Memories during midnight

As one more year draws to a close, here are some of my favorite memories.

1. KP. Bad weather, grumpy people, man v/s wild, you name it, this trip had it all. And it also had Kavi.
2. Skandagiri. The trek was eventful enough, but the aftereffects of the dhaba lingered.
   
3. Our room,the night before we vacated. Stuff everywhere, not knowing what belonged to whom, this was a proper mess.
4. College magazine,when it was scrapped. S**t.
5. I saw my article in print.
6. Our exploits on the football field.
   
7. Project Patila, Circuit Shivya. Yes, this was probably the only time which saw Maava working.

Yours???

Note of thanks

I'm back. Yes, after a rather long absence, which went unnoticed (I'm certain). Many things have happened since the last post, for e.g., Thierry Henry, Tiger Woods and Telangana. I will not focus on them, but rather on the fact that I'm twenty now, or as my friend said, "Pandey! you're an adult now!".
My friends gave the concluding parts of the Bartameus Trilogy , a very enjoyable read, and curiosly, a photoframe.
To everyone who wished me, hugged me, kicked my bum and gave presents, ' Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!'.'

KP

Brimming with confidence, as our last expedition was a grand success (see scaling skandagiri), we turned our feet towards Kumara Parvata(KP).KP is situated near Kukke, Dakshin Kannada. We had somehow timed the trip to coincide with the heaviest rains to hit Karnataka in 25 years. So, the rains became our companion (not very much liked though) for the rest of the trek.
Seven of us, i.e, Sushanth, Yograj, Shivprasad, Rachith, Nikhil, Vijay and me reached Kukke by bus while Vaibhav came via train. We visited the temple and started our trek. Ten minutes into the climb, we got our first taste of the leeches (in truth, the other way around). This led to a lot of delay during the initial climb, as we tried to get rid of them. It started raining, which along with the humidity, made us sweat.
We reached our first destination, Bhatt's house, which was some 6 kms from the base, after two and a half hours of strenous climbing. After all that rain, the warmth of the house felt like godsend. We also discovered to our horror that all our clothes were soaked. This made us spend the evening trying to dry them, the rains did not help either. Cramps paid a visit too and left Vijay and Nikhil in pain. This left us debating whether to proceed further. Finally, we decided to not to decide anything till the next day. Dinner felt like manna from heaven, and we devoured the food like a pack of wolves. There was very limited cellular connectivity, which caused some concern among our friends in Bangalore. We hit the bed (floor) by 10.
When we woke up the next morning, the rain had lessened to a drizzle and we decided to attempt the next part of the climb. We left our luggage and started climbing a lot quicker. We then convinced the guards at the checkpoint to let us in (money helped). The rain started to pour and with most of the climb being on grassland, we were soaked to the bone and also started shivering. We braved the weather, and reached the next checkpoint (mantap) in an hour. From there on, it was more of the same till we reached the forest patch which seperated us from the summit. This patch was slippery due to the rain and it took a lot out of us to cross it. We were hoping that the climb to the summit would be easier. It was not to be, as the rains had turned the path into a roaring waterfall. Our attempts to find an alternate path were hampered by the mist. So we had to turn back, after being very close to the summit.
Hunger, fatigue and grumbling were our companions during the descent. We had lunch in Bhatt's house and continued to descend. We got seperated into 3 groups but managed to get down unharmed. Vaibhav had a leech attached to his belly button,though.
We returned to the town by Five p.m, changed into whatever dry clothes we had, or could buy, stuffed ourselves at the nearest restaurant and booked tickets for the journey back home. While waiting for the bus, Rachith did something, of which, we all will have very fond memories of. The journey itself was a tiresome one, with roads, radio and crying children all keeping me awake.
It was a different kind of a trip, and I hope to have some normal ones soon.

