We are brought up with the belief that there’s a higher power above. We are moulded to believe that our actions are being judged by an almighty being. We are heated and bent till we are of the understanding of a right way to live and die. We are born, we are made, and then it ends. That’s the life cycle, isn’t it?
But why must it be that way? Why must we only do that because we’re being judged? Why must we perform because someone out there gets to say how we must live? Why must we do things out of fear that someone somewhere will shower us with dire consequences if we don’t? And if we must, are those our actions at all?
I wont take it. This is my life. These are my actions. These are my decisions. I do it because its in me to do it. Not me parents, not my friends, not my boss, not even my God gets to tell me what to do. If there’s someone in the high heavens disappointed in me for this, its on them. If my parents spit in disgust or my boss choses to have me leave, its on them. If my friends decide to part ways, its on them. If the world would have forsaken me, and i would have been the last standing person, then its on them. This is me. I am strong as i am weak, I am great as i am torrid, i might be everything you want me to be or nothing at all, but at least i know I’m me.
There can be someone sitting somewhere and judging. There can be someone dictating. There can be a million and one things you should do according to someone else, but if there’s something you want to do, and if it doesn’t affect anyone in a negative way, nobody, and i mean nobody, gets to tell you what to do.
So go on. Live your life. You might live again, but you might not. You might live better, but you might not. There’s absolutely no way of saying what’s coming. But if there’s one thing i can say, I’ll say this. Do not, and i mean do not, live someone else’s life. Its your life, live it as you want. Touch lives. Win people over. Help people. Inspire people. Inspire yourself. Be the best person you want to be. Be kind. Be gracious. Be amazing. Be everything you want to be. Just, you know, live.
You don’t know me. You don’t know the battle I’ve fought. You don’t know the mountains I’ve scaled, and the ocean floors I’ve reached. You don’t know the Suns I’ve burned and the moons I’ve calmed. You might know what you can have, or what you can eat, but you don’t know me.
The power of confidence is grossly underestimated. The power of lack of confidence, just as much. We might come and go in the blink of an eye, but it might take many forevers for your words to get wiped off the sands of time. You may think you know me, and where I’ve been, what I’ve done. You may think you are better than me, and maybe you are. But you will never be me, and nobody ever will. And that’s why if you should never try to put me down. If I’ve done well, push me to reach new heights; and if i haven’t, help me.
There will come a day when you need me. There will come a day when the birds give up, when the bees look the other way. There will come a day when the world fails you. And that day, I’ll be the one you need. For the sake of that day, do not try to put me down. For the sake of everything, do not try to put me down.
I know I’m not perfect. In fact, i know I’m far from it. I know you’re funnier, and smarter, and better looking, and faster, and nicer, and just better. I know it. But i know myself, and i know what I’m capable of. I know that my climb might be slow and that my path might be steep; but i know what I’m capable of.
So, for the sake of life, do not try to put me down. You throw me in the water, like a fish I’ll swim. You throw me in a fire, and I’ll rise from my flames. You don’t know me, but never do something that ensures you never will. I’m a warrior. I’m relentless. You might not see it now, but trust me, you will. In the end, just pray that you’re on my side when i burst out of this cocoon.
Is it a universality where we get up on some unspecified day only to seem like a shadow of ourselves? Is it such an undefined inconsistency in ourselves for not being able to be the best version of ourselves? Every morning, there’s an equal probability of waking up to being you, and being anything but you.
Is it belief that’s the problem? Is it confidence? Is it just the fact that you’re part of an ever changing environment, and somewhere even you change every moment? Its difficult to decipher the root cause of it, but its existence is undeniable. There is almost no way that has been discovered to allow one to be exactly hoe they were yesterday. Yes, it does seem to make the concept of life and its roller coaster stereotypes live up to its name; but somewhere deep down, we all wish for some consistency as well. Few people would like to wake up feeling like an imposter of themselves. Few people would like to get up and not be who they wish to be.
As the strength in my muscles fail to appear, and as my mind of yesterday seems like a distant dream, i know that i don’t feel like myself today. In theory, it doesn’t seem so bad, but the actuality is that its almost impossible to comprehend how disheartening it is to wake up and think you cannot live up to yourself. All of a sudden, your friends seem happier without you. All of a sudden, you seem impossible to like. All of a sudden, your own world seems better if you were not in it. And if you think that’s acceptable, its not. Your body rejects that idea as if it were trying to digest something its allergic to. Its like a food poisoning, but within the extreme depths of your mind and heart.
How does one battle this? How does one overcome this? How can you be yourself, if you aren’t? Its a long war, with the world against you. Its like the whole universe is against you. Surely its a battle lost, isn’t it? But then you get up and fight. You fight till every last drop of blood and sweat is spent, inflicting a drought of monumental proportions in your body. You fight till every ounce of muscle and fibre has shredded. You fight till you cant fight anymore, and then you fight some more. You are your own warrior. You are your own myth. You are your own legend. Even if you are a shadow of yourself, you are still one of the fiercest and most beautiful things this world has ever seen; own it.
I’m dying. I’m dying every single day and i don’t know what to say. I’m dying because i have a disease, and that disease is death itself.
Its a little weird that we all have our own vulnerabilities, but we tend to forget that our biggest obstacle is death itself. I believe that life is an obstacle race, one which we’ve to keep living till we cant no more. The hurdles we keep jumping across are death, and our purpose is to jump as many obstacles as we can before we succumb to our eventuality. I’ve lived a life of merry and learning, and I’ve always felt this inside of me that that’s the life I’m supposed to live. I understand that different people have different lengths they will run before they cant anymore, but there’s always been this feeling that my final destination is a lot earlier than i would anticipate.
Why do i say this? I don’t know. I kinda think that I’ve always felt this inside me. I’ve always had this void, something that tells me not to think further than a young adult, perhaps because the possibility exists that i might not make it that far. I know the irrationality of my thinking, but sometimes the feeling is just too strong to deny. I like to think that I’m a person that doesn’t surrender too easily, but the notion seems a bit too belivable to be true.
