Give me the freedom!!!!

Well i am not going to write about the freedom struggle just because 59th indpendence day celebration has gone by. It all about a concept of "FREEDOM" or "INDEPENDENCE" that has been well depicted in a gult movie "BOMMARILLU" that i watched recently. To put in a nutshell about the movie its about how parents restrict the freedom to take decisions of their children be it in the matter of "selecting a dress, buying a cycle/bike, choosing a career or choosing a girl" . Most of the decisions in our lives are influenced by our parents - sometimes these decision might nurture their children to be great souls and at times it may be other way round. There might be certain instances in our lives where you feel that the decision taken was against your will and at this point of time we feel that our parents are restricting our freedom and we are not given the oppurtunity to excercise our own will. But why do parents do such things?? From their perspective they think thats in the good will of their children and also the age factor comes into picture - they feel that we are too young to take any decisions. This is accpetable till certain age, but some decisions are still driven by them even though you attain that maturity in your life. So does this man they want to exhibit some kind of bossisim? or it it purely out of sheer love for their kids? Well it depends on what the parents feel about their kids. Atleast wrt me i felt there were certain instances where my i was deprived of independence. For instance i have always been insisted by my parents never to get into water nor go for swimming classes - no wonder i have been to the beach once or twice having spent 16 years in vizag :) I do understand their apprehensions, but such restrictions will make yourself confined to not taking certain risks and when situation arises you will be land up in trouble. Had only i been allowed to go for swimming classes i would have gone for more rafting trips:) Inspite of this i still go on for treks N rafting trips just i make sure that its not informed at home :) Most parents want their children to take up professions like doctor or engineer or a lawyer. But if the kid is very much creative and wants to take up a course in fashion design you would see that there hardly less population of parents which encourages to do so. What can the parents do they themselves are driven by many people - be it their relatives or the society around them. I feel parents should give full freedom atleast in 2 aspects of their children's lives : One choosing the career to land up and two choosing the girl of their choice . Parents need to be liberal at times probably give atleast a thought when the kids puts forward his thoughts rather than rejecting them striaght away. Not all parents are of the same kind, but not all parents are liberal either :)
So the point is why should we as kids be deprived of freedom of in choosing certain aspects of our life the way we want to take up our life : to end in a lighter note : had only Tendulkars parents restricted him to concentrate more on studies than on cricket he would have been an another uninteresting techie like me than what this independent nation adores him for :-)

Lets invest for a social Cause!!!!

GMAT!!! As the name suggests its something most of the juntha is kicked about. Crack the gmat, Apply for the b-schools abroad, get into one of them, slog for 2 years get into a good MNC. Though it looks like a simple cycle its indeed a tough one to go through right from taking the exam to landing up with a job after you finish your studies. Overall you would spend around 40-45 lakhs of indian rupess for all this and probably land up in a job which ofcourse pays you handfull which eases the pressure of clearing the loan you have taken to pursue your studies. But why would you want to spend so much? And why MBA?? Why Abroad??? if you ask these questions to any b-school aspirant you get here answers like i want to be a successful entreprenuer or i want to get into McKinsey etc. Well MBA does add value to your life to your CV or whatever and indeed 2 years of life spent in a b-school is worth expereince for a life time which moulds you into a different individual altogether. However I feel if you want to become a good entreprenuer you dont need to have an MBA. Why would you want to invest 40 lakhs of rupees??? Why dont you invest in some social venture in your own country India?? Why dont 3-4 guyz pool in and start something new?? As we know India is a Land of Big Problems?? And lets us see these Big Problems As a Big oppurtunity and why not set ourselves to revolutunize and be change to see the change. Right away I can think of Big problem is "PLASTIC" the word itself is so scary. Imagine with the all the monies you earn with those Big MBA's for your generations to come spend their lives in loads of polythene covers and plastic dump lying around. Why dont you guyz come with some great venture if not eradicate atleast reduce this so called problem of "PLASTIC" and help the society in turn. "No work if not socially relevant is worth working for it". So all you folks aiming for those big MBA's think, come up with new ideas, invest the money in new ventures be it a plastic recycling plant - making a litter free society , or a sports school tapping the potential of the rural and atleast get few medals in the olympics or an education programme which reaches out to all those underpriviliged kids, or some kindaa counselling trust which encourages the educated youth to participate actively in politics..just do something you have ample of oppurtunities in India - come up with something constructive & do Something useful to the society.

