100 posts for the year

Done and dusted with 100 posts this year. I thought of writing about my Himalayan trek and put some pictures, but could not do due to few reasons. Last couple of months have been bit dull and boring.

Ending 2016 with a note of thanks to God for keeping me alive, my parents, my teachers and well wishers who have enriched my year with their presence,

Few trips did not happen,
Few purchases did not happen,
Here's hoping 2017 has a better stuffs in store,

Cheers,

Shuttle driver #16 - A driver who used to drive an ambulance

I have not written about cab driver series for quite some time, the reason being, we are having a steady driver for over 6 months. Well the reason for having steady driver is, nobody is ready to ply towards Kengeri from marathahalli. Current driver stays at Bidadi so its easy for him to drop us and head home.

The biggest irony is, we have had a steady cab for 6+ months, but there is unsteadiness at workplace. Few people have been deboarded and many people have left or leaving. Its sad to see so much of turmoil at workplace, and believe me its going to continue into the new year.

The current driver drives a Toyota Etios sedan. Previously he tells us he has driven an Ambulance (Maruti Omni). His driving style is the most disastrous of all (till date) and its more or less a pain to sit in the cab.

But we save 20 odd minutes each side owing to this reckless driving. But listening to so much of honking experiencing this much of braking leads to nothing but absolute frustration.

Why haven't I told him to drive carefully? Well, I had a fight with the cab driver, supervisor and few other people, and ever since then, I just shut my mouth in the cab and sit!

Reason for fight, I generally come late out of office usually 8 15pm and one day it just led to a heated argument and I just gave it back to my director,

that's it. So nothing special to write about this driver,

Cheers,

Is this Indian IT industry an illusion or a stereotype

I am still trying to understand the IT industry in India, trying to find out if its a illusion or a stereotype.

Let me write down the reasons why I can call it illusion is -

1. There seems to be very few fresh development projects which I see happening in India. (I have tried my hands at few companies and most work appears to be maintenance and highly non intellectual).

2. There are many startups and stuffs like that ,which are developing software, but, their main business is service aggregation, like online selling, online services etc and over here too the software is stabilized and not much new activity tends to happen!

3. There are many such development projects startups which never see the limelight. All those code written, software developed never gets to be deployed, never gets to churn out money, instead its just shelled.

I may be wrong, but generally assuming, why would Europe/US companies give out the development projects to Indian counterparts where in the  market lies over there. How do we understand market needs of other continent sitting over here. So actually speaking, we get to do the mundane work at lesser price.

Let me write down as to why I can call it a stereotype -

1. There is a huge requirement for people with lesser experience. Because they are paid less and charged more to the client. So if they are charged 15 Lakhs per annum they are paid only 3 Lakhs per annum. This is how the company makes money, not by selling software but by selling manpower and headcount!

2. If I spend some years in IT like more than 8 years, I am automatically stereotyped to be a manager (or an architect if lucky). Manager meaning managing people, whose numbers are generally less. Now are they non billable resources to the company? do they get paid from the timesheets filled by their sub-ordinates? because the client necessarily does not have to pay for the project or people management, he usually wants the work to get done.

So either ways you want to enter the Indian IT industry, you get stuck in this current of illusion or stereotype which you realize after you hit a deadlock.

Deadlock is when you hit a salary of some amount, experience of some amount and then you have no where to go, because companies want people with lesser experience and lesser salary expectations. There you go, only option left with you is to play politics at office to spend time or speak continuously yielding no results but showcasing one's marketing skills!

By the way when the number of such people (above categories) exist in the company, what do you think they do? They disrupt the work going on, they will not let others work. And the remaining people who wish not to disrupt other peoples' work, well, they end up clueless, may be in deep depression trying to find out larger meaning of life!

Cheers,

When we crossed two high altitude mountain passes on the same day (by road) - TTTT 36.

This too happened during our Himachal trek this year. We were returning from Kaza, Spiti valley and coming towards Manali. One the way we had to cross two high altitude mountain passes within a span of 5 hours.

Kunzum la  - 4590m or 15060 feet - stopped here to visit the Kunzum Mata temple. (5 30 pm)

Rohtang la  - 3978m or 13050 feet - Was all foggy wet, raining, poor visibility, less than 3 feet forward, was infact fearing for life, if the van slipped or skidded, we would have ended up in trouble. (11 30 pm)

Cheers,

When I completed lunch by 10:30 am - TTTT 35.

Many a times we  might have finished lunch by 11 am. But a how many times a full fledged course meal having roti, rice, rajma, aloo curry? This happened during our Himachal trek during this year 2016. We completed our trek and we ended up at Mudh Village in Spiti valley. From there on we arrived at Kaza in Spiti.

We had started from Mudh at 6 20 am and did not have breakfast. We had a long journey in front of us to Manali crossing Rohtang la and Kunzum la. So we thought of having as much food as we can. But would it be better if we completed lunch itself?  Oh yes.

But who in this place would feed us lunch that too at 10 30 am in the morning.

Yes, we found a hotel, one of our support staff knew a family who ran a hotel in the market place of Kaza and we went there for food. It was the first time I called home after 9 days flat, because I was able to get a connectivity with a BSNL sim.

Once we were at the hotel we found out we could have roti/aloo and rajma. But rice, yeah, we requested the chef to prepare rice too and he quickly got it done too. Though we waited for a good 15 minutes, it was worth it.

What followed was a bumpy ride in a rented Mahindra Scorpio along the non existant roads of Spiti valley. Though I was sitting in the middle seat, I almost ended up vomiting/puking. But the scorpio had a tyre flat on two occasions and we were stranded with no option in the middle of the road.

Finally we could gather a Tempo traveller as a replacement and yeah thus ended up my vomiting senstaion woes. I did not puke, luckily!

Cheers,

Tulu - When a language left me wanting for more - TTTT 34.

I am not sure if its a tale to tell, but its for me to learn. In the last couple of years, I have been to coastal Karnataka almost 12-14 times. Each time, I have met people speaking in Tulu. Many such times, I have people in our team who are either from Mangalore/Udupi/Puttur speaking Tulu with the locals.

I admit, I find listening to Tulu language very very nice. I cannot speak Tulu, but its on my wish list to speak. It sounds musical. I have plans to learn Tamil/Telgu/Marathi, but Tulu seems to be on a higher priority because of the fact that, it simply sounds so cool, the wordings the pronounciation. In case you find couple of Tulu speaking people, just listen to them, I bet, its fun, its addictive!

I really miss talking to the locals in Tulu, wish I could do it someday, wish I could do more trips to coastal Karnataka.

Until then watch out or search for the video featuring a movie scene Eragavuye kirikiri, its from a Tulu movie Ekka Saka

Cheers,
PS - I am not mocking or sarcastic while I write this, I genuinely admire the language.

This year we lost a music icon

Glenn Frey is a great musician, a legend infact. He along with Don Henley and few others played as Eagles in the late 60's early 70's and disbanded probably during 1980. They came back in the year 1994 and introduced themselves as a band which took a 14 year vacation.

Prior to the split they had announced they would unite only if Hell Freezes over and boy I guess that was the name of the reunion tour.

The year was 1994, I was still a kid, but I still remember distinctly playing Eagles tape again and again. Then, I never knew the history behind Eagles. My father is a fan of Eagles, so am I. Since 1994 I have listened to the Eagles a countless number of times, yet I am not bored by their songs.

Its sad, Glenn Frey is no more. I am listening to the song Take It easy as I am posting this from office. Remember the Scooty advertisement in the 90's featuring Raageshwari? Yeah that background song is Take it easy and by Glenn Frey!

Do check out the concert video of the song Take it easy especially the Hell Freezes over tour one, you will learn how a man in his 40's can rock with a guitar and blue and gray Tee shirt!

Hats off Glenn Frey! you will be missed.

Cheers,

PS - End of the year, George Micheal passed away, I listened to him only after 2001, not before that., because I was simply not aware. My favorite song by George Micheal is Father Figure. 

One temple, One year, two visits, two different times - TTTT 34.

