Hinterlands of India

The travel on the western coast of India and through Kerala and Karnataka is a feast for eyes for sure. During my recent train journey there were other things that were a thorn to my eyes and mind. Soon after the train left Kasargod 15 miles from Mangalore, India’s beautiful coastline vanished like a summer rainbow and impoverished people walking around took over. Economically under privileged people with unkempt hair and dirty clothes walked across the compartment asking for alms. I have seen people in poverty before and this was a common sight in public places and during train journeys. Most of them are children at the tender age of 5 and 6 begging around for food and money for their existence. Some of those children were singing songs asking for the passengers’ choice and took money in return for their performance. There was only innocence in those eyes apart from tears and the tender skin already had wrinkles and was rough. Most of their clothes were torn and most parts of the body exposed to sunlight. Their hair was coarse, rough and tan colored. Well it makes sense to first fill the stomach and then take care of appearance and looks. Some of the passengers were kind enough to spare their change while some of them didn’t want to encourage beggary. I don’t know whom to side? Am I doing something wrong and accumulating bad karma by not giving or am I right by not encouraging? Why is there discrimination in the world created by God? Why is he depriving these kids of their innocent childhood? Does God really have a heart? The next couple of hours I was totally disturbed questioning the underlying problem for the poverty, the origin, and questioning religion and seeking God for a solution.

Hands that need to hold pencils were asking for alms, stomachs that need to be filled were rarely offered food, the shoulders that need to carry school bags were carrying trash. Moving trains, sidewalks are their shelter for the day, garbage cans are their tiffin boxes, their existence and survival is a daily challenge. Why did this hit me so bad this time? May be the extreme beauty of the coastline and poverty was too much to handle at the same sight.

Before questioning the religions and God for an answer, I went on a logical questioning spree. I recalled Maslow’s theory, to move up in the pyramid our psychological needs have to be fulfilled. Security, shelter, food, education and other basic needs should be fulfilled. 70% of India’s population resides in rural areas and India is an agricultural based country and we depend on the monsoon god to shower his mercy on us. There are more mouths to be fed than being fed at present. Since we are agricultural based country we cant assure food for every mouth if our monsoon fails. Recent statistics say that 300 million Indians are within the age group of 20-35, in the prime of their youth and they are middle class employed Indians. 70% of assuming our population to be 1 billion, we have 700 million people in various age brackets, retired, partially working and working.

Who are these people? Where do they live? What do they do for living?
They are uneducated people who don’t have the basic needs of life – food, shelter leave alone have jobs. They are uneducated who live on sidewalks, slums of Bombay, Chennai, Calcutta and many other places in India. They in turn make their children victim of poverty. Elderly people neglected by their kids also turn to this profession. Some of the parents turn their kids into child labor, sex trade, thieves, and even sell their kids for money. I don’t have sufficient statistics to fortify my claims and disprove some fallacies.

What is that we can do as individuals? What is that Government can do? What is that corporate houses can do?
Well no individual can erase poverty; this battle needs to be fought on all fronts by every educated citizen, not just in ones mind but in action on the field. Government definitely cannot take care of al these people by providing jobs and shelter to them. Government has offered free education, midday free meal scheme in school to attract kids, created employment opportunities. Corporate houses have sponsored educational opportunities, provide vocational training, employment opportunities and adopted several slums as first step to eradicate poverty.

What needs to be fixed first? What more can be done?
Education is the only biggest fix which can address this problem at the root and can eradicate poverty completely. Education gives them the confidence, dispels the darkness of poverty and fear. A single candle light can definitely not light the world, but a single flame can definitely light more candles which in turn can spread more light. This society is not run by Government, NGO’s and other philanthropist. Every educated and employed professional has a duty towards this society and making this earth a heaven.

