Wisdom flows.....

..when I am drunk. The 'drunken sage' (as a friend called me) is back. Back from the Dhauladhar Base Trek, back to drinking and back to spreading the words of eternal wisdom.

When I had Royal Challenge today, I had it slower than I usually do. Much slower (only by accident). The result is I have the drunkenness from 2 pegs which I have dont usually have from 5 pegs. This taught me something I have been thinking for my website, सहज पके सो मीठा होवे. Do it slow, do it patiently, do it well, do it perfectly, dont worry about the outcome and you will come out a winner in whatever you do. Even if you dont, you would have the satisfaction of a lifetime. Isnt that all that matters?

Truth - what is it? I remember being taught 'Sun rises from the East' is a universal truth in class 6-8. How relative!! Till 1996, the Roman Catholic Church did not even admit the earth revolved around the sun. Today all of us take it as given. A few centuries down the line, something else might be the 'truth'. We live relatively, there is no absolute. Lets admit this and get on with life, it will make life much easier. There is no truth here, not even the fact we exist.

Dreaming is essential to life. It does not matter if you fulfill them. There are 3 states possible.
1. You only dream
2. You dream, try to execute and fail
3. You dream and succeed in the execution

State 3 is bliss. State 2, you would have lived your dream for some part of your life. State 1, you would have atleast dared to think different and felt good while you did that. I would take any of them with both hands any day. What about you?

My Parallel Worlds

World No. 1...

...is the one I am sitting in right now. It has internet, facebook, blogger, gtalk, skype, cable TV, cell phone, Twenty20, www.trekhimachal.com, chilly chicken, news channels, newspapers, hordes of people, public transport, private transport, late mornings, late nights......you get the drift.

When I am in this world, I often yearn to be in World No. 2

World No. 2...

...is the one I often go to. It has mountains, no roads, small villages, nice simple home cooked food made of ingredients grown in the backyard, inquisitive village children, beautiful flowers, early mornings, dinner at 6 and sleeping at 7 in huts/caves or anything else suitable, evening fires to keep warm, no cellphone signal, woods for miles and no one in them save Monals, wild goats and maybe a simple shepherd.

When I am in this world, I sometimes want to be back in World No. 1

Which world do I really belong to? Or do I belong to both in part? Or am I still trying to find a balance? Time will tell.

Meanwhile, if you happen to know the answer or have clues to it, please keep them to yourself. :)

Drunk Wisdom

Ctrl+A works on Winamp. Did you know that? I didn't. I always used the remove tab on the playlist to delete all. I just used Ctrl+A and Del to do that. Thats new to me. It probably wont matter to you because you either dont use Winamp or dont listen to songs on your laptop or dont listen to songs at all or...... The point I am trying to make is there are positives of almost everything, even getting drunk. I am drunk and I tried Ctrl+A by accident and it worked. So, being drunk is not bad, it is good, it helps learning new things, even if thats by accident. Try new things, however stupid or silly they may sound, you will come out a better person.

If you go to a monument like the Masroor temple ruins, like I went yesterday and you want to photograph them in all their splendour, make sure you go in the morning. Usually, monuments are built facing North or facing East or facing North East. If you start after 9 am and travel more than 2 hours, you reach them when the sun is behind them and you get a dark monument and a white sky, like I got. Be a good boy/girl, get up early and leave by 6 am. Then you will get a bright monument and a blue sky like you wanted.

Why are all of us brought up conditioned to be awfully nice to each other? Nice to the extent we fear speaking the truth. The other day I had a nice little argument with a friend over Virender Sehwag calling the Bangladesh cricket team ordinary. My friend thought Sehwag was arrogant. I thought he was wrong. Bangladesh are not ordinary, they are sh*t. Whether thats because they are only a decade old in tests or not is immaterial, the fact is they are sh*t. Just because Sehwag said it, the entire world is after him. His statement was factual. Whats so wrong with being factual? Are we brought up to be such sissies that we cant speak and take the truth?

Our education system is in shambles. This statement is not inspired by 3 idiots. I have always felt that. To put my point across, just one simple example. We preach about tolerance towards and equality of caste and religion in our books right through school. And yet, parallelly, we preach nationalism in all its glory. If all castes are equal, if all religions are equal, why is India more equal than other countries in our text books?

When we 'evolved' from monkeys, did we actually evolve? I have my doubts. We created this thing called society. Animals eat what is palatable, they sleep where night falls and shelter is available, they dont have stereotypes to follow; each living its life as it pleases as long as it survives. We seem to have so much around us that most of us dont know what we should do. There are so many prescriptions available at all times. You maybe anyone, you may be doing anything, chances are you are receiving advice all the time and the advice is almost always unwanted, unsolicited. And we call ourselves free!! Free in body but free in spirit? No, not by any means.

