It's your Life....Make It Large!

Everytime i visit Delhi or my hometown Chandigarh, i can't help but be amazed at the rapid pace with which their infrastructure and landscape is changing, for the better of course. While Delhi's Metro and the numerous flyovers have reduced traffic congestion to a fraction of what it was 5 years back, even Chandigarh and it's satellite towns of Mohali and Panchkula are evolving rapidly and emerging as the new IT hubs of the North, what with many major MNC's already developing their facilities there.

But what i want to talk about right now is an incredible story i heard from a friend on a recent trip to Chandigarh. Now recently there was news of an international airport coming up on the outskirts of Mohali, which made the villagers who owned land there go delirious as if they'd struck gold, and rightly so, since soon after the Government announced a proposal to buy land at a staggering Rs. 1 crore per acre!


Now rumour has it that one fine morning, the salesman at a leading luxury car showroom had a rather uncommon visitor. It was a farmer dressed in his usual rags, who demanded to be shown all their best models. The salesman obviously thought that the poor man was in the wrong place, and told him to go to the nearby economy car showroom, as this one was only for the luxury segment. When the farmer insisted, however, he grudgingly showed him around. But it was when the farmer zeroed in on the top most model, that the salesman laughed and told him it cost Rs. 70 Lakhs. Unfazed, the farmer persisted with his choice and told him he wanted an immediate delivery. Apparently he had been one of the beneficiaries of the land deal ! Now he was ushered to the branch manager's posh office, who explained to him that it would take a few days to get the paperwork done and even to encash the cheque for that large an amount. The farmer replied that they could keep all the papers and he was'nt paying by cheque, they could just send someone outside to bring the sack from his bicycle and could count the money from it!
So ultimately the 70 Lakh car was driven to his home by a driver who came back 12,000 bucks richer, while the farmer who didn't know how to drive peddled back modestly on his bicycle.

Though the narrator of this story had a "Fool and his money soon part ways" kind of contempt in his tone, i couldn't help but feel a strong sense of admiration for the farmer. I mean how many of us would dare to do something like this(even IF we had that kind of moolah). The famous middle class morality teaches us to save as much as possible, or invest all our profits back to gain more profits later, which ultimately becomes a vicious circle fuelled partly by greed and partly by an exaggerated concern for our future, such that we end up denying ourselves the well deserved pleasures of an occasional induldgence, labelling it as a moral sin.
However, having learnt my lesson from this story, i went and bought myself a pair of RayBan's I had been eyeing for sometime, and have decided to get a full body massage from an upmarket salon at least once a month.
So I guess the moral of the story for everyone is, stop worrying too much about the future, it wouldn't change it anyways, and rather spice up your present.
Or as Saif Ali Khan says in that commercial, "It's Your Life, Make it Large!"
:-)

Gangotri !

A very Happy New Year to all who get to read this!A part of my NewYear resolutions is to quit my voluntary sanyas from Blogging and try to chip in something at least every once in a while.If there's anything i truly miss writing about in these last 6 or so months, then it has to be about 2 of my most memorable trips to date, both for different reasons though. It'd be a shame if i don't document them now - this is the stuff i started blogging for in the first place.

The 1st and certainly the best ever was my trip to Gomukh, the source of Ganga, the most sacred of our rivers and the cradle of the Hindu civilisation.The Gangotri-Gomukh-Tapovan trek is open only from mid May to mid Oct each year,(June-July ruled out due to monsoons), when the snow melts down making the highway accessible.I got the opportunity to make this happen thanks to a 2 week gap between switching my workplace.So on 25th August,2006, i took the early morning flight from Bangalore to Delhi and on landing took a bus to Rishikesh, which is the base point for most of the magnificent ranges of the Uttaranchal-Garhwal himalayas.Here i was joined by my childhood friend from Chandigarh, Gaurav who had earlier joined the Indian Army but had to quit due to medical reasons.We checked into a hotel, had lip-smacking dinner at a nearby dhaba and planned for the trip late into the night.We took the 1st and only bus leaving for Gangotri at 5 am next morning for a 13 hour long drive through high mountains and treacherous roads.There was a 3 hour long delay midway at Uttarkashi due to news of landslides blocking the highway up ahead, but luckily the B.R.O. (Border Roads Organisation) got them cleared and we reached Gangotri just after dark.

