A High in the Sky

'I believe I can fly'... goes a popular song, and how we wish we could do that, not just mentally but for real too. To defy gravity and all the other constraints & controls that bog us down... to be truly free like a bird. Well, at Fly Nivana you can. A little off-beat place at Kamshet, 110km from Mumbai, you can break-free from the city grind and take to the sky, soaring above the restricted world, leaving your baggage behind.

Paragliding is the closest experience to actually flying like a bird. While you first start just gliding down from the hills as you get more advanced you can fly over hills. A nylon canopy above your head and atttached to you by strings... it's literally 'on a wing and a prayer'. Though it's not really for those who don't want to push the boundaries or themselves further. It's tough but highly rewarding.

Fly Nirvana conducts the courses from a lovely guest-house called The Native Place. It's rustic charm and retro-artistic design, all nestled in nature, is a welcome surprise. While the place relaxes you, the paragliding sessions in the hills around, pump you up with adrenelin and give you a high. (flynivana.com)

I did the basic course and I'm hooked. Soon going back to scale greater heights.
Thanks Sanjay, Astrid & Ravi for helping people experience a high in the sky.

What lies beneath!

Snorkeling in Tarkarli, Sri Lanka and Thailand opened up a whole new world, beneath the surface. As we snorkeled we realized the less noise we made and the more still we remained, the more the fish came closer to us. A kaleidoscope of fish seemed to brush past us and even some of the more rare ones came out of hiding from the rock crevices. A truly awesome sight. It dawned on us that unless you regularly pause from your hectic schedules and quietly listen to each other or just enjoy calm moments together, the little wonders and simple joys of life will just pass you by.

Life's an adventure

Battling -4 degrees of icy Himalyan winds, dangling over a cliff and peeping beneath the ocean, are few of the adventures that have taught me a few secrets of managing relationships.

In the beginning of my courtship my wife, we wondered if our love would last forever. So we put it through an endurance test… a trek that would push us physically, mentally & emotionally to the limit. First to the base of the Kanchanjunga, in Sikkim and finally remote Arunachal Pradesh. Climbing 17 kms of steep rocky terrain each day for 5 days, -4 degrees of chilly winds (though sometimes our temperatures rose a bit) dried and tasteless food, no bathing and a hole in the ground for a loo. But we took this all in our stride. It taught us about sharing and caring in small ways and how to respect, encourage & support each other when the going got tough. We felt confident that we could take on the challenges of marriage and enjoy it’s blissful moments too.

Life on the edge

Normal is boring... adventure gives me a high. And nothing like the wild outdoors to break the monotony of the daily grind - Adventure sports is the ultimate thrill. It's a combination of a rush of adrenalin, followed by a supreme sense of conquering the world and finally culminating in a tranquil & relaxed feeling.

Hiking and rock climbing are great but 'waterfall rapelling' is unbeatable. Ofcourse when I'm up there on the edge I wonder 'Do I have a death wish?!'... But when I reach the bottom, it's 'Let's do it again!' .

Kalote near Panvel, is one of my favourites... a 50ft gushing waterfall, with the almost no foothold and a rock pool below. Wet n wild!