When I was young and read about Buddha giving up his family to travel in the woods and starting preaching 'detachment', I termed him a 'loser' in my mind. Now, years later, I admit I was completely wrong. For one, I myself travel in the woods very often. For second, I misunderstood detachment. To the new me, detachment means lack of inertia. The state of detachment from one's current state i.e. ability to cope up with change in circumstances, change in the world, change in ones desires. So, if I tomorrow feel that all this trekking is no use and I should be a painter, I should be able to trash my site and pick up a paintbrush. Thats detachment. Not being attached with something so that you deny yourselves new experiences. Stretch this thought to every aspect of life and you get a happy human being, who takes life as it comes and makes the most of it. He was a winner, The Winner.

Tomorrow I leave for a Dhauladhar base trek. Thats another way of saying it is too cold to be scaling the peaks and I will be happy looking at them from afar and walking at their bases. I dont know what will the route be or where will it take me. Leave all that to the one and only Jango. When I am back after 4-5 days, dont forget to read the travelogue. I promise it will be nice.

Cant make much sense of what has been posted above? Seems like none of the paragraphs are connected to any other? Have a look at the title. It should tell you the reason. This is like Catch 22, you begin at any chapter (paragraph), doesnt make a difference. Only thing is it is more evolved than that. You can read any paragraph and you wont miss anything. There is gain in reading any paragraph of this post.

If you felt this post is full of insights which you never thought I was capable of, please post your appreciation in the comments. If I get more than 5 comments, I am going to make all posts drunk!!

The Kangra Fort

All right, here comes. As grand as they come, as old as they come, as romantic as they come and as insurmountable as they come. The Kangra Fort. It was another of those wandering trips. I had no plan of this kind when I left home at 11 am. It just happened.

The valley from the fort.

I have always had a poor impression of the fort. Having seen ruins from the road below, it never seemed inviting. So, when I decided to visit it, I was expecting some ill kept ruins. I reached to see a ticket booth. That was Surprise No. 1. The ticket was a grand total of Rs 5. That was surprise No. 2. The biggest of them all was when someone offered me an audio guide to the fort. Yes, you heard it right. An audio guide to the fort, complete with some literature and 15 stops, cost Rs. 100. Knowing how well the Archaelogical Survey of India maintains its monuments, I did not think twice before taking it.

The palatial ruins inside the fort.

It was a 4 hour trip down the history lane. Listening to the audio guide, replaying some parts, taking down notes in my pad, clicking some shots, picturising how it must have looked in its days of grandeur. Time just flew by. I have tried putting a brief history together on my site. You can read it here. The audio guide was fantastic. I never knew someone has done such good work for Indian history. Because it was so very good, I have no qualms in putting a link to the Narrowcasters site here.

Open grounds across the Ban Ganga from the Fort.

I am not going to spoil the surprise by letting all out here. All I will say is if you are someone who likes a bit of rich history, really, really old history, a picturesque view of the Dhauladhars, a grand view of the valley below, visit the Kangra fort. Its a little off the beaten tourist trail but it is every bit and more worth the trouble you will take for it.

A Himalayan Eagle perches atop a tree near the Fort.

And if you like to see who sunsets look from this fort, seen them on Sunsetophilia.

Ookhal Mool

Did I get you by the name? Or did I not? Either way, Ookhal Mool, the name, originates from the Hindi words for mortar and pestle. Ookhal Mool is a place halfway towards the Dhauladhars from Palampur, quite possibly a shepherd stop. I went there yesterday or atleast tried to at any rate. The huge rocks at the top of a mountain are what lends the shape of mortar and pestle to the place, hence the name.
Why did I go there? Bad question. You are reading 'The Confused and The Wandering'. I was confused and I wandered towards Ookhal Mool. I drove 3 km from home on a road which I thought should lead towards the trail start and I reached a check post and a sceptic. The sceptic was the check post guard (CPG), who made me park the car outside the check post and the following conversation ensued.

Shalabh (courteous): Hello! Could you tell me which way is Ookhal Mool?

CPG (disbelieving): What??

Shalabh (stressing): Ookhal Mool.

CPG (further disbelieving): Why?

Shalabh (non-chalant): I want to go there.

CPG (eyes popping out): What!! Do you think you can reach there?

Shalabh (being modest): Yes, I have trekked a little.

CPG (sizes me up and down): Does not seem so.

He finally obliged. I have been feeling fat since I ignored that comment.

So, anyway, I walked up a trail, feeling fat and unfit everytime I panted and remembered CPG's comment. I heard a strange bark from the hill opposite. I dont know how a leopard barks (if thats what it does) but it pretty much did sound like a leopard. I almost pissed my pants, just that there was not enough water inside. Inspired in part by an ice harvesting post by Brett Stuckel on State of Place and in part by Les Stroud and Bear Grylls on Discovery, filled my empty bottle with ice and carried it under my shoulder.
Had reached the ridge just below Ookhal Mool when I heard the bark again and saw some footmarks. To top it all, there was some scat (good word for animal shit) on a rock and some piss (not mine). Could I risk entering marked territory? I dont think so.

