American Neurosis - A Cultural Analysis

Any person who is even a little aware of the dynamics between various nations, societies and cultures, would have noticed how the USA, by far, has played the dominant role in it since the early 1900s. This is more so since the times immediately preceding WW-II, as those who would have read about the real reasons behind it would be well aware.

Personally, I think a second wave of US dominance has been unleashed by it's elites since the past two decades or so. Globalization, wars over natural resources, a disguised dictatorial regime essentially ruling the world, and a newly emerging agenda of maintaining western hegemony under the guise of going green, thus effectively hijacking anything meaningful that can be done, plus various other disturbing trends being the initial manifestations of this. I may well be wrong, of course, since I am not as well read as so many other people whose views and comments on such matters I find enlightening. We will know within a decade or two for sure.

The way I see it, the Americanization of the world, so to speak, has sharply accelerated since the early 1990s. It takes different forms in different nations and cultures, much like a shape shifting monster. The essential characteristics, though, remain the same. And this, I think, will create more havoc than anything else in human history. Think about it - imagine what would happen if even 25% of the non-westernized people in the world were to move toward a lifestyle that is at par with that of an average American, materially, socially and intellectually.

I shudder to think of such prospects.

Anyways, to get to the point, I'd read this really interesting essay which talks about the nature of American society. The way it manages to be concise and yet so penetrating is simply brilliant. The text version of the essay can be read here.

I discovered a YouTube channel which has an audio-visual version of it though, which is nice. Here it is, in 3 parts:

Resham Firiri - Vocal

More!

A street musician playing the sarangi and singing Resham Firiri:



The complete folk version:

Resham Firiri - Instrumental

Sone instrumental versions of the same song. The 1st one is especially nice.

Resham Firiri - Pop Version

I find listening to this song over and over! (Memories are hard to fade somehow. The mind is a funny thing.) Found so many different versions on the net.

Here's a rather poppish version:



Resham Firiri
Resham Firiri
Udayra Jauki Dadama Vanjyang Resham Firiri
Udayra Jauki Dadama Vanjyang Resham Firiri
Resham Firiri
Resham Firiri
Udayra Jauki Dadama Vanjyang Resham Firiri
Udayra Jauki Dadama Vanjyang Resham Firiri
[ My heart is fluttering like silk in the wind
I cannot decide whether to fly or sit on the hilltop ]
........
........
Ak nalay Banduk Duinalay Banduk Mirgalai Takayko
Ak nalay Banduk Duinalay Banduk Mirgalai Takayko
Mirgalai Mailay Takayko Hoina Mayalai Takayko
Mirgalai Mailay Takayko Hoina Mayalai Takayko
[ One-barrelled gun, two-barrelled gun, targeted at a deer
It's not the deer that I am aiming at, but at my beloved ]
........
........
Resham Firiri
Resham Firiri
Udayra Jauki Dadama Vanjyang Resham Firiri
Udayra Jauki Dadama Vanjyang Resham Firiri
........
........
Sanoma Sano Gaiko Bachho Veeraima Ram Ram
Sanoma Sano Gaiko Bachho Veeraima Ram Ram
Chadeyre Jana Saktina Maile Baru Maya Antaija
Chadeyre Jana Saktina Maile Baru Maya Antaija
[ The tiny baby calf is in danger at the precipice
I couldn't leave it there, let's go together, my love ]
........
........
Resham Firiri
Resham Firiri
Udayra Jauki Dadama Vanjyang Resham Firiri
Udayra Jauki Dadama Vanjyang Resham Firiri
........
........
KukuroLai Kutima Kuti Biralolai Suri
KukuroLai Kutima Kuti Biralolai Suri
Timro Hamro Mayapirti Dobatoma Kuri
Timro Hamro Mayapirti Dobatoma Kuri
[ To the dog it's puppy, puppy, to the cat it's meow meow
our love is waiting at the crossroads ]
........
........
Resham Firiri
Resham Firiri
Udayra Jauki Dadama Vanjyang Resham Firiri
Udayra Jauki Dadama Vanjyang Resham Firiri
(till fade)


A bunch of westerners have sung it in a really soulful manner here.

