Moments

It's been 6 days without Dwiref. He was out of town, on his yet another business trip. Nandini used to feel lonely a lot earlier, with time she had learnt to enjoy the company of books and herself, along with her job that kept her busy mostly. 4 years of marriage and they have had several instances of distant arrangements, owning to work responsibilities. But both were committed to their work equally and were equally respectful towards each other's work.

It was raining heavily in city since past 4 days. Nandini was sipping her green tea, sitting at her office desk. She looked outside the glass window and the weather took her by its beauty. This mesmerizing view lead her to Dwiref's thoughts and suddenly she remembered his text message that he'd sent few days back, while on his trip. It was an old ghazal he had shared with her. Something he happen to listen on his trip and found out soothing to his ears. She immediately searched across for that song and added it in her special play list named "Parivash". He named her so, years back, on their very first date. It means beautiful like fairy.

She was now listening to that song in loop. As if each and every word was coming from him..

"Mere rashke qamar, tune pehli nazar, yu nazar se milayi maza aa gaya.."

(O my envy of the moon, when your eyes met mine for the first time; it was wonderful.)

She instantly recollected the very first moment her eyes met with Dwiref's, when they had known that they had become more than friends. Her heartbeats went up with amusement and music volume went higher with excitement! She didn't belong to the office or that chair any longer. 

With a blushing face and waiting eyes, she moved towards the calendar,

"4 more days to go", took a deep sigh, slowly moving her chair back towards the glass window.

While she was looking outside, taking a ride down the memory lane, she noticed  the lyrics.. It went like this..

"Aaj sahrao main, ishq k gaon main, "baarishe" gir k aayi..maza aa gaya.."
(Today, in the deserts (of my heart), in the village of love, there were heavy rains; it was wonderful.)

She chuckled while making sure no body had noticed this whole transformation of hers. Whilst swaying her head slightly, she had a thought popped up, "How amazing is that True Love for someone never dies..nor does the feeling.." She was as eagerly waiting for Dwiref to return as she would have done years before and she was assertive that he was equally waiting to be home.

"With You it's Different"

Trek to Hampta Pass - June 2017

This year January, me and my husband decided to have a different experience for a vacation; and that was how we had planned our first trek, Trek to Kuari Pass at an elevation of ~12500 feet. It turned out to be amazing and thus the next one had to be an another trek to Himalayas.I am going to keep this very crisp with some beautiful images from the trek in between. So let's begin: 

Why "Hampta Pass": 

Situated at an elevation of about 14280 feet, Hampta is one such trek that will give you all kinds of terrains in Himalayan valley. You get to see lush green & vast meadows, snow covered mountains, forests surrounded by huge trees, rocky paths, the beautiful Chandratal lake and the Beas and the Chenab rivers flowing all along the way. This is one of the most challenging but beautiful treks of Himachal Pradesh. If you are willing to cover the best parts of Himachal Pradesh and are ready to explore your limits, this is a must trek for you.

Highlights of each day:

Day 1: Campsite at a really pleasant location, next to a flowing river and surrounded by beautiful mountains. Very manageable temperature in regular clothes.

Day 2: Crossing of a river. You will have to remove your shoes. Temperature of the water is somewhere around 4-5 degrees. Again a beautiful campsite, i.e. Balu ka Ghera, next to a flowing river and you would be closer to snow for the first time. Our entire trek group went for a walk around and also kind of had a little picnic kinda fun on one of the mountains covered with hard snow. 

Day 3: Trek to Hampta Pass. The most rigorous & demanding day with stunning views. Snow covered mountains to be hiked. You climb around 2000 feet at once in a day and in the second half you will descend on rocky mountains (the toughest part of the trek) and you get to slide one of the mountains at the end for quicker descend. Also you will be given crampons to walk over the snow. 

Day 4: Crossing of a river with freezing cold (2 degrees) water. Crossing of a Glacier at steep angles - you can see the heavily flowing river downwards. Again you will have crampons for your support. If you are lucky, you will be taken to Chandratal lake via a 4 wheeler from your campsite, but we got stuck due to 2 sudden major landslides.The campsite was a pretty famous destination of HP i.e. Spiti Valley. 

Day 5: For us, crossing of water flooded roads (due to the landslides and melting of glaciers). Rohtang Pass! And the trip back to Manali through the cloudy roads. 

