Shangri-La

Return of the King...

2009-04-03T20:56:00.002+05:30

Winston Salem:

One last look at the empty apartment. It doesn't hurt much. I realize why. It was a good decision to move to this apartment, seven months ago. It would've hurt like hell had it been the old apartment on Magnolia that was leaving back. That place had plenty of memories - good and bad, but mostly good - associated with it. That was the place where we built our dreams. I had to see it once again.

I took Magnolia once again, and had one last look at the apartment on the second floor. And bade a goodbye.

CLT:

Of all the airports I have been to,(not that I have been to all that many) I would say CLT is the best. Free wifi kicks it right up to the top of the list, if you ask me. Flight delays are no more an issue. Who cares when you get to chat one more hour with friends? Why don't they do it at all the places? No, I wouldn't take the excuse of logistics. I wouldn't mind paying a dollar or two either. Alas, if only someone thought about the business sense in it.

JFK:

I had almost 3 hours at the airport. One thing I totally fail to understand is why people mess up the security check queue. Hats off to the patience of the TSA guys!

A380:

Bloody Hell! I've heard of a 'Palace on Wheels', but this is a 'Palace with Wings'! It is huge - no, gargantuan would be a better fit. And the legroom. Whoa! The personal information center just flashed the aircraft's current ground speed: 1009 km/h. What? Holy Cow! And it is totally silent. And smooth.
You will get used to its sheer size and the features that augment it - things like the huge curving side wall,and the flashy, wood-paneled flight of stairs that lead up to the holy mecca of luxury, the First Class - pretty quick. Then you start fiddling with the entertainment system. Hundreds of movies, thousands of tracks, four on-board cameras, podcasts, live news feed... Enough to keep you occupied through the 13-hour flight.

Once the bird was down on the ground, I took a sneak peak at the cockpit. The captain showed me how the controls worked and explained the fly-by-wire system. Pretty slick. And yes, he told me the the Cargo Door Actuator works like a charm (of course!) ;)

Got a co-passenger to take some photos. I will be uploading it as soon as I receive those.

Dubai:

Shopping is all you can do inside the terminal. Duty-free shop after duty-free shop tries to get you spend the last of your cash with 'great' offer. But I see the prices aren't any lower than what I have seen in the best deals in the US. There was one lucky draw ticket that caught my eye, though. A $500 raffle ticket for an Aston Martin DB9. And the total number of tickets is only 2000. So a one in two thousand chance of winning an Aston Martin? Sound pretty tempting!

Kochi:

Finally! Hot and humid at 4am. It feels good to be home.... (Boy, I better get used to the sticky feeling at the earliest! )

Silence and Sunday Post Meridiem

2007-08-12T23:33:00.000+05:30

It is so unbelievable how everything could be so immobile. Each of the huge trees outside my apartment that make a canopy of soothing shade out on the front yard has a million leaves; and each of those leaves may very well have been carved out of stones, for they are so still.

Have you been in a situation where the whole world around you stops moving and you are the only one that seems to have any life? The trees, branches and leaves, the blades of grass, the fallen leaves on the road, the bushes, the air, the buildings, the neighbors, everyone and everything seems so dead and mummified. Even the sun's rays are staying away; may be they are afraid they might impart a life to those dead. Absolute silence, a state of absolute rest. More like a state of rest in peace. That is this place, Magnolia Street in Winston Salem on a cloudy Sunday afternoon.

I've been here for a year now, and the defeaning silence was what caught me off guard when I started living here. It was unbearable for me who had lived in Bangalore for 3 years. I wanted to yell out, "MAKE SOME NOISE, YOU ZOMBIES, I'M GOING CRAZY!" But then I started to like it, and I got used to it. I don't feel anything these days, unless it is a Sunday afternoon.

Now, it is one of those Sunday afternoons.

Long long time ago....

2007-07-10T06:05:00.000+05:30

I haven't been here in a while. This place looks so strange to me now. Feels like going into one of those old, unoccupied dusty houses... Something makes you want to go back, but there is nothing to go back for. At least it makes you think so for a moment.

At one point in time I wanted to convert this to a Photoblog (yeah, call it laziness because then I could escape with posting a few pics and captions instead of trying to make some sense out of random words), but time proved I was too lazy to do that even. May be I had more important things to do. May be.

Anyway, I can no more do it, even if I wanted to. So let me get back to words.

Sin City

2006-12-28T20:05:00.000+05:30

I gambled in Las Vegas! (And of course, lost. Well, thats what the casinos are for, aren't they?).

I have never seen such blatant display of wealth and opulence anywhere else. It makes you believe that money has no value in that place (and thus make you feel less guilty to part with your own money). We tried our luck at the Roulette table, and boy! isn't that an addictive game! We won a few hands first, and started losing steadily after some time. I should've remembered the basic rule in gaming: keep moving if you start losing; at least it will give you a new perspective (I don't know how that will make a difference, though)...

Everything is big and flashy in Vegas. It seems world's 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th biggest hotels are located at Vegas. We stayed in one of those, named Luxor which is built imitating an Egyptian pyramid.

Check out a few pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/subhashnm

Does Buddha still smile?

2006-10-08T10:07:00.000+05:30

Does he see those children of his, who are driven away from their land, looted of all that was theirs, deprived of their identity, tortured, whose youth being fed mis-information and drugs?