It was freezing cold and there was no electricity or mobile phone access in this small settlement amongst high mountains and icy-roaring Ganga.(Bhagirathi, to be precise)We quickly checked into a decent hotel run by the Birla trust which had a generator and more importantly-hot water. So after taking a relaxing shower we visited the shrine which most pilgrims come to Gangotri to visit, and very few of them actually do the 19 km trek from here to Gomukh, while we had plans to go upto 25 kms to Tapovan - a meadow situated amidst glaciers and snow mountains.So next morning we were again up at 5am and since everyone around warned us not to trek in the glacier without a guide, we hired a porter-cum-guide to carry our sleeping bags and tent up the trek.

As we started hiking up, i could hardly control the excitement building up inside me.I'd been dreaming of this trek for 2 years now, and finally i was walking in the larger than life surroundings that uptil now i'd only seen in photographs.It was a mild and pleasant trek for the 1st 5 kms with the sun shining bright and the mighty Ganga keeping us company throughout.I must add that one should not compare distances in hills with plains - a km in mountains with it's inclines and curves is anyday equivalent of 2 kms in the plains.After 8 kms of nonstop marching we reached a small pine forest called Chirbasa and stopped at a tea stall for refreshments and breakfast.The biggest advantage of an adventure at a pilgrimage place is that food and help is never too far. Yet we could only see a few firangs and sadhus on the trek.We 2 were almost the only Indian adventurers.Further up it kept getting more thrilling, with plenty of rough streams and tributaries on the way, that had to be crossed on makeshift wooden logs-if you slipped you could easily be washed away.

After 2 more hours we reached the last human habitation in the region called Bhojbasa,which had 8-10 small stalls, an ashram, a small guest house and a Geological Department's Glacier study camp.Also , it was here that we got our 1st clear view of the mighty Trishul peaks ahead of us.I'll never forget that formidable sight- 2 huge beautiful snow capped mountains floating above clouds- I couldn't fathom any man made structure to even stand in comparison with this towering beauty- no wonder countless rishis had meditated here since time immemorial.

We pitched our tent in the valley, just next to Ganga, and got in to relax a bit.The best part was when i opened the zipper of the tent to peek out, i could see the mighty peaks overlooking us.Whoever said "If there's heaven on earth, them it's here" must've meant this place.

Now was the time for some intro and retro-spection.Time to figure out our purpose in life and the why's, where's and how's of our mundane existence - easier said than done! ;)At night it was freezing cold outside - must be sub-zero - we couldn't take even our gloves off! Yet it was remarkably comfortable inside the tent.


We had a dinner of Maggie and khichdi at 1 of the stalls up on the hill, and then tried to sleep but in vein(inspite of the exhaustion).High altitude sickness was taking it's toll on us since we were at a height of 11,000 feet plus,(Shimla is 6,000 ft) and our bodies were not used to the lack of oxygen in the air.My friend got pretty sick and vomitted a couple of times and kept mumbling throughout the night.Even i had a piercing headache throughout the night.Anyhow, we got ourselves up next morning(with swollen faces), and continued the journey to Gomukh, stopping intermittently to shoot photos and videos.



Soon we reached Gomukh at 13,000 ft - literally "Cow's mouth" - the cave like edge of Gangotri glacier, from where Ganga comes rushing out, bearing testimony to the birth and progress of an entire civilisation.It's called Bhagirathi here, after the Rishi who's supposed to have brought it down from the heavens.

We decided to proceed to Tapovan and started climbing up the glacier, we could actually hear snow rumbling under our feet and thundering sounds of huge ice blocks crashing from the glacier somewhere nearby.My friend wanted to return from here and this caused a bit of an arguement between us since i'd been dreaming to go upto Tapovan all this while.Finally, i reluctantly agreed and we started on our way back, bidding farewell to the most beautiful place i'd ever seen - but with a resolve to be back and go upto Tapovan the next time!

