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Leh se Lamayuru tak.. [Part II]

2008-12-30T04:20:00.000-08:00

We wake up to a bright new day, longing to take us through the valleys, the high passes, and the never ending vast landscapes of Western Ladakh. And before I pen down the experience, I wanted to share the history and the uniqueness of Ladakh.

About Ladakh::

Ladakh speaks a lot of untold history, which is spectacularly unique from the rest of the world. Dating back to the early imprints of our Neolithic ancestors, and the more widely known Indus valley civilization, it has witnessed and survived the many mortal kingships and dynasties, and has been soaked time and again in the mysterious yet inevitable magma of religion and culture, from Buddhism, to Islam, and Christianity, when the British invaded the Indian subcontinent.

It has not only been a prominent juncture for trade between west and central/east Asia during the silk route age, but has been the key to the outspread of Buddhism to east Asian countries.

Over the past 100 odd years, Ladakh has been sliced and diced by our neighbors, splitting and relishing the tiny tidbits they could snatch and literally do nothing with them. Think of Baltistan, which is now part of the Pok or Aksai Chin (China controlled Kashmir), or the Siachen Glacier which is known to be the highest battlegrounds on earth, which our Indian brothers are trying to save for social and political reasons.

Surely, it has seen it all and choose to seek repose, and probably laughs at the juvenile attempts of humans, to conquer and build barriers around the God gifted planet and take nothing at the end, but their invisible souls when they die. I guess that is what makes it a perfect place to seek nirvana, as it in itself sets a perfect example of attaining emancipation in the true sense..

Despite all this, ironically, Ladakh is the largest state of India in terms of the area, and also the most sparsely populated. And having seen soo much of history, it still feels very untouched and pure, enchanting those who pour in every year, with a visual retreat..

Way to Lamayuru::

Diving back into the real scene, we are going to the historical Lamayuru Gonpa situated some 127kms to the west of Leh. A 100kms further up would lead into the Kargil district, and few more miles from there would touch the LOC !! It sounds exciting, but we restrained from risking our lives, by only sticking to stretch a 127kms from Leh :)

We started off at around 8:00sh in the morning, after filling ourselves with the Ladakhi breakfast. We got two cabs (Innova and Safari), arranged by the guesthouse and were joined by two cab drivers, very friendly and polite. They both have the same names and one is a little shy and the other one looked like a cool rock star with his shades on.

The sun already out in full swing, setting a perfect backdrop for a long drive. As the vast canvas was laid out to nature's creative madness, it applied gentle brush strokes with occasional greens juxtaposed with vivid colors of sky blues and earthen browns, literally creating life size sceneries on the fly as we see through the windows shades of our swift moving cabs..

For the initial one hour or so, we snapped several pictures like paparazzi shooting the semi nude Britney Spears ;).. as every inch of it looked stupendously spellbinding and probably none of us have seen such terrain and locales before.

The magnetic hill::

Just when we thought we were cruising, we were magically slowed down by the magnetic hill (gravity hill), not due to its magnetic force, but due to its enticing charm and charisma. For a moment, it felt as if I'm in Mars, as the look and feel of these immense mountains is so different and alien. It made me think, how on earth something like this could exist, so devoid of life and yet so alive. Surrounded by these elephantine mountains, is a vast flat surface, tempting me to go for a midday cricket match. Amidst the playground, is a thin strap of dark concrete road which appears to disappear into the mountains on either ends.. This place has truly cast a spell on all of us and it is indeed magnetic..

We spent sometime exploring and indulging in the scenery, and took a number of pictures which are going to be memories of a lifetime..

As we passed the magnetic hill, we saw the holy shrine of Shri Guru Nanak. I wasn't aware at that time about the history behind it, but I wikied and found insightful information about the place.

Shri Guru Nanak, was an avid traveller, and had blessed many places en route to his journey to the mystical Manasarovar in Tibet. During that time, he had passed through Ladakh and embraced the place with a holy shrine. Interesting fact is that, he is revered as a Buddhist saint by the Tibetans and is more famously known as Guru Gonpa Maharaj.

Within minutes, we caught the first glimpse of the mighty Indus. My thoughts flowed backwards through the memory lanes and took me to my school days, where I first learned about the Indus Valley Civilization and the Mohenjo-daro and Harrappa times. I am always fascinated about history, and it was indeed a special moment witnessing Indus so close.. !!

The mighty Indus river::

Indus appeared as a thin stream of lane and accompanied us for the most part of our journey to both Lamayuru and Tsomoriri. Apparently, this thin lane, originates in Tibet, at the confluence of two rivers (Sengge and Gar rivers), and turns into a massive stream, and enters into Pakistan. Flowing all through PoK, it takes a curve southwards into Karachi and merges into the Arabian Sea.

The amazing fact is that in winters, it become completely frozen and people usually trek on the snow clad surface of the river. It is truly fascinating, but a bit scary too :)

Moments later, we reach this breathtaking view point, the confluence of Zanskar and Indus. The meeting point of these rivers is quite a remarkable scenery.. We parked our vehicles for a bit and rejoiced the extraordinary view point for sometime and then moved along.

Indus hid behind the valley, and in a spur, the terrain changed, looking green all of a sudden, indicating that we had come close to a village. Nimmu is the home village of one of our drivers and, we could see plenty of flora and fauna around. Little kids walking with their school bags, and the cattle heading for their morning breakfast at the nearby grasslands, and some villagers engaged in their daily chores on the roads.. For a change, it felt great to see life and people. Otherwise, it was just barren lands everywhere, and an occasional military base camp..

