A thousand and one unique experiences

1. Vaishnodevi Yatra uphill by foot, a total of 16 kms, in the middle of the night. The temple is inside a cave on the Trikuta hill. The walkways are well-paved to the temple, and then to the Bhairon temple. Wrote about it here. Before this trip, I had never walked this much and uphill.

2. Drinking ice-cold water from the lion-head spouts at Baan Ganga, during the Vaishnodevi Yatra. The spouts are present as soon as one starts the yatra, and right outside the main temple. The water keeps flowing and is a pleasantly cold, coming right from the hills and passing by the Vaishnodevi-ji's murtis.

3. Riding a horse uphill and downhill, during my second Vaishnodevi Yatra, getting really sore from the experience.

4. Seva at temples, especially at the golden temple, Amritsar. Joined a bunch of women peeling garlic, which would later be used in cooking. We sat on a platform outside the kitchen, while people passed garlic and knives and bowls of water to soak the garlic in before peeling, and someone came around ocassionally to collect the peeled ones. Sucheta accompanied me on this trip so it was twice the fun.

5. Drinking a huge bowlful of chai, from a tap, at the golden temple Amritsar. The bowls were really big, easily holding half a litre. The tea was stored in huge containers with a tap attached, and the serving was plentiful too. People drank by holding the bowl in both hands. 

6. Touching the gold sheets on the roof the Golden Temple. After the main darshan, we were able to take the stairs to go up to the next floor where people sat praying, then to the next and finally the roof top. The stairwell was beautifully painted and each floor was ornately decorated. The walls along the edges, the pillars, the dome - they were all covered in gold and people went about their day as if it was nothing. We stood in awe of being in the middle of so much gold and so much beauty. 

7. Raising a turtle - learning to feed it, clean it, monitor its health, getting peed on, take naps together, watch it yawn and get hiccups et al. This has been my favourite experience ever. 

8.  Getting caught in heavy snowfall in Uttarakhand, the first snow of that year. The scene looked like Christmas scenes in movies - powdery snow, low visibility, trees getting gradually covered in the puff. It was unbelievably beautiful. It did not feel real at all.

9. Getting caught in a squall at the Agra Fort gates - right after buying entry tickets, zero visibility and lots of white swirling dust. 

10. Getting caught in a white-out during the ABC(Annapurna Base Camp) trek - zero visibility, chilling high winds and you could barely see a foot in front of you. Fortunately, I got a nice photograph of it. We waited it out. It was divine.

11. Watching thick layers of snow slide off the rooftop of a teahouse, at Deurali during the ABC trek. Everyone gathered in the dining hall, so the snow above the dining hall melted a bit and slid off. The snow on the rest of the teahouse remained. That was fun to watch.

12. Slipping on thin, invisible sleets of ice on walkways, during the ABC trek.

13. Slipping on hardened snow and taking a tumble during the descent part of ABC.

14. Experiencing altitude sickness - an intense headache during the ABC. I and my guide reached Machchapuchchre, the stop right before the last one. The headached was intense and terrifying.

15. Experiencing a sharp pain in eyes, due to sunlight reflecting off of snow and getting into your eyes from the sides of your sun glasses

16. Getting drenched in the mist of Niagara falls, even being a fair distance away. It was difficult to take pictures as the camera lens kept getting water drops on them.

17. Walking on the Great Wall of China, it just goes on and on and one can walk in either direction after taking a cable-car up to the wall. The wall goes up and down and you have to climb and descend stairs and at one point it gets so steep, you have to climb on all fours. At the end of the steep climb you get to buy a medal for yourself. At 5pm, announcements begin over the speakers installed on the wall for tourists to get back to the gates.

18. Walking across many hanging bridges in Nepal, during ABC. The bridges were beautiful and usually over a stream, sometimes just over rocks.

19. Walking across the beautiful Laxman Jhoola, the famed hanging bridge at Rishikesh

20. Watching the most beautiful Ganga aarti in Haridwar, late in the evening. One has to reserve a spot almost 2 hours earlier, on the opposite bank by leaving your mat on the steps. There are people on either side of the river and everyone joins in the bhajans.

21. Watching river Ganga flow by, from a low bridge in Haridwar. It's mesmerizing and the water flows with great force.

22. Being part of a beautiful Buddhist ceremony in Bangalore. Co-incidentally a revered monk from Sri Lanka was leaving that day, and the local monks were sending him off. Was fortunate to witness the program.

