Vibha Diary: First Meeting

After joining Vibha, we started receiving mails regarding a team meeting. Vibha members were planning to meet on the coming weekend at a CCD in Koremanagala. Meeting was called to decide the calendar of the next month. Mr. Ashish confirmed his gracious presence in the meeting and decided to drag me in with him. After his confirmation he received a call from Venky who summarized Vibha's work and methodologies. At the end, Venky made sure to invite us for the meeting as an introductory session for Ashish and me.

Without resisting much, I accompanied Ashish. As we did not want to leave bad impression in the first meeting so we reached before time and waited other members to join us. Other folks were late due to traffic chaos in Bangalore. Within sometime few members, including Venky, arrived

Though things were little off track but Venky, without losing much time, summed up everything about Vibha. In his short introductory speech, he introduced us with the history, objective, functionary, and work in India. He told us about the organization structure and heads. He was not shy about narrating the reason of choosing CCD over any Vibha’s office.

This was my first visit to CCD and I was not aware of different kind of coffees available. So I ordered the cheapest one. Rest expected folks joined us within some time and we started planning for the next month and it was decided to conduct at-least one event, in continuation with the previous events, in Hope School.

This event included entertaining the kids, knowledge sharing and promoting moral and social ideologies to kids so it was necessary to plan according to their grasping powers and understanding capabilities. Before I joined Vibha, other volunteers had conducted 2-3 successful events and this proposed event was for kids who were studying in 5th standard.

In the mean time our coffee arrived. Everyone got their coffees. Some were cold rest others were hot; some had chocolates others had cookies and so on. I expected my coffee to be as tempting as others but waiter shattered all my dreams of tempting coffee. He brought a small cup with some black substance i.e. espresso. In-spite of not getting as tempting coffee, I was still hoping for some milk so requested waiter to bring some milk which he denied with courtesy and weird smile. All others were enjoying their coffee whereas I was staring at my cup. I emptied 3-4 sachets of sugar and somehow finished the sweet poison without seeking much attention.

This meeting lasted over an hour and we concluded this meeting after deciding the agenda for the next meeting. Each of us had to come up with innovative gaming ideas for the kids, try to bring in more ideas on table to make event more interesting, propose something better in snacks and last but not the least the gifts for the games. After that we all paid our shares and moved back.

This meeting set the tone for both of us. We were excited and happy with the idea of doing something real.

So stay tuned for next meeting and further updates.

Vibha Diary: Search for an NGO

I had been thinking to join a social group, but I was lazy enough to type "NGO in Bangalore"@Google, so joining such a group was just a dream. Though the  fuel was always there but the medium to burn the fuel was not available. People in office had lots of different reasons to join an NGO. My office used to support an NGO and my colleagues used to visit the place once a while, but I never took any interest in supporting these workers and their causes.

After 3 years one room-mate left and Ashish came to Bangalore with the fuel and the burning power. Once a while in our inconclusive discussions, we had discussed about joining an NGO and "GIVE SOMETHING BACK TO THE SOCIETY". I was never too sure if I was really inspired to do something like this but as usual we made statements and forgot them after the discussion. But one such discussion clanged to Ashish's mind and our heated and in-depth discussion provided him the inspiration to do something which I dreamt for last 3 years i.e. TYPE "NGO in Bangalore" in Google and enter.

He did not disclose any results of his search but went somewhere on the same weekend. After returning back he told about NGO. This NGO was for dogs, something like PETA. People at this NGO were working for a good DOG life. Ashish was supposed to assist a team which would catch all the stray dogs from the streets and take them to a safer place. Though I am not an animal lover and I argue with people who fight for animal's cause (Quite frankly, they are also assisting but ….). People argue when human cannot be trusted then why not love someone who can be trusted i.e. Dog. Why do we even trust our family, our relatives, our friends and people around us? People say animals cannot speak, cannot demand and cannot hit back then that it is our responsibility to feed them and take care of them. Okay, there are a lot more humans who are living life very similar to this, why not work for them. I know, there are lots of people against my ideology but is it not worth to work for humanity or to work for people similar to you who need help just like the  animals. If we all reach a level where humans are not in need then in such society we can think of uplifting the standard of animals not until someone, like us, is in pain.

Anyways Ashish and I again had in-depth discussion about the importance of social work and preferences and somehow I convinced him. Though it was difficult for me to change his thoughts but this time our discussion reached to a conclusive end. So he searched again to find an NGO for children.

Within half an hour we registered for an NGO called VIBHA, which works for underprivileged children. This NGO supports various organizations across the country, mainly in south India. This organization provides financial assistance to other organizations which work for children born with lesser privileges and higher expectations. These organizations try to bring in more children under the radar to improve their current and future life.

Vibha working for under Privilege Children

I was not yet fully sure if I would like to continue this NGO but there are few reasons which might have impacted my decision.

1.     Ashish pushed me a lot to join so that we both can go support each other for the cause.

2.     MBA was much awaited future for me, so I wanted to add something in my resume to increase its worth.

3.     Lots of girls join NGOs so …...

4.     I had lot of time on weekends, so wanted to enjoy my time than wasting it in home.

But all stated reasons were secondary as I wanted to join some group where I might not be able to make a difference but can contribute towards the cause and assist people who are trying hard to make a difference.

