New Year Tree House !!!

It was the last day of the year 2006. I was sitting in the second floor balcony of my house feeling really gloomy. Yes, it was an eventful 2006, so many nice things had happened. I was sad to let go off it. But then the upcoming New Year would be no less beautiful, I am sure. So, that was not the reason I was gloomy.

The whole of the 2006 I had dreamt of having a house of my own, my first and only piece of real asset that I would have had on this whole big world. The only space that I could call as belonged to me, the one which I had earned from my own money. Not something that my father or grandfather had worked hard for and that I got on a platter. This was something for which I would have toiled. I always dreamt of one such place all my life. But this year, those dreams had begun to take shape and color. I had gone down to the specifics of what exactly I needed. I had spelt out my dream on to paper. Being a practical man, I had not dreamt of a house with a sea facing balcony or a bungalow with numerous rooms that I would never ever really get to know. My dreams were more down to earth. A small house in a very decent locality, nothing too posh or luxurious. Not something that attracted attention all through the city. Just some place which was warm and cosy and sheltered me from the weather.

A few months into the year 2006 I started making the moves to make my dream come true. After checking out a few properties, I finally had my eye on one that promised to give the colors to my dream. I was all excited. My dream was going to see the light of day. I got the legal and financial nod and went about laying the bricks of my dream. It was a big strain on my purse but it was worth it. If everything went according to plan, come 2007 and I would have a place that truly belonged to me. Something that was born out of my dreams, my aspirations, my hard work and my money.

But alas.... it was not to be. My patience had to be tested. I was not to be given a dream house this early. I had to wait for some more time. My dreams were to remain dreams for some more time. The satisfaction of owning a place that I could call my own was not going to happen right away. The property I had invested my dreams, my hard earned money money was caught in a legal muddle. Apparently the legal advice that I had sought was not the best in town and I was now in a mess. I tried my best to break a compromise so as not to let the night consume my dreams. But... It was not up to me. The powers to be decided otherwise and I was in troubled waters. The thought of my beloved dream shackled in legal wrangles brought about great anguish in me. But I wanted to be positive. I did not want to get sucked into any kind of depression. Unwilling to get mowed down by disappointment I tried to take the philosophical view on things. It helped put back a smile on my face, mostly. But there were days like this day when I felt totally gloomy.

My thoughts were disturbed by the squeaking of the squirrels. There was a huge tree in front of my house. A couple of squirrels had made the tree their home. And now as I sat in my balcony pondering over things, I saw these squirrels scampering around on the tree. One of the branches of the tree had been cut and only a part of it was still remaining. My dad often placed rice, bread or chappathis on this cut branch which acted like a dining table for the squirrels. But unfortunately, this left the squirrels open to attack from the crows that frequented the tree. But I was really impressed by the positive attitude of these squirrels. They were not really bothered about the numerous ravens that tried to attack them. They were happily running around the tree, frolicking in the warmth of the December sun.

My thoughts were wandering around, but mainly based on the three things that were happening. Firstly, in a few hours the new year would be dawning. Secondly, the New Year was dawning and I was feeling sad, coz my dream for the year 2006 of owning a house of my own had not seen the light of day in 2006. And thirdly, the happy squirrels scampering on the tree. As I sat down for lunch, I got an idea. Yes, I did not have a home of my own yet. But at least I could make one for some one who is homeless. I went to the nearby market and brought a few things that I needed to put my plan into action. I spent the rest of the afternoon making a waterproof, rain resistant home for the squirrels....

Once I had finished the job, I felt great. Yes, I had many worries of my own. May be I was not happy that my dreams could not come true. But atleast I had provided a home for someone else and I felt very good about that. But atleast I had provided a shelter for someone. May be 2007 would provide me a house of my own.

Happy New Year !!!

Heaven on Earth.

I was woken up by a cackle of voices talking about a beautiful starry sky. I was not sure where I was. I looked around and realized I was in a cosy sleeping bag inside what seemed like a tent. As I listened to the voices outside my tent trying to guess where I was, the topic outside changed to how the rain had seeped into their tents and drove away all their much wanted sleep. I slowly recalled the events of the previous day. It had been a long tiring day. We had started our trek from the foot of the hills from a sleepy little village, Beedalli. The group of fourteen consisting of friends and friends of friends, some of whom I had met for the very first time, were attempting to climb the Kumaraparvatha, the second highest mountain peak in Karnataka. After walking along mud roads carrying our heavy backpacks and tents for almost an hour or so, we had reached the forest office. The trek had just begun, but I and a few other lazy bones were already feeling the effects of shameless lazing around, doing no hard work, post college life.



