Ganga Mata Ki JAI

View from the Boat

My association with Ganga has been very emotional… well not the river though! I love my hostel in IIT Madras, which is named Ganga. But last weekend, I came to respect the legendary river too.

Frustrated by spending our weekends uselessly loitering around in the malls of Delhi, I had this urge to get out of this place very desperately. And so 5 of us – me, Amal, Shahid, Gaurav, Bharadwaj - planned a trip to Rishikesh, with the sole purpose of doing rafting. We started on Friday night, after a week of boring training sessions at the company.

Excitement before Rafting

Somehow, we are finding it very hard to shed the student mentality of minimizing expenditure by cutting down the spending on luxury buses, lavish accommodation, etc. and hence we found ourselves forgoing the deluxe bus, and traveled in a rickety Sarkaari bus from ISBT in Delhi. We reached Rishikesh in the morning at 6. As advised by our friends from IITR, we went straight to the Laxman jhoola, around 6 km from the bus stand. As expected, we could find only devotees going to temples and foreigners going for early morning Yoga sessions. No shops or hotels were open. Its at a height of 1700ft, and adding to it was a slight drizzle, which made it extremely chilly in the morning. We bought ourselves raincoats (Rs10 per piece), and started off to the famous iron-rope suspension bridge Laxman Jhoola. Here we got the first glimpse of the Ganga standing over a bridge. It was majestic, to say the least.

Listening to the calmness of River at Laxman Jhoola

After talking to a couple of adventure sports companies (there are 109 companies who offer rafting, rappling, camping etc.), we finally landed to the RED CHILLY adventure. The rafting season in Rishikesh is open round the year, expect for the rain drenched months of July and August. It was only a few days ago the season had started, and because of the increased water levels, most of the companies were not offering the longer rafting packages. But Red Chilly had an offer of a 36 km trip from Kaudiyala to Ram Jhoola. We went for it and paid Rs.1300/- for the day long rafting, with transportation and lunch on the river bank included.

Jump at Shivpuri (Left to Right: Amal, Shahid, Gaurav, Arpan, photographed by Bharadwaj)

The safety equipment supplied is of excellent quality, and thus the risk associated with rafting is very less. The only thing is that one should not panic. We went through a total of 18 rapids, and each one had its name. I will list all of them here: Daniel’s deep, Sanjay, The Wall, Butterfly, Hus & Kisses, Black Money, Three Blind Mice, Crossfire, Shivpuri rapid, Return to Sander, Roller Coaster, T-off, Golf Course, Club House, Cash Flow, Initiation, Double trouble, Hilton. Out of these, some were very mild, in which we stood on the boat, or got down in the water holding the boat and enjoyed the turbulence. Some were highly violent eg. Three Blind Mice, Roller coaster, Daniel’s Deep etc. We were a good team. We were disciplined rowers, enthusiastic all through and most importantly, fearless. This helped us a lot when we had a Clean-out (when all the members fall out of the boat, but the boat does not float upside down). The key is not to panic and to follow the instructions given by your guide. We had our lunch at the scenic Shivpuri beach. There was also a cliff jump after lunch. I was reminded of Moli’s video which he made in Arunachal. All in all, it was an awesome experience. I should also mention the crew which guided us through the day, Sunil Singh Bhandari guided our boat, while Bheem Singh Chauhan took care of the other boat. Harish, Deepak and Baalam accompanied us on their kayaks for the safety of the amateur adventurers.

After the rafting, it was time to explore other things in the town. No, we did not go to the temple. One of my prime motivations in going to a new place is to taste different flavors, and Rishikesh had a lot to offer. We ate fruits like Raamfal and Nagu in the morning.

Raamfal

In the evening, we went to the Oasis restaurant and had excellent continental dishes at really low prices. They tasted delicious, thanks to the population of foreigners who come and stay here for meditation, yoga, adventure sports, doping, spiritual experiences (Beatles came here in 1968 and stayed for a long time, and composed 48 songs when they were here). Don’t miss the German Bakery situated just at the entrance of the Laxman Jhoola.

In the end of it all, I have now immense respect for the river Ganga. This was a very short, but extremely memorable trip. I had great company, great adventure, great food… what else could I ask for, a perfect escape from the monotonous life.

My Inspiration

Be Born Everyday,
Aaj Rockstar, Kal Pilot and who knows what the day after
Kabhi kissi Anjaan station par utar kar dekho, kabhi kissi gumnaam shahar ka ticket katao
Doosron ki galtiyon se kya seekhna, Make your own mistakes yaar
And never resemble your passport photo for more than 3 months
Har subah, shock your reflection
Explore… Bachpan me to kya kuchh nahi banna chahte the, why not today?
Be Born Everyday
Be More

-Aamir Khan's Titan Advertisement

Unity in Diversity

Now I am an employee! I am officially inducted in Areva T&D, and have completed 1 month and 6 days of training here in Noida. The whole idea of recruiting over 200 fresh college graduates, and honaouring the commitments in these times of lay-offs and bankrupcies itself seems to be unbelievable in these times. But, Areva has done exactly that. Finally, 157 of us joined the company. The recruitment done from around 20 colleges from different parts of the country, and all of us reported to the Atrium in Faridabad.

Now, I cannot imagine any better way of inducting such a diverse group of individuals. One month in a 4 star hotel, with a packed schedule of sessions and acticities thrown at us, culturally involving such a varied bunch.... it ended up in nothing but friendship and bonding.

Currently, I am staying in a guest house in Noida. Four of us from IITs, are on an extended training schedule, and the rest have come back from from factory visits, and party again. A lot of friends have gone to and joined at several different places, some have come back to Noida for their department specific training.

