A Trip Down Nostalgia Lane

Last weekend our family made a trip to Mysore; in fact we made it an extended weekend to give ourselves more time to meet the people and places that we frequented often during our two year stay at Mysore between 2001 and 2002.

Mysore is a place that I was drawn to, when I was a student in Bangalore in the late 1990s. The same charm that the place exuded on the noted novelist RK Narayan worked on me too! Several trips and treks to areas around Mysore later, I decided to move there when my organization started a new centre. A couple of years later my nomadic job took me to several other places abroad. When I decided to return back, I came back to my home state for various reasons.

So, last week we went to the famous palace a couple of times, the hotels on Harsha street, Kalidasa Road, the temples in Vontikoppal, the zoo, the lakes (Karanaji, Kukkarahalli) etc. The city has also changed a bit in the last eight years. Nothing ever remains the same! For one there is more traffic and many more traffic stoplights than before. So in many ways our trip was a nice refresh of the good old memories.

Memories are like soft wispy clouds and wandering in them makes one feel good. Human memory is usually selective: it easily forgets the bad things of the past and retains the sweet ones. And then there are layers upon layers of such memories. Having grown up in many cities and visited several places I seem to carry a pretty large stock of these creamy layers!

Jiddu Krishnamurthy used to say that memory creates attachments; being wedded to the memory of the past is to lose the ability to observe and experience the present. That is surely true, as long as one is aware of the line between wallowing in old memories, to relishing them once in a while! Nostalgia with awareness would acceptable to even JK.

Revenue vs Profit = Vanity vs Sanity

Someone somewhere said, "Revenue is vanity, Profit is sanity". So true for any company, small or big. I am a keen follower of this conversation at various places.

Hence it is very interesting to see that Apple the maker of cool tech products, has a whopping 35% of the profits made in the PC industry, while it takes only 7% of the share of revenues! Now Apple is also seen as a company that appeals to people's sense of vanity!

Twenty things in Twenty-o-nine

A New Year is a great occasion to take stock. 2010 marks the beginning of not just a new year, but also a new decade! Wanted to spend a moment to recap the 20 things that worked for me in 2009 and then may be dream 10 things that I aspire to do in the year 2010:

