Gandhi has been my philosophical preoccupation almost for the past 2 months. It started when I borrowed the book “My experiments with truth” from Aurko during my holidays. And it reached a high when I visited the Gandhi Ashram at Sabarmati on 30th June. I also had a chance to watch a video of the play ‘Mi Nathuraam Godse Boltoye’ based on the assassination of Gandhi while I was in the first few pages of the book. The sharp contrast to Gandhi’s personality and their philosophy was very interesting to observe. Even Nathuram Godse was a freedom fighter but he was against partition of the nation – and considered Gandhi responsible for it. His philosophy was that if creation of Pakistan is not opposed, many new factions might emerge in the nation later. A dialogue of the play goes like this- “Today Muslim’s have asked for a new state, tomorrow Sikhs might ask for one, and imagine if each of the Hindu factions ask for a state; this nation will be fragmented to every inch.” What comes out...

Ahmedabad was the last leg of my itinerary. After Akshardhaam, the next stop was Gandhi Ashram - at Sabarmati. But more on this in my next post which I have decided to completely dedicate to Gandhiji.  I am writing this post as a link from the past to the present. While Gandhi was a past. . . my further posts might talk about my present preoccupation - both material and philosophical. The reason why my posts have been few and far in the past few days has been my extreme involvement in an activity which paves way into the future. . . It is a dream that i have nurtured since the past 6 months . . . I have strived alone(initially) and with support (now) and am still working . . . the battle is fierce. . we are racing against time . . and technology is our strong-post . . hope our efforts succeed . . will write more about this "Dream" in the coming posts . . but to bite time here's a poem on "Dreams" (PS: If there are people who regularly vis...

The next day we started our day with breakfast in a local shack; enjoyed the generic Gujarati food there. Then we decided to cover our farthest point first – the Akshardhaam temple in Gandhinagar. It took us about 1½ hrs to reach the place. This was the much famed temple on which terrorists had staged a hostage drama some months ago. But on all other counts I had expected a normal temple and didn’t expect my visit to last more than ½ hr.         As I entered after thorough security checks into the premises, I saw green lush lawns and a long pathway…. Nothing was visible beyond the pathway. As I walked across the pathway into the large door, a large open space opened before me. It was now that I realized how big this place was. But the real fun was yet to come. We went into the temple and paid our respects to lord Swaminarayan. It was a very beautiful temple and the carving on the inside was articulate and impressive. I was surprised to find that...

The next day we both woke up early and got ready in our shoes to trek. It was pleasant outside; we went to the cliff via a backdoor in our hotel. But after a 10-meter ascend we found that the way up had been blocked by a thick overgrowth of thorny fence. We tried to find a way out from all sides but in vain. This fence was probably erected to restrict domestic animals from wandering beyond a point. But this could not spoil our spirit, we came down and tried to get a Birdseye view of the cliff; and finally found a small opening at the edges of the hotel walls. Then we started climbing up, the rise was a bit steep and it was a challenging trek. But the fun started when we were about 7-8 meters below the peak – and we saw a temple. As we moved up we found that this was an abandoned temple, probably of the tribes and they might be visiting it only on occasions like marriage. It was nice and cool up there and we both enjoyed the place because we could see almost the whole of Abu from here. ...

The next day started early. I and Abhishek (my younger brother) got up early and rushed to the railway reservation counter to cancel our ticket and also to book our bus tickets. After coming back we had our breakfast…. And soon our tourist bus came and we set out for the ‘Abu Tour’. Abu, as I said in the last post, is a small city and there are not more than 4 tourist destinations as such. But the tourism corporations and the municipality of Mount Abu have made it a more enjoyable place than what it could be. Apart from the tourist attractions the Abu tour includes some artificial destinations. The natural tourist destinations include Dilwara temple, Adhar Devi Temple, Achalgarh, honeymoon point, sunset point and the Guru Shikhar (highest point of Gujarat Rajasthan). This fills in just 5 hours of the trip. The rest of the tour is populated with the Nakki Lake, the Universal peace hall, World Peace Park and the world peace museum (all of the Brahmakumari godly university). These non-tou...

On 29th of June, my parents celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. To commemorate this event we went on a trip to mount Abu and Ahmedabad. The planning for the event was done well in advance; in fact information about Abu and its tourist attractions had already been found on the net before I reached Bhopal. I have always been the ‘working-son’ for my parents. What that means is that both my parents wait for me to come before they launch any new work. For example – planning a trip or painting the house or buying a new appliance etc.; even things like changing the position of a wall clock and sofa set are delayed for my arrival. It is this training that has made me an enthusiastic and ardent worker even outside. I am known for my working spirit and ability to get things done. So, when I came home, I was pushed into operational planning – dates, travel plans, tickets, hotels etc. All this done, we set out soon for our trip. Everything went to the clock. We left Bhopal by train on ev...

Just 2-3 days after I had visited the Indira Sagar site that news started pouring in about it. Monsoon was at its onset and the dam waters were rising to their expected levels for the first time. The district of Harsud was the major target. Authorities had passed orders to vacate the area and even the electricity and telephone lines had been snapped off. But the commoners of the area were reluctant to leave their homeland; reasons like non-payment of relief amount, inadequate arrangements at new location and corruption were sighted. But finally the media’s loud protest and intervention pulled the CM to the site and relief operations were speeded up. Whether the CM’s visit did sort out all the issues is questionable but it at least got the work moving up fast. Media the fourth pillar of democracy finally did help the commoners get their say to the world. Above all discussion brings one fact to the fore; all the mega projects aimed at mass development and national growth finally are not...

Jawaharlal Nehru called Dams as the temples of modern India. One hardly realizes the outlook behind this statement without actually seeing a Dam. Being in Bhopal I have seen a lot of dams since childhood so when my father offered a visit to the Indira Sagar Project I wasn’t surprised. It had been a long time since our family had gone on an outing (all together) and this was an ideal time and moment as my grandfather was also visiting us… We set out early in the morning by car; this was going to be my longest drive – the place was about 210kms from Bhopal near Khandva district. The journey was full of adventure and a cool drive except for 25km patch of bad road. I got a chance to drive in all seasons – it was sunny initially and it started raining as we reached nearer to the dam site. The trip was just like another till we reached the site. Cool weather, green lush surroundings, ghats, mountains and even a river bed crossing us. The river obviously was Narmada on which this dam was bu...

It’s been an obscenely long time since I have written to this blog… was in home for the last month and then when I came back I got busy with the new batch and its induction process… well anyway, now that I am back I would like to blog about all my experiences in the last few days… home was fun this time and so has been the induction process … This blog ends here …. The next ones will start at the start of my ‘holidays’............. Let me end with a nice poem which I wrote a long time back (year 2000) but is apt for this situtaion... DAYS PASSED BY Days passed by The days of struggle tiring yet sweet they were The days of tension difficult yet meaningful they were Every day unique in itself gave me new experiences Opportunities; to understand myself The days contributed in building me up Each day told me my shortcomings Difficult future life could have been Without the days The days which passed by Happiness, ease, satisfaction Pain, grief, sorrow All are impor...