This is after a long time, that I got good time to be free whole day as well as my spirits are high to write about.
Today I just thought of writing all the novels/books I have read to satiate avid reader inside me.
So here you go:
1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone by JK Rowling (first novel I read)
2. Harry Potter and the Chambers of secret by JK Rowling
3. The Road ahead by Bill gates
4. The alchemist by Paulo Coelho
5. Making the minister smile by Updhayay
6. 5 point someone by Chetan Bhagat (full gap shap, filmy)
7. 11 minutes by Paul Coelho
8. The Code book by Simon singh (very boring)
9. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
10. Monk who sold his ferrari by Robin Sharma (good read)
11. Deception point by Dan Brown
12. Digital Fortress by Dan Brown
13. Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
14. It's all about the bike by Lance Armstrong
15. Night @Call centre by Chetan Bhagat
16. You can be healthy by BM Hegde
17. 12 Red herrings by Jeffery Archer
18. The God Father by Mario Puzo (good read)
19. Rich Dad Dad by Robert Kiyosaki (Loved this book, big fan, must read)
20. Freakonomics by Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner
21. Harry Potter and Prisoner's of Azakaban by JK Rowling
22. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (ultimate characters but too long)
23. Karma Yoga by Swami Vivekananda (thanks IIO (Intelligent Interaction with Others) subject that I got opportunity to read such books, meant for everyone)
24. Jnana Yoga by Swami Vivekananda (too tough and thoughts are sometimes impractical, courtesy of IIO subject)
25. The Upnishads by Swami Prabhavananda(very very tough, IIO)
26. Lectures from Colombo to Almora by Swami Vivekananda (treat to read the complete compilation of Swami Vivekananda speech and preachings, IIO)
27. Practical Vedanta by Swami Vivekananda (easy and brief, another short compilation of Swami Vivekananda speech and preachings, IIO)
28. Bhagavad-Gita The Song of God (pocket-book, however tough to understand by simple plain reading, IIO)
29. Money & Power by Howard Means (Great documentary of 12 business tycoons of the world)
30. HBR on Managing Your Career (2002, an eye opener, must read for all)
31. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (ongoing, stopped reading till MBA)
In addition, I am ardent fan of Chacha choudhary, naagraaj, super commando dhruv, doga, bankelal and dilbert too. :)
The best part of reading all these novels is that I did not buy most of these novels except three (2. Harry Potter and the Chambers of secret by JK Rowling, 9. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown 19. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki).
All other novels which I bought, I never read them. :P
So my principle is - "Maang kar padho" :)
This is just the start ... be ready for my begging if u have the novel on my top-list...(will come up soon with the list)
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Rotibaazi
Date: 5 Apr, 2009,1:30 PM Maid not coming...Mummy having aggravated arthritis pain due to extra burden of her absence...prepared everything except rotis to serve them hot...but as always I was not ready...her well prepared dialogue about - "meri koi kadr nahin karta"..."main 24*7 kaam karti hoon"..."tum logo ko saturday sunday off milta hai I never get even a single day off."..."why do u irritate me"....$#$#$@@@...
As always I kept grinning...then i said something new..."Alright I will prepare roti"..."Bahut suna liya"...fact is I never tried but she was delighted to listen that...she threw everything instantly and went to bed..."Let's see"..."Now u will know"...
Thankfully prepared flour was there...phir kya tha...i started making them...formally i was trying it first time...I made really good roti that anyone cud be jealous of even my mom...:D...ab to inko "Bahu" ki bhi jaroorat nahin hai...LOL...Probably my experience of advising my various cook for 8 years...and watching them worked here...
The pic is here:
Dad had full lunch from my patli patli roti...:) and then I made it for myself...Mom had so called VRAT as always ...thankfully dad started washing utensils by that time...soon all kitchen was set...mom was happy...We declared that we will be making dinner too as we are fed up of cribs and altercations everyday...which everybody knows were the hollow promises...
I went out at 6 PM with my friends and came home at 10 PM...dinner was ready as alwaays mummy prepared it...
So how is the roti...? :)
Friday, April 03, 2009
Finally !! Great Lakes calling !!
Writing post to remember the series of events happened for my admission to Great Lakes:
After giving CAT and getting moderately good percentile(96.8). It was in Nov-Dec 2008 when I was simply browsing few B-schools to apply for when I came to know about Great Lakes...It was giving 1 yr MBA which only few colleges are providing till now...soon I researched few more things about colleges, found to be highly suitable for my profile, decided to apply for Great Lakes in December 08.
Some of the important events and dates of my journey to Great Lakes admissions:
Application:
Applied for the Great Lakes on 9th Jan, 2009 through online mode, the last date was 16th Jan, 2009. As to my assumption, it was good time in advance to apply for any college. But to my surprise Great Lakes application was a complete exception to any other B-school application in India.
There were range of sections to complete.
1. Personal Information section: Simple
2. Academic profile: Simple
3. Non-academic profile: Ok to complete
4. Work Profile: Simple
5. Essays: Very Difficult, the biggest surprise in the application. There were 4 mandatory essays and 1 optional essay to be written to complete application. Colleges abroad (GMAT based) accepts essays but any Indian B-school asking essays of such intelligent level was completely new for me.