Resham Firiri

Back from Nepal...!! From my longest trip as well as my longest trek ever. Did Annapurna Circuit and ABC (Annapurna Base Camp) from Sep 26 to Nov 02. Also spent some time in and around Pokhara after that - relaxed, walked along the touristy Phewa lake, bicycled to nearby lakes and had loads of momos, thukpa and chowmein at the local restaurants. Being the cheapo that I am, I managed to get a room for 200 Nepali rupees a night, and hunted for cheap places to eat too.

Heard this rather silly sounding song in Nepal... It is the modified English version of a Nepali folk song. I would hear it now and then with the guides and porters singing it. It is very catchy though, if you sing it with the right tune.

Found the folk version on youtube, but not the one I used to hear on the trek.

Here are the lyrics for it anyways:

Resham Firiri
Resham Firiri
I am a donkey, you are a monkey
Resham Firiri

Resham Firiri
Resham Firiri
Sometimes trekking, sometimes rafting
Resham Firiri

Resham Firiri
Resham Firiri
Sometimes drinking, sometimes sinking
Resham Firiri

The "i am a donkey, you are a monkey" bit refers to the Nepali porter being weighed down with a load and trudging along the trail like a donkey, while the trekker is free to hop along carefree like a monkey.

Sadly, that is truly quite often the case. I saw so many wealthy trekkers walking with a minimal load or even nothing on their backs while the poor, underclothed and underfed Nepali porters, wearing flip-flops, would carry back-breaking loads of anything from 25-50 Kgs. And that too with a smile on their faces.

I found that there are advantages as well as disadvantages to lodge based trekking. I would not have been able to trek solo with just a 18-20 kg. backpack if it were not for the lodges which eliminate the need to carry a tent, food, stove, utensils, fuel etc. Yet, this very convenience means that many people do this trek. Per estimates, about 30,000 people do some or the other trek in the ACAP (Annapurna Conservation Area Project) each year. Although the region was beautiful, and the trek very satisfying, as far as the style of trekking is concerned, I felt more like a tourist than a trekker. There was so little of roughing it out. Heck, there was a warm bed, blanket and even electricity at most places on the trail!

Yet, there are some advantages too. Nepal, I think, is doing a relatively great job when it comes to planning and managing trekking in the Himalayas. Certainly a much better job than India. The conservation areas are comparatively well cared for since the government as well as the locals have a vested interest in keeping it green, beautiful and unspoilt. Else, the government wouldn't get dollars, and the locals would not be able milk the tourists and trekkers :)

Things are changing though. The increased use of plastic is alarming. 'Development' is taking a heavy toll too. The road in the Kali Gandaki valley is a case in point - how it has changed this once remote and quaint region! The invasion in Nepal by Indian and western media is also having repercussions on the cultural fabric of the people.

And then there is global warming. As I walked along the edge of the morraine of the massive Annapurna south glacier, I could not help but notice how much it seemed to have shrunk. The glacier seemed to have more of debris than ice. The walls below the morraine were so steep that I think the glacier must have lost a great amount of height - as much as 50%, perhaps. As for the loss in length, I don't know. The locals too said that it was much more warmer at base camp since the past few years than before. It used to be a considerably more difficult trek earlier in terms of the weather, low temperatures as well as the trail.

Sigh.

I guess all this is inevitable. Maybe I should just trek to all the places I want to as soon as possible before they go to the dogs.

I would love to visit Nepal again though. Perhaps as early as next year. Am thinking of doing the Langtang & Helambu treks next year. Two separate treks which can be combined via either Ganja La or Gosainkund. This can be done solo.

Am more keen on the Manaslu trek though. Only hitch is the expense. Just the permit itself is US $90 a week..! But it is a great trek - safe, yet challenging, beautiful and involving a good amount of roughing it out. It can be done solo, but I hope I get a good partner to make it more enjoyable as well as safer.

Ah... I wish I could just keep trekking and living out of a backpack all my life :) But that is too romantic, dreamy and unpractical :)

Cry Me A River - Takao Uematsu

King of the Road

I've been finding myself humming this song although I couldn't get some of the lyrics. Heard it in the movie 'Into the Wild' which has really good OSTs by Eddie Vedder and Kaki King. This one though is not an OST. It is a classic country song by Roger Miller. Awesome. Makes you realize why the classics are called classics. :)



Trailers for sale or rent
Rooms to let...fifty cents.
No phone, no pool, no pets
I ain't got no cigarettes
Ah, but..two hours of pushin' broom
Buys an eight by twelve four-bit room
I'm a man of means by no means
King of the road.

