The 25k Trip... Still Trippin

We woke up early next morning to the sound of my phone ringing. It was GK on the line.

GK : "We have arrived."
Shrik : "Oh Yeah? We are on our way!"
GK : "How long will you take?"
Shrik: "A couple of hours."
GK : "Shite!"

It was 5 o'clock in the morning and we were supposed to have hit the road by this time. We were on our way, shrik had said. The only place where we were "on our way" to was the loo. It is imperative to mind your matter before you embark on a trip, rather than choosing to believe in rather glorious suppositions, such as "mind over matter"; lest you want to be a victim of intolerable ridicule, imparted by the fellowship. I digress, dammit, must be the biryani acting up. Whew.

We proceeded to round up all the materials we needed for the trip, which predominantly were constituted of multitudinous cans of beer and headed to sagar's to round up the rest of the lot. We were joined by sagar (not surprisingly) and vamsi. Vamsi was facing a bit of rough weather apparently and had to take some medicines before we began. A bummer that. The rest of us were quite kicked and prepared for breakfast. 3 cans of beer popped open. "Cheers", we screamed and went on to appreciate one of the finest early morning breakfasts in a long time, courtesy Vijay Mallya. Once we were loaded up (by that i am refering to our luggage being appropriately transfered to the car, and yeah, there was another subtle reference perhaps), we drove to our previously decided upon rendezvous point, where funky were to meet us with the ladies. He was late. Not that we hadn't expected him to be. Two women getting ready for an epic trip, has to take a while right. There was a brief bakkar session, which had the potential to become not-so-brief. Thankfully some of us realized the situation and the decision to leave was made.

I took the lead. I had no idea of the route initially, but i had a very able navigator by my side - sugar, who was a true blue bangalore boy. With his assistance, i was able to set fire to the streets of bangalore early in the morning, much to the excitement of, well, almost everyone in the car. Apparently funky was also a man who appreciates the fine art of funk da driving. He was having a rockin time keeping up. While we had fueled our tanks early in the morning, i had forgotten to check the fuel levels of my car. Thankfully i realized early and almost instantly we found a petrol bunk. We refueled as well, in plain sight, which created quite a titilation on the moral compasses of innocent onlookers who had just woken up on an early saturday morning. But what the hell, its a free country ain't it? Atleast until you dont get caught. Once our cars were filled with fuel and we with apparent wanderlust, we hit the road again. Only to be informed by sugar boy that he was not quite sure of where we were headed. Thankfully, i had traveled to mysore a few times before and had a vague sense of direction. My intuition turned out right and we hit the mysore highway pretty darned soon.

To be continued...

The 25k Trip :)

It was one o' clock in the afternoon and i had just completed my work for the day. The day was a holiday and it was also one which earmarked the beginning of a longish weekend. I was beginning to feel strangely uncomfortable. Wanderlust, as always, has its ways of convincing you against staid stupor. In fact it prompted me to make a call to sugar boy.

Me: Dude, when are you leavin?
Sugar: We're planning to leave by 4:45 in the morning tomorrow.
Me: OK, am comin to blore tonight. Need some help in convincing vamsi and rashmi.
Sugar: Cool


A series of calls followed; reason, logic, conspiracy and some jugaad finally yielded results. We had 2 converts.

Having accomplished task #1, i proceeded to call smartacus.

Me: Mallu! Watsup?
Smarta: There is no plan rite?
Me: Actually, Vamsi, Rashmi and me are leaving to bangalore in an hour. We are going to coorg tomorrow morning!
Smarta: Yay! :)

By 4 in the afternoon, i had rounded up the fellow travelers from chennai and we hit the highway to bangalore. The drive to bangalore was nothing short of awesomeness. Until about twilight, the roads were open and i was tearing down the highway like a cheetah (Not that cheetah's run on highways, but i hope you got my point). And then came the rains. The atmosphere was alive, in a frankenstein sort of 'alive'. My viper was on full speed and i could not see a darned thing ahead of me. All lights were on - emergency, high beam, fog lamps and heck even our cabin lamp. (Ok, not the cabin lamp). At a steady speed of 80 kmph, this was a rather scintillating experience. I felt for the first time, my car actually drifting as a result of the water flow which was happening from the higher inclined side of the highway to the other, through small openings in the divider. Simultaneously, braking effeciency had also dropped. This made me extra cautious and extra kicked at the same time, it was kinda fun anticipating a drift and countermaneavouring against it. After a brief while, the skies were visible again. But nature was conniving against us. For, until the remainder of our journey into bangalore, we were teased with heavy showers at various parts of the highway in an intermittent and exciting fashion. I thoroughly enjoyed the drive that night. I am not too sure about the way my co-travelers felt though :)

Our journey so far had been incident free, actually, accident free. As soon as we reached bangalore, i kissed a bike while taking a U-turn, inviting some unsolicited abuse and advice in my direction, which i duly accepted and returned in all earnesty. The recepient was not amused though, he followed me for a while and then decided to fade away. We then dropped off rashmi in the safe hands of nita mami, who had earlier threatened rashmi, not to come to bangalore, if she were not going to stay with her. That done, Me n haraamgaru, called up sugar boy and found out that he was having dinner with shrik. We decided to join them in koramangala. Bangalore traffic is really sad. There was a "hero" driver who desperately wanted to overtake me and kept attempting stupid overtaking maneavuers. Unfortunately, i am quite intolerant when it comes to on the road haraampana and held my stance. Eventually it resulted in a standoff when i took a turn off the main road. Colourful exchanges followed. A normal day i guess for a bangalore "hero". As soon as i turned, I parked on the left to figure out where the subjects of our rendezvous were. I got out and stretched and let vamsigaru, do the following up bit. I realized that the twosome were right next to where we had parked, pigging on rather unscrupulous quantities of chicken. Unfortunately, we were vegetarian and couldnt share the culinary bliss which they were enjoying and we settled for a hyderabadi biryani. Dinner done, we withdrew copious amounts of cash and headed to sugar's and shrik's place for a quick crash, hoping to rise and leave early next morning.

To be Continued...

And the road becomes my bride...

07/08/2008 - I bought my car in Delhi.A Maruti Suzuki Swift Vxi (Midnight Black).

I completed the formalities and set the controls for Haldwani.

My Journey had begun.

Ive been on the highway ever since.

