Bengaluru Midnight Marathon 2016

Run category: 10K
Timing: 01:04:57

It was time to up the ante so I decided to register for a 10K as I've been piling up lot of miles lately.
Initially, I planned to register for Goa River Run but later decided to avoid out-of-town runs to reduce travel. I've recently traveled around quite a bit so decided to checkout any 10Ks in the city itself. Bengaluru Midnight Marathon, consisting of full, half, 10K & 5K marathons, was also scheduled at exactly the same time of Goa run, so got registered immediately.
Last Sunday, I had a long run of 10K at easy pace and I could finish it in 70 mins. Based on that, I set a target of 65 mins or lesser. I would love to finish sub-60 mins but achieving this target would be very difficult with the given preparation.

Bengaluru Midnight Marathon was conducted in the Whitefield area of Bengaluru city. Mary Kom graced the occasion and it was conducted quite nicely. The 10K race started at 10PM and as planned I ran the whole 9K with consistent pace and left some energy to finish off strongly in the last kilometer. I finished in 64 mins 57 seconds and was quite satisfied with it. With that I've got the confidence I can improve that timing further in coming runs.

I saw good participation with good arrangements. Reaching the venue caused some issue due to traffic jams as it was Saturday late evening. One thing which the organizers can improve is to have full road for one way route instead of dividing it for two-way with a U-turn at the end. This caused little congestion at certain phases. I understand, this would make extra roads to be blocked for the event. Anyways, organizers would have got first hand info and would have already noted.

Looking forward for more running in coming days.

My - Rs.500 & Rs.1000 notes - story

It was on November 8th 2016 a bold decision of demonetization of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes was taken by the government of India. And since then I've seen lot of changes around. Of course, everyone is affected and everyone is made to visit a bank. But what more I see is that everyone is an economist now giving all the statistics and data related to black money and it's effect on real estate business and other sectors. I see people are getting smarter and trying to know all the details of the IT department rules; the rules that apply on their earned income and in the process know how to reduce the tax to be paid.
Furthermore, I see in many the rise in loyalty and respect towards Narendra Modi and the BJP as the honest and prompt tax payers are burdened less going forward. I also see in few the hatred and anger as well which is quite expected due to the magnitude of income loss this decision is gonna cause directly or indirectly.
And I'm pretty sure there will be many more changes that will happen in the country and in the people's ways of thinking and work. Hoping for the better days.

Well, as part of this exercise of depositing old notes, I too had to visit the bank. I had plans to do it later after few weeks for the crowd and noise to settle down but one fine Saturday morning I went out for breakfast to a restaurant next to a nearby bank which made me to adjust the plans to visit the bank as well in the process.

I visited HDFC bank on Sarjapur road on 19th Nov. I was given a token at 9:50am with around 65 others already in queue. After 30-45 mins of wait, I thought of aborting my mission and head back home. But a part of me wanted to check how much time it could possibly take to deposit. After 3 hours of waiting, my patience was seriously tested but didn't wanted all that waiting time to go totally wasted as well. I stood my ground despite all the thoughts and signs asking me to return. Finally I had this beautiful sight of bank interiors and the counters at 2:10pm. It almost made me cry. Honestly.
Yes, I waited for more than 4 hours.

Nonetheless, I came out of the bank with a sense of accomplishment and with a relief that I don't have to do it again as I had made sure to take all the old notes that we had at home. I should also thank my wife and son, who had accompanied me, for their patience and support, who had to bear this ordeal and wait next to the bank all this while.
Please note before you start yelling at me for taking them along, I had absolutely no plans to take them along. It's just that we came out for breakfast together and I couldn't judge or plan when and how to send them back home. My bad.

Other points to note however:
- Bank officials were providing great support w.r.t process and people management.
- They even distributed biscuits to the people in queue at regular intervals. My son had handful of those :-p
- Senior citizens were given priority as per the instructions.
- People stood in queue patiently most of the time despite standing there for more than 4 hours.
- People who stood in queue all the while were getting irritated watching those who got direct entry with tokens. They apparently had collected token early & decided to go home and rest until then.
- Bank officials were verifying the attached ID proof and original document was mandatory.

