c u on top - satyabrata dam

  I have a friend, who has achieved some of the most coveted landmarks in the climbing adventure world. He is few years younger than I and on and off I have been his mental trainer and used to be his mentor and climbing instructor when he had just started his climbing. Just a day before, he messaged me and wanted to schedule a one on one mental training session. It seemed urgent so we met up virtually and spoke for nearly 2 hours. You will be surprised what transpired and why he wanted to talk to me. But first let me give you some of his achievements and lifestyle in a nutshell. He has completed the seven summits and Adventure Grand Slam challenge (climbing the highest peaks of all the seven continents and also skiing to the geographical North and South Poles) all in one attempt over a span of 3 years. I was his guide and leader in several of these climbs. He has also climbed five 8000m plus peaks besides Everest. Which means he has climbed 6 of the world’s 14 highest peaks s...

    Once in a while, especially when we don’t feel that things are going our way and we are not finding the spark or excitement in our life and somehow, despite our best efforts, happiness eludes us; I feel it is important to look deep within ourselves and ask few pertinent questions. Rather than running out to a therapist or to a friend. Because as I always insist, no one in this world should know you better than your own self. So everything must begin with your own self centered world and self analyzing thoughts.   So ask: why do I do what I do? Can you really answer this question with all honesty and devoid of anything else! Can you be totally honest with your own self where no one else is privy to, no one is going to see you there or judge you. You are the judge and jury and also the defendant and the prosecutor. Much of your life’s state (sad or happy) will depend upon that honest answer to the question: why do I do what I do?   And then once you fin...

  In general we human cannot live without making and engaging in appointments. In fact our lives begin with an appointment in a hospital (there are exceptions to this certainly) by our parents where we are delivered (like a postal package courier delivery). This is followed with a series of appointments with the pediatrician, nutrition and dietician (if your parents can afford) then the church or temple for baptism and such other things,   like schools, colleges, etc, etc. In fact the moment you step into adulthood, and even before, we start fixing and showing up for our appointments leading to our last appointment in a crematorium or a cemetery.   Appointments with friends and peers, with teachers, with God at holy places, with the boss or colleagues at work place, with your parents and children, with doctors when you are ill, or to go out for a meal in a restaurant, going out for a movie, with your house help, your gym instructor, with your girl/boy friend, with you...

    What is the most precious substance we have, once we are born? It is life itself. Because without life, we cannot have anything else. Life is the first, foremost and the most vital possession of ours. And to sustain this life, what is most important? Is it food, water, anything materialistic, or emotional, spiritual, love… well actually no. The most important object for us to sustain life is a breath of air, which we often inhale and exhale without conscious thoughts. Without food we can survive nearly two weeks, without water nearly a week. Absence of materialistic possessions like a house, car, or expensive jewelry won’t make any dent to life. Lack of human emotions of friendship, family, and even love, wouldn’t kill us, though might drive us to depression or suicide. It is only the air that we breathe we just cannot live without. Perhaps for a couple of minutes, after that we would surely perish.   The irony of this air that we breathe is not only a lesson fo...

  Once I knew a spirited shepherd from the Himalaya, who lived an extremely excited life, though all his compatriots thought he was insane. To him everything was a reason for excitement, merriment and a deep sense of wonder. Though completely illiterate (by our bookish scale) and ignorant of anything outside his village and his grazing ground and the mountains where he lived, he was perhaps one of the wisest people I have ever known. He had cracked the code of a happy life.   He would wake up in the morning and worship the sun, with this big gleeful face and sparkling eyes as if he had never seen a sunrise before. And he would declare to no one in particular that what an amazing day it was and how amazing it would be. Then he would light fire, again full of gratitude and prayer to the fire gods, uttering that this was the best fire in the world and then make tea and utter loudly that this tea was better than any beverage in the world, befitting for the gods. He would then ...

