Telling Stories

Be careful of the stories that you tell yourself when you start the day..
Be careful of the stories that you tell in the day when others are watching..
Be careful of the stories that you tell in the tipsy evening when your guards down..
Be careful of the stories that you tell to lull yourself to sleep..

Be careful of the stories you invent,
lest you trick your own mind and find it hard to recall the truth anymore..
Be careful before you sell them as your own,
lest you rehearse each delivery and peddle wares that don't belong to you anymore..
Be careful before you fall in love with them,
lest you annoyingly hijack all conversations without being aware anymore..

Be careful of these stories because eventually you believe and become them..

Look out for the One you keep coming back to, all the time
The One you tell with a twinkle in your eyes and a tickle in your spine..
The One that gnaws your insides every mundane moment
The One that burns in the pit of your guts and asks you to put a fight..
Don't ignore the Story of your life-the One it ought to be..

PS: This is just a photo i like, not the story of my life... especially not this life!

Another hiking post-MacLehose section 7

He can climb up briskly without breaking much sweat, while she breaths deeply taking each measured step uphill. She can run down the hill as a mountain goat, while he awkwardly tries to align the eyes, the upper half of the body and the legs so that he correctly heeds the call of gravity.
In short life is a difficult struggle for every individual and as a couple we have well guarded the exclusivity of our individual misery circles!

Going Up.. the challenge ahead..

Looking back from the other side...

Pictured above:Needle hill(altitude 532 mts.) located within Shing Mun Country Park. Stage 7 of the MacLehose Trail.

The picture is also an allegorical reference to the year waning away in the abnormal December warmth here in HK and the new one slowly inching closer day by day..

Quick note for someone attempting MacLehose trail 7: Medium difficulty hike with Grassy hill(647mts.) & Needle hill(532 mtrs) climb with gorgeous panoramic views of the reservoir, Kowloon, NT and HK island far off.
Trail access: Tseun wan Mtr(B2 exit)->Minibus 82 to Shing mun reservoir(Pineapple dam). Walk semicircle of the reservoir to get to Jubilee dam for the trail start point.
Alternatively you can take a taxi to Shing mun reservoir(Jubilee dam)-more convenient as it took us some time to find the minibus stop and then the long queue took us another 30mins.

I quite liked the trail, the views are gorgeous and this trail has a different feel especially around the grassy hill. There is a lot of sky when you take pictures-there is an illusion of height even when the gradient is quite gentle. The rolling hills with diverse flora(reforestation efforts by government) and grazing cows instinctively made me remember a W.H. Davies poem from school days:

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep or cows.

I was just happy to make the time to have this perfect ‘Leisure moment’!

Getting out: The trail 7 ends at lead Mine pass mostly in the middle of wilderness. Trail 8 which starts at the Lead mine pass challenges you to dare ahead but we preferred to save it for next time. The other 2 options you have: 5km walk to Tseun Wan Or take Wilson trail 7(3km) to Tai Po market. We followed the Wilson trail 7 through the wilderness until it joined the metaled road(hill path in Yuen Tun Ha to Wun Yiu) then took the minibus 23Kto Tai Po market.

Rewalk in the hills

Cities are deaf to real conversations, words get lost all the time. If you go searching for the light banter and relaxed moments you shared with a friend some years ago, you will mostly draw a blank. There are no safe deposits where you can commit a memory and revisit it again to find your gold.

The slow moving camera, the long gazes, the deep breaths and gentle blues music in the background, that is how memories are made in movie and somehow it is true in real life as well. The world slows down, folds inwards closing out the outer chatter and accentuates the presence of the small space around you- the eyes, the smiles, the carefree words, the spying sun and may be the flutter of the leaves or the crashing waves or the singing birds. In the quite of the woods and the rugged hills, the words and smile, the sweat and the short breathe, the apple and the taste of wind are all frozen in time.
The real magic reveals itself when you retrace your steps and find the little nuggets of forgotten gold from your last visit still shining under the clear blue sky!

Thinking, fast and Slow-Book review

The author starts with a confession of a modest goal (enrich talks at the office water coolers) and then proceeds to reveal his decades of research on human cognition -how we make decisions, choices and memories. There are two systems, he posited, one conscious and slow and involved, the other devoted to jumping to conclusions, mostly subconsciously. The book fleshes two characters(System 1 & System 2) who embody these systems and we get to understand their individual traits and the dynamics of their interaction.

This cognitive model also helps explain illusions such as anchoring, non regressive predictions and overconfidence. The operative model of our mind makes us susceptible to these biases and in most cases we are not even aware of it. 

This is an extremely smart book, quite balanced in building its case and discussing the implications of the result. It requires attentiveness to work through the various experiments illustrated in the book to explain the different theories and ideas. Also sometimes you need to summon personal experiences to evaluate if the theory explains your individual behavior.
In the course of reading the book, there were times when the book seemed to decode my motivation for action or inaction in my daily decision making. 

If you are trying to make sense of the 2016 US presidential election, the book provides very useful framework to interpret human rationality, gains & losses perception, biases and data interpretation.

Human existence is defined by our mortality, rationality and emotionality ; our societies are shaped by the sum total and in turn feedback to the individual. Don’t worry the book doesn’t indulge in such convoluted logic, this is just my random musing inspired by the book. 

