More than just a pilgrimage - Part 1

When my mother suggested that the family visit Kedarnath and Badrinath, two of the holiest cities in India, I wasn't quite sure how to react. "A pilgrimage? Now? But I'm not old!” I first complained. I started reading about the places and slowly my interest developed. Soon it was time to get going! 

We took a flight to Delhi and then proceeded to Rishikesh by bus. From there we passed by many towns and finally reached Rampur. From Rampur, we went to another town called Gaurikund. Gaurikund is the last point before Kedarnath that you can reach by bus or car. From Gaurikund, you have three options to travel the 15 kms up the mountain to Kedarnath. You can choose to travel by horse, by a palanquin, or on your own two feet. You also have the option of going from Rampur to Phata (skipping Gaurikund) and taking a helicopter from Phata to Kedarnath.

We reached Gaurikund at 6pm in the evening. We were a bit sceptical about taking horses that late in the day and we knew we wouldn’t be able to walk up the distance. Amidst all the chaos, somehow, we managed to get a one way ticket by helicopter to Kedarnath! We decided to take it!

At 6:00 a.m. the next morning, we dressed in our warmest clothes and excitedly waited at the helipad at Phata. The whole operation is extremely well handled and professional. Once you go into the makeshift “airport”, you are weighed and then given your seats accordingly. The instructions are brief: No waving, no clicking of photographs, no touching and no talking. Once you get onto the helipad, five men rush you to the helicopter, help you in, fasten your seatbelt and give you a quick recap of the instructions. I got the chance to be seated in front, next to the pilot! I held on tightly to the handle and to my nerves as the chopper started lifting. A few seconds passed and I was at ease. 

Ease soon turned into wonder at the beautiful sights around me. On my left, I could see the zigzag narrow path up the mountain, filled with people and horses. On my right, I could see lush green mountains with tiny streams of water trickling down. Below me, I could see the river rapidly flowing over huge boulders. In front of me, I could see the golden sunlight peeking out from behind majestic, imposing white peaks.

The journey was short; we reached the town of Kedarnath in just seven minutes. Next... the temple and the way back down.

The town of Kedarnath

To my dear girls...

To my best friends, my favorite girls from school, hostel, college and office...

I miss sitting next to you in class and scribbling notes to you in your rough book. I miss complaining about P.E. classes in the hot sun and coming last in the race with you. I miss hoping that you would answer the questions correctly in Physics class so that the teacher wouldn't pick on me next. I miss sharing my food with you in the lunch break and then cleaning up my desk as you laughed. I miss imitating the teachers and their wonderful accents. I miss cracking the lame jokes that only you and I understood and laughed at. I miss waiting for the dreaded Chemistry exam marks. I miss making elaborate plans for the weekend. I miss the class parties with pizzas, coke, games and the fight between Bollywood and International music. I miss staying back with you in school to practise for the cultural programs.

I miss complaining about the hostel food. I miss skipping dinner, only to have Maggi noodles at night. I miss sitting in the dark and trying to study in candle light. I miss sitting together and watching bad movies. I miss sitting in class and discussing our future plans. I miss complaining about how much we hated VTU and the nerds of our class. I miss the nick names we gave to those around us. I miss rehearsing at night for our dance performances. I miss posing for and clicking crazy photos. I miss sitting and chatting over cups of sweet and milky tea. I miss coming to your room just to borrow something but instead standing at the door and talking to you for hours. I miss going to the grocery with you to buy chips, biscuits and chocolates. I miss going to the "chaat shop" with you and having Dahi Puri after college. I miss waking you up when it was time for college. I miss panicking over ants, lizards and rats.

I miss taking long walks around our office campus at night. I miss saying that I'm not hungry, yet ordering pizzas to your room. I miss sitting at the cafe and taking ages to decide which food court we should have lunch in.

You chose a new path for yourself. You got a new job. You found your Mr Right and you got married. You moved to another city. You went to a new land to pursue your dreams. Your priorities changed. You made new friends. For all your achievements, I'm incredibly proud of you. I always had faith in you and your talent. I knew you had the potential to achieve something big.

I know that ten years from now, some things will certainly be different. But some things will be just the same. We will still laugh at the same corny jokes that no one else gets. We vegetarians will still point at the non vegetarians. We will still tease each other about the same things. We will still discuss episodes of Friends. We will still swoon over Prince William.  We will still gossip about the same people. We will still remember our teachers. We will still love chocolate and cheese. We will still make plans to lose weight. We will still complain about bad hair. We will still have weird nick names. We will still be able to talk all night long. We will still want to change the world. We will still be as wacky and weird as we are.

