15th August...a day of retrospection...

Not a single tricolor anywhere in my line of vision today. No strains of Vande Mataram or Jana Gana Mana, no live coverage of the PM's speech on television.. and yet..for so many Indians like me who are away from their country.. it is a day to retrospect. Got an email this morning.. one of those fun spams that you get about the facts and figures on India and how it should make you proud that the 3rd richest man is an Indian and we came up with the zero and were able to perform surgery ages before any one else..

Yes, emails like that do make me proud as it should any other Indian.. but being an Indian makes me the proudest... what does that mean to me? That is a good question ? what does it mean to people in our generation when they say that.. we have only read about the Indian struggle for independance in our history books, seen Aamir Khan in Lagaan and Ajay Devgan as Bhagat Singh and gotten goosebumps.. we have only watched LOC Kargill and cried at a sentimental song... do we know what it really means to be an Indian.. ??

What does India encompass in those five letters.... a civilization, a way of live, a diverse culture, traditions, festivals, ... no to me.. it epitomizes LOVE.. in the highest sense of the term...

More practical individuals than myself will probably scoff at this analogy, but somewhere behind the statistics and economics of our country, there is more. I am not blind to the issues of population, poverty and politics, but just for today leave that aside and look around you...

Take a snapshot of the country, beautiful children with dirty ragged faces but eyes that shine with stars.. old wrinkles that hide years of experience and affection, beautiful olive skin tones that are as sensitive as they are sensuous to a foreigner, vast open fields, scorching deserts, bustling metros.. and underneath it all a love that binds so many differing communities and denominations together.. Did I forget Godhra, Ayodhya ? No I didn't , but on this day.. Doesn’t it make more sense to talk about what just happened at Mumbai with the rains and how the spirit of India came alive in the way people helped each other out ? Why don't we talk about that. ?

Why don't we talk about the various charitable institutions and hospitals that work tirelessly for the common man, where it doesn't matter what "insurance" we are on.. no one is left without some kind of basic care ? Wwhy don't we talk about the simple tradition of making sure when we have a guest., we always have something to offer them ?, why don't we talk about NRIs who have gone home and set up schools, hospitals and other institutions ?

Yes, I am romantic in my vision of my country and to me that works, not because I am miles away from it and rose tinted glasses work better from a distance, but because I truly believe in that my country epitomizes the mother's love for a child, the purest and the most selfless form of love - one that is unconditional and all giving..

I wish wonderful things for my country, for my people and hope that in some small way I will be able to cry and laugh with them and carry this nation proudly in my heart, mind and soul no matter where I am on God's wonderful green earth....

Of childhood friendships and memories....

I think I consider myself to be a pretty good human being, I mean, I have my limitations like everyone else, but at the end of the day, I think I am able to face my mirror at the end of each day and go to bed with a clear conscience...anyway, why am I rambling on about this ? Well, sometimes in life you need to sit back and count your blessings and have been doing that a bit lately.. running out of fingers and toes to count on :) One thing I have been blessed with are good friends.. not too many friends.. but some really good ones... Being this brazen fire sign that I am, starting a conversation is never an issue, hence acquaintances abound in my life.. but friends.. well those are far an in between, but the ones who are in that category, are there for life.. the ones I mistook to be "friends" fell from grace pretty quickly... so when I think back on my "friends", I guess, the best and the closest come from my childhood..Is there anything more guileless than a child's eyes or smile? I think the friends we made as children were just that.. true friendships.. not based on the concept of "mutual interests", or "study groups" or any other criterion as such.. it was the simple joy of playing with someone, or just hanging out..

With time these friends of mine parted ways, and yet they always remained in my heart and I guess, I in theirs... because, after decades when we got back in touch, it was as if we took off just the day we left off, so yesterday we were talking about an upcoming test, and today we were weighing the pros and cons of living in the United States vs. somewhere else.. it is amazing to me, how we can make that transition with people we haven't spoken to in ages and yet find it difficult to have a conversation on those lines with people we meet every day..

I think the heart has something to do with it... analysing something so sweet would ruin it, feeling and experiencing it makes it special.. so i will leave it at that.. and continue to count and be thankful for my blessings....

Peter Jennings - 1938 - 2005

Gosh, can't believe the man is dead.. he was the only reporter i enjoyed listening to on American Television.. and yesterday, as I was listening to his biography on ABC, I could tell why.. he had lived such a full life, such glorious ideals, a true Karma Yogi as it could rightly be said.. His keen sense of questioning, his attention to detail as well his mastery over the big picture is such a rare quality. It was interesting how he had a deep spiritual questioning in him, the power to seek the truth..