This is a well researched and logically articulated book. I am in complete awe of Daniel Kahneman's work, with his focus on understanding individual decision making, he has developed a framework for institutional decision making and public policy discourse.

As I flipped the last page, the one thought that surfaced in my brain was what am I going to do about it, now that I know how ‘it’ works? 

I guess just stop and look closely whenever I press 'Submit'!(and  submit,,,)

The Grapes of Wrath-Book review

The book is essentially a looking glass into the largest migration in American history within a short period of time. Between 1930 and 1940, approximately 3.5 million people moved out of the Plains states due to drought conditions and migrated towards the West coast only to find that the Great depression had rendered economic conditions there little better than those they had left. The large scale worker movement created demand supply imbalance, depressed earnings and created conditions rife for exploitation of the displaced migrant workers.

The novel is a commentary of the period with poverty, migration, labor rights and public policy as the key themes of the narrative using the trials and tribulations of a fictional family-the Joads from Sallisaw Oklahoma, who drove in a Hudson Motor car company saloon converted to a truck along highway 66 to reach California. When they finally reach the Promised Land after personal tragedies and loss, what they witness is unwelcome social treatment, colluding business interests and hostile law enforcement.
To a great extent the world interprets human history in terms of the stories, poems and pictures. The brilliance of the book ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ is that it distilled the undeserved poverty and displacement of the self-respecting White American Joad family as representative of the collective history of the nameless multitudes that lived the era..

Although simplification of history comes with its own perils, what we get in the novel are unfaultable heroes (the insufferable Ma Joad and Tom Joad the son who breaks the law but has a heart of gold). The writer doesn’t veil his sympathy for migrants and workers' movement so we have a clear annotation of the good vs. evil clash.
When preparing to write the novel, Steinbeck wrote: "I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this [the Great Depression and its effects]." He famously said, "I've done my damnedest to rip a reader's nerves to rags."

I guess when I weigh the book against the stated objective of the author, I agree that the book has served its purpose.

Ho Chi Minh city-Impressions

The people here(in Vietnam) have a mind of their own, about their destiny, their identity, freedom and they fought a long war for their sovereignty.
‘Hearts of Atlantis’ was my prelude to our Vietnam trip- the book mirrors the 70’s disillusionment with the Vietnam War in US. The trip to HCMC provided a more vivid perspective of the naked American aggression and the psychological warfare tactics of the Viet Cong and the Guerillas in the Vietnam War.

For every conflict there are two sides to the truth; the truth vs. optics and the truth vs. propaganda. The line between the two is blurred in war times but the truth is universal and becomes apparent with the passage of time. It was an ugly war just as each one of the other fought by mankind; losses on both sides, deplorable acts of brutality, misguided motives, conceited rationalization and money for someone.
The War remnants Museum in HCMC and the Cu chi tunnels are powerful reminders of the mistakes of past and a looking glass for the current plight in Iraq and Syria. However it is easy to reduce the wars of yesterdays to tourist attraction in the present and the message gets lost..

The city has a quintessential East meets West charm which is evident in the architecture, culinary and café culture. Case in point, the locals took the essentially French import- Baguette and transformed it into the tongue tantalizing Banh-mi(sandwich) and made it its ‘own’.
When the entire world has essentially surrendered to the Starbucks dominion, the coffee here holds its ground- it is robust and mean. It has an authentic well roasted coffee bean flavor and not the bitter slightly acidic flavor that masquerades as black coffee.

There are always two ways to explore a new place-the convenient off-the-shelf approach and the more immersive DIY approach. Our HCMC trip was overall more the former and less the latter, we opted for group day trips with tour operators which was informative but less about self discovery. 

We did the Mekong river delta group tour and got a glimpse of rural life and cottage industries(bee keeping/coconut candies). It was a well-planned trip and provided a glimpse into the everyday life/livelihood & culture. Also it is a good concept to funnel tourist money to rural locations and reduce migration pressure to big cities.
This trip brought back memories of the eventful Nagarjuna Sagar and Krishna river trip with a bunch of Deloitte colleague back in Hyderabad some 5 years before. This was one of my first trips in Hyderabad and an introduction to some of my greatest friends in the city. The memories of last minute arrangement for a 7 seater vehicle, ‘Shutter island’ like experience and a surprise invitation from a local Hyderabadi friend for dinner at his home are just as fresh and so is the friendship..
It is quite natural for me to compare my travel experience in Asian countries with India given the geographical proximity and broad similarity in the social-economic parameters. My perception is that a lot of these small south asian countries have done a much better job than us at building the travel logistics and service mindset to capitalize on cultural tourism(agree my version of India may be slightly outdated).

Moving on to matters of the stomach, I will have to give a shout out to this Vietnamese restaurant-Com Chay Mani (Comchaymani) for an authentic local food experience. We went in looking for a hearty vegetarian meal and stepped out a happy bunch. We tried the Mani special noodles, dumpling and a hot pot dish and were bowled over by the distinctively vibrant flavors in each of the dishes.
We had a meal at Hum restaurant(good ambience, extensive menu with lots of choices and ok food) & were lucky to get our hands on some tofu banh-mi at Mybanhmi, the spicy garlic version was our absolute favorite- repeated the order and gobbled up the sandwich with some healthy veggie soup... yum!

The current day Vietnam has come a long way since the end of the war in 1975 to become one of the world’s fastest growing economies and has set its sights on becoming a modern and industrialized nation by 2020. Politics aside, there is definitely something steely and gritty about the gentle natured people here and I would like to see their vision come true..

