When we loaded honey and jaggery (in our vehicle) while returning from our trek - TTT 46

I have been on numerous treks in the last 2-3 years. Each time, we do go by a hired vehicle, more often than not, it has to be 12 seater Force traveller, other time, we had 24 Swaraj Mazda and 30 seater TATA bus.

This time too during our beach trek we had a Tempo traveller. All these treks, though we visit places quite distant from Bangalore, we never load our vehicle with consumable stuffs during the return journey. 

Stuffs like, rice, vegetables or anything which is produced at the place of our visit and which can be ferried back to Bangalore and which works out cheap for us.

But there is a first time for everything. This time, we managed to source Jaggery and Honey from somewhere in the Sharavathy valley and we loaded them in Sagara. Opposite to Sagara bus stand.

It appears there is a subtle difference in the purest form of honey and packaged honey! 

Cheers,

When I trekked the same route for 5 years in a row (yearly once) - TTTT 45

After all this is something which I could proudly write about. It happened for the first time in 2013 and as of 2017 its still on!

I am referring to my participation in the annual beach trek. I had this so called affinity to beaches and it was not very evident until I was away from India. Even more is my affinity to the coastal area of Karnataka, especially Gokarna till Udupi stretch. It makes me feel grounded. It gives me time to contemplate.

Each year there are lots of groups which do beach treks along the coastline. This year too, I am happy that I was a part of another group. Not just that, it completed my 5th year of beach trek.

1. 2013 - Kumta to Aghanashani beach / Tadadi port (boat to Gokarna). (22 members).
2. 2014 - Apsarakonda to Bhatkal (Sri Durga Parameshwari temple Ilvekodi). (26 members)
3. 2015 - Gokarna to Haldipur beach. (28 members)
4. 2016 - Gokarna to Haldipur beach (13 members).
5. 2017 - Gokarna to Kumta beach (13 members)

Apart from one year, where I trekked from Apsarakonda all the way to Bhatkal via Murudeshwara of course, all the years it has primarily been Honnavara to Gokarna OR Gokarna to Honnavara.

Feels so nice to have been doing it again and again. Hope to continue it in future too. Given a choice, of course with the same group too! And guess what I never get bored of this route.

The feeling of being connected to this piece of coastal land is just tremendous, you can imagine, how tremendous, the feeling of me being connected to India is (no prizes for guessing and no sarcasm please)!

Cheers,

When a strange reason ended our trek - TTTT 44

There have been multiple occasions when our treks have ended ahead of time. Each time, it would be the lack of time, rains, tired teams, losing way etc etc. But this time was another awesome reason end our trek ahead of time or rather to not trek.

I recently had been to Gokarna, to take part in this year's beach trek. We managed to walk all the way from Gokarna to Holanagadde beach (after crossing river Aghanashani / Tadai port via a ferry of cours)  on day 1 and camped at a temple.

On day 2, we managed to reach all the way to Kumta beach and there you go we needed some help. There is a place where the sea manages to stretch itself into the town as backwaters and we needed to cross this one. It is a good 15-20 feet depth and needs boat. On all the previous occasions we could manage to source a boat from the nearby fishermen, who would be busy cleaning their boats.

But this time, with no availability of people around, our only option was to walk along the road leading to Kumta town. After walking for half a kilometer we found water to drink and clean ourselves, via a roadside tap after all. The person instructed us that a bus would be available over here any time soon.

And, we managed to reach the main road aka NH-66. Now people were in two minds whether to walk back to the beach or call it over. Lunch and play time in the beach plus Apsarakonda waterfall dip was pending. So this precedence took over, we ended the trek 4 kilometers early. 

But all in all I thoroughly enjoyed the trek, which was overshadowed by some great company, one person of whom had come all the way from Gulbarga!

Cheers,

A driver who listened to retro songs only! - TTTT 43

This time, during the return journey from our trek, we had noticed one thing since the start. The music system in our van was always silent and never played any songs. So we asked the driver what was the reason, and why didn't he play any songs.

His reply was an uncharacteristic one. He told, he always listened to old songs. Fearing most people disliked old songs, he never bothered to play any music!

But in our team we had guys who liked old songs, especially Hindi and Kannada, and there was a unanimous yes for playing it out.

So we got to hear old songs from late 1970's and 80's sung by Shailendra Singh, Mohammed Aziz and others. Then there was a discussion about art films from 70's and 80's.

All in all a nice way to end a trek with some slow songs, providing much relief, during the night journey.

Cheers,

Trouble with BSNL internet

My goal for reaching 100 posts for the year seems to be going nowhere, I owe some part of it to BSNL. On two occasions when I had time to write something, BSNL internet was down.

Previously it was down for over 5 days in succession and today it was around 3+ days. Only after some people near my home intervened and blasted the operator at BSNL office, there was some quick turn around and repair was done and internet re-introduced.

Each time, not only the writing took a hit but even my office work, I generally work more from home and I'm better productive. But on these days, I used every curse from the dictionary.

In the meanwhile tried applying for ACT but no use, now shall try for TICONA or Airtel.

lets see, until then, scampering with BSNL.

Cheers,

Fit Stop (hits) on MTV beats

Every day while I workout in the gym, I get to hear some random playlists. After hearing same set of songs repeatedly, someone complained and we got a TV in the gym and now it belts out songs from music channels.

Its usually MTV beats or 9XM which airs while I exercise. I had a major major concern for this, as, along with the song, the music video turns up. And believe me, if its Sunny Leone or someone else (heroine), whole bunch of people who will be exercising will stop exercising and stand idle, looking at the TV watching the video. This despite of the warning of our trainer, having NOT to take longer pauses between exercises/repetitions.

Irony is that, music is just to aid exercising and here there is a distraction. Even bigger irony is that, MTV is about to start a program, "Fit Stop with Sunny Leone", I guess in the morning only.

But on the contrary what better and fitter person than Sunny Leone, someone who's totally fit,  (to aid people's exercise).

Cheers,

Only Ironies no sarcasm within this post.

Technological advancement or derailment - Alter thoughts 18

Recently in a conversation someone spoke to me about a song which is rather 10 year old and which used to be in the radio countdown at #9, or #10. So this put me into a kind of nostalgia.

These days I have stopped listening to contemporary music and every song which I like dates back to few years. I was wondering if these days such songs have been written or produced or sung.

Then I went back few years again and there you go I could get Billy Idol singing eyes with a face, Billy Joel singing Vienna, and this was 1980's and 1970's respectively.

I was just wondering what has all these technological advancements done to the music industry? where the essence of it still remains song writing and singing which have been the same throughout.

I feel its just the social media and marketing which have turned this industry too into a kind of gimmickery and capitalistic centered market, where emphasis has been taken away from good lyrics and song writing skills and turned it towards marketing and presentation skills.

So is this technological advancement or derailment where I need an optic fibre network over an undersea link just to provide me the data which comprises of what my neighbor is doing over his weekend, which comes all the way from a server located half way across the world?

Irony is I still complain, my internet is slow :) (I'm so curious to know what my neighboring is doing you see, just that I hate to go to him and ask him directly, I believe in snooping).

Pardon my sarcasm though :)

Same goes with writing, for inspiration, is there something which I can look to in the contemporary alternate rock music or any genre for that matter? Not sure!

