inside the deep hole.

it was midnight. I lay quietly staring at the florescent light from my digital watch. The alarm went off mildly signaling the completion of 40 years of my life on this planet. I had turned 40. I tossed around to make myself fall asleep unsuccessfully. They kept plaging me. The same doubts, the same questions and in the end, the same feeling of restlessness.I know not the answers, dont know where to find them. I prayed for sleep to wash away this confusions. I tried to remember the scores of assignments filling up my day, the long list of pending ones to complete. I hated it. There was no time. just no time to relax, to enjoy, to remember my dreams.those long forgotton ones that haunt my sleep in the long lonely nights..a hazy picture of a boy running in green fields, the boy flying kites, the same boy lying near the beach, gazing at the star studded skies ..he yearned to know more, learn more, suck up every bit of knowledge about the fascinating world surrounding him . above all, he yearned to fly , be free to explore , rule the skies , far away from the grasp of any control. oh, how wonderful life can be, how sweet it is to uncover each of its little mysteries layer by layer, to marvel at its complex intricacies in the process, to rediscover its forgotten beauties.. with so many places to go, so many things to see, so much more to know.. All of a sudden, a whirlpool arrives to snatch away the freedom. He was tossed around the wind, powerless to stop , helpless to escape.. the world gets torn apart, life changes upside down. Everything is blurry, muddled up. He is trapped in the heavy chains of the nature, the nature of things, the nature of life itelf. The whirlpool sucks him onto its bottonless vortex. Along the void of a mundane hole, he falls deeper and deeper for the rest of his life, for eternity..

Atlast I fell into the same pattern of disturbed sleep in those few patches of time, a mere few hours spent in a bliss , away from everyone, everything. . There i lie, in a land of green fields, orchads, of kites and beaches. I smile in my sleep , something that is becoming extremely rare in the 40 years of my life.

A harmonic evening with Harmonica

Tired of being vetti, I dragged one of my friends to attend a free concert of HArmonica recital at University cultural centre yesterday. From what i could see from the advertisement pamplet, harmonica is something like a mouth organ. So, planning an emergency escape route in case of extreme mokai, we sat v. close to the exits. TO our astonishment, it turned out to be far more than fantastic.An instrument , totally dependent on numerous tongue techniques, its supposed to be v. helpful to one's social life too. I could only then appreciate the talent of our balloon vendors playing 5 rs mouth organs on the roadsides.. THe second surprise was the soprano song .HAving seen opera as a joke on bollywood films all the time, with fat women screeching our heads off, i was truly stumped when the lead singer started her piece. The voice, the vibrations ,the emotions all bottled up in a sound so pure and magical, it brings out the most exotic and esctatic feeling, carrying us to the realms of strange far off lands. I wish ppl stop portraying wrong images of art forms they know not just to create a joke out of it for commercial entertainment purposes.

One of the advantage of being a layman in music is that we can happily enjoy the art, appreciate it, relish it without having the burden of identifying mistakes or having an inclination to judge and compare it with other musical forms. So was the case in my first experience in witnessing live wierd music.

My wonder visit

The clear blue skies and the fresh burst of mountain breeze welcomes one and all into this paradise on earth. What else can it be when a picturesique panorama of majestic mountains, rich in its lush green vegetation, plentiful rainfalls, spectacular snowy peaks, energetic rivers, valleys with its tiny villages and absolute beauty- fresh and innocent and unspoiled, greets the dusty, suffocated, straining eyes of city dwellers?! My 3 day stay at Manali or the place of human rebirth, nestled in the valleys of Himalayas, verified the authencity of its title to me. After leading a gruelling and beaten life of hustle- bustle with every waking moment spent as per timed to the minute, I was truly healed by the breath taking serenity of this charming village.
The trip to Rotong pass, though having failed us in our penance to see our first snow , still managed to provide an awesome adventure by trapping us in its maze of thick fog and mist. For the first time, I experienced what a fog blizzaard, a powerful wave of nauseating cold and frigid air , lack of O2 can do to a hale and healthy body. Our trip to Beas kund was successful and we managed to see the origin of the river that rules this part of the mountains, sweeping through the towns of kullu and manikaran.

Other must vist place in Kullu includes the Vasihnavi devi temple. Though still under construction, the temple induces peace and serenity to one and all alike, its setting over the Beas river mystically mersmerising the devotees and the wooden artwork in the tapestries- just fills us with awe. But the most remarkable of the lot are the idols of the Gods housed in its caves. Powerful, imposing, beautiful, a spark is felt by even the most athiest onlookers .

I guess i could write a complete tour book if I dont curtail my enthusiastic thoughts right now. So, I will just close up by asking all my jobless readers not to commute anywhere by Rajdhani express ever. A definite spoiler for any level of satisfying and happy journey, it just SUCKS BIG TIME.

The Last Sight

Thunderous waves crashing on the rocks,
A dense deep gloom filling the skies,
Torrents of wind ripping at my clothes,
I stand on the cliff, my heart over its edge.

Darkness closing in on all the sides,
Dangers flashing out from the angry tides,
Howls of the storm defeaning my ears,
my breath caught up in its furious gears.

The Black magic began, the heavens broke loose,
Spears of fires striking from the wretched hell,
Screams of fright and pains amidst,
The Dance of the God ruled free in all its might.

A beauty beyond perfection,
A power beyond imagination,
With the grace of an eternal fury,
Energy inconceivable by any mortal soul.

My sight blinded,my body, frigid
A life at the tip of Death's deadly jaws,
As my last second stretched away,
I plunged into the eye of this unknown Power.

-rt