The New Look!

In my now old but three months back newfound interest of Adobe Photoshop, i had actually planned to make a picture for my blog. Three months later, all i could come up with is the picture you now see on my blog which i ineptly titled 'Of people & Places'. These are three different random pictures i took at some point in time.

Picture 1: Its a quaint structure in south Mumbai just opposite the fountain at Colaba.

Picture 2: A bull mystically dancing to the tunes of shehnai on a monday morning outside my building, with people treating it with all sorts of delicacies.

Picture 3: This is Dochula, one of the five mountain passes in the Himalayas very beautifully adorned with 108 buddhist temples called as "Chortens".

I don't really know why i am writing this. I do not have anything to write but i just logged in to write. Sitting alongside my guitar with a broken string, i tried hard to make it sound good even with a missing string but it just did not happen. Tuned to Firehouse, i have ordered my dinner and its lying on the table but i don't feel like eating it. Is it because tomorrow is a Monday or is it because today i was with myself for the whole day. My maid isn't coming since the last week, and my room was messed up. Taking this day off was meant to clear the mess. I did a bit of that.

I opened up my old bag to find the old file where i have kept all my certificates from school to college.I showed my roomie the old file in which i have kept all my old stamps, i found my old collection of coins and i savored the way i used to collect and keep them while i was as kid. I saw some old pictures which i hadn't seen since quite a long time. I received my promotion letter from office on Friday and added it to the file as a written testimony alongside the appreciation & awards i got in college. Getting promoted was a good thing to happen, but the question in my mind remains the same. I have been working here since the last two years, and i have been working hard. I have been trying a lot to make this work my passion. But it is not happening. Even after two long and eventful years that have gone by, inspite of the fact that i have been good at my job i am still trying to figure out what to do next with my life. Or is this because staying in Mumbai for the last two years has made me into a different person altogether. Or is it because i am realizing that i am finally out of the carefree and nothing can ever go wrong attitude and i see myself out in the open now?

Occasional rumblings

It has been very long since i last put something up on my blog. I don't know whay but writing just stopped being so enticing as it had been once to me. I think we all have some creative sprouts within us which just bloom up at some point in time. Thats the time you find yourself doing things you never thought you would be doing. I don't know if this statement relates to what i am thinking right now...which is to find a reason why i am not so interested in writing! But nonetheless, its a statement and i feel it is true.

Lot of changes happened since i last posted on my blog. The biggest being that i lost some hairs, i got a paranoia that i would be getting bald soon which also reminds me of an advertisement which carried out a research on girls and they ended up saying " Bald men are not sexy". Well, so i find myself using an anti hair fall shampoo which i never used in my life before and asking few people what to do to prevent my hair from falling. Suggestions varied, from silly to sensible. But all are total crap, reality is u can't stop your hair from falling. Stop thinking about it & they ill stop falling. Mine did.

I also got promoted which i came to know a few days earlier, thats the latest thing happening at the workplace. I don't know if it was any kind of achievement, maybe it was a small types. I am pretty glad to have been promoted in 2 years time, it generally takes 4 years. Good for a start i guess! But time passes fast...u don't realize it but there are times when life suddenly seems to be so small and you realize times running fast. So much to do, not so much of a time!

The idea of writing occurred to me again. Maybe it was because i came back pretty early, had a quick shower & made me some dinner. That left me sometime to listen to the good old billboard top of 2004 and write this.

Mumbai seems to be more crowded everyday, work seems to be getting more boring by the day. Friday take a lot of time to come & the weekend passes on fast. Thats how things are going right now. Need a change.

On the right...me with someone!

OF PEOPLE & PLACES : PART 1: RIDE TO TAWANG

These days there is a lot of word doing the rounds about Tawang, the small town in Arunachal Pradesh at the India-China border. I understand the fuss has been generated due to the visit of the Dalai Lama. China is staking claim over this place since the time India lost out on the war. Anyways, whose interested in politics here! Definitely not me.

