Days at office …… when you have no work !!!!

Early morning ….. the sun shines, the birds sing and the suprabatham starts…..that’s when you wake up after a tired and long night at office…your head feels like a boulder and your body just dosen’t want to move…u feel you are ‘petrified totalus’ !! but still you build up all that is left in you and get up from you bed…put your feet down on the ground and that’s when you believe you can do anything humanly possible !! You are surprised by the activity going on at home and that’s when you realize that’s its not ‘early morning’ but you’ve only an hour to report at office. You are excited and panicked…you scream to your mom about the toothpaste and every little thing you find in your way….you ask her to get your coffee ready and you stand behind you dad waiting for the paper…..finally you loose your patience and say ‘dad….i need the paper..i’m getting late for office’….as if he’s got no better work to do….all of a sudden you forget everything….you plunge deep into the realms of the newspaper…you are among the action, the disasters, the controversies…..to the fact that you imagine to be the Indian cricket team captain and of course jyothika’s hero in her next movie !! from nowhere you hear a voice… ‘kanna , the water is already boiling’…..oops, you know it’s time for your bath….you leave the paper as it is…..n your poor dad who waits there all this while , gets to save the newspaper from the clutches of the ceiling fan !! just as your mom is about to pack your food …..there’s a scream…. ‘amma, where’s my towel’…..poor lady , she has to rush all around the house looking for your towel….finally she finds it under your helmet(for reasons unknown)…..and all you have to say when she hands it over to you is ‘what took you soo long ?’ . she goes back to the kitchen to pack food when you ask her to get you breakfast and turn to your dad for clothes……he points you to the chair beside you and as if you had known all this while, you casually pick ‘em up !! by the time you are dressed, breakfast is ready and you gobble up half of it and leave the rest….you put on your shoes and pick up your bag……and then the search for the bike key starts….you are worried about the time…and start cursing the keys….that’s when you realize that your dad has already taken the keys and is warming up the bike….you run to it and sit and once again you realize you haven’t taken your lunch….you scream to your mom for your lunch and finally when she brings it…..you look as if it’s all her fault and you’re getting late ‘coz of them !! but then just before you leave…your mom says ‘take care kanna, don’t go too fast, when will you come back…..’ and that’s when you start off ‘mom…I’m not a kid…I can take care of myself’ ….even before you finish this you give your mom that totally lovable kiss and she smiles back at you ……..no matter what happens in this world…..this love between a mother and child always lasts long….really long !!

The journey to office starts….you’ve only 15 min and you’ve got to travel 10 kms in the most ruthless, savage, and unmerciful traffic anyone has ever experienced!! You drive through each and every narrow gap you can find on the road….be it pavements or the mud that’s recently been covered over the dug, roadsides. Signals are not a matter of concern at all and if there’s no policeman….any signal means ‘you are welcome to pass…jus don’t bother about the others !’ The trip is one of the worst as you go down to the wire of almost driving over people….if not for those brakes that you had just repaired after a huge battle with your dad …..trying to convince him that they are alright just because you have to move out of the house on a Sunday morning to get them fixed. This is the time you try and recollect all the bad words you come across in movies….but unfortunately however bad they are……the others have worse words to say…which make you feel down right dirty….that’s when it strikes ‘silence is golden’ ….n for the next few minutes…..no matter what happens…..you keep shut !! finally the eventful journey is over….and you reach office in the nick of time !!


