Lifestyle,Food,Travel...and More

Blissful Boulevard The day had begun to end with darkness all around the room. By now we knew that this night we would have no ray of electricity to help us light our rooms. Although this place had already lightened our deepest inner senses. This time the darkness brought an emphatic glow of bewilderment. The merriment in that wooden cottage was one that we would remember forever. We had to wake up early morning around 4 am to depart for Chandigarh to catch an evening flight for Mumbai, but the mind was startled at the idea of moving away from this gleeful utopia and moving on to the insipid dystopia of a metro.  As I was stashing up all my belongings into my bag, the last two days flashed coherently before my eyes. Maybe something tried to stop me from leaving but as always, the sudden drift to a reality of dire straits is what happens to us. Raju's Cottage was not just mirthful or limpid, it was a joyous transcendence to the real world where we belong. It was a wond...

One of my favorite poems that I have written. I think this one deserves a place on this blog. It would be overtly philosophical but sometimes the mind just cannot think on the first base :) Light and Dark A midst the darkness of the bright night, I stood still with my thought and might, There was an inner will which emitted the glow, It wasn't the night where the inner strength would blow, The stars hinted towards how far the dreams were, The clouds pointed that they would never again be blur, Eyes twinkled to emit the ray of start, Mind warned it to be the beginning of the wrath, Hands lay folded waiting for the next journey to ensue, Legs grumbled being cynical enough to pursue, With the glitter in the soul I started the march, Heart rumbled with joy within the inner arch, It was time to see that silhouette of light in the dark, And was the time to coronate the spark.

  I fell down with both feet pointing in opposite direction and the ski pole stuck right in front of me, and the shoes made it immensely difficult to pull the body stuck in snow on a mildly inclined slope. It was a newbies attempt to pull out a skiing trick which failed indeed, but the instructor somehow managed time out of his busy sight to pull me back again and the sight around me made me realise that I had come a long and majestic way to enjoy the slippery maze. The world around was snowy, it was surreal white with sun shining brighter than ever and the place in picture was Auli. Lot of people around me and around the  country have often made a swift beeline to international destinations and even destinations in the north in search of that exuberant view and an emotional epiphany that could change the ploy of life. In this quest often, simple and exemplary destinations would go unnoticed. One such destination lies in the mountains of Uttarakhand, few miles away from t...

 We had just descended from a humdrum of a trek and reached Manali. The only thing that we could think of apart from going home was to have the Corn Cheese Sandwich which we had 5 days back before ensuing the journey. Just 10 mins before our bus for Chandigarh was departing we managed to lay our hands on that Sandwich and began our departure on a happy note. The place where we had this sandwich was known as "Honey Hut Cafe". Out of all the shops or restaurants or cafes which we saw around Manali, the only name which I could remember is Honey Hut. There was something about this place and the corn cheese sandwich and the honey choco balls and the coffee that made it a place filled with immense jubilation. Some places just have that strong pull back quotient and this had place had it at the highest of quotients. A month back while browsing through Zomato, the name Honey Hut Cafe appeared on the list in Mumbai. It was a happy moment with the whistling Manali coming back to ...

In the medieval period we had days where hot chocolate meant 'Hot Horlicks', 'Hot Milo', 'Hot Bournvita', 'Hot Hersheys' ! In fact some where in the 6th grade when Milo distributed free cups of hot milk with Milo I was more than enthralled at the taste of its offering. I had thought nothing could beat that drink ever... But coming to the modern age and the total evolution of food and food outlets within our city, which has made authentic cuisines pretty much within the reach of any food addict, the cusp of the hot chocolate graph has shifted a bit. The search for the quintessential hot chocolate is still on but the drinks offered by some of the outlets within our city are way beyond blissful. My personal on the hotness meter is still 'Food For Thought'(FFT) at Fountain. The depth, texture, taste and hotness of its hot chocolate is indeed a sip for the yearning struck and choco crazy mind. I would not say that I am chocolate maniac but ...

Day 11 of the course had began,but there did not seem any adrenaline within the ephemeral thoughts of the mind to rush back to the city. All the days in unison had this tranquil texture floating around them. The 11 day course had come to an end but the mind has just began to ponder around the splendor of what had just happened. Before planning to visit Igatpuri, which is possibly considered the best center to learn Vipassana from the S.N. Goenka lead centers, the ghetto within the mind with all its troubled reasoning was trying to give up even before starting. Some people always try and push you back when you are trying to do something different, that would happen to anyone who is planning to visit this place for the first time. People would pull you into the cluster of religious taboo or brain wash syndrome and what not. But I wish to clarify that visiting this place did not make me change my religion and it did not even make me shave my head and become a monk, it precisely an...

And then he drifted us away not with words but indeed with his eyes. Our extra time within the monastery was over. The monk was in complete disarray from what had just happened. Jai (name changed to protect identity) had just perturbed a peaceful monk's mind and we all stood there in disbelief. Out of the many distinct tales from Leh, this one too remains etched apart from the memories of the wondrous scenic marvels. It was around 4-5 pm and car had reached Diskit monastery (Between Nubra and Leh). Every part of everyone's body was rumbling because of the road travel of many days and especially because of the tethered Nubra road ( those who have been to Nubra would understand the feelings better). Climbing up the stairs to the monastery we were wondering if we should preserve some energy to reach LEH or continue moving up to have a little prayer before we move on with the trip. We decided to pray eventually. Sometimes one spends too much time trying to preserve energy wi...