Wow! What a match! India won after playing catch-up with England for the first 3 days. They chased down a total that was 100 more than the previous highest fourth-innings chase in India. And 200 more than the highest successful chase in Chennai. Sehwag again played an amazing innings and set the match up perfectly and Yuvraj might have cemented his place in the Test team. But these are not the reasons why I loved it. Yesterday, Sachin finally exorcised the ghosts of Chennai 1999.

I still have vivid memories of that fateful final day. It was a Sunday and I had Accountancy tuition in the morning. By the time I returned and switched on the TV, India were five down with less than 100 on the board and Mongia was giving company to Sachin. All seemed lost. Surely, even for Sachin this was too much. (And mind you, this was a time when Sachin was so important to the Indian team that he played the next test in Delhi inspite of back problems because the team management thought that his absence would give Pakistan the decisive edge.)

But Sachin didn’t think so. Slowly and steadily, he built a partnership with Mongia. It was fascinating to watch him take on the fantastic Pakistan attack, comprising the great Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Saqlain Mushtaq at the peak of his powers. I sat riveted to the TV, realizing that something special was on. Everything that Akram and Saqlain threw at him, Sachin had an answer. And then, the unthinkable happened. Sachin got out. He played a lofted shot to Saqlain and was caught. I just could not believe it. Sunil Gavaskar was on air and you could sense his anger as he spoke about Sachin leaving the job unfinished. But a tie was just 16 runs away and with 3 wickets in hand it wasn’t impossible. Still I was so nervous that I sat there just listening to the commentary and not daring to look at the TV, fearing that me looking would bring bad luck. I couldn’t look but I couldn’t go away either. But the agony didn’t last long. Saqlain and Akram cleaned up the tail in no time and I sat there with tears streaming down my face as the Pakistan players jumped with joy, kissed the pitch and did a victory lap. Call me a chauvinist, but it was agonizing to watch. That India had lost was bad enough but to lose after such a superhuman effort from Sachin was hard to accept. He did not deserve to lose. Someone had said that during the 1990s the Indian team consisted of Sachin and 10 jokers and it never sounded truer.

And yesterday, after almost a decade, Sachin erased the scars of that match. He couldn’t have done it without the outrageous start given by Sehwag (rightly chosen the MoM) and the mature innings played by Yuvraj and that just makes me wonder how much more he would have achieved for India if he had got similar support during the 1990s. Credit should also be given to Dhoni, under whose captaincy the team seems to be going from strength to strength. Sachin Tendulkar is an all time great and I am thankful that I have the privilege of watching him play for India.

Online Petition

Please take the time to read and sign the below mentioned petition:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/26novAct/petition.html

I personally do not agree with all the steps mentioned there. Politicians in India do not have the political will to implement Step1 and Step 2 is not practical. Step 3, though, has been due for a long time and at least now we should modernise our security infrastructure.

Please sign the petition and hope that it brings a change.

No cricket with Pakistan

This is in response to Sambit Bal's piece 'Why India must tour Pakistan' on Cricinfo.com. India should not tour Pakistan not because of security fears but because we need to make a statement. It is naive to compare the refusal of England to play in India with India's refusal to go to Pakistan. How can we expect our players to go to Pakistan and play cricket knowing well that this is the country responsible for the killing of hundreds of innocent fellow Indians. Yes, Sambit is right that 'It will amount to little in tangible terms if India's tour of Pakistan is called off, but it will be heavy on symbolism' and that, to be honest, is the most I've come to expect from my government. I would love it if India adopts a policy of hot pursuit of these terrorists and sends troops across the border but again, as Sambit points out, that is ‘not an option’. Pakistan is no Afghanistan and India is certainly not US.

And how can he even compare the state-sponsored terrorism from Pakistan with India’s dismal attempts at fighting terror, when he says 'It's another matter that the Indian government itself stands similarly accused'. According to him, the only thing Pakistan is guilty of is ‘prolonged inaction against terrorists originating within its borders who wreak havoc in the neighbouring country’. Someone should remind him that this is the country of ISI, the organization whose only aim seems to be to finance and promote terror in India. Pakistan has given shelter to Dawood Ibrahim, the prime accused in the 1993 Mumbai blasts, the US has spoken of evidence that proves the involvement of the ISI in the Indian Embassy bombing in Kabul. And being a senior journalist, Sambit would know better than me that a terror attack of this magnitude would not be possible without the active support of some elements in the Pakistan establishment. The reason Islamic terror has reached such horrific proportions is because of the support from countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. It has been the case for years and it will remain the same in the future. Nothing that India says is going to deter Pakistan from formenting trouble in India. And definitely, India doesn’t have the ability to take any action against it except for sacrificing its numerous brave soldiers at the altar of Pakistan-bred terrorism. We, the hapless citizens of India, are doomed to live and die under the shadow of terror and violence.