God, will they ever get their land back?

Watch: Cry of the snow lion

The eye

2006-09-16T06:12:00.000+05:30

I'd say my wife has a better sense of photography than me. She just loves camera: her dream is to take a movie with Mohanlal and Nandita das doing the lead roles. She's not quite there yet, but I'd say she does much more justice to the new camera that I've bought than me, and gets a lot better photos out of it. I have a lot to learn from her... (I hurt my ego here, sigh!)

Below are a few snaps clicked by her.

Across seven seas...

2006-09-10T10:03:00.000+05:30

Its all dusty here. This place smells of old paper and brings back old memories. May be I should wipe it clean now...
I bought a new camera; an Olympus Evolt E-500 dSLR. I like it, it has so many features, and a good pair of lenses in the kit. Went to a park near to our apartment in Winston-Salem in North Carolina and clicked some pictures... It has been one of my dreams to own a digital SLR, and finally, I've done it!

The promised land

2006-03-14T11:44:00.000+05:30

Just finished: 'From Beirut to Jerusalem' by Thomas L. Friedman

Who was right? Who was wrong? Was it justice to displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs to make way for a Promised Land that was lost two thousand years ago? But then, the jews were being persecuted everywhere in the world. They were being hated everywhere, and it was but their right to have a land that they can call their own; a place where they can live peacefully with their own people. They wanted to live with their own people not because they hated the others; but because the others hated them. Where else can they go but to their ancient land, where Moses led their forefathers to? They came, they settled, and they wanted peace. And peace was something which they were never to have.

When UN suggested the partition of the land of Palestine to two independant Jewish and Arab states, both sides rejected it first - though Jews accepted it later - which paved the way for the first of the numerous wars between the Jews and the Arabs. Jews won the war and annexed half of the Palestinian territory marked by the UN while the rest of it, Gaza Strip and West Bank, was taken over by Egypt and Jordan. And Palestine ceased to exist as a nation. If they had compromised in 1948, they would've had something to build their base on. Now they were refugees in their on land.

They suffered; and they fought. They wanted to erase Israel off the world map and reclaim their righteous place in the map. They fought under many leaders: George Habash, Yassir Arafat, and many more. They fought only to lose everytime. The war of 1967 between Israel and Egypt, Syria and Jordan saw Israel magically defeating the might of the combined Arab army, annexing Jerusalem, Gaza Strip, West bank and Golan Heights. That almost sealed the fate of a Palestinian nation. More Palestinians were driven to refugee camps in Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon. And the world slowly began to sideline the Palestinian issue.

What changed it all was the Intifada (means 'Uprising' in Arabic) started in 1987. Palestinian youth in the West Bank took their fighting to the streets. They fought the Israeli guns and tanks with stones and sticks. And the world started noticing. Things got bloodier as the time passed by. There wan't a day without news reports about car bombs in civilian areas and suicide attacks on military posts. Israelis haven't known what peace is, especially after 1987.

The recent past: A solution seemed nearing with Israel pulling out of the Gaza strip, razing all the kibbutzim there. The Israelis and Palestianias were sitting on either sides of a table, discussing a plan to establish a Palestinian Nation alonside Israel, containing West Bank and Gaza, and of course, minus Jerusalem. Things were starting to look good.

Now: Hamas, acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya, an organization hell bent on erazing Israel off the world map by any means, has won the election in West Bank and Gaza, and is running the Palestinian Authority now. Will they put aside their fundamentalism and sit at a table to negotiate with the Israelis? Will the Israelis ever trust the Hamas? Can they? Only time can tell...

This is the Palestinian side of the story. Here it is full of pain, suffering, longing, seperation and losses. The Israeli side of the story is slightly different: there is suffering, there is longing; but they were eclipsed by hopes and heroism, beliefs and determination. And that is the secret of their success as a nation.

Traffic

2006-03-13T14:57:00.000+05:30

The Hosur Road traffic is getting real bad these days. Last thursday, it took one and a half hours to cover the 16km strech from my home to the office. Earlier when it used to be this way, I used to go mad struggling to get my bike through the traffic under the hot evening sun, with smoke and dust filling up my nostrils. Come rain and there were the days of mud-racing.
Those days are over. As soon as I moved to HSR Layout from my old flat in Bommanahalli, I took up a bus pass from the company and started enjoying the 'luxurious' bus service my organization provides. They are much better than being out there on the road, I should say. The buses may be battered and noisy and cramped, but still its way better than being out in the open on Hosur road. But what makes bus travel so wonderful for me is that it has breathed a new life into my reading habit, which was on the verge of an un-timely death. Since I've started coming in the bus, ie in the last two months, I've finished reading the following books:

Rain in the mountains - Ruskin Bond
The spymasters of Israel
The search for Shangri-la - Charles Allen
From Beirut to Jerusalem - Thomas L. Friedman
Yayati (Malayalam)

Currently reading: From the Holy mountain by William Dalrymple.

These days, I don't feel horrible when I see a big traffic block in front of my bus....

