Euro Trip Revisited

Ah! The Euro Trip. Those certain 16 days will remain forever etched in my memory. It is very easy to declare any recent moment the best, just for the need and emphasis for it. But if life does start talking sweetly after it, it indeed is the moment.

No, it wasn’t the best I have felt, but it was certainly the time when I learnt the most. And that is what I like about travels and had hoped from this one too. I had planned to write a daily dairy of the tour, but feel it is impractical now, for the lack of time and also for the sheer volume of it. It deserves a good synopsis though. So, here are some travel guiding points picked from the sojourn:-

1> Prepare an itinerary which suits your taste. If you are driven by History and Religion, go to the numerous Churches and Palaces. But if they darn you off, no point in going through the ordeal. The world has plenty to offer for everyone.

2> But whatever you decide, do a thorough analysis of the places to be visited. They come in handy to feel the place and also the occasion. History and Geography of the place, not necessarily knowledge of their kings and chronology etc etc, do have their bearings on the experience.

3> Just like taking a small luggage, have a small group too. It offers less pain of going through the likes, dislikes, frills, tantrums, and also idiosyncrasies of the rest of the members. But more than that, it gives you the chance to explore out of the group and meet the world.

4> Stays in places which you feel are comfortable for and needed by you. It is not only for the budget, but I feel hostels provide the most wonderful staying area for the youth. But if you want something peaceful, do check out their websites for their score on this front.

5> Learn the local languages’ basic words and sentences. It will help, and you won’t have to repent the moments when you wanted to stay something but couldn’t. Some of the phrases, “Good Morning”, “Hello”, “Thank You”, “I need help”, “You look gorgeous” etc etc are an immeasurably strong necessity.

6> It is always a good idea to travel many places on foot. So check out its viability in the places you are visiting, and whether you can carry this out, as it can be very tiring.

7> Make the trip wholesome. I mean, the usual affinities aside, a fulfilling trip on all counts, helps the travel invigorate. Fun factor is a must even if the trip is just sight seeing or educational. It is just that things have to be in balance as per the taste.

8> Finally, travel is not about visiting the places; it is about experiencing the place, culture and people. Have eyes, ears, senses open for each and every moment, and you will relish the time spent for lifetime.

It is not that we did everything I have stated here. In fact, it was the guideline and will also serve as the lesson for our future tours. But on most of the counts, we did OK. So, another reason why I feel it went so smooth. I want to do another Euro Tour of the ilk, but know future time and place won’t allow me that. An added reason why we must enjoy each and every bit of the place we go through.

Europe Calling !!!

Well well then. Finally the moment has arrived. Long cherished, sought after and planned. I am indeed going on Euro Trip tomorrow ….

The excitement is not that much of seeing new places, but more of experiencing the moments. I still remember and relish most of my previous travels; hope it emulates and betters them all.

So, off from work, study, Internet etc etc for 2 weeks, and a big hello to Europe ….

Happy Independence Day

After many years, on the eve of this Independence Day, I feel that childhood-sense of pride and passion for the day. Back in those days, I used to buy a small paper flag and hoist it proudly on the roof of my house. That was my salute to the nation.

As world and life unfolded, 15th August became another day. Actually, it became a holiday. India is not going to run away from me, even if Independence Day is not celebrated.

But as all things turn full circle, this time around, that gleaming misty-eyed flag-waving passion seems to be pouring out involuntarily. Happy Independence Day, India. Long live the nation of destiny.

Live Blogging

I always had a wish to do Live Blogging … the sort of Tweeting, you know. I am not such an influential person to warrant one. But it can be fun and needed too, when you have a lot of time to pass.

Yeah, right now I am flying over the Atlantic, about to reach New York in 2 hours or so. The flight from Amsterdam is a lengthy 7-hour one, and hence by no means an easy one. You develop strains, spasms, uneasiness etc just by sitting for this much time. But this time it has been a rather comfortable one. Surprising …because I already have taken a 5-hour flight from Cyprus to Amsterdam, and waited 6 more hours in the Transfer. Also there is no in-seat entertainment. There are more-cramped seats and a very cold interior. The food was great though, in fact the best one that I have eaten till now. It was Asian chicken served with rice, and fantastic salad and pastry.