Here and there I do find songs which I can relate to, but it isnt the same as the good old days, thanks to the derailment caused by technology, consumerism and capitalism :)

Am I correct in judging/assuming, help yourself with comments :)-

Cheers,

Nice country song

Found this song playing on a music channel on television. It sounded interesting. I felt it was indeed a nice country song I heard in a while. I generally do not follow this genre of  music. Great great great composition by Loy, Shankar, Ehsaan! [Hoping its not a rip off]

But this one appearing in a Hindi movie made it somewhat extra special. Sukhwinder Singh has sung it to precision. And Farhan Akhtar has done justice to the song with his steps. I sincerely wish the amount agreed upon to charity has been paid by now.

Need to check out more country songs, something I always wanted to do, but it always starts with Shania Twain and ends with Shania Twain :). and I run out of time.

Cheers,

Here goes the song which I was talking about -

Slow Motion Angreza from Bhaag Milkha Bhaag! Irony is I heard it playing while running on treadmill in the gym (2 years after movie release?, shame on me? or shame on the quality of contemporary music? suit yourself!).

Can you imagine when you are running and this song shows up. Do you run, do you dance or do you admire the song or think about German beer? Take a guess :)

Hectic week - 2 Oct - 7 Oct 2017

One hectic it was with clients visiting us from Germany. Got sprint work thrown out of gear, could not work much. Had to take part in some technical and functional sessions with Germans about upcoming work.

Plus, had to go for lunch with them. I was invited for dinner too, but politely declined. I did not want to take a risk of eating outside two consecutive days plus most people were non vegetarian, so avoided second day.

In between, there was an escalation from the client regarding a use case I had worked on, and release of the application was delayed. Best part was client got a first hand vision of how I reacted in case of escalation. And guess what, I had a poker face with absolutely no emotions. Finally once I became comfortable with the fact that I was solely responsible for this delay, I enjoyed every minute of the stardom.

Mails floating from top German management as well as mails / JIRA comments from German developers on how to proceed. Finally a workaround was agreed. I'm glad it worked out well. But got tremendous experience all along the way.

Learnt that I could be better friends' with German clients than our Indian counterparts. Sad to see our Indian counterparts causing trouble to their own people by showing them as low inexperienced lot, just to impress the client and safe guard their job by licking their A%##.

Attended top level management with client and felt it was more of a comedy show considering what our Indian counterparts were speaking. I'm sure clients each time have a good laugh at the way our Indian management speaks in status meetings.

I recorded the conversation on my mobile, just to make sure my other colleagues too get a good laugh.

Cheers,

An ode to my place of worship - 2017

It was the second year in succession for me that I attended Ayudha Pooja at our gym. I missed out during 2014 and 2015 owing to other reasons but 2016 and 2017 I made it. I even had blogged about it last year.

This time it was raining and I managed to somehow reach the gym. Many people were not there, but still the pooja started a bit ahead of time too. One of my friend called up during the same time and asked as to why was I actually attending the pooja instead of sitting at home amidst the rainfall.

I did not have an answer that day but yeah felt kind of weird having left the thought of going to gym for the pooja unjustified. So thought today will do justice to it plus so many posts seem to be bottled up due to this one plus me being too busy with work and client's visiting Bangalore office!

I made it to the gym in the rain because, I felt it was necessary. I am whatever I'm today because of the gym. I wonder how will I continue it for a lifetime. A day without exercise makes me feel sick. It just feels so good to amidst those equipment, those machinery which have helped me achieve my goal whatever I had set.

On this auspicious day, all those equipment get cleaned, worshiped and in essence that's what is Ayudha pooja all about? Felt so good just being there. Yeah felt a bit emotional too, visualising my own  journey in the last 4 odd years. The treadmill on which I have been running since these years, the mirrors into which I have been looking checking if I have gained anything or lost anything and all those people some of whom are coming some of whom are not coming to gym anymore, reminded me of all the nostalgia which has happened in this place called gym. Just wondered, what would have happened if I had not been to the gym, if that trek to Gingee fort had not made me realize how tiny I was in reality.

I'm glad I did it, and yeah, I have so much more memories to cherish and many of which got re-kindled during this Ayudha Pooja and guess what, how blessed I'm that I got to the gym and exercised all through these 4 years. Hopefully will keep the momentum :)

so, Cheers,

Great Indian debate - Alter thoughts 17

Saw this wonderful piece of article on IBNLive.com. On Gandhi's birthday saw this disagreement between the two legends of 20th century.

I just loved the opinion of Rabindranath Tagore where he thinks of awakening each Indian soul instead of going for freedom. Just a thought, would that ever have been possible?

I guess not, spiritual awakening leads having loads of insight into lots of things and facets of life. I'm sure some people even at the age of 80 cannot comprehend some of the things of life, forget earlier.

So I'm doubtful, whatever Rabindranath Tagore is saying over here, whether it can be achieved. So I take Mahatma Gandhi's side. who says the below lines aptly :)

By the way, can each individual be spiritually awakened in a materialistic society, I bet not! I hope this is what Rabindranath Tagore intended, am I right or wrong?

Happy Birthday MK Gandhi

Today is October 2nd. I'm so proud and happy that Mahatma Gandhi was born in India, what he did to this country is immense. There could be no better person to be called as the Father of India other than Mahatma. So here's wishing him a happy birthday.

Cheers,

PS - I equally love Netaji and Sardar as well.

More options less time

these days I have too many things to do on top of that find very less time, hence writing has taken a back seat, I need to hit 100 by year end, let me see, few of the things I engage in these days or plan to indulge are!

1. Reading - books/kindle.
2. Music - I listen to a lot of songs on youtube/videos etc etc.
3. PS4 - GT5 on PS4 has kept me occupied long enough that, I do not find much free time.
4. Workout - I cant stay without exercising even for a single day. :)
5. Cooking - After trying curries, breads, tried out jowar bread two times, came somewhat okay!
6. Travel - I register for some event and then back out due to lack of interest.
7. Office work - Yes I am working very hard, being closer to my home means I am putting more effort!
8. Photos - I intend to get my photos printed, but need to select which one to print from my previous travel.
9. Television - watch it whenever I find time.
10. Writing - Amidst all these, writing has taken a back seat, I have got few things to write about, but to even switch on blogger has become such a  distant thing that writing has taken a hit,
11. Meeting people - whats that? is there time for it? and is it worth the traffic and the mind fuck, I bet not! :)

Cheers, will pick it up.

An intellectual trek team! - TTTT 42

This happens to be from one of my Himalayan treks. I am not sure if I have written about this thing before, but one strange occurrence happened during this Himalayan trek.

Our team was a highly intellectual one!

Let me tell you our team composure-

Members in the order of number!

#1 - Phd in Machine learning from IISC.
#2 - Phd in Microbiology and post doc from USA / NRI.
#3 - Phd in Metallurgy pursuing research at CN Rao institute
#4 - MBA from ITM / NRI
#5 - MBA from IIM / Hdfc bank manager.
#6 - MBA another finance guy from Honeywell,
#7 - BE from NIT, circut designer TI
#8 - BE from etc me, coder,
#9 - BE from etc, one more guy support guy,

and you expect team to be any more intellectual?

cheers,

Stevie Nicks - I cant wait

I have been listening to Fleetwood mac for quite some time now, during the day during office and then when I head out to play GTA5 on PS4, I get to listen to this song while I drive, guess which,

its Stevie Nicks - I cant wait,,, can coincidence be any better?

