An excerpt from one of the many amazing discoveries I made on a motorbike trip from Mumbai to Goa to attend the India Bike Week. Put a bunch of gentlemen in various stages of self awareness with an appitite for a good challenge and you get a road trip fulled with quality moments. Crusing at a speed that forced the light to slow down and take notice of the glow on my face. The engine roared with a rhythmic beat, silencing the noise in my head that would have otherwise crippled my ability to stay in the now. A happy moment is like a fleeting lover; infusing an arrogant assurance that lasts as long as the music plays; once the dance floor scatters towards the conners' and all that's left is a lonely dancer waiting for the band to come back on. How do you hold on to something that makes you feel more, more than you, more than everything and still complete within your self?! As these questions flickered along with the passing scenery, I felt this smuddged reality becoming clearer  in my heart as i opened the throttle down the road towards the beautiful horizon in west. The motorbike responding to every emotion pouring out of me. I taunted it to give me more, much more from this experince. I was roaring along the longest straight i'd ever seen, the machine pressed to 100, Then 120. Hammering harder to 130 and finally with a gust of enthusiams ploughing passed the red line to touch 160 km per hour. The future was happening with everything muted. My heart pounding as the rubber kissed the tar making the connection with everything, on all levels; in every sphere. There it was, for thoes feelting few seconds, a glimpse of me in control without controling, not asking, not wanting, being by myself within myself  and complete. I had no reason to stay with my past, no longing of the future and no expectation from the present. I felt it all; the magnitude of it was inspiring. The wind now a constant companion snuck in from under my helmet, keeping my senses awake and alive; ensuring that I breath it all in and allow my intuitive reflexes to take charge of my being. No mind but still mindfull of the moment and the man in it. At the apex of this passionate tango, a familiar perfume wafted through; The ocean seemed close but still out of sight. My reflexes excecuting a series of manuvers in rapid succession. I Gripped the clutch gentely, reving to 4000 and droping to 5th. Repeating the action, 4th then again down to 3rd before coming up a conner. I saw the speedometer dip to 60; the machine and I were like lovers in sync to eachothers pluse. Now, down to 2nd at 3000, just below 40, I drop the bike to the left on a conner, then nudging the clucth a little, slip into 3rd at 3000 then upto 50. Flexing the throttel and about 50mts from the last bend, I slip back into 2nd and drop the bike to the right. The road straightened out for another 100mts with a row of trees on my left. As i get close to what looks like the last conner of this stretch, nothing prepared me for the sight I was to wittness. The final conner was excecuted with military precision. As the bike and I were straightening up from this operation a spectacular sight began to unveil its self. A serpent like road uncoiled out for a mile or two hugging on to the edge of a cliff above the deepest blue ocean. The magnificence of the torqousie blue on my right sparkeled in the noon day sun while gentely planting kisses on the white sand cheeks of a desolate beach. The shore line was bare but for a few fishing boats out in the deep that bounced about while scoopping up the fruits of the ocean. The skies above haboured the winds that held the birds on their coarse to places beyond the horizon, while the sun blazed through the cotton clouds directing its beam straight towrads the core of our cradle.  A sense of overwhelming gratitued coarsed through my viens on realising no man can claim this to be his or have any part in its movement but to be moved. As I rode along the cilffhanger strech, the hum of the motorbike made its way back into my consiciousness making me feel more and more insignificant as the journey kept unfolding. 

by 

Yudhishtar Urs 

If man had no faith would he still believe ? The universe they say came from nothing and will go back to this nothingness ! What then is the meaning of existing ? Does that mean we abandon hope and give in to the eventuality!? Now, how does one find meaning in all these so called factual assumption and scholarly deductions ? How do you make your choices of which path to take and if you do, what makes you conscious of your intent and intentions? Is the ultimate goal just existing and occupying without meaning or advancement from the continuous cycle of success and failure ? Of all the choices or limited ones available to us like religion, politics and atheism ect. Which one will help me understand myself better and give me a continuous stream of conscious thought and the ability to act that will help me go beyond dis-belief and venture into constant regeneration of spirit, soul and self ! There is a great vastness still unexplored and this discovery will come, only when you charge every cell in your living atmosphere with energy and belief beyond your current predicament and surviving self. We need an understanding and awareness that enlightens us to dwell beyond our conditioning by family, peers, society, literature or experiences. Something that is intangibly, so tangible that it seems effortless and natural ! You can be the master or disciple or both but as long as you are ready to believe in the possibility that something greater than you exists and yours is a journey that requires unflinching faith in this belief ! A belief that unravels universal mysteries and empowers you with courage to go beyond the barriers of acquired knowledge. Be ready to be challenged and still stay unchallenged. This duality of begin is not possible without the essence of a supreme power within you and the universe we are yet to discover ! 