Don't talk to me!

I love books. Every time I go to a bookshop I'm tempted to buy at least a dozen of them. Which obviously I can't. So I do the next best thing. I go to a bookstore, pick up a book I would like to buy, open some random chapter and start reading till I'm satisfied. I do this fairly often at Landmark at the Forum Mall. Which brings me to the point of this blog. I generally don't like conversations. My friends (or those who are remaining, thanks to my laconic conversations) will vouch for that. And I can be pretty straightforward. Or as others put it (and I don't really disagree), I can be rude. Real rude. So it's not really a great idea for a stranger to approach me for a polite conversation while I'm merrily browsing through a book. But believe me, it happens. And quite often at that, especially at Landmark. Now why would a guy whom I've never seen before want to compliment me for my choice in books, based on the one book that I'm holding at that moment? Puzzling?? Not really. It's not the book I'm holding that interests him. It's the money in my wallet that does. Well, all these pleasant looking, smartly dressed guys who seem so interested in me and are impressed by everything I say are actually part of some MLM scheme who need me to lighten my wallet in order for them to fatten theirs. MLM, for the uninitiated, is Multi-Level Marketing. Put simply, if you are a member, the more members you enroll into the scheme, the more moolah you make. And to become a member, you need to shell out money. And that's where the conversation will eventually lead to, even though it started with a compliment on the colour of my trousers. But experience has enlightened me. This is how the conversation proceeds if some MLM guy approaches me now:

1)

MLM Guy: Hi.

Me (This was the moment I was dreading. So I just look enquiringly, no reply. Actually, I do say a lot of things, but only to myself. And they are not fit to be reproduced here.)

MLM Guy: That's an interesting book you are reading. You like Jane Austen?

Me (No. I hate the guts of her. But I couldn't find any book written by you. So I had to make do with this. Poor me! (Again, I don't say that aloud): Yeah. (And give him a stare, which should be sufficient to tell any sensible guy that I don't bear fools gladly. But these guys don't give up easy.)

MLM Guy: Have you read all her books?

At this point, I just slam the book shut and walk away.

2)

MLM Guy: Is that a book a good read?

Me (It was, till you turned up): That's what I'm trying to find out.

MLM Guy: Are you going to buy that?

Me (Why? Will you complain to the Prime Minister if I don't??): Don't know.

MLM Guy: My friend has that book.

I don't reply. I don't even bother looking. I just take two steps away from the guy and continue reading. Hardly anyone dares to continue a conversation after that.

Current Mood: amused

Why I do not need a television! (contd...)

Originally posted here on November 10th, 2008

The other reason was the absolute rubbish dished out by the news channels, with Aaj Tak leading the way. Every news item is ‘Breaking News’. And every channel has ‘Exclusive’ rights to it. All attempts are made to sensationalize any news bite. News is treated more as entertainment and less as information. Which explains events like the wedding of Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai or the eviction of some participant from Bigg Boss hogging primetime news. And this problem is more prevalent in Hindi news channels as compared to the English ones. Of the few channels I had the opportunity to watch when I went home last month, CNBC seemed to be the only one which one could watch for a reasonable stretch of time without getting irritated. The problem, I think lies in the fact that there are so many channels, and only so much news. So each channel tries to outdo the other by manufacturing news. And we, the unfortunate viewer have to hear about the lost dog of a police commissioner or about Amitabh Bachchan catching a cold.

Finally, the only regret I have is that I couldn’t watch Roger Federer during his best days. Apart from that, if at any time I have missed not having a television it is when India is doing well in cricket. But that is generally few and far between, so doesn’t matter much ;-)

Current Location: Bangalore

Why I do not need a television!

Originally posted here on October 13th, 2008

I’ve been in Bangalore for close to two and a half years now and have spent almost all of it living alone as a paying guest with another family. For this entire period I’ve lived without a television.

Growing up in Delhi, when I was with my family, TV was an important part of our lives. Dinner was incomplete if the TV wasn’t running though we were not as TV-crazy as some other families, primary reason being none of us was an Ekta Kapoor fan. After dinner, I would generally watch the 10’o clock news on NDTV with Rajdeep Sardesai and Arnab Goswami before going to bed. And one of the things I didn’t like about going to Chennai during the summer vacations was that all I could get to see would be some Tamil serials. Finally, I was a huge cricket fan. I didn’t miss a ball even if India was playing Kenya in some god-forsaken part of the world in a stadium with less people watching than the players on the field.

