Patience quotes

There's some nice soul who puts up colour print-outs near the coffee achine in office. Today's quote was on Patience - something I consider to be a key strength of my personality.

The main quote stated there was an old chinese proverb -" It is through patience that a mulberry leaf turns to silk".

I did some more search for quotes on patience. Some of them listed here:

• "Patience and perserverence have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish."--
  John Quincy Adams
• "Patience with others is Love, Patience with self is Hope, Patience with God is Faith."--
  Adel Bestavros
• "If you would know strength and patience, welcome the company of trees."--
  Hal Borland
• "Forgive, forget. Bear with the faults of others as you would have them bear with yours. Be patient and understanding. Life is too short to be vengeful or malicious."--
  Phillips Brooks
• "Our patience will achieve more than our force."--
  Edmund Burke
• "We smile at the ignorance of the savage who cuts down the tree in order to reach its fruit; but the same blunder is made by every person who is over eager and impatient in the pursuit of pleasure." --
  William Channing
• "Patience is power; with time and patience the mulberry leaf becomes silk."--
  Chinese Proverb
• "Patience is the art of caring slowly."--
  John Ciardi
• "Patience is bitter, but it's fruit is sweet."--
  Lida Clarkson
• "The greatest power is often simple patience."--
  E. Joseph Cossman
• "Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will be powerless to vex your mind."--
  Leonardo da Vinci
• "There is no road too long to the man who advances deliberately and without undue haste; there are no honors too distant to the man who prepares himself for them with patience."--
  Jean De La Bruyere
• "Patience and time do more than strength or passion."--
  Jean de La Fontaine
• "If we could have a little patience, we should escape much mortification; time takes away as much as it gives."--
  Marquise de Sévigné
• "Beware the fury of a patient man."--
  John Dryden
• "Infinite patience brings immediate results."--
  Wayne W. Dyer
• "An ounce of patience is worth a pound of brains."--
  Dutch Proverb
• "Patience can't be acquired overnight. It is just like building up a muscle. Every day you need to work on it."--
  Eknath Easwaran
• "Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits."--
  Thomas A. Edison
• "I think and think for months and years, ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right."--
  Albert Einstein
• "Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience."--
  Ralph Waldo Emerson
• "No greater thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen."--
  Epictetus
• "He that can have patience can have what he will."--
  Benjamin Franklin
• "To lose patience is to lose the battle."--
  Mahatma Gandhi
• "The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it."--
  Arnold H. Glasgow
• "Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success."--
  Napolean Hill
• "There is no royal road to anything, one thing at a time, all things in succession. That which grows fast, withers as rapidly. That which grows slowly, endures."--
  Josiah Gilbert Holland
• "With love and patience, nothing is impossible."--
  Daisaku Ideda
• "Patience has its limits. Take it too far, and it's cowardice."--
  George Jackson
• "To hear complaints with patience, even when complaints are vain, is one of the duties of friendship."--
  Dr. Samuel Johnson
• "You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance."--
  Franklin P. Jones
• "All fruits do not ripen in one season."--
  Laurie Junot
• "Face your deficiencies and acknowledge them; but do not let them master you. Let them teach you patience, sweetness, insight... When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another."--
  Helen Keller
• "Patience is necessary, and one cannot reap immediately where one has sown."--
  Soren Kierkegaard
• "The practice of patience toward one another, the overlooking of one another's defects, and the bearing of one another's burdens is the most elementary condition of all human and social activity in the family, in the professions, and in society."--
  Lawrence G. Lovasik
• "Genius is only a greater aptitude for patience."--
  George-Louis Leclerc de Buffon
• "Never think that God's delays are God's denials. Hold on; hold fast; hold out. Patience is genius."--
  George-Louis Leclerc de Buffon
• "They also serve who only stand and wait."--
  John Milton
• "Patience is the key to contentment."--
  Mohammed
• "Patience and Diligence, like faith, remove mountains."--
  William Penn
• "All's well in the end, if you've only the patience to wait."--
  Rabelais
• "Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous patience."--
  Hyman George Rickover
• "Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves ... Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point it, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps, then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer."--
  Rainer Maria Rilke
• "Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet."--
  Jean Jacques Rousseau
• "Patience is the companion of wisdom."--
  Saint Augustine
• "The two most powerful warriors are patience and time."--
  Leo Tolstoy
• "Patience is the key to paradise."--
  Turkish Proverb

Aug 14, 2005

Time 9 AM : Trips, Heku, Pooja and I left Bangalore for a 1 day picnic to the Shivasamudram falls. We were having lots and lots of topics for debate - about life, about software industry etc etc. We had a nice journey until we crossed Malavalli - there was a traffic jam there as half of Bangalore was heading. The usual problem we face on any long weekend - everybody's heading for the same destinations!

12.20 AM : We are just 12 Kms from Shivasamudram. Trips was driving. A Maruti Omni right in front, breaked while trying to overtake the car ahead of him. Trips applies the break and the car skids but hits the Omni van - result - a crashing accident. The radiator and engine had imploded! Luckily, no major injuries to anyone. The guy in front started arguing. We had a huge build up of crowd. Every passer by became an expert on driving and justice. After debating and fighting and talking for about an hour - we had to yield to the driver and pay him of 1000 bucks! Also, it helped in dispersing the crowd and think of what next. As always, the accident occurred in the middle of nowhere and Airtel or Hutch did not have connectivity there.















1.15 PM : We just drove the car back some distance. But it was fuming all kinds of vapors of weird smells. We suspected that it might be the coolant burning. We opened the bonnet and saw that the coolant pipe was broken and something like battery acid was leaking all over.
















1.25 PM: We decided to walk to the nearest village and call somebody from insurance or Maruti emergency helplines. Some villagers told us that it was 1 Km away. But never believe a villager when he says something is just 1 Km - it just went on and on. Trips and I'd walked more than a Km. Pooja and Heku stayed back to look after the car remnants. After some distance, I decided to try my luck with asking for lift. The only gracious soul who took pity and offered help was a tractor guy. He also said that he could arrange for the car to be towed to the nearest town - Malavalli. We stopped at the first village. There were phone booths there. We told him that we would take help if needed. We made a few frantic phone calls to all Maruti helplines/emergency numbers. Only one Mr. Shankarappa picked the phone and he said he would start from Bangalore only at 7 PM - the time now was 2.30 PM.

2.30 PM : We hitched a ride in a posh car. 1 man, 2 women - gave us lift to sight the of the accident. They were drinking beer while! The irony - nothing happens to such people! We got back to the sight and decided that we would go back to the town of Malavalli to get the car towed till there atleast so that we are back in cell phone territory. So that we could talk to people and get some help. And people trying to help us could contact us.

3.00 PM: After hitching another ride from a bunch of guys this time to Malavalli - we found a garage. The foreman picked up some 'tools' which included a couple of spanners and a hammer. He said he would talk to some taxi guys and we could all go there and if couldn't make the car worthy of driving, he would tow it back to Malavalli and work on it. Our hopes were dwindling - and increasingly, the option of calling for help from Bangalore which was 100Km away seemed like the best option. We started in an ambassador car and on the way the car ran out of diesel. When things go wrong, the world conspires to screw you! After some huffing and puffing, we reached the sight. They connected the car and started the towing process.

4.30 PM : We reached Malavalli. Malavalli is a small town - there were restaurants/tea shops and a horrible main road. We parked ass at a school playground. It had the paintings of Nehru/Gandhi, painted with the tri-colour in places! We had a big argument with the foreman and the car towing guys. The argument went on and on - finally we gave in and gave the towing guy another 100 bucks other than the 200 we'd alreday given.

5,30 PM : We were still desperately trying to call all helplines of Maruti for towing service. Bangalore was 100Kms away. Finally, Prakash and Shankarappa said they would come to tow us back to Bangalore.

