Travelling is more than just riding on the bus......

Lotus Temple

Taj Mahal

"People who don't travel cannot have a global view, all they see is what is in front of them. Those people cannot accept new things because all they know is where they live," Martin Yan quoted. And this is what I also believe to be true because as we travel around the different places we come to see different views of the universe and we also come across various kinds of people and their lifestyles and cultures. So let me share my experience of a 5 day trip to Delhi.

Though I was bit scared of getting car sickness, I reluctantly consented to join few of my colleagues on trip to Delhi after our exam because I didn't want to be the black sheep among the friends. As we all agreed with the decision, we started our journey on 22nd December to Delhi. Our main purpose of the journey was to visit Taj Mahal, Lotus temple and the Indian Gate. After our arrival in Delhi, we settled for a few days at Tibetan Colony renting a hotel. Our stay there at Tibetan Colony gave us a feeling of being in our own country Bhutan since Tibetan people are more or less similar to Bhutanese race and share similar cultures and religion.

But as we step out of that place and go around, we could see beggars and homeless people in a worse condition, worse than the animals I can say. Some beggars were hand-less, some were leg-less, some were cloth-less, so on and on that I can't explain in words. I even saw a few people sleeping on the ground and around them were waste materials, dogs, monkeys and all. Moreover, they were with only a very thin cloth piece in such a harsh winter season. Can we survive in such condition if we were one of them? This question has hit my mind as soon as I saw such pathetic people. Likewise I saw so many people in such animal-like situation and we can't even look at the faces of some people. What I realized upon seeing such people was that the Indian government has got lot to do to enhance the livelihood of their people.

Indian people are cunning, deceitful, lairs and pesky. These were what I learnt from my trip to Taj Mahal, Lotus Temple and Indian Gate. Shopkeepers on seeing our new faces increase the rates of  stuffs. Drivers had cheated us many times. We even had to quarrel with some drivers and shop keepers when we knew that they were deceiving us. And on our way to Tag Mahal, one man entered into our bus and proclaimed himself as our guide without prior information from the agent. He was speaking so many things in Hindi and we barely got what he was speaking. After sometime, he began to collect money from us. 10 rupees each from Indian passengers and 20 each from us as we were foreigners. Afterwards that man disappeared without our notice and another man replaced him. That new man also started to speak ceaselessly in Hindi. But luckily that man didn't collect money from us. So, I thought that is how they make money simply by lying and cheating people.

Although we had been cheated and lied for several times, we are satisfied and elated by reaching Taj Mahal which has been our dream for so long. Moreover, it was a new experience and new knowledge for me and for my friends too. We shared both success and failure, happiness and sorrow and smile and frowning. Above all, travelling is window to the outside world.

we are the architects of our own lives.....

We are the architects of our own lives. We need not hire neither a professional architect nor a proficient mason to build our lives. For, none of them could shape our lives the way we wanted but except ourselves. We, ourselves can mold our lives in any ways we want it to be like. Though there are some determinants of our lives but they play only minor roles in our lives. The real and powerful determinant is our own mind which is in deed a king of our physical bodies. So, it is entirely in our hands as how to lead our lives-in better way or in worse way.

Yes, there are also some important factors which I would say external factors like love and care, career counselling, compassion, elderly advice etc...which affect one's life and direct to the right track but if our mind is non-reactive to any of these determinants and if we be obstinate then we will remain at our normal position only. Therefore, everything has to be dealt with our mind. But I don't mean that we have to totally give ourselves to mind and let mind drive our lives. No. we should not entrust everything on mind because mind is good master as well as a bad master. If we let our mind rule ourselves then it might even put us in jail sometimes. Mind is so dangerous at times. So, it is awfully essential to curb our mind and make it to function in a meaningful way.

In our life time, some people will come as blessing and some as a curse. We may encounter people of various kinds. Some may aid us in climbing the ladder of success while some may pull us down from getting to the top ladder of success. But let it be. We should be the person we were before. Their curses and supports should not be the sole reasons for our accomplishments and failures because as I mentioned at the beginning we are the architects of our own lives. Nobody can bring a total change in our lives though others can bring some tweaks in our lives. Failure and success are like two sides of one coin. For they always go hand in hand. In deed, failure is a stepping stone toward success. The author,Jack Canfield has rightly quoted," Don't worry about failures, worry about the chances you miss when you don't even try".

" Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go,no one else", Les Brown(author) said. As rightly quoted by Mr. Les Brown, it solely depends on oneself on how to lead one's life. There is no any impossible thing in this world. Everything is possible if we really endeavour to do. If we think we can do, we can and if we think we can't then we can't. This is how possible turns into impossible when we don't even dare to give a try. If we fail without even trying it once, we will regret later and get disheartened but if we fail after try then we will not regret and have a sense of satisfaction as we had tried once. So I would like urge all my friends to be the good architect of one's life and build a life beautifully and meaningfully.

An ideal friend..

 William Shakespeare has rightly said,"All that glitters are not gold" So are our friends. Friends are many but not all friends are ideal/true friends.  It will be a great fib if someone professes that he/she can live a life without friend/friends because friends are indispensable in our lives. we need friends in every journey of our lives. But as I have mentioned above, all friends are not ideal, we should be selective in choosing friends as friends are of many types. As our life  is an endless journey, we are bound to come across any kind of people. Sometimes we may encounter with good people and sometimes with bad people. But we can't be sure of their goodness and badness at the first meeting because people are like a mango fruit.

When I say people are like a mango fruit, I don't mean to say people are as sweet as the taste of a mango fruit. No!..I have just exemplified with a mango fruit because it is said that it is really difficult to know whether a mango is ripen or not. Some mangoes may seem to be ripen from exterior  but inside it won't be ripen. Some mangoes would be ripen from both outside and inside and some mangoes may seem to be unripened from outside but inside it would be ripen. Like wise some people may be good from outside but bad inside. Some may seem to be bad from outside but may be good inside and some may be bad from both outside and inside. So we can't judge the book by it's cover. We will only know by its content how the book is.

So  how can we define an ideal friend?, I know we all may have our own perceptions and concept of an ideal friend. But for me, an ideal friend is simply a true friend. An ideal friend is one who walks in when rest of the world walks out and stays with us in all times our our lives. A friend who does what we do and who nods when we nod is not an ideal friend. An ideal friend is the one who witnesses while we are doing and guides us and corrects us when we are doing wrong doings. 

An ideal friend is the one who is honest, flexible, friendly, optimistic, reliable, loyal, generous and sincere. An ideal friend will not look into our family background, rank or status. He/she will simply love us for what we are and how we are without taking into considerations all those aforementioned factors. An ideal friend will also reveal all our goodness and badness without keeping it stifled. Hence, an ideal friend is a true mirror of our lives. He will tell us when our face is dingy. An ideal friend will never deprecate whatever we do, rather he will exalt our efforts and encourage us to keep doing. An ideal friend will never break our trust and betray us. But an ideal friend is hard to get in reality.  

So lastly, but not the least, one true friend is worth a thousand relatives.