2015: The Year that Was

Another year about to become ashes, for it won't rise again unlike a pheonix. However, 2015 you will never be forgotten for what you brought for me and what you took away from me. This year ending blog is unlike others; not with much of excitement or energy. This one is just a silent reflection of the past one year. Year which began with a high of myself travelling with friends to a beautiful place, is now about to end, with a sense of confusion, with some regrets, some pain and some happiness. I am not sure if all these can exist together but these blogs have always been genuine, which does give me a feeling that the regrets, pain, happiness; all these are currently existing within me. This year we left a house where I had grown up, seen my teenage and my enterance into adulthood, where we as a family had spent our previous 18 years. The year saw multiple trips to Bangalore for official work and multiple visits to hospital as my father had fallen ill. From March end to August, my father was admitted 4 times to the hospital. He was fighting these demons and his ill health, like he had always done. He fought till the end, never gave up and never let his family feel weak. On the Morning of 13th August he decided that it was time to move on. He moved on and moved out slowly, probably and hopefully in peace. It wasn't easy but we also moved on. We have enjoyed our food, new movies, plays, family functions, get togethers and everything else too. All this without the person we were with since last 3 decades. After 3 months,I got married, on 24thNov 2015. Married the girl for whom I was fighting with my parents. My father had fixed it all just few days before leaving for heaven. I am blessed that he fixed it and approved it. I am unfortunate that he was not there with me when it actually was conceptualized and implemented. Marriage was followed by a trip to Mauritius with my life partner Neha and life is now same and equally different. This year will always be unforgettable for me for the kind of events that happened. However, I will still welcome 2016 with open arms and still hope that tomorrow it will be a better world with less violence, more love and much better and clean air to breathe.

The Great Rann

It was a holiday next day. Everyone was partying and had plans to welcome New Year with crackers, booze, food, music, friends etc. while I quietly was off to bed and had set alarm to wake up at 5 next morning. It was dark in the room, with no one around but I heard a voice saying, “Are you an idiot, not partying on New Year’s Eve and setting alarm for early hours”. I happily ignored it, for the voice didn’t know that my welcome for 2015 will be grand. Early into 2015, I will be travelling to Jewel of the West, also known as Gujarat. With this feeling, I said goodbye to 2014 and went off to sleep. Next morning, journey began via train from New Delhi to Ahmedabad. While we were a group of four travelling, we could get only ticket confirmed. It was easy to manage during the day time but the period from 9pm to 2:30am (time we reached Ahmedabad) was taxing. All four of us had to adjust on a single seat and we somehow managed it. After reaching Ahmedabad, we met 5th member of the group and the only ‘gujju’, who had come along with the cab which had to be our companion for next 1800 kms. We boarded the cab and moved ahead. Our first pit stop was supposed to be ‘Bhachau’, a city 235kms from Ahmedabad. Here, we had to meet ‘Ramji Bhai’, a DD & AIR reporter, who also works passionately to arrange guided tours in Kutch region. We got his number from a blog as the person who had taken Ramji bhai’s services was really impressed and thus wanted that others experience it too. It indeed was of great help to us. I am sure we would have missed out on real beauty of Rann, had we not met Ramji bhai. Coming back to the trip, we had covered around 100kms and our cab started having some issues. Odometer stopped reflecting the kilometres and headlight went off and driver stopped the car, after which it was not even starting. Driver was freaked out. We convinced him that we will push the car and it might start and then we will take it to a place where there might be someone to help us out. We reached a nearby dhaba at around 3:45am where driver tried fixing the issue, but couldn’t. We then reached out to the concerned operator and another cab was arranged for us. We slept in the car till around 5:30am, while waiting for another cab to arrive. The incident actually was a blessing in disguise as the driver who came now (although a man of few words) was an amazing driver and efficiently reduced our travelling time. We moved forward and reached Bhachau to meet Ramji bhai. Bhachau was one of the cities which was severely impacted during 2001 Gujarat earthquake. 8-10kms from Bhachau was a guest house, where Ramji bhai had made arrangement for us to stay. After settling at the guest house, we went for lunch to a nearby mess. It was amazing Gujarati food, complimented by Chach (butter milk), gur (jaggery), green chillies and traditional Gujarati hospitality. Ekal ka Rann After a sumptuous meal, we moved to Ekal ka Rann, which was about 40kms from our guest house. It was dry barren land in most of the part, with some trees and bushes. The area is a wildlife sanctuary, where one can easily spot wild ass and even Neel Gai. As per one of the person accompanying us (Kaushik), tiger can be spotted if someone spends 2-3 days in that region. The area offered such a strong mirage that we thought there was sea few hundred meters ahead of us. After making our cab run for some time to capture a closer glimpse of Wild Ass, we decided to come back. On our way back, it had started getting dark and we thought it will be great go to the white rann now. Ramji bhai accompanied us and directed us. Till a point we took our cab and then got down, only to find mushy land. Ramji bhai informed us that it had a rained a day ago and thus land was mushy and it was better to walk from there, instead of taking the car further. We started walking and around 5oo meters inside, we could see a line glowing with some haze around it. From there was starting the white desert. As we were coming closer to the desert, I started getting Goosebumps. It was a different feeling and an amazing