Nothing feels closer to home than being in the driver's seat of my car.

I have traversed across various terrains in the past year - the gangetic plains, himalayan mountain ranges, western ghats, eastern coastal belts, nilgiri forests, deserts of rajasthan and numerous concrete (and not so concrete) highways which connect the expanse of land which we call our country.

Some of the places which i have driven to, i am positive that i will never be able to do it again .

Most of my journeys have been solo and some with very good company.

After a while, one tends to realize that what matters most is the journey in itself and never the destination.

And so i continue driving, knowing that i will eventually find my way...

The Trip to Rain Country - Part 2

A quick look around and we realized that we were ensconced in a beautiful habitat, almost like a tamed rain-forest, if such a thing is plausible. We checked in and were pleasantly surprised by the architectural style of the cottage – it was as though we were transported back in time to another era, where simplicity defined grandeur. We quickly ordered our lunch and set the controls to a floydian voyage, careful not to step into interstellar overdrive – it was not quite time yet for that kinda deal.

Whilst our meal was being prepared, we decided to kill time by experimenting with the revolutionary’s camera. I was new to this game and the evil one decided to show off some of his recently acquired acumen on the subject. We found a rather innocuous and delicate subject for our frame of reference, so to speak – a snail. We fiddled around for a bit and managed to capture some very nice photographs. Our lunch arrived just in time to prevent our comrade from doing what Bear Grylls would do under extreme conditions – no points for guessing what. Even in our frame of reference, the meal was devoured in ‘light speed’. It was turning out to be an existential escapade of sorts.

Incapable of locomotion, we lazed, listening to some quintessential Floyd and discussing arbitrary dialogues from our favourite flicks. It was not so much of a laughter riot, but it certainly was amusing. Soon it stopped raining and we decided to check out the place in its entirety, hoping to catch some wildlife, possibly lurking in the vicinity. We walked for a long time uphill, our senses heightened to the extent of critical alarm, on the lookout for leopards in the thick brush. After reaching the highest point on the hillock, we decided to head back, rather disappointed but certainly enchanted by the beauty of what was all around us. We reached a clearing on the hill, overlooking a valley of sorts and decided to fool around a bit with the camera. Nothing worthwhile came about and we decided to space out for what was left of the day. Profound discussions followed. Subjects such as life, joy, polygamy, peace, music and travel were explored in intricate detail and everything seemed more meaningful than what it did the next morning.

The decision to leave was instantaneous and almost uncannily in conjunction. Of course, we had no idea where we were headed. We had a bit of a problem checking out though. The place was true to what it promised to deliver – simple. That translated to simple methods of payment as well and for us urban corporate-likes, bad news. A bellboy tagged along with us till the next ATM. We completed the transaction and dropped him off at a place where he would be able to find some transport back. Now, we could focus on our next destination, or rather, on deciding our next destination. I was at the wheel as usual and the revolutionary was assigned the task of spotting; signboards, I mean. It was only few kilometers and our man had zeroed in on his sights. Kuruva Island.

To be continued...

The Trip to Rain Country

I was somewhere between Bangalore and Mysore, ripping on the highway, chasing down all kinds of vehicles ahead of me, certainly for kicks but not without a sense of purpose. I had been on the road for about 3 hours, most of which was at a rather lame average speed of 15 kmph. At this juncture, I would like to clearly stress the fact that traffic in Bangalore sucks by writing a whole sentence about it. If you feel otherwise, you must be from Bangalore. Nevertheless, it was imperative that I reach my destination in good stead; otherwise I might not get to sleep.

It was during one of the high speed overtaking maneuvers that my car behaved rather strangely. Let me admit, ‘Behaved rather strangely’ is actually a euphemism for 'swerved'. I regained control and reduced the volume on my music system. That was when i realized that I had a flat. What a damn shame. Oh, did I mention there was a storm brewing on the horizon with dazzling lightning and thunderous… well…thunder. So I continue driving, much to the detriment of my back wheel, desperately looking for a puncture shop. No luck. So I decided to stop at what appeared to be a reasonably populated place and got some help in the form of a young kid who was a mechanic. We replaced the flat with my spare. I asked him if he went to school. He said he had studied till the 8th and then quit as he had to take care of his family and their shop. I gave him a hundred bucks, wished him luck and started chasing vehicles down again, in the earnest belief that I wouldn’t land up with the same predicament which I had just encountered. I didn’t and I was rather perplexed as it got me thinking on the nature of ‘beliefs’. I reached Nanjangud by midnight. The revolutionary let me in. No words were exchanged. We smoked, crashed and woke up in the morning.

It was a rather lazy morning, not usual of the commie. In contrast, my mornings are usually lazy, but with the commie around, I generally tend to haul ass. It seems our comrade had had an early morning upper. You dont blame a stoned guy for being lazy. That would be truly against the spirit of chillin. So we chilled for a bit, I headed out and got my flat fixed whilst the commie kept chillin and finally after much procrastination we hit the road. Our journey had begun but we had not decided on our destination yet. We headed in the general direction of Wynaad. The drive was beautiful. Somewhere on the way, the revolutionary, in what seemed to be a moment of clarity, declared with consummate ardour, that Lakkidi was our destination and estimated that we were about one hour away. I said cool and continued accelerating ahead on what we deemed to be the right direction.

By the time we reached our destination, we were tempted several times by signboards of places which the revolutionary seemed to identify and deem fit as worthy of a visit. But the enchantment of Lakkidi held our man’s alignment right and I did not have any problems on the lines of a detour, arising from the whims of a stoned fellow traveler. We were welcomed by a thunderstorm. We kept driving through the torrential downpour and soon we realized that we had overshot our destination. Identifying signboards were almost impossible in the wretched downpour. So our man decided to let himself out at the nearest tea shop for a smoke break and whilst at it, solicit the necessary information in order to align us in the right direction. Thankfully, we were not too far away from where we had to take a turn into the mountains. We went back, identified the turn which we missed and began our ascent.

The ‘road’ which would lead us to Rain Country was more of a nature trail. It was single lane, with the hill to the right and a fall to the left. And it was pouring. The 3 km drive turned out to be an adventure in itself, for we lot tend to enjoy challenging drives, especially if there is an element of danger involved – yeah, call us what you want, but if you haven’t been on the edge, you will never know what is on the other side. After the long, arduous and sensational 3km drive, we had arrived at Rain Country. If I had to use one word to describe the place, then it would have to be Enchanting.

