Life Reloaded!!!

Ground Rules

2020-04-15T10:41:00.000+05:30

So lets have some ground rules going forward -

Read at least one book per month
Watch at least one movie per week
Read at least 5 answers on Quora
Call one friend daily
Write at least one blog post per week

Covid 19 Lockdown

2020-04-15T10:16:00.000+05:30

With the lock-down continuing till May 3rd, I am planning to revive my blog yet another time. Lets see how this spans.

Happy Birthday Vikas!

2019-01-11T22:15:00.000+05:30

Mini Reunions

2018-12-30T17:52:00.000+05:30

Met with friends from VJTI and Chikitsak yesterday.

VJComps

Chikitsak

An Evening to Remember

2018-12-25T21:14:00.000+05:30

During this year's Dasara, Trupti and I decided to watch the Ram Lila which is performed annually at Girgav Chaupati. Every year, Ravan Dahan is also celebrated at the place, where a large effigy of Ravan is burnt. Its a big event in Hindu calendar and since none of us had seen it live at Chaupati, we were very eager to see the ceremony.

In the evening we started a bit late than we had decided. We had just started when we felt a strong wind in our direction. At that moment, I wondered if it was going to rain. Since it hadn't rained for a long time, we never suspected what was in store for us in our journey and did not carry an umbrella. We had reached mid-way when we felt drops of rain coming down. Since it was a light drizzle i suggested Trupti that we continue. I felt that this rain would be transient and we shouldn't worry much. Within 2 minutes the rain intensified and we were forced take shelter. I kept telling myself and Trupti that this is a temporary shower and we can continue. After walking another 100 odd meters we realized that it was a thunderstorm which will continue for a bit. We waited for another half an hour and decided to head back home. Since the downpour was still continuing we had to take another shelter. This time it was an ATM shop. We further waited for 10-15 minutes. With the incessant rain it was difficult to catch a Taxi as well. After contemplating more on our situation, we thought we will go back home even if we get wet. When we reached Nana Chowk we were welcome by knee deep water. We somehow got back home, all wet from head to tow. It seemed like we were never meant to see the event this year.

Every time we pass that ATM, we joking remember this incident!

Lessons of from Last One Year

2015-11-29T12:26:00.002+05:30

This is the weirdest thing about writing for me. Every time I get these topics in my head. I keep thinking about these topics, but when I decide to write a blog about them I seem to lose my creative touch. Even now, I was supposed to remember 3-4 lessons which I had thought earlier this week. But here I am! Can't think of much!

Let me give it another try!

If you disagree with your friend, better tell him upfront. The later you tell him, the more it will hurt him.
When life gives you an opportunity, make the most of it. Because when you don't, it hurts her bad. And when she is hurt, she will hit back, very bad. She will make sure that you understand what you missed. Sometimes it will mock you at a level you cannot imagine.
When life fucks you, it hurts. All you can do is just wait for that one moment of ecstasy!
Arguing with your parents is usually a losing battle, but you still need to fight it out. Never accept any decision on the face of it.
People will usually raise your hopes by telling stories of "exceptions" as if that is the rule. Use your intuition more often than your friend's.
On other times, they will do the exact opposite by crushing your hope based on exceptions.
Read, watch and listen to more "quality" stuff!
Exercise!

Destiny

2015-11-29T12:21:00.000+05:30

Well, few years ago I had a conversation with a friend of mine. I might have even blogged about it, but I am not quite sure. The point of conversation was a set of events and how does one interpret them. What had happened then was that my friend used to like a girl and was trying his level best to meet her. Unfortunately (or was it fortunate?), whenever he made a plan to meet her, it was thwarted by some event or the other. So we were wondering if we had "link" these events, what would be the inference? There can be three inferences -

They are totally random events.
Destiny is trying to indicate you that you are making a mistake and wants to avoid that path.
Destiny is trying to test your patience.

An Econ would infer first point. On the other hand, people like you and me who unlike Dr. Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory have an emotional quotient and usually try to find pattern in things, would go for choice 2 or 3. But which one is it, depends on our own interpretation.

I am still working on mine....

Quote

2015-05-23T20:48:00.000+05:30

We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.
- Anais Nin

Naruto Quote

2015-04-19T20:28:00.001+05:30

"A genius, huh? What does that mean? "Genius"? So I was not born with a whole lot of natural talent, not gifted like Neji… but I work hard and I never give up! That is my gift; that is my ninja way!"

-Rock Lee

Khagol Mandal - Sky Observation Workshop

2014-12-21T13:00:00.000+05:30

Despite having slept just 3 hours in last 29 hours, I think it will be worth writing about my experience about yesterday's sky show organized by Khagol Mandal. To give you a little idea, as per their website, Khagol Mandal is -

Established in 1985 by handful of astronomy enthusiasts, the organization has grown into a membership of 1000+ within past 20 years. Khagol Mandal is a registered organization under "The Societies Act" as well as with "The Charity Commissioner, Mumbai". Strong volunteer base and continual activity is one of the strongest point of Khagol Mandal. Very soon we will enter 30 year of services to astronomy enthusiasts and we will soon come up with series of lectures and workshops to meet everyone's growing thirst for knowledge.

Source - Khagol Mandal - About Us

I had earlier attended their sky observation session in December, 2008. It was a good experience then and it got better this time.

