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Quizes, yeah, sometimes you have to resort to these just to keep your blog alive, ...especially if you're married...

I am The Moon

You are The Moon

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Moon is a card of magic and mystery - when prominent you know that nothing is as it seems, particularly when it concerns relationships. All logic is thrown out the window.

The Moon is all about visions and illusions, madness, genius and poetry. This is a card that has to do with sleep, and so with both dreams and nightmares. It is a scary card in that it warns that there might be hidden enemies, tricks and falsehoods. But it should also be remembered that this is a card of great creativity, of powerful magic, primal feelings and intuition. You may be going through a time of emotional and mental trial; if you have any past mental problems, you must be vigilant in taking your medication but avoid drugs or alcohol, as abuse of either will cause them irreparable damage. This time however, can also result in great creativity, psychic powers, visions and insight. You can and should trust your intuition.

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The Capital of Buddhism

Inside the compound of the Mahabodhi Temple, Bodhgaya, Bihar

Here’re some pics of Bodhgaya, the place where Buddha attained enlightenment, and where we nearly froze to death. No, it ain’t really that cold normally, but try doing a 12km auto-rickshaw (India’s equivalent of Thailand’s tuk-tuk) ride at 4am in the middle of a cold spell in winter, dressed in summer clothing. Anyway, somehow we survived despite falling sick right after that, with cold & flu. Maybe Buddha just wanted to show us his tree, his temples from all over the Buddhist world (it’s like the United Nations of the Buddhist world, there’re temples from every Buddhist country and region in the world), his devotees, and a horde of all other things related to Buddhism.


The Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya, the main Buddhist temple in the world, where you can see Buddhist devotees of all creeds and colours on a pilgrimage, didn’t know that there’re so many ‘white’ Buddhists…


The Bodhi Tree where Buddha meditated below and attained enlightenment – actually this is only a descendant of the original tree, the original was killed ages ago by some jealous wife of a devout Indian Buddhist emperor who felt she had been neglected (…just like women huh, getting jealous over… a tree!?!?! for goodness sake… better not push my luck too far hehehe). Anyway, luckily for the Buddhist world, some smart chap before that brought a sapling of the original tree and planted it in Buddhist Sri Lanka, so the Indians had to just get a sapling back…


The 25m high Great Buddha (ala Japanese Daijokyo – I think), Bodhgaya, Bihar

The Great Trans-India Trek

What would you do if let’s say …you eloped with the girl of your dreams in a foreign country, and that girl actually had a boy who’s deeply in love with her and who would do anything to have her, and who in his mind thought the girl’s already his wife, …and the girl’s family actually supported the boy, and the entire marriage idea with the boy? And what if the girl had no documents whatsoever (meaning ‘Passport’) to get her out of the country?

Answer: You run like MAD, and hope nobody, and absolutely nobody knows your whereabouts just in case your location is leaked back to your would-be pursuers, imaginary or not. Luckily, India is a big country hehehe. And so started our grand trek across India by foot, horse, carriage, train, car, bus, rickshaw and anything imaginable, and available, through hills, plains, forest, desert and seaside.

Anyway, whether we actually had any so-called pursuers or not, or whether we imagined the whole darn suspense, it sure was a hell lot of fun hehehe. So what the heck, here’re some excerpts of our grand escapade, just for the sake of it!

And for those of you who’re wondering where we are now and where we’d be going next – only God knows… we thought we could stay put in Mumbai (Bombay) for at least a little while, looks like that’s not gonna be the case now, since the Project I was on, has just finished …very prematurely, short …but not really that sweet (the shortest project I’ve ever been involved in, an achievement huh?) Same old story, issues between the Client and the Contractor, blah, blah, blah, well, at least I’m still getting paid for hanging around until the Company decides on something hehehe, great life huh? Now if only they give me some place I’ve never been before …Chennai or Bangalore would be fun hahaha.

The Pink City

Hawa Mahal, the Wind Palace, Jaipur, Rajasthan

The Pink City, that’s what they call Jaipur, the capital of the state of Rajasthan in India. Story has it that once upon a time, the king of Jaipur (yes, Jaipur used to be an independent kingdom, with its own king, forts, castles, walls, palaces, and all other things royal), invited the King (or was it the Prince) of the UK for a visit to his beloved city, and to impress the royal visitor from the UK, he had the entire city painted, …Pink!, of all colours, the colour of Barbie! Luckily, for us guys, the shade of pink in the city ain’t really like the pink associated with cutesy girls, they’re more like dull red, like the red of red clay bricks if you catch what I mean. Anyway, it ain’t a city of Barbies, it ain’t a city of pink cutesy girls (how I sometimes wished it was, hehehe), and neither is it a city of gays or lesbians. It’s just a quaint ‘pink’ (or red) city surrounded, cut and partitioned by numerous city walls (all ‘pink’), palaces, hidden courtyards, alleys and lots of colourful shops.

Jantar Mantar, The Observatory, Jaipur

Actually, it’s a pretty interesting city, like something straight out of the 1000 & 1 Arabian Nights (although this is India you’re talking about). It’s located in a half-desert kinda place surrounded by arid rocky hills on 3 sides of the city with ramparts and watch towers, fantastical domed (Rajasthani-style) palaces and forts atop hills. There’re camels roaming around the city carrying goods (like some barter trade from the past). There’re turbaned, mustachioed & earring bedecked men, with baggy dhotis and pointed shoes smoking hookahs by the footpath. There’re veiled women dressed in the most bizarrely matched colours and the most imaginative jewellery you can find (like upper arm armour-like bracelets & metal breastplates, the men must be really ferocious people here).

