Benaras – the spiritual capital of India

Benarasiya

Benaras is the spiritual and cultural capital of India, Hindu religion’s holiest city and one of the most ancient living cities of India and indeed the world! These few lines by Mark Twain say it all: “Benaras is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend and looks twice as old as all of them put together”. It is said that dying in Benaras is a jackpot to salvation and moksha – you are freed from the cycle of birth and rebirth and become one with God. I am not religious. At all. But I have always had this fascination to visit Benaras / Varanasi / Kashi and soak in the culture, tradition, philosophy, knowledge, arts, music and dance. All of these have flourished here for centuries and Benaras has been the center of learning and civilization and a center of Hindu renaissance.

And Benaras did not let me down. It is such a vibrant city, with so much color, people, sounds, silks, gold. It’s a melting pot for people from not just all over India, but all over the world! The narrow winding streets are dotted with a couple of thousand temples and hundreds of thousands of people every single day of the year. There is no off season in this city, as there is no off season to pray to God or to wash away your sins…

Sowmya and I just completed a visit to the most phenomenal spiritual party on the planet at the ardh kumbh at Allahabad and landed at Godowliya chowk in Benaras. We stayed at Alka hotel right on the banks of Ganga on the Meer ghat. Everything that matters is close by from here – the ghats, Ganga, BHU, the Kashi Vishwanath temple, and other important temples. It’s an OK hotel but a great location especially if you want to experience the quintessential rustic Benarasiya exuberance.

There are so many narrow lanes near Godowliya chowk just about 4 feet wide. And it is always buzzing with activity. In one of the lanes leading to the hotel, there were hundreds of people waiting in a serpentine line to enter the Kashi Vishwanath temple. There were shops selling sarees, Pooja items, jewellery, sweets, trinkets, and scores of other things in the street. There was a woman snake charmer showing off her snake charming skills, there were cows and dogs scouring for food, there were travellers who were just sitting there probably not having a place to stay and spending time on the streets. There were bikes going in both the direction. And hundreds of people walking, shopping, eating, catching up with friends. All of this in that narrow 4 feet lane! It was the same scene in the entire area in all the streets! Total and utter chaos everywhere. And so much noise, I could hardly hear myself talk. And in all this chaos, we saw a dog lying calmly in a cement dustbin with probably just born half a dozen puppies hurriedly suckling on their mamma. For a while I just stood there stunned, not knowing what to do and where to go. Wonder how life goes on perfectly fine everyday amidst all this chaos!

 

 

Temples

We can’t be in Kashi and not visit the Kashi Vishwanath temple, the most important temple dedicated to Lord Shiva in India. This temple has been mentioned in the puranas and has been destroyed and re-constructed several time in its long illustrious history. The current structure was built by the Maratha Ahilya Bai Holkar. We stood in a long line from about 3.45 am to offer our prayers. But the line was moving fast and we finally entered after a lot of security checks. As soon as you enter the courtyard, you can see the brilliance of the two long spires and one dome all made of pure gold! It’s a very beautiful structure and the grandeur of the gold remains in your memory. Inside the temple is the Jyotirlinga of Shiva placed on a silver platform. We offered our prayers and then visited other deities in the complex – Annapurna devi, Kaal Bhairav, Dhandapani and a few more. We visited several more temples in the city – Sankat Mochan mandir, Durga mandir, Aghori mandir, Vyas mandir and several more. I think I exhausted my quota for the year!

Though not planned, we made a visit to Saranath, the place where Buddha first preached after his enlightenment. It is just 15 km from Benaras and what a beautiful, well maintained and serene place it is! Tall Buddha statue, Shanti stupa, Ashoka pillar, Golden seated Buddha statue adorned the beautiful park lined with flowers and fountains. Our guide gave us sprinklings of Buddha’s teachings and that added to the sereneness of the place.

 

Ghats

This was the most enjoyable part of my trip – a walk along the hundred odd ghats on the banks of the holy Ganga early in the morning. There were thousands of people thronging the ghats in all colors shapes and sizes. Some of them feverishly washing away their sins in the Ganga, some offering prayers to the sun, some performing mundan, some performing pind daan, some shraad, it was like a busy market place. Scores of pandits sat under their private canopy inviting customers for any kind of Pooja. We saw a man in his early twenties sitting on his mother’s lap getting his head shaved. Dogs and cows were roaming about. Amongst all this chaos, there were some sadhus who were peacefully meditating, oblivious to the cacophony around them. And there were dozens of ash smeared Naga babas stark naked, sitting and smoking chillums. Many of them had taken a dip in the Triveni sangam at Kumbh and had come to Benaras to meet their hero Bum Bum Bhole. When we tried taking their pictures, they demanded money! They refused to give ashirwad unless we pay them! In fact that was one bad memory I have carried back – all sadhus and babas kept asking for money, some of them demanding as though it was their right!

The most active and popular of the ghats is the Dashashwamedha ghat. Other important ghats are the Assi ghat, Tulsi ghat where Tulsidas wrote the Ramayana, and the Manikarnika ghat where funerals take place. I thought the mood will be very sombre at the Manikarnika ghat but people were just going about their business in a matter of fact manner. There were a couple of bodies burning at the funeral pyre and a couple more waiting in line to go to heaven to meet their maker. It is here that you can see life and death together. There were several people sitting on the ghats and just watching life go by.

 

Ganga

People have been visiting Ganga on the ghats of Varanasi for thousands of years to cleanse their bodies, souls and mind. The devotion, faith and belief with which I saw people washing themselves and literally rubbing their sins away, I sometimes I wish I had that kind of faith and just lock all my problems, desires, wishes and a to-do list in a box and hand them over to God to action them ASAP! But alas, that is not to be. I believe that no one but I can help myself.

Seeing the Ganga Aarti from a boat on the river after sunset amidst the sounding of conches and beating of the drums, listening to the holy mantras with the priests performing Pooja with multi-layered lit brass lamps is an absolutely mesmerizing experience! About 80 to 100 boats were all stacked up together opposite the Dashashwamedha ghat where Ganga Aarti is performed every single day at 6.30 for an hour. All buildings and temples along the ghats are lit up in blue, green, pink, yellow, red and the hues keep changing. We, like several other people let float diyas in a leaf bowl into the river and the ripples of the river made the diyas bounce softly and carried them away into the distance. It was such a beautiful sight!

 

Khaike paan Benaraswala

Of course I knew about the famous Benaras paan thanks to Mr. Bachchan, and so I could not miss that. And the paan we had was absolutely delicious! But to my surprise, I discovered that Benaras street food too is lipsmackingly delectable! I tried almost everything there was and each dish / snack I tried was even better than the previous. Started off with the tamatar paneer chaat that was so yummy, I didn’t even stop to take a breath, I just kept gorging on it. The malaiyyo is served in clay kulhads and it just melts in your mouth. It is made of fresh cream, saffron, almonds, pistachio and I cannot explain the taste but to say that if you have a choice between catching your flight and having malaiyyo, I’d say go for malaiyyo! For breakfast we had kachori with aloo sabji and chana. It cost just Rs. 20 but it was so tasty that right now if someone offered it to me for Rs. 2000 for it, I’d happily take it! The chura matar, palak chaat, paneer matar stuffed paratha, thandai were all so scrumptious. The lassi with rabdi was the icing on the cake! I think that was the best lassi of my life!

 

 

I come back with so many memories of the sights, sounds and smells of Benaras, but if I were to go back (and I think I will), it will be for two reasons – sitting on the ghats and observing the melee of the hundreds of thousands of people; and the yummy streetfood! Har Har Mahadev!  

Flirting with danger

I never lost the sense of wonder and curiosity and the spirit of adventure that children have, even though I lost my childhood long ago. Helen Keller’s statement “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing”, truly defines me. My hunger to learn and experience new things has led me to a lot of adventures and made my life fun, exciting and I must say worthy of envy 😉

Every year I try something new – from music (tried learning the keyboard and drums), dance (have taken western ballroom dance classes and learnt kathak for a few months), theatre (have performed in a couple of plays), painting (have done a couple of oils), to sports (tried my hand at tennis and squash and sucked big time, suck even more at swimming and horse riding), astronomy (did a course of amateur astronomy), travel ( have travelled to about 30 countries) high altitude trekking (trekked the Himalayas in India and Nepal a few times) and adventure sports (white water rafting, rock climbing, rappelling, snorkelling, kayaking, spelunking, canyoning, para gliding), I’ve done it all, and some more. The adrenaline rush you get with adventure sports beats any weed or cocaine!

But you can’t call it “real” adventure unless it’s tinged with danger. And though the adventure sports I indulged in were outside my comfort zone, they were safe in that we always had safety precautions like harness or life jackets or guides coming along / being around to “save” me if needed. This year though, I took up something that I find very dangerous and risky – motorbike riding. Though millions ride bikes, I personally find it very daunting.

I am very bad with motor skills, it takes me a lot longer to form muscle memory than everyone else. And balance is something that just does not come naturally to me. Even though I had a bicycle when I was a kid, I never really learnt to ride it since I could not get the balance. I was actually afraid to ride a bicycle. That’s why I took it up as a challenge to myself to learn to ride a geared motorcycle.

I first bought a bicycle and learnt to balance. Then my friend Deepak taught me to ride a non-geared two-wheeler. Just around then, I saw an ad from Enfield Riders who were running a motorcycle coaching camp for women in Bangalore. That was like opportunity not knocking but banging loudly at my door and I am not the one to miss an opportunity. So I took up lessons from them. And then one day I went out with my brother and came back home with a second hand 150cc Yamaha FZ-S!

As luck would have it, I had a ligament injury on my ankle and the bike remained unused for about 8 to 9 months. But once again Deepak helped me a couple of times and I was able to ride without anyone sitting behind me. But I did not have the courage to go on my own without someone accompanying me. So again nothing happened for a few months. One day I happened to read a quote that said to get rid of fear, you must keep doing what you are afraid of and then you will overcome it. So I started taking my bike out alone, but very close to my home. Slowly I went 5 km away and then 8 to 10 km. but only during early mornings when there are hardly any vehicles on the road, but nevertheless I had started riding on my own! It all happened thanks to Deepak. If not for him, I would still just be dreaming about riding. So a big thank you goes out to him.

I had heard Bangalore has a lot of biking groups so I googled for bike riding groups and joined a women’s biking group called Bikerni. A couple of bikernis – Nisha and Preethi – live close to home and I went for short rides with them just a couple of times. Nisha nudged me to go on a long drive to a place 28km from home. We went through the city and took the highway – NICE road – on the return. It was so much fun to ride on the NICE road. Well maintained roads with no traffic at all and I cruised between 50 and 60 km speed. But we lost our way once we entered the city and I fell down a couple of times when the bike was almost stationary. It’s easy to ride when you are going fast, it’s the slow speed where balance does not come easily. And being short, my feet only tip toe so it becomes even more difficult.

The next weekend Nisha and I went and bought gears – Riding jacket, knee guards, gloves. There was a post on the Bikerni whatsapp group about a ride the following weekend Sunday 5^th August. Several biking groups across the city were coming together to ride against molestation. The idea was to spread awareness by riding for the cause. And this was a nationwide event. The total distance to be covered from home and back was about 120/130 km. Only couple of weekends ago I had not even gone outside my locality. And this was on the highway to Kolar. I was not confident at all, but Nisha convinced me. 10 bikernis had signed up for it. I left home at 4.30 in the morning, met up Nisha and Shalini not too far from home and then we rode to Vidhana Soudha which was the meeting point for the rest of the group. And there I met everyone else. What a kickass bunch of girls they were!