-Doctors have been conducting free medical camps in rural India and at slums to create
awareness on personal hygiene and diseases. More doctors must come forward to treat economically challenged patients for free and conduct camp more frequently in poverty stricken areas
-Philanthropist have sponsored education to number of kids, but each earning member (300 million people) should discourage child labor and adopt a kid and ensure his education
-Teachers teaching at private schools must reach out to children in the society and do free service during the weekdays or weekends.
-Every citizen must set aside time for the society. This can be used for teaching kids, creating awareness campaigns, providing employment opportunities.
-Growing entrepreneurs and fresh ones must employ more of the economically challenged people without exploiting them for cheap labor.
-Lawyers can fight cases free of cost to favor the economically challenged.
-Corporate houses are sponsoring computers, adopting villages to spread literacy, but we still need more of the small institutions to participate and drive such programs with intense commitment

Small drops definitely make an ocean and when we join hands on all fronts we can successfully fight poverty. Assuming 300 million people live below the poverty line, working class of 300 million in the age group of 20- 35 definitely can adopt one kid each and sponsor their education. Education can bring light to those lives that live in huts, sidewalks and public places. Animals and birds take care of community, why not humans? Haven’t we heard stories of a dog lactating kitten? It can definitely happen if we take a stand and make a decision to help the downtrodden masses. We have huge NRI community living outside India. Those earning in dollars and other highly valued currency related to INR can sponsor 2 kids and make this dream a reality.

After a long debate within myself, I made a note of few things that I can do to add to the ocean. If you think we can bring together a like minded community to fight and eradicate poverty, let us join hands. The reason why I am posting this here is to create more awareness and ensure more participation to eradicate the world’s deadliest virus – poverty.

Religion is a communion between your mind and soul, between yourself and the community and finally between yourself and God. – John Macmurray

A journey to God's Land

I was a little busy at work last week and I had taken Thursday and Friday off. We (Appa, Amma, Sister and Paati) left by west coast on Thursday morning. We reached Mangalore on Friday morning and hired a qualis for the next 3 days. We stopped by a motel to shower and grab a cup of coffee and headed to Udipi, 75 mins drive from Mangalore. We had a wonderful morning darshan , Krishna was wearing a red color, blue border zarigai paavadai and he was dressed like girl with thala saaman. Needless to say he was adorable and very beautiful. Not a long queue, the darshan was absolutely blissful.

We headed to Kollur to have the darshan of Mookambika- 2 hrs drive from Udipi.. We were there at 11.30 am and had darshan during Rahukalam and waited to see the Ucchi kala deeparthana. At 1.00 pm we headed from Kollur to Sringeri and reached there at 3.30 pm. We rested for an hour in the room and then refreshed and headed to Sharadha temple. At 5.30 we reached Narasimha vanam, a place where Sringeri Acharaya lives on the other side on river Tunga. We took his blessings and on the way back we stopped at Vidya Shankar temple. Later in the evening we stopped by Sharadha temple to get a glimpse of the golden chariot purapaddu and then headed to the pooja hall to participate in the evening pooja celebrations. We had a relaxed darshan of Acharya the next morning. Acharya recalled his stay in our house 18 years back and blessed us with his kind words and graced us with his motherly look. The noon lunch was served with Payasam and it was very tasty. Going with the saying, “unda kalaippu thondanukkum unduu” we took a brief nap in the afternoon. We left Sringeri by 5.00 pm on Saturday.

Climate was absolutely great with cloudy skies, low humidity, warm sunshine without a drop of rain. We headed to Dharmasthala 3 hrs drive from Sringeri, and as we approached the temple the rain god started to shower his blessings on the town. It was pouring cats and dogs. We decided to join the long queue though it was pouring outside. It was almost 9pm when we left Dharmasthala. Long weekend had brought tons of people on pilgrimage and we were not able to get an accommodation. We headed towards Mangalore and stayed at Ujire (10 kms from Dharmasthala). The following morning we left early for Subramanya (75 kms, 21 kms roads were horrible) and reached here by 9am. We had a good darshan and left from there to catch the 1.00 pm train at Mangalore.

Our onward train journey through the coastal Kerala and Karnataka happened during the night and we were not able to relish the coast line. The tracks are just 500m away from the coastline. I had to remind myself that I am traveling on the western coast of India. Kasargod to Calicut was an amazing journey, with the ocean, coconut trees and back waters and catamarans, what more can you ask for? I was wondering if Barathiyar had visited Kerala. His poem “Kaani nilam vendum parashakthi” very much was in sync with the ambience. Each of the houses measured approx. 1-1.5 grounds (kani nilam) and had coconut trees decorating the plot (thennai maram keetrum ilaneerum)

Kerala is definitely “Gods land”. This journey was a feast for eyes, mind and soul. I will share the pictures in a day or two. You can access them at http://photos.yahoo.com/arun_ri