When a sudden encounter hampered our trek to the peak! - TTTT 41

This happened during our last weekend trek, somewhere in Dakshina Karnataka. I'm not supposed to disclose the location nor contacts to be precise. So, we had managed to start around 10 am for a waterfall nearby. After completion of a small walk to the waterfall, the plans got changed, we were now supposed to go to a peak wading through forests and route unknown.

The guide himself was skeptical of going to the peak on the same day or for that matter going to the peak itself. Reason being, he himself was unaware of the exact path/route. But our friend/organizer insisted we do it. It was around 11 40 am when we decided to trek to the peak. The forest was dense and it had great growth, hampering easy walkability. Instead we had to navigate criss cross amidst trees/branches.

We had to come down by 5pm to avoid darkness or getting lost also, we had forgotten to carry our torches as the plan was so sudden, that we had only lunch with us. We managed to cross many streams and move through thick undergrowth and finally this incident happened which literally threw the guide off guard.

When we were around an hour away from the peak, guide was ahead, and I was second to him. Suddenly there were few people who had lost path and guide went back to fetch them and told me to continue in the same path.

I had put across just two steps and found a strange shape on top of a brown leaf. I could not believe a dried leaf had such distinct lines and I bent a bit forward to closely examine.

And guess what it turned out ot be, it was a viper which in the process of swallowing a lizard fully. Then I alerted the others, who could not identify the creature due to the camouflage. It was in no position to strike as it had food in its mouth. Suddenly one person went face to face of it, to capture its image and guess what happened.

It regurgitated what it had eaten, right in front of us, and it got ready to strike. This shocked the wits out of our guide. He got concerned, if we ever got late from the peak, this would be, what we would encounter on our way back plus wild boars too. So, the guide had no clues what to do and called for retreat.

So thus, we had to come back out of the forest trail as we were running short of time, not before I captured some images too.

First one is with its prey almost swalloed, second one is where it spit out its food.

Cheers,

Is it the curse of Sage Vasisht or the people of Himachal Pradesh? - TTTT 40

It was during this weekend's trek that someone asked me about the Bara Bhangal trek which I had completed in 2015. Time runs out so quickly, its almost two years to it. The reason that person asked was that, that person too was going to do the same trek in the coming month.

So immediately, I replied, I wish I could do the trek again, just because of the lovely food which was available during the trek and due to the loads of other reasons. And the reply came within a fraction of second to be precise. The person invited me to join their trek.

Apparently I refused, the reason being their trek was only 10 days, when I did, I got to enjoy 12 full days in the Himalayas :). Simple enough reason to reject.

But now, what made me write this post was that, I was wondering what makes me go again and again to Himachal Pradesh. I have been two times and rearing to go. My other friends have managed 3+ times in 1.5 years.

First time, when we went to Vasisht area in Manali, the hotel owner told that, there is a curse upon this place by Sage Vasisht, which says a person who comes over here once, comes again and again and again. So when I went to Himachal the second time, I felt the curse of Sage Vasisht coming true.

But yesterday, when I told about my dream to trek that route again, I just felt along with the curse of Sage Vasisht there were few other things which added to the charm of being in Himachal Pradesh. So thought of writing it out here.

- The cook we have had on treks have been extremely extra ordinary. To cook at high altitude like a man possessed needs some real mettle. During our 12 day trek there was not a day when the food went a bit more or less on salt or on taste for that matter. It was spot on day after day after day. (And on one occasion,  we were literally competing for a veg biryani cooked from previous day left over rice, that good was the food, if you can imagine!)

- The people of Himachal are so so so hospitable, I could strike a conversation with the cook, guide helper etc with such an ease, I miss those in Bangalore where money over takes everything, if anything is left, I guess pride does the talking. Over in Himachal, its pure humanity I guess, at its best.

-  Loads of foreigners. You feel proud of your country seeing so many hoards of people coming to your country on the pretext of spirituality, relaxation thus providing fuel in the form of economy to the people of Himachal. Being amongst them, you get to speak about loads of things.  It might be minuscule, but it definitely matters.

- Himachal has such huge numbers of to see beautiful places, I'm sure, I will grow old before I can list all of them.

Cheers, gotta head to office :)

Christine McVie - one of my all time favorite performer!

Before I say anything in this post just have a listen to the audio song over the below link.

Main points from the song or about the song - 

 - The lady in picture was in hiatus from music for 16+ years. 

 - The lady in picture has written the lyrics for this song.

 - The lady in picture has sung this song as well.

 - The lady in picture is 74 year old Christine McVie.

If you think, lyrics can be any more beautiful than this, I bet you are wrong,

If you think, at that age, you or for that matter me, can still rock like Christine McVie, my friend you are wrong.

If you think you can carry that persona as Christine McVie even when you are in your 70's you are wrong my friend.

Irony is can you carry yourself first at 70? forget carrying the musical persona. With all your senses betraying you, performing this optimal at 70 can happen only if you are a legend and Christine McVie, my friend is one of the greats!

Take a bow Christine McVie, what a song, some people continue to amaze me with what they got to offer, in terms of music in terms of life lessons, in terms of everything!

Cheers,

Irony of two stares - Part 2 - Alter thoughts - 16

I forgot to write this as a part of previous post, I guess that post grew too much longer for my liking to put more words into it. Hence abruptly ended it.

The post was about a boy who could not afford gym membership staring from outside the gym window, looking at others working out with amazement.

If I can go back in time some 20+ years ago, I myself knew one more boy who used to stare at the gym from outside. This boy used to stare at the gym from outside while going to school or coming back from school and always wonder, when would he ever get to exercise. He was too naive as to what it takes to exercise and what gains one gets out of exercising. This was the 1990's a time when only the purists exercised and there was no much brand marketing involved with exercising, or supplements.

The boy used to stare at a gym which was located somewhere close to Vivekananda college, Rajajinagar (white horse vicinity). I'm not sure if the boy could afford a gym membership or not. I'm even not sure, if the boy knew how much hard work it took to continue working out day in and day out. All he was staring at in amazement at the people working out.

He resembles the construction laborer which I have written previously. Does this resemble a simile in place, just separated by 20+ years of time? Need to confirm.

The boy in contention over here is none other than me. I was the one who was peeping into the gym from outside. I couldn't help myself with exercise because I was too naive and young.

I think, that habit of peeping into gym shall never go, because, I still do where ever I find a gym while going to office or elsewhere I still give it a good stare. Though most of my stare is met with their marketing gimmicks each time instead of people working out.

Reminds me of the good old days when it was all about exercising instead of gym memberships and discounts. A peek into the gym would leave you with a picture of people exercising. Now it leaves me with pictures of sculpted bodies, which are most likely due to steroids and supplements and of course gym memberships/discounts. Such is the irony.

There you go, simile, irony, nostalgia all in one post :) (How about a metaphor please? thinking!)

So much of Malleshwaram nostalgia guttered by ever growing urbanization; feels bad. (this calls for another post as to how people react when I put such words in front of people who cannot understand it, like about nature for that matter. so I chose to write here!).

Cheers,

Irony of two stares - Alter thoughts - 15

Staring at something, means looking at something for a period of time most likely with eyes wide open. So here I try to write about two different instances of staring each one representing its own dimension.

