Only A Biker Knows Why A Dog Sticks Its Head Out Of A Car Window

Day 0

One fine Thursday afternoon, Gui gui called me. He said, weekend, biking, tranquebar. Thought we had a very less discussion about this the week before, I was not sure how does it work. Surprisingly, every time, unplanned things work far better than the planned ones :)

It was almost a week, me and gui gui did not meet. So, we never had any time to discuss on what we want to do. But, we were sure that we want to invite friends! We called up as much people as possible. Since it was a last minute request and many had an exhausting week, it left with only me and Gui.

Day 1

And there came the Supervillie. It took few minutes to convince Suja too. At last 4 roadies set for the unplanned biking. The girls came by car to Pondy. Gui and myself, left around 7PM from Link road (SNR) and reached pondy around 9:45PM. Our first stop was not hard to guess. After a quick shopping, Guillaume's college friend was in Pondy and we met him at le space. After a good talk and drink, we headed to his girl friends house for a final drink. Then his friend proposed that his apartment is free and he is fine for letting us there for the night.

We smiled at each other and then said ok. It was a nice apartment with one AC, where me, Suja and Fanny were fighting for bed :) At last, a conclusion came and and we all slept.

Day 2

Thanks to Gui and Fanny for getting the breakfast early in the morning. After a nice shower and breakfast, we started to set on the road. We planned to hit the mangrove forest before 11AM. The road was good and it was hot but less windy. We reached there on time and then we started to get the tickets for boating.

A lonely fisher man

After a fun ride for an hour, we returned to our bikes. We were very hungry. Then with again uncertain discussions, we decided to stop for lunch at Tranquebar. We were still 70kms away from it. It was noon when we left Pitchavaram. We managed to drive non-stop and reached Tranquebar around 1:30PM. Before going inside the Danish fort, we were actually looking into the Namreena hotel which is also called "The bungalow on the beach".

The Bungalow on the Beach is a 18th century Danish colonial house which has belonged to Governor of Danish India, who was styled Opperhoved, and after their exit in 1845, to the British administrator of the colony. Built in 18th century, opposite the Fort Dansborg, by the Danish East India Company in what was once a pepper trading post of Tranquebar, now known as Tharangambadi, in Tamil Nadu, India. Tranquebar is a Danish term and came from the native Tamil word Tarangambadi, meaning 'place of the singing waves'.

After a hard negotiation, we got to swim in the pool for 2 days! It was fun, playing in the pool and then having a cold beer with some pakodas! Thanks for the ladies to get the permission. It was time for dinner! Gui and myself took the bike to get some drinks and food. On the way, we found a village with big hoarding "Tamil Vaazhga". We took a turn on that road and saw so many small shops. Exploring the country side in the night is also fun! We stopped in a place where we found the authentic kothu parota. We bought it and went back to the hotel. One good thing what we did was we both forgot the mobile. But it was fun though to go and come back at night in the country side.

A good food and followed by some good drinks. Here comes the best part. We had conversation about everything. It was nice to confess about each other, how we met first time, how was the life in the past, India war, French wars, British, America and what not. The clock ticked by 2:30AM and we realized we need to go bed.

The next day breakfast was so good. Just 4 hours of drive and you feel like you are in a big vacation spot on the world. With almost less than 4 guests in the hotel, it was a nice experience to sit, eat by the pool side facing towards beach.

45 mins of breakfast came to an end :) We decided to wrap up and move to our return journey. We stopped on the way to poompokaar which has a big tale for Kannagi.

A quick 20 mins walk around and again our ass was on the bikes! It was so hot and sitting on a bike for long time is a pain but riding on it is a pleasure! Our next destination was Chidambaram. I have heard about the temple many times but this is the first time I am visiting it. As every south Indian temple's notable feature, I felt the cool atmosphere when I stepped inside the temple. It was such a nice feeling. We went around the temple and then we came out to have a photo session.