Plushy Pondy Bazaar

Yet another bright day with a cool breeze and sky scattered with cumulus clouds in the lower strata. The Sun was out, but neither too hot nor cool enough to wear a jacket. It is pleasant day so far. I was getting ready to step out of the house this morning and mom asked me to get curtains for the porch and place mats for the table. The curtains had big holes and our neighbors could have a peep show into our living room from their windows. She had been asking me to get them for a while now, but I sensed the urgency in her voice this time. We were having guests over for the weekend and it was absolutely necessary to replace the worn out ones. I was starring at the new billboard that said “Sunday na rendaa” (is it twice on Sunday?) there was a young couple in the ad and there was no other message or logo on the billboard. Well I was wondering what the hell that could be, so were the Chennaiites. 18 months ago there was another ad which kept the lunch tables and water coolers busy. Even kids were discussing these ads in schools, well later we realized it was Aids awareness campaign by a NGO. Why don’t you also squeeze your brains on Sunday na rendaa?

Well I had run some motherly errands and execute some sonly responsibilities. I decided to make a trip to Pondy Bazzar during the lunch break. Pondy Bazaar is the shopping mecca in Chennai and infact it is Walmart spread over the 2 kms on the sidewalk, a one stop shop for the familiy. We don’t have aisles, it is all spread on the sidewalk and you can haggle too. You get everything from safety pin to garlands to Silk sarees in Pondy bazaar. If you are planning to get married you can shop an hour before your marriage and get dressed in the dressing room and pick up a garland on the way out and reach the wedding hall. Sri Krishna Sweets (Like Cheese Cake Factory) have their outlet Pondy Bazaar and you could take your friends there for a quick gastronomical experience to share your happiness.

It starts near Kasi Arcade and goes al the way till Panagal park. The school season was over and the water bottles, fancy book bags and lunch bags were not sought after anymore. Designs and colors keep changing very year and vendors hawk the passerby throwing fancy deals. Vendors were busy with the forthcoming festival (Krishna B’day, Ganesha B’day and Navarathri – doll festival). The traffic was not all that bad during the afternoon. Most of the shoppers on the sidewalks were ofcourse women sending their husbands and kids out, haggling with the vendors over a rupee or two. Well there are some women shoppers who will have to definitely haggle to experience the complete shopping experience, and I found a lot of them today. If you need to really master the art of shopping and haggling you must come down to Chennai and shop here with the women. I stopped in the ATM across Rathna stores to get some money, the queue was long but it was moving fast. Since when did Chennaiites start queuing in an orderly fashion?

Within a week from launching of any new product may it be cell phone or camera, you will find duplicates here. They sell covers and laminates for everything that you can imagine from condoms to car covers. It is yet another China Bazaar. Remember the one in New York? On the way to I stopped by Geetha Café (the oldest coffee shop of yesteryears) to sip the hot cup of coffee with a extra dash of chicory. If you thought Starbucks rules, well you must come down to have a cup of coffee here while you haggle with the vendors. This is a complete shopping experience, Interesting isn’t it?

Within 10 minutes I got done with the shopping and decided to step into Sri Krishna sweets to surprise mom with some pre Krishna Jayanthi (Krishna’s B’day fals on August 27) snacks. I came back to work and I gave mom a call to let her know that I had finished her errands and told her about the snacks. Well I sense my mom's impatience for the curtains and place mats, I will catch you later, may be tomorrow. We have yet another area in T-Nagar to be explored, yes the famous all time Ranganathan street. I will keep that for the weekend.

A walk on GN Chetty Road

India celebrated its 58 year of Independence yesterday. There was no violence reported in the city or elsewhere in the country. We earned this independence without bloodshed and satyagraha (non-violence) and today we are fighting with Pakistan changing Kashmir to a graveyard. Someday we will realize the value of freedom, peace and co-existence. I could see no flags on the street or outside the shops to show their patriotism. Where are you guys, busy working for call centers on national holidays?

Rains lashed the city over the weekend and washed down dust and rust from the trees and other standing structure. The deep blue sky and sun made look everything snappy and new. It was definitely a feast for eyes. It was 15 minutes after 1 and I took a walk down the G.N. Chetty Road. Both sides of the roads were impeccably clean and without any pot holes and puddle of water. I didn’t have to walk consciously looking to save my clothes from the speeding car going through the puddle of water. I was wondering if Chennai is all prepared for the monsoon and how efficient and prepared was the city when it comes to handling crisis. None of the folks on the road were carrying an umbrella or a rain gear, people were pretty sure that it won’t rain during the day. Let us wait and see if their prediction was better than the weather man. Well the civic authorities say they are re laying 600 kms of roads in the city and have cleaned and de-silted storm water drains and are identifying other drains that can help the when storm arrives. We will have to wait for the monsoon to test the preparedness.