Third boxcar, midnight train
Destination...Bangor, Maine.
Old worn out suits and shoes,
I don't pay no union dues,
I smoke old stogies I have found
Short, but not too big around
I'm a man of means by no means
King of the road.

I know every engineer on every train
All of their children, and all of their names
And every handout in every town
And every lock that ain't locked
When no one's around.

I sing,
Trailers for sale or rent
Rooms to let, fifty cents
No phone, no pool, no pets
I ain't got no cigarettes
Ah, but, two hours of pushin' broom
Buys an eight by twelve four-bit room
I'm a man of means by no means
King of the road.

Mall Mania

Mania. Oh yeah, that's the word for it.

The newspaper tells me that 'Mantri Mall', the largest mall to-date in India will open soon in Bangalore. Recession and retail slowdown be damned, the developers sold out 94% of the space weeks ahead of opening. Who says Indians don't have money and are conservative when it comes to splurging? Almost every major retailer in India has a presence there - Tatas, Reliance, Future Group (Pantaloon Retail), Landmark (Piramal's), Shopper's Stop et cetera. With 1.3 million sq. ft., it is 10% larger than Ambience Mall in Gurgaon and over 2.5 times the size of Forum Mall, which used to be the biggie amongst malls in Begaluru.

Great news. Yet, doesn't 1.3 million sq. ft. seem really small by... er... 'international standards'...?? I mean, India has over 1 billion in population and a burgeoning middle class, and there is so much untapped potential, and we have only scratched the surface, and the revolution has only just begun, and the retail sector is set to witness a sea-change, and so on and blah blah blah... et cetera ad nauseeam.

When I was a kid living in a tiny house at Dadar in Mumbai, we used to go the Shivaji Park or the Chowpatty for timepass. Mom would take us. When dad was in the mood, we would go to more distant places like Marine Drive, Gateway of India, Hanging Gardens, Juhu Chowpatty, Girgaum Chowpatty, Kamala Nehru Park, Santacruz airplane wala garden (It has a airplane shaped structure in it. I still don't know what the garden is called.) and so on. If not anything else, I would curl up with a book in a chair, play by myself or roam around Dadar on a bicycle. Going to the movies or eating out was so rare.

I wonder what the heck do kids do thesedays. One of the activities is sure to be visiting malls with their doting parents. I see quite a lot of them when I used to visit a Food Bazaar near my office once in a while. And whenever I watch the idiot box, I see innumerable ads aimed at inducing purchase decisions by kids - and not necessarily for kid stuff either. As for the rest, I'd rather not say much 'cos I have rather vague ideas, not so concrete. But I'm sure it ain't too good what kids are up to thesedays.

Reading about this 'Mantri Mall' brought to my mind another conversation that I had with a friend when we went for a 4-5 hour walk along Marine Drive early one Sunday morning 2 weeks ago. After that he showed me a cheap place near Gateway of India for breakfast. Too bad I could not eat anything there since the place is almost exclusively non-vegetarian. Vegetarians can have some lettuce leaves for breakfast. :) And sometimes some dal, roti and paneer at lunchtime. I was talking about how temples have a habit of cropping up anywhere and everywhere in India. The rate at which temples and gods crop up in India would probably give tough competetion to the birth rate I'm sure. And religion is big business too. VERY BIG. Heck, religious figures and organizations/trusts seem to be even more powerful and rich than the bloody politicians. It is also perhaps the greatest timepass in India. One sees even otherwise perfectly sane and so-called well-educated folks doing inane things such as queuing up 8 hrs. (or more) for darshan at some temple. Or worse still, walking barefoot from some god-forsaken (or should I say builder-and-municipality-nexus-forsaken..?) suburb to some temple which looks more like the corporate headquarters of Siddivinayak Inc. than anything else. The circus surrounding religion in India often makes me wanna puke. It doesn't get that bad usually though. More often than not, I manage to look at it as just that - a circus, a source of entertainment for my mind and senses. How else would I be able to deal with the display of idiocy on such a large scale?

