road trip

Lately, I have realized that I am a nature lover and I am a devoted foodie. I was born to eat. Luckily, blore has amazing restaurants and unluckily I havent tasted at even 20% of them. But for sure one day I will have a restaurant of my own.

After a hell of a month with absolutely no holidays(sundays is no more a luxury) , we had a break, And we decided to GET OUT THERE. We thought of kerala or coorg but the monsoons have eaten up the roads. So then we finalised on a place called mekedatu( u must hv hrd of it) at about 100 kms from blore.

So we set out - 3boys,3 girls and 3 bikes on a typical chill blore morning at 5 30 am. We hit the kanakpura road from electronic city and soon we were out of the blore coverage.
Stopped at this dhaba , had bread omlette and tea. It was wierdly chill..not tat i needed something warm but something that had an ice cool effect.. We were all totally energised and vitalised and as the wilderness began to take its grip on us we stopped and clicked anything that looked different from what we see everyday. Amazingly smooth NH-209 with no vehicles at all we passed a dozen of houses and temples which pass off as a village. And then we diverted to a plce called the chunchi water falls( courtesy google maps). And after many ' Anna,chunchi falls yel idde' we finally came to the place. No water fall, just mountains of piled granite rocks stood still.. But there was a distant sound of water coming. No souls around so we decided to follow the sound of the water. We began descending, on the piles of rocks. Wild flowers bruised us but we wanted to see the damn waterfall. And after withstanding the scorching sun for 45 mins and wading through the rocks we finally saw the waterfall. No we couldnt see it..because we were at the origin of the waterfall. The top of it. And behind us lay calm the water body which was giving away to gravity to create the force. The best part was not the beauty of it but the efforts that had gone to get a glimpse of it.
Then began the uphill task of getting back. This time it was boring .

Water is the tastiest drink ever but you need to have it with 'thirst'. We began our journey to mekedatu.
After another stretch of road we reached the ghat. This was a different ghat. We were not climbing up but going down. Steep hair-pin curves , a narrow road with forests on both sides I was feeling like we are falling into a deep pit. And as we had reached the bottommost point of the ghat what welcomed us was the 'sangam' of kaveri river and Arkavathi river. It was something differnt. I felt like I were inside a large hole. There were coffee plantations and coconut trees on the land and some small shops. Guarding these two rivers were huge mountains. Mekedatu is a waterfall where the river kaveri carves its way through a valley. We had to cross the river and then take a bus in the forest to reach Mekedatu. There were these local fishermen who took us on the other side of the river on their round straw boats. Once we were on the other side there was this paid bus service which would take us to 'Mekedatu'. The bus looked like it belong to pre independece era with a long row of seats facing each other. It was a 6 km drive where on one side just you had the river kaveri( just about 5 meters from the bus at the same level), the other side had a lush forest.

Mekedatu was quite a sight to see, the force of the river and the deep cuts that it made in the valley was something else. It was a combination of a mountain on ur one side and deep valley on the other. And we standing in the middle of it. Something was eerie about this place which I havent felt at any other places I have been to before.

The return journey was tiring obviously and I rode almost half of it and since it began to rain heavily, rushing home and rushed home.

Dedicated to the monsoons of 2006

We all have those times which we can still feel and relive again and again by remembering them and capturing every moment within.
My that time was the year 2006. The days were so beautiful ,the niceness of which I can still feel. The endless rains of Pune, NDA road, cappuccinos,James blunt, Dire straits,the freshness,the sense of contentment,the excitement......
3 years have passed and lots of new things have happened with their share of excitements but nothing brings in the same essence.

" Bajay pyaar ki shabnum mere gulistaan mein
baraste rehte hain har simt maut ke saye
siyahiyon se ulajh padti hain meri aankhein
koi nahi .. koi bhi nahi jo batlaye
kitni der ujalon ki raah dekhe
koi nahi hai koi bhi nahi
na pass na durr
yeh pyaar hai
dil ki dharkan
apni chahat ka jo ellan kiye jaati hai
zindagi hai jo jiye jaati hai
khoon k ghoont peay jaati hai
khwaab aankhon se siye jaati hai"

Amazing Amazon

The Amazon River, according to many accounts, was named by Spanish explorer Fransisco de Orellana in 1541. The name was in honor of the female warriors he encountered on his voyage through the territory previously called Maranon.

The Amazon rain forest occupies 40 percent of Brazil's total geographical area. It is the drainage basin for the Amazon River and its many tributaries and covers 2,722,000 square miles.

Geologically, the Amazon River and basin are contained by two large stable masses of Pre-Cambrian rock, the Guiana Shield or Highlands to the north, the Central Brazilian Shield or Plateau to the south; the Andes Mountains to the west; and it flows eastward to empty into the Atlantic Ocean.

