Wats up!!!

This is where you print some text
Vikram Seth

    Walt Whitman

  Emily Dickenson

Man and Child

In my enthusiasm to learn more about Spain, I bought a book called Ghosts of Spain by Giles Tremlet. The book is Non Fiction, elucidating the major events that have occurred in the past century as also a general commentary about Life in Spain. The book begins with the Spanish Civil war, and honestly I was overwhelmed to know the history of another country and how they traversed into the present Democracy and Live and Let Live philosophy which is so rare to see today in any part of the World including the States. That apart yesterday night while reading I came across a chapter called Man and Child. I was almost LMAO as I read way past midnight. Here are a few excerpts and my version of the commentary about Spain's Life in general.

Apparently in Spain the legal writ obliges the parents to take care of their child until they have secured a future. A good law it is and as an Indian I am hardly surprised with this writ since in India children usually stay with parents until marriage and even beyond that. But this law interpreted by a judge in Barcelona, ruling in a divorce case asked the husband to pay a pension of 225$ a month for the child's upkeep. This would be fine in normal circumstances but here the child was 25 years old and his upkeep meant paying for his post graduation studies.

In a case filed by the parents who wanted to disown their children of age 18 and 20 due to their lack of respect and abuse shown to the parents, the judge in Valencia denied the case on grounds that a parents duty towards their children is obligatory irrespective of the circumstances. In both the above cases, the right of a parent can be argued but the rights and privileges a child enjoys is beyond my comprehension.

Moving on to the other end of the spectrum, death in Spain though not a moment of celebration, it does have its own charm. In fact the official morgue in Madrid where the near and dear ones pay their condolences to their loved ones takes the form of a modern day airport with video monitors directing visitors to the right corpse, vending machines, a lounge room, TV screens scattered around and also a small bar. This is because, in Spain the family is required to stay besides the dead for a week after their demise. Another fascinating aspect was that in Spain ( and may be also in other parts of the world ) a fee has to be paid for the resting place of the deceased. This fee has to be renewed by the future generations which if not paid either due to ignorance or poverty, mechanical diggers are ready to remove the corpses from the graveyards to make place for other deceased residents.

In another incident a decorated French Poet spent his last days in the Costa de Sol part of Spain. He had donated his body to the medical research center for studies. On his death the Research center had to accept the body by obligation, but none of the researchers had the nerve to cut open the body for he was too famous for his body to be denigrated. Result that the body is lying around for the past 15 years in the morgues in the Research center.

Such anecdotes and events surely must be a part of all the countries including India. Specifically for India though they are not well documented and if they are then not well read. A non-fictional and yet gripping commentary about the modern day India might be a good option to explore by the Historians or who knows a decent idea for my first book ... if ever!!!

Tavelling Solo...

There's a place where I travel when I want to roam, and nobody knows it but me. The roads don't go there and the signs stay home, and nobody knows it but me. ....


Finally, more than a couple of months before the travel bug caught me last month, I was on my way to the Embassy of Spain. There have not been many morning when I rose with the sun, with anticipation and nervousness, praying fervently for something I had desired. The thought to go wandering by myself all alone in a complete God Forsaken country with little idea of what to expect or do was the first one that entered my mind. How or why such a wonderful idea finally transformed into a trip to Spain might have something to do with the fact that I had never been to mainland Europe and some more with the simplicity of logistics. Finally it did not matter for Spain was as far as I could go away without being bothered by anyone else and that was the whole point in the first place.

What I did not envisage during the grand plan though was the wealth of information that I will gather along the way, though I have little idea of how to put it in use. Additionally a little research on backpacking trips provides light to the lives of a magnificent lot who have lived this way not for a week or month but for years on end. I found a couple who are traveling in Spain on 20$ a day which comes to 14 euros a day. Their plan is to cover Spain on Hitchhiking and tenting in farms and backyards. Will they manage to achieve their journey, well I really hope they do but that is besides the point. What matters is the attempt and the belief that it is possible. Further research showed that a round the world trip in a year required a little less than 36000$ which though a big number is not unreachable a dream. I can go mad simply thinking of roaming all around the world like a vagabond or just having the local beer in each country, city and town makes me dizzy.

