Delhi - The Cleanest City

Last week I was in Delhi. I met my friend Ramesh there after many years. We both did our Engineering from the same college. Ramesh is settled in Delhi ever since we passed out of college. Well, I visited the city after almost 15 years. It’s a wonderful feeling every time we are in the world’s cleanest city. There was a time when Delhi was considered to be one of the most polluted city. This happened due to its rapid unplanned growth and industrialisation. The number of petrol and diesel cars increased exponentially over the years. Gradually, the condition became very severe, it was turning quite uninhabitable. There are several reasons for the environmental degradation of Delhi. Lack of adequate policies to control pollution, lack of political will, unplanned industrial growth, use of outdated technology, inefficient waste disposal, and many others. 

People in Delhi started to wear pollution masks most of the time, many used to wear while sleeping as well. After repeated warnings by WHO, and various other Environment communities across the world, the Government intervened. They took some strict actions. It started to shut down some factories which didn’t follow the expected environment regulation. But then due to lack of support from local people it was very difficult for the government to deal with the situation. Things usually turned worst during the festival of Diwali. It is a very auspicious occasion in India, and it has always been the festival of light. But in the early 20th century with the emergence of the powerful cracker industry, bursting crackers became popular. Gradually over the years it penetrated deep into the system. It became so emotional that people couldn’t think of celebrating Diwali without bursting crackers. There are numerous factories which produces crackers and they don’t follow and norms or regulation. Several harmful chemicals are released during the burning of crackers. The oxides and dioxides of sulphur and nitrogen are released. These chemicals get exposed to their skin, eyes, lungs and increase toxic levels in the body. 

There was a time when pollution level in Delhi was 50 times more than the WHO guideline level for safe air. Post Diwali morning it used to become 50 times more. Delhites were living on a time bomb, completely ignorant. Industries were still growing rapidly, people still burst crackers even though it was banned. But 5 years ago something happened that shocked the entire world. It was a usual post Diwali morning in Delhi. Everyone wore safely musk. And then some tragedy happened that completely changed the dimension of the city. More than 100 thousand people died on the same day due to suffocation and other breathing problems. All the new born babies who appeared on this world on that particular day, couldn’t survive. Several senior citizens died. 

After that tragic incident which is considered to be black day for our Environment, people in Delhi realized the impact of the alarming situation. Government took extreme and strict measures. They shut down all the industries which were not following the pollution guidelines. Schools and offices remained closed for almost a month. People started planting trees all over the cities. Entire Delhi took up the responsibility to clean up the mess of the past. Ecology has become one of their main philosophy. Gradually over the years Eco efficiency has become the most important thing for the city. It wouldn't have been possible without the support from the local people. It all began with the grassroots level of involvement, planting trees, watering them. Delhi residents are encouraged to cleanup, go green, and create a climate that features better air quality, eco efficiency, bio diversity and an abundant quantity of clean natural resources.

A huge investment was done to replace the traditional and outdated transport system. Government banned all petrol and diesel cars. Delhi is the first city in the entire world to become completely fossil free, not only in transportation, but also on power generation. All the vehicles, including the Metro run on electricity these days. Delhi was an opportunity for all the ecofriendly scientists to experiment their research. It came up as a blessing. Delhi became the first city to use wireless electricity, that too completely free. Yes, finally Nikola Tesla's dream to provide free energy to the world has come into reality after almost 100 years. 

The entire NCR is connected via Hyperloop, a high-speed ground travel system which is the world’s fastest mode of transport in today's world, almost 1000 km per hour. Meant to be intercity transport to connect multiple cities using Hyperloop, but Delhi is the first city to implement it with such large scale within the city. Now, people in Delhi can reach from any place to any other part of the city within just 5 minutes. Hyperloop capsules are completely solar powered.

To know more about Hyperloop do watch this video.

The streets of Delhi looks fantastic these days due to local contribution to make the locality clean and sustainable. Delhi is considered to be the cleanest city of the world. Last year it won the Green Capital award. It is the first city in the entire world to become completely fossil free. Several automatic cooling systems are deployed across the city which runs on solar and other renewable energy to reduce the city temperature during summer. Since electric transmission has gone completely wireless, all the electric poles and wiring are removed. Big trees were planted both sides of the road. More than 50% of the cars and trucks have gone driver-less. Number of road accidents has decreased significantly. Many parts of Delhi look like mini forest with plantation all over. Delhites have an impression of living in an exotic village with all modern facilities and infrastructure. The city is spreading rapidly at a phenomenon rate. But the growth is now very well controlled and planned. Many MNCs have come up in the city in the last few years. Foreign investors are investing heavily in the Eco friendly city. 

It was Diwali night. Coincidentally it was also the 5th memorial of the tragic incident. The particular day has been internationally recognised as Human Environment Day. Everyone was together, celebrating Diwali with family and friends. We could see Eco friendly Diya Balloons lighted up the sky. These are fully biodegradable and safe and simple to use. 

People were also enjoying fire in the sky laser displays with bursting sound in a controlled manner, thanks to the various sound simulation techniques evolved over the years.

Many companies are coming up with innovative ideas of celebrating smokeless, noiseless and Eco friendly Diwali. It’s a huge market, and every year we get to see some new creativity. It was such a pleasure to be in such a great city, particularly during Diwali.

PC: Google Images

This post is a work of fiction written for Indiblogger’s #CelebratingSuper campaign in association with Vodafone.

A Little Further

'I can't see the things that make true happiness, I must be blind 

Make a joke and I will sigh and you will laugh and I will cry 

Happiness I cannot feel and love to me is so unreal 

And so as you hear these words telling you now of my state 

I tell you to enjoy life I wish I could but it's too late'

Paranoid, by Black Sabbath, was playing out loud. The room was entirely dark, with the pungent smell of grass. Rajat was holding his freshly rolled ecstasy with one hand and his half-filled icy glass of scotch, with the other. He was half laying on the bed, softly banging his head, synchronizing with the metallic rhythm. Something quite unusual was going on with him for the last couple of weeks. He wasn’t able to concentrate on his work. Without any damn reason, he had stopped going to office. Sajid, his roommate, was not at home. He had some issues with his girlfriend and went to his native place to sort out things.  

Rajat had never behaved like that earlier. He was completely bored and frustrated with his monotonous life. He had no ambition and no meaning, either. He didn’t go to work since last 3 days and never even bothered to inform to his colleagues. He had simply switched off his mobile and had confined himself within his room. He didn’t even had a single step outside the house for the last 48 hours. He had been drinking and adoring his drags, non-stop. He didn’t have any clue what he wanted from his life and was quite pissed off, with such a vague life. 