While people may disagree with this thought process, i’ve decided to continue with it and focus on the ‘what then’ rather than the ‘should i really?’ I know that there are chances I’m wrong, and that those chances are more likely to occur than not, but then again who’s to say what lies in the future. Rather than someone who dies long before they’re put six feet under, I’d rather be the person to live till he died. I’d rather be the person who died while living, while loving, while learning.
I guess that this thought process definitely comes with its downside. In hindsight i guess I’ve never been able to stick it out in a relationship, or been able to allow someone to be my soul mate, even as a friend, and that’s not saying that I’ve not been a good boyfriend or friend, because i know I’m more than good at that; but its that i feel that this deep down notion i have compels me to be vary about what lies ahead. I guess i have the fear of just not doing enough.
Now that’s not saying that its a bad attitude, because i think that it has yet served me more often than not. I think its enabled me to live better. Its definitely made me a little more selfish, with me thinking a little more about myself now, but its also allowed me to give my hundred person almost a hundred percent of the time. Whether its actually a good way to live or not, i think I’ll never know. But what i do know is that i don’t mind going down swinging rather than never having lived at all.
Gratification. Noun. Pleasure, especially when gained from the satisfaction of a desire. This term isn’t one that is often used when it comes to trekking; however when Nihar Nair of Vagabond started using this as a basis of his treks, it changed my outlook on the entire concept of trekking. Until then, trekking was always about exploring a new place, or enduring a task to experience how fragile human life can be, by pushing myself. The idea of measuring the quality of a trek through the gratification it provides was alien to me, and when this boy with the perfect beard and chocolate brown eyes (at least that’s how the good guys at Vagabond say it) was telling me about it, I was a bit dumbstruck.
I’ve been a trek and travel enthusiast for as long as I can remember. However, in recent times, I haven’t been able to go on a lot of treks, owing itself to many reasons. The last time I had been to Kalsubai was in 2013, in my final year of college, and since it’s the perfect place to start off again, it only made sense to join my friend Shannon Fernandes (who is part of the core team of Vagabond) on their trip there. To add to that, this trip involved a night trek, which I love, and since he could use the pictures, it made sense for me to go.
Kasara is a really deserted station at night, for obvious reasons, but for some unknown reason this train’s lights were on, and they made for a good picture.
For the unaware, as per Wikipedia, Kalsubai (Marathi: कळसूबाई शिखर) is a mountain in the Western Ghats, located in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Its summit situated at an elevation of 1646 metres (5400 feet) is the highest point in Maharashtra which earns it the much glorified title of the ‘Everest of Maharashtra’. The mountain range lies within the Kalsubai Harishchandragad Wildlife Sanctuary. It is visited throughout the year by avid trekkers, Kalsubai temple devotees and wildlife enthusiasts alike. According to the villagers living at the base of the mountain, a woman name Kalsu Bai was punished by villagers and forced to leave the village, and that the woman climbed the mountain and started living on it, and later died there, giving the mountain its name.
The lake below that can be seen is famously known as Bhandardara Lake.
To reach Kalsubai, the quickest way to get from Mumbai is to take a local train from CST to Kasara, which is a decent 2.5 hour journey in itself. From there, you’d need to take a hired vehicle or taxi to the base village Bari, which is roughly an hour from Kasara. Based on the various speeds people tend to trek at, it could take one around 1.5 to 3.5 hours to get to the top. If it’s such a long trek, surely people might wonder why would this be recommended as the trek to get back into the groove. I mean, the trek to Karnala fort is just over an hour, and it’s closer to Mumbai, so why this? The reason is that on the peak of Kalsubai is a temple visited by people all year round. This means that there are many travellers who do it all the time, which means there are a lot of places to refresh yourself, with lemonade sellers. The trail in itself too is easy to spot, so losing your path is almost improbable.
The map, as it says, takes over 3 hours by car. However, there is no way of saving a route using transit because of the lack of data with Google.
Our schedule was a little different to most. As most people want to schedule their trip based on the first train to Kasara, they generally begin the trek only by 5:00-6:00am. However, as our goal was to reach by sunrise, we took the Saturday night train from CST at 10:50pm. This meant we would reach Kasara by 1:20am. The Vagabond itinerary said the taxi would reach Bari and give us enough of time to leave by 4:00am and reach by 7:00am, which is exactly how things panned out ultimately.
I’m a person who loves meeting new people, so deciding to go here knowing nobody other than Shannon made no difference to me. We took the train at 10:50pm, which got delayed and reached Kasara only by 2:15am. On that long journey I managed to strike up conversations with few of the people who were in the group, but being so late in the night, many had started to doze off and grab some needed sleep before the climb.
When we reached Bari, I decided to test my equipment, which involved the borrowed Canon 5D Mark III with the ever reliable 16-35mm f2.8. I made the mistake of carrying Chevlyn’s tripod, which is a heavy duty one. That tripod is great for local shoots, but carrying it for over 7 hours is unnecessarily stupid. In retrospect, I should be proud for being able to not only keep the pace, but not fall behind due to fatigue despite the weight. A few test shots turned out pathetic, but they seemed to be a good gateway to understand what I’d need to do different as we went higher.
One of the weirder shots, which doesn’t look half as bad in hindsight.
The trek was slow as it was not only dark, but the group was filled with people who weren’t used to doing treks often. Given my recent past, I too found it difficult at times, but my ego prevented me from falling short, often pushing myself to stay on Nihar’s toes, who was leading the pack.
As we took our second or third pit stop, which was roughly halfway up there, I decided to take a longer rest as the group went on, so that I could get a little space away from the crowd, and focus on the night sky. The pictures came out surprisingly decent, but pollution from lower areas affected the pictures a bit.
There’s just something captivating of noticing the Milkyway Galaxy.
