ON A HOLIDAY WITH DAD...

PART II-LESSONS @ VAISHNODEVI- Will Power-All It Takes!!!

Moving towards the most important destination of our trip i.e Vaishnodevi..We stayed at a hotel in Katra and started the climb at around 5.15 pm...I am not a trekker and not very much into exercising as well..The result...well I was not given a very warm welcome by TRIKUTA PARVAT..Moreover excited that I was with my new SONY CYBERSHOT...that I found everything on my way photogenic and made the biggest mistake of taking breaks every now and then to click snaps...Whatever reason I attribute..the fact remains that I found the journey tough and challenging..

We thought that this fatigue is the only test we have to give to reach Bhawan..but we were wrong..When we reached Adhkuwari which is a cave halfway between the lowest point of Banganga and the temple...we saw a huge crowd of people waiting for their turn to enter the cave and our registration confirmed that we would have to wait for atleast one day to pass through the Adhkuwari cave...We decided we shall do it upon returning and moreover since the temple at Adhkuwari was closed for the Arti we did not even visit the temple ,thinking we would do it upon descent...The first lesson I learnt later-Dont leave todays work on tomorrow...It will never happen...

The price paid was that we were not able to do both Adhkuwari cave and temple...

Well..the journey was no doubt a challenging one...a trekkers' paradise..but a hard nut to crack for someone like me...As we were moving away from ground level ,it began to get colder and also with sunset it started getting darker as well.....

The journey was quite tough...but as they say when the going gets tough ,the tough gets going...Just when we were at a mere half kilometre from the Bhawan the going turned tougher than it was...

The Vaishnodevi shrine board has erected shelters at regular intervals with lights,a real boon for the Yatris..specially those travelling after sunset...Moreover this place never sleeps...The temple and the road are flooded with devotees round the clock..
When we were half a km away from the Bhawan,there was a power cut at the shelter and everything around us turned pitch dark...Moreover the lightening made the aura even more scary and to add fuel to fire it started raining...I must admit that such climate change is not very unusual there but for me it was a taste of what adventure is like..We sat where we were for around 15 minutes and then when the rain stopped we started our journey again...When we reached there was a big confusion there and the rain had started again...However we finally entered the Bhawan and had a holy sight of the goddess...It really felt great to enter the cave and the experience was that of extraordinary contentment...We were allowed inside for barely 20 seconds and all whatever we wanted to pray had to be summed up in that much time...But I was at a loss of words to express my happiness...

As we left the holy shrine the happiness took the form of tears and rolled down our cheeks ...A feeling of being blessed,being protected and a feeling that now nothing can go wrong...in life ,because there is an invisible power protecting me,inspiring me to tread the path and reassuring me that I am not alone...that I will never be alone...in my difficult times...A feeling of gratitude for the life I am leading,for the wonderful parents I am born to,for the supportive and caring friends I have and for every small and big thing..It's strange..I wanted to ask for so many things from God..but when I reached I realised that I already have everything I can ask for...

At times in a hurry to ask for more and more..we forget all that has been conferred upon us by the Almighty..All those times when he has given us more than what we deserved...But in those some special moments I remembered this...Thanks to Mataji for this feeling....A feeling which only a devotee who goes there can feel!!!

We came out,extremely tired and our bodies refusing to move an inch..Here I saw one or those sights which really surprised me..There were around 8-10 thousand people outside the temple and in the small and big eateries and dormatories outside sleeping peacefully under the warmth of the blankets distributed by the shrine board...They were probably taking rest and would later start climbing to Bhairavnath..another temple 2kms above the Bhawan...But the sight left me shocked at the amount of faith which prevails in the hearts of the people...

After we came out the biggest question which before us was whether to go to Bhairavnath or not...Here I learnt another lesson...the most important of the trip...The importance of WILL-POWER in life...Sachin may say that Visa Power is all it takes.but that day I realised it's WILL-POWER which is more important...I accept that my body fatigue took over my tremendous desire to complete my journey by visiting Bhairavnath...And after 1-2 hours of unuccessful attempts at trying to find a place to rest,we started the descent..First time I slept on a small little bench of an ordinary eaterie...may be because god wanted me to get a feel of the real world..the lakhs of poor and homeless who sleep like this...Again a feeling came to me... that God has been so kind to give us a house-a shelter and sufficient clothes to protect us from vagaries of nature...How fortunate I am!!!

