MPdiaries Part 1..The Trip

Of all the places in India, Madhya Pradesh is not so popular as a holiday destination..I.mean, the number of trips that I have done in India in the North South East West, visiting places for scenic beauty or for food or for pleasure, or even to visit a relative, never have I planned MP until now...out of curiosity, I decided to join my seven friends to tour around MP with Kesari tours, I have travelled three times before with these tour operators and have been quite satisfied with their services. They take care of us, put us up in a reasonably good hotels, serve a comfortable trip and more over, they have travelling-in-house-cooks, who promptly prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner at what ever venue we are reaching, so we get good freshly cooked food and snacks.

And I have not been disappointed. I was totally surprised that there is so much to explore in MP, fortunately, they are in the process of building some smart cities, so there was lot of constructions going on..we were warned about bad roads and long delays on road trips, but there has been improvement and the trips were satisfactory.

The tour was of 15 days,  we travelled a total of 2300kms by road plus 2 days of railway travel. Our tour started from Gwalior and ended at Indore, we covered Jhansi, Orchha, Khajuraho, Bhandavghar, Jabalpur, Pachmarhi, Bhojpur, Bhimbetkar, Sanchi, Bhopal, Ujjain , Omkeshwar, Maheshwar, Mundu, Indore.

I enjoyed my road journey cause I had a front seat where I could watch the road and enjoy the view and the sun sets that filtered through the glass panes. My seat was very comfortable with extra cushions tucked aways behind my back and a shawl covering my legs. My friends at the back seat occupied themselves with game of cards or chit chat, but I mostly dozed or spend my time reading or writing while I enjoyed the view from my front seat.

While I was travelling, I used to post a small description of the places that I visited plus posted about 10 pictures everyday, but on social media, they get buried, so I have decided to post  them all on my blog, although its repetition, but at least I have them all at one spot. Starting a series of MPdiaries of all the places that I visited.

Stay connected…….. if interested….

Relationship

Few weeks ago I received my personal copy of “A Hundred little flames” autographed by Preeti Shenoy. It’s a fast paced book and quite enjoyable too (specially the second half of the book where you learn about the life of grandpa through his diary entries). A book on relationship, sacrifices, courage, pure love and comfort. Story of young Ayan who comes to live with his Grandfather, Gopal, to take care of him in a small village in Kerala. Preeti Shenoy has touched the chords of all kinds of relationship and as the story unfolds, true loves shines on.

Some relations we take for granted, specially those who live close to us. Our family. 

Parents, siblings, relatives, they are around us all the time, whether we need them or not. Sometimes we have family disputes, we part ways and cousins grow up as strangers. We have discussions, sometime heated arguments, but many times we are back together at the end of the day. Whenever there is celebrations, festivals or an occasion to meet, we get opportunity to rebuild the friendship. Sometimes the bond is created and some times not. But family remains there until lifetime.

With free Watsapp video and phone calls, the bond has become even stronger. The distances don’t separate us any more. Whom ever we remember, they are just a phone call away. I feel blessed to be connected to my family- aunts, uncles, niece, nephews, cousins. We have family groups, cousins groups, close friends groups, it keeps the conversations going, and the news is updated regularly in-between 'Goodmorning' , 'greetings' and forward messages. Since my family is scattered all around the world, its fun travelling and visiting them. We have our favourites, we plan vacations together and meet regularly in some or other part of the world.

Friends on other hand, last only as long as the bond is strong. 

A mild misunderstanding, or temporary separation and the relationship fades away.  I have been fortunate to develop close relationship with many friends. Some have lasted lifetime, many have parted ways. When I meet them after many years, I cannot remember their name. Its very embarrassing. I am short of conversation. Where do I begin the dialogue? How freely can I ask about their private life. I don’t wish to be nosy but still I want to know the details of the missing years. Where does that love disappear? How have their priorities changed?  Where do we draw a line? I have short memory, what is past is best forgotten. I only enjoy the present moment. 

The same kind of relationship cannot be built with same person after a gap of many years. Or can they??