Completing a circle

Two years later, I was back at the place where it all started. The same building, the same faces, and the same roads, essentially nothing much changed. Sure few people left and some new faces were added but it was the same old Memphis.

All through the week, I had the song ‘That’s how I got to Memphis..’ playing in my mind as I tried to place the fork in the road, in hazy mental maps. I felt warmth and appreciation for the days I spent there but there was no tug pulling me behind. I guess that is something you feel only for your ‘home’..

Yet in some ways it was fulfilling, like completing a circle. When I left 2 years before, I did not bid farewell to the people around, mostly I just disappeared in my own uncertainties.
To keep me company on this trip, I was reading ‘Hearts in Atlantis’ by Stephen King. The book is essentially a mood that is deftly crafted in the interrelated stories. This is a ‘looking back’ book and I couldn’t have picked anything better to keep me company in this journey..

Taking my flight back, I found myself musing over another of King’s quote…. ”It's a little place on the Pacific Ocean. You know what the Mexicans say about the Pacific? They say it has no memory. That's where I want to live the rest of my life. A warm place with no memory.”

Storytelling- celebration of different forms!

What happens when you go to sleep watching the show ‘The Get Down’ on Netflix and wake up to listen to Mukesh’s Ramayana while doing your 30minute Yoga and exercise set? You begin to see the parallels between the two. At the completely bare bone level, stripped of all externalities of technique and divorced from the emotional, the form of both Hip-hop and Ramayana shares an uncanny resemblance-the story being told.... The story, the subject that moves you could be personal or mythological but the angst, emotion or the ‘bhakti’ is real.
I know I am underselling the rhythm/musical component of hip-hop to make my case but for me it is the spoken word, the story that makes a great hip-hop song. I bet Grandmaster Flash will also agree with me, you need the wordsmith before you get to the ‘Get down’..

Next I was in the theatre watching ‘Kubo and the two string’, I guess the movie had already won me over when I saw the trailer-the shamisen rendition of ‘while my guitar gently weeps’ literally cutting through the big ocean wave under the ominous sky. The movie is more about the form, execution and technique that keeps you spellbound but slightly lighter on character development and genuine humor..
However I found sufficient to cheer in the movie-the Japanese folklore elements have been skillfully incorporated and the execution seems sincere. There was magic in the story but no special concocted super powers, and the hero didn’t slay his nemesis but rather brings him back to humanity. These elements of the movie were quite refreshing for me since they eschewed the common themes currently being spawned by major film studios.

Moving on let’s talk about books, since we are talking about story telling. Over the last few years, I have found a reliable genre of books that naturally holds my attention-‘the Mountain books’. I picked up my first copy from the legendary Narain book store in Nainital-The Nanda Devi Affair by Bill Aitken. While travelling I prefer to get a book that can effectively block out the passage of time-the interminable wait at the railway station and the airport, and this book just did the trick for me. It is either the lofty inner desire to go on one such trek or the guilt of not exploring my own backyard (Uttarakhand) that always attracts me to these books.
Next I picked up ‘Into thin air’ by Jon Krakauer. Without indulging into the controversy regarding the accurate portrayal of individual characters of the book, I felt I was deeply invested in the book because it presented a vivid physical and challenging view of the snowy mountains and an incisive understanding of psychological motivations of different people attempting to conquer the highest peak.
I am looking forward to starting another mountain yarn tonight-‘Becoming a Mountain’-by Stephen Alter..

In between there was Stranger Things on Netflix and enough Donald Trump stories to keep you entertained and shocked in equal measure! 

This August has been rich.. :)

Levels..Japan

Hong Kong people love to visit Japan, some in my team make an annual pilgrimage, others head east during any decent long weekend.
Avicci's 'Levels' soundtrack offers an interesting analogy in this regard. The upbeat tempo and progressive beats of the song reflect a state of mind, a sense of climbing up levels. I think that the song also explains why Hong Kongers visit Japan, a place familiar in feel and mood but at the ‘next level’..

The Japanese minimalist philosophy and their relentless pursuit of perfection gives them an edge over other developed countries of the world. It is easy to notice the attention to detail and conscientiousness of the Japanese people that exhibits itself in the smallest and the loftiest undertaking in equal measure. 

This modern version of the country evolved from the conscience of a nation bruised by an aggressive war mongering past which shaped the geo-politics of the Asian subcontinent and the horrors of the nuclear bomb drop. However none of the manmade and natural disasters broke the spirit of this nation and they rose to higher levels.

The Japanese society is primarily a rules based society with a code of honour and moral conduct that goes back generations. People take immense pride in their culture, language, food and their way of life. Surprisingly in this formal framework of the society there is equal celebration of the quirky and nerdy pursuits. The anime gaming world, the Hello Kitty universe, the Manga comics and all the weirdly cool stuff that I don’t know about. The society rewards, honours and celebrates individuals who pursue their passion with utmost dedication. 

