tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84489763608881033782024-03-13T19:39:53.387+05:30Scribbles of a starA lil bit of craziness.... is all thats needed....Arcturushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04306540234684735666noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448976360888103378.post-39067022855023264892011-11-05T20:59:00.002+05:302011-11-05T20:59:43.877+05:30Born in the 80s<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Read this somewhere and liked it. So posting it here:<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">I was BORN in 80's. The last SANE generation! - We are the last generation that learnt to play in the street, we are the first who've played video games, seen cartoons in color and went to amusement parks. - We were the last to record songs of the radio on cassettes and we are the pioneers of walkmans and chatrooms... ...We Learned how to program the VCR before anyone else, play with the Atari, Su<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;">per..................... Nintendo and believed that the Internet would be a free world. - We are the generation of the Thunder Cats, the Transformers, Silver Hawks, Gumby, Highwayman, Manimal, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, fawlty towers and twilight zone - Traveled in cars without seat belts or air-bags - lived without cell phones. - We did not have Play stations, 99 television stations, flat screens, surround sound, mp3s, iPods, computers and the Internet, ...but nevertheless we had a GREAT Time !</span></span><br />
<br />
Thats all folks ;)</div>Arcturushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04306540234684735666noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448976360888103378.post-82251968360537866862011-10-05T17:34:00.003+05:302012-01-06T22:10:35.258+05:30Epilogue (Sar Pass trek)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">The preceding parts:</span><br />
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Part 1:<br />
<a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 1</a><br />
Part 2:<br />
<a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-2.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 2</a></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Part 3:</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-3.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 3</a></span></span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Part 4:</span></span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-4_7951.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 4</a></span></span></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Part 5:</span></span></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-5.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 5</a></span></span></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Part 6:</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-6.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 6</a></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Part 7:</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/10/via-sar-pass-to-biskeri-thatch-13800-ft.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 7</a></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Part 8:</span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/10/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-8_04.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 8</a></span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">Part 9:</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/10/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-9-back.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 9</span></a></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Epilogue:<u></u><u></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Day 11:<u></u><u></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The day we took leave of Kasol, and the Himalayas, and begin our journey to our boring, monotonous, daily life was today for some of us. We woke up that day quite late and went to have breakfast in the hotel where we were joined by all. Remember Nikhi and I wanted to go to river rafting earlier, but didn’t, we had decided to go on day 11(today) and by now everyone wanted to do it too. So in a way it was good we didn’t go then ‘coz now we went with the whole gang :D. The para-gliding got left out though :( Boohoo :’(.<u></u><u></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So morning we discussed our plans and I wanted to buy something from Kasol as a souvenir. Problem was we were all lacking money, we had brought some cash and got ATM cards but but but there are no ATMs in Kasol!!! You have to go upto Jari for that. So with what money we had, Keerthi and I went to the Kasol market to buy some stuff. I got a nice cosy shawl :) and I don’t remember what he got :P and after that he went in search of Ashwyn for some photos and he didn’t join us in the rafting. Nor did Pranav and Kalpit.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">By the time I left Kasol, I had fallen in love with it, it s so beautiful and so nice after all. It was a place I could now reckon with. Sometimes, when I look back, other than the obvious feelings I get of returning there, and the Himalayas, I sometimes feel like I should settle down there or in Grahan eventually :). When I told this to Keerthi later, he was kind enough to suggest an alternative profession for me :P. Kasol has the 2<sup>nd </sup>best hashish in the world and there are a lot of people selling this illegally(maybe) over there. So he suggested that I settle in Kasol and sell hashish for a living :O :O :O. And when I told Shyam about my ideas, he said that he would need a free supply of hashish when he comes next for trekking :P. So if you ever find me in Kasol, I would definitely not be selling anything :P. I think I should probably settle in Grahan and teach at the school there (Like Amir Khan in 3 idiots opening a school in Ladakh :P). Anyways that’s for future to decide :) :) :). Back to where we were.<u></u><u></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We had missed the bus and we booked a vehicle to go to a rafting location in Bhunter (There are several). Since Jai and Rajni uncle didn’t want to do rafting and as the vehicle only accommodated 9 people, Nikhi, Naveen, Shyam, Nirav, Sandeep, Chatur, Yugi, Vikas and me set off. I slept through most of the journey and we withdrew money at Jari and finally reached the rafting location. We kept our luggage including the cameras and mobiles and took only Sandeep’s camera along so we hardly have any pics of the rafting. We had 2 rafts – Nikhi, Sandeep, Yugi, Naveen and Vikas got into one and Me, Shyam, Chatur and Nirav got into another. I don’t remember the level of rafting but it was not a difficult one. We went and the chilled water splashing on you rapidly is an awesome experience. I guess this was the Baes river. Rivers Parvati and Baes combine and then the water flows as Baes river. I can’t describe the rafting experience, you have to experience it yourself to know it :).<u></u><u></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As we rafted, we chatted with our guide or boatman or however you describe him. He is the strong guy who does the actual oaring and has full control. We just do it in some parts as per his directions. He was a nice guy and he told he takes part in rafting competitions :). He said he was from Nepal and he asked us where we were from. For this Chatur gave such a fundoo reply that I still laugh when I think about it :D :D :D. Chatur replied “Bhaiya hum upar se hai, Sar Pass se”. Hahahahahhahahahahhahahaha Chatur had made us natives of Sar Pass just like that :D :D :D. At one point we could get into the water. I don’t know to swim but wanted to get in the water too. So, trusting my life jacket, and the guide I got in holding the rope. If I had found the water chilling before, it appeared warm compared to what I felt now *Burrrhhhhhh*. I came back in the raft along with the others and now no more felt a chill when water splashed :D. We soon reached the end point which is a distance away from the starting point.<u></u><u></u></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-M6D8zAwpAvk/ToxHhQyWJII/AAAAAAAABBM/aCOLsyTLLjQ/s1600/251259_10150290872349289_609044288_8994607_1473940_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-M6D8zAwpAvk/ToxHhQyWJII/AAAAAAAABBM/aCOLsyTLLjQ/s400/251259_10150290872349289_609044288_8994607_1473940_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">After having delicious pakodas here, we set off again but not in a raft this time but in the back side of a transportation tempo :O. It was a extremely bumpy and Shyam the Sherpa hung out of the van for most part of the journey :D and here too, they drive like crazy on the narrow roads :D :D :D. Awesome :D. We reached the starting point, where we met some of our fellow SP22 mates who had come for rafting too. We bid adieu to them, changed(you have to get dry :P) and set off to find our boarding point for bus. We got into a local bus(but missed out sitting on the roof top because there was place inside to stand :( :( :( ). The one thing I remember was the songs being played in the bus were of Hindi movies of the 90s. It reminded us all of the school days since these were the songs we grew up listening to :). We finally reached the boarding place which was some hotel. Keerthi, Sudhakar, Manju, Ashwyn and Neeloy were already here, each with a colourful long beaded string from some part of their hair and Keerthi with a colourful goatee :D :D ). We had dosas there (inspite of my protests ) and soon the buses arrived.<u></u><u></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Sandeep, Nirav, Shyam had decided to go to Manali. Initially, Nikhi and I had this plan too, but we had to collect her luggage from her friend in Delhi and since I had not seen Delhi before, we decided to spend the next day in Delhi before returning to Bangalore the day after. We later learnt that going to Manali would be a waste because it was spoilt with the tourism and we had seen the upper Himalayas. So they bid farewell to us and Keerthi and Naveen got into their bus for Delhi and Nikhi and I got into ours.<u></u><u></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As we left, we were not just leaving the Himalayas , but also a bunch of very good friends. We of course stay in touch :P thanks to social networking and mobiles etc etc but it still isn’t the same as up there in the mountains :). Thinking of the days spent there, always brings a big smile to my face :).<u></u><u></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Thats all folks ;)</span></div>Arcturushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04306540234684735666noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448976360888103378.post-5587042252569408312011-10-05T17:21:00.002+05:302011-10-05T19:38:10.654+05:30Miles to go before I sleep - Part 9 - Back to Kasol<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #504d4d; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><b><i>Disclaimer:</i></b> This is not an instruction on how to do a Sar Pass trek. This is more about the experience of doing it. Each group and each member of each group has their own memories. These are mine :)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">The preceding parts:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">Part 1:</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 1</a><br />
Part 2:<br />
<a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-2.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 2</a></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part 3:</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-3.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 3</a></span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part 4:</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-4_7951.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 4</a></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part 5:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-5.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 5</a></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part 6:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-6.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 6</a></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part 7:</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/10/via-sar-pass-to-biskeri-thatch-13800-ft.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 7</a></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part 8:</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/10/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-8_04.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 8</a></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="im"><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Return to Base Camp:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Day 10:<u></u><u></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Woke up that day thinking we are returning to base camp today. It was mixed emotions. You don’t want to leave the mountains but you want to return back to civilization too and have a bath(It had been 6-7 days since last bath </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">:( ). I remember having noodles for breakfast that day. We formed our lines, took the counts(Our number significantly reduced since many people had left the previous day) and we set off again, chatting, laughing, joking, the usual. We met some locals on the way, there was a man who had his baby tied to his back, saw some animals. One moment Naveen would be behind us and next, he would have reached ahead of us due to his superb trekking skills :). And walking along, we finally reached some civilization.<u></u><u></u></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7mmY1cmkwFg/ToxEOqaR6OI/AAAAAAAABBE/8VRaMrltDwk/s1600/k_IMG_8531.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7mmY1cmkwFg/ToxEOqaR6OI/AAAAAAAABBE/8VRaMrltDwk/s320/k_IMG_8531.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back to civilization</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wZjW__apsqU/ToxEIPMrbKI/AAAAAAAABA4/uRzzv_Xh8nM/s1600/k_IMG_8541.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wZjW__apsqU/ToxEIPMrbKI/AAAAAAAABA4/uRzzv_Xh8nM/s320/k_IMG_8541.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We had to stop to let them pass</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We had to walk through it to reach the Barshani Road head. I found walking on the roads irritating, I preferred the uneven earth. We were too tired by the time we reached the road. The plan was to travel via bus to Manikaren(17km) and then trek to Kasol Base Camp(5km). We decided not to wait for bus and booked a vehicle to take us directly to Kasol(We were too tired!). After we sat in the vehicle, about a 100 meter away was the parked bus and near it we saw the people who had reached earlier, amoung them Shyam, Yugi and Kalpit. I remember Shyam saying to us, “Saalo main tum logon ke liye bus chod ke yahan khada hu aur tum log mujhe chod ke jarahe ho” :D. We waved to him and left. Riding along we finally reached Kasol. Needless to say the accompanying scenery was good, but now that we had seen the higher Himalayas, this beauty looked quite ordinary :O. Its all about perspective after all.<u></u><u></u></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2cg5qbBPIP0/ToxENCM4fUI/AAAAAAAABBA/MplCI_ITxkM/s1600/k_IMG_2004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2cg5qbBPIP0/ToxENCM4fUI/AAAAAAAABBA/MplCI_ITxkM/s320/k_IMG_2004.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Base camp again</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-S596lXcPvNs/ToxEQSxfP7I/AAAAAAAABBI/V2aNXhZg7aE/s1600/k_IMG_2008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-S596lXcPvNs/ToxEQSxfP7I/AAAAAAAABBI/V2aNXhZg7aE/s320/k_IMG_2008.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I saw the base camp, I felt like I had come back home :), even though we had stayed there for only 3 days before we lelft, and this was my 1<sup>st</sup></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> visit to the place. Maybe it was the return to civilization and the crowd :S. Reached base camp all sweaty and dirty, after some time we were joined by the people who came in the bus. After doing the formalities, we chatted with the Field Director, our batch mates and now we were the ones giving advice and tips and tricks to the batches going next day :D :D :D. It feels great to do that. We are after all experienced now :P.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PGyZCy1_M4A/ToxELUzh3KI/AAAAAAAABA8/NF95I2W_TGY/s1600/k_DSC_8496.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PGyZCy1_M4A/ToxELUzh3KI/AAAAAAAABA8/NF95I2W_TGY/s320/k_DSC_8496.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Lunch point in base camp</div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We soon had lunch and now the temperature of Kasol felt quite hot contrary to the cold we had felt when we had come here. But then again, that journey had been from Delhi up to Kasol, and this journey was from Sar Pass to Kasol(13800Ft to 6500ft). The water now was no more chilling, it appeared normal, it didn’t leave me numb now :D :D :D. Due to some reasons, we decided to check into a hotel that night instead of staying in the tent, and the others decided to do that too. We went out and met the rest of the gang in a café where the food was quite okay. We found a nice hotel and Nikhi and I checked into a room while the guys checked into the others in pairs. Amar decided to leave that day itself to Delhi after collecting her certificate. We went back to base camp for the valedictory function(Fire fire camp fire) and had fun shouting the nicknames as each of us were called. Only our group(nicknamed the tent 14 gang) was left for the function. Culprit gave some thank you speech and my name was spelled wrong in the certificate :(. Mithun Sir corrected it and gave me a new certificate and told us to add him to the Sarpass group that we would create for our batch :). </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">10 days back we had come here with with expectations and hopes and of not knowing what exactly we would find. Now we had returned back, triumphed, having SarPass-ed successfully (Well that’s not the right word but I like to use it :P). The trek met my expectations more than ever, except for a snow fall :(. But probably, next time I would experience it. Oh yeah I want to return back again to do it again and again and again:). I have fallen in love with the mighty Himalayas, its pure and unadulterated beauty, the delicious water (though the water taste of Belgaum comes 2<sup>nd</sup>, which I always loved is now replaced with the taste of the roaring Parvati river), the joy of walking through the mountains and the snow, not a care in the world, the awesome friends I made there in such a short span of time whom I will cherish forever :), and as Calvin says, having made my knees green daily so that I need not re-examine my life :) :) :).</span><br />
