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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers,

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

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

Reasons include -

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

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

Cheers,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers,

PS - Now back to some reading!

A driver who gave sweets/chocolates for his birthday - TTTT 9

I would like to key in this post, before I forget this incident. It happened so, on one of our trek/travel, we found a very jovial driver. He was very much casual, and friendly.

So once the trek was over, we were about to return to Bangalore and the driver proudly announced, it was his birthday. He was organizing a liquor party and cake cutting with friends once he reached Bangalore. But before that the most unexpected thing happened.

Well, he purchased sweets and chocolates and distributed them amongst us travellers, me my friends. I mean, what more can you expect, even after many years of travelling, this was the first one of a kind incident.

Cheers,

Last 2 weeks at office

Last two weeks at office have been pretty rough. It all started with me losing 20% of my bonus. It came as a rude shock as quite a bit of money was in jeopardy.

I really did not know what to do, the amount was yet to be given to me on paper. I had seen on the basis of amount given as a part of salary.

Nothing was going well this season. Temperatures around was horrible, travel this month was almost impossible. Working out during summer and following a diet has been thrown off gear. Loads of reasons to crib about. And on top of this, I get nothing in the form of bonus.

I could be quiet and quite satisfied with the outcome, had I not performed. In fact the non performing team members had gotten more bonus amount than me. I literally lost my sleep. I felt like beating the living hell out of everyone out there.

Well, I can say non performing, the reason being, I was continuously working on production issues, end user support, talking to onsite people, local QA, onsite QA, doing screen sharing with onsite QA for issue replication, giving builds/fixes for production issues, doing hell a lot of work and there you go, whilst the others, yup, I bet, did lesser than this, though they were working on development issues. I do development work but highly occupied into production sustaining work since last 3 months plus atleast.

Yep, development work gets far more time and no one to return back to until QA passes it. Production work has the management standing on you, asking updates from you and the questions of timeline. Its like asking for trouble.

And then the inevitable happened. Lack of exercise due to summer was taking a toll on me. And then the stress levels were increasing too. On top of that, was continuously being pin pointed to in the meetings for being quiet and not participating.

So finally, I had to really stretch some muscle and tell people who's who in the team.

When I was finally called for discussion regarding performance bonus, with our Sr Director, I told, let me bring my laptop. Though my director insisted on not having my laptop for meeting, I still carried it over there.

And boy, did I make a big dent over there. I made clear what work I had done, and I even pointed to what work others had done and I unleashed hell a lot of uncomfortable questions which our's truly director gave answers, which according to my standards, were nothing short of unsatisfactory.

I even showed exact statistics of how people were misusing official time, going for food courts, how when I was on leave, people were so apathetic that, they could not do even a screen share with onsite team. Just shows, whose got real guts after all to deal with US/Europe teams. (Well, one is me of course, now I can say that proudly!)

Finally the tide turned to my side, and the meeting ended abruptly, when two people interrupted us, since our director had other meetings too.

Before leaving, he told, meeting is not fully done and held back the bonus letter, not before folding the paper exactly in half.

So there you go, its almost a week to that incident, and I anxiously wait for my new bonus letter which should have turned up with a 100% number. (though I was targeting 120%).

And my biggest achievement was not losing temper. If I generally lose temper, I do not care who is around. So this time, I kept quite and directed all my difficult to answer questions to our director.

Next installment of our meeting, well, few more statistics and few more uncomfortable questions, and I guess, more embarrassment not for me though!.

Cheers,

Guess who am I?

Disclaimer -

This is a humorous post. Contents have got no connection whatsoever, with any person
This post comes out of nowhere. Its all about clues and hunting down the person in picture. Can you guess who it is. I have loads of clues in the form of traits of this person.

Who the person am I talking about.

1. My age is around 45 years.

2. I have been married for quite some time now, and I in-fact have two kids, the older of whom is about 14 years old.

3. I have a master's degree from an American University and a Bachelor's degree from an Indian University.

4. During the peak of my career, I worked in America.

5. Nobody in India, knows about what work I did in America.

6. I boast of loads of stuffs that I did in America, most of which is known only by people who are no longer in contact with me.

7. In other words what work I did in America, is known only to me, not even my employer. I might have done bathroom cleaning, but I end up pretending that, I have ended up discovering something unique.