To be continued…

The Trip to Nanjangud

I drove down to bangalore to report to work for my final stint on wednesday. The weekend showed up pretty darned soon. I had spoken to Mr.Vijayan and he was of the opinion that i should pack my bags and leave asap to Nanjangud for some serious chillin. Unfortunately i had to work on Saturday. At about 5 in the evening i left bangalore and headed towards Mysore. There was no problem finding the route. Google maps pretty much nailed it down for me. It was 7 by the time i left bangalore. I kid you not. The traffic in bangalore city is so fuckin bad. Nevertheless, I ended up on the highway after a bit of patience and perseverence. I consider myself to be a good driver on the highway (not that i am a bad driver in the city). By that i mean i kick some serious arse when it comes to speed. After abt 15 mins on the road i realized that people were overtaking me quite easily, which almost never happens usually. I reduced the volume and realized that my engine was making a loud fuckin noise every time i accelerate. This was bad shite. My engine was fucked and i dint know what the problem was. I was thouroughly pissed off with all the speed breakers on the highway. Every time i slowed down it took an eternity to get back to a reasonable speed. I finally reached Nanjangud by 9:30 in the night. Bad fuckin journey time for a place which is just 160 kms from bangalore.

The rendezvous with the revolutionary happened at a rather innocuous location. He had given precise instructions which included to count the number of speedbreakers from the Nanjangud junction till a bar which was named "Caravan". Funny name Caravan. I had earlier suspected that this name must have originated in the ancient days in the land of Tamil Nadu when they were quite unsure about what a spurious looking vehicle was and pondered "Idhu Cara Vana??" Whilst such things were pondered, the brits were always around looking for a way to screw with the locals by renaming things to sound more english. So one smart mo fo who must have heard about this and thought it would only be apt if he named it as "Caravan" and made an additional entry to the "Big book of names we screwed in India". I know that i am kinda deviating from the subject but while on the topic of screwing with names, i think we as a nation realized it pretty fuckin late that we have been screwed. Which explains the recent spate of name changing of some of the biggest cities in the country. Lame. Imagine if someone were to screw with your name. How long would you take to react to that? If its more than half a century, you must be working for the Government:) Whew, I shall steer direction now and head for the main course. Caravan. So, i pass by this bar called caravan and i see some funky lights which keep blinking on the right side from behind a bush. I knew it had to be the Guerilla. So i turned and started following the funky coloured ford ikon. I had finally arrived at Mr.Vijayan's abode.We parked, went up and lit up. That was some seriously good shite. We were tripping on "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" for a while and then came the munchies. Desperately hungry, I made some maggi and Mr.Vijayan made some soup. By the end of it, i was having maggi dipped in soup. Bliss. One more toke over the line and we crashed.

I had given clear indications to Mr.Vijayan that i did not want to be woken up early. But being the revolutionary that he is, he did just the opposite of what was told. We went to his factory for a quick external tour. Pretty place it was. Then we headed back, stopped for a morning Chai and tried to find a place to fix my engine problem. No luck there. So we decided to take Mr.Vijayan's car for the trip to the hills. We got back home, had breakfast, set the controls and hit the road. We picked up Sachin, who is Mr.Vijayan's comrade from Kerala, and we set off for the hills. Our journey had multiple stops on the way. Coconut water. Snaps. Beer. Copious amounts of food for the carnivores. We reached a forest check post where we had to disclose our possessions. Mr.Vijayan stepped in and tried to minimize the damage and declared that we were just carrying 2 bottles of beer. The guard earnestly offered to safeguard it for the time that we were in the forest. It traded hands and we were on the final lap to our destination.

Beautiful place it was. We parked our car near the temple, took our bags and set into the jungle to find the right spot. We walked for a bit and realized that there was elephant crap everywhere. This was not very encouraging. I have had a bad experience with elephants earlier in the jungle. This was a year back, when me and comrades had gone to Periyar. I was wearing a bright red T-shirt and a herd of elephants started chasing us the fuck down. I had to strip and change into t-shirt which was of a more reasonable colour. Apparently these dudes have some serious trample damage. So we tried to circumnavigate them. For a long while they kept pushing us further into the jungle. After a while they probably thought "fuck it, we are hungry" and let us go our own way. Oh, did i mention we were rather Simmaculate when this whole incident happened? Ne ways, comin back to Gopalaswamy betta. I was pretty much on my toes trying to keep a lookout for the pachyderms. Apparently they are silent mo fos and they can sneak up on you. It might sound kinda comical, how the hell can an ELEPHANT sneak up,so to speak? But being there, such logical inferences were quite evasive from our thoughts. Nevertheless, a few cans flowed, a few leaves burned and suddenly no one really cared about elephants anymore. Life was chill. Conversations followed. After a while, we wanted to check out the other side of the hill.So we walked back, dumped our stuff in the car and dolloped on to the other side. Now this place was fuckin beautiful. I admit that our senses were rather heightened, but the view from here was truly spectacular. We walked further up the hill trying to outpace the other humans who were infesting the area. When we reached a certain distance and altitude, we remembered that we did not take what we needed the most. Our revolutionary smiled. He assured us that he had that covered. We were delighted and we marched on. Finally we found our spot. A nice huge boulder on the top of the hill from which we could see for miles in every direction. Intense with anticipation we looked towards the revolutionary. Apparently, he had made a mistake. we were momentarily pissed. Then we tried our luck at spotting wild life on the hills. We saw a wild elephant with its baby grazing on the foot hills. We were happy.