Gult Marriages!!!!

The other day i had been to one of friends marriage. Since he was a close friend of mine i had to take off from work to attend the function. And this has given me an oppurtunity to go through the entire process of a gult(for the uninitated its the Andhraites) marriage. I never had a chance to witness one though not even in my family :) . Somehow this whole process of marriage seemed very strange. Though i don't remember the exact sequence of steps it looked like its a big stack of events lined up without any breaks in between. As i was witnessing the whole process several questions were popping up in mind. Firstly why should the so called "muhurtham" be at those odd hours, say somewhere between 11pm - 04 am. I have rarely seen any gult marriage being conducted in broad day light other than the regular run away bride type of marriages. So why should the pandit decide this strange hours as good time to tie the knot? Well i am really not sure of the planetary physics involved in calculating this equation. Thats one aspect of marriage. But for this to occur the bride and the groom have to cross many hurdles. Imagine lotz of people attending the marriage wishing the blessed couple a prosperous and healthy life, while until the ceremony is over they have to starve and this depends on the events lined up on the day of marriage. some times the couple have to wait for food until all the poojas are perfomed and this may go on for hours for this is the only time where the priests mint money ( They feel that the longer they perform the pooja the more satisfied are the older generation and they are paid heavy tips) . While the couple is starving there are huge number of people who attend the marriage just for food :) For the couple and also the audience ( i mean people who attended the marriage) not to be bored there are some games designed soon after groom ties the three knots ( still not sure why it is restricted to only three) . This is a very nice strategy invented to keep the couple engaged otherwise who will sit for that many hours without food and without any entertainment. One of the games include searching for ring in a big bowl (where only 2 pairs of hands can pass through) of water, and who ever gets the ring wins the game. another game includes pressing each others foot - i guess this should be a nice stress buster along with pouring lots of rice on each others head. But one thing crosses my mind why would somebody spend laksh of money to perform this occasion. Probably same reason why you would treat somebody when you got your first job or got your first car etc. The finale of the functions ends with the priest showing a star (so called Arundati ?Nakshtra) to the couple. But i could never spot one during the phase when there are no stars in the sky - and the priest still aiming his pointed finger in the whole empy dark say and the couple desperately trying to spot the one. The couple tries to bear all this tiresome sequence of things for they know this is the beginning and in the coming days they have many more jhanjats in life to come across!!!

A chaotic night @ free of cost!!!

It all started because of the comment passed on Shamala a good frd of mine ....by Baichung @ Rupak the rafting guide which made me to put the comment as status message in my gtalk!!! Now here starts an interesting story...though dont want to mention about the status message it actually tells so much abt the personality that she filled with lotz of energy blah blah..

But somehow she didnt like the message her claim is that she wants to be modest i shouldn't glorify her...and the discussion went on and on..and finally she struck a deal...since i was involved too much in politics @ college and it was i who used to make the deals sometimes deals with double games included :)..but this time it came from the other side so agreed up on..wondering whats the deal.."remove the status message for "pirates of the carribean" i thought for a while..its been months i have been to any movie..and this deal give me oppurtunity to look at the big screen..no matter how the movie is Since my office is close to FORUM..i have booked the tickets...though it was supposed to be sponsored from her...now i have to get the tickets money reimbursed :) (pradeep i manged to get it reimbursed...she maintained the decorum :) from my side i have planned pretty well...since movie starts @10 and probably ends at 1 AM or so..i thought i will come back to office book a cab and go!!! and the M-Day has arrived....Since i knew that she has to go to forum via my office..and i didn't want to burn extra gasoline..i asked her to pick me up at my office...now here started the confusion....i gave her very good instructions on how to reach my office from hers. Though she wanted to start at 9 Pm..since i was confident at my instructions i asked her to start 10 mintues later to this ..this added more fuel to the confusion..she started...and even after all those hulla-bulla instructions she couldnot trace my office.. Called her..somehow traced her...and we had some 5 more mins...in these five minutes she wanted to withdraw some dosch from the ATM...just before that i called up her frd..who was supposed to join us..and since there was some communication gap between these 2...he thought that movie program was called off..hmm some more confusion here..

