and then in Sikkim

Long back, during my sixth class, I went to Darjeeling with my brother and my parents. Though the trip was awesome and memorable one, the sad part was that I spent only 4 hours in Gangtok. It has been a long time and now I hardly remember a thing. I was trying to recollect stuff when I started googling and wiki-ing around to check out Gangtok again. Along with Gangtok, I discovered a ton of other places. Instead going to sleep, I spent half the night exploring Sikkim on net. In these few hours I totally fell in love with that place. Someday, I'll get away for some 10-15 days and check out Sikkim and only Sikkim.

Actually I can already picture myself going there. It'll all start with start with taking Satavahana Express early morning and reaching Vijayawada sometime in the afternoon. Eat some lunch and catch Coromandel Express(yea, the same train which got derailed two days back) which goes to Kolkata. I'll catch a bus and either go directly to Gangtok or go to Siliguri and from there go to Kalimpong. Kalimpong is just off Teesta river which is the most scenic river in the north east.



The image was lifted from flickr. Click for more pics on Teesta River

From there I'd head to Gangtok where all the action would begin. Maybe roam around and finally head for Nathula Pass. I'll walk, take pics and do some more stuff...



Maybe I'll also shake hands with Chinese Army guys here ->

Again both are from flickr. Anil Suri's album

From there I'll go to Lake Menmecho and Tsongmo Lake. Maybe go for a yak ride too :D. Later I'd head north

Lake Tsongmo

Once in northern Sikkim, my first stop will be Yamthung Valley from where I'll go further north to reach Gurudongmar Lake which is one of the highest lakes in the world.

Gurudongmar Lake

From Gurudongmar Lake the second half of my journey would begin wherein I set for the western part of Sikkim. Here I'll go to Khecheopalri Lake and from there go here and there and come back to Kalimpong to see the coronation bridge over Teesta river. From there a bus back to Kolkata and from there back to hyderabad :)

Khecheopalri Lake

so how's the iterenary? any more places which I might be missing??

adios
sashidhar

my take on The Age of Reason

There is this girl (whose name is the last thing I'd want to post on this blog :D) who talks a lot about existentialism. I did a bit of wiki-ing around on existentialism and found some nice things. From what I could understand, Existentialism is nothing but saying that all this philosophy thing is a bucket load of shit and that every man is an individual and philosophy can neither be used to generalize the behaviour of a person or set some arbit framework.

* * *

Around two or three weeks back, I found this book - The Age of Reason written by Jean Paul Sartre who happens to be this author who gave shape to the early theories of existentialism. Now, I consciously stay away from the likes of Marquez, Dostoyevsky, Ayn Rand who, I heard, write in a very abstract sense. Yet I found myself issuing this book. The book didn't disappoint my expectations of what it might be. It was a philosophical treatise disguised in this story set in France in world war 2 era. The book was outright boring. It was about this guy Matheiu who had this totally wierd way of looking at life. He loved two women(Marcelle and Ivich) but wanted to marry neither. He had friends(Boris, Lola, Daniel, Brunet) but wanted to be a loner, etc, etc... The book was so depressing that I left it after reading some 180 pages and gave it back to the library.

* * *

Yesterday when I went to the library and saw the book still lying around. Better senses DIDNOT prevail and I took the book and decided to see how the story ends. Hence started reading from the last 40 pages. Matheiu grew more frustrated, his friends were only more pissed with him, he deserted his mistress(Marcelle) who was pregnant and found out that she married one of his friends(Daniel) who was gay. He stole 4k francs from Lola who thought that the thief was Boris. The book ended by saying that Matheiu is truly free because "he exists in nothing." Wow! what a great way to end things. As if things weren't depressing enough.

Seems like the author wanted to convey the fact that it's ok to be frustrated in life. Frustration in life is a kind of lifestyle and the earlier you accept it, less miserable your life will be.

Moral of the story - Though there are people who are great fans of Existentialism in general and Sartre in particular, I'd want to stay away from it.

PS : does anyone know if there is any Spinoza stuff in library?? :P