The drags had always pleased him, both in his desperate as well as in his fun days.  He remembered Lisa, a Norwegian gypsy. He met her at a Goa beach few years ago. The couple of days he had spent with her, had a deep impact on him. He could never permanently delete her from his brain’s hard disk and her thoughts frequently occupied his mind. But since last few days, things had gone a little out of control for him. He was missing Lisa a lot. He connected with her so well, even she never had any ambition and lived a meaningless life. But she was very happy, she always felt blessed for her life and was extremely down to earth. She was little weird though, with her spooky tattoos all over her shoulder. Rajat had never met anyone like her, earlier. She was a highly spirited person and Rajat had always felt the positive energy, around her. The moments he had spent with Lisa, was the best in his life. He had shared almost a life time with her, in just a couple of days. She was genuinely honest, friendly and yes, also extremely hot. Well, Rajat had lost his virginity to her.

Lisa had traveled almost half of the world and she really enjoyed her nomadic life. Rajat constantly tried to find her over the internet for the last couple of years. But unfortunately, she didn't seem to have any online presence. One time, she said to him that no matter in which part of the world she might be, but every Christmas she would always visit her Grandma, who lived in a Norwegian village. She also said that during winter the entire village used to be covered with snow. She shared with him, her Christmas joy and how they used to play Santa Claus. Rajat was desperate to meet her. He called his friend Suresh, who was working in Germany. He asked Suresh, to help him out with the visa thing. Rajat didn’t mention anything about Lisa to him, though. 'Don’t worry, your visa will be processed within a week, but I’m really sorry that I will not be able to go to Norway with you. I’ve certain different plans that time,' Suresh said to Rajat.

Rajat applied for his visa and also had sent an email to his manager, mentioning he wasn’t well and would join office after 3 to 4 weeks. It was his first Europe trip and the moment he landed in Frankfurt, Rajat was highly impressed with the city. Located on the river Main, Frankfurt is the financial capital of continental Europe and the transportation center of Germany. The city is highly diverse and the most cosmopolitan in Germany, with the highest percentage of foreigners. Rajat had met his friend Suresh after a long time. They enjoyed some wonderful time together. In next few days, Suresh was about to fly to India, for his vacation. But before that, he took his friend for the city ride. Frankfurt got some of the tallest skyscrapers of Europe. They went to Romer square and had visited several museums. Rajat’s short stay in Germany was fun and he utterly rejoiced it. But then, city life, tall buildings and sophisticated money hungry people, never fascinated him. During his entire stay in Frankfurt, his heart seemed to be somewhere in Norway. He desperately wanted to meet Lisa. The same day when Suresh flew to India, Rajat boarded his flight to Norway.

Oslo is one of the largest capitals in the world by area. Most of this is forest, making it a city pretty close to nature. Rajat had experienced the mesmerizing snowfall and felt contented. He stayed a couple of days in the city and visited some of nearby villages. He traveled mostly by train and was fascinated to experience the winter wonderland. He felt, as if he was in a dreamland. Something positive had sparked within him. Somehow his distracted mind seemed to be back on track. He felt blessed for his life and wanted to live the fullest of it. The view outside the train window was simply out of the world. It looked completely white all around and all the forests were entirely covered under a thick blanket of snow. Rajat had no idea where he would find Lisa out there. She had told him that her Grandma used to live in a village about 40-50 KM from Oslo. He remembered that Lisa lived in Trondheim, another beautiful city, 500 KM away from Oslo.

As Christmas was approaching, all the places were getting colorful and livelier. Rajat already asked many people about Lisa, without any luck though. He shifted from his city hotel to a small motel in a village. The Christmas Eve was totally euphoric. It was freezing, but all the inhabitants were outside. Rajat felt entirely misfit in that environment, but he didn’t hesitate to greet random people and wished them, merry Christmas. Well, he also asked everyone about Lisa. Some people found him little weird, to have come all the way from India to look for a gypsy, without any address. Rajat stayed in the fairy tale land, for almost a week and it was time for him to return. He had his flight from Oslo to Frankfurt and then, from Frankfurt to Bangalore, the same day. While he was on his way to Oslo, he constantly looked outside the train window. He was disappointed not to find Lisa. But then, he never expected that to happen and just tried his luck, for a miracle. 

After returning, it took him a couple of days to come back from his dream. Rajat had captured his Norway memories through his lens and felt happy, every time he looked into those photographs. He was a completely changed man after his Norway visit. He started to value his life more and was waiting for the New Year Eve. His friends had planned for their old hostel mates reunion. Every one, including Rajat looked forward to that. Ultimately after a long gap, Rajat went to his workplace. His colleagues were delighted to see him and even his manager seemed to be happy. Rajat had brought adequate amount of Norwegian chocolates and his cubicle was jam-packed with his colleagues.

Well, sometimes we just need to go a little further to get closer and to fall in love with our own life, yet again.

Image courtesy: google images

This post is written for Indiblogger’s "Go further to get closer" contest, in association with British Airways

One Paradise Land

Despite being born and brought up in Assam, one of the north east states of India, I was totally unaware of this paradise land. It’s only after I joined engineering college, I heard about it. Well, Tawang is a town situated at an altitude of approximately 9000 to 10,000 ft, in the northwestern part of Arunachal Pradesh, bordering China. For the first time when I heard about that place and the way my friends narrated about it, I simply went crazy. I always knew about Ladakh, even though I haven’t visited it, either. But a similar kind of heaven is there in a neighbouring state, was a shocker for me initially. From that moment I always had wished to visit the paradise land. After passing out of college, one time I planned with few of my friends and were on our way to Tawang. But unfortunately we had to return from Bomdila, because of severe landslide. That was so disappointing and somehow after that, I couldn’t plan for it again. I still feel jealous whenever my friends share their Twang stories and experiences. I had visited Arunachal Pradesh several times though, for those memorable hostel picnics. The entire forest is surrounded by so many exotic waterfalls.

Tawang is basically a giant valley, covered with pine trees at the lower horizons and fascinating rocks on top. During winter, entire Tawang is blessed with the dazzling snow. The temperature is usually very cold, about minus 10 degree Celsius. Travel agents usually recommend March to October, the best time to visit the place, when the climate conditions are very pleasant. The flora out there seems to be so unique and colorful. But Tawang turn exceptionally exotic during winter. The dewdrops on the grass use to get frozen. The road, the trees, the rocks and the small patches of the forest are entirely covered under a thick blanket of snow. Aha, I so much wish to visit this winter wonderland and experience the fairy tale. There are many places to visit in Tawang, like Tawang Monastery, Bum La Pass, Nuranang Falls, Madhuri Lake, Tawang War Memorial, Pangateng Tso Lake and many others. But the journey itself to this heaven would be equally fascinating. 

