Kailash Mansarovar Yatra - 5 - 2019 - Medical test- ...

KMY 2019, demanded I undergo a medical test and get a certificate from a doctor. So I underwent tests and got myself certified as physically fit. Last time, I remember before a Himalayan trek, writing a letter authorizing myself as the sole responsible person in case of any happenings during the trek and nobody to blame.

With flight booking done, medical test done, amount paid, it was a month of wait due to the delay. And finally it was July 10, 2019. My dream of participating in India's holiest pilgrimage was about to come true!

Cheers,

Change in office shift timings

I have been allocated temporarily to a project and as a result, I had to undergo some changes in my work hours. Apparently this new team which I work with, works from 8 am in the morning to 5 pm in the evening. As a result the manager told me to come in the first shift.

It happened so, after 6.5 years of second shift 11AM + to 8PM, I am back to morning shift. I had gone early only when I had attended interviews in all these years.

This made me undergo yet another change. My gym timings are 8 AM in the morning, but now, I had to decide to go to gym in the evening.

So today after 6 years of morning gym sessions, I had my first gym session in the evening. Only to realize I didn't need warming up. Generally in the morning, I used to do 10-15 minutes of warm up and stretching, but in the evening, I tried warming up and felt, as if I had already warmed up :)

Apart from that, running on treadmill needs more effort in the evening as I feel not so fresh as morning. But the good part is, there is no sun nor heat to slow down in the evening.

If I can control my diet after my evening workout, there is a high chance I might lose few kilos weight as well. Fingers crossed,

Cheers,

Reason for blog name change - and back -

One of the things which I did as a part of this year 2019 was to change my blog URL. There were multiple reasons for it though, I do want to mention them.

- Last year around September October, 2018, I went through a bit of turmoil at work where in a project which I had been tirelessly working just got downsized, and I was instantly released being a senior resource and having a costly billing, they could do nothing. They couldn't afford and I ended up in free pool, so this put me into a kind of shell, where in I neither wanted to speak to anyone, nor want anyone to know what I was going through, it was hard for a couple of months, where in you aren't able to forget the project because you have put in your weekends, fought for quality, got a good reputation. Good news was I almost instantly got a new offer from a different organization (after 7 days of bench warming!).

- Few people I was speaking with ( yeah I meant people) kind of humiliated me with their words, attitude, behavior. I just didn't want them to read my blog anymore. They knew I blog and knew my blog URL.. Considering I hardly interact with only 2-3 people on a few day/week basis and you end up getting humiliated by them itself, calls for totally lack of luck ( I meant I got lemons from these people in terms of behavior). So I basically wanted them not to read my blog. Will they read now? Well, those few people are out of my life though and I hardly interact with them, if they do read them now, its up to their discretion, I just don't care anymore.

- I had less to write, and I had written few posts describing my unceremonious sacking or release from the project, where in few people who weren't performing instead staring at RV college grounds could be released, but yeah, it was me. I didn't want people to read these posts.

In fact, boot lickers, ass lickers and home grown talent (people who have joined organization as freshers and have survived or rather worked 10+ years in the same organization) take higher precedence, over lateral hired experienced and costly billing resources. That's the hard truth of Indian IT industry where talent and knowledge takes a back seat.

- I was skeptical too about these posts being searched via google, I shall double check if my blog features in google search results. So with these kind of posts about workplaces, I definitely didn't want to go with my name URL. Now, I have pulled off all these posts as drafts, so they aren't public!

- I am having a torrid time with my system at home and laptop. Now using my office laptop without VPN to post this. Both laptop and system have been behaving badly and its time I correct them or buy a new one. Meanwhile tried backing my pictures on home PC now, I see it boots up with no display, what a pity.

Cheers,

PS - Posting it on Dec 15, placing it on January Month as if nothing happened :)-

Years at the gym -

December 23, I guess, I shall complete 6 years in the gym. Its been a pleasure transforming myself. I love to exercise, had loads of interest in exercising, never materialized until 2013, though 2002- 2004 I did exercise, had loads of time.

Once I joined industry, never found time plus travelling to Marathahalli, and other longer places from Uttarahalli, never brought enough commitment out of me.

But after struggling to climb Gingee fort in 2013 december, I thought I had enough. I had all the while nurturing a secret ambition and it could never be fulfilled with this sort of fitness.

What was my secret ambition, well, to climb the Himalayas - :)-

Believe me, it could never have happened without the gym (mentioned in the previous post).

Need to be careful going ahead, not to hurt myself. This year pulled a back muscle just couple of weeks before my Kailash Mansarovar Yatra. Though I have recovered fully, reminds me of not to overdo anything!

