Great Indian debate - Alter thoughts 17

Saw this wonderful piece of article on IBNLive.com. On Gandhi's birthday saw this disagreement between the two legends of 20th century.

I just loved the opinion of Rabindranath Tagore where he thinks of awakening each Indian soul instead of going for freedom. Just a thought, would that ever have been possible?

I guess not, spiritual awakening leads having loads of insight into lots of things and facets of life. I'm sure some people even at the age of 80 cannot comprehend some of the things of life, forget earlier.

So I'm doubtful, whatever Rabindranath Tagore is saying over here, whether it can be achieved. So I take Mahatma Gandhi's side. who says the below lines aptly :)

By the way, can each individual be spiritually awakened in a materialistic society, I bet not! I hope this is what Rabindranath Tagore intended, am I right or wrong?

Happy Birthday MK Gandhi

Today is October 2nd. I'm so proud and happy that Mahatma Gandhi was born in India, what he did to this country is immense. There could be no better person to be called as the Father of India other than Mahatma. So here's wishing him a happy birthday.

Cheers,

PS - I equally love Netaji and Sardar as well.

More options less time

these days I have too many things to do on top of that find very less time, hence writing has taken a back seat, I need to hit 100 by year end, let me see, few of the things I engage in these days or plan to indulge are!

1. Reading - books/kindle.
2. Music - I listen to a lot of songs on youtube/videos etc etc.
3. PS4 - GT5 on PS4 has kept me occupied long enough that, I do not find much free time.
4. Workout - I cant stay without exercising even for a single day. :)
5. Cooking - After trying curries, breads, tried out jowar bread two times, came somewhat okay!
6. Travel - I register for some event and then back out due to lack of interest.
7. Office work - Yes I am working very hard, being closer to my home means I am putting more effort!
8. Photos - I intend to get my photos printed, but need to select which one to print from my previous travel.
9. Television - watch it whenever I find time.
10. Writing - Amidst all these, writing has taken a back seat, I have got few things to write about, but to even switch on blogger has become such a  distant thing that writing has taken a hit,
11. Meeting people - whats that? is there time for it? and is it worth the traffic and the mind fuck, I bet not! :)

Cheers, will pick it up.

An intellectual trek team! - TTTT 42

This happens to be from one of my Himalayan treks. I am not sure if I have written about this thing before, but one strange occurrence happened during this Himalayan trek.

Our team was a highly intellectual one!

Let me tell you our team composure-

Members in the order of number!

#1 - Phd in Machine learning from IISC.
#2 - Phd in Microbiology and post doc from USA / NRI.
#3 - Phd in Metallurgy pursuing research at CN Rao institute
#4 - MBA from ITM / NRI
#5 - MBA from IIM / Hdfc bank manager.
#6 - MBA another finance guy from Honeywell,
#7 - BE from NIT, circut designer TI
#8 - BE from etc me, coder,
#9 - BE from etc, one more guy support guy,

and you expect team to be any more intellectual?

cheers,

Stevie Nicks - I cant wait

I have been listening to Fleetwood mac for quite some time now, during the day during office and then when I head out to play GTA5 on PS4, I get to listen to this song while I drive, guess which,

its Stevie Nicks - I cant wait,,, can coincidence be any better?

When a sudden encounter hampered our trek to the peak! - TTTT 41

This happened during our last weekend trek, somewhere in Dakshina Karnataka. I'm not supposed to disclose the location nor contacts to be precise. So, we had managed to start around 10 am for a waterfall nearby. After completion of a small walk to the waterfall, the plans got changed, we were now supposed to go to a peak wading through forests and route unknown.

The guide himself was skeptical of going to the peak on the same day or for that matter going to the peak itself. Reason being, he himself was unaware of the exact path/route. But our friend/organizer insisted we do it. It was around 11 40 am when we decided to trek to the peak. The forest was dense and it had great growth, hampering easy walkability. Instead we had to navigate criss cross amidst trees/branches.

