I am a big admirer of the brain.One of the most fascinating organs!! I keep admiring at its capabilities and yet again it surprised me yesterday by retaining most of my ski learning's from last winter. It overcame fear and recollected all the balance movements and within 1 hour of starting off I was doing the black diamonds. Impressive!I am satisfied with my performance,though got to hone it more!

Two of my favourite people!

I absolutely adore this snap!! :) :) Gives me a big smile whenever i see this!! Flicked it from Minty at dallas! :)

Dance Like No One Is Watching

Another inspiring video! Talk about human spirit!!

'Sara Tucholsky's first home run'

I had this wonderful video forwarded by a cousin of mine. Does inspire you to live right.

The video is titled 'Sara Tucholsky's first home run'

In a small town in the middle of Washington State, in a field inside a chain linked fence, in a game fewer than a 100 people saw, a home run was hit -- not memorable for the distance it traveled or the game it decided, but for the meaning it carried. Western Oregon senior Sara Tucholsky had never hit a home run in her career. Central Washington senior Mallory Holtman was already her school's career leader in them. But when a twist of fate and a torn knee ligament brought them face to face with each other and face to face with the end of their playing days, they combined on a home run trot that celebrated the collective human spirit far more than individual athletic achievement. ESPN reports on an unforgettable expression of sportmanship.

Fast and furious!

Minneapolis is known for its incredibly notorious weather in winter.Driving is treacherous. Daily we see atleast couple of accidents. When it snows its difficult to drive,but when the sun comes out a bit and melts a bit of snow and the temperature again goes down - a thin layer of ice is formed on the road and this becomes devastating. When vehicles go on it there is absolutely no grip. There is a very thin margin of error to recover from any driving mistakes.

Today as usual Mahesh picked us to office.Just 100 meters from the house there is a sweeping curve which joins the main road. I was in the front with him and remarked 'Today,the road is really bad'. Mahesh replied 'Yeah,if i speed up in the curve ahead a wee bit we will skid'. Even before he finished the sentence we hit the curve and imagine what - the car lost grip and did a swooping turn and did almost 270 degrees and almost hit the kerb on the opposite side of the road. Fortunately there was no vehicle coming from the opposite end. I was shouting 'woah,woah,woah!' all the time till the car came to a halt! Lol! Though it was scary at that moment,it seemed fun later on when we were all safe and found the car was not damaged in any way! So finally I got to experience this too! Lol!

Sabudana vada

I was in a bit of a creative mood for cooking today and wanted to try something different and decided to have a go at Sabudana vada. I must say ,I really exceeded expectations of both myself and my flat-mates. My flatie(i dont know whether this word really exists,but i am making this up) Abhishek infact rated it on par on what his mother does(that's pretty high for a guy to be saying that,because mother's cooking is the benchmark for most of them :) ). I will be a bit modest here and will attribute it to beginners luck for i am sure i won't be able to beat this the next time. ;)

Slip and Slide!

Well, After nearly 9 months since last winter I went Ice skating in the indoor rink at downtown. As usual we are the bunch of buffoons,this time trudging along in -30 C. Last winter I had learnt ice skating significantly well and i was not sure whether i still remembered all my skills. I started off gingerly on the ice and within 100 yards of going a guy cut me on my path and i couldn't stop and 'Thud' i fell,hard on my butt. I mused 'Wow,that hurts,its been quite sometime since i fell like this - okay,few more to go today- at this rate i will have a nice shapely hard butt!lol!', I got up and again started. After 5 mins i started gaining my balance and confidence and surprisingly in 15 mins i was back to my old winter state. I was in a bit of awe on the retention capabilities of the brain. All the leg,hand,body and balance learnings came through automatically. I had some thorough fun for a couple of hours!There are some amazing skaters out here who inspire me to reach atleast a fraction of their levels.Looking forward for more this winter!


Me skating!


Fire breathing dragons! It was damn bloody cold!


From left to right - Abhishek, Ankit, myself and nitin (A lady at the bus stop kindly offered to take this snap)



Playing around in the snow!! Its addictive for me, I always feel tempted to touch and throw around snow -though the after effects are painful. lol!

You know what, we just broke the record. We walked in -30 C (-21 F)today and let me tell you,it totally sucks!! :) :) My lips hurt like hell and the cold hit through 3 layers of clothing.

Hell Freezes over!

Though its an Eagles album,that's how i felt this week walking in -25 C or -15 F. Abhishek and myself had this certification exam to take on Monday. Since it was getting late we took a cab and went to the examination center,after our exams got over we thought it wasn't too cold(I am the culprit here saying to abhishek 'can't you take a little cold - mard bano! :) ') and decided to walk home and save some cab money.Little did we realize what we were getting into. The center is about 20 mins from home.

I told abhishek - 'I think the temperature is something around 10 F and shouldn't be too bad'. Boy!!Was i totally wrong. Half way through abhishek tells 'Mayur, I somehow think its lower than 10F - my butt is freezing'. I muse a bit and say 'Yeah, I am also feeling awfully cold and my lips are frozen and i can't talk, It maybe near to zero'. I stupidly don't even have my gloves on and keep my numb fingers within the pockets of my jacket trying to rub my fingers against each other to generate warmth. We trudge along on the snow filled footpath and abhishek says he can feel his toes going numb within his boots and his face is paining because of the numbness. I also experience the same. We keep walking and finally reach home. I rush inside the apartment and I see our neighbour near the door and i can't even speak to her for my lips are numb. After around 15 mins within the regulated 75 F within the house i can feel blood flowing through everywhere.I curiously go and do a google and I flip! It was -15 F temperature outside and we buffoons thought we were eskimos or something and froze our balls and walked in it. Abhishek looks at me and says '10 F huh?'. I smile and say 'Good fun,huh?'.He thinks a bit and then breaks out into a smile and says 'Yeah!'.
Hey! Come on! Not everybody gets a chance to walk in -25 C,do they? Give us some credit.We morons accomplished that and that too for 20 mins:)

King tut and kennedy!

It has been one of my most burning desires in life to visit Egypt. Two reasons - I am extremely fascinated by the Egyptian civilization and the other main reason being to see the treasures of king Tutankhamen.

When i was a kid i had this encyclopedia presented by my Dad which contained information about the egyptian civilzation,one section of it was the discovery of King Tutankhamen's tomb and the treasures found there and the mysterious deaths associated with people entering the tomb. This fascination was further augmented on my impressionable mind from the twin tintin comics of 'Seven crystal balls' and 'Cigars of the pharoah' which is very loosely based on the Tutankhamen happenings. What started as a fascination for curses and treasures soon moulded into an interest on one of the most fascinating civilizations of ancient history. I even had a go at learning the hieroglyphics and partially succeeded(though i have forgotten most of it now). The academic intensity of finding Tutankhamen's tomb drew upon me much later on as i grew older. I do not claim to be a egyptologist but my knowledge is pretty good on the more famous Egyptian Pharaohs and regions. Through my very small exposure to this civilization through books,Internet and National geographic society has grown this intense desire to view the remnants of this civilization in actual person. Of course,the childhood curiosity to see the treasures found in King tut's tomb still remains.

