I am bored. I am bored of inverse beam dynamics. I am bored of Runge Kutta. I am bored of fourier expansions and FFT's . So I remembered that I have a blog. By the time you read this, my boredom will have been supressed by the pile of work which is hanging over my head.
So after a long hiatus, my blog is back. And this time I etch my journey from shallow to deep.
About more than a year ago , I was under the impression that I could sink spectacularly. If Hydrophobia is a legitimate word, I had hydroparanoia. Much of it can be blamed to maternal instincts. But as Russell Crowe said as Dr John Nash, I have been "terrified, mortified, petrified" by the very prospect of jumping into a swimming pool.
So I joined swimming lessons at the age of 25. The instructors were of the opnion that they would make a Thorpe or a Phelps out of me. After 2 weeks they realized if they could convert me from a stone to a log it was an enormous feat. Thorpe could wait for another day ... or another lifetime.
Learning to swim in holland was supposedly fun for some of my friends. Or atleast they thought that I was having fun, in such close proximity with bikini clad females in the water. They do not know the ultimate truth of life. When you are in the pool with your life in your hands, sinking one moment and frantically gasping for breath in the next your vision suddenly becomes so poor that you dont even look at the bikinis any more.
It becomes even more gruesome when the person next to you is swimming like a fish, and when you look at yourself you mutter " Naaah !! still a stone".
The Instructors shout from the edge of the pool .... Arms ! Legs ! Lonnnnngggggg !
After some weeks i saw that they left the lane i was swimming and were giving tips to the others. Apparantly I was so poor .. I was dead last of the class. So I told myself, I am going to do it on my own. They havent seen my determination, as hard as a rock. And then i started sinking again. I mean I never knew that throwing arms and legs in water is so damm difficult. If my legs move my arms dont, If my arms move, my legs dont. If some how i manage to do both, water enters my nose, i panick and drink half of the pool.
Then came swimming on the back ! Now that was supposed to be easy. Because in that position you can float easily. True. But only if you have a nose like an elephant.The first time i was floating , i was thrilled. Then came a wave , or so it seemed to me. Suddenly there was water inside my nose And then I started to sink.
Fortunately all this was in the shallow end . So every time I sank, I had solid ground below me and i could stand up again. After some time I thought I could manage swimming in the shallow end. Let me claify by what i mean by swimming . It is moving forward in water without touching the ground with your feet. Since I managed to do that I thought, lets try the deep side.
So i went diving in the deep end.
Till date I have the unique distinction of being the only person in class who had to be saved by the instructor .
I went back to the shallow end !
N.B. : Currently I have lost the onyl distinction I had. I can no longer sink spectacularly
Friday, December 11, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Baigan main mila diya (mixed to the brinjals)
Excerpts from a movie :
Disclaimer: The actual dialouges are in specific style of Hindi. There is no exact translation possible
Salim : " Arrey main to itna kiya. Tu kya kiya re? Jab Angreza aake Ismail bhai ka shirt faadh ke ,khundal khundal re maara" ( Atleast I did this. What did you do when the foreigners tore Ismail bhai's shirt and beat him black and blue)
a bystander : "Appa ! khundal khundal ke maara Ismail bhai ko " (what ! Ismail bhai got beaten up ")
There are two kinds of people. Those who have seen "The Angrez". And those who will see it.
I saw the Angrez after a long time today. Not that i needed to. I remember all of Salim feku's dialouges by heart, all the tones of Jehangir, the "maa ki kirkiri " of Ismail bhai about "Mallika" and "Angrezaa".
For the uninitiated let me get down to unravelling the mysteries of this movie. For those of you whose dont know it yet, have a quick look in youtube and go through it. Assuming that you have climbed back to your chair after falling down so many times, then you might be able to appreciate whats written. If you read the reviews about the angrez online its all very well written. But its not exactly how the odinary viewer sees it. The Angrez is basically divided into two parts. The scenes with Salim, Ismail and Jehangir- and the rest of the movie. Infact some honourable soul in kgp actually filtered out the good stuff from the rest and posted it on the local net as "Maa ki kirkiri". A fan following ensued, and i am a part of it till today.
Reasons why i would recommend The Angrez
1: How far can you go above and beyond the truth - Ask Salim feku and his encounter with Mallika
2: "Wot diya , Wot diya Wot diya" - Now thats how you thrash someone
3: "Woh mereko malum tumko malum , potti ko malum kya" - try any gimmick to impress a girl ; as long as she does not know you are faking it.
4: How can you take 2-3 hours to reach a place where you can normally reach in 20 mins
5: Khundal khundal ke maara - I have no comments on this one.
But sitting in your room in the cold confines of the studio, you realize that the movie is not complete. The people with whom you shared the movie with made this ever so special.
Jai Bhawavi !
Disclaimer: The actual dialouges are in specific style of Hindi. There is no exact translation possible
Salim : " Arrey main to itna kiya. Tu kya kiya re? Jab Angreza aake Ismail bhai ka shirt faadh ke ,khundal khundal re maara" ( Atleast I did this. What did you do when the foreigners tore Ismail bhai's shirt and beat him black and blue)
a bystander : "Appa ! khundal khundal ke maara Ismail bhai ko " (what ! Ismail bhai got beaten up ")
There are two kinds of people. Those who have seen "The Angrez". And those who will see it.
I saw the Angrez after a long time today. Not that i needed to. I remember all of Salim feku's dialouges by heart, all the tones of Jehangir, the "maa ki kirkiri " of Ismail bhai about "Mallika" and "Angrezaa".
