Of the selfies and narcissism

The world of smart phones is equipped with one common trend and that is obviously taking selfies i.e  the art of clicking one’s own pic with help of their phone.  If it’s a group pic then it’s called  ussies or groupies and so on…

While taking selfie is still a big trend, the latest toy regarding this new hobbie of people is the selfie stick, a sort of stand ,to hold up your cell phone while you take that perfect snap either pouting or rolling  out your tongue. It all seemed a fun thing to me until I read an opinion about the selfie stick that said…

“ selfie stick!! It’s more of a narcissi-stick”   

Then it hit on me… is this trend really making us a narcissist?

Narcissism could be described as the excessive fondness for oneself and being way too much loving about themselves. It is derived from the name of Narcissus , who appears in Greek mythology. He used to be a really attractive person and one day he fell in love with his own reflection in a pond. When he realized that he couldn’t be with his own reflection, he choose to drown himself and then turn into a flower, which thus gives name to the flower narcissus.

 All the selfies which we found on internet are of best features of that person. We get party selfies, gym selfies, outing selfies etc ,all the scenario in which the person is either dressed beautifully or have a ripped body or doing some extravagant things. So is this really a way to feel good about you? Yes and No.

According to me it is good to feel positive about yourself and thus staying in a better shape or dressing up well , are  one of the various ways. But the other time I feel, people simply try to copy others in the social media and thus end up doing things which turns out to be a complete disaster for them…

Some studies tell that we human perceive ourselves 10 times more attractive than our actual self. Which is isn’t that bad… but don’t you think this selfie culture is giving  more fuel  to this finding and making us all self obsessed with ourselves?

Well even if it does… is it narcissism?

No, it isn’t. Narcissistic personality disorder(NPD) is a disorder which affects 1% of the total global population. It is severe case of self pleasing one by indulging in self flattery, believing that one can perform every task in the world and above all they are in delusion of many things.

It is really harmful in many cases…

So next time you see a person clicking a selfie, don’t call him a narcissist  , instead call him self- loving. Go , grab your smart phone a click a selfie now!!!  

The last stop!

In my previous post , I described about the two destination I visited while I was in Mumbai. Apart from attending infinite family gathering( weddings, house warming ceremony, etc), I didn’t go much around in Mumbai. Instead I went to a pilgrimage…. Yea… right!

So I am not a religious person but I couldn’t say no to that trip. Apparently the whole family had gathered after such a long time, so it was quite exciting to be a part of such a trip where more than fifteen people travel together.. chaos certified J. And it’s also isn’t bad to take god’s name some time.

We were going to Nathdwara, a town in the western Indian state of Rajasthan. It is home of the famous Shrinathji temple. Nathdwara literally translate to “gateway to god”. We all boarded a train to Mavli, another sleepy town in Rajasthan, so as to reach our destination. One thing you have to agree, about travelling in a train in India, is the beautiful  view.!!

We reached Mavli early in the morning and it was freezing there.

 From there we had a 20 minute jeep ride and finally we arrived at our destination. All the exhaustion due to travel was vanished at once after having a look at this royal hotel we were staying in. The room had got a beautiful view of the town.

Before visiting the temple, we decided to go to a nearby town called Kankroli. It has a famous manmade lake called Rajsamand Lake.And it was  breathtaking….

 After visiting some relatives in Kankroli( my relatives exist in almost every western Indian city) we returned to Nathdwara.

It’s quite an old town. It was all evident because of the narrow street.

 Before the path to the temple began… I found this gate… apparently used in earlier days keep wild elephants away.

I don’t have any pics of the Temple as electronic gadgets were not allowed inside the temple premises( as is case with many Indian temple). This was followed by souvenir shopping and tasting local cuisine… yummy!!

The next day we went to Gandhinagar, capital of the Indian state of Gujarat , to visit my aunt( I told you so….). After spending quality time with them, we boarded our train back to Mumbai from Ahmedabad, the largest city of Gujarat and the fifth largest city of India. No prizes on guessing that we did visited our relatives staying in Ahmedabad before boarding the train : /

My visit to Mumbai ended after attending one more wedding (yeah! Truly).. And finally the day came when we boarded the flight back to Bhubaneswar.

