Reckless Hate

"What can one do against reckless hate ?", says King Theoden as the Uruk Hai break into the fortress at Helmsdeep.

These words echoed in my head as a bunch were huddled in front of the TV on Wednesday night as the events unfolded along one of my favourite places in Bombay. As innocent lives were taken, vigilant cops killed and hotel residents taken hostage, a sense of helplessness engulfed the residents of this city.

Who is to blame ?
The system ?
The politicians ?
The late reaction of the otherwise swift Military forces ?

I leave that to your judgement. I'm just filled with anger. An anger that comes from realization that I'm in a position where I can do nothing, but vociferously express my feelings. I'm a common man and I echo the voices of a hundred more people who I have spoken to atleast.

TV channels always raved about the "resilient spirit" of the Mumbaikar, but now that I'm here I realise it is not resilience, but numbness that has taken over this city. People are getting used to this and the Government just sits there, fires a few people, plays the blame game, promises meagre amounts for lost lives etc etc etc.

Light candles, Voice your opinions, but make sure there is action, it is high time for something positive to happen. We can't be held hostage by ones that we elect. We have the money & the resources, it just needs to be put to good use. Awaken yourself. Do something, do anything. Don't ask me, I'm clueless as you are. But let the fire within never die.

A Mundane Train Ride and An Early Midlife Crisis

Leaving home is always difficult, especially when you are treated like royalty by your parents. So as I boarded the 2nd AC compartment of the Hussainsagar Express I realised the royal treatment was continuing.

Usually I always have some kid in the seats near mine, but this time it was all old men with snow white hair. So I just jumped up onto my berth, pulled out my Outlook magazine and started reading. About two hours later, I realised that there was a plugpoint adjacent to my berth. My eyes lit up. I immediately pulled out my laptop, put the charger on and started my impromptu movie marathon. After having dinner at around 19:30, I started with one of Jim Carrey's best movies thus far, The Number 23. Then LOTR, Return of the King - Rashomon - The Fountain and half of a Tamil movie called Unnale Unnale. It was around 2:30 am when I put the laptop in my bag hoping I would sleep for an hour atleast before getting off at Kalyan Jn.

But plans never work out too well for me at such unearthly hours. There was this 60+ gentleman who was snoring so loud, he made one of the girls in the adjacent cubicle cry. It was like sleeping close to a caged tiger, a caged angry tiger might I add.

After that debacle, it was back to college and Economics and Work System Analysis and Event management. Bunked a class to catch up on some sleep. Now after finishing up with some work, was discussing some crazy things with Manisha. Then more thoughts were running around in my head, which I vented out to my neighbour and good friend Sambit.
Attending classes that don't mean a thing,
Writing exams that don't anything,
Living life like a robot made of flesh and blood.
Is there a point to all this I wonder ?

Maybe its just that I'm missing home, or slightly disoriented with things. But nevertheless, I'm bored and letting my mind wander. Sambit calls this an Early Midlife Crisis. Why me ?!

Massive Attack - Angel is filling my room. Awesome trance.

A slice of heaven called Home

Most of the people who read this blog will know how much I love Hyderabad. For the ignorant rest, I'm one of those who proclaimed that he would never leave this city no matter what.

So after an eventful 4 months at NITIE, I left for Hyderabad after an equally eventful post-Prerana (annual business fest) party at Rodas. Felt like I was leaving my new home and heading back to my old one. But I had been long awaiting the trip to Hyd.

First it started off with a surprise at home, the folks thought I was coming down on the 27th, but there I was on the 26th itself. Was good to see smiles all around. After a day of resting and Diwali shopping, it was a visit to meet the extended family. Diwalis in our household mean lots of good food, the special programmes on TV and more family time. No bursting crackers and polluting the environment, and I'm proud of that.

After Diwali , the floodgates opened, I met lots and lots of my friends. It was awesome catching up. Most of them thought that my receding hairline was becoming evident, a few thought I had become less talkative, one even thought I had become "uncle" like. "Darn ! I'm still 21," I retorted.

I went for a movie called Chintakayala Ravi starring Venkatesh in one of those old Hyderabadi theatres for a ticket that cost only Rs.30. Yes such places still exist, they might not have the comfort of multiplexes, but they certainly feel good. That evening I visited the University of Hyderabad, which I must say has one of the most beautiful campuses I have seen. There was a chill in the air which is typical of a Hyderabadi winter which unfortunately I will miss this year. Lets hope the Mumbai winter can be some consolation atleast.

I also had the oppurtunity to watch "Unspoken Dialogues", a theatre production directed and performed by Alyque Padamsee and his team. A good mix of sensible, funny and thought provoking theatre is exactly what the Hyderabadis need.