Guess everybody will have some kind of story to tell post this demonetization :)

Tour Down Under: Sydney

Following up with my previous post on Melbourne trip, here is the post covering all the details of my Sydney trip.

Sydney has some great attractions and is a bigger city when compared to Melbourne city. I just had a weekend to visit all the places in Sydney and well, thanks to my sister & brother-in-law who introduced me to a nice couple, Sachin & Varsha, who made our visit a great one with their warmth and time. They made sure that we made it to all the great places in Sydney. Many thanks to them as well.

Here is the list of places where we set our foot on:

Sydney Harbour Bridge: This undoubtedly takes the top spot on tourists' list of must-visit places in Australia. This steel arch bridge next to symbolic Sydney Opera house gives a magnificent view of the city. The long walk on the bridge was a satisfying activity indeed. One can even take a walk to the top of the arch on the bridge by pre-booking and I'm sure it wouldn't disappoint anyone.

Pylon lookout: This lookout from the Harbour bridge is a nice spot to witness the beautiful view of the whole area around the bridge. The Opera House looks great with all the boats and ferries running near by. This deck houses all the details of the bridge from it's very beginning to it's opening ceremony covering all the aspects on the arguments of whether to have a bridge, the tenders received with different design aspects, the construction details and even all the historical events which happened during and after the construction. A small movie/presentation on the history is also being played for the public.

Below Opera House snap is clicked from this Pylon lookout.

Sydney Opera House: This is the most famous building and also a World Heritage Site. This is actually an iconic arts center which has multiple venues. One of the busiest places and even entertains crowd with plays and dances in the open area during weekends.

Just next to the Opera House is the Botanical Gardens where I had a nice train ride which took around half an hour and it was my kiddo who enjoyed it more than me.

Darling Harbour: This is a harbour next to the city center of Sydney consists of many attractions in the area which includes Madame Tussauds, China town, Cockle bay, Wharfs etc. I spent most of the time on the bay area through the Pyrmont bridge. The fireworks show in the night sky with skyscrapers background was a delight to the eyes.

Ferry ride to Manly Beach: I took a ferry from Circular Quay to the Manly beach. This provides a great view of the Opera House, Harbour Bridge and surrounding places. There wasn't much of an activity unfortunately during my visit at the beach as the weather was cold and windy. But nonetheless, the walk to the Manly beach through the busy market street was nice and a small play area there gave my kiddo time to enjoy with other kids.

Bondi Beach: The popular beach is one of the most visited sites in Sydney. Also represents sports and recreational center. The beach is beautiful with it's curved area and is always full of activities like surfing etc. I'm told the walk towards Coogee is impressive providing the best scenes of the water vastness.

Blues point & Milson's point: Give a visit to these points during late night and witness spectacular view of the Harbour bridge and the Opera House glowing in the dark background. The city lights adds to the beautiful sight.

The above Harbour bridge snap is taken from Blues point.

Watson Bay: This bay is worth a visit for it's serene environment. The Gap Buff viewing platform on the way is a nice place to take a snap or two.

Bald Hill Reserve: A great lookout spot to have a beautiful panoramic view of the sea and beyond. The elevated height is an added advantage. Also a great site for the paragliding enthusiasts. Again, the cold and windy weather did not encourage me to have a try at the paragliding unfortunately.

On the way back, passed through Coalcliff and Sea cliff bridges which were quite a serene places to spend sometime.

The central city area covering primary places of visit are easily accessible through well connected metro.

Tour Down Under: Melbourne

In the month of August I was reminded of my son's 2 weeks Dasara festival holidays between Oct 1st to 13th. That's when my wife and I started planning for a visit to Australia which was long overdue. My sister and brother-in-law who stay in Melbourne have been always asking us to take a trip but that hadn't materialized so far. So after discussing with my sister we decided to spend 2 weeks in Australia covering Melbourne and Sydney.

And now when I'm back from this wonderful vacation, I would like to list down all the places I've visited, the restaurants I've been to, and other activities I enjoyed.

I will begin with the vibrant city, Melbourne in this post and follow up with another post for Sydney.

Melbourne Cricket Ground: One of the largest stadiums in the world is the home for the Melbourne Cricket Club. It features great history of the game of Cricket. Also there is a Sports Museum inside which covers and highlights the great sports culture of Australia. A guided tour of the stadium and Sports museum visit will make any sports enthusiast happy.

