It is a known fact that the healing powers of a person affected by diabetes is impaired to a great extent. So is my mind I guess... It has gone diabetic and it does not heal itself quickly enough! To exacerbate things, there are more hurtful jabs... Am I just expecting too much? Am I trying to read to much? Or is it just natural to be angry? Angry because being perfect is looked at differently, angry because you have to give your 100% and more, angry because people take you for granted and you can't do the same to them, angry because people find it easy to put a blame on you, angry about people being irresponsible, angry because people never meet their promises when you cannot go against a casual word, angry because people only care about what they want, angry because people want you only when they need help, angry about people with prejudice, angry with people who look at you contemptuously, angry because of the loads of other untold things...?
Is the neck, once broken, broken forever? Time will tell...
I should not be using the blog to vent out something that the reader has no clue about! I apologize to all my readers for this blog! It is a diabetic mind after all and it needs insulin.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Beerlogue...
I have over the years become a connoiseur of some fine beer... It started with the Kingfisher Premium Lager in India. I am at a point where I have tried a wide range of brands... So what is so good about this drink that has made it so popular that it is being consumed in every corner of the world?
Beer is perhaps the oldest alcoholic beverage and dates to 6th millennium BCE. It is made by fermenting starch just like how any other alcohol is. The source is normally malted barley, however wheat, corn and rice can be used as the source of starch... There are other less common sources as well. Let's see how beer is made before talking a look at some of my recommendations.
Barley is steeped in water (mashing) along with other enzymes to convert the starch to fermentible sugars. This is then subject to Sparging aka lautering. The mixture is taken in a container called lauter-tun which has a porous barrier and acts similar to a sieve. The sugary liquid called wort separates out from the grain and is collected. The grain is then normally discarded. The next step is an important one... The wort is boiled to increase the concentration of sugar... During boiling, hops are added... Depending upon when they are added, hops are classified as bittering hops, flavouring hops and aroma hops. The hops are responsible for the bitter taste of the beer. The boiled wort is then fermented using yeast... This is again a key factor that differentiates different kinds of beers...
The "ale" is made by using top-fermenting brewer's yeast and is brewed at a higher temperature. This results in, apart from the conversion of sugars to ethanol, production of esters... If you remember high school chemistry, it is the esters that have a fruity odour... Another important thing with ale is that fermenting happens for a shorter duration. Thus some of the sugars is still left behind which gives it a sweeter taste.
A counterpart of the ale, the "lager" is made in exactly the opposite way. Bottom fermenting yeast, lower temperature and longer duration... This results in the complete conversion of the available sugars producing a cleaner, clearer beer. There are no esters either. A rather wild brew call "Lambic Beer" is produced in the unconventional fashion... No brewer's yeast is used here. Instead wild yeast and bacteria are used from the Senne valley in Brussels... By this time, you would have guessed why Belgian beers are famous too.
Let me now make some recommendations in the ale and lager sections... If you guys know of something that I have missed, do get back to me :)
I always start with German beer because they are my favourite. Weissebier, the wheat beer from the Bavaria is undoubtedly my favourite... It is made from wheat, top-fermented, mildly hopped and aggressively carbonated. In the lager section, Paulaner, Hofenbrau, Lowenbrau, Augustiner-brau are good to sip onto...
Stella Artois and Blue Moon are the Belgian beers that are worth mentioning. A trivia about Stella is that it is from InBev, the largest brewery in the world. While Stella is pale lager, Blue moon is white ale.
New Castle and Bass ale are my favourites from England. Smithwicks, an ale from Ireland is a decent beer too. Killian Red, perhaps, my most favourite Irish beer is made from roasted malts with the right amount of hops that leaves a clean mouth feeling upon swallowing. It was initially an ale, but Coors Lager in the US has acquired rights to brew and market in the States. While talking about Irish beer, it would be deemed a sin if I did not mention Guinness. Guinness, the only stout (another kind of beer guys!) I have had, is made from dark roasted malts giving it a very rich colour and coffee taste.
Yuengling and Boston lager (Sam Adams) are the only beers brewed in the US that are worth trying. However, the adopted beer "Heineken" does decently well. Born in Holland and brought up in the US, Heineken has been adapted to suit the US palate. Amstel light is a light beer from Amsterdam.
Singha, beer from Thailand is a good try too. I am still awaiting a chance to taste Japanese rice beer "Saki". I however don't recollect how much I liked Sand Piper from South Africa and Fosters from Australia...