Goa

2006-03-08T10:17:00.000+05:30

Vagatore Beach - A view from Chapora Fort

The lone walker - In Aguada Fort

Re-appearance

2006-03-06T14:27:00.000+05:30

Long time...Life was hectic. Marriage, visiting relatives, attending other weddings, a short but sweet trip to Goa, a 'pain-in-the-back' work schedule... The blog was lost among all those. The life is back in the cruise mode now and I can't wait to dust this place.

I know this is pretty late, but thanks a ton for all those wishes, and to those who came to the wedding, and to all those who couldn't be there physically. It was really nice to feel your presence.

I'm back on bench. I started this blog when I was on bench for the first time. I should be remaining on this comfortable seat-I mean, bench- for another few more days. Hope I can put in a few more blogs in here during these days.

Invitation

2005-11-30T14:57:00.000+05:30

It is my pleasure to invite you to my wedding with Shruthi on Sunday, Dec 11 at Trichur, Kerala. Please find below the invitation and please grace the occasion with your presence. Nothing would make me happier than seeing some of you out there :)

Desecration

2005-11-22T17:26:00.000+05:30

Our net server has been behaving very unpredictably for the last one week or so. Sometimes it so happens that you enter your userid and password and lo! someone else's inbox/account opens up in front of you! I dont know what has gone wrong at the systems front, but my poor blog became a victim of the issue: someone who must have got really frustrated after seeing my blogger dashboard popping up instead of his/hers even after multiple attempts, decided to mutilate it. Just take a look at the last post, and you can see that some sentences are missing in the first few lines. I don't exactly remember what I had written, and I don't want to recreate it anyway. Let it stay the way it is.

To that person who has done it-if at all (s)he cares to have a look at this place again: If you think you did something great, shame on you...

Bike and the phone

2005-11-07T18:06:00.000+05:30

Thanks to everyone for the concern! :)

Good things happen in life.

So bad gear box. But now it's become quite stiffer. I'm not liking it a bit. And the fuel indicator. It's decided it has had enough and ceased working. And the tachometer. I seriously doubt its showing faulty readings. My bike can't be running so fast at 5000rpm! I know how the engine sounds, there is definitely something wrong with the tacho.

Did you think the bad news is also over? No! There is something worse than the above. My phone is dead. It got soaked to the core and breathed its last during my escape from the flat. I've lost almost all the numbers that I'd stored in it. Well, almost all, because I'd noted down most of the important numbers in a book the previous week. No, I'm not saying I was being clairvoyant and all that, I was planning to discard that phone anyway. Now I'm planning to buy a good Nokia model.

Nature's fury

2005-10-25T18:22:00.000+05:30

It was one Sunday that I'll never forget in my life: Incessant rains lashed Bangalore, three lakes breached, submerging more than a few residential areas in deep water- upto 7 feet in many places.
Ground floor of my flat was completely submerged in 4 feet of water. We were all evacuated by fire-force staff in rubber life-boats. Nay, it wasn't a life-and-death situation. But there was no water, no electricity, and the apartment complex was completely cut-off from the main road. There was nothing we could do by staying back. I and my roomies locked up the house, and came out in a dinghy. The whole episode was pretty exciting, but to think about my bike resting in peace deep under water.... :(
Now I'm staying in the company guest house. For the whole week.

Stranded... A pic taken from the top of my apartment...

Reclaiming my life

2005-09-26T18:28:00.000+05:30

(Title courtesy: The new Tata Safari DICOR. Couldn't find a better sentence for the title)

The last one month was hectic like crazy. Many things happened- mostly good. Finally I am reclaiming my life. It feels so great...

I am happy! Truly.

Possessed...

2005-09-26T18:23:00.000+05:30

We bid bye to Keylong the next day, promising the Italians that we'll again meet up at Manali. We were looking out for a share taxi to Manali that will get us there for 150 bucks instead the 1K each that we pooled in for the taxi to Keylong, when a guy, aged about 15 approached us and said there was a sumo about to leave for Manali. We got into it, along with a family and the kid jumped into the seat and started driving. His driving was pretty decent till Rohtang- though a tad fast, he was driving quite fine. After Rohtang, something happened to him- I guess he must have been possessed by one of those thousands of souls perished on Rohtang: he drove like a mad man, a maniac, as if he was hell bent on proving his mountain driving skills to us. He was driving at 70-80kmph on the winding roads where one slip means an easy death by means of a smooth and straight fall into the river hundreds of feet below! I'm sure, he'll give Sebastian Loeb, the WRC champion, a run for his money if he ever gets to compete with him!
In Manali, Hadimba temple was our first target. The deity in this temple is Hidumbi, wife of Bhima. This temple was built centuries ago using only wood, and it still stands as strong as ever. The temple stands in the middle of a Juniper forest, full of old, huge trees.We headed back to the mall in Manali. This is the famous street where the shopping action is. Bought a couple of T-shirts made by Tibetans in exile- one sporting "Om Mani Padme Hum" in Bhoti language-the language of Tibet-and the other with a "Free Tibet" writing. Also bought a canvas painting depicting Avalokiteswara, an incarnation of Buddha, meditating. That painting had a special colour combination that captures your attention in an instant: I've seen a similar colour combination only in one other style: the mural art of Kerala temples. But here the colours are lighter, with subtle boundaries unlike the mural paintings. Then there was a bell that produced a sound that I'd never heard before: deep, low-pitched, reverbrating and mesmerising. Bought that one too....

