The Sunflower by Richard Paul Evans is the first book I picked up based only on what the book jacket said; no book reviews or peer recommendations went into this one.
The story is set in Peru, and is about a woman who goes there from America on a humanitarian mission, hoping to be able to mend a broken heart in the process. She meets a man who came to the place with a similar purpose in mind, who takes her on an adventurous journey comprising of activities like crocodile hunting, caring for an orphaned girl with all her heart, and coming down with dengue fever.
It's a beautiful narrative that takes the reader into a different world, geographically as well as otherwise, a world largely unknown to the average reader. It's something that appeals to the adventurous at heart and also to the romantic, sentimental reader. Some parts, such a description of a camping trip, took me back to some great times I had when camping out with my teammates.
The story is written in an artistic, slightly poetic style which makes it a little more appealing. All in all, a pretty good read.
Showing posts with label Out With The Team. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Out With The Team. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Monday, February 2, 2009
Afterthoughts
Moving Day: I remember the time, two years and nine months back, when I took up work at my current office. At that time, there were plenty of vacant cubicles and unused cabins on our floor. If you needed a room for a small meeting, you didn't need to book a conference room. You could just use one of those cabins. Some of the most senior people in my team had just been promoted and were moved to cabins around that time. Today it feels rather odd to recollect that there was a time when these people used to sit in cubicles, just like the rest of us. It also feels odd to think that there was a time when there was plenty of empty seating space for any new people joining the team, given the current space crunch which has forced the management to make our cubicles smaller.
Manali Memoirs: When we started back from Manali, after a couple of kilometres or so, Neha realised that she'd forgotten her phone in the resort. We called the resort. They looked for the phone in our room, and found it easily enough. Ashish and Aman went back for it. They came back with the phone wrapped in a pair of socks, which had supposedly been retrieved from the same room, and was assumed to be Neha's as well. As soon as they got on to the bus, Bhatti announced that the socks were his. What Bhatti's socks were doing in our room is still an unsolved mystery.
Manali Memoirs: When we started back from Manali, after a couple of kilometres or so, Neha realised that she'd forgotten her phone in the resort. We called the resort. They looked for the phone in our room, and found it easily enough. Ashish and Aman went back for it. They came back with the phone wrapped in a pair of socks, which had supposedly been retrieved from the same room, and was assumed to be Neha's as well. As soon as they got on to the bus, Bhatti announced that the socks were his. What Bhatti's socks were doing in our room is still an unsolved mystery.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Manali Memoirs
I realize this is a little overdue, but I wanted to write this one at leisure, and I was a little short of sleep during the week immediately succeeding the Manali trip, so I had to postpone this until the weekend. Now I do not plan to tell a story here, or narrate a minute-by-minute account, just some interesting anecdotes, not necessarily in chronological order.
At the outset of the journey, it was a little doubtful if the bus driver knew the way from Noida to Delhi's Inter State Bus Terminus. Eventually, it became doubtful if he knew the way to Manali, but we'll come to that later. We were supposed to pick up Ashish and Hemant from a point near the ISBT, and I was probably the only one in the bus who knew the way to that place. And so the journey began with Alok declaring me the first lady bus conductor in the city.
We thought that Manali was about twelve hours away by bus. What we didn't know was what our driver had planned for us. He wanted to take us on a joy ride through all sorts of places, including agricultural land, which had all things nice and beautiful, except a road. He took us on a bumpy, twenty hour drive through all sorts of places previously unseen.
Now I tend to be unable to sleep through a commute of any sort. But interestingly, I was able to sleep peacefully for a whole hour through the beginning of the bumpy patch. Now this sort of thing doesn't really count as sleep for me, but some people are able to sleep a little better in buses and tend to feel that a new day has begun after they wake up. Aarti and Ruchi are two such people, who refuse to eat anything until they brush their teeth in the morning. Imagine what happens to such people when their toothbrushes are in their main bags and the boot of the bus refuses to open when they wish to use the brushes. These two did not eat anything until we arrived at our resort in the evening. As for me, I wasn't too worried about anything much. I had a good time, with all the singing going on in the bus, which was primarily being carried out by Aman at one point of time, and with Bhatti and Aman and Alok singing Bol Na Halke Halke in the most non-Halke Halke way possible.
Our travels around Manali were mainly restricted to Solang Valley. For the journey, we rented five bikes, a Pulsar and four Bullets. The Pulsar wasn't in very good shape, as Gauri discovered pretty soon. But he showed an amazing amount of patience with it, given its state and given the fact that I was riding pillion with him. Eventually I switched places with Shalu and rode with Aman, and then suddenly Aman's Bullet started acting up. That was for a very short while though, and later we had a lovely ride, in the biting cold and rain, until the time we went to the city's main market and both of us almost fell off the bike. Hemant was rather disappointed that I escaped unscathed.
Solang Valley was good, with all the snow that had fallen to the ground, and all of it that fell while we were there. We did what people generally do with snow - had a snowball fight and built a snowman.