Time passed as it always does. Always succeding to outpace your sensory perception of itself. We looked on at the dark clouds at the distance and decided to head back to where we came from. Once we reached the plains, we realized that we were goddamn hungry. So we stopped near a lake and started devouring what we had packed and forgotten on the hills. We lit and hit the road again. We were cruising for a while and we started noticing the perceptible difference in the colour of the sky, right ahead of us. Every once in a while there was a mild light from the dark clouds. We were unperturbed by such occurances and we proceeded in good stead. A Half hour passed by. A light shower begins and the whole atmosphere was alive. We began to see lightnig strike the ground all around us. Suddenly, there was this bright white flash which seemed to be heading right at us. It seemed like we were stuck in a movie in slow fuckin motion. In fact, i thought it was game over. After a long fuckin moment, Mr.Vijayan and I exchanged glances. That was fuckin close. Suddenly, our car was being pummeled by what we thought was sand from the right side, aided by strong and heavy winds. It took us a while to realize that we were right in the middle of a fuckin hailstorm. It made no sense to drive anymore. Our revolutionary was afraid that the windows might give in anytime to the pounding which it was taking. We found a spot far from trees and waited with our danger lights on, hoping we wouldnt get struck by lightning or run over by mad mother fuckin vehicles, or hell, even by mad elephants disturbed by our nonsencical presence. The wait was surreal. An eternity passed by. We tried our best to capture some of the moments with the revolutionary's camera.Sure hope we succeeded. Then as suddenly as it had come, it stopped. It was still raining mildly and we decide to drive on. It was probably one of the best drives ever. When we reached Nanjangud, we could see that there had been a significant amount of damage which had happened. In fact, whilst we were chilling in our first location on the hills, one of our conversations had been on the topic of how we as a species are trying to conquer nature and how it is necessary to be reminded once in a while about the intensity of nature's forces. Hell of a coincidence, one might wonder. I was rather preoccupied with one rather damnable concern. With so many trees uprooted and on the road, i remembered that i had parked my car right under a tree. Luckily, it was intact, both car and tree. We finally were back home and we were greeted by the light of a candle on the table. There was no power. Initially we were rather irritated. We decided to head to the terrace and elevate ourselves from our 'current' problem. It was a beautiful starry night. After having taken in the sights, sounds and smell of the night, we decided to head down and chill in the balcony. What started off as mild banter, progressed deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness of a world which we were a part of not so long ago. Memories resurfaced, vivid recollections of a forgotten past, reminiscence of joy and lament, deconstruction and reconstruction of fabrications amidst the fabric of life, love and peace. No judgments were passed that night. A beautiful end.

Its about time now, don't you think?

Janie Mack! Its been a freakin long time since i last posted anything on this space which i call my blog. So here, I believe is my honest attempt to revive this place.

The last time i posted on this blog, I was just about to begin working and at that time it struck me that i might not be able to play the guitar anymore in the same fashion as i have for as long i have been playing. So I was playing the guitar as much as i could for a week or so and thought might as well make some recordings while at it. On hindsight, I was right. I have not been regular on the guitar, but somehow i have managed to just keep in touch.

A lot has changed in the last one year. I got posted in Dehradun for my Sales Stint. I was sure that i would get a posting in the North so it was not a surprise. The surprising part was the fact that i actually started speaking hindi as a result of being there :) Oh and being in a Sales stint in Dehradun meant i had to travel a lot in the state of Uttaranchal. Which i certainly did. I got to see some of the most beautiful places in the country - Almora, Bhimtal,Corbett, Haridwar, Hrishikesh, Kedarnath, Nainital, Pithoragarh, etc. I drove everywhere. I covered 16000 kms in the first 5 months after i bought my car.It was sen-fuckin-sational.

Something changed during my stint there. I was truly independent for the first time in my life and i was lovin it. And this was when i really began to feel the need for traveling. I still remember the days when i used to fuck off to the hills in search of solitude, clarity and peace. Those times will be hard to forget and now, even harder to get. Somehow i also managed to find some good company to travel with every once in a while. As soon as i landed in Dehradun, Srijit, Patrick and KC had come down and we had gone to mussourie for an absolute chiller weekend. During diwali, Srijit and KC came down and we went to Almora, Ranikhet and Kausani. It was one of the most serene trips ever. Unfortunately, Srijit's car got fucked by the end of it due to really crappy roads on our return journey. One weekend i had driven down to ranthambore with Srijit, KC and Hari. This was like a marathon as ranthambore was 8 hrs from gurgaon. We managed 2 safaris in the time that we had. We did not spot any tigers, but the whole trip was a 'trip' in itself. Another time i had been to Corbett with Sriram and Gopi. That was also the time when i had my first major accident. On the way back from Corbett to Haldwani, a truck overtaking me on my right, did not actually have space to overtake, so he thought it was just about fine to run into me. I dont know if it is normal, but i did not feel any fear or pain at that moment. My instant reaction was to chase the motherfucker down. I accelerated hard, but my car wouldnt move. The entire right side of my car including my front tyre was fucked and I had to replace it whole. I fuckin hate truck drivers. I had always been a civil person on the road. But Since this accident, i willingly harrass any pissant truck drivers that i find. Fun apart, work was also very interesting. There were times when i used to work on sundays as i had nothing better to do and I dint mind it too. I dont think i would have ever imagined myself being this way when i was on campus though, where there was only one objective - keep chillin :)

Six months passed by. My sales stint ended and i moved to Gurgaon for my marketing stint. Gurgaon is a sad place. Or so i used to think. There was nothing to do after work. In the beginning, work was light and i used to be bored by the end of the day. So i thought i might as well revive my guitar playing abilities and started playing on a daily basis. My target was to learn to play "Classical Gas" by the end of my stint in gurgaon. On hindsight, I think i have achieved abt 30% of my target. Well, obviously work was not light for too long and very soon the momentum picked up and i was deeply buried in the thick of things. There were days when i used to get high on work. That feeling of being "in control" is priceless. During this time either something changed or i began to notice certain aspects of my life only then . My roomies used to say that i was not the same person when at life and when at work (alluding to the quintessential work-life balance). I thought about it and realized that it was true to a large extent. I really do not know if it is a good thing or a bad thing, but i certainly know that it works for me and i am actually happy being that way. More travel also happened during this time. Twice i drove down to Sariska and once to Hrishikesh. Thanks to Sreeni for that. Without his inspiration, i would not have moved my ass being the lazy guy that i am.

Then i moved to Chennai for a month long stint. Although the work was good, I just dint like being there. Being in Chennai, i used to mourn the good times in Gurgaon.(Yes, I was complaining about life being lame in Gurgaon, so you can imagine how sad Chennai was). Somehow home dint feel like home anymore. In fact,i really dont think i can stay home for an extensive period of time at all. I feel sad that i feel this way, but i feel worse otherwise. Strangely, i really dont know the reason for it and thinking about it has been a rather futile and rueful excercise.

Now i am in Bangalore for another month long stint. So far its been really good, both in terms of work and play. I have already managed to put a cycle gap one day trip to visit Mr.Vijayan in Nanjangud last sunday. Turned out to be a killer trip. Hopefully I am traveling to bombay the coming weekend for the alum meet.