Climb, Gompa, and the town

2005-08-24T13:00:00.000+05:30

Mornings are pretty cold in Keylong. Very sunny, bright, and yet cold. With the help of our Outlook Traveller and the advices from the hotel manger, we zeroed in on Khardong Gompa(Gompa means Monastry) which lies about 2kms from Keylong, on the other side of the River Bhaga . Khardong gompa is a major monastry of the Kagdyup sect of Budhism. It seems the highest lama of the sect always wears red-hats only. We did get to see one of their big lamas that day: he was visiting this monastry for some function.
We were just about to start from the hotel when a young Italian couple approached us and enquired whether we'd like to share a taxi with them to go to the gompa. We couldn't even think of missing a chance to trek up: so we declined and invited them to trek with us. But the girl seemed to be having a breathing difficully that made climbs impossible. So we set off walking. Path through the village

We walked down to the bridge across the river from Keylong and started climbing toawrds the gompa. The climb was slightly difficult because of the loose soil and the steep gradient. As we climbed higher, the views were getting more and more spectacular. The climb was slightly more difficult for M owing to the fact that he used to smoke a bit. He was getting out of breath very often and soon he took a vow that he'd never smoke again (which he broke very soon, of course!)The gompa was too crowded that day. There were so many vehicles climbing up the road to gompa, carrying people coming from faraway places to attend the
function. We met quite a few foreigners also out there, and after attending the prayers at the gompa, we went around the place clicking pics and rotating the numerous prayer wheels placed all over. The concept behing rotating the prayer wheels is interesting: They believe that everytime the wheel is rotated, the divine mantra inscribed on in, "Om Mani Padme Hum", will be spread to the environment, like someone chanting it out. So we went around rotating it till our hands ached :) We met the Italian couple at the gompa and came back to Keylong with them in the taxi. Slept for sometime in the hotel and went for a walk in the evening in the town.

Snow-capped Himalayas Prayer wheels View from the Gompa

Though its the HQ of a district, Keylong is a very small town. Our hotel was situtated at the centre of the town, right opposite to the Asst. Collector's Bunglow. The town is situated on the slopes, which means to go from anywhere to anywhere else, you need to do quite a bit of climbing. There are a couple of small hospitals, a few hotels including a HPPWD guest house, some government offices, lots of shops selling shawls and other woollen items and two internet cafes (I resisted the temptation to check my mails: why should I let technology interrupt the peaceful trip?)

By 11pm or so, Alessandro and Monalisa came to our room. They were just back from a walk outside. They were from Milan, Italy, and had been touring India for a month. They were in Keylong for two days, on their way to Haridwar from Dharamshala. We chatted away for a long time: about India, Italy, our people, politics, sports etc etc... With sports(especially football) and world politics in hand, talking to any national was fun. Monalisa was very much interested in Indian Classical music and she said she was planning to attend a week's Drupad (a hindustani classical music form) workshop at Haridwar. When the conversation turned to politics, we found out that they hate Berlusconi (their PM who is notorious for his recent pro-Nazi comments) and they wanted us to write "I didn't vote for Berlusconi" in whatever languages we knew so that they could make a big collection of this sentence in various languages and print it on a T-shirt. We wrote it in Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi and taught them how to pronounce them too :)

That night was the best one in our whole trip. It was so much fun talking to them. But we made a blunder that night: forgot to take pics with them...

Day2: Mountains!

2005-08-17T20:15:00.000+05:30

I woke up sometime late in the night and found that the bus was standing still, stuck up in a long queue at a toll booth. It was getting slightly cool outside and there was a drizzle, too. I should have been sleeping but for the biggest problem: The bus wasn't moving. And I can't sleep inside a stationary bus. I've faced this problem in all the night journeys I've made. I get so jelous of all those people who manage to find a deep sleep when I sit and sweat inside a stand-still bus, rolling left and right, trying out all kind of postures to adjust my long legs into the cramped legspace. This time Isomehow managed to sleep and when I woke up again, f or the same reason that the bus had come to a halt, I looked out of the window to see the Sutlej flowing right beside the road, in its full might. Tried taking a snap of it in the night, but it didn't come out well. I should've had a tripod.: long exposure snaps never come out
well when tried with bare hands.

Next time I opened my eyes, I was gifted with the finest view of the journey so far: the bus was climibing the winding roads to Manali that passes through lush green pine forests, apple orchards, farmlands, and always following the river Beas. Manali is situtated on the banks of Beas.

Reached Manali and took a rick to the Youth Hostel, located 8kms away from Manali town, on the river bank. That was a pretty good and exceptionally neat hotel with wood panelling on floors and an amazing view of the mountains and the river from the balcony.

View from the Youth Hostel

We'd enquired about the possibility of making a Leh trip in the short time span we have, but was discouraged by the travel operators saying two days were nothing. We had to reach Delhi back by Saturday morning at least, to catch our flight on Sunday. So we checked out the Outlook traveller guide that we had, and decided we'd settle for Keylong this time. Keylong(pronounced Ke-long) is the HQ of Lahaul and Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh. It lies 150km north to Manali, on the Manali-Leh highway.

