Nostalgia - one more!

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

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

Regarding what memories it brings well here it goes!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers,

Half through the year 2017

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

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

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

But yeah, will attempt a 100 this year too,

Cheers,

Jayanagar Nostalgia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers,

Ode to my towel

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

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

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

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

Cheers,

Vellarimala trek

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers,

Alter thoughts - 14

Division of Labor, or is it division of power?

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

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

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

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

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

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

I will leave the thinking to your own brains!

Cheers,

New beginnings...

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

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

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

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

Cheers,

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

Alter thoughts - 13

Alter thoughts 13

On reading.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers,

Alter thoughts - 12

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers,

Alter thoughts - 11

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

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

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

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

Well, I do not know.

Cheers,

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

Alter thoughts - 10

I had hidden this post, but strange co-incidence, I started reading Murakami book - " What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" and believe me few lines in the first chapter echoed the same sentiment of this post, I still am clueless, how I blogged about this and simultaneously picked up Murakami book (and started reading this after hiding the post)

Cheers, co-incidences exist!

Here it goes!

******************************************************************

Solo time, alone time!

There are times when I needed time off, every day I do, most weekends I need time off to myself. I do not wish to meet anyone, nor talk to anyone, have minimal interaction.

What I do, I read books listen to music, do some clean-up cook some food, buy some groceries and vegetables and yeah, see the world go by!

I may have written about it, but yeah writing again. This time generalizing or stereotyping. Do people really need time for themselves where in nobody disturbs them. Do they get it finally?

Some people tend to ignore the fact that such a thing exists. Extroverts tend to be amidst people and yet be comfortable!

But for somebody like me, I find no interest in meeting people even over the weekend. So why do people like me prefer solo time.?

There is so much of information overload during weekdays or in a day in general that, it takes much needed effort to declutter our brains from this info. I still have not processed all the recollected memories over the years and here again I make memories yet again.

To put things into place I need solo time.

Additionally I do not want to get caught up in the rat race where people compete with each other in a bulleted list called life where at 20 you complete studies at 28 you buy home then by this age get married have kids and then die!

I go by textbook where each essence each attribute has to be enjoyed deeply not superficially. So sometimes, following my own pace makes me feel like avoiding such people who are in the race to do things quick.

I get so much turned off by traffic that, I need more time just to get into traffic again!

Loads of reasons for me to sit quietly in a room and do absolutely nothing. I have been practicing this form of meditation for years now (yeah I call this meditation). wish to continue for years to come,
Cheers

Alter thoughts - 9

new ventures or so called startups!

Recently there have been a splurge in startups in Bangalore, many of these startups are offering services and few others products.

I do not want to speak about those offering products, but I wish to think about those offering services.

So my doubt is, will these start ups scale up in order to make enough profits or will they too go off or rather vanish?

I just tried to think about 3-5 startups which provide services.

Let me take the startups
1. For food delivery.
2. One which targets fitness.
3. One which targets online selling/marketplace.

Assume I have a startup idea, there is a high chance somebody is going to copy the same idea, so there you go, your chances of making profit just got halved.

Take for example the city of bangalore where infrastructure is just pathetic and yes its getting even worse. So assume you have a fitness based startup. Most people crawl at snail's pace to reach their workplace and come back home. Do they have sufficient time to attend to fitness startup considering it might or might not be closer to their home. They might make it to fitness center, but for how long, eventually they will get caught up with time and laziness and responsibility. So your target audience just got reduced. Your fitness startup has now to target people who stay at home and not get to crawl through traffic. People at home ma get sufficient exercise by doing household chores, so will they join? I may be wrong in coming to this conclusion, but, I'm just guessing.

Lets now come to the startup giving great discount on products,one which is an online market place for buying/selling. So, for this startup to sustain, it has to sell more goods and make profits. All population needs to cram more goods into their homes in order to keep these startups profitable. Is that going to happen in near future. Is there a chance the small tiny homes of people run out of space to keep unwanted items and they realize its no more healthy to buy unwanted items.

Going by this trend, I am trying to understand which startup is going to be profitable and sustainable. Probably education startups providing online tutorials? Is that? I doubt.

Am I advocating too much of negativity in saying startups wont be successful or is it my plain logic? Why can't I think startups will be successful? I just can't, everywhere I get to see peoples' greed rather or capitalism, so that's what prompts me to think otherwise. fingers crossed!

