It’s been close to six months, since I wrote this but I had almost forgotten about it. While cleaning up my machine I found this writeup surrounded by cobwebs of dirt and other mighty files. Better I post it now than never 🙂

I’m sure that there are many people living in and around Delhi who have not visited the magnificent Akshardham Temple. We, I and my wife were one of them. So, in our annual shutdown, we made sure to visit the temple. All set, plan made. I and my wife with her parents were ready to take the spiritual journey on 30th Dec 2011.

We came to know that nothing is allowed inside the temple. Yes, nothing means nothing.. No mobile phone, wallet, nothing. So, we left our phones in the house except one small phone, which we thought they would allow to take in.. But no, rules are rules.. We kept the phone inside the car. I was not happy because they didn’t allow even one phone inside.. How do people contact their relatives in case of emergency?

Being a Friday, there was not much rush and we sneaked in quite peacefully. The temple is huge with intricate art-work everywhere. The entry is free as in all the other places of worships. However, there are tickets for three sessions, sessions to tell about the deity and to take the visitors through the journey of the Lord. The sessions were worth it. Starting with short animated films, to taking the discovery boat to learn about the ancient art and science, to a movie projected on a large screen. By large I mean really huge, not seen in any movie hall!!

It was 6 by time the sessions finished and we filled our stomach with some good food. We were ready to watch the musical fountains and as expected they didn’t disappoint us. Then, we saw the main temple and roamed in the temple premises.

After some time, we decided to leave taking among ourselves an experience that was spiritual as well as entertaining.

But when we reached our car, the thing I was fearing in the beginning happened. There were 51 missed calls on the phone. Everyone was like, something bad happened. Nidhi’s Mamaji (mother’s brother) was not well and he was in the hospital. And he passed in the afternoon. Everyone tried to contact us but in vain. Relatives even called up the temple’s reception to make a public announcement for us but that too in vain because nobody picked the phone there.. Felt really sad about it. The sadness doubled when we were told that after trying for hours contacting us, Mamaji was cremated. Nidhi’s mom was really sad, so were we. It was late in the night, so we went to Mamaji’s place the next day, i.e, 31st Dec.

I still have this question in my mind – why mobile phones are banned in the temple?

Security reasons are the obvious answer.. But then how do people communicate in emergency? Nobody picks the call at the reception. There is no way of making public announcements. Phones are even allowed in the Airport and in the Airplane.. Is there no security risk there?

In short, a truly spiritual experience marred by stupid rules!!

I wanted to obtain a No Objection Certificate for sending my bike from Bangalore to NOIDA. I approached the near-by driving schools and asked if they do it. All of them were like demanding Rs. 1500 and the Certificate will be given in 5 days. As there is no fees for the Certificate, I decided to go to the RTO Office in Electronics City, Bangalore. I’m at the help-desk and I asked: “Sir, what’s the process of obtaining a NOC to NOIDA”. The person at the help-desk replied: “You’ve to fill a form. Sorry we don’t have the form right now, you can get it from the near-by stationary shop. Just fill the form and give it. It’ll cost you around Rs. 1000 and you’ll get it in 5 days.”. He pointed at a person and said: “This person will help you get things done”. I asked: “Is this the fees for the NOC” and he promptly replied: “No Sir, there is no fees. We have to give Rs. 250 to the traffic dept, Rs. 600 to the RTO dept and Rs. 150 is our service fees. You can do it yourself but the traffic dept takes 15 days and then the RTO will take another 15-20 days to give you the NOC. That too, you’ll have to come here many times.” I paid money to the agent and got the NOC in 5 days.
The point here is why should we fill the pockets of these corrupt people for something which is free of cost. These people are getting their salary. But if you don’t pay the money, they’ll make sure that you visit them many times for a month before actually giving the NOC. Also, for a slight mismatch in the document, they’ll just reject the application without thinking.
This reminded me of the days when I applied for a License in NOIDA back in 2002. I applied myself (yes, no agent involved). The process was going smoothly when a person told that my form is misplaced. I asked him to look into it and he rudely replied that no, fill another form. Had I given him some money, my lost form would be there in front of me within seconds. But, I had time (college holidays) and I decided to fill another form without paying anything extra. I was about to go but then person called me and said that my form is there only..
So, there is a trade-off between time vs money and these people know very well how to exploit other people.
I’ve this question for the Indian Govt – Is there any Govt body which is looking into stopping all these corrupt activities?

