Himachal Journey - Day 5

Today we had to cross Kaliheni pass. It was another high altitude pass and believe me it would be tough. We had a path laid out with stones on top of that, we had a lot of distance to cover. So it would be one of the tough tough days.

Breakfast was oat meal porridge + pancake + black tea

Once we start on the rocky path we reach a mountain trail where in we start the climb. Each one of us was walking at our own speed and me and few others were almost through to the top. We were only around 45 minutes from crossing the peak.

Few others were behind and all of a sudden we had a signal from the guide telling us to stop. We had crossed much distance in the tough tough mountain climb and here we were asked to stop.

After around 20 minutes time of waiting guide asked us to come back. We were camping on the mountain itself an inclined place. The reason being, one of the trekkers was having altitude sickness and as a result, we would not be crossing the pass today instead camping.

So today's climb was mostly 2.5 hours only. And then came back to the place where guide was and started helping him pitch the tents. This day we encountered a fresh snowfall. We were kind of upset that the other team member was not well. The views were fantastic.

Time was 12 30 and we had a long day to cover. Sitting here and there seeing mountains is what we all did on this day. And all of a sudden in the evening, the team member felt even more worse. So that person along with one more team member and a guide withdrew from the trek and returned back to Manali leaving us with only 9 team members. We felt sad, but at high altitude, we cannot take chances

Packed lunch was Biryani rice + banana + egg + frooti + dairy milk.

We were served soup 2 times, once garlic soup with noodles and other time corn soup.

Dinner - Roti + Soya Bean + vegetable + tomato + potato + dal + rice.

Cheers,

Pictures include.

Himachal Journey - Day 4

With one high altitude pass crossing done and two more pending, we were looking for more. The trek was getting better each day and we were having the time of our lives.

Woke up early around 6:30 am, were served tea at our tents itself. Before we reached campsite yesterday, we had descended quite a bit and today we had to make ascends yet again.

We were surrounded by multiple small streams of water and as a result, had no time in finding water, for freshening up. As usual no chance to take bath.

Breakfast was bread + egg omlette + corn flakes + milk powder tea
Packed lunch was - Potato + vegetable curry + cheese + apple + 5 star chocolate + frooti energy drink.

Started around 9 30 am. Passed through many shepard tents who had a stock of over 200-300 sheep along with them and few dogs also. Found couple of streams on the way to refill water as well.

Finally we had to cross one more stream and then it was ascend into a mountain. It was again a day of terrific climb, with around 2 hours spent climbing. Found first glacier on the way, where in we had few snacks and refreshments of our packed lunch. Then one more climb came and we were fully exhausted climbing.

Finally got to walk on a ridge where the horses and horsemen caught up with us and crossed us. Finished the lunch sitting on the ridge and then it was one more climb on to a different mountain altogether.

One done with climbing we got to move around flat terrain finally. Meanwhile the horsemen had reached campsite and pitched tents, so we too quickly made way to our campsite. The view from the campsite was nothing short of heaven.

Few pictures from the day

Snacks were fried pakoda comprising of onion and potato at (14k feet)
Prior to dinner mushroom soup,
Dinner comprising of kheer with dry fruits + roti + dal + rice + vegetables sabji + black tea.

Cheers,

Himachal Journey - Day 3

Woke up early on Day 3, probably, it was around 6 30 am. Freshened up and as usual no chance to take bath. This was our second day of the trek and believe me, we were supposed to cross a high altitude pass today.

Khanperi pass is at about 14500+ feet this time. Breakfast was ready and guide insisted we leave by around 9 am.

Breakfast was Bread + Omlette + oat meal porridge + Cheese + Jam + Honey.

We quickly packed and started with the day. The day began with a climb and the climb went on till noon almost 3 hours of climb climb and more climb. Then we took a break finished lunch and then made one more attempt to reach the top.

It was incredible, pass crossing on the second day itself that too 14500+ feet. It was a boon. Rested for 20 minutes at the top where it was very windy. Nice views throughout, it was nothing short of excellent. Worth every inch of effort every drop of sweat drained while I trained.

Then we crossed a the pass a small path between two mountains and then there was a steep descend all the way to the campsite which took almost 2 more hours. Finally at around 4pm reached campsite Riyali Taj.

Evening, were served with garlic soup, plus tea and biscuits late into the evening. One of our team members was having altitude related sickness and as a result, mood was a bit somber in the camp.
Dinner was Roti + Rice + Dal + Beans + Potato.

Some pictures from the day include.

Himachal Journey - Day 2 - Part 2

Seeking blessings from God, we started our trek. We all had been given plastic containers containing packed lunch. Initial trek was through medium climb, where in we met few people who had come for a day's trek. When they heard our side of the story that we would be crossing 3 high altitude passes over a 12 day trek and reaching Dharamshala, they were in awe.

So were we, it was so much fun thinking, where we started and where we would end, all by crossing mountains, awesome!

Soon, it started to drizzle and we had to take out our rain gear. The last bit of kit I wish to remove from my bag is the rain gear, because its literally a pain, to wear it across myself, my bag. But once done, it gets second to none in protecting from rain.