I have to be shameless to admit that I have not visited any local temples this year. I remember visiting none closeby home this year. Not even on my birthday. I feel extremely gutted as I write this. But I have been praying at home, I should thank God for keeping me alive and kicking.

There is one such temple which I visited two times this year, two different seasons, and this temple happens to be almost 500 kilometers from home.

This place is Gundabala village in Honnavara and the temple is MUKYAPRANA LAXMI VENKATESH DEVA. Believe me, first time when we visited this place, there was a marriage celebration going on and someone from the bride side offered us to have evening snacks (all in return for speaking in Tulu, though we denied).

This time, we went again in the month of October. Boy o Boy, though not in Bangalore, I can claim to have visited a temple. The amount of peace which I got in return is priceless.

Cheers,

One more tale from the Himalayan trek - TTTT 33.

One such funny incident happened during my this year's Himalayan trek. This happened after we had crossed the Pin pass on day 8 of our 10 day trek. [we completed our 9+ 1 rest day trek in 8 days by the way].

During the first few days of the trek, I had refused to eat wild apricots and berries from the forest. I had done this to avoid any upsets to my stomach. I had put in lots of money for the trek, and preparation too. I did not want an upset stomach to bring down my chances of completion.

After the pass crossing, I found myself roaming around the campsite, bare footed. I was not wearing any slippers or footwear, just to feel extra comfortable. I did feel comfortable too.

But my colleagues warned me of frost bite once. Mother earth was not that cold. So I ignored their words. But second and third time, they told me, how did you muster so much of courage to walk bare footed ignoring frost bites, where in you acted like a chicken to taste wild berries and apricots!

I was in a dilemma, I just escaped the argument, but honestly, speaking, I still feel, the chances of frost bite was a bit less, where as chances of upset tummy was huge, plus eating wild fruits was during the first 2-3 days of the trek!

Never mind, one more tale from the trek!

Cheers,

When we were at the recieving end of a food giveaway TTTT 32.

Many a times, I have had the opportunity to distribute food which we had cooked in excess. I do not count it as huge number of instances but atleast few times. But till date was never at the recieving end of this.

Imagine a situation where you travel and you take your cooking utensils, you cook and cook a bit extra, instead of disposing off the food, you try to find people whom you can distribute the extra food to. Yes, exactly, this was the exact situation, I am trying to write about.

We had completed playing for sometime along the beach and also in the beach waters of ApsaraKonda. So it was time to get a fresh water bath at the ApsaraKonda waterfall.

We did have a shower at the Apsarakonda fresh water fall. While going to the waterfall, we noticed, few guys had parked their van and were having a late lunch. It was around 5 pm. We were wondering, these guys were lucky to have found a nice place and shade to park, cook and eat.

After we finished our bath and were returning, we were waiting for our van too, to come to the same place instead of we going there, also, few of our guys were slow in finishing their bath and hence we decided to wait, and we sat opposite but at a bit far distance from these people who by then had finished eating.

Within few minutes, few of their guys came and asked us if we would like to have biryani. We 3 people being vegetarians said no. But we asked few of our team members who followed shortly, and it turned out around 4 people readily acknowledged.

The people who had parked their van were from Harihara, the satisfaction on my friends faces after consuming biryani was priceless, plus in a way they helped a cause too. instead of wasting food, its always better to volunteer up!

Cheers,

When I ran out of the beach waters - TTTT 31.

One such crazy incident happened this time. Out of the number of times, I have entered the sea waters, I never felt insecure by the creatures crawling in the water. I have only been scared of the water dragging me into the sea.

This time, while we were enjoying the waves were in the beach waters, one of our team members got bitten by a jelly fish or not sure what creature it was.

He pretty much quickly got out of the water, I was bit reluctant to head out of the water. But I came close to the shore and stood up, where in I just saw the cup shaped creature pass near my leg. I assumed it to be the same thing which had bit him on his forearm.

At this moment, my scare knew no bounds and there you go, I just ran out of the beach waters, just to avoid one more round of conflict with that creature.

Cheers,

Beach trek 2016

Starting from the year 2013, I have been taking part in a beach trek, each year. It involves walking along the beaches, the coastline. The fun part is walking barefoot, with the waves hitting your legs, the sun, the tan, plus loads of dehydration.

This year was no different. And I traversed the same old route, Gokarna to Honnavara, only difference is that, we started from Kudle beach instead of OM Beach.

Covered few beaches, waited for ferry crossing at Tadadi port/ Aghanashani river, then camped at Holanagadde Sri Ramanajaneya Temple.

It was fun, just a bit lesser crowd this time around! Can't imagine one year has just flown by!

Cheers,

PS - Distance covered 37.1 kilometers,
Start Point - Kudle beach, Gokarna
End Point - Dhareshwar beach, Haldipur.

Other places of visit -
Apsarakonda beach + Apsarakonda Waterfall!

Winding up 2016.

2016 year comes to an end, I am close enough to my quest of phabricating a 100 posts! This year has been an altogether different experience. I have troubled my parents on two different occasions to the core. Each time I go on a Himalayan trek, my parents are of the opinion that Himalayas will melt and I will end up not returning home, but it has not been the case, since I feel God is with me or I have been plain lucky.

I wish going to a Himalayan trek was a butt load simpler than bearing so much of emotional stress. I agree its tough on my parents part, but even more than that, listening to the negative aspect of Himalayas melting, the whole idea of training and focusing for it, is just ripped apart. Never mind,

I completed Pin Parvaty Pass trek this year after having made a come back from a stomach infection / urinary tract infection and bouts of fever. It was at a height of 17280 feet and we ended up in Spiti Valley/Kaza/Kuzum and travelled along India's deadliest roads!

I have been training regularly in the gym and my battle with gaining or losing weight still is on. I feel satisified with this aspect of life.

I could not read much during the second half of 2016, just lost interest blindly and with no reason.

I could not write much, again owing to losing interest (however I am trying to catch up).

I lost interest in work, work has become monotonous and so mundane that, I can see where its heading,

Parted ways with couple of good friends at office.

Stranded on the road 2 times this year, both the times due to rear left tyre flat (coincidence), once in Spiti valley and recently in Karnataka itself, one for almost 4 hours and the other for almost 6 hours.

Visited Himachal/Punjab/Golden temple/Wagah Border

Did two trips to TamilNadu/Kodaikanal/Kolkumalai and then 4-5 trips to coastal Karnataka (Honnavara/Gokarna/Kumta/Sharavathy/Gersoppa/Gundabagal/Shimoga/Sagar/jog).

Did not drive my car much no long trips, very busy training / work, parents uninterested,

Thus totally lost interest in buying a Toyota Innova even when it was offered at a discount price. Just have no more interest, in taking additional ownership and responsiblity.

Enjoyed solitude to the core, grown old spending time alone, doing nothing, just thinking, listening to music, less mingling with friends and almost nill superficial over hyped talks.

Cheers,

there goes one more year, workwise absolute blunder, but yeah, I am paid, so no worries, plus I got time to workout!

One such day at the gym

If today was yet another day at the gym, why am I even posting this. Well there is a special reason. Every single day, I listen to boring music in the gym. Sometimes its radio and most of the times some playlist which seems uninspiring and pretty mundane.

But today was different. I do not know who had provided the songs for the hour I went. There was
- Vengaboys (Brazil)
- Blue (one Love),
- Led Zepplin (stairway to heaven).
- Cranberries (Zombie).
- Ricky Martin (LIvin Lavida Loca).
- Jethro Tull (Whistler).
- Linkin Park (Somewhere I belong)

It was surprising yet refreshing, the curse on the trainer's face became evident when Jethrotull track started playing. Did I mind, absolutely not.

My favorite Def Leppard however did not appear though!

Cheers,

PS - Whats so special - These are 70's 80's 90's songs, and I have been listening to them for a decade and yet feels so new so neat!

Why do people give up on life. - TTTT 30

I have heard from many people (at-least few in number) that they had enough of life. I have no objections against what runs in people's mind after all its their mind, their thoughts. So I wonder why do people lose interest in life. I know there are bitter incidents which one has to swallow, some people are plain lucky while some people have to struggle to meet or make ends meet.