In fact, to take entertainment and timepass to new levels, I have a great idea. You see how the fast-food chains quickly learnt that they have to 'Indianize' in order to do business in India? I think the same needs to be done to Malls in India. There needs to a convergence between the religion mania and shopping mania in India. Get what I mean?

Convergence. Syncretism. Synergy. Oh-so-fancy, huh?

Seriously, I think it would be a big hit. Imagine this - massive malls with massive parking lots (for all the Tata Nano's and other such cars) located on once useless forest or agricultural land. These malls would have themes or a combination of themes as per the local market appeal. I mean, say a Vaishnavite theme mall in Gujjuland, Vithoba theme mall in Maharashtra and so on. One can engage in religion and shopping in the same place. So convenient!! The decor and ambience for the malls would need to be suitably modified, but that should be okay. Chic restaurants serving gourmet prasadam are sure to do brisk business. And with people of all ages and classes thronging the place, retailers of every kind are sure to have a gala time. Special transport corridors should be built to ferry the hordes to these massive complexes on the outskirts of cities. For the more devout, there can be dedicated pedestrian pilgrim paths with shade and watering facilities just like in the good old days when India was the greatest and most religious land in the whole damn universe.

Yeah, I really think that's what we need. A grand marriage between religion and shopping malls.

In fact, I seriously hope some bright young entrepreneur wanting to follow in the footsteps of Kishore Biyani is reading this so that I can offer my consulting services. I would suggest forming a joint venture with one of the local temple trusts to ensure a captive market and greater success. It would also help in easy clearances from various Govt. and regulatory bodies as well as easy availability of land and amenities such as water, electricity, etc. The temples are awash with funds so the initial start-up costs would also be reduced. One could begin by simply encroaching on private property or public land. Amazing, isn't it?

Heck, I'm even willing to put in some money to test this idea. It is called seeding a small-time venture capital business, you know. My consulting comes free if you can give me a 10-20% stake.

Any takers?

Night trek to Peb

This was my first night trek. It was thrilling and enjoyable enough for me to be motivated to write about it, albeit a little late!

Unlike as usual, I had the weekend off on Apr 11 & 12. The last trek that that I'd done was in winter, sometime in Nov - months ago! Was itching badly for a good trek. Summer makes things worse for trekking in the Sahyadri. (Monsoon is the best. Winter is good for tougher ones.) Even an easy trek can sap the energy out of seasoned trekkers. So a night trek was the only obvious choice. The places I had in mind were Harishchandragad, Naneghat, Peb (aka Vikatgad) and Gorakhgad. I'm generally averse to an "easy trek." At the some time, since this was my first night trek, I could not afford to bite off more than I could chew. A few phone calls later, asking people if they would care to join, what their choices are and so on, I and Moiz finally decided on doing a night trek to Peb. This would be my 2nd trek with Moiz, a seasoned trekker and traveler by my standards. ;)

The plan was to leave Mumbai by 4:00 PM and start from Neral a little before sunset. That way, we would suffer little heat. Secondly, it would also give us the advantage of some light which would help us in the initial patch where there are chances of getting lost - more so at night..! he he... :) More about that later.

But it was not to be that way. I went off to sleep and probably didn’t set the alarm properly. When I woke up, it was 5:15 PM. I saw missed calls from Moiz and called back. He had assumed that I cancelled our plans at the last moment. We took stock of our situation and decided that we would go ahead with a trek although it was a little late. Question was - should we stick to Peb, or opt for Gorakhgad instead? We decided to stick to doing Peb. There was some risk involved in this, but since I had done Peb before in daylight, I had a fair idea of the route and felt we would be able to manage the tricky part even at night.

I took a local at 7:27 PM from Ghatkopar. Moiz joined me at Dombivli. We reached Neral at 8:45 and had some grub near the station. We started the trek at 9:30.

