The year 2021 !!!

Every year end comes with abundant hopes for new beginnings. With each passing year I have developed a practice to introspect and improvise myself. As we all unanimously thought 2020 was a though year but hello 2021 has been a roller coaster ride too. It came along with several ups and a few downs, here and there of its own. As a ritual I am only journaling the facets of eventually how this year went by for me. Here we go...

Uncertainty is indeed an everyday affair. We like it or not, it is needed to be dealt with utmost care. There have been umpteen numbers of hours invested in planning, thinking and figuring out or fitting in perfection into anything I am attempting to do. sooner or later, all of it falls flat as against to these uncertain aspects of situational dramedy my life has made special arrangements for me. Not that I have yet let these uncertainties affect my the planning part to be left to procrastination or bypassed. Alongside, only learnt to create a room for not so contingent apprentices will never hurt much. It shall only further add enough masala to unusual routine affairs.  

Surprises can easily convert into shocks and vice-versa. In both the cases I do make a fool out of myself. The entire year has been a bunch of incidences falling prey to situational whereabouts. These have brought both delightful and adverse feels. Anyway, I love the mix bag of emotions which comes along in these surprisingly shocking times.  

Expect the unexpected. With passing time, growing age & experience, I thought things & people around would get predictable. It will be super easy to anticipate actions and reaction of myself and others too. But then, it usually doesn't works in this fashion. And in most cases I have now learned to distinguish the nature of reality verses how it appeared in my imagination. It serves the only purpose of amusing introspection to myself. 

Consistency is the key to transformation. I went through some decent healthy lifestyle and physic change. It was earned after following daily workout sessions and some strict diet plans. A lot of the credit goes to my fitness coach and the fact that I dedicated the disciplined side of myself to it. Everyone acknowledged with praises and opinions on the tangible change they saw in me. Though only few could understand I am headed toward only being a healthier version of myself.  

Learning to say 'No' is an art, and I am learning it slowly but steadily. I have never been a yes person yet saying no or even expressing my discomfort towards anything was a task for me. Figured out in a few situations that the answer can be nothing else but no. The good part about it is that saying it courageously in a straight forward manner comes with enormous contentment. 

Family and Friends are weird yet too dear. Sure things is that they have to be handled with care and ignorance. They will get demanding, at least the ones around me does more than often. No matter how much so ever you offer yourself to them, some of it it will get missed or unattended. At times when these closed ones get difficult to manage all I think I can do is agree to disagree with them on a few of the incidences. To accept that it is okay to be flawed and still love every near and dear ones is the real deal. Since I ain't a chocolate cake or gajar ka halwa, I can't make everyone of them happy but at least I tried is good enough for me.

World is a beauty and so is 'Tawang'. A trip that came along with experiences of exhilarating exuberance. On this trip nature in form of mountains & river-fronts rubbed their magic on me like never before. Everything about this trip has been spectacularly razzle-dazzles. You can read my experience in much detail here. In addition to the experience and joy of visiting this heaven on earth has been that I found the exact kind of house design and lifestyle I want to build for & around myself. All those enormous inspirations I draw from this trip, adds to the bank of hope for goodness and prosperity for me and everyone around as well, to make world a better place. I know it sounds kind of cliché, but that's okay.  

Travel, travel and travel. The best part about travelling is that it gets me excited to plan my next travel plan while I am already in a journey. It actually happens to most of us. And I guess I am always too tempted, excited and a certain kind of greedy when it comes to travelling. Undisputedly, I love being a constant voyage. The charm of packing & unpacking, prepping the arrangements of comfort food, jumping from one destination to another, collecting human stories in a personal narrative form, hustling to make the best use of the limited time I have on each of my trips, soaking in all of it and etc. Noting down most of my experiences in a diary (its a self created ritual), only to not have missed any of these precious moments on some of the times in future when I decide to look back on my own travelling saga.    

Investment needs to be a regular habit. Earlier this year I came across this amazing book called The Almanack of Naval Ravikant wherein a few simple and effective tactics of compound interest were shared. It was an wonderful read because a heavy topic of investment was majorly explained through different simplified thread of tweets. It added to my knowledge on how to grow money from my money in an easy DIY fashion. Ever since that I have been recommending this book and encouraging most of my peers to develop this habit ASAP.   

Jugaad pe duniya tiki hai, hum kaam toh kar hi sakte hai. Its been over a year, I have had a standard traditional form of working contract, thanks to turmoil created by the pandemic. Instead, I began looking out for different arenas of work and projects. I am glad, I could find projects, people and organizations matching my interests. This process has most definitely demanded a lot of my time & attention, alongside made me realize the strength of my potential in a positive manner. 