finally we reached forum..were rushing along with the escalator to reach the audi-7.... here the security guard tells.."you cannot carry the helmet along" dumping some more confusion into her....though i read the instructions when i bought the tickets..somehow i missed the helmet part...anyways..helmet needs to go into the baggage room..she went to in search for this room..and it seems like there was quite a big queue...after 10 mins we finally enter the audi..and we missed the first few reels....have to get along..we were having good fun...and after an hour or so..she suddenly realised that her vehicle key is missing....this is like "khulaadi pey paav marna.."..i thought we already had enough of chaos so far...but this one just too much...she went and checked if it was left along with the vehicle itself..fortunately..it was not..and the vehicle is still there..that means..in all the hurry-burry in order not to miss the trailers..she dropped the keys somewhere...hmm..there in the movie "Jack Sparrow wants the key for the CHEST"...here our lady wants the key for her vehicle"...atleast something in common to both their lives :)

though we couldn't enjoy the movie much..over all movie was quite good..bit boring at times...it got over at 1 AM..now here the circus starts..how will she go home...she doesn't want to take an auto...i dont want to drop her ( so mean of me...for its too far form my place its almost opposite ends..) since she is brave enough to ride alone at this hour of the nite....i offered her my vehicle (luckily i drive a kinee)....we informed the control room guyz abt her vehicle..he assured that 2 wheeler will be safe..we took an auto to my office..though its hardly 2-3 kms from forum..we paid him 50 bucks....i gave her my vehicle..asked her send an sms the moment she reaches home...the roads were absolutely deserted..she must have been psyched....and ultimately she reached home..i was desperately waiting for the sms with fingers crossed...aah...great she reached home...now what i do..now that i expereinced such a wonderful chaotic funny nite i have to share this expereience...so here i am in office composing the mail..stayed at office for couple of hrs...made the draft version of the mail..since the expereince has not yet ended since we have yet to collect her vehicle...somehow managed to go to my frds place...close to office...caught sleep for a while...and suddenly i get a call in the morning..at 8.30..that she is in forum already.. so immediately rushed..there...lucky to spot her keys with the security....finally the she got the keys that she lost...now only pending thing is her helmet..but the bagage room opens only at 10 am..and we couldnt wait for so long..i thought let me help her here atleast in this case.. i assured her i will pick the same...since her office is close to my home...i parked my vehicle at my office..asked her to drop me near to her office(again want to save some more gasoline :) ..so that i can take a walk for atleast 2-3 kms....
i reached home..got ready...and my room mate was going to forum to catch up some morning show it being holdiay for him..i thought ok great....asked him to drop at forum...picked up her helmet and back to office composing the rest of the drafted version i left this early morning :)

while writing this my mail..i was introspecting over the events that happened last and i thought "if only i hadn't put the status message....all this mess would have happend" but i guess such things do happen in life unknowingly..and u r just a normal being who can't control some things lined up ahead :)

though i mentioned it as a chaotic nite for pirates was free of cost for me..it was a funny expereince..otherwise i wouldn't had so much to write...

and this incident reminds me of my fav song

"Somethings in life are Bad...they can really make u mad..
other things just make u swear and curse...
when u r chewing on life's gristle..dont grumble give a whistle..
and this will help things turn out for the best...
And always look on the Bright side of life..."

Inspite of all the confusions...chaos..she was at ease abt the whole things happening all the while...

