My fondness for travel, music and friends- Part III friends

I cant say, talk , write or be with anything, till I become transparent about my current state and thoughts.I have to listen to what Am I saying. And then convey it! This makes a lot of space around. Space to now get totally focused to the present situation. Space to now get totally expressive.

A thought of doing something may not be exciting. Planning about it may not be exciting at all. But if it somehow happens, the outcome is exciting. Then u ought to do it anyways. The way to do it is, be with the thought of having done it, be with the thought of having the outcome. The approach , and way to do it, should fade away.
So when I sat here, I wasn't keen to write. Really I was not keen. But then I remembered that I need to sit and write something to start. I was sure the outcome is nice. I need to stay with the outcome.

My fondness for friends :

I have a blessing. A blessing to be with one of the most loving people around. I just somehow end up finding the right 'kind' of people around me. The people I admire, care and love. My friends. I have been able to spot them everywhere. During kindergarten , in early days of school, across the sections I changed , college and then , in my office. I found the best ones everywhere. This has to be a blessing.
I am sure I would have let all of them know how special hey are at some point of time. But I got the space here, and the time to give a sweet dedication to all of them, who have shaped a large part of who I am.

The oldest I can remember, I had a buddy Ishan. I have no contact of him now, but in my faint memories ( which are supposed to be very very faint wrt everybody :) ) , I know i had a blast, All the naughty stuff, and hanging together. It was so nice. We used to get late to school , cause of same van, and stand facing the wall together, giggling. This was my first school , Bal Bharati Pitampura.

I came to Bal Bharati ,Rajendar nagar, in Clsss III. Here I made friends with sourav jitesh, aakash, nalin ,angel to name few. Good old childhood. We played cricket and volleyball.I have shared a very special relationship with Jitesh and nalin.In the sense that we shared everything amongst us. The sadness, the happiness and the 'big' worries of age 13 :).We did the questions and the tutions together too. Long problem solving sessions with nalin were amazing. Sourav has been special in the sense that he was a hero that inspired me a lot during my childhood. I saw him winning games, I saw him good with people and on top of it, I saw him getting top marks. He was really influential personality. We played a lot together, in fact he introduced me to tennis. He has a reputation of being 'yaaron ka yar'!

Growing up in a class which was really really a tough competition, I hardly had any time with girls. At least till class IX. In fact 'we boys' ignored them.
My 9th-10th were very different and amazing.
I saw a new dimension to friendship. Actually I had never seen so joyful and carefree friend hood that I had developed. So much care , love and affection , it was all very new to me. I met Manas, Bhawna, Ratika, neha, ashima, aditya, pragya and all. I had an extraordinary time with all of them. We were a group. A group that symbolized joy and care.I had found new fresh life around. I experienced so much care with Manas, so much fun with aditya and so much affection from 'ratika' , that I wont forget these days ever. Ever. I have treasured all the moments of this time.

11th -12th I would say just went by struggling. There was hardly any time to live. Hardly any time for friends.

to be continued .....( cause colg gave me a bunch of friends!)

My fondness for travel, music and friends- Part II ( music)

Leaving things in the middle, and hopping on to something else is not a very good idea. It takes ages sometimes to come back to same state, and to start over where u left from. I had to stop my earlier blog, and took a 2 day halt before writing this. So I had to write all this to get into the flow, aligning with the same stream I was flowing into.

I guess, I have a habit to put out my conversation with myself whenever and wherever I get the chance!

Continuing with my fondness for music.

How I see it is, it’s an art that has infinite power.

Power that can put silenced grief out loud and clear. A power that can numb the anger of resented mind. A power that can pacify even the most fearful heart.

I love all kind of music, all kind of genre but my favorites are classic rock and blues.

Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Dire straits are few of my most admired ones.

But I like Floyd and Led zeppelin the most. They are the gods.

Few tracks from them. …

“Learning to fly”

A flight of fancy on a windswept field
Standing alone my senses reeled

The soul intention is learning to fly
Condition grounded but determined to try.

This is a song that has kept up my spirits in darkest hours. The spirit to try. The spirit to stay put. The video has an amazing vision, bringing out the meaning in most beautiful way.

Another one is “breathe”. It gives a sense of life. A Life into an ordinary. Elevated.

Long you live and high you fly
and smiles you’ll give and tears you’ll cry
And all you touch and all you see
Is all your life will ever be.

Another by Floyd that I really enjoy is “Time”, a brilliant piece that has a sense of time elapsing in every line. “High hopes” is another that I Enjoy for its melody and the childhood rhyme and essence.

The list is huge, from 1960’s to 1990’s the music of Floyd has taken tidal flow. The base, and essence has remained the same, but every new album has a new fresh side of the band. Some of the videos and the stage performances by floyd are so magnificent, that it completes the circle of art. These crazy diamonds, they’ll shine forever bright.

Led zeppelin has more of instrumental enigma. The perfect band, with most talented guitarist, drummer and vocalist. All packaged into one great band.

