Heart of India

I visited MP about 2 years ago and i wrote this then. Thought it's worth sharing

Well I’ve been around in Madhya Pradesh for the past 10 days and I thought I’ll share my experience with u all. To start with my perception of MP being a dry and barren state was wrong of whatever little I managed to see of this huge state. I think the topography of the state is quite unique. You have vast stretches of land and in between the planes you suddenly have some highlands (mini hills or plateaus you can say). I found that quite amusing. The black soil in the state was also something new for me. The vast stretches of black soil with patches of greenish yellow vegetation on it was a good site. In fact there is a lot of green cover in the state.

I was staying in Bhopal for most of the time. Bhopal is sort of a dead town or you can say a perfect reflection of a bureaucratic town. The capital of MP is quite relaxed and laid back with nothing much to write back home about apart from a big lake which is decently maintained.

An hour’s drive from Bhopal is Sanchi. Sanchi’s claim to fame is the Sanchi Stupa which is a world heritage site. My visit to Sanchi was a good one. A very quite and calm place, it had a certain peace about its surroundings (or maybe it was because early in the morning me and my colleague were the only visitors there). However, the remains of the ancient monastery and Buddhist temple were worth a visit. On my way to Sanchi I also happened to cross the Line of Cancer (23.5 N – remember geography people). Not that it’s of much consequence but then I have to write something and bore you people.

Next destination was Dewas followed by Indore where I had to do warehouse inspections. Nothing to mention about Dewas. It’s a small district. However, en route to Dewas I saw a lot wind mills on the mini hills/plateaus mentioned earlier. Seems Suzlon has a big project here. Indore was the complete opposite of Bhopal. It was energetic, was far more developed/commercialized than Bhopal and very crowded. Didn’t feel like I was in MP which had been calm and laid back so far. My stay in Indore was for only a night. Next day being a Sunday, my colleague was very keen on visiting Ujjain before heading back for Bhopal. Now I was not interested in going but seeing how badly he wanted to visit the holy temple town I agreed. I tried to go with an open mind but please excuse me if I’m hurting anyone’s religious sentiments, but the experience was not something I’ll want to repeat. After waiting for an hour (quite a lot of it in heat) we finally got the chance to have a look at the shivling and that too for a few seconds. Not to mention that pushing and shoving was common. However, luckily the temple was not dirty. Some relief. Anyways, my colleague was happy and we headed back for our base.

For all those who have read till here and not abandoned the mail midway thanks for your patience.

Light at the end of the Tunnel

The phases of ups and downs are a part of everyone’s lives. What’s important is the way different people deal with them. There are days on end when everyday you get up and wonder why do you have to go through another wretched day. It’s just one of the phases that one’s going through when nothing seems to be working out.

Though everyone knows that there’s light at the end of the proverbial tunnel but what’s important is how one approaches that light. Some might just go in a shell and try to see the phase through, some take it heads on and laugh through it, some begin to lose confidence and feel the light will never show. Sometimes it’s also important to close your eyes when there’s darkness around and walk along the tunnel to reach the light. Whatever the approach, the best part is that the light does come.

So no matter how dark it gets, I think we should get up each morning with the belief that the tunnel will be crossed today. I’m sure the journey will become much shorter that way and hopefully there’ll be more ups than downs in our lives.

To Kill a Mocking Bird

I was quite an avid reader in school. I still like to read but somehow with the distractions in life increasing, the frequency of reading has reduced. Recently, I was reading a classic – “To Kill a Mocking Bird” and wondered why I didn’t read this masterpiece earlier.

The best part about the book is the way in which it conveys important messages without being preachy. The ability of Atticus, the protagonist to stand by what he believes, even in the face of adversity is something that forces the reader to think. The innocence of the kids and how Atticus deals with it, along with laying certain important ground rules that would lay the foundation of their personalities is a lesson which all of us could learn from. The entire emphasis of the book according to me is to get the basics and the fundamentals right. Rest things will fall in place.

Hats off to Harper Lee for writing this masterpiece.

