NEELKANTHESHWAR

Impromptu plans work out the best! I had another such experience when we wound up at Neelkantheshwar one Sunday morning. The original plan included travelling to Kaas pathar which is place around Satara having a volley of beautiful flowers. It has recently become a tourist destination and is now known for the beautiful sights it offers for 2 weeks in a year when the flowers are in full bloom. As of 9:30 pm on Saturday night, this was the plan. At 10 pm same day, our destination and timings had completely changed.

We heard some first-hand experiences from people who had been there the day before and the week before. Apparently, this splendid view was as crowded as any place in Mumbai or Pune would be. Moreover, since it had rained heavily for a few days before, there was mud all around and vehicles had to be parked a kilometer or two away from the main area. Believing this hearsay, we decided to skip this plan and instead made a new one of going to Neelkantheshwar which is around a 100 kms from Pune.

I had been to Neelkantheshwar once before, during my college time. What I had completely forgotten was how steep the climb till the main area was. Huffing and puffing, getting more breathless and tired than my approx. 50 year old relatives, (I doubt how they can still be so enthusiastic), we finally reached the top after almost 45 min of climbing. The scenic view from each stop point was a short relief punctuated by the daunting task of keeping climbing. The buttermilk at the foot of the mandir was refreshing. I, for one, was relieved that my stamina ordeal compared to my relatives was over!

Neelkantheshwar is a beautiful place located at the top of a hill overlooking the Pashan dam. Intermediate rains have kept the area evergreen and the view was beautiful. This place has a very interesting concept. They have depicted scenes from mythology with the help of immovable human and animal figures. Most of the scenes have a small nameplate giving an idea of the story portrayed. Exploring the area and trying to figure out the story depicted by the scene was the most fun part.

                           Picturesque view of the Pashan dam from up the hill

The most interesting part was the level of detailing in each and every scene. Like in the scene depicting Draupadi Vastraharan, the entire scene is shown in the most grueling details. While we have Dushasan trying to disrobe Draupadi, there is Krishna who is providing more and more cloth to Draupadi so that her saree never seems to end. Watching this whole ordeal are the Pandavas sitting with Shakuni with the chessboard in front of them. In the background are Dhritarashtra and Gandhari; ofcourse with a cloth covering her eyes. It was very interesting to notice each and every small detail described!  

                            The Raslila depiction - Krishna dancing with gopis

                                                                    Bakasur and Bhima scene  

                     Kumbhakaran from Mahabharat and people trying to wake him up from his sleep

This was just one of the many my mythological scenes depicted in the huge area with statues. Along with this, there were status of the 7 rishis whose lineage we carry, statues of all main Gods in excruciating detail (Indra riding in his rath) amongst many others. Apart from the mythological scenes, there were scenes depicting our saints too. We were enthralled with Gorakumbhar, Tukaram, Dyaneshwar and their stories. 

There were many scenes which I had no clue about but which are deep rooted in our mythology. Some baby born from an elephant's ear, a baby being born from the bark of a tree, and many such scenes looking at which I realized the need to read and understand our mythology in detail. Ramanyan and Mahabharat have become famous for obvious reasons but there are so many other equally interesting and informative stories from mythology. 

This all is built around a main Shiv mandir. The Shiv mandir is said to be auspicious such that wishes asked there are usually fulfilled. They also have a free prasad lunch for everybody there at noon. Small refreshment huts serving tea, coffee, onion pakoras can be found, though more options are available on crowded weekends. 

                                                                            View while walking down the hill

Walking down was as pleasant as climbing up wasn't. We could stand at every picturesque location and enjoy the nature (and click pictures ofcourse). It was all a downward slope and a cakewalk compared to the upward climb; and we were at the starting point in no time. Ended this short and interesting trip with an amazing lunch at Mirch Masala on the way back home! Was home for my weekend noon nap along with being refreshed and happy with the interesting short trip! 

Social Media and Hypocrisy!

Social media has taken over our lives. Staying updated about the whereabouts of our family and friends from miles apart, being a part of their happiness even if you aren’t there in person, are all advantages that make us crave more and more for some online time.

However, there is a severe downside to all of this. And I am not saying this with the perspective of straining your eyes while continuously glaring into the mobile or not spending enough time with family and friends because you are happier in the virtual world. Social media has not only changed our lifestyle and the way we perceive happiness (number of likes/upvotes) but also altered our personality to the point that we are losing ourselves to our virtual self.