This someone might call as escapism or day dreaming, but the fact that it just can be possible one day, some day is enough to make a bad day go by and to think that I am actually taking the plunge may be with baby steps but still a plunge it is and my dream of being a vagabond will come true if not fully then atleast partially for a fortnight and that is what matters I guess in the end. What I shall see and experience in the mean time is (without bragging) fantastic. Just the thought of being in the hometown of the mind boggling Dali, or amidst the magnificent Goya impressionist and amazing Picassos seems surreal. Add to it the cities of Barcelona and Madrid and the quaint little towns like Ronda and Toledo or places like Cordoba and Granada which are throbbing with history and I seriously wonder how can no one envy this.

The plan is simple, dreams are big and I am embarking on the journey as a solo traveller. The date is 1st October - Wish me luck and do bear with the barage of posts which are to come on this topic sooner rather than later.

Follow the Leader

Choice is an illusion, created between those with power, and those without.

-- Matrix Reloaded

Choice or should I say the Paradox of choice is an interesting concept by itself. A rather loose interpretation of the Paradox of choice worth pondering upon is... Life without a choice won't be worth living and a Life with lots of choice makes living hell. Nonetheless I assume that the choice to live is inherently a sub conscious one that makes survival possible and the key to survival is to choose whether to rely on the grey matter or on your intuition. Both are important in equal measure and personally I believe it would be impossible to rely on one more than the other. However my belief system was shattered the day we visited the Turkish Ocupied Part of Cyprus. For there Punit brought to my notice a third component to rely on which apparently is more important than the brain... well no guesses here, the third possibility to rely for survival according to Punit is the GPS specifically his HTC-Touch Phone's GPS system. To corroborate this fact he explained it to me that he had a choice to trust either his brain or the GPS system blindly... well again no prizes for guessing what he chose.

Further proof that this inane... o sorry Punit innate choice you made were the roads that we traversed. Lets dive in a little deeper and start from the glorius second the proclamation was made. I distinctly remember the time for it was not a second more than 10 past 8 and we were on the prowl for the most elusive turtle beach ever present in this part of Cyprus. The truth is that there is no dearth of Turtle beaches in this part of Cyprus but then comes the GPS and the exact POI (Point of Interest) located by Punit amidst a myriad illegible lines that forms the map. Let the truth be told that the elusive Turtle beach was located by mere sight of a board though it did not lead us to the beach and that is a different story.

But now starts the true story for the GPS is alive and kicking... though in its pre natal stage it was benignly subjugated to a position not meant for it by a mere bugger who can hardly convert 6 cents to INR and there stands tall the GPS which has a chip for a brain and an ability to calculate routes on the fly. True the GPS like this bugger could not drive a car but then that was hardly an impediment since it had Punit to do the same. The bugger's drive till the Gas station was hardly as significant as a tiny speckle of fluid that trickles down when done specifically the fourth time after completing it for the first three times as specified by my once dear freind and room mate who towards the end of his stay contradicted himself and thus prooved the complete insignificance of the above significant theory that he upholded. But the GPS did not waste time dwelling upon this significantly insignificant fact and finally took our jouney in top gear.

Just if you are wondering we began with taking 3 whole rounds of the Gas station since the GPS refused to go where the sane man travells. It had made up its mind to take the road less travelled which as proclaimed by SRK in DDLJ is difficult but in the end will lead you to all the riches. Thus the way was chosen and in the process we almost got a couple of cars to break behind us... but then how do such things matter. Leading the way was the GPS and following it as the path of God was Punit, for this he had to make many sacrifices such as driving with one hand and navigating using GPS with the other which lead to a few off road experiences, but then this was minor as compared to what was to follow. We have gone past Mass Graves and through no entry roads and even through roads that passed through buildings not to mention the many times when Sarvo and I felt we were going around the same bush but again how does it matter for we reached our destination and after all I believe this is all that matters especially when the journey was a lot more enjoyable than a sad little drive on a straight long highway.

P.S - The Fight for the best phone is now so complicated that every time I try to put up a fight your GPS comes in the way. So the publication of this completely insignificant post seemed like a good opportunity to set the record straight--or at least firmly crooked

Stupidity at its peak!!!