I'll be heading back to NITIE soon. But with a heavy heart, I say to the city that will be closest to my heart, " I will be back."

Varanam Aayiram is playing on Winamp. Check out the album.

Dusting Cobwebs in my head !

My blog is going to hate me. 10 posts this year. Shameful. Of course I'd been travelling a lot in the first half of the year, and now I'm in business school.

Ah that part has become an amazing excuse for everything these days.
Forgot Arun's birthday - was busy with business school.
Didn't call some person about something - sorry busy with assignments.
Didn't eat dinner for 3 days in a row, Mom is pissed - had too much work.

Yeah ! Apart from all the work here, all I do is play football, watch movies or sleep. I belong to that rare breed of b school students who fit in atleast 8-9 hours of sleep into everyday. NITIE is an amazing place to be that way, always 3-4 degrees lesser than the sticky Mumbai heat in the city.

I've always been a fan of amazing speeches at graduation ceremonies and such events, especially ones that bring out the true meaning of life atleast to those who want to believe so. This is a small excerpt from Bill Watterson's speech at a graduation ceremony.

"You will find your own ethical dilemmas in all parts of your lives, both personal and professional. We all have different desires and needs, but if we don't discover what we want from ourselves and what we stand for, we will live passively and unfulfilled. Sooner or later, we are all asked to compromise ourselves and the things we care about. We define ourselves by our actions. With each decision, we tell ourselves and the world who we are. Think about what you want out of this life, and recognize that there are many kinds of success. Many of you will be going on to law school, business school, medical school, or other graduate work, and you can expect the kind of starting salary that, with luck, will allow you to pay off your own tuition debts within your own lifetime.

But having an enviable career is one thing, and being a happy person is another.

Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an eccentric, if not a subversive. Ambition is only understood if it's to rise to the top of some imaginary ladder of success. Someone who takes an undemanding job because it affords him the time to pursue other interests and activities is considered a flake. A person who abandons a career in order to stay home and raise children is considered not to be living up to his potential-as if a job title and salary are the sole measure of human worth.

You'll be told in a hundred ways, some subtle and some not, to keep climbing, and never be satisfied with where you are, who you are, and what you're doing. There are a million ways to sell yourself out, and I guarantee you'll hear about them.

To invent your own life's meaning is not easy, but it's still allowed, and I think you'll be happier for the trouble."
Courtesy - Phalgun's status message

How true. After 16+ years of educations, numerous competitive examinations and a few interviews later, here I am on the crossroads of what could turn out to be life altering years at India's equivalent of the City of Dreams.

A special shout out to all my friends who I think of often, but am short on balance to call or short on time to ping.

The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony is playing on Winamp

What do you wanna be when you grow up ?

It was just another ride in the Bombay Local for me. But little did I know that at the end, I would be in self-discovery mode.

Well this is how the story begins. I got off the train and was walking along the platform when I came across this father and daughter. The daughter was being quizzed by her father about her performance in school. There are always these uncles ie. your dads friends who want to cuddle you and they get real happy when you say something cute. So the "uncle" in question was asking the little girl, " Beta, what do you want to be when you grow up ?".

I didn't wait for her to finish. I kept walking while a flurry of thoughts just came running into my head. What did I want to be when I grew up ?

When I was 10, I wanted to be an explorer and lead teams into Africa and the Antarctic .
When I was 13, I wanted to be a nuclear physicist because I liked the whole idea of creating energy.
When I was 16, I wanted to become an officer with the IPS to serve my motherland (and still want to).
When I was in engineering, I wanted to be an advertising professional.
When I was in the himalayas, I wanted to stay there forever and become a Mountaineer with an unquenchable thirst for scaling peaks.
And in between I have wanted to be involved in Tiger conservation, Politics, Journalism and the latest on the list was movie making.
I have actually taken steps towards all these things, but somehow they have just gone into my never ending list of passions without materialising into something big.

I'm a Mechatronics engineer and an MBA to be. I'm 21 years old and have no clue where I will end up. The thought of the future doesn't really scare me. I know that wherever I go, whatever I do, I will do it with immense enthusiasm and have a lot of fun. These are a few advantages of being an optimist I'm afraid.

But I will take comfort in the fact that in article I once read, it said that the most interesting people did not know what they wanted even when they were 40. I guess I will end up being one of those "interesting" people.

For now I will focus on Saving the world from Environmental Hazards as I'm being trained to do.

So until I want to be something else in life, Au revoir and remember Que Sera Sera, whatever will be will be, the future's not ours to see, Que sera sera.

BullDOZER

It is a well known fact that I used to sleep for an average of 12-13 hours during the holidays between engineering and b school. I hardly ever left my room and my bed was HEAVEN ON EARTH. That is primarily the reason that I have become chubbier in the last few months. Sleep is a very important part of the day, especially for the people who are hyperactive during the day. We need to rest our body and mind.

