Journey or the Destination?

I was recently discussing with a friend of mine about the fact whether a journey or the destination is more important in our lives, she and I both agreed  that it is the journey.

Both of us remember the ways we traveled for work more than the work benches during last 5 years. One another friend thinks just the opposite. He doesn't remember the journey to his office but he remembers the table, the office room and the computer screen, he has used in his last places of work.

When I was looking for jobs in industry and in one of the few interview offers I got, I was asked what do I relish the journey of doing a project or the target. I proudly said the journey, I like the process of working, I like the knowledge I gather while doing a project, I cherish the skills I get to learn, I feel very happy if the projects results into a fruitful piece, but if not I feel contended that I got the opportunity to work there and I got to know so many people through that piece of work. I did not get the job, so I guess my answer was not appreciated. I guess in  a practical  and conformers world, objectives, targets and fulfilling them via any means are most important agenda. Those who try their best but can not achieve the target, some how end up being portrayed as confused characters and society call them not useful enough. I was actually asked by my boss that instead of thinking what I want to learn, I should think which learning will help me in my career. Also it is a known unsaid rule that in work places, although during hiring a point is mentioned that care will be taken for personal growth of the employee, but my experience says that any personal interest is taken care of only when that coincides with the prime interest of the company/institute. So after all an employee is just a mean to bring more production, more money and more fame to an institute, it does not matter if that employee has benefited by doing that or not. There are huge number of people who can accommodate themselves into that need, but there are a few who cannot.

World might work in that way, but for me the process of living is more important than trying to fulfil it all the time. I prefer to learn what I want than what is needed. And I must add the point that, for wanting a life where the priorities are set by me and not by  the need of the society or a situation, I sometime feel I struggle a lot more than who accept to live in a predefined formats, made for them, by the society or the family. By following my new rule book if I can touch high achieving model defined by the society, one measure of that is money, society will  then perhaps accept my norms but till then I need to struggle for existence, I need to keep explaining my choices. And this struggle can sometimes  be hard and lonely. I might never touch that model life of rich with money and fame and remain marked as an not so successful and not worthy enough.

Then on looking around I see that  there are actually many people who are in same shoes like me, they are not fitting into any group and trying to painstakingly carve a niche for themselves, living lives build on their choices. They are not high achievers (according to the conformists world), may be because of the decisions taken by them or the choices they have made, but if you think carefully they are the ones who make this earth more versatile, they are the ones who will not look at their watch and will come forward if they see some one needs help on the road, they are the ones who will listen to you carefully before giving you opinionated virtues without even understanding what your strong points are. They are the one who bring up new dimensions to the existing world. But unfortunately they are not acknowledged by the society, for the values they add to this world mostly are uncountable and qualitative.

Some might say, it is all rubbish about journey and destination, you need to keep going and need to stay in the system, fulfill some objectives at least, to bring a change in it. If for that reason you need to bend a little that should not be an issue. That might be true, for a practical approach even for a non conformist in a world of conformers. And what I say is that by any chance if you fall into this category then  you need to have immense amount of patience, courage and a strong head. You need to be able to make decisions on daily basis and have faith in them, you need to be have voice to say a spade a spade and at all costs, you need to have strength to pave a new road through the path untravelled.

And you need to keep travelling may wherever the end is.

Photo courtesy: Roads from different parts of India

Hampi-The forgotten empire of India

Hampi - isn't the name very exotic? And so is the place. 

Doesn't matter how beautiful place is where you live now or how many exotic places you have traveled, I bet you will find it special in Hampi- used to be the capital of great kingdom of 'Vijayanagara'. Hampi is also mentioned in Hindu mythologies of Ramayana.

I wanted to visit this place since long and the dream came true few months ago. But this fulfillment just created a lingering 'returning back and staying there more kind of a feeling.' I went with great determination to soak the beauty of the place and turn them into words. I planned to write experiences of each day. I absorbed myself into every bit of it, and ignored the previous plan completely, thinking I will do it better after finishing the trip. On return I tried to write about the place on each passing night. But then I kept faltering.

I finally decided not to trap the place with my incapable words.
And after all a lot is written on this place in several books, articles and book chapters.
Hampi - the forgotten empire of King Krishna Dev Rao has been visited by several European and Chinese travellers in several hundreds of years ago.

The place was a melting point of trade through sea, culture and politics. It was a protected kingdom. It is still. It is like a open air museum which has come out from earth. Thanks to UNESCO, this place is kept with lots of care. 
We Indians don't really care for our heritage but for Hampi this does not hold true.