When:

Hampta Pass trek opens in the month of June and continues until September. During the initial days of June Chandratal lake is closed, however post mid June it's open to visitors. We did this trek in the last week of June and we could witness all sorts of landscapes. We were lucky with the weather, such that although it used to rain heavily during the night hours, during the day time of trekking it never rained enough to hinder our steps. Otherwise, I wonder how could we have descended on those rocky mountains avoiding falls. :O

How:

Our last trek was via Trek The Himalayas and it was a pleasant experience throughout. This time due to rigidness of the dates, we had to go with Renok Adventures. Although the trek was mesmerizing, their services turned out to be huge cause of disappointment throughout for many of us. So, I would personally not recommend going with Renok and instead you can go with TTH or India Hikes. For any details about Renok, please comment below or message me personally.

What to Carry:

Now this is a very important thing to keep in mind, while packing and loading stuff for this trek. We made a mistake of over-carrying stuff that we dint need at all and which added to the burden on our shoulders at the same time caused us the constant space management issues - which is anyways one of the things you learn to plan, as you trek more and more. Hampta valley in last week of June is not that cold rather it is simply windy. So instead of carrying too many layers of warm clothing, make sure to carry wind cheaters + rain coats. The other very important thing which one should consider in this trek are the shoes that you are wearing. On most experienced people's recommendations who have been to Hampta and based on a lot of research done by my husband (Btw he is really good at it ;)), we'd bought Quechua Forclaz 500 high (cost - 6k) for this trek and they were totally-totally worth it. In fact the shoes proved out to be our biggest saviors on days involving more excursion. You have to step on rocky terrains and walk on river stones a lot of times during this trek. Your shoes will be your best friend in this trek and if you fail to carry good ones, be ready to walk in wet shoes and the weather won't be in a mood to let them get dried. So here's my quick must have list: 

• Windcheater & Raincoat/Poncho
• Forclaz 500 High shoes
• Suncap (It's sunny during daytime and you mostly would be walking around 12:00PM)
• Sunglasses 
• Hiking Pole (This will take care of your knees while descending..Also make sure to follow their exercise regimen to avoid random fatigues or injuries) 
• Woolen cap (To cover your head & ears while hiking to higher altitudes) 
• Quick dry track Pants - to save yourself from staying cold longer
• Socks (Even cotton socks would do.You might need Woolen socks for the day, you are going to hike the peak/pass)
• A very good sunscreen (SPF 30 or more and make sure to reapply it every few hours). Please don't ignore this..Me, my husband and my brother - all 3 of us got tanned badly on the areas where we were a bit lazy and ignorant on regularly using the sunscreen. And as soon as we moved back to the city the skin started to flake. It was a slow procedure and meanwhile our skin looked quite grubby. People might wonder if you have gotten any disease or something. A good, high SPF sunscreen can save you from this embarrassment and keep your skin safe from sunburns or frostbites.   

Reaching Manali:

If you are traveling via Mumbai like us, you can either take a flight until Chandigarh or Delhi and then take a state transport or private bus from that place until Manali. Personally, I would advise to take State Transport buses to reach Manali. First of all they have good AC Volvo buses plying on this route and secondly but most importantly, these buses are much more punctual and less prone to any end time license issues, unlike Private tour operators have, causing delay in reaching Manali.  

Hope this information helps you plan your trek better. My closing words would be - "One cannot discover new oceans unless one has the courage to lose sight of the shore."  Treks have turned out to be the life altering experiences for me, have evolved me into a better person and I suggest that one must try one trek in his/her lifetime for sure! India is much more beautiful than what we may know of and Himalayas are truly the paradise where you experience the nature at its best. 

Happy Planning & Happy Trekking,

Dishi :)

Perceptions - As we grow, we build more and more, should we?

We all know that our first teacher is our mother. When a child is growing up, the difference between right and wrong is defined by his mother and slowly by the other family members. The initial 1-5 years of upbringing are very crucial and this is the time when a child learns the most and roots of those lessons are the deepest ones.

Every couple is different and so is every human being. Scientifically you can say that every pair of DNA makes a unique DNA.Every quality which you think exists in your nature, and to which you strongly stick to willingly or may be you are stuck with it unwillingly, has some roots to your childhood observations of surroundings and to some extend also your upbringing. A certain behavior is not developed overnight, it takes years of repeated observations, analysis and implementations in ones real life. If you think it is okay to lie once in a while, it is because you have seen people doing it and getting away with it. If you think it is okay to shout and be vocal about your emotions or to just shut off the outside world, well that's because may be you were surrounded by such people.. To what extend you engrave that habit decides whether it is going to do good or harm to you! It could be your dearest family member or one of your best neighborhood friend. The instinct starts building from there on. The nature, habits and the PERCEPTIONS about things, people and how situational behaviors work around us. 

