DrinksonMG

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

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

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

Cheers,

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

Weekend Driver

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

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

Came back by 5pm.

Cheers,

1 week post Auden's col

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

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

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

Cheers,

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

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

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

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

There are many reasons why I stopped lurking on quora.

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers,

Britannia marie biscuit @ office

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

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

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

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

Cheers,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Will add more points as I recollect.

Cheers,

Kuch Na Kaho - 1942 A love story!

The year was 1994, the song was Kuch Na Kaho from the movie 1942 A love story. It was topping the charts. Back then, I was a kid and I did not like the song, and was always wondering, whats so special in this song, that its topping the charts. I thought the song was very very boring!

Now after so many years may be a couple of decade, I would like to  write about how much I like that song these days, both the renditions, Kumar Sanu and Lata Mangeshkar one's. 

The divine composition of RD Burman, and heavenly lyrics, make it an absolute gem to listen to. How I wish I had realized this back then. But yeah, music remains same, unlike people!

Cheers,

Auden's col trek done!

2015 turns out to be a major year, took up the tough trek of Auden's col, and luckily got shortlisted for the trek after meeting the selection criteria. That selection and bookings happened in December, but it was a good 5 months to get mentally ready for the trek.

We did it, in a very good way, with blessings from God, loads of help from our guide and support team. It was indeed sweet. Now that, I recollect what happened over the last 2-3 weeks, its just pure bliss. I am so happy to have been part of that memorable expedition. The write up and pictures are slowly going to come up on my blog.

I would like to thank God, my teachers, parents, relatives and friends for supporting me through this cause. I skipped my cousin's marriage in order to participate in this trek/expedition. I regret it badly, but, I had committed to this trek even before marriage was fixed, but, I had grown up with my cousin all these years, balancing the couple, makes a very hard pill to swallow. I am sure, she will never forget this absence of mine.

On top of that, the earthquake which wrecked Nepal, had caused loads of headache in parents as well as relatives mind, somehow they stone-heartedly okayed my participation.

Cheers,

Weekend driver,

These days, I am turning out to be a driver on weekends. I need to take my parents here and there. Like today had been to Basavangudi, Gandhi Bazaar to buy couple of stuffs.

But I remember 3 weeks back I had a long day out as a driver. Started out at 8 am and ended at 3 pm.

A friend of my mother had come from Dharwad and was put up at JP Nagar. so had to go pick that person up and bring her to our house, then drop that person back to JP Nagar.

After which I drove all the way to Kormangala to get some personal work done, then came back to Jayanagar 4th block for some other personal work.

Then finally reached home. Around 70+ kilometers of city driving through 35 degree temperature can only leave you scratching your head. Luckily I got a good sleep in the evening plus it rained that day which brought some relief.

Cheers,

Used Toyota Innova

I travel to office by office shuttle. Few months back we had a Toyota Qualis doing duty. I used to sit all alone in the last seat (baby seat) and sleep come what may!

But after few days, the 2002 model Toyota Qualis just gave up, because of engine oil leakage and various other reasons. It was an sealed, unopened engine which had done duty of almost 8 lakh kilometers. That's a Toyota for you, respect!

So we got an upgrade to Toyota Innova, though it was priced per kilometer at the rate of Qualis. After travelling in an Innova close to 2.5 months, my mind is all set to buy one. A used one though.

I cannot afford a new one. Even if I manage to buy one, I will be simply standing in front of the house like my current car. So the plan is to buy a used one. ( Plus keep my current car which is also a diesel )

Reason for Innova, one being the reliability. Other being, the passenger comfort it offers, is parallel to none. Indica Vista with air suspension comes close, but the semi leaf spring soothing suspension of Innova is difficult to match. Also its a rear wheel drive, what more can you ask for!

Plus the 2.5 L Crde engine, I can drive all day long, yet not get tired. Also the main reason being, I plan to drive to Pune with my parents. I want them to feel comfortable. Plus it provides tremendous mileage, I mean miles per gallon / kilometers per litre. Though people say its underpowered 102 Bhp, 200 Nm torque, and makes loud noise over 3k rpm, I would never mind. I tried out the engine, which had run 2Lakh kilometers, I could feel the grunt. But after driving a TDI engine, I can sideline the engine noise :)-

I told my plan at home, they did not react at all, which meant kinda partial yes!. Now I am searching for a used Innova. Someone please sell me one at a nominal price!

