Wednesday, April 29, 2009

A Delhi dawn, long after

Nothing puts it better...
I pour myself a cup of tea and scan the paper for familiar faces. My bags are barely unpacked and I'm feeling slightly at a loss as it dawns on me that I'm actually at home, for a change.


["Daybreak" by Mikhail Gorbachev]
[used in a Louis Vuitton ad in Hindustan Times]
[in the pic: me Cowboy-ing Yaks at Sangla Kanda two days back.]

Monday, April 20, 2009

Inching back towards Delhi in thought, and zipping back towards Delhi in physical reality. My first affair with Mumbai and Pune was pleasant; but the sweltering sun kept me from seeing much. This was also my first anywhere south beyond Gurgaon.
Of Mumabi I will carry back the images of friends I'd last met in 2007, the Mumbai local trains, and a brief initiation into the shady side of Mumbai, too risque to elaborate upon.
Of Pune I carry back a picture of good living, burnout, and reckless Mama-jis forcing introduction to pretty army girls.
Signing out now.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Day 3

Archival Diary Entry//20090413

It was 47km for the day (34km for Saurabh). Beat that. Starting at 4 in the morning, and still afoot midnight. What adds to the X factor is that me and Saurabh had ended our previous day at 2200, after a 22km trek from Agoda to Dodital, 6 of which - from Manjhi to Dodital - were covered in pitch darkness along the jungle paths of Uttarkashi. So, in between these 37 hours, I'd piled up 69km adventure: A lake, plenty of brooks, dry forests, lush forests, and SNOW fields. A handful of monal pheasant sightings, juggling with a poisonous snake, 3 himalayan langurs (they are a sight to behold, different from their Delhi brethren), huge baseball-sized toads, and a Ghoral.

Right now we're warming ourselves by the little heater inside the Police Station at Gangori, 4km from Uttarkashi. We'd have walked onwards had they not fallen for our rubbish. "We're doctors on Govt. service, called back urgently for an emergency situation developing in Delhi." Lies. We just walked on because we had to see it for ourselves.
These few days have had so many chapters to them. Facts and facts, no fiction. I'll tire out just recalling the whole thing.

Being all over

Being all over the map is a strange feeling, particularly when you've just started. It's unlike having chocolate - which I just did - where you start with bits and ultimately finish up the whole bar in a long stretch of sincere addiction. So in a nutshell, chocolate symbolises your traditional indulgence, and I impulsively know that this isn't it. On an afterthought, no food is suitable to express this; but I just had to bring that in.

Hm, so, to put it better, this is symbolically ironical. I have physical, concrete destinations, but vague, directionless, uncalculated aims; and yet I'm glad that both exist. I can now vouch that being a drifter isn't a bad feeling: the more conventional setup ceases to exist as long as you don't draw your benchmarks from the conventional world. You aren't afraid of the large money hubs - anymore, for a lifestyle of compromises becomes such a powerful motivator against embracing them. The chinks in your armour show up once in a while, though.
The best part is the dissolution of the work-earn-work-die image that our society promotes. Lots of people do lots of things - and nothings - and find their ways to represent what they have to such a exaggerated effect that it qualifies them to dignity. It's all bad faith. The mantra to being awesome is actually being awesome all the time.

rightnow: lost my packet of gems earlier, lamenting over it and having little hearts to ease the depression.

Monday, April 06, 2009

If I were an emperor to somewhere, I'd have declared it Holi (होली)- the festival of colors - today. It is pointless to associate any logic to it, for emperors are known to be whimsical; but on a personal note, my whim was fueled by the atmosphere today - hot, humid, partially clouded - and the staring faces on the balconies of homes, the children passing off menacing looks, that intangible emotion in puddles that warn you of an approaching water balloon, and _moreover_ that resurgent itch when you're holding water balloons, one in each of your hands. The streets were surely misleading today.

I had Mung (धुली हुई मूंग की दाल) stuck in my iPod's headphone jack today. It was a result of keeping both in the same pocket yesterday. A cause of embarrassment, but only to myself, for I had to make-do with street noises instead - defeated in their character. An all-pin and some brutal strokes inside the audio jack helped my iPod come back to life, but I'm sure there was some internal damage to the little child.

I knocked some coconut slices while alighting off a bus today; they fell into a tiny puddle on the roadside. The vendor had no abuses for me, had no botheration with my apology either; he just picked up the slices and rinsed them in the same water in which the other slices lay, and continued with his day. For a moment I couldn't decide whether to feel sad for myself or for the one who'd be buying that slice of coconut.

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

But I Don't Feel No More

A girl comes up to me in an inviting manner and wants me to 'feel her up'. In a dismal mood, with a heavy voice, I reply: "But I don't feel no more"
Because you don't feel. You know that its more than just contact. Why would you reward anyone with your affection if you don't genuinely feel for them...
pwnt. The former was one of my trifling inventions that I msgd around. The latter was a concerned reply from a friend who thought that I'd just been through an intense moment. He called up a few minutes later to provide me emotional support, only to find a very amused me. Now I felt guilty at having msgd it; but then I didn't expect that from the most twisted person around.