Men and Shopping

It’s been quite a while since I wrote anything here, and I’m sorry to all you friends out there who were still caring and sweet enough to make a check on me. It wasn’t really due to the world cup, though I was following it religiously all this while and it’s just a coincidence that I’m back after the Azzuri have won the cup yesterday. While Brazil losing out to France was a heartbreak, I’m happy the Romans took their revenge on the Gauls.
Most of this time (and even now) it’s just been too much work that’s kept me preoccupied, as I’ve been programming as a 1 man team for my current project. At times Life seemed to be limited to the dizzying routine of coding computer programs, and coming back here is like a scratching the long due creative itch.

Getting back to the theme for this write up, this pair might stand in the list of infamy as being next only to the ever elusive combo of Blondes and Brains. Predictably though, I beg to differ.

Well in case you’re talking about long, overstretched and pointless shopping sessions where the buyer goes to buy commodity X, bargains for commodity Y and brings home a totally different commodity Z (hmmm so there was P and Q free with it, huh ?), then I’d agree that Men are not half as adept at this art as the fairer sex is.( With all due respect to the ladies :p)
Hmmm but at least in my case, when I go “shopping”, more often than not I know when I like something I see, and then it’s as simple as paying for it and walking out. (Bargaining too in case the sum involved is substantial). But yea, I’ve had my fair share of annoyingly long shopping marathons with my mom, sister and friends, and honestly I never could decipher why most females would spend an hour deciding on something which a guy would in 2 minutes.

Now before I start practising to catch the online brickbats that would be coming my way, let me steer this to a related disturbing trend, which is the rise of the new breed of uninvited shopping critics.
Now I strongly believe that every person has his/her personal and unique taste while shopping ( specially clothes and accessories), and even though what’s fashionable for one might be outrageous for another, yet I really do feel that it’s quite rude to impose one’s biting opinion on another unless of course it has been specifically asked for.
Now I really do know what suits me and what doesn’t, yet the same has happened to me on quite a few occasions.
I remember shopping for a pair of black\white striped leather shoes a few months back, and a friend who accompanied me mocked saying I should act like a mature working guy now. Now I never really understood what that meant, coz I know for sure if and when I can carry something off, and I don’t think it’s anybody else’s business to decide what I should/should not wear.
Similar remarks were given when I got myself funky large brown shades and cowboy styled leather patched Wranglers.
Well my take on it is, this TIME is never going to come again. Do whatever makes you happy, wear what you feel like wearing, and never let anybody else’s comments prevent you from doing things the way you really wish to (as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone), coz the last thing you’d want is to someday look back on your life and regret not having done something you could but chose not to.

P.S. – Speaking of shopping…. After doing a lot of comparative analysis I recently got myself a new handset…the Sony Ericsson K750i… which doubles as a 2 MP camera with a 2 GB mp3 player that plays upto 1500 songs…. Going to and from the workplace isn’t boring anymore!

Bend It Like Ronaldinho

Late night action is all set to take a new meaning as football widows the world over take a backseat while an estimated 30 billion people would keep their date with the idiot box.
It really doesn't matter whether one is a regular follower of premier league games between the likes of Arsenal,Real Madrid,Chelsea and Manchester United, but once every four years, one has to keep track of the progress of their favourite team in the world's biggest carnival,which in my case,as for most of the world,happens to be Brazil.

I mean it's as obvious as saying America has been screwed up in Iraq, or that Shiloh Jolie Pitt would grow up to be a bombshell.The whole country seems to play football for God's sake, and there's so much talent that the biggest challenge for them is not who to select but the other way round.

Ronaldo and Ronaldinho have,in true Brazilian style, transformed the game into an art,with seamless dribbles,dodges and passes that are as smooth as a baby's butt.As if they were not enough,Robinho,Adriano,Cicinho and Kaka further contribute towards a team that is as perfect as can be.It would be a sheer disaster if such overwhelming talent couldn't lift the cup.

A brief overview of the various groups:

Group A:
Germany,CostaRica,Poland,Ecuador

No doubt about who's going to top this group,almost everyone expects Germany to have a smooth sail to the next stage.Key players being their striker Michael Ballack,the legendry Oliver Kahn and the guy who's replaced him as the goalie....Jens Lehmann.Though whether they reach the finals is yet to be seen,but as they say,"Never underestimate the Germans!"