Over the last 10 months, I have realised that i am really bad in keeping in touch with people. Although there are a handful of people i am in touch with (that too not on a regular basis), there are also others who are completely out of the radar. Avik Ghosh, if you are reading this, fuck you, you are worse than me and congrats too:). Ne ways, the point being, henceforth, I shall definitely try my best to keep in touch. If you dont find me doing that, do call asap:)

Whew, that was that.

You'll certainly be hearing more from me!

Music, nothing else matters.

My favourite Metallica song :)

So close, no matter how far,
Couldn't be much more from the heart,
forever trusting who we are,
and nothing else matters...

Eric Clapton - Classical Guitar Solo - Attempting the impossible!

This is an attempt at performing the intro of Eric Clapton's beautiful composition.



You can check out the audio here

Stairway to heaven - Am performing it :)

Stairway to heaven by Led Zeppelin is one of the greatest metal songs of all time. This song was one of the reasons why I started playing the guitar. Now, I present to thee, an humble attempt at performing the masterpiece...



You can check out the audio here

James Hetfield - Watch out!

I have been playing the guitar for a while now (a little over 4 years).
This is my first attempt at performing one of my favourite songs - Mama said( Artist - Metallica Album - Load)

Equipment :

Guitar - Ibanez GRG 170 DX
Processor - Zoom G2.1u


The editing process was completed using Cubase LE and Audacity


(If the player doesn't work, you can check out the song here)

As you can rightly observe, James Hetfield did steal my voice and its about time I took my rightful place in Metallica :)

My brother plays the guitar too and has gone a step ahead and composed an instrumental. If you like metal, then this song will kick your a$$.


(If the player doesn't work, you can check out the song here
Comments are welcome :)

Aliyas in Malluland ;)

Part Drei : [insert arbit funky title - a reader's excercise :P]

Now, we were sitting in the only watering hole this town had to offer and we were contemplating the nature of the problem at our hands. Due to the unconventional 5:30 deadline which we had missed ,we were thrust into a rather lame situation - we cannot go bamboo rafting the next day, but we can go for a jungle trek the next night. This meant that we were left with nothing to do for a whole day! Darned! Suddenly, Evil came up with some interesting piece of information (no one knows why it took so long for this to happen)(No! This was not a case of an 'alcoholic's moment of clarity' :P ). He suggested that if we manage to wake up early in the morning - early as in EARLY (as in 5:00 in the morning), we would be able to go boating through the periyar reserve and hopefully spot some wild animals when they head to the lake (apparently they have some sort of get-together session early in the morning. They dont even work! Why the hell would they wake up so early??? ;)). Ne ways, this gave us some relief, we did not have to vegetate in the room as we had earlier resigned ourselves to.


We Were up and about early next morning (early in my previously defined sense of the word), thankfully without any hiccups or hangovers ;). By this time our revolutionary had done the necessary deeds in order for us to enter the Periyar reserve. So we head inside the place slowly in order not to disturb the silence and the serenity of the place. As we head deeper into the reserve, we realise that we were certainly not the only ones around. Indeed, It was a jungle out there! It was almost as if the entire population of the small town had migrated into this place at this early in the morning! And when a group of humans are put together in one place (that too those from different regions), you know what is bound to happen - thats right - a little bit of talk, banter, bam and bash! All this in the middle of a freakin tiger reserve, with signs all around saying 'Silence Please'. The evils of capitalism, our silent revolutionary observed.


Now with all this crap happening in the background, we realised that we in fact needed tickets to go boating and it is then that we chose to look in the direction of what appeared to be the ticket counter. It was not very difficult to spot since you could see two tentacles composed of writhing human bodies extending from that wretched place for about a mile in either direction (No! I am not exaggerating about the distance). That did not discourage or deter our man PK from trying his luck at the queue. Almost 45 mins goes by and we realise that the queue has not moved an inch and the noise levels were reaching as much as it would when an airplane takes off! A little bit of investigation revealed that the ticket counter does not open until 6:30 (by this time the queue had extended itself into parts of the jungle vegetation and every once in a while a primeval scream could also be heard. We were rather unperturbed by such extraneous aural cues). By this time, we also realised that there was just one counter to dispense the tickets. Either, the K.T.D.C had got the demand estimation extremely wrong or this had to be some sort of a commie joke (I mean come on, people come here from different parts of the country right and they all need to have a feel of what it is like here right? Equality for all - by that rationale, every person has to waste about as much time as every one else to NOT get a ticket right? right??). We were at a consensus on this issue. A quick re-appraisal of the whole situation led to a unanimous conclusion - fuck this shit. Lets roll.(No pun intended :D)

Now, we had nothing to do for the whole day and it was very early in the morning too, damn it! Evil, apparently feeling bad about having woken us up so early decides to reconcile this minor setback and scouted around for information about things to do in the vicinity of this jungle, so to speak. Working his charm once again our man gleans some information which made him gleam with joy as he came back to us, unable to restrain himself from containing his newfound joy. Apparently there was a very beautiful waterfall nearby - about 17kms from where we were- on the road to Kambam, called Surli falls. That was good news for us - so we were off in a jiffy. Now something peculiar happened while on the road to surli falls. We had to cross the border between Kerala and TamilNadu. As we crossed the border from Kerala and into TamilNadu, almost instantaneously, the temperature increased by about 10 degrees and immedietaly we started to break sweat.This phenomenon was struck us as very strange. It was almost as though these two places had two gigantic air conditioners set very perceptibly at starkly different temperatures! This reminded me of one of those Russel Peters's Joke on India. This also became a starting point for further TamilNadu bashing for the remainder of the trip. Bah!

After driving for a while we realise that its about time we asked for directions, and thankfully our sense of timing was keen enough to avoid us some aimless driving in the blazing heat. We head to Surli falls and we find the whole drive very scenic with vineyards on either side of the road. One tends to believe that with such a beautiful beckoning,the place ought to be something, right? Luck, it seemed was not on our side. The place was an absolute shithole! The mallu gang had been boasting about how in Kerala the population density is very high. This place was a befitting reprimand to our mallu chaps. For this place was so densely populated, not only with people but also some of our ancestoral relatives - yes; monkeys. The sound of the waterfall was comparable to that of a pin drop. (I guess by now you would have all deduced why. If not, tch tch...)