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<div class="im"><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That ends my tale of Sar Pass trek but the journey doesn’t end here, I have an epilogue left (in which I am going to bore you with my love for Kasol) :P, so bear with me a little longer :P.</span></div><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thats all folks ;)</span></div>Arcturushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04306540234684735666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448976360888103378.post-63528414263876984712011-10-04T21:27:00.006+05:302011-10-05T19:43:30.439+05:30Miles to go before I sleep - Part 8 - Picture Perfect<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #504d4d; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><b><i>Disclaimer:</i></b> This is not an instruction on how to do a Sar Pass trek. This is more about the experience of doing it. Each group and each member of each group has their own memories. These are mine :)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">The preceding parts:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">Part 1:</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 1</a><br />
Part 2:<br />
<a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-2.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 2</a></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part 3:</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-3.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 3</a></span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part 4:</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-4_7951.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 4</a></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part 5:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-5.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 5</a></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part 6:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-6.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 6</a></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part 7:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/10/via-sar-pass-to-biskeri-thatch-13800-ft.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 7</a></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next Destination: Bandak Thatch - <span class="blackcontent">Ht. 8000 ft. (10 kms) 6 hrs<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Day 9:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="blackcontent"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When we came to Biskeri Thatch, we had descended to 11000Ft. It was all descend now(Cmon, you have to come back some day :P). </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next day I woke up earlier than usual and I was off mood that day because I had fever. I wished that that day itself we were in Bandak Thatch and that we were returning to Kasol that day(Fever makes you stupid :( ) . As we had tea all of us gathered and chatted. We knew that Aniket and his brother Aniruddh had left the previous day itself but the details we came to know now. They had to descend until they hit the main road. There was no other way to go and since Aniket’s shoulder was dislocated the guides could carry him in only some places. He himself had to walk most of the time. And they walked all night stopping and going again!!!! He was then admitted to a hospital for a day in Kullu.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wmHcieHSIRs/TosqElSgSVI/AAAAAAAABAc/FOv7jXYCwyA/s1600/ba_1_IMG_8435.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wmHcieHSIRs/TosqElSgSVI/AAAAAAAABAc/FOv7jXYCwyA/s320/ba_1_IMG_8435.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Biskeri Thatch top view</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NrdkcX4sQ9Y/TosqtuqmO9I/AAAAAAAABAg/_849W79UlaA/s1600/ba_4IMG_8447.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NrdkcX4sQ9Y/TosqtuqmO9I/AAAAAAAABAg/_849W79UlaA/s320/ba_4IMG_8447.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Pintya (Our guide)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And we started off again after forming the usual lines and walked, me having taken a paracetamol. The accompanying scenery was beautiful. We walked on green grass with distant snow capped mountains catching our eyes. We walked and walked until we reached a certain point which made us rappel down. What we had learnt on day 3 came in handy now. But this one was a bit difficult than the one we had practiced on as the surface was uneven. Naveen having reached down already gave us tips and tricks while, Shyam and Keerthi had gone to a narrow wooden bridge and sat photographing. Meanwhile Nirav found an axe somewhere :O. Shyam helped us all cross the bridge which was very narrow. On the other end we saw that the river that was flowing had a cover of ice on the mountain side, below which it flew freely. After resting and having the delicious water, we started off again. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FpbHZwegi4Q/Tosq9ZoX2BI/AAAAAAAABAk/6rww9YjCx-g/s1600/ba_2P1030574.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FpbHZwegi4Q/Tosq9ZoX2BI/AAAAAAAABAk/6rww9YjCx-g/s320/ba_2P1030574.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">View on the way </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-z6uzGIYpl18/TosrBLYzQ6I/AAAAAAAABAo/PR_s-l38-is/s1600/Ba_1P1030573.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-z6uzGIYpl18/TosrBLYzQ6I/AAAAAAAABAo/PR_s-l38-is/s320/Ba_1P1030573.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aF-9XvOfH9E/TosrTP0lzrI/AAAAAAAABAw/HM3nhJAhDn0/s1600/BA_3IMG_8465.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aF-9XvOfH9E/TosrTP0lzrI/AAAAAAAABAw/HM3nhJAhDn0/s320/BA_3IMG_8465.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">That white thing above the water was ice</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By now I was too tired due to the fever and Naveen, Keerthi and Shyam(whom I had already burdened with my camera :( ) insisted that I give my rucksack to them. I kept refusing and fighting them off. They gave me extra time to rest. As I kept refusing to allow them to carry my rucksack, once Shyam snatched it which I took back and then finally Keerthi snatched it from me and set off fast so that I couldn’t take it back. I finally had to give in and in a way I was thankful to them. I could walk faster now and save their time too. I was really stupid and silly that day(I am not gonna mention what though :P) and I blame the fever for it :P. We finally reached the camp site and it was nothing like we had ever seen before. Beautiful meadow, distant snow capped mountains, a few tents propped up,. We passed mules and some other animals grazing the grass as we reached this. I was beautiful, mesmerizing, call it whatever, God at his/her artistic best :). <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mmHVXFhojuc/TosrWtb_naI/AAAAAAAABA0/c0sKGdr1r3A/s1600/ba_7IMG_8477.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mmHVXFhojuc/TosrWtb_naI/AAAAAAAABA0/c0sKGdr1r3A/s320/ba_7IMG_8477.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Bandak Thatch camp site</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_RYtybQqnnc/TosrMv7bZrI/AAAAAAAABAs/xzSRaHBwXxc/s1600/ba_8IMG_8519.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_RYtybQqnnc/TosrMv7bZrI/AAAAAAAABAs/xzSRaHBwXxc/s320/ba_8IMG_8519.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Picture perfect. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Can you imagine a more beautiful place? I wish I had a house here and also a helicopter for transportation. Now that I am wishing for things, I might as well wish for powers of Superman to fly so that I can fly on my own and save petrol :P</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Around 30 of our batch-mates had decided to reach the base camp that day itself instead of the next day, including the group leader. This camp was optional and you could still get your certificates on missing it, but who goes there for certificate? This is beauty at its best :). So they went off and only a few of us were left behind and Rajni uncle being the deputy group leader was left in charge. Since it was the last day, the guides(who had carried the luggage) wanted to have a game of cricket that day :). And they asked for spare socks(which I think someone gave of Chatur without his knowledge :D ) which they converted into a good cricket ball. I wanted to play but couldn’t and so along with Nikhi and Amar watched from a side. There was 1 game followed by rain and then another. The camp leader had told us not to sit on the stones here as the locals considered the stones to be God. So we oblidged and sat on the soft grass and as always had an awesome time. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since the population was half , we had extra sleeping bags today and I used one as a mattress :D. Next day we would be bidding adieu to this awesome place to go back to base camp.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thats all folks ;)</span></div>Arcturushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04306540234684735666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448976360888103378.post-50321511189216233762011-10-03T20:06:00.018+05:302011-10-05T21:03:16.280+05:30Miles to go before I sleep - Part 7 - Up above the world so high!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #504d4d; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><b><i>Disclaimer:</i></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #504d4d; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"> This is not an instruction on how to do a Sar Pass trek. This is more about the experience of doing it. Each group and each member of each group has their own memories. These are mine :)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">The preceding parts:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">Part 1:</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 1</a><br />
Part 2:<br />
<a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-2.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 2</a></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part 3:</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-3.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 3</a></span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part 4:</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-4_7951.html"><span class="Apple-style-span">Miles to go before I sleep - Part </span>4</a></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part 5:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-5.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 5</a></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part 6:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-6.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 6</a></span><br />
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</div></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Via Sar Pass to Biskeri Thatch: <span class="blackcontent">(13800 ft.) (09 kms)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="blackcontent">Day 8:</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="blackcontent"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finally the day(night actually) arrived where we were to set out on the Sar Pass. I woke up all dizzy and unsteady that day. Our tent was on a slope and all the blood had rushed to my head as I slept. As I woke up the world revolved around me. I went out and told the camp leader about it. He told me to have breakfast and then he would decide if I should continue. I was determined that come what may, I am going to continue going further. We all got ready and I walked along with Naveen and Keerthi(both of whom were strong trekkers) and they became my guardian angels for the day :). They were both extremely patient and walked slowly with me allowing me to rest as we set off at 4am that day, over-clothed to keep away the cold, with torch lights in hand, walking on the snow with the Sherpas(Nepali sherpas) leading the way. As we moved along we got our feeling of snow and walked along. Soon we were slipping and sliding (atleast I was). The reason for the early start that day rather than the usual 8am(or 9am in case of the day we set off for Nagaru) was that we had to cover the snow before the sun came out. Because after that, the sun starts melting the snow and the foot slips.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8h_Ube3uBPk/TonBxgjxqeI/AAAAAAAAA_8/vpj8L1e-nGc/s1600/S_P1030512.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8h_Ube3uBPk/TonBxgjxqeI/AAAAAAAAA_8/vpj8L1e-nGc/s320/S_P1030512.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Started walking at 4am torches in hand, and left Nagaru camp and clouds behind and below :)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1pBQd8yZTeU/Tonv1v2b1qI/AAAAAAAABAY/UTG5GdUDZL0/s1600/244388_1746420580969_1252434174_1469733_6761446_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1pBQd8yZTeU/Tonv1v2b1qI/AAAAAAAABAY/UTG5GdUDZL0/s320/244388_1746420580969_1252434174_1469733_6761446_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">This particular cloud is called Cumulonimbus cloud. It is almost always associated with thunderstorms. We saw it as we left for Sarpass(Pic by Keerthi)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CbAFQjdGoBs/TonBtA1M4qI/AAAAAAAAA_4/1nOYW_W1MSM/s1600/S_IMG_8412.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CbAFQjdGoBs/TonBtA1M4qI/AAAAAAAAA_4/1nOYW_W1MSM/s320/S_IMG_8412.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">We walked in single lines(Pic by Naveen)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We walked in a single file and we were instructed to put our footsteps in the same places where the guide had put his. They know the way best and it is important to follow this when walking on snow since you cannot predict what was below you. As we walked we were awestruck by the beauty, we saw the sky had some orange clouds(</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cumulonimbus </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> ) and yeah, now we were above the clouds :) :) :). The feeling is awesome, over-whelming :). On and on we walked. Today Sudhakar, Manju and Shyam had volunteered to come last. Soon people were slipping and falling on the snow and so did I. Each tiem one of the Sherpa guides helped me up and he was a really nice guy. I fell a lot of times that left certain parts of me numb and cold! We finally reached the part where it was all snow (clean snow :) ) and the guides gave us some time to enjoy the beauty, photograph and play in it .<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gofL88fu2lo/TonB-fbBRZI/AAAAAAAABAE/YnlFMMId0Dk/s1600/256657_1744659816951_1252434174_1467605_591375_o+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gofL88fu2lo/TonB-fbBRZI/AAAAAAAABAE/YnlFMMId0Dk/s320/256657_1744659816951_1252434174_1467605_591375_o+%25281%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">One of my favourite pics of the trek. Clicked in a single shot by Keerthi and planned well by him. (Ofcourse Chatur wanted to do something different so he attempted to go in the snow instead :D )</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="blackcontent">Some history before we continue: </span>As per the local accent, Sar means a lake and while trekking, across the route from Nagaru to Biskeri Ridge, we have to cross a small frozen lake known as Sar. Hence this destination named<b> Sar Pass</b> (which also happens to be the name of the trek).