Can you meet me in 5

Let's take a little trip down memory lane and visit ILVA.

When I go home on vacations,sometimes I call my friends out of the blue moon. I don’t care where they will be, what they will be doing, in what situation they will be. If I want to meet them, I just call them and ask them to show up in next 5 mins, if they like, obviously few people are able to drop by while others not. Whatever happens, one thing is for sure, at least I call them and due to that some people are able to meet.

Now-a-days everyone is busy, actually no one is. They won’t contact because they will think that he is busy and vice versa, hence both will not contact each other. Sometimes ego comes into play, one will think that Y, I should call and again vice versa. In short people have false excuses for not contacting each other.

I think everyone should try “Can you meet me in 5 min” Game once. Besides a small get to gather, it also helps us in identifying our true friends; it will show that they are also willing to/not willing to meet as you are. When I visited my hometown last time, I tried the same game with many of my friends and fortunately at least 10 were able to join me at our school-ILVA. I understand that others had their reasons for not showing up. They can try next time and thanks to people who dropped by.

We witnessed lot of changes when we entered school but still there is a connection which cannot change. There are memories of childhood, of fun, of fear of teachers, of yearning for marks, practicals, you can never forget those. You can never forget your first crush from school, first medal, first recognition or the first play. When take a little trip down memory lane, we start getting pictures, clear pictures of all the fun we had.

In the last, I would just like to thank all the friends who find out time to meet me at the school. Keep remembering and be in touch.

Thanks.

Shangri-La: Smiling Monk

Breakfast Time

I would like to dedicate this post to the smiling face Monk-Mr. Chetri. On our trip to Bhutan we had the opportunity to meet a Monk who invited us to stay at his place. All of us were impressed with the cool, calm and composed smiling face of the monk when was saw him sitting on stage, we never thought that we can get in touch with him and actually stay at his place. When Maaji asked him about cheapest place to stay in Thimphu, he invited us at his place, we agreed at the same instant. Very few people get this much luck to actually meet a Monk and there we were staying at his place.

Chetri Sir

We completed our Thimpu tour and reached at his place where we were welcomed by a beautiful girl and niece-Chandrika. We confirmed that its Sir’s place, she acknowledged and she also confirmed our identity by asking Sirs number, great skills. There was another lovely creature who welcomed us by barking-Pikacchu. I have never seen such a courteous doggy, before entering the place she was barking on us, but when she understood that we are friends, she became excited to meet everyone. She introduced herself by meeting everyone individually, she jumped on everyone one after another, spent some time and moved to other person. Last, but not the least we met Rockstar of the house and the son-Goku. He is a guitarist and an excellent cook; he cooked a delicious sabzi named Tashi.

Bhutan's Parliament view @ Night

There was a oneness in Chetri Sir’s place, he was such a good host that we felt like home in a foreign country. All the family members were intimate. I remember an instance where Bhampi, Maaji and Pahadi were cooking in kitchen while me, Sir, Goku and Chandrika were eating in the hall. Sir was telling us that we should eat less in night and suddenly Maaji put one more chapati in his plate, all started laughing. Bhutan is actually known as the Royal Bhutan and fortunately we were lucky to become Royal guests as we were staying right in front of the Parliament. All of us had good conversation with the best host, he explained us a lot of things, answered our bulk of queries. He even read our hands and provided info about us that was really incredibly true. Once dinner was over, Anna and others washed dishes and then all of us headed to sleep, although no one wanted to end the conversation, but it was getting late. 

The Gang

Morning, all of us got ready fast, had a photo session with Sir and then we were back on our track towards India.We had such a great time that can’t be explained in words, the only thing we regret was none of us had any pic with Lovely Pikachu.

Time is far too precious to be wasted unhappy, Be Happy.

Trip to The Last Shangri-la : Thimpu Visit

Kings Memorial Chhorten

The Second Last day of our Bhutan trip was to explore the Bhutans Capital aka Thimphu. We started from Paro and in about 2-3 hours reached there, had a little breakfast and soon reached the first location: King's Memorial Chhorten. This place was getting renovated so not much of a scene.

Museum

Folk Heritage Museum-Must Visit

Next we visited the library, but it was lunch time there, so instead of waiting, we continued our tour to the Museum. Now let me tell you, I have been to a few museums but this was extraordinaire, one of its kind, again salute to Bhutan for this Museum. It was established in 2001 and provides visitors and tourists with fascinating insights into the Bhutanese material culture and way of life. The Folk Heritage Museum is set inside a three storied, 19th century traditional house.