The road to Tawang is entirely zig-zag and the view on both sides is amazingly enticing. The forests look virginly fresh, with different breeds of strange and colorful flora. It's always thrilling and utterly pleasing to heart, whenever we drive the elevation through some forest. It feels, as if we’re ascending all the way into the lap of Mother Nature. It’s not common to see a lake at such great height, but in Arunachal Pradesh one could find several magnificent deep blue lakes. After climbing a steep stretch, one would usually see a gentle valley and an alluring lake, flourishing from some corner of the mountain. In extreme winters, most of the lakes would be frozen with a thin sheet of ice on the top. How wonderful it would be to trek beside those lakes? They're surrounded by beautiful grassland and the dewdrops on them just get frozen, only to further mesmerize and intensify the temptation of the travelers. 

This December, I wholeheartedly wish to visit this winter wonderland. As my wife is pretty much a winter phobic, I would rather plan it with my friends. I just hope, we don't end up over-planning the trip and screw up all the fun. Well, I've always enjoyed the unplanned trips more. I'm sure, there are few more dumb travellers like me. We will take the morning flight from Bangalore to Guwahati and would probably stay there for couple of days, to make the ILP (Inner Line Permit). We will hire a Tata Sumo for our adventure. Well, Tata Sumo is widely available with the travel companies and they’re really awesome for such drives. ILP is issued by the resident commissioner in the Arunachal House, in Guwahati. We will have to give the details of every travellers, vehicle number and need to submit xerox copies of our photo ID's, along with passport size photographs. Well, every Indian citizen needs that to enter Arunachal Pradesh and foreign tourists need some special permits. There’s nothing to worry though, as travellers and mountain lovers from across the world, visits Tawang every year. For travellers, who would like to get some local flavor, can take a bus from Guwahati to Tezpur, instead, which is around 200 KM from Guwahati.  Tezpur is one of the most beautiful towns in Assam, surrounded by the mighty Brahmaputra. From Tezpur they can take passenger Tata Sumo or even a bus to Bomdila, which is around 150 KM. Better not to worry about the distance, as the terrains are simply breathtaking and it could take 5 to 6 hours, depending upon the weather condition. 

It's recommended to stay the night at Bomdila in a hotel and enjoy some delicious fish/pork fries, along with the local booze. From Bomdila, people can hire a vehicle to Tawang, which is around 230 KM from there and usually takes 7 to 8 hours. It's advisable to start early  morning from Bomdila. It’s an extremely scenic drive, although the terrain is not very good and could get nastier, as we climb the elevation.  On the way, we would come across many small tribal villages and pretty soon, would notice the snow peaks, patiently waiting for our arrival. 

December will be fucking cold and we would better stop at every possible tea stalls, to tranquilize ourselves with caffeine and nicotine. We would love to grab some bites on the way. Well, one can’t expect the usual Punjabi  kind of dhabas out there, but there might be a few exceptions. Momos, Chowmein, Maggi, rice and pork are pretty common menu in all the restaurants. Also, Yak meat is very popular. We should reach Tawang by afternoon and would love to experience the paradise for the next few days.

Image courtesy: google images

This post is written for Indiblogger’s "Travel Smart with SkyScanner" contest, in association with skyscanner

Some People Are Very Serious

‘Hey Bhaiti! I’ve heard that your class 12th board results are out’

‘Yes Aunty, but my performance is really bad’

‘It’s OK dear, what’s the total percentage you got?’

‘Please leave it aunty, it’s not good enough’

‘C’mon, you know results really doesn't matter. If one is really talented then he will definitely go quite far. You can really tell me how much you scored’

‘Sorry Aunty. I'm really feeling shy and it’s genuinely not good enough’

‘C’mon …’

The conversation continued for some time and then ultimately I had to  reveal my disaster.

'Oh No! So less? Your parents must be so upset, I really feel sorry for them'

I wanted to give her a deadly punch over the phone itself, but I simply disconnected the call. I knew it very well that she seriously suffered from the seriousness disease. 

‘Unki condition Bohut Hi Serious Thi’ and I didn’t say her anything rude.

On the other hand one of my good friends from a different school scored 84%, but his parents weren't very happy, as they expected him to top which he couldn't. Why some parents are so damn serious? Somehow I managed to get admission in an Engineering college. I really don't want to comment anything about how much engineering I learned during my 4 years of college, but I thoroughly enjoyed my life like hell. It made me bold enough, damn caring and much more confident in life. After my college days I was prepared enough for any damn challenge. I also managed to get a job in software development. Well, I didn't have another choice, but the industry is open to all. If someone can't manage to get a job anywhere else, they should definitely try their luck in software and they wouldn’t be disappointed. The work is usually cool, but during the appraisal time, suddenly  everyone seems to suffer from the seriousness disease. Every year the management usually have some real hard time to cure this epidemic disease at various levels.

I used to stay in an apartment along with few of my college friends. We tried to continue our hostel kind of life out there as well. Every evening the house used to come alive once everyone returned from office. I just loved to listen heavy metal in little louder volume, specially whenever I was in mood. Well, usually most of the time I was pretty much in mood. Our adjacent neighbor had some serious problem with us. They had got a joint family with Husband, Wife and the Parents. The wife was beautiful and looked quite hot as well, but she was so damn irritating. Her smiling face immediately used to turn serious whenever she encountered any of us. Well,  I've no idea why some serious families hate the bachelors so much?

It was only 10 PM and that too it was a weekday. We were enjoying some wonderful time together. The big bottle was still half filled and one by one, everyone started to play our favorite tracks, from Guns N' Roses to Iron Maiden, from romantic Kishore Kumar songs to recent Bollywood blockbusters. Suddenly out of the blue someone knocked the door.

‘Hey guys! it would be really great if you could reduce the volume. Also please gossip among yourselves in a civilized manner. Actually, all good and decent people lives out here', the nearby uncle came and gave us those shits.

Some of us wanted to show the real engineer inside us, but few other sensible friends handled the situation deliberately. We already knew ‘Uncle Ki Condition Bohut Serious Hai’, the Uncle seriously suffered from seriousness disease. 

The neighbors were die-hard God fans and every morning they used to enjoy their favorite devotional songs in loud volume. Weekend mornings were quite irritating for us, but then we never had the habit of complaining. On one such occasion, I was so frustrated with those annoying holy sounds, that I opened the window and started to play some real fucking metal on my computer. I placed the loudspeakers just near the window and increased the volume. The Devilish melody was able to suppress those God sounds and I went back to sleep. After that incident, the early morning holy spirits never disturbed me any further. 

