Digitally Exploring the world

" Into the Wild . By Jon Krakauer " - This is one of those book's that has had an everlasting impression on me. It was probably about a decade back when I first read it when my mum lent it out from the library. I had never heard or read about Christopher McCandless till then. It was really difficult to get a copy of the book those days, but my mum did surprise me with a copy of the book in the coming days,something I treasure till this day. Chris, was an intelligent young man ( He graduated in June 1990 from Emory University in Atlanta, where he distinguished himself as a history/anthropology major and was also offered membership in Phi Beta Kappa, but declined it, insisting that titles and honors were of no importance) . He was also an accomplished athlete, and a veteran of several solo excursions into wild, inhospitable terrain. After graduating he donated the entire amount of $20,000 in his account , to Oxford Famine Relief Fund. Then, without notifying any friends ...

Here are two movies for sportslovers that shouldn't be given a miss. The first one's about a motorbike the 2nd about a cycle(bike). It's also about human beings struggling against all odds-monetary,health and aspiring to set a mark and break the world record times. Both based on real life stories and inspirational heroes. "The worlds fastest indian" is based on a real life inspirational story line and has a wonderful performance by Anthony Hopkins as Burt Munro . It's about Munro's fearless devotion to his lifelong love: speed racing, specifically on his re-conditioned 1920s-era Indian motorcycle.Though plagued by a heart ailment, Munro soldiers on, modifying his ancient Indian motorcycle using nothing more than junkyard parts and with almost no money , makes his way half around the world to race at the Salt Flats of Bonneville in Utah. Today I watched another wonderful film and this time it was about cycling and it wasn't about Lance Amstrong but O...

Download or Watch this video Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch, who is dying from pancreatic cancer, gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving talk, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals. A must watch!!

Download the video in case the online video doesn't play.. One of the very few corporate guys(non-conformist)I really admire. Love him challenging established companies (e.g British Airways) and opening up new areas(e..g space travel). But the best part of him is the adventurous streak that doesn't stop him from trying to fly a hot air balloon over the Atlantic and almost getting killed a bunnch of times.Also love his frank opinion about anything. Here's the link to the page.

Thought of putting all the links as an offshoot from the main topic.. I spent two wonderful weeks in some of the remotest villages in our country , also trying to find some answers to the unanswered questions that bother me. Found a few answers in the spiritual discussions i had along the way,had some adventures, met some veteran travelers, made some friends for life, encountered what is really India in the simple and ever cheerful villagers and got back to this busy modern ever connected world and still have lots of unanswered questions ?? Hope to see of your comments on them :) Posts: On the Buddha Trail (1) ::::::Tabo On the Buddha Trail (2) ::::::Kibber On the Buddha Trail (3) ::::::Nako On the Buddha Trail (4) ::::::MacLeodGanj Pics from this trip: Manali-Kaza Tabo Kibber Nako MacLeodGanj

Here's the 4th one, after the first few ones (incase you are still interested with my semi literate writing skills!!) : On the Buddha Trail (1) ::::::Tabo On the Buddha Trail (2) ::::::Kibber On the Buddha Trail (3) ::::::Nako The bus reached Dharmsala bustop around 5a.m. and I had to wait for the next bus to MacLeodGanj at 8a.m. I could have possibly walked and taken a share jeep but decided against it since there was no real advantage getting there so early with guesthouses having checkin only at noon. Went and rested at the Canteen at the bus stop, where a very friendly attendant , made hot tea, omelet and toast (costed me only 8 Rs!!). The overcrowded bus that left at 8a.m. was at MacLeodGanj in half an hour. I tried getting a room at two of the Guesthouses recommended by a fellow traveller but both were full. Had my breakfast and was waiting for a checkout at the recommended guesthouse but I wasn't in for luck that day. I then started walking around and found a nice ...