"All great work is preparing yourself for an accident"

-Sidney Lumet

Last Friday after a terrible week at the office all I wanted was a peacefull weekend especially with the changes that are but imperative to be a part of our lives from the week after next. However Life rarely goes the way we will it too and if God wishes to humor you then what better way to sit back and tighten your seatbelts... well I am sure the last sentence like many thing that I say these days makes no sense but then I detest the idea that words should be well chosen for if that were the case then how would a benign mind let out the feelings for which no words exist!!!

Moving on to things that completely make no sense and to people who intend to make fools of themselves by doing things that really do not matter... I go ahead with the risk of making Mr.X really angry... but then how does it matter for the basic principles of physics are not something that we just learn in text books but these are the laws that make life possible on earth. Surely Galileo was not hailed a hero for his concept of inertia in the sixteenth century but that hardly means to brazenly disregard the concept itself or for that matter all the laws of physics. I understand that a little madness is necessary to be sane in life but then as they say there is a method to madness. Sanity of mind nonetheless is obligatory for if that does not prevail over madness then human kind will head back to the stoneage. But then as I have already said that if Lord wishes to make you laugh then some devil's horns better poke out!!!

I can go on and on about it but then the curtain has to go up... So as I was saying last fridy after a terrible week all of us decided to head for burgers. But then again someone had different plans. Mr. X decided to take a shortcut at the roundabout. Now for me and you or for any normal person a shortcut is the last thing one thinks about at the roundabout and that too the port roundabout is so magnificient that its a real pleasure to go around it. Mr.X nonetheless does not agree with me but he has to concede that there are no shortcuts to the good things in life and burger for me is the best thing that had happened to mankind the first time I ate one in Bandra... now my views have changed and I have started fixating towards vada pav but again both come from the same family and moreover I am meandering away from the point.

So as I was saying last fridy after a terrible week all of us decided to head for burgers in Mr.X's car and my car. Just as we headed out Mr.X decided to take a shortcut at the roundabout but then again what man proposes God surely disposes so Sameer blissfully unaware of the minor change in Mr.X's route was cruising at a speed without taking the shortcut. But then a mistake was made and the price had to be paid for it. Keeping true to the spirit of this blog if Mr.X's car was not a silly millimeter longer then the crash that was inevitable could have been avoided... but then as I began who are we to sit back sullenly when God wishes to add some humor to our Life!!!

P.S- To all those who might be offended by this post, this is my way at getting back to you.

A new beginning...

Last post was left half finished ... and since then I have been unable to post a blog, the resons are many but none can aboslve me of the lackadaisical approach to blogging. The events in the recent past provide rich fodder for blogging... however none or most of the events are not specific to life in cyprus so I was not sure if I should be blogging on it. But then this blog would be no more than a travel blog... which I do not intend to make it.

So from now on this one will consist all the nuggets from my life worth remembering while I would be posting a new blog which will be specific to travel in Cyprus. So keep a lookout on that one for it has some interesting stories and fascinating destinations. Check out the new blog at:http://devashish-cyprustrails.blogspot.com/

Sans Passion

"Passion is the element in which we live; without it, we hardly vegetate.”
-- Lord Bryan.

Tonight as I sit all alone in the office, there is just one thing that feels creepy - Boredom. I am not sure the reason behind it nor do I wish to investigate. But to get myself out of this sad state I find myself searching the web for something completely opposite - Passion. Again its not the exact antonym to the word boredom, still it sums up the exact state I am not in.



Nonetheless I found a beautiful poem regarding the futility of passion on the web:


a half-written screenplay
a new found devotion
whoring myself from
passion to passion
i cant seem to finish
what i pick up
i cant seem to start
what i left behind
a cigarette left burning
with lipstick on the rim
a brushstroke still missing
the paint caked and dry
a half-eaten morsel
a new found elation
flickering eyes from
passion to passion

This gives me some inspiration for poetry too, so here I go,

Lying on bed,
peeping through window,
Watching stars,
contemplating future.

Poking the stub,
puffing smoke,
Wishing to hug,
cuddling a pillow.

Berating my past,
plotting my destiny,
Craving existence,
Seeking eternity.

That sounds quite confused or may be that is the state I am in!!!