TENSION MOUNTS

I am surrounded by Tension today,
The wave of tension is there around me.
When I close my eyes I can feel it,
Why is it affecting me?
I want it to go away from me,
My head is getting heavier with its burden,
I want to reduce it, How will I remove it?
How can it be taken away from me?
When will my mind be free?
When will I fly like a bird?
When will I see a free world?
Away from tension
Away from all the sorrows and worries
Away from this world
I wanna fly high and reach a world
Which welcomes me the way I am?
Gives me a chance to fulfill my thoughts, my wishes
When will life take me there, I am waiting
Waiting for the right time, the right moment

TRIP TO KANPUR

My Trip to Kanpur was been planned a month in advance, I had booked the tickets online and was all set to go. The reason going to Kanpur was to meet my roommate from Pune, she was insisting me to visit, but I never knew if I could make it to Kanpur. I was not sure till I got a leave from my TL a day before; I was very excited and packed my bags. The morning I had to board the train from dadar, I went in time to the station and was waiting for the train to arrive. For my bad luck the train didn’t stop at that station and passed in front of me, I was shocked, it was like I had made a fool of myself, then I went to cancel the tickets, to my luck I got the ticket for the next day and then again I was happy I could go and meet my friend. The next day I arrived at CST (Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus) and boarded the train. The journey started and I quite enjoyed it, we were passing through different stations and excited to visit North India, as after Delhi which I had visited years before this was my second trip to North.

My train reached Kanpur an hour late, my friend and her father were waiting to pick me up, I was very happy to see them, after my journey alone. I had taken books, cd’s to pass my time in the train and they did help. The Kanpur station was very huge. When we went out the station, the Kanpur Station building looked good, it was typical kanpuri style. Then we took an auto, the autos over here had different colors then we see in Mumbai, they were cycle rickshaws all around the place. I was very excited to see all of these things around, Kanpur city looked a bit dusty and much unplanned, as compared to the places in western India. I reached my friends house her mom was happy to see me; I was meeting them for the second time previously had met them at Ambernath in Mumbai at her brother’s engagement. My friend stays at the Ordinance Factory quarters, her house was huge. I just loved it, was surrounded my huge gardens from both the sides and had huge verandahs inside the house. The house was beautiful which was built during the British rule. Then her mom had made breakfast. After that we had lunch, for lunch her mom cooked typical north Indian food like alu kobi ki sabzi in sarso ka tel, dal, garam rotis, kheer. The food was yummy. Then my friend had booked tickets for Dhoom 2 at Rave one of the malls in Kanpur. We went by rickshaw to the movie, I liked traveling on the rickshaw was fun. We crossed through Moti zheel, Lala Lajpat Rai statue, then Rajeev Udyan, etc.

The next day we had to go shopping to Gumti. We left in the afternoon at around 4pm. The Gumti market was like all other markets, filled with people for shopping. In Kanpur the market areas are mostly owned the Sikhs and Punjabi’s. I bought chappals, sandal, then a purse and a dress material. I liked the shopping there, the rates also were quite reasonable. The stuff I bought was very much Kanpur style, except for my purse. I wanted to buy a lot many things but then, I had just one bag to stuff all the things. After the shopping we went to JK temple, it is a huge temple filled with marble carving. I could not take any snaps there was not allowed, we sat there for sometime and camelback my rickshaw. The weather was very chilly and was enjoying the ride.

Then the third and last day, we had our breakfast and morning itself went out to see some market places. We went to Lalit market, this place was good to shop for leather, then electronic stuff, as I was not interested in any of this we had some snacks at Treat and left to go to Govind nagar. This was another market place there; we took the 6 seater rickshaw to get there. The govind nagar market was again having a lot of Sikhs. I shopped for a sari for my mom there and I liked the market there. I think Kanpur is good to shop; I would surely like to go there some other time. Then we came back and had lunch, slept for sometime. Then in the evening I had to leave, so started preparing for that. I finished all my packing and feeling bad to go, but I had to, the days went very fast. My friend’s mom gave me some dahi vadas and kachori to eat during my travel. On the way back the journey was very boring coz now I wanted to reach back to Mumbai. I reached home late at night with a good memory of my trip to Kanpur.

Trek to Lohagad Fort

Lohagad…this was one fort I always wanted to visit, as I had heard of its scenic beauty and also seen some photographs of this place. I was called for this trek by one of the organizers from the previous trek, as I had enjoyed the last trek I was very keen to go for this trek. This was an overnite trek and obviously my very first overnight trek and second trek in my life. I prepared to go, this time I never asked any of my friends, as last time no one had come, so I decided to go alone.

