mohan's creative juice!

Honeyvalley trek photos

2006-12-13T23:00:00.000-08:00

I am back after a looooong time,here are some of the pics from the recent trek.

"View from Thadiyandamol peak"

"Honeyvalley"

Day II :: 25th Sept 05 :: Rishikesh

2005-10-19T20:47:00.000-07:00

5:00AM - We are still in the train. Ii might take another 1 hr to reach Haridwar. From there Rishikesh is another 20km. Well it is still raining, does not look like there would be any letup anytime soon.

9:30AM - After reaching Haridwar we booked a cab at a pre-paid taxi counter which is just outside the railway station. It cost us Rs 400/-. The driver charged us another Rs 60/- to take us up the hill to the hotel. Shikhar had booked us the rooms at "The Great Ganga" hotel. Name sounds bit shady the it turned out to be a very good hotel. Since it is at an elevated piece of land once could see the river Ganga and the Swargashram from here. Our check in time is at 12 in the noon so the rooms are not yet available but we were given one for getting fresh. By the time we finish our breakfast the rooms should be available.

11:00AM - At last some really good food:-) We did get our rooms after breakfast. But for some reason Anil insisted that the beds be separated!!! Does he not have enough control over himself or what? So we had to change our room. Rooms are very spacious, they have got balconies overlooking the Ganges. Just saw a news report about the Ganges flowing above the danger level. One could literally see that.

12:00PM - Had a gala time in the bathroom, read it as taking hot water bath you twisted minds. This did get my juice flowing again. When I was sitting in the balcony happen to see a naked sadhu below. Hmmm...how would it look if I wear my hat, sunglasses, trekking shoes minus the clothes? and having the Ganges as the backdrop under pouring rain. That would make a nice 3-in-1 TV commercial "Where ever you go, you need them". It is raining cats and dogs, dropping raincoat has fired back.

Ram Jhula or Shivanand Jhula

7:00PM - We are back at the hotel after totally getting drenched in the rain. I had to buy 10 rupee raincoats to cover myself. We crossed the river using Ram Jhula (Shivanand Jhula - new name) to reach the Swargashram. Lunch at chotiwala was pretty good. Soon after that Anil did a disappearing act not to be seen till late evening. Since the time I landed here had a feeling that somehow I am closely connected to this place. This was confirmed when we saw 'Mohan Laundry Club' on the way to Lakshman Jhula. Laundry is fine but a club! There are other places worth a visit in Rishikesh. 'Baba Massage Center' (Since 1961) is one such place they have been massaging people for quite some time now, so they know what they are doing! Another one is 'Tantra Mantra Meditation Center' which is crowded with hippies. Your trip to Rishikesh is incomplete without visiting these places. We pretty much covered whole of Swargashram and Tapovan area (not to be confused with Himalayan Tapovan) by foot. Tomorrow our plan is to leave as early as possible to Uttarkashi. Looks like the weather is clearing up right in time for our trek. Finally saw some blue patch in the sky:-)

Prev day :: Day I - 24th Sept - Day in Delhi

Day I :: 24th Sept 05 :: Day in Delhi

2005-10-13T08:59:00.000-07:00

I lost my diary in 'Tapovan fiasco', but I am trying to dig out as much as possible from my already battered (why? you'll know later) memory.

8:00AM - Finally the day we have been waiting for so long has come. Out of excitement I woke up even before the alarm went off. I was the first one to arrive at the airport as early as 7:30. Our flight, Kingfisher airlines, to Delhi is scheduled at 10 in the morning. Now that it looks real "colorful" thinking of getting my return tickets booked at Kingfisher:-) Having nothing else to do, I checked in my luggage. Anil and the group arrived full one hour after I did. Somehow I kept myself "busy" all the while. We started off the day by having a bad breakfast at the airport this trend pretty much continued the whole day.

11:00AM - Kingfisher cabin crew are not bad at all. Vijay Mallya is having real taste. Apart from the cabin crew you can watch channels on your personal television. They even serve lunch and don't charge for it! Everything about the journey was good. During landing at Delhi though we got into bad weather, pilot had to circle around the airport for nearly half hour. At one point we thought the plane would make a U turn and go back to B'lore that was the last thing we wanted. Luckily the plane landed safely after a while.

2:00PM - As planned a Qualis was ready to pick us up from the airport. We learned from our driver for the day "Rajkumar" that it's been raining for a day now. Hope it clears up by the time we reach Gangotri else that would really spoil our trek. Shikhar organization is located in Connaught place in Delhi not far away from the airport. We got all the details about the trek from Mr. Mukul, with whom we have been in touch from the beginning. Due to bad weather the UK expedition team is stuck in Nandanvan for a while now and preparing to come back. News on the Japanese team is that they are also stuck but in Gangotri. They are waiting for the weather to clear up before heading to Tapovan. It was time for lunch. We chose a crappy place called Nirulas. What a mess that place was. It was so congested you can hardly move in and out of your table. Food was another horror story. Only thing that was good about the place, not for us though, was the awesome 4 digit bill!

3:30PM - It's been drizzling since the time we landed here. Looks like it is not going to change. Now we don't have any option but to roam around Delhi. Since we have a 10PM train to Haridwar we thought it was not necessary to book a hotel room instead booked a cab and that's going to be our home in Delhi. We just realized it is not just sight seeing we also need to do some real acting to get through our day. The idea is our driver would take us to some very expensive govt owned shops,needless to they have some tie up with Shikhar or to the organization he works for, all we have to do is to pretend as though we are genuine buyers. This would fetch our driver Rs 400/- and some gift!!!. Right now I am sitting in front of one such shop where as Anil & Co are "performing" inside.

8:00PM - In between such acting sessions we found time to see the Presidential house, Parliament house, India gate and Qutub minar. Here the roads are so wide,at least at the centre of the city but the old Delhi is a different story altogether, and without any potholes if you are from B'lore you would definitely feel out of place. In the evening we went Ansal plaza, it is just like any other malls. Unfortunately it was the same story here also, bad food. Whole day is turning out to be bad food day.

10:00PM - Since morning I was wondering where the hell is that 'Tom Thumb' Delhi. Finally I felt at home. We just came through old Delhi, narrow roads with potholes adding to that there were cows in the middle. This was more like what we are used to in B'lore. Only important thing that we probably missed out was Tihar Jail. Old Delhi station is needless to say a real mess. We had to see a woman jump out of the train and a man taking a leak on the platform before boarding the train. We had managed to get seats in the same coach but it was scattered all over. Somehow managed to get into same compartment.

Once I got into the train my juice really started flowing. I promptly managed to capture that in my diary but as I said earlier I lost the diary. It is really sad that such a valuable material is gone forever. May be one day it'll show up in History's Lost & Found!