The essays were:
i. Strategy is defined as synergy between values and goals. How do you think Great Lakes fits into your strategy? (400 words)
ii. Character comes out in crisis. Please tell us what do you think of this statement. (400 Words)
iii. Heart has its reason which reason knows nothing of. Comment. (400 words)
iv. It is alleged, that B-School students are driven by Money and Power and not Service and Sacrifice. Do you agree and if so how will you change this in Reality? (300 words)
Optional
v. Please provide any additional insight or information that you have not addressed elsewhere that may be helpful in reviewing your application. Complete this question if you feel your candidacy is not fully represented by this application. (300 words)
6. Recommendation: Difficult, 2 recommendations from people you worked with/under.
Soon after filling the form on 9th, I realized that completing the essays is a mammoth task. Anyways started giving my best to it and planned to write 1 essay each, finish them by 14th and review all of them on 15th and 16th so as to submit them on 16th Jan. Essay i and iv were completed by 13th. There was a lot of pressure to complete essays on time with a good quality.
Moreover the recommendations looked like very difficult to get on time from my busy managers.
To my utter happiness, a good news floated in my mail box on 13th, that last date for form submission has been extended to 30th January. It was a big sigh of relief as it was ample time to complete essays as well as getting recommendations in time.
I started re-writing all my essays + wrote kind of appraisal for my recommenders listing my achievements, learnings etc on work so as to make information handy for them while writing my recommendations. Guess it helped a lot.
One of my recommendations got submitted on 26th Jan, thanks Satish, one of my recommender.
Finally submitted my application on 28th January, 2009.
My another recommendation from Gowrish was pending yet and he was not getting enough time for it. Finally pushed him hard on 30th Jan and got it submitted on 30th late night. :)
So my application was all set and done by 30th Jan. It was a big relief.
GD PI shortlist:
On 9th Feb, 2009, received a mail about my shortlisting for GD PI to be held on 21st Feb, 2009 in Nehru place, Delhi.
I was aware of actual GD PI events from my last experiences and knew it very well that your communication, ideas in a flow and confidence matters a lot in the tough situations of GD PI where fish market is a common scenario.
I was bed-ridden due to leg fracture during that time and was completely out of GD PI and communication environment. So to make up for it, I started reading newspaper and magazines all aloud in the room. That was an effort to raise confidence level to speak in public. Twice or thrice I called up Bulbul from my neighbour to come for debate on some of the highly common topics. She used to be highly enthusiastic about debating topics like women liberalisation, student power, india kashmir issue. I kept it as debate so as to oppose her and to raise my confidence levels to speak in opposite. Sometime the debate became too hot but there was nothing personal.
Last 3 days I gave just for reading newspaper, googling major events of last 1 year and increasing GK as much as possible. My GD PI for Great Lakes was on 21st Feb and before that I had GD PI of IMT-GHaziabad on 20th Feb which has happened to be like a mock GD PI for Great Lakes. :)
So on 21st Feb, reached at
Venue:
Paharpur Business Centre & Software Technology
Incubator Park,
21 Nehru Place Greens,
New Delhi 110019. Time: 3.45 PM
I reached at around 2 PM with my father and Ravindra, was on crutches and limped all around. :)
Group discussion:
The process started at around 3:30 PM by giving psychometric test within 10-15 min. Then at around 4:15 PM we were called for GD round. There were 2 judges inside, too young but matured. We, 12 people started with small introduction.
GD was on a case study which was something like this: XYZ is a CEO of cloth company which manufactured a lot of cloth and treated with some PQR chemical. The chemical later found out to be cancerous and got countrywide ban. There is huge inventory of the cloth and company may incur huge losses if cloth is scraped. XYZ decided to export the cloth to eastern countries. Was that a right action?
I put few good and unique points like finding out the validity of research about the chemical, putting a statuary warning upon use of the cloth and treating cloth with some other chemical to reverse the harmful effects. So I got 2-3 sound entries to speak my points.
I must say the GD PI was best among all GD PI experience I had ever had. People were matured and gave speaking opportunity to everyone. While there were some people who again tried to capture whole show but even then everybody got a good enough chance to speak.
After 10 min discussion, the judges asked to write the thoughts on paper and soon asked randomly to give monologue of the case study. I gave judgement of Mr XYZ to be unethical.
Interview:
Soon after that I got my documents verified. At around 5:40 PM, I got the call for interview. There were 2 panelist both in their 40+ I suppose. Soon they started with their volleys like:
1. why MBA? >> entrepreneur
2. fees is 10.2 lacs, can u manage tht amount? >> saving + loan
3. money is not important for a B-school aspirant? >> not tht imp
4. ideology can not be followed without money, true or false? >> false
5. Example except Gandhiji who followed ideology without money? >> Sardar Patel, Subhash chandra bose, vivekanand, dayanand
6. Courage and stupidity which is true, if somebody put gun on u? >> scenerio and situation dependent
7. Soldiers who die in war...courageous or stupid? >> depends
8. Charity can happen only by money >> not true, may happen thru time and wrk too.
I suppose I gave my answers quiet well and convinced in most of my answers except question 6 and 7, in which probably they wanted to grill me more...but instead of getting grilled i grinned :P
All in all, I got positive vibes from the whole session.
