Driving Dilli-Bhakra-Dilli

If you take Cement enough in quantity to build an 8 ft road around the equator, you will be able to make another Bhakra Dam.... Sounds large isn't it.... Well that’s what Bhakra is all about... Large... Majestic... Something that will make you proud of your country... Behind the Dam is the 96 Kms long Govind Sagar Lake which is one of the largest lakes in India as well.... And I managed to drive down to see it myself last weekend....


The last week was very hectic... daily drives to Gurgaon... and long study hours... I was being trained on a few things... and the result is
~ I am now an ITIL Foundation Certified Consultant... You can read more about ITIL here if you are interested.
~ I managed to learn a few good things about presentations in the last two days of the week... Attended a good workshop on presentation skills...

And Friday is when the drive started.... not from NOIDA this time... but Gurgaon... picked up Aro around 1830 hours after talking to Ankur Gupta and Deepak and freezing the plans to meet at the Azadpur Bypass around 2230 hours.... Reached home around 2030... Took a bath while Aro was talking to mom dad... and moved out at 2130hrs... Did not have dinner as I wanted to use the opportunity to have my favourite paranthas at Murthal...

Met Deepak @ the Bypass... Ankur, who was driving his Petra with me for the trip, was running a bit late. So we three decided to move on and wait for him at Murthal... exactly 36 kms away from there we stopped at Zilmil Dhaba... had dinner... with white mmm butter... Ankur soon joined.... This was the first time I was meeting him, though had talked to him on Orkut and on the phone... but not met otherwise... Met Nidhi... Said Namaste to his mom and dad... and got introduced to Neitya, his daughter...

And there we were, with two Fiat Cars... all set to drive away to glory... I was to follow him on the road... surprisingly I managed to overtake him a number of times... and at all the instances, I was reminded that Petra is a 1600 cc 100 bhp beast that could zoom away in front of me with a li'il effort... but I still managed to keep up with him at speeds of around 110-120 kmph....

Out biggest mistake... a right turn just before Chandigarh towards Shimla/Kalka and then the left from Pinjore which took us to Nalagarh and then Swarghat via one of the worst roads I have ever driven on.... but we still managed to reach Swarghat in good time and were there by 0530 hours... and this where were realised that the Manali highway also reaches the same place in the same distance... bad turn that was before Chandigarh... but anyway.... Ankur here gave me one of the best compliments that I have got about my driving "Prashant tu to Bawlo ki tarah gaadi chalata hai Pahadon par..." "Prashant, you drive like crazy on the hills... " :D I was so happy to hear this... infact when I am driving uphill...Radha handles the roads the best... and there is so much sync between me and her that we literally burn the road :)

Unfortunately, there were no rooms in the new constructed HPTDC Hotel Hilltop in Swarghat... which left us with no choice but to either move to Bilaspur 40 kms ahead or go to Nangal about 50kms downhill.... we decided to go to Nangal....

While driving to Nangal, I realised that fantastic roads I had missed :( but never mind... we reached Kiratpur in about an hour and the took right to reach Nangal via Anandpur Sahib... Nangal does not have a lot of places to stay... so this was now getting a li'il tiring on me.... the entire weekend I was caught up... and even now I was not getting any rest at all... so the body was almost giving up on me... we talked to a Khanna Lodge in Naya Nangal then, no rooms... and then we decided to move a li'il away towards Mehatpur hoping to get a place there... which we did... Hotel Menon... decent place to stay in... the only issue being the construction on the first floor and our rooms had wet walls... and the switch board was more then happy to give us a small electric shock when we touch it with bare hands :) we still managed to stay and sleep comfortably there...

0730 is when we checked in... And I think I went of to sleep almost immediately after I sat on the bed....

woke up because of a few calls at regular intervals... but still managed to get up fresh around 1200 hours... after having a good lunch we headed towards Bhakra... we found out that the route was open only till 1500 hours and that made us rush... We reached the barrier and then were told that the pass is not issued there and we would have to travel about a km back to get the pass to go forward... went back... got the pass... deposited our phone cameras and other cameras there and then moved ahead...

Bhakra is about 18 kms away from Naya Nangal and it took us about 30 odd minutes to reach the dam... fantastic!!! loved the looks of it... I just wish I could have seen water flowing out of it... but could not :( never mind... it was still a good experience to see the dam... next time i go... i will try to get the "Red Pass" that allows you to get inside the dam and get to see the turbines and all... will have to find out how to get that kinda permit...

we then moved to Naina Devi... and came back in good time by 1900 hours... when we reached Naya Nangal it started raining pretty heavy and we drove to Mehatpur in one of the best pours I have seen in sometime... overall this turned out to be a good day !!!

Slept around 2200 hours... with the plan of getting up around 0800 and then moving towards Delhi with a pit-stop at Anandpur Sahib....

We reached the Gurudwara around 0900 hours... light drizzle and the good weather made it all the more interesting... and the place more beautiful... as always... I enjoyed the Halwa at the Gurudwara... finally had something to click... so spent a roll in there... and moved from there after having some food in the langar...

a couple of pits stops for petrol, for bhutta, for Kulfi Faluda in Karnal and for paranthas later, we said Bye Bye to Ankur and Family, then dropped Deepak and Aro at the Kashmiri Gate Metro Station... and reached home safe and sound....

Time for a few things I would remember about from trip and you might want to take note of...
~ 900 kms driven in two days...
~ Saw one of the biggest Lakes in India...
~ I had drove for about 800 kms to gather a lot of mud on the car... and the only part which could be called clean was the windscreen... and one cleaner in the Dhaba @ Murthal cleaned my car :( she was looking so goddam sexy with all the mud and dirt all over her !!!
~ Did not feel like clicking the mountains at all... infact the first day did not even touch my camera... so I guess... I am drifting away from Landscape photography now for sure...
~ The car handled fantastically well on the hills... and looked like I could drive her faster on the curves then on the plains... effortless gear shifting and very responsive acceleration... loved it...
~ To go to Nangal, the best route is to take the Delhi-Manali Highway.... Delhi- Karnal-Ambala-Chandigarh-Ropar-Kiratpur-Anandpur-Naya Nangal should be route...
~ You would find decent accommodation in Mehatpur... there is the hotel Menon where AC rooms are available for 500-600 bucks per day... we spent 2300 for the stay, lunch and Dinner for 7 people.


I am now waiting for Leh to happen... not many days from now, I would be in the Delhi-Manali Volvo on my way to Leh!!!

May God be with Me!!! Amen!!!

WoKe uP TiReD...

I so badly wanted to listen to some rock in the morning today... but did not have a single CD with GnR or Bon Jovi or Aerosmith in my car... huh!!! and I talk about having a 10 mp3 cd changer in my car... no use at all!!

anyway... I managed to watch Gangster this weekend... a very nice movie... totally exploiting human emotions... however a li'il more pace in the movie would have been worth it... two songs that I managed to reeeeeeeeeally like are "Ya Ali" and "Tu Hi Meri Shab hai"... wonderful work... and the movie could have really done without that guy Imran Hashmi... he is CRAP!!!

And Italy won the world cup... I should be happy... because I own an Italian Car and I love it... I like to eat Italian food... Pastas and Pizzas... going by that logic I should have favoured Italy, keeping in mind how much knowledge of football I have... but I wanted France to win... don’t know why... they lost... not because they played any less better then Italy but because the captain chose to bring his Football Career to an end with a Red Card... and one of the guys decided to be extra forceful while taking a penalty kick and ended up hitting the bars instead of the net... wonderful work France... I for sure am not going to like things about France for a while... ok... French kiss would be an exception :)

Got up very tired today in the morning... felt like I have been thinking a lot while I was sleeping... things at office... things in life... career, work, home, myself, a lot has been going on in the sub-conscious....

