Break from blogging - past three months - Part 1

Writing after three months. Well. Somewhere I had to start. I have been contemplating to write for almost 3 weeks now and days just fly by. Most of the times I end up writing nothing. So today finally made up my mind to write. Cleanse out some of the thoughts which have accumulated over months. I thought of writing 100 posts for the year 2020. But that's still a long way to go. 

There are plenty of reasons for me not to post during this time. There have been many things which I have not ended up doing in the last couple of months and now when I look back, I feel kinda disheartened because of the lost time. 

There is a saying which goes - "Life should be lived forwards and understood backwards".. I recently was conversing with someone who said - they did not want to go backwards in life to understand or whatever they felt. Its up to them. 

But for me, most of my learning has been based on backward contemplation. So before I get into the few newer posts, I thought of contemplating as to what happened to different pieces of my interests during this period of lock down.

I am thinking of spacing them across multiple posts.. I myself find it hard to read one lengthy posts. So will do a multiple post for my convenience.

Cheers, 

How do I blog during quarantine :)

I just wanted to lwrite about how I blog during quarantine :)

I have a weird setup at home, I have an office laptop where I work during office hours and I wish not to blog from the same laptop.

Instead I wish for my personal laptop, which happens to be refusing booting due to a faulty keyboard and keeps beeping. I do not have a laptop repair kit to remove the keyboard and make the sound disappear and can't get one due to lock down.

So I use a desktop which had multiple issues.
One of the cooling fan out of 3, was not working, and I removed it and figured out the winding had completely gone and fan was not spinning. My father had removed a fan from defunct SMPS. So I got him the old fan rewired to the new fan wire and fitted it within the CPU, luckily the frame looked oddly similar if not completely same.

Then there was issue with BIOS where in the operating system was not booting hence removed the battery and did a start to realize the battery is completely out and it wont recognize any stored dates. Now I have to set dates each time I boot the machine. Else youtube throws up a date error saying date out of sync from the browser.

How do I connect to the internet. Since the desktop is far from the router, I have no cable and only option to connect through USB tethering and I use my old spare Redmi 1S mobile to connect because I need to use my main mobile Redmi Note 5, while on bed and attend calls if any, so why to plug unplug multiple times :)

After all these attempts succeeded, I have been able to post last few posts.

But now the keyboard looks so hard and monitor looks so small that I am losing much gained back interest. Let me see how it goes, for now happy with this setup :)

All this to ensure not to blog from office laptop, reason being, I connect to VPN almost all the time, why to give chance to office guys to monitor!

Cheers,

Blogging during quarantine!

Less posts in quarantine.

As much  I wish to post during quarantine period, I haven't been able to. I have not been able to play on my playstation during the last week and half. I haven't been able to read on my kindle. No physical exercise as such too.

The culprit being work, there are times when you have loads of work and you end up spending days and weekends on it. Last couple of weeks have been the same and the next few weeks shall remain the same.

Last week was doing some work on prototyping payment gateway integration via code, this week was learning, coding and working on angular. I have waited all these years to work on web applications which go into production, and I got the chance late last year, so why to let go of an opportunity to learn something new, something which I have not explored in many years.

Happy learning to me,

Cheers,

TTTT #66 - When we found peace, tranquillity within a city - Bhujia hill - Bhuj-Gujarat

During our Gujarat trip, in the month of December 2017, we found a place of peace, tranquility and spirituality. It was filled with intense spiritual energy that, I felt I had to write about it from that day onwards.

We started our Gujarat trip journey from Bangalore and managed to reach Bhuj in about a day and half, all by road. So the next day we managed to see local tourist spots including local Museum. Half a day went there and considering we were tired after travel from Bangalore we spent a couple of hours sleeping. Post which we went to see the Rani Mahal and Raja Mahal the former was destroyed by the great Bhuj earthquake of 2001, and the Raja Mahal was where the movie Lagaan was shot.

It was quickly 6 pm and it was time for sunset. One of the local told us, to go to Bhujia hill before it becomes dark. We reached Bhujia as the sun set. What greeted us at Bhujia hill was an absolute bliss. Huge peace, tranquility, no lights, no people a hillock, lots of steps to climb to get to the top. Fire sticks used to provide
sufficient light. We spent around 1 hour on the Bhujia hill and believe me, it turned out absolutely beautiful. Each time someone tells me they are going to Bhuj, I suggest them to go to Bhujia hill especially in the evening. You can get a beautiful view of the city. Minus the crowd. What more you wish to expect!

Cheers

Headache :) -

Yesterday being Sunday, I had headache by evening. I thought it was because I had eaten less. I ate biscuits but, it refused to go away.

Did a little bit of retro, the week before was bit tough, work wise, plus stupid meetings. I had ended it all with almost 3-5 hours of GTA 5 play on my playstation. So I felt indeed it was the exposure to the monitor which made all the difference. Coupled with my mobile where I randomly watch tik tok videos or check messages or browse.

I cannot really blame it on the kindle though :)-

Cheers,

TTTT - #65 - A stranger who refused to acknowledge his Kannada lineage :)-

I have strange tales of co-incidence, some are of pride, but some are really forgettable. One such incident happened post my completion of Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.

I completed the yatra and came back to Nepal. We had a accomdation for 2 days at a 3 star hotel, Hotel Landmark opposite Kings Palace. It was surely a posh locality.

We came on probably 21 July 2019 evening and ate food and slept off. The next day when I was climbing down from my room which was in the fourth floor to ground floor, I heard a couple converse in Kannada.

I could immediately catch up to them. They looked like Indians and spoke in Kannada which is my native language. So out of curiousity I asked them in Kannada, "Yaava uru nimmadu" ? which roughly translates to " which place is yours" or " where are you from "..

The gentleman replied in Kannada, we are from New York :)

He didn't mention about any lineage. Generally people who are born and raised in India, tell that they were born and raised here, but settled outside since a long time. But this gentleman, refused to tell about his other details, may be because I was a stranger.

But either way, I felt, he had disassociated with this own motherland.

Cheers,

Mohd Rafi - a legend

Aye Gulbadan - Mohd Rafi - Hasrat Jaipuri, Shankar JaiKishen, Shammi Kapoor, Kalpana

I think, if there is someone who could be called father of playback singing, its got to be Mohd Rafi saab. I have grown up listening to Mohd Rafi saab songs. Though I cannot remember each and every song, which movie, I think I can name a few.

My love, respect and interest in Mohd Rafi saab almost tripled post my visit to Kashmir. He is worshipped there. Some things should be treasured and what better than Mohd Rafi saab in Kashmir, where his sung songs have been shot.

Mughal Gardens - Nishat, Shalimar, and couple of other valleys.

I also feel, the beauty of Kashmir and other places has been elevated, because of the voice of Rafi Saab, the words of the lyricist and the melody of the composer and the priceless expressions of the actors!

Cheers,

PS - In this song, if you can observe, how Kalpana madam, changes her expression when she's facing Shammiji and when she turns her back on him.

You can easily read a persons intent when you observe him carefully :)

I think, you can say a lot without saying anything vocally, just by expressions, and the prime example can be found in this song, set as an example by Kalpanaji!

