Who Am I?

Weird question? Common question? Unanswerable question?

Ans: True!

**This is going to be one long blog!!

We are all a combination of the picture we have of ourselves and that which others have of us.
Unfortunately we rarely ever get to know what other people truly think of us.

So now what I am left with is: Who do I think I am? What are my thoughts on life - mine and in general?

Serious, outspoken, hyperactive, emotional, strong, bull headed, hot tempered are words that come to my mind. But, isn't everyone over crititcal about themselves? ;-)
So I guess I am sweet, angelic, kind, generous, soft spoken and charming!!

I live the way I want to and for the most part do not like people telling me what to do. I try to be just and objective in my thoughts and actions even if it hurts. I am pretty opinionated, though I may not share my thoughts. However, here are some random aspects of life and my thoughts on them.

Family - Mom, Dad, Sis and I form my immediate family. My extended family is HUGE! I have family in every continent. Family always comes first. Well almost always ;-) Sometimes you need a break from it all. Some unseen strings (very elastic ones) always seem to pull you back though.

Friends - I used to think that I am selective and have very few friends. I tried counting them right now and I have so many. Most of these are really good friends. People who I wouldn't want to lose and most of them would not want to lose me. I think that is what true friendship is about - not losing the person even when you are not near them. This encompasses a lot. It means to be there for them when they need you even if you haven't heard from them in a while, keeping in touch to the best you can, laugh with then, cry with them, share life's little moments with them.

Enemies - I truly don't think anyone really hates me. Jealous girlfriends don't count ;-) I don't like a few people, but I wouldn't put it down as hating them. I would just rather keep my distance.

Work - Have always worked for one company. Loyalty? Naaa.... Inertia? Big time! I like what I do though. I am a software engineer and will always be a techie at heart. Management comes with the territory as you grow, but I keep messing with programming and tend to linger in there for a while. Lost in motion and MOVE from one VARIABLE to another in LOOPS and FLOW with unseen LOGIC.

Money - I have never scrounged...ever! We live only once and all my money is not going to come with me to heaven/hell when I die. So why not spend it now and actually enjoy it? This does not mean that I do not save. A considerable part of my income does go into the bank for the rainy day. I like splurging once in a while though. An expensive gym membership, diamond pendant - coz I am worth it and maybe a day in the spa :-)

Love - People who have not experienced this have missed out on something great. I have had and lost love more than once and it is alright. It is one of the most fulfilling feelings to be in love with someone and spend time with them. Everything they say about the sun shining brighter, the days seeming warmer, the rain being sweet - All true. Losing it does hurt, but life does move on and the heart does heal. It sure as hell does not feel like it when you are going through a breakup, but it gets better. Trust me :)

Learning - In Septemeber 2009 a few wise words were showered on me.
Before that lets start with what I believe. I think that it is more important to be healthy and fit than be beautiful and frail. I have lived my life to this effect. I run outside in the sun. The tan does not bother me. I rarely wear makeup. I workout regularly and try any outdoor activity. Team sports are not my cup of tea, but skating, running, canoeing are things I will jump up and do at the drop of a hat.

Now back to the wise words:
1> We live only once and if we have to die at 66, we will. So live life to the fullest. Do everything that you want to do. Do not bother about what people think. Sometimes it is worth taking risks and putting a lot on the line. Always take the path less trodden. You may end up in the same place as the end of the well trodden path, but the journey would be much more exciting - I have taken this to heart and never say no to anything that sounds remotely interesting. I decided to give my GRE and go on a trip to the canyons in a second and that is just what I did. Why not?

2> Who said you cannot be active and look good at the same time? What occasion are you waiting for to dress up or take care of your self? - This one is tough to follow. It takes some convincing to even get myself to go brush, floss and rinse before I go to bed. However, it is true. Why not dress well? After all people can see you all day long everyday. Your impression is not made at one fancy dress party, but the way you look and behave all the time.

Aspirations - This is one tough topic and I am not sure many people really know what they want to be or want from life. I don't know clearly either. I do know that I don't want to one of those people who are lost in time once they make their exit. I need to have done something with my life. Be immortal in some way to someone.

Running - Ask anyone what my favorite thing in the world to do is and they will have the same answer. I am not a fast runner or a great endurance runner. I love it nonetheless. One of my best friends, Forrest, introduced me to this sport. I was always active and worked out regularly. But he asked me to start taking part in some fun runs and that got me addicted. I have been running for the past 1.5 years and I fills me with a sense of accomplishment and inner strength. I have run my first Half Marathon on the 15th of August. Did not do well as I did not train in the four weeks leading up to it due to 3 leg injuries. Did it though and am damn happy about it!!