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So back to where we were. We clicked crazy photographs, Naveen did an awesome single hand somersault, I poked my wooden stick in Pranav like a spear and Keerthi directed and clicked an awesome photograph. Off we went again with hopes to cover maximum snow before 8am. As we walked I slipped a lot of times and fell. I remarked to the guide that I was falling many times than others he said “Par barf pe girne mein toh maza aata hai na madam :)”. Now when I look back I am glad I fell so many times, it was a nice and different feeling (but numb too), but that was the only day I could experience that :). And I enjoyed myself tremendously :). How lucky he was that he could play in the snow every year!!!! As the guide helped me cross a particularly slippery bit of snow(I still hadn’t got my footing on snow) I said to him “Aap bhi sochte honge hum kahan se aate hain, hame toh barf pe chalna bhi nahi aata” to which he replied with a smile, “Aap log aate hai toh hame kaam milta hai”. Thus chatting with him, we reached the resting point where we had lunch(which was some of the rock found amidst the snow). Today’s lunch was something different – some biscuits and other high calorie snacks(The daily food was high in calories too. We were advised throughout the trek to have liquids and sweets a lot). C’mon you can’t expect to be given parathas at 4am in the morning. Maybe I haven’t mentioned this before – the camp leaders, sirs who teach rock climbing, cooks etc are volunteers :). Hats off to these people, who stay there in the extreme cold so that we can enjoy the 5-star trek. All you pay for the trek is a mere 3050Rs!!!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3LnhoNTDGI0/TonCCi1o2RI/AAAAAAAABAI/P3aVzjy4cZU/s1600/S_IMG_8345.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3LnhoNTDGI0/TonCCi1o2RI/AAAAAAAABAI/P3aVzjy4cZU/s320/S_IMG_8345.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">View from lunch point after having walked this part(the faint line that you can see is made by our footsteps)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After everyone reached the lunch point, we set off again eagerly to reach the surpass sliding point from where we would slide down 80feet in the snow!!! Some of the first batches that year who had started in 1st week of may had a longer sliding distance due to the presence of more snow (A lot of snow had melted for our batch which was at the end of may). We heard that they had reached sliding to the lunch point which was probably 500feet :O :O :O (Lucky guys!!!). I forgot to mention, before we had reached the resting point, Shyam the Sherpa had climbed a small hill and slid down the mini slide. He told us it was awesome. As we went up, one of the guides came back to return the way we had come. He walked down the sloping mountain with 2 sticks :O :O :O :O :O. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-es4u1dyMmCQ/TonE3Acv8gI/AAAAAAAABAM/Lqy92QzzRZ8/s1600/S_IMG_8341.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-es4u1dyMmCQ/TonE3Acv8gI/AAAAAAAABAM/Lqy92QzzRZ8/s320/S_IMG_8341.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Walking towards sliding point</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Trotting along we finally reached the sliding point which was a 100 meter away to our right. As we sat and watched the other people, slide off we realized we were on the highest point of the sar pass trek(I guess) ,a freaking 13800Ft :). One by one our group mates slid down. After a while we set off to the place from where we slid. Soon it was my turn and I positioned myself. As the guide removed his foot, I started sliding down. It was an awesome, out-of-the-world experience(Gosh now as I write about it, I feel like doing it again right now!!!) . I slowed down as I reached where some of them stood to avoid crashing into them.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Check out the sarpass slide video:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9P33E0n8Sk&edit=ev&feature=uenh">Sarpass Slide video</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I reached there I saw a small crowd. One guy, Aniket had got a dislocated shoulder as he slid down :(. Rajni uncle asked me and everyone else who came down if anyone knew how to fix a dislocated shoulder. Unfortunately, no one knew and as luck would have it, there was no doctor in our group. By now Nikhi had come down and she had hurt her shoulder too(thankfully it wasn’t much in her case). Aniket was in too much pain and Rajni uncle, Keerthi, Naveen, Sudhakar, Manju, Pranav (sorry if I missed out anyone) were doing their best to help him in any way they could. They wrapped his arm in crape and did a sling for the shoulder. Meanwhile Shyam was helping the other people who was behind us and he soon joined us. We still had a large distance to cover before reaching lunch point and even more distance to reach the Biskeri Thatch camp. It would soon start raining and also the snow was melting now. As these guys were helping out Aniket, Rajni uncle told me, Nikhi and Sandeep to start moving along with him. The snow was slippery and soon it started raining. A rain the likes of which we had never experienced before. It was all hailstones hitting us hard(It hurts ouch!). I walked along with Rajni uncle and Sandeep helped Nikhi whose shoulder was hurting. Walking in that hard hitting rain is horrible, especially on snow. The added hailstones make the surface even more slippery while the sun melts the snow. I half walked, where it was sloppy, I chose to slide since I found that easier than walking on the snow(even though I was wet and cold). </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-o0WvRNI1f2E/TonQe3E2lII/AAAAAAAABAU/-JAjPQ-U3fk/s1600/S_IMG_8419.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-o0WvRNI1f2E/TonQe3E2lII/AAAAAAAABAU/-JAjPQ-U3fk/s320/S_IMG_8419.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On and on we went, I still hadn’t learnt how to walk on snow and was falling very few steps. At one point I walked along holding someone’s hand so that I could cover the distance fast. We had taken a longer route (due to lack of directions) and reached the place where we could see the frozen lake while Keerthi, Naveen,Shyam, Manju, Pranav, Kalpit and the guides came along the recommended route walking along with Aniket who was walking in pain. They were giving him words of encouragement all the time because the only way out of there was walking. We finally reached the lunch point soaking wet and cold. It was almost 3PM by the time we reached the lunch point because of the misadventure. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">During our orientation, the Field Director had told us that our group will be like our family during the trek. Because there will be no one else on the mountains for anything. This is a fine example for this :). Everyone was hungry and cold and tired, but they all focused on getting Aniket safe to the lunch point where they hoped some medical help would be available. These guys had a tough time due to the hailstone filled rain and they had to constantly move slowly since they couldn’t carry him nor could they allow him to rest for fear of hypothermia. Someone had contacted ahead, and Aniket’s brother and his friends who had come ahead were waiting and they took over from there to the camp site and finally Keerthi, Naveen,Shyam, Manju, Sudhakar, Pranav, Kalpit, Rajni uncle(who was infact diabetic) could rest and we all sat down to eat maggi in the tent. We were all sooooo cold and drenched. I was shivering like anything and Nikhi tried rubbing my hands to stop me from shivering. Keerthi had a headache due to cold and hunger and I don’t remember who else was suffering from what. Finally we set off again, hoping not to hit any more rain. We had had enough of it. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nikhi’s shoulder was still hurting and she still had the cough as we moved on from lunch point to the camp site. She, Sandeep, Shyam, Pranav, Kalpit were all coming chatting while Keerthi made me run a lot as he, Naveen and I went ahead chatting. Oh yeah, Keerthi was wearing his Poncho which made him look like a ghost :D. We finally reached the campsite. And got into our respective tents all wet and cold and had the delicious pakodas. It was very slippery due to the rain and many of us slipped and skidded on the mud as we went to collect water and stuff. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7Nvlkruz_Dk/TonB89RDfoI/AAAAAAAABAA/VtgcqDz_52Y/s1600/S-IMG_8376.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7Nvlkruz_Dk/TonB89RDfoI/AAAAAAAABAA/VtgcqDz_52Y/s320/S-IMG_8376.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Night view of Biskeri Thatch (Pic by Keerthi)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Off we went thinking tomorrow we would be going to Bandak Thatch which is called the Switzerland of India, because of the beautiful meadows there. </span></div><div><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thats all folks ;)</span></div>Arcturushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04306540234684735666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448976360888103378.post-35815588717872278452011-09-29T20:53:00.004+05:302011-10-05T19:40:08.770+05:30Miles to go before I sleep - Part 6 - Reaching for the clouds<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #504d4d; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><b><i>Disclaimer:</i></b> This is not an instruction on how to do a Sar Pass trek. This is more about the experience of doing it. Each group and each member of each group has their own memories. These are mine :)</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">The preceding parts:</span><br />
Part 1:<br />
<a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 1</a><br />
Part 2:<br />
<a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-2.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 2</a></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part 3:</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3775a5;"><a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-3.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 3</a></span></span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part 4:</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-4_7951.html"><span class="Apple-style-span">Miles to go before I sleep - Part </span>4</a></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part 5:</span><br />
<a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-5.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 5</span></a><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next Destination: Nagaru - <span class="blackcontent">Ht. 12500 ft. (09 kms)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Day 7:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I used to usually wake up early and so I did again. There was a small stone from which I could enjoy the beauty of nature. I sat there mesmerized in the beauty for a while :). I turned around and saw some other early risers, a couple of them sitting and chatting and there was Keerthi photographing with his camera mounted on his tripod. He and Ashwyn did night outs and captured some photographs of the stars. There was Naveen peeping out of his tent, lying down and capturing photos from his lazy point :D. Soon some more people came there we talked about for a while and then it was time to go again. We formed the lines, took the counts and started off climbing again. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-77_VhU0wOs0/ToSLXEuwd_I/AAAAAAAAA-Q/rbnA42mUf-I/s1600/N_IMG_4256.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-77_VhU0wOs0/ToSLXEuwd_I/AAAAAAAAA-Q/rbnA42mUf-I/s320/N_IMG_4256.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">And so it begins</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the guides carrying the luggage was a very pretty lady and her outfit was very cute :). She carried atleast 4 times the load we carried yet walked faster than us. As I chatted with her, she said it was her 1<sup>st</sup> time through this route too. I asked her how does she manage to walk so fast with all this load. I asked her “Aap thakte nahi hai kya?”. She gave me a very sweet answer, she said “Aap bhi toh padhai karne se nahi thakte”. But I feel people in these mountains really enjoy life more. Today’s climb though short was steep and the degree of the mountain was 70<sup>o</sup> to 80<sup>o</sup>. The climb was mostly zig-zag and we soon reached the lunch point. Here Nikhi caught some signal on her mobile. We had heard that at Nagaru we would get network (after all its at 12500feet) and so we did. After some maggi (oh yeah those people were there here too :) ), we set off again. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GlTX6WlaJUc/ToSLqQ-3O4I/AAAAAAAAA-Y/VkosPpyZcuI/s1600/n_IMG_4330.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GlTX6WlaJUc/ToSLqQ-3O4I/AAAAAAAAA-Y/VkosPpyZcuI/s320/n_IMG_4330.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">At lunch point</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Gtjr0vSz47s/ToSLnLlO2fI/AAAAAAAAA-U/d8TQ0NUaQy0/s1600/n_IMG_4333.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Gtjr0vSz47s/ToSLnLlO2fI/AAAAAAAAA-U/d8TQ0NUaQy0/s320/n_IMG_4333.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">After lunch, we set off again</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We climbed and climbed getting small dirty patches of snow here and there. Finally reached the camp site. We reached early by 3 or 4. Sunset is early at Nagaru and the scheduled sleeping time there is 6PM. We had heard some alarming stories about this camp site that due to high winds, sometimes the tents fly away and people are left holding on to tent poles :O. Someone had advised not to sleep near the end of the tent towards the mountain as the wind is more there (There were some other jokes regarding this but let me not mention it :P). You had to be careful when you went to do any activities since there was more chances of slipping and falling on the slopes and the snow. We had our usual roll call and one of the guys came a bit late as he was attending a call (you know which :P). The camp leader here was a little strict(which was necessary in those conditions) and he almost told this late comer to return back to base camp :O :D :P. Things got normal after that(i.e., if you call shivering in the cold normal :P) and he gave us the usual instructions. Here the water was available only as long as sunlight was available since it was melted snow(under sunlight). So he told us to stay away from the snow for certain activities. We were now covered in clouds (Oh yeah you can touch the clouds :P ) as we had expected ever since seeing this from Padri camp.</span></span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lEcTZFZZlh8/ToSMKdxUEkI/AAAAAAAAA-g/doLvKNgHxSg/s1600/n_IMG_4350.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lEcTZFZZlh8/ToSMKdxUEkI/AAAAAAAAA-g/doLvKNgHxSg/s320/n_IMG_4350.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Nagaru camp</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E7MBKxTZz68/ToSMN3doDXI/AAAAAAAAA-k/PXZquL8He6Y/s1600/n_P1030490.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E7MBKxTZz68/ToSMN3doDXI/AAAAAAAAA-k/PXZquL8He6Y/s320/n_P1030490.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Still Nagaru camp(The white stuff you see above the ground is clouds)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We wanted to play in the snow and wanted to make a snowman. So Sandeep, Keerthi, Kalpit and I went to make a snowman while Pranav watched from a side. As I was making it, I remembered all the awesome snowmen Calvin makes :D. We had hardly done anything when the camp leader called us off for something. Then Chatur got stuck in snow because he went in with slippers :D :D :D and Kalpit and Pranav pulled him out :D.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is how Pranav describes it:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"are woh gaya tha ghumne (aisa usne bola) aur kahi bich me jaake atak gaya, due to his CHAPPAL..<br />
and so he called for (little) help...<br />
somehow, we managed tht.. becoz we were all working on our SNOW-MAN<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #888888;"> </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: black;">hum (as obvio.) shooe pehan ke gaye. :D extra lakdiyaan lekar.. all was complete in clouds.. and giving him sticks, he finally came out. :D"<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="blackcontent"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></o:p></span><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-30NUHMZqgDI/ToSMG_Kg9vI/AAAAAAAAA-c/hV6t3K04tIs/s1600/n_IMG_4349.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="119" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-30NUHMZqgDI/ToSMG_Kg9vI/AAAAAAAAA-c/hV6t3K04tIs/s320/n_IMG_4349.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">At Nagaru camp</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We came back and chatted with the camp leader. He told us that when SP1 and SP2 batches came, the Nagaru camp site was covered in snow completely and they had to turn back to base camp without going to Sarpass. Some other batch experienced snowfall (we didn’t :( :’( *Boohoo* ). He also told that the next day a guide and 2 Nepali Sherpas would be accompanying us through Sarpass. The sherpas we learned were a very strong breed of Nepalis who could carry even 2 humans on their shoulders :O :O. Our Sherpa, Shyam was very eager to meet the real sherpas :D. We went to bed early that night(shivering ofcourse) because we were scheduled to wake at 2 the next day, have breakfast at 3a.m(or 3.30am) and set off at 4am on the snow in torchlights!!!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So we got zipped up inside our sleeping bags(the temperature that night was 1<sup>o</sup> or 0<sup>o</sup> celsius) awaiting the day we would cross Sarpass(as this trek was called) looking forward to the big adventure. Little did we know that there would be a mis-adventure waiting someone too!!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">P.S: Yay I finally managed to write a small post but the post on Sarpass is probably gonna be the longest…</span></div><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thats all folks ;)</span></div>Arcturushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04306540234684735666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448976360888103378.post-39717745860368049262011-09-28T21:26:00.006+05:302011-10-05T19:40:31.819+05:30Miles to go before I sleep - Part 5 - Camping at 10700ft<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #504d4d; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><b><i>Disclaimer:</i></b> This is not an instruction on how to do a Sar Pass trek. This is more about the experience of doing it. Each group and each member of each group has their own memories. These are mine :)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Droid Sans'; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">The preceding parts:</span><br />