Here's a 3rd one, after the first two : On the Buddha Trail (1) ::::::Tabo On the Buddha Trail (2) ::::::Kibber The bus reached Kaza in an hour's time from Kibber, and was heading to Nako and we decided to further our travels. However, the bus had trouble with its gearbox and we had wait for sometime while it got fixed. The only thought I had at the moment was to thank someone, for having reached Kaza in one piece. Savoured hot cups of chai and glucose biscuits as we waited for the bus to get fixed but after 2 hours both the driver and mechanic decided that they couldn't do a quick fix and all of us had to transfer to another bus. The journey from Kaza to Nako takes about 4hours or so and passes through some really beautiful sceneries of rugged mountains with patches of green in between and glimpses of first snow at a distance. The bus also stops at the Tabo busstop on the way. Both (Gottfried and me) were the only tourists from Kaza but some Swiss girls got up at Tabo and...

Here's the 2nd post after the one on Tabo. Finally, I reached Kaza around noon after 2 days of trying to leave Tabo and being stranded because of no bus in sight, heavy rains,bad roads etc. I was really hungry and found a small shop near the bus station where i had a wonderful meal of steaming hot mutton curry and rice. A meal to remember!! With a happy stomach I tried asking around for the next possible bus to Kibber but was told that since no buses had come from the other side for 2 days, no buses were available for Kibber that day. Asked around for Taxi but there was no share ones available and hiring just a jeep for self would work out to be too expensive for just an hour's ride. Was cursing myself for not having a light backpack, else I could have walked the 20 odd kms to Kibber. But I didn't have to hurry, I had all the time, I remembered something i had read someplace earlier that goes something like this " Life, takes on a neat simplicity too. Time ceases to h...

PS: The video quality could be a bit poor since it was taken using my compact camera. I saw some monks doing a slow rhythmic dance like movement while arguing about something very serious and after each major dialogue they would clap very loudly. This is the first time I have seen this kind of a ritual. I asked an elderly Tibetan gentlemen sitting around what they were talking and he mentioned they were discussing something from the scriptures which even he couldn't comprehend. Has anybody seen something like this before ??

My first post on my recent Buddhist Trail. I headed to Delhi from Bangalore on a beautiful Saturday morning with this map and the return tickets after 2 weeks and no plans !! Once at Delhi, headed to Janpath for the bus to Manali. While waiting for the bus I met Christine, an elderly French lady , an author of 15books, a PhD in psycho-ethnology( don't ask me what one really researches for that!!) . She has been a world traveller and even spent 3 years in early 1970s as a 20 year old hitchhiking around India . We had an interesting conversation while seated in the heat of Delhi (39 degrees Celsius, phew) about society, people, freedom ,women's place in the society, human mind and genetics . In the midst of our talk she said she felt i would write a book very soon :) not sure why she thought that way. Only time well tell if her premonition worked out !. We parted ways as our buses arrived. I was the odd one out in the Volvo bus I had boarded for Manali, the rest of the passenger...

Came across this quote today : "Life is like Sea. As vast as you can imagine; As deep as you can think. Don't waste time measuring your life. You won't succeed. Instead, explore life. Reach for new harbours as you pass through different phases of life. Make friends on each destination. Enjoy your journey. " I am heading out for a short vacation to Spiti tomorrow .. ps: the pic is from my trip to phi phi island earlier this year.

Heard this tune after aeon's. A simple tune that one can whistle and lingers on!! I never really looked into the creator and history behind this famous song until today. I always thought it was from an old classic film 'Bridge on the River Kwai' . 'The "Colonel Bogey March" is a popular march that was written in 1914 by Lieutenant F. J. Ricketts (1881-1945), a British military bandmaster who was director of music for the Royal Marines at Plymouth. Since at that time service personnel were not encouraged to have professional lives outside the armed forces, Ricketts published "Colonel Bogey" and his other compositions under the pseudonym Kenneth Alford. Supposedly, the tune was inspired by a military man and golfer who whistled a characteristic two-note phrase (a descending minor third interval) instead of shouting "Fore!". It is this phrase that begins each line of the melody. Bogey is golfing term meaning one over par.' Details here The...