We decided that there was no point to this place and we headed back in the direction of Thekkady. On the way, we spotted a very pretty waterfall flowing at a rapid velocity. We spent some time here chillin, by the falls and *some text deleted due to potential legal issues*. Our next stop was a place which was 10kms from Thekkady, on the road to Munnar. This place was called "Viewpoint" - truly, an amazing attempt at marketing there by our commie tourism board ;). Having had my share of laughter for the day, we proceeded our ascent. When we reached the place, some sort of arrangements for some sort of political show was happening on a nearby empty piece of land. Strains of really crappy tam songs were polluting the air. Once more, we felt raped. Nevertheless, we proceeded to trek inside the forested region and onto the side of a small hill. The view from the hill top was breathtaking. We could see the plains of TamilNadu from where we were perched. If we looked closely, we could actually see the small town of Theni as though it were a blemish, ruining the beauty of the untouched land. We settled beneath a clutter of bamboo trees and decided to chill here for a while. One of us had the foresight to get a few beers on the way (Am sure you would have guessed who by now ;P). So we killed about 2-3 hours there, just chillin. By late afternoon we decided to head back so that we can get our passes for Bamboo rafting the next day and for Jungle Trekking in the night.




To be Continued...

Aliyas in Malluland ;)

Part Deux : Journey we more...

So...where was I..ahh yes. Bar.We went to Arcadia in Kottayam. This place, according to Evil was supposed to be the most happening watering hole in the city. Ten points for that I guess, for I could witness the efficacy with which Arcadia was churning out drunks on to the streets:) Thankfully PK was bigger than a barrell when it came to such matters. We enter the place and not surprisingly find our man in rather high spirits, so to speak :) It was already late in the evening and it was imperative that we hit the road asap, lest we get late for our next destination - Vagamon.

Vagamon was apparently discovered by Evil in one of his college escapades. It was supposed to be a beautiful hillstation which was not as commercial as Munnar or Ooty. That sounded nice to us. So we set off hunting for road signs to Vagamon. At this juncture I would like to bring to light that, never in our trip did we deem that it might just be a worthwile to get a road map. We were the kings of the road and therefore we presumed that all roads lead only to the destination where we were predestined to go to. (A smart observer would realise the play on words in the previous statement ;) ) Nevertheless, we the high spirited ones, proceeded to Vagamon with great expectations.

In fact, we proceeded with such stead that, never once did we doubt the fact that we had overshot the place (even though we were driving through roads which had not seen a single soul in ages and the whole area surrounding us was more forest than any other form of description that can be attributed to it). Well, so there we were, driving through heavy mist/fog, visibility close to zero and finally we realize that its about time we reached the place. Unfortunately, there is no one to clarify our exact co-ordinates at this point and we decide to drive the same way we came hoping to find something which we dint find in the first place! So we drive back until we find this one place called 'Green Meadows' where much to our surprise, a whole goddamn party was underway! Unfortunately the manager there was a pissant and shooed us away! That considerably pissed us off and once more we drove back towards (presumably) Vagamon. Thankfully, our misadventure was short-lived, for around 11 o' clock in the night, we find this guy who was seemingly shutting down his hotel. Mr. Evil worked his charm and managed to find a place for us to crash for the night. Oh yeah, we had finally reached Vagamon :)

Early next morning we were woken up from our slumber by some heavy bangs on the door. Apparently, our car was parked in the middle of a market! So poor Jose had to go and complete the necessary activities in order for the villager folk to be relieved of the monstrosity which we had inadvertantly caused. The rest of the bunch snored on for a little more and then our great revolutionary woke up. Which pretty much meant that all of us woke up! The first task for the day was always the same. *Some text deleted due to potential legal issues*

We start with a light mallu breakfast and proceed to the meadows. And what a place it was. Unquestionably, this was one of the best destinations I have ever set foot on. This place was green. If green were to be defined as a colour, this place is where the dictionary is. All of us were on a higher plane (literally and quite otherwise too ;) Our senses were captivated by what was around us (and in us ;) ). No description of the place could ever do justice to what it actually was. By early afternoon, we decided to trek back and proceed to visit a pine forest and then to a small peak nearby.

Once we reached the peak, we realised that it was not as 'small' as we had imagined it to be. Once more, we had no doubts that we were the kings of the world and decided to conquer the peak. It was quite a daunting task, considering some of our members were not aptly equipped for this sort of thing (They were high and they were not wearing shoes!). Nevertheless, there was no stopping us. With enough time, we reach the top of this place. This was the first time that we actually cared to look down. We realised that it was quite a climb and going down was not going to be easy. That being the case, we thought we might as well chill there for a while and *Some text deleted due to potential legal issues*. After chilling for a bit, one of us got the brainwave that we might land up into similar trouble as the previous night if we leave too late for our next destination and decided to call it quits on this place. Thankfully, the climb down was not as dreadful as we had imagined. All of us were down in a jiffy. Then, it started to rain and that made our day. A few minutes more on that peak and we would have been stuck there for until the clouds decided to stop peeing!


Refurbished by our luck, we checked out of our hotel and proceeded to Thekkady. This was a rather calm and peaceful drive and we reached our destination at a sane hour and managed to check in to a nice hotel too. Unfortunately, there was a peculiar thing about Thekkady. If you want to go for a night trek in the jungle or go bamboo rafting the next day, you have to book your tickets before 5:30 in the evening. Which we missed by an hour and a half! Thus, we decided to drown our ill fate in some alcohol.



P.S. *Some text deleted due to potential legal issues* :)


To be Continued...

Aliyas in Malluland ;)

Part One : The journey begins...

Now...It all began one day when Mr.Evil Vijayan called me up and said "Loser! Come off on the 2nd (of May) to Trivandrum. PK will join us on the 3rd". With those great words of inspiration and without any further idea of what was in store, I made the necessary arrangements and packed my bags.

The journey to trivandrum was an ordeal. At that point of time I had made 2 assumptions - 1. That most of the train journey would be through kerala and 2. that Kerala is much more cooler (in terms of temperature :P) as compared to Tamilnadu. In hindsight, assumption 1 turned out to be entirely wrong and assumption 2 turned out to be entirely correct. Which pretty much means that I, travelling in the upper berth in a sleeper class coach, was roasted. That aside the journey as such was not very eventful. (What can you expect when you are in a compartment filled with mallus who kept pointing to me whenever they made any referece to Tamilnadu as if I was an alien intruding their space- Freakin commies! We live in the same goddamn country!!!!!)

