CHERISH with HARISH

A new episode :)

A new episode :)

Hyderabad. 7:30 pm. I have been lucky to be a part of this community, which is giving me so much of love, watching this film. I thought, Why don't I tell you more stuff about this film. The year was 2014.  I wanted to make a film on my origin, which had loads of doubts. It consisted multiple dilemmas and confusions, which needed to be solved.   I had this huge doubt since my childhood. I talked like the Hyderabadi Muslims (in hyderabadi/Dakhani/ Apan Jaath), but we were not them. We cooked and ate like the Telugus, and we knew their language too, but we were not them, either. So ideally, I was this confused south Indian, with a North Indian surname. The research of this documentary took 6 years, and I finished and uploaded the film. Again, I would like to thank every foreigner freind of mine too, who is watching this film of mine and liking it. Have a look. :)

  Hyderabad,  9:30 pm. Dear D-bhai, I have been thinking about new things entering my life, or may be not entering my life at all. I am placed in this new 'space' which we all know as a 'CITY'. The city is that new to me, that I am jumping into myself to find answers. Though Corona has made me lose some of my close elders and we have changed cities and our base. But then, in the whole process, I realise, that I am gaining this new  learning about silence. I am finding one new friend here, but then again, at the end of the day, I am getting back to that space, with myself. I am really enjoying this special space! Every night, when I lie down to think about the whole day, I realise how fortunate I was doing these little things! What are they? These little things have been gardening, enjoying my sunrise views, respecting food, doing Yoga, talking to weird things like the sun, the wind and the beautiful sky! I am writing and enjoying my space of being lost! But then, I real...

  "I dive in,    I realise,    I can swim    Wow, absolutely wow!"

9:27 pm, Hyderabad. The whole day, I was trapped in this amazing choice of clouds or no clouds, with a cool breeze!  I am not one of those people who get depressed with clouds around. Having grown up in cities with major sun falling on my face, I am loving this bit of the Hyderabad monsoon, which surprisingly and happily, is not ending! I write a lot in two situations: Firstly, while travelling in a train. Secondly, when it is raining continuously outside for hours. So, this year, I have shifted to a city which is giving me this lovely breeze to be happy with. I am also spending some time with my long time furry friend, TUFFY. He is a lovely pet dog, who stays at my new neighbour, my uncle.  So I am enjoying hours sitting with him, without a word. This silence is actually gold. I am realising that we don't need words to express. We have our bodies to do that. With Tuffy, I am learning this art to talk less! This is in many ways, is pushing me into the likes of the Buddhist med...

My new youtube channel 'Travelling with Harish' episode, 'GRACIOUS GODDESS', which talks about the whole concept of Navratra celebrations, across this lovely mix of traditions, called 'INDIA'. Hope u like it :)

 8:30 pm, Hyderabad This city has been experiencing massive rainfall. For my international readers, I must inform that 'Hyderabad Flood' is a hot event now. I wanted to stay more in Kazipet, but I had to get back to my work. I actually had to get back to my universe. I crossed all the pleasant clouds, and to my happiness, the sun was out.  All masked up, following all corona preventive measures, we drove for Hyderabad. I realised that the government corona app, also showed me good signs in the rural areas. I had started travelling towards the state's capital. I have always liked travelling more  in the rural areas, but I have always loved coming back to my 'UNIVERSE'.  Now, how do you describe this universe. This universe is a mental zone, which has my own area, my own music, and most importanly my own bed to sleep. This time, this universe of mine was in Hyderabad. I had all of my work lined up in my mind. I was still figuring it out, and I was passing all rocky hi...

 9:25 pm, Kazipet. HAPPY AUNT We had come to this town, primarily to help my aunt undergo her surgery. It was my mother's sister. I was just excited about this exploration of this new town.  First things first, my aunt's surgery was successful and yesterday, she came back home, happily. As she returned to her peaceful bed, back home, my instincts of roaming around Kazipet were getting restless.  I have already described it my in yesterday's blogpost, of how I was all set to watch this town. But the rain played spoilsport, and dejected me. But what came in as a huge surprise was the lovely BIRYANI, an Indian dish cooked by my 'Masterchef' brother-in-law. Rain continued till late night yesterday. But I had slept with a hope and a big prayer of watching a clear sky and obviously, NO RAIN! CLEAR SKIES I woke up in the morning, rubbing my eyes, I walked out of my room. I saw this sight and my happiness knew no bounds. I saw the tulsi plant standing upright with no rain i...

