CHERISH with HARISH

Writing has always been something which takes me out of this world. It is an act which is heavenly. I actually travel, sitting on the same seat. It is only when I write, that I realize that our mind is an amazing tool. It is so vast that it can take me to any corner of the universe. It actually disconnects you from your present surroundings and takes you for a celestial travel trip. Lately, I have been reading and traveling at the same time. These are processes which make me write more. For good writing, I need some encouragement, which these two processes provide, happily. I do not think I need any reason for writing. There are times when I write continuously, without a reason, and when I stop to look back, I realise that my writing is making some sense to me. Writing, for me, is the best form of meditation. To go deeper in writing, I would always listen to a long musical track, which I would not have to change. This process would churn out words, which I believe are golden. My re...

9:30 a.m., Monday. Jorhat. Fourteen days had passed and we were walking back in this city, which we had left about a fortnight ago. I had been travelling all my life, but there was something which was unique about this trip. Now why was this trip important? When I look into the answer of this question, I find multiple answers. Firstly, I had begun to settle in the north-eastern part of the country and I was loving it. Secondly, we were married and this was our first trip together. Thirdly, this was the first vacation from my job at NID, Assam, and I was really looking forward to going home. But the most important reason being, we had survived this danger of Covid. Many people would not consider this reason that important. But with so many colleagues and relatives losing their lives, I would consider this reason to be the most important. With both of us getting a vaccine very recently, it was a recent good enough to take a Diwali break and celebrate the festival with our fam...

7:50 om, Jorhat. Hello all. I am sure you are all doing great. I can see that the Ganpati Visarjan is around the corner. I can see that in every message I am getting from relatives back in Hyderabad. But in this very moment, we celebrated a new festival here in Assam. Though it is not very new for the world, but it was new for me. The festival's name was 'VISHWAKARMA POOJA'. We had a pooja in NID, and I definitely saw cars, machines and every machinery getting worshipped in Jorhat. So, I got down to the big question of "WHO ExACTLY WAS VISHWAKARMA? As I read more about him, I figured out that Lord Vishwakarma, was the lord who created the universe. According to Hinduism, he was an architect, who created various planes of the universe. In fact he was also the son of 'VASTU'. 'Vastu-shatra' became an important study, which Indians follow to figure out 'How and where to live'. In many aspects, it is an Indian equivalent of the Chinese Feng shui....

8:00 a.m., Jorhat It is a lovely Sunday morning. Just had lovely chai with Vartika. This Sunday morning chai with Vartika, has suddenly taken a new meaning for me. I am not exaggerating. It all started very recently, when we got married, about 6 months ago. I am a different person now, and I must share it with you people. So, what is interesting in this journey is that unintentionally, I am getting support from a partner who is not from my field, but is becoming a part of all the decisions I take in life. I was all alone, all my life, but suddenly , I have a huge extended family, which fills me with lots of love and in the whole process, responsibility. Though we are alone here in this part of the world, but we have our shares of 'hellos' and 'namaste' for the families we call, from both the respective sides. As I was always either too boring, or too occupied to think of doing anything new on my weekends. But now, I have a plan. A plan for the weekend. A plan...

6: 27 PM, JORHAT. It is tough for me to think of what to choose as a topic for this week's blog post. The world has been moving at a brisk pace. From a Sri-Lankan song become a viral super hit, to a country's government falling flat, too many things have been happening at the same time. To add to this, my culture celebrated Rakshabandhan, which was another celebration, in this new, yet always welcoming placeof Assam. I come from the land of Buddha and Gandhi, and catching up with the happenings of the world was never my priority. More than plans of 'Ruling' the world, I have always dreamt of 'Living peacefully' in this beautiful world. I have realised that my nation or my civilisation, gives me so many holidays (across various religions) over a month to celebrate happiness. This is what pushes me inside, and it is there, that I need to make myself content. I love reading and writing occasionally, but I also like challenging myself creatively. This is ...

(Picture: Neeraj chopra with the Indian flag in the Tokyo olympics) 8:11 pm. Jorhat, Assam Tomorrow morning would not be an an ordinary morning, as it is would be the 75th independence of my nation. What is in this flag, in this national anthem which gives me goosebumps! MY IDEA OF PATRIOTISM! I have always grown up as a student who has been a good Indian citizen, at least on paper. As I grew up, this feeling of 'Patriotism' went stronger. It was perfect till I started assisting this Delhi-based documentary film-maker Mr. Amar Kanwar, that this feeling of 'Desh-bhakti' was shaken. He comes from a school of thought, which was completely new for me. A school, which taught me to question things about my patriotism. During this time, I happened to meet many yougsters from regions like Kashmir and the North-east and know them in person. They were all battling hardships and I just questioned the fact were we all from the same India. I feel we need to work fo...

8:00 pm, Jorhat. Sunday Like every Sunday, this sunday too had started with a plan to travel to travel and explore a new place. My parents would be traveling to Hyderabad the next Sunday, so over the morning chai, we discussed where to go! My idea of traveling had always been to enjoy the journey more than the destination. With that concept, you enjoy every moment. We had a rough idea to travel to Majuli Island, the largest river island on Brahmaputra. Sounded exciting! My parents, my wife and I did not want to waste time, and we started from home. I kept telling myself, that let us not aim to reach the destination and come back, but enjoy the journey. This is exactly my learning at NID has been. They never teach me to do the process, but to enjoy the process. Once you the process, reaching your end point loses meaning. You just live the process. This is the problem with the present day education system. They aim at reaching the end point, that is completing the syllabus first,...