A Ray of Hope

Very difficult are the times when you think it's all finished, with all the negativity inside, you want to quit, to leave everything and just walk away. There is a constant churn in mind which keeps reminding you all the bad things happened in the past. Sometimes you imagine more than what has actually happened. You even plan a few steps ahead that if this bad thing happened, you would react that way post which the next bad thing would happen and you would react further to it by doing so and so. A few iterations more and you are done. You are finished, you have imagined something utterly bad which in reality is quite improbable to happen. 

But, in the middle of all this comes a small positive thought which if you don't ignore, can catapult the situation and create a virtual cycle of positive energy. If brigs all the hope and light in the otherwise gloomy and dark place. Then you start thinking backwards and clear the web of all the negative things and assure yourself that 'all is well' :). Things are not as bad as you imagined otherwise. And all of a sudden, you get the energy and might to fight it all out. And a big hope starts rising. But the key to all this is not to let go the one positive thought which arrived when you were engulfed with all the negativity. It's that small ray of hope which can do wonders !

Paani Puri

I came back after a not so tiring day at work. The manager is busy with some executive's visit. So, not much of pressure. But, at home, wifey is mad at me, after a spat over the weekend. She is not talking to me. Toh ab kaise manayein? "Paani Puri" is the savior, her favorite snack. Got two plates parceled and came home. Wifey, back from her college, is in the bed, trying to catch a nap but probably I disturbed her. "Oh, did I tell you that I picked up Bhindi on the way back, for tomorrow's lunch so that she is happy when she opens up the lunch box. So back to Pani puri. She is still sleeping (or pretending). So, the next thing is to make tea - again her favorite. So, I prepared that. Now, how can she refusethe combination of Pani Puri and tea. So, a smell of pani puri and just a small request from me and she is all set to grab the snacks.

It is amazing, how these small little things can make someone happy. Doctors say that it is a very unhealthy stuff - oily, unhygienic junk food. But I believe that if it can make someone happy, it is not unhealthy. It's good for the mental health for me and her. So, pani puri and chai over. And now, she is back to the bed and is almost the same state as she was earlier (or maybe better, but she does not want to express). And I am bored to death. Tried sending good messages on whatsapp but probably she was ignoring me, so no use. So, I am writing this piece of blog to kill time. But really, thanks to Pani Puri, we could have the evening snacks together. 

Ek pal apne liye bhi

Zindagi kitni busy ho gayi hai. Ya phir insaan itna busy ho gaya hai. Itna busy ke apne liye fursat ka ek pal bhhi nahi hai. Apne aapko itni saari cheezon se jod liya hai ke din ke 24 ghante bhi kam padte hain. Fecebook ki updates bhi check karni hai. Mobile phones pe callss aur SMS ke zariye logo se baat bhi karni hai. Times of India aur rediff pe news bhi padhni hai. Groupon ke naye deals bhi de dekhne hain. Movie ke reviews bhi padhne hain. Aur agar cricket ke updates nahi sune toh din waste ho jaayega. Lekin in sabhi "zaroori" cheezon ke beech kya apne liye ek bhi minute nikalte hain hum?

Information ka zaman hai. Aur har insaan zayada se zyada information lena chahta hai. Par yeh saari information dimaag mein kitna chaos paida karti hai, yeh kabhi socha hai?

Ek pal kabhi apne liye bhi nikalo. Aadhe ghante ke liye sabhi informative cheezon se duur ghar ki balcony mein baith kar toh dekho. Kitna sukoon milta hai hawaa mein hilte huye ped ke patto ko dekhne mein. Aati jaati motorcycles aur cars ko count karne mein. Ya phir aankh band karke sirf shaanti ka anand lene mein, bahut sukoon milta hai. Kabhi karke toh dekho?

Yeh mat socho ke tumhara adha ghanta waste ho gaya. Arrey kya kar lete itni der mein, shayad Youtube pe kuch naye movie trailers ho dekhte na? Koi fark nahi padta. Believe me, the silence of that half an hour will give you much more than what you think, you have lost! Try it.

Visiting Bull Temple

I wrote this blog about more than 1.5 years back, but it was on paper, until I found it today in my old documents and thought of publishing it. This one is for my lovely wife, Megha, who is currently enjoying her vacations in Jaipur and I am going mad missing her day and night !

One of the first religious places you would head about in Bangalore is the mighty Bull Temple located in the old charming southern part of Bangalore - Basavangudi, which itself derives its name from 'Basava' - Kannada word for the Bull.