year in review

A long (winding) year in review:
It all started with me moving in with 6 of my friends to a place, which in time, began to feel (and look) like home. It was a nice experience and we did manage to hang around for a year.
The courses allotted for the 3rd semester were not those which would set one's pulse racing and they were helped by the fact that the teachers were capable of giving Professor Binns a run for his money.Memories of class are very few, primarily due to our class rep who ensured we were never burdened:).
Along with my friends, I took part (kind of) in Shaastra- the annual fest held at IIT-M. It scored highly on the technical front (as per my friends), but for me, the attraction lay in the lectures which ranged from IP rights to RTI Act and the industrial exhibits. Hope to go there this year as well.
I celebrated my birthday (Nov 5, if you're wondering). It was painful, as i was manhandled twice. On the other hand, I got presents, which was surprising and nice.
Then, in order to alleviate the general feeling of boredom and inertia, our exams showed up. The people at the university were humane enough to schedule Field Theory on the 1st of January, while a paper was postponed due to by-elections (only thing happening these days) and was rescheduled conveniently so that our holidays would get ruined, which did happen.
4th semester started smoothly, only irritant being our results, whose shock value was found to be immune to recession. Subject wise, 4th sem felt even boring than 3rd. This was not in any way due to the subjects, which I found to be very interesting ( a fortnight before the exams), but to the fact that we concentrated on activities that required only a piece of paper. The classes also provided us with an opportunity to catch up with our favourite authors.
UTSAV, our college fest, took place during April. Although I was more involved than the last time, the fest seemed to lack bullishness. There was also an attempt to bring out a college magazine, of which I was a participant. It did not come out though.
On the social front, many things happened but as they are classified under "unmentionable in public forums", I'll be skinned if I do mention them. Moving on, there was a trek to Skandagiri which I found awesome. The semester also saw its fair share of injuries with shoulder dislocations jostling for space with memory loss and road mishaps.
Exams have finished a month ago and they did keep up their reputation as a pain in the neck. The labs were excruciating and I hope no one has to suffer them one more time.

nothing..

It's been 2 years since I jumped into engineering and these 2 years have turned out to be more interesting than the others. This is simply an attempt to convince myself that I can write..
The very first class I sat through was maths. It was a surprise to see everyone listening intently to the teacher, trying to catch every word of his/hers'.For a couple of weeks, there was silence in the class (deathly, if you ask me), no talking back and everyone seemed an angel. Now, this is only a vague memory.. Students who listen to the teacher can easily be listed among endangered species, (extinct in some cases) decibel levels usually match those seen during Lok Sabha sessions and notes are scribbled only if you see the teacher rushing towards you.
Internals were treated with respect, the preparations starting at least a week before and everyone trying to get good marks. Now, internals are only there so that we'll remember the courses' name and preparations start the day before which consist of finding the text, searching for the syllabus and xeroxing it. If you're me though, you'll try to find that 'special someone' who'd help you navigate the troubled waters. Avenues have opened up to increase your marks as in projects(hmph....), assignments and others which are off the beaten track.
There probably are changes in other aspects as well, but those are for another day..

Scaling Skandagiri-II

...Continued from part-I

We started our climb at 2 in the morning and soon lost our way:). As with any group, this led to lot of accusations from most of us on everyone but themselves. But the view from the 'dead end' itself made the unintended detour worthwhile.

While we turned back and were searching for the correct path, Sandy fell and injured his leg badly in the process. That he didn't give up and finished the whole climb speaks a lot about his mental and physical fitness.
The above accident split our group into 2.People who were ahead had no idea about the severity of the fall and merrily reached the top of the mountain by4 A.M.As we had to support Sandy in his climb and also get Kamte to do the same( quite a task..), we got left behind. The view at the night itself was quite deceptive, it made us believe that the top was within reach, only to show us that it was still a long way ahead. This made our group irritable and people who were ahead got a lot of stick.
After all the above, we reached the top by 4:45A.M, and the view was breathtaking. It made our tiredness vanish in no time. There are a couple of buildings in ruins along with a Shiva temple, which is where we had a campfire going on. It was cold, windy and blustery which made us to fall on top of one another to get some sleep.
We saw the setting of the moon(first for me) while the sunrise was blocked by clouds.While it was a bit of dampener for us, the view of surroundings in daylight made up for it easily. We stayed at the top till 7:30A.M, took photos, and started to come down.
As with the climb, some among us got down quickly, while we took our sweet time to get down and did so by 11A.M. By that time, most of us were sleeping inside couple of empty water pipes. As some of us were still coming down, this led me to sleep on top of them(pipes).
We came back to the city centre by 2, and reached Banglore by 4 in the afternoon. We slept like hibernating bears till the next morning ( Suzie was an exception).
It was a pleasant experience and I look forward to many such.

