Who ever said "best things in life come in small packages.."

well again - after a long long break from bloggin - back here inking my thoughts...

its been a wonderful last two weeks @ Leh ... probably the most adventurous ones of my life ... well the travelougue is due - and will be written in due time (probably over the next one week after i get all the photos and the names of places we went to right) .. tats for later ..

well for now there is something i d want to recount - a picture that wud stay put in my mind for ever - and a statement a friend of my mine mde a couple of years ago ...

Flashback - Dec 2007 Goa, Calangute Beach - me, randolf, Sam, tau, jhaad ... sitting on the beach @ about 2.00 in the nite a few drinks down with a bottle of beer in our hands... looking at the vast strech of water in front of us and the clear sky with the stars on top - we were all a little tipsy and hence philosophical ... this was wen Sam said "I am a person of the mountains - mountains are more beautiful..."

I then thought "everything has its own beauty - wats the point in comparing bro!! enjoy wat u are looking at... " though i didnt say anything;

tat was then - i had not seen Leh - western ghats were the tallest mountains/hills I had seen ..

this incident just flashed through my mind when sitting in the plane on my return from Leh to Delhi as i looked out at the most amazing sight of mountains - white, brown, red, black, green, snow capped - some above the clouds .. some below - with rivers meandering through the valleys and lakes nestled peacefully amidst them ....

Perfect - absolutely perfect;

have attached a few snaps from the trip ... await more as the travelogue unfolds in the coming weeks ..

Monkey Business .... bad for Business

Well back ot bloggin after a long long break ... I have been wantin to write for while now ..
but for the last month or so mundaneness and the routineness of my life and work currently did not leave with much to write about..... and suddenly today out of nowhere this happened -

it was hot, really hot and it was 12.00 noon.. even the coolers were blowing out hot air ... me and my friend had managed to brave the heat and were on the shop-floor trying to collect some data first hand ... we had been down there in the heat for over 2 hours discussing and debating this and tat intensely ...

wen suddenly i heard this sound of water falling on metal sound behind me ... i didnt give it much though first... but then i suddenly thought to myself "i am in plant which manufactures Trucks, then where is water leaking from..?" .... and then I thought.. "man its raining outside and the roof must be leaking.. yaaa its gonna cool down ..."

thinking so i looked up .. up at the roof which I thought was the source of the dripping water... my eyes searched intently for a leak in the roof ... but no I didnt find one ... i kept looking..turing my head a full 180 degrees in the process.. scanning the full roof in the process...

i was stilll looking - seaarching finding my answers doing my "Y-Y" analysis, when my eyes looked into another pair of dark brown eyes staring back at me from up there .... a closer look and i had my answer to alleast 3 of my Y's .... i was staring into a mirror from the past (:-) )... seeing images a few million years old ...

i didnt loose focus thou and was very intent on finding my answers to water on the metal .. i didnt have to look any further.. rather i had to just look a little down from the monkeys face ... and there it was ... it wasnt the roof which was leaking - it was the monkey... monkey doing its monkey business ... sitting on the truss 10 ft above ground and relieving itself like there is no tomorrow ... straight onto a metal part which would very soon be used for making the engine for one of the trucks .....

ummm i thought ... would the guy who bought this truck wit Monkey pee engine be a "The lucky one" whose truck gave 3 times the mileage and was zero maintenance... would this be a breakthrough in automobile engineering... Monkey Pee lubricants ...!! i would have gone on thinking had the monkey not started to move - and continue to pee....

well so i had no option but to run for shelter ... i wasnt frustrated enof yet to start taking showers under monkeys pee ... theres a long way to go before i can think of doing something like tat ...

and so if in the next month or so, if a major breakthrough in truck engineering happens - u all know the secret to it ...

Smoking is injurious to Health

"Smoking is Injurious to Health" .. "Smoking Kills" .... havent we all heard this .. remember that famous ad - "A ciggrate in my hand, I felt like a man" ... lots of research and its been proven scientifically that smokers die a painful cancerous death ... well this is how most smokers die ...

