My trip to Andaman - Begins

Well finally the day arrived, after one long year I would be meeting my parents and of course I was damn excited to visit the “Island”. Well my flight was via Vishakhapatnam, I had to spend a night there and catch the flight to Portbliar the next morning.

2 hours of waiting in Delhi Airport and 2 hours of Flight, but I was prepared -  I had my beloved companion “ My book” with me. I was ingrained in ‘Shiva Trilogy’ and all of a sudden person next to me introduced himself. I was not much interested but then I got to know that he is  a combatant in Indian Navy. That’s it, I kept my book aside and we had a 2 hours enriching conversation ranging from what is the role of Indian Navy in case of coastal attack like 26/11, Indian Aircraft Carriers, Why I should Join Indian Navy, what should her daughter pursue as career option etc.

Finally I reached Vishakhapatnam Airport and headed for Bagging Collection area. The wait for my single luggage was so long that I started Guesstimate on how many luggage did my Airplane carried and what are the odds of my luggage among that, well the MBA hangover I guess ;-) As soon as I came out of Airport I realized something very important. It was the first time I was visiting Andhra Pradesh after bifurcation. It was no longer my home state. It was a strange feeling, although I seldom did care about the bifurcation !!!

My  room had an A/C and I was glad. Yes it was necessary man, with 29 `C outside it felt I was back to Sunny days of Delhi and I was sweating like anything. With the beautiful invention “A/C” in my room, I slept like a baby. Now I sit in my bed early morning 5:30 with cool breeze and peace around me. Sipping tea standing in the balcony I realized the importance of the place, surrounded by hills on one side and coast on the other. But I will sign off for now, need to catch a flight. I shall be home in time to eat Biryani for lunch :-D

P.S. I wrote this piece on 13th Dec 2015. My apologies for delay in posting it.

What if our society was Matriarchal in Nature?????

On the eve of International Women’s day I sat down to pen my thoughts on stuff that is going on in my mind for the last few days. 

I heard the remarks and comments in the BBC documentary. I was wondering what made people say such things?? Let alone say, for many of us it is impossible to even think that way.What I could understand is that the root cause of this crisis in our society is the “Patriarchal mentality”. 

Patriarchy is a social system in which: males hold primary power; males predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege and control of property; and, in the domain of the family, fathers or father-figures hold authority over women and children.

We are no longer Patriarchal society per se, but that mentality is still ingrained in us. This made me search for Matriarchal societies across the globe.  Lets imagine our society with the following characteristics.

1.    Women take a leading role in the family (owning property, making business decisions, etc.)
2.   Women have more power/autonomy in many regards than in many other cultures.   
3.    Women is the head of the house. Female has absolute power; she decides the fate of all those living   under her roof. The matriarch also manages the money and jobs of each family member.
4.   Let’s say in the past, may be in medieval times,  there was  no word for ‘father’ or ‘husband’, Women do not marry. Instead, they take as many lovers as they wish, cherry-picking them from within the tribe and inviting them for secret evening trysts.

What I am trying to communicate is that it is all about the powerful class of society dominating the weaker class. In my above imaginary society, Can one imagine a man raping a woman?? Can a man asking for dowry??? Can a man abusing a female in the workplace???? 

So in such a situation, one will not hear the terms like dowry, female foeticide, rape, Marital abuse etc. Yes it might be true that males in that society might suffer and crimes might be committed on them. But that is not my concern and there can be check & balances for it.

Nevertheless what I am trying to highlight is that this is a continuum. On one side we have Strong Patriarchal system and on the other Strong Matriarchal system. It is necessary for our mentality moves close to Matriarchal system. 

What I want is that every single time the following happen, he/she should be ashamed of themselves.

• A Man thinking that I don’t want a girl child !!!  
• A Parent thinking that girls are burden to the family, don’t waste money on her education !!!
• A boss assigning responsibilities based on gender !!!  
• A Man thinking that he can take decisions for his wife/daughter just because he is Male !!!  
• A Politician commenting on what a girl should wear and what not to wear.

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And if he is not ashamed on himself, then the society should make him feel ashamed on his thoughts and tell him that he has a disease called “Patriarchal mentality”. He better get a treatment.

Before i end, let me take this opportunity to wish all the Lovely ladies out there Happy Women's Day :-)

And hope and wish that someday we will live in a better and more harmonious society.

A Trip to Dhanaulti

Although I have been to many trips but never made a blog post on any of them. This one is special and the reason being, my last outing with friends was 3 years back. This was a spontaneous plan and I am thankful to my friends for it.

We booked Innova and Swift for our journey to the hills of Dhanaulti. Well none of us realized then that fighting to sit in Innova was not worth the efforts :P (finally we settled for 4 in Swift and 5 in Innova, trust me when I say those 5 regretted  their decision throughout the journey). And by the time we reached Dhanaulti, most of the people  from Innova switched the vehicles. No no no, there was nothing wrong with Innova, there was just a minor accident and they just survived a life-threatening crash. And add to that, Mr. Driver asked my friends “ Kyu mai Car sahi chala rha hu na, koi dikkat ho toh batana……….” That’s it and my dear poor friends got so scared that their love for Swift magnified many folds ;-)

Well we finally reached the beautiful hills of Dhanaulti by evening. After a bit of efforts, we finally got comfortable rooms at cheap rates. After all  there are advantages of having  “Baniyaas” in the group, isn't it?? As the night progressed, temperature started dropping and it was unbearable for us. But but we spent the night under the open sky till mid-night and cold was bearable thanks to the bon-fire and “U Know What” (haan u guessed it ryt tea & coffee :P) It was one of the best nights for me: open sky – Bonfire – Friends – Music – quality time wid Friends.  There is an Eco- Park in Dhanaulti as well, do visit it if you want to make a stock of DPs and Fb Cover pics. We now have month long stock, or I guess more than that ;-)

One of the many Cover pics in Eco-Park 

Next morning, we started our journey back down the hills. Our next stop was Mussoorie. But our return journey down the hills was a roller-coaster  ride. Yes the reason being, our Mr. Driver refuses to learn from past experiences. He has seldom idea that there is a difference between driving in the pains and in the dangerously turning hill slopes. Anyway, keeping him aside, Mussoorie didn’t disappoint us either. “Mall” road did live up to its expectations. Pahari- women have that natural beauty which has no comparison. What do you think, what was our motivation when I say we roamed in the streets of Mall road tirelessly for hours in the cold winter evening. Apart from the beauty, food is delicious as well – one can try a lot of stuff in the market but I will have special mention of -  Kalsang Resturant if you have any taste for Chinese.(Special thanx to a dear senior of ours otherwise we wud have had Panner & Dal Makini in dinner as well :P)

LalTibba

Lal Tibba is the highest peak of Mussoorie. Do visit that place. Best view of snow-clad Great Himalayas and Sachin Tendulkar has a vacation home nearby to that place. Although it is 4Km walk from Mall road, but none of us trusted our legs and lungs that much, hence preferred to take the vehicles up the hills till Lal Tibba.  From there we started our return journey back to Roorkee via Dehradun. By this time, we were so accustomed to the “safe” driving of our dear Mr. Driver that we left everything in the hands of almighty. At one point I was praying that even if the Innova falls down the hills, No-Entry movie climax be repeated.(if u don’t remember, go and watch it you will understand my feelings).

Finally we reached our hostel safely. It was one of the most memorable trips for, got to know my friends more and it was a extended weekend well spent.

P.S. Although we missed out on few of our friends, they were busy wid some important work. But we are sure to compensate that in our next trip. Hope to have d next one soon J