For the uninitiated let me get down to unravelling the mysteries of this movie. For those of you whose dont know it yet, have a quick look in youtube and go through it. Assuming that you have climbed back to your chair after falling down so many times, then you might be able to appreciate whats written. If you read the reviews about the angrez online its all very well written. But its not exactly how the odinary viewer sees it. The Angrez is basically divided into two parts. The scenes with Salim, Ismail and Jehangir- and the rest of the movie. Infact some honourable soul in kgp actually filtered out the good stuff from the rest and posted it on the local net as "Maa ki kirkiri". A fan following ensued, and i am a part of it till today.
Reasons why i would recommend The Angrez
1: How far can you go above and beyond the truth - Ask Salim feku and his encounter with Mallika
2: "Wot diya , Wot diya Wot diya" - Now thats how you thrash someone
3: "Woh mereko malum tumko malum , potti ko malum kya" - try any gimmick to impress a girl ; as long as she does not know you are faking it.
4: How can you take 2-3 hours to reach a place where you can normally reach in 20 mins
5: Khundal khundal ke maara - I have no comments on this one.
But sitting in your room in the cold confines of the studio, you realize that the movie is not complete. The people with whom you shared the movie with made this ever so special.
Jai Bhawavi !
Friday, September 25, 2009
Water on the moon
After a long hiatus blogging is back. This might be a short one, due to the lack of time available. Recently what caught my fancy was a news article concerning a press release from NASA saying that there has been water found on the moon. Another big step for mankind ? Perhaps , perhaps not! However this post will not be scientific, as i am yet sketchy about the details of the impact of the discovery.
A huge hue and cry has started to erupt, similar to the production of black holes when CERN started their first beams in LHC. (Till today i have to explain to some of the masses that production of a black hole is not as easy as you think ! My fault , as the only example an accelerator physicist can give about his work is the huge extravaganza at CERN).
However when i first heard the news , the name of Georges Remi came to my mind. Years ago a man named Jules Verne wrote about things flying in air and submarines under water. Came true !
Similarly not so long ago Georges Remi (okk Herge for most of you) landed Tintin on the moon and made him discover water on the moon. Being a hardcore Tintin buff , i almost expected this to be true ! Hence no surprises for me.
Wonder which fiction next would turn to fact! but please not a Dan Brown one!
A huge hue and cry has started to erupt, similar to the production of black holes when CERN started their first beams in LHC. (Till today i have to explain to some of the masses that production of a black hole is not as easy as you think ! My fault , as the only example an accelerator physicist can give about his work is the huge extravaganza at CERN).
However when i first heard the news , the name of Georges Remi came to my mind. Years ago a man named Jules Verne wrote about things flying in air and submarines under water. Came true !
Similarly not so long ago Georges Remi (okk Herge for most of you) landed Tintin on the moon and made him discover water on the moon. Being a hardcore Tintin buff , i almost expected this to be true ! Hence no surprises for me.
Wonder which fiction next would turn to fact! but please not a Dan Brown one!
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
The opposable thumb
I wonder why i wonder why
I wonder why i wonder
(Richard P. Feynman; Literary assignment in College
"Surely you are joking Mr. Feynman")
Sometimes when i am too lazy to work, i wonder. I wonder at this wonderful thing called the opposable thumb. As I type these words in my keyboard and see my thumb hitting on the spce bar repeatedly, I wonder whether technology would have made any progress had humans not had this opposable thumb. I see young people whip out their cell phones and start talking. i wonder how cell phones would have looked like if we did not have the opposable thumb. Would it have been big, would it have been small or even no existant. At home some one flips on channels using the remote. once again its the opposable thumb. I hop on to my bike and press the brakes. Once again i use my thumb. I injure my thumb and during my meals I am at a loss on how to eat. I could go on about how we use the thumb in our everyday life.The point is this is something we are born with. This we cannot change. This is what makes us humans. Humans do have a superior brain in the entire animal kingdom, but i wonder without the opposable thumb would the superior brain have helped ?
I wonder !
Monday, May 04, 2009
Special request
This blog is not related to a specific incident. For the past few days certain events have been happening which have tied me down. I will try and write down most of it in this post.
1: Dinner: It was FYSICA 2009. For the uninitiated it was the annual Dutch Physical society meeting . As "emerging" physicists even i attended, the event, with a series of lectures on a plethora of topics . I was planning on attending the series of lectures on Big Bang, especially the theory of inflation (it still is pretty much muddled up to me), along with the existance of magnetic monopoles. At the end of the day there was a special Nobel lecture by Gerard 't Hooft. I was sitting at the back row, and catched a glimpse of the Nobel winner. Sitting there while he talked about the CKM matrix, I wondered, whether I would actually be able to recognize him, should i meet him any time later. Post his lecture we had the dinner arrangements. I dropped my bag off in one of the round tables and stood in a queue to get some grub. We were three desi's, Dr. Shidling, Gourida and I. We were joined by an elderly gentleman from NIKHEF Amsterdam who started talking about Physics and the self conscience. Being Indians we are supposed to understand about spirituality. Suddenly I looked to my left and saw Prof 't Hooft drawing the chair next to me. The next 20 minutes I was speechless. Amartya Sen and Mother Teresa's pictures are the closest I have ever come to a Nobel winner. I sat beside him for ninety minutes, and we didn't talk about physics. The weather , soccer, Brasil ( we had a Brazilian lady with us at the table) , India were the range of topics the table conversed. Or rather the other people conversed. I was mostly silent ! We finished dinner and as we trudged off home, he waved us good bye. A human being ! I do not have a picture with him, but no regrets.
