An eventful trip to Dharamsala

Dharamsala, the land of Dalai Lama's Government, is one of the natural beauty spots untouched by tourists.


It turned out to be a beautiful eye soothing trip to Dharamsala. As it is said, that we go to temples when God wants to see us. I went when Buddha wanted to see me, but He made me struggle a bit to meet Him. My flight from Delhi to Dharamsala was canceled due to incessant rains.

I had to take a flight to Amritsar and then by taxi to Dharamsala. It took about 7 hours through long mountainous route which did not have even basic tea shops on the way.

All the more it was raining and to make matters worse the driver stopped the car at a junction and was wondering which road would be open and which one would be closed by landslides. The only good thing was that we were four of us talking about everything on earth.

We stayed at a hotel for the night. The next morning was bright and sunny. I could feel the fresh air and see the green clad mountain slopes. I saw the native boys taking a few donkeys for work and the native women accompanying the goats for grazing.

We scheduled to go for the site visit first. The site is for a hydro electric power plant, a small sized one without any dams. It is to make electricity from running water in the river. It was a majestic view from the hills. There were small streams flowing into the river. The streams had water as clear as one can imagine. It is said that it is so pure and fit for drinking. The streams are of the size of what we get when corporation pipe lines break. There are other bigger streams also.

We had to trek a small distance, may be a kilometer, as the car couldn’t go near due to landslide. There was an old power house of about 20 years functioning nearby. We paid a visit the power house. I could hear the alternators humming. We went to the basement to have a view of the turbines. It was a splendid scene when I saw the turbine shaft rotating. Also, I could see the valve at the end of penstock and the related auxiliary systems to control air lock and balance pressure. There was a spare pelton wheel which had come for replacement for a turbine. When asked, the person there could just say that it would be costing in lakhs. It was a memorable experience as I got the opportunity to visit a power plant and see it in operation. I never expected this would happen as I had left engineering field for finance. Finance has helped me understand engineering better through the projects.

We gathered information about the site, inspected and then started returning down the hill. It was at this time that the climate changed, all in a matter of a couple of hours, and started pouring heavily.

We proceeded to visit McLeodganj, the place where Tibetan settlements are there and where the monastery is located. The museum there depicted the sufferings and suppression that Tibetans have undergone. The monastery is an awesome location to have great peace of mind. I could feel the calmness in mind and felt like meditating for some time. My achievements and losses, esp. those of loss of contact with my dear friends came to my mind as lightening. May be Buddha wanted me to have some quiet moments to understand myself. Some of my team mates bought a few mementos while returning. We had lunch at our hotel and packed for yet another grueling 8 hour car journey to Chandigarh and then by flight to Delhi.

I go with enthusiasm

Every afternoon has been exciting ever since I started going to Adult Literacy Campaign (ALC). Oh.. wait.. before you start speculating on my age, I am a teacher there.

A select few inmates at helL take time off their busy studies schedule to spread the light of knowledge in the lives of many illiterate daily wage/contract workers at the college. I belong to that select few who are interested not only in making our lives meaningful but others’ too.

The workers make a living by working as sweepers, room cleaners, safai karamchari, etc. They come from nearby villages and work under a few contractors. They can be seen at work in the mornings polishing the roads with the brooms and ensure that the campus is clean. The helL never sleeps, but we come to know its day when we see them on campus. They go home in the evening as satisfied as ever having done something good for people to live.

Some work in the mess as employees of the student owned mess. Mess workers stay on campus itself in the accommodation provided to them.

The workers take time off in their lunch time (12-1 pm) to learn something useful. They come eagerly to the classes murmuring yesterdays learning. Some are learning Hindi, some learn English, numbers and so on. Their age varies from twenties to fourties. Each one is learning the different levels of those subjects. So there are books available from preliminary levels to essay writing. The class starts by revising the previous days learnings, checking homeworks and then proceeding to the learning for the day.

The workers are enthusiastic to learn. They keep asking doubts though there are no class participation marks. They come to class on time tough there is no penalty for coming late. They do assignments though there are no marks for them.

A few instances have been there that have made me wonder why we, the educated mass, are not like them. They question every point that’s is taught to them. Their inquisitiveness needs to be applauded.

Once I was teaching an elderly student in her late fourties. I call her deedi. She is learning english. Till now she has finished the alphabets and is learning words. She is learning to spell at least 5 words for each alphabet.

English is a difficult language to learn for us Indians. We are accustomed to alphabets that represent sounds, i.e. a, aa, e,ee, etc. English is not so. It needs practice and a lot of by heart learning to write english. It is a very difficult task for a person in her fourties to mug up so much of spellings. I asked her to write ELEPHANT. she started enthusiastically by writing an A. She said this is A and elephant should start with it. I was amused and wanted to know what more surprises she has for me. So I let her proceed. She wrote L, I and then comes F, A,N,T. She says ALIFANT is elephant. I didn’t have words to speak. So huge is the influence of Indian language on learning English.

She was learning words like a for apple, ant, etc. She was finding it difficult to relate words and keep their spellings in mind. So I decided to make her study in a different manner. I let her group similar items and learn their spelling than going in an alphabetical order.

I asked her to write the names of animals. She went on writing the names of animals she knew. Tiger, lion, cat, dog, etc. Then I asked her to write fish. Then she started recollecting more names. Suddenly out of the blue she wrote carrot. I didnt find any logic why a vegetable should feature in list of animals. I asked her " what happened deedi?, how has carrot come here?" she said, we are writing names of eatables no? we wrote fish and next is carrot. I hadn’t believed when many people earlier said its difficult to learn when you are old, your memory will be short.

All these small instances have made my life a bit more spicy. Now I too go to ALC with great enthusiasm.

Great Quotes

Worry doesnot empty tomorrow of its sorrow;
it empties today of its strength - anonymous

The moment you start comparing urself with others..u stop being urself.- Ganesh