This duration, we were just observers of the small town life. Friendly and concerned people, smiling kids playing cricket and goli, smaller kids using the ground to cycle around. That was the general atmosphere on the ground. every now and then people came asked what happened and we would repeat the story over and over again. We took turns to explore the town and have chai/coffee. First, Trips and Heku went on a walk - then Pooja and I went around. We were just killing time waiting for the promised Mr. Shankarappa to come.
















7.00 PM : I called Shankarappa again. He tells me he's started from Bangalore and already travelled 30Kms. So we estimated that he would reach by 8.30 PM. In the meantime, we had so many topics to talk about. We generally discussed the freedom vs development debate that I so much love nowadays. I also made some friends in the village - some kids, some middle age men. Time just crawled by ..

8.00 PM : I called up Shankarappa. This time he shouts at me saying don't keep calling every 2 minutes. He assured me that he's on his way! Whatever happened to the concept called Customer service.

We just lay around there. Took a walk to the medical store - Pooja wanted a lense case. We made conversation with more people - the general attitude of people was that of help and sincerity. This medical shop guy gave us bondas to eat and didn't charge for it! Something we forget living in the hustle-bustle of a city. Time still crawled .. Trips was beginning to sulk a bit!

10.00 PM : After a long wait, again I call up Shankarappa - he gives the heart attack. That they were in Ramanagaram - on a completely different highway towing somebody else's car!! We scream in vain and again he assures us that he WILL come. Pooja and I took a walk to the town and got some food. Again, the restaurant had closed down - we told them our situation and they opened the hotel for us and made fresh food! Some jeera rice and friend rice! We again thank the niceties of small town India.

In the meantime, some people from the office opposite the school offered some temporary accommodation on 'humanitarian' grounds. It was getting cold sitting out in the open in the school grounds/verandah.

11 PM : We woke up the watchman of the BESCOM office and asked him if his offer still holds. Graciously, he agreed and we pushed the car into the compound. He made a small arrangement for us by putting some tables and desks and made a temporary hard bed for us. Pooja and I slept in the room - Trips and Heku chose the car.

Finally, Mr. Shankarappa arrived at 2.30 AM, 15th August. They toed up the car's front wheels to the tow crane. We all decided to sit in the car itself. So thus began our final journey towards Bangalore. The weird spring action of the chain attachment between the truck and car made us swing like crazy. Our driver was not least bothered about potholes - he just anted to get the hell back to Bangalore. He said he'd one 30 service calls that day!


7.00 AM, 15th August : We are back home, back broken, neck sprained! But thank God! It could've been much worse.

The talkative Indian

If I have to describe life in Bangalore in three words, I would say - booming energetic anarchy! This I guess will represent the general state of the Indian mind in general, and of a booming creative city like Bangalore in particular.

To describe the energy of us Indians, take the example of a average conversation of the common man in any of Bangalore's darshinis. Firstly, we all have so much to talk! Whether it's the state of an unfinished flyover, or the water-logging in xyz colony, or the stock price of the reliance share and where the economy in general is headed. An average man is aware of his surroundings - of what's happening to the country, the economy and his job. One can judge this energy from the animated way of talking in coffee joints. There are so many business ideas floating in the air - it's this energy that's driving us currently.

Amartya Sen's new book, The Argumentative Indian,  must be a good read. I want to pick up and read it sometime soon. The french guy who interviewed Pooja asked what she thought of our argumentative nature - whether that causes a lot of delays. In my opinion, it's a historical and religious trait we have possessed since time immemorial. The great debates that happened in the courts of Krishna Devaraya or Akbar or the great religious debates by Vadiraja are all proof that our religion by origin and nature encourages us to debate. And I think, it is this trait that has been genetically preserved and progenated that makes us what we are today. We are ready for the Knowledge society precisely for this reason.

We are good readers in general. On any bus journey, whether it is through the traffic jammed roads of Bangalore or a train journey from Bangalore to Mysore or the bus journey from Madras to Pondicherry, I have observed that people like to read their books, magazines, politics and newspapers. Though I haven't really travelled a lot through any other country as much as I have through India, I'm generally happy to see that people read and are aware of things around them. This is particularly prominent if one drives through Kerala - I really admire the political awareness and societal consciousness of the average mallu.

History is one area we desperately need to improve on. We all love to talk how great our history was and so on. Our sense of history and pride needs to be improved a few thousand folds. Especially I guess in heartland of North India, unfortunately a lot of the cultural pillars and identities have been destroyed. And the punjabi society is doing itself any service further westernizing itself! A point of history is that we lack documentation as a culture. I was showing to my sweet heart a sculpture in Somnathapura. There was this carving of Vishnu holding the Earth in his hands as a Globe - an elongated sphere. Now, this is sculpture from the 11th century of the Hoysalas. It took the western world another 400 years to re-learn the same fact. And yet, from our textbooks, we have to learn that Copernicus/Magellan proved that the earth was spherical!

We also talk about the daily comparisons between China and India. There this mail going around about how Nandan got Bangalored in Beijing - the vast expansions in infrastructure. In contrast, we have to wait for Deve Gowda's death before Bangalore can go somewhere in term of infrastructure. But hey, hold on! Do we have to make a choice between infrastructure and democracy. Any day, I would prefer my freedom. I don't want to live in a country where the state controls what I think and what I write! Blogs are screened for words like democracy and freedom! Ideally, I want both my flyovers as well as my freedom. And I know that with time, I will get my flyovers. Delhi's showing us the way today. I don't want to lose my talkative Indian .. Never! It's just not us!

MBA Apps so far

It's pouring outside. Can't go home yet, and so I write this post.

This is one activity we've been involved in for sometime now. But, I've just not been in a mood to document it!

To begin with, I must admit that it's a completely satisfying satisfying experience in terms of getting to know about oneself. What're you strengths, weaknesses, goals, failures, perspectives etc. Kind of represents who you are to the Adcom of the University.

Our first app was for INSEAD. The apps went off well - so did our interviews. Now, the waiting game till September 10th.

Meanwhile, IIM-A has shortlisted both of us for an interview. This one's going to be very tough!

The questions for the essays are as below:

1. What do you expect to gain from the PGPX at IIMA?
2. Describe a situation in your life that demonstrates your leadership qualities.
3. Describe the single event or achievement that has significantly influenced your life.
4. Give a description of yourself, stressing the personal characteristics you feel are your strengths and weaknesses.
5. Any other information that you believe may help us make a decision on your application.

I'm goign to recycle most of my INSEAD essays. The Why IIM-A question needs some research. But, neither of us has the same enthu to research and find out about faculty as much as we did for INSEAD. God, God, God - please get us into INSEAD!

Bad tummy and Philosophy

I have an upset stomach! Actually, it's not an upset stomach. It's a stomach that's not digesting the loads of food queued up in my intestine. I ate only one solid meal yesterday and still there's no sign of hunger today. Had a lovely preparation of honey and bread made by my cutie wife. I had some curd rice and more curd for lunch. I thought that would help me get some food in and also help the digestion - but no luck!

When you have an upset stomach, and not slept enough the previous night - the mood is ideal for philosophizing. I'm not feeling good - mentally and physically. I'm trying to listen to some Clapton numbers and do some work. But no, somehow work's not kicking off! Today being Monday also doesn't help.

I tried the drinking-water-to-flush-the-bad-things-from-stomach technique also - but no success! My tummy's feeling bloated like a balloon. It feels ugly. It's not a good day. The weather outside's also pretty murky. No sunshine - yesterday there was plenty of it. It was such a beautiful day - until ..

I'm gonna try and do something - like say read something interesting. Like say Bertrand Russell's book - "Our view of the external world". We all love to philosophize. More so when you have an upset tummy - okay, I know I've spoken enough about it!