Here's the inside scoop on how to go about tackling Peb at night. :)

From Neral station, walk towards the right - in the direction of Vangani. At one point after one has left the hustle-bustle near the station behind, take a left and walk across a small maidan and onto a narrower street with shops on either side. (I believe this point is a tax/rickshaw stand - not sure.) One can now see Matheran (left), Peb (center) and Nakhind (right.) One can now see the col between Peb and Nakhind which one has to reach first. Reaching this col is the only slightly tricky part of this trek 'cos it is easy to go off on the wrong track if one is not careful and does not know better. After walking a while along the road, we reached a village. We continued walking along the same road, going right, till I realized we had come a bit too far to the right. I could see the lights of a village which was closer to the col and realized that it was that village we had to reach – not the one we were in. We backtracked a little on the road and then walked across the land in the direction of the lights. There was no need to backtrack all the way on the road. If we had been more alert, we would have spotted the farther village instead of going to the right. Anyways, we did not lose much time due to this.

We reached Kapoor Farm – it is a landmark in the area. We saw a path going in the direction of the hills on the left of its gate. We took that path and soon reached a brick structure which was under construction. Must mention here though that there is always quite a bit of construction going on in these parts and so the paths do not stay as they are. The only thing that can truly guide you is your sense of direction, judgment about which would be the right path and your wits. Of course, you can always ask someone if you're not sure. There are always sooo many people anywhere in India - you just can't escape humanity in this land! There was a pot bellied baba sitting with someone outside this place and we thought of confirming the route with him. As it turned out, he was not a local and did not know the route. He did confirm that we were in the right direction though, so we went ahead after having some water.

Soon after leaving the Ashram behind, we started ascending a hill. There is only a single fairly well trodden path here rather than the confusing criss-cross and mish-mash that one finds closer to the villages. We simply followed this path which went right first before circling and turning left, ascending all the while, till it took us to a small plateau. We now had to begin using our head torches since it was quite dark, esp. in the thickets. We did not have much benefit of the moonlight since the moon, in the waning phase, was almost full but hidden by clouds. Ascending this hill brought us to the first big power transmission tower. I must make special note of these towers now.

More than anything else, it is these power transmission towers that can act as one's guideposts on this trek. They go over the same terrain and roughly the same direction. In fact one of them sits bang on the col between Peb and Nakhind and then the lines go down on to the other side towards Panvel. The path does not go directly below these of course, but the direction is approx. the same during most of the trek till the col. One has to keep note that if you're going too far away from the direction in which the power lines are going, then you're off track. And one should be alert and keep a look out for the path where it seems to disappear or where multiple paths seem to crop up.

After reaching the 1st plateau, we turned right and began another ascent through the hill and thickets to reach a 2nd plateau / flat area. This is larger than the 1st one. The 2nd tower is somewhere here too. We walked straight past the tower, with the path going slightly left, till we reached a point where we crossed a 3rd tower and walking even further we could see the col right in front of us. At this point, it seems easy to think that all one has to do is climb and reach the col in 45-60 mins. But it is not so. There is no proper route to the col from this point. There are many boulders and thickets in between which make it tough to ascend to the col from this point, either from the right or from the left. During the day it is possible to manage an ascent somehow, but at night it is foolhardy.

There is a path which leads towards the area situated directly below the col. This seems to be going in the right direction but is in fact the wrong one. Keep a look out for a path which goes right in the direction of Nakhind rather than Peb. Although it initially seems to be going in the wrong direction and away from Peb, this is the right one. At some point it turns sharply left and then one ascends through a fairly thick jungle following a clearly visible path till one reaches the col via a 4th tower that one passes along the way.