I do agree that in a way, each person's life is not the same. But listening to thoughts of people giving up on life is kind of unpleasant, especially, if a person is hale and healthy with absolutely zero physical ailments.

Recently, I was stranded on a highway and I had no option to wait until a person came to bail out with his tractor and a jumper cable. This person is very famous in the locality for helping out people in need and especially those stranded on the highway.

We were pretty much excited that our ordeal had come to an end. But upon seeing this person who had come to help us, I felt shame for myself. We were 12 people and couldn't do much after being stranded! (except raising hands upwards in despair)

This person had lost one of his leg in an accident. Yet he was famous for helping out bailing out people, He was enthusiastic. He was pleasing. He radiated positivity.

Was it necessary for him to wake up so early and come with his tractor go searching for a jumper cable and come to our rescue?

Here we are cribbing about putting end to life because of some reason, and over here we see a true fighter. He showed me how to put to use one's life, via sincere self service, dedication and expecting nothing in return!

Lots to learn seeing people help you while in dire straits.

Would never have met this gentleman if we would not have been stranded in this place.

Cheers,

PS - I know preaching the above words is very easy, I can understand the pain which goes through the thought process.

Giving up on my sugar coated dream.

Ever since I had Toyota Innova as a cab, I had dreamt of owning one, below are few of the reasons,
- Reliability
- Passenger comfort.
- Driver comfort.
- Good option for long multiday highway runs.
- Bullet proof engine.

There was no other vehicle which came close to Innova. I was driven in Mahindra vehicles in Sikkim, Uttarakhand and Himachal, but it did not come close Innova, I could never dream of driving a Mahindra over an Innova.

I was checking seriously for an Innova for almost an year. Finally I got a chance to own one used at a hefty price tag though. Innova never comes cheap. This one is from a family relative!

I had made up my mind on buying and about to transfer the advance amount but then a strange turn around happened. I spoke with my friend who asked me few questions on my decision to buy an expensive used car.

- I had not driven along highways for almost an year.
- I did not do  major driving recently.
- I was finding it difficult to maintain my current car without much driving.
- I was not ready for additional responsibility.
- I was not ready to part with my Tata car.

 Regularly work, gymming and trekking had kept me so so busy that, this spending was not at all justified.

So, I had to give up on my sugar coated dream of owning and driving a Toyota Innova. It simply did not make sense, to put money on something which would depreciate, which I had no use regularly.

Owning and parking it would indirectly turn me into a laughing stock. Yeah, its still my life, but this one was truly not necessary.

I wonder what I would have done, if I had ended up being jobless in the new year, is there a slowdown in near future?

I'm glad I have saved some lakhs and I am now having a happy and peaceful mind & head.

Thanks for my friend!

Cheers,

PS - Losing hard earned money, years of salary is definitely a big effort.

When actions speak louder than words - TTTT 29

Its amazing how one real life incident throws up so many ideas to write, shows how many life skills which we are missing, how many countless hours we are spending ridiculing others, speaking about others instead of honing our own skills.

My previous posts have highlighted about our situation when we were stranded on the highway yesterday with no help. Our vehicle refused to start owing to a drained battery. Now that we managed to source a battery and jumper cable, somebody had to do this piece of work. This might be a simple task for someone who knows basics well, but for a bystander it definitely is rocket science.

Luckily we in our group, we had one mechanical engineer, a proper mechanical engineer, a guy with hands-on training/experience with mechanical/automotive systems. A guy who had fitted AC units to buses, a guy who had crash tested buses. And believe me it showed.

While most people in current world, speak loads and do nothing, he directly jumped and connected the battery terminals of the tractor battery to our vehicle battery and after 5 minutes of idling we could start up our vehicle. (Spare the driver who not sure was aware or not)

It only shows actions speak louder than words. We were so privileged to have this person on board.

In my current organization as well as, I get poor pathetic feedback from people for the code I write. These are the people who do not write a single line of production code and still point fingers at me for writing bad production code! Such is irony!

(I do not react, but I only blog, yes my appraisal goes for a toss, but at-least I get to save my energy and wisdom for some other day! )

Cheers,

PS - Great talkers are never great doers, only people with hands-on experience come to the rescue. This has motivated me to speak less these days, because, there is no point trumpeting without basics (knowledge). I need to speak when I am pretty sure about the subject.

PPS - And yes, I am still bad at basics!

When many of the vehicles on the highway were ready to help. TTTT 28

I could have written about this post earlier too, but my goal to reach 100 posts for the year 2016 is making me to write newer shorter posts.

Today morning after being stranded on the highway, we planned to stop on going vehicles asking for help. I tried to stop few vehicles on the road around 6 30 am. Believe me, most yellow board/commercial vehicles stopped and were ready to help, but owing to non availability of jumper cable they could do nothing.

The reason why I am writing about this is, its only once in a while, I have encountered so many vehicles ready to stop. In general, I myself do not stop owing to the fear of getting robbed,but over here, even vehicles with single owner/driver stopped and asked what has gone wrong.

One such good day it was!

Cheers,

When being stranded on highway taught us a lesson - TTTT 27

Traveling teaches us lots of life lessons. Being stranded or unexpected situations while on travel teaches us even more. But the helping hand who bails us out also teaches us a bit more too.

It was my second time this year, I was stranded on the highway with no help or option. When help came it was a local gentleman who came with a tractor and jumper cable. He himself brought the cable which was a great deal in itself.

We were 12 fully grown up guys we could not manage to start the vehicle by pushing, could not get help from the highway anywhere. The guy who came with the tractor had lost one of his leg in an accident. He was so brave that he drove a tractor despite his condition and on top of that, came to help us.

Sometimes, I feel pity myself for the way, I behave with people, over here, this person early morning, despite his condition came to help us, to bail us out.

What more a better life lesson, I could learn other than being humble to others. I agree, we need to be better equipped while being on highway, but believe me, being humble tops the list.

We do belittle people for being fat, for being overweight, looking ugly, but yes, when the time comes, being fat, being ugly and other characteristics take a back seat. what matters most is humility and the ability to get things done and I am sure none of the characteristics we consider or make fun of are even close to getting things done.

I hope this incident lingers in my mind again and again, so that I can help do whatever I can to others, I will always regret not being a doctor or a soldier, but I will try to help!

Cheers,

When fellow travelers were Ravichandran fans - TTTT 26

Its been a year since I had written about a radio program on big 92.7 FM. It was Straight hits with V Ravichandran. The show no longer is aired. It used to have repeated songs from movies of Ravichandran but we were so adjusted to the songs, to the voice of the host V Ravichandran that Silkboard traffic was never an issue because we felt it was over shadowed by this radio program.

Ever since this program is off air lots of things have changed, our company no longer sponsors an AC transport / Innova, so our cab got split plus few members of our organization left, couple of others were laid off. So with no options left, we just manage to crib while passing through silkboard.

The reason why I am writing this is because, yesterday, we had a bunch of folks on board our vehicle who were fans of Ravichandran including the driver.  They were asking for Ravichandran songs to be played repeatedly. Almost many songs from his movies were being played yesterday, which reminded me of the golden period of 80's and of course golden period of our company where in we had AC transport, good funding.

But yes things change, people grow older, people move apart, organizations split up, fall apart, all that remains is memories,

Cheers,

PS - I think some of the best movies/music used to come out prior to this decade or two! I agree there were only love stories, no complicated plots, but with advancement of technology, things no longer are simpler, so are movies and their plots, so are lyrics and music!

When I was stranded on a highway, in a leopard / bear territory - TTTT 25

I could have written this as a part of the previous post, but surely its an interesting encounter to write about it in a new post.

Be it a myth or be it truth, this one surely counts as one spooky episode.

I was stranded on a highway at 2.30 in the morning and by the time we got to move from that place it was 8 30 am. Meanwhile, at around 7 30 am the only small shop on the highway opened. The village was  a kilometer from the main road and this was the only shop which was around.

We had spent the entire night roaming around the main road, sleeping inside the van and then sitting in front of campfire waiting for help to arrive.