With slight drizzle we climbed and climbed. Soon the drizzle stopped and sun was out. It was a nice relief. We took a small break for lunch and left soon after. Reached campsite by around 3 30pm, though we started close to 10 30 am.

Packed lunch comprised of a boiled egg, a 5 star energy bar, Frooti energy drink plus banana and couple of rotis!

Once reaching the campsite we were provided with tea and biscuits. Our tents were laid and then we took a break for sometime. Climbed a nearby peak and then it was sunset time. All in all a glorious way to start a 12 day Himalayan trek. We met couple of shepards who were busy butchering mutton and smoking Hukka!

It was bear territory and we were warned not to roam far from the camp!

Cheers,

A picture from day 1 campsite goes like this! 

Himachal Journey - Day 2 - Part 1

Okay, there you go, actual trek day starts. We woke up early, got ready took bath, our last one in the next 11 days. Few others were ahead of us in getting ready and had already gotten down to finish breakfast.

Few others checked into Hotel Chauhan just opposite to our lodge in Vashisht. Ate like crazy, aloo parothas X 2, bread sandwiches, plus tea.

Then went ahead for the indemnity form signing, plus emergency details etc etc. Two vehicles were arranged, to drop us to Hidimba temple from where our actual trek starts.

So started towards Manali Hidimba temple. Over there, our guide was waiting for us, along with horsemen X 2, plus 10 horses, plus an additional two guys for help!

They were loading the rations on to the horses. Luckily, in this trek though few of them called it an expedition of 12 days, we had the company of horses to carry rations. Without whom our trek would not have been that enjoyable.

No horses meaning, porters carrying luggage and rations and thus lesser porters equals lesser rations and less food across days. But this one was otherwise!

Cheers,

Himachal Journey - Day 1 - Part 2

I was peacefully asleep after 14 hour bus journey, thought it was a volvo, it was really a pain. I recommend one to fly to Chandigarh or Amritsar instead!

All of a sudden, I was woken up by our trek leader who told us not to sleep instead to get acclimatized by keeping awake. We chose to do a small hike around the waterfalls within the Vashist area itself, while others had left towars Manali market for late lunch and shopping!

I'm re-iterating, it feels so good to be relieved of the day to day responsibilities and wander around like a mad cap seeing nature, greeting people, plucking apples, yes please it is Himachal! I thoroughly enjoyed my stay in Manali/Vashisht though it was only a day and mind you, we had to start the 12 day trek (or rather expedition) tomorrow!

Evening brought in another surprise. We had our guide changed, he was supposed to join us today, but due to a unforseen circumstance, we had to get a new guide. It appeared we had to spend one more day in Manali, but luckily we found a new guide!

Finished dinner at a local restaurant and boy it was fun! Vashisht area got less crowded and it felt nice. With lanes empty, shops closed off, we were all for ourselves,

It was time to go to bed.

Cheers,

Himachal Journey - Day 1 - Part 1

At around 10pm we reached Manali, but not before stopping at Kullu for a while. So now we could tell officially we were in Himachal! Awesome place, having been to Uttarakhand, Sikkim. Kashmir, I could feel it resembled them in one way or the other.

What made me happy was the fact that, I was away from the concrete jungle amidst flowing rivers, mountains. Yep, the feeling just gets to you.

We had booked our stay in Vashisht area of Manali, so we had to travel around 5 kilometers away from the main Manali market. We took two auto rickshaws and landed at Vashisht area of Manali.

Got our rooms allocated. Since it was off-season literally zero crowd at the Hotel Dharmaa in Vashisht.

After dropping our luggage. started casual conversation with others and few others decided to go out for breakfast. Since me and other two guys were not interested in food, we rather chose to sit down in the hotel campus watching the hills and flowing rivers.

There were foreigners all around but only a limited few. It felt nice where we could totally forget about work!

So we three people sat there, then ordered sandwiches and tea. I drank 2 cups of tea and ate 2 sandwiches. Felt nice. Started chatting with the owner of the Hotel Dharma.

He was a lad in his youth, who had completed his education in Chandigarh and had come back over here. Spoke to him about employement opportunities for the chef, helpers, whether they tend to abruptly end their service and return to their places. He insisted, he pays them well, and looks after them well,so attrition rate was not that high.

He mentioned about the curse of the sage Vashishst (the sage who meditated in this place). The curse was that, one who visits Vashisht once, will keep on visiting this place again and again. I hope I get there again.

Spoke to him about Brighu lake trek which was 3-4 days thing. Also spoke about agriculture few other things. Then retired to the room and slept off. Meanwhile others had too completed their breakfast and were resting in their rooms. Mind you the sun was present!

Himachal Journey - Day 0

It was Day 0 of the journey towards the mountains. My flight was at 11 am, and at 8 am when I planned to leave home, it was drizzling, my backpack got wet slightly, but made it to the airport in an hours time!

Check-in happened and then reached Delhi around 2 40pm. All of the people were supposed to meet up at NDLS metro station. Since each one of us were reaching Delhi at their own times, the meetup was decided at 4 30pm. I waited for around 30 minutes within the T3 airport itself doing nothing.

Then took the airport metro to NDLS station and reached there around 4 pm. Few others were already there at the Cafe Coffee Day at NDLS. It was my second time there and around 6th time in Delhi and all of these in transit only! (Shame on me).