Now here at NITIE, life is falling into a routine. I sleep late, but have to wake up by 7:30 to get to class in time after bathing and breakfast. I've been managing to do accomplish that myself, otherwise my roomie comes to the rescue and wakes me up. So I'm managing. But to compensate, i'm sleeping in the classes also. So much so that, I'm automatically attracted to the seats near the window. The only colours we can see on campus are Grey and Green. The grey of the clouds and the incessant rains which never seem to stop and the green of the flora on campus.

Amidst all the work, the movies, the latenights and some sleep, I hit upon an idea which might come into implementation someday when we are dead and gone. The idea shall be explained as follows.

Have you heard of Carbon Offsets, Carbon Trading etc ? For those who haven't, let me elucidate. Essentially, companies which have high amounts of carbon emissions pay other companies to cut down on their carbon emissions so as to offset their high amounts to maintain a constant amount in the atmosphere. This is used to reduce pollution considerably.

So my idea is to have Sleep offsets, we should have assistants or people who we can pay to work for us, just the way we would, when we sleep. This would result in the same amount of productivity while we enjoyed our beauty sleep. It would be even better if someone could develop robots with similar mental frameworks for specific individuals. The best alternative would be to have clones.

Maybe someday, when I'm in my eternal slumber, someone who has read this blog would develop something amazing such as this. With that optimistic message, I shall go sleep now.

Of Bschools and sleeplessness

I have moved from the laidback city of Hyderabad to the absolute chaos of Bombay. I'm a NITIEan now. Yeah its hitting me slowly. The amazing greenery is keeping me happy, but the humidity is maddening.
I arrived on the morning of the 19th. Ever since its been an amazing four days. I've met some amazing people, made loads of friends, played football, made presentations and business plans, shopped for pillows, slept for not more than 6 hours put together in 4 days and finally danced like crazy around a bonfire.
We had loads of events where we got to know each other and the seniors too. But the highlight of the whole thing was the inter floor football tournament. Our team was the "FOURTH FLOOR DESTROYERS". We lost to a beatable fifth floor team after they scored early. But this loss meant that we had to try harder as a unit and this way earned each others respect. I think us fourth floor buggers are the closest bunch of wingies among the juniors. The atmosphere in the Lounge (thats what we call it atleast, has three beds which are dirty) where we watch Euro 08 matches is always electric during the midnight.
Apart from this I'm also a member of the Tam and Gult gangs in college, its good to be multicultural I say. Guess what , after a finance case study that I did, I now know what mutual funds are, how stocks are priced and all that abracadabra stuff.
I'm told its going to be real hectic this module, so I won't exactly be able to blog too often. But I promise to keep blogging often. I'm now off to the Lounge to watch Spain v Italy.
PS: Two bits of gyaan that all potential b schoolers should know -
1. We're working on it
2. We'll get back to you
More later folks. Till then Cheerio

I belong to the Mountains

Yes, I believe I belong to the mountains. The 10 days I spent exploring the Himalayas were the toughest and most eventful days in last few years. It has been exhilarating from the word go. The animal encounters, the sub zero temparatures, the physical and mental exertion and not to forget the near death experiences. An adventurer's lifestyle I must say. I've been to ten different cities in the last five months and this mega himalayan trek. Its time for a little peace and serenity in my life now.

Now I'm back to the heat of Hyderabad and the mundane city life again. I leave this city for Bombay in another 20 days. So a wee bit of nostalgia is creeping. I'm saying bye to all my friends, who I will obviously keep in touch with. I'm doing some shopping. New blazer, new sandals, new pillow and bed covers and all that jazz. Ah yes, a new Blue Inspiron laptop is worth mentioning.So all this stuff is keeping me busy.
For those expecting a mega blog about the Himalayas, I'm sorry to disappoint, such beauty and splendor can hardly be expressed in words by an amateur like me. For those who insist get in touch with me, I have loads of pictures and videos and of course lots of stories to tell. So until next time.
Cheerio and Farewell

The IPL Phenomenon

The IPL has taken over the average Indian household. I'm so relieved that I don't get to hear them sidey serial soundtracks. I hear its making good money and has everyone young and old rivetted to their seats. It has created a whole new audience for itself and they are certainly getting their monies worth.

I support the Chennai Superkings and the Deccan Chargers for obvious reasons. One team has been doing well, the other is just getting into the groove. The Aussies are ruling over proceedings here - Hayden, Gilly, Symonds and my personal favourite, Mike Hussey. All of them have put in atleast one blitzkrieg performance so far. I used to love to watch Michael Bevan play in the death overs for the Aussies and Huss has taken over that slot. Stud players both of them and whats more both are left handed batsmen just like me.

