Thirty3

stepping Thirty3 this Nov'21 was rather uniq. Getting wiser by yet another year, more prominent are those wrinkled lines of skin around the eyes and on the forehead, longer and grayer tufts drooping around the shirt's collar and back of my neck. Well these are adding character to my outlook.
unlike anyother year was I flooded with so many wishes. There would be a purpose for braving me with so many wishes this year, only time will reveal. Does it mean that I need to be getting busy preparing for time that is awaiting me to take me by a surprise ?? Recollecting few really good eventful incidents makes me excited and at the same time leaves me jinxed.
Yet another year has whizzed by and still 'i still haven't understood or found the purpose and meaning of life & existence'

close shaves

After many a negotiations to go or not to go. Finally 12 of us hit the road on 3 cars early morning on Nov-1st towards Bandipur-Madhumalai. I shared the rear seat on the Alto with all the camera equipments. It was around 12:40 in noon all the three cars rolled very slowly across the woods of Bandipur-Madhumalai. Everyone excited to spot wildlife & shoot it down ( on the cam ). All the cars well connected with walkie-talkies & keeping distance from each car. My hopes high on spotting wild elephants. As the car rolled across I stuck out my 300mm lens out of the car window ready to press the trigger at any small action on the wild.
There was fear down deep inside me as I was recollecting the gory sequences of elephant attacks on humans in India that was aired on NGC few days back on TV. Fear faded down after picturing the playful monkeys and spotted deer along the way. From the first car leading the way my friend with an obscured tone spoke on the walkie-talkie all I could hear was "elephants........ charge......". All I could imagine was that these guys were lucky to capture a charging elephant. Excited our Alto sped towards the first car. As we approached this car fled from scene, we never knew why they fled away from the scene. On the right side of the road just about 200 meters were 2 female wild elephants & a baby elephant. They were very much busy grazing & lost in their own world. I took few shots of it. There were people on bike stopped by and seeing the action. And all a sudden one of the female elephant charges them & chases away & all we did at that moment was fled the scene as it was vulerable to attacks.
The picture now started to become clear now when we overtook the car & stopped then to find that one of my friend in that car was bleeding on the elbow and knees and bruses on his cheek. The other had a torn shrit. Yes the unexpected had happened they were charged by this elephant when they were trying to photograph it ( watch the video below ). In the panic when they were running for life they tripped and fell. Lucky were they that the elephant backed out from the charge. Cameras that they carried were damaged but the precious life was out of danger. The lesson "Never get off your car when ur in the jungle".
On the way back around noon 1:45 we drove towards Gopalswamy Betta yet another elephant haunt. Apart from me, seena & naveen the others were apprehensive on venturing out into the open grasslands behind the temple. The sky was blue with scattered white clouds & weather was perfect. The scenery was picture perfect. With seena & naveen behind me I walked out in to the grassland towards the cliff to take a picture. I took many perfect pics there near the cliff & took the last pic. As the last pic was clicked I continued to peer into the viewfinder again to find a blank scene there. As I lowered the camera from my left hand to my horrifying nightmare I was surrounded by 1000s & 1000s & 1000s bees everywhere & the deafening humm of the bees. I immediately ducked down close to the ground and started to head towards the temple for safety and shouted to seena & naveen "Bees... run..... ". Suddenly I remembered dilip's wife who was stung by bees last year and had a painful recovery. As it was a open grassland with no shelter around and 300 meters to the temple I lost all hopes and felt this is it... there is no escape now I will be stung to death by the bees & ran towards the temple behind me. Just as I jumped across the 1 feet low compound of the temple the bees were gone... there was perfect silence and no bees.
I'm lucky to be posting this blog today. This has been the 3rd closest shave in a span of one year.

The pictures...


Masinagudi,Ooty,GSM Betta - Nov-1-3-2007


The chase video...


