Reading Ruskin Bond

I have been reading Ruskin Bond books, well, rather in a hurry. I just want to gulp as many of his stories as possible and as quickly as possible.

I feel like a sinner, a big time loser, having never read his stories all these years. Its a pity, we never have read much literature at schools. Other thing being, at that tender age, we generally spend time doing lesser intellectual things. (its an irony most of his stories are enjoyable by kids, may be I'm just the kid with lesser intellect or rather mugpot or in simple terms dumb)

Time just flies away after that, and we drift away and away from literature. I never had someone come to me and tell me or ask me, " Have you read Ruskin Bond?".

Now when I read Ruskin Bond, I feel, I should have read them as a kid to enjoy the way things were depicted in the book. Who would have thought there would be so much advancement, where in I never get to see who lives in my neighborhood and I connect with my friends only on social network sites?

Also, what Ruskin Bond describes in his story, is best felt if you get to the hills. Yes please, I have been to Uttarakhand and spent 3 days after my trek just lazying around in a hill station doing nothing. What better way than to recollect those memories and savor the Ruskin Bond book at the same time, yet cursing myself for not having read them earlier.

Could I have enjoyed them earlier, having never been to DehraDoon, Uttarakhand, or rather hills? What if I had read them earlier, could I have decoded them, connected with them, as I do now? I do not know. Probably yes, with some stories that got nothing to do with hills

Cheers,

Good old days

Everyone seems to have memories, which they wish to recollect. I have certain memories of the few years while I completed my engineering. We were 3 friends, and out of the entire class of 30, we three stayed close by and somehow were friends.

We used to meet up atleast on few days or rather every weekend at one of the friend's place in RajarajeshwariNagar. I must have written about this very early in the blog and its almost 7 years to that. Have quiet evening walks thinking of whether we would get employed in a company, whether, we would get a job etc etc.

And fast forward 2015, all three of us have drifted away. Its almost 5 years, I have not met one of my friend. And the other person, well he is in the US of A since 2008, so you can add 7 years to that.
Both of them are married and one of them has a kid and has gotten very much more serious with life.

And regarding me, I'm still the same, hoping, future will still be worry free, trouble free, but I doubt. I do have my own fair share of getaways things which I love to do. But golden days shall never come back.

Wonder where all life takes us. Reason why I am writing this?

Well was reading RK Narayan books last week and this week reading Ruskin Bond. These writers put you in that spell, where you start remembering stuffs, which you would rather have forgotten.

What about people, who do not have memories and few others who do not read RK Narayan or Ruskin Bond, I just do not know to say in that case.

Cheers,

PS - These days, I enjoy solitude, I enjoy my own company more than anything else, I trek I travel, but most of the time, I just need my own quiet time. I kind of agree, I would like to meet friends, more often than not, I prefer to be alone!

After a break

After a good haul in 2015, time for me to start writing something in 2016. I hope I write across the blogs on my recent Himalayan treks. For the last few days, I had been reading quite a bit, trying to complete as much books as possible for 2015.

New year has been rather disappointing. Apart from it being a different calendar year, there has been not much, which is happening. Life is as usual. Going on. Getting older. Reading, working, rather work which I am ******. Still training, though barred from taking part in this year's Himalayan trek due to shortage of leaves as well as confidence plus getting old!

Hope to continue reading and training and hope to find another **** quickly!

Cheers,

And.. it finally happened!

One such trek was elusive since quite a long time. This was in Madikeri Srimangala and the reason was, permission problem. Permission was denied due to elephant encounters and as a result this trek was pending since almost 2 months.

And yes it finally happened.

Below is one such picture where one half of the mountain is under Karnataka and the other half under Kerala.

And regarding elephant encounters in the wild, believe me it happened, lots of things did happen, but may be some other day!

Cheers,

Of Managers and Ironies!

A person works in a IT organization. One day there is a Bay decoration competition. 

If you do not recollect what a bay decoration event is, we sit and work each day in a contraption called a bay or a cube.

So this organization has this weird competition where it expects employees to come up with weird ideas to decorate their cubes with what not!

What is the irony over here, you may be wondering.