In one of the newspapers today, there was an article about Tawang. My roommate got typically interested in this place on reading this article and since i have been there, i made sure i tell him things to get him more interested, maybe sometime he might take me along free of cost. I can be the guide!

Tawang is a small town in Arunachal Pradesh very close to the China border. It has always been in the news because when Dalai Lama escaped from Tibet, he had taken this very route to reach India. This place has Asia's second largest monastery for Buddhism. Now my dad was transferred to this place for around 2 years and i visited this place twice during that time. My dad at times has been transferred to very very obscure places and i have visited most of them in my holidays. But now when i look back and think, these places might not be the most talked about they have been a great experience. Now i will talk more about this Tawang!

To reach this place you need to catch a flight to Guwahati. You pick up a ride to this city in Assam called Tezpur which would take around 5 hours. From Tezpur, it would take you around 2 hours to reach the border of Assam & Arunachal Pradesh. This is where the journey starts. Winters is the time to be there & I promise that if you havent been there before each and evey mile is going to be the most awe inspiring. As soon as you enter the gate on the road which reads " Welcome to Arunachal Pradesh" and "OM MANE PADME HUM" in Tibetan script, the width of the road suddenly halves so that only one and a half vehicles can cross at a time. So if you see a vehicle coming from the opposite direction of the mountain you need to stop your vehicle where there is some space & let the opposite vehicle pass. Well as you enter this mountainous stretch you look out the window to see river Dirang flowing and if you are lucky enough on the opposite side you can see some elephants. I did't see them however. You see a waterfall running from a mountain high up and your driver tells you that we have to travel up this mountain. Its getting cold and you just close down the windows. They get instantly frosted.The nearest petrol pump would be around 150 kms away so it has to be taken care of. Forget a petrol pump, there would be no houses for long stretches. Here it is highly advised not to travel in the night. At every kilometre you see two or three signboards reading " To the loving memory of.........who lost life at this point". Its frightening. You realize this only when you look out of your window & see a wide open crevasse. For most part of the journey first time i was praying with my eyes closed. It gets colder as you move higher and you feel the cold Himalayan breeze which seeps open through that open jacket button and you are chilled to bones. The trees have gradually changed from the wide leaved ones to conifers and pines. It gets really foggy in the winters up there and i am not able to see my brother who is standing 10 feets away. We stop and i am having black tea in an unusually large mug. Feels warm! There is the only place till you reach Bomdilla where you can get good tea. Its a shop cum house made up of black wood, stones with black chairs. Inside a lady was making tea on firewood. Its been almost 5 hours since we started this journey climbing up the hills. My mom was staying at a place named Tenga Valley in the Army quarters with dad. We would be reaching there in about two hours. Its already evening, the sun is setting and now all i see is Army camps and very few shops. I can see local people in some really heavy dresses smiling everytime you look at them. The people here are really content, they have very few needs and they are always happy to help. After around two hours i reach home. This place looks like just another place with lots of people, a small market. There are no mobile phones available here and the only place where you can go and talk is the STD ISD PCO shop inside the campus. I had to call up a friend, so i went there. There the shop owner tells me that the telephone lines are down. Its because its raining, the telephone lines are down most if the times. You have to be really lucky if you need to make a phone call. Anyways, the mobiles started working there after 2 years & now people are seen walking & talking. The real personification of Walk when you talk!