Good Entertainment all around. Go IPL !!

PS: I have Deccan Chargers sticker on my bike . Woohoo !! Gilly is God ! :)

Tidbits of the last few days

Its getting real close the finishing lap. I have my last two semester exams on the 28th and 30th. Project Viva will be anytime this weekend. So its been real hectic, running up and down to college (which is 23 kms from home),last minute editing of the report etc. < April 14th was Tamil New years day. So PUTHANDHU NALVAZHTUKKAL to all the tams, WISHU HAPPY VISHU to all the mallus. It also happened to be my bike's 5th birthday. Boy do they get old on you !! LOL

I'm making a yearbook for my class. Most of the work is done and should be ready by the end of April. So thats something that lots of people are looking forward to. After all memories and each other are the only good things that we will take back from MGIT.

For all those people who believe black and white movies rule, this next piece should reassure them. Sun TV is showing Classic movies at 10.30 every night. So I got to see some amazing movies starring Sivaji, MGR, Muthuraman, Savitri, Gemini Ganesan, Padmini etc. It was certainly a feast for me. Movies like Thillana Mohanambal, Galatta Kalyanam, Deva Magan, Navaratri(Sivaji plays 9 roles) and a host of other movies totally kept me occupied through the nights.
K. Balachander's super hit THILLU MULLU starring Rajinikanth is one of the funniest movies of the 80s. It was even remade in Hindi into Golmaal with Amol Palekar

Apart from watching movies, I'm also writing scripts for a few shows that I have in mind and maybe something that can be made into a full length film if I get enough time to finish it. Other than this, nothing exciting happening in life I must say. Porkalam Angae from Thenali is playing on Winamp these days.

Thoughts running around in my head !

Tho Chalun from Border has become my latest favourite song. Leaving MGIT, Leaving Hyderabad. I'm going to miss my room the most I think inclusive of my bed, my Nirvana posters, my computer. I have the softest mattress in my circle, most of my friends will vouch for that. Two months from now, god knows which spongeless mattress I'll be forced to rest my body upon.



Had an amazing Farewell party at Bottles and Chimneys, danced for 3 hours straight, on boots. Ankles hurt so much that I could not perform to my best in the football tournament the next day. Lesson learnt, I'll dance only in sneakers from now on. The DJ was one painful fellow, playing few decent songs and loads of crap with the "dichik dichik" beat. But we danced nevertheless. Clicked about a gazillion photographs. At the end, I was given the title of Mr.Attitude. Is that a good thing or a hidden insult? Well, I got a clock for free so I guess its ok.

Wrote the last internal of my engineering life. Almost done with my project. So all good on the academic front, except I have no bloody clue what is there in the subjects that I have this sem. Entrepreneurship is manageable, but Industrial Electronics ? <Feels a shiver crawl down his spine> I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.
Musings has two of my articles, thats a good thing.
I missed Nirvana, thats a bad thing.
But I was walking through the 7 star Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai in shorts and a Mood Indigo shirt that I flicked from an IITian friend at that very time. Some consolation atleast. Did I mention, I've been to six cities in the last 3 months ! Nice no. And at every single place that I went, I was so well taken care of that I didn't feel like coming back. Thanks Vindhya, Shekhar (Madras), Padmini Aunty (Pondicherry), Thatha, Paati & family (Bangalore, Mysore), Venkatraman mama, Shashank and Rajat (Bombay), Ram, Akshay and Phalgun (Ahmedabad).

New things that have caught my fancy-
Saturday trips to The Fresh store .
The Outlook magazine.
Carnatic Music.
Lazing around in my room and not going out unless absolutely required.
Watching bad telugu movies in theatres in the RTC X roads area with Pavan and Arun.
A.R.Rahman's not so famous songs.

Played holi after 3 years. Got hit by eggs. Blech !! Looked very Pink Pantherish for 2 -3 days. Its been raining(read drizzling heavily) in Hyderabad. So good weather, though it gets a little humid when it doesn't rain. But the heat approaches with wrath and fury. To escape this I'm making plans for May and June. Kolkata, Assam, and Himachal on the itinerary. I'm going alone as it stands now, let me know if you want to tag along. Will consider ;)

And for those who I haven't personally told, lets make it official. Aditya Narayanan has been admitted into NITIE and will be leaving for Bombay/Mumbai on the 18th of June.

So these are most of the thoughts that are running through my head at this moment, and Tho Chalun is still playing on Winamp. LOL

Tiger Tiger, Burning Bright

The title is taken from a poem by William Blake. Ironically, the situation that the Tigers face in India today is far from bright. These majestic beasts are usually said to be powerful and magnificent. The panthera tigris is the National Animal of India.

