With this Economy

Where are we heading? Money & power makes people dance on its tunes everywhere on the globe. With the dismal advancements in economy, jobs are being cut in thousands everyday. Everyday you go to Reuters and see some XYZ is cutting 7000 jobs. In this turmoil, many people have and are being affected everyday. So what are we going to do about it? Its a vicious circle, keeps engulfing more and more people and businesses every moment. The prices are falling, so is the demand violating the simple price and demand rule of any economy. And its not just hitting the IT industry or Finance, its hitting all segments equally be it manufacturing, housing, retail or anything else. Where is somebody expected to go without even having enough for 2 meals in a day for his family. There are so many mouth to hand people who live pay check to pay check. Its probably the toughest time for them and a fear lingering at the back of everybody's mind as to how the future would be. This entire thing of collapsing economy still doesnt get into my mind seeing its magnitude and gravity. Its quite incomprehensible as to why and how for an economy illiterate for me. I just see people getting jobless and the general moral sinking. I wish there is something that each one of us common person could do to improve the situation. But all this money game across the world is a web spun by Money Moguls. Its something only they can entangle or do something about. So common man is just a silent spectator, i wish we could so something.

Eye Twitching

Daayin Aankh Phadakna, is it considered good or bad? I am sure many people will have 100 beliefs about it. I dont put myself in this list :-). Stress is one factor i have realised atleast for me. Puts you in very embarassing situations sometimes i bet, imagine talking to somebody at work and there goes your right eye. Involuntary muscle movements. Not sure if they are that dramatic that the other person will notice , but still puts you in a spot. I have been dealing with it for almost 2 days now. Never used to have this problem before. Recent addition to the list of my problems, now i am not whining :-)

Void

Time teaches us so many things. It teaches us how to accept certain things the way they are, other things the way they are not. If i look at myself 1 year back from now and compare it to myself right now, 'Change is the only thing thats constant' proves itself without any doubts. There are so many things that i might have considered a big deal earlier, and now it means nothing. Is it all for the good?, cant say.
Our surroundings, desires, dreams, confusions keep affecting our inner conscience constantly and gradually keep changing it. The way things are done on this planet, which has been designed by humans over all these civilizations in the past, some time or the other makes us fall into that vicious circle. The circle in which you get so involved to fulfill your & your family's 'roti, kapda aur makaan' needs and even more so much. What about the needs of the soul, do we ever give any attention to that? Most of the times we dont, as by fulfilling those we dont earn any material assets in this world. And in the first place, its not trivial to identify the needs of your soul. It could be helping others to fulfilling your lost dreams to anything unreasonable. The soul knows no bounds, it can desire anything. Maybe thats befuddling enough, atleast for me so will end it here.

My Day out in San Francisco

It was a bright & sunny day yesterday. I havnt explored outdoors for a while, so i decided to head to the city and make use of my new DSLR. After a long time , this was an excursion i was doing alone on my own and I had a gala time! I took the BART from Fremont to Powell Street. After getting down i walked to the Union Square. It had pretty Xmas decorations. There was a bagpiper playing there, that was fun to watch. From Union Street i walked through the Chinatown exploring the city on the way on foot. After walking about 2 miles and using my extremely precious streetwise San Francisco, i reached Ghirardelli Square. It was fun climbing and descending the hilly roads of the city. The city was bustling with crowd because of the holiday season. At Ghirardelli Square i saw another Xmas tree and a super long queue at the Ghirardelli Ice Cream shop. I clicked some pictures and asked a guy to take a picture of me. The only issue with travelling alone is taking pictures of yourself. You either mount your tripod or request someone. I had a hot chocolate at Ghirardelli and took a short break from walking. It was quite refreshing to sit down after such a long walk. My foot journey began again towards Fisherman's Wharf, and i saw more and more crowd. I walked all along Jefferson and Embarcadero stopping at Pier 39 . The xmas decorations here were the best among all places. Here i tried the self timer mode of my SLR for the first time and took shots of myself. Finally i reached the Ferry building and by this time i was pretty hungry. I went to the other side to Embarcadero Center and had a crepe which was yummy and along with that also had another sit down break. Now i could feel the brunt of my 5 mile foot exploration during the day on my legs :-), but it was fun. I was so determined to walk the entire distance yesterday from the very beginning that i thoroughly enjoyed it and completed it with more energy inspite of the slopes of the city. I was now waiting for it to get dark so that i could use the manual mode of the SLR to take some night pictures. Once it was dark, i walked to Pier-1 to click the Bay bridge. Overall a fun filled day spent with myself. I totally loved the experience of travelling alone without a plan with a Streetwise San Francisco map as the best friend.

Travelling Retrospection 08

2008 is going to come to an end. Looking back, one of the resolutions i had for this year was to travel a lot. So now logging the places i visited...let me think...:

1. Big Sur (February) - Pfeiffer Beach, Big Sur River..
2.Palomarin Trail - Point Reyes National Seashore. (May)
3. India- Delhi, (June)
4. Mount Shasta, Sisikyou lake, Burney Falls (July)
5.SF Bay Bike Trip (july)
6. Camping - Big Sur, Elephant Seals (August)
7. Yellowstone National Park , Wyoming (September)
8.Eastern Sierras, - Bishop, Mammoth Lake (October)

Thats all I can think of, so how did i perform. Probably better than 2007 but still could have performed better in doing more overnight trips. So thats the new resolution for 2009 :-)

There was snow, white snow!

It was a long and dark December..There was snow, white snow. It was Madison, it was 2007. It was University Avenue. There was no bus no 2. I was walking behind my tall friend M, to shield myself from the snow flakes falling from the sky. I was also being shielded by the wind walking behind my friend M :-)..Winter in Madison truly rocks!

Lesson..

We start enjoying things only when they are about to come to an end. Its human nature followed by a majority of this human race i believe. We tend not to realize this fact. While we are in something, doing something, with someone, we forget to enjoy the goodness, pleasant things in that situation. For instance you might not love your job but still you might be enjoying plenty of things in that job which you forget to appreciate while you are in it. Or you might be with some one as a friend/house mate/ any other relation but you might not see the goods that person has to offer. When you are just about to be parted you might suddenly start enjoying being with that person. There are myriad examples. The only lesson which we should learn and try to follow is that we should try to see the small things and enjoy which typically get overwhelmed by other things. Maybe i am writing but not making sense :-) , maybe! Although i am trying to learn my lesson , hopefully!:-)