After collecting the required permissions, and a fair warning of the impending rain and misty conditions, we started the steeper part of the trek through the green forests of the Western Ghats. As we crossed streams and stretches of damp tracks that rose steeply, we began to question, "What crazy joy do we plan to get, after all this hard work. We could have easily lazed at home and watched some English movie on HBO or Star Movies?". But we did not want to wait to find out the answer, as we were busy trying to flee from the constant attack of the blood sucking leeches. As we marched on bravely, we managed to keep a good pace. (well, thats looking at the positive side. We were actually running away from the army of tiny bloody suckers.)

Some of the highlights of the ascent to the top was the amazing sights of natural beauty that we saw as we trekked across. Other highlights of our trek were the huge slippery rocks that we had to climb. We had a few acrophobiacs, like me, who could not imagine having to make the climb to the top without the safety of a nylon rope to cling to. This in spite of some of the few nimble footed trekkers in our group literally doing a ballet on those slippery surfaces trying to encourage us to climb to the top. Thanks to their effort and the safety of the rope we managed to climb that rock. But there were other huge rocky surfaces where the safety rope was not useful. All we could do was pull up our socks, gulp some glucose and start climbing the huge rock. Mid way up one huge rock surface, the clouds started moving in and it began to drizzle. If life was tough, it just got tougher. The rock surface was now getting as slippery as ice. And if you did not know ice-skating, this was not a time to learn because if you slipped from here, most likely you would never get a chance to learn. But thankfully we managed to climb up the rock surface -all fourteen of us, with the exact number of bones that we started the trek.

We continued our trek, in the drizzle, now exhausted, cold, hungry and tired. The only thing on our minds was to rest somewhere. But where ? All we could find in our path lined with thick bushes infested with leeches and God alone knew what else, were cold wet and slippery rocks. Oh ! God !!! What did I get myself into ? There could have been much better ways to spend a Saturday evening - like sitting and sipping coffee with friends or family in a coffee shop. But here I was, in the midst of nowhere, cold, hungry and tired, trying to rest my aching limbs and fighting off the urge to give it all up. We had no clue of how far we were from the top of the mountain. The mists were beginning to set in. Many of us were tired - more mentally than physically. The weight of our backpacks, the heavy tents, the lack of fitness, and the years of lazing and drinking coffee was beginning to show. It was pure adrenaline and the fear of the bloody leeches which had brought us so far. But then there is a limit to which these can work. There was no more adrenaline in our body and we now no longer cared for the leeches. We were exhausted and did not care if the leeches got their share of blood.

We reached an opening that was neither broad enough not level enough to put up all our tents. But many of us were too tired and unwilling to go any further. We wanted to pitch our tents right there and get some well deserved rest. But the more stronger among us, willed us to push on, to push our limits and attempt to reach the top. This definitely was test for the mind. Did we have it in us to push ourselves ? Or would we fall victims to exhaustion. This would differtiate the men from the boys. After a minor discussion, just as the mists began to get thicker and thicker we decided to move on. We would need to stick closer together so that we were not lost. And then, all of a sudden we heard loud hoops of joy from some of our ilk who had gone ahead as a search party. It only signalled one thing - we were almost on top, probably just a few hundred meters away. With renewed energy we trekked on and reached the top. Completely exhausted we fell in a heap. It took a while for it to sink in that we had finally made it - that we had reached the top. And once realisation dawned that we had done what we hitherto beleived was impossible, we shouted with joy, exchanged hugs and congratulated each other for the remarkable effort and camaraderie we had shown.

After sipping the sights from the top of the mountain, we had immediately set about pitching our tents, setting up a fire, heating our dinner (our only decent meal of the whole day). By the time night fell (which was pretty fast on the misty mountain top) we had a decent fire going. The fire and the warm food finally brought in some life into our jaded bodies. We lit up a campfire and warmed ourselves a bit more. However we were too tired to enjoy it for long. Soon most of us retired ourselves to the warm confines of our tents.


