Skip to main content

Utah Diaries - Diverted Plan Series 1 - Caught by Surprise!

My plans have been shattered more than once; whether it be big life changing plans or trivial lunch, dinner, movie plans. What I have learnt over time, is not to let the failing plans get to me. First I thought I should stop planning, but that's not possible you know. It would take few more years to train my mind to stay in absolute current state.

Otherwise for a normal human, it's quite natural to think of what next. For instance, yesterday evening, back from office, I started making tea and when it started boiling, I opened my fridge to find out that I had run out of milk. A younger version of me, would have been mad at myself or my roommates, would have kept a sour face for quite a while. But yesterday, I just took a deep breath, switched off the gas, pulled out a beer from the fridge and went on with my tasks. Life's precious time cannot be wasted on unfruitful anger; I have come to practice that with little effort now.

We drove from Vegas to a cabin near Bryce National Park on 23rd November night. Our Plan for next day was simple - to cover sunrise in Bryce, come back to Cabin, get fresh, check out at 11 AM and hit Zion national park; stay there till sunset and then drive back to Vegas. We covered sunrise in Bryce, did a hike, were back in cabin at 10:15 AM; got fresh and ready; checked out at 11 AM, had breakfast, and hit the road at 12:00 PM. Everything was per plan, but really when you think everything is going by plan is when you are caught by surprise. Approximately 5 miles away from the cabin; the car breaks down; it had spluttered oil all over it; was burning hot and fuming when I opened the hood. Friday after Thanks giving, and in a deserted outskirts of a national park; I knew right then that the day was gone. 



But hey, I learnt that day again, that really what you make of a situation you are in, is on you. You can fret over things that's not working, or actually play along and enjoy what's in your hand. It was a real hassle, you know how the rental agencies, insurances work. Especially when the nearest rental is 95 miles away from that place and on a holiday weekend, it took what like until 3:30 PM till we got all the details worked out and hit the road back to Vegas; and things kept popping up even after that.

But the best part of 24th November, was the kind of amazing strangers I met that day. And interesting conversations I had with them, knowing their views and thoughts in general. 

The diverted Plan series is dedicated to some interesting people I met and interesting time I spent on 24th November 2017. Now you know why I labelled the series as diverted plan, because our plan for that day was trashed by the broken car. 

And the reason I am impressed about myself this time, is because I never felt angry, frustrated, irritated or anything that day. I was pretty chilled out and got through the day as if everything was alright, without any additional effort to keep my mind sane, which knowing myself, is quite surprising and impressive :) 


Dated -16th December 2017 
(Capturing event on 24th November 2017)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

My Favorite Read - 6 - The Climb by Anatoli Boukreev (and Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer)

So, now that I want to get into some serious mountaineering activities, I started with reading books on mountains. When you check for top few books on mountains the one that comes up is " Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer " followed by “  The Climb by Anatoli Boukreev" ; both based on the 1996 Everest disaster which was made quite controversial. I started with "Into Thin Air' and while I was reading, I was continuously in conflict with Jon's views. Mind you, my memory is pretty weak when it comes to remembering details of any story - whether its books or movies. I had watched few documentaries and the Everest movie based on this topic; but that was a while ago. when I started reading this book 2 weeks back, I had no background; you can say I was totally new to this story.  And yet, it was difficult for me to understand some of Jon's accusations or feelings.  But nevertheless, Jon's style of writing was amazing; he knew how to keep reader's...

Zindagi Gulzar Hai - A feast to ones eyes!

Today I am here to make a much interesting comparison of our current Indian TV industry with our neighboring country’s television industry. Interesting because I never thought I would ever engage in watching any of the Pakistan TV series/movies or listening to their music. My disinterest in Pakistan entertainment was not because of the tensed relationship with the country. But I myself am not a big fan of TV serials. The kind of drama that is filled in Indian TV Channels today is just exhausting and tiring to watch. I hardly follow any Indian TV series. When I visit home on vacation, I join my family in watching the program they watch and that’s how I keep myself updated with what is trending in the TV industry. I love listening to music and I listen to all genres of music. I did start listening to Pakistani music since last few years and have admired their music. Strings, Fuzon,  Kaavish, Jal, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Ghulam Ali, Parveen Abida, Quratulain Baloch and many ...

Ahamasmi Yodha - My First Tattoo

I finally did it. It isn’t a great achievement to show off, but for me it’s one more item on my bucket list getting fulfilled. So I am very happy about it. What did I do? Oh like I said nothing great – I just got my FIRST Tattoo  :) My first Tattoo Artist I had done a lot of research on it since last couple of months. I wanted to get it done on my birthday, but it somehow dint work out.  For all the first timers, I wanted to list out my personal experience, just in case it helps :) First of all, I felt it will be very helpful if you have some friends who would have got it done already. But I dint have that privilege. So I went through lot of blogs and articles in About.com, Wikihow, YahooAnswers etc… Well Google, the new lord of knowledge :) has all that you need to know. So, in summary, what I got from all these sites were First decide on what you want to get tattooed and where. Go over it again and again, since it is permanent, you will have to live ...

Life... A Blank Page!

