Bombay to Goa, the 1972 movie

I generally avoid going to theater. I have no real interest in watching the latest releases. I prefer to keep myself limited to movies shown on the television channels.

So watching movies on television means, I end up watching the same movies again and again. One such movie which I love to watch again and again is this one by Mehmood, Bombay to Goa. I have seen it pretty much number of times but each time some part missing others.

I love the scene where Kishore Kumar makes an appearance and talks about tax evasion!
I love the scene where the fat kid reaches a hotel (it was Belgaum I guess) and starts screaming Pakoda!

I thought the movie the imagination all came out of Mehmood's brains. But during the last time, me watching the movie, during one of the intervals, they told its a remake of the Tamil movie Chennai to Pondicherry. I was a bit upset, because, I thought this was an original movie since childhood, yes, my parents used to speak about this movie ever since I was a kid!

But none the less, I shall never take away an inch of credit from Mehmood. The movie is an absolute gem. In these days of technological advancement, its so much fun to go back few years just to admire how simple life was back then!.

The irony is, though my parents watched this movie in 1972 itself, even in 2015, they were still unaware that this was a copy from the Tamil movie!

Cheers,

Auden's col trek - Part 1

15 May 2015.

So finally 5 months after booking flight tickets, the Auden's col trek was finally about to happen. The Indigo plane to Delhi was scheduled for 6 40 and our train from NDLS to Dehradun was at around 11 50 pm. I made it to the airport pretty early and met up with rest of the folks. There was no delay in reaching Delhi and we were out of the airport by 7 20pm. From there on we took a bus which dropped us at a nearby metro station and within 20 minutes we were opposite to New Delhi Railway Station. Finished dinner at a small hotel opposite to the station and we were wished luck by couple of other members who had come to meet us at the railway station. The train journey was rather pleasant. We reached Dehradun around 6 AM. 

16 May 2015.

We had booked a cab to Uttarkashi from Dehradun. The driver was ahead of time was waiting for us at the Dehradun railway station. We started with the next leg of our journey and on the way after an hour stopped for breakfast. Breakfast was Aloo paratha with brinjal and potato sabzee along with tea. The drive was long, it was always time consuming, travelling through the hills. The distance might not have been much, but those turns, narrow roads definitely are slower to cruise through. It was almost 1pm when we made it to Uttarakashi. Our guide had booked couple of rooms at Hotel Bhandary. 

Auden's col trek

Going ahead, I shall post about my experiences en-route the Auden's col trek. It has been a memorable one, difficult one and I am so so glad I have done it. It surely shall come as a multi-part series.

Cheers,

Free books from Amazon for the kindle

For the past 2 days I have been downloading books for my kindle. Also placed an order for a new kindle worth Rs 5k. The books which I have downloaded include!

1. Indian tales - Rudyard Kipling.
2. Stories from Tagore - Rabindranath Tagore.
3. Himalayan Journals Complete - JD Hooker.
4. Taking Off - T Y Clemens.
5. Around the world in 80 days - Jules Verne.
6. An Ideal Husband - Oscar Wilde.
7. India through Ages - Flora Annie Steel.
8. Sadhana - Rabindranath Tagore.
9. Edison, his life and inventions - Frank Lewis Dyer.
10. History of Napoleon Bonaparte - John Gibson.

With so much to read apart from technical books, I can say that, I am more than happy just to lay back open a kindle and keep on reading!

Cheers to reading.

India after Gandhi

Started reading this book. With 800 pages to cover, its more like the Shantaram, book which I had read earlier. Not sure, how much time I need to wrap it up. But one thing is for sure, I will be finishing many other books during the course of reading this book.

Cheers to reading,

Retirement from trekking

The day we crossed Auden's col pass at 18500 feet, something spectacular happened. We had not yet descended from the pass, when a snow storm started. And by the time we pitched our tents, it had taken off.

We had left couple of our stuffs before ascending due to the huge storm and now we were stuck without food, water and no stove to cook. It snowed continuously for almost 7+ hours and through the night. We had no option but to stay in our tent. So everyone started chatting and in our tent, we just came up randomly with a question.

" What would you do if you reached safely home after completion of this trek?".

Our scenario was such that, even completing the trek looked difficult and reaching home safely was also another concern.

So my answer was that, I would retire from trekking, if I ever got home safely. Now, almost a month after returning from the trek, when I still remember that day, I get goose bumps. The whole trek was well worth the effort.

Am I retired from trekking? well, not really, I am just avoiding monsoon treks, let me see when I can start again or rather come out of retirement!

Cheers,

Co-Incidence at 18000 feet

During the trek to Auden's col, one of our team members had a book by name Full Tilt, written by Dervla Murphy. It was about a lady who toured few continents on a bicycle.

