For the Love of India: The Life and Times of Jamsetji Tata

In brief 

This book is a biography of Mr JN Tata. It provides an insight into his life, his works, his projects, also his family.

In detail 

I should have read this book a long long time ago, infact I am ashamed because all these years all my awareness about the history of the Tata conglomerate was a tatty one.

Some books are to be read by school kids just to get them inspired. One such book is this. Sad we do not have this as part of curriculum, atleast I do not remember having one in mine.

This book contains excerpts from various people and various conversations that had some association with Mr JN Tata. I simply loved the one between Mr JN Tata and Swami Vivekanand.

Take away from this book

You get to learn more about the founding father
- who worked selflessly for the upliftment of people of India.
- who brought industrial revolution to India.
- how well read and grounded Mr JN Tata was.
- how he touched the lives of each and every Indian in one or the other way.
- his projects, be it Empress,Swadeshi,Tata Steel,Taj Mahal hotel, IISC
- his will where he pledged part of his wealth to his countrymen, for bringing up IISC.
- what a visionary he was, his plans for hydroelectric plant to reduce combustion in the late 1800's. (yes please).
- his pension, gratuity schemes in the late 1800's
- his travels in an era where a month ship travel was all needed to for a return trip to America.
- his shipping company which he planned to take on rival British company.
- his contribution in Swadeshi movement.

Also you get to learn about the "A-Team" which he built. At the end of this book all I can say is, I am so so proud, Mr JN Tata was born in India.

A excerpt on where Mr JN Tata studied and what transformed him - " The teachers at the Elphinstone Institute not only informed but aroused curiosity and awakened young minds to make their own studies and discoveries through life." 

Take a bow!
Cheers, (less)

Shuttle driver #13 - Driver who drove us down a memory lane!

So, now that we have a regular cab/shuttle fixed on our route, we are no more worrying about daily changing drivers and vehicles!

Our routine driver took a day off and instead sent across one of his friend. His vehicle was none other than the legendary Toyota Qualis. The production of Toyota Qualis stopped around 2004 or early 2005 which is almost a decade back.

So whenever we encounter a Qualis as one of our shuttles all of our cab mates get very curious and start asking questions to the driver.

The questions range from how many kilometers has the vehicle done, is the engine opened for repair once or is it still sealed, how many times the clutch plate has been replaced, how many drivers/owners etc etc.

So this appeared to be the second case where the qualis was driven by a single owner since purchase. Yes please, I was surprised when he said that. But appears to be true.

Here goes the answers to the questions what we generally pose.

- Single owner
- Date of purchase - December 2004.
- Original kilometers - 7,37,000 - yes 7 lakhs 37 thousands.

What was the icing on the cake was, that the driver told that, he used to do pickup/drop for Symphony Services located at Cessna business park in the year 2005. Well, back then foundations of other buildings were being laid was I guess, this was the only operational unit out there.

Back then there were no flyovers and underpasses and only congestion could have been KR Puram or Kundalahalli Bridge. On a very good day, Marathahalli to 4th block Jayanagar took 45 minutes only.

It was all retro rewind with this driver! Since he is a replacement driver he will off after couple of days.

Cheers,

PS  - I am still surprised on how a person could drive a same vehicle for 10 years without an upgrade. may be he has other vehicles back home!

Shuttle driver #12 - Driver who didn't need a rear-view mirror

In the cab driver series of posts, I can recollect one more driver, something was very strange about him and his vehicle as well.

He used to drive a Toyota Innova, which had done more than 1.5 lakh kilometers, but was in almost mint condition, almost zero rattling. But one weird thing was, his vehicle had no rear view mirrors none to the left, none to the right. I can never imagine driving a vehicle without rear view mirrors. I can probably do that, with Maruti 800 or Alto, but anything which is sizably bigger needs a rearview mirror, especially the one on the left, because that is where the 2 wheelers overtake us from!

But this guy was so comfortable driving without rear-view mirrors, it came as a surprise to us, not as a shock. One advantage of not having rear view mirrors on Innova is that, you drive it so closely in traffic. You can just drive it like a car, penetrate through smaller sections without much hassle.

With a couple of rear view mirrors I am sure, it slows you down, because on smaller roads, the judgement needs to be perfect, so generally, you dont take chances, either you slow down or completely halt. But without rear-view mirrors, man, you can drive it so close!

I learnt that, but seriously, it comes with a cost, of course!

Sadly, he lasted probably 3 days, may be 6 trips, thats it! He was more of a tourist driver than a office pickup/drop!

Cheers,
PS - Regarding driving without rear-view mirrors, well thats limited to Maruti 800/Alto, which I have driven not more than 10 kilometers. So my experience without rear-view mirrrors is almost nil.

Free Lunch - One such thing in Dharamshala!

After we had successfully completed the 12 day trek, we almost had 2.5 days to spare in Himachal Pradesh. So we decided to halt at McLeodGanj. One very first day, our team split  (foodie / sight seeing / lazy bunch ) leaving me and my friend with an option to come down to Dharamshala during the day and go back to McLeodGanj during the night.

So once we came at Dharamshala, we did one such unique thing. While coming from Billing to Dharamshala we had seen free food distribution at a Langhar near Sri Chamunda Devi Temple. Over here in Dharamshala too, we saw free food distribution (for lunch of course). We were in luck we thought and I quickly made up my mind to stand in line for free food. My friend who was initially reluctant to stand in line, finally agreed after a stranger told him to stand in line.

In return we got to eat some delicious rice+dal+rajma. My friend expressed his desire to stand in line yet another time for which I disagreed!

Cheers,
Below is the picture.
Location. On the junction of the road leading to McLeodGanj where one can board multiple private taxis and where there is an intersection!

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,

Shuttle driver #11 - Driver who formally retired

We were on the lookout for shuttles as well as drivers. On one such occasion, we came across a driver, who was ready to drive us to office. Loads of things happened during this period. He became one of our good friends, but in the end, he formally retired from professional driving, instead choosing other business!

Few things which happened were -

1. He drove a red colored vehicle. Normally we never see a taxi which is red colored. But this one was, he told it was his lucky color, even the seat covers were red!

2. He once told about an incident, when he had driven an ambulance all the way from Bangalore to Nagalapuram (AP) and then to Hassan. The way he told the story of what had happened, it just sent chills down our spine. I cannot even think of writing what happened and about his experience when driving the ambulance and for what purpose.

3. He also told about one occasion, where he had gone to a high profile wedding and I cannot write about that one too over here!

But his stay was also quite short as he chose to do business instead of driving vehicle. As a result, we ended up losing contact with him!

Cheers,

Shuttle driver #10 - Driver from Madikeri

We had one such driver, who belonged to Madikeri. He too came on for a short duration. He was willing to continue for longer duration.and gotten attached very much to all of the cab mates, but unfortunately, owing to his health condition, he was advised a month's rest and there after we never got to hear about him.

I hope he is fine these days. Few things happened during his tenure as a cab driver too. Regarding his family, he told they owned some acres in Madikeri. His father had served in the armed forces and retired, while his brother was still in the army.

- Once his mother had came all the way from Madikeri, his mother had brought some herbs from the forest and cooked Sambar out of it. He had brought this sambar for us to taste. It was the first time in the history or since my childhood a driver had fed his home cooked food. It always used to be vice versa.
- Most of the time, we had shuttles/vehicles confirmed but drivers used to abscond. But this time, the driver was very much willing to continue, but there came a day, when the vehicle which was assigned to our route was put up for sale. The travel company itself was selling its vehicles off. But even before this sell off happened, the driver just retired due to health reasons.

Sad ending to a budding friendship, never mind.

Cheers,

Of cult icons & Vikas Khanna

Disclaimer  - I guess, I have a right to opinion and I am sure not offending anyone!

2014 was a very significant year, not only did I travel quite a bit, I got to eat quite a bit too, I mean proper food, not the one filled with calories and loads of concerns. One person whom I owe for this change in food habits is none other than Vikas Khanna.