As providence would have had it, I sated a small part of my desire when I visited Dallas for Vinatha's graduation. The minute I got down from the plane and entered the lounge i saw this huge un-mistakable cut out - The death mask of Tutankhamen! Below it read - The treasures of the boy king at display at the Dallas Museum of Arts. Did my heart leap! My excitement grew! I desperately wanted to visit it but i was not sure if any of the others would be interested. Vinatha,being the sweetheart she is was more than obliging to go there as 'I' wanted to go there.She somehow even convinced her friends to go along who trudged along! Though the exhibit did not contain the actual sarcophagi and the famous death mask and the mummy itself,it did contain many of the important treasures like the dagger that was found laid on the mummy,the headwear which the mummy was wearing, the famous bracelets and necklaces and many more. This was my first exposure to any kind of egyptian artifact and the first encounter was a sort of bumper!! Lol! All i can say is I went around the entire gallery with a childlike enthusiasm jumping and savoring each of them and teleporting myself 3000 years back and imagining things.The treasures were exactly what they are - treasures! It was a fantastic feeling to be looking at such beautiful objects created by humans nearly 3000 years back.In fact I had this weird notion of stealing a couple of them and was imagining schemes to steal them.Lol!!

I guess my dallas trip was a huge blast for three reasons - Majorly because of seeing King tut's exhibition, secondly for having seen Vinatha and Kaushik after such a long time and thirdly - getting to see Kennedy's assassination site - yup,his assassination is another object of interest of mine! It was so fascinating to reconstruct the scene of his death. I have seen the Abraham Zapruder video of kenedy's assassination like umpteen number of times. To actually see that place live and reconstruct what happened nearly 45 years ago on that road sent a tingle down my spine.He is one of the most iconic president's of USA.
I felt a bit sad standing at the point where kennedy got hit by the second bullet which ripped open his brain. His famous words ringed 'Ask not what your country can do for you,ask what you can do for your country'.



The X marks the point where kennedy was shot.



I couldn't get vinatha clearly in view for a good snap,so i had to call her up and ask her to move a bit to her right so that i could take a shot! :)




I guess this is one of the most cliched shots but one of the most memorable and incredible moments to be doing it! Yay!!Way to go Minty!



In front of the dallas museum of Art!



With Kaushik!



Presents from thoughtful friends!

Busy December ..

December has been an extremely busy month. I cannot believe that half of it is already gone! It started off with the Philly/DC trip,then the string of certification exams,then the trip to Dallas for Vinatha's graduation,problems at work!(which is always there:) ).Keeping busy is good but many a times makes you suddenly stop and think , what am i doing with my life? Life is slipping away ,Am i doing the right things, Am i prioritizing,Am i giving time to the right things. I somehow feel the entire life will slip away like this and one day you will just sit back and think 'What happened?' and will probably have no answers. You simply got sucked into 'Living'.

Joy!!

I absolutely adore this new coke ad! Very refreshing and funny and very apt for the season! Happy holidays and spread the joy!!

Security breach!

Since the day i have got my camera,i have faced a few hassles. With who? The TSA people(Transportation Security Administration oF America). Every trip when i pass my camera bag through the scanner at the airports,i get frisked to the side at least once and an inspection is done on my bag. With all the lenses,cables,cleaning kit,filters and the camera itself i believe they are right in doing so just to make sure I am not carrying something dangerous! :) But this blog write up is about what happened at the Philadelphia airport.

As usual I pass my camera bag through the scanner. The lady scanning the bag suddenly squints her eyes,moves the conveyor belt to and fro couple of times and gesticulates to a guy to have the bag checked. I sigh! Here we go again.

Very politely the security officer says 'Sir, can you please step aside, We have to check your bag'. I say 'Okay' and open the camera bag. He looks at all the equipment and i can sense the look of awe. He asks ' Are you a photographer'. I say ' No, I am not, I am an amateur and photography is one of my hobbies'. He -'You got some equipment for an amateur'. I just smile. He says - 'So what kind of photographs do you take'. I say ' Anything i like -but i mostly like nature and night photography'.

He says ' I also like photography'. He talks about what modes i take my snaps with,he looks at my Nikon D300 more closely. I show him a couple of snaps i took,He asks me where all i went,He asks me what kind of lenses i have. Then he smartly says -'Thank you sir,you are good to go'. I give him a big relieved smile and take off.

Its kind of nice to meet a security officer who is interested in photography.I wanted to ask him about his photography but refrained from doing so and just stuck to answering his questions.That's one TSA officer who was more than happy to go through the contents of my bag i guess!!

3 miles..

Its always fun to discover yourself in someway, to accomplish something and feel good about yourself and to explore your limits and see if you can push further. I did a 3 mile run today in one stretch at around 7 miles per hour and I felt elated when i achieved that. I know its no big deal for many people but for me its a personal milestone for my body.Though i have hiked 40 miles max,i have never run. Its the first time ever my body has pushed to run and cross the 3 mile mark(it took me all of 27 years to do it,Lol!!) At the end though my legs were ready to collapse i could feel the satisfaction of doing something. I hope i can keep the momentum going and see how far i can stretch.

Somehow while running i kept thinking of Hermes,the olympian god - The messenger of gods in greek mythology,he has winged feet and i thought i was flying and kept running and running. Lol!

See what no one else sees. See what everyone chooses not to see... out of fear, conformity or laziness. See the whole world anew each day!

Winter is here...

Winter has started. I love the way nature turns herself around.Its like a 'catharsis'- It feels as if she had enough fun and needs sometime alone for herself and self contemplation and just shuts down or sits for a penance or deep meditation(though i know the scientific reasoning too,sometimes the literary reasoning appeals more). Under her direction all her children follow through.The trees have shed their leaves,the animals have all hibernated,the fishes have gone to the innermost depths of the water,the birds have flown. It's cold and dreary and no longer colourful as it was about a month back. The first little white flakes are falling down.

But just as brightness is beautiful,the darkness is also equally beautiful. Its -1 Degrees Centigrade. I put on my coat and stepped out of my apartment and the cold wind hit my face.It was a wonderful feeling.It felt as wonderful as the sun light hits you on a sunny day or the rain on a rainy day. My eyeballs hurt because it immediately went dry because of the cold dry wind,my hands started going numb and i could no longer feel my ears and the tip of my nose stung.But this is another shade of mother nature and i revel in those sensations and feelings which can only be experienced here and in this season. Winter is one of my favourite seasons and i am really looking forward for it.

I find solace in Knowledge, I find solace in Nature,I find solace in music.The greatest gift we have is of 'Life' itself.

Above the clouds.

I have always believed that looking into the lives of other people gives one perspective. People are inherently different and have varied views about different things in life and about life itself. The hardships faced ,experiences are different paving way for different character moulding and thinking.

Humans are inherently impressionable creatures,the brain observes,learns,follows and formulates idea and thoughts and solidifies its thought processes and logic. I have always believed you can learn something from everybody. But there are some people whose lives influence and inspire you a lot. Now ,why they influence and inspire a lot more than the others is a difficult question to answer and maybe very relative.
But,these people bring about phenomenal changes in the way you think and act and re-shuffle your thought processes and perspectives of life a great deal. We become followers for some reason.

Anatoli Boukreevs life is one such example. A high altitude mountaineer who was vilified for his judgements in the 96 everest disaster and who perished the very next year trying to do a winter ascent of the Annapurna.He had climbed 11 of the 14 8000 meter peaks and was one of the most accomplished mountaineers in recent times.'Above the clouds' is a book about his life. When you look closely at his life,his profession,his character and thought process in the book,you just keep wondering whether people like this also exist? You envy sometimes wishing you could live such a life or reach those levels and had such capacities, but you know in the back of your mind that you cannot ! We are just mere mortals!

I keep wondering about the profession of high-altitude mountaineers and suddenly have a deep respect for the likes of reinhold messner,ed viesturs,Jerzy Kukuczka,george mallory,etc. .. and many more.These people have a very different attitude towards life,that is all i can say.Very different from the common masses!