Next day :: Day II - 25th Sept - Rishikesh

I am back!!!

2005-10-11T00:13:00.000-07:00

Landed in B'lore yesterday night at 11PM. And I am already back at office...so sad. Trek was quite adventurous, though nothing went according to the plan. Lots of incidents, lots of events to blog about. Unfortunately I lost my diary in 'Tapovan fiasco' (tell you more about that later) so I lost the first 7-8 days of writings:-( Anyways I'll re-write and try to recover as much as possible from my fragile memory bank. For the remaining ten days though I kept another diary and it is intact:-) All of us are back safely but one of us came very close to saying final goodbye!!!

After a long wait...

2005-09-23T02:51:00.000-07:00

It's been more than 2 months since we started planning for this trek. Finally the day has arrived. I am so excited:-) Tomorrow at 10AM we are catching a flight to Delhi. After that it'll be a long 17 days of fun! I pity all these guys sitting back at office and breaking their head on designing. Yep some work has come our way after a long time but I am gonna miss it. I am not complaining though:-) To all my fans...I know you'll miss me but it's time to let my creative juice flow in the Himalayas. If there is any emergency you can contact me at mohan@nowhere.com. See you soon...

Trek claims first victim!

2005-09-20T03:14:00.000-07:00

With only few days left, our Himalayan trek has already claimed it's first victim - Company's leave policy. My moderate 17 days leave has finally caught the attention of our senior management and policy makers. New amended policy says one should take permission from senior manager/director in advance for longer leaves (more than 5 working days). God bless all of us. I guess the time has come to move on. I will have to start searching for an "established" startup company with less or preferably no work. Any pointers???

PS: This also forced me to edit my earlier post. I have masked out one more character of my company's name!

Germalam trek

2005-09-16T09:35:00.000-07:00

Date: Sept 10th and 11th 2005
Team: Regular trekking team + Sowmya (Manjula's friend)

It's been a while since we had done a really hard trek. This one really qualified as one of them at least for some of us. This place is about 190km from Bangalore. It is on the way to Coimbatore, if you are going via Malavalli-Kollegal route. This was a core Veerappan area and also a ration point for him. When he was alive probably not many people ventured into this forest. After he was killed in an encounter(??!!??) it became accessible to common people to see what is left of it. You can read more about the place here. We started very early in the morning. As usual I was the first victim to be picked up at 4:30AM. On the way we had an early breakfast at Lokaruchi. From Maddur we took a deviation towards Malavalli. Since Shivanasamudram was on the way we decided to visit the place. After spending few minutes and taking some snaps we were on our way to Germalam. The drive from Kollegal onwards is really scenic and surprisingly not hazy.

Gaganachukki falls

Lush green mountain ranges and the cultivated farm lands below resembles any European country side. This explains why the Tibetans chose this place to set up their monastery. When you reach the check posts just say "we are going to Daniel's farm house". This works like a secret magic words, police man opens the gate without another word. By 11:30 we reached the farm house. This place in itself is a beauty surrounded by peaks all around. First thing that we noticed here was the birds. I am not any bird expert but I can tell you that this place has got wide varieties of them. By the time we got settled down our lunch was ready. We had a hearty meal after that it was time for our first trek.

Tibetan Monastery

The Village

Monsoon trek:It was already cloudy when we arrived. Our plan was to leave after the lunch and be back by 6. Since I was the strongest (at least they thought so) I had to carry all the water bottles, cameras and umbrellas! Our guide was Basavanna, a tribal guy who works in the farm. Just few minutes into the trek it started raining. Even the umbrellas and the rain covers didn't help much. This also made the trail quite slippery. Fortunately though it was not a rain forest which means no leeches. Once you are inside the forest most of the time you are surrounded by thick vegetation. You hardly get any scenic views. But the scenic views are not the only thing in an avid trekker's mind. It is the adventure that is involved in it and the suspense of not knowing how many of them would make it back safely. It took us almost 2 hours before we reached an open area overlooking the valley. The view was not one would call breath taking. From here we could see the farm house. Couldn't believe that we covered so much distance. May be it was the rain that pushed us. But we did notice something. All the time we were only worried about reaching the destination instead of enjoying the nature around us. What's the point going all the way and just run through the woods. May be we should try to understand and interact more with the nature.
It was still raining and all were completely drenched. After a small break we were back on the trail. Soon after we reached another open area. Here we learned that few years back Veerappan had killed 7 villagers for failing to deliver the ration. Naturally Veerappan became our topic for discussion. People over here don't have anything bad to say about him. One of them even claimed that he had seen the man himself. Now that he is dead even I can claim that I had lunch with him! Since it was already getting late we headed back to the farm and made it by 6 as planned.

View from the top - Day 1

Night drive:When one goes for a trek inside a forest their main intension would be to spot some wild animals. But the fact is it rarely happens particularly when it is raining. You should be extremely lucky to spot any wild life. Though we were jaded after the trek, we went for a night drive around the farm house in search of wild animals. In the end all we could manage to see was a family of wild boar and some deer. As soon as we came back, we crashed in our tents. My tent was in a corner and the whole of it was for me! I was just praying that a leopard or something else wouldn't show up in the middle of the night.

Trek to Etnur betta:I had a nice night sleep. Chirping birds woke me up in the morning. Others were already up and had gone for a walk. During our breakfast our discussion turned to Kyoto agreement. Countries like Japan, which does not have much of their own land, donates around $360m to India for planting trees there by hoping that would reduce the green house gases. This also gives Japan the right to pollute. In reality though those trees would never be planted but only on papers. Our mahila mandal was not too keep to trek up the Etnur hill. So it was only me and Anil. After yesterdays experience I decided to wear a T-Shirt and a short for the trek. That would make life easier if it rains. We started off at around 9:30am. Initial part of the trek pretty easy. Soon enough we came across a water hole. Just near that was a bunch of rocks. Climbing up was quite steep but doable. Wearing a short made my task much easier.

Waterhole!

Smart guys always make smart moves. This was the last time I thought of myself this way. Things were about to change. From this point onwards there was absolutely no trail. To make matters worse it was full of thorny bushes. Even the ascent was very steep. Within no time my hands and legs were full of scratches. But look at the brighter side things could have been worse had I decided to wear slippers. Which I was seriously contemplating. Half way through we heard a trumpet of an elephant near by. Decided to take a closer look. But the path was so dense we had no chance of seeing the elephant unless we get really close. When you want to take a risk should always have an escape plan. We had one and that was to run!. But the problem was there was no easy way. Needless to say we ditched the plan. We reached the top in another hour. The view from there made all the effort worth. We couldn't quite believe that we made it so far from the farm house.

