Walk down the street
you have never known
and only guess
what awaits to appear.

As you tread ahead
haze will get clearer
with each taken step,
the mist will disappear.

Darkness of fear
might envelope you
but dawn of hope
believe me, is very near.

Walk that extra mile
and you will soak yourself
in the fruits that
your efforts bear.

Waking up on a winter morning

"Well, this is Winter. Isn't it?" he said. "WELL, I am not so sure" she replied. "Come out in the balcony and have a look for yourself."

And there it was. First time in the season. After having waited through out for white blanket that used to cover everything in winter mornings, today the elusive and evasive came back with panache, lending some authenticity to the season. What is Winter without having a single day of foggy envelope, the smell of the mist and homogeneity of the colour white in the morning , that it seems ages ago sometimes used to stretch till afternoon.

Winter is the season. But here it doesn't feel in the plenitude of sunshine during the day. The sun as warm as could be on any other season's day , perhaps as in spring. That's also because I have lived in different geographical locations than this one before but most importantly, it is about the global change in the weather due to the heating up of the atmosphere caused due to our human actions. Our idea to excel at a meteoric rate, neglecting the consequences has started showing its effects and this is what we have done to us, the seasons do not feel as they used to before. 

And therefore, when the season's first fog greeted me, I welcomed it with a huge smile on my face. The sheer sight of chalky mist enthused my complete being. I started thinking of titles of my next posts. I only wish you don't go away so soon. 

A special rendez-vous

So, tomorrow my niece is turning two. We have come to Ranthambore to celebrate her birthday by spotting tiger at the National Park.

We reached our hotel around 12 noon. And my sister had already booked the safari for 2 p.m. We enquired about the time we would leave, the receptionist told us that the gypsy would arrie anywhere between 2 and 3 p.m. Our patience test had only begun.

The groups around us who we had also seen at the restaurant started boarding one by one the gypsies. Another gypsy arrived and we thought it was ours. Our excitement level shot up. There was a group of uncles and aunties soaking in.the sun but obviously they had also been waiting for their turn. So when this gypsy arrived, these elderly people took.their seats and went away, leaving us alone.

And finally, our gypsy came. And we were again full of zeal and enthusiasm. Our driver and guide took us towards the National park, where an Australian elderly couple were going to join us.

We all now were ready for.our adventure. We took trail no 5. The open gypsy was taking us ahead on the uneven terrain. The first to come across were the langoors. A little ahead were the deers, antelopes and sambar deer. While the deers were all fine and good bit we were there for the majestic being of the animal kingdom. After every now and then, deers could be spotted.

A gypsy carrying tourists were coming back. Our driver stopped. It seemed a habitual thing to do. He aske the other driver whether they ad spotted the big Cat. The answer was a big No. We came across another gypsy, they confirmed the absence of the tiger on our trail. They said people.had viewed the Tiger on trail number 4,

And thus, our excitement that had risen to a sky high level dropped . And then , i thought of those people who had spotted the tiger at some time or the other. And i asked my sister, " What do the fortunate bunch of people look like?" After a good laugh, we stopped near a Pond . We got down for a while . The guide explaining.the history and the facts to the Australian couple, and the driver answering our queries by telling us we might not spot the tiger. In the meanwhile, tjere was a gypsy that came to where we were and they turned back from there itself.

A little later, we sat in the gypsy again and wen t ahead. While we were moving forward, a gypsy was coming back. The driver told our driver what our ears had been desperately waiting to hear, that a tiger had been spotted. As soon as he uttere the words, our driver geared up and took us a little faster on the trail, so as not to miss what we had come.there for at the first place.

 A little later we approached a few mor gypsies and a canter who had stationed themselves. And automatically, our eyes turned left to search for the Cat. And, there it was, Her majesty of the animal kingdom, sitting quietly and making itself a feast fir all the eyes present. We watched transfixed. It yawned once. And then.stood up. And started walking towards us. As ours was the last gypsy in the queue, the tigress, named Leila as the guide told us, walked very close by from us and went on the other side.

All this show confirmed that the fortunate people who.had earlier spotted the tiger/tigress, whom i was asking about during the trail, looked certainly like.us

Happy birthday Chiku. :)

Birds make way
back to their nests,
buzzing of crickets
get louder gradually,
the reluctant moves
of the leaves,
unwilling, but slaves
to the breeze,
Dabbed in orange,
the western horizon
surrenders, slowly
but completely
to the mighty
kingdom of night,
Insubordinate, however,
to the rules of dark,
remain the silver Moon
and the congregation of Stars.

These two nights that passed , I dedicated to discovering the movies that I had never watched but had heard of. I am sure many jaws might drop at the names of the films and many might shot a glance with sheer surprise and utter "How?" 

Well, I say what they always say "It is never too late!!"

