Miles and Experiences

A feel of Korea It won't be an overstatement to say that music is the most apt language of nostalgia. So many times, we hear a particular music or a song and we get overwhelmed with memories ....of the moments...the people....the successes....the frustrations...and what not. None of my travel moments are complete without getting a feel of the native music of any place I get to visit.  To ensure that someday, when life allows me more opportunities to sit back and relax, I can get to feel the places once again...through the nostalgia of their music. A little less than two decades back, a younger version of me spent four consecutive years in South Korea...a period when the Google was still new...Facebook was non existent...and Orkut was just about to get trendy. Beyond India, this is the longest, I have stayed in one single country till date. And this was also my first glimpse to life outside India. I was two years post my teens when destiny gifted one of her most precio...

Naritasan Shinsoji is a Shingon Buddhist temple located close to the Narita airport in Tokyo...and is the first and the easiest peep into Japanese culture and heritage for someone from outside. A string of Japanese temples and monuments adorn the complex with the oldest structures dating back to 10th century AD.  The temple owes it's origin to a military victory of a  Japanese kingdom against a powerful samurai. Founded by  a Shingon priest named Kancho Daisojo, a disciple of the Shingon founder Kobo Daisi (Kukai), the temple is dedicated to Fudo Myoo (Acala in Sanskrit), the God of Fire.    According to the legends, Kobo Daisi had constructed the image of Fudo Myoo himself and had given the image to Kancho Daisojo, when he accompanied the soldiers during the battle against the rebel samurai. Post the victory, the image of Fudo Myoo became too heavy to be carried back and the temple was constructed to house the image. And it was named Shinshoji (Victory ...

Places are like people.  Some far....some popular...some infamous...and some natural crowd pullers. Some mix into the scheme seamlessly and some struggle to engage. And there  are others who rarely have any visitors... While it is always an enriching satisfaction to visit the popular places, the glorious and famous ones...yet at times, it can be incredibly charming and soothing to visit those silent, hidden places....the ones which are just around us...close to us and yet relatively unknown to most. A few hundred meters away from where I work, there is a place, which hardly sees any visitors. This place has a name, though it does not matter. Often, when the sun is  out and the drizzles are away, I find myself on a short afternoon walk to this place. Every time I leave this place, there is an urge to visit once again... Seasons make the place wear different looks and colors... sometimes the rustling leaves and sometimes the barren chill; sometimes easy...