into thin air

Wonder what is? It's the name of a book I read recently. What a book!! In spite of being non-fiction it kept me soooo engrossed..

It’s a true story about the tragedy that happened at Mt. Everest in 1996. One of the climbers who was in the team which got struck by a deadly storm, Jon Krakauer, has written it. Twelve climbers got succumbed to the thin air at the ‘top of the world’ that year.

Jon, a journalist-cum-climber, joined the expedition team as a correspondent for the Outside magazine. He was among few survivors in his team.

Now about the book:

• Lots of technical details about mountaineering, which interests me.
• The way Jon has written it, it’s as if a friend is telling u the story. His way of narration is raw, sincere, and personal. U feel like u r one of the members in the team while reading it.
• The ultimate truth called death, when it strikes u just can’t do anything.
• Unpredictable n mighty nature – all would’ve been well, if that storm cud wait for few hours that day when Jon’s team made it to the summit. Human being is too small n weak in front of nature.
• The craze of mountaineering/climbing/trekking. It gets to u big-time when it gets to u. It’s an addiction. Even when they knew they were n danger, they didn’t want to give up; they wanted to get to the summit.

The tragedy happened when the climbers were descending the mountain. An ice-storm struck n few members just couldn’t make it to the camp safely. The part of the book where 2 of the members who get too exhausted get abandoned from their teammates made me cry. But it’s reality, helping others in such conditions is risking ur own life. Jon writes that he keeps feeling guilty that he couldn’t help his team-mates; but he couldn’t have done much even if he had tried.

I liked the book very much; it has taught me few things. Thanks to my friend who got the book for me as birthday gift.

the song on friday morning

Another Friday morning here in Tehran (now don't think that morning means 8 am, no.. for me morning is 11.30 am on holidays). Sipping hot cup of coffee while admiring my own coffee-making skills, I was getting mentally prepared for the extensive cleaning job I was about to do. The house was dirty n needed some labour & attention.

As I started my work, it struck to me that I need some entertainment. I can't rely on TV for entertainment here, I can only watch BBC news in TV. So I plugged in my laptop thinking that I cud play some songs. Feeling lazy to take the cable off the telephone n connect it to laptop to connect to the net, I thought of managing without Kavitha, my favorite singer. So I searched for music in my hard-disk. One of my colleagues had copied some songs in my hard-disk, but I had never bothered to play those songs all these days.

I pressed Ctrl+A and clicked play button, increased the volume to max (so that I cud listen to the music in all the rooms) and went ahead with the cleaning work.

The first song started.. and I was... I don't know what i felt at that very moment. It was Rajkumar chanting "Poojyaaya Raghavendraaya". Rajkumar, who had been laid to rest just the previous evening back in Bangalore.

Whoever said he died? He was fully alive in my flat with that Raghavendra Bhakthigeethe that morning. In fact, artists worth remembering never die.

If only 'abhimaani devarugaLu' in Bangalore who turned the whole situation so violent the previous evening knew this truth...

a day-out, to the glory

With a bit of research on the net, I found contact info of many tour agenies in Tehran. Called one of them n booked for a one-day Tehran tour without thinking much..

It was a one-day tour which took us around the palaces & museums in Tehran. Mainly it gave us an insight about the life of Shahs who were ruling Iran before the Islamic revolution happened.

Sharp at 8.30 that morning the car arrived to take us, when we were busy gulping down the coffee…We got introduced to Ali, our guide & Hameed, the driver.

We headed towards National Museum, which was our first destination for the day. On the way Ali showed us many embassies; including the American embassy which is closed now. When the Islamic revolution happened they captured American embassy and took the staff as hostages (and kept them as hostages for more than a year to win some bargain with US, finally US had to give in I guess; this was a big news sometime in early 90s I think, I didn’t know anything about it). I could see “We will make America face severe defeat” written on now-closed American embassy compound wall.

We also saw oldest square of Tehran, which is now called Khomeini square, which was called something else earlier. Almost everything (airport, govt. buildings, etc) is named after Khomeini now.

The entrance to the building complex which contains National Museum, Islamic museum, and couple of buildings which belong to army looks like this, beautifully done I must say.

The national museum has stuff which is thousands of years old. Persian civilization is one of the oldest civilizations. It also has Shah Period (300 yrs ago) things. This pillar is a royal emblem of some dynasty I guess; doesn’t it remind you of our Ashoka Sthambha?