Looking forward to the drive to Bhakra last week of July… and really excited about Leh in August… May God be with me…

oh... and I am looking around for a new email reader that can configure POP accounts for email and rss feeds... suggestions please...

I have already tried
~ Thunderbird - did not like it much...
~ Incredimail - is heavy on resources and works very very similar to outlook express...

i ParTiEd... i tHoUgHt...

Its strange and sad at the same time that I have not written about one of the best weekends I had last week... and today I am finally writing about it...

So Friday was a party... yes... Last Friday was a party to celebrate the one year of fantastic performance by the Central IT Helpdesk, a project that I have been associated with for a while now... time to go ahead and acknowledge the best performers… the good contributors and so on and so forth… so a group of about 40 people got together to celebrate this event in the Lizard Lounge in South Extension… the party began… the prize distribution ended… and then PARTIEEEEEEEE

Danced for a good 3.5 hours before I could not dance anymore… and left a lot of people from the office stunned… they were like we did not know you dance… and we were very sure that you do not dance well… but they were so wrong :D and I was so happy… so Prashant rocks !!!

Saturday was a lazy day except that I went to Meerut and came back… and this time the record that set a few weeks back was beaten in and out…this time I drove 8 kms more then the last time in an hour and 10 minutes flat !!! About 85 kms that means in 70 minutes… cewl huh!!!

Sunday was a lazy day… with most of the time spent in taking care of things at home...

And then the week started… Monday… the day when I want to leave everything and get the hell out of here… I have also thought of collecting about 1, 00,000 bucks and then leaving my job… this way I would have about 50K that I would want to spend on my fixed EMIs and another 50K to spend in travel for these two months… am waiting for that day to come… I will everyone know when that happens… I would be gone for good for two months then…

Looks like I have figured out a few things late in my life... hope its not too late though…

Another thought that has been running around in my mind for a few days is “should someone throw his/her knowledge on a subject around? Should one give more information then asked for just to prove that (s)he is a subject matter expert? Should someone while giving an opinion also mention in some words that he is worth an appreciation… should you hunt for compliments or let the audience, this world decide when you should get them?”

i mean... if you are good... then people around you would realise by the quality of things that you do... not only in professional but personal life... but what to do when someone would keep saying things, keep giving you gyan, keep giving you information, without even realising that its not really worth it....

LansDowne PiCs...

The Pictures from the drive are finally with me... I know that I have missed atleast 1000 shots that I wanted to click because I was driving... You cannot get everyone in one trip can you :) sometime later, I probably will be someone who would be driving... and I would only click !!!

But never mind, I think the percentage of shots I can publish now is much more then what it used to be earlier… so all is well… and Life IS good…

You can click HERE to check out the fotos…

SoMeTHiNgS... qUiCkLy...

A couple of quick updates...

~ I read nice things about myself on a friend's blog... that made me happy :)

~ I found out a couple of things in office that were very disturbing… but the good part is that I know how to handle them… so its fine… for once I am fine with the incorrectness around me…

~ My photo-blog has been updated… no... Not with a new Photo, but I changed the template… The old page for some reason used to open new windows; hope this does not happen now after I have changed the template. Have also removed the flash entries on the page and replaced them with HTML… which means it should load faster and would need less plugins…For some reason, both my blogs now have a lot of black colour... and right now it looks just fine to me...
This happens to be one of my favourite pages every… you can also visit it by clicking HERE…

~ Attended my induction in the last two days… was very interesting…

~ Have been through times which made me feel that life could not get more confusing then it was right now, and the very next second experienced extreme clarity of thought… mix of thoughts, mix of feelings, mix of emotions, a cocktail of expressions, a mocktail of words, I guess that just means that I am growing up…

Rest of my world is doing just fine…

DeLHi-LaNsDoWnE-HaRiDwAr-DeLhi...

Time for a few statistics first…
~ Total distance: 720 kms
~ Total Petrol Burnt: ~55 lts
~ Approximate Mileage: 13 kmpl
~ Total hours of sleep between Friday morning and Sunday afternoon = 8 hours
~ Total expenditure per head in the trip (total divided between 3 people) < fun ="UNLIMITED" style="font-weight: bold;">Time for some highlights…
~ Buying a Palio was one of the best decisions ever… forget about how much I love the car… the only hatchback which can better the Palio 1.2 is the 1.6 Sports… nothing else !!!
~ The handling of the car on the hills is nothing less then FANTASTIC…
~ A lot of conversations added to the fun in the trip…
~ We did the first 254 kms in a li’il less then 4 hours, which included about 45 kms of hills… which means that the over 210 kms were done in less then 3 hours… an average speed of 70kmph and that too on the roads of UP…
~ I have not driven on a better road in UP then the Meerut-Bijnor-Najibabad-Kotdwar Highway…
~ We witnessed Clouds, Bright Sun, Heavy Downpours, Slight Drizzles, Flooded Highways, Slow Moving Carts, Bribe Taking Policemen, Erratic Drivers, Scenes which ask you scream WOW, and more that words cannot describe…

Some important observations now…
~ Lansdowne is the closest hill station to Delhi at 254 kms… and the great road makes it really really accessible… The route that you have to take to reach Lansdowne is the Delhi- Meerut-Bijnor-Najibabad-Kotdwar-Pauri Route… a right turn after about 20 kms from Kotdwar on the Pauri route takes you to Lansdowne.
~ There is nothing that you can do there (even if you wanted). It’s just a small town on the top of a hill, inside a cantonment area. Your options are take long walks, talk to the people you are with, or just talk to anyone. If you are loner kinds... Its just the place to get away from everyone…
~ Only BSNL GSM works there… yippieeeeeeeeee…
~ There are only 4 hotels/resorts in Lansdowne… two of them are really not worth trying… One of the Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam’s guest house and the other one is the Fairy Dale Resort both at walking distance from the Main Market… The fifth option that takes you further away from anything related to humans is the Anand Retreat… About 3 kms away from the Main Market and driving on a 6 ft wide kuchcha road for 2.6 kms you will reach this resort in the middle of nowhere…
~ The best time to leave Delhi for Lansdowne is very very early morning around 0400 hours, this way you will be able to avoid most of the traffic and manage a speed of about 90-100 kmph most of the time with a few exceptions…
~ I would recommend going to Haridwar via Najibabad to anyone who asks me this question… better road, less traffic, better scenes… It would be about 50 kms more then usual, but is worth it…
~ There is an old Shiv Mandir about 45 kms away from Lansdowne called the Tarkeshwar Mahadev. Do not go into that direction in case you are not prepared to drive your vehicle on about 5.6 kms of something that is remotely away from being called a road… the other alternative is to walk those kilometres…

And now let me talk about my experience…

I was kinda scared that I would not be able to make the June Trip… and I was not sure where I wanted to go… I was discussing getting out of Delhi on the ODM day too… and looked like it would be just fine… we decided on the 25th wala weekend and it looked doable… Asked a couple of people... Aseem was ready… Deepak was game… Akash also was keen, though he dropped out at the last minute…

We tried hard to take Rohit along… but there were things that he could not run away from and go with us… so he stay put at his place over the weekend… too bad he missed it…

Aseem and Deepak were at my place by 2100 hours on Friday night, we had thought of sleeping for a few hours before we start an early morning drive… had a nice dinner at the Vishal’s kitchen and managed to sleep only by 0000 hours… rather go to bed around that time… kept talking and managed a sleep of only about a couple of hours… I was the last to sleep and the first to get up… which meant that I was awake at 0230 hours… got ready and woke the rest of the gang up @ 0300 hours… we managed to leave at 0325 hrs from my place and then went to the ATM… and managed to officially start our journey at 0341 hours…

Zoomed past the lesser mortals, took the right turns after asking the policemen about the route on BegumPul in Meerut… I could not believe the kind of road I was driving on the entire way… I was hoping for a much worse experience… actually was prepared for it… but could not really get out of the surprise till we reached Kotdwar… I was comfortably driving at 90-100 km/hr most of the time… oh… we almost hit a lot of stupid crows… who were not ready to fly off the middle of the road till the car was about 50 metres away from them… and we almost hit a few donkeys because they strayed on the wrong side of the road…phew.. that was a close shave… I do not care if the donkey had died on the spot... but a scratch on the car would have been a good enough reason for me to kill the rest of the donkeys and bury the owner alive with all of them!!!