As I stirred in my sleeping bag, I remembered how the rains had come crashing down in the night, on our tents. Thankfully our tent was tied up quite well and the water had not rushed into our tents. I stepped out of the tent to be greeted by a strong cold morning wind. It seemed like it was going to be a cloudy morning and we would denied the sight of the beautiful sunrise. And just as we were speaking the mists cleared up.
Only then we realised how beautiful our surroundings were. We were at almost 7000ft above sea level, high above the clouds. The thick white milky clouds was spread over miles and miles of clear sky. And as we watched in bated breaths, another of nature's beautiful wonders unfolded right in front of our eyes. The sight of the crimson red sun rising above the clouds and lighting the sky was an amazing sight, probably by far the most beautiful sight of my entire life. I find myself handicapped to describe the beauty of the morning. Never in my life had I experienced something so special. And as the sun rose slowly above the clouds and chasing away the mists we cried out in awe and joy.



I now understood why everyone kept saying that "the heavens above are a beautiful place". This probably was the heaven on earth.


Soon, it was time to leave.We packed our tents, had a small breakfast, cleaned up the place, made sure we did not leave any non-bio degradable objects behind and started our trek back. We had a long day ahead of us. We planned to trek down the other side of the mountain this time. The descent from the mountain top was initally quite dangerous. We had to cross some very slippery and very steep rock surfaces. But once we managed the cross these and the thick forests the terrain changed to a series of grass covered hills.

If the previous day was cloudy and rainy at times, today the sun was beating down on us in all its glory, sapping out every drop of water we had in our lifeless bodies. After trekking for a few hours in the burning sun, we reached the "Bhattara manne" tired and exhausted far beyond the previous day.

The Bhatta provided us a simple meal of rice, sambhar, buttermilk and pickle. But that to us was like amrutham. After eating three full helpings, I had to stop myself before the bhatta threw me out of his house. But the simple meal was extremely energizing. It helped us pull along for a very long distance. After a few more hours of trekking down sometimes treacherous, sometimes winding, paths amidst thick forests we finally managed to reach the bottom of the mountain just as it was getting dark. We checked into a hotel nearby, took a much deserved bath and went to the Kukke Subramania temple and thanked Him for keeping us all safe. One more amazing trek had come to a safe end. But the memories of the trek would stay with us for a very long time.

PS: In my attempt to keep this post as short as possible, I missed out a lot of details. However one of co-trekkers has a much more descriptive post of the same trek.
Kumaraparvatha and the 14 trekkers : Prologue
Kumaraparvatha and the 14 trekkers : Preparations
Kumaraparvatha and the 14 trekkers - Day 1
Kumaraparvatha and the 14 trekkers - Day 2
Kumaraparvatha and the 14 trekkers - Epilogue
Kumaraparvatha and the 14 trekkers - Me's Thoughts!

Most pictures in this post are courtesy my co-trekkers Radhakrishna and Eshwar. Thanks Guys. Those were wonderful pictures.

Off on a trek.....

After long, me and a group of friends have decided to go on a trek. We decided to trek the Kumaraparvatha. It is supposed to be the second highest peak in Karnataka. And it being winter its going to be real cold. And we did not realise that the date we chose was a "No moon" day. Great !!! Trekking in the forest in winter in pitch darkness.... thats going to be fun. :)

After a lot of planning we are finally set to leave for trek in a few hours. Well... actually we should have left a few hours ago. But unfortunately the vehicle that we were supposed to catch has not yet arrived and so we are stuck waiting for the bus to arrive. Not a good start to the trip. But well.... these guys are all "like that only".... never on time. Hopefully we should be leaving in at least an hour.

We are scheduled to start the trek tommorrow around 7am. Trek to the top of the hill, pitch our tents there and stay there overnight. And trek back downhill on Sunday. So should be back in Bangalore, Monday morning. This is going to be one helluva trek for me. I am all excited.

Next posting after I get back from my mini vacation. :)

Scary Connections

(This is a true incident that happened to me a few weeks ago. Shook me up big time. )

This happened a couple of Thursdays ago. I left office early since I had to drop my parents to the railway station. My bro too decided to come early. We dropped off our parents to the railway station and went home to watch the India - West Indies match of the Champions Trophy. Both of us, were not keeping well due to the bad weather prevailing in Bangalore that week. Both of us were dozing off in front off the television watching yet another off-color performance by the Indians.

