Secrets of Travel Light

Do you often see yourself dragging heavy bags during your vacation? Have you wondered if you will ever be able to travel light? Do not worry, you are joined by millions of travellers across the world who live with similar dilemma.

We were not that different, though over time there were a few things we learned with our trips that made our lives slightly better. Allow me to pen that down for you. You may find some of these tips useful.

For all of us, travelling to a destination obviously involve getting the required pairs of clothes for the number of days we are expected to be there at the destination. If you are used to buying new clothes for the vacation, this is where you could possibly make a change. Before letting you know what the change is, let me add a disclaimer that this option totally depends on the destination you are headed to and the economic viability of such a change. 

Before you buy all the clothes from your own city for the trip, do quick research about apparel shopping options at your destination. These days, it is a walk-in-the-park exercise to figure out available brands and their prices, including designs of your choice. If these match your preferences, do minimal shopping at your own city and plan a day or two at the destination, depending on your itinerary, to explore the apparel options. This way you have much lesser weight to carry from the beginning of your trip. There is also the added fun of shopping at a new city, especially if you enjoy that. 

Another aspect to be considered is, the weather at the destination. Pack or buy only those clothes suitable for the weather. How many times did you have unused clothes in your bags at the end of the trip because you never needed them at the location? All of those could be avoided, thereby directly reducing your weight. In addition, if you are heading to a winter location, instead of bulky and heavy jackets, try a layered clothing approach. This will, not just help you with packing, but also with effective use of clothes at your winter wonderland.

One other thing many people carry with them are food of different kinds. This is especially true for vegetarians since many times, options for them are quite limited when they travel across different countries in the world, especially in Europe and some places in far East. Even for those who are not used to the European smoked meat and other kinds of food, their options for food are very less. Hence, they carry ready-to-eat and other varieties of food with them.

For many, these not just add to the weight, but can also pose an issue with Customs officers at certain countries. An alternate to this is, in many countries if you could locate good supermarkets, you could get options including ready to grill meat, salads and various other options that you could easily prepare at your hotel room if you have a kitchen or a kitchenette. Alternately you could get a compact grill with you which helps you prepare the food at your convenience and preference.

For those things you necessarily need to carry, ensure that you find light weight alternatives. Get rid of cardboard boxes and glass materials if you tend to carry any items that come packed in these materials. Learn to apply minimalism in your trips, where possible, so that you do not end up carrying unwanted things with you thereby just adding to your discomfort.

Remember, you are travelling to see the world and experience new things. It is not to take your home with you wherever you go. Sometimes the perceived inconvenience gives you new avenues to explore, that may turn out to be one of the best experiences from your trip.

Wish you a happy and light travel. Bon voyage! 

സൂര്യനെ ഒളിപ്പിച്ചവൾ

 പണ്ട് പണ്ട്, എന്ന് വച്ചാല്‍ വളരെ പണ്ട്, നാം ഇന്ന് കാണുന്ന ഈ ലോകം ഉണ്ടായി കുറച്ചു നാള്‍ കഴിഞ്ഞപ്പോള്‍ നടന്ന ഒരു കഥ ആണ് ഇത്. 

സഹ്യന്റെ പടിഞ്ഞാറ്‌ സ്ഥിതി ചെയ്തിരുന്ന ഒരു വനഭൂമി. അതില്‍ നിറയെ മരങ്ങളും സസ്യലതാദികളും ഉണ്ടായിരുന്നു. പല തരത്തിലുള്ള ചെടികള്‍ക്ക്‌ ഇടയിലും, അതീവ സുന്ദരികളായ പുഷ്പങ്ങളോടു കൂടി ഒരു ചെറിയ മരം നിന്നിരുന്നു. ചെമ്പ എന്നായിരുന്നു അവളുടെ പേര്. 