As the curtains in my room are drawn, the light shatters through the glass, piercing my eyelids intensely enough to rattle a soul ! The beam of light like an impulse injects my brain activating my sensor to the living world around me! Then I lie in bed contemplating my fate and weighing my ambition. The desire of having more and more creeps up my spine. I look around noticing my acquisitions and not a thing looks familiar but for my naked body which endures with me every infliction. The birds, the city, the sounds call out to my greed, shattering all hope of tranquility. The soap on my body unable to wash the stains of my past. The perfume of yesterday still hard to forget, making hope and fear challenge to overcome.The cereal bowl lacks the flavour my heart craves. Ah ! Yes, my heart, my beautiful heart, how I have burdened you with these feelings and crippled emotions, making you weaker with every encounter of mine. You crave for me more than I am capable off with your resilience and capacity to give my foundation its grounding after every defeat. You choose for me a moment in which I am fearless, strong and peaceful yet, I discard your advances for the illusions of mindful promises. How foolish I am not to recognise the music and be lead by you. I wish to dance not feeling but just allowing my heart it's reason !

Ground, pressed and the percolated to capture aroma , flavour and colour over time. we seem to have forgotten the key ingredients that go into creating quality. We ignore perseverance and belief to satisfy economical or social stranglings that clog brilliance. We live in an age where the  urgency to deliver mediocrity is hailed as path breaking.

To be first is in no way a proclamation  that the ultimate has been created and that none will equal its claim. You might arrive to the party early and be encouraged and showered with praise. For a fool praises as quickly as he tends to forget. To be a flash in the pan or a delicately crafted meal ? The choice lies entirely with you or depending on the calcium in your joints to hold fort before kneeling.

Sharing of an idea or an exchange of your process will always be met with citizens  dwelling within the citadels built on opposing scales. We do not possess the gift of open thought and acceptance of something new. New within the confines of our applied knowledge maybe but never something unknown or radical. We try and place all things alien within the structure of our limited sphere of understanding only to hold on to intellectual authority. This false notion that all things standardised by the dons of creation and their intellectual superiority of all things known to man, will blind  you from  discovering possibilities beyond human understanding.

We have to allow art and the artist the space to make mistakes and find within their fumbling a voice distinct to it self or the creator. We must allow art to express itself in a manner where we become observers with a need to  dwell deeper before comment. Why are we always in a hurry to reject ? Why do we constantly criticise without absorbing the entire feeling of the meal rather than just the flavour? We have to learn to stay still and only then will something true reveal it's self !

You are meant to discover the treasure, so stay a little longer and the path will emerge .

As the dust cleared, the monster stood growling, breathing out fast disappearing clouds that cut through the cold air. This northwardly draft surrounded the beast, gently ruffling it's mane. This stillness in motion set my blood coursing through my body, pounding the walls of my heart and flooding my brain with impending doom theories. Her gaze calm yet strong felt like a javelin leaving the hands of a soldier, locked on its course with piercing accuracy. I knew at this moment that life as strong in its pursuits had the fragility of a flower amidst a storm. The beast stood knowing my weakness and fed on my vulnerability. A slight twist of the neck, squinted eyes, back arched , paws dug into the loose ground and with claws drawn she announced her final intension. The electric mood of the moment left me strangely confused. An impulse similar to a sexual encounter surged from within my spine, creating a duality of passion and fear in this deathly proximity with the inevitable. A question and then an answere, culter then clarity, flashes and then a fixed image of me as a child standing on an empty field looking skyward. Her teeth sank effortlessly into my soft flesh while i accepted the balance of mother nature in restoring the continuous. Our eyes locked for one last moment, without resisting I welcomed her to feast. I saw a glint of gratitude shine through before I merged into darkness. The light became me and I became the light!!!

