Samir's Journey of Life −8

The first law of dietetics seems to be: if it tastes good, it's bad for you...

Manek Chowk Experience:

Manek Chowk is one of the most unique places of Ahmedabad that transforms itself from an extremely busy trading centre during the daytime to a happening food paradise at night.  It is named after Baba Maneknath.  The story is something like this: Ahmed Shah was traveling and he identified suitable place for the construction of a new city. Baba was living there with his disciples. The wall that Shah’s men would build during the day would develop cracks at night. Badshah then sought Baba’s guidance; he was advised to start the construction of the city from a different location, as the proposed location was not auspicious. Manek Burage is the place from where the construction of this city alternatively started.  The ruler decided to dedicate an important road junction in his memory for the people of this city to remember —thus the name of the crossing called “Manek chowk.”  On every Vijayadashmi the family members (currently the 12^th generation) of Baba Maneknath hoist a flag in his memory.

During the 4^th APY we experienced this gastronomic delight (on the eve of Dusherra).   I must say that as compared to Bhatiyar Galli, this place was cleaner and the food appeared more palatable.  The scale of this place is wonderful, there is a center square (chowk) and the surrounding buildings gives a sense of enclosure while the meandering street connecting different nodes also creates a mystical character.  The closed shops give a variable backdrop to the kiosks and make shift food joints that come up at night.  Each vendor has a different arrangement of lighting; the intensity and emission lines vary, creating interesting visual patterns. 

Mood lighting at entry(L); Digestive pill shop at exit (R)

Why do I call this place Gastronomic delight is something to be experienced, not written or talked about.  Where else in the city one would get Ice cream sandwich, chocolate sandwich or pineapple sandwich (with real pineapple not jam) or a chocolate pizza?  One thing is for sure: a Chinese or an Italian would commit suicide, once they eat here.  Imagine a pizza having chocolate gravy in place of tomato gravy and topped with cheese?  A Chinese would die since he would fail to understand ‘seeze bun rice’, I took some time to decipher this – its Schezwan Rice!!!  And imagine a dish called ‘Cheeze Chinese Bhel’, even if we interchange items, they sound funny, such as cheese and bhel or cheese and Chinese or Chinese and bhel.  Having said all that, I would still recommend that one must try such food items at least once. 

Yummy Ragda Pattis (L); Big Manek burger (R)

Chocolate Sandwich: a generous layer of butter (read mutton tallow) topped with thick layer of chocolate gravy, garnished with chocolate beads and topped with very generous layer of cheese.  Wow, doesn’t it sound delicious? (Frankly to me its sounds yuck as I don’t have taste buds for any thing sweet!).  The Bhaji pau was so tasty that it will honestly make Honest Pau Bhaji run for its money.  The Ragda-pattice looked irresistible, very colorful and appetizing.  Another food giant will not know where to run is McDonalds, the big Mac will look minuscule in front of the ‘big manek’.  To top it all the most shocking item was on the south Indian menu ‘Gawlia Dosa’, its some thing you can only believe once you see.  One has to be a Sumo wrestler to be able to eat this stuff.  It’s a Sada Dosa with a stuffing of 100 gms of butter!!!!!!!!!!  Imagine gulping 100 gms of butter?  I find it difficult but one of my friend in APY did have one such Dosa (I have not heard of him or seen him after that night)

Chinese Menu (L); Chocolate Sandwich (R)

At the entrance of Manek Chowk one notices a collage of many Hindu deities’.  The genius who came up with recipes (chocolate pizza kind) is also respected as ‘god’.  It is interesting to see that at the exit there is a shop selling all sorts of digestive pills and powder (churan).  It specially advertises a product ‘gas-go-gayab-lo’.  The name is suggestive of what it does.

God-man and inventor of wired recipes (L); Hindu God-Goddesses at the entry to Manek Chowk

I got really inspired from the weird recipes and attempted some thing that was supposed to be Middle Eastern food.  I wished I had access to ‘gas-go-gayab-lo’ pills before trying the recipe.  It would have given my guinea pigs and me a comfortable and easy time.