ആ കാട്ടിലുള്ള മറ്റു മരങ്ങളും ചെടികളും എല്ലാം അവളെ ചെമ്പ മരം എന്ന് വിളിച്ചു പോന്നു. ആ വിളി പിന്നീട് ലോപിച്ച് ചെമ്പരം എന്നായി മാറി. വളരെ സുന്ദരമായ പൂക്കൾ ഉള്ളതിനാൽ മറ്റു മരങ്ങളെക്കാൾ, കിളികളും മൃഗങ്ങളും ചെമ്പരത്തോട് ധാരാളം സ്നേഹം പ്രകടിപ്പിക്കാറുണ്ടായിരുന്നു. ഇത് ചെമ്പരത്തെ തെല്ലൊന്നു ഗർവിഷ്ടയാക്കുകയും ചെയ്തു.

അങ്ങനെയിരിക്കെ ഒരുനാൾ ചെമ്പരത്തിന്റെ താഴെ ഒരു പുതിയ ചെടി വളർന്നുവന്നു. അത് വലുതായി, അതിലൊരു അതി സുന്ദരമായ പുഷ്പം വിടർന്നു. ചെമ്പരത്തിന്റെ പൂക്കൾ സുന്ദരികൾ ആയിരുന്നെങ്കിൽ ഈ ചെടിയുടെ പൂവ് ത്രിലോക സൗന്ദര്യം വിളഞ്ഞാടുന്നതായിരുന്നു. സൂര്യഭഗവാനെ പോലെ വെട്ടി തിളങ്ങി നിന്നതിനാൽ അതിനെ എല്ലാവരും സൂര്യകാന്തി എന്ന് വിളിച്ചു. സൂര്യകാന്തിയുടെ പ്രശസ്തി ചെമ്പരത്തെ വല്ലാതെ അസ്വസ്ഥയാക്കിയെങ്കിലും ഒരു കണക്കിന് ചെമ്പരം ആ ചിന്തയെല്ലാം മാറ്റിവെച്ചു ജീവിച്ചു.

പക്ഷേ ഒരു നാൾ ഒരു സംഭവമുണ്ടായി. അത് ചെമ്പരത്തെ ശരിക്കും തളർത്തി കളഞ്ഞു. സൂര്യകാന്തിയുടെ സൗന്ദര്യത്തെപ്പറ്റി കേട്ടറിഞ്ഞ സൂര്യഭഗവാൻ അവളെ കാണുവാൻ എത്തി. തന്റെ ഉജ്ജ്വലപ്രഭാവത്തിനു ചേർന്നവൾ തന്നെ ഇവൾ എന്ന് ഭഗവാൻ തിരിച്ചറിഞ്ഞു. അന്നുമുതൽ സൂര്യകാന്തി സൂര്യ ഭഗവാന്റെ പ്രേയസിയായിത്തീര്‍ന്നു.

ഇതിനെല്ലാം സാക്ഷിയായി നിന്നിരുന്ന ചെമ്പരം അസൂയ കൊണ്ട് തിളച്ചു. എങ്ങനെയെങ്കിലും സൂര്യകാന്തിയെ ഒരു പാഠം പഠിപ്പിക്കണം എന്ന് ചെമ്പരം തീരുമാനിച്ചു. അങ്ങനെ ഒരുനാൾ വീണ്ടും സൂര്യഭഗവാൻ സൂര്യകാന്തിയുടെ അടുക്കൽ എത്തി. കുറച്ചുനേരം കളിചിരികൾക്ക് ശേഷം സൂര്യകാന്തിയും സൂര്യഭഗവാനും വിശ്രമിക്കാൻ തീരുമാനിച്ചു. നന്നേ ക്ഷീണം ഉണ്ടായിരുന്നതിനാൽ സൂര്യ ഭഗവാൻ വേഗം തന്നെ ഉറക്കം പിടിച്ചു.