On the more serious side - what is our view of the external world? I haven't read the book yet fully. But independently, I do have some views. It's basically my upbringing. Our view of the external world is largely based on the environment - parents, family, friends etc.

My philosophy is based on these two points I list below:

• Happiness is a decision, not an outcome.
• Nobody means harm - I mean nobody is out here to mean bad things for a person.

I love the first quote. It really keeps me going. Also, removes all hang-ups I've had. I had a lot of hang-ups in life before I went to that magical place in the North-west of India called Pilani. My friends in college have given me the exposure and strength to get over these hang-ups. Today, I'm a relatively hangup-free person. Somebody calling me something, or telling me something really doesn't affect me. I'm glad I'm here today. It's the desert that makes you stronger. It's the ability to see things in bigger picture!

The second point - I really am not sure yet on what I mean by this. All I know is - that when people try to harm you, it's for a reason - there're no psychopaths in real life who just get kicks by harming you. Everyone's out here to do something - whether for themselves or for the world! Mostly, for themselves - so harming you can't be their priority. This gets me going too - especially in corporate life - when one faces allegations, challenges, questions, reasons - the why, how and when part of everything. I'm getting used to this as part of a minuscule manager. Someday, I hope to be a little further up the corporate ladder.

Getting bad to the upset tummy - I'm already feeling better. I've blabarred enough on this blog. Weird, bad tummy implies philosophy implies better tummy!

End of Capitalism?

Listened to Peter Drucker's interview at http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2005/08/20050802_a_main.asp.

Quite an amazing interview considering his age is 95. I haven't read any of his books. But I've heard so much about him from so many sources including the course on Management I did during my second year in college.

Just a brief of what he says :

• America's domination of the world are over
• Leaders can't be trained into leadership in B-schools
• Multi-polar world with Europe, China and India as other powers of center is a reality now

The most interesting point he made was the days of Capitalism are over - we are moving to a knowledge society! I really have to think and research on what he mans by that.

Most knowledge workers like me and my team members have this habit of thinking that any tom-dick and harry can do the work we do. But that's actually not true. Specialists are the reality of the day and nobody can do my job as well as I do :). An ego boost ;).

India's headed in the right direction I would say. We are a very hard-working people - atleast I believe we are heading that way.Everybody wants to make it somewhere in life - hopefully this intent and hard-work translates to results. Only time will tell!

Tadiyandamol Trek

This is from my archive of trekologues. We went to Tadiyandamol in Dec 2003. Truly an amazing trek. Read on when you find time.

hey guys,

3 of us 'd been to tadiyandamol in coorg last weekend .. everybody shud go there ! we really had an awesome time there .. read on the trekologue when u find time .. it's a really looong one !

Tadiyandamol

------------

This was one trek that was pending for so long. I think we'd set our sight on this peak at least 1.5 years ago. But somehow it kept getting postponed due to some reason or the other.

Since we were only 3 of us going for the trek, there wasn't much planning required; a couple of googles was enough to get almost all the info required for the trip.

Day 0 (Friday night)

-----

We assembled at Majestic bus stand for the 10.45 PM bus to Napoklu. It was a luxury KSRTC bus - much more luxury than we usually have on trek journeys. The bus left the Blore bus stand almost on time and then our journey into the unknown had begun.

Day 1 ( Saturday )

-----

We reached Napoklu at 5.30 AM. Already we'd started feeling the cold of the Coorg winter when some of the windows in the bus kept opening on their own. But we got the full picture when we stepped out of the bus. Man, it really was a freezer. All 3 of us were shivering almost immediately. We spoke to some of the local guys in the bus stop to enquire about how to get to our immediate destination - the Nalaknad Armane ( Palace). They told us that the next bus to the place was at 6.45 AM. So we just ambled around the main road in Napoklu; we found a Tea shop just opening shutters. We rushed in and sat on the wooden benches inside the tea shop. Dennis and I went into the kitchen; given a chance we could even have sat on the stove !

At 7 AM , our bus slowly started moving to the tunes of some lovely devotional Kannada songs. And then we kept telling the conductor to tell us when we reach the bus stop for the armane. But he told us to get off at some place; and on enquiring with a guy at the tea shop he told us the we should 've got off 3 Kms earlier. So there began our trek on the road itself. We walked till the armane bus stop and then reached the armane itself eventually.



















There was a film shooting going on there. The name of the movie is "Shanthi" - a kannada movie being made for award purposes, so we were informed by one the guys in the shooting crew. Then we freshened up and did basic morning duties in a nearby stream and started off for the peak. By this time, I'd lost track of time or consciousness. Just let myself free and was enjoying every moment of the trip.

The trek started off with very easy looking jeep tracks - intermittent spells of open tracks and forest cover. Over all it wasn't too difficult terrain. We had company in the of another threesome with a guide - they were Belgians. We were doing the hare and tortoise with them; only difference being the hare and tortoises - both taking rest and breaks at regular intervals.


I was already feeling full happy coz this was the first dry and leech less trek in a very long time I could remember. We trekked and trucked along gradually - we had more than normal level of luggage to carry. A tent , 2 sleeping bags and loads of food. So the weight on the shoulders was always dragging us down on every upward climb.



















After a while, the jeep track ended and so did the forest cover. Then it became a full open grassland trek with trails. A landmark in the trek is a huge boulder. There was another group of french people on the boulder when we reached the place. We decided to halt ass for a while just after the boulder We just sat and chatted - also heard a stream in the vicinity - the pure music of water gushing through the gaps in the rocks and mountains.

After the break, we started again - chugging and puffing. We started on one trail and after sometime the trail just vanished ! We sat and wondered what we should do next. We started on another trail we saw nearby and again hit another dead end. We were definitely lost ! Dennis was leading the way in exploring the trail and route. Shiv and I just followed him quitely. The scenic view of the place where we got lost was qute amazing. We just feasted our eyes with the views all around !

We trekked and trekked trying to somehow get back to the stream. We put all kinds of fundas in listening to the sound of water and try to reach the stream. And the finally we crossed a point that looked familiar - and oops - where are we ? We were back at the boulder after 2 hrs. And we had the the belgian man greeting us " you guys still here ? ". He had gone halfway to the peak and returned coz his physical condition couldn't drive him up. His other 2 pals and their guide had gone on all the way.

We sat and had our lunch - some readymade rotis and mango pickle. After the lunch we had a small siesta and decided to give one last try at the peak. At this point, I went to speak to the begian guy. He told us to take the straight trail ; he also warned us the night would be really cold. He said the previous night they'd slept at the village and he felt as cold as he feels back home in belgium. We looked at each a scared glance at each other. Anyway, "no matter what" we were going to camp in the wild for the night. After all the effort of carrying the tent and sleeping bags.

Then started our ascent toward the peak - it kept going up up and away and reminded me of the Poochipara peak we'd climbed earlier in Silent valley. There's this with peaks - the more you climb the same the distance it looks as earlier. The views we got as went higher and higher improved in quality and sheer beauty of the entire place sinks in to you. You feel the present and only the present - I think that's the best form of meditation.

Finally we reached the peak ! We were on top of Tadiyandamol - meaning the highest point in kodava language. The elation and high that scaling a peak is unmatched. In the far distance we could see the outline of a meandering river merging into the ocean - the Arabian sea was visible from that distance.



















We just sat in silence for a good amount of time. And by 4 o'clock in the afternoon, cold winds had already started on the peak giving a trailer of what was to come. I feasted on the all the views and sights I could set my eyes on. It was simply superb and no words can describe the feeling.

We slowly and sadly started our descent from the peak. The climb down as usual was steep in places and quite a strain on the knees and ankles. And by this time, Shiv had twisted his ankle quite a few times. But he kept going. Then we reached the place near the boulder where earlier itself we'd decided to pitch the tent. We sat down there and had a quick nap, before putting up the tent. I felt so happy about my tent. Must be the most decent purchase I'd made in the recent time. In the meantime, the cold blast of wind had set in on the lower plains and reaches also.