8. I showcase myself as someone who is highly professional, conducts himself with integrity. In reality, I do nothing for which I am paid for.

9. By the way, I am paid huge in India too. May be 30 Lakhs upwards.

10. My daily routine starts with coming to office at 9 am and leaving at 6pm.

11. Though the office business hours is 12 Noon to 9 PM, I still follow my own time, you see, I need work life balance.

12. Do hell with those onsite calls with Stakeholders, I can manage it from home.

13. I can manage the calls from home, and not ordinary employees, because I am kind of superior animal, remember my pay packet and what I boast of my work in America mostly a decade back.

14. By the way, nobody listens to me in office, nor nobody tells me anything in office.

15. I have to poke at every other person to understand what is going on in the office/project/meetings whatever. Irony is still I am being paid 30plus Lakhs.

16. So much money for what, well you can congratulate me for fooling the management and coaxing them into retaining me and firing 30 odd people at leaf level node, who do the hard hard work, during the recession time of course.

17. I go for lunch on time. I take my tea on time. I also take strolls across the office floor during business hours to keep my metabolism up.

18. The last part of the previous point is rather untrue. I take a stroll around the floor just to evesdrop into others conversation, just to figure out who is talking what and with whom.

19. Since no one gives me any status nor much work is assigned to me, I generally have minimal responsibilities. So during business hours, I still find time to check social networking sites on my mobile. I chat with my family members too.

20. Forgot to mention I own 3 cars. one driven by me, one by my wife who also works and one spare.

21. I have loans to pay. Loan for the 3BHK condo plus, for kids schooling, future etc etc. That's what makes me come to office.

22. I have no interest in taking any responsibility in work whatsoever. The people who are ready to get fired are there. In case of any urgent meetings, I end up extending my stay may be weekly once.

23. People have got no clues on what I am doing in the company, but one thing is for sure, my job is secure. I can retire over here, that too with zero or minimal responsibilities, very few deliverables, etc etc.

24, I try to talk meaningful in each conversations but barely scratch the roof, forget hitting the foundations.

25. I can retire and go home, and try to do something more meaningful with life, or rather, can provide a more valuable person a chance at my position. But I am tightly bound to this home loan responsibilities. Mind you, I have a crore rupees plus of savings and considering my wife also works, I am in luck. But still I won't let go of this easy money!

Can you guess who am I?

I am like a Manager in a software company. I am going through a mid life crisis rather. Unable to take active part in work at the same time, cannot quit my post due to home loans and other insecurities. I do not know where I will end up. But for the last 20 odd years sustaining in the IT industry.

Hope no one comes to know about me or rather my background, previous companies etc etc. Because once a risk taker always a risk taker.

I'm a no risk taker all my life. No wonder, I have not done much in America. I just pretend and boast about my Master's degree from an American University and I have paid to get a neat resume written. No one can figure about my previous work experience.

Cheers,

When we unknowingly landed in an international competition venue - TTTT 8

Yes please, we landed at the venue for an international competition. Infact two days after we reached there was the international competition.

World paragliding championship was happening at Bir, Himachal Pradesh. We had completed our 12 day Himalayan trek and ended up at Bir.

Bir was the place where para-gliders used to take off. They would in-turn land at Billing which was a place at a little lower altitude.

We could see loads of foreigners alongside Indians as well. Few of our team members did paragliding too. So we had to get down to Billing as well.

That is how we got to witness preparations for an awesome world wide event happening in India, after we got to trek the Himalayas.

Its sad I do not have pictures of this interesting bit of travel,

Cheers,

Catching up lost sleep... Not so alcoholic after all.

Today I slept for more than 6 hours during the day time itself. 2.5 hours in the morning to late afternoon then it was 3+ hours during the evening, 3 45 pm to 7 20 pm.

I had travelled out of town and trekked hard for the 2 out of the last 3 weekends and other than that I was working out in the gym rest of the days.

My parents were shocked when they saw me sleep so much. I had not slept like this in the last 5 plus months odd. I used to sleep during weekends but it used to be 1 hour max 2 hours. I was wondering, what may be the reason for this.

I have been bit irregular at the gym this week, not working out regularly and absentee for the last 3 days and on weekend reason being out of town.

I did not have the usual after effects of workout, plus I had food, plus I had the satisfaction that I had got to travel out overcoming my mood swings. All this made me sleep like crazy. But the real thing was I had not worked out, working out induces pain, which rather disrupts deep sleep.