Just like several historical places you will notice Hampi is also well guarded by natural hill ranges, magnificent gateways, boundary walls and nature, still now. While writing about this place I am loosing my words. I am experiencing that thousands of words which I will need to paint this place may well be produced by just a few shots...

 

The exceptional color match between the tree barks and the stone carved magnificent structures

The chariot structures with detailed wheels and the closeness of a built structure in south of India to that of famous Konark sun temple in East (Orissa) of India. Showing nothing but good ties and evidence of huge kingdoms of past in India

  

The musical pillars in Vithala temple and also in groups. Pillars are very common architectural art from Indian past. In spite of so many temples residing there, there are only few where worshiping is still carried out. According to Hindu belief, a place where the idols are broken or damaged could not be prayed. So rush of devotional tourists are observed only in few places leaving lot more silent corners for your spiritual calmness. Virupekha (another name of lord Shiva) temple is one of the temples where every day people come for worshipping. 

 

The decorated and detailed 'Gopurams', functioned as gateways for temple and is often observed in Dravidian styles, Pallava kings made them famous and who knows these were like the gates of gated communities we have in today's very fast changing Indian cities.

Can you see the horses and people? They are actually representing the Arabic, Chinese and European traders with horses to sell in Indian market. India is not a big market just now, it has always been actually.

This yard in front of the 'Vithala temple' use to be market for selling horses, you can find many Yallis-mythical beasts (related to mythological stories of Narsimha) in the pillars  and how beautifully they are carved.

The queens bath and other bath. Our tour guide defined it as spa from those era, where sandalwood logs were immersed in the water to give scented baths to the royal people. Life has been always very good for rich people in India.

Lotus palace (left) and elephant stables (right). This quarter of the kingdom was strictly reserved for women of royal families. Specially when the men went for wars. Lotus palace had options of water circulating all around it to get air conditioning effect in strong summer days of Hampi.

Ceiling work explaining incidents from several mythologies of 'Ramayana' and 'Mahabharatha' in several temples, palaces and quarters, natural  earthen colors were used which stayed through so many hundreds of years of weathering.

The mornings and evenings in a hidden village of Karnataka, near the Tungabhdra river (earlier may be it was known as Pampa). Did you notice the Coracle boats? Oh it was wonderful to have a boat trip  and getting immersed in the ambience, just at the dusk.

Then there were market places, cosy and laid back restaurants and so many more.

A very calm and well kept place of India. If you love history, architecture, vegetation, nature, calm places, small town character and art then go visit it.

And as you stay there please don't litter and be a responsible eco traveller.

Bitten by a travel bug!

Travelling has been part of my life, from the time I remember myself. Mostly as getting uprooted from one place to another and then starting to live there. Along with this there has been touristic travelling, I have been part of.
I have liked most of them.

When went for touristic purposes, I always felt difficult to tear myself off and go back, where we missed visiting one or two spots due to lack or time or money or energy or all. Sometimes weather did not support us or we simply reached the place in wrong time. Museum/castle/palace/garden got closed as we reached late. Although these are minors. Just like few poppy seeds in a colourful carpeted floor.
Still I keep reminding them to myself and to the people around me and keep dreaming that one fine day I will be able to see, feel and enjoy that place.

The next time rarely comes.

Next time when we again sit to set our itinerary for a short trip or a big one. We check in internet and figure out that we don't have enough time or money and finally energy to see the whole of the place we are planning to. So we prioritise, heavily and new poppy seeds fill up my carpet .

Another part of our recent travel acts is that even in a family of three we do have different kinds of travellers.

Visit to the nearby fishing villages

Once upon a time, when we used to live in a small town, near north sea in Scotland, it was a Saturday morning, with no particular shopping, chores or things to do, or may be there were so many things to do that we were not bothering to start on something, progressing and finishing them. But on the other hand we were looking for an escape. An escape that won't cost extra, an escape that won't require planning, an escape that won't be indoor wandering inside a big building called a supermarket, an escape that won't be putting a DVD inside the box and watch it running for next 3 hours, an escape where we can relish all our senses. 

So, we started to think hard, I made two cups of Tea (Black one!) for us and gave a bowl of Cornflakes and milk to 'J' in between and started to think again. We thought this and we thought that. Then we decided why not we get dressed, walk to the nearest bust stop, buy a day long family bus ticket, travel the full route of the bus,  hop out whenever we feel like and hop in when we want to go to the next place.  That bus no. 95 took us to the nearby villages and we found so many gems, which I never bothered to care for and look around, before. And little I knew then, that particular day in my memory will be one of the most colorful and rich days for several months.