Day 16th Oct'20, 8:30 pm, Kazipet After spending 5 days in this beautiful town, I told my local relative, my brother-in-law to take me around the town's natural places, which he thought could be tourism centres.  I told him, not to take me to malls or buildings, but to places, which he had described to me with so much of interest, last night. This included a natural spring of water, which had huge fish. It had lovely, green fields, and such beautiful things. I was excited.  As a result, this little town of Telengana, I was pretty excited to go around, watching it. I had taken an early bath, had a quick breakfast, and was all set to go out. And then arrived the spoilsport...the rain! It came in and  started killing my day's plans of watching the localities!  I was trapped in my room the whole day. I did not want to waste the energy. I started browsing about the town and then, I started clicking pictures from my room, of what was visible to me. I was bored! I started r...

 12:50 pm, Kazipet I am loving this non-stop rain, I am loving the Non-stop- travel... I have not been staying at one place for the last one year or more. Currently, my journey started in Delhi. I reached Hyderabad, and spent a lovely week there. Not preferring a hotel vacation, I lived in my nice room, on the terrace From there, we got a news of my aunt's surgery in this town of Kazipet. So, I packed my backpack to this lovely town of Kazipet. My parents were with me in all this travel, which is amazing always. After two days of reaching this brilliantly simple town, I shot my weekly episode of TRAVELLING WITH HARISH, my youtube channel. I have started enjoying and writing in these non-stop rains. The rains have always pushed me into self-introspection and hence, my stupid work! In these green confusions of Corona and Telengana, I have been experiencing some amazing greenery, and hence, this writing! I sit in this little room in Kazipet, with lot of rain outside, which is pushing ...

 Till very recently, I did not know that the Harappa culture, did not have 'temple' buildings during their time. They did believe in the concept, but it was very personal. They believed in the sun God, the trees, the nature, the skies and similar things. It was quite later, that the temple buildings were built. More about this, I spoke in my latest episode on my youtube channel, Travelling with Harish. The episode is called, 'LESSONS FROM HARAPPAN SIMPLICITY. Do watch and if you like it, please share. Also, if you want to listen about any topic, write it in the comments. I will do my research and present an episode for you guys. :)

As I am packing up from Delhi in two days, I come up with a new episode this weekend, called 'DIAMOND DELHI'. Please watch and do let me know how do you feel about it. This is my third episode, in my channel, where I post a video, every weekend. If you like my thought process or the videos, please SUBSCRIBE, so that I keep coming up with more of those videos :)

  "Confusion is the best path to clarity!" (Image: a workshop being conducted by me in the rural areas' women in Rajasthan)

My channel, 'TRAVELLING WITH HARISH', presents its new Episode: 'THE MOST AWKWARD TRAVELLING IN COVID TIMES'. You can watch it. If you like it, appreciate me to come up with similar posts, every weekend, by clicking the 'SUBSRIBE' button, and pressing the 'Bell icon' right next to it. Thank you so much. Namaste :)

  Raghu was sad! Why was he sad? The reason was pretty simple. He had been fired from his job, which had given him a sense of security. "I was so secure", thought Raghu. About a week ago, he was given a notice, because of a virus he had not even heard about: CORONA! So in the last one week, Raghu was getting up, lazily, with a motive to leave the bed. But what was this security which he was cribbing about? He slowly got up and switched on the television. He saw the scary numbers, showing the number of new cases, across the world. He got irritated and changed the channel. Now he saw, the latest news about this young actor committing suicide, and his girlfriend being questioned by the investigating agencies. But what was more irritating here, was the volume of the news reporter. He was literally, shouting, "INSAAF CHAHIYE HUME!" Irritating insaaf! The volume got him more pissed. As he was thinking about the condition, Raghu changed the channel. He saw another news sto...

  God, surprisingly, supports no religion! Strange no?  :)

I went bald in the lockdown. My hair was coming back. With my hair, my ideas of my ' Moh-maaya '  ( material world) were coming back to me. But suddenly, something strong happened in my family, and I go bald again.  I feel the positivity again. I realise... that Bald was always beautiful :)   

I have been talking about how has this phase of the lockdown pushed me back into getting to know my culture and in turn, know me! But in this Saturday's latest post, I will be analysing about what was this whole idea of 'MY' culture. As a class 6th student, I was very excited when I read about the the Indus Valley civilisation or the Harappa Culture  for the first time in my history book. I was so fascinated by listening to stories of Mohan Jo-daro and Lothal. I always wanted to know more about that culture, which I thought was lost.  I thought I will read more about  history, as I grow up. But my society did not want me to take up history after class tenth. All my teachers and counsellors said, that I was a so-called 'BRIGHT' student and they pushed me into taking science with maths. I liked Biology too. So I went with the flow.  I finished class 12th and got my engineering seat and the dental seat, but that was definitely not my dream (I must be honest here, I co...

