Once upon a time on a Road

“Not everything that happens in our life could be explained by our common sense or knowledge or for that matter known science” Ron reflected quite engrossed in his thoughts as Ana looked on. It’s been long since the last time they sat together talking about past. Ron always had lots of stories to tell and while he insisted that those were all his life experience, Ana believed most of them were either borrowed from others life or simply made up.

“Today, I will tell you about an experience I had almost 15 years back but don’t ask me to provide any explanation as I have none” he said in the beginning and started to narrate a journey that he and his friends took to and from Dubai.

That night Ron accompanied by 3 more friends were heading towards Dubai border. It was a long weekend ahead and they would be visiting Dubai for the very first time. Quite obviously they wanted to take advantage by driving through the night so that they could spend the maximum time there.

That had packed everything that would possibly need including condiments, water, sodas coffee etc. They were tempted to add a few cans of beer as well but the better sense prevailed this time.  

The traffic was thick as there were other likeminded holidaymakers trying to do precisely the same. The highway was straight devoid of bends and that made driving even more dangerous as the challenge was to stay awake at the wheels. The car was from a rental company with no emotional attachments making it easy to take turns with driving. Three of them were licensed to drive in both the countries and they set the rule that the person in the front passenger seat shall not sleep and keep company of the driver.

Highways are famous for Ghost stories and there have been many popular stories that has been told countless times with slight variations. Everyone has perhaps heard of a haunted house where nobody can spend time inside and those who have attempted were found lying by the highway outside, next morning. We also heard of highways where a veiled woman is seen walking towards the car and many driver list their life trying to swerve so that they could avoid hitting her.

Everyone have their own belief, conviction or take when it comes to believing in the ghosts though it is understandably difficult to believe that ghosts should have a form. If they did have one then which one would that be and who took those decisions. This was the topic of discussion during the long drive to Dubai that night.

Suddenly, there was a sharp whistling sound outside the car on the highway. It was loud and shrill. Ron was at the steering wheel pressed the brakes instantly and put his hand over his ears. As the speed came down to 100 KM/hr the sound went away. They accelerated again and the sound came back.

After driving 10 more minutes they thought there could be problem with the car and accelerated with to verify. But this time there were no such sound. They forgot about this incident and had great tie in Dubai. On their way back they had the same experience in the same stretch of the highway.

Reaching home Ron was shocked to learn that one of his colleagues had  lost control of his car and got killed in the same stretch of road they encountered the whistle the night before.

Ana and Ron, both had to rub their hands on the arms to get those goose bumps go away!

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.

Addressing Mental Illness

What is a mental illness? In common man’s term, it could probably be defined as the lack of balance of mind or brain. In other words inappropriate thought process and action that result in the affected individual’s failure to cope with life’s ordinary demands and routines. Early indicators are changes in mood, personality, habits and social interaction.
 

Medically there are more than 200 classified forms of mental illness. Some of the most common types are:  clinical depression, bipolar disorder, dementia, schizophrenia and anxiety disorders. Like all other illness, mental illnesses too vary in severity ranging from moderate to severe.
 

This could develop due to external stresses, internal chemical imbalances and genetic factors or after some accident. But many affected individual succeed in coming out of this illness and learn to cope with the conditions with proper care and treatment.
 

However, the biggest obstacles that prevent people seek professional help and treatment is the stigma associated with mental illness.
 

The most common are anxiety and depressive disorders which are more extreme forms of feelings of anxiety, tension or sadness that most of us normally experience. In India, there are very few people who would or have access to medical professionals when faced with such conditions.
 

In the place where we grew up, I observed something that is probably unique. We had sadhus and sanyasis associated with various sects of Hinduism. They dedicated their life for their Gurus as well as the service of mankind. Some of them were truly learned and whenever any disciple had feeling of extreme sadness they used to use situation out of the holy scriptures and pacify the sadness and help them back into the normal walk of life. I am sure such pious man existed across all religions.

There was a stigma associated with going to a psychiatrist but there was no barrier reaching out to such gurus.
 

Today there are more impersonators, quacks and opportunist in the society making it extremely difficult to trust. Medical supports are available but the society still has to evolve to embrace the sick and able alike with open arms.

