Rock Climbing was rocking....

I had a perfect weekend about 3 weeks ago. It was just the right mixture of fun and physical exhaustion.
3 weeks ago, to be precise, on 12 Nov, I had been to a rock climbing trip. Okay. Okay. Lemme go chronologically…

Few months ago, over a cup of coffee, I happened to ask my colleague what is she doing for the weekend and the reply caught my attention. Trekking. Rock Climbing. Mountaineering. I was curious. That’s how I was introduced to this group: BMC(Bangalore Mountaineering Club).

Now that I spoke of this group, lemme give a brief intro. This group is a, to quote the founder, “non-profit” organization for enthusiastic adventurers. This is more like a yahoo-group,where the guyz/galz go on an adventure trip once a fortnight. Awesome group. Filled with real enthusiasts. They falter in no step in planning. They take care of every logistics issue. To register, you gotta be refered by members, please feel free to use my info for registration. RP & http://meetrp.blogspot.com.

Okay, back to my experience. After registering, for various personal reasons I was unable to participate. I decided, come what may to participate for the next event, which was this rock-climbing event in Ramnagar, which is between Mysore & Bangalore.

On Saturday Nov 12, 2005, at 6am whom-so-ever had their means of transport (incidently I had) left towards RamNagar and for others van facility was arranged. With the new Mysore highway in progress, I enjoyed the experience & the joy of riding my Archie (that’s how I call my Pulsar 150 DTS-i). We reached the destination at about 8am and the intro session went on. There were, to be precise, about 44 ppl. I was the only one from my company and I distinctly remember a huge gang from Motorola and a considerable number from Infy. I was kinda apprehensive but these guyz are a pro in putting people at ease. I was bombared by smiling faces, greeting words & extended hands. Man! It is a different world of enthusiasts. You don’t have a choice but to like them.

We were initially given some basic exercises and were split into two groups. One for Rock Climbing & the other for Rappelling. Each of us were given some training in ‘Bouldering’, which is mini-rock climbing. Guess, I did it well. (Some self pumping is required, after all it is my blog) I belonged to the group for rock-climbing. Initially, we climbed about 50,000 steps to the top of the hill. (Some guyz, who did not know practical energy-mathematics, counted the number of steps to be 373. Crap. It was not a step less than 75,000) After which we found a flat, smooth 50 feet tall rock! And guess? We were supposed to climb this damn thing!!! I almost fainted with magnitude of impossibility. But this group (filled with professional organizers) had arranged for a group of pros to help us. These pros (damn them!!) climbed this flat plain surface of rock like a lizard and set the whole hooks & other necessary safety pins in the rock for the amateurs. Then we began; it was our chance to be lizards….

Each of us, in turn did our trial & error. It was mostly filled with errors. We were given our harness and were supposed to climb! Just a rope around the waist & climb. Each of us struggled. Stumbled. Fell and was held by the rope & harness (Thank heavens). We heard lot of screams. Pleads for help. Words of haplessness. Prayers for safe returns to ground. Shouts of ecstasy (almost rare). But nevertheless everybody gave it a shot. From my part, Damn it!, I couldn’t even climb 25 feet. I almost scrapped my knees more than once & my shoes are part of history now. All of us returned to the ground with the thought “May be I should have tried a little more”.

Anyways, after this we climbed down to the bottom of the hill by 2:30pm. (And, yeah, the return was indeed only 373 steps. What a construction! You climb up 90,000 steps and climb down only 373!!! Gr8!) Though our fingers were sour, had a sumptuous lunch. Shared our expert(!!!) advices with the other group, who had been on rappelling. We then rushed to our next event – Rappelling.

Rappelling was relatively easier. You gotta slid down the rope from top of the mountain to the bottom. Ofcourse, harness and rope are tied around your waist. The best part of this session is that, we walk on the walls of the rock. It feels great. Just imagine, walking parallel to the ground! Look at the sky and feel part of it. Feel almost like a bird. A featherless bird. I would give my dayz wager for a repeat. It was wonderful.

After this, we reached our base zero by 6pm. The best performers in both galz & boyz section were given a gift and we left to our places.

