Day 4 - Mihintale

On the top of the mountain we also came across a king sized lizard and N and I just freaked out at it;s mere size. We somehow waited and waited for it to leave and then just ran away from it.

The drinking water was pretty sweet on the hill top.

As with any mountain, the climb down was swift and easy. We had our lunch at the roadside restaurant downhill and waited for the next bus to Sigiriya. As there wasn't any direct bus on that line, we took a Bus for Dambula.

Unfortunately, Dambula wasn't in our plan so we did not see anything around Dambula. Of all the cities though, Dambula appeared a lot more developed to us. We waited out, had some south Indian snacks, bought a SIM card and boarded the next bus to Sigiriya.

Unfortunately, we had taken a lot more time so by the time we arrived at a town before Sigiriya, It;s name I forget, It was pitch dark.

We somehow got down from the bus after the locals helped us. And then we entered our Guest house which was directly from one of Hitchcock's movies. Nothing had prepared us for the Grandeur and the lack of human beings. There was an old man who was the owner of the place and lot of servants. He took us to our cottage on the backyard.

When we asked for the dinner menu, all we saw was overpriced items, so we went out to check out some restaurants. As it was around 8 PM, all shops were closed. We somehow convinced an old shop to serve us some cheap dinner. Determined that she will not have Sri Lankan lentils, N went inside and took charge of the kitchen and made the dinner herself. The boy like cooks sheepishly laughing all the while and taking orders from N.

We cam back to the spooky guesthouse and somehow caught some sleep. When we woke up in the morning, we realised the grandeur of the place. It had full size women sculptors, metallic wires hanging from the ceiling, a false pond and what not. We were just glad that we did not see all these things the night before. We had out breakfast and left for Sigiriya in a Tuk Tuk.

Sigiriya is a bit more difficult climb than Mihintale and a lot more beautiful. We saw the various paintings of all the King's queens, from all over Asia. The top of the hill was majestic. Looking from down, one can never imagine that the top can be so flat. During the climb we gave up a couple of times but finally kept our spirits going and reached the top.

The road leading to the hill also has beautiful gardens, a natural water flow system and few natural fresh water taps. The architect had designed the city beautifully using the gradient and pressure to his advantage.

Sri Lanka - 3- Anuradhapuram

Unlike the rainy night before, the day wassunny and cloud free. The weather also wasn't too cold.

Anuradhapura sits top on the cultural triangle that people call it, Polonuwara and Dambula are the two other cities which complete this triangle. The city is like an average smallAsian city but once you enter the historical cities everything around you changes. Before leaving the Mahanela Guesthouse we wrote down all the places we should be visiting and wrote the names on the map. For the first time here, N tasted an Omlette. After a leisurely breakfast we randomly walked up to the road and negotiated with a few tuk tuk guys and settled on the final price, and the places to be visited.

There are huge domes in Anuradhapura, about three which have been restituted and a couple in a decrepit state. Nothing prepares you for the size of the Stupas till you see them. We started with a temple and then walked up a Stupa, it as painted in white and merged with the background quite easily. We came back to visit this stupa at night, and it was beautiful.

The tuk tuk driver took us around all the beautiful sites and dropped us somewhere near the railway station. Anuradhapura railway station is a blast from the British past. The display was completely manual and the time of arrival of the next three trains actually had a physical clock watch against the train name, while the time of arrival was actually shown in the clock watch.

We came back to out guesthouse for dinner and met an European middle aged couple and their adopted daughter. The next day we had to travel to Mihintale and then onwards to Sigiriya.

Day 4:Mihintale

We left the guesthouse after breakfast and took a bus towards Mihintale. Mihintale is about 17 KM frfrom Anuradhapura and by now we were well comfortable with the local transport. I don't remember now, but I guess we should have gone to the main bus stand at Anuradhapura and taken a bus for Mihintale.