I was on 10 day trip to Bangalore - Mysore. I decided to visit Nagarhole National Park. It is said to have a decent tiger population along with the Bandipur and Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuaries. We got to Nagarhole at around 9 in the morning. We were told that we would not get to see too many of the animals, since most of them were moved to Bandipur. So we decided to look around the place in our Maruti 800 itself. Obviously, we had to stick to the road only ;) .

Meanwhile, we met a forest officer who was pretty passionate about Project Tiger. He explained to us how the tiger population in India had dwindled from 3400 to around 1400 in the last 6 years. A sad state for the majestic beast indeed. Tigers are very territorial animals and are said to control over 20-30 square kilometres of land. Although poaching is still rampant in many parts of the country, coupled with mismanagement and badly trained patrols, I think Project Tiger which was started by Indira Gandhi way back in 1972 is now going to have some new zeal as more and more people are becoming passionate and vociferous about this cause. Afterall it would be a bloody pity if my children or grandchildren could see the Tiger only in documentaries.

In the Budget session, I was quite happy to notice that P.Chidambaram has actually allotted Rs.50 crore to the National Tiger Conservation Scheme. A Tiger Protection Force is also going to be setup. I believe that this world is big enough for all species of animals and pray that the tigers move away from being dangerously close to exctinction and it is upto people to help it survive and repopulate. Stop Buying anything that has anything to do with wild animals. When the buying stops, slowly the killing will too.

A Holiday To Remember

I firmly believe that a city is like a person’s mother. No matter how she is, we will always love her. In my case I’m blessed to have two such loving cities, Madras was the city where I was born and spent most of my summer holidays during childhood and Hyderabad was the city that brought me up and made me the man I am today. So both these cities hold an equally important place in my life. My trip to Madras and Pondicherry was my first trip out of Hyderabad in over a year and a half, so it was obviously a much awaited one for me. So let me in detail, take you through the six days of what I call A HOLIDAY TO REMEMBER.

Jan 23 –
After a no incidents train ride, I caught a bus and went to my Uncle’s place which is about 45 minutes from the Central station. I decided to not do too much on that day, so didn’t make any plans. But didn’t want to be stuck at home all day either, so I visited the famous Kabaleeshwara temple in Mylapore passing through most of the busy roads in Chennai or Madras as I will be referring to it throughout the rest of the post. The temple is vast, has many shrines but mainly that of Shiva. Like any other South Indian temple complex it has a huge Gopuram and a lake inside the premises. It was a peaceful place and I went at a time when it isn’t particularly crowded. En route I saw the Akkineni Nageshwara Rao Park and the Andhra Mahila Sabha school where my mother had started off her career as a teacher before coming to Hyderabad. After this I headed back home, again local bus + shared auto formula, the cheapest way to get around after the famed Madras Electric Train. Madras is particularly balmy in the mornings, so are most of the coastal places in the winters I’d like to think. So I totally loved the weather for a change. Rest of the day I spent bonding with cousins Vishak and Ashok.

Jan 24 –
It was Vindhya’s birthday. For those of you who haven’t been introduced to Vindhya, she is doing her 3rd yr Biotech at IIT Madras. So I took a bus from the Vadapalani bus stand to IIT – M. It was one of those local deluxe buses, there is a lot of variety in the buses that ply in Madras, like in Bangalore. We have the rickety old ones to the new air conditioned ones with digital signboards.
Madras like any other Indian city suffers from the curse of excessive honking, processions, crazy autorickshaw drivers and the occasional jay walking cattle. So it was a while before I got to IIT-M. There I met up with Vindy, who had arranged for a bike. Met a few other friends who had come from Hyderabad. Meanwhile Vindy had made plans to go to an orphanage for HIV positive children called CHES. The place where they stayed was called ANANDA ILLAM (House of Joy). It certainly lived up to its name. As soon as we got there after a grueling bike trip, the kids came and clung to us like they had known us all along. It was a moving experience, most of these kids may not live to celebrate their 21st birthdays. The House Manager Mrs.Chitra and Father Samuel, the teacher explained to us how they learnt the essential education needed, and also played around for a while in the evenings.

