Digitally Exploring the world

With the new car arriving last month , the thought of a longish drive out of the city had been playing in my mind for awhile. So just last week , spread my idea about a road trip around and a few enthusiastic team mates (pulkit, jomy, divya) quickly signed up. Browsed around for options and decided on the JLR at Devbagh Island. Next was to do a road condition check at the team-bhp site for the best route to drive out. So one sunny Friday afternoon I hit the gas pedal . On the way we picked up some eatables for the road and headed out of the city taking the Nice road and then joined NH4 at Tumkar ..mostly good toll roads ( though way too many toll booths !!) . The new car just swung into action and with great music and good company one couldn't have asked for more. Driving at night after Chitradurga required some concentration with highways with no dividers and reflectors and people, vehicles coming in from the wrong side , also there were sudden drop in road levels and huge...

Perfect weather for a long drive out of the city and it was melkote that was calling ! More Pictures here

Pictures are from my recent trip to SFO and me fooling around with Karthik! Joy of being with a child and being one again (away from the reality of the world !! ) ..

A sunday spent walking around these rare beauties ( Quite a few belong to Vijaya Mallya car collection) Some More pics here

Back home from a short trip to the US of A, it was mostly work and meetings but then found sometime to head out thanks to the team mates at the Boulder Office. Here are some pics from the road trip around Boulder and Rocky Mountains..  Rocky Mountains has always been on my mind , having grown up listening to John Denver and sure it was amazing !! Pics from Rocky Mountains  Around Boulder Pics  

The One Goal of All Nature by Swami Vivekananda The grandest idea in Vedanta is that we may reach the same goal by different paths; and these paths I have generalised into four viz., those of work, love, psychology and knowledge. But you must, at the same time, remember that these divisions are not very marked and quite exclusive of each other. Each blends into the other. But according to the type which prevails we name the divisions. It is not that you cannot find a man who has no other faculty than that of work, nor that you cannot find men who are more than devoted worshippers only, nor that there are not men who have more than mere knowledge. These divisions are made in accordance with the type or the tendency that may be seen to prevail in a man. We have found that, in the end, all these four paths converge and become one. All religions and all methods of work and worship lead us to one and the same goal. I have already tried to point out that goal. It is freedom as I under...

With mom visiting and with no real breaks in the last few months I was itching to head out of the chaos of the city and booked a nice treehouse that I found out while looking up the web. So on a nice cloudy morning last Sunday I took my good old Alto for its first long spin out of the city this year. Hit the first stretch of great road (Nice Toll Road) soon after home and with the music turned on it was a good beginning. The toll road with it wide open stretches where you are sure that there won't be any incoming traffic wrong side of the road is a dream drive . However I did feel the need for speed with my sturdy old 800c Alto taking time to pickup speed but nevertheless it did cross the 100kmp mark soon ! We ripped through almost negligible traffic and we were in Mysore in flat 2hrs where we had a stopover for breakfast at Kamat. We then passed through some good green stretches specially once we crossed Gundulpet into the Muthanga Forest Reserve that lies across both the...

Watched Saina win her 3rd title in 3 weeks and who is also currently ranked 3rd in the world. I don't remember last when an Indian Individual Singles player was given such an outstanding support in a foreign land. The entire stadium was a buzz routing for her. A tough match nevertheless but she is now unbeaten in 3 weeks at world level , which is rarely heard of by an Indian athlete. If she continues improving and peaking at the right level who knows we might see a new Olympic Champion at the London Olympics.. I wonder how many Indians even switched on the TV to watch her play on a sunday afternoon ..

Another classic song ..great voice and lyrics..

For those who have read his book "Man's search for Meaning"

Before heading out to Arunachal I spent a week in Calcutta working remotely. Met a few folks some of whom were surprised and appalled at me trying to go on my solo backpacking trips . A few even asked me whether I was trained in some kind of self defense (Karate) or carried Pepper Spray :) With my inner line permit already taken care of by applying at the Arunachal Govt Dept at Delhi I was all set. I took off from Calcutta to Dibrugarh and went around to Pasighat -YingKiong- Along - Menchuka - Along - Diparijo- Ziro - Itanagar - Guwahati - and back ! My blog posts here: Amazing Arunachal -1 : Dibrugarh-Pasighat-Yingkiong-Along   Amazing Arunachal -2 : Along-Menchuka-Diparijo-Ziro-Itanagar-Guwahati   Pictures here: Ziro/Along Yingkiong Menchunka

Along-Mechuka Woke up and walked upto the bus station to get the share jeep to Menchuka. It wasn't a very good start to the day when I saw a motorcyclist being mauled down by a sumo and people trying to get in touch with emergency service and non came for almost 45mins I was there. Later heard the biker had succumbed to his injuries on the road itself. I tried to put the morbid thoughts behind as we started our journey through those long and tough winding roads, one mistake and one could go missing forever! There were bunch of passengers some who got down on the way and some who went all the way to Menchuka. We stopped for nice hot breakfast on the way and a hot cup of tea in the biting cold tasted out of the world. I spoke to some of the passengers in the jeep and again was thought of as a researcher, one of them mentioned a nice guest house run by a buddhist there. The journey took about 8hrs over the winding roads and huge rainforest like mountains and rivers and towards the ...