London to Paris – Preparation

Finally, the day has come and with less than 8hours to go – it is pretty hard sititng in front of my PC and blogging. Being a non EU citizen I had some preparation to do – Arrange the documents. I need a Schengen visa and my visa expires next weekend so I wanted to squeeze the last bits of it – make a journey. Paris being the best connectivity and knowing that this weekend is rain washout in both London and Paris – It seriously did not deter me from not going there.  I generally would have gone on a motorcycle but financially it seems I would turn out to be paying more than I would on a Eurostar. A return ticket costed me £165 for Friday evening out and Monday morning in.

I dialed in to a friend to ask her if she is good to take me in and here we go. She is happy to hitch me for a weekend and it happens to be her daughter’s birthday will mean I will be in a full time busy mode. Spend time with kids, play with them and then birthday buzz that will double the joy. Weekend seems set as rest of the time will be in rain walking around the city. I will possibly try taking time out to meet one of the old friend, Fred who I met in Varanasi before leaving India in 2008. Nice little journeys and adventures of all good times seem to merge in this city. I Personally love London when it comes to Architecture as it just has endless attraction in its streets with a mix of old and new. Something have not changed here but the same is what I want to search now in Paris. I do not know yet what I will and what I will not 🙂 is a challenge in itself.

I have got another friend taking me out for the rest of the evening on Sunday so god knows what areas we will go. I don’t know how to speak French but I am sure someone out there is keen to be with a non french speaker so makes my life bloody easy on this stressful point.
Few pre-checks:
– Passport
– Valid Visa
– Printed tickets / Boarding pass
– Cash (Converted in Euros)
– Couple of maps
– Important contact numbers
– Camera (Body, Lenses, Chargers, memory card, USB Cables)
– Two pair of lightest weekend clothes (water repellent)
– iPad(to kill the bloody cold surroundings while traveling).
– 45 mins to check-in.

Over and out.. couple more hours to go.  We will meet again next week .. with stories n pictures.
Have a lovely weekend ladies and gentleman.

Travel Tip :  “Travel light – the lighter you travel – the more you enjoy leave behind your luggage of worries, stress, tensions and relationships” M.B. 12.10.12

Cultivate a feeling – “Sharing”

It is not hard and it is not impossible but just a feeling of holding on is something that separates each one of us from others. What we miss the most in life is basics of life – Joys, happiness and moments filled with smiles. The root cause of everything that is related to the Joys, happiness and smiles is “Sharing”. We humans are formed with our basis around our environs – what surrounds us is the biggest weakness that eludes us to not look outside it.  Why shall I do it when the other person has not done it – Forgiveness is a gift few are gifted with and rest all denies to not learn it. I am not a master but I am always a learner from the mistakes I do, I see from others and I learn to seek myself into that place where I am able to do what others may not be even thinking of.

To share is a feeling, as a child – is a form of pure thoughts. When I was a child I used to play with my brother and I knew that sharing with him is a gift. Sometimes we did fight but we learned to live in harmony of keeping both warm and safe. Sometimes these logics seems outdated simply because kids these days do not want to go out – doesn’t have siblings – have too many PS3 games – endless food to munch on – Are we losing something here with time ?? Parenting – Are we forgetting to share what we used to do in Childhood with our children ! Many may not be in a stage to understand this but with time one does understands how evolution grows on.  Simply back in time – Sharing was once part of life which sure isn’t anymore. I do see that western world never embarked on those feelings but that is the reason why people seek more happiness in materialistic objects than in the real happiness. Happiness is not found in money, not found in the geeky gadgets and not found online but when you spark a reason big enough to share – you generate lot of elements that have not been visible to you.

In all these years that I travelled, I learned a lot about humans – we are all bound with our own ego of who we are but there is a bigger gift when you share. You generate a feeling of endless happy moments.  Some of these pictures below are a simple result of sharing that I cannot generate in this western world – the ambiguity surrounding us in this world is of complicated factors. I cannot go take the pictures in the same way I am used because there is no way to find these people who are willing to share.

All I can share is some of the moments from the past : Feel free to share, live and smile : Do not kill yourself in your ego, you may not be here for long or long enough to realize you lost your age, glory and talents in the fame of polishing your ego.

Sharing the “Joys of Happiness”

Poor or rich :  Happiness always stays a question. Poor do not need expensive gadgets to realise happiness but they do seek comfort. Happiness is a free form factor that exists when we simply share.

True happiness does exist.

From the early days of travels : I travelled far and wide to know – there is no bigger joy than joy of giving without a feeling of expectation.
Sometimes the returns come to you in other forms – to just look back in time and realize – Life was as simple.

