Can you make sense of facts like you make sense out of logic? But isn't logic a collection of facts? Or is logic a connection between facts? Or the order or structure of facts?

Or it's just a fountain pen

A Fountain Pen represents nostalgia. Somehow subtly connects you to that part of life that was associate with growing up, innocence, and contentment. Dare say I call it freedom?

Induces similar feelings in people who will see you writing with it.

Requires care and regular looking after.

Brings out the best in you. In terms of handwriting and ideas.

Might make you write more. Put your wonderful thoughts. Thoughts that are just yours. On paper. Or any suitable material. To be read by someone else or you, now or after a while. Eliciting a connection to the past. Cherish memories.

Can incubate a habit. To care more, to write more.

Can be passed along. Gifted.

Or it's just a fountain pen.

Lohagad Trek

Reaching Lohagad:
We took the Pune-Lonavla local train from Pune station and alighted at Malavli (We missed the 5:45 am train so boarded the 6:30 am train. The journey till Malavli takes about an hour.), which is the penultimate station towards Lonavla. It's a small station located in the very close to Lohagad and Visapur.

Malavli

From the station, we had to cross the Mumbai-Pune expressway using an overbridge and walk along a road that took us to Bhaje (or Bhaja) Village. To my surprise, there is ample parking available at the base village.

The only catch is that you have to reach early as Sundays draw a lot of crowd from Pune and Mumbai. Sometimes to annoying, despicable crowd of drinkers who come around to visit the waterfalls and create nuisance to folks around.

From Bhaje village, there is a fork of which the left leads to Bhaja/Bhaje caves and the right towards Lohagad. I would say that about 75% walk is along the kuccha road that leads to the very base of Lohagad. There are some resorts at the base. Apparently, there is a motorable route that leads to his base directly from Lonavla.

Walking route from Malavli

At Lohagad base, there were a couple of eateries and we were happy to see omlette bread and such. From Lohagad base there are steps that lead towards the main gate of Lohagad. We were amazed to see the main gate and the surrounding fortifications. The construction and overall  attention to detail left us spell bound. Remember this fort was built centuries back, with minimal technology to assist the construction. Considering that rain is abundant in this area and the structure has stood the fury of nature through all that time period just makes one think about the ingenuity of our ancestors.

Fortifications - Lohagad

The wiki page talks about the other structures seen on the fort. From the top we started the walk towards the "Sting of the Scorpion." This, according to me, was the best part of the trek. (Takes about 30-45 min.)

Towards the Sting of the Scorpion

The little thrill involved along with the lush green surroundings was splendid. We reached the "sting' and made ourselves some yum sandwiches and spent some time before returning. The sun came up by this time and it started to get hot so we decided to climb down.

Difficulty:
Lohagad is a trek of moderate difficulty. While some patches are walking along a road "kuccha", you can take shortcuts (akin to Sinhagad) that are a slightly difficult (than the normal route) in monsoons. The best part of course is from the top of the fort towards the Sting of the Scorpion.

General observations:
Near the base village, there are some waterfalls that attract horrible crowds. We saw 2-3 cars full of drunkards who made a space for themselves near the waterfalls, all the while shouting and cat-calling, and started drinking right there in public place. They also played (tharki) music via some low quality speakers that added to the annoyance.

Be careful around such people. They annoy at times just to pick up a fight.

On asking the person who collected "toll" whether drinking is allowed and does he know what is going on beyond the gate, he just couldn't answer and decided that being rude is the best option that he has. These local goons are backed by the local politicians. Their symbiotic relation proves to be a parasite for the society.

I just wish I had a shotgun with me. So did a friend of mine.

Sometimes you need the noise-cancellation headphones just to listen to silence.

Thermodynamics of Love

As with Energy, I believe that Love cannot be created or destroyed but transformed from one form to another. This form is not necessarily a person or "one person today, another tomorrow". It goes beyond that. Various types of forms could be adolescence, attraction (physical and mental), dependency, genetic bond, mutual likes and dislikes, and in extreme cases like the Stockholm syndrome, capture-bonding. There could be many more forms here. To each his own.

The reason why I wrote this post stems from varied thoughts I keep having on and off. A few of them include the “stability holds a marriage together more than love” idea from Love in the Time of Cholera, the usual debates about “can love be really selfless? Does selfless love exist?” and the very recent watching of Gatsby, specially the part where they meet after 5 long years and the awkwardness that pervades before the dam breaks.