ഇതുതന്നെ നല്ല അവസരം എന്ന് കണ്ട് ചെമ്പരം പെട്ടെന്ന് സൂര്യഭഗവാനെ എടുത്ത് തന്റെ ഏറ്റവും സൗന്ദര്യമുള്ള ഒരു പൂവിനുള്ളിൽ ഒളിപ്പിച്ചു. സൂര്യൻ മറഞ്ഞാലുള്ള പുകിൽ പറയേണ്ടല്ലോ? നാട്ടിൽ എങ്ങും ഇരുട്ട് വ്യാപിച്ചു. എല്ലാവരും പരിഭ്രാന്തരായി ലക്ഷ്യമില്ലാതെ ഓടിത്തുടങ്ങി. ലോകം തന്നെ അവസാനിക്കും എന്ന ഘട്ടം എത്തി. മറ്റു ദേവന്മാരെല്ലാം സൂര്യഭഗവാനെ അന്വേഷിച്ച് നാടൊട്ടുക്ക് അലഞ്ഞു.

ഇതിനിടെ ചെമ്പരം സൂര്യ ഭഗവാനെ ഒളിപ്പിച്ച പൂവിന്റെ അകത്ത് മധു നുകർന്നിരുന്ന ഒരു വണ്ട് ഒരു തരത്തിൽ പുറത്ത് കടന്നു. ചെമ്പരം ചെയ്ത മഹാപാതകം, വണ്ട് എല്ലാവരെയും അറിയിച്ചു. ദേവന്മാർ കൂട്ടത്തോടെ വന്നു സൂര്യഭഗവാനെ ചെമ്പരത്തിന്റെ പിടിയിൽ നിന്ന് മോചിപ്പിച്ചു. എന്താണ് നടന്നതെന്ന് അറിഞ്ഞ സൂര്യഭഗവാൻ ചെമ്പരത്തെ ശപിച്ചു. ആ ശാപത്തിന്റെ ഫലമായി ചെമ്പരത്തിന് ദേഹമാസകലം സൂര്യന്റെ തീയുടെ ചൂട് അനുഭവപ്പെട്ടു. എന്നാൽ ചെടിയോ അതിന്റെ പൂവുകളോ കത്തിച്ചാമ്പലായില്ല. 

അന്നുമുതൽ ആ വനത്തിൽ ഉള്ളവരെല്ലാം ആ ചെടിയെ 'ചെമ്പരത്തി' എന്ന് വിളിച്ചു!

The Avocado Tree

It was almost two decades back when Meeta, joined our team in Mindtree, Bangalore. She was a specialist and a subject matter expert in Travel industry. In a team where everyone had certain defined ways of working, she brought in a wave of fresh air with new thoughts, ideas and perspectives which were alien to us.

Among the many thoughts she shared, I was particularly interested in her love for plants and everything to do with nature. She was quite excited when I explained to her about the backyard we had in Kerala and the variety of fruit trees, medicinal as well as flowering plants we had there. All thanks to the interest dad and mom had for gardening.

One day Meeta came to office with something that looked like a small ball. The brown colour object was in fact a seed of avocado which she asked me to take back home and give to my dad so that he can plant it. I happily agreed to that.

I had already planned a trip home to Kerala that weekend and took the avocado seed with me. As soon as I reached home, I handed over the precious cargo to dad and told him about the fruit and all its benefits about which Meeta had taken a crash course for me earlier. Those were the times when people in my hometown had not heard about avocadoes, let alone have a tree in the backyard.

Dad especially was blessed with green fingers that everything he planted came up quite well. It was not different for the avocado seed as well. Shortly enough, he gave me the update that the sapling is growing, and we would soon have an avocado tree coming up in our backyard. Probably, he felt it needed a special attention that he planted the seed right outside his bedroom.

Years went by. After about six or seven years of planting the seed, one day dad called me and broke the exciting news that the tree had flowered and had a tiny avocado fruit on it. The excitement was so contagious that I promptly passed the happiness to Meeta. Since that day she wanted to come home and see the beautiful orchard dad and mom had been maintaining back home.

