Digitally Exploring the world

For the past 5 + years everyday come rain,sun,flood my first human interaction of the day is a happy smiling face. I am taking about Gangaamma , the lady who comes to clean my house. She is one such woman, who seems to be ever smiling whatever she might be going through. She is one of such woman that runs quite a few houses. Belonging to a village in karnataka, she was married off at the age of 12 and had to move to the city 15years back in search of work. In the last so many years she worked as a labourer lifting stones for new constructions and has been working in the same houses as a maid last few years. She has 3 daughters and a husband who hardly works the usual story of the poor. She slogs it out in a bunch of houses to be able to pay for the basic needs and educate her daughters something she never had the opportunity to do. She also takes pride in not having asked her daughters to work so far. Sometimes when I feel low about so many things in life , I remind myself of the ev...

I got my first pair of waterproof hiking shoes last week and boy wasn't i thrilled. I had been wanting one for a while but since i was heading out during the weekend, i just took an impulsive decision that I had to get it this time . I walked around last Friday and found tons of washable ones but couldn't find a waterproof one in all the big shops but a small adventure shop not to far away had this pair of La Fuma shoes.. I have hiked in wet washables shoes during monsoon before and it isn't the most comfortable walk if one knows what I mean ... Somehow right from my schooldays shoes have always fascinated me . I still remember the day and the joy when I received my first pair of imported tennis shoes. I actually wore it and slept that night :) . You must be laughing reading this !! Oh what a difference it made compared to the power shoes I had worn till then .. Listening to Knopfler's Quality Shoes

As I sit down to pen a few lines, I am suddenly transported to my childhood days subconsciously and start to hum this song .. ... "Climb every mountain, search high and low Follow every by way, every path you know Climb every mountain, ford every stream Follow every rainbow, till you find your dream... ... " Work and other happenings around me had put a break to my short trips for the past few months and it was only last weekend that I headed for a short day's hike to the Brahmagiri hills (near Coorg) organized by the youth hostel folks . Almost a dozen of us from various cross sections (not all were the IT type) got into the tempo traveler already booked on a cloudy saturday afternoon and were greeted with heavy showers as we headed out to the Sreemangala govt guest house . After a quick dinner on the way and a good night's sleep we were all ready early sunday morning for a 20kms trek . The trek started once we crossed the Irupa falls, the initial stretch of 1.5km...