  Throughout my life, as I ambled across the globe, from one mountain to another, I have met countless people, both economically poor, materialistically-deprived as well as those economically wealthy and materialistically-endowed. And to each of them I have often asked if they were happy. I have particularly asked those who were at the two extreme opposite ends of the economic spectrum – the very poor and the very rich. And through their responses I have realized that there is no direct collinear relation between wealth and material possessions to the quantum of happiness. The more of former does not necessarily translate into more of the latter. In fact, contrary.   When we reflect upon our life and its welfare, what all parameters do we look at! Do we look for what we have achieved, what we possess, who all are our family and friends, the degree of freedom of choice that we can exercise, our level of happiness and contentment, who we truly are and who we have become, how...

There are many symbols of love in this picture and of course the way is Love When love is the way One day I will find my way To you No matter who you are No matter where you stay One day I will find my way To you No matter to you I am unknown No matter how much wind has blown One day I will find my way To you No matter where you hide No matter how far you ride One day I will find my way To you No matter how long it takes No matter my heart how much it breaks One day I will find my way To you No matter if I cry No matter if I die One day I will find my way To you No matter if I be the last No matter if you are my past One day I will find my way To you No matter what you are No matter how you are One day I will find my way To you No matter if I go blind No matter if you treat me unkind One day I will find my way To you No matter how long is the way No matter how much I sway When Love is my way I will never lose ...

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...

Armand in the middle with his cousins Henry to his left and Tom to his right In an inexplicable twist in the tale, I recently found myself by the languid lanes of Trieste in Italy, knocking at the doors of a Mediterranean Villa with a splendid view of the Adriatic Sea below and a hill full of forests above. And within this villa, I found the boy with the bike. Armand Monnoyer is Belgian and he had celebrated his 20 years of existence on our planet only two days before I met him. A nephew of my hosts, Armand could well be my son and what endeared him to me right away were his shy open smile and his current occupation of biking through Europe in search of his own true self. A yearlong project that he had started around August last year; of which he was now in his final leg of five months hoping to return by the end of 2014 summer. I spent few days with him taking long walks by the sea, helping together in the kitchen, eating homemade breads and jams, sharing stories and laughte...

Sometime back I did a survey through my FB friend’s and other networks asking them – if you had a minute more to live, 60 seconds of life left, how would you engage those seconds. I had no idea what to expect but within a fortnight I received 73 responses from around the globe. After that no one responded, so I waited bit more, hoping that I would be able to gather at least 100 samples before unravelling the findings and adding my two bits of wisecrack. Now I have waited for nearly a month and half without getting the 74 th response to the topic in hand. And I can safely assume that those who thought about the last minute of their lives have already responded and the rest simply didn’t take me seriously. For which they can’t be held responsible since even I don’t take myself seriously. Well, so let’s begin, as always, with the numbers –

This is a request post. I had no intentions of putting this up, since what follows was written to a friend in a mail about which I had literally forgotten. But today the friend requested that I should put this up as a post. And as you know, I cannot refuse a friend. So here it is, for this friend, and for my all other friends and to everyone who would pass by. Love it, live it, there's no other way of living the journey called 'Life'. No one procreates because the life created will die one day, yet it will No one begins a journey because it will end one day, yet it will No farmer sows his field because his crops will be cut one day, yet it will No gardener grows flower because it will wilt one day, yet it will No one adores the youth because it will age one day, yet it will No one loves because the love will be lost one day, yet it will No one plays a game because you will lose, yet sometimes you will The spring comes each year, knowing full well that wh...

Things happen to each one of us all the time. As long as you are alive on this planet (and may be thereafter too!) not a day could possibly pass without something happening to you, around you, with people whom you know, at places you have been or wish to be. Incidents and happenings, like our thoughts are an integral part of our lives. Some of these things happen due to our own actions or inactions, and some times they are dictated, executed by others, and even then affect us and change our lives in ways we may or may not wish to. Now the point that I am trying to drive here is; what happens after something happens? How do you take it, how does it affect you? Broadly speaking any incident or happening that influences us can be in only two ways: bad or good / encouraging or discouraging / positive or negative. That should make you realize that in reality how simple life really is. Just two options to choose from and at the end it really is upon us to choose the one that we would take aw...

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...