On the very picturesque way along the sea, we saw the fields laced with green plantation of corn and wheat. We found a wind mill far away standing alone near the sea,  we saw the metal crosses seeking out from the unknown churches belonging to small villages, where mostly the architectures are still kept like they were hundreds of years ago, mostly made up of stones.

First we went to a pottery shop, it was a nice little shop with nice cordial people, eager to show their things and tell about how they make them, but there was no air of competitiveness and ego. They have a small and steady clientele, and some times a tourist or two drop in their shop buy some small items, they don't want more than that. This pottery is run by a a family, a trend becoming so rare to see now a days. 

India: On the roads I

India is changing, very fast, impressions of changes are noticeable in every aspect of life. Returning to India after a long while, I am bound to notice those changes, in my last blog on home coming, I mentioned about me being in accommodating mode and not comparative with the life and living in Europe. I guess I was not right, I am still on comparative mode, but not with life in India and in western countries, but with India now and India then when I left it. Each and every day whatever I am doing or seeing, I am trying to remember was this there before when I left. There might be several post on this topic or might not be (even after writing for more than one year now in this platform, I cannot figure out which topic will trigger my writing, isn't it surprising how little we know about ourselves?). Roads are the interesting spots of India, people drive, people walk, people buy and sell things, people gossip, people demonstrate their happiness as well as anger, people fall in love but unfortunately some (or more correctly most) people break traffic rules (many never bother to know the rules actually) and therefore thousands of people die on the roads in India. 

In the first week after returning back to India, each day when I was going on the roads I was feeling a numbing sensation just as we get while riding a roller-coaster. That sensation is reducing each day. But my pulses still get high, specially with 'J' on my side.  Roads in India has definitely changed a lot, although it has not lost its intense character a bit. The color on the roads of India has increased in last ten years. Here are few glimpses.

The quality of roads in urban India have become  better, there are larger number of roads, they are broader too.  There are increased number of signals/traffic polices, sign boards, speed control boards, dividers, lane markers, street lights and so on. Also parking places where not that defined before and seldom there where paid parking lots, now parking places are well maintained and new urban planning does consider constructing parking lots underground of the supermarkets or big buildings.

Also there are tens of thousands of more numbers of cars, motor bikes and other kinds of two wheelers (with no gears), we in India, call them Scooty.  Although their numbers have increased but absolutely unchanged are the scenes of people riding the two wheelers without any helmet. Specially in middle sized, cities of India. In bigger metros, helmets are rule but in smaller cities it is still a will or whim of the rider. Although the traffic size has increased a lot, but people still don't acknowledge that, and keep taking life risks. Additional risk has been added by mass usage of mobile phones, on the roads. This was not there when I left India.

The conditions of Trucks for carrying goods and Government run Public buses have not changed in one decade. Though some buses run by private companies can also be seen. Three wheelers, we call them Auto, are special to India and other developing countries have remained same, only that the fare has increased few times. A completely unchanged phenomena is also the combination of heavy and light vehicles along with pedestrians and  hawkers on the same road.

The plackets and banners on two sides of the Indian roads has increased too, their get up has changed a lot. The topics of advertisement has changed too. Of course some advertisements reminds me of yester years, but most others shows the incoming of multinational brands and upcoming of many new retailers with great pomp into Indian markets, thus changing the eating, dressing and living style of common Indians.

On the road side, the bazaars in India used to be the major bazaars, but their popularity has reduced a lot, now the malls and supermarkets are in. Several retailers are cashing a lot by providing good quality products in reasonable prices, other attractions are availability of almost everything under one roof, fixed prices with good packaging and  controlled pleasant  temperature inside the supermarkets in contrast to the chaos on the road side bazaars. But road side bazaars are very much there, in last few days I have seen some of them, but the real big ones, I am still searching. Keep checking this blog, some day you will get photos of those vibrant markets too.

India means color to so many other part of the world, the roads of India definitely fulfill that definition. Only major concern amongst all these colors is the risk factor involved owing to high speed,  not following the traffic rules and extreme carelessness towards one's own life and others too.  Time has come to change our attitude on the roads, we want to develop very fast, and even faster we want to reach our destinations, but don't we know that it is better late than never?