Gobind Sagar - The Submerged Temples

|Don’t tell me how much educated you are, tell me how much have you traveled| ~ Fellow Traveler

Gobind Sagar Lake of Himachal Pradesh has remained a bright shining star in the history of Himachal Pradesh for various reasons. Hydroelectricity, fish breeding, water sports and so many other things, which even I do not know. However, one thing that is worth mentioning here is the submerged temples that have gone down under the deep waters of this Man Made Lake.

One can visit the lake during any time of the year. Those who want to see water must go during the rainy season. Those who want to see the submerged temples must go during the summers because it is practically possible to hire a boat and see the temples and appreciate their architecture, if you understand anything about it or not, you can’t stop praising the make and design of the temples. It is believed that Pandava’s built these temples during their Exile [though I am not sure who built it or Pandavas even existed] but yes whoever made them, he/she was a genius. Those who just want to go, it does not matter what time of year it is, take a bus go there, have fun and come back.

The lake is so full of silt that its bed level has raised by at least 5 feet for sure. Boats run from one bank to another because it is faster medium of transportation and it also saves money because state transport costs you 1 INR per KM where as the boats run of the mixture of kerosene oil, gasoline, diesel, water and so many other additives that can pollute the air very well and cost nothing actually. Usually the charge is 5,10 INR per trip but in case if you want to go close and look at the temples, you might have to pay 200-300 INR for an exclusive trip. There is one temple that can be seen in its full form and shape, as it lies outside the major water body.

However, walking on silt is dangerous because it is soft, it has absorbed water over the years and it has become swampy at places. So place your foot firmly, hold your camera tightly and jump on the silty desert of the Gobind Sagar Lake.

There is another temple that lies close to the lake and it is called as 'Dholra Temple’. I, and my twin brother were born somewhere near this area but that is not at all related to this blog post ;)

The Silt Desert

The road diverges from the extremely busy National highway-21 on the left hand side, just when you are about to reach Bilaspur coming from Chandigarh side. There is no proper mention or sign board but then here in Himachal people are fond of helping and sharing, so ask anyone and you will get the right answer with all the directions about turning left , right and what to do and what not to do. Do not worry about parking your car, truck or bus because there is ample space in the hearts of people when it is about God. Parking lot of the Dholra Temple would be at your service.

God has settled upstairs @ Dholra Temple

All photographs by Jaipal Mandyal [Humble Arrogance]

P.S: Do not carry plastic bottles and in case you are too thirsty make sure you carry your bottles back because if you do not carry it back, the GOD will punish you, one day ;)

Road to Leh(2)- What you bring back?

Why do you go? - Road to Leh(1)



When you go, most of the times you come back ;)
And you do not mind bringing something back from the new place. So here is what you bring back from Leh.

What you bring back?

You bring back memories? – No

You bring back photographs? – No

You bring back sunburns, bruises, messed up motorcycle, torn clothes, swollen fingers? – No

What you bring back from Leh then?

Well, if it has to be one liner, you bring back ‘life’ in your ‘life’ from Leh.

However, when you go to such an amazing place, one liners always fail, you have to look into the details, you have to explain, express, feel, share, spread and just say it loudly because otherwise, the heart will fail the brain, your eyes would not be able to contain the mystical beauty of unheard and unseen places that appear after every turn of the road, on your way towards Leh.

Obviously, the road will be tough. You have to pay the price. The already costly petrol will cost you more. You have to drag your pillion, your bags, and your vehicle and not to forget, yourself too. You may even fall down in ice-cold water and realize later that you have made a mess of your whole body.

But you will feel rise of a man/woman/human inside you, who wants to fight and take that last step that makes you feel good in your head.

To reach somewhere, at least once in a lifetime.

To defy the odds, where none exist.

To win the race, where nobody is running because there are no prizes to be won.

You bring back an emotion that says, yes, nature is good; it is bad to spoil it. The softer side of your character might feel that bringing plastics to such places is bad because it makes the already difficult life of BRO [Brave-Border Roads Organization] and local people even more difficult.

