Journey to the Himalayas - YHAI Saurkundi Pass

21.05.2011 ( Saturday) – Hyderabad to New Delhi

The day had eventually arrived, after a lot of counting down on facebook and texting! I was so excited, hadn’t slept at all the entire night. I had been packing late into the night till almost two and was shocked looking at the sheer amount of luggage I would have to carry! I remembered telling everyone about how they need to carry as much luggage as they can carry and not more, but alas I didn’t seem to follow my own advice! But I could carry it anyways and that was all was necessary. I was carrying this really cool rucksack from wildcraft that I had specially bought for the trip, only god knows how much of it I will be using later on.

Early in the morning I took a shower not knowing when I would be next! And then left for the station with my dearest mother in tow, and had to wait for THE gang at the station. First to come was Gauti (Gautam), and then came Ajay with his dad and sister! He looked like he was going for a meeting rather than on an adventure trip! And then trotted in Adi (Aditya) with his mum and dad who then started an interview with me to know how their baby was gonna be safe with us :P Then came in Pavan, the guy who was the only odd ‘man’ out literally. He had come to be with us through a long list of friends who never turned up but he did and we were glad he did. After Pavan at the last minute came in Monish. He called up almost everyone at the station and always consistently kept telling he would be there in 2minutes! Well he did finally and so that was the bunch of us who got in from Nampally station, Hyderabad!

As the train moved and finally the goodbyes done with, the train tugged along to Secunderabad station, where the rest of the gang would meet us! I was apprehensive about Mohit ever coming on time, and I called him a couple of times before he told me he was with the girls and I almost sighed with relief! I had a surprise in store for the guys, Amba was a surprise last minute joinee, and had booked his ticket just a couple of days before we left. He wanted to give the rest of the guys a surprise and so we didn’t tell any of them!

At Secunderabad, the rest of the gang, Madhuri, Snigdha, Mohit, Aniruddh and Amba got in! And as expected everyone was shocked seeing Amba in the train ;) and then there were eleven! :D The initial euphoria of getting together slowly waned as everyone was really sleepy, some of us were hell bent on not sleeping at all and ended up playing one game after the another!

Ajay, Monish, Snigdha and Me we started playing a quiz then later on joined by Amba and Adi. It was a grossly unfair quiz (My blog So can say whatever ;) ) They asked us questions about sports, well I didn’t back down either and asked them questions on wildlife and it went back and forth, a lot of knowledge gained and ‘lost’ in the process :P But I think it’s obvious here I with my oh so awesome IQ won the quiz, and it was quite apparent seeing Ajay switched teams and joined me ;)

We somehow dazed through the day, and then it was afternoon and the heat started getting to us. We were completely sweating it out, the damn place was just so hot! The train heated up, the water in the bottles got warm, cold drinks would get warm in minutes! This was Summer in India, and we were getting to know it the hard way. We took a break and got down at one of the longer halts to fill ourselves up with ice creams and milkshakes and whatever else Amul decided was good enough for us to drink! :P And then we sat down for lunch when the rest of the train was readying itself for snacks! I took incharge of the serving and managing department, well everyone knows how great a manager I am, don’t they? ;) After a huge and great lunch of Pulihora and Bobatlu (courtesy Ajay and Adi’s mums) accompanied by yumm fresh cut salad bought on the train we ended up going back to sleep and just simply lazing around.

We did not have a compartment reserved only for us, but because we were such a large group we somehow managed and almost owned the place! The train started getting hotter by the minute as we reached Nagpur and somehow we managed through it all and evening brought with it some respite. Well it also meant that the co-passengers had no respite :P because we had started our antakshari, it wasn’t about how fast you could think of a song, it became all about how bad you could sing! People started staring and peeping out of their compartments right to the end of the bogie towards us, to see where these excellent singers were sitting :P the choicest sad songs were picked and mind you almost all by Ajay, never knew he had such a lot of knowledge of hindi songs, even I don’t! :P

After an eventful and entertaining night, we had our dinner, more the remaining food and we wished we had more of the amazing Tomato curry and rotis that Amba’s mum had made for our breakfast! Dinner done, we had to be decent and put down our berths so we could not be a nuisance to our fellow passengers! Well we had already irked them enough, didn’t want to do more of it later during the night too :P

And up we went on to our berths, all of us crouching under the low roof. I had had very little sleep in the last 48 hours and was almost dozing off but didn’t want to, lest I miss out on something : ) And then I couldn’t have no more and drifted off to sleep....and it was an eventful day and a great beginning to our journey to the Himalayas :)

Hyderabad mein aisich hotha yaaron !!!

