Front line
I can almost imagine perplexity of front line infantry. In fact, that isn't even a correct word to describe the thoughts.
It is raining. It is pitch dark. You can hear shots in a distance. You can hear tankers growling in your direction. You can almost see your end. You are cold. You are sweaty. You are a looking for a scapegoat to rid discomfort; but one is hard to find.
You know you are next. You know it is inevitable. You find it difficult to echo jingoism of the ones besides. You look at others with worried eyes. You force a smile, and ridicule the thought the next second.
You cannot run. You cannot hide. You have to face it, and it is here, if not now then in some time. You grapple for a fix. You device strategies, in vain. You tell yourself about hope. You tell yourself about past. You imagine the future.
You fool yourself yet again.
You look at the present, hard. You breathe deep. It's about time.
Beyond
(Posted this on a community that talked about things beyond words)
.. and I have invested far too much time pursuing what is beyond. May be Love/God/something-beautiful exists beyond mundane existence. May be one has to find these things in the mundane existence.
But
Somehow, I am unsure about this pursuit of mine. I dont think I completely appreciate anything that needs to be 'found' or 'pursued' or 'realized'. All of these words sound enervating and energy sapping.
I understand one needs a conception of future and sense of pursuit for sustaining life but if its eating away the present, I wont be too comfortable with it.
I have liked to vote for a balance, but my conclusions have been based on the premise that I like to sustain my life, happily and that we need both of these(pursuit and lack of it) to be 'right'. Right is a loaded word with many connotations but I just couldnt think of another word.
I dont claim being correct, of course. However, I have convinced myself that it hasnt been a bad idea. Again, I am not dead yet and my eyes are still open. I cannot ignore what goes around and I cannot help changing if I continue to watch.
===
Hmm ... doesnt make sense as usual. But thoughts worth preserving.
Pie
Everyone wants all of it.
Some act warriors, some act saints,
some are clowns, some act brains.
Some want now, and some can wait.
:)
SETI
People still have hopes they'd find someone. Despite all the criticism levelled, they continue to send signals for anyone ready to recieve them, prime numbers and what not. I wonder what drives them, romantic folklore, a guilty escape ? They even have some random and famous fictional movies that support the view and explore the possibilities.
If one were to start aruguing, it can go both ways really.
"Naah, possibilities are remote"
"Big deal, if someone is around"
"It might be dangerous really"
"Whats wrong with you?"
"Isnt there anything more useful to do?"
"We might learn something interesting"
"Just for fun"
"Humanity is to explore"
.. and so on ..
Reason loses its meaning at some point really and may be thats the way it is supposed to be.
*shrugs*
Kudremukh
A road trip to Kudremukh and a trek. Before I forget:
Day 0:
We were supposed to meet at a friends place by 10:30 and start by 3:00 in the morning. We managed to delay the meeting time to 1:00.
Day 1:
Bangalore - Kalasa : ~320 Km
We started off at 5:00 in the morning. Not only did we manage to screw up the sleep, we also delayed the starting time by 2 hours. We managed to reach Kalasa by afternoon around 14:30. The route we took was:
Bangalore - Nelmangala - Hassan - Belur - Kothigere - Kalasa.
The ~50km patch after Kothigere is horrible. Avoid taking that, if you can. It might be a better idea to go via Chikmangalur, as we did on way back.
Kalasa - Kudremukh town - Kalasa : ~40 Km
Since the trekking route comes under forest reserves you need to take permission from forest officials. The permission are for 6:00-18:00 (yep, you are not allowed to camp) The charges are nominal, (you can also get a guide) and people are friendly (Not rob-the-tourist kind). One of the forest officials (the guide), offered to host us at at his place in Mullodi (on the route). This is useful as it is best to start the trek early in the morning.
Day 2:
Mullodi - Kudremukh peak - Mullodi : 21 kms
I managed to finish it. Phew.
We started at 7:30 in the morning and were back by around 5. Ideal time, I would say.
Kudremukh peak is supposed to be ~6000ft above sea level. It derives the name from Kudre(Horse)Mukh(Faced).
Mullodi - Kalasa: ~15kms
Returned back to the hotel we had booked on day 1 (Yatri Nivas)
Day 3:
Kalasa - Sringeri - Kalasa: ~150 kms
We had initially decided to head back to Bangalore on the third day. Some of us pondered on the definition of a vacation. It was democratically (in a group of 3), decided that we should de-stress on third day. What followed was the drive to Sringeri through Kudremukh National Park. There are quite a few places, where you might want to stop. Lovely Bends.
Do note that, you would need a 'ticket' as you start from Kalasa towards Kudremukh (on the way to Sringeri). This ticket is to track the vehicles that got in the forest area and left it, just in case someone tries to act funny. You get it when you enter from either of the side.
This also happened to be New Year eve. By the night, no one was in a position to greet new year, a rare new year eve.
Day 4:
Kalasa - Horanadu - Kalasa : ~8kms
A temple of some kind. Some offered prayers, blah blah.
Kalasa - Bangalore : ~320 Kms
Initial plan was to start by 6:30 in the morning. As with all the plans, we managed to delay it sligtly, to 11:30. This way we could enjoy driving on the snake of the road in the night, we concluded.