We then introduced ourselves, it felt nice to be connecting with an altogether new group of like minded people. We then spent time talking over there and around 6 45 pm we moved towards ISBT, where our Hima Suta, Volvo bus journey to Manali would start.

Around 7 15 pm, we took a break to finish dinner. and boarded the bus around 8 pm. I expected the volvo bus journey to be comfortable and smooth. It was but it was a 14 hour journey.

So thus brought an end to Day 0

Cheers,

Himachal Journey - Prologue

No sooner, I came back from Uttarakhand, I saw one more mail from my friend, calling upon participants for another Himalayan trek. Believe me, it happened so quick, I initially lost interest in it.

But then, all of a sudden, I re-read the mail, mentioning it to be the Shepard's trail and very scenic, I was very much tempted. But how can I get leave for almost 10 days, 2 weeks! Fingers crossed and I approached my manager for leave. It took almost 3 days and then it got approved. I was training, and I had no reason not to trek this route.

It was Himachal Pradesh this time and believe me, I was very excited. The trek was close to 3 months away and I was living a dream, I thought.

Everything fell in place so quickly, that, I am in so awe of that eternal energy which made this trip and trek happen.

Thanks to God, my teachers and my parents!

Cheers, more to follow.

PS - This trek is called the Bara Bhangal trek aka Shepard's trail. It happens to pass through one of the villages of India called Bara Bhangal which happens to be (if not) the only village which has no access via motorable roads, we have to cross through mountains of 14k feet or pass through forests to reach the same.

Routine blogging.

Reason for not blogging regularly is utter laziness. How I wish to sit down and write stuffs which have been pending since quite long. Unfortunately blogging has to wait. These days reading has taken some priority. Though I can blog from office, I wish not to be unethical!

I can come home and write, but hooking again to internet at that hour of the night, seems utterly tasteless. So I avoid writing during weekdays. I can do it during the day time, by waking up early, but again, I do not do it.

Another weekend, somehow, I get time in between going out, reading, listening to music, office work and there you go, I made my mind on blogging about my himalayan experience in 2015, its been 2 times in 2015, and I wish to write about it, today and tomorrow.

Though, I prefer to keep it to my personal side, things like exact altitude distance, time etc, I prefer not to write about, since there are few other blogs which do that, plus, I intend to read posts myself only, so hoping to keep things abstract, for my remembrance only!

I also intend to keep the posts short.

Cheers, wish me luck.

One more such tale

I have been fortunate enough to have gotten the opportunity to travel via the T3 IGI Airport in Delhi multiple times. Each time, I was walking and walking to reach gates up to 40+. Yes please, it has been gate 47, gate 50 for the last couple of occasions.

So this time, too, in the month of october 2015, I ended up at T3, hoping to catch a flight back to Bangalore. And before I could walk myself away to gate #47, I chose to visit the rest room.

The rest room appears to be immediately on the left after few shops selling stores. I enter the rest room where in find huge crowd, and there were couple of house keeping attending to the hoards of travelers who were using the rest room.

The house keeping staff in order to disperse the crowd quickly, in their own ways. One of them was pulling out the tissues and handing it out to the people who needed them, while the other was rapidly cleaning the floors trying to keep them clean.

It left me wondering, they were doing a very good job. But one more person who observed this, took out his wallet and handed them money, for their efforts. I mean, it was a nice gesture, and I least expected that to happen though!

Very rare occasion though, so thought of writing it!

Cheers,

Wake up to a Gold Morning!

With such a fast pace of life, days are going by so quick. It appears soon I will turn 60 and then retire. There are no moments left to introspect in a day. In order to do that, I would have to stay awake late or rather wake up early.

I would rather prefer to wake up early. And believe me, there was a post running Indiblogger on waking up to a golden morning or rather #Colgate360GoldMornings,  where in I could provide few details of mine in return for a surprise gift! That sounded pretty straight forward and boy I did get a gift.

It was such a nice box, it left me wondering what could it be. It turned out to be comprising of  a huge mug, a tooth brush rather a 'Colgate 360 Charcoal Gold toothbrush' and a nice bottle which could hold hot water as well. I was indeed looking for a mug and believe me, it turns everyone's eyes when they see something which resembles gold. I have been putting it to good use drinking coffee / hot water pondering over the previous day as well as planning for the current day.

Now what more can I expect, as a boost, in order to wake up even more early and turn my good mornings into a gold morning. It's been a couple of weeks since I am waking up early making most of my morning time before I head out to train and then to work.

Thanks to #Colgate360GoldMornings!

Cheers,

IT industry rant part 2

So. the answer for the IT related query in the previous post, is pretty simple rather.

Where would I end up in the coming years, well, depends whether I work for a product company or services based company!

A product based company can afford to hire people with more experiences to do the technical work. So we can work independently or with minimum supervision or whatever. 

But a services based company, would make us a manager sort of thing, where in, I would be the most paid guy in the team, which would comprise of lesser experienced people, in the 2 - 6 years experience range. So how would a services company actually make profit?

Well, they will bill the same amount to the client, even the 10 year experienced guy gets billed the same, and 6 year experienced guy gets billed the same. Only difference being, the salary given to the 10 year experienced differs from the one given to 5 year experienced. 

