The Cloudscape

Beauty of Nature

The ever evolving clouds in the sky have fascinated me since my early days. Watching clouds change shapes can be very absorbing on a lazy winter afternoon. It’s like watching Mother Nature’s Kaleidoscope. The abstracts sometimes amazingly take form of things which are very close to living and nonliving forms in real life.
During earlier part of my sea life, we had to watch them closely and make observations, to send weather reports from sea when the satellites were still in their infancy. It was then I learned the various types, like the cumulus (my favorite) which are the cauliflower shaped clouds that fill the sky often and can be of a large vertical extent. Then there are the cirrus which resemble the cotton flakes and the earlier generation of seamen used the direction they aligned themselves to tell the centre of a storm. The stratus, which as the name indicates, are the layer type clouds and can be of the dark threatening variety that end up giving heavy downpour. These basic types are categorized further by their height above the earth’s surface. The Cirrostratus are the higher altitude stratus whereas the Altostratus are the medium altitude stratus.
At sea, as a first mate and incharge of getting daily maintenance done on board, I used to get the vessel alter course just to avoid getting drenched under a passing shower, especially if some painting job on deck was planned for the day.

Once on a cloudy day, to my query on picking him up from school, as to what he was doing in the class, my son responded, “I was watching clouds”. Like father like son, I thought. I couldn’t identify more with my son, at that point in time.
I was reading one of my reader’s blogs when the lady in one of her posts described having gone up to the mountain top and wished she could jump to touch the clouds. What an idea! On a trip to Mussourie, a neighborhood tourist attracting hill, I once overheard a local, that clouds often float through their living room. Hey, ain’t that romantic? The family having an after lunch chat and a cloud appears through an open window making things foggy for a few moments. I bet it is.

Humor 360
One day, while in the dry dock at Piraeus, Greece, the local workshop supervisor asked the British Chief engineer to get the bunker tank cleaned for some repairs in the adjacent compartment. Due to heavy work schedule of the Chief , it got overlooked.
The Supervisor when told by his people that the job by the ship staff was not started till late afternoon, came fuming on the ship.
He went straight to Chief Engineer’s cabin and asked “Chief, Do you understand English?”
This from a man who spoke a heavily accented form and requiring much grammatical help to a person whose forefathers gave the world the language.

It is from the time when the cell phones had just become popular and people hadn’t got quite used to the new way of getting call, anyplace. A husband gets a call, from his wife, while shopping at a supermarket. His first response, “How did you know I was here”?

I had been to sea for a couple of months and am back home for a brief holiday. Things haven’t been going quite as planned, I am not incharge of the vessel yet but accepting what comes naturally has been a direction He has been giving me in these recent years. And I am enjoying every bit of that direction. The acceptance preempts any disappointment within.

Today's picture is from the neighborhood of my mother's home.

The Weaver and The Weave

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The Humble Path

Spirituality and Humor

Humility, a term widely used but hardly followed. As the years go by the term is getting further and further away from its true meaning.
Here, I am not referring to the kind shown by the celebrities in their interviews or in the award ceremonies or the one shown by us in our day to day conversations, when we don’t mean what we are saying. We do it so as to be politically correct and it doesn’t require much effort.
True humility can not be achieved by our efforts alone, however hard we may try. One needs His help and to be eligible for that one got to be the member of the “Total Surrender” club.
A humble person, like other virtuous person doesn’t have to carry a placard about how humble he is but it shows in the way he goes about living his life. As you go further in the path of life, holding His finger, like a child holding his father’s when he has just begun to walk, He tells you stuff that only He can tell. The trouble begins when you let go of the finger and think you are big enough to take a walk by yourself. Though you may succeed on a scale in which the world measures success, but deep within, there is always an emptiness which no amount of money can fill. One may be the richest person on the planet but he is vulnerable and can be easily shaken by other people’s remarks. His wealth doesn’t help him to absorb that shock.
The journey to humility can be started at any point in time, though it’s hard to be humble when you are young and not so experienced with the ways of life, which are harsh but just.
As I said the first step to living a life worth living would be to surrender to Him, unconditionally and then make a conscious effort to achieve your goal. A daily discussion with self at the wrapping up part of the day, can be very useful in assessing what all went wrong during the day, when you weren’t humble enough or when the ego in you beat you in your resolve.
There is so much joy in being humble which the ego in us can never even imagine, is possible. Always place others, including inanimate objects, before you and the humility will start manifesting itself, like the hint of the sapling out of the Mother Earth of a seed sown.
These hints by no means are easy to follow nor the results achieved in one lifetime. These are things we must sincerely strive for, for our own good. The sensual pleasures last no more than a few moments but these pleasures out of humility are eternal and count in improving the quality of life, which has nothing to do with materialism.
I am on the path now. I am, by no means, a big achiever but because of “Total Surrender”, I at least see where I have to go. I am trying and it’s such a beautiful journey.
Here in Doon the “Cuckoo Fest” has begun and you can hear them singing all day long. The butterflies are fluttering, the dragonflies are jetting and Mother Earth has changed to her garb of green during this season of rains.