One of the team, which was working came up with an idea of putting a vacuum cleaner, printer, dustbin, soiled tea cups thrown around, paper print outs indicating weird weird things.

The employees thought this to be a call center theme.

The irony is when asked, one of the employees told, this was the state of the project which they were working on, what it was all about, errors, unexpected things etc etc.

And even bigger irony is, the employee who told or explained this theme was none other than the XXX of the company.

And the biggest irony of them all is that, the XXX person told "What an nice idea " to this bizzare absurd decoration.

Well, what do you have to say, when the management knows what is the problem, yet they fail to address them and fix them, instead resorting to, depicting them in a bay decoration competitions.

In a way, I guess they are incapable to take responsibility, rather gathering sympathy from bystanders, but when the storm strikes, does it listen to your or mine sympathy. I'm afraid not. For that, I'm sure there would be a bag full of political tricks!

Cheers,

Of Protests and Ironies

Yesterday witnessed two ironies, here I am writing about the first one!

Most traffic on Outer Ring Road is caused by the incorrect flyover which descends down at ECOSPACE SEZ, making way for people to reach their offices within the SEZ. The other side of the road allows vehicles to join the main road.

So, what actually happens!
- The gates of ECOSPACE are not that big to allow fast entry and exit to vehicles.
- Vehicle build up happens at ECOSPACE entrance and this continues to the main road.

As a result entire Outer Ring Road ORR gets choked! Till Agara lake sometimes traffic comes to a standstill.

Now when the whole of the IT companies located on ORR come out in protest against the traffic, I came to know even people working at ECOSPACE are participating in it.

Now is there anything wrong over there! Well, they themselves cannot cross the road, nor stop bringing vehicles to work (you ecospace employees) what right do you have to participate in the protest! (Fuhgeddaboudit)

Cheers,

100 posts for the year!

After almost 5 years, I hit 100 posts yet again! It could have been the last couple of years, but owing to non availability of Wifi Router, I was too lazy to login to the desktop and write.

So many miniscule incidents went by, some which made me a better person, some which left me high and dry, none of which I could record so that I could read at a later point in time.

But never mind, I shall always recollect them and write them as and when I remember.

But 2015, had loads in store, and I am hitting a 100 this year!

This post is dedicated to all those people who have worked hard, had led a hard hard life, dedicated their lives just for others, in a way, let go of their dreams, just to fulfill dreams of others. They have grown older enriching lives of others, forgetting their pleasures, so one such person celebrates their birthday as I write this post!

So happy birthday, I'm sure, you are reading this,

Cheers,

Unknown record!

Sometimes, things do happen on their own, you end up being at the receiving end and you wont even know about certain things unless you do a thorough retrospect.

One such thing happened to me!

During one of our treks, I had met a guy who had done 3 Himalayan treks in 1 year's time (within 12 months). I was wondering, when would my time come when I can atleast equal the same.

I did one himalayan trek in October 2014, one more in May 2015 and one more in October 2015.

Voila, there you go, I equaled that record unknowingly! I came to know only when I was writing a post on my blog. No retrospection would have meant, this could have gone unnoticed.

As of now, cheers to myself,

Cheers,

And..it finally happened!

I was very much wondering, whether I would be able to visit the beaches during the year 2015. I had made it to Sharavathy Valley 3 times this year, but none of the times, I had descended down towards the beaches.

My road trip for the year 2015 fell out of the equation and my trip with cousins too did not happen. Chance was little of me making it to the beaches or for that matter coastal Karnataka.

But all of a sudden, I see this beach trek happening, register immediately. And alas, I get to the beaches, trek along the beaches, 3rd time beach trek, 3 times in 3 years, feels great.

Trek was awesome, people were awesome, 2 days and 3 nights worth well spent.

Started out at Om beach Gokarna and ended at Haldipur beach Kumta!

Cheers,

Song blog

I have been posting on this blog since quite some time, over the years, I have infused some songs from youtube in between. In the middle for few days, I was pushing songs on facebook too, until my cousin warned me not to push, since no one was interested in my songs!

I was wondering, what prominence, songs had over me in the last few years.

