Aug 18, 2006



Extended weekend

It s friday today and I feel like it s Monday … not at all wanting to come for work … But had to , just to make some of the fellow doctors to feel less jealous about my extended weekend…

Was just thinking how last 5 days just flew…. And looking back I don’t know what did I do !!! well… best part was getting up late …goes without saying .. . And sad part is , that I had planned some small time trips to some places around , and they didn’t materialize , thanks to rains . Still we managed to go for a drive to Maravanthe on one rainy night . Rest of the time , i spent watching movies, going out with friends, enjoying the rains.

After having some real good food from Bittu da dhaba ,near Mulki on a rainy night on 14 th august , we decided to go for a drive. This place serves better vegetarian food than any other restaurant in Udupi, manipal or may be mangalore. Though maravanthe is just around 50 kms from here, we took more than one and a half hour due to bad roads . My dear friend who was driving the car was frustrated to the cores driving the all new esteem at 20 -40 speed. But the trip was worth .

I had been to that place probably more than 100 times …My home town Kundapura is just 20 km from there and Maravanthe was our favourite place to go every now and then. I remember my father taking us there on Sundays and play with us .

There is National highway 17 running in between Arabian sea on one side and river Sauparnika on the other side on a lower level than sea. The stretch of road is around one and a half km. One can either walk there taking in fresh air, enjoy the sunset sitting on the rocks or just go driving . It s usually not a very safe beach to get into deep waters or swim as the sea is rough throughout the year. Small tea shops facing and almost on the sea are not to be missed also . They serve really good tea.

If there is enough time, there is something else in this place which is interesting. There s Varaaha Swami ( Lord Vishnus incarnation ) temple , which I ve never seen or heard of anywhere else. It s a nice neat temple, facing the river.
There are three idols , Varaaha, Narasimha and Janardhana. From the temple side, there are boats available , both motor and man driven for ride. The charges are a bit high though. But it s a very beautiful ride in the boat where they take you around one of the islands.


I remember during last rains , the sea was so viloent that it the rocks put to prevent erosion were washed away at places .I ve heard my grandmother telling , that one day the high tide in sea will rise so high ,that it ll cross over the land in between ….and will flood the river and eventually whole place …and that day will be the end of the world … Pralaya … And when we had gone to see the sea last year , I thought what my grandmother told is nearing ... the end . But lucky us, it didn’t happen .. :) ..

Inspite of going there so many times, I had never been there at night. The whole picture was totally different in the night. Water shining in moonlight was giving some kind of eerie feeling, with big white waves charging towards the shore. Piles of rocks which were trying to further stop the waves didn’t seem enough as we standing on the road were getting sprinkled with sea water. We had to get back into the car as it started to rain. There is not a shop or a hotel for shelter after 8 pm for 2 km .
I was a bit disappointed as I couldn’t get to watch stars and moon because of clouds…. We returned to Manipal by midnight .On the way , near kundapur , we saw some guys dancing on the road to some latest hindipop , celebrating independence. Ofcourse, they were dead drunk. I thought if some freedom fighters saw that , they would definetely feel sorry for the sacrifice they made .....

I ve made a note in my near future planbook to make an other trip after sunset to this beautiful place Maravanthe with my friends ..and enjoy sitting on the rocks , watching the stars , listening to some great music .... Interested anyone .. :)

(Im not able to add images ... :( some problem ..and they are not going where i want them to !! *#@*..will try uploading later ... enjoy .. )

Aug 10, 2006


Otherside of me


Learning is a process that starts from birth...or may be even before that in the womb. To breathe, cry, eat, walk, run, and so on … some learnt naturally for existence... and some like studying, experimenting, thinking, learning from mistakes …. for making the existence more meaningful.. and easier. We go to extremes to do everything to get knowledge, make more and more money , collect more and more things , ignore more and more responsibilities, avoid helping as much as possible…and so on …anything to make our life easier . Definitely it s not wrong to achieve materialistic success. Infact it s very important for a normal human being to achieve to certain extent to start feeling secure , and only when one is secure in feelings , can he or she think beyond it. No one is born enlightened!!! Even Buddha was not so. Great philosophers or thinkers have achieved and enjoyed the wealth and money and then have felt the emptiness in them and pursued eternal truth of life...…whatever it is … way beyond my capabilities as of now. But I definitely feel there is something more to our existence than what we know of ourselves now. Why are we just born, then grow, and live our life in some or the other way and then die one day? Lots of events happening in between …fights, friends, love, relationships, events, celebrations, success, failures, misery …. What not. Through out we learn to live through life. What is not learnt is when to stop this learning and start learning beyond this. I often wonder, if the creator has just made all these for nothing??? If so, then why has he added sufferings? He could have just made one happy life for everyone.

We usually spend our whole life trying to make improvements in certain aspects thinking those aspects are everything in life. I ve felt many times, only at the flag end does one realizes how wrong was he/she. !!! But the irony is , we (for example ,me !!! J ) think on all these so much , feel that we should be different than the maddening crowd…. …and still do nothing but nothing more than thinking about it …. I shall post this, and go back to my world, probably for a cup of tea, and you ll read it … think a bit...and may be comment on this...and return to your world (and hopefully not decided to stay away from my blog !!! )..…. End of the purpose of this blog ….. And cycle of life continues …mystery of purpose of life remains unknown. And we are stuck in an empty web ..forever..

(For those of you who know me well, don’t panic after reading this post. I m alright. For those who don’t me, you too don’t panic. I m confident I am normal. I started off with this post, keeping in mind few incidents, some of my experiences as a doctor, about my patients… I wanted to write about how my opinions and stands for some things have changed for good because of my patients…But as I continued , my thoughts started to go in another direction out of control ....and I didn’t want to stop them . I have to confess...I do get philosophical thoughts and I think a lot..... But then who doesn’t …?)

Aug 2, 2006


Heart or Mind ?


It s been a week I m not able to decide on something very important . Till now my life is like I am walking on a path and waiting for a deviation to come, which I would take happily to reach my destination. And all of a sudden I see two deviations almost in same directions . Humhhhhh.... now it s a tough decision to take ....

My heart says take any one..it doesnt matter.My mind says dont take either, walk further on the same road you are walking now.... For obvious reasons , I want to listen to heart , as I know both roads are not bad at all ..but the question is on long run will i repent ? I m not scared of obstacles on the way as long as I reach where i want to ..Not necessarily professionally ..but my overall satisfaction ....

My heart says both roads will take me to my destiny . My mind says taking unknown roads at this point may not be a good idea .. just continue walking on the same road further...road I know very well...and I m definately going to miss lot of things if I leave this road ...

I ve thought over this again and again ..and whole night yesterday ...and at last have decided on listening to my heart. I think reaching a destination is not important ,but the journey is.Only when my heart is with me , will I enjoy the journey.

Not everyone gets new paths to take ...and when I have one ( or two )I should take it ( one of them ) . My heart has yet not told me which new path should i choose ...but now that I m going with the heart, I feel light ..still strong from inside.

What would you do if you had to choose between heart and mind ...?