To The Lighhouse

One should not sleep walk through the flat earth for too long, it is important to hike your way up a hill to gain some perspective in life. When I use a sell strategy like the above on people, it usually goes like “perspective huh?” So I improvise and propose drinks at some high rise roof top bars, it usually is an easy sell. I know the two are not exactly comparable except if you argue for the word ‘high’ literally.

I slowly sip my iced coffee sitting at the footsteps of the hill overlooking the city as the sun slowly goes down and the city lights begin to twinkle in distance.
I slowly sip my Mojito sitting on my high rise bar stool overlooking the city as the sun slowly goes down and the city lights begin to twinkle in distance.
Just painted the picture so that the idea doesn’t seem completely outlandish..

However option A is still gold, once you are physically removed from your everyday surrounding, it creates a space where you can stand and look back at your life or try to gaze ahead and see where you are headed. I believe that Nature has that power over us; it can give us that outward/inward clairvoyance, a moment of peace to reflect without distractions.

In one of these moments of honest reflection as I gazed beyond the city at the large stretch of the South China Sea, the warm memories of the Pacific coast came back to me. I tried to look for the lighthouse that always showed me the way, only to realize that the blurred lines were fading away softly. I changed the course of my life and was gone too far in the opposite direction. I quietly thanked the lighthouse at the distance hoping that the waves will carry my message.

Looking away from the waters, I scanned the sky for the setting sun only to find that it disappeared slyly behind the distant hill when I wasn’t looking. I have experienced this happen to me before; the tricky sun disappears just when you are not looking, perhaps just to show that life goes on, even when we take our eyes off for a while..

Travel Charms..

Water overflows from a bucket and slowly begins to snake down the hill, slowly feeling its way down the sloping tangent guided by gravity. The little stream quietly glides by a small boy, the kid is not amused at being ‘overtaken’; he glances sideways at his competition and quickens his pace. I watch the kid as he begins to run down the hill, looking over his shoulders to make sure that the water stream doesn’t catch up with him..
This image has persisted in my mind for over a month now, may be because the scene was innocently human. May be because each one of us is kind of chasing random streams of water overflowing from different buckets lest we get left behind. May be because sometimes it is good to see that the life we live can have parallel in a kid’s universe. Life sure has a charming sense of humor; may be I should just leave this thought at this point

In a recent trip to the gambling city of Macau, knowing that riches and luck elude me, I choose to seek the charming side of history and culture. Not sure why the weather gods thought that showering us with buckets of rain would add to the charm of exploring the city but undaunted we started on the ‘list’..

We managed to cover the following on the list: Senado square, ruins of St Paul’s Cathedral and the Taipa village, toured the whole bunch of glitzy casinos and watched the much famed 'The house of Dancing water' show at the City of Dreams casino. We missed out on the museum tours, The Guia Fortress but I guess there is always a next time and with the time we had on hand we did a fair job of exploring the city.

The Senado square, the ruins and the Taipa village were all a slice of the Portuguese history in Chinese Macau, the churches standing tall amidst the cozy incensed temples.

The wavy black and white mosiac floor is the give away for tourists in the city trying to find the Square without any Google help. Once you start seeing the cobbled street you know you are close to The Senado square. The ruins of St Paul's Cathedral are also in the same stretch so it is easy to cover the two together. 

The colorful windows, potted plants, dainty cast iron lamp posts, it was a deja vu as i remembered the French Quarters in New Orleans. The quaint European feel that never fails to evoke the old world charm where perhaps aesthetic and beauty was a purpose in itself. 

The next day we covered the Taipa village. This small market area is a quintessential tapestry of East meets West, the narrow alleys lined with brightly colored buildings(the Portuguese flavor) in the midst of intricately designed roofs of Chinese buildings. There are small eateries, cozy restaurants all along the street with Portuguese, Spanish,  Macanese and Thai fare. Ice-creams- the Gelato variety, the pure milk Ice-cream from Hokkaido, Japan and the obnoxious Durian ice cream(i am entitled to an opinion). Taipa market is a melting pot of different cuisines, dig in and enjoy the food(hopefully you are a non-vegeterian)!

We watched the Dancing water show just before leaving Macau, the show completely mesmerises the senses, the acrobatics is awe inspiring, the design of the stage with all the water histrionics is impressive, the choreography and music set the right mood. Yet it is just that, a sensory pleasure, that holds you spellbound but doesn't grow into you. Nonetheless the show sells and it is not difficult to see why, its perfectly tailor made for the Asian Casino audience, drawing elements from both East and West and packaging it with a generous dose of Chinese motifs. I did enjoy the 90minutes performance and the Chinese lady sitting behind me was hysterical with laughter so i guess that counts for something..

