Threesome Tag

3 Joys:

1. Staying in NITIE… all those late night coffee breaks, walks around the campus and the immense freedom that I got in NITIE is unmatched
2. 3 old friends. 3 separate cities.3 coffee mugs.1 internet messenger
3. Music

3 Fears:

1. (Recent fear) I am scared I might become professionally lethargic. That’s prob coz I have been on a vacation for a month now :P

Let us leave it at that!

3 Goals:

1. Run a successful business venture, hopefully!
2. Learn a foreign language (other than English ofcourse)
3. Euro trip, Khardung la, … It is a looooong list!!! 3 is too much of a restriction for ‘goals’ category

3 Random Surprising Facts:

1. Survived without my laptop for 13 days!
2. I finally began to blog and even wrote a senti post!
3. I trekked in the Himalayas!

3 Current Obsessions:

1. Blogging
2. Travelling/trekking
3. Watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S

Tag 3 People:

1. mickey
2. mucastic

Will add more to the list as and when I tell my blogger friends that I have begun writing.

3 People who Make Me Laugh (Just by seeing or by the jokes they crack?? )

1. Vaishu
2. My brother
3. Gans

3 Things I Hate

1. Male chauvinists
2. Crying in front of others
3. Hypocrisy

3 Things I Don’t Understand

1. Why all gender biased jokes always target women?
2. Why thin people are looked upon as unhealthy and unfit?
3. Weepy films

3 Things I’m doing Right Now

1. Blogging.
2. watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S
3. Trying to figure out my career path!

3 Things I Can Do

1. Sing
2. Chat endlessly on internet and on phone
3. Read

3 Ways to Describe My Personality

1. Practical
2. I think too much
3. Adventurous

3 Things I Can’t do

1. Do my own brand management (in other words, cannot blow my own trumpet)
2. Dance
3. Avoid expecting too much from people

3 Things I Think You Should Listen To

1. M.S.Subbulakshmi (Her voice is divine and her pronunciation is simply unparalleled)
2. Songs from Roja (never heard music that is more fresh…and its been 16 years since Roja was released)
3. Crazy Mohan’s comedies

3 Things I Think You Should Never Listen To

1. An X from my college cribbing to me (I won’t wish that on my worst enemy!)
2. Me arguing
3. Some of my earliest attempts at humour. Not that I am any good at it now!

3 Absolute Favorite Foods

1. Puliyodarai with avial/vadam
2. morkali
3. McVeggie with extra cheese :)

3 Things I’d Like to Learn

1. Dance
2. Drums
3. Cooking

3 Beverages I Drink Regularly

1. Butter milk
2. Coffee
3. Minute maid

3 Shows I Watched as a Kid

1. Balachander serials
2. ROBOT
3. Ramayana/mahabaratha

Thanksgiving!

Had sent my blog link to some of my very close friends and was surprised to find that one of them actually blogged about it. An exaggerated post though! But I am flattered all the same. Thanks Mickey! :)

Was overwhelmed by gratitude that I have been blessed with a lovely bunch of friends & very supportive parents. People who have been there for me whenever I needed them. Thanks Guys!

Senti post I guess! Can’t help it. That needed to be said.

Sar Pass Diary - A Walk in the Clouds

The actual trek began on the 4th day. 4.5 days of ascent and 1.5 days of descent. First camp was Guna Pani, at 8000 ft, which we managed to reach in 5.5 hours. This one was the easiest of the 6 days. More of getting used to the terrain and the weight of our backpacks, than anything else. We managed to click some pics nearby before it started raining. Guna Pani was the last camp where there was electricity so there was a fight for charging phones and cameras.

Route to Fual Pani was the steepest & very slippery. Fual Pani was the worst of the camps I think. A camp where there was no flat ground to even stand, leave alone sleeping. The tents were inclined!

The trek to the 3rd camp at Zirmi was a similar one, just a little more slippery due to persistent rains. We occasionally looked at the valley beside our 1 foot wide path and had arguments about whether we would end up with broken limbs or not be there to even think about limbs if we slipped & fell. :P At 11,500 ft, sipping hot tea and seeing the camp surrounded by clouds was a lovely experience!

In the first 3 days we had hardly seen any ice, except for one small stretch on day 2.The route to Tila Lotni had also been a disappointment until lunch. Post lunch, we encountered snow all along the sides. Since, for most of us it was out first rendezvous with snow, we sauntered, played with snow balls, notwithstanding our group leader insistently screaming that we'll have to move quickly to avoid the rain.

