Scotch - Land...

And I thought travel in India was painful... well for those who have not been to a place outside India, there is something to feel good about... the buses that drive you around long distances in India... and the trains that take you places... are much more comfortable than the ones in the UK... atleast london...

The Virgin trains have seats that do not recline at all, so you sit at an angle of about 100 degrees throughout your journey... you cannot even feel comfortable after 45 odd minutes, forget about sleeping on the train... the only good point being that they are much much faster than any of the other trains I have been in, and that means that the discomfort does not really last for long...

It did long for about 2.5 hours each way from London to Manchester for me though... and the fares... phew!!! Sky rocketing!!! A return trip to Manchester could be anything between 150 pounds to 200 pounds... and that is expensive by any standards...

Anyway... for Edinburgh... trains usually take about 4.5 hours so me and Abhishek initially thought of taking the train, but it was about 112GBP one way, and we were almost on the verge of dropping the idea to travel because of this high train fare... and then the national express came to our rescue... this is a bus service that operates out of London to various places around Europe including Paris etc.... I was hoping something closer to the Indian Volvos, if I can use that term here, to take me to Edinburgh... the ticket was cheap about 50GBP return... and i had my fingers crossed only to realise that the seat moves back only about 2 inches... and there was just the amount of legroom that would fit a 5'8" person comfortably... and I just cannot write how much I was missing the Volvos that I have travelled in, in India... they are sheer luxury...

The place is full of ppl who can paint you in minutes... amazing...

We left London on 10th around 2300 hrs and reached Edinburgh around 0730 hrs... the City Centre where there is the coach station... Took a cab to our hotel Park View on the Hermitage Street, about 10 minutes away from the main hub of the city... the Royal Mile... and this is where most of the action around the Fringe Festival was happening !!!

Posters and pamphlets of activities for the festival...

Posters and pamphlets of activities for the festival...

We realized that the reception was closed and we could not check-in until 1300 hrs... and it was only 0830 hrs when we reached the hotel... this meant that we would have to head back to the city... and roam around and come back in the evening to check in... Which we did... the chef at the hotel was kind enough to get us two large mugs of coffee that really helped us wake up... i had a stiff neck thanks to the all night journey, but there was li'il that we could do... so we bought a day ticket for 2.5 GBP and headed back to the city... and it actually turned out to be a great day!!!

One of the best street performances I ever saw... was by these guys above...

He is balanced on the pole using his leg muscles only...

Managed to check out a few venues of the annual Fringe Festival, went to the gates of the Castle and decided not to go in. went to a visual gallary called Camera Abscura instead and enjoy roaming around the entire 5 floors for about 2 hours... Camera Abscura had a room on the 5^th floor with mirrors on the top and they reflecting onto a oval screen on the bottom… went through a small 20 minute presentation there to see the entire town through those lenses and thought of how different it would have been for people to see that screen back in the 18^th century where there was nothing called a TV around, forget about a live telecast, which were looking at there on that screen…

No this is not a real woman... this is a picture of her.. which looks 3-D because of some light techniques...

And me :)

View from a bridge on the Princess Street... The castle in the background on the right is Edinburgh Castle...

more or less that day belonged to the streets and a nice Italian lunch at a restaurant on the Royal Mile...We did not do much the rest of the day but just walked around the centre of the town enjoying the hustle bustle, and the festival activities... there were about 300 Fringe Festival Venues and it is practically impossible for someone to check out everything even in the entire festival duration... and we did not even try that... I was keener on being on the streets and get a feel of the place instead of being inside a theater and spend time there...

A Red-Indian band playing... nice it was...

One of the best street performances I ever saw... was by these guys above...

We went back to our hotel around 1400 hrs and slept for 3 hours before we headed back to the Princess Street... the agenda this time was to eat, and then check out some local clubs... I had one of the best Indian dinners of my life @ 9Cellers and then we walked around the place before we club-hopped ;) two clubs... cannot remember the name of the first one, but the second one was Subway... and it had some nice music playing with I guess teenagers dancing their asses out on the floor... and I have to say that people in India dance much much better in clubs as compared to whatever I have seen in England so far... no offences meant here though!!! I even managed to witness something that I had only heard of so far here... a girl (not sure about her age) smooching two guys and a girl within about 30 minutes on the dance floor... it was kind of strange to see... anyway... we were back at the hotel around 0100 hrs to wake up early for our day tour of Scotland which we booked during our walk in the city...

On a cycle with one wheel.. two knives, one torch, and blindfolded juggling...phew...

Day 2: Sunday 12th August...

Highland tours had arranged for this day tour... and the bus was a Mercedes which helped :) the seats were much more comfortable and they reclined back… which made the entire day very very comfortable… we were to spend the entire day in the bus traveling around the country visiting various places…

another night view...

Starting at 0830 hrs and back by 1930… this trip was something that we could do best to check out the country... especially when it had been raining like crazy, there was not much that I would have managed to see in the city itself…

It kept raining most of the time when I was there... :(

So the route we followed was: Edinburgh -> Pitlochry -> Dalwhinne -> Fort William -> Loch Ness -> Glencoe -> Sterling -> Edinburgh…

The bus that took us around the country...

We stopped @ Pitlochry first and had breakfast… me and Abhishek kind of wandered towards a river there... and almost got late... but managed to be just on time for the bus to leave…

Most of the time our guide, Michael, kept telling us stories about the kings and the events and made sure that the rain outside does not dampen the spirit inside… the weather Gods like always were kind to me this time as well.. And after a few hours of rains the blue skies opened up and the nice bright sunshine filtered through the scattered clouds…

A cruise on “arguably the most famous water body in the world” Loch Ness, the home of the famous Nesse the Monster was amazing… it was kind of scary to see that black water… and to experience that too windy winds was great as well… it got really cold because of the water and winds.. But I guess I managed it just right...

Loch Ness from the Cruise Boat...

A live 3-D view from the monitoring systems in the boat... what you see here is the bottom of the Loch Ness... Can you see Nesse somewhere? :)

We drove for most of the day stopping at a few places… and our last stop was @ Glencoe where the entire bus managed to taste the famous Scottish Whiskey... and did some shopping too... I too bought some liquor J and in the smallest possible bottles… so that I have something to display from Scotland when I head back home…

Darooooooooooooo... loads and loads of it...

Managed to reach back by 1930 hours… roam around a li’il more… buy a muffler for myself… the typical Scottish Red checks… and take the bus back to London @ 2200 hrs… the bus had more Indians than others.. And it really looked like a Delhi-Jaipur bus instead of an Edinburgh-London one …

All tired and happy… I managed another short but made long weekend trip... and this time in a different country than India… Happy to have done that…

Oh.. this is nothing special... just one Matiz that I saw in Edinburgh.. picture for my good friend Deepak :)

The city of mis-pro-noun-ciations...

So Edinburgh... which used to sound like how its spelt is now Edin-bura or Edin-bora...

And Greenwich... which also used to sound like how its spelt.. is now Grenich... phew...

and Gloucester.. which again i would pronounce as Glo-Shes-Terr... is to be pronounced as Glo-S-Ter...

I spend every day about 2 hours in the amazingly complicated but simplifying life, tubes... with men wearing nice suits.. and women in all sorts of formal and informal dresses... with that whistling sound that a tube makes when it moves fast... real fast...

There are loads of free papers in the city as well like the Metro and thelondonpaper...and most of the people would pick them up from the stations and read them through and through before leaving it in the tube for someone else to read... interesting... and what makes it more interesting is that such papers are built out of 80% recycled paper and only 20% fresh fibre... and the cycle goes on...

the administration here advertises use of cycles for smaller distances... and anything that emits less CO2 into the environment... good... and the focus stays...

People say sorry and thank you as if its hard coded in their breathing cycle and live as mutually exclusive humans with no or li'il concern about what the other person is doing... strange how everyone can manage this slightly difficult balance of being polite and courteous while not caring about the rest of the world at all....

