When Silence Speaks...

No one can see the pain in your eyes But that was never for anyone else to see, was it You wanted to hide it from the loved ones You wanted to hide it from the hated  You wanted to hide it from the strangers  Then really there wasn’t anyone left Other than yourself who could see it So yes, you will cry when you are by yourself  Because yours is the only shoulder you want to lean on You are the only one who can wipe your tears You look up to yourself to say things will be okay So let the world stay detached from your pain  For that pain is truly yours to endure.

I met him at Kathmandu International airport, since our flights were around the same time, we had decided to wait for one another. Both of us had our Pokhara flight cancelled due to weather. We headed to domestic airport and bought tickets at the counter for next available flight; and hence came to know one another before the trek. He was a Maharashtrian, and we spoke in Marathi. He started sharing all his adventures from Kilimajanro to Antrartica; and I was completely awed by all the stories he had to share. I was like a sponge ready to absorb any drop of information that would fall on my ears. Then the conversation got personal; and he said " I am 67 years old. I remarried 10 years back and it was kind of love marriage ." To my surprise, I wasn't surprised by this. I smiled and said " Wow, good for you! ". He looked and spoke like my father, and from the moment I had laid eyes on him in the airport, I was happily connected to him. He continued " But ...

So how, children, does the brain, which lives without a spark of light, build for us a world full of light? This is one of the very popular line from the book "All the light we cannot see" - 2015 Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction. And no wonder the book won all the accolades in goodreads.com; when I chose to read it early this year. I had started this book before my vacation in March, and had to resume reading it over weekend after about 2 months. It’s a good read staged in the era of world war II; with Germany and France in the center; and so many characters and parallel stories that seem very real at times. My favorite part of the book were the last few chapters which explores how the survivors of the war try to live a normal life; with scars so fresh in their hearts and mind even after decades. How in one chapter, a character wonders at the age of technology in year 2014; and goes back to how it was in 1940's.  Writer goes in a lot of details with hard sci...

I do confess that I don’t know much about Che Guevara. I just know that he is a renowned revolutionary who was fierce like Bhagat Singh of India. I never explored further. This book has been on my list for a very long time; most of my friends would have already read this by now. Well, am glad I finally read it. This book in no ways provides any insight to Che’s revolutionary side nor does it have any direct reference to him converting to one. But what it does reveal is his undying youthful spirit. It reveals witty, young, handsome, adventurous, smart, kind, brave, intelligent, poetic, emotional face of Che. And end of this book, I truly believe even without having any facts with me; that he would have been a great fighter with a true revolutionary spirit. Only the ones who have lived wild and free can truly feel for the loss of freedom. Only the ones who have fought hunger and adversities even if it were temporary; can truly understand the feeling of oppressed. And only th...

A recent post by a Sherpa and climber Nimsdai (Nirman Purja)  I follow closely on insta, pushed me to thinking about some real shit out there. I don't know why I am surprised, I have always read about the brutal truth of climbers up the worlds 8000ers. But yet, below left me wondering not only about humanity in general but also about me. Now that am back from my treks; I have started training for climbing. I don’t know if I ever will climb any of those 8000ers; but I dream to do so one day and I would train for it.  When I read nimsdai’s post couple of days back; it left me in deep contemplation. I could not take my mind off the incident. I think hearing first hand experience adds more weight to any story than the one’s you read randomly.  I still fail to understand what pushes a man to the verge where he turns from human to a machine. Roughly 50 climbers passed by them and none showed up to save 2 humans. What were those 50 running behind? The glory of ...

Alright. Game of Thrones earned itself one more fan!  I had started watching GOT years back during its first season and I don’t recall what season I stopped following it. Not much of a TV person; don’t have subscription for any TV channels. Whenever I have to watch something I go to Netflix or Prime. Maybe between season 2 and 3 or somewhere; I just stopped following it.  But now that the season was to end this year; I was motivated to watching it all over again. I got the crave subscription for HBO couple of weeks back and started watching right from season 1 till season 8; it was crazy few days; but I wanted to be with the rest of the world when I watched the last episode; so I had to catch up. And of course as world of internet has it, last season isn’t going great; but one thing that I couldn’t stop getting awed about; was music.  I fell in love with Ramin again; when I felt his background score for the Great War scene in 3rd episode ‘The long night’; where e...

I don’t wait on these days to tell the people I love that how much they really mean to me. Father’s Day, Mother’s day, Sisters day, Brothers day, Friendships day, Valentine’s Day, Women’s day, Children’s day, Birthdays etc.. etc..They really don’t mean anything to me! I never believed in the system of celebrating one day representing something. I don’t post pictures or messages on social media on that day. But today, it did inspire me to write something, so here I am! For over a decade I have acted against few rules my Mom held close to her heart and believed in. Some orthodox notions, and some over-protective rules, and some societal beliefs I dint believe in. And over the decade my love and gratitude for my parents has increased immeasurably. And over a decade, almost every single day I have told in words to my parents that how wonderful they are and how thankful I am to be their daughter. Because over time I realized that it's very important to let people you love know in wor...

Spoiler alert. Here comes the whining me with all the excuses; not an avatar that I generally entertain but once in a while it does happen. So here’s my confession!  Been a week since I have returned to my second home Canada; and last 4 days I have been cancelling my bootcamp classes. I register for them every morning and as evening approaches I cancel them saying “Not Today” ( like we fool death I have been fooling workouts). But once you start living healthy and fit; the guilt of cheating on fitness is heavy! Thanks to bootcamp factory, my workout adda ! My excuses that I lined up every day for skipping workouts -  1.  The last few days of my trip I was trekking Himalayas in Nepal. I returned from Nepal to Delhi on Saturday evening only to head back to airport for my Toronto flight 3 hours later. I reached here on Sunday; I watched Avengers jet lagged; and I went to my bootcamp class on Monday; but now am tired, just wanted to relax for a bit (liar. It’s not the ...

After a real strenuous 12 hours today; while I sit here in a not so great hotel closer to Kathmandu international airport,Nepal; contemplating this whole trip; I have come to a  conclusion; it still is an awesome trip. It’s not a good idea to let a crappy ending ruin my experience of the entire journey. Basically, after taste of a bad sweet should not over shadow a tasty 5 course meal, isn’t it? (tribute to a foodie friend I made on this trek). So yeah, I had an amazing trekking experience up the Himalayas in Nepal around Annapurna mountain range for last 10 days. It’s just that the return journey from Pokhara to wherever we all had to return to; had to be cancelled; then rebooked; most of the trek mates are stranded at various places trying to get back home; some are in a cab to Kathmandu; some in a bus; some took different flights and what not.  And all this due to the weather. But surprisingly this same weather was enjoyed a lot by all of us when we were on the trek; w...