'Yeh ho kya raha hai life me!'
Copyright 2021. Ankita Jain 

Discovering my own self has been a perpetual task. 

I am glad to have been on it for acing this one task of life. I firmly believe there is no particular reason to settle down with myself or reason out my doings. I am on it for this task not for any superfluous philosophy of life. I am on it for the fact that I can intrigue myself, time and again. I want to persistently remain equivalent to soft sand, ready to adapt and mold itself into every new possibility. I want to be all different forms of femineity such as a Goddess, a Queen, a Ninja, a Wanderer, a Goofball and sometimes all of it at once. I want to reflect upon myself every year (like just now) to be grateful for being able to have come this far. Honestly, there is much gratification for living up all of it with grace and kindness.     

Also, not to forget, Timing is the real bitch. Re-iterating the fact that no matter how many perfect plans I am going to make, the universe will always have something bigger and better designed in it for me. As the new year is nearing and like every calendar year I am headed to make new plans for every anticipated aspect of life. Equally, excited to live up the changes our dear universe is going to make in those plans while all of it comes to execution. Assertively hoping 2022 to be a whole deal of uniquely eased betterment. Fingers Crossed.   

 

TAWANG, you beauty!

Somewhere in July 2021, in a random discussion where my trip to Goa was getting cancelled for a blah reason. There seated my cousin Gaurav received a text and itinerary of a trip to a city in Arunachal Pradesh. Further he asked if I want to join in, I immediately said yes and 2.5 half months later we got onto our journey to TAWANG! 

Little did I know this vacation could be so much more than just a distraction from reality. This trip truly enriched my love for travel and did change me in so many ways. I have attempted to note down a few of my experiences and observations here.    

The journey is as important as the destination! Most of our journey to reach Tawang we travelled was on the road, i.e. for about 3 days in a row. The long stretched drives in the valley of mountains with the Brahmaputra river by our side, spectacular views and cold breeze were totally worth it. This drive was as much enjoyable as the joy of reaching to our destination. 

Nature has its own way of speaking with us. For me mountains and beauty goes hand in hand. Especially when the mountain belong to Himalayan ranges, it is guaranteed with magnificent views. All of my time in the beautiful Arunachal Pradesh, I have witnessed extraordinary mountain views; during sunsets, sunrises, around river side, paddy fields besides the flowing river, lakes, different kinds of mountain terrains, different shades of the sky, city set-up in between the lush green mountains and the list goes on and on. I personally crave for sunrise & sunset views. I made sure to watch the sun rise and settle each day. And during the daylight while I saw the beautiful sky change its color shades and patterns as the sun raised and settled in the valleys, it marked an astonishing meditative practice for me. Needless to say the scenery could turn any one of us into a wanderlust creature. 

Enriching conversations and people add the real wealth to life.  I consider myself always fortunate enough to have amazing people around and with every new person I met on this trip has made me even more prosperous.

The group- This was the first time I had joined a group of people on a vacation wherein more than 70% of them were complete strangers to me. I ended up making amazing friends and acquaintances of them all. The journey of knowing people is an all together different know-how from being strangers to courteous to accommodative to giggling to cracking up out of nowhere to inside jokes to eventually making memories for life, have seen this development with the entire group. It was ultimately a great leap of faith I took. BTW the gang can be addressed as Gaurav- the gossiping entertainer, Omkar- the photographer,  Shilpi- the student who just graduated on this trip ;), Eeshita & Nikita- the trip planners, Rahul- my food companion, Paras- the silent killer, Kalpesh- the sarcasm master and Varsha- the sweetheart manager.    

The tour driver- Dilbarji, we kind of misunderstood him earlier but later on we found out he was a total gem of a person. I am glad he was there, to drive us safely back and forth on the journey. He is also the reason we enjoyed our drive throughout the difficult terrain of mountains on our way pretty much seamlessly.  

Indian Army Officers- The respect for humans in Uniforms, especially Army men any day multiplies. Here I got a chance to meet two amazing Army officers on our 1st day itself in Tenga. A chat that got built out from the search for sattvic food. They did share some part of their life stories with us and added several suggestions/recommendations for our travel. They also offered help open heartedly. Such generosity is rare to be found. And throughout on the journey, have witnessed Army men taking loads of care of the Indian land and people in the most adverse places and situations too. Another incident was when an army officer offered us Khada-Prasad of Gurudwara on our way back from Bomlapass, it was also much needed given that we were way too hungry at that hour. Indeed we are in safe hands, protected well enough at the borders.

