The Other Girl

She walked into her usual cafe. This was her routine on every Saturday morning for last one year - enjoy hot chocolate while she starts unwinding from the hectic week. She would usually spend time reading a book or watching TV soap on her laptop or just listening to music. Today, she didn't feel like doing anything in particular. So, she just took a corner seat and started observing around. There were couple of friendly faces and by friendly, she didn't mean people she knew but people with whom she exchanged smiles with. Smiles which signified acknowledgement to their existence but nothing more. She is not an introvert but she is very possessive about her Saturdays and preferred solo dates. There was an elderly couple sitting by the entrance - the lady sure could talk nonstop and the man sure had great focus. She moved on - as usual she found a group of college going kids discussing whatever damn topic they thought made them look cool. She lost interest in their conversation when she heard one dude say to another - "one word for you - fuck off".

She moved on again - she spotted another friendly face - a girl sitting all alone, doing nothing and staring into a void. She has seen her many times but like her, the girl also keeps to herself and don't mingle much other than exchanging smiles. She saw sadness in her face today. She said to herself - "There I go again - imagining stuff about other people. May be, I just need a cup of hot chocolate."

She got herself a drink and decided to catch up with remaining episodes of Prison Break. She was deep into the drama when something made her look up - the same girl was standing near her with a confused look.

Handing out credit card, the girl said -.
Hi! I think this fell out of your purse.

Ohhh! Yes - thanks!

I couldn't help but notice. Catching up with Prison break? Which season are you on?

Just started. Very gripping.

Yeah. For Sure. Wentworth Miller is so hot.

I know.... Right? Too bad he is gay. Why don't you sit down?

Ummm.... Are you sure? I don't want to be interrupting.

No problem at all. It is not as if Wentworth Miller is going anywhere soon. He is in prison for Christ's sake.

But the girl sat and they chatted as if they were long lost friends. Weather, work, life in the city, life back in the hometown, her upcoming wedding etc. Couple of hours later, they realized they had other chores to be taken care off. As a mandatory step of saying good byes these days, they started exchanging their Facebook IDs.

She: Let me just add you right now. What was your ID again?

The girl: Richita Sharma

She: Hmmm. Heard that name somewhere. Is this profile yours? Beautiful profile picture. And that's a lovely cover picture of you and your fiancé, I assume.

The girl: Yeah.

She: Ummm…sure. See you around. You have an awesome day. I had a great time chatting with you.

She had a great time indeed and the fact that she had just met the same girl for whom her ex had left her a year ago wasn't going to change that.

Continuous Rapes of a Rape Victim

Continuous Rapes of a Rape Victim

An unfortunate and brutal incident change a persons life forever. And it starts right from being called as a "person" to being referred as a "rape victim". A person who has experienced such horrendous crime is, no doubt fighting a battle with own soul to build an identity from scratch. A recently interviewed victim claimed that she feel like her once beautiful temple of body is now a rubble. And self-healing is not at all easy because she feels as if she is being continually raped.

Her character is raped when people try to judge her character because she was abused.
Her privacy is raped when people start whispering when she is passing by.
Her personality is raped when she is accused of being negligent and careless.
Her self-respect is raped when she is made to self-blame because of what happened to her.
Her self-worth is raped when she is constantly referred as a damaged-goods.
Her self-belief is raped when she is constantly made to think that she has lost the most valuable thing of her life.
Her future is raped when a guy refuses to marry her because she was physically assaulted.
Her will to live is raped when society refer her as "victim" every waking hour of her life.

Let us not be the one raping a bruised soul. Let us be sensitive and help to heal and move on with the life.

