A Painful encounter with health

So this last week I have been in the throes of pain. It feels so crippling. Cannot sit, cannot stand, cannot sleep comfortably, cannot bend, cannot walk. Its like a small part of my back can make life absolutely unbearable. Blood tests determined that I have vitamin B12 and D deficiency. My doctor also said be ready for x-rays, ortho visits because it could very well be something more sinister. My future work and travel plans feel so threatened right now. One whole week, I haven't touched clay and I can already feel my ideas slipping away, my chance at making my art.

But, I got a lot of time on my hands, which is a good thing. I was thinking up of challenges for the next few weeks for other clay artists. I sat and drew literally 5 minute drawings of what I can try to make. Squeezing in 5 minute stretches to strengthen my back while trying to find 15 minutes of sun for my vit D :). Reading self motivation articles and looking at ideas online.
 

With pain brought a realization that my body reacts to everything. The food we eat, the sun light we expose ourselves to, the exercises we do, the laughter we induce. My mind takes swipes at me sometimes, trying to rear ugly pictures of what I might have to give up, quickly followed by depressing thoughts, which I crawl out of, not alone, never by myself. I have found my anchors who help me rise up out of these dark thoughts. I have learnt to understand though, that I will do whatever it takes to stay happy and content, but that does not mean I don't have weaknesses or sadness. I give in to them occasionally with the hope that I will rise out of them a changed person. Only time will tell if I have grown stronger or weaker. 

P.S : Since then my back issues have reduced tremendously firstly due to my doctor's advice to bring my VIT levels up. Secondly to a year of Yoga that has not only made me stronger, more flexible but also thankful to my instructor for being a constant source of inspiration.  I want to continue yoga, when time permits. I only wish that don't become lazy again, due to this prolonged break from it. It's the year 2020 , where COVID 19 has wreaked havoc worldwide. 

<3 Rich

Leading up to Nepal

Yes my heartbeat still rises every time I think about this trip. It was my first real adventure , and you might find at times my writing a little muddled. Forgive me, its been very long since I got my thoughts in order.

Dates: 26- 30 Jan 2017 

It all began with ideas of two plans thrown at me together, Nepal or Rann of Kutchh. Now since I had already seen the Rann of Kutchh and also I couldn't manage two trips almost back to back, the choice was a no brainer. So the first question was popped around October 2016 and because I was a little unsure about it, I had to think about it. Part of it was money and the second part of it was an important life event about to occur around the same time. Most of my travel decisions have been split second ones, and somehow I have managed to see them through before I allow myself to change my mind about it. So I said yes and booked my flight the same evening and eventually got added to the group on Whatsapp. Whatsapp has been such a god sent gift in such cases and ofcourse smart phones  :).  

While researching flights, I had the flight option of the friend who invited me had given, but we were flying from different locations so obviously I had to do my own research, even if a little. All flights to Kathmandu fly via Delhi, that much was obvious from the first few searches. We had people choosing Air India, Jetairways, Royal Nepal and Indigo. People flew in from Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai and Delhi. I flew Indigo as it was the cheapest and gave me various time options to land into Delhi. I found mine at Rs 14900/- return fare. I think it helped that it was off peak season. Although as a warning be ready to spend a few hours at the airport! Was I glad I booked my flights so far apart, due to last minute airport closures and flight changes ( read delays).   

With the Air tickets booked, there were various other things to consider buying. Starting with a backback! Finally bought my proper trekking backpack from Wildcraft in one of the Christmas sales on Amazon. I encourage people, unless you find something better or cheaper in your local markets year-round, try and buy essentials from online websites during sale seasons, and believe me, they have plenty of them. After buying and selecting my bag, I also ask people to believe in pockets in a bag. Believe me when you don't have any, you keep having to remove all the things from the backpack after going on a torchlit search into a cave.

Step 3 was to buy some trekking shoes and here Decathlon came to my rescue. I went in to buy a pair of shoes and came away buying a water bottle for running, a pair of hand gloves, a future in mind look at what to buy and the pair of trekking shoes. Since this was my first time buying trekking shoes I didn't know what was the right type of shoe to buy and I called up a friend to help me out while choosing. The options include the type of shoes that are for basic trekking that involves not too much rough terrain, another that does the same with waterproofing and so on and so forth. As the shoes get more complicated they also get heavier! I tried on a pair of shoes that was 1/2 a Kg per foot. Suffice to say I couldn't move my legs at all and another first: to want to buy only 'girly' PINK shoes ( because they were lighter). After careful consideration I went for the simplest and cheapest Trekking shoes priced at the time at Rs 1399/-.  

Now onto the fourth, were clothes fit for lower temperatures. We were looking at a range from 2-10 degrees. I felt it best to layer up, like I used to do in the UK. I don't like thermals as are they are extremely itchy, but for those that can handle it.... there is nothing like thermals underneath your clothes especially in sub zero temperatures. I bought a few 3/4 sleeved t-shirts and a couple of tights. Obviously one of the main things was to stock up on Jackets and gloves and woolen socks!!! These on the whole would have been an expensive endeavour. So I did what any girl with strapped cash would do, Beg, Borrow and Steal!

Once you start packing and if you are anything like me, you will end up packing and repacking your stuff over and over again. I am not sure if I like packing or if it makes me nervous that I will for sure forget to carry my toothbrush!

<3 Rich

Belated memories!

I know this sounds extremely cliched, but I have traveled with my parents since I was a child and today its a full blown yearning almost every few weeks! It was a yearly ritual and it was possibly about the different food we got to eat but also about the sights we saw. Now my memory fails me when I try to remember the exact thing we did or place we saw, but there are some weird memories attached to almost all the trips we took. There was the one time when we went to Mount Abu and I remember that place specifically because I slept on my dad's lap in the bus enroute to Mount Abu and it got exceedingly cold as we got closer to it. Then I remember searching for food and all we got was a dingy little place at the roadside. I vividly remember as we sat amongst truck drivers and helpers and such and ate the tastiest Dal Baati with oodles of Ghee there!

Every trip of ours inculcated within us the idea of unity in diversity in India. It sounds such a text book phrase, but when you travel you learn to adapt and accept all the differences. That was the most important lesson we learnt. Since then ( my entire family - including my parents, my brother and me) we have traveled both within India and abroad. Me and my brother did it alone or with friends and my parents still travel together. We have tried our best to keep these memories intact with photographs. Earlier ones through a physical camera roll and negatives and then developing those into prints. Now we have our Point and shoot, and SLR digital cameras! I do have scanned copies of one of our older albums too from our first trip to Ooty!

This is just my way of introduction into writing about what I remember about my travel journeys thus far.

P.S: I finally bought a backpack for traveling

Richa