In the foreword Galen Rowel writes 'unlike genius, which is a personal quality that often comes to naught,greatness implies a recognition of unusual human endeavor by the minds of others. It always comes after the fact,and all too often posthumously.Besides involving a continuum of accomplishments,greatness seems to require humility and a willingness to wait for the world to make its judgements. I dwell at length on greatness because I believe Anatoli was robbed of it during his lifetime'. After reading this book and 'The climb' about Anatoli Boukreev i also somehow have reached the same conclusion.

I am touched!

Well, Photography is one of my passions and i do take a lot of photographs. For the first time ever i entered my photographs in a photo competition which was an internal Infosys one and i happened to win the third prize. For me,the main motive for entering the competition was to see how people would react to my snaps. I was really touched when Ankit came over to me and said he wanted to buy one of my snaps. He asked me 'How much?' . I had no clue how much. I said ' I have invested 3$ for printing each snap,so anything above that is fine with me' :) So he offered me 10$ and i gladly accepted and sold my first photograph! Its actually a great feeling that somebody wants to buy my snap. I felt really touched. Today Santosh came over to me and said he also wanted to buy and frame one of my snaps in his house. Well..what can i say. Thank you!! These tiny gestures does mean a lot to me.

Nothng else matters ...

Well, I have another dream come true and like someone in the crowd described ,it was an absolute 'Kickass' show. What made it all the more special was we were just 5 feet from the stage,right up in the front, I never ever imagined that i would be in a 'metallica' show and right up in the front. They ripped most of their famous songs for nearly 2.5 hours, I went totally berserk when they played 'For whom the bell tolls' - that is one of my most favourite songs and have heard it like hundreds of times since my college days,to think i would see them perform it live in front of me just 5 feet away from me was a mind blowing feeling. I was screaming like crazy 'Take a look to the sky before you die..its the last time you will ...' ..
Oh man!! I used to enact this song so much in my bedroom at high volume and stringing a dummy guitar and imagining a huge crowd in front of me and used to think how must james hetfield be feeling when he sings this song and now i KNOW!!!!

It was very much like i had imagined it in all my years! It was too much of an adrenaline rush to me and i felt exhausted completely at the end of the show,screaming and jumping and headbanging. All the pyrotechniques,the lazer lights,the stage lighting was mindblowing. You could feel their sweat up close. For some reason i am a big fan of james hetfield(lead singer),and he has amazing energy to keep it going for 2.5 hours straight,i even got to pat him on his back(lol!! talk about fan adulation..i get to touch him and it feels great,ha ha ha).

Anyways,it was an absolute dream come true for me and never expected it to be so good. I am just lucky to be living out this teen fantasy of mine up so close i guess.

I drove all the way to neighbouring state Des moines ,Iowa for this and came back to minneapolis driving back overnight after the show! Lol!

"I am interested above all in the character who is capable of sacrificing himself and his way of life... It is often absurd and impractical. And yet-or indeed for that very reason-the man who acts in this way brings about fundamental changes in people's lives and in the course of history"

- Andrei tarkovsky, russian film director.

New hairdo!

I have a new hair style -what kind? The no-hair kind. :) Yup, I just went to the barber and asked to shave off my head. I had about 6 inches of hair on my head and he almost fainted when i made the request. Funnily he himself was a bald guy! He pointed to his head and said ' You will become like me' . ' Once hair is cut, its gone!' - I retorted 'No big deal! It will grow back in 3 months,go ahead! '. It took him all of 3 mins to do his job,he went over my head like a lawnmover cutting grass on an overgrown lawn.After it was done- I said 'Perfect'. For that i paid 14$+3$ tip.Lol!! He was incredulously looking at the 3$ tip. I said 'Have a nice day' and left the shop. He just couldn't stop staring at me or my head!! Must have been thinking 'Crackpot!' Lol.

People flipped when they saw me! Many of them passed by me without even recognising me! Many stared at me as if i was a stranger when i said 'Hi' to them.

One of my more India-knowledgeable clients had a serious look on his face when he saw my bald head and asked seriously 'Somebody died?'. Lol!! I flipped when he asked me that!!

I became the talk of the town for a couple of days. People ran over to my desk to have a look at my shaven head. So after the 'Shock and Awe' effect subsided i have followers now. Today,one of the guys from TCS who sits across my aisle got a similar haircut,when i ran into him and looked at his head in surprise he grinned and said 'Inspired by you! ' Lol!!

So, it was good fun the first couple of days,now both people and myself alike have got used to it! :)

Here is how i look now, I unfortunately did not take a snap immediately after the cut, I have considerable hair growth now.

Viva La Vida

This is my latest favourite album. I heard coldplay for the first time way back in 2005,I still remember the way i got introduced to them.I had just about joined Infosys then and i had come to work on a saturday and my current project manager Mahesh who was my technical lead then had also come.He offered to drop me home and though i was a bit skeptical to take the ride back i agreed. He had this album CD - Now #(some number) ,a compilation of English songs. The song 'In my Place' started playing when we reached Bommanahalli and the minute i heard it I fell in love with the song. I asked Mahesh what was the song name and which was the band,he muttered he was not sure but he was kind enough to dig the CD cover and pass it on to me and I figured it was a band called coldplay and the song was 'In my place'. I reached home and immediately downloaded this song.Boy! I used to listen to this one song so many times,then eventually my interest in the band grew and started exploring their other songs and i got hooked to their 'Parachutes' album. Santu just didn't like them!! But yeah,thats how i got hooked to this band. 'In my place' is still one of my all time fav songs and stands prominently in my favs playlist on my ipod.

I think their Viva La Vida album is smashing! Strawberry Swing,42 and Viva La Vida are my fav tracks in the album.Among all the different kinds of music i listen i think they have a very creative,distinct and catchy style.Catch them if you can!
Of course - Music appreciation is relative. (wink)

When i was at the top in harsh conditions, I was bemused! These were completely different environments than the safe havens which we were used to living in.This was a completely different world. A very beautiful,cold,harsh part of the world. A part of earth or nature where humans were not welcome. I felt it as a merciless environment.Life seemed so different here.It fascinated me that this too was part of the world we live in,and how oblivious we are cooped up in our own materialistic worlds. Life and survival took a completely different dimension in these environments. I felt small,really small here. All my strength,achievements,money,ambitions,so called ego,prestige etc ..counted to nothing here. I could feel my vulnerability here,the fragility of human life and body here. With the huge mountains silently looming large above you,in front of you and all around you I could only be awed and stare.

Somehow all this fascinates me,it gives me a very different perspective to life,it just casts away that secure shell which we are so used to living in.It kind of humbled me.Maybe thats why i like going back and climbing.

Into thin air!

Book recommendation. Its been quite a while since i picked up a book which i couldn't put down.I, not only couldn't put the book down but i also read it twice over ,page to page. Maybe I am biased because its a story about climbing Mt.Everest.It chillingly describes the tragedy that happened in 1996 where in 12 people died trying to scale it. Reading some pages and scenes just caused the hair at the back of my neck to raise,i could feel the goose bumps.I happened to finish half the book while flying to Seattle for my mountain climbing trip and finished the rest half on the flight back. The second half is the most tragic and chilling part and after my personal experiences in climbing the mountain just few hours back ,i could just relate to each of the scenarios as to how it must have been when reading the second part on my way back.

This was the book which introduced me to Scott Fisher,the founder of mountain madness through whom i had my trip organized.Incidentally its Scott Fisher's expedition which goes all wrong and scott fisher himself is one of the fatalities in the 12 that perish.The author is one of the sum miters in a rival expedition who witnesses all this and this book is a live account of what he saw and felt. At the end of the book,you can feel a sense of loss,the cruelty of nature,the helplessness of humans,you question life,death,you question the rationale of humans,you admire-at the same time you detest. This book took me through a lot of emotions - probably because I read it immediately after my trip and could almost relate to what those people must have went through .