Sharing what you have even though it may cause you discomfort – may mean a lot to someone who is seeking that 5 inch of space which can make someone’s day – it means a lot to them.

There is always something you can share. Just as I crossed one of the highest passes in the world – there was these two shepherds who have just been showered down by passing snow.
I was even further freezing to just have been under that snow myself but then there as something – we all needed “Heat” – Not too hard to find where to get it and share it without any hesitations.
The difference it makes is – Would you have stopped ! to share !!

Who would say … It is not worth it ! All is candid and the joy that I do not feel who I am but I do feel where I am – I want to be part of each moment.

All that I learned was to smile, share and be happy : For this life is to live it for once. I am not rich but richer than most of you in terms of what I have. The moments of joys collected in years only because I shared them. I got friendships of the ones who I may meet or may not meet but when I see them again – I will show them the photos that I took of them years ago. To share it – is all that I mean with “Sharing”

Friendship… A gift !

“To share sometimes does not mean giving away – it means giving that may re-bounce back to you in ways you never knew.” – MB 25.09.12

Katee Patang – Eyebow Peche – Childhood memories

Sometimes it does not matter what you say, what you do and as long as you can look back in the past. Last few memories from the days when life was easier, happiness was free and Joys were endless. 15th of August only meant one thing – An endless day to fly kites, cut kites and still run after them to catch them.

To all those friends who still can feel themselves in these emotions.

Feel free to share and Enjoy. Happy Independence Day to all those friends.
Sorry Monu, we miss you all and I hope the soul rests in peace.

Himalayan Classics

Travel in the heights of Himalayas brings that freshness what other places never could and never would. Being an Indian there was always an advantage to go places where others would preferably not be willing to go. Sometimes it all feels there was a meaning behind these places and journeys in life.

More so, life was not all about being worries or hassles of reaching success but just a simple moment to enjoy wherever and whenever.

Priceless

Money can buy us everything so do the Master card or the Visa but what they cannot buy you is a person who can match the rhythm of your soul to beat the blues out of you and make you feel like a Tarzan or simply make you feel like play in the sand beach building your own castles or writing endless stories by the shore of water that will soon be wiped off with the tides of see.

Some things that come into our lives are priceless since they make you feel lively yet so powerfully strong from inside. Complexity of human life that surrounds us is not easy but to find that balance of refreshing yourself is what matters the most. One such thing that has been a part of my life regardless where I exist in my physical presence has never stopped me from doing what makes me, what form the part of me & what adds me to be myself – Travel.

Travel is a form of changing your views, thoughts and outlook to yourself. To look at yourself and judge yourself you must seek the power of yourself by allowing yourself to be seen and noticed by the ones who can give you that feeling of yourself. We all have our own ways of expressing who we are, one of such things that makes this is the way I travel. Travel to not travel but to connect to myself.  I have read it somewhere  “The best way to know a person, is to travel with them” adds to sum up everything in itself.

One of the most recent of my travels added a new dimension to my life. Learning with sharing comes in its own wonderful package if it is done without a motive to just become who you are and how you want to look at this or address this. I took on one of my friends for a trip this time and it happened that we ended up learning things from each other in the way we are ourselves. To live the life on the move, is to keep moving towards the next goal in your life.  To add to all this I have just been thinking of how priceless the time becomes when it has the happy  memories attached to it. All fresh in the memory of my mind as long as it is there without getting wiped off – I would want to put this down somewhere here that I had a super trip with JM to Beer covering a whole 630miles in 3days that not only gave me a new destination but also a new friend. Riding in rain, riding in winds, riding up and down the countryside hills, standing in the winds that make us not stand still, looking down the cliffs of Purbeck, finding the shells embedded in the Jurassic sea side, climbing up the cliffs like an ape, being a monkey on a tree swinging like Tarzan, riding 200kmph, watching starry night standing listening to the waves go under our feet, generating fire the ancient way by stones, waiting to do long exposure shots with a failure of a remote to perform, cold freezing hands, find our own way around the Corfe castle,  saving a mouse getting killed under my wheel, drinking cider in beer, playing dirty hands and feet in green fungus of water boulders, opening the wine cork without the cork opener, drinking cider on the rocks, getting annoyed by the “Road closed” signs, getting lost in the unknown roads, leaving the linen painted, getting stopped by the police, riding in night without rear light working, collecting the shells in the night, talking while sleeping, finding marshes, crossing ferry, snapping the bungee cord, blackout shots, B&B hunting, fire alarm panic, 127 hours, best Indian food, scratching, play of light, landscapes  = It all adds up to being  PRICELESS