The Tawang family we met at Mandala Top- It began with us wanting to click pictures with three cute and happy kids of this family. The parents were very happy and nice to let us click a few pictures with their kids while they were on a Dusshera outing. While we were exchanging our errands and experience of visiting tawang for the 1st time, they offered us a few shots of home-made wine along with details of offbeat places to visit to when we come back to their city. The kids, surprisingly were sporting several poses with each one of us for pictures adding their own spunk. This family was more of a breath of fresh air to us. They re-iterated the fact that goodness does exist and the world is indeed filled with loving humans.

The concept of Homestays- We halted at about three homestays on this trip. The Wangdi's Homestay in Dhirang, amazing hospitality along with great sky view from it's terrace and river side view (the river flow music was a constant meditation). The second stay was at Tashi's Homestay in Tawang, I had never seen before this a house full of flowers and a personally maintained greenhouse. The owner's hospitality, warmth and food was totally heartfelt. And last but not the least, Norbu Homestay in Sangti Valley, a cozy cottage along with homely vibes and amazing food. The best part was the bon fire with classic stargazing view and a brightly shining moon. I have quite literally found my inspiration of the kind of house & location where I want to build, reside and invite my friends & family to visit me in my old-age.  

Disconnect from the outside to connect with yourself from within. We realized later in a day and half on the way that there is going to be most no or minimum network on our phone. It was bothering for like a while at the beginning for like an hour or so but later I considered it a blessing instead. I could enjoy the place with absolute no technological distraction was only to my advantage for sure. 

Leaving is painful. It has always been hard to say goodbye for me; to humans for sure but even to places who have given me astounding memories for a lifetime. Theory of relativity is most definitely applicable to this situation, wherein when I look back at the amazing nine days gone by in a swoosh. It is as similar to the mountain view that went out of my site while our vehicle took a turn on the mountain roads. 

Vacation withdrawals are a real thing. 

Real enough to an extend that I woke up at 4.40am i.e. sunrise time in the valleys of Arunachal Pradesh. Its just been a day back home yet to process myself back into this city of dreams I have belonged all my life. It is struggle-some, everything feels a bit off and out of the place for now. I guess I am just a bit hungover on my holidays.  Secretly I wish to have many such hangovers often enough. 

While almost all is said and done, I am more than elated to have been on this trip. Tawang, your beauty has added to my experiences of life and lifestyle in multitudinous ways and manners. I can only offer my gratitude to everyone who crossed paths with me on this journey. They have made this trip a delightful reality I have lived in this lifetime. 

Being back to home is a good feel, though I have affirmatively carried a part of Arunachal with me along with a silent wishful thought to be back here again to visit this heavenly city again.

 

Long Distance Friendship Drama

On a usual afternoon, Chinmay (my best friend) asked me on text if we could video chat. Video or messages are the only resort for a long distance friendship scenarios. He happens to work and operate out of Germany and I am here in India. It felt stupid to me at first when asked but then I was like yes ofcourse, its been ages we should definitely do that. 

He called me in the afternoon and this time around he asked me for specific time as well, so I did mention that I have my workout scheduled until 6.30 pm, we could chat post that. He made sure he called exactly at the said time, and I was in my regular chirpy way yapping about my first world happenings in life to which he switched the phone call into a video. And what the hell the video call showed my own house, which meant he was right outside my house here to surprise. Damn, I jumped out of happiness to have him over in India after almost 2 years (all thanks to the pandemic restrictions). These are the small yet so special acts you have done over and over in all these years. These are also the reasons that makes him super special for me.  

The fact that Chinmay is here in person to visit me is happiness and a natural feel good factor. I am still smiling while typing this sentence. To add to all of it, he has come back not just to visit India & all of us but also to get married, is the cherry on the cake. Chinmay, you are most definitely one of the best people I know. I am sure with this new phase of marriage the best in your life is yet to begin. 

Congratulations to you and Ketki. Secretly she has no idea, what she is signing up for yet ;). All I can do is warn & wish her all the best with you. 

Thank you for always being there, even in those times when I want to run away from you and the world around. You have been the blessing the Universe granted me as bonus into this life.  

Desire!

The beginning's are usually humble, 

as the journey picks up the desire multiplies.

Constant semblance & need to do more,

turns our life structure into a puzzle; 

the now looks blurred, while looking back, the time flies.

