Monday, February 05, 2007

A month in India…

Its been a month since I came to India. Time to jot down the things which I hadn’t done for a long long time…!

Attended a traditional South Indian wedding along with its customary feast.

Achieved the life-long ambition of attending at least once the Tyagaraja Aradhana festival.

Finished one round of sore throat, cold, fever and cough – necessarily in the same order!

New activities in Office!

Gradually learnt to drive…..again!

Nostalgic, cleaned out the shelves from the Class X and PU books.

Blood donation count reached double-digits.

Went to a refreshing classical music concert in city.

Saw the movie
Guru with capacity-crowd at Urvashi Theatre.

Went biking as a pillion-rider at over 100 kmph without a helmet with oncoming traffic on the same road!

Smelt the nice country air and felt the joy of freedom from the weather!

Visited the Divine at Udupi, Sringeri and Horanadu after over 3 years.
As before, was once again stunned at the Annadhaana Scheme [Free Food] prevalent in such places. Felt what one of my friend had said so true : “Jeevanadalli Artha Kalpiskobeku.” [Add meaning to Life] Furthered my resolution.

Was stupefied at seeing the institute at Manipal with its Café Coffee Days and fountains and jazzy buildings, and its Anglicized hep-crowd.

And then I saw Basrikatte. A small poor village, on the way from Sringeri to Horanadu, placed on top of a mountain, with a back drop of another towering mountain gave the whole setting a resemblance akin to the Swiss Alps minus the snow. Lush greenery all around. Felt the richness! Added to this was the genial attitude of people all around. Everyone most helpful in their native way with open, fresh and welcoming smile!

The distinction of the “High Society” and the “Low Society” and being rightly told to which society I belonged!

Somehow felt Basrikatte could not have been better if a chain of MacDonalds, Burger Kings, Subways had positioned themselves at this quaint little country village which truly resembles India in its purest and soulful form.

That’s the verdict on India after a month : Soulful.

2 comments:

SimblyDimply said...

WAY TO GO!!!! Hopefully I will get to write a blog listing my achievements in India, with a feeling of sartakate and pride..proud of you dude!!

Guru said...

Bliss!!! waiting to experience again and I know basarikatte ( it is America America movie).. but what u said about being purest is correct i guess. The natural beauty stripped of all the glitter adds to the soulfulness. isnt it?

oh! i forgot to ask " Which society you belong ?"