So when I contemplated living in Bangalore without access to a television, I thought it would be tough. The previous year, I had spent the final semester in Bangalore, also without a TV, but on that occasion I was putting up with friends. This time my only resources for entertainment would be books, radio and my desktop. But it didn’t turn out to be half as difficult as I had imagined. Having to travel to work by bus I generally started early from home to beat the morning rush. And having nothing much to do at home, I returned late, leaving just enough time to freshen up, have dinner and go to bed. Mom kept telling me to get a TV or at least a TV Tuner card for my system but I wasn’t interested. I was starting to enjoy the liberation from TV. I no longer had to worry about missing a good movie on HBO. I did not have to worry about coming home in time for a TV show. No longer did I spend time sitting in front of the TV and just flipping channels in the hope of catching something interesting. And if I wanted to see some movie, I could just rent or buy a DVD, instead of having to sit through 10 minute-long commercial breaks every 15 minutes. I believed that not having a television actually made my life better. And whatever little doubt I had was dispelled when I went home for Diwali.

I had heard of the huge success of Indian Idol and the numerous reality shows that had been launched as a result, but had never had the chance to watch any. When I finally did see one, I was glad that I had to wait so long. The singing and dancing were good but that was only one part of the package. What made the shows tick were the histrionics of the participants and more surprisingly, the judges. If one judge thought that a performance was excellent, you could be sure that the other would disagree. It wasn’t uncommon to see judges fighting over whose opinion was correct. And the less said about the participants the better. The stage was not the only place where they performed. Their performance began from the time they were in the audience, to going backstage before the performance, performing onstage, hearing the result from the judges and going back to the audience. Their emotions varied from disbelief to hope to ecstasy to helplessness to anger to frustration to worry to confusion to pure joy. And this was an infinite cycle from which they never seemed to emerge. All this seemed extremely silly to me and I found it hard to believe that in some parts of the country people held rallies to protest the voting out of the participant from their region. But the show that really irritated me was MTV Roadies. The participants of the singing and dancing shows, with all their fake emotions, seemed like angels when compared to the Roadies participants. I’ve seen 2 or 3 episodes and I fail to understand the point of the show, except that it promotes bitchiness, nastiness and backbiting. The hosts of the show, namely, Rannvijay, Nikhil Chinnapa and an absolute irritant called Raghu Ram, who is also the creator and producer of the show, seem to revel in the power they have to embarrass and humiliate the participants, not that the participants mind it one bit. It is surprising to see the limits people can go to ensure that they are not the ones voted out from the show. They scheme, they gossip, they lie, spread malicious rumours. Anything goes, as long as they get to be on the show. But these reality shows are only part of the reason why I didn’t get a TV.

Nagarhole Trip

Originally posted here on April 21st, 2008

The last time I went for a safari was in Bandipur and it would be fair to say it wasn’t exactly a success. Not that it was bad, but after going around a jungle for 45 minutes, if all you get to see are deer and monkeys, it isn’t terribly exciting. So when we were waiting for the safari to start in Nagarhole, I wasn’t expecting to see too many exciting things. To make matters worse, one of the persons who had just returned from the safari said they only got to see some herds of reindeer. Anyway, we got on board the bus and the safari started. Five minutes into the safari and we came across a herd of reindeer. The bus stopped and people clicked some pics. Ahead there were more reindeers and closer to us. The driver waited till everyone had taken pictures and started again. We had moved for hardly five minutes when suddenly a herd of running reindeers crossed the road right in front of our van. The vehicle stopped and people started shouting, “Tiger, tiger”!! Tiger?? In a safari?? No way, I thought. You don’t see a tiger in a safari. We can’t be that lucky. Just a week or two back Rahul Gandhi was here and even he didn’t get to see any wild animal. How could we? But people were still shouting, so it was for real and it seemed I was the only person who still hadn’t seen the tiger. In my desperation to catch sight of it before it disappeared, I looked here and there but could hardly see anything before Rao pointed out the beast lurking near some bushes. There it was! A real tiger, prowling in the forest, maybe waiting for us to leave so that it could carry on with its unfinished business. But we were hardly in any mood to leave, so after waiting for some time, the tiger had to disappear in the forest.

We had started for our two day trip early in the morning on Saturday, the 12^th of April. It was almost 7 I think, by the time we managed to pick everyone up (around 12 of us) and started from Bangalore. We reached Kutta, where we had booked our home stay (or was it Irpu?? Not sure……I’m bad at remembering places, distances, time etc) by early afternoon. The house was a beautiful little place surrounded by greenery all around. The kind of place you want to go to escape from the rush and madness of city life. We took some rest, got fresh and reached the Nagarhole National Park in time for the 4’o clock safari. After the safari, we went to Irpu falls. The waterfall was not very big and at the bottom there was only place for 4-5 persons to stand under it. Nevertheless, it was fun. Waterfalls always are, even though I didn’t get wet. There was still one more day to go and I didn’t want to go to bed with a headache. Or maybe I was just plain lazy to change clothes. Whatever! We spent some time there posing for pics, climbing whatever rocks we could, playing with water and having fun till it was dark and we had to start back for our home stay. At the home stay, we had planned to have a camp fire before dinner.

