FINALLY BAKRESHWAR

i have heard of the hot water springs of bakreshwar since my chilhood. my mom always wanted to take me there on a trip. yet, somehow we never manged to visit the place. turns out that it was a good thing too as this time it was an unforgettable experience, the kind you get to read in books and dream of experiencing someday. even as this world is getting steadily mechanised, men are searching for new avenues to reach the solitude that lies in their hearts. the only places where that is still possible seems to be some remote corner of the earth, far away from the maddening crowd and the incessant hum of civilisation. i had no idea that bakreshwar had such a treat in store for me. the place has made me realise, in a whole new way, how beautiful rural bengal is. God bless the people and and the land.

since the decision to visit bakreshwar was only a last minute decision, there wasnt much chance to get any official accommodation. but me, i'm not one to give up so easily. i visited the SDO's office and got the number of the local PWD accommodation officer of Birbhum district from the SDO. bakreshwar and shantiniketan happen to be a part of the birbhum district. although the ploitical fault lines have appeared quite close to birbhum they havent penetrated the district as yet. the naxal menace isnt as apparent in birbhum as it is in neighbouring purulia. pulak babu, the accommodation officer was indeed a gracious gentleman who went out of his way to get me the inspection bungalow. we decided to travel from bakreshwar to shantiniketan daily. the only fallacy in my planning was that i had taken into account the distance from bakreshwar to shantiniketan, but not the standard of the village roads. what i had planned to be a hardly 1 hr long drive turned out to be a marathon 3 hr drive. travelling to and fro from bakreshwar to shantiniketan was impossible.

even as our car approached shantiniketan, the foliage started to get denser and the forest came steadily closer. temperature dropped and suddenly the cold wind had started to bare its fangs. the entry into shantiniketan was a rather tedious process encumbered by numerous police posts placed to ensure that no vehicle without the required clearance was allowed to enter. thanks however to my defence card, the car managed to unentangle itself from this complex mess and we crossed the shyambati canal and discovered my brother who was already in shantiniketan with his friends. once he was onboard we started off for bakreshwar. the road leading towards siuri from shantiniketan is more heavenly than my words can explain. the open roads, the red soil, the greenery all around, the barren slopes, rocky banks, gurgling streams, crystal clear ponds with white angel-like swans floating around, the clean air was like wine to the tired soul. it was all too much for my mumbai-starved heart and i kept jumping up in glee everytime something like a mustard field or a shady grove came across. the car sped along at too fast a speed i felt, too little time to drink in all this splendour. evry now and then we came across a bullock cart making its way slowly through the broken roads, or an impoverished village with mud huts.

today when we see a village we wonder how much improvement has actually taken place and proof that the government is actually at work. true and, yet, saddening. the development in the cities isn't the work of corporate houses alone. its the government that plans, builds roads, transport, public facilities etc. yet, whenever we talk of amenities, the first thing that comes to our minds are the private ones and how good they are. the government cant charge as much as they do and carry out the unscrupulous tactics that they employ because it has to act like the responsible parent. yet, compared to the rate of development in the cities, the development in the villages has been peanuts. its not just the government's fault. equal blame is to be shared by us. when a son grows up and is capable of standing on his own feet he is expected to share the family's burden. then why should the same principles not be applied to our society? we as a society have actually grown up, at least in the cities. although there isn't any end to our demands, we can still say that we have sufficient. yet, no one takes the time out to go and help out in the villages in whatever way we can. why hasn't the concept of gap-year, gap-month, gap-week taken root in our society? is it because we are too selfish to notice our brother's agony? i like to believe that it's actually because we are still in our teenage and we need some more time to learn what our responsibilities are. lets hope we start sooner than later.

the accommodation in bakreshwar was better than what i had anticipated. admitted, there was no geyser, no great furnishing in the rooms. yet, the bungalow was located in the most picturesque place possible. alone, away from the rest of humanity and traffic. only empty fields and greenery as far as the eye could see. we had the most fabulous time in this isolated bungalow. but more on that in my next blog. i had mentioned in my last blog one quirky fact about women. i read in today's paper that women feel worse after having an emotional transgression and not so bad after sexual infidelity. with men its the other way around. any takers on why this is?

yesterday, was new year's eve, and i wish all of you a happy new year. a certain lady i know, happened to have a serious leg injury the last month,. yet, she went partying wearing her high heels. but if you tell them that they are all about their looks and very little else, they will give withering stares and cold shoulders. mrs v, a certain woman i know has been complaining to me for the whole of last week that her husband isn't responding to her emotinal tactics as well as he used to. she claims the cold war has become that much more difficult ever since her husband has started to pick up the rules of the game. in her opinion her husband would have relented in a day or two at max in the good old days. so, she feels she has to take it to new heights considering her status as the WOMAN OF THE HOUSE. she feels she has to either fall seriously ill or go shop for a huge amount or maybe go for a party and not take her husband with her. which one do you think would be the best possible idea?

