Backpacking away from computer

Taking a break from online life and spending time in offline world is something that I really cherish. It has become sort of a new resolution of mine. Last time I took one week off and this time I was away for 2 weeks. It is fun to do such a thing and at the same time you get so many idea when you are away from your computer or laptop. We humans are not designed to think in front of a screen and I can vouch for that statement.

In the two weeks that I was away I read a lot, met friends, spent a lot of time with loved ones. For a week I also went on a backpacking trip to Himachal, spent some time in Delhi, also visited Dehradun.

Mumbai Vs Delhi:
I watched Singh is Kinng in Delhi and also in Mumbai and surprisingly the experience was starkly different in either city. Delhi crowd was going crazy while Mumbai crowd had more of a "WTH" feeling. I had a blast! May be the Delhi guy in me comes up sometimes.

Delhi Rains:
I witnessed the heaviest rains of Delhi and to be frank that was hardly a rain for Mumbai. The potholes on the roads were bigger than the ones on Mumbai roads. While everyone was grim I couldn't stop grinning. I guess the Mumbaikar in me takes over sometimes.

Dehradun:
Dehradun has improved a lot since my last visit. Bit modern and yet that coziness of a small valley town, that place gives a unique feeling. The only reason to crib I have is about the road from Delhi to Dehradun (which also takes you to Haridwar, Masoori). Inspite of being one of the most traveled roads of north India it's in terribly bad shape. I fail to understand why?

Cloud covered towers. For more pics visit my photoblog.

Himachal:
Himachal is really beautiful and in rains that place looks like heaven after a wash. The only colors I could see were the shades of Green and Brown. The clouds had shifted their home to the hills and the mistiness added to the whole divine experience. I was traveling some of the interior villages of Himachal, got to meet a lot of people talked with them about the life and challenges that they face. People are extremely friendly, they open up quickly, they accept you quickly. Something that we in cities should learn. Life is hard there, they can hardly do anything after it's dark (but they do so much during the day). Good Schools are rare. After schooling the choices of courses are very limited. Those who really want to do something have to travel to other states (not a bad thing) but the knowledge of what other universities can offer is again very low.

A Wedding in Himachal:
People live a very community oriented life there. I attended a wedding and more than an event of an individual family it was more of a community event. People from all over the villages dropped in to help, they chip in with all the necessary things like milk, vegetables, grains and most important of all their time and efforts. The marriages last for three to five days and it is more of a festival for the whole village than a family or person. Something starkly different from cities.

Coming Back Online:
Coming back online after a long break is not easy. There are so many things to catch up. It took me two days to read and reply to all the mails, three days to read blogs of my friends, one day to catch up on twitter and one for all other social networks. Pheww...

Things I am looking forward to:
Barcamp Pune is coming back and I am part of the planning team (interesting times ahead). Capgemini is waking up to the concept of Barcamp it is going to be an internal event but surely going to be interesting. I have a new photoblog (someone said the dark side of your blog, I say colorful side of my blog:)). The Business Analysis Blog is doing good, getting a lot of interaction going on but somehow BAs prefer mails over comments.

Tarun Chandel
Feeling refreshed after a break!

ये होंसला कैसे झुके

रुत ये टल जायेगी,
हिम्मत रंग लाएगी,
सुबह फिर आयेगी ...

अपनी खुदा से है ये दुआ,
मंजिल लगा ले हमको गले,
जुर्रत सौ बार रहे,
ऊँचा इकरार रहे,
ज़िन्दा हर प्यार रहे ...
- डोर

तरुण चंदेल
एक और रात, एक और बात

Being online is an addiction and I am suffering from it

I am addicted to my computer. I realized this after staying away from my computer for the whole of last week. It was tough; the idea was to stay away from my laptop, not checking my blog, my email, chat, twitter or any other site. I had to use my work computer but I chose not to use the browser for personal surfing. It was very hard to control my urges but I somehow pulled myself together.

Staying away from my computer, I realized how much extra time I have in life and how many other things I can do. I have piled up a huge list of books to read. I have also setup one of my walls for "off computer" thinking and planning. I will be using pics of the wall in coming days on my blogs. Oh yes you read it right, blogs. I have been working on my Business Analysis Blog for a while, a blog about something I do for living. If someone is interested in being a Business Analyst or knowing what I do in my day job please check my Business Analysis Blog.

While staying offline I also realized that I have been ignoring my health for a long time and following a very unhealthy lifestyle. I have decided to lead a healthy life from now on. This is going to be the toughest challenge, as I need to be disciplined in a lot of areas. I have setup a blog for healthy living, a place where I will be keeping a log of activities that I do for leading a healthy life.

Just like after fasting we realize that the aim of having a mouth is not to keep eating and also that not eating for a while will not kill us, similarly after staying offline I realized that having a computer doesn't mean that I spent all my life here and staying offline is not going to kill me. Though I will maintain multiple blogs yet I am going to spend much less time on my computer or online. I am going to be fairly active on my Business Analysis Blog and also on the Healthy Living Blog. On this blog I will be making fewer posts mostly once a week.

I just checked my email inbox, I had 107 mails and most of them were unnecessary notifications or announcements. I now wonder how I was spending majority of my time in checking my mails? Going offline happens to be the best thing that I have done, now I somehow feel that I can be more active online yet spend a lot less time online and on my computer. Hopefully I will be able to follow my plans. Wish me luck; I need it to pull out of this addiction.

Tarun Chandel
Back Online

Going offline

Staying away from my computer I realized how much time I waste on it. The more time I spend on it, the more it gives me a false feeling of doing something meaningful. It feels more like an addiction and I hate being controlled by urges. I am going offline for a week to start with, in a quest to stay away from my computer. Wish me luck for the same. I had things to say and ideas to share but, I think they can wait.

Tarun Chandel
Trying to gain back the control