Christine McVie - one of my all time favorite performer!

Before I say anything in this post just have a listen to the audio song over the below link.

Main points from the song or about the song - 

 - The lady in picture was in hiatus from music for 16+ years. 

 - The lady in picture has written the lyrics for this song.

 - The lady in picture has sung this song as well.

 - The lady in picture is 74 year old Christine McVie.

If you think, lyrics can be any more beautiful than this, I bet you are wrong,

If you think, at that age, you or for that matter me, can still rock like Christine McVie, my friend you are wrong.

If you think you can carry that persona as Christine McVie even when you are in your 70's you are wrong my friend.

Irony is can you carry yourself first at 70? forget carrying the musical persona. With all your senses betraying you, performing this optimal at 70 can happen only if you are a legend and Christine McVie, my friend is one of the greats!

Take a bow Christine McVie, what a song, some people continue to amaze me with what they got to offer, in terms of music in terms of life lessons, in terms of everything!

Cheers,

Irony of two stares - Part 2 - Alter thoughts - 16

I forgot to write this as a part of previous post, I guess that post grew too much longer for my liking to put more words into it. Hence abruptly ended it.

The post was about a boy who could not afford gym membership staring from outside the gym window, looking at others working out with amazement.

If I can go back in time some 20+ years ago, I myself knew one more boy who used to stare at the gym from outside. This boy used to stare at the gym from outside while going to school or coming back from school and always wonder, when would he ever get to exercise. He was too naive as to what it takes to exercise and what gains one gets out of exercising. This was the 1990's a time when only the purists exercised and there was no much brand marketing involved with exercising, or supplements.

The boy used to stare at a gym which was located somewhere close to Vivekananda college, Rajajinagar (white horse vicinity). I'm not sure if the boy could afford a gym membership or not. I'm even not sure, if the boy knew how much hard work it took to continue working out day in and day out. All he was staring at in amazement at the people working out.

He resembles the construction laborer which I have written previously. Does this resemble a simile in place, just separated by 20+ years of time? Need to confirm.

The boy in contention over here is none other than me. I was the one who was peeping into the gym from outside. I couldn't help myself with exercise because I was too naive and young.

I think, that habit of peeping into gym shall never go, because, I still do where ever I find a gym while going to office or elsewhere I still give it a good stare. Though most of my stare is met with their marketing gimmicks each time instead of people working out.

Reminds me of the good old days when it was all about exercising instead of gym memberships and discounts. A peek into the gym would leave you with a picture of people exercising. Now it leaves me with pictures of sculpted bodies, which are most likely due to steroids and supplements and of course gym memberships/discounts. Such is the irony.

There you go, simile, irony, nostalgia all in one post :) (How about a metaphor please? thinking!)

So much of Malleshwaram nostalgia guttered by ever growing urbanization; feels bad. (this calls for another post as to how people react when I put such words in front of people who cannot understand it, like about nature for that matter. so I chose to write here!).

Cheers,

Irony of two stares - Alter thoughts - 15

Staring at something, means looking at something for a period of time most likely with eyes wide open. So here I try to write about two different instances of staring each one representing its own dimension.

I am trying to pitch in irony (not sure successfully), I am also trying to pitch in as to where do I stand between the two different ironies which I try to describe.

This incident relates to the gym where I go everyday to workout. The entrance of the gym is a wide vinyl door with a huge class where visibility is two sided. One can see outside and outsiders can see inside. Also all along the wall there are posters of good body builders lifting weights, flexing muscles.

You can stare at these pictures for minutes together looking for some inspiration. Thats what most of my friends do. I too do sometimes. These pictures are meant for inspiration.

But one day a stranger was staring not at the picture but at the people exercising, and not from inside but from outside. He was a small guy a construction worker or a laborer or some kind. He was amused by the people exercising within closed enclosure. He might be wondering, what he does as a day job for living, these people are doing it by paying money. Let aside his thoughts.

What I felt was, he was someone who wanted to exercise but could not afford. He might be thinking, "When will I too get to exercise". On the other hand my friends who exercise stare at the posters and think "when will I ever get such a muscular build up".