It was somewhere in the first few months of 2014, that Twist of Taste Season 3, coastal curries was shown on the Fox Life, then Fox Traveller.

This season was all about curry making, most of the episodes were to deal with non vegetarian food, sea food. But the thing which I took away from this season, was the intricate art of blending spices, making all those Chettinad spices, using garlic, ginger, cumin, coriander, roasting them, grinding them, powdering them, mixing them, marinating stuffs with them, literally everything was shown.

Not that, I have mastered them over a period of time, I'm still the same with limited knowledge, but this whole series put me back to the kitchen, where I went and experimented myself, ending with dishes which no one preferred to eat. But I was proud of myself.

Together with that, it instilled in me, the option to eat home food in a limited way. There is some charm about Vikas Khanna's this particular season, which made me go back to the basics. The way he cooked food, the way he presented, he spoke, how much emotion he showed, he did no overdo showing emotions or under do the same. The whole series was a major learning cuver, not only about cooking food, blending spices, but it was also about how to eat in moderation.

A person's body gives away his eating habits, looking at Vikas Khanna and his stunning appearance, I could only guess, how difficult was it for him being a chef and being a foodie, to eat in moderation. Just to look good and just to be fit, one had to give up their life long passion for food by eating in moderation or not eating at all.

I'm only taking a guess, but somehow I am pretty sure, being a celebrity he does not indulge in overeating. I followed the same footsteps. Its been quite a while I over indulged in eating. I feel sad, to let go of my food habits. In my past life sins, I loved good food, always look out for things to eat.

But now a days, courtesy the discipline installed in me by my teacher, I can only turn to television to look at dishes or smell the dishes and relish them rather eating them and enjoying them.

I have no regrets about it, because in return, I get to fit into all those clothes which once were a dream.

Sometimes, people vote for a cult icon, youth icon etc etc. Some one who has excelled in sports, someone who has shown people how to do it, someone who has instilled confidence in people, someone who has provided employment opportunities.

People can provide employment to others, teach about dreams, hard work, but whose the one who can teach about cooking, good health, eating right in moderation and exercising which is the main ingredient in chasing dreams. its got to be a celebrity chef. So if you ask me whose the youth icon, I would say Vikas Khanna.

By the way, how many people are aware of Vikas Khanna, how does he look, I am not sure, Well here's a picture sourced from the internet.

Cheers,

PS  - if you do not agree with me, no worries, just look out for him on fox life, just see how he goes about his business, once the dishes are prepared, just look at how he tastes them, trying to decipher each of the spices and ingredients using the taste buds, how he relishes them, even a small piece, his eating habits are a big give away so is his cooking. I am sure, you too will agree with what I have just written or said.

One question on quora

I have deleted my quora account over 3 months. Suddenly one person gave me a screenshot. I thought, I could share it over here. Probably again my stand on quora remains vindicated. Never know, the person asking the question might be surrounded by goons and beaten up or reported for abuse or downvoted. Who cares.

Cheers,

You may be wondering, if these kind of questions are doing rounds on quora, what kind of answers may be doing rounds and whether reading the same would be an added advantage or waste of time. Thats left for you to decide.

How to reduce time spending on facebook!

I don't know how many more times, I shall write on how to reduce spending time on facebook.

Disclaimer - This comes out of my mind, I have nothing against facebook, they are doing a great fabulous job.

Sometimes, you just spend way too much time on facebook. This results in

1. waste of personal time.
   - could have engaged in more productive work during that time.
2. reading stuffs which are not necessary.
   - sometimes, you may end up with informative stuffs, but most of the time, I felt it was gutter      waste.
3. Jealously / let down.
   - sometimes, people get let down, by seeing others posting rosy pictures about their life.
   - reality may be totally different, but people do get influenced into thinking they are somewhat inferior than the people posting rosy updates.
4. Nothing to talk about.
   - Once you meet the friend in person you no more have anything to talk because, each day we are seeing so much of one another's update, we just end up cursing the person, if he appears in front of you. I think this holds relevance.
5. Self trumpeting (boasting).
   -  May be, I too engage in this, posting pictures about my travel. I can improve.

So I figured couple of tricks which could help me reduce time on facebook. Its not about unfriending or de-activating your account, but something very simple.

Facebook is based on push model. Each of the other person's update is fed to you. You are made to read other people's updated automatically (by default). How about converting it into a pull model. Where you pull up and see interested person's updates whenever you need instead of being fed. You can do this by un-following people's feeds/updates.

I tried this, it worked wonders. There is a saying which goes "Out of sight is out of mind". Anyone whom you do not interact on a regular basis was forgotten by me. Pulling updates from all the people would take so  much of time that, I stopped doing it. Which  made my time spent on facebook equally boring, thus reducing my time usage on facebook to a great extent.

Putting friends on restricted list ensures none of your updates get published to them. As a result, people tend to think you are inactive on facebook and you go out of their minds.

Turning off chat for all the people or turning it on for specific people makes sure, you do not end up pinging each and every person whose status is green. This too saves lot of time.

I have saved loads of time plus loads of money via data plan after I have made these changes. Hopefully you too put your time into something more meaningful than facebook, like, reading a book by Rabindranath Tagore, translated to English, how about that?

Cheers,

Bombay Stories - Sadat Hasan Manto

How I am close to achieving my writing challenge for the year 2015, of 75 posts. So I shall copy paste a review (of sorts) which I put across in goodreads for the book which I read recently. (rather shamelessly of course)

Cheers,

Here goes the review

Title - Bombay Stories
Author - Sadat Hasan Manto.
Rating - 4/5

How I love Manto, and how obscure I have been about his writing all these days! Pity me, but not anymore. 

I have read multiple books on Indian History, Indian freedom struggle, set during 1930's. This particular book too is set round about the same time and it covers quite a lot of ground as it chugs along covering topics other than the freedom struggle.

How the author has portrayed his stay in Mumbai during the pre-independence era, what occupation the people were into, a glimpse into the film industry during the 1930's, it has left me with no other option that to order few more books of Manto as well as Bombay and start reading them too. 

So many people get introduced in this book and each one has a different tale to tell. Its a great work, the translation might have taken off some luster but overall its a gem worth taking some time out and reading. That's my perspective though, I hope you agree!

I could literally visualize an era, where the population was less, technology was not that advanced, life was laid back, where a journey from Lahore to Bombay could be taken by a train, plus an age where letters, telegrams and occasional roaring of an engine, still held a charm. 

How I wish I could have heard such stories from my grand parents. Never mind, but with Manto's stories for company, I am sure, I can fill that void and instead come closer to understanding the day to day life of a (Indian) common man during the 1930's and 1940's.

Yet, for me, the shortcomings include
- Most stories revolved around prostitutes/pimps. Other occupations could have been written about.
- Alcohol, few stories carried instances of this, 


so though I like the way its written, things could have been a bit more broader, but never mind, I still love them.

Short posts instead of long ones'

Writing short posts is so much fun, instead of writing longer ones'.

- It saves time, instead of re-writing, editing stuffs.
- It suits me (pleases me), I dont know how to put it, but its more like a maverick style, you take it or    leave it.
   considering, only me and me read these posts, I prefer to write whichever way I write.
- I do not forget about topics. So much to write about, yet so little gets through, short posts give me a   chance to write about everything I encounter.
- Taking inspiration from short story writers, I can only tell, I love this approach!

Cheers,

Shuttle driver #9 - Driver with a criminal backdrop!

Well, this one's sure gonna take time. Probably, I will be snoozing by the time I finish this post.

Yes, its true, sometimes, we cross roads with people who have had criminal records. It was one such case, and its almost 1 year to this day, we had met that driver. There were multiple things which happened during this period and multiple hidden stuffs came out of the closet.