 

The Pearl Hunting

The winter before last we visited the Andaman Islands. We bought our air tickets early followed by booking for our accommodation in a government run hotel called Andaman Teal house. Incidentally this hotel did have a web page but no online booking facilities, making us to use postal and fax services. The price was too good to be true for the location, view and our expectations. We were once again reminded that if something seems to be too good to be true, it's probably not true.

Early next morning we moved to another hotel nearby as a stop gap arrangement since the Teal house did not offer the type of accommodation we got used to. We also learnt that the diversity of India also transpires to the functionality of its tourism industry and if you are visiting Andaman, you better coordinate with a travel agency.

We spent the day visiting the other islands and relocated to a place called The Park hotel early next morning. Though it was not the brand that we all know, it finally brought the much needed relief and joy. This hotel was similar to old boarding houses with an open corridor serving the series of guest rooms. The corridor had a distant view of the ocean along with a view of the landscaped garden below that was equally refreshing. Our daughter was by then enjoying the trip with uncle and the grandparents from both sides pampering her.

The beach, which was 10 minutes walk didn't have a name to go by but generally identified as the beach near Rose Valley Resort. It was pristine and almost untouched. The hotel owner assigned a lady accompany us and show around for the first time. My daughter even adopted a puppy on the way who accompanied us to the beach.

After reaching the beach we were all got scattered and a sudden excitement brought us back together. The lady had found a pearl within a sea shell and so did my father-in-law. That was another too good to be true incident.

For the next few days whenever we had time to spare we were at the beach looking for pearls with vengeance driven by the desire to have this unique experience. We found everything from live Molluscs, snail, conch shells, cat eye shells but no pearls. I ended up having serious sunburnt on my arms, legs and feet.

The morning we were leaving the hotel, we met another family who checked in last evening and they excitedly narrated their experience in the beach this morning. The lady of the hotel took them to the beach in the morning where she found a pearl and luckily they too found one on the beach.

Deja Vu!

October of the Wheel of My Life

When I was a young boy I was restless like others of that age, eager to grow up and be independent. We wanted freedom; we wanted to break free and not constantly told what to do by parents, teachers, siblings and all other elders.

Childhood was bliss and reasons for joy were in abundance. There were nothing that was not worth celebrating while we particularly looked forward to the festivals. The festive seasons started with Saraswati puja in February and ended with Christmas and New Year in December. The days would pass counting down the days from one celebration to the next one. All in all it was chasing the next event in the calendar and enjoying life throughout.

As the numbers in the calendar kept changing, we continued to add years to our age and life got a new meaning. Life became front loaded with responsibilities as we stopped growing up and started to grow old instead. Those dark hairs now got transformed to a combination of salt and pepper. It’s only a matter of time before they all turn to be salt only.

Today as we approach the October of wheel of our life, we continue to chase the days. But those are the days between one weekend and the next. There is hardly a moment to pause a look around in this journey.

The days always passes at the same pace but sometimes it appears to be lot longer than other and 2015 is one such example of a long year. This year has been a cruel reminder of the greatest truth of our existence. We are mere mortals with a definitive beginning and an end. The scientists are working towards “curing death” but that is still a long way from reaching lesser mortals like us.  

For the past few years, the world has been dogged with conflicts and has lost many a life due to those easily avoidable wars in the Middle East, man-made disasters, natural calamities, and of natural causes. We have also lost in 2015 more than fair share of lives that touched the lives of thousands of people outside their respective families.

On a personal level I have lost two very dear friends and few relatives. Both the friends were on the other side of forty. As in “God of Small Things” they were “Not old. Not young. But a viable die-able age." I have learnt that each day above ground is a celebration and not to be wasted by grumbling or whining about haves and have nots.

This is a life changing experience for me which created mayhem in my inner self. I had the feeling of extreme grief and got distracted by the thought of what could happen to a person, a family within few moments. This is unexplainable and could only be defined as the vagaries of twenty fifteen.

I will be naive to imply there had been no positivity or achievements in this year as there has been plenty but the negativity is weighing it down for me. So this year needs to end sooner than later as this has been unquestionably very furious but not fast enough.

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.

An Art for Drinking

Last week we went to Mc Donald café for a cup of coffee Latte and when they served it we were pleasantly surprised.

It’s called Latte art of coffee art and I have seen such pictures earlier. But honestly, I never had an opportunity to drink a painting of sorts. The coffee tasted good and the artwork added the little extra that gives us happiness.