You get to know people, [arguably] the most beautiful creation of someone sitting up there or down here. You remember the guy in Keylong who runs a bakery and calls it German Bakery, you feel good about the nice food you had at Koksar, and you bring back soil or stones from the beautiful More Plains.

You look at the boundaries [International] and wonder what is it that makes India and China two separate nations, if it was not for International Borders, people look the same and eat same things and even talk the same language.

You also bring back a feeling of patriotism because when you meet a soldier who has been married for 2 years and out of those two years, he has spent 22 months in a tent at the Kargil Hills.

Yes, you bring back nothing other than absolute bliss and pure happiness.

You bring back a promise of revisiting.

It makes you happy even after six months of your ride because when someone comes and asks you about your visit, you can feel the joy in your voice when you explain the blissful feeling of going to Leh.

Lastly, it gives you stories, stories about life, stories of life. It gives you an opportunity to be a story teller, the one who went to Leh.

After all, we all are living a story.

|लेह चलो|

What If I was a Girl?

I had gone to the local bus stand at 4Am in the morning yesterday. JP [Humble Arrogance] wanted to smoke a cigarette and i wanted to eat/drink some fresh air, so went to the bus stand and saw buses coming from different places and going to different places. People got down, some boarded the bus and the journey continued. It gave me a very strange and nice feeling that I was looking at the moving buses. Drivers changed hands , passengers got changed but the bus moved on, to a new destination for some and the same old one for itself.

I felt happy that I was looking at buses and the lights and the open sky and the dark black roads.

I felt free, I wanted to come down and I came down.
I did not seek anybody's permission, I just thought and I did.
JP wanted to smoke so he smoked, I wanted to look at the buses, so I stood there and watched. I did not care about the taxi drivers who were drunk or those who were not even taxi drivers but were yet drunk.
I laughed loudly, I even abused randomly, some people looked at me but they were drunk and I was not.
The buses went away, I said a silent bye to them and JP laughed at me because I was looking at the buses, I said Fuck You to him and asked him not to blow his smoke on me.

We came back and then I thought a dangerous thought, What if I was a girl?
I would not have owned a bike and even if I had one I would not have come down to the bus stand just to look at the buses.
I would have feared my parents, what if they get to know.
I would have tried to hide it from my brothers because they would have felt bad.
I would not have told this to my boyfriend because he would have simply not taken this shit.

And then I reached my room and realized that I was not a girl. I did not have to seek permissions or hide anything from anyone.

I don't seek permission of my parents for many things, for anything almost, but things would have been very different if I was a girl. Permissions, rules, freedom, free will, this looks crazy when I think about life that way because we ,for sure,live in a crazy society.

There is a good old friend of mine who wanted to buy a dress, a nice skirt. She told me that she would buy it and wear it in her house because it was bit revealing and uncommon for a small town.

I did not think twice before buying a worn-out jeans for myself and she lost the charm of the dress because people would stare. She even told me that people try to make a move if they see someone wearing such dresses.

Ah! We live in a crazy society for sure.

What if I was a girl?
I would have been very very sad if I were a girl. :(

"My pain is only as large as my inability to see pain around me" [दर्द - ए - डिस्को]

My sister has this weird disease, which doctors call Pancreatic Calcific Chronic Stone. She has experienced the painful but amazing process of Endoscopy twice in the last 1.5 years. Endoscopy is amazing because they put something into your mouth, that reaches your pancreas, reflects your inside out on a screen and doctors put certain things in order to make a flawed man/woman, normal again.
Endoscopy is painful because when they insert that wire in your mouth that reaches into your stomach, it makes you go crazy in your head. I have never been Endoscoped but pain must be unbearable because when I brush my teeth in the morning and the brush strokes become a little harsh, sometimes my mouth starts bleeding. So the wire, aluminum/steel/whatever wire when moves through your mouth into the throat and then into the wild, it must be painful.
Now to make the case even more interesting. doctors tell her that she will have to undergo Endoscopy once in every year for the next five years, so that they can remove the unfailing production of stones in her pancreas. She has some problem with her glands that keeps her pancreas full of stones of different radii and dimensions. To keep things smooth and less painful, they have inserted a device which is known as Pancreatic Stent and it pains as hell whenever she tries to move or bend. Moreover, when they will probably fix her case, five years down the line, she will have a maturity gift of Diabetes.

