Year 2015

Dear other,

There is so much to not talk about my year 2015, yet I force myself to put it down for sake of a ritual or training of summarizing everything and compiling stuff in a compact manner to declare an imaginary end of some episode that only we think was worth compiling of.

Does it make any sense? Never thought about it, right? Because what matters generally is to DO, not to STOP and waste your time in this 'FAST LIFE'.

With due respect to 'JUST DO IT!', I preferred not to 'just do it' but to rather question everything that we want to do and get away with.

Thus I ended up living one whole year with no plans and no targets. I took the path least traveled. A path I wanted everyone around me to travel except me to find the jewel of love. Yes, the path that leads to MY HEART! (Sounds cheesy)

I was so heart broken to realize that no one really understands me and loves me. They fail to reach the depths of me so they misunderstand me all the time. I tried to explain why I did what I did more than I was asked for. I tried to seek justification for all that seemed unjust to me. I blamed all possible people, society and whoever seemed to have power for being unfair to me and others like me. VICTIMS! Ah! How distant it all seems after this one whole year of travelling. I have left it all far behind me now. But it is important to mark that start line somewhere to actually realize and celebrate the movement. Yes it is indeed all about the move.

So I did take a plunge inside and fell on my face in deep shit :) Obviously it was not so pleasant for anyone to stand there for even a while. No wonder people got pissed off with me when they came closer to me. Now I know why they did what they did. Congratulations to myself! One big mystery solved.

Now what? I just created some more pile of guilt to crush me down in a suicidal move, hoping that it will end this vicious cycle. But, then what was it that I wanted to kill really? Is it really the body or the mind? What if mind lives beyond the body? Is mind the real problem? If yes then what is the solution?

Good question. And this was just the beginning of asking such really good questions to myself. There was no hurry to answer or to even care what the answer was. It was an alien territory for me already. Very different from the world outside and quite overwhelming too. So I decided to take it easy.

One question at a time. This was not a test even though it seemed to be. It was a wonderful process of feeling my heart beat, experiencing the shiver throughout the body as deep as unknown and the urge to hold on to something for I was no more grounded by gravity inside me. I was thrown into the space of nothing. All I had which i could call mine was just a memory. Memory of being someone, something with respect to something else and someone else. I was nothing even in my memory without the other. This is how important 'THE OTHER' is.

The other is the only thing that makes me me. Gives me gravity. Pulls me down and makes me stand. Helps me to look at and speak to. The other is all I have to be myself.

Does it make any sense? It did a lot to me this year.

This year, I met myself thanks to you.

I love you.

My definition of travelling

Dear boots,

What do you know about travelling? More than me? Ok. But pretend that you don't since you have no mouth to talk, and listen to my version rather philosophy ;P 

Visiting a place is like visiting a person. You have heard of them, gathered some information and most of the times made some assumptions along with the 'to do' list. At least I confess to have these ideas in my head. But the real experience is always more than imagination and changes all that we believed till then. Walking through the new cities, we experience the joy of discovering a new dimension of the otherwise obvious reality on a very personal level. As if two people walking next to each other are actually perceiving two different worlds all together yet sharing the same ground on some level. Makes sense? Anyway, check out some picture I took while travelling.. 

We think we are together, But we are not. We are on our journey yet we don't really look around rather we are looking beyond

Beyond what meets the eye and lies ahead. The unseen. 

There is a lot unseen in front of our eyes. Something that we don't find interesting enough

Mundane

Something we cross all the time

But never look across 

But some do. and find the beauty

In everyday life

We can find the connection which is so subtle

So artistic 

and picturesque 

amid all the traffic

One may find the path

Some address

A place

So warm

to rest

and all that in the very place you are. 

Because even if you are not travelling, the nature is. The weather is changing all the time. As if it is on the move and we are it's refuge. Hosting it.

Living in Rome

It was a dream come true to visit Rome. 

It was so overwhelming to just be in that city. I allowed myself to just get blown away with the beauty and feel the sense of history that was abundantly spread everywhere. 

But it was only possible because of loving husband who planned our first anniversary to Rome and made it even more better by buying me this baby. My new Cannon. So that I can :)

This is the very first picture I took

Shaky, out of focus, bad composition and a very unpleasant model. But that's just the beginning of my photography experiments. It got better with no of photos I took, according to me. So here's how we reached to the decent photography skills.

Taking stupid pictures

But the best part was waiting for us in Rome. Our accommodation where we spent a whole week. It was a small guest house surrounded by a small garden with water fountain, sculptures trees and some antique outdoor furniture.

Thanks airbnb

                                                                         Entrance way

and there was more inside. A living room full of wonderful books on almost all subjects capable of seducing any book lover, an original painting by some unknown artist, a small TV and a center table with two candles and chocolates for our anniversary celebration. What a thoughtful host! I can't thank enough.

and the kitchen was even more inviting with some fresh fruits on a cute little dining table. That awesome crockery from grandma's time and a gas stove! yay!

The original Thanka painting and that cozy corner..

 The best part was undoubtedly this cozy and welcoming bed!

This was pretty much the end of day rather night 1. Our first morning was so beautiful. We walked upto a nearby bus stop and what we saw was this beautiful dome of St. Peter's Basilica

Rome: The Eternal City has a very mythical history. There is very less record to confirm it's origin yet it never fails to mesmerize people from all over the world. It is evident when you look around as a tourist in this beautiful city. I am sure many of them might be interested in Art, heritage, Anthropology, History, Archaeology, Literature, Science, Environment, Town Planning, Architecture, Photography and may be just an enthusiast. Rome has so much to offer to all kinds of people coming from all the continents. It was clear to me that we will never be able to grasp even one aspect of it which is more relevant to me, which is ARCHITECTURE. Since 7 days are really not enough to cover it all. So we decided to take it easy and just see the city from outside. We explored it ourselves with the help of Maps and some books. I read a lot of blogs online and they were really helpful in visualizing the stay there. I would recommend you to spend a lot of time in reading and comparing these blogs before you make your own decisions. I am not giving any links in my blog in this context because I believe that this information is getting updated almost everyday and every hour on the internet and it'll be better to go with the latest one. There days they also give rating and make videos on such topics which I found very helpful. I would like to express my gratitude to such people here and in fact confess that they are my true inspiration behind writing these blogs.

So this is how we started. Our first stop was Largo Di Torre Argentina where the are Archaeological site close to where Julius Caesar was killed, also home to a colony of cats.

This is set around the sunken Area Sacra and the remains of four Republican-era temples, all built between the 2nd and 4th centuries BC. These ruins, which are among the oldest in the city, are out of bounds to humans but home to a thriving population of around 250 stray cats and a volunteer-run cat sanctuary.

Read more: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/italy/rome/sights/squares-plazas/largo-di-torre-argentina#ixzz3vYUtG42a