In our resort, we had cottages with three rooms in each cottage, together with a living room and a kitchen. We did hire a cook for ourselves, but we always had the option of making something for ourselves if we wanted to. Anuranjan wanted me to make some tea. I warned him that I was making it for the second time in my life, at which Ashish insisted that he make the tea instead. Eventually we decided to make it together. Now we didn't have an appropriate utensil for it, so it was between a pressure cooker and a frying pan. I was sure that the cooker was a better choice and it would be easier to pour the tea from the cooker, but once Ashish is convinced of something, I have always found myself unable to talk him into thinking otherwise. This time I did not make futile attempts at it. I let him use the frying pan. He did eventually discover that it was rather difficult to pour the tea from the pan, and used a cup to transfer it from the pan into the kettle, after which we discovered that we were out of milk. So we served six cups of black tea with the juice of half a lemon. This tea had a lot of us awake and talking until close to six in the morning, watching Neha laugh uncontrollably, even at non-laughable matters, and Ashish roll on the floor laughing at all those things.
Speaking of laughter, there was some amount of singing around the bonfire, in the course of which, we heard a really off-key rendition of Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast Mast from Balab and one of Zehreeley Zehreeley from Bhatti which had all of us in splits. Bhatti was actually laughing so hard himself, he could not even get to the words Zehreeley Zehreeley.
We had the first half of the next day to ourselves before we started on our homeward journey. Some of us spent some time in the market, shopping for mementos. Anuranjan asked me to get him a stole. It is still an unsolved mystery whom that stole was intended for. But he told me that he liked it, and that my taste was good. Unlike certain other people, who asked for my help in selecting a poncho and then categorically stated that I had bad taste. When I picked two of the fifteen or so that the salesman had laid out, Hemant claimed that I was confusing him and that I should pick only one. The salesman suggested that he should shortlist four or five and then pick one of those. He picked four or five that he didn't want to buy. Eventually I did pick one of the remaining ten or so which he grudgingly agreed to buy, in spite of my bad taste.
The return journey took us through much better roads, although we were considerably slowed down by dense fog. This time we got to hear some really beautiful songs from Ashish and from Prima. By this time, my throat was in pretty bad shape, but I did manage to sing a bit myself. And I managed to sleep for close to four hours, which probably exceeds the total duration of time that I have slept during all the bus rides I have ever undertaken in my life. At some point during those four hours, I realised that I was wearing only open sandals and no socks, and that my feet were freezing. Even that was not enough to wake me up.
Which brings me to another point. I do not believe too much in warm clothing. I had not worn socks since my school days, when they were part of the uniform. I have never owned a proper jacket. For this trip, I needed that kind of stuff. So there I was, with a jacket and shoes borrowed from my brother (the jacket was really warm. It felt like a quilt when I was sleeping in the bus.), a pair of socks borrowed from my dad, a cap and muffler borrowed from Bhavna (which, by the way, Anuranjan thought I'd been knitting since I was in class six and had finished only recently.), and a pair of gloves that Anuranjan bought for me.
Great trip. Special credit to Hemant, Anuranjan, Alok and Ashish for organising everything so well. To Gauri for showing an incredible amount of patience with the bike and with me, on the bike ride and also the trek to Solang Valley. And of course, to Aman, for being the protective elder brother that he has always been to me on all of our trips. If I'd actually had an elder brother, he would and should have been just like Aman. He's the only one in the team who's always been there on all the trips I've been out for, and I cannot imagine going without him.
At the outset of the journey, it was a little doubtful if the bus driver knew the way from Noida to Delhi's Inter State Bus Terminus. Eventually, it became doubtful if he knew the way to Manali, but we'll come to that later. We were supposed to pick up Ashish and Hemant from a point near the ISBT, and I was probably the only one in the bus who knew the way to that place. And so the journey began with Alok declaring me the first lady bus conductor in the city.
We thought that Manali was about twelve hours away by bus. What we didn't know was what our driver had planned for us. He wanted to take us on a joy ride through all sorts of places, including agricultural land, which had all things nice and beautiful, except a road. He took us on a bumpy, twenty hour drive through all sorts of places previously unseen.
Now I tend to be unable to sleep through a commute of any sort. But interestingly, I was able to sleep peacefully for a whole hour through the beginning of the bumpy patch. Now this sort of thing doesn't really count as sleep for me, but some people are able to sleep a little better in buses and tend to feel that a new day has begun after they wake up. Aarti and Ruchi are two such people, who refuse to eat anything until they brush their teeth in the morning. Imagine what happens to such people when their toothbrushes are in their main bags and the boot of the bus refuses to open when they wish to use the brushes. These two did not eat anything until we arrived at our resort in the evening. As for me, I wasn't too worried about anything much. I had a good time, with all the singing going on in the bus, which was primarily being carried out by Aman at one point of time, and with Bhatti and Aman and Alok singing Bol Na Halke Halke in the most non-Halke Halke way possible.
Our travels around Manali were mainly restricted to Solang Valley. For the journey, we rented five bikes, a Pulsar and four Bullets. The Pulsar wasn't in very good shape, as Gauri discovered pretty soon. But he showed an amazing amount of patience with it, given its state and given the fact that I was riding pillion with him. Eventually I switched places with Shalu and rode with Aman, and then suddenly Aman's Bullet started acting up. That was for a very short while though, and later we had a lovely ride, in the biting cold and rain, until the time we went to the city's main market and both of us almost fell off the bike. Hemant was rather disappointed that I escaped unscathed.