Today I bring you a recent sundown as viewed from our home.

Mother Nature's Canvas

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Life Aboard a Ship: My First Voyage

My First Voyage

Life Aboard a Ship

After completing my training at T. S. Rajendra at Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay), I joined as an apprentice in Shipping Corporation of India in the winter of 1982. I remember there were four of us from that class of '82, who had joined M.V. Kalidas, berthed at Indira Docks in Mumbai. It was around nine in the evening. We were asked to go on deck the moment we boarded, so as to get the hang of things. It was a container vessel. None of us had a clue regarding the nature of operations being carried out. We were complete stangers in these new surroundings. It was quite a while before we were allowed into our cabins.
The next day we were to set sail for the ocean. After completion of loading, we secured the vessel for sea, and cast off to start my maiden voyage. Aquaba, Jordan was destined to be my first foreign port. For the first few days I could barely make out if she was moving because of "sea like mirror" conditions. Gradually, though vibrations from the main engines made me aware of her making headway.
This vessel was at that time a "cadet ship" with only a few old seamen in the deck side. There were fourteen of us cadets who did everything that is required of a seaman on board. It was a great learning experience. We made our usual newbie mistakes and the seniors had all the fun.
From Aquaba, it was Baltimore, my first port in the US of A. On the way we faced a severe storm in the Atlantic which gave us the first first hand experience of turbulance at sea. It was amusing at times to see everything moving uncontrollably from one side to the other as the vessel rolled. Some boys got sick. The working conditions became tough especially with huge waves pounding the main deck. We had to occasionally go and check the securing arrangement of containers lest they get washed away with the waves. It was pretty scary to be on deck with the angry ocean showing no signs of mercy. It was exciting at the same time, as such things are, at that age. Finally, we cleared the storm and berthed at Baltimore. It was the breathtaking Great lakes, with US on one side and Canada on the other, next in our voyage. We went right up to Duluth, Minnesota. It was great transiting the lakes even though we had to work round the clock while passing the locks.
That was my first ocean voyage and today many years later, I would soon be sailing another first as the person in command. A long voyage, I guess for the boy of eighteen then who will be meeting more boys of eighteen now, on their first voyage. I haven’t been sailing as much as I should have so as to be with the family, especially during the growing up years of our son. Now that he is a big boy, I guess I would be going to sea more often then I had been lately.
I was in Delhi late last month to fix my next employment. I would be leaving soon for my next assignment. Though it is going to be pretty hectic as a first time Captain, I am sure I would get some time to do a post once in a while.
The weather had been freaky this time here with “The Monsoons” arriving way too early and May being the new July this year.

On one of my brisk walking sessions while in Delhi, along the perimeter of a natural lake, I found this lucky bird in her front yard enjoying the sundown.

The Lake View Nest

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Life: Memories from Childhood

Memories from Childhood

Life

The memories of childhood linger on with us however far we have traveled on the path of life. It appears as if everything happened just yesterday.
As a young kid I used to love the rainy season, which we call ‘The Monsoons”. I still love the rains. It is the time when the frogs from the neighborhood pond, used to have a field day. I used to love the croaking sound, in the dark nights while slowly sliding into the realms of sleep. It used to be a kind of lullaby, I loved. The ponds have eversince disappeared and it is only occasionally that one hears the croaking.
Another thing about the monsoons was the paper boats. I was fascinated by the way it traveled on the stream of water flowing after a heavy shower. The view was almost like real, only downscaled.
A glimpse of responsibility at age, ummm 10, I think. On a day when we were let off from school way too early from the regular timing, I , my younger brother and the still younger sister who usually were picked up, didn’t know what to do. It was when the school had almost a deserted look that I decided that we could walk our way home, though I had never done it before. I clearly remember, having our sister in between, holding hands, the three of us making headway in the adult world. Though we got picked up midway, I am still proud to have a go, my first, I guess, as the big brother then.
The weekly watering of our garden and vegetable patch by canal water in our childhood home was something I used to look forward to. It used to be so much fun directing the water from one place in the compound to the other. The sight of the water running over parched land and quenching the thirst of mother earth was just awesome. I used to be fascinated with all the twigs and assorted flotsam being carried with the stream and often wondered from where it must have traveled to our land. Walking over the morning dew in our large front lawn was another of my favorites, leaving the marks of my footsteps which would soon disappear as the dew would turn into vapor as the sun would progress on its daily path.
Cycling to and from school, too is a part of my fond memories. It used to take us about twenty minutes from home. The path was along a canal and through the compound of, one of its kind, Forest Research Institute. The winters used to be very chilly. The road to school was full of slopes in stretches, generally favoring us while on our way to school and against us when coming back. We used to ride our bicycles till we were in the final year. While going to school, it used to be mostly solitary and introspective, with meeting friends on the way, coming back was a whole lot of fun with everyone together and in an animated mood.