Group B:
England,Sweden,Paraguay,Trinidad



Again pretty much a 1-sided group....the English talent is most likely to emerge at the top.With stalwarts like David Beckham,the much talked about 20 yr old "injured" Wayne Rooney,Michael Owen,Aaron Lennon and John Terry.Also my 2nd favourites for the Cup.

Group C:
Argentina, Netherlands, Serbia, Ivory Coast

Though Argentina are the favourites here,Netherlands are close behind.Major talent here is Drogpa,Crespo,Messi the "New Maradona" and Marco Van Basten.

Group D:
Portugal,Angola,Mexico,Iran

Portugal and Mexico are said to have some real good talent, and Portugal even said to have serious chance at the finals.The main portugese talent lies with Deco and Cristiano Ronaldo.(Yea another lucky chum)

Group E:
Italy,Czech,Ghana,America

Italy remains the favourite here with Czech a close 2nd, and best Italian talent in Luca Toni,Fabio and Nesta.

Group F:
Brazil,Croatia,Australia,Japan

Do i have to say the words ?

Group G:
France,Switzerland,South Korea,Togo

It's France all the way with the star Arsenal striker Thierry Henry and '98 star Zinedine Zidane.

Group H:
Ukraine,Spain,Saudi Arabia,Tunisia

Though Spain is the favourite here,Ukraine are said to have a good chance in this round.Alonso and Villa form the major Spanish talent.



So that's about it. This promises to be a long month of good late night sporting action.My personal ranking:

Brazil
England
Germany
France
Spain
Argentina

6 6 6

Now this is supposed to be my take on 1 of my 2 most eagerly awaited movies from Hollywood in recent times. Both belong to my favourite cinematic genre i.e. Thrillers, both have their roots in biblical literature and both have aroused public curiosity in their own unique ways. The other one I wanted to write about was The DaVinci Code, but already so much has been said about it that not much is left to be written. It’s not that I didn’t like it, but when you’ve read the book it’s impossible not to make comparisons between the two, and one should understand that it’s indeed a hard job to do justice to a 3-400 paged book in a 2 hour movie. In the case of 'The Omen', however, the movie was made first and then the script was novelised by it's author, and i found the movie so engrossing that i did read that book later.

So this would be a review of the cult Hollywood 1976 horror flick ‘The Omen’, often quoted as the best work of Horror from Hollywood and my personal favourite Horror movie cutting way above The Exorcist and even The Ring, and whose remake is about to be launched globally on the day that is associated with the mark of the Devil – 06/06/06.

“…From the Eternal Sea he rises
Creating armies on either side
Turning man against his brother
‘Till man exists no more”

The plot is based on this prophecy from the Book of Revelation, which is believed to point to the birth of the Anti-Christ, the son of Satan, who’s branded with the number 666 – the mark of the Beast, and who would receive his powers directly from Satan, and unless he’s stopped he would threaten the very existence of mankind, a plot brilliantly exploited by the scriptwriter David Seltzer.
Well no need of spoiler warning now, since most people would have seen the original movie, and even if you haven’t and you read on, trust me the movie(at least the original) still has the power to send a chill down your spine.
Robert Thorn (played brilliantly by Gregory Peck in the original) is a senior American diplomat whose wife Katherine who’s already suffered 2 previous miscarriages, undergoes a painful delivery in which their newborn child dies. The hospital priest presents him with another child born that night whose mother he says died during childbirth, and compels Thorn to present this child as their own to Katherine, to avoid any trauma for her. The child is named “Damien”.
Life for the Thorn family seems perfect and Thorn is promoted as the American ambassador to Britain and they settle in a mansion near London.
But soon events take an eerie turn, first with the birthday celebrations of Damien at a party in their lawns, everyone seems to be enjoying the upbeat mood, suddenly someone is heard screaming out for the attention of Damien, and to everyone’s horror his nanny is standing outside a window of the house, and with a terrifyingly lunatic smile on her face she says “It's All For You”, and jumps to hang herself from a rope.
Soon a new nanny Mrs. Baylock introduces herself to the family, whose credentials seem impeccable and her demeanour kind and soft spoken, soon followed by a mysterious ferocious Rottweiler, both of whom maintain a constant vigil on the young child.
Another weird incident happens when his mother drives the young kid to a zoo, and as soon as they enter all animals get freaked out and go berserk.
Events start taking a nasty turn and soon Thorn is contacted by a Father Brennan, who claims that Damien is the son of the devil, born of an animal and bearing the mark of the beast, and the only key to stop him lies with an old man called Bugenhagen who lives in Jerusalem.
Thorn refuses to believe and as soon as he’s gone, Father Brennan is impaled in a freak “accident” by a cross struck down by lightning.
Further down Damien becomes wildly hysterical when they try to take him for church, and then more and more people around him start dying in mysterious circumstances, arousing suspicion in his already scared mother.
Thorn is again contacted by a British photographer called Jennings this time, who shows him pattern of mysterious blurred pictures of all people who recently died, claiming this to be a clue to something much more horrendous.
They both now investigate the claim by Brennan of his real child being murdered by the hospital staff and buried in a cemetery, where they encounter a vicious attack by a pack of guarding dogs.