Interestingly it is this dichotomy, the coexistence of contrary forces which gives Japan a special appeal. And i am glad I was able to experience a slice of this amazing country this first week of July. While planning for the trip, I was quite anxious about-language, food, understanding public transport network not to forget the rising Yen due to the Brexit!, but with few handy resources-maps and apps it was easy to navigate around

Here is a sample itinerary and the highlights of the trip(3 days Osaka+3 days Kyoto)

Day1: Airport to hotel and then sightseeing. Long walk through the underground Namba subway shopping area. A gracious cafe host who customised a vegetarian lunch for us. A day trip to Nara- visited Todaiji temple(with the deer park) and Kofuku-ji. The light drizzle set the right mood to reflect on the architectural grandeur of these lofty wooden structures.

Day2: It was raining again, so we spent greater part of the day indoors at the Osaka aquarium and then the covered shopping streets of Shinsaibashi which are open only to pedestrians. The shopping arcade has everything from big department stores to small local specialty shops. The southern end of the arcade is at the Dotonbori River, a good place to stand and take in all the activity around with the backdrop of the gentle river.
After some good deal of window shopping and watching the Mister shop for shoes we headed for
Osaka castle. We reached after the viewing hours so it was less crowded and we peacefully explored the grounds of the castle and the adjoining parks. The sounds coming from the nearby Osaka Shudokan(Martial arts training hall) added a robust touch to the otherwise peaceful environs.
The sprawling castle grounds are a good place for an evening stroll, occasionally we came across locals enjoying a good run in the evening and cats lazing under the park benches. On our way back we stopped by Kuromon Market area to sample some Japanese fruits.

Day3: Day trip to Himeji castle-the Taj Mahal of Japan(far fetched metaphor). Himeji castle reopened to public in 2015 after extensive repair so the whiteness even smells fresh. Before Pokémon Go invaded our mind space with Augmented Reality, I was able to sample some of the AR stuff at the Himeji Castle in Japan. There are signboards located in the castle where you point your mobile phone camera to watch the reconstructed AR images of how the castle used to look in the past.  Technically I just peeked into the phones of the touristy bunch who point their camera at everything, so it was a surrogate AR experience for me, but I thought it was a cool approach to explore the castle.
Back in Osaka we explored Umeda neighborhood in the evening. The plan was to take in the sights of the city from the Umeda sky building which features a rooftop observatory for a 360 degree of the city lights. Later we had a hearty vegetarian Japanese curry for dinner at a camp themed restaurant(Curry camp) in one of the shopping malls at the Osaka station area. The food was good and also the theatrics of the open kitchen, just 4 people running all the operation with Japanese efficiency!

After three packed days in Osaka which involved a lot of walking (average 12km/day) we headed for Kyoto.

Day4: The ambience changed completely, we were out of the big commercial city into the cultural nerve centre of Japan- Japanese lamp shades, small shops, people walking around in Kimono.

It was a bright day in Kyoto and after some general strolling, we headed for Uji. It is a quaint little place with a relaxed Matcha flavored vibe,  we explored the Byodo-in temple(imprinted on the 10Yen coin) and the adjoining museum of Buddhist artifact.
On our way back we stopped by the Fushimi Inari Shinto shrine.

Again a good idea to visit in the evening when it was cooler to walk under the famous vermilion torii gates, which straddle a network of trails behind the main buildings. The trails lead into the wooded forest of the sacred Mount Inari, and we walked up to the view point from where one can see the peaceful Kyoto sunset.
A lot of good dinner places close early so we had to do some hunting to find a vegetarian place to eat. Finally it was an Indian place-Thilaga (the Masala dosa there was right next to the best Mysore Masala dosa, I had in San Diego almost 4 years before and the Masala dosa in Munnar 9 years before). The next 2 days we were slurping perfect Udon noodles, regular and the curry version(almost like Maggie) like pros..

Day5: Temple sightseeing in Kyoto, starting in the Southern Higashiyama neighborhood. We took a bus to Kiyomizu-dera and from there we did a walking tour covering Ninen-zaka.
"Lined with beautifully restored traditional shophouses and blissfully free of the overhead power lines that mar the rest of Kyoto, Sannen-zaka and Ninen-zaka are a pair of pedestrian-only lanes that make for some of the most atmospheric strolling in the whole city"-Inside Kyoto guide
I am quoting this specifically for the fact that it mentions 'overhead power lines' and both in Osaka and Kyoto, i could not help but notice their ubiquitous abundance..
We stopped by a couple of temples en route to Chion-In temple(sometimes called the Vatican of Pure Land Buddhism) and took in the tranquil beauty of the scenic Marayuma park. Having completed part 1 of the temple visiting, we headed over across town to NorthWest Kyoto to visit the Kinkaku-ji temple and Ryoan-ji temple. Here our planning hit a slight nag with the buses- wrong direction, long wait so we came back for Ryoan-ji temple next day.
All the temples we visited were unique in their way, and each of them exploited the hilly terrain to its advantage-different views from different angles/height and also the carefully landscaped gardens framed the temple differently. It seemed the prayer space were specially designed to allow the gentle breeze to circulate freely(it was a particularly bright day so the breeze felt refreshing).

Day6: The plan was to explore the Arashiyama district-take pictures at Arashiyama bamboo : have a shojin ryori (Zen vegetarian cuisine) at Shigetsu, a large temple-style restaurant surrounded by the natural beauty of Tenryu-ji's World Heritage gardens and then rent a cycle to pedal along Hozu river and explore Sagano area. We didn't learn much from out busing experience the day before and so with some hiccups we accomplished our mission(bonus items: Ryoan-ji zen garden and Okochi Sanso, the attractive ''spiral'' garden and teahouse complex), but no cycling (mister's bucket list sacrificed).