Your legs, shoulders, thighs are aching constantly, you feel purturbed by their movement, then how do we get deep sleep. Well that is what I think. It may be one of the reason, I have not slept properly in the last few months. Properly meaning this depth.

So, what is the solution for getting deep sleep even after work out. How do people who do manual labor get to sleep deep?

The answer is universal. Yes, that is what I told my parents all about, who again and again insist I am in bad company!

Its LIQUOR / ALCOHOL. Yes, please, though this may be my conclusion, I feel its pretty true. Why do people doing manual labor drink alcohol, why do drivers, especially truck drivers drink. Its this pain which makes sleep a far factor which makes them drink.

I am writing based on my personal experience, without hard work and without alcohol.

There have been days after my Himalayan treks where I had sleepless nights owing to the changes in altitude, plus location etc etc. Those days I was craving for sleep after a hard hard trek, but it never came. I used to wake up at 3 am in the morning, without sleep till 6-7 am and then sleep.

On such days I wish, I had a 90ml handy. But none whatsoever. I suffered without sleep.

My parents insist that, I have fallen into bad company talking about drinking, but the truth is, its more out of necessity than out of the need for sheer indulgence. Same with people who do hard hard work and who need a good sleep to get back to work and concentrate.

Cheers, and loads of respect to those people who put in hard hard work. Enjoy your drink guys!

When 500 kilometers took 12+ hours by road - TTTT 7

This one is like a continuation from the previous TTTT post. We had completed our beach trek, night dinner and were about to start to Bangalore by road from Gokarna. The bus chosen was a 22 seater. It was a nice group.

We reached Bangalore around 10 30 AM the next day, though we had started at 9 15 PM the previous night. There were few reasons:

- The route we had chosen, we had decided to come to Haveri and then hit NH4 and then to Bangalore, instead of the usual, Jog Falls, Shimoga road. Reason being 4 lane versus 2 lane.

- The vehicle which we had chosen had a front wheel wobble after or at 80 kmph. So the moment we touched 80, it used to wobble so bad that we had to cut down speed.

- We were driving at night, plus the driver had not slept properly for the last 2 days, reason being humidity along the coastal areas.

- The driver stopped at Chitradurga for some 1.5 hours. He just dozed off after stopping. So he was actually running short of sleep.

- Once we reached Tumkur, we stopped for a hotel at Kyatasandra. So this took around 45 minutes more! People were so fond of breakfast, considering, we would anyways be reaching Bangalore late, we could rather make the most of it, by eating yummy breakfast. Well that's what people thought!

Here we were, needing to reach office and there you go, reaching Bangalore was like an epic on this vehicle. I was like sitting close to the driver in the cabin, reason being, it was extremely hot and no one was ready to open windows in the vehicle.

The whole night, I was like gawking at the oncoming traffic on NH4, but one thing is for sure, it was not scary as we presume. Night driving on NH4 is surely possible.

Well, there goes one more tale! Couldnt reach office that day instead to chose to Work From Home!

Cheers,

When we ate free food after the trek - TTTT 6

This happened during November 2013, yep, almost 2 years back. We had completed our Beach trek, from Honnavara to Gokarna. We had one round of play in the backwaters of OM Beach.

The time was around 6 PM. It was time to get a fresh water bath and then head back to Bangalore. Instead the group chose something else. A visit to Gokarna Lord Shiva temple. The time flew and it was around 8PM. We thought, let us complete the dinner (prasadam) which was being served very close to the temple.

We completed the dinner and started towards Bangalore around 9 15 pm. Reached Bangalore around 10 30 am the next day.

Well, that's loads of time. The reason being, well, it can fit into another tale (blogpost) after all!

Cheers,

When we crossed state borders to pee - TTTT 5

During our weekend trips, we do many a time cross state borders, meaning we enter other states.  Entering other state by road requires vehicle permit for taxi segment vehicles. There have been couple of occasions, where we had chance to cross over to other state via the forest by walk of course!

The forest has no boundaries, but if we are caught in other state forest, we could get fined unless we have proper permission. Yes, unfortunately the forests too are demarkated, saying which part of the forest falls under which state.

During this trek, we started our road journey from Karnataka, crossed over into TamilNadu, then started the trek. During the trek we crossed over to the Kerala side, and then we completed the trek. We had to take a jeep ride from Kerala to TamilNadu border.