Likes -
Non Fiction books with a story to tell
Sitting by the ocean
Sand Castles
Photography
Dogs
Ice Tea

Dislikes -
Politics - be it international, national, local or official.
Dirty Nails
Liars
Karela
Insects and Lizards
Slow people - mentally or physically

Life has not been all hunky-dory, but it has made me who I am. I am happy to be me and I wouldn't change me for the world. Like it is said somewhere - I am my favorite!!

Sunday Sermon 11th Oct 2009

I am not really religious and I cannot say that I attend church every Sunday either. I beleive that it is more important that you lead a good moral life. Going to church is just something that helps us do that. It is not an essential towards the same.

However one thing is true - I prefer to go to church in India as opposed to the States. For me the whole meaning of going to church is to hear the sermon. It is only this part of the mass that tells you something more than what you can read on your own.

For the four years that I was in the States, it was a rare occurrence that I got to listen to something really meaningful. Something that made you ponder about it the whole day, made you want to live a better life, want to be proactive in doing good deeds.

Last Sunday I went to church with my Mom in Pune. I really liked the sermon and thought that I would share it here.

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There was a disciple who went up to his master and asked him, ''Master I always do my work honestly, I do not harm anyone, I follow all the ten commandments and I am honest. Will I go to heaven?'' The master was busy. He looked up and then ignoring the disciple he went on with his work.

The disciple got a bit upset and said, "Why do you ignore me? I asked you a question. I am honest and do my work well and do not harm anyone. Will I go to heaven?"

The master put his pen down and said, "If this chair and table, and this fan and that tree outside the window can go to heaven, why can't you?"

The disciple was sad and asked. "Why do you compare me with a table and chair?" To this the master replied, "The chair and table do not harm anyone, the fan follows all the adjustments you make to it and the tree honestly provides fruit every year. Hence by your logic, they will all go to heaven, so why not you?"

The teaching here was that we do not sin by deeds when we follow all the commandments laid down by God. However we sin by omission. Just doing the bare essential is not enough. We need to be proactive in doing good to others.

When we are laid to rest at the end of our lives, we should not have people at a loss of words at our eulogy. We do not want them to just say that we were honest and did no harm to anyone. We would want people to talk about and remember how we were good and did good to others.
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Movies Worth Watching

Annie

Young Annie is an orphanage. A wealthy man's assistant picks her to live in the man's palatial home for the Christmas Holidays. The film is a musical and it talks about Annie's time with the rich guy and how they are initially uncomfortable with each other, but soon come to love each other.

Catch Me If You Can

Is a 2002 comedy-drama crime film based on the life of Frank Abagnale Jr, who, before his 19th birthday, successfully conned millions of dollars by posing as a Pan American World Airways pilot, a Georgia doctor and Louisiana attorney and parish prosecutor. His primary crime was check forgery, becoming so skillful that the FBI eventually turned to him for help.

Chariots Of Fire

The movie is based on the true story of two British athletes competing in the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. Englishman Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross), who is Jewish, overcomes anti-semitism and class prejudice in order to compete against the "Flying Scotsman", Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson), in the 100 metre race.

Gladiator

Is a 2000 American epic film. Russel Crowe portrays General Maximus Decimus Meridius, favorite of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius who is betrayed and murdered by his unhinged son, Commodus (Phoenix). Captured and enslaved along the outer fringes of the Roman empire, Maximus rises through the ranks of the gladiatorial arena to avenge the murder of his family and his Emperor.

Life Is Beautiful

Is a 1997 Italian language film which tells the story of a Jewish Italian, Guido Orefice, who must employ his fertile imagination to help his son survive their internment in a Nazi concentration camp.

Spirit Of The Marathon

Is a 2007 documentary film directed by Jon Dunham. The film chronicles the journey six marathon runners experience while training, and eventually competing in the 2005 Chicago Marathon.

Touching The Void

Is a 2003 documentary film based on the book of the same name by Joe Simpson about Simpson's and Simon Yates' disastrous and near fatal attempt to climb the 6,344 metre (20,813 foot) Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985. The film combines documentary footage of interviews conducted with Simpson, Yates and Richard Hawking with a reenactment

Twelve Angry Men

A 1957 American drama film adapted from a play by Reginald Rose. Directed by Sidney Lumet, the film tells the story of a jury made up of twelve jurors (all male, mostly middle-aged, white, and generally of middle-class status) who are uncomfortably brought together to deliberate after hearing the 'facts' in a seemingly open-and-shut murder trial case. They retire to a jury room to do their civic duty and serve up a just verdict for the indigent minority defendant (with a criminal record) whose life is in the balance. The film is a powerful indictment, denouncement and expose of the trial by jury system. The frightened, teenaged defendant is on trial, as well as the jury and the American judicial system with its purported sense of infallibility, fairness and lack of bias.