Anyway… I was not really surprised after completing the first 210 kms in about 3 hours… we reached Lansdowne around 0730 hours… and then spent time looking for a place for ourselves… GMVN was booked… Fairydale was booked… we had breakfast there… had read about the kinda paranthas that place makes… but it was just average… I have had better stuff and more then once… so once our stomachs were full, we decided to find another place to stay… tried two very shady hotels in the main market but both of them were full too… so we were not stuck with just one option, the Anand Retreat !!! we talked to the guy there and got a room, a semi deluxe room, in 750 bucks… while driving to the place, it started raining pretty heavily and we reached there in about 30 odd minutes in the middle of a heavy downpour… driving on a mud-stone track in the kind of rain is definitely not one of the best things I have done to Radha… but she was there with me right through and we were safe… checked into the room… and were kinda stunned to see the number of bugs in the toilet… this is not what we had planned ? but there was li’il we could do now… it was raining cats and dogs outside… and we three were stuck in a room in the middle of nowhere… anyway…I decided to take a nap... and quickly fell asleep while watching the TV… got up fresh in two hours… It had stopped raining and Deepak had checked out most of the surroundings… Aseem gave us the idea of getting out of there for good.. and staying somewhere else… we bought it right away and decided to first drive around the place and see whatever we could and then decide what we really wanted to do and where we could stay in the night… went back to the Town, drove to a so called Lake, did not bother to get out of the car, took a u-turn and went to see the St. John’s church, The St. Mary’s Church ( I think I am messing up the name here) and the Tip-n-Top Point… went to snow-view point… and then rushed straight outside Lansdowne to Tarkeshwar Mahadev temple a good 45 kms away… reached there in good time but realised that the last 5.6 kms were mud-stone road… and I was not keen on taking the car there… Deepak and Aseem were not too sure either… so we took a u-turn… parked the car there for a while, had tea from a local shop and started back to Kotdwar… the plan was to reach Haridwar ASAP !!! I was expecting to reach there by 2100 hours… but we made it in good time this time too… Deepak slept on the back seat while me and Aseem talked our way throughout the drive back and managed to reach Haridwar around 2000 hours… nice roads again… beautiful sunset… and also a good 2 hours of conversation… I missed out on atleast a thousand shots because I was driving… I wish to capture them sometime when someone else is driving…

Haridwar was full of people… most of them from Delhi… ?… and that ensured that we did not get a room in Haridwar as well… so a quick decision to go to Rishikesh was taken… and we reached Rishikesh in about an hours time… got a room in the Maduban… this is where we eat most of the time… and this time managed to get a room there for 350 bucks… extra bed for 150 bucks… in all 500 bucks for the night…

Went to Chotiwala for Dinner but it had already closed, checked out a few more places to eat but no luck… and at the end we ate at a small road-side restaurant near the parking for Ram Jhula… not bad eh !!!

Walked back to Maduban, and crashed on the beds… I had opted for the floor… so I managed to enjoy the sleep on the floor… got up at 0400 hours on Sunday… and rushed to Haridwar to catch the Morning Atari… it seemed we were late and we decided to have a bath before going to the Har Ki Pauri… I had the holy bath after a long time… and I loved it… it happened to be some auspicious occasion too which I came to know after I reached home… so I am sure it helped me wash away some of the deadly sins committed by me in the last few months… we went to the famous Mohan Ji Poori Wale, to have the poories, but they had not started serving… so we had to be content with some Khasta Kachauri and some Halwa and some Gulab Jamuns… moved out of Haridwar and reached Roorkee to have the Lassi there, but the shop again was closed.. and this time to keep us company, Aseem bought some Mazaa, some chips, Appy Fizz, and Little Hearts… nice… thereon the struggle to overtake started… there was a bumper to bumper traffic on the opposite side… to over a vehicle I was like waiting for atleast 5 minutes on an average… things became better once we reached the Meerut Bypass… it had started raining too…

We stopped at Kadrabad to have the famous Jain Shikanji… this time it was better then the last 4-5 times I had it… because of less crowd I guess…

By the time we reached Modinagar it had started raining very heavily… and I drove with the left tyres in water throughout the town… the other side of the road was flooded as well with water… rain stopped after Muradnagar… and it was nice drive back home from there… dropped Deepak at the NOIDA Mode… and Aseem drove back to his place in his car which was parked at my place…

So this was the trip!!! I enjoyed writing as much about it as the drive itself… it was nice to know Deepak a li’il more… Aseem was nothing unusual, he has been with me for a number of years now and I more or less know him!!!

And for people who missed out this trip!!! Well I cannot say much but tell them that they missed out on one of the best drives I have ever been to!!!

Oh!!! And Next month, I want to go to Bhakra Nangal… anyone Game?

OnCe A DoG !!! aLwAYs a DoG !!!

I used to be a Dog in my last birth... why... because I still have some traits left…

I am all over the people I care for and I like… At times to the extent of irritation, and the people who are not on the “I like you” list, always can hear the growl in the background from me… so if I like you, you would know it… but if I do not.. Then you probably would only hear some growling... And Silence!!!

I wanted to write about conversations… but for some reason I am not able to write about them… maybe I will soon!!! I actually was taken aback with something that one of my friends said about conversations…

To be frank at that time I felt that I was not good enough for getting into a conversation with her because I did not know shit about what she wanted to talk about… but then I was willing to listen, which apparently was not good enough for a decent convo… a lot of thoughts came into mind then… was knowledge really important between two friends to talk… do we talk because of what we know or because of what we are… are the friends I have made because I knew something… can I learn about things and be a good conversationalist… or is it going to make me a good speaker only…

Well... Here are two questions that I throw today in air...

1) What animal do you think you are and why?
2) What does it take for two people to be able to talk to each other? ( and I am talking about two people who are either friends or on the way to be friends)

MoRe Of SoMeTHiNgs !!!

There used to be a time when I never thought I am going to write... and then there was a time when I spent a good 4-5 years writing poems... both in Hindi and English... and then there was a day when I lost my diary in a trip to pune... and there were times when I had people I could talk my heart out with... and there were times when I thought I do not need ppl in my life to carry on... and then there were days when I wanted the world to end... and then there were times when I could not wait for tomorrow to come... there were times when I hated myself for being myself because that made ppl I cared for sad.. and then I went through times when people thought that it could not getting better when I was being me... there were times when I was not taken seriously because I usually am the entertainer and joke around a lot... and then I know of times when someone told me that you are as serious as you do not look like...