I would not do justice if I dont mention about the people I met. The best part I really enjoyed, apart from physical activity, was the guyz/galz I met. They were gr8. The following people would hopefully remember me! Lemme recollect… (Chronologically)

Ajay from Covansys,
Vijayesh not-sure-from-where,
Vinay from Infy,
Lakshmi not-sure-from-where (who was supposed to mail me & did not. Are you listening, Lakshmi???),
Madhavi, Saumya (am I still in your enemy list even after the safety ropes??? ;-), Shilpa, Kushal, Mohan-the-god and Prashanth from Motorola,
Anish guess is from Infy,
Prasad from Infy
and, yeah, from the great BMC team Roopa.

Man, these people rock. I really loved the time I spent with them. Hours rolled into seconds amidst them. Very fun loving & very very jolly-go-lucky with a lot of broad-mind. Would not hesitate to join these people anytime for any event. That day was tiring & physically exhausting but mentally and psychologically it was a gr8 boost.

This post is almost a dedication to BMC. Would love to repeat any event with this group. Hail BMC!!!

Phew! I am back....

My dear bloggers. Many of my class mates & blog friends have been angered by my silence on blog. Have been irritated by my lack of postings. Have been patiently waiting for my next post. Guess it is time to break my silence.

Before that lemme explain my silence. There was a problem. My office had blocked 'blogger'! And, worst, only for my department. Yes, you heard it right, only for my department. Meaning the rest of my office colleagues can blog and only the "chosen" 34 cannot. Poor RP was suffering even to pass 15 minutes in office without blogger. :-( Believe me, it is really really tough.

Reason for blocking? Bcoz we 34 belong to an ODC (Offshore Development Centre) and ODCs have seperate rules. And similar corporate bull-shit. I was angered.

But, I cannot fight against the great corporate without some 'chanakya' politically correct arguments. So I researched thro' the blogs and found some really good technical blogs. By show casing these technical blogs to my boss, I was able to convince him the blogger is indeed the best forum for "technical" discussions. And guess, what? He believed. :-)

And, so Ladies and Gentlemen, I was able to get this site unblocked. And this is my first blog after the inhuman blocking.

Now for those in the similar situation like mine can make use of the following technical blogs to fight for your case:
Arvind The most widely used tech blog in my argument. Every hit on this blog page was an inch toward my success. Dude, I dont know who u r but thanks.
adstech
::krishna::
amol
remco's blog

The last nail in the coffin was the following blog, who is also working in the same company:
nagarajan gopalan Buddy, you made my day. Your post(click here) was the final inch of victory.

These above blogs are really good. They write a lot of technical stuff. I enjoyed reading them. Though I searched for them only for my selfish purpose but I found them pretty good. So sure would be visiting them more often.

Deepa, sure would be more regular in my posting.

Story Tree - Their Journey

He thought it would be an ordinary journey. Standing behind the pillar he watched the train snort arrogantly into the station. With each snort he was reminded of his grandfather's words "You will fail in the city and return penniless"; with every heavenward whistle, he heard his cousin, "Don't worry. Come here and I will get you a job at the construction site." Now he had a 34-hour journey to prove one of them wrong, and he expected the excitement at the end of the journey. He looked at his ticket once again: compartment S9 berth 23.

Pushing his luggage under the seat, he sat close to the window. "Papa, when will you be back?" - his four year old daughter Munni asked innocently. He stared into those soft brown eyes of the motherless kid. He held her frail palms in his, through the window. "Munni, Papa will get you a nice gudiya from the city..Say tata," his sister spoke to the kid, to avoid an emotional outburst. In a minute, the train pulled forward, and Munni's little fingers parted from between his. "I need to go..", he thought, "I have to, at least for Munni's sake.."

The humid summer breeze and the rattling train coaxed him into an uncomfortable state of drowsy consciousness. He dreamt that Munni ran away, the closer he ran to her, the farther she was, like a mirage. He woke up with a start and squinted at his watch."What is the time please?"A smallish woman, a meek voice as if she was scared that her existence would annoy someone. Her only noticeable feature was her rather large, expressive eyes."4.30"Something made him look at the woman again. He had stopped noticing women long back. Ever since Meenakshi passed away...

