What Does A Monument Stand For?

Earlier this month, my friends had stayed over at our place in Delhi. Over the weekend, we went out for a bit of sight seeing and one of the places we visited was India Gate. It was very crowded and noisy but the monument itself was very impressive. We walked around it, took pictures and read the inscriptions - the usual touristy things. From there, we went on to have lunch and visit other places. All in all, a fun day!

I have been passing by India Gate for almost a year and a half now as it falls on the way to work. There is a traffic signal bang opposite it and after a couple of days after our visit there, I had to stop for the signal. I turned to look at India Gate and I started remembering our little trip, the jokes we cracked and the awesome lunch that followed it. A few days back,  while having a late lunch with a friend at a restaurant overlooking the Hauz Khas tank, I described to him the history of the place. Basically, a few snippets that I remembered from the heritage walk my parents and I had participated in (October).  


That is when it struck me - while Hauz Khaz was built as a Royal Tank by the Khilji dynasty and the India Gate stands as a war memorial; for me, these monuments are symbolic beyond their history. They also signify the great times that I was lucky to share with people who are important to me.

I must confess that I then went into a bit of an overdrive in trying to recollect other places that would qualify as a ‘monument’, to the extent that I labeled the country of Sri Lanka as a monument to one of the most romantic getaways that my wife and I have had (she would say we haven't had too many). That one week of superb hotels, peaceful beaches, lovely meals will always stand out for me. The list is long - Mysore place with my in-laws, places in Calcutta with all relatives before the wedding - I can go on and on.

I wonder if the Kings of yore realised that when they built these superb structures, somebody somewhere in the future will be thanking them, while carving their own personal moments around them. Until the next ‘monument’ trip then....

The Dear Departed Flatness

For those of you who have it enjoy it while it lasts. For the rest - of us - we know it ain't coming back. No sirree, its tossed its head, kicked up its heels and run away into the sunset. I am talking about the body part called the stomach aka the abs aka the six pack area....

I was luckier than my peers because I have always been thin and that stood me in good stead for a longer period. Just to clarify when I mean thin, I don't mean in a lanky, long distance runner with sinewy muscles way. So it was in the last two years that my paunch (shudder shudder) started growing. At first I ignored it and why not? I was going regularly to the gym, I was never a big eater and ..... well I was dead sure that was enough. Even in the gym, I would rarely do abs because I was busy sculpting the rest of my body. 

Then I moved to Delhi and my regularity to the gym instead became an erratic schedule. What my namesake St Matthew said - 'Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak' totally applied to me. Well, the partial truth is that my old gym sucked big  time but let bygones be bygones....

Unlike King Henry, I couldn't just say 'Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest... errr... paunch?' but two events strengthened my resolve to rid me . One (minor) was that my gym membership expired and I had the opportunity to join a much better gym with less testosterone laden Punjabis, which was also walking distance from my house. The other (MAJOR) was that my wife started grabbing my paunch and calling it by all kinds of names. ENOUGH my body screamed. I strode out to hit the gym (in March)...... but the rest is not history my friends. If I may, I would like to compare this story to the movie 300 - Unlike the soldiers there my stomach still remains rotund and that is the similarity with the movie, an unhappy ending. Wait, is there a possibility of a sequel? Over the last week, my wife has grudgingly admitted that the lovable / evil paunch (depends on which way you look at it)  has gone down. Watch this space for more.... and if you are a true fan, write to me for contributions to my gym fund.

The Park Outside Our Apartment

If you are familiar with colonies in New Delhi, you would know that they all have parks within them. Usually more than one - our colony has, I think, four of them. I am familiar with only one of them (not the one featured here) and that too only how they look at night because I did quite a few rounds of the colony while training for the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon. I would come back from work, change and head out. I could not use the park opposite my place (the one featured here :) as the lights were off. It was only last weekend that I stepped into it because I wanted to figure out our Nikon DSLR 5000. The photos in the link are a mix of pics taken last weekend and again today and my first attempt at a photo blog.

https://picasaweb.google.com/pravinmathew123/Park?authkey=Gv1sRgCI-cvoPjnIOzqgE#