I have kind of little to talk about the Casinos, they don't really work their Charm on me..(loser talk). But I do accept that each is grandiose in its own right- you heard me right, 'fake Venetian sky'!

That's it for now until I find something charming to chime about :)

Why read

A to B: Why do you read?
B to A: What do you do in your free time?

Books are one medium, you can have your own preference ‘if you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds' worth of distance run’ all is well in the kingdom of god!

Reading is about the joy of discovery; discovering people, places, cultures, histories, emotions and so on. Human understanding is at two levels one at the physical level and the other at the intellectual level. In terms of simple physics it is about picking up the actual physical signals, processing them and the light bulb in the end. Travelling, conversations, reading books are just facilitators of the signals, the processing /discovery is a completely individual process. My mantra is better get the ‘signal’ than fret about the purity of the signal. Slowly with time you hone your skills to really eliminate the noise and embark on your own journey of discovery.

Reading is about the joy of making a connection. Sometimes a written sentence is like someone just read your mind and wrote it down succinctly for you to read with your own eyes and touch with your hands. This kind of connection is very rare, how much effort we invest on real people so that they can understand us but to no avail.
I may know 10 people in the physical world and 5 characters in the literary world. You may not know the 10 people I know but we could be acquaintances in the literary world(small world). What do people do when they meet; they talk about (gossip about) the people they know in common. Carrying forth the analogy what does book man/woman do? They talk about their literary hero’s and the literary geniuses who created them. Sometimes these conversations and connections can define years of relationship.
I have a friend with whom I could only talk about books (and only some children fiction books in particular) because we had our differences over everything else. I would call this some real connection!

Reading is about learning to become more tolerant in the real world. The more you see people who are not like you the more you learn to accept them. The first human reaction is to ignore if something doesn't directly affect us, but a humane society entails empathy not ignorance.
Our relationships encompass people who are in some way like us, how do we seek out people who have nothing in common with me? There are always two sides of a story, we always know our version, and how do we see the other version?
Books provide that window to peer and look, the more you try to seek you might actually be able to put together the pieces of the elephant that baffled the blind men(blind men who went to inspect an elephant, each one came back with a different version, none closer to truth individually)

Circling back to the foremost point made earlier, reading or any other interest is all about having a good time.
On a rainy day, take a glass of wine, sit by the window, dig into a comfortable lounger with a snug throw and read a book till you doze off peacefully at the same spot. Books are a simple romance and a worthy pursuit..

The Creative process

I am always fascinated by the back stories, how someone comes up with the inspiration to create, compose, conceive or conceptualize something. The germ of conception has a kernel of a real life experience but the final creation arcs tangential from the point of origin and creates its own space.

So can we truly interpret a work of art? Just by looking at the final product reverse engineer all the way to the source, the thought process and pinpoint the trigger?

My answer would be no, art cannot be surgically evaluated. However this doesn't protect it from the curious minds looking for a meaning, or interpretation. Rather the answer lies in acceptance of duality, the inspiration of the artist and the interpretation of the critic can exist at completely different planes but both equally qualify to exist but not necessarily agree with one another. The character and history of any piece of art is built on this interaction between art and it’s surrounding- the artist and the audience.

Now that we have got the philosophy out of the way, I wanted to talk about a Colin Hay song that somehow catalyzed this stream of consciousness (also the Grammy are underway, the previous blog too warranted some answers-the germs are all around for this outburst).

I am talking about the song Down under-Colin Hay. Talking about the origin of the song Colin Hay noted that “the verses were very much inspired by a character he had called Barry McKenzie..".
The character was a parody of the boorish Australian overseas, particularly those residing in Britain – ignorant, loud, crude, drunk and punchy – although McKenzie also proved popular with Australians because he embodied some of their positive characteristics: he was friendly, forthright and straightforward with his British hosts, who themselves were often portrayed as stereotypes of pompous, arrogant, devious colonialists

"The chorus is really about the selling of Australia in many ways, the over-development of the country. It was a song about the loss of spirit in that country. It's really about the plundering of the country by greedy people. It is ultimately about celebrating the country, but not in a nationalistic way and not in a flag-waving sense. It's really more than that."
Today it is a popular and patriotic song in Australia. It became the unofficial theme song of the Australian team at the Sydney Olympics and the band performed the song during the closing ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
For all this recognition bestowed on the song Colin had this to say, "I love the song, I have strong feelings about it because it's looked after me for many, many years."

Don McLean voiced the same sentiment regarding the song, ‘The Day the music died’. When asked what "American Pie" meant, McLean jokingly replied, "It means I don't ever have to work again if I don't want to”..

