Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam At 4:45 AM the bus is almost full. We managed to get 3 seats, separated from each other. Few passengers are sleeping. In some seats, the luggage is waiting for the owner to come back, after a glass of tea. The temperature is soothing, not bordering any extremes. With 45 minutes to leave, the passengers engage in chit chat. It has been ages for me having heard such unadulterated Hindi. Use of English is at a minimum, almost none. Urdu words that city dwellers use so effortlessly are not spoken in this hinterland. It’s pure Hindi is what people speak. As we come to seek purification of our soul, it is expected of us too. Something that we may have learned in our school days, but hardly practice anymore. I had to put some effort to resurrect the old self in me, to cope with this changing demographic…
Misadventure on The Rocks
I had to switch off the torch, the sight in front of us was not what we wanted to see. It was pitch-dark. The screeching squeaking sound was unbearable. There was no end to it. We had pinned Leon to the wall, with me on one side and Paramita on the other and stood still as moving was not an option. It was the longest tunnel in the route, 410 meters and the passing train was the longest that we have seen. At least that is what it felt. We were in the middle of the tunnel, with the ends of it not visible. A goods train with four engines in the front and three at the back was passing by with countless bogies. On 18th July we, a team of 8 BCMTouring members from Bangalore went on a trek to Dudhsagar waterfalls in Goa – Karnataka border. Rajiv was the coordinator…