“Bahot howle kaama karra une aaj kal!” “Hau! Milne de meku dikhatu usku!” Two young guys dressed like wannabe Salman Khan’s on an old Yamaha bike. The conversation revolving a friend who experimenting with his new found attitude wasn’t earning any brownie points with his friends!

"Entandi! Asalu nenu cheppindi vintunara? Mee ammagare adagamani chepparu!” A middle aged housewife screamed at the top of her voice to her helmet clad husband, who was completely oblivious to her as much as the baby on her lap. The baby wide eyed, probably used to such banter since the day it was born looked around at the hullabaloo around it. Held in a precarious manner with its legs and hands splayed across his mother’s arms, he could only be a spectator.

“Arrey aaj shaam ka show hai! Chaltha?!” “Nakko miyan, aaj zara tight chalra!” Two auto drivers with their autos waiting beside each other, making plans for their evening. There was a new Bollywood blockbuster running and the hopes of catching it first day were crashed with the other being cash strapped for the day!

“No Dude! Just not happening! I don’t think I can get off another day bunking college, that *** of a princy wants me there at least for the next two days or else he says will call up dad!” Two cool dudes on a spanking new sports bike with the rider getting out of a plan so he can attend college. Probably doesn’t want to piss his father off by a phone call from principal right after getting a new bike, the number plate of which still showed a temporary registration.

“Love you………” The text box of the phone of a young girl shone against the tinted window of an Innova. The young girl smiling to herself, had tilted the phone against the window presumably to avoid the maternal looking woman beside her from reading the contents of her message. But a stranger reading it seemed entirely justifiable to her!

10…button start…..9….8…..7…..slow raise…..6…..5…..4…..3…..2….1….ride away. Away from the inanity of strange conversations, away from the stifle and heat of the pollution of the waiting venom spewing buses, honking autos, motorcycles and cars at the traffic signal! Away in the fluid freedom of the moving traffic which in times that Hyderabad is going through seems like a boon!

Life jingalala hogayi!!

Marketing is a social and managerial process under which individuals/groups gets whatever they want by creating exchange of products/services/ideas of value with others. Phew!! That was quite a long definition. Don’t you worry this is not really a preview to the marketing paper of final year B.Com (hons), I am not as unfeeling as to do that (But hey kudos to all of us who write all that and to our teachers who correct all that!!)

Okay now this is going somewhere else, so I wanted to tell about my tryst with the marketing strategies of TATA Sky, am sure any of you subscribers of direct to home services must have gone through the same stage!

The first signs of change occur when you are watching TV, the transmission goes bad and Shah Rukh comes in a very distorted image and says “Aap santushth kyun hai, thoda wish karo, dish karo” That ad made a lot of impact but I didn’t like Shah Rukh so didn’t bother about that.

Then came in this ad of TATA Sky, promising me digital video and all my favourite channels. These guys had flooded the TV with their ads and done a great job. Now they got me convinced!!(doesn’t take long in such matters, ha-ha) the onus lay on me now, I had to convince my parents…Hmmm that was difficult but TATA Sky made it all easy, the service would be useful to my grandparents who could watch their bhajans and keertans, to my young cousins who could learn while having fun, to my mother who could enjoy her daily shows, to my father who could get all the news channels in India! As you can imagine the justification included everyone but me!!

I believe I marketed my need very well because then TATA Sky was purchased and the installation day did come. The D - day was on 08.08.08, the first thing we all watched on TV was the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony on Doordarshan, a free to air channel, what an irony!! But then by now the entire family was a victim of the marketing and we all agreed on the digital quality of Doordarshan!! And then on that fateful day Hyderabad sunk in the heavy rain and our TATA Sky signal did go off for an hour! Supposedly satellite TV’s all over the world don’t work in storms and heavy rain, now as you must have gathered, all that was in fine print, in their brochure.

But it has been a great experience till now, great marketing, guys!! Isko laga dala toh life jingalala!! (I swear I wasn’t paid by TATA Sky for this write up, ha-ha)

Being a proud Indian.

On 15th August 2008, India celebrated her 62nd Independence Day and 61 years of Independence. This little piece of information leaves most of confused around this time every year. Was it 62 years or 61 years of independence? Well the best way would be to grandly sum it up as “more than 6 decades of independence”.

So what does this “more than 60 years of independence” mean to a young modern Indian? Is this day still relevant in today’s time or is it just another holiday? Does the Indian national flag still evoke the same respect it did for the freedom fighters? Sadly, the answer to both the questions would be no.