1. Vipassana: The year started with a great introduction to meditation and a closer introspection at what spirituality means. Was able to do a ten day Vipassana course that I wanted to for some time. The impact has been transformational to say the least. Only thing is I haven’t been able to practice the technique ‘religiously’.
2. 'The' Himalayas: Since I was a kid, I always wanted to see the Great Himalayas. In September was able to realize the dream and got a peek at the mighty mountain ranges when we made a trek to the Valley of Flowers, Hemkund, Badrinath etc. Have been amazed by the sheer scale of the mountains, the beauty of the ranges and the tranquility there. Few other things I did for the first time were skinny dipping at 15000 ft near Hemkund Sahib, white water rafting in the Alaknanda river and actually jumping into the river midway, jumping off a cliff from 15 feet into the river! What an adventure!
3. Karate, Budokan style: The mind-body fusion and application that martial art calls for is kinda meditative. Signed up for a 3 month intro course - flexibility improved, endurance improved and overall I felt fit. Will pursue this further!
4. Running: The affair with running continued this year too. Ran my second Half Marathon with a better time than the first one. The next event on the calendar is the Auroville HM in February.
5. Cycling: This was a new one in 2009, and what an amazing ride it has been! The Freedom Ride held in August this year on India’s independence day was the longest, but there were many other short rides done with Hyderabad Bicycling Club and with Thunderbolts (cycling club at my workplace). Occasionally I take the cycle out for the office commute and some errands near home. It feels great and adds up to the environment cause.
6. Yearend Trek: This year the Christmas long weekend was spent in Pench Tiger Reserve. It is becoming an annual thingie, just like the September trips.
7. Technology Conclaves: After skipping them in 2008, I found myself attending the TiE ISB CoNNect and NASSCOM Product Conclave. It was nice to see and hear some great technology minds and get to know what’s buzzing in the Tech world. Singular insight: no value gained if you don’t have something to discuss about.
8. Coding: The last few years haven’t seen me do much of coding, something I loved as a teenager (though had no computer then!) and later in college. So when I re-discovered the joy of coding in Python, and a web application framework called Django, it was nirvana again. I hope to develop some useful application during my spare time on weekends.
9. Wii and gaming: As a kid I couldn't convince my parents about buying a home computer in 1989. Those days they had Sinclairs that used the television as a video output device. My parents fear was that I will end up playing video games, and I couldn't convey my passion for programming in BASIC. Later when I took up computers in a big way, I never got into gaming and avoided even stuff like pacman, tetris. This year, the success of Nintendo Wii drew me in, due to its active nature. Have enjoyed the device a lot, and plan to buy a few more titles.
10. Books – The reading habit has fragmented heavily with the Web/Twitter/Blogs etc, not counting the many magazines and newspapers. With more twitter usage, I found myself using less of Google Reader. If reading a book is like having a full meal, I have moved to eating bite sized snacks. Can’t recall much except 1-2 fiction books like Lashkar and Art of Living (on Vipassana), Go Kiss The World. Hope to read some good books this year.
11. Voting – I feel proud, having voted in the general elections in May and the Municipal (GHMC) elections in November. The least one can do to change the pathetic politics around is to vote. There is huge scope for improvement in enabling people to vote using technology and the internet. It is another matter that politics in the state sunk to its lowest in 2009.
12. Honey I shrunk the commute! – In May, I took a strategic decision to move closer to my work location. This freed up almost two hours per day. The impact on quality of life has been great, helping me fret less and do more!
13. Toddler to Child – My daughter Ritsika is now five years old, and not a toddler anymore! Each stage of a child’s growth is precious and a sheer miracle. At this stage, I look forward to more activities together.
14. Table Tennis – The only sport on which I did relatively well as a child was TT. An inter-corporate seniors tournament held in December, gave a chance to dust off the racket and get into the game. Learnt from Madhu Kishore, a State level player about some basics which helped me make a Podium finish and also win a community TT event.
15. Golf: My love-hate relationship with golf continues. There were months when I played the game regularly and times when I ignored the game. I love the elegance of the swing, the focus, and the walk in the greenery with like minded folks, but not the huge amount of time it demands. With more colleagues picking up the sport, the new year should see more golfing.
16. The Year of Twitter: Blogging has taken a back seat with Tweets taking over! But I am slowly veering to the view that both can co-exist. Writing a blog helps one think clearly and long enough. My Facebook usage has also increased this year as more and more college mates get on the bandwagon.
17. Carnatic music: Always loved the classic compositions by Annamayya and Tyagaraja. So was excited to be part of a hundred thousand people contingent that sang some select compositions of Annamayya. And guess what, this event was recognized as the largest such gathering ever, by the Guinness Book!
18. Hello Ubuntu: While I haven’t yet said good bye Windows, I have switched my home computer to Ubuntu (a Linux version) – use it for email, photos, videos, coding, music etc. I now miss nothing in Windows (except iTunes).
19. The year marked 11 years of my working career. One thing I learnt from Bagchi’s Kiss the World, one of the few books I finished during the year, was that there is nothing called retirement, leave alone early retirement. This put to rest some romantic notions I had about retiring by 50 etc. Had a fun time thinking about unsettling vs stability and what is the best time to have a reflection on mid-life musings!
20. Well, I have to keep at least one (or more) things to myself!

Happy New Year Once Again! Have a blast in Twenty-Ten!

Whither Brand Hyderabad?

The ongoing political crisis in Andhra Pradesh has many wondering what will happen to Brand Hyderabad and all the glitter it has gathered over the last decade. There is concern that if AP is partitioned, then investments will move away. Unrest is already affecting the business mood and the fear is that in future, Maoist violence may increase and weaken the city, or that a partitioned state that still controls it will divert resources to other lesser developed parts.

Telangana has had genuine problems about resource allocation, an exploitative political leadership and self-respect. The jury is out on whether this warrants a partition of India's first state formed on linguistic basis - read this Hindu editorial for one view. As far as Brand Hyderabad goes, I believe the damage is not irreparable. Urbanization is a mega trend and location wise, Hyderabad taps a massive hinterland. The divisive Telugus may go and serve other metros Madras and Bangalore, like they always did (it was more so before Unification in 1956). But this is clearly not a zero sum game.

