#FRIENDSHIP

Image Credits: Google Images

Having passed out from school at Delhi in early seventies most friends were only boys as the society then were too traditional in India and having a girl was frowned upon. After school most of us dispersed for our studies to various parts of India and the slowly the bond dissipated due to tedious communication protocols present at those times. The bond of friendship at an early age and if it continuous then they are the best as it grows with time and are very strong. Few are very lucky to have such friends in their lives --- langoti yaar with whom you could share everything that is happening in one’s life. Unfortunately I do not have one true friend though I do have many casual friends that I have picked up at work place or during trips out into nature with whom I can spend time and relax but cannot share personal details.

During this digital age you gather over thousands of friend be it on Facebook, Instagram or any other social media networks but then you may hardly know about the person unless your interaction with the said person is regular basis or meet in person. Many of these friendships are based on your interests or for mutual benefits … you scratch my back and I will scratch your type. This is very evident on the social media networks including on this portal… you like a person’s blog and you would notice immediately find that person liking your blog irrespective of the content of the blog. So these friendships gathered on social media networks hardly pans out in real life unless you know the person in real life. No doubt you may share all your personal problems with your efriend since you are very comfortable to venting all your feelings to a computer screen which is the medium of communication with the knowledge that you are anonymous and would not be ridiculed or judged.

Real life friends who move away can be in touch easily this day through various medium available and the bonds of friendship does not break so easily. So my take on the friendship during this digital era is that you can be in regular touch with friends irrespective of the distances and maintain the same. Due to this advancement in technology I was able to reconnect with few of my classmates from school at the dusk of my life and we do have a very lively group meeting up and reliving our school days.

Make good friends in life and maintain them throughout and I am sure you would reap the benefits of friends.

PS: Written for Indispire 181-#Friendship

Surviving Cancer yet again

It is said that Lightening does not strike the same place twice but then it did to my wife. In my Earlier post I had written of my wife surviving the breast cancer after 8 months treatment plan including 8 sessions of Chemotherapy, Left breast mastectomy and a month of radiation therapy. All was well after these treatments and the entire family started picking up the threads of life and moving forward. But then the providence had something else in store for us. Within months of stepping out from the dreaded disease my wife had lump on the right axial which grew big in days and she rushed back to the medical oncologist who was reviewing her for a checkup and she was asked to undergo a surgery to remove this lump immediately. The biopsy of this lump came back positive for cancer i.e. Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (a type of nodal cancer). This news indeed shook up my wife as well as us for it is pretty rare for a back to back cancer of different variety. The treatment plan advised by the doctors was six sessions of Chemotherapy and Immunotherapy with gaps of 3 weeks between each session which we started immediately.

Unlike the previous treatment of Chemotherapy which used to take just about 3-4 hours this time around the session used to last for over 9 hours and quite painful. After each session of the therapy my wife would become very weak and have bouts of high fever by the 7^th day thereby emergency admission as in patient at the hospital. I was quite worrying mentally and also quite expensive financially. So during the entire course of the treatment she had been admitted into hospital on emergency 5 times in addition to the therapy admission. Finally the treatments were over by end January 2017 and three weeks later a follow up PET scan confirmed no presence of cancer cells in her body. I sincerely hope that the threat of cancer has vanished and I say this because I have read the NHL can only be treated but not cured and there is a possibility of re-occurrence over a period of time and if it does happen same treatment needs to be done.

In addition to my wife undergoing painful treatment process, the mental and physical stress on me was immense. My pillars of strength during the first cancer, my sisters’ were not around this time since my youngest sister had emigrated to USA and the younger one had taken up employment. This meant that I had to be around in the hospital each time my wife was admitted. I could not go out of the country where I was employed and work peacefully…if I do not work I would not be compensated and this did add financial strains and tensions. I was almost mad with all these stress and I really did not have a shoulder to cry on and I do not know how I pulled through these times. Fortunately I have been able to tide over these hurdles and I hope that these never repeat in my life again for surely I will not be able to take up the stress and strain once again.

My wife is a survivor again the second time and am proud of the way she has faced this dreaded disease even though there was a threat to her life during the treatments.

This post is just to vent out my frustrations which has been building up inside me and I am sure you would all understand the feeling

PS: Image Credits : Google Images

A trip without any agenda --Jidar chala rasta

My friend Visu was traveling to Mysore with his mother to his sisters place and he calls me at the last moment and he calls me to come over to Mysore so that we can go on a long drive into the nature. So I pack my bags and go to Mysore and we leave the city after breakfast and coffee at his sister’s place. The original plan was to go the Nagarhole forest at Kutta side but then on checking up we were told that the solitary Jungle Lodges jeep safari on that side has been stopped because of monsoon rains and hence we decided to go to Kabini backwaters side and try our luck as walking customer at JLR Kabini. As luck would favor we were able to get accommodation for 2 nights at JLR Kabini and then first two safari’s we did not see any predators but sighted other animals such as Elephants, deers, langurs and few birds.

