March, 2020 Bengaluru 25/03/2020 Day 1 Looking out from the balcony there’s complete absence of the usual noise. The stillness at 6 AM is unusual in the neighbourhood. This is a typical residential area with the usual mix of people, places and performance. I recollect a distant memory - of a morning four days back. … Continue reading Lockdown Diary: Day 1
A Winter Mountaineering Expedition – Part 3
Breaking trail. March, 2021 The following is an account of a winter mountaineering expedition to Friendship Peak, 5289 meters, from 20 – 24 March, 2021. The account is published in parts. This is the last in the series. Part 1. Part 2. 23/03/2021 ~12 Noon, Basecamp, Day 4 After the snowing stopped last evening it was … Continue reading A Winter Mountaineering Expedition – Part 3
A Winter Mountaineering Expedition – Part 2
The following is an account of a winter mountaineering expedition to Friendship Peak, 5289 meters, from 20 – 24 March, 2021. The account is published in parts. This is Part 2. Part 1. Part 3. Basecamp at Bakarthatch. Day 3. March, 2021 View to the East. Basecamp. March, 2021 22/03/20201 7 AM Basecamp, Day 3 … Continue reading A Winter Mountaineering Expedition – Part 2
A Winter Mountaineering Expedition – Part 1
Road head to Bakarthatch. Manali-Leh Highway. March, 2021 The following is an account of a winter mountaineering expedition to Friendship Peak, 5289 meters, from 20 - 24 March, 2021. The account is published in parts. This is part 1. Part 2. 20/03/2021 Day 1 We set out on a winter climb to Friendship Peak (5289m) … Continue reading A Winter Mountaineering Expedition – Part 1
The only worlds of existence
These are thoughts on digital saturation, Twitter and my conscious attempt to step away. The transfer of our life’s processes to the digital world seems near complete now. There is barely a task in our daily life that we do completely un-mediated by digital technology. Or, without using an ‘online’ tool. So much so that the … Continue reading The only worlds of existence
Books Read in 2020
This comes in after a quarter of 2021 has already slipped by. I could only draw a blank when I tried to recollect all the books that I read in the past year. It had to wait until I returned to Bangalore and look at the shelves and pull out all of them. Visual memory … Continue reading Books Read in 2020
Alternatives
Walking up on the trail I hear a gentle creaking of pine trees. The mid-winter weather is foggy with intermittent rain. Up on the ridge sits a small village at about 2900 meters altitude. The snowline begins here. It is colder and windy than the valley. A motorable road rises up from the valley and … Continue reading Alternatives
Keeping Count
Day 347 Keeping a count was an instinctive move when the pandemic began. It served the limited purpose of having a sense of temporal distance in these extraordinary times. It is the 347th day since the first lockdown. A month more and it will be a year of the pandemic. India has moved from initial … Continue reading Keeping Count
Roundup 2020
If there was a time when we actually meant most of what we said, it is this year. Our ‘how are you doing’ has often been genuine this year. We have wished to hear from our relatives and friends hoping that they are fine. That they have not caught the virus. That they haven’t lost … Continue reading Roundup 2020
Day 277: Horizons
27/12/2020 Day 277 Barry Lopez died today. The uncertainty about life this year has played out consistently. Yet, every time I am taken aback. I expected a few more essays and thoughts coming from the man as the year turned and perhaps a few more reflections when all this is over. It was not to … Continue reading Day 277: Horizons
Day 236: Where would you want to be?
15/11/2020 Day 236: Where would you want to be? From the anthology on Himalayas, I read some of the essays again - ‘A Mountain Retreat’ by Viki Mackenzie and ‘The Nature of the Highlands’ on Tibet by Lama Anagarika Govinda. The quests in life and inner journeys of people seem to be the same in … Continue reading Day 236: Where would you want to be?