Mihintale is a long climb. First the steps, then more steps and finally a lot more steps. In between we saw a few historical monuments like the King's sabha, a place for monk worshippers and a school kind of set up. Towarrds the top there are two more hillocks.On one end a huge Buddha statue while on the other, there's another big stupa. I enjoyed the stupa more. You could sit around it with your legs dangling down and enjoy the view up-to as far as you could see.

Loose thyself

Ok, so the story goes like this. There was this person who wanted to see Tagore, when Tagore was on his deathbed and wanted some everlasting piece of advice.

So he goes through Tagore's secretary and asks the secretary also about some advice. He scribbles on the gyaan seeker's note pad "Know Thyself". When our man goes to meet Tagore then,  Tagore flipping the pages asks him about the Know Thyself gyaan, Tagore then scribbles, "Loose Yourself"

I have this personality trait, that when I am seeking something, I just go after it without worrying about whether I am in company of a group, with a friend or alone. The objective matters so much to me that I just forget everything else. It's been some time since I called upon that function in my personality, because it does drain me of a lot of energy, when called. But even otherwise, when analysing myself from outside, I see that trait manifesting in some or the other form in my day to day interactions.

I did spend a lot of time during my engineering in my college library reading out of syllabus books, foreign authors, Aristotle, Socrates.Og Mandinho etc. During these days, when I did start studying for my exams I picked up the syllabus, picked up the reference books, few last years question papers and just started studying. It took me a few semesters to come to this approach but I kind of stream lined the whole thing. At that time I did see others around me who studied in groups of two or more. To me at that time it kinda looked odd as to why people do that. The only time somebody came to me was when he/ she had a doubt, and felt I knew things. I rarely did, but I asked a lot of questions so that others could better articulate their doubts, and once they did that, they realised that they already had the answers. I only once approached my senior with a doubt. He gave me just a simple advice. Re read the whole thing as many times as you need to till you figure it out. He was right, and then I did not need to approach any body else. I rarely approached my teachers, I kinda felt they merely read out from some stupid India author's book and did not have a lot of depth on the subjects, except a few.

Fast forward all these years, and I tell N to start a blog, start writing more rigorously, bring a lot of discipline in her writing and all that, and then I get frustrated when nothing moves. Finally the penny dropped a few days back when I realised the differences between her and me. She needed a lot of support, wanted to do things along with me, always wanted me by her side when trying something new, and all I offered were lectures, and why can't you see the bird's eye only, everything else is noise kind of BS, that I naturally seem to come up with.

Baby you are a rich man

Life seems to be flying by. Days at office, weekends. It is moving so fast, that I don't seems to have time to stop and reflect. A lot of times, when taking a chai break at work, all by myself, or looking down from my 5th floor office I start thinking, where have I come ? How come did I end up here? What have I done?

Btw we bought a refrigerator today. I tried resisting it for as long as I could, but then just bought it. Something to the tune of actions being in disagreement with my approach / take on life.

I don't know why but I have always wanted to be a ascetic. Though shall not carry any baggage physical or mental kind of stuff. But then, I am moving away from it. As crazy as it might sound, someday I might also harbour a thought of buying a house or a car.

The house buying is slowly coming to me. The great Indian housing dream. The mortgage life. The 20 year loan. Buying an asset for the future.

Anchoring my self to an idea. A job, a landmass, a city, a country. It seems to be a drifters homecoming.

Happy Diwali 2012

A few firsts in this Diwali

• We bought cane based lampshades
• My first married Diwali
• I want to go to a temple on an Indian Festival. Not the typical Omkareshwar types, but Ramakrishna Mission in Khar types
• We have discovered the chocolate shops in Crawford market, when we were trying to find cane lampshades
• I am paying a rent in Bombay. 
• I bought an upgrade for a game. Letter press on iPhone. Today
• I am using a Mac Book Pro( mine) and an iPhone( from Office)

There is this scene in English Vinglish after the video where Amitabh Bachan says something on the first experience - Pehla Anubhav. I like that