By the way a successful startup is decided by media. Going by paid media, I can get a article to circulate saying my startup is profitable, even though I may be running on investor money.

So, concluding, how do we get to know about a startup which is profitable and sustainable in a cramped infrastructure like bangalore? Is it providing a product or service?

Well,not sure, bring your thoughts!

Cheers,

Alter thoughts - 8

where is the privacy?

I still remember the incident which happened in Hubli, when I was a kid. We were visiting a temple and my mother happened to meet one of her schoolmates in Hubli after 20 odd years. She had come there with her son. So how was it,like meeting someone after so many years. There was no good connectivity before, people could not add each other on facebook as friends, could not message each other on whatsapp, forget that, they could not speak to each other over phone line as many of them did not have access to private phones.

So this being the scenario, we did not necessarily have to spend time attending to the virtual social life and we could be discreet from people as well.

Growing old was so much more fun, doing things slowly your way instead of catching up with everybody's facebook/instagram posts, trying to ape them.

Anyways, this was one such alter thought which came to my mind!

Cheers

Ghuttu - Uttarakhand / Remote villages of the Himalayas - 2

After Ghansali village in Uttarakhand, we headed next to Ghuttu. This was another small village kind of thing located remotely from mainland. It was one of the better populated villages with a GMVN guest house. It had a good place to eat. There was a bus which would start each day morning and go to Hrishikesh which would be around 7+ hours journey. Apart from that, the another bus would come back and be parked at Ghuttu overnight. This is the place, where we actually relaxed and had great dinner after a hard hard trek. It had a flowing river, lesser population, less disturbance,
amazing sunset.

We got to stay in this place for almost 3/4 of a day from 1pm in the afternoon till 6 30 in the next day. I cannot really call this a remote village, but indeed was an awesome place to unwind after a long arduous trek.

For lunch we ate all sorts of junk food, Samosa, gulab jamoon, veg chowmen.

Dinner was usual roti, rice and curry!

Cheers,

Ghansali - Uttarakhand / Remote villages of the Himalayas - 1

Auden's col was one such difficult trek, where we had exhausted everything in order to complete this trek. We were at our end of our energy levels, we had been stuck in snow blizzard for a day, we had rapelled from 500 feet using a single rope. We had crossed glaciers and we had walked through rockfall and avalanche zones.

Finally after a hard day's climb, we got to this village. The best part of reaching this village was encountering kids each one of them asking "Mitthi". Initially we did not understand what Mitthi was. But it meant sweets or toffees.Incidentally these kids request each visitor to that village sweets. Unfortunately, after being in the Himalays for 9 days, we did not have any
stock of chocolates of toffees. Everything we had was stale or just gotten over. We spent one whole evening plus night in this village guest house. I can never forget this village due to the hardships we encountered in reaching this village.

Cheers,

Remote villages of the Himalayas.- 0

Though I have been only on a few Himalayan treks, I am fortunate enough to visit few villages remotely nested within the Himalayas.
Reaching there has been problem, but upon reaching the remote village, the feeling of joy excitement is nothing short of unparallel.
Its always fun, thinking of these remote villages. Reason being, they are are so remote, its kind of achievement, after days of wandering in the Himalays like a mad guy, we end up amidst these villages which are almost a day or two away from regular human civilization.

So here goes the list of remote villages which we were fortunate enough to visit amidst our Himalayan treks.

- Ghansali / Uttarakhand.
- Ghuttu / Uttarakhand.
- BaraBhangal / Himachal Pradesh.
- Rajhgunda / Himachal Pradesh.
- Kaza / (Spiti)Himachal Pradesh.

Cheers, more description to follow.

Alter thoughts - 7

There is a general saying which goes, man should not sit idle, instead should strive for excellance. Excellance comes with hard work, meaning an individual must be in continous pursuit, which indirectly means he should not idle time doing nothing. He should always be focused.

I have seen people idling time. Where they do absolutely nothing and spend time, over discussions having tea, or sleeping under a tree. These people are often criticized for not being productive, growing old doing absolutely nothing.

So let me tell you my side of the argument and let me try to convince you why.

I am totally in favor of people who are sleeping under a tree, idling time over conversations and growing old doing absolutely nothing. But why is that the case?

Assume a situation each and every person works very hard. you will not find an individual, who is unproductive. Everyone works their heart out. But have you ever thought, are there sufficient usages of everyone striving hard.