Yesterday, when reading the newspaper, I found out there is another way smokers could die .... burn themselves to death .. :)
The news clipping went like this - A 72 yr old man died of severe burn. The casue of burns had been assigned to ciggrate. The guy was inebriated (sloshed is more the word), and was enjoying his ciggie (who doesnt enjoy the smoke after end of a drinking session), when the guy dozed off with the ciggie in his mouth. As if this aint enof, the guy has a lot of facial hair. The ciggrate dropped into his beard and his beard caught fire ... ummmm talk about coincidences - heavily bearded guy, who drinks heavily, and also smokes, and sleeps off wit the ciggrate in his mouth.
I read this piece and my first reaction was to burst out laughing, read it out to my friend and the two of us laughed and passed a couple of smart ass comments like - " Dont drink and drive, Dont smoke and sleep" etc etc ..
But then it was one of those really cruel jokes, which are hilarious but u are unsure whether to laugh or feel sorry ... at the endo f it all two things i decided on -
1. I ll shave more regularly
2. I ll give up smoking - soon very soon ...

Trip to Mandu and Omkareshwar

I had a nice weekend ... Thou was not feeling too well the whole of last week, decided to go on a trip on the weekend ... it started off by plannin a trip to Khajuraho... the plan didnt materialize and instead me and my friend ended up making trips to Omkareshwar and Mandu
Omkareshwar, on saturday, has probably been one of the sexiest hikes I ve done in a long long time ... a small temple town, with over a million temples and a zillion babas, the place is a heaven for firangs who come in seearch of truth and enlightenment and soul and wat not ... there are lots of sadhus medidating, lots of weed and bhang available and a very very beautiful temple ...
Omkareshwar is a nice little island, nestled comfortably between the Narmada and the Kaveri ... to complete a "Pradakshina" aroud the Shiva temple, which houses the fourth of the eight Jyotirlingas, we need to walk about 8 kms around the hill, along the river and over the hill... which undoubtedly was the best part of the trip ...
Come sunday we were joined by a another coupla my friends from IIM I .. we cabbed it down to Mandu in wat a pretty boring journey, except for the non-stop entertainment provided by Akshat ... Mandu is supposed to be a hill station and very beautiful after rains .. there is nothing much to see there.. except for lotsa of forts (not very great architecturally thou') ...
uploaded a few snaps.. it was my first outing with my camera .. :) and i absolutely love it.. i dont know how to upload photos on my blog space.. help madi ... for the time being watch it on
http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Album.aspx?uid=5763519236598707762&aid=1233048736&sm=emailNotVerified

INDORII TAILS ..

Long break ... had nothing to write about over the past couple of weeks .... supposed to get down to writing this "Tagged by Tagger" post (courtesy galer) ... but everytime i see the questions I realise its way tougher than it looks and then arrive at the natural solution like to most problems in most ppls life - PROCRASTINATE... so writnig an easier lighter but a long due post - on my current abode Indore... and the inspiration to write this post .... a cow or shall we say "THE COW" ... here goes the inspirational tale of "THE COW" -