Why is it that our national pride is slowly fading away or some might say has already faded away? The youngsters opine that they do not relate to the freedom struggle, yes why would they? They were born free, they are meant to live free. Most youngsters feel that they cannot relate to the national flag, the most common debate which ensues is, the Americans flaunt their flag why cant we? But, as a nation when we do not tolerate the pictures of our gods to be printed on t- shirts and all things sundry, why should as sacred a symbol as a national flag be given the same treatment?

It is a simple thing to blame it all on globalization. People migrating, people working for MNC’s, this has lead to mixed loyalties. But this is not a global phenomenon, it is only Indians who find it very easy to shed their “Indianess”, all because they don’t really feel the connection with their motherland.
Why should one after all have a connection with the land of corruption, bad infrastructure and a burgeoning population? Well they should because that land is also one of the oldest civilizations on earth, the land which is a cultural centre, which has hundreds of languages and dialects, which has so many co-existing religions, it is the land for which people have laid down their lives.

PRIDE. The lack of feeling of pride in their motherland is what is holding back Indians. Does a rich and developed India inculcate pride or does pride in being an Indian inspire a richer and developed India? This question is akin to does the egg come first or the hen?!

Thankfully, India as a country has more than her share of achievements to make any Indian proud. Patriotism can do wonders to a country. It is this positive patriotism that needs to be inculcated and channeled into constructive development of this great country.

Since we all are fast turning into netizens, the best way to start inculcating this pride would be to search ‘India’ , ‘ India’s achievements’, ‘ Indian heritage and culture’ on GOOGLE!!
Signing off, a very proud Indian!

Rock on!!!

Rocks, Pathharaan, Raallu, Dagda, all names of the same thing, a rose is a rose by any other name! Well okay I am not getting into geology or anything, am just wondering why the English word “rocks” has become such a hit with the youngsters when it hasn’t in any other language??? Have you ever wondered??? Its cool man!! has turned into its rocking man!!

Hmmm has it got something to do with phonetics? Do people just like the word “rock” to “roll” in their mouths?? I am not a phoneticist or god knows what the guys who study phonetics are called but I think it all must have started with the advent of rock music, maybe I should just wiki the word rock…..

But anyway “Rock on” reminds me of a very good movie I saw in recent times. Four hot guys, okay let me change it just one hot guy (Arjun Rampal duh!!!) and three regular guys rocking the world. The theme of the movie was advertised as THE Indian rock and roll movie, now to girl like me who doesn’t really follow rock music, it was quite a dampener, but yet Arjun rampal and a few really good reviews got me to the theatre and I was pleasantly surprised!!

What really surprised me is that the movie is a hit!! A sensible movie like that ought to become a flop by the Hindi film industry’s standards, but yet it didn’t happen. The storyline was quite simple, four young guys form a band called magik, trying to make it big but fate has its own plans. The group gets split due to ego problems of the band members, and then one of the guy’s wife gets them all together for one last show. Really simple, yet it has been made so well. First of all, the casting was superb, Farah Akhtar in his debut film was rocking (!!) he plays a new rich investment banker, who has had everything going for him right from day one and who is the lead vocalist in the band. Then there is Arjun Rampal (nice hair, was it real??) who plays the lead guitarist for the band, who has almost no business sense and is almost always sidelined by Farah Akhtar, who after the breaking of the band sets up a guitar shop and turns into a hen pecked husband. Purab Kohli is the rich mans kid, the drummer of the band (really weird get up), who later manages his fathers business. And finally there is Luke Kenny, the pianist and the only guy who is still into the music business but only as an assistant to Anu Malik (played by him self)

So there you go the casting was really good, now one might believe the movie became a hit because of the theme of male bonding, but no as far as male bonding goes Dil Chahta Hai was better off. The theme of “Rock music” did it!! Today’s youngsters are obsessed with the whole rock and roll culture and this movie proved to be the long awaited ode to the budding rock stars of India…the music also added to the success, the music composed by Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy rocked everyone ( I should really stop using the word so much )

The director has done a very good job in making a sensible blockbuster, which is a rarity in bollywood. The movie portrayed that there is no right or wrong in a decision made, it just depends on which side of the decision you are. It showed how sometimes to achieve that success you desperately need, all you have to do is take a risk. Most men who watched would have recognized themselves in at least one the guys in the movie, some must have felt good, some bad and hopefully some went on to take that risk in their life!!! Rock on!!!