So after giving you a long detail about my travel destination… what am I offering you? Well it’s just a fact that i want to convey, that you don’t have to plan a particular day to go visiting any place. Even if you go to a new place for work,,, have some time for yourself and try to soak in the place’s beauty and grace. We may think of travelling to places far away, in a different country … which is good no doubt… but do remember that there could be a beautiful, sleepy town nearby, whose history, whose soul can be as amazing as those exotic foreign location.

And it’s always nice to meet your family member after a long gap!!!

All the pics imported from my bro’s Instagram account.

Vajreshwari temple: a sign of thankfulness to the deity

So, in my last post I talked about how the Maratha and the Portuguese sweated it out in the creek of Vasai to hold the position of those islands.

Vajreshwari is a town located around 25 km away from Vasai. The town gets its name from the Temple built in the honor of the goddess Vajreshwari. It was known as Vadavali earlier. So this was the little details about the town.

The temple was built in year 1739, yup, the same year the Portuguese lost the battle of Vasai to the Marathas. Chimaji Appa, the commander of the Marathas, set his camp in the city of vadvali on his route to capture the Vasai fort. There, he used to pray the local diety. For three years the fort was not captured by the Marathas. In his prayers, Chimaji Appa promised the goddess that he would built a grand temple for her, if she blessed them the might to defeat the Portuguese.

When the Portuguese were finally defeated with the capturing of the fort, Chimaji build the temple to keep his promise.

If you look outside the temple premises, you would find a wall barricade in the shape of a fort.

It is because the temple was the designed on the grounds of Vasai fort.

Also at the entrance, you would find a tower like structure called “dipamala”.

The place is surrounded by hot water springs, which you could find crowded with the people dipping into (which I found very unhygienic).

The temple structure is not that overwhelming, but quite unique because of the fort like architecture. Also, it gives you an insight of what happened in the past. Visiting Vasai fort without visiting Vajreshwari is like leaving a task incomplete.

P.S… the instagram bug has bitten me… so you can view my profile here. I would not ask you all to follow me… it’s up to you to decide…. (but deep in my heart I know you would…)

You all would ? Right?

Vasai : the lesser known erstwhile Portuguese colony in India

Happy New Year people!!

I am beginning this year’s post with my travel destinations. My exams ended on the 8^th of December and I boarded  a flight to Mumbai from Bhubaneswar on 10^th of December.

Yes, i travelled from the eastern most part of the peninsula to the western most part.

 A note to be taken, my whole extended family and my relatives lives in Mumbai (with some few exception). So I didn’t go to Mumbai for vacation, instead I was there to meet my entire family member.

My relatives lives in various suburbs of Mumbai,but I went to my uncle’s home , who lives in Vasai.

It is a northern suburb of the city. The city is also known as Bassein, which is it’s English name. This name is derived from the Portuguese name “Baçaim”.

India was a former British colony, but many of other empire too had their colony in this vast country. Example : Pondicherry was a French colony, Goa was a Portuguese colony. Ask anyone to name a former Portuguese colony in India, and the first answer you will hear would be Goa. But Vasai was one of the most important Portuguese colony whose name is somewhat lost today.

 The Portuguese first visited the place in 1509 under Francisco de Almeida. At that time, the Portuguese were on their way to make Goa their colony, which they did successfully by the year 1510. The islands of Mumbai , were not that of importance at those time. Gradually, the place was passed to the British in 1661 as part of dowry of Catherine of Braganza.

Today , Vasai is a part of the city. The only Portuguese trace that is left is the grand Vasai fort. It’s full name in Portuguese is “"Fortaleza de São Sebastião de Baçaim “  which translates to "the fort of St. Sebastian of Vasai". Under the colony, the fort was called “ corte da norte “ or the northern court, thus becoming the head quarters of the northern islands to Goa.

The fort was eventually seiged by the Maratha Empire in the 1739 during the battle of Vasai. The Maratha Empire was led by Chimaji Appa and the Portuguese were led by Captain Joa o Xavier Pinto.

image source

Statue of Chimaji Appa
image source

This battle led to the construction of another historical site, Vajreswari Temple, which would be covered in next post.

The fort was not a very nice experience for me as I reached there quite late in the evening. But, even in the dim light , the fort's grandness didn't hide.

If you look through a tourist point of view, this is an amazing place, and the history associated with it makes it even more interesting.

Apart from the last two pics, rest all pics are sourced from my brother's shutter( PS: not that crappy map), so if you like those pics, you can follow him on instagram here