More to continue…

Mystery prevails

I had been waiting for this trip for last 4 years. Everything was planned and things were on time. As per the plans I had to leave office at 5 o’clock, reach home at 5.30 and pack my bag by 6PM and reach the bus stand by 7. I reached home, door was locked, I unlocked it and entered. I started collecting the required things in huge backpack. I kept my clothes, camera (Oh camera was not there, no issues I still had time), more clothes, towel, tooth brush, paste, soap and camera, but my camera was still untraceable. I searched, searched more and searched harder but could not find my camera. So I called my mom.

Me: Camera Choda kya mene? (Did I leave my camera at home?)

Mom: Nahi beta. Kya hua.(No, What happened?)

Me: Kuch Nahi, Mene kahin to rakh diya hai, mil nahi raha hai. (Nothing great, I just misplaced it.)

Mom: Tujhe kisi chis ka bhi dhyan rahta hai, 300$ ka camera tha na. (Can't you keep your things attentively? How costly was it? Was not it 300USD?)

Me: Nahi Mummy, 200$ ka hi tha. (No, it was just 200$)

Mom: 8000 Rs/- Akal nahi hai, 8000 ka nuksan kara diya. Ab to flight se mat ana is bar, train mein hi ana. (Don't you have some mind? It is huge loss of 8K INR. Don't take flight to come home this time.)

Me: Mummy train mein 44 gante lagte hai. Mein nahi aa sakta. (Train takes 44 hours so I can’t afford this much time in train.)

Mom: Mat aa fir. 8000 rs ka nuksan kiya hai tune. (Do not come, it will compensate 8000 INR/-).

Oh man, My mom did not know the actual cost (1000 USD), otherwise It would have been more than one tiring journey of train. 

Nobody came in, nobody went out. All doors were locked and all windows were tightened from inside, then where did my camera go? Everything was in place, my laptop, my computer, my iPad and iPhone were not even touched but my camera worth 5 home trip was not there. Strange, is not it. Things were pointing to a theft. Due to lack of time, I could not investigate much and ran to catch my bus.

I was late again but this time I was only 10 minutes late to reach to bus stand. I inquired about my bus scheduled for 7 PM and I was amazed. My bus had already left, Only God can save India. Indians have stopped using IST(Indian Standard Time - Start at least half an hour late than the schedule time.). This increased the heat of my anger and frustration. I called my mom back and told her about missing the bus.

Me: Bus miss ho gayi (I missed the bus.)

Mummy: Kahan Ja raha tha? (Where were you going?)

Me: Bataya Nahi mene (Din't I tell you?)

Then why am I telling it now? Oh man, face it now. 

Mummy: Nahi (No.)

Me: Ladakh ja raha hun, Himalayas parvat. (I was going to Ladakh.)

My mom's voice was toned down.

Mummy: Himalay kyon beta? (Why are you going to Himalaya, son?)

Oops, what does my mom think about me? Oh man, I should correct her without wasting a single second.

Me: Arre Brimhachari banne nahi ja raha, Ghumne ja raha tha? (Not going to become sage? I was just going for passing some quality time)

Mummy: Acha, thik hai kitne ka nuksan hua? (How much did you lose?)

Me: Jyada nahi. (Not much)

I cut the phone before mummy could increase my period of exile. I searched the whole room, kitchen, hall, second room and house again but could not find the camera. I lost hope of getting my camera back and started living more cautiously. Few of our keys were missing. Though we did not have any idea about the burglar but we assumed someone must have found our keys and used the same key for stealing my camera. To eliminate further attacks all locks were replaced.

After silence for few days, thief hit us again. This time someone stole my Sudexo coupons worth 2200 Rs/-. What an idiot? He did not take anything other than Suxedo coupons. Investigations revealed that one key was lost. I doubted my maid so I fired the old one and hired a new maid. Locks, better and secure, replaced the older ones.

Things were fine for few days. But one day my old Sony phone was not in the drawer and some of my keys was missing for last 2 days. Was the missing key creating the trouble for me? I did not know it. So this time cook was targeted and changed. But there were not any respite from these lifts. More small things were picked without leaving any clues.Approaching Indian police was not a nice idea. Karnataka police was already burdened with Ijjat stealing and heart stealing cases, so burdening them with material stealing case was not appropriate. 

One day my room-mate moved out of the house to some unknown friend's house. He is not in house for last 10 months.

For past 10 months 14 days, Neither any key nor any item went missing from my room. Was it a fear in thief's mind, or was firing the cook/maid or was bringing better quality lock made our life better? We are still not sure about it but I have a request to the thief, please return back my khandani watch gifted to me by my dad at the graduation time otherwise how will I tell my son "Beta yeh mere papa ko unke papa ne graduation clear hone par diya tha".

Tribute to three Year Companion

This is a tribute to a companion who accompanied me for last three years. I shared my three young, struggling and memorializing years with this pal. Last year due to my unsocial behaviors my old buddy has broken up with me. however I intended patching up the things but nothing worked and whole incident created a cavity which is still unfilled. My dost was gorgeous and fully sincere to me.