P.P.S: I wish to thank everyone who came that night. In no particular order, we were me;), Maava, Boggi, Suzie, Kavi, Vaibhav, Gubaal, Kamte, Pramod, Pradeep, Sudi, cc, Wodeyar, Raviraj, Shastri, Vinay, Shivprasad and Sandy

Scaling Skandagiri-I

At last, after an year and half of meticulous research and planning on all the expeditions that can be taken out from our base(BMSCE), and with a perfect record in execution of the plans( in virtual reality, anyway), we decided that it was time to get 'physical'.
The place we chose for our maiden venture was 'Skandagiri'. Why?? No one knows..The number of people who joined in was also a pleasant surprise.After much deliberation on what supplies were to be taken and in what quantity, 18 of us left for Skandagiri on the evening of9th March,
Skandagiri is 5kms from Chikkaballapur which in turn is 90 minutes from Majestic.We reached C.B.Pur by 10p.m.By that time, we had finished off snacks which were meant to be refreshments during the climb and were showing signs of cannibalistic behaviour. This drove us to a dhaba to satisfy our hunger and in some cases, ulcers. After the dinner, everyone said that the food served was 'very good'. It was true and the aftereffects were felt by most of us for the next few days(weeks).
After satisying our hunger and emptying our wallets, we started the long walk towards the base of the hill on the stroke of midnight.The sight of 18 grown men(in some cases,almost), many with wooden clubs in their hands, made many people suspicious.One person stopped his cycle 100ft from us and was actively searching for escape routes, while another started speaking incoherently when asked for directions. Accompanied by welcoming packs of dogs, we reached the base of the mountain after a 'long march' of 90 minutes and it was quite a sight..
The hill stood head and shoulders above its companions and glistened in the moonlight. The fact that it was a full moon night, made our mistake of not bringing enough flashligths, redundant.
To be Continued...
P.S: Any exaggerations are only an attempt at humour.

happy anniversary...!!!!

It has been almost a year, since some in our class remembered that 'man(and woman) is a social animal', and sharing your time with other similar minded people can be as pleasurable as getting 90+% in our annual battles with authority.
We took our first tentative steps in this direction by going to a bowling alley. Then to quell the fire in our belly, we went to a restaurant where we paid too much for too little and came back acting truly contented.The above outing was to celebrate the birthdays of two in our group. The inflation during those days made everyone in our group to look for "that special someone" who would share their burden.
That group consisted of about 20 people, of them only 12-14 still remain now, The group size is still the same due to new inclusions. Honestly though,I miss 2-3 people who left.. The reasons for their departure are best known to themselves.
From then till now, the aforesaid bunch of people have restaurant-hopped(new word, Yipeee!!), so as to cover almost the whole gamut of restaurants in the surrounding areas. Some were pretty good and some were utter tosh.. Every visit comes with its own memories, that I cherish profoundly.
All this has taken place while i have found new relationships, fought with my conscience and found out a bit more about myself and others(in that order).
In a couple more weeks, we celebrate our first anniversary as a group and I fervently hope we will celebrate more...
P.S: We had a bash on our anniversary I believe....

we start again.!!!!!!!(hope...)

It has been 2 years since i started writing this blog and have managed to post 4 entries.. very prolific, I should say...
so here we go again!!!!!
Here's hoping I continue this endeavor....