By the time we made it to the top, there were a few groups there, roughly amounting to around 50 odd people on top. Since it has become fairly commercial, the space to be on top is more than enough for those many people. The sun being up gave me enough of reason to shift to Chevlyn’s dramatic Sigma 35mm f1.4, and click some amazing portrait shots, something which I don’t get to do often.
Meet Sneha Ramanan, though more shall be said about this beautiful soul later.
After a good hour on top, we went and rested at the cafes which are at the penultimate stage of the trek, where we had a light meal. Although I generally don’t recommend consuming milk on a trek, people love to sit back and enjoy a tea in that moment; however, I prefer to fill my tummy with some freshly made bhajji-pavs which are easily available there.
The view from top is almost heavenly, and while I was basking in the view, Nihar walked to me and told me to look at the way we had trekked. Even though it was a lot of inconvenience to carry all that weight, the gratification of completing everything and having the perks of carrying that up, is worth it. This is when I truly understood the meaning behind it. Treks are not just about experiencing, but also learning, and this was my major learning moment.
The trek back down was, unsurprisingly, without any stress, allowing us to socialise and talk the way back. My trek down was with Sneha, one of Shannon’s friends, and Shannon himself. Sneha Ramanan was a graduate of XIC, and was just done with her exams. She’s originally from The States, and her character was one that found laughter in almost everything. It’s kind of great that I seemed like Jerry Seinfeld with the regularity of her laughing, but then again, I feel the world could do with a lot more of such positive energy. Shannon himself was an old friend, so not much that we spoke was a revelation, but the trek back made me learn of his fear of heights. ‘What? Heights? How does a person who work as a trek organiser have a fear of heights?’ I thought to myself. It’s weird as hell, but also respectable, to have to deal with this on every day in the field.
Mind you, Shannon’s fear of heights isn’t unwarranted, with some really steep steps at Kalsubai.
When we got down, breakfast was arranged for, which we had and got done by a respectable noon. Taking our luggage and heading back, I looked back to the top and saw all that I had scaled in the past 8 hours. I was ready to get back into trekking, and I was thankful that the folks at Vagabond had made it such a breeze.
Like every other civilisation, mankind seems to have reached a point where we seem to have reached a end stretch in our potential. Even though there is still so much more scope for improvement and advancements, we still have fairly accomplished the ability to work with everything we have found; in the terms of cosmologists, humanity as a species is classified as a type A civilisation, one that is able to harness all the resources available on the planet. But with reaching such a latter stage in our timeline, the question that rises is ‘what next?’
If one pays attention to the timelines of human civilisations, one would agree that all civilisations till now have had their origins and endings. There have been many theories on social change and evolution, some by more notable sociologists like the German Karl Marx and the American Pitirim Sorokin. However, this brings us to a question we must ask ourselves, in order to try to understand as much as we can, for a potential future. Will our civilisation, like others in the past, die? Or will it evolve into something else?
For that, we must first understand society and how it works and evolves.
According to The Dictionary of Sociology and Social Sciences (Fairchild 1966), social change refers to ‘Variations or modifications in any aspect of social process, pattern, or form… Social change may be progressive or regressive, permanent or temporary, planned or unplanned, unidirectional or multidirectional, beneficial or harmful.’ There have been many theories on the necessarily and causality of social change, but it universally agreed that it is an inevitability.
Until recently, there seemed to be a trend with civilisations, as massive as the Mayans in South America, and as minuscule as the Maori from New Zealand. All societies were born out of evolution or revolution, all peaked, and all got wiped out eventually. Irrespective or the method of it’s dematerialising from existence, all civilisations showcased that path.
There are many methods and theories for social change, backed by a sufficient amount of data, and it’s safe to say that they all make valid points. The initial, and maybe most logical to believe until recently, is the unilinear theory. One of the major unilinear theories of social evolution was stated by French philosopher Auguste Comte, as he assumed every society passes through the same fixed stages of development. In contrast to such evolutionary theories, there are even theories that propose civilisations rise and fall in an endless series of cycles, knowing as cyclical theories. However, whether one believes in the cyclical nature, or even the unilinear nature, it is difficult to argue that civilisations do not have any evolution at all. Universally it is agreed that mankind and his lifestyle has changed drastically in time, whether for good or for bad, and is backed by a substantial amount of supporting evidence.
So, if civilisations have risen and fallen since times memorial, then surely ours will too, right? If history is anything to go by, it’s extremely likely. It might happen tomorrow, or a decade from now, but it eventually will, at least that’s what our history books will say. But despite that, there are many factors to consider.
One of the main ideas that could avoid history repeating itself, is the fact that civilisations from earlier days were distinct from one another. Unlike the current scenario, where we’re surrounded by a plethora of cultures, our civilisation is more or less the same. The increase in similarities, between civilisations, has come up because of phenomena like globalisation and modernisation. Even though we have a lot of war stricken countries, humanity is at it’s most peaceful stage in life.
Despite the fact that there are many cultures fighting between themselves, there are so many more who are working towards a common goal. The world is now a global village and it’s nothing like we’ve ever seen before. But for how long will it be as such?
Before we go ahead and analyse what’s to come, let us understand how things are and how they have been. Until the boom of globalisation in the 1800s with the invention of the steamboat and telegraph, life was pretty different to what it is now, in the modern age. Since communication and transportation was so difficult, cultures were not only miles apart in lifestyle and social construct, but it was the reason for multiple civilisations to exist. In contrast, with all the technological advances, people in Australia are not too different from people in Brazil.
We must concede that now there is a new form of distinction, which is a class and economic based categorisation, there is still no disparity between different cultures or civilisation. What this means is that as time has passed and newer technologies and ideas have been incepted, we have come closer and closer as a species, to the point that we are almost one global community, with different cultures having different ways of leading similar lives.
If we take a moment to understand the current scenario from different angles, it will become apparent how life has transitioned and what path it might take in the future. The growth rate has been more of a ever-increasing-in-steepness curve rather than a line, and that means, as time passes, the emphasis on technological advancement increases. From 1903, which is little over a century ago, where technological inventions were being explored twice as much as 1803, it was at a minute speed as compared to today with newer tech coming out by the day, or even the hour. Not only has communication and transport improved, but even other facets have stepped up drastically. Life is so much more convenient from a technological standpoint that we can say in about 10-50 years, we would be able to successfully harness every bit of energy is available.
