Back. I hope, with a Bang.

Woo. Now this is what is called 'Staying out of touch', and that too from my own blog! But I was just out of touch, not out of words! So here we go again! After 8 long months, I plan to restart my blogging! I hope I continue; if not daily, at least once or twice a week. And what made me not blog those 8 months, that's what I'm gonna share! The things that I did, the places that I visited, the friends that I made and more importantly, the experiences that I had.

Since I've got a job in office now, I hope to spend lots of time in front of the computer doing something worthwhile, when not working. The place is different and the conditions are totally different. The last time I blogged, it was sitting in a 3mX3m hostel room, and now its a pretty big office room, where my space only restricts to my table and chair. The people here speak only about work, business deals, quotations, clients, purchase orders, and what not. Here the sweeter they speak with the client, the harder they swear behind his back. The phones keep buzzing, the fax machine keeps beeping and the chatters just don't stop.

So I have decided not to get bothered by them, and just mind my own work, that's given to me, and during my free time, I would blog.

That's all for the time being, will continue the rest later! :)

Sweet Nostalgia Killing Me

With less than a month left in college, I see everyone's status messages being changed to countdown of the days left. When I look back at these 4 years that I spent in college, I get all the sweet memories in my mind. I don't think I have had any major fight with anyone in the college, no enemies; although there have been few bitter incidents here and there. But, that's pretty much acceptable. I have come across some of the most beautiful people over here - I have been blessed to meet them, know them and befriend them, which I hope carries on even after the college. Guys like Basu, Prani, Puppy, Preetam, Rajan, Gogs, Poo, DD and all have been like a family. Whatever happens, you share with them, whether its good or bad, it doesn't matter. And branch-mates like Nitin, Sushant, Shri and Anna have been very supportive right from the time when I started to know them properly. Without Shri's and Anna's notes, clearing these 4 years would be an impossible task. Sushant was always there, whenever I needed any help regarding anything, but mostly academics. One night before the exam, I would go to his room and he'd explain me everything. There hasn't been a time when he would say no if he knew the solution. I wonder if I'll find these kind of guys anywhere down the line in my life. I still remember the first month of the college - I didn't speak much, would restrict myself to my room, but as I came to know slowly, I came to know how good they were and that it wasn't bad interacting with them. Slowly all of us grew fond of each other's company, we sat in one room cracking jokes, making fun of each other (always light-heartedly) and the common profs that we shared. From there till now, it has been a never-forgetting journey. The first month and the last month of the college are the worst, both in their own ways. Its never easy to say good-bye to anyone. Branch and party fare-well which will take place in few days time are going to be one emotional and senti affair. Will keep you updated with it. And all the four year break-up wise, I will post later sometime. 

An Eventful Roadtrip to Wayanad

This trip was long pending. Nitin was really keen on going on a road-trip somewhere. After he came to know that Wayanad is not that far from here, we decided that we'll go there itself. So, we rented a car - Diesel Indica to be precise, and it was the five of us - me, Nitin, Anna, Sushant and Shri. We left at around 7 in the morning from college, had breakfast at the Dosa Camp in Mangalore and then took the NH-17 via Kasargod and Kannur. Kannur is around 150 kms from Mangalore, it took just a little over 3 hours to reach there. I drove till Kannur and from there on Anna started driving. We stopped a little at Kannur, checked fuel and then left. On the way, we saw an Indian Coffee House at a place just outside Kannur, called Vatakara. We had lunch over there, nothing great - just simple Egg Biryani and Omlette, and this was the place where we first got to drink the Herbal Water of Kerala. It is served hot and looks pink in color. The weather outside was getting real hot, but we couldn't do anything about it. We continued our journey after lunch, when just a little later, some vehicles which passed by, told us to check our right back wheel. It was wobbling, not just little, but a lot. So we stopped at few places to check for tyres before we were told to go to Flora Car Service Station. This station was like a blessing in a place where we couldn't find even a decent restaurant. It was like a proper Gulf station with all hydraulic machines. There we discovered that the disc which hold the tyre was slant, so we changed that disc with the one used for spare tyre. The owner of the place was a retired captain from Army, he was a really nice guy, when he saw us standing outside - he told us to relax and sit inside. And we were relieved to find some guy who knew something other than Malayalam. After this, we carried on with our journey. We were supposed to reach a place called Quilandy, where we had to change from NH to an SH. But, before we reached there, we got confused with some roads and ended up on the wrong route. After asking everyone, we somehow reached Wayanad district. From there to reach Kalapetta, we had to go through a ghat section where the traffic was really high, and this road was going to Ooty and Mysore on two separate ways. I was driving from there. Till we reached Kalapetta, the district HQ of Wayanad, it was already dark. We looked around for some hotels, but to our surprise it was peak season and we couldn't find anything. By some indirect contact, we found a home-stay, which cost us Rs 2000 per night for 2 rooms. The place was pretty decent, it had totally five rooms which could be given on home-stay, and the guy was staying with his family on the top floor. We had dinner at a nearby restaurant which wasn't so great because it was already 10pm till we reached there. We parked the car, and crashed the moment we reached, since all of us were really tired.

The next day we left at around 8.30 in the morning, had breakfast at a place called Udupi Restaurant, which was no where close to any of the restaurants in Udupi, food-wise. On the way, we found a tourist information centre, where we got a proper tour guide and a map of Wayanad. The guy over there told us about the places that we can visit in one day. he shortlisted Edakkal Caves, Kanthampara Waterfalls and the stretch of Muthanga Wildlife Sanctuary till the Karnataka Border. We started off with Kanthampara Falls. It was a nice little falls, we were happy to see that there was hardly any trek to reach the falls unlike most of the other falls that I'd gone. And other strange thing was, we were not going from the foot of the falls, we were approaching it from where it was falling. We stayed there for sometime, took bath. All of us who had taken had bath over there had problem changing underwear since we forgot to get towels. We literally went in between the bushes to change.

We then moved on to our next destination - the Edikkal Caves. It was really crowded here, and after reaching there, we had to wait for sometime for the jeep which would take us on top. Of course you could even walk till there, but we were in no mood to take any physical exercise in that heat. We then hopped on the jeep which took us through a really steep track to reach the caves. That wasn't the end of it, we hadn't reached our destination yet. From there, we had to buy tickets and trek more till we could reach the caves. After a trek which involved getting into some other caves, waiting for the incoming traffic and lot of heat, we finally reached our destination. The caves had some Neolitic Age writings, the oldest in India apparently. But after all that trek, we expected them to be a little more worthy. We stopped there for sometime, took photos and headed back. Till we reached the foothill it was already evening and clouds were hovering over us. We sat there outside for sometime, bought souvenir and had juice. Just when we were heading back to our car, it started raining pretty heavily, it was good to feel the rain after months of heat. But rain would mean harder to drive back. A little while later the rains became light and the weather had become beautiful. Fresh breeze and good roads are a perfect combination. We realized this when we started driving on the NH to Mysore, we passed Sulthan Batery on the way, it was a small town which was densely populated (we could see that by the badly maintained traffic in the town).