It isn’t a walk in the park managing kids, they can be so absolutely unpredictable, some kids meddled with my shades, some played cricket with me, some of the younger ones pulled my hair, some begged to taken for piggy back rides, but I realized that in the end, all they needed was to be loved. Affection was one of the key factors that kept these kids from going into depression. I’d like to think, that I did my part and brought a few smiles to these children. Thanks Vindhya, firstly for the orphanage trip, secondly because, I got the chance to pass by the place where I lived as a kid. That house still remained as it had been so many years ago.
Meanwhile, we totally forgot our hunger, and in Madras no restaurants are open after 3. So after a lot of searching, we finally found a Pizza Hut in Adyar. After a quick lunch, we headed back to IIT. After this I met up with Deepthi, one of my seniors who was now working at Cognizant in Madras. We met at this place called Planet Yumm at Ascendas, a software complex on the Old Mamallapuram Road in the IT corridor. It was a super place and had most of the major food outlets, I tried some green tea for the first time and didn’t quite like. There was a lot of catching up that we did. Feels good to know that distance only makes people like you more. Went back to the IIT campus at about 8 in the night, spent some time with my classmates who were staying there and then headed for home. Unusually at 10.30, Madras had become a quite place, owing to its majority of early sleepers I presume. Next day it was off to Auroville.

Jan 25 –
Took an early bus out to Auroville via the East Coast Road, one of the most scenic highways in the country. It took me three hours to get to get there. After getting off at Periya Mudaliar Chavadi, I saw a signpost which said that Auroville was a further 8 kms inside. I had just had two glasses of milk in the morning. So mustering up all my strength, I started walking. I was about 5 kms into the township, when an auto stopped a few metres ahead of me, a smiling old gora asked me I needed a lift. I nodded and got in. He introduced himself as Alain. He was a frenchman working on a bio organic farm there. We spoke for the next 15-20 minutes as the auto made its way to the visitors centre. He explained to me how he had a carefree life in France and that he was busy here in Auroville, I told him the contrary, that Hyderabad was busy for me and that I had come to Auroville to slow things down. After saying bye to him, I went to the visitors centre where Eva , the receptionist there told me that it was peak season and that everything was full. So I trudged back the beach, 8 kms , stopping for a few idlis at Dinesh Tea and Snacks. After getting the beach, I looked around and finally found a lovely place to stay in. It was owned by a German couple. The lady was of Malaysian Tamil ethnicity, so she could speak Tamil. Her husband was German. Padmini Aunty showed me up to the cottage which was supported by 8 stone pillars and was made of bamboo sticks and dried coconut leaves. I loved the place immediately, it had place for 3-4 people and a table fan, a bulb and a mosquito net.
I must have slept for 3-4 hours after that 15 km walk. Aunty came and woke me up and we spoke for a long time. I loved the hammock in front of her house. Throughout the trip, I spent many hours in that hammock. As the heat receded, I went and explored the beach, from the pier down south to the fishing village in the north. Here I ran into a very heart warming site, a Tibetan single father and his daughter. He was teaching her to swim on the beach, and everytime she successfully completed a stroke she would come running back to her father and kiss him.
My alone time was going to come to an end. Harsha and Sneha said they would be joining me in the night. Sneha’s uncle was at the Aurobindo Ashram. So she would be going there, and Harsha would stay with me. They arrived three hours later at around 8 in the night, we came back to the cottage, put their luggage. Then we made our way to THE BEACH CAFÉ for dinner. (Remember the Indica V2 advertisement, that place only). This was a place where people of all nationalities ate and socialized together. Knowing Tamil made things easier for me, but the Europeans were pretty happy speaking in Francais and Deustche too, of course I managed with the limited knowledge of these languages that I had. We strolled around on the beach after that. The stars, the sea and us, along with a few dark silhouetted people in the distance. The night was breathtaking. It was off to sleep after an eventful day.


Jan 26 –
Republic Day. We woke up to a few local numbers being played out after the traditional National Anthem. Some events were being held in the local village on this occasion and the loudspeakers were on full volume, much to the amusement of the Europeans residing in the area. The three of us decided to head to the beach that morning. We loafed around, I even did a Daniel Craig imitation on the beach and kept getting battered around by the waves. Then we went back, showered and headed to Pondicherry. Here with Sneha’s uncle assistance we hired a bike and explored most of French town and the Indian quarter. We also saw the Samadhi of Shri Aurobindo and the Mother.

Since booze sells at half the price in Pondicherry, compared to other states, my friend wanted to make optimum use of this. So we went to the seaside Ajantha. I had a Virgin Mary. He had his fill. We returned to Auroville and headed towards the Matrimandir, the main meditation hall in Auroville. It is a golden sphere which signifies the divine power. Inside it is a meditation chamber entirely in white marble with a single ray of light passing through. There was also a placed called the Lotus bud which has the soil of 124 nations in it, placed during the foundation of Auroville. It was a pleasant evening and as we made our way to the cafeteria, we saw posters saying that the Auroville Theatre Group would be staging an adaptation of Hamlet. So we hastily made our way back to the Beach café, had some coffee and garlic bread, went to the cottage, had a cold shower and went to the Town Hall Plaza where it was being staged. As we were leaving, Aunty warned me to wear pants during the night because there would be too many mosquitoes and it would get cold. But I didn’t listen and went ahead.
The play was captivating. Probably one of the few occasions where one would find Indians, French, German and Tibetan actors on the same stage. I faced the wrath of the cold on our way back. We did all sorts of crazy things en route, there were hardly any vehicles on the road, so we went a few seconds switching off our headlights. Crazy and Scary simultaneously. After dinner, a few hours of silence followed and then we went off to sleep.

