Hola Espana!

Once upon a time in Adalaj

THE CITY OF DREAMS as seen from heaven

“The first thing I noticed about Bombay, on that first day, was the smell of the different air…I know now that it is the sweet, sweating smell of hope, which is opposite of hate; and it is the sour, stifled smell of greed, which is the opposite of love. It is the smell of gods, demons, empires and civilisations in resurrection and decay…It smells of heartbreak and the struggle to live and of the crucial failures and love that produce our courage. It smells of ten thousand restaurants, five thousand temples, shrines, churches and mosques and of a hundred bazaars devoted exclusively to perfumes, spices, incense and freshly cut flowers,” says Gregory David Roberts in the opening pages of his book

NID-some reflections..

NID-I think it works better as a 'National rehabilitation center for creative minds-especially for those who got tortured during school days in the name of education', for some - its few years of paid holidays.. NID should be listed as one of the holiday destinations not to be missed.. and it can also have a tourism department, because people(Alumni) really do come to holiday at this place! I swear! ... there are tourist attractions like Garba, Monsoon fiesta, poster war and Convocation etc etc...

I believe there are two kinds of people who don't clear the admission in NID.. one bunch fails because they are too good and creatively healthy to be admitted at this place, and other bunch who are in a chronic stage to be doing anything about their creative side of the brain.. at the same time there is only one kind who clear the admission process- the one who is just more luckier than the other creative applicants who fails to make it. By the way NID-ians are not necessarily the best creative people in the country.. but NID surely is the best place for any one who is creatively excited or bored.. Chai gate is the head office for both the groups and Lalu's tea is the official lubricant for the creative minds..

Gandhi Ashram- Ahmedabad

The Second week of May 2010. Weather reports claimed the hottest days in Ahmedabad. I decided to go for short bike ride early in the morning. If I do it anytime during the day I’ll become like popcorn (a tanned one). It had reached 46 degree in the city this week.

Gandhi Ashram is less than 7km from where I stay- a smooth 15 minute ride. I reached ashram at around 7:15 in the morning. (It could have been even earlier, later I felt). There I received a warm welcome from an extremely friendly dog at the gate. He behaved so friendly as if he knew me already. But soon i realised ‘You should not entertain any extra-friendly dogs if you don’t like dog’s saliva on you’. Later I found the dog’s name is ‘Geo’. His name reminded me of somebody i know, whose name is also ‘Geo’ but fortunately this person never shows any such symptoms while being friendly. One of my uncle had a dog named Bush, but again 'fortunately' the dog never had any similarities with his counterpart either- the other ‘Bush’...

I started moving around the Ashram, there were not many people around early in the morning and it was such peaceful place (PEACE and number of people are inversely proportional). This Ashram is along the side of the river (once upon a time) Sabarmati and one can see a long bridge (Gandhi bridge) from there. I wish the river was flowing and there were no concrete jungle on the other side of the river. Accepting the reality, I decided appreciate the 'beauty' of the busy traffic on the bridge through the early morning mist. The distance between the bridge and the Ashram kept the noise of traffic away. The vehicles seemed like small matchboxes moving around.The morning was very pleasant even in the peak of summer. I left the place before it started heating up.