After driving a little on that same NH, we entered the stretch of Muthanga Wildlife Sanctuary. The road was covered with bamboos on both the sides, some places the bamboos from both the sides made a canopy on the road, which was spectacular. The whole part - the after rain effect, the smooth wide road, less traffic - all made the drive look beautiful. We stopped at few places in between, took some snaps and carried on. The only thing that we were missing were some hot pakodas and good coffee! We stopped at one place where we found a tree house sort of structure, just few kilometers before the K'taka border, had tea over there (which wasn't so great). On the way we found the entrance to the sanctuary, but it was closed till the end of this month for some works. We reached the K'taka border and then decided to head back since it was already getting late. I drove on the way back to Kalapetta, we reached there just before the sunset. Went to our home-stay, refreshed and relaxed for sometime. Then, for dinner we decided to go to a restaurant attached to the Woodland's Hotel. The food was just okay, it wasn't so great. We came back to our rooms and dozed off in sometime.

The next day we woke up a little late, and we had many things to do. We had to see some places around and then head back to college. We started off with Banasura Sagar Dam, apparently the largest earthen dam in India and second largest in Asia. There were speed-boats available at the reservoir of the dam. The boat-ride was pretty good, it was for 20 minutes. There was a waterfall called Meenmutti waterfall around 3 kms from there, so we decided to go over there also. But as we reached the falls, we came to know that the water had dried and it was just rocks left over there. We still trekked all the way till top, took some snaps on the way and headed back. We were then headed to Mananthavady, a place where we were supposed to decide either to go via Kannur or Coorg. After having lunch at a decent place in Mananthavady, we thought of taking the Coorg way, since the distance was almost same and most of us hadn't seen Coorg.

After driving for some distance, we thought we made a wise decision by taking this route since it was pretty good. But we were proved wrong, just 10 kms before the K'taka border, we came across the worst road possible, it wasn't even a proper route, we were just going along the path. Till after 15 kms into K'taka the road was like this. After this the road wasn't great but it was still bearable. It was just narrow, and the shoulders were at a different level from the road, so when it was problematic to overtake and when two vehicles would pass. Coorg was around 107 kms from the K'taka border. We passed through Virajpet on the way. I drove till Madikere, and we stopped in Madikere for sometime, looked around few places there. We went to Raja Seat, it is on top of a hill from where the whole road to Mangalore was visible. The garden was maintained really well, the flowers were beautiful, and there was this small toy-train thing outside it. We went on a ride in it. After that, the musical fountain started, it was beautiful. The sync of the lights and the water with the music was splendid. It was getting dark, and we had to drive back to Mangalore which was still 140 kms far, so we left from there.

After driving on the ghat section for around 15 kms, we stopped on the way to pee. After this, when we tried starting the car, it wouldn't. No one had any clue what went wrong with it, the dashboard was showing 'Check Engine' remark and we didn't know what to do. So here we were in middle of no where in pitch dark, had no clue what went wrong with the car and the next town was around 30 kms far. Thankfully, there was this small hotel where we stopped. We asked him for some help, but he said there won't be any mechanics since it was a Sunday. One car stopped on the way while passing by. They looked at the engine and other things, and found that the water in the radiator container was completely empty. So that meant that the car wasn't starting because it was heated totally. So we filled water back there, but it wouldn't stay there, it was leaking all out. We thought we were in some big trouble, and had no idea what to do, whether to go back to Coorg/Madikere(15kms) or continue driving till we find the next town (at least 30 kms). We decided to carry water in the water bottles that we had and drive back to Madikere, since it was risky driving back more than 100 kms in that condition. We reached Madikere at around 10pm. I called up one of my didi who was staying there. She told we could come and stay at her place. We had dinner and stayed at her place for the night.

In the morning, she served us a real sumptuous meal for breakfast. All of us hogged properly, and then got our car checked, and headed to M'lore. The drive back was fine, this time the car showed no problems, but the heat was killing us. We drove via Sullia, Puttur, B.C. Road to Mangalore. Anna drove till Sullia, Nitin tried his hands at the stretch from Sullia to Puttur and I continued from there till Mangalore. We reached Mangalore by 5pm, returned the car and took our advance back, that we had kept with him. We then had ice-cream at Ideal's parlor in Hampankatta. We reached all tired and exhausted to college at 6pm. The trip was good, apart from few incidents in between, but incidents are experiences that are part of life. That's what makes life more fun and interesting.

All the photos have been uploaded here. Do check them out :
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=198627&id=507927124&l=3abf4b60de

Shutter Island - Disturbing, Yet Gripping

The film is based on the novel of the same name by Dennis Lahane. It is a psychological thriller, directed by Martin Scorsese and stars Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead. Shutter Island is a place where dangerous criminals are sent for treatment which are led by Dr Cawley, played by Ben Kingsley. Two U.S. Marshall (DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo) are sent here to search for a missing patient, Rachel Solando. While investigating, DiCaprio gets flashbacks of World War II in Dachau, where he was posted, and he starts relating those scenes to some of the incidents which are happening in Shutter Island. Some scenes are disturbing, like the pile of dead bodies, lying frozen during the World War II and a girl waking up from them, and telling DiCaprio that he could have saved them. The films locations are beautifully shot, especially the light house scene. Scorsese has brilliantly crafted the film, and the editing is awesome. DeCaprio delivers an awe-inspiring permormance; Ben Kingsley and Mark Ruffalo perform equally good. It deserves a multiple viewing, not just to know the plot, but how the build-up takes place. I'd give it a 4/5.