On my way to Tirupati and back, I noticed a very unusual thing.  There are many small eating joints on the highway and they had one thing in common. They all had similar hoardings which read their name and all had Thums Up written on it. It was very hard to find some other company’s name written on the hoardings. It seems like Thums Up have a huge marketing budget and they sponsored all of them.. Now, this is what I call as a Thunderous Marketing.
Though, I’m not very sure that they had Thums Up stock or not 🙂

My parents wanted to visit Rameshawaram, a religous place down in the South. They came here and we went to Rameshawaram. The journey was tiring as we took a volvo to Madurai in the night. We reached in the morning and visited Meenakshi Temple and continued our journey towards Rameshawaram. Rameshawaram is an island connected by a bridge called the Panabam bridge. The view is awesome from the bridge – one side Gulf of Munnar and other the Indian Ocean. The water is pristine with changing colors at different distances. The experience at the temple was divine and unique. There are 22 wells in the 14 acre temple premises and the devotees have to bath from the water from all the wells after taking a plunge into the sea. The amazing thing about the wells was that even while situated so close to the sea and so close to each other, the taste of water is different in all the wells. Only 1-2 wells had salty water, otherwise others had normal water. We also saw the stone made of corals that was used to build the bridge to Sri Lanka in the Indian Epic Ramayana. I even lifted one of the stone weighing about some 15 kgs, but they don’t drown in water – they keep on floating. Overall, it was a nice and unique experience.

I was getting bored in June and me and my friend started to plan a bike trip. We finalized Yercaud, a mini-station in Tamil Nadu. But then we thought it’ll be good if there are more people. We somehow managed to be some 5 people and one of them just brought a Swift Dzire. So he suggested to convert the trip to a car trip instead of bike trip. Everyone was fine. The plan was to leave Bangalore at 6:30 on a Saturday morning and roam around Yercaud the whole Saturday. By the way, Yercaud is some 220 kms from Bangalore. Its just after Salem and the roads till Salem are awesome. I mean 120-130 kmph is the normal speed..
I woke up early on the Saturday morning and waited for my friends to come and pick me. We started at around 7 am from Bangalore. One of the guys said he can’t come, so we were 4 people and a DZire. I slept for time and then we were talking, listening to loud music and enjoying our way to Yercaud. And then hunger striked.. We stopped at a very small place and there was a husband and wife serving freshly prepared dosa, omelettes, etc. That was one hell of a breakfast we had.. So fresh and delicious..mmmm… 🙂
Then I took the steering of the DZire and started the complete the remaining distance of some 70 kms. DZire, I was driving it for the first time and wohooo, this car packs a punch.. 3rd gear and easily the speedo went up to 80-90 kmph.. 4th was 100-120 kmph..And I was finding it hard to shift to the 5th gear as I just could not imagine so much speed 🙂
Well, my speed was short-lived.. The ghats section started with some 20 hair-pin bends..We reached in another hour or so..On the way, we saw so many vehicles that we got afraid of our chances of getting a hotel.. A slight change in the plan and we decided to search for the Hotel first and then roam around. We went to all the good hotels but all of them were booked. There is a home school in Yercaud which was built by the British in the 1820s and it was parents visiting weekend..so no hotels..We continued our search and finally got a Honeymoon suite. It was four people and a Honeymoon suite now..no no don’t take it otherwise..we all have ourselves set to the right straight direction 🙂
OK, so now we have a Hotel also..Yay, now we can roam around.. We visited all the places that day.. And left the Temples for the next day. Had a good dinner with drinks in the night.. And went to sleep..
Yercaud is a nice place. Unlike other hill station, its not crowded at all.. usual caveat of not going on a visiting parent weekend apply 🙂
We did dirt biking on a four wheeler bike which was a 250 cc motor churning out 27 bhp.. That was a great adventure..
Next day, we went for trekking in the morning.. and left for Hoggenkal falls at 8-9 am. We reached the falls at around 1-2 pm. It was hot, the falls were dried because of very little rains. Anyhow, we saw the place and took the coracle ride in the little water also 🙂 Ate fried fishes for Rs. 10 each.. Then we started our journey back and reached Bangalore at 8-9 in the night. Had dinner with drinks again and dozed to sleep after a tiring yet interesting trip.

Yes, I’m still alive.. It was just like I was not getting time to write anything..and I was feeling too lazy to write anything.. This does not mean that I don’t have anything to write..I have some interesting trip reports..and some really scary adventures..So stay tuned..

I was just wondering why people explicitly show their happiness by saying “I’m really very happy for you”!!

Do they really mean it? Or are they faking it?

I know everyone have their own way of expressing things but this is like you can’t express your feelings and show your happiness and that’s why you use this sentence.

I think if you are really happy for someone, your expressions shows it. Moreover, the words you use and how you use them tells everything about your feelings.

It makes perfect sense to express your feelings in writing if you are texting. But in person I dont think it makes any sense.

For instance, I’ve seen people over-use this sentence and you can just make out from their actual expressions that they didn’t like it or if they don’t care.

Yesterday, I was very happy for two of my friends and I showed my happiness in my own way.

We were having Mojito which ofcourse I prepared and I raised a toast and requested a bottoms up 😉

So, how do you show your happiness?

I was just wondering why people explicitly show their happiness by saying “I’m really very happy for you”!!

Do they really mean it? Or are they faking it?

I know everyone have their own way of expressing things but this is like you can’t express your feelings and show your happiness and that’s why you use this sentence. I think if you are really happy for someone, your expressions shows it. Moreover, the words you use and how you use them tells everything about your feelings. It makes perfect sense to express your feelings in writing if you are texting. But in person I dont think it makes any sense.