Day 1:
On Saturday 18th November’06 I met the trekking group at Dadar; we were 35 of us, in which 26 were boys and 9 girls. It was nice to see many of the people from my last trek also there, they were also happy to see me. We started at 5.00pm and reached a village named Bhaje at 7.30 pm, which is the base village and from there we began our trek. We started our trek at around 7.45pm and with the help of torches started climbing the mountains. The weather was pleasant and also all of us were very excited to reach on top. This was a 7kms stretch; we reached at the village Lohagaon at 10.15pm which is at the foothills of the Lohagad Fort. We all were extremely exhausted climbing this stretch, needed food badly. Our organizers had arranged for food and we were served with delicious marathi food with bakhri, pitla, patal rasa, etc. I was extremely relived as I did not eat from afternoon. Then the journey had still to go, we had to reach our ultimate destination. We left at 11.30pm and started to trek for the fort, this route was very difficult as the stairs we climbed were too big, to lift and climb was getting difficult, but somehow we were managing. The air was getting chilly, as we went high. Finally at about 00.15 am we reached the Maha darwaza of this fort. All of us gathered at the entrance waiting for the other members to arrive. Then we went higher up to the place where we had to do some star gazing, they had organized some people to show us the stars in the sky, also there was a telescope to show us the stars & galaxies. The sky was looking very beautiful the stars were so close to us, when we are 3400feet high. It was extremely cold there, so some of us decided to go to sleep, we slept in the laxmi kothi caves. The others were enjoying the camp fire outside. I got a good sleep after the hectic day walking.

Day 2:

On Sunday 20th November’06 I woke up at 7.30am, then went out took some pictures of the sun rise, which falls exactly in front of the laxmi kothi. Then we had our breakfast, after that we set out to see the vinchu kata (Scorpio’s tail) this was a beautiful spot to see, then from there saw a few more spots around the fort. In the afternoon we went down at the lohagaon village, had delicious lunch again from the same marathi hotel. In the afternoon after lunch we set out to walk down, the climate was hot, but pleasant. We left at 2.45pm and reached down at the bhaje village at 4.00pm. On the way back we saw how beautiful the fort looked and also the other fort which is Visapur, just opposite to lohagad. It has some nice caves too, but we were too exhausted to walk there, so would keep it for the next time. After that at around 4.30 we left to see the Manshet river, the Pawana dam. This was a wonderful place, extremely beautiful view. We sat there for sometime and set back to come to Mumbai. The trek was a really a good experience and this time I was not tired or hated to walk ( :)

CHILDREN's DAY

It was Children's day yesterday on 14th November 2006; this day is celebrated every year in India. It’s been celebrated on Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s birthday the first Prime Minister of India. I remember when I was in school I used to be very excited about children’ day, the reasons being many like it was a celebration day at school, then we got chocolates and also wore civil dress to celebrate. Our teachers performed for children on this day at school. It used to be very exciting to see your teachers perform. This was celebrated till I was in my Xth Std. Then I entered college, suddenly no more children's day, as now we were grown ups. But still even though our age keeps growing, but the child in us never goes. Atleast the child in me is very much alive, I just wonder it’s been 10 years now since I last celebrated Children’s Day, but still I feel like celebrating this special day. Sometimes it feels really bad as why did I grow up to face all this kind of life today, I should have remained a child. But yes life has to go on, but do not kill the child within you, keep it alive. It is the best experience in one’s life.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE

I am on a Mission now…..I don’t know if its possible…..but I have started working hard on it…..hope it’s a success soon…..this mission is gonna take a longtime…..so I am a bit scared to how will I achieve success in this shortime…..Its cool to take challenges in life but to accomplish them and get a successful result is really difficult…maybe that’s why people take up challenges…..

My mission I have not mentioned here…because it’s strange and weird as my thinking is…..right now I just need to focus….My mission will be only revealed when time comes and it is accomplished… Hope that time goes soon and my mission is reaching the success it was destined to achieve……..its not like a mission that Tom Cruise achieved in Mission Impossible…..but for me my mission is nothing less compared to the tasks and efforts it would involve……

If this Mission Impossible is achieved, I will also go for a MI 2 & MI 3….:)

So best wishes to me for this Mission Impossible to make it Possible…….