Ahmedabadi version of ‘Middle Eastern’ food. 

I wanted to cook authentic Middle Eastern Hummus and Falafel.   But I ended up making Ahmedabadi version.  No offences to the Middle Eastern food lovers but in the city of 6 million people, when I looked for fresh Parsley, Iceberg Lettuce and Falafel pita wrap, I could find none.  I must have gone to not less than 9 shops but probably it was my not lucky day.  Hence I had to settle for alternatives therefore I call it Ahmedabadi version.

Hummus

Ingredients:
4 cups of chickpeas (soaked over night)
3-5 tablespoons lemon juice (depending on taste)
1 1/2 tablespoons tahini
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt as per taste

Method of preparation:
Boil the chickpeas for 15 minutes on high flame for 5 minutes and later on low flame.  Keep some water (1.5 cups) aside to be used while blending and drain the remaining water.  Mix the remaining ingredients with chickpeas along with 1.5 cups of water saved from boiling chickpeas to the blender and whip it for a few minutes until it is turned in to smooth and consistent paste.  Pour the paste in a flat plate and make a little depression in the centre.  Pour some olive oil in the centre, garnish with dried parsley and red chilly fakes - its ready to eat.  You can eat with hot-fresh naan or pita or as a dip for falafel.

Falafel – Pita wrap:

Ingredients:
6 cups of chickpeas (overnight soaked)
6 cloves garlic, crushed
2 medium onions, chopped
3 table spoons finely chopped coriander (replacement for fresh parsley)
2 teaspoons coriander powder
2 teaspoons cumin powder
3 table spoon flour (atta)
salt and pepper as per taste
2 tomatoes chopped
a small cabbage chopped (replacement for fresh iceberg lettuce)
Pita bread (replacement for falafel pita wrap)
Tahini paste

Method of preparation:
Boil the chickpeas for 15 minutes on high flame for 5 minutes and later on low flame.  Mix all the ingredients (except flour) in the mixture to mash in to a course paste.   Make patties and cover it with the flour.  Deep fry the patties until golden brown.  Put it over a tissue for the excess oil to soak.

Take the pita bread, cut a small sleeve and apply some tahini on the inner layer, put small pieces of the falafel topped with tomatoes, cabbage and put a generous layer of hummus.  Garnish with some olive oil, parsley and paprika (to make it more spicy).  You could even try making Falafel burger using a bun.

Ingredients for Hummus (L); for Falafel (R)

Making a paste in mixture (L); Making Patties (R)

Deep frying (L); Falafel Pita wrap stuffing (R)

Finished Hummus (L); Finished Falafel Pita Wrap (R)

Caution: if you repeatedly taste while making hummus and falafel, by the time you complete the dish, you will feel bloated and lose the appetite.

Samir's Journey of Life −7

And the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.

-Bible (NewTestament); Revelation 21:21

All the blog posts I write this month are going to be on my street experiences.

There are many bouts I go thru in life, one such bout these days is the desire to have an experience of street life (not literally).  I think this desire probably is the result of  APY - last Saturday, some of us went to the old town for the photo shoot.  We explored the area surrounding Bhadra Kali Fort and Bhatiyar Galli.  It was an amazing experience.  The energy and movement around awed me. Not just the people, but the cars, buses, rickshaws, mopeds, bicycles, cows, dogs. All of these things conspired to give the environment a chaotic and anarchic feel that amazed me, not that I am new to this place but its been a long time since I’ve had the street level experience.  The apparently chaotic place, when closely looked at, was very well organized.  Vendors intensely negotiating and selling ‘Katrina’ brand of lingerie and ‘Ladrina’ brand of cosmetics!  It was all very colorful and vibrant.

