Time and tide waits for no man. Nor woman.
Only last year around this time I took on a job with a sector I had never worked in before. It is called the Non Governmental Sector (NGO for short) in order that I might get my hands dirty. And right enough I did – or almost! My interest was to get into the sector in order that I may be able to devote my time to the social sector, really playing with the real soil of India – the under privileged.
A year from then, I am returning to Delhi, with hope that I will be able to do my bit in my own way in a small circle, I will have to develop in Delhi’s juggi jhopadi.
Having said that, I must confess that the year behind me was enriching too especially because of a dear friend I met quite by chance. Without mincing words I have to give 90% of my ability to have stuck around on this job, to her encouragement and support. A good listener, forever available and open to my thoughts and anxieties, she had been the rock of Gibraltar throughout this period. Hence, with only twenty days to go, we decided to take a joint trip together to a place neither of us had been before – Jabalpur.
Trips and travels may be planned but there is a sense of the unexpected that is always there, which makes the trip all the more exciting. This time we were in for a new experience, not altogether happy.
As we completed the first day, having taken a boat ride through the River Narmada lined on both sides with the famous splendid marble rocks and visited the temple of the 64-yoginis (see picture on the link below) we came back to Osho Amrit Dham, where we were putting up, right next to the beautiful rock garden. We had hardly finished an afternoon siesta and a meditation, than we got the sad news that my friend’s father had just passed away.
All our plans of Jabalpur sight-seeing took the back seat as we struggled on a Sunday evening to get to the nearest airport in order that we could have her on a plane to Chennai.
Jabalpur is really one of those towns, in the middle of nowhere! To get to the nearest “city” points, you have to travel approximately 7 – 8 hours by train or bus! So, at 11 pm we took a bus from Chaudhury Travels, right where the Bus Stand is, to Nagpur, 8 hours away.
Ah! The sight of a large city – Nagpur, we could not savour much except that the broad roads took us to the Airport and once she was gone, I began my long and arduous journey back to Bhopal, by train and bus. By the time I was in Bhopal, my back had almost given way – 19 hours of travel non-stop in not the best of comforts, made me decide that really this was the journey, I call life. And here’s why.
Some journeys are marked by a certain flavor that is peculiar to life itself. You come to the world as a visitor, you travel distances, sometimes short and these days, many times long, between the two finite points – life and death, wearing your soles out, allowing the weather to beat your brows, loving some, hating some, making rules, breaking them, conforming and rebelling. You meet new friends, you lose old ones, you make a new beginning, but it does not move after a certain time, no amount of effort can determine which way the wind is going to blow. So you as a traveler set your sail up to the wind, and the best traveler is one who can allow the flow and go with the wind.
I may not be Marco Polo, but I have travelled over life times to know, why we meet and part, whether it is places we change or in the hands of death we surrender to. There is a reason behind everything. There are no accidents in life. The wealth of past experiences must do their round to expend their energies. All our meetings, all relationships, are but the fruition of a past coming the full circle.
Therefore, goodbye sweet memories, dear hours spent together. Be it time, space or the evil hands of death, time and tide waits for no man. Nor woman. It is but, the sweet essence of life, the lessons learnt, to love, to rejoice, when life is there, and then to mourn it not, for the hours once spent never return except in our memories. And that too will pass, in time.
Therefore, Goodbye sweet memories!
More pictures of Jabalpur
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/juliadutta/Jabalpur#
9 comments:
My best wishes for the change in scenes. Delhi at the moment is sweltering hot but then I guess so would be MP.
great pics! the place looks great, though the unfortunate occurrence would have taken your mind off the beauty i guess.... all the best for delhi!
Dear Mridula,
Yet, home is where the heart is, sweltering though it may be :))
Julia
Hi Anu,
Yes, but one thing came to light - Crisis is the one time when your mind works at best - it is neither in the past, nor in the future. It is like the yogi's mind, fixed on the present!
Thanks for reading,
Julia
Very touching, Julia...
Aekta,
Thanks you so much :))
I am glad I found you again Julia. Earlier when I was trying to open your page I kept getting a message that this blog does not exsist.
I tried several times then stopped try to open your site.
About 20 years ago some girls I know went to study in Jabalpur, only for a year. It seems its still the same. But they told us about the marble rocks.
The pictures are beautiful.
Glad you could enjoy this special time with your friend. Although I am so sorry to hear of her loss. It must have come to her as a huge shock.She must have needed a good friend like you to comfort her at a time like this.
I was wondering the Toob Arts fellow selling temple artifacts , are they fakes ? You just can 't sell genuine stuff on the market.
I am sure you are eager to get back to good old Dilli- familiar jhuggi jhoopdis. LOL.
Wish you all the best as you step out on a fresh venture. I know you will do good.
Life is a journey and at each step we come face to face with a new adventure
Dear Amrita,
Yes, I guess for some reason my blog has been going through a bit of problem. I too found that I could not find the blog/or it would not open up. That's how, as soon as I did, I added that word verification stuff which actually I hate but I believe it protects your blog from spam. I think you should also do it in yours.Anyone telling the truth and writing even on controversial stuff MUST.
Frankly, I am not sure about the authenticity of the stuff selling in shops. Today it is very difficult to make anything out, but then, I buy little as I prefer to see something and not really buy it and clutter my already small living space, so I have never bothered about authenticity.
Some of India's towns need to wake up to the new realities of our times. Jabalpur is one of them, especially that it is famous for its marble rocks.
Thanks Amrita for dropping by,
Julia
The holiday is the time which will make you able to enjoy as much as you can. You can plan to visit some other destination during your holiday. This will make you able to have so many new experiences in the life. This will make you feel so much special.
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