It was 10:30sh, and we stopped at yet another perfect spot, this time, to purify the Indus with our respective sacred jal ;).. We got off the cabs and took a leisure break, and BG fired his smokes and started puffing in the air. Adjacent to the road, is a lowland, which gets you closer to the river. Me being the B'grade Akshay Kumar, I leaped across and went closer to the river. The water was very chilled and fresh.. and I added my bit of minerals to it and purified the stream :)... As expected, it was time for some pictures as usual... and, as I posed like a cliff hanger before getting back on to the road, Snoopie took some great shots, while Sarkar started recording the scenic background..

We decided to kick off from there and reach the Gonpa, so that we could return early. But with a bunch of adult monkeys with no master, it is almost impossible to be disciplined.. we stopped again in the middle to buy some dry fruits, and Manu and I spotted a young, gorgeous looking Ladakhi girl at a distance.. None of our attempts succeeded in capturing a moment of her.. Blame Manu for his inability to use his freaking expensive SLR camera ;)

We still had a good 50kms to cover and the flashing scenes of the mountains and the Indus slowly became routine, and we passed time chatting with the driver. He told some interesting tidbits, one of it was, that, the other driver met Saif Ali Khan last year and he was in fact the personal driver of Saif during his entire shoot in Ladakh. Hm.. that's some filmi gossip :)

As the attention was detuned off the nature, it felt insulted. Moments later, it hit back with immense passion, trying to impress and make a lasting impression of its versatile beauty. We approached closer to Lamayuru, and were on the main highway to Kargil. It feels ironical to call that a highway, as it looked like a thin concrete line separating these barbarous mountains, mammuthus in size, very rocky and battered. The road for the most part was covered with pieces of rock, due to landslides, and one of our cabs have fallen prey to the pointed rocks and we had stopped to replace the tire.

What better location to stop.. than this.. there is us, the sky, the fast moving stream of Indus and a tiny strip of concrete road with rocks scattered all over it, and all of this surrounded by the dinosaur sized mighty rock mountains, some graceful and some fierce. It was a splendid scenery and, we were enjoying the short break, chatting and exploring the surroundings, while the two drivers get together to quickly change the tire.

Arriving at Lamayuru::

The road to Lamayuru takes a deviation from there into a scary ghat. The next 15 minutes were full of excitement and adventure as the ghat was dead steep and the drivers displayed their incredible skills, by mounting up the ghat with no difficulty. The views were exotic.. and we were welcomed by the moon land, which indeed looked like a cut-copy-paste of a piece of moon's land, completely contrasting the surrounding scene.

A dozen houses, a Gonpa, with mountains and desert surrounding them, is how one can define the Lamayuru village. Apparently, Lamayuru has a lot of history dating back to the 10th century, and the Gonpa here is one of the oldest on the Himalayan terrain, with many myths and legends attached to it. It is a great feeling to visit these historical places, and transporting back to those ancient times in thought.. I always wonder how life would have been and what people used to do back then.. and it is very fascinating.. I sometimes wish, I had the power to travel back in time.. that is such a crazy thought, but may be we really can travel in time..you never know !!

The Gonpa::

Back in the real world, we reached the entrance of the gonpa, which looked dilapidated, and renovation was going on. We reached the main temple, and it looked like an old wooden house, the front walls papered with paintings of Buddhist monks and temple like structures. I found the usage of the shades very interesting, but could not really make out the expression of the paintings.

A serious, and somewhat surprised monk gave us the entrance tickets and literally escorted us into the temple and monitored every inch of our move. We tried to ignore the policing monk and continued exploring the place. The temple had many pictures and idols of various Buddhas and Lamas, from the ancient 11th century to the most recent Dalai Lama the 14th. And besides each of the Buddha idols, is their description on a postcard sized paper.

There was nothing exciting inside the temple and so we came out, to tour around. We reached the first floor where a few monks were chatting. They received us with a surprised look, while a few young boy monks were running up and down the stairs. I returned a friendly smile which went unnoticed by most of them. Not bothering much, I looked around and noticed a small room, which is like a prayer/office room, where 2 monks were sitting and writing some inscriptions on the leaves.. I was too curious to see what they were writing, and I had in fact asked a monk sitting outside, but I couldn't get the answer quite right.. Although I was a bit disappointed with the monk's answer, I just brushed it aside and walked further up.

I climbed the stairs and reached the top, where there is an empty room, somewhat like a shady pent house, with a small balcony, exposing a tremendous view of the entire valley. The roof top overlooks the village, the moon land and the distant mountains beyond them.. I spent sometime enjoying the glorious view, while the sunny breeze caressed my withered face. I somehow felt that the drive was more interesting than the Gonpa itself and I was all happy and contempt that there is still another 3hrs of drive left for the day.

The houses around are very primitive and had a certain style of construction.. And, adjacent to the Gonpa, I saw a family out on their roof, probably getting stuff ready for their lunch. Pleasantly surprising was the dish antenna looking up like a wild sunflower on their roof, and the electricity cables running between the houses !! Now that is some sign of progress and modernisation ! But I sincerely hope and that the heritage, and their identity stays through, which is what makes this place very special and very different.

While walking back from the Gonpa, I took some pictures of an old lady with a prayer wheel, who charged me for the photo shoot and returned a smile when she got her remuneration :) We spent sometime at the chai dukhan next to the Gonpa, savoring the hot, red wine looking ginger tea, and talked about some random things.. It was 12:30sh, and none of us were really that hungry and so we decided to have lunch somewhere in a village en route to Leh.

Back to Leh::

The descent through the ghat was even more scary than expected. But we had enough faith in our drivers, and within minutes we were back on the Kargil - Leh highway. I turned back to smell the fresh air of Kargil and bid goodbye to the rocky mountains and the moon land, for being such great hosts.