Cheers,

Gym offer for 2020

There is an annual offer at the gym. Sure I shall make use of it, can save couple of thousand of rupees. Just that I have to be consistent in the gym, and should not skip for months. I am pretty much confident of it. I just take max 2 weeks off for longer trips :)-

Cheers,

Exercise -

This year had less travel, I had couple of tours and one cancelled one, all of which required huge planning and logistics, that I couldn't travel excessively. Plus my new workplace requires me to travel to Marathahalli each day, so its hard to pack a travel punch unless I am equally committed.

Considering how boring my new workplace is, I never felt motivated to travel, because in order to travel with interest, you need to be well grounded, both personally and professionally.

What it did mean is, I got loads of time to exercise in the gym, yup, months after months, I was in the gym, helped me a lot mentally, physically left me drained out.

Will write another post describing what workout I used to do! Till last year I even chose to workout 7 days a week, but this year cut down to 6 consciously, having one day as a rest day!

Cheers,

100 posts for 2019 - Can I make it?

Every year I planned to write down 100 posts for the year, about something, travel, personal experience etc etc. It hasn't happened last year, on the verge of closure of this year too, I have a feeling I might not be able to write down 100 posts.

But I still have 15 days, if I can make 7 posts each day, over the next 15 days, I probably can get to a 100. Wow. that would be a miracle, but sure possible!

Cheers, lets attempt it from now!
Here it goes. Though I am going to randomly and shamelessly fit them into previous months.

Subsidy for Kailash Mansarovar Yatra 2019 - Karnataka

After following it up for 3 months with the Muzrai Department, I finally get an update saying 'Subsidy Forms for Kailash Yatra 2019' are being given since - 7 Nov 2019. I immediately chose to work from home 8 Nov 2019 and visit the Office of Religious and Charitable Endowments on Friday.

I shall attach the documents needed. Also its mandatory to take the original passport and Adhar card just to avail the subsidy form. They kinda check for Nepal-China immigration seal.

Once you get the form you also need an affidavit on stamp paper worth Rs 20. I got this at a co-operative bank opposite to Karnataka Bank Chamrajpet. Karnataka bank lies on the road which leads to Chamrajpet from K R Market. almost diagonally opposite to Makkala Koota. (Cost Rs 30).

There is one more store next to District Judges court with saying E-Stamping, may be you can get there too, just opposite to Makka Koota and Diagonally opposite to Police station, (adjacent to Karnataka Sahitya parishad).

Got the stamp paper typed in Chamrajpet. Next to Vishal mart on the road which leads to Goods Shed Road to the right there are multiple stores which provide Kannada typing facility. They charge around Rs 70.

I applied for subsidy, not sure if I get one, but very much interested, will cover costs of my cancelled flights caused by delayed China Visa (owing to weather) and the money I lost booking a Jet Flight (yeah, the company which closed).

Color xerox of passport and immigration seal pages are needed, also clarity of the seal is pretty much necessary.

Cheers,

Less writing in 2019

2019 has been one such year after many years where I have not written much. There are multiple reasons. Predominantly being job switch. I was happy or rather too stressed out working for an organization closer to home. Finally had to move out to a different organization far from home involving two hours of travel daily.

Owing to this I was quite upset for couple of months. Yeah comfort of an office close to home, good work and good European colleagues was more like a dream come true and now I just have to wake up to reality though.

I kinda wrote few posts which were more of somber in nature dealing with my lows. Each time I thought of writing, I was too lazy, my laptop became slower and slower and owing it to be a 15 inch laptop found it hard to write more on it.

Also months together I was on and on with preparations or rather events leading to my Kailash Mansarovar Yatra in 2019. So the focus was more on to my trip, my leave my bookings, my visa and writing took a backseat.

I am glad, I was consistent at the gym all the while, something which I am proud of. But the daily travel has taken a toll on me and I also am kinda unimpressed with the work profile.

So with nothing on the personal front and professional front, things looked a bit dull all throughout the year. But post successful completion of Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, I felt much better and vowed to make a strong comeback.

So here I am almost two months later back to writing, hoping to fill as much posts as possible within this year!

Cheers
Sandeep

Ode to my place of worship

Ayudha pooja at our gym was a bit early this year. Our gym owner aka trainer wanted to go on a 4 day vacation starting today, hence he chose to do Ayudha Pooja yesterday itself. It was a working day yesterday and Ayudha Pooja was at 6 30 PM in the evening.

This particular gym has been a very distinct part of my life, I have been blessed to attend many a event due to Gods' grace, parents blessing and blessing of this gym.

