CHERISH with HARISH

Not many people were excited when I told them that I was leaving for Lothal. They said it's a boring place, with nothing, just a few broken structures. That's it! That's it? I reached the digging site at around 12pm. It was hot. I kept standing there. As a student of class 6th, I had studied about the Indus Valley civilisation for the first time. For the first time, I came across the names of the cities Mohen-jo-daro, Dholavira and Lothal. It was a magical world. A civilisation, which was one of the first in the world. Extremely well-planned and advanced. Two of these cities were in Gujarat. I had never lived in Gujarat and I had no relative from the state. So, these places, for me were as exciting and as adventurous as a fairyland...may be like Antarctica or the Egyptian pyramids. Harappa culture was quite far from me, or at least that's what my NCERT said! I kept standing there. It was hot and the site looked beautiful. Exactly the way it looked in my class 6 NCERT bo...

It is just a 30 second advertisement fim. Just 30 secs. We take almost 50 seconds to open our eyes properly after a night's sleep. And this ad- just 30 seconds! But still so many doubts, tensions... VISUALS.I am enjoying it. Going to hospitals to look for the location. I have always loved the process of looking for locations. You imagine, then you follow this hit-and-trial method to check if there's actually a location which is similar to your imagination! Let's see if there's one. Afterall, it's just about those 30 seconds!

(I wrote this sitting on my berth in Ashram Express from Delhi to Ahmedabad. I was tired, but still I wanted to be up! I didn't want to sleep, but still I enjoyed the phase of not-doing-anything!) Yeh khuli aankhen, dekhen dhundla, har saans kahe ek kahani thakaan ki. Palken maano ho chattano se bhaari, Kaaya ab lage mitee hui si. Iss nidra ke kya kehne, ab andhera lage behtar, ujaale se!

POINT ONE Anoop and me travelled to Adalaj, a small town 20 kms from Ahmedabad. It has vav or stepwell built in the 16th century. It's believed to be an architectural wonder, which goes 8 stories below ground level. As we started going down it started getting cooler and more importantly, quieter. As we went down this lack of connection from the upper world made the vav calmer. Another thing which worked in our favour was that Anoop and me were not talking to each other. We were quietly clicking pictures. We were left with ourselves and the vav . We reached the base, the best point of the structure. Immensely positive with a very cool and silent ambience. The only thing which we could hear was the sound of pigeons flying in and out of the step well. We thought of sitting there quietly for sometime. After about 2o minutes a bunch of irritating local tourists entered. There were about 15-20 youngsters. They were constantly talking, but it all got worse when they started shouting. Th...

He walked across the river, into the wild. He didn’t know what was right and what was left. He didn’t know and he didn’t WANT to know either. He could have stopped at a wise man to see the exact picture of his destination. But somehow, he didn’t want to see it. He was scared that it might be different from his imagination. And if it was better than his imagination, he didn’t want to be over-confident with the sight of those visuals. It was amazing. For a long time, it was the destination which he looked forward to. But that day, out of nowhere, he realized that it was the WAY, which he was enjoying more. So, he kept walking - learning things,smiling at the trees on the way, absorbing the vibes, hugging the needy, admiring the patterns of the sun rays, drinking the sweet water at the river… he kept walking. As time passed, he got so engrossed in enjoying the way, that he thought less and less about the destination and learnt more and more from the journey. One day, he reached the destin...

Dressing room at Bade Mama's place. Pen on paper.