1.61803...

Leaving on a jet plane...

2011-05-12T06:01:00.000-07:00

First post of 2011 coming in May! Well I sure am getting lazy. Anyways, better late than never.

Surprise!
I got a new niece! Too bad I'll miss all the firsts for a while. Aditi, someday if you happen to read this, you can't imagine how happy we all were to see you for the first time.

Roaming around...
It was back in December last year that I was told that I will be travelling to Australia. So I was determined not to miss Club Adventura trips. Managed to go on two treks if I remember correctly. And then there was the trip to Goa with Mangalore teammates.

For the first time I got my teammates to come along on a trek with me. The trek was to Kudremukh peak. We had to cover about 30 kms in one day and I covered it with ease. Happy about that :) Very often there will be someone in the team who will be the butt of all jokes. Sadly this time it was me. Looking back, I probably picked the wrong trek to take my teammates because the jokes have now come to haunt me in office.

The other one was a beach trek in Kerala, close to the Karnataka border. We started from the famous Bekal fort. It was the beginning of the summer and trekking on a beach was something I was not too keen on since I had just recovered from a bad tan from the Goa trip.But then this was my last chance to trek with Adventura before a year long break. Played holi on the beach, and then some football and frisbee. Fun trip.

Happyness
Between all this my mind was somewhere else. I was watching the world cup with utmost hope. And what I saw in the first few matches was deeply disturbing. The team did not seem to have passion. The fielding was sloppy and the body language, indifferent. And the match against South Africa was a heart break. The team did exactly what the nay sayers said. They were in a great position and then they lost their way. In a way I was happy that it happened in a league match. But it did not look like the team cared about it. How wrong was I! The match against Australia was something special. Suddenly the whole team looked alive, looked like they were in it to win. I can still feel the happiness of that win. Pakistan match was a formality, but the innings of Misbah Ul Haq looked very suspicious. The final lived up to the hype. And when Sachin got out, it was too much for me to handle. Had to watch some movie for a while to calm the nerves only to watch Dhoni play the innings of his life. What a man! What a player! When the team lifted the cup it was sheer ecstacy. It means so much to us to see the team lift the cup. And it was good see the same emotions in the team members. Moments to cherish for a lifetime...

Down under:
Landed in Australia on 18th of April. I was expecting a lot of things... Sadness, excitement, nervousness ... But to my surprise, I did not feel any of those. From day one it was business as usual. I am still trying to think what is different here compared to India apart from the usual list of things. One thing that springs to mind is the relaxed attitude of the people. There is no hurry to cross the road or get out of the tram. Having lived in bangalore, I instinctively rush to the tram door when its about to open. I wonder how many people think 'What a moron!'.

A tram crossing the Flinder's Station, in front of federation square:

View outside the window of the apartment where I stayed:

Walked around the city on a weekend, visited Rod Laver Arena and MCG but could not go in cos there was a game scheduled.

The Yarra river flows through Melbourne:

Our office is in Docklands with Victoria harbour on one side. Its a beautiful view outside the office window.

Titbits

2010-12-03T22:14:00.000-08:00

It’s been a long time since I have blogged. So, this one is going to be a bit of all the things that I can remember now.

India won the test series against Australia:
Two amazing test matches. More so because India won both of themJ. Of all things, Ishanth Sharma’s innings is what I liked best. India needed 92 more to win and Ishanth walks out as No 10 batsmen. I wonder what went on in his mind when he walked out. How could a No 10 batsman even imagine of building a 90 run partnership in the final innings of a test match? Sitting in office, I was amazed to see the score board still ticking, quite a while after Ishanth came in to bat. He believed India could still win the match when even the most ardent Indian fans had given up hope. Inspiring stuff!
Had India lost that match, it could well have lost the series. It’s not easy to win the second test when you have lost the first one in a two test series.

The Social Network:
Watched the movie. Liked it a lot. People think that Mark Zuckerberg is portrayed as evil, but I liked the character. Baring a few things, he appears to be a hero in the movie. Does that mean I am evil myself? Hmmm... Maybe.

River rafting:
Went river rafting in the Barapole river, Coorg. It was a fun trip. The guides were really good. Unlike in Kullu, this was not a ride in the water park. They taught us all the commands they use and we had to row according to their commands. But the rapids need to be a little more extreme. Fun in when you feel you have lost control, right?

Saavan Durga:
Did a night trek for the first time. Started from Bangalore at around 8:30pm. Started the trek around 10:30 I guess. It was a beautiful moonlit night. Tried some long exposure shots at the starting point. Came out better than expected. Shridhar tried a 30 second exposure and we all used our torches to light up the subjects. It looked pretty good on the camera but never got to see it after that. Got to try this sometime.

Kemmannugundi – Bababudangiri –Mullayanagiri:
A long trek after a long time. And the weather was just perfect. No sun and no rain. It’s a 25 km stretch from Kemmannugundi to Bababudangiri. Did it with ease since the weather was so great. But the evenings in this region are very cold. A bit too much for me actually. Wanted to have a camp fire but really could not convince myself to go out looking for firewood. Others were also not in the mood, so ditched it. [Note to self: Campfires are awesome. Don’t be lazy next time]. Morning was as cold as the night. It took us a lot of breakfast and tea to warm up. A bill of 2700 for 24 people in a small village hotel. You can imagine how much we ate. By the time we were done with breakfast, we had given up hope of reaching Bangalore that night. So, there was an extended photo session. Great fun.
We went to Manikyadhara from Bababudangiri and started the trek to Mullayanagiri. The ridge walk is always fun, great landscape all around. Had a round of theplas at Mullayanagiri and back to Bangalore from there. All good except that I got a bad tan. Still peeling layers of skin!!!

