Music Me and You...

Today after a while I listened to Cat Stevens songs... For a while felt like a trip to bliss...Its like meeting a dear loved friend after a while and then all the past stories and mischiefs just take you back to that world...

Short Lived though both are...

Yes Sirrrrr....

I am currently staying as a PG in dehradun. The aunty out there is nice but then she is a bit weird too... Every morning she tries to wake up everyone at 6.30 god nows only why... She has 2 kids. One has a pet name as Bitu lol... SO every morning she keeps yelling Bituuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu... and i in my bed go Oh my fucking Goooooooooddddddddddddddd...
She also gives me so called bed tea... But the tea come when she gets up and I am trying to still catch my beauty sleep... I guess she doesnt quite get the idea of bed tea..

Anywaz I have been looking to find a better place to stay. Yesterday i found one at an Army Colonel house. The place was meant to be for families only but i managed to use my charm :P.... But I really like the house... Its seems perfect for now.

So the Colonel interviewed me for 30 mins(like I was gonna be his future son in law).Trust me i was nervous...But we had a good chat he is a very interesting person.

I offered him a token amount to confirm the apartment. This is what he said

'Baby I am a decorated soldier who has given his life for you fucking civilians. I am giving you my word it matters more than the token amount you are giving me. This is an army officers word I wont go back. You stupid civilians may back off' lol..

I put my head down and the money back in my pocket...

Gone are the days when the mans words mattered more than a few thousand rupees...

Life is like a paper boat. You build it, set it to sail, it drifts with the tide high and low. It finally sinks.Its time to build another one...

A million pieces....

A lie to friend with a smile on your face and not a blink in the eye breaks a heart that is already broken into a million pieces...

Anahata

I came across this word in Leh... Rohan mentioned it to me...
Anahata is a sanskrit word.Along with all its other meanings it means a state when your heart and your mind are at the same level.

I am in that phase of life where I believe i am following my heart.Wise men say that it is something that gives you most satisfaction.But doing so is just not easy...

On one single day just everything will go wrong...

Your parents wont support you idea. You leaving behind your work your life that has been yours for so long. Your friends are too busy to be there for you...

But then they say... Before anything good that you gonna cherish for a lifetime you have to hit rock bottom....

All that I miss...

I am just back from Leh and this has been a trip that i wont forget for years...

I miss so many things...

I miss the sound of flowing water in the indus river... I miss the night sky and the twinkling stars... I miss the kids that i grew so found of... I miss the small girl kids calling me Bhaiya...
I miss the good morning smile :)... I miss the evening at the river side... I miss the smoke and the cream... I miss wondering... I miss going hungry for an entire day... I miss the shade under the solar panel... I miss the crumbling mountain...I miss the shooting stars... I miss talking to strangers who became friends...I miss doing nothing...

I miss Leh...

What to do????

So once you cross 25 you kinda screwed to make decisions...
Do you need to settle down???
Should you continue with your job that got you where you are????
Should you move on in life and do what you really want to do???

I dont know... Just in that situation... But i think I have made up my mind...

The sweetest people I have ever met

When didster strikes the worst comes out of a lot of people... If you ever visted any of the villages that was affected by the floods and did just a bit u would beg to differ...

Every single house however badly damaged would offer(actually force) all the volunteers to have tea,drinks, food every hour...

Think about it... The place where you stay... your home... your family has been broken
Would you still care to cook food for a set of strangers....

Indian tourist...

I have been through the floods in Leh... Went to help for a few days... There was just everybody there... Volunteers from all nationalities who had come on a vacation... They all were helping out shovling mud... cleaning hospitals... carrying dead bodies... holding hands...

You know what was most shocking I couldnt spot even a handful of Indian tourist... All those guys who were vacationing in and around Leh left when the floods hit their country and people....

Where had all the Indian tourist gone my brothers and sisters????

When was the last time

I won a bet with Kiran the other day and she bought me chocolates. We entered the guest house premises and the owners kids were playing. Two small girls aged 5-8...
They saw the chocaltes in my hand and there was an instant smile on their face... Their eyes lit up so bright...

So when was the last time your eyes lit up when u saw something...

I want to write...

I want to write right now but I do not know where to begin...
I have so much to say but no one to say it too...

Its an amazing feeling I tell you, when your mind wanders in all directions, when you know that you just cant go more wrong from here on...

There are so many things that I have discovered about myself in this trip and a few new habits that I have formed...
Don't know if they are good or bad..

Actually you would never know if something/someone was good or bad for you till it reaches its climax...

Both dreams and fears take you where you are destined to go... But when your dreams and fears meet thats when you experience your worst nightmare...

Well I know I have scribbled all over the place but I warned you in the beginning itself...

Momos...

Well every sunday we have Momos for dinner...
This sunday I decided to help...

Well everyone in the campus was there...

The kids,the germans,the french,the swiss,the czech...

Some kid taught me how to fold a momo... I think i did a decent job... Made around 30 momos....

Apricot Jam Picnic To Alchi

As soon as i got back to Secmol we went for a jam picnic to Alchi.
Alchi is around 2 hrs drive from Phey...