We rented a taxi and set off soon. The driver was a cool guy named Amar. He was a hell of a driver. So perfect and smooth with the vehicle that we rarely felt we were riding a difficult terrain. The climb was just breathtaking: pine and deodar forests on both sides with streams making ornamental patterns between...The ride was scary at times. The term 'highway' is deceiving: the road was seldom broad enough for two trucks to pass by at the same time. It had no side barriers to stop vehicles skidding and falling in to the Beas hundereds of feet below. I heard accidents were very common during the monsoon and winter when the tyres fail to grip on to whatever little asphalt left on the road. But that was the whole thrill of it, too.

It was getting colder and colder as we climbed. M soon started sporting a pull-over, a monkey cap and woollen gloves. I fought with cold for a while, and decided that I'll stand at the Rohtang pass without wearing a monkey cap. That was the best I could do. It was too cold at Rohtang pass, which is at an altitude of 3500m, and the wind-chill factor brought the temperatures to near-zero level.

Descent from Rohtang gave us our first view of the Lahaul valley. The terrain changed immediately after the pass: There were few trees to be seen, and the greenery was limited to grasslands, shrubs, flowers and bushes. The reason for the startling difference is evident. The lower himalayan mountain ranges block the rain clouds from crossing over and hence it doesn't rain much on the other side of the Rohtang pass. Soon we got down to the valley and started following the river Chandra, which will later merge with Bhaga and become Chenab. We stopped at a place called Khoskar for lunch. M had one look at the place and whispered: "Shire!" They should've shot the movie there: it would have looked even better! We ate
amazing rotis and dal from a dhaba out there.

Road to Keylong followed Chandra river all the way. I could hardly call it a road. But I must say that Border Roads Organization, a division of the Indian Army that manages roads in this part of the country is doing an amazing feat. Landslides are the order of the day. The soil is so loose that without any provocation the roads could be swept away in a matter of minutes by the countless streams that run through the slopes. At many places, there were no sign of anything that resembles a way, and I was surpised to see that an Omni actually managed to tackle the big boulders and find a way through all the mud and rocks.

Chandra river, and the road...

We were traveling through the Himalayas! Wow! There were snow-capped peaks everywhere. But it being summer out there, all we could do was to watch the ice on the distant mountains: we couldn't get to touch it at all...

Reached Keylong by dusk, checked into Hotel Snowland that had a wonderful view of the whole place. The room was really good with cozy bed and all. It was really chill by 9pm. Had dinner from a tibetan restaurant: I tried a Tibetan veg delicacy: don't ask me the name, i forgot :( But it was definitely very good. Quite filling, too.

Then we slept, deep in the Himalayas...

ISBT, Chandigarh, Buses, and disappointment

2005-08-16T18:10:00.000+05:30

I had a notion that all of North India was dry and hot. It was indeed hot in Delhi that night, but it was far from dry. I started sweating the moment I stepped out of the flight. It was as humid as Chennai, or as any town in Kerala. ISBT was a long drive from the airport. We crossed many places bearing familiar names on the way: Tiz Hazari, Karol Bagh, Janpath, etc. etc. I really wanted to take snaps of all the name boards. But then, there were cops everywhere on the road with sten-guns, stopping and checking every vehicle passing by and I suddenly remembered the story of the Brazilian shot dead in London tube a few weeks back. And I kept my camera inside.
With all due respect to the place and the people out there, ISBT disappointed me. I was expecting a Koyambedu (Chennai Inter-State Bus stand) kind of bus station with all amenities. Or atleast a Majestic (Bangalore). After all its the capital of India, and a place from where you can catch buses to most of the big towns in North India. But I was in for a shock there. The place was pathetic and the buses were really horrible. We found a so-called deluxe bus to Chandigarh and left Delhi soon.
Reached Chandigarh,the best-planned-city in India. Really good and wide roads, not much of traffic and in a nutshell, I didn't find the kind of buzzle out there that you'd expect from a place like Chandigarh, capital of two states. We didn't see much of Chgh other than the famous 'Rock Garden'.

Foundation stone of Rock Garden

Some of the statues inside

Rock garden was conceptualized by the famous architect Nek Chand. He has made a whole world of sculptures inside just with rocks, pebbles, concrete, waste bins and other waste materials.That place was very vast. We kind of lost our way inside it.

Our 'deluxe' bus to Manali finally arrived at 8:30pm, an hour late. I got a seat that was comfortable to me, but immensly uncomfortable for the couple sitting behind: its recliner mechanism had been broken and the seat was always in the pushed-back condition, and I was lying flat on it always. I'm sure they must have cursed me like anything ;)
The journey to the mountains started...

Day 0: Blore-Delhi Spicejet. My first flight

2005-08-16T13:51:00.000+05:30

I left the office at 2:30pm on friday 5th Aug, rushed home, picked up the backpack and took an auto to M's house in Jayanagar 4th Block. We did a last minute cross checking of the bags, and caught an auto to the airport. The flight was supposed to leave at 5:40pm and when we reached the airport at 4:30, the guys at the Spicejet counter politely informed us that the plane that was supposed to take us to Delhi was still at Ahmedabad, and our departure was rescheduled to 8:40pm! Gosh, that was worse than Indian railways. Did I know when I cursed them for that delay that I'd be regretting it a few days later, and would be praying to all known gods for the flight to be delayed by half-an-hour?