Design issues with Dell Studio

2010-04-15T08:39:00.001-07:00

I have a Dell Studio laptop. It’s pretty well built. But a few weeks backs, I had a peculiar problem with it. I was in M’lore at the time and was living with my college buddies Sharath, Prashanth and Pratheek. Every night after office we used to play cricket in our apartment. One evening I had a few photos to edit but Prashanth kept calling us to play. Since I had already got the memory card out of my camera I decided to quickly copy the photos onto to the laptop and edit them later. I blindly pulled the dummy card out of the card slot and plugged in the memory card. The card fits in snugly in the slot and clicks once inserted completely. This time the card went into the slot as usual but it did not click. I turned my laptop around to find that I had unknowingly inserted the card into the DVD slot! Checkout how close the two slots are.

Right away I knew I was in trouble. I tried to pry it out with a pin only to push it in further. Then Pratheek came out with his Swiss knife which had small forceps in it. Although I could slide the card between the forceps, the card wouldn’t budge. Then he brought out another pair of forceps but it was firmly wedged in. It had been 15 mins and we had run out of ideas. None of us knew what to do. So we sang “Om jai jagadish hare...” After finishing the song Sharath noticed that the card was stuck at a corner. So he asked me to push it away from there and sure enough, it neatly came out J

Here is why...

2010-01-29T04:26:00.000-08:00

It was back in October 2008 when I went on my first trek. Since then I have been on seven more treks. Although that is not much, some of my friends and relatives have come to think of me as a big time trekker! I must admit, I kind of like that :) But every once in a while people ask me, ‘why do you go on treks?’ and I have never been able to give them a satisfactory answer. I find it very difficult to explain it in one or two simple sentences. So this is my attempt at explaining why I go on treks.

The Place:
Right from my school day, I have always had a desire to travel. Travel shows used to be and still are one of my favourite. When I first started trekking, the fascination of going to a new place was the only driving force. None of my friends were keen on trekking. So when I went on my first trek with Club Adventura, I did not know even a single person in the group. I was there just to see the place.
The whole of first trek was through thick evergreen forests of Western Ghats and even at the mountain top we were not able to get a clear view due to the forest cover. But after a couple of treks I realised that the places we visited looked far more beautiful compared to commercial tourist places. One of the problems of tourist places is that there are simply too many people around. A place that would otherwise have been serene and beautiful becomes cluttered and noisy and polluted. Since the trekking spots are generally not easily accessible we normally have the place for ourselves. To top it all up, you get to sleep on mountain tops under starry skies and wake up to breathtaking sunrises or a waterfall!

Simple pleasures:
I know this is a cliché. But it’s true. Simple things like a piece of fruit or some small snack suddenly tastes delicious after a day’s trek. Adventura plans treks in such a way that we generally come across a small waterfall somewhere towards the end of the trek. I just love them. There is nothing like having a bath in a waterfall and playing in those shallow streams. Damn I need to learn swimming!

The Escape:
I work in Bangalore. So in the beginning weekends meant loafing around malls with friends. But after a while it got boring. And by Sunday evenings I would feel that I had completely wasted the weekend having done nothing. Now when there is a trek planned, there is something really exciting to look forward to. It’s a great escape from routine.

The Adventure:
I am sure everyone likes adventure. But there are some of us who are just not cut out for it. I am one of them. I was extremely scared of heights. I am still claustrophobic. I can’t stand cold. I easily get sunburnt and I can’t swim. But then it is very exciting to stand at the edge of a cliff or jump off one with a paraglidder.

People:
We usually trek on weekends and it’s amazing how friendly we get with complete strangers in just two days. On a trek we are away from everything else that can be otherwise distracting. So it’s easier for everyone to mingle. And since there is nothing else to do we have enough time to share long stories or stupid jokes or sing old hindi songs or dance to new ones. Apart from this I also get to see a lot of different people and their lifestyle. It gives me a different perspective of the world around.

Photography:
I don’t have to say much here. If you are a photographer, you’ll know that there are a lot of things that you just can’t do sitting at home.

The Challenge:
Apart from the people, the place, photography and everything else there is a sport angle to it. This was not so obvious to me at first. People used to tell stories about how they covered a 3 day trek in half the time and I remember asking ‘But why hurry? You had planned it for 3 days right?’. Now I know what they mean. There is a challenge involved. And that’s why we have a sense of accomplishment after finishing a trek. It’s a truly satisfying feeling which you have to experience to understand what I mean.

Sona Mohapatra

2009-10-05T10:24:00.000-07:00

Sometime back I heard this song called 'Abhi nahi aana...' by Sona Mohapatra. It had nice soothing music and the lyrics were also quite different.

Then a few days later I heard a feat of Sona with INXS! Amazing song again. Now Sona is back with another song... Check it out

Saurkundi Pass Trek continued...