23. Meeting a Nobel laureate - Prof. Yunus, recipient of Nobel Peace Prize of 2006, during the 8th Social Day in Bangalore at the Infosys office in Electronics City. 

24. Holding a baby mongoose with silk-like fur, the softest fur ever. It was amazingly soft. It was rescue from a beggar who had a snake and a mongoose at Dharmasthala. The snake was let go at a stream and the mongoose on the opposite side of the road.

25. Walking and trekking on powdery snow that crunches beautifully under your feet, during ABC. So you walk with a crunch-crunch-crunch sound in the otherwise silent mountain sides.

26. Watching and photographing the colourful skies of Bangalore 

27. Eating an orange straight from a tree in Uttarakhand.

28. Brushing teeth with ice-cold water straight from a stream in Manali during an NCC camp, and experiencing a full-face numbness.

29. Parasailing at Hoskote, near Bangalore 

30. Rapelling down a hillock in Ramanagara, near Bangalore

31. The roller-coaster ride at Universal Studios, it was way too terrifying. There are two rides - a red one and a blue one. The blue one that I took was less terrifying as you could actually rest your feet and the seats had wheels. The red one was one where your feet are free and the seats are suspended like in chair cars.

32. The Transformers 3D ride with lasers at Universal Studios - the best ride in the whole world. The visuals were out-of-the-world amazing.

33. Watching live cataract surgeries, at a hospital in Bangalore. Mom was one of the patients.

34. Looking at a pulsating tendon inside a deep wound, a non-healing ulcer.

35. Seeing the blood red sap of a plant

36. Riding ropeways, in Hong Kong and in Uttaranchal. It can get terrifying to be so high up in the sky.

37. Watching flocks of egrets, black-headed ibis and cormorants fly every evening across the skies towards Madiwala lake, Bangalore. The egrets sometimes fly at our eye-level when we stand in out 4th floor balcony and are quite a sight to behold.

38. Watching a vendor trying to sell donkey milk. A guy was taking a donkey along the road and announcing that the milk was really good for sore throat and the like. It was amusing and outright funny. Bobo's mom later confirmed that donkey's milk truly cures a bunch of health issues.

39. Chitra Sante in Bangalore. The annual arts fair where a fair stretch of the road is blocked for traffic and artist set up stalls of their artwork. It's a proper riot of colours and overflowing beautiful artwork.

40. Eating pancakes at a diner American-style, by an airstrip. I had only seen the diners in movies and tv series, it was exhilarating to actually be in one, sit in a booth with my colleagues and order pancakes and fruit. The cherry on the cake was the fact that there was an airstrip right outside and we could see small, two-seater kind of planes take off and land, from the windows. It was an unforgettable experience.

41. Seeing tulips and tulip gardens, for real, in USA. The tulip beds had wood chips on the ground, again a very american thing.

42. Watching Wesak(Buddh purnima) celebrations at a beautifully-lit mall in Malaysia, There were colourful floats and dragons and other mythical creatures that passed us by.

43. Stepping on piano-themed musical stairs at the Berjaya Times Square mall in Malaysia. The mall also had purple liquid tiles - you step on the tiles and the liquid moves to the corners. The musical stairs and the liquid tiles were both beautiful and very entertaining. 

44. Eating lunch surrounded by snow-covered mountains, in Machchapuchare, ABC trek - the most beautiful sight ever.

45. Watching lakes change colour from blue to green to yellow, at Juizhaigou National Park in China. The lakes were so clear that I could see the tree logs at the bottom of the lake. 

46. Experiencing a jetlag after flying to USA. Made you sleepy during the day and bright and fresh at night.

47. Watching a junior baseball match in the US. The teams of tiny-sized humans were smartly dressed and looked adorable with all their gear and a coach.

48. Zipping down, i.e really speeding, the Chamundi hill on the back of a strangers' two-wheeler on a very windy day. Bhagya, a sweet lady, who runs a tea stall on the hill, agreed to give me a ride to the station on her bike and it turned into an amazing adventure, with me holding on to dear life. 

49. Visiting 'aalemane' - huts where sugar cane juice is boiled and converted/cooled into jaggery, on the outskirts of Bangalore 

50. Taking coracle rides at Hogenakal and Shivanasamudra waterfalls. Getting close to the waterfalls and getting drenched by the spray. The boatmen spin the coracles and scare the living daylights out of you.

51. Riding the hop-on-hop-off tram at the Niagara State Park, the Jurong Bird park and Juizhaigou National park(bus). The toy-trains are such a joy to ride and catching one at any stop and getting off wherever you want to was such a freeing experience.