A 22 year old phenomenon

Today evening after I finished my work, I ended up reading. I was continuing a book by Satyajit Ray which has collection of stories which have been published from sometime in 1970's to 1990  I guess, forgot the year, my bad. I have been reading this book for a while now, its a good 700 pages one on hard print.

So I had music for company and there I was listening to Michael Learns to Rock and reading in a dark room, without much distraction.

This whole experience took me back to 22 years, when I was a kid and staying at Malleshwaram. I still remember, sitting on the same bed reading a book with Michael Learns to rock playing in the background. Just that the book was either Famous Five or Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew. And it happened to be borrowed from Friends Circulating Library - Rajajinagar.

Now I was at Uttarhalli, reading on a purchased book and I could afford a dark room now because I had kindle paper white with backlight. So many years and all of a sudden you realize, you are indeed lucky to have lived through all those years and experiences. Also you feel sad so many years have gone through and you have not noted the memories of those years.

Actually my grandfather used to write diaries, but as a kid never understood the importance of them, now all of a sudden, boom you grow up and on one such day figure out what you did 20 years back and all of a sudden things begin to haunt you!

I thought worth making a note on my blog and worth thanking God, parents without whom, today would not have been possible.

Cheers, 

Age is just a number Christine McVie

Here is a song sung by a beautiful lady. The lady in the video is 70+ year old. People are used to telling we should act our age, we should stop doing certain things after certain age.

But to stop doing what you love just because you are of a certain age, doesn't make sense.

Here is Christine McVie - and Lindsey Buckingham :) who too is around 69 when the video is shot.

I could never imagine, live singing to be this good :)

Interesting comments on youtube - songs.- Prologue

Its been quite a few years, I have been listening to songs on youtube at work at home and since few years, I have been reading and observing comments on youtube.

Some of the comments are very interesting, funny, creative and some of them highly intellectual. So I thought of making a note of such comments in my blog, just to re-read what kind of appreciation people hold for someone's music in their lives.

Its really wonderful to see how good music impacts lives of so many people, be it inspiration wise, be it upliftment, music really helps.

Cheers,

Feb 14, 2020, special day

Feb 14, 2020 was indeed a special day, not because it was Valentine's day. But it was the day when I got a Rs 30k subsidy from Karnataka government intended towards my Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.

I had applied for a subsidy from Karnataka Government and it was picked through a lottery system. Made me really happy. Thank you Sri Yediyurappaji. _/\_, my heartfelt thanks to everyone who made that iconic and memorable trip possible!

Cheers,

Goo Goo Dolls - Black Balloon

Another song by Goo Goo Dolls which I like, there are plenty of music instruments playing in sync to achieve this song. So in order to compose a song like this, I am pretty sure exceptional talent is needed!

Cheers,

What a co-incidence - Part 2 - TTTT - 64

Another co-incidence happened recently during my North East trip during December 2019. I was staying at a hotel in Imphal, Manipur. Over here I could hear someone speaking in Kannada in the next room. Again I felt must be dreaming, but considering the voice was so loud, I realized its not a dream.

It turned out a whole group of 27 people had turned up from Bangalore for a complete North East trip via road. Their trip was over a period of 22 days, starting and ending at Guwhati, covering all the seven sister states of North East.

They came as a part of a travels group and co-incidentally it was the voice of the owner or travel group leader whom I had heard. So spoke to them for few minutes and then proceeded.

Remember, this all happened in Imphal, Manipur, so this calls for a co-incidence,

Cheers,

What a co-incidence - Part 1 - TTTT - 63

I have had few co-incidences during my travel during the last few years, so thought of writing them, before I forget all about them. Its about meeting people or stuffs happening when I am travelling which made me realize - o boy what a co-incidence...I know it sounds ridiculous and silly but no harm in writing about them. May be as random rants.

First part I remember happened in Bhuj, during our Gujarat trip in December 2017. During one of the days, when we woke up, I could faintly hear someone speaking in Tamil in Gujarat. I thought I must be dreaming.

Only to realize we had a bunch of people from TamilNadu in the hotel just a floor above us. Nope, I did not speak to them, but imagine, where is Bangalore or Tamilnadu, where is Gujarat and where is Bhuj in Gujarat, imagine you find someone from your neighbouring state all the way in Gujarat, it surely calls for a co-incidence!

Cheers,

Influential bands - Goo Goo Dolls.

There are few bands which I like. Few are very close to my heart. They cheer me up, on days when I am down. One such band is Goo Goo Dolls.

I remember I was introduced to Goo Goo Dolls only in 2002. Their album Gutter Flower was out and there was a song on the radio which was playing continuously. It opened up a whole lot of thoughts in my mind. And almost 18 years later, here I am, writing about them, as their songs continue to influence me in every positive way.

A big load of thanks to Goo Goo Dolls.

I still remember that, I used to scratch out the name Goo Goo Dolls on our classroom benches, and scribble the same on our class room board using chalk pieces. Such were the days! and now they are gone. Below is one of the songs by them, will share more! with stories to remember of course..

Cheers,
Sandeep

Songblog

I always had a thought of having a separate blog for maintaining a list of songs which I liked. I think time is ripe for such a blog. But at the same time, I wish to share some songs here too.

For now, sharing one such song which I like very much. There are many more, but this one makes me smile :)- More so a similar name - Song bird for a song blog!

Its called Song bird by Christine McVie (Fleetwood Mac)

Cheers,

When we rode in a beautiful vehicle (Force Traveller) TTTT - 62

Its not that often, I get to drive about, in beautifully maintained vehicles. I generally travel in office shuttle, other cabs, other people's cars. Also in general I observe vehicles, how they are maintained etc and other parameters. So when I get to travel in exceptionally maintained vehicles, I just tend to have a plan to write about it.

One such vehicle was the one we travelled to Dandeli. Yes, after my North east trip in the month of december 2019, I was itching for a trip/trek/hike or whatever, and I got a chance to travel to Dandeli.

This time we rented out a Force traveller. Initially, I thought this to be just another TT. :)-

But it was different.. The driver was super cool and super comfortable with people. The vehicle was also different. It was a 2012 model TT.

Overall it was still having factory fitted seats, but the pickup was superior, and the suspension seemed to be upgraded. So after a night's journey when we reached Dandeli, I just asked the driver about its maintenance, he told he had changed couple of parts in the engine bay, which were from a different model and superior. But he told the over all maintenance was the same, it was just the care and attention he took to the various parts of the vehicle, which just showed up.

For example, for a better conditioned turbo charger, its always and always recommended to idle the engine for 10 minutes post start and 10 minutes before turning off the engine. Believe me, it works wonders, I haven't done this and I can and have always felt how a cold turbo responds versus how a warmed up turbo responds. Plus as it ages, I assume the smoothness it delivers varies just by this one above parameter.

Cheers,

Work from home setup

Almost three months into the new year, I found sometime to write again. This time, we are working from home, owing to the corona virus scare, which has brought things to a standstill.

So after two weeks of working and working listening to music, reading Satyajit Ray, I found time to change my setup in my room to include some place for blogging as well. Below is the image :)-

Cheers,

What to do for this year

- Completely forget these people whom I was talking about previously. 