The buses run all night... and you are sure to reach home, mostly safe, at any hour of the day...

Places like Piccadilly circus stay open till wee hours in the morning... and there are a whole lot of 24 hour food shops around...

its really a life of convenience here...

and it has its flip sides too... which i shall talk about later...

As of now the strangest thing is to sit in London and saying Happy Independence Day to fellow Indians... seems like a joke or a pun and definitely intended...

Anyway... hope you be free too !!! shed your slavery to the thoughts of boredom and sadness... and be free to see a new light of energy and happiness...

Amen !!!

2 Years of Travel...

Being in a different country is different for sure :) I have been in England for about a week now and it for sure has been an experience…

Right from the longest flight I sat in, to the amazing view of the mountains in Afghanistan, to the plain deserts of some part of the world, to a collection of 53 movies to watch from, to my first stamp on the VISA, to a complete day of not speaking Hindi, to not being able to call anyone I really really wanted to… its been quiet an experience…

I should also be congratulating myself for something that I do not think many people have been able to do... and that is for the last 24 months, i.e., starting from July’05 I have been traveling outside Delhi every month !!! Is that a record of sorts or something? And I complete 2 years of this every month trip with my first International trip!!! God has been kind to me… very kind…

London is good… and I am at just the right time here, bright at sunny with no rains so far… amazing skies… and the so called summers in the country… in the last one week, I have seen more legs and umm… cleavages then the rest of my life.. Phew… it gets too hard to handle at times when women actually move around in the bare minimum they can wear for work…. But then why should I be complaining?

London is similar and London is different… London has humans who behave like machines and as if they are on a conveyor belt… the tubes keep running, the people move out first, and then the people move in… they stand on the right side of the escalators and walk on the left… they look before they cross the road… not crossing on the red lights… its mechanical… as if some super natural power ( read self-discipline) controls everything here… and at times, it can really get to your head !!! It did to mine for sure… a couple of times…

Have been able to see the famous London Tower Bridge, walk for over 4 hours on the Queen’s walk next to the river Thames, checked the slow moving London Eye and the heard the Big Ben… Not to mention have clicked a few pictures as well to compliment my stay here in the city… With Abhishek’s help, who has been kind enough to keep me with him for the time I am here this month, I managed a trip to one of the best places I have been to… Camden town… the punk place… had an amazing time walking around the streets there... and ended the day with a fantastic performance by some street musicians… loved that day of mine…

Another day that I would like to remember for good is the visit to the “Prime Meridian” of the world… the line that divides the world into two halves... amazing feeling that was to see that line... and the 24 hour clock… and the view that place gives of London... too many goodies in one there…

Also managed one day work related trips to Manchester and Gloucester in this week… and after work did walk around the two places to capture some of it in my camera… yes yes... I have talked about pictures... there are going to be uploaded soon... gimme sometime please…

Rest is fine… The life is good… with a few exceptions of course... but I guess I can manage that…

Will keep writing…

ASK-ing for More and Getting it...

Joy comes with Passion... and Passion usually fuels the will to do things...

My joy came a few weeks ago when I managed to visit Ambikapur and 3 villages near the place on a project related to Sanitation being managed by ASK

Some information about the project before I carry on with what I did there...

"The Chattisgarh PMU is a Gender Sensitive Sustainable Sanitation improvement and management through community initiative project. This was a demonstrative project over a period of one year. The project was implemented in areas where ADB funded rural road project has been completed.

The project has two main objectives. These are:

* To successfully demonstrate a sustainable sanitation program model implemented and managed collectively by the community stakeholders
* To ensure the availability of a practical process based manual on implementation of sanitation program

The strategies applied for the project were:

* Strengthening of Self Help Groups
* Formation of women federation
* Formation of Village sanitation committees (VCS)
* Formation of Project management committee (PMC)."

My journey from Chandigarh to Ambikapur took almost 18 hours...
Chandigarh - Delhi : Train in about 4 hours (including the road travel to home from station)
Delhi - Banaras flight : about 2.5 hours
Banaras- Ambikapur Road trip : About 9 hours

The best part of the travel was being introduced to the sleeper class buses.. not that I had not seen them before but getting to travel in them on a hot and humid evening, was something that i was not really looking forward to :)

Finally after being in an auto with about 10 people with all my bags on me, and a wait of about 30 odd minutes somewhere almost outside Banaras, the bus finally moved... Had Bindiya for company and that helped me forget most of the issue i was having so far... Manas Da who was travelling with us, also made me pretty comfortable with his presence. Never felt as if I was meeting him for the first time... My faith in the vibes and that they matter a lot actually got strengthened after I met him...

So Bindiya and me spent a lot of time chatting off in the bus and she also managed to freak me out my moving her legs in the dark... scary !!! phew... did manage to sleep for a while though after getting scared !!! The bus stopped at a place called Renukoot for dinner around midnight, and we had some amazing dal and roti there...

Finally managed to reach Ambikapur, which is the project office, around 0300 hrs on the morning of 21st July... Met Puneet who has been instrumental in the success of the project and slept for a couple of hours before moving towards our destination... the first village of the three we were to visit... Hirratikra... about 30 odd kms away from Ambikapur, which is the district headquater for the Sarguja District in Chattisgarh, This village is the second on the road built under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY)

Out of the five villages on the road, three were chosen by ADB and ASK to work on the project, namely Hirratekra, Korea and Kandrai...

We spent the 21st in Hirratekra talking to the people there... Here is what I learnt...

SHG - SelfHelp Group
Small groups made by womenfolk of the village. And women in the group pool small amount of money say 10 bucks or 20 bucks a month to the group account, which is usually there in the bank. In case of a need, a request can be made to the lead of the group for a loan and the interloaned amount is returned to the group at easy installments... This basically serves to make the women stronger in managing their activities and also thinking....

VSC : Village Sanitation Committee
This is now renamed as the VWSC, the Village Water and Sanitation Committee, and works mainly to ensure that sanitation and water related issues in the villages are looked at. Instrumental in interlocking with the govt and administration and is recognised by the Govt. as a team as well.

So the SHG and the VWSC worked together after about 6 months of efforts put into strengthening the teams in these three villages.

About the context of the project:
Before the road was constructed, the people in the villages used the area around the paths for their daily sanitation needs and after the construction of the roads, the immidiate effect was on the sanitation needs of the people especially women as now they had to go to the fields at odd hours and far away from their homes... It caused more trouble to the old women and the young girls as they needed someone to accompany them... the solution to this is individual toilets in all the homes.. and both the groups that i mentioned above with some very very active support from ASK and some funding from ADB worked together to achieve the target....

Our two days (First in Hirratekra, and the second in Korea and Kandrai) were spent in identifying how the project went, what is it that we started from? what is it that we have achieved? what is it that still needs to be done? is the work and the project sustainable, even after ASK and ADB move out?

Also asked the representatives of the villagers to rate the various activities on various scales... nothing different than what we do in our work places... exactly the same, the difference being that there are no fancy boardrooms they work on, there are no whiteboard markers or emails.. but there still were Minutes of meeting registers, account books, meeting schedules, fine payer lists, etc etc etc... amazing professionalism by people who are probably not even well educated...Made me wonder what is it that us educated and so called literate people are all about... is there a difference? it seemed to me that these people were much more better off than most of us in the cities...

ASK has done some amazing work in making these internal groups very strong and give them enough motivation in the last one year to keep the project going even after they move out... simple salute to the people who have made this difference... and continue to do it over and over and over again... Even the people recognised that effort and i could see it in their eyes when we were moving out... Some of the things that the villagers made were related to how they could not get more information and were keen on understanding what is happening in the world more than before, the way the women in the villages have gathered to own the improvement of the entire system around... fantastic effort and good response... God Bless...


