What can a weekend trip do for you?!

Does a weekend trip relax you? This was a question that floated in my mind as we started to leave for this place, Sriwardhan. Also was a place listed in our agenda, Dive agar. Both places were a great treat to watch and fun in its own sense.

We were about fifteen people from the team that I work. We had arranged for a “Tempo Traveler”, a seventeen seated vehicle to take us through this trip spanning about 400 k.ms from the place where I live. We had a hill range called “The Western Ghats” in the middle. The drive wasn’t particularly bumpy, but it had at least 40 hairpin bends to provide fun!
The driver of the tempo traveler would not be more than 20 years of age by any stretch of imagination. His, leave alone having the experience of driving through the mountains, wouldn’t even pass a simple driving test. Well, he took us through some free Roller-coaster rides with people falling all over the place inside the Van. Starting from Pune at about 0800 hrs and we reached the place at around 1300 hrs! We had the mercury touching its best of the day and no hesitation whatsoever in getting into the water. We dived, jumped and stayed aput in the water for at least 1 and a half hour. Followed up next was a neat lunch at a near by resort. This was a true resort. It had a tree house, a tent, Thatched roof rooms, a duck and a cat! After relaxing for about an hour there, we played cricket! We kicked the football for a while and headed to a place called Dive agar. This place was about 15 k.ms from Sriwardhan, but man! Wasn’t this sea scary? With waves as fiercer as it can get, ups and downs in the sea level made us nervous! We just couldn’t stay in that water for long. After taking few pictures there we proceeded back to Pune. This like any trip was nice and enjoyable. But will temporarily forgetting the problems be relaxing? If it does, then how? & Why?

This should be philosophical, and related to the nature of this species. But as long as we are not scientists, but be philanthropists the root cause of worry should melt away. The serene beauty that awaits us on a holiday, be it a seashore, be it a mountain, means to me “survival”. As we see this the dimensions of the problem which we are strangled with seems not a problem but a process. Just as sprouts struggles to get out of seeds. A thought when crossed my mind, made things look obvious. Peace of mind. When a mind is in a state of peace, a sea can provide you meanings to life. when its not, a sea can give you peace of mind. And it stuck me when I thought how could I maintain the state of peacefulness within me? Smile. The only solution I could think of. When I turned back my pages in life. It gave some wonderful examples where I could have managed a problem with a smile. That was when I realized the power of the muscular flex on the face!

Keep smiling,
Bala