Well Done Abba - A 'Well' Made Satire on Indian Politics

Shyam Benegal is known for his feel-good films. After Sajjanpur, he comes up with another rural India story, but a satire this time on the Indian Politics and corruption. This time its based in a small AP village of Chikatpally. Boman Irani plays Armaan Ali and Rahman Ali, who are twin brothers, but are totally unlike each other. Armaan Ali is a God-fearing honest chauffeur who works in Mumbai, whereas Rahman Ali keeps stealing and doing other unsocial things in the village, along with his wife Salma, played by Ila Arun. They both take care of the daughter of Armaan Ali - Muskaan (Minisha Lamba). Armaan returns to village to find a suitable groom for Muskaan, only to find that the water situation in village is really bad. So, he decides to make a 'Bawdi' (a well), so that it would help him suffice the needs of water and also irrigate his fields. But, only later does he come to know that it is not as simple as he had thought it to be. The corrupt government officials, the pending works - all sum up his agitation and he finally decides to give up. But, Muskaan, being educated, shows him a way to mend the government officials. The performances by each and every cast member is really good. Boman Irani in his Hyderabadi accent brought back some old memories of Mehmood, he was outstanding in both of his roles. Minishha Lamba was a surprise - after Yahaan and Shaurya, she comes up with an equally good performance in this one. Ila Arun, Sameer Dattani, Ravi Kishen and Sonali Kulkarni live up to their roles. If only the script was well paced and some of the scenes were not repetitive, it would have been more entertaining. That is the only difference between Sajjanpur and this one, the former was far more entertaining and had some really interesting characters, unlike few selected characters here. I'd still give it a 3.5/5 for the feel-good factor.

Paathshaala Music - Admirable Debut by Hanif Shaikh

After seeing the trailers of Paathshaala, I was pretty keen on getting the music as early as possible, as I really liked the track Aye Khuda from it. The album has 5 original tracks, 1 theme and 4 remixes. The music and lyrics are given by singer-turned-composer-cum-lyricist Hanif Shaikh. The last time I heard him was in the song 'Ye Dooriyan' from Fool n' Final, which I guess not many have heard. It was a dance number, which I pretty much liked. He comes up with a brilliant soundtrack this time as a composer. The soundtrack starts off with Aye Khuda sung by Salim Merchant. This song is a pleasant number, which you'll start liking from the first time onwards. But after hearing a few times, you might not like it that much. But its still a track worthy mentioning. Then, there is a peppy number by Vishal Dadlani, called Paathshaala (Khushnuma), which is again pretty decent; Vishal is pretty much capable of carrying out these kind of tracks. Then comes Bekarar by Lucky Ali, which again is a nice track, he sings it in high scale to perfection, just like his other tracks (Ahista Ahista from BAH and Khudahafiz from Yuva). The soundtrack then goes into romantic mood with a number by Tulsi Kumar, Akansha Lama and Hanif Shaikh himself. Its a pretty good track, with nice vocals by the female leads. For some reason, Hanif Shaikh sounds a little like Himesh to me in this track. But, the voice is still not as nasal as Himesh, so its still within the listening limits (at least for me). Then, comes my favorite track from album. Its another version of Aye Khuda, called Teri Marzi, sung by Kailash Kher. It has beautiful lyrics penned by the composer himself. They go something like this:

aye khuda teri marzi ke aage kya hoga,
hai pata tu jo chahe waisa sama hoga,
teri raza tu jo chahe tapti dhoop mein,
ay khuda khilta hua gulistaan hoga!
tune banayi raahein, tune banaayi manzil, 
hum le chale apna karwaan!


tehni tehni se dekhoon toota hai har patta, 
bikhra hua pada hai aaj ye gulistaan, 
jhilmilata yahan, muskuraata yahan, 
tha khushi se kabhi ye aashiyaan!


reh-bar ho tum hamare, phir kaisa diya farmaan, 
farishte bhi ruswa honge, dekh ke ye anjaam, 
ye na chahe koi, ab bata de tu hi, 
keh kar apna tu kyun banta anjaan!

Thanks to the vocals of Kailash Kher, the lyrics give a much deeper meaning to the track. Paathshaala Theme is pleasant and passable. Nothing extra-ordinary from the remix section, just plain up-beat and techno mixes.
Overall, Hanif Shaikh comes with a pleasant soundtrack and he's definitely a talent to watch out for, given his capability to pen down decent lyrics too. Another thing to notice is that - every track has a composer singing.

The Awesomest Driving Experience

 
This was a pretty random plan that we came up with, just within a period of 2-3 hours. We rented a Santro, which was in a really good condition (which rented cars are rarely in one). On Friday night, after coming back from watching LSD, we thought of going somewhere long, since the car didn't have any distance limit. We thought of Gokarna (which most of us had visited), Kemmangundi (Chikmaglore dist.) and Kodachadri (Shimoga dist.). After searching for all these places on net, and working on the feasibility of driving conditions, we selected Kemmangundi, since only one guy amongst us had been there. I'd been to Baba Budangiri Range, which is pretty close to Kemmangundi, but that was 2 years back with family relatives, and I badly wanted to drive to a place like this. Kodachadri was ruled out, because we didn't want to drive at night, and the best part about Kodachadri is night-trek and sun-rise. So, Kemmangundi it was then. Along with me were - Puppy, Preetam, Pranam and Basu. We found the shortest route to take, from college to Kemmangundi (with the help of Google Maps). It went through Moodbidri, Belthangady and Chikmagalore, along the Charmadi ghat. We left at around 6.30 in the morning, filled petrol and checked tyres on the way.

We stopped at Moodbidri for breakfast, and then continued our journey, taking turns to drive. Then started the Charmadi ghat, which was pretty fine on the lower HP (hair pin) bends, and they weren't really sharp HP curves, so even long buses could take turns over there, unlike the Agumbe Ghat which had pretty acute curves for long buses. We reached Chikmaglore at around 12 noon. Just while entering Chikmaglore, we saw a CCD, where we stopped and had a pretty sumptuous lunch. Just for the record - CCD actually has most of its estates in Chikmaglore and its headquarters is also located here. Hence, that makes it special to have in a CCD where its roots lie. Chikmaglore is actually home to India's best coffee. So, we chilled out in CCD for sometime, freshen ourselves up, and then left to Kemmangundi. At a T-junction, when enquired, we were told to take a left, since that was a shorter route compared to the straight route which also led to Kemmangundi.

Now, coming to the route. The route that we took was real bad, comparing even to Indian Standards. It was supposedly a State Highway, but it didn't look like one, in any manner. Although the road was bad, we never stopped enjoying on the way. We came up with random lyrics in some Tulu words, for some trance music, which Preetam was playing, since he was driving the car, and we were just irritating him. As we reached higher and higher, our ears started closing and opening (if that is how I should put), and the road condition also became worse. At one place where we were supposed to take a lower right which led to Kemmangundi, we took the upper right, since it was directed properly. This other route led us to Baba Budangiri Range (Dada Pahad/ Datta Peeta) and a waterfall called Manikyadhara. This road was very narrow, and was really freaky since the level was very high and there was no fencing on any of the sides. So it was just like driving on the Grand Canyon of NFS Carbon game (only difference being the condition of the road).