Cheers,

Charmadi trek June 2014

Even before the Nishani Trek happened, we went for a 2 day monsoon trek to Charmadi Ghats, Yerkallu, KodeKallu, Balekallu, JenuKallu it was.

This was a complete 2 day trek, day 1 was moderate, day 2 was bit tough incline.

The territory was full of leeches. We camped in the big hall at the Mattur PanchaLingeshwara temple located at the Charmadi village. I could write more about what happened over the two days, but believe me, its not worth that effort.

PS - this was very close to Dharmasthala, infact we freshened up at Dharmasthala only and had breakfast at Ujire, Hotel Guruprasad, remember my 10 temples trip!

Nishani Motte trek, Madikeri

Lots of treks I did in 2014, one to remember was Nishani Motte. This trek started late in intense heat, then proceeded to leech territory then in the middle, the sky opened up and it rained cats and dogs.

Believe me, we were drenched, totally drenched, with no where to go in the middle of the forest, that too being an elephant territory, could not open the camera to capture what was happening due to the rain. There was no shelter. But the scenery which we got to see was explicit, no second thoughts on that.

This was a monsoon trek, so leech bites were expected, but so many leech bites, there were way too many of them. It was totally tough. Plucking each one of them from the shoe, was indeed a tiring experience.

All in all nice trek, first day was around 15-16 kilometers, second day was mere 6 kilometers and then it was Bangalore,

Cheers,

Some good news

At the end of the day, there is one such good news, one person whom I really respect, gets to continue with work at our office. This is really like a light at the end of the tunnel.

But good news comes with its own share of things.

Just today itself, I had written our team had reduced from 3 developers to 2 developers. Looks like it will now be reduced to 1 developer. Yes, the other guy who had taken a 3 day vacation, is all ready to beat retreat!

But I am happy because of the first cause!.

Cheers, 

Bad day!

Yesterday was not such a normal day at work place. I boarded the cab just to hear a very sad news. And owing to it, the whole day put me into retrospect, thinking thinking and more thinking.

Our office cab was diverted and we reached office a bit late, throughout the day, we could speak entire office people were down, many of them quietly talking, many of them consoling one another over what had happened.

I could not work the whole day, I was pretty upset at what had happened. But I had no proper sleep too since last two days, sleeping late, waking up early, it had taken a toll on me.

The day was so long, I was wondering if it would ever get over.

I managed to sneak in 40 minutes of sleep in the resting room but it was no good, then there was a hail storm, still it did no good.

The day ended with one more poor news. The entire team of 15 which has been disbanded and told to leave at my friends workplace, retorted to the last dirty trick in the book.

They started speaking ill about their lead and the lead whose a friend of mine, told me how bad he felt after hearing them speak!

Sometimes, if a management takes a decision to end a team, stop the work to India, what can the team lead do? Ranting against the lead for poor updates to the stakeholder will never get them anywhere. Now the lifelong friendship is destroyed.

So I asked him if they still continued talking or totally stopped after this incident, he told me they no longer were on talking terms.

I personally felt very bad, when an experienced person has to deal which shitty people like that team, its nothing one can do.

Cheers,

Lonely!

I happened to be lonely at office for 3 days infact. Not that there were no people at all in office, but I am speaking with people surrounding my place.

We were a 4 member team at office, 3 developers and 1 lead. All of the 3 developers joined in 2013 almost around the same time. Since then we have been going for tea breaks lunch together. I mean 3 people.

One person from this 3 member team of ours resigned a month back and now we are reduced to 2 dev + 1 lead, though a new developer has joined our team, we still cannot manage to fill the void over tea breaks left by that person.

So what happens if the other developer takes a leave of 3 days. I happen to be alone at the office, sitting all alone in my cube. Its not that, I do not talk to my lead or the other developer. But you know, establishing a personal rapport is a one time activitiy, if not done initially, can never be done at all. So its the case with the latter.

I ended up almost 3 days not talking to anyone during office hours, for 3 full days, here and there I spoke to couple of people as I made my way to rest rooms, but all in all, I was lonely!

Cheers,

Mountain stroll - Day 3 and Day 4

The last two days were more of an adventure. Trekking through the deep jungle of Sharavathy valley, getting cuts because of thorns, carrying entire load into the deep forest, was an adventure in itself. We were guided by the GPS and we lost the trail and as a result, ended up not making it to Kodachadri peak.

Camped at an unknown place, followed dried river streams and on Day 4, exited through the Chakra dam after walking through the backwaters of Sharavathy.