I am trying to pitch in irony (not sure successfully), I am also trying to pitch in as to where do I stand between the two different ironies which I try to describe.

This incident relates to the gym where I go everyday to workout. The entrance of the gym is a wide vinyl door with a huge class where visibility is two sided. One can see outside and outsiders can see inside. Also all along the wall there are posters of good body builders lifting weights, flexing muscles.

You can stare at these pictures for minutes together looking for some inspiration. Thats what most of my friends do. I too do sometimes. These pictures are meant for inspiration.

But one day a stranger was staring not at the picture but at the people exercising, and not from inside but from outside. He was a small guy a construction worker or a laborer or some kind. He was amused by the people exercising within closed enclosure. He might be wondering, what he does as a day job for living, these people are doing it by paying money. Let aside his thoughts.

What I felt was, he was someone who wanted to exercise but could not afford. He might be thinking, "When will I too get to exercise". On the other hand my friends who exercise stare at the posters and think "when will I ever get such a muscular build up".

Irony is both of them are unsure of making it. The construction laborer in order to visit the gym regularly has to change his line of profession to earn more to afford a gym membership.

My friends who stare at the picture, have to exercise more and eat correctly for months and years to come which I'm certainly sure they can't. So its a tale of two never ending aspirations.

In the middle, I'm there, the silent observer, adding to the third irony of sorts. I can afford myself a gym membership, but I can't even think of getting a extra ordinary build up as in posters, because, my primary focus area is cardio and secondary being strength training. So as of today happy to observe.

Cheers,

PS - I hope and pray that one day the guy staring from outside, gets his chance to exercise in gym too.  The sparkle in the eyes of the observer is never to be missed. If you ever need to look for hope and inspiration, on how to lead a great contented life, you gotta look at these people, I'm sure you will get a plenty.

The best part of being in the gym lies in the fact that, sweat has no economic status of its own. Sweat is not measured by monetary terms. This should go into another post altogether :)- May be some other day. 

Nice incident during one of the Himalayan trek - TTTT 39

Its been some time to my last Himalayan trek, but I clearly remember what all occurred during that trek, most of which I have not written. Today I remembered one such incident, and I wish to write down before I forget it.

Btw, if I end up writing all the crazy interesting encounters during all my travel, I guess I will have atleast another 40 entries more saying TTTT.

This Himalayan trek which we did was about 9 days long and it was one of the toughest trek in Himachal. Our pass crossing was on the 7th day. We had to climb up to 16k feet on the 6th day and halt at the base camp at almost 16600 feet.

Start of the day itself, we realized weather would take a toll on us and as we started climbing on the edge of the mountain, it started to rain. We were almost at 13k feet altitude. One of my friend on this trek had told me, it never rains at that height it only snows :). He was dumb struck when it started to rain at 13k feet and it continued for almost 3 hours non stop. It was not heavy but it was continous.

Imagine climbing up with that 12+ kilo load on the edge of the mountain amidst this rain, one slip will send you tumbling downwards. There could be landslides as well. Amidst this there was a bear sighting out of nowhere, I had written about this in an earlier post. I just had crossed the path alone I couldnt spot the bear and the person coming behind me after 10 mins had a head on encounter with the bear, incidentally the bear ran away. All this adventure at 15000 feet where people say its hard to get oxygen to breathe.

I don't know what to say but crazy!!

But the main point of this post was not about the bear or altitude. All this rain had left us with wet trousers partially wet bag wet shoes socks. We did have spare. but carrying a soggy clothing would mean pass crossing would be a good 2 kilos heavier.

When we reached the base camp around 2 pm it was windy and rain had subsided. It was very chilling out there. Windspeed was picking up at 16000 feet. We decided to stay indoors in the tent and take rest while our guide was roaming outside screaming curses at the bear to come out in the open.

He was saying to the bear, "if you have drunk your mother's milk come out in the open and face me :)" . All this to the bear which can't understand Hindi/English and all this at 16000 feet. Is that really needed. There were landslides happening just opposite to us at a distance, we could see that, this person shouting like a mad guy could trigger an avalance too which would come rumbling down towards us :)

Luckily nothing like that happened. I was praying all this while for the Sun to appear (of course I was praying Sun god). The guide was constantly telling me, nothing of that sort will happen this weather will continue throughout the day he told.

I was optimistic, because I had to dry off my trousers, socks, shoes because tomorrow was pass crossing day. And guess what around 4 30 the sky cleared and sun appeared

The guide acknowledged and exclaimed, " Aap prarthana kar rahe the na, bhagwaan ke saamne, dekho sooraj aa gaya" (Means, - you were praying in front of the god and now you see the sun is out)

I felt so good, I could not believe my eyes, I could now dry few of my stuffs. What a day it had been. God answering our prayers was the icing on the cake. It felt like a miracle. Indeed it was.

So there goes one more tale from my trek or travel -

Cheers,
Sandeep

Some of the incident that happens even with strangers or friends stays with us for a lifetime. Aint that nostalgia after all ? Of course:)- I do not know what our guide or support staff for this trek are doing right now, but wherever they are I pray for their good health. They have given me enough memories to write about for a lifetime.

Random office memories - 2, Environment day at office

Not sure which year was it, but there was an environment day at office. Trying to do something for the environment from our office side. But there was some twist awaiting. This time there was a notice board in the pantry requesting suggestions from people on how to save and do less harm to the environment.

Loads of people were writing stuffs. All these people had noticed the leaking tap in the hand wash area. The tap had been leaking since almost a week and nobody did anything to fix it.

I was literally getting furious, because the water for the building was supplied by tankers and had to be pumped 10 floors using electricity and generators when no power, wasting this was getting on my nerves.

And these people celebrating World environment day amidst this water leakage blew my whistle off. I couldn't handle the situation and I went on and wrote on the board,

" PLEASE FIX THE LEAKING TAP BEFORE CELEBRATING ENVIRONMENT DAY".

I remember writing a line very similar to this though I do not remember precisely what I wrote. Beneath it, I wrote our team's name instead of my solo name, just to confuse people. But the HR manager knew who the black sheep was, in the entire team, and spoke to me personally that it will be taken care of.

It was more like an embarrassment on the face of the organizing committee because, I had brought in sarcasm into public. Then the facilities manager tried to get it repaired in few days time, but failed to do. This along with few other reasons spiraled up and few days later he was fired.

I feel sad for complaining because it did take a wrong turn, and somehow I feel I too was responsible for someone getting fired, which I still cannot affirm whether its true or not. But it lingers on.

So this was another irony - celebrating environment day amidst leaking taps! it happens in India!

Cheers,

Random office memories - 1, Birthday or birthday carnaval

I had written about this person X who was one of my source of inspiration, because of which I turned to listening to retro Kannada songs. It happened so, during 2015 or 2016 not sure, we got to celebrate his birthday on a weekday.

Weekday meant, there was a chance for him to get sweets for colleagues in office. So the day began and everyone was wishing him on his birthday. Around 12-1pm he went outside and brought almost 1.5 kilogram of sweets costing close to 2 k if I'm not wrong. So everyone had their chance to eat birthday sweets.