Our problem was that either due to poor visibility, or lack of alertness or being engrossed in talking, or all of these, we missed the point where the path turns left and kept walking straight ahead till we reached a point where a further clear trail was not visible. It was then that stupid me realized we had again gone too much to the right. There was no other option than to backtrack 'cos we were now somewhere below the hills of the broad Nakhind mountain. We decided to backtrack all the way to the 3rd tower so as to be very clear about taking the right route. But we kept a lookout to see if we could find a path on our right which went up. We rested at one point and it somewhere there that we saw the now dry nullah made by the monsoon waters. We figured that the nullah would take us to some point near the col since the water flowed from that direction. So we set off to ascend through the nullah rather than backtrack further which would have cost us 30 minutes or so. Fortunately, after just 2-3 minutes of climbing, the nullah criss-crossed a path which came from below (the one we missed seeing earlier). So we followed the path rather than the rocky nullah till we reached the 4th tower. From the 4th tower, there are again 2 paths. I don't remember exactly now, but we took a path on the left which was ascending figuring it would take us to the col since that was still further up. But that path went in a different direction after a while. Again it turned after a while and started climbing in the direction of the col. It is all quite hazy now in my memory. We were scrambling like crazy through the thickets since we lost the path after a while. We just kept ascending however we could simply knowing that we were in the right direction and could see the mountain ridge up ahead. Fortunately, after about 15-20 mins of this crazy scrambling we accidentally got back on the path again. After that in another 10 mins we were on the col. Finally.....!! Near the col, there are 3 other paths. One goes over the col and down towards Panvel side to a village below. One goes right towards Nakhind along the ridge that connects Peb and Nakhind. The 3rd one, which we had to take, was the one on the left which goes to Peb.

It was 12:30 AM by the time we reached the col. We spent a good 45 minutes there resting, drinking water, eating and chit-chatting. It was very cool, peaceful and much of the topography we had trekked over was visible from this point. From the col to Peb there is no chance of getting lost and it takes just 35-45 mins to reach the caves of Peb from there. The path does go up and down and there are some slightly steep scree ridden paths. When one is almost at the end of the connecting ridge and near the Peb mountain, there is a rock patch that needs to be tackled. It is just 20-25 feet and an easy free climb with plenty of holds - no problem even at night or in the monsoons. After the rock patch, we skirted the mountain wall in front of us and took a path which went to the right. A further walk of 10 mins and we found the caves on the left. Whew..!! It was 2:30 AM when we reached the caves.

We were out of water and so I set off to find water at 3-4 spots near the cave which I knew. Found nothing. I realized that these spots probably held water only in the monsoons and a little after that. We were now faced with the prospect of trekking to Matheran without any water. We decided to sleep for 3-4 hours and set off as early as possible to avoid the Sun. We went off to sleep at 3:00 AM, near the entrance to the caves rather than inside.

We woke at 6:30 AM. Or to be more precise, we were awakened by the Sun and chirping birds etc. soon after Sunrise. As I woke up and sat erect, the most wonderful sight greeted my eyes. This was the best moment of the trek for me. We were in the west and the Sun was in the east on the other side of the mountain, so it was not visible. There was freshness in the air and the quietude was broken only by the sound of birds. Best of all, moonset had not occurred. Since it was not bright daylight as yet, the almost full moon was clearly visible too. And down below we could see the flat lands - villages, fields and the Palasdari lake. Just sitting quietly at this spot for 10 mins was the best of this trek for me.

We quickly packed and set off further for Matheran by 7:00. We also intended to check out another 1-2 places for water which we could not check out at night. Walking further we reached a wall which one has to climb using an iron ladder. There is a tank at the top near the wall but that too was dry. We climbed further and then took a right to get on to the ridge that connects Peb and Matheran. There is a path that again skirts the top area of the hill and goes around it instead. At it's end where we could now see the ridge to Matheran clearly. We saw a path going to the left and leading to a hut. The "hut" is a kinda Ashram set up by followers of Swami Samartha. There was no one around so we freely trespassed and entered the shrine. Lo and behold - the blessed souls who lived here had kept water in a drum inside the shrine..!! We were very thirsty and drank our fill before also filling the bottles. We would not run out of water till Matheran now.

Leaving the hut we walked in the direction of Matheran and after a while met 2 guys. They were the Swami Samartha fellows who lived in the hut. One of them showed me the place where they got the water from. It is very close to the hut, a little below it, and has water all year round. There is enough water for them to take a bath everyday and enough for their 2-3 cattle to drink as well. They invited us for tea which we declined and after ascertaining the route we set off again. It is an easy 1.5 - 2 hours walk to the railway track of Matheran from Peb. One has to descend by an iron ladder at one point where it is rocky. After this descent, the path leads straight to a point where it again skirts the mountain side rather than going up. This is on the west side, so if one leaves early, one is shaded from the Sun after this point. A further 20-30 minute walk brought us to a point on the Matheran railway track at 9:00 AM. The train passes by this point at 9:15. We decided not to risk boarding it as we would have to board it while it was running and also ran the risk of a hefty fine if caught without a ticket. The ticket checker was sure not to let go of relatively rich city folks like us – “Tch Tch… Educated people like you should know better. Now you have to pay a fine.” I am sure they let local folks hitch a ride without any payment.