View from the top - Day 2

After a short break we began climbing down the hill. Again there was no shortcut but through those thorny bushes. On our way back we again missed the elephant by few minutes. Luckily or unluckily we crossed the same path barely few minutes apart. It was apparent from the foot marks and the strewn grass over the bushes. Couple of hours later, at 3pm, we were back at the farm. Another tasty meal it was time for us leave. Hope these two days has given us enough preparation for the ultim@te trek!

Pushing the limits of imagination!

2005-09-16T01:57:00.000-07:00

How far one can push the limits of imagination? Wanna know the answer then watch AanKhen(eyes) on DD1 (Thur 10pm). This mega serial is directed by Amrit Sagar, grandson of Ramanand Sagar who happens to be the producer. Serial is about a group of idiots, call them terrorists, trying to destroy India and another group of morons who are from a counter intelligence unit trying to save. Not a bad plot by any means. But the breakneck pace, action sequences and the acting (if you call it that way) really screws up the whole serial. The best part is you can just switch of the logical part of your brain and enjoy the circus. I have been watching it for some time now. By now I am used to all those toy guns, helicopters, missiles and the ships. Very often one gets to see Carlos, Kangaroo and a chick, the villains, sitting inside a helicopter having snacks while a dump looking guy wearing a cheap headset tries to fool the audience into thinking that he is actually flying a helicopter. But yesterday they went one step further. Carlos and Kangaroo sends a fighter plane to spray the chemical weapon over Colonel's, lead officer at Aanken, town. What do we see inside the plane??? Surprise surprise!!! Again a dump looking guy trying to act flying and behind him two guys standing with a cylinder filled with the chemical weapon! Did they forget to change the sets or what?

What do men really want?

2005-09-15T23:39:00.000-07:00

need I say more?

Can u identify this drunkard?

2005-09-14T07:43:00.000-07:00

No prize for guessing though:-)

Who is the boss?

2005-09-14T07:40:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken when we went for Vadi's wedding. Sometimes one has to show who is the boss.

I am a PETA member!!!

2005-09-13T07:38:00.000-07:00

Shocked! Born carnivorous turned herbivorous! Wait...
I am not talking about that fake PETA (People for Ethical Treatment for Animals) but the true PETA which stands for "People for Eating Tasty Animals". I wasn't aware of this definition until Manjula told me. I know she will regret this for life. Fake PETA had to fight for it's life and sued the original PETA for (mis)using the name. Sadly though the case was settled in fake PETA's favor. Confused as to which one is the original PETA. Well that was the idea behind this post. Anyways I don't get the mindset of these PETA (the fake one) folks. We humans are carnivorous by nature so why try to change it just because of some mutated specimen who don't have the balls to eat dead animals. In fact we are doing a big favor by helping maintain the ecological balance. We in India have already got problems with the cows on the road cause we are not eating enough of them. Now imagine MG road full of chickens. Don't these people get it? But there is one thing that I like about PETA. They have got Pam Anderson!

Analyzing Your Manager

2005-09-13T04:31:00.000-07:00

I happen to read this article on Netscape.

It basically tells you how one can lick manager's ass to make him/her happy. Sure enough it is written by a manager like pointy haired boss.

Here are some of the suggestions...
- Help him solve his problems and you will become a valued ally.
- Go out of your way to help make your boss shine.
- Show your boss you're on his side, help make him and the department look good.

Article also says that the biggest reason people switching the job is their manager. Don't you think these suggestions should be given to the managers instead?

Click here to read the article.

How much clothes one should wear when they are with nature?

2005-09-09T07:17:00.000-07:00

I don't remember when I got this or why I got this idea? For some unfound reason I believe that one should try to be as close to a natural thing as possible when they are with nature. Even if this means wearing as less as possible. I you look at my photos (if you haven't then just drop me a mail, I can send you some uncensored ones!!!) most of the time I am at least half naked. Trek in the Himalayas is as close as anyone can get to mother nature. So this time around am planning to go one step ahead and be like those Nagas. Hey Anil don't cancel the tickets in panic...

Blast from the past :: Donigal to Yedakumeri (sakaleshpur rail track) trek

2005-09-08T22:45:00.000-07:00

Trekking Date: Sat, 20th Nov 2004

It was 5 in the morning, windy and cold, could barely see in the dark. I was running up and down the national highway (NH-48) in search of two morons (Kamath and Binu). After the futile search came back to the point where we all were suppose to meet. Ramu was still in the same posture, dozing on a roadside bench. On to the right side of the road there was a slightly steep ascent leading up to an abandoned railway station. As a last resort we went up only to find no one. The station was in total ruins, missing doors, broken windows and some scattered documents. Railway track itself was in no better condition. This scenic rail route in the western ghats was not used for at least a decade now thanks to all the lobbying by bus/truck owners. But this was a blessing for the trekkers, trek from Donigal to Yedakumeri is one of the dream routes. Special in it's own way with tunnels and bridges.

When we first heard about this not many of us knew of this route. After a few days of planning and getting some useful tips it was time for some fun. We packed food enough for a feast. Since all of us were working in the same company there was no problem coordinating. At about 10 in the night we boarded a KSRTC bus going towards Mangalore. It was scheduled to arrive at sakaleshpur by 2AM!!! This was the place from where we had to find our way to the railway track. If we miss the stop we'd doing a baywatch instead. Luckily for us the conductor was kind enough to stop the bus at many places to pickup the passengers. This kept at least one of us awake all along. We got down at the new sakaleshpur bus stop but there was nothing new about this 'new' bus stop. Some souls do get down at the old bus stop to find themselves walking in the dark for at least few KMs.

After a few attempts to sleep on the bench guys quickly gave up. Donigal station was further 6km from this place. We had to somehow kill the time until it is 4AM then catch a shuttle (referred to a bus that stops at every conceivable point) to manzirabad port. Here we had some eggs at a roadside hotel also enquired about the railway station. "illinda eradu kilometer agutte" (it is 2KM from here) said one hotel boy. But we were not to believe this, by this time we had come to a conclusion that the people around here have a different unit for measurement. From here any place is just 2KM down the road!!! We had no option but to hitch a ride. We made a decision, can't remember exactly who, to split up in a filmy style and meet up just below the station. A decision that would cost us few precious hours.

7AM and still no sign of these guys. We were sufficiently warned to start the trek by 6 or be prepared to stay in one of those bat infested tunnels. Though it sounds adventurous it was definitely not an option for us. We returned to the highway to see Kamath searching for us. After a few verbal exchanges finally the journey began.