How something is conceived and how it is perceived follows a path of its own which might not necessarily reflect the vision of the creator. But in a way that is the inherent characteristic of everything that lives and survives, it finds its own trajectory.

So if you still looking for meaning, go figure!(for that little sliver, the needle in the hay stack)..

For the song find the link here:

Background information about the song from Wikipedia.

Confessions of a Non Believer

I don't belong in your world.. the world of early sun rises and hard work at crack of dawn..
I don't belong in your world.. the world of late nights with little rest..

I don't identify with your band.. the optimist fraternity believing in the promise of the day..
I don't sing your song, the trained voices rising in unison singing the choir..
I don't speak your language, the sound of the said word or the shape of the written letter
I don't drink from your chalice, the giddy euphoria of togetherness and drunken happiness
I don't share your dreams, the stories that parents tell their children when they put them to sleep..
I don't see with your eyes, the vistas and visions of future..

I don't believe in your kindness, the flavor of dishonest cruelty
I don't believe in your respect, the sycophancy of compromised morals..
I don't believe in your courage, the disappearing grin of the Cheshire cat..
I don't believe in your freedom, the safety valve lest the facade implode..
I don't believe in your religion, the diktats of the self serving..

I don't believe in your love, the thin veil hiding selfish fears..
I don't believe in your wars, the thin veil hiding selfish fears..

But I am trying..

Clueless

I wanted to write an informational detailed account of some of my recent hiking trips as a helpful 'how to' guide, after all how hard can it be?(ring a bell!)
But what can I say, I had no idea what was the final destination in my last hiking trip, we were just walking it up. Next day I was looking up the route, how far we made it and where was the last milestone. Needless to say I will have to undertake the hike again, so that I can walk back with the smug look of actually reaching the end point and then may be offer some words of advice..

Let me try to paint a picture, imagine two clueless Indians trudging uphill with no idea of how far they are from the end point while regularly coming across gaily retreating Chinese hikers. When you can't communicate, everything seems like a mystery and in this case a Chinese mystery (where were they heading back from, what was at the end of the hike, how close are we).. constant questions and no answers, so clueless!
It was almost sunset hour, and the only website we had referred for our hike research talked about a cop who had gone missing somewhere along the trail. Although I couldn’t fathom how, because it was a paved road and there were green taxis going up and down along the road ferrying passengers back from the mysterious ‘end point’. Perhaps I had researched a different trail and we were hiking on a different route..So much for background research in the information age!

Just today I came across an expression, ‘flying by the seat of one’s pants’, meaning to decide a course of action as you go along, using your own initiative and perceptions rather than a pre-determined plan or mechanical aids, which sounded about right for most hiking trips I have undertaken in HK so far and this one in particular.

I was curious about the origin of this phase and did some research. This is what I found; the phrase traces its root to early aviation parlance.  Aircraft initially had few navigation aids and flying was accomplished by means of the pilot's judgment. Flying by the seat of one's pants was originally a literal (or nearly-literal) phrase, meaning to use all of one's senses -- including lateral and vertical "G forces" transmitted to your derriere through the seat -- to control an aircraft in flight. Also the pilot would feel the side of the seat to tell how the plane was moving. I was glad to discover the roots of the expression and thought to share the gyan along!

Coming back to the afore-mentioned trail, the 100-kilometer MacLehose trail, traverses Hong Kong’s New Territories from sea level to a peak elevation of about 550 meters (1,800 feet). Here is Hong Kong's most varied - and finest - countryside. The east coast, where the Trail begins, is deeply indented and wild. The central mountains, which the MacLehose Trail crosses, include many of Hong Kong's highest peaks. And the western part, where the Trail winds to its end, has impressive valley reservoirs. (Thank you Wikipedia and such)

The MacLehose Trail is divided into ten stages, and we were (unknowingly) attempting the first section-10.6km stretch. This is not a trail but rather a paved road alongside a concrete retaining wall for about 5 kilometers on one side and the aqua waters on the other side. Since we were not in a hurry to reach the end point of the hike, we took a detour from the paved road, climbed down the hilly slope, hopping on tricky stones and boulders to reach level ground by the side of the reservoir.

It is always a good idea to leisurely lie down on your back on a gentle rock and let the sound of gushing water drown the noises in your head and experience the weightlessness of the wind as it blows away your worldly cares. It is also a good idea to pack some juicy oranges for such an afternoon. When our gods (aka Hanumanji) couldn’t resist the orange temptation in the sky, mere mortals like us cannot be blamed for our orange indulgence on a sunny afternoon sun!

