My Definition of Superstition :)

Well this write up is completely inspired by a comment on my previous blog by my friend! She said I do follow the superstitions I put under learnt from home slot ... well I DO! Maybe not fanatically but I Do!

• Every time we sneeze a dozen bless you's are thrown at you :) Have you considered it superstition?
  
• Every time we cross our fingers with a wish :) Have you considered it superstition?
• Every time two people say a word together and scream jinx :) Have you considered superstition?
• Every time you though Santa over Christmas or tooth fairy as u buried you teeth under you pillow or rock ( it was rock in our custom and it was an old lady replacing your teeth with teeth seeds and not fairy with goodies back home) :) Have you considered that superstition ?
• Every time we see a falling star or a eye lash on the cheek which we reverently blow of asking for a wish :) Have you considered that superstitious?

Well a lot of things we read in our westernized books, movies, soaps and cinema becomes lifestyle...Then why should my list be superstition?

That was precisely the reason I wrote it the fairies and devils I said waiting to pop in our lives may be a myth but the innocuous faith with which we believe it will happen that if tradition custom... to me

Any custom which is not imposed or which does not hurt or harm another person to me is not superstition but a custom deeply secured to out tradition our folklore :)

The India I know: Treading Between Jinxes

Superstitions! one word and we dismiss a whole lot of things which do not fit into our psyche as a bunch of couch potatoes who've grown up watching repeat telecast of American soaps!

No! No! NO! I don't have to believe let alone follow any of the.... but I know deep down I will never forget them ( Its just ingrained in my psyche like a shy kid dangling around its mothers neck refusing to look up at anyone! ). Neither am I embarrassed of them.... may be a little amused.....

Because there lies a small part of my India in them. A part so far flung that we almost forget it exists, a part where we still run to the village demi God with every petty problem... to jinx or unjinx our lives :) Where Devils and Gods loiter around waiting eagerly to hop into our lives :) That's the India I know


Somethings I learnt back home

• It is believed that one should not clip finger nails inside the house because , if anybody steps on the chunk accidentally a nasty fight will ensue between the two.

• Never step out of the house in the evening after washing your hair and without eating anything, because in this pure state the devil is suppose to be tempted to step into your body.

• When you step out of the house if a lizard clucks best advise step back! ( Weirdly lizards in the north in spite of their humongous size are silent to the level that I believe they are dumb)

• If you cross a path where three roads meet watch out and scan with careful gaze if you see any weird material like eggs, onion, chili, rock salt, coconut ( I truly believe everything put in omelet heeheehee) spit on it ! Its one of those numerous black magic jinxes )
  

• When you set out of a journey ( immaterial of how far or close) immediately realize you have to go back for any god damn reason there are two options

• Wake up on your right side ! ( I still do, in fact I repeat this line like a prayer before opening my eyes everyday) Left can jinx your day! This faith is soooo strong that I know characters who as much as refuse to turn on their left ever instead turn around the longer way ( Like rotate).... that's a scene ( This in no fictitious character)
  

1. Either don't go back
2. Or sit back in the house and leave in some time pretending its a new journey

• Of course the ever evil black cat ! if it crosses your way...

1. Stop! Duh!!! But wait for some body else to cross the way and carry the jinx away so that your coast is clear...
2. Look for a coconut tree, seeing coconuts on the tree immediately will break the jinx!
   

Somethings I learnt in Delhi

• People shouldn't sit on their shit pots with cloths on ( courtesy Bong friends ) ! Definitely not practicable in Delhi winters
  

• Carry pieces on onion with you if you travel out in the night with Mehendi on ... else of course the devil on the perpetual wait with haunt the hell out of you! In this case every other conceivable evil like witches to souls will follow you !

• Well Hanuman Chalisa wholly and solely is capable of protecting you from any evil immaterial of its shape, form, and in some cases religion!

• Don't break curry leaves in the night, or of course the devil blah blah
  

Well if some more things pop up I will note it down on a part two :)

Battle of a Life Time

This is the story of a Fugitive King....
Of a King who spent his life without a kingdom.....