The services company actually makes profit because of the billing. So going by a services company standard, if I chose to be in one, will have to manage a team of some n number of people, getting from them the dumbest possible work done.

Regarding innovation and path breaking technology, well, I assume, that's best left for countries other than India. We are very happy making profits on billing rather.

Cheers to the Indian IT Industry!

IT industry and random personal ranting

While we were doing engineering, we were always wondering, how awesome it would be to write code, to develop software applications which many end users are going to use. How cool it would be to spend years together, growing old writing code.

And years after turning a professional, we just realized, writing code and writing software applications do exist, but in reality what we do exactly is more often than not repairing software applications written by someone else. 

The truth hurts but you got to accept it. So after a while in the IT industry,  you find the intellectually stimulating stuffs are over, what you got to do, where do you prefer to go. It has been such a cross road for me in recent times, where in I rather pretty much question myself each day as to where do I end up in coming years.

In a way, I found the answer in fitness for almost 2 years, where in I worked at it and it kept me super-busy. Well, I got to write about it in another post. I did a lot of treks earned a good reputation and have maintained a certain amount of discipline. 

Now, there is one more trivial thing which just cropped up. Whilst engaging myself with treks and travels and other activities, I never realized the so called age passing through. And all of a sudden, it hits me, very hard, knowing the fact that, I have crossed certain age and this whole society and other things come into picture.

This side of me, is the one which is very receptive to what society perceives, what the so called society talks about behind our back when we are not around. So now, I am in a crisis kind of sorts, where in 

- the technical stimulant which is a part of the job seems to be missing. There appears to be more and more politics, bureaucracy and lesser intellectual stuffs on the professional front.

- the trekking, travelling or the physical activities part, where in each time my age hampers me from packing my backpack and going trekking. 

So couple of things which stare at me, while I look for answers really, how do I enjoy myself work-wise and how do I enjoy myself when not at work. I took to reading stuffs but when the above two questions come to mind, reading comes to a halt altogether. I am not that old to start cribbing about stuffs, but still, its this stupid society or rather mentality which calls you absurd when things do not work out according to their time!

Wondering, whether applying a work permit of a different country altogether and move out of India, change my job and meet new people, hope for some new learning. I never really was thinking of **** atleast till 3 months back, now when, while attending any occasional function for that matter, this question just pops up.

Well, hopefully, there is going to be a new direction. I wish to get answers on both work as well as personal front. Hoping to gear up for job interviews soon.

Cheers,

Sorting personal mailbox / emails

Starting today, I decided to organize my mailbox. I have been using this mailbox for almost 15 years now, I thought, it deserves some more respect. I have the same email login for linkedin, for facebook, for goodreads, for twitter, so  many places and yet this mailbox of mine is full of junk.

I do not know, how morons end up sending spam mails to this email id. I have registered the same with job portals for banks etc. With things looking so unclean, as of today, I somehow made a concrete mind to clean up the inbox, un-subscribe from junk alerts.

Hopefully it will look cool in coming days,

Wish me luck,

Cheers,

New contest on Indiblogger

There is a new contest on Indiblogger, namely marathon blogging contest. The participants are expected to blog about some topics for a period of 30 days. At the end of 30 days, the person with maximum number of entries across multiple genres shall be entitled for a prize.

That prize is nothing but a TATA car. Well, thats nice to hear. But what a person can blog for 30 days. I am thinking of this opportunity of participating in this contest in order to write off all of my blogs pertaining to Himalayan treks.

Well, there are certain drawbacks,
- it would fall under a single genre
- Lack of time to compose in detail.
- It will take off my reading time.

Considering I am reading also these days, I wonder, if that new re-discovered habit of mine could be strained. But worth trying for sure.

I wonder how come such a contest came into existence. Reminds me of a scenario where ..............(I wish not to mention the scenario though).

Cheers,

One such tale

These days, I end up reading more than writing, I haven't been travelling much, office work has become repetitive, nothing much to adore about.

I have not even gone out to buy new clothes, tomorrow seems to be the day, I hope to do that. I have become so monotonous with the tasks I get to do that, I lose track of even the topics which I wish to write. I had planned to write about two things, but I forgot one of the topic.

Now I am remembering one of the topic which I write now, as I yawn and yawn, I did not get to sleep during the day and I feel very sleepy as I write this.

I am generally against feeding street dogs, not that I hate dogs, just that, I am kind of pissed off when the same dogs attack small kids or other people or stories like that. My mother has a different opinion of feeding left over food if any to the dog, which I strongly disagree. They feed, multiply and create more nuisance in the neighborhood.

So she told me one such tale, in the office where my mother worked, there used to work a lady, who would each day cook a cauldron full of rice and feed it to stray dogs near her house and then come to work. She also told, dogs from nearby places came and consumed the cooked rice.

Once what happened, this lady who used to do this gem of a job, fell sick, and was hospitalized. She fell sick to that extent that the doctors had given up any hope. Finally miraculously, she survived and even came back to work completed her service and then retired.

To which, my mother told about a conversation which happened around this miracle some days later. It was perceived that, the dogs, which were missing their daily meal, when the woman was hospitalized prayed to god for a quick recovery or rather prayed regarding obtaining their daily food, that God cured the lady who was the source of their food.