With the camp fire ready, we decided to play Dumb Charade and divided ourselves into two teams. Sunny hadn’t played DC before so we quickly explained the rules and got started. Generally, we were able to guess whatever the other team gave us. I got two relatively easy ones, Paycheck and Chameli. But what took the cake was Shubhra’s enacting of Hatim Tai. Before we started playing, we remembered Jalaj trying to enact Aar ya Paar while playing DC during our trip to Pandavapura and had a big laugh over it. But if someone thought that would be our funniest memory of DC, they were clearly wrong. Shubhra beat him by a mile. Sad, we don’t have a pic of her trying to fly ala Hatim Tai. But all credit to Sunny for guessing it in an instant. With star performers like her and Jalaj in our team, what chance did the other team have? Though Syed did try to hand over the advantage to the other team by just standing there and doing his best impersonation of the “I’m not going to do anything, let me see how you guess the movie…….ha ha ha” man. Finally, we beat the other team by a point, even though Sandeep somehow managed to guess the movie “Is Raat ki Subah Nahin” from just the word Raat. How, we were left wondering!! By the way, during the game, we did come to know that Umakanth thinks Sridevi is ‘mast’. :))

To be continued........

(When I had written this blog, I had intended to write about the second day of the trip too but after some time I just lost interest.)

Sivaganga and Nandi Hills trip

Originally posted here on June 15th, 2007

Trekking is not exactly my idea of fun. Being under the hot summer sun even less so. And if you ask me about trekking when the summer is at its peak, the less said the better. So it was not surprising that I wasn't particularly enthused about scaling the rocky hill at Sivaganga at around 10 in the morning. But then again, we didn't travel 50 kms from Bangalore to sit under a tree. So I climbed on.

We had started from Bangalore at around 8:30 am. There were eight of us, Guru, Rakesh, Bharath, Sandeep, Umakanth, Syed, Ravi and myself, on four bikes. Going on bikes was primarily Rakesh and Bharath's suggestion. After a drive of about 90-100 minutes we reached Sivaganga, which is basically a rocky hill with a temple at its foot. We went to the temple before starting on our ascent. An interesting thing some of us saw in the temple was a tunnel built by KempeGowda, which supposedly goes all the way to Bangalore.

Coming back to the climb, Rakesh and Bharath were the first ones to reach the top (which was surprising, considering that Bharath had been the most vocal opponent of our earlier plans to go trekking), followed by Ravi and Guru(who was trying his best to convince the rest of us not to give up). Sandeep, Syed and myselft were the last to reach.

On the way we braved thorny bushes, slippery dirt tracks, extremely steep stairs and some really aggressive and menacing monkeys. In fact, one monkey systematically checked the trousers packets of a man before escaping with the poor guy's cellphone. Could you imagine, the monkeys seemed so dangerous that even Syed was scared of them !!!

Reaching the top felt nice. We could see for miles all around. If the weather wasn't so hot, it would have been even better. After clicking some pics, we started to climb down, where Umakanth was waiting for us. Some distance before the top of the hill is a really nice rocky place with lot of huge boulders all around. The view from here seems to be better than from the top. If we had had some more time on our hands, this is where we may have sat and chatted for a while.

On the drive from Sivaganga to Nandi Hills, Guru chose the wrong moment to do what he probably thought was the right thing. Maybe fed up with Bharath's resolve not to cross a speed of 50-55 kmph, he tried to tease him by speeding past him at more than 80 kmph. But just when he zoomed out of our sight, we decided to stop for lunch and the poor guy had to come all the way back.

It was evening by the time we reached the foot of Nandi Hills and started the ascent. This was a lot more fun than the climb in the morning as we could go on our bikes, it was a lot cooler than in the morning and the view from the curving, hill road was also good. By the time we reached the top it was already dark. In fact, it had got so late that we did not even have the time to sit for sometime and relish the beauty of the place.