My friend and I started our journey from Dadar. I think it is important for me to mention that it is advisable to board the train at CST if you stay in south Mumbai. The Karjat train which we boarded was very crowded, even on a Saturday. Forget about sitting, it was difficult to even stand properly in the train. I am amazed how people travel from such a distance on daily basis for their livelihood. I finally got a seat by the time we reached Kalyan. Even when we alighted from the train, there was a lot of crowd still standing.

Once we reached Vangani station, we met the KM volunteer and followed him to the destination. It was the same place which I had visited six years ago - Chavhan Farm House. We had pre-registered for the event for 4 people, however 2 of our friends had backed out. We told the volunteer about the same and he refunded the 2 cancelled bookings to us immediately. We settled down immediately in the field. My friend had brought his camera and tripod. Unfortunately, it wasn't much of use, as neither of us had any idea about Astro-photography. The facilities at the location were above average with clean loos and easy availability of water. We didn't have much trouble with mosquitoes as well. The pebbles in the area could be troublesome if you bring thinner mattress. A thick mattress is advisable.

Coming to actual session, the workshop started as per schedule at 7.30 with the introduction to Telescopes. The volunteer, Pranit Deshmukh, informed us about the invention of telescope by Hans Lippershey. However, it was Galileo who actually made the use of telescopes for the astronomy famous. Then he informed us about the types of optical telescopes based on the their internal structures such as refractor based (Galilean) and reflection based (Newtonian). He also told us about the types of mounts used for telescopes such as Altazimuth (i.e. Altitude-Azimuth) and Equatorial mount. The use of viewfinder was also neatly explained. It was a short session which ended by 8.

It was followed by a sky observation session by Vinita Navalkar. Unfortunately, at that time in the evening, the sky was clouded and we could hardly see any stars initially. However, till the time sky cleared, Vinita informed us about some of the basics of astronomy. For e.g. how are astronomical co-ordinates are defined, what is a celestial sphere and celestial coordinate system, equinox points, etc. After a while the sky started getting clearer and we could see a bunch of stars on the eastern side. They were the Aries, Taurus and Orion constellations. As Vinita explained, for many constellations it is very difficult to imagine the shape implied by their names. Aries was visualized at a broken hockey stick. The bull in Taurus wasn't that difficult to imagine. The hump of Pleiades cluster (Krittika Nakshatra in Marathi) was pretty clearly observable. In fact, I got the feeling that I got a better view of the cluster while it was out of focus of my line of sight. I discussed it with Hrushikesh Joglekar (one of my friend's brother and a long time member of KM) during the break, he told me that it is the case of "averted vision". My favorite constellation came next - Orion. I call it my favorite as I distinctly remember it from my previous sky observation. Four stars forming the body of Orion, the three stars forming the Orion's belt are easily identifiable. After the first sky observation session, the telescopes were set up for viewing objects in the sky - Pleiades, Orion Nebula.

After dinner break, second sky observation session was started. The sky had cleared up and we could see a lot of stars in the western and northern region. We started with Cassiopeia, the M shaped constellation which is used to locate Polaris. We were informed that even though currently Polaris is the pole star. it wasn't so few thousand years back. As the Earth's axis keeps changing its inclination, the pole star also changes. In fact, at some time Thuban from Draco constellation was our pole star. We were shown, how to locate Polaris from Cassiopeia. We then moved to western front. We were shown the location of nearest galaxy i.e. Andromeda. We were told about the spiral arms of our galaxy. It was informed that our solar system lies on the bridge between 2 spiral arms of Milky Way, one of which is visible in clear skies away from cities - Sagittarius Arm (Which I saw at Nubra Valley). As we moved further, we saw a shooting star (Actually I missed it). That is when Vinita told us about Leonids. Over the next few hours till morning, we saw many shooting stars. Then we saw the brightest star in the sky - Sirius. The location of the star can be identified by extending the three stars of Orion's belt. The Jupiter had also risen by that time. After the session, we saw the Andromeda galaxy as a fuzzy object in the sky through the telescope. In another telescope, we saw Jupiter as a bright white circle with 2 vertical lines and three bright dots around it. The 3 dots were three of Jupiter's moons. We also saw comet Lovejoy with the bigger telescope.

We had a tea break after this. Thanks to my large NITIE Golden Jubilee mug (nice publicity, huh?), I had a lot of tea to keep myself warm. In fact, as the night progressed, it became colder and colder. The due made it much more harder to lie down on the mattress. After some hot tea, KM team started with their presentation. The presentation talked about the vastness of the universe and then moved to the world of atoms, protons and quarks. In terms of units, we started with meter, then moved to kilometer, Astronomical Unit (AU), light year and billions of light years. In visual terms, we moved from tree on earth to a country, to earth, to our solar system, galaxy, local group of galaxy and then billions of galaxies. Then we came to the unit meter. Now we started to zoom in the tree going in the negative powers of 10. Going from microns to Angstrom to picometer to femtometer to attomerer, we moved from cells to basic building blocks of matter - Quarks. It was an interesting presentation. After the PPT, Vinita took over for the quiz competition. It was a nicely compiled list of questions on variety of topics such as Eclipse, Satellites, planetary motions, galaxies, etc. At no point it felt boring to me. After the quiz, a Q&A session was conducted. KM team including Dr. Sagar Godambe, answered questions from various people including my question about Mercury's peculiar orbit. The Q&A session was followed by another Tea break.