On the more personal side, I was scared by Snake scares and Naxal presense in the area by Mr Puneet pretty successfully...
Made some amazing friends with Manas Da and Puneet over the few days I spent with them...
Got closer to one of the nicest people I know, Bindiya... and knowing her more is very nice...
Drove around a honda activa with a scared Bindiya as the co-rider :)
Had an amazing sweet called HeeraMani in Ambikapur...
And had a great time... full of happiness, fun, warmth, excitement, pride, and more...

And going away from Ambikapur while the rest of them were still there was not easy... anyway... I left and managed to stay for a day in Banaras showing myself and my camera some parts around the holy river Ganges and the famous Banras Ghats... not much to write about Banaras... will let the pictures speak soon...

Pictures here...

Not being romantic about it...

The first response that I get from people when I talk about underprivileged kids, or the areas in the country which are less fortunate than the betters, is of Sympathy..

Mind you, most of the issues cannot be taken care of by sympathy only or by being only emotional...

What we need is a step to be taken.. a small but firm step...

So if you have been thinking about doing something... do it.. do not feel too sympathetic or keep thinking about doing something for your society for long.. do it.. give it a shape...

High...

I asked ,"What is it that keeps you going re? What motivates you?"

She said... Prashant... I feel that I make a difference... on whatever level but I do...
I am in it for the same high !!!

I want to make a difference... and i will...

And I know it, because of some people like Bindiya who are around me... Thank you darling for all you are to me...

What are you looking at?

This is what I note in women... Physical attributes i mean... Not in any order though..

Front :

Eyes (If not too far away)
Hair ( I love long hair, though there are women who look amazing in short)
Lips (I forgot mentioning them... without a lipstick... and still pink... i might not even notice what she is wearing)
Breasts (Men find it extremely tough to not look at the breasts more often than not; so either the eyes gotta be very beautiful, the smile gotta be magnetic; the conversation ultra interesting or important... if none of that happens, there are good changes that the eyes would slip a foot down south from the face)


Back to Back:

Butts... first always... I really like women with nicely shaped butts..
The curves of the back... and how the hair flow down...


What is it that women look for in men? and I am talking about Physical attributes ONLY.. not talking about things like sensitivity, humour etc etc..

I know of a few:
Shoulders
Shoes
Smile
Jaw Line
Arms/Palms

Happy Birthday To You...

See this before you waste any more time !!!

http://www.quantumshift.tv/v/1182905171/


http://www.humlog.org/news.html#mudcake

or YouTube

Thanks to Paren for introducing me to Gaurav.. and Thanks to Gaurav, for telling me that this video has resulted in a 200kg cake being made for children... like the ones in the video..

Keep up the great work Doc... Claps !!!

Growing up...

Its strange how you grow up...

Together or away...

Someone who you used to call every second minute now becomes an unknown number in your contacts list...

Someone who used to be your favorite teacher now is a smile from the past...

Your first crush now seems to be a sequence of the stupid things you did...

Your decision to do engineering now seems to be a decision you want to do a undo on...

The time lost in not doing anything is something that you feel you need today...

Its strange how you grow up...

And it all seems so natural !!!

Same bench... different people...

Sitting on a railway station...

In a small town...

With a lot of ppl all around...

Being a part of them and talking to them..

Waiting for a train like I have to go somewhere too..

I kept asking how long before the damn bogie arrives?

and one of them would turn and tell me, its usually late.. another 20 minutes may be..

and i wait with them...

The train comes... some people get down... and some board the train...

And i am still there...

Waiting for a train.. with a different set of people...


This is how I spent about 3 hours today... on a railway station in Daurala, about 12 kms away from Meerut...

Wonderful afternoon... well spent...

Bored....

i

?

The Gravity of Love...

How much do you love me?

45 kgs

WHAT!!!! only 45 kgs?

Baby... you do not understand...its not only... its a lot
just that the gravity of my loving you is more then the gravity of the earth...so if you take the normal gravity it shall be only... but if you consider my gravity benchmarks its might be more than you can imagine...

Ek aur Kahani Khatam !!!

Bhai, Apne se nai hota ye sentiyapa... I am back to my "single&ready2mingle"hood !!!

Kya hua?

Arre.. natak hai bhai... main sala itni mushkil se senti hua aur ab wo kisi aur se shaadi kar rahi hai kyonki uske parents bol rahe hain !!!

Par tu bol na ke baat karegi...

Maine bola na bhai... Bolti hai abhi nai bol sakti... August mein bolungi... maine bola ke abhi bol de.. atleast teri engagement se pehle time to milega kuch sort our karne ka... Bolti hai, ke nai bol sakti... Phir bolti hai ke, "I think we should break up." Maine bola bhai ke kya pagalpan hai !!! mera hi dimaag kharab hai !!!

Maine phone rakha aur do din baat ek ex-flame ko phone kara...

Wo flame ki light abhi bhi bujhi nai hai bhai... aur apni life mein wapas candle lit dinner ho rele hain !!! Zindagi mast hai...

bhaad mein gai ye relationships...

IT for sure is A MISTAKE

ITS a MISTAKE...

that's what he shouts only 5 minutes into the movie... and he is so right... for the first and the last time... "Aap ka Suroor" is such a mistake... and I became a part of it by watching it day before yesterday...

All I wanted to do was to test my patience and see if I could manage to sit through the entire movie... and what I did was keep smiling throughout thinking why was I doing that to myself !!!

Here are a few things that I noticed in the movie...

~ Himesh tells his friend Sravan, " Sravan dekh to Germany mein meri naak mat kata dena". Sravan says, " Nai yaar, main aisa kaise kar sakta hoon, teri naak kat gai to tu gayega kaise".
~ No two scenes in the movie seemed to be continuous in nature... though they were connecting the story, but the editing was done pathetically... It seemed like they had made 5-6 hour long movie about Himesh, and then shortened it to about 2.5 hours.
~ Hanshika Motwani has done extremely well with her immitation of Sushmita Sen's voice and style of speaking... If you are not looking at the screen, you would think that its Sush only who is speaking...
~ Himesh has the irritating, almost about to cry, face in the entire movie as if he is suffering from piles... The only time he manages to laugh and that too in the most plastic fashion is when a li'il girl makes fun of his cap...
~ When Himesh meets Ria the first time... the scene has Gayatri Matra playing in the background. I have never seen a mantra being used such pathetically ever.
~ And then Himesh also bothers to sing the Gayatri Mantra in its worst form ever... and he managed to screw up the Rishi Kapoor/Kishor Kumar song too... Main Shayar to nahin...
~ For some reason, Himesh was also seen rubbing his chest in a strange manner in a few instances in the movie... yuck...
~ He does not have a body to wear button less shirts, but still he was trying to flaunt something that was there under his shirt by wearing the buttonless shirts throughout the movie... atleast i did not notice a cleavage or chestcuts for that matter...
~ Oh... there is this classic scene where Himesh is being taken away by the Police in their cars and out of nowhere (in Germany) there are 3 autowallas in uniform who make him run away... the camera also was frozen on these 3 super heroes for their 5 seconds of fame...

Overall this was a ridiculous movie... ONE of its kind.. you really have to watch it to hate it the right way... not watching it and not liking it is something thats not really worth it !!!

The only good thing about the movie was Mallika Sherawat... I have kinda started liking the way she carries herself after Pyaar ke Side Effects... and how natural she can look at time...

Oh... and when the movie finishes, the song Mehbooba Mehbooda appears out of nowhere... for no reason at all... Not sure what the editors were trying to do with the kilometres of reel that they have for the movie...

The First first, that never happened...

He had bought the condoms... It was going to be his first time... He was nervous and very very excited... A fear of failure was looming large in his mind... He hoped that he could do well and make her happy...