Anee and Zephyr were young kids in their twenties, calling each other “bro”! They had got a speaker along, and were grooving to music in the middle of the road at 5.30 in the morning! Anee and Zeph put black kohl stripes on everyone’s cheeks to create an impact! Some of the women were in their twenties, thirties and some in forties, many had kids. Some had been riding for more than a decade and some had started just a few years ago. Sonali has gone for several solo rides for 5 to 10 days at a stretch. Madhu rides a Duke at 150km speed. Shalini rides Chennai to Bangalore solo one or twice a month regularly! She was here that weekend so came along for the ride. They were all from different walks of life, different backgrounds, different professions. Just the love of biking brought them all together. We took pictures and then rode to Freedom Park, the starting point of the ride where all other groups had already assembled.

 

There must have been about 100 to 150 bikers and there were so many kinds of bikes in the group – Triumph, Avenger, Yamaha R15, KTM, Duke, but the most popular was Royal Enfield. Leads of all biking groups spoke about the cause. A few NGOs also were there. The organizing biking groups were Paramount Riders, Indian Royal Cruisers and My Biker Family. The media and police were there and lots of pictures were taken. I learnt a lot about riding in a group. There is always a lead who leads the ride and a sweep who rides last, ensuring no one is left behind. And then there are one or two marshalls who keep going up and down to guide the group, stall traffic when needed, ensure everyone is OK and provide help if anyone needs. Sonali was our lead, Anee and Madhu were our Marshalls.

The ride was very well organized. The marshalls ensured we were riding in twos when the road was wide and in a single line when the road was narrow or there was a lot of traffic. And they kept guiding the traffic to stay away from us. Both Madhu and Anee & Zeph kept checking on me since I was a newbie. They kept encouraging me and giving me tips. If not for them, I would never have made it! There was always someone behind me and they would come up and steer the traffic around me, wait for me if I slowed down, help push my bike on a slope… It was like a brotherhood, or sisterhood or should I say Bikerhood! You just feel so much safer and confident when riding in a group. Somebody is always covering you. And it’s great to be a part of the girl’s gang!

 

 

After KR puram bridge, we went on the highway and bikers started going at speeds beyond 100! I obviously didn’t go that fast. In fact till the previous week, I had not crossed the speed of 50! So I cruised between 60 and 70. Did 75 sometimes. But I wanted to test myself so hit 85 just for a few seconds! It was so thrilling! But I was shit scared and totally focussed on the road. In fact, I have never had so much focus and concentration ever! We finally reached our destination, mingled with all the bikers and had breakfast.

Nisha and I wanted to head back so we left right after. This was a little more scary since in the morning we had a whole gang to be around us, but now both of us were riding back alone. But there was no traffic at all so it was fine and I maintained a speed of 60 to 70. After a few kilometres, it became very windy. I could feel the pressure of the helmet getting pushed against my forehead and the glass was even rubbing my nose. I thought the bike would fly away! It was so exciting and my adrenaline was pumping furiously. I was the queen of the roads. I came back home safely without any incident. And it felt so great! I felt as though I have conquered the world. Riding a bike was such a scary and risky thing for me that overcoming my fear and having done this ride of 120km on a highway without an incident was truly an achievement for me! Felt the same way like Alexander must have felt after conquering the world!

I still am not very confident and have a long way to go. My dream is to ride to Ladakh. Will get there some day. Till then its Hasta la vista baby!

 

Annapurna Base Camp trek – Nepal – April 2018

I made a trip to heaven this spring! Yes, you got that right – heaven! The Annapurna Base Camp Trek (ABC) was nothing short of heaven. Having done two treks in the Indian Himalayas, Meena and I chose the Nepali Himalayas this year. And ABC turned out to be the most wonderful awesomest trek ever – giving us a glimpse of so many different types of terrains in the 11 days of trekking. Annapurna is the 10^th highest mountain in the world at a height of 8091 meters. And is one of the most beautiful trekking routes especially in spring.

Himalaya ki goad mein

It was that time of the year when the mountains are filled with thousands of millions of pretty rhododendron flowers! They are of 6 different colors – baby pink, candy pink, red, white, yellow and lavender. Different colored flowers grow in different regions and altitudes. We were able to see baby pink, candy pink and red ones. Just imagine being in a valley surrounded by mountain slopes. And all of them having pink rhododendron blooms as far as you can see for miles and miles! Pink, pink all around! It was such a delightfully stunning sight that our cameras went click click click… The red ones called Lali Guras in Nepali are edible and taste a bit sour. They also make sharbat out of it. The flowers bloom only for 2/3 months so we were very lucky to be there at the right time and altitude.

On day 3, we were climbing down a mountain and there were 2/3 kilometers tall mountains all around us. It felt like we were going in the underbelly of the earth! Tall guzzly waterfalls, pristine greenery, streams and rivers, birds and butterflies, caves, steep rocky faces of mountains – it was like a scene from a National Geographic documentary. Only in this case, we were the main characters in it and were experiencing it for real. We were walking on 1.5 to 2 feet ledge and if we missed a step, we would fall down a couple of kilometers and no one would ever find our bones! But this is an after-thought. At that time, we were truly enjoying our walk deep inside the earth hoping to come out the other side. I almost felt I would bump into Captain Jack Sparrow!

It rained almost every day after 2 / 3 pm. And the mountains come alive when it rains. The smell of wet earth, the feel of cool crisp moist breeze on the skin, the taste of the sweet water from the spring, the sight of water dripping from every pore, the sound of birds chirping and the pitter patter of the rain drops – all our senses were awakened! The clouds gathered and were slowly moving towards us and soon they engulfed us in a sweet embrace. We were literally walking in the rain clouds and could feel the moisture brush against our cheeks. The world looked like a new bride – demure and coy at times and gregarious and bashful at times. The clouds gave a soft white milky hazy tint to the world. No I was not seeing the world through tinted glasses, the world was tinted! The green and brown of the trees against the milky white clouds seemed like someone dropped leaves in a bowl of milk! The entire valley disappeared and was replaced by an infinity of milky haze. And I said Stephen Hawking discovered the black hole and Poorvi Daxini discovered the white hole 😉 Unlike the black hole from where even light could not escape, the white hole reflected all the light and made the world look heavenly white. And after the rains when sometimes the sun came out, we used to sit next to the butterflies and bask in the sun along with them!

On day 5, we went through bamboo forests and it was such a soothing experience for the soul. There were wild bamboo trees growing all over with a mangled mess, lots of moss on the trunks of trees, many insects and even leeches, something or the other growing on every inch of land including dead trees! All this with the constant fluttering of wings with pretty birds playing their evening parlor games and chattering about. I so love the wilderness – where everything is hap-hazard, there are no rules and anything goes. I guess it resonates with the wild spark in me. And I feel at home here. It soothes my heart, mind and soul. I feel one with nature. It is at times and places like these that I don’t want to be with the group. I want to be alone with nature. Main aur meri tanhaiyaan… It kindles something deep down within me. Something beautiful, that will remain with me for a long time. And when it starts to fade, it’s time for another visit to the mountains!

Once we crossed about 12000 feet, we were above the tree line and were surrounded by rocky boulders, snow covered peaks waterfalls and the river Modi which was our constant companion. We crossed many bridges over waterfalls, rivers and streams – some were wooden planks, some were stones and some proper steel bridges. It was the wooden planks that were the most tricky to cross but luckily we had no accidents.

The final destination – Annapurna base camp was absolutely stunning! We woke up early morning before sunrise to get a glimpse of the heavenly abode of Neelkanth. Initially there were clouds, but soon nature lifted the veil (I choose to think it was especially for me!) for a grand show. Snow and snow-capped peaks as far as the eye can see. We got a 360 degree view of the tallest peaks and we were literally in the laps of the Himalayas – Himalaya ki goad mein. They seemed so near, we could almost touch them. Annapurna South, Annapurna 1, Machchapuchare, Himchuli, Barah Shikhar, Gangapurna – all of them standing at attention in all their majesty, saluting us from up above and giving us a warm welcome (well it was extremely cold and we were freezing but the warm welcome made the difference!).

When the sun came out, the rays falling on the snow capped peaks, gave a golden glow to the mountains! Watching the molten fluid golden mountains surrounded by pure and pristine white snow was so very surreal! It was such a humbling experience standing there as specks against the mighty mountains. . Jagdish bhai playing flute right there in the laps of the snow capped peaks was such a divine experience! That scene is imprinted in my mind’s eye forever

We experienced all the elements in those 11 days. During the day it was so hot and the sun so harsh, if we squeezed our T shirts we could get 250ml of sweat! No I’m not exaggerating. The full T shirt and the back of the backpack were wet and dripping. Nights were cold and freezing and at the base camp it was minus 2 degrees. We were all layered up and cuddled inside sleeping bags and thick razaais. And it rained almost every day in the afternoons. A couple of days it poured a lot and we were drenched to the bone. In fact on the last but one day, it was raining incessantly and there was so much flooding that we could not reach our destination and had to check in to a tea house at Lower Sinuwa instead of Chhomrong. On the same day, it rained hail stones – big hard stones! And it hurt. Bad! The hail stones were so big and hurt so much, we had to take cover in a cave. And finally, as soon as we reached the base camp, it started snowing! The soft snow flakes fell on us like feathers and we danced in the snow. It was great to experience all kinds of terrain and all kinds of weather conditions in those 11 days!

We started our trek at Nayapul at 1070 metres and climbed to ABC which was at about 4200 metres. Day 2 and 3 were steep climbs and the most difficult. We reached the base camp on day 8 and the last 3 days were steep descents. Every day we used to have breakfast at one mountain, lunch at another and dinner at yet another! We climbed up and down so many mountains in the 11 days, that walking on the plains in flat surface might need some practise 😉 On day 5 my thigh muscle had an injury and it worsened the next day. I was literally dragging my leg, but the company of the mountains and the birds made it easy.

The group

The whole ABC trek experience was fantastic because we had a diverse and fantastic group of 5 – 2 gujjus and 3 Maharashtrians, 2 from Bangalore and 3 from Mumbai with age group spanning 30s to 60s. We had amongst us two people from MNCs (one of them currently on a sabbatical), one running his own startup, a businessman and a physiotherapist running a pilates studio. A truly diverse group who bonded so well, it made the trek that much more fun.

Meena is my regular trekking and travel partner and no trek is complete without her! She loves to talk and is a great story teller, making our treks lively and engaging. Her knowledge about birds and butterflies got us interested in birding and our cameras were overworked! And while we had an experience of different kinds of terrain and weather conditions every day, what remained constant were Meena’s PJs! They really made the trek cheerful and light.

Jagdish bhai the quintessential Gujju, kept taking out unending bags of snacks like a magician takes out rabbits from a hat! When we heard a dandiya song, both of us broke into a dandiya and garba sequence (with our walking poles!) in the middle of a bridge! Gujjus just cannot resist breaking into a dance the moment they hear the 6 beat rhythm.  We were all mighty impressed with Jagdish bhai who despite his age, kept pace with us and more importantly was the most spirited and jovial person.

Pami the physiotherapist was easygoing cool headed and many a times naïve, but every now and then she gave very profound pearls of wisdom! She loved narrating Bollywood movie stories and through her I saw half a more movies during the trek 😉

Rajesh the successful entrepreneur was the fitness freak and not surprisingly the fittest among the group. He kept popping almonds like energy pills and marching on full steam! His nuggets of information / knowledge on health, fitness, yoga, food kept punctuating our trek. He loved being photographed in his trademark pose with both hands up in the air. Being with hardcore Marathi manus, am sure his Marathi improved quite a bit!

Thank you folks for making this trek an absolutely smashing one!