Imagine you chatting with an acquaintance or someone who still isn’t in your ‘close friends’ group. The natural instinct while chatting with such a person is to appear cool, witty, one who thinks on his/her feet and is a natural conversationalist. It won’t be a surprise if we type-untype a sentence couple of times till we are sure we are coming across as someone we strive to be; not the person we are. As opposed to this, in a personal meeting setup, we don’t tend to over-analyze, overthink about every sentence before saying it. We may get ridiculed for saying pretty dumb things sometimes but don’t you think that is totally worth than sounding like someone you are not?

We Indians have always been a hypocritical lot. There are a lot of memes going around these days about our hypocritical society. ‘We can pee in public, not kiss in public’ being the most popular one. This ‘digital persona’ of ours is probably the hyper sensationalized version of this hypocrisy. Spend more and more time on social media and you come across a lot of examples where fake flamboyance and showiness have taken over genuine emotion.

Starting with the current trend of ‘Mother’s day’ and ‘Father’s day’. I am all for appreciating what our parents have done for us all our life. I am sure everybody has stories about his/her mother and father sacrificing something to keep their child happy and content. Their contributions should definitely be appreciated. But won’t it be better to show your appreciation by taking them out for dinner, or cooking something they like than posting a photo on facebook saying ‘I love you mom/dad’? Most of the parents aren’t even on facebook and won’t even see these messages. So who are we posting this for? Our parents, to feel good about our self, or for our social image?

Another story I heard was something on the same lines. A boy was really impressed when his girlfriend mentioned that she wanted to visit an old-age home. After arriving there, all she did was click a few selfies with the members there to post on her social media page. After getting what she wanted, she left. Her digital image would show her to be a compassionate, noble soul who spends her free time working for the betterment of the society. So much disparity between the real her and the digital her!

It is not just on Facebook that this ‘trying to set my image’ trend exists. I am on Quora which is a question-answer social network with a huge population of intellectuals. Talks here include anything under the sun; but even they aren’t without their own share of hypocrisy. When asked ‘What would you do if you have 1 lakh excess amount’, someone replies ‘I would teach a child’. Such a noble thought! But has anyone ever thought that it does not take a lakh Rs. to teach someone and if someone is really serious about this, they can do that in less than a 1000 Rs. As someone rightly pointed out in the comments section, primary education is almost free in government schools. If someone is genuinely interested in doing what they say they want to do, they would have had all the necessary information to take this step anytime in the present or future. Empty vessels make the most noise they say!

A lot of the Quora questions are based on ‘What are you doing for the country’, ‘How can you make this world a better place’. Honestly, if every person who wrote answers on these questions does what he/she writes, along with spreading what and how he is doing it, India (or world) will actually be a better place! An argument to this can be that there are only 2% Indians on Quora and maybe they are actually doing whatever they say. Taking a positive view on this, I really hope everybody is doing their share and are not posting these answers just to have a good social image.

Everybody has an opinion these days about whatever is going on in the world. Everyone opposed and ridiculed the Yulin festival in China even though all animals anywhere on the face of the earth are undergoing the same fate. An IAS officer writing an essay of ‘Why should dowry be eradicated’, asking for ‘1 Crore’ dowry at his own wedding, is another such hypocrisy. People ridicule the beef ban; change their profile pictures to show solidarity to the current events. (Coloured pics to support same sex marriage currently) All this definitely helps in increasing awareness and spreading the word. However, blinding protesting or supporting a cause without enough knowledge about the same is as harmful as half-baked knowledge always is. Support and spread awareness after educating yourself completing regarding the issue rather than posting up stuff just for the sake of it.

I am not even going into the ‘Awwwwwwwwwwwws’ (raised to infinity), ‘I miss you’ s and ‘I love you’ s that are so frequently seen on our Facebook page these days. (Since when did saying ‘I love you’ to people-close or acquaintances- become so common in India?)  Though there might be a tinge of truthfulness in these expressions, it would be so much better if these feelings are conveyed to the respective person along with raising the hotness (?) of our Facebook page.

If only we would focus on making our self a better person in real life than trying to portray an idealistic social image…