So when the shop opened, they asked us how did we manage to spend time in the night, we told them about campfire etc etc, they gave us a big surprise.

They told the area was a bear territory, also recently a leopard had given birth and was roaming around in this place, surely, this gave goosebumps, but considering we had campfire we thought we were lucky enough.

But rest of the time, when I was roaming around the highway along the night before we setup the campfire, we were just plain lucky not to encounter any animals!

Cheers,

When I was stranded on a highway - TTTT 24

There are many such tales, about which I can write, but I tend to skip them owing to laziness, lesser time. But this one happened today morning at 2 am and I am still fresh enough to write this.

I had traveled to Gokarna over the weekend to take part in the beach trek. Before we reached Gokarna our vehicle (Tempo traveller) tyre just burst out, leaving us with one tyre to spare only.

When the we saw the spare tyre which we had, I was doubtful, if something went wrong, we would be stranded on the highway and believe me it happened. The driver was careless and overconfident enough not go have got the tyre fixed over the weekend!

Today morning at 2:30 am, we were 3 hours from Bangalore and somewhere near Nittur our vehicle tyre just got flat again.

In the middle of the road at 2:30 am in the morning, we had no option but to park the vehicle to the side. The driver took out the wheel looking out for a puncture shop at 2 am in the morning.

All the while, we were waiting for him to come back, we had managed to setup a campfire somewhere next to our vehicle and few of us managed to sleep of just to pass time.

The driver eventually came back around 6 30 am with a used 15 inch wheel instead of the usual 16 inch wheel. The old wheel was just unusable.

Meanwhile, due to usage of parking lights plus few other bulbs (to warn on coming traffic of our parked vehicle) the vehicle battery completely went dry. We tried to push the vehicle and get it running but it just refused to start.

We tried to stop few oncoming vehicles and ask them for jumper cable, but no one on the highway had a big jumper cable, finally, we got hold of a number of a gentleman, who would bring on his tractor and bring a jumper cable to start our TT.

We got our vehicle up and running by around 8 30 am, all in all we were stranded on the highway for a good 6 hours from 2 30 am to 8 30 am in the morning.

Had to skip office but never mind, one more experience!

Is that so

Its common for me to read few articles mentioning people who have accumulated wealth by unethical means. In-fact, there were many such articles in the past few weeks.

I was wondering, if the accumulation of wealth by unethical/illegal means, then how do we define people who make money by social engineering or social networking.

Assume, I wish to buy a travel bag, and I end up searching an online seller for some of the models available. Once I am done with my searching, I decide not to buy (or may be buy).

But one thing I have noticed is, the advertisements of this bag and bag seller appearing on every other website which I browse in future. This can be related to other items you shop online too.

So all in all, the owner of the website who is giving advertisement space is making money. There are millions of websites and each website which portrays this advertisement gets paid.

But for me the end user, its helpful or not, I will not be judgemental, but making money by force feeding advertisements, where in you follow up every user's every online footprint to market and make sure he buys into your crap, hmmm, is this any less compared to the people who make money illegally?

Selling your online email and mobile number to a marketing campaigner for money, (without knowledge of the individual) is this not making money unethically? I agree there exists some terms and conditions where this shall be covered.

Each user click counts and every where online advertisement campaigns have cropped up and there is  new division of engineering called Data Mining, deep neural network, Internet of things, Artificial Intelligence, Machine learning etc etc.

To conclude, I just want to analyze if doing a business is a form of cheating? Can one individual never grow rich without fooling others or looting others?

Cheers,

PS - If a person follows us everywhere with or without some intention, we end up making a complaint, same way, can't we complain to someone about these force fed marketing campaigns, I agree, we can block advertisements, but aren't there more stringent options to take people to task, so that this whole ecosystem spawning social engineering/machine learning/artificial intelligence, junk selling is put to a side track!

Happy birthday champion

December 7 happens to be the birthday of a very special person. I forgot to write a post on that day, I have no excuses.

Some people are meant to stand out from others, in terms of what they have achieved, hence the word champion, I guess one life is way too small to be thankful for the good work what they have done.

The more I type the more, I end up with teary eyes, happy birthday

Cheers,

PS - I sometimes cannot come to terms with the larger than life contribution made by my parents. 

Year ending, catching up on missing posts.

As the year 2016 comes to an end, I try to catch up with missing posts on my blog. This year has been a mixed bag of things. I have read, read something, I have traveled to few places, but over all things have not been at their best.

- I seriously wish I was a bit younger so that I could have taken more time off to travel.
- I wish my parents were a bit more younger that they would not complain of me not getting married.
- I wish my workplace had offered more stability instead of cost cutting measures and decision round the year. (Sad to see so many people left during the year).
- I wish I had traveled a lot more during the year.
- I haven;t been able to read much during the last few months, owing to my office stress, bad work!
- I have been consistent in the gym not skipped more than 2-3 days/month in the last 4 months!
- December 21 will mark my 3 years in this gym, have seen ups and downs did 4 Himalayan treks plus loads of Western ghat treks all owing to my gym teacher, parents support and God's grace.

Nevertheless, I am happy god has kept me in good health, I did a bit of travel during the year. Took some time out to travel to the Himalayas, went to Punjab too!. I did some treks locally in the western ghats. Now year end planning to travel some more, hopefully.

I wish to hit the coastal areas by road, and probably Goa too if God wishes!

I wish to complete 100 posts for the year too, so instead of whining, complaining, let me write.

Cheers,

Are Indian startups (ONLY) service aggregators?

Just curious are Indian startups only so called service aggregators?

I have come across few startups in recent times, so let me shortlist few of them :)-

- One which provides an online market place for buying new goods/utilities/clothes/books from different vendors,

- One which provides a mobile app / online portal to let common man to buy or sell stuffs from another common man.

- One which provides a website + mobile app to let users chose, select and shortlist homes in various cities/localities.

- One which provides a mobile app for getting your food delivered from your chosen restaurant.

- One which provides a mobile app for parent + child + school connectivity

- One which provides user an online option to search for help (plumbing/electrician etc).

- One which provides a mobile app for availing cab services.

- One which provides a mobile app for availing cargo vehicles for shifting goods etc.

- One which provides a mobile app + website to book bus tickets.

- One which provides a mobile app + website to book movie tickets.

Etc etc, I can name few more, never mind,
Do you see a pattern over here,

Each one of the above mentioned startup tries to automate a service which exists in the market!

Were there not cab services before, were there not parent teachers meet before, were there not bus booking counters before. etc, I am not saying none of them are beneficial,

Infact all of them are beneficial, I have nothing against any one of them.

I am just behind the thought process as to why each one of them is trying to automate service providers with an mobile app + website ?

Why isn't there anyone who can think of any start up which does not have a service provider underneath acting as a producer of revenue?

Is it that hard, when a startup can provide 12-15 Lakhs per annum to a BE fresher with 0 years experience I am sure they have a huge round of funding!

In that case, why cannot they do some path breaking research in core technology?

Well, I think I do have the answer in form of my assumptions,

- Path breaking research also breaks your back, its a pain in the arse when it comes to yielding results.
- Are startup founders trying to hide the above fact
- Are the founders greedy to make quick money and sell of the company to a competitor?

I almost forgot each of the above business / Startup I mentioned has one or more competitors too, thus driving the costs down also profit margins for them down, as a result they either end up in loss or they have to sell more / huge in number or shut shops!

Doesn't IIT / IIM tag add any weightage to research instead of automating service aggregation? I do not know. And by the way are these service aggregation idea original or are they copied from other countries? Well, I will leave it for you to decide!

Cheers,

Random thoughts on Indian Startups!

Often I wonder, what do Indian startups have as their business model?

Somehow, I am not able to conclude any decisive long term business model, which comes to my mind, which would carry them through for next few years or many more years.

You may be wondering, its their business, its their money, but what do I do, if my thoughts ask me questions on startups?

I can have an opinion of my own, why not?

So, coming back to the business model, I really think, Indian startups are lesser concerned about providing services to the Indian people. People cannot ask them to provide technology at a lesser price, they simply cannot(it demands another post).

