The Top Pilgrimage Places... & Their Memories.

Recently a travel website stated the top 9 pilgrimage destinations of India. The list compiled of:

1. Haridwar.
2. Varanasi
3. Bodh Gaya
4. Rishikesh
5. Amritsar
6. Vaishno Devi
7. Tirupati
8. Mathura
9. Shirdi.

 I was pleasantly surprised to know that I have been to all but one places mentioned. Memories of the different places came buzzing alive in my head & I thought why not blog them.

Bodh Gaya is the place I have not been to. I will visit this place for sure. For reasons more personal than just sight seeing…….

I’ll jot a note across each place, so that I too may have some memories to look back on after a few years..; on the said places.

1. Haridwar: All that comes to mind for Haridwar is the Ganga Ghat, Ganga mata Aarti [Beautiful!] & it was my b’day then..so it was more memorable.
2. Varanasi: All I remember is the old Kashi Vishwanath temple & the Huge Ghats.
3. Bodh Gaya: It'll be happening next year or the following...
4. Rishikesh: Laxman Jhula! The walk on it & watching the awesome wide flow of Gangaji…pristine white; its just marvelous.  Had I known about the rafting at the time I had visited [more than 10 years back..] I would have done it then!
5. Amritsar: Lots of memories!! Golden temple, shopping at the small bangle shop outside it, the girl in the tourist help booth, the verve at Wagah Border, the pain at JallianWala Bagh..  From a pilgrimage point of view, the temple was SO neat! & the best part - The view of the golden tops of the temple I woke up to, from my hotel room... it was Memorable.
6. Vaishno Devi: The walk...when you are alone, any climb looks double the distance. I remember the lonnggg walk, till I got a very fine company & the darshan in front of the deities for almost a good whole minute. That are the most impressionable memories of Vaishno devi.
7. Tirupati: Quite a few memories of different times, as I've been here 3-4 times. The most memorable was when I walked the climb up. One of my earliest treks if one can call it that,  Gosh I remember, that one was tiring!
8. Mathura: I remember Brindavan more precisely & the birth place of Lord Krisha more better than any other memory of the Mathura particularly...[The whole place was covered. Brindavan-Mathura & the nearby places]
9. Shirdi: I remember on the last visit, I'd noticed the temple had become really huge than what it was since my first visit. The sanctum of the main shrine is Big.. & so it makes it easier for everyone to have a good darshan of the revered Saint.

That completes the list. The thing with religious places is, even if one are a non-believer; one cannot miss the peaceful feel, a calm vibe the place offers. All of these places give ample proof of that.

And I'm very grateful to God & my parents to have made it happen for me.

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Thought of the Month

There's a huge difference between being Helpful & being Forceful.

Cabeeto Soup

New years was brought in with high fever & a couple of other vexatious ailments. Guess all the pent-ups were burning out towards the end of the year. By the Doctor's presumption,  thankfully I hadn't embarrassed myself by passing out somewhere......

Unfortunately that got Mumma super alarmed & it became her mission to get me restored by the end of the new year weekend.
The four days I was on a diet of a soup & another healthy liquid, the recipe of that I'll share later.
I'm sharing the recipe of the soup that I took daily twice a day, which I believe was very effective.
It can be called the Cabeeto soup. [Carrot-Beetroot-Tomato]
Ingredients:

3 big red tomatoes
3/4 of a big beetroot
1 red carrot
2 pinches salt
1/4 tsp sugar.
Put the tomatoes, carrots & beetroot to pressure cook.
[Shred the beetroot in a slicer or cut them into small pieces. Bigger pieces do not get cooked well. ]

After the three are cooked, use a strainer &; strain the juice out. Put the juice on boil. Add 1/4- 1/2 tsp of sugar depending on preferences &  1/4 tsp salt to taste. [For regular consumption, 1/4 tsp of red chilli powder should be added for better taste.]

The healthy Cabeeto soup is ready. Easy to prepare & can be had as a tasty filler. Not restricted to fever times only. :)

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Resolutions 2012

For this year I have no resolution list.
I just resolve for three things.

1. Learn to let go of pain .. 
2. Live. Live each day. You never know when it's your last.
and
3. Keep my loved ones near. In this too self absorbing - hectic - too busy life; its important to express.. to let your loved ones know how important they are to you.

There's never a tomorrow for that..
Its only today. Its only now.

Practice before you Preach

While Aamir was never my favorite actor, I always appreciated him for the way he stood up for causes, standing up for what he thought was right. Though I may not have always agreed with his causes.. but as a public influential figure he spoke out; made a point to address causes that just were not related to his field, that was noteworthy.

Sometime last week, Aamir announced the addition of a baby boy to his family. Just for a moment I was put off by tht news [I’ll explain] & as immediately it was out of the mind as well. But then the media space, [more of print media] got me to read the news at quite a few different places, frequent times; that really got me to write this.

Since we all know the baby has arrived thro IVF, I was wondering that when Aamir stands out for what’s right & had gained a name of being one of the most thinking actors.. a perfectionist actually; I was wondering how did he miss the count of his kids & went ahead to have one more? That too thro IVF? I know its a personal matter BUT when you stand up for national causes & voice your opinion strongly; its but natural that you would come under the line of scrunity as well.


For whatever reasons his wife was unable to go for a normal pregnancy, if there was a baby to come in the picture, why not through adoption then? No, I’m not following some fancy trend.. I have always supported adoption. If one really wishes to have a baby, apart from having one biological one, I always thought adoption was a great method. There are hordes of babies in India who, for no fault of theirs are abondoned..uncared. They could do well by being adopted; especially if they get such  a comfortable home.


In Aamir's case, except that maybe the wife wanted her genes to be passed on for future generations, or whatever it may be; I do not understand any reason for the baby. No flak for the the baby ofcourse! But when our country is bursting with population & we are oozing out to our limits.. how can someone as intelligent as Aamir ignore this fact? Just becoz it was from another wife? God, forbid, if he re-marries again tomorrow at some date, will he have more from that marriage too?? I wonder.

Maybe he thinks that since he can afford to give the best to his kids, he can have as many as he wants [I’m not going to talk on Sarah White’s claims…]

So, that makes his really like the other many average citizens of India & not some intelligent celebrity he’s made out to be. Coz when one chooses the smaller personal picture, then one blends among the average. One needs to walk your talk to become really special.

Some might argue that in other fields he is bringing the country’s name up..etc.

For example lets take the ‘Athithi Devo Bhava’ ad for which Aamir is the brand ambassador. The ad shows us how we need to behave with our tourists. That is good. If we start following that, we would become good for ourselves in the long run.. more than just for the tourists. If Aamir is the brand ambassador for the tourism department of our country, then he's connected to the welfare committee of our country in some way & population curbance is the biggest concern for the welfare of India. Maybe he didn't think it was important enough problem.
 More than anything what I found funny was the hype over his son's name, the way it was on papers. All year round we are clued into the happenings of our dear stars, irrespective we consciously follow it or not. In all the years we've known Aamir, there's never been a mention of him being related to Maulana Abul Kalam Azad [Atleast I haven't really heard it] & now its suddenly all over everywhere. Crazy.


Unfortunately, I could not seem to ignore the line of thought all this publicity over 'his' new baby brought nor could I help myself sharing it.


I go back to my primary thought. Why don't we, the general public think before getting carried away in a sway??

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Someday...I'll trust, this too shall pass...

Someday... I shall heal.