Later in the day, we were greeted by more fresh snow. Now we were at an altitude of about 12,500ft and completely in awe of seeing clouds all around us, at that height. The ultimate culmination to a good day's trek.10 of us suddenly became really adventurous and decided to cross the ice sheet instead of taking the longer route on grass. How I managed to do that, with completely muddy Nike running shoes, which is most definitely not suitable for stunts on ice, is another issue altogether. Thanks to my group members! What I did not know at that point was that the next day's trek was going to be completely on fresh, white snow.

Throughout the trek the weather became chilly by 2 in the afternoon and it rained in the evenings, though not continuously! The tents were comfy, with sleeping bags to keep us warm. On all days, we bought hot Maggie, omlette, tea or buttermilk on the way. We used to pack lunch from the camps in the morning, mostly consisting of aloo and rotis. The local guides and the porters sometimes set up temporary tea/snack stalls during breaks. There were streams (source of river parvati) along the way, where we could replenish our water bottles. Those small orange chocolates were our energizers.

Now, the D-day. The plan of starting at 6 and crossing Sar Pass before noon never materialized. By the time we started, it was 7 am. We walked for an hour on steep grasslands and then from 8 am to 4 pm, the trek was on snow. Crossed Sar Pass by 2.30 pm.

The next phase involved sliding down on the snow, which meant, all of us except J had loads of fun. Because, a totally spooked J, was screaming "Mummyyyy! Somebody catch meeeee!" all the way down :D The videos are hilarious. :) (Sorry J!)

Notable things that I did:

• Slid for about 400 ft on snow :)
• We etched our names on snow to announce to the next group of trekkers that we beat them to it ! :)
• Fell some 10 times on snow.
• R, G & I slipped at the most precarious spot (we would have slid down a few hundred feet without control, if not for the guide) just before the Sar Pass and chimed 'I am alive' together, after we made it :D
• Travelled on top of the local bus.
• Played round kho kho on grassland and slipped twice. Most people slipped there actually! That was in Bandhak Tatch, the one camp which we wanted to skip, but enjoyed most! Thanks to the Sun God! This camp was a beauty. Pristine beauty is what comes to mind. Grassland in the middle and snow capped peaks all around. The place is referred to as 'mini Switzerland'.

More pics ...

Sar Pass Diary

This one is going to be long & in parts. Probably not a suitable read for people who are looking for short & sweet write-ups.

Destination: Sar Pass, Himalayas
Credits of initiating the trek: To me
Planning the travel: Mostly G. He must have cursed us all for being so lethargic about it.
Gang: Me, G, J, C & R. Huge thanks to this gang for accompanying me. If not for them, I wouldn’t have been able to go either, given that my over-protective parents would have flatly refused to let me go alone.

Duration of Trek: 31st May 2008 to 10th June 2008

After 2 months of numerous mails and phone calls, we landed at Delhi on 30th morning. We hogged at C's place (thanks to his parents), took the 5.30 pm bus to Manali and reached the base camp in Kasol at 9 am, the next day.

The base camp is right on the bank of river Parvati, at an altitude of 6500ft, which meant we almost froze to death that night (None of us are used to that kind of temperatures). It is a picturesque place, with the river on one side and an amazing view of snow capped mountains on the other. Beautiful, for the lack of a better word, is what struck me the first time I saw the place.

Kasol is a small town that you can actually walk across in about half an hour. I was amazed by the mix of cultures we found there. It is predominantly an Israeli settlement area. You would find as many Israelis as the local Himachal people. There are Israeli/Italian restaurants, coffee shops, cyber cafes but no banks or ATMs. Guess that’s a good indicator of the blend of modernity and under-development in this region!

First day was spent roaming around in Manikaran & Kasol, shopping and visiting the famous Gurudwara there. We had lunch at the Gurudwara and whiled away the rest of the evening at the base camp.

Manikaran is famous for hot springs. The photo below shows an extremely cold river Parvati gushing behind the Gurudwara while there are hot springs along the edge. I still don’t understand the phenomena behind it. As in, how can there be hot springs right next to water that is freezing cold? If anyone who is reading this, is aware of the reason, please elaborate.



The next 2 days, we did acclimatization treks, some sample rappelling and played around in the river. We also managed to get our clothes laundered (this was a tough task as it had begun to rain in the evenings) and found a decent hotel room to have a good hot water bath before starting the actual trek. The daily routine during the trek was bed tea at 5.30, exercise at 6 am, breakfast at 7.15 am and so on. By this time, we were tuned to waking up at 5.30 without alarms!! (Mom, please note this point! :D).

More pics below.


The actual trek was from the 4th day to the 10th day. More on it later.

The Genesis

Blogging has been on my mind for quite sometime, but for some reason, I never got the opportunity to do it.
Right now I am too excited that the trek of my dreams, that too a 9 year old dream, has materialized and I want to preserve the memories in as many forms as possible…writings, photos, videos…
So, here goes my first post!