Pasina... Marina... But no Hasinaa

I see it. Its resemblance to my past was unmistakable. Its rough edges, i thought, perfectly blended with me. It made me remember my lost bicycle 9 years ago. I was a bicycle enthu who did not properly ride a bicycle for 9 years. Now seeing a bicycle which looked like mine excited me.

My Days in Chennai were ending. I suddenly remembered that I never went to Marina Beach. I dont know if it was the crowds that put me off or that I do not follow crowd or my goa days which made sure that I was never attracted to Chennai Beaches - the fact is even though i traveled on Marina Beach road many-a-times, I never ventured into beach. Now I felt I needed to see it.

I got up by 5:30. I took my bag to carry camera, water and purse. I planned to ride to Marina Beach from my besant nagar house. I carried purse so that I could return back in an Auto in case I did not make it. And then as I cycled to Marina, I realized that I was still good on a cycle. I reached the place quite quickly, covered most of the beach, saw children n oldies enjoying themselves, surprisingly no haseenas at all and before the sun was really out, I started back. I reached our place by 7:30 after spending some good time in beach. I just felt good, felt light is the better word. I would have enjoyed more if I had company but then it wasnt meant to be.

ps: I am officially unemploed now. Got my US Visa and Will be travelling to US on Jul 17.

Cheers!

Following the Donkeys Trail....

So it finally happened. After a lot of false-starts and after almost postponing it once again, we went ahead and the experience has been so big that it will be difficult to describe using words. But I am going to give it a try though...

Before you people find it difficult to comprehend what I am talking about or before you try to understand the title and before you start scolding me not understanding it, let me write this pretty quickly.... I am talking about the Walk in the Lakes. I guess this description creates more confusion. okay, let me give it another try. I am talking about THE best outdoor experience four of us had because of the greatness of one special special English man. I am talking about spending a day in a region which has the highest rainfall in England. I am talking about spending a day in glorious weather with out any rain when the only thing predicted by every met department was Rain. I am finally going to put it in a simple way. I am talking about spending a day in Lake district walking beside the lakes, walking on lush green farms, walking beside the sheep and even cows, which have the capacity to haunt you in dream (don't think why I wrote about the cows, its too complex), watching the most beautiful hidden lake that we ever saw and finally climbing with out rope to reach the summit. For people who did not come with me on the trek ( Well 'trek' is what I am actually writing about ), my description may look little hyped but the fact of the matter is every thing I am writing is the truth and I write & speak only truth.

Before I start, again a big thanks to the weather God. He/ She has indeed smiled on us that day. A Big Thanks from MANCHESTER!!!!

Again let me take some time introducing the cast. There are 4 other persons including me but the real cast is one person- Mr. Phillip Harland, He likes everyone to call him Phil, I call him Sir! (I show respect to old men, he is not that old though, he is only 49 but he looks 69! at least to few, phew!!!). He is the most charming personality I met in UK and I am sure at least two among the 4 of us, if not all, will agree to it.

Here we go....

Showing us the way.... well thats where we were going!

Don't get confused, the picture just shows the direction not the summit. In a way, this post of mine is going to be the same, it will try to make you feel the experience but the experience belonged to us:).

So on a pleasant day when the rain stopped when we started, we began our trek. Some of us were so confused that we mistook the road that leads us to the climb to the actual climb. I will not talk about the people who were confused about the place. It is Grasmere (YO YO) .Mr. Phil was obviously trying to scare us by confusing us with the route but we were too excited to be scared. So as we were moving on the road, there was a path in the farms which was made for people who were keen on avoiding the road. We took the path in the farm and excitement began for us not by seeing the sights that were waiting for us but by seeing the change in the color of the shoes we were wearing. It was time to get dirty and we were more than willing. So considering that the trek has indeed begun in my blog, lets have more of the 'WE' I will be referring to in this post.

Sir, Aditi, Praveen & Sumanth (Left 2 Right).

I know I am missing. There is a little secret of mine. I am a self sacrificing idiot and I was looking more to capture my friends than me. But I am still accused of creating a portfolio.