In June 2007 I moved to sterling commerce and since then I did not see zero balance in my account. For an one year experience guy, it is shameful to have nonzero account so this unwanted disgrace was not admissible to me. All of a sudden I found a reason to abdicate my money. Ashish came from US and brought me my first laptop. This buy not only sucked single penny of my bank account but also dumped me to stand in queues of Ganesha Temple, next to JNC college. Ashish told me he bought a monster. Pranshu stated "Ashish got an awesome laptop".

Ashish came back to India in the last week of July but due to non-availability of frequent fliers in group I could see it after three weeks, thanks to Suri. Time I saw the laptop, I was awestruck. It was 17 inch laptop with glossy screen, sophisticated design, awesome configuration and latest in market packed with best available software. Best part of this investment was, it costed 20K less(Baniya Hun Bhai :) ). It was HP-Pavilion DV 9000 17 Inch. I was happy with such a gigantic laptops and to keep devils away I put a Kala Teeka(Black Mark) on it.

I heard critics, i.e., Felix and Psycho, analyzing the laptop and finding out pros and cons of the laptop. Their analysis was as following. It was most suitable laptop for common man's usage which was limited. Its most undesirable feature was Its weight which had brought down its portability quotient. Laptop was equipped with latest Windows Vista which was few months old in market, so was still testing phase. Did I care about critics??? You know well.

Soon my life started whirling around laptop. Movies, Songs, surfing, chatting and blah blah were few of the activities in which I had devoted myself thoroughly. My day used to start with first peek on my laptop, "Oops Abhi to bhaga nahi (Still have not run away)". My days used to end finding best place to make my laptop invisible from unwanted visitors. Days were going and my love was growing. Normal life outside laptop was shrinking with sun's movement.

One such fine days of my love, I woke up and opened the wardrobe to fetch the laptop. But I saw it jumping from four feet high wardrobe and in no time kissing the newly built floor. This kiss turned fatal to it. My laptop was not in parts but definitely internally it was shaken. Impact was not fully understood but one clear output was the 50% reduction in active screen. I continued using it but with time, similar to person's memory, my screen was decayed and it reduced to 20% of its original size. I changed it's screen but laptop was not fully repaired yet. At this time I got office laptop and ,as second wife gets more attention than first, I dumped my old and broken laptop. Though time to time I used to visit my first but its deteriorating performance used to make me switch back to new.

I planned to sell it. Searched some place where people deal with 2nd hand things. I went to first shopkeeper and asked him if he is interested in buying my awesome but unlucky laptop. He inspected and asked "Bhai miya, kitne baar kushti ki tumne laptop se? Bahut sare scratches hai is par. (How many times did you wrestle with the laptop as it has a lot of bruises?)". Hesitantly I told him "Miya ji ek baar gir gaya tha. (It dropped from hands once)". He said "To aisa karo, bagal mein kabade wala hai, use hi bech do, vese bhi tumhare wajan ke barabar ke laptop ko kab tak lekar gumoge. 200 mil jayega. (Nearby there is a scrap purchaser, sell it to him, otherwise you will feel tired with weight equal to your weight. he should atleast pay you 200 RS.)" All bastard shopkeepers told me same.

Somehow I was persuaded about buying power of 2nd hand shopkeeper. I went to scrap purchaser and asked "Bhai kharidna hai? (Do you want to buy?)". He said "Babu ji, Loha to hai nahi, mein 20 rs de sakta hun.(It is not iron, i can pay only 20 Rs.)? I said "Kya, pagal hai kya?"(What, are you mad?). He was "Saamne plastic wala hai use bech do (Plastic scrap dealer is sitting next, sell it to him)". I went there and asked same and he said "Babu ji plastic to hai nahi, but fir bhi 30 RS dunga (It is not plastic, can pay you 30)". I returned without selling it to him.

My decision of not selling it became productive. Soon I gave it to my younger and my relationship with my comrade ended. I prepared my resume, studied, seen lot of movies, heard music and chatted with lot of gals on it and it always functioned without giving any hiccups until the calamitous event brought pause in our relationship and this pause sooner extended to break up. This a tribute to my pyara laptop who is a family friend now.

Ghoda Ki Shadi

One month back, Sidharth Gaurav Nayak aka Ghoda called to announce that he is tying the knot. Ghoda is first from computer group to tie the knot. I was happy because as per the expectations I was one to marry first but it was him, victim of traditions. Apart from this I was happy with the thought of attending a marriage after 8 years…

Time passed and it was 1^st July. Tickets to Bhubneswar were booked. We shopped a little. Gaurav bought couple of shirts and one Kurta, the amusing fact about kurta was it had 50 odd shiny stars and 20 odd sparkling Moons.

2^nd July morning, everything was on track, we reached airport and deported to BBW and after few hours we landed … Ghora, who claimed to have booked the cab to pick us up, told us to get a cab for hotel… kamin sala. After a short journey, all of us were there in a hotel room chatting about present, future and unforgettable past.

It was Nikasi time; all drinkers and nondrinker were out in open in front of Ghodi that Ghoda was riding. Our dance steps, which were undiscovered till now, were not funny at all…JJ I remember trying Nagin dance though it was not successful enough. I wonder why not Bollywood choreographers include those steps in their choreography. Sidharth Gaurav Nayak had confused smile on his face, I do not know was he happy for a companion who will bear him for life time or unhappy for losing the freedom. Being the selfish bump, I dint care much about his state, I kept dancing and enjoying the moments…

Time of Jaymala, bride tried hard to put the garland in the right neck (Ghoda’s neck) whereas for ghoda the task was little easier than fetching a cock from a cage. We took some snaps with smiling couple. Now it was time for dinner so we left the blessed couple behind to spread more smile and headed toward dinner tables.

