An early Valentine's Day wish from Greeting card companies

Happy Valentine's Day

A day of solitude in Dharamshala, Mcleodganj - The Little Lhasa

Well, this is going to be about my most favourite place in India. Mcleodganj, a small hill station in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, also known as Little Lhasa, due to its distinctive Tibetan culture, in terms of the Tibetan population, food, handicraft, religion, music, dance and even their own beauty pageant of Miss Tibet. It is the headquarter of H.H. Dalai Lama and Tibetan government-in-exile. Mcleodganj, also called Upper Dharamshala, is 10 kms ahead of Dharamshala.

This is the place you would want to come back to, if you've visited it once. It's got the perfect atmosphere to have solitude, peace, slow down, experience new culture and meet travellers from various parts of the globe. It's Richard Gere's one of the favourite places too. You can move around and see most of the places by walking around.


- If you want your day to start differently from every day, then the idea is to go out early morning when it's still cold and foggy, talk a stroll down the road, into the woods or St' John's Church.  A visit to the monastery is a great idea to start the day if want to know Tibetan prayer rituals and cherish a beautiful morning view of the snowy mountains in the calm and peaceful.

- Must visit Pema Thang, a restaurant and a guest house surrounded with Deodar trees. It's got a warm  ambience, with a varied menu, from Italian to Tibetan cuisine. Also you can enjoy your breakfast, sitting on the rooftop area in the sun, while cherishing the view of the mountains. It's near Hotel Bhagsu, near temple road, not on temple road.


- You can go out for shopping or binge on home-made Tibetan food like Momos, Thukpas, Thanduk, being sold in the open market.You can shop - Tibetan Handicraft, lucky charms, Thangka paintings, colorful wool-knitted clothes, precious gems and stones, silver jewellery, books on Tibet, Dalai Lama, Buddhism, postcards, meditation music and chants, trance music, chopsticks-colorful and pretty, Kangra Tea, Kashmiri handicraft and clothes, Tibetan incense sticks and ceramic items.


- Visit Jimmy's Italian kitchen for live band performances at night.
- Visit Tibet Museum to know why there are Tibetans where you're roaming around.


It is well connected from New Delhi, Chandigarh through buses. Nearest Airport- Gaggal, Dharamshala and connecting flights from New Delhi from other cities.

Kangra valley - Kangra train station is narrow gauge and the nearest station to travel towards Dharamshala from Pathankot, Punjab and Palampur, H.P. Kangra is about 25 km from Dharamshala.

'Tapka'

We found a local guy from some Himachali village on the way, selling these small, organic and freshest of mangoes, named ‘Tapka’. Named so, because they fall down themselves from 

the trees, once they are ripe. Some even lemon-sized, those were the most delicious Mangoes till date and actually tasted like Mango Bite candy. This is the joy of travelling in hills. You’ll find different variety of fresh fruits, right from the orchards, being sold by the locals, at half the price. 

On the way to Mcleodganj from Dharamshala, this is a cemetery adjacent to a very old Anglican church called St. John in wilderness (below), built in 1852. Surrounded with Deodar forest, it's said to be haunted, as it already looks with its location and neo-gothic architecture.

St. John's Church, Mcleodganj

Surrounded with Deodar forests, there is a different kind of fragrance in the air when it rains there, it's like the smell of forest, damp grass and woods, plants and herbs. But it is divine, if you take joy in simple, natural things. 

Darjeeling Tea at Moon Peak Cafe

There's no better way to enjoy a cup of Darjeeling tea in this rainy cold weather or snowy winters or sitting outside in warm winter sunshine than having it at Moon Peak Cafe. 
It's one of the favourite hangouts of travellers to chill and get a chance to meet travellers from various places and share some stories over a cup of coffee and a sandwich. 
Must visit Moon Peak Cafe. It's not just a cafe and a restaurant, but also a gallery for art exhibition as well. It also offers various short-term workshops on writing and photography. http://moonpeak.org. 

Jimmy's Italian Kitchen

Jimmy's Italian Kitchen is famous for it's food, warm and friendly ambience and service. Also you can catch some live performances of the local bands.