A good 40 minutes drive, and we reach a village called Khaltse, hustling and bustling with street shops of all kinds, from restaurants to carpenter shops, to grocery and general stores. There were more kids than adults around, in the shops and on the streets, and most of them look irresistibly cute. We halt for lunch at a restaurant rightfully named after Indus, "The Indus Restaurant", where we had some dal, sabji, roti and chawal, and the food was nearly good. We ended the light meal with a chai, and I went around and played a bit with the kids on the streets, who were busy with their own games and their unusual toys.. They all pose for a lovely pic and soon after we depart from there and continue our journey back to Leh.

We encountered sceneries and locales, very different than what we saw onward.. May be we took a different route this time, but I really didn't care as I was very much enjoying the views and the nature. On the way, we stopped at a couple more exotic places and had some breathers.

To add a bit of a tadka to the lovely ride, our driver played some heart breaking Gulshan Kumar classics like "acha sila diya tune" on the tape.. Niraj and Manu seemed to enjoy the songs, but not for a long time.. soon we insisted the driver to change to a more lively track, and unbelievably, our he pulled up this crazy number, "HipHopper mujhe pyar toh kar", only to make the ride all the more interesting and memorable :) Time passed quite quickly and we reached Leh by around 4:30sh, and we continued towards the Guesthouse.

Shanti Stupa::

The day hasn't quite come to and end.. as it was still 4:30 in the evening. Some of us were interested in heading to the market, while a few including me were interested in climbing the Shanti Stupa. So, Manu, Niraj and I set out to reach the Shanti Stupa, while the rest of the folks head to the market to checkout the town life. Considering the fact that we were already at 10,000ft, it took us a good 30mins, as we trickled bit by bit all the way to the top, trailing the ziggy zaggy path.

Located on top of the cliff, adjacent to our guest house is this dazzlingly beautiful temple, very aptly called the Shanti Stupa, epitomizing the innate essence of this place, pure tranquility and absolute mysticism. A flat square block, its fine cut edges paralleled with the thin air, literally floating @ 1000ft, giving a full blown view of the entire town. The green pastures, the tiny mushroom like houses, and mountains of various textures cascaded in the backdrop and disappearing into the infinite skies.. Above all, the Stupa standing tall, its head carved like a minaret, touching the sky, looked to be the axis mundi !

Surrounding the Stupa are the distinct paintings, depicting some of the incidents of Buddha's life. We orbited the temple from outside, and clicked some beautiful paintings and posed for some picture perfect moments. Later, I circled, trailing the edges of the square, to capture the entire panoramic view in a video. I was mesmerized by the whole experience, so much so that my unbridled soul set itself to fly like a free bird.. and an occasional peep down would bring an adrenaline rush in my body, what can I say, it is a mixed emotion of reverence towards nature and its genious ! We sat for a while, sitting on the edge of the cliff, dangling our feet into the void, and as the evening dusk drew the curtains quietly decorating the skies with twinkling stars, we descended just in time to get back to the guest house.. The rest of the folks who went to the market came back shortly after we got down and we had a light leisure dinner and some chit-chat before we called it a day..

That marks the end of this post as well, dont miss the final two posts "Trip to Tsomoriri" and "Leh to Delhi".. Until then, I hope you had fun reading this blog post..

Leh, Ladakh [Part I]

2008-12-25T18:57:00.000-08:00

Leh, Ladakh

Don't be a gama in the land of lama

The real Crew

-- Sarkar and Snoopie

- Our cameraman and photographer.. I have to admit, Sarkar has taken a crazy number of pictures, which all astoundingly look the same ;) He shot the first half of the movie quite well, but during the second half, he fell sick and said "hell no" to take any video after touching the mighty mountains @ 15000ft.

-- Snoopie
- Our lead photographer, the macRo man.. Ek kahavat hain.. Elephant hi jaane Ant ki naak. Snoopie doesn't like the word 'small' and specializes in making every small thing look 'BIG' ;). Bole toh.. uske size main hoyinga toh snoopie ko acha lagenga.. ;).

PS: By now you must have understood how dedicated they were at their job.. Sarkar is seen recording something in utter darkness and Snoopie is trying to capture the small faint light in the darkness and convert it into a big radiant beam ;)

-- Manu

- Our guide and helper.. we sent him last year to visit Leh and do a survey to find out if there is halaal meet.. Alas, there was no meat with that name and poor Abrar dropped out for the very same reason..

-- Bg
- Our producer of the series.. who never compromised for budget and swiped his card at every nook and corner, to squeeze as much money as it can possibly give.

-- Samit

- Our protagonist, the very active, enthusiastic, energetic and youthful star. Oh wait, this must be someone else.. Oops.. I'm mistaken.. ehm, take 2, action, and the intro is..... "The dada of the dadas..., the par dada... apna Samit Dada... ;)" There is a legend, that long long ago during his childhood days, on a bright sunny night, dada woke up and realized that he attained Nirvana !! Since then, he leads a monk like life (lol) and preaches his aaraam ka mamla to our desi sysops.

-- Niraj

- The Pareshaan Aswasthy of our movie, poor thing became both pareshaan (upset) and aswasth (sick) on the night at Tsomoriri :)

-Sanjay
--Some random kala bandar, who is scribbling this blog :)

Now, time for a serious flashback

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It all started when one of my dear friend, manu, payed a trip to this foreign land as part of his globe trotting agenda :).. Upon returning, he shared his amazing experiences. As I opened the album on my computer, it had surprisingly colored my screen with rich and never-seen-before shades, and transformed into a magnum opus artwork. I'd never seen something like this before, and for a moment it all felt very unusual, and very unreal. Such, such were the lovely ridges, the high ranging mountains and the tantalizing landscapes, that my deeper self awakened subconsciously, and teleported to this earthly paradise and rejoiced in it for moments..

As I regained my senses, my soul expressed an innate desire to see this earthly paradise at least once if not more, in the near future.. "but when?, when is the near future", kept inquiring my curious self and buzzing within me. Being unsure of 'when and how', I snoozed it for almost an year.. Finally, the time has come, and things shaped up like I never imagined.. it has been decided that sysops-india offsite will be in Leh, Ladakh.