Around 8:30 pm a couple of friends dropped in to discuss some issues about a house construction with my brother. About ten minutes later, I heard yet another knock at the gate. We stay on the first floor of our two floor house. There is an external staircase which leads to the main entrance gate. Our gate makes this odd sound when you try to open it that we can hear its distinct sound on the first floor. I came out and saw two people trying to open the gate to enter the compound. We usually do not allow strangers to enter the compound. I asked them who they were and got no response. I was getting irritated. They looked up at me and continued to enter the gate. Both men, were around 35 or 40 years old, average build and sport a short military cut hairstyle. The man in front was in a light red shirt, while the other slightly taller man was in a cream colored shirt. I assumed this is one more real estate agent asking if the ground floor house was vacant.

I was getting irritated. I once again asked them, this time a bit roughly.... "yaaru ???". By now they were half way up the staircase. The man in the light red striped shirt, asked "Sudeep iddaara ???" (Is Sudeep there?). I tried to remember if I had given my name to any of those pesky real estate agents. Could not remember any. I said "howdu, naane. Neev yaaru ?" (Yes, I am sudeep. Who are you?). One of the men answered "naavu policeavru. Naav maalur inda barthaidivi". (We are policemen, we are coming from Malur.) I was like... "oh gawd!!... Cops!! What did I do ? Had I spoken to some girl recently ? Did I trouble any girl recently ? Maalur ??? Whom do I know from Malur? I knew this girl some time ago. But I have not troubled her. Unlikely that she would have set the cops on me. Or would she have... I hope its not ??"

As such thoughts kept rushing into my head, the two men were now standing right below my nose and were standing such that they had cornered me. They had positioned themselves standing acting like they were ready to pounce on me if I moved. The one in the red shirt asked "yen maadthira?" (What do you do?). I said "Software Engineer". "Yelli ?" (where?) I said "XYZ". And then the taller man speaking for the first time said, "Electronics City na ?". "Illa, M G Road hathra". (No, near M G Road). Finally realising that I needed to ask them my own questions I asked, "Vishya yenu ?" (Why do you ask ?). "Banni helthini" he said, trying to point towards the door indicating that he would like to sit down and then talk. I knew I had to ask them their ID card, but that only happens in the English movies. You never know how are Indian cops would behave if we asked them for their IDs. So I decided to go back into the house.

Me being from a very decent family, I am not used to having the cops coming knocking at my door looking for me. To the say the least, I was shitting in my pants. I guess it must have shown on my face. On seeing me and having realised that some people were coming inside the house, my bro asked "Who are these people?". I said, "I beleive they are cops and they are looking for me. They are not saying what the issue is." The cop in the red shirt having heard the conversation says "hedirkolleke yenu illa biddi" (nothing to be scared off). The cops went ahead and seated themselves and made themselves comfortable. Thankfully for me, my brother and our two friends were in the house. Its reassuring to know you have people who know you, sitting along with you in the room, when you are sitting down with cops, who want to "ask you a few questions". I dont know about others, to me the whole scene was an intimidating one.

The cop in the red shirt, the one doing all the talking, fishes out a paper from his pocket. On it, I see scribbled my name and address. He verifies once again with us if the name and address are correct. Also, on the paper is a cell phone number. The cop asks me if that was my cell phone number. I looked carefully at the number. This definitely was not my number. I felt releived. Finally something that does not match up to me. I tried to remember if I could recollect if this number belonged to any of my friends. Could not recollect any number. I could bearly recollect my own number with all the thoughts rushing into my head. The cop asked me if this number ever belonged to me or if I had ever lost any cell phone or any sim card. I said "No". Thankfully I have never lost a cell phone. Touch wood.

The cop in the red shirt then asked for my cell phone number. I gave him my number. He said "Nimm phone inda namma Circle jothe maathadi." (Call up and speak to the Circle Inspector from your phone). I went to retreive my cell phone from my room. In the meanwhile my brother checked the ID of the policemen. He mentioned to the policemen, that he used to work with the Lok Ayukta before and dished out names of a few Inspectors. And once again quizzed the policemen as to what the issue was. Why were they here ? They refused to divulge any details. They said its a sensitive issue and could not discuss it with us. I

After my brother had reeled out names of a few senior police officers, the policemen were sure that I was not the person they were looking for. They too relaxed a bit and finally after a lot of coaxing, the cop in the red shirt said, "See sir, we were investigating a case. During investigation we got this cell phone number. As you can see this is an Airtel Connection. When we furnished this number with Airtel, they gave us your name and address. That is why we have been sent to check out this address. But when we came here and saw your house and the locality you live in, we realised that this is not the person we want. But we came in just to check and make sure. We were pretty sure you were not the guys. If you really were the guys, we would not have talked this way. We would have rounded you up and taken you to the Police Station.". My brother then spoke to the Circle Inspector. He too dished out the same story. He asked us to verify with Airtel about the confusion.