The jeep crossed the Kerala side and entered into the Tamilnadu side, and then stopped. It was over here at a distance of 0.5 kilometers, that our vehicle was parked. So before we could locate where our vehicle was, we thought of relieving ourselves.

Considering there were many people and checkposts in the Tamilnadu side, we thought it would not be a correct idea to do so. Ahead there were many street lights because of which we turned down.

So now only option left was to go back to Kerala side of the road which was a bit dark,

That is how we crossed the state borders just to pee!

Strange things do happen while travelling, its just about making them happen and recollecting them!

Cheers,

Shuttle driver #14 - Driver who drove the same car for 11 years and still counting!

Finally the jinx was broken. We had a good Toyota Innova cab doing duty for the last 5 months and now all of a sudden due to cost cutting, we have moved back to Non AC cabs, like Indica Sumo.

The Kengeri route shuttle ever so remains so skeptical, that, we wonder each day, whether it will be a 4 seater or an 8 seater.

Each day a new cab, yesterday was no difference. We had a cab and finally talking to the driver, we came to know, he was driving for the past 25 years!

Starting from truck/bus/Tempo traveller, now to a 4 seater cab. The thing he said was he was the single owner/driver for the vehicle, which he had since 2005.

Yes 11 years, driving a single vehicle. I asked him, did you not get bored driving the same vehicle, wanting to move to a higher capacity vehicle.

He replied saying, he also owned a Tempo traveller, which he would drive once he got bored, next weekend he had a tour Kerala side!

So asked him about vehicle engine repairs in the last 11 years, for which he said, engine was re-bored, with piston changes, engine head, camshaft changes after 5 Lakh kilometers. The car had done, more than 8 lakh kilometers in the last 11 years.

The driver told, whatever he had earned today,was because of this vehicle. His savings in the last few years were all attributed to this vehicle. The way he said was very emotional indeed!

By the way, I forgot to mention which vehicle was he driving. Do I need to? It was a Tata Indica of course!

Cheers,

Top respect #Mahindra

There have been multiple occasions when I have taken jeep rides on non existent roads. Meaning on pathways littered with stones rocks, or paths where your normal cars/two wheeler refuse to ride.

On each such occasion, I have traveled in a Mahindra jeep. I have always been a huge fan of Mahindra vehicles, its sad that I could not afford one, 6 years back!

So after our Sunday's jeep ride from some forest out of nowhere near Munnar to Kerala-TamilNadu border, I just thought, about what real toughness is all about.

I guess thats what Mahindra vehicles stand for esp Mahindra Jeeps, Mahindra Bolero, Mahindra MaxR. I'm not counting in Scorpio/Xylo/XUV in this list, because, I have never seen them being driven over such pathways.

It has always been bare basic jeeps, if not Bolero/MaxR/Pickup truck.

Its one department, where Mahindra wins easily with no competition. Many reasons exist, so let me list  them

- One cannot ride Range Rover over such roads. the cost of Range Rover parts to the cost of Mahindra spare parts differ by leaps and bounds.

- Weight - Mahindra Jeeps especially, weigh very less, they carry no weight by themselves apart from their subframe and a bare minimal body and top. They literally have less weight, where as other vehicles weight tonnes.

- Technological advancement - Many other off-roaders come with so much technological advancement, electronics that, it hurts to pay for these gadgets to run them in the wild. But Mahindra runs with bare minimum technology even with the engine. So cost of buying one is extremely less especially, if you want to ride them where there are no roads.

- Repair - Repairing them is simple as each part is visible to the naked eye. Unlike other vehicles, where many parts are hidden within a fort of body work, Mahindra jeep has most parts reachable by hand, even electricals, (btw are there any electricals, yes there are).

- Engine - DI Engine (no fuss engine 2.5L / 3.2L), every hard working man's dream (including mine). Loads of torque, grunt and able to take tonnes of load. Can newer technology replace this one, I doubt! Simple parts, can be repaired by village mechanic, no add-ons in the form of Turbo, intercooler. All power / torque by natural aspiration, not by shitty forced induction!

So here is one such post dedicated to Mahindra expressing gratitude for all those jeep rides which have taken us away from civilization into wilderness and brought us back to civilization and also to loads of other people who earn their livelihood because of these hard core off road Mahindra vehicles.