2009-10-04T10:17:00.000-07:00

Day 9: Climb down to Lekhni

The next morning we were a little bit better. I had had dinner the previous night. It was my first meal after the breakfast on Day7 at Maylee. Surprising thing is that I never got hungry anytime. Although it was still snowing, the visibility was much better. This was the day to climb down. And damn, it was a steep descent. And the snow made it slippery. I must mention Rakesh here, who was finding it very difficult to get down. He was slipping every 5 steps. Soon enough he stopped getting up and started sliding down instead of walking down. It was quite funny and we still make fun of him sometimes J As we slowly climbed down, snow changed to fleet and then to rain. I must confess, by the time we reached Lekhni, I was in pretty bad shape again.

The camp at Lekhni was much better than the rest. We had a wooden house here with 2 floors. You can’t imagine how good it feels to get into a wooden house after sleeping in tents for so long and in such terrible conditions. Once inside we started discussing about what we were going to do with the extra 4 days that we had. Rakesh had already booked his train tickets to return soon after the trek. Santa and Ramesh were also in a mood to go back immediately. So they tried to prepone their plane tickets. But they found out that it would be too expensive to do so. All things apart, none of us were in a mood for another trek [as we had planned]. We decided that we’ll doing some site seeing around Manali. As the night drew closer we realised that there was not enough room for all of us in the house. So I decided to join some LNUP guys in a tent nearby.

Till that night I never really interacted much with the LNUP guys. But that night there was no one from Adventura in that tent apart from me. Shailendra Barange was always friendly with me throughout the trek and he started talking to me. Soon enough all the LNUP guys were interviewing me! They would shoot questions one after the other in a kind off ragging way. I was not the least bit intimidated though. For one all these guys were younger than me and also there was Barange who was taking my side. Once they were done questioning me, we actually started talking. Not some useless chatter, but actual serious talk. As expected there were a lot of stories about the girls they liked. I was surprised to hear them talk so openly to me. It was as if I was chatting with my college buddies.

Day 10: Back to base camp

Next day it was a short trek down to ‘Aloo Maidan’ from where we boarded a bus back to Babeli. Once back in Babeli, we cleaned up and were out in the evening enjoying the masala papads again. There was river rafting going on in the river right in front of us, but we were specifically told not to go there. But then ‘Baba’ came to us with a friend of his and said they were 4 people short to go rafting. Ramesh and I agreed but we could not find anyone else. So, the four of us went rafting. I was rafting for the first time and I enjoyed it. There were not many rapids though. But the fun element of it kind of fades when u get wet and it starts getting cold. We left the base camp the next day and headed off to Manali

Roaming around in Manali:

Roamed around Manali in the evenings (eating jalebies)
Visited the Hidimba Temple
Visited Snow point
Visited Vasisth.
Did paragliding. A jump off a cliff of 3500 feet! (This was the highlight of the trip for me)
Visited Roerich Memorial
Visited Naggar castle

Saurkundi Pass Trek continued...

2009-09-29T10:41:00.000-07:00

Day 5: Hora Thatch

Next morning was crisp and sunny. There were honey bees buzzing around the apple trees and I managed to get some pollination shotsJ Soon enough we packed up and headed to Hora thatch, our next camp. Again there were a lot of stops on the way. One thing that I noticed on the way was that there were some huge trees fallen. Before I could wonder why I saw the reason. The bases of some trees were set on fire! There were many of these huge trees with their stems smouldering. That would eventually weaken the tree and it would fall down. It was a sad sight. I wonder if we can do something about this... If you have any ideas to stop this, please let me know. By the early evening we reached camp Hora. Some went for a dip in the nearby waterfall. I could not even dream of getting into the water there at that temperature! The camp site was a small clearing in the jungle. Played frisbee for a while and then some cricket. Meanwhile there were stories going on between Adventura gang, the bong gang and the teachers of LNUP. Stories eventually shifted to jokes and then to riddles. Total time pass! Then it was chai and dinner. Camp fire followed soon after. The LNUP guys were ready with performances. One of the bong babu also sang a song. And boy he was good! What a voice! We never knew he could sing so well.

After the camp fire when most people settled into their tents, we [the Adventura gang] decided to spend some time outside. We got out blankets and settled on a rock in front of the tents. Cold, quiet and peaceful. It’s one of those memories that stay with you. Just what Sumaji wanted the whole trek to be like, I guess. But with the LNUP guys with us, most of the trek was a noisy affair! I for one did not mind the noise. It just reminded of my college days. Damn I miss those days. Now here’s some real motivation to do MS!

Day 6: Off to Maylee

Next morning was bright, sunny and beautiful. The light through the canopy was looked amazing. There some honeybees hovering near a tree and I wanted to shoot one in flight. After about 20 minutes of waiting, one of the blind shots paid off. At the moment I thought it was a very special shot. Later I realized it’s pretty common L. Went back to the camp for a quick breakfast and we were off on our way to Maylee. The trek proceeded at a lazy pace. The views got better and the snow peaks now appeared much closer. On the way we also came across a hashish field. By about 12 we had reached an opening where we stopped for lunch. There was plenty of time since we were close to Maylee camp. Some of us played Frisbee while some enjoyed the omlets, chai and maggie in the omnipresent yellow tent. Rakesh being an avid reader had got 4 books with him. Since he could not carry all of them on the trek, I had asked him if I could borrow one. He had graciously agreed and I had chosen ‘Anne Frank’s diary’. It was now coming in handy because most of the gang dozed off after lunch J