Behind Every Rapist

Behind every rapist is he himself who could not control his beastly emotions but he is not the only one. Because, behind every rapist,
- is a Father who treated his wife as a slave.
- is a Mother who meekly followed her husbands whims.
- is a Sister who kept quite or even supported her brother who harassed other girls.
- is a friend who thought it is cool to tease a girl and even cooler to rape her.
- is a girl who mis-uses her charm to use a guy.
- is a Grandmother who sees her newborn Grand-daughter and gets depressed.
- is Is-laws who harasses their daughter-in-law for dowry.
- is Education System which offers advanced courses of Physics, Chemistry and Biology but doesn't offer basics on sex education.
- is a TV serial where female lead is devising plans of consummation of her marriage even when she knows her husband loves somebody else.
- is a Novel which portrays weakness of a woman as her sacrifice for her family and her meekness as a virtue.
- is a Patriarchal System which preaches that woman has little to none rights in decision-making.
- is alcohol/drugs which makes one insane.
- is News Chanel which broadcasts rape news as an entertainment.
- is a Politician who thinks that child marriage will solve the rape problem.
- is a Lawmaker who came up with biased laws against the victim.
- is a Legal System which has a provision for rape victim to marry her rapist.
- is a Society which over-rates sex and takes pride in depicting woman as a sexual object.

 ....and in the end, behind every rapist is Me and You who shout at top of our lungs  "Castrate, Life Imprison, Hang in Public, Burn, Cut one hand and a leg of a rapists" for 5 days and then forget everything and get on with our life......

Whatever and her dog, Whichever

Warning : This is one of the most boring short story I've ever written. I am very serious. The main character is utterly boring and so is the situation. There is no plot, no mystery, nothing worthwhile whatsoever. So, here it goes.

There was a girl named Whatever. Whatever had a beautiful and loyal dog named Whichever. Whatever and Whichever were best buddies. Whatever used to ask Whichever to do whatever she could ever think of and Whichever used to do it in which ever place in whatever way it could. It was kinda fun for both of them and one could hardly find them apart but Whatever’s parent were very worried about her. Whatever never did whatever homework she was given in her school because she was always busy playing with Whichever. Eventually, her parents decided to hire a full-time tutor for her named Forever. Forever was a young and enthusiastic woman with reputation of getting so-called whacko kids on track. Forever tried forever to keep Whatever away from Whichever by which ever means possible. Unfortunately for Forever and fortunately for Whatever, Forever failed every time. After awhile, she suggested Whatever’s parents to send away Whichever to a place named WhichNever. Whatever tried what ever means she could think of, in her tiny little head to persuade her parents not to send Whichever to WhichNever. Her parents did not listen and did it anyway when Whatever was in school. When Whatever returned, she got so angry that she started throwing things in which ever direction she could. Her parents thought that Whatever would stop throwing tantrums after a while and forget about Whichever but Whatever’s tantrum went on forever. Seeing this, Forever again suggested to get Whichever back from WhichNever. Whatever’s parents gave in to Whatever’s weirdness and got back Whichever. From that day onwards, Whatever and Whichever lived together forever and even Forever could not do anything about it.

After 2 months : 

Whichever delivered a beautiful litter of three and Whatever happily named them as Whenever, Whomsoever and Whoever and they all lived happily ever after.

P.S. : Are you guys still here? Still reading?? Gosh - go away. Get a life. :P

Denali National Park - Heaven is a place on Earth

I've set to write about fifth day of our Alaska trip many times now. Every time, I could not even start - I was so afraid to write about 6 million acre wide Denali National Park. I didn't think my words will do any justice to the wilderness this place exuberates. My view today is no different but I need to write it down anyway to complete my Alaska Diary. So, here it goes...

Day started off with us getting up at 5:15AM and rushing to a grocery store to pick up our lunch-boxes (there is no restaurant inside the park). Our plan was to catch the Grand Denali Tour shuttle bus early in the morning (6:45 AM) so that we get to see more wildlife (as there is more chance of spotting animals) and of course, to get parking spot (humans - they are everywhere!!!) near the Wilderness Access Center (WAC) from where all the buses depart. After waiting for nearly 15 mins in the cold and rain, we got into the bus. Alaskan Rain was accompanying us today too (may be it loves us? If that was the case, it was very much one-sided). Grand Denali Tour starts from WAC center and goes up-to Kantishna ( mile 89 ) through the only dusty gravel road that connects Denali wilderness to the human-world. So, there we were - me and Arnab - all set to experience the wildlife supported by Denali, breath the sacred and pure air of Denali, taste the beauty of Denali....

Moose was the first animal that we spotted. Wait, that's not true. Moose was the first animal that our driver spotted. Within first 15 minutes we could see this exquisitely beautiful animal showing off his antlers to us. He was munching away to glory having his breakfast and gave us no attention - as if to tell us that he does not give a damn about human beings. I was okay with the rain now - after the driver telling all of us that over-caste skies guarantee more animal viewing. He also told us how rain helps maintain the ecosystem and Denali the way it is - but selfish part in me still yearned for a bit of sunshine.