After the break we moved into the final sky observation session. During the session, we saw Saptarshi/Ursa Major/Big Deeper and how to identify Polaris from the same. KM team told us many interesting Greek/Indian mythological stories associated with the constellations. We were shown Canis Major which looks like a dog (hence "Canis"). We saw Leo constellation, which fits as a Lion pattern in the sky. During the explanation, we were told the meaning of Alpha, Beta stars in a constellation. We were told about the Gateway of Heaven, called so as Sun and all planets always pass through the imaginary boundary formed by these stars. Towards the end, we were shown the Hasta, Swati and Chitra Nakshtra, There was another constellation which formed the ice cream cone, whose Indian name I am not able to recollect or find on Google. We were shown Hydra constellation as well as few others which derive their name from snakes. Finally, we headed to the telescopes for one last time. This time we saw the "star pair" - Vashishta and Arudndhati, part of Saptarshi. We were told that these optical binary stars, as they are not physically close to each other, but are in such a position with respect to our line of sight that they appear together. Vashishta, in fact, is a multi-star system. We could see 2 binary stars in the telescope. Unfortunately, because of the due in the atmosphere, the bigger telescope could not be utilized. After the observations, the programme ended and we returned to Vangani station for the CST train.

Overall, the workshop was a very good experience. It was very well managed and the interactive sessions added the needed thrust during late hours in the night. I didn't sleep at all during the whole workshop. Hopefully, I will visit KM sessions held every Wednesday at Sion.

I would also like to mention few observations regarding people who visit these workshops. Though it is obvious that we cannot expect 100% "interested" crowd, I still cannot fathom the fact that people keep ignoring the instructions given by KM people. It was written in the mails/passes for the workshop to use Red cellophane paper over the torch, but I hardly saw anyone else doing the same. What I also don't understand is the use of smartphones in the night. When you are asked not to use any lights during the telescopic observations, why do people keep checking their cell phones. That too at 3AM in the night! If you have to check time, use the damn watch!! Last but not the least, when you have a person speaking in front of 100 odd people, please don't make fun of him just because he says filler word like "Uh" too often. Just enjoy the content and not the way it is delivered. Just ask yourself, do you have the guts to step in front of so many people and say what he is saying.

Enough of the rants! If you want to see sky with different vision, then do visit the workshop once (but do follow all the instructions)!

On a side note, even though we were 60-70 km away from Mumbai city, the sky was nothing in comparison with what I saw at Ladakh. Milky Way was nowhere to be seen. I would definitely like to identify the constellations in that sky.

P.S. - In case, I have communicated any wrong information in this post, please let me know in the comment section, I will verify and correct the same.

True That!

2014-11-07T19:12:00.003+05:30

I think the writing of literature should give pleasure. What else should it be about? It is not nuclear physics. It actually has to give pleasure or it is worth nothing.
- Stephen Greenblatt

Quote

2014-10-12T12:22:00.000+05:30

Found this on Goodreads -

People do not change, they are merely revealed.
- Anne Enright

Marathi Play - Mr. & Mrs.

2014-10-11T11:20:00.000+05:30

Last Saturday, I happened to watch the Marathi play "Mr. & Mrs." at Shivaji Mandir, Dadar. Actually, I had gone there to watch the play "Lagnabambal" which as per m-Indicator was scheduled at 4.30 PM. After reaching the theater at 3.30 PM, I found that there were no boards for this play. Instead, the play "Mr. & Mrs." was scheduled at 3.30 PM. Soon after my friend joined me, we decided to watch "Mr. & Mrs.".

The story revolves around a couple with Chinamy Mandalekar playing Amit - "once famous but now without work" type of actor and Madhura Velankar playing his wife Meera, who works in bank. Due to Amit's failure to bag any new work and his frustrating attitude, the married life of the duo is in a disarray. At this stage, Amit meets his old friend and producer Ashwin, who had produced Amit's first successful TV serial. He makes him an offer of a reality show. But this show is different - it will be shot at Amit's house and without Meera's knowledge. For 60 days, the channel will record the life of the couple and on last day, Amit would divorce his wife. As Amit had already decided in his mind to divorce his wife, the lure of new big role/money induces him to accept this offer. However, as the couple proceed with their lives for next 60 days, a lot of things unfold which force Amit to rethink of the offer and his life. Eventually what happens is something for the viewers to ponder about.

All the cast were excellent. The initial 15 minutes were boring. In fact, I felt a bit frustrated with the way Amit was treating his wife - why is she continuing with such a guy who keeps insulting her and questions her integrity. The arrival of Ashwin changes the pace of the play. Some of scenes are nicely though out. Take for example the scene where the couple re-live their first meeting. The play's main focus is of course - Reality Shows. The play accurately depicts the vices of such shows. The scenes where Amit is asked to promote brands while interacting with Meera are funny yet make you sad. I was intrigued to see the climax as I wanted to see what happens to the couple and definitely was not disappointed the way story ended.

All in all worth the watch.

Giving Up

2014-10-05T12:05:00.002+05:30

My laptop for past few months is having following quote as background image -

The minute you think of giving up, think of the reason you held on so long...

But my mind is always in spot of confusion. Despite the reason, should you always continue and never give up?

In fact, few years ago I had an interesting realization. Suppose, you try to do something and fail in it. You try again and fail. So for those who believe in God, there is a question - Is God trying to test you or is he telling you "dude, don't do it. It's not a good thing for you". Which is the alternative that should be considered. If you take the first interpretation, then you should try harder but if it is the second one then you should quit. It is pretty confusing, as you will never know what is in (so called) God's mind.

Apart from the above reason, there are other situations where I felt the indecisiveness in choosing to give up or continue. Say, a guy has a start up. At what point is his failure big enough to give up on his idea? Same is with relationships whether it is people in relationship or people wanting to start a relationship. At what point people decide to give up on the other person?