My joy was boundless and the excitement was profound.. I hit the snooze knob off, once for all, and tapped my hibernated 'self' to get ready to experience the enigmatic journey in the land of lamas !!

The night at the Delhi guest house:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

gur 25th night - 26th morning

Both the desi groups set to Delhi from their respective cities (HYD n BLR) on the lovely kingfisher airlines which is more famous for its model like attendants, than the service :). Time flied with the king of good times.. and with manu sitting next to me, and telepathically sending his lust waves to the two beautiful, tall and fair flight attendants, it was even more fun (lol).. One of them even volunteered to serve tea, not once, but twice to our charming Garg :) No surprise there, I say !..

We arrived at the Delhi airport, and it was a Desi regroup after a loong time. And I could see the excitement and curiosity in everybody, very looking forward to the trip. We had to wait for a bit to get our transport set, and then for a bit to decide on the dinner plan. And then finally we got into the 3 taxis, after agreeing to meet at a point near the GUR office. No surprise that in the land of Sardars one can't expect everything to go smooth.. Just when we thought all of us made it to the point, the taxi with Sarkar, Anoop, Manu cruised and ran far like a mad cow, and they faded away from the dinner plan, as they were in no mood to eat. Instead, they agreed to buy the herbal tonic on their way and head directly to their guest house. Pareshaan was a bit upset that they (sarkar, snoopie, manu) ditched the dinner plan..but Nikumbh sir (bg) consoled him ;)

It was around 10:00 in the night and we were at this bustling dhaba right next to the Convergys building in GUR. I was pleasantly surprised at the unusual crowd, mostly, the nearby IT and BPO professionals, who kept pouring into this rustic looking highway dhaba. Apparently, this place is extremely popular and claims to serve nothing but hot and tasty food. After accompanying BG with his sutta break, we managed to get a table in the rush open air dhaba, and ordered some light dinner and savored the hot tasty food. Soon after, we fled to our respective guest houses, agreeing to wake-up-call each other early morning, to head to the airport. Thanks to the GUR transport, for doing such a great job with the cabs. The cabs arrived on time at midnight, and we regrouped at the airport to check-in well before time.