Trivandrum. I walk out of the station and Jose was there to pick me up. This was the beginning of an epic journey. We drive to Jose's and get ready for the journey ahead. At this juncture Jose brought me up to speed on some recent happenings which has to do with the whereabouts of PK. Apparently, he, in a state of inebriation had forgotten to board the bus which was supposed to take him to Cochin, where he was supposed to attend a friend's wedding (also where we were going to pick him up that morning). Out of desperation PK had called Jose for some wisdom and inspiration. In hindsight, a rather futile effort he would have thought. For all he received were the choiciest of mallu expletives and a directive to reach Cochin by whatever means necessary.

We had a sumptuous breakfast and set forth on our journey in Jose's Bolero. Little did we know what we had ahead of us. Our immedieate task was to pick up Srijit 'Evil' Vijayan. He chose a rather innocuous spot in Trivandrum for the rendevous - Cafe Coffee Day. We picked up the revolutionary and heard some bad news-that we were short of some supplies. We proceeded driving in the general direction of Cochin with that in mind when Evil comes up with the idea that we should proceed to Kottayam and ask PK to join us there directly as it would save us atleast 5 hours of road time. A nice idea it seemed, so we change direction and head towards Kottayam by M.C. Road. We had stopped on the way for the ominous assignment which was handled by Evil. He went shopping for the supplies which were absolutely essential for the trip ;) In the meanwhile precise instructions were relayed to PK about the change in plans.

Our next stop was for lunch. We stopped at a beautiful hotel which was built right in the middle of a small lake. Surprisingly it was run by the Govenrment of Kerala. Way to go commies *sneer*! During lunch our resourceful guide Mr.Evil gets some gyaan on the nicest "Kallu shaaps" in Kumarakoam. We were on the road again - destination Kottayam. The roads were decent throughout the journey and we had some interesting conversations on subjects such as 'The king of Travancore', 'Lack of Immigrant labourers in kerala and its effect on agriculture', 'General TamilNadu bashing based on the weather and on certain general characteristics of the people' and of course 'the different varieties of a certain crop which grow in the western ghats and is of immense interest to our conclave'

We reached Kumarakoam by early afternoon (Kumarakoam is 15 kms from kottayam) and headed straight for the 'kallu shaap' guided by our able 'Evil' Vijayan. We then proceeded to devour *ahem* a second lunch there along with some 'Kallu'. Unfortunately, one sip of that horrendous concoction and my entire face was contorted. Well, as for the boys, they were having a field day. Once the majority was in the right spirits, we set sail - in country boats that is, and into the backwaters of Kumarakoam. This was a very pleasent experience. The backwaters of kerala were pristine and peaceful. All along the coast we could see the different resorts - each exotic in its own way and in what it had to offer. We even spotted a snake boat in one of these resorts.


As we clambered back on to land from the backwaters, we realised that we had a situation to deal with. All this while we had been trying to get in touch with PK in order to set up a meeting point where we can pick him up. Unfortunately, PK was incommunicado. So we decided to travel in the general direction of kottayam. We were chilling for a little while in a random beautiful spot when the call from PK came. A few expletives later, we were on the road again to pick up our man. Not so surprisingly the rendevous was to happen in a bar. That bastard!

To be continued...

P.S. Aliya means Machi
P.P.S Machi is slang for buddy/dude in Tamil.
P.P.P.S If you still don't get it, go Google!

The Memory remains...

Almost 2 years have gone by. "No time or place can ever be the same again." This is the only phrase which keeps going through my mind over and over again. The beauty of time. Every moment is so nascent and yet so complete at the same time. By the time you linger and ponder about the nature of the moment, it has already been replaced by another pervasive one. Such is time. And such is life. The consciousness of the self is made by the assimilation of the remnants of those emotions which were experienced in these effervescent moments. Thus is shaped your life and thus is shaped your persona. Over a period of time, you change, for change is inevitable. But nothing can ever take away the moments which you were a part of for it were these moments then that has made the you in you now and will continue to make you, forever. 'Till death do such moments part. The irony lies in the fact that death does bring an end to your living self, but those moments remain forever untarnished, as the potent enchantment of a memory. The memory remains...

Bounded by rationality...

Driving by the countryside, all I see is the dim reality of the road ahead. A surreal darkness whose depth is matched only by the serenity of the silence. I feel like an alien, to perpetrate the crime of invading this time and space. Although temporal, the feeling pervades to occupy the unending space which is my thoughts and therefore lingers, as would a delicate dew drop, hanging on a new leaf, threatening to let go and fade away. Unfettered I drive in the realm of reality, but bounded I am by the maddening appeal of rationality in the realm of the mind. Break free your mind and you will be free of reality.

What is and what can never be...

So intricate is the design. A random walk through a matrix constituted of those you know and those you dont;of those who you think you know but know you dont; of those that matter and those who have come to matter; of those you believe and those you choose not to; and of course, of those that are and will forever be. What then do we come to realise? That what matters the most is that you were there. No time or place will ever be the same as what has been and what was. But as we walk, we do realise that there is more to the matrix than just its constituents. Through the haze of the elaborate labyrinth, we see patterns which emerge, some with time and some without. Nevertheless, they do. In these patterns lie the secrets of the design. It is almost as though these patterns were part of the design, but a keen observer with the right bent of mind will note that these are quite independent but almost with a sense of impossibility, emanate to prove otherwise. An observer I have been and ergo have come to appreciate the intricacy and ease with which truths and lies are weaved seamlessly in an unending flow, perhaps even with unending fervour and purpose. Truth does not fade though. What is done is done and one day it inevitably finds its way back with scant regard for your choice of course. Which brings us to the ever pervading question of whether we really do have a choice. Those deep in the matrix would argue against the simple truth: the choice is always ours.

Ode to Nazgul

Dark is the hour,
an unseemly light, an unnatural countenance.
Wicked ways of evil lore,
legend stays for evermore...

The kings they ride their beastly steeds,
their twisted souls bound to their deeds.
Living they are not, for their lives are but fraught
with sheer poison brewed by the banished lord...