At such a rapid pace, we cannot estimate how life is going to change. There seem to be two likely futures for humanity: one where we don’t care enough that the physical environment around us decides to do something about our careless use of resources, and the other alternative is that we excel so much in our ideas and technology, that one day a line is closed and some irreversible steps are taken in the process. Let us analyse both these scenarios.
Firstly, our environment. Every day, we are subjected to numerous forms of media and feeds mentioning our ever increasing footprint on our planet. As much as we would all want to leave our mark, the sort of mark humanity seems to be leaving is a substantial issue. According to the World Bank, the energy consumption per person in India itself was around 142 kilowatt hour (kWh) in 1980, and in twenty years it increased by over 250 kWh to become 395 kWh in 2000, and then in less than fifteen years, it increased by over 400 kWh to become 805 kWh in 2014. On a planet took over 500 years to reach to 4 billion people, we’ve taken only another 40 years to increase to 7 billion in 2018. With the increased amount of energy consumed, added to the fact that the amount of people on the planet is increasing substantially by the second, it’s no wonder that things are getting bad to worse on an environmental aspect. Arguably, overpopulation and resource consumption are not the worst concerns for the environment right now, with pollution taking the number one spot. It has been proven that global warming keeps getting worse because of the way we pollute our surroundings, be it plastic in the ocean, or indisputable garbage in the mountains. If our habits don’t stop, the environment will stop humanity as a mere reflex action.
If someone is led to think that the environment is our only foe, then it would be devastating to realise that there might just be another. Theoretical Physicist and Cosmologist Stephen Hawking suggested that humans are one of the worst enemies of humans. Known all over as one of the most intellectual persons in history, Hawking predicts that other than global warming, an Artificial Intelligence apocalypse and even a nuclear war are two extremely likely as the end game for humans. Speaking to BBC in 2017 he said, ”There is no sign of conflict lessening, and the development of militarised technology and weapons of mass destruction could make that disastrous.” If Stephen Hawking’s lines are not enough to convince anyone, modern day engineer and entrepreneur Elon Musk has testified against the idea.
Since it seems to be difficult to gain perspective being so close to the issue, let’s take a few steps back. Actually, let’s assess this situation, not as a human, but from a omniscient perspective. Let us understand our position from a third person view. This brings us to the last idea, which is actually a derivative of another topic.
Along with the two concepts mentioned above, there is a theory known as The Fermi Paradox, named after physicist Enrico Fermi. With the discussion on the possibility of alien life, came the question, “where is everybody?” In reference to why we haven’t been in contact with any extra terrestrial beings. One scenario that pops up is that each planet has a certain number of filters that it has to check before it can host life. Since we haven’t come across any, it’s possible that all inhabitable planets around us did not fulfil all stages of the filters, which means our planet has passed through all stages, and therefore hosts life. The worse alternative to that is that our planet being a relatively younger planet, hasn’t been through all the stages, which means that a stage where humanity won’t be able to adapt to, is likely.
There are thousands of theories on the potential end of our species, some more notable and viable than others. However, it is theory that suggests that there seems to be an end to humanity and civilisation. It might be in a decade, or maybe even a century; but it does seem likely that it will happened. Will life actually end though? There is no way of knowing beforehand. But there is little evidence that says humanity is forever.
In conclusion, every parameter suggests that humanity will end, whether sooner or later. The only way that we can be saved is our will power and attitude towards the future, which might change how things work out. What can we do? We must take a collective stance against disastrous outcomes. We must understand that there’s a lot at stake, and change our ways. Will we survive? Will we adapt? It is difficult to say. We might live, or we might die. What actually will happen, only time will tell.
“Whatever good things we build end up building us.” -Jim Rohn
…The flight to Orlando was just as exciting as the trip to LA. Not that the journey was fun, but the prospect of doing something spectacular at the city was exciting too. Orlando was going to be fun. LA was great, but the idea of Harry Potter World just gave me goosebumps…
Orlando, as a city, is boring. Let me get that out of the way. For all those who don’t know, like me at the time, Orlando is a city of theme parks. Theme parks cost money, a lot of it. If you don’t have money, there’s literally nothing you can do there.
The only thing I remember about Orlando was Harry Potter World inside Universal Studios. But the only thing you’d want to even remember is HPW, especially when that was the only reason you even considered that city.
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is a part of the Universal Studios theme park in Orlando. It’s actually so big that it spreads across two sections of the theme park, namely the Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida. When you think of it, it’s not that big a deal, but it’s actually brilliant marketing, because you need to buy tickets for two parks and not one. My ticket costed me a whopping $175 for a single day.
Diagonally? Diagon Alley!
However, you take away the things that it costs you, and it’s truly one of the most magical experiences you’ll have.
Let me begin by saying that it’s the best experience that is available. I might be biased because of the emotions with the story; but then again, it is about invoking that context.
Sipping on Butterbeer, or going on all those rides truly made it seem like my day was worth every bit of it. Then it got better.
Butterbeer was actually a lot more delicious than I expected. It’s the only thing I drank that day.
I received a text with someone telling me how lucky I was. I realised that there were more people than expected in Potter gear, but then I saw the date. What was the date? September 1st, 2017. I can already see all the Potter fans squealing at the date, but for the unaware, it was the date that Harry’s son goes to Hogwarts for the first time.
So there we walked, through King’s Cross Station, through the wall into Platform 93/4, to the Hogwarts Express, our excitement completely muted unlike other people. We just wanted to soak in all the things we were seeing (as if it were a dream come true).
OHHHH YEEESSSS!!!
There were things we did besides Harry Potter World, but nothing comes close to this. But then it would be unfair to say that the Transformers, Avengers, and other such rides were not fun. I’m sure that the fans of such franchises would love those too.