Recently had a debate on a website, where in someone was of the opinion that the online retail & selling company was a technology company working and headquartered in India.

I was wondering, how come someone who is all about service aggregation, bringing different sellers under a common website come under a technology company. I do agree they provide mobile app and a website to chose products from, that does not mean they are a technology company, are they?

So the gentleman replied, technology company because, technology is needed to build a scalable website, mobile app and to maintain it which needs 100's of engineers and thus a technology company.

I was like, what the F! I always thought technology company is the one who gives proprietary technology straight to the end user in terms of usable products and NOT in terms of delivery of somebody's product via website.

- What may happen if the user's start going to stores and buying goods
   Still better discounts + reduced profit margins + higher pressure on buyer to sell more + higher force fed marketing resulting in buying unnecessary junk?
- What may happen if the user's buy only things which they genuinely require.
- Why are these service aggregators  not able to target coastal areas / rural areas
    Is it because rural people buy only stuffs that they need
    Is it because rural people are ready to spend enough time on services automated by these service aggregators?
    If rural people have such time to spend after work, where are we losing time?
again in traffic doing what ? building more of such applications to fool/con people into buying more junk.

Ahhh the vicious cycle continues!

Cheers,

PS - Amidst all of these I just saw someone being driven in a Porsche Cayenne (costs Rs 1crore +) in my tech park, well, may be the CEO of the online retail company, and the money, yeah investor funding!

Someone's sure getting richer conning common man into buying junk!

All about startups (What goes in my mind) Part 1

I have not reached 100 posts for the year, so thought of applying a cheat in order to reach 100.

I have loads of thoughts running with respect to the startups also I have few more posts regarding my past/recent treks to Himachal, the coastal side plus unknown forests. So I guess, I can hit 100 again!

With regards to startups I am trying to analyze about
- Their funding.
- Their business model.
- Their long term vision.
- Their profit making model.
- Their technology / service offerings.
- Their employees and pay packages.
- Their layoffs or retention.
- Their competition.
- Their end results.

You can think this as a prologue for one of those series of posts.
I had series on Cab Drivers, Tales from trek tour and travel, and now on startups,

In a way, I do not see any intellectualism as a part of these posts, just my cheat code to make sure I hit 100 posts for the year.

Meanwhile, its 7 50 in the evening and yes, I am posting from office, using office network! ( Sadly, I just turned unethical).

Cheers,

PS- My previous post was more like a person high on alcohol, probably, I was high on frustration that day, reading salary of employees in the startups, but now I am fine, hence trying to dissect the numbers!

And I am reading less and writing less, I have given some time to a wonderful individual, in return for sheer happiness!

Force fed marketing

I do have some thoughts on whether do we really need so many startups. One thing I noticed about the startups was that,

- The startups were either service aggregators.
   - You can consider service aggregator as someone who ties up with all the cab driver in Bangalore and connect them with your so called app.

- Providing service based on your data.
   - Some of the startups were more to do with online data like how do people decide what to buy, how to hire best people in the market, how to market more goods to people who by online, keep track of who unfollows you on twitter (really?) etc.

- Force fed marketing.
   - Continuing with the previous point, some of the startups come up with something called data science. Each online user's data is analyzed to find patterns of spending and churn out an algorithm where they can be presented with more shit to buy!

I mean common, just because somebody is coming up with a newer technology does it mean we ditch our hard earned money to buy it? Did life never exist without technology?

I still do not get the point where the so called over intelligent humans are tricking other humans to buy the shit that comes out of their brains? I  mean really, do we need so much of advancement just ot keep the population employed and engaged?

Can't we move to a simpler model, where we promote agriculture, lesser jealously and better life, instead of over exhausting what god has given us, just to end up with rich people and poor people and butt loads of traffic jams, exhaust fumes, hatred and technology to fuel more hatred!

I agree, science and medicine has made progress in terms of treatment/cure, I am not seconding this one, but other areas, instead of building individual electric cars? cant we build a public transportation system over the same electricity?

Jeez, why are we overthinking a problem,

Cheers,

PS - I have no doubt some of the startups are really useful, especially the one's providing cab facilities in Bangalore, but others, will let you decide!

Of startups and investments

Sometimes, I wonder, where the world is headed to. I see a lot of startups in Bangalore,
each one
  - trying to bring something new to the consumer.
  - trying to compete for market dominance.
  - trying to make money (well are they?)

We hear of the startups
- which provide software/app for cab services
- which provide software/app for bringing groceries to your home.
- which provide software/app for online shopping.

And there are many like this, also I see a lot of competitors for each of the genre.
I mean many people providing software/app for cab/groceries.

So, what makes me really wonder is though some of the startups are making money,
- are these startups really necessary
- No wonder these are providing opportunity for many people in terms of employment,
- But weren't there days when they did not exist and we still went ahead with daily chores.
- Haven;t we not arrived at days where we we are trying to automate/simplify things which are not really complicated in the first place.
- For example - driverless cars. app to open the car/start the car - I mean do we really need this.

What I am trying to understand is, are we trying to over think and create problems out of things which were really simple to accomplish? I know driverless cars shall help lot of people, but really, hailing a driver / cab should be simpler? dont you think so?

Found this below image, just wondered where the world is headed to. I just wonder, why people are funding such vada pav selling startups in the first place,

Cheers!

Giving out gyaan

Giving out gyaan or writing intellectually stimulating posts was never part of my intention on this blog, I have written my heart out over the years, but now, somehow, feeling the urge to write some thoughts of the way things are happening in real world, in other words, secretly disguised gyaan.

And yes, I have not been reading much these days, not sure why, my kindle stays idle!.

But here's trying my hand at some new genre of posts!

Cheers,

Ode to my place of worship

Its been close to 3 years I have been going to my place of worship, for the past two years, I have not been able to attend Ayudha pooja at my place of worship. But this year, I did attend and I am even more prompt in putting up a post the same day! I was upset for not making it the last two years!

My place of worship is where I have been training for close to 3 years. Well, I do not know how much it has got to do with my professional side, but to my personal side, its got to do 200%.

I think, its got to do everything with what I do, what I think, what I wear. Its only after I enrolled and visited this place of worship each day, I did get better and its only after I got that better, I did complete 4 (really difficult) Himalayan treks and loads of treks in Western Ghats including Kumaraparvata and also did Kumaraparvata cleanup. [Next planning for the 21 day Himalayan trek, but not that concrete]

This has got to do with why I am persisting with the same job, why I am still content with being in India. It has brought me loads of happiness, in return for a meager two letter word called hard work (and yes discipline too).

I feel very happy after attending Ayudha Pooja, so here's attaching few pics where I pray each day. Hope to continue praying for many more years to come!.

Cheers,

Things changed in the last few weeks

Many things have happened in the last few weeks. Most of which is not prominent. But I do want to mention couple of things though,

- I have been training rather irregularly.
    Ever since I came back from Himachal trek, I did not find the enthusiasm to maintain that zip to train, resulting in missing training sessions for over 3 weeks and the irregularity still continues!
- At workplace couple of people left.
   One person left and the other one is leaving shortly. So the people with whom I interact has come down by 2.
The good part is, we had a security guard who had quit and changed his line of work who came back to being a security guard. It is an exception, but sad part is he too had left for good and probably got laid off in his other job!
- I excessively feel the need to be alone. These days I dislike speaking to people, sometimes, I even dislike people speaking to me nor speaking next to me. I prefer to be alone most of the times.
  If you think thats depression, then I disagree. its needing quiet time after spending your day amidst chaotic honking traffic plus extroverted non sense speaking office people! (I am glad I have matured).
- I am not enjoying work anymore, only thing which makes me stick is the 11-8 pm work timings plus leaves plus the free transport provided plus the comfort of doing my work instead of leading a team of dumb headed incapable nitwits!

I may sound sarcastic in this post but do I care, I still have the urge to travel, but too lazy to pack bags hence become excessively choosy on travelling. Plus I am aging too!