Our very next destination was Pondy. We drove a non-stop drive for a strech of 65kms in an hour which made us to reach pondy by 1:30PM. We finished our lunch in Banana leaf, a small restaurant in the French quarters. A roasted chicken, mushroom Gratin and Quiche was a good choice for lunch. At 3:30PM, we bid bye to the ladies and started our long journey back to Chennai.

We had just one pit stop for some juice and we accerelated to Chennai and reached the SNR link road by 6PM and it started to rain. Couple of minutes waiting, we started again and reached Gui's apartment around 6:30PM. The rain made our souls so fresh. We started to watch the movie "Jackie Brown". Around 8ish, the ladies came with our back pack. Thank you! After a small smoke, we bid bye bye to each other and departed! It was quite a peaceful weekend with unplanned plans! After a very long time I pen down my travel experience. But in those quite long time gap, I was travelling and it took a while to understand it!

When a lot of people earn almost like me but got richer day by day I just felt stupid of not having accumulated cash in my account. Then came the memories of beautiful mountains, lovely villages, tempting pools and wonderful time spent traveling. And then I felt rejuvenated. (courtesy to Amal to read my mind voice)

A break for Blogging

Hello again all (I am not sure I have even one follower).

Writing a post after really long 2 years of silence. Lot of changes in life. Well rapid ones to slow ones. Turned life upside down.

2011 to till date is/was fantastic year for travel. Enjoyed more of my travel schedule and no time for anything else. Job shifts and what not.

I would start writing my travel experiences, people I met and new posts regularly from now on. Let me break the break for my blogging :) 

Life is for us is out there in the wild. Life is calling….

Life is for us is out there in the wild


It took me more than 48 hours to recover from the PICNIC! I have been with Chennai Trekking Club since July 08 and my first trek was Yelagiri. I was struggling a lot in my first trek. Ok, why do I say all these things now? From then to till now I have done 25 treks with CTC but nothing like this PICNIC. It has given such a wonderful experience and the obstacles we faced are a lot!

Friday night, I called up Divi and told that I will be reaching her place by 10. God damn, my bike got punctured and thank god I found a puncture shop to get my flat wheel fixed. Reached Peter’s home by 12 after having nice Pizza  Peter advised me to get some sleep and I couldn’t sleep. This is a typical syndrome for me! The previous night of every trek, I have never slept and I just said to myself, it’s just a PICNIC and not much of strain will be there. So, I switched on the TV and found RAMBO 3 was running. Pretty excited I started watching the movie and it got over by 3:00AM in the morning. Just an hour of sleep I opened my eyes and saw Peter packing up the stuffs. I woke up and we all packed our stuffs and got ready for the exciting PICNIC. Called up everyone and all were set to the long weekend waiting. The new comer Shilpa did not even have a clue on what is waiting for her!

I messaged Baskar saying that “Life is for us is out there in the wild” and I didn’t even have a clue what is going to happen for us! All set and stopped near pichathur for breakfast. With the US and Russian topo maps, we were able to get the village name where we are supposed to go! Man, believe it! This is not the usual Nagala entry and I could understand Peter’s smile about the surprise. First time in CTC, Nagala conquered from Western side. Yah, we are tired of Eastern entries: P We stopped near a place to ask for the village directions and Guru popped his head out, Peter!!!! We stopped in the Forest department check post! Thank god, Naresh told we came to PICNIC to one of our friend’s home in KV puram! Reached the village, packed all our stuffs! Believe me; we guys were carrying almost 20kgs of weight in all our back pack!