Hyderabad,  August, 2020. When he was born, he was the younger brother. So, his parents named him 'Chhote'. Even his younger siblings called him 'Chhote' bhaiyya (younger brother). My chhote mama recently passed away because of Covid. It is painful, because it happened very soon, and from a man who was walking freely, to a straight pan dead body! I don't want to cry now, because I have admired my Chhote mama's (uncle) positive patience, always from a very young age. It is one feature of his personality which I had admired.  I am sharing some of the memories, which I have cherished all my life, some memories, which are pretty clearly imprinted on my mind, some time I had spent with him alone. Let us begin: MEMORY-1 Secunderabad, 1994 I was little! My mama had come to our place in Trishul Line, Secunderabad. These are some very clear visual memories of Trishul line. Our house was on the ground floor. He had come home.  He asked me, "Do you sleep outside?...

Sometimes you find yourself, in the middle of no where. But sometimes, in the middle of no where, you find YOURSELF... - KHS

Several times during a day, do I keep seeing glimpses of the GOD. Many call it 'Universe', 'Super-natural' or plain 'Destiny, but the magic continues 

'Falling in sleep', is so similar to 'FALLING in love. You want to listen to the 'OTHERS', but you just CANNOT

As an Indian kid or as a student, I started knowing about the universe. The only source for me then, was what my western textbook taught me. Science or physics taught me about the infinite universe, the planets, the stars and everything related to that. Every evening, I would stand in my balcony and get awed by the evening sky. It was absolutely amazing to see the stars, and imagine that someone on those stars could see me too! This was one of the reasons of me getting lost into the stars. I would spend a lot of time looking up and imagining that where did God exist, above all this? But back home, I would listen to some Hindu astrological news which I really did not pay attention to.  I could not pay attention to that definition of God.  This is how it looked like: Though they were different schools of thought, but there was something interesting they showed: AMAZING DARKNESS! I got into my studies and forgot about the darkness, till recently. Due to the...

डर जाना चीन की सेना से, वो मुँह में पानी आना, इटली-फ़्रान्स के खाने से, पल-पल डर जाना, Corona के कारनामों से , घुम हो जाना,ख़ुद की लिखी क़िस्से- कहानियाँ से, सब कुछ बस, घर बैठे-बैठे, घर बैठे-बैठे ! - क्ष।ह।सि।, जून २०२०

Like any middle-class guy, I had grown up in an atmosphere of listening to family values,  their guidance, and had always enjoyed the freedom they had given me! This freedom, was never asked for, and it never pushed me into things which other young boys had ‘asked’ for from their parents. So, as a result, I would try a glimpse of every bad habit, and on my own, I would realise that they were not worth it! In the process, I would always figure out, that I have been super-lucky to have a set of parents, who had given me this un-asked freedom. I was earning for some time in Mumbai, just the way my parents would have wanted me to. But things changed, when I stopped earning for some time. I thought that I should try something new and explore. But I did not know, what exactly was this something new ! I thought of taking a break from the same daily life. I was bored of the daily routine of going to office.  So one fine day, I gave my resignation in the office. It wa...

'I SIPPED' While having chai, I saw life: A pigeon was sitting on the wall, and soon, another joined him, they fought for space, for food, for love, for looking up at the sky, they fought to fly, up in the sky, and soon joined some other pigeons, who had their own fights! I realised, I am so happy not fighting, and just sipping my morning chai, in peace, I just sipped! - KHS, June

Life existed in open skies, trees n water around, But suddenly... life NOW, exists in 'Notifications n likes' around! Strange no! 😊

Gurgaon, 3rd June, 2020. I had been trapped! No, I am not talking about the lockdowns. But it is the inner journeys, which the lockdowns have been sending me into. This January, I returned from Mumbai, with a simple plan of spending some time at home at Gurgaon. But I started enjoying this time with my parents. In fact, I thought I will re-look at my self before I travel out of home. But Co-vid stuck us  and the whole world stopped breathing for a while. But did it stop breathing, or it actually started breathing,! We have been listening to a lot of similar news stories, about nature being restored. And I am sure you too are am bored of it now. Nature is not everything which I see outside, but nature is what made me. One thing which I re-learnt in this break was Yoga. It was not just some stretching exercise, but a beautiful extension of the meditation. Yoga comes from the Sanskrit word, JOGA, the addition or the combination. It was a lovely combination of my two l...