All said and done, Kingfisher is certainly a beer i would like to have to chill out!
Beer is perhaps the oldest alcoholic beverage and dates to 6th millennium BCE. It is made by fermenting starch just like how any other alcohol is. The source is normally malted barley, however wheat, corn and rice can be used as the source of starch... There are other less common sources as well. Let's see how beer is made before talking a look at some of my recommendations.
Barley is steeped in water (mashing) along with other enzymes to convert the starch to fermentible sugars. This is then subject to Sparging aka lautering. The mixture is taken in a container called lauter-tun which has a porous barrier and acts similar to a sieve. The sugary liquid called wort separates out from the grain and is collected. The grain is then normally discarded. The next step is an important one... The wort is boiled to increase the concentration of sugar... During boiling, hops are added... Depending upon when they are added, hops are classified as bittering hops, flavouring hops and aroma hops. The hops are responsible for the bitter taste of the beer. The boiled wort is then fermented using yeast... This is again a key factor that differentiates different kinds of beers...
The "ale" is made by using top-fermenting brewer's yeast and is brewed at a higher temperature. This results in, apart from the conversion of sugars to ethanol, production of esters... If you remember high school chemistry, it is the esters that have a fruity odour... Another important thing with ale is that fermenting happens for a shorter duration. Thus some of the sugars is still left behind which gives it a sweeter taste.
A counterpart of the ale, the "lager" is made in exactly the opposite way. Bottom fermenting yeast, lower temperature and longer duration... This results in the complete conversion of the available sugars producing a cleaner, clearer beer. There are no esters either. A rather wild brew call "Lambic Beer" is produced in the unconventional fashion... No brewer's yeast is used here. Instead wild yeast and bacteria are used from the Senne valley in Brussels... By this time, you would have guessed why Belgian beers are famous too.
Let me now make some recommendations in the ale and lager sections... If you guys know of something that I have missed, do get back to me :)
I always start with German beer because they are my favourite. Weissebier, the wheat beer from the Bavaria is undoubtedly my favourite... It is made from wheat, top-fermented, mildly hopped and aggressively carbonated. In the lager section, Paulaner, Hofenbrau, Lowenbrau, Augustiner-brau are good to sip onto...
Stella Artois and Blue Moon are the Belgian beers that are worth mentioning. A trivia about Stella is that it is from InBev, the largest brewery in the world. While Stella is pale lager, Blue moon is white ale.
New Castle and Bass ale are my favourites from England. Smithwicks, an ale from Ireland is a decent beer too. Killian Red, perhaps, my most favourite Irish beer is made from roasted malts with the right amount of hops that leaves a clean mouth feeling upon swallowing. It was initially an ale, but Coors Lager in the US has acquired rights to brew and market in the States. While talking about Irish beer, it would be deemed a sin if I did not mention Guinness. Guinness, the only stout (another kind of beer guys!) I have had, is made from dark roasted malts giving it a very rich colour and coffee taste.
Yuengling and Boston lager (Sam Adams) are the only beers brewed in the US that are worth trying. However, the adopted beer "Heineken" does decently well. Born in Holland and brought up in the US, Heineken has been adapted to suit the US palate. Amstel light is a light beer from Amsterdam.
Singha, beer from Thailand is a good try too. I am still awaiting a chance to taste Japanese rice beer "Saki". I however don't recollect how much I liked Sand Piper from South Africa and Fosters from Australia...
All said and done, Kingfisher is certainly a beer i would like to have to chill out!
Monday, November 5, 2007
A quarter of a century
I am turning 25 tomorrow... It has been two and a half decades since I stepped into this world... And has there been any fruitful outcome? I have been asking this for sometime now... What are my career goals? How am I going to leave my footprint in this world? And even if I did, would it get lost among the million others left behind by my contemporaries? Or would it be masked by people who are to follow?
I answer myself: "Leaving behind something is more important than trying to preserve its identity". And the next question is: "What are you going to do?" This has probably been the biggest questions that has been lingering in my mind for some time. It all lies in finding out what is going to keep me happy. I believe that leading a selfless life is more gratifying to me than anyother thing. But I have no roadmap for that... Poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, disparities in the society and a lot more social ills... It pains when people are deprived of their basic needs... "Thani oru manidhanukku unavillai enil jagathinai azhithiduvom..." He said that ages back... And are we any closer to it?