BREATHTAKING

if there is one place that can inspire instant poetry in me it is rural Bengal. swami vivekananda has mentioned it in his travelogues, Tagore has immortalised theses places through his poems and prose, jibonanondo das has written the graceful and lyrical poem,"oi dhanshiritir tire".... the list is endless. yet, nothing actually compares to the beauty that is inherent in rural areas of Bengal. no disrespect intended to the great writers of Bengal, but no language can produce words lucid enough to capture the glory of nature in its resplendent best. i have always felt that if there is one thing on earth that can make me forget all else and just be at peace with myself, all ambitions, dreams and rat race forgotten, its the calm serenity of narure, its the ennervating fury of raging nature, its the boundless passion and seamless synergy of nature.

this year i had no hopes of getting leave and i was making do with small weekend trips in the sahyadri hills in and around mumbai. they are also one of the most pristine spots in maharashtra. however, i finally managed to pluck up the courage to ask for leave, and voila, i got it! for 10 staight days too. so, i went staright home and then proceeded to laze away to glory for if there is one place where you are king no matter how big and idiot you are, it home. mom kept stuffing me like a pig being fattened for slaughter on christmas day. all my trousers started getting tight after a mere two days. yet, my mom's cheif accusation remained that i do not have sufficient food. let me tell you something about bengali moms. they feel the fatter their kids are the better they look to the rest of the world. the word healthy has a completely different meaning in their vocabulary. when i was in academy and at the prime of my health, i was regulalrly chided by all moms around me to be weak and thin. so, when they give you food you are supposed to finish off the whole plate and ask for another plateful.

even as these shenanigans were on, we decided to go on a trip to shantiniketan, this being the time for poush mela and Tagore's birthday. for all you uninitiated, Rabindranath Tagore happens to be the poetry that runs through the veins of bengalis all over the world, at least till my generation. he built a small village called shantiniketan where he made a model of society should be in his eyes. its was sans all trappings of vulgar wealth, only th beauty of nature and man harmoninsing. he also built an university called vishwabharati, which is still one of bengal's premier institutes. so this time of the year is very special for all bengalis and a huge mela is celebrated in shantiniketan in memory of Tagore. its called the poush mela.

the first installment of my travelogue shall come up in my next blog. before i leave, here is an interesting thought.i mentioned in my previos blog that i will highliht the basic differences among men and women. so, why do men join mathematics for higher studies and women join biology? i know that there are some exceptions, but they just go to prove the rule. any interesting observations?

WOEMEN

hi guys, i am aback and this tym i plan to write with vengeance. i have finally found out what should be the best underlying theme for my blog.. i mean that it was rather haphazard over the last few times and if i do plan to write consistently it needs to have an underlying theme. guess what? my underlying theme is going to be women!! now i know that there are just too many blogs around that do the same thing.. write about women. blogs by women about what they want and by men by stating women, sex and the rest. however, i have decided to this with a difference. i plan to write this as an ongoing travelogue of my life and my experiences with women.. i must say that i do not have as much experience in bed as most men do. so that definitely will not be the highlight of my blog, although i will care to mention a few pointers here and there.but the most important thing to remember here is that women are enigmatic creatures to most of us men. we do not understand what they want, and most of the tyms they do not know what they want either. so, the secret is to visualise what they visualise, to think the way that they do and to get into the very minds of women no matter what the situation is. i know that every woman is different and no two women are exactly the same and all that crap. come on! be realistic. do you really believe that? i mean almost all of them go through the same girly magazines and pick up tips from them. so, chances are, that 9 times out of 10 they will behave in the exact same way.