Is'nt it strange that we dont value the things we have..when we have them...Food,house,money,friends,relationships....we realise their true worth when they are away...Just like that night we realised the true worth of shelter and also that of our family...How incomplete I felt without them...Had they been there..this difficulty would have been lesser and it would have been easier to forget the pain in our body and concentrate on the mental happiness which the holy sight had given us..

Finally we started the descent but before that we took a final darshan on the LCD screen outside with thousands of thoughts in mind and just one wish...of coming again...once again...with full energy-both physical and mental...

I felt as if I was leaving something close to me behind and would have to come once again to collect it...

Now that we started the descent I realised that a herculean task lay ahead...But it was relatively easier as compared to the climb...Pitch dark night,cold weather ,a beautiful moon shining in the sky...(Luckily it was a full moon day) re-energising us with it's vibrant presence and both of us -me and dad started the downward journey...The whole night we walked...and finally with the blessings of Mataji..around 7.30 am we reached our hotel...

My body felt the impact for a very long time and the fatigue lasted almost 2 days..BUT......
My memories ,the experience and the unique bonding which I developed with my dad during the trip will last much longer...atleast a lifetime!!!

Our next destination Patnitop was a beautiful and refreshing experience...beautiful clean landscape...amazing weather and extremely photogenic surroundings...

Our bus journey from Katra to Amritsar took us a long 8 and a half hours despite the 6 hours promised by the travel agent and in one irritated moment I told dad..."lets cancel our train tickets and return to Mumbai by air!!"Little did I know that some supreme power heard me and said "TATHASTU"

Well thats another interesting part of our story...We 'll see it in part 3...Till then Keep Reading...Jai Mata Di!!!

ON A HOLIDAY WITH DAD...

PART-I Lessons @ Akshardham!!!

Last week I was on a trip to Vaishnodevi...The first unusual thing about this was that only my dad accompanied me..The last 2 years with my MBA did not permit to go out of Mumbai much and hence inspite of busy schedules or everyone else in my family,I still insisted that we plan it..Sometimes we learn life's important lessons where we least expect them...And sometimes we get the biggest surprises of life where we least expect them...Something similar happened during the trip......

Our first destination was Delhi's Akshardham temple...A magnificient structure...grand...beautiful...and full of artistic carvings...Huge land area...Nothing wrong in saying that it's a majestic piece of art..The documentaries made on the life of Lord Swaminarayan are indeed a treasure of invaluable knowledge and lessons of wisdom which the younger generation can adopt..Lord Swaminarayan,during his childhood. made a trip of the entire nation barefooted...and visited all the big shrines...The depiction of all these places and the portrayal of his dedication towards the goal of his life is amazing...

There are 2 important messages in the documantary which particularly stuck me...

One message was in the form of a big piece of rock which is partly carved and partly uncarved..The carved portion is a human face and hands holding a hammer...and trying to carve the rest of the rock...A lesson which is very important and still often forgotten by most us ...We ourselves are the sculptors of our life and are solely responsible for whatever happens...good or bad.I found a reference to something similar in a book called EVERYDAY GREATNESS which talks about the necessity to act in life and not wait for being acted upon..

The second lesson is a single sentence which is so powerful that I believe it has the power to uplift a sad heart...to cheer a sorrowful soul and to fill with confidence a heart filled with fear...It says "JAHAAN ISHWAR HOTA HAI,WAHAAN DARR NAHI HOTA."(Where there is God ,there is no fear)...All of us know this but still we forget it where it is most required...dont we??

There are still many more things to be mentioned such as the lovely taste of Swaminarayan Khichdi served at Premvati foodcourt,the magnificient temple with the beautiful statue of Lord Swaminarayan,the carvings of elephants,peacocks..the main entrance with 10 gates in 10 directions ...and many more..but some things are to be seen to be believed...

After the short but memorable (and incomplete also coz we missed the boat ride due to lack of time) visit we moved on to Katra where there were some unforeseen experiences ,some memorable moments waiting for us...We shall see that in Part 2 of this write-up!!! KEEP READING....

A smile can heal???

The other day I was travelling by our very own Mumbai local train.It was not very crowded but all seats were occupied and I was comfortably standing.At around Bandra I managed to get a seat and amidst the plethora of thoughts and my personal tensions ,I sat down.My body got the well deserved rest but my mind didnt???Due to certain personal incidents during that period I was extremely upset and disturbed...moreover I was travelling alone that day which added fuel to fire...It was one of those rare days when my heart had taken over my brain or intellect or ....call it by whatever name you like ....... after a big and deadly battle between the two...And as they say..there is no winner in a battle because both the sides are at a loss...life,property,success and above all morale...