You can never control whom you fall in love with. Be it man or woman, love just happens. We don’t fall in love with people because they are fun, pretty, influential,  it just happens.

Relationship that is based on give-and-take is always short lived. Expectations are large and disappointments even larger. We can give love but cannot expect the people to love us back. love can only be earned, it cannot be forced. I have realised that I don't have to change to make people like me. Love is built on respect, adjustment and selflessness, where the comfort level is high. I just have to be myself and people must love the real me. Silence and anger is never a solution, ego built up , ruins relationship. Communication is important. If we have spirit of understanding everything in positive way, there will never be any level of pressure.

Greatest pain is when death do us apart -be it a close friend or a family member. You feel the void, the emptiness. We try to evaluate whether we could have been a little bit more kind, more adjusting, more caring, but then its too late.

As we age, we will see more separations from our loved ones. The older we get, the more lonely we will get. We can built relationship with younger people half our age, but it will never be the same.

Life will go on. Time does not stop for anybody. Tomorrow will be another day….

#AHundredLittleFlames story!

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Erotic Stories For Punjabi Widows- Book Review

Bali Kaur Jaswal has done an excellent job of engaging the reader’s attention with a story that involves Punjabi widows.

Nikki, a young law-student drop-out, takes up the job of English tutor at the Indian Community Centre at Southhall gurudwara, where widows enroll. The women don’t know to read or write but they have bold fantasies and stories beneath their white garment. The English workshop turns into erotic story-telling club.

Nikki encourages women to share their dark secrets of longings and womanhood, The widow have great fun. Only one woman writes the stories while others relate.  The thrill begins when the stories leak out of the classroom, and are passed through emails and photocopies to the whole of Indian community in London.

At first, I was stunned to read about the erotic detail of the older women of Indian community. Such topics are taboo in our culture and we hardly hear such intimate stories. (not even amongst our close friends). I even hid the book, when I had visitors at home, fearing judgement for a single person like me seeking pleasures on a sly. 

But as the story progressed, I found Ms Jaswal cleverly weave the story of sex, murder and mystery into most interesting plot that captivated me till the last page.

A hilarious book, enjoyed reading it.

Yugpurush- A must-see-play-you-are-sure-to-enjoy

This week, I was invited to watch the play Yugpurush (in Hindi) at Nehru Centre. Until now (forgive my ignorance) I was not aware that our great leader Mahatama Gandhi also had mentor who played a pivotical role in shaping up his strong character of peace through non-violence.

This is the best play I have watched in a long time. I was very impressed by the dialogue delivery, the expressions (that were so realistic) and the way the play was handled. It transported me to another century where Mahatma tells the story of his mentor, Shripad Rajchandra, a  poet, philosopher, spiritual guru and one of the Mahatama’s closest friend, and how he was responsible for shaping up his personality and his belief in non-violence and his peaceful solution to grave problems.

The props kept changing with great efficiency, relating the story during different times and I sat mesmerised as I watched the scene and the situation move from one location to another.  At one point, you are in his humble home, where he is sitting by his loom weaving cloth, at another moment he is in Bombay, as a young Lawyer looking for a job, where he meets his mentor,  At another instant he is at the ship yard with tourist on route to his trip to Africa and at another instant, he is in Jail with his freedom fighters behind the bars. The play scores the most in creating realistic and visually stunning scenarios throughout its duration.The story moves from present to past to present again and the inert positions of the actors  transports you to that era.

At one scene, Mahatma is caught up between two religions, Muslim and Christianity and he is in dilema as to which religion should he follow, Muslim or Christian or should he continue to uphold his own values as a Hindu. He is advised to look within him to find answers.

After Gandhi moved to South Africa, the duo corresponded through thousand of letters. It is through this correspondence that Mahatma understands the value of non-violence, the fearlessness and his tranforming character and consciousness.

Directed by Rajesh Joshi and written by Uttam Gada, the play features Parthsarthi Vaidya, Pulkit Solanki and Babul Bhavsar in important roles. The credit goes to the director for handling difficult scenes and to the lighting and the props used as well.

It is worth a watch. There is no moment of boredom. I would love to watch it again and again.