- Think of buying a cycle and cycle long distance

- play more on my play station. 

- complete gta 5.

- change organization rather work place

- read more

- blog more

- get a new sofa done, bigger size, 

- buy a new laptop or bigger monitor or fix my PC. 

- Exercise even more regularly. 

- Trek more, 

- Get back to Himalayan trek if possible. 

- Leh Ladakh or spiti during Winters :) 

2019, what happened

- registered for kailash mansarovar yatra and successfully completed it, thoroughly enjoyed my journey through Nepal and Tibet/China, two full moon nights at Mansarovar lake. 

- Manipur, nagaland and burma trip happened, 

- got an offer from a service based organization, but rejected it. 

- Regularly went to gym almost all months, :) 

- Read moderately. 

- Got angry only twice during the whole year. 

- avoided negative people and negativity at work place, was at peace throughout the year :) 

- still coding :) 

Brand new year :) - 2020, what didn't happen :)

Another year, new beginning, last year was kinda depressive, things didn't go as per my plans, but in the end I did manage not to goof up. 

I had planned these in 2019, which unfortunately couldn't happen, 

- wanted to forget some people from my life completely,  didn't happen, randomly messaged these people asking for suggestions or help, need to be mentally more strong :) 

- wanted to buy a cycle and choose long distance cycling with friends - didn't happen

- wanted to trek more, no treks in Western Ghats happened :(

- wanted to read more, unfortunately didn't happen

- wanted to contribute more at work place, didn't happen, owing to too much dirty politics at work place and nature of work, couldn't find interesting work, I still have a job, which I'm kinda happy to be having. 

Kailash Mansarovar Yatra - 5 - 2019 - Medical test- ...

KMY 2019, demanded I undergo a medical test and get a certificate from a doctor. So I underwent tests and got myself certified as physically fit. Last time, I remember before a Himalayan trek, writing a letter authorizing myself as the sole responsible person in case of any happenings during the trek and nobody to blame.

With flight booking done, medical test done, amount paid, it was a month of wait due to the delay. And finally it was July 10, 2019. My dream of participating in India's holiest pilgrimage was about to come true!

Cheers,

Change in office shift timings

I have been allocated temporarily to a project and as a result, I had to undergo some changes in my work hours. Apparently this new team which I work with, works from 8 am in the morning to 5 pm in the evening. As a result the manager told me to come in the first shift.

It happened so, after 6.5 years of second shift 11AM + to 8PM, I am back to morning shift. I had gone early only when I had attended interviews in all these years.

This made me undergo yet another change. My gym timings are 8 AM in the morning, but now, I had to decide to go to gym in the evening.

So today after 6 years of morning gym sessions, I had my first gym session in the evening. Only to realize I didn't need warming up. Generally in the morning, I used to do 10-15 minutes of warm up and stretching, but in the evening, I tried warming up and felt, as if I had already warmed up :)

Apart from that, running on treadmill needs more effort in the evening as I feel not so fresh as morning. But the good part is, there is no sun nor heat to slow down in the evening.

If I can control my diet after my evening workout, there is a high chance I might lose few kilos weight as well. Fingers crossed,

Cheers,

Reason for blog name change - and back -

One of the things which I did as a part of this year 2019 was to change my blog URL. There were multiple reasons for it though, I do want to mention them.

- Last year around September October, 2018, I went through a bit of turmoil at work where in a project which I had been tirelessly working just got downsized, and I was instantly released being a senior resource and having a costly billing, they could do nothing. They couldn't afford and I ended up in free pool, so this put me into a kind of shell, where in I neither wanted to speak to anyone, nor want anyone to know what I was going through, it was hard for a couple of months, where in you aren't able to forget the project because you have put in your weekends, fought for quality, got a good reputation. Good news was I almost instantly got a new offer from a different organization (after 7 days of bench warming!).

- Few people I was speaking with ( yeah I meant people) kind of humiliated me with their words, attitude, behavior. I just didn't want them to read my blog anymore. They knew I blog and knew my blog URL.. Considering I hardly interact with only 2-3 people on a few day/week basis and you end up getting humiliated by them itself, calls for totally lack of luck ( I meant I got lemons from these people in terms of behavior). So I basically wanted them not to read my blog. Will they read now? Well, those few people are out of my life though and I hardly interact with them, if they do read them now, its up to their discretion, I just don't care anymore.

- I had less to write, and I had written few posts describing my unceremonious sacking or release from the project, where in few people who weren't performing instead staring at RV college grounds could be released, but yeah, it was me. I didn't want people to read these posts.

In fact, boot lickers, ass lickers and home grown talent (people who have joined organization as freshers and have survived or rather worked 10+ years in the same organization) take higher precedence, over lateral hired experienced and costly billing resources. That's the hard truth of Indian IT industry where talent and knowledge takes a back seat.

- I was skeptical too about these posts being searched via google, I shall double check if my blog features in google search results. So with these kind of posts about workplaces, I definitely didn't want to go with my name URL. Now, I have pulled off all these posts as drafts, so they aren't public!

- I am having a torrid time with my system at home and laptop. Now using my office laptop without VPN to post this. Both laptop and system have been behaving badly and its time I correct them or buy a new one. Meanwhile tried backing my pictures on home PC now, I see it boots up with no display, what a pity.

Cheers,

PS - Posting it on Dec 15, placing it on January Month as if nothing happened :)-

Years at the gym -

December 23, I guess, I shall complete 6 years in the gym. Its been a pleasure transforming myself. I love to exercise, had loads of interest in exercising, never materialized until 2013, though 2002- 2004 I did exercise, had loads of time.

Once I joined industry, never found time plus travelling to Marathahalli, and other longer places from Uttarahalli, never brought enough commitment out of me.

But after struggling to climb Gingee fort in 2013 december, I thought I had enough. I had all the while nurturing a secret ambition and it could never be fulfilled with this sort of fitness.

What was my secret ambition, well, to climb the Himalayas - :)-

Believe me, it could never have happened without the gym (mentioned in the previous post).

Need to be careful going ahead, not to hurt myself. This year pulled a back muscle just couple of weeks before my Kailash Mansarovar Yatra. Though I have recovered fully, reminds me of not to overdo anything!

Cheers,

Gym offer for 2020

There is an annual offer at the gym. Sure I shall make use of it, can save couple of thousand of rupees. Just that I have to be consistent in the gym, and should not skip for months. I am pretty much confident of it. I just take max 2 weeks off for longer trips :)-

Cheers,

Exercise -

This year had less travel, I had couple of tours and one cancelled one, all of which required huge planning and logistics, that I couldn't travel excessively. Plus my new workplace requires me to travel to Marathahalli each day, so its hard to pack a travel punch unless I am equally committed.

Considering how boring my new workplace is, I never felt motivated to travel, because in order to travel with interest, you need to be well grounded, both personally and professionally.

What it did mean is, I got loads of time to exercise in the gym, yup, months after months, I was in the gym, helped me a lot mentally, physically left me drained out.

Will write another post describing what workout I used to do! Till last year I even chose to workout 7 days a week, but this year cut down to 6 consciously, having one day as a rest day!

Cheers,

100 posts for 2019 - Can I make it?