There were vendors trying to finish their stalls as soon as possible. There were numerous options but best was Gulab Jamun. I reached to the stall and asked for one, guy asked me Bhaiya lo, and

TRIN TRIN TRIN….

Oh it was my alarm and I was still sleeping… It was 7.30 AM and flying time is 11. As I found it is little early to get up so took nap for few more minutes. Few minutes were not hostile. But Cost of our extreme laziness was 2 hours and we started at 9.30… Now it was the race with time and it was extremely difficult to keep the pace with it. Gaurav hired Meru cab and cab started at 10.00 from Dairy Circle. All hopes of winning were replenished but sooner Mr. Driver suggested it will take atleast an hour to reach the airport… What?

Bhaiya, Mera flight hai@11.05... Sir mein try karta, 5 minute pahle pahunchte 11o’clock. Now environment was little tense but I was calm. According to me Mr. Driver was trying smart, he was keeping little time in case of unprecedented events. Our cab was speeding; speeding beyond the permissible limit toward airport whereas warning to slow it down was ignored couple of times…

As promised we reached at 5 to 11.00AM. I rushed to the check-in counter. I still had hopes and banged at Kingfisher counter.

Your flight has departed… what? Departed? What are you talking about? There are 10 minutes left. Can’t you do something? Sir I can reschedule your tickets for tomorrow… Tomorrow? What will I do tomorrow? Will ghoda remarry tomorrow for me? Sir nothing is possible, please leave the way for others… thank you very much…

From the incident I learnt, every unsuccessful attempt is synonymous to never tried as I could not convince anyone that I missed the flight.

Life@Bangalore

I have been in Bangalore for the past 4 years. Out of these four years, I spent almost 2 years 9 months just in one house. But after leaving my first house, I have not rested for a single day. Every day brings new NEWS consequently every NEWS turns into multiple tensions and every tension asks to make some undesired changes and As per the human nature it is not possible to adapt or accept those changes in such a short time span but I have tried accepting them rather you could say I am forced to accept them.

In past 15 months of my bangalore stay, I have seen five different locations of south Bangalore.

First location was kormangala, it was my first destination in Bangalore. Here in Kormangala I spent memorable moments of Bangalore. Then I had to leave this place for once and forever.

My second destination was Taverikeri. This place is most miserable place I have ever lived. Our flat was luxurious and most importantly owner of our own TT Table was the biggest luxury for all of us. But at the same time world outside was full of miseries. Stinky place, smelly lanes, busy roads and no restaurants were the few among its various fascinating features of this area. Here I stayed for 4-5 months. People started relocating to other cities hence their intercity relocations had caused my intra city relocation.

From Taverikeri I moved to Jaynagar 9th block. Jayanagar is a better place than Taverikeri. Big Bazar, Central Mall, market and all others amenities were on a walking distance from my house. I did not face any issue except few bedbugs. Some nights I had to wake up and stop donating my blood for these blood sucking bastards. Those Sundays, which were fixed for DEATH BY CHOCOLATE (Corner House - Jaynagar 9th Block.), are still in memories.

These sunny and happy days did not live long, and I moved to JP Nagar's forests. As it was a forest so everything was out of the accessible parameters. Whether it is restaurant or a shopping complex, none of them was near to our building. As my latest X-Room mate cum X-Colleague is moving out of Bangalore, it was mandatory to find a new place and new people.

Now I am residing in BTM Layout 2nd stage. Here house is good, everything is nearby and people do not look like leaving so Lets see how things go ahead.

It is been long and tiring journey for the last few months. It looks like my life has become a life of a NOMAD.

Guhantra: WMS Official Party

Sterling is facing a liquidity crunch, which implies no more team parties for us with sterling money. So, burdon of arranging a party was on our recession hit pockets, which will surely burn a hole, if there is not one. In these dire conditions few enthusiastic people find reasons to impact economy more :(. Madhav is leaving and it is a tradition to arrange farewell for the parting person, so here is the reason :) :). 

After fierce and extensive discussions we booked Guhantra resort to spend out Friday evening. Guhantra ,which means inside the cave, has all the indoor activities inside the cave. Along with caves you should expect little more. You may expect few stones in Beach volleyball court, bulls-eye marked with chalks, unmanaged grass, lots of mosquitoes’, non ac dance floor, and 1KM bullock ride.

Entrance Cave

Auditorium

Guhantra entrance is one of about 100 meters long cave and which opens into a big nice auditorium. The auditorium has bar, dance floor, water fall, swimming pool filled with dirty water and food court. Besides, there are a few outdoor activities and one nice swimming pool. 

Me in Auditorium

After finishing the resort tour with our guide we started with beach volleyball. As we were all novice, so initially it was difficult to keep the ball in the court and due to enormous wide open area near the court, time spent to fetch the ball was more than time spent to play the game. With every passing minute, game matured and people started holding the ball in the court at least for 3-4 passes. After an hour drunkards became conscious of loosing time in unimportant activities (Drinking is only important activity to them) so the game halted. 