Federation Square: Just outside the beautiful Flinder's station, Federation square is a happening place always full of tourists and is surrounded by restaurants and bars. This hosts many cultural events and also a best venue for flashmobs.
Continue ahead from the square to have a nice walk next to Yarra river. You will find this route full of cafes and bars. Even the joggers and cyclists make use of this route.

State Library of Victoria: The central library sees huge number of tourists every year for its architectural aspect, historical importance and for the historical, art artifacts it holds. The dome area in the library is a great sight with its octagonal design for reading tables surrounded by thousands of books. Many themed exhibits are always on offer. Front yard even entertains people with big chess game on each sides.

Shrine of Remembrance: This was built as a memorial to all the Australia's men and women who served in World War 1. It captures all the details about the wars and the great contribution of Australians. 

Eureka Skydeck 88: This 297 meters building which has an observatory deck on the 88th floor gives an awesome view of the whole Melbourne city and beyond in all directions. It even holds the Australia's highest post box.

Queen Victoria Market: The market is a very big open market having shops selling wide variety of Australia's well known items including the souvenirs. And also has many restaurants and food stores serving great food. A nice place to grab some items from your shopping list.

12 Apostles & Great Ocean Drive: The 12 Apostles are the limestone stacks standing off the shore of Port Campbell by Great Ocean Road. The view is impressive along the vast coast. Nearby Gibson's point and Lock Ard area are equally scenic. I enjoyed driving as well while returning from this place.

City Circle Tram: This is a free tram which runs covering all the major tourist attractions in the city. Take a nice audio guided tour on this tram to get first hand information of the attractions and location which helps to roam better.

Degraves Street, Lygon Street and Hardware Lane: These narrow lanes have many cafes, bars and restaurants serving wonderful drinks and different cuisines. I had great Italian food at Triim restaurant and Chinese food in Degraves street.

Brunetti Shops: If you love sweet then this is a place you better not miss. The shop serves some great pastries, chocolates and coffee.

Melbourne Zoo and SeaLife Aquarium: Nice places to visit especially for kids as they would enjoy all the animals and sea creatures including those which are Australian specific. The SeaLife Aquarium also has a nice play area where kids paint some fishes on templates provided which can be scanned further and displayed on a big animation screen. Kids enjoyed this activity.

Melbourne Central Station and Flinders Station are worth mentioning as they are quite well known destinations for tourists. Central station is a great place for shopping as well and features colorful atmosphere with all shops and restaurant.
Docklands is worth a visit where one can have a peaceful stroll and can enjoy time sitting in any of the cafes or bars.
Bourke Street: Every great city has a street where many music bands, singers, guitarists and street showman show up and entertain the crowd. Fridays and Weekends are the right time to visit this street to enjoy what's in the offering.
This was even decorated with Diwali festival banners to indicate the acceptance of different ethnic groups.

Points to note:
- The metro in the city is well connected and covers most of the above mentioned places and to bring joy to the tourists, the bus ride is absolutely free in the central city area (Zone 1).
- Melbourne Metro app would be really handy while roaming around the city.
- Pickup a tourist booklet at the airport after landing which gives all the information about the attractions and also contains discount coupons.

Tour Down Under: Run

 

Well, keeping up with my habit of running in new places where ever I travel, I decided to have a run on a cold morning in Victoria, Melbourne. I feel it's a nice way of exploring the neighborhood.

Book: The Last Mile

Title: The Last Mile
Author: David Baldacci
Genre: Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 4/5

I realized I'm up for a very good read the moment I read the first few pages. And boy, I really liked this book. It starts with the character, Melvin Mars, who is counting his last few days in prison. He is in prison last 20 years and is about to be executed for murdering his parents. As he gets ready for his execution, new information and findings are brought to the notice and the course of the proceedings changes.
From then on the story takes you through a roller coaster ride. A real page-turner with well crafted characters make the book real interesting. Major part of the book grabs your full attention and the little cliche here and there, some predictable parts and illogical segments in the story can be ignored and forgiven for sure.
If you are looking for a fast paced thriller, I would strongly recommend you to grab a copy of The Last Mile.