We had to come down by 5pm to avoid darkness or getting lost also, we had forgotten to carry our torches as the plan was so sudden, that we had only lunch with us. We managed to cross many streams and move through thick undergrowth and finally this incident happened which literally threw the guide off guard.

When we were around an hour away from the peak, guide was ahead, and I was second to him. Suddenly there were few people who had lost path and guide went back to fetch them and told me to continue in the same path.

I had put across just two steps and found a strange shape on top of a brown leaf. I could not believe a dried leaf had such distinct lines and I bent a bit forward to closely examine.

And guess what it turned out ot be, it was a viper which in the process of swallowing a lizard fully. Then I alerted the others, who could not identify the creature due to the camouflage. It was in no position to strike as it had food in its mouth. Suddenly one person went face to face of it, to capture its image and guess what happened.

It regurgitated what it had eaten, right in front of us, and it got ready to strike. This shocked the wits out of our guide. He got concerned, if we ever got late from the peak, this would be, what we would encounter on our way back plus wild boars too. So, the guide had no clues what to do and called for retreat.

So thus, we had to come back out of the forest trail as we were running short of time, not before I captured some images too.

First one is with its prey almost swalloed, second one is where it spit out its food.

Cheers,

Is it the curse of Sage Vasisht or the people of Himachal Pradesh? - TTTT 40

It was during this weekend's trek that someone asked me about the Bara Bhangal trek which I had completed in 2015. Time runs out so quickly, its almost two years to it. The reason that person asked was that, that person too was going to do the same trek in the coming month.

So immediately, I replied, I wish I could do the trek again, just because of the lovely food which was available during the trek and due to the loads of other reasons. And the reply came within a fraction of second to be precise. The person invited me to join their trek.

Apparently I refused, the reason being their trek was only 10 days, when I did, I got to enjoy 12 full days in the Himalayas :). Simple enough reason to reject.

But now, what made me write this post was that, I was wondering what makes me go again and again to Himachal Pradesh. I have been two times and rearing to go. My other friends have managed 3+ times in 1.5 years.

First time, when we went to Vasisht area in Manali, the hotel owner told that, there is a curse upon this place by Sage Vasisht, which says a person who comes over here once, comes again and again and again. So when I went to Himachal the second time, I felt the curse of Sage Vasisht coming true.

But yesterday, when I told about my dream to trek that route again, I just felt along with the curse of Sage Vasisht there were few other things which added to the charm of being in Himachal Pradesh. So thought of writing it out here.

- The cook we have had on treks have been extremely extra ordinary. To cook at high altitude like a man possessed needs some real mettle. During our 12 day trek there was not a day when the food went a bit more or less on salt or on taste for that matter. It was spot on day after day after day. (And on one occasion,  we were literally competing for a veg biryani cooked from previous day left over rice, that good was the food, if you can imagine!)

- The people of Himachal are so so so hospitable, I could strike a conversation with the cook, guide helper etc with such an ease, I miss those in Bangalore where money over takes everything, if anything is left, I guess pride does the talking. Over in Himachal, its pure humanity I guess, at its best.

-  Loads of foreigners. You feel proud of your country seeing so many hoards of people coming to your country on the pretext of spirituality, relaxation thus providing fuel in the form of economy to the people of Himachal. Being amongst them, you get to speak about loads of things.  It might be minuscule, but it definitely matters.

- Himachal has such huge numbers of to see beautiful places, I'm sure, I will grow old before I can list all of them.

Cheers, gotta head to office :)

Christine McVie - one of my all time favorite performer!

Before I say anything in this post just have a listen to the audio song over the below link.

Main points from the song or about the song - 

 - The lady in picture was in hiatus from music for 16+ years. 

 - The lady in picture has written the lyrics for this song.

 - The lady in picture has sung this song as well.

 - The lady in picture is 74 year old Christine McVie.

If you think, lyrics can be any more beautiful than this, I bet you are wrong,

If you think, at that age, you or for that matter me, can still rock like Christine McVie, my friend you are wrong.