The best part of this whole chapter is that he had brought a very very very good quality of sweet savory and everyone ended up picking up more than one piece. In-fact he was very much fine with it. He was going and calling everyone to come and have sweets. It was a very sweet gesture indeed. Soon around 4pm the 1.5 kilos of sweets which he had brought got over owing to the fact that everyone was eating 3 pieces by themselves.

So, now we had the support guys who were coming in around 5 pm and there was little left, hence he went and brought 0.5 kilo more just to give it to these guys. The day ended with everyone being well fed on birthday sweets. But one strange and beautiful incident happened towards the end which actually made me write this entire post.

As the day was coming to a close around 7 45PM and we were ready to head out, I was standing at Mr X's place and speaking with him, while one lady approached his seat and asked him if there are any more sweets left. He said none was available, but the lady said, she was feeling hungry hence wanted to check if he had any sweets left. I just felt wow, this magical effect, where people were looking for sweet to satisfy hunger by eating sweet savories, was it because of the sweet savory quality or the person X or both?

Cheers,

Random office memories - Series,

All of a sudden, I get a thought to write about random office memories, I don't know why, I'm missing my previous workplace where in I spent close to 3+ years, its the longest I have spent in any organization I have worked till date.

I survived this time, because of friends, rather cab mates or is it the passion to trek which rather started during my tenure at this organization and still lingers on. Its during these three years I got to visit, Kashmir, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh (2 times) and Uttarakhand.

I got a lot to write about these trips, but equally important things happened at office too. I wish not to write about work (rather abstractly infact), but about random incidents, which I remember. Apart from the cab series, I can recollect loads of things, hence thought, why not write about them (while listening to Fleetwood Mac of course :) )

Cheers,

Fleetwood Mac 3

Here is one such Fleetwood Mac concert, year being 1982, this one is older than me.

Here's what they were like when performing live at the peak! One plus hour of sheer bliss, listening to these folks!

Cheers,

Fleetwood Mac 2

Sunday would be worthless, if I failed to share two other Fleetwood Mac songs, each one of them a beauty! yeah over 20-30 years old. Thats why I love 80's and retro!

Cheers,

Here is the live performance of the song Everywhere, this song is from the year 1997. Can you imagine, Christine McVie singing the song is 50+ years old in 1997. The song, whilst performing live looks better than the studio version. Take a bow Fleetwod Mac, what a song!

Cheers,

Fleetwood Mac!

This is called a live performance, and not the crappy lip synch-ing ones'.

I would rather prefer to listen and go to this kind of live performances, by paying money, instead of listening to free music oh sorry advertising on the radio!

This concert is 20 years old, the song is 40 years old and the year today is 2017, and the song shall move into the next century as well!

Fleetwood Mac a band that has lots of history!

Cheers,

Here is the 1977 version of the video, you can see the same artists, just 20 years younger!

This is the same song from another live performance in 2013, these people are now 65+ years old in 2013. How many 65 year olds' do you know who perform live to this extent and attact so much crowd, yeah Fleetwood Mac definitely rocks! This is what happens when you do things you love, age just turns to be a number only! The performance might not be the same as 20 years back, but yes, they are still out there, doing what they do best, PERFORM LIVE!

Two good songs

Two good songs which begin with a good piano note, remembered these two hence writing about them.

Well these are almost two decades old!

Cheers,

Finally its sunday!

After working non stop for almost 15 days (on the trot) I get a day off. If you think, I slogged a lot with too much work, well, I would like to say more than work it was the dependencies, and poor infrastructure resulting in me slogging.

Only plus point being, workplace is closer to home. I did not have time for anything, literally, listening to music or reading or cooking or watching television, I was literally walking like a zombie. And the day I broke the build and tried to fix it, I was driving like a zombie around 1 AM in the night back to home :)-

Finally the sprint comes to a closure, and the European colleagues who had gone on leave will come back on Monday. There shall be some sanity restored over the monopoly of the dumb Indian Management :)- (sarcasm can never hide from me).

One thing I realized after the past two weeks, a service based company mentality can never match a product based mentality, come even God may!

Cheers,

Listening to retro Kannada songs

Previously I had written, how much I liked the program on Big 92.7 FM called Straight hits with Ravichandran. I was never following Kannada music actively before. Even now I do not follow Kannada contemporary music.

But this program made me familiar with few of old Kannada songs like from the movie Ranadheera and Premaloka. It brought loads of nostalgia. Growing up as a 3-5 year old kid, I could remember these movies passing by us, without me , making head or tail of anything. 

Its now only I get to appreciate what 80's was all about in terms of not only English music but also Kannada music. Kannada songs were being played even during our day journey to office. But, I would like to emphasize that, my interest in retro Kannada songs would never have taken off without one such colleague's intervention. Infact he too had grown up in the 80's but was a bit older than me.

So, it was he who gave me insights into which movie, who's the singer who composed who wrote lyrics and story line plus actors. This was almost instant, as the song aired. His knowledge about Kannada  movies was superior. Just like Imdb, he was Kmdb, K - kannada.

Just like all good things have to come to an end, with a heavy heart, we had to say goodbye to him as he was laid off. Even before that, our 7 seater AC Innova cab too had to be aborted, due to mounting transport expenses. 

So, its close to an year now to that incident and I too have moved on, From the past three months, I no longer cross silkboard, nor travel by cab, but, whenever I get to listen any of the kannada retro song like from PremaLoka, it triggers immense nostalgia, unforgettable memories and undeniably loads of respect for the man who educated me about 80's movies and music. Who says traffic can be bad when it brings out bond amongst people!

Organizations run out of money, people run out of jobs, all that remains is, the nostalgia, memories, when times were good, and guess what, its always music, food or a good past conversation that binds these memories together.

Over a fine weekend, we ex employees of this organization are planning to meet, lets see! will keep you posted.

Cheers,

PS - I spoke to the same person over the weekend, he's moved on to a new job, travels by Metro (MRT) and yeah, he's happy with his life post this workplace!

PPS - Immense nostalgia because, on one side, reminds me of childhood which just passed by and the other being time spent traveling by cab which too passed by, both of which reminding me of good things coming to an end.

Backing vocals - Sheryl Crow

As a kid, I was pretty naive and was totally unaware of backing vocals. But as I grew up, I could see backing vocal artists in many concerts and realized they do play a very important role.

But this one particular song, I wish to share, where I feel, the lady giving backing vocals, overshadows the main singer. Though only a few lines are sung by the lady singing backing vocals, it so happens to me that, while I listen to the song, I feel, all through the song, I keep on waiting to hear the lady providing backing vocals.

This is what happens when someone of Sheryl Crow's persona comes up as a backing vocal artist. The song just turns out to be a 1000 times more lovable. Combined with the drums, its a must on my playlist with good bass and an woofer, its so much enjoyable, what more I can say. And this song just turned 15 this year, since it debuted. Back then great music was being made and not marketed aggresively. (Now vice versa I guess). Great job Mr Adam Duritz!

Btw, I heard this song first time in 2002, on the radio, Late show 10pm. teenage memories!

Cheers,

PS - You can disagree with me, but give a try emphasizing on the backing vocals instead of lead singer!

When west meets east and says goodbye!

I do not know, if I could classify this as nostalgia, never mind. Secondly, west meets east has got to do with West of India and East of India. India is a vast vast country and the distance between east and west is huge.

