Dont spread your holiday energy:Multiple Locations on a holiday

So you are going for a holiday to your favourite destination. You have saved, planned and researched for your holiday and are looking forward to it. You know you are not going to be there again soon unless you win a lottery ticket, so you want to make the most out of it.

One tendency obviously is to visit as many locations and hot spots at the destinations and put several things on your itinerary. And what virtually happens is that while chasing all these locations, you end up skipping a few because it becomes too hectic. And despite you skipping some places, it still sucks the energy out of you. While you are happy that you will give no chance for your friends to say "Oh you missed that" as you proudly announce that you have been to all the cool places in Paris, but you know in your heart of hearts, how much energy it sapped.

While you may have selfies at all the right places in London to share on facebook, but you still are not satiated with your trip. You come back as a person who requires another few days to recover.

And worst is that while you were there at all those cool places but you actually werent there! Because you were worried about moving ahead. You never enjoyed the moment.

You never enjoyed the cool breeze by the Thames as you clicked a picture beside the London eye. You didnt enjoy the sun while you were there at the Taj Mahal or the Blue Mosque. While you were busy looking at all the shops in Istaklal, not to miss any, you didnt take the time to just sit on a bench on the roadside and enjoy watching the people pass by. You didnt stop to have a small chat with the guy selling food on the street. You didnt strike a conversation with someone at a pub.

You were just busy going from one place to another.

I realised it while doing some whirlwind holidays in Himachal that while I may do Sangla, Kalpa, Sarahan, Rampur and all but I will not get even one of them as I dont stop to have a relationship with any city or town.

Your trip transforms the moment you spend more than three days at a place. Just sit quietly and relax. You are not on a holiday to get up early in the morning to take a cab to a destination on your checklist, three hours away. Just sit and have a hearty breakfast with your loved one as if its a sunday morning at home and you dont have to cook breakfast.

Go out for walks into the city or the wild. Absorb the place. Feel the sunlight, the breeze, the mist, the people...everything. Relax. You may miss some very important locations in a city...agreed. But you will come back as having a relationship with the place you went to.

Keep only 2 to 3 things on your agenda: nature spot; music and shopping OR  shopping;food and liesure. Choose whatever are the top 3 things on your mind not more.

For sure you will come back from a holiday looking forward to work and not to another holiday.

Rather than moving to multiple destinations, locations or places...keep a minimal list and enjoy every place. Keep time for yourself to relax and enjoy the moments.

Make it a sweet, simple and satisfied holiday

Kaliyar Sharif

Kaliyar Sharif is the dargah of Sabir Peer in a place called Kaliyar near Roorkee.

I got interested in Sabir Peer primarily because he is one of the most popular desciples of Baba Farid, whose dargah in Pakistan is as popular in Pakistan, as Ajmer is in India. But I hadnt heard of Sabir Peer in popular circles in India.

My research got me to realise that the reason was that perhaps Sabir Peer chose to live a life away from the popular circles. I really got interested in being there and then finally once coming back from Dehradun, I thought it was time for me to pay a visit.

The place is about 25 kms from Haridwar and about 10 odd kilometres from Roorkee. From the main Haridwar-Roorkee highway, it is an offshoot of about 3.5 kms.

The place has a character of its own. Though I reached late in the town and didnt have time to see the town of Kaliyar but I found out that the town is full of dargah's of many other Sufi saints, some after and even some before the time of Sabir Peer. Its a town of Sufis it seems.

The sanctum sanctorum was closed by the time I reached but yet it was great to sit in the courtyard and meet the saint. What a peaceful place it is. The courtyard has a couple of trees of gular...that adds to the beauty. There is also an old porched section, where one can sit and be with the saint.

Interestingly on one of the trees, I saw a number of papers tied. On enquiry, I found that they were actually applications to the Peer to take care of matters of the devotees. I havent seen something like this before. I had seen locks and dhaagas at dargahs but not letters.

Have been thinking what I will write in a letter if I had to write one. How about writing a letter to God?

Dents, Car Design...and Sustainability???

Being the philosopher traveller that I claim to be, I was toying around with an idea for a while, which came true this weekend.

On New Year's Eve 2013, one drunk fellow (Its not that I hadnt been drinking...but he was more drunk than me...believe me) hit my car badly. And that dent has been on my car for a while now. There were a few more visible dents from my earlier mistakes while parking.

I was lazy that I didnt have the energy to leave my car with the denting guy...until some of my female friends pointed it out and I thought seriously about getting it repaired. I could still not break the inertia.

One fine day, the philosopher in me started to philosophize as I looked at the new year dent. I started comparing dents to experiences in life. Being the pucca philosopher, I realised whatever I am is because of the dents or experiences I have had in life. And they are memorable.

I thought of putting memory tags on my car giving out the details of the dent: where was it dented? when was it dented? how was it dented?.  How interesting would it be to point out the dents with an arrow and then giving out the details as sticker tags. I loved the idea.

Started sharing it with my French Classmates and one freaky lady (Nupur to be exact) gave me the tagline "Every Dent is a Memory".  Another dastangoi friend, (Ankit to be exact) after laughing it off, finally gave me ideas of monetising it as well, by patenting the idea. I was sharing with him, that repairing a dent on a car is a resource wastage, with so much of labour and other materials going it it. We were sharing the sustainability leanings of the idea, when he shared that even paint has harmful chemicals and we are saving out on polluting a little less with the paint. Did we actually hit on Sustainable Car Design. Hmmmm....

I was excited but I slept over it for over 3 months. But finally this weekend it happened.

Ab Buss Musafir Travels Private Limited ka thappa lagana baki hai.

Here is the beauty...My Ford Figo. It is Figo indeed.