Pleasure or Pain

I woke up, because it was hot. I gaze outside my room’s window, being a software engineer living at Pune, I felt early for a weekend. I checked my mobile and I was shocked. Not because it showed 8:00 am, but because below time notification, the AccuWeather was showing  35˚ C. Really!! It’s a month of March and the temperature is already soaring to 35˚ C. 

Couple of days back around 6ish in morning, I was standing in my balcony preparing myself to start my day just after leaving my cozy bed. I was sipping hot water which felt perfect with the cold breeze. In front of our balcony there is a society garden which is huge and well maintained, behind garden there are few empty plots with grass and trees, then multiple farming fields and then river.

I feel lucky to have such a wonderful view in Pune.

Along with this foggy delighted view, birds chirping, bird groups, sun rays, awakening animals, morning walkers, kids heading for school buses and parents waving, good-bye kisses felt like the state of complete as in harmonious whole.

One angle out of 180˚ view

I was standing still and in the relishing moment I forgot all about my daily chores and office work. Being with nature is something that inspires me. I often visit “Pashan Tekdi” in wee hours which has much better view. I guess there is different type of energy all together. I get refreshing positive thoughts which makes my day or even a week. Quite often I spend time there alone and while with nature pondering about tasks/challenges I am working on, it helps to get creative ideas and surely inspires me to do more.

Alike Pashan Tekdi, view from my balcony is also beautiful and inspiring. All the building in our society is stretched only in direction and our last block is so close to Mula-Mutha river. I guess that’s the reason there are no more building apart from few empty plots and agricultural fields. The new proposed block got stayed while under construction. Usually people avoid going at that side of under construction site because it’s not maintained and to some extend unsafe because construction work was stopped abruptly. But to my surprise at that very moment an aged man, may be in his early sixties, along with his grandchild were going toward unsafe-unclean building block. Man was dressed in relax clothes, seems to be comfortable, along with young kid, must be 5 or 6 years old. They both were carrying plastic bag filled with something which I was not able to identify from far distance. I wondered, why were they going towards that block that too with young kid. It may very well encourage kid to starts going there alone.

Then it hit me, they were going there to throw the “Dana” for birds. What a way to start a day and teach your kids. From the safest edge of our block man started throwing bird feed out of that plastic bag towards relatively empty and clean area of unsafe block. I was not sure which had more love and care, the way Uncle was feeding birds or the delight with which he was teaching the same to his grand kid. It took me just few seconds to realise they are the reason - I get to see group of birds from my balcony. I admire the thought and humanity of Uncle.

I get to see many different species of birds around our building. Mostly I see Crows, Sparrows and Doves sitting in our balcony and singing songs – sometimes feels like they are talking with each other and passing some messages. They look here and there and if they observe any human moment happening around, they just fly away just to be back after few minutes. But frankly it’s hard to identify whether it was the same bird or the different one, because all of them looks same to my eyes. Looking at the efforts of Uncle to save birds from starvation, I got inspired to serve water in my balcony to help birds ease from thirst in hot summer.

Next day onwards every morning I started maintaining a clean bowl of water before leaving for office. I pour enough water to make sure it lasts till evening and birds can enjoy that during their morning and evening travel. Quite often I used to stand near balcony and wait for birds to come and drink. I witnessed birds taking bath in water, spilling it on floor, dancing & singing with their soul-mates (at least that’s what I assumed) at the edge of bowl and having few sips of water every few seconds. Cautiously they will look around and making sure no one is there to hurt them, taking another sip of water and once satisfied they fly away and embark on their journey. I enjoyed that for few days, it was peaceful and pleasure observing them silently. Mainly I get to see Sparrow, Crow and Dove. Tiny sparrows are joyful, they get into the water bowl and get itself wet completely, like taking a quick bath. But many times experience with Crow was not pleasing. Crows will make irritating noise and would often bring dead birds or bones along with and put that in balcony or in water bowl itself. This was something difficult to deal with as I don’t have any control on that. And Last one is Dove.. They usually come with 2-3 friends and then seat on safety rods in Balcony. Doves, like a scout, will lookout here and there and if they don’t find anyone around, they just drink 1-2 sip of water and fly away. But that’s not all, before sipping water while scouting they even spend time on cleaning up their stomach :(.

Within few days I started getting consequences of water service. At one end I was extremely satisfied with the deed, but at the same time I was not able to keep my balcony clean because of dove shit. Balcony floor, safety rods, washing machine, cloth hanging stand, area behind door, balcony corners every single thing would daily get covered with shit. I started cleaning balcony on a daily basis thinking it should get better soon. But day after day it was just getting worse and was getting out of my control. We tried different options as suggested on Internet without much of success.