Result:
So finally on 2nd March, 2009, I received the mail about my selection to Great Lakes.:)
to be continued...
After giving CAT and getting moderately good percentile(96.8). It was in Nov-Dec 2008 when I was simply browsing few B-schools to apply for when I came to know about Great Lakes...It was giving 1 yr MBA which only few colleges are providing till now...soon I researched few more things about colleges, found to be highly suitable for my profile, decided to apply for Great Lakes in December 08.
Some of the important events and dates of my journey to Great Lakes admissions:
Application:
Applied for the Great Lakes on 9th Jan, 2009 through online mode, the last date was 16th Jan, 2009. As to my assumption, it was good time in advance to apply for any college. But to my surprise Great Lakes application was a complete exception to any other B-school application in India.
There were range of sections to complete.
1. Personal Information section: Simple
2. Academic profile: Simple
3. Non-academic profile: Ok to complete
4. Work Profile: Simple
5. Essays: Very Difficult, the biggest surprise in the application. There were 4 mandatory essays and 1 optional essay to be written to complete application. Colleges abroad (GMAT based) accepts essays but any Indian B-school asking essays of such intelligent level was completely new for me.
The essays were:
i. Strategy is defined as synergy between values and goals. How do you think Great Lakes fits into your strategy? (400 words)
ii. Character comes out in crisis. Please tell us what do you think of this statement. (400 Words)
iii. Heart has its reason which reason knows nothing of. Comment. (400 words)
iv. It is alleged, that B-School students are driven by Money and Power and not Service and Sacrifice. Do you agree and if so how will you change this in Reality? (300 words)
Optional
v. Please provide any additional insight or information that you have not addressed elsewhere that may be helpful in reviewing your application. Complete this question if you feel your candidacy is not fully represented by this application. (300 words)
6. Recommendation: Difficult, 2 recommendations from people you worked with/under.
Soon after filling the form on 9th, I realized that completing the essays is a mammoth task. Anyways started giving my best to it and planned to write 1 essay each, finish them by 14th and review all of them on 15th and 16th so as to submit them on 16th Jan. Essay i and iv were completed by 13th. There was a lot of pressure to complete essays on time with a good quality.
Moreover the recommendations looked like very difficult to get on time from my busy managers.
To my utter happiness, a good news floated in my mail box on 13th, that last date for form submission has been extended to 30th January. It was a big sigh of relief as it was ample time to complete essays as well as getting recommendations in time.
I started re-writing all my essays + wrote kind of appraisal for my recommenders listing my achievements, learnings etc on work so as to make information handy for them while writing my recommendations. Guess it helped a lot.
One of my recommendations got submitted on 26th Jan, thanks Satish, one of my recommender.
Finally submitted my application on 28th January, 2009.
My another recommendation from Gowrish was pending yet and he was not getting enough time for it. Finally pushed him hard on 30th Jan and got it submitted on 30th late night. :)
So my application was all set and done by 30th Jan. It was a big relief.
GD PI shortlist:
On 9th Feb, 2009, received a mail about my shortlisting for GD PI to be held on 21st Feb, 2009 in Nehru place, Delhi.
I was aware of actual GD PI events from my last experiences and knew it very well that your communication, ideas in a flow and confidence matters a lot in the tough situations of GD PI where fish market is a common scenario.
I was bed-ridden due to leg fracture during that time and was completely out of GD PI and communication environment. So to make up for it, I started reading newspaper and magazines all aloud in the room. That was an effort to raise confidence level to speak in public. Twice or thrice I called up Bulbul from my neighbour to come for debate on some of the highly common topics. She used to be highly enthusiastic about debating topics like women liberalisation, student power, india kashmir issue. I kept it as debate so as to oppose her and to raise my confidence levels to speak in opposite. Sometime the debate became too hot but there was nothing personal.
Last 3 days I gave just for reading newspaper, googling major events of last 1 year and increasing GK as much as possible. My GD PI for Great Lakes was on 21st Feb and before that I had GD PI of IMT-GHaziabad on 20th Feb which has happened to be like a mock GD PI for Great Lakes. :)
So on 21st Feb, reached at
Venue:
Paharpur Business Centre & Software Technology
Incubator Park,
21 Nehru Place Greens,
New Delhi 110019. Time: 3.45 PM
I reached at around 2 PM with my father and Ravindra, was on crutches and limped all around. :)
Group discussion:
The process started at around 3:30 PM by giving psychometric test within 10-15 min. Then at around 4:15 PM we were called for GD round. There were 2 judges inside, too young but matured. We, 12 people started with small introduction.
GD was on a case study which was something like this: XYZ is a CEO of cloth company which manufactured a lot of cloth and treated with some PQR chemical. The chemical later found out to be cancerous and got countrywide ban. There is huge inventory of the cloth and company may incur huge losses if cloth is scraped. XYZ decided to export the cloth to eastern countries. Was that a right action?
I put few good and unique points like finding out the validity of research about the chemical, putting a statuary warning upon use of the cloth and treating cloth with some other chemical to reverse the harmful effects. So I got 2-3 sound entries to speak my points.
I must say the GD PI was best among all GD PI experience I had ever had. People were matured and gave speaking opportunity to everyone. While there were some people who again tried to capture whole show but even then everybody got a good enough chance to speak.
