an itinerant observer

Day 1 of expedition: On which all, except me, start the ascent to Rakaposhi base camp. Photo of Rakaposhi taken from the apple orchard of the Minapin guest house When I woke up the day our expedition was to start, I felt a bit odd. I couldn’t quite pin point the oddity. I ignored the intangible (not quite bordering on distress at that stage), changed into my tracks and went out for a run, as is my norm. I wanted to get my joints freed up enough so the ascent wouldn’t come as too much of a shock. Surprisingly, I couldn’t run much as I lacked energy, so I returned to the guest house where preparation was afoot, somewhat counter-intuitively, for a hearty breakfast for the eager mountaineers. A simple low fat, high starch/protein meal might be the better approach at the beginning of an ascent, but not being a professional trekker who was I to say that aloud. Seeing the parathas , omelets, scrambled eggs and toast did nothing for my appetite. Au contraire, it made...

Given the recent surge in “Top 10 Lists” on everything under the sun, I too felt like coming up with a list of 10 items. I thought of listing “Top 10 Parenting Skills” or “The Top 10 Dog Names”, primarily because I had recently written about parenting and owning a dog (in separate articles). However, I discarded those ideas as quickly as I had thought of them as the question that had intrigued me more was: “Is there any purpose to life, and if so what might that be?” Based on that, a list of 10 things that I believed in came to mind, because you see, prior to figuring out your life’s purpose, you must believe that there can be such a thing as life’s purpose. So I share 10 beliefs in no particular order. I need to love myself. For that I first need to be myself and then like myself. I must stop being harsh or judgmental about myself, or the other. And I must stop blaming myself, or the other, for my life's perceived messes. I need not be simply who I am ...