It was my first time: Having lost at least an hour we began marching on the track. Initial 30 minutes were uneventful. One could hear the vehicles at a distance and the noise made as we stepped on the stones. After a while we could see a bridge at a distance. Track was bit slippary due to early morning dew. At some places the metal peace joining the sleepers were missing. We could hear a stream down below but couldn't judge the height as it was covered with thick vegetation. After a photo shoot kamath and ramu decided to cross first. Now it was my turn, being acrophobic didn't help much, mustered enough courage to take a few steps. There are few rules to crossing such bridges, never look through the sleepers, never look sideways and never lookup to see how much you have covered. I didn't follow any of those. Now I was in the middle of the bridge with my legs refusing to take another step. It took a lot of convincing and a few crazy guys laughing at the other end. I finally crossed the first bridge.

View from the bridge

Just another one

Soon enough we crossed another one and it was time for our breakfast. We ate few pieces of bread with jam, some rolls, banana chips and dates. For a while we encountered only small bridges which did get us used to them. All along one can get a breath taking view of western ghats to the right side of the track. It gets even better when you are on a bridge. Beautiful vegetation, streams roaring 200mt below (you can get a great view at some places where the sleepers are missing!). But none of us could enjoy this. Most of the time we were only worried about the next step. Inside the tunnels though it was a different story. Torches that you carry can only help finding your next step. Some of them are so long and winding it is hard to see the other end. Inside the tunnel one can hear the bats and the dripping water, perfect setting for a horror movie. As we went along we could see at some places expansion work was in progress. New concrete sleepers were replacing the old rusty metal ones. Though this is a trekkers dream route we did not see many people. At one point, I think it was just after a tunnel, we saw few guys taking a break. Here tunnel was immediately followed by a long bridge. So I decided to take a leak, as I did that I could hear those guys giggle and laugh. May be they thought I saw scared. By this time I was so used to these bridges I could almost walk with my eyes closed, assuming that the bridge was in good shape. They stopped giggling the moment I stepped onto the track, I never heard them afterwards.

The end or was it? After crossing series of bridges and tunnels we finally reached the destination, Yedakumeri. This station was no different to donigal except that we could see some souls. It took us just 6 hours to reach here!!!. The previous batch had taken almost 12 hours, may be because they had a much bigger group hence many varieties of monkeys to manage:-) We had our lunch here. We shared some of our food with a bog! but little did we realize that it will be there with us till the end. From here all we had to do was to take a route down the hill and reach NH48. One old man there suggested that we go with a guy and take a lorry to get to the highway. This was a wonderful news. We don't even have to walk. Immediately we said yes and followed him. Soon after we realized something was wrong.

we: where is the lorry?
guy: you have to walk some distance
we: HOW MUCH???
guy: 5-6kms
(that's the distance to the highway, why do we need a lorry after that?)
we: how do we go?
guy: same route
(He meant more tunnels and bridges. We knew that from this point bridges are going to be longer and higher.)
we: No..no..we don't want that route. We want to go down the hill. How do we go?
guy: You can go this way (he pretty much pointed nowhere). Only problem is you'll have to cross a neck deep stream (Near by there was a hydro electric power station, they leave water in the afternoon). You might see some elephants also. I heard that one male elephant is on the rampage.

Soon enough we were crossing those long bridges!

Dude, Where is the track? This route was straight out of hell. Many places the track just disappeared beneath the soil, in the woods. We had to do lotta out of track excursions. Having know that the unit of measurement here was screwed up, we prepared our self for another 6*2km trek. Missing sleepers no longer bothered us, if they are missing what the hell just jump. We had to reach the highway by nightfall at any cost. Sleeping in the tunnel was not an option for us. Soon afterwards one more moron joined our "guide". I had to literally run behind them just to make sure that we know where they are going. Having crossed another long bridge me and Binu decided to wait for Kamath and Ramu who were slightly behind us.

guy: saar, did u see the snake?
we: what snake? (casually)
guy: It crossed right in front of you. It went inside that pit. I'll pull it out you can take a picture!!!!!!

Me and Binu looked at each other in horror. It took a lot of convincing to calm the guy down.

Where is the track?

Everything that can go wrong will go wrong - Murphy's law: As we approached Gundy our guides went a bit ahead. We were totally lost among the crowd of construction workers. We forgot to ask their names, at least did not remember, also forgot how they looked like. There was no sign of neither the lorry nor the guides. Frantically we tried communicating with the workers. Fact that they didn't know the local language made it harder. Slowly it descended on us that WE ARE STUCK here for the night!!! It was already 5 in the evening. Here again we had to make a choice. Take a route that is used by the lorry, approximately 10km and frequented by elephants in the night, to the highway. Climb down the hill, which is pretty steep, and cross a stream (if we manage to go past the elephants). Neither of them looked enticing. At this point we were rushed into a near by tunnel (this is when we realized that the lorry was waiting here!) as they were putting some dynamites to break the rocks. They exploded with a loud bang.

some guy: Don't come out yet, some of them failed to explode.
binu: May be they are waiting for us to come out.

By the way things were going us since morning, I thought it was quite possible.

View from Gundya

Moon light dinner!: Here we met a guy called Mr Naidu. He was looking after the construction work. He offered us a place to stay. We were still not sure where? Once it became dark, it was a sight to watch. We had a stunning view of the moonlit western ghat peaks and the stream below. It was worth all the trouble and the pain. I really don't think many people would have had a chance to do this. We had enough food in reserve so really dinner was not a problem. Just them we heard someone say that the food the ready. Was it for us? No way! What are the chances that we get stranded in a mountain and some total stranger offers us a place and makes food for us. One in a million...may be even less. But it just happened. Our dinner was set under the moonlight with the backdrop of the ghats. How much one can pay for this? After all everything that happens is for good. Food was so amazing it was hard for me to resist eating more. But out of courtesy and constant reminders from the other folks I finally stopped. We were still wondering about our sleeping place. It was already prepared. Since lot of inspection happens during the construction work, they had prepared a hut using the bamboos. Inside it had a cement flooring. Few feet of the group was our bed supported by bamboos and covered with bed sheets. It was totally shielded from the cold wind. It was heaven, we all had a sound sleep that night!

Our bedroom

And finally...: It was morning. The view was no less spectacular than the previous night. By 9 our lorry was ready. We bid adieu to all, kitchen guys and Mr. Naidu, and started our final leg of journey. Just when we thought that nothing else can go wrong something happened. Half way through we noticed that a tree was uprooted mostly by an elephant. It was blocking our way down. All attempts to pull it using the lorry was in vain. Again luck was on our side, on the other side was a jeep waiting go up. We switched sides and reached the highway without any incidents. From here we got a bus to Bangalore. The trip was finally over, though nothing went according to the plan it is a trek that will be remembered for rest of our lives.

The final twist

Quotes of the trek:
(One of the construction worker): Once the track is ready it will be easier for you to come here!
Our "guide": It (snake) went inside that pit. I'll pull it out you can take a picture

PS: This trek was done almost a year ago. I really had to dig deep to get the facts out.