Fellow trekkers

The trekking route in Nepal was literally a melting pot of people and cultures from across the world. We met people from US, UK, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, France (every other person was from France!), S Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia (we asked him to save the Great Barrier reef for us till we make a visit there), Africa, India and almost any other country you can think of. Every night, we stayed in what are called tea houses that have a common dining room – a warm one!. There is usually a large rectangular dining table and everyone sits around and gets to know the fellow trekkers, where they are from etc. One Frenchman kept listening to us talking in Hindi and suddenly started talking to us in Hindi! He had lived in India for 10 years and was familiar with all things Indian.

Just like in India, Namaste is the regular greeting so while trekking, any trekker who passes by, greets with a cheerful Namaste! And there is so much solidarity among fellow trekkers. Everyone cheers on each other, gives consolation that the destination is not far and its easy from now on (even though it may not be!) just to encourage us.

Most of the Indians were Marathi manus and the hotel in Kathmandu where we stayed had loads of them. It seemed if we shout in Marathi anywhere in Nepal, someone would definitely respond back! The Giri Premi trekking group from Pune have had several people successfully completing not just treks but even summitting Everest! Our trek organizers Peak Promotions have successfully led 45 kids from Pune to the Everest Base camp!

Peak Promotions

We had signed up with a Nepalese trekking organization called Peak Promotions and I think that was a great decision. They were absolutely the best and gave us no reason for complaints. Their customer service, attention to detail, personal attention to all of us, quick response to situations and change in plans was very commendable. Sonam Sherpa was our guide, Kumar the assistant guide and Krishna and Binod were our porters. They were the best team we could have asked for. Everyone was so helpful and at our beck and call, providing excellent service.

Sonam Sherpa was typical Nepali looking young chap who has a heart of gold. He ensured all of us were safe, well fed and healthy. He also has a great sense of humor and kept us entertained. We had so many demands (sometimes a bit unreasonable) and he always obliged. He carried our backpacks and cameras at timed and was our official photographer! Once when we unknowingly ordered less food, he even gave up his food for us and ordered something else for himself.

Kumar was always behind us, offering to even carry our backpacks when he thought we were tired. He has lived in India for 8 years and even understood Marathi. He kept us entertained with Hindi Bollywood songs playing on his mobile. We grooved to the popular songs and even requested for our favorite numbers! He turned out to be quite a capable DJ!

Binod was Kumar’s brother-in-law, barely out of his teens, handsome and very quiet. He had taken up this assignment only to see Annapurna as he had never been here before. He didn’t have to pay for the trek, in fact he actually got paid to do it! I quite loved the idea! But alas, I do not have the strength to carry 25 kgs of baggage and walk as fast as they do

Krishna was Kumar’s uncle and back in Nepal after working in Qatar and Saudi for several years. He is very happy to be able to provide an education for his son and see him prosper. There is something about human life – they all are more happy at their children’s success than their own.

Passang and Keshab were the owners and they paid personal attention to all of us. The flight from Pokhara to Kathmandu on the way back got cancelled and they immediately arranged for a vehicle to get us to Kathmandu by road so that we don’t miss our flight to India next day. We were given certificates at the end of our trek and it made us feel proud of ourselves having achieved the not-so-easy task of climbing an average of 15 to 17km every day and reaching the base camp at the height of about 4200 meters! Each of us deserves a pat on our backs!

Nepal

Nepal is a Himalayan state and has 8 out of the world’s 10 tallest mountains including Mount Everest – the highest point on Earth. Even though Nepal just occupies 0.1% of the world’s geographical area, it has 8% of the world’s birds and has 8 of the 11 species of butterflies. It has more than 600 indigenous species of flora.

It is the only other country in the world with a majority Hindu population, the other main religion being Buddhism. Shiva is regarded as the guardian deity of the country.  Buddha was born in Kapilavastu in southern Nepal. The Nepalese language has no script and they use Hindi as the script. So the boards and sign posts in the two cities we visited – Kathmandu and Pokhara – were all in Hindi. And it seemed we were traveling in some North India city. The clothes, food, temples were all so Indian like.

We had a day in Pokhara, and we spent the day sightseeing. The bat cave is a dark humid cave where the visibility is zero. We cannot take even a step without a torch. Sonam had got a torch along and we could feel the cold humid air as we entered. The roof of the cave had hundreds of bats who were so still , they seemed to be meditating. The exit of the cave was on the other end and was a steep climb and difficult to get out of. Several people ahead of us gave up, but with Sonam’s help I managed to wriggle my way out and got a hero’s welcome and applause from a bunch of Nepali local women! None of my group made it and they came back from the entrance. Pami was claustrophobic and she didn’t make it even to the next cave went to which was Mahendra cave. Our next pit stop was a chaat joint where we gorged on pani puri, dahi puri, samosa chat, chhole puri and everything else the joint had! After a short visit to the Shanti Stupa atop a hill, we finally reached Fewa lake. It was such a magnificent sight with the setting sun splashing a riot of colors in the evening sky. There were several boats in the lake and more than a kilometer long boardwalk along the lake lined with cafes, pubs and restaurants. We had coffee at one café and moved on to a pub that had live music. A local was singing soft romantic numbers in Nepali, Hindi and English and we swayed and danced to the music.

Due to the flight cancellation, we only had an evening and a few hours on the next day in Kathmandu before our flight. We did some souvenir shopping in the Thamel market in the evening and visited the famous Pashupatinath temple where Hindus from all over the world come for a pilgrimage. It is the temple of Lord Shiva and is thronged by hundreds of people paying their respects and offerings to the various shiv lings in the complex. It was like a mela out there with several babas dressed in tiger skin like clothes, ash smeared bodies and damru and shankh in hand. So many people were praying and making a wish. I hope all their wishes come true.

Trekking in Nepal

I have done a few treks in India and also in the Indian Himalayas. But trekking in Nepal was different – it was almost a luxury trek! In India, we have to stay in tents, there is no shower facility and we have to eat whatever food our cook who comes along with us on the trek cooks. In Nepal, there are what are called tea houses all along the trekking routes. We never needed to stay in a tent. Even at the base camp we stayed in a tea house.

The tea house is basically a lodge with a row of rooms with one / two / three / four / more beds and hardly any extra space in the room. Just a cot, mattress and blanket. The walls were mostly of plywood. There were toilets and almost every place had facility for a hot shower. We could even charge our phones and cameras and Wi-fi was available at every place. Of course all of this was at extra cost, but at least the facility was there. There was a common dining hall where usually everyone sacked out till bedtime. I was impressed to see that most of these tea houses are run by women who everyone called Didi. At dinner time, our group used to pick a different topic each day to discuss like trekking experiences, our life goals, best memories, ghost stories, movies etc.

At Chhomrong, our breakfast tables were out in the open with a stunning view of snowcapped peaks especially the Macchapuchare! Though this was the Annapurna trek, we saw more of the Macchapuchare (Fish tail). We saw it almost every day from every single angle! Normally anything that is big and huge is not considered beautiful. But the mountains defy that rule. The huge tall mountains look both strong and macho but also majestic, beautiful and serene.

We kept having huge cups of ginger tea all day. Our lunch was almost always the Nepali thali consisting of daal, bhaat, potato sabji, some greens, papad, pickle and sometimes a chutney. Towards the end, we were tired of eating the same thing every day! For breakfast we had a choice of pancake, oats, porridge, omelettes, potato roasty, boiled potatoes, Tibetan / Nepali bread with jam. For dinner we had a choice of Nepali thali, pasta, noodles, momos, pizza, sandwich, baby potatoes with cheese and a variety of desserts. And we tried everything that was available. We had hot garlic soup almost every day for dinner and ended with black ginger tea as both garlic and ginger are good to beat altitude sickness. I did get a headache at the base camp which was the highest point, but was OK the next day as we started descending.

After experiencing this luxury, I wonder if I will go on a trek in India 😉

Phir Milenge, Ciao, Au Revoir, Tchus, Adios, Adieu, Sayonara, Dasvidanya, Aloha

With a heavy heart we bid farewell to this beautiful mountain land, with the promise of returning back soon. The majestic mountains, the serene beauty, the enchanting waterfalls, the frolicking rivers, the delightful chirpiness of the birds, the dancing butterflies, the hospitality of the locals will keep tugging at our hearts. We will not be able to stay away for long and am sure very soon all of us will itch to go back to the stunning beauty of the mountains! Till then, so long and thanks for all the daal bhaat!

 

Movies – A window to the world – 10th BIFFes

I love watching movies, especially the “hatke” ones. And am open to watching movies on varied subjects from various parts of the world. The habit of watching movies in languages I do not understand, started from the old days of only national television where Doordarshan used to screen regional language films with subtitles. I have seen Malayalam, Odiya, Telugu and other language films with subtitles as a kid and enjoyed them. The treatment, sensibilities, issues are also different, apart from language, music, clothes etc.

So when Archana informed me of the upcoming 10th Bangalore International Film Festival, and offered to get me the tickets, I grabbed the opportunity (Opportunity’s knocks are usually faint. I’ve had to work hard  and strain my ears to listen to her knocks. Think I’m getting better…). The process was quite tedious. You’ve gotta fill a form and sign, provide two photographs and an ID proof and handover the form in person. And then go on another day to pick up the pass. And the place is faaaar faaaar away. Thanks to Archana for doing it for me. I owe you one dudette!

My boss is not the kind who would give time off to go watch movies. So I could go only on the weekend – Feb 23, 24 2018. Sowmya, Manpreet, Sajani and I reached Orion Mall between 11 and 11.30am. The organizers gave us a schedule of the movies and a booklet with a synopsis of each movie. It seemed like the entire city was here! There were long serpentine queues for every screen. Movies from about 60 countries in the world were showing in 11 screens. And 9 to 11 movies showing simultaneously on different screens. There were also panel discussions, workshops, Jury screenings apart from the regular screenings. So we had to decide which movies to watch. And we immediately decided, we should watch movies from different countries so we get a glimpse of as many different countries as possible.

We watched the following 7 movies across 2 days:

The Cakemaker : An Israeli movie in Hebrew set in Jerusalem and Berlin. A beautiful and sensitive movie about love between a German and a Jew! Yes, a bold topic especially in these racially regressive times. But even more bolder was that it was gay love.

Call me a thief : A South African movie in Afrikaans language set in the cape Town of 1960’s. This movie (based on the life of the scriptwriter) shows the stark reality of poverty, violence and crime and how it affects childhoods where kids fight to death over scraps of food. 4 young black kids are initiated into a gang by one of the kid’s father and they live a life of crime and thrill. AB and one of his friends gets imprisoned for petty crime and AB becomes a captivating storyteller in prison to avoid being hara  ssed by hardened criminals. On getting released he wants to give up crime, but his friends get him embroiled in something for which they are all tried in court. The other 3 try to put the blame on AB, but in the end, they end up being hanged for their crime and AB is let go. Shows that there is hope amidst darkness, that if one is determined, works hard, and is honest in his attempt, one can rise above all the misery and flourish.

Summer Blooms: A Japanese movie set in a town just outside Tokyo. A beautiful love story of a girl who has not moved on even three years after her boyfriend has died.  We slowly realize she had already broken up with him 4 months before he died, but holds herself responsible for his suicide. And lives a guilt ridden life. But soon someone enters her life and things take a positive turn. What I liked most about this movie is there is so much understanding, mutual respect and caring for each other. If the young Japanese of today’s generation are like this, I wish everyone sees this movie and learns from it.

The director of this movie Nakagawa was present and he took questions after the movie. I was surprised to learn that he was a young 28 year old! Incidentally Nakagawa is the youngest director to have his films selected by Tokyo International Film Festival for two consecutive years . Was amazed with the depth and sensitivity portrayed in the film by this kid. There were a lot of questions from the audience and he entertained them with a healthy discussion. Though his English was not very good, so there was an Indian lady who was translating for him.