And if you want one example of "Make In India", you have it in front of your eyes, since 50 plus years, even before " Make In India " concept was born.

Its sad to see each individual is hesitant to buy a Mahindra (though being Indian) because they just cant accept the fact that its built so tough, instead choose cheaper Japanese/Korean alternatives! (quoting escape reasons such as niggling vehicle issues, back-pain etc,which leaves me giggling)

My only regret is I could have taken additional loan and brought a Mahindra 6 years back, that's another story, but I would have dearly missed falling in love with a TATA.

I can tell, my regret gets nullified though. Someday I hope to own a Mahindra Bolero XL Plus, a 7+1 seater, with a good engine, preferably a CRDE preferably with a Turbocharger and intercooler. (MEagle engine I mean).

Considering, that spec is not available for production(my guess), I am not thinking about buying one though and after driving and being driven around in an Innova, I guess, I am in a dilemma.

Cheers,

When we got invited for free food - TTTT 4

This was during one of our recent treks. We were along the coastal side, very close to Honnavara at a place called Gundabagal. So there is this temple of Goddess Lakshmi Devi where we were visiting. There was a wedding happening at the temple courtyard. So preparations for a huge dinner was on the way. May be for even an evening snacks.

We had completed our trek and had cooked an afternoon lunch. Seeing this mega dinner preparation opened our eyes. I exclaimed to one of my friend, only if someone would invite us for this feast. My friend was also of the same opinion.

Two of our team members were from the coastal region only. So there was this place behind the temple where Yaksha Gana was being performed every night. They went to inquire about the same. In the process they started to speak in Tulu and were guided to the exact place where Yaksha Gana happened.

While me and my friend were happening to be seated at the entrance of the temple, this person with whom my friend's had spoken in Tulu spoke to us too. Apparently, he was the uncle of the girl who was getting married. So after a round of introductions and some more insight into the happenings of Yaksha Gana, guess what happened?

He invited us for having some snacks and then leave for Bangalore. It came out of nowhere, our wish had turned into reality. Since we were so far from Bangalore around 440 kilometers and had to reach Bangalore by 5 am, we turned down the offer, considering snacks would be served a bit late.

Cheers,

When a tadpole turned out in drinking water - TTTT 3

It was one other trek with a different group. The year was 2013, month was November. It was a beach trek. We had started the trek from Kumta to Gokarana. It was walking along the beach stretch.

It was mid afternoon we had run out of water and we could locate a fisherman's house opposite to the beach. We went there and asked for water. There was a fresh water well from which water was drawn manually.

Then we started to fill our bottles. And there you go, I got my bottle filled up too with water. When I looked inside it for mud or dirt, I found out there was a live tadpole within it. (Atleast that was what I thought of the live creature)

And what did you think I did, I just dropped few quantity of water back into the well and started drinking the water!

Cheers,

When I was left behind in a trek - TTTT 2

I was never good at physical activity, well that was pre 2014, at-least. I was pathetic on all counts. I could not run for a distance, could not perform physical tasks at one stretch.

I had already spent years working, years sitting in front of the computer, trying to work myself up on the corporate ladder (rather craporate ladder), now all of a sudden I realized, I was getting older, life was just running by, and I felt I was doing nothing.

So this idea of doing treks came to my mind. I was fit mentally but physically it was a long way away. But never mind I tried my hand at treks.

One such thing happened during one of the treks. This was the year 2013 July. Well years back. I was a part of this team which was about to trek Mullayangiri and BabaBudangiri. We had managed to climb Mullayangiri and all of a sudden weather turned worse. It started to pour on the hill plus heavy winds.

So as we were about to commence the second half of the journey namely BabaBudangiri, the trek organizer, felt only those guys who were quick should attempt the second half of the trek. Unfortunately, I wasn't, I was left behind. I pleaded I would manage the same, but it went to deaf years.

I felt very awkward, very bad for myself, but I had to accept the fact that I was slow. This was very de-motivating, now when I look back at this and few more insulting incidents, I feel like laughing at myself!

These kind of insults sure led me to making a comeback, a serious comeback, which I can attribute to my teacher,parents and God. Now when I look back at the last year and half, I feel, I have lived a dream!

Cheers,

PS - Its been quite a long time, I have met that organizer, life has just  moved on. I no more trek with that group not because of the incident, but because of expense and I have made other friends who themselves organize treks, so no need for me to join this group again!