Savandurga Hike

2005-09-08T06:42:00.000-07:00

Date: Sunday, 4th Sept 2005

Trip to Savandurga was totally unexpected. We (me, Anil, Poornima and Manjula) were suppose to be doing rock climbing at Ramanagar in preparation for our Himalayan trek. When I reached the bus station early in the morning got a call from Anil. Rock climbing was cancelled due to heavy rain the previous night. He suggested we go somewhere nearby and do the trek instead. Had I received the call at home I would have opted to sleep. By the time I reached Anil's home the destination was already decided. It was Savandurga. This was originally knows as Savinadurga (death fortress). It is about 10km from magadi and 60km from Bangalore. This was the capital for Magadi rulers, the Kempegowdas in 17th century. The landscape will remind that of Chitradurga. After having breakfast at 'vidhyarthi bavan' (also packed food for lunch) we hit the Bangalore-Magadi road. From Magadi one needs to take a left that goes towards Ramanagar.

Death Fortress

There are two routes to reach the top. One is through the forest, which is on the left hand side of the hill also know as karigudda or black hill. The other way is to climb the biligudda or white hill which is devoid of any vegetation. We took the latter one mainly because we didn't know that there was another route. There are no steps to climb here. Only thing that will guide you to the top is the white arrows painted on the rock. Keep going along the marked arrows unless you have some kind of rock climbing experience otherwise you would make a front page news only in a local news paper though. So it is not worth taking so much risk. Even along the marked route, which is suppose to be the easiest one, at some places it becomes so steep you will find yourself crawling like a lizard. It took us almost two hours of climbing before we reached hanuman temple. Next to this is a small pond. From here it will take you another 15 minutes to reach the top. There you will find a small nandi facing the valley. Atop the hill one can also get a view of river arkavathi, shivaganga and siddhaganga peaks.

The top!

As we started descending we realized it is more difficult to climb down a steep rock than going up. Not only does it put lot of stress on the knees it also makes one go weaker in their knees when they actually realize how steep the descent is. Another two hours we were back at the bottom. Having nothing else to do we headed to Bangalore. I had one more reason to make it to Bangalore as soon as possible. I knew my sweetheart would be waiting for me! Wondering who this new character is???

Some basic tips:
- Take longer steps while climbing up
- Take shorter steps while climbing down and also lean backwards.
- Do not attempt to climb after or during the rain otherwise you would be history.

PS: We had not taken any camera for this hike. So the pics are taken from here.

Blog space up for sale...Hurry limited offers!

2005-09-05T07:35:00.000-07:00

Recently my blog is getting hits from all over the world. Thanks to statcounter I am able to get this information. While analyzing the data I found that many of the hits came as result of search engine results. You can find that out yourself, just go to msn and search for these combination of words.

- (my) + naked + photos
- my + best + friend's + wedding
- quotable + quotes + honor
- cop + XXX

My blog will be the first entry, or will at least be in the first page, in the search results. Not bad for a starter. So I decided to auction the blog space (right hand side). So hurry and send your bids. Two highest bidders will get to place their blog link right here on my "famous" blog.

PS: I accept only in USD and Euros.

Crushes N Crashes (Recycling)

2005-09-05T07:18:00.000-07:00

Read this in a blog...written by a software pro

Everyone in their lives would have had crushes, and me too had my share of crushes. But, it didn't take much time for each of them to turn to crashes. None of my crushes took off, or probably they crashed even before they took off !! Today, when I look back, I cant manage but to have a laugh.

My first crush was on Miss R. I was in my tenth then. We happened to speak only once. It was when I had offered her a coke. She refused to have it and the very next moment I gulped it down. I still cant forget the dumbstruck look on her face. A few days later, she started going around with one of my classmates. They used to go for wonderful evening walks, Miss R, my classmate and her doggy. Unfortunately(fortunately for me), the affair didn't last too long. On one such romantic walk of theirs, my classmate was bitten by the doggy. He brought up the question : Its me or the dog......she chose the dog !!! The news gave me sadistic pleasure.

I was in a co-ed school for my 11th-12th. I got very friendly with Miss N in my class. It appeared to me that...yes...she is the girl. One day, Miss N came and sat next to me...close...really close.....my heart beats shot up. She said.....I want to tell you something....but please maintain it as a secret. I knew...this was it...yes....she went on...you know...X(another classmate of mine) proposed me......and I too like him...and I accepted. I am telling you coz you are like my brother.......WHAT THE HECK ? As if the first news wasn't bad enough, the second sounded suicidal. I looked at her with an artificial smile and said....Congrats S..S..Sis !!!

The next crush didn't take much time to happen. It was Miss S who walked in to class. I literally had my jaws hanging seeing her. We became good friends...but I never fancied my chances...given the Miss N experience. She was my Biology project partner....while she did the project...I concentrated on her biology ! Just as the boards got over, and as I was mustering enough courage to tell her, her dad got transferred. She changed the city.

Next in engineering college, there was this hottie in my class. Boy....she was a babe...Miss G. She used to stand opposite to me in the chemistry lab. I prayed for some chemistry to happen between us. But I guess, she was much smarter than I was. Miss G realised that I used to mess up all my titration experiments coz I used to be looking at her and not the lab apparatus. I called her out ALONE on my b'day. She turned up with her whole bunch of friends. The girls kept giggling and I looked for a place where I could go and bang my head.I steered clear of her for the rest of my engineering days.

Moving on from here, it was a major success story. This time round, it took some time for things to crash....just a little longer..a bit more than five years. Everything seemed like a fairy tale when the crash factor took the better of me.

By this time, I was in my job and I decided to use the term "interest" instead of crush. So , my interest grew in Miss L in office. I thought she was a very pretty lady. Thankfully, the growth of my interest stopped very soon, the moment I learnt that she was supposed to go on leave the next week for her marriage. She was to marry her long time boyfriend. Only one thought came to my mind....The good ones are always taken !!!

Ha ha ha.....thankfully.....I have grown out of all these......no more CRUSHES.....so no chances of CRASHES......I live this way now.....hey...wait.....who is this girl ???? ;-)

Original post: http://hpinvent.blogspot.com/

Enlargement scam

2005-09-05T07:08:00.000-07:00

Just happen to read this article on the web. I got the link from Kamath who pointed his fingers at Binu. Neither of them had any explanation as to how they ended up here. I am not sure if Anil had anything to do with this.

