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..
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
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?
Sunday, August 24, 2008
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
Sunday, August 17, 2008
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
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
Saturday, August 16, 2008
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.
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.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
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.
Saturday, August 09, 2008
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?
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!!
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