Does Damien succeed under the protection of the evil nanny and his mysterious guards ?

What happens to Katherine who has begun to openly doubt the origins of this child. ( Her end is among the most shocking scenes.)

Would Thorn and Jennings be able to contact Bugenhagen in Jerusalem and bring the evil to an end before it’s too late ?

Hehe …. this might sound like your average popcorn thriller, but trust me, whether or not you know it already, the movie (at least the original) was among the best horrors of all times. No ugly faced blood sucking ghosts, only a terrifying background music and the sheer impact of a story well told.

According to the the trivia by IMDB, there were a lot of freak accidents involved with the caste and crew while shooting for the original movie:

“Gregory Peck and screenwriter David Seltzer took separate planes to the UK...yet BOTH planes were struck by lightning. While producer 'Harvey Bernard' was in Rome, lightning just missed him. Rottweilers hired for the film attacked their trainers. A hotel at which director Richard Donner was staying got bombed by the IRA; he was also struck by a car. After Peck cancelled another flight, to Israel, the plane he would have chartered crashed...killing all on board. On day one of the shoot, several principal members of the crew survived a head-on car crash. The jinx appeared to persist well into post-production... when special effects artist John Richardson was injured and his girlfriend beheaded in an accident on the set of a movie.”

The spooky incidents seem to have followed into the production of the new movie as well. According to their official website, some prints of the movie were lost due to unexplained technical glitches, the visual affects supervisor when measuring a special shot realised that his meter read 666; a measurement it had never given before, one of the lights on the sets exploded mysteriously while shooting, then on Oct 6th (note the #) the whole crew came down with food poisoning, though no bacteria was found in the food on later tests, and the spookiest being when a still photographer developed a series of photographs, he found some images of the actor playing Father Brennan blurred with movements striking downwards, like a javelin.

Real spook or marketing gimmicks ? You never know, but one thing is for sure – come 06/06/06 and you get another opportunity to see some quality horror from Hollywood, and scare the hell out of yourself!

Related Links:

The Omen(2006) Website

The Omen Chronicles (Website for entire series)


Download the awesome Trailers from these links:(Right click and Save Target As)

Trailer 1 - Rarest of the rare trailer of the original 1976 movie (mov,23.69 MB)

Trailer 2 - 2006 -Damien alone in a swing(windows asf,8.41 MB)


Trailer 3 - 2006 - Scenes from the new movie(mov,5.91 MB)

Reservation Blues

I had a dream recently – well probably more of a nightmare. I dreamt that 25 years from now, my son (let’s call him Junior for now) had given his high school exams and topped his school. (talk about great expectations even in dreams!)
Now he wanted to apply to a medical college to get an MBBS….and this was the conversation we had:

Me : Well done, my lad! So how many seats do we have for this course in your desired college?
Junior : Umm about 10 but I guess I’ll just about manage….