2: Fire: Recently I have moved into a new studio. It was my second night in the new studio, and it was quite some work to unpack and clean stuff. Around 7:30 types , I had finished cooking when i smelt something burning. I checked all the electric connections in the studio and the smell was not coming from any one of them. I opened my window and smelt burnt fumes outside too. I thought might be some of the neighbours cooking in a charcoal fire. I closed my window and tried to ignore the smell. Still it lingered. Suddenly a huge sound bellowed in the building. I opened my door , the fire alarm was blaring on all cylinders. My other housemate Isreal was also out of his room. The stair case was filled with smoke. We tried climbing downstairs and found the smoke growing denser. Israel asked me for the fire extinguisher and tried dousing the source from where it was coming from. No help. It struck us that the fire might be downstairs. We took a towel and dashed for the stairs. It was pitch dark, and we inhaled a lot of smoke. I dont know how Israel got to the door , but we did make it out. By this time people had gathered outside, they had no idea that people were living inside. Flames were coming out from the side of the house. The crowd had called up emergency services and it wasnt long before I heard the all too familiar sirens bellowing at a distance. A police car screeched to a stop near me. 2 officers jumped out and cordoned off the area. The crowd was shooed away. When they heard that I was a resident of the building in flames we ( me and Israel) were given special vantage points so that we could see the flames. Two fire engines coming from both sides of the street simultaneous came to a halt , as firemen climbed out and mad a dash for the building. On the ground floor of the house there is a tatoo shop. Seems the fire had started from there. The fire men used everything to break open the door of the shop, an axe, a battering ram, but the lock would not budge . Finally they got an electric saw. The door was torn to shreds, the lock still stood like the rock of Gibraltor. A Crane followed suit and firemen climbed on to it trying to douse the fire from every angle. Meanwhile the interrogation had started. First it was the Police. Standard questions like name, date of birth, place of birth were asked. Next came the firemen who asked about the house, the floor plane the structure the underlying wooden floors. Finally it was the medicos, who took my enitre medical backgroud trying to gauge if I had inhaled enough CO/CO2 or not. Meanwhile the fire was out. The house was still filled with smoke. The fire men rolled up their hoses and dispatched the crane. Out came the smoke meters. The house was deemed unfit for residence for the night. The good news , our room were not gutted. A fireman accompanied us to our rooms, as we grabbed some essential stuff to spend the night at some friend's place. I looked around and saw that apart from the smoke and the thin layer of soot on everything, the room was not damaged at all. Everything was safe.
It then dawned upon me what had happened !
For people wondering why the name of the post has nothing to do with the contents insie, let me clarify, the special request came from Dharmu da. I quote " You should write a blog rather than put up cryptic status messages"
1: Dinner: It was FYSICA 2009. For the uninitiated it was the annual Dutch Physical society meeting . As "emerging" physicists even i attended, the event, with a series of lectures on a plethora of topics . I was planning on attending the series of lectures on Big Bang, especially the theory of inflation (it still is pretty much muddled up to me), along with the existance of magnetic monopoles. At the end of the day there was a special Nobel lecture by Gerard 't Hooft. I was sitting at the back row, and catched a glimpse of the Nobel winner. Sitting there while he talked about the CKM matrix, I wondered, whether I would actually be able to recognize him, should i meet him any time later. Post his lecture we had the dinner arrangements. I dropped my bag off in one of the round tables and stood in a queue to get some grub. We were three desi's, Dr. Shidling, Gourida and I. We were joined by an elderly gentleman from NIKHEF Amsterdam who started talking about Physics and the self conscience. Being Indians we are supposed to understand about spirituality. Suddenly I looked to my left and saw Prof 't Hooft drawing the chair next to me. The next 20 minutes I was speechless. Amartya Sen and Mother Teresa's pictures are the closest I have ever come to a Nobel winner. I sat beside him for ninety minutes, and we didn't talk about physics. The weather , soccer, Brasil ( we had a Brazilian lady with us at the table) , India were the range of topics the table conversed. Or rather the other people conversed. I was mostly silent ! We finished dinner and as we trudged off home, he waved us good bye. A human being ! I do not have a picture with him, but no regrets.
2: Fire: Recently I have moved into a new studio. It was my second night in the new studio, and it was quite some work to unpack and clean stuff. Around 7:30 types , I had finished cooking when i smelt something burning. I checked all the electric connections in the studio and the smell was not coming from any one of them. I opened my window and smelt burnt fumes outside too. I thought might be some of the neighbours cooking in a charcoal fire. I closed my window and tried to ignore the smell. Still it lingered. Suddenly a huge sound bellowed in the building. I opened my door , the fire alarm was blaring on all cylinders. My other housemate Isreal was also out of his room. The stair case was filled with smoke. We tried climbing downstairs and found the smoke growing denser. Israel asked me for the fire extinguisher and tried dousing the source from where it was coming from. No help. It struck us that the fire might be downstairs. We took a towel and dashed for the stairs. It was pitch dark, and we inhaled a lot of smoke. I dont know how Israel got to the door , but we did make it out. By this time people had gathered outside, they had no idea that people were living inside. Flames were coming out from the side of the house. The crowd had called up emergency services and it wasnt long before I heard the all too familiar sirens bellowing at a distance. A police car screeched to a stop near me. 2 officers jumped out and cordoned off the area. The crowd was shooed away. When they heard that I was a resident of the building in flames we ( me and Israel) were given special vantage points so that we could see the flames. Two fire engines coming from both sides of the street simultaneous came to a halt , as firemen climbed out and mad a dash for the building. On the ground floor of the house there is a tatoo shop. Seems the fire had started from there. The fire men used everything to break open the door of the shop, an axe, a battering ram, but the lock would not budge . Finally they got an electric saw. The door was torn to shreds, the lock still stood like the rock of Gibraltor. A Crane followed suit and firemen climbed on to it trying to douse the fire from every angle. Meanwhile the interrogation had started. First it was the Police. Standard questions like name, date of birth, place of birth were asked. Next came the firemen who asked about the house, the floor plane the structure the underlying wooden floors. Finally it was the medicos, who took my enitre medical backgroud trying to gauge if I had inhaled enough CO/CO2 or not. Meanwhile the fire was out. The house was still filled with smoke. The fire men rolled up their hoses and dispatched the crane. Out came the smoke meters. The house was deemed unfit for residence for the night. The good news , our room were not gutted. A fireman accompanied us to our rooms, as we grabbed some essential stuff to spend the night at some friend's place. I looked around and saw that apart from the smoke and the thin layer of soot on everything, the room was not damaged at all. Everything was safe.
