What do you do?

When bored to death and cannot sleep(because you are just coming off a long weekend hibernation)? As for me, I decided that blogging was the next best thing to do.

Looking around at whats new, seems like nikhil's had a close encounter there of a different kind. Sonia writes once again a brilliant piece that tugs at your heartstrings no matter how cynical you might have become. This is fifth in the series of the portraits she has done of how the ban has affected the bar-girls. More here, here, here and here

Diwali hols are coming up in a week. I have not been home for diwali(which incidentally used to be my fav festival) in three years, and unless something drastic happens, I might miss it this year too. The last time I did make it was in my first year when I managed to get into an overcrowded(understated ) general compartment in konark express, managed to sit through 16 hrs journey without anything other than Freddie Trueman's autobiography, one bottle of water, one discman, 1 mp3 disc, and 50 rupees.(oh not to forget my satchel). Next two years I was here practicing for the inter-IIT cricket team and it seems a similar thing is going to happen this year also. As I had written earlier, festivals seem to have lost meaning to us here in a campus insulated from the outside world, But I get a feeling that I should be home this time around for diwali.

I hear the wind call your name
It calls me back home again
It sparks up the fire - a flame that still burns
Oh it's to you I'll always return
I still feel your breath on my skin
I hear your voice deep within
The sound of my lover - a feeling so strong
It's to you - I'll always belong

Now I know it's true
My every road leads to you
And in the hour of darkness darlin'
Your light gets me through

Wanna swim in your river - be warmed by your sun
Bathe in your waters - cos you are the one
I can't stand the distance - I can't dream alone
I can't wait to see you - Ya I'm on my way home

Oh I hear the wind call your name
The sound that leads me home again
It sparks up the fire - a flame that still burns
Oh, it's to you - I will always return

- I will always return ( bryan adams)

A matter of honour

The war seems to be taking on a whole new dimension. I was hoping to have a good night's sleep, but when the warcry has been sounded, the warchief(thats my nick when I play lan games) shall rise.

I had written about the hilarious legal notice sent to gaurav sabnis in my previous post, but it didnt end there. IIPM with its huge clout as a consumer of IBM(where gaurav works) has tried to pull its weight, and he has decided to quit his job at IBM to stand by his principles. Apparently JAM office has been stormed by useless lackeys and a notice been served to rashmi and JAM demanding the withdrawal of the articles and a public apology. The worst things these IIPM lackeys could do was expose themselves as uncouth frauds while posing as IIPM students/grads and trying to slander rashmi (read through the comments in the previous link).

One thing that is likely to have me in splits everytime I think of it is this gentlemen talking about his alu muter and him being proud of it.

I try to put in my penny by circulating this amongst my friends here in IITB and outside of it.
Here's an update and some more comic relief.

I have thus completed the tag and whoever has read this, consider themselves tagged.

(at 4:36 in the middle of the night or early morning, just the way you look at it..)
shrek

Hi-fi institutes

Talk about going hi-fi, this is superb!

This was something I never expected, but well both parties are having fun, so who's to stop them? The blog that lead to this lawsuit and the article.

Good journalism from an unexpected source(I thought JAM was more of a college tabloid, seeing as how a couple of my friends write in it :P).

Pics from another world

We started at around 6 from the campus. Me having not slept for the past three nights, ( two days - four exams phew!!) decided to forgo sleep for another night, if I were to make it on this trek and it was worth every bit of the sleep that I missed.
But the result of sleepless nights is we tend to compensate whenever we can- for instance in this local train.( sleepy, unshaven for two weeks and not having had a hair cut for 6 months, its me on the left in the photo)


Bhimashankar, this is what we presume was the nag-phani point, our destination on this trek, I donot remember the height of the peak and all that, but it was one heck of a trek coming as it did right after our mid-semester examinations.

We reached the railway station at kanjurmarg by 6:45 and took a train to karjat. It was a group of six of us-
From left adnan, kris, kp, me and bhavish. Sangy the sixth member of the group thought that his cam was dearer to him and thats why appears in none of the photos here.( :P). We walked along this path to reach the base from where we would embark upon one of the best treks to date. There we found this cute little calf (which incidentally kept nuzzling kris)



This is me posing for this firm below while on the way.



Had an amazing time needless to say. The best part was when we took a wrong way and climbed almost vertically up along the rocks until there was no way we could further go up that path without equipment. Its at times like these that one wonders if living our virtual lives in closed cocoons is the worst thing that has happened to us.(more on this later)

We met this guy along the way who had been trekking for the past 25 years and had been to this place 433 times before this. It transates to an amazing "once every fortnight". Phew!!

We reached the peak at around 3:30 fully drenched in the rain and the streams that ran down the peak amidst fog( or rather clouds) so thick that we could hardly see a couple of feet ahead of us. Left for mancher at 5 (on the advise of some wise guy who told us we'd get a bus back to mumbai from there). By the time we reached mancher it was 7:30 and we were told that pune was closer and the next bus to mumbai was scheduled at 10. Since kris had planned on another trek the next day, we took a cab who charged us around 150/head to get us back to our campus. By the time we reached powai it was 00:30.

A few more shots taken along the way. Simply no words to describe them-










Here's a pic of sangy at last- See what we had to do to make him part from his camera?