Not just a window display. It's their plea to have the freedom to live in dignity in their own land. In free Tibet.

Tibetan Incense Sticks- A souvenir worth taking home

These are nothing like artificially flavoured incense sticks, but all natural herbs and plants. May be that's why they smell somewhat like a forest. You will notice some kind of fragrance in the air when you are roaming around in the market. It's the fragrance of these incense sticks. Seriously. You will find it lit up in almost every Tibetan shop. Like everything else in Mcleodganj, these incense sticks have that element of nature, calmness and something mystical. 

Their handicraft includes Silk wall hangings, some with prayers, buddhist symbols and Thangka designs on it. Thangka Paintings on  rice paper, which is done with natural colors obtained from rocks and minerals.

At a Handicraft shop by Norbulingka Institute of Tibetan Arts. Well, I was more interested in clicking picture of the cute Tibetan kid!

I have to say. These people are one of the calmest people on Earth.

At Namgyal Monastery.

A view from the Monastery in summers

That cute little traditional Tibetan costume makes him all the more adorable!

You can catch screenings of documentaries on Tibet and their struggle. Lots more to offer than that.

Into the woods. 5 minutes walk from the market square. The clue to get here is Hotel Bhagsu or Pema Thang Guest House.

View of Lower Dharamshala. Can you spot the cricket stadium?

Hotel Bhagsu- It's actually a decent option to stay. Plus, you have a beautiful view around.

























































This is the place you must visit atleast once in a lifetime. That's all i can say to conclude here.
Hope you visit Dharamshala soon, if you haven't. Tashi Delek!! :)

Go to the following link to continue the journey of Dharamshala to day 2. http://starvinglunacy.blogspot.com/2012/01/day-2-at-norbulingka-institute-of.html

Awesome Mumbai Street Art and Graffiti: Chapel Road, Bandra

Hello art lovers!! Here's a treat for you all!

or

If you're not a big fan of art, you're still going to like it i guess :)

..:::  From the alleys, nooks and corners of Chapel Road  :::..

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6. Let me complete the sentence, "Paidaishi Junglee" :D

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13. Toon Transformers 

14. An old cottage

Who the hell is Jivesh?

If you’re from Mumbai, you’d be knowing how people mostly keep them to themselves and don’t even know who lives next door. Similarly, I would be the last person to have any clue about the families and people living in my block. But still, observation over the time makes you familiar with what’s happening everyday around you. You unintentionally get to know names of few people, living around you, but you’ve never seen them in your life or never will.

Like there’s a group of kids who on evenings and every Sunday morning, gather behind my room window and together they shout out the name of their friend ‘Jivesh’ and they call it out like ‘jeeeeeevesh’, who lives on the floor above mine. Sometimes they confront his mother and they try to convince her that they won’t play for long. She seems to be very sharp and unsparingly witty, especially when she takes whole group’s case, standing in the window on the first floor, when they dare to trick her with next day’s fake school holiday. Little bicycle riders they are!

There’s a house , I don’t know which one, but I know that every night without fail, a phone rings there between 2 am-3 am.

A couple of times in a month, I get to listen to a door bell at some door around 12, followed with a birthday song, sung by a group.

As I sit next to my window, many times I become a listener to someone else’s conversation, who keeps walking around n keeps talking on phone. Sometimes, it’s too much information for me from that person. I mean, till now I pretty much know the whole story from break-up to make-up and everything in between. 

It’s funny that when Jivesh’s friends come and call out his name, I think to myself, “Oh, here they are again, Jivesh’s friends”. But who the hell is Jivesh???

I lived

Is there a thought that crosses your mind every minute, before going to sleep and also is the first one, just when you wake up? You think about that one thing and say to yourself “I have to have this”. Yes? You seem to be obsessed I guess. But isn't it better than not knowing at all, what you’re here for. 

You’ve been dreaming to go to a city in Italy since the time you saw it on TV or maybe you saw a show about Northern lights on Discovery Channel, which totally blew your mind, you sighed and instantly made a promise to yourself “I have to go there and witness it”. Or maybe since the time, you watched a rockstar performing live, he became your idol and you became his slave.