It was about her bicycle tour through Europe, Iran, Afghanistan and India during the 1960's. It was like a dream reading about this trip of her's. Lots of stuffs about different places were written. Though I could not read beyond 25% of the book, I could still recollect about the places which she went through.

Then on a particular day during Auden's Col trek we were stuck at Auden's col base camp as one of our porters had gone back to drop one of our team member who was suffering from sickness and one more porter also returned owing to bad health and bad weather. So were kind of using up our buffer day while waiting for them to come back.

During that day, we spoke to one of our team member from Germany. So we asked him since how long he has been coming to India. Surprisingly his first visit to India was during 1974, years before we were actually born and I could not believe the way he reached India. He was telling about the route which I had read in the book few days before through these continents. Only difference was he was either on a bus / train or by car. He had traveled through these continents in fact before making it to Kashmir.

Its such an co-incidence, you are reading about a person's experience about travelling across continents and reaching India and all of a sudden the German guy appears and tells us about his story with utmost humility which resembles the one you have read before!

It was a strange co-incidence at 18,000 feet I thought.

Cheers,

Back to reading, Amazon kindle

What quora did to me, was that, it made me go back to reading. Instead of reading answers by n00bs, I could fallback on bestsellers. What better way than a kindle? I have completed 4 books on kindle since last 2 weeks and simultaneously reading many of them including technical.

Also I am downloading free books from the Amazon Store. I have plans to buy some books which are available for Rs 60-100 odd, which seems to be very cost effective. One meal at office squares you up by Rs 100 odd, while these books are so pretty cheap. I can afford one, no doubt.

I am so so glad I am back to reading, Instead of tracking the books read, using shelfari which is powered by Amazon itself, I have moved to goodreads!

The new kindle being Rs 5k, I am itching to own one, but instead considering a reading light worth Rs 575. Let me see!

Cheers, 

Bye bye Quora

Disclaimer - this is my personal opinion, I do not care about what others say!

Finally.. after using quora for 2 months I finally found my calling to actually de-activate and delete my quora account. People on quora generally speak about deleting or deactivating facebook account, but, yeah, as you understand, I prefer to walk away from the crowd, so I decided to do the other way round. deleted the quora account instead of facebook.

I chose to do this since I very well know how to use facebook. I have 75% of my friends on restricted list and remaining 10% of whom I do not follow. Now you can imagine, how many handful of updates my facebook wall shall have. So I have mastered the art of managing time on facebook.

But on quora it was all about mastering the art of not reading the so called junk written by n00bs. Well let me put down the reasons why I chose to quit quora.

1. I chose to follow top writers, most of whom had a fan following of thousands highest being 35k.
I thought these gentlemen or women, would write something interesting, something which I could relate to. But it was nothing but disappointment. They wrote about their ups and downs their field experiences etc etc.

So the point is-
- Why should I read about their failures / experiences when I can myself be in the field and experience failure myself. May be reading their failures might help me make a better decision, but no guarantee. Who knows if I can remember what they wrote and apply at that very moment.

- If I had to read about failures, I would read about failures of Mahatma Gandhi or Abraham Lincoln and why a bunch of people who write on quora?

2. Quora  had become more of a disturbance at office, with two monitors, I would have one monitor dedicated to quora or would browse it for 10 minutes in every hour. It was very distracting. I reduced my quora usage to 10 minutes for every 3-4 hours. But still after reading answers of few people, I thought even 10 minutes was not worth it.

3. People told me to follow even better top writers. I could find some top writers on quora. but believe me, I could not relate to what they write. They wrote about aeroplanes, physics so many topics, none of which I am interested in. Even in the section for automobiles, I found it very tough to actually make quora give out stuffs which I am interested in.

4. Career advice and self help answers written by Indian counterparts was a big let down. I thought it was nothing but copied and re-phrased content from self help websites available on the internet. So another big let down.

5. 40% of quora users are Indians, now you can take your decision wisely!

Will add more points. but for now, happy to use facebook in a limited way instead of quora. Its been 4-5 days since I read from quora.

One thing quora did help me get into. More on that in another post!

Cheers,

Printing resume @ office

A person went to print his resume (CV) at office and gave the word document to print.

When he went to collect the print, he could see the Assistant Manager HR of the company holding the first sheet and reading through it.

No prizes for guessing who is the person in picture.

Cheers for badluck..

Wynk android app = crap!

I listen to songs both english and hindi on my mobile using wifi and wynk application.

The application crashes more the more I use it. And around last week, it has crashed around 60 times, while I was able to listen to only few songs on it may be for 10 times. Rest of the time, its like a song starts after 30 seconds, boom its silence again.

I have switched to youtube. But what about the time I lost using wync? Never mind, shit happens!

Cheers,

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,