The girl sitting beside me is right now lying in the lap of her boyfriend. They have been kissing non-stop (almost) since the time they were waiting for the flight at the airport. No embarrassments for them though. Everything works here … On my earlier flight, there was a Dutch couple beside me. They had come to Cyprus for vacation. Less charming than the current one, but they were more involving, as we kept talking about our life, culture, India etc all along our journey.

I started reading two novels: Zahir and The White Tiger. I feel pleasantly surprised that I like Zahir, as it is my second attempt at it after the first one was aborted after a few pages only. The White Tiger is, as publicized, the Slumdog Millionare of the books. Lots of India’s brutal revelation in the first few pages. I hope there are much more diverse things ahead.

What else to write? Most of the people around are sleeping, or better said, trying to sleep, constantly straightening their legs or arms. Some are immersed in their books. One looking askance to see what I am typing so engrossedly. Life in an aircraft is a perfunctory one. Just done to reach its destination.

Well, time to wind up, as I wish to take another small nap. A very average blog today, but it will do. Will try to post as soon as get hold of Internet in my hotel room in New York.

The Right to Education

This may not be as glaring as ‘Raakhi Ka Syamwaar’ thing in media, but a few years later, this 'Right to Education Bill' might be considered the watershed moment of Indian emancipation. My experience of Indianness has been crying for this since long.

My single belief is that of all the sectors, if any sector can be the panacea, it is the Education sector. Education, even literacy, brings us the power to think right, cultivate and build virtues, differentiate between good and bad. It has got nothing to do with the monetizing power it gives to the individual. It gives a soul to our lives. The above is not didactical in its efficacy, as once my friend remarked that despite having good education, people like Hitler, Osama, Madoff etc were/are not necessarily good persons.

Quite right, as we can’t fight fanaticism and extremity. But if ever there is any way to counter these idiosyncrasies, then again it is through good education only. We have a higher probability to achieve goodness in society by providing everyone compulsory education. This brings us to point what constitutes a good education.

People are very much against rote learning. I am not totally averse to it, as sometimes by-hearting things helps us later. But what I consider a fruitful learning is the ability to liken a subject or idea to take it to extremity. If I like Physics, I should be so engrossed with it as to have a belief of finding undiscovered realities of nature. This is the specifics of a subject, but it will also generate a healthy attitude towards life in general, and other subjects, in particular. Such are all the aspects of our life interrelated.

Anyway this is the apotheosis of an education system. Right now if India can just impart even the famous 3 R’s (Reading, Writing and Arithmetic) to all its citizens, it will create a sea-change down the years. India’s spending in Education Sector is way too low, but somehow tough decisions, if warranted on other sectors, need to be made. As an anonymous quote goes, “Give me a fish, and I will eat for a day. Teach me fishing, and I will eat for a lifetime.”

Gay is not a 'happy' word

Gay is not a word that only means ‘happy’. That is how I was introduced to this word. I should say ‘concept’, because it is quite unique on its face value. Or at least I thought so. When I had a fad about chatting on Yahoo, I had accidentally dropped into ‘Gays/Lesbians Room’ one day. A guy accosted me. Instantly I shooed him away stating, “I am not your type.”

“What type I am then? Do you think I am abnormal or lesser human being? What if you had been born like this type which you vehemently declare a no-no type?” I don’t remember what else exactly did he say, but he was full of angst and anguish.

I wasn’t emotionalized by it though. A queer lamenting his life …

Sometime back a lady friend of mine, in an informal conversation, asked me, “How a man can become a gay?” I don’t know why she asked it, but I asked her back, “How a girl can become a lesbian then? I suppose that is the way with males too.” It was a very impertinent answer wrapped in a question, but her reply was very succinct.

“Sexually a female body is more captivating for both males and females. Where the females lacked in gaining strength, they attained in having a softer, cleaner and lovelier body. A man can have an affinity for another man, but for him to neglect a female body and root for a man’s one instead is something totally out of human nature.”