During the weekends and particularly whenever our apartment used to be jam-packed with guests, the seriousness of the neighbors were at peak and they kept visiting our door till dawn. Their seriousness was not only limited to that and sometimes it crossed beyond their threshold level. On such occasions early morning our landlord used to visit us. He used to ask us to vacate his house. I was quite disappointed that even our landlord also severely suffered from the same seriousness disease.

Years later we got matured with time, but it seemed many neighbors still severely suffered from the same old disease. One weekend I and Mriganka were enjoying at Sinha's place. As usual one of his neighbors wasn't very happy about our togetherness. Anyways, by that time we were pretty much used to such tragedies. We continued our party and after 1 AM we didn’t receive any further warning that night. But suddenly at 3 AM the doorbell rang and unfortunately for our nightmare, it was police that time.

‘Aap Logon Ki Condition To Bohut Serious Hai’ You guys are in big trouble. Everyone of you will have to undergo your medical tests. You guys are boozing at this odd hour and also disturbing the entire society. Come along with us, you morons’

‘Sir please, we didn’t do anything’

The condition of the police was very serious and after 10 to 15 minutes of negotiation, they finally settled for Rs 500 per head. As they were about to leave, we asked if we could continue our party.

One of the policemen smiled and said ‘As soon as I entered the house I noticed you guys weren't finished yet, the bottle was still not entirely empty. Well, you guys can continue, but we shouldn’t receive any more complains’

I felt little happy, at least, the condition of the policemen were not that critical. They didn't suffer so seriously from the seriousness disease.

Years later, one by one we got promoted from our bachelorhood. I realized that the society started to take me little seriously after that. When my wife got the good news, she consulted with a nearby hospital. The lady doctor out there looked happy, but she also got quite serious and asked my wife to immediately leave her job. Not only that, she even asked her to change our house, as we used to stay on second floor. She seriously asked her to avoid steps and shift to some other house on ground floor. My wife immediately consulted with one more doctor at Apollo Hospital. She was quite a well-know gynecologist with over 30 years of experience. She was pretty cool and asked her not to worry. She had a silent laugh when my wife asked her about shifting house. The doctor even told that she could very well continue her job and apply her maternity leave 15 days prior to the delivery.

We're blessed with a baby girl. Jia is now 2 years old and few months ago, we were little serious about her teeth. None of her teeth appeared even after we celebrated her first B'day. During those days we came across several people who seemed to have suffered from chronic seriousness disease. They used to terrorize us with their teeth Gyaans like "There's serious calcium deficiency in her. Some used to tell us about vitamin deficiency. But every time we visited the doctors, they seemed to be so cool. They used to say that everything was so normal about her and there's nothing to worry. For some babies teeth come up little late"

Later whenever we encountered such serious people, I used to ask them "Did you see any human being on earth without teeth?"

Well, they felt little embarrassed and usually used to change the topic.

When for the first time we noticed a tiny diamond inside Jia's mouth, we felt so happy. Well, it happened when she was on her 18th month. Now she got quite a few of them.

When Jia was 10 months old, Anjali joined back office. We had to keep her in a nearby creche for the entire day. Some serious people, particularly few very caring and sincere aunties were quite disturbed with that. Initially she cried a lot, but it didn’t take her much longer to adjust herself in such a friendly and lively environment. She made many new friends and she really enjoys her time out there. But still some people think that we’re cruel enough to keep our little angel in such a place. They seriously believe that we’re not good parents.


This post is written for Indiblogger’s "Condition Serious Hai!" contest, in association with Cadbury 5 Star

The Insusceptible

Everyone looks so happy and people are talking to each other in groups. It’s such a luxurious hotel and also so close to the beach. Well, Goa always fascinate tourists and people at the balcony could hear the soothing sea sounds. Dr Surekha Gupta is talking to some Europeans at the moment. Well, she’s a very renowned Indian scientist and a couple of years ago, she was hired by the world's largest Ayurvedic medicine & food manufacturing company. Presently she is working as the head of their R&D unit. She is also quite well known in abroad and even though the western world still doesn't believe much in the power of Ayurveda, but Dr Surekha always tries her best to spread her Ayurvedic knowledge world across. The world’s biggest conference on medicines and organic food products went very well. Most of the world's top companies in the concerned sector, participated in the two days conference. Aha! they have chosen such an exotic location for the conference and the participants must be wondering if it could have continued for few more days. But tomorrow morning everyone will just leave after their breakfast.

Most of them already had their dinner and they are now simply gossiping and enjoying their drink. I wonder if those are organic drinks? But the way people are talking, it doesn't seems like that. Some of the guest wants to go to the beach, but Dr. Surekha is very tired and asks them to carry on. She then goes inside her room and prepares for some sleep. It's already midnight and the breeze is so magnificent. These guys are enjoying some wonderful time out there at the beach. All of a sudden they hear some unusual kind of sound and they could also see a small ball of fire up above the sky and in no time it touches the sea. It's no longer visible now, perhaps it went deep inside the sea. The guys are simply wondering and starring each other’s faces.

Someone asks "What the hell was that?"

Another guy replies "Might be a falling star"

"Falling star, are you nuts?"

They gossip for few more minutes and it’s already started to get little chill and they decide to go inside the hotel. 

After her shower, Dr Surekha is ready to go to sleep and switched off the lights. The big window is open and she's loving the cool breezes and the relaxing sea sounds. All of a sudden she hears something. Well, she could also see some sparks of light near the window. The sound and the sparks are becoming more horrific and Dr. Surekha immediately jumps out of her bed and screams “What the hell is that?” She’s about to go outside her room and then suddenly she notices something on the wall. It seems someone is projecting something on the wall and she reads “Please don’t panic Dr. Surekha, we are not here to harm you. We just came to know every details about your innovative immune product. It seems your product is the best immunity product the world has ever produced. We want to know about the ingredients, formula and the detailed manufacturing procedure of it"

Dr. Surekha totally loses her mind and simply asks "What is this? Who are U guys? Why I can’t see you people"

Again she hears some kind of un-tuned radio noise and also notices a glitter. It seems someone is trying to communicate with her. She thinks "Could it be ghosts or spirits? That’s crap, I shouldn’t think in that angle"

Again she's reading some texts on the wall "Dr. Surekha, we really don’t have much time to explain much. We don’t know how you will react and really don’t want to panic you. Believe it or not, but we came all the way from future, from the year 2093. The chemical food and medicines have taken over the entire world out there. The immune system of human beings is deteriorating day by day and particularly for children, the situation is much more pathetic. More than 50% of the kids couldn’t survive beyond 10 years. Well, it starts with simple cough and cold and then it gets chronic. Within a few years they start to suffer from severe asthma, pneumonia, anemia, tuberculosis, bronchiolitis and cancer, as well. We are on a mission to take the exact formula and about all the ingredient details of your Chyawanprash and our scientists would try to reproduce it."

