Best youtube comment

Sometimes, over the internet you just end up reading something, which really catches your attention. one such thing I found is a comment for a video on youtube.

The comment reads like this -

The song in picture is "Tarzan Boy - by Baltimora" 

When we loaded honey and jaggery (in our vehicle) while returning from our trek - TTT 46

I have been on numerous treks in the last 2-3 years. Each time, we do go by a hired vehicle, more often than not, it has to be 12 seater Force traveller, other time, we had 24 Swaraj Mazda and 30 seater TATA bus.

This time too during our beach trek we had a Tempo traveller. All these treks, though we visit places quite distant from Bangalore, we never load our vehicle with consumable stuffs during the return journey. 

Stuffs like, rice, vegetables or anything which is produced at the place of our visit and which can be ferried back to Bangalore and which works out cheap for us.

But there is a first time for everything. This time, we managed to source Jaggery and Honey from somewhere in the Sharavathy valley and we loaded them in Sagara. Opposite to Sagara bus stand.

It appears there is a subtle difference in the purest form of honey and packaged honey! 

Cheers,

When I trekked the same route for 5 years in a row (yearly once) - TTTT 45

After all this is something which I could proudly write about. It happened for the first time in 2013 and as of 2017 its still on!

I am referring to my participation in the annual beach trek. I had this so called affinity to beaches and it was not very evident until I was away from India. Even more is my affinity to the coastal area of Karnataka, especially Gokarna till Udupi stretch. It makes me feel grounded. It gives me time to contemplate.

Each year there are lots of groups which do beach treks along the coastline. This year too, I am happy that I was a part of another group. Not just that, it completed my 5th year of beach trek.

1. 2013 - Kumta to Aghanashani beach / Tadadi port (boat to Gokarna). (22 members).
2. 2014 - Apsarakonda to Bhatkal (Sri Durga Parameshwari temple Ilvekodi). (26 members)
3. 2015 - Gokarna to Haldipur beach. (28 members)
4. 2016 - Gokarna to Haldipur beach (13 members).
5. 2017 - Gokarna to Kumta beach (13 members)

Apart from one year, where I trekked from Apsarakonda all the way to Bhatkal via Murudeshwara of course, all the years it has primarily been Honnavara to Gokarna OR Gokarna to Honnavara.

Feels so nice to have been doing it again and again. Hope to continue it in future too. Given a choice, of course with the same group too! And guess what I never get bored of this route.

The feeling of being connected to this piece of coastal land is just tremendous, you can imagine, how tremendous, the feeling of me being connected to India is (no prizes for guessing and no sarcasm please)!

Cheers,

When a strange reason ended our trek - TTTT 44

There have been multiple occasions when our treks have ended ahead of time. Each time, it would be the lack of time, rains, tired teams, losing way etc etc. But this time was another awesome reason end our trek ahead of time or rather to not trek.

I recently had been to Gokarna, to take part in this year's beach trek. We managed to walk all the way from Gokarna to Holanagadde beach (after crossing river Aghanashani / Tadai port via a ferry of cours)  on day 1 and camped at a temple.

On day 2, we managed to reach all the way to Kumta beach and there you go we needed some help. There is a place where the sea manages to stretch itself into the town as backwaters and we needed to cross this one. It is a good 15-20 feet depth and needs boat. On all the previous occasions we could manage to source a boat from the nearby fishermen, who would be busy cleaning their boats.

But this time, with no availability of people around, our only option was to walk along the road leading to Kumta town. After walking for half a kilometer we found water to drink and clean ourselves, via a roadside tap after all. The person instructed us that a bus would be available over here any time soon.

And, we managed to reach the main road aka NH-66. Now people were in two minds whether to walk back to the beach or call it over. Lunch and play time in the beach plus Apsarakonda waterfall dip was pending. So this precedence took over, we ended the trek 4 kilometers early. 

But all in all I thoroughly enjoyed the trek, which was overshadowed by some great company, one person of whom had come all the way from Gulbarga!