Urban Stampede, Bengaluru 2016

Run category: 5K
Timing: 30 minutes

I'm pleased to inform that after a long gap of 4 years, I participated in a running competition today and it was indeed a satisfying experience if not a great one. Since I started practicing quite seriously since last month, I was looking for an opportunity to participate in any official runs. And just then one such chance knocked at my doors in the form of Urban Stampede. One of my friend approached me to join our corporate team for the team category of 5K run and I gleefully accepted.
This run was satisfying primarily because I met my set target of running 5K in 30 minutes. Well, I set this achievable target knowing that I had just one month practice and my previous best was around 35 minutes during my last years practice runs. Coincidentally, I ran 5K in exactly 30 minutes today :)

The organizers did quite a good job in getting a crowd, setting up the stage for the event, setting up relevant stalls and plays around the run arena. However, I wasn't too happy with the advance announcements of the exact start times and details. There were 10k, 5k and 3k runs arranged today and the exact sequence and timings were announced only just few minutes prior to the start. Moreover, there was this big confusion of having the corporate run as a relay or a tandem run. The website also was ambiguous about this important piece of information. In all previous editions of Urban Stampede, the corporate run was a relay run of 5K with 4 team members, so people assumed it to be the same, including my team. To everybody's surprise, it was a tandem run.

In a hurry our team assembled on time and started off almost at the same time. To worsen the situation, I along with my team mate, got confused whether we got this right and in the process had to stop in between to verify. Lost a minute in this confusion :( Then we ran quite smoothly after this and completed the run. The loop of 5K was good enough except at the end where there was gravel stretch of 100 m or so. I finished the race with in a burst of fast 100 meters only to realize that I could have afforded to run at this high speed quite early.

Nonetheless a satisfying run. I need to keep up the momentum by regular runs and competing in any official timed runs once in two months or so.

Talk on "Mumbai Dabbawalas" by Dr. Pawan Agrawal

Today I had a nice opportunity to attend a session on "Logistics & Supply chain management of Mumbai Dabbawalas" by Dr. Pawan Agrawal held in my organization. He is a well known Educationist, Founder, Motivational speaker, Author to mention a few.

The talk was mainly about famous Mumbai Dabbawalas and how their system of delivering lunch boxes have helped Mumbaikars since decades. He spoke about the Dabbawalas, their passion and work culture. And how they have implemented a flawless system and running this since 1890. The details were staggering and I was really impressed. I was already aware of few facts about Mumbai Dabbawals like they having "Six Sigma" certification, how they use the local trains and etc. However below were few points which I learnt in this session:

• Only an existing employee can refer to a new candidate and have to take full responsibility of his efficiency. If the new candidate doesn't succeed in reaching the set expectations, he will be expelled and the guy who referred him will lose the chance of referring anyone else in the future.
• The new customers who seek Dabbawalas' service will have to go through background verification process before they are accepted.

Dr. Pawan Agrawal was equally impressive with his delivery of speech. Full of energy and humor which kept everybody's attention till the very last minute of an hour session. The session was more or less the same as the one which I've posted above.

This above video will be enough to know about Mumbai Dabbawalas.
And more details on Dr. Pawan Agrawal can be found at his website: http://www.drpawanagrawal.com

Game of cards

I must begin saying that I have played the card game, Uno in last couple of months so much that it's more than what I've played in my entire life and that too considering all kinds of card games put together. Yes, it's no mere exaggeration. All thanks to my son, who will be turning 4 next month and to my wife. He loves the game so much that he's okay playing it for hours together. To test our patience to the last possible limit, he even requests for couple of rounds just before he goes to bed at midnight. He even teases us and makes naughty faces when he wins, which surprisingly happens most of the times. I mean, as if forcing us to play at midnight wasn't bad enough :)
Well, his liking towards card games started an year back when I introduced him self-made flashing cards to make him learn alphabets and numbers in a new interesting way rather than just make him write repeatedly. He used to guess the alphabets and numbers enthusiastically every time I flashed a card. And he in turn tested me by taking the cards and flashing at me. Later I proceeded with actual deck of 52 cards and play aimlessly with him. He used to like just placing his cards one by one at the middle by calling out the number and type of card aloud.
The main reason I thanked my wife at the beginning of the post is not just because she forces me to play Uno now but for the reason that she is the one who taught my kiddo this game in the first place. She regrets it even more when he forces her to play it when she is totally exhausted and bored of it :)