So she was feeling low and sad for all these things happening with her and not so good upbringing of her two year son , which I am sure as hell is 100% going good, because at 2 he knows Hanuman Chaleesa, Raamayan, Mahabharat, and when someone told him not to write with left hand, he replied that it is my hand not yours.
However, to stay on the topic, one fine day I met her old friend in Hamirpur. I spoke to her and asked for her number and passed it on to my sister. Just before that day, I spoke to sis and although she did not express, I knew that she was sad and in a very painful condition. Now both of the old pals speak to each other and the next day she tells me this.
Sis: I spoke to her
Me: Ok
Sis: She had a problem of Rheumatoid Arthritis [गठिया] for the last 8 years.
Me : Ok
Sis: She did not move out of bed for 8 long years, relatives will change her clothes, sponge bathe her and perform every thing on bed for her.
Sis: I can even talk, walk, see and express. I feel sad for her.
Me:Ok
She had to visit PGI few days later for her regular follow up. Things were not as good as expected and she calls me again.
Sis: I met my close friend's father [some other friend] today in Solan.
Me : Ok
Sis: He is suffering from lower back tumor [or something even more serious]. The lower part of his body cannot move. He is completely dependent for the last 5 years. His whole body was a mess and I felt very bad and sad.
Me: Ok
Me: Probably this is a message for you that you are good, in a good condition. Although I wonder how comparing your pain with others can make you feel good but yes that is the way it is. You are blessed/privileged to live a better life than those two [ or probably millions of people] just make the best use of it.
Sis : How do you know?
Me: Come on, you only told all this to me seven years ago, when I broke my leg in three places and back in two. :)

Sis: Ok
Moral of the Story: दुनिया में कितना गम है, मेरा गम कितना कम है || My pain is only as large as my inability to see pain around me.

Road to Leh - Why do you go to Leh?

Road in river or river in road, it becomes very difficult to tell when you to go to Leh.

It becomes even more difficult when cold water coming directly from the pure snow of Himalayas enter inside your shoes while you try to push your Royal Enfield through the muddy waters.

Ironical it may sound but you smile when you realize that your last pair of socks is wet as hell and you can drain a bucketful of water out of it.

It becomes horribly difficult when you try to sleep inside your tent during your transit stay and you feel that you have difficulty in breathing, chilly winds making you schizophrenic and you hallucinate that the tents flowing in the air.

And you know it before you plan to go to Leh.

You knew it last year as well, when you got stuck in snow for two days, slept in the back seat of a Tata Sumo, walked 17 fucking kilometers in snow, sun and water.

But you want to go there, again, this year as well.

And for the coming years also.

This is what Leh can do to you. This is what the Himalayas can do to you. They make you crazy.

You live in a city/village/town where the roads are bad, traffic is crazy.

You complain about the road condition, the traffic and every other god damn thing that is uncomfortable.

Yet you want to go to Leh where the definition of roads changes completely. You do not complain about it then, you want it to be like this.

You go there because the snow manufacturing factory of Almighty is set up there.

You go there because those lands are still pure, unknown, yet known to everyone.

You go there because unless you go there, you will never be a complete owner of a Royal Enfield

You go there because because those roads call you.

You go there because it makes you proud in your head and if there was any heavens up there, 'this trip' will definitely count for salvation.

Infact, Why you go to Leh is an invalid question. You just go there because you should go there.

|Seek Salvation | लेह चलो|

मैं मृत्यु सिखाता हूँ - Osho

Here is an excerpt from the book, which speaks all about its beauty and depth.

