Dare Devils...

The fear kills the desire to rise, abstain you from speaking the truth, doesn't let you speak your mind and in essence kills the desire to live a honorable life. These things arise from fear of loosing something like some dear one, a job or self-respect etc etc... In fact, the feared people loose a big time in long run, than to gain some short time benefits by not being brave enough to take the side of truth. Fearlessness is a great attribute of an effective leadership. Fearless people never support the wrong thing or wrong people for whatever reason. I wish, our country leaders could become more fearless by not worrying about party politics, image, opposition etc. rather focus on wellness of the country itself. But, fearless people are not rare. I have come across many such people in my life. The Greatest example is Bengal CM Mamata Benerjee. She is a true mass leader. She showed great courage by protecting poor farmers from being exploited by selfish industrialists. Later she was also able to put an end to the 25 year tyranny by the left party rule in Bengal. And that's why she is also dared to challenge the ruling government at the center on wrong their moves, despite forming an ally with them. She never blindly buys into every decision taken by the center. She is the true Iron Lady of India I can think of now.

Other examples are MS Dhoni (Captain of Indian Cricket Team), Ayrton Shenna ( 3 times F-1 Champion), Lance Armstrong ( 7 times winner of Tour de France cycle racing ) . The most common things about these people are, they are courageous, passionate about what they do, have got great perseverance and are Great fighters.

Indian politician, strategist Chanakya once said , "As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it." (350 BC -275 BC )

Avimore....

Today is 14^th January, 2012. The morning is magnificent, mysterious and wonderful unlike my most busy mornings. The sun is becoming mighty fearing the clouds away in the horizon. As we looked out of our train window, it felt like watching some earth program on discovery channel. Why all my mornings are not like this?? Few hours back, I was expecting it to be horrible at the Aberdeen railway station when we nearly missed the train. And look what a great day it is turning out to be. As we reached Inverness, it all looked beautiful. Inverness is the gateway to the Scotland's great wilderness, although Inverness itself never looked wild at all. In fact, it’s a small historic city sitting between the western highlands and the Cairngorm Mountains to tell people the story of 400 million years old mountains since the creation of Scotland, well before the life evolved on the planet Earth. Inverness lies on an active fault line (a strike slip fault) called the Great Glen. The creation of this fault is a major event in the history of dynamic earth process. Along this fault line today lies several fresh water lochs formed by erosion due to glaciations, one of them is the famous Lochness. If you heard of Lochness monster, this is it. Although the Monster proved to be a hoax, but the volume of dark water it holds is not less than an intimidating monster. It was freezing cold, as we progressed towards the end of the day. We had a descent boat trip in the Lochness and some dirty food at Jimmy Chung. Enough for that day, but I was worried about tomorrow. I'm must plan for something more exciting, that's what I told to myself. And off course what could be more exciting than going to the snow covered greater rugged mountain range... So, we must enter this world. We wake up around 5 am in the morning, decided to go to Fort Williams. We set out soon, when the rest of the world sleeping. It’s just us now. As we reached the bus stop, it was even more disappointing. All the services to Fort Williams closed. The tourist information center closed. No hope really. This is f*** world, that’s what I thought. After we did some enquiry at the bus stand, finally settled for more feasible Avimore, a small tourist attraction to the south east of Inverness and 1 hour drive. But, with no expectations, I was fairly clear that this is not going to be exciting. As we ride the distance and for next couple of hour what Avimore provides us is something I can’t put in words here. When I did a short vacation in last December, I had a glimpse of some great mountain paradise. But, I always wished during that time, if could touch, hike, trek them. And go as close as I can. Well, here it is, I’m standing on the western Cairngorm Mountains.