Since Manakyadhara was just 3 kms away, we thought we'll just stop over there for 10 minutes or so. Manikyadhara was nothing great, it is basically a pilgrimage place and the falls was just little water flowing from the top of a cliff. We took some photos over there and hurried there withing 15 mins.

From top, I drove back to Kemmangundi. On the way, we thought we might run out of fuel to go back till Chikmaglore, and since there were no other petrol pumps, we considered filling it there itself. When inquired, we were told one hotel keeps fuel. So we went over there, and he was selling it for 75 Rs/L. Since we had no other option we filled some 6L over there and carried on to Kemmangundi. The further road was even worse, it wasn't even a Pukka road, to make matters worse. To cover a distance of 25 kms, we took more than 2 hours. After reaching Kemmangundi, we asked about the jeeps which would take us to Hebbe Falls from there. It was at a distance of 11 km from there, but the road was totally messed! I haven't gone in a road more bumpier than this one. I mean there were huge rocks all over on the road, and the jeep was going on top of all of them. Plus, the condition of the jeep was pathetic, I wonder what it was holding up to. But, I'm pretty sure there was no other vehicle which would've gone there.


Finally, at around 6 pm just before sunset, we reached our destination. From there we had to trek for about 10-15 mins to reach to the waterfall. The waterfall was worth all the trouble that we went through. It falls in two stages - Dodda Hebbe (Big Falls) and Chikka Hebbe (Small Falls), totally from a height of 550 ft. The falls are properly isolated, and are surrounded by dense forests and coffee plantations, which makes them more beautiful. Since the time we went was pretty late, and it was already getting dark, the waterfall looked just like milk flowing, among the greenery. We just took a dip in freezing cold water, and since we had no time we couldn't go under falls, as it would be difficult for us to trek back after it would get dark. So we left when the left was just enough to take us till our jeep. The bumpy ride was back yet again, and thankfully the headlights of the jeep were working. Given the condition that it was in, we had serious doubts. We reached back Kemmangundi by 7.30 pm, and we reached we were shocked to see the whole place deserted. I mean the time when we left there was a shack and there were some jeep guys sitting over there; when we come back, we see only our car parked over there. After that, we paid the jeep guy and asked him the shortest route to Chikmaglore from there. He guided us to something which worked wonders for us. The route he told us was not just short, but it was good too. After a distance of 20 km, we joined the State Highway and smoothly reached Chikmaglore, with our safe driver Pupps, who drove all the way back at night.


After reaching Chikmaglore, we had our dinner at a decent restaurant, and inquired about a good place to stay there. After getting to know the accommodation rates, we had a discussion on whether to stay during night or drive back to college. We settled on staying back, since traveling on the ghats was a little risky. And given the fact that most of us were sleep-deprived for the past 2 or so days. We stayed at a place called Krishna Residency; the rooms were decent and we had a really good sleep, although the power kept coming and going. I came to know about the power cut only in the morning, that's how well I slept. Got up in the morning, had proper south-Indian breakfast at a decent restaurant and left to college. We took the same way back to college, by which we had come. Again all of us took turns in driving, and we reached college in around 4.5 hours from there.

This was, by far, the best road trip for me till date. I have got experience in driving Ghat sections now, and am more confident. It will, Inshaallah, serve me well in the future.

LSD - Dibakar Continues His Awesome Form

Dibakar Banerjee is known for making movies which are unconventional and yet, have pretty good content. But, with LSD, apart from being unconventional, he goes for something which has been rarely experimented in Bollywood. India's premiere digital film, which means its been shot completely in security cameras, hand-held cameras and hidden cams. The film has 3 stories, and as the title indicates - the first story deals with love, second with sex and last with dhokha. All the 3 stories are different in their own storyline, but the part which I loved was their connection with each other. Most of the cast is new, but the director has chosen them well. All the three stories were brilliantly handled, thanks to the cinematography. Among all the 3 stories, I loved the first one, which is titled 'Mehndi Laga Ke Rakhna'. I loved the female lead of this story, she is really pretty, and suited the role perfectly. The last story was pretty common, like the casting couch thing which generally goes on film industries. The second one dealt with MMS scandal and porn industry. Some scenes are disturbing, but the originality of the story and brilliant performances make up to it. Plus, these are some things which actually happen, so hats off to Dibakar for showing the truth behind the scandals. I'd give it a 3.5 stars.

Road To Sangam - A must-watch, at least for every Muslim

Finally, got time to catch up with this movie, had kept delaying it a lot. The movie basically deals with the last kept ashes of Gandhiji, which were forgotten and stored in a locker in Allahabad, and have to be thrown in the Sangam of River Ganga and Yamuna. Paresh Rawal plays the role of Hashmath, a mechanic, who has been assigned to repair a vintage Ford, in which the ashes are meant to be taken. The movie focuses on the internal issues amongst the Muslims, and it raises questions on their beliefs and faith. It portrays how Muslims, to some extent, even now support Pakistan in Cricket, Jinnah and many other similar matters. Paresh Rawal has done full justification to the character, he is been in great form this year, with powerful roles in Rann and Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge?, apart from this. Om Puri plays the role of chief in the committee of Mosque. He just has few dialogues, otherwise there is nothing much in his role. Pavan Malhotra as the Maulana is also good and Jawed Shaikh as the doctor is also decent. There are some really good scenes in the film. I liked this one especially when Paresh Rawal goes to invite Om Puri for the visarjan, and points out the flaws of Jinnah, and why partition was made! Tushhar Gandhi, grandson of Gandhiji comes in a cameo in this at the darshan and visarjan scenes.If you get time, do catch up with this movie, although its a bit long, but its worth a watch. I'd give it 3.5/5.

Dear Shiv Sainik (an email I recieved)

I received this e-mail from a friend of mine. The original writer hasn't disclosed his name, but its brilliantly written and takes proper case of the Thackereys and the Shiv-Sainiks. Read it completely, believe me, you won't regret. Here it is:

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21st Feb 2010.

Dear Mr Shiv Sainik,

I trust you have read Rajdeep Sardesai’s open letter to Mr Uddhav Thakeray
doing the rounds on the internet. Frankly, for two reasons I won’t be
surprised if you haven’t. One, it is in English. And two, it is extremely
well-written and very thought–provoking. If you haven’t read it I suggest
you ask your children to translate it for you. Like the offspring of most
Shiv Sainiks I presume yours too are studying in the most elitist of convent
schools.

But first, let me introduce myself.