Herd of Caribou was up next - leisurely grazing against the backdrop of Alaska mountain range. Colorful Meadows below, sky scattered with scarce clouds and almost hidden mountains - I had a sudden urge to get down the bus and walk in the meadow - let the wildflowers touch my feet, cold air brush my hair and rain fall down my cheeks. It was a beautiful feeling. Nature works in mysterious ways - it sometimes makes you go high like cocaine (according to Clapton, not that I know what it does) :)

After riding over Savage River, Sanctuary River (the same melted down river because of which Chris McCandeless could not come back and met his tragic end) and Teklanika River - we encountered as many as eight grizzly bears on Sable Pass (being critical bear habitat, this 6 mile pass is closed for human) - some were climbing up on the mountain, some were coming down, some eating berries (they heart berries). Next was Polychrome Pass - carved through colored mountains by glacier. At mile 53rd, we were met by weak Toklat river and a family of Wolves. Two baby wolves and their parents - they were waiting for rest of the pack to catch up with them. They display very much dog-like characteristics - very playful. I had never imagined watching wild wolves - Denali was showing us its true color. Only when we see all the pristine environment where truly wild animals live in complete harmony without human intervention - we realize that how small we are - just another mammal on the earth.

Many mountains have white spots moving on them - up high. Those are Dall Sheeps - reason why Denali was made a National Park. They are plenty, always in groups and always stay at higher altitude to be safe from predators. We could see them from close distance too - when our bus was going thru' Highway Pass, which is highest point on the NP road. They are so white - just like Snow.

After four hours and a journey full of wildlife, mountains, rivers and wild meadows, we reached Eielson visitor center. The road goes up to 89th mile (Kantishna) which has the famous Wonder Lake and it is the point where road is closest to Mt. McKinley (just 27 miles). Anyway, Eielson VC was our last stop - on clear days, one can get great views of Mt. McKinley but we had no luck as it was pouring heavily outside. We had our lunch here and listened to Guard talk about McKinley expeditions - how a lot of people tried to conquer the summit and how four native Alaskans reached the North summit in a 3 day expedition named as the Sourdough party, only to realize the South summit is higher than North one (they were from Fairbanks - the Northern peak, 300 feet below the Southern feet, looks higher and that is what fooled them), how one expedition failed because mountaineers took high protein food which their body could not digest at higher altitude, how Captain Cook falsely claimed conquering summit and many more interesting and inspiring expeditions.

At 12:45PM, we started our return journey. After a while rain stopped and we were greeted by beautiful rainbows. Blue skies had opened up and we could witness the serenity of Denali. Everything had turned into gold. We again saw Dall sheeps and caribous. Mountains were clearer, meadows looked more colorful - if I had a talent in oil painting, I would have loved drawing this landscape. It was more beautiful than WINDOWS wallpapers (come-on, they are beautiful - we should credit Microsoft at least for the beautiful wallpapers they ship with their OS). By 3.30PM, we were back at the WAC. Shuttle bus facilitates getting down anywhere in the park so that people can explore wilderness on their own and then climbing another shuttle to return back. Camping overnight requires night permit. We had not planned for overnight stay but we definitely intended to get down and explore but rain played a spoil-sport and we could not do it. As an alternative, we decided to drive back from WAC to Savage River (15th mile) - the last point where personal vehicles are allowed - and hike. And we did exactly that to realize that there was no parking spots available. We promptly returned back to Visitor center. Not doing any hiking/trailing was not acceptable to either of us, so we decided to do Horseshoe lake trail. This trails goes along the Alaska railroad and then slopes down towards beautiful Horseshoe lake. It was full of red fleshy berries - no wonder bears are often spotted here. The day was coming to the end and we had to return back to Talkeetna. My heart was reluctant to leave but the mind suggested otherwise. Only when we decided that we will come back again, my heart stopped crying.