I have just come to a conclusion that in history a lot of people turn into numbers for most like for example Humayun everyone has heard of him and years for schooling has made him ( with meticulous mugging up) 1508 - 1556 AD.

A lot happened between these dates which are out shined by two men ( Babur and Akbar) who were directly related by blood line to him ( For the clueless Humayun was the son of Babur and father of Akbar).

Miniature painting of Babur with his Son Humayun

Ok, why did I suddenly remember Humayun? His death for some reason popped into my head during a gtalk chat.

Humayun for one of the riches to rags to riches story with a very filmi life! He started of as the son( eldest one too) of the most powerful king and helped Babur conquer major parts of India. After Babur's death in 1530 he inherited the kingdom at the age 0f 23! ( Well young dashing king what could go wrong )

This kingdom was won in a battle but Humayun could not establish a vague semblance to government with the Afghans ( from whom they conquered Delhi) and the Rajputs ( with whom as I said in the previous posts their relation was everything but cordial) at biting at their heels. To add on.... he was cursed with a set of three conspiring brothers ! ( Jinx working like wild fire) With all this kichdi cooking he lost the kingdom very soon to Sher Shah Suri ( Yep! the Grand Trunk Road Guy ) !!!

So here went the handsome daring prince who was a fugitive without a kingdom! He then in a long course of events he marries the princess from Persia ( married in Sindh, his bride followed him and conceived his first son Akbar in Sindh, making him pretty much eligible to be an Indian citizen by birth I guesss and and and...... I just read a legend that this guy was soooo broke at this point of time that he did not have anything to give his men.... he just had a li'l musk which was broken and given to all..... and at this point he said let his sons fame spread like the smell of musk! Phew! quite prophetic! ) and ropes in the Persian Kings support to conquer back his kingdom.

And after 15 years Humayun conquered back his kingdom... If nothing else we should simply remember his king for his perseverance, optimism and grit ( We loose moral with one job loss! 15 years without the kingdom for a king is ..... )

But we also tend to ignore that in an era of barbarian rulers Humayun was an intellectual ( he was very religious, but haven't heard any fanatic stories). He forgave his conspiring siblings, and did work in art and science blah bah .... In short the kingdom was going all goodie goodie , hunky dory....

But in 1556 Humyun was at this library and at the time of the evening prayer call he tripped over his second floor library ledge ( Keep the ledges high!) and fractured his skull to meet his death ( Well a filmi ending for a filmi life! and ya he did manage to say some more goodie things before dying )

Humayun's Tomb in Delhi built in the Persian style by his queen , Hamida Banu Begum Well for a lady to follow him through his wilderness, and then dedicate this tomb this was a remarkable but forgotten love story

But for a character much shadowed out in comparison to his bloodline, we conveniently forget this remarkable individual... Well I still wonder do I brand him lucky or unlucky? Or a king whose biggest battle was his destiny....

Some Impressions Like This... and Some Expression Like That....

I was in Udaipur this weekend, and Boy oh Boy! that place is filled with forts at places which defy convention( and my imagination)!. The city is like this comfortable nest nestled comfortably between mountains.... And at the center are two huge lakes! I couldn't help but wonder who the place must have looked to its initial settlers : STUNNING!

The Sajjangarh Fort

Ever time I squinted my eye to look at the top of a mountain I saw a faint structure!!!So I have come to a conclusion that every mountain tip has a crown of its own... a fort, temple, a guard post which look more air dropped to me then build by humans!

So just decided to go on one of these forts called Sajjangarh! so called for an auto ( which I swear must have been at least a 100 years old and was propelled by the sound!!!) went to a fort perched right on top of the hill like an ancient eagle... There was something alive about the fort it did not feel like a building, it seemed a part of the mountain range, a part of the spirit of the land!