We pitched the tent and then we saw yet another beautiful sight - the moon. It was almost a full moon and by that time we could already see Venus in the western sky almost about to set. And the wind just kept getting stronger and colder !




















We had dinner in the moonlight - it was so bright that we could see our shadows in the moonlight. The stars also started multiplied in number kept getting better and better with time. And so did the cold. After sometime, the cold winds had started cutting through our bones and then we decided to get into the cozy interiors of the tent. Parked ourselves into our sleeping bags and then I slept like a log.

Day 2
-----
Since we'd slept pretty early the previous night, I was up and awake by 5.30 AM; waiting for the Sun to come out. For once, I'd won the battle of waking with the sun ;). Shiv also woke up and we started preparing ourselves for the sunrise. We climbed a distance on the adjacent hill till a rock and sat there waiting for the sun to come up.




















This sight is a really divine experience. When the first light lights up the eastern sky, the beautiful red line and then the adjacent areas getting slight tinge of blue. The sounds of the animals from the forest hardly 500m from our campsite; the chirping of the birds all over. The first light in the morning is simply brilliant. This was also the clearest ever sky I'd seen for a perfect sunrise. Shiv and I were just mesemerized by the beauty of the entire place. The different shades of red orange and yellow of the light, the lighting up of the peak with this light, the shades of green in the adjacent valley - simply fantastic ! We kept clicking snap after snap. And then I dropped my camera and just felt the experience. Both of us did a brief version of surya namaskar.

If anyone saw this sight, you would really salute the sun for its brillance and life sustaining light.

Only when the sun was up sufficiently, did we climb down back to the camp. We then woke up Dennis and headed to the stream for morning duties. We then had a quick breakfast and packed our stuff and left toward the Armane ( palace). One last glance at the peak and the surrounding forests and valleys and plains all around and I could get high on this sight for ever and ever ! If at all there was a way to do a trek, this was it, I thought.

On return to the Palace, the film crew was still there. We made PC with the heroines of the movie, Bhavana, who's apparently won the national award for the best actress last year. She was quite friendly babe, and we assured her that we'll try to watch out for her movie.


Then we hit the road and took a bus to Madikeri. And guess what, it was the same conductor who dropped us off far away on the 1st day ! Anyway, didn't feel like asking him any soul searching questions, and we just enjoyed the bus ride toward Madikeri. The views were enchanting - of the hills, plains, the coffee plantations and the valleys deep down below ! The statue of upright Gen Cariappa welcomed us into the town of Madikeri.

We had a nice lunch - hot steamed rice and hot sambar - awesome change from the bread and cheese we'd had for the last 2 days. Then took a bus to Kushalnagar and reached Nisargadhama. The highlight of this leg of the journey was a cool elephant ride we undertook :). We had a nice refreshing bath in the Cauvery river and then headed back to Kushalnagar. From there we took a bus to Mysore and from there to Bangalore.

Yet another amazing trip came to end when we reached Majestic bus stand. The recollection of all the beautiful feelings, the air, the wind, the tricks of the moon and the sun, the different shades of green on the peaks, in the valleys, on the plains, off the coffee plantations - all will remain etched in memory forever. Just can't forget that sunrise we saw from atop the rock ! Over all, a very very satisfying and memorable trip.

Lighter moments
---------------

- We kept bugging Shiv for all his pronunciations and English language usage of aint, cant etc ;).

- He called "Elnir" or tender coconut as "Bonda". That was the first time, I'd heard anyone call it "bonda" .. we just burst out laughing ; that really got psenti ;)

Swings of Life

Life is nothing but a see-saw of emotions. One feels high for a period of time and then sinks low deep down the woods at other times. The aim of spiritual gurus is to balance these emotions and be free of this world of being-affected!

I am not a believer in the sheep-shepherd way of life. That I live in the dark and I'm a sinner and a messiah will come and show me the light and redeem all my sins. I don't want to believe that I'm sinner in the first place. Makes me feel like a hopeless case. May be the thoughts and prayers of those type were valid for a certain period of time and the conditions that prevailed at that time. But certainly not in my case.

As I examine the vagaries of emotions one feels - I think the enemy lies deep within. It's so easy to take offence to what somebody else says and dismiss the person a 'weird' guy/girl, stupid, mean etc etc. But the effect of being hurt is completely internal. You feel hurt only if you want to. And I know for a fact that people want to! If only we sat and cried for all the pain we cause to ourselves, a lifetime is not enough. Atleast for some people.

The main culprit I presume is the devil called 'expectation'. One does so many things in anticipation of something in return. That's living in a world of expectations. I somehow have got out of that world a long back. When I do something good for somebody, it's because I know that that person will be happy if I did it. Not because I expect them to do something for me someday when I feel that someone should do it for me! Whether it's buying a sweet for a near one, whether it's making the person by showing around some place - it's completely out of the feeling of doing good - not out of expectation.

Today I'm in the trough of feelings. I don't know how to express it! So I blog here.

In conclusion, there are two ways of being philosophical - happily philosophical or depressedly philosophical. When one is happy, the philosophy is not evident. You just want to have the moment with you. You don't even realize that you are happy philosophically or spiritually. But when the going gets tough is when one realizes how tough it is lose that spiritual capital.

Visitor

I saw this bird in a quite corner of the Kaveri river in the Ranganathittu bird sanctuary. Did he need a visa, passport or other documents? Fly like a bird and go around the world! Any ideas on what he's thinking?

Weekend TV and some preaching

TV viewing over the weekend, suddenly there was so much to watch on saturday.

Simultaneously, there were three amazing events happening:

- Wimbledon women's finals which was a good fight right through to the end. We watched this between the over breaks of the Cricket match.
- The best cricket match I remember watching in the recent times - the England - Aus Natwest trophy finals. The way it swung from one side to the other; the the best 2 teams in one day cricket today showed why they're up there. The way England's going, I don't think Aussies are gonna be the no.1 for too long.
- The live8 concert had some of the best music in the world being played across the world. The highlight of course was the Pink Floyd got together after 20 years. Their part came at almost 4 AM on Sunday morning. Luckily, we had to go for a party which which was on till 3 AM .. so just got back home in time for the GODs. The other band which was simply awesome was The
Who. I've listened to their music for a while now. It was amazing watching grandpas playing like they always did! Class is permanent is the best way to summarize what we saw.

Some of the ads and documentaries shown during the show were quite psyching. I didn't know Africa was in such deep shit. I thought they were only a little worse off than India.

I hope the CDs of the show are sold. It was really one event the world won't forget in a hurry.

On another note, the BIG jokers of the world, lead by the chief is meeting in Scotland. I sincerely hope they do something about emission of carbon. Bush in an interview yesterday that it "might" be possible that global warming is being caused by human activity. How much of it has been
contributed by bombing Afghanistan and Iraq, should be a study on its own.

As all you guys in the US get used to the "lifestyle" of America, and as this "lifestyle" spreads to India also, I think some very simple steps can be taken for the overall cause of the energy crisis and global warming:

- Especially in India, use the Sun to dry your clothes rather energy guzzling washing machine dryers. I don't know how much it applicable in the US, but I'm sure there must be a way
- Always ask for paper covers or no covers - no plastic please! I hope plastic is banned in Bangalore very soon!
- I know it's damn cool thing to be driving SUVs - but be concious that fossil fuels can't last too long. While today you still get the fuels of the world by bombing and capturing all oil containing nations.

Okay - that's a lot of preaching for the day :) .. Good day!

Imrana and the fatwa

TV channels are buzzing with activity on debates over the Imrana issue. There are so many articles written in all newspapers. It's a shocking discovery to many, that in a crime, it's the victim who is being punished!