Little bit of a difference

Going through today’s paper I came across an interesting concept of Your Turn Now (YTN) which aims at spreading goodness. It’s about how when someone thanks you for some help, instead of just saying a welcome you also give them a YTN card and encourage them to do a good deed.

The article made me think that how most of us forget the little things in life these days. It’s very easy to get cynical and crib about how the world is becoming unhealthily competitive and not so nice to live in anymore. However, it’s even easier to just appreciate the little things in life and do little acts of kindness and politeness. Things like saying a thank you to the person who serves you food at home/restaurant, smiling at the acquaintances you pass by everyday or just listening/being there for a friend are little things that don’t take too much but might go a long way in making this world a better place to live in. It’s about pausing a bit in the daily fast paced schedules.

It’s very easy to get carried away in the flow of things but as a friend rightly said that it’s the journey and not the destination that matters in the end. In the quest to reach the destination we often forget the journey part. I think it’s worth pausing a bit and seeing where we are heading and in case I’m able to make a little bit of a difference, I think it would be a life well lived.

Just a Thought: Six

What do you do when the world around believes in you but the mirror tells a totally different story

Spark

Spending some time in Narhat and Thanagazi, away from the hustle bustle of Bombay has given me time to think about where I’m heading and what I might possibly want from life. I haven’t even come close to answering those questions but what I’ve definitely felt is that there’s something missing from my life.

I mean I don’t really look forward to a lot of things and the usual energy and optimism I used to associate myself with is missing. There’s nothing I would put my life and energy into and that really upsets me. Not having the attachment, the passion or the desire to do that one single thing. I’m missing the happiness and high that one gets from working towards that single minded goal.

I really feel jealous of people who are madly passionate about something. It gives you a certain confidence and spark in life. It keeps you going and life doesn’t become monotonous. Yes, the spark is missing from my life and I hope I’m able to find it soon.

Yellow with a dash of Green and Blue

One of the ways to make the most of my stay in Rajasthan is to travel whenever possible and see as much of Rajasthan as possible. Keeping that in mind we decided to visit Jaisalmer over the weekend which is more than 12 hours away from Thanagazi.

During the never ending train journey I couldn’t help but see the huge tracks of barren land with some shrubs and trees growing on it. For miles and miles one could just see barren land till the horizon. It struck me that here lies a brilliant opportunity to generate solar energy in a place where unusable land and sunlight are in is in abundance. An energy starved India could do with whatever extra energy it gets from whatever source. Though I did see some wind mills in the area but I feel solar energy would be more efficient in Rajasthan.

We were going to freshen up in the guest house before leaving for the desert. The guest house was inside the Jaisalmer Fort. Unlike most other forts, the Jaisalmer Fort is not a property of the Government of India or converted to a hotel but is inhabited by the descendants of the King and the people who use to serve him. Numerous hotels, guest houses, restaurants, shops and houses make up the fort. I always use to wonder how life would be in a fort during the times of the king. Seeing the Jaisalmer I got a feel how it would have been.

Another thing that was struck me was the architecture of Jaisalmer. All the buildings in Jaisalmer are yellow made mostly from the yellow jaisalmeri stone. From the fort, to the hotels, shops, houses and even the police station, ATM and petrol pumps. All are yellow giving a unique standardization to the place. Also a lot of houses had very fine carvings on their walls and windows. So from the desert to the city, all our eyes could see was yellow (with a dash of greenery here and there and the blue sky whenever we bothered to look up).

We saw a couple of Jain temples in Jaisalmer which have to be marveled for the brilliant carvings on the ceilings, arches and the walls. The desert as we had expected to find on reaching Jaisalmer was not there. The sand dunes that we see in the pictures and the movies are actually another 40 kms away from Jaisalmer. The trip to the sand dunes was a good experience with a bumpy camel ride adding to the fun. The night was spent in a camp near the dunes where we were supposed to spend the night in tents. However, the weather in the open being windy and cool we slept in the open which was far better than the tents.

It was a nice small trip which I’m glad we took despite the heat and the distance.