Couldn’t not take a picture of Optimus Prime.
The other good thing we did in Orlando was to meet Isaac. Isaac was from Lake Wales, which was a town just over an hour away, and he had promised to meet us if we ever came that side. In a sense, it was great, considering he was going to be the last of the summer staff I met that year.
The last picture we took in Orlando. You can almost see the fatigue on our faces
From there, I grabbed my flight to New York, the last leg of my trip. By this point, there weren’t many things I had to speak about. There was, one last thing I did do…
The first time I had come to New York, Miclyd and Caje had begged me to come back to watch the US Open. So while they were busy working with the tournament, I went and managed to watch a game.
Entering the US Open arena was another thing being checked off my list. And to add to that, watching Rafael Nadal live, if you’d tell me I’d be doing this, was actually something I wouldn’t even imagine.
Game. Set. Match.
The next day was my last day in the US. It was all about taking my flight, and there wasn’t much to think of it. I didn’t think it was to be my last day in the US for 2017. But then it was.
The last picture I took in the US, with one of the nicest (albeit stupidest) people I know.
By the time I was on my flight, it had started to hit me. This was done. This chapter was done. This moment in my life was done. I didn’t know what to expect of life when I was back in India. I just was happy I had reached this point.
Epilogue
As I was on my flight, I had so many things to ponder on.
The people I had met, the friends I had made, the friendships I had rekindled, the people I had lost. Do I feel I could have done better? Yes. There were times I hurt people. There were times that I was a sheer asshole. But then again, there were also times, that I feel, I stepped up and made someone’s day. There were times that I truly tried.
Over the course of summer, I had truly tried to be a better human being. I had grown so much, but in many ways, I had even found myself.
When I look at myself today, I see a changed man. I see someone who understands more of life. I know when to be tolerate and when not to. I know whom to associate myself with, and whom not to. I know that some people will be longer in my life than others. I know that I will account to so much more in my life.
Whether it’s Diana, Mateus, and me, sitting at the campfire and talking about spirituality. Whether it’s Ginte and me looking at the stars and talking about life. Whether it’s running around on a trek with Amy and Diana, being absolutely mental. Whether it’s being in at the YMCA with Natasha and planning on a future trip. Even if it’s in a parking lot and losing my shit on everybody when I’m equally at fault. Whether it’s watching the Yankees or Rafael Nadal live. Whether it’s Harry Potter World, Santa Monica, Griffith Observatory, or whatever. Whether it’s doing so much, learning so much, or being so much. I understand that it’s what made me who I am.
I may not have done everything right, but I have been true to myself. I truly appreciate everyone who made my summer, by being around, or being with me in thoughts.
To everyone who has contributed in my life. To everyone who has been in my life. Thank you! You have made me… me.
“Los Angeles is like a beauty parlour at the end of the universe.” -Emily Mortimer
…You’d think that I’d already had an amazing trip, but LA was remaining. ‘City of Angels, here I come.’ I thought to myself, as I got in the bus and waved the famed Yellowstone National Park goodbye…
The trip from Billings to Los Angeles wasn’t half bad. Having travelled so much, it almost went by in a breeze.
We arrived in the night of August the 25th. Lucky for us, Diana was kind enough to pick us up with her friend Liz. The 26th was Diana’s birthday, and one of the primary reasons we made it there. Everyone knows of LA, but it took us so much more than fame to be pulled there. Diana had been so much more than a friend for me to pass up the opportunity to spend her birthday with her.
The first thing we did when we arrived is to have some local and authentic Mexican food. In fact, it was so authentic that the servers didn’t even speak English. I silently planned to learn Spanish for the next time I would be in the city.
The food at the place was super spicy, something I was desperately missing on my trip. The choice of sauces and ingredients were definitely drool-worthy, and to add to that, not something I’d have excessively before. As good as the food was, I just couldn’t bring myself to drink the local drinks there.
As the clock struck twelve, we all quietly wished our dear friend Diana, then headed to her place for the night. The plan for the next day was to run errands with her for her party for the night, which we enjoyed doing. A few days before meeting us, Diana had seriously injured her hand, almost making it impossible to drive. So Amy and I took turns in driving her car around, something I couldn’t complain at one bit.
Happy birthday, Diana!!
That evening we enjoyed a really good dinner with her family and friends, and really just loved listening to everyone talk about how much fun it was that we were there and everything about them too.
To be really honest, our skin tones were in ascending order. I really don’t think I’m that dark, but who knows.
After the party, Diana’s brother wanted to take us to a special place. When I came to know what that place was, I almost instantaneously froze. I was not ready to go to the Staples Centre (Home of the LA Lakers) just yet. When we reached there, I was awestruck. Since it wasn’t the season, all I could see was the Staples Centre logo on the outside. Honestly, I wanted to lick the building, but my ego made sure I didn’t.
The next morning, one of our few fears turned out to be true. For a while we had heard that there was a hurricane, going by the name of Hurricane Harvey, and that it had hit Texas and Louisiana. This meant that our buses to New Orleans and Dallas were basically cancelled, and that meant our trip would need altering.
As a silver lining, it meant we would stay at Los Angeles for a few days. OH YES!!
There were a things I really remember doing in LA.
The first of those were a couple of treks. Both treks were really fun because of different reasons. I happened to do one with Amy, where we took a stroll to the top of the Whittier Hills, while Diana was in school. The other trek was one at Griffith Park, where we took a trek to the top of the hill, near the Hollywood Sign. We wouldn’t have been able to trek to the sign because of Diana’s hand, but the trek was a fun one nonetheless. The park covers 4,310 acres of land, making it one of the largest urban parks in North America. It is the second-largest city park in California, after Mission Trails Preserve in San Diego, and the 11th largest municipally owned park in the United States. It has also been referred to as the Central Park of Los Angeles but is much larger, more untamed, and rugged than its New York City counterpart.
All the amount of poses we tried weren’t going to be enough. In fact, the fact that Diana is more visible than the Hollywood sign shows our priorities.