Young Karl Marx – A German movie about the life of Karl Marx – the revolutionary thinker and Philosopher who along with Engels – his comrade and writing partner, is the father of Communism as we know it today. The movie shows the travails, anguish and misery he goes through, but his determination shines on. He authors the Communist Manifesto which was the bible for the likes of Stalin and Mao. I am a hardcore capitalist today, but I guess if I were among the proletariat of those days with the aristocracy being as oppressive as they were, I too might have thought that communism was the panacea to all the social problems.

Though Marx’s intent of Communism was good, the effect it had on the common citizenry in Russia, China and Cambodia where millions were killed during the height of Communism, was brutal. Marx am sure must be writhing in his grave at the way things turned out. That’s not what he had in mind when he conjured up the manifesto.

Candelaria – Set in Havana, Cuba of the 1990s, when the country was undergoing  a severe embargo.  A septuagenarian couple lives a life of poverty in the Cuba where work and food are sparse. The wife Candelaria works in a hotel and finds a video recorder. They learn to record on it and life becomes interesting, rekindling their romance. It shows an unconventional way of rediscovering love and there is hope, love and dreams. She has acted so well and their life situations and especially her fun, spunky and saucy actions bring a smile to our faces. Love conquers everything, even poverty, hunger and helplessness. And there’s something really charming to see an old couple bickering and at the same time caring and loving each other.

The Square – A Swedish movie which I still can’t figure out what it was about! It showed random things happening to an art museum director, but the things didn’t all seem to be connected. There was no common theme. Maybe it’s me, I am not evolved enough to understand the esoteric subject! There is one sentence in the film that really stood out for me and that is – How much inhumanity does it take before we access your humanity?”  But I would avoid this movie if I were you.

I dream in another language – A Spanish movie set in a small village in Mexico. There are only two living souls left in the world  – once close friends but now bitter rivals – who talk the endangered language Zikril. But since they had a fight,  they haven’t spoken to each other in 50 years! Martin, a linguist is on a mission to save the Zikril language and gets the two to start talking to each other. But they have a secret past which comes in the way. Zikril was a very evolved language, allowing its speakers to communicate directly with the birds and trees. When any language dies, especially such a rich one, a lot of context, perspective and cultural history is lost.

Thoroughly enjoyed this movie, the cinematography, the location, the subject, the humour, the emotions it brings through and the intriguing Zikril culture. A very thought provoking, intriguing and a compelling film.  I was more interested in the mystery behind the decades old rift between these friends than to know if Zikril survived!

Apparently,  a real language dies somewhere in the world every couple of weeks. Maybe I should talk to my nieces and nephew in Gujarati from now on. My two bits to delay the extinction of my mother tongue…

If there was just one movie I have to recommend amongst all that I have seen at the fest, it would be the “The Cakemaker”. “I dream in another language” would be a close second.

They say movies are a window into the world. And I experienced just that at the 10th BIFFes. The food, music, culture, language, religion, clothes, beliefs are all different in each country. But realized that at the core, human beings are all the same. They have the same emotions – angst, fear, joy, passion, greed are all the same. The same things make them happy or unhappy. Our basic instincts are the same. No matter the color of our skin, the God we pray (or don’t pray) to, our sexual preferences, our culinary choices, we are basically the same. We are ONE.

 

Oxfam trailwalk – 100KM walk in 35 hours!!

When my colleague Pratap mentioned about the 100km in 48 hours Oxfam trailwalk, I thought he was nuts! It’s just not possible to walk that much in so less a time. Maybe I could join the 50K walk team. But when he said he had done it twice before, I said I will join him for practice walks and see how it goes. When we did 20K in the first walk, I was quite excited I was able to maintain a speed of 5km/hour! After a couple more practice walks, Pratap convinced myself, Heramba and Vaishali to form a team of 4 for 100K! I was still very skeptical, but Pratap had more confidence in me! Unfortunately Vaishali had an injury so Paresh replaced her. Nitin and Kaushik volunteered to be our support crew and in hindsight, they were just the perfect team!

Just a week before the event, I sprained my ankle during a practice walk and my doctor said he does not recommend that I walk that much. Firstly he could not believe I wanted to walk 100K in 48 hours. He asked me 3 times if he heard it right! But when I told him not participating was not an option, he put me on physiotherapy which really helped. I was determined to finish, especially after having done so many practice walks. (OK I have to admit it was also because I could show off 😉 )

On the D day – 2^nd Feb 2018, Nitin picked me up first at 3am and then picked everyone else up along the way and we reached the base of Nandi Hills which was the starting point. There were 260 teams participating in the 100K and another 100 teams would do the 50K next day. Almost everyone was wearing something or the other from Decathlon – dry-fit shirts, tights, backpacks, hats, shoes, etc. Seemed like an ad campaign for Decathlon! There was so much energy on the grounds, drums rolling, everyone taking selfies, stretching and gearing up for the big walk! Milind Soman (who looked absolutely hot in his salt and pepper hair and extremely fit and lean body) flagged us off at the stroke of 6, and a 1000 of us started off with gutso.

There were 9 checkpoints along the way, the earlier ones about 12 km apart and the later ones about 8 km apart. Each checkpoint was sponsored by a corporate. They offered tender coconut water, biscuits, fruits, energy drinks etc. At many checkpoints, we were welcomed by drum rolls and people cheering us on. Some of the checkpoints were better maintained than others. Some were in government schools and some were setup as huge tents in an open area. We took breaks at every checkpoint. Reaching the first checkpoint was a breeze. And the route was beautiful too. We walked through fields, mud roads, fragrant flower beds, saw the magnificent sun rise, and enjoyed the crisp morning breeze. We filled our water bottles at every checkpoint, did stretches, had food and got some rest before marching off again. The support crew carried our luggage and stuff in a car and reached the checkpoints via a different route. They bought food, electrolyte and other essentials and were ready to serve us before we reached each check point.

The stretch between checkpoints 2 and 3 was the worst for me. It was from noon to about 3pm, the sun was very harsh, we were all totally drained of energy, dehydrated and tired. No matter how much water we had, it wouldn’t quench our thirst. Towards the end every step was a herculean effort. Add to that, the landscape was barren with absolutely no shade. Heramba had fallen behind and Pratap was accompanying him. Paresh and I were trudging along. My mouth was so dry, when I put a piece of chapatti in my mouth, I couldn’t chew it. After a couple of mins, it became a paste and I had to spit it out as I couldn’t even swallow it. Just then we saw Nitin and Kaushik in the car on the way to pick up Heramba who had sprained his ankle and couldn’t walk any more. That demotivated me further and I was about to give up and go sit in the car. But we were just 500 meters away from the checkpoint so Paresh urged me to walk it up and I relented.

As soon as I reached the checkpoint, I found an empty spot on the verandah and crashed. I was so tired and drained, that I made up my mind I will give up. I couldn’t do this anymore. When I woke up, Kaushik gave me stretches, Nitin got cold water in a bucket for me to soak my feet in, Pratap got me a tender coconut and I also had some food. I must say we had an awesome support team. When I told I cannot continue, Pratap would just not have it. He kept saying I could do it. He was determined to get me to walk. Then my mom called and my little niece was with her. When I said I was tired and was thinking of giving up, my niece said – Fiya, go slow, but go. So it is thanks to Pratap and Veda that I decided I will go to the next checkpoint and then decide. Unfortunately Heramba had to give up because of his sprain so we were just the three of us from now on.

When we started from the 3rd checkpoint, the sun had gone down and the rest did me good. I had the spring back in my step and actually jogged a bit. Now I felt more confident of finishing the 100K. About 60 to 70% of the distance was mud roads and trails and the remaining were tar roads. Along the way, we passed so many fields of potatoes, tomatoes, chillies, bottle gourds, grapes, chow-chow, etc. There were also acres of flower beds of roses, yellow and orange chrysanthemums, and other flowers. It was lovely to walk along these fields. We also went through several villages and in almost every village, the children greeted us with a smile, asked us our names and wished us. In one particular village – Lakshmidevipura – almost every kid insisted on giving us a high-five! Some of the villagers were amused to see us walking on for miles just for the sake of walking!

We rested for about an hour or more at each check point. The longest was 3 hours at night where we got some sleep. Though Pratap kept waking me up every few minutes telling we should start and not take rest! But Paresh was unwell and needed sleep so luckily we got some rest! The checkpoints in the middle were huge tents with about a 100 or more mattresses and we could plonk anywhere. The support crew had reserved them for us, got us hot food and ensured all our demands were met. Unfortunately late night / early morning I realized I had two big blisters one each on my little toes. Each checkpoint had lots of volunteers who would give stretches, massages and also tape our feet and take care of blisters. So I had one volunteer puncture my blisters and bandage them.

The blisters were so huge, that it affected my mind and I thought I couldn’t walk. Each step I took, hurt my toes and I slowed the team down. But once you start walking, in a few minutes you get used to the pain and slowly I picked up speed.  But once again when the sun was up, it got difficult. And I thought to myself – why am I putting myself through this torture! At this point though it was all in the mind. And once you make up your mind, you can get your body to do just about anything. Since we were already 75K through, there was no way I was going to give up. Especially since Paresh kept popping crocins and kept going, I could not give up. It’s amazing the power of the mind! And also the team motivating each other, talking about everything under the sun, admiring the beauty around us and bonding as a team. I have made some good friends and built a strong friendship because of the walk!

At the last checkpoint, while I was taking rest, Pratap decided to sprint away to the finale! I don’t know where he gets the energy from! Paresh and I started after a while. But the last stretch was treacherous. We had to walk through the highway and main roads, with absolutely no shade and a very uninspiring, boring route. And we were so tired, we didn’t even want to talk. Just focusing on one step at a time! Finally we reached the destination – Brigade Orchards at Devanahalli and Pratap was waiting there to welcome us! We entered the destination to bhangra beats, lots of cheer and a super huge sense of achievement! We did it! One hundred kilometers in about 35 hours! Had never imagined I could do it, but there we were, basking in the glory of our grit, determination and chutzpah!

Two things stand out in this whole eposide:

One – We have heard this phrase many times – you can do anything you set your mind to. But we always brushed it aside thinking it’s just something you say to motivate someone but not really true. But we saw it happen to us, we did what we never thought we could. Of course it was not just saying we will do it. We had to work hard, keep pushing ourselves despite the pain, and facing our fears head on. It was not easy, but it was not impossible either. And no matter how much someone motivates, YOU have to take the step. YOU have to do it. It is very easy to give up. But that’s exactly when you have to be strong and have a mind of steel. Keep going. One step at a time. One little step at a time. But keep going. Keep moving. And that’s what got us to the end.

Two – I had an awesome team with an awesomer team lead! The unbridled energy, positive attitude, cheerful spirit and helpful nature of the team lead Pratap did wonders to our spirit. Each team member brought their own personal touch and helped boost the overall morale. And our support team was the best! Their constant motivation, camaraderie, ensuring we were well fed, filling our water bottles, giving us massages, going back umpteen times to get us things we wanted, keeping us in good cheer… There is no way we could have done this without them. A BIG thank you to my entire team. Are you ready to go on the next adventure?!!

 

Some notes on Oxfam – https://www.oxfam.org/en/

Oxfam is a global NGO that works towards eradicating poverty. They conduct a 100k trail walk every year in about 18 cities around the world. In India, it happens in Mumbai and Bangalore. Teams of 4 can participate in the walk. Most of the teams are usually corporate teams. Each team raises a minimum of one lakh rupees that goes towards charity. The teams walk for whatever cause they support. Our team raised about 1.2 lacs and we walked in support of Children’s education and women empowerment.

 

Iceland – the land of fire and ice!

