Trekking in hailstorms

I have done some treks recently and few in the last year. Through the rainy season, I have trekked, as well as through the summer. So, it was normal to have trekked in the rain, with heavy downpour and trekking through snowfall (done that in Sikkim/Himalayas as well as Uttarakhand/Himalayas). One thing which had eluded me till now was, trekking through a hailstorm.

And believe me, it happened this time, that too in the Himalayas, it happened to be Himachal Pradesh, Yes we had a snowfall during the initial days of trekking, but on the last but one day, while descending, we encountered, heavy rainfall for almost 4 hours, we trekked through it. But in between, there was a huge hailstorm for may be an hour and a half, you can imagine, we carrying full load (backpack) plus getting hit by hailstorms coming on to us, at good speed, it was quite an adventure.

By late afternoon the rain had subsided, leaving us with something to celebrate. Yes we were on the 11th day of the 12 day trek and tomorrow would be the last day when we would be seeing each other and after that it would be back to civilization and routine life. Yes, it was emotional but all good things do come to an end, so did our 12 day trek!

Cheers,

How to get leaves at workplace

I just completed my second Himalayan trek for the year 2015, so this means, ideally, I have taken off, 2 times this year. Each of those vacation has been minimum of two weeks or even more.

So colleagues at workplace were wondering, how could I manage the same, with so much work all the time, I managed to squeeze in two weeks of leave two times a year.

The answer lies in who is your manager, and who is your manager's manager.

If the people above you are workaholic and come to office regularly, with zero time off for personal life, then you are blessed. They do not have personal life (or take leaves) means, you get to live your life.

I generally do not have to worry about unnecessary meetings, I generally do the technical work and keep my mouth quiet most of the times. All the meetings, so called decisions are taken in absence of me. Does that make me jealous, not at all, I am least bothered. Its the only time, I thank people who do not contribute technically, or in other words write code just for their sheer presence in the office or rather meeting rooms. I know taking decision is not a big deal as there is no rocket which is getting launched, in either case, all their decisions go inconclusive because of one or another technical glitch, apart from the release dates, where we the coders suffer the most!

Its because of them, who regularly come to office attend meetings with clients onsite people, that people like me get leave, otherwise, me doing all these things + technical work will make me a dull boy.

I hope this answers the question on leaves, and yes, I do have run into LOP's (loss of pay leaves) but would I mind, not in any way of course.

Cheers,

Glimpses into BaraBhangal trek

BaraBhangal trek was just magical, over continuous 12 days, we got to walk over awesome places, below one is just one amongst many!

Cheers,

True caller and its advantages

Recently I saw an advertisment of truecaller website / software / app on television. I was quite happy seeing it. I do not know how it works, but it spits out details of the caller.

So how does it help me? These days, I just turned my mobile into silent mode and refuse to pickup any calls, from unknown numbers. I do not care if its a missed opportunity. For me, my freedom, privacy is more important.

So truecaller has been most helpful in finding out whose number the call originated from. Till now, it has not disappointed me. Hopefully in future too it wont. And to anonymous people calling me, no more do I care, nor worry.

The downside is few of my friends try to reach me, considering my phone is on silent mode, I do not pickup, but they are okay with it, given that, I call them back shortly. This has given me more time from unnecessary distractions at workplace.

And regarding people talking at workplace workhours, I still do not have a solution for that.

Cheers,

PS - I hope true caller remains free in future as well!

BaraBhangal trek done!

My second Himalayan trek for the year 2015, done successfully. It was a 12 day continous trek crossing 3 high altitude passes and it turned to be exhausting but fun indeed. More updates on that soon.

Cheers,