The museum gives us a glimpse of the traditional Bhutanese lifestyle, in addition to artifacts from rural households; it also displays an impressive collection of typical household objects, tools and equipment. The museum also organizes regular demonstrations of rural traditions, skills, habits and customs as well as hosting educational programs for children.

The activities of the museum follow a seasonal rhythm, just like the activities of a true rural household, offering you something new to see every time you visit the place. The museum does a remarkable job of recapturing the rural setting and ambiance of a traditional household by setting up paddy, wheat and millet fields, a traditional water-mill with mill stones more than 150 years old, traditional style kitchen gardens with vegetables that were typically grown during the past 100 years. So sad that photography is not allowed, but then we have google.

@ Library

National Library and Archives of Bhutan

Frankly speaking, im not much of a reader guy, I like to watch movies/seasons instead, so Library didn’t had much charm for me. I must add an appreciation to the point that this Library had 2 sections, one for Foreign Languages like English and other for their own Bhutanese language. Bhutanese language Library is a 5 floor building and the most amazing thing about it is that all the floor schematic is exactly same, in computer terms it’s like copy and paste one above another.

Buddha Point

Buddha Point

A place with a big Buddha’s statue, another cool place to check out.

Handicraft's Place

Handicrafts Place

Last but not the least we have handicrafts place from where you can take souvenir’s for your loved ones There are numerous shops lined up one after another, you can purchase a variety of things from there, you can bargain and select the lowest cost shop also.  Try to purchase something unique of Bhutan like we purchased hanging clothes (its incorrect name, I don’t know what they call it, but they hang these cylindrical colorful clothes in their temples.). See picture.

Trip to Bhutan: Tiger’s Nest Hike

@ Tigers Nest

The 3^rd day of our trip to Bhutan was hiking on a mountain to reach Tiger’s Nest Monastery. Taktsang Monastery hangs on a cliff and stands above a beautiful forest of blue pine. The hike to reach the Monastery is tiring but when you reach there it’s like heaven and you feel like you are @ cloud 9. The monastery seems to appear and disappear in and out of the trees and the mists while trekking up. It is said that even cat is at peace on top.

Takhtsang Monastery playing hide and seek between Clouds

There were prayer flags all over the route to Monastery. These are blessings on the land, a way to sanctify a place in nature, and the higher we hike, the more prayer flags appear, until it seems, the entire sky is strung with long kites of red, green, yellow, blue, and white flags, the pattern repeated again and again, by the hundreds and thousands—a million fluttering prayer flags across the rocky path, and then across the open chasms of the Himalayas.

Cute

Entire Journey was full of ups and downs, first you go up and up and up and then down, then a bridge and then again up. Bridge is between two mountains and after crossing the bridge we have the Monastery.

The return journey is much faster, but equally dramatic. When we were coming down, there was a little bit of rainfall so we were slipping all the time. We had to maintain our pace and balance at the same time. We met lots of people on the way, there was a foreigner singing “Ye dosti hum nahi todenge” song. Then there was one who had her Bday and also the one with whom I took picture-the beautiful one.

Anna

After Monastery, there was another Monastery-a 7^th century one, normally it’s a lot to say about monasteries, but unfortunately there was nothing much about this one. But outside Monastery our Photographer had a conference call, which was something interesting. When we were coming out, we had a conversation with a family and our chatter box started his speech, the dialogue turned so interesting that it lasted for more than 30 mins and kept on going and going. Since half of our crew was waiting outside, so I interrupted the meeting, even then a guy was so moved that he escorted photographer to the car so that they can still talk on the way out. It’s really great thing about our photographer.

Maaji

The FIGHT

There is a known fact that every organization/team/group/company goes through 3 phase.

1.       Grouping

2.       Fight

3.       Regrouping

Our crew also passed through these phases, 1^st in train, we grouped together, and then in restaurant we had a really cool fight, thanks to Bhampi and Anna and kick to Pahadi. Then in last we regrouped. I think this much info is enough here. Will visit Thimphu in next Blog.

