Ashutosh Nilkanth's Blog

Panoramic view from the peak of Mt. Everest! Breathtaking …

Last saturday night, Lohit and I decided to meet-up for a few beers and call it a “good luck” meet before the exams. Everyone else in our friend circle was either busy or not around to join us. So we headed to the All Nations Backpackers pub. All Nations Backpackers is an international backpackers hotel and pub – with backpacker tourists coming in from around the world, so its a real multicultural crowd, a nice ambience and some cool music to go with it. A couple of weeks back, Lohit, Abhi and I went there – and met a friendly couple from Perth. We hung out for a while and exchanged our e-mail addresses so that we can stay in touch. Guess what, they e-mailed us and other friends they made during their visit to Victoria. It took me by surprise because I was not quite expecting to hear from them considering how busy everyone get’s once they head back to their regular lives. But they wrote about their well-being, which was really cool.

Anyways, we often go to the All Nations Backpackers, but last saturday night was a bit different. Lohit and I were just chilling out talking about “life” and what “motivates” us after this mile , when this dude come’s up to us, ask’s Lohit for a light and then throws a rather intriguing question at us: “Where’s your third eye?” he goes. I pointed to the centre of my head and Lohit said – “its your mind”. He asked me what one thing I would really want to do in the future – and I said – ” I would like to visit Tibet, if and when …”. So he said, “you want to visit Tibet because its naturally mystic and you might find tranquility there … your mind tell’s you that because there’s nature that’s calling you … but the third eye is everywhere – its in nature!” I found his analogy quite interesting and we discussed it for a while. It was quite a stimulating conversation. Aparently this guy is a backpacker from New Zealand and has been in Melbourne for a while. I could only advise him to visit India sometime and hopefully he’ll experience the “fourth eye” there We also met with an expat from France, who has been globetrotting. He chatted with us for a while and bid a friendly goodbye with the hindi words “Phir Milenge” (See you again), which was astounding! It’s always a pleasure to meet with people from different cultures and know about their ideology and their experiences. It’s truely a “global village” – there’s a good and there’s a bad tail to it – but the multi-cultural integration cannot be put under the carpet. You can hide but you can’t escape!

Later that night, this lovely girl and her boyfriend came and sat next to us on our table. She excused for it and introduced herself – which I couldn’t quite catch due to the loud music. What came next was a big surprise – she was Casey Donovan, Australian Idol 2004. I really didn’t recognize her at first but we acquainted there-of. I’ve been a fan of her voice and her singing talent was proven during the Idol contest. She seemed like a friendly and down-to-earth person (she could have gone to any pub or club in the city but choose to come to the Backpackers pub where only a handful would actually know her). She gave us her auto-graph (“Ash, have a good one!” it says) which was sweet of her. Well, it was a rather eventful night and we had a great time! A good one before the hectic days ahead.

Coming back to the “third eye”, can we really experience our spiritual vision and a focused neutral mind with The Ajana (or Third Eye Chakra)? I reckon so, says the meditationist.

SpaceShipOne is Time’s ‘Invention of the Year’

Well it’s a Saturday, the weekend is here, and I’m catching up on some uni assignments and an office project (for which I’ll be working onsite for a few hours on Sunday as well). Now that I’m feeling a little better after a period of stress and illness, I’m looking forward to a short trip to India. Its been almost 1.5 years since I’ve been back home and I really need a change too, more so I’ll meet my family & friends. I have to sort out a few issues here and then I’ll be at ease for a while, and can enjoy my trip if I manage to get an airline booking on time

Life brings a lot of questions, and sometimes answers as well, to us. That’s how we learn to crawl before we can learn to walk. Life is full of dilemma’s and time brings a “paheli” (a mystery) for everyone, which brings me to this hindi movie which seems quite interesting. I’m quite excited about and waiting for its release in June. This offbeat film is appropriately titled Paheli, and its based on Vijaydan Detha’s legendary folk tale “Dohrijoon” (A Double Life, which was published in hindi in the form of two volumes titled ‘Uljhan’ and ‘Duvidha’). The story of the movie is really interesting and the artists look impressive so far. I’m really eager to watch this in theatre. I’m hooked on to its title song “Dheere Jalna” – very classical and melodic.

3 Indian films in Time’s top 100