You find out that the parking lot inside the campus is full and you’ll have to put the bike outside…you think about the dust and the crow’s….( i guess you would have figured that out) and start cursing all the people ‘coz of whom you were late (except yourself …obviously) and finally you find a spot to park the bike. You go in with an air of authority as if you are the head of the entire company…..as if you are the most busiest man on this planet…and all that just dies down once you see your friends…all your college instincts rush up your brain..and all that machan, mama talks starts off !! You sit infront of the pc and twirl about in your chair with the impression that you’ll look totally cool but you fail to think about the fun the others are having seeing you do the things you do…which you actually think is attracting them….it definitely is attracting but only for a different cause…..i call entertainment !! You then check your mails as if the entire nations’ security lies in your mailbox….but all you end up doing is reading about how the sardar goes about doing things in his life…..which you think is the most funniest thing on this planet…..what you don’t realize is what you do isin’t forwarded or else the scenario is a lot different !! You go about looking at ice-castles, horoscopes, clips on babies and what not !! and by the time you finish with all that you realize it’s time for tea…you go around ..maybe even to the terrace, have a cup of tea and come back to work !! then it’s up to you to send all the important mails you’ve been looking at until now to all the other people whom you think is of worldly importance and also the people whom you think aren’t all that important and infact you send double the mails to the people who aren’t important at all !! by the time you’ve finished with all that…it’s time for lunch !! you go to the pantry…sit there waiting for your friends…once they’ve arrived, you go about having your food and talking about all the people who you consider the most irritating people on this planet (for eg: TL,PM,AM etc.) and it’s only when you’ve finished with all that you realize you’ve been sitting there for over an hour and there’s a long queue waiting to get a place to eat…you give them the look as if they’ve been standing there ogling at you all this while, and cursing you while you were eating…and coolly walk away without even bothering to realize that they are the senior-most people in the company !! you go back to your workplace….start talking to your friends again…curse them for having put you in this situation..as if it’s been their fault that you are here and curse them that they’ve been really lucky to get into another stream and that you’ve been struggling all through out going home late at nights and coming back early in the mornings….all that is to say is ‘whatever’!! you are bored…that’s when you get the idea of using technology to the full extent, so now use start using the most trendy electronic device today….the cellular phone. phone calls and sms now flow and you exhibit the sleight of your hand by sending consecutive messages even before the receiver can read them…you don’t expect anyone to reply you back but when you get one….you feel as if you are bayangaramma getting disturbed. Even this gets bored after sometime and you feel you head is heavy and is not able to take the stress any longer…your eyes are tired and they are not able to make you see anymore…your mouth starts opening up and even before you know it…..your head places itself on the chair and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. All of a sudden there’s an aroma, you can see tea gardens all around the place….the climate is wonderful , cool and windy and you are shivering…..poof you get up realizing that the air conditioning in your room is really cold now and you remember it’s time for tea….you go for a tea-break ….once again the chat with friends start….only this time it’s about messages and when they’ll be leaving home. You come back searching the LAN for movies esp. English as you don’t have 3 hours to spend on a desi movie. Finally you get to watch the same old desi movie you’ve watched a hundred times over and over again!! In between it’s time for snacks which brilliantly synchronizes with the snack-break….so you go for snacks once again talking to your friends about the movie and giving expert dialogues and posing your acting skills….you go back after 10 minutes giving it a real theatre effect for the break…and then resume the second half of the movie. Finally the hero instinct within you springs up after ‘the end’ of the movie….you have a glass of water, visit the restroom and with all the enthu, come back and start playing your favorite game..be it riding a chopper or hanging a kangaroo !! After a while you begin to look at the timepiece and realize it’s almost 6 p.m…..you pack your bag and get ready to leave when you realize you team leader and project manager are still waiting there ( for reasons not to be disclosed) …..and so you have no other choice rather than sit and wait for them to leave first…..so you get back to your gaming trying to break all your friends’ records !! Finally your team leader leaves his place…..and even before he steps out you are there at the lift waiting for him….you smile at him and say ‘ah ! what a day’ felling all the more tired and as if you’ve been doing all the work at office. You go to the parking lot showing the ‘tata’ sign to everyone (whether you know them or not) and are surprised to see all the bikes still there…anyway who cares !!

The drive back home is again hideous, battling through nastiest of all battle the human race has ever seen….finally after evading every death threat and with a lot of heated verbose accusations….you reach HOME !!

As you get in, you create that sympathy ambience for yourself …..and your mom comes and asks you how your day was…and that’s when you give this expression of …what do you think…it was evidently hectic !! you go have a nice bath in warm water and sit down to eat those lovely chappatis mom has made for you….you happily hog and watch the television for sometime…even your grandma is willing to give up her age-old mega serials for you , NOW !! You are bored watching the dumb channels …entertainment has lost flair once the CAS was into the picture …..so you go to bed….taking the most boring book you’ve ever read (now it’s no more the college text book) … and before you finish up with the first few lines…all is dark ……….the end !!

Up , up and Away !!

Hey what’s up there ? is it a goat ? is it a tree swaying ? No, it’s karthik climbing a hill !! Fine I know it was bad…….but definitely my trip last Sunday wasn’t !! It all started when I got this Pune Guide and Map from Crossword(famous book store) and started going all around pune during the week-ends.That was when I got to know this place called Sinhgad … that’s lion fort just for the heck of translation !!

It is 25kms from Pune and is one of the forts of Shivaji…no ganeshan….just Shivaji . The fort was won by shivaji while most of the dishum dishum was done by his loyal and brave kshatriya Tanaji Malusare who unfortunately lost his life during the battle. The fort has his Samadhi and also bungalows of Lokmanya Tilak and the famous Marathi poet Ga Di Ma …..yeah that’s his name…..we shud’ve studied history better!! Fine let’s forget the past and come to the trekking part….

The fort is 1200m high …..yeah 1.2 kms is no big deal…but it is when you go against gravity on dicey rocks and creepy plants with the hum of water just beside your ear….and when you try to take a look and find a 1200m drop and realize it’s a waterfall ….yes it is a BIG DEAL !! I went there all alone but just at the foot of the hill met up with 5 more ppl planning to trek. The 5 of them were just awesome…all from in and around pune…3 of them doing the 2nd year engineering…if u r thinking if I’d have scene potufied…you are perfectly right !! 2 of ‘em were working in NARI…c’mon guys wipe that look off…it’s National Aids Research Institute !

We started climbing up at around 12:00 in the afternoon….initially we were all pumped up and it wasn’t very tiring ….but as the altitude augmented, exhaustion started creeping in…and after a point of time…say 350m…we just couldn’t carry ourselves and the temperature started dropping…it wasn’t a problem for them but having coming from a place which hasn’t seen the 20degreesC range for a long time…it was another problem….