Me : Hmmm hold your horses for now! Let’s do some simple calculations first. It seems there are lots of other brilliant and deserving candidates vying for those coveted seats! Ah do you remember your schoolmates Bubloo and Dubloo? Yea those same fine prodigies of 3 generations of IAS officers, who even though they failed each year, your school principal had the privilege to forcefully promote to the next class for the greater benefit of mankind. (Son of an IAS destined to be an IAS you see!)
Ah, so what if they scored only 10% marks in the entrance exam, our law says that 2 of those 10 seats should definitely go to the Scheduled Castes, which their certificates rightly identify them as, and hence as deserving as anyone can be! (Not to mention once they complete their MBBS, they’d be fine deserving candidates for IAS too!)

Now how can you forget that bright child Abracadabra – whose dad is a surgeon and who has a certificate claiming his ancestors jhingalala’d in the jungles of Andamans. Surely we can oversee a minor issue like him not writing the exam….well at least he filled the form! Since as per our constitution 1 seat has to go to a member of a Scheduled Tribe.

And in May 2006, the then honorable government passed a bill that ensured a seat for Other Backward Castes(OBC) too. Of course, Tommy fits that bill, and it doesn’t matter that his school uniform was designed by Donatella Versace, according to his certificate he’s still backward!

The 5th seat of course has to be given to the highly athletic and competitive Milk-Kha Singh, who represented our country in the World kabaddi championship and got us a gold medal. Err so what if there was just 1 team participating, he surely deserves that 1 seat for Sports quota.

Another seat, my child, is undoubtedly deserved by your Italian Indian friend Rah-Hool Gandhi, whose surname is sufficient proof that his great grand daddy must’ve fought in our freedom struggle, enabling him to be eligible for the freedom fighter quota.

And how can we be so cruel as to deny the claim for the 7th seat by your schoolmate Free-thick Roshan – whose disformity of having 2 thumbs on a hand is indisputable proof of his crippling handicap – hence the rightful candidate for the Handicapped persons’ quota.

Darn, the 8th seat would have to be given to Arj – June singh, whose daddy is a professor in that college, putting him up for the management quota.

Of course no one dare deny admission to your friend Lux-Me Mittal, considering his dad is a rich NRI businessman and more than willing to shell out a lakh pounds for that NRI quota seat.

Whoa, there’s still 1 seat left! Go get it Tiger.

Junior : I just called up and they said that it’s been taken up under the “No Reservation” reservation.
Me : Uff, how did we forget to get this certificate made ! Don’t worry my child….better luck next time!



P.S. - I’m sorry if I’ve offended anyone but I’m really taken aback by this reservation issue right now. For those who are not in touch with the latest news here our government is going forward to pass a bill that would reserve 50% of seats in top educational institutes for people based solely on their castes.(irrespective of their scores in the entrance exams)
It’s common knowledge that India is one of the most competitive countries in the world when it comes to education, and the cut-off percentages for the premier institutes keep getting higher each year. Imagine the plight of students like those in the medical profession, where lakhs of people appear for exams each year for sometimes as few as 10-15 seats, and what would happen to their morale when they would see some people walk off with more than half those seats just because they belong to a certain “caste”, and irrespective of their scores.
Nobody denies that the caste system has been a bane of the Indian society, but surely this would be the worst possible way to try to “uplift” the downtrodden, since majority of these seats are enjoyed by children of SC/ST’s who’re already enjoying the spoils of reservation by being in the highest of public sector jobs, leaving the rest in a status quo.
Even when reservations were started by B.R Ambedkar after our independence, he had asked for them to continue only for 10 years. Still they have been continuing for more than 60 years after our independence, primarily due to the votebank politics being played by each major political party which is trying to appease the voting population belonging to these particular castes, and in the process only further deepening the caste divide in this country.
A sensible approach would’ve been giving scholarships, fee-waivers and study material to the deserving candidates in these classes, yet the government wants to take the easy way of total appeasement out.


As if this wasn’t enough, peacefully protesting medical students in Mumbai were brutally lathi-charged by the police as if they were gangsters, reminding one of a similar scene in the recent RDB, and this has further flared up the protests in the student community all across India.

Well if vote bank politics is what a democracy is all about, then perhaps an autocracy might suit us better.