Day7: time to pack, picked up some souvenirs in a morning shopping trip and took the train to Kansai airport in the afternoon for the evening flight. I cleaned up my wallet of all the small currency notes and coins at the duty free shopping area at the airport, with just a single 5000 Yen note coming back to Hong Kong. The idea is to start saving for the next trip- may be sample the Spring cherry blossom or the picturesque Autumn colors..

The Peak

I have a friend in the city, who I like to visit sometimes early in the morning and sometimes in the evening. It is an uphill task paying him a visit but one that is truly enriching.

When living in one of the most densely urban city, the urge to leave the city behind and gawk at it from a distance and at a height is but natural. The Peak is one such vantage point and thongs of tourists with their selfie sticks take the buses/tram & the taxis to reach the observation deck at the Victoria peak.

There is another path, a well shaded wooded road that steadily rises in gradient as it takes us from the base of the hill all the way to the top. This is a nice urban trail, well paved and lighted with street lamps for joggers, walkers and such to get lung-full of fresh air and ear-full of chirpy bird sounds. This is the road the mister & me have trudged countless times now..

There are a couple of variations to the hike and I believe we have explored each one of them. The standard Lung Fu Shan country Park trail, the longer version that goes along the Pok Fu Lam reservoir, the route via Pinewood Battery heritage trail, which comes with a slice of history. (This coastal defence battery was built by the British and was air-raided and heavily shelled by Japanese artillery fire during the battle of Hong Kong in December 1941.)

Very recently, a hiker friend introduced us to the quieter sibling of the Peak-the High West. This summit is reserved for those who toil and walk up the gruelling steps to earn the quite of the winds and the clouds. Far away from the pandemonium of the crowds at the peak, you can peacefully sit down and look far across all the way to Discovery bay. The wind is at its playful best at this height and sure is a ‘balm for the bruised soul..'

The summit has a psychological significance; it gives you a sense of accomplishment. It is the desire to reach the peak that makes you trudge the road all along, but the journey is its own reward. The vistas en-route change continuously with the seasons and the time of the day. Sometimes it is a nice breezy walk; sometimes it gets all muggy under the dense canopy of the tree. Sometimes the clear distant sights enchant you and other times you see the night lamp flickering at a distance in the mist.

There is a special spot along the route where the gradient gently gives way to a gentler path. This is the park area with some nice canopy rest places and landscaped garden. Apparently this is where the forces of nature stage their theatrics. It is here that the hot city air comes in contact with the cool air and it gets fantastically misty on some nights. You can see droplets of water trickling from the trees and the ground gets all wet. The first time around we were tricked into thinking that it was actually raining. Only when we retraced our steps and walked down the slope did we realize that we’d been fooled.
Another time we stood under the canopied shade with the cooing birds and watched as the wind, rain and the mist played their game. A little butterfly should have known better than to get embroiled in this tussle, I watched as it fought its way back to safety. 

With each hike you hope to get a little wiser about the ways of nature..
With each hike you seek to revive the kinship that city life threatens to usurp..
With each hike we try to claim some quite for ourselves. 
With each hike you bond and share stories..
With each hike you challenge yourself to get 'faster, stronger & higher'. 

In sum total this is one darn good friend to have.. :)

Live, let Live...

Sometimes what comes later becomes a revelation in light of what came just before it, visiting Pushkar after Bali was something in the same nerve. A very simple analogy would be the serendipity to hear Nina Simone-Feeling Good play after Bill Withers-Ain't no Sunshine..
These two beautiful songs share something magical, they evoke a certain vibe, a certain mood and a strength of emotion that perfectly complements each other..

Driving down Bali was a tour of green and refreshing waters-nestled in green hills, terraced rice fields and flanked by beaches. Pushkar landscapes are essentially a palette of brown, with wisps of green acacia and desert hardened trees. The bare hills stare at you, brown in the sunlight and black in the shadows.
Pushkar in March is not the most ideal choice; it is really hot and gearing to get scorching hotter in
the coming months, but you forget everything once the magical evening descends. The Ghats surrounding the lake is where the magic happens; it’s an entrance to a different world. The facade of the main entrance ghat is fashioned like characteristic Rajput forts and looks majestic. It captures the lore of the bygone era in its soft whiteness. The swans paddling the lake adds to the royalty of the ghat. The constellation of small temples around the lake gives it a cozy feel and their twinkling lights complement the small lamps placed by the devotees lining the lake. The brown hills in the distance mirror perfectly in the waters of the lake and one can read the meandering pathway flanked by little light bulbs leading to the temple on the top of the peak.

Perhaps other religious places with water bodies can boast of a similar ambience, however this felt more personal-like a favorite passage in a book carefully marked for later reference. It also helped that the ghat was less crowded and one could take in the panoramic view without any rush or elbowing. The warm embrace of the chanting, hymns, conch sounds makes the heart sing the same tune inwardly and be at peace with everything around.