I remember, as a kid I never played any other card game except Wrestling cards. The deck of 52 was kinda forbidden in my house. My mom considers it gambling in plain terms and she made sure we never got those cards in our hands anytime. Me and my sister used to get scared seeing those cards in presence of my mom whenever we found them in others' place accidentally. Now I'm wondering what will be my mom's reaction on learning my son's liking towards cards including the 52 deck cards :-p

So, what's your story w.r.t card games? lemme know..

Fixing laptop overheating issue

From past couple of weeks my wife was upset about her HP Pavilion DV6 laptop getting overheated. She even mentioned that the laptop did shut down on couple of occasions. So we did some R & D on the cause and probable solutions. Cleaning up the fan of the heat-sink along with the paste around the chips, buying a cooling pad were what many suggested.
Yesterday morning she shortlisted couple of cooling pads and sought my comments on finalizing. That's when I got a crazy idea of opening up the laptop and cleaning the fan and thermal paste as that was one of the issue for overheating. That was a crazy idea considering the fact that this is my wife's laptop and one can imagine what can possibly happen to me if anything goes wrong with it post the dismantling & reassembly. Needless to say, I would have to buy a new one for her after facing the other consequences. So you know, it was indeed quite a very risky and crazy idea to start with. Knowing all that, I still wanted to take the risk as I badly wanted to open it up completely and experiment ;-)

Before starting I made sure to check few articles and YouTube videos to ascertain few details. Once I had all the necessary information I unscrewed the back-panel, unplugged hard drive, the display, the front panel, the keyboard and finally the motherboard along with heat-sink. Yeah, that's pretty much everything in a laptop and it took more than an hour.

I even opened up the fan unit and to my surprise I saw more dust than I anticipated. 

Next was the old thermal paste applied to the CPU and the GPU. Thermal paste also called the Thermal Interface Material(TIM) or grease. I felt the paste applied was more than required from the manufactured. I'm sure they know better however with many recent articles including many manufacturers in their websites (E.g. Intel) have recommended just enough of the paste to be applied.
I cleaned it up along with the heat-sink plates which stick to the chipsets.

I didn't have the thermal paste handy with me so I decided to visit a local shop. I couldn't believe that they were selling a tube for just Rs. 20 /- for which the online shopping sites cited Rs 300 to more than 1000. Well, I don't really know whether this local tube is a reliable and good but still went ahead trying it out anyways. There were many recos and suggestions for these thermal paste but somehow couldn't wait for the extra delivery days for the online ones.

So here I was ready with a thermal paste and super cleaned chips. I applied just a drop of paste on each of the chips and placed back the heat-sink and pressed it hard so that the paste spreads on the surface properly as per the procedure.
I assembled each and every part back to their right place carefully and was ready to test the laptop back. Now, believe me, all this whole time I was keenly supervised by my wife. And this was the moment when I was really tensed, of course. I pressed the power button and waited for the display to turn on and proceed with the normal boot up and the laptop was up and running. I tested necessary basic tests and everything was just fine. 
My observation was that it was comparatively radiating less heat now and even the noise made by the fan was smoother. However, my wife will be getting back with the actual results after little more extensive usage. Keeping my fingers crossed in the meantime.

Update [22/07/2016]: After 6 days of extensive use, the laptop is much cooler now and the results are exceeding expectations actually.



Few tips from this exercise:

• If your machine is under warranty then DO NOT open it up as it voids the warranty.
• Make sure you have complete information and materials required before opening the laptop.
• Do not hurry in any of the intermediate steps of dismantling or reassembly of laptop parts. You don't want any problem while pulling out or plugging in of any bus or anything. Be gentle and careful.
• Have alcohol solution to remove the old thermal paste, which I didn't have. And went ahead by normal cleaning up with dry paper and soft cloth anyways.
• If you are sure of any particular good thermal paste, go ahead with it. I took a chance here with locally available one. If the heat situation hasn't improved, I would have to do this procedure again with a better paste this time.
• Do not place your laptop on your bed or soft cushion base while your work. This might affect the cooling process.
• A cooling pad might help.