Happy Friendship Day

School Time

On this auspicious occasion of Friendship day, I am writing a note to remember all the friends that have made my life serendipitous. We can quote more than a dozen messages today, but I would like to quote incidents that I remember, incidents that have left a footprint on our lives. I am writing about every friend that has touched me somewhere in my life, you may find yourself, just try to look yourself with my eyes.

School Friends Party

I remember days from school time, when we used to have fun with our neighbors, silly fights over cricket boll. When we used to wait for the bus to ILVA school and whenever we got ready on time, bus was late and if we are late in waking up, sleeping for those 5 more minutes, bus usually came in time. Then in school, counting no. of wickets that used to fall in 30 minutes prayer in Sunlight. It was fun even in standing in the school lobby for every short break, playing football with bottle in the ground. Playing cricket and pen fight in classes, eating lunch before recess. Leg fight below benches. I still remember teachers scolding us all the time, getting promoted with us, salute to all those teachers. 

Dear Friend

There were all sorts of friends, there were some who were well verse in English and some who were after girls, there were some who were always in sports, there were some who experimented on themselves, others experimented with Zinc, pen and HCL in chemistry labs. Since childhood we have a group of 3 Musketeers. School time was a real thing especially on first days of July.

Workshop

With Gods grace, I had friends in every locality I have gone, some are still in touch, some are still in heart. There were friends from my street, from malwa apartment, from coaching s/tut ions, school, college, company, random strangers becoming friends and more.

BME Lab (College)

Remembering about dozens of coaching s I have been to. I remember the friends that I made there, right from Mona mam, Simran classes, ASAP, Leicesters Lizzy, Blue Chip, Chaitanya to summer classes. There are hell lot of circles of friends and each one has their inputs in shaping me who I am. I can start writing their names, but then it would be a very big list.

Stranger Friends @ Mussorie

Then I moved to a different street, different institute, different locality. I thought I was grownup by then. I had new friends, new circles, new activities. At this time, I used to play footboll on streets, I became self confident, whole world was changing from streets to computers, from wires to internet, from phone cables to wifi, from friends to crush, from school to college.

IBM Friends

Now I had college friends, Samanvaya, I.B.M.. Friends who used to bunk classes with me, who used to have lunch with me in college breaks, who used to break their heads in mechanical labs, who used to copy assignments, files. Then came a different type of group in my life, they were arty, educated types people, they had different thinking and made me a different man. Respect for them. There had been times, when I had to become neta of the group whether it was Leicesters lizzy way back in school or in IBM college times, thanks for my friends who gave me that confidence. 

Office CT Friends

Things have been rocky also, but I have learnt a lot and still learning. There was a time, when I had to teach, it was home tut-ions or Green Fields. I must say, I have learnt even from my students cum friends from that time period.

College Bus Friends

When I joined TCS, it was another time when my world was turned upside down, leadership call was again made in Techno-turf. 3 months in Coimbatore was a scene changing time, now I was nowhere near home. I was getting paid, I had to take all my decisions myself, I had to manage my accounts, but with friends you can do anything in life. We were a group of 60 friends. There were divisions in this group, some were in CIP04 batch while others in CIP05, some stayed in Sabri while others in Geetha, some were in the same flat, others in different, some were in same room, others in other. I remember all 60 besides the divisions. I remember all the weekends that we used to go to Kerala and had fun like anything on the way.

When I was a teacher (Teachers Day celebration)

Today I am in a PG, with a whole new set of friends, new roommates, pg mates etc. I have learned whats sharing, looking after each other. Then there are office friends, the confusing ones, unpredictable ones. They help me to understand how to survive, how to lead, how to keep movin no matter what happens. Addition to them, I have online friends with whom I keep in regular touch via whatsapp, FB, I learn diff. languages from them, I make fun of them, but whatever happens, I am in contact with them.

Cousin Friends

Last but not the least, actually the first friends also known as cousins. I would wrap it in few setences, as cousins are one complete story to write. Cousins are the first friends with whom we can share all our secrets, because anyways they will know. I remember cousin cum friends with whom I used to go Phulwari, and throwing stones on roof by singing song “mere yar ki shadi hai phodo bam phatake”, with whom I have faught, played cards at Agar, with whom I have done the craziest things such as jumping naked in river (I was very young), with whom I have played cards all night in summer, with whom I have been on Chilly terrace all night, with whom I have shared ghost stories, my blogs etc.

Samanvaya Friends

Salute to all of u, thank you for being a friend.