It was an interesting day...

Plucked apricots from the trees
Seperated the good and the bad ones.
And made jam...
As simple as that but got a bit bored at the end of it...

Well in the night we slept under the open sky...
The next day the kids continued to make jam... I left by the early morning bus to Phey...

Let me know and I could get you some jam to taste...

Hold on tight until the dawn

So we walked up to Leh Palace and spent a couple of hours out there...
I sat on one of the rocks and stared at the bright blue sky and barren mountains for a while...

As a matter of fact I am confused... and I just cannot make up my mind...

When should I get back to my routine... How long should I stay at Secmol...
Will destiny be on my side or will it play its game called life with me...

I wish i could get my mind as clear as the bright blue sky i see... but i guess not...

A quote from Shantaram..

Sometimes we love with nothing more than hope. Sometimes we cry with everything except tears. In the end that’s all there is: love and its duty, sorrow and its truth. In the end that’s all we have – to hold on tight until the dawn

How many kids am i gonna have...

We heading to Nubra valley for an overnight stay tomorrow. The Dalai Lama is supposed to be there... At breakfast today we were taliking about this and what would we ask the Dalai Lama if we ever got a chance to meet him.

Shishir and i thought about a metaphor to the philospohy/struggle in life...

Sneha said she would go with knowing how many kids she gonna have...
Guess the Dalai Lama would be able to answer that...

Taking a break from a break...

Well today is my last day in Leh for the next 3 days ;)
Going to delhi for a couple of days for Pallavs wedding...
That should be fun i guess...Just looking at his face when he is gonna be married is gonna make me smile... Awesumnesssss...

Well after that a few of my friends are comming to Leh for a couple of weeks and we would just chill out there....

Then back to the school for another month or so...

There is so much of joy here i want to stay back...

This is what Claire(the brit teacher said...).She may extend her stay for a couple of weeks more...
Its true there is so much of joy... I dont know anyone out there for more than 15 days and yet i am so very happy to be there at the campus...
That afternoon was fun... Rohan( a guy from shillong who came to ladakh for 6 months but now plans to stay for 6 years) was playing the guitar...Everyone was singing... The kids came from their class and joined it... the energy was amazing...
People and music have such an impact ... Both can make u laugh as well as cry...

I am surely learning to play an instrument once me back...

Ta till next time...

Stains and boners ...

Lol... This is gonna be a difficult and fun story to tell..

So the night of the shooting stars we simply ventured out without our jackets...
Within a couple of hours at around 11.30 the cold started getting us uncomfortable...
So we decided to trek back to the campus to get our jackets... The brit group a teacher(Claire) and her 2 students(actually 3 one girl was in the room...) me and my roomies reached the campus...

So the brits open their door and all shriek and laugh... The girl and a American geeky guy are in the bed... It was hilarious... Not to misinterpret nothing was happening... One of them was innocently conversing with the other...

The guy gets up... Man it was a sight...
He was wearing a one piece night suit that had buttons behind right to his butt...Just like bunny rabbit :)...

And then the moment...
Mister bunny rabbit has a stain on his costume and a hard on...
Lol dint we pull the girls leg for the rest of the night under the starry sky...

Ta...

Shooting stars ***

The other night my roomates, me and the brit group at the campus gazed at the sky...
We sat near the river for around 4-5 hours at night simply looking at the constellations above us...
It was beautiful... The whole sky just for yourself for several hours is a feast you should not miss and then the cherry to the desert was the 8 shooting stars that I saw and also the topic of discussion(next post...)

Well will i do it again... U bet i surely will...

From Phey to Leh

The other day i came to Leh city. Its 18 kms from the school i stay in...

I walked for around 4 km.The hitch hiked a ride on a truck to the highway...
Hitch hiked again to leh on a truck... then a sharing cab to the market...

It was brilliant.And to top it all saw a plane landing and in its backdrop snowclad mountains and valleys... Made my day...

My roomates

So i share my room with 2 law students from delhi..

John and anshuman.

They remind me of college days.They are as lazy as u could be..Sleep more than 12-14 hours a day. But they fun. I think its great hanging out with college grads sometimes ... It makes u feel younger and lighter in life...

So hows it going Nikhil...

Its perfect...

The place is beautiful... Hidden away between mountains on all sides... The Indus flowing besides it... A perfect place to be in...

The people around are lovely...The kids really sweet and eager to learn...
The cows give a lot of milk... And i think the toilet is the worlds best.It is a dry compost toilet but there is no ceiling..It opens up to the bright blue sky during the day and during night to the million of stars that just make the sky look so beautiful..I think this is the second most beautiful sky i have seen the other being at bandavgarh forest late at night with the sounds of wild animals nearby...

I spend a few hours a day teaching and talking in english and the rest just lazying around and reading... Well if i could change anything it would be nothing....

Well thinking about it... may be the food(gives me a squizzy stomach) and the american teenagers at the campus for a while... The rest stays the same...

