victory is sweet

His face was peaceful. He had a very good smile. Although he had few scratches on his face he looked as handsome as he had ever been. Looking at calm face one could not say that he had just returned from a ruthless battle field. He could have been suffering from the enduring battle but a smile after all has the power to hide anything. “How are you feeling son?” asked a rough, commanding yet empathic voice.

“At last I will be able to spend sometime with her.” he said. And shut his eyes again.

Last evening…

“Gentlemen!!! It is time for you to leave behind your ‘Gentleness’ , your ‘ruthlessness’ is eagerly waiting for you. They have seen how gentle you are trained be, but not how ruthless you are trained to not to be. This is time for you to show them that you are capable of being the most gentle of all men and at times the most ruthless too.”

“Remember that this is real life. You do not get a ‘take 2’ like one gets in moves. This is not like in movie where in a bullet knows who the hero is. In movie bullet always runs away from hero, or even if it hits him he miraculously survives, even if it has pierced his heart or head. Here if it hits you, it gets you. If you want to win, aim first and shoot first, before you become your enemy s target.”

“We have been taught to, work to win. I expect you to win the battle and be here right on time for breakfast tomorrow morning, or lose your life trying to win the battle. I shall not accept anything else. And I am confident to meet you all for breakfast tomorrow morning right on time. So meet you all tomorrow morning for breakfast then!!”

“Sir?” said a very confident, soft yet clear voice.

“Yes captain?”

“With your permission sir, may I ask the cook to keep a feast ready for breakfast?”

The tense had eased out of everyone s face. Everyone had a smile now.

“Yes you may, Captain. But I promise you one thing. After having tasted the sweetness of victory you will find tomorrow s feast very bland.”

The commanding office said to himself ‘that s my boy. Good going. I will be waiting for you for breakfast tomorrow.

The men did as they were ordered. “win the battle or lose your life trying to do so”.

Next morning, the occupants of few chairs at the breakfast table were missing. Few were in the infirmary and few others had…….

Our captain was in the infirmary, the commanding officer, his father sitting at his bed side, holding his hands, hoping that his son would come again victorious from the second battle - the battle of life and death.

Our captain sleeping peacefully, had a smile on his face. Looking at him one could easily say that he was having a pleasant dream. And wake up soon, and be on his feet. Someone beckoned him. He could not tell who that was. He was still. And then gradually the shape became clearer, he could not however see the face. But he was sure that it was a very familiar face. The figure was slowly moving towards him. Now it was bit more clear. He could not believe it. How could it be. He never thought he would see her again. Such a pretty smile she had. He forgot all his pain. All he could do was look at her and smile back at her. And then she said “Promise me that you ll never leave me again”. he reached for her. Held her gentle hands and said “No. I ll never leave you alone. From now we will always be together.”

The office had an envelope in his hand, addressed “mom and dad” by his son - our captain. It was a page from his dairy, last night’s date and time -

“Hi mom, hi dad

I wish that you never get to read this. But however if you are reading this, then it means that I am…. dead. Dad I promise you that I would have obeyed all your orders. And I hope to have made you proud of me.

Mom, Dad, I love you both. I will miss you a lot…………..

………………………………...........

………………………………...........”

At the end it said “now I can be with her forever”

As promised, the captain had followed the orders in all possible ways. Few of his companions were alive because of him. He had really made his father a proud father and a proud officer….

PS: This story might not be based on a real life story, but I am sure this resembles the story of many brave men. War is bad. War brings miseries to everyone. Yet they fight. As selfless as anyone can be..… A tribute to the brave men, defending their people, selflessly.

PPS: Felt like writing this after listening to this speech by Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw

What a man!!!

the journey...

