January 31, 2009

wHo aM I.....?

It seems I'm here since the blast of the dot. Don't know how I came here or who dropped me down. As a matter of fact no one knows it. Since then I've been wondering and wandering and wandering and wondering going through almost all the phases of what intelligence terms it as 'life'. I've seen millions of species come and go, millions being tortured, millions being extorted, millions being exploited. The journey has been fascinating, adventurous, painful & exhausting.

Days were ended with nights & nights with days, months then years & centuries rolled on, climates switched, geography changed, continents drifted, lakes formed, glaciers melted, some oceans dried up n some formed, temperature became bearable, rained for years together... I'm lucky to witness all these I should say. Amazing experience. Witnessed 'C-H-O-N' fusing to form first life form. Then came little bit bigger ones then a bit bigger n they kept getting bigger. Was awe struck when I encountered a dinosaur for the first time. It was humongous compared to others. When you witness something like this you would wonder about their origin and their creator. I was curious too. Who won't be? It wouldn't have been easier for human to co exist with these walloping predators. It all looked like a plan when these creatures were destroyed by the shower of fireballs just before human came into existence. But, whose plan was it? Who architected it...?

I was with them when they lit the fire for the first time. They were very curious and scared to witness fire. Obviously anyone would be when you see a thing that cannot be touched and not tangible but is capable of destroying things. Some used it for good & some for bad. Its in the nature of humans. I saw humans starting to settle near the river beds, started growing plants, understood the nature, worshipped it & they feared it for long until an intelligent being showed them how exploiting nature would do them good. They started detroying forest, polluting water sources, killing life forms to an extent where some became extinct. I saw humans getting greedier day by day but could do nothing about it. Some tried to use me to teach the ruthless. Some understood, learnt from me & changed and some were out of my reach.

I still remember when India had used the concept of zero as a number and not merely as a symbol for separation during 9th century BC where people in India treated zero as any other number and used it for practical mathematical calculations. Pingala an Indian scholar & his contemporaries used Sanskrit word 'sunya' to refer to zero & void. The Greeks had asked themselves 'how nothing could be something' questioning the usage of zero as a number leading to philosophical argument about nature and existence of zero and vacuum.

I had the oppportunity to encounter all the great kings [the ruthless & merciful], great administrators, shrewed politicians, great spartans & samurais, mathematicians, artists, scientists, astronomers, psychics, selfless people and many more. Some butchered the mankind, some upheld the oppressed & worked for a cause, some never bothered about others, some led revolutions. some fought & died, some became slaves for no fault of theirs, some tried to spread humanity & some hatredness, some invented and some discovered, some lived for a purpose and some died useless, some questioned the beliefs & some blindly followed, some gave birth & some took lives, some were physically blind and some mentally, some were selfless & donated allbut & some were selfish & to own [conquer] all.

Wondering who I am or who I might be..? 

Some sung me, some shot me, some killed me, some painted me, some tainted me, some filmed me, some lied about me, some tried to destroy me, some wrote me and some carved me. I am present, past and will be future. I'm indestructable. I might be available in various flavors, I'm there but you cannot touch me, you can learn from me. 

I'm 'HISTORY', I'm 'TIME'.

January 21, 2009

I wish they are here....

The following writing isn't my original creation. It is inspired by a movie.

Would you believe if I say that there are human beings [immortals] amongst us who have lived for more than many centuries & have never died, who have witnessed the first fire, who have witnessed the first death, who have seen the formation of glaciers, creation of religions, who have survived the age of dinosaurs, who were history makers once upon a time, who have seen the atrocities of many dictators and kindness of noble kings? Do you find it hard to accept even the notion of existence of such immortals?

Sounds science fiction? If you are a believer of "Anything's Possible" then this shouldn't be a sci-fiction. Nothing is believed to be possible unless its being discovered or invented. There could be men living amongst us who have lived for centuries without getting aged or dying at all. They might be one of those whom you see on news channel as missing persons who could never be found. They might not want to let others know that they are immortal just because none of us would believe it. As they know they are immortal they might not want to get attached to a person or a family which anyone would find difficult to leave or see them die while they never age. So they might not be a kind of person who would be interested in having a family or having habit of socializing. They would rather prefer to stay isolated.

Just for a moment imagine that these immortals exist. What would you wanna ask them or what would you have to say to them? They would have acquired a tremendous amount of knowledge by now since then. They would be like live encyclopedia. They would not know about their origin though as their memories would see just barren lands stretching across thousands of miles whereas their eyes would see the modern buildings & roads & parks etc... It would be impossible for them to co-relate their origin.

I wish this comes true, that one day I meet these immortals.

January 18, 2009

So nEAr Yet sO fAr... A tALe of wRong rOUtes!!!!

I thought we made it this time and was waiting for a scream [outburst of joy & satisfaction] from d one who made it to the top of the hill first but that scream never came and was heart broken to hear "Wrong route!!!"..........

This weekend 7 of us thought of flagging our presence on top a hill called 'Ettina Bhuja [EB] [Shoulder of an ox]. It was a good idea to have a change from this polluted n ear deafening environment. EB is around 35Km far from a very famous [in and around karnataka] holy place called 'Dharmasthala' [Land of Lord Manjunatheshwara].


We left Bangalore at 11:15pm [KSRTC bus, Friday] headed Dharmasthala [DS]. We had no problems in getting tickets to this place even though we booked the tickets same day. We reached DS at 6:15AM the next day. Weather was not so cold but a jacket would be necessary [if not for DS, surely for EB].