As we started forging ahead, lakes greeted us, the little bridges welcomed us, the sheep stared at us, the cows ignored us, the kissing gate allowed us and waterfalls invited us. We accepted the invitation and played before the waterfalls, not in it as we had just begun the journey and we had to keep ourselves warm. Of course I managed to injure my knee by slipping near the waterfalls (for people who know me, I know you will be saying 'Whats NEW') but the good thing was that it took me one full day to feel the pain. The waterfalls has an interesting name 'Sour Milk'. It was white so it was called Milk. We really could not get why it was called sour, it looked only sweet to us. As we continued our trekking, the sights beckoned on us and one such sight took our breath away...

I don't remember the name of this pristine lake. I will not disclose it even if I knew it.

It personally took me few seconds to actually recognize that it was a lake. Of course the sights I had access to could never be captured. It was as I said our experience. For a while, I thought that this Lake did not belong to any. Well it neither belonged to Land nor water & not even Sky. Of course Mr. Phil cleared the confusion by telling us that this Lake belonged to the Queen. I guess he is after all ENGLISH , a proud one too!. We of course took many photos at this location. Even I was tricked into photos by my friends and I must say, some surely belong to my portfolio.
We all agreed to one point though. It was indeed the most beautiful sight experienced by us.

Finally after spending considering amount of time at the lake, we started our trek towards the second hill that we were going to capture. Before it became difficult though, we managed to pass through some amazing places. Everything that greeted us while we were climbing were also present in this route and we had more of the lakes, bridges and also other fellow climbers.

Kabhi Kabhi Ghaas bhi Sundar Lagtha hain... You only need the eyes to see it. My Camera can only help so much...

We finally reached the point of our arduous trek and we had a sign board indicating the same. We had the option to go back to car or start trekking. We were game for trek but some time down the clock, few of us began to question their judgment. Few will be wrong and it should be one. It was not the girl and it wasn't me. It was Mr. Super Fit doubting his judgment. The second photo should help you in finding the super fit. Of course the three young turks among us were surprised seeing the speed maintained by the oldie n the girlie. All this while, we were encouraged by the great man to keep up the speed as he did not want us to miss on any sights. He was full of encouragement leading the pack

OLD IS INDEED GOLD

This was not exactly the arduous trek I was referring to. But Mr. Phil was always full of encouragement the way he is in this image.

Finally we did reach the summit. Not all of us reached the real summit, the summit on the summit but I did, so did the oldie n the girlie. The Summit on the summit refers to the 20 feet rock on the hill which we had to climb with out help of a rope:). It was difficult and I am really grateful to Phil that he helped me climb it. It feels complete. I just remembered one good song. Aditi made it special by actually listening to a Sufi Song on top of the summit on the summit. Now who says girls don't have their own way of making things special!!! 'Experience of a life time u see...'

As I Said, the oldie n the girlie were always ahead of us. Of course we were the ones showing respect.

After really struggling to get down the rock and after puncturing one of my pillows, we all started eating on the summit. There was chicken, burger, bread, omlette, drinks, chocolates and yes yes also a ketchup bottle. We carried all this in our bags. The idea of ketchup was mine and it was an instant hit. After our round of eating, we started the trek down. I was a picture of concentration during our downward journey. Its other thing that I managed to slip twice but did not get injured this time around. My concentration helped me. It was just a half slip. Finally we reached the car, thanked the weather god, packed all our stuff into the car and got into it. The rain again started falling. Now this is timing and we were so glad that we were on the right side of it.

Finally... Summarizing the whole thing : Trekking is wrecking the sane part of you, uncorking the insane part of you, triggering the adventurous part of you and anything n everything that this nonstop-nonsense in me decides to write... I know its getting boring but I am here to add Nonsense value. Indeed thats the only thing I have been doing for some time:) (Its really surprising to find what you can become when you try to become something which you are not. Okay... No complaints, there are still people who like me for what I am and I am happy!!!)

To put it simply though ( I am making a big attempt here...), Its you forgetting about everything and spending some time with nature in a way you can do by only trekking.