Chased by elephant, too close to be comfortable ( credits: Anil )

Felt complacent

Its about two years since that I had given a compelling presentation at work. Its more to do with the dwindling motivation at work place these days. It was a while since the audiences at my presentations had dropped their jaw. I wanted to make this sort of an event to happen as I was slowly becoming a 'falling star' in terms of visibility with senior management & popularity with associates at work place.
Nostalgic by the good old yesteryears of those very successful projects & the motivational talks at ted.com. I sacrificed my weekend and prepared myself for the kick-off presentation to recreate those moments of my yesteryears & replicate the speakers from ted.com. Facilely I was able to run through the presentation.
I could positively sense the audiences present there very much inspired, moved & motivated at the presentation. I turned more creative this time and served samosas & salted potato chips to all the audiences at the presentation. After the presentation there were accolades pouring in from all sides. Few were envious that they were not the elite group of audiences while few more were lot more envious about the creativity and the diversity that I had put on the contents of the my presentation and few more were hankering to recreate this sort of presentations.

My Visibility & Popularity has soared up few notches after this.
Whatever was the outcome, towards the end I felt complacent of what I achieved on this day.

[ there are no content-specific-pictures that has been posted to this post as its impossible to capture one's complacency it needs to be experienced or shared ]

Paradox of times inspired

The paradox of our time in history is that we have
Taller buildings but shorter tempers.
wider Freeways , but narrower viewpoints.
We spend more, but have less.
We buy more, but enjoy less.
We have bigger houses and smaller families.
more conveniences, but less time.
fancier houses, but broken homes.
more degrees but less sense,
more knowledge, but less judgment.
more experts, yet more problems.
more medicine, but less wellness.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.
We laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry,
We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

Stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life.
We've added years to life not life to years.
We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul.
We write more, but learn less.
We plan more, but accomplish less.
We've learned to rush, but not to wait.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion,
big men and small character,
steep profits and shallow relationships.
These are days of quick trips

Remember:
Spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.
To give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart
To hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

[ source George Carlin ]

self-referral

When we are self-referred, We feel wonderful regardless of the situation, circumstance, or environment we are in. What this that mean ??

There was once a man who had only two things that he valued in his life. One was his son, and the other was a little pony. His whole sense of reality came from referring to these two objects. Then one day the pony disappeared. The man was devastated because he had lost half of what he truly valued. He was in the depths of despair thinking about his lost pony, when the pony returned with a beautiful white stallion. Suddenly from the depths of despair he was in the heights of ecstasy. The next day, his son was riding the stallion and fell down and broke his leg. So from the heights of ecstasy, the man was now in the depths of despair. He was wallowing in misery when the government’s army came looking for all the young men to go to war. They took every young man in the village except the man’s son, because he had a broken leg. So from the depths of despair, this man was now in the heights of ecstasy. You can guess, of course, that this story of object-referral has no ending.
When we evaluate and understand ourselves through objects, or through the eyes of others, our life is like a rollercoaster ride because the only constant about people, things, situations, and circumstances is that they change.
If our identity is tied to these, then life is always going to be unstable. The opposite of object-referral is self-referral. When we are self-referred, We feel wonderful regardless of the situation, circumstance, or environment we are in. And why do we feel wonderful all the time? Because we don’t identify with the situation; we are a detached, silent witness of the situation. We are secure in who we are, and we have no urge to prove anything to anyone. If we had the urge to prove this to someone, there we would again evaluate ourselves through the eyes of others. Self-referral is an internal state of joy, and this is different from happiness for a reason.

[ source zen ]

Visiting BR Hills after 3 years

It was a mixed set of expectations from this time's BR Hills trip. Unfortunately no sightings of Wild Gaur ( Bison ) or any wild life at all. Just a glimpse of sambar & wild dog sneaking back into the woods. The highlight of the whole trip was this event that I would always remember....
Its around 6:00 PM sunlight was dimming and we start driving South from BR Hills towards K.Gudi. On the way just near a watch tower & huge pond Dilip & Seena spot a Jungle Wagtail (its a small bird)on the road. Dilip gets off the car and starts shooting pics of it. Seena sits in the car waiting for Dilip, Naveen too gets off the car & strolls around near the pond. I too get off the car & start to capture all the 3 guys in action. I took the first pic of the car from back with Seena inside the car & Dilip walking on the road. As I get ready to take second picture.... from a distance on my right side on the back heard the roar of a Tiger. Brrrr... I silently switched off my camera without looking right or back walked straight and sat inside the car.