Scattered essence of burning flames, rush and greed are indulgent, 

they drive us through immeasurable madness unable to apprise;

Ray of hope & opportunity is all around us in an imaginary bubble, 

lucky when a spot found into it and devastatingly deviated otherwise;

The moment when you think, 'I have figured it out and have endless things to talk about...', 

metamorphose into that very moment, 

where barely enough words are found to even begin with;

On one hand, it feels like all of it is in our knowledge and on the other,

there isn't anything that feels even familiar.

Thus, the desire continues its exploration...

to know more and be more !!!

Asmanjas Ki Paribhasha!

Shaam ka samay pure din ka ant hai ya raat ki shuruvaat, 

jaise kisi sikke ke do pehluon ke beech ka antar ho...

apne jeevan ki tulna me sochti hun ke iss antar me hi jee rahi hun kahin,

jitna  kathin hai ek pehlun tak pahunchna, utna hi aasaan hai iss antar me hona...

kabhi lagta hai ke asmanjas ka yeh daur kitna lamba chalega,

koi din aisa bhi hoga jab ek faisley ka saamna kar, aage badhna hi hoga...

shayad aaj woh din ya raat ke beech vyatit hote samay ki vyatha aur peedha bhog rahi hun.. 

apne hi bane sawal-jawaab ke jhund me gum hun,

apne hi bane sawalon me kahin jawaab khoj rahi hun!!!

One Quarter Down!!!

It was just about a quarter ago we all were celebrating the New Year's Eve welcoming the year 2020 with exuberant levels of excitement and zest. Little did we know that this twin year had planned a pandemic of corona virus for all of us at the very beginning of this decade. 

At this point in time, a quarter of this year has already passed away and most of us around the world are locked down into our homes/locations. The prime agenda on everyone's head is #FightTheVirus; which has lead to nation wide lock-down along with a few stringent other actions. The basic idea is simple-- create social distancing and do not let this pandemic spread any further; eventually break the chain. Bas isse jyaada gyaan baatne ki aavashyakta nahi iss topic pe, atleast iss artcile me.

The bright side of the situation is that while most of the human clan have been asked to sit back and relax and by just doing this, the lowered human footprints on earth has allowed rest of the species evidently enjoy and reclaim their space back in nature. Therefore, overall this lock-down thing isn't that bad of an idea.  

Coming back to us humans, currently all the good great plans have been crashed and the simplicity of life just as basic survival has taken over. To be true, secretly I am loving it. There are several good-bad sides of the situation floating all around the internet already... thus, I am not getting into it. Rather want to express my happiness of 'living by your own-self' concept is a pleasure of its own kind.

This quarantine situation also brings my attention to yet another known fascinating concept called 'theory of relativity'. Like it was just about yesterday that we were celebrating the year end at NYE and blabbing around how amazing the year 2020 will be; looking forward to complete 12 months ahead of us to do stuff, beginning of the decade etc etc. Oh! well 3 months later I hear a lot of people complaining about how on earth are they suppose to pass this time, life is so boring etc etc. Certainly a 180 degree change of view in the thought process.

To further clarify, first of all- time always passes in an equal pace, it remain untouched and doesn't care to bother how we feel about it. But our feelings, those totally dependent on our ways of dealing with time. If we are happy it makes us feel the speed of time passing by, though time gives no fucks about how we feel or deal with it. Time shall continue to do what it was doing.... pass by at its regular own pace.

In the meanwhile, until the lock-down continues and our planet learns to deal with the virus situation; I urge all of you to enjoy your own company, cause if you can't do that, do expect others complaining when accompanied by you. Anyway, this too shall pass, lets pass it on with a smile. On that note, I wish all of you a great time to your self as its just one quarter down, we still have rest of year to deal with. :)

Waiting at a cliff, watching the sun settle and time pass by itself. Chittorgarh 2020. Ankita Jain 

Should you be around...

Under the stars... gazing at the moonlight,

life looks easy, just and might;

as the sea waves touch my feet,

the worries wash out and flow away, far away with the fleet; 

let the breeze be the essence,

and letting me walk over the set imaginary fence;

silver colored sand spread around,

gleaming beauties of fire-flies were to be found;

in that moment, just in that moment,

holding the past and spending the present;

this brief life of mine,

working too hard to out-do and shine;

have been thriving and trying to figure out,

little did I know about the actual whereabouts;

yet someday all of it shall be worth it;

to be there and not to be there, at the same time, seems fine; 

Under the stars... gazing at the moonlight,

life looks easy, just and might;

while I wait for the sun to rise, shine & bright;

should you be around,

yet again to let my heart skip a beat.