2 weeks ago by this time i was being asked this question by many people "now that you are about to leave... how do you feel?"

i did not know what to answer. probably because there was so much of work to be done and so less time that i could not have had time to give this 'feeling' a thought. or actually i simply did not feel anything. to be more precise i was still not getting the feeling that i was really about to leave, or to be even more precise i still could not believe that i was finally about to leave.

and finally the day came. i was talking to shruti and even she said the same thing "i cannot believe that you really are going"

everything was happening very quickly. so many phone call to make, so many phone calls to answer... i still had not got that feeling...

once in the car to the ariport, i had some time for myself. slowly it all started coming up. sitting outside the airport making the final call, i became little more aware of the 'feeling'...

one moment they are all there with me, the door opens and closes and everyone is outside it, waving bon-voyage to me. that glass door made all the difference. it made me realize that i would be away from "home" and my people for a long time. that glass door induced all the 'feelings'...
it is very difficult to describe the feeling. let me not attempt to do so...

and now here i am!!! i do not know the reason but i am not getting the feeling that i am here, in the US of A. may be because of the lifestyle... even here we sleep down, as most of bachelors(sharing room) at home do. even here we wait for bus. missed the bus? you ll have to wait for the next one. no luxury of taking a rick ('thank God!! you are safe being away from autos....' he hates them ;-) ). we cook food. again no luxury of tasty homemade food from any mess or dabbas.

the difference may be .... the roads are well planned, the place is very spacious and clean.... and "car car car car yell nooDi car...." ha ha. they should learn what conservation means...

i liked one thing about paris airport. they didnt not use paper napkins. they used cloth!!!! true that they ll have to spend some water to wash the cloth but it really is worth the trees that are being saved!!!

history

class 8th.
probably first day of the academic year.
entirely new environment. we were all in high school now and we asked not be behave like "primary school kids". we were all teen-agers now(or would soon become)

first history class...
the first question teacher asked "what is history?"
no answer from us... all we were taught in primary was to study the notes given by the teachers and mug it and pour it out onto the answer paper on the day of exam. but this was not expected. what is history? there was no answer in the text book.

then the teacher said... "history is 'his and her story'. it tells us bout him and her, their life the, difficulties he and she faced, the way they overcame the difficulties. it tells us how we can learn from them. what we can do when we face similar difficulties etc etc"

that was a very good class as i remember. i like to read history. something about it attracts me. but i dont like to write a history exam. most of the questions asked in the exam have to do with dates, names, places etc etc which i dont think are as important as other aspects of history. when we have lesson about some national leader in the exam sure questions would be like "what was mr X s real name" or "when and where was so and so born" or "where did so and so complete his education from" and some other non sense...

what would make more sense is to have mention an incident which was of historic importance or which helped many people improve their lives or just helped someone to face a problem or change the way he led his life. for example the incident where gandhiji was thrown out of the first class compartment which led him to fight back, or the jalayanwala bagh missacre which changed bagath singh s life (in RDB they show him pick up mud mixed with soil from the jalayanwala bagh, which is true. he worshiped it). i feel that such incidents have more to teach rather than some dates which we are made to remember...

there is something about....

“Dude!!! What s wrong with you? she s not attractive, she s not good looking, she s not fun to be with, she dose not like sports… I can go on on for days. But you!!! You say you like her. you say you think you love her. are you crazy? Find yourself a good one. Actually you don’t need to find anyone. There are lot of girls eyeing you. Look at Neha! She s fun, she s hot. And almost the whole group knows that she has a crush on you. But you go on to chose Sowmya. Tell me one good thing about her yaar. And you tell all this now on communicator instead of telling it to me during the trek. We had 2 days. When we did nothing but walking and talking.” said i to Srinivasa“I don’t know. But definitely not Neha!!! She s not the kind of girl I want to spend my life with. Agreed that she s fun and all but definitely I cannot imagine spending my life with her.”“Alright. Not Neha. But why Sowmya? Just tell me one good thing about her!!!”“Man!!! A girl does not have to be beautiful or attractive or fun for you to like her or fall for her. It is something about her. I don’t know how to explain.”Long silence…Then again srini started…“ ok answer my questions. Are you very intellingent? Were you the topper in you class?”“No I was not topper”“are you very good to look at? Very handsome? With 6 pack abs etc etc?”“No I am very ordinary.”“are you very obedient? Do you listen to everything your parents tell you? Have you never disappointed them?”“no I am not very obedient. I have disappointed them couple of times.”“but still they like you. Why is that?”“that s because I am their son. You are talking about 2 completely different things”
“No just because you are their son does not mean that they should always love you. They do so because they find something in you. Something which may be you don’t know. Ok forget about them. We have been friends for a long time. We have fought, may be I have at times hurt you and may be you have at times disappointed me. But still here we are. Good friends. I know that I can always count on you. Dose this have anything to do with being handsome or intelligent or fun?”“No. I don’t think it has anything to with them.”“exactly. We are friends because i know that deep within you there is friend whom I can trust. And who is worth a lot. I hope you think the same way about me too.”“ya I too think the same way. But what s your point? How is this similar to your case?”“sowmya is good to be with.when she s with me time just slips by. I used to go to beach every evening and spend some time alone. I used to feel good doing so. But now every time I go to the beach I remember her, not that I do not remember her otherwise. But now when I go there I wish she were with me, walking hand in hand along the beach, the sun almost settling down into the sea, waves kissing our feet, wind blowing her hairs, making them touch my face…”“Ok buddy. Better stop imagining and return back to the topic.”“yes. All I wanted to say is that there s something about her which drags me towards her. Something which makes it easy for me to relate to her. I don’t know how to describe that something. It is not some kind of attraction or crush. I never felt that for any girl.”“hmmm if so then she must really be something. I know one thing for sure. She has her heart at the right place. She is a good friend. If you really like her then tell her.”