Many more years passed. The avocado tree yielded fresh and tasty fruits in hundreds. Over the next few years our home became the talk of our little town as one with an avocado tree, a rarity then. Dad was quite happy. So was Meeta and me. The avocado tree stood quite high giving the much-needed shade to the bedroom of dad and mom.

Three years ago, after a brave fight to cancer, dad left us. The tree had witnessed many beautiful moments dad shared with us. I am quite sure the tree must have wept bitterly as it saw dad lying in a coffin and eventually taken to the church for his final journey.

They say plants have similar emotions as humans. Not sure if it was grief or not able to receive the love from my dad anymore, the avocado tree started to lean slightly. Over a period, the angle was getting dangerously low that everyone feared that one day the tree will uproot itself and along with it, a portion of the house will get destroyed.

I had moved to Dubai with my family a few years back and during my trip home this year, it came as a shocking surprise one day when mom told me that they had to cut down the tree as it was reaching a tipping point where it would have resulted in a major impact on the house. I was filled with all sorts of emotions, right from the brown seed Meeta gave me, till the time dad said a mute goodbye to the tree.

I stood in silence next to the beloved avocado tree, now reduced to a tiny trunk almost at the ground level. At that moment, I am sure dad stood next to me.

It was a stark reminder about life. As soon as you leave this world, people start associating you to memories. The physical objects connected to you will remain relevant for some more time. After they also reach their time, even they get discarded or forgotten. A few more years and maybe a generation later, you do not even remain in anyone’s memory.

Live your life today, healthy and happy.

Conquering my fear!

Unlike the previous years, as a family we decided to return to Dubai after a short vacation back home in Kerala. Summer holidays for kids continued and the school was meant to reopen by end of August. Since we could not do much on the weekdays, we all looked forward to the weekends to have our special time together as a family. We usually found an attraction or an experience we never had in the past and the excitement of going somewhere new always filled the air on Saturday mornings.

Today was not different. We decided to pay a visit to Mountain Extreme, the largest indoor climbing and bouldering gym in Dubai. Both our kids were super excited at the prospect of climbing the heights and having lots of fun. We reached the place around noon. After a quick registration, we got into our climbing gear with safety harness and special climbing shoes. It was followed by safety instructions to ensure that we understood the dos and don’ts of this extreme sport.

Soon after the briefing was completed, the instructor showed a demo of how to safely climb up and slide down. All of us started climbing one by one. Though I had done this many years ago during my visit to an adventure park, it felt quite a strain in the initial minutes, probably due to lack of exercise or reduced exposure to such extreme sports in the recent past. Having said that, kids seemed to be quite a natural when it came to mountain climbing.

A few attempts into the climb, I managed to reach halfway the wall. While the climb was strenuous, I could attain considerable heights. But there was one area I struggled. Once I reached a point where I decided it was better to slide down, I found an inertia to leave the grip on the wall and allow the auto belay, the supporting rope system to take me down in a controlled manner. Though I did let the auto belay do its job, I guess, I did not fully trust the mechanism. This ended up me experiencing a rough sliding each time I came down.

After a few hours and multiple attempts, I almost decided that I am good at climbing and even reached the top, but not that good at sliding down. My fear of sliding down got the better of me. I even declared that I am done with all the climbing and was mentally ready to return home accepting the fact that I am not good at sliding down.

While a bit dejected, I sat down to wait for my kids to finish their rounds. My ten-year-old little one, continued to climb up and slide down like a pro. Watching her made me feel even more disheartened since I was wondering if my little daughter could do something like that, I should be able to do that as well. I waited for her to come down from top and checked with her how she did the sliding down so effortlessly. She advised me how it was done.

I decided not to succumb to the fear. I connected the harness again and climbed up the wall. Reached halfway and followed the exact advice given by my daughter. It worked wonderfully! I was so excited that I climbed a few more times and each time the slide down was better than before.

The trip home was something akin to a General who won an impossible battle. There will always be fears in our lives that we will face. Many of us will try to conquer them, with some succeeding and others failing. Look around, find ways of winning from others, irrespective of how accomplished they are. We will never know who could be the one to motivate us towards our success.