Anyway, I feel like Agent Smith who keeps asking Neo - "Why, Mr. Anderson?! Why? WHY DO YOU PERSIST?" (Full Text)

Quote

2014-10-05T10:37:00.001+05:30

You do have a story inside you; it lies articulate and waiting to be written behind your silence and your suffering.
- Anne Rice

Ladakh Trip - 3

2014-09-24T22:52:00.001+05:30

Ladakh Trip First and Second Posts.

The final phase of our camp started with the journey towards Tso Moriri lake. It was one of the three lakes we were supposed visit and as per the verbal poll taken among the campers at the end of our trip, was the best of the three. Most of the journey was parallel to the Indus river. At some places the flow was so strong that one could hear the stream even in the car. On the way, we saw one more smaller lake (Google maps calls it Kyagar Tso) which was much more mesmerizing. As we reached the Tso Moriri lake, we saw a few Bar Headed Geese. We were told that the Chinese border is closer from where we had stayed. The view from my hotel room was amazing. We were strictly instructed to return by 7.30 PM if we wanted to roam around in the area. The place near the lake gets very windy and cold. Thankfully we didn't have to stay in the tents in such harsh weather conditions. However, this time there was no night sky watch. From my room I could clearly see the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia constellations. I can recollect that after returning from walk around the nearby area, few of us had an interesting conversation about Game of Thrones. In fact, we even had a bigger discussion on a number of topics when we were having dinner. We talked about the flaws in the religions, the noise during festival season, whether there is a pattern in the alcohol consumption as per city (my friend has a strong belief that Mumbaikars are much less alcoholic than city people), different places to visit and their architectural significance (OK, I wasn't an active participant in the last topic). Next day plan was to get up early for the Sun rise from the lake.

Indus River

Kyagar Tso

Tso Moriri

Tso Moriri at Sunset

As decided, most of the people got up early on time. We were on time for the Sun rise as we could see the Sun rays emanating behind the mountains. We stayed there for an hour or so. After few individual and group pics, we returned back to hotel (There was even a "singles" group pic). As we headed towards Tso Kar, we made a few halts as we again came across the Bar Headed Geese. The road was toughest on the way to Tso Kar and the weather was also tougher among the three lakes. On our way, we spotted few Kiang/Tibetan Wild Ass and Black Necked Cranes. There were few geysers emitting hot water with sulfur deposits around. We managed to reach the hotel on time for lunch. After some rest, we went for birding in the area around the lake. Along the way, we saw an Owl (I am not able to recollect the exact type, but it was white) and spotted a nest of a Golden Eagle. As we went ahead, we saw the mating of Kiangs. During our return journey, we finally got to see the Golden Eagle and it was a sight worth the wait. In the evening it got very cold. There was even a cake cutting ceremony as it was the birthday of one of our group leaders. At the dinner table, we again had wonderful conversation, this time about work life balance. It was 3 public servants against 2 hardcore private employees (including a Consultant). It was an interesting debate which I would love re-initiate if we all meet again. After dinner, I had a memorable conversation with my roommate who as I mentioned earlier is an avid reader. I remember telling him how much I disliked the book Three Men in a Boat even though one of my friend told me that it was the most hilarious book he had ever read. It was a relief to hear that my roommate also felt like me when he had read the book. The book, he also agreed is anachronistic. He had a similar feeling with The Fountainhead. He told me about various books he had read, how he used to read in his childhood. He even suggested few books to me - The Good Earth by Perl Buck, Manwatching by Desmond Morris, Walden by Henry David Thoreau, Parva by S. L. Bhyarappa, Mrityunjaya by Shivaji Swant, Vanvas, Pankha and Zumbar by Prakash Sant, Ek Hota Carver by Veena Gavankar, Prakashvata by Dr. Prakash Amte. I hope to read all of these over next year or so.

Tso Moriri

Tso Moriri - Sunrise

Tso Moriri - Photo Session!

Tso Moriri - Sunrise

Tso Moriri

On the final day of our journey, just as we finished our breakfast, a flock of Tibetan Sandgrouse came flying over our heads. I will never forget the sight when I saw few Sandgrouses moving in a line crossing the road. Afterwards we took a group photo with our group leaders, drivers and last but not the least Mr. Bijoo who guided us along the tour with BNHS. During the return journey, we passed the Tanglang La which is claimed to be second highest motorable pass in the world. As we were free for the rest of the day, we went to main market for one last time. I got some memento for few of my friends and Ladkah Photography calendar for my brother (yea, yea it was 2015 one). The fresh vegetables in the market were so tempting that my friend bought some to take back home. One last incident which made me laugh to the fullest, was narrated by our fellow camper told us how she lost and found her spectacles. Now, I cannot detail the whole incident, but I doubt if it will ever fade out of our memories. To think back it might have been funny for us but it was pretty brave thing to do to get back those glasses (even if one has only pair). Of course, the bottom line is - "Never make fun of an old man having 2 different colored spectacles" (No, only those who were present for the camp would understand this).

Way to Tso Kar

Tso Kar

Tanglang La

Return journey back to Mumbai was smoother than Mumbai-Leh journey. The halt between the 2 connecting flights was just an hour long. During the Delhi-Mumbai flight, I was engaged in a nice conversation with my friend. Again the conversation spanned across totally unrelated subjects. It started with skimming through the travel magazine kept in front of the seats, when we discussed the places to visit in India. Then the topics varied from which books to read, Kashmir issue, why current Americans get to use the resources originally belonging to Red Indians, should the world resources be divided equally across country, should there be a concept of country (why not have a "world" as a nation), belief in God and the necessity of having God & why some Indian girls are ready to sacrifice their careers to marry and settle in US?