We will still be friends :)

Troubled Tresses

A girl walks into college, a group of friends give her dirty looks and whisper among themselves, “why doesn’t anyone tell her?”. She walks into her classroom and her professor suddenly stops what he’s doing, looks at her, crinkles his nose and thinks to himself, “why doesn’t anyone tell her?”. The girl sits alone and dejected at the foot of a staircase and wonders about everyone’s reactions when suddenly, a voice above says, “Do you know what everyone wants to tell you? Your hair stinks! Use XYZ Perfume for Hair and see the difference!”.  “Guaranteed to leave your hair smelling like fresh daisies, XYZ hair perfume will ensure that the next time you step into college, the college stud will be hanging on your arm.”

This is an advertisement I saw on TV last night. Yes, perfume for hair. Whoever thought of that! Like there weren’t enough products for hair already, some genius now invented hair perfume!

In the earlier days, people used just two things- coconut oil and shikakai.  But in the present world, it’s just impossible to keep track of the number of products available which all promise to leave your hair shiny, silky, long, black, dandruff-free, voluminous, frizz-free and what not.

Let’s start with hair oil. It’s “obviously” not enough to use just plain old Parachute Coconut oil anymore. The rage these days are herbal oils, jasmine-scented oil, amla-infused oil, almond oil and even olive hair oil! And then there’s the “thanda thanda” range of oils too, which leave you feeling calm and cool-headed.

Next is the whole wide world of shampoos. When I was a kid, there was just one shampoo bottle at home that everyone would use. But as I started growing up, the TV and magazines convinced me that everyone’s hair is different and different hair needs different shampoo! From getting rid of dandruff (disclaimer: visible flakes only), to reducing hair fall (disclaimer: hair fall due to breakage only), shampoos can now seemingly do anything! Aishwarya Rai said L’Oreal Total Repair would solve five problems and would make your hair stronger and silkier. Since I like Mrs Rai, I actually spent Rs150 on the said shampoo and used it religiously for a few months. Result? No result. My hair was the same, absolutely the same.

Ok, so it’s not enough to shampoo your hair. You HAVE to condition it. Each shampoo comes along with its specific type of conditioner. To go a step further, the beauticians at the hair salon will tell you that your hair requires deep-conditioning. “See madam, it is so rough and dry. I think you should go for the hair spa. We will do head massage and then give deep conditioning treatment. It’s only 800Rs madam. You do it every week and see the difference!” Hmmm... 800 rupees every week? I don’t think so. Not even if I win a lottery.

Your hair, regardless of what condition it is in, also requires a leave-in conditioner. You can pay exorbitant prices for 100ml of a magical potion (which I think is just pure H2O in a fancy bottle) that claim to leave your hair strands as soft as a newborn’s.

While previously coloring or dyeing of hair was only for those at the onset of middle age, now everyone has to color their hair. There are loads of shades available with names like “Cherry Mahogany”, “Electric Blue”, “Flaming Red” and “Ebony Black”, among others. When my dad’s hair started graying, my sister told him very strictly not to use Godrej Hair Powder; “Daddy, even Ajji and Ajja don’t use Godrej, how can you? You have to use Garnier!”. Dad blissfully ignored her and simply let his hair go gray.

There’s yet another territory filled with hair mousses and hair gels. Hair mousse for the ladies, gel for the men. Many guy friends spend ages in front of a mirror, gel in one hand, and comb in another. And mousse? I thought it was something only ramp models used, until I went for a friend’s wedding recently and saw her beautician apply copious amounts of it onto my friend’s unsuspecting head.

There is also a whole planet out there of devices for hair care such as curlers, straighteners, irons, tongs, ordinary dryers, blow dryers, two-in-ones and multi purpose stylers. And then there are devices for daily use, like wide-toothed comb, fine-toothed comb and brush. 

With all this and more, poor hair! After years and years of continuous product overuse, it’s no wonder that your hair refuses to cooperate with you. You end of losing hair strands in hundreds and then a doctor will advise you to get yet another product, hair growth serum! They tell you to apply this two times a day for the rest of your life and all your hair worries will stop! Yeah, right.

Sigh. One head, so many products, such a HUGE business. Where does one draw the line?

Driving On

Consider the following math problem:

SRK left office at 7:15 pm by bus. She reached her house at 10:05 pm. If her house is 26
km away from her office, what is the rate at which her bus was travelling?