Jan 27 –
My last day in Pondicherry, I woke up and headed to see the sunrise alone. It was spectacular. I headed back to the cottage and had coffee with Padmini Aunty and her daughter as Harsha was still asleep. It was more roaming around French town. We checked out most of the places, went to the Puducheri museum, The Manakula Vinayakar Temple and a French restaurant called La Maree.

Contrary to what you all might think, every cuisine offers decent vegetarian fare and I feasted on the food at hand. It was very nicely done, tres francais to be precise. Then we sat on the rocks at the beach and shopped for some handmade products. After this, my friend Puppy dropped me at the bus stand and I made for Chennai.It was Sunday evening and getting a ticket was a pain, the junta in my bus were packed in like a can of sardines. But the trip was fun anyway, the highways in Tamilnadu have improved a lot over the years. On the way, I saw the Panchavati Hanuman temple, the idol here is really huge. After getting to Madras, I ate and slept.

Jan 28 –
Last day of my holiday. Didn’t have too many plans. Went to Landmark, Nungambakkam. Bought a few books for my cousins. Went to the coffee day nearby, sipped Ethiopian Coffee and caught a bus back home.

I packed and arrived at the station long before anyone else. They were all running late. A few of them were a little too late and one guy pulled the chain, I was the tamil translator and we were let off the hook with a fine. I stayed up late talking to friends in the train. It had certainly been a HOLIDAY TO REMEMBER.

PS: For a week no one spoke of b schools, college and there was no gossip. So it was all the more peaceful.

The Unsung Hero

A writer friend of mine once said that the best writing comes from an author who is on an empty stomach. I’m guessing that this entry into my diary should be my best then. I haven’t eaten in 3 days. Eating snow isn’t exactly like Ice cream.

My name is Karna. Whoever finds this diary should realize I might already be dead. If all this is unfolding too fast for you, let me bring you upto speed with the occurrences of the past few days, and since I haven’t entered my anything into my diary for a long time, it will make Mr.Diary happy too.

On January 2nd, 2010 after a wild new year party, a bunch of us i.e. Harsh, Sneha, Pavan, Isaac and me decided that we should do something memorable since we still had a few days left to get back to our mundane routines. A few suggested Goa, but the majority were in favour of going to the Himalayas. The mountains always fascinated us city slickers, so we jumped at the idea and preparations were underway by that evening.

We reserved tickets to Gorakhpur, and decided to make our way eastwards towards Nepal thereafter. We lodged at a place called HOTAL ROYAL PALASE. Despite the horrible spelling, it was a quite a comfy place to crash in and the owner Shiv Bahadur was an amazing conversationalist. He hooked us up with a local guide called Sarvesh Singh aka Captain, a strapping six footer who had worked with the Border Roads Organization, but had a premature retirement for reasons no one knew. Shiv told us that Captain never spoke much. So we never asked him too many questions, went along and did whatever he asked of us. I’d like to think that I am a good judge of people so from what I saw of him it was obvious that he was an adventurer but something from his past had extinguished the fire in him.

No one has the power to predict the future, but the superstitious few always know when something is going to go wrong. This is exactly what happened on January the 9th. Pavan woke up with a start, sweating like he’d been working out in his sleep. Pavan was the kind of guy who wouldn’t invest in stocks, if he saw a black cat that morning or if someone sneezed when he left home that day. He had had some nightmare and tried desperately to convince us to limit ourselves to bead shopping and temple visits that day. Though we were a close bunch of people, Sneha was closer to Pavan than the rest of us and reluctantly agreed to stay behind . So all suited up, Harsh, Isaac and I made our way to Mountain View Restaurant, where Captain usually picked us up in his rickety old Willy. He informed us that today’s trek would take long and was the most dangerous yet. We were pretty kicked about it, since we had done very exciting stuff in the last 2 days, so were waiting to push the envelope this time around. But time to time, I kept remembering Pavan and his nightmare. I marched forth nevertheless.