With all this in mind, I am in a place thousands of miles away from my country... a country that is infested with most of these ills... When will I start fighting them in my motherland? With a burdened heart, I salute the soldiers that are currently fighting them... I hope to take my first steps at the earliest...
25 years... useful only waive off the underage fee to rent a car!
I answer myself: "Leaving behind something is more important than trying to preserve its identity". And the next question is: "What are you going to do?" This has probably been the biggest questions that has been lingering in my mind for some time. It all lies in finding out what is going to keep me happy. I believe that leading a selfless life is more gratifying to me than anyother thing. But I have no roadmap for that... Poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, disparities in the society and a lot more social ills... It pains when people are deprived of their basic needs... "Thani oru manidhanukku unavillai enil jagathinai azhithiduvom..." He said that ages back... And are we any closer to it?
With all this in mind, I am in a place thousands of miles away from my country... a country that is infested with most of these ills... When will I start fighting them in my motherland? With a burdened heart, I salute the soldiers that are currently fighting them... I hope to take my first steps at the earliest...
25 years... useful only waive off the underage fee to rent a car!
Monday, October 22, 2007
Pretence
If I were not restricted by what the society calls righteousness, would I be what I am right now? Do all men have two faces and is one of them uglier than the other? Do we do a lot of things just to keep others happy? Would the world be unliveable, if one fine morning everyone wakes up with a clean mind, a mind devoid of any code of conduct that has been dinned in by scriptures, society, law, etc? Did the most primitive of men have a social set up in place? What benefits are we reaping by adhering to one?
She said, "Hari, human beings, by birth are polygamous. But it is the society that pulls at the leash". I guess I have to agree with that... Don't we ogle at a pretty woman that we see? I am straight, hence, a woman... Feminists don't get offended... Do we really live our lives? And if we do live the way we want to, we become outcasts... I guess the guys who laid out the rules were obsessive compulsive... Why should they then have a code for everything you can imagine... from dictating what you eat to whom you are allowed to marry... And the so called sticklers to these dictums, breach them in the dark... They do not have the guts to do the same thing in broad daylight... Should some one do it, he is stigmatized... Isn't this hypocrisy going to end at all? Or am I wrong in choosing not to follow what has been laid down as customs / beliefs / value system???
She said, "Hari, human beings, by birth are polygamous. But it is the society that pulls at the leash". I guess I have to agree with that... Don't we ogle at a pretty woman that we see? I am straight, hence, a woman... Feminists don't get offended... Do we really live our lives? And if we do live the way we want to, we become outcasts... I guess the guys who laid out the rules were obsessive compulsive... Why should they then have a code for everything you can imagine... from dictating what you eat to whom you are allowed to marry... And the so called sticklers to these dictums, breach them in the dark... They do not have the guts to do the same thing in broad daylight... Should some one do it, he is stigmatized... Isn't this hypocrisy going to end at all? Or am I wrong in choosing not to follow what has been laid down as customs / beliefs / value system???
Black out...
Technology, especially computers have changed people's lives a lot... Everything these days is automated... Right from the cash out counter in department stores to the check-in terminals in airports... We enjoy luxury even in simple things like automatic doors, power windows for cars, automatic taps in sinks, flushes... This has sometimes made us lazy... Many a time we stand in front of a door waiting for it to slide open... Then with a sheepish smile, we realize that those are not automatic... The human mind always asks for more...
I do not know if this technological advancement is a bane or boon... Neither am I going to be judgemental about it. What bothers me more is the way in which people have changed because of these... Here is a small anecdote that I would like to put forward to show what I intend to convey!!! I can hear what you are saying: "Ahh, yet another anecdote from his life... He never seems to run out of them...".
When I was a kid, if there was a power cut during the day, I always found it out because the fans stopped running... But nowadays, I find out that there is a blackout because the internet stops working... As a matter of fact, the wireless connection camps on to a slower neighbouring connection... And this slow connection speed makes me look at what happened to my cable modem... It is then I figure out that there is a black out... I am not blaming the computers for this... It just gives me an impression that we are with our computers/cell phones for more time than we are with the family or friends that surround us...
These days, the definition of a house has taken a totally new form... Some sort of a superstructure with a roof, a computer and wireless internet connection is all we need. People aren't happy with a wired LAN connection. The next minute, they start looking at deals for a wireless router.
Isn't the world a lot simpler without all these advancements? Or is it a much better place with all these luxuries? I leave it to the reader...