After trekking for a while from the lunch place we got to our first patch of snow. I had never touched snow in my life. So even though it was a bit muddy because of people treading on it, I dived right in. I wanted to take fistfuls of snow and throw it people. But in all the excitement I tried to grab the snow bare handed without gloves. Instantly all the excitement vanished. I quietly went to the place where everyone had put their bags down. Took off my bag, put on the gloves and then went back J

A short while later, we arrived at Maylee. Maylee was the most beautiful camp site of all. It was at the border of the tree line on the mountain. Behind the camp was the canopy of trees, where as in front lay the bare mountain covered with grass. We were just roaming around when a shower of fleet came down. Slowly it turned to snowfall. It was beautiful. What a place to see snowfall for the first time. Once the snowfall stopped we all gathered around the small fire in front of the camp site. I thought to myself ‘if I have 10 days to live, I wouldn’t mind spending 5 days here’.

Day 7: Climb to Dora

The next morning got up early to get some pictures. I wanted to get the reflection of the mountains and the sun on my sunglasses. Tried it but could not get a decent shot. I was too late and the sun was too bright for it. I had to wake up at dawn at Dora. I had come all this way hoping to get the pictures of the changing colours of the Himalayas in the early morning hours.

I distinctly remember that day about 15 years back. We were on our way to Badrinath. We had stayed at Joshimatt overnight. My dad had woke me up in the wee hours of the morning and we both watched the snow peaks as they went through different shades of blue, orange, red and golden yellow before they finally became white. All of this happened in a matter of minutes. We did not bother taking pictures. We just stood there and watched. I just wanted to see that magic again. But I missed my chance at Maylee and did not want to miss it at Dora.

On the way from Maylee to Dora, the mountains are almost bare. This makes it very scary since you can see all the way down the steep slope that you tread. I was not comfortable with heights to begin with. And I could not bear cold. I just realized Himalaya was not the ideal place for me to trek. There was snow along the way right from the beginning. We came to a place where there was nice fresh snow and we were given some time there to play. We could slide on the slope there [the guides allowed us knowing there are no jagged rocks underneath]. I never thought sliding on snow can be so much fun! But after you slide a few times, my clothes started getting wet and filled up with snow. But this was where we played in snow to our hearts content.

When we reached the lunch point that day, we came to know that the previous batch was just around the corner. Then some of them actually came down to meet us. It was a quick meet up and they were back on their way again. During lunch the weather kept getting colder and colder. Also we were wearing canvas shoes which were completely wet and partly filled with snow. My fingers and toes had gone numb and I was in no mood for lunch. Had some dates before we started. The moment we started from the lunch point we could see a huge cloud coming at us. Soon enough it started to snow and visibility dropped to about a meter. We came around a slope then reached a point where we had to slide down. There was no way we could walk down there. But at the foot of the slide there were the guides standing catching us as we came down. When I slid down I kept shouting at the guides to get out of the way but they caught me anyway. When I came around the next turn I saw why they did it. There was a cliff a short distance from the slide.

From that point on things started getting rough. The weather was really closing in. We could not see a thing. My shoes were filled with snow and my fingers were frozen to the point that I could not make a fist. After a while I could not feel my toes and that’s when started getting worried. I somehow managed to keep walking but then the guides told us that the camp site was just ahead and went back to get the people who were left behind. We could not see anything and did not know which way to go. Walking in a snow storm is difficult, but standing still is next to impossible. Finally when the guides came they took us to the campsite about 100 meters from where we were standing! And in those 100 meters I fell some 10 times because I had lost my dexterity completely. When we reached the camp, we were one tent short. So we had to take the tent where the blankets were stored. I was never so happy to get into a blanket before. But even after getting into a blanket it took me about an hour and a half to stop shivering. The dinner was prepared and brought to our tents. But I was not I a shape to get up and take it. I wasn’t hungry anyways. No camp fire either. Everybody just turned in for the night. I had dumped all my wet clothes and shoes in a corner and never thought about them until next morning.

Day 8: Saurkund Lake and the Saurkundi Pass

Next morning we woke up to a complete whiteout. We could not see anything outside the tents. It was snowing heavily. Tapas Chakraborthy, one of the bangali babus, was a camp leader on this trek some time before and he suggested we not trek in the kind of weather we had. He was a very experienced person who had been on mountaineering expeditions and he told us we did not have the equipment to get through that weather. Vishalda was also apprehensive of trekking in that snowstorm. So they called up base camp to warn them of the situation and stop the trek for the day. But people at the base camp were not ready to listen to any of us. They were adamant on having us leave the camp since the next group would be on its way to Dora. We had no choice but to leave.

