Gentle Whispers

It's been a while since I've blogged and while I have wanted to, I've been simply too lazy to actually do something about it. Of course, I've probably lost the two readers I had, but Cest la vie. It's been a strange eight months since I last blogged. A lot has happened and while I'd love to rant and whine to you, most of it has been good. I'm still working. I even got a raise, though it was so minuscule that even calling it a raise is a joke. My brother bought me a digital SLR, this one I want to marry it and have babies. Accordingly I've named him Flint and he's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. I went on two holidays. One to Dubai and the other to Sattal in Uttarakhand. Two holidays as different as anything I could ever have hoped for. I gave my MA exams in English Literature and actually passed Part 1. Now I only have Part 2 to worry about. I now have, not just one, but two new blogs, one is a photography blog, Swirls of Sapphire and ...

They have everything for you men to enjoy, You can hang out with all the boys ... So true. Well except for the part where they call us men, but we shall just let that slide, shall we? As you read this, I'm in the outstation YMCA camp . Merrily living it up at a National Youth Camp for youth from the ages of 18 to 30 across India. I've quietly snuck off from work. This will be my second YMCA camp in three years. The first one was in Yellagiri, a little hill station near Chennai and this one is near Pune. I've been looking forward to this camp ever since I heard about it approximately four months ago. So please pray that I'm having a great time as I hope I am, with swimming, rock climbing, rappelling, rifle shooting, treasure hunts and campfires. See you all on the other side.

So someone tagged me to in of these notes thingies on Facebook, in what was basically a list of The Things To Do Before I Die and though it said to only list 30 things, in my usual overboard, over-enthusiastic style, I've listed forty and I figured I might as well share them with you guys here. So here it is, The Things I want to do before I die :- 1) Buy a round-the-world air ticket and a rucksack, and run away and make sure I set foot on each of the seven continents 2) Visit all the seven wonders of the World.. Modern, Ancient, Natural 3) Watch Roger Federer play in a Wimbledon final 4) Be published in the New Yorker or the Economist 5) Drink beer at Oktoberfest in Munich 6) Learn to play a musical instrument with some degree of skill 7) Fly a plane 8) Learn to scuba dive, skydive and bungee jump and go up in a hot air ballooon 9) Go on a wild-life safari across the African grasslands. 10) Watch a football game between Argentina and Brazil, an El Classico b...

It's been a busy three weeks for me. The barely having time to breathe kinda days which rush by and leave you exhilarated and happy. I went for a camping trip recently. A five day long trip. To a place near Lonavla. The YMCA has a campsite there called Camp Lakeside. And it is hands down, one of the most brilliant places places you could ever hope to go too. It has rock climbing, rappelling, a 200 feet deep lake to swim in, rifle-shooting and a lot of games and fun. Days started at 6 am and ended at 12 in the night for us counselors. Exhausting, at times frustrating days. Would I do it again? You betcha' ass I would. It helped me rediscover my love for the outdoors. And for that I'll be forever grateful.

I'm in office right now. Waiting for the pages to come in so that I can upload them on to the website. And then I can leave. It's quiet today here, with the TVs switched off, half the people gone and the office strangely quiet for what is actually dead line time. My mind on the other hand is far away. In Kashmir and Ladakh. I remember Yusmarg valley and the drive to get there. How I wanted to get off the bus and walk there among the grassy meadows, dotted with sheep and little log cabins, ringed by dense pine forests with awe-inspiring snow capped mountains towering behind. I remember the way my heart sang when we walked into Yusmarg and witnessed the river gurgling by, singing a merry little song. Of panting up one crest in the meadow with wild ponies cantering around and running crazily down the other side only to be ankle deep in a pool of mud. Of sitting by the river in a little alcove formed by rocks, scribbling in my little notebook and then lying back and quietly humming...