We reached the Southern viewpoint and we could see only the tip of Mt. McKinley. But every passing minute, we could see more and more of the majestic mountain and within 30 mins, we saw the North and South peaks. I stared at it continuously - locking it away in my memory. I want to remember it as long as I live - that giant ass mountain which stands so high telling us - "Heaven is a place on Earth.". We said good bye and started driving towards Talkeetna. After driving about 20 miles we saw that sky had completely cleared near the mountain and now the entire range was visible. Crazy that we are, we decided to drive back to South Viewpoint so we could soak in its magnificent glory again. Tourists go to Denali to get a good view of this mountain. We could not see it even once from the park but we weren't complaining any more. Mt. McKinley had opened up itself in its entirety and we knew we were blessed. We knew we will leave this place believing more than we had. We knew our hearts will never be far from this place.....



Exhausted after experiencing the extreme wilderness, we retired for the day in Talkeetna in the sweet "Swiss Alaska" lodge.

Note : Thanks Arnab for photos, editing and proofreading.

Denali - The High One!

So far, so good. Three days on water, it was time to explore interior Alaska. Day 4 Agenda - drive to Talkeetna - town some 110miles up north from Anchorage, 14miles off the road from Anchorage - Denali highway, go flight seeing for Mt. McKinley from Talkeetna and drive to Healy - town 12 miles north from Denali National park entrance for night.

First thing I did after getting up was to look outside. Sigh - it was raining. My hubby ( Okay, I'll be referring him as Arnab henceforth because you see, that is his name.) called K2 Air to enquire if they were still planning to fly over Mt. McKinley. We had also booked for glacier landing. They confirmed that there will be no glacier landing for sure but asked us to call back once we get to Talkeetna spur ( as name suggests, this is the place where road to Denali forks off from main highway to go to Talkeetna). We decided to have a good breakfast - who knows with this weather - it can be our only highlight of day 4. Anyway, waitress was good enough to serve us food quick enough when we told her that we were in a hurry. Also, hotel shuttle driver dropped off to Airport out of his schedule, so that we could pick up our car and start our journey soon. We had mixed experience with people here - some were really good and some were really pain-in-the-ass. Also, vacation was going either really good or really bad. Same was with food so far - either it was too good or too bad. Is this state of extremes or what? Anyway, day 4 started off with set of good people and good breakfast.

Drive from Anchorage to Talkeetna ( Optimistic people that we are, we were still hoping that weather will improve and we will have flight-seeing.) was full of us saying "Ohh- hate this rain", "feel like going home" and "rain, rain - go away". Eventually nature listened to our prayers, it stopped raining. No, no - not a good news as it still continued to drizzle. This drive is famous for dramatic landscape and Mt. McKinley views. Well, we were getting nothing. As if it was less, there was road construction in progress on this two-lane highway, slowing the traffic considerably. Finally, we reached to Talkeetna spur and called K2 Air only to come to know that 1PM tour was cancelled but we could still come and try for 6PM. Our day 4 plan was perfect with only one imperfection. We had not kept any flexibility on weather conditions. Big mistake. If you think you are smart enough to plan an Alaska trip on our own, always account for mercurial Alaska weather. Giving up on rain, we decided to drive to Denali, do early check-in and simply retire for the day.

Drive from Talkeetna to Denali is also scenic and guess what, as we were reaching more and more closer to Denali, it was getting more and more clearer. Thank you, GOD! Blue moods were not blue anymore. Glimpses of grandeur of interior Alaska were breathtaking. It completely stopped raining and we started flirting with idea of driving back to Talkeetna to catch 6PM tour. Excitedly I switched on my iPhone. Argh - no range. I said to myself "well - what do you expect? ATnT range in such remotely remote area? Your office is right in the heart of Down town and you don't get range there.". Luckily, we had passed by one lodge 15mins before. Going back and trying to call from lodge seemed a good idea at that time and we took a u-turn.

"This is a lodge, not a pee-stop. If you need to pee - go away!" greeted us on the front door. I don't know if we were being brave or desperate, we still went inside and this is how conversation went -

Arnab - Hi, can I have a coffee? ( Smart - you can not directly ask for a phone. )
Lodge Man - Around the corner. (Sitting comfortably sipping beer and watching TV)
Me - do you have a phone? ( I had to take over the conversation as I could sense Arnab wanting to get out this place as soon as possible. Young blood, you see - gets angry very easily. :) )
Lodge Man - No, I don't. Why do you need it?
Me - We want to call K2 Air to see if they are still planning to fly Mt. McKinley.
Lodge Man ( in angry tone ) - Have you seen outside? Even if they fly, what good will it be? I don't know - WHATEVER! ( One note - if some one asks for information, give them information (of course, if you have any!), don't start giving advices. People will call you "crazy". I will call you "crazy".)
Me - We still want to try.
Crazy Man - What will you do by seeing it? WHATEVER. ( and he walked off.)