This driver was a married man. infact he had fell in love with a relative of his and married her. But things took a different turn, when his wife asked him to leave his mother and stay separately along with his kid. But this chap, who was more attached to his mother, decided to leave his wife at her father's place and was staying with his mother instead. [May be for sometime, not sure]

One on such occasion, when things got worse, he felt like committing suicide it seems. But he did not do so, instead he went and told his wife about his worry, when she too told him that, she was contemplating suicide. I was shell shocked to hear this. But in the end, its by God's grace, who put some sense into their fried brains that they did not take any wrong decision.

The criminal backdrop with this driver was that, he was questioned by the police for being a notorious rowdy, which I felt a little strange, because, this person never lost his cool and was pretty much smooth going. He told, when he was questioned, it had a deep mental and psychological effect on his mother, which he regretted badly.

But the biggest disaster happened on one such day while returning from office. I myself had a very tough month of October 2014. Things took a different turn for me during that month, inspite of that,I was somehow chugging along. One one such night drive, a drunk two wheeler driver all of a sudden came head on with our office shuttle. The driver sensed this and took a immediate left, because of which the two wheeler brushed the vehicle driver side mirror so hard and fell off. The mirror broke and since I ducked a piece of it came and hit on top of my head. It was not a major impact. but the drunk driver of the two wheeler, was on the ground, with people surrounding him. He was mildly hurt and managed to go away. And regarding the cost of the broken mirror, well it came on the driver!

I wish I could have given a bit more description, but believe me, there are incidences about which I prefer not to write at all. But all in all, one more encounter.

Cheers,

Shuttle driver #8 - Driver who used 'Ittar' instead of car perfume!

Its true, we had one such driver. He drove the office shuttle for approximate two days only. But the strange thing with respect to him was that, instead of the car perfume which everyone normally uses, he had refilled the bottle with Ittar.

I was always of the opinion tha Ittar was expensive. But there seem to be various flavors which are available at different prices(I am assuming). But filling up almost 250 ml ittar for usage within the car felt a bit too much.

This driver hated to do local pickups and drops, instead preferred out of town assignments. The day he first arrived, he had driven all the night from Pondicherry and had come with almost no sleep.

But after 2 days he simply vanished, with us looking for new drivers yet again..

Cheers,

Happy birthday Freddie Mercury

Was remembering Teachers' day on 5th September, but forgot about this great gentleman. Happy birthday Farukh Bulsara aka Freddie Mercury. The person who took Song writing, singing, performing to a whole new level.

Adding an image, which itself, tells what Freddie Mercury was all about!

Sourced from the internet of course.

Cheers,

How I taught my grandmother to read,, by Sudha Murthy.

After many years, got hold of one more book by Sudha Murthy. This was a collection of short stories comprising of her encounters with common people and many such occasions from her life.

I loved the book and completed it within (under) couple of hours. I particularly felt attracted towards the chapter on Bharat Ratna JRD Tata and also the chapter on what to learn from Russians.

The chapter which told Russians went to war memorial on the day of their marriage to offer their gratitude to the war heroes' just made me remember the small picture of MK Gandhi, which appears on my blog. I was quite happy with myself, that each day, I get to remember the father of our nation.

But somehow felt equally shamed, for not having picture of Tata's also in my blog. I am so much in awe of the Tata clan that, the least I could do was to have a picture of them on my blog and offer my deepest gratitude.

The Tata's have provided so many opportunities to Indian people over the last century as such that, its difficult to even think of an India without the Tata's.

To TATA is to India,

Cheers,

Shuttle driver #7 - Driver who busted a radiator!

Well, don't pop your eyes out. The radiator did not split up into two halves, instead just the coolant spilled out on the road, leaving us with an overheated engine!

This particular driver came to our route, just for a single day and that too for an evening drop. He brought his own vehicle with was a Tata Indica pretty old one 2006 model or so.

So if you are wondering, what story is associated with this driver, then here it goes.

- Apparently, everything went fine till HSR layout signal just before silk board junction. But then all of a sudden, there was smoke coming from under the hood/bonnet and there it goes all the radiator fluid aka coolant spilled out on to the road. The car refused to start.

On further examination the driver figured out that, a connection to the cooling fan was lost and as a result, the engine overheated due to the fan not functional. I wonder, what caused the radiator fluid to leak out. Looked like the water pump had failed to circulate the coolant.

So what did this driver of us do, he was a guy around 20 years of age. He used all his skill-set and took a piece of wire and directed the circuit straight from the battery to the fan bypassing the thermostat. ( I assume that's how the circuit ideally goes, with the thermostat notifying the engine temperature causing the fan to run and the coolant to be circulated).

He went to a nearby vendor and brought a bucket full of water and filled the radiator and started the engine. The fan by now had started running on battery power, no needed to start the engine and go by the thermostat to get it running. But the sad part is the water pump refused to work. So we were left with couple of fans to cool the engine down, with thermostat working correctly. So whenever the engine temperature went above a mandated range we would stop and allow the engine to cool down instead of blowing the engine. We stopped a couple of times, but we could get home.

Well, if you are thinking what makes this driver make an entry to this series, let me be bit more frank with you.

- There is a popular website, team-bhp.com where all the so called motor enthusiasts gather to discuss about automobiles. I too had tried to register for that website, back in the year 2009, but I was turned down badly, because, I could not write a proper essay on why I wanted to join the automobile enthusiast website.

 I was miffed for a couple of days, then I went back to the local mechanic near my house and discussed with him on vehicle I was about to buy. Finally I settled with Tata Indica Vista Tdi. But I never registered for that website team-bhp.com again. I was pretty confident that, when I could speak to a local mechanic on car related matter who was a hands on guy, why would I want or wish to register amidst only a bunch of enthusiasts who would themselves turn to a mechanic for their repairs. It was waste of time even writing an essay.

Today, after seeing this 20 year old cab driver making repairs hands on, my stand on that automobile website team-bhp.com stands vindicated. I pride the time where I go about talking to people on the field like drivers, mechanics, instead of a bunch of enthusiasts who know all about theory of vehicles, but need a mechanic to do their repairs, (these guys also know to write an essay too).

And regarding the driver and his car, he was from a village near Tumkur who had come to Bangalore to work hard and earn a living. The car he owned had costed him just Rs 80,000 out of which Rs 40,000 he had paid from his pockets and Rs 40,000 he was on loan, which he was confident of clearing off quickly. (It was a used car of course).

This brings me to the point where in I mention something about Tata Indica and Tata's as such. My current shuttle driver calls Tata Indica as poor man's almond. After reading the above driver's situation, don't you think its 200% true.

Tata Indica has always been a working man's car. That's the primary reason I chose Indica Vista. I had worked hard to save money and I wanted it to put it in a meaningful car. I don't mind if you call it a taxi or whatever, it suits me and I love it, to the core and even if I end up buying a used Toyota Innova, I promise, I have no intentions to sell my Tata car, because I am so much emotionally attached to it.

I would be more than happy if you call me a poor man, since I drive a Tata Indica Vista myself. How I long to write a lengthy post on Tata's. What would India be without the Tata's.

Cheers,

Gem of a song by David Gray

I generally used to share songs on Facebook. But considering, I have many people on restricted list and almost all of them whom I have unfollowed, plus my cousin scolding me for sharing songs on facebook, I am left with no option, but to write a post here and put the song across, so that, it shall be etched over here for ever.

Here s David Gray from the album WhiteLadder, from the days, when things were still uncomplicated. I used to listen to this song on the radio after 10pm, in the dark, when the whole world slept, those were the days, when soothing music was played.

Cheers,

Different routes, yet no result!

The day, I wanted to go to YellamanaGudda, it was a strike at Saundatti and neighboring villages, because of Kalasa Banduri Nala agitation. I drove across different village roads. I thought I should put up a map of my futile attempts to reach my destination, Saundatti Sri YellammanaGudda.

Eventually, in the evening, the agitation was over, I was able to get to the temple!