I do not know if this technological advancement is a bane or boon... Neither am I going to be judgemental about it. What bothers me more is the way in which people have changed because of these... Here is a small anecdote that I would like to put forward to show what I intend to convey!!! I can hear what you are saying: "Ahh, yet another anecdote from his life... He never seems to run out of them...".
When I was a kid, if there was a power cut during the day, I always found it out because the fans stopped running... But nowadays, I find out that there is a blackout because the internet stops working... As a matter of fact, the wireless connection camps on to a slower neighbouring connection... And this slow connection speed makes me look at what happened to my cable modem... It is then I figure out that there is a black out... I am not blaming the computers for this... It just gives me an impression that we are with our computers/cell phones for more time than we are with the family or friends that surround us...
These days, the definition of a house has taken a totally new form... Some sort of a superstructure with a roof, a computer and wireless internet connection is all we need. People aren't happy with a wired LAN connection. The next minute, they start looking at deals for a wireless router.
Isn't the world a lot simpler without all these advancements? Or is it a much better place with all these luxuries? I leave it to the reader...
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Journey into the Atlantic!
To add another feather to my cap, there is something that I did for the first time... Sailing and being a part of the crew that ran the ship. A completely different 5 days that I spent sailing in the Atlantic ocean trawling around Long Island.
An International student in the land of opportunities, deciding against a PhD, wanting to graduate with a Masters in December, with just one course to do and lots of time to kill, a little short of funds to make ends meet, resorts to doing a couple of odd jobs here and there to make the few extra bucks... Among the jobs, there was this job of being a Deckhand in the Seawolf, a research vessel belonging to the Department of Marine Sciences, Stony Brook University. There is skepticism about the job that he has agreed to because, he has never handled fishes in his life... He doesn't know if it would be gross to do the job. He doesn't like accepting defeat, defeat here being the fact that he is not strong enough to stand the ordeal... But nevertheless, he decides and takes it on.
The crew was all set to sail out of Port Jefferson harbour on a nice Monday afternoon. Joined by the captain, Steve, two other deckhands, Katy and Tara and the research crew, he witnessed the breaking of the bottle of Champagne. They sailed along the north shore of Long Island (LI), till they reached the Hudson river. It was a nice experience to sail under the bridges of Manhattan, particularly the Brookly bridge. It was nice because that was the first time he got to see Manhattan from the waters. Tara had made some nice chicken, mashed potatoes and salad. One very good thing about the sailor's life is the importance that they attach to dinner. Everyone from captain to deckhand dines together. After dinner, we docked in New York City, a city that neverr sleeps... But we had to because trawling had to start early next morning.
One can easily imbibe discipline by doing jobs like these. The word from the captain was: "Thou shall be out of your bunks at the sound of the engine tomorrow morning". That night, he had a rather disturbed sleep trying to figure out which of the sounds was close to that of a ship's engine starting. At around 6:30, he woke up with a jerk... The engine's sound was definitely something that you can't miss even if you were in the deep sleep phase of the Rapid Eye Movement.
They started moving out into the Hudson river for the first trawl. Trawling is definitely a strenuous job... Getting the trawl lines out, hooking the trawl doors... all needed the brawn that a normal guy does not have. Workouts pay... Trawling happens for twenty minutes and then the catch is brought inside... There came the first catch and with that came his heart into his mouth... The job to be done was pretty simple... The fishes in the catch had to be sorted based on species and size... But his thoughts were in finding out if he would be able to stand the odor and the slime... Surprisingly it was not too reprehensible... Dog fish, winter skates, little skates, Blue fish, Anchovies, Scubs, Squids, Sturgeons, Puffers, Clams, crabs, jelly fish and more... Distinguishing between species and between sexes was another interesting task... Slowly he got used to the business...
The first day of trawling came to an end, but the duties for the day had not... They did not dock for the night... They anchored at about 2 miles from the coast... So the obvious responsibility was to take turns in standing watch. The wheelhouse is a place that geeks would love... especially a communications engineer... The room was full of navigation equipment... Radar, Sonar, Automatic Identification System, GPS devices, etc... While standing guard, one has to keep monitoring the radar for traffic that might be passing by... The captain has to be notified if the course of any other vessel was in line with the ship... One also has to be wary of the fact that the ship does not drift too close to the coast (despite the anchor)... They had anchored along the South shore of LI and the South Westerly presented no threat... The two hours at the wheelhouse should be fun despite the fact that it had been a long day at the sea... CAPTAIN JACK SPARROW at the helm!!!