Part 1:<br />
<a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 1</a><br />
Part 2:<br />
<a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-2.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 2</a></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part 3:</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3775a5;"><a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-3.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 3</a></span></span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Droid Sans'; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part 4:</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-4_7951.html"><span class="Apple-style-span">Miles to go before I sleep - Part </span>4</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next destination: Ratapani <span class="blackcontent">– Ht. 10700 ft.(12 km)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Day6:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After promising to keep the post on Padri short and failing miserably I am making no such promises now, so you have to bear with my blabbering.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Though the YHAI website mentions this trek to be 7km, the information is wrong. The field director at base camp had informed us that it is 12(or 13 km). So after the usual morning activities of handing in the sleeping bags and forming a line, we set off to see what that day had to offer :). Off we went knowing that today’s climb was the longest and the most strenuous and hopes of catching some snow (it would be dirty of course but I got excited all the same, which later got me in trouble that day). The day started as usual - walking, slipping, talking, joking, teasing each other, we went up and down, taking breaks and starting again. We had our usual accompanying scenery, pine trees(I guess), the roaring Parvati river, glimpses of snow capped mountains. Sometimes, I felt that, after a while all mountains start looking the same but that’s not true. Each view is amazing:). <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4n07z9hDJpi-_kubfFpluFRGsQVvbnh6FNWxqSEzvenowP1ahvTO3Lo8WCwPxOdXNoQp2uk6TOfL1WiuFJ9PNj4DYkJzGjY1hGIMnbRZTFqcYAQWM_ZVJIAIyhB36-W4FL5wZt1c0S-Ou/s1600/R_IMG_7789.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4n07z9hDJpi-_kubfFpluFRGsQVvbnh6FNWxqSEzvenowP1ahvTO3Lo8WCwPxOdXNoQp2uk6TOfL1WiuFJ9PNj4DYkJzGjY1hGIMnbRZTFqcYAQWM_ZVJIAIyhB36-W4FL5wZt1c0S-Ou/s320/R_IMG_7789.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Photo by Keerthi</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After the long and treacherous walk, we finally reached the lunch point which had 2 yellow tents propped up. It had just started to rain by the time we reached there and got into one of the over-crowded tents for cover none too soon. We got in and it started raining hard, hitting hailstones all the while. Not having had lunch yet we gulped down hot maggi which those amazing people staying at that point provided. It’s a wonder how they manage to live there in those conditions. It rained our usual hailstones, hard for almost an hour or so. We sat there barely able to move and finally when it stopped raining we came out. It was cold. We were after all nearing 10000ft. At a particular position in the other tent, Naveen had got a single line of network on his mobile. When Nikhi told me about it, I went to give a call to my mom and dad. The last mobile signal I had got was at Kasol base camp. Poor Naveen was sitting in a particular position and he couldn’t move an inch, else he would have lost network. So using his headphones, all of us made the calls :) while he didn’t move a muscle. A hot glass of tea later all of us set off again towards Ratapani.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvvf9_tuMvmh9QU-6HBiT2Fvm7GrMRGf_NF2mFltOIWSNrqjLwL6it8uFOe348FIhc2n5MMvS8ZbCEFB3qBrd0931n9i70RzZbaBCAmcQEDu1RawPSFfla66QExYTB7kayG3LHCy7XuB0T/s1600/R_IMG_7841.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvvf9_tuMvmh9QU-6HBiT2Fvm7GrMRGf_NF2mFltOIWSNrqjLwL6it8uFOe348FIhc2n5MMvS8ZbCEFB3qBrd0931n9i70RzZbaBCAmcQEDu1RawPSFfla66QExYTB7kayG3LHCy7XuB0T/s320/R_IMG_7841.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">At lunch point after the rain(Photo by Keerthi)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="blackcontent"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">En route, we finally found our 1<sup>st</sup> small patch of snow at a side. It was dirty and those before us had struck their wooden sticks in it as they passed. I couldn’t help but do the same :). We had been warned about the birds that fly at this height. And we saw eagles(I think) flying at our level or below us. The climb was mostly uphill today and we moved on until we came to a stretch of land. We had to cross this land, climb up on the rocks and climb down to reach the campsite. I am not an animal lover nor do I hate them. By today I too had started liking our dog Pintya :). She was our guide. As we walked across the stretch of land, another shepherd dog came towards us. The guys already loved Pintya(Weird name for a dog I know :P ) and they petted this new comer too. As soon as I saw him I petted him too, he was so rich, so beautiful, a shining black dog. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXD1KzILG5l_-_dAr8j3sPv5epYj1COTlYZ5Gd8OKfApvbc72Oad_03BnPUu2m8hOTEjB4JyREEWernpIQpeMcWpVQLzpZ19rwjExIFsJl5Hx1h8DhzY1KcHq96jZOwyeUSMI6hFc9ElEl/s1600/shhep+chase.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXD1KzILG5l_-_dAr8j3sPv5epYj1COTlYZ5Gd8OKfApvbc72Oad_03BnPUu2m8hOTEjB4JyREEWernpIQpeMcWpVQLzpZ19rwjExIFsJl5Hx1h8DhzY1KcHq96jZOwyeUSMI6hFc9ElEl/s320/shhep+chase.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The sheep chase (Pic by Shyam)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To our right about half a km away was a huge triangular patch of snow at the foot of the mountain. This was probably the patch of snow we had seen from Padri camp. I wanted to touch it even though I knew next day we would hit a lot more snow. Nikhi had developed a cough that day due to the cold and it was irritating her like hell. So she waited with Shyam while I ran towards the snow. Near the snow were around 20 sheep grazing the grass. I passed them and reached the snow and trod on it. I touched the snow(it was cold, what else did you expect :P) but it made me happier to touch it :). I took a fistful of snow and threw it up in the air and turned back reluctantly to continue on (I was excited at the prospect of snow, remember my childhood wish?). When I had reached the snow I had seen about 10 sheep grazing above in the mountains. I turned back and started walking towards towards Nikhi and Shyam (who was photographing as always). As I was walking, I heard the “meih meih” of sheep. The sounds increased in volume and I turned and saw more sheep coming out of the mountain and from the plane land and all of them started running towards me. I too started running, as more sheep joined in(I don’t know where they were hidden before this :O) and they were all running towards me :S. I didn’t know what to do, I panicked a bit (what if they all come and surround me and knock me over???) and at the same time I was feeling very funny and so I was laughing as I ran away from them. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some of my trekking friends who had started climbing had stopped to see me being chased by sheep (I learnt later that they were cheering me on though I didn’t hear it) and Nikhi and Shyam were howling with laughter when I reached them. I was relieved but I was laughing hard too :D. By then a shepherd lady had come and she was taking the sheep back towards the mountains but she did give me dragger looks and gave me a lot of galis in her native tongue which I luckily didn’t understand. From then on, along with being nicknamed Hit List , I also got named as The Sheep Girl. I was probably the 1<sup>st</sup> person in history to be chased by a 100 sheep :S. I was the villain who had disturbed their snow. Amid laughter and talks we went again and joined Vikas who was climbing up. From here on we had to climb up the steep rocky surface and then get down on other side to reach the camp. Finally on reaching the top we met the camp leader who greeted us(He was super cool and the best camp leader ever :) ).He directed us to go down towards the camp site and by this time, 2 more of our batch mates who were behind us were surrounded by the sheep I had brought :D.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUaDmZ3KShsIjjIrpXtGfhfBQpw1TJfNqVgynsUWpWU2RmqqM47NqDwm0iXHPZZUFfwrlQHMEh8TAvLX1q54x6fH61ztRCRS9D6mrqLz2NEpIJfbBz6Jra_-NA4TRy-89C3eppTupGnTTC/s1600/R_IMG_8271.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUaDmZ3KShsIjjIrpXtGfhfBQpw1TJfNqVgynsUWpWU2RmqqM47NqDwm0iXHPZZUFfwrlQHMEh8TAvLX1q54x6fH61ztRCRS9D6mrqLz2NEpIJfbBz6Jra_-NA4TRy-89C3eppTupGnTTC/s320/R_IMG_8271.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Ratapani campsite (Pic by Naveen)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQhqxQ4l-b-Nbi4dWpT0LonHFM3PLHLADkTB0ryF2l_NCFPpx_JOfy9j40Ajz6umw6XEjiNOG4P3pecHHZrQpqw6O6w3mir0HWRWE3Fknd7vUI4vtSMA3yY96uwurI2-QVCZcj1hZENTjU/s1600/R_P1030473.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQhqxQ4l-b-Nbi4dWpT0LonHFM3PLHLADkTB0ryF2l_NCFPpx_JOfy9j40Ajz6umw6XEjiNOG4P3pecHHZrQpqw6O6w3mir0HWRWE3Fknd7vUI4vtSMA3yY96uwurI2-QVCZcj1hZENTjU/s320/R_P1030473.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">I captured this pic the next morning</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We reached the campsite and after throwing our rucksacks in our tents came out to have tea and some snacks. Sandeep had come earlier to have oxygen from the oxygen cylinder :D. As opposed to the customry forming of lines after reaching the campsite to take the count of members, the cool camp leader told us we could sit and relax and have the count there itself. He also gave us the usual tips and told us that that after the long trek that day, next day’s trek to Nagaru would be the shortest one. He warned us to be careful at night because sometimes bears or snow leapords would come. We saw none of these though :( (I was secretly hoping to see one). He also told us that we were supposed to receive paneer pakodas that day but didn’t because the supply had not come (Told you they give too much food to eat). We all sat and saw the awesome sunset. It was ‘<span style="line-height: 115%;">possessing beauty; aesthetically pleasing’ (I used a thesaurus to stop using the word beautiful :D ). As I said before, any words used to describe it, any pic used to capture it will not do it full justice. You have to be there to see and experience it. We sat there, lost in the beauty of nature and we all did a jump on the mountains (I didn’t reach high as the others :( ). <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsDgjokxwgP6_WosroclJHvZLSYYi4BtmFQAg2cUwDXBu_HXo92BBct6y5N-I7pXQ0k0ui32vKBzv-4izJ_5eo9YyQ1Jo14uYX5JzgYcrrmQ5tzV_fh5vC6vqL31UlGsC_yDJ_SejS11aU/s1600/R_P1030472.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsDgjokxwgP6_WosroclJHvZLSYYi4BtmFQAg2cUwDXBu_HXo92BBct6y5N-I7pXQ0k0ui32vKBzv-4izJ_5eo9YyQ1Jo14uYX5JzgYcrrmQ5tzV_fh5vC6vqL31UlGsC_yDJ_SejS11aU/s320/R_P1030472.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Sunset</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Soon we had dinner after with the usual talks and jokes and teasing. By now, we recognized people not only by names but also clothes(c’mon what do you expect when people are wearing the same clothes for 3 days :P ). And off we went to get zipped in our sleeping bags, at a height of 10700 feet. Wearing thermals was a must in addition to the usual woolen socks, gloves and caps. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next day was one of the most awaited days (each day was awaited) as we would be reaching the famed Nagaru camp which had snow and about which we had heard some funny yet somewhat alarming stories.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thats all folks ;)</span></div>Arcturushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04306540234684735666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448976360888103378.post-83452473188158545582011-09-27T21:22:00.007+05:302011-10-05T19:40:51.066+05:30Miles to go before I sleep - Part 4 - Padri at 8900ft<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #504d4d; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><b><i>Disclaimer:</i></b> This is not an instruction on how to do a Sar Pass trek. This is more about the experience of doing it. Each group and each member of each group has their own memories. These are mine :)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">The preceding parts:</span><br />
Part 1:<br />
<a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 1</a><br />
Part 2:<br />
<a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-2.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 2</a></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part 3:</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3775a5;"><a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-3.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 3</a></span></span></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next Destination : Padri - <span class="blackcontent">Ht. 8900 ft. (10 kms)</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Day 5:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I completed writing about Grahan(I forgot to mention - <span class="blackcontent">Ht. 7700 ft. (09 kms))</span>, I thought the post on Padri would be small, that nothing extraordinary had happened that day. But I had forgotten the most unexpected event that happened that evening. I will come to that when time comes. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By now we were accustomed to sleeping in the tents and woke up the next day feeling fresh. After doing the default activities of the day, we had tea and handed over the sleeping bags and the rugs, then had breakfast (Forced to eat, c’mon you can’t feel hungry so early but have to eat to have the energy). One of the Bhabhis of our tent was suffering from fever the previous day and as she was unwell, she and her husband decided to go back to Kasol with a guide and withdrew from the trek. So we were reduced from 52 to 50. The two [Sardar] uncles (guess I haven’t mentioned them before) and another guy decided to hire guides to carry their rucksacks for them. We formed the usual lines (rest of us carrying our own rucksacks) when counts are taken and off we set again.</span><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The guide(I think his name was Ramlal) was a nice uncle and we chatted with him as we started. The distance to Padri is scheduled to be covered in 5 hours though we always exceed it. I asked the guide how much time would he take and he said climbing up would be 2 hours and coming back down 1 hour :O :O . Now the distance to Padri was 10 kms but it involved going downwards a Km and a half before we start rising up again. It had rained heavily the previous day and the muddy ground was just too slippery. Walking became pretty slow as the people in front moved over the more slippery places more cautiously. As we waited for the line to move, Keerthi and Naveen called to me and asked “Do you want a red bull?”. I knew it was some joke and when I turned, they pointed to a bull that was coming running. :P</span><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I slipped a lot of times as we went downwards due to the muddy path and was unsure of my footing. Finally Shyam came to the rescue (He is a Sherpa and the slippery mud doesn’t work on him) and saved me from falling numerous times. By the next day he had helped me so many times that I had to take him off my hit list :) :(. Finally we reached the river below and had a refreshing drink and filled our bottles. The water of Parvati river is delicious. It is so sweet (not the sugary sweet, you know what I mean) and pure and unadulterated. It tastes just awesome. That water is life. Off we went again following the guide’s path, talking, joking, discussing random things, photographing, taking short breaks, having glucose (Its very important to carry glucose). Finally reached the lunch point. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QgZM2kEaGFo/ToHt00pDKwI/AAAAAAAAA9E/HueLyf9JLsI/s1600/IMG_4067.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QgZM2kEaGFo/ToHt00pDKwI/AAAAAAAAA9E/HueLyf9JLsI/s400/IMG_4067.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Top half snow, bottom half water(Pic by Shyam)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bkmwlsLRYQw/ToHuAgCV-RI/AAAAAAAAA9I/m4b74XElMoc/s1600/P1030379.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bkmwlsLRYQw/ToHuAgCV-RI/AAAAAAAAA9I/m4b74XElMoc/s400/P1030379.