Cheers,

A driver who listened to retro songs only! - TTTT 43

This time, during the return journey from our trek, we had noticed one thing since the start. The music system in our van was always silent and never played any songs. So we asked the driver what was the reason, and why didn't he play any songs.

His reply was an uncharacteristic one. He told, he always listened to old songs. Fearing most people disliked old songs, he never bothered to play any music!

But in our team we had guys who liked old songs, especially Hindi and Kannada, and there was a unanimous yes for playing it out.

So we got to hear old songs from late 1970's and 80's sung by Shailendra Singh, Mohammed Aziz and others. Then there was a discussion about art films from 70's and 80's.

All in all a nice way to end a trek with some slow songs, providing much relief, during the night journey.

Cheers,

Trouble with BSNL internet

My goal for reaching 100 posts for the year seems to be going nowhere, I owe some part of it to BSNL. On two occasions when I had time to write something, BSNL internet was down.

Previously it was down for over 5 days in succession and today it was around 3+ days. Only after some people near my home intervened and blasted the operator at BSNL office, there was some quick turn around and repair was done and internet re-introduced.

Each time, not only the writing took a hit but even my office work, I generally work more from home and I'm better productive. But on these days, I used every curse from the dictionary.

In the meanwhile tried applying for ACT but no use, now shall try for TICONA or Airtel.

lets see, until then, scampering with BSNL.

Cheers,

Fit Stop (hits) on MTV beats

Every day while I workout in the gym, I get to hear some random playlists. After hearing same set of songs repeatedly, someone complained and we got a TV in the gym and now it belts out songs from music channels.

Its usually MTV beats or 9XM which airs while I exercise. I had a major major concern for this, as, along with the song, the music video turns up. And believe me, if its Sunny Leone or someone else (heroine), whole bunch of people who will be exercising will stop exercising and stand idle, looking at the TV watching the video. This despite of the warning of our trainer, having NOT to take longer pauses between exercises/repetitions.

Irony is that, music is just to aid exercising and here there is a distraction. Even bigger irony is that, MTV is about to start a program, "Fit Stop with Sunny Leone", I guess in the morning only.

But on the contrary what better and fitter person than Sunny Leone, someone who's totally fit,  (to aid people's exercise).

Cheers,

Only Ironies no sarcasm within this post.

Technological advancement or derailment - Alter thoughts 18

Recently in a conversation someone spoke to me about a song which is rather 10 year old and which used to be in the radio countdown at #9, or #10. So this put me into a kind of nostalgia.

These days I have stopped listening to contemporary music and every song which I like dates back to few years. I was wondering if these days such songs have been written or produced or sung.

Then I went back few years again and there you go I could get Billy Idol singing eyes with a face, Billy Joel singing Vienna, and this was 1980's and 1970's respectively.

I was just wondering what has all these technological advancements done to the music industry? where the essence of it still remains song writing and singing which have been the same throughout.

I feel its just the social media and marketing which have turned this industry too into a kind of gimmickery and capitalistic centered market, where emphasis has been taken away from good lyrics and song writing skills and turned it towards marketing and presentation skills.

So is this technological advancement or derailment where I need an optic fibre network over an undersea link just to provide me the data which comprises of what my neighbor is doing over his weekend, which comes all the way from a server located half way across the world?

Irony is I still complain, my internet is slow :) (I'm so curious to know what my neighboring is doing you see, just that I hate to go to him and ask him directly, I believe in snooping).

Pardon my sarcasm though :)

Same goes with writing, for inspiration, is there something which I can look to in the contemporary alternate rock music or any genre for that matter? Not sure!

Here and there I do find songs which I can relate to, but it isnt the same as the good old days, thanks to the derailment caused by technology, consumerism and capitalism :)

Am I correct in judging/assuming, help yourself with comments :)-

Cheers,

Nice country song

Found this song playing on a music channel on television. It sounded interesting. I felt it was indeed a nice country song I heard in a while. I generally do not follow this genre of  music. Great great great composition by Loy, Shankar, Ehsaan! [Hoping its not a rip off]

But this one appearing in a Hindi movie made it somewhat extra special. Sukhwinder Singh has sung it to precision. And Farhan Akhtar has done justice to the song with his steps. I sincerely wish the amount agreed upon to charity has been paid by now.