Life’s full of different kind of flavors... lovely some of them... and some that you want to forget... but at the end of the day... it’s not what you went through that count... it’s what you brought with yourself from that time!!! You know thats what life is all about!!!


Ok with this uncalled for dose of philosophy, let me turn the focus towards something that I have been doing for a long time... writing about the weekends... :)

You want to know what Grand is all about ... go watch Mission Impossible 3 from the 4th row from the front of a biiiiig hall.... manh!!! What action... totally loved it on Sunday!!!!

watching the trailers of Final Destination 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean and then moving to the trailer of Kkrish was like moving from a 6 bedroom penthouse apartment to a 1room flat... when would bollywood learn how to make action movies !!!! When.... we are good with emotional stuff... family oriented movies... but Hollywood is not bad either with emotions and romance and family... but when do I see graphics like Ice Age here? When do I see action like Top Gun here... well I am waiting... am sure so are you!!!


Deepak got the tickets done for the Srinagar Leh Flight in August... I am supposed to get the Volvo tickets for the Delhi-Manali route... the sad part is that I do not have any money right now... so I will wait till I get my salary and then get the tickets... hopefully I would get them around the 1st itself !!!


Got my car serviced as well on Saturday... all set for the long drive the coming weekend to Lansdowne... the baby is rocking!!!


Not much otherwise has been happening otherwise in life... have been talking to a few new people I have met online, Kishley or Dolly, Anku, Mayuri....

Missed Sayan and the long conversations with her...

Richa and I have not been able to talk for a while... a very long conversation with her is long due...

Office is just fine... nothing great about it... I can see more work coming in...

Rest.... later.....

MoNiToR UpGrAdED.... JeLLy DeStRoYeD...

Not much has happened in the last few days...

Though a lot of thoughts have come inside the mind and gone out... some of them left an impression as well...

Saturday was the ODM day.... which went pretty well... what was disappointing was the lack of new faces even after a whole hearted voting....

Sunday was not very exciting till I got a call from my mamaji in Meerut... I had asked him to arrange for a 17" monitor for me... one of his colleagues is dealing with some second hand computer peripherals there... Mamaji gave me a call @ 1900 hours and 1945 I was out with my cousin on the way to Meerut...

Reached there...exchanged my old LG Studio Works 14" monitor with a used Samsung DigiSync for a 1000 bucks... had dinner and came back...

another record was broken here... I drove 85 kms from mamaji's place to mine in about 72 minutes... the last best was 75 :) and the good part was that I did not really drive rash or anything.. Just the right overtakes at the right times did the trick... looked like the entire Delhi was coming from Haridwar that night...

Monday was a bad day... was not feeling well right from the morning and the day ended with slight fever... which saw me take an off from office on tuesday...

Tuesday turned out to be a good day though... made pasta... which was goooooood... so the entire preperation was finised quickly... in the evening had lotsa vanila icecream with Mangoes...

I had also done some work to make another dessert with Custard, Jelly, Mangoes, and Fruit Cake... but i screwed up the jelly part... i froze the bloddy jelly... and it looked like rock instead of the jelly in the morning today...

Anyway... better luck next time... i am going to excel in all kinds of desserts one day!!!

One Day I Will....

RaDhE RaDhE !!!

goods mornings ladies and gentalmans... in the series of the serious posts this week, one of the most important historical events was missed out on the blog...

No no, I am not talking about the biggest event in IBM India's history... I am talking about a drive on the DND which was completed in 2 minutes FLAT...

THE 1242 CC Fiat Palio Sports was moving at speeds of over 125 kmph roaring at 3500 rpm to better the previous record of 3 minutes by about a minute!!! yippieeeeeeeeeee and these 2 minutes include the stopping time at the toll plaza...

am I doing this again... yes I am sometime later... post the fitting of a K&N Filter in my car...

I am sure almost all of you know about how obsessed I am with my car... to make myself happy and to let you ppl know in detail here is what happened in September'04 which turned out to be one of the best and the fastest decision that I have made in the 27 years of my life on this planet!!!

I had joined IBM in august 2004, and suddenly I had to switch over to a self driven mode from being chauffeured around in office cabs for over 3 yrs!!!

The 800 though doing great was not the most reliable mode of transport as it was already 15 years old... and the need of buying a car arose from there...

Did some research... I did not want to buy a Hyundai and Papa did not like the looks of a Wagon R... even I was not too keen on the two Hatchbacks which were available...

my next stop was the Opel Showroom... and a discussion on the Opel Corsa and the Corsa Sail followed... Both of these are wonderful cars but for some reason I was not convinced to buy them...

So that Saturday evening, I thought I would go ahead and discover a Tata Indica... the car seemed to make a lot of sense in terms of fuel efficiency... I had thought of a few cosmetic changes that I wanted to do in the car which would have made the looks better too... changes like the spoilers, Upgraded Tubeless Tyres and Alloy Wheels and a few more... Me and mom were driving to the Nawab Motors when I took this wrong turn.. and instead of turning right towards the TATA Showroom, I took a left to see the Fiat Dealership in NOIDA, Dynamic Automobiles... I thought what the heck.. lets check this out now that we are here... So I enter the showroom... see a white Palio NV ELX which looked ordinary... and then turned LEFT !!! this turned everything :)

She was standing there.. all shining and smiling.. waiting for me to introduce myself to her :) which I did... took the keys.. sat inside the car.. checked out the interiors, the exteriors.. and fell in LOVE !!! it took me about 2 minutes to decide that a FIAT PALIO SPORTS FERRARI RED is what I wanted to buy !!! rushed out of the showroom.. and went back home... what helped freeze the decision was the autocar edition of that month that had rated about 100 cars on Indian roads on various parameters... Fiat Palio was rated the highest in personal satisfaction and build quality and various other parameters, however lacked big time in A.S.S. ( After Sales Service).. Went through the magazine a number of times, to ensure that I was taking the right decision... and then the next day went with Papa to see the car... and he had a similar reaction.. he loved the car.. he later told me that he always wanted to buy the Palio as well !!! Pa and I were in complete agreement with everything after a very long time :) and that ensured that the car was bought earlier then thought of...

I was thinking that I would do some more research to get the best price, but Pa decided that if I was keen on buying the car, I should not wait any longer and get the things taken care of the same day.. We sat down with the finance guy there.. worked out the EMIs and all.. and to our satisfaction he lowered the ROI as well a li'il bit to facilitate the purchase...

a down payment of 65000 was needed, and I did not have that kinda money :( I checked out both my bank accounts and could manage only 40K after taking out every single rupee from them... the rest 15K took from dad and made the payment the same day... We had initially thought of taking the car after the Shrads but the guy at Dynamic said that he could arrange for the delivery before they even begin.. and I was more then happy !!!

21st September is when I got the car; and 28th September is when the registration was done: It was a Tuesday and the car market in NOIDA was closed, I remember searching for a number plate guy, managing to find one finally, and getting the number plate made... 29th is when I took the car to Delhi for the first time !!!

I also did not tell anyone about the car, because she was something that ppl had to see and not hear about.. and I still smile when I think about the reactions I got from my friends :)

some of the things which were invariably asked and said about it were:

~ Yaar, gaddi to mast hai par fuel efficiency nai hai.. 7-8 ki deti hai sirf..

My reaction: I did not buy this car for efficiency; If you are comparing it with a Santro or a Wagon R then you are not doing the right thing.. they are about 250 Kg lighters... and it obviously takes less fuel to move a lighter vehicle... and I expect to get 11+ in city driving...