It then dawned upon me what had happened !
For people wondering why the name of the post has nothing to do with the contents insie, let me clarify, the special request came from Dharmu da. I quote " You should write a blog rather than put up cryptic status messages"
Friday, March 13, 2009
Yercaud
Some simple things in life sometimes leave an everlasting impression......
To Sunny, Pinki, Datta and Baka .....................
........................... and not to forget Gopi and his car.
Prelude:
It was sometime around 20th of May. My covansys mail id was abuzz with a chain of mails from Sunny and Datta. It had 2 buzz words - Weekend and Yercaud.
I asked Keerthi about this place and found out that it was near Salem, and it was a hill station. Whatever! I was tired of chennai and wanted a change. Rest was a big unknown.
25th April Friday: I reached home with some cash, as we had to make for the autogas and advance payment for the car. Pinki was still not home. Suddenly Sunny came home with Gopi, the car keys in his hand. And then it struck me. The plans we had made during the entire week were becoming a reality.
There were 5 of us , Sunny, Datta, Pinki, Baka and I. The plan was to leave chennai for the weekend. Sunny wanted to drive. And we all wanted to go to somplace nice. Yercaud some 350 kms away from chennai was touted to be a poor mans Ooty. Ergo that weekend we were off to Yercaud, 4 house mates and 1 guest.
The night was pretty uneventful, except that while parking the car i damaged the bumper. And as Pinki laughed , he christened it "precision driving".
26th April Morning 5.00 AM: We were supposed to leave at 5 but somehow, Sunny still refuses to wake up. Datta was prompt as usual and even Pinki was up. Baka would leave us midway on our return trip, to Bangalore, so he was giving final touches to his packing (well he was packing).
5.30 AM: We are off on the road, finally. What happened in the half hour is still a blur, but never have seen Pinki so excited in Chennai, not even when he finds alu sabji in the meals in GK restuarant. It took us some time to get on the Bangalore highway, but on it Sunny went on a roll. The car sped off and all us were enjoying the beauty outside, and tormenting Pinki inside. We cruised past Vellore. And we were feeling hungry. We pulled over to a roadside eatery, a fancy one too. What followed was one of the best breakfast we have ever had in chennai. There was something called "Kaludosa" which we tried out along with the standard idli, vada and puri. It was hoever the last morsel we would eat for the next 8 hours. With the stomach full, we hit the road once again. It was at this point we decided to take a detour in the way, to try and reach Hogenakkal waterfalls. For people who still do not know this place , you might remember this for the water project dispute. The water in the waterfalls are touted to have medicinal powers to cure ailments. And yes the song "choti si aasha" from the movie Roja was shot here. We got off the Bangalore highway and faced less easy roads past Krishnagiri. Our destination , the junction of Dharmapuri where a right turn would take us to the falls of Hogenakkal. It was hot and the AC in the car was chilled max. We were burning up a lot of gas , but at that moment we really did not care. The only time i left the car was to ask a traffic policeman for directions. A local man , he could not follow my words in english and it was after some theatrics from me and Datta that we got a hint of the way. It was some tricky driving upto hogenakkal, the roads are not so good, with bumps aplenty. There we also faced one of the wider accepted industries in India, Tourist fleecing. To enter Hogenakkal went went through some 5 checkposts all of them managed by locals , who would not budge until you pay Rs 10 for some local fund. Thankfully due to Sunny's foresight we got a decent place to park the car and thus we moved forward to the falls.
Hogenakkal: The place wasnt so bad, but it was so damn hot that it robbed me of whatever interest I had of the place. It was hot, and crowded to the brim with families skinnydipping in the water at all possible places. We hovered there for sometime, clicked a few photos , and decided enough is enough. It was back to the car enroute to Salem.
Hogenakkal to salem: It was past noon and we were felling the pangs of hunger. Sunny asked a few locals and suddenly we got a short cut to Salem. It was a lesser taken road, between the villages and the hills. The heat and hunger made Sunny go delirious and in one of the hairpin bends we actually skidded on the road like an F1 car. Rarely did the speedometer dip and amidst all the idle banter and leg pulling it was a great ride for all of us.
Salem to Yercaud: It was nearly 4 PM we reached Salem, after Sunny proved to all of us he was no less than Schumi. The next 30 kms had 20 hairpin bends. Somehow driving up a hill station always has a thrill, with the hills on one side and a sheer vertical drop on the other. It is sometimes a treat to stop the car and watch the rain as it falls on the plains. However hunger got the better of us and after a beautiful drive we finally reached Yercaud at 5 PM .