This statue of a Shah was destroyed during Alexander’s invasion time.

Next to the National Museum there is Islamic Museum, which came into existence after the Islamic revolution. It has beautifully painted and carved handicraft stuff. A jumbo-sized Quran is also there. What interested me is this oil-lamp.

Our next destination was Golestan palace-cum-museum complex. Very colorful one. The inner wall and ceiling are done beutifully with the use of colored glass.

They have extensively used glass, wood, and colored ceramic tiles to do the designs. See this outer wall of the palace which is done with ceramic tiles.

A closer look at those colored ceramic tiles and how they are fixed to get the designs. Ali told us that each of these small tiles are worth approx 10$.

One of the famous kings in Shah Dynasty who lived here is Nasser-ed-din Shah. There were lots of paintings and photographs of this king in the art gallery.

This is one of the ventilating towers a building in the complex has (it has 4 such towers). This tower is supposed to pump in the air inside and keep the whole structure cool; young princes used to live in this palace it seems.

Our next stop was a palace complex in the north of Tehran, which is closer to the mountains. This palace (I forgot the name) looks more modern than the Golestan palace.

These giant legs are the symbol of Shah’s power and strength. They are more than 10 ft tall.

This beautiful thing is a television box though there was no TV inside.

This room is called “War Room”, they discussed war strategies here. See the notepads, the globe, and the pen-stands. I wanted to flick one of those pen-stands :-)

After seeing this palace we went to another palace called the ‘Green palace’, true to its name everything is green in this palace, including the curtons. Ahmed Shah, another famous Shah, used to live here. There was another palace in the same complex where Ahmed Shah’s father used to live. But now army has taken it in for some reason and tourists aren’t allowed. Green palace was the richest palace we saw, with gold fittings everywhere. This dining room looks so fabulous.

Can you see the golden spoons and forks? The picture is blurred as things are inside a glass cabinet and because of the glaring light.

One thing which is very evident in all these palaces is the European influence. Shahs had close relationship with England, France, and Italy. The paintings in the palaces are done by French artists, the furniture is also mostly from Europe.

Another thing is these palaces are not very old (100-300 years old). Shahs were ruling Iran until Islamic revolution happened, which was at around 30 years ago.

Well, needless to say, that was a good trip. Got to know a lot; thanks to our guide Ali, who answered all our questions with great patience in his not-so-good English.

btw Ali’s son wants to go to Bangalore to study computers.

experience tehran

Few things about Tehran:

The view of snow-covered mountains. Wherever you go in the city, u'll see them. I simply love the view! But I am told that winter is almost over and the snow will disappear in few days...

As this is spring season, there are flowers everywhere. And there are lots of flower shops in the city.

One more interesting thing I noticed is that they sell flowers at traffic signals here (the same way how they sell stuff at traffic signals in Bangalore; but imagine someone selling flowers at traffic signals in Bangalore!!). This guy was more-than-happy to be photographed.

People are well-behaved and helpful. They stand in queue even to get ice-creams in small ice-cream stalls!!

I was most surprised too see Shahrukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai on the covers of Farsi magazines in a book-stall!! I tried to speak to the stall-owner showing the pictures of SRK & Rai, he said he knows about Amithabh Bachhan & Salman Khan too...

My colleague was held in immigration counter for long time at the airport. I was wondering why, but later came to know that all the person in the counter wanted to know was how Kajol is doing!!

Seven scenes: Few days back it was new-year celebration season here. The Farsi new-year is called "Nouroz". They keep the following things in houses.

It contains apple, coins, some grains, dates, garlic, some powdered spice, and egg. In Farsi, the names of all these things start with letter "S". And they keep fish, mirror, milk, water, Quran, and the sprouted grass. They keep this setup for 13 days.

(This reminds me of a ritual followed on Yugadi day in South Canara; they keep rice, vegetables, fruits, and a mirror in the pooja-room. All are supposed to see themselves in that mirror the first thing in the morning on that festival day. Just wondering how the cultures are similar!!)

This grass is sprouted from some grain. On the 13th day they throw out the grass; they believe that it takes the evil things away... Even in offices and hotels they had kept this sprouted grass.

Generally, people seem to have good opinion about India. "You from India?" they ask with a smile on their faces.