एक बार अंधकार ने भगवान से जाकर प्रार्थना की थी कि यह सूरज तुम्हारा, मेरे पीछे बहुत बुरी तरह से पड़ा हुआ है। मैं बहुत थक गया हूं। सुबह से मेरा पीछा होता है और सांझ मुश्किल से मुझे छोड़ा जाता है। मेरा कसूर क्या है ? कैसी दुश्मनी है यह ? यह सू...रज क्यों मुझे सताने के लिए मेरे पीछे दिन-रात दौड़ता रहता है ? और रात भर में मैं दिनभर की थकान से विश्राम नहीं कर पाता हूं कि फिर सुबह सूरज द्वार पर आकर खड़ा हो जाता है। फिर भागो ! फिर बचो। यह अनंत काल से चल रहा है। अब मेरे धैर्य की सीमा आ गई और मैं प्रार्थना करता हूं, इस सूरज को समझा दें।

सुनते ही भगवान ने सूरज को बुलाया और कहा कि तुम अंधेरे के पीछे क्यों पड़े रहते हो ? क्या बिगाड़ा है अंधेरे ने तुम्हारा ? क्या है शत्रुता ? क्या है शिकायत ? सूरज कहने लगा, अंधेरा ! अनंत काल हो गया मुझे विश्व का परिभ्रमण करते हुए, लेकिन अब तक अंधेरे से मेरी कोई मुलाकात नहीं हुई। अंधेरे को मैं जानता ही नहीं। कहां है अंधेरा ? आप उसे मेरे सामने बुला दें, तो मैं क्षमा भी मांग लूं और आगे के लिए पहचान लूं कि वह कौन है ताकि उसके प्रति कोई भूल न हो सके।

Osho used to speak in discourses and people would listen. The publishers and his friends will make notes while Osho would speak. This one is also one such book where Osho speaks, people listen and we all gain.

P.S: If you want to avoid interpretations and just enjoy what he says then go to OshoWorld, register yourself and download the audio files. You can listen to them before sleeping and you do not have to judge it, listen to it have fun, sleep well, get up and go to your work next day. No confusions/contradictions with your previous ideologies or thought process.

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Wikipedia Link

Work of Genius!

Have a look at this link : Duplicate Site

Now have a look at this site : Original Site

Did you spot any difference? The duplicate site is a duplicate site because it is a Pishing Site.
Pishing Sites are duplicate sites that are designed and developed to fool ignorant people. Online Banking is not a new thing but it is always a new thing for those who use it for the first time. Moreover, those who work in a hurry or have over confidence also fall prey to the Pishing Sites. Lastly, luck plays an important role in getting robbed or winning a lottery, which simply is beyond the scope of human beings. However, precautionary measures can be taken to avoid problems.

The Duplicate Site mentioned here is work of genius. It does not allow right click, it looks like the Original SBI site and it makes you feel that you are going in the right direction.

नकली साईट

असली साईट , Look at the green security certificate

Have a look at the two snapshots and you will understand the difference between an original and duplicate site. An original site will always provide a security certificate, which is usually green in color. Secondly, when you try to login the URL changes from http to https, where 's' stands for secure. However, the duplicate site here is designed skillfully and you do not feel that it is duplicate or fraud. It can reach you like Online SBI or Online SBI Demat or Pay Online SBI.

When you move ahead with this duplicate site, there are high chances that your Anti Virus or Mozilla [Browser] itself will detect the phishing site and warn you. If you dont have any anti virus or intelligent browser then things can take bad shape.

However, if you want to admire and see how these hackers work, have a look at the snapshots ;)

You get a waring if browser is intelligent

Replica of OnlineSBI login page

Look at the top message and then enter your details. I entered random details and the website said that I had some limit fuck up with my account, so I should enter my card details.

Make sure you don't get fucked up because of such sites.
However, if you already know about Phishing Attacks you can spread the word and admire this Work of Genius ;)
Cheers!

This is what one user has to say and it does make sense.

The green bar at the top(which you have shown as a prominent difference) is only visible in Firefox. The more fool-proof way of authenticating a website is looking for the 'padlock' symbol in the lower right corner of your browser. Before you enter your password anywhere (google, gmail,irctc,SBI,billdesk,paypal), make sure the padlock symbol appears without any exclamation mark. The padlock symbol indicates that the security certificate presented by the site is authentic and belongs to the openend site only. And as a spin off Facebook does not as yet use security certificates, hence its passwords can be intercepted by attackers. SO PLEASE DON'T GIVE THE SAME PASSWORD TO YOUR FACEBOOK AND MAIL ACCOUNTS.