When we started, Vishalda called the whole Adventura group and asked us to stay together. We all agreed. To begin with I walked with them. But eventually I could not walk at that pace anymore. I was wearing the same wet clothes, shoes and socks. My monkey cap was wet. So I had to use a towel to cover my head instead. Also my waterproof gloves were also wet. So no gloves either. I stuck my hands in my pocket and marched on. I felt like running. Although I hadn’t eaten much, I wasn’t feeling weak or hungry. I guess it was the adrenaline kicking in. Once I got into a rhythm, I just kept going. For the most part I was right in the front with the guide. At one point the guide asked us to wait back and drew a line with his ice axe a short distance in front of us. He asked us not cross that line. When we reached the line he told us that it was a the edge of the Saurkund Lake. Then we saw it. It was a huge depression between the mountains completely covered with snow. And we were standing right on the edge of it. A step across the line and we would plunge down to the lake. I could imagine how majestic it would look in clear weather. But we could barely see it in the snowfall. We kept moving from there on to reach the lunch point. By this time I had lost all sensation in my feet. My fingers were also frozen and I was finding it difficult to put them in my pocket. Without gloves every slide was a struggle. When we slide, we use our elbows and feet as breaks. With my feet stiff I was not able to control my slides. And when I started to tumble, I had to use my hand to balance. With my hands already frozen it felt like they were getting crushed when I touched ice.

At lunch point another guide was to take us to our next camp; Longa thatch. But when we reached the lunch point, the second guide hadn’t come yet. The first guide refused to move any further and told us to wait till the other guide came along. The wind was blowing pretty hard and it was snowing heavily. There was no way we could wait in that weather. After a lot of convincing, the guide agreed to take us further. I don’t remember much from this point on. Just that we reached Longa Thatch by which time my knuckles had turned blue. Once we reached the camp, it was big relief. When we began from Dora, we were not sure if we would make it to Longa. Eventually my fingers started moving! I was going to come back in one piece! Nobody was in a mood for any activity outside the tents. Inside the tents we were getting bored. That’s when style bhai [Jayanth] took out his cell phone which had enough songs and videos to entertain us for hours. He even had some sort of gadgetry to charge his cell phone! I don’t know how he did it but judging by the weight of his bag he must have been carrying a small motorcycle battery in it.

Tea time discussions...

2009-09-03T07:43:00.000-07:00

This is a break from the trek post. But I've got to post this. Trek post will continue after this...

Place: Terminal, Infosys
Time:4:45 pm (tea time)
There was a discussion going on about our project. And Abhishek comes out with this gem:
Q: How do you guys deploy your code?
Abhishek: We take code from live and compare it with our local copy. Then we take the live code again and compare a second time. Then we merge the local copy with live and deploy.
Q: But don't you have any version control tool?
Abhi: We do. But you never know... :)

This was followed by more anecdotes from our beloved Baburao(current PM).
We were laughing non stop for about half an hour!

Saurkundi Pass Trek continued...

2009-08-30T07:10:00.001-07:00

To begin with, Saurkundi was not the trek I had in mind. I had seen pictures of Ladakh somewhere and ever since I wanted to go there. It was only after trekking with Adventura that I thought it was actually possible. But then in December of 2008 I found out that October to December was the best time to go Ladakh. Also on one of the Adventura treks, I heard about Sar Pass [actually Kedar mentioned it at least 20 times]. From all that I heard, Sar Pass was a must do trek. When I later asked Vishalda if we could go to Sar Pass he told me that they were already planning a trip to Saurkundi Pass, a trek very similar to Sar Pass, and were about to announce it. I said I was in. Little did I know what I was getting into...

Train to Delhi:

About 2 months later, we boarded a train to Delhi. I was travelling by a train after about 15 years! Yeah. Last time I was 8 years old when I had travelled by a train. As expected, the train ride was fun [very very hot though]. We had a few army men for company and they had taught me ‘rummy’ by the time the train reached Delhi. Ramesh and Siddharth were in a different compartment and rarely did they come out of their compartment. Later I discovered that there was a particularly pretty girl there and both these guys were busy talking to her. I still don’t understand how I did not notice her after going there so many times! L

Dilli:

We reached Delhi at about 10:30 am. From there everybody headed to Gujarathi Samaj where we were supposed to stay till the evening. Meanwhile I took an auto to Kashmiri Gate to meet Sudhiranna. From there we took the metro to Kannhaiah Nagar, to Sudhiranna’s house. By evening Sudhiranna dropped me to Gujarathi Samaj.

Bus to Babeli:

Got a bus to Kullu right from Gujarathi Samaj. After an overnight journey we reached Babeli, our base camp, 7 kms from Kullu. There were about 15-20 tents pitched with a shamiyana at one end and rest rooms at the other. There was Beas river flowing across the road. All in all, it was a nice place with pleasant weather. We had 3 days of acclimatization. On the first day we had the whole day to ourselves. There was nothing planned; this was a rest day. We settled into our tents and by evening we headed to kullu for some last minute shopping. Everything I had brought from Bangalore ranging from hunter shoes to thermals was available in Kullu for about half the price. So much for coming well prepared.

Kullu is nice place and surprisingly it was exactly how i thought it would be. We branched out to finish with our shopping and since I already had almost everything i needed, i strolled around for a while. I went to the Gurudwara then to a small tea shop[it was already getting cold]. The shop was pretty small with walls completely covered with yellowing newspapers. And there was some old hindi song playing in the back ground. The valley, the cold weather, the hot tea and the music; it was just perfect! It is amazing how music can add so much to the mood.

Along with us there were a bunch of college kids from ‘LNUP’ who had this trek as a part of their curriculum. And more of them arrived that evening. At night there was camp fire, YHAI style [Youth Hostel Association of India], i.e. a few bulbs instead of fire, in the interest of protecting the environment of course. At camp fire there were supposed to be entertainment programs performed. And as an incentive the camp officials would give us hot Bournvita at the end. The incentive is quite a big one considering that the temperature reaches below 10° celsius at night and we have to sleep in tents. We were not worried about coming up with performances since the LNUP guys were more than happy to perform. On the first day, among other things there was a ‘Mauritius Dance’ by LNUP student. There was this guy who provided music with a cup and spoon and a girl who would dance to it. It was awesome.