Solang Valley was good, with all the snow that had fallen to the ground, and all of it that fell while we were there. We did what people generally do with snow - had a snowball fight and built a snowman.
In our resort, we had cottages with three rooms in each cottage, together with a living room and a kitchen. We did hire a cook for ourselves, but we always had the option of making something for ourselves if we wanted to. Anuranjan wanted me to make some tea. I warned him that I was making it for the second time in my life, at which Ashish insisted that he make the tea instead. Eventually we decided to make it together. Now we didn't have an appropriate utensil for it, so it was between a pressure cooker and a frying pan. I was sure that the cooker was a better choice and it would be easier to pour the tea from the cooker, but once Ashish is convinced of something, I have always found myself unable to talk him into thinking otherwise. This time I did not make futile attempts at it. I let him use the frying pan. He did eventually discover that it was rather difficult to pour the tea from the pan, and used a cup to transfer it from the pan into the kettle, after which we discovered that we were out of milk. So we served six cups of black tea with the juice of half a lemon. This tea had a lot of us awake and talking until close to six in the morning, watching Neha laugh uncontrollably, even at non-laughable matters, and Ashish roll on the floor laughing at all those things.
Speaking of laughter, there was some amount of singing around the bonfire, in the course of which, we heard a really off-key rendition of Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast Mast from Balab and one of Zehreeley Zehreeley from Bhatti which had all of us in splits. Bhatti was actually laughing so hard himself, he could not even get to the words Zehreeley Zehreeley.
We had the first half of the next day to ourselves before we started on our homeward journey. Some of us spent some time in the market, shopping for mementos. Anuranjan asked me to get him a stole. It is still an unsolved mystery whom that stole was intended for. But he told me that he liked it, and that my taste was good. Unlike certain other people, who asked for my help in selecting a poncho and then categorically stated that I had bad taste. When I picked two of the fifteen or so that the salesman had laid out, Hemant claimed that I was confusing him and that I should pick only one. The salesman suggested that he should shortlist four or five and then pick one of those. He picked four or five that he didn't want to buy. Eventually I did pick one of the remaining ten or so which he grudgingly agreed to buy, in spite of my bad taste.
The return journey took us through much better roads, although we were considerably slowed down by dense fog. This time we got to hear some really beautiful songs from Ashish and from Prima. By this time, my throat was in pretty bad shape, but I did manage to sing a bit myself. And I managed to sleep for close to four hours, which probably exceeds the total duration of time that I have slept during all the bus rides I have ever undertaken in my life. At some point during those four hours, I realised that I was wearing only open sandals and no socks, and that my feet were freezing. Even that was not enough to wake me up.
Which brings me to another point. I do not believe too much in warm clothing. I had not worn socks since my school days, when they were part of the uniform. I have never owned a proper jacket. For this trip, I needed that kind of stuff. So there I was, with a jacket and shoes borrowed from my brother (the jacket was really warm. It felt like a quilt when I was sleeping in the bus.), a pair of socks borrowed from my dad, a cap and muffler borrowed from Bhavna (which, by the way, Anuranjan thought I'd been knitting since I was in class six and had finished only recently.), and a pair of gloves that Anuranjan bought for me.
Great trip. Special credit to Hemant, Anuranjan, Alok and Ashish for organising everything so well. To Gauri for showing an incredible amount of patience with the bike and with me, on the bike ride and also the trek to Solang Valley. And of course, to Aman, for being the protective elder brother that he has always been to me on all of our trips. If I'd actually had an elder brother, he would and should have been just like Aman. He's the only one in the team who's always been there on all the trips I've been out for, and I cannot imagine going without him.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Yes Man
This is not going to be just about the movie that I watched yesterday, but also about the general movie going experience.
I have always enjoyed Jim Carrey's movies, but this is the first time I actually went out for one of them. I have watched a number of his other movies on HBO or Star Movies and enjoyed every single one of them. Our friend Bhatti, who has never once watched a Jim Carrey movie, was not too enthusiastic about this one either, because he did not have a very high opinion of Jim or his movies. I wonder how someone can form an opinion on this subject without watching The Mask or the Ace Ventura movies or anything else, for that matter.
Yes Man was everything I expect from Jim, and more. It had all of us in splits the whole time. It's not too often that I laugh this hard while watching a movie. Perhaps the fact that Alok always laughs so hard when he laughs at something, and that he was sitting right next to me, also made a difference. It was a light-hearted, fun movie, just the kind I would want to watch when I go out with my co-workers.
Eventually Bhatti grudgingly admitted to Jim Carrey being a passably okay actor, and insulted him by comparing him with Govinda. But he did like the movie.
Oh, by the way, I was wondering where I had seen the actress who plays Lucy in this film. Lucy, by the way, was Jim's best friend's fiancée. Abhinav is generally the one with whom I discuss such things when it comes to Hollywood movies and American sitcoms. The reason why she looked so familiar to me was that she played the interviewer in Friends - The One with Joey's Interview. And Abhinav, she does not star in The O. C.
This was actually the first time I have really enjoyed a movie with my teammates. Very pleasant change from the last day before the shutdown, two years ago.
