Canopying in South Africa

South Africa - A place where you have a scope for many adventures, if you are interested to do, like abseiling, sky diving, canopying, ostrich rides, segway rides, zip rides and a lot more! One of the adventures that I performed was Canopying, where I was harnessed and hung to a rope connecting two huge mountains. I traveled from mountain to mountain sliding onto the rope with thick gloves on my hands. There were totally eleven slides to reach the destination. After two slides, there was a chance to decide whether it was enough of an adventure and we can choose to walk away. But, Once we are past the third rope, there was no scope to go back without finishing the eleven slides. It was a rainy day. Rain in South Africa was not the way it rains here in India. It was a very slight drizzle and highly windy. The climate, dress, helmet and the entire - it felt like we were astronauts walking on the moon.

The ropes were made of some steel and hence highly slippery when wet. We were to apply breaks in order not to end up banging our legs to the mountain at the landing. If we apply extra breaks, we will end up hanging on the rope itself without reaching the landing point. We will have to drag ourselves to the mountain on the rope bearing our entire weight on our arms. There was high fog all around and from the elevation we were at, it was completely as though we were sliding over the clouds high above in the sky! The first slide was scary. In the midway, neither could I see the starting point from where I began to slide, nor the landing point. The wind was so noisy that I could hear nothing other than its uzzzzzzzzzz. The sound itself was scary. As we moved from mountain to mountain, the fog slowly began to clear up, the fear faded away, the fun exponentially increased with the confidence fully built! Nature and its beauty moved us forward with the site of the beautiful mountains - some green, some brown, some white; some foggy, some clear- with waterfalls running in between here and there.

After all the slides with a floating experience, there was a 20 minute trek to reach the jeep. With the costumes that felt like they weighed about 5Kgs, we had to drag ourselves against the hilly terrain with no sign boards on the way. As there was no other way, we decided that it was the right way and walked across 3 hills where we finally saw the open top jeep to take us back to the reception! The slight drizzles were all over us, eyes never tired of watching the beauty around, mouth not tired of praising it..Awesome experience!! Simply loved every minute spent over there.. 

Keep the gossips away!

"Gossip" is idle talk or rumor, especially about the personal or private affairs of others.

Sometimes I wonder, If I am silent to something that is happening around me and I know it is not right, am I not supporting it in a way?? There are people who are extremely interested in peeping into others lives and making their own conclusions and passing it around to every soul they come across. They derive extreme pleasure out of spreading dirt and misinformation about others. Can you do anything about such people, though sometimes you know who they are? I blame people who listen to such non-sense and make/change opinions about others. Beware, you could be in it sometime or the other!

A wise friend of mine said years back, "I don't care what everyone says about xyz! As long as I don't face any problem with that person, I am not going to give xyz the cold shoulder". I would have lost many wonderful friends if I had not implemented her logic..

If you don't realize the goodness of a person, just because someone else(irrespective of whether you have known him/her for a long time) has a bad opinion about that person, you have the same thing to lose as that person! You basically lose each other.. Sometimes the gossiper might not know it is misinformation, but it could only be her own wrong perception. Simple rule of thumb, ignore anything that has not been processed by your brain or heart!

girls are precious!

A Woman in modern days takes on as many tasks as men do and infact more. As a baby the challenges which include learning to walk, run, talk, eat etc are the same. Women are challenging men wrt academics and career as well. After marriage, women definitely have a lot more challenges in their hand. Leaving her area of comfort, she not only adjusts in the new place but also slowly makes it her own place and takes in new responsibilities. Considering herself and her husband as one integral unit, she works to own his people as hers, whether or not they try to do the same. While a father is the president of the family, mother is the prime minister :D

Some women continue to build their career with all the other tasks at home, some with help and some without, some with emotional/moral support and some without. Some other women give up on their career to be happily unemployed, considering home and happiness of the home the sole priority. Those who work after marriage and kids, don't do so necessarily because they have to for the family to run. They could also do it because they just want to! And those who don't work after marriage or kids have a lot of good reasons other than the perception that they don't because they cannot. 

Women are a priceless gift to mankind. If you have one in your family, look very high upon them. Girl kids are as precious as guys. Don't look to people without boy kids in a pity way. Be ashamed of urself if u have done so ever! Gone are the days when boys stay with parents after marriage and look after them. They are after their own careers, running across the globe and settling down accordingly. If it is destined that u need to be taken care of at some point in time, you will be from either a girl child or a boy child, if the situations permit. Otherwise you wont. Period. Instead of thinking about the future and worrying, the best thing to do is enjoy the present as long as you can!