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Incomplete Love Story

Incomplete Love Story

........

like an unfinished dream, an incomplete story
a letter half written, a forgotten melody;
certain things are better incomplete
like our...

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Lone Wanderer…



It was dark. I checked my watch; it said 8:30pm. It wasn’t that late, I reflected. But here I was, miles away from home in Himachal Pradesh and I had missed the last bus to Dharamsala from Bhagsu Nag Mountains. The roads were steep and several kilometers away from my hotel. A thought crept in my mind of spending the night outside but I had to let it go as it was getting too cold out here.

My friend Saswat sat down on a bench, held his head and let out a sigh of relief. I asked few cab drivers to drop us, overpriced they were. They tried taking advantage out of our helplessness, thinking we would give in and pay him how much ever he asks for.

“What you want to do?” I asked Saswat

“I don’t know. We can look for a hotel here.” He said

“It will be too expensive here.” I said and then a crazy thought crossed my mind, a weird smile came on my face.

“Let’s walk”

I said and started walking. I am sure anyone else would have been there in his place would have dismissed this crazy thought of walking down these slopes. But there was a guy who wanted to have some adventure and was a partner in my crimes.

We had backpacks stuffed with clothes, laptops and camera. It weighed at least 10 kgs. We had no water on us. The road was dark, no lights to guide us. On one side there was dense forest, mountains on the other side of the road. We had no clue where the road ends. One wrong step and we would have fallen deep down. But we kept on walking, kept on talking.  

Not even a living soul was there, the road was deserted. All one could see from thousands meters above sea level was lights coming from the city. It looked amazingly beautiful. As if I was in space and the city looked like stars twinkling bright on a dark night. Every time we kept looking back, realizing we have walked down so much gave us a great feeling of conquering our inner desires.

We crossed St. Johns Church, the graveyard. A thought crossed my mind to spend some time at the graveyard but I dismissed it immediately. Not that I was scared but there was point in jeopardizing our safety for this. The road that led to the graveyard was uneven and even a slight mistake would take our life, as it is at a good height.

The stretch from Bhagsu Nag Mountains to Dharamsala is 15kms. In between for 5-6 km there is a military base. We were caught by army officers, they kept asking weird questions. I showed them my press card and immediately there was a change in their expression and tone. They offered us lift to our hotel. We decided to walk and finish the journey we had set for us. Moreover I don’t want someone to help me out just because I belong from Media fraternity.

We kept talking about useless stuffs, talked about weirdest things we had done in past, we sang, we even danced in the middle of highway. I had never done that. While I was walking suddenly this thought crept in mind, maybe this moment would never come back and I might regret that I couldn’t dance then. I always had this weird thing in mind to do; I wanted to dance on the middle of a highway. And the very next moment I started dancing. People who know me, they know that I don’t dance at all. I always shy away from dancing in front of people. I get conscious and then I can’t dance.

But there I was, in some unknown place on a highway dancing like crazy. There are certain things in life which I have to do and doesn’t matter how crazy or stupid it might be, I have to do it. Life has blessed me with what I asked for. There is nothing much asks from my life. I am doing things that I wanted to do. Plan a trip somewhere and explore the places, food, drink and stuffs that make those places special.

Travel excites me. There are people who think I am crazy. But whenever I get a chance to travel, I love to do. Last vacation I just took my bag and went to Varanasi to cover Durga Puja. Even there I had my part of adventure. This time also I decided to come here. Amidst the mountains and chilly weather, it’s fun. People usually prefer going back to their home in vacations, I prefer exploring new places. Not that I don’t like going back to home, but travelling is more important for me.

I wanted to do this. I don’t know whether this was adventurous or not, for me it’s more than that. I realized one thing about myself. I may get tired doing things that I don’t want to do. But when it comes to doing things that I love to do I never get tired. While I kept walking down enthusiastically, I could feel the adrenaline rush in my body.


For many, it is just a trip to a new place. For me it is something else, something that I cannot define in words. Something that I feel only at that particular moment when I am experiencing the thrill. For many more such adventures to come and many places to be explored, I will see you on the other side soon. 