  Travelling economy strapped to your seat on a american airline that makes you pay for your drink at 39,000ft, doesn't leave one with too many options but to pay up. Good enterprise but shitty if you'ev wiped out your life savings to buy the ticket. Now, with no chance of any alcoholic beverage its hard not to stay away from your inflight options that could range from hitting on a air hostess, who could well be my mother's age or watch how i met your mother season outdated, which was downloaded and shared in the last decade before it was conceptualised ( is that possible!? wait i see a series in the making here). Okay this usually happens when your brain doesn't adjust to the cabin pressure, you start to imagine things, horrible things like being Michael    jackson's crotch grabbing hand ( wait is that possible too!! hmmmmm.) Now, back on the original flight path after a brief course alteration to talk of what you do when on a flight with no money (wait how did i get on that flight!! shit this is freaking me out). okay, after touch screening my options i choose to entertain my self with a film called "The last marigold hotel " which i think should have been the titled "i am the director of this movie and this is my last film but the hotel is still operational".  The film has a stellar cast of british greats and a boy named Dev Patel who should have stayed in birmingham or where ever he's from and not be forced on us by the brits as the slumdog or even a hot dog ! Also there were some indian actors trying hard to be indian (is that even possible, oh! wait, there's Dev Patel). So i decided to give danny's boy a chance again ( we indians do believe in lending the other cheek, maybe this could be used as a marketing gimmick for a indian s&m store  specialising in kama-masochism). The film had a good premise and a chance to be something special but it becomes a travel catalogue for brit tourist looking from cheap hip replacements ( medical tourism it seems is big business that can afford a two hour corporate film ). I am surprised that the west still has no real idea of modern india or maybe they still have this anglo colonial antheroplogytical approach to third world tribes. The film represented a world I live in but not that I recognise even if I wore a turban, climbed a rope and ate aloo parathas all day. You can not grasp the soul of this nation from eating at a Indian restaurant in Birmingham that sends you extra pickle with every home delivery, run by immigrants from a village in patialla or by taking a trip to Rajasthan . It's  a different thing to have a Merchant Ivory production showcase a colonially suppressed india per independence or a Salam Bombay showing the plight of the poor in a country where two square meals are a luxury and so is the new turbo charged Bentley. The last marigold hotel lacks the vibrance of the flower or the country it attempts to showcase with it's tuk -tuk version of a bad travel log for European  geriatrics looking for dal makhani severed by a someone who speaks like Appu in the Simpsons. The pain is deep felt when the world views us as these these conner store, floor scrubbing under privileged people who live in abject poverty of intelligence. Every country has its stereo types, like the beer guzzling, wife beating, bloke from the north of england who can't seem to form a coherent sentence in english, even if his life depended on it  or the east ender who seems to have no idea of operating a compass.  Indian cinema needs a voice, a standard and the content that counters these idiotic western perceptions or we will always be subjected to being called the slum(dwelling)dog. Its fantastic when countries like iran, hong kong, brazil challenge western perceptions with magnificent cinema and get the so called first world to get off their formulated thinking shit pots and think before they type cast cultures. countries like this celebrate their tradition, embrace their cultural diversity, explore the changing patterns and tell stories about real people that are not afraid to speak in their own voice. We on the other hand are only concerned with box office figures, a song with some pelvic thrusts and playing call centre characters who speak like inter galactic space lords from the hinter land. Lets stop welcoming foreigners with marigold flowers or we will end like an island on hawaii with bad cinema where culture surfers fear even the large tub of free pop corn( i think that's a possibility). Just then, at that very moment the air hostess  acknowledges my plight and slips me a free gin and tonic.   yudhishtar urs

The languid summer breeze stroked our bodies as if to assure us of this moment being continuous till, our hearts melted into each others ! If this state were possible then we would need no assurances.  as our being would sway to the same rthym, constantly flowing into the reservoir of hope. No separations, just one mass isolated in sync with the universal clock! Time would not be calculated by the seconds on hand but by the stillness of our breath ! We  rarely stay in eachothers midst, always hurring to the surface of our seas to gasp for air!! "Stay awhile longer" she said ! Her eyes piercing mine, grabing my soul and proding my reslove! Do I need to retrieve now, when I seem to be floating beyond my boundaries or do I dive deeper , further into this void ? A place that can hold you with its darkness only to reveal the light within ourselves ! I move closer, her lips create a warmth I seek from a thousand suns. To ashes I burn, to love I give my life and beyond ! I would burn this way for eternity but, then I am the fire now and in being so, I burn no more. Now, glowing togther we light up our path to a magical place called home !