As a parting shot the other cop who had been relatively silent the whole time finally spoke. He said, "Nammige gothitu sir neevalla antha. Nammig gothu nimm thai teacheru. Nimm thande HAL alli kelsa maadthidru" (We know sir you were not the person. We know your mom is a retired teacher. Your dad was working in HAL).. Whoa !!!! I was shell shocked. They had done a lot of homework. "Nimmig heg gothu idella ??" (How did he know all these details) "Naav police saar. namig gothirathe idella...". Great !! Does that mean I am in your record books now ?? Saying this, the cops left leaving me half dazed at the turn of events.

Apparently, before turning up at my gate, these cops had enquired with my neighbours about me. And finally my "good boy" image in my neighbourhood came to good use. But I am not sure what image I now have. The police dont come asking questions about "good boys".

After the cops left, I immediately called up the Airtel customer support. I learnt from customer support, that the number was a pre-paid connection. Also, they confirmed that indeed the number was registered in my name and address. I thought long and hard, tried to recollect if I had ever applied for another Airtel connection. I hadn't. I realised that it had to be a case of identity theft. Someone had used my credentials to obtain a pre-paid Airtel connection. Gosh !!! God alone knows what crime these guys were upto. I was very worried. I tried to find out what ID proof they had provided to get the connection. But Airtel was not forthcoming with information. They asked me to go personally to the Airtel office.

The next morning I went to Airtel's office on Nandidurga Road. Let me tell you that going to their offices is not a pleasant experience. Their offices open only at 10 o'clock. And if you assumed that all private offices unlike Government offices opened at 9 o'clock, be ready to entertain yourself outside their office. They would not even bother to give you a seat if you reach their office before 10. Anyway, finally when the office opened at 10 AM I went in, got myself a token and waited for my turn. When it was my turn, I went over to the representative sitting across the counter. He was beaming at me as if to say, "Ah !! Dont worry at all. I will solve your problem." So I told him my problem. He expressed his "deep regret" since he would not be able to help me. Great! Why pretend to be helpful when you dont have any intention of helping me in the first place. He asked me to go their head office on Bannerghatta Road, which is a good 10 kms from my office. Splendid. Here I was, in the midst of a busy week in office and also battling a bad bout of throat infection. And these guys showed no indication of helping me. I felt so helpless. I tried to recollect... "What had I done ??". I had done absolutely nothing. And people wanted me to run from pillar to post. Thats wonderful. I took the Bannerghatta office number from the "so helpful" representative and headed off to office. I was late to office by 2 and 1/2 hours and had not acheived a thing.

Endless attempts to contact Airtel's Bannerghatta office by phone went in vain. Apparently, Airtel's own head office could not transfer my call from their board to any department that could help me. They told me "Please wait while I transfer your call" and then "bing bing bing", my call was disconnected. I realised what my friends meant when they said "Airtel's customer service sucks !!!". I wished I had not argued on Airtel's behalf then.

I spoke to some of my friends. One of them knew someone who worked in Airtel. After a few hours my friend informed me that the only way something could be done was that I go lodge a police complaint. Only then Airtel would be able to take any action. "What the heck ?? I need to lodge a police complaint ?? Gosh !!! Here's another opportunity for some corrupt policeman to try to fleece money out of me." But then, I realised I had no other go, I better go and make the complaint. What if those cheats (the ones who had got the cell phone connection in my name) were upto no good ??? Poor me would unneccessarily get into unwanted trouble. But then, am I over reacting ? Do you need to really worry ??? May be its just a couple of idiots upto some stupid adolscent tricks. So, I decide to take it easy. Let me not get too worried. But then...... what if ????? I kept debating this for quite a while. I finally decided the right person to fill me in on the story would be the Circle Inspector of Malur, the cop that my bro had spoken to, last night over the phone.