Nandi Hills seemed to be heavily commercialized, with lot of hotels and eateries around, but then that is the case with all tourist places in India. But what was bad was that there was not a single dustbin anywhere on the hill and you could see the mess created by tourists all over the hills. Neither was there any street lights along any of the roads, making driving on the hill roads somewhat of a hazard. One reason for the pathetic maintenance (or the lack of it) could be that the entry fee is only Rs. 3. But I think tourists coming all the way from Bangalore wouldn't mind paying a little extra, say Rs. 10, if it gave them better facilities and made Nandi Hills a better, safer and cleaner place.Current Location: Bangalore

2006's last weekend - Part 2

Originally posted here on January 30th, 2007

I’m not expecting Ooty to be really great. I don’t think it will be too different from Shimla, where the only thing I remember seeing is the Mall Road and having to walk long distances at all the places we went.

The road to Ooty is not half as good as the other highways. The air gets chilly as we approach Ooty. Our driver informs us there are two ways to go to Ooty. Being short on time we decide to take the shorter route which involves a steep ascent though. There are more than 30 hair pin bends on the way. We haven’t even reached Ooty and it’s already become exciting.

It’s late in the evening by the time we finish the ascent to Ooty. Luckily, we find a reasonably priced, decent accommodation at the first place we try and decide to put up there. Our chief concern being taken care of, we take a little walk around town, have dinner, buy some chocolates, draw up a tentative schedule for the next day and go to bed.

Next day, the last day of the year, we get up early and start for breakfast. Its still early morning and a little foggy. All around us fields, grass and trees are enveloped in a layer of white. The early morning chill has frozen the overnight dew and it makes for a pretty sight. At times it is incredibly cold in Delhi but still I haven’t seen anything like this. We get out of the car, click some pics and walk to the Ooty railway station nearby. If we had had more time on our hands, we could have taken a ride on the toy train. But now we have to content ourselves by just looking around. The small platform is exactly as I remember seeing it in Sadma, the Kamal Hassan – Sridevi classic. After clicking some pictures, we proceed for breakfast.

The first place we go to after breakfast is the Doddabetta peak. Its some 2637 metres above sea level. All around us we can see high mountains covered with greenery. At one particular place we see a range of mountains, with huge clouds floating right over them and the sun just behind. Truly, a sight to behold.

There’s a telescope nearby and after buying the tickets, we all make a beeline for it expecting to catch even better sights. Imagine our surprise when all we get to see is the Ooty bus stand. Excuse us dear, but that is where we just came from, we tell the guy in charge. Some of us try to move the telescope so that we can see something else, but he won’t let us touch the thing. After spending some time there, we start our drive down. Our driver informs us that there is a tea museum and factory nearby, so we decide to go there. We take a guided tour of the factory, the guide explaining the process of preparing tea from tea leaves. At the end of it we are given a complementary cup of tea. I don’t generally take tea and am not too eager to consume it here either. But on the others’ insistence and attracted by the nice aroma, I decide to take a sip. I’m not disappointed. In fact, it tastes very good. The taste is primarily of cardamom, and nothing like what I had thought tea would taste like. I buy a packet for home.

Our next stop is probably Ooty’s most famous spot, the Botanical Gardens. I’ve seen a lot of pictures of it and am expecting to see various types of flora. Next to the parking lot are some shops run by people from the north east. Amaresh and Bihari do some shopping. I’m not sure what attracts people more, the goods being sold or the girls selling them.

Inside in the garden, there’s a lot of greenery all over, but not many flowers to be seen. There’s a glasshouse nearby housing a wide variety of plants. But outside it, we can hardly see a flower in the garden. Maybe we came in the wrong season.

Our next destination is the pine forest and an adjoining lake. We have to a climb down a steep and slippery path to reach the lake. Near the lake, we decide to go horse riding. Watson, Jha, Rakesh and Chaubesh take the first shot. The path the horses take is right on the edge of the lake and the guys are really scared that they may land up in water. On the way back, the horses try to outrun each other on the narrow track, in the process, brushing and jostling against each other. With the horses’ trainer nonchalantly telling them to just hold on tightly to the saddle, the guys have their heart in the mouth. Everyone is mightily relieved when the ride ends. Now its Bihari and my turn. Even before I’m on the horse, I tell the accompanying trainer to hold the animal tightly and not let it run. Till the halfway point, the ride is fine. The trouble starts when it turns and the trainer lets go of its leash. Eyeing the chance, the horse starts picking up speed and tries to outrun the other horse. I shout at the top of my voice at the trainer to come and take control. But he taunts me saying, it won’t be fun if it goes walking. Yes, he is right but I don’t want to lose a limb trying to ride a dumb animal. Anyway, the ride ends soon and we are back on our own feet. We were all scared but enjoyed, all the same.