I have always enjoyed Jim Carrey's movies, but this is the first time I actually went out for one of them. I have watched a number of his other movies on HBO or Star Movies and enjoyed every single one of them. Our friend Bhatti, who has never once watched a Jim Carrey movie, was not too enthusiastic about this one either, because he did not have a very high opinion of Jim or his movies. I wonder how someone can form an opinion on this subject without watching The Mask or the Ace Ventura movies or anything else, for that matter.
Yes Man was everything I expect from Jim, and more. It had all of us in splits the whole time. It's not too often that I laugh this hard while watching a movie. Perhaps the fact that Alok always laughs so hard when he laughs at something, and that he was sitting right next to me, also made a difference. It was a light-hearted, fun movie, just the kind I would want to watch when I go out with my co-workers.
Eventually Bhatti grudgingly admitted to Jim Carrey being a passably okay actor, and insulted him by comparing him with Govinda. But he did like the movie.
Oh, by the way, I was wondering where I had seen the actress who plays Lucy in this film. Lucy, by the way, was Jim's best friend's fiancée. Abhinav is generally the one with whom I discuss such things when it comes to Hollywood movies and American sitcoms. The reason why she looked so familiar to me was that she played the interviewer in Friends - The One with Joey's Interview. And Abhinav, she does not star in The O. C.
This was actually the first time I have really enjoyed a movie with my teammates. Very pleasant change from the last day before the shutdown, two years ago.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
The Vacation Begins
My boss told his entire team three days ago that we were supposed to finish off all pending tasks by the 23rd of December, and schedule a day of fun for the 24th. So basically our vacation began a day earlier than was originally intended.
We went out for lunch and a movie today, and I'll write about the movie separately, but there are a couple of anecdotes from lunchtime worth mentioning here.
We were supposed to go to The Great India Place for the whole thing. Bhatti, Abhinav, Bhavna, Aman and I arrived a little later than the rest of the party, and Aman went off to get himself a pair of sunglasses. The other four were supposed to find the rest of the party and decide on the lunch venue. At this point, Alok called me to find out where we were. I told him that we were going upstairs from the parking lot, and I asked him where they were. He told me that everyone was in the food court. Now I absolutely do not like the food court out there. I told Alok that I was not coming to the food court. He told Mohit, our boss, that I had told him that I was not coming to the food court.
Eventually I did go there, because I thought that, since everyone else was there, it would be a reasonable place for all of us to gather, talk, and arrive at a consensus on the lunch venue. Now at this time, these teammates of mine, together with Mohit, were plotting to pull my leg a bit. They decided to veto whatever alternatives I suggested to the food court and make me believe that, since I was the only one who did not want to eat there, my opinion did not matter too much.
So there we were, gathering an opinion poll on the lunch venue, and the only ones who voted against the food court were the four of us who had shown up late. Obviously, if Bhatti and Abhinav had been aware of the plan, they would certainly have joined the rest of the party. Quite likely taken the lead.
Eventually, Anuranjan told me the plan that they had all planned, and we went to a decent restaurant to eat. Gauri was actually taken in by the whole thing for a while, in spite of being a party to the mischievous plan. For a moment he actually thought that we were going to eat at the food court.
I have this habit of picking my favourite dish from all the ones that are left over at the end of the meal, and forgetting for a few minutes that I am not at home. I like to pick up the serving bowl and finish off whatever is left, directly from that bowl, using the serving spoon. I think my friends from school and college are quite familiar with this. Apparently my teammates were not. Bhatti was giving me one of his priceless expressions and found the whole thing interesting enough to capture on camera. He was a little reluctant to show me the picture, for fear that I may delete it. Hey, I am at least that sporting, people. I would not delete such a picture. I've asked him to mail it to me when he transfers it on to his laptop.
For the next eleven days, I am going to forget all about my work, my diet, the gym, setting alarms to wake me up... I am just going to unwind and do the things that I normally either don't find time for or don't allow myself to do. Just a little while back, I had some of my mom's freshly cooked, piping hot gajar ka halwa. There's nothing quite like it. Nothing quite like sleeping to your heart's content. Or staying up as late as you like.
I'm going to start checking off items from my to do list tomorrow. I'll keep everyone posted on those. And there is a movie review pending from today's outing, which I will write tomorrow as well.
Enjoy the holiday season, folks.
We went out for lunch and a movie today, and I'll write about the movie separately, but there are a couple of anecdotes from lunchtime worth mentioning here.
We were supposed to go to The Great India Place for the whole thing. Bhatti, Abhinav, Bhavna, Aman and I arrived a little later than the rest of the party, and Aman went off to get himself a pair of sunglasses. The other four were supposed to find the rest of the party and decide on the lunch venue. At this point, Alok called me to find out where we were. I told him that we were going upstairs from the parking lot, and I asked him where they were. He told me that everyone was in the food court. Now I absolutely do not like the food court out there. I told Alok that I was not coming to the food court. He told Mohit, our boss, that I had told him that I was not coming to the food court.
Eventually I did go there, because I thought that, since everyone else was there, it would be a reasonable place for all of us to gather, talk, and arrive at a consensus on the lunch venue. Now at this time, these teammates of mine, together with Mohit, were plotting to pull my leg a bit. They decided to veto whatever alternatives I suggested to the food court and make me believe that, since I was the only one who did not want to eat there, my opinion did not matter too much.