I was a bit upset about the whole issue. But was not too worried. After all I had not done anything. Why the hell should I be worried ? I called up the Circle Inspector, Mr S. After I had introduced myself to him he says, "Let me tell you something very frankly. The case that we are currently investigating is a kidnap case". WHAT ?? Holy shit. I was in deep trouble. He goes on, "We are investigating this kidnap case where the kidnappers have already collected a Rs 30 lakh ransom". Shocked, I repeated "Thirty Lakhs ???". "Yes, thats right, they have already collected Rupees Thirty lakh and are demanding for Ten Lakhs more". Holy crap !! That means the victim has not yet been released. So, its likely this number is still active. Anything could happen. Knowing how our Indian cops work, my head started filling with countless stories of how the police could twist and turn anything to their benefit. If they dont find the actual thief, then they were very much capable of branding the next person they find as the thief. I was lucky, I was sitting on the chair, otherwise my legs would have buckled under the news that I heard. Garnering some courage, I managed to ask, "Sir, what should I do now sir ?". "Banni Maalurigge. maathadanna." (Come over to maalur. We can talk there.) I was not sure why he was calling me over to Malur. Did he want too want to fleece money out of me ? There was no way, I was going over to Maalur. "Banni.. bejaan busugal idde." (Come on over to Maalur. There are plenty of buses to this place)

I was pretty sure, that there was no way I was going to go to Maalur. I told the inspector that I would discuss the issue with my brother and get back to him later and hung up the call. I was shaken by the sudden turn of events, news of the kidnapping, the ransom and the Inspector's attempt to scare me saying "If we go by the proof, you are also one of the accused". Hello ??? (not the right word to say, under the circumstances. )What did I do ??? I stayed at home and did nothing. And here I was being accused of something which I could not even dream of ever being able to do.

May be I should go and register a police complaint. But what do I complain ? Against whom should I complain ? Which police station should I go to ? Isn't this a cyber crime ? Should I be going to the Cyber Crime Police Station ? I was totally confused. So many questions kept popping into my head. I was feeling really worried. The blood had all drained out of my face and I looked pale. My colleagues and friends all suggested I speak to a lawyer and take his advice. All of them told me strictly, "Dont even venture in the direction of Maalur. And if you have to go to the police station, take an advocate along. DONT GO ALONE."

By evening, my throat infection had gone from bad to worse. I hung around for a while, totally confused as to what I should be doing. By the time I reached home, I had high fever. I did not like the idea of going to the police station and registering a complaint. After consulting a lot of people, I finally decided to let it be as it is. I was not going to do anything. After all I had done nothing. So, why should I be the one going to the police station. Why should I go and consult a lawyer? Who was going to bear my legal fees ? After all, I had nothing to do with the case.

I decided that the only thing that I would do was send Airtel a complaint over email. The next day I drafted a letter and sent it to Airtel's customer care. I decided to wait and see how the story would now unfold. Nothing happened for a few days. Though I wanted to know what happened about the case, I knew it would be foolish to call up the Circle Inspector. A few more days passed by with absolutely no news. I spent most of the time on the phone calling up various departments of Airtel trying to see if they could be forced to help me. But nothing happened. They were at their irresponsible callous best. They kept passing the buck, but did nothing.

Finally on Thursday, morning, exactly a week since the whole episode had begun, the newspaper carried a front page news that grabbed my attention. " Kidnap drama ends in shootout." The gist of the story was "The police were investigating a case involving the kidnap of the son-in-law of a stationary wholesale dealer from Bangalore. The victim was released after the payment of a ransom of Rupees Thirty Five Lakh. However the police had managed to arrest one person, by name Tippu. During his interrogation he revealed the name of another accomplice, Ghafoor who was the kingpin in anothe kidnap for ransom case. The police were able to rescue the kidnapped man. They layed a trap to catch the kingpin. But on seeing the police, they opened fire. In the exchange of fire, the police were able to kill the two main accused." The article also mentioned another intresting information. The main accused, Ghafoor had given Tippu a SIM which was registerd in the name of one Ms Nagrathnamma.

Whoa !!! I think I had a close shave. Till date, I am not aware of how my name got linked in this whole case. But the most appalling thing during the whole incident is the callous attitude of the Airtel personnel. They were the ones who issued a SIM card in my name. But they did not bother to help anyway. Airtel sucks big time !!!!

Dont scare the daylights !!

The festival of Lights has returned again. I along with my bro and parents happened to go around the city quite a lot this diwali. And one thing that we all noticed is the relative decrease in the amount of crackers that were being burst this time around. And thankfully this time more people seem to have realised its a festival of lights and not exactly a festival to scare the daylights.