My comments today: I have been getting an average of over 12 kmpl with about 30% AC in the City... the last 4 tank fulls I got more then 13.5 kmpl with minimal AC usage...

~ Kya mast gaadi hai yaar.. par parts ki fight hai... milte nai aaraam se... ASS bhi kharab hai... aur parts are really costly too..

My reaction : I know... hope things improve with the FIAT management changing in India...

My comments today: I have not faced any trouble with the car except a windshield wiper motor trouble since I bought the car.. The parts availability yes was a problem but things have changed in the past few months... with the FIAT-TATA MOU getting signed.. the workshops where you can get your Petrol FIATs serviced have increased and improved, though I have not faced any issues with my workshop in NOIDA...

Some of the other observations that I have...

I ride with the biggest and the widest tyres that are there in any hatchbacks today.. I run on a 165/85/R14 Alloys which come factory fitted with the Sports Version... The only car that comes close to Palio wrt tyres is the Swift...

The large weight of the car ensures a better grip on the road and safety... when you close the doors you hear a thud and not a cluck unlike most of the cars even bigger in size...

I am still in love with the car after almost 24000 kms... to the extent that other then me only approx 10-20 kms must have been driven by anyone else...

My Car ROCKS !!!

DiLLi Ki GaRMi....

i cannot come out alive of the summers in delhi if the following are not there :

• Navratan Tel
  
• DermiCool Talc
• Cigar Deo
• Liril Soap
• Thandai/Sattu/RoohAfza
• Short shorts
• Weekends to get out of Delhi to a nearby unexplored hilly destination
• Water bottles in office

AnoThEr... WHY...

While I have been thinking of all the whys in my life... I got into a discussion about one of the important and inevitable whys in our lives with a friend...

Why do we get married...?

Why do your parents really want you marry as soon as you start earning a decent amount... at times as soon as you start earning (in cases of some girls)

Kanu said for every why, ask a "why not"

I asked why... and then I asked why not too... lemme see what came up as a result...

Why get married...

Get emotional support from your better half... if i may call her
Have someone to get back to...
Start a family...
Your parents wish...
You found the right girl... or maybe you just think that you found the right girl...
To become financially more dependent... to start planning accordingly with her...
You cannot wait any longer... you've been a virgin all your life... and marriage is the only savior now...

And now... why not?

Coz you are not ready...
Coz you think you are scared to take up this big a responsibility
Coz you are afraid that it’s too big a gamble...
Coz you want to live your life just a li'il more then what you have yet...
Coz you are an independent person... and really are not looking for a partner...
Coz you do not think marriage is going to add any value to your or your life...

I do not know how many of the above mentioned things are valid... they are just thoughts that came to my mind... and I do not necessarily agree to one or some or all of them... but then marriage I think is much more then answers to these questions...

Y....

WHY... how many times does this question go through between the time you wake up and go to sleep everyday...?

When I think... I think only about a lot of whys... and surprisingly we do not ask anyone why when things are going great... we only ask a WHY when something is wrong... and then we go ahead and say that we are honest and true ppl....

I do not know WHY I wrote this post... :) see another why :)...

I am not angry with myself... am not too happy either... there is nothing troubling me right now too... I am at ease with myself... and still when it comes to it, I can think of a million things which are not good and still happening to me... and I can things a few 100 things that are wonderful and happening as well...

God bless...

And I just got a comment from the client...

"Prashant knows what he is talking about... and is one of the most confident ppl I have met... but he should smile more when he is talking..."

I know that I smile less when I get into the work mode... i need to work towards taking care of this... and quick...

So FaaaR.... So... Goood !!!

you never get to find out how the weekend and the day after that get over... the only day that takes longest for me is Monday... and this time it got over in a second too... maybe because I did not get time to see the time... meetings after meetings.. Presentation preparations and more and more...

activities done over the weekend:
~ nothing was done on Saturday... the hardest and the slowest thing to do it this!!!
~ Sid the smartie sloth went to watch Da Vinci Code on Sunday and almost understood the movie except for the 5403 words that they used... which means he needs to work on his English...
~ Sid also met another cartoon on Sunday... and spent about 4 hours with her... which was fun.. Initially both of them did not know what to talk about before they realised that both of them were cartoons and insane... and this is where the conversation picked up from... this cartoon with Sid was a very nice one... she looks good... Talks nicely... and told a lot of things about herself... Which were all nice... so Sid is now looking for bad things about her... he for some reason is not interested in finding what’s good about her... I guess that comes on its way automatically.

Weekend ENDS!!!

MONDAY came... and WENT... as quickly as you read this line...

Tuesday phew... early morning alarm.... 0500 hrs... I rushed to the airport to catch the Mumbai bus... uffo... airbus :) and trust me Volvo's are better... at least there is no expectation to see a hott airhostess... here you first enter the airport to see some nice faces.. which you do not... and then the aircraft in a dying hope of having the company of some short skirted pretty chicks... which obviously does not happen...

and I think the chicks on the INDIAN airlines were better then this flight of JET !!! The breakfast was ok sorts...

Pune Airport is pretty small... Bangalore is smaller!!! Huh!!!
Got a cab... rushed to Pimpri just to realise that the meeting was delayed by a good couple of hours... so did not have a phone... did not have the net... and did not have anything better to do then spend time going through the same prez which I was working on for past two days...

oh.. And I saw the largest ever canteen in my entire life there in Pune!!! Phew...

did not forget to mention that the weather was excellent... I am sure Delhi was burning when it was raining there in Pune... went to the guest house in the evening and slept peacefully before waking up at 0600 hrs today... rushed to catch the Volvo to Mumbai...

and today ... all my charm for the Volvos came to an end.. because of the very badly kept State Transport Volvo :( dirty bus, shaking seats, leaking AC vents, what not) and to make things worse.. They had dark film on the windows... which meant that I would not be able to enjoy the view of the so called one of the best expressways in the country properly...

anyway... couldn't help it much...

it took about 50 minutes before we hit the actual expressway and I reached Mumbai in a li'il less then 3.5 hours...

two things that I loved about the journey...
~ the 10 km stretch before and after lonavla...never see this wide roads on hills...
~ the road quality... I am sure its going to be awesome driving with Radha on this road...

the view was ok sorts.... I have seen better...

went straight to JJMEHTA & Sons in Dadar(W) to return disappointed as they did not have the lens that I was looking for.. The one that they had was overpriced because of the unavailability...

now in Malad.... have the return flight around 2200 hrs... can't wait to get back to Delhi...

i ThE wRiTeR...

Nidhi..."i am not sure...."

Nikhil..." i am.... i cannot see tears in your eyes... i cannot imagine you crying... i cannot think of a day when you are not smiling... "

Nidhi..."why..."

Nikhil..." because the only person i want you to be with when you are crying is me... the only shoulder i want your head on when you are crying is mine... the only fingers who wipe your tears away when you are crying should be mine... the only arms that hold you tight when you cry should be mine... and I know this can never happen.. so you better not cry...."


...this is a scene from one of the movies I am going to direct sometime in my life....

ChEeR UP !!! HOW?

I have an alarm to get up at 0630 hours... but i do not remember when i really got up when the alarm rang for the the first time... i keep snoozing it for 5 minutes till it does not give me the option anymore... and then i have to get up !!!

Today... when I got ready and came out of the house... it was very hot... not because of the sun because there was none visible in the sky... there were clouds and some mist...

It was hot like you are standing inside a room which is being heated... the entire air was like that... Something felt wrong...

It was a very depressing weather... and I am going to talk about things which do not make me happy for a while now...