She arrived at his place at the time they talked about... and like two hungry wolves they just pounced on each other as if there was no tomorrow...

No words were being spoken... no sounds were being heard... it was only lust that was playing its wicked game in that room... and then the time came... to use that packet of Kamasutra's he had bought...

And then he stopped... he felt it was not right... he should not be doing this...

She kept lying on the bed with her eyes closed waiting...

And he kept looking at her...

All he could do was ask her to leave... and all she could do was have that question mark on her face...

They met... but never talked again...

End of Story....

Class II

Not that it matters but he came first in class in Nursery, KG and First...

Today was the result day and he knew he was going to stand first again in his class... He had not yet been introduced to feelings like nervousness... so we can without a doubt say that it was just a usual day for him...

All he would have to do is go to the class teacher and ask for his medal and the certificate... He had still kept all the last medals and trophies he won in the class, in sports events etc.

So he went to the teacher in the morning... and asked her for the medal... instead of asking for the result... what confidance !!!

And the teacher told her that she could not give him the medal this time...

He did not understand why...

All he remembers today, is that he cried the entire day, not because he came second... but because his medal did not come to him...

T-Shirts !!!

Aro and Subbu, and the story of Tshirts...


YOU HAVE TO READ IT HERE.

From the UnderSigned...

They used to travel in the same bus back from school... She usually was on the window seat on the second row from the back and he somehow or the other managed to either stand near the rear gate in the bus or take the last window seat in the bus...

Looking at her through the reflection of the windows, or through the queues in the morning assembly, or while just walking around in the corridor of the school, or in the lunch time... he spent a few months...

That afternoon he gathered enough courage to tell her about what he felt... he pulled out that greeting card without the envelope, that he had stolen from a shop a week back, wrote some sweet nothings on it and gave it to a friend to give it to her at her stop...

And all he could do when he got down of the bus was run... the fastest he could to his house... and just hope that she liked him as much has he did...

and she probably did not even know who had signed the card...

Lives in One !!!

I have been thinking about all the lives connected with me for the last few days... there has been so much that has happened in the last 28 odd years that I am amused by the variety I have been through...

I am going to attempt to write down some of these incidents from my life or from the lives of people who were a part of mine...

soon..

Calm....

Calm...., originally uploaded by ~OM~ Bhardwaj.

Be the fire within !!!

Fire when challenged...
Light when dark...
Warmth when cold...

BeSt TiMe !!!

275 Kms...

5 hours flat...

With a break of about 45 minutes...

The best I have done on NOIDA - Delhi - Chandigarh Route...

With a few better roads... I should be able to do better... bye bye the Indicas, the Zens, the Taveras, the Qualises, the Innovas, the Wagon Rs, the Indigos, a few Accents, and Ikons toooo :D

I know what being high is... thanks to my CAR !!!

Toughie.....

Its strange how the tolerance level of certain activities, behavior patterns, moods etc is high when its about your friends...

The same thing is not acceptable with lovers, boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands and wives...

Relationships do change people a lot... its tough to be a friend and a lover both to the same person...

The Detached !!!

I am by nature a person who gets bored with certainty and predictability in my personal life...

If I know too much about something then also I get bored and detached...

If I know nothing about something for a long time then also I get bored and detached...

I think if I cannot look forward to something I get bored and detached...

Over a period of the past few years, I have been so much detached with most of the things and people around me that its becoming harder to create strong ties today... and I usually do not feel too bad about loosing out on them... and the result is that people who care about me end up getting disappointed...

Not sure if this will change because as a person my needs, expectations, wants etc are limited and I try hard to ensure that I can take care of everything myself instead of sharing it with someone... If there is a need at times... I would not really try to zero in on one person who would like to hear me out but call up or meet just about anyone to talk to... It works just right for me... or I would just be quiet for a while and let myself talk to myself and hear myself out...

Let me remember a few strong ties that I still cherish for my own sake, today...

~ Parents... Nothing is bigger than them !!! NOTHING... Anything in the world for them, and I do not care if that needs me to give up on everything else in this world...

~ My Car... More then a car she is a trophy for me... A result of my hard work and a true extension of my personality... Likes attention, does not need too much of it.. Is more or less trouble free except the regular service it needs.. Is a slow starter from zero velocity, but once its revved up properly nothing can even think of competing... Technically sound... and almost the best a car company could have made...

~ My camera.. umm.. no, rather Photography... Another something that keeps me happy and how I like to be... gives me the moments I like to see over and over again...

~ Arobindo Sinha... A friend for over 4 years.. Says it, if he does not like it on my face... and makes fun of me if he does like something... someone my parents are fond of too... almost like a member of the family...

~ Narang... The best at handling things!!! A jack of everything and a master of more !!! an inspiration to be better personally and professionally....

~ Mags or Meghana... One of the best creative people I know of since college... Have acted together, directed together, fought, laughed... one of my best buddies...

~ Tushar Goel... Is around when needed... and happy with himself most of the time... He does not socialise much and there have been mishaps that I have seen with him... He might not be one of the most admired people around.. but for me he has been one of the most genuine people to be with...

~ Nimisha Bhagat... One of the best singers I know of... A darling to the core... Has laughed the most on my silliest of jokes and always has been an encouragement...

~ Bharti... Know her for about 2 years now...Sweet smiling buddy who I miss at times for the sparkle in her voice and a chirp in her tone... We have met just 3 times.. And that too for time less then an hour.. But worth it...

~ My group from Hughes... The best people in this world... Almost 3 years that I left the company and people have moved around... still everyone is closer today to each other...

There are many more people/things that have played a part in my life and I can fill pages while talking about them and how they have effected me… but as of now I will stop here only… and wait for a time when I come back to this thought again…

Till then keep reading about something else somewhere or here :)

OF(F) Roads and Hills...

One Friday evening I had asked Tushar, while we were driving around in NOIDA, if he would like to go to Rishikesh in another hour… he almost freaked out and said no…

I told him that this is how I would like to travel sometime... just think and go…

And it finally happened this Friday… I just called up Aro to tell him that he should not go to Vaishno Devi as he was planning because it was too crowded there… and he would not be able to manage over the weekend… and I also told him that I wanted to go out too… and then I told him that he could go to somewhere else and take me along… suggested Patni Top, Amritsar and Mcleodganj to him… He was keen on the hills, so we quickly conferenced Sanjit and decided that we were leaving in another 2 hours for Mcleodganj… So we were three people and we thought that a 4th one would not be too bad an idea…

So I talked to a few friends and Gaurav agreed… but we had to delay our plan by a few hours because he was to come only around 2100 hrs...

I went to Dwarka and picked up Aro and Sanjit… also decided that we were driving down in my car… and then moved to NOIDA… I packed my stuff, cleaned the memory card, took out the new lens, checked the batteries and was all set for the trip… Gaurav arrived on time… and we were out by 2130 hrs…

It was for sure a long way ahead… at least 12 hours… and the route I knew was Delhi- Chandigarh – Ropar/Roop Nagar – Kiratpur – Swarghat – Bilaspur – Mandi – Palampur – Gaggal – Dharamshaala – Mcleodganj…

I wanted to drive all this way, but it would have been very very taxing for me, so we decided that Delhi – Chandigarh is something that Aro would take care of and I do the rest…

I drove till Murthal… and we had the lovely paranthas and then I took the back seat… It was kinda strange to sit on the back seat of the car for the FIRST time in 2.5 years / 40000 kms J but it was kinda fun… Aro is a careful driver, however it still did not make me sleep, though I was relaxed and not getting tired… so good music and nice AC... And a decent speed made us reach Chandigarh in about 6 hours… We were there around 0330 hrs... Aro wanted to see where I stay in Chandigarh so we went to my place… Surprised and woke up my flat mate, took a CD, rested for 10 minutes before I took the wheel again for about 30 kms… Somewhere before Ropar I asked Aro to drive coz I was not really feeling like… he obliged not with a lot of happiness though this time and gave up in another 40 odd kms… We took our third stop at this dhaba (roadside restaurant) around 0600 hrs and had two cups of tea each… first time the cameras came out and a few stills were clicked… This is when the destination changed from Dharamshaala to Mandi, because of the distance we still have to cover.