The flight to Leh :
~~~~~~~~~~~
26th morning

It is a BYOF flight (kingfisher red, formerly known as Dukhan). The aircraft was was dolled up like the beautiful kingfisher bird with different shades of red all over it, very pretty and very non dukhan type ;). Moments later we curved up into the skies defying the concept of gravity, and I grabbed a hot chocolate coffee and settled in my window seat to immerse in the extraordinary views.

The skies looked anxious and very indulged in their daily act of welcoming the mighty sun and bidding farewell to the silvery moon. In return, the sun greeted the infinite skies with its incredible feats, which exemplified nothing but a simple act of sheer mesmerism. First, it painted the horizon with vibrant shades of its very own reds, oranges, and lemon. And then, from within the shades, the migthy sun emerged slowly by showering luminous golden rays, and tenderly wakening the lovely mother earth and its beings. Among all this, the exuberant foam like clouds appeared to purify the snowy mountains beneath, which relatively looked as if they were taking their early morning showers in the golden sun rays, and getting ready for their sacred prayers (sandhya-vandanam).

I witnessed a momentous act of nature, timed-to-perfection and wonderfully choreographed by the supreme genius. The whole scene looked intensely pure and spiritual. It certainly was not an everyday thing for me, although the very act happens every day..

Almost everybody on the flight were centrifugally spread in random, fixed to their window seats, busy capturing the beauty around, and enjoying the ride. Minutes later, we passed through the snow mountains and reached a completely different terrain, very earthy and rustic, and very picturesque. Just before the descent, the kingfisher would dive in and out of these voluptuous rocky mountains, as the sun plays hide and seek with us. The vast landscapes, and the unusual shades of the terrain from a birds eye view were truly a visual retreat. ... Have to admit, that it was one hell of a breathtaking flight !

In Ladakh and the Oriental Guest House:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was roughly 6:44 am by the time we alighted the aircraft. The airport looked like a military base camp, surrounded by exotic mountains. It looked very small to be called as an airport. The surrounding scenery looked as if we were in a movie theater watching a film. The sharpness and contrast of the scenery has risen up and everything appeared to be crystal clear to the eyes. Besides, there was absolute purity and freshness in the air, although slightly windy and chilled, it was 0% polluted !!

Outside the airport, a man waiting for us, his eyes, a little small, face withered, with wrinkles around his eyes, a sharp nose, wheatish in complexion, clad in a jacket and some winter clothes, wore an impressive smile, and approached us with a warm welcome. His name is Dawa, the owner of the Oriental guest house where we were put up. Manu found this guest house and had stayed in it during his earlier visit to Leh. The guest house is a family run business and it is very close to the airport. We hopped into the taxis of Oriental, and steered away to the guest house. In the mean time, what appeared to be a slightly chilled cold caught up and became a bit more chilled. But the thought of it got sidelined by the beautiful scenic locales we encountered on our way to the guest house.

Located in a prime location, the guest house has extraordinary scenic views all around. The entrance has the mighty south mountains, mostly rocky, but beginning to clad snow on their tips. Towards west, a range of charismatic snow mountains touching the horizon and almost tempting the mortals to pose for a photograph with them. And edged tightly towards north, behind the guest house, is the Shanti Stupa (temple), on top of the rocky hill which seemed 2000ft high up from the guest house.

The entrance of the guest house was colored with the various shades of flora, only to enhance the richness of the place. The sidewalk lead to the well equipped kitchen and a restaurant in the ground floor, and the floors on top are the guest accommodations. Another two storied building adjacent to the restaurant is an extension of the guest house, and a portion where Dawa and his family live.

We were taken to our rooms on the 1st floor above the restaurant, which looked no less than a luxury hotel, with clean and tidy bathrooms, and king size beds, and more importantly the inviting view of the snowy west mountains.

Everything changed drastically in just an hour. It felt like I have been transformed to a whole new world altogether, where the concepts of time, space and motion all at once refused to follow the Einsteinian and Newtonian theories. Time seemed to be complacent for a change and appear to take its own course in ticking the seconds.

Diving back into the real scene, it was just 8:10 am in the morning, and we came down to have an early breakfast. Nikumbh sir (BG) enacted the waiter role by jotting down the orders, and besides, Sarkar and Snoopie got into their photography act and captured some rather good portraits. Minutes later, we sat around and savored the delicacy of Ladakh, 'the ladakhi roti' with scrambled egg. The rotis are very soft and made of wheat flour, but certainly different in taste from the regular chapatis. And having just about 2 would make you feel completely full. Each of us ordered various flavors of tea alongside, and completed a Kings breakfast :)

One of the big challenges to fight on this high lands is not the weather or the intense cold, but the ability to breathe your lungs full. It is a big deal to do that as the higher you go, the less oxygen you are going to get. Our body is extremely good at the act, but unfortunately it needs a day or two to acclimatize, otherwise you going to be bitten by the scary Acute Mountain Sickness.. So we had no plans for the day, but to just teach our lungs to breathe in the oxygen, and take it easy..

We finished breakfast loong back, but were hanging around the table indulged in some little less useful conversations and Dawa joined us to entertain our curious questions.. We talked about a few interesting topics ranging from kashmir issues to the life in Ladakh etc etc.. I thought he enjoyed the conversations as mush as we did talking to him. A little later, we went around to tour the guest house, which had all the aminities like a library, computer hub, Internet etc.. The library had a huge collection of books, most of them given away by the tourists who visited this place in the past. Although, I disliked the idea of having Internet and staying connected to the rest of the noisy world, it would be helpful when you stay here for months :)

Bg and I grabbed a couple of books and sat in the open air near the restaurant. It was a lovely sunny day, with the sun releasing the right proportions of heat to make up for the cold breeze. A few others were playing ping pong, on a classic 1920s looking table, very worn out, yet good enough for a casual ping and a pong. Niraj went to order the special lunch, all of it vegetarian. We later discovered that the preparations had fresh cut vegetables from the garden beside us. What a lovely way to cook a meal..

BG and I were still indulged in the reading, while the rest of the desis went back to their rooms. It was around 11 in the morning, and there was absolute harmony out there.. an occasional chirping of birds and the shallow whispers of the cool breeze every now and then. The silence was pure and the ambiance was meditative. I wondered what a change it is from our daily hustle bustle lifestyle..