To start with the disadvantage India has with its politicians.... the power that has been given to these guys... so while we all are angry with Arjun Singh... and not happy with the decisions the Government is making... how many of us have actually promised ourself that we are going to vote the next time there are elections.. and also would ensure that we ask as many ppl as we can to vote...

I know of so many ppl who have enjoyed vacation when there were election days and also crib about the government at the first instance...

so while I think the country is being run by a handful of idiots along with some intelligent powerless politicians... Its we who also have a major role to play in this entire drama!!!

Now!!!

When I am depressed because of anything there are a few things I want to do... the first of-course is drive and listen to music... which I did... Radha is the PERFECT companion when things do not seem right!!! And music in the car obviously does not need any mention here...

So what do I listen to today...? Mehfuz... Euphoria's new Album... wonderfully made... a lot of effort is there in the tracks... and the band seems to have matured with time a lot... but there is something that disappointed me… There was not one song that could cheer me up the way "Dhoom" or "Maeri" or "Gully" or "Kaise Bhoolegi Mera Naam" did... which means that I am not going to go back to this album when I need to be happy!!!

that brings to a happier thought... what all do I do when I want to cheer up...

~ I drive...

~ I listen to music... some of the songs in particular are "Kabhi Aana Tu Meri Galli", " Kaise Bhoolegi Mera Naam", " Meri Pyaari Bindu- Original","Jaaneman Jaaneman Tere Ye Do Nayan, chori chori Lekegaye Dekho Mera Mann", " Ek Ladki bheegi bhaagi si", "Ek Chatur Naar", "Getting Jiggy With it", "Summer of 69", "Sweet Child o Mine", and lots more...

~ I eat... and my favourite places are street side stalls or dhabas... I am just not a restaurant fellow... Streets it is for me :)

~ I talk... there are a few friends I always can think of when I am not feeling too good...

~ I sit alone... and look at the sky... not that it cheers me up all the time... but then it relaxes me a lot...

What do you do to cheer yourself up?

Ek AuR HaFTa...

i did not get time the entire day today to write about the weekend... what a shame... and i was saying that i was not busy with a lot of work... chi chi...

anyway...

a lot of time today was spent in orkutting... and some regular office work... but what is interesting was the weekend... and here is the weekend-o-logue

Saturday started early because of some long overdue catching up to do with a few friends...

met Sayan first... and showed her some of the photographs that i have clicked in the past one year... she is the person who is going to give me a break as a professional photographer and that makes me very proud of her and myself too...

next in the line to meet me was Richa... and she looked HOTT with her nose stud!!!

next we met Deepu..... second time after he has come back from Chennai... the dude still looks super cool...

and then Rohit... the same S and F fella....

oh and by the way... Rohit and Richa are pyaar se called Kidda and Kiddi... i dunno who has given then these names... but the names are very cute...

and after we climbed up the stairs of Taste of China, Abash aka amtg joined us with a badly bruised left hand... some assoholotic car driver was responsible for this halat of this dude...

and then something very interesting started... my childhood friend Ankur while trying to find the Taste of Chine roamed around the entire CP and finally reached the "flavours of China" before he realised that he is in front of the wrong restaurant... and then called me to find the correct place... did not understand the direction even after two calls... however managed to reach ToC about 45 minutes after the scheduled time :P

while this was happening.. Prashant Bhardwaj and Om for some celebrated his birthday with some of this best online pals... a cake cutting ceremony was there... followed by some nice singing by everyone around... and on demand "babuji zara dheere chalo" was also chanted... once all of this was done.. everyone ate the cake and lived happily ever after !!!

So Ankur and with him Anku also joined us !!!

a series of discussions followed which included...

why is October associated with the number eight.. and why octopuses are most horny in the month of October...

we learnt and practised a new grammar where in if you have to use the work Fcuk... you use it in front of the word.. and if you have to use the $uck you use it after the word with an $ at the end... e.g. Fcuk the glass... and the glass $uck$... we guys even thought of taking over the workshop that Sayan was going to attend and change the topic to Rohit's new grammar... kidda got offended a li'il but he was fine after a while...

we talked about the food...

we talked about ODMs... Anku did not know what ODMs are.. so her knowledge was increased with some Gyan on it...

we talked about a lot of things other then the above... and that meant a whole lot of fun... which finally came to a temporary halt after the money for the food was collected...

next we said ta tu to sayan who left for her workshop..

and then ta tu to Anku.. who left !!! she did not tell us where was she going... and it might have offended her if i asked.. so i did not ask either :)

and palika is where we reached next.. bought a few movies...

Matrix Triology

Munich

MI - III

The fast and the furious/2 fast 2 furious/ XXX and XXX2

and one more.. ab yaad nai kaunsi !!!

went back home soon after that...

evening was spent at home taking care of the construction work !! things are kinda shaping up at home right now..

Sunday was spent in some regular home stuff... going to the market to buy some electrical sockets.switches.etc.etc. discussing the stairs in the house.. and a lot of other things...

and then comes Monday.. the sabse ganda day of the week after Sunday !!!

the best part about the day was...

~ getting some compliments from Anku :P and getting into some conversation with her about instructional designing and all :)

~ getting angry over some things in the office and telling a few ppl about how things should work... getting angry and taking that anger out at the right ppl is so satisfying at times...

~ completing the work i had thought about in good time...

~ and being able to write this post..

to abhi chalta hoon.. phir milta hoon :)

bhagwaan hum sabko sadbuddhi de :)

McLeodganj Re-ViSiTeD...

Oklie doklie doks...

on our way to triund

in triund or on triund... i dunno :)

i did not think twice before i deleted most of my landscapes... *is rohit happy :)* and i am not too happy with the people that i have clicked this time... why.. because most of it was not thought of... but clicked very very quickly...

a monastery near our hotel...

so a lot of fotos deleted...
some of them ignored...
some out of focus and useless..

and the rest... have been uploaded...

from the dalai lama temple...getting jiggy with it :) *4-10e*

and i am happy :) you can click here and be happy too :)

so basically i would be found somewhere on the streets when i am traveling next... just clicking more janta...

CaN... TaLk...MoRe...

guess what did i do today...

ok.. forget it... i will tell you...

i used to think that ABS (Anti-Lock Brakes) means Disc Brakes in the rear wheels... and was wondering how come the Swift and the Accent Viva have Drum brakes and still claim to have ABS.. while a Corolla has a Disc Brake and also has an ABS ( which looked right to me )

so i finally decide to research and read about it...

the first stop was the yahoo answers site.. i have been looking at its banner for a while now on the DND.. but it did not have a lot of good content in this context.. and next i went to the site where i get all my answers... not about life though...

jai ho howstuffworks.com ki
so i read about
ABS

and then I read about the
Disc Brakes

and i now carry some more knowledge then what i had about 2 hours back..

and hey...

i also read about Toyota Innova today... i love that car...

so if you want you can talk to me about three more topics now...

• Anti-Lock Breaks
• Disc Breaks
• Innova...

am i cool or what :)

oh... and this is how my house is looking these days....

ToUriStS iN McLeoDGanJ...