I clicked Radha’s pics and loved them !!! here is one for you too :)



And now I took over the steering again… and started the most painful stretch of the drive... The road was good from Kiratpur towards Swarghat-Bilaspur-Mandi was good but there were a million loaded trucks on the way in front of us and coming from the other direction too which ensure that we were not moving at anything more then 20kmph for most part of our journey… Overtaking and zooming past saving ourselves from the traffic used all my driving skills and we finally took another pit-stop around 0900 hrs after we crossed Bilaspur.

This is where we discussed all our options right from what we can do in Mandi, to why we should not be back in Bilaspur, and how far was Shimla and Narkanda was a good place to visit, and why the hell did we even come this far… it was fun looking at the book Tushar had given me about Himachal and going through it to find out where we could go after driving for a good 11 hours J

Finally I put a stop to all the discussions and said that we were going to Dharamshaala and that’s IT. And I also promised that I would do that 170 kms which were left in about 4 hours making us reach the place around 1300 hrs.

Then we thought a li’il and decided that we would stop when the clock strikes 1400 hrs and move to the closest place irrespective of where we were…

We were also told that instead of moving towards Mandi –Palampur, we should proceed towards Hamirpur- Kangra – Gaggal route as it was shorter… We later realised that we had taken a very long route to begin with. There were other routes to Dharamshaala which were at least 70 kms shorter… but then the damage was done already…

We stopped about 28 kms before Mcleodganj for a bath in a river… Yes you read it right… We did jump into a small river and refreshed ourselves with that amazing water… this was a good 45 minutes break that all of us needed badly…

We finally reached Gaggal, after which I was familiar with the route, because I had changed my bus from there the last time I was going to Dharamshaala…

And we were in for a very very unpleasant surprise this time… The Road was not there... and was replaced by pebbles… the road was under construction for over 5 kms and it was nothing but pain to drive on that... uphill on a broken road with a single lane… Not the best things to happen to you and your car EVER…

We finally managed to reach McLeodganj around 1330 hrs… Just on time as I had promised the gang… and were shocked to see the amount of cars and people… too many of them... realised in not much time that it was a bad time of the year to come there… Parked the car about 500 mtrs away from the town entry and walked our way through the cars stuck in a jam towards the town… Managed to find a hotel with some difficulty, had food, relaxed for a while… and moved out to clicked pictures…

Managed to go a graveyard in the St. John’s Church about a km away from Mcleodganj and sit there for a while too… It gave me a different kind of peace, which I am going to talk to about in some other post of mine…

Ate, and walked and clicked that evening… Visit my favourite JJI Café and met Handsome there… he is a 2 month old Pup… lovely fur and beautiful puppy… had some food and shakes and moved out… Finally called it a day with some Pasta salad at an Italian food joint and watching some TV…

The next day started @ 0600 hrs for me and Gaurav and we went out to click… While Gaurav decided to head towards the Church again, I moved towards the Monastery. Took some pictures and then headed back to the hotel where I found Aro and Sanjit still sleeping away to glory… Gaurav also came back and we four finally managed to get out of the hotel by 0900 hrs and this time moved into a French restaurant for breakfast…

Roamed around the place for a couple of hours before we decided to move back at 1230 hrs… Checked out of the hotel and walked back to the car only to discover that were was a jam again… at least 50 cars wanted to move out of the town, and there was a similar number waiting to get inside...And that too on a single lane road!!! Phew!!!

The way I had the parked the car, it was pretty easy to turn it right there and I saved at least 1 hour by avoiding being a part of the traffic towards the town. So we slowly stared moving towards Dharamshaala, before we picked up some decent speed about 2 kms away from the town…

We had realised the correct and the smallest route towards Chandigarh and took that this time to move… 245 kms to Chandigarh from Dharamshaala via Gaggal – Kangra – Chintpurni Devi – Una – Nangal – Kiratpur – Roopnagar

The drive was a mix of good roads (most of the time), road under construction (wet and dusty) and no roads (waiting to be under construction). The first pit stop was somewhere around 1430 hrs on a Dhaba somewhere in Himachal. No idea where we were at that time.

Put a few Scorpios, some Taveras and Qualis’, and a Verna to shame on the hills before I reached the plains… Reached Chandigarh… got a Petrol Refill and handed over the steering to Aro but not for long as he was not comfortable on the road between Chandigarh to Ambala... I took the steering back and drove till Karnal before Aro took over again…

Dropped Aro and Sanjit at the Bus stand where they took at auto for Dwarka and reached home finally at 0300 hrs… A total driving time of about 15 hours this time…

Wonderful trip comes to and end…

And I am already waiting for the next one!!!

Some Important information:

Available Routes:

Delhi – Pathankot – Gaggal – Dharamshaala (My first route)
Delhi – Chandigarh – Ropar - Kiratpur – Bilaspur – Mandi – Palampur – Gaggal – Dharamshaala (Second route; while coming back from the first trip)
Delhi – Chandigarh – Ropar - Kiratpur – Bilaspur – Hamirpur – Kangra - Gaggal – Dharamshaala (Route while going; 2nd time)
Delhi – Chandigarh – Ropar – Kiratpur – Nangal – Una – Chintpurni – Kangra – Gaggal – Dharamshaala (Route While coming back 2nd time)

Total Driving distance:

511 kms (Route 4)
585 kms (Route 3)

Food Variety:
Indian; South Indian; Chinese; Italian; French; Tibetan

Accommodation:
Anything between 350 to 1350 per room on a twin sharing. Not many hotels have fans.

Checkout time:
Strict 1200 hrs


I think this has turned out to be one of the longest travelogues I have written… thanks for reading it till the end…

AND, and do Let me know in case you read this line too !!!

Oh... and the pictures can be found HERE

ASKing For More...

I know of many who give up...

I know of many who keep struggling..

I know of many who crib and cry and not do much about things..

And I know of some who get up and make things happen...
And one of these people is Priyanka...


Someone who I was introduced to about 7 months ago... Thanks to another go-getter Deepak...
Priyanka and I worked on a small picture project for ASK in Feb'06. You might want to read about that HERE.


and today, Priyanka managed to complete ASK's website... It was a big and tough task... which needed her to know much more then what she already knew and what Priyanka has achieved almost single handedly, with tit-bits of assistance from friends, is great...


Check out the website here.

God Bless you girl.. you are a rockstar...

Basanntiiii...

Veeru meant that Gabbar and his Goons were dogs...

Basanti took it literally... she thought Veeru was referring to actual DOGS... and there were none around... hence that dance...

Another thought is that Basanti was a trained dancer... she was supposed to dance to get all the film fees...

Plus we think that she felt that Gabbar could bring her a better future then veeru, because of his power, resources, and his ability to get crowds... either by choice or by force...

And Gabbar also knew that she could dance her ass out... he had checked the babe out in a marriage where "wo Bahut Jor Naachi Thi..."

There is so much about Sholey that can be talked about over and over again...

Abhi chalta hoon...

Gotta drive to Dharamshaala....

Adios...

Talking to myself...

Someone said Honesty is the best policy...

:)


And then there are words and sentences like...

Smartness...
I love him, but I do not know if I can marry him...
You cannot say the truth always when you are in a relationship...
Oh, but I cannot tell her this...
I do not know what happened... but i do not know how it happened either...
I was not sure how would you react to this...
I wanted to tell you but I thought you will feel bad about it...
I do not like this about him, but I am not sure if I should tell him...


Its a life of convenience... Isn't it?