Starting days

Running to Fetch the ball

Waiting for Ball to come

Gins also ran too much to fetch the ball

Now it was time for short archery session. Here Ekesh topped the chart whereas Hari grabbed bottom position. For Hari, it took skilled advice from 3 persons and 10+ wasted shots to hit first correct shot. 

Ekesh the best in archery

Snacks included tea, pakora and philosophical discussion/gyan. After snacks, few of us marched toward pool and rest began the big daaru session. 

Pool water was clean and none other than us was there to spoil our party. From the group of 5 people 4 knew swimming. This time I was at the receiving end. Every skilled swimmer was trying to explore the fundamentals of swimming. I think though I could not learn it but I can surely write a book named "Learn swimming in 30 minutes". Having Beer in the pool was more fun. This fun session was called off for dinner session. 

Resting at Swimming pool

We reached the audi and to our astonishment there were some 20+ empty Beer bottles. I joined the party and started consuming Beer at much speed, to account for the lost time. At around 9 o'clock we started dancing on some songs. Dancing, Drinking Beer and eating Roti were the processes of one complete round and I completed such numerous rounds.

Party was due for an ending but people were not ready to leave(as if if they ever are!!). So it took some time to move people out. Finally all of us were there in respective cars.

I do not know what I told and said but believe me, I loved the feeling of getting out of senses though I do not want to repeat it as we all know precious things lose the charm if they are attained much number of time.

Finally Sterling met to its destiny

Few weeks back one colleague told me about the probability of sterling commerce's acquisition. But it was not possible for me to figure out the reason behind IBM's motto of buying and AT&T's intentions of selling. On the contrary it was my fear that ignored the facts which were strongly signaling the forthcoming unexpected changes.

Few weeks passed without any significant events. One such general day I reached office at my usual timings. There was something fishy in the environment. People were standing in groups and they were discussing something which was still unknown to me. As per the human nature my curiosity had already been reached to 100th time. I sat down, opened laptop, started outlook and read all the mails.

Oops I dint find anything unusual, Okay let me ask reason for such unexpected activities at the floor. My TL predicted the possibility of an announcement in the Sterling worldwide meeting which happens on last Friday of each month. Speculations were heating up, gossips were increasing and rumours were spreading. Though it was impossible to predict the flow of the events but to in line these events sterling pantry was filled with max possible groups.

Finally meeting started. The first shock, IBM big guns were accompanying Sterling's bosses. People were clueless and they were hushing. We all had idea and no one wanted to believe until the announcement was official. People were praying of an announcement about a business tie up with IBM.

Sooner or later dream were to be broken. Meeting started with Steven Auldts, VP Sterling commerce, who was anchoring the meeting. After his first few words, he showed the reality to the people and announced the merger (merger: Big fish eating small fish J ) of Sterling Commerce and IBM.

Oh I was Sterlite when I joined the meeting, and now I am an IBMer since I left the meeting.

Bangalore No More heaven for me

Few years back Bangalore was heaven to live. People/Friends were there to hang out with, few had more time, noon were not as hotter. Everything was just like living your dream time with your own hard earned money.

Now things have changed. Noon is exposed to more UV rays than earlier, College friends have chosen their destiny. As part to their decisions either they moved to other states or re-entered to colleges or could not find time as they need to fulfill their other important commitments.

Am I happy with this life? :(:(:(

Hmmmm, nice question :)... As we always say there are pros and cons for everything. Are there any pros? Oh surely there are, I can list few. My manager who never expected me to work 8 hours now expect me to code for 15 hours a day because I spend more time in office rather spending it at home. So chances of getting good rating has enhanced a lot. I can read more books(It rarely happened) at home. I can learn new technologies(Techie thought). I can learn some instrument(Oops no music sense), write more blogs(Poor in talks), talk to people more on phone(Oops noone calls me as well) and may be because I am not surrounded by guys anymore; I can find a partner(No good girl in my circle) for me.

Oh I never thought there can be so many advantages :( :(. I know I know I am bullying a lot but...

Oh what are the cons of the whole migrations? Hmmm, I don't find people to hang out with, people to fight with, people to argument(mostly nonsensical manner) with . I think this is what matters most to live the happy life. Now if I have to go out to shop, i have to think 10 times and but there was a time, when people used to ask and I used to deny as I had been to market twice earlier in the day. So all in all I miss a lot of things wwhich is named Bak*****.

Muththathi - 11 April 2010 - Continue

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Now no nosense, all this will make sense.

We were 8(Srikanth, Gautham, Mitalee, Soumaya, Om, 2More and me), all were ready to trek and enjoy the heat of mountain. There were 7 peaks, and we decided to hoist our flag on all the peaks. Our glucose level was very high. It was a 3 hours trip but the trip was under the surveillance of sun god,
who was producing more heat than normal. (Dude, I have one important question - How the hell does Sun god know that I am going out to trek?  Shhhh he never let me trek, I was still praying, he will prey some
other group today).

There we were, are we? All of us did not know if this is the right place?

