Jai mata di!

I went on a "pilgrimage" to Vaishno Devi (for the non-Indian folks, it's one of the holy spots up in the Himalayas in Kashmir) recently. Now while I'm not into all that religious stuff at all, I'm extremely receptive to the idea of trekking up/down mountains, so I agreed to go.

We flew to Jammu and then drove to this place, Katra, from where the route to the shrine begins. As it was, our group consisted of a bunch of seniors in their fifties and sixties, and not exactly jumping at the idea of doing the 13 km trek, so it was decided that we'd take the helicopter up to the mountain, from where it was a 2.5 km walk up to the top. My first time in a chopper, and I must admit there's quite nothing like the feeling of hovering a few thousand feet up. Definitely something worth experiencing at least once.

Anyway, so we flew up, and as luck would have it, clouds blew in and the chopper service was suspended for the day. We had to walk back down.

A little way on, it started pouring and we had to step under a canopy (you don't want to be wet and cold with 10 kms of slippery downhill road to go, trust me). That's when I saw him. A man, probably in his 30s or 40s, a leg missing and moving along by propping himself on a stick. No shirt, nothing on his feet, just a small bag slung across his shoulders. He kept repeating "jai mata di" as he slowly made his way up in the rain.

I've never felt so humbled in my life. This guy was making his way up a mountain driven solely by his faith. That encounter has affected my way of looking at life to some extent. I'm starting to believe it's very important to have something to hold on to in life. Not physical stuff, though even that helps sometimes, but something deeper. I'm having trouble explaining here. Maybe it'll require more digging within.

I hope that man's prayers get answered. He certainly deserves it more than I do.

technology dud.....

I recently tried this face recognition thing, where you upload a picture of yourself and it throws up a list of celebrities that you resemble.

Apparently I look like Yao Ming and Madonna.

No really, do I look from any angle, by the furthest stretch of your imagination, like a Chinese basketball player??? Has anyone ever seen me walkin' around with metallic cones attached to my boobs singing about virgins??

Now would be a good time to send the software back to the drawing board.....

T.I.A. This is Africa

I was reading this article by Alex Perry (TIME magazine's India correspondent and full-time ass-kisser to Uncle Sam) a couple of days back, and I came away with a bunch of mixed emotions.

"Why the hell does an American journo deputed in India need to go to prison in Zimbabwe to bring forth the issue of mistreatment of prisoners by a tyrant?? Guantanamo Bay's much closer."

"Mugabe looks and behaves a lot like Idi Amin (no clue about the cannibalism or orgies though)."

"The author can't decide whether to sympathize with the Zimbabweans or criticize them. Typical diplomatic article."

"Why can't a nation of a dozen million people overthrow one dictatorial fucker??"

Then I remembered this line by Leonardo DiCaprio's character from Blood Diamond......

"Sometimes I wonder... will God ever forgive us for what we've done to each other? Then I look around and I realize... God left this place a long time ago."

may the force be with you.....

Meet my nominee for invention of the year (though I'm guessing it's been around longer than that)......



This thing makes killing mosquitos easy as, er, pie. it basically fries the damn things to hell. I'm sure if you look closely after zapping them, the little fuckers probably look like miniatures of Don King.

Anyway, so I kill like 200 skitos everyday. It's like having a light sabre in your hand!!

Only in America

aahhahahahahhah..........this country is too much!

been there....

yeah, it takes about 50 odd days for the transition from "just married to "totally harried". Good thing she doesn't read my blog....heheh

Anyway, I was watching this movie about the '93 bomb attack on Bombay, and I started putting together a mental list of some of the major events that I've "witnessed" in my lifetime. Here's what I came up with:

in no particular order.....

1. Pulling down of the Berlin wall
2. 9/11, 7/7 and other terrorist attacks
3. '06 tsunami
4. '01 Bhuj quake
5. Cloning of Dolly (the sheep, not Parton)
6. Gulf War I & II, Afghan "war" and all other wars where the US invaded other countries.
7. Assassinations of Indira & Rajiv Gandhi, Rafik Hariri, Sadat, Lennon
8. Deaths of music and movie greats (Kurt Cobain, Freddie M, RDB, George Harrison, John Lennon, Marley Sr., Utpal Dutt, Marlon Brando etc. etc.)
9. '84 Punjab, '02 Gujarat and other mass riots.

Do you recall any others?

Oddly, and sadly, most of the events involve destruction and death. More proof we're fluching ourselves down the toilet.