This article gives a summary of the issues involved.

The so-called muslim elite have been interviewed on so many channels. What I fail to understand is : How all of them are compltetely against or very vague in their opinion about a uniform civil code? Is there something wrong in implementing a civil code that is equal to all?

The great secular leaders are also pretty silent on the issue. Why should anyone have a problem with a law that treats all communities equally ensuring gender justice? Beyond politics and that too of the vote bank kinds, I see no reason at all!

Evolution obstructed!

As we move into more automated homes and jazzy home theater systems, are we cutting ourselves off from a very essential component in our environment called Nature? The more we lock ourselves into our rooms, the less resistant we become to diseases.

Isn't a construction labourer more resistant to common cold and fever than I am? Is a guy richer than me and one who's not seen or felt anything of nature less resistant to virus and bacteria than I am? As we go through our so-called economic 'evolution' the less resistant we become to changes in nature. Weather changes inflict diseases, change of water cause colds and fevers all over. A guy who lives in India is quite resistant to diseases and pollution. When you take him and put him in an environment where everything around him is more protected like say in the US or Australia, he's doing great while he's there. But the moment he returns to India - he needs mineral water, he gets bronchial diseases and can't step out in the traffic! What's happened to his body's ability to fight the disease?

In the animal world, there's no concept of medicine. How does an animal survive a disease? I guess, only the fitter ones survive? The weaker ones are eliminated gradually and what you have is a gene pool of strong individuals! As the genetic pool keeps its variety and strength, it aids in evolution. Over centuries and millennia, the need to perform some particular activity lead to some adaptations and consequently evolution. In the human world, we have successfully prevented this from occurring!

The invention of Penicillin was a revolution indeed. It was a revolution that prevented many deaths at that time. But, the bacteria we were fighting got stronger! Today, penicillin is useless. The dosage of antibiotics have increased - so have the strength of many of these antibiotics. But, what's happened to our bodies? What's happening to our WBCs which are supposed to fight anything external? Weakened! By what? By our own action of cutting ourselves off from the rest of our planet!! And fighting every damn problem with external medicines.

Today we have WBCs which can't do anything on their own. Whether it's a skin acne or common cold or headache, there are scores of people who love to chew their antibiotics and 'just get rid of the damn disease'. Hello, what happened to your patience? The next time the same bacteria would've learnt to survive that stupid drug. Next stop? Stronger anti-biotic!!

Imagine a completely different situation. I'm talking about a world without drugs and medicines. Our WBCs would've become stronger? Result? Stronger lot of humans. So that's the evolution we've arrested on the biology front.

Now, we have automated accounting and counting. The human mind slowly loses its ability to think. As we get greater to automated lifestyles, the human mind draws a mental map of familiarity. And what happens when this mind is taken out of its familiar territory? Chaos! Insecurity! Take the simple example of the art of counting and mental arithmetic. Growing up in India, the best exposure to arithmetic came from the neighbourhood grocery shop. The kanaku pullay or the accounts guy always seemed to have a way with numbers. Today with automated cash registers and billing systems taking control of the world of arithmetic, even simple addition and subtraction has become quite an arduous task for the mind.

Automated lifestyles prevent evolution of the second kind - of the mind! If everything is so well taken care of by the system in which we live, what does the mind do? It wanders into so many feelings and thoughts. As we grow into emotional islands, we start suspecting everybody of deceit! Anger and frustration grow ! Alas, that is the evolution of the mind obstructed!

Mysore Trip - Day 2

Day 1 of the trip ended in some confusion over the hotel rooms. We needed 2 rooms because we were four people. But the guy in hotel goofed up and we had to find another room at 11 PM!

Anyway, the next morning we woke up at 8.30AM in our new room at The Gallery view hotel right opposite the Jaganmohan Palace which is also the Art Gallery.

After a few hiccups with an auto driver which led to much bigger hiccup between me and my wife, we started planning our day. We ate mallige idlies for breakfast in Hotel Siddhartha. I strongly recommend this place - very clean and reasonably priced.

Our travel day started with Chamundi betta.

Chamundi Hills

The drive up to Chamundi Hills is serene. On the wat there is the Karanji lake. The views of the Lalith Mahal palace on the way is fantastic.

On top of Chamundi betta, is a huge statue of Mahishasura greeting you. The temple's gopura can be seen from quite a distance. Like any other pilgrimage place, it was very crowded. Sunday is completely different day in the calender of the indian tourist. Every place looks so scrowded. And the same place when visited on a weekday would seem like heaven!

Anyway, it was a long queue for drashan of Chamundeshwari. There were lot of people and quite some pushing around. The sevaks also looked ill-trained to handle crowds. But on darshan it felt good. The deity was done up nicely.

Shots here:

























View of Lalith Mahal from Chamundi betta:




















Somnathapura

Tucked away deep in Mandya district are the magnificent ruins of Somnathapura. It's 40Km from Mysore near Bannur. We drove through the countryside of Karnataka - the richer side of Mandya district.

As we arrived in Somnathapura, we had some Tea in local tea shop. There was an art store with bronze structures and carvings made by different tribals in India. That was a unique collection of bronze art and resembled the kinds we'd read in history textbooks about the Harappan culture. The stuff there is really impressive - but then so are the prices! There were art items from Todas in Nilgiris, Gonda tribe in Madhya Pradesh and some Naga tribal art too!

The main monument of Somnathapura is very well protected. The entire complex is beautifully maintained. The lawns all around the temple gives an impressive backdrop for the main attarction.

The deepa sthamba of the Keshava temple:
























The temple has some of the most intricate carvings I've seen made on soapstone.
Most of the sculptures are based on Ramayana, Mahabharata and other Vishnu's avatars. As we drove out of Somnathapura back to Mysore, it was a feeling of satisfaction.

Mysore Trip - Day 1

Last weekend was yet another fantabulous weekend. We traveled to Mysore and wanted to show Aunty and Pixie around Mysore.

We left Bangalore by the 5.30 AM train – Kaveri Express. We reached Mysore by 8.30AM. We found a hotel Abhishek assisted and recommended by an auto driver. We checked in and wasted no time in getting onto the road.

Mysore Palace

We reached the Mysore Palace by 10AM. The first sight of the palace is impressive. The new palace was built to completion in 1912 by JayaChamaraja Wodeyar. The older palace as one is told repeatedly was burnt down in 1897. A few parts of the old palace have been preserved. The old palace was built in wood. The new palace in contrast is a modern structure.

The palace looks grand from the outside. The insides of the palace are stunning in places and a bit mediocre in some other. There are a huge number of paintings in the palace, not necessarily connected by any particular theme. Most of the paintings depict the royal processions taken out during the dashera season. I believe that Mysore is completely lit up quite spectacularly during the dashera season. The flooring had very interesting patterns of what I thought looked like regular symmetrical figures. I was seriously reminded of some algebra from college.

It takes a long time to explore the different parts of the palace. It requires good stamina and enthu to completely go through all the art work in the palace.

There are 6 temples inside the palace complex- very nice sculpture on the Gopuras. One such temple is:

Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary

20 Km drive from Mysore is Ranganathittu. It’s a group of small islands on the Kaveri River. Some of the most beautiful birds of the world have made it their home for nesting. One auto driver outside had this to say when I asked him what was to see in Ranganathittu – “Saar, adu foreign inda paksheegallu ella barrate saar. Tumba channage irratey nodakke.” – meaning that there are lots of birds that come from foreign countries and nest here.

As you go into the sanctuary you are greeted by some loner birds here and there. But as you go deeper into the woods and the riverside the beauty and serenity of the place magnifies. The best part is the boat ride – one gets to see such amazing flying angels. Storks, Herons, Pelicans, Swans, Ducks and a good variety of other birds rarely seen in everyday life are in plenty. This is not the season for migratory birds in India and yet we saw so many varieties of birds.