This article is written by a guy who tried out an enlargement product for certain "part" of male body. Don't shy away from clicking the link. It is worth reading. Particularly his conversation with a female (an Indian) customer support personnel is quite hilarious. They also give some useful tips, if anyone of you is interested, you can literally have it at your finger tips. Once you are done with reading you'll exactly know what I mean:-D It is a 7 page article so don't forget to click the link at the end of each chapter.

http://www.zug.com/pranks/penis

A circus called marriage

2005-08-29T08:22:00.000-07:00

Recently I attended a marriage of one of my relatives. Wedding is one ritual that I always avoided for good number of reasons. But this time I wasn't that lucky despite using all my usual tricks. Just the thought of sitting in the marriage hall and watching all those dirty monkey tricks to lure unsuspecting guys/gals into the sea of sadness made me sick. There was one more reason why I did not want to attend this wedding. For most part of my education I was away from home. So apart from my immediate family no one else recognized me. They didn't even know that I exist. But that was about to change.

My misery began even before the wedding day, on the reception night. I felt like a hapless goat when I was being introduced to all those relatives whom I have never seen in my entire life. Then began the barrage of questions. I didn't even know how to negotiate some of them but give a nervous smile. This continued through the night. Somehow I managed to sneak out after the dinner.

Next morning I realized that the marriage ceremony is exactly like a jaathre(market) where you can showcase the products you have and see other's products. This is the main attraction why parents, particularly the ones who have prospective bride or groom, always make it to the weddings. One more thing that you can notice is that the girls change dress more often than the heroin in a Ravichandran (notorious Kannada hero) movie. Guys are not that far behind. They may not change the dress so often but they do everything (even a monkey dance) to make sure that they get noticed. Parents shamelessly encourage them by all means. It gets even worse when there is a big display screen. It is like watching the shit with a magnifying glass. As if this is not sufficient there are those sitting in a corner and ridiculing the marriage/bride/groom or their family. I even heard some say "enidhru nam sose/alliyan thara baralla ivaru" (she/he is not as good as my daughter-in-law/son-in-law).

This whole marriage thing is like a chain reaction, if one gets married there will be 3 or 4 more digging their graves with the help of their parents. Once you get into this vicious cycle you only try to pull in more people and end up as a sadist trying to ruin everyone coming in contact with you. Why can't we have a much simpler approach to life? It is worth giving a thought!

PS: Contents in this post subject to without notice. If this post disappears from the blog, assume that I became insane and decided to get married.

Visa power - AP style

2005-08-29T02:16:00.000-07:00

We have seen temples being constructed for the politicians and the movie stars but this one beats all of them. Now we have a temple for visa seekers in Andra Pradesh. A 100 year old dead banyan tree is the official 'visa god'. Birth of this 'god' is quite an interesting one. Few months back heavy rain that lashed had almost uprooted this tree. But months later another heavy storm restored it back to it's original position convincing people that the tree is having some sort of magical powers. Even an awareness program aimed at educating the people have had no effect. If you are thinking why visa why not something else? Well what else do you expect from the AP people!

New trekking shoes

2005-08-25T07:39:00.000-07:00

Few days back I purchased a new pair of woodland trekking shoes. The 'shikar' people insisted that we get used to wearing these shoes for at least a month before trekking. I went to Bangalore Central and picked up the biggest shoe available in the store. Since yesterday I have started wearing it. I feel like a bigfoot driving around in a SUV and muscling the way past the autos and the two wheelers. People are just staying away from me and my foot. Chicks give me a look and say "Wow it is so BIG!!!"

Sexual discrimination

2005-08-16T07:10:00.000-07:00

If you are from b'lore I am sure you know "Ebony". It is a restaurant on MG road. Though I have been to this place many times before I noticed this sign only few days back. I couldn't decide if it is a discrimination again men or women. See if you can recognize this.

Perseid meteor shower

2005-08-16T06:50:00.000-07:00

Day: 13th Aug 2005
Perseid meteor shower is an annual phenomenon occurring in the month of August. Since this meteor shower appears to come out of the constellation Perseus it is known as perseid. Having missed this on 12th (day when the shower peaked) and 13th being the last day for this meteor shower I woke up at 3:30 in the morning (high intensity was expected between 4am and 6am) . The last of the series of alarms I had put managed to wake me up. Took a blanket and went onto the terrace. Since my brain was still rebooting it took a while to spot the perseus constellation. Now all I had to do is to sit and look up. Did manage to see some but they were no where near perseus. Just when it became 4 the whole sky was blanketed with the clouds. Fortunately after 15-20 minutes sky was clear again but there was no activity. But having woken up so early I didn't want to go back and sleep. Waited for another 30 minutes by this time my neck was already paining. I actually started praying for clouds so that I can get back to sleep. But they were no where to be seen!!! Then finally they arrived:-) It was such a relief. Even before they covered the sky I was in my bed. It will be some time before I watch another meteor shower.

Planning for the great Himalayan trek: Sources of the Ganges, Garhwal

2005-08-10T05:58:00.000-07:00

Before I write anything about this trek, I would like to thank Anil for doing all the research and to Kodiak Networks for not giving him enough work to keep him busy.

This is very much unlike any of our previous treks. Once this is done, all we can do with weekends is to go for a hike/picnic in Agumbe forest with little kids. For the first time we are trekking for 9-10 days continuously. And none of us have done this at 16,000+ feet!!!
After doing so much of research (again thanks to Anil) we decided go with Shikar organization. They are the biggest trekking and mountaineering organization in India. Incidentally at the same time they are also handling an expedition team from UK. This is an unique opportunity for us to watch them climb Mt Satopant from the base camp at Vasuki Tal where we are planning to camp for a day at least.

Currently this is how the plan looks like...
24th Sept Morning: Fly to Delhi from B'lore
24th Sept Night: Night train to Rishikesh
25th Sept Morning: Relax in Rishikesh. Visit the various ashrams in the Yoga capital of the world and the temple at Hardwar. If possible do some rafting on the Ganges at Rishikesh. Stay at Hotel Great Ganga.
26th Sept Morning: Drive to Uttarkashi (155km). Stay at Shikar nature resort.
27th Sept Morning: Drive to Gangotri (95km). Stay at Manisha Cottage, can't wait to see this place!

Our trekking begins from here...
28th Sept: Gangotri - Bhojbasa
29th Sept: Bhojbasa - Gaumukh - Tapovan
30th Sept: Tapovan - Explore the base camps for various peaks.
1st Oct: Tapovan - Khada Pathar
2nd Oct: Khada Pathar - Nandanvan
3rd Oct: Nandanvan - Vasuki Tal (Possibly stay for a day here)
4th Oct: Vasuki Tal - Nandanvan
5th Oct: Nandanvan - Chirbasa
6th Oct: Chirbasa - Gangotri, Same day drive to Uttarkashi or Harsil
7th Oct to 9th Oct: Relax at Char Dham in Harsil valley
9th Oct Morning: Drive to Rishikesh
9th Oct Night: Train to Delhi
10th Oct Night: Fly back to B'lore

Links where you can get more information:
http://www.indiatravelclub.com/SOURCES-OF-GANGES-TREK.html
http://www.adventure-cultural-tours.com/nanda-devi-trek.html
http://www.shikhar.com/
http://www.garhwalhimalayas.com/
http://www.ibexexpeditions.com/
http://www.wildrift.com/
http://www.gmvnl.com/

PS: Hope this trek doesn't get cancelled. I really hate to delete this post.