Sightseeing Day 1: After booking into the first hotel we saw, and convincing the manager to give 5 of us a room, it was time for lunch. I do not really remember what we really ate, I just remember i wished i hadnt ordered the soup. Next we were off to pagoda point. Supposed to be the highest point in Yercaud , it was a sunrise/sunset view point. We had no map of the place and while we were contemplating , suddenly Datta found out that the back side of the bill we paid for our lunch had a map of the place. From F1 Sunny shifted to rally mode. The roads in Yercaud are narrow barely enough to allow a car to pass. It was a race against time as the sun was about to set, and after a couple of wrong turns here and there , we did manage to get there while the sun had just set. We did promise that next morning sunrise we would be here.
Post pagoda point, we made a rush for Gents Seat. Another high place on the top of the hills , we could get a view of the entire Salem city from up there. Enroute we passed the Montford school, the very place where Nagesh Kuknoor's film Rockford was shot. Gents Seat was a delight, with a nice chilly breeze blowing the shimmering lights of the entire steel town glittering against a clear sky. The five of us sat down and had pakora with tea while viewing the entire landscape below. The trip was worth it.
Dinner 26th April: We reached the hotel, happy but tired , especially, me and Pinki, after Sunny had made us run while he sped off in the car. Well it was time for some daaru ( I will not go into into the details- Censored stuff.) Post the drinks we became ambitious and decided we would have some continental Khana. What happened next remains a joke for all of us.The items we ordered 1: Vegetable Green Revolution 2: Vegetable Croquet 3: Cheese Sandwich. I was having such stuff for the first time. And the first time it would be.
What we got , made us laugh, more than eat. The green revolution was surely a green revolution on the plate , with rice and green shit and huge pieces of potato on the side. The taste, perfectly bland. The green shit, no idea. And we did not bother to investigate. The Vegetable Croquet was actually a huge cylindrical rod filled with potato and only potato. We christened it "Dudee", post Sunny's comment " Hum aaj dude banenge , menu card main yeh kya hai, hum yeh khayenge" As Sunny gorged on the Dudee, he lamented " Alu khilwa khilwa ke mota karwa denge kya" and then he had one more huge potato from the Green revolution. However I became the joke of the day when the cheese sandwich came. Just 4 slices of bread, no idea whether it had cheese in the middle or not, and some potato chips on the side. Cost Rs.70. Pinki rolled off the sofa, Sunny kept laughing at my face, even Baka did not spare his comments. I was helpless, i didn't know how to react. That cheese sandwich overshadowed everything.
Day 2, 27th April : We wanted to view the sunrise , and for the first time Sunny was the one to wake up the earliest. We hurried to the loo and while we could see the sky turning bright, it was a mad dash to the car and off to pagoda point. We did reach there before sunrise , the first souls , all of us, nearly at 5 AM. It was a nice sight, with the clouds and the mist and Sunny's comments in the background " Dekha , tum log to bas sote rehte ho". After clicking a few and many photos we thought of trying out the rest of the sights. The next target Shevaroy temple. The way unknown. We tried to go there but suddenly at one of the hairpin bends the car got stuck. It was a big scare. While Sunny revved the engine 4 of us guys literally lifted the car from the boulders and set it back on the road. Shevaroy temple was shelved, and we were off to Kiliyur falls . The road was tricky yet again as many times we got down to allow the car to pass through. It was the confluence of 7 hills where we landed at the end. The locals told us the falls were a hike down the hills. Wearing chappals i thought better and sat on the side of the road, near a sheer drop enjoying the view. The rest of the 4 came back, Sunny and Datta firmly on their two legs, Baka crouched, while he was laughing, and Pinki on all fours. I would tell you Sunny's reaction " Bhaakk sala, yeh kya tha. Itna karke neeche gaye , aur kya dekha. ek chota sa boulder aur uske upar just a little tread of water trickling by. " Apparantly the only entertainment they got was Pinki rolling on all fours as he climbed up and down the hill.
There was still some time for breakfast so we thought we would go to the bear caves. It was atop a hilly land and there was no way the car would go all the way. As we took the first step Pinki's bowels gave a red signal. we laughed at him while he trudged along painfully, his face , the classic Pinki pose, gently saying " Abbey wapas chalo yar" . Midway even I got the signal , but I still trudged on. We panted and made our way uphill. Halfway most of us gave up. Sunny was still determined, as he made a dash to the top. Minutes later , he came running back. Bear caves was someones private property ,and he had been stopped by a guard at the gates while trying to enter. Pinki's face suddenly became much better, as he made back to the car in top speed. I followed suit.
Breakfast 27th April: Never knew what we ate, but we ate lavishly. Determined not to repeat the dudee fiasco fro mthe night , we stuck to known bread butter , idly vada and tea. Then we started eating other stuff. 5 people breakfast bill Rs.400. Last nights dinner was Rs.600.
Yercaud to Salem: The drive back was nice, and we were a bit sad on the thought of going back to chennai. However my spirits were high, as we stopped midway to pose for photographs. Suddenly we spied a monkey inside our car, fiddling with Sunny's wallet. We gave a shout and forced it to scamper down the hills along with 2-3 others whom we had not even noticed. We checked the car keys and found it still there. Wonder what would have happened if the monkey had made off with the car keys !
Salem to krishnagiri: A uneventful ride , with the AC in full blast and We were all feeling drowsy Baka was dropped of at Krishnagiri and we sped off. Hunger knocked the bell once again.
Khrishnagiri -Vellore: Pinki got sleepy and started snoring at the back . We stopped Midway for some food . We were out of cash, thankfully i still had some 500 bucks in my wallet.