The Sun as usual no mercy with CTC! It started to rip off the sweat and very soon everyone got dehydrated. The steep climb reminded me of Tada, but this is steeper than we expected/calculated! By 2PM, we just checked the GPS and we covered almost 7.5 kms which is not at all bad phase. Soon the souls started to get tired and it’s time for me and Guru to carry the double bag job! Me and Guru exchanging the bags for long time and then Peter came down, Guru went ahead with Peter to find water and got water to the team! Then again we started to trek more, steeper the path, we covered more altitude which is only the good news for us. By 4PM we reached on top the hill and from there it was a flat walk on the grassland :P. Still, the crew does not even have the clue where the pool was and they just kept walking. Everyone forgot their lunch too and we survived with grapes and cucumber. After an hour of walk, at 5PM we found a small stagnated water pool were we refreshed ourselves. Peter promised that from now in 15 minutes you will reach a running water stream which made everyone happy. Soon by 5:30, we reached to a cliff of the mountain and it was a narrow steep rock and the stream which we need to join runs down. I believe to my knowledge, the steep drop was around some 70 feet? With Peter’s instruction, me and Naresh went ahead to check if it is possible to get down.

This is the most fatal mistake we have done. We left the back packs and went down to check the trail. We almost got down and it was just 30 feet left in the drop. I was trying to get hold of a tree, it slipped and for next 15 seconds I was screaming “NARESH”. I lifted my head up so, I prevented my face and was putting my fingers hard on the mud to get hold of something. At last, my leg struck in a rock and my sliding stopped. Naresh got down slowly. I was badly hurt on both the legs. It was 5:45PM, we were down. The game started and we were calling out Peter and Guru’s name! As per Peter, I calculated that the camping site is the PICNIC spot pool, so I decided to take Naresh to the pool. I saw from the cliff were the stream takes a 90 degree turn and where the Pool should. With that calculation, I started to follow the stream very fast. I should thank Peter here. With all the treks in Nagala with him, I gained the knowledge of navigating inside the new trail, my intuitions went very strong. I started to implement the lessons which I learnt/observed from Peter.

1) Did not panic – I stayed cool and started to tell Naresh that we will reach the pool soon!
2) Since we did not have the torch, we decided to reach the pool where we are supposed to camp.
3) We lost our bag packs, so the survival rate is very low. Decided to stay near water which is the only savior for till we meet the crew.
4) I believed and accepted myself that we are lost. I did not get tensed and kept following the stream and alas we found the pool. We jumped and crossed the pool. Reached a flat rock!
5) No camp fire, no food, no mat, no sleeping bag. Just water was the only resource.

Next to myself, I trust Peter! It’s not blind, being with him in the field, navigating, helping, wow, he is the one man army!

Back to story, we reached the pool and started to shout for Peter, Guru and Amal’s name. Every 30 minutes me and Naresh shifted the shouting job. Then we drink some water and then again we started to shout. It was almost 11PM, I lost hope that the crew will never find us here. But again to Naresh I just told Peter has to pass this way and he too assured that he will think the same. We both convinced ourselves and I told Naresh to sleep for a while. I guess Naresh was little scared as we were only two and he heard some fox fighting by 3AM in the night. He holded my hands and slept for rest of the night. I was not afraid and I was very much worried about the team. I know they will be missing us and we were worried as something happened to Peter. That is the reason they did not find us.

It was Sunday morning, the sun woke us up. I quickly decided and told Naresh that only known possibility way of camping is a dead end pool before this PICNIC pool. We started to trek and reached the pool, but we didn’t find any traces of the crew. We were much worried and then we decided that 12PM is the worst case we are waiting. If we are not meeting the crew by 12PM, we will start to move out of this place before it gets dark again. Since, 2 weeks before I came to expat trek with Peter in the same way, I was very confident in getting Naresh out before the sun goes down. It was 11:50PM, we took some charcoal (N10 camping remains) and started to write on the rocks “We are moving to DAM – Viki/Naresh” When I completed the “H”, I saw Peter’s face! Guru scolded me and Amal almost hit me! I could see a gentle satisfaction on Peter’s face. It was first time I felt very bad to see Peter’s and rest of the crew face. I apologized myself for the confusion and immediately we jumped in the pool to relax. Then Amal told me what happened to Guru which made me to feel guiltier.