Stunning, Awesome, Amazing, Fantastic, Gorgeous, Magnificent, Splendid, Marvelous… these are the adjectives that we kept using all through the Iceland trip till the very last day. Every day we thought we’ve seen such amazing things, it can’t get better, but we were wrong. We kept getting amazed every single day by the splendour and glory of nature in this country that probably God made at his creative best.

This was my first road trip in a foreign country and we had an automatic Ford Mondeo as our ride. Meena, Manpreet and Meeta had joined me on this adventure and we named our ride Susan and called her Suzy affectionately. We started off from the capital Reykjavik in the south west of the island nation and went along the 1400+ km ring road all along the circumference of the island, in what turned out to be the most awe inspiring and thrilling drive of our lives! Over 8 days, we covered about 2100 kms. We used to stop every 15 mins to admire the beauty of nature, the snow-capped peaks, beautiful swans on the most serene lakes, artistic rock formations in the Atlantic and Arctic oceans, gurgling streams and rivers, long and winding roads on the green mountains, clear blue skies, beautiful clouds shaped like fairies and elves … everything we saw around us was like a piece of art. Even the rocks and stones lying on the road seemed like thoughtfully and creatively designed with purpose. We seemed to be driving through a fairy tale land.

   

The Golden Circle

We started driving east along the Golden circle and our first stop was the Thingvellir National park which is at the junction of two tectonic plates (the north American and Eurasian) on the mid Atlantic ridge. The continental drift between the two tectonic plates can clearly be seen here in the cracks and faults which traverse the region. Having only heard about this in geography class, standing right in the middle of the two tectonic plates reminded me of Mrs. Rachel, our geography teacher who was so passionate about everything to do with our planet. She would have loved to be here. My salute to you Mrs. Rachel; you rubbed off your passion on all of us and made us curious, inquisitive and fascinated by the machinations of the universe (at that time the idea of Multiverses was not yet popular!).

The park was really beautiful, with families of ducks and swans enjoying a leisurely day on the cobalt blue lake, a carpet of yellow and lilac flowers in the distance, the sun giving a golden glow to the surroundings and a quaint little church giving a holy look to the place. We next went to see geysers and hot springs. The Strokkur geyser spouted boiling hot water every 6/7 minutes! The water reached as high as a 3 to 4 story building with a hissing sound, it was so cool to watch it. We stayed on to see the spout for a few more times. The water raises and lowers like milk boiling and at the right moment it spurts out with so much force, spraying hot water all around. Once the water goes down, it creates a suction and the water goes below the surface and then again comes back to the surface level. It’s so surreal, I could keep watching it again and again.

      

We drove past a quaint little town called Laugervatn, with pretty streets, lovely houses, each with a garden and many colourful flowers. This is a town of natural hot springs and many spas. We stopped by one hot spring and the water was nice and hot. We saw a girl digging sand on the banks and when  Meeta asked what she was doing, she said she was digging sand to put a vessel of dough overnight to bake bread! The water here is so hot that many local residents come and cook food here! Amazing right?! Have never seen anything like this before.

  

The next stop was the Gullfloss waterfall with a wide curved three step staircase and the water plunging into two stages 11 metres and 21 metres into a crevice that is 32 metres deep. It is such a magnificent fall, and right then nature decided to surprise us – we saw a full rainbow across the falls in all its glory. It was such a wonderful sight! We could hear the roar of the falls punctuated by clicks from cameras as huge as bazookas!

Just outside was a horse farm where about a 100 horses were all playing and mock fighting with each other. The Icelandic horses are beautiful and majestic, big and strong, the horse version of Greek gods! While we went up close to admire them and capture them in our cameras, we saw a long line of riders some trotting, some cantering away for a ride. That was such a wonderful scene, young riders in equestrian gear against the backdrop of the magnificent waterfalls with the horses kicking up a sand storm behind them.

The Kerid crater was formed 6500 years ago due to a volcanic explosion, and has the most visually recognisable caldera. It is 55 metres deep with a lake at the bottom that has strikingly aquamarine coloured water. We walked around the rim of the crater that is made of red volcanic rock. One side of the slope has steps to go right down to the bottom! It looks so very enchanting!

Our final stop for the day was the huge canyon Fjadrargljufur. It was formed several thousand years ago due to erosion by glacial water flowing through rocks. The canyon is about 2km long and 100 metres deep with the Fjadra river flowing through it and it ends with a waterfall. That was the most spectacular and breath-taking view! The water was crystal clear and we could see several feet below the surface. The massive rocky walls of the canyon, green with vegetation at some places, the gurgling sound of the river, cool breeze, birds chirping, it was like nature giving us a treat.

     

Tired from all the adventures of the day, we hurried to our hotel Selid which was actually a lovely guesthouse with the most wonderful host. There was a beautiful, warm and cozy common area. We plonked on the sofa, lit candles, sipping hot green tea and recounting the events of the day. Good end to a good day! We did all of this just in one day! I have to really be selective and concise, else this blog will never end! But then everything we saw was so amazing and we had such a wonderful time every minute we were in Iceland, that I’m finding it difficult to leave out anything. I’m hoping I’m inspiring enough people to go visit this beautiful country that nature has bestowed its best upon.

Waterfalls and volcanic beaches

The next day we started our adventure with the mighty Seljalandfoss waterfalls. The highlight was that we could go behind the falls! We climbed the steps and went to a huge gaping hole half way down the rock so we could actually go behind the falls. Cold water sprayed all over us and we were squealing like little children! Down below we saw three monks in orange robes meditating in the grasslands in front of the magnificent falls and all the tourists capturing this sight. After a while, all three of them were busy on their mobiles and we thought these monks have probably not sold their Ferraris yet 😉

The next stop was these beautiful rock formations in the Atlantic Ocean. It was quite a trek up the mountain, but the stunning views we saw at the end made the trek totally worth it, especially for Manpreet who had a pain in the knee and was dragging herself along. There was a lovely arch and we could see the ocean through it. Several birds – Fulmars mostly – were performing their ritual dance with what seemed like war cries above the water that was glinting in the warm sun. It was a picture perfect scene that is encapsulated in my mind’s eye forever. On the way to the peak, we met a beautiful bride in white and her David Beckham lookalike groom. We wished them well and they were amused when we told the groom looked like Beckham!

A short distance away was a beautiful beach with black lava sand. Yes, pitch black sand for miles and miles as far as you can see. I havevseen golden and white sand, but never even heard of black sand beaches! Right on the beach were beautiful basalt rock formations. There were perfect geometrical vertical long columns and a basalt cave with so many spikes and rocky extrusions. It was all so different that anything we’ve seen before. And every nook in the cave and the basalt columns had the Fulmar bird. An American birder had a bird telescope pointed at a resting Fulmar and he graciously allowed all of us to take a peek. Again it was because of Meeta’s bindaas extrovert nature and eagerness to talk to strangers that got us the opportunity to have a conversation with the birder and his dad and to view the beautiful bird through the cool telescope. Today we stayed at Hotel Laki in Efrivik.

     

Glaciers and Icebergs

It has been my dream to walk on a glacier and I was excited about trekking on the most voluminous glacier in all of Europe, the Vatnajokull glacier. With an area of 8000+ square kilometres, it covers 8% of the country. There are several volcanoes under the glacial ice cap and the volcanic eruption here in May 2011 had the plume reaching as high as 20Km! And it is this mighty glacier that we trekked with all necessary gear like crampons, harnesses, axe (to get a grip on the ice) and most importantly, excitement, high adrenaline and adventurous spirit! And we were not disappointed. The ice went crunch crunch as we marched along kilometres of a white blanket. Our enthusiastic and helpful guides Daniel from US and Marco from Italy told us that 20 metres of snow gets compressed to 1cm of ice! And this glacier has a depth varying from 200m to 2km! There are streams inside this glacier and caves get formed when the glacier melts. We have to be careful where we walked, else we could end up slipping into one of these caves! It was here that one of the episodes of Game of Thrones was shot as also a scene from James Bond’s A view to kill. Daniel axed away some of the ice and we could see lovely copper sulphate blue colour inside the glacier! Apparently the glaciers are white from the outside due to contact with air, and blue inside, the deeper you go, the darker the shade of blue. I never stop getting amazed at the wonder of nature…

 

A few kilometres from the glacier, is the Iceberg lagoon. There were scores of icebergs, the old ones white in colour and the new ones in various shades of blue. We were given overalls to wear as we were to go on a small speed boat in the lagoon and go up close to the icebergs. With the wind blowing on our faces, our boat captain Chevy was showing off his skills by speeding into the icy cold lagoon. He had a great sense of humour and gave us a lot of interesting titbits of information. While he was making jokes, we heard a huge thunder. When we looked around, we saw a huge piece of the glacier break off and fall into the lagoon. We actually witnessed the birth of an Iceberg! Some of the bergs were very huge like a two story building. And what you see on the surface of the water is only 10%. The remaining 90% of the iceberg floats inside the water. That’s how the term “tip of the iceberg” was formed. In the middle of the lagoon was a recently formed huge blue crystal Iceberg that was the most enchanting sight we saw! It looked like a precious stone with a stunning shade of blue. The song “Rang de tu mohe gerua” from the movie Dilwale was shot here. We had carried a gerua coloured stole from India, and we shot many pictures here with the stole fluttering in the cool breeze, all of us pretending to be Kajol 😉

Fjords and fishing villages

Day 4 was the longest and the most beautiful drive of the whole trip. We drove all the way from south to the north of the country via east. But before the drive we stopped to have homemade ice cream at a beautiful cozy place recommended by our tour guide Dagny from Nordic Tours. It was the yummiest ice cream and we had a few more homemade ice creams in the next few days, all recommended by Dagny. We saw so many changing landscapes along the way, green mountains with swans relaxing in the streams at the base, lava fields, long and winding roads up mountains, snow-capped peaks, roads hugging steep cliffs along the Atlantic Ocean, stunning fjords, beautiful beaches, stark rocky hills with no vegetation, and so many different kinds of birds giving us company along the way. We also drove through an 8 km long tunnel through the mountains. With wonderful music playing on our iPod, 4 boisterous women for company, yummy ice cream, God’s best creation all around us, life seemed perfect! All of us were thoroughly enjoying ourselves. And I wished that this journey should never end..

We passed through several fishing villages, a lovely handicraft store, soaking in the beauty around us and reached a place that brought us out of our dream like stance. It smelled like rotten eggs! We had reached a place with high geo-thermal activity that had lots of mud pots and fumaroles and was very colourful. Fumaroles are like mini volcanoes hissing like a pressure cooker giving our hydrogen sulphide gas that gives it the smell. Mud pots are similar but depressions in the mud spurting hot water. There are so many minerals in this region giving it the various colours.

 

Nearby, was an underground cave with hot water with temperatures ranging from 43 to 46 degrees centigrade. The temperatures were lower earlier and people used this as a public bath but due to a volcanic eruption nearby, the temperatures increased. We slowly went into the cave and could see steam coming out and various shades of blue within a small area. The rocks there were all hexagon shaped and it looked quite spooky.

There was a massive black crater Hverfell nearby. The charcoal black colour and the massive size made it look so eerie. But it was a 6 hour long trek to it and we were too tired to do it, so skipped. But then we went to several square kilometres of lava fields created by this volcanic eruption. It was like a maze and if not careful, we could get lost and not find our way back! There was solidified lava all around, mostly black from basalt, but some other colours depending upon the mineral. There were so many structures created like an artist’s sculptures, some small, some as huge as 2/3 story buildings. We even saw several double decker caves. There was a huge gaping hole in one of the tall structures and when we climbed it, we could see the Hverfell volcano that caused these lava fields! It was so surreal, we could actually imagine the volcano erupting, and the lava flowing furiously all around, creating these lava fields and burning down everything along its way. We had seen nature in all its glory earlier, and here we were seeing nature in all its fury!