Few incidents which I missed in my earlier posts include the one on second day where a local cultural program was arranged for another group of travelers staying at the same hotel. The performance was very good, included folk dance and songs. Another incident involved people feeding Himalayan Marmots with biscuits and chocolates. Such food is not natural to these animals and creates hindrance in their hibernation period (Harsh winters of Ladakh). The idiots who were feeding these animals included foreigners, even though there were huge boards nearby explaining the Dos and Donts about Marmots. Many people from our BNHS camp went to the location where such feeding was happening and asked everyone to refrain from feeding the animals. There is a need for awareness among tourists not to feed the animals any junk food.

What a view!

Cultural Program at Hotel

Hotel Bijoo

Before closing the post, let me just list the birds I can recollect from the Ladakh itinerary. The most common bird I saw there, was Eurasian Magpie. We also saw Chukar Partridge at many places including the national park. We even spotted Agama lizard during one of the stops on the way to Tso Moriri. We also noticed hill pigeons, Ravens, Larks, Redstart. I know I have missed most of the birds but with no photos and books it is not possible for me to list all the birds. Apologies to my readers!

BNHS Camp - Ladakh

I hope to travel more in the coming years and find my passion...

Ladakh Trip - 2

2014-09-21T16:54:00.000+05:30

Here is the first post.

So let's start with my journey during the Ladakh trip. But before that let me introduce the group I was traveling with. My friend with whom I had booked the tour is an Architect, specializes in City Planning and was accompanied by her father who seemed to be a very avid reader. In fact, we had 4 architects in our group - my friend, a couple who have their own firm and a Pondicherry based architect who is originally from Mumbai. My roommate was a banker by profession but bird lover at heart. He was accompanied by his sister and niece, all of whom had traveled in BNHS camps earlier. There were 2 old ladies, one of which had come with same purpose as mine - enjoy the nature and its views! We had 2 elderly couples one of which ran a equity brokerage firm. One middle aged person who is wonderful photographer (His camera lens was so long and used to take so many pics at an instant, we used to call it machine gun). Another person from Gujrat had a great deal of idea about birds. One more girl from Mumbai was also present. Our group leaders had a prior experience of visiting Ladakh for birding. In fact, one of them had been coming there since the 90's and once traveled from Maharashtra to Ladakh on his scooter. Other group leader was of same age as mine and had studied with few of my school friends during his graduation. With this bunch of passionate individuals, I traversed the beautiful region of Ladakh.

Another thing, being not well versed with the birds and their nomenclature, I might not be able to state the birds I saw during the trip. But I will try my best to recollect the names towards the end.

View from plane - Tso Moriri Lake

So day 3 of the camp came and I was finally fit to go. BNHS had organized 4 Innova cars for our traveling. We first went to the high altitude Hemis National Park. Thanks to the binoculars given to me by Vikas, I was able to spot few birds. Most of the people had DSLR (I had a point and shoot Nikon camera, but its battery malfunctioned after coming back from Pangong). At the national park, we saw a big herd of Bharal/Himalayan Blue Sheep. As I remember most them were females, and there was one male whose horns were distinguishing him from others. Then we encountered many Yaks.

Yak Yak Yak!

After having light but wonderful Pulav in the National Park itself, we headed to Hemis Monastery. It was quite and serene place. Inside the monastery, there were many paintings of Buddha and (probably) other mythological characters in Buddhism, painted on the walls. One of the painting (which I initially thought) had depicted the birth and rise of Buddha (My roommate differed with me on this point. With him being a Master in Indology, I think I will agree with him). Outside the temple, I had interesting confusion. I had removed my Woodland shoes outside before entering the temple. When I came out, there was another pair of exactly same model of Woodland shoes removed by another person lying next to my pair. After trying both the pairs, I finally realized which pair was mine (I was bit furious though, as I thought the other guy had done it deliberately). After having a tea at the base, we went back to hotel. Unfortunately, my roommate started feeling bit uneasy and after a round of hospital and "Oxygen", he decided to not take the next day's journey to Nubra Valley as we had to cross Khardung La while traveling.

Hemis Monastery

On Day 4, we started our journey towards Nubra Valley. On the way, we saw magnificent landscapes with a variety of colors of rocks (red, purple, black, white). Roads were usually smooth with few exceptions. As we neared the valley, we could see dunes of sand piled over one side. The hotel at Nubra valley was also good. At the valley, we also got the opportunity to ride a double hump camel. It was pretty difficult to get a camel at that time, as the place was very crowded by the time we reached. Add to that the fact that Sun was about to set. All thanks to my friend, we were able to ride camel for 15 odd minutes. Of course, that wasn't the best thing at Nubra Valley. When we reached back, as I saw the landscape I was sure that the night sky will be worth the watch. And I was not disappointed at all. At night, even from my room I could see many many stars. I still remember standing in common balcony of first floor at hotel with one of the fellow traveler, asking her what the particular patch in sky was. It was a bit vague pattern which I had not seen earlier. When we went to the terrace, the ambient light had reduced and the patch was much more visible. Soon we were joined by another person who told us that it was the "Milky Way"(The image shown at Wikpedia matches with what we saw). Afterwards, other enthusiasts joined us and took pictures of the Milky Way. As I waited to observe the night sky, I could see some shooting stars in between. As we had an early journey next morning, I decided to head back to my room by 10:30 PM itself, even though my heart wanted to be there for the whole night.