One of the unsaid rules is, we dont race. I broke that. In my defense, it was clean, straight stretch and a random Pulsar guy was showing off. Well, well. Anyways, I conclude, Pulsar is the most powerful bike in 150cc segment. At full throttle and 110, when I just managed to level him, he _actually_ accelarated, with a pillion! Grr.
We were back in Bangalore by 10:45 (Thanks to flat tyres). Tanned and tired.
Awesome and unforgettable trip, this has been.
Home
This is about my first home. The place where I have spent my first 10 years.
It is (yes, part of it still stands) in the busy street of Janakganj in Gwalior. A small dusty lane (large enough for two bikes, I suppose) connects it to the main street. It had (or probably still has) a red wooden door, visible from the main street. Interestingly, this small lane also has a huge wooden door (I remember this closed once, during Ayodhya times or was it something else).
The thing that I remember most distinctly is the 'gachh-ya' (terraces). These were some 8-10 in number. All of them at various elevation from the ground and interconnected by 'jeene' (stairs) or had 'mundher' between them. The stair would either be closed with no light source at all (making them 'haunted') or would be shaky wooden ones (lakda cha jeena) or slabs fitted in the wall. There would be stairs you'd be advised not going on to (making it all the more fun to climb!). There was one 'tulsi chi gacchi' that faced backside of the house, there was one 'mothi gacchi' which had a small divider in between. You can hop over from one to the other and you can do this all the day! I used to spend a good deal of my summer vacation trying to get my 'patang' to fly from one of these 'gacchis'. I was the only young boy in the whole house (of 10 people and many visitors) and was left all by myself to get that kite thing to fly. Occasional help from my sisters came after a good deal of pleading. I hate to admit it, but I was a loser at that. If I did manage to get the thing to fly, there would be 'sharks' around to claim the aerial territory. I forget the term used for this war of supremacy over the skies (patang ladana or something). The terms that I remember from the kite terminology .. patang, dagga(bigger patang), manja(the stronger thread used for flying), reel(the white one, which was used mostly for extending the length), charkhi(the designer wheels that had thread wrapped around it), jote (the knots that you'd tie to your kite) and there were many more.
As with gacch-ya, there were innumerable number of rooms in the house. One leading to another, which leads in two more and so on. These rooms were filled with trash from God knows how many years and carried that damp smell. And, thats what made them more interesting. If I were to ever dare venture in one of these rooms (which would not be too often), I would find an array of things to play with! One of the rooms I remember had a some swords, which I could barely lift. The most common item used to some books/documents wrapped up in a soft red/blue cloth.
We also had a well in our house (yes!), that direction used to be referred as 'kuya kade'. That made our house an attraction for many people in our 'galli'. People would come from all over the 'galli' to fetch water. Seeing the water glimmer in the well from the light coming through 'khidki' (window) was simply amazing.
Just after you enter the house, on the right side there was a long wall that went till the highest terrace. This wall had a plant of some kind growing on it, right in the middle of it. As a part of cleaning up, it'd be cut every few months.
The walls used to have 'konade'. These are small grooves in the wall where you can keep stuff. The walls on the 'gacchis' though were not as smooth and I guess were made by keeping rough stones one over the other, making the less amenable to any 'ball and the wall' kind of games. The swayapak-ghar (kitchen) had a chimney of some kind. It covered the whole width of the wall and went up to the terrace!
The house was messy, the house was big, the house was beautiful, the house was home.
* sighs *
Now? A quarter of it still stands. It is heart breaking to look at its current state. The house died really, at the hands of warring brothers and greedy neighbors.
I dont think I'd ever get to live in a place like that ever again and that ..... is really very sad.
Labels: Nostalgia
Psuedo-random update
I was hibernating really, may be dead or may be I still am or may be I never was alive. urmmphh .. NO.
Ok, so what rouseth me from my slumber is a
tag. Here goes, 8 random things about me:
1. The name of this blog is psuedo-random noise. All it means is that the correlation dies with increasing amount of sample-gap as long as your analysis window is small enough not to capture repetetive pattern, in which case you see a patterened correlation envelope. Yeah right.
2. There is no zigobod in dictionary. It is prononuced Z-Eye-Go-Baud. I think, I can make it mean something really. Eyes Bauding.
3. I am color blind. Actually. Red-green. No, I am not going to answer what that color is! Its a palette thing. Look it up.
4. I once drove more than 500 kms over a period of 24 hours, slept for 2 hours did not doze off the next day or the next night till 6 in the morning(when I got all talli). (Ahem, its a bike)
5. I have made plans for genocide. Here goes the plan, we launch a sattelite that would would emit some kind of brain waves. All the brains that'd resonate with it would explode. Zero loss to property. Clean. (I fear the first one would be mine)
6. I have been living a peaceful life (well, almost) since last month, since I moved to staying alone. Contrary to what I feared, I am catching up with the mirage of getting organized.
7. Seriously, I am boring. I have realized this on occasions more than once. many more than once. I've tried to fix it, but no use. Now, I live with it.
8. I have theories as to why alcohol is bad. It screws your peace the day after hangover. No body agrees with it yet.
No tags. Buck stops here, atleast for this branch.
My cave calls me back and I have to go. Peace.