If a new state capital for Andhra-Rayalseema is created, other metros may benefit, but this will also mean more construction on the new capital, more work leading to an economic boom. The Andhra-Seema folks may work with a vengeance and leverage the huge seacoast they have for the first time. And if the Telangana issue is sorted out without partition, then the Brand will only bounce back stronger. Brand Mumbai has been resilient despite several major terrorist attacks. Brand Delhi remains strong despite turmoil in nearby Af-Pak. Didn't Japan witness a huge ascendance right after the World War II mayhem? So fellas, stay optimistic and hope that the uncertainity soon subsides, giving people like us work to do. The sun shines brighter, once the clouds clear up.

Pench Trip - Croquet, Riverbed Running (4 of 4)

Sunday was our final day at Junglethlon, and that morning after breakfast we played a game of croquet. I had never played this Victorian game before but found it very interesting. Pradeep planted some hoops and sticks on the ground at various places and gave us a wooden mallet and four balls. Each player had to strike the ball through the hoops, hitting others’ balls to get ahead. It felt like a combination of golf (the putting) and billiards (hitting others’ balls).

After croquet, the final event of Junglethlon was river bed running. We trekked a bit to get to the river and then ran some 6 to 8 kms. Parts of the river were very scenic. I found a few trees in the dry riverbed that had massive bulbous roots, trunks and even branches making them look like they were made of potatoes!

Finally the time to disperse had come, and after the last meal together, the team left for Nagpur. On the way Pradeep showed us one of the schools that he supports and explained about the Pench Rakshak program. The work they do at the grassroots level in community support and education is amazing! We reached Nagpur railway station just in time, and said our goodbyes capping off a wonderful trip.

Pench Trip - Safari & Fire Making (3 of 4)

We rose early, not to miss our appointment with Mr Sher Khan in the Pench forest. Rudyard Kipling spent his time in this forest and this is where he wrote the famous Jungle Book. Having read this story to my daughter several times I was all familiar with Bagheera, Baloo, Mowgli, Kaa and others – the area is full of their pictures on various signboards.

Once the red tape at the forest office was done with by Pradeep, we set forth in our gypsy into the forest. We were assigned a guide, despite his efforts the tiger was not traceable. We saw the tiger’s pugmarks though, and several game like Cheetal (a deer), Sambar (another Deer), Nilgai (an antelope), Warthog, Peacock etc. At Alikatta, we enquired about the ‘Tiger Show’ in which tigers are arranged to be ‘sighted’ on elephant back parties. The wait was long and the group was not keen on the ‘arrangement’ though I was not so sure. We moved on, and more of the same sightings followed till we exited the sanctuary, and got back to another sumptuous breakfast of puri-bhaji, poha and omelettes.

Major Pradeep wouldn’t have us rest, and the next task given to us was to light a fire. It again may sound simple, but the effort proved humongous (if you have seen Tom Hanks do it in the movie Castaway). Getting the tinder to light up in itself is tough and takes a long time rubbing wood against wood. We tried using a magnifying lens and a paper (a shortcut actually) but even that failed! The lens would burn a hole into the paper but it wouldn’t light up! Meanwhile our eyes were so strained that they almost popped out of the sockets. Though we finally used a match, a major lesson was learnt in putting together tinder, twigs, air (yes, Oxygen), sticks and logs into a fire-friendly arrangement.

Post lunch we went back to the night shelter task, cleared the floor of the large tent, erected the central pole that anchored the parachute, secured the parachute ropes to nearby trees. Srikanth and I deployed our fire skills in creating a fire place, a hole in the ground where the fire would burn through the night keeping us warm and the stories coming.



The next venture was to get into the jungle, walk around a bit, and then figure out how to get back. Before that we climbed a 25 feet tall water tank that gave a view of the jungle nearby. After walking around the jungle a bit, we used the sun’s position in the sky to determine which direction to return. We also learnt that at night, the crest of the moon always points west and on a full moon night, the ears of the bunny on the moon always point south.