Sunday, October 12, 2014

Enlightened by the experience…


Varanasi or Banaras (Benares) - the holy city of Ganga, still has the smell of ancient times. It is the major tourist spot in India, which contributes the most, in terms of economy. The city has everything one asks for, good food, great places to visit, quite friendly and diverse environment with a mixture of different climatic conditions.

Roads are always clogged with people, guides trying to sell you a lemon and people from all sort of background come together here. The beautiful Ghats of Varanasi among the other tourist spots is one of the major attractions, especially the evening Ganga Aarti. It wraps up the entire city in its divine feeling.

Ganga Arti in Varanasi


The city has a great history. India has been ruled by many rulers; every one of them tried to set up their establishment at Benares (then), but failed to do so. Not only history but also in the Hindu mythological stories it plays an important role. This everyone knows or must have read in books or on internet and many of you must have noticed while visiting this city.

When I was Delhi, a week ago, the day I decided to go Varanasi to cover the festival, since then my excitement knew no limits. The fact that I love to travel and this was the first time, I was supposed to travel as a journalist, instilled loads of excitement in me. I had a backpack and a DSLR camera, while travelling one should always prefer carrying light luggage. I reached Varanasi on 27th September 2014 at around 3 am. The ticket was not confirmed and so I couldn’t sleep the entire night and I had loads of work waiting for me in Varanasi.

I realized the very first day that it is not easy at all. It may sound easy but when you are actually on the field, it is tough. First of all, you know nothing about the place, doesn’t matter what research you have done on internet, it never helps. To a certain extent from tourist’s point of view information over internet would help. But as a journalist, you need to be realistic.

People don’t want to talk about serious stuff, they are not even bothered about the problems, they only complain. Police would say, everything is peaceful here, Government officials would pretend as if they are quite busy and the aam janta won’t talk. Every now and then you will be fooled by someone; you will be always given wrong address. You will have no other option than to trust that person. I was fooled four times in a day.

The problem is when people come to know that you are from outside and you are trying to look into their matter, many don’t like it. They would rather prefer their city journalist than someone from outside, doesn’t matter what you are trying to do.

Although it is amusing when you don’t know anything about the place and you end up finding things that you never expected to find out, it gives you a moral boost. I was there for five days; I use to go out every morning around 8 am and come back by 11 pm. I worked nearly fourteen hours a day to explore the city and more than that the stories which was buried deep.

It’s been 80 days as a journalist, and I can see that I am developing an eye for stories. When I joined, I remember how everyone used to tell us, as you move ahead in this profession; you develop an eye for stories. Whatever I was told is coming in use now, before reaching the spot I am arranging the notes so that I ask direct questions to people and don’t lose focus from the story. It is very important to know the right questions that you want to ask. Cross-checking information is the most important. The good part is whenever I come across any information, I always cross-check it.

Idol of Durga at Dashashwamedh Ghat


It feels good at the end of the day when I come back to my room, I know that, I have worked hard and I deserve a sound sleep. It feels good to know that these small-small aspects which we were told in start are coming automatically to me now, when I am at the spot it just comes to me and I do that. Later on, I realize that I was actually doing that.

In five days I managed to cover almost 80% of Varanasi and I have some idea now about the city. The day when I reached here, I had no clue how I am going to cover the city. I was afraid whether I will be able to follow my brief or not. I got really frustrated the first day itself after roaming around the whole day in the hot sun, I felt that I took a bad decision and this is not my cup of tea. But now it feels like I am able to do justice with my brief.

After spending five days in Varanasi, I went to Patna my hometown which is hardly 4 hours from there to cover Dussera. Fortunately or unfortunately I got to cover a stampede followed by a riot on the last day of the festival. As a journalist, they say it’s fortunate to be there in such situation. This has journalism done to me now. Although it was a sad day for the city, several people lost their live deep down somewhere there was a feeling of I don’t know what but whatever it was, it felt good to be able to cover the catastrophe.