It could be anything. Things don’t have to be extraordinary to be a dream for anyone. A passion that gives you a high, the moment you confront it. It keeps you restless, but at the same time is the source of real happiness and peace.

That dream drags you to your workplace every morning, although you hate your job, but you imagine buying tickets to the place you’ve always wanted to go to and you say to yourself “Ok..one more day, but I am gonna quit soon”. But you don’t quit, because you don’t quit dreaming. There must be something great about them, if we realize.

If you identify with these feelings, then you’d get what I am talking about. Well, I can very much identify myself with this whole thing except that I don’t hate my job. And as for my dream, the strongest one for me has been about travelling. Always.

Few days back, I went to a sale at my favourite store. I looked around, stopped at few stacks of clothes, found something that I could get at a good price through discounts. But I realized, I don’t need anything. My closet is over-flowing and I hate filling up my room with things. But this was not the only thought, that stopped me from spending a thousand bucks on a thing that I don’t even need or want or I would buy just because it’s sale. What's the real deal? What is it?

I pictured myself booking tickets for a travel destination when I looked at the price tag of that piece of cloth. I came out, smirking.

Well, that was just an example. But if you have one such thing, that drives you every minute, you’ll be glad that you saved your money, time and effort from getting wasted in something that didn’t even fulfill your purpose of pursuing something great. You’d save yourself from getting wasted by mediocrity. Dreams relate to your higher thoughts and beliefs, and are about achieving something, which for you, might be near to greatness. That's the real deal.

If you share a similar story and passion about your dream, I would say invest your mind, time and your money in your dream. But if buying clothes is your purpose of life and gives you inner peace and happiness, then no offence! You can do that as well. Whatever your dream is, that is the real thing, something which we are meant to do. Fulfilling that purpose would be enough to say in the end “I lived”. Or you'll wonder "I lived?"

5 dumb things, people do on Facebook, that makes you want to say, WTF!

1. You surely thoroughly enjoy this whole activity done by this friend of yours, when you become a spectator of a relationship drama happening live and open, right in front of you. A virtual yet live conversation between two people, who are indirectly  talking to each other through their own status updates and page likes. For a while, you observe what these two chickens are doing. Then, you just sit back and refresh and refresh and refresh, while the boy is still in doubt whether the girl is getting what he’s trying to say or not, and vice-versa.  And you just laugh and ‘like’ the Facebook page, titled ‘You are too chicken to talk face to face, eh?’ or "I hate it when people join fan pages just to cause drama"

Let me give you an example of this kind of conversation, through some ‘real’ Facebook Group/page titles, being liked by the two, ‘one after the other’.

          Boy likes I wanna be loved by you. Just you. And nobody else. but you.

          Girl likes i loved you, you didnt care, i moved on, you want me back, I DONT GIVE A FUCK.

          Boy likes when I said I loved you, I meant it.

          Girl likes I know you SAID you loved me, but if you did you wouldn’t have done that.

          Boy likes I don’t regret doing that, it was just a mistake ;)

          Again, Boy likes Trust me, i love you.

          Girl likes Why should i trust you, I’m still hurt from where you stabbed me in the back

          Boy likes Okay fine, ignore me now but if you ever need me, you can fuck right off.

2.   Ok !..Jackass!!, you’ve made a fake profile of a celebrity so that people hover over your profile and flood it with add requests.But to me, you seem to be Mr. Bourne from Bourne Identity, dealing with your identity loss, that you had to copy paste your own ‘Bio’ from Wikipedia and photos from Google, that too water-marked with some website's logo on it?!

 3.  Suddenly you see this thumbnail sized display picture of someone in your friend list. You ask to yourself  “when the hell did I add this dumb Japanese high school girl?”, you click on the picture and find it’s nothing but a friend of yours, posing with a pout, dramatic eyes, emo hairstyle and a victory sign.