It was quarter to 1PM and Peter decided to go ahead and cook something for lunch. After 27 hours, me and Naresh saw the food! After 17 hours, we saw our peoples face and everyone was very happy. This core group is not something which is formed by regular trekking, it is more than trekking! The bonding, the courage, the camaraderie shown by them made us really happy. I could see couple of souls shedding tears for me! Peter, I say here that Trekking is my life and for CTC, I am ready to go or do anything on field! I just mean it! Being regular with them and the friendship developed between us has no words! I sincerely thank CTC and my friend Peter.

After a good non-veg meal, Peter decided to go ahead with Guru to get him some medical help. Senthil also joined with them. Rest of the crew slowly started to pack the things. Peter gave the trail responsibility to me. I just had a word with Amal, before it gets dark, we need to reach the first pool were we have couple of diversions which is very easy to miss even in day time. Though the GPS has Google map marked trails, it does not have the actual trekking trail. I just closed my eyes for 5 minutes and got ready for the navigation. We have 2 dead end pools and one we need to swim across for sure. I was little worried about the crew as it was already 3PM. By 3:30PM we reached the first dead end pool with narrow gorge and no possibility of swimming. We decided to climb uphill and avoid the gorge and pool. The climb was very steep and one big rock would have blown Naresh’s face and he just escaped. The rock which I was standing moved and it pierced me on the same wound which I got from previous day sliding. I somehow managed to climb up first and went ahead to check the trail without bushes. After 20 minutes of search, I found a decent climb down without loose rocks. The first batch waited for 20 minutes and rest all got down. From there I made a quick check of how many torches were left out. We were totally 11 and we had just 3 torches.

I decided with Amal that I will move little fast and at last I went very fast losing 6 people behind me. Then myself and Samyak went back to search the lost one and found them. Team getting lost got frustrated too! I got scolding from couple of people  but still I stayed calm as I know we have a very long way to go! After 30 minutes of walk, we met the dead end pool where we have to swim. Indira, Sunita, Bala, Selva can swim and cross. Sheetal, Samyak, Shilpa have no clue on swimming. Myself, Amal and Naresh decided to ferry the bags and people. So, we tied the mats together and started to ferry the bags first. For the 3rd round of ferry, Naresh got a cramp badly and we asked him to stay near the shallow region. Then we ferried people and when it was Shilpa’s turn, she slipped from the rock where she was standing. Fortunately myself and Selva were near that rock and she fell on me and I was able to hold her!

It was 6:00PM and I could sense the darkness is ready to play the game with the 11 souls! I asked everyone to take their torches and started to trek. Soon it was pitch dark and as I expected we missed the right turn which we are supposed to take in this tricky trail! Thanks to Amal for getting the GPS and he found the right which we need to take. But again for next 2 hours we were walking on the hill horizontally which was not right for me. I saw the hill on the left and I was very sure that we should start descending now. But it was intuition and I was very strong in it. But still the crew liked to move with the GPS directions and we decided to check the trail. By 10PM, we started to hear a wild life sound moving near to us and it was none other than Peter! He went ahead, dropped Guru with Palani and came back inside in search of us! I could see the smile on people’s face when they saw him and he took us immediately down the hill to stream. From there for 2 hours walk, we reached the village where Senthil was waiting for us with the share auto. His Banglore bus was on 11:45 and he intentionally missed his bus, went ahead with Peter and again waited for us with the Auto! Such a selfless attitude guy!