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The trees struck by lightning</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At lunch point, we could see a distant mountain partially covered in snow. The amazing thing was half the mountain was snow and from that point downwards the snow melted and flew down as water :). There were a few trees struck by lightning. There was 1 tree which was hollowed on 1 side because it was struck by lightning but it was still alive and had his branches green filled with leaves :). Amar, Nikhi and I set off again but after covering a distance I realized that I had forgotten my wooden stick(A stick is a life line here ). So I told Amar and Nikhi to carry on and I went back for my stick. After getting the stick, I set off again with Sandeep, Vikas and Shyam. As the campsite was only a little distance away, we hoped to reach it before it started raining again. Alas that didn’t happen but the rain we were caught in was not as much as yesterday when we were trekking and soon reached the campsite. We got into our respective tents and soon heavy rains started pouring.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KjYWT-pbo7A/ToHuti4puII/AAAAAAAAA9M/_Z0xX-Qx48w/s1600/IMG_4080.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KjYWT-pbo7A/ToHuti4puII/AAAAAAAAA9M/_Z0xX-Qx48w/s400/IMG_4080.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Padri campsite with the mighty mountains in the background (Pic by Shyam)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lDIOEmKm4y8/ToHvOHFwQlI/AAAAAAAAA9Y/HshipwuYuow/s1600/IMG_7621.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lDIOEmKm4y8/ToHvOHFwQlI/AAAAAAAAA9Y/HshipwuYuow/s400/IMG_7621.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The mules grazing (Pic by Keerthi)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The rains in the mountains are fast and hard and accompanied at that height and above by hailstones. From my tent door flap I saw the rains and the hailstone, caught a few hailstones. It looks so nice :). When it soon stopped raining, Nikhi and Amar along with the some other girls chose to remain inside the tent due to the cold(They would come out soon though ;) ) and I felt just the opposite. I wanted to be outside as much as possible enjoying the mesmerizing beauty of the mighty Himalayas :). If it was beautiful before, after the rains it looked even more beautiful. There were some mules grazing away and the view of the mountains looked majestic. It was larger than life :). Any words I use to describe it would do it injustice. The image is still stuck in my mind :) so beautiful (I know I am using this word a lot), so mighty, partially covered in cloud, oh yeah the clouds are at the same level as peak of mountains or below. The simplest comparison I can give is this: I had only seen snow capped mountains in movies before so imagine sitting in a theater and the movie screen multiplied by 10 in height and by 10 in width and imagine the mountains on it. But more real and more beautiful and you are there smelling it, seeing it for real :) :) :).</span><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I turned and I saw Pranav sitting on a rock, writing something in a notebook (Probably a love letter to Pintya :P ), there was Shyam clicking some snaps and further were Naveen, Keerthi and Manju. Keerthi with his 2 kg tripod was capturing the mountains(I still didn’t know then about his craze and talent for photography :) ). As we stood there watching and talking, soon we saw a white bull coming in our camp site and a black bull which belonged to the camp site started fighting with it(or was it the other way around?). It caught all our attention. By now Nikhi and Amar had come out too and we witnessed this awesome bull fight. It was incredible, it went on for a while, watched by us and other bulls some of which were kid bulls. Manju went dangerously close to a rock near where the bulls were fighting, clicking away and Keerthi was lost in photography too. Meanwhile, Pranav who had Keerthi’s mobile bet the mobile(without Keerthi’s knowledge :D ) saying that the black bull will win. The camp leader told us that whenever the white bull came the black bull would drive it away, it was possessive of the camp site. Finally the incredible fight was over and the black bull won :D. BTW we also saw some skulls of bulls there :S.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-A1aYnjg-41U/ToHv-i_yMrI/AAAAAAAAA9c/NJPuZcbSngs/s1600/IMG_7664.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-A1aYnjg-41U/ToHv-i_yMrI/AAAAAAAAA9c/NJPuZcbSngs/s400/IMG_7664.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The incredible bull fight (Pic by Keerthi)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sunset there is quite late usually 7.30pm and it becomes bright early morning by 4.30am or so. We had a debate on that whether this was due to altitude or longitude and from there the topic turned to camp fire that day. Pranav and I had a bet and it finally turned out that I had to give 50 Parle G wrappers to these guys :S. Weird I know :P</span><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The camp leader had told us not to cross a certain point beyond which were the natives who didn’t like interference and they didn’t want us to step on their stones as they considered the stones to be God. He also pointed out the Nagaru campsite which was atop the vast mountains we could see to the left. He showed us how to locate it with reference to the lunch point which was prominently visible. With the help of camera lens we could locate it and saw most of the campsite was covered in clouds! We were awestruck to learn that this huge distance, scaling to the top of that mountain would be covered in just 2 days!! </span><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The SP20 batch which was in Nagaru that day flashed green laser lights at us and we responded in same :D. The camp leader warned us that if anyone wanted to answer any calls at night we should go towards our respective wooded area with a companion to lookout for wild animals and also whistle or sing. After this it was time to get in the sleeping bags. That day I slept at the end of the tent near the door flap. At around 4 in the morning I awoke with a start feeling something against the tent pole. I was scared (what if it was a wild bear, what was I supposed to do? Everyone was zipped in sleeping bags aslee!) but later realized it was a mule grazing the grass nearby :D.</span><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Calvin says, ‘<span style="line-height: 115%;">if your knees</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> aren't green by the end of the day, you ought to seriously re-<span style="display: none;"><br />
</span>examine your life’, these were the days of my life where my knees were literally green and need not re-examine my life one bit :).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Soon we would be starting towards Ratapani, the most strenuous climb of the trek :). </span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thats all folks ;)</span></div>Arcturushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04306540234684735666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448976360888103378.post-18918735449862038862011-09-26T22:14:00.017+05:302011-10-05T19:39:24.443+05:30Miles to go before I sleep - Part 3 - Grahan, here we come<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #504d4d; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><b><i>Disclaimer:</i></b> This is not an instruction on how to do a Sar Pass trek. This is more about the experience of doing it. Each group and each member of each group has their own memories. These are mine :)</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The preceding parts:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part 1:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 1</a></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part 2:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-part-2.html">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 2</a></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next Destination: Grahan</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Day 4:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our rucksack consisted of just a pair of extra clothes (I was shocked when I was told that that was all the extra clothes one needs to carry for 6 days :O), the inner sheet to be put in sleeping bags which we would get in each of the camp sites, poncho, loads of sweaters and woolens, water bottle, torch, lunch box... ah now I dont remember the list.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The field director called this a Five star trek as all we have to carry are our rucksacks. We need not carry tents, sleeping bags, utensils etc.</span>The experienced trekkers called it a trek of level way above medium and a little below difficult. I am taking their word for it. </span><br />
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<pre style="white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So here we were all set to go to the higher camp. The 1st destination being Grahan which is at a height of 7700feet. The Field director had told us a fun fact of Grahan(which means eclipse) that the residents of Grahan have never seen an eclipse(grahan). With hopes of what we would see next we set off in a single file while SP23 and SP24 batches cheered us. There was no guide available and all we had to do was follow the single path on reaching the outskirts of Kasol village which passed through the rock climbing and rapelling venue. If there were any forks in the path, YHAI had made sure to mark the right path with a red arrow and in many cases a YHAI was also painted :). We set about getting to know our new friends and chit chatting with them. YHAI always assigned some strong trekker of the group to come at last. The idea was that the weaker ones would not be left behind. Sometimes it was Kirti who had earlier done the Sarpass trek other times it was Shyam or Sudhakar or Manjunath. (If I have missed out mentioning anyone's name, then I apologize for it :) ). </span></pre><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8FrbJHlvlxc/ToCntIdND2I/AAAAAAAAA8Q/31awQw7H2u4/s1600/IMG_3759.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8FrbJHlvlxc/ToCntIdND2I/AAAAAAAAA8Q/31awQw7H2u4/s320/IMG_3759.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We had a view of the Parvati river many times. The taste of the water of the river is simply delicious :) All those people who claim that water is something that is tasteless ought to have a sip of this water!</span></div><pre style="white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
As this was a first big major trek for Nikhi and me, we were initially at the start of the group along with Amar. We were soon joined by Kakpit, Pranav, Chatur, Sandeep and others while Shyam who had skills of a Sherpa in trekking joined us and leisurely walked at our pace, helping us in the difficult parts and did some super cool photography in the meantime. I had just one rechargable battery for my camera (Dont make this mistake, carry some extra batteries.The cold drains the batteries super fast.) The earlier returned trekkers of the earlier batches had given us advice at the recharge-chit-chat joint in the base camp to wrap the batteries in a woolen sock and to put it in the sleeping bag at night. Since Shyam was doing such a superb job at photography, I decided to use my camera on the day we threaded Sar Pass(Cmon I had not experienced snow before) and put my camera away and wrapped the battery in a NEW sock :D. We had had a early breakfast at 6.30 that day and had set off with a packed lunch of parathas and aloo or chana gravy. </span></pre><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eo6EG1IP-6w/ToCo7MHu1dI/AAAAAAAAA8U/shsak7_5Yt0/s1600/blog_IMG_3808.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eo6EG1IP-6w/ToCo7MHu1dI/AAAAAAAAA8U/shsak7_5Yt0/s320/blog_IMG_3808.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We saw these peacefully sitting on the way(I kept thinking these are peaceful but I would be proved wrong in a couple of days)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><pre style="word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">We stopped for lunch before the lunch point and even though I was not hungry I had half my lunch. We had been warned that we may not feel hungry due to the climatic changes but had to eat nonetheless(Listen to the advice of the field director). We set off again and at times were struck by rain. The rain lasted just 5 minutes or so that day and after a break would come again. This involved wearing and taking off the ponchos. Never wear a raincoat while trekking beause it is suffocating. When we reached the lunch point, some people had maggi and I had a tea. Its amazing that the people who served maggi and tea came there and stayed there in those conditions. As someone said that day, paying 40 rupees for a maggi was truely worth it for the conditions in which it was served. We would be meeting these people every day now. After the short break we set off again and finally came to the beautiful village of Grahan. I remember there was a Krishna temple there with intricately carved wooden work. </span></span></pre><pre style="word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal;"></span></span></pre><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Af-mO1KTq7s/ToCpYkOIpvI/AAAAAAAAA8Y/ybiXVS1IE-Q/s1600/blog_IMG_3876.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Af-mO1KTq7s/ToCpYkOIpvI/AAAAAAAAA8Y/ybiXVS1IE-Q/s320/blog_IMG_3876.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><pre style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Grahan village - told you it is beautiful didnt I?</span></span></pre><pre style="word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span></pre><pre style="word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 20px; white-space: normal;">As we passed through the village we met many some locals as our camp site was on the other end of the village. They were nice, friendly people who gave us directions. I was surprised to see a tata sky dish here and there :D. As we moved through the narrow way we met a lady whom we asked how far it was. She said 10 minutes and I asked her "Aapke liye ya hamare liye?" She gave me a very sweet smile and said "Bas 10 minute" :). After that whenever we met the locals and asked how far it was, I always asked whether it was with respect to them or us :D, after all the distance we covered in 5 minutes they covered in a minute or 2. As we passed through the village I realised that this was the only way to reach it(on foot). There were no roads for transportation by vehicles. I wondered why do people live here and almost instantly (probably) I realised the reason- they are happy here :) free from the hustle of the city. And they get snowfall in winter(Last year the snowfall there was 4 feet which I learnt next day). I have always wished since I was a kid that it would snow in my hometown. Alas that wont happen ever!</span>
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</span></span></div></pre><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9L_q3pxkTQs/ToCpm8maR5I/AAAAAAAAA8c/nz0HtgQR-ko/s1600/blog_IMG_3935.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9L_q3pxkTQs/ToCpm8maR5I/AAAAAAAAA8c/nz0HtgQR-ko/s320/blog_IMG_3935.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><pre style="text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finally we could see out camp site with the tents waiting for us :)</span></span></pre><pre style="word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #e5d7b5; color: #111111; line-height: 20px; white-space: normal;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Finally after climbing down, crossing the river and climbing up we reached the campsite! Phew!!! Then I think it rained again heavily. After the rains stopped we came out to see the beautiful(told you, you would be hearing this word a lot :) ) climate. It was soooooo good, so refreshing, so fresh, so nice and again so beautiful :). This was the last campsite where we had concrete toilets. If you ask me what did we do for nature's calls from next day on, the answer is nature's calls have to be answered in nature :P. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I remember having tea and some snacks on arriving there and soon by 7.30 or so it was dinner time. Vikas and some others had gone to the village after tea to recharge their mobiles and camera batteries for a charge (I missed out coz I reached late :( ) and he told us later that the people are really nice :). At dinner time we sat on a rock and had food in torch light. Now I got to know Naveen and Keerthi better. Both of them were from Bangalore too and infact Naveen worked in the same MNC as me. Before dinner, I wanted to put my remaining lunch to the mules. I had forgotten that, someone had eaten it and only a bit was left. So when I opened my box to put it away, everyone saw the quantity and cracked one too many jokes on it. This was where Nikhi told her famous curd rice story :D and got nicknamed as Curd Rice :D :D while I put all of them on my hit list and threatened to push them off the highest point on SarPass. The list included everyone : Shyam, Pranav, Keerthi, Naveen, Sandeep, Kalpit, Sumit, Vikas, Jai, Nirav (Hope I havent missed anyone ;) ).</div></span></span></pre><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-977XBqlxWAg/ToCrEGi4VnI/AAAAAAAAA8g/1zx_amWUbP4/s1600/blog_IMG_3912.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-977XBqlxWAg/ToCrEGi4VnI/AAAAAAAAA8g/1zx_amWUbP4/s320/blog_IMG_3912.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our camp site with Grahan village in the background.</span></div><pre style="word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span></pre><pre style="white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We probably had bournvita after that. Throughout the trek we were given a lot of food to eat. I was actually tired of eating :S. There was 1 small pipe that gave water from the river and we used it for cleaning the dabbas, shivering throughout while using the chilled water. It was time to snuggle in the sleep bags each of us had got earlier. Nikhi hated the bags but I liked them coz they were comfortable though it restrains movement. By now I had become an expert in securing the tent door flap tightly and it became my job for doing it to the girls' tent. And off we went to sleep thinking about the destination next day - Padri :)</span></pre><pre style="white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span></pre><pre style="white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">P.S: All photos in this post were stolen from the photos clicked by Shyam :)</span></pre><pre style="white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span></pre><pre style="white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">P.P.S: I didnt realise that writing about trek to Grahan would become such a long one, I promise to keep the next one short :S</span></pre><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thats all folks ;)</span></div>Arcturushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04306540234684735666noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448976360888103378.post-42935976145703441022011-09-25T02:37:00.032+05:302014-05-31T19:47:18.635+05:30Miles to go before I sleep - Part 2 - Kasol<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #504d4d; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><b><i>Disclaimer:</i></b> This is not an instruction on how to do a Sar Pass trek. This is more about the experience of doing it. Each group and each member of each group has their own memories. These are mine :)</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Part 1 preceeding this:</span><br />