None of had really been to Ettina Bhuja before. We had prepared ourselves by reading printouts of some blogs on EB by people who had been to this place. The route to the tip of EB was supposed to a easy trek according to some in our group. We carried two tents capable of accommodating 8 ppl, food for the night [MTR ready food], some vessels, Snacks, chocolates, bread-butter-jam [for lunch & breakfast], jackets, bedsheets, torches & salt for leeches.

Actual trek starts from a place called shishila. Its easy to find a bus or a jeep to this place from DS. We managed to get none of them though. We had our breakfast [@6:30] in a hotel in DS & headed to a place called Kukkhoda [18Km from DS and on the way to Shishila]. We reached Kukkhoda in no time and took a jeep to shishila [We had to pay Rs200 for the jeep ride]. We were all red & brown by the time we reached shishila [@8:15AM] as the road to shishila from Kukkhoda was under construction and it was all red soil throughout which is expected at this part of Karnataka.

Actual trek to EB would begin from a place which is around 7Km interior to Shishila. We could have taken the jeep till this place but since we were all enthusiatic & professionals [:-)] we decided to walk to this place and we didn't even took a guide. We started from Shishila at 8:20AM. What we thought would be the last house before we hit the trek trail was never the last house. We knew from the blogs that the trek trail starts after crossing last house. Each one of us carrying were carrying a backpack weighing minimum 4-5kilos [most of the weight was coz of 2lt water bottles that we were carrying] and in addition to this we carried tents in turns which weighed 5-6Kg each.

We knew that we would hit Kapila river where we had planned to take bath but this river never arrived soon. After a walk for 90minutes or so we came across Kapila river. All of us were relieved. At last, source of water & the beginning mark for the trek. We were on right track we knew as we reached the river as expected. We took bath here. River wasn't deep with water about waist height.
Filled out bottles and left the place after taking bath as soon as possible as we had planned to reach the top ASAP. After walking for an hour or so we came across a falls. Eve though there was no trail leading to the falls we managed to get to the bottom of the falls by making our way through and plants. We were there for 10-15 mins and were back onto trekking trail. Soon we found out that the trail wasn't a easy one as expected. The forest was thick with the land covered by dry leaves, small stones & loose rocks sometimes. Wearing shoes, jeans and full sleeves is advisable as we came across many thorny plants. I was wearing sandals for the trek like a dumbo and had to pluck 5 thorns outta my toes today.

It was 12:30PM now but we couldn't feel the heat as we were always under shade. Thanks to thick forest & long trees. This turned out to be our disadvantage as we never knew which direction we were headed. We just followed the trail. We hit a point where the trail ended & we were lost for the first time. After a discussion for few minutes about the possible place where we could have taken the wrong turn we trailed back for 10mins and took the other trail which we believed was the right one. 30 mins passed & guess what..... We were lost again. Rested for few minutes this time. The trek was getting more adventurous now. It was about 1:45PM now. I started feeling tired. It was more because of carrying weight I guess. Trail was not much tiring till now for few as they are regular trekkers. But for me, I was just waiting to see the plain land where we could unfold our tents.

We started our journey again. We hit a small stream this time where filled our bottles & continued. The trail got steeper & steeper which made all of us feel that 'we are almost there' but the steep never ended. At last, we could see the trail ending and a very steep land leading to open space. We started climbing. The path was slippery as there were many loose rocks and the weight on our shoulders made it more tougher to climb.

Few enthusiasts from the group reached the top. I thought we made it this time and was waiting for a scream [outburst of joy & satisfaction] from the one who made it to the top of the hill first but that scream never came and was heart broken to hear "Wrong route!!!". What was more devastating was that we could see that the hill [Ettina Bhuja] which we thought we conquered was standing right in front of us. Goddamnitt!!! we thought. We had climbed the hill opposite to what we were supposed to climb.

All of us sat there, heart broken.
It was 2:45PM. All of us decided to have our lunch and then figure out the possible route to EB. We had bread butter-jam for lunch. It was already 3:30PM. Few of us went to explore the path to EB and after few minutes we were behind them continuing our quest to conquer EB [which was not so tough trek]. After a walk for 30mins, guess what.. We were lost. Everything was against us that day. Every effort to be on track went futile. It was already 4:30PM when we decided to head back to the "last house" and then back to Bangalore. Even though we never came down through the same route [most of it] which we climbed we reached the "last house" by 6PM. None of us had enery to walk 7Km to Shishila. More than energy none of us had enthu after a very disappointing walk throughout the day. We inquired about the jeep till DS from that house. Jeep was there by 6:30PM. We wished adieu to 'Bhuja' & headed DS. We thought it was over but nope.. Jeep broke down this time at about 14Km from DS. Luckily we managed to find a bus.

We reached DS, did 'Devara dharshana'. Had free dinner at temple & headed back to Bangalore. Reached Bangalore @ 6:30AM [Sunday].

Even though we couldn't reach the top of Ettina Bhuja or camp over there or put a camp fire or see the sunset from there or the sun rise in the morning the trek was a adventurous and memorable experience... It was fun

January 1, 2009

Show OFF

Photography is one of my hobbies which I've developed recently [around 6 months... Following are some of my fav snaps which I've taken using my Olympus E-410 DSLR...



Charminar
Early morning in Hyderabad

Late Evening in Hyderabad

Lord Buddha in Hussain Sagar

Roger Waters' Concert

Mysore Palace gate

Mysore Palace

Palace in the eyes of an artist

Grand Canyon

Las Vegas

StigMa

sTigMA-2


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