To fear is human, to conquer that is divine! 

Mango Rice - Grandpa's Secret!

One of the greatest fortunes I consider in my life is to grow up in the lush green state of Kerala in India. We lived in a, now 77 years old, ancestral home built by my grandpa, whom we affectionately called Achayan. 

The plot where we stayed had two levels, with the house occupying most of the upper level and a backyard with numerous trees and plants that adorned the lower one. Among the many trees, we had half a dozen varieties of mangoes, some sweet and some bordering sour.

As a man born one year before First World War started, Achayan had certain special ways about him, some of which may sound strange to the generations that followed. One such unique interest was his practice of having lunch with the typical Kerala boiled rice mixed with a slightly sour type of mango named 'Kannan'.

May and June used to be the season for mangoes in the tropical Kerala climate. The trees flowered during May and bore fruit in June. The famous Kerala monsoon also started in June, blessing us with not just rains, but also showers of ripe mangoes!

As a young boy, one of my first duties in the morning during those months was to run to the backyard and fetch all the mangoes that 'Kannan' had to offer from the previous night's rain. I must state here that the tree never disappointed me. There would be at least two mangoes that awaited me. As I fetched them, I could feel the old tree, which must be older than Achayan himself, smiling with happiness of feeding yet another generation.

Closer to lunch time, mom would give Achayan, a bowl of rice water along with slices of mango that I fetched in the morning. Then started the most important part of the unique process leading to the special mango rice. Achayan would squeeze every bit of pulp from the mango slices, that at the end of the exercise, nothing would be left except for the empty skin of mango. 

During the process, enough rice water is added to the mango pulp to bring it to the required consistency. The gourmet mango mix was ready. A plate of steaming hot rice awaited the magic potion. Once mixed, the legendary mango rice was born!

As a connoisseur of stories from the past, I ensured that I shared the taste of this special preparation with Achayan a few times. Though it did not convert me into an ardent fan, the taste of that unique dish left lasting memories for me to recall the experience even after almost four decades.

We all live once in this world. But how many of us leave beautiful memories behind us for our next generations to reminisce and recollect?

I love my Achayan, who lives in my heart forever. The mango rice story just added a flavour to those memories.

Book a Flight, not a Fight!

After a long gap of three years, John, and Leny along with their two children were looking forward to their trip back home to Kerala from London. John took the initiative to find a good deal with a travel agent to book tickets with one of the best-known airline brands in the world. He booked a flight from London to Kochi via Doha.

John was quite confident that it was going to be a fantastic journey, especially since they were travelling home after a long time. Everything was picture perfect till they landed in Doha. It was a lovely flight with all the comfort of a full carrier, and the experience was truly matching the airline brand.

Soon, they reached the transfer desk and were promptly directed to their connection flight. As soon as they arrived at the boarding gate, the world around them froze! To their surprise, they were getting into a narrow body aircraft, which was low-cost by design and obviously could not even compare to the facilities offered by a full carrier such as the one they arrived from London.

John was shocked! All what he did was to look at Leny once. She was fuming! The dead stare that he received from his sweetheart was akin to fire from a blast furnace. He was truly at a loss of words about what happened.

The ticket clearly showed the flight number for their entire journey, with two-letter code of the full carrier they took from London. No other flight number was seen on the ticket to depict that they will be transferred to a low-cost carrier. To make things worse, in the middle of scorching summer heat at Doha, their flight had to wait for a while to receive clearance to take-off. John had only one doubt. What was more on fire? The desert, or his darling? He continued to bear the brunt of anger from Leny throughout the flight, making the journey to Kochi one of his worst trips in his lifetime.