So one such friendship happened between two guys one from the east and one from the west. Both of them joined our organization on the same day and were working for the same vertical, but different technology.

Apparently one of them was a consultant and not on a permanent payroll. It so happened, this person who happened to be on a contract role, was working on a project which just failed to take off. So he was left with no work and was straight in line to get laid off. Instead he chose to accept a job at his hometown and move back.

Today, he had come back to Bangalore from the west in order to collect his remaining things and wind up from here. And what happened to the guy from the east, well, he still works in my team.

Around 7pm in the evening, the guy from the west called the guy from the east asking him to meet outside office campus, probably for one last time, before life drifts each other miles apart and away.

No sooner the guy from the east was leaving office, it somehow struck me and I told him look west meets the east.

If you are wondering, west meaning which place, well its Pune and east.. East is Chennai and the place they meet is in the middle, Bangalore!

Cheers,

After a long time!

Today being a Sunday, I had been to office too. I had work and was busy at office. But today was different, I had been to office in my car. After joining work at Global Village tech park, this was the first time I had been by car.

You might be wondering what's so strange in me going to Global Village in my car. Well, the last time I had been to Global village in my car was in the year 2010, month being May/June. It was at 8pm in the night and I was extremely happy that day, because, I had been offered a job at Mindtree. It was the first time I had been offered by a company at Global village. I was travelling to ITPL at that time and I was very happy to get relieved from ITPL duty.

So I had been to Global Village by car at around 8 30 pm in order to submit my photos and filled up form for background verification and other things. The sad part is I never got an opportunity to join Mindtree as I joined elsewhere.

Life has come a long way since I rejected Mindtree offer, infact, I'm so happy that I rejected that offer, I got to see a lot, do a lot and in turn learn a lot. Sometimes, sitting in comfort zone never helps.

Joining Mindtree was more of comfort zone for me if not anything else, as it was closer to home. Today going by car brought back all those memories. So indeed nostalgia!

Cheers,,

You might be wondering, joining a job at Global village is again falling into comfort zone, well, it is true and I agree, after close to 4 years of hard hard software work with no breaks I needed this one badly. Fingers crossed how long it continues!

Busy at work!

I have been busy since the last week and its continued into the weekend. Ever since I joined this new workplace, things were looking normal. But with local software development team half retired, few people in Europe on long leaves and other development teams in Europe disbanded, I had to deliver on something critical epic/story for the release.

So have been chugging along. Planning to work tomorrow as well. Hoping to be in good shape for next week's code freeze! Wish me luck. Post that, its going to be a full on blogging run!

Sometimes, I feel, I should stop doing technical work and become a manager / get into management. But what fun in being non technical in software industry and stakeholder plus software market being European or American. Management sitting here would be entirely people management, because everything from hike percentage is decided by European management (for that matter)!

Plus the fun directly working with European and American teams, stakeholders being technical (instead of being one with local management) is nothing short of extra-ordinary. There is no place for diplomacy and its either deliver or perish, so I would rather chose risk over diplomacy!

Cheers,

PS - By the way, did I annoy someone? 

Upcoming post

I had plans to post multiple things over this weekend, but since I'm working over the weekend plus I'm not allowed to post from office, I am just contented with writing about the post which was supposed to come over here. (from home of course)

Recently, I have been seeing the program India's Mega Kitchens on Discovery. It airs at night 11PM I guess. I saw about Golden Temple, Sri Harmandir Sahib Langhar. Last year I had been there. I have yet to write about it.

I just got a thought of writing about my experiences of eating at the community kitchens. Golden Temple is the only one such Community Kitchen outside of Karnataka where I have had a chance to eat prasad.

But I have been blessed to have had lunch at many community Kitchen's all over Karnataka. So thought of writing about them as few posts. Will serve my goal of reaching 100 for this year too!

I have been reading a book on Making of the classic movie "Sholay" so thought of writing a post on the book more like a review of mine.

Cheers,

Remembering Singapore!

If I could read about history of India about all the aspects India has to offer, it would take more than an entire life, because every corner of India has something to offer in terms of culture, food, lifestyle, tradition.

Same way about Singapore too, it has so much of history. I never read any book on Singapore history but, this one particular site is the first I came across which has so much to tell about history of Singapore, that I felt, its very much needed to mention it over here on my blog, just in case, someone else connects with this blog too!

https://remembersingapore.org/

After staying and working in Singapore for over an year, I so much connected with this site that, I'm in awe with the history of the country, what a nice place and what quality solo time I spent!

Cheers,

PS - regarding the site, hats off to the person who has chosen to put this together, may he achieve more success and here's wishing him great health too.

Shuttle driver #17 - A driver who moved a dump truck!

This tale is pretty much a very old one. I have traveled in office shuttle many a time after I started working. So one such tale is this probably from early 2008, may be Jan or Feb. I used to travel to Sarjapur using office shuttle.

This vehicle was a Swaraj Mazda a 22 seater probably a bigger one. Once what happened was while passing through ISRO layout, there was another vehicle blocking the road and hence we had no option but to come to a halt. Our driver did honk two times, but the other driver was nowhere to be seen.

It was a truck which was blocking the way and the owner of the truck was working hands on in the neighboring empty plot of land. So can you take a guess what was the vehicle and what was the driver doing and how we finally got to move?

The truck blocking our way was a dump truck used to collect trash and the driver was hands on digging into pile of trash adjacent to an empty plot. He signaled our driver to wait for few minutes before he would move his vehicle. Since it was early morning he was expecting our driver to wait. But our driver instead chose to move the dump truck himself. He argued that he had the licence to drive a truck and had driven a truck before.

I agree to this logic of having licence and thinking about moving a truck. But how many of us would do it, that is move a garbage dump truck, given the fact that we have a valid licence. He moved the truck few meters and cleared the road and came back looking like a man who had achieved something! (no hint of sarcasm please).

This is one such cab tale from a while ago!

And by the way, was I judgmental? Never mind!

Cheers,

Phil Lynott - Old town

I first had heard about this song, being performed live by The Corrs at MTV unplugged. But little did I know that the song was sung originally by someone else. I wasn't sure for almost 6 years, when I discovered who's the original artist. 

It is Phil Lynott. A talented man from the same country as The Corrs - Ireland. It took me a while to appreciate the song but once I did, boy, I just fell in love with it. 

I cannot believe this is an 80's retro song. The instruments used in the song, like the piano, keyboard, drums, bugle/trumpet, guitar are all done to precision not an inch of overdoing things and its the simplicity which keeps the song going.

Well the youtube version may not be acoustic enough, need to check out the song in a different player on a local copy to appreciate the instruments.

In the age where music instruments are played digitally, here you get what is like a naturally aspirated music instrument sounded like back in the 80's. The piano sounds fresh, the trumpet overflows with soothing effect and can you just believe this was 30 years back? 

No wonder I proudly proclaim - " I LOVE 80's".

The sad part is Phil Lynott happens to be one more of those musicians from the British Isles (Ireland to be precise) who left us early, 36 to be precise, apart from Steve Clark, Freddie Mercury, I can't believe such talent of making music comes at such young age. 

All I can do is sit back and think wow what a song, what a life!

Cheers to Phil,

PS - Here goes the song performed by The Corrs - sounds rather boring after listening to the original one, that too with so many musicians around, can't create the same charm as Phil. I better stop listening to the cover version else, I will lose interest in even the original tracks by The Corrs.