And here the battle was between 2 entities both connected to me and the defeat of either one was my loss in the end...that was exactly what was happening and I could realize the toll on my work,health and more importantly my self belief and my self-confidence!!!

I tried to look around and made some unsuccessful attempts at changing the rhythm of the thoughts by observing what the others in the compartment were up to.But every face had a similar story to tell...Some were fast asleep,all emoceans hidden behind the fatigue which had forced the slumber.

Except one..one face...which I cant forget all my life...A face which was like the first ray of the sun which destroys darkness and brings light into the world...like the calm waves of a mighty ocean which bring serenity and peace to every heart they meet..eyes which lavishly spread love and happiness around.. to every other eyes they meet and something else.... above all this....A SMILE......a smile which tears apart all sorrows...

She was a tiny girl..around a year old travelling with her mom comfortably resting on the throne of the mother's lap.Her name was MILONI and she was the one who was interacting with everyone in the compartment...I was observing her since the time I was standing and the first time our eyes met she gave me an expression as if we knew each other since ages and seeing me was one of the happiest occassions of her life.Her smile attracted me so much that all that battle ,all those thoughts instantly vacated my mind and her contagious smile infected me just as it had infected everyone else around...an infection I was most happy to get.There was so much she wanted to speak butdue to her tender age she had to rely solely on her eyes and face to do the talking.After some time I got down at the desired destination and as I turned behind to see her,she greeted me again with that magnetic smile,as if trying to tell me,

"Look at my smile...Is any trouble of your life big enough to ignore it!!!Do you have the courage to think about anything else in the world after seeing it???No way...I challenge you...Even after we part...it will continue to rule your mind."

Most of us have heard and believe that kids smile to attract attention..but it's not completely true......It is Almightys plan to teach us that no trouble is so big that a smile cant heal it.This is just one example..I have had several instances with my nephew..Varun...Touchwood..but he smiles so often and one may feel he is trying to grab attention...but I feel his smile is a cosmic connection..He is an angel sent by God to give us a message that we have to smile amidst all troubles...If we can do that half the battle is already won!!!

I am not saying this out of nowhere...It's a tried and tested experiment.After getting down from the train that day I was thinking about the power of this tiny girl in washing off my tensions...a task which even I could not do was done by a total stranger..and then I told myself...What if I myself try and smile when I am in an emotionally low state of mind..Her smile may be a pain killer-but at some point of time a pain killer ceases to heal and what is required is something which can attack the root cause of the problem. That weapon is nothing but a capacity to face the problem from the front and and what better than a smile....the greatest foe of all problems to do this....

I may not have got an answer to my problems but I got something much more important...-A formula!!!And in life as in Mathematics, an answer can be of help for one problem but a formula can help you in any problem (read situation),is'nt it?

Want to know what the formula was??...Read along...

A smile is a weapon which confuses your troubles because they think they have killed your ability to smile long back ,then it attacks them and finally destroys them with the help of other weapons like patience,courage and determination...Even if it's not possible to destroy the troubles ,a smile gives us the strength to accept the fact that the problem or the trouble will continue...but there are other better things in life worth living for and for the sake of those things these troubles have to be pushed to the backseat...

A smile may not be the strongest weapon and it's not even the most indispensable one..because several battles have been won without it..BUT...there is no denying the fact that it's one of the most effective ones...to combat troubles...and a child is the greatest messenger of this lesson which God wants to teach all of us.

A child is a ray of hope which comes in the world to destroy the darkness and the plight of pain with a charismatic smile....

Paradoxically, a storehouse of both innocence and invaluable lessons of life..

As the reverend Rabindranath Tagore rightly quoted
"Every child comes with a message that God is not yet discouraged of humanity."

EMOCEANS!!!

Why such a hybrid name??Well thats because that is what I want this blog to be...A collection of content close to my heart...emotions which are like an ocean...deep vast but still soothing to the heart...However the nearer you go the more the risk ,the more the adventure...

Wondering where I discovered this strange connection...At a beautiful divine place called Ganpatipule...As I saw the ocean I realised..how a thing which is so very soothing and delighting can be potentially dangerous and fatal upon going closer...Similar is the case with emotions(read emoceans...) ..isnt it?A source of joy,pleasure,delight,peace,love,smiles and also......tears,sadness,restlessness....Nevertheless...just as these mixed characteristics differentiate an ocean from a tiny stream or a rivulet...similarly these emotions differentiate us.......we humans.......from other living forms on mother earth....Just as the divinity and the danger together are the identity of the mighty ocean... these emoceans are our identity...our distinct identity!!!What say guys???