an old writing - paradise on earth

(17 Oct 2003 - as related to a friend through email)
After a loooong and tedious trip I am so glad to be back
home. Trip was good and would have been awesome if I did
not fall sick the last few days in Delhi. Well, if my
baggage went with me to India all the way and the digital
camera I borrowed from my sister wasnt stolen in our quite
notorious Delhi Airport I would have summed the trip as
superb. :) ( It has become a sacred ritual of offering
something to the airport pickpocketers every single time
I go I guess, before it was perfumes and other cosmetics,
recently they moved up the ladder to electronics. I dont
blame them, I mean what do you really get in exchange for
a measly Estee Lauder perfume with the inflation and all
that! Anyways.. coming back to the subject at hand.. )

It was a trip of sorts. Varied between Good, Bad and Ugly.
If I said Kashmir's beautiful that will be an understatement.
Like our good old Plum would have said "It starts where
Alaska/Glacier etc National Parks left off...". Stay in the
houseboat was an experience all by itself. Flowers, shawls
and clothes, vegetables etc sold from houseboat to another
houseboat in small shikaras, lit up with colorful lights at
night is a sight to behold with awe and open mouths.

A 3 hour bus journey to the heights of Gulmarg on a bumpy, ghaati road with the driver swooning to "Aaaj mausam bada beyimaan hai.." was another pleasure.

Vaishnoo (yes, thats the correct way to spell it) Devi temple is really 'high' up there. 15 kms. Even if you are used to annual trips up the Tirupati Balaji hill you are in for a surprise over here. Tirupati seems like a hop, skip and jump compared to this. Ever rode on a horse downhill for 15kms?? I would suggest it as a method of extreme torture for prisoners of the highest grade. The place where the temple is located is called 'Katra'. I wonder why ;)

Between Oily Parathas, North Indian idlies (more a joke),
juicy kashmir apples, yummy greasy pani puris the only word I can use to summarise the food I had there is 'intersting'. But towards the end of the trip I was extremely dehydrated and sick (thanks to the heat in Delhi, Gees you would think that October is safe enough to go and tease the sun but hell no! And of course, the pollution and traffic on the rickety, 'old' streets of 'New' Delhi which never ceases no matter what the time. I am sure it is not too new a concept for a Madrasi but consider a small
town girl like me in a metropol!) to the extent that a doctor was summoned to the hotel room to examine me, do all posible tests he could think of only to declare quite triumphantly that I was normal.

Owing to the sickness however I had to pass off on the Agra/Mathura trip and lie in the bed reading "A Tiger for Malgudi" while my parents woke up at 3 in the morning (after a lot of persuasion that they should not break their trip cos of me and promises that I will drink a lot of
Glucon D by the time they come back ) and made the trip to see our Krishna's birthplace and the holy symbol of love. Thus I was deprived of the much-awaited trip to Mathura and the chances of meeting the "Suitable Boy" closely. If my aunt was around she would have said that
the Gods were angry at me for, let me see, making fun of the horse ride down Vaishnoo Matha's slope and hence I was forbidden to visit Krishna's temple. But thank god for little mercies, my aunt wasnt there and so with a couple litres of Glucon D inside me I dozed off to eternity.

The day before I left there was some good news. My baggage was located, but "sorry ma'am we cannot explain the missing digital camera and if it is of any help we are as surprised as you are." No, of course it is not of any help.
But life goes on. The time has come to leave. I was still sick despite all the Glucon D and the doctor's premonitions. My Dad protested that I stay back till I get better and he would not let me go in the current situation that I was in. With the little energy left in my bloodstream and state of mind close to delirium (well, lying on a hotel
bed between badly lit four walls for four solid days is not something one thrives on) I still was wise enough to decide that arguing with my father wasnt the brightest thing to do. So I stayed back another day.

But a day later I knew that this is something I could not do. I have to get back to my safety nest as soon as I can for things to improve. I put on a brave front the whole of next day and walked around like I normally would when my body temperature is around 98F and put on a good
show of feeling fine. And my parents had to let me go. They werent very thrilled about it but they were tired too and wanted to go home at the earliest. No one was
particalulary in love with the city.


so finally we parted. My parents eyes were brimming with tears (more than usual cos I was sick) but I had to grit and bear the sadness of parting and walk away from there.
20 hours later still the same calendar day I was in OHare airport waiting for my bil to pick me up with my baggage. How I sat for 8 hours in a middle seat between a obese sardar ji (probably going to London to visit his potha/pothi) and a young and nervouos s/w professional coming on a project to Toronto, how I got off the plane at London and walked out to baggage claim to collect my bags - another joy of flying on cheap open tickets - and check in for the next flight again in London with the help of the helpful "nervous s/w professional coming to Toronto" (Long live Humanity!!), how I waited for 3 hours before I got into Business class from there on, how I sat for another 8 hours this time in luxury between a President of an Internet Marketing company and the CEO of another company I failed to catch the name and how I fared through the journey is something I would like to forget as a bad dream.

I am glad that I made the trip. But I am just so glad to be back. If someone told me 5 days ago that I would be sitting comfortably in my chair regaling (or so I think) someone with the details of the trip I would have scoffed at them. But here I am boring you to death with all
the details.

the other side of the coin...

i am still flustered with learning so much about the new site and its intricrate workings. though i cant claim i understand it any.. i still dont know how to get my blogspot.. i should remember to ask yet-another1 about it..
well, this is my first blog.. what i will be blogging about i am not sure yet.. everyone has a blogspace, so why not me was the first thought and inspiration behind securing this space.. maybe it will include random things that catch my attention.. things i dare not discuss with friends, fear of embarresment.. stuff i dont want them to find out about me.. shady secrets.. personal emotions and feelings..
but i rarely have such stuff.. so i might end up just maintaining a daily diary of things.. and if at any point i feel like i have come up with something that i consider worth reading for the general public i will make it public..
i havent really written much before.. just a line or two before i get lost in thoughts that can never take shape on paper.. i am amazed at the way some of the people write over here.. and they are not even professional writers or anything.. most of them actual geeks or techy people like me.. they have a flair for writing..
lets see what i come up with over here.. :)

-funnycide