The second day and the third day of trawling were similar but for the fact that they did not anchor the second night... They were drifting freely... To counter the drift due to the ocean, the vessel was much farther into the ocean...
After three days of strenuous work, the research group got off the ship in Greenport, a dock in the easternmost part of LI, about 45 knots away from Port Jefferson. The ship was running short of fuel. That delayed the start from Greenport next morning... What the crew thought would be smooth sailing back home turned into something a little more adveturous. There was a high pressure in the Atlantic and a low over the Great lakes. This depression had brought with it a severe storm... The sea was rough due to the South Westerly winds... High waves were hitting the deck hard... It was a rather narrow escape because if they had been in the south shore then, they would have had to take the brunt of the merciless storm... It was a ver fast transition that happened overnight... The previous day was all sunny and calm... Without too much trouble, they were able to reach Port Jefferson at about 8:00 p.m.
Well, this trip has taught me many things... Value of money was the first thing that I learnt... To earn 13 dollars, I had to work an hour and it was not easy... Equality of people... I was a deckhand, but the way I was treated was simply stunning... Had it not been for this job, I would have never done trawling, never gotten a chance to overcome my disgust about the clammy feeling that one would have when handling fished... This was truly one nice trip... Hats off to the Seawolf!
An International student in the land of opportunities, deciding against a PhD, wanting to graduate with a Masters in December, with just one course to do and lots of time to kill, a little short of funds to make ends meet, resorts to doing a couple of odd jobs here and there to make the few extra bucks... Among the jobs, there was this job of being a Deckhand in the Seawolf, a research vessel belonging to the Department of Marine Sciences, Stony Brook University. There is skepticism about the job that he has agreed to because, he has never handled fishes in his life... He doesn't know if it would be gross to do the job. He doesn't like accepting defeat, defeat here being the fact that he is not strong enough to stand the ordeal... But nevertheless, he decides and takes it on.
The crew was all set to sail out of Port Jefferson harbour on a nice Monday afternoon. Joined by the captain, Steve, two other deckhands, Katy and Tara and the research crew, he witnessed the breaking of the bottle of Champagne. They sailed along the north shore of Long Island (LI), till they reached the Hudson river. It was a nice experience to sail under the bridges of Manhattan, particularly the Brookly bridge. It was nice because that was the first time he got to see Manhattan from the waters. Tara had made some nice chicken, mashed potatoes and salad. One very good thing about the sailor's life is the importance that they attach to dinner. Everyone from captain to deckhand dines together. After dinner, we docked in New York City, a city that neverr sleeps... But we had to because trawling had to start early next morning.
One can easily imbibe discipline by doing jobs like these. The word from the captain was: "Thou shall be out of your bunks at the sound of the engine tomorrow morning". That night, he had a rather disturbed sleep trying to figure out which of the sounds was close to that of a ship's engine starting. At around 6:30, he woke up with a jerk... The engine's sound was definitely something that you can't miss even if you were in the deep sleep phase of the Rapid Eye Movement.
They started moving out into the Hudson river for the first trawl. Trawling is definitely a strenuous job... Getting the trawl lines out, hooking the trawl doors... all needed the brawn that a normal guy does not have. Workouts pay... Trawling happens for twenty minutes and then the catch is brought inside... There came the first catch and with that came his heart into his mouth... The job to be done was pretty simple... The fishes in the catch had to be sorted based on species and size... But his thoughts were in finding out if he would be able to stand the odor and the slime... Surprisingly it was not too reprehensible... Dog fish, winter skates, little skates, Blue fish, Anchovies, Scubs, Squids, Sturgeons, Puffers, Clams, crabs, jelly fish and more... Distinguishing between species and between sexes was another interesting task... Slowly he got used to the business...
The first day of trawling came to an end, but the duties for the day had not... They did not dock for the night... They anchored at about 2 miles from the coast... So the obvious responsibility was to take turns in standing watch. The wheelhouse is a place that geeks would love... especially a communications engineer... The room was full of navigation equipment... Radar, Sonar, Automatic Identification System, GPS devices, etc... While standing guard, one has to keep monitoring the radar for traffic that might be passing by... The captain has to be notified if the course of any other vessel was in line with the ship... One also has to be wary of the fact that the ship does not drift too close to the coast (despite the anchor)... They had anchored along the South shore of LI and the South Westerly presented no threat... The two hours at the wheelhouse should be fun despite the fact that it had been a long day at the sea... CAPTAIN JACK SPARROW at the helm!!!