I don’t really want to know the answer to that question, but that is exactly what happened to me on Thursday evening. A journey that usually takes me 1.5 hours, took me almost 3 hours! We were stuck in one area, in fact on one road, for one whole hour. I can crib about the rain playing havoc, the water logging all over the city, the inefficiency of the traffic police, the lack of proper drainage and the fact that the city hasn’t been planned well enough to face such a situation. But this post is not about that. This one is to appreciate.

While the 40 odd people in the bus complained over the phone to family and friends and eventually dozed off, there was one person on that bus who had to remain alert for the entire three hours. He couldn’t chat on his phone, nor look outside the window and dream, nor close his eyes and take a nap. He had to constantly shift his foot from the accelerator to the brake, keep changing gears, keep a steady eye on the vehicles around him and inattentiveness was not an option for him. I’m talking about the bus driver.

We all can complain about having to work for nine hours and about how stressful our jobs are. But what about him? He has to be on the roads of this city all day, and even till night there is absolutely no respite for him. Imagine the stress on the man! He has to handle such a huge bus, on that uncomfortable seat and manage all the controls. He has to keep an eye on the trees that could get uprooted, the other vehicles that are honking away to glory and the pedestrians (and cows) on the road. He has to take the bus as close as possible to the footpath and stop whenever a passenger wants to alight. He has to fight the auto rickshaw drivers who try to overtake the bus and with the policemen who stop him. He has to be wary of the bikers trying to crawl through around him. Even one second of being neglectful on his part could lead to an accident. He is responsible for all the people who are seated in his bus. He also has a family and a home waiting for him. And not to forget, he only earns a fraction of most of us do.

I definitely think he deserves a holiday today. When I thanked him before getting down at my stop, there wasn’t a bit of fatigue on his face. He was still as chirpy as he was when we started off from office. To all the drivers who face such situations every day, hats off to you! Keep up the wonderful work. These heroes truly ought to be commended!

The Times of Today

It is 6:00 in the morning, your alarm rings and you’re up. You open the main door and probably bring in the packets of milk and then pick up the paper and glance at the headlines. Do they make you smile or leave you worried?

The last time I remember being happy after reading the main headline was the day after India won the cricket world cup. It made me very proud indeed. Do you remember any good news that was published after that?

The front page talks about the haphazard state of politics in the country or which minister made how many crores in the latest scam. If it’s not this, then it is about the latest round of shootings and bombings in yet another unstable city of the world.

The local news talks about rising water shortage, little kids being mauled by stray dogs, old ladies being mugged in broad daylight, young couples succumbing to the mounting pressures of today and the case of another lady being harmed by a taxi driver on her way back from work.

The international section is no better. There are articles about attacks based on racism, students terrorizing their schools with guns and talented youngsters found dead due to drug abuse. Have you seen what else passes of as “news”? There will be some obscure university in some obscure city making statements like “People who drink coffee while standing on their head are able to drive faster than people who do not”. Or some scientists will discover the world’s tiniest elephant or largest housefly and tell us how it is such a wonderful finding.

The finance bit  should surely how some sign of progress, no? No. Sky high debts faced by the world’s superpower countries and the inflation rates that are just spiralling upwards can depress you enough to take a day off from work.

The sports segment is pretty bad too. Great icons are caught red-handed in scandals of varying degrees and upcoming athletes are stuck in doping controversies. Whatever happened to sportsmanship and the spirit of the game?

The most colourful and apparently entertaining part of the newspaper is the tabloid. Every day it is adorned with pictures of a new semi-clad diva proclaiming that she’s still waiting for the right script. The last page has a bunch of celebs declaring that they’re dating one another’s exes and yet are a part of one big happy family!

When young kids start reading, parents let them start with the newspaper. In schools, teachers further encourage reading the papers as a good habit. But what are children learning really? Why should all our days start with so much negativity?

There is a silver lining though. Reading the comics may bring a smile to your face. Once in a while, there will be a well written piece in the editorials which can actually make you think. At times, there will be an article about an auto driver who took pains to return a forgotten bag to his customer. There is news about a teenager who risked his life to save a younger child from a burning vehicle. There will be a middle aged professional who gave up her job to start a school or a shelter for under privileged children. There are educational supplements which discuss new upcoming fields of study. 

If only the papers had more of such heartening news every day, people would start their days happier.

If only people were happier, maybe there wouldn't be such disturbing news.

If only the world was a better place!