Pic 1 & 2 were different routes, I tried to reach there.
Pic 3 is the return journey back to Dharwad.
Pic 4 is the evening journey towards success!

Of going different ways..

2015, has been a year of mixed feelings for me. All the people at workplace, with whom, I openly speak to, apart from my cabmates, are parting ways. They are choosing better careers, better opportunities, some altogether a different land in search of work.

So while I joined this organization, 3 other people, joined with me, within a few days gap here and there. Two of them were in my team only, one person was there in a neighboring team.

My team size went down when the above 2 people left, I was the only guy left from that batch alongside this person who were left. He too was under tremendous pressure these days to deliver code, since he was on a critical project.

Now his tenure too is coming to an end. He is choosing to move to the US, in search of better opportunities. The reason why I chose to write about him is because,

1. He is my close friend with whom I speak openly about anything and everything, the last few remaining at workplace.

2. He was working with me in Singapore in the same building for more than a year. We both were at Changi Business Park, but apparently on different floors, I was on 4th, he was on 6th. So we never quite new each other, forget that, we had not seen each other at all. After coming here, we got to know, about our background and quickly we formed a group of 4 all of whom had co-incidences of our own.

Again cheers to co-incidence, cheers to ironies.

Department Lunch!

Once every quarter, we have a team dinner which covers all of the product development team at workplace. It includes close to 60-70 members. Its happening since I joined this organization. I skipped the very first one, and I guess even the second one, for which I was reprimanded badly.

So this time, it was close to our workplace called the Aloft Hotel. Highlights of this meeting included some quarter results announcement via skype from the US. But the biggest highlight of this event was

 - Employees who had no interest in listening to what was being told, looked as if they had come for the food.
 - Since beer was available, people queing up for beer.(male members only).
 - The question asked by our managers from India regarding sales results/other stuffs.( comprised of 2-3 only, none of which the crowd heard since there was no microphone.)
 - Couple of HR team members who were not interested at all in entering the hall and listen to the talk from US. I guess it would have made no difference to them, they clearly indicated they came for food only!
- Even before the session got over, few people just moved out to stand in line for the food queue. They were in a hurry to reach home, though most of those people would go by office shuttle.
- Joined the food queue quickly and left quickly. People like our cab mates, who were last and slowest in indulging in the food, were to find ourselves, in the middle of nowhere as everyone had left before we completed our food. What an irony!

Cheers,

Shuttle driver #6 - Driver who retired from the profession, did he really?

I should rather call him driver #1, since he was the shuttle driver, when I joined this current organization in the month of June 2013. He belonged to a place called Hariseve, on the way to Hassan, and apparently till date, he has been (close to) the longest serving single driver for our route!

There were few weird things about him too.

- This cab was the most dirtiest till date, it was a Tata Sumo manually steered, with almost zero maintenance, full of dust inside, poor suspension, poor state of the vehicle. I wonder, who could look after a cab so badly.

- He turned out to be a relative of the cab owner or rather travels owner.

- After doing duty for close to 2-3 months he was about to retire, trying out in a different profession, though he was just 30 years.

- During his tenure, one of the lady at our office left her gold jewels in the rest room making us go back to office at around 9 15 pm and thus we ended up returning home at around 11 PM. The same lady commented that I had a bad attitude, when I came to the cab late by 15 minutes on two different occasions. What a hypocrite!

- One day during his time, the traffic was held up so badly at Gowdanpalya Padmanabhanagar that, he was on his way to Kengeri for the first pickup at around 10 10 AM, while my pickup at Arehallli was at 9 40PM. So instead of waiting on the road for not sure how long, I hopped on to the cab to go in the other direction of office towards Kengeri and then come back! It was one of a kind day!

- One more thing I could remember with this driver was, his ability to shift gears without using the clutch, I was shell shocked, I had seen this done by bus drivers, but on a Tata Sumo, believe me, it was like the 8th wonder, though, I have never tried this on my vehicle.

- Also, the weird thing about this driver was, he used to drive in all the wrong gears, moving the vehicle from second gear, driving in 4th gear at speeds of 20kmph using the clutch.. It was a nightmare for the cab members as by doing this the pickup just went bad, making us all very impatient.

- This driver also told one very weird incident at his native village, where oxen (alpha male fully grown bull oxen) were sold for more than a lakh rupee and once, an oxen was killed by a predator and had eaten the kill to the half. He told the villagers had injected tranquilizer into the partially eaten dead animal and how the predator had been caught, when it came back to finish the oxen. Man, some people really have stories and experiences to share!

Never mind, it all got over one fine day and then started the never ending issue of finding a permanent driver for the Kengeri route, which to this day, persists!

Cheers,

PS - After that comment on my attitude by that lady, I stopped speaking to her afterwards. Not only that, I stopped speaking to any and every lady in my office. I have maintained this even to this day and speak to none. Only occasionally when I have to submit by expense bills to the HR or get a photocopy done, I speak to the concerned ladies.

Shuttle driver #5 - Driver who did not see a road divider in the dark!

Driver #5, is a very recent one infact, he was doing duty just few weeks back till date. He came as driver for our office cab for 4-5 days after which we got a new cab altogether. Couple of strange things happened during this 4-5 days as well.

To start with he was another guy who was 5 feet tall, fairly short and used to drive a Toyota Innova. Visibility to him was fairly poor, and one thing I observed was, he used both of his hands to drive the vehicle (I meant on the steering wheel). When he shifted gears, he quickly got back his left hand on the steering wheel (almost within a flash).

So whats so queer about this guy you may be wondering.

- While taking a right turn somewhere near Jayanagar 5th block, this driver, did not notice a road divider in the dark due to his visibility owing to his height and as a result, the front vehicles nearly missed coming in contact with the road divider, but when he swerved right, the vehicle hit the road divider and got stuck. Though the damage was minimal, it was stuck,with front wheel in the front of the divider and back wheel behind the divider. We retrieved the vehicle and continued.

- One more incident that happened during his stay was, at Kadirenhally, when there was a BBMP election promotion, people were asked to move quickly to make way for the people. Our cab stalled at this very place and few people managed to give it a push to a road side. We managed to start it, the fault was owing to a faulty electrical connection, owing me to write a post on " how to shame a toyota innova "

And this driver was from Kukke Subrahmanya and I asked him, if he had ever climbed Kumaraparvata. The answer was negative!

Cheers,

Shuttle driver #4 - Driver who faced road rage!

This one particular driver came to our route, with a Tata Sumo, manual steering (non power assisted). He was a very slim build and used to be pretty confident on his driving skills. There were few highlights of this driver too.

- Once the vehicle got punctured at Channasandra and there was no spare wheel and the driver did not have money to get the tyre fixed too! He borrowed money from our colleague!

- Once while driving at Chikkalsandra, the vehicle ran out of fuel. The gas station was 1 kilometer backwards or either 3-4 kilometers forward. This driver jetted the fuel like people do it in a keroscene stove and started the vehicle, we managed to get it running and went back 1 kilometer to get a refuel done.

- Once this vehicle met with an accident at Channasandra and the travels guy refused to pay money to the other party resulting in a road rage, where in the resident of Channasandra threatened to pelt stones at this vehicle if it passes through the Channasandra road again!

- Above all, this driver let me drive the Tata Sumo, and I did drive it, without a right side rear view mirror, I drove with my left hand on the steering wheel and right hand perched on the door signaling outside, the moment I made it to uttarahalli curve, I could not manage the non power assisted steering with a single hand and had to use both of my hands though to make the turn!

Cheers,

Shuttle driver #3 - Driver who charged extra for a blood donation detour

After the driver of the red Chevrolet Tavera absconded, our immediate replacement cab was another Chevrolet Tavera, this time a white one. So during this time, it happened so, we had to go for a blood donation drive to BGS Hospital Kengeri, for an immediate blood donation.