I do not know what to say about this incidence. Long live the lady and she still cooks the cauldron of rice each day.

Cheers,

I'm glad I could remember this and finish typing this tale, instead of forgetting.

Reading Ruskin Bond

I have been reading Ruskin Bond books, well, rather in a hurry. I just want to gulp as many of his stories as possible and as quickly as possible.

I feel like a sinner, a big time loser, having never read his stories all these years. Its a pity, we never have read much literature at schools. Other thing being, at that tender age, we generally spend time doing lesser intellectual things. (its an irony most of his stories are enjoyable by kids, may be I'm just the kid with lesser intellect or rather mugpot or in simple terms dumb)

Time just flies away after that, and we drift away and away from literature. I never had someone come to me and tell me or ask me, " Have you read Ruskin Bond?".

Now when I read Ruskin Bond, I feel, I should have read them as a kid to enjoy the way things were depicted in the book. Who would have thought there would be so much advancement, where in I never get to see who lives in my neighborhood and I connect with my friends only on social network sites?

Also, what Ruskin Bond describes in his story, is best felt if you get to the hills. Yes please, I have been to Uttarakhand and spent 3 days after my trek just lazying around in a hill station doing nothing. What better way than to recollect those memories and savor the Ruskin Bond book at the same time, yet cursing myself for not having read them earlier.

Could I have enjoyed them earlier, having never been to DehraDoon, Uttarakhand, or rather hills? What if I had read them earlier, could I have decoded them, connected with them, as I do now? I do not know. Probably yes, with some stories that got nothing to do with hills

Cheers,

Good old days

Everyone seems to have memories, which they wish to recollect. I have certain memories of the few years while I completed my engineering. We were 3 friends, and out of the entire class of 30, we three stayed close by and somehow were friends.

We used to meet up atleast on few days or rather every weekend at one of the friend's place in RajarajeshwariNagar. I must have written about this very early in the blog and its almost 7 years to that. Have quiet evening walks thinking of whether we would get employed in a company, whether, we would get a job etc etc.

And fast forward 2015, all three of us have drifted away. Its almost 5 years, I have not met one of my friend. And the other person, well he is in the US of A since 2008, so you can add 7 years to that.
Both of them are married and one of them has a kid and has gotten very much more serious with life.

And regarding me, I'm still the same, hoping, future will still be worry free, trouble free, but I doubt. I do have my own fair share of getaways things which I love to do. But golden days shall never come back.

Wonder where all life takes us. Reason why I am writing this?

Well was reading RK Narayan books last week and this week reading Ruskin Bond. These writers put you in that spell, where you start remembering stuffs, which you would rather have forgotten.

What about people, who do not have memories and few others who do not read RK Narayan or Ruskin Bond, I just do not know to say in that case.

Cheers,

PS - These days, I enjoy solitude, I enjoy my own company more than anything else, I trek I travel, but most of the time, I just need my own quiet time. I kind of agree, I would like to meet friends, more often than not, I prefer to be alone!

After a break

After a good haul in 2015, time for me to start writing something in 2016. I hope I write across the blogs on my recent Himalayan treks. For the last few days, I had been reading quite a bit, trying to complete as much books as possible for 2015.

New year has been rather disappointing. Apart from it being a different calendar year, there has been not much, which is happening. Life is as usual. Going on. Getting older. Reading, working, rather work which I am ******. Still training, though barred from taking part in this year's Himalayan trek due to shortage of leaves as well as confidence plus getting old!

Hope to continue reading and training and hope to find another **** quickly!

Cheers,

And.. it finally happened!

One such trek was elusive since quite a long time. This was in Madikeri Srimangala and the reason was, permission problem. Permission was denied due to elephant encounters and as a result this trek was pending since almost 2 months.

And yes it finally happened.

Below is one such picture where one half of the mountain is under Karnataka and the other half under Kerala.

And regarding elephant encounters in the wild, believe me it happened, lots of things did happen, but may be some other day!

Cheers,

Of Managers and Ironies!

A person works in a IT organization. One day there is a Bay decoration competition. 

If you do not recollect what a bay decoration event is, we sit and work each day in a contraption called a bay or a cube.

So this organization has this weird competition where it expects employees to come up with weird ideas to decorate their cubes with what not!

What is the irony over here, you may be wondering.

One of the team, which was working came up with an idea of putting a vacuum cleaner, printer, dustbin, soiled tea cups thrown around, paper print outs indicating weird weird things.

The employees thought this to be a call center theme.

The irony is when asked, one of the employees told, this was the state of the project which they were working on, what it was all about, errors, unexpected things etc etc.

And even bigger irony is, the employee who told or explained this theme was none other than the XXX of the company.

And the biggest irony of them all is that, the XXX person told "What an nice idea " to this bizzare absurd decoration.

Well, what do you have to say, when the management knows what is the problem, yet they fail to address them and fix them, instead resorting to, depicting them in a bay decoration competitions.

In a way, I guess they are incapable to take responsibility, rather gathering sympathy from bystanders, but when the storm strikes, does it listen to your or mine sympathy. I'm afraid not. For that, I'm sure there would be a bag full of political tricks!