The smaller world of Infosys...

Waiting for a ride..
Originally uploaded by IMS-PCG

I was in the Banglore Campus a few weeks back...

Finally managed to upload a few pictures from the walks around the campus...

Check out the beautiful campus by clicking here.

I am not from a ST : What a Shame...

And I always thought Blackmail was criminal...

And in Rajasthan and Delhi there are people who are openly blackmailing the government and the system and also causing pain and damage both mental and financial...

And our government can only stay silent and hold peace talks with the leaders.... why can't we just order for force and make them STOP... is the inconvenience caused to the people and property loss not good enough a reason to put a stop to this senseless shit? oh... they would not... vote bank rules the country here....

What are they asking for? an ST tag... go give it to them... if they get that tag and the reservation these bunch of bastards would at least stop causing harm and letting the entire world know what they really are made of !!!

I wonder does a SC/ST tag in India make someone better that most of the people are now fighting for it?

I am also wondering if the caste system in the country was past or is it OUR PRESENT and FUTURE !!!

Welcome....

My latest toy :)

The Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III USM

Read more about it HERE

Cribs United...

Everyone has something or the other to crib or protest about...
Lets start with me...

Not having enough zoom with me to click what i want to ... the 55 mm stops me from what i really want to capture... I should get this crib out of my system this Saturday hopefully...

Gurjars in Rajasthan and other parts of Delhi, Haryana, and UP about their non inclusion in the ST category

The general public about the inconvenience because of the all these protests... Traffic jams, burnt buses, injured people... all for what?

The Sikhs about how the Dera Sachcha Sauda Guru dressed up like Guru Gobind Singh... huh !!!

And now the Akal Takht not accepting the apology released by Dera... oh man... is there some format that you want the damn apology in?

One of my friends not being able to get enough of her new relationship... she got into it and is now thinking that it was a quick decision.. she should have waited for a li'il more time...

The world is funny... and I am now only getting amused by a lot of things happening... which is in whatever time i can get from an almost 15 hour work schedule I have...

oh... do you have a crib today? lets read it...

Story Time....

Nisha was madly in love with Aakash... she even told her parents... and Aakash told his parents too... they were not too happy, but then if the kids wanted it this way they had li'il to say but to agree with them...

But then Nisha and Aakash grew apart.... and the relationship did not work out... today both of them know each other... talk to each other... and are great friends...

So are they idiots to give up on such a great friendship turning into a life long relationship or are they mature people who understand where things lack and accept them this way?


Nandini always wanted John to ask her out... he did... they dated for a few weeks before they slept together... Nandini loved that night... John was happy too... and the sleeping together part repeated a number of times, before one day someone told Nandini that John was married and his wife was pregnant... Nandini was heartbroken... she did not know how to react to this... it took her sometime to accept the fact, and when she did, she also confronted John who agreed that he was married, but he could not let her go either...

No conversations followed for a long while, before one day john asked her out again... and they slept together...

Now, is John a bastard or is Nandini only wants to get laid?

Ansh was in love... and then he was in love again... and then the third time he was in love, he got married.... there was no one at the marriage function... only a few friends... minus a few old ones as well... no parents, no relatives nothing...

And he sends out this email to all his friends after he gets married with the pictures of his marriage...

So how should the friends who thought they were friends think?
He took an immature decision to take away the dream of arranging for a marriage function of their only son from his parents? or did he do the right thing by following his heart?

Moving Along...

Its not easy to keep all our stuff packed in one bag... and keep moving around...

Waking up at 7 in the morning with a long list of tasks that need to be completed in the day... there is that hope that you will be able to do it, but at the same time the reality check reminds you that its not possible...

And finally when you drop dead on the bed around midnight... you only sleep with the same list modified... some things added... some removed...

Its been a roller-coaster of sorts in the last one month... not sure if I am enjoying it all, but i feel this is something that should have happened to me a good couple of years earlier... but then no complaints... lets learn it late, but learn it fast...

My life today is challenging me to almost its limits... and there is a lot that i have gotta prove to myself...

God Bless me...

Talking to Myself...

My level of expectations is really low...

And that has how i have grown, over a period of time...

And as of today, the only person i expect anything from is ME...

I fail to understand a lot of times, why i do not come upto expectations of a few people around me...
is that because i am insensitive?
is that because i do not care?
is that because i have too much full of myself?

or is that because i am less dependent on people around me?

oh... i have not really written this post to look for answers for myself from people... its more of an personal post... please feel free to drop a comment... no gyan please though...

Breaking News...

" The Crime rate has actually increased after the BPOs came into picture... My parents are usually scared and keep calling me to see if I am ok."

IDIOT...

Who the hell is she to comment on the Crime Rate and BPOs... If people feel that BPOs add to the crime rate, they are free to get lost...

And our media is to be blamed equally... one single incident in a BPO suddenly raises question marks on the security of the lakhs of people who work in the entire industry... Are they nuts or something... Do they even know what people in BPO at all levels go through to earn a decent living... i feel its one of the toughest things to work in a BPO , and for the interested it can teach you things which NO other industry would ever teach you..

Oh.. and then there are people who say, " The Security should be revamped in all the DAMN companies... its a cause of concern."

Where does the security feeling go when you go out partying late nights and tell your parents that you have been working? And how do they blame the BPO for it?

There was another dude who said, " My parents get worried, if i reach home an hour late... And no one gets worried when he himself goes out drinking and goes home at whatever time he wants...

We either do not speak up in front of the camera or we take responsibility with the words that we are using... and the idiotic News Channel guys should be sensible enough to show what makes a difference, instead of showing the crap that they do....

Oh... and if you do not it already... Someone took a revolver inside the HCL BPO office in NOIDA and shot a collegue....

Media and some idiots who talk on the camera... Wah re prabhu... Ajab teri Duniya...

Oops....

I don't know why, but I was reminded of a few people... I guess was trying to break away from the very very hard work routine and landed in the past...

Ankur Agarwal
Sayantani Das Gupta
Richa Bhardwaj
Rohit Talwar
Amit Khanna
Vanja Dogra
Akash Gupta


All of them have a story associated with them... Laughter, Pain, Anger etc etc etc

Not really sure if I want all of them to be blessed, but then... whatever should happen would happen....

Lets get back to work dude... there is not much time before its midnight.....

Growing.... Yes, I am...

Bangalore has been fair to me... not too much traffic so far.... did not take more then 45 minutes to reach office... but the painful part has been the cab drivers... they drive as if there is no tomorrow... very very unsafe and rash...

After traveling with strange drivers for about 4 times, i finally had a driver who was calm and drove nicely... For the first time, I was comfortable at the back seat.... and a short conversation with him is worth a mention here...

Driver : Sir, what is your designation in Infosys?
Me: Consultant

I am thinking I know where this conversation is headed towards....

A Pause of about 5 minutes...

Driver : Sir, BSc. or B.Com.?
Me : B.Sc.

I was now thinking, this is definitely leading to a gyan session on what is better, engineering or accounts and what kind of money can people earn and so on and so forth...

Long Pause...

Driver: My daughter is also in Infosys for about 4 months now. She has done her B.Sc. Computer Science....

Toughie.....

Its been good so far..... enjoyed my Saturday and Sunday...

and i do not have a clue of how to get some proper sleep this week.... too hectic.... not too bad though....

Off 2 Bangalooru...

Off to Banglore tonight... equipped with the camera and a need to click...
Lets see what can i manage in two days I have off-work there...

Any suggestions about what all can I catch up with in Banglore, the city of traffic, over the weekend?

Learning Growing Managing...

Things have been kinda different, strange, scary, unexpected, tough, hectic in the last few days... and I am looking for new ways to destress myself... and one of the newer things that I tried was reading quotes...

Had a Reader's Digest with me... that helped... and then Bloglines Quotes Feed pitched in too...