Having enjoyed a leisurely break we thought of continuing our journey since everyone else seemed to be briskly marching ahead. At the sight of each panoramic view along the road we had the temptation to stray from the regular route and explore the vista beckoning us. However like prudent travelers we marched onwards in the hope of completing the trail before sundown. Also with no internet connection and scant milestones/directions along the route we had little information, we were just flying by the seats of our pants.

Directions from people walking down the road were of no avail, the 15minute estimated arrival time didn’t quite ring true when we had walked for 30mins and no end was in sight. We tried to track a passing taxi to get some clue about the distance remaining but that also didn’t help us much because the cliff offered a limited view and the taxi just turned around a corner far ahead and disappeared. The thought of getting stranded here away from civilization with no Naan & Palak Paneer for dinner didn’t quite appeal to us and we turned back.

I’ll update this post once I complete the hike. This time I’ll probably have a better idea of our undertaking, the route and the destination. Also the promised details of the route/bus number will also finally make it to the blog..

From what I hear Section 2 of this trail is better and interesting than Section 1, also it sounds a good idea to cover the entire 100km. Guess that’s how life is, one moment you have no clue where you are headed and next you want to walk the entire 100km stretch. Humanity you were always doomed!

Hong Kong Diaries

I sit down to write about my experiences in this new city before the sheen of being a newbie fades out. I am inching slowly to have spent almost two months here, about time to dedicate a post to the new city..

To set the mood, before writing this post, I listened to We're going to be friends-White Strips. I wasn't done, next on my list was Landon Pigg- Falling in love at a coffee shop...
Yes I am professing my love for this city with songs.. I have totally internalized this city's love for 'cuteness'.. hey there 'Hello Kitty!'..
To be honest I am already biased to the city because you are never too far from the hills or from the water. I might have confessed a million times to my good friends(the ones I bore with 100 renditions of same old stories) that I wanted to run by the ocean looking at the hills. When I really found myself running along the harbor, I caught myself smiling at this part of me which occasionally bubbles up with genuine happiness.

When I was moving out of US and going through the tedious affair of packing and selling my things, I thought that perhaps I wasn't going to work this hard any time soon..
And then I moved to HongKong. So I guess you are never done..
My first month in the city was all about apartment hunting, cooking & eating weird broccoli permutations, furnishing the apartment/kitchen, trying to meet new people and make new acquaintances. I am not yet done, still braving weird hot/cold showers every morning- courtesy the 'environment friendly' tankless water heater.
Moving into a new place is always a hassle but local standards, practices and systems can either make things simpler or create complications. Apartment hunting in this city is a revelation, you come face to face with the reality of the over-inflated real estate market prices, tiny apartments that are like those Sunday newspaper puzzles that come crammed in a small box in a corner- and they challenge you to find what's missing...
This city is very modern and efficient on surface but at its core it is a very traditional society, there is a human element in most transaction. For instance your apartment search begins with the brokers, you tag along as they show you a 'lot' of apartments. Each broker/agency will specialize in a neighborhood, so if you are searching a broader area be prepared to talk to multiple brokers. Add the work schedule to this equation and you have some brutal weekends.
When you do find the apartment of your dreams (by this point apartment hunting has already turned into a nightmare)the broker will settle all the legal stuff for you, set up the utilities and put you in touch with the internet agent. For all his services you pay the broker, the internet guy on the contrary would promise you a gift coupon for signing up through him, and well I haven't my gift card yet..(update:I had to go in person to collect it from the store, but I did get it finally!)
I'd say the whole process was very intense and took a few weeks but with some distant friends prodding me through, i did find a place.. and while skyping with my parents all they had to say was, 'this place looks decent than what you had been telling us'.

When people say it is a small world, they usually mean it figuratively, but when I say HK is a small place I am almost speaking literally. I have the worst direction sense and after getting lost a few times, I realized that it is such a small place that you cannot get hopelessly lost. It definitely helps if you know the major roads(generally English names so easy to remember) and also there are multiple modes of transport to get to the destination.  Taxis are a safe bet if you can get a Cantonese speaking friend to do the talking for you or else just walk it up with a GPS in hand.