I tried my photography skills with the limited feature set available on my Sony DSC-P2. I did manage to get a few nice shots of the birds.

Here’s a shot of a bird walking straight into a croc! But we didn’t witness any predatory scene there.

Even the lawns of the sanctuary outside are very neatly kept. We just laid there and chatted for a good long time about the beauty of the flora and fauna of the place. We took a long walk along the banks of the river. The sound of bamboos in the cool wind was music to all our ears. An abandoned boat on the bank fascinated Pixie quite a bit and she went crazy clicking the snaps of the boat.

The Lover trees as we named them was another fascinating display of nature’s magic. See this snap and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.

These are actually two different intertwined into each other’s metabolism so wonderfully. I really wonder what phenomenon of nature caused this kind of Siamese twin like trees!

This is a shot of the herons I took just before we left Ranganathittu.

We just relaxed in the lawns for quite a while and took a walk around the sanctuary. Some more shots we took there:






































Brindavan Gardens

We drove off in our hired cab from Ranganathittu with memories of the beauty of the place and music of the wind in the bamboo shoots.

Brindavan and KRS are nice sights but a bit too crowded. The dancing musical fountain and the illumination is definitely good and worth the hype.

Vehicles of GODs

Yesterday we were in Somnathapura near Mysore. It's one of the most amazing monuments I've seen of the Hindu civilization. More details about the trip will come later; but here I just wanted to recap some points of Hindu mythology before I forget. Most of this recap is due to the guide at Somnathpura, Mr. Ramakrishna, an amzing guy - deserves to be a teacher!

GOD	Role	Vehicle used for transportation
Bramha	Creator	Swan(Hamsa)
Saraswathi	Goddess of Education	Peacock(Mayura)
Vishnu	Protector	Eagle(Garuda)
Lakshmi	Goddess of Wealth	Elephant(Gaja)
Shiva	Destroyer	Bull(Nandi)
Parvathi	Goddess of Strength	Lion(Simha)

Other important Gods and their vahanas are :

Indra - Airavatha - 4-tusked White Elephant
Ganesha - Mushika - Mouse
Karthikeya - Mayura - Peacock

Another recap - the 10 avatars of Vishnu were :

1. Matsya avatar - Fish
2. Kurma avatar - Tortoise
3. Varaha avatar - Boar(Pig)
4. Narasimha avatar - Half man, half lion
5. Vamana avatar - A dwarf brahmin
6. Parashurama - Angry sage
7. Rama - We all know Rama
8. Krishna - Hare Krishna
9. Buddha - Messenger of peace
10. Kalki - Yet to occur!

I went into a nice trip of hindu mythology yesterday.

I'm also trying to recap some other childhood stories. I've already forgotten the details of these told by my grandmom, Appa and Amma. I'll just list down the titles for now - but I really want to jot down the details somewhere :

1. Ottey Chana kathey
2. Mudki Payasa
3. Kagi Gubbi kathey
4. Orulu beku

Will post a detailed account of the trip tomorrow.

2 more fundas I learnt from the Guide:

GOD = Giver, Operator and Destroyer -> The trinity of Hindu Gods

LOVE = Look, Observe, Verify and Enjoy :)

Lalbagh

Wednesday was an awesome day. Both Pooja and I bunked office and decided to chill out at home and go to Lalbagh. It started off very well with a lunch at MTR. Yummm ..hmmm .. Those're the word to describe the lunch at MTR. It's a long 6-7 course Karnataka meal. I went on almost till the last course. Pooja and Aunty retired much earlier!

Then to cool off and help the cause of digestion of the food, we went for a walk into Lalbagh. Lalbagh has always been one of my favourite places in Bangalore. The walk around the lake is usually divine. But this time it was really special. The weather was simply superb. The grey skies have returned to Bangalore and brought back its old glory.



This is a shot I took from the Glass house.



The view from the bench where we sat and chatted for a long time. What you can't see in the picture is the wind and feelings of the people at the place. Divine - is an understatement!



We discovered this Nagalinga pushpa by accident. This tree was near the nursery. When you open up the flower, it looks like a small Linga covered by the hood of snakes above. Quite a rare and exotic flower that grows straight out of the trunk of the tree. It was a beautiful sight with the wind blowing and the slight drizzle making the flowers drop down at a regular rate.



The famous Queen's flower seen all around Bangalore. The pavements off MG Road have a lot of these trees.



This picture summarizes the day. Quite an amazing day! After that we went to Prasanna doddappa's house and Anand Uncle's house. Spent very good quality family time. God, I love them all :-)

Mumbai Xpress

We watched this movie day before yesterday. Kamal Hassan's Mumbai Xpress is a total laugh riot. That's the only word that aptly describes the movie.

Forget your brain and logic, just enjoy the moments in the movie. Vijay Raaz as Digambar is amazing. The entire story has been very well intertwined as a comedy of errors. The planner of the kidnap plot, Digambar has his assistants in the form of Johnson and another guy.

I think I'm pretty bad at reviewing movies. I can't write a story too well. So I leave you to google for the movie's reviews. But, I would strongly recommend it as a 'must see' wholesome family entertainer.

Tanjore Paintings

Yesterday we visited Vimal's Aunt's house. She is into making Tanjore paintings.

Thanjavur, situated in the Kaveri delta is the origin of one of the most exquisite arts in South India. It's an amzing amalgamation art and crafts. The basic paintings are all based on mythology. Some of the famous paintings include the Ramar pattabhishekam or Rama's coronation ceremony. We have this paiting at home in Pondicherry.

The way the painting is created really painstaking and cumbersome. The base painting is first created on cloth. Then using only vegetable dyes and water colour, the figure is enhanced. Then, gold paper is stuck and stones are planted at appropraite place to create a 3D effect. The end result is quite stunning.

There are amazing photos on the web describing the Tanjore paintings.

saraswathi

Water

June 5th was World Environment day. We celeberated it on June 3rd at Philips. One Dr. Rajeev Gowda was invited as Chief Guest on that day to speak on Green Cities. He is a Prof at IIM Bangalore and a Ph.D from Wharton. He's also a budding politician - a congress party member.

He made a very interesting point during his speech. India certainly missed the industrial revolution. But when it happened in England, London went through exactly the same mess as Bangalore is goinf through today. Bangalore's the spear head of the IT revolution. This en-masse migration to the city, unscruplus expansion and rotten politics is killing the place defintely. But, there might be hope! London went through the same kind of mess - pollution, mass migration and poor infra-structure.

Very near home, Delhi's been doing pretty well. Thanks primarily to the supremem court. CNG buses and autos - half the pollutants are off. Bring in a mass rapid transit system, people start discovering each other! Hopefully, Bangalore may be saved before it drowns.

The real danger is in fact Water. We know the famous saying that the future wars will be fought over water. We know from the past the way Tamil Nadu and Karnataka fight over the Kaveri. The same story is repeated in Punjab and Haryana for the Yamuna waters. Across the border, Punjab and Sindh fight like dogs for the water of the Indus.

Traditionally, south Karnataka had a very good system of water conservation through keres. Whether it the good looking Ulsoor kere pretty much in the heart of the city, the Lalbagh kere - south karnataka has a system of channels where in the overflow from one tank goes into the next and thus also recharges the ground water. We don't have any major rivers in South Karnataka. The Kaveri is a good 100Km from Bangalore. This great river also is in the record books for being the most utilized river on earth.

With these keres slowly disappearing - some dried up, some lost to utter negligence and hyacinth, lots lost to so called development of layouts. Jayanagar T Block today stands on a former lake. So the Majestic bus stand. In my lifetime, I've seen the disappearance of a lake in Pondicherry. The lovely greenary on the way to school, suddenly became a VVP Nagar one day!!