12:00 in the noon and we were back at the restaurant getting ready for a luncheon. We ordered way too many items and so, lunch took some time, and gave space for some philosophy conversations. This time surprisingly two new joiners, Sarkar and Niraj. As BG (Nikumbh Sir) shared his views on life, karma and such things, Sarkar looked greatly absorbed.. Not sure how much he absorbed though :).. right then, Niraj would add his tadka touch (his own philosophy of life) and make it humorous... Not far across, Snoopie rests near a tiny microscopic lane and makes it look like a flowing river :).. and Manu, comes down in his bermudas and joins the discussion as a passive listener, and as expected Samit dada sits and disengages himself from our discussions and delves into his state of Nirvana..

Before we go to deep into the philosophic discussions, at around 12:30, lunch bell calls us and we gather for lunch and eat a well cooked, not so spicy meal, and I could feel the freshness that the vegetables added to the curries. Lunch ends, and time for a short walk (including the sutta break of BG).. We walk up the steep curvy road in front the guest house, and take some memorable snaps (Sarkar taming the donkeys, the desi group pics, and then the funny atm movie enacted by BG, Samit, Sarkar..)

It was a pleasant sunny afternoon, and while I read my memoir, I feel nostalgic and wish I could go back in time and relive those moments again..

A few minutes later we head back to the guest house, with some more talking and an attempt to drink the herbal tonic in manu's room. A siesta in the afternoon and a walk down the market street ends the lazy day

Day 2 - Lamayuru & Day 3 - Tsomoriri (coming soon...)

"Lord of the Land" - Come, discover the greed !

2008-02-09T11:09:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time in Hyderabad (hmm in 2006 Jan), there was a Landlord who was filthy rich. He had initial symptoms of a deadly virus called Greed>. He charged a good sum for a flat which had all the amenities, only in dreams.. We had to stride all the way to the 4ukin 4th floor and the appt was nully furnished and touched the top of the flat. Imagine the summers in HYD.. woooh scares the heck out of me..

For a 9am-10pm guy like me, the appt never bothered much and I was pretty happy with it. Months passed away, and exactly after an year, my LL visits my appt and discloses his "greed virus" which sortta matured into a severe one in a years time. He hiked the price, a 1500 hike in a year... wow that was abominable. He told a brainless tale that he had charged very less when we got into the flat, so the spike in the hike. Anyways, he promised not to bump up the price the coming year. So, with some itchy discomfort, I agreed to stick around as I was quite used to the place and shifting a house is a pain in the butt..

The year passed quite quickly and came Jan 2008. It is quite saddening to know that my LL has now developed memory loss along with the chronic greed virus. He this time cooks up another fatuous story and quotes a crazy hike, yet another 1500. When asked about the promise he made last year, he brushed it off saying, he never said that. I said WTF and told him that I am neither too rich to feed his greedy tummy nor a fool to pay mindless rents for his awful appt.

There has been a sudden increase of the *greed virus* in town and many LLs are infected by this deadly one. I am not sure if there is a remedy for this.. if not, there will be desolated houses, and only ghosts will breed families in these greed filled rented houses..

Musical Genius... AR Rahman !!

2008-02-04T21:51:00.001-08:00

Oh what a magical man he is.. As I am writing this tiny little post, all my senses are immersed and lost in the musical melody of "Jodha Akbar"

Azeem-o-shaan - is only possible by a genius of his stature.. If you are wondering what I am talking abt.. hook up your headphones and just close you eyes and concentrate on the percussion... I am pretty sure it will take you to the age of "Akbar Rule"

Jash-e-bahaara - is another soothing melody with amazing lyrics... I wonder if Javed pa will ever run short of words.. The feel of the song takes me to an imaginary land, which is close to the known paradise - "Heaven". The singers have done full justice to the song !!

Khwaja Mere Khwaja - omg this is pure magic... He did it once again.. created a masterpiece
that will cast a spell on you. I am completely obsessed with this number.. it is probably the best
kawali blend experimenting with sargams in the middle, and raindrop pure tabla beats to enhance the whole song.

Hats off to the maestro !!

_Mobile Blog Rocks_

Yahoo ! - nah itz not just any account..

2007-07-27T13:07:00.000-07:00

Have you ever lost some precious thing in your life? Damn.. then count me in too. Loosing is a sad thing.. But to win back, Itz quite an experience !! So, sometime back, I lost my Y! account.. I would not say "Lost", but I somehow wasn't able to login, when I yahoo'd for my email on a not so fine day..

And then, One wave with the magical wand... got my account back --- wanna know how ?

Read on....

Ok, this account is my oldest and I have a lot of memories, emails, chats friends, and many many more things associated with it.. I could not believe that how/why I lost access to my account huh..... have fiddled with the password recovery thingy, hoping to win back my account... but that added more agony and discomfort than helping me retrieve it. Not to blame the recovery method ...Cuz how does it know that I am a cracker or an unlucky ass who lost/forgot/whatever his account.... in these several years, I hardly logged in to change/view my account settings that I remember a damn about what my profile settings were...

I got really mad.. not knowing what to do... I wrote them a couple + 1 emails to the Y! customer service.. Eh, but some computer script sitting somewhere on the servers would snatch my mail and respond back to me with a dumb template... It pissed me off soo much, cuz with it utmost smartness, it just responds back with a link to the irritating password recovery page... I say WTF??

And then, One wave with the magical wand... surpassed all the automated computer scripts and caught the attention of a real human @ Y!.. Ashley; we exchanged a couple of emails and then she revealed my secret question and asked me to just answer that.. Although, I forgot what was my secret question, when she sent me the secret question, I replied back with my answer... and guess what.. I got my account back !!

** Still wondering WTF is this magical wand... So, here I reveal the secret.
When I got a couple of auto response mails from Y!, I got terribly pissed and wrote to them this one liner "You Guys Suck... Gmail is much better !!" That's is pretty much it... my email surpassed all the computer auto magic scripts and hit the support desk ;o)

Anyways, I thought it was funny how I bullied Y! to get my account back... And yea since I told Ashely/Karen, that I would blog my experience, I am writing this and I dedicate this post to them.. Thanks guys for your support !

Bless !!

Warangal - An Icon of exquisite architecture..

2007-03-25T23:06:00.000-07:00

Warangal a.k.a Orugallu, once ruled by the great Kakatiyas, is famous for its exquisite architecture and many enchanting monuments and fortresses. History says that the entire city was carved in a single rock, and hence the name Orukallu meaning 'one rock'. To view the album go here

I always wanted to visit such beautiful places as I am a history fanatic, who has a craving to experience and admire such archiac excellence. And one fine day... I got an invitation from NITW (REC Warangal) folks to give a talk, and participate in their Open Source Workshop. I was excited about the trip, for one, I get to interact with a bunch of promising youngsters, and two, I get to full fill my long lasting desire to see the scenic beauties of Warangal :).

Talk prep:
~~~~~~~~
I spent some time working on the slides and the topic. I managed to come up with a pretty interesting philosophy called "Geekology". And I built on that base, and shaped up my talk. The slides are here.