shades of nature(last part)

After a tiring day any food tastes good, but the dinner that night did taste well. And we had a peaceful sleep. Next day s Sunrise was really worth getting up early. But we had 2 big LOOSERS Narayan and Shridhar, who missed the sunrise.

Below the temple there is a cave which is supposed to reach bababuDDangiri. We left muLLiyanagiri soon after having breakfast. By the time we left the hill was getting covered by mist. We used a different route for the down hill trek. As always down hill trek was not tiring. On reaching the main road we decided to rest for a while but soon a goods carrier came by. Looking at us on the road the driver stopped and asked us if we wanted a paid ride in his carrier. Another quick photo session in carrier was in progress when we reached the town. He dropped us at the bus stand. After a royal lunch when we reached the bus stand buses for all 3 destinations – mangalore, mysore and Bangalore were ready to leave. Parting off we got into our respective buses with beautiful memories of the past 30 odd hours…

shades of nature (continued)

Before reaching the tower we realized that we had some uninvited companions with us. Huge flies which were hungry for our blood. They accompanied us almost till the peak.

The path we trekked was really thrilling and challenging at times. we walked on the ridge, along the edge of the hill. Crossing rocks added more to the fun. Shola forests look good. Patch of forest in the valley. Especially during this time, after few rains, different shades of green, flowers in some trees all this looked really good.

In one such patch shridhar decided to go in search of water. I accompanied him for some distance. someone else had sensed the presence of human blood. Leaches. I noticed few of them and warned shridhar about them, he did not find and presence of water source and returned back. Hungry leaches had got hold of human blood, good that shridhar noticed them immediately and got rid of them. I was planning to take the a couple of them back to Bangalore and gift them to smitha but decided against it as they would not survive the dry warm climate on the way back to Bangalore.
At one such place we decided to have lunch. We had balcony seat, watching the colorful shoal forest below us. By this time it had started getting cloudy. We expected rain very soon. As usual I took one of my favorite group pic, us sitting along the edge of the hill with our back facing the camera.

Having lunch under open sky, in presence of such catchy scenery is an amazing experience. After lunch and relaxation we put on our backpack and continued towards our destiny.

Arun and Srini had found a new means to entertain themselves. Partly translating kannada songs to English. Brahmanda oomkara became Brahm-happiness oomkara, aatm-happiness bla bla bal…. ide naaDu ide bhashe became ide state-u ide language forever mine-u aagirali, where-e irali how-e irili kannaDave nanna breath-inalli. Had there been any KRV activists they would have committed jumped from the peak.

The trek from Mulliyanagiri base was really beautiful and colorful, where as the trek before that

was more adventurous.

As we approached the peak more clouds were accumulating. We could see the clouds drifting towards us. We were expecting it to pour any moment now. We could easily make out that some part of the range was receiving rainfall.

The shades of nature was of wide range and I am sure that my camera found it difficult to capture this wide range of shades that the nature had used. It started raining as we started the last climb.