Cheers,

Blogging from office courtesy ..Jio

I never had dreamt of blogging from office, reason being unethical, using office network to post personal posts on blog. But owing to some very specific reasons, I did change myself and let myself in to the craving of posting during office time rather lunch time.

Those reasons include.
 - Lots of time since I posted, urge to write something!
 - I see people going for pizza breaks/lunch/tea time and again for over an hour. Is that ethical, considering we are billing 8 hours?
 - I found no time after going home that I could write about, either I travel out of town or to office or train.
 - Plus I get so moody after interacting with people that, I need some alone quiet time that, I do not want even writing to come in between, heck even the reading has taken a back seat.
 - Finally, I am blogging not from office network but using Reliance Jio hotspot from somone's mobile.

If you can call this as free marketing attempt for Jio, do I care? as if my blog has many readers!

Many things have happened over the last couple of months and I am indeed running short of time.

Let me try to put it few stuffs which I might have missed and which I can recollect!

Cheers,

When I travelled on a historic route - TTTT 23

Last month I traveled from Amritsar to Delhi by Golden Temple mail. The train starts from Amritsar and goes all the way to Bombay.

So if you are wondering, whats so historic about this route, well, let me try to convince you!

- Before winding up our day at Amritsar, we went to Wagah border, Attari village. Lahore from there is just 23 kilometers. (from the India Border).

- Before partition, I am guessing the train line which starts from Amritsar would have ended at Lahore.

- I remember reading about Sadat Hassan Manto, traveling all the way from Pakistan to Bombay by train!

- I also have read, Mahatma Gandhi doing an all India travel by train where he mentions crossing over to Lahore by train,

So, coming from Wagah border and travelling from Amritsar in a train going to Mumbai via Delhi, dont you think, I just traveled by a historic forgotten route!

Yeah, I do not get to cross the border! But ain't my imagination weird and correct?

Cheers,

When a journey from Spiti Valley to Manali took 18 hours during the day - TTTT 22

Yes please, during our last trip to Himachal Pradesh, we had 2 days where we traveled during the day (that too 12+ hours)! Previous post indicated one, now its time to write about another such long day.

We had completed our 10 day trek in 8 days, by not taking a rest day plus covering 2 days distance in 1 day (27 kilometers). So we got two spare days and we made most of it!

This day, we started at 6 AM in the morning from Mudh Village in Spiti, again by a local bus We took 4 hours to reach Kaza too which is in Spiti. After around 1 hour for breakfast, we could rent a vehicle which would take us to Manali for about 9.5K.

So we started from Kaza and we had travelled around 47 Kilometers, our tyre went flat. The driver changed the tyre and within few meters the spare tyre burst out!

We were stranded in Spiti Desert for almost 3 hours with zero support. As there was no vehicle which to take us. Very few vehicles plied on that road leaving us with no option but to wait on the road!

Finally after 3 hours, we could manage a spare vehicle from Spiti itself, a 10 seater TT and we resumed our journey around 3 pm. Reached Kunzum Mata temple and Kunzum pass around 5 30 PM and Rohtang pass around 11 PM.

Made it to Manali and then Naggar around 12 in the night. So there it goes 18 hours of travel. Some pictures from Spiit Valley are below!

When a journey from Himachal Pradesh to Punjab took 12 hours during the day - TTTT 21

It was one awesome journey from Manali all the way to Amritsar. Yes it took 12 hours by road. And it was done all during the day! It was fun, but it did take away one precious day, which we could have explored Himachal Pradesh, never mind, we got to see Punjab as well!

Day started at 7 am when we got ready and packed our belongings from our homestay in Naggar / Himachal Pradesh. We managed to catch a local bus heading towards Kullu and from there we hoped we could get a direct bus to Chandigarh.

Kullu to Chandigarh shows 270 kilometers by road, so it would be close to 7-8 hours. We were hoping to hop on Volvo as going by ordinary bus in the hills would be much slower. Boy we managed to reach Kullu around 10 15 AM and then there was a Volvo bus heading to Chandigarh around 10 45 AM, booked the tickets.

The bus started on time and made all the way through the hills with loads of curves with pretty good speed. Only thing was, there were sharp turns to an extent where many people started throwing up. We managed to stop for lunch around 2 PM and then finally got down at Ropad/RoopNagar Punjab at around 4 15PM.

The main road where we got down and the bus stand of  Ropad are atleast 3-4 kilometers far. We managed to check out the Ropad Railway station hoping to catch a train which would make our journey quicker. But the only train to Amritsar was in the morning and we were left with no option but to go by bus and we walked all the way to the bus stand.

I was already feeling the heat. I was sweating badly and then we had to walk too with the luggage, boy it was tough, finally made in time to Ropad bus stand where we got a bus to Amritsar, All this was at 6 PM.

Distance between Ropad and Amritsar is around 190 Kilometers. I wondered if we could make it before midnight. We reached Jalandhar around 8 15 PM and the bus broke down leaking diesel fuel. We were put on a replacement bus and finally reached Amritsar around 11 PM.

What a day it had been. Luckily there were plenty of lodges around the bus stand and then got a room and finished dinner at around 11 40 in the night and slept off. Thoroughly entertaining day, considering we hopped on multiple buses, walked by foot, went to a railway station too!

Cheers,

When I travelled by foot/road/air/rail/water on a trip - TTTT 20

One such trip / travel I remember in my memory where in I traveled by foot/road/rail/water/air.

When I had been to Sikkim on a trek, I did travel by all the means mentioned above.

1. Travel by foot
    - The Himalayan trek
    - In Yuksom
    - In Gangtok/Kolkota and almost everywhere we did walk.
2. Travel by road.
    - NJP /Siliguri to Yuksom
    - Gangtok to Namchi/Pelling/Ravangla and finally NJP.
    - Yuksom to Gangtok
    - Gangtok to Changu Lake
3. Travel by rail
    - Sealdah / Kolkota to NJP/Siliguri.
    - NJP/Siliguri to Dakshineshwar / Kolkota.
4. Travel by air
    - Bangalore to Kolkota and back.
5. Travel by water.
    - Boat ride across Hoogly river / Dakshineshwar.

Ain't that fantastic, what memories!

Cheers,

When I refused to eat an apricot and wild strawberry on a trek - TTTT 19

This time during our Himalayan trek we had few interesting encounters, yes with flora and fauna of course. During the first day, we ended up having encountered numerous apricot trees.

Couple of my friends ate apricot. But I did not eat them. They are generally fresh and boy they were fresh. There were couple of reasons why I did not try them.

- All my focus was on completing the trek. I did not want to eat apricot and end up with upset stomach or something else.
- This fear took the better of me, and did not allow me to eat.

I do not have any such regrets, that I did not try. I completed the trek without having any stomach related illness, but was regularly teased throughout the trek for being over cautious.

Did I mind, nope, I wanted to finish the trek, and that's it.

On Day 3 we encountered wild strawberries, did I eat them, well, no infact!

Cheers,

Lonesome days

July 2016, I had been on my 4th Himalayan trek, and boy o boy it was fun. It was difficult, it was different. But then, now its done, I got many such sweet memories, which I am waiting to write down, but unable to do so due to time shortage, other commitments, no mood to write, lazy etc.

I traveled by foot, air, by road, by rail, ahh man, travel by sea was one thing missing! Ahh, I can post one more entry when I did all the above on a trip,

Its almost 3 weeks since I have come back from Himachal and I have been as lazy as I can, unable to train, having some dust allergy which kinda of ends up with me having a blocked nose repeatedly. Luckily I guess I am through with the allergy.

Busy with work and traffic in Bangalore makes me go nowhere. Trying hard to get back to writing something atleast hoping it would inspire me to write some more.

I haven't yet taken off the pictures from my trek/trip out of the camera. High time I do it. There goes the extent of my laziness.

Let me make a comeback of sorts into this materialistic world of ours. Here it goes!

Cheers,

Break from blogging

Well, I had taken a break from blogging. Too much of work coupled with leave and personal milestones, had taken a toll on me, and I preferred to stay quiet rather. Hence no posts.