Thus the 4 day trek came to an end. While coming back to Shimoga, we checked out, Nagara fort built by Shivappa Nayak.

Cheers,

Beach trek ILvekodi to Bhatkal - Day 2

After we decided to abandon the beach trek at ILvekodi, we took a dip in the water. Then we retreated towards the main road, not before passing through the Sri DurgaParameshwari Temple at ILvekodi. We had told our van pickup to be at the temple entrance itself.

Our van came and we proceeded towards Bhatkal for night's dinner. Veg people chose one restaurant and non veg people chose another. Once done with the lunch, we chose to buy around 18 packets of bread and jam at a Bakery in Bhatkal. This was all opposite to the KSRTC bus depot at Bhatkal.

Finally we made our way back towards Sharavathy valley, not sure which village we chose to sleep at a helipad which was kind a flat land. Laid our tarpaulins and slept for the day. Time was around 10 30 PM

Cheers,

Beach trek Murudeshwara to ILvekodi- Day 2

Beach trek from Murudeshwara resumed at around 2 45PM. The sun was its best, but we too had now got a hang of the beach trek and proceeded quite nicely.

Non stop for around 2 hours and we made it to Ilvekodi. At this place the river meets the sea and we had to cross over using a ferry. Instead we chose to end the beach trek as it was turning dark and we wanted to take a plunge in the water once more.

Hence called off the beach trek at Ilvekodi around 10 kilometers before Bhatkal I guess.But thoroughly enjoyed the beach trek this time. It was fun fun all the way.

Cheers

Beach trek Manki to Murudeshwara - Day 2

Started the second day around 8 AM, We did not have breakfast, infact the entire team of 26 was split into two. Team 2 comprising of 6 guys would bring in breakfast for us. So me in team 1 headed out of Manki village towards Murudeshwara.

Early morning walking along the beach was fantastic. There were fishing boats, fishermen sorting out their catch, lots of colorful scenes plus the waves, it was indeed soothing.

We reached this place, where there rocks and could not continue unless we moved on to the land instead of the beach. Over here we waited for team 2 while we plunged into the water. The waves were good, had loads of fun for around 30  mins. Then the other team arrived with packed food for all of us. Had breakfast and once again took a plunge in the water. Then crossed on to the road and couple of minutes again came back to the beach.

This time we had a clear sight of the big statue of Lord Shiva @ Murudeshwara. Indeed we were nearing Murudeshwara beach. But still it was a long way and the sun was beating very hard.

It was around 12 30 in the noon when we reached Murudeshwara, since being a holiday the crowd was like crazy.

Slowly the entire team gathered in smaller groups. We tried searching a hotel to eat, but all hotels were crowded. We were lost in the crowd. Finally could locate a hotel and eat peacefully, even though it was crowded..

The next leg of the trek started from Murudeshwara at around 2 45 PM. We took plenty of rest infact!

Cheers,

Manki village Day 1 - Beach trek.

Our day 1 place of halt was Manki village. We descended through the road which lead us to the church and then to the village, The christmas celebration was on at the village, we made our way directly to the beach over there.

On the way the villagers were very curious about the new found visitors/strangers to the village. Almost everyone knew each other guy in the village. So now when our new faces entered the village, people started inquiring as to where we had come from what was our intention where we are going to sleep tonight. Most of them readily agreed to help with water and even accommodation.

We were mostly interested to sleep on the beach itself, but the waves were so high, that onlookers warned us not to sleep on the beach. But we sat at the beach for a good 20 minutes watching the wave and talking and relaxing as well.

We did not have sufficient food for all, and as a result, few people chose to move to Bhatkal highway in search of food. Rest of them ate the ready to eat food.

I was one of them and I was part of the second batch of guys who made a move. The first set of guys went and the second set of guys started late and that too in the opposite direction.

We were all lost taking the wrong route. In the end asked a stranger who accompanied us to the main road and then we could find the way to the highway. The road to highway seemed to be long. We walked around 1.5 kilometers extra in search of a hotel.

There seemed to be no hotel in the Manki village or it was shut down. Upon reaching highway found a hotel where I ate Kushka rice and few others ate Chicken Biryani. Only that was available and believe me it tasted not bad at all. All this adventure happening at night 10 30, whilst all shops were shutting down.

Found our way back to the beach and slept around 11 PM in the front yard of a fisherman's home. That  brought to an end, one more awesome day.

Cheers,