Hope

I have been reading the book "Act of Love" where a top notch theater actress Jessica meets an accident and is no more capable of walking straight or walking without a cane, she no more looks beautiful with her gray hair and a stoop. She isolates herself from the rest of the world especially from theater, New York and her closest friend Constance (an 80+ years old lady and a retired top notch actress herself), on an Island of Lopez.

Luke, a top theater director and grandson of Constance reads her conversations with Jessica in her exile after death of Constance and decides to find out more about Jessica because he falls in love with her while reading her letters to Constance. He goes to Lopez island and finds Jessica but Jessica looked nothing like what he had imagined her from her letters and what he had seen her like before. He returns without meeting her, but is not able to stop loving her and goes back to meet her. He falls in love and makes Jessica fall in love with him, herself and he discovers a little flicker of hope that Jessica was hiding inside her to return to theater. He loves her, probes her and pokes her to return to theater.

Finally Jessica does return to theater not in New York but in Sydney, as director, and with help of Hermione she finally becomes the actress she always wanted to be.

The interesting thing is even when she had put herself in exile where she neither talked to anyone or meet anyone she kept a dog named "Hope" with her.

A hope is a wonderful thing and can make miracles happen. :)
It's a hope that leads us forward and makes the whole journey called life worthwhile. Jessica found the love of her life in Luke and a friend of lifetime in Hermione but only because she had a hope inside, a little spark; with this she could achieve everything she had exiled herself from, thinking people wont accept her the way she is now.

Now starts my story.
This is the favorite time of year for me, onset of Summer. It's little hot though but I am sure soon some drizzle will render the whole city cool and green. Why this time is my favorite because all of a sudden the green trees around start bearing blossoms Yellow, Pink and Purple; trees are often laden with flowers only. Mango trees are laden with tiny first fruits of the season. They make an awesome view to my eyes and my heart. Perhaps they all symbolize Hope. Hope of new season a new beginning and hope of everything. I know its already March but March has been the official year-end for schools, offices and financial year and a promise of a new beginning since childhood to us all.

This year I welcome this season with mixed feelings, I have always had mixed feelings of Joy and sorrow for beginning and end at the same time. But this time more of sorrow and little less of joy as I think this would probably be my last summer in Bangalore. I would have to leave the trees, seasons, roads, flowers and my friends behind; Practically almost everything I am so familiar to have around since last 7 years. Yheah 7 years looks like a lifetime to me. But I will hold onto the hope. Hope to see them again sometime.

This tree (picture taken at one of my late evening walks in my apartment complex) is a tree which doesn't have any leaves but it still blooms with the blossoms of hope. Somewhere deep down it teaches us all that no matter what hold onto "Hope".

This blog is for everything and everyone I will miss when am gone. :)
Cheers!! :)

Sky full of stars

Main places to visit in Nepal are KathMandu, Pokhra Valley, and Nagarkot.
One can google and find loads of information about Places to Visit in Nepal.
I am going to share something else.
A different experience...

We had been to Nepal for a very short duration. We stayed close to airport in Kathmandu on our first day but its not a good place to stay unless you have a Vehicle. We were kind of not happy with our Hotel food and we had to go very far to find edible vegetarian food. However for vegetarians the best bet would be a "Nepali Thali" which consists mostly of Rice, Dal, Curry, Papad, Pickle, Salad and Sweet; it's simple food but really very tasty. Non-vegetarians can enjoy food and would have no problem with available options.

Our Journey started from Kathmandu and then we went to Pokhra valley, there you have multiple sports activities to do and loads of shopping options available for tourists. If you want to do Sports activities like Heli Hiking, Gliding, Zip through and others, one needs to spend 2 or 3 days there; This place is fun for all alike. We did Zip through and it was fun. We also came across lots of foreign nationals who had come to Nepal after visiting India and their outlook and thoughts about India is something you need to experience yourself or may be I would talk about it in some other blog, some other day.

After Pokhara we went to Nagarkot and unfortunately we reached there little after sunset :( and we were leaving to Kathmandu next day...there was no chance of seeing sunset next day.
Well I would say Nagarkot is the place to be in Nepal.
We wanted to watch early sun rise on Himalayas from  Nagarkot so we were planning to sleep early and wake up early. We stayed in a resort where our cottage was little away from main building and we had to go through the dim lit pathways. That's when I experienced an amazing thing. It was cold but sky was clear and I saw "The Sky full of Stars". Often we look up and we see few scattered stars in the sky, but until this day I had never felt that sky was really full to stars. Yes I live in city and often light pollution and sky scrappers don't let us see the real thing. Light blinds us from seeing the real thing and all this time we thought we need light to see things :|; what an irony .

My camera could not take that picture but its etched in my memory and heart. That time I wished and desired many things that would never come true but still I was happy and ecstatic and was one with myself for few moments.I just could not get rid of smile from my face.It was amazing. I wished I had more time but I also wanted to experience the sun rise next morning  or I would have probably sat there gazing at stars whole night all by myself.

So make sure you have at-least 2 days and 2 nights in Nagarkot when you visit there. I would want to go there again some day and I hope next time also I feel the same while gazing at "The Sky Full Of Stars" which took my breath away.

Its true best things in life are for free, we just ruined it all by buying expensive things that blind us and fool us to the core. :|

The sky really is full of Stars :) and its not just a thing people say :) Enjoy!!!

(I am writing this blog after a year of my visit to Nepal and I still feel it and remember it in my heart as if it was yesterday; then I am sure its worth a visit guys) :) Cheers !!!