Life goes on, memories keep following.

The spectacular FRI at Dehradun.

Forest Research Institute

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Humor

The grin that follows, the funny side of life, is always a welcome break from the supposedly serious matters which we pursue on a daily basis.
I remember a time when I was training on board T.S. Rajendra at Mumbai. An instructor had this peculiar habit of talking in plurals, so much so that we started calling him Mr. Sharma(s). He was great in his subject which was seamanship but not so much in English. One night some boys played a prank and hid bathroom slippers of a few cadets.
When it was reported to the duty instructor which happened to be Mr. Sharma(s), he mustered everyone, close to midnight and started his speech.
"It has been reported that some cadets have lost their left pairs of slippers and some have lost their right pairs. I request you to return both the pairs."
Everyone was grinning under their breath.
Once, three persons, a chemical engineer, a mechanical engineer and a Microsoft engineer were traveling together when their car broke down.
The chemical engineer suggested may be it is the impurities in the gasoline that has caused the problem. The mechanical engineer suspected overheating of the engine.
The Microsoft (Windows) engineer didn’t have a clue. He suggested, “Why don’t we close all Windows and open them back and may be it will work”.
Like it happens in the Windows OS.
A Dennis the menace cartoon quip I read lately, in which Dennis asks his mother aboard a jet. “Would it be alright to go to the bathroom while we are flying over the cities?”
Heard at the home of a Supreme Court judge.
The wife was scolding her husband over some petty matter. “Do you have any brains?”
The man who spent his whole life deciding the fate of many a lives was being questioned about his abilities at his own backyard.
A miser in an Indian small town, decided to fly kite on occasion of a festival. He went to the rooftop of his two storied house and while he was busy concentrating on the kite his feet slipped off the roof and he started falling down.
The miser that he was, during his free fall, while passing in front of the kitchen window, shouted to his wife, who was preparing the afternoon meal, not to make food for him as he would not need it now.
He was worried about unnecessary expenditure rather than his life even in these last moments.

Todays pick is the vegetable flowers.

The Onion Flowers

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Total Surrender

Spirituality

Total surrender? To whom? You might ask. To a fellow human being who happens to be your loved one. No, I don’t imply that at all. Here the total surrender is to the one who created you and me. The Almighty Lord.
But why? And the answer to that is that all our happiness that we have been searching for, ever since we were born, lie in this domain. Unfortunately, we never looked up here, for whatever reason. Life’s ultimate and I may add, the only objective is be able to make this choice and be happy ever after.
It essentially means to remember him, which ever way you deem correct, wherever you are, whatever you are currently engaged in, whatever state you are in, throughout the day, at regular intervals. This like most other things in life requires practice. It may not seem a very pleasant act in the beginning, but as one perseveres and goes against one’s own mind which wants to do things that seemingly are more interesting, one does start liking it. This beginning to like remembering Him is not an ordinary physical act. It is the signal that He has admitted you in the “Total Surrender” club and would sponsor your membership, no matter what.
Of course, this does not happen as fast as we would like it to be. Certainly not at the click of the mouse button, as many geeks would like it to happen. It will take years to say the least but once you start experiencing its results, you would not regret it. For it is the most exhilarating experience you ever had in your life and sex and the desire for good food are absolutely nothing in comparison. One gets into this state of bliss which one has to experience to believe.
At present, I do my remembrance routine every quarter of an hour for most part of my waking hours. It has changed my life completely. The whole perspective has changed. I do not have to work as hard for things that I had to struggle to get results. Everything seems to fall in place by itself. I feel so good. It is He who is the doer not you which is a subject matter of another post, another day.
Give it a try as you have tried so many of those get happy tips. There is absolutely no doubt that you will gain from it, one day. But please do not leave it midway. Even if you do, you can start from the point you stopped even years later. That is the beauty of it. We all have seen this, done that. Let’s try this and make our lives truly worth,that it is meant to be.