We had now reached the north of Iceland and were near the second biggest town after Reykjavik called Akureyri. Today was another exciting day as we were going whale watching and that too in the Arctic Ocean, just 66 km from the Arctic circle! We saw about 18 humpback and Minky whales frolicking in the cold water with arctic sterns and fulmars playing with them. We were in an oak boat and I was standing right in the front at the stern. And every time a huge wave came, I would rise several feet along with the boat and then come down with my stomach churning all the bread and cheese I had in the morning! Sometimes the whales would come up to breathe and spout out water with a hissing sound. It was so cool! Sometimes they would flip over and show off their lovely fins. We also saw a couple of puffins. It is said these birds have a single mate throughout their lives. Didn’t know birds can be so romantic! But I didn’t feel quite romantic today. I had sea sickness and kept throwing up! Felt so terrible, I just wanted this whole thing to end…

The Awesome Godafoss or God’s waterfalls made up for the sickness in the morning. A glorious semicircle of roaring milky white falls thundering down the steep cliffs was like a natural surround sound system! We felt like we were apsaras in heaven and half expected Lord Shiva to appear from behind a rock and perform his tandav dance to the rhythm of the roaring falls! The Gods sure do make the best for themselves 😉

Tonight we stayed at Ytri-Vik, the best resort of the whole trip. We had a cottage with a lovely living room, two bedrooms and a kitchenette. The cottage was at the banks of a gorgeous Arctic fjord and had a 360 degree view of snowcapped mountains. Nature seemed to be in a wonderful mood, as we had the most glorious sunset that day. Iceland is the land of the midnight sun and it was never dark throughout the 24 hours. The sun set at midnight and rose again at 3am and in between it was twilight. The warm glow of the setting sun lent a golden hue to everything around us. This was a treat for Meena and she captured the horizon in every possible shade of yellow, orange, pink, and some colours whose names I don’t even know! Manpreet and I kept photo bombing her pictures! But she very graciously shot us!

The cottage had an outdoor Jacuzzi in the balcony with a view of the Arctic Ocean a few metres away and the white mountains in the distance! It was getting cold and so we got into the Jacuzzi, soaking in the serene beauty around us, listening to the song of the Arctic birds and we could literally feel the aches and pains melting away into the hot water. It was so beautiful that no one wanted to sleep that night. Didn’t want to miss out any new shade of sunlight, or a new melody of the birds. It was a treat for the eyes. We kept looking into the horizon and slowly sleep enveloped us like a shadow and we didn’t realize when we went off to sleep…

North Iceland

Next morning I woke up early before everyone else. Like William Wordsworth’s Solitary Reaper, i went on a solitary walk along the shore, listening to the Suprabhatham of the birds, collected a few pebbles as souvenirs, breathing in fresh crisp air, admiring the crashing of the waves against the rocks and feeling one with nature. It was a relaxed morning and we made an Indian breakfast thanks to the MTR and Godbole ready to eat packets that we had carried.

We started late and drove along the peninsula of trolls to a church of historic importance and around it, there were houses with turf on its roof. We then went to a lovely village that had so many boats and yachts along the harbour. There was a lovely little cafe built like a ship where we had hot chocolate with dollops of thick fresh cream. When we came out, we saw a dozen men on their mean and macho motorcycles that looked like wild beasts. We pleaded them to allow us to take pics with us on the bikes and they obliged. I am looking forward to going on a bike riding tour someday.

 

We passed through so many beautiful and colourful houses in quaint little towns. There were many trailers on the road today and we drove along fjords. As we were zipping down the ring road, our iPod started to play YoYo Honey Singh’s number “Aaj blue hai pani pani” and we wanted to dance. We impulsively stopped the car on the shoulder in the middle of the highway, and Manpreet and I started to groove to the music and dance away! It was so much fun! All the passersby waved at us and encouraged us and we had such a ball of a time.

Day 7 was a dull day compared to the high adrenaline stuff we’d been doing every day. We had to drive through gravel roads and it rained a little so was a bit gloomy. But we made up for the dull day by having the most lively conversations in the evening at the hotel. All four of us shared about our lives, dreams, secrets, and passions. We made a strong bond that is going to last for a long long time. We lived up to the reputation that when a bunch of girls get together, the conversations never end.

Insanely scenic beauty

The last day of our driving started off with a beautiful drive to Hellnar. We trekked through lava fields on a little mountain on the seashore. I am a mountain person and so was enjoying the beauty all around me. Manpreet and I used to hurry up to the most scenic spots and pose so Meena had no choice but to click us! She is hardly there in any pics. But I must say, Meena is a very good photographer and has an eye to capture the frame in the best light. There were several spots from where we could see the artistic rock formations in the sea, the waves thrashing up against the rocks, a huge cliff jutting out into the sea and little Birds showing off their gymnastic skills to the older birds. From one point, we could see White Sea water on one side and aqua marine green water on the other side. In the hurry to explore more scenic places, I tripped and sprained my ankle. Realised after I returned, that it tore my ligament and will take months to recover. But at that time I did not want to miss anything so limped along.

We then reached the most beautiful cove I have ever seen. Strategically placed rocks on the banks, with huge basalt formations behind, it looked like a Monet painting. A cave nearby with a kid peeping out of it added a bit of a mystery to the place. Hundreds of Fulmar birds somersaulting and a bird in every nook and crevice of the rocks. The wind spraying water from the waves onto our faces, it was insanely beautiful. Words cannot express the beauty I saw and how I felt. You have to be there to experience it for yourself.

 

Then we had the best carrot cake in the world at a lovely outdoor cafe on a hill overlooking the sea. And then began our drive to Reykjavik along the west coast. We even drove through a tunnel in the ocean and reached on time to hand over Suzy. She was a good ride and never once let us down. I didn’t do much in the evening and rested my hurt ankle.

Reykjavik – the capital

Next morning we went on a guided walking tour in the heart of Reykjavik with our guide Osta and a dozen other people from all over the world. Our first stop was a lovely church that had a huge and beautiful organ. We even witnessed a mesmerizing organ performance by a professional organist who was practicing for an event. Next to the church was an artist’s home with a sculpture garden with beautiful thought provoking bronze sculptures. We walked past the Prime Minister’s office and apparently it is always open and anyone can walk in. Osta said we too could go in and if the PM was free he would probably bake a cake for us! But we let him go on with his business and watched a free live music and dance performance on the lawns nearby. We walked up and down Laugervegur street, past many restaurants offering every cuisine of the world. Even the smallest town had vegetarian food so we never had any problems.

In the evening we saw a live theatre performance of Icelandic Sagas at the Harpa concert hall that is made like a glacier. It was a lovely performance by two actors, full of humour, and great acting. They even let us wear their props and take pictures with them at the end of the performance. We followed this up with live jazz at a local pub. I love the saxophone so enjoyed that the most but even the trumpet, clarinet, keyboard and drums pieces were good.

Iceland has only 330,000 people with about 200,000 of them in the greater Reykjavik area. Just the Outer Ring Road in Bangalore with all the IT parks will have that many people! The Icelandic people are very proud of their country, the environment and their history. 98% of their energy comes from renewable sources. It was uninhabited till about 870 years ago when the first settlers from Norway came with Celtic wives and settled near Reykjavik. The Vikings then followed them. In all the days that we were there, we did not see a single speck of litter or dirt. There is a lot we can learn from them.

Lava tube caving

 Our last day in Iceland was as exciting as the first. We went lava tube caving in a lava cave by a volcano that erupted 2000 years ago. Lava flows in a huge volume at 1100 degrees centigrade from the mountain top towards lower ground. The outer layer cools and crusts first while lava still flows through it. Eventually when all lava flows out, a several kilometres long tube like lava cave is formed. And we went caving inside this cave! It was high in some places and we could stand straight, had to bend in some places and in some it was so low that we had to literally crawl on our fours. Meeta found it claustrophobic and at one point said she didn’t want to come along. There was lava all around us mostly black from basalt. But at some places where there were other minerals, it took on the colour of the mineral like red for iron, yellow and so on. Lava has a very thick consistency and when it drips form the ceiling, it forms an extrusion which our American guide called shark teeth but to me they looked like shiv lings. And there were thousands of them on the ceiling! We saw many stalectites and stalagmites. Lava roses are formed when gases escape from the cooling lava. When we were deep inside, Eric asked us to switch off the headlights we had on our foreheads and we experienced complete darkness. We could see absolutely nothing, no shadows, we couldn’t even make out the person standing right next to us. There is no way we could have found our back to the entrance without light. It was quite scary and eerie. But very amazing to be crawling inside a 2000 year old cave made entirely of lava. Another first all of us.

Back in the city, we roamed the by-lanes of the city and visited souvenir stores, lava jewelry stores, design studios, cafes, wool and craft stores, art galleries and generally whiling away our time by a pond right in the middle of the city. The warm and freshly baked cinnamon and blueberry rolls from the best bakery in town were delicious and just melted in the mouth! We felt sad that our holiday had come to an end, but we all collectively agreed that this was one of the best holidays and our memories of this trip will remain with us forever.

So long folks, until our next adventure…

Notes on our trip

We had booked the tour with Nordic visitor https://iceland.nordicvisitor.com Visa and flight tickets were to be managed on our own. Once we landed at Reykjavik, we were picked up from the airport and taken to our hotel. They had booked hotels for all the days. Next morning, the car rental agency picked us up and we collected our car. Insurance was covered but we bought additional cover just in case. In Iceland, they drive on the right side of the road, but we got used to it quickly. They also gave us a mobile phone with data and free WiFi in the car. And a map with our route and all the places of interest marked, which was very useful. They also booked all our activities like Glacier trek, Whale watching, Reykjavik walking tour, etc. We could have booked ourselves with the operators but the cost was similar so we just got it done with them.

The speed limit in Iceland is 90km/hour outside the city, 50km/hr in the city and 70 km/hr in the outskirts of the city. Within the city and in the outskirts, we HAVE to maintain speed limits. There are cameras and in case caught, the fine is 25,000 ISK! But outside the city you can go up to 100km/hr and that was our usual speed.

Breakfast was included in the hotels but rest of the meals and the car fuel was also on us. Vegetarian food was not a problem even in smaller towns. But the local food is mostly fish and other sea food so we could not try much. Skyr which is like hung curd both normal and flavored was their local stuff which we tried. Hardly anything grows in the country and they import all fruits and vegetables. Potato is one thing that grows and we had potato augratin. We had some of their local desserts too. We had Italian, Chinese, Mexican, American, Thai food.

The people there are very friendly and almost everyone speaks English. And it is a very safe country. We were out till pretty late in the night. They are very particular about being punctual. We were late a couple of times for the activities and they were not happy about it. 1 INR can get us about 1.5 ISK But everything in Iceland is very expensive. Just one main course costs about Rs. 1500 to 2000. Even entrance tickets to museums, hotels etc. are all very expensive. The tour we had booked was the 10 day tour and the one extra night that we stayed in Reykjavik, we had to shell out Rs. 20,000 for one room

But overall it was a wonderful experience, Nordic Visitor is very professional and they, especially Dagny took care of every little detail. We thoroughly enjoyed our trip and would recommend to definitely go visit this beautiful country and use the services of Nordic Visitor.

Why we should employ the disabled

As per the Indian government’s census of 2011, India has about 27 million persons with disabilities. Out of this, about 19% have hearing impairment, 19% vision impairment, 20% physical / movement related disability, 7.5% speech related and the remaining other disabilities.