I was forced to rethink my decision about water bowl. But knowing temperature during summer days, I don’t feel like stop pouring water bowl. So here I am looking for some suggestion/options with which I can keep the balcony clean without too much of maintenance and I can still continue pouring water this summer..

I am open for any suggestions. Has anyone of you facing this type of situation and how did you deal with that? Please add your suggestion in the comment below or write directly to me, you know my email.

Good day!

Painted Hills - History of transformation from flooded area to desert

Yes, you read it right - Transformation from flooded area to desert! After having dinner at iHop on the night of Christmas, we came back to Quality Inn hotel in Bend city where we were staying overnight. Room was good enough for a sound and relax sleep in order to overcome tiredness of the day and be ready for the next day trip to one of the National Monuments of John Day Fossil Beds.  After having our complimentary breakfast and loading our map in mobile and GPS, we were all ready to start our journey to Painted Hills – The Desert of Minerals.  We were delayed a bit as we spent some time in taking pictures just outside the hotel. The view was quite impressive due to cold weather and snow covered mountains in surrounding areas. After loading our luggage, we started towards our destination, approximately 82 miles.

Oregon is one of the best states to have a road trip because of its geographical diversity. Throughout the way, we got an amazing view of mountains – snow covered though green. In the middle of that breathtaking beauty, I realized how splendid the combination of White and Green color looked with blue sky. We couldn’t stop ourselves from taking hundreds of pictures to capture natural beauty of Oregon – US highway 26. Our first stop for this day was at Bandit Spring Trail. Even though we couldn’t go on Trail because of snow, we got splendid view to capture photos. Two of my friends were from west coast of US and my husband had come from India for vacation trip. This chance to see and play in snow meant a lot. We spent time playing in snow and throwing snow balls on each other and let the child within us come out. Yes, we dare to get out of the warm car and get ourselves cold and wet in snow! It was a bright sunny day which enriched the beauty of the scenery manifold. We were so much possessed with this view, that we couldn’t stop ourselves from admiring the place, road and surrounding beauty.  The more distance that we covered, the more natural attractiveness we got to see. Right after we left from Bandit Spring Trail, we saw another great scene just by the side the road. It was the Hard Rock Mountain. Between the road that we were travelling on and the Mountain, there was this huge valley which was surrounded by beautiful colossal mountains. The mountains were covered with snow but had greenery scattered all over. It was hard to tell, where the mountains ended and sky begun. We spent some time just to enjoy and admire this lovely nature. Beholding this solemn beauty had made us silent and introspective.

On way to Painted Hills

Awesome combination of While Green and Blue

From there we started towards our Main Destination – The Painted Hills. As soon as we were close to that area – just one word came out of mind – “Oh My God”.  Amazing Red, Yellow and Black colored hills, spread out in a wide area.

Photo Edit courtesy - Dhawal Banker

Photo Edit courtesy - Dhawal Banker

“Painted Hills:  Like it says – Painted in the past. These are due to the Climate conditions along with fluctuation that occurred along the way. The change in climate over the millions years are recorded as different color strips on the hills.  It's hard to believe now, but the area once contained a near-tropical forest that received 100 inches of rain a year. Painted Hills are the crown jewels of this region with their spectacular colors and sublime patterns that seem to have been hand-painted by the master stroke of Mother Nature’s brush. These colors are changing with light and season”. 

We had a walk in the carefully made trails to enjoy the beauty and capture the beautiful view in order to imprint it in our memories forever. Each color had its own meaning. The hills looked normal from a good distance. But we learned that from inside it was all hard rock, formed over thousands of years. The local authorities had done a great job of creating and marking Trails to have closest look of these hills without disturbing the hills. The information boards too provided detailed history of this place. 

“Based on water absorbance, the color changes - Red and Yellow becomes more of Orange and Golden with the effect of light”. Along with horizontal strips, we got to see vertical stripes which were made by the rain water. It’s difficult to express and describe this geological wonderland in words. Because of the winter season, this was unusually quiet and secluded with almost no travelers. There was just one man other than us and that got us ample amount of privacy and time to admire this place which made it more striking. Though not satisfied with the time we spent here, we headed to our next destination, Sheep Rock. We spent some time there and while going back to our hotel, Madras city, we couldn’t stop visiting this place again in the evening - verifying the fact that the color changes due to light and season. The color of the Painted Hills which was Red in color looked little darker compared to morning view which was lighter!