So there we were, gathering an opinion poll on the lunch venue, and the only ones who voted against the food court were the four of us who had shown up late. Obviously, if Bhatti and Abhinav had been aware of the plan, they would certainly have joined the rest of the party. Quite likely taken the lead.
Eventually, Anuranjan told me the plan that they had all planned, and we went to a decent restaurant to eat. Gauri was actually taken in by the whole thing for a while, in spite of being a party to the mischievous plan. For a moment he actually thought that we were going to eat at the food court.
I have this habit of picking my favourite dish from all the ones that are left over at the end of the meal, and forgetting for a few minutes that I am not at home. I like to pick up the serving bowl and finish off whatever is left, directly from that bowl, using the serving spoon. I think my friends from school and college are quite familiar with this. Apparently my teammates were not. Bhatti was giving me one of his priceless expressions and found the whole thing interesting enough to capture on camera. He was a little reluctant to show me the picture, for fear that I may delete it. Hey, I am at least that sporting, people. I would not delete such a picture. I've asked him to mail it to me when he transfers it on to his laptop.
For the next eleven days, I am going to forget all about my work, my diet, the gym, setting alarms to wake me up... I am just going to unwind and do the things that I normally either don't find time for or don't allow myself to do. Just a little while back, I had some of my mom's freshly cooked, piping hot gajar ka halwa. There's nothing quite like it. Nothing quite like sleeping to your heart's content. Or staying up as late as you like.
I'm going to start checking off items from my to do list tomorrow. I'll keep everyone posted on those. And there is a movie review pending from today's outing, which I will write tomorrow as well.
Enjoy the holiday season, folks.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Going Out With My Team
Here are some random observations I have gathered from various outings with my team, like Monday's dinner outing.
- When you meet the same people (whom you work with every day) in a different setting, and let your guards down, and they let theirs down, you get to see them for the people that they really are. This is something you don't always get to see otherwise.
- I find it reasonably easy to grow to be friends with someone, to like them, but I find it really difficult to trust someone completely. Only last night I realized that, in the immediate team of around fifty people (which includes only three females, including myself) that I went out with last night, there are only two guys I would trust completely and feel totally safe around. One of them is my boss. The other is my brother in the team, Aman. I am sure that if I actually had an elder brother, he could not have been any more caring.
- For some unexplained reason, I always get a dull ache in my left arm the day after I go bowling. I bowl with my right hand.
- On the day we plan a team outing, and on the day after that, I accomplish nothing at work.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Lucky Pink!
On 12th August 2008, I went out with my teammates to World of Wonders (For the uninitiated, it's an amusement park in Noida.) followed by bowling and dinner. It was a nice evening, but I don't feel like writing about all of it, just a little bit that was memorable for me.
I am an amateur at bowling. I've done it only once before. That was also at a team party, close to two years ago. I absolutely did not seem to understand how to roll the ball in order to make it go straight towards the pins, and always managed to slide it into the gutter. After two or three of these completely unsuccessful attempts, Mr Hemant Badhani walked over to the neighbouring alley, picked up a pink-coloured ball, and presented it to me (There were various colours in our alley, but no pink.). In the first go, that ball did not hit anything either, but I could see that its weight was just right and I had a better idea of where it was going than I had with the other balls. So it was with this ball that I hit five or six pins a couple of times, and, at the very end, a strike-in-one. This colour, when seen on my media player, blog, or clothes, puts me at the receiving end of all sorts of remarks from Akash, Abhinav, Anuranjan, Hemant, and any number of other guys. After this incident, I've decided that I am not going to change the colour of any of these things for a significantly long time, and if I can't beat the people who constantly comment about it, I will join them!
I am an amateur at bowling. I've done it only once before. That was also at a team party, close to two years ago. I absolutely did not seem to understand how to roll the ball in order to make it go straight towards the pins, and always managed to slide it into the gutter. After two or three of these completely unsuccessful attempts, Mr Hemant Badhani walked over to the neighbouring alley, picked up a pink-coloured ball, and presented it to me (There were various colours in our alley, but no pink.). In the first go, that ball did not hit anything either, but I could see that its weight was just right and I had a better idea of where it was going than I had with the other balls. So it was with this ball that I hit five or six pins a couple of times, and, at the very end, a strike-in-one. This colour, when seen on my media player, blog, or clothes, puts me at the receiving end of all sorts of remarks from Akash, Abhinav, Anuranjan, Hemant, and any number of other guys. After this incident, I've decided that I am not going to change the colour of any of these things for a significantly long time, and if I can't beat the people who constantly comment about it, I will join them!
Friday, June 20, 2008
In The Lap of The Ganges
I know this is a little overdue, but I have to write about my most memorable trip ever. Possibly among the happiest three days I ever experienced. It was not my first white water experience, nor was it my first trip with my teammates. I'd actually been rafting over a subset of the same stretch of rapids with my team the previous year. Although, as a matter of fact, there were only four people other than myself who were part of both the trips.
So most of the people going rafting that weekend were from my team, except for a couple of Ashish's (Random observation: I think this is the first time I'm actually referring to one of my friends by name in my blog. So far I've only referred to people by description) childhood friends, and my friend Aarti, whom Ashish and Hemant also knew and asked me to invite along. Come along with us she did, as did another friend of hers.