Men of honour they once were,
reduced to immortal dead by the spells of despair.
All their lives they ride and ride,
in search of the ring that shall bring back malign...

Faceless kings, deathless lives,
encumber forever the wrath of their sins.
Death do they bring in their wake
but their life is not their's to take...

Happiness abounded

A new day, a new beginning
arising from within, i know its coming.
Seen the madness, seen it consume,
been consumed, been the atrophy.

In moments of bacchanalian stupor,
one wishes to find one's purpose and place.
Fools we are for we shall never find,
for its all a farce and mere hearsay.
A sane night in a communion of inebriated souls and
there dawns the moment of clarity,
propounding thoughts with ruthless alacrity.

Reality dawns,
and you are stripped down to yourself
and there you find what you always wanted
and there you find lies happiness abounded...

Lost is what we are in what we fathom to be our reality

There comes a time in life, when you would want to just sit back, relax and say proudly "I have seen it all ". That time is what we have been led to believe as the ultimate end. Each of us is wittingly or unwittingly working towards that state of being. But what if that is not what drives us? What if we are just trapped in a cruel game where each one mimicks the other, choosing goals solely to counter or accomplish another's vision. Sad, but true. What is the purpose of this existence? Why do
we do what we do? Does it make any difference? From the macro view of things, we are just another organism which has risen up the food chain, soon to be overtaken by another.(Albeit, our actions might not allow that to happen and sadly bring an end to the purportedly ongoing phenomenon called evolution). So what is the meaning of it all? All that constitues our lives, mere fabrications of our early forefathers and we shall also contribute to the same for the generations to come. What then gives meaning to our lives? Mere existence? Lost is what we are in what we fathom to be our reality.

God, if you are there somewhere orchestrating the whole deal, cheers to you! You are having the time of your life :)

But then again, if there were no god, it merely reflects what sad beings we are. Either ways, the joke is on us.

Confounding reality in the wake of surreal dreams

We wake up one morning to the horrendous wail of a mad man's scream.Confounding reality in the wake of surreal dreams haunts our perspectives with reasons and rationalizations as opposed to reason and rationale.

A new day dawns, alas, not to be accompanied by realization or even reason. We are thus reduced to meticulously furthering a meaningless existence unfazed by the ignominy of the fact that such a trait is mirrored by a significant populace.

That indeed is our reason. The reason to subjugate ourselves to the mindless sycophancy which translates and extrudes to define our reality and in toto, our lives.

Glimpses

Glimpses...

" I can't bear to see,
what i've let me be,
so wicked and worn..."
- Low Man's Lyric

"Emptiness is filling me,
to the point of agony,
growing darkness, taking dawn,
I was me, but now hes gone..."
- Fade to Black

"Then it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel,
is just a freight train coming your way..."
- No Leaf Clover

"when a man lies,
he murders some part of the world.
These are the pale deaths,
that men miscall their lives.
All this i cannot bear to witness any longer,
cannot the kingdom of salvation take me home..."
- To Live is to Die

Trapped, In a design of emotion

love love everywhere
need some love,gonna find my pair
dames and maidens i befriended so rare
mistook one for more than just care

promising thoughts crowded my mind
willful desire led me to communion
happy it was or so i mused

life went on but living i was not
morbid fear about the days to come
begging for change i did succumb

change did come,
estranged i did become
poured on me an effusive showering
found myself retching and cowering

independent so long i had been
trapped now in a design of emotion,
from which i yearn to wean....

Hale of Anger

since the days of long begone
never have i forgotten the anger so strong
anger anger compounding forth
driving me on to unleash the force

forever subdued ,forever domineered
the anger shall explode with unparalleled rage
but does good doth that translate to
or destruction,carnage and intellectual doom

the hale of anger shall so remain
nurtured,garnered and keen to slay
the moment of glory shall rise one day
and i shall come clean forever to stay

My Signature

Death becomes the embodiment of my life
and i have conquered all but my despise
grows as the werewolf enticed by the moon
filling my passion on the quest of unholy doom
instincts tingled by the sweet scent of gushing blood

fear draws upon the curtains of death more than I
but fear not ,for that fear is this beastly self
mortals of respect and glory shall face
the crushing of their souls by this last disgrace
for i have come to relieve you of your soul
Death is my signature

The Crawling Need

When the rains shall choose to slay
there comes a day when we shall say
"that which was forgotten shall never so remain
that which was ensconsced will never be strange"

figured it out or so i thought
in a realm of intertwined lives we are but lost
What is you is what you believe
and what you believe is what you choose

for we are conditioned to know what we know
by a plethora of thoughts espoused by mindless fools
and mindless we become when we take it as truth
puppets we are and puppets we shall forever be

Insight dawns and we yearn for freedom
to break away from the cloak of supposed security
but easy it is not,for our heart stops us short
the crawling need ,overpowered we yield...

Age of madness

Into the path which seems to lead
through darkened corridors of insanity
to a land which was never dreamed

master and minion on a mission
coming of an endless age they envision
of knights and beasts and things that never should be

horrendous realities escape me
as i wander through infinity,
lost and bound in a spell of maddening appeal

madness rising,bells tolling
born again to lead the minions to their unholy doom
mortals of fear cannot but capitulate, to the wrath of the great old ones

the rising of the old ones shall spawn
the death of life as was known all along
the legend shall become,the old ones time was warped it seemed

in the midst of filth and splendour was born
a man,a myth,a weapon so strong
the unholy shall be slain,blood spilt shall cleanse the reign

young and sinewy yet wise ,the wizened watched with despise
the rebel fought the tyranny with might and vigour
in his path of plunder,the evil lay dead

crushed were the bastions of gerontocracy
liberated were the mortals marked by the dawn of fiery revelry
and so it shall be remembered as an enchantment of a lingering dream....

Only Human

We are our holocaust.
We are an army of ants without a queen.
We are reflections of what we see.
We are a clockwork orange.
We are an inherent anomaly which cannot be undone.
We are gods when we dont own the heavens.
We are the products of social obligation.
We are seldom what we seem.
We are not what we wish to be.
We are an illusion of evolutionary splendour.
We are a blemish.
We are the creators of destruction en masse.
We are the results of conscious self-inhibition and mindless sycophancy.
We are a collective mass of undeveloped organisms colluding to cause deterioration and decay.
We are the things that should not be and should never have been.
We are,after all "only human".