The second day and the third day of trawling were similar but for the fact that they did not anchor the second night... They were drifting freely... To counter the drift due to the ocean, the vessel was much farther into the ocean...
After three days of strenuous work, the research group got off the ship in Greenport, a dock in the easternmost part of LI, about 45 knots away from Port Jefferson. The ship was running short of fuel. That delayed the start from Greenport next morning... What the crew thought would be smooth sailing back home turned into something a little more adveturous. There was a high pressure in the Atlantic and a low over the Great lakes. This depression had brought with it a severe storm... The sea was rough due to the South Westerly winds... High waves were hitting the deck hard... It was a rather narrow escape because if they had been in the south shore then, they would have had to take the brunt of the merciless storm... It was a ver fast transition that happened overnight... The previous day was all sunny and calm... Without too much trouble, they were able to reach Port Jefferson at about 8:00 p.m.
Well, this trip has taught me many things... Value of money was the first thing that I learnt... To earn 13 dollars, I had to work an hour and it was not easy... Equality of people... I was a deckhand, but the way I was treated was simply stunning... Had it not been for this job, I would have never done trawling, never gotten a chance to overcome my disgust about the clammy feeling that one would have when handling fished... This was truly one nice trip... Hats off to the Seawolf!
Saturday, July 28, 2007
A tryst with nature...
I guess it is high time I stop writing philosophy... Man, that is because I am happy... And no one writes philosophy while in high spirits...
So here I go with this blog about my date with nature! I never said I would be less poetic.
It was a five hour drive to the mountain range... Inyo National park... Driving, yet another of my passions, was painful that morning because of lack of sleep the previous night exacerbated by the early morning fog... It was about 8 a.m. when we reached the ranger station... We picked our camping passes and set off for the trailhead which was about 7 miles from the station. We were seven guys in all... grabbed some breakfast on the way to the trailhead... the route to the start of the trail was winding and getting us a little dizzy... At about eleven we got started on the trail... We set out to scale MOUNT LANGLEY, a majestic 14 er (14,047 feet) in the Sierra Nevada range.
The first day of the hike was to just get closer to the summit. We covered only one fourth of the total distance... Heavy backpacks, scorching sun and an apparent underestimation of the terrain had gotten us tired... We decided to camp by one of the four lakes... of course, by now you would have guessed... we camped by the lake that was closest to the summit...
The water in the lake was chill and refreshing... The fine texture of the lake bed was soothing to the foot... The places where the texture changed from being fine to being coarse gave some good acupunture treatment to the sore legs... Crystal clear water, clear blue skies, Mt. Langley in the backdrop and a few scattered palm trees gave the place an ethereal touch... After a light lunch and a mid day siesta, four of us left the camp to find out about the trail to follow. We had been lucky the first day because we used a marked and maintained trail. We discovered only late in the evening about what lay in store for the next morning...
We were supposed to take the old army pass... a jigsaw puzzle would have any day been better to solve than to figure out where the pass was... Fortunately with some wrong way of map reading (with a compass of course) and some guidance from fellow hikers who were faced with the same daunting task, we were able to find it... The remainder of the day was rather smooth, but for the fact that we got lost for an hour before being able to find out the way to the camp!
The next morning, we left the camp at around 5:00 in the morning... We were at an elevation of 10,000 feet then... and were all set to brave the Old Army Pass, the heat and the herculean 14 er... We reached the foot of the old Army pass only to discover that it was a beast... The switchbacks drove us crazy... Heavy backpacks, sharp and steep switchbacks made us scamper our way up the passs... Once up there it was rather flat... But the forks in the path put us in a spot of bother time and again... As the saying goes "All roads lead to Rome", all these forks still led us to the same place... We lesser mortals did not realise this until some wisecrack in the team asserted it...
We realized that the Old Army pass had been a lot gentle to us when we reached the foot of the summit... We literally had to do rock climbing... A couple of wise people left their heavy backpacks and loaded themselves with only fluids and energy shots... It took six energy shots for a guy before he made it to the summit... Six out of seven penned our names in the summit register at 10:30 a.m. ... Well, to do some justice to the name of the post, let me make a remark here: It was beautiful from up there... :)
The way back was downhill and was a piece of cake... We reached the camp at around 1:00 p.m... After a short while of rest, we resumed our journey back to the trail head... The total hike was for 24 miles... One hell of a trip... But the best thing about it was that we tamed a 14er... Awaiting to have more 14ers in the bag and more posts in the blog...
