Weekend bonanza - Trip to adventure camp!!

To say that Vivek would have killed me if I had missed this trip would be an understatement... This particular trip had been planned and executed in perfection to think back on it now... kudos to the karate king... Btw the gang was 5 AOLites... Vivek, Sriram (G5), Vinay, Guru and urs truly along with Kitty and his friends Vinay and Vinay G!! We had three Vinays to begin with and worse part... 2 of them was Vinay G!! No confusion as our Vinay was already called as Vinance!! (Vinay from our Finance team!!) and the other two known as Vinay and G respectively!!
We started at 1 PM IST on 27th June Saturday... which is as all u guys know... 2 PM... on our bikes… we had 2 Victors, a pulsar 150 and my Bullet. We were hit by bad rains and bad roads for the latter part of the trip reaching the destination... and could only manage to reach the place called as Shrishti Adventure camp (This place is 45 acres of farm land and mountains - http://shristiadventures.com/) which is near Dabaspet, Shivagange by 5:30 PM
Firstly almost everyone was starving and kitty made sure there was some food arrangement done as soon as we reached... very thoughtful of him... After the light snacks, all of us trekked a short while for about 1 hr bare foot!! Not a very sane idea... but we feared that our shoes would get sunk in the mud which was way too thick... anyways... When we came back we readied ourselves for the night bonanza which included another round of snacks, drinks, bon fire and kitty special... dance programme!! G5 was at his best making fun of everyone including the localities’... the best part was greeting people wid wassup!! or How u doin!! People were making faces at him... like who is this guy acting crazy! But that didn’t stop him from wishing and greeting everyone in the true NRI fashion!! Vivek and myself were better off the smoke less end of the bon fire... :-) Vinay was busy boozing and having a dialogue here and there and Guru was busy explaining Nostradamus theory about 2012 when he is totally flushed! All this while we were having the time of our lives... We were having so much fun... we were laughing in our sleep! :-)
Sunday morning started for us at 7:30 AM and we went on another trek this time... shoes ON!! This was better and a bigger trek than the previous evening... We tried rope climbing and swings!!... We visited the cottages and other places which are pretty much high profile and not so cost effective for us... but of course better facilities... We also visited the temple in the farm house... and back for a sumptuous lunch and bread omlette just after that!! That takes some doing... lol... We had the ride of our life on our bikes as we took exactly an hour for the return journey! Kept an average of above 70 kmph!!
The facilities and the hospitality (food was fantastic!!) provided were more like what we do to our relatives rather than outsiders!! That was the respect which they gained from us. Kudos to all those people who work in shrishti adventure camp. It was a journey to remember for a long long time...!!

MJ - No more!!

Michael Joseph Jackson 29th August 1958 - 25th June 2009
To many people who are born in 70s and 80s... I think Michael Joseph Jackson will have a discreet and definite place in their hearts... The place given to the great entertainer and musician... For anyone who has the slightest knowledge of music... be it rhythm... technique in singing... like knowledge of octaves... etc... MJ is GOD!!
I have never heard a POP icon... who besides being a freak of nature!!... could influence so many people around the world by his music and lyrics... He could have been the face of UNICEF if he cud have kept his personal life in better shape...
I loved the album "BAD" since that was my first cassette that I got... I don’t even remember which class I was studying... but i remember the casette being almost worn out as it played in the music player so many times in a day!! I still love the song Speed Demon for the beats... I used to read the lyrics and tried syncing lips (difficult even now! :-p) for the songs! Then came the rest of songs and I had bought each and every cassette... Dangerous was having an absolute awesome front cover wid MJ's eyes and all kinds of animals and birds in it!! loved counting them!! :-p His latest and prob last album History had songs "Earth Song", Blood on the Dance Floor", "Stranger in Moscow" which is one video I love to see!!
The tribute to MJ:
All the news channels and all the portals (.com, .de, .uk) in the world had a setback after the world had the news that he is no more... that says! Twitter/BBC... etal... No one was able to handle the traffic... We had been trekking this past sunday and I was playing MJ all the way in the trip... that was my tribute to the great man!
His death while tragic when he was on the verge of a comeback tour... and writing new songs... referring to poems of Tagore (as told by Dr Deepak Chopra), is again mowed by controversy like so many icons... This happens to be a bigger tragedy... who's next!!

Conquer your fears...

When I was a kid my dad used to take me swimming... that would make u think that I knew swimming all along isnt it... negative... I used to just keep a watch on his clothes and wait for him to complete his laps!! :-p But I definetely had the great desire to learn swimming and learn it well so that I could let go of my fears... I was a hydrophobic to the core... although i used to enjoy beaches wid my friends whenever we were in goa or any such places... but primarily I was afraid of water... Similar to my fear to water was my fear of heights... so much so that I used to make all kinds of excuses to quit on my friends who used to plan trekking trips... It all had to end... and how...

Well it all started in april... when one of my colleague introduced me to his friend, who had started going to a summer swimming camp near RPC layout... I was kinda interested as I thought that swimming camp is mainly for kids... I was so wrong... I took the dive on this matter and the moment i kept my toes in water I was thinking the same old thing again... "Did I commit another mistake in my life... " Apparently not... after about 30 minutes inside water the instructor finally had my attention and I started obeying him... and letting go of my fears...

It took Ramesh (our instructor) just 3 days to teach us how to control our breath and float and our group of 20 odd people were enthu enough to take the dive in 12ft in just under that very week... that was amazing... So what if the classes cost us 2300 Rs, I got so many contacts and made so many friends in a space of those 21 days that I did not even bother thinking about the amount even though its rough!!

Meantime after the classes got over I have been swimming early in the morning from 4:45 AM till 6 AM every single day since... and made new friends as the group I was primarily involved had their own reasons to quit... except for Manju...

We now have a group of 8 to 10 people (depending on their punctuality ofcourse!!) and are being taught the key techniques in swimming to go the distance and not be tired... our coach is a person named Nagaraj sir who is a business man who is one of the finest swimmer and diver I have ever seen!! So much for my swimming now that I can hit about 10 laps (1 km) an average each time i step in... Thats something to improve upon!!

This new found strength and determination in me has made me climb new heights... well... I was never a go getter when it comes to heights... used to make me real nervous wreck... but ever since I have joined this group, my strenght has increased but my stamina has gained by leaps and bounds and for the very first time in my 3 or 4 attempts I was able to conquer Shivagange mountain which is near Tumkur...

Thanks to my swimming group I am, what I am today!!... In these three months I have not only conquered my fears but also have found a new personality in me!!