I’ve recently picked up this habit of going for a walk during my lunch hour. My boss in US used to do this during his lunch break. At the age of 60 he used to be active mentally and physically. This walk definitely clears the cobwebs in our head and makes you feel fresh, but I don’t guarantee pollution free roads. Subway has opened its 3rd franchise (in Chennai) right down the street where I work. I could see the yuppie crowd lining up for their subs. To carter to the population with spicy taste buds, Subway has Indianized a few of their recipes. Right across from Subway is “Murugan Idly shop” which carter’s traditional south Indian food. I have seen people queuing outside the restaurant during the evenings. The make lip smacking delicious Ildy’s (rice cakes) and chutneys (spicy sauces) to go with it. If you are calorie conscious or diabetic, we have “Desire” that sells traditional sweets without sugar. They have replaced sugar with other forms which breaks down faster without raising the blood sugar level. If you are on a fruit diet, then you have vendors on the sidewalk ready with juicy Washington apples and Florida oranges. Tender coconut juice from Kerala was sold as well.

Traffic was not much during this time of the day, but the two-wheeler population was steady and driving orderly. Not many women were walking out of the jewelers and textile shop raping their husband’s credit card. The Vasool Rajas of Chennai (auto guys) were were not that busy during this time of the day and were napping under the trees after having their home made lunch. The meter in the auto’s don’t work and they drivers adamantly and arrogantly demand fleece on poor passengers. They other day when I called an auto to go to my home from work, the guy asked me Rs. 60 for 2 kms. I was so pissed off at the auto guy that I told him I was not willing to pay less than a 100 and since he had asked me for 60 I had to turn him down. He was pissed at my reply and went scouting around for other victims. Well Chennai is still a beautiful place irrespective of the auto guys. I will cover Ranganathan street and Pondy Bazaar, the market places in Chennai later this week.

Hang in there and come back soon for more updates on Chennai.

Mind your mind

Mumbai is getting back on its feet after the torrential down pour. Life is slowly returning back to normalcy. We all love the normal routine and when there is disturbance we hate it. Change is something all of us hate. The mind gets into the groove and hates to do things differently. We sometimes create stress through mind blocks, paradigms.

I am sure you all would have experienced this in your life. We complain about our exisiting jobs, managers and other things at work. We feel uncomfortable and then start to look our for a dream job. In the meanwhile we trash and badmouth the current work place. After the hardwork we find the dream job and we bragg about the cool boss and perks at the new place making rest of the colleagues jealous.

When it comes to the first week at work our mind is not settled, we miss the old chair, old emails at work, hate the empty cubicle and feel paranoid about the new work place. Atleast a few times we would think about the previous job and appreciated it and feel ex-colleagues to be angels. The paranoid mind signals you to be careful with everyone around you and to be politically correct at all times. In the process of watching our words we end up being glum and reticent.

We call back our friends whom we bitched about, now to let them know how much we miss them and that we should meet outside of work. The honey moon get over and then we start to complain about the dream job and colleagues.

This is a never ending cycle which we all go through. Our mind is a dangerous, devious monkey. It instructs us to do all the wrong things at the right time and makes use lose hair and happiness.
The term happiness is very very difficult to define and is like air. Can anyone touch air? Happiness is the tangibly intangible, it is writing on flowing water. It is a mirage and often leads your mind to make the wrong choice. In a nutshell paradigms and impressions that we carry are the reason for happiness and sorrow. Absence of one is the presence of another.

Will catch you tomorrow with more philosophy........

Monday madness

Well the sun is refusing to move far away from the equator and is making days long and temperatures soar both inside and outside. It is in upper 30’s all over the state and clouds for the month of August are yet to arrive. I was in the cafeteria beating the heat with a cold glass of freshly made orange juice and perusing through “Deccan Herald”. Newspapers have taken a different stand in creating and disseminating news. They are creating sensational news to attract readership and improve circulation. The authenticity and credibility of news is questionable, but who cares if it can improve the circulation.