Tawang is still 8 hours away from this place. My dad is already there for some work and i would be leaving for Tawang after a week with mom. It was after a week that me and my mom started the ride early morning at around 6 a.m. My mom had already made some tea, put in in a flask. She did so because most of the people eat beef here ans she wont even touch the glasses and cups from these people..forget drinking in them. Holy Cow! We had already booked a Tata Sumo. 30 minutes riding, there is a big bump and something shatters. What was it! The windows of the sumo look perfectly alright. However, as i had taken out the flask and out in the back seat, i am told my mom to check it. Well, i just shake it and a voice comes as if the tea has been crystallized into small pieces and they are jingling merrily. We ask the driver to stop and throw away the flask ..well, the tea goes with it too. I feel bad that because of me mom is not going to get any tea till the time we reach Tawang. As we ride along, it starts to get colder. The roads start getting wet and in a distance i see a mountain filled with snow. That is Tawang i am told. We move and move endlessly, now i am able to see some snow on the roadsides. As we move, the snow covers the roadsides, then the road. The vehicle gets slower and slower. I am told that you can easily skid on snow while driving. And skidding here meant only one thing! At times, whole vehicles with people have been untraceable. They are never found in these mountains. There are no trees to be seen now. Only white snow & deep gorges, the types which girls feel dizzy on seeing. There are huge rocks on the sides of the road. After sometime, it starts snowing and we have to stop due to a huge landslide. I hear people are working to get it cleared. Its cleared after an hour and we move ahead. The weather has become monstrous. Its snowing and the fog has made everything go invisible. I feel i am floating in the clouds in a Tata Sumo! The fog clears after sometime and we reach SELA pass. This is one of the five mountain passes India has. A pass is a very narrow road between two mountains. This place is probably the best i have ever seen. I saw a hollywood movie where the Branden Fraser asks " Is this Heaven". I repeated that line. There was a gate saying " Welcome to Sela Pass". Standing at 15,340 feet above sea level this is the highest i have ever been. I see two big mountain bases on both sides of where i am standing. The ground is fully flat. No more gorges, no more trees. Its like a snow desert. There are two lakes on my sides and they are fully frozen. First time i can see yaks eating snow to glory. Inside the snow there is frosted grass i am told. To picturize a yak, just wrap your woollen cardigan over a buffalo. Yak's milk is yuck! I will realize it in some days.

Sela pass is truly something you need to see in a lifetime. Ever wondered how a frozen waterfall will look like? Or how it would be if a drop of water falling from a leaf got crystallized midway? Its unbelievable right. This is the place to see that. Untouched by humans, this is real nature as god made it. Tourists do not come to this place just because they are unaware of it. Maybe thats also the reason for the worthiness of this place. Being in the North Eastern India, these places are considered to be some of the most backward and uninteresting. But the wonders they hold are something which cannot be described. In my consequent posts I am going to talk more about Tawang. Remember, i still have not reached Tawang!!

A great time after so long!!

A chance to experience something which gives you a sudden change from the near monotonous life you have just got used to. I happened to have one such thing, I got a chance to attend the SSB interview of the Indian Army. I happened to get a city named Allahabad as the place to where I had to travel to attend this. There were 77 other guys alongwith me who had come there. I reached the city of Allahabad on 9^th July. This is the city where the holy rivers of Yamuna, Ganga & Saraswati meet. The river Sarawati doesn’t exist as such, it is believed to be a historic river which used to flow thousand of years ago. The city is also known as the Prayag or the city of Sangam. It hosts the famous Kumbh Festival (Kumbh ka Mela, where twin brothers supposedly get separated in Indian movies to meet later in life under tragic conditions). Sangam resembles the confluence of these three holy rivers of India. I had to stay in a hotel for the first night to which I traveled by a rickshaw after a long long time.

Anyways, there was enough time for me to see the city and the next day I had to report to the Army station. I reached the Military office at 1 in the afternoon from where we travel to the selection center by the Army bus which came to collect us. Yes, collect us. We reached there and straight away we were called for our first instructions. The instructions were quite brief telling us not to roam around, not to be outside campus after 6:30, not to even see the girls let alone chasing the girls batch (this was told very sternly). The next day we had to report at 6: 30 inn the morning which meant waking up at 4:30 and the day was followed by lots of psychological type of exams. The results of that were out by afternoon, which meant only 14 of us were left, rest had to turn back and leave. We all were given chest numbers which we had to wear everytime. Mine was 5, and so was my name. My name was Number 5.