There was nothing much to do at the airport. I'd forgotten to keep a book in my bag, and all we could do was to sit and rate the crews of Kingfisher, Spicejet and Jet airways. We soon got fed up of that too and I went and bought the book "One hundred years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez from the Sankar's stall in the lobby and started reading it.

Boarded the flight at eight. A Boeing 737-800. I was a little excited about my first flight; I'd always watched these huge steel birds with awe. The plane started taxying and I did my best not to look like a first-timer and I knew I was as successful in my attempt as I was on my first day at RECT when I wanted not to look like a fresher. The guy sitting next to me was a first-time flier too, and of course, a s/w engineer, going home for the first time after a year. He asked me were I worked, and when him the answer, I knew what the next comment was going to be. I wasn't wrong. "Hey yaar, thats great. 2.5 years experienced in XYZ, and by now you must be a very experienced flier!" . Why the hell doesn't my manager think the same, that I need to get more in-flight experience??? I was suddenly very depressed :(

Soon the engines revved up and the thrust pushed me smoothly back on to the seat and the plane was airborn in a few seconds. Wow! I liked the way it accelerated. And the speed too. I've always loved speed. I suddenly realized that I'd try to avoid trains as much as possible from then on... Thanks to the stop-over at Pune, I got a chance to experience the landing and take-off thrill twice in one trip.

Bangalore looked nice from the top: narrow, brightly lit streets with the vehicles crawling like ants [it must have been one of those typical friday traffic jams- I was so happy that for once,I was not in it, but above all of it :) ], . When the crew announced that we'd be landing in Delhi in a few minutes, I eagerly peeked through the window to see Delhi, for the first time in my life. I was grossly disappointed. Delhi looked dark, with a couple of spots of light here and there with no signs of life. For a moment I even doubted the ability of the pilot to locate Delhi. And suddenly the plane came out of the clouds, and there was the capital of India spread in front of my eyes, all lit till the horizon. Broad roads, and dazzling lights, everywhere.

The plane touched down at the IGI Airport at 12 midnight. And we immediately rushed to the pre-paid taxi counter to catch a cab to Inter-State Bus Terminus(ISBT).

Back!

2005-08-15T13:57:00.000+05:30

I landed at Blore airport at 0040hrs on Monday Aug 15th. I was away for just 10days. But it seemed like an eternity. New places, new faces, so many new feelings...
First of all, we didn't do what we had originally planned to do. We couldn't go to Leh. But that doesn't make the journey any less great. Loss of Leh was the gain of Lahaul. We were told that with just two days in Leh, its was as good as not going there at all, and we didn't want a Leh trip that wouldn't cover the Nubra valley and Panang-Tso. That would've been a gross injustice, and disrespect to Leh. So Leh will have to wait till next time, and we are so inspired by the lonely Royal Enfield Bullet riders on the highway, that we've decided that we'll make ourselvers expert Bullet riders before we hit Manali next.
This time it was Keylong. It is the HQ of the district of Lahaul & Spiti of HP. A truly picture-post card place, in the slopes of the misty and snow-capped Himalayas. A true out of the world experience.

The write-up and the links to pics will follow soon...

Wheels are rolling...to...Ladakh!

2005-08-02T13:00:00.000+05:30

Come August 5th, 2005, and I,with Mobydick, will embark upon the journey of a lifetime. Across the Bharatkhand, to the cold desert that lies sandwitched between the mighty mountain ranges of Karakoram and Himalayas: Ladakh.
Ladakh (la-dakh: meaning "Land of passes" and also known by many names like "Little Tibet" and "The last Shangri-la"), caught my fancy when I read about it around ten years back and it has been on the top of my list of "Places-that-I-cannot-fail-to-visit-before-I-die" ever since, with Kailash-Manasarovar and Amarnath coming in second and third places. Now it is time: I have the best company that I can dream of ( though I would've given my heart and soul to have Strokes and Chandu also with me in this trip, the thousands of miles that lie between us make it physically impossible. Guys, I dedicate this trip to you two!)
We are treading the Delhi-Manali-Rohtang La-Leh route this time. The NH1 Alpha, Srinagar-Kargil-Leh route, can wait :)
Wish me luck, pals! And keep watching this place for updates!

One of my favorite temples

2005-08-01T16:50:00.000+05:30

I usually avoid going to those awfully crowded temples. They don't give me the kind of peaceful environment that I look for in places of worship. Rather, queing up in there for hours just for a glimpse of the idol makes me irritated. That could be one of the reasons why I haven't been to Guruvayoor, one of the most famuos temples in South India, in the last 7-8 years. I usually prefer lesser crowded temples, where silence is the norm, where I can just sit and let nothing disturb me. I see temples more as a place of peace than as a place of worship.

Yet, there is one temple I visit whenever possible, and however crowded it is. The Vadakkunnatha(Shiva) Temple in Trichur. It is one of my all-time favorite temples. That place radiates something that soothes your body and mind. I'm absolutely in love with that temple. May be because I believe it has given me something that no other temple did.

Been a long time since my last visit...

Let me take you there...