Every year I planned to write down 100 posts for the year, about something, travel, personal experience etc etc. It hasn't happened last year, on the verge of closure of this year too, I have a feeling I might not be able to write down 100 posts.

But I still have 15 days, if I can make 7 posts each day, over the next 15 days, I probably can get to a 100. Wow. that would be a miracle, but sure possible!

Cheers, lets attempt it from now!
Here it goes. Though I am going to randomly and shamelessly fit them into previous months.

Subsidy for Kailash Mansarovar Yatra 2019 - Karnataka

After following it up for 3 months with the Muzrai Department, I finally get an update saying 'Subsidy Forms for Kailash Yatra 2019' are being given since - 7 Nov 2019. I immediately chose to work from home 8 Nov 2019 and visit the Office of Religious and Charitable Endowments on Friday.

I shall attach the documents needed. Also its mandatory to take the original passport and Adhar card just to avail the subsidy form. They kinda check for Nepal-China immigration seal.

Once you get the form you also need an affidavit on stamp paper worth Rs 20. I got this at a co-operative bank opposite to Karnataka Bank Chamrajpet. Karnataka bank lies on the road which leads to Chamrajpet from K R Market. almost diagonally opposite to Makkala Koota. (Cost Rs 30).

There is one more store next to District Judges court with saying E-Stamping, may be you can get there too, just opposite to Makka Koota and Diagonally opposite to Police station, (adjacent to Karnataka Sahitya parishad).

Got the stamp paper typed in Chamrajpet. Next to Vishal mart on the road which leads to Goods Shed Road to the right there are multiple stores which provide Kannada typing facility. They charge around Rs 70.

I applied for subsidy, not sure if I get one, but very much interested, will cover costs of my cancelled flights caused by delayed China Visa (owing to weather) and the money I lost booking a Jet Flight (yeah, the company which closed).

Color xerox of passport and immigration seal pages are needed, also clarity of the seal is pretty much necessary.

Cheers,

Less writing in 2019

2019 has been one such year after many years where I have not written much. There are multiple reasons. Predominantly being job switch. I was happy or rather too stressed out working for an organization closer to home. Finally had to move out to a different organization far from home involving two hours of travel daily.

Owing to this I was quite upset for couple of months. Yeah comfort of an office close to home, good work and good European colleagues was more like a dream come true and now I just have to wake up to reality though.

I kinda wrote few posts which were more of somber in nature dealing with my lows. Each time I thought of writing, I was too lazy, my laptop became slower and slower and owing it to be a 15 inch laptop found it hard to write more on it.

Also months together I was on and on with preparations or rather events leading to my Kailash Mansarovar Yatra in 2019. So the focus was more on to my trip, my leave my bookings, my visa and writing took a backseat.

I am glad, I was consistent at the gym all the while, something which I am proud of. But the daily travel has taken a toll on me and I also am kinda unimpressed with the work profile.

So with nothing on the personal front and professional front, things looked a bit dull all throughout the year. But post successful completion of Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, I felt much better and vowed to make a strong comeback.

So here I am almost two months later back to writing, hoping to fill as much posts as possible within this year!

Cheers
Sandeep

Ode to my place of worship

Ayudha pooja at our gym was a bit early this year. Our gym owner aka trainer wanted to go on a 4 day vacation starting today, hence he chose to do Ayudha Pooja yesterday itself. It was a working day yesterday and Ayudha Pooja was at 6 30 PM in the evening.

This particular gym has been a very distinct part of my life, I have been blessed to attend many a event due to Gods' grace, parents blessing and blessing of this gym.

So I did not want to miss the opportunity to attend Ayudha Pooja. 2014 and 2015 I had genuine reasons not to attend the Ayudha Pooja but since then 2016/2017/2018 I have been regular for the Ayudha Pooja.

I decided to work from home this Friday and go for the Pooja. It rained for sometime, there was power cut for some more time, but in the end, all is well that ends well.

Below are some of the pictures from my mobile camera.

  
        

  

Kailash Mansarovar Yatra - 2019 - Dates Postponed - KMY - 4

As the dates of our yatra KMY was nearing, we had encountered another red flag.

Weather in Tibet wasn't favorable for the Yatra and Chinese government refused to grant visas in the month of May, due to safety concerns.

There goes our flight booking. we incurred losses of upto 8k INR, excluding the one from JET airways.

Nothing could be done, we accepted it as a part of our fate.

I had a not so smooth Bhutan trip in 2018 and I felt same continued in 2019 too.

Already I was not that impressed by workplace and its happenings, this one literally pushed me into total confusion whether to proceed with KMY or not. At home parents were insisting to withdraw money. They were of the opinion that I could never make it this year owing to this much confusion.

There have been times when my parents have been against me going to the Himalayas, over here too, they were pretty much opposed to the decision of me doing KMY especially after visas getting denied for the month of May 2019.

But I believed only myself and nobody else and stuck on, rather hung on :)-

Rebooked all the flights for the month of July, 2019, and yeah I was ready for attempting KMY innings 2 :)-

Cheers,

Kailash Mansarovar Yatra - 2019 - Flight booking- KMY - 3

Once my leaves were approved, we were immediately up for booking flight tickets. Booked tickets successfully. It was a difficult exercise.

We had to book Bangalore to Delhi and then Delhi to Kathmandu. By mistake I booked a Jet airways flight from Delhi to Kathmandu. Jet ran out of business and I lost my money. Till date there is no refund from Jet Airways. I am pretty sure, I cannot expect it too :(

First red flag encountered! I tried to book Royal Nepal Airlines and over here there was an inventory software issue and flight booking failed, there by I had to go for Jet Airways, big mistake.

A friend of mine confidently said book Jet, it shall be taken over by Vistara, darn thing, I shouldn't have listened to people, Never mind, as my previous German architect used to say - "it happens".

Cheers,

Trip to Bhutan

In between all of the company change, travel, I managed to go on planned leave in the first week of December 2018. It was to Bhutan. I had this planned while I was in my previous organization only.

Sad part is I executed it while I joined new organization. It happened to be loss of pay. It did not matter. Somehow, I managed to take my mind off work and travel for a while.

Initially planned for 5 days the trip stretched to 9 days. Owing to missed flights, change of plans. Finally came back after a long deserved vacation.

Cheers,

Kailash Mansarovar Yatra - 2019 - Leaves - KMY - 2

I needed couple of weeks plus 2-3 days on top of it in order to complete Kailash Mansarovar Yatra in 2019. My manager was kind of skeptical, reason being, I had no leaves plus, I had taken leaves in the month of December for Bhutan trip, now in month of February, asking for leaves again, and me being under probation, sent some very distress signals.

But Kailash Mansarovar Yatra waits for none, a job can wait, it something which had to happen, irrespective of whether I was employed or not, I wished to do it.

As I write this in the month of December, 2019, I am still employed, and feel blessed to have completed KMY this year. I already applied for subsidy from Karnataka government too, thought cut off age is 45, which is rather sad.

My manager kinda agreed for it, very hesitantly. I put everything at my workplace at risk including my confirmation for this trip and yeah, Lord Shiva pulled it off successfully.