4.   Then comes walking this sheep from the flock. Never in your life, you would’ve listened to Michael Jackson, but when he dies, suddenly you become his oldest fan. You try to walk faster on your tips to catch up with the walking flock. Quickly you charge up your brain cells by looking at what people are writing and add your pinch of “orsumness” to write a genius status on Fan pages, using especially ‘MJ’, instead of Michael Jackson. “Orsumness eh?” *Barney's famous nod*

5.      Tagging others with 'a poem'- heights of embarrassment. Unless you are making some sense I’ll even bear with your non rhyming poems.But it’s like someone kept you on a gun-point and tortured you until you wrote the cheesiest bunch of lines, with compulsive usage of words like ‘pyar’, ‘ishq’ and ‘mohabbat’. Not just you write such a thing, you believe it's too good to be deprived from the mankind to read. Please don't help, I'll survive.

What should be worse? To live as a lunatic or to die as a good man.

                                                 :::::

I wonder, some people who die as a good person, why do they suffer and struggle throughout their life. These people spend their lifetime struggling and proving themselves right, but get their worth when its too late. What do they get in the end? Nothing. What do they leave behind? Some fond memories? But what would they do with it, sitting in the heaven. They would regret!! They’d surely regret on missing out on things they wanted to do, so badly, but sacrificed at that point, to sound good in the books of the society, religion, to sound moral and to not sound mad or different. All this, for the sake of acceptance by others. 

People who think that normality lies in doing what everyone is doing, in my opinion are cowards and sycophants to the system. They are desperate to fit in, and fear rejection & abandonment.  Society and people make their life decisions for them. They spent their whole life, following the path of others, doing the socially acceptable things to fit in. But what is moral. The ‘norms’? What is normal and abnormal?What is the definition of madness? 

People define madness as something or someone being different from the rest, different from the "normals".  But struggling, sacrificing and giving in to the fear of rejection, to get accepted, is the biggest illness or madness, according to me. It's like dishonouring the gift you were actually given, by god or the creator, the gift of your very own different identity. This cowardice is madness.

“Normality is merely a matter of consensus; that is a lot of people think something is right, and so that thing becomes right.” – ‘Veronika Decides to die’ by Paulo Coelho

What’s the worth of dying as a good man. Memories? That is it? We can become nothing more than a memory- which resides in the mind and then finishes off with the people. 

“If evryone could know and live with their inner madness, people would be fairer and happier!”- Veronika Decides to die’ by Paulo Coelho

Which should be worse? To live as a lunatic or to die as a good man. 

                                     

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Things We Can't See

Sometimes I doze off, thinking that doing the ‘important’ things isn’t actually important. What would I get in the end. So much effort to be put at present, and in the end, just a bunch of memories? or few collectibles? Or sense of completion of some duties and responsibilites?That’s it?

But sometimes, I lose my sleep, dwelling upon things I could do instead. Things which emit a sort of a strong energy. Things I love. Traveling, art, nature, music. But isn’t that too, short term? What is that we strive for a lifetime? What’s that one thing. I don’t know. May be the eternal truth, which would remain the same for eternity, able to give eternal, non-fluctuating bliss.

These dejavus put me in another quest to find the meaning of things we experience, things that make us wonder, but we don’t know what they are. Like, a few seconds back, I had a déjà vu of reading some words I had already written above, the same page, everything same.

How come we experience such things and still not believe, that there’s so much more to the eyes than it can see. So much more beyond what we can hear or see.

At the first and the material level, what inspires me to know the history, the truth behind a phenomenon, are places. Forts and the monsterous architecture, churches and the stained-glass windows, the temple of fire and the condition of prohibiting the non-parsis in it, mosques and the surreal seriousness of the sessions of namaz, monuments and their wall arts, cemeteries and the limestone tombs, the symbols of death.

The uncanny  attraction towards mysticism and the forbidden, darker side gives me a sense of belonging and offers something deeper to explore. May be the truth, life after death, parallel universe, spirits, ghosts and their world.

Every place tells a story, it depends on what you catch. Every historical story or place keeps an element of tragedy in it. Death, sorrow, loss, fear. Afterall, its about humans.