So all of our cab members decided to donate blood that day and after picking up everyone, instead of going to office, we took a detour to BGS Hospital Kengeri.

But we failed to convince our driver to take us to the hospital instead, he was quite relentless on going to the office only. Finally we had to pitch in with Rs 300 in order to convince the driver to take us to the hospital and made him wait for the entire 40 minutes duration while we completed the blood donation process.

While coming stopped at Kanti sweets Chikkalsandra and cabmates ate to their tummy full. Incidentally I was on diet that time was well, so had to fend myself with minimal dose of juice. That day was April 2014 and it still echoes in my head to this day, regarding what was the need for immediate blood donation.

Cheers,

Shuttle driver #2 - Lending money to a driver who absconds!

I faintly recollect only a single driver from my previous workplace, because rest all served for a day or two and also, few of them were brought on a per day basis, who were full timers with other companies.

This particular driver, came to our office duty with his own Red Chevrolet Tavera, it had clocked 1.5 lakh kilometers on the odometer and was pretty decent in maintenance. After doing duty for about a week the driver was unpaid, which resulted in the driver asking us Rs 500 towards diesel on one fine day. I gave the driver the money, since couple of others did not acknowledge.

To our surprise, the driver got the payment for his week's effort that very day and can you believe the first thing he did after that, was to abscond! Luckily, the transport team had with held, Rs 500 and gave it back to me, few days later though!

Cheers,

Shuttle driver #1 - Who says short people cannot drive heavy vehicles!

Driver #1, is an interesting character, he was about 4 feet 5 inches only, and very slim build, yet he managed to drive a Tempo Traveller. He used to drive as if there was no tomorrow!

I wish I had a picture of him, there were few very strange or queer things about him. Eventually after driving for close to 6 months ( I guess) he just vanished. I hope he is doing good, I haven't met him, since I too changed organizations and this was the year 2012.

Few strange things were!
- He was about 4 feet 5 inches and when he sat on the driver's seat, he was literally invisible. His shoulder was literally invisible from the rear seat, meaning it would hide behind the back rest. He was that short!

- Once another driver asked whose the driver of our route shuttle, so we replied saying the short guy, to which the other driver said, oh that guy, the one who is going to marry a second time! We were shell shocked, we never asked him about his family, but this was altogether a big surprise! The other driver also said, he had signed divorce papers with his first wife and was ready to take a plunge the second time! He was also jealous, how did the short guy could manage to do it 2 times?

There is a saying in Kannada, "Kallranna nambudru kullranna nambabaradu" which roughly translates to, "Even if you end up trusting a thief, never end up trusting a short guy". It looked like this age old saying came true for the nth time as well.

- He always used to eat gutkha, and finally one fine day, there was a complaint against him by one particular senior employee, that he was drunk while driving regularly. Eating gutkha was to mask the bad alchohol smell! This probably led to him being taken out!

- One more one of a kind instance I can recollect was, he was the one and only driver, who slept off at the steering wheel at a traffic junction. JP Nagar Sarakki signal used to be heavily crowded during that year and at 6pm it was a nightmare crossing the same. It was one such day, while driving all the way from ITPL this guy took a nap at the signal. But somehow got up, because of the honking of the vehicles behind us! No damage done, since it happened at a stop position.

I wish to name him, but never mind, I can any day recollect his name, and after all, its only me who reads this blog post, so, it hardly matters, what I decide not to mention!

Cheers, 

Office shuttle (cab) driver series - Prologue

I may be out of my senses for posting this series on our office shuttle drivers. I have been travelling long distances since quite a few years, and many years of which I have used office shuttle including the current one.

So I have come across multiple drivers, operators, vehicles, loads of interesting encounters with strangers who later became friends and then lost them in this wild wild world. I sincerely hope and pray, many of them have found better future for themselves.

I think they are a quintessential part of Bangalore development, without whom, the so called skilled manpower of Bangalore would be of rendered useless to the APAC and Euro community of course! (Considering, we stay on one side of the town and to our surprise our workplace is exactly on the other side of the town).

Disclaimer - If you kinda got time to hang around reading all about strangers, its your choice after all.

Mind you, all of the information is accurate, and I aint making up any stories!

Cheers,

Happy teachers' day

Today is teachers' day. An auspicious day of course. Remember, in one of the previous posts I had written about GuruBala and here I am writing about Teachers' day. I think the blessing of a teacher is the fuel on which each individual runs.

I have had lots of teachers, and still continue to have, each day, is like a dedication to each one of them. I hope for their good life, longevity and may the world be a place, where people groom others up selflessly as better individuals to be.

Cheers,

Sourcing a picture from ibnlive.com

PS - I am in bad need of a teachers' blessing. Hopefully today on-wards there will be a good turnaround.

Reading list and writing list.

After I purchased my kindle or rather, after I rejigged my reading habits to read more, I began to track what all I read and how much I read using goodreads.com. And the good thing is, goodreads.com is integrated into the kindle itself, though I very rarely connect my kindle to wifi. I prefer to use goodreads.com via laptop itself!

Now that, I keep track, I also got a reading list, where in I have set a wholesome count of 75 books for the year 2015. I know its late in the year, may be I wont be able to make it, I was wondering, if I could set a writing list as well. Like 75 posts for the year 2015. [Though  none of the posts are intended for others read, its for my own satisfaction, that I end up posting].

So I am close to the 50 mark, now I guess, hitting 75 shouldn't be a concern though considering, I have my office cab driver series which shall surely contribute around 7-10 posts.

Only concern is when do I get a time to switch on the PC and post it. Either I am too lazy or just plain occupied. I can open blogger and post it from office as well, but I feel, its unethical. So hoping to post from home.

Regarding reading, I am checking time and again for books which are 200 pages or lesser so that, I can read them quickly and make up for the reading challenge I have for 2015, That's how shameless I can be, of course!

Cheers,

Navalur - Guava

Navalur is a place which comes somewhere in between Hubli and Dharwad, and the place is famous for Guava. Each time I drive though that stretch I am told to stop to buy guavas.

Until the last time, I was complaining that, a guava causes me sore throat. This time considering, my diet and my improved knowledge on what guava has, I am carefree when eating guava and more than happy to acknowledge and make a stop.

Brought around 15 (nos) of guava for around Rs 70 I guess, so for the next few days, my diet supplement of course!

Cheers,

Hubli-Dharwad, aint that interesting anymore!

The first time, I can recollect going to Hubli Dharwad was in the year 1992, and since then I have been going to the twin cities at least once in every 2 years. Over the years, my liking for the cities have become decrimental.

As a kid I loved the place, the railway stations, those steam engines, the laid back life, when I saw the people over there, and above all, the old house of Babu Singh Thakur Pedha, where we would order few kilos before going to the temple and come back in the afternoon and collect the same.

But things look different now, its more or less crowded as compared to Bangalore. Crowd crowd everywhere, the Hubli Dharwad road seems to be in a complete mess since the last 3 times I have been there. I hate driving through the city, but too lazy to figure out the bypass existing over there which makes me drive through that road.

Last time too it was dug up for expansion and laying of concrete, this time too it was dug up for repair and some flyover construction. Made me kick myself of not taking the by pass directly to Dharwad.

On top of that, we went on weekend, and thus there was no south indian meals available at all since it was a holiday. We were made to order north indian food. I am not that food lover, but eating north indian meals time and again makes me crib a lot about it. Somehow managed couple of days across 2 times, once in the afternoon and then in the evening. And then it was Monday, weekday, as usual got my share of south indian meals and I was happy happy.

This was not the case back 20 years, North Karnataka style food was available in abundance, back then. Now its all chaos. Felt like escaping from that place.

How I wish, technology, population wouldn't have peaked this much!

And Babu Singh Thakur Pedha, I dont know where that old house just vanished, now its become a big buck enterprise with franchisees opening stall at every corner of the city, where in a supplier supplies them pedha stock each day. Gone are those days!