Whatever to you, dude. What is your problem? Was he too lonely for too long? Was he as frustrated with weather as we were? Whatever. :P Sitting back in the car, we dropped off Talkeetna plan and started driving towards Denali again. Getting lost in scenic vistas full of humongous mountains, blue lakes and wild-flower blooms, 'whatever' crazy man became a distant memory soon. Ever heard of people saying that the bliss of having a baby can only be realized after having a baby? Likewise, ethereal drive can only be experienced. We could not see Mt. McKinly from south vista point - another beautiful picnic spot famous for mountain view. Hell bent to see it - we browsed Frommer's Alaska 2010 again and found out about Denali Air. Denali Air is near park entrance which fly over national park on north side of the High One ( Mt. McKinley is known as Denali in native language which means The High One). While I fiddling to get their address, Arnab saw their sign-post on road side. Heading straight to the office - we booked ourselves for 6PM tour. Denali Air is an expensive option than Talkeetna one but you see, we were eager to see the High one. Like a dying lover eager to see his love for one last time. Okay - this is bit over-exaggerated but you got the point. Right?

6PM tour meant we had one and half hour in hand - long enough to explore park entrance which was just 8miles away. After seeing 20-minute "Heartbeats of Denali" movie in Denali national park Visitor centre, we both got pretty excited about our next day "Grand Denali Tour". One of its kind, Denali NP is accessible only via shuttle or tour buses beyond 15th mile. If on shuttle, you can get down anywhere and explore the area and even camp in the wilderness(of course, you need to have a permit). We had booked shuttle till Wonder lake - 83rd mile on park highway. Upon ranger telling us that Eielson visitor center - 66th mile is a good stop for a day trip and chances of seeing wild-lfe beyond that point are bleak, we decided to make Eielson our stop.

Mt. McKinley flight-seeing was what can I say, wonderful experience. Earth surely does look majestic from up above. Aerial views gave us an idea of how grand and remote and diverse the land was. Rivers tangling in plains, glaciers running from amazing Alaska range towards earth with arms wide open just like a kid running towards his mother, vampirish valleys and misty clouds. Simply superb. Flying just above thick cloud cover, our pilot told us that The Great one is right there on right hand side but not visible. Sigh! Sigh! Dear Denali - why are you doing this to us? What ill have we done? I looked up towards the sky to pray for one last time and Oh My God - there it was. His highness is really really high. I was searching it way below. His glittering snow cladded peak was so spectacular - is it because it is so close to heaven? May be. Awe-stuck - I did not even try to capture it in my camera. I was capturing it in my heart. I still get goose-bumps when I think about that moment. My day was made. I will not remember this day for rain, not for crazy man but for Denali - the High One! The Great One!

Happy! Happy!! Time to have dinner. Denali Air personnel ( He looked a bit like Mccandles - "Into the Wild" guy ) suggested us 229th Mile - a famous fine diner. We could get 9.30PM reservation. Another one and half hour in hand. We headed back towards park entrance area (Nenana canyon)- to checkout on box-lunches for next day. There is no restaurant inside park - visitors need to bring food/drink for whole day. A sweet girl took our order and promised to keep our lunch-boxes ready at 6:15AM next day. Most of the locals looks like Chriss McCandless- unshaven beard. Denali fashion trend?

Back to 229th Mile restaurant, I ordered oysters. Totally ignoring organic cooking specialty of the diner. Oysters tasted real raw - I mean I tried a tiny bit and felt like puking. Nope - not gonna eat it. Mr. Sensitivity (read it as Arnab) thinking that if we won't eat even a single one - our waitress will feel bad, gulped down two oyster. Expression on his face - priceless. He kept one more in his plate hiding it below shells. It was very entertaining (well, for me) when waitress came to our place and instead of taking oyster plate back, saw oyster in Mr. Sensitivity's plate and said "Ohh - you have one more left there." and he had to eat it. Ouch.