Yeah, it is true. For a man, nothing could be more enticing that a curvaceous and voluptuous female body. Kingdoms have fallen over it. So, for some sections of human beings to be averse to it is a bad propensity on their part.

My belief was severely challenged a few days back, again on account of some in-front-of-eyes happenings. Delhi High Court annulled a law decreeing homosexuality a criminal offence. Hey, was there really any such law? I was surprised and angered too. For all their incomprehensible proclivities, they are not criminals. Also what about the STDs? Who among them will approach a doctor if they have some disease? We are generating or compounding many problems by an irrelevant so-called solution or deterrent. Go for the terrorists or robbers, my law-makers.

Anyway, this leads us to another, in fact the most important, question. Is it a since-birth inclination or a wrongly developed perversion? Nobody knows this yet, even if people can keep debating it. While some can put on table biological experimental reports proving its natal connections, some like Baba Ramdev can preach its curability through Yoga. All these are beside the point though. It is not a crime. Period.

Even if I grew more understanding, even though not fully acceptable, towards gayism, I had doubts about its purpose. I read an article yesterday then. A man proclaiming his love for another one, in pure terms of affection and belongingness. They never had sex, but were riveted towards each other just through a sheer bonding which they couldn’t find anywhere else. For them, sex was unimportant; they just felt happy with each other.

Ah! again I can not comprehend this :) But at least this was a bit of an answer to my friend’s question. May be she too can view it from a different angle now.

The real 'machos'

Like an earnest employee, I was standing in the lift (elevator) waiting for my floor to arrive. Hurried even though I was, the lift had to stop in between. In entered a person with an assumed grandiose gait. Wrist bands on the arms, uplifted shirt-collar, strong perfume, goggles perched inside the front-pocket – I mean everything that you can think of to be associated with a so-called macho. He didn’t dither though to hum a tune in the presence of his superiors. And mind you this was an office premise.

He might have been the subject of my questioning, but in reality, I meet everyday several such machos. Studs driving their cars wildly with songs blaring full sound, philanderers hitting on everything conceivably female, the hunks puffing out with their gauzily dressed girlfriends in front of cinema-halls or discotheques. The grandness of these actions is hard to miss. And I am not complaining; for this is the time and prerogative of them, and more so, who am I to object.

But it confounds me hard when I see everyone copying it. I mean, every boy or girl, with supposedly defined good looks seems to believe that he/she has a right or in fact, duty to act like a stud or a coquette. Starting from even the school days, he will come attired in fancy clothes, flirt with the girls, treat studies as a burden, throw discipline and morals as playable; all the rules to follow to be anointed a macho are already laid down by his predecessors. Beautiful girls on their part have to be trendy, acting as superiorly divine beings, with an anathema towards any less charming person or thing. Their rules too are defined since the time of machoism. And why not? Everywhere for them, it is the macho who wins. In movies, it is the person who lags behind in studies, who comes late, who treats everyone as secondary, is the hero and the prize of all. In ongoing life too, we doff our hats to the one who can brag how he cheated in exam, how he dodged his assignments in office, how he drove wildly to scare the hell out of everyone. In short, anyone who is and acts smart is macho.

But what they don’t realize is the ultimate truth of life: in real life, it is the doers who win. All around me, the successful persons are the ones who have valued life as the house of many flavours. The best persons of my school, college, university, job lives have been the ones who have been good at everything; studies, sports, music, social behaviour and norms, even flirting, and not to mention the ever-needed qualities of honesty, sincerity, integrity, braveness etc They know what is Newton’s second law, are good at playing soccer, can strum a guitar, are courteous to teachers and elders, have a besotting girlfriend, and if needed, can help the friends, fight a war, support a cause, even catch the moon. They are not ostentatious, but possessor of qualities. They are who I call macho.

But who to tell these pretentious ones? They have their own world, aloof from the other pleasurable tenets of life. In order to relish something flitting, they miss on the durable ones. Such are the vagaries of life that everyone understands the truth someday. The machos too will ….