one. We felt like we were about to enter another world. Soon we were walking on the salt and the sound of walking on it was euphonic. We kept walking in till we reached a point where we could see only salt and white light all around us. With moon shining bright overhead, light reflecting off the surface, it looked like we were standing below an inverted bowl with a lamp at the centre of the top of the bowl. The beauty was surreal and none of us had ever witnessed such a sight. I tried capturing the beauty through the mechanical eye, but my digi cam couldn’t do justice to what we were actually witnessing. We sat down and tried to get ourselves immersed in the silence. After spending some time there and listening to some amazing stories about Kutch, from Ramji bhai, we came back to our room to end a tiring but splendid day. Out there in desert, amidst that peaceful bliss, we had left behind some eloquent beauty and the only sound, which was of Hyena crying out of fear after seeing its own shadow. Some History Lessons learnt Paul Prudhomme (American celebrity chef) once said, “You don’t need a silver fork to eat good food”, and this was easily proved right in Gujarat. We had four meals in village homes with people from humble background and the taste of each and every meal was equally outstanding, even though each meal was different either in the way it was prepared or what was offered or how. Beginning the morning of 03rd Jan’15 with mouth-watering ‘Methi Thepla’, a Gujarati flat bread made out of flour and fenugreek leaves; and ‘Poha’, flat and light rice flakes cooked with vegetables and garnished with pomegranate seeds, we knew that this day will also be offering us some great experiences. After the breakfast, we moved towards Dholavira, an archaeological site in Bhacahu district. Site which belongs to Harappan Civilization was discovered by Mr. JP Joshi in 1967-68. It boasted of probably world’s first signboard (which still has not been deciphered) and a water management system so efficient that reflects how much advanced was the science and technology and human’s thinking, even thousands of years ago. The site also had a museum which offers us to look at the utensils which were discovered, along with tools and even ornaments among other things. It is said that Dholavira was occupied seven times with each occupant community having something different about the way they spent time over there. It is also believed by Archaeologists that Dholavira served as an important centre of trade between Punjab, Sindh and Western Asia. After having lunch in a nearby village where we had ‘Bajre na rotla’ (flatbread prepared from Pearl Millet), Chaach (butter milk) and cooked vegetables, we moved towards the Fossil Park, maintained by Gujarat government. The park claims to have wooden fossils about 1.8 billion years old. Being adjacent to white Rann and on the foothill, view from the top offered an amazing site. Our guide ‘Kaushik’ asked us to search for mobile network manually. To our surprise, our phone could catch signal of Telenor Pakistan, as we were very close to the border area. We came back to Ramji bhai’s farm and by the time we reached, it was already dark and temperature had dipped. There was one couple who had come down from Delhi and were also with us throughout the day. After reaching the farm, the evening accompanied by music, was well spent around bonfire, eating corn and playing dumb-charade. Utsav & more Next morning, it was time to say goodbye to Ramji bhai and move ahead. After having typical Gujarati breakfast (Fafda, Jalebi, Dabheli & Tea), we started our journey to Rann Utsav, a festival organized by Gujarat government at the edge of the white Rann, spanning across 5 months and known for its mass display of rich Gujarati culture. En route to festival was city of Bhuj. A city founded in 1510 and severely impacted by massive earthquakes in 1956 and 2001, Bhuj used to be the capital of Kutch. While we didn’t explore the city, Bhuj known for its monuments & “havelis” stands tall proud of its history and culture. Bhuj is close to a village named as ‘’Bhujodi”. Village has many shops which are holding strong the culture and craftsmanship of the region. In one such shop, one of the owners (younger brother) who attended us, took us inside and showed us how shawls and saris are hand made with precision and sincerity. The family was given National Award twice for preparing some master pieces. We couldn’t stop ourselves from taking at least one souvenir of this wonderful art. By afternoon, we reached Dholivari, a village few kilometres before the place where Rann Utsav was being organized. One of the house in the village or Bunga (as they call it there) was our shelter for the night. After placing our stuff and having another delightful lunch, we made a move towards ‘The Rann Utsav’. In the Utsav, there were shops selling a variety of things from food to shawls to toys to decorative items. Local people as well as tourists had made the area lively and there was hustle bustle all around. It did give feeling of the Trade Fair which is organized in Delhi every year, though is at a much larger scale. We then moved to the white Rann once again. Dusk was approaching and thus the sky was filled with multiple colours. On one side one could see Sun slowly going down, and on the opposite side full moon was starting to appear brighter. While the sky was definitely gorgeous, the sand desert had become a victim of the commercialization. With so many people around, it looked like one was visiting Juhu beach in Mumbai. People had thrown plastic and other waste, thus ruining the beauty. We felt lucky that we had already witnessed the real beauty of Rann, couple of days back, in an area which had still not been touched by this commercialization. After spending some time, we said goodbye to Rann and came back to spend our night at Bunga. The next day morning we had to head back to Ahmedabad, from where we finally would get back to our destinations. Few hours left, were spent in Ahmedabad at Sabarmati Ashram, where M.K. Gandhi used to live and also in buying ‘Bhakar Waadi’ & ‘Khakra’, types of Gujarati snacks, which are now loved by all. We boarded the train in evening, but this time thankfully we had the comfort and luxury of having a seat each for all of us.