Cheers,

Of Protests and Ironies

Yesterday witnessed two ironies, here I am writing about the first one!

Most traffic on Outer Ring Road is caused by the incorrect flyover which descends down at ECOSPACE SEZ, making way for people to reach their offices within the SEZ. The other side of the road allows vehicles to join the main road.

So, what actually happens!
- The gates of ECOSPACE are not that big to allow fast entry and exit to vehicles.
- Vehicle build up happens at ECOSPACE entrance and this continues to the main road.

As a result entire Outer Ring Road ORR gets choked! Till Agara lake sometimes traffic comes to a standstill.

Now when the whole of the IT companies located on ORR come out in protest against the traffic, I came to know even people working at ECOSPACE are participating in it.

Now is there anything wrong over there! Well, they themselves cannot cross the road, nor stop bringing vehicles to work (you ecospace employees) what right do you have to participate in the protest! (Fuhgeddaboudit)

Cheers,

100 posts for the year!

After almost 5 years, I hit 100 posts yet again! It could have been the last couple of years, but owing to non availability of Wifi Router, I was too lazy to login to the desktop and write.

So many miniscule incidents went by, some which made me a better person, some which left me high and dry, none of which I could record so that I could read at a later point in time.

But never mind, I shall always recollect them and write them as and when I remember.

But 2015, had loads in store, and I am hitting a 100 this year!

This post is dedicated to all those people who have worked hard, had led a hard hard life, dedicated their lives just for others, in a way, let go of their dreams, just to fulfill dreams of others. They have grown older enriching lives of others, forgetting their pleasures, so one such person celebrates their birthday as I write this post!

So happy birthday, I'm sure, you are reading this,

Cheers,

Unknown record!

Sometimes, things do happen on their own, you end up being at the receiving end and you wont even know about certain things unless you do a thorough retrospect.

One such thing happened to me!

During one of our treks, I had met a guy who had done 3 Himalayan treks in 1 year's time (within 12 months). I was wondering, when would my time come when I can atleast equal the same.

I did one himalayan trek in October 2014, one more in May 2015 and one more in October 2015.

Voila, there you go, I equaled that record unknowingly! I came to know only when I was writing a post on my blog. No retrospection would have meant, this could have gone unnoticed.

As of now, cheers to myself,

Cheers,

And..it finally happened!

I was very much wondering, whether I would be able to visit the beaches during the year 2015. I had made it to Sharavathy Valley 3 times this year, but none of the times, I had descended down towards the beaches.

My road trip for the year 2015 fell out of the equation and my trip with cousins too did not happen. Chance was little of me making it to the beaches or for that matter coastal Karnataka.

But all of a sudden, I see this beach trek happening, register immediately. And alas, I get to the beaches, trek along the beaches, 3rd time beach trek, 3 times in 3 years, feels great.

Trek was awesome, people were awesome, 2 days and 3 nights worth well spent.

Started out at Om beach Gokarna and ended at Haldipur beach Kumta!

Cheers,

Song blog

I have been posting on this blog since quite some time, over the years, I have infused some songs from youtube in between. In the middle for few days, I was pushing songs on facebook too, until my cousin warned me not to push, since no one was interested in my songs!

I was wondering, what prominence, songs had over me in the last few years.

- I have been listening to songs at workplace almost all of the professional years. It helps you to shield unwanted noises and at the same time concentrate too!

- While driving I listen to songs, there is a collection I have, more often than not I do not enjoy music while driving. I simply listen to something playing. Plus the sound of the diesel engine keeps me heavily happy. With speakers being in the rear, on long drives my parents tell me to turn it off.

I should have taken this step of having a song blog long ago, but its never occurred to me. Now I got the idea, I plan to go ahead with it. Plus, owing to commercials on 91.9FM, I have switched my loyalty towards Kannada playing radio stations, so I now have more songs from yesteryears than contemporaries, so the song blog makes even more sense to keep track of all of them!

Cheers,

Of IT Parks and ironies

Sometimes what you see is not what you get, in fact its most of the times these days. Reality is a hard pill to swallow. Its better we accustom ourselves with reality (instead of talking crap or rather diplomacy)

Its about one such organization where an IT employee worked. It was located in one of the small localities in Hosur Road. It was situated in an IT park nonetheless, but it was surrounded by clothing companies, like the one's which stitch clothes for export. It was very close to NICE road of Electronic city and one could escape to Hosur, Tumkur, Kengeri, Bannerghatta road and where not. Couple of times, we had escaped Silkboard junction and directly took NICE road to Kengeri/Kanakpura road.

People coming from KR Puram faced traffic hurdles, but rest all seemed to be fine with the arrangement. Plus it was at a slight distance from the main road causing issues locating the building.

But top leaders (Indian) of the organization felt otherwise.
- They thought, they had to move to a technology park.
- They thought, the working next to clothing companies did not provide the right marketing presence required to attract the brightest minds to work for them.
- They also thought working next to a world class organization would rub off some of their charisma on to our employees.
- They thought the new IT park was located at a central place and would reduce most of the traffic woes.