Site for good movie ratings:
http://www.imdb.com/

Books Worth Reading

Into The Wild

Written by Jon Krakauer is a bestselling non-fiction book about the adventures of Christopher McCandless. It is an expansion of Krakauer's 9,000-word article, "Death of an Innocent", which appeared in the January 1993 issue of Outside. Krakauer intersperses McCandless's story with a discussion of the wilderness experiences of people such as Everett Rues, John Muir, and John Menlove Edwards, as well as some of his own adventures. Krakauer first went to Alaska in 1974 and has returned there 20 times since. He spent three years carrying out the background research work for this biography. Christopher stopped communicating with his family shortly after graduating from college and left on a wild adventure. He travelled through different lands and did odd and end jobs in order to survive. His main aim was to live in the wild in Alaska for a prolonged duration. It is here that he finally meets his end. The book is based on accounts of people he met along the way and his diary that was found in the bus he made home before his death at the age of 24.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the_Wild


Harry Potter (Series)

A series of seven fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter, together with Ron Weasley and Hermoine Granger, his friends from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The central story arc concerns Harry's struggle against the evil wizard Lord Voldermort, who killed Harry's parents in his quest to conquer the wizarding world and subjugate non-magical people (Muggles) to his rule. Although this book is a fairy tale and hence would be considered to be for children, it has atracted an audience of all ages. It is magical and well written. A book that leaves you wanting more.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_potter

Kite Runner

A novel by the Khaled Hosseini. Published in 2003 by Riverhead Books, it is Hosseini's first novel. The book is about a boy named Amir who betrays his best friend Hassan. Years later when he is grown up and living in the US of A, he is called back to Pakistan to rescue Sohrab, the son of Hassan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kite_Runner

One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest

I a novel written by Ken Kesey. It is set in an Oregan asylum, and serves as a study of the institutional process and the human mind. The novel was written in 1959 and published in 1962. Narrated by the gigantic but docile half-Indian "Chief" Bromden, who has pretended to be a deaf-mute for several years, the story focuses on the antics of the rebellious Randle Patrick McMurphy, a happy-go-lucky transferee from a prison work farm to a mental hospital. Having been found guilty on a battery charge, McMurphy fakes insanity to serve out his sentence in the hospital. The all-male asylum is based upon the old Pendleton, Oregon asylum (now the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution). With little medical oversight, the hospital ward is run by the buttoned-up, tyrannical Nurse Ratched (or as Bromden calls her, "the Big Nurse") and her three black day-shift orderlies, whom the Chief portrays as resentful "black boys".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Flew_Over_the_Cuckoo's_Nest_(novel)

The Perfect Mile: Three Athletes, One Goal, and Less Than Four Minutes to Achieve It

By Neal Bascomb is a non-fiction book about three runners and their attempts to become the first man to run a mile under four minutes. The runners are Englishman Roger Bannister, American Wes Santee, and Australian John Landy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Perfect_Mile

Three Cups of Tea

This New York Times bestselling book is written by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin published by Penguin in 2006. The book describes Mortenson's transition from a mountain-climber to a humanitarian committed to reducing poverty and educating girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He did this by co-founding the Central Asia Insitute, which has built over 78 schools in the most remote areas of the countries.
The book's title comes from a Balti proverb: "The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_cups_of_tea

Touching The Void

Is a book by Joe Simpson recounting the true story of Simpson's and Simon Yates' disastrous and near-fatal climb of the 6,344 metre (20,813 foot) Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985. The book won the 1989 NCR Book Award.
This is an inspirational book about a man's struggle to survive breaking his leg, falling into a crevice and hunger and make his way back to camp before his fellow climber packs up and leaves.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touching_The_Void

Trek to Sudhagad

Our First Trek – Ajay, Amey, Anand, Chihomi, Joy and Sunaina.

Friday 2nd Oct 2009

Beep, Beep – Beep, Beep – Beep, Beep BEEP!!!

Okay, okay, am getting up. Why is my alarm ringing when the sky is still dark? Oh yeah….we have to leave for Sudhagad!! How could I forget? I have been looking forward to this for the past two days.

I rush and get ready. Pack the rest of my bag. Make sure to put in the 2 liters of water needed, Gatorade, biscuits and camera. Spare packets for litter and to protect the camera in case it rains. Joy is up early and calls me as I start to brush my teeth. Anand is not responding to his phone. Oh Gosh!!! Lets hope he wakes up on time.

Joy arrives and we leave for Bandra station to pick up Amey. He is late and we cross over to the East. Finally he comes and we take a rick to Kurla and just about make it for the 6:14 am train to Panvel. Chihomi, Anand and Ajay catch a bus to Vashi and then a train to Panvel and arrive about 15 minutes after us. It is now that we realize that we don’t really know how to get there. Breakfast of Dosa, Idli and Chai and then bus to Pali.

