Thumbs-up Tobermory

I believe in one simple concept: long week-ends are for traveling. The Victoria Day week-end gave me the opportunity to visit Tobermory - a picturesque getaway by the shores of Lake Huron. It was a five hour journey from Toronto, Greyhound to Owen Sound and from there a taxi (boy I wish I had my Canadian license). Along with me was my roomy and partner in all crazy travels, Abhishek. We reached there on Saturday and used up the day in soaking up the town. It’s a very calm and laid back place in contrast to the hustle bustle of busy Toronto city life – a difference we truly loved! We put up at Beth’s Bed and Breakfast InnIsFree - a very neat and cozy place with amazing wooden interiors and fabulous breakfast.

Sunday morning we started from the National Park Visitor Center on the Bruce Trail - a walk that shall remain close to my heart till I carry my bones to the grave. Along the trail was a breathtaking pebble beach with rocky shores that merge into the sea, amazing patterns carved out by the waves. A Siberian Husky, owned by one of the park rangers, playfully joined us on the shore. Among other crazy things, we did not miss out on scaling the 500 plus stairs of the watch tower for its scenic vista.

After the trail was conquered it was time for us to visit the Grotto on Cyprus Lake. The only challenge we faced was lack of wheels – it was 18kms from the visitor center and we did not have the time for a walk. “Alexander Supertramp’s” spirit overpowered me and I stuck out my thumb for a lift on highway 6. I remain ever indebted to that angel of a couple who obliged and gave us a lift to the Cyprus lake trail, where they themselves were headed to.

From there began our walk towards the Grotto - a cave carved out by the waves with a deep water filled tunnel that opens into the lake. It’s beautiful, it’s one of nature’s miracles and the water is icy cold! The climb down the rocks to the Grotto is no less of a challenge even for a linebacker! We stood there dazed, appreciating nature’s handiwork and the florescent blue waters. Time passed by and soon we realized that we were behind schedule – so many things to do, so less time.

Without wasting a minute we rock-climbed back to the trail and headed for Marr Lake - a beautiful pebble lake with rocky undulations and blue-green chilly waters. After a short ‘pit-stop’ there we hiked on towards the Horse Lake. Like the Marr, Horse Lake was rocky undulations under water and hot-bodied eye candies lunching on the shores. Here I rested and filled up my lungs with the fresh breeze that smelled of sweet water. With all the hot spots covered, we walked back towards the ‘head of trails’ to recon with the couple for a ride back to the town.

By the time we reached Tobermory, it was dusk – the ideal time to head for the port shore-line and capture the setting sun on Lake Huron. The day was very physically demanding and I am glad to have lived up to it. Dinner was at Crow’s Nest, a bar with great fish n chips and a live band playing to top all.

Day three began with a cruise of the two ship-wrecks and Flowerpot Island, on the ‘Blue Heron’. Flora and Fauna well preserved and maintained by the Fathom Five Marine Park at Flowerpot Island offered us an unscheduled rendezvous with a venomous snake! There were beautiful wild flowers and orchids on the island, gravel beach, water in different shades of blue and green. But the best of all were the two naturally formed flowerpots (small and large flowerpots). The ride on the ‘Blue Heron’ cruise brought out the sea-faring adventurer in me. It was past noon, when the cruise brought us back to main land and it was time for a quick take-away grub and a taxi ride back to Owen Sound to mark the end of an amazing week-end!

Word to all my friends, take out time for a trip to Tobermory – it’s a must do thing while you are in and around Toronto.

Money

In today’s world, it surprises me to find how money plays the role of the corner-stone in almost anything and everything. Most of us are driven my money - we change jobs to make that extra bit, some work two jobs to have more of it. Society benchmarks an individual’s success on the yardstick of the money that he/she has makes and saves. There are financial jargons aplenty to set the value of a company, even evaluate the economic dynamics of a nation!

Parents/students even consider education as an investment and their decisions in choosing a stream of study or specialization is heavily influenced by what is commonly known as ‘Return on Investment’. Effective advice/coaching are few and far away, but ones that sell false promises and gimmicks to sure success, are in every corner! Doctors have long forgotten the 'Hypocrites Oath' and are simply gold-diggers in modern world. Even in today’s sophisticated, moderated and so-called ‘peace-loving’ world, wars are waged to plunder riches and oil – still so barbaric! The 'hot babes' are no longer emotional fools to love the one who loves her most – they are busy landing rich and successful men! It does not matter how many they have had used and misused for their financial gains.