Still, I recommend this book by Jon Krakauer- please read it if you ever get a chance.Appu bought the book.

Some thoughts to muse over ..

“When I was a fairly precocious young man I became thoroughly impressed with the futility of the hopes and strivings that chase most men restlessly through life. Moreover, I soon discovered the cruelty of that chase, which in those years was much more carefully covered up by hypocrisy and glittering words than is the case today. By the mere existence of his stomach everyone was condemned to participate in that chase. The stomach might well be satisfied by such participation, but not man insofar as he is a thinking and feeling being.

“As the first way out there was religion, which is implanted into every child by way of the traditional education-machine. Thus I came — though the child of entirely irreligious (Jewish) parents — to a deep religiousness, which, however, reached an abrupt end at the age of twelve. Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached the conviction that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true. The consequence was a positively fanatic orgy of freethinking coupled with the impression that youth is intentionally being deceived by the state through lies; it was a crushing impression. Mistrust of every kind of authority grew out of this experience, a skeptical attitude toward the convictions that were alive in any specific social environment-an attitude that has never again left me, even though, later on, it has been tempered by a better insight into the causal connections. It is quite clear to me that the religious paradise of youth, which was thus lost, was a first attempt to free myself from the chains of the ‘merely personal,’ from an existence dominated by wishes, hopes, and primitive feelings. Out yonder there was this huge world, which exists independently of us human beings and which stands before us like a great, eternal riddle, at least partially accessible to our inspection and thinking. The contemplation of this world beckoned as a liberation, and I soon noticed that many a man whom I had learned to esteem and to admire had found inner freedom and security in its pursuit. The mental grasp of this extra-personal world within the frame of our capabilities presented itself to my mind, half consciously, half unconsciously, as a supreme goal. Similarly motivated men of the present and of the past, as well as the insights they had achieved, were the friends who could not be lost. The road to this paradise was not as comfortable and alluring as the road to the religious paradise; but it has shown itself reliable, and I have never regretted having chosen it.”


Current fav song: Circus - lenny kravitz
Book reading - Stranger - Albert Camus - Absurdist fiction.

Some snaps from the trip ..

Mt.Sahale!

Well, I am back from my climb and I do not where to begin! :) I am back in one piece barring a twisted ankle which fortunately i got just 200 feet from the car on the descend.Embarrassing and a wee bit ironic.huh? I shared my snaps with everyone and people are telling me 'wow! It must have been a fun trip!' .

Well ..to actually tell the truth it was no fun trip. I expected to suffer but not so much.I guess i over estimated my physical stamina, i thought i had trained well and 8700 feet shouldn't be too much of a sweat,but i was given a lesson in humility by the greatest teacher of all -who else 'Mom nature'.Probably it would have been no big deal if done in summer in less arduous conditions,I say 'probably',but that hypothesis is ir-relevant now, I am here to tell what happened and not what would have happened. :)

The first day itself took out almost everything in me!

Landed in Seattle on friday evening at 7.30 PM, had this book 'Into thin air' by Joe Krakauer - its about the 1996 everest disaster which claimed 12 lives. Incidentally it was a group led by Scott Fischer who himself died on this expedition and fischer was the founder of mountain madness ,the organisation with whom i was making this climb.Not a good start or omen huh? :)

Anyways I waited in the airport till 12 AM for Appu to land,once he landed in we rented a car at the airport and by the time we made it to Praveen's house using Google map printouts it was nearly 2 AM. After gobbling in some cold bisibele bath made by Shilpa which was tasting amazingly delicious at 2 AM,we hit bed. We had less time to sleep,we had to be at our rendezvous point with the guide at 7 AM.We got up around 5:30 AM(hardly around 3 hours of sleep) and left the house at around 6:15. Praveen was an amazing host,staying awake till 2:30 am waiting for us and then serving us dinner and again waking up at 5:30 to see us go!

The dynamic Duo again succeed in getting lost and somehow managed to reach our rendezvous point at around 7.20.Appu finally figures out how to use the GPS in his I-phone,yippee!!Talk about necessity is the mother of discovery!! Our guide name was Alan Rosseau,we were surprised to find a very young looking guy,he was hardly 22 or 23,we expected somebody older and experienced.But later on we got to know he was quite experienced,he has been rock climbing since the age of 12 and has been skiing since age of 4 and was going to climb the El capitan at Yosemite the next weekend. That really impressed me and brought down my anxiety a bit,but later it increased a bit when he mentioned he himself was climbing this mountain for the first time.Lol!! What a start!!

Its around 3 hours drive to the mountains from Seattle.After a quick gear check and renting and buying things we didn't have we started off. I conveniently got into the back and dozed off(my regular routine, I dont believe in wasting energy :)) Appu was grumbling and envious of this small coup de tete of mine,poor soul was rendered to the drudgery of driving .After taking necessary permits to climb at the ranger station,we drove into the mountains.

The drive was scenic and beautiful,i think so,I don't know.I was sleeping and Alan was holding onto his pants from dropping! If i remember correctly the words,he said 'His driving freaked me out' . :) tsk,tsk ... I didn't expect this from a guy who is going to climb El capitan! Now,I had serious doubts about his reputation!! :)

We arrived at the trail point and we had a stunning view all around! After a so called lame lunch of salad,apples and bananas we packed in our tents,sleeping bags,water,food,extra clothes,ice axes,crampons,harness .. onto our back packs. After the finals seals were in place ,Appu tried lifting his back pack,he grunted and lifted it a few inches and put it back down and said as a matter of fact 'Oh! Its heavy!'. Alan was looking at him incredulously when Appu made the remark. lol!

Anyways,we started off to a song and rhyme and started our hike at around 3500 ft at approx around 11:45 AM I guess.We made steady progress to 5400 ft to cascade pass.We felt strong and good so far!We had gorgeous views of the mountains from here and after a brief respite and clicking some snaps we resumed out hiking. We had to hike to 7600 ft that was where our camping site was!

This 2200 ft took away all our strenght.As we climbed up to 6000 ft it started raining,the rain did not cease and the rain turned to sleet which is rain turned to ice as we climbed higher,it hurts when sleet touches your skin,its like needles,as we climbed higher this turned to snow,the visibility became very less and the temperatures dropped,the climb was steep,slippery and we didnt know how we were climbing. But our good guide had an altimeter and asked us keep each other in sight and we made our own way up on the rocks.The last 700-800 feet was pure pain! We cannot put a step further,we are drained,its cold,its snowing,there is a steady wind blowing hard and not doing us any good. We don't even know whether we reached the campsite,the visibility has completely detioriated and Alan takes a decision we stop and put up our tents at a flat place.Putting the tent was a very tedious task,unfortunately with our big gloves on one cannot handles the poles,so you got to remove it and expose it to the cold and work with your hands.My hands became numb by the time we were done. We made a mistake of putting one of the sleeping bag in the open when setting up the tents and it got wet when we got it inside the tent,because the snow on the bag melts in the warmer interiors and soaks the bag.But we were too very tired..We didn't care,My head was hardly thinking in all the numbness and pain.

We somehow got our boots off and just wanted to get out of the blizzard into something warm! Well warm is very relative here, Its not cozy like your house ,its slightly better than the outside in the sense you just dont have the wind inside.