Song blog

So I get up early this morning and do what, well file my IT returns and then got some more time, I revive my old blog which was unused for almost 7 years and then use it up as my song blog.

There you go, dual purpose served by waking up an hour early.

The link for my song blog is -

http://sandeepskulkarni2.blogspot.in/

I'm just adding it here, to keep myself reminded about the URL if I ever forget!

Cheers,

What an irony

This sure is my favorite irony in recent times. This is a real life incident. The above statement in the picture is really simple and makes loads of meaning. I had never embraced so much of solitude at workplace until the time when two of my team mates left and I was left with no one to talk to or interact during office hours.

Though my team at work place was replenished with 3 new people, I had fully seen what solitude can do and chose silence over unnecessary yapping at workplace. Loads of things have happened since then. Recently I shared this picture with another person and told that person, what silence, solitude and being alone and thinking can do, how much it helps.

And irony is that person got so much impressed with this idea of solitude and silence that, the person stopped speaking to me also.

I somehow made an effort to understand why that person is not responding to which the reply was precise - "You showed (told) me what silence can do, now I don't want to talk to anyone, including you too and rather remain silent.!"

Such is life. In a way, I'm happy, in a world where noisy people are dominant everywhere, here's one who whole heartedly embraced solitude or rather silence.

Cheers,

And regarding what solitude/silence plays in my life, well, I'll leave it to your brains to guess it out!

PS - I have used silence and solitude together or interchangeably. In reality these are two words, but go hand in hand in a super awesome way, that I felt like using them together!

Nostalgia - one more!

I always wanted to have a song blog. A blog which lists all of my favorite songs over the years. I never started that thing, but I wish to do it soon. I would love to have one such blog, I'm being honest. So, if I ever started a blog, I was wondering, which song would make up as the first entry or the first blog post. 

Yeah, you are right, this one, the above one. The song is by John Mayer from his debut album Room For Squares, name of the song is "no such thing". This song brings back tonnes of memories, what more apt than this song to chose as an opener. Hence thought of writing this on blog too.

Regarding what memories it brings well here it goes!

- I was in college while this song came out, (College memories)

- There were not much radio stations in Bangalore and the one I used to enjoy was radio city 91.1 FM and especially the show at night 10PM.

- This song used to play regularly at the night 10PM show and many a time, I had left the radio on and slept off, with the radio playing all through the night! it was indeed sweet but I used to get loads of scoldings for this habit of mine.

- This one's right or wrong not sure, the year was 2002-2003 when this debut album of John Mayer called Room For Squares went head to head with the debut album of Norah Jones, "Come Away with me" and alas Norah Jones won grammy. I always had secretly wished it would have been John Mayer for this particular fantabulous album and superior piece of song writing.

- How I knew about the album and stuff back then, well, I was following contemporary music back then. Back then great music was being made and played on radio too. 

 Unlike now where only advertisment plays and each and every song is over marketed, instead of its actual merit doing the trick, its force fed to people by playing 100000 times on the radio even though the song sounds like a jerk, you can hear the jockey telling it being an awesome song(paid media/marketing, such is the era). 

So I stopped following contemporary music since few years and have dived into retro only and I'm happy. One such song is this, whose video I have attached, great  lyrics, and in the song he talks about reunion and yeah, its been a while I have graduated from college, this song reminds me that too. Loved what the song speaks about, there is no such thing as real world, after working for these years, yeah, I just feel the same, its all what we perceive and just a lie which we gotta get above!

Cheers,

Half through the year 2017

A friend of mine asked me, its been half a year and the number of posts is not even touched 25, and yet again asked me, if I would make it to 100 by the end of the year or not.

I'm not sure of reaching 100 or not, because, I get myself occupied with loads of things these days and with minimal travelling and interaction with people, I get nothing to write. Everyone seems to be busy with their own lives. And after years of writing posts over here, I just have slowed down, being more self conscious than ever.

I remember, my last year trip to Himachal and Punjab is still pending to be written. So that would count for a good 10 posts atleast. I wish to write about couple of other treks which I did in western ghats. But yeah apart from that, all that I get to write is about the crap which runs in my mind!

But yeah, will attempt a 100 this year too,

Cheers,

Jayanagar Nostalgia

Well, the day I joined my new organization, I had to undergo a pre-employment medical checkup. So, since the office I was joining was located at South East End, I was told to report to a hospital close by which was Jayanagar 3rd block.

I headed out and got to know, my check up would be done in two parts, first part where a blood and urine sample would needed to be given plus a chest XRay and a second part including doctor consultation.

There was a good 3.5 hours gap in between and I chose not to come back home. Instead I chose to have a breakfast somewhere in Jayanagar then chose to sit in Madhavan park before being told to leave because the park closes somewhere around 10 30 am and then walked all the way to cool joint 3rd block in search of someone selling books on the street. Couldn't find any and had to walk all the way to Sapna book stall just to see that, RK Narayan's autobiography being unavailable.

Didn't chose any Ruskin Bond books as they seemed to be pricey and the kindle one appears to be cheaper. Then managed to pass some more time and finally had my doctor consultation and then left.

So why am I writing this post in the first place. Well, I have been through Jayanagar area many a times, during the last few years, days or months or whatever, each time, it was business purpose, buying something, meeting someone, some function, getting some stuffs, never it had been with a no mission intention. I used to travel through Jayanagar while coming back from office almost many such days.

This time, with 3 hours to spare, I just did not have any such above mentioned business motive and wandered aimlessly around Jayanagar. It had been almost a decade, I had been to Jayanagar just like that for casually spending time.

Gone are the days of less traffic less people and less noise. Every inch of space is used up and the moment you enter Jayanagar vicinity all you want to do is leave the crowded place behind, atleast myself.

Finally the day came to a close, I joined my new organization and its been a month, I recollect and write this,

Cheers,

Ode to my towel

Strange looking title. Ever since I had started working out in the gym probably last week of December 2013, I have used lots of clothing and accessories. One thing which remained constant from Day 1 till yesterday was my towel. I was using the same towel for almost 3 years 6 months.

It was my constant companion soaking up all the sweat and occasional tear, blood and whatever came out of my nose too! It never complained. I had put it through places and it still took everything. I used to soak it in water after workout, drain it and put it up for dry, every single day I exercised and it did not complain. Finally after all it had gone through, it just tore apart.

I had changed my running shoes, track pants, T shirts, head gear, inner wear almost everything, but this one remained constant. Now this one gone, I have nothing left to remind me of the day, I stared to workout. How I was! All I have now is memories. This towel, will be cut into pieces and used for cleaning house hold stuffs and alas, few more months it shall vanish. Until then to this ever so useful piece of equipment, adios my friend. Honestly feels nostalgic!

Yeah, I do have a picture of it! Its a good 4.5 feet in height, would cover up almost 3/4 of the exercise mat!

Cheers,

Vellarimala trek

I had stayed away from travelling for the last 2 months or so, owing to my workplace related stress, plus full summer was on. I did not want to get sick by drinking water from animal water holes as last year. So this year avoided a good two months.

But yeah, I'm proud, I was regular at the gym in these two months. Lots have happened. But I managed to get back to my old trekking ways yet again.