All the 13 people boarded on one share auto! And then we started our journey to Sathyavedu. Since 12 were fit in the auto there was no place for the 13th guy to stand. So, with shift basis everyone hanged out for a while in the auto. After 45 minutes of travel, we reached the Sathyavedu bus stand and the share auto guy called his friend who has a sumo with him. Just 15 minutes, the sumo came and we all 13 dumped ourselves in the sumo. Dumped means literally dumped! All were damn tired. After 30 minutes people started to ask for break as their legs were in a bad shape. We got down and Peter and few just slept on the road for a quick nap. There came our friend (AP police) and Naresh managed with them and got us out in few minutes. We reached our cars by 4AM in the morning and luckily the villagers were awake and they were so nice to help us. Soon, we got into our cars and started to search for the dhaba for food. No hotels were open on that time and we are almost dead. Suddenly the Scorpio started to do a zig zag and in few minutes Peter stopped and asked Selva to drive the car. I switched to Indira’s car and I was talking to her for a while. On the highway, we saw a tree blocking the road and our guys cleared the tree. I asked Sunita to come in the front seat and I went in the back seat and closed my eyes!

It was 7AM, horns honking everywhere and I opened my eyes it was Koyembedu. I switched to Scorpio and Peter dropped me near Saidapet. With my boxers and Hawaii slippers, I reached my home. Our back packs (Peter, Guru, Viki and Naresh) are still waiting for us up there in western Nagala. My bike keys, our office ID cards, RSA and all other STUFFS are left as it was very heavy for others to carry since we both lost in the jungle.

I came home and sat for a while, recalling the entire two day weekend. The 17 hours missing the crew was an amazing part. We both staying near the big pool, talking all non-sense to keep ourselves awake and I bet none would have called Peter, Guru and Amal’s name more than us! 27 hours of survival with water only. It was another terrific experience. I got dressed my wound by Baskar and all set now. Back to civilization! This was the amazing PICNIC which no one could give us other than the Captain Peter. He is the man and we always learn from him a lot. Keep observing him, but don’t disturb him  this is CTC and I am loving it! Trekking keeps me alive.


Peter - Life is for us is out there in the wild. Life is calling….

More pictures are at

http://picasaweb.google.com/selva.pn/NagalapuramPicnic#

Hotel Taj : icon of whose India ?

Hotel Taj : icon of whose India ?

Gnani Sankaran
Tamil writer Chennai

29-11-2008

Watching at least four English news channels surfing from one another during the last 60 hours of terror strike made me feel a terror of another kind. The terror of assaulting one's mind and sensitivity with cameras, sound bites and non-stop blabbers. All these channels have been trying to manufacture my consent for a big lie called - Hotel Taj the icon of India.

Whose India, Whose Icon ?

It is a matter of great shame that these channels simply did not bother about the other icon that faced the first attack from terrorists - the Chatrapathi Shivaji Terminus (CST) railway station. CST is the true icon of Mumbai. It is through this railway station hundreds of Indians from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Tamilnadu have poured into Mumbai over the years, transforming themselves into Mumbaikars and built the Mumbai of today along with the Marathis and Kolis

But the channels would not recognise this. Nor would they recognise the thirty odd dead bodies strewn all over the platform of CST. No Barkha dutt went there to tell us who they were. But she was at Taj to show us the damaged furniture and reception lobby braving the guards. And the TV cameras did not go to the government run JJ hospital to find out who those 26 unidentified bodies were. Instead they were again invading the battered Taj to try in vain for a scoop shot of the dead bodies of the page 3 celebrities.

In all probability, the unidentified bodies could be those of workers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh migrating to Mumbai, arriving by train at CST without cell phones and pan cards to identify them. Even after 60 hours after the CST massacre, no channel has bothered to cover in detail what transpired there.

The channels conveniently failed to acknowledge that the Aam Aadmis of India surviving in Mumbai were not affected by Taj, Oberoi and Trident closing down for a couple of weeks or months. What mattered to them was the stoppage of BEST buses and suburban trains even for one hour. But the channels were not covering that aspect of the terror attack. Such information at best merited a scroll line, while the cameras have to be dedicated for real time thriller unfolding at Taj or Nariman bhavan.