<a href="http://swatithegreat.blogspot.com/2011/09/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Miles to go before I sleep - Part 1</span></a><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Kasol(Contd…)<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">At the entrance of YHAI hase camp</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">All the girls were assigned to tent 11 but we were the 1<sup>st </sup>to arrive. We were soon joined by next character in this trekking tale: Amardeep. Nikhi and I had planned to go river rafting or para-gliding that day as we had the day off. But since river rafting involved dipping in water and as we were prohibited from doing that that day, it had to be cancelled. Since we had crossed breakfast time, we had some weird parathas in a small inn next door and Amardeep set off to Manikaren. Nikhi and I were still deciding what to do and finally set off to Manikaren too. We went in a govt tourist bus and the conductor didn’t take any money from us. One thing I regret is missing out sitting on the roof of the buses :(. Hopefully will do that on the future. The roads of Kasol are very narrow as it is at a height of 6500feet in Himalayas. Most of the times only one HTV can pass through it. The people driving through there do a superb job with a untold mutual understanding of stopping and letting others pass :). Only once did I see a traffic blockage there but more on that later. Anyways, we reached Manikaren and saw the Gurudwara. It was pretty crowded. We clicked some pictures of the surroundings, of each other and a dog :D. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Kasol </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As we waited to board a bus it started raining. I don’t remember how heavy it was but as we saw on reaching the base camp that the snow on the Pin Parvati mountain peak had considerably increased in the evening (I forgot to mention we could see a snow capped mountain from our Base camp :) whose name we learnt the next day). In the bus we met Amardeep and we got down at Kasol market where we went to a bookstall ‘coz the shop name was in Hebrew. Kasol has a lot of Hebrew written all over for the loads of Isrealis who come there. I think after we reached base camp it rained heavily and in the evening, we saw the increased snow on the Pin Parvati mountain top. The temperature dropped and I wore a sweater after years( I hate sweaters). That evening we participated in the electronic camp fire of the SP 21 batch by chanting “Fire fire camp fire”. This was the only thing that was a bit lame. After having hot cups of bournvita, we went to bed. Oh I forgot we had earlier collected rugs,inner sheet and a rucksack.Tried to sleep on the bumpy ground covered in socks and gloves(I don’t remember :S) and we were joined at night by some more tent mates from Mumbai. BTW they follow army like timing and the bulb in the tent goes off at 10. So you can imagine what a mess it was for everyone to settle sown in torch lights. The other members of the girls’ tent was a [Bengali] aunty (I still don’t know her name ) who always occupied the corner and 3 [Gujrati] Bhabhis who were cute to talk to.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">At base camp with Pin Parvati mountain in the back ground</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Day 2:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Woke up early, maybe 5.30 with sounds of a trumpet probably(I really don’t remember those details now :(). We ran (mostly walked) maybe half a kilometer to the exercise ground. Here we did some exercises with the SP 21 group. Among the guys who taught exercises was Laxman Sir whom we saw directing the blocked traffic once. We learnt that he was in the traffic police there :) . I don’t remember the other Sir’s name :(. After that we had breakfast and we bid farewell to the SP 20 batch. I took the video of the group leaving for a uncle who had asked me to do so. He had spoken to me at the mobile charging point. The charging point was where people told stories and rumours they had heard about the trek :D. I heard of a story where 1 guy of SP14 batch fell in Nagaru after reaching the top due to his stupidity and they wasted 6 hours searching him in the snow. The returning batches gave tips too :D. So back to what we did. We went for the acclimatization walk in a single file with the girls leading the way. Two dogs accompanied us of which 1(whom we later named Pintya- charater 4) was to accompany us throughout the trek. The dogs knew the way and guided the ones at a loss for direction. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The acclimatization walk</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Enter two more characters who introduced themselves as Sandeep and Sumit.(I had a hard time recalling these names :D as they later became Pradeep and Chatur). :D :D :D Don’t ask me why. In the end all had nicknames! After we reached the resting point, Amardeep took a nice nap on a stone while Nikhi and I went to the river. Now when I remember it, it makes me laugh. En route we got confused with the way as we saw some mules grazing. So we turned back then were joined by some other people from our batch and taking a long route reached the river. While coming back took the shorter route where the mules were and by then one of the sirs came to see where we were lost. Hehehe. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Reaching back to base camp we had lunch (The food there was so much more delicious than what we get in our cafeteria in office). The water there was ice cold and taking a shower felt like the water was taken out of the freezer. It leaves you numb! Later that day, we had the orientation where the Field director told us all we needed to know. He said we would not be taking a bath now from the time we went to higher camp to the time we came back to Kasol i.e., 6 days :O :O :O :O :O. Our jaws dropped too to the ground and due to the non-concrete ground went an inch or so deep in the earth! He also told some interesting tales of Malana and the history of Manikaren and about Pin Parvati mountain, its 2 peaks being Paap and Punya. We all introduced ourselves and I remembered very few names in the end. But atleast now the faces of our batchmates were known. We had a Keerthi and Kirti in our batch. Funny thing I remember about that was at the end Nikhi said to me “Both Keerthi’s look so similar” and I said “Which 2 Keerthis? There is only 1 Keerthi”. This was the 1st time I met a guy named Keerthi(I knew many girls of that name before), and on 1 single day I met not just 1 but 2 :D. Neither did we know then what a superb photographer he is nor did I have any idea how difficult it would be to get photos from him later :S<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">(Note: Keerthi finally mentioned you :P)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">At tea time, Kalpit(who was obviously gonna become Culprit) the cultural leader along with Ashwyn came along asking if we knew to sing. I told Nikhi was a good singer and these guys asked me to sing as well. I told them if I sing people are gonna jump in the Parvati river next to the base camp, I after all have such superb singing talents :D. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Evening we went out to Kasol village to buy some stuff. I had no idea then how much I was gonna love that place. It’s a beautiful village :). We met some more batch mates then and after dinner it was our turn to perform the cultural event(fire fire camp fire). Along with Nikhi’s solo we sang a group song in which I did lip sync. Keerthi began the event with a nice classical song (will check with him regarding the song and update it) and Chatur told some PJs one of which was on the field director(Hau) :D :D :D. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Day 3:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">After the exercise with SP23 batch, we had rock climbing at which I was terrible but it gave us time to know our batch mates better who were now our friends. By now we knew Shyam(another awesome photographer) who would later become Sherpa :D, Naveen who we later saw was as good as a mountain goat while climbing :), Nirav who became Ghajini :D , Jai Kanth, Rajnikanth uncle, Pranav, Manju, Sudhakar, Yugi, the Mumbai gang, the group from Gujrat etc. Now we had lunch in groups with the new friends we made and one of us kept watch whenever we got hold of a charging point. In the afternoon we had Rapelling which I loved. Evening again was spent in Kasol buying poncho and stuff after we handed extra luggage. I struggled to reduce my rucksack weight (I had taken too much stuff :(). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">After dinner was camp fire organized by SP 23 batch. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We went to bed that night thinking that tomorrow we are leaving for higher camp :).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Thats all folks ;)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Arcturushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04306540234684735666noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448976360888103378.post-9022095040621594272011-09-24T20:43:00.023+05:302011-10-05T19:39:31.918+05:30Miles to go before I sleep - Part 1 - The journey begins<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #504d4d; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><b><i>Disclaimer:</i></b> This is not an instruction on how to do a Sar Pass trek. This is more about the experience of doing it. Each group and each member of each group has their own memories. These are mine :)</span></span><br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #504d4d; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">I had written this little bit (flashback) on 26th July and posted it on 24th Sept so hoping I will complete this in a year's time. I am not making excuses for the delay... I am just proudly lazy :P</span><br />
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</i></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Flashback</i>: I guess it was a year and a half back when Orkut was still used in India, one day when I logged in to my account, the updates showed photos uploaded by a friend. They seemed pretty interesting and before I knew it I was seeing each of them. They looked simply superb. The name of the album was Sarpass. That was when I first learnt of this word(I did not know what it was then).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A quick talk with my friend told me all about it and I was excited. In the next 15 minutes I made a decision that I will go there soon. Did the bookings for last year but due to some reason could not go(Viral conjuctivities and change of Job being the prominent ones). I was disappointed.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then came December and I learnt of Dalhousie trek. Due to some other reasons, I had to cancel going there too. :( *Boohoo*<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>End of flashback</i><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Delhi:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So here I was uncertain whether I will finally be able to go for the famed Sar Pass trek this year. Had a lot of issues(with which I am not going to bore you :P) and when my flight took off for Delhi only then did I feel that yes I am finally going to do this :).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now enters the 1<sup>st</sup> character in this awesome time I had – Nikhi… needless to say I’m the protagonist :P What did you expect this is my blog after all :P. (I could finally go because she agreed to come with me :) ).Nikhi had just finished her exams a couple of days back and I was supposed to meet her in Delhi from where we had a bus booked for Bhunter. As I was waiting to board the flight, Nikhi called me and asked “Is your flight delayed? The weather here is really bad”. I checked the schedule. So far my flight was in time and I hoped it didn’t get delayed for obvious reasons. Everything was going as planned so far until I was 100 nautical miles from Delhi. Due to bad weather a landing terminal was not available. And we circled for an hour in the air. The person sitting next to me was an interesting conversationalist. I forgot his name though :S. He told me about a place called Auli which is supposed to be really beautiful. This conversation has got nothing to do with the rest of what I am about to write but I wanted to make a note of it so that I would not forget the name of this place ;). Okay okay I am not going to divert from the topic now. Anyways, we landed in Delhi with a delay. I do not remember the delayed time(Damn this is what happens when you do things late!) but finally landed in Terminal 3(Aah I remember this :D ). the Delhi airport is beautiful and finally met Nikhi who had come to recieve me with her friend Mallika. We then boarded the Delhi metro (Which is a must ride BTW) and went to her hostel. Chit chatted ate maggi (the 1st of this trip though I didn't know it then :D) and finally went to Cougnaught (err please bear with my spellings) place to catch our bus. After a lot of searching found it and saw that our fellow travellers were mostly honeymoon couples!!! <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nikhi had trouble sleeping throughout the journey. I initially could not either due to the super crap movie being played. It was such a crappy movie that I think its IMDB rating would be -1. LuckilyI don’t remember the movie name so I cant verify this fact. But I did sleep through and the bus drivers to Kullu drive the bus too rashly that at times I was scared that this is the end. It wasn’t though and I absolutely loved the drive. I also remember the super cool long tunnel through which we went in the morning( I woke up the finally asleep Nikhi to show her the tunnel :D ) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There was a slight rain in the morning and as we neared Bhunter I caught glimpse of my 1<sup>st</sup> Snow-peaked mountain :) :) :). <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The trek hasn’t even started yet and already this is sooooo long…. I should probably learn to talk less but this one is gonna be a loooooonnnnng one *sigh*.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zhTGo7ICA-Y/Tn74KX01wKI/AAAAAAAAA78/M6TDhwLYpQo/s1600/IMG_7058.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zhTGo7ICA-Y/Tn74KX01wKI/AAAAAAAAA78/M6TDhwLYpQo/s320/IMG_7058.JPG" width="213" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Top view of YHAI base camp in Kasol</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kasol:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Day 1:</span><br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After reaching Bhunter we got into a white coloured Jeep type vehicle in which was one of our fellow batchmates – Vikas. We behaved like total strangers throughout the journey but got talking after reaching the base camp. The scenic beauty throughout was mesmerizing. Most of the times, next to us was the roaring Parvati river. Finally reaching the base camp we saw it was located at a beautiful location(You are gonna hear this a lot now on :) )and completed the formalities and went to our tents. We were dirty from the ride and it was bright and sunny but we were told we cant take a bath that day as we had come up 6000 feet in a day and our body is not acclimatized to it :O. Little did we know that this is just the trailer. Picture abhi baki hai mere dost!! <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thats all folks ;)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div></div></div>Arcturushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04306540234684735666noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448976360888103378.post-24980709870261153342010-09-19T19:25:00.000+05:302010-09-19T19:25:08.962+05:30I am nuts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_5hb5ewrvZzo/TJYWBMJz4oI/AAAAAAAAARE/ylKm2fZEHo4/s1600/nut.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_5hb5ewrvZzo/TJYWBMJz4oI/AAAAAAAAARE/ylKm2fZEHo4/s320/nut.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The mighty oak was once a little nut which stood its ground</div>Thats all folks ;)Arcturushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04306540234684735666noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448976360888103378.post-15067159904147779982010-05-31T22:46:00.000+05:302010-05-31T22:46:29.270+05:30About Bangalore TrafficI feel going through bangalore traffic is like watching Rahul Dravid play. You ultimately reach your destination but 1 run at a time!!!<br />