Kod**k way of life

2005-08-10T02:40:00.000-07:00

Well...slowly but surely Kod**k made a successful transition from a software company to a full fledged resort and health center.

This is our typical day at Kod**k.
11:00AM - Arrive at office
11:30AM - Go for a brunch and try to be back by 11:30AM
** Check mails and try acting busy **
01:00PM - Discuss where to go for lunch
02:00PM - "After lunch walk"
03:00PM - "After lunch sleep"
3:30PM to 4:15 PM - Tea and Table Tennis
** Take a break for 10-15 minutes, this is the hardest part **
4:30PM to 5:30PM - YOGA class, yes you read it correctly
5:45PM to 6:45PM - Aerobics class
** GYM - Optional **
** Table Tennis - Optional **

Does it get any better than this? But I believe we truly deserve this!

My half naked photos

2005-08-10T01:32:00.000-07:00

Much awaited post...COMING SOON!!!

My best friend's wedding

2005-07-27T02:09:00.000-07:00

This sounds like a movie name. I think there was one with such
a name. Anyways this is about one of my best friend Kanchan.
I have known her for more than 3 yrs now. Though at times nerdy
she was one of the sweetest girl I have known. She is getting
married on 7th of Aug to Jaspal. He is working in Sydney,Australia.
I wish them all the very best for their married life:-)

Gauri-Vara trek

2005-07-26T08:43:00.000-07:00

Date: 16th July 05
About the place:
The place is located at the foothills of "Singara" mountain ranges in
Madhumalai. It is a private estate right in the middle of Madhumalai
National Forest. You can read more about the place at
http://www.creekncrag.com
It is about 250 km from B'lore located only a few KMs away from
B'lore-Mysore-Ooty road. If you are looking for a secluded place to
getaway on a weekend, this must be one of them.

Starting from B'lore:
I woke up at 4 in the morning!!! just to make sure that I don't once
again become the reason for the delay. We wanted to leave B'lore
before 5 in the morning so that we can avoid the early morning rush.
I was the first one to be picked up followed by Ramu and then the
honeymoon couple Anil and Poornima (we refer to married people as
honeymoon couple).

Reaching the destination:
As planned I was the first one to get picked up followed by Ramu and
then the couple. During this pickup process I realized the kind of
driver we hired for the trip. From the way he was driving I assumed
that the vehicle belongs to him. He was treating it just like his wife!!!
We had breakfast in Kamath hotel just after mysore. That turned out
to be the only memorable part of our drive to Gauri Vara. After the
breakfast I fell asleep thanks to our driver's smooth and slow
driving style! but only to be awaken by a rude tap on the shoulder.
It was the driver again. He said "Don't sleep when you are sitting
in the front, it makes me also to sleep"!!! Needless to say I never
slept after that.
At about 11AM we made it to Gauri vara via Bandipur and then
Masinagudi which is about 8-10 km from the place. Though it was bit
late we were happy to reach the place before lunch. But our driver
had a last trick up his sleeves. He refused to drive on the mud road,
which was perfectly alright, that goes to the actual camping site.
We lost an hour because of this. Decided never to hire this guy again.
Finally we reached the camping site at 12 in the afternoon thanks to
the vehicle arranged by the estate people.

Trek #1:
To make it worse it started raining just after we reached the camp.
But by the time we finished our lunch it had stopped raining. So we
started our first trek into the forest at 2PM. I was the official
photographer for this trek. All the good photos are taken by me and
the other mediocre ones are by Anil & Co. You can check out some the
pics at http://photos.yahoo.com/mohan_k_r
For the initial part of the trek we had to walk along the electrified
fence. On the other side of the fence was the Madhumalai National
Forest. After walking some distance we saw the fence flattened by an
elephant. Here we crossed over to the other side. This place reminded
me of Augumbe forest minus the leaches:-)
Though there were not many photo ops in this thick forest I managed
to get some using my skillful photography. Basically we trekked up
along side a stream. Most difficult part was to climb the slippery
rocks. After trekking for few hours we decided head back.

*View of Singara Ranges*

Trek #2:
Started raining again in the evening and just like in the afternoon
it stopped after the tea. This time we went in the opposite direction.
It was already getting dark when we started. This was a flat trek
through the woods. Went around for some time in the dark without
any luck. At last we managed to spot a herd of sambars, leopard
pugmarks and some elephant shit. Just when we thought that we may
not able to see anything worth, we spotted a bison and right behind
it was a lone tusker!!! This was worth all the money that we had
spent. We would have been more happy had we seen a leopard or a
tiger hunting down a sambar. But we'll settle for this one:-)

*Pond along the trekking route*

Stay in the tent:
I am a no-vegetarian but here I had to settle for just the veggie stuff.
But Felt pity for the grass eaters. After the dinner we went back to
our tents. There were 2 tents pitched for four of us. I had to share
the tent with Ramu. For "obvious reasons" our honeymoon couple
asked for the tent to be pitched far away from ours. We were given
sleeping bags but I used it as a blanket. Just in case the elephant
attacks I didn't want to be stuck inside the sleeping bag which would
have become a body bag. I had such a "sound sleep" it even might
have scared some animals away.

Trek #3:
Woke up at 2 hours past 5AM. Finished the usual routines and went
for another trek. This time we were not as lucky as the previous day.
Only managed to see some fresh elephant shit.

Abrupt end:
After coming back we had a nice heavy breakfast. Here we decided to
go to Bandipur and do a small trek for about 4-5 hours. But when we
reached the place all the guides were already booked and were only
available after 3PM. So our trip came to an abrupt end. We had no
option but to go back to B'lore. All of us decided to skip the lunch
instead we had some low calorie potato buns, chips, fruit cakes and
some soft drinks. Safely reached B'lore at 4PM.

Rum, Chicken and Formula1...

2005-06-12T20:43:00.000-07:00

...is there any better combination than these, that toowhen
schumi managed to get a second place with all the problems
they had with the car! I am a big F1 fan. Last year when
Ferrari and schumi were winning all the races (he won 13
out of 18 races and Ferrari won 15 out of 18!!!) people said
F1 is boring but now when they are not it is even more boring.
Good to see them back where they belong.