After 10 min discussion, the judges asked to write the thoughts on paper and soon asked randomly to give monologue of the case study. I gave judgement of Mr XYZ to be unethical.
Interview:
Soon after that I got my documents verified. At around 5:40 PM, I got the call for interview. There were 2 panelist both in their 40+ I suppose. Soon they started with their volleys like:
1. why MBA? >> entrepreneur
2. fees is 10.2 lacs, can u manage tht amount? >> saving + loan
3. money is not important for a B-school aspirant? >> not tht imp
4. ideology can not be followed without money, true or false? >> false
5. Example except Gandhiji who followed ideology without money? >> Sardar Patel, Subhash chandra bose, vivekanand, dayanand
6. Courage and stupidity which is true, if somebody put gun on u? >> scenerio and situation dependent
7. Soldiers who die in war...courageous or stupid? >> depends
8. Charity can happen only by money >> not true, may happen thru time and wrk too.
I suppose I gave my answers quiet well and convinced in most of my answers except question 6 and 7, in which probably they wanted to grill me more...but instead of getting grilled i grinned :P
All in all, I got positive vibes from the whole session.
Result:
So finally on 2nd March, 2009, I received the mail about my selection to Great Lakes.:)
to be continued...
Thursday, April 02, 2009
Life's been rollercoaster
Rollercoaster
Writing after a long time...Life has been like a rollercoaster from last 1-2 years and somehow i just gave up the writing...I experienced my best as well as worst days of my life in such a small span of time...just memorizing few important dates which put of lot changes in me, ofcourse made me a much better and matured person. Few events are extremely personal and are left blank.
3 Aug 2007 - Left MindTree,blore after 2+ yrs tenure, sad
6 Aug 2007 - Joined Sapient, blore happy...got project soon, happy...got enormous repsonsibilities, happy...worked day-night, sad
9 Sep 2007 - Most imp decision of life, very tense
10 Sep 2007 - .... Happy
12 Nov 2007 - ....Sad
7 Dec 2007 - Road Accident, banged with a truck, right hand fracture, operation next day, sad
22 Jan 2008 - Plaster opened, happy
2 Mar 2008 - ...Sad
24 Mar 2008 - Shifted to Sapient, Gurgaon, sad
7 Jul 2008 - ...Happy
4 Dec 2008 - Another road accident, banged with truck (i was pillion rider), le
ft knee badly fractured, operation next day, 1.5 month bed ridden, sad
20 Jan 2008 - Plaster opened but no weight bearing on legs, happy
6 Feb 2008 - Partial weight bearing on legs, happy
21 Feb 2008 - Great Lakes GD PI, happy
2 March 2008 - Great Lakes result - selected, happy
6 Mar 2008 - Full weight bearing on legs, happy
24 Mar 2008 - Still recovering...will update more soon...
3 Aug 2007 - Left MindTree,blore after 2+ yrs tenure, sad6 Aug 2007 - Joined Sapient, blore happy...got project soon, happy...got enormous repsonsibilities, happy...worked day-night, sad
9 Sep 2007 - Most imp decision of life, very tense
10 Sep 2007 - .... Happy
12 Nov 2007 - ....Sad
7 Dec 2007 - Road Accident, banged with a truck, right hand fracture, operation next day, sad
22 Jan 2008 - Plaster opened, happy
2 Mar 2008 - ...Sad
24 Mar 2008 - Shifted to Sapient, Gurgaon, sad
7 Jul 2008 - ...Happy
4 Dec 2008 - Another road accident, banged with truck (i was pillion rider), le
ft knee badly fractured, operation next day, 1.5 month bed ridden, sad20 Jan 2008 - Plaster opened but no weight bearing on legs, happy
6 Feb 2008 - Partial weight bearing on legs, happy
21 Feb 2008 - Great Lakes GD PI, happy
2 March 2008 - Great Lakes result - selected, happy
6 Mar 2008 - Full weight bearing on legs, happy
24 Mar 2008 - Still recovering...will update more soon...
Labels: diary
Nagtibba Trek
Nag Tiba Trek: Trip Log
Members: Satish, Lokendra, Varun(me) with guide Gajender
Start time: 10:55 PM, Wednesday, 01st Oct, 2008
End time: 11:15 PM Sunday, 05th Oct, 2007
Total travel: 800 Kms
Total Trek: 10 KM (uphill), 14 KM (downhill)
Total expense: 8948 INR
What went right:
- Awesome adventure experience as expected.
- Many areas covered and multiple stoppages.
What went wrong:
- Time management - led to night driving on last day
- Lack of equipments arrangment for such a trek
Total duration: 4+ days
Going: NOIDA - Ghaziabad - Dehradoon - Mussorie – Kempty - Pantwari - Nagtibba
Coming: Nagtibba - Maglauri - Thatyur - Musoorie - Dehradoon -Meerut
Weather Conditions: Humid/Pleasant/Cold
Vehicle: Train, Bus, Car, 3-wheeler
1st Oct 08
Noida - Ghaziabad
9:15 PM - Rushed from office after taking bundle of print-outs, most of them without reading :D
9:45 PM - Reached Ghazibad station and met Loki.