Recently over a coffee break one colleague of mine shared a very good example of how people behave differently with different people, unknowingly making a wrong choice for themselves. The first reason for me to start writing this blog post. Let me share it here with you, and for me, you try giving it a thought, imagining  yourself in that situation. 

"Let's say, you are having this huge, verbally ill fight with your spouse..Your kid is sitting silently there watching this jingbang. Suddenly your door bell rings, and it's your boss on the other side, asking for some urgent work to be done. How do you behave??

Gave it a thought? 

Well, it's obvious, isn't it? You would behave as if nothing has happened. Why?? Because your boss isn't the root cause of your anger and you are supposed to maintain a good repo with him/her.

Mmm...Are you not supposed to maintain a healthy repo with your spouse, your kid??"

Well that's a perception we generally have, that it is okay being moody as long as it is family. People even get off their work related frustrations at home more often,  but to the outside world they easily tend to put a different face altogether. The point here is, surprisingly we are not that worried about how people who matter think about us, but we surely do worry about what a stranger thinks. Such a plastic life we all are getting used to of.

That kid sitting there, thinks it is okay to have fights. Tomorrow when he/she grows up and has his own personal life, he might tend to do the same. Now here, probably the other partner is not ready for this. All he/she has seen is a peaceful and amicable communication between people, or may be a different approach to discuss things. His/Her PERCEPTION says that shouting and fighting is unnatural..And that's how things start to change.

Not just childhood but even the adulthood adds perceptions. It appears to be a never ending process. The first source of knowledge to any new exposure,  is your strongest base for building a PERCEPTION in that area. Good perceptions are GOOD but bad ones are very difficult to get away with and they can hammer your relationships, career & YOU. 

I don't know what we can do about it. All of us come across different people, with their burdens of different perceptions, which drive their day to day decisions. Be it going for a small trip, starting a new activity or taking a strategic decision, everyone has this thin layer of these 'set of perceptions' based on which they lay their judgements, take calls, take risks. And perceptions are not only limited to materialistic things, we all have perceptions about people around us. Sometimes good ones and sometimes bad ones. The good ones are the healthy ones, most of the times, but the bad ones generally aren't.

So as a parting note of this blog, I would request all of us to let go off, of those negative perceptions you might be carrying about people around you, about some societal norms, assumptions or habits , and let us give everyone a fair new chance, at least once. Everyone & everything deserves a fair chance at life! Go for that trip you were really scare off, text that one friend of yours - you thought was really mean to you..try this new challenge, you thought you were going to fail at...just put an effort to at least re-verify that your perception towards someone or something is a reality or just something imaginary..Let tomorrow be a blank page, so that you can write a new story!

A trip to Singapore & Phuket

It was a well ahead planned trip and me and my husband gave enough time to filter options for must do things and must visit places. I would try to keep it short & crisp..Let's try.  :)

Travel Dates : 23rd March - 3rd April 2016
Covered Places : Singapore, Phuket (Thailand)

My brother-in-law & family stays at Singapore, so we rather left it on them to pick places for us to visit in the country & around. And to be honest that decision paid off well!

It needs around 7 days to cover major destinations of Singapore so we had addition 4 days and hence we chose to cover another one of the near by tourist destinations/countries and mark it as checked from our TODO list. After reading a lot of reviews, out of Krabi, Phuket, Bali & Malaysia we chose to cover Phuket, simply because of it's leisure lifestyle and beautiful islands.

Out of all the places we'd covered in Singapore & Phuket,  following are the must visit places there. I am pasting links to my tripadvisor reviews here for your reference :

TripAdvisor - List of Must Visit Places in Singapore

For Phuket, Thailand, I am somehow unable to get a consolidated list, so here I am pasting individual links of the places to be or not to be covered :

https://www.tripadvisor.in/ShowUserReviews-g1152716-d553518-r361668601-James_Bond_Island-Ao_Phang_Nga_National_Park_Phang_Nga_Province.html

https://www.tripadvisor.in/ShowUserReviews-g297930-d2454044-r361664997-Patong_Beach-Patong_Kathu_Phuket.html

https://www.tripadvisor.in/ShowUserReviews-g297927-d454889-r361670739-Phi_Phi_Islands-Krabi_Town_Krabi_Province.html

Hoping these reviews will be helpful planning your trip.

Enjoy!

Who Wins?

Rashmi said to Ravi in anger, "I will not accept to whatever nonsense you tell me.I will speak up my opinions too, and do whatever I want to do; I don't care what others think!"

Having been raised as pampered kids in the family, and having almost no chores to do around the house, both of them had developed the habit of sticking to their bare minimum work. Not that they were indolent, they both had good jobs in their hands and were making enough money for an affordable tension free life. Alas, they were two souls but one.