What is the way ahead now? Compulsory rain water harvesting? As usual, the biggest problem is : how do you enforce it? The crazy floods that happen after every rain are a direct result of the blocking of the natural channels of water flow. Somehow, we need to restore the old dys of water conservation all over south karnataka. It was a sad state when I saw Arsikere completely dry on the way back from Kemmanagundi. So are numeruos lakes in Tumkur district.

Okay - that's the bleak picture. Some kind of time travel - we should see the glorious past. We love our glorious past don't we? All of us Indians .. Do we have that glorious a future? May be the pollution and public transport will be taken care. But, Water will be the most important decider!

Adityaya Namaha

We have saluted the Sun in Indian culture since time immemorial. It's an infinite source(may be infinitely measurable) of energy. We worship it in the form of Surya bhagavan. We salute the sun as part of Surya Namaskar. We assosciate exposure to sun to perform yoga as a divine routine.

Now we need to extend this practice to other spheres of life. The energy is there to be tapped. We are blessed with so much sunshine every year. Let's start utilising this abundant source of energy for our needs.

Some ideas and products that already exist :

- Solar water heaters (domestic and industrial)
- Solar Cookers - We've seen this in action
- Dry your clothes in the sun ( rather than use high energy consuming washing machine dryers)
- Solar recharge batteries ( if they dont exist already, i hope they are developed soon enough)
- Solar buses ( Heard that Reva is already getting down to this)
- Solar street lights ( This concept has been around since my school days - but may be it is still very expensive - but in quite a few remote locations, this is the best source. I remember that in Jungle lodges, this was the mode of camp lighting)
- Photo Voltaic Cells - Imagine the power that can be tapped from the Thar desert
- Water purification - Read the dynamised water concept of Auroville
- Water desalination kits

Imagine, the amount of energy saved by these small steps will relieve the country's energy bills. The Govt. also should promote these by giving good concessions. I've heard that in Germany there are very good incentives for solar energy usage.

The per capita carbon emission of India is around 0.25 metric tonnes. This is still one fourth the world average. This is still 1/22nd of what that terrorist country in the West which Columbus discovered by accident, emits. All this despite the sad statistic that 65% of the rural households in India still burn firewood or animal dung for fuel. Isn't it time to change the face of India? We can show the world how to efficiently re-use and recycle energy.

!! Om Adityaya namaha !!

Where do I want to be ..

Don't we all have that dream profession that we really think would be the ideal one? I so often sit and wonder what is it that will make me really happy doing.

The list of things that fascinate me are :

-  Travel
-  History
-  Talking - may be eventually some kind of a public speaking
-  Teaching mathematics - high school level

I wonder what's happened to my academic enthu. I used to love reading .. I loved solving problems in Math. Now everything work related takes a cynical twist. Where's that enthu gone?

I thought I was good at writing. But when I started writing those essays for b-school, I was pathetic. My english was bad! My sentences had grammatical mistakes!! And I thought I was used in writing !!

History fasciantes me still. If the history is related to mystery - even more so. Hampi in North Karnataka is so mysterious. So is Angkor Vatt in Cambodia. That's the latest addition to my list of must do historical places. Of course, the pyramids of Egypt are still high in the list.

I really want to live in an Indian village for a while. Say teach some high school maths to kids. Tell them the basics of calculus. Wouldn't that be fun? Implement some basic things that will improve the life of those people. And live in the midst of green fields and clean unpolluted air while doing this.

Solar energy is of course another interest. I need to go beyond just redaing about it and make something. Some sites give procedures to make these things.

Ok - to begin with - I still need to start gymming and cut down this flab of mine!

The Grand Wedding!

We are back after attending the Prince of Pattambi's wedding reception in the capital of his kingdom.

Trips, Pooja and I left from home by around 12.30 PM on Saturday afternoon. We drove drove and reached Pattambi at 11 PM that night. The Prince was in the hotel where we were staying. Met him for a very brief period and just damar crashed.

The next morning at around 10 AM Trips came and woke us up saying the reception had been advanced and it was in the afternoon itself. So we got up and started getting ready at a good pace.

When I was in the bathroom, I heard a loud orchestra of conch shells and drum beating in traditional kerala style. That was the arrival of the Prince to the stage. We got ready and went to the hall. The Prince and the new Princess Sharanya were there attired in suit-boot and saree
respectively.

There was an elephant parked outside the hall decorated in gold the kinds i've seen in mysore dashera functions. So we suspect he either rode in to the hall on that or was going to leave on that !!

The praja that attended were from far away lands and places. The whole of Pattambi was definitely there. So were people like Ankur who had flown in from Jammu for the occasion.

We had a full scale mallu lunch. After the lunch we were so stuffed - we wanted to take a walk in Pattambi. So we asked people around there whether there was anything to see in Pattambi. One uncle's jaw dropped and said you have already seen whatever is there to see in Pattambi. We decided that it was a stupid idea and so left Pattambi by around 1.30 PM. Drove through the greenary of Kerala's Palakkad district.

Some comments on the drive part :

- The contrast in the green levels of Kerala and TN were sucha contrast. The moment you cross the border, the trees are gone! The thick lush greenary is replaced by shrubbery all around!!

- Had fun driving on the highways with zebra-crossings ;) .. Not a joke!!

- The four lane highway from Krishnagiri onwards is cool. But the people driving on them are as stupid as they were!! Slow trucks spewing smoke and taking a good 1/2 hour to overtake the guy in front and thus causing a convoy of vehicles to be formed behind!

- On the return trip, we stopped at Tiruppur - the T-shift capital of India, Did some cool shopping of T-shirts that were meant to become Banana Republic and Sears branded - for 70-80 Ruppes :))) .. that was really worth it!

We have a photo taken at the reception. Will upload it tomorrow.

Motorcycle diary

I just wanted to blog that crazy trip of ours. It all started when on Friday morning we felt like getting out of town. I started looking up jungle lodges and some other resorts. All were booked!

Tour sketch:

Bike travelled on : Suzuki Fiero

Start 6.30 AM, 4th June, 2005 - Bangalore

Route followed : Blore - Nelamangala - Kunigal - Hassan - Belur - Chikmagalur - Kemmanagundi.

Time taken : Close to 11 hours - breaks almost every 1/2 hour. Final stretch from Chikmagalur to Kemmanagundi was bad! But very scenic and beautiful :) NH 4 upto Nelamangala - NH 48 upto Hassan - SH from Hassan to Chikmagalur - village road from Chikmagalur to Kemmanagundi.

Reached Kemmanagundi : 5.30 PM

Here's the general landscape of the area between Chikmagalur and Kemmanagundi.






5th June, 2005 : Woke up to see a beautiful mist outside our room. Slight rain!

Started trek to Hebbe falls at 1.00 PM .. Couldn't find the way on our own. Spoke to 3 kids and engaged them as our guides - Harish, Nagaraj and Manikandan. Amazing trek through forests and coffee estates. One part is very steep - down, down and down while going! Up, up and up while climbing back.

Saw some wonderful wild flowers and orchids growing on trees. We've brought home 2 orchids. Hope they grow on our tree.

We saw this beautiful sunset on the way back:



Got back to the room by evening. Shifted to Raja Bhavan in the morning. Much better room, awesome lighting.

Had a cold water bath. Sat down in the garden steps. What an amazing sky we saw!! Star-studded. Fantastic wind. Spoke and chatted and felt very romantic!

6th June, 2005 : Woke up to a lovely day again. Went down to the canteen for breakfast. Started on a trek to Z-point by accident. What an amazing place! What views! Really awesome.

This snap was taken on the Z-point:



Started back to Bangalore at 1.30PM. Decided to take the other route.

Return journey: 1.30 PM

Route : Kemmanagundi - Lingdahalli - Birur - Arsikere - Tiptur - Tumkur - Bangalore

NH 206 was beautiful. Lovely views. Landscape changes with every district. Hassan district had coconut trees. Tumkur had cactus!!