The Amazon River basin is about 4,195 miles long, covering about 2,720,000 square miles in area, including its 15,000 tributaries and subtributaries (four of which are in excess of 1,000 miles long). It is the largest river basin in the world.

The source of the Amazon is the lake, Lauricocha, in the Peruvian Andes. The river is still known as the Maranon in its upper course, in the Andes. The length of the Amazon is measured from the source of the Ucayali river, which joins with the Maranon to eventually form the Amazon.

Much of northern Brazil is drained by the Rio Negro, which joins the Amazon to give it full strength before flowing into the Atlantic. The flow of the river has an average velocity of 1.5 miles per hour, which increases greatly at flood times.

The powerful discharge at the mouth of the Amazon measures about eight trillion gallons a day, 60 times that of the Nile and eleven times that of the Mississippi. The annual average discharge is 6,350,000 cubic feet per second ("cusecs") into the Atlantic, rising to over 7,000,000 cusecs during a flood. The mouth of the Amazon is more than 250 miles wide.

Most of the Brazilian part of the river exceeds 150 feet in depth, although some parts near the mouth have recorded depths of as much as 300 feet.

The width of the river ranges from one mile to 35 miles.

The city at the heart of the basin, Manaus, has an altitude of only 144 feet. The average level of the basin is 300 feet above sea level.

In the Amazon Basin, flooding often occurs between June and October.

The climate is warm and humid, with an average temperature of 79 degrees and an average yearly rainfall of 80 inches. Temperature differences between day and night are greater than those between seasons.

The Amazon Rainforest is thought to be the oldest tropical forest area in the world, perhaps as much as 100 million years old.

The forest areas are described by amount of flooding that occurs: not flooded, occasionally flooded, or regularly flooded.

The floral provinces of Amazonia are marked by geographic variations in sunlight, rainfall, temperature, and soils.

The trees, of which 117 species have been counted in an area of one half of a square mile, are of enormous variety. The uppermost layer of the rainforest is called the canopy. It receives most of the light energy from the sun and is a zone of extreme profusion of life.

Frankly this summer has been a waste of time in a distasteful office with obnoxious set of characters( except for Vinay and Satya ofcoz). The only solace besides mangoes has been the tea-time in the grueling ten hours of utter nonsense and boredom. And thanks to tea-man as henceforth he will be known I have something to look forward to 'thrice' during the day. I literally wait for him and he oblivious of the importance he holds,walks in with his pot of tea and set of plastic cups. He serves them and goes off leaving a trail of satisfaction and freshness in the dull cubicles and amongst the labored desk-workers.
Thats the dream! And I am stuck in a no-mans land. No wonder I blog.

Mistake-free since '93

Maaan some people blog so tastefully. You know, they poetically describe their art museum escapades. And then have intelligent remarks about slumdog millionaire. But are they missing the point? Yes blogs are for public viewing and the moment that dimension creeps in ,self-consciousness and the urge to impress takes priority. Feelings and expressing them take a backseat.
No, I m not saying my blog is like my personal diary. I am just doing what I am best at..being judgemental about the rest.
Six sigma is affecting me. I am seeing defects in everything and the need to standardization is looking attractive.
Like hell...six sigma is for the robots. Yeah, Japan you hear it right( like the Japanese are reading my blog).
OK the theme of the blog is:"please err". Otherwise life will be too perfect and beauty is in imperfection( chaand pe bhi daag hain). If God hadn't made any mistakes there wouldn't be any poverty, hunger,natural calamities. You see these errors maintains the balance...hehehhehe

PS: I don't make sense at 1 am, but 1 pm is no different. So, stop judging!! Just have fun and be safe( don't make that mistake !!)

I am born in the wrong century

Today in one of our post-lunch marketing class our prof showed us the video of doordarshan's "Mile sur mera tumhara". We were all probably 3-4yrs when this video was first aired. India has truely come a long way from doordarshan to IIFA awards and Slumdog millionaire and Roadies and IPL. Entertainment is one of the well-sustained industries during this recession period.
No wonder, 21st century belongs to era of networking and online connections.
The Internet has managed to shift the entire eco-system of sustainance and pleasure.
Where are we heading? My best friend once told me while we were sitting on a beach at Kuwait enjoying the sunset that technology and science is taking us closer to the Supreme being. The rate at which evolution is happening is having a multiplier effect. I'm just waiting to see whats God's next invention after the Internet.I'll be a part of atleast 60% of this century. I shall make my evaluations and conclusions for sure about this funny,ever-changing darwin's gyaaan.

Score!!!!!!!!!

Nothing can remotely match the anxiety before an exam result. Surprisingly, I was'nt having any pit feeling today before our semester results. A dash of casualness in me seems to be doing the trick. And "luckily", I am through with a 2.41 GPA on a scale of 4.
I am 2 point someone now. However, I don't feel like having even a mellow celebration. Guess, I am looking out for bigger things. I like "ambitious shabri". She is manipulative,smooth and rocking.