So I did not want to miss the opportunity to attend Ayudha Pooja. 2014 and 2015 I had genuine reasons not to attend the Ayudha Pooja but since then 2016/2017/2018 I have been regular for the Ayudha Pooja.

I decided to work from home this Friday and go for the Pooja. It rained for sometime, there was power cut for some more time, but in the end, all is well that ends well.

Below are some of the pictures from my mobile camera.

  
        

  

Kailash Mansarovar Yatra - 2019 - Dates Postponed - KMY - 4

As the dates of our yatra KMY was nearing, we had encountered another red flag.

Weather in Tibet wasn't favorable for the Yatra and Chinese government refused to grant visas in the month of May, due to safety concerns.

There goes our flight booking. we incurred losses of upto 8k INR, excluding the one from JET airways.

Nothing could be done, we accepted it as a part of our fate.

I had a not so smooth Bhutan trip in 2018 and I felt same continued in 2019 too.

Already I was not that impressed by workplace and its happenings, this one literally pushed me into total confusion whether to proceed with KMY or not. At home parents were insisting to withdraw money. They were of the opinion that I could never make it this year owing to this much confusion.

There have been times when my parents have been against me going to the Himalayas, over here too, they were pretty much opposed to the decision of me doing KMY especially after visas getting denied for the month of May 2019.

But I believed only myself and nobody else and stuck on, rather hung on :)-

Rebooked all the flights for the month of July, 2019, and yeah I was ready for attempting KMY innings 2 :)-

Cheers,

Kailash Mansarovar Yatra - 2019 - Flight booking- KMY - 3

Once my leaves were approved, we were immediately up for booking flight tickets. Booked tickets successfully. It was a difficult exercise.

We had to book Bangalore to Delhi and then Delhi to Kathmandu. By mistake I booked a Jet airways flight from Delhi to Kathmandu. Jet ran out of business and I lost my money. Till date there is no refund from Jet Airways. I am pretty sure, I cannot expect it too :(

First red flag encountered! I tried to book Royal Nepal Airlines and over here there was an inventory software issue and flight booking failed, there by I had to go for Jet Airways, big mistake.

A friend of mine confidently said book Jet, it shall be taken over by Vistara, darn thing, I shouldn't have listened to people, Never mind, as my previous German architect used to say - "it happens".

Cheers,

Trip to Bhutan

In between all of the company change, travel, I managed to go on planned leave in the first week of December 2018. It was to Bhutan. I had this planned while I was in my previous organization only.

Sad part is I executed it while I joined new organization. It happened to be loss of pay. It did not matter. Somehow, I managed to take my mind off work and travel for a while.

Initially planned for 5 days the trip stretched to 9 days. Owing to missed flights, change of plans. Finally came back after a long deserved vacation.

Cheers,

Kailash Mansarovar Yatra - 2019 - Leaves - KMY - 2

I needed couple of weeks plus 2-3 days on top of it in order to complete Kailash Mansarovar Yatra in 2019. My manager was kind of skeptical, reason being, I had no leaves plus, I had taken leaves in the month of December for Bhutan trip, now in month of February, asking for leaves again, and me being under probation, sent some very distress signals.

But Kailash Mansarovar Yatra waits for none, a job can wait, it something which had to happen, irrespective of whether I was employed or not, I wished to do it.

As I write this in the month of December, 2019, I am still employed, and feel blessed to have completed KMY this year. I already applied for subsidy from Karnataka government too, thought cut off age is 45, which is rather sad.

My manager kinda agreed for it, very hesitantly. I put everything at my workplace at risk including my confirmation for this trip and yeah, Lord Shiva pulled it off successfully.

Initially it was planned in the month of May 2019. and what happened next, well in my another post though,

Cheers,

PS - Posted in december

Kailash Mansarovar Yatra - 2019 - KMY 1

In the month of February, in one of the trek groups a friend of mine posted a message saying, he is planning to take part in this year Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, via a private tour operator, and called for any others willing to join.

I had plans to go Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, let me call it KMY hence forth. Since couple of years I had this in sight, but little did I know it had so much process/procedure. It took months to fix things and in between Jet Airways collapsing and shutting operations did not help me in any way.

One of the reason for lesser travel was this too. I wanted to keep in good health for the yatra and not fall sick by involving in summer treks. Summer treks cause lots of dehydration, UTI's. So in a way, I was focused by sitting at home and exercising. But it took months, more on KMY in the following posts.

Cheers,

Ode to Swamiji

On 21 January 2019, a great gentleman left us. It is none other than Sri Sri Shivakumar Swamiji. It was a very sad day, his work and selfless dedication is nothing which can be measured or compared.