Third safari also was dull for about an hour for the forest was still with no movements of animals being heard. We then reached a place from where we could see a shape of an elephant far off nearly a mile away and on zooming in to check we saw that it was another safari vehicle parked with all photographers taking images of an animal on the tree and so off we went at a fast pace to that spot and to our amazement saw the animal in question was indeed the Black Panther on the tree branch. We were able to get few decent pictures of the same. Now the other vehicle while maneuvering for better angle of the Black Panther broke down as the clutch wire got cut and the drama began there with people trying to start the vehicle so that they can go back to the resort, but then even after pushing the vehicle downhill to start it would not start. As the safari timing was nearing closing time it was decided to abandon the vehicle there itself and all the guests from that vehicle transferred to our vehicle and we drove back… 17 persons in the jeep which normally carries 8 …. Black panther sighting had pacified most of the guest so all adjusted by traveling standing J. Read here about my earlier sighting of this beautiful animal Here

Fourth safari on the day out check out we were quite lucky to spot the sub adult male tiger that had just separated from its mother and female sibling. Two other vehicles crossed us and went ahead of the waterhole without any pause and we also similarly were moving out and i noticed yellow mushrooms. Our vehicle had stopped to talk to the forest department official who had come the opposite way and after he had left i asked our driver to reverse so that i could take images of the mushrooms. After few moments we started moving out and suddenly our driver stops and says Tiger tiger... and we see this magnificent animal lying down in the open raising its head now and then.

After checking out from JLR Kabini we drove down to Masinagudi and stayed at Glanton resort which is just before Sigur bridge while you get down the Kalhati road from Ooty. The high light of this place was that we had a huge tusker just in front of the room. From Masinagudi we drove back towards Mysore and while we reached Bandipur we decided to spend one night at JLR Bandipur. As this is off season there we were able to get 25% discount and we were the only guest at the resort and during the Safari time we met another regular who had just checked in… so the entire resort had just three of us for the night. 

Both the safari’s we had no sighting of the tigers or leopards however we were able to see Spot bellied eagle owl.. an extremely rare bird and is considered equivalent to 10 tiger sighting, wolf snake and elephant right on top of the mountain along with its calf.

Trip without any agenda ended on 28^th afternoon and my friend dropped me off at the Railway station for me to catch the Shatabdi Express back to Chennai.

Glimpses of ordinary people - Fish seller

Be it any city in India you can find scores of vendors pushing cycle carts and selling various items like vegetables, fruits, plastic vessels, fish and so forth earning a living .

 Here is an image of fish seller who is carting the fish on a two wheeler.

Kabini Diaries - National bird Peacock

During the recent visit to Kabini during the second week of July we did see quite a lot peacocks some dancing with their brightly colored feathers spread. However i found this Image of the Peacock high up on the tree branch showing of its extremely long feathers very beautiful

Hope you guys liked the Image

Burning Paan

Traditionally in South India betel leaves, areca nut, coconut, turmeric and flowers are given to females on most auspicious occasion and is known as tambulam During weddings this given to both males and females in decorative carry bags when the guests leave the marriage hall. Chewing the combination of betel leaves, areca nut and lime (Chunna) is supposed to help digestion after heavy meals and you can see in most South Indian weddings a plate with these ingredients are place outside the dining hall for the guest. This combination is generally chewed and swallowed.

In North India it is also consumed and is known as Paan and various combinations are eaten. Saada paan that just has betel leaves, areca nut and lime, Meetha paan with additional ingredients such as sweetener and so forth, or with tobacco. Normally the paan with tobacco is chewed and then spat out… you can see splotches of red markings on roads, walls, railway platforms etc in most Indian cities on account of these.  Each of these paan shops try to bring out unique paans with assorted ingredients so as to catch fancy of the consumer and one such paan is the burning Paan. I came across this video about this paan and am sharing this with you all. It is all in the taste of the consumer and I find it quite surprising that such things happen in spite of the health hazards. Enjoy the Burning Paan :)

Adaptation of a book into screenplay

#Screenadaptation

I have always have been an avid reader right from my younger days and have seen quite a few Hollywood movies based on those books. Most movies have been extremely well adapted from the book and as I had read them it was a pleasure to watch the scene unfold in visuals before my eyes. Couple of names of these books crop up in my mind as I write this blog for Indispire as examples

Guns of Navarone a fiction written by Alistair Maclean : A second world war story where a small team of soldiers are inserted behind German occupied Greece to blow up guns that guard the coast so that allied invasion can take place.I read this book long before I saw this movie and re-read the same after seeing the movie . The movie did do justice to the story told in the book.

The Day of the Jackal a thriller written by Frederick Forsyth a story of an assassin who has been contracted by dissent French paramilitary force OAS to kill the then French President Charles de Gaulle . Truly a gripping movie even if you have not read the book. Again the adaption to screenplay is faultless.

Well there are others such as Where Eagles Dare, Puppet on a chain, Way to Dusty death, Angels& Demons, Da Vinci Code, Exodus, The Godfather, Absolute Power, The Count of Monte Cristo, Sherlock Holmes, Bourne Series and lot more that I have read and seen too. As usual in Hollywood the adaptation of the books into screenplay is well done with little changes unlike in Indian film industry where the screenplay is tweaked to cater to our local population thereby changing the entire meaning of the story as written.