General catch up…

I know I have been away for a while…though I’ve religiously updated my travel blog. You know how life has a way making you busy…with work, friends and family. It’s actually a nice thing to have packed days, but sometimes you do need those empty hours where you have time to blog and read others’ blogs!

 A very close friend of mine visited us after a gap of over 10 months. It’s so reassuring when you meet people after a long time and realize nothing’s changed and you can pick up the thread right where you left off. I know I might have said this earlier, but everytime it happens, it gladdens me like nothing else.

[The below is unrelated to the above...in fact, all the paras in this post are all unrelated to each other!]

 It struck me that faith can actually make people do a lot of things, especially here in India where faith runs deep. I was having this conversation with someone about how people aged 50+ years can trek in snow or slush in dizzying altitudes only to get a glimpse of their God’s idol. Take for example Amarnath, Vaishno Devi, Mt Kailash (manasa sarovara). Or even climb hundreds of steps to reach a temple on top of a hill (take Tirumala for example). People who wouldn’t have done any training to do such things. In a way it’s amazing how they get the sheer willpower to do this. Faith can drive things, no? I have utter admiration for such people…if I had to do any of these (though I’ve climbed the Tirumala hill long back and treked the 15 odd kms to Vaishno Devi, these were done when I was in my early college years, so my fitness levels weren’t much of a concern…but I still remember when climbing the steps to Tirumala peak, I had to stop at one point because of breathlessness, it was so steep) Now, I would take a few weeks off, train and then go. I saw some pictures and videos of Mt Kailash and it blew my mind. I need to go there someday. For sure. Not beacuse I have religious inclinations, but beacuse I see God in nature and what He (or the ‘power’) has created there is absolutley breathtaking.