So we walked along the track till we reached Dasturi Naka. It is the entry point for Matheran where one has to park one's vehicles and leave them behind as they are not allowed in. We reached the Matheran market by 10:15 AM. Had a snack there and roamed around a little before going for an afternoon snooze in the Paymaster Park. Sleeping like bums in a public park on the park-benches was quite an experience. I did not get much sleep though Moiz was fast asleep soon. I could overhear the yapping of a group which came after us and rested nearby. A young boy was wondering aloud why we were not getting disturbed by the insects. To which his mom or aunt or whoever it was, replied "Huh..! It makes no difference to people like these." .. he he... When I later told this to Moiz, he speculated that they probably thought we were drug addicts. Or maybe good-for-nothing bums asleep in a public park 'cos they have nothing better to do in life.

We left the park at 4:30 PM, had a snack in the market and bought soda to make a 2nd round of a heavenly drink (Kokum sherbet with Soda..!) and took a cab down to Neral. I was back home by 8:30 PM.

All in all, a great escape and a resounding success as it was mine as well as Moiz's first night trek.

My Expenses: 49 - Andheri to Ghatkopar rickshaw, 30 - Ghatkopar to Neral return ticket. Sub-total: 79.

Shared Expenses: 70 - restaurant at Neral, 50 - Matheran entry fee, 30 - Diwadkar restaurant, 32 - 2 bottles of soda, 70 - snack in market, 100 - cab from Matheran to Neral. Sub-total: 352. Per head: 352/2 = 176

My total expenses: 176 + 79 = 255.

Cheap, huh? And this was one of the treks where we ended up spending more since we went to a touristy place like Matheran. Else we would not have had to spend more than 150 bucks per head.

The Sermon

I was watching a documentary called "Fish! A Japanese Obsession." Unusual one. Made by a British fisherman and travel writer who decided to travel to Japan to try and capture the essence of the Japanese love, or obsession, with fish. It followed his 6-week journey to various parts of the island nation that are associated with certain kinds of fish, fishing industry, traditions and various other fishy things. :) Found it rather interesting. For example, the statistic that this country which makes up 1/50th of the world's population eats 1/10th of it's fish was quite startling. So was the extraordiary lengths to which Japanese go to satisfy their craving for freshness and the taste for delicious but endangered fish. It is curious how the Japanese apparently revere fish and yet do not even think what their appetite/craving is doing to fish in general and esp. to those that are endangered.

Anyways, the documentary also briefly brought into focus some curious aspects of Japanese culture and got me digging into memory and thinking about various things associated with Japan - Samurai, Zen, martial arts, rice farmers, minimalism in art, super-efficiency, Japanese militaristic ambitions, it's place in the modern world economy and so on.

I suddenly remembered this Zen story that I had read once and liked a lot. As I recollected it, I thought I'd put it into my own words. Here it is:


It was dawn in spring season. The air was cool and life was stirring itself up for activity as the Sun made it's appearance.

Zen monks, fresh and eager faced, were sitting on straw-filled mattresses in a courtyard. The Master arrived and sat under a tree. He chanted with his head bowed and then looked with repose at the disciples.

As he was about to begin his sermon, a bird alighted on a branch above him. It hopped about energetically and broke into a birdsong. All eyes and ears turned towards it. The bright-colored feathered creature sang for a while and then flew away.

Turning to the monks the Master said, "The sermon for the day is over."


Liked it? I found some more nice Zen stories here.

Bob Dylan - Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie

Dylan wrote this poem as a goodbye/tribute to Woody Guthrie.

2 Solutions for 1 Problem (Abbas Kiarostami, 1975)

A short 4-minute film by the noted Iranian film-maker Abbas Kiarostami. Loved the way he has managed to get across a multi-layered message using a simple plot. The audio-visual medium can be so much more effective when in the right hands. And I think that is what separates the masters from the rest. Whether in writing, music, art or films, the masters are the ones who manage to say the most with the least.

This one definately makes me want to see more by this director.