We went to the fort at a noon so the crowd was almost negligible, on the 3 storey where we saw a stunning window cum veranda so excited we raced for a panoramic view of the entire range it was breath taking to tell the least ! But just as we were stepping in we ran into a group of giggling girls who shyly ran out of the place ( I knew we had interupted , i thought it was ome cllege gossip) it took me a minute to realize they were actually inscribing a love note on the huge walls . My smile vanished as I saw the ghastly messages on the wall ( not one many one too many!! And one look at the walls ( which though beautiful were not the hallmark of maintainance ) was enough to move me to tears! ( it took saintly meditation t stop my selh from pushiing those girls 500 meters down the cliff bordering the fort)

If you look away from the view and scrutinize the walls u'll see it for your self !

The walls were literal collage of messages - no they had neither the creativity, content or style, they were just ghastly cuts and scratches engraved on the wall left behind but a pathetic demented mind in a hope of immortality!

It still fails me why someone would leave a ' I love u more then u tell me why" message on a wall for public display ( Even if I spared this guy for disfiguring wall I would have strangled him with my bare hands for the copy!!!)

That's when I though back why would someone be consumed by desire of this public display of emotion ? where in the grab any sharp object (like cave men) they can lay their hands on: stones, twigs, hairpins, screws( yep considering the holder is nuts :P ) what not to make one last ditch attempt to leave behind a mark! the messages I have seen are generally xyz loves abc ! The more remote the place , the more agreviated this instinct I concluded else a stinking stair filled with names simply dosn't make sense!

Ok then pondering on the question of why ??? ( and for me it was WHY???) would someone leave such a cheesy message ? Its been drummed into most of our heads since childhood not to write on walls !!! (Ya even I as a child had taken fancy for wall writing and display of intellect at the age of 3 ! but it was my wall at my home for the private viewing and horror of my parents and but mind you even then I had a much more sensible scribblings and definately more variety the dumbwit I loves you . This is for all those wall writers who think they are the torch bearers for the ajanta ellora clan!!!!) I concluded that most of the times it is done for the clandestine pleasure of blase human emotions ! A sense of making your love immortal ( people rewrite ! even add on to previous messages making funny love triangles ) . A lot more times its just the urge to be heard by the masses, at times its just a faceless voiceless human making a last ditch effort to express something!

I saw that happiness, a sense of achievement in the girls who ran out of that verandah...Its not just one fort ar the tale of one city its a tell tale act of avndalism affecting every nook and corner of the coutry which is worth its salt in fame.... Its like the habbit of spitting pan plain disgusting and considering most people are able to write ( however patheticaly) hail our education!

Udaipur Here I Come !

Ok! this weekend I'm off to Udaipur, so as a matter of habit googled it ( after all a senior once drummed it into our heads that google mein dodnd ne se bagwaan bhi miltha hai, since then its been my Geeta and Bible :) )

But I recall some legends about that place ( ya Rajasthan has more legends that the people in the state I guess, horses have legend there heavens!) 

I can recall :

• Udiapur was built from scratch by Maharana Udai Singh, this was after the Mughals attacked and captured Chitoor ( This was when the third dreadful Jauhar was held. Jauhar is a custom where the women of the fort kill themselves by jumping to a fire - something like mass sati rather then be captured by the enemy. And the men fight to the end something like Hira kiri it is called saka . These people took pride in laying down their lives !!!!Man!)

• The History of Udaipur is more colorful for the resistance to Mughal who were then the foreign invaders then the British ( that is in my mind.... cant recall such legends with Brits... lucky them!)

• Then I remember the stories of Maharanpratap who made Udaipur his base till he recaptured the famed fort of Chitor ( Yes the famed fort where 3 jauhars were held - in different eras of course! on was before Udaipur was built, one was of rani Padmini - remember how the kamena Allaudin Khili wanted to see this beautiful queen, so it was arranged for her to be seen through a mirror, the kameena villain falls for her and wages a war for her possession but the beautiful queen kills herself before the fort is captured. Well not sure if I have to feel proud or sad...)

• Ya back to Maharana Pratap : He vowed to stay in the jungle and sleep on the hard floor till the fort of Chittor was re captured from Akbar! ( He complied with both! Grit and guts the guy had!)