I am just a Stupid Common Man. Have you seen the film *‘A Wednesday’*? You
must, even though it is in Hindi. Nasiruddin Shah’s soliloquy at the end of
the film where he spits out his pent-up anger against the system and all
politicians will make your hair stand on end. He calls himself just a Stupid
Common Man. That’s what I am too, as are the faceless thousands and
thousands of us in this city. And like the Stupid Common Man, we are a very
angry lot today; angry at your silly and immature antics, and angry at the
city being held to ransom by your aging leader and his coterie of Yes Men.

I have tried to understand what your core values are, but I am stumped! Let
me spell out why.

Your agitation against Shah Rukh Khan, Rahul Gandhi, Mukesh Ambani and
Sachin Tendulkar turned out to be as riveting as a deflating balloon. Nobody
paid heed to your leader’s call, least of all we Bombay *manoos *who you
have turned into a kind of experimental guinea pigs in the political
laboratory. What kind of wishy-washy, spineless, sloppy fellows are you!
Sorry, Mr Shiv Sainik, the nation did not want an apology from SRK – far
from it. They just want good, edge-of-the-seat cricket. And the nation
showed what they think of your fading leader by making SRK’s film the
biggest grosser in Bollywood. What Rahul G gave you gentlemen was a
resounding slap-in-the-face by doing what your leader has never done – Rahul
mingled freely with the ordinary *manoos* in Bombay. Sachin endeared himself
to the whole country by proclaiming that he was an Indian first. As for
Mukesh Ambani, please await the next chapter.

Now let me tell you why we are an angry lot. Your creaky gramophone record
about Marathi pride being hurt has ceased to convince us any more. During
your current tenure at the BMC, 35 Marathi municipal schools were shut down.
Is this your idea of pride? Rahul Bose (I don’t think you gentlemen have
even heard of him) in a recent TV interview gave statistics to show that
Bombay has already lost out to Delhi in virtually every department of
administration. Forget Delhi, it is losing out to Ahmedabad and Hyderabad.
Is this your idea of pride?

And your flip-flop about allowing the Australians to play in Bombay has many
of us in splits. If you are against immigrants, surely you should be
supporting racism in Australia! And if you are protesting racism in Oz, does
it mean that you have had a change of heart about the North Indians? Is this
pride, or total Alzeimeric confusion? Yes, we are angry at your threats to
paralyse Bombay at the drop of a sparrow’s droppings. And, more important,
we are angry at your wanton destruction of public property. Your loss at
successive elections is enough proof of the adage *“You can fool some of the
people all the time, or all the people some of the time, but you cannot fool
all the people all of the time.”*

Now let me tell you why some countries are great and the others are not.
This will perhaps appeal to you, if you have progressed beyond high school.
You have probably heard of a country called USA – it is the most powerful
nation in the world today. It is so because of the way it allows the human
potential to flower and flourish. Leaders – in politics and in business - in
the US come from all parts of the world. If you ever were an avid newspaper
reader (real newspapers, not the Saamna variety) you will recall that there
was a man called Henry Kissinger. He was a German refugee from the
Holocaust, and he became Secretary of State. That Mrs Indira Gandhi gave him
a bloody nose during the ’71 war is another story. But let me give you an
example that you would probably relate to better. You surely have seen
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s films. He flexes his biceps and can put Salman K to
shame – iconic and breath-taking stuff for your stone-throwing, public
property-destroying foot-soldiers. He migrated from Austria about 40 years
ago determined to make it big in the US. Arnold is presently Governor of
California. And there are several Indians in Obama’s (he happens to be the
President of the US) administration, including a few Marathi *manoos* (No,
Please, Al Gore is NOT a Marathi *manoos*). And their contribution to
American society and economy is just enormous.

The point I am making is simply this: you can throw out the ‘outsiders’ only
at your economic peril. All along you have been talking only about job
reservations. Have you ever given a thought to job creation? Have you ever
wondered why very, very few Marathi *manoos *make it to the IFS, IAS, IRS
and the higher echelons of the armed forces? It’s now high time you gave a
thought to that, AND DID SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!

Now try to picture this. Bombay accounts for about 35% of the income tax
collections of the country. This you probably know. What you probably do not
know is that companies pay income tax in the city where their registered
offices are situated. Now just imagine - and please try to do so seriously
because we are not talking *kaanda bhajiya* but real big mega stuff – what
would happen if the big 3 suddenly decided to shift their registered offices
to Baroda, or Bangalore, or Delhi? Do you recall the downfall of Calcutta
when Charu Mazumdar and his naxalite thugs ran amok there? And the ruins of
Uganda when Big Boy Idi Amin threw out the Indians? In economic terms it’s
called flight of capital. The Tatas called Mamta didi’s bluff and shifted
the Nano project lock, stock and barrel to Gujarat. That left Bengal gasping
for breath. Mukesh Ambani is already talking of shifting his registered
office to Jamnagar . . . I leave the rest to your imagination.

And have you ever thought what would happen to Bombay if the film industry,
what Bombay is really synonymous with, decided to move to Noida?

Sorry for being harsh on you, dear Mr SS, but I am just a Stupid Common Man
letting off steam against your apathy, utter lack of vision and foresight,
and utter lack of concern for us.

Now let’s see what you gentlemen CAN do. You are controlling the BMC for the
moment. And I say for the moment because I see the Rahul G tsunami in the
distant horizon fast approaching Matoshree. SO IT’S TIME YOU DID SOMETHING
FOR BOMBAY! You have until 2012. Merely changing names of cities and roads
and monuments, and creating an identity crisis for everybody, will not help.
I’ve never heard you gentlemen talk of

· Urban planning

· eliminating corruption, especially in the BMC that you presently
control,

· giving us good roads and footpaths,

· parks and gardens,

· upgraded municipal hospitals and schools,

· uninterrupted water and electricity.

All that I’ve heard is the tinkling of shattered glass panes of the IBN
Lokmat office, cinema theatres and of *bhaiyya*-owned taxis, and attacks on
Kumar Ketkar.

And you gentlemen have woken up to the existence of Vidarbha only when they
started demanding a separate state. It just boils down to plain neglect; so
much for your oft-touted Marathi pride. This polemics has ensured your
survival, but it has not taken you very far. You are fast approaching a
dead-end. In fact, when the obituary of the Shiv Sena is written what will
be remembered will not be the flyovers you built, but:

· Bashing up south Indians

· Bashing up north Indians

· Digging up cricket pitches

· Damaging the only world cup trophy brought by Kapil’s Devils

· Enron-Dabhol scandal

· Michael Jackson fund-raiser and the funds that disappeared

· Miandad-Supremo camaraderie

· Flight of capital and business (Hope you read ET. There must be a
Marathi version)

But there is hope for you yet. *Start talking economics* and you may just
survive the Rahul Gandhi tsunami. But above all, please read Rajdeep’s mail.
If you survive you will have Rajdeep Sardesai to thank.