Here are a few that I really liked...

"When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers."

Oscar Wilde

"Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy."

Edger Bergen

And here are a few I liked from RD.... some of them seem so apt to me...

"Having to explain it means you probably shouldn't have said it."

Cary Clock

"Hot Heads and Cold Hearts never solved anything."

Billy Graham

"The formula for a successfull relationship is simple: Treat all disasters as trivialities, but never treat a triviality as if it were a disaster."

Quentin Crisp

"Its just like Magic. When you live by yourself, all of your annoying habits are gone."

Merril Markoe

LiViNg iT LarGe....

If I can afford it I really do not have to care...

I don't care if water is being wasted or not...
If i can afford packaged water for myself and people i care for, I should be fine...
If i can run the motor and fill up my water tank, I should be fine...
If i can buy water when the world is coming to an end, I should still be fine...

I do not care if traffic is going for a toss...
If I can tell the cop that I am the son/brother/relative of a politician I should be fine...
If there is no one on the signal stopping me from braking a rule, I should be fine...
If someone else dies because some one driving like I usually do, I should be fine...

I do not care what happens to the world...
If i can run an AC in the car all the time, I should be fine... after all I AM the one paying for it...
If i can throw things around, and not get caught, and also not throwing them in my front of my house, I should be fine...
If i can affort to pay some bucks more then the mrp in cinemas, and bus stations, and railway stations and to the auto wallahs, I should be fine...

Laut Ke buddhu....

...Ghar ko Aaye....

Moving to Gurgaon for a few weeks ( read at least 4) for a project... will get to be near to some people who are important to me...

Its a nice feeling...


The tough part is driving about 300 kms tonight... and the moving to the office in the morning from NOIDA to Gurgaon... tough...

I gotta have FaiTh...

They say if you want something too bad, it might just come to you...

I need something really bad, and for good... hope it does be mine...

Have faith....

6 + 15 + 2 + 5 + 14 + 7

The treks usually start with a talk... and the they graduate to phone calls and emails and more phone calls and a lot of driving before the real thing gets tasted...

What started between me and Deepak as a casual conversation thinking of a long weekend turned out to be a bliss for a gang of 10 people.. no, I am not trying to take the credit for anything, but still am happy to be one of the people who can initiate this kinda spirit in people... the rest is done by the ones who want to...

So we talked to Aseem, Priyanka, Ankur, Tushar, Subbu amongst some others... some dropped out and some could not go.. and some were ready...

I started from Chandigarh @ 1820 hrs in the Shatabdi on Thursday, 5th April... Reached Delhi @ 2140 hrs... met Subbu after a loooooooong time at the station and waiting for Deepak before he arrived with the 6 seater deluxe qualis... a good car to look at and pretty comfortable as well.. but wat i realized later is that you rather have a 8/9 seater Qualis to travel, coz it gives you more space and options to sleep... Well i could sleep like a log at the back of the other qualis which was a 9 seater...

Anyway... we picked up Aseem's friends from CP and Pandara Road before we reached home.. I charged my cell and the camera battery... packed my stuff in a bag... forgot the jacket, picked up a few VCDs and MP3s.. and started on a looong journey to Chopta...

We were hoping to reach Chopta in about 14 hours, however a few issues one of the cabs ate up some of our time... also helped us experience a small water fountain, an almost careless accident, one of the most stupid drivers etc etc...

We finally reached Chopta ~ 1530 hrs on Saturday... and decided to walk up without wasting much time... what we did not forget was get some biscuits and give them to a dog around, who walked with us the entire way... Those 1.5 odd kms of trek made me realize what sad state I was in... while coming back the feet were paining like hell, the knees were trembling... somehow reached chopta back, and then got down to eating...



Slept like a log in the night and go up around 0430 only to sleep back again and wake up around 0515 hrs... we had planned to move out by 0500 hrs but that had already went for a toss, and we finally managed to leave around 0630 hrs...

This is when I changed the way i walk... Small but steady steps with proper breathing... and it worked... I was not tired even after trekking for about 4.5 kms to Tungnath... did deviate from the well laid trek to walk on the steep slopes as well... and it was fun...

After you have walked for about 2 kms, you reach the top of a hill, and then you have to take right to start moving towards the temple and that is where the view changes completely... All I could see what huge mountains, and snow, and realised that i had taken a very very good decision by buying this new pair of shoes... they were keeping me real safe, and i was kinda sure that the snow is not going to be a problem till i reached about 300 mtrs away from Tungnath, where it was only snow and nothing else...



We were told that Tungnath has a good 3-4 feet of snow, and I was not sure how that is going to look like till i actually saw it... had to walk the last 300-350 mtrs in snow only, and use the marks left by the people who had walked in front of me... could take any direction, coz it was only snow all around... managed to get some snow inside my shoes too... which dried quickly thankfully... This is where I experienced the best snowfall that I have ever seen so far too... no words in my vocabulary can do justice to the beauty of that place... 4-5 ft of snow... white...peace...



by the time we were leaving, there were many people who had started walking towards the peak... school kids, office people, some smart looking dumb chicks who were planning to trek with sleeveless t-shirts to a snow covered mountain along with some guys who did not bother to carry water/food for a 5 hrs trek... the world is full of strange people... and stranger we were... but the smarter strange guys who reached their first and came back in good time...

Took a break of about an hour on our way back and enjoyed the peace there... talked, had food, had juice, chocolates, before starting back towards Chopta again... We were kinda late, and one of the cabs was not in the best shape, so we decided to start our drive back to Delhi around 1630 hrs.. this is Saturday now...

With a couple of breaks in between @ DeoPrayag and Rishikesh, we reached Delhi # 0330 hrs on Sunday... went back home.. slept darn well... and could only miss that snow in the heat of Delhi...

Took a bus back to Chandigarh on Sunday after meeting Priyanka for a Chai Margarita @ the Oxford... oh.. and did i mention that i saw Kuch Kuch hota hai for the second time in that bus...

Over all a very very moving weekend this was... from Thursday to Sunday these are the vehicles I was in, in no specific order...

1) Autos in Chandigarh and Delhi
2) Metro in Delhi
3) Cabs in Delhi and to Uttaranchal
4) Bus from Delhi to Chandigarh
5) Train from Chandigarh to delhi
6) On my feet...(from Chopta to Tungnath)

And the travel times
Train : 3.5 hours
Cabs : 1 + 14 + 14 hours = 29 hours
Bus : 7 hours
Auto : 1.5 hours
Metro : 30 minutes
On my feet : 7 hours

What a trip... what a weekend... waiting for the next one already....

You can see some of the pictures HERE

You've Got Mail...

When you are quick with responding to emails, what does that mean?

Are you efficient with emails?

OR

You don't have any other work to do?

SomeOne Listening?

I feel all the ads that feature the great players from the Hoo Haa Indian Cricket team should be banned from air, for atleast the time they win a tournament against some good teams, as a mark of respect towards their excellent performance in the world cup...

The Pursuit of Happy-ness

There is no WHY in Happyness, it has to be spelt with an I...

Fair point... why ask questions... let Happiness be with I only...

The thought comes from one of the best movies I have seen of Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness... A movie based on the true story of Chris Gardner, who used to sell Bone Marrow Density Scanners and struggled to make ends meet... His wife left him with a 5 year old kid, and there were times when he stayed in shelter homes, and churches, and even the bathrooms of the metro stations in the night..

Determination, and hard work saw him get a job as a broker @ Dean Witter Reynolds, where he worked/got trained as an intern for no salary for 6 months...

During all this time, this guy never let his son down...

Coming to the movie.. Will Smith and his real life and the reel life son Jaden Christopher Syre Smith have done wonders in this movie... The way both of them have played their respective roles, is something that is beyond words for me... Keep it up Smiths...