Dr. Surekha is totally speechless and simply asks "But how I can give it to you guys? It’s in my laptop"

Again she reads some projections on the wall "Just keep your laptop on the bed"

She does exactly the same and immediately notices a bright light flashing on her bed. She reads yet another text on the wall "Thanks a lot Dr. Surekha, we’re done and we will have to leave now. We wish you a great life and take care"

Just like a thunder and with those typical cosmic sounds, something moved like a flash through the window. Dr Surekha is simply looking outside and could see a blurred vision of the sea. All of a sudden she notices a bright ball of light at the surface of the sea and it’s moving upwards now. Within no time, it already moved up in the sky and looks like a star now. She's continuously starring at that mysterious thing and in a few seconds it completely lost to her view. Dr Surekha is in a state of shock and is thinking "Was it a dream? No, it can’t be simply a dream. I just hope the future of our kids, I mean the future kids, OMG! 2093! was that damn incident real? Whatever, I just wish for their healthy and secure future"

Image courtesy: google images



This post is written for Indiblogger’s "An Immune India" contest, in association with Dabur Chyawanprash. But unfortunately couldn't submit my entry before the closing time.

Dabur Chyawanprash helps us in fighting against germs, viruses and helps protect against infections, making us free to take on the outdoors, unhygienic surroundings, weather changes, pollution etc.  It is prepared according to ancient Ayurvedic recipes. It includes 49 components, including gold and silver, herbs, honey, amla, pearls, minerals, fruits, etc. Since the immune system of children is still developing, they have much lower immunity and hence are more vulnerable to falling ill, as compared to adults. Chyawanprash, If used consistently, normalizes metabolic processes in the body, enhances immunity and improves digestion.

                                      Since ancient times, it is called the balm of immortality in India.

                                  

Via Pune

Shrini is waiting at the airport along with one of his colleagues, Mr. Sushil. Well, they both work for a software company in Bangalore and are about to fly to Mumbai to attend some client meeting. As Shrini is from technical team and Sushil is from the business team, they doesn't know each other quite well and interacted  only on few occasions. It's been an hour they checked in and their flight is already delayed by couple of hours. The monsoon is in its extreme form and it seems rain God is much more interested in Mumbai this time. Functioning of most of the flights to Mumbai have been affected.  It’s quite irritating to wait like that and on top of that, all of a sudden the airline authorities is making a bizarre kind of announcement now. Oh! shit, what the hell? Due to bad weather their flight will land at Pune airport instead of Mumbai. They haven't clarified anything about the accommodation of the passengers yet and only announced about the departure from Pune to Mumbai, the next morning.  Shrini looks terribly confused and is starring at Sushil. But why Sushil looks so happy? In fact he’s smiling at the moment. 

Shrini asks Sushil "Should we ask our Travel Desk guys to cancel our tickets and book a different one?"

Sushil replies with a smile "It’s OK dude. Actually the announcement came as a blessing for me. Well, I’m from Pune and my parents stay out there along with my sister. Our house is also quite near to the airport and we can stay the night out there and can fly to Mumbai tomorrow morning"

It seems Shrini doesn't know what to say, also he doesn't have any other option either and says "That would be cool and I hope your parents wouldn’t mind our surprise visit?"

Sushil replies "What are you saying dude? Everyone will just love to meet you"

They reached Pune by 7:50 PM. It’s raining cats and dogs out here. Sushil’s house is just few minutes drive from the airport. Wow! They got such an wonderful house. Sushil’s parents look so happy to meet his son. His father is a retired army officer and looks like a true gentleman. They are enjoying a wonderful gossip and Sushil’s mom serves them very yummy and tempting "garmagaram pakodas", along with hot cups of tea. Sushil’s only sister Shruti, is doing her PHD in Micro Biology and it seems, Shruti’s friend Anindita is also staying with them since almost a year. Well, they both are very close friends since their college days and Anindita is also doing her PHD in the same subject. Both the girls went to attend some function at their institute and will return home only by 11 PM. Sushil wants to have dinner together and he's very eager to meet his childhood friend in their neighborhood. Shrini wants to have some rest and Sushil’s  father takes him to the guestroom and asks him to rest out there. After changing his cloths, he's now simply sitting on the bed. He’s little uncomfortable in an unknown house and is looking all around the room. His eyes pauses at a nearby wardrobe which is half open. He could see some books and goes nearby to have a closer look at them. Wow! She’s got a good collection of novels. He could also see a photo album and it seems, he’s more interested in it now. As he opens the album, the first random photograph he looks, started to accelerate his heartbeats a little. He’s losing his mind and it’s saying loud and clear "She looks like Anni, his school mate since their nursery days" He could also remember her real name, Anindita Chatterjee.

Shrini is very curious now and is looking at other photographs inquisitively. She looks so different from her childhood days. Is she really Anni? And then, he finds his own school day photographs on the album, including a couple of his single photos as well, taken at their final school picnic day. Instantly Shrini is losing all his control and the goose bumps started to erupt all over his body. His heart seems to be little heavier and even his eyes started to get kind of moist. Some of his school day images flashing randomly deep inside his mind. He could also see Anni’s childhood photographs and is really excited about how she would react once she enters the house, possibly in another hour. He's extremely happy, but very confused. One question is disturbing him a lot, why the hell she kept his photographs on her album and that too in a serial order? It's been so long, almost 10 to 12 years and they didn't have any sort of contact after they left school. Also he couldn’t find any of his guy schoolmate’s photographs out there on the album.

Shrini could recollect his school day memories and especially about Anni.  Well, she used to be a cute looking girl and had limited interaction with the guys. He could remember how his friends used to tease him about Anni. Many believed that Anni had a soft corner for him, but then there was nothing official about that. Shrini could also remember one picnic incident where her friends pulled her legs, while they were enjoying their meals along with some mouth watering fish curry. They teased her as "Dear Anni, you should forget fish and start to eat Sambar, as in future you would have to eat sambar regularly"

Well, Shrini’s actual name is Srinivasa Narayanaswamy and unlike him, both his parents used to be typical South Indian. All of a sudden Shrini could hear some sound at the main door and he's puts the album back inside the wardrobe. Well, the girls already arrived and Shrini could hear Sushil’s voice, as he's calling and asking him to come to the hall. Shrini goes to the hall and could see the ladies. As Sushil introduces him to his sister Shruti, Anni is terribly confused and continues to stare at him. Now Shruti is introducing him to Anindita. Shrini says "You look quite similar to one of my school mate and her name is also Anindita, but we used to call her Anni" 

Anni's mouth is wide open and she starts to scream "OMG!" she covers her mouth with both her hands. She is trying hard to hide her excitement and after a while she says "Shrini, it’s you. Never thought we would meet again. So how you doing?"