Look at those roads!

Sand Dunes at Nubra Valley

Desert at Nubra Valley

Next day we started our journey back Leh. On the way, we stopped near Diskit Monastery. The huge statue of Buddha was visible even at the bottom of the hill. We waited in the area for some time for birding. During our journey to Nubra valley, we had not made a halt at Khardung La. However, during the return journey we decided to get down at Khardung La and take a group photo. Khardung La is claimed to be the highest motorable point in the world. We had fun taking group pics there. Unfortunately, my friend started feeling dizzy at that height and could not join us for the pic. In fact, after 10 minutes at the top, most of us started feeling tired and were panting. As there was some road work going on, we reached back to Leh a little late. So our group leaders decided to call it a day and gave us time to check out the market. I bought a sweater (the group leader had instructed me to get an extra layer of woolen clothing as it was going to be colder and breezier at the lakes). In one of the shops, when the shopkeeper heard us speaking in Marathi, he asked us if we were from Maharashtra. He told us that majority of the tourists in Leh were from Maharashtra region. In fact, even I had made a similar observation. Whenever I roamed around in the market area, I would hear a person speaking in Marathi every 100 meters. After the purchase we headed back to hotel for dinner.

Buddha Statue at Diskit Monastery

Return Journey from Nubra Valley

Shyok River

Khardung La Top

K Top

Now was the day when we made our foray towards Pangong Lake. It was a tougher road than Nubra Valley. Before going to Pangong, we made a stop Thikse Monastery located near Leh. When we reached the place, prayers were in progress. Like Hemis Monastery, the place serene and peaceful.

Thikse Monastery

Thikse Monastery Entrance

And we did spin it clock wise :)

Flag Pole at Thikse Monastery

Statue of Buddha

Thikse Monastery

We stayed at hotel Pangong Residency which was surrounded by mountains from all sides. I was looking forward to night sky watch as that area did not have too many hotels to affect ambient light. Of course, the main attraction of the day was Pangong Lake. Due to some ongoing road work on the way to the lake, we were delayed by more than 40 minutes than the expected time. We were afraid if Sun sets, we might not be able get a good view of the lake. However, once we reached there, we were enchanted by the magnificent view of the lake. I made some idiotic attempts at taking selfies (which continued for the whole of tour). We first had a photo session at the location where 3 idiots was shot. Afterwards, we went a little further where there was a flock of birds. I sat near the lake for around 10-15 minutes observing the water, birds, photographers and more importantly tried to feel the quietness of the place. As it started getting windy and colder, we all moved in a small dhaba style hotel and had hot lemon tea. After returning to hotel, we were told about the early next morning trip to a place where we could see Black Necked Cranes. As I wanted to stay late in the night to gaze at stary sky, I opted to stay back in the morning. In the night, the sky was even more amazing. I tried locating some constellations, but could only go far to see Big Dipper, Pole Star and Cassiopeia. We even saw the shooting stars in the Perseus constellation which had appeared in August month's Google Doodle. I had a very good discussion about night sky observation with one of the fellow travelers. He told me about his experience at Ramgarh bungalow. He took photos of Pole star every few seconds for 15 minutes, so as to see the trace left by other stars which appear to revolve around the pole star. I remember him explaining me camera telescopes which try to compensate earth's rotation to take more accurate photos of stars.

Indian Army

Heading Towards Pangong Lake

Does it remind you of 3 Idiots (And no.. Karina didn't turn up in scooty for me)

Sun sets at Pangong Lake

Relaxing at Pangong Lake

After some good sleep in the night, and heavy breakfast of Aloo Parathas, we were joined back by the people who had gone for the early morning birding session. While returning back we made a stop at Chang La, another high altitude pass. Again made a ridiculous attempt at taking selife. During the journey, the group in my car had a long discussion on 2 topics. First was food and second Mr. Narendra Modi. The food part revolved around the type of regional food available in Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata and how it is priced across cities. Then the discussion moved to Modi and his government. We discussed what should be done by the government, where the money should be utilized, whether building statues of past leaders actually worth it, about the Gujarat model of development, etc. We were people from different professional backgrounds and it was nice to hear everyone's views.

In the evening, we visited the Leh Palace as well as the Shanti Stupa. Both are very good monuments situated at Leh city itself. The Leh palace was constructed in such a way that the King must have had a complete view of the city from the palace. Currently, the palace is being restored by ASI and due to the restoration work, there is a lot of dust around the palace. Most of us did not wander much in the palace except for my friend who climbed all the levels of the palace till the top. I found Shanti Stupa to be a major attraction among the foreign tourists. You get a magnificent panoramic view of Leh city from this place. After visiting these places, we visited the marketplace again and tasted the carrot cake at one of the bakery. The climate was much easier than Pangong village where in the night I had to wear monkey cap and gloves on the terrace.

Return Journey from Pangong

Look at the clouds

Chang La

Shanti Stupa

Selfie at Shanti Stupa (Finally one attempt was not utterly bad)

Shanti Stupa

Leh Palace

Now, this has already become the longest post in my blog. So let me break it into one more part where I will talk about Lakes Tso Moriri and Tso Kar and the birding we had there. Till then adios amigos!

Quote

2014-09-20T11:06:00.000+05:30

There was no harm in taking aim, even if the target was a dream.