When a stranger spoke to me in McLeodGanj - TTTT 1

We had completed our trek and we had two more days to spare in Himachal Pradesh and chose to stay at McLeodGanj. So it was there we got to visit the Dalai Lama temple.

While at the temple one woman came and struck a conversation with me. It was all of a sudden. She asked me where me and my friend were from. We told about Bangalore/Karnataka.

She seemed little surprised. The reason being, she was born and raised in Bylakuppe, Madikeri. She had married a person living in McLeodGanj and had started living here. Infact she told me, she was due to travel for Mysore in couple of weeks.

It felt very nice, since she spoke in Kannada, co-incidences do happen. She spoke about couple of good things about people of Karnataka over Himachal people. She also told about how she had got to meet His Highness Dalai Lama.

So all in all, a good day!

Cheers,

Tales from trek tours and travels (TTTT)

I have still not completed writing about our office shuttle drivers (to completion), I got a thought about writing on some other topic.

I have been travelling/trekking/touring actively since last 2-3 years, that I have got or rather encountered quite a bit of fascinating people their tales and stories which have happened during these times. So thinking like blogging about them too.

What is the point in simply remembering them, recollecting them or telling them to everyone, eventually to be forgotten after few months.

So here goes another attempt to recollect them and relive them for years!

Cheers,

Himachal Journey - Day 16

Landed in Delhi in morning.

Freshened up at NDLS metro station, put luggage in cloak room.
Took metro to some station then went to Purani Qila
Then to Connaught place for breakfast.
Then we went to some place for sweets Bangla sweet shop.
Then went to Karim's near Red Fort where few of my friends had lunch. I did not, I had a huge mug of Lassi which bloated my stomach.

Came back to NDLS railway station. Took our belongings and started towards T3 terminal.

My Flight was at 6 40pm and there you go I came to Bangalore at around 9 20 pm.

Cheers, Trip has come to an end!!

Thanks for God, my parents and my teachers, Cheers once again!

Himachal Journey - Day 15

Morning breakfast - Something in Kunga cafe dont remember

Morning visit to St John's Church. Sat near McLeodGanj circle doing nothing for 2-3 hours in the afternoon. Then went for lunch. Started reading a book at Kunga cafe.

Evening strolled around Dalai Lama temple had 2 cups of tea.

Late evening time for our bus to Delhi.

Cheers,

Himachal Journey - Day 14

Breakfast - Roadside momos, bun sold at road side. Tibetian kinda breakfast at Kunga Cafe.

Events -

Morning - Visit to Bhagusa Nag temple, did some shopping. came back, went for a shave. Then moved ahead for Dalai Lama temple.

Afternoon / Evening - Moved ahead to Dharamsala, stood in queue for free food. Visited Kangra museum. Then started towards Palampur Baijnath temple. Full evening spent in Baijnath. Came back to McleodGanj around 9 45pm.

Cheers,

Himachal Journey - Day 13 Part 2

Second half of the day, was more of travelling. Travelled from Bir to Billing, then hired another taxi to take us from Billing to McLeodGanj.

The route went through Palampur, saw Baijnath Temple, did not visit though.
Even saw Chamunda Devi temple as well.

This drive felt awesome, knowing that we had completed the trek and then were free birds. Sometimes its so much fun wandering like a mad dog, no responsibilities, I wish life was simple.

Reached McLeodGanj around 7 pm and started lookout for rooms. Found a room refreshed, came out for dinner and then day got to close.

Cheers,

Himachal Journey - Day 13 Part 1

Final day, finally we were done with the trek.

Day started casually, ended casually. Reached Bir by afternoon. Preparations were on for world paragliding championship over there, so enjoyed few moments there, then it was a taxi ride to Billing where our team members who paraglided just would have landed.

We said goodbye to our guide and horsemen at Bir and then it was our team, thats it.
Trek was over. We had reached civilization, 12 days of wilderness was done!

Wow, as I recollect while I write this, it was an out of earth experience.
Wish I could do the same trek again and again!

Cheers,

Breakfast - Chole Bhature + egg.
Lunch - Apple + 5 star + froot=

Route was pretty straight forward, walking along side a mountain trail all the way to Bir.

Cheers,

Himachal Journey - Day 12

Today was one more epic day.
- We were about to reach Rajgunta.
- We were about to get mobile signal after 11 days.
- We were on the last but one day of completing our memorable trek.
- We would meet civilization.