Apart from the beauty, I came across a man about whom I would like to say a few words:

Passion - Drives you crazy:

Like I said, apart from our group, there was just one man out there at the Painted Hill. He was just sitting there on a bench along with his auto set high end camera, with a book and required food. He was the perfect example of “Passion – that drives you crazy”. He was sitting there alone since morning to capture the perfect shot for his photography. One should respect his/her passion and must go all ahead to achieve it.

Few photos to give you a glimpse of this place

My visit to this place will never to be forgotten! Worth visiting this place! I wish I get to see this place again in summer!

Courtesy: Dhawal Banker, Rishabh Shukla

Cricket: Game of winning and losing

We always want to see ourselves on winning side, whether its cricket or any other minute competition. Winning has its own happiness and gratitude. Yes it has – no one can deny that fact. We always want to win because we have been putting a lot of efforts and energy, might have even sacrificed many things, to make something happen. Hence, winning something could be a dream or even someone’s life goal. Winning can surely boost one’s confidence and can give fame, money, happiness. But, is winning always necessary or even possible? (Nation wants to know)

Cricket is the most popular sports in India. It’s in blood of every Indian. No matter what day it is, Indians are always crazy for Cricket. People can easily compromise their studies, work, business or for that matter anything for one cricket match. Cricket doesn’t have age barrier – kids, youngsters, middle age, or senior citizen – all of them will enjoy cricket in their own way. In every gully, “Gully Cricket” is very famous in India where each gully will have their own set of rules – Trial ball, one bounce one hand (ek tappi ek haath se), direct on glass out, direct outside certain boundaries etc. Even at gully cricket, I have seen them being pushed for winning. And I completely agree, we, as a human being, always want to achieve top position – win everything.

Today, in this article, I specially wanted to discuss today’s India Vs Australia ICC WC2015 semi-final match and reaction of few Indians I encounter throughout the day. Everyone was so excited for this match #WeWontGiveItBack #MaukaMauka were few of the famous tags. People were glued to their TV such that clearly traffic was lesser on roads during peak hours – I felt like Diwali. Office floors were empty and canteens were full of supporters to cheer up Indian team. Hundreds of people gathered at every possible place to enjoy semi-final match, with all high expectation. Few of my colleagues were on leave to enjoy their favorite game with family without any disturbance while enjoying chips, pop corns, pizza, and cold drink while watching. Few of my overseas friends were up whole night to witness today’s match and still managing to work during office hours.

But unfortunately India lost the Match. And soon, supporter where converted to critics. I heard one of the colleagues stating – India lost half the match when Dhoni lost the toss itself, really? My question to them – Has India never won the match while chasing other teams? I heard another person – Bowlers don’t know how to bowl, really?? My Question to him – Wasn’t significant contribution from Bowlers in Seven Win! Someone was stating our team doesn’t know how to play, really?? My question to them – does that mean in last world cup none of the team in world knew how to play Cricket? Do you really know about sportsman spirit? Many of friends were discussing – we already knew that India was going to lose today, really? My question to them – are you a great astrologer? Can you even predict what you are going to have in dinner today? If so, can you please help farmers of India? Some mentioned – we wasted time today, really? My question to them – did anyone ask you to spend your time in watching that? Do you tell the same thing to your kids when they return home with 2^nd or 3^rd rank in school/college? Till now I was just talking about so called ‘highly qualified’ people from sophisticated ‘IT Tech Park’ crowd. As bashing was not enough, while going home, even my cab driver said “I wasted my time. As usual Indian team doesn’t have skilled bowlers and good batting line”. Cab driver continued; don’t know what they are doing on ground. Not a single player can make century! We don’t have a bowler who can control the opponent! Dhoni should have done something! Total waste, we had so much hoped for finals but all in vain. Really, what a shame! My question to them – If we don’t have good bowler, how we won other matches? Do you know what you are doing in your life, do you have any goal? At least they have goals to achieve. Do you think making 100 runs is that easy! – Have you ever made 50 runs even in Gully cricket? Have you ever actually been on the ground and tried to hit the ball and made it to the boundary? Do you really know the size of ground or weight of bat? Why your heart was filled with ‘hope of winning the cup’, because India performed spectacularly till now - winning every single match #Giving batting to each player in opponent team#! 

Indian cricket team is representing our country to the whole world. We MUST respect them. Because of them we are in one of the world’s top most cricket teams. Sports is all about winning and losing. Today we lost; tomorrow some other team will be in that position. But the point is – they have courage to do it for their country, #Respect# them, Respect their efforts.

We are proud of you, Indian Team. Welcome back and all the best for upcoming matches. #Wewilltakeitback#

Thank you friends - who have shown sportsman spirit and trust the Indian Cricket team.