So here I go with this blog about my date with nature! I never said I would be less poetic.
It was a five hour drive to the mountain range... Inyo National park... Driving, yet another of my passions, was painful that morning because of lack of sleep the previous night exacerbated by the early morning fog... It was about 8 a.m. when we reached the ranger station... We picked our camping passes and set off for the trailhead which was about 7 miles from the station. We were seven guys in all... grabbed some breakfast on the way to the trailhead... the route to the start of the trail was winding and getting us a little dizzy... At about eleven we got started on the trail... We set out to scale MOUNT LANGLEY, a majestic 14 er (14,047 feet) in the Sierra Nevada range.
The first day of the hike was to just get closer to the summit. We covered only one fourth of the total distance... Heavy backpacks, scorching sun and an apparent underestimation of the terrain had gotten us tired... We decided to camp by one of the four lakes... of course, by now you would have guessed... we camped by the lake that was closest to the summit...
The water in the lake was chill and refreshing... The fine texture of the lake bed was soothing to the foot... The places where the texture changed from being fine to being coarse gave some good acupunture treatment to the sore legs... Crystal clear water, clear blue skies, Mt. Langley in the backdrop and a few scattered palm trees gave the place an ethereal touch... After a light lunch and a mid day siesta, four of us left the camp to find out about the trail to follow. We had been lucky the first day because we used a marked and maintained trail. We discovered only late in the evening about what lay in store for the next morning...
We were supposed to take the old army pass... a jigsaw puzzle would have any day been better to solve than to figure out where the pass was... Fortunately with some wrong way of map reading (with a compass of course) and some guidance from fellow hikers who were faced with the same daunting task, we were able to find it... The remainder of the day was rather smooth, but for the fact that we got lost for an hour before being able to find out the way to the camp!
The next morning, we left the camp at around 5:00 in the morning... We were at an elevation of 10,000 feet then... and were all set to brave the Old Army Pass, the heat and the herculean 14 er... We reached the foot of the old Army pass only to discover that it was a beast... The switchbacks drove us crazy... Heavy backpacks, sharp and steep switchbacks made us scamper our way up the passs... Once up there it was rather flat... But the forks in the path put us in a spot of bother time and again... As the saying goes "All roads lead to Rome", all these forks still led us to the same place... We lesser mortals did not realise this until some wisecrack in the team asserted it...
We realized that the Old Army pass had been a lot gentle to us when we reached the foot of the summit... We literally had to do rock climbing... A couple of wise people left their heavy backpacks and loaded themselves with only fluids and energy shots... It took six energy shots for a guy before he made it to the summit... Six out of seven penned our names in the summit register at 10:30 a.m. ... Well, to do some justice to the name of the post, let me make a remark here: It was beautiful from up there... :)
The way back was downhill and was a piece of cake... We reached the camp at around 1:00 p.m... After a short while of rest, we resumed our journey back to the trail head... The total hike was for 24 miles... One hell of a trip... But the best thing about it was that we tamed a 14er... Awaiting to have more 14ers in the bag and more posts in the blog...
Monday, July 16, 2007
A day's crush
This post is about a girl that caught my attention during my visit to Six Flags, Magic Mountains, CA.
Amid a lot of hot blondes, I saw her... managing a bunch of kids, she seemed to be the most responsible one I have seen in recent time... her poise was unmatched... despite the fact that it was hot, the lines to the rides were long, the trouble precipitated by the mischievous kids around, she did a good job of holding her nerve...
Now to the more interesting part... I liked her eyes, the beautiful chain around her neck, the flowing locks that she kept tucking behind those dainty ears, her svelte figure and the lovely smile that came upon her face... She had the word "rusty" written on her clothes which eventually became the word I used for her name... For sometime I went to all places she went... I would stand all day and keep watching the smile that she gave when she grew sentient of the fact that I was after her... It would have been wonderful if I had been bestowed with the gift of stalling time... I felt a little embarassed after that and walked off sheepishly but I do not regret it because it makes me smile now...
Amid a lot of hot blondes, I saw her... managing a bunch of kids, she seemed to be the most responsible one I have seen in recent time... her poise was unmatched... despite the fact that it was hot, the lines to the rides were long, the trouble precipitated by the mischievous kids around, she did a good job of holding her nerve...