The so called justification for the hype the channels built around heritage site Taj falling down (CST is also a heritage site), is that Hotel Taj is where the rich and the powerful of India and the globe congregate. It is a symbol or icon of power of money and politics, not India. It is the icon of the financiers and swindlers of India. The Mumbai and India were built by the Aam Aadmis who passed through CST and Taj was the oasis of peace and privacy for those who wielded power over these mass of labouring classes. Leopold club and Taj were the haunts of rich spoilt kids who would drive their vehicles over sleeping Aam Aadmis on the pavement, the Mafiosi of Mumbai forever financing the glitterati of Bollywood (and also the terrorists) , Political brokers and industrialists.

It is precisely because Taj is the icon of power and not people, that the terrorists chose to strike.

The terrorists have understood after several efforts that the Aam Aadmi will never break down even if you bomb her markets and trains. He/she was resilient because that is the only way he/she can even survive.

Resilience was another word that annoyed the pundits of news channels and their patrons this time. What resilience, enough is enough, said Pranoy Roy's channel on the left side of the channel spectrum. Same sentiments were echoed by Arnab Goswami representing the right wing of the broadcast media whose time is now. Can Rajdeep be far behind in this game of one upmanship over TRPs ? They all attacked resilience this time. They wanted firm action from the government in tackling terror.

The same channels celebrated resilience when bombs went off in trains and markets killing and maiming the Aam Aadmis. The resilience of the ordinary worker suited the rich business class of Mumbai since work or manufacture or film shooting did not stop. When it came to them, the rich shamelessly exhibited their lack of nerves and refused to be resilient themselves. They cry for government intervention now to protect their private spas and swimming pools and bars and restaurants, similar to the way in which Citibank, General Motors and the ilk cry for government money when their coffers are emptied by their own ideologies.

The terrorists have learnt that the ordinary Indian is unperturbed by terror. For one whose daily existence itself is a terror of government sponsored inflation and market sponsored exclusion, pain is something he has learnt to live with. The rich of Mumbai and India Inc are facing the pain for the first time and learning about it just as the middle classes of India learnt about violation of human rights only during emergency, a cool 28 years after independence.

And human rights were another favorite issue for the channels to whip at times of terrorism.

Arnab Goswami in an animated voice wondered where were those champions of human rights now, not to be seen applauding the brave and selfless police officers who gave up their life in fighting terorism. Well, the counter question would be where were you when such officers were violating the human rights of Aam Aadmis. Has there ever been any 24 hour non stop coverage of violence against dalits and adivasis of this country?

This definitely was not the time to manufacture consent for the extra legal and third degree methods of interrogation of police and army but Arnabs don't miss a single opportunity to serve their class masters, this time the jingoistic patriotism came in handy to whitewash the entire uniformed services.

The sacrifice of the commandos or the police officers who went down dying at the hands of ruthless terrorists is no doubt heart rending but in vain in a situation which needed not just bran but also brain. Israel has a point when it says the operations were misplanned resulting in the death of its nationals here.

Khakares and Salaskars would not be dead if they did not commit the mistake of traveling by the same vehicle. It is a basic lesson in management that the top brass should never t ravel together in crisis. The terrorists, if only they had watched the channels, would have laughed their hearts out when the Chief of the Marine commandos, an elite force, masking his face so unprofessionally in a see-through cloth, told the media that the commandos had no idea about the structure of the Hotel Taj which they were trying to liberate. But the terrorists knew the place thoroughly, he acknowledged.

Is it so difficult to obtain a ground plan of Hotel Taj and discuss operation strategy thoroughly for at least one hour before entering? This is something even an event manager would first ask for, if he had to fix 25 audio systems and 50 CCtvs for a cultural event in a hotel. Would not Ratan Tata have provided a plan of his ancestral hotel to the commandos within one hour considering the mighty apparatus at his and government's disposal? Are satellite pictures only available for terrorists and not the government agencies? In an operation known to consume time, one more hour for preparation would have only improved the efficiency of execution.