Great shamala...letz have more confusions and more fun :-)

Exhilarating rush of Adrenaline...a life time expereince

Last weekend i had been to a trip to River SITA with few of my new friends. Sita river is famous for white water rafting. Therz a myth that when Hanu-Man was carrying the jewel of Sita given by Rama it fell into this very river- this is why it has been named after Sita!!! When karthik (frd of mine) sent me a mail regarding the rafting i thought for a while and decided that i am in the game. However i had my own set of apprehensions. First thing i was strictly cautioned by my parents that i should never get into water - probably river or sea...some kindaa "Water Ganda". Secondly i heard the river has an average depth of 40 feet so there are good chances of being drowned for i dont even know the abcd's of swimming theortically itself forget the real time expereince. Finally its monsoon and we may have chances of doing the rafting in a deluge. With all these fears in mind i was still in the game for taking a risk - for i thought therez no meaning to life without taking those big risks. Karthik a new frd of mine (probably 2 weeks of fship!!! ) has arranged the logistics and other services for the trip. There were 2 of his other frds Jai & Pradeep who joined with us for the trip whom i met for the first time. Rest 2 i have know them for quite few months. So total 7 folks set on for new adeventurous and thrilling trip who don't know much about each other and most them its the first expereince of white water rafting . This place where we were supposed to go is roughly around 370 kms from blore...towards Udipi!!! Though the ride in the bus was slightly tedious the moment we entered Udupi..it was like a heaven. I just fall in love - love at first sight!!with the surroundings...what a thick vegetation does the someshwara wild life forest has...We reached the base camp late than expected so there was a slight change in the plan...the rafting activity was shifted to the noon...With in the camp we had a small trek..played a ball game in the shallow portions of the river !!! All this while my apprehensions were going on somewhere at the back of my mind!!!

Atlast the real moment has come. We were given the life jackets, helmets, oar and a Raft which can hold 10 people including the guide. Some how managed to pull in 2 other folks just to make sure that our group is intact :-) The expereince started off with the instructions which seemed to give me some confiedence to overcome my apprehensions...and finally the moment had come to get our raft into water...we were taught how to hold the oar and row the raft..and the rowing started....soon we encountered the first Rapid ( i guess its of level 3 )...and it was an amazing feeling after i was compeltey involved in the activity leaving behind my fears....after few encounterance of the rapids we reched a portion of river where we were allowed to get into the river...and i guess the depth should atleast be 30.. i like a major dude just dived into it from back...and i started getting deep into the water...that very second all my fears crept into my mind... i didnt even remember that i was wearing a life jacket which can hold upto 160 kgs and float the body even in a whirlpool... i thought i am out of the game...for i had gone atleast 14-16 feet depth....then immediately the instruction given at the beginning struck to my mind just float backwards... there was lotz of water entering into my body through my ears nose and mouth ..and the moment i reached to the raft i felt like i just got a new life!!! After this episode i felt like i can take on anything its just matter of how you follow and execute the instructions by the guide...and i started enjoying myself in the raft - rowing...and water splashing on me when we were encountirng the rapids....it was real rush of the adrenaline...it was an different kindaa feeling that i had never expereinced before!!



We did the rafting for about 4.5 hrs for a stretch of 22 kms..and its was a non stop fun all the way... By the time we reached the camp it was 7 PM. And one of our folks AJay had leave. We goodbyed:) him!!! had enough number of bhajji's..went to the so called farm house which actually is a normal house without a farm freshened up and returned to the camp for dinner. dicovered that the other group had finsihed the dinner..and the food is being cooked for us!! So we had to wait for food..meanwhile we joined this group playing dumbc's...we started giving movies to them,and they were treating us as a god level in this game!!! somehow managed to get food and by the time we reached the farm house it was around 11 PM. Though planned to sleep since we had to for trek the next morning....i dont from where the enthu popped up.. we thought of playing a game of cards...soon it ended and followed by couple of game ofmafia..probably will write another blog on mafia..though i was victim in both the games i enjoyed this game very much. The night ended with dumbc's and realised that it was 2AM already..then decided to sleep..though it took me a while forme to sleep..for i dont adjust to new sleeping envrionemnt very easily...