Change Ahead!

Trains are getting canceled and my parents have to pay for that and I am sure that several other parents are going through the same. I understand that India is my country and sir, I am an educated man, so I know the value of patience and flexibility, so I did not complain for the first four days of this stupid reservation and railway-track meetings. However, now as you don't look like doing anything, I am sure you are doing certain things, but as I am unable to see those things, so I assume that you are not doing enough to stop the damage. I wonder what stops you from taking a direct action against the people who demand such things. They might have their own set of conditions, which forced them to uproot and disturb the railway traffic but I am not concerned about that, at least my father is not. He paid all his taxes, remained in his service as a good man, served the nation for 30-40 years and at the age of 67, you do not expect him to have more patience. He has a fundamental right to relax and see this beautiful country. I don't think he needs to be worried about 5-6-10 or 49% reservations or ‘chakka-jaam’ or any other thing that keeps popping its head one day or another because it is your duty to see to that.

I bet that you are also an educated man like me and understand clearly what needs to be done in such situations and with the grace of god; you have all the powers in your hands to make a call. I am writing to you because I feel you understand that this is not right. I am hurt and I bet that several other Indians are also hurt because of this. Why don’t you send a message by appearing on TV or take some concrete step and ask people not to do this? If they do not agree then you can apply the police force. I am sure you know the rules of Home Ministry and are aware of its powers, if not then I will read the clauses and rules for you from the rule book, which will tell you what to do in such situations.

You have the CRPF and the Railway Force and I am sure you do not want the railway passengers take care of themselves by fighting against the 'antisocial elements'. At least my father cannot do this because he is 67 years old and my mom suffers from 'knee-joint problems', so I expect railways to step up and protect them because my father has paid his taxes, voted in all the elections, served for the Indian Government, so the ball is in your court and do not tell me that nothing of this sort has happened yet because I don’t want anything of that sort to happen and I am sure that you also do not want any such thing to happen.

And the irony is that my father has remained a die-hard congress supporter all his life. It might sound that I am emotional and indeed I am emotional because my little graduation degree tells me that this is plain and simple wrong. You [Home Minster] has a Harvard Degree and the honorable Prime Minster has a Oxford Degree, so I expect you guys to make better decisions and make them fast. You can also say that your plans might not make sense to me but they make sense to no one in my circle and some of my friends are from the same Universities.

You complain about brain drain and call the fellow Indians to stay back and work for their country; I do not see any country sir. All I see a reserved state of states. Of corrupt politicians, brittle bones and spineless leaders, who know not how to take care of an old man who worked for his country considering it his own country? I don’t understand how you expect the unreserved class remain faithful to this country. Even the reserved people are leaving this country sir.

I bet you are an educated and patient man sir, but make sure this patience pays off to someone. It did not pay for my father, I am 25 years old, and neither had it paid anything for me. Make sure for the coming generations, you have a better plan.

Regards

Tarun Goel

P.S: The aim of this note/letter/plea/request/anger is not praise, neither facebook likes. I want educated people to step and make sure that we make a change. Write to these ministers, they have given us the websites to write on. If the websites do not work, call the media, the news channel.

The modern age has equipped the 'educated men' with Internet, let us make sure that we make proper use of it. In words of Zuckerberg, Facebook is not entertainment, it is a platform to voice your opinion.

That is what you can do when you think of job, you can't leave your job and start running an NGO, write to them because unless you let them know, they will keep pretending 'as you do' that everything is right because it is not happening to me.