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The whole 5 days that followed after were real fun. There were lot of things to be learnt, lot of new things to be done and new friends to be made. The best part was that I made a lot of new friends and met lot of people whom I would remember for the rest of my life. Probably, I enjoyed this more than most of the guys there, the reason is pretty simple to me. I have been living in Mumbai almost since last two years living a very mechanical life. It was all about moving to office, sitting infront of your computer, waiting for the mails, a conference call once in a while, an occasional meeting I think there was no dynamism and nothing to look forward to. I had kind of lost the will and passion to do what I was doing. I seemed just so out of place to myself. Meeting new people in Mumbai is easy and happens all the time, but they don’t really count as friends. But only 5 days with some of these guys and I got so very attached. It was a relief after such a long long time. It was as if we were carefree, ready to take on whatever may come, buzzing with confidence like back in a school or college. I would like to count these 5 days, the dates of 10-14 July of 2009 as a time when I reinvented myself. Whatever I am writing right now might sound a bit off track but I guess all of us have different ways of seeing things and getting motivated. This was the thing for me.

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Thank you Number 1 to 14, me included, we made a great lot!! Heres your intro for you :)

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Number 1: Shashank HN, self proclaimed Wolverine, also the guy who almost made it, bad luck buddy, but cheer up!! I will change my orkut name for you to find it more easily.

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Number 2: Deepak Singh, cool and confident, I thought you never spoke but you did that well.

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Number 3: Bangali a.k.a. Victor Chatterjee, Bangali was made to sit on a iron T with a heavy plank over his balls by Number 1. Bangali later said it dint hurt but I wonder! He can speak at times, but all he likes is whistling. His interview question was repeated two times “ Why is your name Victor??”

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Number 4: Mr. Moradabad or Bada Hanuman, dude you rocked on the beer table that night, I am going to remember that always!!

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Number 5: Areey..thts me!!!

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Number 6: Ashish Doifode, couldn’t climb the long wall, kept falling from the last obstacle with the snake in between his legs…(when I say snake between the legs, it doesn’t mean what you re thinking right now).

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Number 7: Abhishek Diwan, he was smart enough to say he works with Mahindra Satyam and not Satyam! I wore your shoes for the interview..thanks dude!

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Number 8: Ansad K, very polite and seedha saadha baccha. Moradabad was telling something to him in Hindi which he couldn’t comprehend at all at the railway station and almost missed his train.

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Number 9: Anurudh Yadav, poor guy whose name was suddenly changed from Anirudh to Anurudh on a fine bright day due to typing mistake in Class X. Worse, now he doesn’t know what his name means.

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Number 10: Parwesh K Rangra, always to the point.

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Number 11: Bharat Chawla…yaar phir se propose kar de, you are tall fair n handsome!!

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Number 12: Sandeep Khanchi, first real Haryanwi guy I met in my life. On his way to become a police inspector with Delhi Police…bahut kamayega ye to!!

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Number 13:Raut Amit Khemraj, fundooo hai boss!!

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Number 14: V Satyanarayana Bhiri, he dint know hindi and wanted to learn it. The Second day, I went over to his bed, he takes a good look at me, holds my hand and says “ Man, you are very handsome!!” I never went to his bed again….! But he was the most polite and the most confused too. Whenever any instruction was given in Hindi, he would come over and ask me “kya bola??”

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Anyways, we were allotted our rooms thereafter and we were told that we had to report the next morning at 6:00 A.M. at the testing hall for further exams & tests. That meant I had to wake up at 4: 30 in the morning as breakfast was at 5:30. Well, after 6 a round of exams followed with lots of stuff. The results were out by afternoon, we came to know that only 14 of us were now left, it meant the rest had to leave. 14 of us were selected and that day was the start of 5 days of grueling, exams, interviews. It also meant for us great fun, outings, gossip, friends. Something to remember for a lifetime.

Wish you loads of luck!