Pushkar is one of the oldest existing cities of India, is one of the five sacred dhams (pilgrimage site) for devout Hindus. Both Bali and Pushkar are living centers of Hindu faith, rooted in mythology, with temples and religious symbols at the turn of each corner.  Also both are flourishing centers of arts and culture, music and dance.
It is like a common creative force pervades the air at the two places, inspiring the artisans and giving their arts an authentic flair. Its a pleasure browsing through the collections in small shops selling colourful cotton dresses, metal, wood crafts, leather articles and everything else(or maybe a power bank is what you need)...
The air here also attracts a certain strain of traveler’s-weary souls inquisitively staring into the lives of people with faith and promise of Nirvana. Dressed in local hand printed cotton grabs, with matted hair and bare feet; they flock here from different parts of the world and just fit in with enviable ease. Ah! the charm of the hippie lifestyle..
I saw a tall white man, lovingly feed a cow on the main road, the two seemed to have a communion of their own. It was the same bonhomie around, congregation of men and women in hazy eyes and some with clear blue, green and brown eyes wearing a gentle smile. They waved and hi-fived the locals, who shouted back with a sheepish grin.
The live and let live mantra..

The two song playlist to sample the mood:
Bill Withers: Ain't No Sunshine
Nina Simone:Feeling good

Walk of Life..

It’s the same old pair of shoes; with a slight pick swoosh in the blue body. They have lasted longer than their brethren, been the most accommodating, never biting on the edges, never selectively abusing the right foot, never giving you the urge to peel them away just to let the feet stretch and breathe for a while. They just ‘sit’ perfectly and ‘walk’..

However yesterday was a strange ‘shoe day’, I must have tied my shoe lace almost 10 times in the course of the day. The morning was particularly awful, with a muffled yawn I would bend down to tie the knot only to find it come undone in another short while.
Evening was just the same, I finished one lap of the harbor front and before I could embark on the second lap, the shoe lace had come undone again. With racing breath; feeling the throbbing of the blood against my temples, I bent down to tie the shoe lace again, a little more tightly this time around.

The ‘butterfly effect’ is a beautiful metaphor in the echelons of chaos theory; at least I am a firm believer. Small, seemingly unrelated things sometimes are a pre-cursor of the things to follow. If this theory seems too abstruse, try to look at the daily rhythm of your life, focus on the seemingly unconscious things. You will probably realize that a shoe lace that comes undone every few minutes in the course of a day is not really about the shoe..

Interestingly there is a ‘Walk of Life Project’, a cinematic endeavor to prove the hypothesis that “Walk of Life” by Dire Straits is the perfect song to end any movie.
https://laughingsquid.com/how-the-dire-straits-song-walk-of-life-provides-a-perfect-ending-soundtrack-to-any-film-of-any-genre/

I’ll just use it to end the blog and rest my case...

Bali thoughts and recollections…

I felt an instant kinship with Bali, a feeling of sharing a common heritage. To put it more simply it felt like finally meeting a maternal cousin in flesh, who had existed so far only in conversations (of joy and distress) and holiday pictures.

In our social interaction we always try to seek similarities, the first level could be a very democratic terrain like sports, books, music, movies or any such activities. The next level could lean towards social and geographical familiarity like hometown/schooling, country/language if you are in an alien environment.(People back home are always interested to know if there are any Paharis around.. all is good if one exists!)
I do not invest much stock in religion; however in Bali I realized the bonds of common religious roots-Hinduism. It was an interesting exchange to indulge in conversations and stories about Ramayana and Mahabharata with our hosts.

The Bali Hindu still looks upon India as the mother ship of Hinduism; however he has distilled the essence of Hinduism in his unique island traditions and created a version which has its own distinct identity and sustenance.
I may not know the deeper theological similarities and differences between Indian and Balinese Hinduism but just at a visual and perceptive level, the Balinese Hinduism appeared more accessible to the uninitiated. The external manifestation of Hindu beliefs in the arts, architecture, dance forms and daily rituals is idyllic and approachable. Looking beyond the aesthetics one can sense something deeper- Hinduism as a way of life. It truly feels like the serenity and humility of the ubiquitous prayer baskets and offerings is imbibed in each island soul.

The cultural beauty of Bali is complemented perfectly by the richness and diversity of the physical landscape. We stopped by a couple of beaches, and each one had a different character and feel.
The beaches in Bali are a big draw for the surfers and it is good fun to watch their antics. For the newbies there are surfing lessons or alternatively you can rock the waves freestyle, time your jump to the swell of the wave and let it carry you before it breaks.
I was mesmerized by the magical sunset at Seminyak beach; you can see the distinct outline of this orange ball as it disappears behind the horizon. It was not a lingering fuzzy sunset but a spectacle that has precision of shapes and movement. I have never seen such distinct outlines of the sun and the horizon, also the movement of the setting sun is very palpable. I was aware of the speed of the setting sun as I was trying to focus for the perfect shot (which I missed!)

Padang Padang beach sure looks like Nature’s secret, with huge cliffs hiding it from plain sight. As you walk down the steps cut in the rock leading to the beach, you realize early on that you are being led on to a secret. This is a picturesque beach surrounded by cliffs and lush greenery, there are boulders around for people to find there own secluded spots. This beach may not be a good area for swimming as there is a lot of shallow rock and the mister managed to spot an odd sea snake but it is a nice shaded beach to sit back, relax and watch the surfers chase the waves.(this beach seemed very popular with the serious surfers)


We also stopped by the newbie Pandawa beach, which reminded us of Boarcay, Phillipines with its white sands calm turquoise waters. The government has made serious efforts to woe tourists to this beach-the convenient access road cut through the high limestone cliffs, the mythological figurines for the selfie stick tourists and convenient parking lots, its all well laid out.