I came across this in a Danielle Steele book. Who said you can't get anything good out of those books? One of my favourite poems and one I read virtually every time I get the urge to travel. Wander, wander, wandering meandering, the urge to roam, to dance, to fly, to be, the search for free, the need to see to go to find to search to do, my thirsts so easily quenched so close to home and yours so grand, so elegant, so marvelous, climbing mountaintops and elephants and tiger hunts and dancing bears and far off stars and trips to mars and all of it so wild, so vast, so free, as you go wander, wander, wandering, and then the best part of all when, satisfied, complete, and happy now, you wander slowly home to me.

I've been going through a weird phase lately. Where all I've wanted to do is pick up my bag and go off into the world. With my camera, a book or two and my beloved music. It's been eating away at me for days. It's even been my Gtalk status and I don't mean go off to Goa and stay in a luxurious hotel. I want to go to Cairo and Baghdad, to Tibet and Ladakh, to rough it out and to soak it all in. But don't get me wrong, I'm not just craving for places outside India, I would be just as happy to visit Hampi and Khajuraho, Dharamshala and Srinagar, Annamalai and Cochin. But what saddens me is the most, is how frowned upon that would be. For me to travel all alone. And how my parents would never allow it. I wish I lived in a country so safe, that I could travel it's length and breadth without any worries at all. But que sera sera . And hopefully someday I'll find that perfect travel companion. Boy or girl. Whichever it is. Though I would love it if there...

It's the end of a long, tiring day of travelling and we are now at Dimapur in Nagaland. I somehow don't feel like I'm in the north-east. It could be a small, dusty town anywhere else in India and it seems to have more migrants than the original inhabitants. The fabulous dress sense of the people here continues to astound me. They are always so chicly attired and I am so so envious of the way they put things together. Other than that, today was a fairly interesting day. We left from Nameri pretty early and I was quite disappointed to leave. It weas such a beautiful place and one that I would definitely love to visit again. The road to Dimapur led through Kaziranga National Park and for once we were lucky enough to spot some one horned rhinos. Th rest of the ride however was long and boring and hot and saw me dozing pretty much throughout it. The army and security presence here in Dimapur is considerable and on our evening walk, we saw quite a few security personnel totting ...

10/05/2008 18:46 pm It's Day 2 at Nameri Tiger Reserve and I have finally been bitten by a leech. Not once or twice, but four times and all on my right leg. It's not particularly painful though and unlike the rest I'm quite okay with being bitten and haven't made too much of a song and dance about it. On the contrary, I was quite excited about being bitten and part of the elite "Leech Club". This has been a day of learning and I am still trying to absorb some of it. And the more I learn about discrimination against the North-east, the more it infuriates me.We heard a lot of stories today and my mind is reeling. For instance, when the Chinese Prime Minister visited Mumbai, north-eastern students who were leaving college were picked up by the police and kept at Lamigton Road police station all because they were ' chinky ' and looked Tibetan, which was a gross injustice by any standards. Most of them were just leaving college when they were picked up and ...

09/08/2008 19:30 pm Nameri Tiger Reserve is where we are today and I for one am completely awestruck. Nameri is situated north to Tezpur which is in Assam. We are staying at an Eco Camp, a little way into Nameri and this place is amazing. It is truly what I would expect a camp to be like with grass tents, lush greenery, a campfire spot, plenty of space to run around and play in. The evening started off with a one and a half kilometre walk to the riverside and ended with us plunging into the river. As of now, we are at a session being conducted by our Professor and we have a local and ex-Wilsonian Chombe telling us about the tribes and languages of Arunachal Pradesh. As I sit here, I wonder what the bloody hell was wrong with me that I actually thought of dropping out of this trip and I now know that if I had missed out I would regret it for the rest of my life. Who knows when, if ever, I will visit these places again and even if I do, there is no guarantee that I will be with these sam...

08/05/2008 11:00 am Sometimes in life you just need to stop and stare and here at Eagle's Nest Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh, I have experienced one of those moments today at the waterfall with the clearest water I have ever seen. And I had to spend some time there. Sitting and soaking it up. And bird-watching. The walk back wasn't the best though. It was long and painful what with the jeeps breaking down and everything. But it was still fun. At the end of the day however I am just about ready to collapse. If I survive tonight I will let you know.

