Colourful Shades at Work

Namaste India!

Work and travel together is blissful. I was on shoot for one of our clients filming an emotional branding film, covering their CSR project. This blog has excerpt about my travel and how I enjoy my work and life while I am on travel. The important thing is to be proud of your work and your capacity and to live true to yourself. Each travel brings me time in spite of long hours of work. New place, new people and discovering new you. Exploring yourself, celebrating life with other lives is another way of being happy and sharing happiness with others. While I am away from home my camera, diary and pen have always been with me as soul mates. I believe what's important is to explore our unique talents, that one can live with the full radiance of their being. This is what makes me truly alive.

I was fortunate to explore a new place, sparkling golden city named as Jaisalmer situated in Rajasthan state. The journey began when I woke up early morning. Walking down the lane, seeing shades of yellow cheering with rising bright yellow sun, shaking my head with colourful turban on Rajasthan song. And that was when my heart expressed loud saying Namastey India! The warm breeze and people had enough warmth welcoming me with bright colours all around. There is always magic in air when you are on travel but this one was special may be because I was on solo trip. The warm breeze hugged me with traditions and a feeling of being a proud Indian with such vibrant cultures and variety food around. 

Jaisalmer is one of the important cities of Rajsthan. It is almost a desert area. There is no direct flight to Jaisalmer so I took flight from Delhi to Jodhpur followed by 6 hours’ drive. As you are about to reach Jaisalmer roads get bumpy and lonely. People usually don’t stay out of their house after 8:00 P.M. so the road becomes lonely. There is only one direct train from Delhi to Jaisalmer and Jaisalmer to Delhi that leaves once a day. It is about a 20 hours train ride. So I chose to come back through train from Jaisalmer to Delhi. Note: Do grab some snacks before you start your journey. Otherwise train stops in the morning around 5-6 A.M. at Jodhpur station where you can grab breakfast for yourself. Otherwise you'll be left feeling really hungry for the next 7 hours. A good news from October 29^th 2017 many airlines have started direct daily flights from Delhi-Jaisalmer to & fro.

In day time temperature is pretty high but as the day passes, atmosphere starts becoming cooler. At night the temperature and atmosphere is really cold and breezy. I stayed at the Lalbagh Hotel which has a beautiful fort view. The view from the room was amazing especially during sun rise. Discovering peace corner has become a hobby now. Fortunately my room with traditional interior decorations had a deevan inside with a window facing fort. Yes sipping coffee and watching the lights of fort at night was the best time and a great way to relax.

 The city is all golden, made of sand stone and most of the buildings showcase great examples of complex carvings on the stones in typical Jharokha pattern. Well my hotel was good, the owner was very welcoming and treated really well, that is one thing I noticed in Rajasthan, natives there are very friendly, honest and they like to welcome tourist, I guess tourism is one of the biggest industry in Rajasthan with most number of western and Indian tourist visiting there among anywhere in India.

I went to Jaisalmer fort palace museum heritage centre. It is the first fort where humans live. Beauty of this fort engraved my heart with a great impression.

There are variety of food options available inside and outside the fort. If you have a few hours to kill, sit at any of the rooftop restaurants and sip chai all day. For foodies out there laal mass is must have and very few restaurants cook it in authentic way that too on request. So make sure you check with them whether it is cooked in traditional method before you order one. Here are few places recommended that one must explore – Kaku restaurant, it is a café where you are served continental and Indian food both. Lalbagh hotel prepares great laal mass. Outside the fort you will get amazing Kachori and Ladoo which is known as Gotwah at Dhanraj Bhatia sweet shop, the market near fort.  Pokhran is another place which is few hours’ drive from Jaisalmer where you can have good breakfast, the place where you get delicious sweet called cham cham.

Shopping was another way to explore the city. There were tons to shop for jewellery, bags, turbans, etc… but I had bargain really hard! The shop owners always overstate the prices by 2 to 3 times.

My next morning was at Sam Dunes a desert, 40 kms away from Jaisalmer. While driving to the destination on this lonely planet I had many thoughts on way. As we drive along this road called life, we find ourselves… I had reached the desert sun rise point at 6:30 A.M and witnessed the beauty rising exactly at 6:55 A.M. Serene... skyline and sound of camel bells took my heart away. The seam of desert horizon became my favourite colour. As I was returning back to car walking beneath the cold sand, with shadow ahead and bright light on my face, I could reflect within.

So many roads... many detours ... so many choices... so many mistakes... between many sunsets and many sunrises... but this one said all. Maybe the journey is not about becoming anything. Maybe it's about unbecoming everything that isn't real me. 

That's all for now - I'm sure I have missed out on some things - so feel free to ask any questions.

Email - sahibakaurchawla@gmail.com

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APPO DEEPO BHAVA

What is right? What is wrong? What lies ahead? How? When? Why? This is natural human tendency to fill our bag with questions.

Recently I’ve been spending a lot of time visiting a monastery and that's when I discovered simple pleasures in life. The peace corner there helped me to gather all my thoughts. Taking a break without anything to do besides breathing and noticing little details in my environment - how soft the rug is after having been cleaned; how sunlight from the window leaves shadow; correlating with Buddha’s thought how absolute state of happiness buy problems peacefully.

After seeing peaceful painted walls, I closed my eyes and went into deep thought. The whole world and life was an utter darkness.Who will show me the light now?” After getting into peace I dreamed about a Buddha, a mirror image meditating. The story began where a Buddha just opened his eyes and said, “Appo Deepo Bhava”. He said, “Just be a light unto yourself. Nobody can give this light to you.” 

He pointed towards a light entering from the half open door.  And he again said this light is not only outside! It is hidden in the heart of every being. Release your thoughts but don't let them control you.
Who you are is what you have been. Who you will be is what you do now.

And soon I heard an enchanting bell echoing into my ears on which I opened my eyes with a bright smile. A serene moment!

  
One after another I saw people coming with a joss stick. Each one of them was hopeful, holding dreams in their eyes. They taught me hope is the greatest weapon in the world.

My first encounter was with the priest their. Seeing all my books piled up on the table he said don't do this with your life. Ek kitabh hathao ge toh dursri rakh pao ge. Problem ko hathao ge tabhi solution rakh pao ge naa. I dont know what but his thought really clicked me.

On reading Buddhas teaching, I observed he is talking about painful life, changing from moment to moment. Where we are born for a mission that is eradicating sufferings and creating hope. 

While I was struggling with my studies my mentor said "Ask yourself - Did you come this far to only come this far." I decided to discover my your own capacity. His word helped me to look within and developing trust on self.

Next I met a young beautiful lady, mother of a young girl aspiring to be choreographer. She said I might not be a big name today but I don't want to die with a regret. I believe unseen virtue gives visible reward. I hope and still wait for her call, saying; she did it. We may not see what lies ahead but the efforts that we put in cannot go unseen.

As I walked down the street, I went into illusion, each person transforming into a Buddha. When this is, that is ... When this isn't, that isn't... Everyday life around us is so miraculous. We as Buddha might fail but there is always potential to awaken every moment. Change must come from within. A tree lives on root, if you change the root, you change the tree. Similarly culture lives in human being if we change the culture from human heart, it will sync taking thousands of attached hearts around you. It all depends on what you think.


Happiness in life begins and ends within our own heart. I end this with Buddha’s last words ‘Appo Deepo Bhava’ – Be your own light.