Vellore - Posting questions to locals we reached the golden temple in Vellore. Sunny said that he had heard it was one made entirely of Gold. It was a really beautiful temple, with a star shaped lay out , 7 gates and an interior palted with gold. As we made our way to the inner sanctum, we found a small pool where people would throw coins for a wish. I opened my wallet and got one for myself . Sunny and Datta asked , so i gave the remaining 2 to them . Pinki was sad as he also wanted one - " Yeh kya mujhe bhi coin do" . Finally the 4 of us together threw 3 coins in the water. One the way back Sunny asked " Pinki tumne kya wish kiya " . Pinki - "Are mujhe wish bhi karna tha kya" . Sunny - " Teri to! you robbed me of my 1/4 wish ... tereko nahi chodunga ". When we reached the car, we saw we had a flat tyre. Next was the fastest tyre change I had seen , and been a part of . It wa 5 mins and we were back on the road. The car cruised on 70 as Sunny remarked it was moving much better now. A dull gloom fell on all of us. Time to hit reality once more as we were nearly back in Chennai.
Marina Beach 27th April 9 PM: We decided to end the trip with a view of the sea. There we were the 4 of us , standing in front of the waves , the roar of the sea a gentle reminder that the trip was nearly over. We lingered on the beach in a hope to prolong this moment a little more, knowing that once we turned our back on the waves it would be a goodbye to a memorable weekend we had ever had.
To Sunny, Pinki, Datta and Baka .....................
........................... and not to forget Gopi and his car.
Warning: Long Post
Prelude:
It was sometime around 20th of May. My covansys mail id was abuzz with a chain of mails from Sunny and Datta. It had 2 buzz words - Weekend and Yercaud.
I asked Keerthi about this place and found out that it was near Salem, and it was a hill station. Whatever! I was tired of chennai and wanted a change. Rest was a big unknown.
25th April Friday: I reached home with some cash, as we had to make for the autogas and advance payment for the car. Pinki was still not home. Suddenly Sunny came home with Gopi, the car keys in his hand. And then it struck me. The plans we had made during the entire week were becoming a reality.
There were 5 of us , Sunny, Datta, Pinki, Baka and I. The plan was to leave chennai for the weekend. Sunny wanted to drive. And we all wanted to go to somplace nice. Yercaud some 350 kms away from chennai was touted to be a poor mans Ooty. Ergo that weekend we were off to Yercaud, 4 house mates and 1 guest.
The night was pretty uneventful, except that while parking the car i damaged the bumper. And as Pinki laughed , he christened it "precision driving".
26th April Morning 5.00 AM: We were supposed to leave at 5 but somehow, Sunny still refuses to wake up. Datta was prompt as usual and even Pinki was up. Baka would leave us midway on our return trip, to Bangalore, so he was giving final touches to his packing (well he was packing).
5.30 AM: We are off on the road, finally. What happened in the half hour is still a blur, but never have seen Pinki so excited in Chennai, not even when he finds alu sabji in the meals in GK restuarant. It took us some time to get on the Bangalore highway, but on it Sunny went on a roll. The car sped off and all us were enjoying the beauty outside, and tormenting Pinki inside. We cruised past Vellore. And we were feeling hungry. We pulled over to a roadside eatery, a fancy one too. What followed was one of the best breakfast we have ever had in chennai. There was something called "Kaludosa" which we tried out along with the standard idli, vada and puri. It was hoever the last morsel we would eat for the next 8 hours. With the stomach full, we hit the road once again. It was at this point we decided to take a detour in the way, to try and reach Hogenakkal waterfalls. For people who still do not know this place , you might remember this for the water project dispute. The water in the waterfalls are touted to have medicinal powers to cure ailments. And yes the song "choti si aasha" from the movie Roja was shot here. We got off the Bangalore highway and faced less easy roads past Krishnagiri. Our destination , the junction of Dharmapuri where a right turn would take us to the falls of Hogenakkal. It was hot and the AC in the car was chilled max. We were burning up a lot of gas , but at that moment we really did not care. The only time i left the car was to ask a traffic policeman for directions. A local man , he could not follow my words in english and it was after some theatrics from me and Datta that we got a hint of the way. It was some tricky driving upto hogenakkal, the roads are not so good, with bumps aplenty. There we also faced one of the wider accepted industries in India, Tourist fleecing. To enter Hogenakkal went went through some 5 checkposts all of them managed by locals , who would not budge until you pay Rs 10 for some local fund. Thankfully due to Sunny's foresight we got a decent place to park the car and thus we moved forward to the falls.
Hogenakkal: The place wasnt so bad, but it was so damn hot that it robbed me of whatever interest I had of the place. It was hot, and crowded to the brim with families skinnydipping in the water at all possible places. We hovered there for sometime, clicked a few photos , and decided enough is enough. It was back to the car enroute to Salem.
Hogenakkal to salem: It was past noon and we were felling the pangs of hunger. Sunny asked a few locals and suddenly we got a short cut to Salem. It was a lesser taken road, between the villages and the hills. The heat and hunger made Sunny go delirious and in one of the hairpin bends we actually skidded on the road like an F1 car. Rarely did the speedometer dip and amidst all the idle banter and leg pulling it was a great ride for all of us.
Salem to Yercaud: It was nearly 4 PM we reached Salem, after Sunny proved to all of us he was no less than Schumi. The next 30 kms had 20 hairpin bends. Somehow driving up a hill station always has a thrill, with the hills on one side and a sheer vertical drop on the other. It is sometimes a treat to stop the car and watch the rain as it falls on the plains. However hunger got the better of us and after a beautiful drive we finally reached Yercaud at 5 PM .