The day we were supposed to leave for our camp from Noida started out with an almost torrential and completely unseasonal downpour. And that gave us some amazing weather. Aarti, her friend Deepa and I spent a large portion of that evening enjoying the lovely breeze out in the open, walking around and, well, since I'd seen Aarti after quite some time, so we were catching up with the latest in each other's lives. Oh, and that was the evening Ashish tried to ram his car into the three of us :P
So anyway, after a bit of delay, as is usual for a trip involving around twenty five people, we set out for Devprayag (I think that was the name of the place from where we started our rafting) amidst good weather and good cheer. After all, we were taking an extended weekend off from our drab routines to wash away our sins in the Ganges and have a lot of fun doing it! On the bus ride, there was a lot of singing, chattering, leg pulling. (Especially with Aman teasing Anuranjan and me endlessly. But I'm not really complaining here. Because I know I provoked all that!) There were only two or three people in the group whom I did not know prior to this trip, but there were, apparently, quite a few I was not well acquainted with. Who'd known me only from a distance or on a strictly professional, developer-quality engineer interaction level. So a bunch of people got to see the real me during that bus ride. Another thing about that bus ride. I normally cannot sleep while travelling. On our Dalhousie trip, we were travelling all night and everyone was asleep but I was awake for the most part of the night. Only after Rachita gave me a nice, relaxing forehead massage was I able to sleep for just under half an hour. But on this journey I had a little over a couple of hours of deep sleep. Apparently Ashish's singing was a lot more soothing than Rachita's massage.
So, anyway, after some digression from our route and a stopover for breakfast, we finally made it to our starting point for the day's rafting. On the banks, some of us helped pump up the air into the rafts. After they did a bit of pumping with all their might, we were told that those rafts were not ours and ours were already ready down at the riverbank. By the way, the unseasonal showers continued all the way and at the time of which I speak, it was drizzling. When we started our journey down the river, it was raining considerably and the shower continued all through the way that day. The first day's rapids were relatively mild, and not too exciting for those of us who had experienced rapids before, so the rain added the component of novelty that we needed there. Even so, we were quite thankful when the skies cleared up that evening and the next day came up all bright and sunshiny.
The evening was completely awesome. There is something that I did not find out about Anuranjan on any of the earlier trips. After he's had a couple of drinks, his sense of humour becomes absolutely legendary! He'll poke fun at anyone and everyone in that state, and everyone will have a good time. And the frequency with which he uses his favourite word - bhangi - will go up exponentially. There was a lot of interesting conversation centered around the origin and the meanings of this word, and what it takes to be a bhangi or to marry a bhangi. Then one of the guys at the camp did a little song in the local dialect for us, which set off a bit of discussion on love and heartbreak.
There was talk of going for a night trek after the campfire and dinner, but that was dropped in favour of going down to the beach (the riverside beach, that is) and counting shooting stars. Aman, Anuranjan and Gauri built a futuristic sand house for themselves, complete with a helipad and bean bags. And then there was the part where Aman made a mental map of our floor back in the office, iterated over every cubicle and cabin, and asked me for my opinion on every guy I knew. He claimed he was trying to judge my taste in guys so he could help me find one for myself. Meanwhile Mr Gaurishankar Kshirsagar was spotting shooting stars and counting away to glory. He wished a dozen wishes that evening and I doubt if any of them have come true so far. Alok tried really hard to match up to the number of stars that Gauri had spotted, but not to much avail. Oh, and those who were there on the beach that night will always remember that once Alok starts laughing, there's no stopping him!
On our second day there, there was a little trek to a waterfall, actually a series of three waterfalls. We had to climb up the lowest and smallest one of the three to go and shower under the second one. I don't think there were too many people in the group who could have done that without Aman and Sunny pulling us up, and Dahuja pushing from below. Now that was a lot of fun, an experience to remember.
That evening we did some miscellaneous activities in the camp. There was a bit of beach volleyball, a bit of rappelling (I think everyone remembers Meenal's experience there!!!) and throwing stones at an empty soft drink bottle (a plastic one). And we buried Ashish and Alok in the sand, turn by turn. Later in the evening it was back to the campfire, and Anuranjan and his alcohol. That night we decided to go down to the beach with our blankets and sleeping bags, and sleep on the sand. There were six of us who finally executed this plan, and I'm glad I was one of them. On the beach, we were back to wishing upon stars (Gauri saw another dozen that night), revealing secrets, and laughing at each other. And I think we all slept really peacefully that night.
The next day's rafting involved some interesting rapids, albeit a couple of overrated ones too (perhaps it was just that we passed over them when the water was a little low), but the ones we traversed after our lunch stopover were a lot of fun. And then there was the cliff jumping which I did not do, and which Aman did around half a dozen times, over and over again, until the guides started pointing out that we had to finish our stretch on the river before dark.