Initially it was planned in the month of May 2019. and what happened next, well in my another post though,

Cheers,

PS - Posted in december

Kailash Mansarovar Yatra - 2019 - KMY 1

In the month of February, in one of the trek groups a friend of mine posted a message saying, he is planning to take part in this year Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, via a private tour operator, and called for any others willing to join.

I had plans to go Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, let me call it KMY hence forth. Since couple of years I had this in sight, but little did I know it had so much process/procedure. It took months to fix things and in between Jet Airways collapsing and shutting operations did not help me in any way.

One of the reason for lesser travel was this too. I wanted to keep in good health for the yatra and not fall sick by involving in summer treks. Summer treks cause lots of dehydration, UTI's. So in a way, I was focused by sitting at home and exercising. But it took months, more on KMY in the following posts.

Cheers,

Ode to Swamiji

On 21 January 2019, a great gentleman left us. It is none other than Sri Sri Shivakumar Swamiji. It was a very sad day, his work and selfless dedication is nothing which can be measured or compared.

Multiple times my eyes got moist reading about the dedication which he showed towards upliftment of mankind. The institutions he had set up. How many people he had guided, fed, taught. One life is small to even imagine the magnitude of contribution of Swamiji.

So thought of starting new year posts with a post remembering the great person, so proud to have been born in this Country and State

Cheers!

The year 2018 has been

2018 has been one such year where lots of things have happened, both on professional and personal front. I have not been writing much, I have spent couple of months pondering, I have traveled less, and finally there are multiple things which took toll on me and for most part of the year, I ended up thinking and thinking.

So let me write a short note on what happened on work front.

On the work front, the year started very well and was enjoying work. Somewhere in the middle things started to go wrong at workplace and I ended up doing a whole lot of work instead of little and then for couple of months it was work work and nothing else.

Finally October month was nearing and I had planned to take a week off to travel to Leh. But I ran out of luck that time. I fell sick with fever had to cancel my leave plan, also on the side, I was released from the project due to shortage of fund.

So it was three ways to tackle, one the work which I liked so  much and the bond which I had built with the European colleagues was abruptly broken. Second the humiliation of being released from the project was so much to handle. People told me I was abusive on the management. I used to scold people badly. Everyone came up with their own set of advises and it felt horrible.

Nobody knows what the real reason for my release from the project was, but everyone was of the opinion that, I was really behaving horrible, by being rude towards other team mates, not collaborating etc etc.

Morever I was helpless, nobody could do anything about it. I am not someone who licks the arse of the management just to stay in the project. So there I realized where I changed paths.

But more than humiliation, I was worried about the future. I did not know how would I sustain in such a low paying organization. I was the black sheep out there, I was so freaked out about the market too. For two weeks I kept thinking and applying.

But as the saying goes, when we are in trouble, God comes to the party or to the rescue. Once my october leave plan got cancelled, I got a referral from my friend's organization.

I attended interviews which would not have been possible if I had gone ahead with my Leh trip. Then finally 5 days after being released from the project, I got the news that I shall be offered in my friend's organization..

I was over joyed, but somewhere, I felt cheated, I had worked very hard, built a very fine and strong reputation and bond with European colleagues, which I definitely refused to let go.

But truth is you cannot help. Most likely management got insecure of my presence in the team and told me to leave, you never know.

I shall write about various reasons which went sour in the coming posts. As of today, I finished a week trip to Bhutan and I am kind of relaxing in my new organization.

Cheers and loads of thanks to God for coming to rescue when I needed the most.

Cheers,

Lesser writing even lesser travelling

2018 has been not such a great year in terms of trekking or travelling. i did not travel much, my interest in travelling came down due to too much of office work.

I was highly stressed out with work always deadlines and something to deliver, planning trips could never happen. Now that slowdown has happened and I will soon move out of the project, after I had asked release plus budget issues, I get some relief.

Sometimes, we just need to stop working and think about something else. Yeah, my engagement with the current project comes to a close after year and half. I have done sufficient work got sufficient recognition, but yeah, it cannot continue.

I can't close my eyes and always remind myself of work. How much ever I like my work I have to limit myself from overworking. One way is to move out of the project. Yeah, I chose it too.

So now I can concentrate on trying new jobs writing, going back to gym more so traveling as well.

I might even quit and take a break from work for few days. Reason being i have overworked in the last year and I just need a break!

But quitting without another offer makes no sense because it puts you on too much pressure. So i'm thinking  just to move out of the project first and then try outside.

By the way, I am back to writing,

Cheers,

Ode to my place or worship

Like every year, this year too I did attend ayudha pooja at my gym. Though I haven;t been to the gym in a week and half, I was down with fever for 3.5 days and doctor advised me not to workout. So i temporarily stopped, after two weeks, I will re-join on Monday.

All these days I got an opportunity to wake up late and ponder.

So cheers to my place of worship.

Cheers,

When a late train helped our cause - TTTT 61

Last month I had been to a trek around Karnataka Goa border. It was one of the best. But in the end we reached a remote village in Karnataka and were about to leave by 6pm from there. We had our train at around 9 40 pm from Dharwad. It was Sampark Kranti coming all the way from Chandigarh.

We were around 100 kilometers away from Dharwad and we were in doubt whether we could reach in time.  We reached Dharwad railway station at 9 40 pm and we were about to miss the train.

But luck was on our side that day. Because the train was running late by 40 minutes. We had earlier information from the railway website that train would be late, but was that information accurate?

Well turned out to be true,

Cheers,

When we cut and ate jackfruit on a trek - TTTT 60

Jack fruit is one such fruit which you do not want to get your hands dirty with. Its difficult to digest unless you are used to it. But to get to the point where you get to eat a jack fruit you need to slog your hands of cutting and peeling the huge fruit.

This happened during our recent trek around Karnataka Goa border. We entered a village on our first day, we were too late to move out of the village. Hence thought of camping in the village.

It was 5 pm in the evening when we reached the village. Very soon it would turn dark. Few of our guys were resting, while our two guides were doing something very interesting outside.

They had brought down a jack fruit from a tree opposite to the house and they were cutting and peeling it. After 10 minutes, I too joined in. It was a sticky mess peeling the jack fruit.

In the end I ate 12 or even more pieces of jack fruit. I cleaned my hands which were now sticky by rubbing palms with oil. But I was cursing myself for eating so much of jack fruit. Jack fruit is one such fruit which is very hard to digest.

The guide made fun of me for fearing the unknown. In the end I was glad I did not throw up in the night nor had a problem in the morning.

Alls well that end's well..

Cheers!

When my client / business partner thought I knew German!!

For two weeks we have our German business partner in India. They arrived last week and came to office on Monday. For the first day they sat in a meeting room towards the end of the floor. But on the second day they came and sat next to me as there were empty spaces next to my seat.

Not sure why they decided to sit amidst the team instead of meeting room, but yesterday while on Friday, on two occasions the business partner started speaking amongst themselves in German, I was quietly observing and on one occasion they were conversing in German trying to find out where was the dustbin, for which I directed them out of intuition.

They then got a doubt if I understood German.. I had previously told one of my German colleague that it was my 4th time working with German client. And as much as I like working with them, I hate to admit I do not know German.