My second XXX movie

2005-06-10T02:30:00.000-07:00

It was hot, it was sexy, it was wild and made the first one pale
in comparison! Yes I am talking about the movie XXX - the next
level. If you, specially young ladies, expected some raunchy stuff
you can stop reading right here and head to kamath's or binu's blog.
You will find enough material over there to quench your "thirst".
I am a family blogger by the way.

Now lets get to the movie. It kicks off with a brilliant action
sequence where one of the NSA division headed by Samuel L Jackson
is attacked and 16 of it's agents gets killed. This is when the
hunt for a new "XXX" who is suppose to be more dangerous and lethal
than the original XXX (code name for the agent) begins.
Since Vin Diesel was busy with his schedules they have opted for
Ice Cube (not Hyper cube) as the new XXX. It is beyond anyone's
understanding as to why he was picked to replace the old XXX,
I mean he is so fat and definitely this guy can't act. I have not
heard Mr.Cube's racist rap songs, which he is very famous for,
but he better stick to that. The fact that they refer to the
"old XXX" getting killed and ridicule him as mere skateboarder
suggest that Vin Diesel might have opted out of the movie sequel.

What follows is a real torture. Some meaningless stunts, I love the
way ICE escapes from the prison, u got to see the movie to
understand my true feelings. I have no problem with the action
movies but man this one really sucked. The one liners will rip your
ears off. From the beginning to the end you will see some
"out-of-this-world" action sequences which are in place to keep the
audience busy and confused while the director hatches the plot for
the final sequence. Bollywood wakeup u r in for a real competition
from Hollywood.

At some point u actually feel that the director Lee Tamahori
is bit sadistic. For instance lets check this sequence of Ice
with a beautiful blond in a bedroom...wait don't get so excited.
Now if u ask me how did he ends up with a chick like that, well
it never got registered in my already overloaded brain.

Conversation goes something like this...
Blond: U better take shower, I'll get u some clothe
Ice: #$%#$^$#%^$#
Blond: I'll be just outside, if u need "anything" at all just call me.
Ice: "Anything"???
Blond: Yeah
Ice: Can I get fried potatoes and a coke?
At this point I could see people thumping their fist in anger.

As far as the plot is concerned this is what I understood -
Secretary of state, played by Willem Dafoe, wants to eliminate his old
nemesis Samuel Jackson and all the agents who are loyal to him.
Then assassinate the president and make it look like the work of
these agents and become the next president or something like that.

...and the movie continues, cars and bullets flying, Ice launches a
Tanker off the deck of an aircraft carrier!!!

Ok...it is enough I guess. Let's get to the climax. It looks like a
bad action game. Imagine the president of united states being
hijacked in a bullet train and our hero catching up with it in a
sports car!!! Towards the end he puts his car onto the rail track.
Once the tires get ripped apart the rims perfectly fit onto the rails!
he jumps onto the train and rescues the president.
It was such an experience, can't wait to watch the next XXX movie:-)

Quotable quotes

2005-05-19T00:06:00.000-07:00

Just came across these in the web...
"Wise man say: forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."
"There is no room for failure now. The innocent must die."

And the honor goes to...
"The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country." George W,Bush
U can never misunderestimate Mr. Bush, he just gets better and better every day:-)

New class of IP Address and some Hacking fundas?

2005-05-18T04:20:00.000-07:00

Recently I was watching a movie called "The Net" starring
Ms Congeniality Sandra Bullock.
The story is about the identity theft where someone (villain?) steals
our heroin's identity like her name, social security number,
passport etc etc and tries to create a wrong identity for Sandra.
So our heroin decides to get back her identity by hacking (???)
into some govt website which was for sure not hosted on this planet
as it's IP address was something like "202.100.3.334"!!!.

But Sandra is definitely better (u can give her benefit of the doubt -
she might have typed a wrong IP address) than Collin Ferrell, in the
movie "The recruit" where he types a C program (Note: No
compilation required!) at the login prompt and breaks in!!!!!!!!.

Brief History of the "Deathcop"

2005-05-18T02:15:00.000-07:00

I tried getting a decent URL for my blog but all in vain.
Then I remembered a joke that was forwarded to me sometime back.

===========================================================
In the world of romance, one single rule applies to the men:
Make the woman happy. Do something she likes, and you get points.
Do something she dislikes and points are subtracted.
You don't get any points for doing something she
expects.Sorry,that's the way the game is played.

Here is a guide to the point system:

SIMPLE DUTIES

You make the bed (+1)
You make the bed, but forget the decorative pillow (0)
You throw the bedspread over rumpled sheets (-1)
You go out to buy her what she wants (+5)
In the rain (+8)
But return with Beer (-5)
You check out a suspicious noise at night (0)
You check out a suspicious noise, and it is nothing (0)
You check out a suspicious noise and it is something (+5)
You pummel it with iron rod (+10)
It's her pet (-10)

SOCIAL ENGAGEMENTS

You stay by her side the entire party (0)
You stay by her side for a while, then leave to chat with a
college buddy (-2)
Named Tina (-4)
Tina is a dancer (-6)

HER BIRTHDAY

You take her out to dinner (0)
You take her out to dinner and it's not a sports bar (+1)
Okay, it's a sports bar (-2)
And it's all-you-can-eat night (-3)
It's a sports bar, it's all-you-can-eat night, and your face
is painted the colours of your favourite team (-10)

A NIGHT OUT

You take her to a movie (+2)
You take her to a movie she likes (+4)
You take her to a movie you hate (+6)
You take her to a movie you like (-2)
It's called 'DeathCop' (-3)
You lied and said it was a foreign film about orphans (-15)

YOUR PHYSIQUE

You develop a noticeable potbelly (-15)
You develop a noticeable potbelly and exercise to get rid of it (+10)
You develop a noticeable potbelly and resort to baggy jeans
and baggy Hawaiian shirts (-30)
You say, "It doesn't matter, you have one too." (-8000)

ENJOY THE 'BIG' QUESTION

She asks, "Do I look fat?" (-5) [Yes, you LOSE points no matter WHAT]
You hesitate in responding (-10)
You reply, "Where?" (-35)
Any other response (-20)

COMMUNICATION

When she wants to talk about a problem , you listen,
displaying what looks like a concerned ex-pression (0)
You listen, for over 30 minutes (+50)
You listen for more than 30 minutes without looking at the TV (+500)
She realizes this is because you have fallen asleep (-10000)

Now what chance do you have???

===========================================================
Now u know where I got the "deathcop" from.

My first blog!!!

2005-05-17T23:55:00.000-07:00

This is the first time I am blogging.
I'll be back here when my creative juices starts flowing which happens
during sunrise and sunset.
Probably binu can throw some light on the subject!!!