Come Explore India with me

I am always fond of expeditions and exploring new places. Maybe it is genetic. When I the reached place it looked very familiar as though I had lived there all along, yet unexplored. Meanwhile an aged person looking similar to myself drove towards me and asked me if I would go on a safari to explore the place.As the woman looked trustworthy I readily agreed.

Even before I thought I  had settled in my vehicle, the lady in car gave a full acceleration and in 6s we were levitating towards Himalayas,  But the place didn't look that it belonged to time, I saw someone writing a script, and when we approached him he told that he was Manu, writing a script on Dharmashatra called Manusmriti, which was supposed to a be guiding book on Dharmashastra for yuga's to come although it needed modifications based on time. oh wow it was 200BCE then.That is when I realized we were time traveling,Oh god! so quantum physics with alternate universe is a reality!! I thought. When he got busy we moved on.

Manali Copyright Mythri P K

We then landed in the place which was once known as the holiest of the place, which was also the place where one of the deadliest battle between the cousins had  taken place, The Mahabharatha(~3500BC). I saw krishna from afar. After all the principles of krishna whom I adore is not a fictional character. I remembered The search for historical krishna by NS Rajaram.

kurukshetra copyright of famecity

When I was still lost in the thoughts I had reached Badami, Place of rock-cut temples where there is a story that agastya had killed vatapi, Just then I met a statesman and scholar taking ablutions in the  water, I just walked to him and asked who he was, he said he was Agastya. Finally I thought that I  could get the facts cleared about the myth and asked him , Is it true you killed vatapi ?? He smiled and told that with time facts  become a story and then a myth, I did not understand, he said if you want a plain answer yes I killed vatapi but it was in battle of wits and politics and moved away.

And then as we drove we reached Hampi, it was magnificent, Beautifully carved idols and temple builty by people trained in the sculpture schools in Aihole. As we moved on we saw they were selling gemstones and gold in kilos in the market around! It was the era of krishnadevaraya. When i was just awed and tried to get some for myself, I saw that people were leaving their wares and running haywire. I wanted to stop someone and ask why were they running but then I saw few folks with sword coming on horse.This was yet another moghul invasion, In front of my eyes I saw them destroying those statues and looting gold, Finally the empire which had stood strong on many invasion was giving away, I wanted to stop but couldn' t I felt helpless.

Hampi Narasimha Copyright of this blog

Least did i know that my next destination is going to be more painful. It was none other than the beautiful Andaman Islands, The rich blue green sea, coral reefs , I was mesmerized, I saw someone swimming, he looked very determined, As he walked towards me, he told that he was veer savarkar, He was trying to escape from kalapani, A deadly place where Indian Freedom fighters were put to solitary confinement by the British east India company. He told me heart wrenching stories about Indian Independence, I thanked god that we were a free nation now.

With my thoughts still running, I felt someone nudging me, When i turned to see who it was, I just opened my eyes and my mother was calling out saying that I was late to office :-).  So much for my journey I thought.They were all the places that I had explored some point in time, but this  new exploration with my  mind stitching history and my trips was something an experience I really enjoyed, albeit for free. I woke up refreshed, There was a sense of pride to have born in a Nation with such great diversity and history that we often forget. I made one resolution that I want to leave this world a little better than what I was left, all thanks to the courage, intellect, sacrifice of so many other people in the past.What about you ??

This blog is written for Indiblogger I'm the explorer  contest.

Nandini - part 2

I had Initially written about Nandini a long time back, I just got an idea of recreating it. Nandini is a fictional character I have created, I like to discuss some observation and my naive philosophy via her.
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Nandini thought that things would finally fall in place, least did she assume that the whole world she had created would come tumbling down. When it did, she didn't know what to do.
After all she was not prepared.
But then life doesn't wait for someone to be prepared to place a blow? Or does it?

It was raining very heavily outside but only she knew that her tears were pouring faster than the rains. When there were no more tears to shed, she did what she knew best... devouring all the books to find meaning to life(was she kidding?).
Why does life always have to be a mystery ? or is it that we don't see it  and make a mystery out of it?
Like how our vision is restricted to electromagnetic spectrum, are our perception and thoughts also limited, which needs some other dimension to be comprehended ?

As she was looking out of the window and when her thoughts wavered like the ruffle of leaves in rain, she remembered that It is said that you don't go in search of a Guru, but a Guru finds you.
Like ways her mind was as ready as a hot iron which is ready to be molded.

she had heard right since her childhood one of  vivekananda's quote that  "Faith can move mountains" It did not make much sense for her though, How can you move a physical object with something virtual ? Funny isnt it ? But Einstien with his relativity comes to resue, sometimes she wondered if  theory of relativity is more philosophical than physics, But then isnt philosophy and physics
the distinction created by the same restricted mind and duality does not exist in nature :-) ?

Well she then picked up yogavashishta a book with teaching of vasistha to rama,  One of the most profound statement made in the book was that there is nothing called existence, world is as you see it/create it. Come on that should be idiotic, if i am creating it then why is the whole world around me also  seeing the same as I do? But a thought came to her mind, isn't it true that
in dream we create a whole new world and only when we wake up we realize it was a dream not otherwise, in a dream you would always think it is reality.

It was only later when she listened to bhagavat geetha she started seeing a pattern,to her surprise even the geetha said that for a yogi it is night when it is day for others, what are you kidding me ?? was her first thought, how can it be and what it means was elusive to her, but thanks to zen habits she had subscribed, there came a copyleft  book by leo babuta, Titled "Little book of contentment", which was a momemt of realization for her. The book said if someone has a problem with you, they are dealing with their own problems than with yours. It also said something very convincing you can only give what you have,not otherwise, so it occured to her that the world is what you create it, It is just set of boundaries one creates is what defines the world, when the person or his vision itself does not exist world ceases to exist for that person, which exactly means what was stated in geetha too. Its not for neigh is it said that the world is what you see in mirror, So she looked at herself and smiled, all set to start a new world for herself where there was contentment.