The taxi drivers drive so rash here (even Bangalore autowallas can't beat them in this!). Every other car has a dent..

Looks like everyone has cars here. That's obvious, fuel being so cheap they can afford to keep cars. Public transport looks quite decent, i'll try it some day. Also heard that they have metro.

Peugeot, Daewoo, Ford, Benz, Chevrolet - these are the common cars seen. Somehow they don't look jazzy though!! And no big vehicles like Scorpio and Innova here, except for a few Toyota Land Cruisers...

The place is hilly; if I go down to main street from the place where I am staying, it's a mini-trek back!!! Lots of ups-n-downs!!

We get variety of rotis; there are specific shops which make n sell only rotis. Iranians prefer these for breakfast; it's common sight of them flocking at these shops when we drive to office in the mornings.

The money: The value of Rial being very less, we end up paying thousands n lakhs. That feels funny. I am not used to the currency yet, have problem paying at shops...

The language Farsi has similarity to Urdu/Hindi. May be because Urdu originated from Persian. I have learned few words n phrases...

Food is a problem for vegetarians. I wonder whether they have any vegetarian dish in Iranian Cuisine... Just thinking about the special treats we used to have in pizza hut while eating pizza for lunch everyday...

That's all for now, more later if I find out more.

ps: it was lots of pain putting the pictures, so u better appreciate them.

trek hangover

Here are some tit-bits:

Geography of Himachal Pradesh. It’s sooooo hilly, you won't even find a single plain place!! It’s very difficult to cultivate crops there. But the villagers are very hard-working. I guess they are born-tough to endure the pahaadi life-style.

There are only few types of trees there - mainly deodar, oak and pine. The jungles only with deodar trees near Kalatop area were just treat to look at!!

The discipline and time-sense all the camp leaders maintained. I felt like I was in some army-training camp; and of course enjoyed it!!

The batch members. There were people from Bangalore, Mumbai, Gujarat, Hyderabad, Bhopal, etc. Ours was a well-balanced group with lots of youth and few wise-and-nice uncles. It was indeed a nice opportunity to interact with people from different parts of the country.

The Bangalore crowd. The camp staff and participants from other places were heard telling "If you are from Bangalore, you need not mention your profession. We know that you are an IT professional".

The chat-sessions we girls used to have. Actually we got to know lots about different cultures, their wedding-rituals, the traditional dresses, etc. Thanks to Bangalore girl Niara who dug out all this information from others, she was very much interested in knowing all these stuff.

The difference between Bombay people and Bangalore people. I guess the software professionals tend to grow-up fast. Bangalore girls Niara & Bel were very wise and mature even though they were the younger ones. They are very sweet too. And I enjoyed Bel's songs..

The students. I particularly like to interact with students, and treks give me that opportunity. Talking to them makes you feel nostalgic about your school-college days. I liked Atul who is studying MA (Economics) in Mumbai, he was very sweet; he's is a Piscean too.

Mr. Ramesh from Bangalore. I guess everyone will remember what he said during camp-fire at Kalatop. He sang a song and then said "This song is for my wife. I miss her. I am wearing this shawl (and showed the shawl he was wearing) though I don’t need it now. But my wife gave me this shawl, that's why I am wearing it." So sweet of him.

I liked all my batch mates; and particularly liked Santosh, the horse rider from Hyderabad; Sameera, the fashion-designing teacher from Mumbai; Bindu, the child-counsellor-cum-teacher from Mumbai; and Raghunath Uncle.

The home-guards who accompanied us for the trek - Ajit Singh and Kartar Singh. Kartar was very smart, he liked to explore our digicams and happily volunteered to take our pictures.

I discovered something about myself. I could find out people's zodiac signs. I found out that Bel was a Piscean & Shailaja was a Scorpio; just by observing them. This is something I want to learn more about..

trekologue

Yes, it's been quite long time, but the memories of the trek are still fresh in my heart.

So, here I go.

Details first:

Trek at: Dalhousie, Himachal Pradesh.
When: 28th Dec 2005 to 2nd Jan, 2006.
Conducted by: Youth Hostel Association India

We were supposed to report at the base camp (Dalhousie Youth Hostel) on 28th. Because of our trip to other places at Himachal (which I'll write about later on) we got late and reached base camp late at 10.00 pm. The camp staff was kind enough to attend to us. I went to the room where all the girls who were in my batch were staying, felt guilty as they were all sleeping by the time I reached. So, quickly without making much noise I slipped into the sleeping bag & off I went..