Its early afternoon by now and we decide to have lunch before heading to our last destination, a waterfall. After a lot of walking, we reach the waterfall. One look at it and all the tiredness is gone. This is my first time at a waterfall and even though it’s not very huge, it looks impressive. The water rushing downstream forcefully, against the backdrop of mountains looks very majestic. We sit there for a long time, absorbing the beauty of the place. A little downstream there is a rock in the middle of the stream and some of us contemplate going there. But for that we have to walk through the heavy current of water which could be risky. So ultimately we decide not to go. Finally, after spending some more time there, we head back to our car to start the trip back to Bangalore. But this was truly the best part of the trip.

After the disappointments of the first day, the second day was entirely fun filled. It also helped that Bihari and Watson had been to Ooty before and so we knew exactly what places could be covered in the short time that we spent there. In the end, I’m glad that we decided to go to Ooty.

My flight to Delhi

Originally posted here on January 24th, 2007

13:00 hrs On board SG 212 from B'lore to Delhi
Its early morning on Saturday, 13^th of Jan. I’d kept an alarm for 6:30 am but am up at 5:40 itself. In fact I haven’t slept properly the whole night. I’m not sure why. Maybe I’m a little afraid of flying on my own. I’m not really sure of all the procedures and am worried that something may go wrong. Also, on all the previous occasions that I’ve traveled to Delhi, it has been from Chennai, where I was putting up with my uncle and aunt and had them for support. But this time I’m all by myself. I had to do all my packing on my own and there’s no one to drop me or see off. Maybe, that made me feel lonely.

Anyway, the flight’s supposed to depart at 11:30 am and I’m at the airport by 9:40. I put my suitcase on to a luggage trolley, enter the airport and go to the SpiceJet counter. My luggage is checked in, am given the boarding pass and directed towards Gate No. 2. One look at the gate and I almost faint. There is a hugely convoluted, serpentine queue leading to the gate and it almost looks like Majestic on a Friday night. I had planned to have some light snacks before boarding the flight but after seeing the queue, I don’t want to waste any time.

I spend the next two minutes searching for the end of the queue. It’s 10’o clock by now and its almost 11 by the time I’m through the security check. I have a sandwich, make a few calls to family and friends, read the newspaper and its time to board the flight. There are several queues for various airlines and destinations and they are not clearly distinguishable. The confusion reminds me of Home Alone 2.

A minibus ferries us to our flight. On the way I see a helicopter taking off for the first time. Our flight is a Boeing 737-800 and its not huge. I board the plane and walk up to my window seat and put my bag in the overhead compartment. The seats are a little close together and for someone like me, there’s not enough leg space. Anyway, I make myself as comfortable as I possibly can and wait for take-off. The plane is ready for takeoff but there is a further delay of about 30 min which our cabin crew informs us is due to the Bangalore ATC. Finally, at around 12 noon, the plane taxis to the runway and picks up speed almost instantaneously and before I know, we are in air. It feels like riding a huge giant wheel, only thing is we keep going up. The difficult part is not when the plane starts ascending but when it has reached the maximum height and attempts to stabilize. This is when the plane starts wobbling to the left and to the right, sending shivers down my spine. The instability is due to the bad weather, informs our captain.

The view from the window is amazing. We are flying at 38000 feet about sea level and the scene from here is really splendid. The best part is when we sail above a group of clouds. I take some pics with my mobile, even though the use of mobile phones is forbidden.

After about half an hour, with two more hours to go before we reach Delhi and the initial excitement having all but died down, I have to find a way to spend time. I pick up the inflight magazine and start flipping through the pages. Nothing of interest there. No probs… there’s Sudoku at the end. This should keep me busy for some time. I have never seriously tried Sudoku before and feel very guilty about it. So this is my chance to make up.

5 mins after I start, I still haven’t started. 10 more mins and I still haven’t got a single number. I take a break and start afresh after 5 mins. But 10 mins into my second attempt, I’m still scratching my head for a start. I close the magazine, look out for about 2 mins, but can’t take my mind away from the puzzle. Now this is really bad. Almost half an hour after my first serious attempt at Sudoku, I’m still struggling for one digit. Finally, realizing that its not leading me anywhere, I decide to give up and do something else. And start writing this blog. So this blog is actually a result of my almost non-existent Sudoku skills.

The captain announces that we should be landing in about 15 minutes. Not able to come to terms with the fact that I failed completely, I decide to give Sudoku one last attempt. But the one hour break hasn’t made me any smarter. I’m still unable to crack one, single number and give up in frustration. This gives me my first resolution of the year. I resolve to start playing Sudoku seriously when I return to Bangalore.

By now we are flying above Delhi and the aerial view of the city leaves me spellbound. The broad roads, the high apartment buildings, Yamuna flowing through the city and the metro looking like some toy train…..it truly is a scene to behold. Delhi looks really good from here. And it only gets better as the place descends and the vehicles and buildings start getting bigger.