22:55 hrs - Start Ghaziabad Railway station(Train - Mussurie Express)
2nd Oct
Ghaziabad - Dehradoon - Mussurie - Kempty falls
8:30 hrs - reached Dehradun
9:00 hrs - brother's abode for breakfast
11:00 hrs - reached GMVN's Drona hotels/travel for Nagtiba trek knowledge and for renting tent/sleeping bags (No help except Mussorie brochure). got to know that we may get tent etc on rent from moti bazaar.
12 hrs - Wandered into moti bazaar (2 km). Asked for tent/sleeping bags on rent from several trekking equipments shops but no success. No one rents only buy-buy policy.
One thing fortunate - We met a trekker in a shop who told us about trek and adviced us to start trek from Pantwari rather than Thatyur village (opposite route what we had planned).
12:30 - 3 ppl 3 views - big confusion, Ideas - go to IMA, civil lines or mountcraft, ghantghar (or whatever), go to Rishikesh for renting tent..LOLzzzz, go without anything...:D, buy stuff. finally decided to buy sleeping bags. Phew...!!
13 hrs - Reached to a Sardarji's shop, finally bought 3 sleeping bags and 2 rucksacks after decent bargain. :P
14:30 - Walked towards railway station to catch bus/taxi for Mussorie.
15:00 - Finally started from Dehradoon
16:15 - Reached mussorie. Enquired about trek/route and bus/taxi service. Came to know there is a trek equipment shop in Mussorie who may rent out tent too.
16:35 - Had a boiled corn :D...too good...(that's why writing about it) with delicious imli chutney...
17:00 - Reached to equipment shop...no success..no bosy rents stuff now a days. phew.
18:00 - Hiread taxi, Left Mussorie for Kempty.
19:00 - Reached Kempty, checked into a lodge and went to a small fall which comes before Kempty.
19:15 - Had fun it very cold water.Had lunch...oops dinner :D
19:30 - Satish's mobile had a "bath" in water and got "cold"...:P
19:45 - Reached back to lodge. Had dinner
21:00 - Dinner and night walk
3rd Oct
Kempty - Pantwari - Nagtibba
6:30 hrs - Woke up, had tea, packed bags and started treekking for Kempty falls
7:15 hrs - Reached Kempty falls and had lotta fun
Kempty Fall
Fun time
Group pic
9:30 hrs - Catch a shared taxi and sat on roof of it. :) Big fun
11:30 hrs - Reached Pantwari, searched for restaurant...which was actually not there
11:45 hrs - A chai waala agreed to make lunch. Started preparation for aloo parantha
12:00 - Got a guide - Ganjender.
The Guide - Gajender who acted as guide, porter, cook, photographer and interpreter.
13:00 - Had lunch
Trek START
13:30 - Started trek for Nagtibba
Nagtibba is an ideal place for trekking and adventure. Nagtibba offers an excellent opportunity for adventure loving people to perform all kinds of adventure sports in the place. The area near the Nagtibba is full of dense forests and natural beauty. Tourists in Nagtibba can have a panoramic view of the Himalayas.
Situated in the valley at the bank of river Algar, Nagtibba lies at an elevation of 3048 meters above sea level where you can have a spectacular view of glaciers. It also provides a picturesque and captivating view of the majestic Himalayas, the hill station of Mussoorie, beautiful Doon Valley. Nagtibba is popular to the adventurous tourists due to the unspoilt wonder of nature around it. You can reach Nagtibba by bus.
Nagtibba near Dehradun has no accommodation system; so you should carry tents. You can even climb down to the picturesque village of Pantwari-gay. Famous for trekking in India, the beautiful valley of Nagtibba in Garhwal Himalayas is visited by thousands of adventure sports lovers. You can avail those specially designed trekking tour prepared by certified mountaineers as well as travel agents if you wish to make your travel economical and affordable. Hunt for good travel agents or certified mountaineers who will provide you with service as per the world-class standards.
The famous Nagtibba according to old sayings, is said to be the domicile of the Nag Devta. The shepherds and the local resident of the Aglar Valley near Jaunpur worshiped the Nag Devta. The wondrous Nagtibba gives a panoramic view of the Gharwal Himalayan peaks. (Source: http://www.mapsofindia.com/dehradun/nagtibba.html)
Sarso ke khet
16:00 - Pics with "Sarso ke khet"
Sheep and Goats
17:00 - Pics with Sheep and goat.
18:30 - Unexpected Night trek through jungle.
19:15 - Reached Nagtibba and opened guest (dirt) house.
19:30 - Arranged utensils and Went to get milk etc from villagers near by.
Busy for Diner preparation: Satish and Gajender
20:00 - Started dinner preparation...thnks to our guide Gajender
21:00 - Had Pulao, Kheer with lot of pure butter.
21:10 - Satish suffered from mountain sickeness, had no lunch.
22:30 - went to sleep..very tired and very cold + sleeping bags were small to fit in.
4th Oct
Nagtibba - Magalauri - Thatyur
7:00 hrs - woke up, had tea...again thanks to our guide, Gajender
8:30 hrs - had fun with villagers and their animals :)
9:00 hrs - Went to Nagtibba mandir, filled "very clean water" (as told by Gajender) from a well there.
9:30 hrs - started for trek ahead
10:30 hrs - Reached Tal - a small pond on the peak
11:30 hrs - Halted near to a waterfall and had bread-pure-butter.
