The Road Trip Munnar and Thekkady - part 1

Hi All

Its taken sometime for me to blog about the trip, catching up after driving around nearly 1000 kms in less than 4 days, viewing GODS OWN COUNTRY (truly -- no wonder they call it, right through my senses) and having fun, frolic and a very minor accident. Also would like to capture every day of the trip as a separate blog.

So here we go with day 1. 

We set out at about 10 am on Friday the 10 of April from Trivandrum, thanks to the overnight and early morning rain that disrupted our early morning start. We had all our gears ready, the map and the routes printed out, the fruits and the shorts eats stacked up, the Red Bulls for the energy, our bags and lastly the basic outdoor kit like, screw drivers, hammers and all the paraphernalia and not to forget google map and GPRS on the phone.

The drive to thekkady was truly great, all through Kerala, touching firstly Kollam and then Padanapuram (you really got to this accent right else, you can't reach this place and Rekha mastered this. Yes, its true, she can speak better Malayalam than Tamil), Pathinthita and then Kumily, where our room was booked. Thekkady is a 4 Km walk from Kumily. We reached at 4 in the evening after a 270 KM drive, non stop, except for the snaps which mother nature called for and of course, my very own nature's call. As it was good Friday, it was a dry evening and we caught up some sleep and dinner and were ready for the morning assault in Thekkady and the subsequent drive to Munnar the next day.

The best bit of the day was the cloud cover over the western ghats forming a true blanket -- if you want to figure it out you can imagine it to a bit like the table mountains in Cape Town in South Africa. Awesome sight -- Truly Gods Own Country.

Keep watching this space for part two.

The Week That Was

Its been a few days since I blogged last and it will be a few more before the next one as Rekha and I are off on a road trip across Kerala starting morning to Thekkady, 2 days in Munnar and one day in a houseboat in the backwaters of Kumarkom. All excited are we. Call it our first honey moon for namesake.

So how was the week that just went by. To put it into perspective, boring, interesting, researching and really techno stuff.

So whats boring is my my work life as, at this point of time, thanks to recession there isn't any quality work am doing which does not satisfy my never dying appetite to learn new and fresh things.

Whats interesting, is the way I have taken on to look at better opportunities and plan the trip am looking forward to. Really researched where to go, how to get there, the actual planning of the trip, the logistics, the bookings -- used all the negotiation skills I have to get the best bargains.

For the week I really enjoyed watching the movie NAAN KADUVUL - a must watch for the story line , the screen play and the acting by the Hero and Heroine. I wont be surprised if they got national awards. Bala the director was at his mesmerising best.

A bit on the story -- its about AGHORI's and the Mafia that deals with Beggars -- Truly Awesome.

Check this site for info on Aghori's

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aghori

My wife really liked it. Then for the fun bit we watched Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye -- Again a must watch -- Please follow the chaste Hindi closely. Then the ever watchable KAL HO NA HO -- Kanta Bhai -- what a character.

My living room turned into a near war zone this week, with my wife starting to follow English football and has started to hate Manchester United and has become an ardent follower of Chelsea. Can you beat it, that she saw the entire second half this morning of last night's European champions league game between Chelsea and Liverpool and calls me to inform that Chelsea won 3-1. Man its football fanaticism here. Don't know when its going to be a blood bath. But all losers dislike Manchester United. :)

Waiting to see whether she intends to follow the Bangalore Royal Challengers in the IPL, just for the sake she is from Bangalore or any other team, as my loyalty is certainly with .... you guessed it the Chennai Super Kings.

Don't want to bother you guys with the cooking recipe's as my brother must be flooding your mail boxes with his recipe's. Just want to say that my wife is improving on her cooking daily and created some awesome dishes last week.

To end the blog, I really want to give myself a pat on the back for improving tech skills this week. I installed some google products onto my phone, like You Tube, Search engine etc. and guess what, my phone crashed. Reset my entire phone and installed them again and now am connected to You Tube on the move. Downloaded loads of Russel Peter's stand up comedy, music and movies.

Will let you guys here for the moment and do wait for my pics from the road trip.

Adios and keep watching this space.

Life's Lesson's from the movie Kung FU Panda

The last few days I have seen a few movies. A couple of Hindi movies, Gulaal -- I think you should watch it at least once if you prefer Indian Politics and apprehend chaste Hindi, especially Haryanvi, Jat and Delhi Hindi. The next was Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi -- I really feel the name should have changed to Rab Ne Kyon Ye Movie Banaya -- Doesn' that sum up my views on that movie.

So for a change I thought lemme watch something really light tonight and played Kung Fu Panda. Let me build the context towards watching the movie and this blog -- The last few days I have been Contemplating a few changes in my life -- Not Due to My Marriage guys.  So as prescribed, with respect to the training I have got through Ontology, I started to inspect and introspect where I am and what are the reasons, certain aspects of life are the way it is and not the way I want it to be -- especially when I know that I am at the source of everything in my life and in life around me.

A few dialogues in the movie Kung Fu Panda actually have started to make me move in the direction I want to -- Real Breakthroughs in my thought process. Dialogues like There are no Accidents -- So true, what has to happen, will and you are at the source of it. We are just blind that we are responsible for it or do not want to take responsibilities. As human being's we cant ACCEPT -- when life, relationship's with others and especially with self is all about acceptance.

The most intriguing dialogue is -- Yesterday is History, Tomorrow is Mystery and Today is a GIFT and that's why, we call it PRESENT -- WOW 

Just hit the nail on the head isn't. As humans, we live so much in the past and dream about the future, as the future should not be like the past. But today is a gift and we don't live it. We can live life as it happens (Accepting it) or the way you want it to happen. Life happens now, as I write, Life happens now, as you read. I like the way Robin Sharma declares who a leader is -- Everyone who breathes is a leader. Because you live that every single moment absolutely unconscious to the fact you are breathing. -- Don't stop to check whether you are breathing, you are and you are a leader because of that and because you are reading my blog :).

So transformational, that I could instantly connect to the fact that I was not controlling what I wanted, cause I was fearing of a few things / happenings/ instances  and that came from my Past and led into my Future, that I couldn't BE what i wanted to BE in the PRESENT and was having no control of what I want to CREATE for my future.

Lastly, when Paul the Panda gets the Dragon Scroll to only see NOTHING (See's himself in the scroll) and then his father tells him that the secret Ingredient to his secret ingredient soup is NOTHING it just transcends the essence of our living and is critical to every human being.

The reason am highlighting the word NOTHING is because, Life is EMPTY and MEANINGLESS, or in simple english NOTHING. Don't we make everything of life. Good, Bad and the Ugly. Aren't we the ones who compare our children with the neighbours son, aren't we the ones who compare our children's job to the next door geek who earns a fat salary, aren't we the ones who want a billion bucks in the bank without sacrificing or ready to sacrifice everything, that we cant even see people around us. Aren't we the ones who create meaning's of anything and everything around, that we create, hatred, opinions, assumptions, war etc and also very little of happiness and joy. 

Why can't we be like Paul the Panda, always cheerful, Never say die attitude and following his dream to be the DRAGON WARRIOR. Life is within us, we are the life we want to have and want to be.

Lets go for it and create happiness, joy and wealth of goodness around us.