Soon the plane lands in Delhi and my first air journey after a really long time is over. It was a good experience.

(If this blog bored you, blame Sudoku. And yeah, I’ve started practicing it. BTW, do give me some tips…I need them.)

Current Location: SpiceJet flight to Delhi
Current Mood: anxious
Current Music: None

2006's last weekend

Originally posted here on January 10th, 2007

Its 8 in the evening on Friday night. I’m in Agara at Rakesh’s place, the next day we are supposed to start at 5:00 in the morning for our trip, but we are still googling for a destination. We finally settle for Gopalswamibetta and Bandipur, though Amaresh is still rooting for Bhimeshwari( no matter he can hardly remember or pronounce the name).

5:30 on Saturday morning, we get started for Gopalswamibetta. I make myself comfortable in the backseat. Its kind of dark outside and all of us half asleep. In half an hour we are outside Bangalore and speeding towards Mysore. I’m still not fully awake when suddenly a large thud tells me we’ve had an accident. The driver hits the brakes, the car screeches to a halt, and I try to see what or who is it that we have hit, but I see nothing. I’m afraid it’s a pedestrian and am fearing the worst when someone says we’ve hit a pig. With all due apologies to the pig, its comforting to know we’ve not hit a human. Jha says the pig got entangled in a tire and that its left a blood trail. It sounds horrific and dreading the scene Chaubesh, Bihari and myself stay put in the car. Meanwhile a crowd has gathered around the car and Watson, Jha and Rakesh have got out to assess the situation. Me and Chaubesh look back and see a pig walking down the road. Chaubesh jokes it might be the pig that we hit when to our amazement we are told that is indeed the case. The car is badly damaged and can’t continue.

After waiting for around 3 hours, we get the new car and continue on our trip.

Gopalswamibetta is a famous for its temple and the fog on the hills surrounding it. The temple is not very big and dedicated to Lord Krishna. After having a cursory look at the temple, we decide to go further among the hills. The sight is beautiful and alluring, small green hills all around. Initially, its fun ascending and descending the hills through lush green grass. At places, there is no clearly visible track and we have to wade through grass reaching our waists. But after half an hour of walking under the sun and seeing the same sight all around, we decide to return. By the time we trace our steps back to our vehicle, I’m thankful that the original trekking plan got cancelled. I’m not really made for this kind of stuff.

We now head towards Bandipur. The safari is only between 4 and 6 pm in the evening and we are right in time for it. There’s a board in the sanctuary office and it has the census figures for the sanctuary. There’s a whole list of animals on it and I’m terribly excited about seeing all of them.

In the bus, I take my seat next to the window and looking forward to tigers and cheetahs. For the first 5 mins we don’t see anything but that might be because we are not yet deep inside the woods, I think. After some time we see a herd of deer and the bus halts. People get excited and start shouting. The driver gets angry and reprimands them. Meanwhile, I click some pics. The bus starts moving and after some time we come across another herd of deer. I click some more pics. We move again and come across some more deer. But by now no one is interested in deer. We came for tigers and cheetahs, not to click a hundred pics of deer from 50 mts away. We saw deer more closely on the way to Tirupati and even fed them. After that, this is not really exciting. Even my college had deer, so this is not fun any more. In fact it is so boring that the lady behind me has fallen asleep. Next, we see a bunch of monkeys. God, this is getting worse. There were lots of them near my dept and they were considered a nasty nuisance. I’ve had monkeys tear my trousers packet, take my ice cream, snatch my glass of juice. And now I’m taking a paid tour to watch them and click pics. So what’s next? A herd of buffaloes? Actually no. What we see next is a couple of peahens. Yes, peahens and not peacocks. And the driver actually reverses the vehicle so that we can have a second look. By now everyone has lost any hope of seeing anything close to a fierce, wild animal. We reach the point from where we started and trudge back to our Sumo.

Gopalswamibetta was not a big success but if anything can be called an utter flop, this is it. While passing by the sanctuary office I remember a board which said that animal sighting depended on luck. How true!!!

The Sumo starts and just when its turning towards Mysore, someone says we should go to Ooty. Ooty? Yes, we have been kidding about going to Ooty since morning but no one was really serious. But after two not so exciting experiences, it is decided to go to Ooty and make this trip a success. So the vehicle takes a u-turn and zipsalong towards Ooty, though Amaresh and Bihari are not sure we’ll be able to get accommodation. Even I’m a little skeptical but if the majority wants to go, I’m not the one to play spoilsport. Moreover, I’ve never been to Ooty before.

To be continued......