If you think you can carry that persona as Christine McVie even when you are in your 70's you are wrong my friend.

Irony is can you carry yourself first at 70? forget carrying the musical persona. With all your senses betraying you, performing this optimal at 70 can happen only if you are a legend and Christine McVie, my friend is one of the greats!

Take a bow Christine McVie, what a song, some people continue to amaze me with what they got to offer, in terms of music in terms of life lessons, in terms of everything!

Cheers,

Irony of two stares - Part 2 - Alter thoughts - 16

I forgot to write this as a part of previous post, I guess that post grew too much longer for my liking to put more words into it. Hence abruptly ended it.

The post was about a boy who could not afford gym membership staring from outside the gym window, looking at others working out with amazement.

If I can go back in time some 20+ years ago, I myself knew one more boy who used to stare at the gym from outside. This boy used to stare at the gym from outside while going to school or coming back from school and always wonder, when would he ever get to exercise. He was too naive as to what it takes to exercise and what gains one gets out of exercising. This was the 1990's a time when only the purists exercised and there was no much brand marketing involved with exercising, or supplements.

The boy used to stare at a gym which was located somewhere close to Vivekananda college, Rajajinagar (white horse vicinity). I'm not sure if the boy could afford a gym membership or not. I'm even not sure, if the boy knew how much hard work it took to continue working out day in and day out. All he was staring at in amazement at the people working out.

He resembles the construction laborer which I have written previously. Does this resemble a simile in place, just separated by 20+ years of time? Need to confirm.

The boy in contention over here is none other than me. I was the one who was peeping into the gym from outside. I couldn't help myself with exercise because I was too naive and young.

I think, that habit of peeping into gym shall never go, because, I still do where ever I find a gym while going to office or elsewhere I still give it a good stare. Though most of my stare is met with their marketing gimmicks each time instead of people working out.

Reminds me of the good old days when it was all about exercising instead of gym memberships and discounts. A peek into the gym would leave you with a picture of people exercising. Now it leaves me with pictures of sculpted bodies, which are most likely due to steroids and supplements and of course gym memberships/discounts. Such is the irony.

There you go, simile, irony, nostalgia all in one post :) (How about a metaphor please? thinking!)

So much of Malleshwaram nostalgia guttered by ever growing urbanization; feels bad. (this calls for another post as to how people react when I put such words in front of people who cannot understand it, like about nature for that matter. so I chose to write here!).

Cheers,

Irony of two stares - Alter thoughts - 15

Staring at something, means looking at something for a period of time most likely with eyes wide open. So here I try to write about two different instances of staring each one representing its own dimension.

I am trying to pitch in irony (not sure successfully), I am also trying to pitch in as to where do I stand between the two different ironies which I try to describe.

This incident relates to the gym where I go everyday to workout. The entrance of the gym is a wide vinyl door with a huge class where visibility is two sided. One can see outside and outsiders can see inside. Also all along the wall there are posters of good body builders lifting weights, flexing muscles.

You can stare at these pictures for minutes together looking for some inspiration. Thats what most of my friends do. I too do sometimes. These pictures are meant for inspiration.

But one day a stranger was staring not at the picture but at the people exercising, and not from inside but from outside. He was a small guy a construction worker or a laborer or some kind. He was amused by the people exercising within closed enclosure. He might be wondering, what he does as a day job for living, these people are doing it by paying money. Let aside his thoughts.

What I felt was, he was someone who wanted to exercise but could not afford. He might be thinking, "When will I too get to exercise". On the other hand my friends who exercise stare at the posters and think "when will I ever get such a muscular build up".

Irony is both of them are unsure of making it. The construction laborer in order to visit the gym regularly has to change his line of profession to earn more to afford a gym membership.

My friends who stare at the picture, have to exercise more and eat correctly for months and years to come which I'm certainly sure they can't. So its a tale of two never ending aspirations.

In the middle, I'm there, the silent observer, adding to the third irony of sorts. I can afford myself a gym membership, but I can't even think of getting a extra ordinary build up as in posters, because, my primary focus area is cardio and secondary being strength training. So as of today happy to observe.