Yours angrily,

Stupid Common Man

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I just hope somehow, by some means, they get this letter, and get try to get some sense in their heads. By now, I am pretty sure Uddhav Thackerey would have read Rajdeep Sardesai's letter, by now. Let's hope they change, or try to at least, before it gets too late.

February Track-list

Here's some of the tracks that I frequented during February. Again, they're in no particular order.

1. Click - Rubayee (Male):

This is the only track which deserves a mention from this album. Its sung by Raaj; the vocals are haunting and the lyrics are deep. It has another duet version with Sunidhi Chauhan, along with Raaj, but its not as good as the male one.

2. Birugaali - Madhura Pissumathige(Kannada):

This is the only Kannada song of Mohit Chauhan I've heard, and I loved this one too. Being a huge fan of Mohit, and following all his songs, right from the Silk Route time, I was a bit late in discovering this one. The song is beautiful; the female vocals are touching and Mohit is enchanting.

3. Akcent - That's My Name, Stay With Me:

Akcent is a Romanian band, whom I came to know through Edward Maya's songs, as he has produced music in some of their songs. Both the songs have awesome beats, and will make your feet tap. That's My Name sounds a little similar to Stereo Love, the first few times you hear, but it will make its own place in sometime.

4. Chris Brown - I Can Transform Ya, Memories:

I Can Transform Ya has good techno beats, and has lots of energy pumping. Memories is a proper foot-tapping dance number.

5. Prince - O Mere Khuda, Tere Liye (Unplugged), Kaun Hoon Main:

Prince is an album overloaded with Atif Aslam, but the best part is - his songs are the ones which are good. O mere khuda is usual Atif Aslam material, but is still good to listen. Tere Liye(unplugged) sung by the composer Sachin Gupta himself is pretty good, its better than the original version by Atif Aslam.

6. Shaapit - Chahata Dil:

Aditya Narayan's debut and he's already composing, writing lyrics, singing and acting in the movie. WOW. This songs makes a good listen. Its a romantic dance number.

7. Train - Hey,soul sister:

I haven't heard any songs by Train before, but I fell in love with this one, the first time I heard it. Its a nice easy listening track. Just for the records, soul sister is someone who is very close to you, and NO, it doesn't necessarily mean your sister.

8. Alicia Keys - Empire State of Mind(Pt 2 - Broken Hearted):

After doing the same track with Jay-Z, Alicia Keys comes up with her own version of Empire State, and it is beautiful. Its a slow version, with light hearted lyrics, and piano composition.

9. Jason Mraz - I'm Yours, Lucky(feat Colbie Caillat), Make It Mine:

He is known as the 'geek in the punk' of music. He's a brilliant musician. I'm Yours is soft, with good lyrics and a beautiful video. The acoustic version also deserves a mention. Lucky is again a ballad, this time with Colbie Caillat, but again has really good wordings and vocals. Make It Mine is also a pleasant number to listen to.

10. Timbaland - Morning After Dark, Marching On, Undertow, Tomorrow in the bottle:

Timbaland, with Shock Value 2, comes up with another awesome soundtrack. Most of the songs have featured artists, but he makes a good choice of the singers. Morning after Dark has Soshy and Nelly Furtado, with some groovy vocals and check out the video, for some more groovy expressions by Timba. In Marching On, he teams up with One Republic(after Apologize), and comes up with a nice song. Undertow features The Fray and is another nice track. Tomorrow in the bottle has groovy tune, and catch Chad Kroeger(of Nickelback) going techno with this one.

11. Kanye West - Heartless, Heartless cover by The Fray:

Its a weird song, but I still like it for some reason. Probably it gets out the feelings a lot better. The cover version by The Fray is also worth a mention, it is deep and haunting.

Incident '10 Round Up

Well, after the fashion show night (which wasn't so great), I was a little busy with the project work in the morning and lots of events and other things during evening. The next night, it was time for some DJ show. We had Dual Drive (from Pune), DJ NYK (from Bombay) and Oliver Moldan (from Germany) to entertain the show. Dual Drive started off; they were just ok-ok, and no one had many expectations from them anyways. They were like the cover for Oliver Moldan. Then came our main man from Germany. I listened to him for sometime, but since I'm not that much into trance and house, I wasn't enjoying much. Just at that time I get a call from Nav, asking me to take this basketball guy who was a little injured to Padmavathi Hospital in Surathkal. So I picked up key from Preet, and me and Pups, along with that guy left. Since it wasn't a big injury, he was just given medication and left. We then dropped them off at the Hostel gate, and me and pups thought that we will go on some long drive. So, we decided on going to Bittu Da Dhaba, which is like 20 kms from the college. The roads were pretty empty, and only trucks were commuting. But, the worst part was these headlights of this car, they were very dim and if any light came from the opposite side, we were not able to see shit. Other than that, it was beautiful driving under a moon-lit sky. We had one starter and two masala papads at Bittu's and then headed back to college. After reaching college, DJ NYK had started playing. DJ NYK is a major bollywood mixer, he played all Hindi and some english mixes. His transition was bad, but his track selection was really nice. But, the best part was when our two professors - Dean of Student Affairs Prof. Lokesh and Dr. Dwarkish went onto stage and did the closing spin. This is one moment the whole college will remember and even the batches to come will cherish. So, this was the story of INCI day 2.

INCI day 3 was a Saturday, so I didn't have to worry about my project. So, we thought of going for adventure sports thingy which was brought to us by Axe Adventures, a company from Bangalore, which specializes in organizing adventure camps. The main events that they had were wall rappeling, river crossing, zip run, commando bridge and Zorbing. Other than wall rappeling, we got to do everything. River Crossing was not actually what it was here; here they had tied rope between two trees, but there was no river down, it was just land. They tried doing this thing in our swimming pool, but they didn't get permission, and so had to resort to this. It was pretty much fun. Then, we did the zip-run; here we had to slide down in rope from a higher level to a lower level. It was just ok-ok. Then, we went for Zorbing. Now, this was real fun. Zorb is an inflated huge ball, in which two guys can fit inside, and then they roll it. The guys inside are tied, with the help of belts. First two rounds, me and Prani were tied to the inner surface of the Zorb, but after that we thought we'll just get out of the ties, and we were rolling inside the Zorb, on top of each other, it was so much of fun. It was boiling hot inside, but the fun part made up for it.