"What should I do? Should I let go? Why should I let go? Why can't he let go?" These random thoughts had been crossing Rashmi's mind a lot these days. Feminism had taken a toll on her personality. She was part of the era where women, their position in society, their roles and responsibilities were changing fast. She found it fascinating to be independent, and a part of this change, which society and media had chosen to be their favourite hyped topic. Feminism has been as spicy as terrorism. Both have victims & culprits, and who is who... you never know the complete picture!

Rashmi decided to take off from work and this disturbing life for a few days and stay at her Mom's place. She wanted to stay away from Ravi, for both of them to take some time to think where were they going wrong.

Ravi was equally disturbed. He never intentionally posted his opinions on Rashmi, but he had accepted that they both wanted the same thing, but sadly in different ways. Even after this last argument, he tried stopping her from leaving, but she was adamant.

"Hey there, my princess." said Rashmi's father who had come to pick her up at the airport.As soon as she heard his voice, she immediately forgot Ravi and all her worries.

Rashmi shouted from the entrance, "What's cooking, mom?"
"It's your favourite Daal-Baati, as always" said Rashmi's mother as soon as she entered the corridor. Her mother hugged her tightly and kissed her on her forehead.

Slowly she took her inside the kitchen and whispered, "Is everything alright between you and Ravi? Why this sudden visit?" She looked tensed.

Rashmi, gasping as much air as she could in one go, taking a deep breath, said "What Ma, now don't act like a spy. Everything is fine. Ravi wanted to come, but due to some urgent meeting, he had to cancel the plan."
"Okay, if your are saying, I will agree." - said her mother smiling.

Rashmi felt relieved.

"By the way, this is such a coincidence that you are here today. We have finalized a very nice match for our Priya and tomorrow itself we are planning to have their engagement. Now, even you will get to meet her. She was dying to see you."

"Oh my god Ma... that's such an icing on the cake! Priya did tell me some stuff about this whole chapter but oh, she dint tell me she said 'yes' to someone!" with frowned eyes Rashmi said.

"Beta, you know her na. She doesn't do anything without her parent's concern. May be Mama had told her to keep mum with this news, until everything was decided."

"Offo... why is she so fiercely obedient. Doesn't she have any say in anything?"

"Rashmi, you need to understand: she isn't a spoiled child like you are. It's all your father's fault, I wish you were more like her. Now this time, help me in serving the meal. You are no more a girl; you have to behave like a woman."

"Maa, don't talk to me like that again. Otherwise, I will never come home." Rashmi said getting annoyed and started to walk towards the dining area.

Right then, Rashmi's father entered from the corner of the kitchen and said, "Ohho! You both ladies have started again. Garima (Rashmi's mother), there is no one like my daughter. She isn't meant to work in the kitchen. She is an independent girl and I am her proud father. Now, let's have garma-garam Daal-Baati. I am really very hungry. HaHaHa"

It brought smile on Rashmi's face and she hugged her father for favouring her, cherishing this pampering she had been long missing.

*Engagement Day*                                               

Because of the short notice, only the close relatives staying in town were invited. Ravi's absence was also taken as an obvious matter.

"I am soooo happy for you Priya! Oh my god you are looking so pretty!" Rashmi said this, hugging Priya tightly. Priya smiled gently.

"What's with that fake smile? Are you not happy, or what?" - Rashmi immediately caught Priya, her hands still on Priya's shoulders.

"No, it's nothing like that. But I am feeling numb. I do not know the guy completely, the family or anything more than their names and address. They seem nice people, they are very nice to Baba as well, but still..."

"What are you saying? Haven't you guys talked before?" Rashmi took her hands off Priya's shoulders in surprise.

"We have, like for some odd 10-15 minutes. Our horoscopes were matched and that's all about it." said Priya timidly.

"Really Priya! I always worried that you would make such a mistake. Why do you always have to blindly listen to everyone? Tell me honestly, do you like someone else? If you want, I can talk to Mama..."

"No, no, no..." interrupted Priya. "There is nothing like that."

She took a deep breath and continued "I think I need to calm down. I am sure everything is going to be okay. And moreover, this is what Baba wants. He has never denied me anything I have ever asked for. Now, this is my turn to respect his decision."

"What happens to your job? Have you talked about it?" asked Rashmi.

"Yes, don't worry about that. I will continue to work but may be not as rigorously as I currently do" said Priya managing her saree's pallu with her left hand.

"See, you are not happy!" said Rashmi.

