Thailand: The sun, the sand, the sea and shitload of FUN!

Now that I'm in Phuket, I realized how badly I wanted & needed to have fun. I also discovered that I'm a closet Adrenalin junkie (and that side is now clearly out of the closet) :D

I can get used to this kind of itinary - get up to a nice sunny day, have a leisurely shower (this Patong Beach Hotel is great - fabulous bathrooms - you can watch the widescreen right from your bathtub!) Then indulge in a relaxing and lavish spread for breakfast, pick up my motorbike and go about things I want to do - just the way a holiday should be! These bikes are easy to ride, great speed, and cheap to hire - cruising in them feels awesome with the breeze in your face and sea by your side :)

Day before yesterday, tried Bungee Jumping (50m high, for which I got a bravery certificate - for what its worth). The worst part is when the crane makes creaking sound and gets you to the top of Phuket - you can see the whole island. And then the guy calmly asks you to hop-skip (bcoz your legs are tied to the bungee cord dummy!) towards the end of the platform. It takes shitload of nerves to spread your arms and jump - your bloody legs are like lead and your mind goes into overdrive screaming "This is insane! Are you nuts!! Don't do it!!!". And if you manage to slap all your defence mechanisms into silence, I challenge you to do or remember anything other than "oh my gaaaaaaawdddd" for those 10 seconds of free-fall when your face is rushing towards the water underneath  - fu*king scary and therefore maxx fun! Not recommended for sissies.

Then I went for Go-karting - its the most Adrenalin pumping, heart racing, g-force-heavy thing I've ever done. Its just for 10 mins and I banged into the sidelines within 1 minute - full force. The kart slammed so hard that despite of the cushion of tires, it went into the tree and threw me completely off into the ditch - still have the burises to show for it :) Next 9 mins were accident free and at full speed again - no bloody puny kart isn't gonna intimidate me into submission! Indeed, the best way to learn is to fall :) I don't know how to drive so picking it up in 1 minute and doing some respectable laps felt good.

Then went to the shooting range - 9mm Glock - real gun, real bullets. Only two bullets out of whole round were outside the inner black circle - all the rest in the innermost three circles - the guy managing the shop didn't believe I've never touched a gun in my life - my score: 85%. The force feedback of the gun is quite solid - have taken the target sheet and an empty shell casing as souvenir - good & very loud fun. Went back to hotel and had a nice shower and sleep. Then took out my bike and went to Kamala beach - much quieter than Patong. Had a nice massage while sea-gazing with a chilled Breezer - thats what I call relaxing :) The ride to Kamala (and most of Phuket) is through hill roads which go up and down quite steeply (I haven't been on roads this steep before) - you can enjoy the challenge as long as you're careful.

Yesterday was even more fun - did Jet skiing - pretty powerful Yamaha engine - every time it slams into the waves - Bamm! This thing works your biceps and forearms better than any damn machine any gym can offer and its LOADS of fun! Drove it a max speed - my fingers still hurt from the constant hard grip I had to maintain for 30 mins - otherwise it'll throw you into the sea like a wild horse (which is even more risky since I can't swim) :) Took it quite far into the sea - again - simply awesome!

Wrapped up the crazy day with a nice dinner at the luxurious Ban Rim Paa - lovely view of night Phuket from the wooden platform - dimly lit candles, live Piano music, soothing sea breeze and hear the waves softly lapping while you sip the long & exotic Mai Thai - ahh. The steamed fish turned out to be great too. All in all a lovely experience.

Every penny I've spent here is an infinitesimal fraction of the fun I'm having - viva la Thailand!!!

The songs of Rabindra Nath Tagore: rediscovered

Lately I've been listening to the songs of Rabindra Nath Tagore in the fresh and fetching voice of Sahana Bajpai. It is impossible to find a Bengali who hasn't heard the songs of our greatest poet. There is nothing I can say which hasn't been said before - and I'm not even close to be qualified for that.

Having said that, I didn't hear much of Rabindra sangeet in Benaras while growing up - we used to hear mostly Kishore Kumar or Hemanta Mukherjee i.e. Movie songs or Aadhunik (modern) songs. In reality I properly discovered Rabindra sangeet in the most unlikely of places. Dilli Haat in, obviously, New Delhi. During the winter of 1999 they were having some sort of Bengal themed fair and I happened to attend. I didn't know much about the Bengali music scene but on some random hunch we bought couple of cassettes (those were plastic thingies housing couple of hours worth of magnetic tape for the uninitiated). Anyway, one was by Srikanta Acharya and another by Lopamudra Mitra. I liked the former and fell in love with the latter's voice. She was a lovely introduction and I was a young romantic. A completely receptive ground for sowing the seeds of incredibly soft, soulful, touching lines of Rabindranath. I played the cassettes incessantly and never tired of her songs. Then things happened, time flowed and I moved on.

Years later, sometime ago, I was introduced to another voice singings Rabindranath's songs. I had heard "Aaj Jyotsna Raate" by Debabrata Biswas (George-da) years ago - it still is an experience. This song is example enough to demonstrate how modern and traditional Rabindra sangeet can simultaneously be.

After ages. I heard "Aaj Jyotsna Raate" again in Sahana Bajpai's voice - and she made me fall in love with her. I heard "Aamar Nishtho Raater Badoldhara" and I was transported to a dark window pane watching the night slide silently. I heard "Tomar Khola Hawa" and when she said, "Aami doobte raaji aachi", felt head over heels - has there been a more beautiful and bolder proclamation of love? She may not be the most technically astute singer of Rabindra sangeet - but why should I care if she manages to make my eyes well up when she sings of longing for the beloved?

Today in this age and time, eternal love sounds more like a concept. They say you need a person of flesh and blood to be in love with. I say love can be in words - without a shade of doubt it certainly is in these words and voices. They have made a romantic out of me, yet again.