There is a temple on the peak. On reaching the peak we relaxed at the priest s house where we were to spend the night. The coffee we had there was really tasty. Now we were at the highest peak in Karnataka at a height of 6820 ft. coming out of the house we notice that we were about clouds. After having nap our lazy leader – Arun came out with us to see the Sun Off for the day. The sky was golden now. My cam must have really found it difficult now with the ever increasing range of colors that nature was exhibiting.

That day we witnessed mist in the morning, a clear blue sky later on, combination of white, grey and black clouds invaded the blue sky by noon getting along with them cool water droplets in from of rain, a golden sky during sunset and a pitch black sky with glittering diamonds embedded in it after sunset. To add to it the sweet songs sung by birds, the beautiful lust green view of everything below us…. As arun said in his message we really witnessed heaven. People who missed this… you know what you are ;-)

last part in Q

Shades of nature (part 1)

May 26, Monday evening. Around 8, travelling back (yes in Bangalore it really is travelling back, not just coming back) from office to my place talking over my cell phone, the voice on the other side said “you seem to be very exhausted. The trek must have been very tiring…”

“Trek and tiring? No it was refreshing.” I said

“Oh My god!! You are crazy!!”

The weekend trek. The best of the treks I have been to till now. But as Arun said “the best trek” keeps changing as and when the number of treks increases. Last week we went on a trek to MuLLiyanagiri – the highest peak in Karnataka.

Friday night Arun, Shridhar and me left to chikmagalore from Bangalore, Srinivasa from Mangalore and Narayan from mysore. Srinivasa and narayan reached chickmagalore at about 1 30 early in the morning. You can imagine how frustrate a person can be to go for a loaf around at 2 am checking out the distance boards, taking their pics, discovering a weird horse which was laying down and sleeping(horses don’t lay down and sleep) making a detained study of the town. And how much more frustrated can he be to check his weight a dozen number of times with all combinations – with shoes, without shoes, with backpack, without back pack and what not.(later that evening when I told this to shruti, she was like “I thought alteast your friends were sane, but now I am having second thoughts.”). yes that is srinivas and narayan for you, sane or insane…

We reached chikmagalore at around 5 30 in the morning. Without wasting anytime went to the restaurant in the bus stand. What can you expect to get at that hour? But when on a trek comfort is our least priority. Srinivas and narayna joined us there at the restaurant after their midnight to early morning “loafing around the town”, as always with a smiling face.

Outside the bus stand a private bus to bababuDDangiri was waiting for us. I was planning to have a second round of sleep, but when we entered it we came to know that it there were no seats for us to occupy. And within no time the conductor came to us and asked us to part away from our dear back packs, which srini was very reluctant to. For him his backpack is more than his girlfriend. This prompted us ask if we could occupy the balcony seats… right bus top seat. This was my first bus top experience and was awesome, it was thrilling at times, each time a the bus came across a tree, looking at srini s face we had to bend down so that we would not bang into a branch… luckily nothing went wrong….

Srini started clicking pics from the moment the bus started (yes sometimes srini can go to any extend with is obsessions). After about an hour of thrilling journey we reached bababuDDangiri. Due to rain during the previous week the scenery was very good. And weather on that day was good too. We were above clouds. Different shades of green on land, blue in the sky. Nature is really beautiful. There we decided to trek to maNikyadhara falls which is around 5 km from bababuDDangiri. I got one more proof to support a fact at maNikyadhara. Something our people are very expert at. Leave them at world s most beautiful place for just 1 day and the very next day when you visit the place it would be very difficult to recognize the place. It would have become the dirtiest place. Manikyadhara looks very much like a shower, very beautiful until it reaches ground, rainbow formed midway to ground,

but resembles drainage tank once it reaches ground. People there have bath and throw their clothes near the falls, the place stinks.

One more beautiful place ruined. I sometimes pray for a miracle to happen and destroy roads to all beautiful places.
Until that moment our plan was to get back to bababuDDangiri, catch a bus to chikmagalore and get down midway and start our trek to muLLiyangiri. But at breakfast (second round, and getting lunch packed) we decided to trek all the way to muLLiyangiri (around 14 km). after all we what work did we have but to loaf around and enjoy nature all we wanted was to get to the peak before sun set. On asking the route to the owner of the small eating place he asked us to got to the BSNL tower from where the path would be easily visible. Thus started our trek to muLLiyangiri.

PS: to be continued