got up at 6.30...time to join the trek..though initially we were reluctant to join for it..for we had go with another 40 people..we wanted to go on atrekfor ourselves..having had enough number of poories..we got the route of the trek from the guide...and leaving the guide and those 40 odd people behind we moved ahead for trek..we reached a river crossing point which has thin log which can hold only 1-2 person at a time..and is supposed to be the life line of the villagers in and around this forest area... there we met three guyz who were really worried since 2 of their friends were missing...(just called him up and found that they could trace back their friends )...
since the terrain was slippery and also the trail was not that obvious we were advised to go in a group...which we were anyway adhering to that always..it was raining then sunny..again raining..the trek was really good with this sort of climate...finally we reahced the koodlu theertha falls....what a beautiful falls...just enjoyed watching them..since the entire trail was full of leeches..once we reached this place everybody was busy clearing the leeches and enjoying the falls...after a while headed back...and this was more fun....there was deluge for most of the time..and i was just enjoying it...getting drenched..singing to myself..oohh...first time in my life i felt that i was very close to the nature!!! as if nature is happy to see me there and pouring so much....this was an ecstasy of rage which cannot be expressed......i just loved it...by the time we reached the camp it was 2.00 Pm..had a quick lunch...for the next activity lined up was mountain biking..intitially i thought of missing it...but realised if not now than never..so gave it a go..by 3.30 we were ready with the head gear,knee gear..and elbow gear (not sure if its the right terminology) and with a geared cycle...it was so uncomfortable....though i knew how to ride a bicycle..but never tried a geared one..however after few couple of rounds..i felt at ease...we entered the biking terrain..there were couple of steep slopes...and really had to push hard for the challenge is not get down..but just go on and on!!! one of gooddies shilpa was feeling dizzy..so had to stop at couple of places..for we didnt want to leave her behind...the guide who was accompanying was tired..he made a comment on one of the gooddie shamala.."yeh rafting karthi hain..trekking karthi hain..biking bhi karthi hain...yeh kya ladki hain yaar thakthi hee nahin hain" and ofcourse the entire group was filled with lotz of energy..and even after doing so much of much of biking for more than 2 hrs we were still in game for another one....

However there was no activity for the the time had come for us to pack up and leave to blore..
we did a rafting of 22 kms..then trekking a round trip of around 12-14 kms...and biking for 10-12 kms..over 2 days and still at the end of the day we were still not tired...had a quick refresment at the farm house..packed the luggage..had the bhaaji's..and now ready to leave to blore at a more uninteresting note....

And now its time for vote of thanks : )


3 cheers to karthik (if u r reading this) for making this trip successful for he organized it so well that every moment of this trip is memorable in the years to come. Though most of us were new to each other you can see that i had known karthik hardly for 2 weeks..then pradeep and jai first time..though known shamala and shipla for quite a while this trip has bonded the fship futher!!!...we jelled in together so much as if we had known for years...The rafting ,trek and biking we did together and the room that we all shared together to sleep is symbolic of our togetherness and willingness to fight against all adversities and still wake up smiling and ready to face new challenges all over again!!! Couldn't have been such a wonderful expereince without these guyz!!!

The innumberable stoppages for tyre changes...the bumpy to & fro ride from mlore to udipi..
the leechy bites ( for one went into almost my unde) ...the slippers that shilpa lost beacuse of which she had to return barefoot...knowledge feed by jai on different kindaa birds ...hot bhaajis' on both the days..the casual fall's by pradeep..ajay and shamala during the trek..the lighter moments of water-fights in the raft (and of course shamala's "natural and synchronzied paddling" -- read as pouring of water on people behind her ), walking in the dark from the camp to the farm house...cramps i developed bcause of the morning jog..wonderful trek decorated by the intermittent rains to see the Koodlu falls (with the much-hyped river crossing), mountain biking with a faithful canine follower, and finally the 16-people-in-a-jeep ride to Hebri....

Though the trip ended with quite a few aching muscles, really tired eyes, moderately damp, mildly soggy and really dirty clothes/shoes/socks. ....the mental happiness we got out of this expereince is something memorable in the years to come

truly its a life time expereince for me....always ready to take new risks..and counter life's tides with more positive attitude!!!

PS: Karthic i have taken few lines from ur mail to make the blog a better read!!! Hope you dont mind!!!