What Have I Been Upto?

After I returned from the trek, I got busy making videos. I had to finish creating Jordan videos and then take up Gaumukh Tapovan Trek video. I enjoy this process. 

It was raining heavily in Bangalore when I returned. Due to this, the state Government had announced holidays to school. I had online classes though. So, my vacation got extended by another week. 

I took this opportunity to drive to Coimbatore. I spent about 3 days in my in-laws house. My mother-in-law who is a master chef cooked some delicious food. One of the days, we drove to Monkey falls near Aliyar dam. We tried to locate a different waterfall first but seeing that there was not much water there, we headed to Monkey falls. It was refreshing to take a shower. 

On our way back, we stopped at Arulmigu Maasani Amman temple. Here the main deity is a small girl. The main shrine houses an idol of the Goddess in a sleeping position. There is an interesting story behind this temple. You can read it here. 

It was time well spent talking to my father-in-law, his brother and their family. As usual, I went for a walk in race course area of Coimbatore. 

While driving back to Bangalore, we stopped at Erode to visit the Tex valley where they sell factory outlet clothings for a much lesser price. 

On one of the days, I visited the Central college auditorium to watch a Yakshagana performance. Tarun, Naresh and Manohar joined me. It was refreshing to watch a short performance after a long time. 

Our cat Simba left home. One afternoon, he was so enticed by the calling of a female cat that he left home and ran behind her. Meanwhile, he got into a major fight with another male cat pursuing the same female cat. Despite us trying to call him back, he did not come back. Before disappearing, he gave me a final look of indifference. He had made up his mind to walk free. 

I had to go to Mangalore one weekend to bring back my scooter. I met my sister Anu and her family there. We drove to Mangalore - Pabbas and Tannirbhavi beach. I had bad fever while I was there. My body ached and I had light shivers. I am not sure what it was because I did not bother to do any tests. I rested for two days, took some medicines suggested by my family doctor and decided to head back even before complete recovery. 

On my way, I stopped at Mysore, at my sister’s house. That evening, we invited our cousins Shanti over and we had dinner together reminiscing the gold old insouciant days of our childhood. Next morning, I left Mysore and reached Bangalore around noon. 

The following weekend, I had to go to Ananthpura as a French examiner, representing the language institute I work for. It is always good to be back in the RDT (Rural development Trust) campus there. We were a group of 9 this time. One evening, we took a shared auto to town. We had coffee at a nice roof top cafe. 

Back home, along with my niece, I watched a few Malayalam films. I mostly watch Malayalam films these days. They have great scripts and less drama. The characters and settings are relatable.

At School, I shot the plays that the students had written. In the beginning of the year, I ask my Grade 10 students to come up with a story. I help them develop the idea into a script and once we have a final script, I let them perform and shoot the play. Two of the three groups this time shot it in class while the third group met up on a weekend and shot it themselves. It was a fulfilling experience - For me and for the kids as well. I am sure they will appreciate this process when they look back at this time. 

I am no more active on Instagram. Before going on the trek, I had made my account private and had deleted all the followers whom I did not know personally. I had used Instagram extensively for 5 years and had enjoyed it. But now, I am bored of it and feel no need to share things with others. This blog is probably the only medium that I keep coming back to. Now that I do not post so often on Instagram, I feel relieved and kind of free mentally. I have no exceptions to meet and no delusions to deal with. Once in few years, I do that - I return back to the lifestyle of the 80's - a time before anything called computer or internet influenced our lives. I enjoy the limitedness we had back then and that limitedness brought a lot of privacy and contentment. 

I went through a lull period after my return from Mangalore. The fever made it worse. I was irritated at the smallest of smallest things - which I thought was a sign of ageing. The pointlessness of life bothered me. I observed the man who cuts fresh fruits and sells by the street. He does that everyday, without rest. Why? - He hopes to earn money so that he can feed himself and his family. He shall continue to do that for the rest of his life. We all do that, we go on with these meaningless tasks. We are born to waste time until our death. I seemed disinterested in everything and failed to find an answer to this pointlessness of life. 

And then, one day, I met one of my friends. Speaking to him, spending some time with him, made me feel better. In the next few days that followed, I met a few other close friends and I felt even better. And then it dawned upon me - Friendship is the only relationship in this world that brings you joy. Friendship that is not bound by conditions and expectations. In this meaningless life, we need good friends to make this pointless living, bearable. You need to surround yourself with people who emanate positivity, complement your energy level so that you can continue to live in the moment. 

The depression that had formed in the Bay of Bengal had ended by the end of November and the sun began to shine. With the hot sun and the cold winter mornings, Bangalore came back to life again. The gloomy days were over and the bright sun shined over me as I continued to go on my regular mornings walks in Lalbagh.