My mobile applications

This post requires a little bit of background so please bear with me here :)
My career in IT industry started with one of the finest mobile manufacturers, Motorola. And later I moved to one more mobile manufacturers, Samsung. During the first few years in mobile industry there weren't any Play Store or App Store for the platforms; All the applications came in as inbuilt applications and only few games came as separate downloadable java applets. Later when iOS and Android platforms rose to the stardom beating all the existing platforms and manufacturers the game completely changed w.r.t downloadable applications and many other aspects.

With that little background I'm here to write about the applications that I've developed so far and a small landmark concerning one ;-)

During my Samsung stint, I didn't work for Android mobile devices but worked for Samsung's own Tizen platform and devices. My scope of work was at the platform side mainly in the middleware which enable all the applications to do their work. But that didn't stop me from having a desire to upload my own applications in the app store which is open for all the end users to download and use.

I decided to work extra to develop my first Tizen application called 'Quiz Time' (Android version is also available in Android Play Store which is developed by my wife, Varsha). Quizzing is something which I enjoyed during my school days and also won many competitions back then. Keeping this interest in mind I wrote this quiz application with 4 categories i.e. India, Cricket, Science & Technology and World with devels in each categories. This was a simple app having SQL database in the backend and UI was developed using EFL framework. I finally had great deal of satisfaction, more like a sense of accomplishment, when the app was uploaded and made available in Tizen app store :)

I followed this by developing one more application called 'Auto Wi-Fi' which mainly helps in saving power by managing the Wi-Fi status based on scheduled times and the state of Wi-Fi connection. The response to this application was even better with ~500 downloads during initial launch of a new Tizen phone in Indian market. Now when I see it's current status, it stands firm with more than ~50,000 downloads. Though it's not an over the top experience but certainly a feel good factor!

And BTW, I later went on to write one more application which was very simple. A Counter app which helps during sports activity or agents in retail shops etc. I found this was missing in Tizen phone when I was playing a game and I was required to count. This was so simple that I could write it in a day and upload to app store. However, it later got suspended due to it's simplicity. lol :-D

Here is the current standing!

Sunday run

Moving to a new location is hectic and more often than not changes your day to day routine and kind of slows you down for at least few weeks. And that exactly happened with me. I recently moved to a new location in Bengaluru and since then I became perhaps little lazy for the running activity. Furthermore my new interest in 'The Game of Thrones' tv series too kept me busy during nights and it certainly didn't help me waking up early :) Now that its season 6 finished and there is a long time for the next season to start, I decided to get back to my running activity. And it's been a week now I am punctual and regular.
On the first day of my this stint I stepped out of my residence layout and to my surprise, I noticed a nice and clear running track around a nearby serene lake. Well, I was aware of this lake but wasn't expecting convenient track around it for a walk or run. Moreover, it wasn't a cement or laid out track but a usual flat natural surface which might have been seasoned by regular walkers for quite sometime. Since then I've been running around this lake and this certainly is one of the best places I've turned to for running in Bengaluru.

These days the weather is cloudy and rains sometimes which certainly helps for morning runs. The drizzles don't stop me going for morning runs. And just like day before yesterday the run in the morning drizzle felt great. I must say it was my first run in rain and I enjoyed it.

Planning to register for few runs in coming weeks or months as it's been years I haven't participated in any official runs. Hoping for the best.

Dally in Delhi

On the way to my trekking destination this year to Uttarakhand, I had the opportunity to spend some time in the capital. And I made sure to visit those places which I had missed during my previous visit many years ago.