The headlines in the first page caught my attention, “Solar eclipse on Oct 6 will cause peace.” Violence is supposed to mark the arrival of Solar eclipse and this is supposed to continue for the next 6 months. Peace is a priceless commodity in today’s world is never ever present. Without the arrival of solar eclipse we already have violence out of the can. This prediction was made by astrologers and news item was masala cooked by our journalist. This is a front page news items to attract attention and create panic. Is this an example of professional journalism? Press all around the world behaves with immaturity and callousness. I started to sweat due to the radiation from the asbestos sheet in the cafeteria, and not from the news. But news items like this would possibly make terrorist choose their targets to coincide with the event. Astrologers and journalist can be an autopsy later than try instigate terrorism and create panic around us. I hope the rest of you will also side with me on this issue.

Well we lost an A class journalist today to lung cancer. For those of you who have watched the evening news on ABC at 6.30 pm, Peter Jennings exhibits every quality a journalist needs. Patience, calmness in describing events, knack of disclosing sensitive information with caution without creating anxiety is a few to name. He is an university for aspiring journalist. Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings the trio on the evening news until last December exhibited a. Dan Rather left while Tom Brokaw retired and Peter succumb to the inevitable. This is definitely an end to stupendous journalism. May his soul rest in peace.

Today is “Aadi Pooram” and birth day of Andal aka Mahlakshmi (consort of Vishnu). She is considered the last of the 12 vaishnavite alwars (saints) and is closest to Vishnu. Srivilliputtur is her birth place and her birthday is celebrated with the famous car festival. The Govt. of Tamilnadu is proud of having this temple Gopuram on their official government emblem. I had a chance to visit the temple and take part in the celebrations yesterday. I had no idea and plan to visit the temple on this auspicious day, but I had been wishing for it secretly. She heard me and invited me to catch a glimpse of her beauty and the car festival. I prayed for those of you reading this blog and those of you who don’t know me as well. Let this world be blessed with more peace loving people unlike our journalist and astrologer. We’ve seen enough of bloodshed and destruction of life in the past and present. Let us pray for the Solar eclipse to bring peace and only peace.

Innovate??

Did you read the news today? Adidas is in talks to buy over Reebok for $3.8B and this would bring the race closer between Nike with annual revenue of $13B. The blue whale swallows the smaller fish and this is the law of nature. There is constant movement from perfect competition to oligopoly to monopoly and this happens when with the change in supply and demand. Growth can be either organic or inorganic, but for us it is always organic. We have seen big companies getting gluttonous and buying out smaller companies and when they reach the indigestion stage they start to vomit smaller companies. Doesn’t it sound disgusting? Well I didn’t want to make it sound that way.

There was another interesting article in the newspaper that caught my attention. Post office employees in India are struggling to keep their jobs. Government is trying their best to look at other areas to earn revenue for the postal department. Do you remember those days when Pigeons were used to carry messages from one place to another, but with the industrialization this slowly broke down. But people still wrote letters but they were hand delivered by humans.
Letters then had a lot of life in them and they conveyed gossip too. Don’t you remember the days when you wait outside the house for the postman to deliver the Christmas gift from Santa, a lovely letter for grandma informing her arrival, and anxious moments awaiting the promotion card from the school. From anxious moments to happy moments postman have delivered all kinds of news and been an integral part of our lives. Could you imagine a life without a postman in those days?

With the arrival of internet the habit of writing letters came down, and now with penetration of mobile culture and SMS the habit of writing letters is almost becoming extinct. But I have seen 50+ folks still using pen and paper as a means of communication. I still remember my transition to computers, I felt uneasy composing letter on MS word and I would feel my thoughts getting scattered without a pen and paper. Now I really can’t write on a piece of paper, and I prefer composing messages and then transferring them on to the paper. With the arrival of lot of private companies like Blue Dart, Fed Ex , UPS and the big piece of the pie is already gone. Our lives have become so machine dependent, and there would be a day when we would be slaves for the robots. Could you imagine a life without a computer today?

Today the postal industry is under severe pressure to innovate, cut back on staff and perform multiple functions at the same location. We can pay electricity, gas and telephone bills at the post office. They still accept deposits and pay more then savings account in the bank. Now the Government is seriously contemplating to start banking at the post office, and that should give them an opportunity to hang on to their jobs for a longer time.

Well the bottom line is to innovate or evaporate. I really can’t chalk out a solution for the postman and neither can I live without a computer. Hm….hmm… interesting huh? Let us start writing letters for a change or alteast take a print out and send them by mail to keep these post office going for some more years.