Zipping traffic at Bhadra Fort (will soon be a history)

Aggressive marketing (order within chaos)

Colourful Katrina

Lustrous Ladrina

From there we ventured in to the much talked about ‘Bhatiyar galli’.  Just before we entered the ‘galli’ we noticed a series of ‘perfum’ (e- is missing) kiosks.  They had strange collection of perfumes 'Sandol', ‘Drax’, ‘You & Me’, ‘My love’ types.  Unfortunately, I missed trying out some of them, as I was too pre-occupied in taking pictures.  We entered the (in)famous eating joint and very honestly, we were thoroughly disappointed.  Not that we expected great hygiene conditions but what we saw even lacked basic cleanliness and hygiene.  We lost all the appetite after having roamed around the street full of filth and stink of rotten fish or flesh.  We got some food packed and I must tell you, what we had was a surest route to get pancreatitis (if one consumes 3 days in a row) not to mention other gastronomic complications (or probably the regulars must be having Teflon quoted stomach lining...)

"Perfum"

Gastronomic nightmare!

My desire to have a feel of street experience did not fizzle out – on the contrary it became stronger.  I decided to go for a roadside barbershop for a shave.  I wanted to go to one of the types with a mirror hanging on the compound wall or they ask you to hold the mirror and a high wooden chair (one often finds such barbershops around the city).  I had always noticed one such shop opposite my office, so here I go, I parked and looked at it closely, tried to muster courage to go and sit on the chair – but I couldn’t (I had all sorts of thought processes, what would the adjoining tea vendor think, what if my colleagues pass by etc).  Eventually I ended up in some obscure place in Mithalkali village.  The shop had a colorful board ‘Monopol Jents Salun and Beauty Parlur’.   The shop was not more than 4.5 feet wide by 7 feet deep.  It had two chairs and two mirrors, around which there were plastic flowers and lots of photographs of Bollywood heroes stuck (on the wall opposite the mirrors) and neatly stacked gadgets as well as many bottles, tubes of weird brands of cosmetics (probably of the similar types I saw at Bhadrakali fort).  It appeared that I was the first customer of the day.   The moment I sat in the chair, my ‘hair stylist’ took out a packet of ‘budhalal’ tobacco and some lime paste, rubbed it in his palm and shoved the mixture in his mouth and without washing his hands – he held my face and gave a detailed look.  By that time I had closed my eyes, sank in my chair with some palpitation and stated praying ‘god …please protect me from allergy or infection…please’.  After the job was done, I opened my eyes and was a happy customer (really? I wonder).  Since then, I have been closely monitoring my face – looking for some signs of allergy.  So far, I am spared.  And hence my endeavor with street experience continues…

OK hair dresser!

By the way….

Day before, I got a small dental surgery, partial tooth extraction.  I believe that all dentists have a peculiar habit of talking while they maneuver a large drill in the mouth and they expect the patient to converse during the procedure!  Following is the conversation we had, about 10 minutes after the surgery started (I am pretty sure that you all must have had a similar experience):

Dr:  Now…let me assure you that this will not hurt at all (a blatant lie)…

me: (while it was hurting very badly and I was profusely bleeding) …uh… hug… oogaulps…!!!

Dr:  I told you, every thing is going to be al right, you were needlessly fearing

me: @#...ou…grrrrr….dolp..dolp…

Dr:  What do you think of this babri masjid judgment?

me:  $$&***@##...eah…aehaa…ughhe…umm…shi…ugh ugh…glop…(all I was saying was:   damn…finish of the work fast and let me get out of here)

Dr: (what ever she understood of my talk) ummm, I thought as much, even I have the same view!!!!

And such meaningless conversation went on for next 23 minutes.  Some body please tell me that is it part of the training of dentist that they make their patients (read: victims) talk while they shove the deadliest of the gadgets in the mouth?