Coming to the title and why I have chosen it, It was to inspire all of us in choosing the shortest path while trekking. Well... the donkeys trail was supposed to be the shortest and I was the one who said it, well someone said it and I read it. But the only trail that was as disturbed as that of the donkeys was mine and I guess the next time you go there, you will know whose trail you are following... Confused, it will be my trail. Don't think much. I have even stopped writing!

Are u Shaking??? Its the Photo thats making u shake, not my writing. Could not loose out on a chance to improve my portfolio.

A Day to remember

Jul 9, 2007 is a Day to remember and I will surely remember it as long as I can :D

My success with a standardized test is well documented. But whats not documented is the fact that I had lot of things going for me. First of all, I was wished by so many people before I wrote the test. So many of my friends who are far far away remembered the day and wished me well. Good wishes bring a lot of energy with them. On the morning of the exam, I got to know( I should have known ) that it was the birthday of a special friend and yeah this news brought with it, its own share of Feel Good factor and then my roomies, what could I say about them, they are the best and they really did not need to do anything other than what they were doing to make me feel good. So I had many things going for me but then there were other important events that took place on the day that make it so wonderful.

My roomie, Uday who got into Gatech got his F1 Visa. Though there is little sadness that one guy with whom I have become close of late is leaving, I am ecstatic to see some one living my dream, well my old dream. Off late, my dreams have changed. So what was my dream, I dreamed of studying computer science in a Top university and there are few better ones than Gatech in the whole world!!!. Of course I keep wondering how my dreams have changed but then they do. Right now I am celebrating my dear friend Uday's entry into Gatech and I hope and I am sure he will fulfill all his dreams in the Land of Opportunities.

My other roomie, SHIP, well his real name is charan, cleared his orals. He is a marine engineer who traveled lot of places, something many people will die for. But marine engineers have this stupid promotion exams where in they have to clear exams and orals to get promoted. The only difficult thing about the orals is that it depends on the whims & fancies of some person, who only decides to pass a person if he is in a good mood. Of course all orals are like this especially when they are not monitored well. I am more happy for SHIP because he is this crazy guy who really gets emotional & worried about his future. So seeing him enjoy like the way he does without any tension was cool, really cool.

When things go well, You want them to go well and I am no exception. I hope I have many such days to remember and I am positive that I will have many such days.

Having Fun

Off late, I have been having lot of fun.

First & foremost, I got Fifa07 installed in my roomies PC and spent one full day and one or two evenings trying to get a hold of it. I was a die-hard FIFA player until fifa 2004, after that slowing PC & Work kept me away from it for a long time. I guess my passion for it has still not gone. The game is great though; it's much more realistic and much more challenging.

But things have not been great even here; Playing FIFA07 made me realise that I am no longer playing it as well as I used to; I guess I played for only one day though. Of course my joy stick keeps giving me problems and my roomies PC though adequate is not a perfect machine to play. I think I should buy a lethal laptop (Not only for games, it will be useful as a personal computer:) ) and probably an XBOX joystick to go with it. I have never been a fan of Game stations aka XBOX, PS3. May be its time for them. The only thing that's stopping me right now from going full throttle is my career. Once I get it on track, one will see more of me in games.

I have been playing Cricket 2007 also, it's a pretty easy game though. It's good for fun and I guess I had enough of cricket especially after seeing India's performance in World Cup.

Have not seen many movies recently; I did see spiderman-3 and two ridiculous Telugu movies. Spiderman-3 was boring, it was either a slow drama or a Super fast game, there was very little enjoyment in it, the second half comedy involving Tobey Maguire is funny though; Of course I told every one that I loved it as I could not imagine my roomie, who is a big batman fan, having a laugh at me. I have many to-see movies in my list: Metro, Pirates, Shrek, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom & finally Harry Potter. Now did any one say that they have not seen many movies recently? Well, I dont know.

From being some one who didn't notice girls around me, now I am seeing lot of girls ( purely seeing ). I guess "inspiring friends" around me in my office have inspired me enough to change my habits. I guess India is a beautiful country and there are many many girls around us who are beautiful and Beauty is something that should be appreciated and enjoyed and understood as a creation of God.

Finally I think having fun is funny as long as it's not affecting ur goals and ur efforts. Enjoy!!!