The whole day was wrecked with bad weather.
We had trekked in rain, but never trekked in hail storms. Today was that day to meet our friend hailstorm.

It hit right on our face. We were drenched. Our shoes were wet, gone, saggy dripping, but we had no option but to continue in the rain rather hail storm.

Finally after 2.5 hours of walking in the rain reached a shelter where we could escape rain. Put a fire started drying ourselves, though we were shivering.

Finally after 1 hour of waiting we were ready to go again. Meanwhile finished dinner over there too.

Then in the late evening,weather turned out to be extremely fine, we reached Rajgunta and then it was evening. Got an accomdation instead of staying in tent because we had reached civilization. Tomorrow we would be completing the trek, 12 day of wilderness thus coming to a close.

We got mobile coverage and called up homes got data as well checked stuffs.

Cheers,

Breakfast - Poha + Egg Burji + Omlette + black tea

Lunch - Chapati wrapped with vegetables + frooti + apple + egg + 5 star.

Evening  - Tea + chocolate cream biscuits

Dinner - chowmen + fried rice + pasta + cake - success party.

Himachal Journey - Day 11

We had to cross Thamsar pass today. Early morning few people who had started from BaraBhangal yesterday came around the kitchen tent too. They were fed and given tea breakfast and then they proceeded with their journey.

We had other company around 30 horses carrying ration from Barabhangal to Bir. So today we were not alone after all.

Breakfast - Porridge + Pancake + Black Tea

Lunch - Egg + Kichdi + Frooti + diary milk + Apple.

We continued on the rocky trail and somewhere we met the villagers of BaraBhangal. We finished the rocky trail and then reached snow. Pass crossing was slow and around 12 30 we were at top of Thamsar pass.

Descended the pass and finished lunch near a lake.

Finally with more walk we reached around campsite around 5pm. It was getting late, foggy and managed to reach the campsite before dark.

Dinner - Rice + Roti + Black Tea + Plain Dal

Cheers,

Himachal Journey - Day 10

- Today we were starting from BaraBhangal village.
- Our dream of spending one idle day doing nothing at BaraBhangal was not possible.
- We had a tough path ahead today and the day was long.

Breakfast - Methi Parota + corn flakes + tea

We said bye to all of the villagers and then started. Crossed a bridge and boy then there was one huge climb all the way parallel to the waterfall. It was a tough day. Sun was hitting very hard. Meanwhile the food and other rations had come down and one of the horseman was riding on the horse instead of walking.

Lunch was alongside a waterfall consisting of,

Salted Potato + apple + 5 star + frooti + Egg.

We started again along the rocky path. It was a tough climb. Completely exposed to sunlight along a quarry of stones we made our way thorough it.

Finally reached evening campsite around 4pm.

This was another day to remember,

- We stole wood stocked up by the shepard and lit a campfire. First one at 13k Feet.
- Guide and horseman were very happy since weather god's had permitted us to come this far.

Dinner - Masoor dal + Rice + roti + tuna fish + vegatables (Potato+ cauliflower+ carrot)
Sweet- custard.

Cheers,

Himachal Journey - Day 9 Part b

BaraBhangal village was an awesome place. The moment we entered, we were greeted by a farmer, who was cultivating Rajma. After 8 days, what a fun in meeting people civilization.

- BaraBhangal is a village closed for 6 months of the year, due to the too much of snowfall it recieves.
- People stay and grow crops during 6 months and next move to Bir/Billing.
- The school too functions 6 months over here, 6 months in Bir.
- We had a chance to roam around the village.
- Pluck apples, Yes we were in Himachal Pradesh after all :)-

Once we reached our campsite, we were greeted by a gentleman who turned out to be a government doctor stationed for this village. Since half the team had not yet reached, me and horsemen got up to pitch the tents

Almost after 1 hour rest of the guys who had lost their way arrived. We had freshened up then, quickly it turned dark. Few people had gone to make a telephone call home since there was a satellite phone available. But that was operating on a solar battery which too out of charge!

Then it was dinner time. Next morning I got to take a walk around BaraBhangal, the temple over there, small shops over there etc etc. Then it was time to packup. Big day ahead of us, since we had to start since weather was getting bad, villagers had advised us, not to stay a day more!