Multiple times my eyes got moist reading about the dedication which he showed towards upliftment of mankind. The institutions he had set up. How many people he had guided, fed, taught. One life is small to even imagine the magnitude of contribution of Swamiji.

So thought of starting new year posts with a post remembering the great person, so proud to have been born in this Country and State

Cheers!

The year 2018 has been

2018 has been one such year where lots of things have happened, both on professional and personal front. I have not been writing much, I have spent couple of months pondering, I have traveled less, and finally there are multiple things which took toll on me and for most part of the year, I ended up thinking and thinking.

So let me write a short note on what happened on work front.

On the work front, the year started very well and was enjoying work. Somewhere in the middle things started to go wrong at workplace and I ended up doing a whole lot of work instead of little and then for couple of months it was work work and nothing else.

Finally October month was nearing and I had planned to take a week off to travel to Leh. But I ran out of luck that time. I fell sick with fever had to cancel my leave plan, also on the side, I was released from the project due to shortage of fund.

So it was three ways to tackle, one the work which I liked so  much and the bond which I had built with the European colleagues was abruptly broken. Second the humiliation of being released from the project was so much to handle. People told me I was abusive on the management. I used to scold people badly. Everyone came up with their own set of advises and it felt horrible.

Nobody knows what the real reason for my release from the project was, but everyone was of the opinion that, I was really behaving horrible, by being rude towards other team mates, not collaborating etc etc.

Morever I was helpless, nobody could do anything about it. I am not someone who licks the arse of the management just to stay in the project. So there I realized where I changed paths.

But more than humiliation, I was worried about the future. I did not know how would I sustain in such a low paying organization. I was the black sheep out there, I was so freaked out about the market too. For two weeks I kept thinking and applying.

But as the saying goes, when we are in trouble, God comes to the party or to the rescue. Once my october leave plan got cancelled, I got a referral from my friend's organization.

I attended interviews which would not have been possible if I had gone ahead with my Leh trip. Then finally 5 days after being released from the project, I got the news that I shall be offered in my friend's organization..

I was over joyed, but somewhere, I felt cheated, I had worked very hard, built a very fine and strong reputation and bond with European colleagues, which I definitely refused to let go.

But truth is you cannot help. Most likely management got insecure of my presence in the team and told me to leave, you never know.

I shall write about various reasons which went sour in the coming posts. As of today, I finished a week trip to Bhutan and I am kind of relaxing in my new organization.

Cheers and loads of thanks to God for coming to rescue when I needed the most.

Cheers,

Lesser writing even lesser travelling

2018 has been not such a great year in terms of trekking or travelling. i did not travel much, my interest in travelling came down due to too much of office work.

I was highly stressed out with work always deadlines and something to deliver, planning trips could never happen. Now that slowdown has happened and I will soon move out of the project, after I had asked release plus budget issues, I get some relief.

Sometimes, we just need to stop working and think about something else. Yeah, my engagement with the current project comes to a close after year and half. I have done sufficient work got sufficient recognition, but yeah, it cannot continue.

I can't close my eyes and always remind myself of work. How much ever I like my work I have to limit myself from overworking. One way is to move out of the project. Yeah, I chose it too.

So now I can concentrate on trying new jobs writing, going back to gym more so traveling as well.

I might even quit and take a break from work for few days. Reason being i have overworked in the last year and I just need a break!

But quitting without another offer makes no sense because it puts you on too much pressure. So i'm thinking  just to move out of the project first and then try outside.

By the way, I am back to writing,

Cheers,

Ode to my place or worship

Like every year, this year too I did attend ayudha pooja at my gym. Though I haven;t been to the gym in a week and half, I was down with fever for 3.5 days and doctor advised me not to workout. So i temporarily stopped, after two weeks, I will re-join on Monday.

All these days I got an opportunity to wake up late and ponder.

So cheers to my place of worship.

Cheers,

When a late train helped our cause - TTTT 61

Last month I had been to a trek around Karnataka Goa border. It was one of the best. But in the end we reached a remote village in Karnataka and were about to leave by 6pm from there. We had our train at around 9 40 pm from Dharwad. It was Sampark Kranti coming all the way from Chandigarh.

We were around 100 kilometers away from Dharwad and we were in doubt whether we could reach in time.  We reached Dharwad railway station at 9 40 pm and we were about to miss the train.

But luck was on our side that day. Because the train was running late by 40 minutes. We had earlier information from the railway website that train would be late, but was that information accurate?

Well turned out to be true,

Cheers,