c u on top - satyabrata dam

Note – this is a true story, a short one, verbatim as it happened. Yet the central character of this story, if she is still alive, will never read it. Do tell her of it and that I remember her, if you chance upon her someday. Therefore I retain her real description; I will never look for her but you may. Here is the story: I was walking along the sunset kissed windswept boulevard of Punta Arenas balancing my camera trying to find a spot close to the sea where a magnificent sun in all its radiance was slowly inching towards the blue horizon of Magellan Strait. Finis Terra as it is often called, or end of the known world, Punta Arenas is the southernmost point of Chile after which only the ocean remains before striking the frozen Antarctica shores. I had been in this tiny picturesque town many times before and hence. On that day I was chasing the sun for a shot when I walked past a girl sitting on the grass, apparently gazing rapturously at the same sun that I wished to capt...

  Life is a Fairy Tale Last night I was watching ‘Tangled’. I often watch fairy tales or animated film, those that are captivating not only in their imagery but also in what they teach us. Take for instance Shrek series or Despicable Me, Up or Lion King, Snow white, etc etc. I am yet to see or read one fairy tale that doesn’t have something bad or evil happening. Often someone dies too in such movies and stories. Yet we read these books and watch these movies happily, smiling along with our children. Why don’t we despair when something bad happens to the central characters, why don’t we feel sad when someone dies, why do we keep cheerful and let our children watch all the mayhem and evil doings of the villains. For every fairy tale have villains. We don’t despair because we know that it is a fairy tale, where in the end good will triumph over evil and the princess will be rescued by the fair prince, we know that no matter how much the evil forces try, in the end the g...

Marital Bliss I agree I am putting my hands deliberately inside a hornet’s nest but then someone has to, especially someone like me who is totally unbiased, have equal number of married and single friends and I don’t really see one as better than the other in anyway whatsoever. It all comes down to individual choices after all. Some of us learn the hard way that we might have made a wrong choice while some just never learn or realize so they either stay single for their entire lives or they keep getting married again and again. No wonder human are fundamentally masochistic. This is a fun post so take it as one since life itself is fun with all the intended pun. I am not a marriage counsellor and certainly not a ‘single’ advocate. But I can tell you a lot about both the statehoods, since I observe keenly. And yes, for those who do not know me, I am very much single and intend to stay that way for the rest of my life; yes I haven’t learnt anything and yes I am masochistic as we...

I do everything for love since I exist because of love and I will die one day for love My obituary should read: on the journey of love he kept on climbing There is no love without freedom and no freedom without love I am happy to live as I am happy to die since I love death as I love life No point in living if I do not live for love I cannot make someone love me nor how nor when nor why she chooses that love to be. I can only love fully with my mind body and soul and hope that she will recognise it even if she cannot reciprocate in equal measure or manner Love is the only action that need not have a reaction. Love is complete in itself. I'm grateful that I discovered love because she passed by and does it matter if she never noticed me bloom within that love! I can only make myself worthy of love and wait till someone recognises that It is possible to discover love in one but find it in another. Discovery of love is not always finding love It is not possible ...

I believe only in two things or rather experiences since they both essentially are just that, and everything else evolve out of them: I believe in being alive and being in love; and today on Friday the 13 th , 2015 I would like to share few beliefs about my two experiences. Here is the first one: -  I am and will always be the luckiest person in the world Miracles happen all around me every moment There is no one in the world who hates me or dislikes me or bears any ill towards me Everyone I have met or meet or will be meeting were, are and will be friends. No one is or will ever be a stranger to me I can only live in and for the moment; past is irrevocably gone serving only as meaningful lessons and the future is nothing but another name for hope Life is what it is, and only I can find a purpose or make it meaningful; though sometimes it is best to be purposeless and meaningless; like a sail boat without sails amidst a tempest sea No matter where I am, I a...

Lago Torre, Patagonia Argentina This time around while summing up the year 2014 that just whizzed by I am completely determined to avoid intricate statistics lest it leads to three mainstream reactions among my readers (like it usually does) – one of admiration (I like this one, especially when I get those delicious mails from delicious women); one of envy; and one of utter disbelief (many believe all these travels and climbs of mine are pure fiction and products of my over productive imagination). Suffice it to say that I did not travel much in 2014, barely 10 countries in four continents and crossed the Atlantic only four times and kissed the Pacific shores twice. Climbed very moderately and only till around 7000m. Visited only two places that are rarely visited by human. Air miles covered must be in the region of 100,000 if not more but then this is merely an average human being I suppose. Despite all precautions taken, the year ended with a black tipped nose due to ca...

