Life's Onward Journey...

I came back to my room a little late tonight, tired and ready to crash in my bed. I was very tired after finishing small jobs of the day plus a movie outing. But I was preparing myself mentally that I will have to arrange my room a little before sleeping. Two friends stayed with me last night. Some things were shifted to make space for both of them. I know myself. I would not have been able to sleep before keeping things back at their own place. I opened the door and switched on the lights. I looked around and saw that the room was neat with hardly any sign that somebody apart from me had stayed here. The bed was shifted to its original position. The sheet was not crumpled. Pillows were in their place. It brought a smile on my face. I felt happy. They are good friends of mine but we don't meet or talk often. Most of the time we call each other only at the time of crisis, knowing that we are there for each other. There is something which complicates our relationships with 'very-

Aaj main upar, aasmaan neeche Ye dosti hum nahi todenge Ye zameen ga rahi hai, aasmaan ga raha hai Sulabha and me Waadiyan mera daaman, raaste meri baahen Parvaton se aaj main takra gaya Alpbach, from a height of 1500m approx. Shayad hum raasta bhool gaye hain Out of a Yash Chopra movie Phoolon ke rang se

Dekhna aasman hi baras na pade zameen pe... Congress Zentrum, Alpbach View from Haus Andreas, Alpbach Church, Alpbach Christ Rahen na rahen hum, mehka karenge banke kali... Cafe Reblaus For those who want to sit and gaze at infinity

The sun and the moon dancing amidst the stars The ghost of Indian Biryani in Austria Ajnabi shaher hai... Rattenberg Kahaan se aaye badraa... River Inn, Rattenberg, Austria Main ek baar phir train nahi chhodna chahti... Aur main chahta hoon ye train baar baar chhoote. Musafir hoon yaaron...

Ek tha Raja... Lowenberg, Kassel Patta-patta, boota-boota raaz humaara jaane hai... Hariyali aur Raasta Shubha and me at Wilhelmshohe berg park, Kassel Is mod se jaate hain... The old bridge over River Necker, Heidelberg (finally saw it) A cup of coffee at the Heidelberger Schloss ...rest is in your hands.

After sitting for 5 hours at Bahrain airport and then flying for 3 and a half hours and coming to room from Mumbai airport the last thing I was waiting for was a surprise. I was too tired to feel anything else. I was welcome by a presence in my room. That was the first thing that i laid my eyes on. It was not very conspicuous but i have a habit of looking in that corner of my room. And i noticed it. Just when I was going to have a look at it closely, the person responsible for this came to my room. Thank a lot buddy! You really made my day. It was as if something was on my mind and then magically it transformed into a truth.

"What is your final destination?" I was asked this question everytime I went to an airport or a railway station during this trip. I don't know why but everytime it brought a smile on my face. I felt like answering "I don't know". Who amongst us knows where we are headed? Life is a long and unpredictable journey. Here I am sitting in the transit lounge at Bahrain airport, the middle point of my journey. Do I want to go back to Frankfurt? Or do I want to go to Mumbai, my temporary home these days? At every point in life when we are surrounded by possibilities, we have to choose the better path out of others. So, right now the 'better path' is calling me towards my home, my room, my bed... I am longing for you 311. Please hug me tight and put me to sleep when I come back in your arms.

a scene from train.... water reservoir trekking on the alps....

"Long legged Italy, kicked poor Sicily In the middle of Mediterranean Sea. Austria was Hungary Took a bit of Turkey Fried it in Japan Dipped it in Greece...." I remember only this much. This poem was my first attempt at learning the names of these countries and locating them on the map of the world. And I thought Austria and Australia were same. :-) It's time to confirm that I was wrong at that point of time, some twenty years back...

Bombay ki aakhri barsaat! If there are no major changes in my future plans, this will be my last monsoon in Bombay. It has just begun and I am going to miss the first 2 weeks of it. That's also good in a way. I like it when it rains intermittently. But when it pours continuously for 4-5 days (this happens at least once every year) I get bored and restless. I remember once 3 of my friends and I purposely got drenched, lying down on the rocks at the sea face when it was raining heavily. And I survived being in the rain for that one hour. I will miss standing in the glass-corridor, watching it rain and hearing the wind blowing violently. And walking through the collonade during the rains. I hate thunder. Specially when the sound wakes me up in the middle of the night. It really scares me. Mostly the rains here are unaccompanied by the 'sound-effect'. I remember last year there were no thunderstorms. Year before last was really bad. I won't miss that. Thinking of this whole

It affects me. It disturbs me. Not always though. But, yeah sometime it does. 'Time' is working on it but till now it hasn't succeeded in healing it. I hope it will. To catalyse this reaction I need a change of place. I want to go somewhere else. I don't want anybody I know around me. I want to live alone. Everything is irritating me. I wish it were dust, or dried flowers, or an empty bottle or a worn out dress. Things would have been so easy then. I would have thrown it away, out of my sight. But it is neither of these... It is nothing but my own thought which I am trying to disown. I push it away from myself and temporarily it gets lost somewhere. Later when I am unaware it slowly creeps in my mind and disturbs me for hours. It brings with itself, its friends, several unanswered questions . The answers of which I know not. I just know I was right and I am right. Life has been unfair in some sense. Why? Why me? How do I prevent it from happening again? Ther