- I have been listening to songs at workplace almost all of the professional years. It helps you to shield unwanted noises and at the same time concentrate too!

- While driving I listen to songs, there is a collection I have, more often than not I do not enjoy music while driving. I simply listen to something playing. Plus the sound of the diesel engine keeps me heavily happy. With speakers being in the rear, on long drives my parents tell me to turn it off.

I should have taken this step of having a song blog long ago, but its never occurred to me. Now I got the idea, I plan to go ahead with it. Plus, owing to commercials on 91.9FM, I have switched my loyalty towards Kannada playing radio stations, so I now have more songs from yesteryears than contemporaries, so the song blog makes even more sense to keep track of all of them!

Cheers,

Of IT Parks and ironies

Sometimes what you see is not what you get, in fact its most of the times these days. Reality is a hard pill to swallow. Its better we accustom ourselves with reality (instead of talking crap or rather diplomacy)

Its about one such organization where an IT employee worked. It was located in one of the small localities in Hosur Road. It was situated in an IT park nonetheless, but it was surrounded by clothing companies, like the one's which stitch clothes for export. It was very close to NICE road of Electronic city and one could escape to Hosur, Tumkur, Kengeri, Bannerghatta road and where not. Couple of times, we had escaped Silkboard junction and directly took NICE road to Kengeri/Kanakpura road.

People coming from KR Puram faced traffic hurdles, but rest all seemed to be fine with the arrangement. Plus it was at a slight distance from the main road causing issues locating the building.

But top leaders (Indian) of the organization felt otherwise.
- They thought, they had to move to a technology park.
- They thought, the working next to clothing companies did not provide the right marketing presence required to attract the brightest minds to work for them.
- They also thought working next to a world class organization would rub off some of their charisma on to our employees.
- They thought the new IT park was located at a central place and would reduce most of the traffic woes.

This resulted in the IT organization being moved to a IT Park close to Marathahalli. It costed 3 times the rent paid to this current building on Electronic City. What happened after the shift is nothing short of a Bollywood movie.

I prefer not to write about it. The charisma rubbing off from the neighboring companies phenomenon went to the gutter, but what really rubbed off from the neighboring IT companies was sure, the smoke and ash, which the continuous chain smokers left each day and night!

And the biggest irony occurred when the VP of the organization came all the way from US to India for a business visit. The IT office generally functions from 11 am to 8pm. On almost all days during his visit, the roads on Outer Ring Road / Marathahalli were choked. People coming by office shuttles came as late as 1 30 PM when the login time was 11 AM.

Most employees were late and the office resembled a barren desert during his visit (11 AM to 1 30 PM). It must surely have painted a rosy picture of productivity to him. I am sure the Indian think-tanks would have been very pleased at this sight!

After all, what you see, may not be what you get.

Cheers,

Break from diet and training

2015 has been a tremendous year on one side, where as it has been a let down on other sides.

Where its turned out positive -

 - Two Himalayan treks
 - One being Auden's Col which was tough tough 11 day & other being a 12 day continuous trek.
 - Loads of preparation, had to be very precise on diet and regular on training.

Where its turned out not so well.

 - Haven't been able to go to beach side during entire 2015.
 - Two times had been to Sharavathy but could not get down all the way to Honnavara.
 - With so much of preparation needed for Himalayan treks, much of Western Ghats trek took a backseat..
 - Only 3 treks to western ghats since January.
 - Very less road travel
 - Lethargic attitude weeks together after Himalayan treks
 - Work related disappointment.
 - Personal life took a backseat.

There has been days after Himalayan treks, when I have been lethargic and took time to get back to the routine. waking up late, missing diets regularly and missing routine training has become quite frequent now.

I have not been a 100%, trying to be on a strict diet, its taking a toll on the body. Plus I have been told by my parents to avoid future Himalayan treks.

Without a goal in future the motivation to continue training or diet seems to be going all wrong. Sometimes, I wonder, how important it is, in life to have a serious goal where we can focus our energy on. Without a goal its just wandering like a nomad taking whatever comes in our way, well, atleast as of now, I feel thats how it is going.