52. Petting an elephant calf in Bandipur, and experiencing the strength in it's trunk when it wrapped it's trunk around my forearm and tugged at it.

53. Eating at an Ethiopian restaurant in USA, out of a huge shared plate made of cane. It had three portions of the same dishes for the three of us. We sat around it and ate awkwardly. 

54. Driving the car up the surface of a hill at the Bettadasanapura temple-on-a-hill, in Bangalore 

55. Riding the tourist boat around the city of Putrajaya in Malaysia, there was a guide who explained each building as we passed by it. We passed under beautiful bridges too. The lake we were riding on was also a source of drinking water to the city. Getting to stand in the front was a nice add-on.

56. Trying to fit the Petronas Tower into a single photograph. The building is really, really tall. 

57. Attending a bunch of free concerts in China Town of Singapore, around the Chinese New Year. People who sang and danced were dressed beautifully. There was a musician who brought along a branch of orange leaves, picked a leaf, folded it and played music on it like a harmonica - this was amazing!

58. Watching the light-and-water laser show at marina bay sands in Singapore. And for free. All you have to do is pick a spot to sit down and enjoy it. 

59. Travelling on "National Highway 1"(NH1) between Jammu and Katra, the highway with number "1"!

60. Having a snail as an add-on pet. This snail lived in my flowerpot and got left behind when i threw out the left-over construction sand. It got bigger and bigger, lived in the turtle's tank for a while and I eventually tossed it into a nearby pond. 

61. The snail ate leaves off the plants in the flowerpot. One morning, I offered a parle-g biscuit and watched patiently as the snail began eating it. First, a small wet spot would appear where the snail's mouth met the biscuit, and then a tiny bit of biscuit would disappear. It was real fun watching the wet spot progress through the biscuit. 

62. Eating delicious Buddhist food at Po Lin monastery in HK

63. Watching the 'A Symphony of Lights', HK - world's largest permanent light and sound show according to Guinness World Records. 

64. Seeing HK from the Victoria Peak, after riding the world-famous Victoria Peak Tram - a funicular train.

65. Riding the double-decker trams in HK, for HK$2 to anywhere

66. Seeing vertical cemetaries in HK and a columbarium at the Ten Thousand Buddhas monastery in HK.

 

67. Seeing people carry and donate water bottles and packaged snacks instead of money, to the hill top monasteries in Bhutan 

68. Seeing that the rich live in apartments and poor live in independent single-storied houses, in Singapore

69. Darshan of the tree in Durgiana Teerth, Amritsar, where Lav and Kush bound 

Hanuman ji

70. Buying entire jackfruits and peeling them, with heavily oiled knives and stocking them in the fridge.

71. Experiencing turbulence in aircrafts and seeing the wings flutter.

72. Watching clouds, rain, sunrises, sunsets, lightening, city lights, fields, waterbodies, snow-covered mountains et al from aircrafts

73. Watching sea lions in their natural habitat, at Pier 39, SFO

74. Watching a free musical performance at The Esplanade near Marina Bay, Singapore

75. Marvelling at the artwork and installations and water fountains and fancy seating in public places in Singapore - passages in malls, underground walkways, at MRT stations and by the waterfront everywhere

76. Visiting USS Constitution ship and museum at Boston - a wooden-hulled US frigate built in 1797 and wonderfully restored. It has 3 floors, and you can go up and down each of them. 

77. Seeing a  Boomin' Beaver tugboat in Boston - this is the US navy's smallest ship and cute as a button. 

78. Walking on the beautiful boardwalk to Sentosa Island, for SG$1. The boardwalk has tiny lights in its floors.

79. Watching an artist make the shiny scales of fire dragons at a temple in Penang, Malaysia. Watching an artist paint figurines on the marble walls of the jain temple in Jayanagar.

80. Seeing the street art in Penang

81. Drive around the quiet town of Ipoh, visiting cave temples and drinking the famed white coffee.

82. Seeing sign boards in Ipoh that people were forbidden to bring their pet dogs, cats and rabbits into the temples. People take their rabbits out on walks.

83. Driving to Kuala Kangsar with my couch-surfing hosts, eating and shopping at random places

84. seeing monitor lizards in malaysia - crossing roads, appearing in waterbodies, just about everywhere.