(Thank God at least The DaVinci Code is finally getting released here next week .... with a disclaimer and an A certificate)

Guilty As Charged

YES your honour, I do plead guilty to the charge of taking up too many tags in recent times (* In Sunny Deol’s “Tareekh pe tareekh” ^4 dialogue’s tone *)
Now please allow the defendant to throw further light on some of the points mentioned by the public prosecutor-cum-tagger Ms. Ramblings :


Culinary Guilt:

Hmmm well yea kindof….though my entire khandaan is a vegetarian yet I’ve given in to the pleasures of the flesh on some occasions since last year, and yes I did find the “reshmi kababs” to taste better than anything I’d had in the vegetarian platter. Having said that, I still prefer vegetarian on 14 days in a fortnight, and my future culinary status would most probably depend on my partner, since I have no qualms about either foods right now.
Oh, and I still have to learn to cook stuff beyond Maggie noodles. I’ve promised my mom next time I visit home I’m gonna learn a minimum of ‘chapattis’, ‘paranthas’ and ‘pulao’ (a promise I’ve been making since the last 2 years).


Literary Guilt:
Well OF COURSE yes. I’m a self confessed bibliophile – all my friends would vouch for it. Whenever I visit any mall here the 1st shop I attack is the book store and normally my friends have to drag me out of it.
Such is the extent of this addiction that I’ve ended up buying at least 8 new books recently which have been piled up at home and I’m yet to start devouring them. Then there are some or the other amazing new titles I keep hearing about everyday….somehow I’ve managed to hold myself back till I finish the ones already pending.

Audiovisual Guilt:
Well this time I’m guilty of NOT seeing enough movies lately….even though I might’ve already seen enough for a lifetime (over 200 dvd-rips in my collection). Still I do manage 1 movie in a theatre per fortnight.
As for TV, I just hit 3 channels on my remote…. CNN-IBN for primetime news, VH1 for the classic videos, and History channel for the Biography show.

Musical Guilt:
Ummm nahh no guilts here. I know the kinda music I like(from almost all genres) and I have it both on my PC at home as well as at work. So no wonder I’m mostly found with my headphones on at work.
But yes, I do have to get myself either an IPod or an mp3 cellphone soon.

Celebrity Guilt:
Well I’m certainly not the kinds to go screaming if I see or meet any celebrity. Though I do look upto Mr. Amitabh Bachhan for his overpowering personality, his acting prowess and the way he speaks with his command over both English and Hindi.
In college I used to have only wallpapers of the supermodel Laetitia Casta on my desktop (around 200 of them!)…..and I’ve put up 1 of them here!

Shopping Guilt:
Hmmm well if I see something I like(and need), I don’t think too much about it and would go for it. But yes, I’m biased towards seasonal sales and discounts….and prefer to do most of my shopping during these times.

Clothes guilt:
Nahh….I’m satisfied with my wardrobe. Though I do feel guily that ever since I started working, I’ve been able to wear the ultra casuals only on weekends.


Is there more??...

Bad Critic Guilt:
I do find it hard to criticize anything/anyone…. And somehow always look for the good points even in the worst. I do realize that this is detrimental at times and sometimes you just have to be blunt with some people, but hey I’m working on it.

Procrastinating with job guilt:
YES. This is the single biggest guilt that I have right now - even though I know I have to switch my job, I don’t understand what is preventing me from applying to new companies, especially since the Indian IT sector is real Hot right now. On that note, I’ll go and at least update my CV right now.


Well with that I rest my case. I also refuse to divulge the names of other fellow bloggers who might be guilty of the same charge, and leave it to their conscience to surrender before the honourable court and declare their personal guilts.

The Motorcycle Diaries - Kudremukh Chapter

The heat is on but I’m on a roll right now…what with a 2nd trip within 2 weeks I guess I must’ve been in a real vacationing mood.
The real trigger again was the long weekend as this Monday was off for labour day (funny name) but the plan actually materialized at the very last moment on Friday night.
Initially there were 4 of us planning to go for a trek to the famed Kodachadri peak in west Karnataka, but as usual being the procrastinators that we are, we found all tickets to the place had been sold out.
Still not being the kinds to admit defeat so easily, me and my college buddy Prabudh were positive about not letting this 3 day break go wasted. So we did a quick search on google for hills in Karnataka, zeroed in on a place called Kudremukh national park, downloaded the road map and made a spur of the moment decision to make it a 2 day road trip on my Thunderbird.
So on Saturday morning we left Bangalore just at the crack of dawn at 5:30 am for this place which was supposed to be a good 360 kms away. So abrupt was the decision that we even forgot to carry a spare set of camera batteries, a blunder that made us miss a lot of good photo-ops later on.