Even so, our departure for Noida was delayed by two or three hours. But well, every moment of this trip was worth it. But hang on, I have some memories from the return journey too. I'm sure neither Ashish nor I will ever forget the time when he asked me who, out of himself and Hemant, was a better singer. I will certainly not forget how jealous Ashish pretended to be at my answer! And I have been taunted about that little incident any number of times since then. But, all said and done, Ashish actually does sing really well. His singing is even better than Anuranjan's sense of humour (comparing apples and oranges, are we? But I guess people will get the drift.).
Those three days were legendary. But I'd been away from home for three days and I really wanted to go home and take a nice, warm bath, eat something my mom had cooked and sleep in my own bed. I called my mom when we stopped for tea that evening. Actually, Alok made me call her. I told her we'd reach Noida around one in the morning. She put her foot down at the idea of me driving home all by myself at that hour. I knew she was right, Delhi is not a very safe city. But I still wanted to go home. And quite possibly, I would have, if Ashish hadn't told me not to do so. In a slightly scolding manner. So I stayed over at Meenal's place that night. When we reached her place, we did not have the energy to do anything more than fall into bed and go to sleep immediately.
Does that conclude all I want to say about this trip? By no means. I could go on forever. Well, for a really long time at least. But while writing I try to stay concise and I have already gone way past my regular standards of being concise, so I'll just conclude here. Ashish, Alok and Hemant did a fantastic job organizing this trip. And Aman and Anuranjan did an equally fantastic job adding flavour to it.
So most of the people going rafting that weekend were from my team, except for a couple of Ashish's (Random observation: I think this is the first time I'm actually referring to one of my friends by name in my blog. So far I've only referred to people by description) childhood friends, and my friend Aarti, whom Ashish and Hemant also knew and asked me to invite along. Come along with us she did, as did another friend of hers.
The day we were supposed to leave for our camp from Noida started out with an almost torrential and completely unseasonal downpour. And that gave us some amazing weather. Aarti, her friend Deepa and I spent a large portion of that evening enjoying the lovely breeze out in the open, walking around and, well, since I'd seen Aarti after quite some time, so we were catching up with the latest in each other's lives. Oh, and that was the evening Ashish tried to ram his car into the three of us :P
So anyway, after a bit of delay, as is usual for a trip involving around twenty five people, we set out for Devprayag (I think that was the name of the place from where we started our rafting) amidst good weather and good cheer. After all, we were taking an extended weekend off from our drab routines to wash away our sins in the Ganges and have a lot of fun doing it! On the bus ride, there was a lot of singing, chattering, leg pulling. (Especially with Aman teasing Anuranjan and me endlessly. But I'm not really complaining here. Because I know I provoked all that!) There were only two or three people in the group whom I did not know prior to this trip, but there were, apparently, quite a few I was not well acquainted with. Who'd known me only from a distance or on a strictly professional, developer-quality engineer interaction level. So a bunch of people got to see the real me during that bus ride. Another thing about that bus ride. I normally cannot sleep while travelling. On our Dalhousie trip, we were travelling all night and everyone was asleep but I was awake for the most part of the night. Only after Rachita gave me a nice, relaxing forehead massage was I able to sleep for just under half an hour. But on this journey I had a little over a couple of hours of deep sleep. Apparently Ashish's singing was a lot more soothing than Rachita's massage.
So, anyway, after some digression from our route and a stopover for breakfast, we finally made it to our starting point for the day's rafting. On the banks, some of us helped pump up the air into the rafts. After they did a bit of pumping with all their might, we were told that those rafts were not ours and ours were already ready down at the riverbank. By the way, the unseasonal showers continued all the way and at the time of which I speak, it was drizzling. When we started our journey down the river, it was raining considerably and the shower continued all through the way that day. The first day's rapids were relatively mild, and not too exciting for those of us who had experienced rapids before, so the rain added the component of novelty that we needed there. Even so, we were quite thankful when the skies cleared up that evening and the next day came up all bright and sunshiny.
The evening was completely awesome. There is something that I did not find out about Anuranjan on any of the earlier trips. After he's had a couple of drinks, his sense of humour becomes absolutely legendary! He'll poke fun at anyone and everyone in that state, and everyone will have a good time. And the frequency with which he uses his favourite word - bhangi - will go up exponentially. There was a lot of interesting conversation centered around the origin and the meanings of this word, and what it takes to be a bhangi or to marry a bhangi. Then one of the guys at the camp did a little song in the local dialect for us, which set off a bit of discussion on love and heartbreak.
There was talk of going for a night trek after the campfire and dinner, but that was dropped in favour of going down to the beach (the riverside beach, that is) and counting shooting stars. Aman, Anuranjan and Gauri built a futuristic sand house for themselves, complete with a helipad and bean bags. And then there was the part where Aman made a mental map of our floor back in the office, iterated over every cubicle and cabin, and asked me for my opinion on every guy I knew. He claimed he was trying to judge my taste in guys so he could help me find one for myself. Meanwhile Mr Gaurishankar Kshirsagar was spotting shooting stars and counting away to glory. He wished a dozen wishes that evening and I doubt if any of them have come true so far. Alok tried really hard to match up to the number of stars that Gauri had spotted, but not to much avail. Oh, and those who were there on the beach that night will always remember that once Alok starts laughing, there's no stopping him!
On our second day there, there was a little trek to a waterfall, actually a series of three waterfalls. We had to climb up the lowest and smallest one of the three to go and shower under the second one. I don't think there were too many people in the group who could have done that without Aman and Sunny pulling us up, and Dahuja pushing from below. Now that was a lot of fun, an experience to remember.