Let me give you a short example from my own life. I started my career with a decently paying job and settled in one of the costliest cities in India. I did well enough for myself, held my head high and yet did not deprive myself or my loved ones of the basic comforts and joys of life. Six years down the line when my salary has increased four fold, I have introspected to find that my happiness has not. I am that very happy a soul today as I was six years back. I am content with His blessings and have no major regrets in life! This only brought me to conclude – money and happiness are not related. Happiness comes from contentment not from ones Net Asset Value.

I could go on and on talking about the ills of money in the world that we live in. I do not wish to sound preachy either. But to cut the long story short and to conclude on a positive note, I humbly urge each and every one of us to introspect, to be responsible for once. Money is not the solution to all problems, it’s not the ticket to paradise! Let us not balloon up the role of money and add to its spoils. At the end of the day when our time is up, we will have to leave all this money behind, so why waste running after it all life?

My Prayer

The sun, the moon, the stars all look the same – no matter where I look up to them from. Then why do I see differences down here? Is it because I micro-evaluate the world? If so, I pray to Him to elevate me to a level where I can see all as one – all as part of Him.

My bags are packed and I am ready to go...

In 29 years, it was my first snow in Dec ‘09. I hail from a tropical country, India where the winters are never as harsh as in Toronto. My work assignment brought me here in Sep 2009. Come November the days got remarkably shorter and the nights colder till finally it snowed. After the heavy pounding all night long, the vista from my apartment was breath-taking. Trees, cars, streets and the park in between the constellation of apartments - everything whitewashed with powder snow! I was inexperienced and did not realize that paddling though the snow would be a totally different ball game. That evening after office I bought snow-boots and a two layered, snow-proof jacket. Rest of the winter was all snow and the travel crazy adventurer in me had no option but to stay indoors watching old movies several times over in the week-ends and weather the snow to/from office on week-days. My first winter in Toronto was not so exiting time after all!

But now with the onset of spring, there is a dance in every step and a song in every lip! And boy am I happy to finally unfreeze from my winter hibernation of suspended animation? Every week-end I go for day tours of the city, cycle around, take a walk – do stuff to absorb in all that Toronto has to offer. For long week-ends I have my calendar all planned till July. Tobermory trip in May 22-24 and NYC trip booked for mid-June. My bags are packed and I can’t wait to go…

Yawn...z Z z

“….And on the seventh day God came to the end of all his work; and on the seventh day he took his rest from all the work which he had done". God needed it, he made us in his ‘likeness’ and so we need it. Confused? I am referring to rest. I am unclear whether God worked incessantly for six days, but I believe he did rest!

For those of my friends who are atheists, let’s look at the importance of rest and sleep from a modern scientific perspective. Sleep rejuvenates the body and sharpens cognitive functions. It stands proved, sleep debt causes mental, emotional, and physical fatigue and when prolonged heightens risks for weight gain, hypertension, Type 2 diabetes and cardio-vascular diseases. So what’s the magic number? For a normal adult 7–8 hours of sleep at the ‘right time’ daily should do the trick.

By now you must be wondering as to why this blog? I have a few friends who did not get this information at the right time and have suffered. My mother knows it, but is too busy doing ‘more important’ things. This is why I am relentless and want this message to go out to one and all, so that they may benefit from it. After all life is not a race, let’s enjoy it as we pass along

On Disparity

Disparity is the mother of creation. As long as creation shall remain – disparity would as well. Macro-cosmic chaos, motion of five elements in relativity and micro-cosmic disorder are all results of this. Taking cue, we humans and our socio-economic behavior pattern is no different. Population moves away from areas of lesser resources, masses follow ideology of a stronger man, money flows towards tangible higher value commodity – the examples are countless.

Mankind has only done good by consciously and sometimes sub-consciously appreciating this chaos of inequality. Riding on the waves of change, great feats have been accomplished. Why only mankind? All forms of life have evolved into stability benefiting from disparity.