Speaking of Griffith Park, one of the major highlights of that area is the Griffith Observatory. For all those who have seen La La Land, it is the place where they go to see the stars and they go dancing in space, and even the road they walk after the party. The Observatory was closing when we reached, but we salvaged enough of time to view a few things, two notable things being the moon through a telescope and a city scape of night time Los Angeles.
One of the nicest cityscapes I have ever taken.
Another thing we did was a place we tried out. For all those franchise burger loving foodies, there is this place called In-N-Out Burger. In-N-Out Burger is an American regional chain of fast food restaurants with locations primarily in the American Southwest and Pacific coast. It was founded in Baldwin Park, California in 1948 by Harry Snyder and Esther Snyder. The company’s business practices have been noted for employee-centred personnel policies. For example, In-N-Out is one of the few fast food chains in the United States to pay its employees more than state and federally mandated minimum wage guidelines – starting at US$11.00 per hour in California, as of May 2017.
One of the coolest things of being with Diana is the fact that we got to go to the Original In-N-Out store. While it isn’t functional anymore, the owners have maintained the store in it’s original shape, like a tribute to their roots.
The original In-N-Out store. Even though the store doesn’t actually serve food, they do keep a guy there all the time, to take orders and all.
The last thing I want to speak of, was the Santa Monica Pier. The Santa Monica Pier is a large double-jointed pier at the foot of Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica, California. With an iconic entrance, the pier is popular with residents and visitors as a landmark that is over 100 years old. More importantly, the pier marks the end of the famous Route 66, a route I wish to do at some point in my life.
I wanted to put a picture of me there, but that has been attached below.
On the way back from Santa Monica, Diana’s car started overheating unnecessarily quickly. This was concerning since our flight was just over a few hours away, and we had to drive the car to her place, get our bags, and come back to the airport (which wasn’t too far from Santa Monica). Thankfully, Liz was gracious enough to drop us to LAX. Somehow, and I really mean somehow, we managed to make our flight, but a delay in security meant we missed the direct flight after all.
When I think of it, Los Angeles is truly one of the nicest cities I have ever visited. Just as how you can imagine New York City through Alicia Keys’ and Jay-Z’ Empire State of Mind, Los Angeles lies somewhere between City of Angels by Thirty Seconds to Mars, and City of Stars from La La Land.
The flight to Orlando was just as exciting as the trip to LA. Not that the journey was fun, but the prospect of doing something spectacular at the city was exciting too. Orlando was going to be fun. LA was great, but the idea of Harry Potter World just gave me goosebumps.
Some more notable pictures of LA, as follows:
One of the nicer pictures I managed to click during the trek at Griffith Park.One of the most touristy things I have ever done, but what the hell.
“Just living is not enough… one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” -Hans Christian Andersen
…That was my last memory of DC. I was to leave the next morning for the next stop on my list. I was to meet Amy in Wyoming before we went to Yellowstone National Park. At least that was the plan…
From DC, I was to meet Amy at Billings, a small town in Wyoming. It’s one of the towns around where we were to go.
Where were we to go? Only this small national park called YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK.
Yellowstone National Park is a national park located in the U.S. states of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. It was established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872. Yellowstone was the first national park in the U.S. and is also widely held to be the first national park in the world. The park is known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features, especially Old Faithful geyser, one of its most popular features. It has many types of ecosystems, but the subalpine forest is the most abundant. It is part of the South Central Rockies forests ecoregion.
As excited as I was, to be going there, I was still quite a distance away. My Greyhound bus trip included two transit stops. I was to go from DC to Chicago, then to Minneapolis, and then to Billings. I was fairly accustomed to how the proceedings work. My bus was from 4:20pm, and was scheduled to reach Chicago at 10:30am next morning.
Since DC was a big bus station, I didn’t quite know what to expect from Chicago. However, as soon as I got there, I was to have one of the most annoying experiences I had on this trip.
The Chicago bus station was a mess. As systematic and ordered the other stations had been, Chicago was a sheer page out of chaos. Initially, I wondered if it was the city in general or something had happened. I wanted to check out, but nobody was of any help. In time, I realised, the place had been a mess because of the delays. Nobody knew why, but the buses were just turning up late. It meant that my 11:40am bus was now going to leave at 3:00pm. While it shouldn’t have been a big concern, I soon realise what it was.
I was scheduled to reach Minneapolis at 8:00pm and catch a bus to Billings at 9:00pm. Because of the delay at Chicago, I reached Minneapolis at 11:00pm.
Sigh
When we reached Minneapolis (most of us missing our connecting buses), Greyhound told us that the next bus to Billings was in the morning. However, the bus would take us via Sioux Falls, which would mean I had a delay of a day. Thankfully, Amy had a delay too. Turns out, this delay in buses wasn’t common, but on that day it was a mass delay stretching to all parts of northern USA.
By the time we both met at Billings, it was too late to do anything. What option we had was to leave first thing in the morning.
Next morning, we began our search for a car rental place. The whole process took us a while, but we managed to leave by noon. We made a stop to Walmart to buy food for the next two days, and then headed off.
By the time we reached the place, it was already around 5:00pm. We decided to spend some time around the entrance itself before finding some place to camp. We had bought a tent too, to spend the night in. For those who don’t know, Yellowstone is massive. It’s more than 3000 square miles in size. There was no way we were covering it in two days. The place around the entrance was fun. We roamed a bit, and came across these massive Elk. By the looks of them, they all seemed to be female, and around them their kids. Since they were mostly grazing, we managed to get up close and click some pictures. What amazing animals, and to see them up close was such a privilege.
The elk, or wapiti, is one of the largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, in the world, and one of the largest land mammals in North America and Eastern Asia.
That night, unfortunately, we waited till it was too late to find a place to camp. Yellowstone is a national park that has allocated camping grounds, like Kinjal had informed (since she had been there before). Since it was too late, most camping spots had been taken. What could we do? We obviously parked the car at some random secluded spot and slept there. Was it legal? I don’t know. Was it allowed? I don’t know. But we did it nonetheless. Since it was outside the national park, I don’t think it was such a big deal. Plus, we didn’t have an option anymore.