That evening we did some miscellaneous activities in the camp. There was a bit of beach volleyball, a bit of rappelling (I think everyone remembers Meenal's experience there!!!) and throwing stones at an empty soft drink bottle (a plastic one). And we buried Ashish and Alok in the sand, turn by turn. Later in the evening it was back to the campfire, and Anuranjan and his alcohol. That night we decided to go down to the beach with our blankets and sleeping bags, and sleep on the sand. There were six of us who finally executed this plan, and I'm glad I was one of them. On the beach, we were back to wishing upon stars (Gauri saw another dozen that night), revealing secrets, and laughing at each other. And I think we all slept really peacefully that night.
The next day's rafting involved some interesting rapids, albeit a couple of overrated ones too (perhaps it was just that we passed over them when the water was a little low), but the ones we traversed after our lunch stopover were a lot of fun. And then there was the cliff jumping which I did not do, and which Aman did around half a dozen times, over and over again, until the guides started pointing out that we had to finish our stretch on the river before dark.
Even so, our departure for Noida was delayed by two or three hours. But well, every moment of this trip was worth it. But hang on, I have some memories from the return journey too. I'm sure neither Ashish nor I will ever forget the time when he asked me who, out of himself and Hemant, was a better singer. I will certainly not forget how jealous Ashish pretended to be at my answer! And I have been taunted about that little incident any number of times since then. But, all said and done, Ashish actually does sing really well. His singing is even better than Anuranjan's sense of humour (comparing apples and oranges, are we? But I guess people will get the drift.).
Those three days were legendary. But I'd been away from home for three days and I really wanted to go home and take a nice, warm bath, eat something my mom had cooked and sleep in my own bed. I called my mom when we stopped for tea that evening. Actually, Alok made me call her. I told her we'd reach Noida around one in the morning. She put her foot down at the idea of me driving home all by myself at that hour. I knew she was right, Delhi is not a very safe city. But I still wanted to go home. And quite possibly, I would have, if Ashish hadn't told me not to do so. In a slightly scolding manner. So I stayed over at Meenal's place that night. When we reached her place, we did not have the energy to do anything more than fall into bed and go to sleep immediately.
Does that conclude all I want to say about this trip? By no means. I could go on forever. Well, for a really long time at least. But while writing I try to stay concise and I have already gone way past my regular standards of being concise, so I'll just conclude here. Ashish, Alok and Hemant did a fantastic job organizing this trip. And Aman and Anuranjan did an equally fantastic job adding flavour to it.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
My Trysts With Cricket
I have never been able to understand why people like cricket so much. Sure, it's a matter of personal taste and my taste and this sport are as alike as chalk and cheese. I've never been able to sit through more than seven or eight overs at a stretch. Only thrice in my lifetime have I tried to watch a match on TV.
The first time was 8th June 1999. The World Cup's Super Six match between India and Pakistan. We were on a school trip to Dharamshala and everyone was obviously quite enthused about this match, given the teams involved. We'd all gathered in the lobby of the little inn where we were staying and everybody was way more excited about this than about going out to trek or singing and dancing around a bonfire or anything else that the trip was originally intended for. So I thought I'd sit around and try to figure out what it was all about. I made a miserably unsuccessful attempt at figuring that out.
Fast forward to the next World Cup. 23rd March 2003. A bunch of my friends and I were writing the entrance exam for Delhi University's MCA course that day. Our exam centres were scattered across the University's North Campus, which is also the place where we'd all done our undergraduate studies together. We'd decided to meet up in our College after the exam. We went to the Junior Common Room to find all the resident Junior Members of College (That's the terminology in our College. There are no "students" and "teachers". There are Junior Members and Senior Members. And there's no "hostel", there's a residence.) gathered over there with their faces painted in the Tricolour. I got a really nice feeling being there, in the moment. We stuck around for five overs or so and then we lost hope with India's performance in that match. Then even the cricket enthusiasts among us found it a better option to go to the College's little coffee counter to sit and chat.
The only time I actually watched a match at my own place with just my Dad watching it with me was the ICC Twenty20 World Cup Final. I watched the last seven or eight overs of that one. During the last few balls I actually felt involved for the first time. And I felt the excitement when the last ball was bowled, not knowing whether it had enough swing to result in a six, or, as it happened, it would be caught. But that excitement was apparently not enough motivation for me to try sitting through another match.
And then there was IPL. I'm not sure if my team outing to Ferozshah Kotla on 22nd May 2008 actually counts as my fourth attempt to watch a game of cricket or not, but it was an interesting experience. A completely unseasonal torrential downpour drenching us but not in the least dampening our spirits. A ground that seemed reasonably dry until the staff tried to remove the covers after the rain stopped, and, in the process, transferred the puddles from the plastic on to the ground. So there was no match. But there was a lot of fun. There was a lot of screaming at the top of our lungs, for no real reason except that it was fun. There was cold rainwater accompanied by a chilly breeze. There was good company. That was what I went there for. I never wanted to watch the match and the forces of Nature also did not want me to watch cricket. They just wanted me to have a good time, as I did.
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