The picture for today is a Purple Jacaranda against a backdrop of a blue sky.

Jacaranda Blues

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Life Aboard a Ship: A Day in the Life of a First Mate

A Day in the Life of a First Mate

Life Aboard a Ship

The day of a First Mate or the Chief Mate as he is commonly known, begins at 0400 at sea. I arrange to be woken up at twenty minutes to four. After taking over watch from the second mate, who keeps the midnight to four watch, I head for a cup of tea. The cadet, who gets his training under my supervision, usually makes it unless he is too busy with something.
The planning starts the moment I am woken up and continues till I go back to bed. It is an integral part of a Mate’s life, for no work however small, can be accomplished, without a fair amount of planning and anticipating the difficulties one may encounter. I think I get paid for thinking on board. It is in ways similar to a job of a housewife who is expected to do everything and manage within the resources available to her. My notebook comes in very handy in all this and I often wonder how I managed things during pre notebook days.
The incharge of the crew, the Boatswain or Bosun in short, comes up on the bridge at about seven and I tell him what is on my mind for the day. Together we do a little discussion and agree on a final plan.
After breakfast, at eight, I change into my coveralls and go for a general round of the vessel, to check everything is, as it should be. Once planning is done, it is time to execute and monitor the plan.
After lunch, I take a short nap and get up for tea at 1500. Take another round on deck to see that the work is going as expected and resolve difficulties, if any. I go back on my navitgational watch on bridge at 1600 until 2000. The bousun and the fitter (if on board), report at 1800 about the jobs done during the day and I note it down in my works diary.
Dinner on board is at 1800 and after finishing watch if there is not much of a backlog , I go down to the lounge to be together with other ship mates. I usually end the day by 2200 so that I can start the next day afresh at 0400.
This is the typical day when things have gone more or less as expected which is not very often, especially in older vessels. I remember a time when we had arrived at Richard’s bay in South Africa and the moment we docked we noticed a hole in her forepeak tank. The hole was very small and it took us a while to locate it. I was there the whole night and most of the following day. My wife who was sailing with me, got worried. She asked the radio officer, “Have you seen my husband? I haven’t seen him for over a day.”
Life is tough but it has got its own rewards. A hard day’s of work gives you a sense of satisfaction. You feel great after a job well done.
I love the sea. I have spent most part of my adult life there. I would continue to sail till I can and enjoy heading towards where the ocean meets the sky.

Today I bring you this picture of love.

A calf showing some affection

Humor 360

Life is full of humor. A funny incident here and a one liner there. It is medicine for the stress we encounter each day. So let me start right away with some serious humor, part experienced myself and part forwarded.
Years ago, as a second mate aboard a tanker, I had my wife join me on board. She came in Livorno, Italy. As it happened to be hours away from Pisa with it’s famous tower, we decided to go for a visit. As expected we took some photographs. Some were taken by me and some by her. As she took my pictures with the cathedral in the background her hand shook and we had a picture with a leaning cathedral.
The British Cadet who saw the photograph said to my wife, “Either you were drunk while you took this or is it the Leaning Cathedral of Pisa”.
We could not help but smile at his remark.
A few years ago I was trying to learn Flash with Matthew Pizzi and others’, Flash MX unleashed. It is a book which has some great humor besides some great content. One of the observations made was, Thermos flask is a great invention. It helps to keep the hot liquids hot and cold liquids cold. But how does it figure out which one to keep hot and which one cold.
A commercial I saw on television a month ago. A young girl leaves her newly bought ripped jeans on the bed and goes for a shower. While she is in the bathroom her mother comes to her room, to keep something and looks at the jeans which are ripped. She shakes her head at their condition. Thinking the jeans are torn, sews them and puts them back before the daughter is out.
A rip signifies different things to different generations, I guess.
On my last ship, the Captain had just taken over for the first time and it was his second day as incharge. We were in Corpus Christi, US of A and had to offload some garbage to shore facilities. The garbage was collected by the garbage van and the driver came up to the captain’s cabin for collecting cash for the services.
While the captain was counting money, the garbage man initiated some small talk. “How long you have been Captain?”, he asked.
I being there at the door, the Captain gave me an embarrassed look and then to him and said two days and laughed.
The garbage man thought he was kidding and joined us in our laugh.





I leave you with the picture of lily at our home in full bloom.

