ivfwaladocisms

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Sleepless in Lavasa

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair. ~Kahlil Gibran

I'm in love with the kingdom of Lavasa. For those of you who are Face-booking, please do join our group- "In Love with Lavasa". My Dad & I drove down this bright sunny winter day , past Urvade, Lavarde to Lavasa. As usual, we had a breakfast break on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway - they serve the best Vada-Paos in the district! After this pit-stop, it was an hours drive straight up to Lavasa. I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is boundless. Look at the trees, look at the birds, look at the clouds, look at the stars... and if you have eyes you will be able to see that the whole existence is joyful. Everything is simply happy. Trees are happy for no reason; they are not going to become prime ministers or presidents and they are not going to become rich and they will never have any bank balance. Look at the flowers - for no reason. It is simply unbelievable how happy flowers are.

As I drove up the Lavabahn, I was dreaming of starting an Art Gallery for the township. Art would blend in beautifully with the environment, the ambience, the stylish landscaping, the royal promenade, the manicured lawns, the eco-friendly slopes of the villas & the people who have made Lavasa their home. And then we cruised past the Lavasa Dwaar & we were in another world. Art gallery? Who needs it? Look up at the swirling silver-lined clouds in the magnificent blue sky or at the silently blazing stars at midnight. How could indoor art be any more masterfully created than God's museum of nature? George Wherry's words resonated in my mind: "Truly it may be said that the outside of a mountain is good for the inside of a man." ~George Wherry, Alpine Notes and the Climbing Foot, 1896

The mountain slopes, the hill-sides, the grazing meadows were changing colors. Although we don't have a "Fall" in this part of the world, the colors typically reminded me of the east coast of North America bathed in its majestic colors of the Fall. Rust colored bushes with fields of yellow ochre shrubs skirted with lush green vegetation at the periphery was the scenery that a landscape artist dreams of. This time around we decided to hit the Nature trail sculpted out of the Sahyadris by the landscape team. The trail begins right outside the driveway of Ekaant and meanders through the forest going upwards for a 1000 yards & then follows the butterfly route. You could take the long route and walk for three hours exploring the natural habitat of the butterflies, or for the not so fit, the trail can be shortened to just an hour.

May the wings of the butterfly kiss the sun And find your shoulder to light on, To bring you luck, happiness and riches Today, tomorrow and beyond. ~Irish Blessing

He's lived 13 years of his prime youth in Ireland & still loves the Guiness and his grateful for the Irish Blessings! My dad was hesitant initially to go up the rough trail (hes 79!); I convinced him to come with me for the short nature-walk & he thoroughly enjoyed the wild flowers, the wind in his hair, the smell of wild grass & the skyful of butterflies. The flowers change every couple of months. Im not a botanist; cannot identify the genus, but December had an amazing display of wild flowers and the landscape team's babies! Look at the photos & I'm sure you will fall in love with Lavasa too!!

The flower is the poetry of reproduction. It is an example of the eternal seductiveness of life. ~Jean Giraudoux

Monday, December 29, 2008

Indians most likely to get 'completely lost' abroad

Indians, along with Brazilians, are most likely to get "completely lost" abroad, a fascinating survey in 13 countries on people's sense of direction and navigational habits, has found.

The survey by Finnish telecom giant, Nokia, also revealed that New Delhi is among the easiest city across the world for tourists to navigate around.

"Indians, along with Brazilians, are the most likely nationalities to get completely lost abroad," said the survey, described as one of the largest navigation studies to date into people's sense of direction and navigational habits in countries like India, Australia, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Russia and Singapore.

"The Indian results are fascinating not least because their love of shopping seems to help them with their sense of direction, with more than one in ten using local shops as a point of reference to help guide others to their destination," Nokia said in a release.

However, surprisingly, one in five Indians are more likely to rely on a mobile satellite-navigation device to get them from A to B, it said. The survey showed that 31 per cent of Indians like their Brazilian counterparts were the most likely nationalities around the world to get lost when abroad.

However, New Delhi was among the easiest cities across the globe for tourists to navigate around, with less than one per cent singling it out as a confusing city.

Renowned for their lavish weddings, one in ten Indians confessed to missing a wedding because they got lost more than double the global average which was four per cent. Indians were also the most likely to miss a birth of a child (two per cent), the survey said.

The survey showed that nearly one in five (19 per cent) tech savvy Indians rely on a navigation device to get from A to B. Indians are the most trusting when giving directions, with less than a quarter (23 per cent) admitting to deliberately sending strangers the wrong way.

Indians clearly love shopping as they are the top nation for using shops as a point of reference when giving directions (15 per cent), the survey found.

Providing regional highlights of the survey, Nokia said one in ten (10 per cent) people who live in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Pune will miss a job interview. People living in Mumbai are the "most stubborn" in India, with one in ten (10 per cent) never asking directions from a stranger.

As far as Delhi was concerned, the survey said, "Homely residents in Delhi and Ahmedabad are the least likely to get lost when in their own city (two per cent)." However, in a sad case of affairs, 5 per cent of residents in Delhi miss funerals, the survey showed.

Turning to Kolkata and Ahmedabad, the survey said that the eastern metropolis as well as the western city had India's navigation experts, with a quarter (25 per cent) claiming never to have been lost in their cities.

A third (30 per cent) of residents in Kolkata blame tiredness as the cause for getting lost. In South, the residents in Chennai get lost the most when at home (11 per cent), the survey said. In Bengaluru, the people prefer to put faith in nature, as nearly one in ten (7 per cent) guide themselves by the stars.

In Hyderabad, nearly one in ten (8 per cent), double the national average, believe in science and think that a sense of direction was genetic. Moreover, nearly a third of residents (31 per cent) blamed being in rush for making them lost.

In the western city of Ahmedabad, over of three quarters (77 per cent) of residents rate their sense of direction as good. One in ten (10 per cent) residents in the city get lost on the way to catching a flight, train or bus to their holiday destination. As far as the people of Pune were concerned, they missed a quarter of weddings (24 per cent), the survey said.

Surat has turned out to be the "most organised Indian city," with over a quarter (26 per cent) of residents meticulously planning their route before heading out, the Nokia survey said. Over a third (39 per cent) of shopaholic residents in Surat use shops to signpost directions to others, it said.

Pune emerged as the "flirtiest city in India", with 16 per cent asking for directions as a chat up line, it said. One in ten (8 per cent) residents in Pune bizarrely believe that a sense of direction is due to the magnetic pull of the earth.

Describing Kanpur as the "most disorderly city," the survey, conducted among 1000 Indians, said 5 per cent of residents claim to take up to two hours to find their way when lost. However, Kanpur residents were most reliant on technology, with nearly a third losing their way (30 per cent) without their navigation device.