X who has lived here for few years keeps telling me that this is the most capitalist city in the world and I keep disagreeing. In terms of my simplified view of capitalism, there are two very defining characteristics of capitalism:
a) the enterprising shall have access to capital, ideally-free market forces (the good)
b) the rich keep getting richer and the poor poorer(the bad)
I might agree to the second point, which sadly makes HK a crony-capitalist place. However it is not such a bad picture because of lower corruption levels and the generally honest HongKong populace. HongKong owes its status as world's key financial centre as much to capitalism as to China's communism and the general lack of trust in the Chinese government.
It is the most commercial city no doubt, even Buddha sitting peacefully on a hill-top is not spared, a fake Bodhi wishing tree with redeemable coupons complete the picture.
Its the shopping mecca.. big stores, flashy stores and the stores with flickering neon lights in broad day light. I have not erred much on the shopping side, so can't really comment, I am still grappling with the roti-kapda-makaan paradigm!

My relocation to HongKong coincided with the Occupy Central, pro-democracy protests. I would have to concede that i don't have much experience with protests, I have watched them from sidelines. As a child I witnessed the Uttarakhand state movement, the demand for a separate state to spur development. That vision is far from realized but I would avoid any judgement on the movement.
In the violent times that we live in, we rarely see protests that are inherently peaceful, creative and so young. The HK protest was all of the above. I saw the protest sites where people were peacefully camped and going about their business. Like a naive tourist I took pictures at the protest site and asked questions.  You can be more pragmatic when you are not involved, and despite all the passion and conviction of the protesters i didn't really see the mighty Chinese government conceding ground any time soon. To be honest I wasn't quite sure of what they were hoping to achieve.
I think after I explored the HK University campus on my way to a hiking trail, I accidentally uncovered something very fundamental about the roots of this movement. I was surprised to see video's of the Occupy movement running on TV monitor next to the elevator in the campus. Pro-democracy slogans on the bulletin boards. The campus has a 'pillar of shame' dedicated to the Tiananmen square massacre and the caption there says- "the old cannot kill the young forever". I stood there for a moment trying to capture the mood of the University and somehow I felt like what I witnessed on the streets was brewing and seething in this atmosphere..

This is a rich city(true that!!!) and there is something intricate and almost mysterious about the Chinese culture and psyche, so there is a lot to discover here..

Choices

There are some moments of earnest desperation or perfect clarity when you know what you want from the core of your entire being. These moments are but few.. and the choices span both our personal and professional lives.

Four feet underwater holding your breath for just a moment longer you repeat your deepest wish in your head, you can always trust water to keep your secrets.
In all the theatrics of flashing light and thunderstorms closing your eyes a minute longer you can whisper your deepest wish in a prayer, you can always trust the falling rain to keep your secret.
Standing in the feeble winter sun shivering slightly in the chill of the frozen wind you can rub your hands together in the warmth of your deepest desire, you can always trust winter with your secrets.
Listening to Ludovico Einuanidi’s composition in perfect silence, you can sometimes feel your eyes swell up with tears of your deepest wishes, you can always trust music to be privy to your secrets..

You may or not believe in God, but in that one moment, you surrender to something bigger than you and pray to find ‘your’ way.. I believe this is a very powerful moment when you know with absolute clarity the ‘something’ that you want. You are not just a lost soul who wants someone to show you a way, but every nerve, every bone, and every fiber of your body is alive in the knowledge of what you want..

Sometimes we owe the certainty of our choices based on our familiarity and comfort of knowing and experiencing something over a period of time- the test of time. Other times it is a gut feeling about something completely unknown.

Sometimes people will tell you that they don't exactly know what they want but they have some clue about what they don't want. 'Selection by elimination' is a real thing, this strategy works successfully in competitive exams, so you may as well apply it in life.

At the other end of the spectrum are situations where we seem to be clueless of what choice to make. Opinions may differ here, but I believe deep down everyone knows what they really want. But sometimes making that choice entails a huge risk, it requires courage, faith, going against people we love.. It is a choice between 'the rational'  and 'the emotional', it is this that makes us confused and clueless.

The Architect: There are two doors. The door to your right leads to the Source and the salvation of Zion. The door to your left leads back to the Matrix, to her... and to the end of your species. As you adequately put, the problem is choice. But we already know what you are going to do, don't we? Already I can see the chain reaction: the chemical precursors that signal the onset of an emotion, designed specifically to overwhelm logic and reason. An emotion that is already blinding you to the simple and obvious truth: she is going to die and there is nothing you can do to stop it.

-The Matrix Reloaded

Every moment we are making choices, some consciously others unconsciously. Some easy, some not so easy. We live with choices we make, we live with choice that others make for us, we live with choices life makes for us. It is a fascinating gossamer, every choice tied to the other slowly building the life we live, the relationships we build, the friends we make, just everything..

Morpheus: You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.
-The Matrix
Just like this everything starts, but that moment doesn't give away anything. You have to go all the way down the rabbit hole to understand the choices that you make..

You can either read the blog, or just listen to this piece.. (Its a choice!)