This resulted in the IT organization being moved to a IT Park close to Marathahalli. It costed 3 times the rent paid to this current building on Electronic City. What happened after the shift is nothing short of a Bollywood movie.

I prefer not to write about it. The charisma rubbing off from the neighboring companies phenomenon went to the gutter, but what really rubbed off from the neighboring IT companies was sure, the smoke and ash, which the continuous chain smokers left each day and night!

And the biggest irony occurred when the VP of the organization came all the way from US to India for a business visit. The IT office generally functions from 11 am to 8pm. On almost all days during his visit, the roads on Outer Ring Road / Marathahalli were choked. People coming by office shuttles came as late as 1 30 PM when the login time was 11 AM.

Most employees were late and the office resembled a barren desert during his visit (11 AM to 1 30 PM). It must surely have painted a rosy picture of productivity to him. I am sure the Indian think-tanks would have been very pleased at this sight!

After all, what you see, may not be what you get.

Cheers,

Break from diet and training

2015 has been a tremendous year on one side, where as it has been a let down on other sides.

Where its turned out positive -

 - Two Himalayan treks
 - One being Auden's Col which was tough tough 11 day & other being a 12 day continuous trek.
 - Loads of preparation, had to be very precise on diet and regular on training.

Where its turned out not so well.

 - Haven't been able to go to beach side during entire 2015.
 - Two times had been to Sharavathy but could not get down all the way to Honnavara.
 - With so much of preparation needed for Himalayan treks, much of Western Ghats trek took a backseat..
 - Only 3 treks to western ghats since January.
 - Very less road travel
 - Lethargic attitude weeks together after Himalayan treks
 - Work related disappointment.
 - Personal life took a backseat.

There has been days after Himalayan treks, when I have been lethargic and took time to get back to the routine. waking up late, missing diets regularly and missing routine training has become quite frequent now.

I have not been a 100%, trying to be on a strict diet, its taking a toll on the body. Plus I have been told by my parents to avoid future Himalayan treks.

Without a goal in future the motivation to continue training or diet seems to be going all wrong. Sometimes, I wonder, how important it is, in life to have a serious goal where we can focus our energy on. Without a goal its just wandering like a nomad taking whatever comes in our way, well, atleast as of now, I feel thats how it is going.

I have planned couple of treks in the next two months, hoping to end 2015 on a high!

Cheers,

Shuttle / Office cab update

After a steady 3 months our office shuttle driver, is calling it quits. He has his own personal reasons, and we very openly sympathize with him.

Our office cab woes are set to re-appear. So it has to be a new vehicle, since this was a self owned one. We are pretty sure we wont be having a permanent one for this route. But we are used to it or we have rather other things to worry about.

Hope its another Toyota Innova this time, with a 3 seater in the middle bench. After driving, being driven around in a Toyota Innova, i don't know what to say, take a bow Japanese guys.

With a frame and chassis construction it offers an unparallel ride, believe me, with a unibody or moncoque construction what it might offer. I can imagine the rates of monocoque Innova (if any) will hit sky high, but cannot imagine the comfort on that one though, plus added handling! Ahh man, thats the best affordable treat a man can have!

Cheers, I still cannot afford it!

Savoring the retro...

I don't know how to write anything into this post. It mostly has to be precise. (As I have slept for only 4 hours each day since the last two days and its already midnight today, I'm scared the same thing will repeat for third day in a row!).

I have been quite unaware of songs of Kannada movies, which are gems. Some of the lyrics composition have been quite extra ordinary and many of them are from the years 1980's to early 2000's. 

So in the last 10 minutes I was wondering how could I have missed them. Why did it take so long for them to turn up regularly into my playlist.

One enlightening program was Straight hits with V Ravichandran on Big 92.7FM. It surely turned some heads when it came to playing hits only! Apart from that, many programs at the same time do play lot of retro Kannada music. That's competition I guess. What we do is to make sure to switch stations at each advertisement break. (But none with Ravichandran program though).

Reasons for my unawareness...

- Ignorance, may be I was too busy listening to something else, to pay attention to them.

- Immaturity, may be I was immature to appreciate deep lyrics, while I grew up, providing importance only to tunes.

- Accesibility, 80's 90's early 2000's did not have this kind of reach when it comes to CD's radio stations, TV, internet. We did not have a steady supply of songs to get hooked into.

- Unaware - Due to less advertisement / coverage we never knew what all contemporary music had to offer, be it any language English / Hindi / Kannada.

- Kid/Amateur/Teenage - the golden age went by without us even understanding or appreciating the language, now, we only have, to look back!

Why are we bothering this much now?

- Thanks to shows like these we get to know songs which one's topped the charts.

- The crap which is churned out these days, I guess its better to savor the retro than those lyrics which tend to be written in 5 minutes.

- Anything with beats is a super-hit. Absolutely wrong. I prefer songs with lyrics please. So back to retro.

- We could relive the period where there was less traffic, less crowd, where great great people like Dr Rajkumar still were around to give out great hits.

- Unlike now, take any language, its just so boring to tune into contemporary music, amidst that all kinds of promos advertisements etc.

- Seems like many people had chosen literature to study during those days ending up with proper lyrics. Now that, all the painters/writers/mechanics have all disguised themselves as software engineers, you can imagine who would be writing lyrics. (My assumption though no offence!)