Cheers,

A video which I took in BaraBhangal village. 

Himachal Journey - Day 9 Part a

I remember this day way too well. It was an epic day. The reasons being,

- We were reaching BaraBhangal village
- After 8 days of wandering all alone in the hills we would hit civilization.
- Team members felt they could get hot water for bath.
- Guide thought we could refill our supplies of potato + korn + rajma for next leg of the trek.
- Meet people greet people wander around Barabhangal
- Satellite phone.
- Possible bear sightings.
- A day where lots happened.
- Our planned stay at BaraBhangal was cut short by our utilizing the spare day in betwen, now we had no option but to move ahead.

Breakfast - Carrot + Meti parota + omlette + oat meal porridge + black tea.

Day started with a great hope and ended in a brilliant way. Somewhere in the middle we reached a water fall for lunch and then our team decided to split, one team which would go fast and reach the village quick and the other one, would go slow at their own pace.

Lunch at the waterfall - Mashed potato + egg + apple + frooti + diary milk.

The guide told the quicker team to follow the horses, instead they ran ahead in front of the horses and lost their path. Where they had to climb they descended into the valley.

And as a result, we reached Barabhangal village before the quicker team which lost their way. In the middle the horsmen had a sighting of bear and believe me, we four guys of the team were all alone. Luckily we did not sight any bear over there.

Reached BaraBhangal village and there you go, 65% of the trek done!

On reaching campsite we had Tea + Parle G biscuits

Dinner - Rice + Dal + vegetables + roti + jamoon + Soya Chunks

Cheers,

Himachal Journey - Day 8

This day I remember very well, at the end of this day, we reached an awesome campsite and it is where our chef cooked rotis in the open making around 45 rotis in 30 minutes without oil. mind you!

Breakfast - Corn Flakes + aloo Parotha + corn flakes + omlette

Day started with a walk around rocky zone plus a climb. the it was few rock fall zones. We could see the forest cover now, 2 days of snow rock was over, we had a huge climb in front of us.

In between a climb found sometime to finish lunch.

Packed lunch was - Mexican wrap with vegetables + egg + frooti + apple + diary milk!

Finally through a series of inclines we managed to cross a waterfall where we refilled, then it was all out climb to our campsite. One of the bestest campsite during all of our treks.

Dinner - Roti + Rice + moong channa dal + black tea + vegetables (potato + tomato).

Cheers,

Himachal Journey - Day 7

Day 7 appears to be vague in my memory. I do not recollect the events visually. I do not remember how the campsite looks like. I wonder how come that happened.

But I do remember by the pictures and the food prepared.

So I gotta write about only few things!

Cheers,

Breakfast - Poha + custard + egg burgi + tea

Lunch - Boiled potato + apple + frooti + diary milk

Dinner - Rice + Roti + Vegetables (potato/tomato/cauliflower) + rajma dal.

Reaching campsite - Tea + Biscuits.

Himachal Journey - Day 6

Yesterday had a big impact on our mindset.
- We had lost couple of team members owing to altitude sickness.
- We had climbed most part of the hill and were 45 minutes away from crossing the pass, yet we came back.
- Our spare day, which was  reserved for spending in BaraBhangal was exhausted and we now were seeing 12 continuous days of trek instead.
- Once we crossed this pass, there was a point of no return.

But we were quite  optimistic. With God's grace we were planning to cross through.

Breakfast - Corn Flakes with Musli + onion parotha + black tea

The day was long, we started the day with the climb and reached the top where it was ice ice and more ice. Another 2 hours we were almost near the pass crossing.

And then it happened, we reached the top of Kaliheni pass. Our second pass crossing in a 12 day trek, this one too at 14750 feet. Now we had a snow field, lake, a glacier which we had to cross, then we had to make way along the quarry full of stones.

In between took pictures next to the lake and then sat opposite to the lake finished lunch and then started again.

Lunch was - vegetable roll + boiled egg + munch + apple + frooti

Final part of the journey was very very tough. Full of descent on rocks and the campsite was way too long. We made it, it was around 4 45 pm. A very long day.

It would have been worrisome if we had tried this yesterday, because, seriously it was very long.

Dinner - Chowmen + fried rice + pasta + custard sweet + tea

Soup was tomato + garlic soup.

Heavy dinner owing to the success in crossing the pass, though at a second attempt.

Cheers,

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,