Crossing crevasse on Everest I often have discussions with friends and well-wishers about the element of risk involved in my ordinary day to day life and I always insist that my life has far less risk than a regular city dweller; where she crosses the roads, drives, drinks tap water, etc each such so-called mundane activity that is actually very high on risk element. We simply do not realize this that your life is at a much higher risk than mine, especially when I climb those stupendously steep walls of ice or step into the death zone. So to give you a point by point comparison, I have picked up two supposedly diametrically opposite activity that can be grasped by all. Let’s say I am climbing Everest and you are just boarding a flight to a vacation or work; here are the ten reasons why you are taking a much higher risk than I: -

Two days back I received a message from a friend who I hadn’t met or communicated for a good number of years. We were in love once. I still am and I am guessing she too is though it’s now more like you love a fool since he is a source of entertainment. The message in exact these words – “People say you are still alive and I hope you are, yet I think you must be dead frozen stiff actually stuck to one of your silly vertical ice walls in some silly godforsaken corner of the planet. I don’t think you would ever read these words, at least not in your earthly avatar and being dead why would you even care to read mails even if you had the technology to do so. Do they have internet in heaven or hell or wherever in between places you might be? Oh goodness, what a silly question. Now the real question is if you are already dead, according to my presumption, why I am even writing this message to you! I am writing to you because I need to write to my own self, to my soul and I can only do s...

Einstein once said that we truly fail when we give up; as long as we do not give up we continue to progress and learn and even if we do not achieve the desired outcome at the end of the day, we do not fail. We can pause, we can ponder, we can change our tactics and strategies, we can rest and recuperate, but we can never give up. Giving up is a finality like quitting, to not continue to pursue what you truly wish to achieve leads to real failure. As long as you do not give up you are on the journey of discovery. Life is such that almost nothing would ever happen exactly the way you plan or wish it to happen. You never made a plan to read these words, but you are here right now reading this post. And you have no idea how far or close you might be to your goal. You don’t know when things will start turning your way and which doors will open when you knock hard enough. You do not know what the horizon will bring you unless you have climbed high enough to peek beyond. The goal of...

Many years back I met a recently crowned Ms World, whom the media had touted as the most beautiful woman in the world (obviously). So I asked her if she really believed that; and she said an emphatic ‘Yes’. I took another ten minutes to show her that it wasn’t an objective truth and there’s no way that she was the most beautiful woman on Earth. Her title was true only after applying so many variables and factors and limiting criteria that by the end of our discussion the poor girl was literally walloping in her real tears. So I consoled her by saying that it really didn’t matter what I or anyone else said, and she really did not have to go for a breast lift or dental fix to be truly the most beautiful woman; all she needed was to believe and that’s all. We became friends and very soon she totally felt as the most beautiful woman ever in the history of mankind and didn’t give a damn to her title or to the media or to anyone saying anything at all. Even after all these years, with a ...

When I was still in my teens (I am still there mentally though), I had read a short story about a man of leisure; it was a great story of a Scotsman who simply lived a life of leisure, doing or not doing anything that he did or didn’t want to do. He wasn’t tied down by any other conditions of life; everything depended upon his wish. That to me had seemed a charming way of living; live the way you wish, do what you want and do not do what you do not want to – very simple. Over the years in search of true freedom I never realized that I too had become a sort of man of leisure. And just few days ago a distant friend (distant in distance) pointed out to me that I was a man of leisure; which, she promptly added, was the pipe dream of most men and women anyway. Due to my faltering and blistering grasp of the language, I first checked the online Oxford Dictionary (don’t tell me you still own and consult a paper real dictionary) for the definition and it proclaimed – a person who does ...

Today let’s look at one of the greatest lessons nature has taught me that possessiveness is self-defeating; you cannot possess without losing and when you do not possess you cannot lose. What do we really need to live, I mean ‘really, really’ - air to breathe, water to drink, food to eat. Can we possess any of these things; and come to think of it, do we ever even want to possess them. Have you ever thought, when you breathe in the sweet mountain air or the invigorating ocean breeze that this air should belong to you and only to you, or when you drink water (perhaps you feel possessive of the water bottle in a hot summer day) that only you should have the privilege to clean drinking water, or that all food should only be for you. I don’t think any of us have ever thought about these things, even though without these three we cannot be alive. Despite being absolutely essential to live, we do not feel possessive about these three. We don’t mind when 7 billion other human beings and...