Cheers,

PS- I wonder, whats wrong with people of Hubli Dharwad that they prefer Roti/Naan/Curry/Palav over rice/rasam/sambar over the weekends, the case was same across few known hotels, not that I did not try multiple hotels!

There is a first time for everything!

Got fined for not having an emission certificate for my car, that too along Hubli Dharwad highway. It was the first time since I started driving a car that, I was stopped! The policeman seeing the registration of KA-41 was keen on stopping and asking for documents. As the saying goes, there is a first time for everything!

Cheers,

The day I drove through unknown villages

Yes, it was yesterday and the reason was, there was a strike going on across Saundatti, where in the protestors had blocked rather hijacked the highway. Thus I could not get to the Darshan at YellammanaGudda. When I returned back to the original highway after a small detour, there was a policeman who told me to take another road, where in there was no strike and no agitation at all.

I was relieved, I could drive back to Bangalore on the same day I thought. But after driving through hoards of unknown villages and on not so great roads, I realized, there was an agitation everywhere around Saundatti, leaving me with no other option than to return to the hotel,

Thus a drive of around 50-60 kilometers across, unknown villages, amidst intense sunlight, left me all but dehydrated. But in the evening there was a pleasant surprise waiting.

No sooner I hit the highway towards Saundatti yet again, I could see, buses plying towards Saundatti and also saw a bus returning from Bijapur, sure I thought the agitation was over, and it was indeed. Thus ended the day on a high note. Took an extra day to reach back to Bangalore, but worth the effort.

Cheers,

Quick trip admist chaos and strike

I had plans to visit the holy temple of Goddess Yellamma Devi since quite a while. It had been two years, since I had been there and I had lots of praying to do. Last time I went there, I was in a different shape, this time, I would go there in a different shape altogether, thanks to my teacher.

All in all, the trip turned out to be a day longer than I anticipated. Thanks to the Kalasa  Manduri Nala Project agitation, the people of Saundatti had hijacked the highway and blocked,it, making us to return back without a chance to visit the temple.

But returned to the same highway in the evening and had a good neat and nice darshan at the temple at YellamanaGudda, since the agitation was over. That makes me very happy, but at the same time, it costed me a day extra, but never mind, all's well that ends well.

Cheers,

Office shuttles and drivers

Its been two years, since I have been working for this organization, and almost all of the two years, I have been travelling to office, by office shuttle, owing to the distance, traffic, working time etc etc.

I do not prefer to drive my car to work considering the distance is 20+ kilometers one side, plus, driving a two wheeler gives me a headache. So I end up going by cab.

In all of the two years, you can imagine the number of different drivers, we would have met. Believe me, its more than 60-70. Its a huge number, each one driver with his own story, his own experience. So I just got a thought, why couldn't I simply recollect few instances and write them up over here. After all, there are different photo projects like the 500 strangers project in place, which target unknown people and tell story about it.

I could write about the same, hoping few years down the line, I myself could read the same, how cool would be that,

Cheers,

PS- I do have the trek blogs to be completed, but I am way to lazy, and as time passes I am ending up forgetting all of the details. This would be a quick burst of short posts rather than lengthy, flimsy posts about trekking, which would include me self bragging about it. Never mind, some day I shall definitely complete them.

Amidst irony yet again!

This monday, I had been to the service center, to get my car serviced. The car was in a not so clean state and owing to the construction happening next to my home, it all the even more was dirty. 

Looking at which, the customer service adviser (or whatever) exclaimed, with a smile to the mechanic, saying, look at this car, its hardly been maintained or very bad on maintenance. I felt a little bit embarrassed. 

My car is not used everyday and I have taken it to the service center pretty much regularly, and I was wondering, how come, by just by looking at the car, made him say so.

But by evening, once the service was done and the car was clean, the same service adviser, asked me, whether I was willing to sell my car. The reason he told was lot of employees at Tata themselves were lookout for cars, ( which had run exceedingly less and single owner driven, he did not tell this part though).

Now who on earth would have imagined, the same person would make contrary statements one in the morning and the other in the evening!

Cheers to ironies,

No more Quora please!

Well, Almost two months since I have deleted my quora account and I have not gone back to it. Calls for a celebration though. Quora was such a waste of time for me, I regret having spent couple of months on the same.

Cheers,

I have added more and more people on the restricted list of my Facebook, so, my FB wall, is all but less with feeds these days.

Break from diet

After coming back from Auden's col trek and then after a few days, I was back on my diet. And after almost 2 months, I took a leisure break from diet, considering I was unwell and felt like eating a bit more. Ate rice 2 times a day, ate few biscuits and ate couple of pieces of Dharwad Pedha.

This was the most, I have eaten in the last few months. Now that its all over, I shall be back to my strict routine, starting tomorrow. Meanwhile got my car serviced today.

Cheers,

Of BharatMatrimony.com and getting married...

Getting married seems to be on my todo list since the days I came back from Auden's col trek. I am keen on getting married, and moreover I am getting older day by day, it makes more sense that, I get married quickly.

Hoping, to do so, I registered for BharatMatrimony.com. Its been a month since I have registered. I have got requests from few people and I have sent request to few people. Unfortuntalely, I do not feel like proceeding ahead with the requests which I am getting and same thing is holding good vice-versa as well. All my requests sent are getting turned down.

In between I have paid a premium of Rs 3300 to BharatMatrimony to send requests/mails/view phone numbers of/to strangers. So all in all, the only people seem to be benefitting in my case are none other than BharatMatrimony. (May be I am wrong, may be that's how it works! Cheers to my sarcasm though)

If you think I shall pay them a premium the very next time, you are wrong my friend.

Cheers,

Disclaimer - you never know, something's wrong with me. May be my GURUBALA is missing, O teacher, please bless me, so that I can get married.

Not much updates

How I wish to write more often! Its not been possible for quite some time now. The write-up I planned to post about the Auden's col trek, is still incomplete. I have had some work at office, I am short on time, reading books only and training for yet another big day.

I have made no trips out of town of late. No treks as of now, since I came back from Uttarakhand, but no regrets, because I am proud of what I am training for!

Keeping fingers crossed!

Cheers,

How to shame a Toyota Innova ?

The answer is - bad maintenance.

Toyota Innova is one such vehicle which you can be rest assured, would never break down in the middle of the road, how bad your luck may be.

But to our surprise, the office shuttle which is a Toyota Innova turned out exactly to do the same thing. It stalled at PadmanabhaNagar and refused to start.

After checking for lose connection alongside the battery, we were able to get it up and running, now, who ever could have known, a Toyota Innova could have such bad maintenance that, substance had gotten deposited alongside the battery connection which had to be cleaned up to complete the circuit.

Never mind, I still respect the vehicle. My search for a used Toyota Innova still continues,

How I wish the Naturally Aspirated 2.4L Toyota Qualis Diesel was still available, I could buy a new one itself, (instead of coaxing owners to sell their Innova). Its production stalled a decade back!
And even to this day, I miss that vehicle!

Cheers,

Disclaimer - this is my own opinion, and I guess, I have a right to my own opinion.

What you see is not what you get!

Sometimes what you see, is not actually what you get. We always curse our current office shuttle driver that he is visibly blind, since he never happens to spot people or vehicle running in the path. Many a time he has gone very close by to another vehicle before applying brakes abruptly.

So this time around, one fine day around 9 30 pm in the night, while we were almost reaching Padmanabhanagar, on one particular road, all of a sudden he stopped the vehicle, telling there was some creature crossing the road.

Can you guess the creature which was crossing the road was? A big size scorpion. Now who on earth could see that small thing from a distance, forget with or without headlights.

And strange enough we call our driver blind!

Cheers,

Bombay to Goa, the 1972 movie

I generally avoid going to theater. I have no real interest in watching the latest releases. I prefer to keep myself limited to movies shown on the television channels.