Cheers,

PS - I hope and pray that one day the guy staring from outside, gets his chance to exercise in gym too.  The sparkle in the eyes of the observer is never to be missed. If you ever need to look for hope and inspiration, on how to lead a great contented life, you gotta look at these people, I'm sure you will get a plenty.

The best part of being in the gym lies in the fact that, sweat has no economic status of its own. Sweat is not measured by monetary terms. This should go into another post altogether :)- May be some other day. 

Nice incident during one of the Himalayan trek - TTTT 39

Its been some time to my last Himalayan trek, but I clearly remember what all occurred during that trek, most of which I have not written. Today I remembered one such incident, and I wish to write down before I forget it.

Btw, if I end up writing all the crazy interesting encounters during all my travel, I guess I will have atleast another 40 entries more saying TTTT.

This Himalayan trek which we did was about 9 days long and it was one of the toughest trek in Himachal. Our pass crossing was on the 7th day. We had to climb up to 16k feet on the 6th day and halt at the base camp at almost 16600 feet.

Start of the day itself, we realized weather would take a toll on us and as we started climbing on the edge of the mountain, it started to rain. We were almost at 13k feet altitude. One of my friend on this trek had told me, it never rains at that height it only snows :). He was dumb struck when it started to rain at 13k feet and it continued for almost 3 hours non stop. It was not heavy but it was continous.

Imagine climbing up with that 12+ kilo load on the edge of the mountain amidst this rain, one slip will send you tumbling downwards. There could be landslides as well. Amidst this there was a bear sighting out of nowhere, I had written about this in an earlier post. I just had crossed the path alone I couldnt spot the bear and the person coming behind me after 10 mins had a head on encounter with the bear, incidentally the bear ran away. All this adventure at 15000 feet where people say its hard to get oxygen to breathe.

I don't know what to say but crazy!!

But the main point of this post was not about the bear or altitude. All this rain had left us with wet trousers partially wet bag wet shoes socks. We did have spare. but carrying a soggy clothing would mean pass crossing would be a good 2 kilos heavier.

When we reached the base camp around 2 pm it was windy and rain had subsided. It was very chilling out there. Windspeed was picking up at 16000 feet. We decided to stay indoors in the tent and take rest while our guide was roaming outside screaming curses at the bear to come out in the open.

He was saying to the bear, "if you have drunk your mother's milk come out in the open and face me :)" . All this to the bear which can't understand Hindi/English and all this at 16000 feet. Is that really needed. There were landslides happening just opposite to us at a distance, we could see that, this person shouting like a mad guy could trigger an avalance too which would come rumbling down towards us :)

Luckily nothing like that happened. I was praying all this while for the Sun to appear (of course I was praying Sun god). The guide was constantly telling me, nothing of that sort will happen this weather will continue throughout the day he told.

I was optimistic, because I had to dry off my trousers, socks, shoes because tomorrow was pass crossing day. And guess what around 4 30 the sky cleared and sun appeared

The guide acknowledged and exclaimed, " Aap prarthana kar rahe the na, bhagwaan ke saamne, dekho sooraj aa gaya" (Means, - you were praying in front of the god and now you see the sun is out)

I felt so good, I could not believe my eyes, I could now dry few of my stuffs. What a day it had been. God answering our prayers was the icing on the cake. It felt like a miracle. Indeed it was.

So there goes one more tale from my trek or travel -

Cheers,
Sandeep

Some of the incident that happens even with strangers or friends stays with us for a lifetime. Aint that nostalgia after all ? Of course:)- I do not know what our guide or support staff for this trek are doing right now, but wherever they are I pray for their good health. They have given me enough memories to write about for a lifetime.

Random office memories - 2, Environment day at office

Not sure which year was it, but there was an environment day at office. Trying to do something for the environment from our office side. But there was some twist awaiting. This time there was a notice board in the pantry requesting suggestions from people on how to save and do less harm to the environment.