Sightseeing Day 1: After booking into the first hotel we saw, and convincing the manager to give 5 of us a room, it was time for lunch. I do not really remember what we really ate, I just remember i wished i hadnt ordered the soup. Next we were off to pagoda point. Supposed to be the highest point in Yercaud , it was a sunrise/sunset view point. We had no map of the place and while we were contemplating , suddenly Datta found out that the back side of the bill we paid for our lunch had a map of the place. From F1 Sunny shifted to rally mode. The roads in Yercaud are narrow barely enough to allow a car to pass. It was a race against time as the sun was about to set, and after a couple of wrong turns here and there , we did manage to get there while the sun had just set. We did promise that next morning sunrise we would be here.
Post pagoda point, we made a rush for Gents Seat. Another high place on the top of the hills , we could get a view of the entire Salem city from up there. Enroute we passed the Montford school, the very place where Nagesh Kuknoor's film Rockford was shot. Gents Seat was a delight, with a nice chilly breeze blowing the shimmering lights of the entire steel town glittering against a clear sky. The five of us sat down and had pakora with tea while viewing the entire landscape below. The trip was worth it.
Dinner 26th April: We reached the hotel, happy but tired , especially, me and Pinki, after Sunny had made us run while he sped off in the car. Well it was time for some daaru ( I will not go into into the details- Censored stuff.) Post the drinks we became ambitious and decided we would have some continental Khana. What happened next remains a joke for all of us.The items we ordered 1: Vegetable Green Revolution 2: Vegetable Croquet 3: Cheese Sandwich. I was having such stuff for the first time. And the first time it would be.
What we got , made us laugh, more than eat. The green revolution was surely a green revolution on the plate , with rice and green shit and huge pieces of potato on the side. The taste, perfectly bland. The green shit, no idea. And we did not bother to investigate. The Vegetable Croquet was actually a huge cylindrical rod filled with potato and only potato. We christened it "Dudee", post Sunny's comment " Hum aaj dude banenge , menu card main yeh kya hai, hum yeh khayenge" As Sunny gorged on the Dudee, he lamented " Alu khilwa khilwa ke mota karwa denge kya" and then he had one more huge potato from the Green revolution. However I became the joke of the day when the cheese sandwich came. Just 4 slices of bread, no idea whether it had cheese in the middle or not, and some potato chips on the side. Cost Rs.70. Pinki rolled off the sofa, Sunny kept laughing at my face, even Baka did not spare his comments. I was helpless, i didn't know how to react. That cheese sandwich overshadowed everything.
Day 2, 27th April : We wanted to view the sunrise , and for the first time Sunny was the one to wake up the earliest. We hurried to the loo and while we could see the sky turning bright, it was a mad dash to the car and off to pagoda point. We did reach there before sunrise , the first souls , all of us, nearly at 5 AM. It was a nice sight, with the clouds and the mist and Sunny's comments in the background " Dekha , tum log to bas sote rehte ho". After clicking a few and many photos we thought of trying out the rest of the sights. The next target Shevaroy temple. The way unknown. We tried to go there but suddenly at one of the hairpin bends the car got stuck. It was a big scare. While Sunny revved the engine 4 of us guys literally lifted the car from the boulders and set it back on the road. Shevaroy temple was shelved, and we were off to Kiliyur falls . The road was tricky yet again as many times we got down to allow the car to pass through. It was the confluence of 7 hills where we landed at the end. The locals told us the falls were a hike down the hills. Wearing chappals i thought better and sat on the side of the road, near a sheer drop enjoying the view. The rest of the 4 came back, Sunny and Datta firmly on their two legs, Baka crouched, while he was laughing, and Pinki on all fours. I would tell you Sunny's reaction " Bhaakk sala, yeh kya tha. Itna karke neeche gaye , aur kya dekha. ek chota sa boulder aur uske upar just a little tread of water trickling by. " Apparantly the only entertainment they got was Pinki rolling on all fours as he climbed up and down the hill.
There was still some time for breakfast so we thought we would go to the bear caves. It was atop a hilly land and there was no way the car would go all the way. As we took the first step Pinki's bowels gave a red signal. we laughed at him while he trudged along painfully, his face , the classic Pinki pose, gently saying " Abbey wapas chalo yar" . Midway even I got the signal , but I still trudged on. We panted and made our way uphill. Halfway most of us gave up. Sunny was still determined, as he made a dash to the top. Minutes later , he came running back. Bear caves was someones private property ,and he had been stopped by a guard at the gates while trying to enter. Pinki's face suddenly became much better, as he made back to the car in top speed. I followed suit.
Breakfast 27th April: Never knew what we ate, but we ate lavishly. Determined not to repeat the dudee fiasco fro mthe night , we stuck to known bread butter , idly vada and tea. Then we started eating other stuff. 5 people breakfast bill Rs.400. Last nights dinner was Rs.600.
Yercaud to Salem: The drive back was nice, and we were a bit sad on the thought of going back to chennai. However my spirits were high, as we stopped midway to pose for photographs. Suddenly we spied a monkey inside our car, fiddling with Sunny's wallet. We gave a shout and forced it to scamper down the hills along with 2-3 others whom we had not even noticed. We checked the car keys and found it still there. Wonder what would have happened if the monkey had made off with the car keys !
Salem to krishnagiri: A uneventful ride , with the AC in full blast and We were all feeling drowsy Baka was dropped of at Krishnagiri and we sped off. Hunger knocked the bell once again.