12:30 hrs - Reached to a Devalsari valley view from a big stone.
15:30 hrs - Reached Maglauri village, bought toffees from a samll shop for village children, had tea at a villagers home (actually they were relative of our guide).
17:30 hrs - Finally reached to a motorable road 5 kms before Thatyur, bargained with Taxi driver and reached Thatyur
18:00 hrs Reached Thatyur.
After reaching thatyur big confsion happened if we should stay in Thatyur, else go to Mussorie, else go to Dhanulti else go to Dehradoon. Finally decided to stay at Thatyur.
18:30 hrs - Checked into a hotel and finally paid our guide handsome amount (he really deserved that - guide + porter + cook + bargainer)
9:00 hrs - Dinner and night walk
5th Oct
Thatyur - Mussorie - Dehradoon -
7:00 hrs - Woke up, got fresh, packed bags
8:30 hrs - Had tea-pakora breakfast
10:30 hrs - Left Thatyur after shared taxi got his full seat (1 hr waiting)
11:30 hrs -
I thanked God for that. Reason being I was feeling nauseatic due to descending. Loki already puked..LOLzzz
12:00 hrs - Reached mussorie. Wandered on "The Mall" road. Has ice-cream, corns again
13:15 - Saw aquarium in Musoorie.
14:30 – Left Mussorie
15:30 – Reached Dehradoon
16:00 – Reached Motibazaar to replace sleeping bags. Got them replaced
17:30 – Reached brother’s abode in Dehradoon.
18:00 – Had lunch/breakfast
18:30 – Left Dehradoon by car for
23:15 – Reached
Wayanad Trip
Wayanad Trip:
Total Journey: 1023 Kms
Start time:
End time:
Total duration: 3+ days
Going: Blore –
Coming:
Weather Conditions: Sunny
Vehicle : Taxi:-Chevrolet - Tavera
Friends: Adarsh, Sailesh, Rachna, Neha, Suruchi, Sonu, Tushar, Dhramendra, Varun AND Driver - Srinivas
Expense: 1000 INR - taxi + 928 INR (food + drinks + lodging + miscellaneous) ≈ 1928 INR
Article by Varun:
KWL gang was planning was goin on to go and freak out somewhere in the coming long "Ugadi" weekend. I was a bit skeptical about the program and was also keepin the track with my all time favourite - bikerzz. :)
Lotta mails sharing, somebody saying Goa other's list included Kerala; pondicherry; Bandipur, and me betting for Kemanagundi or Dandeli (Both are ultimate adventure areas). Finally Rachna came with a full proof plan to go to Wayanad. The way she prepared the trip was so unblemished that no body was raised any discocern.
There was lotta trouble about the members participating for trip. Finally Rachna sent a mail to remove all doubts and misunderstandings. See Rachna's Mail (Regarding misunderstandings)
Below are some of the confusion and misunderstanding:
Suu: Wanted to attend her college's convocation, where she was about to get a so called "Degree".
Neha: Goin behind Su to ask her prog and finally got confused totally about wot to do. Later after getting pissed of without any reason she wrote a stinker mail which nobody on the world understood. LOLzzz See Neha's Mail (RE: Reg misunderstading)
Sonu: Everbody was brawling around and another hero entered into the show. See Sonu's mail (RE: Reg misund, Inhume the hatchet).Like Neha again he wrote a lotta crap (no offences meant), there was a word which is worth mentioning - "Inhume the hatchet" means something like to forget the enemity etc etc...which i will never forget in my life time due to all this discussion. Thanks ooo sonu....;)
Now after lot of hue and cry I came to know that only Rach, Adi, Shailoo and me was goin for the trip. So we planned to meet up @Commercial street. i reached there Rach and Adi were already there and Sailoo was on the way...Rachna told me that Neha and sonu are also coming...gurrr...wot's tht...probably I could never understand the how we human beings work and think. Anyways I was more than happy to be with them. We were having some more seats vacant so we thought of asking to some of more friends if they wud like to join us... Oops before that I got a call from Tushar, my soccer mate and a nice guuy, who was highly interested to go for some bike ridezz on his new jaggernaut - "Enfield" :D. i told him that we are leaving for Wayanad tomm and have vacancy for two and yippie he was a game with his friend Dharmendra...Wot a great coincident my brain just thought of someone who could be ready for comin for the trip, I got him in a flick...Kewl...!!
I don't know but there is some problem with me I like to meet up and know the new people and many a times those strangers even become more important for me than some old buddy. Yaa even that is how I met a lot of nice people who became an important part of my life.
Finally we had parantha @Lalitha parantha, commercial
Night 1:
Blore –
The program was to leave Bangy by 10:00 PM so as to reach to destination early morning but as always transporter's prob, the cab , the driver nothing was there by tht time...huh...finally they hitted my home at 11:45 PM, by that time I was with half a energy as I was waiting from last 1 hr 30 min for the cab..BAD..probably thats why I like BIKING, you are solely responsible for everything.
Finally cab arrived at my home @11:30 PM , ooops wot is this Suu was also there....huh...wot's goin on... she was going for her degree..human species hve gone to complete brain wash or what...god knows how this brain works...how it prioritize-cache-buffer things...
