WP Daily Prompts – TEMPLES of South India to the TABLES at Las Vegas

Describe your most memorable vacation.

Most memorable vacation. Every vacation is memorable to me or some incident in those trips. To recollect some of them on a chronological order.

The one that I went to Kashmir when i was 4, 5 years old. I don’t recollect but based on a photo where I and my sister dressed in Kashmiri dress, I still add it to my vacation list. I also remember something like, seeing a python snake during the trip and at a point we got down the bus, to escape some terrorist activity..I’m not sure how much of is this true but I still have those memories.

My father was working in the telephones department, the now BSNL. He used to take us to trips on LTA once in 3, 4 years. Once we went to a trip to temples in Karnataka. Going to Udipi, Belur, Halabedu. Taking bath in the Tungabadhra river, visiting various temples. The beauty was that this trip was completely on bus and was arranged and accompanied by few of my dad’s colleagues. Every day, we will move back by one row in the bus. When you breathe out, you will get smoke out of ur mouth and that’s the first smoking experience we all enjoyed with family.

Subsequently, through LTA, there was also a trip to Dehradun, Mussoorie and Delhi, Haridwar, Kasi, etc. Another childhood trip. I still remember tasting a fabulous roti in a hotel called Akash deep in dhun.

My father at a trip from Haridwar

Every annual leave, I go to my native place Madurai or to my Periammas house. It was Palani, Dindigul, Trichy , udumalaipet. I was the youngest cousin and had lovely memories in each of those places.

Post which, at college days, visited Kerala and few other friends native place. That Is when I enjoyed the beauty of villages. I invited some of my friends to my home who were enjoying Chennai. However, I always liked their style of life.

In 2005, While At TCS, my first flight to Kolkata for a project takeover. Walking in Lungi in the streets of Kolkata 😀, and enjoying the Pani pooris and Rasogollas in the streets of Karunomoyee was fantastic.

It was around Christmas , we 4 of us went to Gangtok and witnessed the snow for the very first time. It was a such a fabulous experience having a local soup, riding the yak and seeing a frozen lake.

In 2009, my first Himalayan trek to Roopkund, with Tamal, Bindu and a bigger group of people for 9 days. Walking around 10-15 kms daily, staying in tents, witnessing some stunning views, talking bath in a cold falls which was around 5-10 degree. Drying our dresses in campfire. Walking in Lungi at Hinalayas, which my friends used to make fun of.

2010, took an official trip to Denver and my First trip there was to Las Vegas. No comments on Vegas , 😉. Visited Aspen to witness my first fall colours.

I grew up around the Temple streets of Madurai and was taught a lot of divine stories in my young ages , which had a great influence on me. The main advantage of Tamil Nadu, is its beautiful temples. KUDOS to my mother who is an encyclopedia of various temples in India but never admits that she knows about 100s of temples. Some of her suggestions were places deep inside villages and that we enjoyed travelling through the serene farm fields to witness a silent, divine, not so famous, uncrowded, village temple.

At times we take temple trips visiting various temples in and around Tamilnadu. I wish this becomes a routine and to write a weekly blog about the unexplored stories of temples

Visit to Los Angeles, subsequently to Vegas was super duper fun with a fun gang . San Diego and the la Jolla beach kayaking were awesome.

The latest trip to London, which started off with a bang taking me to a Cambridge hospital (https://mukerv.wordpress.com/2023/04/11/my-london-diaries-kothu-parotta-to-kambridge-hospital-the-addenbrookes/) and the recent boys trip to Wales, all have been fabo fabulous.

Thus my memoir has been great so far w.r.t vacations. Every vacation has one or some memorable stories. Ranging from the temples of South India to the poker tables of Las Vegas. Wish to continue further.

What else can we do until we leave. The destination is unknown hence spend time eating, sleeping, moving from point a to b in the natural labyrinth named warth, calling it a travel; working for money and thinking about our state of mind from the past, etc. etc.

Thanks

Mukundaraman

PS, Excuse Typos as my blogs are written on mobile and auto correct plays a spoilsport. Please point out so that I can correct it. Thanks to chatgpt for the tags

WP Daily Prompts – Future worries

What are you most worried about for the future?

I am a bit worried about the monotonous life that I have. I wish I can come out of this running behind money and start to explore the world a lot more. But a new episode in London has started , Hope this will go for a while. Or rather , I should find a balance between my daily routine and exploration where my London episode is very much towards it.

Though I am into something or the other every year, I wish something sustains to become a lifelong habit. Change is the only permanent thing, is proven every year in my life.

My Introvertness is another worry. I wish I have atleast 5, 10 people around me, chit chatting, bringing in new thoughts , ideas, exploring or researching new things as a group. I have a specific requirement in everything and have to work a bit on this to fix this.

Was feeling a bit lonely in the last 3,4 months moving to London. Hopefully that should be solved sooner .

I have my entrepreneurial thoughts in which I haven’t moved an inch. Just for the sake or starting a company, I don’t wish to start one. Also not inclined towards the service sector. But unfortunately all my experience lies on the service side. Tried a few courses on product management and quantum compyting but still lacking the fire to start one.

It’s just 3 out of the hundreds of things I am happy about or have achieved. Capping at 100, 3% is not a bad number.

I have heard that when a problem is written it gets solved, let’s take stock on this after a while.

Thanks

Mukundaraman. V