The other major highlights of the trip included the early sunrise hike of Mt Batur(an active volcano).

It was a surreal experience to climb up the summit covered in black volcano ash- the local tour guides call it 'black snow' soft and slippery(downhill almost felt like skiing)! Climbing down the summit we shouted a 'hi!' to the caldera and we could hear the sound bounce and echo all the way to the very bottom.
There was steam coming out from different nooks and slopes like a chain smoker mountain- small steam from under a stone, steam sauna cave with the smell of minerals and what not!
It was a cloudy day so we could not see the sunrise, but it was a magical morning nonetheless. The darkness of the night turning into Prussian blue, the black shroud covering the lake Batur slowly slipping away revealing the gentle waters below. The black shadows of the hills right across conjured into their distinct tops and standing at the summit we saw the lowly clouds floating over the valley below.

I would like to be all poetic about the temples, the traditional dances, the prayers and the festivities but I am a lazy writer so I will just wrap up saying that locals take pride in their culture and they welcome you warmly to be a part of it.
Ubud is a shoppers paradise looking for artistic bric-a-brac, one can also visit the villages and workshops and learn more about the crafts and craftsmen. I guess it would be like 'Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory experience', but for us it will have to be next time...

We travel for different reasons, people can interpret and explore the same place in completely different trajectories. In a short 5 day trip, we sampled different flavors of Bali and covered the key tourist attractions. We learnt some new things and came back curious about others. We also realized that for some things 5 days is just not enough- like understanding what makes people tick or understanding a culture.

Anyways for someone planning a quick trip to bali, here is our sample itinerary (5 days 4 night)
3 nights in Ubud:
Day 1: Relax at the resort(enjoy the private pool), Ubud centre, lunch and dinner at Warung- local Bali food
Day 2: Mt Batur sunrise hike and visit to coffee plantation (booked tour package online http://www.balitrekkingtour.com/). Massage after the hike and a relaxed evening watching Kecak fire dance performance(schedule available online for location and timing of different dance forms)
Day 3: Relaxed morning and then hired a taxi for the afternoon tour: rice fields, Taman Ayun & Tanah lot sunset
1 night in Kuta:
Day 4: Kuta hotel checkin, sunset at Seminyak
Day 5: Kuta beach in the morning and hired a taxi in the afternoon to explore south Bali beaches all the way to Uluwatu temple. Evening headed back to the airport for our real early morning flight.

New Year-the New talk!

We have been raised on the dose of the ‘New and improved’ advertisements (Seinfeld’s rant) and the ‘New is better ‘philosophy (Barney’s mantra, HIMYM). An old men vs. women joke, also informs us that women are more enamored by the ‘New’. The joke goes like this-men and women mean different things when they say they have nothing to wear- men meaning nothing clean to wear and women implying that they have nothing ‘New’ to wear.
Now that I have quoted all the scientific research in the field, we can try to talk about some basic concepts and definitions. New is all about breaking the monotony of the old routine, sometimes it is a tangible/physical change like using a new toothbrush in the morning. The new one is different from the old, the bristles are firm and shapely, and the design or handling is improved. It doesn’t taste of toothpaste yet, it feels alien to the tongue, its feel is not yet familiar, it is new.
We might not always experience that in your mouth newness when we grudgingly wake up and dress up to go to work/school each day but since each day follows its own trajectory unlike a time loop (think ‘Edge of tomorrow’), each day is a New day. It comes with newer flavors, opportunities, challenges (or does it really?)
I can still buy the idea of a ‘New’ day each day but I have a bigger bone to pick with the idea of the ‘New Year’. It is a completely invented entity, one we have to go to great lengths to give legitimacy (lunar calendar, solar calendar, some calculation of time). The whole pageantry, the parties and the hoopla around the plain old ritual of the clock striking 12:00am, it is all an exaggerated attempt to fake ‘Newness’. Nothing really changes or turns new overnight, but there you have it folks- Happy New year 2016!

For all my trivialization of the annual ritual, I am a co-conspirator in the whole New Year charade. I may not be the elite 12 a.m. brigade but in the hallowed company of the elite I try to blend in. Sometimes I go a step further, gather the troops (a reluctant hiker husband) and undertake an ambitious hike to mark the special occasion. We planned to do the 15.5 km Plover cove country trail to ring in the New Year. At the end of the day I had a surplus, a personal best of 26 km of ground covered (the walk along the main dam and the vehicular road to the bus terminus and all the km in between)
We managed to get out of the apartment by 8:15am, the plan was to get breakfast on the go and have a buffer of 1.5 hrs to reach the starting point of the hike. Two things happened; our quick vegetarian breakfast option-Subway sandwich was not open in the morning leaving us to grab some pathetic veggie-morsels at Starbucks and then we found ourselves waiting for the mini bus for almost an hour (courtesy high turnout of New Year hikers and picnic families at the nearby waterfall)
There was also the thing when a mini bus (16 seats) had just a single vacant seat left and so we waited for the next one to come along. When the next one showed up (one with no bus number-probably a stop gap arrangement to clear the rush), we tried to double check with the driver if this one would stop at the Bride’s pool (trail's start point), the driver didn’t speak English and some co-passengers tried to communicate on our behalf. After a brief back n forth in Cantonese we were told that this wasn’t the right bus and we should take another minibus (the one which must have made 10 pickups since we waited for this one). Disappointed and a little cross we disembarked from the bus, only to be hailed back by our helpful interpreter family; there was much excitement and jubilation in Cantonese and I profusely thanked everyone in English, the Mister managed a meek Cantonese thank you (the back to the gallows version!)