After the adventuere sports, we headed off for lunch and then, went to check this place called Lounge, which had a PS3, an X-Box 360, 2 carrom boards, a TT table and many card games. We just chilled out over there for some time playing FIFA 10 and Mortal Kombat. Then, we headed off to SAC to check the stage being set for Motherjane and Led Zepplica, who were performing that night. It was something to be seen - gigantic speakers installed on temporary scaffolding sort of thing and more than 20 halogen lights, all in sync with the music, with the guy controlling them.












The main event started pretty late at night, at around 10 or so. Simultaneously, basketball matches were also held during this time. Semifinals were going on, NITK lost out to St. Joseph's College of Engg, by just 2 points. After both the semi-finals were over, Motherjane entered, and believe me, theirs was one of the best entries I've seen. It started off with their song 'Chasing the Sun', it was like shehnai's playing from all around. I pretty much enjoyed their performance, since I knew some songs, thanks to Gogo, who is a freak of Indian Rock Bands. He was the one who suggested me some rock and fusion bands, and gave me his collection. I loved their songs - Chasing the sun, Maktub, Mindstreet(my most fav),Before 1 Million(which Motherjane dedicated to Sachin on his double hundred) and some others. The vocalists and other band members took a break in between, when their lead guitarist Baiju decided to take the centrestage, and he put on a stunning show. He played guitar for like 5-10 mins, in between he played a rock sort of version of Saare Jahan Se Acha, which was brilliant. After that, Led Zepplica entered, and stole the show. For those who don't know, Led Zepplica is the official tribute band of Led Zeppelin, and are really famous all around the world. They've performed in IIT-Kharagpur once before. Well, I didn't enjoy much of their performance, probably because I am not much into Led Zeppelin. I just know two songs of theirs - Stairway to heaven and Kashmir. Both these songs were brilliantly performed by Led Zepplica. Apart from that, their drummer was insane. His performance was killer. Also, there was one another incident which took place during their performance, which I don't wanna discuss here.

Then came the last and final day of our Final Inci. I got up late yet again, went to SS directly for lunch, and then chilled out for sometime in Lounge, and then went for Promenade - the solo and group dance competition. There were totally 40 teams, and it would take at least around 5 hours to finish all of them. We were just waiting for our guys performance, but it was delayed so much that, we ended up sitting 2 hours before their actual performance. It would be fine sitting through them if it was for any normal dances, but most of them were all mythological, based on some Hindu Gods and all. So, it kept getting on my nerves later. Of course, there were good free-style ones also in between. But, they were very few. Then, finally came some performances from our college - one another group of final years were doing this bhangra number(who supposedly won 2nd prize), which was pretty good, and the second one was our guys - Dave, Poo, Akshit , Jag, Shwetha, Swati, Aarushi and Avanti. Their performance was pretty good, but could have been better. It ended pretty abruptly. After that, it was time for the last Pro-nite, by KK.

Just when KK was entering, we tried a lot to go backstage and meet him. But it wasn't possible, since there was tight security(that too from the students itself) all over the place. So, we chucked that, and went and sat right in front, where KK was performing. This was as good as meeting him. The crowd was crazy, everyone went mad. This was the first time I saw SAC jam packed. People were actually complaining of suffocation problems. Well, anyways, we were right in front, so we didn't have any issues. He started off with Bas Ek Pal, and then went on to songs like MP3, Alvida, O humdum suniyo re and many more, before he took a short break. In this break, he along with his band members, was felicitated by the college. He did repeat some songs, which he had already sung 2 years back when he came to college. But, they were still good. So, it didn't matter. The thing which I liked a lot about the show was the work by Light and Sound Dept., they put on a superb show. The lights were psychedelic. After the break, he started off with an unplugged version of Tadap tadap, which was beautiful. He sang many more songs, and we were singing all the songs along with him. Looked like the whole crowd was prepared with all his songs. I bet no one would be this prepared even for an end-semester examination. Before he could end, we went on to try our luck again to meet him. But, we were unsuccessful yet again. Even before his band members could finish playing, he left the stage and took an Innova immediately, whereas we thought that he'd still be in the backstage. But, anyways, we had a good time, enjoyed our balls off. Thus, the final Incident comes to an end and some memories which i would cherish all my life. I am pretty sure I won't have these kind of moments anytime in my life again. Before I end this post, I'll leave you with some more photos of KK concert.

An Eventful Day

To start off the day, we were called by our major project guide Dr Subhash Yaragal to kick start our project which had been pending for like 4 months now. We just selected our topic last sem and we were to start work on that, but then due to some circumstances, we couldn't work on that topic. Hence, our prof decided to give us a topic something closer to what he had given for M.Tech batch working under him. He told us to cast 36 cubes as reference for the next 72 cubes that we would be preparing in the next 3-4 days, with varying compositions, depending on the cement and admixtures added. Since, there was no power in the morning, we had to shift the work to afternoon. After burning our ass for 2 hours, and getting all drenched in sweat and cement, we prepared 36 cubes and kept them in moulds, which were to be removed from there on the next day.

After doing some work, it was time to kick start our college's annual cultural festival INCIDENT '10 - The Golden Jubilee edition this time. It started off with the inauguration, which contained the normal boring speeches by chief guests, director, dean and Inci convenor Venu. This was followed by a performance by a group of mentally disabled children from Lion's Club Surathkal. After, this there a play of Aladin (this was just to keep the theme of this year's Inci - which was Arabian Nights). The play was brilliantly carried out, the casting was almost perfect, with Dave playing Aladin, Ridhi playing Jasmine, Kau playin Jaffar, Swati playin Jaffar's parrot, Taata playing Sultan, Bhowmik playing Genie(he was superb) and many others. There were these first year girls belle dancing, who were all way too hot. There were also many videos played during the inaugration, created by Media Committee convenors Poo and Prani, they've been uploaded in youtube.com/user/incident10. Do check them out, they deserve a special mention.

After the Inaug got over, there was an inaugural basket ball match between NITK A team and KMC Mangalore, which was won by NITK. Then, the eastern musicals Bandish started. There were 6 teams totally, 25 + 5 minutes for each team. The starting teams were bad. But, the competition picked up later. The first prize was won by Christ College and second went to NITK's own team. I had an awesome time, sitting right in front of speakers, and thumping along with them. So, this was the story of Inci Day 0. Got lots more to come, the next 4 days. Its Haute Couture - the Inci Fashion Show, but not so many teams coming this time - just 4 or 5 of them.

Btw, I forgot to mention that I'm in the Corporate Hospitality committee for INCI '10. We look after the corporate guests like Pro-nite performers, workshop guys and some judges.

When we were attending the Inaug, our director was the one who announced that Sachin scored 200 in the match against SA. I was totally surprised and shocked. My ears couldn't believe the news. I mean can a guy actually score a double century in ODI. But, if it had to come, it had to be from the maestro. He has all the records to his name now. Let's just wait and watch - Next is What!