Sacrifices become doubly tragic in unprofessional circumstances. But the Aam Aadmis always believe that terror-shooters do better planning than terrorists. And the gullible media in a jingoistic mood would not raise any question about any of these issues.

They after all have their favourite whipping boy - the politician the eternal entertainer for the non-voting rich classes of India. Arnabs and Rajdeeps would wax eloquent on Nanmohan Singh and Advani visiting Mumbai separately and not together showing solidarity even at this hour of national crisis. What a farce? Why can't these channels pool together all their camera crew and reporters at this time of national calamity and share the sound and visual bites which could mean a wider and deeper coverage of events with such a huge human resource to command?

Why should Arnab and Rajdeep and Barkha keep harping every five minutes that this piece of information was exclusive to their channel, at the time of such a national crisis? Is this the time to promote the channel? If that is valid, the politician promoting his own political constituency is equally valid. And the duty of the politican is to do politics, his politics. It is for the people to evaluate that politics. And terrorism is not above politics. It is politics by other means.

To come to grips with it and to eventually eliminate it, the practice of politics by proper means needs constant fine tuning and improvement. Decrying all politics and politicians, only helps terrorists and dictators who are the two sides of the same coin. And the rich and powerful always prefer terrorists and dictators to do business with.

Those caught in this crossfire are always the Aam Aadmis whose deaths are not even mourned - the taxi driver who lost the entire family at CST firing, the numerous waiters and stewards who lost their lives working in Taj for a monthly salary that would be one time bill for their masters.

Postscript: in a fit of anger and depression, I sent a message to all the channels, 30 hours through the coverage. After all they have been constantly asking the viewers to message them for anything and everything. My message read: I send this with lots of pain. All channels, including yours, must apologize for not covering the victims of CST massacre, the ream mumbaikars and aam aadmis of India. Your obsession with five star elite is disgusting. Learn from the print media please. No channel bothered. Only srinivasan Jain replied: you are right. We are trying to redress balance today. Well, nothing happened till the time of writing this 66 hours after the terror attack.

Postscript 2: the only relief in the three day coverage was all the anchors and reporters did NOT say Islamic or Muslim terrorists anymore though they knew that the terrorists were Muslims sent from Pakistan. Must be thanks to Malegaon.

responses to : gnani@gnani.net

This post has been taken from Gnani's website and it clearly states my thoughts about the Mumbai scene which was pondering in my mind.

Handkerchief to Java - Shattering my dreams

Java the most happening interface of current era. I am the one among the few cases who hate Java to the core(?) But, when I think my past there comes lot of moments where I need to put a smile and accept things. If I think or say that I don't like something, the very next situation, I will be either taking up that thing which I mentioned "I don't like it" :(

Right from my school to college to profession, I have been experiencing the same. I wished to join a christian missionary school and I did my schooling on a pure, orthodox Hindu missionary. When I decide to move out of my town for college, fate played a role on forcing me to do my college in my native only. I used to yell that college when I was doing my school and at last I was a successful Engineer from the same college!

In college days, I used to bunk my Java classes as I was fascinated too much to C language. Out of 63, 60 people did their academic projects on Java and I was the rare one who did a real time project on C. I tried to withstand my individuality and the result, hmm I was jobless was 8 months as I don't know Java basics. Yet, I tried for a carrier with C and all my friends joined BPO to balance their expenses. I stayed alone and was hoping to get into a Job with C background. Again situation changed my thoughts and my first Job was a Technical Support Executive in a BPO! I still chuckle myself about this. I stayed in BPO field for about 2 years and my search against Software field was on the go meanwhile.