Whenever I open a notebook and come across the set of blank pages; my mind goes blank. For some reason, it always reminds me of my life. It forces me to start thinking about my life; about the past and the future. Being part of the age of computers and belonging to the IT industry, I hardly get an opportunity to actually pick a pen and write in the notebook. I write lot of blogs, poems etc… but I write them on the webpage or in Microsoft word in my laptop.  Once in a while I like to go back to traditional form of writing; using the actual pen and paper. And in last few years; I noticed that every time I try doing that for some reason the blank paper gets me all philosophical.         Although I never have that thought while opening the book; but whenever I see those blank pages; I just go blank. I always feel that my life is staring back at me with all those unanswered silenced questions, doubts, thoughts…forcing me to think – What does my lif...

Dear Dost

Dear Dost, I know you are dealing with a lot in life. A lot has happened in the past that has changed you. A lot is happening right now, that is forcing you to change. A lot of decisions you have to make that's exploding your brains.  You are multi tasking like some superhero. You have issues at home, in the family, in your personal life, that you are juggling with. You have professional problems that you are dealing with.  A lot - that's what's happening to you right now.  When I met you, I saw "a lot" has changed in you. I have changed too, and so have you. But what I could not ask you was - are you still you? I remembered Gulzar's words, written back in 1995 (atleast that's what the source says, I had listened to Jagjit Singh singing this, and it had registered in me since then).  din kuchh aise guzārtā hai koī  jaise ehsāñ utārtā hai koī  dil meñ kuchh yuuñ sambhāltā huuñ ġham  jaise zevar sambhāltā hai koī  aaina ...

.. and that’s not a bad thing.

Today was a bright and beautiful day, so I chose to hit a close by trail with a friend. After about couple of hours of hiking, we found a peaceful spot in a shade by the lake. We were sitting and chatting away when a lady walked to us.   I had seen her standing and watching the horizon of the lake holding a bottle of water and her stance had not changed for quite a while. When she walked over I gave a friendly wave and started the conversation. That’s when I realized she wasn’t acting normal. She wasn’t speaking clearly and kept looking at my backpack asking “What have you got in there?”  Although it was a bit creepy, I did not feel threatened. I said it’s just my backpack here. She repeated the same question like 3-4 times “What’s in there?” So I humoured her, I said here’s my bottle, here’s my notebook and then thought maybe she was hungry. I dug in to retrieve a chocolate croissant (individually wrapped) and held it up saying “I’ve got this, interested?” She immediately re...

Why "Wake Up Sid" movie is my favorite :)

I am very selective about the Bollywood movies that I choose to watch. I don’t like the typical commercial, masaledar movies without any storyline, characters, screenplay and acting. Most of them are ruled out just by looking at the Name of the movie, its banner, its actors and director. And some which pass these filter criteria get eliminated when I watch their trailers. Very few end up in my watch list. And some movies I end up watching forcibly with my family or friends. Wake up Sid was one such movie, that I came across because my friends chose to watch that movie over tea 4 yrs back. We never completed watching that movie; couple of them found it boring and we got deviated from watching the movie into some other matargashti . I think 2 years back, when I was finding something to watch, I picked up this movie – just because I wasn’t finding anything appealing to watch. And I simply fell in love with this movie despite of its weak story. Konkana Sen is a talented actress ...

Home is a house without loved ones!

Home is a house without loved ones! It was September 24th 2005 when I left my home and since then till now I have been to home like some far away relative staying out of town, visiting our family once or twice in a year during diwali or New Year or some ones wedding. A guest in my own home! I joined this software industry on 26th September 2005 in Mysore, then I travelled to Pune in 2006 for a year and then to Bangalore in 2007 for one more year and then to London in 2008 for roughly a year and now in USA-2009. In all these 4 years, I have been busy. Busy getting adjusted to life outside home, for the one who has never stayed out of home, in even a hostel before – to handle this freedom yes definitely thrilling J, seeing new places, making new friends, keeping in touch with old ones. Professional career, half yearly appraisal fights, CRRs, freaking and idiotic managers, some stupid colleagues, some shrewd ones, and some of your own frequency. All this while, I did not really miss my ho...

My shadow on the shore

I sit on the shore of the sea I feel the waves washing my feet I watch the sun turning red as it sets I hear the music of the humming breeze Crying for the ones who aren’t beside me I spent the day thinking of tomorrow Now as I sit here watching the sun set I realize what I have gained and lost The beauty of this shore just increases As the sun sets and the moon rises As the water glitters under the moonlight And my face reflects the twinkling stars I lost beautiful seconds of life Cribbing about things I can’t do anything about But these moments here, I rejoice As I smile to my shadow on the shore! (14 Oct 09- Just like that – on this gloomy morning….as I pen down my thoughts after long timeJ)

Love, Loss and Father's Day

I have been meaning to write this post for a while now, but somehow words fail me. I started writing, and stopped at the first two sentences, erasing and rephrasing, re-iterating the process every time I attempted to write this.  8 months later, today on Father’s day, I think I finally am able to put words into meaningful sentences.  It’s weird how most of the times, I just need an inspiration, an idea or a feeling to write pages together without any effort; and then there are times, when my mind is cluttered with so many thoughts ,eager to be put on paper that I find it hard to form a single straight sentence. But I feel like writing today, so here it goes. My best friend lost her mom to a health incident few months back. When I spoke to her she asked me how did I handle it when my dad passed away few years back. I could not explain it to her then, I just said you will learn to live through it. That was when I first tried to write this blog. Even after so many years, ...