So watching movies on television means, I end up watching the same movies again and again. One such movie which I love to watch again and again is this one by Mehmood, Bombay to Goa. I have seen it pretty much number of times but each time some part missing others.

I love the scene where Kishore Kumar makes an appearance and talks about tax evasion!
I love the scene where the fat kid reaches a hotel (it was Belgaum I guess) and starts screaming Pakoda!

I thought the movie the imagination all came out of Mehmood's brains. But during the last time, me watching the movie, during one of the intervals, they told its a remake of the Tamil movie Chennai to Pondicherry. I was a bit upset, because, I thought this was an original movie since childhood, yes, my parents used to speak about this movie ever since I was a kid!

But none the less, I shall never take away an inch of credit from Mehmood. The movie is an absolute gem. In these days of technological advancement, its so much fun to go back few years just to admire how simple life was back then!.

The irony is, though my parents watched this movie in 1972 itself, even in 2015, they were still unaware that this was a copy from the Tamil movie!

Cheers,

Auden's col trek - Part 1

15 May 2015.

So finally 5 months after booking flight tickets, the Auden's col trek was finally about to happen. The Indigo plane to Delhi was scheduled for 6 40 and our train from NDLS to Dehradun was at around 11 50 pm. I made it to the airport pretty early and met up with rest of the folks. There was no delay in reaching Delhi and we were out of the airport by 7 20pm. From there on we took a bus which dropped us at a nearby metro station and within 20 minutes we were opposite to New Delhi Railway Station. Finished dinner at a small hotel opposite to the station and we were wished luck by couple of other members who had come to meet us at the railway station. The train journey was rather pleasant. We reached Dehradun around 6 AM. 

16 May 2015.

We had booked a cab to Uttarkashi from Dehradun. The driver was ahead of time was waiting for us at the Dehradun railway station. We started with the next leg of our journey and on the way after an hour stopped for breakfast. Breakfast was Aloo paratha with brinjal and potato sabzee along with tea. The drive was long, it was always time consuming, travelling through the hills. The distance might not have been much, but those turns, narrow roads definitely are slower to cruise through. It was almost 1pm when we made it to Uttarakashi. Our guide had booked couple of rooms at Hotel Bhandary. 

Auden's col trek

Going ahead, I shall post about my experiences en-route the Auden's col trek. It has been a memorable one, difficult one and I am so so glad I have done it. It surely shall come as a multi-part series.

Cheers,

Free books from Amazon for the kindle

For the past 2 days I have been downloading books for my kindle. Also placed an order for a new kindle worth Rs 5k. The books which I have downloaded include!

1. Indian tales - Rudyard Kipling.
2. Stories from Tagore - Rabindranath Tagore.
3. Himalayan Journals Complete - JD Hooker.
4. Taking Off - T Y Clemens.
5. Around the world in 80 days - Jules Verne.
6. An Ideal Husband - Oscar Wilde.
7. India through Ages - Flora Annie Steel.
8. Sadhana - Rabindranath Tagore.
9. Edison, his life and inventions - Frank Lewis Dyer.
10. History of Napoleon Bonaparte - John Gibson.

With so much to read apart from technical books, I can say that, I am more than happy just to lay back open a kindle and keep on reading!

Cheers to reading.

India after Gandhi

Started reading this book. With 800 pages to cover, its more like the Shantaram, book which I had read earlier. Not sure, how much time I need to wrap it up. But one thing is for sure, I will be finishing many other books during the course of reading this book.

Cheers to reading,

Retirement from trekking

The day we crossed Auden's col pass at 18500 feet, something spectacular happened. We had not yet descended from the pass, when a snow storm started. And by the time we pitched our tents, it had taken off.

We had left couple of our stuffs before ascending due to the huge storm and now we were stuck without food, water and no stove to cook. It snowed continuously for almost 7+ hours and through the night. We had no option but to stay in our tent. So everyone started chatting and in our tent, we just came up randomly with a question.

" What would you do if you reached safely home after completion of this trek?".

Our scenario was such that, even completing the trek looked difficult and reaching home safely was also another concern.

So my answer was that, I would retire from trekking, if I ever got home safely. Now, almost a month after returning from the trek, when I still remember that day, I get goose bumps. The whole trek was well worth the effort.

Am I retired from trekking? well, not really, I am just avoiding monsoon treks, let me see when I can start again or rather come out of retirement!

Cheers,

Co-Incidence at 18000 feet

During the trek to Auden's col, one of our team members had a book by name Full Tilt, written by Dervla Murphy. It was about a lady who toured few continents on a bicycle.

It was about her bicycle tour through Europe, Iran, Afghanistan and India during the 1960's. It was like a dream reading about this trip of her's. Lots of stuffs about different places were written. Though I could not read beyond 25% of the book, I could still recollect about the places which she went through.

Then on a particular day during Auden's Col trek we were stuck at Auden's col base camp as one of our porters had gone back to drop one of our team member who was suffering from sickness and one more porter also returned owing to bad health and bad weather. So were kind of using up our buffer day while waiting for them to come back.

During that day, we spoke to one of our team member from Germany. So we asked him since how long he has been coming to India. Surprisingly his first visit to India was during 1974, years before we were actually born and I could not believe the way he reached India. He was telling about the route which I had read in the book few days before through these continents. Only difference was he was either on a bus / train or by car. He had traveled through these continents in fact before making it to Kashmir.

Its such an co-incidence, you are reading about a person's experience about travelling across continents and reaching India and all of a sudden the German guy appears and tells us about his story with utmost humility which resembles the one you have read before!

It was a strange co-incidence at 18,000 feet I thought.

Cheers,

Back to reading, Amazon kindle

What quora did to me, was that, it made me go back to reading. Instead of reading answers by n00bs, I could fallback on bestsellers. What better way than a kindle? I have completed 4 books on kindle since last 2 weeks and simultaneously reading many of them including technical.

Also I am downloading free books from the Amazon Store. I have plans to buy some books which are available for Rs 60-100 odd, which seems to be very cost effective. One meal at office squares you up by Rs 100 odd, while these books are so pretty cheap. I can afford one, no doubt.

I am so so glad I am back to reading, Instead of tracking the books read, using shelfari which is powered by Amazon itself, I have moved to goodreads!

The new kindle being Rs 5k, I am itching to own one, but instead considering a reading light worth Rs 575. Let me see!

Cheers, 

Bye bye Quora

Disclaimer - this is my personal opinion, I do not care about what others say!

Finally.. after using quora for 2 months I finally found my calling to actually de-activate and delete my quora account. People on quora generally speak about deleting or deactivating facebook account, but, yeah, as you understand, I prefer to walk away from the crowd, so I decided to do the other way round. deleted the quora account instead of facebook.

I chose to do this since I very well know how to use facebook. I have 75% of my friends on restricted list and remaining 10% of whom I do not follow. Now you can imagine, how many handful of updates my facebook wall shall have. So I have mastered the art of managing time on facebook.

But on quora it was all about mastering the art of not reading the so called junk written by n00bs. Well let me put down the reasons why I chose to quit quora.

1. I chose to follow top writers, most of whom had a fan following of thousands highest being 35k.
I thought these gentlemen or women, would write something interesting, something which I could relate to. But it was nothing but disappointment. They wrote about their ups and downs their field experiences etc etc.

So the point is-
- Why should I read about their failures / experiences when I can myself be in the field and experience failure myself. May be reading their failures might help me make a better decision, but no guarantee. Who knows if I can remember what they wrote and apply at that very moment.

- If I had to read about failures, I would read about failures of Mahatma Gandhi or Abraham Lincoln and why a bunch of people who write on quora?

2. Quora  had become more of a disturbance at office, with two monitors, I would have one monitor dedicated to quora or would browse it for 10 minutes in every hour. It was very distracting. I reduced my quora usage to 10 minutes for every 3-4 hours. But still after reading answers of few people, I thought even 10 minutes was not worth it.

