Agra...

Taj..
Mental Asylum

Some how since my childhood Agra has always been associated with the above two. There was a time when i thought there was only one mental Asylum in India.

The journey to Agra was long and tiring but it brought back a lot of memories. More so because this was the first time I went on a holiday trip with my kid brother in a lot of years now....

The rush that this trip started with, Vicky not making it to the airport on time and still we fighting it out to get him on the flight. Let me tell that felt like one of those movies where the entire airport is running to hold a flight. (It was not as dramatic, but was close). That rush lasted until the end of the trip where we were trying to balance n-number of things at the same time in the last couple of hours we had in Gurgaon.

Rahul's wedding is what actualy triggered the trip and than Dharma and Vicky came along to see Agra and finally even Chotu said chalo why not...


Saw Taj again and refreshed my memories of the Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sekri....it's a beautiful place...sometimes i want to go to this part and walk each street and see the local areas around.. there is so much waiting to be discovered..to be found...to be understood...

It sure was an action packed weekend !

And we went again.....

15th August 2007 and we were off to Goa again and this time, we took the Konkan Railway. I had heard so much about it and hence went with really high expectations which as it always does lead to some disappointments but still it was beautiful......

the drive from the station to Gomes Villa, felt better than last time because this time we knew exactly where we were going. Sad that Mr. Ashley Gomes mentioned, he has sold the place and we might be the last guests there.

Celebrations were on the cards with Vicky's birthday cake cutting, by the beach along with candle lights and sea waves singing the birthday song followed by gambling at Caravala and Herman's birthday starting with gambling at Caravala and a brunch at O’ Coqueiro (where Charles Shobraj was captured twice)

The high point of this trip was Caravala and the amount we gambled it was loads and loads of fun. Specially the two consecutive days of hitting the jackpot on the slot machine, followed by Vicky, Herman and Me going berserk on roulette tables !

And sleeping on the beach at night while the boys walked to the sea all drink !

Goa has an amazing affect on me....:)

Ananya

A few weeks back I found my self in a state of mind where I wanted to go away, not physically but at least mentally. I wanted to disconnect my self from the world I had known to be mine, for some time and do something different which would give me peace. But at the same time I did not want to be alone I wanted people around me people who will have no expectation of me people with who I will be able to just be my self without thinking if what I do or say might hurt them .....

Strange how people who are dear to you some times unknowingly drive you so much away by doing nothing, I am sure I do that to people too......

Any way, this is when I was reading through Pritesh's blog and one in particular caught my interest. When I read about the kids in Ananya and the Birthday party that Pritesh had I buzzed him and told him next time they are visiting the place I would like to come along hoping that this would be soon.

It was my lucky day, he called me 2 days from than asking me if I wanted to come along to Ananya for a celebration as the kids who had appeared for the exams had passed. Of course I was more than happy....

I had the most amazing time playing with the kids there, they were just so loving and their smiles were contagious. They did not want to know why I was there, or if I will ever come back again, what was important to them was that I was there at that moment and they wanted to make the most of it.

We played some games saw the classrooms and some of the work they have created on the computers followed by some speeches by the kids who had appeared for the exam. I haven't been there since than but would surely love to go.

What I learnt from my visit to Ananya--- Don't hold on to people, hold on to happiness.....