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Thats all folks ;)Arcturushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04306540234684735666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448976360888103378.post-34311948030407948802010-01-29T22:21:00.003+05:302011-09-25T17:39:35.214+05:30We are being slaves?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"></span><br />
<pre style="white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; white-space: normal;"><pre style="white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">For the uninitiated, I work in an Indian IT company whose name in particular is of no consequence to this article. Then you would say why did I mention it in the 1st place. Well the whole point of mentioning it is that the company's major clients are non-Indian. We get money from the clients to do their work (or should I say we are cheap.... er labour for them). Anyways my project had been recently changed and so had my timings. I was in the afternoon shift. One day, while chatting with a friend of mine, he asked me why was I working so late these days? I said "The client wants us to work at this time." To which he remarked "Desh ko azad huye 60 saal se bhi zyada hua, lekin aaj bhi hum angrezon ki ghulami kar rahe hai" (Its more than 60 years since our country gained freedom but we are still slaves of the English-speaking) </pre><pre style="white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">The comment was made in a light tone and I too laughed it off. But it struck me somewhere that whatever he said was so profound and true. Yes we were going according to the whims and fancies of the err foreigners. </pre><pre style="white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">Last tuesday was Republic day. On monday evening my team got a mail from my team lead saying "Tomorrow we are working. Please come to office". And why were we supposed to come to office on a day when we had to celebrate being a republic nation? We were supposed to do so because "client wants support tomorrow. So we have to work tomorrow. Cancel all your plans and come to work". I felt sickened on reading that mail. I wanted to say to my leads "Dont you have any pride left for your country? How could you just be a puppet in front of the client and nod your head to everything he says?" but I knew that there was no point in saying this to them who are being brain washed by their client. </pre><pre style="white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">Is this progress? The IT industry gave employment and good social status to lakhs of people in India. While dealing with a foreign client, work with them well and let there be good learnign and sharing. But not at the cost of some things. We should not forget that before being an Engineer, before working for so and so company we are Indians. Be proud of it. If you cant respect your country you cant respect any other place. After all, at the end of the day this is the place we call home. </pre><pre style="white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">Remember this quote: Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. Today we all think that we want to work for so and so company and earn big bucks(Yeah yeah me included). So the least we can do is atleast have self respect and take pride for our nation.</pre><pre style="white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">I read this article from the Economic times today: Responding to a ET questionnaire over phone from Delhi, Sangeeta Gupta, vice-president of Nasscom said: "The animation and gaming industry in India has immense scope to grow. Given the financial meltdown, many western countries are actively looking at destinations like India to develop animation content within <i>moderate budgets</i>."</pre><pre style="white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">Why are we still thinking that we can do the work of other countries. Why are we not thinking that we have the potential to do things on our own? If we have the man power, we also have the brains. We have the ideas. We are not behind. But we go unnoticed. The concept of an animation film was thought of in India around a 100 years back by Dada Saheb Phalke with "The growth of a pea plant". Unfortuantely the project didnt take of. But the point of saying this is that when animation industry started in other parts of the world, the concept was thought of in India too by one of our greatest film makers. If he could think of it back then when the industry was in nascent stages, what are we lacking now? We have access to the same sources of learning. And ideas are born not taught. The bollywood is a huge industry portraying a vast array of movies. Jugal Hansraj recently made Roadside Romeo. True the animation was lacking in certain aspects but he created characters which were very much Indian. Many people could relate to it and it was recieved well.</pre><pre style="white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">One experiment then another and boom - we have our own laboratory where "we" develop things. The work of softwares films etc is being developed by people who are from India, but the credit is not ours. Why are we narrowing our mindset? Why are we being frogs in the well? Its about time we jumped out of the well into the vast ocean. After all, we are the only country having a ocean named after us ;).</pre></span></pre></div>Arcturushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04306540234684735666noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448976360888103378.post-64021059489979666442009-09-08T23:03:00.000+05:302009-09-08T23:07:01.087+05:30My Discoveries and InventionsSeptember 08,2009 11.03 PM<br /><br />I just discovered while chatting with a friend... tht Iron man is female.<br />You ask how? Then here is the proof:<br />Female = Fe male<br />Scientific symbol of Iron = Fe<br />Male = man<br />Hence,<br /> Female = Iron man<br /><br />and vice versa.<br /><br />Now some one nominate me for the nobel prize :PArcturushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04306540234684735666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448976360888103378.post-41768438317733690642009-08-31T01:37:00.000+05:302009-08-31T01:55:03.148+05:30To be updatedIts 1.37 at night and I am not getting sleep. Thats because I slept a lot in teh afternoon smartbrains :P. So, I thought let me rite something I wanted to write since long but laziness made me say "Ahh forget it, some other time ".<br /><br />The other day I looked out of the window of my ODC. Since I was on the 9th floor, I had a good view of the surrounding. My current office is on the outskirts of Bangalore(ITPL to be precise). So you may expect to see a lot of trees around. And there are trees surrounding the office. Lots of them.... But but but there were also a few buildings (offices and other software companies) scattered about in between. The view made me feel like someone had thrown some trash in parts here and there. As if a person has kept their room neatly and someone has gone and strewn things about.<br /><br />To be updated......Arcturushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04306540234684735666noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448976360888103378.post-44657729025695709792008-05-27T21:29:00.000+05:302008-05-27T21:34:55.744+05:30An amazing story I read somewhere.<span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:180%;" ><b style="font-family:verdana;">Disclaimer:<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;">This is a wonderful story I read somewhere. I am not the author. And I do not know who the author is. Would like to read more of his works if I come across them. </span></span><br /><br />Kaalchakra bar</b><br /><br />1975 Jan 1<br />It was about five in the morning. Father (I am not bothering with names) woke up with a start. Many years had passed since he had founded the orphanage. He had named it ' X-Orphanage ', a rather funny name. But looking back, everything about his life seemed funny now. Hearing some noise outside, Father decided to have a look.<br />A child lay there in front of the orphanage. It was a girl. Seeing her abandoned like this in the cold morning, Father felt a sense of anger for the merciless being who had thrown her away like this. He took her in his arms. He would raise her like his own child.<br /><br />17 Years Later<br />The girl had now grown up. She was now staying at a hostel. She met a man and fell in love with him. Soon she got pregnant. But the man disappeared. She was thrown out of the Hostel. Father came and took her back to the orphanage. She gave birth to a girl. During the pregnancy, the girl becomes unconcious, so to get help, Father uses a Time Machine to go 5 years in the future. There he sees a bar called as Kalachakra, He wears a mask, goes inside and forces a bearded man with him back to 1992.<br />But this whole activity is too much for his old age. He gets an asthma attack, so he pleads with the bearded man to help the girl, and goes into another room to take some rest. While he is resting, the bearded guy steals the time machine, and the baby, and vanishes. Unable to bear all this, the Father commits suicide.<br /><br />5 years later<br />Due to some serious health problems, the girl goes to see a Doctor. The doctor examines her, and says with a sad expression on his face, " Adrenalo Sytosis, a serious case of hormone imbalance ". An operation is performed in which the doctor changes the sex of the patient.<br /><br />The girl is now transformed into a man. The man is very depressed because he had lost his child, his father had committed suicide, his lover had betrayed him, he had to change sex and so on. He eventually takes to drinking.<br />One day he sees that a new bar called ' Kaalachakra Bar ' which has opened in his locality. He goes in. He sees a bearded man to whom he relates his sad tale. The bearded man takes pity on him and tells him that he has a Time Machine and that he can use it to change his past. He accepts the gift from the bearded man. He decides to go to the past (to the year 1992) and starts the Time Machine!<br /><br />1992<br />The man arrives with the Time Machine in the year 1992. There he meets a girl and falls in love with her. The girl gets pregnant. The man, unwilling to marry her, leaves the town. He goes to another city, earns some money and five years later comes back to the city where the girl lives. Wanting to conceal his identity, he grows a beard. He starts a bar named 'Kaalachakra Bar'. One day a man came to the bar and narrates a sorrow tale. Out of compassion, he gives the Time Machine to the man. The man starts the Time Machine and goes back to the past.<br />Suddenly a man wearing a mask comes into the bar. He points a gun at the bearded man. He says that he has a Time Machine and forces the bearded man into it along with himself. Taking the bearded man with him, the masked man starts the Time Machine. When they reach the past, the masked man enters a house which contains an unconscious girl, and a newborn baby. Strangely, the masked man leaves the room saying that he is very tired and wants to take some rest. Sensing that the masked man might be psychotic, the bearded guy picks the time machine and the baby and runs away to safety. He starts the time machine and goes to the past.<br /><br />1975 Jan 1<br />The bearded man arrives with the girl. Thinking that it was the best place for the child, he leaves her in front of X-Orphanage. He joins a college, studies hard and becomes a doctor.<br /><br />One day a woman is brought to the hospital. He examines her and finds that its a serious case of 'Adrenalo Sytosis'. He performs an operation in which he changes her sex. One day, fed up with the complexities of modern life, he starts the Time Machine and goes back in time.<br /><br />1968 May 12<br />He arrives at a time of great famine and suffering. Seeing all this, he decides to become a priest and serve the people. He starts an orphanage and names it 'X-Orphanage'. Years later, he finds a girl lying in front of the orphanage. He takes her and brings her up like his own child. Many years later he hears that the girl was pregnant and was thrown out of the hostel. He brings her back to X-Orphanage. She gives birth to a girl and falls unconscious. The father desperately searches for help, but since there is no-one nearby to help him, he decides to bring a person back from the future. He wears a mask, takes a gun for protection and starts the Time Machine. He materializes in front of 'Kaalachakra Bar'. He goes inside, finds a bearded man and forces him to travels with him to the past. Reaching the past, and being very old, he gets an asthma attack. He tells the bearded person that he is going to take some rest and leaves the room. When he returns after some time, he hears the sad news from his daughter that the baby was stolen. Unable to bear the sorrow, he commits suicide.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Swati's Question: </span><br />Where did the time machine come from in the first place?</span>Arcturushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04306540234684735666noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448976360888103378.post-62978249028554740542008-05-03T18:16:00.000+05:302008-05-03T18:17:31.142+05:30Cheetah and Cheetah :D<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_5hb5ewrvZzo/SBxezjeu5cI/AAAAAAAAAEk/5jRmeGSW3KU/s1600-h/cheetah6.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_5hb5ewrvZzo/SBxezjeu5cI/AAAAAAAAAEk/5jRmeGSW3KU/s400/cheetah6.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5196132309869192642" border="0" /></a>Arcturushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04306540234684735666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448976360888103378.post-72895465763014301152008-05-03T18:09:00.000+05:302008-05-03T18:11:08.428+05:30My first doodle on comp :)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_5hb5ewrvZzo/SBxdTjeu5WI/AAAAAAAAAD0/hsZQwnVyMdY/s1600-h/peacock1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_5hb5ewrvZzo/SBxdTjeu5WI/AAAAAAAAAD0/hsZQwnVyMdY/s400/peacock1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5196130660601750882" border="0" /></a>Arcturushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04306540234684735666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448976360888103378.post-82818799038350931142008-04-03T23:30:00.001+05:302011-09-29T23:01:59.036+05:30Who killed Mrs. McDonald?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">1.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Opening scene: </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Narrator: Mr McDonald is in detective JBoss IDE’s office.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Mr : I think my wife is having an affair JBoss. I want you to keep an eye on her.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">JBoss: Okay Mr. McDonald, by the way are you talking about the famous Kazhakuttamwood actress.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Mr: Yes unfortunately. And don’t forget to come for the party. You can meet everyone there. I will introduce you as my friend.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">JBoss: Yes that would be fine. In the meantime, my assistant DotNet would keep an eye on her.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">2.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Scene: McDonald’s living room</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Narrator: Mr and Mrs McDonald are fighting a week prior to the party.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Mrs: C'mon you have to come to the party. After all its my birthday.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Mr.: I am not interested in any of your birthdays. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">(And then says shrewdly to himself: All i am interested in is your death day.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Mrs. The whole industry will be out there. The party is very important for my career.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Narrator: Just then, Mr. McDonald's mentally retarded son, Java , who is Mrs. McDonald's step son, steps in. He had been listening to the conversation between Mr and Mrs McDonald.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Java: Party, Party! I wanna go to the party! Mama, mama when is the party? (He asks with an innocent look on his face).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Mrs: Shut up Java! The party is not for you.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">(Java gives Mrs McDonald a cunning look.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Java: I will kill you. Grrrrrr.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Mrs: Oh, shut up, you fool!!.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Narrator: Mrs McDonald hated her step son, but Mr. McDonald loved java.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Mr: You are not to talk to Java like that. He is very much attending the party.