Shruti is also very excited and comments "Wow!  So you are Shrini. What a pleasant surprise. I have heard so much about you from Anindita, right from my college days"

Shrini is feeling little shy at the moment, but he’s extremely delighted to know that even Shruti also knows about him. Well, they chatted for some time and then had their dinner. After dinner, Sushil went to sleep and Shrini, Shruti and Anni continued to gossip. After about an hour Shruti also went to sleep. But Shrini and Anni continued to chat and in fact, they gossiped the entire night. They really cherished their school day memories that night and then early morning after breakfast, Shrini and Sushil left for the airport.

Few days later, after returning to Bangalore, Shrini starts to call Anni quite regularly and use to talk for hours. He thinks about Anni all the time and also likes to chat with her during the office hours as well. Sometimes, when she doesn't reply to his texts for a long time, he becomes little anxious and kind of depress. He wants to be somehow connected with Anni all the time, but sometimes also feel little shy about his frequent phone calls. Well, Shrini have no idea what's going on inside Anni's head? He feels little embarrass about it sometimes and even though it's quite painful for him, but he doesn't call her for a couple of days on such occasions. But then after few days of silence, Shrini usually receives a call from Anni and  she would say "What's up Shrini? You didn't call since so many days" After talking for few minutes, Anni usually use to interrupt and say "Shrini, now you please call me back. My balance is very low and I haven't received this month's stipend yet"

Shrini even use to visit Pune almost every month and whenever Anni asks him about the purpose of his visit, he always say that it’s official. They came quite close to each other and it seems they even understand each other very well. They both enjoy each other's company so much. Even though, they have a very friendly kind of relation, but Shrini considers her much more than a friend. Anni is such a beautiful looking girl and Shrini is so shy and confused. He thinks that Anni consider him only as a good friend and nothing more than that.

But then, one evening Shrini takes her to a mesmerizing candle light dinner. It’s such a romantic place and the calm and melodious violin music at the background is making the environment so charmingly pleasant. Anni is feeling little uncomfortable and asks "Shrini, what kind of place is this?"

After a few sips of wine, Shrini puts a tiny gift-wrapped box on the table. He’s little nervous and says to her "Well Anni, I don’t know how to say? I also don’t know how you would react? I want to gift you something"

Anni is very curious and approaches her hand towards the box. As she touches the box, Shrini holds her arm soft and calmly. Anni looks into his face and they both are starring at each other’s eyes. Anni asks "What happened Shrini? You sound so different tonight"

Shrini replies "Accept this gift only if.. Only if..."

"Only what Shrini?"

Shrini builds his confidence and says "I will be the happiest man on this planet, if I could be able to marry you"

Anni is going kind of crazy and says "What? What are you saying?"

Shrini replies "Yes Anni, I don’t know what to say? But I’m very much in love with you and want to stay with you for my entire life. Will you marry me?"

Anni calmly grasps the box and as soon as she opens it, she’s delighted to see a beautiful ring inside. She starts to laugh and what the hell? She is laughing much louder now, but unable to hide her emotions, as her eyes already filled with water. She holds his arm tightly and replies "I'm so happy to accept this gift from you Shrini"

Image courtesy: google images

This post is written for Indiblogger’s "Platinum Day of Love" contest, in association with Platinum Guild International.


                                            "Platinum, precious metal for those treasured moments"

The Survival Expedition

Planet Earth is in serious danger and the astronomers all over the world already sensed it almost a decade ago. According to their estimation, our Earth would collide with an enormous unknown planet, which is several times larger in size and mass, as compared to Earth. All the major space research agencies from across the globe including NASA, ISRO and space organizations from European Union, Israel, China, Japan etc, are working together with full coordination for the survival of the human race. Time is simply running out, as the giant monster is rapidly approaching towards Earth. According to the experts we only have a couple of decades more before the earth would vanish in a second, just like that "BANG"

The astronomers have identified some kind of a savior planet which is about 2 light years away from Earth and they named it “Condo” The scientists firmly believe Condo to be a fertile ground and the humans could possibly survive out there. Already trillions of dollars have already been spent on the savior project and the budget is just endless. Since last decade several expedition were attempted to Condo and they found traces of living beings out there. Human expedition was never attempted before and we are the first to explore Condo. Well, we have been chosen by planet Earth to head exploration into Condo and at present we are simply travelling into space, no idea since how long? We completely lost track of time. Well, time seems to be constant if one moves with almost the speed of light. Also on the way we passed through some black holes and in fact, we traveled much faster than light on such occasions.

Wow! as per the signals, very soon we would land on Condo. I’m so much excited to explore an unknown planet and feel fortunate enough, as the condition out there is pretty much similar to mother Earth. Condo is much brighter and could possibly be within the habitable zone. Oh! I could see the mountains, the seas and the giant waterfalls.  It looks so similar to mother Earth. Even though we are quite exhausted, but pretty much thrilled to finally have a look at Condo.

According to the plan, all of us would have to land at different locations and I was always curious to explore the mountains, the terrains and the rivers. Temperature is quite cold out here and the surrounding is so exotic. The feeling is much more different as compared to all those training sessions, I went through since last several years. I could see some beautiful animals nearby, oh! They look quite friendly. I'm  feeling as if, I’m exploring the most beautiful part of our Earth. I just wish if the entire human race could come and settle out here. But Condo is much smaller and I really don’t have any idea how the authorities are planning for the massive Earth evacuation. 

We were told that the oxygen level would be much lower in Condo and I just removed my mask to experiment. Oh! shit, I couldn’t breathe properly even for a minute. Well, the scientists would have to work out about the oxygen thing. Aha! The birds are so colorful and they have got a wide variety of species out here. Also the butterflies are so colorful and much bigger in size. 

