Who is Mentally Retarded?

         "He is mentally retarded he will go to temple after this service" the stranger told this to my father. It was a usual practice for my father to attend Good Friday services in mission churches where poor and sick people attend. He always select one child to accompany him and it was my turn in that year. I saw him during a break given between long prayers(Let us call him Babu(It is not his real name)). Babu wore a full sleeves shirt and he buckled all buttons including the top one of his shirt which gave him a different look from others. Babu looks like a elder person physically but his mannerisms were showing that he was not matured as a young man. I was only 9 years old at that time and I felt he is in the same age of mine mentally.

          After the prayers one person in that church(a stranger for me) met us when we were ready to leave back to home. After a small chat my father enquired about Babu. The stranger said "Babu is mentally retarded". "Oh is it? Still he is attending all prayers that is good" My father replied.
He is going to all churches and temples and after this service he will go to temple. The stranger uttered. It is late we are leaving now. My father said and my conclusion as a 9 years old boy was Babu is mentally retarded so he is visiting all churches and temples and he does not belong to any religion.

       Now after 26 years when I see people who claimed to be in good mental state fight against each other for their religion I am realizing that Babu was not disabled but he was enlightened enough to understand the concept of GOD better than others. All religions are teaching the ways to reach almighty GOD and there is only one GOD who made human from vacuum(Nothing). Babu understood the GOD who created him is powerful enough to show the path so he was searching the right path by going to different sacred places. Now when I ask the question Who was mentally retarded? I have a different answer in my mind altogether.

      



         

A Drive from Bangalore to Thrissur

     It was Christmas holidays and we wish to celebrate Christmas in Kerala because my home town was Trivandrum and my spouse was from Thrissur. How we are going to kerala? my wife asked.  I have no plan in my mind I replied. Then she started explaining different possible options. A flight from Bangalore to Trivandrum, Train from Bangalore Thrissur and then to Trivandrum or by car from Bangalore to Thrissur and then in train from Thrissur to Trivandrum. We will go by car this time I announced my decision. But route till Thrissur was not clear for me but I was sure that some of my friends or cousins will be travelling to Kerala by car on Christmas holidays.

    Finally we decided to travel on 23rd December at 6:00 am early morning. I filled petrol and checked air pressure in tyres of my Honda Amaze. We started by 6:45 am and my cousin was also accompanying us in his car. He usually travel in his car in the same route.The route will be Whitefield-Hosur-Salem-Palakadu-Thrissur. We took Sarjapura Main Road to reach Hosur from Whitefield to avoid heavy traffic.

Road was narrow but traffic was very less in Whitefield Sarjapura Main Road so we managed to reach Hosur in 45 minutes. From Hosur the road was becoming wider and more smoother. Now we are driving in NH44(Previously known as NH7) four lines with wide divider and service road  it looks like roads in developed countries.

    Another attractive aspect of this route was the scenery around the road. The view of hills and colour of sunshine in the morning made it unique. The distance from Hosur to Salem is 163 km which can be covered in 2 hours if we drive in a single stretch but I decided to break my drive in Two stretch. By 8 am in the morning we stopped to take breakfast and relaxed approximately 45 minutes in a restaurant. Approximately by 10:30 am we reached Salem.

     From Salem to Thrissur we drove in NH-47 which is wide and 4 line road with wide divider. You can find toll booths in this route but the quality of road is good. Road quality deteriorated after Palakadu and we took almost 1-2 hours to reach Palakadu to Thrissur. Traffic was high because of Christmas season and we reached home finally by 7:00 pm. The travel was good and refreshing. 

A Never Ending Book - Series - 3

    Everyday I started my day with checking e-mails in office. One day morning I saw an e-mail about a trekking trip planned and invitation for joining it. It was from our HR department and the trekking was part of an yearly outbound program. I gave my consent to join the trip immediately because  I liked the outdoor trips. This trip will be more interesting because this trekking will be inside a forest area in Kallar region which is 45 kms from Trivandrum city. Kallar is famous for clear flowing water over round stones and water falls in its path.

    The trip postponed twice because of rainfall and it was not advisable to visit kallar during rainy days due to the possibility of sudden rise in water level. Finally on a sunny Saturday we started our trip to kallar for trekking. We reached the destination by 9:30 am and our guides were waiting there to start the trip. Three young guides were there to guide us, a group of 30 people.

   Guides took over the leadership and started giving initial instructions. They announced that we are going to enter a forest area and wild animals like Elephant, Bear, Snakes etc may be there in that area. They gave instructions what to do if we see any of these wild animals there. Most of us laughed after hearing this instructions because a team of 30 young people were ready to take any adventure inside the forest. There was a 20 minutes walk to enter into the water flow region in kallar. Our guides had arranged some interesting games like treasure hunt to help us to move forward without any issues. 

 We never felt that we are moving inside a forest because everyone was busy in finding their team's treasure. In next 30 minutes we reached the real kallar where water was flowing smoothly. Now the path forward is full of water and smooth stones. It was difficult to walk over smooth stones because it was too slippery however we managed to move forward as a team. The path was becoming more and more narrow and kallar was becoming more beautiful for eyes. It was a scary experience to hike through narrow slippery paths and sometimes our guides helped us to walk forward. 

  We reached a place surrounded by big long stones and it seems I reached a new world altogether. "We will be taking our lunch here". One guide announced. So I can spend sometime there before moving forward. The sound of flowing water helped me to relax and take some rest. After lunch the last stage of our trekking started and it was the most difficult but mind blowing experience. We need to hike through vertical rocks to reach the next destination. Initially I wonder whether we can climb it without ropes but our guides supported us and we managed to climb it without ropes. But in the next destination they were waiting with ropes to give us an experience of trekking using ropes. 

 It was only 3:30 pm but inside the forest we feel like 5:30 pm because sunlight was fading. Our guides told it is the time to go out of that place and reach near our buses because it will be difficult to find the way out in the dark. Finally we reached near our bus by 6:30 pm.