RIFLE RANGE BOY

Dhal Lake, Srinagar. A few weeks before my planned cycling trip from Srinagar to Leh, Ladakh, unrest occurred in Jammu. Stone pelters went into action but were swiftly put under control by police. That did not stop any of my naysayer friends from forewarning me of the worst. Others quickly blurt that one needed about a week to acclimate to high-altitude  sports. We had a one-and-a-half-day acclimatisation before climbing the hills for  about a week. On top of that, we had acetazolamide to help in that aspect. The plan was to cycle from Srinagar to Leh (Khardunga, optional), covering about 500km and an elevation of over 7,200m in about 8 days. So it was Srinagar to  Sonamarg, Sonamarg to Drass, Drass to Kargil, Kargil to Budkharbu, Budkharbu to  Nurla, Narlu to Leh. Contrary to what I had heard, I did not feel hostility. The only semblance of possible unrest is the military presence throughout the journey. People were seen doing their daily chores. Construction was ev...

Pan Am (TV Series, S1, E1-14, 2011-12) Come Fly With Me: The Story of Pan Am (2011, BBC Documentary) There used to be a time when air travel was a novelty. People used to get all dressed up to the nines to start their journey. Nobody was stopped for being underdressed, as getting on a plane carried some dignity. Boarding a plane was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Only the deep-pocketed could travel, and the airlines made sure their clients were pampered to the brim. The idea of having dinner in one place and breakfast in another time zone fascinated many a young aspirant that the fast, furious and restless applied for jobs to serve their clientele. In the service business, aesthetics and physical attributes were essential in selecting stewards and stewardesses. This, of course, was before the time body-shaming and diversity was even a term. Even though ferrying rich guys from points A to B is basically what a paid chauffeur would do, being a pilot brought so much dignity. Parents soo...

von Trapp family More often than not, I have been told right on my face not to live in the past. I have been cajoled into coming out occasionally, taking a depth of fresh air and smelling the roses. They fear I may soon become an ancient relic that only deserves to be admired in the museum. They ask me to burst my comfortable bubble of the past, leave the sunrise and head towards newer horizons.  They even tell me that 'nostalgia' is a negative word. The suffix ' algia ' denotes pain for a reason. Not too long ago, the term 'nostalgia' was a medical term used interchangeably with melancholy and even post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  So, if I were to believe all that was told to me, nostalgia would be avoided at all costs. I think nostalgia in the modern context is more romantic, re-imagining a time if it actually did when things were hunky-dory, and the world was safe. All these are, of course, mere bunkum. We were just too naive to realise that evil was l...

Nomadland (2020) Director, Screenplay, Co-producer: Chloè Zhao Maybe we never forgot our roots. Even though we decided to become farmers, stay put in one place and hope to gain strength through numbers (i.e. living in communities), we simply could not shake off our desires to wander and be close to Nature. As cavemen and hunter-gatherers, we were doing the same thing. We were awed by the things around us. We wanted to experience them and to know all about the fantastic things that we saw and felt. Who built them? When were these made?  Like an excited child, we yearned for answers. And we are still doing them today.  At one time, we were told it is what it is. Do not ask too many questions of which answers you will not understand. It is beyond your comprehension, they would say. Nah, read these scriptures; everything is there. With science, it appears that this mindset is changing. People started asking questions and more question. Apparently, there were more questions than an...

S2B: Seoul to Busan It is not a race.  Ep #1 Meet the P-stars.  Ep #2 Fighting the demons!  Ep #3 Bare necessities that we need!  Ep #4 7 Samurais set to go! ©Bob The day is here!  Ep #5 The time is now!  Ep #6 Time is a river of passing events. Ep #7 Episode 8: Day 5 S2B (10.10.19) Resolved to end the tour today, we made an early start, at the first sign of daylight. At least, that is what we thought. By the time we saddled up and tightened up a few loose ends, it was 0630 by the time we left our bike motel.  It was a chilly morning, slightly windy and foggy at 7C. Everything was going on fine for the first half of the day.  Korea decided to save the best for the last. She took us through multiple hills, some as steep as 13%. We managed most of the hills except for a few which proved too long too strenuous. The world of Maya. The cloud-like fluffy structure in the bottom half of the picture is the early morni...

S2B: Seoul to Busan It is not a race.   Ep #1 Meet the P-stars.   Ep #2 Fighting the demons!   Ep #3 Bare necessities that we need!  E p #4 The day is here!   Ep #5 The time is now!   Ep #6 Time and tide. Ep #7 Episode 8: Day 4 S2B (9.10.2019) After knocking ourselves out in slumberland at Zone Hotel in Gumi, North Gyeongsang, in what we call a ‘love motel’, we hit the saddle again. The love motel was the closest that came by when we hit Gumi all weary yesterday evening. Yet a sumptuous simple Korean dinner came in front of us when we entered a restaurant, told the chef to surprise us in rudimentary caveman sign language and grunts.  0830, back to the grinding mill.  Weather was generally beautiful today with the sun was out by 7am. The temperature was cool at 7ºC and slightly windy. We were fine, and we had a feeling that something good was on our way. Hence, we set to do 120km for the day.  The sun pe...