3 miles..

Its always fun to discover yourself in someway, to accomplish something and feel good about yourself and to explore your limits and see if you can push further. I did a 3 mile run today in one stretch at around 7 miles per hour and I felt elated when i achieved that. I know its no big deal for many people but for me its a personal milestone for my body.Though i have hiked 40 miles max,i have never run. Its the first time ever my body has pushed to run and cross the 3 mile mark(it took me all of 27 years to do it,Lol!!) At the end though my legs were ready to collapse i could feel the satisfaction of doing something. I hope i can keep the momentum going and see how far i can stretch.

Somehow while running i kept thinking of Hermes,the olympian god - The messenger of gods in greek mythology,he has winged feet and i thought i was flying and kept running and running. Lol!

See what no one else sees. See what everyone chooses not to see... out of fear, conformity or laziness. See the whole world anew each day!

Winter is here...

Winter has started. I love the way nature turns herself around.Its like a 'catharsis'- It feels as if she had enough fun and needs sometime alone for herself and self contemplation and just shuts down or sits for a penance or deep meditation(though i know the scientific reasoning too,sometimes the literary reasoning appeals more). Under her direction all her children follow through.The trees have shed their leaves,the animals have all hibernated,the fishes have gone to the innermost depths of the water,the birds have flown. It's cold and dreary and no longer colourful as it was about a month back. The first little white flakes are falling down.

But just as brightness is beautiful,the darkness is also equally beautiful. Its -1 Degrees Centigrade. I put on my coat and stepped out of my apartment and the cold wind hit my face.It was a wonderful feeling.It felt as wonderful as the sun light hits you on a sunny day or the rain on a rainy day. My eyeballs hurt because it immediately went dry because of the cold dry wind,my hands started going numb and i could no longer feel my ears and the tip of my nose stung.But this is another shade of mother nature and i revel in those sensations and feelings which can only be experienced here and in this season. Winter is one of my favourite seasons and i am really looking forward for it.

I find solace in Knowledge, I find solace in Nature,I find solace in music.The greatest gift we have is of 'Life' itself.

Above the clouds.

I have always believed that looking into the lives of other people gives one perspective. People are inherently different and have varied views about different things in life and about life itself. The hardships faced ,experiences are different paving way for different character moulding and thinking.

Humans are inherently impressionable creatures,the brain observes,learns,follows and formulates idea and thoughts and solidifies its thought processes and logic. I have always believed you can learn something from everybody. But there are some people whose lives influence and inspire you a lot. Now ,why they influence and inspire a lot more than the others is a difficult question to answer and maybe very relative.
But,these people bring about phenomenal changes in the way you think and act and re-shuffle your thought processes and perspectives of life a great deal. We become followers for some reason.

Anatoli Boukreevs life is one such example. A high altitude mountaineer who was vilified for his judgements in the 96 everest disaster and who perished the very next year trying to do a winter ascent of the Annapurna.He had climbed 11 of the 14 8000 meter peaks and was one of the most accomplished mountaineers in recent times.'Above the clouds' is a book about his life. When you look closely at his life,his profession,his character and thought process in the book,you just keep wondering whether people like this also exist? You envy sometimes wishing you could live such a life or reach those levels and had such capacities, but you know in the back of your mind that you cannot ! We are just mere mortals!

I keep wondering about the profession of high-altitude mountaineers and suddenly have a deep respect for the likes of reinhold messner,ed viesturs,Jerzy Kukuczka,george mallory,etc. .. and many more.These people have a very different attitude towards life,that is all i can say.Very different from the common masses!

In the foreword Galen Rowel writes 'unlike genius, which is a personal quality that often comes to naught,greatness implies a recognition of unusual human endeavor by the minds of others. It always comes after the fact,and all too often posthumously.Besides involving a continuum of accomplishments,greatness seems to require humility and a willingness to wait for the world to make its judgements. I dwell at length on greatness because I believe Anatoli was robbed of it during his lifetime'. After reading this book and 'The climb' about Anatoli Boukreev i also somehow have reached the same conclusion.