See you after 10 days with more street experiences

Samir's Journey of life −6

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. Winston Churchill

In year 2000, I made a futile attempt to form a musical group, a band; had named it ZingSting Band.  We were three of us in the Band, one on Guitar, who was a pro, other was on key boards, who was not a pro but had a good sense of rhythm, while I was on percussions, the weak link.  A few months later the band was disbanded; reason was my suspicion that either I was rhythm-deaf or I was a genius and was looking for a new genre of music (but the later was not true).  After almost a decade, I am on my way to conquer this self proclaimed problem - I have signed up for percussion classes!   I have challenged myself, armed with the passion to learn percussions and shortly I will win over the belief that I have rhythm-beat-deafness (if at all).   I am all charged-up with the motivational blah - blah.  Just wait and watch – ZingSting Band will once again Jazz-up the town.  I can see my wife and both the kids laughing at me on this new ‘bout’.  I believe, instead if laughing, they must spend some time praying, as I will be practicing at home! I don’t know if they can approach human rights commission against my ‘out of sync’ practice sessions!!!

CD cover of our 1st (and only) album

The day started with getting up early to get ready for the first music class.  To my utter surprise there were 8 of us – ready to conquer the world of music.   Our music teacher seemed baffled.  There was a mixed expression on his face – in a way he was happy as he had 8 new students (means more fees) but the moment we laid our hands on the individual instruments and attempted to play (some thing), his face was pale.  He realized the uphill task he had undertaken of teaching music to not one but eight Aurangzhebs!  I am sure he will have nightmares from now on.

Music class in progress

The Sunday morning was jam packed with activities, after the music lessons, some of us had to rush to the APY-2.  We all started off by about 10.45 am.  Three groups were formed; I was in the group documenting Delli Darwaja and Dariyapur Darwaja.  We reached there only to find out that we were too early, there was hardly any sign of activity.  We decided to check out the other groups and took a route thru the old city.  This was 1^st time in my life and probably the last time too that I would drive thru the old city.  I was not aware of the road and traffic conditions as we maneuvered the (giant) SUV thru the old city roads – the experience can be best compared with angioplasty procedure and the feeling the balloon would be going thru.  The road width was almost the size of the SUV, it was a two-way traffic and you can imagine the commotion, the traffic from the opposite direction had to retrieve or park on the footpath (if it existed) or get in the side lanes.   There was a huge jam behind us.   I got the choicest of the curses, though I had expected that some one would pull me out of the car and bash me up.  Ahmedavadi ki jai ho – not only we were out of the jam but myself (with 5 others) and the SUV were unscratched!

We did move around near Daripur Darwaja, which appeared to be okay from the front (main road) side but the rear was pathetic.  We checked the inside of the gate and we were shocked to see the state of the historic monument.  I find it difficult to imagine that Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation is proposing Ahmedabad as a World Heritage Site.  What we saw was similar to the plight of Common Wealth Games preparations.  It’s a sorry state and a big let down, the less we talk about it better it would be.

Rear of Dariyapur Gate, grilled door lead to the room inside the gate structure

Inside of the room - full of filth, just like our politicians!

One of the few doors left in the gate is ruined by the pictures of god-goddesses; while there were 14 temples within 70 ft  from the gate.

At such times, I wonder, should the people responsible for CWG sham or similar (AMC heritage wing) be given capital punishment?  Should we shout or should we accept the way things are going on? 

The accomplice to the crime of corruption is frequently our own indifference.  What is your take on this?

One more thing:  From this post onwards, I would be blogging every forth night.  See you on the 10th of October.  

Walk in the Journey of Life - 5

Forty is the old age of youth; fifty the youth of old age.  Victor Hugo

This year I turned 50 (in Feb 2010!).  Some how I had anticipated that the thought itself would hit me hard, some thing like what is shown in Eketa Kapoor’s serials – where the sequence is repeated three times and loud music in the back ground or India TV news channel: ‘Samir turn’s 50’ – repeated thrice with loud and heavy music - constantly reminding me.  In reality it happened very subtly.  The acceptance was much easier and I have become much quieter (hopefully for the better!).