SUMMER OF ..umm....'96...one of my school holidays

I had been out this weekend to a nearby place called Karjat. It was somehow planned with office colleagues to just get some time out and maybe enjoy. So we had booked this small time resort there complete with a swimming pool and slides. That place..leave the resort...i cant call it a town. It was a village..a small village where shops close at 8:00 in the evening, there is no electricity(at least not when i reached there). There were these kerosene wicks and a very few people. The railway station itself was in such a desolate & dark state that it reminded me of some other places i had been to in my life till now. 

My dad is in transferrable job, and so typically every 3 years he is into a new place which 80 percent of the times is something which would seem prehistoric to people in the cities. So, it was our yearly ritual to go and spend summer holidays in the place where my dad would be currently posted (we stayed away from dad most of the time, just because the places he lived werent that good to stay..mainly becasue our parents cared so much about our schooling part). I think, had they not cared so much about us, i would be another of those spoiled and wasted brats trying to find a way back!! I am talking about these places so when i was in 7th grade, my dad was transferred to this place called Maneri, which is near to a place called Utarkashi. It is in uttaranchal...upper himalayas. Its very much near to Gangotri, the place where river Ganga originates.

So, like every summer we went to this new place with my mom. It was a perfect place likes ones u c in a canvass...hills all over..a river..village...it was just beautiful and  I would like to recreate it :) It was on the banks of river Ganges. At these hills, the rivers are like anything! There are rocks moving alongwith with water, of the size that would otherwise seem unimaginable to move. There was another village which looked all fresh on the opposite side of the river, and i was told that the year before  it actually was all washed away by floods and was relocated. There were very dim lights there..of course kerosene lamps. There was a school there too, but no roads, there was a hanging bridge that connected ends across the river. If anyone walks on this bridge it would start oscilatting like this pendulum, and i always feared walking on that. Once i went almost halfway, but then came back and sat in the middle crying. I was almost dizzy( but this thing happened 15 years back..!)  It really is an example of bad engineering i guess, because it shook so much that i thought that if someone ran on it, i am sure it would turn upside down!! It was a free roller coaster ride of sorts! There was only one shop in Maneri, or two..i dont remember clearly, and it sold everything. Every evening, my brother was all excited, because in the evening there was a bakery guy who came on his cycle. He rode all the way in this hilly terrain from a bakery 14 kms away. He sold some heart shaped cakes which my younger brother manish loved. Oh, he shared it with me a few time and i can recall its taste, it was good. Where we lived, above that was papa's office( it was all site work, so its just an office for namesake ), and it was all fenced. I was told that in the night there were tigers that came from the jungle. Once in the night, about 10 people inclding me were sitting after dinner with a kerosene lamp in between, and there was this cook, who had been there for very long at this same place. That day he told us the stories, of how many times he saw a tiger. Hardly anyone went to the office room, atleast i avoided. even if i did, i made sure to keep an eye for a tiger. In my mind i had already imagined how i would kill a tiger if i faced it!!  Obviously..no tiger dared...some dogs did but.There were also a decnt sized vegetable garden that my dad made sure were maintained, and he put a person specially for taking care of this small farm. I remember what grew there...potato, sugarcane, spinach, cauliflower...lots of things. This thing also saved lots of shopping from a market far away. So this summer this day my dad told some people to get the potatoes, as they were ready. I was very excited and we three brothers joined in to get the potatoes. That was the day i realized that potatoes grew inside the soil. Otherwise i always thought that they grew like tomatoes or brinjals or peas hanginng. We enjoyed that day to take these plants out and get the potatoes. 

