I know, I know, I know. I know what you all have to say. I really have abandoned my blog!

Small update 1: I am going HOME :)
That will be after 6 months. It is not much may be but trust me it feels like years. So end of next week, I will be on my way. And this time it will be a long train journey to home. Frankly though, there is something about train journeys that I had been missing. It replaces the hurried moments of everyday with a lazy lingering essence. Especially when the journey extends from one day to another. Then again the journey in itself could give some mighty memorable moments.

All in all I am looking forward to it. And I have a lot to finish before that at my office as well as home.

Small update 2: I am shifting apartment (if i can call it so). That too as soon as I return. So I will have to finish all my packing before that. Now if you thought I don't have lot of things to pack. You are right. Except that I seem to have collected a good number of books.

This is how it was a year back. If I have added even half of this in rest of the time, you will realize I am not joking.
(In case you are wondering, no, I haven't read all of them. There are one or two that I have saved for dry spells. )

And of course there are clutters that I have to go through and decide which are the ones that I should keep. Now I understand why my Dad always insisted on me to go through my stuffs each time before we shifted. I always did. It is altogether a different thing that I never threw away anything :D. I can find long-lost-half-written-mostly-forgotten scribblings even today somewhere among them even though we have shifted 8-9 times. (I must be exaggerating! #Note to self: Ask Dad how many times we have shifted# ).

I guess that is all the update that I have. Hopefully I will have something more to write when I return.

Ciao

Labels: Experience, Memories, Rumination

I like travelling although over the years the frequency has dwindled but given an opportunity I will be almost always ready. It was recently while talking to someone I was asked "So what are the places you would like to visit?" and I was stumped, in a way because there are so many. I thought I could categorise them and list a few. So here are those that made to the top of the list in random order:

1. Sea Beach: Any clean pristine beach with not a lot of crowd, rocky or sandy. For a moment, close your eyes, imagine a beach, what is it that comes to your mind? Is it breeze, or the waves, the sound perhaps, or the sun, may be the sand-castle? For me first and foremost, it is the sound of the breaking waves, the waves rising, falling and splashing. Sea beach has been my most common retreat. I have lot of memories from them and yet I crave for more.
2. Andaman: It was a long time ago when I was in school that classmate once brought a coral back from his holiday. He had gone gone to Andaman. I have heard a lot about the island, 'Kala Pani'. May be it has little to do with the history, location, the idea of it being a separate island altogether and the its natural beauty that I have heard/read so often. Somewhere in the same category even Lakswadeep comes.
3. Kerala: It is the lush green picture that invites me to it over and over again. I haven't been there althoughI have been planning for I don't know how long. It is the longing for its untouched pristine beaches that I have always heard of. It is the nature ultimately that calls me to it.
4. Hill stations: I have fascinated by the idea of watching a snowfall always. I got the opportunity when I went to Rohtang two years back. And somehow, snowfall still fascinates me. The idea of making a snowman. Watching the snowflakes may be even catching them. It is told that each snowflske is unique in its crystal formation. I would really like to see that. Think of all the patterns!! Brrrrrrr its cold but its fun too!
5. Trekking: People look at me and wonder I wouldn't survive a trekking trail. I will tell "at least give me chance" I haven't done much but the ones I did actually surprised a few people and myself too. There is something great about walking the trail of nature, of letting nature lead you. Give me a place that isn't too hot, where sun is not burning me, where the road is natural, where I can look around and express a sense of wonder and amazement, where there are not too many people blocking my view, and I am with someone who can tolerate my constant chatter, trust me, I can walk the way. :)
6. Cruise: Ok so I have already told that I like the sea. But I have never been in a ship, so I don't know how well I will take it. Well, but I wouldn't know unless I do. So it is one of my 'things-to-do'. However another point to note is I don't know. I also think I would be a bad match for the sea even if I knew, so it hardly matters.
7. Fishing: It is not just the idea of fishing. It is actually the entire pictue of a place where the river is flowing close by, there are trees which I can try climbing. Sitting beneath one of the shady tree, I am trying my hand on fishing and reading a book. The weather is cool, soft breeze blows, may be I even nod off somewhere in between. And at the end of the day, I can cook a fish that I caught. Now that would be a perfect holiday :)

Labels: Rumination

I cleaned my room for diwali and wrote this...

Crumpled up sheets of paper
A heap of mess, in a corner
Where the dustbin used to be.
They did not make to where they should be.

Some notes, some words written
Some illegible marks of pen
Now faded and worn with time.
They used to be a part of dreams of mine.

A blank sheet kept somwhere
Taken out and spread with care
A pen, some words, a new note
Another piece of rhyme on which to dote

A morning, the sun, a day
The blank sheet, "Today"
Myself, my time, my day
That, which'll be tommorrw, kept away.

I guess time is a recurring theme.

I probably started star gazing at the age of 5-6 yrs. We were in Tripura then. The evenings used to have some frequent power cuts, and the entire school (It was a JNV) used to sit in the playground. It was during those times that the glittering sky caught my attention (as far as my memory goes). We used to count the stars. :) I was introduced to constellations, two of which remained with me from then - the Big Dip (or the Great Bear) and Orion.

The activity was lost after I left that place, grew up and changed so may places. But sometimes when I walk in the evening or the sky peeps at me, I look for those friends from the past. Orion is the easiest to spot with its belt.

Orion (pronounced /ɒˈraɪən/), a constellation often referred to as The Hunter, is a prominent constellation, one of the largest and perhaps the best-known and most conspicuous in the sky. Its brilliant stars are found on the celestial equator and are visible throughout the world. Its three prominent "belt" stars - three stars of medium brightness in the mid-section of this constellation - make this constellation easy to spot and globally recognized.
Greek mythology has several versions of the history of Orion, the gigantic hunter of primordial times.These end in different versions of his death: He challenged the gods, by claiming that he could kill every wild animal on Earth. Some versions then say Artemis shot him with her arrows; but others say that Artemis or Earth produced a great Scorpion whom he could not defeat and which killed him. The gods raised him and the Scorpion to the skies, as Scorpio/Scorpius [Taken from Wikipedia]

There are times when I am in an unknown place, with no one I know. On such days, when I look up to find Orion, it gives me a sense of familiarity. That how far, I am from home, it is the same sky, the same stars, that comes here as well as there. It gives me feeling that someone is watching over. Even in some unknown place, after all, not all in unknown. :)

Happy Diwali to all of you.
I am not going home this time.

I changed my blog template yesterday. Those of you who have been here for a long time will probably know that this is my 2nd attempt with this image. The 1st one failed miserably.
So if you think this is looking good (or even bad), do leave a comment.
:)