How about learning the same.. Well, yeah probably will give it a thought!

Cheers,

Relief from work

After working hard starting january february all the way till mid of june, braving summer going to the gym office resting on weekends, I found some time finally to head out of town. It was for a 3 day trek on the eve of Ramzan.

It turned out to be one of the best decisions, though we traveled by train, we ended up doing a whole lot of trek and thoroughly enjoyed the 3 days.

I will write about it shortly. Also I need to cross 50 posts since its half year mark. Last year I consciously decided not to hit a 100 posts, because someone who always insisted me to write 100 posts was a bit down after losing their pet dog. Hence last year I chose not to write a 100 owing to this reason.

Cheers!

Sins of joining a service oriented organization - part 2

It happens so I joined an IT service organization in the year 2017. It was my first in-house project. I have worked for service oriented IT companies before, but as a consultant. I was outsourced rather sent outside to a client place to work. In other words, I was working and have worked for a product development organization all these years.

Now it happens so, this in-house project made me realize what a notorious shit hole an IT service company is. Full of quacks, people with no heart, no interest to work, roaming in the building carelessly.

Sad to see, when I enter global village IT park to go to my office, or during lunch, I see hoards of people just sitting, doing absolutely nothing, chit chatting. I wish not to mention which organization, but it happens to be one of the other competitor service oriented organizations in Global Village known for hire and fire policy. So many people simple sitting, doing nothing just speaks of the amount of work being given to Indian IT.

Never mind, I had worked very hard over the last 6 months, written lots of code and established such a fine working relationship with my German Colleagues, I'm still proud of that. But the sad part is some of my allocated task couldn't meet timeline.

Some of the allocated task of my team members didn't meet timelines. It had lots of loopholes and complaints, escalations from German management. So my manager considered this.

When I told him I had got equally good appreciation, he told they don't count. Only escalations count but not appreciation. In english language its called hypocrisy!

So, all my hard work went to gutter and got a rating of 2/5. It means moderately meets expectations, or rather needs improvement. Any person who gets this rating never gets variable pay or bonus. But I got them. I got my variable pay 100% of what the company allocated out of the given amount. What an irony.

On one side, I need improvement, on other side, I get a bonus reserved for performance. I guess this happens only in a service oriented organization.

The best part is I still enjoy working with Germans, I think, the only reason for me to stick with my current service oriented organization, is the fact that, we have a very good relationship with onsite team and equally bad relationship with our offshore team plus its close to my home.

5 members of my team have quit. All of whom had problem with Indian management and not a single complaint against German management.

I think service oriented organization works just like this.

What I feel is mid level management is like a mid layer fat on a human body (result of Bengal famine?)

Muscles at the shoulder or biceps help us to lift loads, muscles on legs and thighs help us propel or walk long distances. But mid level fat does absolutely nothing, helps us to sustain famine situation?

So mid level management is like this fat, absolutely unuseful for an organization. Just adding complexities to our working environment.

Oh I forgot to tell you, my organization management is very jealous of the fact that I'm too close with German's sitting over here and they aren't able to achieve the same level of closeness. How little they know its all about hardwork and intellectualism.

Somone please tell them, quacks can only quack!

Cheers,!

PS - I wanted to write this for a very long time, but exercised restraint and lack of time. Today I'm in good spirits :)-

Back to travel and blogging

After outworking myself in the last 4 months, I finally found time to travel, write something. I was regular to the gym in the last 4 months something which makes me feel proud.

A forest fire in Kerala Border put an end to our summer trekking plans. I feel bad that tragedy happened, lives were lost. Permissions were denied owing to the fact there could be more forest fires.

So I dug into gym and work. Things did not go well at work as well. I was overloaded with work and in the end I got an appraisal rating of 2/5 which means moderately meets expectations.

It really broke my back. I had worked hard over the last year and this is what I got. I realized this is how I pay the price for joining a service oriented organization I thought.

Then there was an opening, in the form of a 3 day trek. With much difficulty permissions were obtained, in-fact, over 3 month effort yielded permissions. This 3 day trek was to an unknown place. It was in the rains and it went well.

That brought me enough courage to make a comeback to writing!

Cheers,

Over read myself in 2018

Started the year's reading with a book called Mindful way through depression. Believe me it was the worst nightmare I could have, it took me a month and a half to realize that, this book was utter gutter crap.

It wasn't the way out of depression, but it tried its best to put me into depression. I couldn't read for days together because I was so hell bent on reading this book completely, and this book was so adamant that it didn't want to be read.

Finally, I gave it up for some good old Ruskin Bond and there you go, problem solved. As of today in the fourth month, I have read almost 9 books for the year, much have been Ruskin Bond to give me that feel good factor of the mountains (of course).

But all in all way to go.. wohoo.. pat on my back, considering how hard I work these days :)

Cheers,

CommonWealth games at the gym

Yesterday had been to the gym and found TV to be airing common wealth games instead of music, which usually is on. So whist exercising, I could watch a game of squash. Once the game was over, somehow it being an Indian channel, provided an update on the gold medal being won by India.

But the intense competition which I got to see during the squash match put me into a bit of thought process.

- What do these players bring to the competition.
- What all do these players have to endure to gain this level of competitiveness.

The answer was simple. Plain old practice for years together. If this was the simple and straight answer, there was a lingering question, as to why aren't we producing enough gold medals in a bigger stage like Olympics? I have always realized the reason to be a compound of many a thing.

I generally do not whine on my blog on problems which have no profound solution at all. But the way the whole eco system is structured, it just has no solution at all :)

The rewards for a professional athlete are very much there, but is the infrastructure in place, if someone wanted to compete in swimming, do we have enough to go to a swimming pool everyday, day in and day out, does Bangalore traffic allow us to focus only on swimming.

Recently, saw a video on Dravid Padukone, sports village. Heard few words of encouragement from Rahul Dravid to come and make use of the facility to one and all.

I just had one question, how does someone sitting in Kengeri, make use of this facility? For someone to reach this place it would take a while, and the way professional athletes train is each day for hours. So for someone to train idealistically, he or she should relocate closer to home, forget family, forget study, basically forget everything and this after investing in the membership.

Why would anyone do that, one life is meant to be enjoyed, why would anyone put his body on the line just for a medal and few quid  money in return that too not guaranteed?

I  still somehow wonder, Hyderabad has produced so many good shuttlers, I sincerely feel there is something about Hyderabad infrastructure playing a part too. Going by Bangalore's growth, I can only see round and pot bellied people adding weight on mother earth rather than muscular Olympians battling it out with someone like Micheal Phelps?

I am sure 20 years on we still would be medal less :) And regarding common wealth games, yeah cheers guys.

I wish all those who have access to equipment stadiums and will to fight it out, all the very best. I can only settle for my mediocre rant :)

Cheers,

A day without gym - Sunday

I get to write again. These days, I have nothing to write or rather, I do not find time. I have topics in my mind, but they just fade away, reason being, work, exercise takes a back seat. I haven't played my PS 4 in a while. I was supposed to complete GTA 5, but I am stuck in the game and with so much work, it has taken a back seat.

Moreover when I sit to write something, I think of social network sites, browse for songs, check mails, check others' blog etc etc and I fail to write, reason being distraction.