Like the pain in pleasure, death in life – disparity’s destiny is unity. I believe, from its macro to its micro cosmic scale, this chaos shall rest in peace. Disparity shall meet unity – this is but eternal truth. History stands as testimonial, that we have been harnessing our existence on this fuel of difference. Is our existentialism stopping us from accepting the truth that there shall be harmony and thus an end to all chaos? With this my question remains - whether man has injected the venom of his greed into this eternal phenomenon and disrupted disparity’s progression towards unity?

On their Weakness!

It at times pains to see how soft and weak mankind has become - soft to dilute the difference between the right and the not so virtuous. Weak that they tremble when it comes to taking a stand. I believe it this very faculty of discretion between the noble and base, that makes us humane. It is this ability to introspect that makes us superior than the other forms of life God created around. Personally, I have taken a stand and have chosen to walk with the strong.

These Days!

Last couple of months have been crazy busy for me. It has been a chapter of my life rich with experiences and challenges - meeting new people, travelling to new places, working in a new environment. Back in the comfort zone of my simple, mundane life amidst my friends, family and loved ones, I guess I had softened down a bit. Mellowed down on my ‘stay foolish - stay hungry’ perspective. But this paradigm shift in my surroundings has provided me with an opportunity to rediscover myself and gain from my experiences. I have been able to rekindle my hunger and I have been humbled into feeling foolish by the company of ‘street-smart’ people that I have to interact with daily in course of my daily life these days.

I share apartment with a go-getter colleague of mine. Of all the good things he is, his ways to attract and enamor women from different countries, across all age groups and socio-economic background simply puts me in awe. Truly some people know how to be the cynosure of attention. I wish him all the best!  
Inset pic: Abhishek by roomie

Reflections

Except for a few good friends I have made and a few prizes & Star-of-the-Month/Quarter awards, I have not had much quality experience as a takeaway over the last 2 years of my association with TCS (does not include the technical expertise added to my CV). On retrospection, I find that most of this time I have spent entangled in the mundane mazes of rat-race. Leaving home at morning 8 o’clock and returning at 10 pm, has left me with very little time for myself, very little time to align myself to life I have outside office.

Let me confess, that I chose to join the IT gamut over management study only because then I believed that it would provide me not only with vital professional exposure but also serve as a worthwhile investment of time and effort. Till today, I uphold a very objective outlook towards my job - I work and at the end of the month get paid for the services.

However over the last few months I have begun to feel that I am missing out on the big picture, derailing from the essence of my belief - it seems I am getting consumed by the materialistic, mean and cut-throat outlook of the corporate world. I am so wanting to draw a line, put my papers and call it a day (since I am not enjoying it any more). But there are some things, no matter how much you would love to, you cannot do - only because there is a potential of greater gain if you abstain from. So folks, I would say - not yet!

The crux of my outlook towards existence remains, in lines of Swami Vivekananda, ‘Expansion is life, Contraction is death’. Expansion here does not mean an expansion in waist-line or tangible property - it means expansion in self-revelation - ‘knowing thyself‘. Let us try to join hands and make our office a more cohesive, inclusive and tolerant workplace - a place where we fire-fight to achieve the targets set by others’ (our supervisors have their targets set by their supervisors and the pressure of meeting targets goes all the way up to the CEO, who is answerable to the shareholders and market). So that, at the end of the day we have the time and energy left to attune ourselves towards our greater goals.

A life transforming retreat!

On 15th December, I attended a religious retreat, centenary birthday celebration of Swami Ranganathanand-ji's, my 'Guru' and the 13th president of Ramakrishna Math and Mission. This seminar was pivoted upon the topic Total character building for success in lines of Ramakrishna - Vivekananda - Vedanta philosophy. This was the first religious retreat that I have atttended till date. There were eminent monks of the Ramakrishna order, orators of international repute, delegates from across the globe, who shared their views attuned to Ranganathananada's ideals. Some senior monks shared some incidents from Ranganathananada-ji's life, spoke about his ideals, his life and his work. The day was truly an enriching experience. I purchased swami Ranganathananada-ji's book on his interpritation of the bhagvat Gita. This day shall remain etched in my memory as a day that changed me into a better person.