accompanies our words. but slowly and slowly as we try to suppress our emotions we start loosing this god gifted coordination. Thus trying to show a different emotion as to what really is, becomes more and more difficult. Even worse is the fact that once we stop showing emotions, they dont come out naturally. many a times i feel that i am not reacting to any situation. There is a kind of numbness. The situations dont stimulate any emotions. I laugh because I think that it is natural to laugh in a certain situation. I am angered because I think I should be angry in a certain situation, I am sad just because anyone would be sad in any given situation. This is a very complex situation.
I think it all started with some silly notions and was stimulated by some anxieties created by fears that i have since my childhood. this is what i recently read in a magazine article that fears cause mood fluctuations and other clomplexities.i am trying to get out of this mould. let me tell this to all those who read that i have learned it the hard way but i would like to tell you that it doesnt matter that you show your emotions to others. if it is supposed to be shown , show it. sometimes it takes courage to even show your emotions without any fear.

hockey

Read this in TOI
NEW DELHI, August 4: India kept their title hopes alive as Ritu Rani's lone goal scripted their first win over hosts Italy in a round robin match of the three-nation women's hockey tournament in Bra.

Well, info for jerks Bra is a city in Italy ;)

Hello people

Well don't be scared if you are feeling like you have dialed a wrong number. You are at the blog which used to be called:

paddy world

the mind of an individual looking for an opening in this lost world

When I started this blog I was feeling that there were some thoughts in my head that I wanted to let out. Since not many (in fact none) cared to listen to them I thought that I would pen them(or actually type them) down here.
Looking back to that time I feel that I was in search of an identity of my own. There was a growing fear of getting lost in the crowd. Mr.Tanuj Poddar became Paddy and wanted to live in a world that he would call Paddy world where he could speak whatever he wanted. Thanks to the genes passed on by my mother I was inquisitive and analytical about things and thus my adolescent's daydreaming gave way to dissection of every thing that came in my life. There was an urge to find people to listen my thoughts. I thought that it was unnecessary to try explain things to people who didn't match my way of thinking. There was a burst of confidence and I felt that I was liked by everyone in the way i presented myself. For those who didn't like they could go to hell. There was a touch of arrogance that gave a good feeling. The reins of my life in my hands. I thought about everything I did and thought of those connected to me before doing something and thus there was no reason for me going wrong. But this kinda attitude was vulnerable against failure and that is what happened. In trying to take the failure in the stride the mindset moved to being passive instead of assertive. The ability to incorporate other's view to my logic was lost. Life kept moving statically. I started accepting what was being told when i couldn't understand something. Somethings seemed impossible to understand because i forgot how to give time to understand. Everything had to happen instantly. I started feeling odd in the presence of peers. I couldn't adapt myself to their thought process. On the practical front I was moving nowhere. There was nothing that was added to my commercial aspect of life. What all gave me a youthful burst was forgotten , which included this blog. I seemed to have hit mid-life crisis too early or maybe it would have been my midlife had I not realized that something was going wrong. There was a lot of things that were going haywire . Priorities were not set and self confidence was gone once it found itself wanting for self-esteem. There was a structure without an infrastructure. Renovation wouldn't do , a through rebuilding process had to take place. Thus first the existing structure had to be brought down to rubbles. Along with that a proper blue print had to be built. The voice that had become a noise for others needed to be modulated to a frequency that could be decoded by the receptors. A self-analysis was needed. The new ideas that were gathered had to be implemented. the destruction process continued at the back-end.
People had to be given importance. A scientific approach was required . Thus experiments needed to be conducted and hypothesis was to be tested. So now i start a new chapter of life where i experiment with life to explore it to the core. Thus this changes my blog to

My Experiments With Life

Life and truth are two sides of the same coin.