The echoes, the rhythms, the irony, and the sarcasm in lyrics are truly spell-bounding. There’s a signature of led Zep one can identify in the pace of their songs and the singing style.

One of the classiest numbers I like is “When the levee breaks”.

Has great drums and guitar solo, along with lyrics filled with sarcasm. Plant did splendid lyrics in Battle of evermore which talks about the everlasting battle between

the bad and evil, , with influences from JRR Tolkien’s Return of the king.

Few of the more popular ones I Enjoy “Stairway to heaven”, “Achilles’ Last stand”, and “Whole lotta love”. Brilliant pieces of work!

I wish I could get to be in any concerts of these artists some day. Classic rock has an enigma that I don’t see at least in the present bands. That brilliance shone once, and sadly was before I was born.

Thanks to all the music, and all the artists, my life has been rocking because of them.

“Had I not been a Software Er, Who knows, maybe I would have been a rock star! “

LOL.

My fondness for travel, music and friends

To acknowledge how splendid my passion for travel, music and friends is, I actually monitored my actions and sampled few days out my life. What I have found is, that I really need to write about it.

Last week, I came to know to about what common I did on each day. Almost every day I woke up with the thought that I am going to Bangalore on 10th July. It is rejuvenating, thrilling and sometimes filled with anxiety. Why? All because I am gonna be with my friends I love. More aptly my “Bache”. MPRS!

And the very next moment, I go little sad. How come? I may have to most probably skip the trip for leh this year. Now this sadness is twofold. Not only I will skip my travel to leh, I also had to indirectly choose my friend’s ‘choice’. I don’t go, Amit won’t as well. Well passion for travel is a seed he’s sown into me. (Oops, excuse sounds horrible). Choices made aren’t personal all the times.

Reaching office, what's the first thing I do when I get there? No not wish ppl around. I log on to my gtalk. See my gmail. All these are the signs that I want to have a look at my friends list first. I should not miss talking to someone , should they logoff the next moment. Then roam around for 20 mins around office meeting up my close colleagues. Complete the “waddup” morning series.

After chatting, I open my media player. Choose a play list according to the mood. Set the gtalk status to ‘currently playing track’!

Rest of the day is my job. This is how outline of my weekdays looks.

Travel, something that is perfectly coherent to my trait ‘on the move’. But other than that, travel brings a lot more out of me. Inquiry as to why I travel so much and what exactly I enjoy, is what I would like to share here.

I have traveled desert (jaisalmer) and beaches but I crave for high mountains.

Mountains secluded from people.I really thank almighty to have me born here in this country which has the gift of Himalayas. I am in love with them.

What it gives me is joy of being alone, joy of feeling majestic, and joy of feeling so ‘insignificant’ on this planet. It’s so exhilarating,. Its the beauty that doesn’t exist without u being actually there. It comes alive only when you are there. I can write about places, their beauty and the extraordinary charisma, but it’s not at all close to reality until u are there. However in coming time I plan to write travelogues.

Joy of being away from the maddening crowd is very unusual for me to digest. I have never understood as to how an extrovert, people-people person be in love with aloneness.

I have a constant dialogue to myself whenever I get uneasy, and that’s ‘leave me alone’. And then I run away from the maddening crowd. Suddenly I want to drown into aloneness. There is lot of joy in this state of being. Some would associate it with sadness, but it’s exactly opposite. I get all the powerful insights and wellness to ‘live’, all in the moments I enjoy only with myself.

Being alone and by myself is source of my traveling to mountains. Another feeling I enjoy in travel is the feeling of being insignificant. What I am , what I have, what I have lost, and all that I am coping up is not ‘it’. I am 'some one' who’s a creature one in millions and millions, on a planet which itself is one among millions of stars!. So why worry? What's all this complaining and all the worry, and all those thwarted expectations all about? Nothing!

I just sit and see how insignificant I am are in front of that ice caped mountain, that river flowing for thousand years, the rock bending at an angle , hanging beautifully for over hundred of years. Feels like u have made it to heaven, just by saying “this is it”! For many of the places, I have a music piece, or a line from a song to associate with it.

Continuing with my passions, my passion for music.I believe everybody has a form art which is close to them. A form which helps them relate, discover, express and soothe the mind . For me that piece of art is music. The rhythms, the hymns and the lyrics, all of them contribute to my passion for music.

There’s a language required for a living. Without a language, we wouldn’t call this ‘life’! I see music as a language, an ancillary one, which transforms expression in to a magical formation.

In office I spend all day coding with music in background, I can’t even drive without music, in restaurants music makes up majority of the ambience, and music makes up the evening click more than the food! And, all this while writing, I had my headphones with the music on.

I enjoy the beats of Jon Bonham, the hymns and silence in Floyd’s pieces. I enjoy strumming and guitaring of Clapton and the likes. Particularly Clapton and Knopfler take me to a state of enjoying every string they strum, feet tapping, trying to talk about the mood they infuse.