Now I turned off the music, turned off my official laptop, cannot concentrate on office work for the day, switched off social media sites, and here I am only to write something.

Tomorrow being rest day, I could wake up with no qualms about exercising. The thing is I have gained weight in the last 3 months, though people say it doesn't look much, I got a mouthful of words from my gym trainer as its anti to what I used to do.

I am supposed to control what I eat and therefore yet again, I am back to where it all began. Work at office too happens to be dull, with more people being released from account/project, what can you do? If there is no work obviously people are going to be let go. There is no such thing as free lunch.

But I'm happy no exercise tomorrow, plain rest! I get to work, get to do somethings at leisure.

Cheers,

Sins of joining a service based organization (offshoring)

One thing straight, after joining my current organization, I have spent multiple weekends working.

Even as I write this, I am writing source code on the side.

There are many reasons as to why I work on weekends. What do I do during weekdays?

- Meetings/management meetings.
- Giving daily status to the dumb indian management (aka Micromanagement, which team member of mine spent how much time on what, what time did they go to loo out of office etc etc).
- Answering queries of team members, reviewing their work.
- Taking part in meetings with Europeans, can run into hours sometimes.
- Infrastructure issues.

Given all of the above, I hardly get time to do technical work. Considering that I am more experienced than most of my team members, I am supposed to do the most complicated work, like most difficult work. Whilst most people stop coding after say 5 years, I am coding even after 10 years, and I love it.

But what I don't love is the fact that I get less time to do what I love to do, instead attend Indian management meetings on how to improve process via Agile.

Well, each time, I get to ask myself is it really needed. Need of the hour is to improve skillset of Indian people to tackle technical problems, instead our Indian management seems to be taking interest in Agile to hide their arses :).

Reason being our Indian management understands, no matter how much you invest in training, Indian engineers won't scale up to the European standards / expectations, not sure which river water is the source of their lacking interest, but its straight as an arrow, Indian people lack interest to do anything technical atleast in my current organization. (sorry for stereotyping)

So, to do tough technical work, I need more time to concentrate and that never happens at workplace. The overcrowded floor where most people are on bench and jaywalking, never allows me to concentrate.

Whilst I do manage to work peacefully for sometime, to ensure more productivity, I need to work a bit more and this can happen only during weekends. So whenever there is tough work to be done, I rely on weekends, and also I am planning to take leave tomorrow.

My German architect shall go on leave from wednesday and I need to check in some very important code and get it reviewed before he leaves. All this I cannot expect to happen in that noisy workplace.

So tomorrow I am absconding from office to work :)

Cheers,

PS - I don't get to read as often now, play on my PS4 - travelling is less. All this until I find a new job, or until some people in the team get laid off due to budget cut. (sorry for early prediction, but can't help a lingering team in any other way :))

I am not boasting about myself doing hard techical work, but, I'm just trying to tell you my current situation!

Growing up in the 90's, growing up with ROXETTE

As a kid who grew up in the 90's, I could identify one band distinctively apart from Eagles and MLTR or U2. It was Roxette. The song - she's got the look was being used in the reynolds pen advertisement, if I'm not wrong.

I was always wondering which band sung it. Years later when internet became accessible and radio play was much more fun with all those good songs, less ads, I got to listen to Roxette a bit more and I believe, they are amongst the best. Its sad I didn't get to listen them more as a kid in the 90's

The lead singer had to go through a difficult period but yeah, they have left us a legacy of great songs. One of which is as below :)

Trekking on a empty stomach - TTTT 59

I have trekked few places in the last few years, but each time I was atleast fed, well fed infact before the start of the trek or even through the trek. Generally on a two day trek if we are camping in the forest, we carry sufficient rice to feed us for a night's dinner plus day 2 breakfast and/or lunch.

So this time, too was no different, we were in the middle of the forest out camping, and we cooked day 1 dinner. But the thing is, instead of bringing in aluminium cooking vessel, we had taken a pressure cooker this time.

This caused a hinderance in cooking. If we had taken aluminium vessel, we could have cooked lots of rice for dinner and left over could have been consumed as breakfast. But instead it took 2 turns too cook up rice for 12 people using a pressure cooker, plus, this meant the next day we had insufficient time to cook, as we had a good 8 km trek to and fro to the waterfall plus a 6 km trek back to the mainland.

Next day morning we prepared tea in the middle of the forest with full milk and tea power and water. And we set off for the waterfall. And we reached the waterfall after around 3 hours and we were back to tbe camping place by around 4pm. So we again ran out of time as we had to reach mainland out of the forest before it could be dark, hence thought of not cooking at all.

Meanwhile we had consumed whatever biscuits we had chocolates etc etc. I had consumed a packet full of electral and still was losing salts and getting cramped like there was no tomorrow. This left me with only one option to drink a litre of water filled with table salt!

Yes, I could never drink water mixed with salt before, but this time body just took it. And by the way, my cramps vanished 20 minutes later, I could trek the remining 6 kilometers pretty much comfortably.

We made it to out of the forest by 7pm and made it to Hotel Kamat Honnavara by 8 15PM. Finished dinner and started to bangalore by 9 30 pm.

Thats how I trekked this time , with almost an empty stomach :)

Cheers,

A constant companion or friend who never vanishes.

You might be wondering a man's best companion is a dog, one who never vanishes. But not everyone is fortunate enough to own a dog, train a dog or sustain a dog. I have never been able to have a dog.

But I would like to tell that, man's best companion rather my best companion is the gym. Its because whether it is a good day or bad day or a normal day, I get there and it basically feels good. The gym never vanishes nor the trainer refuses to admit me :) (Yeah even without fees)

If I'm high on ego the gym flattens it up, if I'm low on morale, it just ups my morale. Moreover, meeting people from different background, where salary, pride, age takes social status takes a backseat, all that matters is a 1+ hour of workout session.

Its sad to say, Bangalore doesn't have rather the infrastructure to support a good exercise regime or routine, or rather I do not have enough guts to sustain it.

I started exercising seriously only when my company provided time and transport. Tomorrow, I might not have them, so I'm still wary of changing organizations just to sustain this routine.Going far, might leave me with less time to exercise.

But discovering my love for physical exercise has been the most joyous thing to have happened to me. Not sure this post made any sense, but atleast it got me back to writing after weeks together of drudgery at office, having to deal with Indian, European management, etc etc, plus technical work, coding, re-coding. Lots of things happened, but now got the time to write.

So cheers :) 

Genius of David Gray

David Gray is one such artist whom I have known since my teenage years. I have not heard enough of him for years. And now when I realize he has belted out some super songs, I only can curse my luck for not having paid attention to his music.

The bottom line is any artist from England, Ireland, Scotland should be taken seriously, I mean by me, else I miss out on loads of good music.

Imagine David Gray music playing on a silent night. There is full silence and there you have David Gray and a pinch of spiritualism. what more can you ask for ?