View of Amber Palace, from Jaigarh Fort

Anyway, there’re lots of places to visit, lots of ethnic things to buy, lots of touts to drive you semi-mad, lots of guides to bug the hell outta you, and one corrupted police man to drive you outta the city (no, no, no don’t get me wrong, I love Jaipur, it’s a one in a million type case, and it only happened to me & Anu, and this is my third trip to Jaipur, and I have a feeling it’s not the last), so do visit if you have a chance, it’ll be a really enjoyable trip (if it’s in winter). In summer? …heaven help you.

Amber Palace, and Jaigarh Fort (on top of hill)

Mizoram's Taj Mahal

KV Paradise, Mizoram's Taj Mahal

Mizoram has its own version of a monument built for love, in this case, by a man for his wife who perished in an accident. If I’m not mistaken, it’s called KV Paradise, but all the locals just call it Mizoram Taj Mahal.


KV Paradise, Durtlang, Aizawl

The Flattest Place in Mizoram?

Thenzawl, is just about the flattest place I’ve come across in Mizoram, throughout my 1½ years stay. Nothing much here, or for the matter of fact, in Mizoram, except if you’re interested in natural beauty, such as hills, bamboo and more bamboo; and ethnic tribes and their culture. The Vantawng Waterfall’s here (refer earlier entry – “The Waterfall of The Leech”). Our Project’s nearby, which is fortunate since at least Thenzawl has some semblance of a decent tourist lodge, a good enough grocery shop (to cater for the police mainly), some health-care facilities, and the blessings of a river, Mat River, which fortunately brings BC boulders (very technical to explain here). Thenzawl’s also known to be the cowboy town of Mizoram, with farms and pastures (due to its comparative flatness) and a center for production of ethnic weave-work, besides the local liquor, oh I forgot… that’s illegal…




Weaving Workshop at Thenzawl

The Disadvantages of Drinking

...till you're dead drunk anyway.


Some local liquor – dirt cheap, maybe 100 rupees, depending on how many of your friends / colleagues you wanna treat
Some namkeen (tidbits Indian style) – 100 – 200 rupees, again depending on how many people you wanna treat
A photo in the internet, of you plastered on your bed, dead drunk, with your shorts and bed wet with pee, just because you’re too drunk to make a trip to the toilet or to even notice you need to go – Priceless!...

Memories of Mizoram

Mat River near Thenzawl, where our precious 'BC' stones come from. Wanna know more about BC stones of Mizoram? Send me a personal mail...

Farewell Mizoram! Yeah, sadly it’s goodbye, for the time being anyway. Till we meet again (and I’m sure we will, since it’s Anu’s home), here’re more pictures of a place which has given me a lot of friends, a lot of fond memories, a lot of experience and a place which I've already kinda considered home. Anyway, here’s to wishing everyone a Happy Happy Brand New Year! May 2007 bring abundant joy, peace, success, prosperity, luck, love and hope!


Rani, our lovely 'daughter', the hardest one to leave behind in Mizoram


Mausen Village, the village I and Anu were gearing to shift in (for work, it's on the Project Road) before we fell in love, etc, and changed everything...


Mucking around on the Kolodyne River Bridge (between Lawngtlai and Saiha); from left - Nela, Tony, yours truly


Aizawl's Bara Bazaar (meaning 'Big Market' in Hindi)


Serchhip, the biggest town between Aizawl and Haulawng, where we used to stop for lunch, dinner, supper..., depending on the time we reach this place while traveling


Angels of Haulawng at the Vantawng Falls; from left - Anu (with Rani), Rini, Amrita and Anny

Destiny's Path

Recently I got married. …Huh? What?!? Yeah, it’s true, after all I’m friggin human, I’m 36 bloody years old, I’m not gay, and I also wanna have a family of my own, and like it or not, destiny seems to have decided that it’s about time this …err thing happened.

Although destiny didn’t put it in such a straight-forward kinda way. No, don’t get me wrong, everything went on quite normally at first. There was friendship (we knew each other since January 2006, but never in our minds thought we’d be together, …we used to tease each other and pair each other off to potential partners). There was love (of course) and then a proposal (first, on the phone with my now-wife and then I went to her house and family in Assam state and formally proposed to her mother and her brothers). There was courtship (for about ONE WHOLE MONTH, after she accepted my proposal hehehe – when in India, do as the Indians do, right?). There was rivalry, …a lot of rivalry (after all my wife’s not that bad looking and somehow seems to attract a lot of …unwanted (on my part) attention, which include big names which I will refrain from naming here, and yours truly isn’t that bad in the attraction department himself, never would have guessed huh? hehehe). There were a lot of obstacles, ...there was a lot of heartache (refer to my earlier entries – “A Note of Illumination” and “Casualties of Love”). And finally there was our daring escape from Mizoram, when my wife left everything and everyone that she knew, to be with me, God bless her, and it’s no easy task to escape from Mizoram or for the matter of fact, her village (and her house which is inaccessible by car), without a soul knowing about it (don’t believe me, just let me see you do it). So, there you have it, we’re together and happily married now, far from the reaches of Mizoram.

And somehow, after you’re married your writing creativity and inspiration just don’t seem to work?!? …beats me, …but maybe there’s just no bloody free-time, …oh, YES HONEY, I’m coming…

By the way, my wife’s name is Anu, short for Anuradha Rajput.


Gary & Anu at the Sun Temple, Konark, Orissa


Gary & Anu at Taj Mahal, Agra, Uttar Pradesh