85. Watching an artist play music with orange leaves during Chinese New Year celebrations, in China Town Singapore

86. Eating free candy try-outs in the China Town market lanes, and dry fruit try-outs in Penang stores

87. Watching a Turkish ice-cream shop vendor do the tricks, in Singapore 

88. Feeding puffed rice to the huge fishes in Tunga river at Chibbalgadde, Karnataka

88. Fish spa - having a hundred tiny fish nibble at your submerged feet

89. Watching Ganapati tableau and fireworks in Bangalore, and visiting Ganapati stalls in Hubli

90. Eating fresh rosagulla in Kolkata, the taste is entirely different from any other rosagulla.

91. Being served glucose water at the Golden temple, Amritsar, on a very hot, dehydrating day. Watching the volunteers wash the drinking bowls with sand.

92. Drinking a very thick, filling and the most delicious lassi at an eatery in Amritsar

93. Staying at a homestay in Coorg with friends, with it's private waterfalls, gardens and hills.

94. Visiting coffee plantations in Coorg. 

95. Watching a well overflow with water, in Coorg. The well was not-so full the previous evening. By morning, it was spilling over. 

96. Seeing wild rose bushes being cut and thrown away.

97. Breathing-in copious amounts of smoke during a  Rudrabhisheka at home 

98. Sitting in the front row at a very packed homa and regretting it 

99. Eating laddu from Tirupati and Chamundeshwari temples 

100. Eating prasad in various temples in Bangalore

101. Eating lunch prasad at Siddaganga Matha, Gorvanahalli Mahalaxmi Temple, Iskon in Banglore, Dharmasthala, Kukke Subramanya,  Banashankari Devi Temple, Bawe wali Mata temple(Jammu)

102. Eating dinner prasad at Golden Temple, Amritsar - roti, green grams veggie, rice kheer

103. Navigating through China using translation app and kindness from strangers

104. Travelling by the very dirty, hard seat trains in China

105. Watching trade of live sea animals in wet markets

106. Travelling in a cab with a bucket-full of eels, mistaking them for snakes and getting very scared. 

107. Getting free tickets to Udit Narayan concert in Bangalore, from a neighbour who couldn't go. 

108. Growing a huge ashgourd in a tiny balcony garden

109. Having two pigeon eggs in a flower pot, and  a dozen moth eggs on the balcony wall

200. Crossing country borders on foot, at the Bhutan Gate 

201. Watching peacocks open their feathers and strut around

202. Visiting the planetarium in Bangalore and watching the shows. Knowing your weight on different planets

203. Making a helipad while in school with cowdung and markers

204. During ABC trek in Nepal, the phenomenon of not sleeping very well during the  climb, but sleeping very well during the descent

205. Staying at a hotel in Machchapuchre, surrounded by snow-covered Himalayan mountains 

206. Watching clear, starry skies while camping on a stranger's terrace in Uttaranchal 

207. Bathing every single day of the year(2021) - a feat never achieved before and with no possibilities of ever happening again 208. Getting stung in the forehead by a bee that left it's sting behind, and having to painfully pull it out.

207. Having fire-crackers burst in my hand, since I was carrying them alongwith a lit candle and it got windy.. and experiencing temperory blindness. 

206. Experiencing sub-zero temperature - at ABC trek, at Niagara falls and at Munsiyari

207. Getting pelted with hail stones while driving in Bangalore

208. Petting Gourakka's cat, and watching it eat green gram sprouts, raw potatoes and other vegetables

209. Enjoying an early morning with bobo at the Kanchipuram Kamakshi temple complex with unusually pleasant weather

210. Being at Kamakshi amman temple on a day it was the anniversary of the deity's installation, and at Varadaraj Perumal temple on the one-day-of-the-year when the deity makes an appearance with all his wives 

211. Watching an artist play music on orange leaves, in Chinatown in Singapore

212. Looking for Kanchipuram idli everywhere, and having a devotee give some to us as prasada at the Varada Perumal temple a few hours before we had to leave town

213. Getting darshan at the Varada Perumal temple in Kanchipuram on an auspicious day unknowingly. This was the one day in a year that Lord Vishnu appears with all his wives.

214. Getting head-butted by a calf and (goat)kids 

215. Getting licked on the arm by a cow and getting covered in the green slime that the cow was regurgitating.

216. Getting bitten by a dog

217. Getting mortally scared when the monorail in KL makes a steep turn and the car is at an angle

218. Watching huge trucks in USA on the roads

219. Taking the Chigari bus(rapid transportation in smart cities) in Dharwad - the bus does not stop when there are no passengers to board/alight. Also the bus has dedicated lanes right in the middle of the existing roads.