India Gate was the first in the list. I got down at the Central secretariat metro station and was told by a passerby on inquiry that I have to walk through couple of gardens to reach the India Gate. And I did just what was told. After walking some distance through the lawns crossing the Janpath and Man Singh roads, I was in front of the war memorial to the soldiers who died during First World War. Below words are inscribed on the monument:

TO THE DEAD OF THE INDIAN ARMIES WHO FELL HONOURED IN FRANCE AND FLANDERS MESOPOTAMIA AND PERSIA EAST AFRICA GALLIPOLI AND ELSEWHERE IN THE NEAR AND THE FAR-EAST AND IN SACRED MEMORY ALSO OF THOSE WHOSE NAMES ARE RECORDED AND WHO FELL IN INDIA OR THE NORTH-WEST FRONTIER AND DURING THE THIRD AFGHAN WAR

Spent sometime around the memorial and then proceeded towards the Rashtrapati Bhavan in the same route I had come but further ahead after crossing the Central secretariat station. The Parliment house, North and South Block on the way made the walk interesting as if I'm watching any news channel on TV. In fact, met many reporters and news crew in front of the Parliment house. Of course, the innumerable vehicles with red beacons, Govt. number plates made quite an impression.

Later, I proceeded towards Red Fort. I noticed it was the right time for the 'Light and Sound' show. I took the ticket and started walking towards the show area through the security check. What I witnessed next left me flabbergasted. All the visitors were welcomed with mosquito repellent, Odomos. I mean it! Though I noticed the entrance was full of mosquitoes in the evening, I was taken aback by the sight of officials distributing the repellent. Instead of finding a solution for the problem, management here has decided to ask visitors to apply repellent. I reached the main seating area of the show, and one more official standing there with Odomos. This was certainly an indication of how serious the mosquito problem was. Honestly, I had never seen before those many mosquitoes  interested in the 'Light and Sound' show!
Anyways, despite covering myself with a cap and pull-over, I couldn't let myself take the punishment of sitting there for more than 10 minutes after the show began. I walked out.

 
Disappointed by the state of matters at the historical place of India, I decided to visit the Jain temple situated opposite to the Red Fort. Seeing so many Jains praying, singing and chanting with diyas in hand was quite a scene.
The plan was to have dinner at nearby Parathe Wali Gali and proceed towards the Delhi railway station. Had sumptuous dinner at the Parathe Wala with those interesting and tasty variety of Paranthas.

Well, all this was during my onward journey and while finally returning from my trek, I got another half a day at Delhi. I decided to visit the famous Akshardham. The temple with it's architectural work, the sandstone and marble carved pillars and everything else at the venue left me spellbound. One great move by the management there was to ban taking of mobile devices and cameras inside the temple. This leaves the place serene with no disturbances from those who go crazy taking snaps around ;-)
Befriended an Ukranian, Alex while standing in the queue. Enjoyed the mandir view and had fun chatting on many topics as well which included war, country traditions, food habits, job, interests and marriage.

I have to finish off saying that I indeed had a nice time roaming around Delhi lanes.

Khaliya Top, Himalayan Expedition 2016

It seemed a very long time since my previous Himalayan trek to Sarpaas so I decided to plan for my next one. As April-May is the time when Youth Hostels Association of India gets ready for expeditions, I checked out various treks offered and finalized on the Khaliya Top in Uttarakhand, India, mainly for two reasons: a. 7 days trek suits my available leaves ;-) b. This is in a state which I've not visited before.
I registered for this trek in the month of March with May 7th as the reporting date keeping in mind a Sunday for rest after my return. And that gave me enough time to plan and book the tickets to the base camp, Munsiyari in Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand. Flight from Bengaluru to Delhi, followed by an overnight train from Delhi to nearest railway station, Kathgodam. And finally a 12 hour bus journey to Munsiyari. Well, this bus journey turned out to be a tedious and frustrating part of the whole trip. Matter of 275 kms and takes ~12 hours due to the mountain ghat sections. 

Day 1: After the overnight train journey, the complimentary tempo ride was ready just outside the station. In no time all of us heading towards Munsiyari gathered at the tempo as per the instructions and started the journey towards the base camp. Little did we know that we will be forced to listen to some local songs being played in the tempo which made the journey more torturous :) Finally reached the base camp with couple of pit stops in the middle for breakfast and lunch. I was surprised to see a makeshift hotel to be our base camp (7200 ft) instead of typical YHAI camp with tents. Nonetheless a good surprise ;-)

Day 2: This was a acclimatization day and a morning walk to nearby mountain was scheduled. Basic exercises and couple of yoga aasanas were performed. Nice serene place to start off frankly.

