Prelude

ENOUGH
of the laziness
of the unwillingness to budge an inch
of the need to kill it everyday
of the TV
of not exercising
of the excess
of not looking out
of not aiming higher
of being a couch potato
of being demotivated
of wasting my life away
of that false sense of comfort
IT STOPS NOW!

Rising

These are the Yoshida Brothers.
They play the Shamisen.
And they are freaking fabulous.
Think they will be on my playlist for a while.

Breakdown.

In my head, 27 is not an age to start feeling old and tired
It's the beginning of the rest of my life
I honestly believe that my body can still take all the abuse
4 hours of sleep, drinking till dawn, smoke after smoke, non-stop partying 
Exhaustion is only a state of the mind - I can shake it off by heading out once again
An endless cycle of 4 hours of sleep, drinking till dawn, smoke after smoke, non-stop partying 
Trip after trip after trip 
In the moment, I'm all enthu 
Then after four, five, six continuous days, I get a sign 
Either an unshakable cold or my house is a constant state of mess or sometimes a niggling reminder in my head that this is not all there is to life
So begins a small period of detox - confinement at home, the banish of intoxicants, reclusive behaviour 
Before i get back to the endless cycle once again 
It's only a while before I breakdown

My unfinished tribute to Himachal

I love Himachal Pradesh! Been there twice in 2012 and i have fallen in love with the state - the scenery, the terrain, the people, the food, the weather, the roads... simply everything that the state has to offer. 

So my first trip there was with the MTB Himalaya team in September 2012. MTB Himalaya is this annual mountain biking race where cyclists need to cover over 400 kms across 10 days in some of the most severest and scenic terrains of Himachal.  I was part of the Communications team whose job was to send out press reports, update FB & Twitter from time to time and for some strange reason emcee the closing ceremony. Thankfully, we pretty much covered the same distance as the cyclists in the support vehicles.  

So there was this one evening, where the comms team got off the support vehicle to make way for tired cyclists. And by the time the vehicle that would eventually take us to the campsite arrived, it was dark. The moon was brilliant - almost full, and it cast a lovely glow on the mountains. Inspiration struck and there I was typing a poem on my phone. 

So here it is my unfinished tribute to Himachal Pradesh... 

Through the whistling pines and woods
Blows a breeze: it's the song of the wind
The clouds descend, kiss the mountain tops
A love affair rekindled every sundown
Blue black sky with moonshine bright
Radiant light: it's the night at play

And this is where I either started getting car-sick from all the bouncing around or killed my phone battery, therefore rendering my tribute incomplete. I vow to complete this the next time i set foot. 

Dumb and Dumber

While the sweetness of doing nothing is brilliant and every day feels like a Sunday and all else that comes with being in between jobs is lovely, I have made the following observations. 

1. All the things that you think you'll do on vacation don't get done. Still on my to be done list are the planetarium, Timbuktu, Hyderabad & Mumbai, swimming classes, driving lessons and the bane of my life - weight loss. Ah yes, look for another job as well. 
2. My mastery over the English language has diminished. My grammar has taken a walk, my pronunciation has gotten even more regional and writing takes more time. Thank heavens my spelling, for the most part, is still superb. 
3. Without an internet connection, the television becomes your window to the world. And the television is called an idiot box for a reason - it makes you an idiot. 
4. I have become dumb. With every day that passes by, where i am not working and therefore not interacting with people or getting stressed or learning something new or bossing people around, I am getting dumber! 

In other news, I have officially started looking out for a job today. Wonder if it also means that this is the end of my dumbness...