Happy Diwali

Every year, I like to wish everyone a happy diwali by writing a small poem or some random jottings. I was thinking how should I wish beyond the five little words this year.

One thing I must say and this is purely based on too much social media exposure I guess. Even on the occasion of such lovely festivals, we have come to a state of too much of mental and psychological intolerance. Intolerance towards other's thoughts and opinions. Some will like fireworks, some will not. But it seems there has not been a calmer way to educate. Its all pot calling the kettle black situation. It has been as if the meat eaters have lost the right to express their concerns for animals. Its as if all people lighting the firecrackers have become the most insensitive people. And finally its all name calling and surely religion makes it entry too.

Thats not Diwali.

Diwali is way above and beyond it. It is the celebration of relationships, it is the celebration of love and it is the celebration of friendships. Diwali reminds me of the fondest memories of lighting up the candles all around the roof of my house as a child, and then lighting diyas all around the roof of my hostel at IIT. And then stand back and immerse myself in the beauty of the splendent lights.
Diwali reminds me of the love with which the neighbor aunty would feed us snacks. The innocent childishness with which we would hop from house to house to eat nice food, and get the blessings of the neighbor elders.
Diwali reminds me of the fondest memories of roaming around the streets with friends and hopping from pandal to pandal and losing track of time .
Thats diwali. The message of love. A festival that would bond us together, not divide us.
Dont get bogged down by the cursing mode. Cursing the other side just because they have a different point of view. In the middle of all this noisiness of abuses and curses, love in general is lost. And this noise has given birth to a silence. The silence of the hearts that no longer communicate.

And right when I was thinking about this, a song started playing in my headphones :

खामोशियां
आवाज़ है तुम सुनने तो आओ कभी
छूकर तुम्हे खिल जाएंगी
घर इनको बुलाओ कभी
बेकरार हैं बात करने को
कहने दो इनको ज़रा
खामोशियां।।। 

खामोशियाँ
एक साज़ है
तुम धुन कोई लाओ ज़रा
खामोशियाँ
अलफ़ाज़ है
कभी आ गुनगुना ले ज़रा
बेकरार हैं बात करने को
कहने दो इनको ज़रा
खामोशियां। 
खामोशियाँ
आकाश है
तुम उड़ने तो आओ ज़रा
खामोशियाँ 
एहसास है
तुम्हे महसूस होती है क्या
बेकरार हैं बात करने को
कहने दो इनको ज़रा
खामोशियां।।। 

Happy Diwali to all you friends.
May peace rule our minds. May love rule our hearts.

Travelogue on the Beautiful National Parks of Utah - Part 1

Its the time of spring break. And my little son's school was off for the week. One of us had to take day off to stay at home with the kid. One option was to stay at home and get stressed out. The other option was to go somewhere. Since, we don't usually get 5 days off (mandatory no choice), we decided to rather use it and go somewhere. So where could be go ? This is always the most challenging decision. There is no scarcity of places to visit in this world. Prioritizing is always the challenge. And there is the money factor. How can we travel with the cost shooting through the roof? And then the planning. The flight tickets. The hotel stay. The car rentals. The food. How can we buy each of those in the most optimal way? After analyzing multiple options, keeping in mind off seasons, weather conditions and many other factors, we decided that we embark on the travel to the beautiful national parks of Utah.  The goal was to travel to the five national parks in Utah namely Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Capitol Reef National Park, Canyon Lands National Park and Arches National Park.

We were nervous. Will we be able to do it with a 2 year old ? Is it going to be stressful ? We were not planning to be adventurous. All we wanted was to have relaxing time in the parks while trying to do mild hikes and assimilating ourselves in the beauty of nature.

So we started.

Our flight was from Dallas to Salt lake City in the middle of the night. The flight from Dallas was at 10:00 p.m and would reach Salt Lake City at 12:00 in the midnight. And the car rental agency would close at midnight.

After the flight landed, I just ran to the car rental agency with which I had a reservation.  Fortunately the agency was still open. Quickly I finished the formalities and got the car keys. Then I came back to the terminal to pick up my family and luggage.  Next was get a night's sleep before starting the road trip next morning to Zion National Park. We chose a cheap and simple hotel which was around 2 miles from the airport. We wanted to avoid any unnecessary travel to a hotel since it was going to be just a fe hour overnight stay. This hotel cheap, simple and had free breakfast. Hey that is nice isn't. One step closer to budget travel.  So, went straight to the hotel Airport Inn and slept off. Realized while checking out the car that it was a 2 door car and going to be very painful in taking the kid out and put him back in the car seat. So, called the car rental agency and requested for a car swap. They immediately gave an alternative car. So, had our breakfast next morning and went back to the airport to get a 4 door car. After getting the different car, came back to the airport, checked out of the hotel and started the road journey to Springdale where Zion National Park was located.

More on Zion National Park in Part 2.