Need to check out more country songs, something I always wanted to do, but it always starts with Shania Twain and ends with Shania Twain :). and I run out of time.

Cheers,

Here goes the song which I was talking about -

Slow Motion Angreza from Bhaag Milkha Bhaag! Irony is I heard it playing while running on treadmill in the gym (2 years after movie release?, shame on me? or shame on the quality of contemporary music? suit yourself!).

Can you imagine when you are running and this song shows up. Do you run, do you dance or do you admire the song or think about German beer? Take a guess :)

Hectic week - 2 Oct - 7 Oct 2017

One hectic it was with clients visiting us from Germany. Got sprint work thrown out of gear, could not work much. Had to take part in some technical and functional sessions with Germans about upcoming work.

Plus, had to go for lunch with them. I was invited for dinner too, but politely declined. I did not want to take a risk of eating outside two consecutive days plus most people were non vegetarian, so avoided second day.

In between, there was an escalation from the client regarding a use case I had worked on, and release of the application was delayed. Best part was client got a first hand vision of how I reacted in case of escalation. And guess what, I had a poker face with absolutely no emotions. Finally once I became comfortable with the fact that I was solely responsible for this delay, I enjoyed every minute of the stardom.

Mails floating from top German management as well as mails / JIRA comments from German developers on how to proceed. Finally a workaround was agreed. I'm glad it worked out well. But got tremendous experience all along the way.

Learnt that I could be better friends' with German clients than our Indian counterparts. Sad to see our Indian counterparts causing trouble to their own people by showing them as low inexperienced lot, just to impress the client and safe guard their job by licking their A%##.

Attended top level management with client and felt it was more of a comedy show considering what our Indian counterparts were speaking. I'm sure clients each time have a good laugh at the way our Indian management speaks in status meetings.

I recorded the conversation on my mobile, just to make sure my other colleagues too get a good laugh.

Cheers,

An ode to my place of worship - 2017

It was the second year in succession for me that I attended Ayudha Pooja at our gym. I missed out during 2014 and 2015 owing to other reasons but 2016 and 2017 I made it. I even had blogged about it last year.

This time it was raining and I managed to somehow reach the gym. Many people were not there, but still the pooja started a bit ahead of time too. One of my friend called up during the same time and asked as to why was I actually attending the pooja instead of sitting at home amidst the rainfall.

I did not have an answer that day but yeah felt kind of weird having left the thought of going to gym for the pooja unjustified. So thought today will do justice to it plus so many posts seem to be bottled up due to this one plus me being too busy with work and client's visiting Bangalore office!

I made it to the gym in the rain because, I felt it was necessary. I am whatever I'm today because of the gym. I wonder how will I continue it for a lifetime. A day without exercise makes me feel sick. It just feels so good to amidst those equipment, those machinery which have helped me achieve my goal whatever I had set.

On this auspicious day, all those equipment get cleaned, worshiped and in essence that's what is Ayudha pooja all about? Felt so good just being there. Yeah felt a bit emotional too, visualising my own  journey in the last 4 odd years. The treadmill on which I have been running since these years, the mirrors into which I have been looking checking if I have gained anything or lost anything and all those people some of whom are coming some of whom are not coming to gym anymore, reminded me of all the nostalgia which has happened in this place called gym. Just wondered, what would have happened if I had not been to the gym, if that trek to Gingee fort had not made me realize how tiny I was in reality.

I'm glad I did it, and yeah, I have so much more memories to cherish and many of which got re-kindled during this Ayudha Pooja and guess what, how blessed I'm that I got to the gym and exercised all through these 4 years. Hopefully will keep the momentum :)

so, Cheers,

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,