The Joy ride:
~~~~~~~~~
My talk is @ 9:30 am Sunday, which means I have to start from HYD 6:30sh to reach there on time. I woke up at 6:00 in the morning, took a quick shower and got into the cab, all prepared to hit the road. The weather was nice and cold, and the the half asleep city paved way for our cab to cruise at a hairy speed. Madhu accompanied me all the way to WRGL, and we started talking abt some random things to cut time. Since I got up really really early, my tummy was screaming loud like a 3yr old child. It growled and muttered..I knew what it is asking for :) We went past the city outskirts and entered a village, and suddenly the whole feel changed, everything looks calm and serene. People in the village started gathering at the chai stalls, and the sliver cookers on the mobile stalls were fuming white clouds... Ahhh Idlis ... my tummy grumped again :) I asked MP (our cab driver) to park the cab and we got down to have breakfast. (Take A Break.. :)

We had our breakfast and a cup of chai, and hit the road again. Though it was getting hotter by time, our AC in the cab rescued us from the hot sun. I watched the green pastures and the fields by the side of the road.. it is such a refreshing experience, very different from the regular city life where you get up in the morning and get lost in the traffic. I enjoyed each and every moment of the drive... I just love long drives. The roads were pretty good and it was a smooth ride. Btw, the trees on either sides of the road would embrace and protect the travellers from direct sun and provide shade for miles and miles. Unable to resist the beautiful scenes, I popped up the camera from my bag and captured some of them. Very soon, we entered the city and it was already 9 in the morning. I called up Prasanna a couple of times to confirm the talk schedule. After entering the city, in 20mins time we reached the college. The college campus is really calm and full of trees everywhere. A typical campus look like the AU, OU types. I met prasanna and he took us to the conference hall. Madhu and I got down and we asked MP to rest for a couple of hours.

The NITW experience:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The conference room was big, and already there were some 20 odd students in the audience section. It seems that they day before had experienced a thick crowd, some 100+. But for unknown reasons, not many people turned up for the second day. So, Prasanna asked me to hold on and wait for some more time as he was expecting a few more students to show up. I went and engaged the students by interacting with them and answering to some interesting questions.

As the clock hit 10:00, we decided to start off the day, and surprisingly due to some issues, my talk got postponed and some other folks started their talk. Their talk went on for an hour and half. I didn't quite like the talk and so did most of the crowd. It was very bland and wasn't really interesting. Right after the talk, there was a BOF session scheduled. The second speaker somehow didn't know what a BOF is I suppose, and he started with some odd presentation and got completely lost. It was called off soon, and then my slides were projected.. thus, I started off with my talk.

The what/why/who stuff of the talk is detailed here.

I started off with the intro and moved on with the slides. I thought I got the crowds attention as they were really glued to the presentation and the talk. My talk was fairly simple, non technical and at the same time, I feel everybody could connect to it and relate themselves to the theme of the talk. It talks about the philosophy of life and it tries to relate closely with an individuals life in a very uniqe way. On the whole, my talk went really well and people really enjoyed the philosophy ;). As I finished the talk, people applauded, and that was a moment to cherish !!. Post talk, people walked up to me and asked some questions.. and then a photo session followed.

Warangal Site seeing:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was 1:30 in the afternoon and the Sun was at his peak in doing its job.. Prasanna took us to a restaurant nearby for lunch. We were accompanied by a few other NITW folks and Suman from Yahoo. We had some tech discussions during lunch, which is expected ;) But, It was a fun filled lunch, and everybody enjoyed it.

Soon after, Madhu and I took off from there to visit the very famous 1000 pillar temple. It is known to be the most famous and probably the only temple with a 1000 pillars. I was damn excited about it and we rushed to that place in some 15mins. I was expecting a huge huge temple with a 1000 pillars and I thought it would easily take an hour or so to go look around. But the temple was no where close to my expectations. No doubt, the architecture is beautiful but there were only 20+ pillars around. Not sure if I ended up at the right temple, I wandered and looked around to see if I get to see the rest of the pillars.. Ok, when asked about the 1000 pillars, the people around told us something.. which you all should know. Each pillar is a superset of some 100 odd pillars.. and therefore 30+ pillars would make a 1000 pillar temple. Uhhh....did I scare you? Well... I was equally upset when I heard that.. but anyways it was quite an experience and I took some snaps of the place and started off to visit another place.

Now we were going to Badra Kali temple, some 15 mins drive from the 100(;) pillar temple. Not expecting much from the temple, we drove to that place....And to my utter surprise, the place was delightful. The temple was adjoined by a beautiful lake, calm, serene and very pleasant, and on the other side there are huge rocky mountains surrounding the temple. There is another small temple by the side of the lake and the holy temple's reflection was floating on the waters and the ripples create a motion and make it look like a beautiful painting. Oh what an amazing scene it is.

We first went into the temple, and offered prayers to the goddess. The whole ambiance inside the temple was pure and filled with some magic. After the darshan, I went all around the temple and captured every inch of that place. Lost in the magical spell of the nature, I felt like staying back, and watching the quiet lake all day. But, MP and Madhu were already looking at me and probably were thinking that I've gone crazy ;). So, I hid my craziness and got to the real world and joined them. We ate some prashad and some refreshments, and got into the cab and started off. The sun was dipping into the clouds, resting for the day, and the evening twilight was showering vivid yellow and gold shades on the skies. The grass fields were gazing at us and biding good bye.. I was sad but also happy at the same time, that I spent a revitalizing day and heading back home with a lot of good memories..

Ohh yea ... Linux Asia

2007-02-09T11:18:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't have time to read all my gossip checkout the Linux Asia 2007 pictures

And for the rest of the crowd... I know you like reading gossips like me :) I have tried to make this as spicy as possible .. So read on and enjoy !!

It was an email sent from one of the organizers to ilughyd mailing list.. It said "Linux Asia is Back", followed by a reasonably expected list of speaker names like Klaus, Brian, some from Novell etc etc.. I was equally excited like a newbie who just started his OpenSource journey, and quickly googled for 'Linux Asia' to just check out more updates from the site.. when I looked at the site, my eyes popped wide open and I was puzzled. For a split second I thought may be thatz just a Google Ads thingy, that is showing some hi-tech micro Soft.. ad. Oh ! wait a min, I said to myself.. and I read "Interoperability partner", mumbling like an old man with his magnifying glass, rolling over letter by letter. Interrrresttting... isn't it, - Welcome to Linux Asia 2007

"Interoperability partner" - I tried to understand the exact meaning of this word.. irony is, even answers.com refused to explain what it is ;o)