Firstly, completed my 4th Himalayan trek (July 18-26). This too was in Himachal. Then traveled through Spiti valley, Kunzum pass, Rohtang pass. Then on towards Jalandhar, Amritsar then Delhi and Gurgaon and now Bangalore.

All in all 15 days of travel, 10 days of planned trek which we completed in 8 days. Loads of stories to tell.

Personally, I felt best because, I had not trekked in the last 3 months, I fell sick with some stomach infection after drinking water from the forest somewhere in April and people had advised me not to venture into tough treks.

I had 1.5 months to train back and get ready for the trek. The Himalayan trek was called on a short notice period and we had only 2 participants from Bangalore. It was like icing on the cake, lesser crowd means better synchronization altogether.

It was tough on my parents, because they were always worried about the rainy conditions plus landslides and the thoughts of Himalayas melting.

Somehow, made it through, completed the trek and now feeling quite better posting this update on blog after coming back home yesterday!

Cheers,

When I was sweating like a ... in Amritsar - TTTT 18

This was one such incident I would like to forget. I was in Amritsar recently, and I just experienced some heat. The day began with visit to Golden temple. I had kept most of my luggage in the baggage counter and in the process forgot to carry my bandanna and cap into the temple.

Then, after completing the temple visit and having lunch at the langhar, it was decided to keep the baggage at the counter and visit Jallian Wala Bagh and then Wagah/Attari border.

As we proceeded out of Golden temple, what hit me was the heat. I was sweating, sweating as if there is no tomorrow. It did not end. All along the way to Attari Border I was sweating, even while I entered the stadium there for the parade, I was sweating. The parade got over and again I was sweating. Believe me, it was a tough and embarrassing day.

I have learnt my lesson, hence forth, I shall keep a bandanna and cap handy everywhere I go.

Cheers,

When many people in the bus vomited / threw up, while travelling - TTTT 17

What a strange post to make a sort of comeback. I have to write this before I actually forget!

While travelling from Kullu to Chandigarh in the Himsutta AC volvo, during the day, (10 45 AM start), I noticed, throughout the journey many people started to throw up.

The reason being it was hills hills and more hills. Turns climb then again turns and climb. What else you expect people to do, who just had completed their morning heavy breakfast and waiting to munch on lunch!

I'm not exaggerating but the people sitting towards the rear end of the bus were all kind of feeling sick. Your's truly, well, I did sit at the rear end of the bus, did have breakfast, but somehow managed to calm myself not to throw up.

how could I have observed this if I was sitting up front and would I be even writing this, if I was one of them, who threw up! (no points for guessing I did not throw up!)

Meaning I did not throw up. Once the bus crosses Swarghat (HP) and entered Punjab, there you go, you find flat roads and you are out of the hills!

Cheers,

PS - You can avail the hill sickness bag if you wish to throw up, and all the windows are sealed, so.. 

When half the trip team comprised of INTROVERTS - TTTT 16

One such epic trip it was. I do not want to disclose where I went to during this trip, nor I want to disclose who all were there.

So all in all there were like 10 people and out of which I figured out 5 people were introverted.

Apparently during the trip, I could not figure out who's who. But now after so much time is through, I did realize half the team was actually introverted.

Now ain't that a beautiful coincidence.

Do we end up finding so many such people in one go, I don't atleast not on many occasions. And one such occasion was this!

Cheers

When the city of Kolkota charmed us, in a unique way - TTTT 15

Its been almost a year and half since I went to Kolkota. I was travelling to North East, Sikkim to be precise and there you go, I had to go through Kolkota/NJP and then cross over to Sikkim.

So both while going to and coming back from Sikkim we were like in transit through Kolkota leaving us with less time each time.

Kolkota has its own share of beautiful things to offer, like the street food, the metro, historical buildings and much more. So while coming back to Bangalore from Sikkim, we again made our way to Kolkota and this time, our team member chose to alight at Dakshineshwar railway station.

 I really do not know why we chose to visit the Dakshineshwar temple and visit Belur Math, considering we had only till afternoon, after which we had to board our flight to Bangalore!

It was indeed fun, the temple visit, the jetty ride, seeing the place once occupied by Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the big statue of Swami Vivekanand. It took us right down the memory lane reminding us of what has been Kolkota's contribution to the Indian Freedom struggle.

So many awesome people came from the same land where we stood, it felt good, it felt sentimental, and we had nothing but loads of respect. So many greats not only with respect to freedom, with respect to intellects like Sri Rabindranath Tagore and self awakened men like Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Swami Vivekanand, Sri Ishwar Chandra Vidya Sagar, had once moved on the same piece of land where we actually stood.

It felt so good. The dust which blew over us, once did too on these great men. The jetty ride across Hoogly river, the Belur Mutt, though it was closed, was so much awesome.

Then finally the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose airport, the same airport, where once, the Great Netaji had moved along, stepped onto, just reminded us of Bengal and its contributions to the great Indian freedom struggle. Much can never be said, but one has to experience the air which moves around this great land, the dust which just blows over in order to get a taste of how it feels like to be a part of this great city and state.

So it was not the street food which charmed us, but the history which indeed did. And I do have loads of respect for this great state and city, its people, without which our freedom movement wouldn't be the same and literary contribution too, wouldn't be the same!

Cheers.

When a stranger called us his children in Uttarakhand - TTTT 14

This tale is almost an year old, when in 2015, we had a trek in Uttarakhand. We had completed our Auden's Col trek and had traveled to a hill station called Kaddukal. This place is famous for Sarkunda Devi temple which is at a height of 9500m. Going to the temple is a good 25 minutes uphill walk.

Apart from the temple there were few houses which we mostly into the hill. There was a guest house where we had taken accomdation. Along with it, we had a solo hotel where we had our breakfast/lunch/dinner evening tea whatever.

This place seemed to be crowded during the day and over the evening it was tad empty. None whatsoever. Though the temple seemed to be open 24 hours on the occasion of a festival.

So we got introduced to this owner of this hotel. Since we were staying in this hill station for 3 days, we pretty much got pretty comfortable with the owner of this hotel.

And on the second day, we had come out to have dinner and the owner of this hotel a man in his 60's I guess, was there having his evening drink with his friend. So when we wished the owner of hotel, his friend curiously asked him who are these people.

To which the owner replied - "Yeh log hamare bete jaise hi hein.. Bangalore se aayein hein.. ".

It was indeed a surprising sweet gesture. By the way the above statement translated to - "These people are like my sons, they have come all the way from Bangalore.."

India is a very nice place, you end up getting connected, all out of nowhere!

Cheers,

When we ended the beach trek with a swim in the waters - TTTT 13

The best part of a beach trek is that, we get to take a dip in water whenever we would like to. But most of the time, people are busy walking so taking a dip in water all alone is not entertained.

But we generally do not miss out on a dip in water once the trek is through. This time too, we abandoned the trek around 5pm along Haldipur beach. So we boarded the vehicle and then moved ahead to some unknown beach before Apsarakonda and then took a dip in water.

Evening tides were pretty high and it was fun. Less crowd and entire stretch of beach all for ourselves. What more we can expect?

A pleasant end to the day and the trek. We then proceeded towards a hotel in Kumta for dinner and then by 10 pm we were ready to depart towards Bangalore. Another attempt in travelling to coastal Karnataka had been a success!

Cheers,

a pic from the beach!

When we cooked an awesome dinner on a trek.- TTTT 12

Beach trek is one of my favorite treks, the reason being, its relaxing. There is no need to hurry it up. There is no train to catch, no time restrictions to complete, come out, which usually happens when inside a forest. Plus anytime we get bored, we just end up saying quit since the road runs parallel to the beach!

So this time, on our trek from Gokarna to Honnavara, we decided to stop at Holanagadde Sri Ramanjaneya temple. The best part of this stop over is that, the temple is capable of accomodating many people. There is place to cook and a place to get refreshed. So before starting the trek, we had requested our van to come over to the temple premises.

With many people on board this trek, you can imagine a good fair amount of ration was in store.