2005-07-28T18:38:00.000+05:30

One of my all-time favorite songs, 'Kashmir' by Led Zeppelin:

Oh let the sun beat down upon my face, stars to fill my dream

I am a traveler of both time and space, to be where I have been

To sit with elders of the gentle race, this world has seldom seen

They talk of days for which they sit and wait and all will be revealed

Talk and song from tongues of lilting grace, whose sounds caress my ear

But not a word I heard could I relate, the story was quite clear Oh, oh.

Oh, I been flying... mama, there ain't no denyin'

I've been flying, ain't no denyin', no denyin'

All I see turns to brown, as the sun burns the ground

And my eyes fill with sand, as I scan this wasted land

Trying to find, trying to find where I've been.

Oh, pilot of the storm who leaves no trace, like thoughts inside a dream

Heed the path that led me to that place, yellow desert stream

My Shangri-La beneath the summer moon, I will return again

Sure as the dust that floats high in June, when movin' through Kashmir.

Oh, father of the four winds, fill my sails, across the sea of years

With no provision but an open face, along the straits of fear

Ohh.

When I'm on, when I'm on my way, yeah

When I see, when I see the way, you stay-yeah

Ooh, yeah-yeah, ooh, yeah-yeah, when I'm down...

Ooh, yeah-yeah, ooh, yeah-yeah, well I'm down, so down

Ooh, my baby, oooh, my baby, let me take you there

Let me take you there. Let me take you there.

Let me take you there.....

Sickening emptiness

2005-07-22T18:19:00.000+05:30

Its another exit. One of my closest friends is leaving Bangalore this weekend. My cube is gonna look awfully empty on Monday :( Who will come with me for the long bike rides now? :(

Suddenly I'm feeling very depressed. I knew this was coming; but still, when the moment of truth arrives, its hard to take in. I'm gonna feel terribly lonely in this campus now. Thousands of faces, but all strange. And I'll be alone in the crowd. Again.

Blessed are those who have the company of their closest pals.

The wheels are rolling...

2005-07-05T18:57:00.000+05:30

I'm excited! Will tell you all soon why... :)

A getaway to the hills

2005-06-22T11:25:00.000+05:30

Friday, tea-time:

Me: Man, I'm sick and tired of everything. I want to run away.
Vas: As if I don't want to...
Me: Man! Lets go hit the road! Target: Nandi Hills. What say?
Vas: Anytime!

And we were on the road by 10am on Saturday morning, on my black beauty, heading for Nandi Hills, about 60km from Bangalore city. Soon we crossed Jakkur, and had tea and biscuits from a road-side shop and hit the six-lane NH-7. Its a real good quality road but for the small stretches in between where the construction was still on.
We reached the foothills in an hour. The climb there on was just too good. I absolutely LOVE to ride through winding roads and this was the place to do it. The bike was responding to every wish of mine, and what a bliss it was, to run it through the smooth, though narrow,
road.
It was too windy on top. I was even afraid that I might get flown away by the wind. Vas's case was slightly better; he had more fat on his body than mine :) There was this fat couple out there who had a nice time watching us struggling to walk in the wind.
The place was not crowded. And the weather was perfect, too. Spent around four hours on top of the hill, going around every nook and cranny of the hill, and clicking away a lot of pics.
The best of the day was yet to come. We rode down to the plains all rejuvenated, and happy to be away from the chaotic city life at least for a few hours. On the way back we stopped near a rocky hill that we'd marked as 'to-be-climbed' earlier. Parked the bike on the roadside, and scaled the hill in 20 minutes- It wasn't as simple as it looked: the grass that grew on the rocks were pretty sharp and the rocks were too smooth.
A smooth ride back to the city with a couple of kgs of fresh grapes in the backpack,breakfast-cum-lunch-snacks from a fastfood corner in Brigade road, dropped Vas back and I was home by 7pm.

What a way to spend a weekend!
Click here to see Nandi Hills pics

Of prancing horses and my black beauty.

2005-06-13T12:58:00.000+05:30

The red prancing horses are back on the podium. But I didn't want them to be there this way. Not because Fisci and Alonso crashed out, not because Montoya was too stupid to notice that red light blinking, not because Button was too late at braking. Not because the others made mistakes. Well, looks like now thats the only way Ferraris are getting to be on the podium these days. By cashing in on others mistakes. Thats not bad, I must say. They didnt make mistakes and they scored. But, thats not great either. Schumi had all of 13 laps to fill a gap of 2.5s between him and Kimi. And he failed. Whats wrong? The tyres? Is it just the tyres? Seeing the way he and Button started off the race at a snail's pace despite having carried a lighter fuel load for a 3-stop strategy, I don't think tyres are the only problem. Lets wait and watch, the game is not over yet! I still think there is room for them to come back to the top...

I got my black beauty serviced yesterday. She's got new spark plugs, a new battery and a fresh cot of paint for the belly, err... fuel tank. Got rid of the scratch and the dent on the underside of the tank, too. She is gleaming now!

Earth bleeds.

2005-06-06T14:06:00.000+05:30

May 5th, World environment day. There was a photo and an article in The Hindu yesterday. The photo was an arial view of a part of the amazon rainforest cleared by the timber smugglers and illegal settlers and the article was about the extent of damage caused by them to whatever left of the forests in the river delta. The statistics were terrifying: It is reported that the size of the rainforest has come down by 16,000 sq.kms in the last one year. The same is happening all over the world: In Africa, In India, in Indo-china, everywhere. Mother earth is getting raped and strangled to death as each day passes by.