Irony is both of them are unsure of making it. The construction laborer in order to visit the gym regularly has to change his line of profession to earn more to afford a gym membership.

My friends who stare at the picture, have to exercise more and eat correctly for months and years to come which I'm certainly sure they can't. So its a tale of two never ending aspirations.

In the middle, I'm there, the silent observer, adding to the third irony of sorts. I can afford myself a gym membership, but I can't even think of getting a extra ordinary build up as in posters, because, my primary focus area is cardio and secondary being strength training. So as of today happy to observe.

Cheers,

PS - I hope and pray that one day the guy staring from outside, gets his chance to exercise in gym too.  The sparkle in the eyes of the observer is never to be missed. If you ever need to look for hope and inspiration, on how to lead a great contented life, you gotta look at these people, I'm sure you will get a plenty.

The best part of being in the gym lies in the fact that, sweat has no economic status of its own. Sweat is not measured by monetary terms. This should go into another post altogether :)- May be some other day. 

Nice incident during one of the Himalayan trek - TTTT 39

Its been some time to my last Himalayan trek, but I clearly remember what all occurred during that trek, most of which I have not written. Today I remembered one such incident, and I wish to write down before I forget it.

Btw, if I end up writing all the crazy interesting encounters during all my travel, I guess I will have atleast another 40 entries more saying TTTT.

This Himalayan trek which we did was about 9 days long and it was one of the toughest trek in Himachal. Our pass crossing was on the 7th day. We had to climb up to 16k feet on the 6th day and halt at the base camp at almost 16600 feet.

Start of the day itself, we realized weather would take a toll on us and as we started climbing on the edge of the mountain, it started to rain. We were almost at 13k feet altitude. One of my friend on this trek had told me, it never rains at that height it only snows :). He was dumb struck when it started to rain at 13k feet and it continued for almost 3 hours non stop. It was not heavy but it was continous.

Imagine climbing up with that 12+ kilo load on the edge of the mountain amidst this rain, one slip will send you tumbling downwards. There could be landslides as well. Amidst this there was a bear sighting out of nowhere, I had written about this in an earlier post. I just had crossed the path alone I couldnt spot the bear and the person coming behind me after 10 mins had a head on encounter with the bear, incidentally the bear ran away. All this adventure at 15000 feet where people say its hard to get oxygen to breathe.

I don't know what to say but crazy!!

But the main point of this post was not about the bear or altitude. All this rain had left us with wet trousers partially wet bag wet shoes socks. We did have spare. but carrying a soggy clothing would mean pass crossing would be a good 2 kilos heavier.

When we reached the base camp around 2 pm it was windy and rain had subsided. It was very chilling out there. Windspeed was picking up at 16000 feet. We decided to stay indoors in the tent and take rest while our guide was roaming outside screaming curses at the bear to come out in the open.

He was saying to the bear, "if you have drunk your mother's milk come out in the open and face me :)" . All this to the bear which can't understand Hindi/English and all this at 16000 feet. Is that really needed. There were landslides happening just opposite to us at a distance, we could see that, this person shouting like a mad guy could trigger an avalance too which would come rumbling down towards us :)

Luckily nothing like that happened. I was praying all this while for the Sun to appear (of course I was praying Sun god). The guide was constantly telling me, nothing of that sort will happen this weather will continue throughout the day he told.

I was optimistic, because I had to dry off my trousers, socks, shoes because tomorrow was pass crossing day. And guess what around 4 30 the sky cleared and sun appeared

The guide acknowledged and exclaimed, " Aap prarthana kar rahe the na, bhagwaan ke saamne, dekho sooraj aa gaya" (Means, - you were praying in front of the god and now you see the sun is out)

I felt so good, I could not believe my eyes, I could now dry few of my stuffs. What a day it had been. God answering our prayers was the icing on the cake. It felt like a miracle. Indeed it was.

So there goes one more tale from my trek or travel -

Cheers,
Sandeep

Some of the incident that happens even with strangers or friends stays with us for a lifetime. Aint that nostalgia after all ? Of course:)- I do not know what our guide or support staff for this trek are doing right now, but wherever they are I pray for their good health. They have given me enough memories to write about for a lifetime.