Loads of people were writing stuffs. All these people had noticed the leaking tap in the hand wash area. The tap had been leaking since almost a week and nobody did anything to fix it.

I was literally getting furious, because the water for the building was supplied by tankers and had to be pumped 10 floors using electricity and generators when no power, wasting this was getting on my nerves.

And these people celebrating World environment day amidst this water leakage blew my whistle off. I couldn't handle the situation and I went on and wrote on the board,

" PLEASE FIX THE LEAKING TAP BEFORE CELEBRATING ENVIRONMENT DAY".

I remember writing a line very similar to this though I do not remember precisely what I wrote. Beneath it, I wrote our team's name instead of my solo name, just to confuse people. But the HR manager knew who the black sheep was, in the entire team, and spoke to me personally that it will be taken care of.

It was more like an embarrassment on the face of the organizing committee because, I had brought in sarcasm into public. Then the facilities manager tried to get it repaired in few days time, but failed to do. This along with few other reasons spiraled up and few days later he was fired.

I feel sad for complaining because it did take a wrong turn, and somehow I feel I too was responsible for someone getting fired, which I still cannot affirm whether its true or not. But it lingers on.

So this was another irony - celebrating environment day amidst leaking taps! it happens in India!

Cheers,

Random office memories - 1, Birthday or birthday carnaval

I had written about this person X who was one of my source of inspiration, because of which I turned to listening to retro Kannada songs. It happened so, during 2015 or 2016 not sure, we got to celebrate his birthday on a weekday.

Weekday meant, there was a chance for him to get sweets for colleagues in office. So the day began and everyone was wishing him on his birthday. Around 12-1pm he went outside and brought almost 1.5 kilogram of sweets costing close to 2 k if I'm not wrong. So everyone had their chance to eat birthday sweets.

The best part of this whole chapter is that he had brought a very very very good quality of sweet savory and everyone ended up picking up more than one piece. In-fact he was very much fine with it. He was going and calling everyone to come and have sweets. It was a very sweet gesture indeed. Soon around 4pm the 1.5 kilos of sweets which he had brought got over owing to the fact that everyone was eating 3 pieces by themselves.

So, now we had the support guys who were coming in around 5 pm and there was little left, hence he went and brought 0.5 kilo more just to give it to these guys. The day ended with everyone being well fed on birthday sweets. But one strange and beautiful incident happened towards the end which actually made me write this entire post.

As the day was coming to a close around 7 45PM and we were ready to head out, I was standing at Mr X's place and speaking with him, while one lady approached his seat and asked him if there are any more sweets left. He said none was available, but the lady said, she was feeling hungry hence wanted to check if he had any sweets left. I just felt wow, this magical effect, where people were looking for sweet to satisfy hunger by eating sweet savories, was it because of the sweet savory quality or the person X or both?

Cheers,

Random office memories - Series,

All of a sudden, I get a thought to write about random office memories, I don't know why, I'm missing my previous workplace where in I spent close to 3+ years, its the longest I have spent in any organization I have worked till date.

I survived this time, because of friends, rather cab mates or is it the passion to trek which rather started during my tenure at this organization and still lingers on. Its during these three years I got to visit, Kashmir, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh (2 times) and Uttarakhand.

I got a lot to write about these trips, but equally important things happened at office too. I wish not to write about work (rather abstractly infact), but about random incidents, which I remember. Apart from the cab series, I can recollect loads of things, hence thought, why not write about them (while listening to Fleetwood Mac of course :) )

Cheers,

Fleetwood Mac 3

Here is one such Fleetwood Mac concert, year being 1982, this one is older than me.

Here's what they were like when performing live at the peak! One plus hour of sheer bliss, listening to these folks!

Cheers,

Fleetwood Mac 2

Sunday would be worthless, if I failed to share two other Fleetwood Mac songs, each one of them a beauty! yeah over 20-30 years old. Thats why I love 80's and retro!