Please, please and please, do not wait until it happens with you. I am visibly hurt not because a train got canceled but because I have started questioning my decision of staying back in this country and doing something for the nation. I want support, help and 'men'. Voice your opinion.

http://pmindia.nic.in/write.htm - Write to PM

http://pgportal.gov.in/ - For different ministries

http://pgportal.gov.in/

http://delhigovt.nic.in/cmin/ - For Delhi People

http://www.tn.gov.in/grievances.html - For Tamilnadu (Chennai) People

http://74.86.24.243/pdcallcenter/online_complaint.asp - For Noida People

http://home.nic.in/contactus - Write to NIC if govt website is not working

http://cj.ibnlive.in.com/ - Write to IBN7 - Make a change | Be Famous

www.citehr.com - An Interactive Site

P.S- Do not wait for it to happen with you because Godhra| Dhaula Kuan| Gurjar|Aadarsh|Rape|Murder|Stamp|Satyam are very painful individual experiences and it hurts when it happens.

Avoid the pain, Make a Change

Cheers!

Money! - Case I and Case II

Case I:
I read a news in the newspaper regarding electricity bill of Ambani House that was close to 70Lakhs. Many of you would have read that news and if not here is the link [Link]. It is assumed or calculated that it would have helped so many households of India to run their houses free of electricity charge for one month or so and that would have been proper 'utilization' of [Ambani's] money. Mukesh Ambani earns in thousand millions and his spending quality and needs may or may not be of the same level.

Even some of my acquaintances told me that it was pure wastage of money and it could have been utilized in a much much better way.

Case II
An X person earns 21 Thousand INR per month and he lives in a flat in a metropolitan city. He has a smart phone , he wears branded shoes and branded clothes. Half of his money is spent in paying the rents, bills and food. Rest of the money he 'choose' to spend to fulfill his wishes, which may be buying a Royal Enfield Thunderbird or a True Value Maruti Car or paying for the school fee of an underprivileged kid who he thinks 'must have' education , depending upon how much he earns and how much he intends to spend. So, he does according to his wishes and he knows what his duties are and how to make himself happy because that is the bottom line, everyone wants to be happy.

An auto rickshaw driver earns 10000 per month and whatever he saves or manages to save , he spends according to his choices, wishes and needs, as every one else would do.

A newspaper hawker will earn 5000 per month and he will spend it according to his needs, choices and wishes. It can be said in his case that his 'needs' will overcome his 'wishes' but you never know if his needs are actually stronger than his wishes.

Case I + Case II:
21k per month earning person wants to earn more or at least fulfill all his desires and these desires have been increasing with the increase in salary or money. Few years back [two years back] people were getting 16k per month for a job and now they get as much as 50k per month for the same job in the same company for the same work at the same position. However, there are desires unfulfilled, cars not bought, flats not owned, foreign land not seen and much more to it.

Ambani spends 70L for his house and some spend 5k for their flat rent. Some have their clothes washed by 'baai ji' [maid] and some people do not. Some have smartest phones in the world and some do not have a pair of shoes to cover themselves in winters.

And it is not hidden, it is right there in front of everyone, visible.


Amabni spending is a sin because its incomparable to 21k. However, 21k is also incomparable to 100 INR per day [NREGA], which depends on the availability of the work. If Ambani spending too much is a sin from someone's point of view, X's spending can also be a sin from someone else's point of view.

Point is not to decide for others but to decide for one's own self. 'We' live in a system of privileges, some are privileged and some are underprivileged and to spread the brotherhood and love, those who have higher or more privileges have to step up. And the last and best judge will always be the person, all for himself.

Are you privileged?
I 'indeed' am.


P.S: What if we are designed like this | What if inequality is a balancing force of our society.

A poetic man on mission - Dr. Kumar Vishwas

Dr. Kumar Vishwas needs no formal introduction in India. He is famous for his lines 'It is good to be a poet than a bad engineer' and that is exactly what he has been doing for the last 15 years.

Moreover, he has become more than that, a better human being with every passing day.

I had a chance to speak to him for the Spread Positivity! campaign and he agreed to share his story, thoughts and experiences in a very subtle but impressive way.

How he left is engineering degree, what came next and what was left behind, he speaks his heart out. He also talks about his upcoming project 'Bharat Boley'.

You can have a look at some of his videos as well.

"कोई दीवाना कहता है"

"कुमार विश्वास अमेरिका में"

Read on @ http://tinyurl.com/36bxpyn

Spread Positivity