One other day ..everyone was sleeping and i wanted to have this sugarcane thing so i went out with my brother, with a kitchen knife. spent 2 hours, trying to get that thing off...but it didnt. I had to leave it half cut there....then i remember i got a beating for getting out in the sun. Me and my brother had all gone dirty and sweaty! Since there were no electricity there,we were told that we have to study in the day and complete holiday homework, evening was for cricket...with some people from this camp( driver and the helper). This cricket place was close to the river and we very very very strictly told not to touch water. And actually we were sent alongwith the bhaiya to look out for us. Once my brother went near to the water.....even i was so angry over him that i slapped him. He gave me a punch..that the fight continued till the bhaiya came in between. Later i complained to mom that he had gone near water ..and he got a good beating! now call me anything for that....but anyways scores were settled it was all settled because even i got a beating and my third brother too. This thing was typical about my mom....if one got a beating..each one of us three got atleast something. And so for the next few days atleast we were like the best kids around. Well but apart from the shared beating we got, my two brothers also murdered the two fishes in the small plastic bottle where i had kept them. This time i cried for real..and only these two got the beating..i dint. But my fishes were dead...:( . My father got me enrolled for a computer course, because he did not want that i should waste my time.moreover, i had a computer clases in school and he thought it would help. So i was enrolled for this, and i had to travel 14 kms everyday...n i was about 15 or smaller...everyday i reached this place..bought a Cadburys Gems...ate it...reached late for the classes....evening back..i took an icecream..and back home. I dont remeber if i learnt anything at all ther..but i still have the certificate that reads "Certified that Mr. Ashok Kumar Joshi (later in 10th grade i  removed this kumar from my name as i thought i sounded uncool!)completed course in language BASIC ,from balahblah institute and his perfomance is V.GOOD" well...!!

One other day, there was a person who came with a bear(a real bear)! I remeber that peron had a suitcase with him. He showed a teeth and said it was a tigers teeth. Then there were tigers hair..beerrs teeth, hair...and he was selling them as some kind of medicine. He also  had a drum and made the bear dance and shake hands with the few ppl around. My dad handed me a 10 ruppee note to give to the bear but damn!! How cud i touch the bear...i was so very afraid of it.

While our summer holidays were almost over, we were about to leave and dabbu went missing(one of the dogs). These two had become very friendly with us, and also accompanied us for cricket. We thought he would be back, but he never did. Later on the cook told that the tiger had eaten dabbu. Poor dabbu!

All in all, it was a fabulous summer...and this thing happened to me more than 12 years back. I had lot of beautiful summers like this one. And i remember each and everything..as this is a

thing of yesterday. Only yesterday we were kids..not ready to think about anything! Things change....dont they?

:)

I heard that that village now has electricity....with loadshedding... well maintained school and other things.

 

______________( fill if u want to)

China is a big country..with lots of people..lots who use internet i guess. Because i just came to realize that whenever i am surfing the blogs...every second blog that pops up belongs to someone who has the chinese looks..i mean alright they may be korean..japanese..vietnamese..or whateverese....but to me they all look like chinese..infact 90 percent are. Ya..so every second blog that pops put is from a chinese and what is common to this cult of blogs is this:

Its full of pictures..picture of them with frenzied hairs.

Everyone is wearing this..a benetton tee and converse shoes..trying to look like a punk( hey what the hell!!) suddenly..punk is cool? It is actually i guess ;)

They would scribble something in english but if u try to read it it would sound like gibberish ( Well..some people write that in chinese only..this time me browser would almost crash trying to decode it...finally what i would see is only squares n special characters)

ummm..anything else so typical? ..who the hell cares anyways...but population..biggg problem really !! take INDIA..big country...lot of people ..but they wont eat up the blog space..thats good..yayaya...... save a few like  me :(  ..reason is simple enough..they dont know calculator...who would give a damn about a computer!!  Talking of population.....i remember this..i actually know someone who has lfair number of kids...proud father he must be....10 kids is such a feat (see his face anytime to define proud)........the latest one is a small baby girl...i dont understand...is this a kid factory?? Theres a store nearby my home..but its called ShoeFactory not KidFactory!  

I want to actually write about recession and give you all a lecture on economy but i am feeling to sleepy for it now. willl dooooooooo itttt llllllaaaatteeeeeeeer.......see? i am almost sleeping now!