Love does transform into a lot of feelings eventually - companionship, respect, adulation, habit, friendship, physical bonding, wavelength congruency, adaptability, understanding, and many more. Probably the same feelings that combine in some way or other to create love are eventually isolated. Is that how love evolves?

What probably matters then is how we handle it. Do we acknowledge that love has transformed? Just like the Horcruxes, love is distributed in parts that make up the whole. (What a terrible analogy though!) Or is the loss lamented?

“It is not like it was before.” “Things have changed.”

So have times, so has the world around. The immediate world and the extended world.

Love evolves to survive. Eventually when some of the life-tasks are check marked, there would be moments when the parts come together again to become a whole. And when it does, probably the sum would be greater than the parts.

Till then, is it wise to sustain love’s various forms? Wait till the string of hope ties it’s several forms together again? The glue of faith to bind it together? The togetherness over a timeline cement this form?

Or are these just words and ideas?
-
"Does love really exist?"
"The answer is circumstantial."

I am 30 and I know it (most of the times)!

Yes, I became 30 recently. 3 decades and all.

It was a lovely time spent with all the lovely people. What a surprise that was! :)

To top it off in the best way possible, P and Nik were a part of a team working on this endearing project. P compiled 30 lines from Moral Redundancy and tried to match them with 30 photos that I've clicked. She then passed the burden to the talented Nik who designed a classy print book. All this while keeping a surprise! And there I was wondering (and happy) about the sudden rise in visitors to my blog (which on a regular day is rather meagre!) I am really, really grateful for this wonderful surprise.

You can see a digital copy here:

Matryoshka doll and incomplete books

Those of you who have read Cloud Atlas would probably know that the book's overall structure is based on the principle of a Matryoshka doll. The six stories are spread out in such a way that the first one is left halfway to be completed at the end of the book, the second one is completed second last, and so on. The middle story is complete and it has certain elements (am sure I can find some more when I re-read the book) that subtly strings all of the stories together. Very interesting idea, and a rather good book.

Now. What does this have to do with incomplete books?

This year has been a lull period in terms of reading. More than the books I have read, I have left incomplete books. Some of them have been carried from last year. Here is a list of books I have not finished, since last year:

• The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch
• Kingdom's End: Selected Stories - Saadat Hasan Manto (Since this one is short stories, it can be read as and when.)
• The Wind-up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami (Yes, I know! Maybe I picked this book at the wrong time.)
• Embassytown by China Mieville (Not this books fault. Though it is a bit hard to get into. People say that it gets better after page 50 or so. The ideas and concepts are indeed mind blowing so far! But, I am simply waiting for Infinite Jest!)

That's how we take the detour to Infinite Jest. Yes. I have been reading so much about this book and it's colossal size in terms of pages and thoughts, and the admiration it elicits from the folks who love it. As soon as I could manage up some more courage over the usual book-hoarding obsession, I ordered this book (Though it can be said that it is an indirect gift. Hint: Voucher).

So, Infinite Jest is on it's way. I am not sure what double meaning this earlier line carries. It also is a reference to Hamlet (Hail internet-scholars!). The book sounds promising though. Very promising. I am equally scared and excited to start it. I know it's huge (about 1000+ pages) and dense, and I know I will have to work towards reading it, with patience, and at this juncture I think I will be able to read it, but the coming days will speak more.

Then after finishing IJ (look at the bravado!), whenever I do complete it, I would like to complete the other books in the order I left them.

How's that? Sounds good right now!

Matryoshka doll made of books,

not as easy as it looks,

Infinite Jest might be the one that binds,

to connect the unassociated minds. 

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse - Book Review

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Owing to this being a translated book and almost 90 years old, the language was not as smooth as I expected. Or maybe I expected it to be as smooth as some of the concepts and thoughts put across in the book.

This book traces the changes in Siddhartha's life. From a child to a child. Insert child is the father of man in there somewhere and seal it. Oh, but I digress. There are some really wonderful and big thoughts filled in this small book. Specially in the second half of the book when Siddhartha's thoughts flow like (or with) the river.

Specially the last few pages are really worth it. Though, one can always debate on some of the stated philosophies. Like, yes good and evil, truth and lie, and other binary things (are they really binary) are a part of what makes the whole, but then why does Siddhartha suggests that we don't hate, but love the world as is. Aren't love and hate opposites? On the other hand, they might not be opposites.

My only wish was that I should have come across this book and other similar ones when I was a wayward teenager or a twenteenager. Some things would have made a deeper mark than the breezing touch of the book right now. Still, it definitely is a good read!


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