My memory of Diwali of the yester years is not a pleasant one. I think I was around 10 or 12 years old. It was the morning after Diwali. A house was being built in the neighbouring compound. One of the labourers stayed in this house under construction doubling up as a watchman. He had a huge family consisting of his wife and around 7 or 8 children. The older kids worked as labourers. But there were also these tiny tots, around 4 or 5 years old who played amidst all the construction work. Not the ideal place for kids to grow up but that was the reality of developing India.

The morning after Diwali, these kids went around the neigbouring streets collecting the half burnt, unburnt crackers from the streets. They collected all the chemicals in these crackers into a coconut shell and lit it hoping it would be a nice cracker. Little did these kids realise that their cracker was going to burst immediately and right in their face. The loud burst and the wailing of these kids brought us all outside immediately. We saw these kids running and hugging their mother. The poor mom not realising the gravity of the scene, used her dirt ridden sari to wipe the face of her children. The severely burnt skin on their faces just came off !!!

The scene when we saw it was these two kids who have dark colored skin, now had pink faces. Their faces with no skin and the flesh showing was one of the most gory scenes of my childhood. The very thought brings back images of those wailing kids. A truly horrible scene. Since then, I have never ever wanted to light a cracker.

This year too, the newspaper reports say that close to 100 people have been injured due to crackers. Infact many of the victims these time were innocent bystanders. I did meet a small kid who was walking along with his parents in Commercial Street when some kids burst some crackers on Commercial street and one of the crackers burst and some fragments hit the poor kid burning his shirt, neck and hair. I can only imagine the trauma the kid must have undergone.

I hope and pray not many have to watch such heart rending scenes, and that too on the occasion of a festival.

Happy Diwali !!!!

Boring Boring Boring ....... Ramblings ....

Its a long weekend, thanks to Ayudha Pooja and Gandhiji. Its been the long weekend that I have been always waiting for. Time to just relax and recharge my batteries. Its been a while since I got a weekend to myself. Now that it has arrived.... I am lost... what do I do..... ??? What exactly do I do ? The thought of just sitting around, watching the idiot box, sleeping the whole day, gorging on all the sweets of the festival is not somehow inviting this time around. This was that weekend I was waiting for all the time. And now that it is here, I find myself inequipped to handle the spare time. I dont know what to do.

I always thought I had a lot of friends. I wonder why I am feeling this lonely suddenly. Guess its the time. The festive season being around, all the ones married, are at home completing their formalities. And the ones who have found someone, did not want to be disturbed. So... where all the singles ??? hmmm... come to think of it... there are just a few of us left, holding on to the bastion called bachelor.

Well... thanks to the blog sites, for helping me kill time reading all the time pass stuff that all the really creative people churn out. I wish I was like these amazing people who churn out sentences making amazing use of words still managing to convey what they mean in such simple ways that I keep thinking ... "Its so bloody simple.... why could I not think of it earlier" Hmm... well ... for one .... I guess you need to be smart.. Secondly... confidence and finally the perseverance to continue writing and develop a skill. These are the times when I curse myself for not listening to my dad and writing anything worthwhile in my younger days.

Well... I hope I make writing a habit atleast now. Need a plan !!! :) (here comes the software designer) I guess I should allot a few minutes to pen down a few things everyday. I am sure I can spare atleast sometime everyday to improve a skill that I really wish I have.

Wish me luck. And if you have any tips... i am all ears....

First Post

Geeez..... I dont know what to write..... this is my first attempt to maintain a Blog... maybe as days go by I will learn.... If anyone gets to read this.... wish me luck....

For starters.....

The whole of this evening was spent in front of the idiot box trying to see if "Prince" the 5 yr old who fell into a 60 ft deep pit would survive. The poor kid had a horrible time. He was stuck in a pit a couple of feet wide for nearly 50 hrs and all due to the negligence of some stupid guy who had left an unused borewell open.

But the worst for the kid... I think will start now.... those claustrophobic feelings, the fear.... gosh... cannot even imagine it and would not wish it for the worst of my enemies... But I think even worse would be the callous media... which will hound him for interviews asking him absolutely stupid questions. Talking about claustrophobic feelings... I am reminded of how Saddam was supposed to have put dozens of people into wells... where people had barely any place to stand.... where people rested on the floor in turns.. where all of them urinated on the same floor.... excreted on the same floor... slept on the same floor.... god... death at that point would be a definitely easy thing...... compared to the hell below...

I did go to the temple today morning. I prayed to the Lord asking for a lot of things. But probably I am already blessed. I probably have everything..... unlike many who dont have something as basic as freedom......