Headed back immediately. On the way back, I got a shot I have wanted for long. The close up of a flying bird of prey with the blue sky for background.
One day, this trekking season, I want to see the sunset from Ookhal Mool and show it to you. Till then, make do with these.

P.S.: I have photos of the scat and the piss but keeping in mind the sensitivities of would be readers, have not succumbbed to the temptation of posting them here. Not all my trips end up as 'almost there'. I often reach there. For those kinds, see this.

Sunset Blog

If you have seen my last post, you will know that I am a self confessed sunsetaholic and I suffer from an incurable malaise called Sunsetophilia (also known as sunsetomania). So, here comes a new blog, fittingly called Sunsetophilia. No prizes for guessing the contents. Sunsets, sunsets and more sunsets. Sunsets from everywhere. Sunsets just before the sun sets, sunsets just as the sun sets, sunsets just after the sun sets and sunsets much after the sun sets.

Photo Blog

In retrospect, I think I should have named it a Photo Blog. It now has more photos than it has alphabets. And here am I, someone who can never get enough of the sunsets. They just keep getting better and better everyday. Each evening throws up something new. One day, it is the bright orange clouds; second day, a clear sky with a round orange disc; third day, slight clouds with a orange hue and a blue sky littered with dark clouds.

I now believe I am a sunsetaholic and this malaise is incurable. Here comes today's sunset, yet again from my favourite point and some of the earlier ones as well, just to serve as a reminder.

Vagablogging

Before you start blaming me for it, let me tell you that this is a shameless marketing blog post. I have had the account of my latest trip published on Vagablogging, a fairly well known travel blog. I am pretty chuffed about it and I also want everyone to know about it. This post is nothing more than an attempt to educate everyone who bothers to read this blog, which is a small number.

The account has been published at www.vagablogging.net and the original story is at this link.

Dont tell me I did not forewarn you!

Living Life.....Part 2

For those who did not quite feel as jealous or inspired as I wanted them to feel with this post, here comes another post. It rained through most of the day in Palampur yesterday. It was late coming but it poured when it came. Good for the winter crops. It was foggy, the nice misty fog you only get in the mountains and the Dhauladhars were shrouded in mist(ery). Right when the day was about to end, the sun made a comeback. It snowed all day up there. Brace yourself for a very beautiful Dhauladhar.

Part of the town all cleaned up

Another beautiful sunset after it cleared up

And finally....the toast of the winter. Dhauladhars with the fresh snow.

Golden Temple

On Guruparv. Happened to be in a really foggy Amritsar a few days ago. Biting, fogging cold. Still managed to go to the temple and get some lighted clicks. The cold was feet numbing. Shakes, in the photos, if any, are purely unintentional and co-incidental.

Finding a church....

....in Palampur is an interesting experience. The British spent a lot of time here and they left behind tea gardens, churches and military cantonments. I love the first 2. There is a major one in Dharamshala and another in Palampur, both called St. John in the Wilderness dating back to 1850s. On a visit to the one in Palampur, I heard about one which is older.

I went to find it today at Sidhpur. There are 3 Sidhpurs around Palampur. I started with one, failed...was sent to another, found a leprosy home and church with a delightful view. Went back to the main one to realize I had found something new, went back to finding the original target....found another small, delightful one. The gate was closed, I barged in shamelessly. The door was locked, I could not force it, spent 2 hours sitting in the courtyard. It was tranquil there. Two small tree trunk stubs decorated with christmas lights, a small church with no one around. Dhauladhars in the backdrop and a pine jungle.

Found the church but nothing about it. Tomorrow is prayer day.

What next?

The posts have now been coming thick and fast. And I have been thinking, what next? However much I deny it, the question often comes to mind. The answer is 'I dont know'. Then I see those blogs of people like Rolf Potts and Aparna Shekhar Roy. I have only yet started and I am still not penniless. So, what next? Simple. Travel. Backpacking. Trekking. Till I drop dead of exhaustion or penury.

I need to expand my travelling horizons, maybe more unplanned, variety, anything, everything. Sense, Nonsense, crap, adventure, danger.

Life and this time is not going to come back and I am never ever going to forget this. Make hay while the sun shines for the sun may not shine tomorrow or you may not need the hay.

New Me

Here is the new look me....clear headed!!

Living Life....

While I am sitting at home wondering about where should I go next, here is what I have been seeing.


These are the Dhauladhars from home in Palampur. Snowed in but not quite as much as I like them to be.















This is a cloud formation looking westwards from Palampur just after sunset.















And this is still westwards a few minutes after the sun had set.

I am yet to get the sunrise, have been too lazy for that and its too cold in the morning. Without a tripod, getting high exposure shots on a cold morning can be a chore. So, I have not even tried that. Wait for it though, it will come soon.

There's much more on my site. Visit Best Clicks for that.

I am back....

I am back from fulfilling my dream. It was great. I tried to make some of sense of it here.

And I saw this on the way. There is still so much to do and see that this life and several lives will fall short. Before I fall back into the lazy ways of a mundane existence, I will be out again....very soon.