A cobbler can work hard and stitch 100 shoes instead of 10.
A metal worker can work very hard and come up with loads of pressed metal, cut metal polished metal.
A cook can churn up 100 meals instead of 10.
A driver can drive all day long and drive 1000 kilometers instead of 100.

Lets take a step back, a cobbler will stitch 100 shoes only if there is a demand for those many numbers, if there are buyers for so many shoes. Why will a cobbler stitch so many shoes when there are no buyers?

Same way, a cook shall not cook, if there are no people to eat 100 meals.

There it goes, whats the point in the cook, driver, cobbler being so productive and hard working? when there is no demand for his work.

May be there is a way to artificially induce deficit in the market where in people can buy junk.

So, whats the point in everyone being so productive, striving for excellance. This brings us to the point where people criticize idlers, people who grow old doing nothing.

Are we correct in criticizing them, of course NO, as long as they are able to feed themselves comfortably, who are we to criticize the idlers?

After all life is meant to be enjoyed. For some people enjoying may mean through hard work and earning money while for others it might be just idling time.

What say,

Cheers,

One such Trek to remember - TTTT 38

There is some kind of general presumption that goes with a Himalayan trek. The presumption is that, after each Himalayan trek, any individual ends up losing weight, because, its exhaustive, walking, climbing over days together is not simple task.

But I have one such tale to share, where, my weight neither decreased nor remained the same. Yes, you heard it right, it means that, my weight had increased after the trek.

We went for a 12 day trek in the Himalayas, in September 2015, and when I came back to Bangalore and checked my weight, I had increased 0.5 kilos.

I may have eaten proper food in the time between completion of trek and me checking weight. But still, I think I know the root cause of this.

We had 10 ponies carrying food supplies. We had eggs till the last but two days of the trek. We crossed 3 high altitude passes and each time after pass crossing, we had chomen /noodles , pasta, custard and other food. On arriving at campsite on each trek, we were treated with loads of food.

No wonder, my weight increased over 12 days!

Cheers,

PS- How I wish, I do the trek again.!

Trek was Bara Bhangal trek in Himachal Pradesh, crossing 3 high altitude passes.
This route is fondly called the shepard's trail!

Happy birthday, Jamsetji Tata

Remembering the architect of India, Jamsetji Tata on his 178th birthday. 

Alter thoughts - 6

This post is a bit haywire, starting with me, going to he, then me, kindly excuse, just got a bit confused as to what I was trying to write!

Time and again, I have heard, people saying do what you love and love what you do. Some thoughts linger in my head regarding the above two line. I agree you need to do what you love. But when it comes to the question of sustenance, does this really apply.

Lets assume, I love photography and I wish to pursue it as a career. So, I end up doing what I love and I love what I do. Now lets give a thought about sustaining and revenue generation. In order to survive, I need money for my daily needs, food and shelter. Following my dream job can I achieve the same. Well, yes, but how?

Traditionalists say you have to work very hard, day in and day out you have to focus and finally it will yield results. So lets just think about hard work, scope of application and reward in the field of photography.

Just like me there will be 100's of people pursuing their own passion of photography so, its not a niche field. You just cannot tell how one person(professional) is better from the other just by looking at the photo and comparing.

Now, since there are many photographers around who do things professionally, what are the chances of me getting a contract and making money enough to be able to sustain myself? I'm not sure. If I had inherited a fortune from my parents things would have been different. But over here I rely on external contracts for steady source of income.

Does it exist, may be or may not be. Since there are many professionals in the field of photography, you need to charge bare minimum to get contracts. so you end up with some money after all.

So are you now sure that, you are still in the game and enjoying it considering you earn something which is a bit meagre? I'm not sure,

What I would like to tell is, even if you may end up doing what you love the most, you should never expect it to earn you a bread, because the chances of having a non existant market for your interest and high competition might drive you nuts. If it does not earn you a bread, should you still be doing what you love? (is there sufficient market to provide source of income to all, who follow their hearts)

But these days, I see, artificial market generation, in other words, trying to market a field which literally is non existent or is not essential. in order to make people spend money on things (photography) which they are not interested in, there is tremendous aggresive marketing strategies applied, where in the user gets tricked into buying unncessary junk and realizes the fact that he has invested (his saved) money only later to regret!

Is it ethical, just in order to keep one's inventions and interests running, you trick people into the application of stuffs, while you well know, its only leading to capitalism and nothing else. For example buying stuffs using smartphone on massive discounts!

Cheers,