It was a holiday next day. Everyone was partying and had plans to welcome New Year with crackers, booze, food, music, friends etc. while I quietly was off to bed and had set alarm to wake up at 5 next morning. It was dark in the room, with no one around but I heard a voice saying, “Are you an idiot, not partying on New Year’s Eve and setting alarm for early hours”. I happily ignored it, for the voice didn’t know that my welcome for 2015 will be grand. Early into 2015, I will be travelling to Jewel of the West, also known as Gujarat. With this feeling, I said goodbye to 2014 and went off to sleep. Next morning, journey began via train from New Delhi to Ahmedabad. While we were a group of four travelling, we could get only ticket confirmed. It was easy to manage during the day time but the period from 9pm to 2:30am (time we reached Ahmedabad) was taxing. All four of us had to adjust on a single seat and we somehow managed it. After reaching Ahmedabad, we met 5th member of the group and the only ‘gujju’, who had come along with the cab which had to be our companion for next 1800 kms. We boarded the cab and moved ahead. Our first pit stop was supposed to be ‘Bhachau’, a city 235kms from Ahmedabad. Here, we had to meet ‘Ramji Bhai’, a DD & AIR reporter, who also works passionately to arrange guided tours in Kutch region. We got his number from a blog as the person who had taken Ramji bhai’s services was really impressed and thus wanted that others experience it too. It indeed was of great help to us. I am sure we would have missed out on real beauty of Rann, had we not met Ramji bhai. Anyone planning for the trip can reach out to him on Coming back to the trip, we had covered around 100kms and our cab started having some issues. Odometer stopped reflecting the kilometres and headlight went off and driver stopped the car, after which it was not even starting. Driver was freaked out. We convinced him that we will push the car and it might start and then we will take it to a place where there might be someone to help us out. We reached a nearby dhaba at around 3:45am where driver tried fixing the issue, but couldn’t. We then reached out to the concerned operator and another cab was arranged for us. We slept in the car till around 5:30am, while waiting for another cab to arrive. The incident actually was a blessing in disguise as the driver who came now (although a man of few words) was an amazing driver and efficiently reduced our travelling time. We moved forward and reached Bhachau to meet Ramji bhai. Bhachau was one of the cities which was severely impacted during 2001 Gujarat earthquake. 8-10kms from Bhachau was a guest house, where Ramji bhai had made arrangement for us to stay. After settling at the guest house, we went for lunch to a nearby mess. It was amazing Gujarati food, complimented by Chach (butter milk), gur (jaggery), green chillies and traditional Gujarati hospitality. Ekal ka Rann After a sumptuous meal, we moved to Ekal ka Rann, which was about 40kms from our guest house. It was dry barren land in most of the part, with some trees and bushes. The area is a wildlife sanctuary, where one can easily spot wild ass and even Neel Gai. As per one of the person accompanying us (Kaushik), tiger can be spotted if someone spends 2-3 days in that region. The area offered such a strong mirage that we thought there was sea few hundred meters ahead of us. After making our cab run for some time to capture a closer glimpse of Wild Ass, we decided to come back. On our way back, it had started getting dark and we thought it will be great go to the white rann now. Ramji bhai accompanied us and directed us. Till a point we took our cab and then got down, only to find mushy land. Ramji bhai informed us that it had a rained a day ago and thus land was mushy and it was better to walk from there, instead of taking the car further. We started walking and around 5oo meters inside, we could see a line glowing with some haze around it. From there was starting the white desert. As we were coming closer to the desert, I started getting Goosebumps. It was a different feeling and an amazing one. We felt like we were about to enter another world. Soon we were walking on the salt and the sound of walking on it was euphonic. We kept walking in till we reached a point where we could see only salt and white light all around us. With moon shining bright overhead, light reflecting off the surface, it looked like we were standing below an inverted bowl with a lamp at the centre of the top of the bowl. The beauty was surreal and none of us had ever witnessed such a sight. I tried capturing the beauty through the mechanical eye, but my digi cam couldn’t do justice to what we were actually witnessing. We sat down and tried to get ourselves immersed in the silence. After spending some time there and listening to some amazing stories about Kutch, from Ramji bhai, we came back to our room to end a tiring but splendid day. Out there in desert, amidst that peaceful bliss, we had left behind some eloquent beauty and the only sound, which was of Hyena crying out of fear after seeing its own shadow. Some History Lessons learnt Paul Prudhomme (American celebrity chef) once said, “You don’t need