i know that most of us who are in love feel that the one they love can do no wrong. like archana likes to say,"all of us in love either knowingly or unknowingly ignore all that we see as flaws in our lovers." well that might be the case with most of you, and that certainly was the case with me. so, just a word of precaution to all you guys madly smitten by the love bug, BEWARE!!! its not that the women you love are monsters, its just their nature to manipulate you and even the most tomboyish of them are doing it, whether they do it conciously or otherwise. the watchword in this case is CONSTANT VIGILANCE. its what they do and its what you need to do. no matter what you do think and then do. for in everything that you do they shall be searching for certain premeditated qualities, husband-like or boyfriend-like. so even as i write this blog i shall leave behind certain pointers that you may well find useful in the course of your love life. i do not profess to be a love guru, only someone wise to the wiles of woemen. so before you have had your first break-up get up and get wise. ITS HIGH TIME.

before i leave you i would like to leave with this parting shot. why is it in popular culture that so often fun is made out of men's butts yet sexy is what is attributed to women's butts? let me know if there are any plausible answers and i shall see you soon.

Beneath the coupled gold faints the painless catalog.

THAT MAN CALLED MSD

That man called Mahendra Singh Dhoni, he’s a phenomenon in a cricket crazy India. He leads the cricket team and the hopes of a billion Indians. No matter what the boxers, shooters, footballers, golfers, tennis players, squash players, badminton players or any of the rest of the players of any other game do, cricket still rules the spirit of Indians like nothing else. They are speaking of TRPs dropping in cricket games and the players not performing well enough, but the very fact that there is such a lot of speculation going around, proves the fact. We have the cricketers bagging as many sponsors as any Bollywood star. Just the other day, Dhoni was in Mumbai, at some place that I’m not allowed to reveal and doing something that I’m not allowed reveal (again). Archana, who happens to know him, invited me to this undisclosed location. I took up invitation with glee as its not everyday that you get to meet someone like MSD. Besides, I wanted to meet Archana as well (as if! ). So here is one pic of that memorable day. By the way, for all it matters, all those journalists ahev been feeding us crap. He’s a really nice guy.

In case you are wondering who that kid is, NOT mine!! Its always safer to make that clear at the onset. He’s a friend though and a great kid. His name is Akash. So, I guess its safe to say,
HONI KO ANHONI BANAYE
AUR ANHONI KO HONI
AKASH, SHAYAK AUR DHONI

THE SWEET THING CALLED LIFE

The best thing about life is that everyday has surprises for you, only if you are ready to embrace them. Sometimes you see things that change the whole perspective of your views about something or the other. At other times you meet new people and then all of a sudden they help bring new dimensions into your life. I personally believe that the secret lies in never giving up and continuosly trying new things out. Try building new friendships, let more people see who you are and when you feel that you have met the right persons let them get into your heart and set things right. At the same time try out newer ideas, learn newer things and, of course, try and excel in them. I have started taking lessons in animation and graphic designing and boy is it rewarding or what! Right now I’m involved in redesigning some of my old pictures and finding out best I can explore the software. It seems creativity is my thing after all, as I’ve been getting some good compliments on my work from the few that I’ve had the courage to show what I’m up to. Besides the class is a bonzer in itself, what with great guys like Behram Aderback and Kaushal Jhaveri always ready to lighten things up. Amit is a great teacher as well, and his inputs as far as photography is concerned is absolutely fascinating. It’s such a revelation to work with such creative people and such a liberation from my drudgery at work, to mention nothing of the unbending rigidity of the system, that I’m getting a breath of fresh life.


In this space I would like to mention a few new people who have come into my life over the last weeks. They have helped me immensely in tiding over a rather difficult period of my life.


On top of the list comes Sohini, who has been very insightful with her ideas and helped me to understand the few things that eluded the grasp of my understating. She has been really supportive too and exceptionally understanding. That’s why I wrote of the importance of new people in your life.

Second, of course, is Archana. She has been a revelation and also an outlet for my stored up thoughts. She is a little obtuse at times, but only intentionally, trying to point out the importance of letting things go and stop brooding over the past.

Arun, I must thank as much as anyone else, for just being there with me every evening and sharing his experiences with me. He was my friend in academy, but never in this manner.

Dehli and Kanininka have done their bit as well, although I think that its a sacrilege to mention them in the same breath, not at all in the same sentence.

Thank you all for helping me out and I wish all of you a great time.

THE LONELY TREE

A lonely tree she stood waiting for me
Her bark was rough like a peasant’s skin
Her stem gnarled like a woman in nude
Her branches flew upwards beckoning the sky
A lonely maiden in the wilderness, only for me.