"No, this is what I myself have chosen and no one is forcing me. And if we both felt I should, I would. But I should keep the possibilities in mind. It will be a new place with new people."

"Priya, you are talking like a typical old lady. We are living in 21st century. What about your own happiness?" Rashmi asked, trying to keep her anger in check.

Sensing her sister's concern towards her, Priya replied,"I know you love me and you are worried about me. But you have to trust me in this. I am a modern girl but my definition of happiness has been very simple, and with this big responsibility I don't want to take any chances.I want to complete my life-partner and not compete with him. One of us has to have work as the priority and the other one should have the home as the priority. Doesn't matter who prefers to pick what but I think that would give us the right balance and a happier life.What do you think? Don't you agree?"

"mmm..." nodded Rashmi, listening carefully.

Priya continued,"I know we hear all these things about gender equality nowadays. But, to me, it never struck that strong. If we are allowed to either be a housewife or a working-woman, why are men not given this option? Why is a man questioned when there is some monetary emergency? Rather, equality is a men-issue too. A man has to make equal compromises as a woman after marriage. Just that one of us has to let go and slowly time and love of the other person fills up the compromises. At least, that's what I feel when I see our parents living amicably."

Rashmi was quiet.

"Offo, see I started boring you with this 'butterflies in the stomach' thoughts. Of course, you know much better than me; you are already married to the love of your life. By the way, how is my loving Jiju doing, and Why is he not here?. Oh Rashmi, you're very lucky. I wish my better-half is just like Jiju."

Rashmi was stunned by Priya's clear thoughts. Why had they never struck her mind, like that before? She started missing Ravi immediately. It struck her today what Ma always meant when she asked her to be more like Priya.Her mother was not anti-feminine but she was an experienced wife, a mother and the lady behind their happy family.

All this while she thought Ravi had taken her for granted. But perhaps, it could have been the other way round. Ravi had, at least, kept trying to make things work. May be, he did not pamper Rashmi like her father did, but he fit perfectly in the definition of a loving and understanding husband. "There are some things which men and women cannot share. If a woman cannot share the social responsibilities and pressure of being a husband, how can a man share hers?" her feminine side questioned her.

"Hey, what happened? Did I say too much? I am sorry, I think I am still nervous." Priya shook Rashmi, who was staring at zero.

Rashmi quickly tried to divert her mind saying, "Oh dear god, you seem to have grown up so much. If I were a boy, I would surely marry you. Hahaha."

"And if I were a boy, I would never marry you. Hahaha!" Priya winked and continued,
"You are such a stubborn sister of mine. For a second, I feared if you are going to run outside and say something stupid about this engagement." It was meant to be a pun but it pricked Rashmi like a needle.

As soon as the rituals of the engagement ceremony commenced, Priya's face started to glittered more and she looked calmer sitting by her fiance.

Priya was an average girl, every one's favorite in the family. She did not much excel in studies but the value system taught by her mother had always been on top of her mind. She used to help her father running his business, when ever he asked. She used to help her mother in routine household chores: everything that could have been handled if she wasn't willing to do, but she always insisted to. Rashmi always had felt this difference between them, but neither could she convince Priya to focus on studies more, nor could she convince herself to be homelier like her.

This time, somehow, they both were to experience similar phases of life. Soon Priya would be married too, and would continue her job just like Rashmi. Priya too always had opinions, but she preferred to win 'people' over 'arguments', unlike Rashmi. Certainly, their foundations were different.

Scattered Rashmi asked her inner self,
"Who wins? I or She?
With whom would anyone want to spend his entire life? Me or Her? .."

The ceremony was about to get over. Rashmi stepped on to the stage to pose for a photograph with the newly engaged couple. While she stood by Priya's side, Priya unexpectedly shouted out of nowhere,
"Ravi Jiju..!!!"
She amusingly turned to Rashmi and said, "You wanted to surprise me dint you..? I am so excited right now.."
Rashmi was stunned, unable to move..

Rashmi took notice of Ravi's smiling face. He was walking towards the stage, towards her. Her eyes were locked with his eyes and her heart started to beat faster with joy. She was fumbling through her thoughts about what to speak to him...He stood next to her, keeping his hand on her shoulders. He pulled her a bit closer and whispered in her ear,

"I am sorry.."

Who Won??

Random #3

Albeit here exists the sound of doors shaking, air flowing, clock ticking... But it strikes the most to hear the silence echoing..

#whatifeltafterenteringmyclosedhouseformonths #missupapa

Random #2

"Don't be too blind about your opinions that, at the cost of getting others convinced, you are left alone with your opinion at the end."

~Dishi