I think his work and life epitomises the serenity prayer - " God, Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can,and the wisdom to know the difference. "

Even though we live in trying times and sometimes the cynicism with which we have become comfortable about viewing the world is overwhelming, it is nice to know we live in the times when people like Peter Jennings inspire us to a higher ideal.

Alaska - more than a dream.. so close to reality.. yet so different...

The first thing I will always remember about Alaska.. will be the pearl grey waters of the Knik Arm reflecting the light of the sun.. and the view from the plane window .. it was breathtaking.. it was the 10 PM August sun that shone over the Anchorage coastline. The way it cast its mystical spell over the still ocean waters, I knew this was going to be different from any other place I had been to. And it truly was.. As soon as the plane touched down, there was a light drizzle and when then I saw it.. a lovely arch just outside the plane window.. yes, the rainbow said it all.. this would be a lovely trip.. Alaska made me feel at home that day with that rainbow and I know I will always want to go back.

Anchorage is a nice quiet town, it has the downtown area, the corporate buildings, the sam's club and the costco's of the world, it has Great Clips, and Toy's r us.. but beneath all that.. there is a starkness, a striking loneliness in the place that attracted me immensely. The vegetation is green, but not lush, there are flowers all over the place, colors one would expect in the tropics, but it seemed like for the little summer sun they received they had to bloom in all their glory and splendor.. lest the snow and ice would make visitors forget the lovely hue they brought to the landscape.. Local people were so nice, the food is great, lovely places to shop, the museum is filled with some really neat artifacts, about the Alaskan Pipeline, the Shamin Spirits, the topography of the Tundra, the life of the eskimos etc.

The train ride from Anchorage to Seward was beyond words.. one had heard of the Alaskan cruises, but few people know of the beauty of the Alaskan railroad as it traverses through the mountains from Anchorage to Seward. It trails the coastline, overlooks deep gorges and ravines, winds its ways through hundreds of waterfalls, and comes really close to glaciers... the landscape is green, filled with various types of evergreens and the path is riddled with wayside wild flowers. Fireweed is the most common wild flower one sees, these long magenta blossoms that just seem to peep out of every nook and cranny... and fill the mountains with colorful patches.

The stillness and the quiet of the mountains, the total wilderness in these areas is so calming.. the mind just turns inwards and you find yourself saying a prayer for all that you have been blessed for and for this opportunity to view nature in her glory and splendor. The camera cannot and will not do justice to the stark and lonesome beauty of this place, but one can only try to bring back as many memories as one can in little rolls of film or on your digicam memory cards.

The cruise along the fjords of Seward was quite the experience, even with the rain squall and the tumultuous ocean, it was not enuf to dampen the fun of viewing jellyfish, puffins diving for fish, sea lions, mountain goats along the cliffs, salmon jumping on the water, some really interesting seaweed, rocks covered with white sea gulls. .. the list is endless..

Then there was Denali, one had read about it, seen documentaries on it, but seeing it in person was a dream come true for me. Although the actual Mount McKinley Summit is covered with clouds, but the National Preserve is just huge.. there is only a fraction that we saw in a day.. I know I have to go back for a week to really get a feel of the place..

The trail along the Savage River is not a paved one unlike most national parks I have visited and that is what made it so much fun, it felt like you were making your own trail through the wilderness as you hiked along small furry animals, different types of birds, and you really heard the sound of nature, the rippling river, the chatter of little squirrels, the distant sound of rain, and somewhere along you saw a moose or a caribou... have to go back to see a bear though...

All the time in Denali, I really didn't know how to fathom the wilderness, what to make of the quiet... I have been to wide open spaces, whether it was the Grand Canyon or Zions, the pacific coast in Oregan or Highway 1 along California, whether it was the Swiss alps or the English Channel.. I have always known what the place made me feel.. but Denali left me speechless... and then I saw this quote at the Visitor Center... " the Wilderness at Denali answers many questions for man, questions that man has not yet learned to ask" ... that summed it up for me...

As my eyes scanned the August night sky for a faint glimpse of the northern lights before the Delta flight took off for Salt Lake City, I knew somewhere deep inside, Alaska had touched my soul... and I knew I had to come back for more….