Now to the more interesting part... I liked her eyes, the beautiful chain around her neck, the flowing locks that she kept tucking behind those dainty ears, her svelte figure and the lovely smile that came upon her face... She had the word "rusty" written on her clothes which eventually became the word I used for her name... For sometime I went to all places she went... I would stand all day and keep watching the smile that she gave when she grew sentient of the fact that I was after her... It would have been wonderful if I had been bestowed with the gift of stalling time... I felt a little embarassed after that and walked off sheepishly but I do not regret it because it makes me smile now...
Thursday, July 12, 2007
The Divide
It is mid day and I look out through the window of my lab located on the 8th floor of a high rise building... It is a warm n sunny day... People walking leisurely to grab lunch from the eatouts nearby, almost no traffic on the roads... The serenity only gets more as I look farther away... Mountainous terrain with grasslands marked by a few trails... the fitness freaks trying to tame them under the mid-day sun... no more buildings or people as I see farther... just a few pylons standing tall and nothing else but the mountains hidden behind haze... Clear blue sky and some scattered vegetation give the much needed contrast to the otherwise featureless panaroma...
As I get lost in it, I am brought back to the other side by the ring of my phone... I turn to see people... people swarming around to fix issues on a project... Racks of computers, wires running around all over the place... workbenches that are sensitive to electrostatic discharge marked by caution tapes... It all looks like a maze...
The chasm between the two worlds appears deep... Where do I belong? I do not have an answer... And from one side, the other always looks more appealing...
That was a call for lunch... My turn to take a relaxed walk to grab food...
As I get lost in it, I am brought back to the other side by the ring of my phone... I turn to see people... people swarming around to fix issues on a project... Racks of computers, wires running around all over the place... workbenches that are sensitive to electrostatic discharge marked by caution tapes... It all looks like a maze...
The chasm between the two worlds appears deep... Where do I belong? I do not have an answer... And from one side, the other always looks more appealing...
That was a call for lunch... My turn to take a relaxed walk to grab food...
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Why am I Blogging...?
Sitting in a room lit only by my laptop screen, staring into its glare, I ask myself a reason for my sudden interest in wanting to start blogging... Is it fashionable? kinda cool? nerdy? a nice hobby? a vent? Well the last one seems to have matched better although the other ones fit to a good degree...
I have always been amazed by the human mind... The ways it adopts to heal itself... Alter egos born to set free a troubled mind...
Yes, this writer here is a result of an emotional turmoil... But would probably be the alter ego who sees more brighter sides of life than his master... and that explains the name of the blog spot...
However, to the reader who is getting a little anxious about my master, here is the message: "He always wanted to be a blogger... But never ventured into one..." There are loads of good things to write about and the writer is sworn to write stuff that would lift up the spirit of the readers lest they should be burdened with woes...
As the silence of the night creeps in with the soft n mellifluous music blending well into the ambience, master looks at me with a rather quizzical eye... He wonders if this blogspot is a result of his longstanding fervour for writing or if it just a knee jerk reaction to his present state of mind. But my conviction says that master is gonna be happy that he got me started on this...
With the promise of producing millions of interesting reads, I prepare to rest for the day...
Guys, that is the metaphorical way of saying that you are reading the last line of the blog...
Song: Poove Vaypesa Vendum 12B
I have always been amazed by the human mind... The ways it adopts to heal itself... Alter egos born to set free a troubled mind...
Yes, this writer here is a result of an emotional turmoil... But would probably be the alter ego who sees more brighter sides of life than his master... and that explains the name of the blog spot...
However, to the reader who is getting a little anxious about my master, here is the message: "He always wanted to be a blogger... But never ventured into one..." There are loads of good things to write about and the writer is sworn to write stuff that would lift up the spirit of the readers lest they should be burdened with woes...
As the silence of the night creeps in with the soft n mellifluous music blending well into the ambience, master looks at me with a rather quizzical eye... He wonders if this blogspot is a result of his longstanding fervour for writing or if it just a knee jerk reaction to his present state of mind. But my conviction says that master is gonna be happy that he got me started on this...
With the promise of producing millions of interesting reads, I prepare to rest for the day...
Guys, that is the metaphorical way of saying that you are reading the last line of the blog...
Song: Poove Vaypesa Vendum 12B
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