Four hours into the mountains and we had passed probably the most beautiful terrain that we had ever laid eyes on, the light mist floating above the mountains, the small stream gushing with a force like it had to get to work on time and the sheer majesty of the mountains themselves, standing tall like grand old men. Isaac started complaining that his wife Irene should have come along and that being stuck with two guys in such a beautiful environment was frustrating. I felt the same and I’m sure it was the same with Harsh, we looked at each other and tugged Isaac’s backpack to make sure we didn’t lose pace with Captain who was leading the way, unaffected by all breathtaking beauty around him. Was it because he was indifferent or was it because he had seen these places before? I will probably never know.

It was almost 4 in the afternoon, we were famished. Captain suggested we go a little further and make camp. But we insisted since we our legs would not carry us anymore, even though we knew that the base of a mountain wasn’t the best place to make camp. Harsh was a chef at one of the better hotels back home in Hyderabad. So he started working on our mini feast. Isaac & I went to gather some wood while Captain sat a few metres away on a rock eating the single paratha that was his standard meal on all our treks.

We ventured further into the woods, the trees on the border of the woods were soggy and unsuitable for making a fire. We were still searching, when we noticed something in the distance. A musk deer I think it was. There was an abundance of the beautiful beasts on the Indo Nepal border areas. But I remember Shiv had told us that poaching was a big problem in these areas. And surely enough, we noticed a few hundred metres away, behind a foliage, two burly men taking position like snipers with a rifle. I took out my SLR, and zoomed in to get a better view of things. The guns were armed with tranquilisers with yellow feathered tails. We didn’t want these guys to succeed. So we decided to scare the animal away from danger. So I started yelling and Isaac hurled a few rocks at the deer. It immediately noticed us and darted into the bushes. Mission accomplished we thought, but little did we know that these poachers would now turn their attention to us. Captain came running towards us and pushed us to the ground. As we hit the ground, we heard shots fired and bullets whizzed past us. The sound echoed. This was bad news. We were in avalanche country.

We were grounded in our positions, and the poachers reckless fire had triggered huge echoes. Soon enough, we could hear the rumbling snow. Something had to be done and fast. Captain had informed us that as soon as heard me yelling he had asked Harsh to ring up the Mountain Rescue team through his satellite phone. But it would be impossible a helicopter to land in these circumstances. Captain crawled closer to us, informed us of what he was going to do. We hesitated furiously. He slapped me back to my senses and asked me to make a run for it. What happened after this was like a movie is fast forward.

Captain sprang up, ran towards the gunfire as fast as he could, and hurled himselves at the shooters on the ground. “Run”, he yelled. Isaac and I dashed back towards camp, we could see Harsh at a distance signaling us to pick up speed as the snow was rushing towards the base of the mountain. I turned around to see what was going on. Before I could realize, one of them got shooters got a shot away and it hit my leg. It felt like something sprang up from the ground and bit me real hard. I collapsed in the pain. Isaac turned around, I yelled at him to keep running. He came back, put me his shoulder and trudged along. This would get us nowhere I thought, I wriggled out of his grip and warned him to save himself. Tears welled up in his eyes, he threw his back pack at me and made a run for it.

The snow came crashing down. I managed to make half a tent in the next few seconds and crawled into it. Meanwhile my eyes scourged the place, but there was no sign of the Captain or the poachers. The tent collapsed under the weight of the snow, but I had room enough to move around. I assumed that the snow wasn’t too deep since I could hear the groan of the helicopter. I grabbed a torch and checked the provisions I had, minimal food, this diary, a pen, 2 torches, 2 sleeping bags and a long rope.

As the day turned into night and loneliness engulfed me. My thoughts started wandering. I thought of my family back home, my cubicle at work, all the laughs that my I had shared with my friends, the memorable trip that this had been. I was glad that Harsh and Isaac were safe, or atleast I can assume so. I’m glad Pavan and Sneha never came along. The fat bugger could hardly run. Finally I thought about Captain. I had to remain sane, so I picked up my pen and I’m writing this. I wish someone would save me.

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I must have blacked out sometime while writing that. I woke up in a cozy room to see Harsh, Isaac, Pavan and Sneha around me along with some strange men. My arm was bandaged; I felt a stinging pain in the right leg where I was shot. It was January 14. The authorities had found me as I was on the edge of the avalanche. I still had a pulse and so they shifted me to the best hospital in the area. After a few long distance telephone calls, a few forced smiles. They left me to rest.

I still think about Captain Sarvesh Singh to this day. He was a Hero. Heroes aren’t born, heroes aren’t nurtured, heroes don’t beat up 15 goons with their bare hands, and heroes certainly don’t dance around trees. A hero is an ordinary man who conjures up the courage to place himself before others in extraordinary circumstances. Had it not been for the Captain, three of us would have never lived to see the sunrise again. I read those pages in my diary once in a while to remind myself of the rebirth that I had been granted at the cost of another’s man sacrifice.