It was 7.30ish in the evening - dark outside, with a cold winter breeze going around ... me and manju ( my colleague on this project) were in our cab on our way back from Pitampur (60 kms outside indoor) ... Pitampur for people who dont know the place is a fantastic example of what has happened at quiet a few places around India over the last decade - a beautiful, serene, hilly, green and picturisque small town suddenly blowing up into one of India largest Industrial estates.. the place has become big, the people have still not caught on.... u can see the trendiest of cars alongside the oldest mode of transport know to man - the bullock carts ... and all traversing on half baked roads .. with in 5 mins of leaving our office there is market which is always crowded with trucks,cars,bikes cycles, people, dogs and yesss our hero "The Cow" and his brethren .. we reached this spot at 7.35 (see see my math is good 7.30 + 5 min) wen suddenly a paltan of about 101 odd people dropped onto the already suffocated road .. these were saffron clad god-fearing, Lord Ram loving men and women chanting "Jai ram Sitaram", carrying Lord Rams idol who were on their way to a nearby temple and in the process had brought the traffic to a standstill ...
We - me, my friend and the driver were waiting patiently, looking around thinking wen was the last time we had been to the temple, wen a couple of guys on a bike parked themselves beside our car .. nothin changed for about a few seconds.. and then it all happened ...
Our hero cut through the halted traffic adroitly, making his way through the maze till he reached the front where we - the bike and our car was parked ...
and then seeing the road was blocked ahead Mr. Cow parked himself comfortably between the two vehicles .... he then looked this way at us and that way at the bikers, gave us all a nod - like strangers do when stuck in traffic jams after a hard days work reassuring each other that dont worry the days over and the weekend is not too far ...
I looked at it and thought "Man tat cows' got more sense and is more civilized than most people" .. we were all already laaughing away to glory looking at the scene, when something even more hilarious happened ...
After having waited along wit us for a couple of minutes, I guess even Mr. Cow got bored of the wait. He probably said to himself "Wat the hell .. lemme have some fun .. " He gently moved closer to the bike beside him and started rubbing his belly on the pillion ... if this wasnt enof he stuck his tongue out licked the biker and gave out a cry of victory (it went like "ammbaaaaaa" - which probably in Moo-talk meant I win or i screwed you dude) ...
Fortunately-unfortunately, by then two things happened - the traffic started moving and the biker rode off as fast as his bike could take him and I was knocked outta my senses laughing non-stop for about 4 mins ..

We had to leave as the traffic had started moving. I didnt have enof time to thank Mr. Cow for having given me the heartiest laugh in a long time .. but in time if Cows learn human-talk and to use the internet and if our hero comes across this post by chance then well "Thank you Mr.Cow" ...

THE YEAR GONE BY

An attempt at Poetry (not meant to hurt anyone feelings) ..
I stand here in 2009,
Looking back at the year Gone By,
Lots of memories - some good some bad,
All sum up to make 2008 real nice and fine...

It started on drunken high,
Hobbling around the campus with my frineds around,
Parties on rooftops, campfire, music and dance,
And all this in a state so dry ...

It took a while,
to clear up my bile,
By when I had my interview,
They made me an offer, to which I had to say YES

Life was beautiful, with the job in hand,
Waking up late mornings, breakfast at Rambhai,
With bataas, titto, randolf or nisha,
It was when I had my first - Legendary Sutta and Chai...

It was the final term, our last few days,
Of IIMA, of hostel life and College life,
We raised a toast, to Old times sake,
before we all went off on our own ways,

All of us, planned our last trip together
But then, a fate had its own plans in between,
I got a job, in bangalore, in ops..
Something i had wished for in my dreams...

Finally we headed Into the Wild,
No laptops, no nonssense, thank fully no mobiles,
Kaziranga, Bomdillah, Sela, Gangtok and Tawang
It was pristine nature, singng its sweetest songs...

we got back to life, and it was then we realised,
The time had come, for us to leave,
Two year at IIMA, two wonderful years,over..
It was really hard to believe..

Joined work the very next week,
And like a true consultant
Was packing my bags to leave the base
As I was headed back North East, with the first couple of days...

I have travelled a lot,far and wide,
Over the six months, have learnt a lot,
But the best are those days,
Which are spent sleeping at home ...

2008 is over and I feel bad,
I will miss a lot of things- frisbee, soccer, CT and friends,
But dont ask me how-what-why?
i just hope 2009 is as Good as the Year GONE BY ...
- William Wordsworth (muahahaha) ..
I sincerely apologise to any events/incidents which have not been mentioned in this above blog. It is unintended and not done on purpose..