Few of my friends recommended testing is the only chance to get into the Software Market but again I stood with my individuality (Fool?). Atlast I am writing this post with the designation named "Testing Engineer" Again, the product I work is on Java and it took my peace long time ago :(

Recent days, I had trouble with the JVM. Because of that I was not able to do my work and then I decided Java also added up to shatter my individuality. Isn't it? I made a habbit of not blaming something which is really worse or do not fit me (right from a handkerchief to gals) This is a moral of my life and its a good lesson. But you got know one truth. I always expertise on all the things which I refused initially to take up. Yah, even I had my blog on wordpress as I thought of not using blogger and now......Ehh... Oh god, what do I call this?

Valentines Day!

I controlled myself not to write a post on this Feb 14th. I believe it is not a special day for lovers. Oh, I may get a lot of response for this line. Let them keep it on in their own way! If I say what I can do on this day, probably everyone will think I am a fool. I always take this day to spread love to all. Being in a social perspective thought, I always think in this way. Why don't we share our love and care to all the people who do not have it on their whole life?

I want to make this day special, not only for lovers but for the people who do not have love, care on their life. People lost love and care in their life. Let us take this day to those people. Instead of protesting against this for lovers, we can share those love to all.

Valentine's day is the day to celebrate love. But if we move back to 1929, we find the horrific incident of St Valentines day massacre. The St Valentine's Day massacre is the name given to the shooting of seven people as part of a Prohibition Era conflict between two powerful criminal gangs in Chicago, Illinois, One gang was called the South Side Italian gang led by Al 'Scarface' Capone and the other was the North Side Irish/German gang led by Geroge 'Bugs' Moran.

We pray to that we never will hear such bloodbath on any of the Valentine's day ever. Lets spread the love to all.

Rachel Corrie

Who is this Rachel Corrie? Do anybody have a clue? Wait, don't Google it. Corrie was a peace activist died at the age of 23. So, what is special out there? Please have a look at this words below.

I’m here for other children.
I’m here because I care.
I’m here because children everywhere are suffering and because forty thousand people die each day from hunger.
I’m here because those people are mostly children.
We have got to understand that the poor are all around us and we are ignoring them.
We have got to understand that these deaths are preventable.
We have got to understand that people in third world countries think and care and smile and cry just like us.
We have got to understand that they dream our dreams and we dream theirs.
We have got to understand that they are us. We are them.
My dream is to stop hunger by the year 2000.
My dream is to give the poor a chance.
My dream is to save the 40,000 people who die each day.
My dream can and will come true if we all look into the future and see the light that shines there.
If we ignore hunger, that light will go out.
If we all help and work together, it will grow and burn free with the potential of tomorrow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUGjzxG5r9Q&feature=related

Just have these lines in your hand and open the video. You will know how this dream made some part of the world to be in peace for a while, later.

These were the words told by Corrie on her 5th grade and she turned out as what she spoke on that day. She was crushed to death at the age of 23 by an Israeli bulldozer on 16 March 2003, while undertaking nonviolent direct action to protect the home of a a Palestinian doctor, his wife, and three children from demolition. Some die and create a history and Rachel is one of them.

You simply get touched to her innocence by the way she spoke on her 5th grade. It was her dream and still it is a dream. There exists a play house theater in London called as "My name is Rachel Corrie". How many of Corries are there in this world? How do we know them? Do they want to die and mark their presence like Corrie? No, please. If we find a real human working for peace, let him to do and get him the help. Who taught Rachel about this thought on her 5th grade and just think what our country's 5th grade children will be thinking?

Homework, school, playstation, movies, parents, etc. Ahhh. Why do we lead a selfish life like this and why do we spoil the next generation too? I see thousands of mothers in this world who just thinks in this way! Nothing wrong to think about their kids, but don't make them hard hearted. We do not wish all our children to be a Rachel. We need just a heart and mind to let people like Rachel to work! Give your children about what is self discipline and morals needed in life. We really hide these things and live in this world. Children's mind are like a fresh white paper. Right from the time they grow up, all the instincts will be written in the mind and it will be reflection for their entire life. So, all we need to do is to give them the moral values of life and atleast be a good human infront of your children alone.

We do not want any peace activist to create a history by their death.