It was already 11PM and we checked into our Nord Haven room in Healy. We loved this hotel - cute country lodging. And staff was great too. They packed us breakfast when they came to know that we will be checking out early in the morning. Sweet. Eager to see Denali in my dreams again, I slept off to dream away.....

Update : While I was soaking all of Denali's visible views in my heart, Arnab was capturing it in his camera.

James Cameron wasted hell lot of money on "Avatar"

Last year, me and my hubby had gone to Orcas Island for Killer Whale watching tour. We saw only 3 Orcas. Tour guide told us that most of the north-west pacific orcas reside in Prince William Sound in Alaska. I had no idea then that I'll be actually visiting this place but here I was. Day 3 plan was to go to Whittier and cruise on Prince Williams Sound.

We boarded on Glacier Discovery train at around 9AM. Glacier Discovery train takes same route as Coastal classic for first 1hour or so and then forks out at Girdwood to go to Whittier giving glimpses of glaciers to its passengers. Technically, we were seeing the same Turnagain arm coast in Chugach National Forest but it felt different. We were as excited to see Dall Sheep and Eagles again as we were on first day. Another magical power of nature? To keep sensitive souls like me intrigued all the time? Whatever, it was - my heart was deeply enjoying pristine beauty. It was still drizzling. :). I am not sure whether we got used to Alaska rain or stopped caring, we actually started enjoying it.

Glacier Discovery train stays true to its name by showing all the glaciers along the way. Portage glacier and Spencer glacier were noteworthy. Did I tell you about why glaciers look blue in color in sunshine? It is because glacial ice absorbs all the wavelengths except short wavelength of blue. About Spencer glacier - It was amazing to see huge mass of glacial ice emptying itself into lake - thanks to earth's gravitational pull. No, seriously - glaciers starts separating from main Icefield because earth's gravity pulls ice towards it. Our chirpy train guide told us that this glacier was named as Spencer because one Alaska rail employee named Spencer got lost in that area while carrying 3grands belonging to train corp. His friends had thought that he had ran off with all the money and settled down in Atlantic City but his dead body was found years later. There was no trace of money, though.

Through route of thundering waterfalls and mystical valleys, We reached Whittier at 12:15PM. No time to eat lunch. As impressed I was with Alaskan wild-life and natural beauty, I was having hard-time on food front. For occasional sea-food eater like me, not having veggie option was hurting badly. We went to a restaurant to eat something quickly only to find out that there was no veggie option on the menu. As if inspired by sky, my eyes started shedding light tears. I stopped crying only when hubby promised me that he will search for nice restaurant for dinner in Anchorage.

We hopped onto Major Marine Glacier tour cruise to witness Prince William Sound. It did not disappoint us. This area is so beautiful that words are failing me to describe it. Beautiful mountains bustling with lots of birds - with clouds just enough to create perfect harmony, calm water with cute sea-otter playing on it, puffins occasionally diving into it and sea-lions hauling - no human life but yet, full of life!! Towering waterfalls and massive glaciers shuddering straight into the sound and lots of sea-birds nesting on the cliffs. There are some moments we wish to hold forever - we never want to let go of these moments. One such moment was to see glacier calve. To witness huge part of glacier fall into the water causing thundering sound and making even calm water to shudder is quite something. Remember all the visual treat we saw in James Cameroon's "Avatar"? Hanging mountains of Pandora and stuff like that? Well, Prince William Sound is even more breathtaking than that. James Cameron did waste lot of money on "Avatar".



Totally satisfied and awed, we came back to Whittier harbor at around 5:15PM. We saw no Orcas, but hey, who is complaining? This place is going to stay in my heart for long, long time. About Whittier town - during winter, less than thousand people live here. and everybody lives in only one self-contained building, so that they don't have to go out. Pretty scary!!

Same Glacier Discovery train took us to Anchorage and hubby, as promised fed me nice dinner. It was already 11PM. Time to sleep? I don't think so. Because I had to fight with my hubby. Won't bore you with fight details but it got over within 1hour because you know, my hubby is very sweet (and all that...) and I am head-over-toes in love with him (and all that...) :)