"Day 0: Wednesday"

office was not the regular office... and had to go the CP office and not the Okhla one...
left at 1700 hrs somehow after completing some important work... and reached the Himachal Bhawan.. i was to find out about the buses to Dharamsaala here... it was only me and Tushar who were going on the trip...

i really really wanted to take Radha along.. but looks like Goddie had different plans and he made us take a bus.. actually not "A" bus but multiple buses on our way to Dharamsaala...

the Volvo leaves ISBT at 2000 hrs and was full... there is another bus at 2015 hrs which apprantly was cancelled.... so we could not take it either.. another funny thing that happened was that the guy at Himachal Bhawan told me that the buses leave from there.. but the buses are from ISBT which meant that we got late for both the buses and were not in a position to take any of them either...

anyway... a look at the queue for the ordinary bus to Dharamsaala made me almost cancel the plan... too many ppl... and rotten buses... so we decide to find out private buses to Dharamshaala... we managed to get one... which we boarded at 2130 hours from ISBT... it then went to Lal Quila... and then again to the IST.. and then again to the Lal Quila.. before it took at U-turn to stop on the other side of the road in front of the Lal Quila again...

i so far have never spent this much time in a bus ever without the bus going anywhere... oh.. and about the bus.. this was a sleeper class bus... someone which is kinda common in Rajasthan.. infact the bus had a registration on Jaipur as well...

we finally moved out of delhi around 2300 hrs... and then stopped at the border for fuel... and then again for some Tax related issues.... the bus finally picked up some speed after crossing the border which was around 0000 hrs... and it reached Chandigarh is about 4 hours only.. including a 30 minute break near Pipli...

"Day 1: Thursday"

most of the time in the bus was spent sleeping.. so i am not too sure of the route that the bus took after Chandigarh... however we had taken this bus till Pathankot and we managed to reach there around 0800 hrs... took a private bus to Gaggal from Pathankot and completed this distance of about 80 kms in about 3 hours... and then another bus to dharamsaala from Gaggal... and then one more bus to McLeodganj... our final stop !!!

her name is Zema which means beautiful... isn't she?

on our way we got some valuable information about what do to and where to stay from a guy too... so we decided not to stay in Dharamsaala and moved to McLeodganj instead... which actually turned out to be better...

i broke my favorite shades on the trip.. now left with only the frame :)

took a decent room for 350 bucks a night... and then moved out of the room to walk around... Tushar suggested that we should do the local sightseeing the same day.. which meant hiring an auto for 200 bucks... and a visit to nearby places like the Dal Lake, St. John's church, some view point, and finally the Bhagsu Nag Temple... we also went for a short long walk from the temple to a nearby waterfall... spent about 1.5 hours to and fro... got into an argument with the Auto-wala because he said that we should not have spent more then 30 minutes there... anyway...

a view from our hotel...the small hump that you see on the first mountain is Triun...

went back to the hotel... and then went out again for food and all...

McLeodganj is a very very neat place if you want to experiment with food.. there is so much to eat... i had Spaghetti with Cheese for Lunch, India Food (though i did not want to) for dinner.... all sorts of Italian, Tibetan, continental food is available.. and not too expensive either...

Another highlight of the place:
Figures to kill for and Skins to Die for... so many firangi chicks around... and if thats not enough.. there is more !!! the Local Chicks are more or less awesome too...

I was certainly feeling out of place... there were either Tibetans or firangies around.. anyway...

so after a long day.. i slept while i was talking to tushar... and then i guess he went out and sat in the balcony for a while.. before he slept too...

our room...nice.. clean...

Day 2: Friday

We had done some homework to find out about the bus back home the last evening... and managed to get a ticket for the Saturday Volvo in the morning...

next on the agenda was a trek to Triun... we could see it from our hotel balcony and it looked far away too...



the breakfast here is worth mentioning.. the farmer's breakfast and the JJI breakfast.. at the JJI cafe.. will talk about it later too...

we took an auto till Gallu Temple.. which was a good 6 kms away... and the roads ( well thats what i can think of calling that path as cars, jeeps, autos etc. are supposed to move on it) were scary... something that needs a good 4 wheel drive was being negotiated with a 150 cc three wheeler.... with all the weight at the back.. increasing the chances of going down the hill on the small mistake.. anyway.. we were lucky.. and managed to reach the place where we had to start off with the trek...

in about 10 minutes we reached a T point.. and had to choose between one of the two directions... and no one to guide too... i chose one... and it took us about 20 more minutes to reach a point which looked like a dead end.. crossed the mountain with some support from the rocks at the edge... and managed to move to the other side.. we had to be careful not to slip... we did not...

and after walking for a good 2.5 hours on a path second to the worst i have walked on.. we reached the top of the mountain... Triun... the pain was worth it... i cannot explain what it looked like with words.. maybe the picture would help...

Triun...

lots of foriegners... and a few shops... this was the best place to spend a couple of days... the only sounds were crows or air.. and an occasional cheer of the ppl around... lovely.. beautiful...

Triun again...

on our way back to McLeodganj... the walk took over 3 hours... phew... it was tough..

the walk back was tiring.. and longer.. as we had to walk those 6 kms done in the auto on foot this time... managed to reach McLeodganj around 1800 hrs... had tea and mango lassi in one of the roof-top restaurants... went back to the hotel... rested for a while.. and then came out for a walk...

somewhere....

just walked around before i wanted to sleep... came back to the hotel.. and slept in peace...

Day 3 : Saturday...

Saturday started late... packed our bags.. checked out of the hotel... went to Dharamshaala.. found the Kangra museum of Art closed because of a local holiday... came back to McLedoganj... spent the entire afternoon in the JJI's cafe... about this place now... JJI is a name that comes from the Initials of the JJI EXile Brothers... the cafe is a small shop with 4 tables.. and about 10 chairs... awesome music.. wonderful food.. and the best place to spend time in, if you want to just relax... had the best Honey ginger Lemon tea there... had some great Farmer's breakfast... and some delightful Pasta in Tomato Cheese Sauce...loved it...

took the bus back to Delhi @ 1900 hours... wonderful bus.. a semi sleeper to Delhi... reached delhi in 12 hours.. and home around 0800 hrs on sunday...

The Trip ends !!!! AWESOME... LOVED it...

time for some tips/statistics....
~ Total money spent in Travel : 1400 bucks per head (Private buses Delhi-Pathankot, Pathankot-Gaggal, Gaggal-Dharamsaala, Dharasaala-McLeodganj; Back in a Volvo 750+ bucks per head)
~ Stay : 350 a room per night...
~ Food : depending on what you want to eat.. the food however is not expensive at all... a meal for two should not cross 200 bucks even if you eat a lot...

~ This is a place to just relax.. and chill.. and go for a couple of treks... if you are interested in treks... ensure that you carry some good shoes, some medicine, water, and food...
~ Enjoy the variety of food available...

and HAVE FUN...

p.s. i will have the pics by Wednesday.. hope to upload them the same day too...

JuSt LikE ThAt....

do din kaa bahi khata....

yesteday while going to the office.. got a call from a colleague and he told me that all the routes to the office are blocked... MCD demolitions, protests and all... which meant that there was no way i could reach office...

which meant a plan B... and i worked from the CP office... i like CP... love it infact... hope the new buildings do not screw up the heritage still left in CP... managed to roam around the place a bit, went to chandni chawk too to get the film rolls... talked to Sayan.. met Ashi in the BCL... and then went over to meet up with richa... and bumped into Sayan in the Khan Market... so all in all.. some activity filled day..

and when i reached office.. i saw my room which no longer looks even close to a room all broken.. the picture shows something that used to be my room at sometime.. and thats my bed.. and my pillow... all full of dust and mitti now :(

you should be able to see the main gate outside and radha in the driveway too... when i am back from the trip.. things would have changed big time...

yesterday evening...

~got pissed with tushar because he was not replying to the message that i sent about the trip...

~got sad that the trip looked like its not going to happen...