Persons with disabilities as a group, are more likely to experience adverse socio economic outcomes, worse health outcomes, less employment and higher poverty rates. It’s relatively easier for the physically disabled at getting jobs, but it is the hearing and visually impaired people that find it almost impossible to get any jobs. Out of the 27 million, only 0.1 million people have succeeded in getting employment!

Hearing Impaired                             Visually Impaired

Earlier, there weren’t many jobs that the visual and hearing impaired and severely disabled could do. But today, technology has made so many impossible things possible. There are screen readers and OCRs that help the visually impaired, foot pedal, joy stick and other devices that assist the physically challenged. And the NGO Enable India does a very good job of training people of all kinds of disabilities and making them employable.

 

Physically Disabled                                          Cerebral Palsy

But most people are not aware that people with such severe disabilities are able to do many of the jobs that people without disabilities can do. In fact, there are about 300 roles that people with disabilities can perform and Enable India has done extensive study and research and has come up with the list of job roles that people with each kind of disability can perform in some cases with assisted technologies.

There are several examples of people with disabilities having successful careers.

• Pratap is working as an Analyst at an international bank. He has cerebral palsy and jerks from head to toe. He uses a special keyboard, customized foot pedal and customized joystick to execute commands on the computer.
• Vinodh Kumar who has visual impairment AND is hard of hearing, works as a database management expert at an MNC
• Deepa has profound physical disabilities. She cannot use her hands or move on her own. But she is the diversity lead at an IT firm. She operates an on-screen keyboard using a joystick. She moves around in an automatic wheelchair and has hired a helper for her personal needs
• Saurabh is a Vice President at a bank despite having low vision and hard of hearing
• Sumanth has cerebral palsy and 65% of his body is spastic. He used to work as a market analyst but he had a dream of studying management at a top B school. He worked hard, appeared for CAT and today, at IIM Indore, he is ready to take on the world!

And all of these people perform on par with the rest of the people and often times even better. The rate of attrition amongst these people is very low, but hard work and commitment very high. So it makes business sense to employ them. We are not doing THEM a favour but doing ourselves a favour!

So there is no doubt about the need to employ people with disabilities, that it makes business sense and that they can perform at par with anyone else. And yet we hardly see any people with disabilities around our workplaces. I think it is because of lack of awareness. Most organizations have a disability agenda and the management’s buy in to employ the disabled. But there is a total lack of awareness at the grassroots level. Direct line managers are not aware that assisted technologies are available with which people with disabilities can perform on par with people without disabilities. In fact, often times these people outperform the others. Many times over! Not just at work, but in sports, art, dancing, swimming and any thing that you can think of.

Way to go girl!                                               Such a graceful dancer!

So I need all of you to please spread the awareness. Tell everyone you know, of the above success stories. Tell them that it is good for the business to employ these people. Tell them they deserve an equal and fair opportunity. Let’s give them employment and make this world a better place. For them, and for us.

 

 

The Russian Odyssey

Moscow University

Peter’s head on Columbus’ body

War memorial square

Moscow skyline

 

Living the childhood dream

We started the Trans Siberian journey at Moscow or Moskva as the Muscovites call it. Now I have a special relationship with Russia, especially Moscow. As a kid, growing up in a Russia friendly India, I had heard so much about all things Russian. We had subscribed to a free Russian children’s magazine called Misha and read a lot of stories and culture. Growing up, I have read books by Russian authors like Leo Tolstoy, Dostoyevski, Nabokov. Heard about the Matryushka dolls and the onion domes of St. Basil’s cathedral. The Russian space program was one of the best in the world and as general knowledge we knew that the Russians Yuri Gagarin and Valentina Tereshokova was the first man and woman respectively, to go to space. We also used to hear about the Sputnik satellite and Soyuz and Salyut space shuttles and Mir space station. Also, Raj Kapoor made Russia popular with Mera Naam Joker and the Russian circus artistes. And we had heard Russians loved Raj Kapoor and his songs. So to me being in Russia was something very special, actually seeing the places and things you had heard of and fantasised as a kid, imagined myself as characters in the stories, and now experiencing it for real, was like living a fairy tale.

Moskva

We saw the Kremlin and red square. There was music, street artistes, Lenin and Stalin look alikes, food, drinks and tons and tons of tourists at the square, it was like a carnival. The sound of the gongs of the cathedral were so soothing to the mind. The walls of St. Basil’s cathedral were all painted with icons, flowers and looked resplendent. There was gold everywhere and the tall spires and paintings gave a very royal feel. The cathedral was built by Ivan the terrible after winning a war with the Kazans. It has nine domes, one central and 8 surrounding, all in different colors and patterns – red, yellow, green, gold, it looks like a fairy tale castle. All churches in the country had onion domes and most were gilded and shone bright in the sunlight.

 

Red Square

Around the Red Square

St. Basils Cathedral

Kremlin across the Moskva River

Artist’s Park

Statue of Stalin

I have been to several metro and subway trains around the world (and I have travelled to 28 countries so far, so have seen quite a few), this was by far the most well maintained. Each metro station is designed differently with beautiful architecture, sculptures, frescoes, it looks stunning. One station had stained glass, one Greek carvings, one had sculptures, one mosaic and each station had different chandeliers and lights.

 

Had read so much about the Russian KGB and read dozens of books about Russian spies and espionage during the cold war. So when we actually got to see the KGB head quarters, it felt so spooky! The Moskva river flows through the city and the Kremlin office building stands majestic on it’s banks. We also visited the Artists park that had many beautiful sculptures. Near the park on the banks of Moskva river, stood a tall sculpture of Columbus but with Peter the Great’s head on it! The Moscow University was a huge imposing building with a beautiful lawn and fountain and water body in the front. It looks palatial with beautiful architecture and so many rooms. Would be wonderful to study there. We did some souvenir shopping on Arbat street that was like a bazaar with so many people, artists, someone playing music, someone singing songs and another person creating art on the road at the beat of music and drums! We chatted up with a painter who had some really beautiful paintings and we picked up a couple of his beautiful pieces of art. One was of a ballet artiste Giselle whom he had painted in a ballet motion. It’s so beautiful, I can imagine Giselle dancing to Tchaikovsky!

Moscow University

Peter’s head on Columbus’ body

War memorial square

Moscow skyline

The Russian Ballet

We were fortunate to attend one of the oldest classical ballets “La Sylphide” at the 150 years old Bolshoi theatre and that too in the Historic stage! The lead lady artiste had such a slender waist, I wonder if she ate anything at all. She was on her toes most of the time and whenever she put her feet down, it was done so gracefully. She split her feet and ran across the stage landing on her toes so gently before leaping again. It looked like a butterfly flitting about, so gentle and beautiful in a white dress, she looked like an angel or a fairy. All the other artists also danced equally well and with colourful attire. The forest scene with clouds was recreated so beautifully, it was almost magical. Couldn’t believe this was artificially created on stage, it was that good. We had all dressed up for the show wearing short dresses and high heels even though it was cold that evening! This was one of the most memorable performances I’ve seen, and I’ve seen quite a few.

Interstellar

I’ve always been fascinated by space and keenly read all books and articles on space, watch movies and documentaries related to it. As a kid I have read about Russia’s Sputnik satellite and their Salyut space station. So when we got to see their space museum, I was delighted! In fact our lovely guide Lena told me that the first woman in space Valentina Tereshkova is still alive and lives in Moscow! I would love to meet her on my next visit to Moscow (Yes I do wanna go back there again!). We saw replicas of Salyut, Soyuz, Mir space station, Sputnik, the ejectable cubicle that cosmonauts use to come back on earth. We even took a ride simulating going to space and landing on another planet! It was all so surreal. I wish I can go to space some day. Even if I get just a one way ticket, I’d happily take it!

 

 

Siberia

Our next stop was the University town Irkutsk, a town in the heart of Siberia, bang in the middle of the continent. The highlight of this place was lake Baikal, which is 25 million years old, 636km long and 80km at its widest point. It has 3500 species of plants and animals and has 20% of the world’s surface fresh water! It is home to the silvery grey fresh water seals that are curious and funny and look so cute! Incidentally, the military aircraft making factory in Irkutsk, sells aircrafts to India. Siberia became a part of Russia in 1456. The local tribe in Siberia is Avanks but less than 50,000 Avanks remain today. The lake freezes in winter and people go iceskating on the lake and even drive cars on it! In October, people go scuba diving in the lake to enjoy the various species of life in water.

 

One day we stayed in a small town Listvyanka and our hotel there was beautiful, like a resort. It’s a quaint little town with lovely churches, cottages with backyards that had horses and dogs. The sky was a brilliant blue and we experienced the most dramatic sunset on the banks of the lake. In Irkutsk, there was pollen (from the poplar tree) everywhere and so much of it, that it looked like snow falling from the sky. It was white and cottony / woolly and there was so much of it, I’ve never seen so much pollen ever.

Our guide Yana was one of the best guides and she took us to her Orthodox Christian church. She said 90% of Russians are Christians. Yana, the driver Igor and we had lunch together and conversations started flowing. Igor had so many questions about India, spirituality, religion, saree, Bollywood. In fact Siberia has 2 Indian TV channels and Igor has seen so many Indian movies. As expected, he knew Raj Kapoor and his entire khandaan, but he also knew Mithun Chakraborty and Disco Dancer!

Culinary delight

Meena and I are vegetarian so our choices were limited. But we still explored and tried various local dishes. Borsch is a beetroot soup that is popular in Russia. We had a veg soup that had potatoes, carrot, cabbage and beetroot. We also tried the boiled potatoes with dil, buckwheat with mushrooms which was delicious. But what we enjoyed the most was Georgian food. The beetroot salad garnished with pomegranate seeds, pumpkin soup, Georgian cheese bread, a grilled eggplant dish, everything was yummilicious!

Dasvidanya

The thing that struck me the most about Moscow, was it has so much space. Very wide roads, lots of public spaces, and it was very neat and clean despite having a huge population. It was summer time and there were arches made of flowers on most streets, flower pots everywhere with flowers of every imaginable color. There were so many parks and gardens in the city and sculptures and memorials everywhere. I wish India, especially Bangalore had more public spaces and was neat and clean. Fat hopes I guess… sigh.

 

The Mythical Trans Siberian Rail Journey

Like Robert Frost, I like to take the road less traveled. So when Meena suggested to go on the wildest trip across the entire Asian continent spanning three countries on the longest train journey in the world, the Trans Siberian Rail journey, I lapped it up like a kid deprived of ice cream for many days! Most people I knew, had not even heard about this. They thought we were mad to go on a 6.5 days long train journey. They said we’d get bored. But the moment we started our journey, we forgot what boredom was. It was miles away from us. It dreaded to come anywhere near us, coz excitement, fun, adventure, thrill, deep meaningful conversations, laughter and merry making were our closest companions. Boredom dared not come our way! It was THE most amazing journey of my life! I pity the rest of you who haven’t had the taste of the rollicking adventure. Please accept my deepest condolences.

   

Clickety-click, clickety-click

After four days of sight seeing in Moscow, the 8000 kilometres long odyssey in the second class compartment of the mythical Trans Siberian Rail began on the afternoon of 15 th of June 2016. The train would take us across three countries (Russia, Mongolia, China) spanning 5 time zones over 6.5 days. Doing a mundane job in information technology, sitting on a desk all day long had made me forget what excitement was. But now, standing on the platform of Yaroslavsky station in Moscow, got my pulse racing. Excitement was overflowing and there was a mile wide smile stuck on my face at the thought of being able to brag about this. For the rest of my life!

Yogita, Meena and myself checked into the train and made ourselves comfortable in our compartment of four in coach 5. No one else came in, so we had the compartment to ourselves. The cushioned seats had bright blue upholstery and clean crisp sheets. There was TV and radio in the compartment, reading lights at each seat and a huge window. This was going to be our living room cum bedroom for the next few days – our new home on wheels. We stacked in our luggage, sprawled on the seats and made ourselves at home as the train rambled along at a sleepy pace.