With a drenched sleeping bag and all the other stuff cramped in the tent and fatigue and pain and numbness taking over, I just propped flat. I didn't care about anything in this damn bloody world. But after an hour the blizzard subsided and Alan who was in another tent got out and made some hot chocolate for us.Heaven knows where he had the energy to do it! He infact melted snow,boiled it,treated it and made hot chocolate for us in the open in freezing temperatures. Never ever had anything tasted so good,you could feel the hot liquid rolling down your food pipe and warming things everywhere as it slid down! lol! To top it ,Alan even made some hot gravy and burritos for us to eat. I just couldn't believe that guy! After gobbling things i just hit the sack, i just wanted to sleep,nothing else!

I am not sure how Appu fared in the night, But when i next opened my eyes i could see it was dawn. The weather wasnt so great,the visibility was better,but the cold wind was still blowing. I got out of the tent and took in the surroundings!We didnt even know where we climbed up and where we camped the previous night in the snow blizzard. We got to know the actual camping sites were about a few 100 yards away. I traced back the way we came up which led to a ledge and went over it and looked and I was stunned! The view in front of me was breath taking! I let out a gasp! We didnt even realise we climbed through all this magnificient scenery the previous day. The wind was blowing quite forcefully and it almost took me off the ledge! I wedged my legs between rocks and stood facing the cold wind and taking in the view. It was one of the most beautiful things i had ever seen. After the eye had captured the beauty,of course my camera had to capture it!! I ran back to the tent,asked appu who was still inside to pass the camera and asked him to get out! I had to pull out the gloves to take the snaps, I started clicking,but i realised the snaps weren't coming great,the camera was screaming for exposure,it didn't know how much to expose,the snow was over exposing and the black mountains were under-exposing,so i turned onto manual and started fiddling around with the buttons,My fingers were numb and it finally reached a point where in I didn't even know whether i was clicking the shutter button,I couldnt feel anything, I hurriedly placed my camera on a rock and pulled on my gloves and started rubbing my hands. After a few minutes i could feel the blood flowing through!

Then suddenly the skies opened up and the sun came through and I looked the opposite way and was appalled at what we still had to climb. The glacier was looming huge and you could see the peak,it seemed that the peak was relatively a very short distance away, but it wasn't!The huge magnitude of everything around was playing that trick.

At this point, I want to talk about the toilet! :) I had to of-course clear my bowels! I very decently went to Alan and asked where do i do it? I asked him 'can i go between the rocks'? :) He looked at me and laughed and said no i cannot and said there must be a compost toilet somewhere around,after searching for a while we found it.I looked at it with apprehension! It was a huge metal box with a hole covered by a lid and it was completely covered by snow.I was wondering how do i pull down my pants in such freezing temperatures. :) But I didn't have much choice ,i cleared off the snow on the lid and opened the lid and yeah of course did it! I had the most spectacular view ever while doing it. I could actually feel everything going cold and numb.:) Now, i can claim to have felt cold everywhere literally! lol!

It was soon time to start the climb to the peak. This is what i had come for,a glacial climb. We put our crampons on - a crampon is like a spiked sole which you place beneath your boots,you need to kick in the spikes into the ice to get a hold and grip,the snow on top of the glacial ice is loose and you slip if you do not get your spikes into the ice and place it on the snow especially in steeper altitudes.
We had our harnesses on,our caribiners linked and ropes connecting each of us.Alan was in the front,Appu in the middle and I was last. After a brief tutorial on how to use crampons and ice axes we started off.Intially it was quite easy,the gradient was less and the sun was shining and we made steady progress!

Things started getting difficult after halfway,the ascent became steeper and the weather again started going for a toss.Glacial climbing is difficult. You need lot of strength in your legs and arms. You need to kick in your shoes into the ice and get a grip.then you use your ice axe in your hands to again do the same ,on more steeper sections you use two ice axes,one for each hand,but this was around 50 degree gradient and one ice axe was enough.

We had a couple of scary moments with sliding and Alan did self arrests to stop us. The way it happened is,Appu didnt dig his crampon spikes properly into the ice,they were on snow and he put his weight on that foot and the snow gave away and he slid, Since i was below him he hit me and I lost balance and I also slid and both of us together with our combined weights pulled Alan.Then what Alan did was he immediately turned on his back and kicked the spikes at the base of his shoes into the ice and jabbed the ice axe deep into ice across his shoulder and stopped us all taking the entire weight of both of us on the rope on his hip.This is called self- arrest. I think you need to be terrifically aware and conscious of things happening to be able to do things like that!Probably even experience! I lost my mind and awareness in the slide and didn't know what to do,it happened too quickly! Then with all three of us stationary with Alan performing self arrest,i kicked in my crampons in the ice and ice axe and got a hold of myself.

At this point Appu decided he will not go any further and said he had lost all his energy and did not think he could safely make it to the top without jeopardizing the safety of all three of us.So we took a decision to leave him at a safer location and me and alan make it to the top. We got down to a safer point and left appu there.By this time it had started snowing quite heavily and Alan was afraid that Appu might get hypothermia,because if you are sitting still without doing anything the body cools down really fast and all the sweat will just cool you faster,so alan removed his jacket and gave it to Appu as an extra layer of protection.He asked Appu to do sit ups in case he felt cold to warm himself up. We left food and water with Appu and continued. It was hardly another 300 feet to the top when appu took the decision.Alan and myself make myself up in the blowing snow along the steeper ascent.After a climbing a few hundred feet I looked down to see Appu and i couldn't see him anymore,the snow and wind had brought down the visibility to mere couple of meters. The last 100 feet of the peak is a rock scramble,its a low 5th grade rock climb,but considering the conditions,the rock was wet and slippery,snow and wind blowing,Alan decided to rope me up setting up belays. This was his forte - his speciality! We did the rock climbing in two pitches. He climbed up first tying the rope around himself and stopped mid way and tied the rope to a rock using his links and shouted me to climb up. I could not see him because the visibility was hardly a few feet and i started climbing up,it was slippery but i somehow managed till the half way point,he asked me to steady myself against a rock so that i do not lose balance with the wind blowing,then he disappeared .After sometime he tugged the rope and shouted to me to come up. This was a steeper vertical section and i was struggling for footholds and handholds, i was halfway and suddenly the clouds cleared and what i saw just froze my blood,I saw that on one side was a sheer 1000 foot drop and the other side was a 200-300 foot drop.One small mistake and you are a goner! I was suddenly so happy that i had a rope secured to my waist! I really do not know how Alan climbed it! I was really glad he was there,he suddenly felt like my closest friend and saviour! I made it to the top,its hardly around 3 feet by 4 feet,the peak, I saw alan grinning and he gave me a whoop saying 'We made it' . I gingerly half stood on the peak afraid of being blown away though i still had the ropes secured to my waist. I could see nothing,the clouds had covered everything and i couldnt see beyond 4-5 feet. I saw there was a brass seal placed on the peak 'Mt.sahale - geological survey of washington - 1939' The height of the mountain was scratched off.

We hardly stayed for 2 mins and decided to turn back. He was particularly worried about Appu down. Its been about an hour since we left him and been more than 55 mins since last saw him. Infact i saw him briefly down when the clouds cleared while climbing up. Climbing down was faster for me as i was tied to the rope and all i had to do was rappel down.But Alan downclimbed the rock section.Downclimbing is free style climbing down which is very difficult is steeper sections. Normally people come down the ropes and discard the ropes on the mountains on steeper sections.Anyways if he is climbing the el capitan(3000 feet vertical cliff) this should be no big deal.