But this woman was different. She reminded him of someone he knew. In an instant he realized who and the painful memories came flooding back. She looked exactly like his childhood sweetheart Madhu. As teenage lovers in a conservative society, they had often met secretly and had declared undying love for each other.
Then someone had found out and all hell had broken loose. The elders in the village Panchayat had ostracized Madhu's family as she was from a lower caste. Unable to bear the humiliation, she had committed suicide by drowning. That was twelve years back...

Could it be? Could it really be him? He seems different, weary and downcast. Oh no will he recognise me? No, I am dead to the world. Still she cautiously wrapped her saree end around her head and across her face. Behind the cotton screen, her mind drifted to happier times, languid strolls in the corn fields, games at the riverbed, his gentle caress, whispered sweet nothings, stolen glances at the temple fair.
Tempted to take one last look, she consoled herself that he wouldn't notice. Slowly
she lifted her eyes only to find Rupak staring back at her.


She quickly glanced the other way.

‘No, this girl looks too close to be any other person. She is infact Madhu!! “Hey, Madhu!” he called.

She struggled hard not to respond to that call. And successfully managed it too.

"Hey Madhu, you forgot me?” he inquired her and came closer.

The old lady sitting opposite to him was looking at this unapprovingly.

“No, you are mistaken, My name is not Madhu.. I am Supriya” she lied.

“Hey Ram!, a young girl cannot travel safely in this country without being stalked!” the old lady muttered angrily.


The girl walked briskly away from him, trying to escape his glances, as though she was hiding something, not wanting to be discovered. He stood confused, she had said her name wasn’t Madhu, and should he run after her? Or should he let it pass, after all he still had a train to catch.

His heart told him it was Madhu, followed her, all thoughts about going to the city vanished; he was on delighted to have met Madhu after such a long time. He was filled with memories of their time together. He finally caught up with her. Looking into her eyes he said ' Why Madhu? Why this to me?'


"Please dont lie to me anymore"; sounding more like the Mani he used to be ten years back when he had first met her at the Village temple, rather than the arrogant side that seemed to rule his life now. "I know it is you, nobody else but you Madhu". Tears roll down her cheecks as she tries to remember why they ended up this way. Was it destiny or fate that they had to meet now?

As she speaks up, the train which for a while had be at a halt, slowly starts to move.


She couldn’t speak out even a word. All that was seen , tears rolling down her cheeks out of happiness.


Now,he was not in a state to loose her again .Though they didn’t speak any word ,everything was clear .

Now also ,they were able to read what was running in each others mind.


He slowly held her palms into his. She couldn’t stop him though she wanted too.


For a moment ,they forgot everything.All that was felt,they want to live a new life together.


He later discovered that both were going to the same construction site for the job..

Same job at the same construction site?!! Same destination?!! He was too shocked to react.
"How could this be possible?" he wondered. His mind went reeling to the past. The hidden past. The past of which he wanted no more.
"Remember? Remember Mani??? 5 years ago…" his mind talking. He does not like to be called Mani but his mind was not listening. His mind, which always was within his control, was rolling back to the past.
"5 years ago in the train. Both you & Madhu to the same destination unknown to eachother just like today. That's when it happened…"

***************************************************************

Everything below the dashed line above should be copied and pasted with every accepted tag)

This is a Story Tree and is best nurtured as follows:
1. A blogger can add only 90-100 words (not more or less) at a time
2. All previous snippets of 90-100 words need to be copied before the new set of 90-100 words are appended.
3. Each entire snippet should be linked to the respective author (and not just the first sentence or so)
4. Characters, scenes, etc. can be introduced by an author5. Bizarre twists, sci-fi, fantasy sequences are best avoided.
6. A tag must be accepted within 7 days else the branch is a dead branch
7. After appending 90-100, the Story Tree can be passed on to at most 3 bloggers.
8. If more than 1 branch leads to a blogger, s/he is free to choose any one of them but cannot mix the snippets of the individual branches.
9. The Story Tree is best left to grow than concluded
10. Please attach the image of the Story Tree below with each accepted tag (the link address can be copied and used).



I would like to tag:
PV
Praveen (Sorry Dude. Without permission hope you will be a sport!)
Prasad (Sorry Dude. Without permission hope you will be a sport!)