One thing we didn’t anticipate was the weather. The temperature dropped so hard in the night that we were almost in sub freezing temperatures. Fortunately, we had our blankets and jackets that would be enough for us. Plus, we both had sleeping bags so it wasn’t so bad.
The next day was a wonder. We got up and saw this mist that was just enough to cover that slight bit. It wasn’t enough to block our view, but you could sense it clearing. We drove to the first hot spring and by that time the fog had cleared to show us one of the most spectacular views we had seen.
After a good breakfast, we moved on to the next set of things, the first of which was a gorgeous trail. I don’t think this trail was intended to be one, since it didn’t have the posts and markings that trails in the park usually do, but it was a beautiful one nonetheless.
A trail far more beautiful than the picture I took
By that time, it was almost noon. We drove a bit further south to find another hot spring, and sat beside it and had our lunch. The stuff we had bought from Walmart for food included, bread, cheese, meat, and two sauces, and used to sip it down with Arizona Iced Tea. Although the food wasn’t the best, it was delicious at that point, plus economical.
From there, we went further south, only to stumble upon a museum. That museum was for the forest ranger, and it gave us some pretty cool insights on the life of a ranger.
After that, there was only one thing we wished to do. Take a swim! But in a national park? ‘I highly doubt that there’d be a place to swim here’ I thought. And just when I thought that, there came a detour. We took this detour to stumble upon a part of the river that had formed like a lagoon, big enough for a whole bunch of people to swim in. We immediately changed and literally jumped into it. Not only was the water pleasant, the climate was complementary to it.
The watering hole, we managed too stumble upon.
By the time we were done with that, there was just one last thing on the list. We knew we were not going to get to see everything, so we had prepared a ‘how to visit Yellowstone in a day’ list in our head. The last thing on that list was the largest geyser in the world. Yes, THE LARGEST GEYSER IN THE WORLD. You have no idea how excited I was to see it.
The Steamboat Geyser, in Yellowstone National Park’s Norris Geyser Basin, is the world’s tallest currently-active geyser. During major eruptions, water may be thrown more than 300 feet (91.44 m) into the air. Steamboat’s major eruptions last from 3 to 40 minutes, and are followed by powerful jets of steam. There we came across a ranger who was narrating the story of the highest spout of water ever recorded. What was the height? A whopping 340 feet!
The steamboat geyser! It might not be that big, but the amount of steam coming out is ridiculous.
What a day!
Lucky for us, this time, we had found a camping spot in the morning itself. We had found a place that used to charge a paltry $7 a night for a spot. The good thing of the place is that people are good natured. You just sort of put the money in the box and keep your ticket at the spot. Nobody takes over. Everybody pays even though nobody is there to supervise.
The next morning we headed back to Billings, where we quickly returned our vehicle and headed for the next stop.
You’d think that I’d already had an amazing trip, but LA was remaining. ‘City of Angels, here I come.’ I thought to myself, as I got in the bus and waved the famed Yellowstone National Park goodbye. I was definitely going to come here again, sometime later in my life.
“Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow.” -Anita Desai
… As I took my flight the next morning, I was leaving behind something valuable. I was leaving behind a bit of my life. Whether or not I’m going back, I would never be able to have the same memories again. I cried at the airport, not because the summer was over, but that there was such a summer to begin with…
The first day was all about my flight. I had a flight to Denver, where I had to be in transit for a while before I made my evening flight to Washington DC. By the time I got to my uncle’s place, it was pretty late. I liked it his, mainly because of the space it offered (something I’m not used to, being from Bombay). The next morning was something to look forward to, because there was someone in town.
Meet Lievanta Millar, a dear friend of mine from Bombay. It had been quite a while that I had met her, and to meet her in a country halfway around the world was something else altogether. I was lucky enough to meet her boyfriend Amrit too. He’d been to DC before, so he recommended Sakuramen, a ramen joint which gave me the tastiest ramen and bao I’ve eaten till date.
From there we headed to the Washington Mall. For those who don’t know, the Washington Mall isn’t like a regular mall with stores. This mall is an area with the Smithsonian and other monuments If you were a tourist where all the sites were in one spot, DC is the place for you. The mall has everything Washington has to offer, well almost everything. Not only does it house the Smithsonian, arguably one of the largest and most known series of museums in the world, it also showcases the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, and even Capitol Hill at the other end… ALL FOR FREE!!
I’ve attached the pictures of these later, so that you can view them after having read everything.
That day we decided to visit a few things. The first on the list was the Holocaust Museum. Having been to the Dachau concentration camp, this one wasn’t groundbreaking. However, if you haven’t visited any memorial of the incident, you definitely should. The really cool thing I remember from this monument was the live setup they had made of life of jews at the time.
From there, we made it to the Washington Monument, the one Spiderman climbs in Homecoming. The Washington Monument is an obelisk on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate George Washington, once commander-in-chief of the Continental Army and the first President of the United States.
The Washington Monument, in all it’s dusky glory.
After that came the Lincoln Memorial. The Lincoln Memorial is an American national monument built to honour the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. For those who don’t know, it’s that Parthenon like structure that has a large statue of a seated Abraham Lincoln inside.
The Lincoln Memorial, or at least the inside of it.
Having visited these few, we got the enthusiasm to walk all the way to the other end, which housed Capitol Hill, the home of the US Congress. While I need not agree with the way the country worked, I can admit that they had achieved something noteworthy with the Mall.
Capitol Hill.
The only way to top so much American would be to go to a franchise, which we did. Having tasted Shake Shack, I was taken by Amrit to Five Guys’ Burgers. I really liked the place, but I still preferred Shake Shack to be honest. Still, props to Amrit.