We verified as well. Oops there we were, next to a shrine, next to a hill station and near a river (ravine or I should say dam - Place where water smells as stagnated water). As there were no clear pictures of the hill tops, no clear ways to travel up to enjoy trekking, so the verification was the continuous process. First step

toward the journey was to cross Kavery, vehicle was a circular boat and driver was a 10 year old kid. In the mid of the stream our boat was little unbalanced and we were scared. Dude what is the depth here? How many of us know swimming (For the matter of fact there were 2 swimmers only)? All those questions were remained undiscovered as it was desired and finally we were on the other side of Kavery. Oh did I
tell I helped kid to row down the boat with long hands like pole.

There were two sides to trek up and we choose one. We started horizontally to find the way to trek vertical. We walked and walked horizontally in the heat on the sand, in the treeless forest. Two were down soon. Mitalee and Soumya seated under a Banyan tree and rest of us walked to find way up. We walked one more mile and our patience also went down. Here we found only one place where stinking water of river was producing sound effects(Somewhat similar to fall). To reduce down(omit) the tiredness and heat we spent few minutes at the same location. But all was in vain. We came back under the Banyan tree. There we had snacks brought by Mitalee and while eating I figured out my hands were still recovering from the smell of stinking water.

Okay It was over, we returned to our cab and moved to Bangalore. For me it was the worst trip of my lifetime. Stinking River, unfamiliar smell, treeless forest and horizontal trekking was the achievements of
the journey. May be it was the bad timings, but I would suggest if you want to enjoy the day then stay away from Muththathi and if this does not scare you then you are worth the place like us.

Muththathi - 11 April 2010

On Apr 9th, Friday, my colleagues forced me to plan to go out. They (I am included) were exhausted with the work pressure (Hard work put up@ TT/Foosball) and heat waves (Truly hot) of Bangalore. Somewhere out??? Dude, you guys could have told me before; now I have committed my Saturday. But their thirst to go out was so unquenchable that I had to accept their proposal***.

*** Conditions apply: Trip was trimmed down to one day and we had to find place near to Bangalore.

Now time to finalize the place. We got few places which were were spread out over several categories. Few of the categories got interesting comments like this. Shrine was the place where people could have lost their Jawani ('chiiii, Bhari Jawani me sadhu nahi banna chahati mein'). One guy could have failed his history exams because of Archeological Places listed(Before each history exam I used to be in dilemma - 'Akbar Auranjeb ka baap tha yah Auranjeb Akbar ka'). Dams were short of water (Shhhh, what will we do there? Machi pakdenge pure din). Hill Station was too tiring for people who had already put extra pounds (Mera BF patla ho jayega).  Birds sanctuaries dint have charm (I do not have interest in watching chidiya bird, ohhh birds are there around - Though my company does not have many arrre bhai any...)

Anyways after whole set of comments, arguments, advices, and place promotions it was fixed. Oops here it came, the place unanimously (Dint find any good competition) selected was Muththathi (It took exactly 10 days to pronounce it correctly.). Others preparations were booking the cab (booked late Saturday night), getting the road map (Nobody had any idea) and getting something to eat (Oops thanks to Mitalee, with this act she improved her gal quotient in my eyes). Okie dokie, lots of nonsense, come to the point. Oh this blog is growing. Ok I will split it here. Arre one more click please.

Chikmagloor Trip - Day 2

First day

Next day Psycho started his day with early morning walk in the chikmagloor's dense forests. Among us, few were still struggling to fetch unproductive sleep for few more seconds and rests were getting ready for Manikyadhara Falls. We took some nice shots of wild flowers and plants which were fresh like us at the start of the day.

We drove to down hills and after a small distance driver told us to hire a Gypsy as it was not possible for him to drive further. WTF, why can not you go? But as instructed, we hired it to reach to the falls. So hiring the Gypsy was the beginning of the most troubling road journey.

Our downhill road was little like road featured in Mountain Dew Ad campaign (Darr ke age jeet hai...). The road did not have concrete dammar path, whole path was rocky and above to that Mr. Driver was taking sharp turns as though Schumacher was driving his Ferrari in Chikmagloor GP. All of us could not enjoy the green on the roadsides to keep our head away from Gipsy's roof. While driving Michael pointed out the little stream of water, which was suppose to be most charming fall @ Chikmagloor. I was asking myself, did I waste so much of my energy for such a tiny stream of water? Was it a repetition of Waynad's abby falls? Why on earth I came to see this fall. But there was no return, so we kept rolling down the hill. Finally Mr. Schumacher stopped 2KM away from the fall and asked us to walk.

Manikyadhara fall was in middle of dense forest. Environment was so calm that running water was also creating a rhythm and Ashish sanyaas plans were straightening more. In such a peaceful jungle we crossed rivers, crossed big stones and finally reached to the spot. By now I was tasted from 3 blood sucking leeches. Seeing these stuck to my legs, girls screamed first, I almost jumped, gulti lost his motion (Most scared too). It was terrible to see these species sticking to your body and sucking your blood. You could not just take a second to throw it away.

Finally our jungle walk was finished; we were in front of the fall. To see the height we need to stretch our neck 60*, such a huge fall in the wild (Can’t be at my home for sure :)).

Thanks to our early morning efforts the fall belonged to us for next couple of hours (We were the only and lonely group there). Rocks were slippery, Water was freezing and wind was adding spice into it. But it took few thoughts to enter into the water. ASA I could get a place, I was welcomed with a splash of water on my face, in the same way I replied without loosing a second.