The descent was faster and we were back down with Appu in about 20 mins.Fortunately there was another 4 member roped team which was also climbing and they were near Appu. After a few hello's and chit-chat about route to the top we started back to the camp . This 4 member team were a bit more professional. Considering the bad weather and crevasses around they had left flouroscent markers every 50 feet to find the route . The weather got really bad on the descent, i was leading,Appu was in the middle and Alan at the back. We were following the markers left behind by the other team. Halfway down, the visibility was hardly 3-4 feet and i could not lift my face as the wind was very strong and heavy snow blowing,i lost complete visibility of the markers. But Alan had a GPS and he had marked the camp and asked us to go in a particular direction.Fortunately i could see a bit of the ice axe marks of the previous group and we somehow scrambled to our tents.

We had earlier planned to descend down the same day to the bottom,but considering the conditions Alan felt it safer to wait out the blizzard! You could hear the howling of the wind and the tent covers going pata-pata-pata in the wind! I think the blizzard subsided around 1 AM in the night, I am not sure. I had lost all sense of time.

The next day morning we woke up to a glorious sun lit morning with absolutely no wind. This was photo day and i immediately did not loose the opportunity and went around clicking, you never know when the weather might turn.And as i anticipated within an hour the clouds covered everything and the winds started and the temperatures dropped. We packed our tents and made our way down.

The path down was again painful as it puts a lot of pressure on your knees,but the visibility held and i was astounded to see all the beautiful scenery. The lake called doubtful lake which you can see from the top,we infact passed beside it two days earlier and we didn't even realise it.Lol!

At around 5000 odd feet we had another incident. We were tired and concentrating on the ground to see where we were putting our foot,the trail winded around into a mountain and came out on the other side,on the other side few people were frantically waving at us,Alan and Appu were concentrating on the walk and did not see them, I saw them and thought it was a friendly wave and waved back!As we took the blind turn I saw the bear right in front of us,Alan who was in the first didnt even see it as he was busy looking down, I stammered and shouted bear,bear .. hearing me shout both Alan and Appu looked up and we did a turn around and started running backwards.Seeing us the bear also started running fortunately in the opposite direction and it climbed up the mountain.

The rest of the climb down was uneventful except for me tripping on a root of a tree about 200 feet from the car and twisting and spraining my ankle.

Then we headed back,thanked Alan profusely for the excellent trip and stayed overnight at Praveens place. Jayant had come over too,had pizzas for dinner and woke up at 4 AM as we had 6 AM flights to catch. I landed at Minneapolis at 12 PM and limped into office carrying a backpack and a story to tell. :)

Tomorrow i leave..

I have waited for this day ,and tomorrow i depart to hopefully start off on a journey which has been a life long dream... I have trained for the last one month,hope it does me some justice. We hopefully have got everything we need.Appu who is ever reliable did most of the shopping for me. Funnily winter/mountaineering clothes is costlier in Minneapolis than in Sanfrancisco.

Touchbased with Praveen who is going to provide shelter to us in seattle.Kind soul. :) Today I went and got a camera bag for my camera,thats my greatest concern on this trip.The joke going around is if i die on the mountain I will probably be clinging to my camera and it would be all right. lol!!

Anyways more later..

Can we listen?

Everyone has a story to tell ... You just have to stop by and listen.. the people around you aren't just mere people,colleagues,friends or relatives.Shed the glamorous clothes,lipsticks,costly watches,sophisticated lifestyle,the airs,the titles,inside they are humans each having faced tough times,having gone through emotions like shame,guilt,fear,desperateness,sadness and carrying their own burdens and responsibilities. At the core of each person is a driving force, a story of their life which is the real them. Does anybody have the time to stop by and listen?

Scream ....

Yesterday was scream day! I am a sucker for amusement parks and we had gone to valley fair which is the local summer amusement park in Minnesota and we had a blast. My aim was to sit through all the level 5(5 being highest)thrill rides and roller coasters and I did!! Yay!
I have added a few snaps of the rides flicked from the net.

My body went through every damn possible rotation,G-forces,twists,turns,free-falls and in the end after 10 hours i was left panting for more. It was a crazy day!
Bhargav being a good sport as always accompanied me on all the rides without much grumbles.The others (all 20 somethings) decided to opt out of a few quoting cold legs,old age,weak heart,high blood pressure. :)

Sumithra who did not join us on even one ride the entire day always quoting 'I don't want to die on a ride with a heart attack' was finally coaxed into a level-4 ride(we told her its a kid's ride..more like a goods train compared to the other rides..wink) and it was really fun to see her ecstasy and relief after completing that ride.Me - being her lucky partner got to see all her expressions and had a fun time mimicking her after the ride. She was a great sport to overcome her fear and come, i think that is what amusement parks are all about,overcoming your fear and putting your body and mind through all the new experiences and to see if it can sustain it and still have fun.:) Hey,thats my perspective,okay!

I happened to run into Sharon at the fair and it was so wonderful to see her.

It was a fun gang and a fun day with loads of screams, I have screamed myself hoarse and need to rest my throat a bit.

Book reading - Rebel by albert camus
Song listening - Be yourself - Audioslave

I am not an Animal, I am a human being!

I happened to see 'The elephant man' directed by David lynch, Basically a 1981 movie. I picked up the movie just out of curiousity(which i always am),the name intrigued me and also the fact that it had recieved 8 academy nominations including best picture and i had heard a lot about David lynch,so I wanted to try it and I was pleasantly surprised. The movie is completely shot in black and white and freddie francis has done an amazing job as a cinematographer!

I dont know how do you place this film,I kept seeing the movie in two perspectives,one from the perspective of the victim -its poignant and moving from the perspective of the crippled elephant man and another from the perspective of the society towards him - you cannot help looking at the different facets of society towards this crippled disfigured person.

The movie left me in a state which i really cannot explain right now.
What makes me all the more overwhelmed is ,it was based on a true story of a person called Joseph merrick. I have multiple threads of thoughts going on in my mind right now, the doctor community, the selfish money minded community,the philanthropic community,the ridiculous things called 'life' 'chance' 'fate', the concept called 'humane'....

Watch it if you can ...Needs a different bent of mind to watch it ..

Book reading - Night of the generals - Hans Hellmut Kirst
Watching on TV- Rowing - Olympics

Phelps!!!

Well,He represents the human beings of the world, he represents the human spirit, he represents the limits of human endurance,he has become more than a competitor,he has become bigger than a game,he has become bigger than olympics!

I had heard about him a lot before the olympics had begun,all thanks to the american media hype which the americans are really good at! I discarded him as another really good athlete who would win some gold medals! I really didnt think he would make the 7 gold medals of Mark Spitz.But all that changed in the course of the last 8 days. I have been really closely following the olympic games which runs at a very convenient time of evenings in USA.

Olympics is all about human spirit!! Appu once had said to me ' I am fascinated with the idea of betting everything on something and the outcome is either an all or nothing',somehow his sentence seemed to ring a bell when watching the olympics. People have trained all their lives for that one coveted medal,the gold!To be the best in the world!You can see the agony and despair on the faces of the people who have won the silver or bronze.You can see the limits of human endurance both mentally and physically in these events.The one who conquers all emerges the winner,there is no room for mistakes,you make one single mistake your entire life efforts is just thrown away and your dreams shattered,you have to wait 4 more years to try again,very rarely you get a chance to make a comeback after a mistake in an arena of supreme men and women who have reached their peaks of perfection and are testing their perfections against each other.