Day 2:

Day 2 started with early morning exercise. Then we had to do the acclimatization walk. We started from base camp and climbed a nearby mountain to reach a temple and from there on moved to the peak. At the temple we got a look at the stone slabs that are used as roofing. It was just an easy climb with a few photo ops on the way. And that was all for the day. By evening we were free again. And again we were out strolling around. There were some good hotels around the base camp. Not the luxurious ones, but those small ones that are usually found in small towns. Evening programs included a play on Ramayan. Jatayu and Laxman used to smoke beedi, Ram was happy that Ravan had kidnapped sita and Ravan was begging Ram to take her back. Hats off to the guy who came up with the idea. There was also a dance performance.

Day 3:

Day 3 sounded very interesting with Rock climbing and rappling scheduled. But we had a fair idea of what it was going to be like since Kedar had already told us. The rock for rapelling was on the slopes of a mountain behind our base camp. A short walk and we were there. As expected it was a rock of about 20 feet. After the initial instructions it was a long wait for our turn since only one person could go at a time. Finally when my turn came i was done in under 30 secs!

After lunch we went to a similar rock somewhere nearby and had to again wait for our turn to do the 30 secs of climbing! So, the whole day we were actively involved for about 1 minute! As usual we went out to eat. By now we knew what was good in each hotel. One for masala papad, one for tupka and one for pakoda. We packed our bags for the trek, locked up our extra luggage and were good to go.

Day 4: Destination Segli

After a bus ride to the starting point the trek finally began. We were all geared up and rearing to go. But before long we all had to stop for a break. And then again. It was more resting than walking. We were making our way through a villages and pine forest. Unlike western ghats, there was almost no under growth here and walking on the soft ground of fallen pine leaves was very pleasant. By noon we reached a place where there was a small yellow tent where you could get a juice of some local flower, tea, eggs or Maggie. The guide asked us to rest there for 2 hrs since we were quite close to the next camp and the camp leader would not allow us in until 3:30. This hardly qualified as a trek since we were resting most of the time. Vishalda was restless. He said we could cover the whole trek easily in less than half the time. There was no reason why we could not. But we had to stick to the schedule. So we went along. Reached Segli camp at about 4 pm. The camp there was set up in an apple orchard. There was very little space around since the tenst were set up on a very steep slope. There were 2 steps made into the mountain each wide enough to hold a tent and a narrow walk way. When i opened the flap of the tent towards the valley it was sheer slope from the very edge of the tent! Quite a view it had with a valley and mountains on either side. There were a couple of houses close by. I went in to charge my batteries in one of them. This house also had the old hindi songs playing. It is then that i realised that they were all listening to radio! That is why there were these songs playing in the tea shop in Kullu and all the village homes that we passed by. Having lived in Bangalore radio to me was FM which played the latest songs. Back home in karkala where we had no FM, i used to listen to music on my comp or on a CD player. I had completely forgotten about ‘All India Radio’!

The yellow tent with maggie and eggs was there at the camp site. After some tea I went around exploring the place for a while. Now that we had climbed higher, the view around was getting better. The snow capped mountains were around us and the fading light brought some amazing colours to the scene. I was wondering what would it be like at the top. That night the camp fire was in the dark with our battery operated torches as the only source of light.

Saurkund Trek, '09

2009-08-30T03:43:00.000-07:00

Hello people!

Quick updates:

Got a laptop
My first project is officially over
Cleared certification (infy internal)

Its been more than three and a half months since I have returned from Saurkund Trek. And it is now that I have got the time and resources (read laptop and internet connection) to put something up on it. I'll start with a set of pictures of the trek. A more detailed blog post will follow :P
So here goes:

Some girl in the train:

Some army men in our compartment:

On the way from Bangalore to Delhi:

On the bus from Delhi to Babeli: (7 kms from kullu)

Base Camp Babeli: First look (Photo by Siddharth)

River Beas across the road from the base camp:

In the town of Kullu:

Just before the camp fire at base camp:

The SK-3 Gang on acclimatization walk:

The Adventura Gang minus Sid, Rakesh and me on the acclimatization walk:

A temple somewhere on the acclimatization walk:

Rapelling session (yeah, thats me):

And rock climbing:

A cone:

I don't want money!

2009-02-27T10:10:00.000-08:00

I recently had a discussion with a friend of mine. He said ‘money is his passion’. He just wants to make money. I don’t quite agree. I don’t think money in itself can be an end. It can only be a means to an end. What you really want maybe to go some place or have something. Lets say you want a big house with peaceful surroundings. And to buy that house you need money. Agreed. Money can get you a lot of things. No doubt. But the point is what are you focusing on? Money, or what you want to do with it?

The argument is that, I need a lot of things. All those need money. So instead of focusing on all those individually, I focus on money. So once I have enough money, I can get whatever I want. Pretty straight forward argument. Logical right?