Garima, Vidushi were just sitting and video tapping five half naked guys :).

Wild has a problem, it makes people Jungly. So in its effect we were screaming, shouting and enjoying the moments there. After spending couple of hours the wildness came to an end. We returned back to our car in an hour.

Next destination was the Karnataka’s highest point. First we targeted highest peak seen from the parking. It took few minutes to reach to the peak.

That's it, is it? So were we standing 1926 Mt's above sea? No clouds, nothing like so high, where are we? I dint have either an inch tape or a barometer to measure the height, but I looked around to find out, am I on the summit of the mountain? No, this was not it; there is one more peak which is higher, a lot higher. So we still had lot to cover. Psycho did not have courage to move, but it was impossible to return without meeting to the clouds. We convinced vidushi to accompany us, so psycho was alone and bound to come. Here we started, first rolled down, then climbed up, climbed more and was reducing the gap with the summit.

We were above Clouds, breeze was cold and wet. Would you believe we had our lunch at the highest point of Karnataka? Locals there inaugurated one temple there and were distributing Prasad. Our lunch of the day was biryani with pachranga pickle (Truly earned lunch: P).

we were still few stairs away from peak. After lunch break journey was resumed. We were walking in the clouds and Clouds, that were covering the whole place, were growing denser. Downhill view was just stunning. My words may not be able to fill the cavity between what I watched and what I wrote but that experience of watching the world from this height was great. We stayed there for a little gossip and took some souvenir pictures before returning back to the parking place.

There was nothing much left in folks, so moved to Bangalore. On the way we had our dinner at chikmagloor that was sponsored by ashish, reached back to Bangalore 11 o'clock in the night. Chikmagloor trip was a great trip, all the members of the trip had great time together and at least I did.

I am looking forward for next trip very soon in future. More pics

Trip to Chikmagloor

Can you u imagine the trip after 3 years of college with college friends? Reviving your college memories is always an enlightening experience. All of you (Trip crew) know each other from the deep root level. So such trips, with college geeks, remain memorable and fresh through out your life.

It was Thursday night. Kunal reached home, we opened Google, searched tourist places near Bangalore, and found 3 probable destinations. Gulti with his little experience finalized our future for next two coming days. We all were set except few hiccups, like Psycho, did not want to come with out his friend vidushi, vidushi could not come without any other girl.

I do not think there is any need of introduction with all big guns. Vishal me, Gulti the exitincting species, rajhans saint, kunal evergreen, psycho sharmila, vidushi our new listing in friends, Garima my sister.

We planned to leave Bangalore at 7, but because of Bangalore’s morning traffic, our car arrived 5 hours late. Dude, Gulti's eyes were boiling in rage. I did not know what is going to happen to our driver. I was thinking Gulti should settle the things in little arguments. Once driver reached, he fired up, and he asked, "Kya bhaiyyyya, itni der kahan laga di, traffic mein fans gaye the kya" :). That’s all really.

Trip was started at 12 and our first stop was a temple (Name: I am still thinking :)). We all did not enter into the temple, and none of us had courage to climb down approximately 100 stairs. So we planned to ease our self and find the fall's starting point. Here the wildness of ashish woke up (Some time our saint behaves like a rahul Roy in Junoon.).

One decent guy told us that this water is coming up from top of the hill and hill top is just 300 meters above. So here it started. Water, mud, Stone, big stone we crossed everything on the way, just opposite to water flow.

We completed one KM, no peak nearby, we completed 2 KM's still no peak (Was the peak also walking with us???-RVG can only answer this...AGYAT-2). Gals behind us were just to faint, then my conscience woke and I asked Rajhans to halt, who was not willing to stop his journey in the excitement of discovering something unknown/unseen. Kind hearted Ashish finally decided to adjourn his tracking all because of those poor gals, who were at the verge of surrendering the courage with which they started their passion to accompany us on such a difficult track. Now we choose the safer path to move little up in the forest. But there were no stairs to reach at top, Psycho tried searching in each direction (Actually he lost the directions so he was wandering here and there). Finally we all gave up finding source of water. All of the sudden, Gulti's weird imagination went into Stone Age and started putting off his cloths (:))... Gulti wanted to cover his whole body with leaves and woods. Thank God, gals were there with us. Otherwise Gulti ka name bhi "Patte Wale Baba" hi hota (God with leaves).

Oh yeah, how can I forget, Kunal successfully saved one tree there from us. he saved it by giving it a big hug. So this was little forest trip.

After wandering in the forest we marched ahead to find the place for spending the night, as sun started hiding and announcing the EOD. We found one lodge and lodge manger informed about unavailability of the rooms. Where will we go? Will we need to spend our night in mogali (Jungle Book hero) mode? Kunal was quick enough to start making friends, Ashish started dowsing (Got chance to sleep in nature.), Gulti started talking in Gulti with driver (Jugaaaaad), Psycho was shell shocked and gals were cool. I was the one who still had some guts to talk with the rishwatkhor manager and manager came up with two vacant room and we got place to spend our night. After dinner, it was walk time. Dark night, no lights, no men on the streets, some screams, some wild sounds, on such a horrified road we were walking in the direction of nowhere. Will we become the inspiration of RVG's next movie? After 20 minutes, we headed back toward lodge. We all settled down and talked about college, college friends, achievements (Who all could manage to escape from marriage till now, who all could manage to find a gal and run with her and few talks were about jail... etc).