We had many such vegetables alongside fair share of rice too. Evening menu was Bisi Bele Bath and sweet payasam. We had expert cooks on this trip and believe me, this dinner turned out exquisite. With all the dry fruits and clarified butter (ghee) it was second to none. Ate till stomach was full and then slept in the temple premises.

But the way preparation went it was just pretty awesome and we sat in a line and took turns to finish cleaning. And your's truly that is me was responsible for washing and cleaning the cauldron and few other utensils. By the time, I finished cleaning many other people had settled themselves up for a good long night's sleep.

And by the way, I have not mentioned how many people were there as a part of this trek group. Well the number of people we cooked food was 30. Yes, 28 team members of the trek and 2 including driver and cleaner. You can now imagine how many vegetables dry fruits and ghee has been consumed!

Cheers, one more such tale! and who would have imagined we would end up cooking and eating such an awesome dinner, something to cherish for a lifetime!

Cheers,

When I lost my way in a trek.- TTTT 11

One of my all time favorite treks is none other than the beach trek. No matter how many times, I do a beach trek, I shamelessly end up registering for another. This time was no common.

We were on the Honnavara to Gokarna stretch. I covered this stretch. But around this time, it was Gokarna to Honnavara, yup exactly reverse the stretch covered previously.

We were supposed to camp at Holanagadde beach, rather, camp at Sri Ramanjaneya Temple Hollanagadde. So on this first day, we had to cover from Gokarna Om beach to Holanagadde.

And in between we do encounter a stretch which needs to be crossed on a ferry since there is an absence of land to walk on!

And its over here your's truly lost his way. The tadadi port ferry line starts at the entrance of the village and it is a deviation from the main road.

Since I was coming alone jay walking, I did not find the deviation and instead ended up right in the village following the main road.

As I leapt ahead I could not find others and kind of freaked out. Few people who had seen me go this way, had followed me. And now, I was amidst the village.

Along the main road in the village, I could locate an area where the fishing boats were parked or a harbor kind of thing. These were actually commercial fishing boats. They brought fish from the sea to be transported by trucks. So I ended up amidst a bunch of fishermen, who were taking a break after hard work.

I enquired where was the ferry to Aghanashini available at and they pointed to me a location almost 400 m from where I was standing. They in turn asked me my where abouts, where I was from and what was I doing in the fishing yard.  I told them and proceeded to locate my trek mates.

There you go, when I reached the boatmen was shouting because the boat was getting delayed by us and believe me this was the last boat for the hour, next boat would be only after 1 hour or else we had to charter a boat for ourselves which would rather be expensive.

So I got in and there you go, full team was on the boat and we crossed river Aghanashani!
One more interesting encounter.

Cheers,

When we started cooking dinner at night 11 30 (PM) - TTTT 10

There are days when we travel to far places to trek. So travel time itself is huge! It was one such occasion. Reaching Honnavara from Bangalore was the plan.

Late start from Bangalore and there you go, reaching Honnavara was a big ask. It was nothing short of 500 kilometers. And then, we went through Sirsi and there you go, one more pitstop a temple visit and all that.

So it was 12 in the afternoon when we finally made it to our trek start point. We started in the summer heat with temperature around 38 degrees and high humidity.

After two hours we reached our camping place, base camp. We had our lunch, the problem is the water falls was a good 6-7 kilometers away and it was all rocky path.

So we started around 3pm towards the water fall and boy we made it around 6pm, when it was about to turn dark. Soon we took turns to visit the waterfalls bathed in waterfalls and in another 45 mins we were about to start.

It was turning dark and it was full moon day, We were up against a dark dark night amidst forest all for ourselves. Navigating with torch lights, sure it was fun. But we reached back to our base camp at around 11 PM. Once we made sure our tarpaulins were all laid out we soon embarked on the journey of cooking.

And there you go, cooking at 11:30 PM in the night. Above that, your's truly that is me was trying desperately breaking a big tree trunk with a blunt machete.

It was fun, doing all those crazy antics in the middle of the night. Once dinner was ready at 12 AM, we ate, it was rice with puliyogre mix.

So there goes the after effects of starting a trek late and ending it even late!

Cheers,

Motivation for writing about cab/shuttle drivers and about tales from travel

I have been writing about cab drivers and tales from travel, wonder what motivated me to write about it. I am not sure, I have really opened up about that, if not, I guess time is ripe to let it out before I forget and it takes months together.

Reasons include -

• Increasing number of posts.
• Getting the number up with burst of short posts which take lesser effort than long story telling, well, that is my motto.
• Interesting encounters
• There are tonnes of interesting encounters which I had in the last couple of years owing to travel, writing would end up in a book for that matter.
• Getting to know myself
• Writing opens up more info about oneself than anything else. 
• Experienced hands.
• Meeting different people, not only gets their culture going, but also lets out their experience speak. People who are driving vehicles for large part of a decade, the problems they have encountered, what makes them click, its all part of learning curve.
• To write about uncommon things
• Who could have imagined, writing about travel/tale experiences would lead to recollecting and reminiscing so many funny and awesome incidents.
• Its not everyday that I tend to notice intricacies involved in other activities, like travelling.
• Sometimes, we are so much head over heels about our jobs or profession that, we fail to notice, other people too, what value add they bring to our ecosystem. Like the guide for our treks, porters, helpers, these people come in handy when it requires the most.
• I think, meeting them, interacting with them, opens up a whole new box of knowledge which ceases to exist within books.
• Experience is a great teacher and believe me, their experience just shows.
• Reading books and gaining a degree is one side, braving a real storm is another!
• Met drivers who were themselves ace mechanics.
• Met drivers who drove from Bangalore to Bihar/Assam/Kolkota on trucks/car/pickup.
• To add later

As of now can recollect these points, but sure shall add more,

Cheers,

Shuttle driver #15 - A driver who previously drove a truck, 10 wheeler

As I try to do multiple tasks at the minute, I recollect having a wonderful shuttle driver recently. Once in a while we do have shuttle drivers who have driven exceptional vehicles. From an ambulance to a, soda bottle carrying 6 wheeler, and now a proper 10 wheeled truck.

So, this driver, was a temporary one, probably for an evening's drop. He was around 5 ft and looking very slim. He started out with the vehicle in a very rough way. I mean it crossed potholes rather hurriedly. I was quick to assume that the driver had poor visibility and thought he was in a haste.

Then, since the vehicle as pretty new, we asked the driver about its ownership details. He told us it was his own self vehicle, and a week old, thats it. So we asked him what was he driving before and what made him buy a new vehicle.

Considering, he was so slightly built, I some how got a feeling, he was probably driving a 6 wheeler, but the real surprise came when he said, he owned a 10 wheeler Leyland truck on partnership with one more person and had run into loss. His family feared accidents would happen while driving a truck and hence scaled him down to a Tata Indica.

Its not very often we get a driver who responds to our question and has previously driven a truck. So the conversation began with a small hint that the driver was eating betel nut and gutka / zarda whatever. It somehow turns out people from North Karnataka eat pan masala gutkha while drivers from South Karnataka smoke cigarettes. The pattern is consisent.

Over here too, it matched, the driver was from Raichur and had been in Bangalore for over 15 years. For the good part of 6 years, he had owned and driven a truck and prior to that, he had joined as helper for a MAN Truck. I wonder, MAN Truck existed in India 6 years back? Need to check on that.

So we asked where all he had been his truck and about his bad experiences while visiting other places. He had been to Bihar, Assam from Karnataka and had carried loads of potatoes, onions, groundnuts and few other things for that matter.

Regarding bad experiences, he told he was robbed of his stepney in Mumbai once and nothing else. He also insisted he carried less money and had only a ATM card with money, so he felt very secure.

We also spoke about Tata trucks versus Leyland trucks. I was under the impression Leyland was in huge demand and performed better. But he corrected me saying, Tata trucks were better off pulling heavy loads when compared to Leyland. I'm sure its individual perception, but still, TATA has a loyal customer in him, even though he owned a Leyland truck.

There goes one more driver intro, almost 5 months have passed since I have written about the driver series, the reason being we had consistent Toyota Innova cab till March.

Cheers,

PS - Now back to some reading!