Towards the evening, Srikanth, Manu and self took the cycles and headed to the check dam passing a few villages. It was a 6km each way ride, and was uneventful except for the spectacular fall I had. On the way back, I had gotten off road and was maneuvering my roadster back onto the road. While negotiating the sharp left, the handlebar reversed itself, abruptly stopping the cycle and sending me flying into the air. I fell on my bums, and then rolled over with barely a scratch. Had I resisted the fall injury would have been certain, I was happy that the fall was gracefully done.

The night was spent in the shelter we created, eating good food and listening to all kinds of stories. We also split into three shifts of two hours each for tending the fire. Pradeep later called up to say that the resort manager liked the shelter so much, that he planned to retain it.

Click here for the final part of the travelog

Pench Trip - Building Machan (2 of 4)

The next day morning we visited Ramdham, a religious theme park on the Nagpur – Jabalpur highway. We had some time before the Junglethlon party picked us up at 11am. Major Pradeep Rao, Manu, Avni and Shrey welcomed us to the gypsy. It was a bit disappointing to see only four registrants though the Facebook page showed upto 33 people. The ‘extreme’ edition was scrapped as well – not that I was up for it (had a right calf muscle cramp and a left ankle-tendon pain). Nevertheless the drive to Pench was good – nice road and even nicer weather.

We stopped at Khawasa on the highway – Pradeep, Srikanth and I picked up roadster bicycles from Jaleel’s cycle shop. We cycled the 12kms to the Tiger-N-Woods camp located on the edge of the Pench Tiger Reserve. We were in the forest buffer zone and the ride was good. It helped ease up my calf muscle – cramps need massage and what better than a nice cycle ride? We passed Turia village and some Gond habitats before reaching the venue. En route, Pradeep pointed to a bad patch on the road saying he almost jackknifed into the ditch there – I rode carefully. My bicycle fall would happen later, on another ride.



At the venue, we had a quick ‘breakfast’ past noon – once again puri bhaji, and quickly got down to work. Our first task was to build a machaan on which six of us would spend the night. Pradeep showed us one with stilts in a nearby field, and another one on a tree without stilts. It all looked simple, but as we got down to finalizing the spot and identifying raw material, the complexity dawned on us. Should we leverage a clump of trees as stilts? Or do we build ground up? Can we strengthen the tree machaan if there is space for six? As we resolved these questions precious time sped by. We finally decided to use a parachute as canopy and built six stretcher type beds on stilts.

I had never wielded an axe before, but quickly learnt how to - find a foot rest for the left leg, bend at the waist but keep the rest of the back straight, swing fully and carefully hitting the wood into a V pattern. After some serious log cutting, I was a happy camper. Soon it was dark and we realized the stilts were not happening on time. The night-shelter task was abandoned only to be taken up the next day.

We sat around a bon fire having good food and even better banter. We spent the night in machaan style double bedrooms that were elegant to say the least – wide balcony looking out into thick jungle, well appointed bathrooms, large bed etc. Now Srikanth was serious about the challenge and spent the night in his sleeping bag, going to the real machaan near our camp site. Sincerity is his forte!

Click here for more on Day 3 of the trip

Pench Trip - Ramtek (1 of 4)

Srikanth, my colleague at work and i headed out of Hyderabad on the night before Christmas eve. Luckily we missed the Telangana trouble brewing in the city just as the Home Minister made an announcement that triggered protests. We took the Dakshin express train to Nagpur and reached the next morning.

From Nagpur we headed to Pench on a red bus. Only that the Pench we first reached (via Parsheoni, where we took a jeep) was in Maharashtra, and the other end of the Pench tiger reserve. Animated discussions with locals helped us convert this failure into a success – we were very close to Ramtek and decided to spend the night there (at a far lesser cost than Pench!).

Ramtek has a lovely temple dedicated to Lord Ram situated on top of a steep hill. After checking into the Ramagiri lodge at the foothill, we climbed up the steep steps. It was only Srikanth, me and several langurs (monkeys) which seemed to have a free run there. There are three temples in a sequence located within a fort on the hill top. The architecture appeared to be a mix of North Indian style temple domes built on Hoysala style platforms. The serene atmosphere and the spiritual bearing of the langurs enhanced the winter breeze we were enjoying. No wonder, Lord Rama rested here before heading south to vanquish Ravana. And no wonder, Kalidasa sat on these very hills, composing the wonderful Meghadūta.

Click here for more on Day 2 of the Pench Trip