Remember those days, growing up watching these two champions battle it out in their respective sections. Graf, I was an ardent fan of hers and was one of the reason me taking up the game of tennis. I liked her reticent, no nonsense self , playing a graceful game of tennis and loved the way she let her game do all the talking. While Agassi, was the bashful young champ with flashy neon clothes and streaked hair. I initially didn't like his attitude (not his game :) ) and ofcourse always cheered the other players-Becker, Lendl,Edberg. But slowly my opinion changed and I liked his spirit when he came back from being ranked 190+ to fight and get back all the way to the top and also comeover his troubled personal life.. Watch these videos where they talk about each other... Agassi/Graf Interview: one more :

Finally got the set of stamps I had been waiting for since May.They are really nice, with all the tintin comic book covers with the titles in different languages. Marc, a colleague of mine picked up a set of these commemorative stamps(100yrs of Herge) on the day of its release in May 2007, and sent it to my office address here but it never arrived , thanks to the Indian Postal Dept. Fortunately another friend of mine was visiting Belgium and Marc sent her the 2nd set he had picked up when he heard the 1st set was lost . As the long wait was over and I was appreciating the stamps on its arrival today, it took me back to my school days, days of pen pals and letter writing. There was a medium even those days to find new friends across the globe even without high speed internet, email/chat and no social networking sites. I had a bunch of penpals while growing from places like Greece, Germany,Mauritius,Sweden . We would correspond regularly via post and write about our growing up years,...

Have a laugh watching this video here I will be cheering Djokovic at the US open Finals tomorrow.

Took off early saturday morning from IIMB and headed towards the Bannerghatta National Park. Near the Park entrance, asked a few people around and headed towards TK Falls. As you take a diversion towards TK Falls you are suddenly transported into a different world away from the chaos of the main road. It's all serene and quiet, hardly anybody to be seen for distances . It totally green all around with farms and farmers working on them with their bullock carts , you cross a lake, few hillocks and a few huts. One needn't run to far away from the city to get a breath of fresh air ! However, don't expect a fall once you reach the destination, its just a small muddy stream :) Route - IIMB on bannerghatta road -> stop at the entrance to the bannerghatta national park -> take a diversion towards tk falls-> on the way back took another diversion on the way (turned out to be much longer and lots of tough up hills ) ->bannerghatta road Approx :40kms. Route Condition ...

Yesterday after a longtime I headed to RangaShankara to watch a Dance/Theatre performance called 'Return to Sender-Letters from Tentland' . I love Ranga Shankara's , since it creates an intimate theatre atmosphere and everyone in the 300 odd seats in the audi feel part of the performances. They have a nice little cafe with varied food as well. This play is one of the most important and well known political plays of contemporary dance/theatre. Its about migrants , who are about 3% of the world population and their struggle . Its about the experiences and struggle of these migrant women in the unwelcome world of settled folks and their alienation being away from their own country. The play has six Iranian women (all of them Iranian exiles currently staying in Germany) performing surreal modern dances while wearing colourful tents . It's about freedom , its about fear ,its about veiling their desires inside the tents, it's about being different but finally it's...

Watched this beautiful and thought provoking Spanish film. Its based on a true story of Ramon Sampedro, a Spanish mechanic who became quadriplegic after a diving accident and fought a court battle for 28years to legalize euthanasia and to have the right to end his own life. What a performance by Javier Bardem !! The sea inside makes you wonder about life and the freedom most of us experience and take for granted. It also reminds you of the one truth we all know but try to avoid and think of i.e DEATH. Its also about the sea within us , the questions the unknowns , the search for something! It also opens up a topic that one can debate about forever-euthanasia . I also believe that people should have the freedom to choose death by euthanasia if the situation/circumstances arise and the concerned person has ample time to figure out that he doesn't believe that life is worth living. Most of the laws passed are by able bodied folks who have never experienced what it is to have their f...

Here are some links to the documentary on Tagore by Satyajit Ray : Part 1:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqqcPe1xekw&e Part 2:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5wqnSsIrLk Part 3:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oJ17bes_cc Part 4:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0OHcWrOAxo Part 5:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36t5rSaJBWE I incidentally share the Birthday ( going by the Indian calendar i.e Paachishe Baishak) with Tagore.

For those starting off learning drums, a good place to start could be this link I just started learning it on my own, lets see how i progress with it !!