Today, as we were going to the 'Southern Treat' for our dinner, I noticed that our group had one guy Tamil, two Mallus, one Assamese, one Bhopali etc. Who could have imagined 2 months back that I will be in such diverse company, and enjoying it so thoroughly.

Re-affirming my conviction of finding like-minded people wherever one go's, I hope for all friends starting new journeys in their lives.

P.S. One of the senior HR in the company is taking some of us out to a pub this weekend.

Harry Potter reminded

I downloaded the songs from the movie New York, along with which i also got a few wallpapers. I saw this one, and it instantly reminded of Harry, Hermione and Ron!


The acoustic version of 'Hai Junoon' is really nice. Looking forward to watch the movie.

Remembrance

I never wrote a post regarding my separation from the institute. I always thought, the time has not yet come. Just before the date of vacating my hostel and leaving Chennai (20th May 2009), I was so much occupied with the formalities of getting out of institute, packing my stuff, and spending those quality moments with my pals, that I never thought it worth spending time to write a post on how sentimental I was getting. I came back,and the journey was equally engaging with 9 of us traveling together in a single bay.

I came here to Bhopal, again occupied myself with meeting friends and relatives, and spending time with family. So of much work is going on in my house, that I almost never get bored. Internet gives a great way to stay connected, and watching Wonder Years, I make the days even more eventful. Most of all, I am so excited that so many of my friends will be here in a couple of days. I am sure, we will have a blast together.

But, all this is illusion, or say, making up for what I am leaving behind. Remembering those days when teasing Dhamki used to be a routine, talking about rock songs and bands with Danda enthused me to listen and acquire more knowledge about them, admiring Bulla's social networking adventures, talking about mess food with Sreeni, seeing Tattu watch those waterpolo videos over and over, watching Doodh toiling day and night over those CS assignments, S9 babu listening to those old, forgotten, retro hindi songs, galling Baba for spending most of the time out of the hostel, laughing at Bhondu for loosing against the forces of nature which gave him his tummy, the lost Antenna, searching for someone to agree to his arguments, seeing Bachha play footer, listening to the same song again & again from Moli's room, sleeping Dilli and the music he played at the loudest volume levels, studious Chola bhai, working for more number of hours than most of cannot even imagine, calling Mamme for coffee at the most odd hours, waking up Dedh in the morning for class, switching off the lights at night in Hulla's room, and myself & Fkd paining junta with our musical endeavors.

There is so much more I will be reminded of in years to come, but I wish these are not the only memories with these people.... and there is more to come. I had this sudden motivation to write this article because I just watched the second last episode of third season from Wonder Years, wherein, Carren turns 18. Two quotes from those:

"Some things are deeper than time and distance", hope this friendship is one of those things.

I will keep remembering those unforgettable moments. I will keep watching those videos, those photographs, in a false attempt to relive those days. I will keep in touch..... till then, goodbye!

IPL Season 2

In the end... IPL T20 episode 2 was awesome. Right to the final 3 balls to spare, both teams had a chance. I had no favorites today, just enjoyed cricket. But their was one moment in those 3.5 hours, where I truly wanted Deccans to win. I don't know how many of you saw Gilly during the break (just before RCB started to bat), when they were in a huddle. He was so charged up giving that pep talk to his team mates. I know he was not very satisfied with the target they had posted, but the fighting spirit remained. The enthusiasm was visible from his body language. His eyes were telling, that its not yet over.

The way things proceeded for Deccans were magical. Ojha and Harmeet came to the party, supported by Symonds and RP can only be done by a spirited group of individuals. Never in a cricket match before I have heard (or rather seen the player's lip-movement) players saying Fuck so many times. I remember it being done twice by Ojha, twice by Harmeet, and endless number of times by the Australian badger Symonds. The pressure was so very evident on the players, still they all maintained the highest standards while fielding.

Another person who impresses me at the end of it all (or rather I should say the beginning of a big phenomenon) is Lalit Modi. At the start of IPL season 2, or rather I should say that even in the process of getting the IPL season 2 started, the kind of leadership, vision, execution, presentation, flexibility this guy has shown, are highly admirable. He made a statement around a month ago saying that IPL season 2 will be a Sports marketting case, which will be studied by students around the world, and I think he was right. Not only in India, the kind of publicity it has got in SA has been phenomenal. The packging of the music bands performing during the breaks, the fly-cam showing the never before view of the game, the spectacular opening and closing ceremonies, all will be etched in my memories. On the other hand, when I was searching for information on Modi, I found the following:

Lalit Modi was charged and pleaded guilty to possession of 400 grams of cocaine, assault and kidnapping in 1985 while he was a student at Duke University, USA. He pleaded guilty on all charges and was sentenced to two years in prison. However, he did not serve any prison time and came back to India in 1986 after being released on probation.

In 2007 a PIL was filed in Mumbai High court challenging his position in BCCI on pretext of his criminal history. Though the court refused to unseat Modi, it asked the BCCI "to implement stringent regulatory measures so that those involved in criminal cases, not just illegal drugs but other serious charges have no place in administration".

Interesting what this man has done in all these years. Another intersting observation, Modi came up to the podium during the closing ceremony wearing a PINK tie and with a PINK hankerchief in his coat pocket. Interesting choice of color Mr.Chairman.

Looking forward to the T20 world cup, and IPL 2010 !

Move on!

Yesterday night, we laughed, we ate, we drank, we spoke, we cried, we stumbled, we puked, and finally crashed... but in the morning, the music continued.