After the breakfast, we were taken to a nearby uphill to tune us for coming days. At the top, beautifully constructed Gayatri temple awaited us. We all were invited inside the temple as it started raining where the camp leader decided to provide the whole expedition orientation and also select the group leader and environment leader. I nominated myself for the group leader position and was accepted due to my previous YHAI trek experience to Sarpaas. The group of 32 introduced themselves and it was really nice to meet people from different regions of India who are into different domains of occupation. We had among us a professional guide, doctor, bank official, professional photographer, sound engineer, NGO member, YHAI regional representatives, professors, advocates and many others including a 12 years old boy with his family.
The evening was well spent playing card games on the terrace in the cold weather.

Day 3: This was the day when we started to higher camps. We set out with our packed lunch boxes towards higher altitudes. After few hours of steep walk in the wood, we reached a pleasant place and decided to have our lunch enjoying the scene.

We had a tough 12 kms trek before we reached our first higher camp, Martholi Thatch at a height of 8500 ft, welcomed by camp leader, Manoj Kumar Sahu. 

 Everyone enjoyed the remaining of the day with a game of Frisbee until rain God entered the scene. It rained heavily in the late evening and to add to the excitement, water started entering our tents. Initially it was little scary but later we decided to just ignore the rain, the water, the tent and start the game of playing cards :) 10 of us in our tent played for more than an hour when eventually rain stopped. We stepped out to make a note of the damage. It was very cold and completely dark with no signs of electricity anywhere close to us. We called it a day to have the much needed sleep. Woke up early at 5am to enjoy the sunrise and the beautiful mountains.

Day 4: Again, we packed our lunch boxes and headed towards our next camp. We walked a good stretch in the mountains with quite a few water streams on the way. We had to increase our pace thanks to the drizzle. We reached the next camp, Roodkhan (9000 ft) greeted by camp leader, Rajiv Narvekar. The day followed again with a game of Frisbee, singing and a game of Mafia. Forgot to mention that we had a Radio(Doordarshan?) artist amongst us. A singer and a dancer who entertained us with nice classical songs. Others too accompanied with Hindi/Marathi songs.
It rained again for sometime and fortunately no leaks in tents this time. Hailstones actually which made the atmosphere more exciting.

Day 5: The next days trek was again quite steep with beautiful valleys with mist and clouds. Few of the members spotted rabbits and rare birds before reaching the next camp, Tanti (~12000 ft). On our way we had reached the maximum height of the trek of ~13000 ft. This camp was surrounded by rocky mountains and a small pond next to it. It was quite chilly and intense so we remained inside the tents playing cards and mafia until our camp leader reminded us of time and asked us to sleep.

Day 6: This was the day when we started towards the Khaliya Top. After few hours of ups and downs we reached a beautiful lush green plain with sheep around. The sky was not clear most of the time but provided us clear picture in between and that's when the whole group enjoyed photo shooting and other fun activities. One of the elite member came up with a crazy idea of taking off the shirts for the photo shoot. Most of the boys were hesitant initially but immediately went with the wind and enjoyed the act ;-) Frankly, it came out real good and everybody had a good laugh.

We continued further down for another 8 kms towards the base camp. The stone pathway created more problem as it was harder on our knees. Nonetheless a wonderful trek coming to an end. At the base camp the Field leader Vivek Kholey greeted us inside. 

I had this wonderful opportunity to visit a nice place and in the process met some fine people who were simply a great company. These new friends made the trek more enjoyable and something special to remember for many years to come.

Book: The Book Thief

Title: The Book Thief
Author: Markus Zusak
Genre: Fiction/Historical
Rating: 4/5

This book is about a girl during World War and is narrated by the Death itself. I thought the narration added more value to the book through it's interesting take and perspective about things in the world. The story revolves around Liesel, her love for the books and words in her small world consisting of her foster parents, her friend Rudy and Max. Liesel has to go through a lot during the World War and  finds solace in her interest with books and words.
Author has provided a very nice read with interesting characters and plot. Though the story surrounds during the holocaust, the details about it is kept to the bare required limit. Here are few things I would have expected the author to handle properly:

• The events or climax were revealed in advance and the details came later. This, I think, took some intensity off the story telling
• The situations deserved more emotions than what has been provided.
• Less description about the weather on many occasions would have been better

Nonetheless, a very good read one would enjoy, though not a fast paced.