Next day was "the acclimatization day" (acclimatization is getting used to the geographical and climatic conditions of the place). They woke us up early in the morning & took us for a walk-cum-exercise routine. It was bitter cold outside, but there was no way we could bunk the exercise. Mr. Parvinder Singh Chauhan, the field director, made sure that all of us lazy-bums went for the walk n exercise. Upon returning we were given breakfast, and then the camp leader took us for an acclimatization walk for a place called Panchkula. Upon reaching our destination after walking 5 kms, the camp leader asked all of us to introduce ourselves. That was the first time we, the group of 45 participants, officially met each other. It was then I came to know that there ware more than 15 participants from Bangalore.

After coming back from Panchkula, we had lunch and then we were supposed to go for baggage check. Let me tell you what it is... We had to chuck out the extra stuff we had in our bags and deposit in the base camp; carrying only the necessary things for the trek, so that weight won't be much while trekking. The camp leader lifted each and every bag to check the weight and cut down some bags. After finishing this ritual we were free for rest of the evening.

No, we weren’t free actually. There was a camp-fire in the evening. And we had to give cultural program. So, we started discussing about that and getting rehearsed. We, Kannadigas in the batch sang "Huttidare Kannada Naadalli Huttabeku" with full dance funda n all...

Next day (30th Dec) was the actual start of the trek. After finishing breakfast and packed lunch on our backpacks we marched out of the base camp. The participants of the next batch were there to see us off and clap for us. We paced out of Dalhousie town and headed to a place called Lakhadmandi where we stopped for lunch. The trek route that day was mainly on road and jeepable tracks. Before 4.00 pm we reached the place called Kalatop, where we were to camp that day. Soon I joined the gang who had put the fire and sitting around it to chase the cold off. A hot cup of tea did good to all of us.

Kalatop is very beautiful. It’s called so because it's at the top and since it's surrounded by dense forest, it used to be dark there all the time; hence the name Kalatop. The sunset view from Kalatop was mindblasting!!

After dinner we had another camp-fire cultural session. It was good to listen to many people and many languages; and of course some old Hindi melodies.

The next day morning was the same routine, but there was an air of excitement since it was 31st Dec. The trek that day was bit tough. There was climbing-down part first and then the climbing-up. One or two had falls and were seen limping. We stopped at a water point for lunch. Even in the middle of the dense jungles, the localites had put up some shops where we got Maggie noodles, omlet, tea & stuff.

The second session was tougher (actually it was not a tough trek, but the first-timers in the batch had a bit of problem). We reached the campsite for that day, Khajjiar, at around 4.30 pm. Khajjiar is called the "Mini Switzerland of India". We were lucky to celebrate new-year eve in that scenic place. That night we had the camp-fire again, which started a bit late so that we could stretch it up to 12.00 and be awake to welcome the New Year. The enthu of the crowd was very much visible. As the clock hit 12, we all wished each other. Our camp leader brought out hot, delicious gulaab jamoons. The whole place was looking so festive with all our shouting and screaming, hugging and hand-shakes!!!

Definitely, all of us who were present that day will remember that new-year eve forever. We were celebrating new-year with people whom we had met only 3 days ago, but still we all felt like a close-knit group!! The feeling was wonderful and I am not even trying to explain it in words.

The next day (1st Jan) was the last day of the trek. We reached the destination, a place called Mangla, in the late afternoon. The trek that day was entirely climbing down part. And that day we didn’t trek in jungles, we had to trek through the villages where we got the closer view of life of those villagers. They were nice to us and greeted us all thru the way. I clicked pictures of beautiful kids on the way.

After reaching the campsite, we rested for a while and then took a bus and went to nearby town Chamba. Spent quite a lot of time there, visited the museum, temple, market, etc.

Next day (2nd Jan) was the disperse day. We were taken in bus from Mangla to Dalhousie, the base camp. On the way we got to see bit of snowfall (actually it was rains and hailstones). We reached Dalhousie, had lunch, got the certificate for completing the trek successfully and left the base camp.

On the whole, we trekked around 50 kms for 5 days.