What really happened was, when John approached the travel agent for booking the ticket, he was provided with tickets for his entire journey. But those were tickets sold by the full carrier with a code share agreement with the low-cost carrier. In that case, the flight number remained the same. But on the ticket issued by the full carrier, for Kochi sector, there was a clear print below the flight number that said ‘operated by xyz airline’ which was the low-cost carrier. Unfortunately, poor John, did not know this difference and ended up being at the receiving end.

A codeshare flight is a commercial arrangement where an airline sells tickets for a flight, but the actual physical flight is provided by a partner airline. (Source: navan.com)

While booking a flight, just like any other service we avail, we need to have clarity on what we are paying for. Ask if you may so that you do not end up booking a fight instead of a flight.

Bon voyage. 

The Corporate Monarchs!

Royal families and monarchies had always excited people across the world. Stories that met public eye were usually lapped up with a mix of awe and even a tinge of envy by common people. Little did they know of the realities of what went behind the closed doors of palaces or castles.

‘The Crown’ is a drama series that was released ten years ago in Netflix which portrayed British monarchy, especially the era of Queen Elizabeth II. There are quite a lot of remarkable episodes in the six-season series. While I was late to the party, I could not help but be at awe at some of the moments that were beautifully captured.

For instance, ‘Marionattes’ the fifth episode in season 2 of the series portrayed a sequence of how the Queen came under criticism for being a puppet of her courtiers. This was followed by the obvious rejection of criticism by the cynical monarch, an eventual twist of tale based on a meeting unrecorded in the history, of an audience with the critic by the Queen herself, and how the Queen made changes to her ways of working that transformed the monarchy to a more effective and appealing entity to the public.

The critic of the Queen was Lord Altrincham, once a Lieutenant in British Army who later tried his hands in politics and went on to become a historian and a journalist. If you can spare a few minutes, I strongly recommend watching this episode and do not be surprised if you draw an interesting parallel to the present-day corporate world.

It all started with Lord Altrincham writing a critical observation about a speech made by the Queen at the Jaguar factory in the year 1958. To set the context, this was immediately after a crushing defeat for the British armed forces against Egypt and Russia during the Suez Canal crisis, with UK losing its face and the military intervention severely straining the exchequer. Britain was broke. That was when the Queen delivered the speech that had statements which did not even acknowledge this reality and instead demeaned the people of the nation.

Interestingly even before the speech, an assistant private secretary tried to do a fact-check with the principal private secretary of the Queen about the inappropriate wordings of the speech the latter penned. But instead of trying to review, he denied it vehemently stating the Queen trusted him. Indeed, that was what happened. The monarch trusted her key personnel and delivered a mistake which people noticed, and one man stood up and spoke.

What happened later was more interesting. Initial reactions to the published article attracted a lot of wrath from the public that Lord Altrincham even got slapped by a member of an extremist group who supported monarchy. This was immediately after the critic was invited to a TV show where he articulated his thoughts in a calm, yet firm manner. The common public later acknowledged this and agreed with his views. Eventually Lord Altrincham received an invitation from Buckingham Palace where he met the Queen herself, though apparently not recorded in the history books. But the visit itself created history due to the changes the world saw that were brought in at the palace and for the monarchy itself!

Whether this incident happened with all its amusement as depicted in the Netflix series, one thing is certain. We see this drama unfolding in the modern-day corporate world as well with certain leaders functioning like a monarch. They are surrounded by office courtiers who feed all kind of incorrect realities to bosses who take decisions and actions which are against the wellbeing of their staff. That is when the likes of Lord Altrincham are born in organizations where people start raising their concerns. The natural reaction from leaders is to suppress a rebellion. But, blessed are those who decide to listen to those articulated revolutionaries and change if necessary.

For all that matter, a change proposed if implemented may even catapult the leadership to never-seen-before heights and people will have renewed faith on their leaders and loyalties will be restored with even more vigour.

Change is never easy but not listening to potential changes make matters even more difficult. Good leaders do not resist change, they listen, absorb, and adapt good changes for the benefit of their team, the organization and for themselves which transforms leaders from being good to great. It may even lead to history counting them among the legends in the corporate world!