Started at 11:45 PM, Driver - Srinivas was heavily drunk...he he...it's OK for me, I drove and rode drunk multiple times with the blessing of GOD...:D...today again "Maa ki duyaen" will help us...LOL
Seating arrangement: Me and Adi was sitting @front with Driver, Neha, Su, Sonu, Dharmendra - middle & Shailesh, Rach, tushar - back
We sang songs...ppl in the group are fully untrained singers...they know a lotta songs and simply sing them by heart...more than enough..actually..:). After all throats were tired there was only one gud casette of Kishore Kumar which remained the all time favourite for whole trip....That was all fun...
Adi bhai...thankfully was keepin a full eye on driver, so that he shud not sleep as already he was drunk...
Finally reached to Cafe cofee day @Mysore road at 2:30 AM, had some fun and started again..reached Mysore @4:30 AM had tea and started again...Driver was in bad sahpe by thatt time as poor guy dint sleep after booze so much @night...
Day 1: 17th March
Sulthan Bathery – Edakkal caves/trek – Karapuzha Dam - Sulthan Bathery (stay)
Sultan Bathery, also known as Sulthan's
Finally reached Sulthan Bathery at 7:00 AM, searched for the hotel. Got a nice hotel(see pic below) but with no bargains. Just checked in then...
Ppl were very tired so evrybody including me went to fast but small sleep(just half an hour)...took a bath...had breakfast of idly, sambar and more than delicious coconut chutney, I ever had in my life...I actually drank chutney :D
Edakkal caves:
Started of from hotel at 10:30 for Edakkal caves. Some important info about Edakkal caves:
12 kms from Sulthan Bathery. 3 caves are located at a height of 1000 mts on Ambukuthi mala near Ambalavayal. The new stone age pictorial writings on the walls of these natural caves at Edakkal are the evidence of the civilizations that existed in the regions in the pre-historic times. The caves can be accessed only by a 1Km trekking trail from Edakkal. Morning hours are the best time to visit these caves. Entry is permitted only upto 1700 hrs. An interesting trek up of the Ambukuthi Hill near Ambalavayal town takes you to this fascinating neolithic cave site. Etchings found on the walls of these caves have drawn the serious attention of archeologists and historians worldwide.With at least three distinct sets of petroglyphs, the earliest thought to date back over 3000 years, it is assumed that the Edakkal caves had been inhabited at various stages in history.
Distances from:
Reached to Edakkal caves at 11:15 AM, there was a 2-3 KM narrow road to go up, for which u may take a local jeep or go by walking, no other option...Shailoo who came earlier at the Edakkal told to took local jeep to go up rather than to go by walk as late there is a lot more trek left. Took the jeep who charge 8 INR per head i believe...fitted we 9 inside it uncomfortably..tushar just hanging outside :D
Reached edakkal to see a long queue waiting to get inside...there was a very narrow entry so it was difficult to go as a lot..also those ticket makers-takers-chekers were a bit slow. Finally @11:55 AM we were inside caves..ppl were full of joy as son as we reached inside...has a lotta of pics...especially Adi...who climbed upon just to imposible rock and asked to get as many as pics as possible :D.
As always BAD gang in RED
This time tushar was a step ahead from me in photography and he was clicking all our cameras all around...:) thanks man..
Bandipur Wild Trip
Bandipur Trip:
Total Journey: 624 Kms
Start time:
End time:
Total duration: 2+ days
Going: Blore – maddur– kollegal– yalendur(stay) – BR hills – K’Gudi - chamaraj nagar– nanjungud – bandipur –
Coming:
Weather Conditions: Sunny
Machine: Black Pulsar 150cc DTSi
Rider: Varun Khandelwal
Other riders: Praveen, Vicky, Srikeerthi
Min Speed: 10 Km/hr
Max speed: 125 Km/hr
Fuel: Approx. 18 litres.
Average: 624/18 ≈ 34 Km/lit
Expenses: 900 INR fuel + 400 INR (food + drinks + lodging + miscellaneous) ≈ 1000 INR
Accident n Injuries: 1 accident when rider fell 6 feet down the road on a twisty at BR Hills. Machine and rider landed safely.
Article by Varun:
Huh Friday 26th Jan t0 28th Jan – 3 days vacation including republic day and long time without ridez. So, thought of being republic on D-day. J I was in full touch with Praveen to whom I know very well as he is in the same company where I am and with whom I had all my last ridezz. J
The plan was to go for go to BR Hills which is considered to be among some of the nice sanctuaries full of elephants, tigers etc.
Day 1:
I started from my room at around
I started the machine without bothering again to call the mechanic and went to Food world, BSK, where Praveen was already waiting for me from last 5-10 minutes. I told him the problem which probably he didn't listen so simply putting everything upon God I dragged my machine from there. At
Soon we were on full throttle riding the machine as if it’s not bike but the jet planes. Man…
Reached at BR hills – check post at around
Reason: No vehicle is allowed into BR hills (forest) after
Reason for reason: Higher officers’ order
Reason for reason for reason:
I had 2 Kingfisher already and then helped Srikeerthi’s 2nd one…he he.