It would be so fun just to have these old songs getting played without any breaks!

Cheers,

Listening to the radio - 2

So you might be wondering, what program on the radio we would be listening while stuck at silkboard.

Luckily to our rescue, few of these days we had one program on the radio channel Big 92.7 FM I guess. It was called "Straight hits with RaviChandran".

I guess RaviChandran needs no introduction, probably, if you are from Kannada, I am sure, you would know him very well. Else go and do a search!.

So this program was all about songs from RaviChandran movies. Believe me, every alternate days couple of the songs would repeat or would be the same. But not a single time we would crib about the songs being the same. Mainly because they were songs from the bygone era, extremely good lyrics, worth listening a 1000 times.

In the end, I switched listening to Kannada songs, which reminded me of the 80's/90's my childhood! So when one door closes something else surely opens.

Just like the radio 91.9 which I stopped listening to the ads, which helped me recollect Kannada songs of the 80's, though there were commercials, well, either it was because we were stuck in traffic that it made no difference or may be it was less after all.

I cannot imagine what would have been playing on 91.9 FM at the same time, but why to bother!

Cheers,

Listening to the radio - 1

Once upon a time, I used to listen to Radio 91.9 FM, my favorite show was hosted by Geoffrey Thomas called the Night Patrol, I used to come home and finish dinner and listen to it, before going to bed, preferably with the lights turned OFF.

There is something soothing with alternative rock music and no lights. Gone are the days, gone are the melodies. I do not know what plays in the night.

Day time, I do not listen to radio at all. The commercials on the air have driven the radio out of my room. These days I find myself having very less time. Whatever its and bits of free time I have, I spend reading or blogging.

I do end up listening to music, but those are all songs which I know/remember. Learning about contemporary music is a thing of past to me. I am no more interested in knowing, which is Coldplay's latest song is, nor what U2 is upto these days.

But still, I listen to songs at work and listen to the radio as well. Considering we move through silkboard traffic each day, we ought to listen to something while we are stuck, so what it is!

Let me tell you in the next post. Its of course not 91.9 FM

Cheers,

Nice song - Rang jo lagyo

Looks like, I will have to maintain track of all those songs which I feel awesome. It might end up being another 500 posts considering, it encompasses English/Hindi/Kannada old and new.

May be someday! Till then one more awesome song, came across this one recently, shame never heard this one before, seems to be a hit, but considering, I do not watch much television and the radio is full of commercials I stopped listening to Hindi songs on the radio!

From Ramaiya Vastavaiyya movie this Hindi song comes!

I have slept for 4 hours only yesterday night, More on less sleep pattern in next posts!
Cheers,

Cobalt Blue by Sachin Kundalkar

Posted this one on goodreads, now adding up here too!

I, in-fact loved the plot so much that, I ended up reading in a very quick time, few hours to be precise. The book is a translation from a Marathi version, so I am assuming, some of the original charm might be lost in the process of translation.

Book deals with the story of a brother-sister residing in the same house and ending up falling in love with the same guy, who takes accommodation in their home as a paying guest. 

First half deals with the brothers emotions, feelings which he holds towards this guy who comes as a paying guest.

Second half deals with the sister narrating her good/bad experiences, her feelings some of which takes form as notes in a diary. 

Worth a read, since, it gets you, to start thinking on loads of stuffs.

- How it feels to be in such a deep relationship when they are not earning (still studying)

- What are the things one has to deal when in same sex relationships,( in places where its still not accepted or mainstream. )


- What a double blow it will be for the parents (or may not be too) to know about their son being gay and daughter too in love with the same person.


- How would it be for the parents, to see all of this when their kids are of that tender age.

Rating 3.5 / 5 

Cheers,

PS - I read this book only because, it was mentioned as a good read (by an Indian author). I have nothing to do or relate with anything  that is written in the book. 

Super Song! - Bayalu Daari - 1977

One such song, which I listen to again and again is over here!
From the by-gone days when technology was less advance, when there was simplicity around, less complexity, when we could savor each day growing old, there comes this song, which, with its simplicity was generations ahead of its time. (Be it lyrics, composition, the way it was sung, it was a masterpiece)

What a phenomenal song, what a voice, take a bow!

Cheers,

Rs 200 Gift from Amazon

Recently I purchased a ebook for my kindle from amazon.in (worth Rs 61). It was delivered through whispernet and I did the payment online through NetBanking.

Little did I know, that in return, I would get a Rs 200 worth Promotion code from Amazon mailed to my id. I was totally overjoyed, a book which I was looking could be purchased. I was ever looking for RK Narayan books. But this time I purchased a book worth Rs 265.

I had to pay the remainder Rs 65 through netbanking. That is where things went wrong!

There was some issue with the payment mode and  I was at the mercy of the bank which failed to let the transaction through. Finally at the fourth attempt, I could successfully transfer the Rs 65 to them.

I would come home and wait for the book to be downloaded on my Kindle.

So, all in all, it made me happy. Something for free!

Cheers,
The book I purchased was Blue Cobalt, by Sachin Kundalkar originally in Marathi translated to English by Jerry Pinto! Few other books were there, but they were way too expensive, even for the kindle!

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,