yet again ... getting lost ... then enjoying self-discovery ...

I had read of the proposal to construct homes in the Osmania University Campus but for some strange reason it did not hit me till I talked of it over phone with a friend; that it would take a part of the campus away. After I put the phone away I wondered on how the campus has – since more than a year – been an integral part of my life in Secunderabad. Silly enough, for a while after I moved to Hyderabad was not aware to staying so near to the campus. The Campus. More than a year of walking and I continue to discover fresh-for-me paths, small temples, neat dargahs and more in the campus. This week’s addition has been the Deer Park. ( A case report in Zoos Print published during 1999 says that 10 deer were introduced in the 24 hectare demarcated area in 1990 and during 1999 the deer population was 90+ ). It today lies abandoned. New buildings slowly raise their presence amidst existing brilliant architecture and houses – many of which lie uncared for. Open spaces, some of th...

Kullu and Naggar Nimesh Ved Published by The Alternative on 20th August 2015. We move towards Autt from Gushaini simultaneously charged and exhausted from our trek in the Great Himalayan National Park ( GHNP ). Here we put up at a fairly basic hotel that lies amidst the stretch of shops which constitute the Autt market. An evening walk in the market had us pick up walnuts and red kidney beans to take back home and apples to eat; each of these local, fresh and delicious. When we returned to the hotel we saw the hotel manager in exactly the same position that we had seen him when we left; busy playing teen-patti ( card-game ) online. Reach of the mobile-phone based internet and uses people put it to has been a mind-boggling phenomenon. As one travels, one learns more of one’s own country people. Not being able to contact the person we had planned to meet, we dropped the idea of going to Shimla . We would instead go to Kullu, the morning next, for Dushera celebration. D...

** Cradling on the tracks, Getting lost in thoughts, Memories of days long gone, Open eyed dreams of those to come, Shutting off world, when in laps of those near and dear, Staring at all around, from within nature’s lap, Rekindling the art of doing nothing, Knowing a bit more of my country as I move. ** No tabs, laptops, fancy phones, people trying to look important, Such a difference as one moves to the more interesting class, Open windows and meals with unknown, Few years ago most of us moved this way, Today, only a handful see it as an option, I wonder why ** She comes to sell toys as the train moves across a reserve forest, I wonder if I could buy one or two toys, Like the newspaper I buy in evenings if stuck at the traffic signal, For the seller and not to read, She carries sharp features and a baby, Passes again after a while – tone more pleading, One of those who owned and lived amidst untamed lands, Got only this from devel...