BR Hills - K.Gudi [ Oct-13, 14 2007 ]

When is it late

Few twist of events that unfurled past few days has made me think hard on when to call "its late" ? I concluded on "late" was losing something. I lost few due to slackness, I lost more due to short sightedness, I lost many many more due to the muted senses of the 6th sense. The hard fact is its highly impossible to catch a flight when I realise that I have bought tickets for the flight which departs yesterday.
Before the realisation can strike the flight by now has already reached the destination. It is on-time for the flight but definitely late for me :(
I have tried to make the post as less cryptic as possible. The subtle content in the backdrop here itself can be shaped up to suit any late events or circumstances.

Oct-2nd - Rituals broken !!!

It all started off on Oct'2nd 1994 and the rituals going smoothly on Oct 2nd every year-after-year. Its the first time in 13years that this ritual is broken this year. Well whats this rituals all about ? The ritual is very simple, on the 2nd of Oct I should be far faar away from bangalore out somewhere traveling.
This is how my spree to travel & the wheels on my feet all kicked in. Every Oct 2nd no matter what I have been out traveling. I can recollect the first Oct 2nd was the 1994 went to Savandurga on a Kinetic, the 1995 was on a Bajaj Chetak. Each year being unique in its own way - mode of travel, experience & place. The broken ritual looks like a bad omen for my travels for this year :'(

So far all the Oct-2nd trips

1994 - Savandurga
1995 - Madhumalai - Bandipura
1996 - Nandi Hills
1997 - Muthodi
1998 -Savandurga
1999 - Hesarghatta
2000 - Kudremukha - Kemmangundi
2001 - Nandi Hills
2002 - Goa - Mangalore
2003 - Jayapuradhoddi
2004 -BR Hills
2005 - Kemmangundi
2006 - Bandipur - Ooty
2007 - ___________

i haven't taken photos of all the trips but i have few of them here.
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Chilling out my way

Its been a while since I had explored into the happening place in bangalore. Today I set aside to put my foot on the happening place as I dont want to be left behind the happening place. Well its a lazy saturday noon, blue skies, white clouds, nascent cool breeze, most vehicles are off the road due to cricket, the side walks on MG Rd almost haunted, unheard rattling of the autos. Its totally silent apart from people around talking & laughing loudly. It just cannot be prefect than this.
On the far end of mg road at cofy day on the warm granite slab & table with a hot cuppa with cookies. All my tech. stuff ipod, laptop & the data card are making it more groovy. As 'am blogging this post people around giving a confusing stare at my table, definitely its a geeky thing. But for me its a well deserved lazy saturday noon to chill out a geeky way :D

Journey of another kind !!!

Theme of the journey - Pilgrimage & Spirituality
Place of the journey - 4 of the most sacred Hindu temples in Kerala & a mosque
Reason for the journey - Experience of a different kind
Expectation from the journey - No expectation

All these years all my travels & outings were 99% of the times centered around Nature & Wilderness. Last week for the first in 12 years I went on a journey of a different kind...

The group of 36 with whom I went was very much different. Most of them were in 45yrs ~ 62yrs . I almost felt like a kid in the lot. The whole group were in a thought that was in unison with the journey. At the beginning even before boarding the bus itself I could easily make out that I was very much immature or really not ready for such a journey, but still i hanged on till the end.

The journey began with the thoughts in my mind about my life "I dont need anything & I'm self sufficient & satisfied" was shattered towards the end of the journey. "my wants" started to increase at a steady pace. I probably could not till now had the clarity as to what I really wanted . This was something an eye opener.

Due to my partially broken left leg at the beginning I thought I couldn't complete the 3hrs trek and the long hours of waiting in the line. but without any hazels I was able to make it, given the situation I consider this to be a bigger boost of my self-confidence.

Overall the journey was good in a different aspects of experience which 'am not able to clearly express in this post :(