a silver fork to eat good food”, and this was easily proved right in Gujarat. We had four meals in village homes with people from humble background and the taste of each and every meal was equally outstanding, even though each meal was different either in the way it was prepared or what was offered or how. Beginning the morning of 03rd Jan’15 with mouth-watering ‘Methi Thepla’, a Gujarati flat bread made out of flour and fenugreek leaves; and ‘Poha’, flat and light rice flakes cooked with vegetables and garnished with pomegranate seeds, we knew that this day will also be offering us some great experiences. After the breakfast, we moved towards Dholavira, an archaeological site in Bhacahu district. Site which belongs to Harappan Civilization was discovered by Mr. JP Joshi in 1967-68. It boasted of probably world’s first signboard (which still has not been deciphered) and a water management system so efficient that reflects how much advanced was the science and technology and human’s thinking, even thousands of years ago. The site also had a museum which offers us to look at the utensils which were discovered, along with tools and even ornaments among other things. It is said that Dholavira was occupied seven times with each occupant community having something different about the way they spent time over there. It is also believed by Archaeologists that Dholavira served as an important centre of trade between Punjab, Sindh and Western Asia. After having lunch in a nearby village where we had ‘Bajre na rotla’ (flatbread prepared from Pearl Millet), Chaach (butter milk) and cooked vegetables, we moved towards the Fossil Park, maintained by Gujarat government. The park claims to have wooden fossils about 1.8 billion years old. Being adjacent to white Rann and on the foothill, view from the top offered an amazing site. Our guide ‘Kaushik’ asked us to search for mobile network manually. To our surprise, our phone could catch signal of Telenor Pakistan, as we were very close to the border area. We came back to Ramji bhai’s farm and by the time we reached, it was already dark and temperature had dipped. There was one couple who had come down from Delhi and were also with us throughout the day. After reaching the farm, the evening accompanied by music, was well spent around bonfire, eating corn and playing dumb-charade. Utsav & more Next morning, it was time to say goodbye to Ramji bhai and move ahead. After having typical Gujarati breakfast (Fafda, Jalebi, Dabheli & Tea), we started our journey to Rann Utsav, a festival organized by Gujarat government at the edge of the white Rann, spanning across 5 months and known for its mass display of rich Gujarati culture. En route to festival was city of Bhuj. A city founded in 1510 and severely impacted by massive earthquakes in 1956 and 2001, Bhuj used to be the capital of Kutch. While we didn’t explore the city, Bhuj known for its monuments & “havelis” stands tall proud of its history and culture. Bhuj is close to a village named as ‘’Bhujodi”. Village has many shops which are holding strong the culture and craftsmanship of the region. One such shop was . One of the owners (younger brother) who attended us, took us inside and showed us how shawls and saris are hand made with precision and sincerity. The family was given National Award twice for preparing some master pieces. We couldn’t stop ourselves from taking at least one souvenir of this wonderful art. By afternoon, we reached Dholivari, a village few kilometres before the place where Rann Utsav was being organized. One of the house in the village or Bunga (as they call it there) was our shelter for the night. After placing our stuff and having another delightful lunch, we made a move towards ‘The Rann Utsav’. In the Utsav, there were shops selling a variety of things from food to shawls to toys to decorative items. Local people as well as tourists had made the area lively and there was hustle bustle all around. It did give feeling of the Trade Fair which is organized in Delhi every year, though is at a much larger scale. We then moved to the white Rann once again. Dusk was approaching and thus the sky was filled with multiple colours. On one side one could see Sun slowly going down, and on the opposite side full moon was starting to appear brighter. While the sky was definitely gorgeous, the sand desert had become a victim of the commercialization. With so many people around, it looked like one was visiting Juhu beach in Mumbai. People had thrown plastic and other waste, thus ruining the beauty. We felt lucky that we had already witnessed the real beauty of Rann, couple of days back, in an area which had still not been touched by this commercialization. After spending some time, we said goodbye to Rann and came back to spend our night at Bunga. The next day morning we had to head back to Ahmedabad, from where we finally would get back to our destinations. Few hours left, were spent in Ahmedabad at Sabarmati Ashram, where M.K. Gandhi used to live and also in buying ‘Bhakar Waadi’ & ‘Khakra’, types of Gujarati snacks, which are now loved by all. We boarded the train in evening, but this time thankfully we had the comfort and luxury of having a seat each for all of us.