• The Maharana managed to wage several wars the most famous one ( or at least the one I remember from my textbooks ) was the one in which in a failing battle his leader convince him to flee ( so that the battle can be carried on later...) His Loyal commander donned his dress ( and was killed duh!) the king escaped on his horse Chetak ( Chetak was grievously injured in the battle by the elephant - it was said Chetak placed his front legs on the elephants tusk so that his master could harpoon the enemy commander on the elephant! ). But, Chetak takes his master to safety till his last breath!( there is a memorial for the horse at the spot)

• At this very spot there is another folklore, when the Maharan a was fleeing two Arab mercenaries saw him and decided to follow, on seeing this Maharana's brother (who till the was with the enemy due to some family dispute had a change of heart) followed them (that's filmi) and single handedly killed the two mercenaries ( the brothers made up after that)

• About Rana Sanga I have not heard as much . But He was Maharan Pratap's grand dad and fought Babur ( Akbar's father). He was as brave as brave could get and was suppose to be the epitome in chivalry, valor and the true follower of Hindu fighting laws ( like don't attack unarmed enemy...) 

Legends, wars, heros on horses, nobel steads, sarcifice, secrets, pride, valour, heros , beautiful damsels, wicked enemies the place has seen it all 

Well that seems to be one famous town, with some illustrious people. Reading about theses stories gives me goosebumps...To be there will be well.....

My Sketch Book - The face that set a thousand ships....

I just decided to upload some random sketches I have made on to the blog. 

About this drawing:

I choose to call her the face that set a thousand ships .... For I saw in her equal measures of beauty and elegance, a power of self control a silent message that says I count , I have an opinion and I will stand by that. Who says you need words to send across a message ?

( Of course I will try to post a better scanned image this was taken on a camera in the cell...)

World Through My Brother's Eyes : The Birds Eye View

It was not so Long ago that I gaped  with my eyes and mouth wide open the spectacle of a man jumping of a plane in a skiing kind of costume on Discovery ! And I thought Freak what on earth are they???!!!

It was something like the spectacles you seen on AXN or Discovery where they show people sitting around with Lions and Crocs ( In short absolutely out of my definition of things normal people do!)

Then I met this girl in a youth hostel in Delhi who had pretty much taken it as a sport. That's when I realised that such people do exist. But, in my defence she was an Arjuna Awardee.... SO the aero sport segment was placed well literally quite high and out of reach from my mere mortal point of view...

Then one fine morning my mother told me my brother ( the ever adventurous one ) was going sky diving... I very comfortably assumed that he was going to watch one such spectacle till I watched the pictures below!!! 

My brother actually took a sky dive jump!!!! He came out pretty much unscathed but sooo many of my myths were shattered by this one jump...

• Aero sport can be taken up by anybody ( without any major ailment that is..)
• The sport is considerable safe even for untrained ones, so it is a ' my first time' for most people!
• And nothing can stop you from dreaming and fulfilling your dream ( My brother as a kid was prone to asthma attack, and If I were in his place would have conveniently bailed out using it as an alibi. But, my brother is try something new type of species very different from earth bound Taureans like me)

The pictures gave me a dream to fly, but will it help me get over my Taurean fear of parting with this ground only time can tell... Till Then Dream Hope .... Swoosh I go.......................

Breathtaking Perhaps !!

Man Nope SuperMan

The Rope is from the Parachute( I thought It was a Rajnikant Movie Rope Stunt)

Swwooosh.... 

 My New Year Resolution 

Jack Fell Down, Came Rolling Down! Jill Came Rolling After!

The Flying Machine and The Group 

Then Here they Land...

After the skies my next stop could well be under water...... 

World through My Brother's Eyes - Croatia

My brother was bitten by a travel bug a couple of years ago and ever since he has been an irredeemable traveler.


It’s not just about visiting a place on the tourist map, its not about threading the unexplored territories its the simple joy of being in a new place and observing a new culture. Its travel for travel sake!!!!


He has another habit … He religiously mails me a holiday report (which he mails to all friends in the name of weekend paparazzi) to his friends and on some coaxing to me …. These are excessively funny personalized mail… (Which I am forbidden from publishing :( )


In any case these pictures he clicks there are my window to the world ….