- John Knowles

Ladakh Trip

2014-09-18T23:23:00.000+05:30

I take an inspiration from a friend of mine who recently made an exceptional climb to Mount Kilimanjaro and wrote a wonderful post about it. I guess I should not allow my laziness to miss an opportunity to write down one of the best moments in my life.

Of course, the start to these "best" moments wasn't exactly the way I had planned, but as they say all's well that ends well. In the month of May when I met few of my friends for the BNHS camp where we sited the Flamingos who had migrated to Sewri area. I had been thinking about a trip to Ladakh region in the past few days. So when we started discussing about a trip which could be planned in the month of August, I told them about the place I wanted to visit. Considering the busy schedule of my other friends, we left the discussion undecided.

After a few days one of my friend who had accompanied me for the BNHS camp, contacted me and told me about the Ladakh camp organized by BNHS. If you know me very well, you may know that I have never traveled outside the Maharashtra-Goa region for a personal trip. Yes there was that Mahabalipuram trip when I went to Chennai for training earlier this year, but that was just filling up my free time during official tour. So this time I was determined to travel "somewhere" else in India this time. I shared the idea with many of my other friends. Unfortunately most of them had some monetary reason or other for not attending. So none of them were ready to come with us. In the hindsight, I feel it was good that many of them didn't come as they might not have enjoyed as much as they would have expected (Of course, few passionate ones would have enjoyed it more than I did). Why? More on that later.

So in the month of June, after discussing the flight details, I finally booked tickets and a place in the BNHS camp. In fact, if I am not wrong I was the last person to apply for the camp. Now, I have traveled only once in the North India, which was in December of 2011. At that time I was highly unprepared for the kind of winter is observed in the North. So this time I asked 2 of my VJTI friends who had visited Ladakh in July this year, about the weather conditions in the region. Both of them told me that the weather was very pleasant and tolerable. One of them went even further and told me that it was so hot in Leh that he had to remove his shirt at night as there were no AC/fans in the hotel. Now after getting such an information I was pretty sure that the same weather would be there when I visit the place (No wonder my boss calls me highly optimistic person). Another thing my friend pointed out was the High Altitude Sickness. He recommended me to take the tablets - Diamox to avoid the particular illness. Few days later even BNHS informed us about the symptoms and precautionary measures to be taken. I discussed with the friend who was traveling with me and decided to purchase the tablets in case we need it.

Now, we had booked a connected flight to Leh via Delhi. So from Delhi we would be landing directly to a place above 10,000ft (Leh is at 11,000+ft). Initially we had decided to take Diamox at Delhi airport so that by the time we reached Leh, the medicine would have started with its effect. However, once in Delhi we decided against it, thinking that we should get acclimatized to the climate naturally. Unfortunately for me it turned out to be a bad decision.

When we landed in Leh, we were immediately taken to the hotel Bijoo where we stayed for 6 days. The morning was bright and not too cold. We had a good breakfast - I finally had a non-veg dish after a gap of 41 days! But after lunch, things became worse for me. BNHS had instructed us to avoid physical activities as much as possible and hence first day of the trip i.e. August 15 was a rest day. I decided to watch the movie "Divergent" on my Kindle Fire HD, but was never able to concentrate. Finally I gave up after half an hour and tried sleeping but started feeling a bit nauseous. After a while I vomited everything I had for lunch. Same thing repeated after evening snacks. (It was much more embarrassing than I note here). I immediately reported my condition to our BNHS group leader. He took me to the hospital and as expected was diagnosed with low Oxygen level. I had to be admitted to the hospital for the first time in my life. I was put on oxygen for the night so that my oxygen level returned back to normal (I don't think I ever wrote "Oxygen" so many times during my HSC). And guess what! I was asked to take Diamox ;) I was discharged from the hospital next morning, but considering the risk of relapse, I was asked to rest for the remainder of the day.

It was a bit frustrating to wait for the day but considering the fact that more interesting things were lined up in the coming days, I was a bit relieved. The rest of the group traveled to Indus-Zanskar river sangam, Magnetic Hill, Hall of Fame museum.

Let me come to the point where I stated that many of my friends might not have liked this camp. The reason being the camp was mainly for birding rather than typical "enjoying" which some would expect. There were strict timings when it came to departing from the hotels for lakes or other venues. There weren't the long waits at typical tourist spots for random group photos. Everything was planned and was executed to near perfection.

Question might come - did "I" like it? Well, I loved it. The scenery, the people, the co-travelers, everything was amazing. I can't forget the discussions I had with my roommate and few other people. I had never seen such a group of passionate people whose sense of enjoyment matched mine. True, I was not particularly interested in bird watching, I do like to observe people in my usual passive way. I wish I had such a passion in my life.

Now these are lot of things in a single post. Day 3 onwards in next post. I will also post few photos. Till then here is one pic taken at Pangong Lake.

Pangong Lake

Note - My parents still don't know about my first day's "adventures".

Theme Change

2014-09-17T22:48:00.000+05:30

Time to change the theme before I post about Ladakh!

Update

2014-08-07T20:02:00.001+05:30

It has been pretty long time since I blogged. Though I have not been much busy, with the use of Facebook and Twitter I have lost most of my motivation to blog. Today, I thought it is about time to post an update about what is happening with me.