My Valley View

The kitchen, as I make the morning tea, in our first floor house, is my first contact with Mother Nature. The early morning darkness just giving way to the first rays of light. The park, across the road is alive with birds chirping in their own characteristic sounds. Its music to the ears. As if God has unleashed a musical extravaganza.
As the day grows, the outline of a Bottle Brush tree starts appearing as also that of a tree called Dhaak in Hindi. Could some one, please tell me what is it called in English.
As I move to our front verandah, the beautiful Shivalik mountains, far away with just a hint of their existence, appear. Their mere presence seems to be telling tales of no limits of the time metric. Do you ever get lost in this seemingly infinite expanse of nothingness? I do.
The nights are even better. The lights on the relatively nearer Mussourie hills are breathtaking. It seems as if the stars are on a visit to our planet. I can’t think of a more romantic setting than this. Me and my mother, my son and his mother finish their dinner under the sky to say good night to each other. A perfect ending for a not so perfect day.
Even as I write this, I have the huge Chakrata hills beckoning over the top of my notebook screen. No wonder this valley, popularly known as the Doon valley, famous for its Basmati rice and schools, is such a major attraction for people seeking a serene life after they have done what is required of them.
I still go to sea to earn a livelihood. I love what I do but it’s so tempting to stretch my vacations here. I have lived all my life here and would love to spend the rest of it here too without complaints.

Starry Nights

The view of the sky on a clear night is one of my favorites. The zillion stars embedded in the firmament. Oh! Could anything be more romantic than that? I take a peek each day after dusk to check on them as if some of them might go missing. I can never forget to check on Sirius, the brightest of them all or the famous groups like The Orion and The Great Bear. Some days it is the Cassiopeia and on others it is the Taurus ( I am a Taurean myself.).
As a navigator in the high seas, I view them as navigational aids and use them to calculate the error on the compasses each watch. During earlier times we used to use them for fixing the vessel’s position by taking sights. Now with GPS becoming more popular on board, the practice is nearly extinct. I look forward to twilight each day and slowly the sky starts filling up with the little diamonds of that nursery jingle.
I especially like the view on the near freezing temperatures when everything seems to be so still. As if the clock has suddenly developed a malfunction. On my last time aboard, I was captivated with the night sky as viewed from Aardalstangen in Norway.
What about just glancing up while waiting for the traffic light to turn green when every one else is busy brooding about some worldly matter. It gives a sense of tranquility that has no comparison.
Next time when you are out and everyone is busy doing their thing take a sneak peek. I bet you would like it.
Star gazers tips
Extend the line of the stars at the end of rectangle (shorter of the two sides) of The Great Bear seven times and you will arrive at Polaris, popularly known as the Pole star.

Its the begining of summer here in Doon. The mercury is heading north. The mango trees are in full bloom and I'll leave you with this picture from our sideyard.

Yog, The Essence of Life

Yog (mistakenly spelled Yoga) is the art or call it science of linking oneself to Him. It literally means union. Union with what? Union with your creator. It was practiced by the ancient Rishis and Munnis of India during their search for Him. It ain’t just the physical movements, it is made out to be, especially in its exported versions. Some guys have gone as far as even patenting the style. And it ain’t certainly for increasing your sex drive as some others have claimed. On the contrary it is to take you away from these sensual adventures to the realms of God. It is well known and was well experienced by those great souls that sensual pleasures are a huge hindrance towards achieving the goal of life, which is to be able to come under His protective umbrella or to put it simply to experience happiness.
In today’s world where materialism rules, the Yog comes to the help in the form of being able to provide an alternative to all conventional and alternative forms of treatments and fills you with energy you have never known before. Yog essentially comprises of ‘Asans’ and ‘Prayanam’ and it the latter which has been found to cure and prevent many a so called incurable diseases. Prayanam is basically breathing taken seriously.
I for one have benefited from Prayanam immensely, both physically and spiritually.
It helps you to make your day brighter and the balance of life which most of us crave for is easily achieved.
I would suggest going to site http://www.divyayoga.com/ . The person behind this yog movement in India has great credentials and he has changed the lives of many. You need to watch his open air yog classes to believe. The name is Baba Ram Dev.
Here in Doon, it’s the beginning of summer. The mango and litchi trees are flowering. The air is rich with their fragrance. One of these days I’ll post some pictures.

My First Ever Blog Post

!! ॐ पर्मतामने नमः !!

Hi!
This is going to be a weblog where I would post my thoughts on days, I must. It would be, as the title indicates, about life and would cover an all-round 360 degree view. It would be at times serious while not so at others. Oftentimes humorous and sometimes on a plane higher than we are usually accustomed to. As I work aboard Merchant Vessels, I would be able to write only on vacations. I'll see ya soon, guys.

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