In the middle of the week - Wednesday

Rains battering the west coast of India have thrown lives out of gear. City of Mumbai is paralyzed and life inundated. Forces and fury of nature can’t be controlled, but the truth is that nothing is in our hands though our ego says everything is in my control. Weather in Chennai is really cool since start of July. Sun has turned very friendly and temperatures in the lower 30’s during the day and in the lower 20’s during the night. Moisture laden clouds painting the deep blue sky grey have turned the warm city in a cool one. You can walk around without an umbrella and a hanky, but rain may catch you unaware and unprepared.

River Cauvery is the only source of water for farmers in the delta region and without water it would mean living in hell. State of Karnataka shares water with Tamilnadu. The concept of share and live together is lost today. We’ve all become self centered and narrow minded. Over the past decade without much rain in the catchments lot of fight has brewed but nothing transpired from legal pleadings. We’ve seen people immolating and committing suicide by jumping in the reservoirs. Poverty has a strong hold on human minds and emotions. In those days when monsoon used to be regular and timely, river Cauvery would bring water during the month of Aadi without fail. The famous proverb “Aadi pattam thedi vithai” sow in the month of July was true then. Paddy (Rice), sugarcane, Banana cultivation would begin the moment water arrives in the delta region. Gone are those days when they used to have elephants were engaged to beat the paddy of the plant. Don’t we all know the reasons for change in climate, living conditions? But over the past decade due to untimely, deficit rainfall lush green paddy fields have turned into deserts and so the faces and lives of the farmers, deserted with tears and fears.

Thanks to Mother Nature, this year the states were preparing to get into a similar brawl but then nature decided to intervene with copious rain in the catchments compelling the State of Karnataka to release water from the fear of overflowing river and exploding dam. A lot of cheer and happiness has returned to the deserted faces in the delta. I repeat again “Forces and fury of nature can’t be controlled, but the truth is that nothing is in our hands though our ego says everything is in my control.”

Silent Weekend sh....sh..sh...

We are in the first day of August. Wow 7 months have gone by 2005? Yes, Time and tide wait for none.My posts have come down from couple of times a week to once a week. I know some of you visit the website often and feel disappointed when not updated. Sometimes we all do enjoy the silence, isn’t it not? Sorry, I have been travelling a lot specially in the weekends and during the week I end up preparing for the weekend. Lol! I had my lunch pretty early in the day, we could call it brunch. Yesterday was my fasting day, Ekadesi. This falls 2 times a month and it is the 11th day after the full moon and new moon day. During the fasting we are supposed to abstain from rice, cereals, salt and can have a few glasses of milk and some fruits. Fruit and milk diet helps to cleanse the toxins from the body and rejenuvates the spirits. Foods are classified as Rajasic(hot, spicy, loaded with fat), Tamasic (salty,sour, bitter), and Sattvic (bland). The type of food that you consume alters your thinking pattern and hence is responsible for your actions. Interesting it is? Don’t worry, we will have a university from London and US conduct study on it, if not earlier.

Looks like the dark clouds decided to stay on top of Mumbai for a longer time. The city is inundated with water from the recent rains and is waiting for a break to breath. Mombai recorded 95cms on rain in 24 hrs, and has broken Cherrupunji’s record of 88 cms in a day, wettest place on earth. Almost a meter of rain (3+ feet) rain had fallen in the city of Mumbai within 24 hrs. After an early lunch this morning I went on a fruit break and was reading the news paper enjoying the fruit bowl. The news papers reported that there is a decrease in the no. of under graduates in computer science discipline in the US. It is the lowest since 1977, and students are apprehensive about jobs being outsourced to India. Interesting, huh?

I had been to Sringeri this weekend (http://www.mangalore.com/documents/sringeri.html) to visit the mutt started by Adi Shankara’s disciple. This place is surrounded by mountains, dense forest and is in the valley. Monsoon being very active over the west coast of India, it was pouring all 2 days. Moss and lichens had colored the bark and branches of the trees green. Mudslide and roads filled with potholes made commute long and at time nightmarish. River Tunga was wild and running. It was a weekend in soaking rain, lush greenery, without news papers, mobiles and computers. It was absolutely relaxing retreat for the tired mind and fingers.

For those of you who were not able to join me can visit http://photos.yahoo.com/arun_ri and peek into Sringeri album. How do you feel looking at the pictures? I feel so refreshed and charged after the weekend trip. The inner silence has to be understood, felt, and experienced.