Khrishnagiri -Vellore: Pinki got sleepy and started snoring at the back . We stopped Midway for some food . We were out of cash, thankfully i still had some 500 bucks in my wallet.
Vellore - Posting questions to locals we reached the golden temple in Vellore. Sunny said that he had heard it was one made entirely of Gold. It was a really beautiful temple, with a star shaped lay out , 7 gates and an interior palted with gold. As we made our way to the inner sanctum, we found a small pool where people would throw coins for a wish. I opened my wallet and got one for myself . Sunny and Datta asked , so i gave the remaining 2 to them . Pinki was sad as he also wanted one - " Yeh kya mujhe bhi coin do" . Finally the 4 of us together threw 3 coins in the water. One the way back Sunny asked " Pinki tumne kya wish kiya " . Pinki - "Are mujhe wish bhi karna tha kya" . Sunny - " Teri to! you robbed me of my 1/4 wish ... tereko nahi chodunga ". When we reached the car, we saw we had a flat tyre. Next was the fastest tyre change I had seen , and been a part of . It wa 5 mins and we were back on the road. The car cruised on 70 as Sunny remarked it was moving much better now. A dull gloom fell on all of us. Time to hit reality once more as we were nearly back in Chennai.
Marina Beach 27th April 9 PM: We decided to end the trip with a view of the sea. There we were the 4 of us , standing in front of the waves , the roar of the sea a gentle reminder that the trip was nearly over. We lingered on the beach in a hope to prolong this moment a little more, knowing that once we turned our back on the waves it would be a goodbye to a memorable weekend we had ever had.
Friday, February 06, 2009
Are you saying something?
Huh?
Are you saying something ?
In this post i flex my muscles to proclaim that yes i study science, and the only language i am concerned with is the language in which God wrote this universe -Mathematics.
Uuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmm not quite.
As i could hear the faint sounds of my muscles deflating, i realized,you need to learn the local language too ( as in associated with the geographical location). One year in chennai and i still learnt onyl 2-3 tamil words. Not that i am quite proud of this, but i am not ashamed either. My experience as an actor made me quite competant in chennai using the sign language and theatrics to communicate.
As I came over to Holland i thought I could uphold the practice i had been so diligently pursuing in Chennai. Well considering I have to live here for sometime and most of the time I have to wait for a kind soul to patiently translate the things to me, I thought it might be a better idea to learn the language , to atleast read signs/ symbols if not speak it in the market on saturdays.
SO is this the reason I am learning dutch ?
Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
The real reason is that I am an Indian and I am a Grad Student.................
And my univ gives a FREE dutch course for all foreign grad students.
Why waste when you get something for free ? ? ? So last tuesday I hopped on to my bike and rode to the university at 8 o clock at night to attend my first dutch lessons. And then I remembered how tough it is to learn a language. For starters the instructor always tried to speak in Dutch. Only if hand gestures were not working then she would resort to english. This was a new game for me, trying to understand what she was saying. Once you do get a gist of the meaning then she would repeat it again so that we could have an idea of what individual words do mean.The same sentence repeated some times so that we do get an idea of the words. Now a new sentence is said. Instinctively we try to compare the words with the previous sentence and see if anything is common. Then try to construct a meaning with the common words. Learning a language sometimes seems similar to solving a cryptic puzzle. All you have is some leading clues. Rest you use your intuition and experience to figure it out. The real fun is with the numbers. If you have to say 384 then invairably you get stuck trying to remember the translate for eighty.
Learning a language is good, it atleast stops you from saying "Huh?"
And I wonder how i could learn so many languages when i was young.
N.B. :Dedicated to the people in EFLU Hyderabad.
Are you saying something ?
In this post i flex my muscles to proclaim that yes i study science, and the only language i am concerned with is the language in which God wrote this universe -Mathematics.
Uuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmm not quite.
As i could hear the faint sounds of my muscles deflating, i realized,you need to learn the local language too ( as in associated with the geographical location). One year in chennai and i still learnt onyl 2-3 tamil words. Not that i am quite proud of this, but i am not ashamed either. My experience as an actor made me quite competant in chennai using the sign language and theatrics to communicate.
As I came over to Holland i thought I could uphold the practice i had been so diligently pursuing in Chennai. Well considering I have to live here for sometime and most of the time I have to wait for a kind soul to patiently translate the things to me, I thought it might be a better idea to learn the language , to atleast read signs/ symbols if not speak it in the market on saturdays.
SO is this the reason I am learning dutch ?
Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
The real reason is that I am an Indian and I am a Grad Student.................
And my univ gives a FREE dutch course for all foreign grad students.
Why waste when you get something for free ? ? ? So last tuesday I hopped on to my bike and rode to the university at 8 o clock at night to attend my first dutch lessons. And then I remembered how tough it is to learn a language. For starters the instructor always tried to speak in Dutch. Only if hand gestures were not working then she would resort to english. This was a new game for me, trying to understand what she was saying. Once you do get a gist of the meaning then she would repeat it again so that we could have an idea of what individual words do mean.The same sentence repeated some times so that we do get an idea of the words. Now a new sentence is said. Instinctively we try to compare the words with the previous sentence and see if anything is common. Then try to construct a meaning with the common words. Learning a language sometimes seems similar to solving a cryptic puzzle. All you have is some leading clues. Rest you use your intuition and experience to figure it out. The real fun is with the numbers. If you have to say 384 then invairably you get stuck trying to remember the translate for eighty.
Learning a language is good, it atleast stops you from saying "Huh?"
And I wonder how i could learn so many languages when i was young.
N.B. :Dedicated to the people in EFLU Hyderabad.
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