So I have declared this week as a Movie Week. I am going to watch movies all these nights. The first movie in the series was Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding. I must have been in school. Wait, let me check when did it release. Yes, that was in 2001, when I was in my tenth standard. I lived in a very small town where we had all the infrastructure that anyone could expect in a city, but we did not have the luxury of watching films in a theatre. Not because there wasn't any. There was one which played older movies, as at that time it was not so quick to get hold of these recent releases. Well, during the casting I was surprised by the name of Randeep Hooda. And boy he looked to cute and hot in teh film. He has copied an NRI's accent so well. I got reminded of his French accent which he has successfully tried in his recent release Main Aur Charles. The movie is engaging. I love Naseeruddin Shah . Who doesn't? He is such a natural actor. In fact all the actors have done their parts pretty well. 

The next one i watched yesterday was Saaransh. I had to see this. It was their in my list since long. I knew that it was Anupam Kher's debut film. Though he is so young in reality , he plays the role of an old man. The make up does support but his youthful face doesn't. But that doesn't come in his way of acting at all. To be able to play any age or any character, that is why we call them actors. So, the story strikes a chord. For me it was too much emotionally charged. No less than six times , I am sure, I cried during the film. And it was not just tears rolling down my cheeks but I think I wanted to cry as  it felt that his grief were mine too. That was a little strange to see myself crying so much. 

As I watched the film on Youtube and the auto play was on, the next film that began playing was Mr. & Mrs. Iyer starring Konkona Sen and Rahul Bose. I like both of them as actors but have to admit Konkona leads if I need to compare both of them together. Mrs Iyer has a perfect Tamil accent. I quite enjoyed listening to her call out her son's name, Santhanam. I can pronounce it well myself. But how do I write it in Tamil pronunciation???

And Today I watched Arth, again a Mahesh Bhatt film as Saaransh. Its songs are quite famous. I knew them but had no inkling that they belonged to this film. I must admit Jagjit Singh has beautifully composed the poems written by Kaifi Azmi.  What I liked about the film is that in the end Shabana Azmi is not dependent on any man. She doesn't need one to carve out her own identity. She is an individual. And ofcourse Raj Kiran plays the role of a sensible man who supports the idea of her being her and not being subservient to a male connection. Made in 1982, the theme is so contemporary . And we are here still struggling with the same questions !!! 

So, the day is almost over, but it feels good to look back at it. Why? Okay !!! So the other day, one of my friends cum colleague at my University asked me to accompany her in a Polo match which was one of her dreams. I instantly said yes. That was a week ago. Now today was the day when we actually went to the Polo Ground to watch and witness our very first Polo match. 

It was organised as British Polo Day. Mostly the Polo matches are held in Jodhpur but this time round it was here in Jaipur. When I was in Delhi, I would always see pictures of Polo matches in the entertainment segment of the newspaper. I remember once my sister had expressed a similar desire to watch a Polo match. But unfortunately, never ever in Delhi, I got an opportunity to attend one.

Now coming to the match. I would say I know nothing about Polo. Ofcourse there are two teams playing to outdo the other in scoring the goals. I saw some brilliant piece of sports. It was really getting exciting when the opposite team would head to make a goal. Sometimes it was a goal, sometimes it was just a bit or a little too wide.. But simply amazing. I liked the way the Jaipur Polo team's Abhimanyu Pathak played. 

Now I think, I would love to see more matches of Polo, if I get an opportunity. Well, to talk about one of my favourite sports, in Delhi, there is an event of Tennis going on. Today was the concluding day of the IPTL which started on the 10th of December. I would have loved to see some great players, international ones whom I have always watched on television. Now that is one of my dreams : to watch players like Nadal or Federer or others play live. It will be so much fun. I already feel the excitement level rising high just by the thought of it.

Okay getting back to the day, I cannot believe , we missed our lunch to watch this Polo match. So when it got over, certainly our stomachs gave us signals of being empty. We went to a place called Tapri and had food to our contentment. Oh how wonderfully delicious the food was!!

We came back all frozen in the cold. Winter has come, that I got to know today. And now another very interesting thing I did was to gift a book to a complete stranger. One of my friends put a message of sending a book to someone and receiving six instead. That is an idea enough to trigger my zeal.. So as a rule I copy pasted it too. so lets see if i receive my books, my Christmas or my new year gifts I shall consider them. 

And just a little thing to add. I realized that I do not think too much in such kind of projects (lets call it a book project), I found a person, who started asking about the price, what kind of books and all that stuff which never came to my mind, and it would have never come. I am happy to have gifted somebody a book. Yayy!!!

Different strings of thoughts
remain in the head.
Which one to hold on to,
which one to shed?

A state of dilemma
is what it spreads,
"O' Wandering mind,
FOCUS, instead."

"Teach me then the art
of what you just said,
To that path of clarity,
let me be led."