The next few days went in roaming the Mall itself.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much to do in the city other than that. The Nationals played a couple of games too, but having visited the Yankees, suddenly I didn’t care for the Nationals anymore.
Four noteworthy places I remember at DC are the Air & Space and Natural History museum, the World Bank, and the White House.
Since their visits were scattered over the few days, I’ll speak to them as I’ve written. I don’t recall the order I visited them in, but that hardly matters anyway.
The Air & Space Museum! Wow! What an absolute marvel of a place. Arguably, one of my favourite museums, this one is world famous with all the notable advances in air, space, and communication technology for humanity. The way they had everything on display was marvellous, and having watched The Night At The Museum, I was already aware of all the things I was going to drool over. The planes, the technology, the displays, and even the explanations were so simple that it made me feel I should pursue a career in that field. If that doesn’t describe how good it is, I don’t know what does.
The Natural History museum is a lot different. Since it deals with Natural History, not all of it is available to display like the A&S Museum. They’ve more than compensated, though, with models of everything; some more lifelike than others.
Although I might not have spoken extensively of these two, I just want to clarify that it’s because I don’t know how much more to describe such amazing museums. I spend an entire day in both museums, and I still doubt I managed to capture all of it in my mind.
The third was the White House. Actually, the White House is pretty ordinary. I wasn’t too impressed by the building as such. In fact, I had no intentions of visiting the place, owing to the person in the chair. I accidentally stumbled upon the place one day (no jokes). What amazed me was that outside the house, there were so many people showing the middle finger to the place. So many people who obviously disagreed with the current government, and so vocal and expressive about it. To be fair, in my country, we would never be able to do that. You can say whatever you want, but there is truly a higher state of freedom there.
Lastly, the World Bank. The World Bank is where my uncle had worked for much of his life. For those who don’t know, The World Bank Group (which the World Bank is a part of) is a family of five international organisations that make leveraged loans to developing countries. It is the largest and most famous development bank in the world and is an observer at the United Nations Development Group.
Why do I say that I love this place? Because it changed my life.
I was a 23 year old, working in film, not knowing my place in life. I admit, I have done my fair share of studies and have had a decent amount of expectations of myself. People expected things of me, and many times (if not most times) I have delivered. If you remember, I mentioned at the start of how dejected I was, with the idea that I hadn’t kept my end of the bargain. I had been an utter disappointment to my family, mainly because I hadn’t done what a lot had wanted me to do, and that made me feel purposeless.
Going to the World Bank with my uncle made me realise that there are ways to be successful while helping people. It isn’t that I found purpose, just that I found some renewed faith in myself. I realised what I wanted to do.
I was going to help people!
At this trip, I had the pleasure of going back to New York City for another day. For those who aren’t aware, I’ve attached a map to showcase the distance between the two cities.
Since I would be travelling with Amy on a budget for the next month, it made sense to drop of my bulk in NYC.
This trip made me realise and appreciate a few people.
First two people would be Melinee and Rushmere. These are two of my friends from Bombay. You know, I truly underestimated the power of friendship. When times like these come and friends help you out, you surely appreciate them. Melinee was always there helping me out with whatever clarifications I needed in New York. She also was the one who allowed me to keep my bag with her for almost a month. Rushmore, on the other hand was even more unexpected. We’ve had our differences before, so I wasn’t expecting the gestures he made, but he did. He not only allowed me to crash at his place and made me feel so much at home, he also ensured I would pay one last visit to the city before I left.
During the trip, there were two more darlings in the city who I just had to meet. Gin and Bee were on their own travels, and I couldn’t bear not meeting them. I know that I have spoken quite a bit on how mean they can be, but they’re still really close to me. Moreover, I was far more mean to them than they were to me, so I guess their meanness was valid. We kind of had a love-hate relationship, but now it’s all love-love. Bee was usually quiet, so I didn’t know if she was just like that or she was plotting my murder in her head. Gin was super expressive, so I knew she was plotting my murder in her head.
Before leaving New York, I ensured that I met all these four people again. I promised to myself that this wasn’t the last time I was meeting any of them.
One last thing I had to speak of was this place in DC. It goes by the name of Crisp & Juicy. It’s a restaurant in Friendship Heights, DC. I was taken to this place by my uncle, and they had some extremely delicious Peruvian Fried Chicken.
After that meal, we had a long walk through the woods, where we spoke about my plans for the future, my career, what I wanted to do, and so forth. Having been able to speak to a man of his accomplishments, it was truly eye opening.
That was my last memory of DC. I was to leave the next morning for the next stop on my list. I was to meet Amy in Wyoming before we went to Yellowstone National Park. At least that was the plan.
The Wright Flyer, the first known model of the airplane, invented by Wilbur and Orville Wright in 1903.The Lockheed Vega 5B, as flown by Amelia Earhart, as the first woman pilot to do a solo transatlantic flight in 1932.One of the lifelike exhibits in the Museum of Natural History.Another exhibit from the Museum of Natural History. No prizes for guessing which animal.External view of the Museum of Natural History
The view from top is almost heavenly, and while I was basking in the view, Nihar walked to me and told me to look at the way we had trekked. Even though it was a lot of inconvenience to carry all that weight, the gratification of completing everything and having the perks of carrying that up, is worth it. This is when I truly understood the meaning behind it. Treks are not just about experiencing, but also learning, and this was my major learning moment.
The next day was a wonder. We got up and saw this mist that was just enough to cover that slight bit. It wasn’t enough to block our view, but you could sense it clearing. We drove to the first hot spring and by that time the fog had cleared to show us one of the most spectacular views we had seen.
From there we headed to the Washington Mall. For those who don’t know, the Washington Mall isn’t like a regular mall with stores. This mall is an area with the Smithsonian and other monuments If you were a tourist where all the sites were in one spot, DC is the place for you. The mall has everything Washington has to offer, well almost everything. Not only does it house the Smithsonian, arguably one of the largest and most known series of museums in the world, it also showcases the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, and even Capitol Hill at the other end… ALL FOR FREE!!
Carlton roy D'Silva 