the long night

when we came back down the whole way there was not much peace to be . As most of us felt sleepy but hungry at the same time , we came to know we had to rush to the bhojanalay (the place where food is served ) as there was a huge group of 100 turning up and there wont be anything left once they are done with their thing . as it turned out some of us skipped lunch and instead had the watermelon that we had picked up on our way from rajgiri .then we all had rest . I went to have a bath and then came out and saw that it was raining . I rued the fact that I had missed the chance to get drenched in the rain ( It doesn't make sense to get drenched after having a bath) . But anyways that made the place even more cold . As everyone felt sleepy I was kinda bored . So I was just lurking around in both the rooms trying to find out who wasn't sleepy and thus trying to get them in some conversation . Of course they had become tolerant of my inability to converse in their language and were not reluctant to talk in Hindi . Anyways we had a train to catch from a nearby station Pushkar . they said it was a half an hour drive and our train was at 9.30 . So we had planned to leave by 8 for overcoming any worst-case scenario . But there was more in store , no car was allowed to leave the premises of shikharji after 6 pm because of naxalite threats . So when we came to know about it at around 5 pm there was a rush hour once again . Everybody woke up from their late siesta and all were set to move by 5.30 . but then it was pouring , after waiting for 10 mins we decided to make a move . we got into the sumo we had hired . loaded the luggage over it and provided it cover with a plastic sheet . And here we were set to go . It was so lovely to pass through a road surrounded by green on either in such a rainy whether . though rain stopped , the sky was overcast . anyways by 6 we were at the station . and what a way to greet us at station . people started climbing on our cars and we reached the station . when we got down then we realized that they had climbed on cause we had so many suitcases and they thought we would hire someone to carry them for us . We reached the station went to the platform and sat there for some time . then we came to know that the train was late . how long will it take to come ?not known . anyways we were told it will come by 12 midnight . It was a very small station . though it is a stoppage for many trains that travel from Delhi to Calcutta .and the major shock came when we saw a rajdhani stop at this station of which we had never heard of and which looked no bigger than a platform on the suburban lines of kolkata or mumbai . Anyways in this hour of uncertainty we all decided to stay awake . but for how long . We had some fried snacks from outside the station for dinner . then I went to the station master to get some clear idea about the position . He said that the train will take 2 hours after it reaches Gaya and there is no report of it reaching there . He said that we had been fooled in being handed over the tickets of Dhoon express which is always given last preference on these routes . There we were all doomed . Ideally it is a great time to be in a group as it becomes easier to pass time . But there was some tension between the members in the camp . I wasn't quite understanding what was happening , and my friend who was supposed to understand just kept giving me situations which i was least bothered to listen to . All that mattered was how to spend time . finally everybody started to sleep . on the seats , on the luggage etc. there was something or the other happening till an hour past midnight though . One incident for example was that there were a few people who were sleeping on the platform just beside a pillar . Suddenly everyone started shouting . The man at whome it was directed woke up to find a snake near his neck . though it fled away admist the chaos that it unintentionally caused. ( wonder what reputations human have in the animal kingdom, i would say crazy.) It was a preety busy track with lots of goods-carriages(mostly carrying coal) passing through the time we were there . they never stopped but sped past at full speed , cleaning up the platform in their fury run . that explains how we came across such a clean platform in Jharkhand .As the train timings were uncertain we were to stay ready for the train any moment it came. So we thought of deciding how we would get accommodated in the train . It was then that we saw the berth number that were reserved for us: 8,16,24,32,40,64,72 in S-7 and 48, 50,51 in S-11. those who know about the Indian railway seating system would understand the situation and laugh out loud. I finally went to sleep at 3 am and with the news that the train might come by 4 . i woke up by 4.30and went to the Sation master and came to know that the train has left Gaya but there are many rajdhanis that were stuck in the route so they will be cleared thus it will take another 3 hrs for our train to come . i came back disgusted . After another hours of sleep i woke up to check with the station master and came and told about it to one of the uncles there who said that he had cancelled the tickets . it was ok that he got frusterated , but the problem was that he didn't consider what other options were available once we canceled the tickets. And no matter how insane it may sound but what happened in the end was that we cancelled our reserved ticket for dhoon express and then bought general tickets (as reserved tickets are not available before 8 am) and then we boarded the same train with those general tickets and for the next 5 hours we all along with our luggage stay put in the passage at the entrance of a boogie in which we would have had seats had the tickets not been canceled. Anyways Somehow everyone kept slipping off to sleep and the journey was not that inconvenient. My ordeal was coming to an end . We got down at Burdaman and got another train that would take us to my friends home where all these people were staying. We reached there in another hour or two. I think i kinda dosed off during that period. Finally we reached his place and had lunch . I bid adios to all those people with whom i had spent my vacation and headed to home which was another hours journey in the bus. It was a trip that i will never forget 1)coz it was my first trip without any of my family members. 2) I was with a bunch of people whose language i couldn't follow. 3) I went and lived in Bihar & Jharkhand where people are not really concerned about the opportunity that life is . The are untouched by the shining economy and thus have no complains about the way their lives are. A testimony of the UPA government's failure to bring changes over its tenure is that there people still think that the prime minister of India is A.B.Vajpayee . No matter how strange it seems to be it has given me an insight to what state of mind are people in rural areas and has made me more determined to do something about it in future.