It was not just a trek; it was a wholesome experience for me. Will write about all that in next post.

bangalore to bangalore

I was more-than excited about my maiden flight experience. It was December 23rd, 2005. The flight was at 16.00 hrs; Jet Airways, flight no. 9W-816; Bangalore to Delhi.

That afternoon I said big-time bye to people at office, as I was going on a loooooong holiday! They were having Christmas celebrations at office that day, I was going to miss it, by I didn't mind, all I was thinking about was my first-flight!!

I was supposed to meet some people over lunch that afternoon, so I left office by 1.15 pm. with all my baggage, since the meeting was at a restaurant in Airport Road I had thought of going to airport directly after that lunch n meeting.

As I was finishing lunch I got a call on mobile phone, it was from Jet Airways office. My flight was delayed by 4 hours!! The flight was now scheduled at 20.10 hrs. So, I went back to office. Though I was sad that flight got delayed I was lil' happy that I could take part in Xmas celebrations at office! (Seeing the glass half-full u see)...

At 6.45 pm I left for the airport again, this time little conscious that the flight may get delayed again. On the way I called the Jet Airways help-desk, and yes, the flight was further delayed. It was to depart at 9.45 pm. I called my cousin at Delhi, who was to receive me. I was concerned about her that she had to come late at night to receive me.

Finally, at 9.30 we were called in for security check. I messaged my cousin that I am going in for security check. The flight started moving by 10 pm. I was very fascinated and enjoying everything!! There...the aircraft left the earth & plunged into the sky!! My heart stopped for a moment when it took off!!

Then the usual things: the welcome drink, dinner, etc etc... but one thing here, they were serving buttermilk, orange juice & only one soft-drink! And most of the passengers were opting for buttermilk. Healthy practices on the go...

By 12.30 we were almost over Delhi city. Then came the captain's announcement: Due to fog, the aircraft is having problems landing at Delhi airport; anyways he’s going to try n wait for some more time.

After 20 minutes of hollering around, the fog was still not cleared. Captain announced that we were flying back to Bangalore. They couldn't even land in nearby airport as all the airports were full. That day was major trouble for airline companies!

Two and a half hours of journey back, and we were in our very own Bangalore at 3.00 AM in the morning. Jet Airways was nice enough to give discount vouchers worth Rs. 1500 (which I encashed & got hard cash :-)) and residence drop for the localite passengers, and hotel accommodation to non-localites.

Thus my first-flight was eventful & memorable. All I got was a free air-ride for 5 hrs. Courtesy: foggy Delhi, co-sponsor: Jet Airways.

ps: I went to Delhi the next day.

pps: Why I went to Delhi? Watch this space...

the poem, the song, the melody

Yes, I am talking about my favorite singer Kavitha Krishnamurthy Subramaniam...

I was listening to her live in an interview on radio. And am feeling great about that! This lady rocks!! Even when she speaks it's like honey dripping out from her voice!!

I have these strange strong fanatic emotions for Kavitha. Her songs work as medicine for me when my mood is not upto the mark (for that matter any good music does that to you, but I told u, I am an ardent kavitha fan). She brings a smile on my face even in my worst-of-the-worst mood..

Right now I listened to my singer for full 3 hours and it was a feast!!!

Thank you Kavitha, you made my day.. and I know you will continue making many more of my days with your super, fantabulous, sweet (running out of adjectives here) voice :-)

love, pride, and blah-blah..

It is better to lose your pride to the one you love, than to lose the one you love to your pride. (read this statement somewhere)

Oh no!! Love and pride are no small things; they are BIG things in fact. So, these things don't suit this space....

But still...

jesus is coming Soon

I was on my way to Chennai a few days back. The train was running a little slow, thanks to heavy rains. I was enjoying the journey though, sitting in a window-seat and watching the picture outside which was lush-green, thanks to rains again.

Soon I saw a rocky hill outside. It was very nice view.. a medium size hill (I guess the right word is hillock), it was looking as if someone has put all those rocks there, one on the other. I silently praised that piece of beauty and told myself "Look, you atheist.. this is what God can do"!!

Then.. there.. someone disturbed me. No, it wasn't TC, it was Jesus!! Ok ok, let me explain. The beautiful rocky things I was watching had turned into hoardings which read "Jesus is coming soon". There were Jesus' pictures painted on them too.

I myself am a big fan of Jesus, but I don't like him indulging on this kind of cheap publicity and spoiling those nice-looking rocks.. :-(