The Volvo Experience

I’ve been traveling between Chennai and Bangalore regularly since last year. But its always been in train, sometimes sleeper class, sometimes chair car and on the rare occasion even general class. But this time is different. I’m traveling by bus and it’s a Volvo. I should admit though that by the time I went to book a ticket, this was the only bus available. If some lesser class had been available I may have opted for that even though Mom wanted me to travel by Volvo.
Anyway, here I am at the CMBT, Chennai looking eagerly for my bus. Reminds me of the horrible time I had at the Majestic in August when I was to leave for Tirupati. But the crowd here is not a quarter of what it is in Majestic and thankfully Chennai is not Bangalore. After some guidance from a friendly conductor I locate my bus parked at the end of the platform. The conductor is busy helping passengers with their luggage. One over-eager guy keeps pestering him about something till he finally gives him a stare to get rid of him. I get the ticket checked and board the bus. Not many have arrived yet. Obviously not everyone is as cautious as me.
The bus starts moving and the over-eager passenger takes the seat next to me. Not a very good start, I say to myself. I just hope he doesn’t talk too much. I hate conversations with strangers while traveling. Just give me a window seat and I can keep shut for days on end. The seat is nice and comfortable and I expect it to be pushback. Yes, it is pushback. My neighbor pushes his seat back and makes himself comfortable. I now start looking for the lever on my seat. I find a button with ‘PUSH’ written on it and push it. Nothing moves. Attempt 2: Push hard. Result: Nothing. Attempt 3: Push harder. Result: Ditto. Nothing moves. This is embarrassing. I know it can be pushed back, everyone is relaxing, I’ve paid almost 400 bucks for this, I know the lever that should do it, but its just not happening. So what do I do? Simple, I ask my neighbor. A little reluctantly, he says I’m supposed to push the lever. Wow, what a help that was !!! I’ve seen the lever and I’ve read the ‘PUSH’ written on it. What did he think I was doing all along ? Playing with the lever ?? But no point saying this to him. So I try again, fail again and look sheepishly at him. He doesn’t seem to be interested in giving any more ‘tips’ and goes back to his MP3 player. I wanted him not to utter a word when he sat next to me but when I asked for help, I wanted him to leave everything and only solve my problem. Expecting too much? NO WAY !!!
Anyway, I have resigned myself to traveling till Bangalore and watching the movie being played without being able to recline in my seat. The movie playing is Vivah. I read a Suraj Barjatya interview in the morning and the movie’s a hit. So I am looking forward to it. The movie starts as all Barjatya movies do, depicting the happy families of the hero and the heroine. Initially I like the movie and the characters. Everyone’s so nice and goody-goody type. Amrita Rao looks good in her traditional clothes and her more than traditional Hindi. Nice change from the females in Dhoom, Don et al. But after a while the sweetness of the movie gets kind of boring. Final verdict: not a bad movie but I wouldn’t want to spend 100 bucks to watch it in a theatre.
Meanwhile, the bus stops for refreshment and I finally get the chance to wrestle with my seat in ‘peace’. I catch hold of the lever, push it and miraculously, the seat reclines. Maybe, it realized I was not going to give up without a fight and so gave in. Smart of it not to mess with me.
So now I’m sitting in an air-conditioned bus with a pushback seat, munching on snacks and watching a movie. Life is good!
By the way, there’s a girl in the bus who’s been struggling with her seat for an hour now, even though her neighbor is a lot more helpful than mine.
After a little more than 6 hours, 2 1/2 movies and a largely pleasant journey, thanks to Volvo and Vajpayee( for the amazing highways), I’m back in Bangalore. Considering that a Volvo ride from Chennai to Tirupati may cost around 1000 bucks, at Rs. 390 this one has been a steal.
(The poor girl couldn’t adjust her seat till the end of the journey. How dumb !!!)

my first journal

as would be evident from the subject, this is my first online journal, or rather first journal of any kind, whether online or offline...i once created an account for myself on some blogging site but never got down to actually writing blogs, which is surprising considering that I've always believed I have a gift for writing...aahhh no just kidding, but yes, i wanted to do this for a long time and am happy i've finally got down to doing it.
i remember, after my aztec interview when i went home to Delhi, my mom kept bugging me about the interview and stuff and i finally wrote the interview down as it happened, took printouts and gave it to her. since she had liked it and i thought i had some pretty interesting things to say, i toyed with the idea of writing a book, yes ladies and gentlemen, a BOOK. But thankfully, the idea never went past the idea stage, though I think I had already decided on the main character, his name, background and his love interest etc.
anyways, i came across this site through a friend and decided to finally give blogging a try.....and if the work in the company remains as it is now, i hope i'll be writing many more blogs in the days to come.....happy blogging to me !!!