So let me begin with.... Well.... Croatia! (Dont ask me why!)


Croatia


If i were to describe its geographical location it would be: Where on earth is this place??? OK! If you would ever be able to locate a country bordering Slovenia, Hungary, Serbia , Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro and yes Adriatic Sea!!!!! If anyone had gussed that one please let me know you just won... well my Respect (that’s big ok)




Well I remembered Croatia for some strange reason for some tennis player I cannot recall! ( Wow ! how precise!)


On its political scene the Wiki described it in short as … Since the adoption of the 1990 Constitution; Croatia has been a democratic republic. Between 1990 and 2000 it had a semi-presidential system, and since 2000 it has a parliamentary system.
(Heavens they don’t symbolise stability do they?)


Slobodan Milošević Yes now it rings a bell... they were a part of the worst ethnic strife with the Serbs. With thousands of Croats dead in the strife the country is slowly limping to stability....


But the best thing I liked was my brothers ingenious observation! ( from weekend Paparazzi of course) .... he said … Amazing fact was…at more than few locations…the Croatians were surprised to see Indians… :O …. It was quoted that these were the first Indian visitors around… wow.. that’s some news..


Whatever be the rest of the facts....The place is stunning if nothing else :)...


That's edible .... yummy? Not sure..




Well had heard of a candle lit dinner....table lit dinner....interesting!




Beach Beautiful!( Adriatic Sea is beautiful in spite of the name ....)




Splash!!!




Serenity....Nice evening to settle down and gaze at the sun...




Hey even they are over crowded... heeheeheee




Now I wouldn't mind that crowd! Its beautiful




That's a Bright Idea? What say?




The sunset is beautiful sans borders ...




Well The stairs look antique ( reminder: Ask him where it leads???)




A European Architectural Piece




That's where it leads....But where is it???




I have no clue....




Going to another country... Byeeeeee

P.S.: No clue how some picture titles got the link.....so ignore it( it will lead u to the pictures : for curious cats)

Hail The King - Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck !

As the world was looking west at the American President Barack Obama, a small kingdom in the East was making silent history...

In Bhutan being coronated was the youngest head of the state Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck aka Prince Charming(Just 28!and by the way a bachelor too!!!). The retiring king has three wives ( sisters whow!) Khesar is the eldest son of the third queen. ( of 5 brothers and 5 sisters in all )

The coverage to the power change in the two countries was perhaps symbolic and reflective of the world politics... ON one side was the super power across the globe whose electoral candidates were more familiar to us then our Prime Minster! There were people so glued to the results and sending congratulatory or consolatory messages like it were a Cricket world cup! On the other hand was another country right across our border on whose head of state we hand to Google the information half of the interest seemed to be about his age looks and duh! bachelorhood !





No I'm not drawing any conclusion of whether it is right or wrong. NO! Just seeing a picture and wondering.NO not taking any glory or limelight from the young king whose country is the highest happiness index if not the economic index....wishing his highness all the good luck...





How this oxford educated young king will manage the mantel of this kingdom peacefully nestled far away from the world's glare in the tranquil folds of the Himalayas will be interesting!

Psycho let loose?

Yesterday after reading about a acid throwing psycho lurking at large in Delhi my first reaction was skepticism. How can I explain it to panicking friends and family back home that when 3 people get attacked its not catastrophe let loose.

Hey wait before you question my sensitivity or rather the lack of it let me explain :

For a single working girl who travels to office day in and day out the biggest threat would be the streets of Delhi.


What chances are of me meeting the acid throwing psycho ? But , I know the everyday I step out I will meet men gaping and passing lewd comments. I have heard of gory stories from friends being bullied and traumatized by the passers by ( mind you not psychos but in the right mind!)




Every time I walk on the roads in the evening I look back in fear for a speeding car of a rich brat to run over me

Mind you as far as I as a common working girl in Delhi is concerned the threat is not from the psychos but the sane minded jerks on the street...they do not have a face they could well be anyone...Now that is scary!