 

A lonely tree she stood waiting for me
Her foliage was green and fresh
Like a woman’s hair freshly bathed
She smelt of wild flowers and nature’s bosom
A lonely maiden in the wilderness, only for me.

A lonely tree she stood waiting for me
The lush green grass kissing her roots
The blue sky caressing her leaves with affection
The breeze within her branches a soft symphony
A lonely maiden in the wilderness, only for me.

A lonely tree she stood waiting for me
A princess from a fairytale, regal in appearance
I wished that I were a bird to alight on her branches
I wished I could build a nest and therein stay
A lonely maiden in the wilderness, only for me.

A lonely tree she stood waiting for me
Yet, I, in my hurry, had only moments to spare
With all her love she beckoned, I burdened with care
To my life I would return, hoping someday to return
A lonely maiden in the wilderness, she waits for me.

DREAMS AND DIMPLE KAPADIA

Time, they say, is the best healer. Well, in my case, I don’t feel too healed. Maybe not sufficient time has elapsed yet. I was with her again last night. Every night I try to forget her, the memories grip me tighter. This time she was sleeping in my arms as she used to love to do. Her head rested on my outstretched left hand, her soft face nuzzled in my chest. She used to love sleeping in this position, she said she loved to smell the dip of my chest. My other hand was slowly caressing her hair and she snuggled in closer and closer until two bodies were but one. I could feel the soft undulations of her heavy breast rise and fall with every breath she took. Her hands were ensconced near my abdomen – peculiarly this wasn’t sexual at all. She looked more like a fairy than human when she slept. So innocent were her closed eyelids, curved eyelashes, and the slight pout of the fine lips, the rounded cheeks and the small chin. Her hair fell askew over face and her nose flared ever so slightly every time she took breath – she dropped into a peaceful slumber. I used to spend so much time watching her as she slept that I can remember every slight contortion of her face and every curve of her balled up body in that pose. I kissed her lightly on her forehead first, then slowly on the cheeks and finally on the lips. At times, she used to love me when I did this, at other times she simply gave a low grumble and turned her back to me, indicating that she wanted to sleep and I was being a nuisance. Either way, I loved it.

Even as I replayed the whole thing in my mind, I could feel the acute sense of loss – as if even in my dreams she was slipping away from me. Reminds me of that song Madhavan sang in the movie, Rehna Hai Tere Dil Me, “Ek din bhoola doonga main usse, chahoonga na mai ussko, ja baata de uss patthar ko”. I slept very little all night, what with all my dreams and the bedbugs that seem to have a feast of my blood every time I am back from a couple of days hiatus. I waged war with them all night, killing a bevy of those little buggers, but losing my sleep in the process. When I woke up in the morning I was very groggy and I felt like I was having a terrible hangover. Went for my dental check up where the Maj Bharat Khanna took a whole lot of time to see me only to tell me that I should come back after one more month. He is one the biggest shammers I have met till date. Every time I go for acheck up he tells me to come back after a month. In the meanwhile, my teeth are going from bad to worse. It was not a total loss though. I had a great time looking at this lady who looked surprisingly like Dimple Kapadia. She accentuated her look by dressing up like Dimple and styling her hair in the same manner too. Well gain some, lose some.

prabalgarh pics

 
 
 
 