220. Choosing a maroon colour for my hair and having it turn a bright orange-pink 

221. A kitten trying to climb up my leg, and then digging its sharp claws into my skin when it began to slip

222. Seeing the hammer-like sturdy locks used on steering wheels of cars in Malaysia, to prevent car thefts.

223. Spending an hour trying to book a bus online in an internet parlour in China, with an unusually slow internet speed and every page showing up in Chinese even after you choose the English option. Properly frustrating and no ticket getting booked.

224. Pumping air into a raft, rowing into a man-made lake in Bengaluru, and deflating and packing it away - all the while being terrified that the raft might develop a leak in the middle of the lake.

225. Camping on a stranger's rooftop in uttarkhand.. watching huge stars in clear skies, getting uncomfortably cold in the morning, watching beautiful blue-white-black pheasants with orange beaks flying close in the fields - one of the best mornings of my life. 

226. The foul smell of earthworms after being steppd on, on wet roads during morning runs in Kittur.

227. Getting sick with Covid-19 in 2021, at the same time as my spouse. 

228. Crossing roads in HongKong with music as a cue to start walking. Instead of just the green lights, a music also plays and huge crows on either side of the road walk into each other and cross the roads. The music stops a few seconds before the lights change to red. 

229. In Singapore, when you want to cross the road you press a  the button on the pole right at the crossing and this causes the drive signal to turn red and vehicles come to a stop. You cross the road and the signal turns back to green.

230. Getting very disoriented with the right side driving in USA and China

231. Seeing how the entire hongkong metro is underground.. and the ground level has just the roads for trams and vehicles.

232. knowing that the hongkong airport is on an articial/man-made island

233. hongkong not seeing earth/mud since end-to-end is gabled or cemented and your shoes never get dirty.

234. skin cleared up majorly after a trip to the US because the air was crisp and so unpolluted.

235. experiencing unnatural hairfall in USA.

236. visiting a casino and eating sweet potato fries. watching gaudily dressed people enter into and walk out of a casino, seeing the remotely-activated, blinking tokens for the very first time.

237. playing paint ball with colleagues

238. floating around in a lazy river, at a resort. 

239. Losing appetite when the humidity is high

240. watching deer skittle by during early mornings at school

241. getting thrown off of a horse

242. watching a snake squeezing in through a door

243. going to a very populat theatre in Bangalore, and feeling cold and extremely bored through the show

244. eating piping hot rajma and chawal at maa vaishnodevi shrine soon after the darshan, in the middle of night

245. art exhibition on the streets in bangalore

246. attending a year-long course and getting certified by IIM-B

247. lockdown and extreme discomforts during covid

248. contracting covid 249. being in bad physical shape, that walking for a km turned my palms paper dry and numb 

250. Thirumeyachur Lalitambika Temple complex - riding in a cab with Bobo from Kumbakonam, fresh narrow roads with fields and water bodies along the way. Beautiful, beautiful darshan of all gods. Amazing prasada. All in all, a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

251.  Eating raw grapes dangling from the vine, in Darjeeling and getting a bad tummy ache afterwards

252. playing on a smooth marble carrom board in darjeeling

253. almost setting the house on fire by leaving a live heating rod on a stack of newspapers

254. seeing a snake trying to get into the house, and falling sick afterwards

255. stepping on BF's macbook and shattering the monitor

256. coming face-to-face with a barn owl

257. meditating and blacking out for a few moments

258. slipping on the stairs and landing heavily on my bum and going down four steps thumping along.. ended up with an injured tailbone and sore bums

259. doing the very unique thali pooja at Khadoba temple in Jejuri.

260. travelling in a first class a/c coupe on the train between bengaluru and talaguppa with just two seats

261. standing on top of the Rani waterfall at Jog. the cab-driver who doubled as a tourist guide took us across a cut-off fence to allow us experience the waterfall upclose. it was quite fun.

262. staying overnight at the temple premises at Vadanbailu Padmavati temple, something I had never done before. 

263. the piping hot kadha prashad you receive in both hands at the golden temple amrtisar.

264 feeding a fully-grown elephant a big bunch of bananas

265. watching the elephant vigorously rub it's bum against a coconut tree

266. helping out with conducting a sports day at a school for the blind.

riding a roller coaster

267. patting a puppy to sleep

- pulling a cat close and having it slide out smoothly under your arms

- feeding dogs by hand

- having a dog climb into your lap and petting it

experience - hibiscus tea.. the flower becomes discoloured

buying sambar for mom as she loved it, from near mg road before boarding the afternoon intercity train to hubli

riding a c