Last to last monday, I got a message on whatsapp, requesting anyone who wished to join Vellarimala trek in Kerala. I was ever so interested in this trek, but getting permission for this, plus a person who could speak Malayalam was way too touch for me. Hence it had remained a dream. Now when everything was arranged for only thing I had to agree, was to say yes to join. And I did.

The bus tickets were booked and Friday we left Bangalore amidst heavy downpour!  We were delayed by 3 hours on our departure owing to heavy rainfall and hence delay in starting our trek.

The trek was a very difficult one, infact the toughest of south India, plus your's truly was carrying tent as well, I guess, by the grace of god, weather god and my gym trainer I could climb this heavy climb with almost 8+ kilos load. We fell short of peak however, which was another 3 hours away, it turned night and we had to camp pitched in the tents and next day descended.

I'm least bit of sad that we could not make it to the peak vavulmalai, because it was super tough. Plus rain and leeches caused extensive slowness to the trek. I got bitten almost 15 times by leeches, almost 6 times, the leech had completely fattened after feasting on my blood. I have no regrets on it either.

But an eventful trek came to an end and we finally left God's own country on Sunday evening, not without some beautiful memories and a refreshing experience.

Cheers,

Alter thoughts - 14

Division of Labor, or is it division of power?

I recently changed jobs, earlier I was working @ Cessna Business Park, Outer Ring Road, Marathahalli, for about 3 odd years. Now I shifted to Global Village Technology Park on Mysore road. Since it was my first week at work, I was literally jobless, I could observe few things around.

So what did I observe, well let me try to put it as my thoughts. My parents called me an idiot to even think about such things. They told me to mind my own business instead of these thoughts, since I was getting paid!

Over at Cessna Tech park, I would see loads of high end cars in the parking lot. A few Toyota Fortuners, Innovas, Hyndai Verna and other sedans were pretty much a plenty. We had our own share of BMW, Audi, Mercedes vehicles for the top executives of few companies. I also saw a Porsche Cayenne SUV within our campus.

But in the first week at Global Village, all I could see, was hatchbacks, the whole parking lot was filled up with hatchback vehicles, occasionally a Honda City. Self owned Toyota Innova is a rarity and high end cars, forget them, they do not exist in this tech park. Or I have never seen them in my first week.

So why such a difference. Let me put it in few lines and close the blog post.

- It could be because, the people who sat at Marathahalli tech park were all high profile executives who could afford to own or come in or even be driven in high end cars. But over here, high profile people aren't sitting I guess.
OR
- It could be, the companies located over here, do not pay as much as salary as the one's in Outer Ring Road so that, people over here cannot afford.
OR
- It could be, the roads leading to Global Village aren't penetrable enough for high end cars?

I will leave the thinking to your own brains!

Cheers,

New beginnings...

With the advent of 2017, I was more serious in searching for a job. I had run out of excitement at work and going to work seemed more or less mundane coupled with the traffic, it seemed like a day hike to work.

I have stopped travelling these days owing to boredom and summer plus, am regular to the gym. I do not work out excessively due to the summer factor, after running so much on the treadmill, its hard to lift weights and do more cardio. So I just slowed down.

But in the month of February, with God's grace, I finally managed to get an offer at a workplace very close to my home. Yep, Global Village tech park. Though, I was not really interested in taking up the offer, the urge to quit my current workplace plus avoid traffic made me take this offer and join the company.

So, finally, I did join and its been a week and my travel time has reduced,
In a way I'm happy, I get to learn something new and get paid for it too. Lets see how long I can stick my nose out here.

Cheers,

I still have to write about how I managed NOT to say bye to anyone at my previous workplace.

Alter thoughts - 13

Alter thoughts 13

On reading.

So this is about reading, I'm just trying to find if similarities exist between reading and poking nose into other's business. Sometimes we end up reading so much about history, fiction, fantasy and other genres.

Why is it that we read, we read to gain more insight into facts, learn about what people, process, things exist around us or probably about those imaginary characters coming out of people's head.

I'm somehow trying to convince myself that people who read literature, outside a student's textbook, are more or less interested in other people's business. They turn to reading to interfere in lives of other people. Even though those people may be imaginary only.

But is it a common phenomenon for a human to intervene in other people's lives. Do all humans do it or do a specific set of people do it?

If only a specific set of people tend to interfere in other people's lives or business where and what are the rest of the people interested in? is it materialistic things?

So do people interested in materialistic things read less, or less bothered by whats going on in others lives?

Just curious if there is a fine line of similarity drawn between reading and interfering in other people's lives.

Cheers,

Alter thoughts - 12

i haven't written much on my blog, reason being, I am reading, busy with few things. One more thought always runs in my mind.

Is success is needed in any venture? Are there business whose main intention is to sustain and emphasise less on profits? or there are none.

Lets assume a company is started afresh. Private partners pool money and start running the business. After few years it turns profitable. The company goes public and then stocks of the company are brought by general public.

So now this company, has it got to be profitable all the time to pay dividends to the share holders? Can't it be that it sustains itself year after year doing same amount of activity?

If the company is not public and in the hands of private stake holders, do they opt for profit after profit or are they happy with uniform profit all through the years.

Why I'm writing this post is, the company in hope of turning more profits makes more investment into assets and manpower and other stuffs. In the end, if the company does not get much contracts to service and turn a profit or if the goods or services made or provided by the company are not sellable, there is no chance of profit, then what the company will do?

Will the share holder either public or private be ready for a loss. How many years can they run in loss, who will fund them, in the face of too much competition, is there a chance for turnover. To take over competition the company has to invest more and more, can they get back the invested amount atleast forget profit.

Also what I saw in Bangalore is that, the infrastructure is so so poor that, anything which has to sell has a heavy dependency on infrastructure. Now there is  mall which sells high tech stuffs at this so called place. With such traffic during the day, do you think I would venture out into the mall or would I stay indoors peacefully.

So does infrastructure play a role. and if the service provided by the company is of a minimal cost, to make a profit, how much should the company sell to make profits?

Cheers,

Alter thoughts - 11

Over the internet, on the television and in the books, papers I have time and again, read, seen, that laughter is the best medicine. Loads of good things happen when you laugh out loud. I do have read few books pertaining to spiritualism, I'm not that expert in scriptures, but I have touched a bit of its surface.

What thought comes to my mind is, in many of the books written by these spiritual masters, emphasis is laid on knowing oneself, mastering oneself. There is no mention of this laughing out loud technique anywhere. Did not the ancient masters of spiritualism laugh out loud, why did they not advocate them to others via their books? Why is it that they told people to be calm amidst wildfires, but not laugh out loud amidst wildfires or tight situations?

Has it been mentioned anywhere in Bhagavadgeeta or elsewhere, is that I am the one who is ignorant? It might be so, but at this moment, I do not see many places where the so called laughing out loud has been mentioned as a healing therapy or something to master.

In the modern day scenario where in I tend to keep to myself, without expressing my emotions, would I be considered someone to be  of a strict personality, where as I may be the exact opposite. I may be calm, trying to navigate around my thoughts, but just because, I do not laugh out loud in the crowd, do I get judged to be someone who is sad or strict?

Well, I do not know.

Cheers,

PS - I may be trying to compare two different dimensions over here, but somewhere, I feel the two things are related or irrelevant. Just my words seem to be inappropriate
Cheers,