For instance, I’ve seen people over-use this sentence and you can just make out from their actual expressions that they didn’t like it or they don’t care.

Yesterday, I was very happy for two of my friends and I showed my happiness in my own way.  We were having Mojito which ofcourse I prepared and I raised a toast and requested a bottoms up 😉

I agree that sometimes you are pre-occupied with something else and that’s why, are not able to express your feelings. Your mind is thinking something else and just can’t interpret what to do!!

I’ll stop this now with just one question – how do you show your happiness?

It ain’t about how hard you hit, it is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much can you take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!

This will be long post so be patient while reading it.
I’ll make sure to make it interesting 🙂
This 26 Jan weekend, we decided to go to Kerala, to Sajjad’s 120 year old house.
I asked Sajjad – “Lets go on bike”, he replied – “sure, I’m game”
And hence started the idea for our great bike ride. We have been thinking about this from a very long time but somehow time and situation
did not allow us to go.
This time also many hurdles came like Sajjad’s was not getting holiday on Friday when we were suppose to leave for Kerala.
Ok, the trip report now 😉
I was suppose to come at 13:00 on Friday but I got delayed and finally we started at around 14:45. It was very hot. We took one backpack and a camera pouch.
We found a short route to reach Mysore road and we reached there in 30 mins and then it was just an average of 90-100 kmph on the speedo.
We stopped at our favorite stop McDonalds to eat something. While we were eating, I heard some good sound and not to my amusement there was one Yamaha R6 standing.
I had not even moved my eyes from the bike and I saw another one. This time it was Suzuki Hayabusa.
My eyes came out of the eye-socket. Before I could them back I saw one more busa and then one more.
I came out of McDonalds and looked at the bikes – one R6 and 3 Busas and then I looked at my Zma and I decided to move on…
We reached Mysore and stopped for sometime as Sajjad wants to do some shopping. Again we started at 17:30 and crossed Mysore and some other places.
And then we reached the most disgusting road of the whole trip. Actually, there was no road at all!! It was just dry soil, sand, stones and a lot of dirt.
One hump was so big that it touched the stand of the bike!!
We saw some guys riding Bullets and they were travelling like they are riding the bike on a test road and
everything is perfect. While I was struggling to move in that bad track. Well, we managed to get out of that mess safely.
Now, we reached Bandipur National Park and that too it was dark and wild animals could attack us anytime. We saw some wild Elephants and I accelerated more.
The peculiar things there were the speed-breakers. Instead of humps, they were depression and you’ll not know when a breaker comes. You’ll know only after
getting some jerks that yes, there was a breaker!!
Then there was a forced stop, we reached the Tamil Nadu side of the Bandipur Forest. One Forest Officer stopped us and said its night time and I wont allow you
to go, its not safe and some other gyan which was in Tamil, I think. I was not able to understand even a word out of it.
Sajjad gave him some excuse and we started again.
We reached Gundlepet at around and 20:00 and had some fruits/tea. A 5 mins rest and again we started. So, now we reached Godalore and then Kerala.
And the ghats started with all the dense forest, zig-zag roads and hair-pin bends. And I had to maintain the optimal speed.
More speed means you are lost in the forest or you become a part of the rock mountain.
It was 280 kms on the trip meter and my hands and bumps were paining like anything. I was not able to hold the clutch lever to change gears.
I used my last two fingers, the smallest one and the one next to it to change gears 🙂
Sajjad also had the same bumps problem.
And finally we reached Nilambur where Sajjad leaves. Now, we are searching for a liquor shop so that we can go to Sajjad’s house and just crash on the bed.
But there were no shops from where we could get some drops of madira. Disappointed we reached at 22:30, had food, took bath and crashed only to wake up in the
morning – refreshed 🙂
It was 310.4 kms in the trip meter.
Coming back was also the same adventure. We started at 08:00 on Monday morning and reached at around 16:00 in the evening with various stops ofcourse.
So, the total ride was some 650 kms and it was awesome despite of the back-ache and finger-pain 😉

I would love to go on trips like these again and again….

Yes, this time 13 Dec was a Saturday and it was my birthday and I was very excited as it was my 25th birthday. Many people called at midnight and my roommates gave me some punches. It was a great day as I went for lunch with some of my friends and chatted a lot. Later I came to my room and crashed, just to get ready for the next round. Then my friend asked who all called me. I replied that most of the people called except a few. He then started writing some message on his phone and he added many people from his contacts to the senders list. Soon after he sent the message, my phone started ringing. I had a faint notion somewhere within me that my friend has reminded all the other friends. I got a call from a friend and asked her if she received the message. She said, which message. I said the message that my friend has sent just now. She got confused and asked me if he was messaging in front of me. I just said yes. Then one more call came and one message. Two of my friends forgot to wish me. One wished after one day and I’m waiting for the call from the other one.

Not to blame anyone as distance has made such a difference. Also the hectic schedule that we have nowadays is making it very difficult to focus on personal life. Sometimes even I dont know which date it is or whats the occasion and when. I’m writing this as i’m coming back for the winter vacations. Hope to have a great vacations this winter as this will be my first vacations in this year.