I was badly drunk and went for sleep in hotel at around
Day 2:
Yalendur – BR hills – K’Gudi - chamaraj nagar– nanjungud – bandipur –
We woke up at
5 sec – Bike and me tumbled. 20 sec - I was still stuck under bike…Pulsar engine still pulsing, which I turned off. Hoped if someone may come back and help me out…20+ sec over…NO HELP…bad bad…
Detached myself from my machine with difficulty and felt that definitely I got some bruises in my left leg but no time to see them right now. Let’s get out of this hack. Put Pulsar (god damn it‘s very heavy to put back Pulsar on wheels…very heavy) back on her legs. But even now I was at slope beside the road – 6 feet down. It was very impossible to go up on your own – need HELP HELP.
OK at last collecting some more courage…1st gear ON…brakes pulled…clutch pulled…auto started bike…darling roared for some time but at last didn't ditch me and started…I pulled bike up with engine started and keeping myself on my legs….huh at last I was on road….my God at last I am out of the hell safely.
I put the petrol tank knob OFF and started searching for any harm to machine… headlights were up and out of place…bike was all full of shrubs and bushes …other things looked to be pretty Ok.
I started machine back…saw Praveen coming back and asking me if I fell somewhere… (I feel falling with/from bike is part of game while riding bikez)…I told him not a serious matter and we can move on…only that I will be on my own speed from now…soon I was again talking to wind…this time Praveen was keeping an eye over me like a big bro J
Rode again...Pit stopped…
There were very less of roads and generally it was all stones and pebbles on the way. At around
Resort was too good, with beautiful cottages and ambience. Yup even the charges were good – 2000 INR per head.
...and I went to Ladies toilet:
Reached to Chamrajnagar at around
Reached to Gudulpet where Sri met his uncle who owned a petrol pump and of course a farm house. We went to the farm house freaked out, took pics of various places, took some rest as well and had rice meal with sambhar then rasam then curd + tasty pickle.
While not being a south Indian, I dunno but in never had any problem in having south Indian food, I enjoyed it. I was the biggest food eater among all four of us. J Sri asked in amazement that I eat so much even then how come you r flat stomach…well even I dunno the answer J…neways I don’t want to be fat. Started again at
Bought 4 tickets of 100 INR each for evening safari in the Jungle and waiting for it to start. In the mean time, I went into Bandipur wildlife museum near by and took some pictures inside.
When I came outside…guys were waiting for me…I thought safari has come but instead Vicky got some local guide to take us for jungle trek and show us elephants. Tickets which were bought have already been sold off…so we started our bikes again and reached to a village nearby…deposited our belongings at a shop, left our bike there only…looked to be a huge risk but again we youth may take that much risk. :D
We trekked around 4-5 KM inside jungle full with shrubs, bushes, thorny plants…huh. No signs of “Haathi” till now. Sri and I making full mockery of guide and jungle. Haaah…then came the time….so many wild elephants fighting to each other, rampaging trees…oh man there was a huge herd of elephants, there were some . Guide told us to be silent and walk slowly and carefully. Watching so many wild elephants was not only adventurous but a bit scary as well. We took some pics, passed some time there silently. Vicky, Sri and guide had few cigs. Wind direction was from elephants to us as told by guide otherwise elephants would have come to know about us a long time back.
K we started back but oops not from the same way from where we came but we were going inside dense forest. We saw tiger’s shit (as told by guide), freshly eaten meat and bones here and there…as if saying to us don’t dare to go ahead…huh sri, Praveen and me were scared now while Vicky was following and talking to guide continuously. There were no ways, no directions, once lost in jungle no idea where to head on. It came to my mind that this guide definitely wants to make us die here in jungle from tiger. Oh so POOR I am…helpless...could not shout due to wild animals on the round…cud not bully guide who brought us to the hell…Pray…Pray…
Started again at
Night Ride:
At
Day 3:
Next day I woke up at around
Ankit told to show Infy,
Infy Mysore Resort:
Office building
Library and conference hall
The Grand Globe
Ankit @Pool side
The Gym
Bowling alley
Ok around
I called up Praveen and Vicky to ask about their plans. Vicky wanted to stay for some more time at his cousin’s abode while Praveen was willing to come by
Sole ride:
I should say while initially I was feeling bored of lone riding but soon I was enjoying it as soon I started getting whip of cold breeze. Sometimes I rode very fast sometimes too slow…too much fun…I danced, relaxed and did all strange stuffs on bike. I introspected, thought about the life, my career, family everything. I also put off my helmet and rode after a long time. J
I reached up to Mandya which is considered to be among some of the most violent places in Karnataka. As soon as I reached it was full traffic jam, a truck in full flames, big mob and people running here and there. I understood that some violence took place just now. I rode on footpath got myself out from traffic jam. Halted the bike at a safer distance and clicked some pic of violence. As soon as I took the pics, police and fire brigade reached there and put the flames off. I think I was the only lucky or among few lucky ones who would have taken live pics of the violence. It gives you defiling pleasure sometimes. :) I seriously thought of sending those pics to TOI or some new agency…K anyways I started soon without knowing why the hell chaos took place.
Reached to Nandini milk bar outside nandini industry (Bangy’s no 1 milk provider)…had flavored milk and re started. Stopped again at Kamat – Lokaruchi, around 50 KM away from
Reached to Bangalore at
Praveen and reached to my adobe by
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