I have planned couple of treks in the next two months, hoping to end 2015 on a high!

Cheers,

Shuttle / Office cab update

After a steady 3 months our office shuttle driver, is calling it quits. He has his own personal reasons, and we very openly sympathize with him.

Our office cab woes are set to re-appear. So it has to be a new vehicle, since this was a self owned one. We are pretty sure we wont be having a permanent one for this route. But we are used to it or we have rather other things to worry about.

Hope its another Toyota Innova this time, with a 3 seater in the middle bench. After driving, being driven around in a Toyota Innova, i don't know what to say, take a bow Japanese guys.

With a frame and chassis construction it offers an unparallel ride, believe me, with a unibody or moncoque construction what it might offer. I can imagine the rates of monocoque Innova (if any) will hit sky high, but cannot imagine the comfort on that one though, plus added handling! Ahh man, thats the best affordable treat a man can have!

Cheers, I still cannot afford it!

Savoring the retro...

I don't know how to write anything into this post. It mostly has to be precise. (As I have slept for only 4 hours each day since the last two days and its already midnight today, I'm scared the same thing will repeat for third day in a row!).

I have been quite unaware of songs of Kannada movies, which are gems. Some of the lyrics composition have been quite extra ordinary and many of them are from the years 1980's to early 2000's. 

So in the last 10 minutes I was wondering how could I have missed them. Why did it take so long for them to turn up regularly into my playlist.

One enlightening program was Straight hits with V Ravichandran on Big 92.7FM. It surely turned some heads when it came to playing hits only! Apart from that, many programs at the same time do play lot of retro Kannada music. That's competition I guess. What we do is to make sure to switch stations at each advertisement break. (But none with Ravichandran program though).

Reasons for my unawareness...

- Ignorance, may be I was too busy listening to something else, to pay attention to them.

- Immaturity, may be I was immature to appreciate deep lyrics, while I grew up, providing importance only to tunes.

- Accesibility, 80's 90's early 2000's did not have this kind of reach when it comes to CD's radio stations, TV, internet. We did not have a steady supply of songs to get hooked into.

- Unaware - Due to less advertisement / coverage we never knew what all contemporary music had to offer, be it any language English / Hindi / Kannada.

- Kid/Amateur/Teenage - the golden age went by without us even understanding or appreciating the language, now, we only have, to look back!

Why are we bothering this much now?

- Thanks to shows like these we get to know songs which one's topped the charts.

- The crap which is churned out these days, I guess its better to savor the retro than those lyrics which tend to be written in 5 minutes.

- Anything with beats is a super-hit. Absolutely wrong. I prefer songs with lyrics please. So back to retro.

- We could relive the period where there was less traffic, less crowd, where great great people like Dr Rajkumar still were around to give out great hits.

- Unlike now, take any language, its just so boring to tune into contemporary music, amidst that all kinds of promos advertisements etc.

- Seems like many people had chosen literature to study during those days ending up with proper lyrics. Now that, all the painters/writers/mechanics have all disguised themselves as software engineers, you can imagine who would be writing lyrics. (My assumption though no offence!)

It would be so fun just to have these old songs getting played without any breaks!

Cheers,

Listening to the radio - 2

So you might be wondering, what program on the radio we would be listening while stuck at silkboard.

Luckily to our rescue, few of these days we had one program on the radio channel Big 92.7 FM I guess. It was called "Straight hits with RaviChandran".

I guess RaviChandran needs no introduction, probably, if you are from Kannada, I am sure, you would know him very well. Else go and do a search!.

So this program was all about songs from RaviChandran movies. Believe me, every alternate days couple of the songs would repeat or would be the same. But not a single time we would crib about the songs being the same. Mainly because they were songs from the bygone era, extremely good lyrics, worth listening a 1000 times.

In the end, I switched listening to Kannada songs, which reminded me of the 80's/90's my childhood! So when one door closes something else surely opens.

Just like the radio 91.9 which I stopped listening to the ads, which helped me recollect Kannada songs of the 80's, though there were commercials, well, either it was because we were stuck in traffic that it made no difference or may be it was less after all.

I cannot imagine what would have been playing on 91.9 FM at the same time, but why to bother!