Long story short... I was attending the conference and also decided to represent as a speaker this time. I was going to talk about slack. So I prepared my slides and notes, getting ready for the talk. I gave a pre conf talk before heading to Delho. I made some last minute changes to the slides as usual and also read some articles on tools and technologies which have a similar functionality of slack, just to make sure I am going there with full tayyari.

- The first two days
Not so happening, at least I didn't enjoy much. It was more of the CEO, CTO types crowd and not many students and young crowd.

- Fantastic Last day
When things go your way, you will love everything. I met Zaheda and I walked up to her smiling... She saw me coming towards her and she smiled back. She paused for a sec and said, "You are....", looking at my badge, trying to read my name which was scribbled by me in an alien language. I said, I am Sanjay... . And in split seconds she responds with excitement.. 'yea I know you, and how are you?' I was sad the she doent rememeber me :(.. nvm. Well thatz not quite true, she meets soo many people that she couldnt recollect. I met her in Linux Asia last year once or twice and not much interaction... and thats was it.
Zaheda is a wonderful person. She is a very warm and sweet person, has great energy and passion and she is an OpenSource ευαγγελιον (evangelist in greek) in a very true sense. She was like a celebrity, known to every other person in the conference... And I was following her, like a chicken following its parent or may be like the Hutch dog you see on TV for your better understanding ;).

I'd say building relationships is the most important and the most difficult thing to do. I am basically very shy and not so outgoing.. people who know me disagree to this statement.. But, I am only loud when I am with people who I know. With strangers.. I take quite some time to open up and speak. I am really amazed watching zaheda, as she has such a great talent to interact with people and talk to them..

So, yea, I just followed her where ever she went and met with all the industry big wigs.. It was quite an experience to meet different people, and know them in person.. I met Anthony Wasserup, Brian, Charmine, Philip and many other folks. My heart filled with joy and excitement meeting all these people... I should thank Zaheda for being with me all through the day and taking me and introducing me to people.

Ok now my talk:
My talk was in the afternoon, post lunch.. It was a warm and sunny afternoon and I could feel the warmth comforting me.. I just love the sunny weather. We gathered at the table to have lunch and chatted about various things revolving around technology and OpenSource. Quickly after, I departed from the lunch table and walked downstairs, slightly tensed and excited too. As I entered the conference room, no body knew me as the speaker "sanjay sha". I quietly sat down in the first row and Anthony's talk was about to start. He said, "So how much time do you think you need for your talk", looking at me. I said, I will try and squeeze the talk in 30mins. He grinned and he started his talk and I was just getting ready for the talk..

some 40mins later, a lady walks up to the stage and opens a paper and reads out some bunch of lines about me and welcomes me. she wasn't in sync with any of the events that were happening here.. she just read out lines like a 3rd grade student reading accounting or meta physics... Anyways, I went and joined her and I was busy setting up my notebook. After her school kids intro, I took over...

I started with my regular funny introduction and asked the audience a couple of questions, just to build a rappo and keep it more interactive and interesting. then I slowly dived into the topic and explained them what slack is and how to use it and, the design, functionality and all the tech stuff.. In between I looked at some random people and observed their pulse.. I thought the audience were alive and active.. at least I managed to keep them glued to the presentation.. Although I am not cent percent sure.. what most of them were thinking.. but at least they were looking at me and the slides very keenly, as if I am showing them the premiere of a movie on the screen or some such stuff. I knew it was tea time in about 30 odd mins.. I took just about 30mins, well within time and then It was questions time.. I had announced that I have 3 Tshirts and I will distribute them across the crowd, who ever asks me questions.. I knew I was stealing their Tea Break by showing them some T-shirts ;). People asked me some questions.. not so interesting though, but at the end of the day I think the talk went really well..

After the talk:
I felt like a celeb for a couple of mins.. All of a sudden I became famous, with people coming and surrounding me. Best part is, I got some compliments from people saying my talk was really interesting and good. I was also surrounded by a bunch of young college students, seeking some advice from me about how to start their careers and some typical new bie questions... I was more than happy to answer their questions and I gave my contact in case they needed some help or anything like that... A couple of minutes later I met Zaheda again. We went along to chat with the Asia Region folks.. who were sitting around the table.. there were people from Bhutan, Srilanka, Afganistan and Nepal.. We wanted to meet them post lunch but couldn't meet as we went to attend a talk on Linux and Data Centre mgmt by some Novell guy.. which was not so meaty. Ok, so back at the table.. we talked about a lot of issues that communities in each of these nations faced and how to bridge them etc etc.. We talked about language localization and a couple of issues. It was tea time and everybody started packing their backs and so was I. It was a fantastic day overall and I really thought its an experience worth sharing with everyone..

With this ... I am signing off for now..

cheers
-Sunj

About Me

2006-05-05T23:24:00.000-07:00

Hi, my name is Sanjay, aka "sun J" @ work, and my family and my loved ones call me "sanju". Born in Vizag, in a tiny little clinic called mangamma hospital, opp to the famous King George Hospital (KGH), and was raised in my grandparents and my cousins house.

School: At College (till 10th std)
Intermediate(+2): Bullaya College(1st yr), Vikas College(2nd yr)
Everything else: Ritch Center.

work?
Yes, as a Linux Sys Admin, Google.

Hobbies:

Love music.. I am an ăm'ə-tûr' musician, singer, composer, writer..., hooked to music 24x7. I listen to a wide variety of stuff from Western - Indian - Fusion - Asian... And I adore AR Rahman.. he is a true genius..

Reading - I've started this a few years back and I am attatched to it.. I read a range of books from philosophy (very fascinating) to fiction to anything.

Like watching sci-fi, romantic, and comedy movies..

Other Interesting facts:

An earth sign - Virgo, born on 9/9 of the year when the first ever compact disc player hit the market. Sounds crazy isn't it .. thats just to show that I am as old as the first CD player. And btw, the same year saw the release of Steven speilberg's ET :)

An observer... who deeply admires the nature. I like tranquil, serene places, likes gazing at the sky in the nights, going for looong drives, watching the ocean, and all such crazy things.

I am like a fish..., and loves the water. I think I can spend all my life swimming like a fish in the pond..

An explorer... who likes traveling and seeing all the untouched pure places on our lovely planet.. Crazy photography is one of my hobbies, like to capture every beautiful moment around me.. It is a way to express and share ones perspective of the world with others..

Like being with my family and friends around me, and I love cooking (it is just like a chemistry experiment), but that is not definitely my passion :P

My research interests:

I like metaphysics, and I believe science is incomplete without philosophy. I would like to explore the ends of science n philosophy and see where they appear to meet..
I am a computer buff, and Internet has became one of the basic necessities of my life.