c u on top - satyabrata dam

I could have also written: My Mother – Oh My God!!! Since besides being the living god for me, she actually infuses the deepest sense of wonder and admiration each time I consciously think about what all she has done and continues to do. I am what I am today and what I will ever be is solely due to my mother. She never told me what to do or how to shape my life or where my dreams must take me. Instead she encouraged me to dream whatever I wished to however big and wild and impossible they may seem, and she believed in my dreams and never stopped me from following them. She never said ‘no’ to whatever I wanted to do, and that’s where she planted the seed of discovery and exploration and adventure in me. My mother was a young widow, with almost no one on Earth to help her out; neither would she have taken any help even if there were people to do so. She had a very odd son. Who broke every rule and norms of the society and dreamt of things that normally people wouldn’t. I have no idea h...

People say that I am courageous and I do things that need courage, but honestly I have never been consciously courageous, or felt courage coursing through my veins. In fact I am not really sure what courage means or how does it feel to be courageous. I do things that challenges me, excites me, makes me feel alive, keeps me on and off the edge. Whatever fuels my passion and love for the outdoors is what I do. But then what about fear! Now that’s something I can quite correlate to. I have felt fear, I know how your stomach knots and throat dries up when fear runs through your heart and freezes your blood. Absence of courage is not fear and likewise absence of fear is not courage. Courage (if there indeed is a thing like that) is a fickle friend and is a weak ally since it flees so easily when faced with situations and adversaries. But look at fear, it never deserts you, it never abandons you, it stays and fear is not afraid of anything at all. Living constantly under the shadow and in th...

I am not sure if I am turning into a poet in the last few months since I haven't been able to go to the mountains and it is often said that poetry flows out of a bereaved heart. My blog might now be looking less like an extreme adventure travel and climbing blog but let me assure all of you that more nail biting edge of the seat stories are coming up soon. Meanwhile another rendering of the heart. This one was provoked but not caused by a line that a friend of mine said to me just a day before while we were discussing the friends in our respective lives. It triggered these thoughts and I took out the words from the world around. I have written these thoughts but I am sure it belongs to each one of you, it tells your story too. Somewhere, some time, someone you really loved and cared for did go away. So here's to all of you and to all of us: Why do you hide When I wish to find Why do you run When I wish to bind Why do you stop When I wish to play Why do you cry When I want you g...

Unless you are a dedicated and hard core outdoor photographer it is highly unlikely that you would carry a solar panel with you when you venture away from the civilization, to charge your batteries. One of the biggest concerns of any outdoor photographer is how to conserve the battery power to the maximum possible limit. Since most often you can’t recharge the batteries in the outdoors you have to prolong its power by optimizing your usage pattern so that you get all the pictures you want and not let your battery die on you. The intrinsic battery power to a large extent depends upon the type of battery your camera uses; a lithium battery is much more powerful than normal pencil AA cells but needs to be recharged, whereas in AA cells always go for Duracells. I will discuss more on the battery type and power features and safekeeping in the outdoors in a separate post. The obvious solution to prevent running out of batteries is to carry extra sets with you and keeping them dry and warm ti...

This is dedicated to all the women who are and were ever in my life, in whatever way, in whichever form... irrespective of where they are today and with whomsoever since there's no one with me... and all I want is you Do I have to be around When I want to be with you Do I have to hold you close When I am with you Do I have to say the words When I speak to you Do you have to go far When I wish to be with you Do I have to come close When I feel for you Do I have to lie awake To be cuddled to sleep by you Do I have to walk away When rejected by you Do I have to bleed myself For you to say I love you Do I have to buy you presents When all I need is you Do I have to send you flowers When I am sorry for you Do I need to touch your soul When I want to caress you Do I need to meet your eyes When I want to look at you Do I have to tell you lie When I wish to make love to you Do I have to gather you in my arms When I need to uplift you Do I have to love myself The way I love you Do I have to...

The following is dedicated to all women who stir such thoughts in our hearts through the silence of the night. I wonder how you look When you wear only your smile I wonder what you took When you went away for a while I wonder how you passed your day When you had so much on your mind I wonder if you thought of me When you drew the window blind I wonder what you think When you think of nothing at all I wonder what you scribe When in your dream you scrawl I wonder what your heart says When it speaks of me I wonder if then your soul’s restless As it ever can be I wonder if you think of me When the day is dragging along I wonder if you know as I do Together we really belong I wonder how you look at me If you look at me at all I wonder if you hide your pains The way I hide them all I wonder how far will you go Before you know I am not around As you walk will you come to know You trample me beneath the ground I wonder will you ever know How much you meant to me I wonder how long will it take...