In this context, an article came in the weekend suppliment of Mathrubhumi yesterday attains great importance. It was about the struggle of a group of people led by the eminent Malayalam poetess and human rights and evironment activist Sugathakumari to afforest a hill in the Attappadi region of the Western Ghats, bordering the Silent Valley National Park. They adopted a hill which was earlier made barren by the timber mafia, planted thousands of seeds and saplings, watered them using bare hands in summer, and cared for them like their own childern. Slowly the plans grew, and became trees, and then came back all those animals and birds that left their home back, when they had nothing to hold on to. Now the hill is back to its old glory; happy and full of life. This does give a ray of hope, that as long as there are people like them, the mother earth will not have to die a horrible death. She will live on. Just.

There was an event organized by the Bangalore chapter of Greenpeace, which took place on the side of the MG road in the busiest hours of yesterday evening, and sure, it caught quiet a good attention from everyone. They made a platform on one of the big trees standing beside the raised walkway on the MG Road, and did a full scale music performance, with a lot of "Save trees" banners flying around. I sincerely hope it has caught the attention of the Bangalore Mayor and BDA babus also. May be this will flash in their mind while deciding to chop down trees to make way for fly-overs. May be I'm being too optimistic. I should curtail my habit of expecting too much from people - may be I shouldn't expect anything at all. It always hurts.

Poems and me.

2005-06-02T17:10:00.000+05:30

I got a very unusual forward yesterday. Usually forwards go directly to my trashcan, but this one rattled me. It was the lyrics of a poem written by the eminent Malayalam poet Madhusoodanan Nair, and was also featured in the movie "Daivathinte Vikruthikal". I read the lyrics, took a while in getting it into the head, read it again, again, and again. And I felt it, deep inside.
I used to hate poetries when I was a kid. I could never get the right tune and rythm. That attitude went on till I heard Madhusoodanan Nair reciting "Naranathu Bhranthan". I'd never before heard such a powerful voice singing. The voice, the tune and of course the poem itself swept me off my feet. And then I started listening to poetry (I admit, I still can't read it). Then came Chullikkadu, ONV and Vayalar. Boy, if you want to know how a *perfect* male voice should sound like, listen to Balachandran Chullikkadu reciting his poems... You'll never forget that voice in your whole lifetime.
Listening to Nair's "Agasthyahridayam" now...

Drenched...

2005-06-01T16:37:00.000+05:30

The sky looked quite heavy yesterday evening, ladden with huge black clouds all ready to burst anytime. The moment I got out of the office, I knew it was going to rain, and I was going to get wet. Who cares a damn anyway?
The rain did come. But traffic jam came before that. A small block which was caused by the water logging somewhere on the way developed into a huge traffic jam, and I was caught right in the middle of it. And then the rain came. With all its might, it lashed against evey square mm of my body like pebbles and the cold pierced through my drenched shirt like needles. And unfortunately I wasn't wearing a jacket :(
I rode my bike in that rain- don't know whether I can call it riding: I could never take her beyond the second gear- for the next 2kms. Usually I love to ride in the rain, provided there is no heavy traffic. But this time it was a real pain...

Benched...

2005-05-31T11:40:00.000+05:30

My fourth day on bench. I've already started feeling uncomfortable. The only solace is those occasional chats with colleagues who are free, and the coffee breaks. I haven't missed any posts on the Sports Bullettin Board in the last two days. Its been a happening place after the race: people are fighting over whether Alonso deserved the win or not. And on the General BB, it is the usual fight which started as Bangalore auto drivers Vs. those in the other cities and eventually turned to South Vs. North. Hope that thread dies down soon...
I can't read e-books. I have a pretty big collection of it in my system, but haven't even read one. I guess I should bring that travelogue about Ladakh that I'm reading now to the office tomorrow.

The first blog: The last weekend

2005-05-30T17:02:00.000+05:30

My first blog. Can't find a better time to start off. After all those nightmarish weeks, last weekend was one that I'd love to remember for quite some time to come. I played soccer after a long time. That too in mud, in the mini-forest trail in Jayanagar with Vasanth, my project-mate, and his friends Sulls, Premkumar and thalai. We found the place after wandering for about half-an-hour in all the blocks of Jayanagar. The menace called cricket seems to have conquered all the free places around. Thank god they haven't yet intruded into the small parks off RV road.
It was fun. I should admit I've never been a good player, but as if it matters! We had great fun, and my team: I, Sulls and Vasanth lost 3-6. Big deal ! Even Chelsea and AC Milan lost, didn't they? :) We were panting like dogs by the time we finished the game. When was it last I really sweated? It must the Kumara Parvat trek in last Aug.

Three Quarter Chinese:- To all those in Bangalore who've never been to this restaurant on the Church street: they provide really good Chinese food. And the service is also pretty good.

Sunday was the race day. I was expecting Kimi to win, but he should have preserved his tyres. That suspension failure was terrifying. That flying tyre and suspension assembly almost hit his face and he narrowly missed taking Button out with him...

Just a pic

2005-04-13T14:45:00.000+05:30