The reason why I told this elaborate story is because we were in a similar predicament in another short time span. We climbed the first ascent to Ma Tau Fung (295m above the lowlands) with no soul in sight and reached the trigonometric station at the top. There was a big warning sign, which minced no words to say that the hike was challenging and retrace your steps if unprepared-no turning back beyond this point.
We were low in morale given a lame breakfast, long wait at the bus stop and found the first leg of the hike not very endearing under the sun so we took the warning to heart.
We surveyed our equipment-no hiking sticks, our supplies-energy bars, 1 bottles of water another bottle of ion water each, a bag of apples and some oranges. We were both concerned about the time in hand to complete the hike, it was 11:45 am (nearly mid-day), and the estimated time for the remaining hike was 6.5-7 hours, roughly in the ballpark of the less reliable winter daylight. I had packed the small pocket torch but we both agreed that we could not negotiate the treacherous country trail in the dark. I guess there was another factor in play, we had not met another person on the trail so far. It seemed all the hikers had made an earlier headway, we could hear some distant laughs but they could very well be the jungle fairies, who you should  not trust!

We put down our bags, sat down on the hill slope gobbled up some oranges and mutually agreed that the wise thing to do was to turn back and attempt the hike again with a better plan of rations and time. With a final resigned air of defeat we began to make our way back, our plan was to go back to city and watch Star wars (not sure which would earn us more loser points- quitting the trail midway or the fact that we had not yet watched the movie..)
When we attempted the first section of the MacLehose trail the year before (blissfully unmarried at that point), we were quitters. One year later after a couple of legitimate hikes under our belt, we had gathered the confidence to attempt a real country hike but we were still susceptible to the cold feet.

We were making our way back when we ran into a female with whom we had established an acquaintance a while back. I don’t have any memory of seeing her in the long bus queue but she had witnessed our episode at the minibus and apparently recognized us the next time we ran into each other (guess it is not much of a task to recognize two confused Indians in a hiking trail). On our first encounter we were taking pictures at the start of the trail and she was headed in the opposite direction towards the waterfall, we had exchanged some pleasantries and then each went their separate way.

Our second exchange with the women went like this- I told her that we were quitting the hike and she said she was attempting the hike solo. I wished her well and started to climb down the hill. But the Mister had a sudden change of heart at this point, for reasons unknown to me (wink-wink). It was a split second decision and we were back on the hike.

This hike was no doubt challenging, the length being a factor but primarily it is a basic country trail with scant niceties like paved paths or gentle steps. You had to constantly adapt yourself to the terrain, sometimes you are on all fours taking measured steps; next you are doing a steady run down the hill and occasionally gripping or holding small shrubs and brushes to break the momentum. The Luk Wu Tung slope, that local hikers call 'Falling Dog' is quite a challenge with loose rock on a steep slope. The stones kept changing colors, first they were a shade of purple like the shirt I was wearing, after a while the stones were reddish in color, but all in all they were just as tricky! A long stretch of the hike was along a ridge line overlooking the reservoir and there were occasional sign of warning for the steep cliffs. Some sections of the trail were well shaded, the roots of the trees made for an easy staircase to climb uphill but the evil leaves tried to get you on the descent. Some part of the trail also has stone steps nailed to the ground though some felt a little wobbly and you had to carefully watch your step. I was just happy that we were climbing down the stairs and not making our way up like some hapless souls.
The occasional distance posts were not much harbingers of hope, you always fell short of your expectation in terms of the distance covered. A heartfelt curse naturally escapes your lips when after nearly 2 hrs of non-stop walking; the post reads 11km remaining..

All long the hike I was torn between the feeling of achievement and the vanity of it all. It felt like a cruel joke to climb up the hills, then descent to the foot of the hill only to repeat the routine again. You overtook people on your way and tried to shorten your breaks to maintain your lead, a little competition does no one any harm!
Initially we didn’t come across anyone for a very long stretch, it was just us and the lady hiker. Slowly as we covered ground we came across people of all fitness level, walking along in different groups-friends, couples, families; however our North Star maintained a steady lead all along. She was the lone warrior negotiating the treacherous slopes and steep climbs with a stick in hand and taking pictures of all distance grid posts as she conquered them one by one. At the end of the trail we spotted her once again, briskly covering the flat expanse of the dam.

What a joyous reward it was to sit on the concrete walls and take in the sight of the lake on one hand

and the sea on the other side of the wall. The fresh sea winds that hit you have just the right invigorating bite. The reservoir we had circling was quite an engineering feat and a bold undertaking, it was the world’s first attempt to construct a lake from an arm of the ocean. Its main dam was one of the largest in the world at the time of its construction, disconnecting Plover Cove from the sea.

Tasting sweet victory I reflected on the perennial Shakespearean question-to hike or not to hike. My thoughtful response would be, suit your vanity-hiking is a healthy one at that. Different people find their mojo in different activities; hiking is just one of the drugs in the market. Passions change with time but this one has stayed a dear one for me, its like the childhood rhyme:“Make new friend, but keep the old..The New ones are silver, the old ones are gold!!!!”

PS: This is a long and not at all helpful post about hiking Plover cove reservoir.