Pali has one of the eight Ashtavinayak Ganpatis.
http://ganpatibappamorya.faithweb.com/temples.htm

We attended the aarti and then Amey and Anand did the 21 Pradikshanas while the rest of us admired the various features of the Sony HX1.

It was a really hot day and so after all the sweating we decided it was necessary to refuel on electrolytes and so had Soda Shikanji :-)

Finally got a six seater (tumtum) to take us to the base of Sudhagad. This part of the journey was nerve wrecking as the rickshaw struggled up parts too steep for its little engine and barreled down regions of declivity. There was no way to get back from there and so we arranged for the same rickshaw to come and pick us up too.

Sudhagad fort is believed to have been in existence since 200 BC. The Bhora devi temple on top is said to have been built by Sage Bhrug Rishi. The rulers of Bhor dynasty were worshippers of Bhoraidevi. The first reference of Sudhagad is in the year 1436 when the Bahamani Sultan won over the fort. In 1657 the fort came under the control of Marathas and the name was changed from Bhorapgad to Sudhagad.

We started all enthusiastic and Amey clearly showing leadership qualities as we headed off from the village school.

After walking a bit, the boys realized that jeans were not the ideal garb for a trek and hence went to change into shorts. Anand’s pants developed an air-conditioning system and so Joy came to the rescue with his spare pair.

It was smooth sailing from there on. The sun shone bright and in a few minutes there were rivulets of sweat flowing down our backs. Joy had a fun time taking very unflattering shots of people.

As we kept going we got separated and suddenly it was just Joy, Chihomi and me. Where were the rest of the guys? Oh no!! This place with its Blair Witch feel and three disappeared boys - Pretty spooky! This is where we did our take on the Blair Witch Project.

<< >>

Now the easy part was done and we took our first serious steps of the climb. Not natural climbing, but up a metal staircase against a sheer rock face. This seemed to be a new feature added. The older one was a ladder which then continued with steps cut in rock. The staircase swayed as the wind picked up and we were caught between running up and shaking the staircase even more or hanging on and having to spend some more time in this precarious position.

Ajay chose to show his photography skills and took some good shots here.

There is a point where only the trodden path exists and the rest falls away to sheer slopes and you better not lose your footing. This added to our excitement and Ajay’s dismay as he refused to breathe through his nose.

As we plodded on, there were insect ridden paths, mossy rocks, bottle flies and steep terrain. There were times when you could not see the top and we thought that the path was made by someone trying to trick the unsuspecting traveler.

Almost at the top you get to a 75 foot rock staircase in a chimney between two giant rock faces. This was the best deal of the climb! The wind was awesome and feeling that you are climbing a stairway built ages ago without modern aids, gives you a sense of humility.

Get to the top of the stairs and there is even more to climb. We wondered if the stairway to heaven actually led to heaven. Truthfully, the climb is not that bad, but being our first trek we had no idea how far we were climbing and when we could expect to get to the top.

Finally Joy and I made the final ascent together. The view from the top was breathtaking! We could not even see the bottom of the valley due to the dense fog. Walked over to a wide shady tree and hogged on some food before the others got there.

The only real wildlife we saw besides some tiny mites were two huge monkeys that were quite far away thank goodness!

The rest arrived about twenty minutes later and we headed for the lake nearby. That is when we actually ate lunch and Chihomi tried his hand at fishing.

Unprepared travelers that we were, we had no idea of the awesome artifacts beyond. There were tombs, temple, gateways and secret passages. Unaware of this, we then started our way back down following the same path that we ascended.

Just as we reached the bottom of the rock staircase, it started pouring. The vegetation offers no shelter and so we kept going down. Peak caps were our only protection so that we could see where we were going. The camera went into the bag and no more pictures for this trip :-(

The rocks turned slippery and streams of red mud gushed by. It was dangerous climbing down the hill and we were made doubly aware of this as we got down the metal staircase as it swayed in the wind and small slow steps were all we could manage.

Somewhere on the way we found Chihomi’s cap (Chihomi and Amey were somewhere in front of us). We tried calling to him, but no answer. Then it seemed like we had lost our way as the path seemed unfamiliar. Blair Witch!!!

Reached the village and the six seater waiting for us. Finally out of the rain. If the ride up in the rick was scary, this one had our hearts in our mouths. It seemed like there were no brakes and we were speeding down the rest of the way. What a thrill though!!

The rest of the way home was like feeling in the dark. No one knew how to get back and people along the way were not too knowledgeable either. Somehow, through another six seater, walking in the rain, hailing a bus on the highway and standing for 1.5 hours in the bus, we made it back to Panvel. Oh!! We did get to have the most awesome pav wadas along the way in a small shack lit by candles. Train from Panvel to Kurla and then rick home!

Phew! a warm shower and some food in the belly and off to sleep it was for us.

An absolutely amazing trip and hopefully the first of many more to come!