I can’t believe that I’m just walking through a frozen lake. Holy shit! It’s a dreamland. Oh! Condo you’re so amazing. One good thing for planet Earth is that there’s no such powerful and furious species, like the dragons and the dinosaurs in Condo. Everything out here is so fascinating and colorful. But the major challenge for us would be the distance. Its 2 light years from Earth and to bring maximum number of human beings to Condo would be the major challenge. But whatever, it would be so wonderful to start a new civilization in a different and such a fascinating planet. 

I also explored through the stunning and giant caves, but unfortunately couldn't find any special species other than some birds. The gravitational forces at Condo is pretty much similar as compared to mother Earth. There are so many colorful trees all around.

But I still hope that the monstrous planet will not collide with our Earth and the entire living beings would simply continue to survive. Anyways, it would be a wonderful blessing if we could gradually start a new human civilization out here in Condo. How lovely that would be to have two human planets?

Image courtesy: google images


This post is written for Indiblogger’s "I am Explorer!" contest, in association with Tata Safari

                                                         This post won Runners-up for the contest

Flashbacks Turned 18 Today

It’s feels so awesome to be part of such a huge army of metalheads all around. Well, I’m right there in the middle of the crowd and never in my life, I ever expected to be part of Wacken Open Air. Well, it’s the greatest and the biggest metal festival on this planet. It occurs every year in a place named Wacken, in northern Germany. It attracts all kinds of metal music fans, such as fans of black metal, death metal, power metal, thrash metal, Gothic metal, folk metal, and even hard rock from across the globe. Aha! the tickets are usually sold out just within a few weeks, once  they are made available. I've no idea how I managed to get the ticket, but I'm enjoying like hell. 

The melodious metallic sounds just mesmerizing my brain and the crowd simply going crazy at the moment. But shit! What happened? The sound gone completely mute and there’s some sort of darkness out here. For a moment I thought there’s a power failure, but how that could be possible in Waken Open Air? Also where  the hell the entire crowd disappeared all of a sudden? Oh! I could even hear Jia’s voice "Papa, Papa stop it now, you had enough of music, now it’s time for me to do some shopping" Aha! I came back to reality and it’s always a pleasure to see Jia's smiling face. Time fly so fast, it seems as if only a few weeks have passed since Jia arrived into this world. My goodness, it's 2030 now and just look at her, I really can't believe that she's so grown up. I could still remember that I started to blog just a couple of months before we celebrated Jia's first birthday and the below photograph was taken by my friend Sidhartha on that memorable day.

In fact, today my blog "Flashbacks" turned exactly 18 and it was in 14th of September 2012, when I published my first post in Flashbacks. All throughout my life I was not very much obsessed with those electronic/mechanical devices and gadgets. During our days when the market was so much crazy for mobile phones and tablets, I always waited for the prices to have come down and it usually used to come down drastically, like our Rupee depreciated in the year 2013. I feel so happy and proud that our Rupee is almost equivalent to US dollar now days. Well, technology is still evolving with the same kind of pace and even now days also I follow the same strategy. It’s only a couple of years ago that I had installed the high definition Virtual Reality package in one of our rooms. I think I should have waited a little more, as the prices came down exceptionally there after. 

I asked "But Jia, where you would like to go for shopping today?"

Jia replied "Papa, let’s try out eBay"

Well, eBay started in the year 1995, as an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses used to buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide. Throughout the years, eBay came up with so many new innovations and at present they are into full fledged virtual reality shopping business. They have their business spread across the globe and specially out here in India, they have penetrated deep into the market and giving a hard time to all other virtual reality, as well as other ecommerce competitors.

I asked Jia "Where's mommy? You can shop with her, as I’ve some work to do"

Jia almost screamed "No Papa, mom is over the phone, let’s go shopping now"

Well we have installed the virtual reality kit with dual port, so at the same time 2 people can travel into the virtual world. I scrolled the remote and changed the mode to shopping. Oh! The ladies already installed so many shopping apps and it took me a while before I could find eBay. As soon as I selected eBay, all of a sudden we are inside a massive and glamorous shopping mall. Oh! this virtual reality came as a blessing for men like me, as we don't have to physically visit the boring malls now days. Jia tried out a hell lot of dresses and as usual, she's very confused with which one to select. The good thing with virtual shopping is that, one need not require to go into the trial rooms, every time he/she want to try out a new dress. OMG! I still remember how I used to wait outside the trial room for hours, as my wife used to go inside with almost 5 to 6 different piece of dresses. Now it's so simple, as the monitor displays exactly how one would look like with his/her new dress. Well, the accuracy is almost 99% and computer scientists are working hard to improve it further. 

We strolled through each and every corner of the mall, but it's so giant and one could simply go on shopping the whole day long. In the mean time I also purchased some household items and a couple of bed sheets. Well, I hope Anjali would love them. It seems Jia is little confused with the budget and the products she's looking for. She explained her requirement to one of the executive out there and then just like a magic, all of a sudden she took us to a totally different new outlet. At least Jia looks happier now, it seems she would get her stuffs out here.

Finally after 2 hours of casual yet rigorous shopping, Jia could only select a couple of tops and she doesn't look very satisfied. She said that she would physically visit one of the malls over the weekend along with her mom. Oh! even such high tech virtual reality programming also couldn't steal away the real shopping fun out of the ladies.




This post is written for Indiblogger’s "The future of shopping" contest in association with eBay

Exotic Malaysia

It would be really great if you could read  Via Singapore as the journey begins from Singapore itself.

We boarded our bus to Kuala Lumpur at Jurong East bus terminal and it started around 8 AM. The journey was quite an exciting one and I kept staring outside the window, but unfortunately couldn’t view much beyond those road side trees and bushes. On the way at one particular place we had our passport stamped. We reached KL by 1-2 PM and waited for Nair at the bus terminal for a while. Shruti already prepared delicious lunch and we couldn’t have waited any longer to satisfy our tummies. As Nair recently joined a new company that time, so after lunch he went back to work. After a little bit of chit chat with Shruti, I enjoyed a couple of hours deep sleep and only woke up after Nair returned home in the evening.

Nair explained us about the package tour he had booked. Well, it was a  3 Days/2 Nights stay at the Tioman island, which included breakfast, lunch and dinner for our entire stay. I was pretty much excited with the barbecue dinner on our final night at the island. The package also included the up and down ferry transport from Mersing to Tioman. As it was weekend, we had some hard time to book our tickets. All the bus tickets directly from KL to Mersing were sold out and we had no other option left with us. We looked for some alternate routes and the  bus guys suggested us to catch a bus to Johor Bahru and from there we could have got a bus to Mersing. Well, Johor Bahru is quite close to Singapore and I felt little odd that we would have to go all the way near Singapore that night. We had our dinner somewhere near the Bus terminal in KL. After dinner I bought a packet of Marlboro, wow! I was so delighted to get the same brand at almost 50% cheaper price than in Singapore. I offered one cigarette to Nair and was quite pissed off with his attitude, well those after marriage effects, he was quite recently married that time.