Somehow Phelps seemed to have conquered all! Intially I was an impassive audience to his swimming,after his first two golds with world record times,he caught my attention,after the third and fourth with world record times,I was in a frenzy, I really wanted him to reach that 8 gold medals.After his 5th and 6th golds again in world record times, I realised that the entire world along with me was rooting for him to break that 7 gold medals. I felt that I was not rooting for him, I felt as if I am rooting for the entire human race.It was like rooting for Superman in a mega battle against an intergalactic villain all set to destroy Earth and Superman was the only man who could stop him and our only hope.Superman's victory would mean what the earthlings were capable of,that we could endure anything,anything thrown against us!(though technically he is not a earth-man) Phelps 8 gold medals would be a testimonial of something like that!

When he swum for the 7th gold medal, I was at a religious party at a friend's relative's place.I was nervously looking at the clock while all the ceremonies were taking place,I didn't want to miss the swim! I saw it was time for the race and went in search for a TV and luckily there was a TV which someone fortunately had tuned to the olympics,but it was on mute,I quietly went and settled myself in a corner. The 100 meter fly was just about to start and I could feel the excitement. The race started and I saw phelps hadn't had a great start, he was 7th at the end of the 50M mark, I could feel the agony seeping through,Oh!! He can't make it! Oh! He can't make it! But somehow in the last 25 meters he overtook the field and was in second! But second is not enough! He came neck to neck with the first place guy but still a palm length behind and was running out of yards, I knew he would finish second! Despair took over me,
I knew he had finished second! But the results immediately popped up and Phelps was first!I couldn't believe my eyes!! I let out a whoop!! I forgot where I was, I forgot it was a religious party, I see Phelps shouting, I am also shouting!! The TV was on mute all the time and people around are suddenly surprised! I am all excited and jumping around!He made it! He made it!

Then I compose myself, am a bit embarrassed,but heck,who cares!I don't even know these people.'Always be yourself because the people who mind don't matter, and the people who matter don't mind' is something i believe in!

I really feel for Milorad Cavic who lost the gold by a mere 0.01 seconds,it was as if the fates were with phelps!

Here is something i read in the internet about this win

'The finish was so close the Serbs filed a protest. Swimming's governing body had to review the tape down to the 10-thousandth of a second, and the Serb delegation finally conceded that Phelps won.'

This is what Mark Spitz had to say about phelps after he won the seventh gold medal..

"It goes to show you that not only is this guy the greatest swimmer of all time and the greatest Olympian of all time, he's maybe the greatest athlete of all time," Spitz said in a telephone interview from Detroit. "He's the greatest racer who ever walked the planet."

Now I really hope he makes the 8th gold medal!


Go Phelps! Go!! Show what the human spirit is capable of!


After writing all this, I am right now in a contemplative and introspective mood. I am trying to analyse myself as to why I am rooting for him,why am 'I' excited about 'his' achievements. What is fan-dom all about?

It is probably a deep desire to reach those levels one-self!When you see others doing what you deeply desire to be yourself you feel a great respect for the other person and sincerely hope he succeeds!


Book reading: Understanding exposure - Bryan Peterson
Song listening : While my guitar gently weeps - Beatles.

Christian the Lion

My cousin Jerku passed this video on to me and i was totally touched by the video,thought i will put it on my blog.

In 1969, two Australians living in London purchased a 35-pound lion cub from the exotic animal division of Harrod's department store. For a full year, John Rendall and Anthony Bourke raised the cub as their pet, permitting him to lounge freely in the furniture shop they co-owned and even join them for an occasional meal at a local restaurant. In 1972, after the lion had grown too large to properly be cared for, he was taken to Kenya and--rather remarkably--reintroduced to the wild. Two years later, Rendall and Bourke paid a visit to Kenya to see their old friend. They were told the lion would never remember them. Watch what happened.

K2 accident ..

I heard about the K2 accident which claimed 11 people couple of days after it happened. I was talking with Appu regards our mountain climbing trip and he mentioned it.After the call was over I went to the net and pulled out every possible information available about the accident.

I felt a real sense of loss. Mountaineers are a special race of people which the common do not understand. The drive and passion they have is enormous,the fascination to climb is so compelling. Also i see them as super-men ,vastly superior in mind and physical strenght and endurance.Very very few people reach that pinnacle.Very few people have the courage to overcome their fears of dying,losing limbs and go after that compelling fascination. Common people with mundane goals will never understand this fascination of these men who are mostly discarded as crazy people.

K2 is one of the toughest mountains to climb,way lot tougher than everest,everest does not rate very high in technical climbs.K2 is known for its notorious weather and makes climbing extremely difficult,also the climb is extremely technical. With temperatures reaching below 50 and winds blowing at 100 mph and absolutely no oxygen and lugging a 60 pound backpack,think about the mental and physical stamina of a human being to make it to the top.Only the very best in mountaineering climb it or even try it.It is one of the few mountains which has never been scaled in winter.
Only 305 people have summit ed it compared to the 2600 people summiting everest,of course annapurna holds the toughest mountain to climb with a fatality rate of 40%.

Oh I really feel for these who perished. I am atleast happy they reached the summit.The exhilaration on reaching the summit itself would be their last happiest moment in life.

Some comments which i read from people on the net ..

'Risking one's own life, one's health and the lives of others just for the sake of some form of gratification does not make much sense to me. More over it is arguably disrespectful to loved ones who stay behind and even to people who are battling to stay alive because they are sick'

'Is it was really worth it? Beck said no. Putting your family through this, the family of others climbing and those who try to save you is really quite selfish. What other sport req you to operate at 50% of the brain's capacity +making bad choices then risk lives of those who help you when u fail?'

Answers to the above comments ..

'If you are not a climber, you won't understand. You are looking at the issue from your narrow perspective but climbing high peaks makes you humble. '

'The high mountains have an overwhelming attraction, why should anyone be denied the opportunity to climb them. Climbers know the risks, only they themselves have the right to make moral judgements about what they do and the impact on those close to them. It is not ours to judge.'


'No guts no glory. Climbers live for the mental and physical challenge and always know there is a risk of the ultimate consequence. No one can speculate on what was happening in the minds of those attempting to survive. Give them their honor and speak nothing of it. '

'These climbers know their own boundaries & choose to do it !!! The ultimate responsibility over life & death is always with them at the end of the day !!'

'whenever humans endure challenges tragedies like these are always a possibiltiy. These climbers know the dangers involved and are the most experienced in the world. We shouldn't let deprive them of their aspirations but support them.'


Amen to all the answers!!

Reminds me of the opening scene conversation between mountaineer Heinrich Herrer and his wife in '7 years in tibet' when he is leaving her to climb the mountains ...

HARRER
"It's the Himalayas! How long have I been talking about the
Himalayas? How long?"

Ingrid seems to retreat into herself, shaken.

INGRID
"Far too long."

I really hope my journey of mountaineering has started,I hope to reach the levels of these people.


Song listening - One way street - MLTR

So funny this is the song that is playing right now...An omen?

New Soul ..by Yael Naim

There is something in this song ..the young exhuberent voice ..the tone .. its such a catchy tune ..It just keeps repeating in your head.I heard it first on the radio when coming back from a tired day at office and this song immediately got me up,it was such a refreshing song. I wanted to hear more of it .. Music Liberates!!

My latest jigsaw!

I have always been allured by jigsaw puzzles. I just cannot stand seeing an unfinished jigsaw puzzle. In my office in the cafeteria they have a jigsaw puzzle placed right in the center which people try to finish when waiting for orders.Once the puzzle is finished they put in a new one. Its normally a 1000/2000 piece jigsaw puzzle and even though i dont buy anything in the cafeteria I sometimes just go in and spend about 5-10 minutes of my time trying to fit in the pieces.