It poured and poured on the way from Lingdahalli to Birur. We continued for a while then got too wet. Stopped under a tree.

Took breaks almost every 1/2 hour. Was very necessary! For the sake of our bums :). Reached Tumkur by 7 PM. Then on to the 4 lane highway to Bangalore. Reached home after a stop at IISC by 10.30 PM.

What a lovely trip! One of the best!

Photos here : http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=128417334205&page=1&sort_order=0

Bike trip ..

We plan to go on a motorbike trip starting tomorrow morning. Hope we succeed in our mission. May the force be with us.

Destination : seriously thinking of Kemmanagundi near Chikmagalur. My bike's not exactly in great condition but what the heck! We really need to get out of town for a couple of days ..

Anyway, every Indian must visit this site on th enet : www.kamat.com - one of the best websites and collection of photographs I've seen. Really gives me enthu to take up photography as a hobby!

See you people on Monday if everything goes well :-)

The storms and beyond ..

The last 4 days we've been witnessing storms every evening in Bangalore. The pattern is so typical - it starts getting windy and there's a dust storm like gale - the temperature drops like crazy and then it hails and rains.

The worst was day before yesterday. 2 Trees and an electric pole fell in our street. The we had a power cut that lasted 29 hours :(((( .. The night and early morning were manageable - the air was cool and there was a pleasant wind blowing throughout. But then around 9 AM came the surprise - we ran out of water :( - coz there was no power to pump the water up!

Anyway that was one horrible day. The electricity dept took a whole to put the pole straight up.

Yesterday was another storm. There was a picture in the paper the other day - it seriously looked like the sea - but it turned out to be a road in bangalore.

And all this - before the monsoon has set in !!

The INSEAD App

While writing my INSEAD essays I realized a few points about my own character and my future plans. The entire apping process was really useful in that regard. Even though it can pain quite a bit. Some important takeaways from the entire excercise :

1. It's difficult to be prceise and convey all that you wanted to say. Every point needs to be substantiated. But the word limits are so damn low. Brevity certainly is not my current strength. I need to work on how to make my writing intersting, brief and humurous.

2. My long-term gaols certainly got clarified. I do want to be an entrapreneur. And I do want to be an entrapreneur in the renewable energy field. How, I don't know yet! But "why", I'm pretty clear. The world is goddamn dying. It needs an answer to this madness for the oil. We have the Sun shining away to glory all the time in the year especially in India. Why, can't we use it? I want to change this world, yes. There are so many different routes to it. I could be a peace volunteer, a politician, an environmental activist. But, I'm chosing the MBA route. Yes, I do want to change the world!

3. My short-term goal is also very clear now. I want to revolutionize the way these solar products are sold. So for that, I want to sell some existing product! I'm in the field of product management in a way. I do Release management. So the natural progression for me is product management.

4. I feel proud about my country. India is where the past meets the future. This is where business is going to grow. China's much bigger - but the stability of the Indian democracy is where I would invest in. If the chinese wake up one day to fight for their freedom, then it'll roll back their economy by a significant number of years! No such problems with India.

5. My character : what are my strengths and weaknesses. Frankly, my main weakness is laziness. But can I say that to an Adcom! Hell, no ! I'm sure I wouldn't want a lazy guy in my team. So no point in telling the truth. So the next big weakness is certainly procrastination. That's what I've put in there. Hope the story works.
My strength definitely is my pateince. I've done very well on the personal front only because of my patience. Actually it's a combination of patience and thick-skin. That makes me cool in a lot of situations.

6. My english language skills are dan lousy. That's one thing I figured out from the various reviews by my friends. And God, help me acquire brevity !

Anyways, the Reccos were okay. My past managers - actually Shirish was never really my manager. But he is a manager! Gayathri also was a manager with whom I had good relationship. Hopefully, she's given me a good recco.

Anyways, more on the apping front soon. To be continued ..

Firefox

Just downloaded Firefox 1.0.4 from the Mozilla website. I've used it before and I really love the TABbed browsing. More than anything else, it's the tendency of the human brain to seek change that is the biggest plus about Firfox. Of course, the tabbed browsing also means the browser does not open infinite windows on the taskbar.

I can now set the 2 proxies in two different browsers. Of course the security related aspects are much better in Firefox than IE. Would like to try out some other browsers too! Anyone has any idea?

Browsing

I've been browsing so much of late. Till the apps for INSEAD were sent, I was browsing for loads and loads of stuff on renewable energy. It's a very interesting topic to browse on.

Then of course the second most browsed topic is why MBA and essay writing tips sites. That's not all that interesting. Only when I wrote these formal essays did I realise that I'm such a verbose writer. I take up so much space for writing something very small!

Now of course the new topic for browsing is my profession. Testing as a profession is pretty young and interesting. There are lots of articles on the topic. I found James Bach's blog very interesting : http://blackbox.cs.fit.edu/blog/james/

As I explore more and more terms for the upcoming apps and also my own work, browsing adds huge value to one's knowledge. Be it registering in the Wharton or INSEAD knowledge sites or taking subscription of the Earthscan online magazine.

Pondy!

Pondicherry is my home town. Everytime I go there I feel more psenti about it. Its a beautiful place to re-discover with your beloved :).

We went to Repos beach late evening yesterday. I've always wanted to show her the spectacle of a moonrise in Pondicherry. I'd seen it once before in the main city beach. But what we saw yesterday was something totally blissful and mind-blowing. The full circle of the moon could be seen rising from iside the ocean. The cool breeze blowing, the height of the tides increasing and the sounds of the birds returning home :) and your beloved in your arms - the feeling was surreal !

As the orange-white ball rose higher into the sky, I was reminded of an old doubt I'd always had. Why does the Sun appear to move faster when its near the horizon? I'd asked this question long back in a Science Program called 'Turning Point'. Never really got a satisfactory answer to that question.

Anyway, coming back to the point - Pondicherry - alas - it feels like a poem everytime I visit the blessed land. I just hope it continues to stay as beautiful ...

Listen O Janamejeya

That was the name of the play we watched yesterday at Rangashankara. It was directed by a junior of ours called Okri.

The story was pretty awesome. The acting was even better. The story revolves around 4 characters - one an old man who believes experience is everything; a youth who belives that zeal alone can take him far far away; a pretty young woman who is a normal woman who wants security and believes that it's determination that will take anyone somewhere! And then the common man called Samanyappa - who belives that one should work hard and not allow oneself the luxury of thinking of unnecessary things. Just eat before you sleep, sleep after you eat, get up the next morning and work and tire yourself out and just repeat the process over and over again.

Then there are 2 other characters - one is a director of the play; the other is the leader who preaches that everything's wrong with this earth and we need to transport ourselves to the moon or mars! That's where the solution lies.

The story progresses act by act - the first in which the inside of the characters is revealed; the second one in which the outside occupational life of the characters is enacted. Then the final act with a lot complicated dialogues such as "Let the living live and dead die!". And "in the kingdom of the dead, the alive person is called a ghost".

I haven't fully analysed the impact and meaning of the play. But the performances were superlative! I think the general conclusion is that just live your life the way you want to. Don't over philosophize.

Rangashankara is doing a great job in the theater scene in Bangalore.

It's already 6 days !

Happy new year to you all! Had an okay new year party.

We've been mad running around looking for houses. It's easily tyhe craziest thing one can do. The houses look so sad, located in pathetic localities or they're like some Aushwitz ghettos. Finally we found a house that looks good but has a greedy owner. Tried some hard bargaining. Got a few concessions.

In the meantime, dealing with in-laws and parents is getting to be quite a challenge. I don't intend calling them dad or mom ! Uncle and aunty should be good.

Really need to relax now. More updates to follow!