I didn't watch as many movies as last year, but finished watching all the Oscar nominated movies of this year. Same was with serials. Game of Thrones was as good as ever especially with the way last few episodes went. There was The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother to make me smile when my parents used to watch those dreadful Marathi serials about sas-bahu. Of course, not all such serials are bad. I am glad to have watched the live season of Eka Lagnachi Tisari Goshta. Isha portrayed by Spruha Joshi is simply amazing. So are other casts, and dialogues are amazing. Sadly the serial will end in next week, but then as Harvey Dent says in The Dark Knight - "You either die as a hero or live long enough to become a villain." I don't want it be dragged for multiple years till it becomes a soap opera.

Anyways, this year I have concentrated more on reading. I tried to read different types of books this time. It was amazing to read the classic like Dracula which I never expected to be so much interesting. Then there was Luck by Ed Smith which almost entirely represents my thoughts about luck.There were finance books as usual like Alchemy of Finance, Random Walk Down the Wall Street, Common Sense on Mutual Funds and Lombard Street, but I couldn't finish these books even up to half way mark. I had to skim through these books as they had the same concepts repeated across the book. After reading A Short History of Nearly Everything, I decided to read a bit more science history and ended up reading Cosmos and A Brief History of Time. They were amazing to read and brought back the nostalgia of reading science books in school/junior college. In Marathi, I enjoyed reading few books written by the great P. L. Deshpande.

Apart from this lot of things have changed since July. Two of my best friends from school moved out of Mumbai for their career. First Viraj got promoted to Officer and was transferred to Amaravati and then Nikhil joined Indian bank as an Officer in Mysore. So now it is only Aditya and myself left in Mumbai. I would have indulge more in hobbies to avoid the feeling of loneliness.

I did feel a bit sad about missing my brother's convocation. I really should have been there to see him receive his degree from Steve Balmer. But as fate has it, not all things happen as you desire.

Last but not the least, the search for the right partner is still on, dunno when it will end!

To Do List for Blog

2014-03-15T12:48:00.003+05:30

After an eventful 10 days, I am sitting quietly at home just pondering over the incidents that happened. I think I will blog about the important things that happened over the fortnight -

Susmit's Wedding (Right from the so called Bachelors' party till "Pach Partavan")
An interesting discussion with office friends

Quote of the day

2014-02-04T19:32:00.001+05:30

Reading was my escape and my comfort, my consolation, my stimulant of choice: reading for the pure pleasure of it, for the beautiful stillness that surrounds you when you hear an author's words reverberating in your head.
- Paul Auster

Mumbai Marathon 2014

2014-01-24T23:45:00.000+05:30

Like previous year, I participated in the half marathon (approx. 21kms) competition in Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2014. I completed the race in 3 hours and 25 minutes. My friend Amit Prajapati from SEBI also accompanied me for most of the race and completed the race along side with me. From SEBI, total 59 officers completed half marathon whereas 4 even completed full marathon. Fortunately this time I didn't have much of problem with my legs post-race. I even didn't have much pain 2 days after the race day. So it was a normal race.

Amit and Anuj

Wait, this much summary is enough for my parents to know. Of course, my life has unexpected adventures even though I try to avoid them. So here goes the detailed story -

As you might already know, I gave up my practice in last December. Even though I had recovered at the start of year, I was too lazy to restart my practice. It was obvious that I was going to face issues during the race. But I was confident about completing the race.

So when Amit told me that he was also going to come for the race, I told him that I knew all the information about the race like race timing, starting point, etc. My father repeatedly asked me when was the race going to start, but I kept avoiding the question. I kept telling him that there was no point in knowing that so early before the race. Finally, I checked the web site a day before the race and somewhere saw that the race was going to start at 7AM. I took a train to Bandra and was really surprised when I could not see any participants in the compartment. Last year when I went with Nikhil Sawant, there were so many runners at the station. Even when we started walking towards the Bandra-Worli sea link, I could not find anyone. When we reached the start point, I was not sure what was happening, the whole place had a deserted look. Someone then told us that the race had already started! We immediately started with the race and asked a policeman near the start line when the race had actually started.

Well, it had started at 6 AM!!! (It just reminds me the incident where Viraj, Aditya and I were going to Rishikesh's brother's wedding at Virar. We reached the wedding 1 hour late, whereas we thought we had reached half an hour early. No guessing who the culprit was.) It was 6.35 AM by that time and I was so much frustrated. First thoughts were to give up the race. There must have been hardly 2-3 guys in next 2 kms. The road was empty. I remember Amit kept talking on and on, and I kept telling him to shut up and focus on the race instead (I did apologize afterwards for my rudeness). Initially we thought we would at least clear the Sea link and then Amit would go to his home at Worli. By the time we reached 4 kms, I realized I had issues with my right hamstring tendons. I wasn't going to run for too long. After I cleared the sea link I decided not to run anymore and simply walk. To think of it now, one can say that I "ran" the race is a gross overstatement. I completed most of the race walking. There were number of times I felt like quitting, especially when I came in the area near my house i.e. Haji Ali, Pedar Road fly over, Girgav Chaupaty. And every time that happened I reminded myself about Naruto and his "never give up" attitude.

Slowly we moved towards the “next” km mark. I was of course not foolish enough to make the mistake like last time when I made sprint towards the finish line after seeing the 100 m mark. I coolly walked to the finish line this time. No wonder the photos this time weren't as enthusiastic as last time.

Post race we got some good refreshments from SEBI and rested at home for rest of the day.

All in all, it was fun sprinkled with lot of pain :)

Convocation Photos

2014-01-17T19:57:00.000+05:30

I know I am more than a year late in posting these photos, but I just received them today. Special thanks to Alpit Saxena from current AlumCom who made the efforts to get these photos from Academic section of NITIE.