06/02/2008 20:00 pm Pakke National Park, Arunachal Pradesh I am not an easy person to silence and it takes a lot to get me to shut up. Something very very special happened today and it happened the moment I stepped into the Pakke National Park behind an Asian elephant with a penchant for breaking wind. The forest itself was beautiful, one of the best I've seen and I fell in love with it immediately and I didn't want to leave until I saw all the forest had to offer both in terms of plants and animals. With the animals undoubtedly being the high point. The sight of surprise on the face of the wild elephant and then watching them crashing through the underbrush and the Great Hornbills soaring majestically through the sky are memories that I will always carry with me. On some levels though, I am filled with regret that I didn't get to see a tiger or a clouded leopard though I tried my darnedest. But oh well, C'est la vie. The leeches were an experience that I will never for...

* I wrote this during my recent trip to Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Nagaland and it's in the form of a diary. And now that I read back on it, I'm longing to edit it out and make changes, but in the interest of being true to myself, I'm going to do no such thing* 6th January 2008 16:05 pm The train journey lasted a very long while and while most parts were fun, bits of it were quite boring. After arriving in Assam and now Arunachal Pradesh, I am awestruck by how beautiful it is and how absolutely little I know of the country I live in. Though I must admit that I'm a little bit better than most. What saddens me most is that for these people, they are not Indians but are made to feel like outsiders, that some of them do not feel Indian, that they are called ' chinkies ', that we generalise all the states in the North-East whether Assam, Manipur or Mizoram as North-Eastern. That we fail to see them as states with different cultural identities but just as people wit...

Tashi Delay And in case your wondering what the hell that means, it's Tibetan for "I honour and respect the place in you in which resides courage and wisdom ." And I for one, love this greeting. So much better than just ' Hi '. May has been a month of traveling and I don't know where to begin. But everything has to start somewhere. And I'll start with my Wilson College Nature Club trek to the North-East. I filled in pages and pages in my notebook on this trek and I'm going to do my best to put some of it down here. As much as I can before laziness overcomes me. But before all of that, there is something I have to mention here. Something that has touched me so so much and is one of the best awards, (also my very first award!!!!)I could have ever received. It's nice to be important But its more important to be nice And it comes from HomeCooked . And I just cant find the words to thank her enough for this award. “This award will be awarded to those th...

For those two and a half people who will actually notice, I'm going on holiday. A trek to be precise. To Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland for an entire 13 days. And I will be back on the sixteenth. See all of you on the 16th. Assuming I survive the three day train journey each way through Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Pray for my soul and also that my luggage isn't stolen on the way! See you on the other side.

Okay Fine. I know there is no actual point to this. But I still want to do it. For myself. This blog has been more about me and for me than for readers out there. For me to talk about my hopes, dreams, disappointments, ideas, memories or whatever I bloody hell feel like. So here goes. Places I hope to visit someday not limited to anything. And excuse me if some of them were on my eight places to visit someday list. 1) London- This one always tops my list. 2) Venice 3) Florence 4) Budapest 5) Athens 6) Rome 7) Vatican City 8) Amsterdam 9) Hawaii 10) San Francisco 11) New York 12) Paris 13) Madrid 14) Bucharest 15) Barcelona 16) Sicily 17) New Zealand 18) Jamaica 19) South Africa 20) Egypt 21) Mecca 22) Israel 23) Tokyo 24) Vietnam 25) Tibet 26) The Siachen Glacier 27) Lakshwadeep Islands 28) Sydney 29) Scotland 30) Moscow 31) St Petersburg 32) Las Vegas 33) Alaska 34) Quebec City 35) Nice 36) Naples 37) Rio Di Janerio 38) Peru 39) Prague 40) Milan 41) Havana 42) Hyderabad 43) Lagos 44) ...