~was fine once managed to talk to tushar... and the probable mode of travel to dharamshala...

as per my calculation... if i am talking my car to dharamshala and using the local transport there.. its going to be cheaper then the volvo.. will need to work on the rest of the expenses a li'il to tweak them...

mom looked comfortable with the idea of me taking the car even if there are two ppl... they are fine with the way i drive i guess :) which is good for me...

today in CP too.. meeting sayan in a while for lunch at Subway...

what else...

nothing actually...

ta tu for now....

MoNdAy.... CoMeS... TOo... QuiCk....

looks like i am down to writing only weekend posts :)

shweta are you still loving it * in the Mc Donalds tone*

well... this weekend was different from the other ones so far... spent in dust, heat, soil etc etc... there was not much that i was doing.. however resting and getting out was certainly out of question...

wanted to go to Chandni Chowk to get some film rolls for the trip, but did not go... thanks to the unbearable heat outside...

sunday was more or less a repeat of saturday... except the time spent at the workshop....
got the car washed properly.... and the wheel balancing and the alignment done....


came home and polished the car... and she is looking hott now...

and then came monday... sooner then needed... and i am in the office.... not feeling like working at all....

hoping that the next two days quickly get over... wednesday night i have to get out of delhi for dharamshaala...

anyone joining me?

qUiCkiE :)

the last two days have been really busy in office.... phew...

and summers have arrived in delhi... it only makes sense to reach office before 0900 hrs.. so that i can save myself from the traffic as well as the heat...

and not leave office before the sun sets... bad bad summer...

construction would start at home today... we are building a floor for ourself.. any ideas, contact details and suggestions on the interiors/exteriors/furniture/paint combo/ flooring/kitchen works would be appreciated...

and i am getting back to work now...

TwO DaYs...TOo MuCh FuNn...

this weekend was fun !!!

spent most of time outside home... and below is a list of things i did..
~ saw two movies.. back to back...
~ went to gurgaon for a night out with friends...
~ enjoyed the ride of a Yamaha 350D LT at 110 kmph on the Highway...
~ test drove a car for a friend.. and looked at a few more...
~ went out to my maasi's place...
~ talked to richa for 29 minutes and some seconds which she says is a record...


the details follow...

first movie... Mistress of SPICE

one of the most masaledaar movie ever in Bollywood... and it wins because of the sheer amount of spices in the movie... i mean most of the movie has been shot inside a store which Aishwarya Rai owns... called Spice Bazaar... and Aishwarya Rai is called TILO in this movie...

now comes the interesting part.... Tilo says that everyone has a spice for him/her.. which is a fair deal... and all the spices which are in the Spice Bazaar... talk to Tilo... and as soon as someone enters the store.. Tilo finds out what spice he/she wants... there is this lover boy who wants to woo his girl... so she gives him recipes and spices that help.. and then there is this young Surd who is not one of the most popular guy in the neighborhood.. so she hides some daalchini in his turban.. and in a few weeks.. he comes back all dude-ish and all.. with a crew cut and all...

and so on a so forth..

the real excitement begins.. when Tilo starts liking this guy called Doug... and does not give him the spice he should get.. but gives him sometime else.. Tulsi to be specific... for remembering things.. and then he comes back to her to share what he remembered... and then to make him come out with his inner deepest secrets she gives him limewater with Pepper... so that he shares his secrets.. and because of all this.. the Spices get angry with Tilo and start reacting in a way they should not.. things go beserk.... WHY... because Tilo broke the rules... phew !!!

and then she decides to get out of her business.. and then gets ready for a night of passion... related to Red Chillies for some reason... and she does.. whatever she wants to do that night.. and then burns herself.. and the store is all destroyed.... the next morning however she lives... without a scratch on her body !!!
and then i guess the boyfriend and this spice girl live happily ever after.. I GUESS !!!


and this movie was a li'il too hot to handle for me... which meant that i had to watch another movie to come out of the state of shock... so what do i do... i go to the ticket counter.. and buy the tickets for ICE AGE II...

i loved the part I and II did not disappoint either...although the part one was better... it had a better ishtory.. which looked natural...
this time it looked like more of an attempt to make ppl laugh... not that it was not successful.... my favorite Sid the Sloth still remains my favorite... Maddy the Mammoth did things he did not feel comfortable in for the other mammoth chick... and the squirrel SCRAT.. who was nuts after the nuts.. was still nuts after the nuts... Diego... overcome his fear for water as well in the part II....

and the new characters are
Ellie... who thinks that if someone says that she has a huge butt.. he is sweet !!!
Crash and Eddie who are possums.. and are maha-shararti... and nasty !!! to start with they made life kinda difficult for Diego and Sid...

loved the movie... loved it loved it loved it...

also ate.. an over-expensive parantha... which was less of the parantha.. and more of the stuffing...

so much for the movies...

the evening was spent at home.. more or less.. and moved out of the house to reach gurgaon around 1900 hrs... was in gurgaon by 2030 hrs... this was the last party at Aro's place... U24/25.. this house has seen more years and parties then any other house in Hughes gang !!! so we talked.. ate...drank... smoked.. till morning.. and came back... it was a total fun !!! its surprising how even after changing jobs... being in different shifts... making new friends.. the entire batch 1 and 2 of Hughes BPO ( which is no more there) is still together...and a parallel party was there in Banglore.. arranged by subbu... with Arun, Sammy, Sushant, Amit Junior and all... I guess Kailash was there too...

me and Narang went to his place around 2200 hrs to grab the video card i needed.. and that is when we put the rest of the bikes and the cars and the trucks to shame @ speeds over 100 kms per hour... Narang is a tech freak.. and it shows in his computer and his bike... ask him anything and he knows... i am so proud of him.. so so proud of him !!!

so that was saturday !!! spicy to start with... funny in the middle.. and happy in the end !!!


Sunday started late... around 1100 hrs... and then a quick 20 minute drive to Mausi's place where we discussed the blueprint for her house... which they started constructing.. and back by 1600 hrs.. Amit came over by 1630 hrs.. and we went to see a few cars for him...

the first one.. Ford Ikon flair... at a on-road price of 5.08 lacs this approx 78ps car looks a decent buy... it looks like the most spacious in its category... however they say that maintaining a ford is kinda tough.. and a few of my friends know this by experience...

the next car was a Indigo.. where we were greeted by a useless Salesman.. who did not know shit about the car he was selling.... so that takes Indigo out of the compeition atleast as of today..

i also wanted amit to try a Petra.. which most of the ppl do not know about... in the same 5-5.5 lac category... this car is the best technically... and otherwise too.. compare the power, mileage, maintenance, space, safety.. whatever... Petra wins in and out... anyway.. we could test drive a Petra or see it on display either.. so hard luck..

the last stop was Rohan Motors... Swift and Esteem... Esteem gives a low quality feel... not really worth a test drive even.. Swift looks good... and feels good too.... smaller windows make you feel that you are sitting inside a box.. and gives a sense of security too.. less glass on the car makes it better for summers in India... however it probably is not the best value for money... but then.. its a premium hatchback.. and ppl who have that kinda money should definitely spend on swift...

back home in the evening... after a quick stop at the TeaShop... and then i got down to changing the Video Card for my computer... now i have a nVidia GE Force AGP Card in my computer which is powered by a AMD Sempron 2400+ processor ( 1.7 GHz) with a 512 MHz SD RAM... i was trying to download some CPU utilities too for my machine yesterday.. but could not... they were for AMD Athelon.. though the site said that they will work on a Sempron too... anyway...

Today was just like any other Monday.. hectik... coming to an end though....

lets see how the week goes...