Floyd gives a feeling of bliss. Absolute bliss. Everything else is relative! A blog on floyd is on my list, as a dedication.Going beyond classical rock genre, I enjoy ghazals, mohd rafi, kishore, Sinatra, and the Punjabi stylish foot thumpers. It’s just got to be good music.

It’s sometimes the trance and percussion, sometimes the pure magical spell of lyrics, sometimes the enigma of an abstract thought and sometimes it's just the pure echo of the instruments. Music runs into the veins , and so it starts to reflect on face , the speech and even on the state of being with myself.

I would love to share my taste here, my favourite lines, and the music pieces. But that will make this too extended.

next ...more of music and friends :)

Why am I writing anyways, Why I Did not before.

Still unbelievable to be typing this. Sitting down and kind of scribbling. Maybe this will end up into a write-up, wow! Looking back all the yester years, I don’t see myself actually doing something sitting down. Yeah, I do a lot of thinking. That’s all I do sitting at a place. Infact even while on move , while talking, coding , right from start of brushing to my laying down on bed , I have a constant activity. And that’s thinking.

Looking back what I see is, playing outdoors, making plans for a trip, traveling mountains, chatting, roaming around cars all over Delhi, meeting up friends etc. I would like to label all of it under ‘on the move’ lifestyle.

Hence the unbelievable adjective to this present endeavor.

As mentioned, thinking is one of my hobbies, a constant activity, which is self-amusing and sometimes even forced by my ‘self’. Just can’t help without it. I may have done this aloud with friends around, but why not pen them down. Why not. Something’s gotta change. Pen down at least the better of lot.

Cheers! Cheers to welcome a change. A transformation. And that’s writing. I already love it.

What I am looking at is myself in a small boat amongst a sea of thoughts. I wish I cud pick each drop, and this WordPad could absorb it forever. I would love to know how I thought at this time, especially considering the inherent and most troubled problem, memory loss.

I would begin to get to thoughts that stopped me from writing and the ones which have me brought me here.

Though small events and small trivial thoughts, but everything digs to the source, the core of personality. As far as to extend this, I think, if somebody started a conversation to get to source how a thought came to the mind. A dozen questions into the conversation, one could have fathomed into great depth of a character.

Ahh, I tread to anywhere when it comes to philosophy. So the thoughts that really stopped me from a write-up. One of the most basic is the attribute of my personality I just discussed. The attribute that I don’t like to stick to one place for long. Now if I dig and also connect dots in my past, I can see. I don’t stick to one place, one person, one hobby, one resolution and as far as, even to one thought for long. Move on is only permanent trait here. Yes with this, I have lost opportunities, relations and all that I just don’t recognize but this is how I have lived to adjust re-adjust compromise and live new fresh life. Change doesn’t bother. Maybe neither does Unfamiliarity.

Second thing that has stopped me from writing is the very thing that has ultimately led me to this. Thinking. I can think of why to blog, write and not to write for weeks! Ye I can! Procrastinate is one thing, that is centered on taking a choice or decision. But I just think endless. So the actual activity vanishes, doesn’t happen for a long long time.

A very eerie feeling that stopped me is my apprehension of being perfect in what I do. The thought that how well would I write, how well it would be read, interpreted just sticks in head. And all the time before this I thought, I can’t write classy. I can’t be very clear about thoughts while writing. Writing is a fine art. It Ain’t my peg of scotch. In Other words can’t be done with perfection, chuck it.

Suddenly I see myself missing opportunities because of this. I just dint find worth trying some things. Haww L.

Now the thoughts that brought me to writing this. Well this is kind of weird to say, but I have felt a drastic transformation. Source of it is the landmark forum I did in April 09. Now this not my molding and change cycle. This is what I and they say as transformation. But elaborating on all of this would take the context to a totally different plane.

But the thought I gained, acquired or discovered is, what I say I am is what I say would be. My past is sweet and my own. But it is not to stop me in any way of what I can be. What I can be and what I can do is totally a function of what I say or see in future. Really powerful isn’t it? So if I say I think too much and that’s why I don’t write, is nothing but my past stopping me do something I haven’t. So I just said that I write and it’s just that I dint. And “I dint” has nothing to do with whether I can, or whether I will!

Another thought that has brought me to writing is the fact that I like to be expressive. I just enjoy myself when I am expressive. So why not this why. And trust me. I am loving this experience all along.

One of more stupid thoughts is that I really forget. Lot of times I just get to a point where I can’t look in hindsight. So better pen down my ‘self’, my life and my experiences. Someday I would just hold a glass of scotch, and read through all of this smiling.

Above phrases I just realized that I have mentioned plenty where ‘my thoughts’. Well they aren’t actually mine. They aren’t owned. They are all from sharing. Borrowed from experiences and peoples all along. Contribution from people and experiences has really shaped all what I have written above.

Subtly I just put the whole blame of crap above)