12 AM, Ashish became the victim of atrocities(It was his b'day, and we did bumped someone's a** for a long time. Poor ashish :(). It is night, got to get a nap.

Good night.

The Journey to Hospital

A Journey can lead to any place.. Just get out of home and start walking. That walk will again be a Journey. But to make a journey to the hospital, it takes great courage. After facing 2 days of suffering, I chose to walk to the hospital (Does it not seem scary to you to walk to hospital and give your blood to test?). There were hundreds of thoughts that were circulating in my mind, which were increasing the fear-factor. Among them one thought was, what if the doctor says," we found unrecognized disease in your body and what if he adds, your body can be utilised for the experiments.

Anyway i reached the hospital. I got an appointment from the doctor who was supposed to reach the place at 12.30. But as each and every person in India follows the same VERY STANDARD IST. Our mr doc was no more exception. So to compensate DOC's mistake i was told to sit and wait for him. Here I started scanning the patients who were sitting quietly. My scan was over the moment i met with the eye of one girl. There was some relief. Vishal, i do not need to look at the uncles to kill my time. Now if one chik is sitting next to you then you have to show how intellectual you are. So i did the same, i started reading the NEWS-Paper. But it was unbearable to keep digging into the paper when someone hot is sitting next to you(Here I pretended she was hot, I dint examine her till now). So i had a solution, there was one TV set in the waiting room, whenever i wanted to see the chik, i looked at TV set first, then chik and finally paper. Each time i saw her, I reviewed her with patience(To the limits it was possible). This girl was sexy and cute both (Am i hyping more. So what, i have all rights provided to exaggerate the things).

Finally MR. Doc came at 1 o'clock. That guy was looking concerned about the people waiting for him for last 1 hour. And he gave his short lived smile to my new crush (Hun hun Doc bhi biryani ke piche laga hai). Time had come for examination. Nurse came and took my temperature and weight. I was really concerned before stepping on the weighing machine. What if i am under weight and this doc tells me lots of other diseases that are unknown to me. Again i was in the long waiting queue to meet the doctor. Here it was not really frustrating as my latest crush was still sitting.

Anyways, after almost one hour wait It was my turn to add few new name to my English dictionary. He asked one question What happened? i vomited each and every thing that was troubling me for last 2 days. Now he started building a layer of psychological fear. Once he was successful in blocking my mind (Which was already half blocked), he told me to get some tests done and in addition to that he asked me for injection. In that situation i was ready for everything told by my god.

Now it was time for test. The nurse took blood out of my body (Though i have very less to survive). This was not all. Here comes the nurse having needle in her hand. First she took me to a room and here we 2 were alone and she asked me to open my pant [:)]. I was not ready for that but she told me it can only be injected on your bums. He was not ready to change her stance and i was stiff on mine. But finally she had to win with her arguments which were all in kannada (For me it was KALA AKSHAR BHAIS BARABAR - I am Kannadda illiterate). Finally i gave up and my back is still paining (It is more than 12 hours after injection). Meanwhile I saw my 1 hour crush rushing toward the exit gate. I was disappointed and once again my heart was broken.

With my broken heart, coated mind, injected bums and reduced blood i returned back to the home. Oh sorry dint i tell you the money i paid. Let us leave it for now. Now I am waiting for my reports. Guys please pray for me... I know you will pray :)

My limits are 18

This was June 21st 2007, when i joined my new company. I joined the company cause i did not have any work in my previous organization. Prabhat (My previous manager) had swore to make me a call center agent, and i swore to gain my self respect. Here on Monday, i stepped in the recreation room of STERLING Commerce. I was shell shocked. Shocked, Not because it was empty, but because it was the second most crowded place (after cafeteria) of the company. There were 5 games, 20 people were playing and 30 people were in queue.

I also joined the queue. I never knew i am standing next to pros of the table. ASA i got the chance, I picked up the racket that i never touched in my life before. Sooner i came to know it is really hard to cop up on this table with these people. The people were eying on me like i have committed heinous crime. Anyhow i finished my game and was replaced with other people waiting in the queue. I dint wanted to be eyed in this way, so i left the room thinking: one day i will play with the elite group.

Days passed, weeks passed, months also, and it is almost a year. In the whole year i asked each and every person to play with me. Some turned down my offer, some started but after playing few games either they were tired of me or they got some work. (Few were there who neither say no nor played a game) For me both the things were not reality. I was neither bored of any person nor i got work. In the whole year i played 100s of matches and i win 10's of them. I never lost the spirit of playing the game. I kept playing, kept switching games. but nothing seems working.

Now a days my game has improved. But this improvement neither clinches the games for me nor it places me into the community of moderate player. They still look at me as they did on first day. Till now winning is like a selection in IIT. The door is always open but the door is so small that i can not fit into it. I am trying to broaden the door but it is taking a long time. I wish i do not loose my spirit before i could make it large to enter easily.

For some people SKY is the limit, for me 18 is the limit in TT. Or saying in other way, SKY is my limit which has come down to 18.