I remember the days when I turned 40.  It was tormenting. Middle age - middle of what? How does one know how much one is going to live and so how do we say 40 is middle age -  I just couldn’t accept it.  I had joined a gym and many times it would happen that some or the other guy (possibly in his late 30’s or younger) would approach me (while I would be walking on a treadmill) with a request “uncle, when you are done, please tell me, I want to jog”  (as if I was wasting his or my time by walking on treadmill)– this would hit me hard and I would increase the speed from 6 to 10 and jog.  And not only that – I would repeat the round – expecting the guy who called me ‘uncle’ to notice that I too can jog.  What was the out come?  I would not come to Gym for next whole week or more, as my calf (which I didn’t know it existed) and ankle would be profusely aching.  I distinctly remember the time when some young lady came in the weight training section and addressed to me “uncle when you are done with this set of dumbbells give them to me” and this uncle would be at it again, to impress the lady, that, I am not uncle yet, instead of 5 kg weights, I would lift 30 kgs (even though the trainer had clearly warned me not to touch any thing beyond 10 kgs) and the rest is history, I injured my back and damaged the ligaments of my elbow very badly, that even today I have issues with it.   And my gym regime has not restarted.  Now that I am 50, some how, I am at peace with myself.  I do not have any issues with any one calling me uncle.   May be because I have accepted that I am “uncle”, I have diverted to other activates such as this blog or APY or sketching or cooking.  I am enjoying every bit of it.

Today’s APY was a successful, though it was only on trail basis.  The real APY starts from next week.  We had 14 participants today and it is expected that by next week there would be between 20 to 25 participants.  We had formed three groups and each one had opted for 4 gates of Ahmedabad, all the three groups could only finish half of the assigned area.  The idea was to document life around these gates.  Each one of us has some or the other stories to talk about (both, thru pictures as well talk).  We will do so, once we organize a bit better.

I got a comment earlier to write about some of my culinary skills (if one may says so).  There is step by step photographic DIY for two dishes: Som Tum or Thai Raw Papaya Salad and Baked Eggs in Bread Bowl:

Thai Raw Papaya Salad:

 Ingredients:

Green Papaya or semi ripe, Dry Red Chiles, 
Garlic Cloves, Tomato, Carrot, Cucumber, 
Dark Soy Sauce, Lemon Juice, Coriander, Fresh Basil leaves (tulsi), Roasted Peanuts (unsalted), Brown Sugar or Jaggery , Tamarind, Black Pepper, Salt to taste.

Tools (L) and Spices (R)

Ingredients: Papaya and Vegetables (L), Coriander, Peanuts, Basil (R)

Method of preparation:

Peel and wash the green papaya.
 Use a julienne peeler to thinly shred the papaya, cucumber and carrot. 
 Chop the tomato.
 Cut the dry red chilies, garlic cloves and ginger in to small pieces. 
 Using a mortar and pestle, first crush the garlic, red chilies, tamarind, Jaggery, black pepper, together into paste by adding enough salt.
 Then stir in tomatoes and mash them a little.
 Stir in lemon juice, soy sauce, roasted peanuts, shredded papaya and salt.
 Lightly mash and mix all the ingredients together.
 Taste and adjust the seasonings if required.
 Serve green papaya salad immediately.

Shredded Veges seperate (L), Shredded Veges mixed (R)

Som Tum - Thai Raw Papaya Salad

Baked Eggs in Bread Basket:

Ingredients:

Hard buns (if you don’t find them, just place them in oven on pre heat for 10 minutes), Eggs, Cheese, cream (fresh malai), Basil – fresh and dry, Oregano, Black pepper and Salt to taste.

Ingredients

Method of preparation:

Slice off top of each bun and gently remove some bread until there is a hole large enough to accommodate an egg. Arrange buns on a baking sheet. Reserve tops. Crack an egg into each bun (don’t mix or stir). Top each egg with some herbs and a bit of cream and cheese. Season with salt and pepper.  Bake in a 210-220 degree oven until eggs are set and bread is toasted (15 to 20 minutes). After eggs have cooked, place bread tops on baking sheet and bake until golden brown. Let sit 5 minutes.

Place tops on buns and serve warm.

Buns with top cut (L), Buns with inside removed (R)
Eggs cracked in Bun (below L), Cream, Cheese and Herbs added on top (below R)

Completed Dish- Thai Raw Papaya Salad and Baked Eggs in Bread Basket.