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Mrs: (To Mr. McDonald, in a more soothing voice) But my reputation is at stake.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Mr.: I am only attending the party if Java is.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Mrs: (Indifferently)Okay, whatever.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">3.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Narrator: Mrs McDonald is talking on the phone with her old boy friend DB2. Mr McDonald overhears her.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Mrs: (On the phone) Why dont you understand? I cant meet you.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">DB2: I am coming to the party.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Mrs: No please dont come.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">DB2: You have to meet me. I promise it will be the last meeting.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">(After putting down the phone, talking to himself: It will be your last meeting with anyone. And he laughs cruelly)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">4.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Next Scene: Living room.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Narrator: Mrs McDonald is talking to her PA Oracle regarding the guest list for the party.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Mrs: So Oracle, you have the list. Invite all of them. Dont forget to invite my friend Maggi.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Oracle: Yes Maam I will surely do so.(With a cold smile)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Mrs: And what about the money that you had taken from me. I want it back after the party.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Oracle: (Smile vanishing from his face) I dont have the money.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Mrs: I dont know all that. I want my money back else I am handing you over to the police.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">(Mrs McDonald leaves the room)</span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Oracle: (Crushing an Invitation card in his fist) This will be the last birthday of your life, you foolish woman.</span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">5.</span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Narrator: Oracle is inviting people for the party. He has just invited the producer/director Mainframes. And now is calling up Maggi, who happens to be Oracle’s girlfriend.</span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Oracle: I am telling you sweetie, the party is the right occasion. You have to come.</span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Maggi: Yeah, think you are right. I want my revenge on my sweet little friend. Unless she is out of my way, Mainframes will not sign me in for his movie.</span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Oracle: Yes and she is pestering me for the money too. Lets shoot two birds with a stone.</span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Maggi: HAHAHAHAHA.</span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Oracle: HAHAHAHAHA.</span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">6.</span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Scene: At the party. </span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">(Mrs McDonald is talking to Mainframes. All the time avoiding eye contact with DB2. DB2 is looking at her with murderous looks)</span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Mainframes: You have to give me dates. My movie is hung half way through. </span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Mrs: I don’t have time Mainframes. </span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Mainframes: But you promised me and now the movie is shot half way.</span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Mrs: Well….. </span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">(Just then DB2 catches hold of her attention and starts talking to her)</span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">DB2: You cant avoid me like this. Else I will tell about all your deeds to your husband.</span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Mrs: I have told you so many times I don’t want to talk to you. You may do as you wish.</span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">(And she moves away to meet Maggi while DB2 stares at her coldly and also her husband.)</span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Maggi: (With a false smile on her face) Happy Birthday.</span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Mrs: (Showing off her new bracelet) Thank you dear.</span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Maggi: (Muttering to herself) Such a show off. I will show her today. </span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">(Just then Java comes in near Mrs McDonald. )</span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Java: Happy Birthday mama.</span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">(And he shakes her hand thus spilling her drink on her dress.) </span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Mrs.: You fool, hadn’t I told you not to come to the party. </span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Java: I will kill you.(Angrily)</span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Mrs: Excuse me everyone, I will just be back.</span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">She goes to her room to change. Suddenly the people in the party hall hear her say “Oh no not you”, followed by her scream and then a gunshot is heard. </span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">DotNet: Nobody is to leave the room please.</span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">JBoss and DotNet examine the scene and conference in hushed tones. Finally JBoss announces.</span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">JBoss: I have examined this case from all angles. I see that Mrs McDonald had a problem with practically everyone in here. I know the murderer is in this room itself. And the murderer is……</span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="font-family: arial; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">~~~~~~~~~AND THE CURTAIN CLOSES ~~~~~~~~~~</span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: arial; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: arial; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: arial; margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: arial; margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -1in;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 130%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div></div>Arcturushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04306540234684735666noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448976360888103378.post-53099670143099836652008-03-16T15:31:00.000+05:302008-03-16T15:45:52.949+05:30Another misadventure bites the dust.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.camp5museum.org/media/photos1/train1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://www.camp5museum.org/media/photos1/train1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: "Myriad Web Pro";">Time: 9 PM.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: "Myriad Web Pro";">Place: Railway station of Bangalore.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: "Myriad Web Pro";">Reason for being there: To catch a train. (I don’t mean we were playing running catching with the train. To put in a better term, to board a train)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: "Myriad Web Pro";">Reason for catching train: To attend my cousin’s wedding in a place elsewhere.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: "Myriad Web Pro";">Reason for my cousin getting married: Because he had found a suitable bride.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: "Myriad Web Pro";">Reason for………….. Aaaahhhh I guess enough of this crappy background information, which is not at all needed. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: "Myriad Web Pro";"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: "Myriad Web Pro";">Now coming back to my story (Misadventure more like), I was in the railway station with a whole bunch of my relatives. We were walking in smaller groups towards platform number 9(I guess). Anyways, to hell with the platform number. I was walking with a few of my cousins and we were about to cross the track of platform number 8.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: "Myriad Web Pro";"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: "Myriad Web Pro";">A train stood still on the platform we were crossing. Suddenly my cousin stopped and clicked a picture of the train. Then he said to me, “Have you ever clicked a photo standing in front of a train?” I looked at him and said, “Why don’t you stand there? I will take a pic of you.”<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: "Myriad Web Pro";"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: "Myriad Web Pro";">He said, “Naah, I prefer clicking pictures to getting them clicked.” And so, it so happened that finally I stood right in front of the train engine, less than a foot away from it in the front. I had stood there barely half a minute and the people on the platform and in the train started yelling. We wondered what was wrong. And then we realized that they were yelling that the train is about to start and so I should move away.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: "Myriad Web Pro";"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: "Myriad Web Pro";">I moved just in time. The train started moving. If I had stood there a second longer, it would have run over me. Another misadventure added to my long list of misadventures. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: "Myriad Web Pro";"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: "Myriad Web Pro";">Once away, my cousin remarked to me, “You know that would have been the strangest accident ever.” And we both burst into laughter.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: "Myriad Web Pro";">The only thing that I regret about this whole episode is that I couldn’t get the snap in front of the train. Aah what a memory it would have been. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: "Myriad Web Pro";"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:13;" ><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style=""><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>Arcturushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04306540234684735666noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448976360888103378.post-10480353380381721022008-03-02T18:15:00.002+05:302008-03-16T01:10:21.251+05:30Misadventures - why do I have them ALWAYS!!!!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.ppolnews.com/primages/crash_p1.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px;" src="http://www.ppolnews.com/primages/crash_p1.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />(Read along the tune of summer of '69 by brayan adams)<br /><br />i had my 1st real misadventure,<br />when exactly dunno the time,<br />i must have been really small then,<br />maybe the year of '89,<br />me n my misadventures in school,<br />have troubled everyone around really hard,<br />as if to misadventures i was married ,<br />should have known it would last all along,<br />oh when i look back now,<br />my misadventures have lasted forever ,<br />dont know if i had a choice ,<br />misadventures have always been there,<br />there are many more misadventures in my life.<br /><br />aint no use in complaining ,<br />when stupid things are all you do,<br />misadventures begin even before i walk in<br />its everywhere i meet them ya,<br />standing on my very own porch,<br />they told me i will have them forever ,<br />oh when they hold my hand,<br />i know they will leave me never ,<br />there are many more misadventures in my life,<br />oh ya i have misadventures all the time.<br /><br />man even while killing time,<br />i am young n restless ,<br />with me my misadventures,<br />i guess will last with me forever ....... forever ohhh,<br /><br />and now the misadventures are changing ,<br />now i have a bigger version of those long gone,<br />misadventure are still behind me chasing ,<br />and thats when things go wrong.<br />standing on my very own porch,<br />they told me i will have them forever ,<br />oh when they hold my hand,<br />i know they will leave me never ,<br />there are many more misadventures in my life,<br />oh ya i have misadventures all the time.<br /><br />it is misadventures all the time,<br />ohhhhhhhhhh !!!!!!!!!!<br />me n misadventures,<br />ohhhhhhhhhhh, ohh<br />misadventures, misadventures all the time.....Arcturushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04306540234684735666noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448976360888103378.post-15231900696303238212007-09-12T12:35:00.000+05:302007-09-12T13:53:07.240+05:30The child inside<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_5hb5ewrvZzo/Ruehw95awgI/AAAAAAAAABU/URBdXN24Ywo/s1600-h/swing2.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_5hb5ewrvZzo/Ruehw95awgI/AAAAAAAAABU/URBdXN24Ywo/s320/swing2.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5109230164896301570" border="0" /></a><br />i wish i cud go back to my childhood days<br />can i go back the old school ways<br /><br />i remember the days wen we wud wait for the break<br />wud go to the playground n had food for eating sake<br />made a circle and sat on the ground<br />then our boxes passed from hand to hand around<br /><br />we laughed we talked we had fun<br />not giving a damn abt getting dark in the basking sun<br /><br />after lunch we played like anything<br />everyday a different game of running and catching<br /><br />we did attend classes in school<br />but that never stopped us from playing the fool<br /><br />oh wat discipline we maintained in the assembly lines<br />how we hoodwinked the teachers to stand with our friends<br />and who can forget how we rushed after school<br />got our cycles and raced each other home<br /><br />never did the homework that was given<br />and took the book of the lone soul who had done<br />the plans we made for the picnics we went<br />we were indifferent to the spots as long as we went<br /><br />we played games even if we dint know<br />do u remember the dog and the bone<br /><br />the evenings went in playing in the streets<br />we were all galli kids meetin each other with greets<br />we came from different schools different mediums<br />but we took all in without much tantrums<br /><br />played often on the streets often blocking the traffic<br />else went to teh ground to play cricket taking a different pick<br />the gilli dandas smashed many a window<br />the mud messed up our clothes while playing marbles on the floor<br /><br />we were so creative making stories n stuff<br />scaring a few kids with some horror n bluff<br /><br />we played we laughed we cried<br />we had ups and downs many a times got a scold<br />played a lot of pranks, oh well<br />ran away ringing the doorbell<br /><br /><br />and wen the currents went at night we all rushed out<br />we will play hide and seek is wat to friends we called out<br />and when the currents did come back<br />we took it with a loud hurrah<br />the crackers we burst during festival time<br />oh dint a few ran away with a whine<br /><br /><br />but do u know wat was the best part so far<br />there were no egos no rich no poor<br />there was no mental trauma no tension<br />we took life as it came with no plans to mention<br /><br />even today wen i run and jump about at home<br />i know that the age of doing so is long gone<br />i m in a different life now in session<br />with plans to spend time in exhaustion<br /><br />i know i hv to grow up some day<br />but i refuse to do so thats wat i say<br />but life and time teach us all<br />now we spend our days going to the mall<br /><br />i stil hv the child inside me<br />it refuses to grow up u see<br />the child knows tht those days are gone<br />but it can stil b a child n its not wrong!<br /><br /><br />(I recently saw that the kids of todays age hardly played the games we went, they too go to school they to play but its not the same..... they r hooked to the computer, play games on it.... there is so much of traffic in the streets tht they can hardly play there.... many of the gardens n open spaces are used up for buildings.... they sit on the sofa watching tv..... they see things not meant for them on the idiot box....<br /><br />so i was seeing the difference in their childhood and mine.... n also remembering the days wen i was a kid... i loved that life and i wish i cud go back..... i wud barter that life for my current hectic 1 anyday....<br /><br />i know thts not possible but i can still be kid wenever i want.... and i must say i m lucky to hv grown up in a small city with not much addiction to gizmos then.... had a lush green childhood.... which children today lack.... and frankly speaking at present time even i lack<br /><br />i dint bother to rhyme or set each word exactly nor to correct the spellings coz as a kid did we really care?)Arcturushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04306540234684735666noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448976360888103378.post-56137199726240523962007-07-30T00:50:00.000+05:302007-07-31T23:35:42.814+05:30Belief!!!!<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">I really cant believe you actually visited this!!! </span>Arcturushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04306540234684735666noreply@blogger.com1