As soon as we got out of the city limits I was surprised to find a smooth, wide and almost empty highway unlike the bumpy and traffic infested Bangalore roads, and I easily started zipping at almost 110 kmph, something this cruiser is specially designed for.

It’s a very different feeling zipping for a long stretch of time on a bike at this speed, with the trees and the vast open fields swooshing by when seen from the corner of your eyes. It’s almost as if your life’s running past by you, and at occasional times one can easily loose the sense of time and perhaps even switch to a philosophical mode. It’s something hard to explain and maybe only another rider can relate to it.
Another remarkable difference that one notices while riding a bike is that unlike in a car, where you’re in relative rest with respect to your immediate surroundings as you’re kind of boxed inside an enclosure, on a bike you’re no longer a passive observer of your surroundings, but become a part of it. With the wind slapping in your face you can actually “feel” the changing landscape around you, and when this threshold is crossed, the journey becomes more pleasurable than the destination.

Also, with the power of a 350cc engine producing the pull of 19 horses thundering under your legs, you simply feel like the king of the road.
For the uninitiated, the cc(cubic centimeters) refers to the displacement of an engine, that is the amount of fuel mixture that the piston can sweep through from the top to bottom. So obviously the more fuel the engine can burn up in a cycle, the more power it can pack to the wheels.

Anyways, we kept taking breaks for snacks and to ask directions, and as usual I found that the humble villagers or small town people are always more than eager to help. The bike and it’s unusual registration no (CH- Chandigarh) invited a lot of curious questions though, and people assumed I was driving it down from Punjab! One restaurant owner even identified Chandigarh as the hometown of Yuvraj Singh and started citing examples of the brilliance of his own Karnataka boy Dravid as the captain, though all with an innocent rustic charm.

By the time we hit the hills after riding for 250 kms, we were already a bit exhausted and the steep inclines had to be carefully negotiated, however the beautiful greenery around soon made us forget all the fatigue and we reached our destination at the base of Kudremukh peak’s trek around late noon.

We asked a local shopkeeper about taking the bike up the mud track to the top of the peak, but he warned us that we shouldn’t go without taking permission from the wildlife officials, since this area was being combed for the Naxalite(Maoist) militants taking shelter in these forests. We were warned that the security forces had a shoot at sight order for anyone seen inside the forest without permission, and this was enough to deter us from going for another misadventure. Permission not forthcoming due to a holiday, we were a little disappointed, but then another localite came to our rescue and suggested that we pitch our tents at the camping grounds of a deluxe resort nearby.
So we finally got the necessary space within the boundaries of the beautiful “Silent Valley Resort”, and had an awesome stay at the resort where they’d organized a flute music program in their open lawns amidst a bonfire. Eating a 10-course scrumptious buffet, especially when you’re dead tired and in the middle of a forest is also a uniquely gratifying experience.
Next morning the resort guide took us to a small trek in the hills around the area, and after absorbing all the natural beauty we decided to start back, since in any case the main purpose of the trip was the ride itself.


The return ride saw me zigzagging with a renewed passion along the sharp and dangerous turns of the hills, sometimes tilting the bike to almost 30 degrees to negotiate the deadly turns. It was again a smooth and enjoyable ride till the last hour when darkness fell, and I had to ride in the glare of the high beams of the incoming traffic, which makes one literally blind to the road ahead, and then losing your concentration for even a second can mean the difference between life and a painful end.

Anyhow thanks to our guardian angels, we reached Bangalore in the evening after having covered almost 800 within 48 hours, and spent the next day discussing the trip and tending to our sore backs and bottoms.

Trip Info:-

Route: Bangalore - Hassan - Mudigere - Kalasa - Kudremukh

Distance: 360 kms (1 way)

Road Condition: Excellent

Close Calls: 3