About the movie experience now... Friday night... thanks to the India Srilanka Cricket match... the theatre did not have a long line... none infact... However, I have a feeling that there would not be any for most of the english movies here... I have not really seen people who are comfortable talking in English... I am assuming the charm for english movies except action would not be much around here either...

So loud strange songs playing in the mall... a decent one though, no lines... and the theatre with two kinds of seats...
Silver : the front three rows with minimal leg room for 120 bucks..
Gold : the rest of the rows with i guess better leg room and seats...

Anyway, there were only about 20 people in the hall with a capacity of over 200 so the movie was a good experience...

Oh, and irrespective of you watching the movie... do check out the links...

Can the Left Be Right?

I try not to walk with the traffic on the left side of the road... I am afraid someone would hit me from the back without me getting any second to even save myself...

So I want on the right side... but they say the right side is the wrong side... however, I say that the right side is the RIGHT side to walk... atleast you see the traffic coming your way and can make some space to save yourself before you get hit because of someone else..

How can the left be the right side? especially when you have to move a li'il towards the road if there is a vehicle parked there... and then you have to look back and wait to see that the road is safe... too much trouble...

I say folks... Left side is not the right side... The right is the RIGHT side...

Sadistic Pleasure...

I drove to Delhi this last Friday... and returned yesterday night...

And needless to say driving the car is such a relief... I was running high fever when I started from NOIDA, but by the time I reached Panchkula... it was all fine... I am still not well... but I guess, I would manage just fine with this worse then ever throat...

Oh let me get back to the reason why I am writing this post... and I guess that is what made me feel better too...

during these two looong drives... about 300 kms each way, I managed to give a nice group of cars a good run for their money and worth... and the list includes

Hyundai Elantra ( I personally do not like this car a bit, but then its much more powerful then my Palio, but on the highway, this guy was struggling to keep me away from his tail)

Tata Indigo (This is supposed to a more powerful car too, but I guess at speeds over 120, she might just fall apart in pieces)

Honda City... Poor Guy... he really tried hard to race... I do not know what was the problem... but at 130 kmph... I was feeling much better then him I guess, and he gave up the chase...

GM Tavera, and the Toyota Qualis... well... i guess they could not really match the 120 kmph rock solid Palio...

N number of Tata Indicas... ok... lets not even talk about them :)

The Wagon Rs, The Santros, the Zens, the Altos and the 800s... not worth a mention here...

Thank You Fiat for helping me take one of the best decisions of my life...

WhErE is the DOG?

The damn dog has not been following me for a week... and can that be a reason why Hutch sucks in Chandigarh?

Pathetic Voice Quality...
Useless Customer care desk... oh... when you call the 111 number, you get a "network busy" message too...
Numbers which are not reachable... the signal strenght is 100% all the time, but you cannot bloddy call the person sitting 100 metres away...

Hutch...

Where Ever you go... Our network follows... TRUE !!!!

It only follows... is never around for you to make a decent call !!!

Audience or Artist...

Music usually flows in the blood of so many young people around... not to forget the ever green classical bands and fantastic tracks they used to play...

Today, however I feel that there is a larger community that listens and understands music... and a much larger group of people who play it... and in this vast ocean of excellent artists a lot of genuine talent can go unnoticed if not identified...

One such website where you can find loads of not so known bands playing the popular genre is Unsigned...

It allows you to sign in as a new artist and upload your music which is then made available to the vast world of Internet users...

As a listener you get to choose between the wide variety of music available online from United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany France, and almost all other countries in the world...

And when it comes to the Genre available on the site... the list is again endless... SKA Artists, Rock, Pop, Jazz, RnB, Classical, Country, Dance, Metal... you name it you have it there...

So go ahead... Login to the site... and enjoy being the artist or the audience, the way you like it...


This is a paid post by Pay Per Post...

My BaLcony....

First night in a rented apartment...

First night on the floor...

First night on a new mattress...

and a sound sleep... satisfaction or fatigue, no idea...

Good morning...

a walk to the 2nd floor balcony of my flat... and I see wide open spaces in the front...

My Company's campus at a distance is visible to me, and is about 1.5 kms away by road...

If I turn right on my balcony, I see moutains... and today there were clouds all over... lovely breeze... fantastic weather...


So far So good....

What's next?

Moving Towards Comfort...

Change... I felt it the last whole week.... looking at flats which were not even worth 50% of the more then 6K per month rent being asked for... Being in Autos which charge more then 40 bucks for a 4 km ride... in shoes that were with me the long kilometers I walked... and daily queue for food in the office food court ( not cafeteria any more)... and thinking if it is worth it at all or not... I left my home, I left my car, I left my people behind to this place where I am struggling... the feeling was bad... and it felt worse, when I used to sleep with a lot of pain in the legs...

But then look at the brighter side, I am learning... I am becoming a better person... I can understand more then before... and the change would be noted soon... and here are the goods in the new company that I have joined...

• I wear Ties on the first two days of the week... and do I look good? I guess I do... :) Priyanka got me a couple of Ties before I came here, and I was an idiot to leave them at home... so had to manage with borrowed ties last week.. but today and tomorrow and all the coming Mondays and Tuesdays would be different... its a different feeling to be dressed up nice and sharp... I need to work on my body to carry this attire better...

• People here are responsible for their cups... so there are no housekeeping guys who would wash your cups for you... you use them, YOU wash them... and keep them with you... so no paper cups either...

• There are loads of umbrellas available at all the gates, to save you from rain or sun... you can carry them from one place to the other, and then keep them back at the designated area....

• 100% of the desktops have a 17" LCD screen... some Dell, some HP... Excellent viewing comfort... oh, and when I am at my base location, I would be using a desktop as well... I have been with a lappie for about 2.5 years now, thanks to IBM, however this is changing now... I guess its for good only...

• Excellent guest house, almost 5 star accommodation... one of the best beds I have slept on ever...

• A great sunset from my office window... here in Chandigarh, you can see the sun till very late unlike other places... so I almost everyday, see him setting over the horizon...

• The best building !!!!! I have not entered a better workplace ever before... SEXY...

• Ultra quick and supportive helpdesk... most of the things/information/knowledge is in place... making it easier to everyone around...

• A state of the art Gym in the campus... SEXY again...

• Extremely windy area... and I can see the hills as soon as I get out of the office... good view...

• And finally, a flat with a small balcony, and I can see my office from there... about 1.2 kms by road...

Life is changing... and I do not mind it !!!

Vonage VOIP...

After the internet has come into picture... the world suddenly feels smaller... and from a time when only data (text/pictures) used to flow around the internet...we have today reached a point where we can see and hear the videos and the audios online... thanks to many factors supporting it like low costs, convenience of use, penetration in the user market etc etc... The internet today provides a whole lot of applications, usages that helps us communicate as nicely as the conventional means... one of such advances is the VOIP... Vonage provides VOIP services, and in addition to the regular services like Conferencing, Call forwarding and transfer, Caller ID, Toll Free numbers, Real time billing information and account management, you can have access to the forum where you can discuss issues/concerns related to VOIP almost effortlessly... It would not only introduce you to the telecom concepts, but in addition would give you the opportunity to interact with multiple Internet users and discuss topics of similar interest...

This is a paid post by pay per post...

Dis Comfort...

The day has finally come...

I have been shying away from it for a while now, but its high time that i shift away from my comfort zone and fly...

so i move out...

I move out of the comfort of my home here...

I move out of the comfort of coming back home to parents every evening...

I move out of the comfort of calling any of my friends over...

I move out of the comfort of not thinking if drinking water is there at my place or not...

I move out of the comfort of staying guarded...

...

I am not really emotional about it... i am kinda liking it too.. kinda worried about how things back home would be... kinda concerned about how ma pa would like it...

but then its important...

Let me LIVE it...

and happy Holi everyone... have a colorful year ahead !!!!!!!!!