Cheers,

Here is the live performance of the song Everywhere, this song is from the year 1997. Can you imagine, Christine McVie singing the song is 50+ years old in 1997. The song, whilst performing live looks better than the studio version. Take a bow Fleetwod Mac, what a song!

Cheers,

Fleetwood Mac!

This is called a live performance, and not the crappy lip synch-ing ones'.

I would rather prefer to listen and go to this kind of live performances, by paying money, instead of listening to free music oh sorry advertising on the radio!

This concert is 20 years old, the song is 40 years old and the year today is 2017, and the song shall move into the next century as well!

Fleetwood Mac a band that has lots of history!

Cheers,

Here is the 1977 version of the video, you can see the same artists, just 20 years younger!

This is the same song from another live performance in 2013, these people are now 65+ years old in 2013. How many 65 year olds' do you know who perform live to this extent and attact so much crowd, yeah Fleetwood Mac definitely rocks! This is what happens when you do things you love, age just turns to be a number only! The performance might not be the same as 20 years back, but yes, they are still out there, doing what they do best, PERFORM LIVE!

Two good songs

Two good songs which begin with a good piano note, remembered these two hence writing about them.

Well these are almost two decades old!

Cheers,

Finally its sunday!

After working non stop for almost 15 days (on the trot) I get a day off. If you think, I slogged a lot with too much work, well, I would like to say more than work it was the dependencies, and poor infrastructure resulting in me slogging.

Only plus point being, workplace is closer to home. I did not have time for anything, literally, listening to music or reading or cooking or watching television, I was literally walking like a zombie. And the day I broke the build and tried to fix it, I was driving like a zombie around 1 AM in the night back to home :)-

Finally the sprint comes to a closure, and the European colleagues who had gone on leave will come back on Monday. There shall be some sanity restored over the monopoly of the dumb Indian Management :)- (sarcasm can never hide from me).

One thing I realized after the past two weeks, a service based company mentality can never match a product based mentality, come even God may!

Cheers,

Listening to retro Kannada songs

Previously I had written, how much I liked the program on Big 92.7 FM called Straight hits with Ravichandran. I was never following Kannada music actively before. Even now I do not follow Kannada contemporary music.

But this program made me familiar with few of old Kannada songs like from the movie Ranadheera and Premaloka. It brought loads of nostalgia. Growing up as a 3-5 year old kid, I could remember these movies passing by us, without me , making head or tail of anything. 

Its now only I get to appreciate what 80's was all about in terms of not only English music but also Kannada music. Kannada songs were being played even during our day journey to office. But, I would like to emphasize that, my interest in retro Kannada songs would never have taken off without one such colleague's intervention. Infact he too had grown up in the 80's but was a bit older than me.

So, it was he who gave me insights into which movie, who's the singer who composed who wrote lyrics and story line plus actors. This was almost instant, as the song aired. His knowledge about Kannada  movies was superior. Just like Imdb, he was Kmdb, K - kannada.

Just like all good things have to come to an end, with a heavy heart, we had to say goodbye to him as he was laid off. Even before that, our 7 seater AC Innova cab too had to be aborted, due to mounting transport expenses. 

So, its close to an year now to that incident and I too have moved on, From the past three months, I no longer cross silkboard, nor travel by cab, but, whenever I get to listen any of the kannada retro song like from PremaLoka, it triggers immense nostalgia, unforgettable memories and undeniably loads of respect for the man who educated me about 80's movies and music. Who says traffic can be bad when it brings out bond amongst people!

Organizations run out of money, people run out of jobs, all that remains is, the nostalgia, memories, when times were good, and guess what, its always music, food or a good past conversation that binds these memories together.

Over a fine weekend, we ex employees of this organization are planning to meet, lets see! will keep you posted.

Cheers,

PS - I spoke to the same person over the weekend, he's moved on to a new job, travels by Metro (MRT) and yeah, he's happy with his life post this workplace!

PPS - Immense nostalgia because, on one side, reminds me of childhood which just passed by and the other being time spent traveling by cab which too passed by, both of which reminding me of good things coming to an end.