Friday, July 15, 2011

New resolution: Backpacking & going offline for few days


Going Offline:
Taking a break from online life and spending time in offline world is like finding yourself again & living in real. It has become sort of a new resolution of mine. It is fun to do such a thing and at the same time you get so many ideas when you are away from your laptop. We humans are not designed to think in front of a screen. I always believed that I think and as a matter of fact I do day dream a lot. I do chase some of my thoughts and have seen some of my day dreams getting real.
It was time to take a break and start a journey toward fulfilling my wishes for 2011. Perfect time & decided to visit Golden Temple at Amritsar. Excited! As it was my first visit to North India.
In these three days that I was away from the online world, I met myself again, I learnt & realized a lot, met new people, spent a lot of time with loved ones.

Delhi Airport:
Luckily we didn’t had direct flight to Amritsar we had to stop at Delhi Airport and we had 7 hours gap for out next flight. That was the time I got the ideas of having the following stuff at the airport:
- Mini Movie Theater: Where anyone can pick up this or her own CD and watch their favorite movie. I would have watched “Hum Tum”

- Library: I am not a book freak but yes I love watching people’s expressions while they are reading books. Trust me it’s really funny

- Swimming pool: That’s one thing that will make airport real heaven for me. I can keep my feet in water for hours and spend time listening to lovely music

- Park for kids: Better these airport guys design a park before I deliver my 5 kids, or else you can imagine airport to be a mad house.

- Kitchen: I hate eating food from outside. My friends who tease me, know this - Every time I look at the food, I thing I could have cooked far better than them.

- Pub: I can dance non-stop specially when the DJ plays the right songs

However in the absence of all these, God was great to me, he had sent over 2 lovely angels. I didn’t ever realized how the time passed-by while playing with them. The 6 and 8 years girls thought me some lessons of life:
- Just keep laughing out loud & smiling, don’t worry what the world would think. Your smile may just unknowing bring happiness in others life
- Never stops learning, life is gifted ones live it to the fullest
- Speak your heart out and let out our emotions. Stop cheating yourself
- Accept your weakness no one is perfect
It’s great to live like a kid throughout; at least you can look into your eyes when you face the mirror.

Golden Temple:Finally reached destination. Don’t understand these questions & I never found them worth answering:
Why’s a south Indian visiting golden Temple?
Are you from Punjab?
Which part of Karnataka are you from?
How come your name sounds like a Coorge when you are from Mysore?

Can we grow up please & stop judging, categorizing people based on their cast, religion & language.
Since school days I was asked to dream about Golden Temple. That dream got scattered but the marks remained. It was time to clean up the marks, move on & find a new path. As I stepped in & had a first look at the golden temple, I just couldn’t move my eyes off it. I loved spending hours sitting besides the holy lake and watching the temple. I had a wish, few thanks giving and lots of forgiveness to ask. I joined my hands to the almightily said a prayer for the well beings of few lives which at a time I never valued.

Amritsar Shopping:
Believe me it’s fun to shop at Amritsar. The Amritsar shopkeepers are real good sales guys, they should deliver talks at Management Institutes. I had no plans of buying a Lengha, logically because I am not getting married, even if I was, we at south India never wear lengha at such events. But this logical gal did buy a designer lengha, no clue WHY ? Simple answer could be, when I draped it just looked like it was designed & made only for me.
Lovely Punjabi suits, tempted to buy, exceeded my budget & finally to impress mom & dad I bought a saree too. Now you’ll can imagine after this exclusive shopping what pressure I would have from my grandma & family members.
*Warning: Go for a shopping to Amritsar only when you are about to get married or after marriage.

Waga Border:
Historical & patriotic place. Don’t know what craze I had about visiting this place. Gosh the people out there were MAD. It was badly crowded & everyone was ready to climb on each other. What race was that, some cheap crowd too & I would have bashed a guy if luck wouldn’t have hit us. Army guy told us to join a ladies queue which never existed. We somehow got in and this make me believe strongly about LUCK. Lovely drill, dance on patriotic songs and army parade was amazing to see. People shouting “Vande mataram” & feeling proud of being Indian.
My question is why this spirit is only for a while, when we step out, why do we start differencing people based on religion, women treated like object, girls given less priority over boys, parents wanting their children to be engineer, doctors & not get into army.
Its time Indians wake up & stop putting up masks.

Punjabi Food & People:This happens to me most of the time – 2 emotions run at one time. While I was travelling by auto cycle I was happy enjoying the ride, but when I used to see man almost of my dad’s age burning his blood and cycling all the ways tears flew down.
Nothing like rich Punjabi food – paneer pakoda, lassi, parotha all cooked & fried in pure ghee. Got to meet a lot of people talked with them about the life and challenges that they face. People are extremely friendly, they open up quickly, and they accept you quickly. Something that we in cities should learn. Life is hard there, they can hardly do anything after its dark (but they do so much during the day). Good Schools are rare. After schooling the choices of courses are very limited. People live a very community oriented life there.
What will remain always is the warm hospitality I received.

Coming Back Online:
Coming back online after a break is not easy. There are so many things to catch up. It took me two days to read and reply to all the mails, three days to read blogs of my friends, one day to catch up on twitter and one for all other social networks.
Feeling refreshed after a break!
Realized life is not the same for all and life is not in facebook, google+, twitter, emails, and flicker. It’s much more & I have lots to explore. I have just started my journey, wish me luck.

4 comments:

Kranthi Kiran said...

That was a very nice post. I feel like having punjabi food now :) Wish you more travels and Good luck Bhavya..

Pradeep Pati said...

You see, airports too aren't designed for timepass either. You however could have done few things yourself if you carry a lappie or a tablet. Too bad that it seems you only work in front of a lappie, which makes things hard.

Bhavya said...

@Kranthi: U should visit punjab, I say this specially to south indian's. So much of a cultural stuff to know & learn :) Thanks & I too wish for lots of travel & meeting new ppl. US is the most awaited in my list. Hope to catchup with u soon :)

Bhavya said...

@Pradeep: Dude I seriously think airport needs re-design. Don't expect ppl to carry laptop when they r off for vacation. That too its the mid hours, which I would hate to spend in front of a screen.