Well there is catch. For one, quite often the means of making money will be contradictory to what we want to do with it. For example, to earn money, you might have to stay in a city where you will not be able to find peaceful surroundings. Or you may have to go to a different country which takes you away from family and friends which defeats the very purpose of having a big house. Also, our needs keep increasing with time(I think this is a good thing) and we are constantly trying to catch up by earning more money.

So isn’t it better to focus more on what we really want rather than focusing on earning money as a blanket solution?

Its official!

2009-02-23T08:58:00.000-08:00

Finally, its official! Well almost. Dates fixed, tickets booked. I am going to the Himalayas on a trek. "Saurkundi Pass" to be precise. It was back in '93 when I was in J&K. Well, its been a long long time. Time to go back. To see a different part of the Himalayas. Now, the only one who stands between is my dear PM [we lovingly call him 'uncle'. Hope he doesn't know :P]. Yes, leave is not yet approved. Keeping my fingers crossed. :)

Wandering around...

2009-02-21T04:52:00.000-08:00

Went trekking to Chikmagalur with adventura in Jan. Wow! What an experience. This was my third event with Adventura. Earlier ones being a trek to 'Sharavathy Valley' and a parasailing event at Hoskote lake near Bangalore.

The Sharavathy Valley trek was pretty much what I expected it to be. We trekked through the rain forests of the western ghats for the most part. This being the first of my real outdoor treks ( by real, i mean sleeping in sleeping bags and under the open sky at night and going to the jungle in the morning ) it was very memorable. We started off at around 10 am and trekked till about 8:45 pm. Once the sun was down, it was pitch dark. So we had to trek with our head lamps on. Enjoyed this part very much. Also made many new friends. All in all, Awesome.

Event 2, parasailing was also quite an experience. But will write about it some other time. In between I had also volunteered for a Club Adventura event in office. So by now i knew most of the Adventura people well.

When I signed up for Trek to Chikmagalur, I expected it to be similar to first one.

But I was in for a surprise. For one only 2people were there from the first trek. But that was not much of a problem, since in did not know anyone when I was on the first trek. The journey to chickmagalur was event less as we did not have Mr Sagar Mahapatra with us (did I not mention him? He is a super entertainer and a very good photographer.) When we reached Baba budangiri in the morning it was frigid. When I spoke to locals there they told me that it was even colder about a week back and that people normally move down from the mountain because of it. Also the mountain was very barren. Except for some short grass and low bushes, there was no other vegetation. This was very surprising to me. I had always seen western ghats mostly covered with evergreen forests. We started our trek early after having some breakfast at Baba budangiri. We were going to trek to Mullayanagiri, the highest point in Karnataka. The landscape around was beautiful. The bareness and cold reminded me of mountains of 'Leh-Ladak'. (This is when the idea of going to Leh-Ladak came to my mind.) The trek in the morning was quite pleasant.

But then things started heating up. As there was no forest cover, walking in the sun was really tiring. Also, on the way to Mullayanagiri we had to cross the famous Baba budangiri-ridge. The ridge is so narrow that you can actaully put both your legs on either side of the ridge and its a sheer drop to the bottom of the mountain on either side. I must admit, crossing it was quite scary for me. Once the ridge was done we wanted to reach the peak to watch the sunset. None of us was sure if we could do it. So we went for it. Ultimately we ended up reaching the peak at around 4 pm! Perfect time for some bhelpuri and gupshup before the sunset.

The sunset was every bit as beautiful as we expected it to be. There was also a small forest fire in a distance which looked beautifull at sunset. After dinner we had a small camp fire. Six of us decided to sleep in the open for the night while the rest slept in the temple priests quarters. The priests had warned us that it would very cold and that they had trouble sleeping inside, especially around 4 in the morning. At 3 am the wind picked up. I could not go back to sleep. Nor did I want to get out of my sleeping bag to go in. At 3:30 am I could not bear it anymore and I went in to catch some z's. Woke up to one of the most beautifull sunrises I have ever seen. The clouds were below us and the sun was just rising. Here are a couple of the pictures of the sunrise:

Watching the sunrise I forgot something important. And when I remembered, it was broad daylight. Forget trees, there was not even a small bush in sight. Plus it was a 70 degree slope on each side. Don't ask me how but I managed. [Note to memory: when on a trek, wake up early so that you can go to the loo before daybreak]

After all this and a round of photos, we headed down. Again looking at the steep slope there were times when I was wondering what I was doing here. Was very happy reach the road down. from there on we decided to go to Abbey falls but could not find a jeep to get to it. Instead we went to Kalhatti falls. Small one. Actually these small falls are fun. They are easier to reach and you can stand directly under the falls! Nice way to round up the trip. The ride back to bangalore was fun. But somehow we were not as together a group as were in the first trek. But hey, it was a nice trek. There was Dinesh with us. A very good photographer. You can see his pics here.

Fire!

2009-01-06T09:31:00.000-08:00

I have always wanted to do this. I wanted to light a fire ‘cavemen’ style. Without a lighter or a matchbox. I had tried it a couple of times before. But I did not a have a proper method. Last week I got what I had been waiting for. I was watching ‘Man vs Wild’ on Discovery and Bear Grylls showed a set up used to make fire that looks something like this:

“That’s it!” I thought. I could not wait to get home to try it out. I was going home for the xmas long weekend. Back home I have got all the tools and raw materials required to do such things :p. Reached home at around 6:30 am and by 7:30 I was all ready. All I had to do was hold the top piece of wood down and move the bow back and forth as fast as I can. This would turn the stick and the friction should get me enough embers to start a fire.