Cheers,

Listening to the radio - 1

Once upon a time, I used to listen to Radio 91.9 FM, my favorite show was hosted by Geoffrey Thomas called the Night Patrol, I used to come home and finish dinner and listen to it, before going to bed, preferably with the lights turned OFF.

There is something soothing with alternative rock music and no lights. Gone are the days, gone are the melodies. I do not know what plays in the night.

Day time, I do not listen to radio at all. The commercials on the air have driven the radio out of my room. These days I find myself having very less time. Whatever its and bits of free time I have, I spend reading or blogging.

I do end up listening to music, but those are all songs which I know/remember. Learning about contemporary music is a thing of past to me. I am no more interested in knowing, which is Coldplay's latest song is, nor what U2 is upto these days.

But still, I listen to songs at work and listen to the radio as well. Considering we move through silkboard traffic each day, we ought to listen to something while we are stuck, so what it is!

Let me tell you in the next post. Its of course not 91.9 FM

Cheers,

Nice song - Rang jo lagyo

Looks like, I will have to maintain track of all those songs which I feel awesome. It might end up being another 500 posts considering, it encompasses English/Hindi/Kannada old and new.

May be someday! Till then one more awesome song, came across this one recently, shame never heard this one before, seems to be a hit, but considering, I do not watch much television and the radio is full of commercials I stopped listening to Hindi songs on the radio!

From Ramaiya Vastavaiyya movie this Hindi song comes!

I have slept for 4 hours only yesterday night, More on less sleep pattern in next posts!
Cheers,

Cobalt Blue by Sachin Kundalkar

Posted this one on goodreads, now adding up here too!

I, in-fact loved the plot so much that, I ended up reading in a very quick time, few hours to be precise. The book is a translation from a Marathi version, so I am assuming, some of the original charm might be lost in the process of translation.

Book deals with the story of a brother-sister residing in the same house and ending up falling in love with the same guy, who takes accommodation in their home as a paying guest. 

First half deals with the brothers emotions, feelings which he holds towards this guy who comes as a paying guest.

Second half deals with the sister narrating her good/bad experiences, her feelings some of which takes form as notes in a diary. 

Worth a read, since, it gets you, to start thinking on loads of stuffs.

- How it feels to be in such a deep relationship when they are not earning (still studying)

- What are the things one has to deal when in same sex relationships,( in places where its still not accepted or mainstream. )


- What a double blow it will be for the parents (or may not be too) to know about their son being gay and daughter too in love with the same person.


- How would it be for the parents, to see all of this when their kids are of that tender age.

Rating 3.5 / 5 

Cheers,

PS - I read this book only because, it was mentioned as a good read (by an Indian author). I have nothing to do or relate with anything  that is written in the book. 

Super Song! - Bayalu Daari - 1977

One such song, which I listen to again and again is over here!
From the by-gone days when technology was less advance, when there was simplicity around, less complexity, when we could savor each day growing old, there comes this song, which, with its simplicity was generations ahead of its time. (Be it lyrics, composition, the way it was sung, it was a masterpiece)

What a phenomenal song, what a voice, take a bow!

Cheers,

Rs 200 Gift from Amazon

Recently I purchased a ebook for my kindle from amazon.in (worth Rs 61). It was delivered through whispernet and I did the payment online through NetBanking.

Little did I know, that in return, I would get a Rs 200 worth Promotion code from Amazon mailed to my id. I was totally overjoyed, a book which I was looking could be purchased. I was ever looking for RK Narayan books. But this time I purchased a book worth Rs 265.

I had to pay the remainder Rs 65 through netbanking. That is where things went wrong!

There was some issue with the payment mode and  I was at the mercy of the bank which failed to let the transaction through. Finally at the fourth attempt, I could successfully transfer the Rs 65 to them.

I would come home and wait for the book to be downloaded on my Kindle.

So, all in all, it made me happy. Something for free!

Cheers,
The book I purchased was Blue Cobalt, by Sachin Kundalkar originally in Marathi translated to English by Jerry Pinto! Few other books were there, but they were way too expensive, even for the kindle!