I relate life to a jigsaw puzzle. You try to figure what life is all about like a jigsaw puzzle but with no picture as reference.You try to fit in all the pieces of information you have to get a complete meaning and understand it. With each piece you put in you think this is what the final picture is going to turn out as. Different people may get different pieces.But the irony and beauty in life is you wont know how many pieces are there totally .So finally in the end you wont know whether you completed the puzzle or not .You just hope you did. :) :) Just a very vague analogy and random thinking. :)

Anyways, I happened to finish this jigsaw puzzle quite sometime back and i had to break it back down to pieces after finishing it.I intially thought of framing it but i know i will never take it back ,so no point.Before I broke it down I took a snap of the completed one. Rajendra,Prahsanth and myself finished most of it,though once in a while whoever came to the house also pitched in .Being a movie buff,i chose this jigsaw with Humphrey bogart,marlyn monroe,Elvis presley and James dean.It looked gorgeous when it was finished.Pity ,we had to break it down!

DIGNITY!

Today I saw two contrasting scenes in life which reminded me of the word called 'Dignity'. My mother always used to stress on living life with dignity. Now that's vague,I never used to understand what it meant. You obviously tend to ask what is dignity?Who defines dignity? and many other unanswered questions.

I think its left to an observer/individual how he wants to interpret the word and wants to relate to it.Now coming back ..

I was travelling to office in the bus today and at a busy street junction there was a lone man standing holding a board 'Am hungry and homeless,Please help me'. He was an able looking guy with no physical deformities and in tattered clothes. He was doing nothing he just stood there on the busy junction with vacant tired eyes holding the board. When i looked at him I had a series of questions popping 'He is able,cant he find some sort of work instead of holding a board like that?' 'Can no-one offer this man anything or is he not trying?' 'Can i ever stand holding a board like that in a busy street' 'How painful would it be to leave all your dignity(I used this word deliberately here) and stand like that with no hope and waiting for someone to bail you out?'...
I pass the scene ..


I normally go to a sandwich shop called 'Pot Belly' in the afternoons to have my lunch.There is a sort of small attic there where some singer will be strumming a guitar and singing a song.Its very much like Phoebe in the friends serial singing in 'The perk' cafe.They keep changing almost every other day,some are good,some are bad,but i think this potbelly joint provides employment/entertainment/encourages talent with this job position. Today I happened to be a bit early and there was no singer,so i sit eating my sandwich watching the people passing by.In the crowd of people I see an old blind man feeling his way through the crowd using his stick, I don't know for some reason I have always pitied the blind people the most in my life,being a photographer/traveller/admirer of art/movies/nature I have always felt the most for blind people in my life,I hope to open/sponsor a foundation for blind people someday in my life.Not digressing .. I follow the path of the blind guy who feels his way around and gets on to the escalator and comes to the floor wing in which I am sitting and he slowly makes his away across to the potbelly joint I am sitting. He stops very near to the entrance of the pot belly and keeps looking straight as if waitng for somebody! Suddenly a guy inside the joint spots him and goes out and takes him by the hand and leads him in. He directs the old guy to the small ladder which takes one to the attic,this old guy has a guitar hanging by his shoulder,he feels his hands and legs around the ladder and slowly climbs up and gets on the top and feels the chair and mike and positions himself. He starts strumming the guitar and starts singing. He was not the greatest singer but I was completely moved by the entire scene and felt a deep respect for this old blind man.

I just happen to co-relate the scene i saw in the morning to this one and somehow a meaning seems to dawn upon the word 'Dignity' ...

D300 ..

I have finally ordered my Nikon D300! It will show up on my doorstep on thursday! I just cannot wait and i am all excited, Since the time i have made this order I have been moving around with a halo over my head, i feel as if I am walking on air, I have this small thumping in my heart, and have this small smirk on my face and that light headedness of having won a million dollar lottery. ;) I feel like a kid who has been just granted his favourite candy in the candystore.

I have ordered a Nikkor 18-200 mm VR lens and a Nikkor 50mm prime lens with it.All this has cost me a small fortune,people raise their eyebrows when i quote the figures,might think I am a damn fool or nut!But damn who cares - Its my money! This is what I always wanted and if you dont go and get what you want in life then probably life is not worth living.

So I am just waiting for Thursday!! With my 70-300 mm lens its going to look like a bazooka! I just cant wait to try out all the different things with it.

Song listening: The importance of being idle - Oasis
Book reading - The Motorcycle diaries - Ernesto Che Guevera

Nostalgia!

Nostalgia is a strange emotion,you go through a range of emotions at the same time,its like sadness,happiness combined together.You feel happy,yet at the same time you feel sad.

I am in the balcony right now sitting on a high stool with a backrest with feet swung over the balcony railings.The night sky is clear with stars twinkling.There is a three fourth moon at an angle of 45 degrees in the sky.There is a cool breeze blowing which kisses my exposed feet extended over the railings which makes me twitch my toes.I have my laptop on my ..where else, my lap and have the habit of shaking my legs as if I am restless.I have my ipod playing with the sennhiesers clung over my ears.I have put the ipod on random.

Madonna's 'the power of goodbye' comes sailing through.All of a sudden i go nostalgic.This song triggers something. Its like a flurry of random flash backs,my whole life.I remember my childhood friends,raichur krishna river,me,pranav,appa and amma on its banks,random trip moments,harihara,cousins,thatha,malleshwaram railway station,some hiking moments,harihara swing and garden,the fun times during ganesha festival,saibaba darshans with doddappa on sunday mornings,lalbagh jogs... A smile comes to my face,yet at the same time my heart grows heavy. I go through the flurry of deaths Indira atte,ravi doddappa,nagraj doddappa,my friend,thatha...

All this happens in split seconds.My whole life flashes by in bits and pieces.I am amazed at what all i have stored in my brain. So this is what my last 26 years on this planet has been like. My eternal questions of philosophic porportions just crop up.

The songs goes on in the background ..

Your heart is not open so I must go
The spell has been broken, I loved you so
Freedom comes when you learn to let go
Creation comes when you learn to say no

There's nothing left to try
There's no place left to hide
There's no greater power
Than the power of good-bye

...

Somehow all the 'Good-byes' in the song triggered off this line of thought .. LIFE..

Vive le Joker!

I have become a huge huge fan of Joker after watching the new batman flick. Hats off to Christopher nolan for brilliant script and direction.Heath ledger,I dont have any words for how he has portrayed his character.I think Bob kane would have been proud to see such a fantastic portrayal of his character.

The Joker character just hooks you by the collar and lifts you and you just cant be awed by his villainy and insidiousness.His philosophy is stunning.Dialogues are fantastic ..here are a few

Batman: [Whilst the Joker is holding Rachel out of a window] Let her go.
The Joker: Oh, very poor choice of words. [Lets her fall]

The Joker: [standing in front of a burning pile of money] This town deserves a better class of criminal, and I'm gonna give it to 'em. Tell your men they work for me now, this is my city.
Mob boss: They won't work for a freak.
The Joker: [Imitating the mob boss's accent] Freak? [Pulling out a small knife] Why don't we cut you up into little pieces and feed you to your pooches, hmm?[Joker's thugs pulls away the mob boss] And then we'll see how loyal a hungry dog really is!



Joker: It's simple, we uh- kill the Batman.
[Men in the room laugh, once again.]
Salvatore Maroni: If it's so simple, why haven't you done it already?
Joker: One thing I've learned is if you're good at something, never do it for free.

I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve.

Do I look like I have a plan? I don't have a plan. The mob has plans, the cops have plans. You know what I am, Harvey? I'm a dog chasing cars. I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. I just do things. I'm not a schemer.


Its been really quite a while since i have gotten so excited after seeing a character portrayal,the last was the performance of Javier bardem as 'Anton Chigurh' in 'no country for old men'.