      

The largest country on Earth – Russia

The fist leg of the journey was from Moscow to Irkutsk in Siberia, covered in 3.5 days. As we left behind the metropolis and entered rural Russia, the scene changed dramatically. We saw quaint little villages with lovely wooden houses next to gurgling streams, each house with a yard, a garden, a car and lots of beautiful flowers. The backdrop was a brilliant blue sky with milky white clouds and the scene looked picture perfect. Out came our cameras with lenses so huge, they looked like weapons of mass destruction! And off we went shooting and capturing the magnificent Russian landscape in our cameras and minds for eternity and beyond.

  

We played board games, listened to songs, but were mostly looking out the window admiring the beautiful panorama and the soul of Russia. And as I was enthralled by the beauty of the landscape I was reminded of Monet, Da Vinci, Michael Angelo, Raphael and other European artistes. When I pondered why I was reminded of them, it struck me that out of the window I was seeing birches, pines, cedars and other coniferous trees. These are the trees found all across the northern hemisphere and the trees painted by most of these artists! It was the beginning of summer and the landscape was lush green with these beautiful trees, many streams meandering along and glinting in the golden sunlight. Each frame from the window was like a painting! It was like someone kept turning the pages of an art book and we were watching it from our window.

  

Like excited children, we got off at every station and almost everyday ate ice creams and lollies. There were very few vegetarian options on the train and whatever was available was very expensive. So we survived on the MTR ready to eat food packets that we had carried with us. Each coach had a samovar that dispensed boiling hot water which we used to heat our food packets. There was a lady attendant in each coach who was in charge of maintaining order and keeping the coach clean. She was smartly dressed, and kept the coach spic and span. We thought she was very strict and formal in the beginning, but by the end of the trip she became warm and friendly and took care of us like a mama bear when a couple of intrusive men came on board. Amongst ourselves, we fondly called her “Matrushka” after the Russian “Matryushka dolls”!

  

It was summer so the days were long with dusk stretching past 11pm and the sun rose again by 3.30 / 4 am. We didn’t mind it as every minute we slept, it felt we are missing out on nature’s bounty. One evening we experienced the most glorious sunset of our lives! The sky was a riot of colors with peach, pink, light blue, orange, violet! We kept watching the sunset as the world passed by. There were two grey patches in the sky that looked like swans kissing each other. The sky looked stunning, like God’s bestest painting!

  

Even though we were enjoying ourselves, three and a half days in the train is a long, long, very long time! And it reminded me of this line from Eagles’ “Hotel California” number – You can check out any time you like but you can never leave! But finally we did reach our destination Irkutsk.

The land of Chingiz Khan – Mongolia

After a couple of days in Irkutsk and Lake Baikal, we started on the next leg of our journey from Irkutsk to Ulaan Baatar, the capital on Mongolia. Within a few hours, the landscape changed from tall birch trees standing at attention in a straight line, to the vast grasslands of Mongolia. It is here that Chingiz Khan raced across the steppes on his stud. And studs we saw – not in tens, not in hundreds but in thousands! I saw in that one day, 100 times more horses than I have seen in my entire lifetime! Horses running, grazing, engaging in frivolous play with each other. (Me thinks that MF Hussain must have come to Mongolia for inspiration.) Coming from a very crowded city, the endless steppes gave the feeling that the world is limitless, that we could sit in this train and go on and on, forever…

The previous leg of the journey gave us a glorious sunset and this leg gave us a resplendent moon. It was a full moon night and the moon was glowing like a 1000 watt bulb! Dark clouds engulfing the moon and slowly receding away made it all the more beautiful. I was completely mesmerized by the fantastic show in the open sky and could not take my eyes off it even for a second. It is exactly at this moment that I understood why so many poets write eloquent about this piece of rock in space. It was so romantic, it could make poets even out of dimwits like me!

We met an amazing family of 4 from Delhi on this train. They were on a one month holiday in Russia and Mongolia, going deep into the countries and experiencing life like locals. They travel every year to a new destination and spend at least 15 days in a country. Last time they were in Iceland, rented a car and drove along the coast of the entire country and had the time of their lives! I am going to connect with them, get their itineraries and do that trip myself someday hopefully soon.

Made in China

We started on the last leg of our journey from Ulaan Baatar to Beijing. We saw people from many nationalities on this leg of the journey and the there was a lot of commotion and a carnival like atmosphere unlike the other two legs. Within a few hours, the grasslands morphed into the Great Gobi Desert. And all of a sudden dozens of two humped camels came into our frame! We were all so excited and rushed to the window. This whole day we were glued to the window, our cameras going click click click. We also saw herds of deer and cattle and many birds too.

The three of us kept breaking into a song all day. Someone says a word or a sentence and another picks it up and sings a song with that word! Must have sung a hundred songs that day. Meena is a classical music exponent and singer and sang the most melodious and lilting songs. But that didn’t embarrass Yogita and me from singing in our completely besura voice 😉

Within a couple of hours, the train stopped at a desert town and we saw many sand dunes before entering the station. The train stopped for a long time here and the hustle bustle of the town made almost everyone get down, take pictures, talk to the locals with gestures, buy souvenirs and food and ice lollies! Like in Russia and Mongolia, this train too had a woman attendant who was very sassy and spunky!

The highlight of this leg of the journey was not nature but man made. Unlike Russia and Mongolia which run on broad gauge rails, rails in China are narrow gauge. So just before we entered China, the train went into a warehouse. There every single coach was separated and put on three different tracks, at a distance from each other. Then, while all of us were still in the coach, the entire coach was lifted in the air by some kind of a jack like they raise cars! We could see the coach on the right go high up in the air and the mechanics did whatever they had to do and brought back the coach down. Next was our turn and we felt the way God would feel being lifted for processions on Indian roads during festival time! Once the magic was done to all the coaches, they were all assembled together in the right order and chug chug went the train into China…

As we entered into the heart of China, the vegetation changed completely. We saw very scenic landscapes, with many green hills and valleys and lakes. The train went through many tunnels in the hills with the sun playing peek-a- boo with us. No more pines and birches. The trees here were more broader and shorter. We were longing to see the weeping willows and finally did spot them near the water gently swaying in the cool breeze in deep melancholy. We started seeing red awnings in stations and signs with the Chinese vertical script in the old stations and soon our longest train journey ended on a cheerful note.

Bonding and self discovery

Luckily the three of us got along very well and had so many varied experiences to share that made the journey that much more fun and interesting. We spoke of our dreams and goals, shared our secrets and fears and at the same time, were at our silliest best. I think we are ready for more adventures and experiences.

Though not intended, this also became a journey of self discovery. The time spent staring out the window also led to some introspection and an inward journey, a journey of understanding the self.

Don’t ask me what I discovered, I’m not giving the secret away 😉  But I urge you to go on your own journey and for all you know, you might discover a new you!

P.S. I plan to write a blog each on Russia, Mongolia and China so keep a watch on this space.

Trip Notes

We took the second class full package (with English speaking guides) from the St. Petersburg based Express To Russia. Found them on the web, had not heard about them from anyone, but researched on the net, tripadvisor, lonely planet etc. and found good reviews so went in for it. Here’s the link for the journey we took.

http://www.expresstorussia.com/trans-sib-tour.html

We stayed a couple of extra days in Moscow on our own but in the same hotel booked by the tour at extra cost. In all cities, the hotels were in the heart of the city, in walking distance from major attractions. The hotels were all decent, except the one in Beijing was bad. We had local English speaking guides and a private coach in each city. The guides did not travel with us on the train, but we got a different guide in each city.

All the guides were very good, informative, friendly and helpful. We are even facebook friends with one and have the contact details of the rest. They were all accomodative and flexible, even changing the program and times for our convenience. They guided us well and gave recommendations based on our preferences.

Breakfast was included in all hotel stays but the rest of the meals were on our own, except one or two meals in each city. We managed to find vegetarian food in local restaurants. In the train, none of the meals were covered and was difficult to find vegetarian food on the train or on the stations. But bread and butter was easily available and we had ready to eat MTR packets which were our saviour! We also bought some veggies and bread from the supermarket before our train journey to make sandwiches and we carried a lot of India snacks to much on the train.

We had done a lot of research on the net on the places to see in each city we were going to. So apart from the sights covered int he program, we had a few which we wanted to do on our own. Some we requested the guides to cover or replace with what they had planned. And some we covered on our own in the evening. As the days were longer, we managed to do the out door stuff till late in the evening.

All the cities were safe and we never felt scared to venture out on our own. In fact doing things on our own made the trip that much more fun and adventurous. We got the true feel of the place by walking around town, asking for help and info, trying to chat up with the locals and eat at joints visited by the regulars. In fact by the end of our Moscow stint, we were as comfortable using the Moscow Metro as any Muscovite! Doing everything only with the guide in the coach is not even half as interesting as doing things on your own and figuring things out. The experience you get by being on your own is immense and unforgettable. Not to forget the friends you make and things you learn sometime the hard way.

So go ahead and explore this part of the world for yourself. And if you have any queries, feel free to write to me.

My motivation for the grand goal of getting jobs for 50 disabled

My aunt’s left side was completely paralyzed due to a polio attack. One of my best friends in my school right from class 2 is physically disabled. My aunt (mom’s sister) is hard of hearing due to an accident in childhood. My friend’s cousin had cerebral palsy. So I grew up with disabled people around me and I have a lot of empathy for them. Incidentally none of them got employment. But all this was just there somewhere in my mind. I did not consciously think about them not getting jobs.

Then last December, I met a very smart kid. Biswa had completed Mechanical Engineering and was looking for a job. He is intelligent, can grasp things quickly, is very passionate and hard working. But he could not get a job. He is so lively, cheerful, full of life and hope and dreams about the future, like any kid would be, just out of college with an engineering degree in hand. He drives a car, bike, goes para sailing, snorkelling, loves photography. Just like any of us. He wants to earn a lot of money, travel the world, buy a house and a fancy car. Just like any of us. The only thing keeping him from his ambitions is his disability – he is hearing impaired. And that’s no fault of his. He was born that way.

    His dream car that he will buy some day and take me for a ride in!

So that’s what got me thinking. I wanted to do something for him. I wanted to get him a job, a fair chance at earning a livelihood and the dignity of being self-reliant and not being dependent on people, sometimes even strangers. So why do people not give the hearing impaired a job? It’s because they are not sure these people can perform on par with the so called “normal” people. That’s when I got introduced to the NGO “Enable India” who is doing a fantastic job in training people with all kinds of disabilities (hearing / visual / speech impaired, physical disability, autism, cerebral palsy) and makes them employable. They are also tied up with corporates for placement of these candidates. So I recommended Biswa to undergo a training with them. Once the training got over, they arranged for interview and he got placed at EMC! His joy knew no bounds! He was finally employed and now he can slowly but surely go after all his dreams, goals and ambitions.

   His pet dog Jim whom he adores and who understands his language well!

And I thought, if he could do it, anyone can. I then went to Enable India and met people there with all kinds of disabilities – a completely visually impaired person working on a computer as good as I do, learnt about a person with cerebral palsy working as a senior programmer at an IT firm, a visually impaired and hard of hearing person working as an analyst, a hearing impaired person working as software tester. And all of these people were great performers. Their managers were extremely happy with their work and performance.

That’s when I decided that I am going to get 50 PWD (Persons with Disability) a job. Yes that sounds very ambitious. But I am not one who settles for less. I like to take on giant sized challenges. And I have a huge network of friends, colleagues, acquaintances and well-wishers to support me. Together we will make it happen!!