I have few favorite songs from his album White Ladder way back almost 20 years, but this one which I am sharing is from 2002- 2003 album. Years go by but David Gray music still remains ahead of its time. Technology may come and but it will always be short of the talent this man possess. (Wrong comparison :))

PS - to enjoy some of the songs, you need good woofers plus clear cut speakers. To appreciate drums, bass, those acoustic guitar chords, I guess, after all you need good sound system and tuned equalizers, Please do not tune disco to alternative rock songs :) You know what I mean. To register sound from each instrument individually, into our ears and mind, you need a good sound system.Period.

Some pictures from my yesterday's trek - Republic day trek - 2018

Some pictures from my trek, courtesy Ucchangi Ram Kumar

Return journeys from a Trek - TTTT 58

Return journeys after completing a trek are always fun and excellent. The sense of accomplishment, for finishing the trek, the solo time we get to unwind, watching the villages and towns pass by and the freedom to eat till stomach's fill because we have burnt sufficient calories during the trek, plus good music all ends up as a fun filled journey. I wish to put these lines in a poem but some other day.

This time too the trek was excellent. We came out of the forest only by 7 PM evening and it was all dark, and by the time we made our way to Honnavara for dinner it was 8 15 PM odd. Then it was all climb to Sagar and then Shimoga. We had our dinner at Kamat restaurant at Honnavara. I simply love the coastal towns of Honnavara, Kumta, these places have the best to offer, in terms of simplicity of food, the service, the showcase of humanity just stands up.

It was relaxing, there was no movie being played, everyone was relaxed after completing the trek, were chatting, talking about random stuffs. But it was the first time, I saw 2-3 accidents on Jog falls climb, Ghat section. I pray nobody was hurt because of these. I had seen one before multiple times, but this day there were multiple on the same stretch, sad.

There was a village festival kind of thing near Mavinagundi, full bling bling and lights. Its hard to see such a controlled festival, never happens in town. In town all you get is honking vehicles, huge number of people / crowd and everyone trying to show off their wealth or who come to market their products. The question of enjoyment and fulfillment in a city fair is far from reality. But over here in a village, just a look by me while passing was so fulfilling. All I could do is sit in a vehicle and dream of being a part of the fair.. why not :) ?

We started from Honnavara at 9 40 PM and reached Bangalore around 5 15 AM.  Thats way too quick a time, because we have Jog falls Ghat section to climb and then its all way single lane road and not NH4.

These days I do not write about the places which I trek nor post many pictures. I can, but I do not want publicity via a search engine. I prefer to keep things to myself :)

This post was more about the fun filled return journey from the coastal side.

Cheers,

PS - This time we had a Tempo traveller with a CR Engine. Very rarely we get CR engine TT, but yeah, considerably less noisy than the Euro 3 Turbo Engine Traveller.

Gym - to exercise or to market goods

A recent trend in the gym has been to market stuffs. Gym is a place where people gather, come or are easy to pick and find. So a marketeer or a sales person has a good chance over here.

It happened so, recently someone tried to sell a motivational course to me in the gym which is part of a foreign company. This person happens to be from sales background and wanted more and more people to enroll into this course and hence had organized an introduction session at his home. Looks like he has taken a contract from this organization.

He wanted me to join and told me the leader would identify an area in my life to create opportunity. I told him I wasn't interested as the course was too abstract and not to my liking.

I gave away my mobile number and this person started calling and sending messages on whatsapp. After certain point of time, I put my phone on aeroplane mode and stopped replying to his whatsapp messages altogether. (Blocking him is still pending action).

When I went and told this to my gym instructor, he told me the motivational course was costing about 16k and there was a full family of 4 people who took this course and felt cheated.

In a way I got out of this mess, just wondering, how to react when I see the person in the gym in coming days. But what can I do?

My head just can't tolerate this amount of shit, just because a person has worked for Microsoft or Amazon doesn't mean I listen to him speak :) If I need motivation I shall read a good self help book instead of attending a 16k course!

Also he told me, after this course, he opened his own venture without a single rupee of investment. I thought what the heck, if it works out for him doesn't mean it should for me. What a silly and strange logic from an educated person.

Even before joining, I checked out this person's linked in profile and realized it was his job to sell this course to people. I hope and pray more people do not end up paying 16k to such courses, instead find motivation in exercise or travel or reading or music or something else on which this 16k can be invested and not regretted.

I literally told my instructor 16k is my 2 years gym membership.

Cheers,

Crowded house - Dont dream its over

I came to know about this song in the year 2002. That was when I first heard Six pence none the richer singing Dont dream its over. I admired the tune composition etc etc, until I came to know that, its by a band called Crowded House. That was probably in the year 2010 or so.

Until then I wasn't aware of the band Crowded House. My bad. But ever since I listened to the original composition of the song by Crowded House I never went back to Six Pence None The Richer, until today or in fact until 5 minutes back :)

Somehow, the live version performed by Crowded House popped anup in my playlist whilst at office. I somehow ended up listening to the song, but, more than that, the trivia surrounding the song was awesome.

That song was the last song played on their farewell tour after which the band disbanded. The emotions on the faces of the band members are visibily noticeable.

There are people who enact and make the audience teary eyed and here are the band Crowded House who are making the audience teary eyed, live, as they perform and sing..

This song is from 1996 Farewell Tour. I sincerely wished some people remained together, just for the sake of music, just for the sake of mankind.  but nature has other plans and life moves on. Here goes the song by Crowded House. Brilliantly sung and performed live.

And regarding the song by Six pence none the richer, well, its kind of feels pretty ordinary when you have the original next to it :)

Just brought back loads of memories, what I was upto in 1986 when the song, came out, 1996 when the farewell tour happened, 2002 when the cover version came out, 2010 when I discovered about Crowded House and 2018 as I blog this :) Happy to be alive :) what more can I say

Cheers

Some writing in the new year

After a gap of 15 days odd I am writing. I got time, the mood and the patience today to write. I was super busy with office work with no time to spare. Today we had a sprint closure and I had to do a demo to the client and now thats over, I get some relief for a couple of days, knowing there aren't much things pending to go.

But its been a roller coaster last 5+ months with heavy duty hard work coupled with mistakes and learnings, all in all a fulfilling one, I am unable to play on my PS4 nor read books nor travel much. Its just about work and more work for now.

Meanwhile, I shall write about few things which I have in my mind,

But for now,
Cheers,

PS - Today's demo went well, though I ran from an old source code and flunked it mid way, the response was appreciative and pretty positive :) 

First post for the new year

How sweet of me to key in something on the first day of the year itself. Side by side, I am writing some source code trying to fix an issue in the application.

And I hope I get to check in something today. The entire German and Indian team are vacationing. Me checking in on 1 day of 2018 all alone shall be epic. By the way last week of december had only my check ins in the source code repository, but doing one on 1st seems even more epic.

Meanwhile I compile the source code, thought of putting up a post.

This year I plan to do something different. I feel I am nosing around others people's business way too much. I keep asking people questions, I try to be curious about what is happening and in a way I think, I am just putting too much of info into my brains, which isn't really required.

My main motive should be, what others do is none of my business and I would rather try to implement it 100% :)-

Also last year I probably got less angry once I changed organizations. Silkboard never played any part and hence I had no burden to cross over 44 road humps. So I got angry only once in the last 7 months or so. I get frustrated and offended easily, but that's not much of a major hurdle.

Cheers.