Reaching There

Mother Teresa Saints are revered in most religions. A saint can be defined as a holy person   in the eyes of the people who have faith . They are considered as the source of absolute truth. They are also source of exemplary qualities such as compassion, love, justice and honesty among many others. A while back I wrote a post on the public figure. I see God as a public figure whose life and actions are scrutinized by each and every living being on Earth (and perhaps on other planets where intelligent life exists). It isn't easy being God, perhaps He shares my sentiments. However for a mere mortal like me it is difficult to "see" God. So the faith is a bit of a far-fetched idea for me. I end up in a recursive loop - to see Him I need faith but for faith I need to see Him! Besides it is easy to forget someone who apparently is never seen & insists on helping with an invisible hand. These days ther...

Oneness and Interdependence T he culture of a society comes from its people. My actions are the driving factor in the rise or fall of the society I live in. It is as simple as that.  So when, Yongtang, our driver in Leh said, "Film stars are not our heroes. The  jawans  on the border are our heroes", it gave me an insight into the culture of Ladakh. Ladakh is both a beauty and a beast. It has some of the most divine places lying within treacherous Himalayan mountain passes and arid lands. It is a region so cutoff from the mainland India that it is sometimes difficult to imagine that it is India too. Yet, when I look at the people I see a connection hidden to my city boy's naked eyes. A couple friends and I decided to go on a trip to Ladakh in July this year. Apart from some bouts of altitude sickness the trip was a beautiful eye-opener. It introduced me to the land of "Juley". Before the trip I did my bit of research on what...

A self-made video interview of a sadhu in Chitrakoot, India in 2011. I had always wondered about sadhus' who renounce the world and live seemingly strange lives; for a person like me their life is a mystery. My father and I did a short interview of one such sadhu. English subtitles available. Last year I also wrote posts on Chitrakoot which you can read here . You can watch the interview here, the video is available on YouTube with English subtitles.

On the second day in Ladakh, our driver told that we would be visiting Alchi and would do a night stay in the village. I am unaware of Alchi (frankly I just knew about Leh before this trip). Most websites states Alchi to be a place famous for its old monastery. Alchi is conveniently located 70 km west of Leh on the south bank of the Indus River. It is at a "reasonable" altitude of about 3,100 m. Dare I say, 3,100 m (about 10,200 ft) sounds so pleasant after "experiencing" symptoms of altitude sickness at around 4,250 m (about 14,000 ft) in Sarchu on our way from Manali to Leh. Alchi The road to Alchi from Leh is ordinarily beautiful. As the cars traverses on the winding roads of the mountains, a nondescript turn marks the entrance to the village. A small shaded bus-stop welcomes you to a road leading into the village. The doorway to the resort proudly states the traditional hut style rooms available for the guests. The hut is a bit of a misnomer...

I am finding it very difficult to write in a single post about Ladakh. It is a land blessed with immense natural and spiritual beauty. So to make my job easier and in doing so spend more time with the topic, I have decided to break this journey into a series of articles. Lamayuru On the third day of our trip, driving back to Leh after a night stay at Alchi, we made a detour to Lamayuru . This is a small Tibetan Buddhist monastery situated on the Srinagar-Kargil-Leh road in the western part of Ladakh region. It is located at an altitude of about 3,510 meters. As our car made our way into the vicinity of the Gompa the place seemed "touristy" but I had a feeling I was in for something special. A lot of building material was scattered around the narrow roads leading to the monastery. "Oye, that way", pointed a monk with a prayer wheel in his hand. Murals on the Wall I made my way up the stairs leading to the entrance of the courtyard. It was decora...

.......his LIFE! Now that I've your attention (or do I?) you'll have to read the next few lines too. If you don't read.......don't worry, nothing would happen that wasn't suppose to happen already. Lately I was a bit unnerved by a few events and was feeling low. Everything around me was suddenly looming over me with imminent risk lurking in the shadows (I know that's too much of imagery).  The essence of the above feeling can simply be summed up as - feeling like s$%t. We all have suffered through a time like this in our lives. And I hate it (.....duh)! And music of The Parlotones came to rescue me. I started to hum their song "Life Design". This is our story, this is our life design.  We'll face demons despite our verve,   Fear is our greatest curse. (More lyrics here) I was like "OMG". This is my life and I'm the star of my life. I'm the Jackie Chan of my life story. I'll kick and  weave through all this s$%t flying...

It was in the September of 2009 that I got stuck with an idea. I decided to create a blog. At that time, it felt that this venture would soon fade away too. However, looking back now, I see that I have stayed faithful to this idea. I wrote sixteen posts in the next four months of the year 2009. Since then I have published close to hundred posts on my blog with another forty a work in progress. A few days back while writing a post I began to wonder why I write. A rather stupid notion at the start but it soon began to evolve into a painful migraine in my head. I had to find an answer that could satisfy my thirst of sanity for my mind. Thus began my journey through the reasons people write. The best place to start is to see if people who write have gone through a similar phase as well. Writing an Act of Optimism I found the answer rather easily! I was browsing through the headlines of The Economists on my Flipboard. An article that was published on June 26th 2012 caught my ...