In less than 2 mins I had the stick smoking! Wow! But before I could get any further the stick slipped out of the bow. Damn. Lets try again. Again I get smoke but as I carry on the stick slips off the base. But this time the stick is charred. Impressive. From then on I don’t remember how many times I tried but each time the stick would slip, sooner or later. At one point I even got a glowing red dot on the base but it was too small.

After about half an hour, I was totally exhausted. So I thought, let me first try to make fire out of embers. So that when I do manage to get some embers, I don’t loose the chance. I lit a small piece of wood put it out and tried to get a fire going with a handfull of wood shavings.Again no luck. I just could not get it to light up.

I knew it was not going to be easy, but somehow I thought I would be able to do it this time. Anyways, I was down on motivation after about an hour and half of trying. I saw no point carrying on. Guess I am not yet ready to be stranded on a deserted island. But if I do get stranded, I hope its not 'Wilson' for company.

I decided to get some tips from someone who has done it before I try again. But I’ll do it.

PS: If anyone of you has done it, please let me know how you did it.

A word of advice

2008-12-22T08:26:00.000-08:00

Imagine. You are in a library reading something really interesting. There is divider on the table that blocks your view. You decide to put your feet up on the chair on the opposite side (Believe me, its very comfortable). You continue reading and unknowingly put your feet down. After sometime you feel like putting them back up again. Never ever do so without looking over the other side of the divider. Boy that was close! God knows what that girl sitting on the other side would have done…

Golden Ratio

2008-11-29T09:53:00.000-08:00

Changed the name of the blog to '1.61803...'. As you may already be aware, this is the golden ratio. The ratio that is behind everything beautiful! Saw a book called the 'The Golden Ratio' at landmark today. Browsed through it and it looked quite interesting. I'll read it once I finish 'The Music of the Primes'.

'Excellence' by Harsha

2008-11-28T09:08:00.000-08:00

Opening mood : Lazy

I was browsing through the net and I came across a video of Harsha Bhogle’s speech at IIM, Ahmedabad. Since I was in office, I decided to watch the video at home. It was quite late in the night when I remembered about it again and decided to have a look. Since it was taking a long time to download, started watching another one where Harsha was talking about Sachin. It was a vintage Harsha.

But even after watching the other video, the download of IIM one was not complete. It was then that I realised that the video was more than an hour long. 11:45 in the night is not right time to start watching an hour long video. But I could not resist the temptation.Harsha had been called to speak on ‘Excellence’. Sounds interesting! Okay I’ll watch for 10 mins I thought to myself.

He started off describing his early years at IIMA. Then he went on to speak about ‘Excellence’. The speech was just amazing. But there was one part of the speech that stood out for me. He said “When I started out as a commentator, I tried to compete. People asked me how many years of cricket I had played and I wanted to prove that I knew about cricket. But it did not help. Then I decided to make my guests look good. I did not try to compete with them. If I make Sunil Gavaskar look good or Geoffrey Boycott look good, they would want to work with me.” Wow. What a thought!

By the time I realised that the video was about end it was almost 1 in the night. But I wanted it to go on. Boy, I can listen to this guy speak for hours on end. And every time I listen to him I become a bigger fan. So much so that when Harsha is not on commentary, something feels incomplete when I watch the match.

This is the kind of video you have to watch when you want to clear your head. It was a cold cloudy day today. But Harsha brightened it up for me in the middle of the night!

Closing mood : Sleepy

The last class

2007-05-14T07:16:00.000-07:00

Ouch! It hurts....

Went to college today morning. Late as usual. That's cos I slept late.... And the reasons go on.
Missed the first hour. Advanced Computer architecture! Believe me, I have no idea what the subject is about. Last semester in engineering we've got a project to do. And unless we copy a project or buy one from outside we won't have much time left to study the "four" subjects in syllabus. Our team being one of those rare few idiots who do the project on their own (probably because we've got nothing else to do!), we are almost completely blank about the subjects.

Second hour was Data Mining. Perfect lecturer! Came in with important questions for sessionals, dictated them, told us he won't engage anymore classes and left quietly.

Third hour was free. God knows why. Maybe the lecturer was on leave. We went to the project lab to complete a few left out things. Then at 4th hour got a missed call. Someone was going to take class. We rushed to class. It was our favorite, Mr. RK (sir). Constitution was the one class I was interested in. But today could not keep my eyes open. Because there were very few people in class, I had to sit right in front. By the end of the hour he asked to stand up once and sit. That's his way of waking me up! Make no mistake, he is very friendly with students. But there were a few giggles from behind. And the usual stare from first benchers as if they've never seen me before.
Then he declared it was his last class....
And someone from behind said "last class of the semester man f**k".

It suddenly hit me.
This was it. The lecturer in first hour had probably finished his classes and the 3rd hour guy did not come cos he had finished his!

The last class of my student life was over. Just like any other class.

I had imagined it a lot different. I thought the whole class would be present on the last day. And there would be huge cheer at the end. And a really long hangout till late in the evening.

This was abrupt.

Not even half the class was there. No cheer. No talking. Everyone just dispersed.

Not the perfect last class. But the 4 years before that were just awesome.

I hope the party has just begun.