Death By Sitting

My journey from Manali to Leh was a bitter sweet experience...
I was dumped at the back of a sumo with 3 other guys... I was charged double than anyone of them my only mistake being not confirming where do i sit... Guess i trusted that guy... For 24 hrs i lay there. Within 6 hours I couldnt feel my legs... I puked twice... The driver played bad hindi/ladakhi music all the way... My head was about to explode... Hadnt slept for the last 2 days... But then as always the beauty of the trip... the snow around me the snow clad mountains and the beautiful geeky looking brit girl sitting in the front made up for it...

Manali not for me

So I have been roaming around the streets of Manali market this evening and I don't seem to like what I see...

To begin with there are more tourist than locals.. How can i enjoy a place when the people who inhabit the place are fewer than the visitors may in the ratio of 10:1 There is no majic to such a place.

Dont get me wrong I think Manali is beautiful. The high mountains.. the tall trees the fresh air..

I was imagining it around 20 years ago and man it would have been breathtaking... Now it seems like a market between mountains aargh...

And who do I see around me...

Couple on their honeymoons .. the bride with her mehndi still on and ornaments that say I was married a few days ago... Guys its your first holiday after your wedding make it special...

Drunk group of boys from somewhere in north India who think the own the place with their attitude and beer bottles...

Couples still in college come for a weekend getaway.... Guys you'll can do it somewhere in delhi also... wont make a difference

Families who have come for a holiday but the only place they seems to visit is the restaurants...

And then stupid travellers like me with rugsacks wandering around the place doing nothing...

I know i am sounding like a jerk... But i feel bad for myself and all the other fools around me...

Ta...

Manali and me

Arrived in Manali early in the morning... My ride to Leh is a cab at 2.00 am next morning...
So i just sit and read bill bryson, sip on earl grey tea.. have a masala omlete and write my blog post on the worlds worst keyboard,every time i press a key i could climb up the Petronas towers by foot and come back to see the letter just about flickering on the screen.

But ain't I loving this... :)

The italian next to me...

You wonder whether the seat next to you will be occupied by a italian blond.. But then some indian dude from noth comes and sits next to you.You just sigh and stare at he city you about to leave.

After dinner at a dhaba(Between the best mutter paneer and roti i have eaten and then top it with chai...) we were all seated as the bus attendant comes over and hands each person 5 plastic bags... Just in case you suffer from motion sickness... The northy next to me in 2 hours uses all five of them and also goes and ask for more. Whats funnier is that every time he uses one he has to go right to the front of the bus and give it to the attendant to throw away.. lol...

But for his benefit the driver thought it was some kind of arcade game... Nearly killed us thrice...

Tips to catch a bus from delhi to anywhere

So i booked my delhi to manali bus ticket online. Got the travel agencies name(Raj Himachal tours) and also where do i need to catch the bus. My bus was at 5.00pm so i started calling the number I had at 3.00 pm. No one answers for an hour... Somewhere around 4.00 i am told to stand exactly where i am standing, a bus will come and pick u up(majic) no bus number nothing at all...(Actually i heard 9100 in the background).

So here i am waiting for a bus 9100 and that has raj tours on it...
At around 5.15 there is bus (Mukul travel, 1777)... It cant be mine.. waiting for 10 mins I call the number again.

Me: Manali 5.00 pm
He: 1777
Me:WTF

Once I get in the bus I have a seat 16 but am sent to a seat really behind...
The adventure of catching a bus does not end here... Even if you are sitting on your very own seat that you have paid for waiting for the bus to leave the bus dude can ask you to get down if an odd number of people need to be seated... So I was lucky there was me an another guy from south india travelling alone(From the looks of him i guessed). There a gang of 4 people enter with only 3 seats left... The south Indian guy is moved out... God know why????
Lucky me...
Until next time...

So my journey begins..

I am sitting a the mumbai airport waiting for my flight to delhi reading bill bryson (Neither here not there... or something like that) and sipping on darjeeling tea... take sometime off to wander my mind... I start thinking what are the 3 things that 1 have to achieve in my trip...

1. Stories... I should have stories to tell... Stories of travel... of climbing mountain peaks... Stories of encountering snow leopards... stories...
Actually just stories that the girls like to hear :)

2. Loose my beer belly...

3. Cant think of anything interesting for the third point... lol

So my journey begins...

What happened?.... What always happens. Life...

My week leading to my trip to Leh has been a very interesting one...
I think I am leaving something very important to destiny... That's what I was told to do...
What I know though that it's gonna be a fun ride and I am gonna enjoy every bit of it.
I know that I am sounding abstract... But then that's how i want to sound...

Lets see how it goes...

On My way to Phey...

It all began a few months ago when I introspected. I always knew that there is more to life than writing software for a living and drinking beer when I was thirsty. I decided that I would spend some time traveling and distance myself from a lot of things/people that make me smile or angry.
I don't know what I am getting into. I am scared yet excited. I am clueless yet confident. This should be a fun trip.

For those who don't know... I am on my way to Leh for 3-5 months.
I am spending my time in a school at a village in Phey some 20 Km from Leh.

I plan to teach out there but for one I am sure to learn a lot more.