WATERFALL RAPPELLING IN PRABALGARH

I am back from one of the most awesome experiences of my life. I had been for a waterfall rappelling trek to Prabalgarh, in Maharashtra, near Panvel. 19th September, 2009, was the annual monsoon ball in the US Club. Piyush, Mohit, and two more of their submarine course mates took me with them and, boy, did we have a great time or what?! We had a blast in case you didn’t get the message. Alcohol floated like water down a ravine, and the air had a surreal feel with all the pretty damsels in their equally pretty clothes floating around. Well, to be frank all were not very pretty, but the few of them that were quite made up for the rest of them, while the rest tried their best by wearing some eye popping gorgeous dresses. Too many drinks and quite a few refusals had made me bold enough and I made up my mind to dance till I dropped. We danced till the stars had shifted their positions more than once and by the time it was about to end I was completely wasted and desperately wanted some food. I still don’t know who I have to thank for getting me safely back home.
It was 0730 in the morning and an insistent noise near my ear woke me up and I found out that it was my cell phone ringing angrily. It was Prateek on the other side and he was quite shocked to hear my groggy voice. I was instantly awake and went into damage control mode. Three years at the academy teaches you to fib glibly and I did that. I told him that I was late for some reason and I was in VT station waiting for a train. Prateek took this bit of news quite amiably and told me to catch up with them at Bel…… station. I poured in mouth wash, dropped in to my clothes, took my bag and rushed to wake up Piyush. Now to wake up a guy who has had more than his share of alcohol the last night and tell him to take you on an errand is not the safest thing to try early on a Sunday morning. I was desperate and I tried it. Well, what do you know? It worked and a very grumpy Piyush took me to the taxi stand. From there it was a race against time and at 0900 I was in Bel…, a good one hour late.
For the first time I met the guys who were to be my mates for the rest of the day. Luckily, there were four boys to five girls and this is the sort of situation I really wanna be in. . There were Anand, Narayan, Harshit, Shriya, Shraddha, Akanksha, Archana and Priyanka. All of us young and bursting to get going. However, hammers and tongs were at work in my head and firecrackers in my stomach. Last night’s debauchery had come back to haunt me. These guys quite amiably greeted me and then swore to make me pay for making them wait for the extra one hour. Even as the bus got going Prateek greeted me quite cheerfully and Radhika, as usual was her demure self. Our yellow mini bus chugged along at a nice pace and within an hour we were at a small village in the middle of the jungle slightly away from the highway. Here Majid and Pritam, our instructors and guides for the day, met us. We kept our luggage and stuff in a sweet little hamlet and changed into trekking gear. The trek up the mountain was fairly easy and I was left to bring up the rear end, having had some prior experience of trekking. Shraddha was the real challenge. She was a cute, bubbly youngster, still in school, class ninth to be precise, and on her first trek. They say you need to get your feet on the ground, well in her case it was literally a trying affair. She had a fair amount of problem while climbing, but she bravely struggled on. Archana and Akanksha were the brave hearts and they carried the majority of the load. Narayan and Anand were the resident comedians. Their capers kept us in peals of laughter all the way up and down. Thanks to those guys this trip was far more enjoyable than the last one.
By the time we had climbed almost to the top, we got our first glimpse of the cliff from which we would be rappelling down. To say in didn’t give me the jitters would be lying, so, I shall lie. It was easy climbing till the top of the Buddhist caves. Now that phase of our trip began for which we had come all this way -- the rappelling. Prateek shared a lot of information with us and told us how to go about it; the various knots used how he had gone about his training and all. Harshit went first, and he went pretty fast. Shreya went next and she was quiet all the way down. Then, went her baby sister, Shraddha. She took it quite well, as a matter of fact because she was quite nervous of heights. Next, Narayan followed. Then came Archana, and to be frank she provided us with a lot of comic relief. She was terribly afraid of heights and it took Majid a good 45 minutes of shouting, coaxing, cajoling and all other techniques in his repertoire to finally get her down the cliff. She kept trying to climb up and her plaintive bleat “Please don’t push me, I will go on my own” was heard for a long time. Even when she was going down, you could hear her screams echoing around the mountains. Next Anand went down and then it was my turn. I was pretty afraid and did slip once but, to my credit, it was because of wrong instructions and not due to my fear. However, once I had crossed the overhang and I was rotating in space I felt ecstasy like I had never felt before. The waterfall was gushing into my face, the wind was ringing in my ears and I was rotating in space! Can you even imagine that feeling? I felt like hanging there forever and never come down. I kept looking up to feel the water splashing on my face, and kept shouting like mad.
The biggest shock awaited me when I had rappelled down. Archana was missing. She had gone for round two!!! Anyways, she wasn’t able to make it till the top as she lost her way and came back to the bottom. Kudos to her courage I say! We bathed in the waterfall and took snaps that I know will burn Facebook. Then we shared our lunch boxes and finally started the trek to the bottom. This time the trek was so breathtaking that I kept getting lost in the scenery. Seriously, man, the view was straight out of a YRF film. There was a gnarled tree in the middle of a green field that Archana pointed out to me that looked it had stepped out of fairy tale. There were brooks running down the mountain and through the lush green field. There was music in the air, the sound of the brooks, the birds and the wind rustling and caressing the leaves. I felt like I was walking through a dream. We even found an emu farm in the middle of nowhere. I was so lost in the scenery that I didn’t realise when we had reached out little village. After having steaming cups of tea and having changed we started back for Mumbai, ready for a couple of weeks more of drudgery.