Hope you try these recipes at home and enjoy as mush I did!  I must warn you that Som Tum Salad as shown in Tarla Dalal’s website is incorrect.  I have improvised both the recipes to suit our taste buds.

More recipes, pictures and sketches next time.  Have a great week.

Walk in the Journey of Life - 4

“Life becomes precious and more special to us when we look for the little everyday miracles and get excited about the privileges of simply being human” ~Tim Hansel

I couldn’t agree more, it’s so apt as this is all what I am trying to look for these days.   Though I have got comments that “philosophy and spiritualism sounds a little offbeat - from you...nevertheless its a good change …” Keeping this in mind I will continue as I feel like.   ‘Change’ is the synonym of ‘life’, one must change – even lifeless rocks do change over a period to time, therefore we all must (good or bad is a matter of perception).  I am changing and will continue to until the day I stop breathing and at that moment I will metamorph’ in to some thing very different but my soul will still hang around…

Last week was as if entire city is transformed in to a very serious euphoric bout of religion.  All the jains (including me) had a sense of urgency to get rid of all the sins committed in past one year so that one could start all over again!  The socializing had stopped (most funny part is that client’s used this as an excuse for not making payment of our fees – including those who were not jains!!!).  I too followed some aspects of my religion by only eating absolute jain food (this I did with the sole objective of making my parents happy as I do not need to do such things to make my god happy – he already is happy).  As socializing -recreation and eating out is concerned – I need to forget it for a week or two as every food joint in town would be over croweded by Jains, as paryushan is over and Muslims, as ramzan is also over and Hindus, as shravan is also over.  The best part is that this year 3 major religious events – Samvatsari (for Jains) – Id (for Muslims) and Ganesh Charturthi (for Hindus) was on the same day.  This couldn’t just be a coincidence – there is a very strong message that – no matter what your beliefs/faiths are – GOD is one.  Every one is familiar with the differences of two faiths – hindus and muslims.   I fail to understand how could there be a difference within jains – some had their Samvatsari yesterday and some are having it today and you know what – it seems there have been fights over this issue.  I am sure GOD must be very upset and annoyed that he created humans.

As a feed back I got calls and emails from quite a few, informing me that they would like to join in the Ahmedabad Photography Yatra (APY).  I am making a route of this APY and it will be spread over 3 Sundays.  I am not sure how will we manage if 15 of us go to a place with camera’s and the reaction of people (anxiety and panic).  We will be a group of 3 and form (as of now) about 4 to 5 groups (depends on the final number to join).  We assemble at some designated place and after completing the first route we meet for lunch.  I will post the details by email to individuals in this week but tentatively we keep it for Sunday the 19^th.

I am posting some of my pictures I have taken in different parts of the world.  I am going to upload all of them in flicker shortly but here are just a few.

Composition - Cat on a window sill.

Colours 

Texture

Sunset

Composition in Red

 The Kumbalgadh sketch is missing at the moment - I will locate it and post it in near future.  What I am attaching here are two simple sketches of plants from my farm (the message here is that one need not only go to historical places or great distance to sketch - it can be one right at home).

Plant −1

Plant-2

We may go for sketching excursions in future but for now - remember next Sunday, we have our first Photography Yatra.  Be there.  I promise, you will have a great time rediscovering yourself as you walk along with me sharing my journey of life.

See you next Sunday.

Walk in the Journey of Life - 3

Hi,

This is the 3^rd post.  Three weeks have gone past since I started writing.  Lets see what happened during this week. 

The cloud cover on Ahmedabad is still very much the same (not great for photography excursions).  Watched the short motivational film ‘The Secret’ with friends.  The idea to see in a group was to have a discussion that should have followed – and it did not happen.  The reasons could be that we started the film a bit too late and mentally all of us were too tired and second most important reason was that the 1 hr 40 min film very much talks about only one line in different ways: ‘you get what you attract’; it kind of gets too monotonous after about first 30 minutes.  One feels like shouting: ‘yeah yeah…got the message …now move forward…’ and it doesn’t, as there is nothing else they have to say.

