aurangabad trip

It has been months since I wrote something here. My hobbies and my work takes so much time I simply don't have the patience to come here to record my thoughts. I have to though write about my Aurangabad trip.
Well I knew that it was going to be close to 7 hours of driving but I didn't know that the road beyond Nashik would be so broken. The whole car was jolted many times. We played the game of making up names of villages or towns and then Kush checked on the net to see if our made up villages existed or not. I still remember one of the outrageous names. 'Totapur'. and it exists somewhere.

We checked in our room and then soon rushed to Ellora caves. I was kind of getting upset because it was already 4 PM and Ellora caves was huge. However the first cave that we encountered was Kailash temple, the temple that I had wanted to see since my childhood, the temple that has been cut off a single rock. And the temple is huge with so many sculptures that have survived the onslaught of time. I didn't climb uphill to check on the buddhist caves.

From there we went to Grishneshwar temple, one of the jyotirlinga. I was fortunate to touch the shivalinga with my own hands. From there we went back to the hotel for we were very tired. The whole night I dreamt of a huge figure towering over me.

The next morning we headed to Ajanta caves. It was 200 kms away from us. We went to the viewpoint and then decided to take down the steps to reach the caves. We checked some of the caves. The paintings had faded. the caves were dark. it was seriously bad. We decided to head back and the climb uphill was extremely punishing. My lungs were on fire, my legs trembled, thrice I felt I was having a mild heart attack. I don't know how I managed to reach the top but reach I did and then drove the car to the first decent restaurant to stop and eat something.

The same day we visited Bibi ka Maqbara but we all look so tired in the photographs. It is a replica of Taj Mahal and we could touch the walls and feel the coolness of the marble.

The next day we decided to head to Daulatabad Fort but Kush refused to go up so we climbed one set of steps and took some snaps. Then we headed back to Mumbai. Another 7 hours of drive and I was to tired I just wanted to flop on the bed and close my eyes. Knackered! But the next day I had to wake up and go to office though I could not do much.

Overall a fantastic journey! I was able to tick off something off my bucket list and was able to see some cool sculptures and more importantly create some good memories and one horrible nightmare. I have now started to exercise fervently.

Sambhaji, Raigad fort and worldly pain

Juggling work with hobbies and personal life is quite difficult. I have been trying to write detective stories and that takes so much time. I was working on rummy tournament and that consumed a lot of my time too. Finally now that Kush has grown up quite a bit, he needs his time to be exclusive of the time dedicated for family. He is 12 now. Soon he will become a teenager. I hope he still comes to me and chats to me like he does now. I would never want him to become incommunicado but then I remember that I was myself a very difficult, angst ridden teen.

All these work items ensured that I never took a proper break. It is either work or story or if there is time there are so many movies. Finally when the story got completed and then in quick succession the rummy tournament started working, I suddenly realized that I had time, a lot of time. Till the next project starts, of course! but still I had time on hand. I could once again indulge myself by reading books. So I read 'Moby Dick'. It took time, the tome is huge but I loved it even though I lost a lot of symbolism at play. Then I read the book 'Sambhaji' by Vishwas Patil. It is about Sambhaji, the first son of Shivaji, who became Chatrapati after his father's demise. His step mother, Soraiya bai, tried her darndest to foist her son Rajaram as king but Sambhaji was able to foil the plan. It came to Hambir rao Mohite, the commander in general of Maratha army, to take the right call. He was Soraiya bai's own brother but he chose to support Sambhaji. So without any internecine war, Sambhaji became king. He of course got many conspirators killed, some of them by throwing them under the feet of drunk elephants. I loved that book though the end was bitter. Aurangzeb got Sambhaji captured and tortured badly before dicing his body in small parts and having them thrown away.

I then decided to visit the Raigad fort because it was the capital of Marathas. We drove there and it took us close to 4 hours. We used the ropeway at Hiranaki darwaza. We literally flew to the fort! It was very, very hot that day but we still managed to check out the royal court, the marketplace, the Jagdishwara temple and the samadhi of Shivaji. The view of the valley was breathtaking.

I have watched Kush's drawing skills mature. He is working on a comic book of his own. Recently I realized that Kush has hit a plateau and so it was time to enrol him to learn drawing. His art teacher has held one exhibition of his paintings. He himself was taken aback at the detailed works of Kush. His praise made Kush's day. I really don't want Kush to try and make a career in drawing or painting but let us see! I never wanted to become a computer engineer and look, what that got me into!

On a parting note, Bunty shared with me a great truth. Some philosopher, I forget his name, wrote that people should try and avoid pain, that it should be our life's mission. The world with its alluring gifts is a trap where people experience pain. It could be pining in love or it could be maddening rush for making money but the world will always exact its price and always leave the person in more pain. The less you want from the world, the less it can hurt you. That philosophy drives Bunty's life. I must say I have been thinking a lot about it too.