3. People told me to follow even better top writers. I could find some top writers on quora. but believe me, I could not relate to what they write. They wrote about aeroplanes, physics so many topics, none of which I am interested in. Even in the section for automobiles, I found it very tough to actually make quora give out stuffs which I am interested in.

4. Career advice and self help answers written by Indian counterparts was a big let down. I thought it was nothing but copied and re-phrased content from self help websites available on the internet. So another big let down.

5. 40% of quora users are Indians, now you can take your decision wisely!

Will add more points. but for now, happy to use facebook in a limited way instead of quora. Its been 4-5 days since I read from quora.

One thing quora did help me get into. More on that in another post!

Cheers,

Printing resume @ office

A person went to print his resume (CV) at office and gave the word document to print.

When he went to collect the print, he could see the Assistant Manager HR of the company holding the first sheet and reading through it.

No prizes for guessing who is the person in picture.

Cheers for badluck..

Wynk android app = crap!

I listen to songs both english and hindi on my mobile using wifi and wynk application.

The application crashes more the more I use it. And around last week, it has crashed around 60 times, while I was able to listen to only few songs on it may be for 10 times. Rest of the time, its like a song starts after 30 seconds, boom its silence again.

I have switched to youtube. But what about the time I lost using wync? Never mind, shit happens!

Cheers,

DrinksonMG

While listening to the radio yesterday, I came across an advertisement which said DrinksonMG, something to do about a place for cocktails and drinks. I was pretty curious about the name. The name MG is synonymous to Mahatma Gandhi, the father of our nation, and on January 30, we celebrate it as dry day, when no one consumes liquor. But over here, not sure, how come, the name itself says DrinksonMG. I am hoping MG is associated with something else apart from Mahatma Gandhi.

It turns out the thing is located on MG Road itself. Well, never mind, I am no more interested than putting up a post on my blog regarding the same.

And the topic about me going to MG Road, blah thats never going to happen, I can never beat the traffic to reach there, the best I can do is to avoid it, with Mysore Road, Tumkur Road, Hosur road being so close to reach, I better head out of town on the highway rather than heading into the town!

Cheers,

Disclaimer - I have nothing to do with DrinksonMG nor MG Road, I just find the whole name and location just curious enough to write a blog entry!

Weekend Driver

There was a function to attend at one of my relatives place today and as usual I had to drive through the city. It was 60 kilometers within the city, but due to the absence of summer was kinda comfortable and not so tiring!

Left early morning at around 8 am and did not find many cars on the road! Driving a car on Saturday morning did not seem that irritating!

Came back by 5pm.

Cheers,

1 week post Auden's col

Its been 1 week, since I came back from Uttarakhand. Still my sleep pattern is irregular. I sleep at 11 30 pm and wake up at 3 am and find it difficult to sleep for around 10 - 15 minutes. I wake up and start wondering where is my backpack, whether to climb uphill or downhill.

I still feel lethargic. Hopefully I shall get well in another week's time.

There is a celebration lunch hosted by the organizers of Auden's col trek at a Bengali restaurant in JP nagar. As usual I am absconding from that lunch.

Cheers,

To Quora or not - My pick is a big NO!

Disclaimer - This is my perception, I do not care about others. Please do not tell me to improve my feed. There is no way I shall go back to quora come what may and yes I still continue to use facebook, though in a limited way!

Couple of months back, I started to use quora at office reading couple of stuffs. I even wrote couple of answers. Now, I am wondering, whether quora does me any good or not.

I feel its not worth spending time on quora. I have considerably reduced using quora. But still I use it for around 10 minutes, beyond which I tend to get bored of it, bored to such an extent that, I lock my computer and go away.

There are many reasons why I stopped lurking on quora.

1. Unnecessary flooding of information. I do not need to be aware of all the facts in the world. Its like filling your head with information which you do not really need and which is of no use to me.

2. By mistake I followed the topic relationships and bang all these crapola answers on love started pooping out. I am literally not interested in which guy did what for which girl, someone talking about their crush. blah blah.

3. Some of the irrelevant answers. Some answers were totally exaggerated and not worth spending time.  Made me extremely guilty.

4. Novice answering. Many people answering questions were literally rookies and had no field experience. I hate to read such answers, which come from text book instead of hands on experience.

I am so so happy that I find quora boring. I have no reason nor enthusiasm to go back to quora. I have saved so much time, that I can put together this post in that saved time.

Cheers,

Britannia marie biscuit @ office

Our pantry sells biscuits and other fried items like Aloo Bhujiya, potato chips, fried peanuts and few other fried junk items to munch on during tea time. With no other option I or rather we generally used to buy biscuits.

With no other option we used to buy biscuits. The ones available were, Good Day, Hide and Seek, Milk Biscuits, Digestive, Unibic and of course Marie Light plus few others. I would always insist on Marie light coz it offered more biscuits for Rs 10/- over the rest and also for the last few months they were running a free 29% extra offer.

The biscuits would get over in one sitting since we were 3 guys eating the entire packet. This week, I brought a Marie Light biscuit on Monday but its been Friday and I have still few biscuits left. It has taken me an entire week of eating to complete one Rs 10 biscuit packet. This is how it will be in future too!

Our team of 3 is now reduced to 1, myself. The second person is all set to leave and is on leave.
I no longer talk to anyone during office hours except lunch when I speak to my cab mate! Other than that I speak during travel. Throughout the day, I just keep mum.

Cheers,

Auden's col trek - how it was different than regular Himalayan treks

Regular Himalayan treks are the one's organized by popular agencies and are quite popular and heard about by many people. It does not include the ones above 6000m or the ones involving tough summiting!

Now that Auden's col trek is done, I have gained certain amount of precious experience about many stuffs, I can begin ranting!.

Well, in few ways Auden's col trek was different than many other Himalayan treks, Let me try to gather few points on how!

1. Few other Himalayan treks I know start at a lower altitude and we end up reaching high altitude. High altitude meaning 8000feet plus above sea level. But here in Auden's col, we started our trek from Gangotri which was itself at 10000 feet above sea level. Meaning you are susceptible to altitude related problems right from day 0.

2. Auden's col involved crossing crevasses and camping on glacier. Its a high risk activity. Anything could have happened. We were plain lucky, Other treks rarely involve crevasse infested zones.
[There might be treks which I am unknown to, in that case apologies]

3. Auden's col involved rapelling from over 500 feet using rope. I have seen people rapelling from 50 feet, 500 feet seems a bit unrealistic, but its true, that too with your luggage, makes it equally challenging. Your's truly did it when a snow storm was blowing, it was like crazy experience, but worth every minute of it. Regular treks do not have this kind of activity I guess!

4. Each regular Himalayan treks, generally has a highest point where we summit, or pass through. It generally involves a day or two and we come back to not so high altitude. For example Goechala trek, the summit day we started at around 14000 feet and climbed to 16500 feet and back to 14000 feet on the same day. Next day we were back to 13000 or even less. But in Auden's col we got to camp around 16500 feet + for 4-5 consecutive days. Since the trek itself starts at 10000+ feet, we are at high altitude from day 1, plus lack of support staff made us camp one day extra at high altitude plus bad weather too set us back and made us camp at 18000feet for another day. So all in all it was 4 days at 16500 feet plus. You can imagine, its one of a kind trek by now!

5. Each Himalayan trek operator has certain treks lined up and call for participants. Its like the operator asking please join this trek, we have everything ready. But in Auden's col, it was reverse the case. There were limited guides and agencies for this trek. Two of our porters abandoned the trek after day 3 due to bad weather and health issues. One fight with the cook or guide could have ended the trek on day 1 itself. Synchronization between guide / team and support staff had to be precise, one wrong move and everyone was absconding from the trek leaving us stranded. Luckily nothing of that sort happened and we completed the trek. Such is the nature of the trek.

Will add more points as I recollect.

Cheers,