The route was bad….infact there was no route…we had to make our own way up…and owing to the perpetual rains….the entire path was damp ! That made it a lil more difficult to get a grip on the rocks…but it was just awesome…we kept taking breaks fer almost every 100-150 m ….there are these small huts at certain places ( jus imagine ppl really living in the jungleee areas) … where we used to stop for buttermilk and chai..or chaha as in Marathi ! ! The best part was … when you are panting for a gulp of air and just turn around and look how far you are (‘you just can’t look how much more….’coz its all clouds)…you get this utterly stunning view…which makes up for all the effort…all the energy comes back and you start walking !!

At one point there was this path…wherein there was place for only one foot…so you need to put 1 foot at a time and go through….the sides were totally covered by trees ..we just didn’t know what was there…but there was this perpetual sound of water from somewhere but due to the heavy vegetation we just couldn’t get a glance….but when we tried to clear a bit of leaves and check out…boy it was the most blissful spectacle I had ever seen….we were just beside a waterfall… and the sight just can’t be put in words!! We carried on having rendezvous with snakes, a maajar variety of birds, mongooses and ofcourse the ‘we are everywhere’ insect world !!

After about 700m we could actually see the clouds passing through us and it was soo cold that all of us started puffing out smoke from our mouth, nose and strangely our ears also…it was soo cold that my gherkin started puffing … HA!ha!..that was the first time I was seeing this happen and it was quite amusing…we kept going and then the worst part started….it started raining…and it became even more slippery and since we had to look up, the rain was lashing straight into our eyes…that was really difficult and we started taking more breaks …. And finally after 150 minutes of excitement, adventure and eye-popping spectacles….we were there…..at Sinhgad !!

It was continuously raining there…and all of us were tired and hungry !! The temp. would have been around 10 or 12 degrees C up there… and since we were all wet…god it was freezing !! And to top it all the wind up there was blowing at around …… I dunno the kmph but if I was 20kgs less I’d hve been blown off the cliff…ah! So now you are thinking how much this guy would weigh…am I 20kgs less than him ? HA!ha!ha! The best and most amusing part on top was that there was an Airtel and BPl tower…and I also got a phone from office….now what can I say about that !!

We looked around the place for sometime…and then went to a dhaba there…yes it is a tourist spot and so there are small hotels there…actually there’s even a road where jeeps bring people up and down…but what fun is it sitting in a jeep and going all the way up!! The wind blowing soo fast, it made the rain drops hit our faces soo hard that it actually started hurting a lot . So we took shelter in the dhaba and first had black chaha. Then there’s this roti type thing called Pithle-Bhakari which is as famous as idli in tn,here. It was served hot with dal and we hogged like hogs…then we had Kanda Bhaji(nambe normal rende rubaa bajji) and Meeti dahi(sweet curd) in small earthenware pots.

We didn’t realize but it was getting late…it was almost 5:00 pm when we finished and it was time to climb down as it is impossible when dark(it was already dark ‘coz of the heavy dark clouds)!! So we got some Bhuee Mugg (Oh! that’s not some high funda parlance….it’s just ‘kadale’ in marathi J ). The trek down was not as taxing as climbing up but needed utmost precaution and one thing which kept going on in my mind all the way down was ‘look and put your step’…’coz one small mistake and you’ll land up in a hospital !! It took us about 90 min to climb down. As we came down the rain slowly stopped and once again mother nature proved aishwarya rai is no miss world ….she is !! fine you might argue saying it is ‘mother nature’ and ‘miss world’….so forget it !! It was gorgeous …..that sums it up…ok ?

It’s not fair if I don’t mention the kinda company the five gave me…if I’d have done this all of my own…I dun think I could have dun it..i’d have come back and taken the jeep instead…they kept singing all the way up and down…they thought me a lil marathi…I dun remember any and I thought them bit of tamil and telugu…it was great fun !! They were sooo sweet they invited me for dinner to their place…so we took a bus from the foot of the hill to their place…and just because I said I eat rice a lot in Chennai…you know they made rice for me !! it was totally sweet of them…we had a gala time and even before I knew it, it was 11:00 in the night…then I took and auto to my place and crashed !!

I can just go on writing about this all day…but all of us have work…all thorough the trip I just wanted to stop and rejoice every sight, every moment …. I just wished I could just stand there all day and keep watching that out of this world exhibition but we have to move on. It might be only a momentary bliss but the memory will stay for eternity!! The only thing I regretted and was totally disappointed throughout the entire trip was that I had neither a handycam nor a camera….i didn’t expect all this !! I know these spectacles are like readers envy , writers pride when you read all this and think about it…but it’d have been great if I cud’ve put some of those snaps with along with this !!

The trip is definitely not one of the best in the entire world…but for me … though this is not my first trekking experience…it’s been one after a long time and I will remember it for a long long time….one day I would tell my grandchildren (hey wipe those stupid smile off ur faces !!) by starting off ….hey what’s up there !!