The night bus journey was a thrilling one and we reached Johor Bahru around 2 AM. Now the next bus to Mersing was scheduled only at 6 in the morning. We were not very comfortable to have waited at the bus terminal the entire night and looked for some other alternatives. We even tried to book some taxi, but the price seemed to be higher than their twin towers. Again we had to book our tickets to some different place and traveled the whole night and then ultimately in the morning, we managed to get a bus to Mersing and reached their by 10:30 AM. Without proper planning, merely 5 to 6 hours  of bus journey from KL to Mersing, took us that long. But I felt it was a blessing in disguise, well at least for me and it gifted us such an wonderful memorable night, full of adventure. 

But the real thrill was just about to begin. We inquired at our travel agent office out there and then waited for our ferry to Tioman. In the mean time we enjoyed some heavy Malay breakfast. We saw people from across the globe out there and everyone tried to take the best possible space in that ferry. Wow! I was so much thrilled and the excitement kept on increasing as we proceeded towards deep into the sea. 

Tioman is a small island located at 65 km from Mersing and the ferry usually use to take approximately 2 to 2 1/2  hours. The island is quite densely forested and sparsely inhabited. The area is surrounded by coral reefs and it’s considered to be one of the world's most beautiful islands. Tioman island is quite popular scuba diving spot. 

It was a breathtaking experience and everyone inside the ferry constantly kept starring outside. On the way we encountered several attractive and quite appealing small islands.

We reached Tioman around 1:30 PM and holy shit!, I was so damn delighted with the surrounding. The  place was completely green and the water looked so blue all around.

We were quite fascinated to see the beach-huts, our place of shelter out there in the island.

That day after lunch we badly needed some sleep and then later in the evening we had a little inspection of the island. I was quite impressed with the lovely open bar out there. The beach was quite calm and the water was full of corals and rocks. We didn't see many people swimming around and also the sea waves was not furious enough like our Indian beaches. We just waited for the next day, as our travel package included one full day boat trip in the sea. As per instruction we collected our life jackets and snorkeling diving masks in the night itself. Next morning immediately after breakfast, we were right into the boat and eagerly waited for the thriller. Our guide was quite macho kind of and we used to call him Mithun Da among ourselves. I could never learn the art to resist the gravitation forces in water and even panic with life jackets as well. But my spirit was on high that moment. I noticed a round rubber tube and a big piece of rope inside the boat. Oh! I was so relaxed and confident after I watched those stuffs and felt, as if I could have swam all the way to China that moment.

That boat trip was some kind of a life time experience. On the way we stopped at some extraordinarily beautiful small islands.

At a particular place the sea water was kind of calm and Mithun Da asked everyone to swim out there. I was all prepared with every possible life safety measures. Some people in the boat including Nair, started to laugh at me, but who the hell would've cared? Even I also enjoyed a thrilling swim in the middle of the sea. Sometimes I even tried to put my face inside the water and looked deep inside the sea. It was quite fascinating to view some colorful fishes out there.

We had our packet lunch at Tulai island and then we enjoyed a couple of hours at Tioman marine park. 

Everyone was extremely tired but the thrill simply continued. The boat stopped at some place and the guide confirmed that's to be the last spot for the day. He asked everyone to swim round a circle by the side of some huge and monstrous rocks. Well, it was too much challenging for me and Anjali already surrendered and preferred to stay in the boat itself. By that time Mithun Da was pretty much aware about my swimming skills and asked me to remain in the boat. I noticed the furious sea water as they struck hard enough at those giant rocks. I already sensed that the flow of the water out there was beyond my control. But the influence of the colorful fluids which I consumed just about half an hour ago was still active inside my brains. In fact,  I was quite overconfident confident and was ready for the challenge. That was the place where the colorful corals were highly concentrated and that was the perfect spot for scuba diving, but only for the professionals. Within a few minutes I lost my confidence and felt being drifted towards those giant rocks. There's no way I could have resisted those fierce water flows with my rubber tube. I totally lost my control and thought I was about to die. I shouted in panic "Please help, please help" But, our boat looked quite far from there. All of a sudden someone held my tube and also my life jacket and said to me not to worry. It took me a while to realize that it was our very own Mithun Da. Oh! I felt so relaxed that moment and somehow just wanted to go back to our boat, but it was still quite far away. 

Mithun Da constantly asked me to look inside the sea and I said "Please, I want to go alive from here" But he was adamant and asked me not to worry, but I didn't dare to put my face inside the waters, as my blood pressure was pretty high that moment. At some point Mithun Da almost shouted at me and strictly said "Look inside, you came here from so far, all the way from India. I would like you to look inside"

That moment I somehow gained my confidence and adjusted my snorkeling diving mask. I looked inside the deep ocean. Oh! dear, I can never forget those moments. It was a completely different world inside and it was so colorful. For a moment I thought as if I was watching National geographic channel on TV. I was completely lost into that colorful world and my blood pressure came down drastically. I saw big colorful fishes, corals and so many other thing inside the sea. I'm so much thankful to our Mithun Da or whatever be his name, anyway what's in a name? Life is too short and I could never forget that person in such a short time. 

By evening we returned back to Tioman island and later enjoyed a magnificent barbecue party.  Ass hole Nair, gave me some real hard time that evening. The situation was so perfect for consumption of heavenly fluids, but thanks to Nair's after marriage effects, I had to slog all alone and after 2 pegs even my wife Anjali, also started to show her wifey characteristics. After dinner we preferred to stay at the beach and gossiped till late midnight.

  

Next day morning, after we had our breakfast, it was time for us to say goodbye to that beautiful island.  It's always difficult to return from such kind of a place and on the way I kept staring at the Tioman till it completely lost to my view. From Mersing we took a bus to KL and reached only by evening. Everyone was tired like hell and my entire body already started to ache. Next day, early morning we had our bus back to Singapore. There was no time for us for any more sightseeing. But how to leave KL simply just like that?Without even saying "hello" to the great Twin Towers. I said to Nair "Abbe, lets go just for few minutes yaar, not sure when next time I would visit this place again" Anjali immediately dropped the idea and I and Nair went to have a closer look at the Twin Towers. Oh! it's really magnificent and I noticed tourists from across the globe out there. Everyone tried to capture those towers from all possible angles and even we also tried our luck.

This post is written for Indiblogger’s "Creating Happy Travelers!" contest,  in association with www.yatra.com