Next day morning went to a walk for environmental awareness organized by some school students.  Pets were allowed (therefore Smokey took us with him for a walk!)The walk was fun but one should have seen Smokey – he was completely exhausted!

Smokey with his 'pets'

In an interesting development, I happen to chance upon a set of 8 set DVDs of conversation by Shivani (Bhrama Kumari Sect).  The topic is ‘Happiness Index’; only saw two episodes of 1^st dvd.   It was good and not heavy/monotonous like ‘The Secret’.  This was more tangible and we would be able to relate to what she is talking about as she peeks in to our daily life.   But the caution here would be to go very slow (if one really wants to digest what she is talking).   The culmination of spirituality was a lecture in AMA, on ‘Kirshna – the management Guru’ by Guru Narayanan.   Not good at all.  One of the reasons could be that I have lost the ability to sit thru lectures.   I think I had a bit too much quota of the spiritual stuff.   It doesn’t seem to be my domain – at least not for the time being.

Did find time to complete and go thru some of my previous sketches.  They are again pen and ink.  I guess that’s the medium I am comfortable with.  I am too scared of colours.  Though, the previous one of Jaisalmer Fort and Manoribel as attached here, are probably the only few I have done in colour 

Chehal Palace, Himachal Pradesh.

Tea House, Chehal Palace, Himachal Pradesh

Manoribel

There are a lot of people who have visited the blog and I would like to thank them.  I am still learning to reply to their comments directly form the blog etc.  Hope you all enjoy as much as I do.  See you next Sunday.

Walk in the journey of life - 1

Hi

This is my first day in blogging.  I have neither read nor written - ever.  And this I am doing by the constant motivation from my daughter.  She is the one who insisted in doing so.

I have not thought much about what its going to be like.  But I guess, it would be more like walking along with me while I talk.  Please try and read and if possible do give feed back once in a while.  I am not going to write philosophy or theory of every thing or high fundas of life.  Its going to be just about every thing thats going on in my life and my attempts to seek happiness while I walk thru the journey of life.  In some pages its possible that I would have written about you too.

I am in the 50th year of this walk (of life).  There are many ups and downs (so to say).  I have had a fantastic life so far.  And having realised that I am 50, I am in the process of trying to change the perspective of life.  I will make my best efforts to be honest in this blog, share the things I do besides my profession etc.

Hope all of you like it or dislike (the only way I will know is through comments; both: +ive or -ive).

Walk in the journey of life - 2

Hi,

There is a question I would like to pose for myself and to you all:

When was the last time you did some thing for the first time? What was it?  Be honest and let me know.  This is a question especially for people who are above 40.

You become what you think you are.   If you start thinking that you are old – you become old.  Feeling young or old has a lot to do with your thinking rather than the physical factor.  I know people who are 65 years ‘young’ in age and they behave like a teenager or 25 year person and I also know 25 year ‘old’ people who behave like above 60 years.  What I am trying to tell is that see the sketch attached below, I started in 2001 at Jaisalmer and I completely forgot about it until last week.  I have now completed it last week, while doing so, I traveled back in 2001, became 10 years younger.  I have decided to spend some time on doing things what I love doing and not only for living.  All of us must work for the living – but in the process – we forget to live.

Almost every one would have a camera these days.  Once it gets a little dry (rain), I plan doing a series of photography excursions in the city – exploring Sunday market, early morning vegetable market and flower market – grain market etc.  Would any one want to join?  Do let me know.  We can have a joint exhibition amongst our friends and if there a good response, we also could have it at a city level.  Next year is Ahmedabad’s 500 years, let us know our city better.  Take time out of your busy schedule.  Trust me – it will be a great experience and also you will be doing some thing for the first time.  I will work out program and let you all know.

Please check out the sketch and comment.

See you next week.

Jaisalmer Fort Sketched in 2001 and completed (coloured) now 2010!!! (5'x10")

Sketch completion in progress