So, after hearing a lot about and seeing people posting pictures on Facebook, we decided to pay a visit to the place. An added interest was the closely situated Bugle Rock park. It was a little far from my place, but does not matter and that is what weekends are for - travel and visit places. On the top of that, we thought of going by BMTC bus, which makes it even more leisurely event.

We set off hopping on the favorite 335E. What a relief it was to get into an AC bus, in the scorching heat. When we reached Majestic, Megha was really excited, as she had never been to the place. As usual, we had a few ice-creams, butter-milks, toffees, sweet-suparis, and rest of her favorite stuff, which has now become an inseparable prt of our outings now. And I am not complaining if these small little things bring a big smile on her face.

We were waiting for V45G, the only volvo to our destination. But alas, even after a prolonged wait for half an hour, which seemed longer, thanks to the heat again. So, we had to settle for a less preferred option of getting into the brown bus, which in 10 minutes brought us to the Bull Temple road. According to the bus driver, the temple was to be very close to the place, which turned our to be a good half km walk. i had to literally drag Megha and also bribe her with a chilled cane juice on the way, which did the trick.

The sheer presence of so many hawkers at the entrance of the temple tells how famous the temple is. So, after munching a few guavas and raw-mango (kairie), again Megha's favorite, we went inside by climbing the stairs. The temple looked big and a old heritage structure. In the front was a bug old tree which made the place shady and comfortable. It is old temple with a really huge black statue of the bull - Nandi god, very beautiful. But somehow the temple building looked old and needs some restoration and renovation. There are two small statues of Shiva and Ganesha behind the main Bull statue which we discovered during the Parikrama.

We then followed the ritual of taking pictures of us with the temple in the background. Sometimes, I think whether taking pictures and posting those on facebook (and then waiting for comments and likes) is one of the most important part of many of our activities these days and maybe including writing the piece of this blog as well :)

Before leaving we made sure to buy a small replica of the bull statute, as a token and proof that we visited the place. And you again know, who persuaded me in doing so. ;)

We slowly moved towards the Bugle Park, which is in the same campus as that of the temple. a reluctant Megha, which does not find it cool enough to visit any park, had to be bribed for more raw-mango chats, ice-creams, Bhel or whatever eatable munchies we get. The park is a beautiful place with a big rock on one side, which faced the BMS Women's College. No, no .. don't get ideas, but well it is a potential reason for the boys to visit the park frequently and scribble graffiti such as 'Ram loves Priya', 'Mumbo loves Jumbo'. With all likelihood, you will your names also somewhere written among the ones written on the rocks and walls.

The park was full of couples, from all ages who were sitting in all the corners of the park, taking a little time out of their busy lives to spend some peaceful time with each other on a peaceful holiday (forgot to tell you that, it was Ugadi holiday that day). And we also did the same, did a lot of pyaar bhari talks. I remembered and loved the ones regarding what we will do when we become old, we will live in a big farm house, outside the hustle-bustle of the city. Perhaps, we get so busy in the daily routine life that forget to take out quality time for each other. And this visit to the park gave us the opportunity.

So, back to the park, as I already promised Megha, we visited a paani-puri stall, ice cream shop, tender coconut stall and raw-mango chat stall and then headed for our way back. We also visited a couple of more temples which were in the vicinity. It was already evening and the temple became really crowded now. Unlike, us people probably preferred to go out when the head subsided.

Then after catching a bus from the bull temple road, we reached Majestic. Here to our surprise, the otherwise much frequently V335E was not where to be seen. So, we had to wait for a long time and hired a rickshaw back home. 

The Bumpy Start

Can you predict the end of the journey from its beginning? Yes or no or maybe? Ok, let me ask a better question. Can you be absolutely sure about the end of a journey, by just looking at its nascent stage? No, all you can do is to derive from the experience of other people and try to draw an analogy. But you can never be sure. So, what shall you do in this case? Do you give up? Probably not. You would still try to predict the end in either the positive or negative way, depending on the good or bad starting and most importantly depending on your way of thinking.

If you are the kind, who always tries to see the light at the end of a tunnel, you would try to picture a smoother ride for the latter part of the journey, in spite of its bad or bumpy start. You would recollect the happy moments, the so called positives of the journey so far and try to weave a similar happy happy picture for the future. And you would try to forget or ignore the bad part.
But things can happen the other way as well. You may pain the whole picture black by just looking at a black dot you would have noticed.

Now, in either case a decision needs to be taken. In the first case, you will happily continue the journey, dreaming about the pleasant future. In the latter, you may be so afraid that you may not decide to continue the journey ahead and head backward or somewhere or even stop?

The important point is that in the positive case, you have HOPE and hence there are chances of success. But in the negative case, you have already given up, accepted the defeat and certainly there is no success. You have to make the call finally.