Sringeri, Hanuman Gundi and Sirimane Waterfalls

This was like a mini class trip. I was asked if I am interested in coming to Hanuman Gundi falls and I, obviously never miss an opportunity to see new places, and Hanuman Gundi had been on my wishlist for quite sometime now, and what better way to go than with a group of 15 guys. They were me, Aslam, Varun, Mishra, Soumyajit, Sorabh, Pavan, Abhishek, Sethi, Nandu, Priyam, Bharath, Kamath, Sushant and Hemagiri. We started off early in the morning at around 7 o' clock, we hired a mini bus, which had capacity of 15. It was pretty good, had DVD and audio player, and the seats were pretty comfortable. The place is around 2 and a half hours from our college. It falls in Chikmaglore district, and is in the heart of Kudremukh National Park. We took the way from Padubidri, and then NH 17 via Karkala. We stopped just outside Karkala for breakfast. After having breakfast, we stopped to get a pass for entering Kudremukh National Park, which was valid till evening 6 o' clock. Just after around 10 kms from there, we reached our destination - Soothanabbi Falls or more famously known as Hanuman Gundi falls. It is named after Hindu god Hanuman, and Gundi means a deep descent, like a gorge or something. The water falls into this hole, from a height of 22m.

After reaching the falls, we bought entrance ticket of Rs 20, and then we had to go down the steps (around 380 of them). The steps had recently been made, otherwise people had to trek down to see the falls. It was a beautiful sight when we reached down - waterfalls right in middle of the forest. I had read few blogs about this place, some days back, they scared me a lot. They said that the place is infested with honey bees, crabs and snakes. But, none of us found anything close to them. Guess, the developments made way for their extinction from the place. But, nonetheless, it was a really good hangout spot. We had come all prepared - we had towels, extra pair of clothes and inner wears. After taking some snaps of the falls, it was time to get wet. So, I changed into my shorts and jumped into water (not exactly jumped, I exaggerate sometimes). Viewer discretion is advised in some photos, they contain unintentional partial nudity. :D

The water was freezing cold. After shivering in the water for first 5 minutes, I got adjusted to it. The rocks were very slippery, we had to be careful while walking inside the water. We then decided to go near the falls, right under where the water was falling. As we went close, the splashing of water made it even colder. But, standing right under water falling from a height of around 70 ft is something unexplainable. It was an amazing experience. After Sita Falls, this was the second place where I took bath directly under the water falls. We stayed there for sometime, and then relaxed just around the falls sitting on some non-slippery rocks and posing for some photos. After that, some guys discovered a pond on a little lower level of the falls, and decided to swim there. The water was pretty deep over there, and it was uneven too, and since I did not know swimming, I decided to stay out of it. Then, climbing back to top was a pain, it was exhausting. While coming down, I never felt that there were so many steps, but while going up, they were just never ending. Somehow, we made it to top, and then had Puliyogere, a traditional rice made with tamarind. After all the hard work, the food looked too delicious. We didn't care about plates and spoons, had it directly with our hands right from the container. Pavan had got it from his home, and we thanked him for saving our day. Since, it was just 12 o' clock, some of us suggested visiting Sringeri which was just 30 km from there. When asked the gate man of the falls about places to see in Sringeri, he suggested a temple and Sirimane waterfalls.

On the way, we stopped at a place which overlooked a valley and had many shades of mountains visible from it. We took many photos over there, and then headed to Sringeri.

We also found many monkeys on the way, and some of them were funny and candid.

We continued the same NH 13 and reached Sringeri, it is a famous place for Sharadamba Temple, which, they say, is more than a thousand years old. The temple was beautiful, and there were some expansions done to it on the inside and outside. It was very hot and walking bare foot inside was very uncomfortable, there were mats put on some places, which did help a little. All other guys took prasad and applied teeka(kumkum) on their foreheads. Then, we had lunch in the temple itself. The food was very simple - white rice, daal and sambar. Later, we went to a pond which was connected to the temple premises. It was a relief keeping your foot on the water, after walking bare foot in the scorching heat. The pond had insane number of fishes, all of the same kind and almost same sizes. Everyone was feeding them something like roasted rice(murmure/bhel) and some fruits. We didn't have anything, since we never knew something like this existed. One guy who was feeding banana was gracious enough to give us one, which we divided amongst ourselves. He also showed us how to feed it to the fish. I held a small piece of it on the edge of four fingers of my palm, kept it stationary for sometime, and then woah, I get a sudden shock, a sweet one though. A fish just came and grabbed it out of my hand. It didn't have teeth, so it didn't bite, but I got a shock when it clutched my fingers. We thought camera would not be allowed in the temple, so we didn't take one. Although, we realised later that the camera was restricted only inside the temple where the gods were kept. We did take some photos from mobile camera.

Then, we headed off to Sirimane Falls, which is like 13 km from Sringeri on the way back. We had to take a deviation on right on NH 13. The road was very narrow and bumpy too. We paid the entrance fee of Rs 5 and entered the falls. It was just a few steps down. There were too many sounds of people screaming and shouting, and only after reaching down, did we come to know the reason as to why they were so excited. There were these 4 foreigners - 2 guys and 2 girls, who were also present over there. Just to attract them, these guys were over-excited. Okay, lets not deviate from the falls. Sirimane waterfalls was pretty ok, nothing too extra-ordinary. But, the good thing about this falls was that the rocks were not slippery, so some of us found a place under the falls, where we wouldn't get wet. Since, we didn't have much time left, we decided not to take bath and just took some snaps over there, and decided to head off. On the way back climbing the steps, we struck a conversation with the foreigners, they said they were from UK and Australia. They had come in Enfields all the way from Goa. In fact, they bought the bikes in Goa, and rode from there to Karwar, Jog Falls, Sringeri (I remember seeing the same bikes outside the temple) and were here now. There were 3 bikes, which meant that a girl was also riding a bike, well not just a bike, but a 500cc Enfield. I was like WOW.

We left from there by around 4.15 pm and crossed the limits of Kudremukh National Park at

around 5.30 pm (which was well before 6pm). Then, at a place called Bajegoli, we

stopped to prepare Maggi, which we had kept delaying. There was a Jain temple, from where

we could get water. We prepared it just before the sunset and it was just enough to satisfy

the 15 of us. Got tea and coffee from the nearby canteen. Then, we headed back and reached

college by 8'o clock.

The best thing about this trip, for me was that, it was the cheapest one I've

had till now and one of the best day trips. I just spent 300 Rs for the whole trip.

Isn't that awesome! Just 300 bucks for a day full of fun and adventure.