Conventionally the decoration is done by pouring the steamed milk on espresso coffee to generate the foam and creating a pattern on the surface of the drink. This art is particularly difficult to create due to lack of consistency in the top layer of the foam.

A little google-search enlightened me further.  I also discovered that a company called “Steam CC” has developed an appliance called “Ripple Maker” which can print incredible beautiful and artistic foam prints like the one above. Read more here.

Commercials - kabhi bhi aur kahin bhi

The advantage for people who have been around during the seventies and eighties in India is that they have witnessed Indian television bloom, closely followed by the IT and telephony sector. Then came a revolution of sorts riding piggyback on smart phones, tablets and pads and it combined all of the above into one device.

Commercial break, I remember was not despised so much in those early days of Indian TV. Advertisers then were few and far in-between and the scheduled commercials brought in welcome break for the viewers to run out and complete some chores. This used to mimic the intervals we experienced while watching a movie in the theatre. However, what irritated the viewers were the unscheduled breaks the results of technical glitches. The most hated screen shot of the television that I can still vividly remember is “rukawat ke liye khed hai” or its English translation, “sorry for the interruption”.

When I walked into the TV room of our hostel during college days, I discovered another facet of life with realization that people could actually cheer a commercial in the TV. Some of the ads were always welcome and Cadbury perks by Priety was one such good example which the boarders were ready to embrace kabhi bhi aur kahin bhi. Chitrahaar was immensely popular then and the lyril soap advertisement surpassed it in popularity and not surprisingly some students even contemplated request Doordarshan to play the advertisement after each song.

Things have changed since then and excessive commercialization has taken over the media with advertisement taking precedence over the program they sponsor. The most effective way of tease a viewer is to deny them when they want it the most and our TV bosses has mastered this art. This philosophy could be seen in action during the cricket matches with commercials kicking in every time something exciting happens in field.

The companies appear to have made it their mission to make us learn their ads by heart. I wish one of these days they take it on themselves to make our kids learn some of their school lessons.

Imagine in place of commercials, multiplication tables keeps repeating for umpteen numbers of times with a small logo of the sponsoring company in a corner. In no time the entire nation will learn their tables by heart. Alternatively they could start repeating some formulas from physics or organic chemistry test books in-between a Salman khan thriller. At the end of the movie students across the country will master classroom chemistry alongside the on-screen chemistry of the artists.

What a noble cause that would serve!

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.

Painting our Home – A Lean Philosophy

Pablo Picasso once said "Colours, like features, follow the changes of the emotions”. With a going to be 8 years doting daughter, it’s her emotions that changes and our family follows. Very few will disagree on the benefits of involving children in decision making process early in their life. This is particularly valid for such decisions that touch their lives constantly and colour of the living spaces is quite high on that list. Colour can communicate easily through symbolism and no wonder that white have been reserved by Priests, doctors and politicians.

This probably is the scenario in most households though the adults have to bring some rationale or even overrule their suggestions at times. Adults in this context usually refer to the ladies of the house as when it comes to colour schemes, the man even if he is a pro, doesn't stand a chance.

However, not everybody can visualize the final looks of any particular space based on a small swatch of colour available in the shade card. Many a times the final product comes as a bitter surprise to the owners generating unwanted stress and leading towards expensive rework. The "smart paint finder tool ” has ushered in a revolutionary new era where the family could gather around to select the colours looking at the end product painted virtually before splashing a single drop of paint on the wall. It is now less stressful for families who are looking forward to having their new dream home painted or having the house repainted.

This is an efficient method for saving cost and time for the owner at the same time friendly to the environment. This is a striking example of “lean philosophy” put into practice.

When it comes to the choice of colours, our genes are pre-coded and my daughter’s selection based on the “ dusted pink ” doesn't come as a surprise. As a girl moves towards adolescent her choice of colours shifts from pink towards purple. This embodies the balance of red simulation and blue calm. This dichotomy however, can be the cause of uneasiness unless the undertone is clearly defined letting purple take on the characteristics of its undertone. For adults like us this creates a sense of mysticism through its royal qualities like uplifting, calming mind and nerves and offering a sense of spirituality. Purple is often the favourite of very creative or eccentric people.

“I am participating in the #PaintFinder activity in Association with BlogAdda & Bed Bath & More“